Masterlist

Lullaby

word count: 9428

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Familial Occupation: Caretaker Ability: Ballerina Music Box

The character takes the appearance of a beautifully crafted music box ballerina figurine made of the toughest porcelain and glass, their clothes made from real fabric that is soft to touch and hair so smooth and silky you'd mistake it for real hair. Attached to their back is a wind up key that continuously spins when they're active and stops when they switch off. If the key is removed they cease to operate until key is returned and they are wound up again. Before CatNap, the character was the one to put the children to sleep with their built-in music box that would constantly be updated with new songs to play to help ease the children to sleep.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: spoilers for chapter 4 and those who haven't played the game, blood, death and all that shit.

"Lullaby" pt. 2, pt.3

bound to be mistakes that I was too lazy to find or fix.

that is all.

This beautiful ballerina is what every little girl dreams to be! Each doll sold plays a different song when you wind her key and her articulated, posable body in shimmery outfits add to storytelling. This doll is ready and waiting to be taken home to sing and dance for your little girl, all day, every day, forever and ever!

She is your best friend, Ballade Ballerina!

-

Subject: 1179

Original Procedure Date: 11/90

Behavior:

Assigned to Home Sweet Home within the Playcare, it acts as a motherly figure towards the children with a "warm" and "caring" attitude. That attitude switches off around the staff and it acts "cold" and "unresponsive" but will do as it's told when given orders. This was one of the few experiments that had their cognitive thinking intact instead becoming one of those mindless individuals.

Much like it's predecessors, while also maintaining the ability to think and respond, it acts as a bodyguard and or security that monitors the children when it's lights out. Nothing seems to get past its watchful eyes while also documenting who comes and goes both Home Sweet Home and the Playcare.

A stage was built into Home Sweet Home where it resides while its built-in music box would play lullabies to help put the children to sleep or when they're stressed it would help calm them down, however, it roams around during the "day" and interacts with the children.

While their temperament becomes apathetic around the regular employees, it becomes more nervous and prone to aggression around the scientists but what intrigues me the most is how it acts around me. Sometimes it would shut down completely when in my presence but is obedient to any order I give it, going so far as to drop any other previous order to complete a task I give it.

Conclusion:

Have it remain within Home Sweet Home for further monitoring.

Subject 1179 is one of the more successful Bigger Bodies that thinks, acts and listens while it can go unmonitored and it won't act out or misbehave.

Signature: Dr. Harley Swayer

-

"Hey, wind up the key already."

"Just... give me a sec, alright. This thing is so hard to turn!" two human employees struggled to turn the wind up key attached to the back of a giant four meter tall ballerina figurine doll, the coiled spring within its body needing to be tightened enough to function throughout the day. The two let out a breath of relief when it finally clicked into place and the third took a step back just as the figurine sparked to life, she sat on her knees with her head in a bowed position but when she turned on she slowly sat up with her eyes blinking to life.

"Good, you're awake." a yawn escaped her lips as she stretched her arms above her head, she looked down at the human in front of her when they snapped their fingers in front of her "Ballade, state your tasks for today." her face, made of the finest but toughest porcelain, held little to no emotion as she continued to stare the human down.

"Wait for the children to wake. Help the children get ready for the day. Entertain the children as the day progresses. Assist the Smiling Critters if needed. Abide by the orders the employees give. When the children--" she stops when they held a hand up to her, their other hand pinching the bridge of their nose in mild irritation.

"Okay, okay, that's enough. I hate doing this." one of the other employees places a hand on their shoulder.

"It's standard procedure, pal. We've got to ask so we know that she knows her daily duties and tasks. If anything is amiss we've got to report to Dr. Sawyer." the three of them shudder, missing how Ballade twitched at the mention of the doctor "You know how he is, that freak."

"Yeah, and besides, we're lucky that we're around one of the few toys whose first thought isn't to bite our heads off." at that comment, they peak up at Ballade and saw how she just continued to stare at them, eyes unnervingly not breaking contact with the three of them as they spoke "Let's not take our chances though." they step off her stage and draw the curtains.

"You know what you're supposed to do." she nods and they leave, she lets out another yawn before finally standing to her feet and waiting for her cue. She laced her fingers together as she stretched her arms and legs, not that she needed to, and got into position at the sound of the soft pitter patter that was the children's footsteps along with more heavier footsteps of the Smiling Critters.

"Haha, alright children. Now that you're all awake, let's help wake up our last friend! You all remember what to do, right?" the voice chuckles softly when the children nod their heads enthusiastically "Alright. One, two, three... oh, Miss Ballade~ rise and shine!"

"Rise and shine, Miss Ballade!" a silence washes over them when nothing happened.

"I think we need to be a little louder, one more time children. Oh, Miss Ballade~"

"Rise and shine!" they hear the sound of soft laughter as a melody starts to play from behind the curtain, they all cheer when the curtain is thrown open and Ballade steps out with a bright smile on her face.

"Good morning children! Thank you for waking me, I really needed that. So, kids, are you all ready for breakfast? Let's find Picky Piggy, I'm sure she's fixed you all something to eat!" at the mention of food a few children scatter to the dining hall, and a few other children lingered around and waited for Ballade "Remember kids, with a healthy diet and enough practice, you just might be able to be like me one day." she says as she takes a step off her stage while reaching for one of the children.

"Really? Can I become a ballerina like you when I grow up?" a genuine smile spreads across her porcelain face as she picks the little girl up and holds her up, the girl starts to laugh when Ballade nuzzles her nose against hers.

"Of course, when you believe in yourself, anything is possible." a laugh escapes her lips when the little girl wraps her arms around her neck and hugs her, she grunts when another pair of arms wraps around her and pulls her into a hug. She pursed her lips and looked down at DogDay, whose already permanent smile stretched wider while his tail wagged when she managed to free her hand to gently caress the back of his head "Good morning to you too, DogDay." he giggled softly.

"Good morning, Miss Ballade." she happily greets the other Smiling Critters, who were rounding up the leftover children, and form a line so no child is left out during breakfast. DogDay was leading them with Ballade, who was ultimately the tallest toy within the Playcare, was the last in line while Hoppy, Kickin and Bubba were mixed in with the children. As they made their way to the dining hall, Ballade was singing different nursery rhymes with the children and Smiling Critters joining in happily to keep them entertained "Who's hungry?"

"We are!" DogDay smiles as he steps to the side and gestures for the children to take a seat in the dining hall, where Picky was setting up the food.

"Well, go take a seat and Picky will serve you right up!" Ballade takes a step back and watches as the children take their seats, whether it be with their friends or by themselves, even the Smiling Critters take their designated seats "Miss Ballade, join us." DogDay says, Bobby smiles warmly as she gestures for Ballade to sit with them.

"Yes, join us!" she gently shakes her head.

"Perhaps later, we are still missing a face." this caused DogDay to look around and notice who exactly was missing.

"Drats, he must have gone back to sleep. Allow me to--" she raises her hand.

"I shall retrieve him, it will be no hassle. Besides, he listens to me." DogDay's ears lowered as a soft whine escaped him, she gave him a comforting smile as she gently patted his head "Do not worry, friend. I will make sure he comes down to join us for breakfast." he nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Alright." another whine leaves him when both her hands pinch at his cheeks and start stretching them, this caused the children to laugh when DogDay grabbed her by her wrists to stop her "Okay, okay!" she lets go and chuckles when he was rubbing his cheeks, Crafty and Bubba comforting him when he cried softly.

"Good, I'll be back with him in toe." she pats his head before turning on her heel and leaving.

The Smiling Critters consists of eight members, that being DogDay, Bubba Bubbaphant, Bobby BearHug, CraftyCorn, Hoppy Hopscotch, KickinChicken, Picky Piggy and last by certainly not least CatNap. Ballade was created before the Smiling Critters and is the one in charge of them all, keeping them in line and checking on them as ordered by the Doctor himself. She, of course, knows about the experiments and knows who the children were before they were placed into their Bigger Bodies. They, too, recognized Ballade as the nice caretaker who looked after them when they were still human and trusted her with all their heart. Ballade's stage resided within the main foyer in the center of the room where she would usually sing and dance for the children, as for the Smiling Critters, they generally resided in cells beneath the Playhouse but Miss Stella Greyber thought it would make the children happier if they stayed in Home Sweet Home so Ballade wouldn't have to go far from the children just to check on the Smiling Critters.

That being said...

"CatNap~ I know you're in there." she gently knocks on the door before opening it to find the colossal cat sleeping soundly on his cat bed, she enters the room and closes the door behind her then approaches him. Her hand reached to press gently against his head, she smiled fondly when a purr rumbled out of his throat and she continued to stroke his head as she knelt down on her knees "It's time to eat, Theo." she spoke softly, she tilts her head to the side and saw that his eyes opened.

"I'm not hungry..." she frowned.

"I see they still haven't fixed your voice box yet." he grunts at her words.

"They don't care about me." he looked up at her when she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on top of his, her cheek rubbing into the top of his head.

"But I do, and I wish I could help you." her eyes trailed down his body and winced when she saw his skeletal figure "And I wish for you to join us for breakfast, my boy. The others are waiting for us to join them, so we mustn't keep them waiting." he huffed and turned away from her, his tail flicking around in disinterest.

"They're not waiting. They don't care about me either." she pouts but doesn't stop petting him.

"That's not true, they care in their own way. Won't you do this for me, my sweet boy?" it still wasn't enough to convince him, haa, when he gets like this she only has one last thing to resort to "I see, I guess I'll leave you to sleep. But DogDay will be very upset." a subtle smirk stretched across her lips when his ear perked up.

"DogDay...?" she shrugged her shoulders as she removed herself, dusting the skirt of her dress.

"Mm hmm, he was upset that you weren't there to join us for breakfast. I won't pressure you to join us, but I guess Crafty will be the one to keep him company." playing with his feelings like this was cruel but DogDay was CatNap's closest friend where he got pretty jealous when the others got too close to him "I'll tell him you're still sleeping, so sweet dreams my baby~" she's waving him goodbye as she takes her leave and closing the door behind her, she's walking away and quietly counting down from five and the moment she gets to one his door was kicked open. She snickers to herself and stops to wait for him, as she's turning around she notices that he isn't slowing down and before she can do anything to avoid him he crashes into her.

*SLAM*

*THUD*

*CRASH*

"What was that?" DogDay was quick to his feet at the sound of a loud crash, the others quickly settled the children as he and Kickin rushed out to see what it was, only for them to hold back their laughter at the sight. The cause of the sound was CatNap charging into Ballade and the two of them tumbling down the stairs when they reached the bottom Ballade fell face first into the floor with CatNap on top of her, DogDay continued to laugh quietly as he approached them "Are you... alright, Miss Ballade?" he and Kickin burst out into laughter when she answers them with a thumbs up, face still in the floor.

"Sorry, Miss Ballade..." CatNap apologies as he lifts his hand upon realizing his paw was pressed into the back of her head.

"It's alright, my dear boy. You were just excited to eat with your friends." she reassures them that she's alright as they help her to her feet and they return to the dining hall, Ballade had a bright smile on her face at the sight of all her children eating together. Despite the horrors that lie beneath their feet, she could never ask for a better job than thi--

"Ballade." her eyes snap away from the children and see that it was Stella Greyber calling her name, she gestures with her finger for her to come so with one final look at the children she slinks away to see what the Head of Playcare could possibly need from her.

"Miss Greyber, how may I be of assistance today?" a bead of sweat formed on Stella's cheek as she stared up at the figurine, despite the friendly smile on her face, her eyes were void of any emotion as her voice was monotone.

"I need you to accompany me and the other Head Executives for a meeting, we have some guests that I'm worried will act out." she raised a brow.

"Act... out?" her mind thinks back to the other times Stella or the other Head Executives called her out when they were having meetings with especially unruly guests, she slowly nods her head "I understand, Miss Greyber." Stella smiles and claps her hands.

"Splendid, just follow me out." she nods her head but stops and looks to where the Smiling Critters are.

"Oh, CatNap!" she calls out, his head snaps up and looks to where she is, he scowls when he sees Stella but his gaze softens when Ballade smiles "Look after the children for me while I'm gone, hmm? I trust you'll keep them safe." her smile brightened when he nodded, slowly, but he nodded.

"Okay..." she laughs softly and waves the children goodbye when the children bid her goodbye, Kickin and Hoppy pout as they watch Ballade follow Stella out before they all look up at CatNap, who went back to eating his food "... what?"

"How come you're in charge? I thought she'd at least choose DogDay."

"I'm not in charge. She only told me to look after the children..." DogDay nods.

"Yeah. Besides, he needs more time to hang around the children! Since he visits the doctor more often than us, the children have been missing him and want to spend more time with him! She must have thought of that as to why she chose CatNap to look after the children." Bubba nods.

"I agree, CatNap is becoming quite popular with the children." Bobby giggles softly.

"Sounds to me you're just jealous she chose him and not you two."

"We're not jealous!" Crafty places her hands on their backs to calm them.

"Now, now, no fighting. Miss Ballade wouldn't want us to." CatNap watched as his friends bicker amongst each other as he thought of the real reason Ballade asked him of all the Smiling Critters to look after the children, or rather, watch. The reason she asked him was because he was more capable of guarding them while she was away, she didn't act as just a caretaker to the children, she was also their bodyguard in case guests that were welcomed into the Playcare acted aggressively around the children or staff. She waves at the few children outside Home Sweet Home as well as the Miss Delight teachers as she continues to follow Stella to the Gas Production Zone, and it was the moment she was out of sight that she dropped her friendly demeanor.

The human employees were quick to shuffle away when Stella entered with Ballade trailing close behind, her heavy footsteps echoing throughout the production zone as they stepped onto the lift and had them lowered towards the prison. Stella looked back at Ballade and noticed how she grew nervous as they traversed through the toy graveyard, she was nervous herself but she noticed how the figurine was clasping her hands together as she kept her glass eyes down to avoid looking at the toys. To the people who are unaware, they would think that it was just rejected or ruined toys they were walking by, but to the people who knew the truth... it was better not to think about it for their own sanity.

"You're here, finally!" Leith Pierre, Head of Innovations and owner of Playtime Co., announced when Stella entered the room with Ballade in toe. He was speaking with Stella as Ballade looked around the room and spotted the familiar looking box in the corner of the room, she sighs, so she was on cleanup duty huh? She blinked when Leith was in front of her and snapping his fingers to get her attention, she slowly turned her head to look down at him and saw the irritated expression on his face "Alright, you know what you're to do, hmm? I've got six guests coming down to discuss a couple things when in reality, I'm just going to have you two get rid of them. It's the media that's gotten a little too nosey and I need you to silence them for, well, ever. Got it?" she stared blankly at him then nodded.

"Understood." he gives her that all too familiar smile; fake.

"Terrific! Get into place." she nods once more and takes her place beside the door. Despite being in the lower area of Playtime Co. where a prison was built, the room was nicely decorated with all sorts of toys littered around so it wouldn't be odd to see the popular, life-sized doll of Ballade Ballerina in the room. She takes a breath before holding the first position (a basic ballet position) with a kid-friendly smile on her face, she also temporarily slowed her wind up key so you wouldn't hear it tick as it moved "Okay, bring 'em in."

...

...

'So boring...' she could feel the yawn building up in her throat but had to fight it down as to not alarm the unsuspecting guests that she was alive and watching their every movement, she had been watching them closely since they stepped foot into the room and would look away when they would glance up at her. The three Head Executives were answering questions their guests were asking and it started off with the usual, she was watching them again but stopped when they gestured to her.

"My little girl has a Ballade doll, I never would have thought you would have made a life size version of her. I've seen the Huggy Wuggy and Kissy Missy ones, but I still can't get over the sheer size of them." Leith laughs at the comment.

"Of course, of course! The children love them, or rather, they love to climb all over them. Our Ballade here is our most delicate one. Unlike Huggy, who's made of fur and fluff, or Mommy, who's made of plastic, she's made of porcelain. She's one of our finest toys and mascots, the children just love her."

"Does she sing too?" Stella nods.

"She does indeed, she has the wind up key and everything but it's a hassle to wind it up because of the technical stuff inside her." the lady deflated a little.

"A pity. Well, anyway, back to the interview." she picks up a stack of papers and then spreads them across the table to reveal a couple photos of the factory, it was a wonder how they managed to capture them when it was against the rules to film or document anything when within the factory, they must have a really good photographer "I am very curious about the many locations within Playtime Co., especially the building we're in now."

"Yes, and by the looks of it, it kind of looks like a... prison?" Eddie M. N. Ritterman, the Head of Research, just let out a laugh.

"A prison? Don't be ridiculous! Why would we, a company known for making toys, build a prison? This place is merely a warehouse for toys that just didn't appeal to the children." that answer didn't really convince the interviewers, not that it mattered, they weren't leaving this room, let alone the building itself "We bring toys that don't make the cut down here so we can brainstorm and see how we can make them better! Down here is where all the "science" happens, you know?" they raise a brow.

"Science?"

"Well, our leading scientist isn't here to give all the boring details about how we run things, but he's what makes the toys come to life! He's the reason why our Ballade here is so lifelike, you see." at this comment one of the interviewers stood up and looked at Ballade closely.

"Now that you mention it, it's almost as if her eyes are following me..." he murmured to himself and started moving side to side to see if she was really watching them, the three Executives watch Ballade's eyes closely and saw that she managed to not look at him and when the others saw this as well he was quickly yanked back into his seat.

"Stop that, you're making yourself look like a fool." they whisper sharply.

"But I swear we're being watched." Leith chuckles at that.

"You can thank our security for that! We pride ourselves in our security to make any intruders as uncomfortable as possible." that comment caused them to grow a little nervous, Eddie laughed when he could feel the rise of tension because of Leith's words.

"What Leith is trying to say is that with our security, anyone that trespasses onto Playtime Co. property without proper invitation, well, they better hope that the silent alarm that goes off is the only thing they should be worrying about." this caused the lot of them to shrink a little, the staff hadn't realized that this man came onto the property multiple times disguised as a guest to take photos but he didn't go unrecognized by Huggy and Mommy, the mascots who were the security for the main entrance and Game Stop of Playtime Co.

"Mister Pierre, sir, we didn't mean--" Stella winced and looked away when Eddie raised his hand to stop them. Eddie's eyes narrowed as they all looked at how their guests shrank under his gaze.

"Now, there's no need to apologize. I must say, you got some really good shots of our factory. I should thank you, clearly we need to update our human security since they failed to check if anyone was carrying a camera when it is prohibited to bring such things into the factory. A hazard, you know? I should get to that right away!" he stands to his feet and readjusts his blazer "I'll be sure to have our security take care of things." Stella and Eddie follow close behind as they leave the room, closing the door behind them and leaving the six people in there.

"Great! They're probably going to call the police."

"They're going to have us barred from entering the property."

"I'm more surprised they didn't confiscate the photos."

"He said that security was going to "take care of things", or whatever that means."

"Think we can just leave?"

"Yeah, and find the exit through this maze? I think it'd be better to wait for security." they start discussing what they should do when they hear a subtle ticking sound, they look over and see that it was coming from the Ballade Ballerina figurine "Is it... ticking?" one of them asked as they approached her, looking her up and down and noticing how her wind up key was turning.

"Is she on or something?" they jumped when the box in the corner of the room started making a noise, the crank on the jack-in-the-box turning on its own and playing its familiar tune, creeping them out even further "Is it automatic or something."

"Shut it off if it freaks you out so much." a few of them approach the box while the others paced the room.

"All around the cobbler's bench..." the man in front of Ballade whipped his head up at her when she started singing, the room fell into silence when both she and the box started playing "Pop goes the Weasel", Ballade sang it slowly with an eerie and dull expression on her face "The monkey chased the weasel..." the woman pacing the room shook her head.

"Why is she singing?"

"Is she supposed to sing that slow?"

"The monkey thought 'twas all in fun..." the man in front of her shook his head as he approached the door.

"Fuck this." he rushes for the door and grabs the doorknob, he's in the process of yanking it open when a large hand slams it shut. He stares at the hand that is bigger than his head before slowly looking up to see Ballade staring down at him, his breath hitches when she stares him straight in the eyes.

"Pop goes the weasel." the room is filled with screams when her hand grabs him by the neck and closes around it, promptly snapping his neck and killing him on the spot. What followed next was the sound of blood-curdling screams and cries for help, yet their pleas fell to deaf ears as they were killed like cattle in a slaughterhouse. When the room fell quiet, Leith peeked inside and smirked softly at the sight of Ballade feeding Boxy Boo the dead interviewers one by one, well, the interviewers who weren't already half-eaten by the gluttonous toy. He whistled softly when he saw a few holes in the concrete walls, she was quite the masterpiece, he had to admit. Despite being a porcelain doll that is normally very fragile, the doctor had constructed her body with the finest but toughest porcelain he could find. She acted as not only the security for Playcare, she was essentially a bodyguard for the three Head Executives as well as extra muscle for cleaning up dead bodies "Open wide, Boxy." she cooed as she held a dismembered torso in her hands and dangled it above him, a faint smile graced her lips when he obliged and opened as wide as he could and she dropped it into his mouth.

"Haha, well done!" she didn't pay Leith any mind as she continued to feed Boxy "We'll have the Specialist mop up all the blood, and Ballade? Don't forget to clean yourself up." at the mention of that, she looked down at herself and saw the blood dripping down her fine china.

"We're lucky porcelain doesn't stain easily, or else it'd be a pain to explain why she's been dyed red." Eddie comments, Stella sighs softly.

"Well, she does get the most maintenance out of all the toys. She requires a lot of cleaning or else she'll fall apart." Ballade let out an oh when she felt Boxy nudge her side, she looked down at him and saw that he was licking the blood off her fingertips. Experiment 1160, better known as Boxy Boo, was the first experiment from the Bigger Bodies Initiative that was a success but unlike her, he was violent and gluttonous with his purpose being the disposing of lower-ended employees aware of the Initiative. While her main purpose was to look after the children within Playcare, she also helped Boxy Boo and the Specialist deal with "clean-up duty" and because of that, she was constantly around him since she was the only one who could control him. Due to that, Boxy Boo was more like a dog around her since she treated him nicely.

"Clean up the rest of the bodies then you can go back to Playcare after returning Boxy Boo to his cell." she nods her head.

"Yes, sir." she has to hold Boxy Boo's head down to stop him from lunging towards Leith, who approached her knowing that she would keep him safe from the ravenous toy, just to pat her on the arm.

"Good girl." she just huffed softly. It only takes a couple minutes for Ballade to feed the last of the bodies to Boxy before he's tuckered out and slinking back into his box, she's caressing the top of it and cooing sweet nothings to him until he falls asleep. He too was once a child, she wasn't going to treat him like a savage just because he'd lost himself to this experiment, she had a role as a caretaker and she was going to fulfill it no matter what.

"Goodbye, Boxy Boo. I'm sure I'll see you soon." she says as she pats his head, he whines softly but lets her go nonetheless. She exits the room and is escorted back to the Playcare by a few prison guards, she smacks their hands off her when they grab her and practically growls at them not to do it again. She doesn't really get in trouble for killing any of the employees, Leith prefers it because it's fewer people to pay wages to, he practically encourages it and the humans all know it. Ballade double checks she'd gotten all the blood off of her before finally stepping back into Playcare, it was easy for her to lie to the children about her whereabouts and why she was gone as it was the breathe. Sometimes she felt guilty for lying to their faces but it was better for them not to know; it was better for them to remain unaware that she was a stone-cold killer who was more than capable of killing them.

"Come on, Miss Ballade! We made something for you." she gasped softly, placing a hand on her chest.

"For me? You shouldn't have." she'd been led by the hand of a few children towards the playground close to the schoolhouse where they showed her small drawings they made "What's this?" they laughed softly.

"Miss Delight told us to draw something that makes us happy, so I drew you!"

"Me too!"

"I did too!"

"Miss CraftyCorn helped me with mine." Ballade took each of their drawings and looked at them closely, making sure to look at each detail "Do you like them, Miss Ballade?" she smiled fondly at the drawings before placing her hands on their heads one by one, snickering softly when she messed with their hair.

"I love them. It warms my heart to know that I make you happy." she pats their backs when they hug her legs "Now come, let's go join the others. I hear you guys are playing hide and go seek." they gasp in anticipation, hide and seek was always fun with the Smiling Critters. Ballade sat with CatNap under a tree by Home Sweet Home as they watched the children run around looking for spots to hide, they were too big to participate in hiding and though the other Smiling Critters were just as big, they were more capable of hiding than them. CatNap is curled up behind her as she lets her body rest against his, her hand gently stroking his head while his tail thumped gently on the ground.

"Thank you for looking after the children, CatNap. Did anything happen while I was away?" he lets out a soft grunt.

"No. The children were well-behaved." she smiles.

"That's good. Did they give you any trouble?"

"Not really, they mostly bothered DogDay." this caused her to laugh softly and she looked over to where DogDay was and saw him chasing around one of the children he managed to find that was hiding in a bush "He is the favorite one amongst us all."

"With his friendly personality, I wouldn't see why anyone wouldn't like him." CatNap huffed at that "But you're still my favorite, I always did love the smell of lavender compared to vanilla." she chuckled when he started purring as he nudged his against her side, she rewarded him by scratching under his chin while pressing a kiss atop of his head, this only intensified the purring. About an hour or so goes by before the game ends and they come to collect the two, only to find them both sleeping soundly in each other's company. Ballade didn't mean to fall asleep, she could technically go days without "sleep" so long as her key kept turning, however, her key had stopped since she was leaning against CatNap and she evidently fell asleep on him. It took Bubba to wind up her key to get her to wake up, and when she did, she apologized for doing so since she promised she'd watch them play.

"CatNap can put just about anybody to sleep!"

"But I didn't expect to see Miss Ballade to fall asleep. She's never one to fall asleep while on duty."

"Perhaps whatever she had to do tuckered her out." no, my key just stopped and I inadvertently fell asleep... but CatNap is very nice to nap around, hence his name. To make up for it, Ballade spends the rest of the day with the girls, and the boys who want to participate, practicing ballet moves. Of course, she only shows them how to do basic moves but shows off her body's flexibility, since her body didn't have bones she could bend and twist her body however she liked. She was by no means like Mommy Longlegs, who could manipulate her body however she liked, but she could easily fold her body in half with little to no strain.

"Am I doing it right, Miss Ballade?" she looked over and saw a little girl trying to perform the pirouette but couldn't quite keep her leg up as she spun nor keep herself from tumbling a little.

"You're quite close, little one, you just need to work on your balance." she kicks at the ground.

"You make it look easy." she chuckled softly.

"I struggled a lot too, it takes years and years of practice. As they say, practice makes perfect. Just don't give up and your efforts will be rewarded." she takes a step back and performs the pirouette once more and does a little bow at the end, she takes a knee and gestures for her to try again "Nobody is going to make fun of you for not getting it on the first go." Ballade, no, [F/N] watched with a fond look as the little girl tried and tried again to stick the landing and was getting there with each attempt she made.

[F/N], that was her name before she became Ballade Ballerina; before she got stuck in a body that she couldn't recognize. She couldn't remember much before her time at Playcare but she did remember that she was older than most of the kids at the orphanage, perhaps that's where she could her motherly tendencies from and why she loved to care for the children, because she knew better than the adults who lied to their faces like they were stupid, but she wasn't stupid. What she could remember was the day when she was chosen, out of all the children who were more eager to be selected, she was the one that was picked and she didn't know how to feel. At the time she was anxious, both at the thought of being with a new family but also leaving the kids she had grown to love, but what choice did she have? Maybe she was happy that she was leaving that underground orphanage to see the sun again, she was excited to feel the wind blow through her hair and to be normal again.

All that happiness was short-lived when she was taken deeper into Playtime Co. to be experimented on by the infamous Doctor Harley Sawyer, that cruel and ruthless man who cared not for her wellbeing but the advancement of science and what he could do. She could almost remember the day she woke up and felt trapped in a body that she just knew wasn't hers, she just felt wrong. Her body no longer felt dense but rather hollow, if she tapped her finger against herself she could hear the way it would make a clinking sound as if two cups came together. Her face felt like it was stuck in place and she couldn't properly express the way she felt, even if she felt herself cry she couldn't even feel the tears that would fall down her cheeks. She felt it was impossible to move, that if she did she would come apart, even still, she could barely bend her knees and elbows and they were stuck in place.

Doctor Harley Sawyer called her his masterpiece, how her body was made from delicate porcelain that he reinforced to make her durable enough to not break easily if she were to suffer enough force or heavy weight to her person. Her body had articulated joints so she could fold and bend her body like a normal person but didn't suffer the strain or pain a human would, she was capable of twisting her limbs in all directions and not feeling a thing. She was practically a machine, she felt like a machine because she had practically lost most of her senses. She couldn't feel anything upon her glass-like skin, taste anything on her artificial tongue, or smell anything through her nose that felt more like decoration on her face. She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep and if they didn't want to deal with her they could just turn her off by the wind up key on her back that was practically her lifeline. Without it, they could practically turn her off forever and forget about her.

They threatened her with that possibility each time she wouldn't give them the results that they wanted, that if she continued to act up or be difficult they'd throw her away to rot in the prison. That terrified her, she didn't want to be trapped in a cell in a body that felt more like a cage, so she complied and listened. Listening is what granted her freedom, or rather, to leave the lower levels and return to Playcare as Ballade Ballerina, the life-sized music box figurine, to care for and protect the children like she did when she was still human. [F/N] felt herself die each time she would smile at these children, knowing that what she was doing was only going to get them killed and she could do nothing but smile and laugh as they'd be taken, happy that they were chosen like she was... only for their lives to be cut short before it even began.

She was just like those damn adults.

"Miss Ballade?" she blinked when the little girl called her name.

"Oh, y-yes? I'm sorry, I was distracted. Show me again, why don't you?" the girl frowned softly then approached Ballade, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"You don't have to lie, Miss Ballade. I know I'll never be as good as you, so it's fine to tell the truth." her heart ached at her words, and she quickly shook her head and held the little girl's hand within her bigger ones. The few memories she managed to cling to before she became what she is today was that when she was growing up, when she still had a family that loved and cared for her, she wanted to be a ballerina. How ironic, but she remembered when she was young and had that same devastated look on her face when she just couldn't get the basic moves right and was ready to give up.

"No, no. Being as good as me shouldn't be what's on your mind, you've got to be as good as you can be. You won't be as good as me, and that's fine, because you can just be better than me."

"Can I really?" she nods.

"Of course! Because you can continue to grow, while I'll forever be the boring doll who is only good at ballet." she let out an oh when the girl started rocking back and forward.

"I think you're pretty cool for just a boring doll." if she could cry she'd feel her eyes glisten with tears.

"... I really appreciate that. Now come on, show me again. I'll be watching, I promise." she's clapping her hands in encouragement when the girl tries again and again until he finally sticks the landing, she's rewarded with Ballade picking her up and twirling her around with a proud look on her face "See? You did it! Just like I said you would, I am so proud." she caresses her cheek against hers then booped her nose.

"Thank you, Miss Ballade." she says as she wraps her arms around her neck.

"Anything for you." she spends the next half hour performing a couple more moves before the adults tell them that it was time to head back to Home Sweet Home. She allows DogDay and Hoppy to lead the children back into Home Sweet Home where they are separated by gender and brought to separate bathrooms to clean up, she ends up in the kitchen to help Picky sort out dinner while the rest of the Smiling Critters are left to set up the dining hall. She's standing in her usual corner when the children finally arrive with Bobby and Crafty pleading for her to join them at their table, she planned to decline their invitation but was brought over by CatNap nudging her over to them. It felt quite nice to just sit with the Smiling Critters and since she didn't need to eat to sustain herself, she sat quietly with them and would speak every now and then when they spoke to her.

"My favorite part of the day..." CatNap said after dinner was finished and they were all leaving the dining hall.

"Because you get to go back to sleep?" he nods and turns towards the staircase to return to his room, only to be stopped when he is grabbed by a few of the kids and tugged towards Ballade's stage.

"You can't go to sleep yet, CatNap!"

"Miss Ballade's gonna read to us." this caught his attention and he looked to where she was stepping onto her stage after taking a book from one of the kids "You're gonna join us, right? Miss Ballade always makes storytime fun!"

"Come on CatNap, join us."

"It just wouldn't be the same without you." he grumbles softly.

"... alright." they cheer and practically climb all over him when he takes a seat in front of her stage, she smiles when CatNap joins the crowd of children but knows that he is going to sleep through most of the story, not that she minded.

"Okay, kids. Despite having read this story over a thousand times, I'm sure you wouldn't mind hearing it again." she clears her throat then throws her arm out for dramatic flare "The Adventures of the Word Wizard!" they all laugh when she puts on a theatrical performance as she read the book, using different voices for characters and playing her music box for some background noise. She always was good at storytime, able to draw the children in with ease and entertain them, it warmed her heart to see them so invested in a story they had heard time and time again but not get tired of it.

It was one good thing this stupid place had to give her.

"And with his final word, this story has come to an end." the children, including the Smiling Critters, all let out a round of awes that it was over "And now it's time for bed." she laughs when they made more sounds of disappointment, besides Catnap, who stood up and started carrying that were laying on him off to bed.

"Can't we have one more story?"

"Yeah, just one more?" she shakes her head.

"I'm afraid not. Besides, you're all yawning." she closed the book and placed it down as she stepped off her stage and to where the few tired children were sitting, the Smiling Critters gathered the other children and either started carrying them or leading them back to their beds "Sleep is just as important, one should not neglect the need to rest just to continue having fun. I mean, look at CatNap! All he does is sleep and he has fun."

"Then he must be having a lot of fun since he's always sleeping."

"Uh huh, and he must be having the most wonderful dreams because of that. So, why don't we all go to bed so we can dream and have fun while we're asleep? We can always continue the fun tomorrow, it's not like it's going anywhere." that was a lie, she nor the children had no clue whether that would be their last night alive and that thought scared her "Now come, CatNap is ready to help you children to sleep."

"Oh, alright." she scoops them up while grabbing another by the hand to lead them back to their rooms, she's tucking them into bed and pressing kisses onto each of their heads as she passes them. She's mentally counting each child to make sure that all have been returned to bed and that none were missing, the last time she failed a headcount she, well... let's just say she never misses up the headcount anymore.

"Are they all here?" she nods "Whenever you're ready..." she goes through the assortment of songs she had before finally choosing one, the moment CatNap heard her music box start to play he exhaled enough of the red smoke from his mouth to help them doze off but stay awake long enough to hear her sing.

"Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, lavender's green~" this was CatNap's favorite part of the day, not only did he get to sleep, but he got to help Ballade put all the rowdy children to sleep as he listened to her sing. Before he got put into this body, when he was Theodore Grambell, Ballade was the only one who understood him. He had few friends and preferred keeping it that way because the other children annoyed him, but Ballade was different. Instead of pestering him like the adults would, trying and failing to get him to open up, she would merely sit with him in silence and wait patiently for him. She had a boisterous but calming personality that she could easily switch between depending on who she was interacting with, it was why the children loved her so much; it was why he loved her "Because you love me, dilly, dilly. I will love you~" she looks at CatNap and smiled at him, despite the permanent smile on his face, she could see a crease in his lips that let her know that he was giving her a genuine smile

When her music box struck its final cord and all the children had fallen asleep, she brushed the hair out of one of their eyes as they slept soundly before standing to her feet and going over to CatNap. The back of her hand brushed against his cheek and scratched under his chin as she walked him back to his room, she stayed with him until he fell into a deep slumber and wouldn't notice when she slipped out of his room to check on the other Smiling Critters. She found them all sleeping in their designated rooms and made sure to give them goodnight kisses as well, she had a feeling they would know if she didn't give them one, then went back to roaming the quiet and empty halls of Home Sweet Home.

Since she did not need to sleep, she aimlessly roamed around Playcare for nothing in particular, or that's what it seemed if people weren't aware of why she was stationed in Playcare. Huggy Wuggy was the security for the main lobby, Mommy Longlegs was the security for the Game Station, and Ballade was the security for Playcare. It was rare, very, very rare for someone to trespass onto Playtime Co. property after hours, and nearly impossible to make it past Huggy and Mommy alike to get into Playcare. The only likely situation you could get past those mascots was if you were an employee who knew their way around, but one thing was for sure, you would never make it past Ballade. She knew the entire layout of Playcare as well as the prison below, Leith and the Doctor made sure of that, so no matter where you go, she would always find you. Despite her large stature, she was very nimble on her feet. She was so good at sneaking around that you wouldn't even know she was behind you until she spoke up. The Doctor, Stella and Eddie would constantly make her sneak up on Leith to scare the living daylights out of him, she had to hide behind them when he threatened her with solitary confinement if she kept it up.

Anyways-

"It was almost too easy..." a voice whispered as they explored the Playcare, completely unaware that they were being watched. Ballade didn't bring it up with the three Executives when she noticed after the carnage that there were only five bodies instead of six, how the sixth one got away undetected, she'll never know, but he won't make it far. People were already aware that there was an onsite orphanage within Playtime Co. but as stated before, cameras were not allowed onto the property in case they caught something that would get them into a whole heap of trouble "If I can make it out of this maze, I'll make a fortune out of these photos." he spoke as he entered the Playhouse where he couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the playground with maze-like elements decorated with colorful brick walls and tunnels but it was pretty creepy exploring when there were no lights to illuminate the building, he makes sure to put the flash on before taking photos on his camera.

He takes a couple photos of the dark just to see where he is going, but when he sees the developed photo he is a little startled to see a pair of glowing eyes through the darkness that is staring right at him, he looks back in the direction he took it and takes another photo. He freaks out when the eyes are closer, so he starts walking backward while taking another with each step, he tries to listen for footsteps but can only hear his own as well as his panicked breathing. Whatever he was seeing drew closer and closer, but no matter how hard he tried to catch a glimpse of what was chasing him, he couldn't see past the flash, and through his terror, he accidentally dropped his camera. He's quick to drop to his knees and blindly search for it only to freeze when he feels a soft breeze on his face. With trembling hands, he finds his camera and takes a photo just to set the flash off and sees staring at him through the darkness was Ballade.

"How naughty~ Playtime Co. doesn't take lightly to trespassers." her hand was quick to close around his mouth before he could let out a scream and sound off the alarms, her fingers are digging into his skin as she planned to snap his neck but thinks for a bit "... hmm, the Doctor has stated that he's been wanting a live test subject. Guess you're the lucky one, congratulations." she picks up the camera and drags the poor man down to where Doctor Harley Swayer was, ignoring the confused stares from the prison guards and employees alike as she made her way to his lab while the photographer struggled against her iron-clad grip.

*KNOCK*

"What is it?" Sawyer cocked a brow when he didn't get an answer and the door was opened, usually, he'd yell at anyone who'd interrupt him but was surprised to see Ballade enter the room "My, what brings you here little dancer?" he smirks when he saw the way her body started to tremble, well, that was until he saw her drag in an unknown man.

"I caught an intruder, sir."

"And you're telling me this why?" she bounces on her feet nervously.

"You said you wanted a live test subject, so I brought him thinking you'd want to use him for your research." the man looks up at Sawyer for any sort of help only to be ignored when he lets out a sigh.

"I don't need him for anything, so you can just feed him to Yarnaby." she nods her head.

"Is Yarnaby in his cell?"

"Yes, he is. Close the door on your way out." she nods once more.

"Yes, sir." she let out a breath as she closed the door then looked back down at the man "You have no idea how lucky you are, Mister Intruder. You won't have to suffer at the hands of the Doctor and will get to die a quick death... well, that all depends if Yarnaby has been fed or not." she chuckled softly when she saw the panic flash on his face, poor man should have left when he had the chance. She's back in the prison and tells the guards to open Yarnaby's cell door and when they do she tosses the photographer inside and closes the door so he can't leave.

"Wait, no! Please, let me go! I-I swear I won't publish those photos!" she's in the observation room as she tosses the camera up and down "I don't want to die...!"

"You should have thought of that before you decided that taking pictures was worth more than your life." his body slumped when she shrugged her shoulders "Oh, Yarnaby~" she called out just as the door that kept Yarnaby contained opened up, her expression is indifferent when Yarnaby stepped out and looked up at the man curiously. This lion-like toy is rather adorable with its derpy expression and one would think he was going to play by the way he was tilting his head, that was until his face opened up to reveal his large open mouth hollowed out inside his head with rows of sharp jagged teeth along the outer rim of his mouth. The man couldn't even get a scream out when Yarnaby's mouth closed around his head, spilling his blood all over the window and killing him instantly.

Such a shame, she thought. He had quite a promising future if he had just left Playtime Co. instead of taking a few more pictures, maybe she should have let him go so he could expose the dark secrets this toy factory had but if she didn't kill him, the others surely would have.

"What a shame." she murmured before crushing the camera in her hand and looking back into the cell to see Yarnaby now aimlessly chewing on his torso, she always did find him adorable.

Casino

word count: 7994

Fandom: MCYT  Pairing: Multiple Relationship: Romantic Pronouns: Multiple Occupation: Multiple Ability: N/A

Keys: N/A

Warnings: N/A

so this is the first time I’ve posted on tumblr and I have absolutely no clue how to use this platform, mostly because I use wattpad more than any other writing platform but, here you go.

this is a mcyt one shot between my oc and my three other friends. this was made purely out of fun.

that is all.

The Cursed Lands.

The wildly known Casino where the Gods go to gamble all they want. Whether it be the riches they accumulated over the years they’ve reigned in their respective realms, or if they’re really willing to risk it, then the lives of the mortals that reside in their realms along with the countless realms and worlds they own. The Lesser Gods were foolish enough to do such a thing as test their luck on Elder Gods, only to lose it all. A God can absolutely ruin themselves in the Casino, that is why it is dubbed as the Cursed Lands, because no matter how many times you either win or lose, the thrill of it all is just so addicting.

Over the bustling voices of various Gods and Goddess cheering and chattering amongst each other, the co-owner of the Casino was whistling a tune while flicking a poker chip up and down, catching it within the palm of her hand before flicking it up once more. In her other hand was a wine glass filled with red wine that glittered, almost resembling that of mortal blood. She overlooked the grounds filled with various games occupied by Gods and Goddess of ranks of all kinds, Gods of more importance or more money were led to rooms with higher risk games while Gods with lower ranks were kept on the Ground Floor. She let out a hum, smirking to herself and catching the poker chip in between her fingers before turning away and bringing her glass to her lips, taking a long swig from her glass.

“Hey, boss.” she hummed once more, looking over to see that it was one of the bouncers, which was a wraith. Most of the security in the Casino, despite not being needed, were mortal spirits that lingered around in certain realms that were brought into the Casino to act as bouncers whenever the Gods and Goddess became a little too rowdy. Hades is also a dear sometimes too, letting her borrow his Hell Hound whenever guests got a little too carried away “She’s finally arrived.” her eyes lit up at what the wraith had said, slamming the wine glass down and flicking the chip up once more before catching it in the palm of her hands.

“Wonderful!” she cheered, standing to her feet and throwing her arms open “Where is she now? What game is she playing?”

“Currently, Roulette.” she purses her lips.

“Roulette, huh?” she couldn’t help but click her tongue as she leaves the room, the wraith following close behind after shutting the door “Why did it have to be roulette? She’s going to run the casino dry with how good her luck is.”

“Would it have been better to have her play Blackjack? That was her second option.” she raised her hand, shaking it.

“No, Blackjack has better odds at winning in comparison to Roulette.”

“I see.” she turns her head back towards the wraith that was slowly following behind her before turning back forward, she noticed that a nymph, a waitress, walking by with a tray of champagne so she grabbed the entire tray and saluted the golden skinned nymph.

“Thanks for the drinks, my dear.” she cooed softly, to which the nymph smiled in return before going off. She took a glass for herself and started downing it, greeting Gods and Goddess along the way and by the time she reached the Roulette table, she only had two glasses of champagne left, the empty glasses were handed to the wraith, to which he handed them to another passing nymph “Now, where is she?”

“And that’s another win for the Mother of All!” a voice announced, followed by a rally of a mix of cheers and cries.

“Ah, there she is.” pushing through the crowd, she saw the golden-haired woman dressed in a traditional but formal Greek themed dress with a white and gold laced mask over her eyes, the woman was smiling brightly while throwing her fist in the air.

“Another win for me, neh?” she cooed softly.

“You’re just too good at this!” she scoffed slightly, looking down at her nails.

“I thought you said this was a no skilled game, my dear.” the Lesser Gods look up at her in disbelief, watching as the dealer pushed over the chips that she won and saw her grab one of the chips from the table, she flicked it up before catching it and rolling it over her knuckles then having it perched in between her index and middle finger “There’s no need for you lot to be such sore losers. Just take the loss and try another game to win in instead of sulking around, it’s rather unbefitting of Gods like yourselves to act so immature.” the Gods watched as she turned the chip so they could see just what exactly they lost, a few hundred mortal lives “Better luck next time~” they growl at her before clicking their tongues, knowing they didn’t stand a chance against a God of her caliber.

“Whatever, just stay out of our way.” she simply giggled, waving her hand to bid them goodbye as she watched the two Lesser Gods scurry away. She was in the middle of turning back to the table but stopped at the sight of a familiar face approaching her through the ground.

“Ara? Is that you, old friend?”

“It is indeed!” she gave the tray to the wraith before wrapping her arms around the taller woman “As much as I love your company, can’t you play harder games? You’re just far too good that you’re putting Tyche, the Goddess of Luck, to shame!” she giggled softly, waving her hand so a porcelain doll dealer could come and collect her chips.

“Many apologies, Zanna.” she then giggled softly, taking one of the many brief cases filled with the chips she won while the others floated beside her “Maybe if you made the games a little harder, it’d be more of a challenge.” Zanna gasped at what the Goddess said as she started walking away, taking that glass of champagne the wraith was still holding while she was at it.

“Ah! The audacity— Cybele! Take that back right now!”

Zanna and Cybele, partners in crime and friends since the dawn of time, Cybele being just a bit older than the co-owner of the Cursed Lands Casino. Cybele was that mentor type figure to Zanna, teaching her about the various duties that Gods and Goddess partake in, but the Greek themed Goddess knew that everything she was teaching to the younger Goddess was going through one ear and out the other, so she found it pointless. She was simply a freelancer Goddess that did whatever the hell she wanted, but she did find it flattering that Zanna would still come by just to spend some time with the Goddess of Life and Creation.

In return, Zanna herself would teach Cybele to act more relaxed and to be a bit snarkier, sassy even. The tone Cybele always spoke in was soft and polite, like a ray of sunshine, but Zanna was a bit of an influence on the older woman whenever she would randomly pop in for a lesson, aka, a day of tom foolery. The Promised Lands is a place where Gods and Goddesses must act modest and mature— and then there was Zanna, the opposite of what she was supposed to be. She was the lowest ranking of Goddess with not a single ounce of importance to herself or her name, everyone underestimated her, but Cybele of course. So as the years rolled on, Zanna made a name for herself as one of the youngest Goddesses that managed to secure a spot at the top beside her mentor figure.

“I hear your lover is the owner of this joint, give him my many thanks for making such a terrific establishment for us to enjoy.” Zanna chuckled, blushing softly at the compliment.

“Well, you can tell that to him yourself.”

“Oh? So, I’m finally going to meet this infamous lover of yours?” Zanna scoffed before jokingly shoved Cybele.

“Ah, shut up.” she then waves her hand “He was a mortal from one of your realms that I helped ascend to Godhood. He managed to become the God of Riches and Gambling, hence the Casino.” now Cybele was impressed, pausing when in the middle of drinking from her glass.

“Wow, really? And from one of my realms as well, quite impressive if I do say so myself.” she then looked up in thought, placing her empty glass on a tray “Is he from one of my most chaotic realms?” Zanna purses her lips, looking up in thought.

“Um... yeah, the one you visit the most.”

“Oh! The DreamSMP!” Zanna nods, Cybele then giggles softly while clapping her hands “Do I know him?” Zanna looks away, wincing slightly.

“Well, um, I think you know him a little too well.” she tilts her head in mild confusion.

“What do you mean by tha--”  

“Mi amor!” they both halt in their tracks, however, Cybele grimaced at the sound of the voice before holding back and sneer when both she and Zanna turned around “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Zanna.” soon he too came to a stop and looked at the woman standing beside his lover, even with the mask on, he could see through it and immediately recognized the face behind it, so he scowled up at her “Cy.” she only smiled.

“Quackity.” Zanna shivered, hearing the malice in her words behind that smile, she raised her hands when she felt the tension raise the longer the two glared at each other.

“U-Um, guys?” Cybele gently grabbed her arm before pointing at Quackity.

“Of all the mortals, why him? You do realize he’s got two other fiancés, right?” she simply shrugged her shoulders.

“Sharing is caring?” she rolls her eyes “Plus in every lifetime I’ve had to relive, it was always with him. I just love him so much, Cybele.” Zanna grabs Cybele’s forearm and squeezes it “I know you two have beef with each other, but please, just let me have this.” Cybele’s tense shoulders slowly relaxed at the pleading look Zanna was giving her, so she sighed, letting it go reluctantly.

“Alright fine, but I won’t hesitate to kill him if he does anything out of line.” Zanna smiled at the answer, jumping up and wrapping her arms around Cybele, her placing her hands on her hips to steady them both before they fell to the ground.

“Ah! You’re the best friend anyone could ever ask for!” Cybele smiled at that, patting her back before placing her on the ground, to which she sauntered over to Quackity, extending her hand out to her lover, to which he didn’t hesitate to lace his fingers with hers and bring her closer, Cybele rolled her eyes at the affection that Quackity usually only shared with his other two lovers.

“Best friend? But I’ve never seen you two around each other.” Zanna waved her hands.

“Psh, we’ve been friend's way before she washed up on the SMP! We’re like old time friends! She knows everything about me, and in return, I know everything about her.” Cybele waved her hand.

“I wouldn’t say that.” she looked at her, to which she pursed her lips while shrugging her shoulders, Quackity continued to glare at her but was stopped when Zanna cupped his cheeks and made him look at her.

“My love, I know you have a lifelong grudge on Cyb— I mean, Cy, but I really want my two favorite people to get along.” she kneels down to press a kiss to his forehead before pulling away and smiling softly at him “You’ll do that for me, won’t you?” Quackity gave her a skeptical look, glancing back over at Cybele and noticing that she had just as much of a worried expression as he did. He then let out a sigh, raising his hands so they could rest on top of hers.

“If it’s what makes you happy, then I have to comply, no?” she smiles before kneeling and wrapping her arms around his smaller form then standing up straight, Cybele snorted, covering her mouth with her fist at the sight of Quackity dangling from Zanna’s hold. He noticed her quietly trying to stifle her laughter, so he glared at her, flipping her the bird, she giggled softly at the futile attempt.

“Short stack.” she whispered loud enough for him to hear.

“You--” Zanna looked back at Cybele and saw she was smiling innocently.

“Shall we get going? I’ve wasted up so much of your time, Cy.” she waves her hand to dismiss the thought, watching as Zanna put Quackity down on the ground.

“By wasting my time do you mean spending time with a friend I haven’t seen in a long time? Then it’s worth wasting.” Zanna smiled at that before jogging off, probably to get a room ready for the lot of them to play a could games, both Quackity and herself were smiling fondly at her before slowly following her.

“What do you think she’ll say that her best friend had just insulted her lover?” Quackity said, she hummed.

“That it’s true and that I shouldn’t state the obvious?” he gave her a flabbergasted look; she shrugged her shoulders as she looked down at him “What? It’s true, is it not?”

“You’re unbelievable.” she then watched as he stomped away, she snorted.

“Do you rather I call you flatty patty?” this caused him to freeze, his face to the tips of his ears turning a pretty shade of pink “Oh wait, that’s what Schlatt called you, right? Many apologies, I should come up with something more original, shouldn’t I? I’m not particularly fond of using other people’s pet names.” she had to slap her hand over her mouth to stop the laughter from slipping when he whipped his face around and glared at her with the signs of embarrassment evident on his face, he couldn’t fire anything back, so he just went off to find Zanna to save himself from the embarrassment.

“Was that really necessary, Cybele?” she hummed at the sound of a new voice followed by a hand on her shoulder, turning her head back, she smiled softly at the sight of her lover.

“Ah, Foolish, were you having fun, my love?” he hummed at that, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek.

“I am now that I’m with you.” she giggles at that before leading him to the room Zanna was preparing now with Quackity.

“How cute, Foolish.” he simply nods, slipping his hand into hers “Did you know that Zanna has become lovers with that mortal Quackity?” she then stops herself “Wait, former mortal. Apparently, she helped him ascend to Godhood and now he’s a newly found God.” Foolish gave her a surprised expression.

“Really? That’s quite impressive. If anyone, I thought Technoblade would ascend to Godhood.”

“He’s come fairly close, but he has angered a few Gods and impressed the other few. I mean, have you seen how irritated Death has gotten because he keeps slipping through her fingers?” she then snaps her fingers “And Ares really loves all the bloodshed, but Hades is also irritated with the fluctuation of all the souls entering the Underworld nearly every day. He probably would’ve lost his mind already if Persephone wasn’t by his side to quell his anger.” Foolish snaps his fingers at that.

“You make a fair point.”

“Don’t I always?” they both laugh.

“I wonder what God he has become.”  

“She told me he became the God of Riches and Gambling.” he nods.

“Ah, hence the casino.”

“Mm hmm.” when they reached the private room, they were greeted by the wraith bouncers, to which they bowed their heads to the Elder Gods before pushing open the door and they were met with the sight of various nymph waitresses, porcelain doll dealers and even a shrunken down version of the Kraken as the bartender “Wow, she’s really outdone herself.”

“Indeed.”

“Ah hah, there you are!” looking over, they both smile when they saw Zanna approaching them but Foolish squeezed her hand when he felt her irritation when Quackity was by her side.

“Behave yourself, Cybele.”

“I will, I will. I already promised her, so don’t hassle me, my love.”

“Just making sure.” when they were in front of each other, Quackity and Foolish nod at each other while the two women smile fondly at each other “It’s been a while, Quackity. I hope you’ve been doing well, managing two casinos, that is. Las Nevadas in the SMP and now this one, the Cursed Lands.” Quackity laughs at that, wrapping an arm around Zanna’s waist and pulling her closer towards him.

“True, true! If it weren’t for Zanna, I already would’ve lost my mind having to take care of two Casinos, though the management really falls into Zanna’s hands for this one, Las Nevadas is mine.” Cybele and Foolish nod at that, glancing around and greeting fellow Gods and Goddesses that pass by each time “The people that come here are also so rich, and most of the time the things they gamble are so weird.” this caused the two Elder Gods to pause while Zanna paled a little.

“Pardon?” he waves his hand, starting to walk and leading them over to a table for a game of Poker.

“Well, I don’t really know how to explain it. Well, usually, in Las Nevadas, the shit people usually trade is gold, Ender Eyes, Enchanted shit, the usual shit when they’re desperate for a win. But the stuff I see here... wow, spooky shit. See, like over there!” the three look over at what he was pointing at, and they saw another Elder God but down an orb to the table, at closer inspection, the three Gods could tell that it was a realm that the God owned, and they were risking it for a big win “You see what I mean?” Cybele and Foolish purse their lips before looking down at Zanna, who laughed awkwardly before leaning down and patting Quackity’s shoulder.

“Uh, baby, could you get the table ready? There’s a couple things I need to tell these two, if that’s alright with you?” he simply nodded.

“Sure!” he presses a kiss to her cheek before rushing off, when turning around, Zanna flinched at the stern look the two were giving her.

“Zanna, sweetness, he does know that this is an Interdimensional Casino where Gods from all around the universe and different dimensions come to bet and gamble with the mortal lives and realms under their command, right? He does have knowledge that he himself is a God, right? He is aware that the people around him aren’t mortals, right?” she remained silent.

“Um... no.” Cybele presses the palm of her hand onto her forehead while Foolish exhales deeply through his nose.

“So, he has no knowledge of what this Casino really is and that he believes everyone here is a mortal?” he then looks at a nymph passing them “Than what about the staff? He must be suspicious about the staff, Zanna!” she waves her hand.

“Like he said, the Cursed Lands Casino is under my management, all the staff that was hired were hired by me. I simply told him they were mobs, and he believed me.” they both let out sighs.

“You are unbelievable, Zanna.”

“We should be lucky he’s unbelievably stupid.” they all look over at Quackity and saw he was talking to a dealer, when he noticed they were looking, he smiled and waved.

“Mm.” she then sighs softly “But that’s what I love about him.” Cybele just rolls her eyes, Foolish shook his head in mild disappoint.

“Oh, goodness.” he waved them over and they approach, Cybele’s hand resting in Foolish’s as the approach the table, but now Cybele was staring at the dealer of the table. They weren’t the usual porcelain dolls from every other game, oh no, this was a villager that she herself knew rather well. The villager felt the intense gaze and looked up while in the middle of shuffling cards and flinches when she noticed that it was Cybele staring at her.

“Um... hello?” she greeted but Cybele didn’t drop her gaze and continued to stare at her, of course she knew this damned villager, not only was she one that was from her realm, but she’s also one that she traded with a good number of times! However, this villager was different to the usual villager because this one could talk instead of giving a hum as a response, not only that, but this villager had the best things anyone could trade with that even Technoblade praised highly and tried countless times to keep this villager in his basement, but she would always find a way to get out. Not only that, but she didn’t look like the average villager, and she even had her own self-awareness not to get trapped in ridiculous spots. She pursed her lips before placing her hand on Zanna’s shoulder once more, not breaking eye contact with the dealer.

“Why the hell is a villager from my realm here as well?” Zanna herself pursed her lips before gesturing to her.

“Well, she kinda just wandered in saying that she needed a job, so I just gave her the job. She’s pretty good with her hands, so we made her a poker dealer.” they all look at her and watched as she easily shuffled the cards, going as far as to juggling the cards over her knuckles before dealing them onto the table into their respective spots.

“That is impressive.” Foolish mused, Cybele couldn’t help but nod her head.

“But how did she get in?” Zanna opened her mouth to speak but closed her mouth when she couldn’t think of a plausible excuse.

“You know what? I really don’t know.” she then shrugs, going over and placing a hand on her shoulder “This is Honey, one of my best dealers, as I’d like to say.” Cybele and Foolish nod their heads “She didn’t really have a name, so we just call her Honey.” Foolish tilts his head to the side.

“Why Honey?” Zanna’s grip on her shoulder tightened as she gripped her shoulder with great force, causing Honey to sputter while turning her head away with a pale look on her face as a ball of sweat formed on her cheek.

“Because she keeps stealing the honey from the bar to the point that we keep running out of honey to make honey-based cocktails and drinks. It’s bad for business, so to pay off the massive amount of debt I have her as a dealer and it’s deduced from her pay.” Cybele, Foolish and Quackity sweat a little at that when they saw the depressed look on her face.

“My honey...” she cried, Cybele then looked up in remembrance.

‘So that’s why she asked about my bee farm...’ Cybele thought, she then hummed softly and snapped her fingers and a bee’s knees cocktail appeared in her hands, she then placed the drink on a coaster before sliding over to Honey.

“Since you’re our dealer, especially one from my own realm and one that does me great service whenever I see you, I might as well repay you from something as you serve us tonight.” Honey instantly recognized the drink and smiled brightly, she takes the glass into her hands and then gives Cybele a look.

“Do you think a drink is enough to bribe me?” they stare at each other before Honey raised the glass “Well, it’s working!” she then downs it then slams the drink on the table “Woo! Let’s get this party started!” Cybele giggles before taking a seat, Foolish taking the one beside her, planning on playing the game of poker with her, Zanna then leaned down.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t intoxicate my dealers in order for things to be in your favor.” Cybele scoffs lightly at that, waving her hand.

“Do you really think I’d stoop that low just to win? Oh no, I wipe the floor with those who think they can get the upper hand before yanking the rug from beneath them and come out victorious.” Zanna hummed at that, leaning backwards and crossing her arms.

“Alrighty then.” the first few games it was just some causal playing between the four of them, couple verse couple, in a sense. Cybele had to admit that Quackity was rather good at poker, having to play carefully against the former mortal, well, he wasn’t the God of Riches and Gambling for nothing. She did lose a good few rounds against him, but won the rest, in the end, the two dominated the poker game. Foolish let out a sigh, frowning at his hand before letting out a sigh and throwing it on the table.

“I give.” he then scoffs, watching as both Cybele and Quackity throw down their hands and noticed that they both had four of a kind, both in different ranks, even Zanna scoffed as she threw her hand to reveal she only had a straight “You two are just too good.” Cybele giggled before looking over at Quackity and offering him a hand.

“I must say, playing against someone who knows what they’re doing is rather fun and more intense. Thank you for the fun game, Quackity.” he scoffs but grins nonetheless, reaching forward and shaking her hand.

“The feelings mutual.” they both grin at each other before they all jump at the sound of a hand slamming on the table, glancing over, Zanna lets out a long sigh while Cybele smirks softly at the new face, Foolish noticed her expression and reaches over to caress her arm.

“Don’t.”  

“I haven’t done anything.”

“I know that look.” she chuckles, looking away before glancing back over and giving him a soft smile.

“What a lovely surprise to see you, Zagreus, it’s been a while.” he offers her a smile himself, but they all know that it didn’t mean well “But simply not long enough. What the hell do you want? Can’t you see we’re all having a lovely time playing a game of poker? What reason do you need to come in uninvited?” Zanna pursed her lips when she noticed that Cybele was intentionally pushing his buttons, she reached over and grabbed her elbow.

“What are you doing?” she whispered to her, Cybele just gave her a side eye.

“Don’t worry about it, I know what I’m doing.” Zanna scoffed before leaning back in her chair while crossing her arms, Quackity noticed the tension between Cybele and the newcomer and leaned over to Zanna.

“What’s going on between those two? The only time I see Cy like this is usually with me and people she doesn’t like.” Zanna pursed her lips.

“Well, it’s the latter. Those two have some... history, and someone that she knows really praises him.” he nods his head.

“... I don’t get it.” she slapped her hand onto her forehead, she then looked between the two and noticed that Cybele was now beginning to get annoyed with Zagreus’ presence, I mean, of course she would, she lost quite a lot to this man because of his underhanded plays. But that was back in the days where she herself was just a Lesser God and didn’t have many realms and mortals under her control, now she was one of the biggest Gods that could gamble a lot and still wouldn’t lose a single thing.  

“How about a rematch, Cybele?” she sighs at that, leaning back in her seat.

“And why would I do that? There isn’t a single thing from you that I want, I am completely content with what I have.” though she has bad blood with Quackity, she was quite irritated that he ripped him out of his seat before sitting down in it. Zanna glared at Zagreus and was planning on throwing him out for manhandling one of the owners of the of the casino but was stopped when Honey raised her hand to dismiss the behavior.

“Wha-- why?” Zanna seethed at Honey, she then hums and gestures to Cybele.

“Quackity, despite me always wanting to strangle you whenever I see you, I do not stand for such rude behavior.” she then crosses her legs, resting her elbows on the table before leaning her chin on the tops of her hands “What do you want, Zagreus?” he chuckles, leaning backwards and kicking his feet on the table.

“Simple, I just wanna play a couple games with you, Cybele, that’s all.” she rolls her eyes.

“What’s the catch?” he smirks.

“I’m glad you’re catching on~” he coos, she growls at him.

“What do you have to offer that would even pique my interest in the slightest?” she then noticed him pull out a gold poker chip, this caught her attention, along with Foolish and Zanna’s, Quackity just stared at it confused while Honey was downing another glass of a honey based alcoholic beverage.

“A cursed soul...” Foolish muttered.

“And one I recognize...” Cybele added, slowly closing her hand into a fist “Showing off your trophy you won off from me all those years ago?” he hums at that, rolling the chip over his knuckles.

“You were just foolish enough to fall for such a simple trick and gamble with one of your most valuable mortals.” he then cackles, gesturing to Foolish beside “Is that why you’re his lover? So, you can be foolish together? What a riot!” both she and Foolish slam their hands on the table, strong enough to break the table in half but they both held back their anger. She inhales deeply through her nose to quell her anger before leaning back in her chair and offering him a smile.

“That’s some talk for someone who must cheat in order to win, especially when it was against a Lesser God like myself in the past.” she pressed her fingers against her lips as she gives him a smug expression “That’s quite embarrassing don’t you think?” now this caused the people at the table to snort, having to stifle their laughter, her smirk grows when she noticed that his cocky attitude slowly dropped at what she said “Are you going to cheat again in order to get more things from me? Pathetic, I can still win against you with the game being in my favor, no matter how many underhanded plays you have against me.”

“Then why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?” she chuckles, shrugging her shoulders.

“Well, alright. But don’t start whining when I start winning.” this time he growls.

“You’re on.” Foolish, Quackity and Zanna all stood behind Cybele as Zagreus sat up properly, straightening himself out as few of the lingering Gods and Goddesses circled the table to watch the poker game. Honey looks at Zanna and saw her nod, she lets out a sigh before opening her hands and the guards littering the table returned to her hands and there, she skillfully shuffled the deck, juggling them over her knuckles once more before dealing the right amount to each player. Cybele snapped her fingers and all the chips she won fairly appeared on the table on her side, Zagreus did the same and they could see that she just had bit more in comparison to him. She looked down at her hand before looking at the chips before her and pushing a variety of white chips to green towards the center of the table, Zagreus doing the same.

The value of the chips was like mortal chips, the colors on the chips were a little more vibrant and the value behind them wasn’t in money, but what kind of mortal that was living in the realm.

Black = Vantablack – Apostles Orange = Gold – Cursed Souls Green = Emerald Green – Spirits Grey = Silver – Saints Blue = Lapis Blue – Mobs/Monsters Red = Crimson Red – Sinners White = Snow White – Normal

“Why don’t you go first, Cybele?” she giggles, taking three of her cards out and pushing them towards Honey, who traded three more cards towards her, Zagreus doing the same but with two cards.

“Oh, but ladies first~” she cooed, giggling softly when that got a rise out of him and a few of the spectators to laugh.

“Whatever.” rearranging the cards in his hands, he laid them out and a few of the spectators gasped at the reveal “A full house.” he boasts, his smirking rising but begins to fall when Cybele didn’t look the least bit threatened by the hand, the three standing behind her even looking unimpressed.

“Ooo, that’s too bad.” laying her hand down, his eyes widened slightly at her hand “Four of a kind.” Honey smirked at the win, raising her hand and all the chips on the board moved over to Cybele’s side as the cards returned to her hand once.

“And the win belongs to the Mother of All.” she crosses her legs, winking at Zagreus, who looks irritated, but he composes himself.

“Another.” she shrugs.

“Alright.” Quackity didn’t have the best relationship with Cybele after a certain event and the two absolutely hated each other, but he really couldn’t help but cheer her on and be rather impressed with how good she was playing. The hands she had were insane that he couldn’t help but feel sad for the other guy, but it was funny that every round they played Cybele never dropped her neutral expression while Zagreus was slowly losing his temper and confidence. There were times Cybele would lose but that didn’t matter, she still had the bigger winnings in comparison to Zagreus. By the end of it, Cybele dropped her hand to reveal she had a straight flush, while he only had a flush.

“Holy SHIT, Cy! You’re wiping the floor with him!” Quackity cheered, grabbing her by the shoulder and shaking her back and forward before leaning over and scooping up a great number of the chips she won before letting them drop to the table “For someone as meek as you, you’re pretty good a gambling.” she shrugs her shoulders.

“Just because I’m a pacifist doesn’t mean I don’t know how to gamble.” Foolish rolled his eyes.

“Right, pacifist.” she grins sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders.

“Enough!” Zagreus grits his teeth as he slammed his fist on the table, Cybele simply scoffed.

“What did I say about the whining? I’m pretty sure Persephone raised you better than this.” his face flushed red out of embarrassment before growling at her, she simply waved him off while flexing her hand. She looked down at the remaining chips he had and saw he had a few chips left but she eyed the gold chip he was flexing about before “Well, since I’m feeling a little generous, how about I put something on the line that will certainly pique your interest.”

“And what would that be?” opening her hand, she spread her index and middle finger open and a single vantablack chip formed in the space between her fingers. Vantablack chips were the rarest type of chips that only a good few Gods had in their possession and only they can manifest a vantablack chip, not the casino “An Apostle?” Zagreus questioned.

“Not just any apostle.” she flipped it around and he stood to his feet, his chair being pushed back in the process, as he stared at the chip “I give you Technoblade, the man highly praised by Ares and even you for all the bloodshed he creates while screaming “Blood for the Blood God”! Ah, such a good man.” she looked back over at him and saw he was staring intently at the chip.

“You’ll give his soul to me?” she laughs, throwing her head back.

“Hah! No!” she snorts at the assumption, closing her hand and bringing the chip into the palm of her hand “This is a poker match? Not everything is free, and we both know what I want in return if I put his soul on the table.” he groans at that, he closed his fist and slowly opened it for the gold chip to form in the palm of his hand.

“A cursed soul and an apostle...”

“Two valuable souls in one place.”

“Never thought I’d see a game like this.” the Gods and Goddesses surround the two gushed at the sight of the two rare chips in one place between two Elder Gods, Zanna and Foolish were staring at Cybele with shocked expressions while Quackity was barely catching on.

“Are you nuts, Cybele?!” Foolish whispered to her, grabbing her by her shoulder and pulling her back “What if you lose?!” she looks back at him.

“Do you really think I would gamble with the soul of a lifelong friend’s son if I knew I was going to lose? Unlikely.” she turns back towards Zagreus and puts the chip on the table, pushing it towards the center and grins “So how about it? Feeling lucky?” Honey looked between the two participants, she herself feeling a little excited about the outcome of the game, Zagreus stared at the gold chip in his hand before sighing and placing the chip down and towards the center as well.

“You’re on.” Honey grins, clapping her hands and the cards returning to her once more.

“Let’s have a fair game!” she cheered, downing another cocktail as the cards around her formed into the deck and she shuffled them before dealing them out. In this game, the two chips were the highest valued chips so there wasn’t a need for the two Gods to gamble with anymore chips, but Zagreus was feeling lucky and pushed all the remaining chips he had left onto the table with a big grin. Cybele noticed this as she was removing a few of her cards, she looked up in thought before shrugging her shoulders, why the hell not? With a flick of her wrist, all her winnings were pushed towards the table and placed behind the vantablack chip.

“What are you doing, Cybele?” Zanna asked, flabbergasted that Cybele willingly bet all her winnings onto the table “Did you do that out of spite?!” she shrugged her shoulders.

“Maybe.” Zanna and Foolish facepalm while Quackity laughed, even Honey snorted “What can I say? I’m just feeling rather lucky~” Zagreus narrowed his eyes on the older woman, not a single trace of nervousness on her face. He grits his teeth at her confidence, looking at his hand before swapping out the cards he didn’t want with new ones. A few minutes of silence go by as the two rearrange their hand, Zagreus looked up at Cybele and quirked a brow when he noticed her starting to look nervous as she stared at her hand, even the three behind her looked nervous, this was his chance.

“So, how about you go first?” he offered, this caught her off guard as she looked up at him then back at her hand, she then brought them to her chest as she offered him a hand.

“H-How about you? My hand is... so and so.” he smirks.

“Well alright.” he looks back down at his hand before finally revealing it, the crowd gasped and even Cybele paled at the sight of a straight flush he laid out. Zagreus’ smirk grew as Cybele continued to stare at her hand, her hands trembling before she lowered her head, he then raised his hands “Then I believe this win is mi--” he cut himself off when Cybele snorted, looking back over at her, he flinched when she raised her head, and she was trying her damned hardest not to burst out into laughter.  

“Man, I didn’t believe I was good at acting but I got you good, didn’t I?” she giggled to herself before throwing her head back, she takes a deep breath before laying her hand down and his eyes widened at what she had “A royal flush.” she leans back in her seat, shrugging her shoulders while opening her hands out behind her, to which Zanna, Foolish and Quackity did not hesitate to high five her “Sorry but, you just weren’t lucky enough.” she was the least bit threatened when he slammed his hands on the table, pointing a finger at her while she just leaned back and crossed her arms with an indifferent expression.

“You... you—you cheated! I know you cheated!” he shouts, she purses her lips.

“That’s a load of bullshit coming from the likes of you.” Zanna closed her eyes.

“Ah, here we go.” she muttered, she then turned and waved her hands to get the attention of a couple bouncers before snapping her fingers and a passion fruit martini appeared in her hands “She’s swearing, we’re in for a show tonight.” she muttered as she started to down her drink, Foolish nodded.

“Mm hmm.” even Quackity nodded his head.

“Yeah, the only times she swears is at me.” Honey snorted at that before snapping her fingers and having all the winnings more over to Cybele’s side, the vantablack and gold chips floating up and into her hands, to which she proceeded to roll the gold chip along her knuckles while the other was resting in between her thumb and index finger.

“You really think I didn’t notice you cheating the entire time.” she chuckles when she noticed him flinch and back off slightly, she then gestures to the three behind her and he saw them standing up straight and glaring at him, Honey doing the same as she was shuffling the deck “It just goes to show that I can still win even when odds are against me, and no matter how much you cheat, you still cannot beat me. How pathetic.” he growls.

“I want a rematch!” she rolls her eyes.

“With what? You lost everything; you have nothing to bet with.” she closes her hand with the vantablack chip while flicking the gold chip up then catching it “If you know what’s good for you, run on back home and whine to your mother and father on how you lost to me despite your underhanded plays.” this earned a round of laughter from the surrounding Gods, he claws at the table before grabbing the underside of it and proceeding to throw it across the room.

“I CAN beat you with or without cheating!” he screams as he starts approaching her, his arms reaching forward to grab her, but she didn’t move. The three behind her intended to get in front of her to stop him but they were all surprised when Honey stopped him, grabbing him by his shoulder and giving him a smile “Huh? What do you want?! Fuck off!” he tried to punch her, but she easily ducked, making sure to stand behind him before wrapping her arms around his waist.

“I’m sorry but fighting in the casino is strictly prohibited.” she said with a smile before bending her knees slightly then leaning back, bringing him with her before flipping him upside down and slamming his head into the ground, serving him a german suplex. Cybele, Zanna, Foolish and Quackity stare in astonishment at the sight of Honey suplexing the Elder God with little to no effort before standing to her feet and dusting her hands off before snapping her fingers “Get this idiot out of here!” she hollered, waving the wraiths over, who nodded and proceeded to grab Zagreus and drag him out of the casino. She then pats her pockets before opening her pocket and pulling out an entire poker table and putting it on the ground, replacing the one Zagreus threw away.

“What... did I just witness?” Cybele questioned, even Quackity was bewildered.

“Did I just watch a villager... suplex the fuck out of some rando?” the two look at each other before bursting into laughter, Zanna approaches Honey and places a hand on her shoulder, Honey looks up at her and noticed her give her a thumbs up.

“Instant raise.” she grins.

“Yes!” she cheers, pumping her fists “I should suplex people more often.” Zanna now shakes her head.

“No.” Honey rolls her eyes, Cybele hummed as she crossed her legs once more and rolled the vantablack chip across her knuckles once more before flicking it up and watching it disappear, when Zanna was by her side once more she grabbed both her a Foolish and pulled them close.

“Don’t you dare tell Phil that I gambled with Technoblade’s soul or else he’ll have Kristen come after my ass to claim my own soul.” they both raise their hands.

“You think we have a death wish? Of course, we won’t tell the guy.” she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Good.” she let Zanna and Honey gather up her chips and put them into suitcases while she turned her attention to the gold chip now resting in the palm of her head, Foolish was by her side as they both stare at the poker chip before she flipped it around so they could see just who exactly the soul belonged to.

“Hmm, I remember this girl.” she mused, smirking softly in remembrance “Didn’t her ancestors spite us and the Gods in charge of that era and faction smite them with a curse?” Foolish looked up in thought, squeezing his chin before nodding his head.  

“Yeah, and if I remember the curse correctly, it has something to do with that Japanese folklore called the Hanahaki disease, minus the part where it’s a one-sided love.” Cybele gasped softly, her hand covering her mouth.

“Oh, poor thing.” she mumbled softly “And to think that the curse was still going on after so many years, can’t imagine the pain she’s going through.” Foolish nodded his head.

“But now she’s in good hands once more.”  

“Yup.” she stared at the chip once more before flicking it up and watching it disappear, she then pats her legs before standing to her feet “Well this evening was certainly fun, I thank you for tonight.” Zanna grins, snapping her fingers and the suitcases full of chips were floating by Cybele’s side once more, she then brought her arm to her chest before bowing her head.

“But the pleasure is all mine. You’re the only individual that can make such a mundane night more eventful.” both she and Cybele grin before they grasp each other hands then pulling each other into a hug, patting each other’s back “Come more often, Cybele, I’ll make sure to make the games more difficult for your entertainment.” she smirks.

“You better.” she then turns to Quackity, holding her fist out to him, he stares at it before chuckling and fist bumping her.

“Just because tonight was fun, doesn’t mean we’re friends.” he nods at that before giving her a thumbs up “But tonight certainly is a night to remember.” she grins and nods her head to him.

“As to you, Quackity.” she then links arms with Foolish and waves “See you back at the SMP.”

“Sure.” as she passes Honey, she chuckles softly and pats her head.

“Stay out of trouble, Honey.” she purses her lips, fixing up her hair when Cybele messed with it but laughed nonetheless.

“Whatever.”

Mechanical

word count: 4923

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach Pairing: N/A Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Platonic Occupation: Drummer/Mechanic Ability: Animatronic Octopus

The character was modeled after a blue ringed octopus, so they are a oceanic type animatronic with an oceanic themed area within the pizza plex. The appearance they adorn is that of a human like face while their hair is their eight tentacles that are also capable of extending out to three meters long and a special function that allows them to stick to walls but also pick things up. The rings of the blue ringed octopus are seen on their body and act as speakers for music to play but for their voice to be louder.

Keys: [M/N]: Male Name [B/C]: Base Color [S/C]: Secondary Color [F/C]: Favorite Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t watched fnaf sb.

might make various drabbles to this involving this reader.

that is all.

[M/N] the Octopus; that is what they called him. Quite a boring name in comparison to the spectacular Glamrock Freddy or even Montgomery Gator, but it was the literal definition of his model. Unlike the other animatronics, he was a unique octopus type animatronic with eight tentacles for hair that were capable of doing any task. His model had dozens of mechanical software uploaded into his AI so that if anything were to be broken or malfunctioning, he would be the go to guy to fix anything back into prestige condition. He was well liked by the few human staff that were employed to the Freddy Fazbear Mega Pizza Plex and many children adored him, not as much as they loved Freddy of course, but at least he was well liked. 

He was also the main drummer of Freddy’s band, I mean, of course he was. There was Freddy, the main vocalist, Roxanne Wolf who played the Keytar, Chica who played as the main Guitarist and Montgomery Gator who played the Bass. A band was never complete without the Drummer who provided the beat to their songs, and [M/N] was the master when it came down to making any beat to whatever song Freddy sang. He was a fan favorite to the audience too, second to Freddy of course who was the main star and face to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, because of his unique model design. His body was a shade of [B/C] while the rings around his body were [F/C], the underside of his palms and tentacles were [S/C] as he his model was shirtless while he had painted on colorful 80′s track pants, green and pink nail polish along with peach to pink shield sunglasses that hid his [E/C] eyes.

Today was any other day at the Pizza Plex, fix anything that needed fixing before the Pizzeria opened, greet the staff that arrive, greet the young children and adults who decided to spend a day at his area of the Mega Pizza Plex, which was a oceanic themed area were the children were able to swim but also observe and learn about oceanic creatures through digital reality or holograms that swam about in the air above them. When the time came for him to return to his room to prepare for tonight’s show, he spoke through his built in mic and his voice transmitted through his built in speakers to signal the children and others that Freddy’s show was going to begin. 

“You ready, Freddy?” [M/N] spoke, spinning his drumsticks around his fingers as he looked Freddy up and down “Tonight’s the big show.” the main star for that night let out a chuckle as his hand came down to pat [M/N] on the back, giving his friend a soft smile.

“Of course friend, tonight will be like every other night. Perfect.” [M/N] deadpanned when Roxanne shoved past them, pressing her fingers into the keys of her keytar.

“Of course it will be perfect since I will be there.”

“Right, try not to mess up, Roxy.” Freddy let out a sigh as Roxanne glared up at [M/N], said machine let out his own snarl as his tentacles raise up slightly and curled up in a way they were ready to punch her.

“Please stop this, we can’t afford another quarrel before a show again.” [M/N] scoffs, crossing his arms as his robotic tentacles lowered to the ground.

“She starts it.”

“I do not!” Chica and Monty arrived behind stage and were as annoyed as Freddy when the two started bickering once more, [M/N] being more monotone and stern while Roxy was more vocal and aggressive. Freddy sighs before looking at Monty, he clears his throat to gain the alligators attention and when he succeeded, he nudged his head in the direct the two were, said machine let out a groan before going over to them. [M/N] lets out a grunt when he felt one of his tentacles be grabbed and yanked back, the same with Roxy but with her tail.

“Stop acting like idiots and get your acts together.” he growls at the both of them, [M/N] snatches his tentacle back as he straightens the top of his hair/tentacles out.

“I’m only stating the truth.” before Roxy could fire anything back, Chica grabbed her by the biceps and pulled her back.

“Whoa there girl, calm yourself.” 

“Freddy!” they all turn their heads and see one of the workers approaching them “You’re about to go on in five minutes.” he gives the worker a bright smile along with a thumbs up.

“Thank you for the heads up.” they nod their head before walking away, he claps his paws before looking at the other four “It’s party time.” to [M/N], everything was going as it should be. The performance was great, the children and even the adults were loving the show. A warm smile graced his mechanical lips as he watched Freddy perform to his utmost best, stealing the show with little to no effort and making the crowd roar for more. There shouldn’t have been any problems, everything was flawless, that was until he noticed Freddy’s movements sputter and twitch before freezing up. He was still drumming when his AI caught something, his eyes looked over at Freddy and a red outline covered his body and there he saw multiple issues erupting from his body. He couldn’t do anything as he watched sparks fly out of his body before he eventually collapsed to the ground, Chica was the first to approach him as the crowd gasped in shock.

“Freddy!” [M/N] shouts out in concern, standing up from where he was as he rushed over to him, he raised his head when he saw looks of confusion cross the faces of the people in the crowd before communicating with the main crew “Lower the stage and get us out of here.” he said through his communicator.

”We’re already on it.” the crowd was left in confusion as to why the show ended so strangely and early but the animatronic could careless, he was more concerned as to why Freddy had such a malfunction despite the condition he was in. [M/N] used his tentacles to pick Freddy up and brought him to Parts and Services while the other three returned to their rooms, his eyes were in the midst of doing a full body scan while his tentacles were doing other check ups on his body and fixing any damage that happened to him when he collapsed when the night guard entered the room.

“What happened out there?!” she shouts, he turned to face her with an equally confused look on his face.

“I don’t know, he was in tip top condition the last time I did an examination. I don’t know what caused his system to crash and for him to shut down the way he did.” he answers before returning his eyes down to continue examining his body.

“Well tonight was a disaster!” she lets out a groan, taking her cap off to tousle with her hair “I’ve been told that he needs to be put on reduced power, they said that it is a safety precaution so that something like what happened on stage won’t happen again.” he nods his head.

“If that is the correct action, then I will do so, Officer Vanessa.” she huffs as she watches him do his magic from outside the protective cylinder, watching as he pushed buttons, disconnecting and reconnecting wires before finishing and exiting out of the cylinder “I have finished, his power should deplete each time he is moving around for too long and he should shut down if he doesn’t power up in a recharge station.” she nods her head.

“Good, take him back to his room then go back to your own, got it?” 

“Got it.” she nods once more before leaving Parts and Services, he rubs his face as he stared down at the main face of the Fazebear Industry before shaking his head and picking him up once more to return him to his room. He places Freddy in the charging station within his room, staring at his resting face through the window of the station before turning and leaving for his own room. He used his tentacles to as a seat as Freddy’s diagnostics displayed themselves within [M/N]’s eyes, he was looking through all the data to see what was wrong with his friend and caused him to shut down in the middle of a show. He was perplexed as to how it happened because he was completely fine before the show, he showed no signs of a malfunction or anything of the sort, so he just didn’t understand as to why it happened. 

His eyes perked up slightly when something popped up in the corner of his eye, he waved his hand to dismiss the other things as he enhanced the anomaly. He was watching through the perspective of what Freddy saw through his eyes and there his face dawned a look of horror when he noticed that Freddy detected a threat within the crowd, but that wasn’t the threat that caused him to react the way he did, it was the fact that someone was trying to hack through Freddy’s AI, which was supposed to be impossible. He himself, along with the other three, were made so that it was not possible for anyone to hack through their system, but someone managed to get past their firewall.

“This is bad. This is very, very bad! I need to tell Vane--” he was cut off when he started to glitch out, his own AI was strong enough to resist the intruders hack but forced his system to shut down for it to be possible. His heavy body collapsed to the ground but as his vision started to fade, he saw the door from Parts and Services that led to his room opened up and someone come walking out, or more like hope out.

“Now, now. We can’t have our fun be spoiled before it even begins, now can we?” there, he saw a woman wearing a bunny outfit but the most disturbing part about it was the way the mask was made to look. A creepy smile stitched onto it as its eyes were a deep shade of red with dotted eyes, the woman beneath the mask giggled “Nighty night, octoman.”

WARNING!

ALERT!

DANGER DETECTED!

SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN...

[time skip: nearing 3:00AM]

[STARTING UP]

REBOOT...

LOADING OS...

SYSTEM INITIALIZATION... CHECKING EXOSKELETON... OK INITIALIZING SENSORS... OK INITIALIZING AI ENGINE... OK MEMORY STATUS... OK

ALL SYSTEMS... OK

ENTERING SAFE MODE

[M/N]’s systems started turning on, his eyes blinking before a light emitting from them to indicate that he was functional and operating once more. When his optical sensors were in working order, he looked side to side and was left in confusion when he saw that he was somewhere in Parts and Services, what confused him even more was the fact that it was nearly 3:00AM. He was sure that the last time he glanced at the time was when it was nearly midnight, his system had shut down for nearly three hours? Something like that would only happen when someone was trying to hack his mainframe, he was a very valuable animatronic due to the fact that he had the blueprints to the entire restaurant downloaded to his database along with the other animatronics, including ways to improve their AI’s and whatnots, so the fact that his system had forcibly shut down meant that someone was messing around with the animatronics mainframe.

“This isn’t good.” he whispered to himself, pushing himself to his feet as he scanned the area before speed walking down the hall “This is bad. This is really, really bad. I need to inform Officer Vanessa right away.” he was startled to see the amount of security bots roaming the halls, even more grossed out when he saw a couple endoskeletons were moving. Whatever happened in the past few hours must be due to the hacker who managed to bypass his firewalls and force him to shut down. He paused, however, when his eyes detected movement that wasn’t that of the security bots nor the endoskeletons, using his eyes to scan the entire hallway, he was surprised to see the information of a young child pop up.

What on earth was a child doing down in Parts and Service? Much less at three in the morning, why are they still at the pizzeria? He shook his head as he approached where the child was, he was being mindful of his steps because he didn’t want to frighten the already terrified young boy. He soon noticed that the boy was surrounded by multiple endoskeletons and a security bot was approaching him fast, he didn’t know what would happen if he were to get caught so he used his tentacles and moved them so they were attached to the ceiling above him, lifting his body off the ground and keeping him out of sight from the other bots. The young boy, Gregory, was taking deep breaths as he was trying to time each time the security bot would circle back to where he was hiding while also trying to keep an eye on the endoskeletons.

’This sucks. I just need to get back to where Freddy is and I can get the heck out of this spooky place.’ he shuddered when he had to briefly look away from the endoskeletons to see where the security bots were and when he glanced back, they moved a couple inches towards him ’Just one more time, then I can--’ his thoughts were cut off when he felt something grab him from above before yanking him up, he tries to let out a cry but was stopped when a hand was pressed to his mouth. Looking up, he was startled to see the face of [M/N] the Octopus holding him within his arms as his tentacle like hair held him above the ground and out of sight.

“What on earth is going on?” he muttered to himself, eyes locked onto the endoskeletons that were now frozen in place after loosing sight of the child. [M/N] let out a sigh before glancing down at the boy, he flinched when he noticed the terrified look on his face as he gripped onto [M/N]’s wrist tightly, tears threatening to fall down his face “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Please don’t cry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten you.” he said, voice hushed yet a bit loud from the panic of making the child tear up, he immediately took his hand away from his mouth as he held the boy in both arms, on wrapped under him while his other hand was pressed against his back.

“P-Please... I don’t want to die.” he whimpered out, [M/N] gasped once more as the tentacles that weren’t holding him up came forward to gently wipe away his tears.

“No, no! I’m not going to kill you. We animatronics are not programmed to harm a guest, much less a young child.” he reassured, he frowned when that didn’t calm him down. He looked around and once he spotted a room his tentacles moved so that he was by the door, they lowered him to the ground so he could enter it. Gregory looked up at [M/N] and noticed that he sat on the ground and had a soft melody play from out of his speakers, it was quiet enough that it wouldn’t attract attention from any wandering bots and soothing enough to calm his nerves “Have you calmed down now?” Gregory couldn’t help but giggle softly when he noticed that [M/N]’s tentacles rose up and acted as snakes, looking at him and waiting for a response.

“Y-Yeah, yeah I have.” [M/N] nods and gently rubs his back.

“I’m glad, but kid, what are you doing here so late? Where are your parents?” he noticed the boy flinch before shaking his parents.

“It doesn’t matter, I’m locked in here till 6:00AM and everything here is out to get me.” [M/N] raised an arm and pressed it against his metal chest plate.

“I’m not, I’m here to help you.” [M/N] noticed that the boy was skeptical, but he wasn’t completely wary of [M/N], he did save him the hassle of getting past the endoskeletons and security bots and he hadn’t killed him yet, just like Freddy “You might already know who I am, but I’m [M/N] the Octopus. Can I know your name?” he was still a little nervous, he sniffles as he wipes his face.

“My name is... Gregory.” [M/N] smiles softly as he nods his head.

“Gregory, what a wonderful name.” [M/N] nods his head once more before standing to his feet, continuing on holding Gregory in his arms “I don’t understand what’s going on, but I’ll make sure to get you wherever you need to go and make sure no harm comes your way. I promise you.” Gregory hesitantly nods his head, raising his arms to wrap around his neck.

“Okay, I trust you.”

“Good, good! Okay then, let’s go.” [M/N] offers him one last smile before turning towards the door, he peeks his head outside and noticed a couple endoskeletons down the hall that led to the main part of the Parts and Service area where the animatronics would be repaired or upgraded, he glanced down and noticed that that was the way that he needed to go, so he proceeded. Gregory let out a whoa when [M/N]’s tentacles lifted him off the ground once more and so they both avoided the unwanted attention, sure [M/N]’s body was pretty large and broad, but he was able to swerve around the bots easily but also pull Gregory close to his chest and his tentacles would pull him up so that his back was pressed against the ceiling when bots got a little to close to them.

“You make travelling much easier.” Gregory muttered, watching as [M/N] easily cut down the distance in comparison to Freddy “It’s much better than walking, honestly.” this caused the aquatic animatronic to chuckle.

“Is that so?” Gregory nods.

“Yeah. Freddy usually has me hide in his chest cavity, it’s pretty convenient, but this is much better.” this caused [M/N] to briefly sputter in his movements, he then looked down at him in confusion.

“He has you what?” he narrows his eyes when Gregory falls silent, glancing away and looking at everything but [M/N]’s eyes “Freddy is the last thing I would expect would do something so irresponsible, that compartment is only meant for oversized birthday cakes and piñatas. I’m surprised a young child can fit in there.”

“Well, I’m small.” [M/N] shook his head, one of his tentacles reaching down and poking at the side of his stomach.

“A little TOO small, for my liking.” Gregory only let out a nervous chuckle before falling silent, they soon travelled in a comfortable silence, avoiding all the bots roaming the halls before finally making it to their destination, but [M/N] was shocked once more at the sight “Freddy? Freddy!” he shouts out, he gently tosses Gregory up and has one of his tentacles wrap around the boy and hold him up as he rushed towards the protective cylinder.

“[M/N]? Is that you?” [M/N] gasped, hands pressed against the glass and saw that Freddy’s head was disconnected from his neck and the only thing keeping him from being decommissioned were the wires “Oh, thank heavens. I was wondering what happened to you, friend.” [M/N] shook his head.

“What happened to me doesn’t matter, what happened to you while I was shut down? And why the heck is there a kid here so late at night?” Freddy managed to move his eyes and let out a breath of relief at the sight of Gregory being held safely in one of [M/N]’s tentacles.

“Gregory! I am so glad that you are here, and alive!” 

“You’re ignoring my question, Freddy.” the bear let out a chuckle.

“I will gladly answer you, but I would most appreciate it if you would reattach my head.” [M/N] sighs once more, setting Gregory down before going over to the console and pressing buttons.

“Right.” Gregory knew that [M/N] was designed to fix anything that’s been broken, but it was still very cool to watch him continue to talk with Freddy, not even glancing down at the console as his fingers danced across screen ”The only thing that I know is that someone was trying to hack my mainframe, which caused my system to shut down. We must Vanessa of the intruder immediately.” he let out a grunt when Gregory grabbed one of his tentacles and yanked him backwards.

“No! We can’t tell her anything!” he sputters as he looked down at her.

“Why not? I assure you, she most definitely will help us.” he shakes his head once more.

“No! I don’t trust her, she’s out to get me like everyone else.” [M/N] sputtered when Gregory looked up at him, puppy dog eyes glistening with tears as his lip trembled “Please, don’t tell her.” Freddy looked over and saw [M/N]’s body trembling before he let out a deep exhale, shoulders slumping forward.

“Well, alright. I’ll trust your intuition, child.” Gregory gave him a tearful smile before jumping forward and embracing his leg, this caused both animatronics to smile fondly at Gregory. Said boy continued to hug his leg, one of his tentacles pressed against his back and soothingly rubbing it as [M/N] continued to work on Freddy. His tentacles held Gregory close as [M/N] entered the protective cylinder, making mistakes was not in his programming, but now he really must not make a mistake with Gregory at his side and the young boy refusing to leave his side out of fear.

“I don’t quite feel like myself, [M/N].”

“You’re fine.” [M/N] starts, pressing at the flashing buttons in the correct sequence when they lit up, allow them to reconnect the wires to Freddy’s head, he then takes a step back for the testing console to approach him to run diagnostics “I’ll have you feeling better in no time.” 

“I’m glad.” once he was finished running diagnostics, he exited the protective cylinder and looked over the console that was outside of the cylinder.

“Okay, buddy. How’s about you finish it off?” [M/N] offered, holding Gregory up so he could see the console screen.

“Um, it looks a little complicated.” he shook his head.

“No, the last bit is easy, I promise.” Gregory looks at the screen and true to his word, the last part was easy, all he had to do was press >[Finish Upgrade], and it’ll be done. [M/N] gave him a sheepish look when he noticed the child glance up at him, Gregory just shook his head before pressing enter.

“There’s so much tech stuff in here.” Gregory started, looking around in slight awe when [M/N] put him down in favor of entering the protective cylinder once more to help Freddy out “Is there anything I could use to stop the other bots?” the two animatronics look up in thought.

“Bright lights in the eyes cause us to briefly malfunction. I suppose a Fazerblaster or a Faz Cam could work.” [M/N] suggested, examining Freddy once more, to which the other kept reassuring that he was fine.

“Where do I get one?” Freddy was the first to answer.

“You can win a Fazerblaster in Fazer Blast. Faz Cams are often confiscated in Monty Golf, but you will need a party pass to open one of those attractions. Chica normally gives them out for birthdays. Check her green room in Rockstar Row, you can find one there.” Freddy explained, [M/N] then perked up as he pointed towards the back of the room.

“Use one of the service elevators at the back of the room. They go up to Rockstar Row. It looks like they are all out of order except for Roxy’s.” the two follow the young boy over to the back and watch as he looked at the doors.

“Hey Freddy, [M/N]! Check this out. Chica has some sort of special voice box, Roxy has new eyes, and Monty was given better claws. We have to get you those, Freddy! We could upgrade you!” [M/N] was slightly intrigued by the idea, but it was a little disturbing because in order to get those parts... Freddy seemed to have been reading his mind, because the way he answer.

“Gregory, those parts belong to my friends. I would never hurt them.”

“I would.” [M/N] said rather nonchalantly, this earned him a smack from Freddy and a laugh from Gregory, who then pouted.

“All night long, all they’ve done is try to hurt me.” he then crosses his arms, mumbling under his breath “They get what they deserve.” [M/N] takes a step backwards, watching Gregory climb into Freddy’s chest cavity before they both entered the elevator.

“You are not joining us, [M/N]?” the octopus shook his head.

“No, I will remain here so I can figure out a way to stop whoever is messing with the AI’s and the system, but if you call for me on your Faz Watch, I will not hesitate to come running to your aid. I will be there when you need me.” Freddy nods his head.

“I will see you when I see you, friend.” [M/N] nods and turns to leave but stopped when Freddy’s chest cavity opened up, he saw Gregory peek his head out before extended his close fist in his direction, this caused the bot to chuckle before kneeling down and bumping his fist.

“Stay safe, little guy.”

“You too.” 

Headcanons:

as stated multiple times, [m/n] was designed to fix any malfunctions that happened to any of the attractions or to the other animatronics and bots, so his model had special eyes that allowed him to scan anything and immediately find errors along with all the information.

and since he was a oceanic type animatronics, he was also water proof because his area had a mini water park and allowed young children to swim. 

he acts as the life guard as well as a swimming instructor to help any of the children who were keen on learning how to swim. he was an excellent swimmer and was fast/strong enough to swim up the water slides.

anyways-

[m/n]’s role towards gregory would be similar to that of a kind older brother or responsible uncle; he’ll leave the father figure for freddy.

[m/n] stays in parts and services to look for any clues as to why what was happening was happening in the first place.

when gregory calls for him, he would drop everything he’s doing and unlike freddy, he’s inconspicuous when he comes to gregory’s aid because he clings to the walls before lowering down to pick him and bring him out of harms way.

sometimes he frightens the leaving daylights out of gregory because he’s so quite in his movements the young boy doesn’t even hear him.

[m/n] and freddy make it a competition to go help gregory when he calls for either of them.

now then, back to the story plot;

when gregory comes back to parts and services with intentions to upgrade freddy with the parts he took from chica, roxy and monty, [m/n] will feel that unease resurface when he has to be the one to put the pieces onto freddy.

sure he didn’t see eye to eye with the other animatronics, but it was kind of hard that his friends were in pieces were wandering the pizzeria in absolute despair.

so, [m/n] brings it upon himself to leave parts and services to round up chica, roxy and monty and bring them back in order to fix them up and get rid of the thing that was corrupting their system and return them back to normal.

now, if [m/n]’s system was corrupted, he would be a mostly roaming around his own area or parts and services were he would try to find ways to prevent gregory from progressing further by hacking the system himself and lock doors.

his boss fight would be gregory using various consoles to hack and control [m/n]’s tentacles to eventually either pin him to the walls and have something crash into him or have them crush him to decommission him.

the broken down version of him would be his head at the verge of snapping off his body as his tentacles were used for mobility, since from his neck down, nothing was working.

Siblings pt. 2

word count: 28,395

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley + Steve Harrington x Female!Harrington!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic/Familial Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: flayed reader, angst, violence, blood, vulgar language, murder, character death

“Siblings” pt.1, pt.3

@eddiemunsonsmiddlefingers​ has a map of hawkins and I’m constantly using that to reference where shit is. it’s awfully helpful.

I wasn’t planning on making a part two to this story but I suddenly got an idea from a line I kept repeating in my head and thought “why the hell not” to the point I might make this a story.

so I was going to write the scene where el saw billy’s happiest memory but chose against it, since we all know what it is, I’m not going to bother and just write [f/n]’s.

might eventually make this a story on my wattpad account because I dove too deep into this.

I rushed the ending, it sucks but I needed to finish this to settle my mind.

that is all.

“You know? I’d probably find that downright hilarious if not for the fact that you’re dating my brother, Billy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Plus, that bitch is weird. There’s actually a word in the dictionary for what she’s doing.”

“And what might that be?”

“Grooming.”

[F/N] and Billy were having one of their late night hangouts at the Hideout, sitting at the bar drinking alcohol, not really shit faced yet but they were slowly getting there. Billy was in the midst of telling [F/N] the reoccurring times Karen Wheeler, mother of Nancy and Mike Wheeler, has been opening flirting with Billy. She remembered the first time Billy had told her about this, of course she was weirded out about it but she laughed that this grown ass married woman was flirting with a guy that was about two decades younger than her, basically the same age as her eldest daughter! She would’ve laughed again when he flirted back with her, just to get her off his ass, but now he and her brother were in a relationship. The four of them would never make their relationship public, never. They’ve simply stuck to being friends on the outside, but when they’re alone, they do all things a couple would do. Sometimes when they’re on a double date, people would always mistake Billy and [F/N] as a couple as well as Steve and Robin, mostly because each duo were always seen together. They took advantage of that, so whenever either Billy or Robin came over to the Harrington household, there was never bad air lingering around. So sometimes it would fuck [F/N] off when middle aged women would flirt with a minor, knowing that he was in a committed relationship with her! The people of Hawkins were so fucked in the head.

“Doesn’t she make you uncomfortable, Billy?” she asked out of concern, reaching forward to place a hand on his knee and squeezing it lightly “I won’t bring this up with Steve, but you know in this town, word travels fast. Besides, I don’t want him getting worried and getting the wrong idea.” Billy softly nods his head.

“I know. That pretty boy would probably lose his shit on me first, then go after that Wheeler.” they both look up in thought, trying to imagine the thought of Steve going apeshit on Nancy’s mother, they were almost tempted to tell him just to see it happen to the point that burst out into laughter “He is your brother, so if he’s anything like you, he’ll probably beat the shit out of her!” she throws her head back with a laugh.

“Hah! As much as I agree with that, he respects women now. He’d probably ask me to drag her out by her hair, to which I will gladly do it!” they laugh again before grabbing their drinks and raising it up “To Steve potentially losing his shit on Wheeler’s mum!” they clink drinks before proceeding to down it, when they finish their drinks Billy raised his empty bottle to the bartender.

“Two more, please!” since the two of them drove to the Hideout, and the fact they had things to do early in the morning, they couldn’t get totally hammered so after a few drinks they later stuck to drinking water to sober themselves up then continued chatting or peacefully listening to the music that the Hideout had or the few indie bands that performed that night. After a couple hours of having fun they finally decided to drag themselves out and back to their cars, however, they were both leaning on each other to help each other walk whilst laughing and giggling to themselves. Billy’s laughter echoed throughout the car park as he watched [F/N] collapse to the ground and nearly face plant into the side of her front bumper but managed to catch herself before she gave herself a bleeding nose and possibly a concussion “Will you be alright, Harrington?” she waves her hand to brush him off.

“Please, you’re just as shit faced as I am.” they start laughing again before settling in their cars, [F/N] rolls down her window to let the wind blow through her car after starting her car before briefly pausing when Billy flashed his lights at her, she raised a brow at him then narrowed her eyes when she saw him smirk at her “The fuck are you looking at me like that Hargrove?” his smirk only widens when he revved the engine of his Camaro.

“How’s about a little race? I wanna give my pretty boy a little smooch before going home.” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Gross, I don’t need to know that.” she hummed in thought before raising her finger “I’ll race yah after seeing Robin, alright? We’re passing her house, and I wanna see her if you’re gonna see my brother.” Billy shrugs his shoulder with a laugh, brushing his hair out of his face. 

“Alright, might wanna tell your girlie that you’re gonna lose after I smoke your ass back to your place.” she scoffed.

“Whatever.” they both laugh and finally pull out of the parking lot. Robin was currently laying on her back, head bobbing softly as she listened to the music coming from her headphones playing through her cassette player. [F/N] graciously made her a mixtape of songs that they both liked, she smiled as she remembered that memory fondly. Because of the wealth the Harrington name held, [F/N] would always buy her expensive gifts after hearing the type of lifestyle she had grown up in. As lovely as each gift was, Robin asked her for something sentimental instead of jewellery like necklaces and earrings and rings (though she does appreciate them and wears them on special occasions), Steve told her that [F/N] had been hauled up in her room ever since then and when she came to pick her up, [F/N] presented her the mixtape. She’s probably listened to the entire playlist on repeats so many times that she can remembered ever song in order, but she just can’t help it, she was so in love. 

*TAP*

*TAP*

“Hmm?” she hums out in confusion, just briefly hearing the sound of tapping when the song faded out. She pulled the headphones off her head and looked around in confusion, she got a little angry when she thought that it was her siblings fucking with her but stopped when the tapping was coming from her window. She pushed herself upright and a big smile appeared on her face when she saw [F/N], who was currently looking down and talking to someone before raising her head to look at Robin once more, wobbling back and forward “[F/N]?” she muttered softly in question before stumbling to her feet and rushing to the window, throwing it open to greet her girlfriend, only to wince at the stench of alcohol and cigarettes coming from her breath.

“Robin~” she cooed out with a shout, only to shush herself when Robin raised a finger to her lips while shaking her head so she in turn covered her mouth with her hands “Sorry, sorry, I just missed you.” Robin rolled her eyes.

“We saw each other a couple hours ago.” she giggled to herself when she saw a flash of confusion come across her face before she nodded her head.

“Oh, you’re right… but I wanted to see you again.” Robin shook her head once more with a soft smile, she then realised that there was quite a distance from the ground and her window so she leaned forward whilst looking down and had to slap a hand over her mouth to quiet herself when she saw that [F/N] perched herself on Billy’s shoulders, to which he was just as equally drunk and could barely stand straight “Oh yeah, and Billy is here as well.” he looks up and gives a grin, saluting Robin, to which she returns to gesture.

“Howdy.”  “Hi?” she chuckles and looks back at [F/N], to which she was grinning ear to ear as she leaned forward, closing the small gap between them and pressing a small peck on her lips “What’s with the kiss, [F/N]? Not that I don’t like it.” the slightly drunk girl smiled at her, winking softly.

“Thought I’d drop by and give you a goodnight kiss, why? Don’t want any?” Robin scoffed before reaching forward, grabbing [F/N] by her cheeks and pulling her into a kiss. Robin couldn’t help but let out a groan when she could taste the alcohol and cigarettes against her tongue, she briefly pulled away but was only brought into another kiss when [F/N] grabbed her by the back of her neck to keep her still. By the time they separate [F/N] was grinning ear to ear, Robin flustered up a little when she saw the left over lipstick from her lips smudge across [F/N]’s neck “I’ll see you in the morning, sweets?” Robin giggled, wrapping a strand of her hair around her finger and twirling it around.

“Mm hmm.” Robin and [F/N] were giggling at each other before [F/N] started falling backwards, she let out a startled yelp and looked down at Billy and saw he lost his footing and couldn’t hold her up anymore and was starting to fall backwards, to which she tried to grab Robin’s windowsill to save herself but it slipped right under her grasp and the two of them fell to the ground with a loud thud. Robin gasped and stuck her head out of the window to see if they were alright, shaking her head slightly with a tired smile on her face when she saw the two of them slightly dazed and groaning.

“Nice one, Billy…” she murmured under her breath, grunting softly when he slapped her leg.

“You’re fat.”

“You’re weak.” he scoffs at her before proceeding throw her legs off of him, they then pull themselves to their feet and start retreating back to their cars, [F/N] sparing Robin one last glance followed by a kiss then finally scurried into her car. Robin sighed dreamily when [F/N] waved her goodbye as she and Billy drove off, she closed her eyes then pushed herself back into her room where she collapsed into her bed, smiling like a dork when all she could think of was how lucky she was to finally have someone that loves her. Speaking of which, [F/N] and Billy were gunning it down the streets, they were going to have to deal with the police and Hopper later but they didn’t give a shit as they sped down the empty streets of Hawkins, laughing wildly. They took a slight detour just so their moment of fun could last a little longer, that’s where they found themselves side by side, the both of them trying their best to get ahead of the other.

“We should’ve made a bet, Harrington!” he shouts at her, she scoffs and looks back at him.

“Oh, yeah? Then how about the first one back to my house has to buy us both gas for our cars for three weeks!” he smirks at that.

“Then I hope your wallet can handle the expenses of gas because you’re on!” he lets out a laugh as he shifts gears while putting more pressure on the gas, she grimaced when she saw him get a head of her and was creating some distance. She knew his Camaro was significantly faster in comparison to her Mustang, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a few tricks up her sleeves to keep up with him. Billy looked into his rear view mirror and saw [F/N] hot on his tail, he licked his lips with a laugh as he turned his attention back to the road ahead of him, he had this in the ba— he lets out a shout when something flew into the windscreen. [F/N] let out a confused noise when she saw Billy swerving around but when she saw that she was still speeding towards him, evidently going to crash into him, she lets out a shout and slammed on the breaks and quickly swerved out of the way before she could hit Billy. She managed to get control of her car as it comes to a halt, she was breathing heavily at what happened before remembering about Billy.

“Oh my god, Billy!” she shouts, jumping out of her car and running over to see if he was alright “Billy! Shit!” she runs over to his car and winced at the state of it, she moves over to the drivers side and opened the door.

“Piece of shit…” she heard him groan out.

“Are you okay, Billy?” he sucked in a breath, pushing himself back into his seat then raised a hand to press against his forehead, wincing when his hand touched his bleeding forehead “Shit, you’re bleeding.” he scoffs at her.

“No shit.” she frowns at him, reaching forward to cup his face and make him look at her. 

“God, I hope you don’t have a concussion.” he smacks her hands off of him then gestures for her to move, she does so but ultimately helps him out of the car.

“Just great, this is just fucking great.” he mutters to himself as he looks at the state of his Camaro, she in turn approached the front of his car and saw the cracked windscreen, she furrowed her brows in confusion and mild disgust when she saw some sort of slime on the windscreen where it was cracked. She reached forward and gently touched it, only to regret it as she shudder at the feeling, she wiped it off against her pants “Fuck, this is going to cost a fucking fortune to repair.” Billy threads his fingers through his hair, at the verge of yanking them out of his scalp but calmed down slightly when [F/N] placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, Hargrove. I’ll help pay for it… with my parents money.” he scoffs, shoving her back softly to sit on the hood of his car.

“I don’t think they’ll appreciate the loss of money in their account.” she scoffs right back at him, sitting down beside him and offering him a cigarette, to which he graciously took and let her light it, enjoying the feeling of the nicotine filling his lungs then letting it all out.

“Please, I’ll be lucky if they notice a couple grand is missing.” the two of them start smoking away, she sniffles a little as she let the cigarette hang loosely by her lips “Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea on our part. We’re drunk, possibly high and extremely tired.” Billy rolls his eyes, taking the cigarette from his lips and held it in between his fingers.

“Yeah, but we’re both competitive and like to win.” she pursed her lips.

“True.” they fist bump each other “Anyways, what hit your car? A bird?” he shrugs his shoulders.

“Not sure, was going way too fast to get a glimpse of what it was.” she looked back at where they were previously then looked around at their surroundings, she suddenly felt a chill run down her back as the abandoned steel works factory loomed over them, she swallows thickly then turned back to Billy and gestured to her car.

“How’s about we get the fuck out of here? This place is giving me the heebie jeebies. I’ll be even more generous as to let you stay at our place while someone looks over your car, I personally know a good mechanic that can get your baby whipped back up into shape in no time.” he looked liked he was considering that option, he then winces when she cupped his face once more and looked at his bleeding forehead “But after we take care of this, I don’t want Stevie getting worried about this.” he nods his head.

“Agreed… we’re not telling him about this, right?”

“Are you crazy? Fuck no.” they both stand up but whipped their heads in the direction they heard something shuffle.

“Who’s there?!” Billy shouts, neither get a reply “I said who’s there?!” [F/N] shook her head, noticing that Billy was getting paranoid. Before she could say anything Billy’s feet were suddenly swept out from under him, he all but dropped to the ground before he was being dragged away. He desperately clawed at the ground to stop himself but there just wasn’t anything to cling onto, this continued as he was dragged through the factory and as he was going to be pulled down into the lower level of the factory he managed to grab a hold of the railing of the stairs. He clung onto it desperately, panic coursing throughout his body when he could feel his grip slowly slipping and when it did he expected to be dragged down the staircase but [F/N] caught him.

“I… got you!” she strains out, her grip on him deathly tight as she tried to pull him back but her feet where being dragged forward. She tries to dig the heels of her feet into the ground to keep herself from moving any further, their sweaty hands weren’t helping their predicament because she did lose her hold on his left hand but she quickly grabbed the railing. All this was for naught when something slithered around her ankle and yanked her, she fell to the ground with a thud with Billy on top of her before they were both dragged down the stairs into basement. The moment the two of them came face to face with this weird goopy looking thing they couldn’t help but scream at the top of their lungs as it roared at them, holding each other right as it loomed over them. The next few moments were silent, just the sound of chains swaying in the soft wind followed by quiet rumbling, this moment was interrupted when both Billy and [F/N] managed to pull themselves out of the basement. [F/N] starts pushing Billy and herself away but they both stumble to the ground, pushing themselves back as they spare a glance back at the entrance to the basement and shudder when they hear a roar come from that thing. Billy pulls himself onto his feet first and grabs [F/N] by the back of her jacket to yank her to her feet, she’s holding onto his arm as they’re scrambling out of the factory and rushing to their respective cars. They don’t waste a second to drive the fuck out of there, Billy driving ahead of [F/N] but he pulls to the side when he saw a phone booth, neither of them turn their cars off as they jump out but Billy makes it into the phone booth to make the call while [F/N] stood outside, breathing heavily as she kept looking back towards the direction they came from.

”911, what’s your emergency?” Billy goes to speak but the words got caught in his throat, I mean, how could it not? What the fuck was he supposed to say? Hey, my friend and I got in a car accident because we were drunk then we found this weird fucking monster, send help right away please! The two of them started to panic when the light in the phone booth started flickering as their surroundings changed ”Is someone there? Hello—” the voice cut off when the light completely turned off, Billy hangs up the phone as he walks out of the phone booth. He hears a noise and starts walking towards it, flinching slightly when he felt something so he glanced down and saw [F/N] just as equally terrified as he was holding onto his arm and hand. He places his free hand on her shoulder then the two of them walked towards the fog where they heard footsteps coming towards them.

“What do you want?” Billy manages to croak out, voice shaky and not sounding like his usual self “Hey, I said what do you want?!” he was desperate for an answer but the two of them started to panic again when they saw a group of people coming towards them. Red lightning struck as the group of people came to a halt, instead two people from the crowd came walking towards them and they both equally froze when their vision cleared up and they were staring right back at themselves.

[time skip: the next day]

Steve stood in front of his full body mirror as he does his hair up, something he always does in the morning though it was usually done for naught because of that stupid little hat he has to wear that was apart of the uniform that was just as stupid. He sets his hairspray on his desk, looking at his iconic hair and touching it up for the nth time of that morning before nodding his head when he was satisfied with how it looked. With everything ready he picked up his keys and tucked them into his pocket then walked out of his bedroom with an extra skip on his step in his step, things were finally looking up for him that he couldn’t not be happy. His sister was home for the summer break, he’s actually enjoying work (kind of), he’s made friends with the girl at said work, his sister is dating said girl while he himself has gotten himself into a relationship that first started off rocky but evidently he fell in love with him. He wasn’t expecting to see his sister as he walked past her room, she was always gone in the morning to go pick up Robin, but he halted at her door when he saw the state she was in.

“[F/N]…?” he muttered softly, pushing open her door that was left open just a bit and his eyes widened when he saw her. She was sitting hunched over at the edge of her bed, elbows planted on her knees as her head rested on her interlocked fingers. She was panting heavily while sweating profusely, she looked downright horrible “Oh my god, [F/N]! Are you okay?” he exclaims as he rushed over to her side, kneeling down to try and get a look at her face and saw her face was pale while her [E/C] eyes were dull from their usual shine.

“Steve…” she weakly breathed out, he moved his hands to gently place a hand on her forehead and quickly withdrew it when he felt a burning sensation under his fingertips.

“You’re burning up, [F/N]!” he shouts then proceeds to push her onto her back so that she was lying on her bed but she shook her head, weakly pushing him back so she could get up.

“No, no… I need to get Robin, I promised to get her.” she weakly hits at his chest, letting out a whine when he grabbed her by her wrists to stop her futile attempts to get him off and gently lays her down on the bed.

“I’ll get her, okay? I think she’ll understand why you couldn’t get her if I tell her that you’re sick, alright? You’ll only worry her if you show up as the mess you are right now, besides, I don’t think you can drive in the state you’re in.” she lets out a groan, slapping her hands onto her face and dragging them down “I’ll open the window so it can help you can cool down, if there isn’t anything in the cabinets I’ll grab some shit from the pharmacy on my way back from work. Don’t do anything that’ll make you feel any worse than you already are.” she chuckles weakly, placing a hand on her chest and looking over at Steve.

“Since when were you the one… to look after me?” he just shook his head, he walks into her bathroom then later came out with a wet cloth to wipe away the sweat on her forehead then placed another wet and cold cloth on her forehead to help cool her down.

“Since my sister was the one that got fucked up in my stead.” she scoffed then hummed when she felt Steve cup her cheek, she leaned into his touch but winced when it got too hot for her liking and jerked away, he sighed sadly and retracted his hand from her “I’ll try and get off early so I can take care of you, alright? Don’t do anything to drastic while I’m gone.” she waves her hand.

“No promises…” she pants out as her hand dropped back down onto her chest, he sighs softly then knelt down to press a kiss to her temple then retreated out of her room to leave for work. Hours go by but not a single thing changed, she only felt worse and worse as she tried to calm her breathing down, tried to stop herself from sweating so much, but the summer heat was just becoming to unbearable. She closed her eyes as she tried breathing through her nose, a horrible mistake on her part when the memory of the night before came flooding back. Her fingers dug into her shirt when the flashing images of those rats scattering along the floor reappeared, being held down by some fucking monster as it forced something into her body. Her eyes snapped opened as she let out a scream, shooting up straight as she continued to pant, she takes the cloth off her head and throws it to the ground as she weakly makes her way to her bathroom. She leans her weight into the sink, her hands gripping onto the sink as her head hung loosely in front of her. She managed to lift her head to stare at her reflection, her vision slowly clearing up so she can get a good look at her reflection but then another flashback from last night appeared before her.

”What do you want…?” she managed to whimper out, her usual personality nowhere to be seen as she leaned closer into Billy’s side, who held onto her tightly but neither one of them could tear their eyes away from their doppelgängers.

”To build.” both doppelgängers said in unison, they even sound like them but their voices were slightly disoriented with a deep, echoing feeling to it. Billy and [F/N] manage to tear their eyes away from them to look at each other, nothing but confusion were seen on their faces ”I want you to build.”

“To build what?” Billy asks.

”What you see.” [F/N] shakes her head.

“I-I… I don’t understand.” they both flinch backwards when that same lightning struck and they were suddenly back on the side of the road, [F/N] all but collapses to her knees as she threads her fingers through her hair, her shoulders trembling at the terror the two of them witnessed. Billy was still standing as he looked around for wherever they could have gone, shaking his head.

“I don’t understand!”

“Ah!” she screamed at her reflection before proceeding to punch it, not bothering to remove her fist when the shattered glass fell into the sink and cut her hand. When her breathing calmed down she pulled her fist and let her trembling hand hang by her side, she took deep breaths through her nose before turning her head to the side “I need to talk to Billy…” she muttered softly then quickly left the bathroom, putting on her shoes and grabbing a jacket that had her keys in her pockets. The drive to the Hawkins community pool felt like a nightmare, her windows were all the way down and her AC was blasting to cool down her overheating body, but what freaked her out was when she was stopped at a red light. She perched her arm on the open window as her finger nervously tapped against the stirring wheel, she hissed in pain when she felt like she was being burn so she glanced down at her hand and furrowed her brows when she saw a burn mark forming on the back of her hand, she immediately pulls her arm back into the car. She pulls up to the pool and quickly hops out of her car, not bothering to lock it up and just simply slams the door shut and rushes into the pool. She spots Billy just as disoriented as she is, she didn’t waste any time to whistle to catch his attention, when his head shot up and looked for her, he managed to spot her waving her hand.

“[F/N]…?” he mumbles in confusion, he pushes himself up when he saw her waving him over, mouthing that they needed to talk. He all but jumps out of his seat and rushes over to her as fast as he could, stumbling with his footing but he managed to reach her in the end, grabbing her by her wrist and dragging her into the changing rooms, the showers specifically “What are you doing here?” she takes a shaky breath, holding her arms and digging her fingers into her jacket.

“Are we not going to talk about last night?” she asked, she inhales sharply as she runs her hands over her face “Have you been seeing things? Hearing things? I feel like I’m losing my mind…” she croaks out, she lets out a yelp when he grabbed her wrist again to look at the burn on her hand.

“What happened here?” her eyes trailed down his arm and noticed a similar looking burn on his elbow, they both started feeling hot again, [F/N] tears her jacket off but that isn’t enough and so Billy shoves her into the shower and turns on the cold water. They both silently soak in the water but start to get distracted when the pain in their burns starts aching, they’re both reaching for their wounds and grimace when they could hear something moving beneath their skin, the moment their hands grazed against the wound a flash of a monster appeared in their heads followed by high pitched screeching. They both fall to the ground, clutching their heads in agonising pain, pressing their heads into the tiled walls to try and lessen the pain but nothing was working, they were yelling in pain but it soon came to a halt when they heard a voice.

“Billy…?” [F/N] couldn’t recognise it, the two of them managed to push themselves back to lean against the wall behind them as they watched the girl kneel down in front of them “Billy. Take me to him.” they both stare at her in confusion.

“What?” they mutter.

“I said are you hurt?” she then looked in between the both of them as they continued to stare at her “What’s going on? I heard screaming. Should I call an ambulance?” she asked out of genuine concern, she then slowly backed away when she noticed the look of pain and confusion disappear and was replaced with one of malice. She lets out a scream when [F/N] shoots towards her, her hand slamming against her mouth to muffle her screams of terror whilst her other hand held both her wrists in an iron grip.

“I’m so sorry about this.” she whispers, she then pulls her up then slammed the back of her head against the ground to knock her unconscious. Both herself and Billy stand up and stare down at the unconscious girl then looked at each other and nodded.

[time skip: starcourt mall, scoops ahoy]

Robin felt a little deflated that entire day, first she wasn’t able to see [F/N] and Steve was the one to pick her up in her stead. She was confused when the younger Harrington pulled up to her house and so she obviously asked where her girlfriend was, the answer she got was a worried looking Steve telling her how awful [F/N] was and that she was very sick to the point she could barely move. Sure, she was worried for her girlfriend and completely understood why she couldn’t come get her, but she just couldn’t understand how she got sick. Last night she looked completely fine, only being a little tipsy but other than that, she was fine. Robin now found herself serving free samples to some little girl that was slowly getting on her last nerve, ready to pop a nerve, but then the sight of [H/C] hair her eyes.

“[F/N]?” she mumbled under her breath, wasn’t she supposed to be lying down in her bed at home? She shook her head and turned towards the window into the back room, throwing it open to get Steve and his little friend Dustin’s attention “Hey, Harrington! Man the counter, will you? I need to go check something out!” she shouts, choosing to ignore his shouts of protest as she abandons the counter and rushes out of the store, pushing past people to check if who she saw was actually her girlfriend. Her face lights up when she heard her familiar laughter so she turned the corner and was going to greet her but froze up at what she saw, there she saw [F/N] talking with some guy as he openly flirted and joked with and she was laughing at it.

“That is the dumbest pick up line I’ve ever heard, you dork.” he scoffs, bumping his shoulder against hers.

“But it made you smile, didn’t it?” she then shoved him back, not being able to hide the big smile on her face.

“Barely.” her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw [F/N] grab the guy by the collar of his jacket and pull him back, the two of them stumbling out of view. Robin grits her teeth and rushes over to where the two disappeared, she rounded the corner but was left flabbergasted when she saw neither of them, they just simply vanished. Maybe she was just seeing things, maybe she was just desperate to see [F/N] that she conjured her up, but why the hell was she shamelessly flirting with some random fucker? The end of the night came sooner than later, from seeing her girlfriend with some guy to helping her brother and some random child with a Russian translation, she was currently sitting in Steve’s passenger seat as he drove them to his house.

“Is she really sick?” Steve let out a dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes.

“Yes! How many times do I have to tell you, Robin? What you saw was definitely not [F/N]. For one, she’d never flirt with a guy. Two, she’d never let a guy flirt with her, because she’d either fight them or throw up.” that option made her chuckle, that sounded like her “My sister isn’t the type of person to cheat, okay? She actually beat that into me, so I highly doubt she would ever do something so frivolous.” Robin sighed, the back of her head hitting the car seat.

“I know… I think I’m just getting paranoid.” she jolts in her seat when Steve placed his hand on her shoulder, she looked at him and saw him giving her a reassuring look.

“Robin, if my sister does anything and says anything hurtful to you, you’ll tell me right?” he inhales through his nose and looks back towards the road “She doesn’t do or say things without meaning it. When she said she was in love with you, she meant it. When she said she wanted to be with me, she meant it. So if she somehow says she doesn’t want to be with you anymore… she’ll say it to you straight and she won’t do it behind your back, she isn’t like that. She isn’t one for hiding her feelings and she isn’t afraid to voice her opinions, rarely have I ever seen her bottle up her emotions. I don’t see any reason why she would ever go behind your back, but if she does anything to you that just doesn’t seem right, tell me. I’ll make sure to talk to her, so don’t worry about anything, alright?” she couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed, Steve smiled softly when Robin tearfully nodded her head.

“Alright, thank you.”

“No problem.” Steve then lets out a laugh when he pulled up to their house, gesturing to the driveway “Look at that, Robin! Her car is here.” Robin shrugs, sure, but it doesn’t cross out the possibility that she still left the house. Entering the Harrington household, Steve flips on the hallway lights and shuffles out of his shoes, letting out a slight grunt when Robin shoved past him to rush up the stairs to get to [F/N]. Steve told her that her condition was horrible, that she was sweating profusely and couldn’t stop her body from trembling, going so far as she couldn’t control her breathing. She needed to see this for herself, she needed to see how sick her girlfriend was to calm her mind of the image of her perfectly healthy girlfriend that she saw at the mall with some gu—

“S-Stevie…? Is that you?” Robin jerked backwards a little shocked after throwing the door open, there in the dark room with the hallway light to illuminate the room, was her girlfriend laying on her back whilst clutching her chest, looking just as terrible as Steve described “Stevie…?” she called out once more, she nearly tripped over her feet when she finally managed to move.

“N-No, [F/N], it’s me.” she saw [F/N] perk up at the sound of her voice and so turned her head towards her, smiling weakly when her eyes set on girlfriend.

“Robin…” she cooed, Robin smiled softly and knelt down, placing a hand on her forehead and let her thumb caress her skin “You’re here… why?” they hear Steve clear his throat, he decides not to turn on the light as he took a spot on the other side of Robin, standing over his sick sister who smiled at him.

“She wanted to see you, asking me after our shift to bring her here to check up on you.” Steve decided it would be for the best to keep Robin’s actual intentions a secret from his sister, it was the better option because that reason made [F/N] smile at the both of them.

“Y’all are saps…” she mumbled out, she then reached for Robin and gently tapped her shoulder “I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up this morning, I feel so awful for leaving you hanging like that.” Robin shook her head, taking her hand into here and squeezing.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m just glad that your brother came and got me, would have sucked if I have to bike instead.” they both giggle at that, Steve smiled at his sister and her girlfriend, not understanding where Robin ever got the misunderstanding of [F/N] ever betraying her in the worst way. He then pulled a face when he realised why and swore in his head to never voice that stupid thought of his, he reached forward and placed his hand on [F/N]’s cheek and she leaned into his subtle touch.

“Your fever seems to have calmed down a little, did you take some tylenol?” she nods softly.

“Mm, I found some in my cabinet.”

“Alright, that’s good.” Steve has Robin help him with taking care of [F/N] to the best of their abilities, staying with her until she was drifting off to sleep, and when she finally did he pulled her out of the room and closed the door behind them “See? What did I tell you? She never left the house, Robin.” she nods her head, holding her arms.

“I know, I know. I just can’t help but feel insecure, you know? She’s totally out of my league, and yet she wants to be in a relationship with me! A nobody, a weirdo that’s apart of band and is employed in an ice cream shop.” Steve scoffs at that, placing his hands on his hips.

“That’s exactly what she likes about you, Robin. She finds it cool that you can play instruments.” she rolled her eyes bashfully, spinning one of her rings around with her thumb.

“Stop it.” Robin takes on last peek at [F/N] before finally leaving with Steve so he can take her home, it didn’t take long for the younger Harrington to return home nor did it take long for him to fall into a deep sleep. The moment silence fell upon the Harrington household [F/N] eyes shot open and she no longer looked sick anymore, she sat up and threw the covers off her body to reveal the clothes she was wearing were never changed. She shuffles out of her bed and walks over to her locked bathroom, pushing the door open to find the same boy Robin saw her with submerged in cold icy water. [F/N] did indeed see Robin in the corner of her eye when she was at the Starcourt Mall, that was the reason why she pulled that boy into empty hallway but she pulled him into an empty room before Robin could see them and proceeded to choke him out with little to no effort. 

She now found herself back at the abandoned steel works factory, exiting her car, she lifted her head to see Billy was there as well. Neither said a word to the other, just silently moving to the trunks of their cars and opening them up, finding their tied up victims unconscious, Billy lifts Heather into his arms while [F/N] throws the guy over her shoulder and the two of them walk side by side back down into the basement where it all started. Settling the two down, they hover over their unconscious bodies that slowly started regaining consciousness. Of course the two of them were unaware of the situation they were, blinking their eyes as they looked around in confusion, their eyes met and they were both confused when they saw their mouths were duck taped shut while their hands and feet were bound. Panic started to arise as they tried to free themselves, Heather letting out whimpers as she tried to shake free while the guy was screaming under the tape, they were both silenced when Billy grabbed Heather by her shoulders while [F/N] grabbed the other guy by his face and held his jaw in a tight hold.

“Don’t be afraid.” they said in an emotionless tone, both victims ceased their muffled cries and movements “It’ll all be over soon. Just stay very still.” they then remove the tape from their mouths before finally pulling away and stepping back, standing together as the same monster that did something to them crawled out of the shadows towards its latest victims, snarling at them as they screamed in terror. 

Billy and [F/N] could do nothing but watch.

[time skip: two days later]

The two of them continued to collect more and more victims for the monster to turn into mindless zombies, sometimes almost getting caught by their respective siblings, but they always managed to play it off. [F/N] remembered bringing a girl home she met in the middle of town, she recognised her as an old classmate friend and said how she wanted to reconnect. The girl was helpless against the mind controlled girl, struggling under her iron grip as she ties her hands up but was interrupted when the front door to the house was opened and in came walking Steve. He enters the kitchen and there he found his now healthy sister by the counter with an innocent smile on her face, waving her hand to greet him on his return home.  “Anything interesting happen today, [F/N]?” she only shrugged her shoulders.

“Same old, same old.” he was satisfied with the answer and ventures upstairs to his room, unaware of the whimpering girl under the counter wanting to cry out for him to save her from his crazy sister but could only whimper silently when [F/N]’s fingers dug into the meat of her face whenever she felt her struggle. She was now hauling her down into the basement of the factory, she hummed softly when she saw Billy and Heather already down there with two victims of their own “You’ve been busy, huh?” she mused, Billy glanced up at her and saw the girl over her shoulder.

“So have you.” 

[F/N] now found herself sane and sitting in her car, inhaling and exhaling softly as she watched the unknowing people walk by her, not knowing that she was picking out her latest few victims to bring to the monster. A pinch of her sanity was clinging to the back of her mind, she was already losing her mind because she could do nothing but watch her body go around kidnapping people and offering them up to this monster to do who knows what. She takes a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair before her eyes settled on a group of girls, she remembered one of them as a girl she hooked up with a few times while they were still in high school, this could be an easy catch because the other girl still had some lingering feelings for her. She rolls her neck, ready to do what she’s been doing for the past few days but her body suddenly fought against it. There were two fights going on in her mind right now, one was sweet talking this one time fling into bringing her and her friends back home to have some fun, possibly get them wasted out of their minds then bring them back to the factory, but the other was against it. This last piece of her sanity was fighting against that, she didn’t want to flirt with this girl, she didn’t want to tell her words that were rightfully reserved for her girlfriend. She lets out a groan, aching pain throbbing in her head as she tried taking control of her mind but ultimately lost when the pain became to unbearable.

“Don’t make this harder for you than it already is…” she muttered to herself, her voice not sounding like her own. Flicking down her sunglasses, she pulls at the collar of her jacket before finally opening the door to her car just as the girls were walking past her car. This obviously caught their attention, they were already checking out the ridiculously nice car but the moment [F/N] stepped out of the car the girl she hooked up with couldn’t help but freeze up when she saw her long time crush. [F/N] pretended to pay them no mind, throwing her car door shut and locked it, walking past the group of girls and as she walked further away, she stopped when the girl called out to her.

“H-Hey, [F/N]!” her friends snickered at how shaky her voice was as she stuttered over her words, she cursed at them but straightened up when [F/N] turned her head over her shoulder to look at the group.

“Yes?” she swallowed thickly, taking a step forward as she clutched onto the straps of her hand bag.

“D-Do you— do you remember me, by any chance?” her face flushed up when she tilted her head down, her sunglasses slipping down the bridge of her nose so she could see past the tinted lenses and at the girl in question “We were in the same chemistry class? We sat together and did a few projects together?” she was really hoping that [F/N] would remember, she took a step forward as she turned around fully, raising her hand to grab the frames of her glasses and pulled them down as she looked her up and down.

“Chemistry…?” she muttered to herself, looking up in thought then smirked down at her “Right, you’re— you’re Veronica, right? Veronica Gibbons?” her face lights up immensely because [F/N] Harrington remembered her, she actually remembered her! She enthusiastically nodded her head, reaching forward to grab her hand.

“Yes! I’m so happy you remember me.” her friends were giggling from behind her, knowing just how big of a crush she had on the female Harrington, also remembering how much she cried when she left Hawkins to study in a different state, but now she’s back as she has a chance to be with her. She then tilted her head when [F/N] pouted softly, taking off her glasses then biting the end of one of the frames.

“Actually, I’m still having a little trouble remembering, think you can help jog my memory up?” the group of girls giggled at the suggestion, Veronica turned back towards them and saw them gushing at her and giving her the thumbs up, gesturing for her to shoot her shot with [F/N].

“S-Sure.” 

Robin felt like she accomplished a mission. You could really do a lot with just twenty bucks, she exits the post office and stuffed the entire layout of the Starcourt Mall into her bag and jogs over to where she parked her bike, only slowing in pace when she heard soft giggling. Turning to see what the laughter was all about, she saw a group of girls gushing about how lucky their friend was, she thought nothing of it until the name “Harrington” left their lips. She then glanced over at the parked Mustang and immediately recognised it as [F/N]’s car, she then noticed that they kept glancing back towards the little alleyway and her insecurities started getting the best of her again. The name “Veronica Gibbons” left their loose lips and more thoughts started circulating in her head, she remembered that girl. She was definitely one of the best looking students during her year at Hawkins High School, she was that iconic popular girl that did cheerleading, was beautiful, smart and was wanted by the entirety of the male population. But there was a rumour that she was into girls, that she was into the particular Harrington that was untouchable, a heartbreaker who’s heart would never beat for anyone but her brother.

She didn’t hesitate to drop her bag on the ground and rush over to the alleyway, turning the corner and her heart stopped when she saw it. Veronica was pushing [F/N] back against the wall, her hands tightly gripping onto [F/N]’s biceps as she pressed her lips against her own. [F/N] didn’t bother reciprocating the loveless kiss, just let the shorter one of the two take the lead as she desperately kissed her. She tried not to think about it, she tried so hard not to think how awful she feels for playing with this girls feelings just because she couldn’t control her own body, she didn’t want to think about how much this was going to hurt Robin, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Veronica pulled away and gave [F/N] a sheepish smile, flushing up when she noticed that her lipstick smeared onto her lips, she turns away to avoid her intense gaze but a gasp left her lips when she noticed a figure at the end of the alleyway.

“[F/N]…?” her heart dropped into her stomach, visible fear in her eyes that were hidden under the tinted lenses of her sunglasses. Robin gritted her teeth when she saw Veronica pushed herself off of [F/N], clearing her throat and fixing herself up, excusing herself from the heartbroken Robin as she tearfully gazed at [F/N], who had yet to acknowledge her existence “[F/N], please… tell me that what I saw didn’t really happen.” [F/N] just let out a sigh, crossing her arms and leaned against the brick wall behind her, finally sparing Robin a glance that just wasn’t kind.

“What’s there to talk about?” Robin’s hand clenched into a tight fist, whoever this person was, it wasn’t her [F/N]. Her loving and sweet [F/N] who’d give her the world, who would fight the world just to see her happy, whoever this imposter was, she hated their guts for what they’ve done with her girlfriend. She marches over to her and stood in front of her, glaring up at her with a tearful gaze and saw that [F/N] had an indifferent expression on her face, like she didn’t care that she just got caught “You seem upset, little birdie.” she cooed out, Robin nearly keened at the nickname, any other time she would turn red, but right now she was filled with anger and anguish.

“Is this just a joke, [F/N]? Are you not going to acknowledge the fact that I just caught you kissing another girl, or the fact that you let that girl kiss you despite already being in a relationship with me?! Is she another relative of yours you and Steve forgot to bring up? If that’s the case, that’s really fucking weird.” Robin turns away, running a hand through her hair than back at her “I thought you loved me, [F/N]. I thought you said you wanted to be with me, but as of lately, I feel like you’ve become an entirely different person. Ever since that night, I haven’t seen a trace of the girl that said she was in love with me. What the fuck has happened to you, [F/N]!” Robin continued to rant and rave at the betrayal and [F/N] just took it, because another war was raging on in her head.

Take her.

Not her.

Bring her.

Ignore her.

Kill her. 

Spare her.

[F/N]’s fingers clawed at the wall behind her, her nails digging into the bricks to the point they were being crushed under her hold. Her teeth were biting down so hard on her lips to the point they were bleeding, she was trying to distract herself from the grotesque thought of bringing one of the few people that she loves to that fucking thing. She was trying so hard the past two days to avoid Steve and Robin, she was trying so hard to limit her time with those two because if she was with them for more than a couple minutes then she would lose all control of her body and she would hurt them. That was the last thing that she wanted, she didn’t want to hurt them, she didn’t want them to die all because she made one stupid decision. She said nothing as Robin continued to question what their relationship has come to after two days of her acting off, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around Robin and tell her everything, tell her that everything is going to be okay and that kiss with Veronica whatever meant nothing to her. But she knew the moment her arms were around her, there was no letting go of her, and not for a good reason either. She wanted to do something to keep Robin away, give her a reason to avoid her, to never see her again.

“You’re making me think that everything about our relationship was for nothing!” she shouts, tears now running down her face, oh how she wanted to wipe those tears away but she didn’t want to touch her with the hands that have been the cause of people losing their minds and possibly their lives “Was there absolutely nothing, nothing special about our relationship?” Robin stood their panting in front of [F/N], the girl silently looking down at her.

“… are you done?” she flinched back at the harsh words.

“Wha—”

“Was anything in our relationship special? Wow, you were really deep in that delusional fantasy of yours, huh? Well, let me tell you something, Buckley.” she harshly jabs her finger into Robin’s chest, causing her to stagger backwards as each jab got harsher and harsher at each step she took “Your love for me was nice, it was, but it’s gotten boring. There’s nothing about you that excites me anymore, so yeah, maybe our relationship was for nothing.”

“[F-F/N]…” she lets out a whimper when her back was no pressed against the opposite wall, [F/N] looming over her with a dark look on her face.

“There is no us, not anymore. I don’t need you.” [F/N] makes sure to grab her by the jaw, lifting her up off the ground as she glared down at her “You mean nothing to me.” Robin lets out a whimper when she felt her nails digging into her skin, she spares her a glance through her teary eyes and when she looked into [F/N]’s eyes, there was no warmth but dull and empty eyes staring right back at her. She let out a gasp when [F/N] dropped her, letting her collapse to the ground and grovel at her feet. She turned on her heel and started walking away, ignoring how much she wanted to stop and apologise to Robin, how this isn’t what she wanted but this was the hill she was going to die on if it meant that Robin was safe from her ”And Buckley, don’t even think about telling Stevie about this, not that he’ll even be on your side in the first place. I’m his sister, he loves me, and you? You’re nothing but a coworker he has to put up with.” she didn’t even bother looking back at Robin when she finally left the alleyway, leaving Robin to wallow up with a broken heart as she cried out in anguish.

“[F/N]?” she let out a hum, turning towards Veronica who now sat in her passenger seat while her friends were excitingly sitting in the back “Are you alright?”  “Why wouldn’t I be, sweetheart?” she flushed at the pet name, she points at her face.

“You’re crying…” her eyes widened softly at that, glancing down at her face to see a single tear running down her cheek, she chuckles softly at that and wipes it away with her thumb.

“Just a little dust that got in my eye, nothing to worry about.”

Hours go by and night has enveloped Hawkins, to which [F/N] was currently loading the drunk, unconscious and tied up girls into her car once more. Getting them completely intoxicated took no trouble whatsoever, they were more than happy to get wasted with the more popular Harrington. [F/N] herself was drinking away her sorrows after breaking up with Robin, wanting nothing more then to numb the pain and forget that look of pain and betrayal on Robin’s face, but it’ll forever be burned into the back of her mind. She lets out an exhausted sigh after loading the last of the girls into the backseat, rolling her shoulders after walking back and forward from the house and her car repeatedly. Steve had yet to return from Scoops Ahoy despite how late into the night it was becoming so she was taking his absence as an opportunity to get everything done. Driving to the factory wasn’t as eventful, driving legally to avoid unwanted attention so she doesn’t get pulled over, when she reached the basement she was quite surprised to see the state Billy was in.

“Fuck happened to you?” she questions, quietly offering up the girls to the monster then returned to his side with a rag and some water “You look like you got the shit beaten out of you.” he looked up at her, letting her clean up the blood and sweat “That girl, was it her?” he nods.

“Yeah. It was her.” she nods softly, taking his hand and wiping away the blood on his knuckles “She knows now. She knows about me. She could’ve killed me.” she nods again, she puts the rag down and gently pats his hand.

“Yes, but not us. Not us.” they then glance at the crowd of people they’ve either managed to kidnap altogether or were infected by the rats that were controlled by the monster “There’s no way she’ll know that there are more of us. She could barely handle you, so what makes her think she can handle all of us?”

“You’re right.”  “I know. Our time is nearly upon us, so we needn’t worry until then.”

[the next day, with the party]

The party along with Jonathan and Nancy were all hunkered down in the Wheeler household in the basement, each discussing what had happened the following night and their latest discoveries. The children told the two young adults how the Mind Flayer had returned and that Billy Hargrove was under its control, in return they told the party how an old woman, Mrs Driscoll, was found eating fertiliser and was acting crazy. Nancy then deducted how that since the attack last night along with their sauna test happened at the same time, the possibility of the Mind Flayer flaying more than just Billy.

“Billy was doing something to her, but there was someone else as well.” they all look at El when she spoke up, she looks at Max “There was another girl, but she looked more worried for him.” she closed her eyes to remember seeing Billy, she remembered seeing that girl who looked terrified as she called out for Billy.

“Another girl? What did she look like?” Max urged, maybe if they find this girl she could help them find Billy and maybe even the Mind Flayer.

“Um, she was tall, maybe about Billy’s height. She had [H/C] hair, [E/C] eyes and a few beauty marks on her neck and face.” she closed her eyes to remember any other features that stood out to her “Her eyes, though, her eyes reminded me a lot of Steve’s.” this subtle feature caught Nancy’s attention, her face lighting up in remembrance, this caused the others to look at her when she started snapping her fingers.

“W-Wait— Wait right there.” the others watch as Nancy rushed out of the basement, questioning what she was planning on grabbing, and when she returned she had a handful of polaroids and a few articles “El, is the girl you’re describing… her?” El leans forward to see Nancy was looking through the photos before pushing a certain article towards her, she ignores the headline as her eyes zone in on the picture. They she saw the girl she saw through her vision but this time she had a giant grin on her face, a bit of a crazed expression on her face as she stuck her tongue out while one of her hands was doing the rock on devil horns.

“Y-Yes, yes! That’s who I saw,” Nancy and Jonathan share a look of disbelief “W-Who is she?”  “That’s Steve’s sister! That’s [F/N] Harrington!” this caused the lot of them to lurch forward and look all the pictures of said Harrington “I remember her being back in town, but to think that she and Billy were actually friends.” she muttered under her breath, Max was looking at a picture had in his hands and her eyes widened when she too recognised her face.

“Holy shit.” Max says, now they look at her when they saw her pick up a different photo, this time it was of a polaroid of the girl at a party, sitting on a couch with her legs over the arm rest as she was chugging down an entire bottle of vodka “That’s Billy’s girlfriend.” now Nancy and Jonathan were in even more shock.

“Fucking, what?!” Max nods her head.

“I’ve seen her around the house a couple times, and whenever she’s around he’s a lot more happier. I remember hearing a girls laughter from his room and when I came in to see what it was…” she shudders at the memory, shaking her head “It wasn’t particularly a fun sight.” the certain memory she’s remembering back to was when she, Steve and Robin snuck into Billy’s room through his window with some weed and alcohol they were planning on sharing with each other. None of them had realised Max was home until they heard her calling Billy’s name followed by her footsteps, Robin and Steve were quick to hide away and when [F/N] attempted to jump out the window, she instead tripped over her own feet and landed on top to Billy, that was when Max walked into the room and misunderstood the entire situation. All the residents of the Hargrove/Mayfield household are one hundred percent convinced that the two are in a relationship, this fact was rather beneficial for the both of them.

“I heard rumours going around that Billy was dating [F/N], but I never believed them.” Jonathan admits “But it makes it all the more believable that the two of them were together.”  “Then do you think she’s flayed? Like Billy?” Nancy takes a breath.

“There’s only one way to find out.” they now find themselves driving to the Harrington household, all feeling concerned and anxious. Nancy was the most worried because she’s witnessed firsthand what the older Harrington was capable of, she was already crazy as is and would only tone it down when her younger brother was in the picture. She loved her brother to bits that the moment someone looked at him wrong she didn’t hesitate to beat their asses with a chair, she remembered how she got arrested for nearly beating a kid near death because they threatened to kill her brother. They reap what they sow, no? Pulling up to the house, Jonathan and Nancy recognise the car that’s in the driveway, it was [F/N]’s infamous Mustang that could rival Billy’s Camaro when it came down to public disturbance.

“Is there anything about her that we should be careful about?” Jonathan looks up in thought as they approach the front door.

“Um, if you thought Billy was bad… I’d say she’s worse.” they pale at that, she’s worse than Billy? “But if you get on her good side, she’s actually a pretty decent person, nice even.” Nancy nods her head, agreeing with what he’s saying. The two now stood in front of the two, both equally hesitating to knock because they share an equal fear of the female Harrington, Nancy was the one to take a deep breath and knock on the door. They waited for a while for the door to open, awkwardly looking around to pass the time, they hear stumbling footsteps and a few things getting knocked over before the door was open. Nancy and Jonathan reel backwards when the smell of alcohol hit their faces, there in front of them was the sight of a depressed and intoxicated [F/N] that was leaning against the doorframe to keep herself from falling to the ground while in one of her hands was a bottle of tequila. 

This is not what the party were expecting.

“Who the fff… phuck are you?” [F/N] slurred out, clearly not in the right state of mind and very much drunk.

“Is that you… [F/N]?” Nancy asked, very much unsure that the girl in front of her was the Harrington that she knew. [F/N] was one to get drunk at the oddest times of the day, but it looked like she had been crying, and she does not shed tears for anything or just about anyone. [F/N] giggled drunkenly, swaying softly before lifting the bottle of tequila and taking a long swig from it, letting out a satisfied breath as the alcohol burned her throat.

“Yeah? What’s it to you?” [F/N] was going to ignore the bothersome people who came knocking at her door while she was trying to wallow up in sadness, ready to just outright slam the door in their faces but paused when in her drunken eyes she could just make out who exactly the girl is “W-Who are you?” she stuttered out, Nancy swallows thickly, patting her dress to smooth it out.

“Um, it’s me, Nancy Wheeler?” [F/N]’s blood starts to run cold, sobering up just at the mention of the name “I dated your brother a while ago, and we’ve met a couple times when we weren’t dating?” the silence scared them, maybe it was because [F/N]’s drunken state disappeared as she stared Nancy dead in the eyes and wouldn’t break eye contact no matter how many times Nancy looked away or turned her head away, [F/N] just continued to stare at her. Soon, a soft smile appeared on her face as she chuckled softly, she then leaned down to put the bottle of tequila on the ground then reached forward to grab Nancy by the sides of her head. The others watch in confusion as [F/N] gently caressed her face but it changed when she leaned her head back then slammed her forehead right into the bridge of Nancy’s nose hard enough to break it. She let go of her head and let her fall back onto the ground, not really caring as the girl cried out in pain and clutched onto her nose, she then leans back down to pick up her tequila as the children and Jonathan surround Nancy.

“Oh my god, Nancy!” Mike shouts as he falls to his knees, comforting his sister as she tried to stop her bleeding nose “What is wrong with you?!” he shouts up at [F/N], who once again threw her head back as she downed another swig from her bottle, completely ignoring him.

“I don’t like you, Wheeler.” she sneers out, taking a step forward and glaring down at the girl “I know what my brother did to you and Byers over there back in 83′, as his older sister I apologise, but what you did to him last year? He told me everything, how the girl he wanted to be with said everything between them was bullshit, then went and ran straight into the arms of the guy she told him not to worry about. You should’ve thought twice before showing your face to me, Wheeler, because now you’re on my number one hit list.” she makes the “I’m watching you” gesture with her fingers then turned around to go back into her house, only stopping when Jonathan used his foot to keep the door from closing properly.

“Wait, [F/N]!” she glared at him “We really need to talk to you.” she scoffs, throwing her head back.

“About what?”

“About Billy.” she was in the middle of taking another long swig from her bottle but froze up at the mention of Billy, slowly lowering the bottle to look at the older Byers “We really need to talk about him, and we’d appreciate it if you could tell us everything you know about him that’s happened in the past couple of days.” she stared at the lot of them being letting out a sigh, that’s where they found themselves in [F/N]’s kitchen as her drunken rage turned into a sob fest.

“You know?! I feel like he’s been acting different as of lately, and— and that he’s been distancing himself! I feel like he’s become a completely different person!” she cried from where she was seated, the others all sat across from her as her body moved dramatically “Then he broke up with me, saying how it was for the best! What the fuck does that mean?! Why does breaking up with me the best for us?! I still wanted to be friends, but I couldn’t even have that either! So here I am, drinking myself into a stupor!” she shouts and goes to drink again but let out a whine when nothing came out, pulling it away from her lips and tipping the bottle only for a few droplets to come pouring out. The others all glance at each other and watch as she moved to a wine cabinet to grab a bottle of expensive looking wine.

“She’s totally not flayed, right?” Lucas questioned, Mike shook his head.

“Not a chance.” they all wince when she trips into the wine cabinet, no chance.

“Hey, where can I get some ice?” Jonathan asked, [F/N] looked back towards him before shakily pointing at the fridge.

“Should be some in the freezer, Byers. Help yourself out.” Jonathan nods and goes to get some but Mike was already on his feet to grab it himself, wanting to soothe his sister’s pain, at least Max and El stopped the bleeding. He’s in front of the fridge and about to open the freezer but stopped when he saw a picture hanging on the fridge, taking a closer look, his eyes widened at what he saw. There he saw [F/N], Steve, Billy and that cashier that works with Steve, Robin Buckley if he remembered correctly, standing together with wide smiles and looking happy “Mike, the ice!”

“Oh, right, sorry!” he opens the freezer and grabbed the ice tray, handing it to Jonathan, and closed the freezer door but continued to look at the picture just as [F/N] came over “When did you take this?” she let out a confused noise and leaned forward to see what he was looking at, they all watch as she froze up once again, her hand lifting up from her side to look at the photo. It was during the time when they were at the fair, Steve wanted to take a photo and there was no saying no to Steve. [F/N], Robin, Steve and Billy, in that order, stood together and took a round of different photos and each kept one, right below it with the caption “night of 85′ where it started”. She closed her eyes as a bitter look crossed her face, nothing will be the same ever again and that memory of the four of them happy together will be one of her fondest memories.

“It… doesn’t matter.” she lets out, grabbing the corner of the picture she yanks it off the fridge and tucks it into her pocket “A-Anyways, what’s this about Billy? What’s he done that’s caused you lot to come to me?” El was the one to speak, reaching forward to hold [F/N]’s hand.

“We would like to know if… if you’ve been with him in the past few days, if by chance you’ve been feeling strange.” she stares down at her hand in confusion, she doesn’t pull her hand back though and just simply squeezes it.

“Well, if drinking before five counts as weird, then not particularly, no.” they all sigh at that, she pulls her hand away and crossed her arms, humming to herself whilst looking up in thought “Um, he and that Heather Holloway have been acting weird together. He doesn’t usually hang out with that girl, but the way he talked about her was weird. He even dressed modestly when planning on having dinner with her parents, and that man usually dresses like a complete whore.” they look at her weirdly as she snaps her fingers, she lets out a grunt as she popped the cork off the wine bottle and proceeded to pour herself glass.

“Heather Holloway?” [F/N] nods her head, head falling backwards as she brings the glass to her lips and drinks the wine “Alright, anything else?” she begrudgingly looked off to the side, thinking of anything else that came to mind.

“Uh, he told me he had been planning on visiting this old lady in the hospital? Does that mean anything to you?” she noticed them all visibly flinch, sharing knowing looks with each other “Telling by the looks on your faces, I guess that was helpful?” she questioned, her face scrunched up when Nancy nodded her head in her direction.

“Very!” she bit her tongue and shrunk back when [F/N] glared at her, El grabbed [F/N]’s hand once more and shook it lightly.

“Billy is in trouble, and what you’ve told us has helped our chances on finding him and helping him.” El’s face lifted up when she noticed the way [F/N]’s face softened up at that, she pursed her lips as she averted her eyes from the girl.

“I hope he hasn’t gotten himself into anything too dangerous.” they all hated how that wasn’t the case, with everything they got out of the drunk yet slightly sobering up Harrington, they left just as quickly as they arrived. Will was the last out the door but he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, his hand immediately slaps onto his neck and he turned around to see [F/N] following them out so she can shut the door behind them. She felt his gaze so she looked down at him to see what he wanted, the chill went away when her drunken eyes looked him up and down “What?” he nervously shook his head.

“N-Nothing.” she narrowed her eyes on him but evidently shrugged her shoulders, the moment they were at their car she slammed the door shut, not waiting for them to pull out of the driveway.

“Will, are you alright?” Mike asked, his hand reaching over to gently grab his hand, Will looked up at Mike and gave him a nervous smile as he nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, I’m good.” [F/N] stood in her empty kitchen, wine glass in her hand as she tapped her finger against the marble countertop. If she played her roll well enough, the group will probably go and investigate the Holloway household then make their way to the hospital to check on poor old Mrs Driscoll, she was now rolling her fingers against the counter.

“Well, why not give them a surprise for snooping in things they shouldn’t go poking their heads in?” she laughs to herself, downing the rest of wine in her glass before proceeding to round a few other flayed people to come help her.

[later at night]

The party arrive at the hospital when the sun was down and it was late into the night, they quickly rush out of the car and towards the hospitals entrance, completely unaware of the Ford Mustang that was parked not to far away from where they were. Per hospital visits, only two people were allowed to visit a patient at a time so Nancy and Jonathan went ahead while the others lingered around the waiting room. The two walk down the hallway to get to Dorris Driscoll’s room in silence, but to be honest, it was a little too quire despite it being a hospital. They hadn’t seen a single nurse or doctor since they arrived at the floor, it was rather unusual but they shrugged it off with that it wasn’t that busy of a night. Entering the room, they were met with the sight of Mrs Driscoll nowhere to be seen while the flowers Nancy brought and placed into a vase were knocked over.

“Where is she?” Jonathan asks as they scan the room, Nancy shakes her head.

“I don’t know.” she answers as she rushes towards the fallen vase, Jonathan following right behind her.

“Are you sure this is the right room?”

“Yeah.” they both then look up when the lights started flicking on and off, footsteps were heard from the hallway until a figure appeared at the door, the two turned around just as the figure spoke.

“She’s gone home.” there they see Tom Holloway, appearance looking disheveled as his hands and end of his button up were covered in blood “We were hoping you might come back.” the two start backing away when Tom enters the room and starts approaching them slowly, Jonathan raises his arm in front of Nancy to keep her behind him as they inched further and further away from Tom.

“Who’s blood is that?” Tom doesn’t answer him as he gets closer to them.

“Tom, whatever you’ve done, it’s not you. He’s making you do this.” now that they were practically within arms length from Tom, Jonathan didn’t take any chances and grabbed the vase, smashing it into the side of Tom’s head. The older man fell into the wall giving Jonathan and Nancy a chance to flee out of the room, they didn’t get far when another flayed appeared down the hall with a wound exactly where Jonathan hit Tom with the vase.

“Owie.” he feigns the pain as he caressed where his temple was bleeding but it healed, black veins bulging out from his temple as he started walking towards them.

“Go, go, go!” Jonathan shouts, pushing Nancy towards the staircase in an attempt to escape the two flayed men. The two of them are racing down the stairs, they aren’t really aware what floor they’re on but they don’t want to take any chances as they’re running down the hall, going further and further they see the dead bodies of the hospital workers, at least they now knew whose blood that was “This way, this way!” he shouts as he pulls Nancy down a part of the hospital that had construction being done, the two men that were chasing them weren’t even running and were just simply walking at a steady pace.

“You haven’t got them yet?” Bruce glanced over to see [F/N] on a chair, body hunched over with her elbows resting on her knees. Beneath her foot was a nurse whimpering, crying silently as [F/N] pressed the heel of her shoe into her head and slowly applied more pressure as the nurse squirmed to get free “How hard is it to grab those two idiots?” she questioned.

“Just playing a little game of cat and mouse, that’s all.” she chuckled cruelly, shaking her head.

“Get them before they cause us more trouble. That girl isn’t here to assist them, so one of you should be enough to handle them both, alright?” he nods his head and rushed off to go find Nancy and Jonathan, not like that would be hard. She finally turned her attention to the crying nurse who looked up at her, eyes pleading with her to let her go “It’s a shame that you weren’t able to see the world he was going to create, but I guess it’s better for you not to stay and find out.” [F/N] then reached over to the axe that was resting against the wall, both her hands and the blade drenched in blood of the various victims that were claimed that night. She now aimlessly walked the hospital halls, whistling a random tune as she felt the flayed Bruce find the two and so she made her way over to where they were, Bruce was chasing after Nancy as she screamed for help while Tom was making his way over to where Jonathan was.

Find them.

Kill them.

Erase them.

Annihilate them.

“They’re working on it.” she murmurs under her breath, getting closer and closer to where Tom was with Jonathan, he was playing with his food. She shook her head, maybe it was wrong to bring those two along with her and she probably should have brought two other peo— she suddenly let out a grunt, her head being thrown back as she stumbled into the wall. She brought a hand to her mouth and saw black blood bleeding from her mouth, she drops the axe when she felt another impact smash her across the face and she finally fell to the ground. She was growling under her breath, panting as she starts pushing herself up but fell back when another smash to the head was delivered to Bruce while Jonathan stabbed Tom in the neck. The shared pain they felt sucked and had [F/N] grovelling on the floor, both hands slapped around her neck as black bleed bled from her face and neck, her veins then started bumping black as they started turning visible “You worthless… imbeciles!” she roared out, the Mind Flayer gifted her and Billy more power since they were the first to turn into his mindless zombies, so their regenerative abilities were superb in comparison to the rest. While Bruce and Tom lay motionless on the floor she picked herself back up, rolling her neck and hearing it crack under the pressure, she leans down to pick the fallen axe up and dragged it behind her to find the two causing them so many problems. 

She was greatly irritated, gripping onto the axe with so much force that the wood started to crack under her hold. Those two had one simple job to do and they failed horrendously to the point that their bodies turned into goop, she heard the sound of panting so she looked over and saw a doctor she thought she had killed, dragging himself along the floor to get to safety. The moment he heard footsteps he thought he was saved so he turned to see his saviour but his face fell at the sight of an enraged [F/N], dragging her axe behind her and leaving a trail of blood behind her. The doctor let out a cry as he tried crawling away again but was stopped when she stomped on his back, she brings the axe above her head and swing it down, landing a clean hit into the back of his skull and killing him. Blood splattered onto her face as she didn’t bother wiping it off, just simply yanked the axe out of his head and continued on with her journey. She was walking down the hall when she saw the goop of what was Tom and Bruce form into the monster, a miniature version of the Mind Flayer.

“Now look what you’ve done with yourself.” she speaks, walking out from the hallway as her body was drenched in a mixture of black and red blood, she then turned her head and a wicked smile spread across her face at the sight of Jonathan “There you are~” she cooed, now standing beside the Mind Flayer as she stared Jonathan down while the monster stared at Nancy.

“[F-F/N]…?” they both stutter out, she giggled to herself, throwing the axe over her shoulder and bounced it lightly.

“The one and only.” she winks at Jonathan then turns towards the monster, lifting the axe up to point at it “You had one job, right? One! And you failed it, immensely. All you had to do was kill them, and you couldn’t even do something so simple to the point you’ve gone and turn yourself into that. Good job, really, good job.” she shook her head in disappointment as the monster lets out a whine, knowing that the original Mind Flayer favours her and Billy over the rest.

“[F/N], w-what have you done?” Nancy whispers out as she looked the older Harrington up and down seeing she was covered in blood that just wasn’t hers as her veins were pumping with black blood “You were flayed? For how long?!” she cries out, she just shrugs.

“Does it matter? You’ll be dead anyways.” she looks back up at the monster and whistles, pointing with her thumb towards Nancy “Get her, I’ll deal with the other one. You won’t have trouble with this, will you?” she chuckles when it lets out a roar and starts charging towards her, she in turn starts marching over to where Jonathan is.

“Shit.”

“Nancy! Run!” she immediately backs into the door to the staircase but let out a panicked cry when sandbags were keeping the door from opening fully, Jonathan starts to panic as well because the monster was quickly closing the distance between the two of them and [F/N] was also getting closer to him. When Nancy manages to break through the door and run away he felt a sense of relief but it didn’t last when [F/N] was on him, he grabs one of the IV poles to defend himself but lets out a grunt when she kicked him in the chest, he evidently falls to the ground because of this.

“I’m really going to enjoy this, I never really liked you anyway, creep.” she lets out a grunt as she tries slamming the axe down on him but he managed to roll away just in time. He’s pushing himself back to get away from [F/N] as she leisurely strides after him, dragging the bloodied axe behind her in an almost taunting way “I don’t even need to do much to influence this body into wanting to kill you, it’s already rather homicidal and her hatred for you and that other girl is pretty deep.” Jonathan manages to push himself onto his feet and starts running away from her but in a way that he was chasing after the monster and Nancy.

“Is this because I beat her brother up and Nancy broke up with him?!” she only shrugs, easily matching his pace as she chased after him.

“Probably, but she was already crazy even before that, I’ve just pushed aside her rationality.” she swings at him again but he ducks out of the way, wincing when the axe made contact with the wall and a crack formed under the impact “Her love for her brother is both her weakness and her strength. She’d do anything for him; anything.” she’s swinging at him left and right, him narrowly dodging out of the way when he’s finally at the hallway where he sees the miniature Mind Flayer at a door that he believes Nancy has locked herself in.

“No, Nancy!” this was his shortcoming when he froze up, watching as the monster lost its physical form to turn back into a state of goop so it could slip under the cracks of the door. He was kicked in the back and fell onto his stomach, he pushes himself onto his back but let out a grunt of pain when she hit him with the butt of the axe, causing him to fall limp onto his back and daze him.

“No more running, little Jonathan. You’re making my job harder than it needs to be, so just sit still,” she starts, raising the axe over her head and smiling crazily down at him “and let me kill you.” she laughs wickedly and finally swings the axe down, having a clean shot to kill Jonathan but the axe is stopped inches away from his face. He gasped, eyes widen in shock as he stared up at the blade while [F/N] in turn was confused, letting out a strained grunt as she tried pushing it down but it wasn’t budging.

“Jonathan!” the two of them whip their heads around and see the party down the hall, El’s hand stretched out a stopping the blade from meeting Jonathan’s face. They all flinch back at the vicious look in [F/N]’s eyes, god, she looked exactly like Billy during the sauna test. El didn’t waste any time as she raised her hand, this motion caused the axe in her hands to move away from Jonathan, and because she was still holding the axe in her hands, El used it to send [F/N] flying back and pin her to the wall with it pressed against her throat, just like Billy.

“Holy shit, she was flayed the whole time!” Lucas shouts as they all rush towards Jonathan to help him up, they all spare [F/N] a glance and saw she was growling at them, letting out a animalistic roar as she pushes against the axe that was keeping her at bay, El in turn was putting more power into keeping [F/N] still “Does that mean she lured us here?!”

“It doesn’t matter now!” Mike shouts, they all shudder when [F/N] starts giggling maniacally “Why the hell are you laughing?!”

“You dumbasses a-are… are exactly where I want you.” Mike shakes his head.

“Really? But aren’t you the one being pinned to the wall right now?” she continues to laugh, her head rolling backwards and resting against the wall behind her. The dark blood pumping through her veins become more visible as she lets out another roar, finally managing to push El’s hold off of her and throw the axe towards them, they all duck out as the way just as she lands on the ground with a heavy thud.

“Jeez, way to go dickwad.” Max sneers at him, [F/N] wipes away the blood dripping down her nose as she leaned down to pick up the fallen axe. She throws her head back, running a hand through her hair as she laughs again, El is panting as she ignores the blood running down her nose.

“What’s so funny?” blood is running down her face and she can’t tell whether it’s hers or not, but she doesn’t care as she looks down at the children, she throws her axe over her shoulders and motions with her eyes to the room behind them.

“Aren’t you forgetting about someone?” at the mention of that they heard a scream, they all turn their heads towards the door and [F/N] laughs once more “I know a fight I can’t win when I see one, so here’s how this is going to go. You lot have two options. Option one, I run away and you lot are given the chance to save Nancy from meeting her inevitable end because you choose to save her instead of chase after me. Or option two, you give up on little Miss Nancy to chase after little ol’ me, this gives you the chance to learn things about where the monster is and what he’s planning on doing, but this also means that Wheeler meets her end. So what’s it gonna be? Are you going to be the hero that saves the damsel in distress, or the hero that sacrifices her to save the world?” she doesn’t wait for them to answer as she’s already running in the opposite direction, El raises her arm to stop her but flinched when she heard Nancy’s cry for help.

“El, leave her! Please, you’ve got to save Nancy! You’ve got to save my sister!” Mike cries out, tears swelling in his eyes when Nancy’s screams got louder, he then desperately tugs on her arm “Please, El! Please!” El’s eyes were still on [F/N]’s retreating figure, growling softly under her breath when she saw the light smirk on her face before she turned the corner and disappeared. [F/N] was pouting softly as she exits the hospital, spinning the axe around her wrists, and was slightly disappointed she couldn’t kill Jonathan or that Nancy. Oh well, there was still plenty of time to get them next ti— she jumped up in surprise when the monster was thrown out of the room and landed right beside her, she looked up from where it fell and saw the lot peering outside the window, she then gives them a two fingered salute before rushing over to her car and driving away as the monster turns itself into goop once more to escape through the sewers.

“… so which one of us is telling Steve?” Lucas murmurs, they all pale at that. Back with [F/N], she finally reaches the factory, letting out a groan as she walks down the stairs to the basement, hand on her neck while rolling her neck as the axe rested on her shoulder.

“You look like hell.” she scoffs at Billy, wiping the blood on her face with the back of her hand.

“I feel like hell. I couldn’t get shit done because the two idiots I brought with me were of no help whatsoever.” the goop that escaped from the hospital the appears, slithering towards the original to merge with it, it grows in size as the two stare up at it.

“It’s time.”

[time skip: the next day]

El sat in front of the TV that was playing nothing but static, a blindfold over her eyes to help her focus on finding where the Mind Flayer could possibly be while the others sat back and watched her overexert herself. She was panting as she tried so hard to keep pushing herself but in the end she couldn’t anymore and ripped the blindfold off her eyes, she now found herself in the kitchen getting a glass of water, gulping it down until the glass was completely empty. The others were discussing what they should do, they could possibly go and find [F/N] but they didn’t want to take the chance on fighting the newly psychopath and she probably wasn’t going to be home, the other option was Billy who definitely was home but him being there was just a trap waiting for them. El set her empty glass on the kitchen counter and let her eyes wander under until they landed on a box of lucky charms, staring at the rainbow, she got bitter flashbacks of her mother but then an idea struck in her head that she went back to the ground.

“It’s too risky.”

“Yeah, and unnecessary. Killing the flayed won’t stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it’s spreading from. We have to find the source.”

“Billy and [F/N] know it.” they all turn to El when she entered the room “They’ve both been there, to the source. She even said that if we went after her and caught her, we could’ve learned where the Mind Flayer was.” Mike shook his head.

“Yeah, but—”

“It’s a trap, I know. We can’t go to Billy or [F/N], but I think there’s another way. A way for me to see where they’ve been.” she’s sat in front of the TV once more with a blindfold over her eyes, concentrating on the static noise coming from the TV. She takes a deep breath and concentrates until she finds herself in the void and in the distance she can see something. As she gets closer she finds herself staring down at Billy and [F/N] sitting beside each other on what she assumes is Billy’s bed, [F/N] had her eyes closed as she rested her head on his shoulder and Billy himself was sitting up straight while staring into nothing. The one thing the two of them were doing was holding each other’s hand, occasionally squeezing, as her other arm was wrapped around her waist as his other hand rested on his knee. El now stood in front of the two, who weren’t completely unaware that she was there, but they both had a feeling that someone was there. El lets out a shaky breath as she reaches down, grabbing both of their free hands “Billy… [F/N]. I want to see. I want to see what happened.” Billy raises his head and [F/N] opens her eyes, El could see the tears in their eyes as they stared up at her, she lets out a gasp when the hands she was holding let go of hers and instead held a tight grip on her forearm. She tries to break free but neither one of them were letting go, their hold on her only tightened as she fought against them but when they did let go of her, she falls back but their memories of everything they’ve done flashed in her head. From [F/N] and Billy killing people, from them kidnapping people, from them hurting people, from the Mind Flayer infecting the two of them, from the very beginning when Billy crashed and [F/N] rushing to come to his aid.

El let out a grunt when she fell onto the concrete sidewalk, she groans as she rubs the back of her head and slowly pushed herself up so her hands were holding her up, she looked around and saw that she was on some random street that she couldn’t recognise but the sun was up and there weren’t many people around, it was practically empty. She finally pulls herself onto her feet and starts walking around, maybe trying to find someone or something she can recognise. She lets out a gasp when she heard laughter so she goes to turn around and see what it was but paused when a young child, a little girl, ran past her laughing to her hearts content. Looking her up and down, she wore a [F/C] sweater and shorts while her hair was tied up with a hair tie that had small little ladybugs on it, the girl laughed again before turning around and waving her hand in the direction El was standing in.

“Stevie, come on! You’re so slow.” El gasps softly and when she turns around she sees the child version of Steve Harrington, he looked to be about ten years of age, pushing a bike where the girl was standing “Didn’t you ask me to teach you how to ride a bike?” Steve pants as he walks past El and towards his older sister.

“You’re not the one pushing the bike [F/N].” he complains, she just rolls her eyes.

“Stop being such a big baby, dingus.” he pouts, El follows them and finds that they’re in some neighbourhood in Hawkins that has smooth terrain for Steve to ride his bike. El smiled softly seeing [F/N] tease Steve while he in turn was crying at her to stop, she did eventually stop when she saw his eyes start getting misty and started pushing his bike. It was quite sweet watching the older Harrington treated her brother rather delicately, he seemed like such a crybaby when he was a kid.

“I-I’m having second thoughts, [F/N].” Steve said to her, his voice barely above a whisper. He was currently on the bike, his hands clutching onto the handles as his feet rested on the pedals, [F/N] stood beside him while holding the back because she knew that he didn’t have the balance to hold himself. She exhaled through her nose, looking him up and down.

“Well, we can always do this another time, not everybody can get it on their first try.” she tries reassuring him but noticed that he still looked upset over the matter, her eyes looked down in thought before she reached over and placed her hand on top of his “Hey, Steve, I’ll be right beside you, alright? I’ll always be with you every step of the way, I promise you that.” Steve sniffles at that, looking down at his sister with teary eyes.

“R-Really?” she nods, a big smile on her face.

“Really, I’ll always be there for you.” seeing her smile made one just as big spread across his lips, he then nods as he looked ahead of them.

“Okay, I can do this.” and as [F/N] promised, she was right beside him to help keep him balanced as he pedalled down the sidewalk, but the moment she noticed that he was doing on his own was when she pulled her arms back and instead ran beside him.

“You’re doing it, Stevie! Look at you go!” she cheered, he took a quick glance at her and saw that he really was doing it on his own, a big smile broke onto his face as he went on. When [F/N] could no longer keep up with him, she stopped running at his pace and let out an exhausted breath as she hunched forward to catch her breath. El approached the young [F/N], looking at her face and there she saw the look of pure love as she watched her brother go, she saw that she completely adored her brother to no ends. El remembered Nancy mentioning how [F/N] would do about anything for her younger brother, it didn’t what it was, it’s just that she would go to great lengths for him. [F/N] gasped and this caused El to stop looking at her and instead back at Steve, who winced when she saw the wheel get caught in something, causing him to fly off the bike “Steve!” she shouts out and immediately rushes to his side, to which he was bawling his eyes out as his knees were bleeding and hands were scrapped.

“It hurts, [F/N]! It hurts so much!” he cries out, [F/N] drops to her knees as she looked him up and down, trying to figure out what to do as he continued sobbing. She then tries to calm him down but it just doesn’t seem to work, nothing she was doing was working and he only seemed to be getting worse, so she starts to cry with Steve. El found it a little funny that the two siblings were crying, Steve because he was hurt and [F/N] because Steve was crying. She never would have imagined that the drunk, depressed and psychotic [F/N] she met the day prior was the same caring little girl she watched before her. When [F/N] did manage to calm down, not enough to stop crying, she picked Steve up and carried him on his back and ran to the closets house, abandoning the bike in favor of someone helping her brother. The person she chose was quite startled to find two crying children at her door step, awkwardly question what was wrong but managed to understand what happened through all the snot and tears [F/N] blubbered out.

[you can skip past this, this is basically her past that I accidentally started to write and I couldn’t fucking stop]

[F/N]’s happiest memory was anything that involved Steve, she was the eldest Harrington child of the Harrington couple. The two of them never wanted a daughter and expected their first child to be a son, but when they got [F/N] instead they didn’t hesitate to have sex again just to conceive another child in hopes of getting a son, and their hopes came true when Steve was born. [F/N] noticed at a young age how her parents favoured Steve over her every time, it didn’t matter what it was, it was always him before her, but she never did care about that, because her parents were just assholes and her baby brother didn’t do anything to deserve the anger she had for their parents to be directed at him. There was just something different between the two of them when they started getting older, they were joined at the hip when they were children but the moment they were in middle school, it was a different story. [F/N] naturally entered middle school before him and she already earned herself a title, the up and rising star of Hawkins Middle School that would surely become the Queen of Hawkins High when she graduates middle school. She was beautiful, a Harrington genetic gift, naturally smart and athletic, very kind and charismatic that she was the person everyone wanted to be with.

So her achievements greatly overshadowed Steve’s to the point that their parents attention moved from him to her, at first she was happy that she got their validation, but noticing how her and Steve were drifting apart and his admiration towards her turned green with envy, she started second guessing all the popularity she gained. It got worse for Steve when he started middle school, he was known as the “other Harrington” that just couldn’t match up to his sister, he was just constantly in her shadow no matter where he went. Constantly being compared to her was like a nightmare to him, he was struggling to finish an English essay? [F/N] would have easily gotten it done in half the time it took him to write a single sentence. He managed to score a three pointer in basketball during P.E? How about winning against Hawkins Middle School’s rivalling team with the most points they’ve seen in years. He didn’t want to be known as the younger brother of [F/N] Harrington, he wanted people to know him as Steve Harrington, but that was never going to happen as long as people knew that he was her brother. [F/N] obviously noticed the treatment her sweet little brother was going through, she tried so hard to talk to him or get people to stop with their bullshit, but that made Steve angrier, he didn’t want her pity.

“Steve, why won’t you talk to me anymore? Please, I just want to make things between us better, like what it used to be when we were children!” she pleads out to him, she flinched back when he slammed his hands down on his desk, whipping his head around to glare at her.

“You want to make things right? Alright, maybe stop being better at everything! Maybe stop being the topic of every conversation people have when they come to talk to me! Maybe just stop being the reason my life is ruined!” he pushes his chair back with his legs as he approaches her “Stop being smart! Stop being pretty! Stop people the centre of attention!” she lets out a grunt when he shoved her back, her stumbling out his room as he reached for the door “Maybe just stop being my sister altogether!” he finished and slammed the door in her face, she continued to stand where he left her as she stared at his door, she let out choked up noises as tears glistened in her eyes before finally sniffling and walking away.  That was definitely the last time the two of them properly spoke with each other and no matter how many times she tried to work things out, how hard she tried to make things better, he just never gave her the time of day to hear her out. Her graduation from middle school to high school was probably her worst day because Steve didn’t even want to be there and only came because their parents would be more disappointed in him if he didn’t come to support his sister, and for him it was probably a great day because it meant that he didn’t have to see his sister the following year at all. If she didn’t do anything soon she was possibly going to lose Steve, so staring at her reflection she stared at herself and couldn’t help but hate she was looking at. She never felt like she was looking at herself, just looking at the person her parents made her out to be without her ever being able to properly find herself. She wanted to change, she wanted to be different from the person she saw in the reflection, and there was just one person that could possibly help her.

“Eddie Munson!” she screamed at the top of lungs at the trailer park, she knew the bastard was home, telling how the lights in his trailer were on. Eddie “the Freak” Munson was her polar opposite in middle school and a boy who was in the same year as she was. She remembered first seeing him during their middle school’s talent show with how him and his band “Corroded Coffin” performed heavy metal, it was very loud and a little disorganised, but it was pretty good in her opinion. She met Eddie on a few occasions but each time weren’t really pleasant, mostly because he spoke to her as if she didn’t know how the world worked since she was a privileged little girl that got everything she wanted. She didn’t know what hurt more, the fact that he isn’t entirely wrong or that it was him that woke her up. Eddie opened the door to the trailer and was surprised to see [F/N] standing there, so with his usual cocky attitude, he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“Well what do we have here? What can this jester do for her majesty, [F/N] “the Queen” Harrington?” he cooed, [F/N] didn’t bother to say anything and just went straight to the point.

“I need your help.”

“And what can little ol’ me do for you?”

“I need you to make me look like you.” now he was a little thrown off at the request, the one and only girl that everybody loves and has everything at the palm of her hand, was asking for his help in making her… look like him? She noticed that he was confused so she raised her hand, she goes to speak but a chill ran up her spine when a burst of wind blew through her body “Can I come in? I’m fucking freezing.” her swearing was even more startling, [F/N] was prim and proper and wasn’t know for using such vulgar language, and yet here she was.

“O-Oh, yeah, of course.” and that’s where Eddie found himself holding a box of tissues for [F/N] as she told him everything that happened during her year in middle school, bawling her eyes out as she told him that her worst fear was possibly coming true “So, let me get this straight… you want me, to make you look like me so that your parents and possibly others start viewing in a different way and that people will start liking your brother?” she sniffles, nodding her head.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” he sucks in a breath, running a hand through his growing hair after growing through his buzz cut.

“I don’t know if I find that endearing that you came to me for help or insulting that you came to me for help.” she gave him an apologetic look “But I see where you’re coming from, female Harrington. You don’t want people to see you in a positive light and if they hate you enough they’ll draw their attention towards the better Harrington.” she nods her head.

“That’s exactly what I want.” he lets out a startled yelp when she grabbed his hand, holding it in between her own and gave him a desperate look “I’ll do anything to drift the attention away from me and give it to him, I won’t care how people view me as long as they stop making my brother feel even worse than he already feels. I want to be there beside him instead of on the sidelines.” he inhales sharply, this really wasn’t what he was expecting to happen on a Saturday night.

“Well… alright.” she lights up, a big smile on her face “But I want no complaining from you, alright? The moment you start doubting anything I do, I’m gonna give up on you,” she nods her head at the terns he set.

“Of course, totally!” she stands up, still holding his hand, and shakes it rather vigorously “If this works, I owe you big time, Munson.”

And being a man of his word, on the first day of her high school year, the soft and kind [F/N] was nowhere to be seen. Instead Hawkins High was met with the new and improved Harrington that wore leather or denim and had several piercings that were definitely not done by a professional, she even wore dark make up instead of the light or natural one. To say everyone was shocked would be an understatement, everyone was in disbelief when she pulled up to school in such attire but it was the fact that she was with Eddie Munson of all people! They were laughing about and talking as if they have been best friends since they were children, even his group of friends were in on the deal of making her less popular so she wasn’t seen without being with Eddie and his group of freaks. Her entire personality was a total flip as well, from the well spoken and polite young lady turned to a rude and vulgar woman who’s attitude was the worst that people couldn’t stand being with her. The teachers couldn’t believe what they were seeing either, she was once a straight A student but now she was barely passing with D+ and C-’s.

She learnt everything from Eddie, and she was always grateful for him because she actually felt free. Being with him and his group of friends was so relaxing because she didn’t have to worry about how she looked and how she acted anymore, she could actually properly be herself. Listening to heavy metal and screaming at the top of her lungs, smoking weed and laying on the floor of his trailer, letting him ramble on and on about some fantasy game called D&D, she didn’t care, it felt nice to actually have real friends instead of those people leeching off of her. But that didn’t matter, well it did, but what really mattered was the fact that it was working. People didn’t want to be associated with the former Queen who now hung around with the freaks and because she was barely pulling her weight in school and was constantly failing, her parents were absolutely livid with her.

“What has gotten into you, [F/N]? You were never like this leading up to this year! It’s all because you’ve been hanging around that Munson boy! He’s not a good influence on you!” she just rolled his eyes as her mother shouts all sorts of nonsense at her, both her mother and father have cornered her and sat her down to have a proper talk with her.

“Not only that, but you’re failing every single one of your classes! You’re barely getting marks above F’s, and at this rate, you’re not even going to pass at the end of your senior year! You’re sullying the Harrington name, [F/N]! I thought we raised you better than this.” she scoffs this time, leaning back into the sofa as she crossed her arms.

“Well I’m sorry for not being mummy and daddy’s perfect little princess anymore, but if you’re not going to accept the me I am today, then why the fuck should I pull my weight anymore? Besides, you still have your perfect little golden child Stevie to take my place if I ever go too far.” she snickers to herself when they continued to yell at her, telling her to that this rebellious act of hers better come to an end or she will face consequences, to which she just laughed in their faces before shoving past them and out the front door where Eddie was waiting for her with his shitty van.

“Dude, we could hear the shouting all the way from out here!” Gareth exclaims, throwing open the back doors for her to jump in, to which she laughed as she took Jeff’s hand as he helped her in “They sounded really angry, you alright?” she just shrugged.

“Honestly I could give less of a shit at what they’re saying, but it’s definitely working, I can just feel them ready to disown me and label me as the family disappointment, I’m just waiting for it now.” Eddie laughs from the drivers seat, glancing back at her.

“You’re crazy.” she winks with a click of her tongue.

“I have you to thank.” they all laugh as he drives to the Quarry.

Steve was completely baffled when people started treating him differently. For some reason he was now known as the better Harrington, the one that didn’t stray from the path of righteousness, or whatever the hell that meant, but it felt good that every topic wasn’t about his sister anymore. Well, when his sister was brought up, it was to tell him how awful it was to now be related to the psycho apart of Eddie Munson’s group of friends. When Steve first saw [F/N]’s transformation and change of behaviour, he didn’t believe it until he saw the way she now argued with everything their parents said. She never used to fight back against them, she would usually just nod and agree with anything they said, but not anymore. Now their parents were looking at him again, telling him they expected great things from him, how he was the new light of the Harrington family and that he was better than his good for nothing sister. As for [F/N], she was happy to see that her brother was finally getting that popularity he deserved and it didn’t matter that she had hell to pay for such a cost, all that mattered to her was that Steve wasn’t bitter having to go to school anymore.

She didn’t care that people insulted her.

She didn’t care that her parents hated her.

If Steve was happy, that’s all that mattered.

Sitting on the hood of her car, [F/N] had blood running down her nose and a bruise forming on the side of her cheek, knuckles torn and bloodied as her clothes were a little disheveled. The bruise on her cheek was given to her during an altercation with her father once again, this time he couldn’t stand her attitude and backhanded her clean across the face hard enough to give her a nose bleed. She didn’t see an ounce of regret on his face and not even her mother did anything to stop anything from escalating, she couldn’t take staying in that house any longer and just left without another word. Her knuckles bleeding were from her brutally punching a brick wall until she physically couldn’t close her knuckles anymore and just tired herself out until she sat on the hood of her car while smoking a cigarette to calm herself down.

“… fuck.” she muttered under her breath, she was totally going to Eddie’s trailer to get high and drunk to the point she couldn’t remember who the fuck she was. When she finally decided she was done, she hopped off the hood of her car and snuffed out her cigarette, getting to ready to jump into her car but paused when she heard her name.

“[F/N]!” she was confused when she saw Steve rushing over to her, she was confused as to why he was there.

“Steve?” she called out, she really didn’t want to deal with him right now be decided to stick it out to see what he had to say “What do you want? Don’t you have basketball practice going on right now?” he scoffed, shaking his head as he looked her up and down, wincing when he saw her bloodied knuckles.

“I don’t give a shit about that.” he reaches for her hand but flinched back when pulled her hand back.

“Why are you here? Don’t you have better things to do than deal with me?” he swallows the saliva in his throat, not liking the tired look in his sisters eyes.

“I-I’m here because I’m worried about you, I just— I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, [F/N]. You’re nothing like the way you were in middle school, what happened to her? Why did you suddenly change? Why are you so different now, [F/N]? I just don’t understand.” he shakes his head as he remembered back to the year prior when his sister first changed, the once quiet house was now filled with arguing and shouting matches between her and their parents to the point that Steve couldn’t handle it “Why are you like this, [F/N]! You had everything and then suddenly you threw it all away because of what? What?! Why did you do it?! What was it?!” Steve didn’t understand why he was yelling at his sister, he usually wouldn’t raise his voice like this and especially not when his sister was bleeding because of their father, but he just needed to quell his curiosity as to why his sister would do such a thi—

“I did it for you, Steve!” she shouts, he was taken aback, what? “I threw away everything for you! The popularity! The attention! Mum and dad’s respect, everything! I gave up everything because I saw how my popularity was affecting you! I couldn’t stand the thought that my brother was feeling the way he was in middle school all because people couldn’t see past me whenever they were with you. I hated the fact that we aren’t as close as we were when we were children, so I thought, if I act differently to what people are used to, then maybe people will start liking Steve Harrington instead of his older sister. And look at that, it worked! It actually worked, because people fucking hate me now and they adore you! You’re the Harrington that isn’t a fuck up!” [F/N] hadn’t realised she started crying until she felt the tears running down her face instead of blood, she pulls back and quickly wiped away the tears, grunting out in pain when she clenched her fists.

“B-But… why? Why would you do that?” Steve stuttered out, not believing she would do something like that, she just rolled her eyes before throwing her arms open at him.

“You said it yourself, Steve! I asked what I had to do to make things right, and you listed everything off! I had to stop being better at everything, I had to stop being the topic of every conversation, I had to stop being smart, I had to stop being pretty, I had to stop being the centre of attention! I did everything! I did everything you asked! Now all that’s left is to stop being your sister!” god, the fact that she remembered everything while he didn’t had Steve start tearing up, she had to tear her eyes away from him to stop her urges to comfort him, she takes a breath and jabs her finger into his chest “I gave you what you wanted, so I hope you’re satisfied with what you’re given. I’m only waiting for mum and dad to fulfil you’re last request and maybe then you’re ruined life will be magically fixed.”

“[F-F/N], I’m sorry— I didn’t—” she raised her hands, rubbing her sleeve under her nose.

“Save it.” she sniffles as she turns her back “Go home, Steve. I’ll stay out of your life as long as you want. Wouldn’t want to ruin the perfect life you’ve accumulated since I’ve fallen from my grace.” with that she leaves Steve standing all alone, feeling even more worse when she finally saw those tears run down his face.

That… that was her worst memory that she regrets.

She regrets shouting at him.

She regrets making him cry.

She regrets that she hurt him and left him alone.

[yeah, that’s all I’ll write for her backstory. I definitely had more to write, but it’s gotten too long and I want to get back to the main plot]

El tears off the blindfold, panting heavily after finally leaving the memories of Billy and [F/N] when she found the location of where the Mind Flayer was located. She looks around to see no one in sight, she was all alone in the cabin despite hearing their voices not to long ago.

“Mike?” she calls out but got no answer, she repeatedly called out his name again but was left unanswered until another voice spoke up.

“He can’t hear you.” turning her head, she gasps when she sees Billy emerge from out of one of the rooms “You shouldn’t have looked for me. Because now I see you. We can all see you. You… let us in. And now… you are going to have to let us stay.” as the Mind Flayer speaks through Billy, he’s slowly approaching El as she backs away from him in tears, she’s gasps when someone was right behind her.

“Don’t you see?” looking over her shoulder she saw that it was [F/N] with that same psychotic grin on her face, leaning over the couch El backed herself into but quickly pushed herself off to get away from her “We’ve been building it… for you. All this time, we’ve been building it. All that work, all that pain… all of it, for you.” the two of them now stood together, eyes misty as they held each other’s hand.

“And now it’s time. Time to end it. We are going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to end your friends. And then we are going to end… everyone.” they speak in unison and before they could do anything, El screams at the top of her lungs as she throws her hand out towards them, sending them flying back to where they came from, and so the two of them woke up exactly where El found them in Billy’s room. [F/N] had a sad look on her face as she lifted herself off of Billy’s shoulder, neither one of them said a word as they sat in silence and squeezed each other’s hand.

“This sucks.”

[starcourt mall]

It all happened so fast. One moment they’re being attacked at Hopper’s cabin, next thing they know they’re hiding out at the Starcourt Mall because Billy had somehow managed to find them and was waiting out for them in his busted up Camaro. [F/N] was nowhere in sight and they didn’t know what terrified them the most, the fact that she was just lurking around waiting for them or that Billy was ready to run them over without a second thought. Hiding in the mall didn’t go as well as they thought, because the next thing they knew was that the Mind Flayer was right on top of them and broke through the skylight, landing right where they were and was now in search for El. The group consisting of Nancy, Johnathan, Lucas and Will somehow managed to escape and were hurriedly trying to replace their stolen ignition cable, their hearts beginning to race at the sound of Billy’s engine revving.

“Shit!”

“Get the car started, go!” Nancy cocks her gun as Jonathan jumps into the drivers seat to start the car, Nancy raises the gun and aims it towards Billy. She doesn’t back down when he starts driving towards her, she narrows her eyes as she starts firing at him, the others are panicking as she’s shooting at his already shattered windscreen that’s doing little to no damage as he continues to get closer and closer to her. The moment her gun ran out of ammunition was when she started to panic, she looks between the gun and Billy before ducking down and curling up against the car despite knowing that was going to do little to nothing to suppress the pain of getting smashed against the car but was surprised when Steve, in a different car, rammed right into the side of Billy’s Camaro. Both he and Robin grunt out in pain at the impact but were both pretty much okay, Robin looked up at Steve and saw that he had a panicked look on his face due to the fact that his boyfriend almost killed his ex and in order to stop him from doing that he crashed a car into him.

“Steve, are you alright?” she asks him, he’s panting as he continued to stare at Billy’s unconscious body laying limp in his car.

“Ask me tomorrow.” their gaze then goes upwards when they heard snarling, Robin gasps in shock to see the disgusting fleshy monster dubbed as the Mind Flayer on top of the Starcourt Mall, they whip their heads around when they heard the honk of the other car pull up beside them.

“Get in!” the Mind Flayer was quick to give chase but paused when a new pair of headlights flashed on, it decided she could take care of them. Johnathan thinks they’re in the clear, the Mind Flayer isn’t in sight as they’re driving away but he wasn’t taking any chances as he continued to high tail it away from the mall. He spares a glance back at Will and saw he was gently caressing the back of his neck, he was close, and he just wasn’t showing himself.  “What the hell was that thing back there?!” Robin shouts, pointing out the car in the direction they just fled.

“I’m guessing that was the Mind Flayer, and that was the body made of the flesh of various dead people?” Steve sums up as he looks at the other four, to which they all nod their heads to confirm what he said “Great, I can’t wait to get back home and explain to my sister why I was gone and why my face is beaten up. Hopefully she doesn’t go on a murder spree upon seeing my face.” the four of them wincing didn’t go unnoticed, even Robin flinched hearing the mention of his sister.

“Um… about that, actually…” Lucas starts, rubbing the back of his neck “Your sister, uh— she’s kind of um, like…” Lucas peeks back at Steve and felt a chill run down his spine, Steve was wearing an expression that he normally never wore. His expression was a mixture of concern and slight anger, concern for the safety and well-being on his older sister and anger that something has happened to his sister while he was trapped in an elevator then tortured by Russians.

“What’s wrong with my sister?” Nancy licks her lips, not really sure where to begin on the matter of his older sister.

“Steve, your sister…” she sighs, running a hand through her hair “Your sister, kind of…” Steve was getting more irritated over the fact that they weren’t telling him, he grits his teeth as he glared at them.

“What’s wrong with my sister?!” he shouts this time in hopes it’ll get them to spit it out, Will lets out a shuddered breath when he felt a tingle in his neck, he glances backwards and saw a flash of someone’s high beams hit them. They all turn around to see what it was and the roar of a car engine slowly gaining on them made their hearts drop into their stomachs when they recognised the car, Steve and Robin look out through the back window and their eyes widened when they saw the familiar license plate “[F/N]…?” he manages to mutter out then let out a grunt when the car rear ended them.

“Shit! Jonathan!” he curses under his breath as he changes gear to create some distance between them and her but their car was nothing in comparison to her mustang because she caught up to them easily, each time she made sure to rear end them. When she noticed nothing was happening she pulled back a little just so she was now driving beside them, they all turn to look at her but Steve and Robin were the most shocked because they haven’t seen her like this. Deranged looking, eyes bloodshot and teary as her body was sweating uncontrollably while her veins were pumping black ooze throughout her entire body.

“You wanna know what’s wrong with her?!” Lucas shouts, letting out a scream when [F/N] drives the side of her car into theirs “She’s been flayed by the Mind Flayer and this entire week she’s been kidnapping people and offering them to the Mind Flayer, and not too long ago she killed a bunch of people at the hospital and nearly killed Nancy and Jonathan! There, now you know!” Will smacks Lucas for the way he said it, gesturing to Steve and saw how the boy looked confused and scared. What confused them was that Robin shared the same expression, Lucas said that she was under that things control for about a week, so does that mean…

“Wait, you’re telling me that the whole reason she’s been acting different— that she’s acting like that, is because that monster we saw before brainwashed her?!” Will nods his head, she slumps back in the back as she recalls how [F/N] was acting when she broke up with her. She knew that there was something wrong with her but she just couldn’t pin just what was wrong, her eyes had lost their usual shine and she was avoiding eye contact with her, refusing to. It felt like she was talking to someone entirely different, and all that was true, that person from before was not her girlfriend but an imposter in her body. Robin looks at Steve and saw his eyes never left [F/N], she had a crazy smile on her face as she stared Jonathan down “Steve…” she mumbles.

“What did it do to you, [F/N]?” he’s only ever seen that look on her face maybe once or twice, and that was when she was getting some sick pleasure out of beating the shit out of a few high school kids that picked on him, she was crazy like that, but she made sure not to make that face again whenever he was present because it was a little unsettling “That’s… that’s not my sister, that’s not [F/N]. Is this— is this also happening to Billy?” they nod.

“They were together when it happened.” that just made things worse, it must have happened just after they left Robin’s. Was that why [F/N] was sick that morning? Oh my god, it was happening right under their noses and neither of them noticed. Jonathan steadies the car again when [F/N] rams hers into them again but let out a confused noise when she suddenly stopped, he glances over at her and saw she was looking ahead of them. He watched in confusion when she drove ahead of them then turned around but stopped in the middle of the road, Jonathan slams on the breaks to stop them from going any further and there the two of them are staring each other down.

“Jonathan…” Nancy mutters, not a single one of them breaking eye contact with [F/N], Jonathan takes a breath as he grips the stirring wheel, swallowing thickly every time he hears [F/N] rev her engines as her car jerks forward. [F/N] was no longer in control, no matter how hard she was trying to fight the Mind Flayer for control it was no use and she was locked inside her own body as she watched it move on its on accord. A dark grin was adorn on her face, watching closely to what Jonathan was going to do next. Was he going to back up and continue this game of cat and mouse? Was he going to play a game of chicken instead? Both options sounded fun to her, but she decided it was going to be her to choose for him because she pushes the handbrake down and slams on the gas and exhilarates forward “Jonathan!”

“I know!” he fumbles with the gear but switches it to drive and starts driving towards her as well, he had a plan in his head to swerve out of the way just at the nick of them, but he failed to inform the others as he kept getting closer and closer. Steve looked between Jonathan and sister and he couldn’t calm down, he could only think of how bad the collision will have on [F/N]. He was always like this, worrying for his sister than for his own well-being, just like her worrying for Steve rather than herself. Like brother like sister. Neither one of them were slowing down to the point [F/N] was laughing hysterically, changing gears to go fast enough to kill them and quite possibly herself. Well, if she hurt herself it didn’t matter, the Mind Flayer can heal her body no matter how severely injured her body gets.

“Jonathan, what are you doing?!” Will shouts at his brother.

“Relax, I know what I’m doi—” he was cut off when Steve pulls himself out from the back, reaching past Will and Lucas for the handbrake “Steve— what are you doing?!”

“I’m sorry, Jonathan! But you’d honestly do the same.” he pulls the brake up and the car instantly starts to drift, Jonathan tries to regain control while Nancy smacks Steve’s hands off the handbrake but they were too late when [F/N]’s mustang hit the side of their car, luckily. They spin off the road while [F/N] came to a stop in the middle of the road, she didn’t expect that outcome but she was happy that it was in her favor, she guesses Steve doesn’t want to hurt her either. Such a loving little brother.

“I didn’t think things were gonna be this easy, honestly. Even Billy’s having a hard time.” she snickers softly and looks in the rear view mirror, pouting softly when she noticed a small cut on her forehead that was bleeding a little. With a shrug, she swipes her thumb over it and grins when it healed up instantly. Kicking her door open, she steps out then leaned in to grab the axe sitting in her passenger seat and doesn’t bother turning her car off as she starts approaching the other car, throwing the axe over her shoulder and continuously bounced it while whistling a song. Jonathan lets out a groan, clutching his forehead after his head took the force of the airbags that deployed, he really was going to kill Steve later for this, but he couldn’t help but understand what Steve was going through. Not too long ago it was his brother that was under the Mind Flayer’s control and now it’s Steve’s sister that didn’t even know this shit was going on in the first place, oh the irony. He whips his head around when he heard Nancy let out a scream, they all look over to see that it was [F/N] “Yoohoo~ open the door.”

“Fuck no!” Nancy promptly locks the door to emphasise her point but [F/N] just rolled her eyes, pulling her fist back then punching through the door then proceeded the tear it off. Nancy doesn’t hesitate to push herself away from [F/N] just as she leans into the car, her eyes scanning through the many occupants inside but she let out a sigh when she didn’t see the one they were after.

“She’s not here.” she muttered under her breath, probably informing the Mind Flayer that El was still at the mall and not with the others that fled. She was going to leave it at that, the Mind Flayer was calling her back, but those feelings for what Nancy fucking Wheeler did to her brother started to resurface, and that’s where she found herself grabbing Wheeler by her hair and dragging her out of the car.

“Nancy!”

“Nancy, no!” Nancy cries out in pain from the roots of her hair being violently tugged on, the pain gets worse when [F/N] slams the side of her face onto the hood of the car and holds her there.

“[F/N], please… don’t do this. You don’t want to do this.” [F/N] lets out a hum, looking up in thought before nodding her head.

“No, no, that’s where you’re wrong. You have absolutely no idea how much I want to do this; how much I really want to kill you with my own hands.” Nancy starts to tremble, tears swelling up in her eyes when [F/N] raises her free hand that was holding the axe, seeing the dried blood splatter all over the blade and some on the shaft “I’ll pay your little brother a visit after I’m done with you, I’m sure he’ll be happy seeing your decapitated head mounted on a stick.” before she could bring the axe down she’s being pulled back by Jonathan and Steve, Nancy falls to the ground as Robin goes around and tries to pry the axe out of her hands.

“[F/N], please… stop this! This isn’t like you to go this far!” Steve pleads. Steve knew his sister was strong, but right now was just plain ridiculous, it was taking both himself and Jonathan putting their entire weight to keep her from moving but even that wasn’t enough. She lets out an animalistic growl as she lets go off the axe and letting Robin stumble backwards, she throws Steve off next and hunches forward to lift Jonathan off the ground as she grabs his arms that were wrapped around her neck and proceeds to throw him over her, this also causes him to tear her jacket off but she could care less about it. She sets her sights on Robin and doesn’t hesitate to punch her across the face, Steve goes to stand up to reprimand [F/N] again but let out a grunt when she kicked him down and grabbed the axe that she managed to catch. His breath gets caught in his throat as he watched [F/N] swing the axe over her shoulder and it comes down as quickly as it was raised, he wants to raise his arms to shield his face but what can that do? With tears in his eyes, he looks up at his sister with pleading eyes and there— there he saw a flash of color return to her eyes, a flash of regret and confusion when they met his. He saw a glimpse of his sister inside those eyes that were fighting back against the Mind Flayer, but he knew she couldn’t hold it for long but he was grateful for the time given because she redirected the blade aiming for his face into the side of the car. He flinches at the impact, watching as the car rocked back and forth before finally settling down. His sister is now panting above him, staring down at him with a slightly less hostile expression, but he knew she wasn’t herself yet, her eyes were still in a dazed state while her veins were still black “[F/N]…” he whimpers out, all he wants is his sister back.

“S-Stevie…?” she croaks out, he gasps at her voice whispering out to him but soon her face twists in pain. She pulls away, pressing the heels of her hands into her forehead to fight against the aching pain the Mind Flayer was inflicting on her, fighting for dominance within her head and it managed to win because now she was fleeing the scene and back to her car. She did hesitate to leave, her eyes glancing back at the others that were slowly picking themselves off the floor, but she shook her head before driving back to the Starcourt mall.  “Welp, that hurt,..” Robin groaned out, holding her cheek as some blood pulled up in her mouth “I can’t believe she hit me.”

“She… she didn’t mean it.” Steve muttered, hand over his chest. 

“But I don’t understand.” Robin says rather bitterly “Why didn’t she kill you? She was clearly going to do it, but she stopped at the last second.” Jonathan let out a groan as he pushed himself onto his feet, his hand clutching tightly onto the jacket he tore off her body before he was thrown off.

“Back at the hospital, the Mind Flayer said… it said that Steve was both her weakness and her strength. She got more violent with Nancy and I because of what happened in 83, but once she saw Steve it settled, even if it was for a brief moment.” Steve continued to lay on the ground, his hand instinctively reached up to caress his cheek as memory flashed in his mind. He was remembering back to a time where [F/N] punched him across the face because he was basically screaming at her to punch him, he didn’t expect her to actual do it because she swore that she’d never hurt him, but she did.

“W-Why— why’d you hit me?” he whimpered out, tears being to swell in his eyes as he cradled his swelling check, to which she just sighed while rolling her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.

“You told me to, and besides, you were acting like a shit so you definitely deserved it.” his lip trembled and a small sob escaped his lips, she rolls her eyes again and smacks him in the shoulder “I hope you know that this goes for show that I’ll practically do anything for you, Stevie. But this will be the first and only time I’ll hurt you like this, mmkay? You’ve been acting a little entitled these past few weeks and you needed a little wake up call. Your arrogance will be your undoing one of these days, so don’t let it go to your head. I won’t be around to wake you up next time.” he sniffles, raising his hands to wipe away the falling tears.

“I promise, as long as you promise not to hit me like that again.” she chuckles softly, wiping away his tears.

“I promise. From today, I’ll never hurt you like that ever again, not even if you deserve it.” she starts to laugh when she ruffled his hair and he cried out in horror, screaming at her that she ruined his hair, she just continued to laugh as she ran away from him whilst he screamed bloody murder.

“[F/N]…” he starts tearing up but held them back when a hand was offered to him, he saw that it was Robin wearing [F/N]’s discarded jacket.

“Get up, Harrington. We’re gonna save your sister, and when we do, I’m gonna give her a proper ass whoppin!” driving back to the Starcourt mall they sat in silence, Jonathan breaking all the road laws as he sped down road in the car that was hanging onto its life by a thread. Steve raised his eyes from where he sat and saw Robin digging her face into the fabric of [F/N]’s jacket, he noticed that she was thinking about something because she had a look on her face that was debating whether or not she should speak or not “… she broke up with me.” this caused his body to straighten up, even the others in the car peeked back to listen in on the conversation, rude.

“What do you mean she broke up with you? W-Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” she let out a sigh, blinking back the tears that were slowly swelling up in her eyes.

“I guess it was because of that Mind Flayer, or whatever the fuck that thing is. I think she was in the middle of choosing that things latest meal, because I caught her in an alleyway letting a girl kiss her. It was when I went to go look for the blueprints.” Steve gasps softly at that, so that’s why she looked so dejected when she came back “I couldn’t recognise her, she stared at me with these cold, dead eyes and the way she spoke to me… I felt so scared being there. I wish I knew, I wish I knew she was going through that and then maybe I could’ve helped her. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt so angry at her that she broke up with me, left me in that alleyway all alone— and for what? To protect me? So she wouldn’t have to hurt me ever more than she did by breaking my heart? She even threatened me if I told you, saying you wouldn’t believe me because I’m nothing but your coworker while she’s your sister.” she sniffles to herself, wiping away the tears that fell from her eyes, she spared Steve a look but flinched a little. He now wore a very livid expression, Robin became a really close friend to Steve after he and his sister got together and they became closed after their encounter with the Russian soldiers under the mall, so hearing how his flayed sister threatened and broke up with her pissed him off.

“If you don’t kick her ass, I’ll kick it for you. But first, we’ve got to find her and Billy and free them from the control of the Mind Flayer. Whether you forgive her or not, that’s up to you, but she’s still my sister.”  “What about Billy?”  “I hope he can forgive me for totalling his camaro.” they stare at each other and laugh weakly, Robin now rested her forward on his shoulder and let her hands dip into the pockets but she hummed in confusion when she felt something. Pulling it out, her breath hitched when she pulled out the photo of the four of them at the fair. Steve felt her body tremble so he looked down and he himself flinched at the photo, seeing that photo almost felt like yesterday. Steve wished he could go back to the time where the other three were clueless about the Upside Down; clueless about the true horrors of Hawkins and that he was the only one who knew the truth. Where his sister was madly in love with his friend, where his boyfriend was in the safety of his arms, where none of this was happening on the first place and that the four of them were having their weekly sleepover at the Harrington household.

Man, what a distant memory.

[starcourt mall]

[F/N] arrives right on time, finding Billy pushing himself off of El just as the Mind Flayer descends from the skylight. El was regaining her consciousness as the blur of the monster slowly registered in her mind, [F/N] wordlessly stands beside Billy and reached over to take his hand into hers. He doesn’t spare her a glance and neither does she, and though they were still under the influence of the monster in front of them, the two of them squeezed each others hand to let each other know that they were still in there. The Mind Flayer is paying the two of them no mind, slowly approaching the small child to devour her, rid the last obstacle in its way, when something blew up in its face. Billy and [F/N] cry out in pain at the blow, sharing the pain with the Mind Flayer, blow after blow Billy and [F/N] grovel to their knees in pain as the Mind Flayer roared at the intruders. [F/N] peeked through his hands and saw the lot she nearly killed had followed quickly after her, how she never noticed them was beyond her, but she was going to finish what she started.

Deal with them.

Finish the job.

Make no mistakes.

“Shut up…” she growled out, managing to push herself onto her feet and towards the escalator to where their unwanted guests were, leaving Billy to watch over El. Of course none of them were expecting to see [F/N] on them, they were all to preoccupied laying waste to the Mind Flayer to notice that she was there. Lucas was the first to suffer at her mercy, the others heard his cry for help and immediately turned to see where he was, watching in shock when they saw [F/N] turn him around and strike him across the face that he fell to the ground after spitting out blood from his mouth,

“Lucas!” next was Will, who was unfortunate to be within arms length because she did not hesitate to raise the axe and hit him with the butt if the axe and knock him unconscious “Will!” Jonathan screams out and was ready to drop everything to help his brother but was stopped when Nancy grabbed his arm, pulling him back and shaking her head.

“No, no! Jonathan, I understand what you’re going through, but no! She will kill your the moment you’re within her grasp, she’s not letting us go this time.” he shakes his head.

“I don’t care! I need to get Will!” he cries out and rips his arm free from Nancy’s hold but stopped when he saw Steve and Robin already rushing over to stop [F/N] from going any further with the children, Nancy grabs his arm again and tugs at it to get his attention.

“Steve and Robin will deal with her, we’ll keep the Mind Flayer distracted, alright? Steve won’t let anything happen to your brother.” speaking of which, the Mind Flayer’s anger was beginning to mix in with her own, anger for the previous host that managed to slip through its grasp. Placing her foot on Will’s chest, she raises the axe up to slam it down but was once again stopped when it was smacked out of her hands, she growls at the perpetrator and saw that it was Robin, who had her hands out in front of her to keep some distance between her and [F/N].

“[F/N], baby, please… it’s me, it’s Robin.” she pleads, she flinches and takes a step back when [F/N] pushed herself off of Will but kicked his unconscious body away to approach Robin “Whatever this thing has done to you; has made you do, I want you to know that this isn’t your fault, none of it is. You’re just as innocent as the next person is, and I want you to know that I… I forgive you. Everything you said in the alleyway, I know you didn’t mean any of it. I want you to know that I still love you, through everything that’s happened, I love you.” Robin felt hopeful when she saw [F/N]’s hardened gaze soften, maybe she was caught up in her delusions of freeing her mind that she reached for her hand, that was her mistake because her hand quickly grabbed a hold of Robin to keep her from moving and with her other hand sucker punched her straight in the gut so hard that she spat out saliva. She didn’t let when Robin gasped out of breath, collapsing to her knees as she hunched over and clutched her stomach.

“I care not for your words, they mean nothing to me. Didn’t I already tell you that?” Robin lets out a sob at her cold words, wishing nothing more than to feel the warmth she once had only for her, but she could only cry out in pain when [F/N] twisted her arm “You’ve lost your chance of staying away, so I hope you’re prepared for the consequences.”

“Hey!” turning her head, she was taken aback when Steve came rushing over and slammed the bottom of a fire extinguisher into her face. She let out a gasp at the sudden blow, letting Robin go as her head was thrown back after the impact, she then raised her hand to cradle her throbbing nose as Steve’s arm dropped due to the weight of the extinguisher “You need to stop this madness, [F/N], I beg of you. I need you back, I need my big sister back!” he takes a step back when she growled at him but her face screwed up in pain once more, a mixture from getting hit with a fire extinguisher, the fireworks the Mind Flayer was getting hit with, but also [F/N] fighting for dominance over her mind once more.

He’s lying to you.

He doesn’t need you.

You don’t need him.

“Please, let’s just go home. With Robin and Billy, we’ll go home and watch movies like we used to. Talk about how much we hate our parents, how much we hate Hawkins and how we’ll leave as soon as Robin and Billy graduate. We’ll be together, like we always have. Just you, and me.” [F/N) groans out in pain, shaking her head as she slapped her hands against her forehead to quell all the madness that was going on “Just come back to me, my big sister.” Steve takes a step forward, reaching for her but gasped when she punched him in the face.

“Shut up!” she screamed at him, she struggled to stay standing whilst clutching her throbbing head.

Destroy him.

Annihilate him.

Murder him.

Kill him.

Steve couldn’t remember what happened next, first he was struggling to keep himself standing, the next thing he knew he was barely clinging to consciousness as he laid on his back while he suffered continuous blows to his face. [F/N] was currently on top of him, screaming at the top of her lungs as she punched him left and right, holding nothing back as she delivered blow after blow. At this right she was definitely going to kill him, but she just couldn’t stop herself, this time not pulling her punches and putting all her strength into each one. She saw him weakly reach out to her but she merely smacked his hand away then grab him by the collars of his shirt to pull him forward, reeling her head back to slam her forehead into the bridge of his nose. Blood gurgled in his throat and he was questioning why he was still conscious, wishing nothing more then for this continuous chain of pain to end, but he knew his sister was in a lot more pain. Weakly opening his eyes, he saw the pain in her eyes as she unwillingly hurt her sweet little brother that used to cry at the drop of a hat, so he reached for her once more when she held him up by his shirt as her other hand was pulled back.

“We… we were kids.” she furrowed her brows in confusion, what nonsense was he spouting out now? “We were k-kids and you were tea— teaching me to ride my bike. I wouldn’t stop crying, and you were making f-fun of me. You promised you’d be with me every… every step of the way. You never broke that promise, [F/N]; never. Even when you were gone, you made sure to write letters. Even when I s-said I hated you, you were still there.” his trembling hand managed to reach her face, gently cupping her cheek and caressing it with his thumb, her face softened and she leaned into the touch, a single tear running down her cheek “I love you, [F/N]…” his hand finally dropped to his side just as [F/N] took a deep breath, closing her eyes to reminiscent on every good memory she had of Steve, slowly but surely the black veins disappeared and the voice that screamed in her head grew silent. She blinked her eyes a few times in confusion, leaning backwards and looking around to see where exactly she was before finally looking down, and there her eyes widened in horror.

“Steve… Steve!” she screams at the top of her lungs, the tears swelling in her eyes falling freely down her cheeks. She hurriedly jumps off of him and lifts his weakened body into her lap, cradling his body into her arms while rocking back and forward “No, no, no, no, no! I didn’t mean to hurt you, I-I’m so sorry! I tried— I tried so hard to keep myself away from you, to stop myself from hurting you, but I’ve gone and broken my promise to you! I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!” she kept apologising over and over, but she just felt sick to her stomach. She couldn’t look at herself anymore, she couldn’t even look at her hands knowing that she was beating her brother that she swore she’d never hurt anymore. It hurt even more knowing that she hurt the love of her life, breaking her heart to keep her safe but then she hurt her when she was trying to save her from the monster that plagued her mind.

“[F/N]…” she gasped, looking down at her brother and saw that he was reaching for her again, she doesn’t hesitate to take his hand into hers and caress it, nuzzling the side of her face into it “You’re back…?” she chuckles weakly, nodding her head as she smiled weakly at him.

“Yes… yes, it’s me. It’s your big sister, who loves you very much.” he smiles at her but it breaks her heart seeing him looking up at her, face beaten and bleeding as his eyes were barely able to open “Will you ever forgive me?” he chuckles, closing his eyes and feeling his body relax under hers.

“What a foolish question, I’ll always f-forgive you…” she hunches over his body, her own trembling as her tears fell onto his body. A sob leaves her lips but her attention was torn off his body when she heard a loud roar, recognising it, she turned her head towards it and it widened at the sight of the Mind Flayer, her gaze soon hardened in rage at the mere sight of it. This fucking piece of shit was the cause of it all, for her and Billy hurting people, kidnapping people, killing people… her breaking up with Robin, and her hurting both Robin and Steve. She’ll never forgive it, she’ll never forget what it’s done to her and Billy, all because they were foolish enough to not go home and stayed out longer. Steve let out a confused noise when his head was lifted off of her lap, he watched as she picked up the fallen axe and at first he was worried she was back under the control of the Mind Flayer, but her gaze was trained on the Mind Flayer instead of anyone else “[F-F/N]…?” she breaks out into a running start then proceeds to step onto the railing and over it, raising the axe over her head then swings it down on the Mind Flayer.

“[F/N]?!” Billy, who was also free from the Mind Flayer’s control, shouts in surprise. Billy was holding one of the tentacles back that was aiming to kill El, pushing it back with everything he head, when [F/N] jumped off from the upper levels screaming and swinging the axe into the Mind Flayer’s body.

“You fucking piece of shit!” she yells, ripping the blade out of its gooey flesh then swung it down again “You made me hurt my brother! You made me break up with my girlfriend! You made me hurt so many people, and all for what?! Because you couldn’t make your own body?! You rat sack son of a bitch!” [F/N] knew what she was doing was stupid, that what she was doing was going to get her killed, but she really couldn’t care at all. She wanted to pay for what she’s done, why should she get off scot free? She wanted punishment, retribution for her actions “The only ending you’ll get is with your death!” she knew her actions would lead to her downfall, that what she was doing was meaningless, because the Mind Flayer easily threw her off and she landed on the ground with a thud. The next thing she knew was that one of the many tentacles surrounding the monster pierced her body, she slowly looked down and coughed up blood seeing the many teeth sink into her chest.

“Billy!” she hears a scream, turning her head, she sees that Billy has been met with the same fate. Pain runs throughout her body when several more of that things tentacles pierce through her body until it finally let her go, her body collapsing for she had no more strength left to keep her up. This was it, she was going to die alone knowing that she hurt her brother and her girlfriend— her ex? She didn’t know, all she knew was that she was going to die without making it up to the two people she loved the most, especially now that she was leaving her little brother alone. She coughs up more blood as she turns her head, noticing that Billy was still kicking so with what little strength she still had, she pushed herself onto her stomach and started dragging herself over to where he was laying. Finally reaching him, she pushes herself up then collapsed onto him, he looked down at her and saw she was crying.

“I won’t let you… die alone.” she muttered weakly, reaching her hand to rest on his cheek “I won’t leave you alone.” in turn for this final act of gentle affection, he raises his own hand to take her hand into his and the two of them stare into each other’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you leave me…?” he asked her, questioning what sanity she had for going back and saving him. She wouldn’t have had to suffer everything if she just abandoned him, he was used to it anyways, but she just gave him the best smile she could muster.

“Because… I wanted to see yours and Stevie’s wedding.” he stared at her but it did manage to crack a smile onto his face, and that was enough for the both of them.

“You’re stupid.”

“Maybe I am.” Steve was being helped down to the lower levels by Nancy and Jonathan, Robin following closely behind as the immense pain in her stomach still hadn’t settled, and Steve couldn’t properly walk on his own after the continuous blows he took to the face and head. They finally made it to the ground level and Steve looks over to see where Max was, crying in El’s arms, he looks where she was collapsed and his heart immediately dropped into his stomach at what he saw.

“No… no, no, no!” he cries out, Robin follows his gaze and herself saw both Billy and [F/N]’s motionless bodies that continued to bleed out “[F/N]! Billy! Please, god, no!” Steve thrashed in Nancy and Jonathan’s hood until they finally let him go, he fell to his knees but he scrambled to his feet and rushed over to their bodies. His hands trembled over their bodies, the tears in his eyes falling onto them “Please, no. Not like this, please. You can’t leave me, you can’t leave me alone…! You promised to be by my side, you promised!” his trembling hands reached to cup their faces and his face fell when they felt cold under his touch, god, this was really happening. Robin fell to her knees by his side, shaking her head at the sight of [F/N]’s lifeless body, she couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. She doesn’t hesitate to throw her arms around Steve’s body, squeezing him tightly and the two of them cried together knowing that they both lost somebody they loved.

But at least the two that did die, died in each other’s arms smiling.

Lullaby pt. 2

word count: 10,231

Fandom: Poppy Playtime Pairing: N/A Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Familial Occupation: Caretaker Ability: Ballerina Music Box

The character takes the appearance of a beautifully crafted music box ballerina figurine made of the toughest porcelain and glass, their clothes made from real fabric that is soft to touch and hair so smooth and silky you'd mistake it for real hair. Attached to their back is a wind up key that continuously spins when they're active and stops when they switch off. If the key is removed they cease to operate until key is returned and they are wound up again. Before CatNap, the character was the one to put the children to sleep with their built-in music box that would constantly be updated with new songs to play to help ease the children to sleep.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: the hour of joy, blood, death, all that shit.

"Lullaby" pt. 1, pt.3

finally started using grammarly properly and started cleaning up my shit, i'm kind of happy about the outcome, though grammarly does tend to repeat a couple words.

I originally wanted to make this longer but I'll put in what I want in the next part.

that is all.

It was just like any other day.

Wake up.

Do a headcount during breakfast.

Guide the children to school.

Clean up around Home Sweet Home.

Entertain the Smiling Critters.

Play with the children after their lessons.

And so on and so forth. But a problem arose when she was in the middle of cleaning up Home Sweet Home. It was late at night, and the staff had missed a few things during their shift. Rather than wait for the morning crew, she decided to take care of it herself. Usually, a few lingering night guard employees would patrol Home Sweet Home while she "slept," taking over her job of monitoring the Playcare. But tonight, she was struggling to find them—or at least the one in charge.

"Where the hell is the night guard...?" she muttered to herself, standing on the second floor and looking over the railing to try and spot the man. A quiet breath left her lips when she still couldn't find him. She sighed, frustrated, her nails tapping against the oak beneath her fingers. Forget it—she'd find him later.

She moved on to the third level of Home Sweet Home, where the Smiling Critters resided. Peeking into their rooms, she nodded softly when she saw them all sound asleep. But when she opened CatNap's door—

"H-Help me..." Her eyes widened at the sight of one of the morning staff lying in a pool of their own blood, deep scratch marks gouged along their arms and face. Huh—no wonder she hadn’t seen them earlier that afternoon. Slowly, she lifted her eyes and found CatNap staring at her, shock clear in his gaze. He hadn’t expected her. Some of the red smoke escaped his mouth, though they both knew it didn’t work on her.

"P-Please save me..." the injured woman pleaded, grabbing Ballade's leg and trying to pull herself up. Ballade froze, her mind racing. Why did she have to walk in at this moment? Why now? This woman had been pestering CatNap all day to "open up," insisting she was "there for him." He’d ignored her until she cornered him in his room, and clearly, things had escalated.

What was Ballade going to do? Report this to the higher-ups? Send CatNap to the doctor to fix his violent outburst? Was she scared of him? There was nothing he could do to stop her. Despite being made before the Smiling Critters, Ballade’s model had been designed to handle toys the humans couldn’t control. He took a step back when he saw her glance down at the woman, her hand reaching out. He expected her to help her up—but instead, her hand crushed the woman’s head in one swift motion.

Ballade waited for the twitching to stop before she removed her hand, looking back up at CatNap. She smiled softly. Before she could speak, the sound of footsteps echoed outside the room. She pressed a finger to her lips and gestured for him to stay quiet. Lifting the woman’s body by the neck, she stepped out and shut the door just as the night guard appeared.

"Ah, there you are, Balla—" He stopped, eyes widening at the sight of the dead body. "Why on earth do you have a corpse?" She shrugged.

"I thought she was an intruder and dealt with her the way the Head Executives told me to." He stared for a moment, then shrugged.

"Whatever, as long as you don't do that to me."

"You have a reason to be here overnight. She did not. I didn’t expect anyone but the nightguards to be here—and I know you wouldn’t sneak around like a rodent." She smiled sweetly as the woman’s bones cracked under her grip.

"R-Right... So, uh, what are you going to do with her body?"

"Feed her to Boxy. If the children ask why she’s missing, I’ll just say she’s sick and needs time to recover. Mister Pierre prefers it when I kill the staff—saves him money on wages."

"Sounds like him." The guard nodded. "Need any help?"

"I’ll manage. I’ll be back once the body’s disposed of." With a polite bow of her head, she turned away. Noticing the guard linger near CatNap's door, she held her breath—but he simply shook his head and walked off in the opposite direction. "Perhaps I should thank CatNap. Now I get to see Boxy Boo~ It’s been a while." Tossing the corpse over her shoulder, she made her way down to the prison. The night shift employees didn’t blink an eye when she passed with a body in tow. They knew the drill.

The moment Boxy's cell opened, his eyes peeked through the crack—and then the lid burst open. His tongue lolled out at the sight of fresh meat. She caressed his head gently before tossing the body onto the floor. As he ate, she sat beside him, talking about anything that came to mind. Boxy couldn’t speak, but she knew he was listening—and understanding.

It was hard to leave him, especially when he whined softly for her to stay. But she had other matters to attend to.

"Oh, kitty cat~" she cooed softly as she entered CatNap's room, now dressed in fresh clothes. She had taken longer than expected—mopping up blood was a tedious task. But she was back, and she found him sitting nervously on his bed. "You must be curious about what just happened, hmm?" She didn’t sit beside him, mindful of his nerves. Instead, she knelt before him, waiting patiently.

"... You killed her," he said quietly.

"I did."

"The human guard was fine with it..."

"He was."

"... Have you killed before?"

"Many times." She looked down at her porcelain hands, imagining the blood that had stained them so often. "I am Playcare's security for a reason. So long as I don't step out of line, I can deal with these humans however I like—and they won’t bat an eye. Mister Pierre prefers it. Saves him money and resources." Her voice softened as her hands began to tremble. "But I hate the human employees. They know what we are, what was done to us—and still, they smile while they lead children to their deaths. So yes, when I kill them—when they beg and plead—I enjoy it."

The sadistic glint in her eyes startled CatNap. But then her expression crumbled.

"But then I remember those children. I smile with them, sing with them, play with them—and I lie to them. I give them hope that they’ll leave this hell, knowing they never will. And that makes me just like those adults. I let those kids slip through my fingers." She clenched her shaking hands. "I hate myself for it."

"I don’t think you’re like them," he whispered. "You try to keep us safe. You let me go when I tried to escape." She blinked, startled that he remembered.

"And I am grateful to 1006 for saving your life. But that still isn't enough. I just want them to be free, even if it means I have to stay down here to repent for what I have done." She looked up when CatNap's paws grabbed her hands.

"The Prototype will save us." She blinked in confusion.

"T-The Prototype? But how? Ever since you two tried to escape, he's been put in a high-security cell that only the Head Executives and the Doctor can access. I'm allowed to roam the prison however I like, but even I'm not allowed near it. I-It's impossible." She shivered slightly when he gave a low chuckle.

"He will give us salvation. With him, we will know true freedom." He noticed the way her face broke, even if it was just for a second; he saw the way his words were getting to her. "If we side with the Prototype, he will free us from this prison." Her gaze stayed on him before it drifted to the side.

"I don't care if I have to stay down here, I just want those kids to be free." She licked her lips as she looked at him. "If I help... will he promise to set them free?" He grinned.

"The Prototype will set us all free." She wavered, swallowing thickly as she took her hands back.

"I need to think about this, Theo. If something goes wrong--" He shook his head.

"Nothing will go wrong." She sighed.

"We don't know that. I haven't agreed nor have I declined the thought of siding with the Prototype, but I just need to think about this. If I do agree... I'll come find you, but it'll take me some time." He nodded his head.

"There's no need to rush, [F/N]."

"Thank you, Theo." She smiled, albeit weakly, and hugged him. "I really needed this."

"... If you ever need to talk, I'll be here." She hummed softly.

"You're probably the only one who would understand, but I don't want to burden you with my thoughts." He shook his head.

"It's the least I can do with all the stress you have to carry."

"Hah, then I appreciate it." She scratched under his chin and nuzzled her cheek against his. "I won't say a word about our conversation to anyone, but tell me if anyone else bothers you. I will personally take care of it. Or if you kill anyone, tell me and I'll clean it up. You're not technically allowed to kill anyone, so we'll both get in trouble if that occurs." He let out his own laugh.

"I'll keep that in mind." CatNap perked up when he felt her movements start to lag, so he looked at the wind-up key and saw that it was beginning to slow. Noticing this, he gently nudged her stomach. "You should go back to your stage; you're beginning to slow down."

"Oh, I didn't even notice." She started pushing herself up but struggled a little. She let out a noise when CatNap stood up and let her lean on his body. "Thank you."

"Allow me to help you down..." She hummed softly.

"I appreciate the help." The nightguards didn't question CatNap helping Ballade down the stairs and onto her stage, where he waited for her key to stop turning to finally leave her alone. They all knew that CatNap was her favorite out of all the Smiling Critters and figured if they couldn't find her in her usual spots, she'd be with that colossal cat.

And so the days went on as if nothing happened in the first place. A few of the children did notice that the woman was missing but eventually forgot about it when Ballade said she was at home resting after catching a cold. The Smiling Critters did notice that Ballade and CatNap seemed a lot closer than usual; they also knew that CatNap was her favorite, but whatever occurred that night seemed to have strengthened their bond. Speaking of which, they needed Ballade for something and found both her and CatNap on her stage with a couple of other children drawing.

"What a wonderful blend of colors, sweetheart. Crafty Corn has taught you well during her arts and crafts lessons." Ballade praised as she looked over their art piece, quite impressed by their skill. "You will make a fine artist someday, child." She teasingly pinched their nose and giggled softly when they squealed.

"Stop that!" She held her hands up in surrender before leaning back into CatNap once more, her hand absentmindedly patting his head while her music box played songs that helped him sleep. Her other hand was drawing circles in the air before she finally noticed DogDay, Bobby, and Bubba, where she perked up and waved her hand to greet them. "Good afternoon, children! Care to join us?" She cocked a brow when she saw the three of them look nervous.

"Um, you're not particularly busy, are you?" She looked at the children that were sprawled all over her stage while CatNap nestled close into her back before looking back up at them.

"...Not really, no. Why?" Their reason was so ridiculous it woke CatNap up; even the children were staring in confusion. That's where she found herself staring down at Kickin and Hoppy, who had somehow gotten themselves stuck in the children's playground. "And you did this because you wanted to prove you could fit through the hole?" At least Hoppy had the decency to look shameless; Kickin just huffed as he hung by his waist from out of the hole he was stuck in.

"...Yes." She shook her head.

"You do know that this is a playground built for tiny children, correct?" She chuckled softly when Hoppy covered her face with her ears. "Have anything to say for yourselves?"

"...Help us?"

"No!" She slapped a hand onto her forehead and let out a sigh while the crowd of children laughed when Hoppy and Kickin apologized, which was what she really wanted. The next hour was spent with Ballade trying to get them out without damaging the playground or hurting the two, but both were difficult. The two of them had wedged themselves pretty tight, and she couldn't pull them out without tearing their stitching. She practically had to tear the holes they were in wide enough for them to slip out, but due to this, it destroyed the part of the playground they got themselves stuck in. She then spent the next half hour explaining to a few of the employees what happened while Hoppy and Kickin were on their knees with their arms above their heads as a form of punishment.

"You guys did this to yourselves," Bubba said, Picky and Crafty nodding their heads from behind the elephant.

"We're sorry..." Hoppy and Kickin sighed, DogDay snickering softly.

"The children had a good laugh out of it," Bobby said, pursing her lips as she scratched her cheek.

"Sure, but now they have to close the playground so they can fix what Miss Ballade broke to get them out." They looked back over at her and saw how she pinched the bridge of her nose at what the employee told her, then apologized and consoled the children when they learned they couldn't play on the playground. "Way to go, you two."

"Let's hope Miss Ballade doesn't get in trouble. They don't like it when we break any of the property," Crafty said.

"Perhaps since it was her, she won't get into a lot of trouble."

"Still, I can't help but worry." Hoppy and Kickin felt even worse; because of their competitiveness, they were getting Ballade in trouble. True to her suspicion, Leith reprimanded Ballade for not keeping an eye on the two and for not thinking of any alternatives to prying them free. CatNap was the one to slink over to her side to comfort her but flinched upon noticing that behind her smile-painted face was the look of rage burning in her eyes. Her hand closed into a tight fist, her entire frame trembling with suppressed anger as she watched Leith with Stella and a few other employees walk away. Her eyes snapped over to CatNap when she felt him press himself against her side, his presence the only thing keeping her from lashing out. She took a slow breath, forcing her muscles to relax, but her voice, when she spoke, was tight and low.

"Thank you..." she spoke softly, his ears perked up at her words. "You're really the only person that can calm me down..." Her voice was barely above a whisper, soft enough that only he could hear. The way CatNap lit up had the children thinking that Ballade was going to reward him with something. A broken, rumbling purr rippled from his throat as he rubbed affectionately against her side. She responded by kneeling down, her painted smile still in place, and nuzzled her cheek gently against his fur. The warmth of the gesture seemed so natural, so familiar, that the children watching giggled at the display.

But then her eyes shifted, softening as they landed on Hoppy and Kickin. Their ears drooped, and their expressions were heavy with guilt. Without hesitation, she approached them. They jumped in surprise when her hands landed softly on their heads, then cupped the back of them to pull them into a warm embrace. She felt the way they trembled in her hold, their little bodies overcome with remorse.

"W-We're sorry for getting you in trouble, Miss Ballade..."

"We promise we won't d-do it again..." they whimpered softly, their voices shaking. She shook her head, her grip on them gentle but firm.

"It's fine, it's better if I get in trouble than you lot. They would be far harsher on you than they ever would be with me." The thought chilled her, though she kept her tone calm and comforting. We’re lucky all I got was a talking to and nothing else, she thought bitterly. Pulling back just enough to meet their eyes, she offered a soft, reassuring smile. "As long as you learn from this, all is fine." she sweat dropped when they started crying so she continued to hold them until they eventually calmed down.

The next day, determined to make things right, Hoppy and Kickin approached the playground supervisor and took full responsibility for the damage. They also worked together to organize an impromptu arts and crafts day with Crafty Corn’s help, keeping the children entertained while the playground was being repaired. They even helped with the cleanup and offered to assist in the minor repairs they could manage without making things worse. Ballade couldn't help but be impressed by their initiative to take responsibility—perhaps the two of them were finally learning—until she noticed them bickering again, each claiming the idea had been theirs. She cleared her throat pointedly, and with one sharp look, the two fell silent.

Despite their antics, the effort they put in didn’t go unnoticed. By the end of the week, the playground was on its way to being fixed, and the children had enjoyed a day filled with laughter and creativity. Even Stella, seeing their hard work, made a point to praise them for stepping up. Later, as the day came to an end, Ballade found herself once again sitting with CatNap on her stage, watching the children show off their colorful creations. She let out a soft sigh, her hand absentmindedly stroking behind his ears.

“Maybe they’ll grow out of it one day,” she mused. CatNap chuckled, his purring a gentle vibration against her side.

“Maybe. But where would the fun be in that?” Ballade smiled despite herself, the warmth of the moment washing away the week’s troubles. For now, at least, there was peace—and perhaps just a little bit of hope.

Until—

"We're a head short..." Ballade murmured to herself as she counted the children that exited the school, she grew nervous when she counted again and again but she still ended up short one child. "Even one of the Miss Delight teachers is missing. Where could they have gone?" One of the Miss Delight teachers approached Ballade after hearing her question.

"Miss Ballade, thank goodness I've found you." She raised a brow.

"What is it?" She looked down at the teacher and watched her pace.

"The employees came earlier today and pulled one of the children aside." Ballade's face turned cold at what she said. "We know we're not supposed to interfere when they take the children, but they weren't following the correct procedure, so one of my sisters is stalling them." Miss Delight flinched when she saw the dark look on Ballade's face, her voice dropping.

"Where are they?" she asked, her tone sharp and dangerous.

"If she's stopped them, they should be close to the back."

She nodded once and turned, her pace brisk and her mind already racing through every possible scenario. Her breath quickened as she navigated the halls, thoughts swirling in a dangerous storm. If they were taking a child now, in broad daylight, it was far outside protocol. They were only supposed to remove the children at lights out—when it was easier to explain away their absence by saying they had fallen ill overnight. If they were breaking that rule, it meant that the scientists were eager to experiment on a child instead of having the lucky "chosen child" that was lucky to be adopted.

"Please, don't take Sarah away!" Miss Delight's desperate plea echoed through the corridor, trembling with fear and determination. Ballade’s sharp eyes immediately locked onto the two employees holding the child—Sarah—between them, their grips too firm and their faces too tense. Sarah’s frightened whimpers tugged at something primal inside Ballade. When one of the employees pushed Miss Delight back, Ballade’s vision flashed with fury. Her smile, painted and eternal, hid the storm brewing just beneath the surface.

"Unhand that child." Ballade’s voice was calm—too calm—but the weight of it filled the air like a thunderclap. Every head turned toward her, and the employees visibly stiffened under her gaze.

"Miss Ballade, this is none of your concern—"

"It becomes my concern when my children are frightened," she cut in coldly. She advanced slowly, every step measured, her eyes never leaving theirs. "And it becomes my problem when protocols are ignored." She stopped mere feet from them, her towering presence suffocating in its intensity. "So I will only say this once more: unhand the child. Now." they were quick to heed her words and they let Sarah go, who cried weakly and fell into Miss Delight's embrace.

"I-I was so scared...!" she sobbed softly, Ballade waved her hand and gestured for Miss Delight to take the child and leave.

"I'll handle this, go join the rest of the children and your sisters." she bowed her head, thanking the figurine profusely as she rushed away with the child in hand. When they were both out of sight and she knew they were alone, her fist connected with the wall beside their head and they both jumped in fright when it made a hole. The sharp crack of breaking plaster echoed through the corridor, and dust rained down around them.

"What do you think you were doing, hmm?" she asked, her friendly persona disappearing as she glared down at the two humans, who trembled under her terrifying gaze. Her eyes, usually warm and expressive, had turned cold and razor-sharp, her smile a painted mockery of calm.

"W-We... We were just fo-- following orders." they answered, their voices shaking.

"Oh? Then why didn't you follow the proper procedure?" Ballade’s voice was low and dangerous, like a blade sliding from its sheath. She took a slow, deliberate step forward, and they instinctively backed away. "If you are to take a child, I am to be informed so I don't act the way I am acting right now." The venom in her tone made their knees buckle. "Even so, why aren't you following the correct protocol?"

She advanced again, her presence suffocating and overwhelming. "When you are to take a child in broad daylight, especially when there are other children to witness your actions, you must do it in a way that doesn't cause the child to stress and raise alarms. And yet here you are—manhandling her like some kind of thief." Her voice dropped to a whisper, which somehow made it even more terrifying. "Are you thieves? Are you looking to steal from me? Because I will not tolerate anyone who threatens my children." One of the employees tried to stammer out an excuse, but Ballade slammed her hand against the wall again, cutting them off. The impact left another crack in the plaster, and both humans flinched violently.

"Give me one good reason," she hissed, her eyes burning with fury, "why I shouldn't report you to the Head Executives myself. Or perhaps..." She tilted her head, her smile twisting into something darker. "Perhaps I should take this up with the Doctor. I'm sure he'd love to use you in a few of his experiments." They paled at the mention of the Doctor, their fear now nearly tangible.

"Please... it was a mistake! We—we won't do it again!" one of them whimpered.

"You’re right about that," Ballade snapped. "Because if you ever step out of line again, I promise you—there won’t be enough left of you for anyone to find. Now get out of my sight."

She closed her eyes, taking a slow breath to calm herself before ripping her hands free from the wall, flexing her fingers to shake off the debris. She was confused—why wasn't she informed that they were taking one of the children that day? Why did they show up at the school to remove little Sarah? The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Something wasn’t right.

Did she do the right thing stepping in the way she did? The answer was clear in her heart—yes. But the weight of what she’d just done pressed heavily on her mind. She figured they were going to inform the higher-ups about her interference, and she knew there would be consequences. But was she really at fault? Was protecting the children wrong? Haa, she was going to get into so much trouble.

Her fingers twitched with leftover adrenaline as she turned to leave, but then she remembered the holes she had made. Her eyes darted around the corridor, scanning for any witnesses. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she grabbed the nearby lockers and, with little to no effort, shifted them just enough to conceal the damage.

Perfect.

She stepped back, brushing dust from her hands and examining her work with a critical eye. No one would know—at least for now.

"Miss Ballade!" her head perked up when she saw DogDay rushing up to her, his ears flopping with every hurried step. His face was a mix of worry and confusion "I heard what happened from Miss Delight! Are you alright?" She waved her hand to dismiss his concern, the painted smile on her face still intact, but her eyes betrayed her unease.

"I am fine, nothing to fret about," she answered calmly, her hand gently patting his shoulder in reassurance. "But I am concerned. Why would they break protocol? The scientists are usually very thorough on how they... take the children. They are never ones to send the employees—never in broad daylight, and never without informing me." Her voice softened, but the tension in it was unmistakable.

"Why would they do that?" she sighed.

"I haven't a clue." She jumped when she heard a cry, so she looked over DogDay and saw little Sarah clinging to Miss Delight's dress, the woman doing her best to comfort the child. Miss Delight's usual calm demeanor was visibly shaken, her hands smoothing over Sarah's hair in a desperate attempt to ease her fear.

"I-I was so scared, Miss Delight! I didn't do anything wrong!" The Smiling Critters, who had heard the commotion, huddled around the little girl, their soft voices trying to soothe her with gentle reassurances. Bobby reached out to pat her shoulder, and Crafty offered one of her handmade paper flowers, but nothing seemed to ease Sarah’s sobs. The moment Ballade approached, Sarah’s wide, tear-filled eyes locked onto her, and without hesitation, the little girl rushed over and threw her arms around Ballade's legs tightly. "I swear I didn't do anything wrong, Miss Ballade!" The heartbreak in Sarah's voice made Ballade’s chest tighten, her smile unable to mask the surge of emotion welling up inside her. She knelt down slowly, gently holding the trembling girl by her arms, brushing a stray lock of hair from Sarah's damp cheek.

"I'm sure you did nothing wrong, little one. But fear not—your friend Miss Ballade Ballerina thwarted their efforts! They won’t be coming to scare you, not anymore." Her voice softened with a warm, protective lilt, but inside, she felt a cold fury still simmering from the encounter. She gasped softly when Sarah threw her arms around her neck, her tiny frame shaking with sobs. Ballade sighed, the sound soft and heavy as her own arms wrapped securely around the child, one hand cradling the back of Sarah’s head as she whispered gentle reassurances. "I'll make sure of it," she promised, her voice low and fierce with quiet determination. She knew those words meant more than Sarah could ever understand.

"T-Thank you, Miss Ballade. I'm glad I can trust you." The girl’s words were muffled against her shoulder, but they struck Ballade harder than any blow. Her breath caught as she felt Sarah nuzzle closer into her embrace, seeking safety and comfort. The weight of guilt settled deeper into Ballade’s mind, cold and unshakable.

She really shouldn't place her trust in her.

CatNap noticed Ballade becoming more distant from herself after the incident with the child as bedtime approached. No one else seemed to pick up on the subtle changes — the way her painted smile looked just a bit more strained, how her eyes wavered every time she looked at the children. The mask she always wore, the one that kept her true emotions hidden, was slipping. She lingered longer when the children hugged her, held them a little tighter, as if trying to memorize the warmth of their small arms around her. Their laughter, their trust — it weighed heavily on her shoulders. They told her how much they loved spending time with her, and each word chipped away at her carefully constructed facade. It had always been easy to fake happiness for their sake, to protect their ignorant bliss… but with each passing day, it became so much harder to keep up the act.

It was during bedtime, after they put the children to sleep and she was walking CatNap back to his room, when he finally understood why.

"I'll do it." his head perked up when she spoke, her face void of any emotion.

"... do what?" her eyes hardened, whether it be at him or herself, he couldn't really tell.

"Whatever you and 1006 need, I'll do it." Ballade's shoulders slumped as her eyes fixated on a picture frame of the children laughing and smiling, not a single bad thought behind their innocent eyes. She stared at it, the image feeling so distant— like something she could never quite reach. She wondered what it would feel like to truly hold them, to feel their warmth, the softness of their little hands when they reached out for her. But she never would. The sensation of touch was something foreign, a mystery she'd never get to experience again in this body. Every embrace she gave them was empty for her, a performance of comfort she could never fully share.

"I can't do it anymore." Her voice broke, trembling with the weight of her words. "It pains me every time I watch those children cry and ask me what they did wrong to be taken away, how they trust me with every inch of their small bodies and I trample all over it just by simply existing." She wanted so badly to feel the way they held onto her, to know the security they believed she gave them. But all she ever felt was the aching hollowness where that connection should have been.

"I hate going to the prison and hearing their anguished cries to be let out, to go home, to be free." Her hands shook at her sides, the phantom feeling of their terrified clinging playing through her mind — sensations she could only imagine. "I hate lying to them, telling them everything will be okay when I know it won’t." she could imagine the sensation of tears welling up in her eyes, though they could never fall since she lacked the proper glands to produce them. "They look at me like I’m their protector, their safe place… and every time one of them disappears, I know I've failed them again." She clenched her fists so tightly her porcelain hands threatened to crack, but even the pain of it was absent. The frustration of that emptiness only made the ache inside her deepen.

Ballade's fingers traced the frame’s edges, her hands trembling as she fought to keep her composure. CatNap watched her quietly, his tail flicking with unease. It was rare to see Ballade like this— so vulnerable, so worn down by guilt and sorrow. He padded closer, pressing his head against her arm in an attempt to offer some comfort.

"They deserve better," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Better than me. Better than this place." CatNap let out a low, broken purr, his eyes flickering with a knowing look.

"Then let's change it," he murmured, his voice soft but resolute. Ballade turned to him, her eyes wide but weak.

"But what if we fail?" he shook his head.

"We won't. With your help, freedom will be in ours hands. The Prototype will make sure of that, I promise." her lip trembled and he'd think she'd start crying but she was unable to, she bit her lip and knelt down to press her forehead against his.

"I don't care what happens to me, CatNap, so long as those kids get to leave this hellish place." Her voice hardened. "I'll side with you and the Prototype if it means those kids get to be free, if it means they don't have to suffer anymore." She turned to face him, eyes burning with a mixture of sorrow and resolve. "Just tell me what you guys are going to do, and I'll be right on your side." she was fully on her knees as she wrapped her arms around CatNap's neck and nuzzled into his head, he returned the affection as a single thought went through his mind.

He had won.

Ever since their conversation to help the Prototype, CatNap observed Ballade closely. He saw how the weight of her decision pressed down on her more with each passing day. There was a newfound desperation in her every action, an urgency that hadn’t been there before—because now there was chance to finally make things right. Now there was a possibility that the children's suffering could finally end, and that chance both strengthened and broke her.

He noticed how she struggled to get by every day, caught between the promise of freedom for the children and the reality of her own helplessness. The knowledge that she could finally save them gnawed at her, but with it came the agony of waiting—waiting for the right time, waiting for the right plan. Every second felt like a betrayal, knowing the children she loved were still at risk.

Ballade’s guilt was killing her. She hated herself for every moment she stood by and did nothing while the children were taken—frightened, confused, and pleading for answers she couldn’t give. She hated the way they trusted her so completely, how they clung to her and sought comfort in her arms when she knew she couldn’t protect them. And worse, she hated how she longed for their touch even though she couldn’t feel it.

That emptiness haunted her. Every time a child’s small hand slipped into hers, every time they hugged her tight, she could only pretend to feel it. She could see their warmth, their affection, but it never reached her. And yet she held onto those moments as if they could somehow fill the void inside her. She clung to their love because it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

"... the Prototype has a plan, [F/N]. But we must wait before we can act on it."

"How long must I wait?"

"I'm sure you can be patient." a weak chuckle escaped her throat when he saw her pout, he nudged his head against her cheek "Our freedom will be guaranteed with you on our side." she nods.

"Just tell me when, and I'll do whatever you two need me to do."

Having Ballade side with the Prototype was the last hurdle in their final plan. She was already well aware that the Prototype was one of the most dangerous experiments to ever come out of the Bigger Bodies Initiative. And though she was no match for a force as powerful and unpredictable as the Prototype itself, Ballade was more than capable of handling CatNap and the other Bigger Bodies. That was her job — not only to care for the children and dispose of any unwanted guests but to apprehend any of the toys that stepped out of line. She’d done it before, and she can most definitely do it again. She remembered the incident with Mommy Longlegs vividly — the frantic way the creature lashed out when the children left the Game Station and moved into Playcare. The hysteria had escalated so quickly that Ballade had been forced to tie Mommy Longlegs' limbs together just to stop her from going on a rampage. It wasn’t the first time Ballade had been made to turn on one of her own, and wouldn’t be the last so long as the toys did their jobs.

The Prototype will be most pleased to learn Ballade has sided with him.

[august eighth 1995, 10.00 am]

Deep breath.

In, and out.

In, and out.

Quell your nerves.

"Ballade, are you alright?" her eyes move down to one of the human counselors and saw the way the woman looked up at her in concern, seemingly noticing she wasn't acting like herself, but Ballade easily masked her unease and smiled.

"Don't worry about me, Miss. Just trying to come up with more ways to entertain the children, the older ones are growing bored of the usual activities I usually plan out. I'm struggling to come up with new things to keep them entertained." the woman laughed as she pats Ballade on the back.

"I'm sure you can come up with something, you're quite creative when it comes to keeping those kids on their toes!" she gave a laugh in response to her words.

"I try my best." she waves her hand goodbye when the woman had to return to the Counselor's Office, missing the way Ballade's eyes turned cold as they observed all the human employees walking around. It was like any other ordinary day within the Playcare, the children were up and escorted to the dining hall for breakfast by the Smiling Critters then guided to the school to proceed with the day. It was only a matter of time before it all begins, and they won't even know what hit them.

".... don't tell me you're chickening out, [F/N]." a bitter laugh escapes her lips when CatNap appeared beside her, she looked down at him and could practically see the eagerness in his eyes "It's almost upon us." she huffed.

"Yes, the day they all reap what they sow. The other Critters are still unaware, right?" he nods.

"They are. They're not nearly as understanding as you, so I was afraid to outright tell them the details about what was going to happen today." he saw the way her shoulders slumped.

"I feel like that it's for the better, Theo. Better to stain our hands than than the others." she let out a breath "Then we're going for plan b?" he nods his head.

"I have already told them to meet us beneath the Playhouse." she closed her eyes and briefly looked back into Home Sweet Home to find the clock and it was only half past ten, he watched her and saw the way she rubbed her arms nervously "Remember, [F/N], we're doing this to secure our freedom. The Prototype is giving us our chance to do right by the children by not only saving them, but ourselves." despite her hesitation, she nodded.

"You're right." she inhaled deeply before they both made their way to the Playhouse, they went through the back to avoid running into any other staff members or children and found the Smiling Critters in the prison, Ballade made sure there was nobody else beneath the Playhouse before entering the room alone.

"Children... something drastic is going to happen in the next half hour, and though I don't want you to participate in what is going to happen, I can't leave you in the dark." Kickin let out a nervous chuckle, his feathered hand rubbing the back of his head.

"W-What do you mean? Does this have to do with what CatNap was yapping about months ago?" she nodded.

"What exactly has he told you?" They looked at each other rather anxiously, Bobby pressing her paws together.

"He mentioned... the Prototype? Saying stuff about how he'll save us." Hoppy nodded.

"He was really cryptic with his words. It kind of freaked me out."

"CatNap was talking about how there will come a time when we will get to take back our lives if we... join the Prototype," Bubba said, his hooves messing with his lightbulb-shaped zipper.

"CatNap wasn't s-serious about us joining the Prototype, right? The staff told us that he was very dangerous," Crafty murmured softly.

"He's been obsessed with that thing for ages. I thought he would have gotten over it years ago," Picky added. DogDay, in turn, gave a forced laugh as he looked up at Ballade. He felt uneasy with how they were all trapped in the cramped room with Ballade blocking their way out. The dimly lit room didn’t help calm his nerves as Ballade looked down at them all with an unreadable expression.

"He wasn't being serious though, right? He was probably just trying to scare us! He wouldn't really consider joining hands with that experiment." He took Ballade by the hand and looked up at her for some sort of reassurance. "If you're talking to us about this, then that means CatNap brought this up with you as well. He wasn't being serious about helping the Prototype, right? You talked him out of it, right?" They all looked up at her eagerly and saw the way she couldn't meet their eyes.

"M-Miss Ballade?" When she took a step forward, they felt a chill run down their spines when they saw the look in her eyes.

"The Prototype will set us free," she spoke with a rather eerie voice. She took DogDay's paw and squeezed it, a look of desperate and conflicted expression on her face. "He said that if we help him, we'll be saving the orphans from being killed."

DogDay yanked his paw back, stepping away as if burned. "You... you're siding with the Prototype?" His voice was trembling, his wide eyes filled with disbelief.

Ballade flexed her hands, her painted smile a stark contrast to the pain in her eyes. "I didn’t, initially," she whispered. "But I’ve grown tired of seeing so many children dying at the hands of the scientists — and I let it all happen because I couldn't do anything about it. If we help him, he promises that he'll set them free... He’ll set you free! Don't you understand? If siding with the Prototype means we get to end this madness, then so be it."

The room fell into a suffocating silence.

"No," Hoppy whispered, her ears flattened against her head. "No, this isn’t right… You—You can’t believe him!"

"The Prototype is a monster!" Bobby cried. "He’s dangerous — the humans told us so!"

"And the humans lie!" Ballade snapped, her voice cracking as emotion bled through. "They hurt us! They hurt the children! How many more have to suffer before we fight back?!"

"Not like this," DogDay said softly, shaking his head. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. "Not like this, Miss Ballade…" they stare up at her in terror as her shoulders deflated, she let out a defeated breath as she lowered her head.

“Then... you leave me no choice.” Ballade’s voice was heavy with regret as she stepped to the side, one hand reaching for the doorknob behind her. It was then that they noticed the red smoke seeping from beneath the doorframe. When she turned the knob and pulled the door open, the thick, eerie mist flooded into the room, swirling around their feet. CatNap stepped in silently, his eyes gleaming with purpose.

“I can’t have you stopping us,” Ballade continued, her voice quiet but resolute. “Nor telling the adults what you’ve learned.” As the door clicked shut behind CatNap, the red smoke spread, filling the room like a creeping tide.

“W-What are you doing?” Kickin’s voice wavered, panic rising.

“Why are you doing this, Ballade?!” Bubba cried out, fear evident in his eyes.

One by one, they succumbed. The red smoke took them swiftly, their bodies crumpling to the floor as the strange gas overtook them. Ballade stood still, taking a deep breath—unaffected—as the others collapsed around her. Only DogDay resisted, his knees buckling as he fought to stay conscious, his teeth clenched.

“Please... don’t...” he whispered, his vision blurring.

But it was futile. As his strength gave out and he began to fall, Ballade caught him, cradling him gently in her arms. For a moment, she held him there, her grip firm but careful. When she pulled away, her fingers brushed against his face, cupping his cheeks with a heartbreaking tenderness.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “You’ll forgive me for this when it’s all over... when you see what we’ve done was to save you.”

DogDay’s hand gripped her shoulder weakly, his eyes pleading—but then his strength faded completely, and his body went limp. Ballade closed her eyes, forcing herself to swallow the guilt rising in her throat. With methodical care, she gathered the others, dragging their unconscious forms into their individual cells. The sound of the locks clicking into place echoed in the still air, and she stood in the silence that followed, her heart heavy.

For a long moment, she lingered at the door, her hand resting on the cold metal.

“You did what you could, [F/N],” CatNap said softly behind her. “I’m sure they’ll thank you when this is all over.”

Ballade clasped her hands together tightly, the motion more to steady herself than anything else. “I just hope... my judgment isn’t wrong.” She looked down at CatNap, her eyes sincere but filled with doubt. “The Prototype will uphold his promise... right? The orphans will be set free... right?”

She didn’t trust the Prototype—how could she?—but she trusted CatNap. And CatNap believed in him. That was the only reason she was still standing here.

The only reason she hadn’t turned back.

"The doctors say he's dangerous, but he wants what's best for us all." this was enough to reassure her, she reached down and ruffled his head.

"If you say so." she takes another breath to calm herself one last time "We should probably go, it's almost time." he nods.

"The Hour of Joy is almost upon us." she chuckled as she laced her fingers together and pushed them forward, hearing her joints crack under the pressure.

"Let's get to work."

There were many toys that the Prototype managed to recruit to his cause, each one with their own grudges and reasons for joining his orchestrated rebellion throughout the entirety of Playtime Co. From Huggy Wuggy, stationed menacingly within the main lobby with his sharp-toothed grin and cold, unblinking eyes, to Mommy Longlegs lurking within the Game Station alongside the ever-watchful Mini Huggies, waiting with predatory patience for their signal to strike. In Playcare, the heart of the children's refuge, CatNap and Ballade stood as the most dangerous of his allies—each powerful in their own right, each burdened with their own twisted sense of duty and guilt.

Even Miss Delight, the ever-cheerful face of comfort for the orphans, was drawn into this uprising, her tears of joy and sadness masking the deep-seated resentment she bore toward the human employees. And then there were the mini Smiling Critters—once innocent and carefree, now caught between loyalty and fear. They hadn’t yet chosen their sides, and that hesitation made them dangerous liabilities.

The Prototype extended a hand to all the toys who had suffered at the hands of the human employees, promising them more than just vengeance. He offered them freedom—freedom from the torment of their artificial existence, from the chains of servitude and the horror of seeing the children they loved and protected dragged away, never to return. It was a chance to end the cycle of pain and finally reclaim their lives from those who had treated them as nothing more than tools and experiments.

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM EFFECTIVE 8/8/1995 11:00:00 EST

Playtime Company

Issue A

WORK FORCE DANGER ALERT

"The following message is for all Playtime Co. employees.

At 11:01AM, Eastern Standard Time, an unknown hostile force declared present within the Playtime Co. facility.

Personnel are to begin enacting emergency evacuation protocols immediately.

Leave all personal belongings.

Do not engage with any hostile individuals.

If no exit path is available, seek shelter in a hidden location.

Use blankets or pillows to cover your body, and remain silent.

Do not look through any windows.

Do not open doors for any individuals.

Do not make eye contact--

...

...

Open the doors now. The Hour of Joy has arrived."

It started with the alarms—shrill, blaring cries echoing through the factory like the wailing of lost souls. The lights flickered violently, plunging corridors into a maddening dance of shadow and flame. In the main lobby, Huggy Wuggy descended upon the unsuspecting staff with terrifying speed, his massive frame moving with unnatural grace as his gleaming teeth tore through the chaos. Screams filled the air, but no one escaped his relentless pursuit. Blood painted the walls, limbs lay scattered across the floor, and the air reeked of iron and fear.

At the Game Station, Mommy Longlegs played with her prey. Her elastic limbs snaked through vents and rafters, dragging terrified employees into the darkness. The Mini Huggies scurried in swarms, their tiny forms overwhelming anyone who crossed their path. The once lively station became a house of horrors, filled with echoes of laughter twisted into something monstrous. Flesh was torn from bone, and the floors were slick with blood as the station became a macabre playground.

In Playcare, it was no better than the rest of the factory.

Outside the Playhouse, the halls of Playcare ran red. CatNap drifted through the corridors like a phantom, his red smoke spilling into every crevice. The humans never stood a chance—one by one, they collapsed, some peacefully, others choking on the thick haze, their bodies hitting the ground with lifeless thuds. Ballade followed in his wake, her hands already stained with blood. She moved with cold purpose, securing the orphans first, locking them away where no harm could reach them.

But the carnage followed her.

The human employees were torn apart, their bodies left in grotesque displays of violence. One counselor she had shared a conversation earlier in the morning with lay sprawled against a wall, her throat crushed that her head lolled unnaturally to the side. Another staff member—someone who had once laughed and joked with the children—clawed at his own face, the red mist driving him into a frenzy of madness before his body finally gave out.

As the hour stretched on, the factory drowned in chaos. The Prototype’s plan unfolded perfectly, and the rebellion tore through Playtime Co. like wildfire. Yet amid the destruction, doubt gnawed at Ballade’s resolve. The line between savior and monster blurred, and she wondered if the price of freedom was too steep to bear.

...

...

"Haaa..." It was only hours after the Hour of Joy had commenced when Ballade sat on one of the benches within Playcare, her head thrown back over the backrest while she spread her legs out. "That took longer than I expected," she muttered, as blood slowly dripped down her unclenched fists. The metallic scent of it clung heavily to the air, a stark contrast to the usual warmth and joy that once filled this place. She didn’t get exhausted easily, but after hours of nonstop killing, her body finally felt the weight of it.

She sat up and let her body rest against her knees, more blood sliding down her face and legs, staining her once-pristine porcelain skin a deep, ghastly red. The sticky sensation of it had long since lost its shock — now it just felt like part of her.

CatNap emerged from the shadows, his colossal frame also splattered with crimson, though his breathing was steady and composed. "Most of the humans are gone," he reported, his voice light, almost pleased. "Playcare’s finally quiet. Peaceful."

But it wasn’t peaceful. It was too quiet. The children’s laughter, the chatter of the Smiling Critters — it was all gone. In its place was an eerie stillness, broken only by the distant, occasional drip of blood hitting the cold floor. Ballade’s eyes flickered toward the Playhouse where the Smiling Critters still lay unconscious, and her heart twisted. They hadn’t stirred once since she and CatNap had gassed them. She told herself it was for their own good — they wouldn’t have been able to handle the truth of what needed to be done. Still, the silence behind that door haunted her more than the screams of the humans ever could.

"They’ll thank us," CatNap said softly, as if reading her mind. "When the dust settles, when the children are free— they’ll understand." Ballade nodded slowly, but the doubt gnawed at her. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands, wondering if there would ever truly be an end to the nightmare they’d created in pursuit of salvation.

"Cleaning this all up is going to take so much time..." she said as she looked around and saw all the bodies "I don't suppose we can leave this to the other toys, hmm?" the look CatNap gave her said otherwise, she let out a defeated sigh.

"The Prototype wants us to drag all the bodies down below." CatNap's voice was low, the eerie silence of Playcare amplifying his words. Ballade rubbed her face in exhaustion, smearing more blood across her porcelain skin.

"I can only guess why." Now that all the humans were gone, their connection to the outside world was severed. Supplies would stop coming. They'd have to make do with what was left. "I'm sure there are still some humans roaming around, hiding."

"We got all the ones that weren’t fast or smart enough to hide," he replied. "We should probably head to the labs first before dragging all the bodies."

"Fine by me. I’m not up for more labor after what just happened. Besides, we can check on the others down below to see if they’re done. There were a lot more humans in the prison compared to Playcare." She chuckled, shaking her head as she noticed the eagerness in his eyes.

"Let’s go," he urged, nudging his head into her side. She gently pushed him off as they walked toward the Gas Production Zone.

"We’re going, we’re going," she muttered. Their heavy footsteps echoed against the cold floor with every step, the sound bouncing off walls now stripped of the laughter that once filled the air. They maneuvered over the countless bodies they’d eventually have to clean up, the stillness around them almost deafening.

Reaching the elevator, Ballade gestured for CatNap to step in first. She followed closely behind, waiting for the familiar lurch as it started to descend. But instead of standing still, she left the control panel and leapt down to join him, landing softly beside him. Thanks to her body, she could scale great heights and drop from any distance without pain or injury. No matter how far the humans ran, she would always find a way to get to them. No matter where they hid, there would be no escape.

On their way down to the labs, they came across several toys—some still in the throes of violence, others feasting on the remains of the security staff. The air was thick with the coppery scent of blood and the grotesque sounds of tearing flesh. Some toys played with their victims' remains, giggling in twisted delight as they dismembered what was left. Others stood over the bodies like sentinels, eyes wide with an unhinged kind of glee. Blood painted the walls in wild, sweeping strokes, turning once sterile corridors into grotesque art.

Most of the toys paid them no mind, too absorbed in their grisly work. A few glanced their way, tensing as if ready to strike, but the moment recognition flickered in their eyes, they stood down. Even the most frenzied among them knew better than to cross paths with Ballade and CatNap.

The two of them had a reputation. CatNap was the Prototype's most loyal follower, his name whispered with both respect and fear. And Ballade—Ballade was the Head Executive’s personal bodyguard, an enforcer who obeyed their every command without question. As they ventured deeper through the prison towards the labs, every so often, distant, inhuman screams echoed from below—a reminder of what waited for them at the bottom. The air felt heavier, saturated with the scent of blood and chemicals as they made it to the lower labs. The walls bore deep gouges, the aftermath of something strong and enraged. And in the far distance, they could hear it—metal scraping against metal, a slow, deliberate sound that set their teeth on edge.

"Hmm?" Ballade twisted her head to the side when she heard a sudden clatter, sighing to herself when she spotted a scientist trying to hide but freaked out when he realized he had been spotted "Go on without me, I'll catch him before he locks down the labs. Besides, the Prototype scares me." she gestures for him to go on before turning and chasing after the scientist, catching up to him was easy but due to the fact he ran away he had led her to more humans that were hiding out. Ballade moved through the dim corridors, the scent of blood and metal still thick in the air. She had just finished tracking down the stray scientists, their cries cut short in a single, efficient movement. Wiping her hands on her already bloodied dress, she started back toward the lower labs where the Prototype waited.

As she approached the entrance, the sound of voices reached her ears. She slowed her steps, curiosity and caution guiding her closer.

"…and once the remaining children are secured, we can begin the next phase," the Prototype’s voice was calm and calculating, every word measured as he used the stolen voices of those who have spoken to him. "Their resilience makes them perfect subjects. We’ll have ample opportunities to push beyond the limits of what this facility dared to achieve."

Ballade froze. Her heart—if it could beat—would have stopped. She stepped closer, unnoticed, her breath caught.

"Ballade..." CatNap’s voice was hesitant. "Is not going to let this go. She wants them to be free..."

"Freedom," the Prototype interrupted smoothly, "is a matter of perspective. You see, true freedom lies in purpose—fulfilling the potential we were created for. These children… they are the key to unlocking evolution. Their sacrifice will pave the way for something far greater than any of us."

Ballade’s stomach twisted violently. The world around her blurred at the edges, a rising wave of nausea and panic threatening to drown her. Her hands curled into trembling fists, slick with the blood of those she had already killed, and the weight of those lives now pressed down on her like lead.

"But—"

"Do not let sentiment cloud your judgment," the Prototype’s tone darkened. "You’ve seen how fragile they are, how easily they break. Would you rather they die in fear and ignorance? Or serve a higher calling? In this way, their suffering gains meaning."

She couldn’t listen anymore.

"You lied to me," Ballade spoke, albeit a whisper, but it let her presence be known as she stepped into the lab. Both figures turned toward her. CatNap’s eyes widened in guilt; the Prototype merely regarded her with cool detachment.

"[F/N]—" CatNap started, but she shook her head as she looked towards the monstrosity that was the Prototype.

"You told me we were doing this for them," she whispered, her voice shaking with panic. "To save them. Not… not this." She gestured wildly. "Not to turn them into experiments!"

"Their freedom," the Prototype said, unflinching, "comes through transcendence. Through transformation. It is the only true escape from the frailties of their existence. You of all creations should understand this."

"I understand," she spat, stepping forward, "that you used me." Her cold eyes locked onto CatNap. "And you let him."

"I… I thought—" CatNap stammered, ears flattened.

"No." She shook her head, the enormity of her mistake crashing over her. The faces of the children flashed behind her eyes—their laughter, their trust—and the image shattered under the knowledge of what she had condemned them to. "I made a mistake to trust you." she shakes her head before turning on her feels and leaving, ignoring the way CatNap called out to her as she hurried back to Playcare.

This was a mistake.

I made a mistake.

I shouldn't have trusted them.

I shouldn't have trusted him.

But it's too late.

From one hell to another, the Prototype's in control now.

Obvious

word count: 7501

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Will Byers x Male!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: bullying, vulgar language, blood

“Get him out! Get him out!”

“Strike him!”

“Shoot for a home run!”

“Get the win!”

Being the last batter for a really important baseball game puts a lot on your shoulders, especially when you’re the up and rising star of your team while representing your school. He takes a deep breath, tensing his muscles while tightening his grip on his baseball bat. Himself and the pitcher never broke eye contact, that pitcher was out for blood and he was going to make sure he didn’t give it to him. He licked his lips, taking a deep breath when he saw the pitcher finally get ready to throw the ball. He blocked out all the cheering as he focused on the ball hurdling towards him, when it was finally inches away from him he slammed his foot on the ground and let out a grunt, swinging the bat and upon contact with the ball, he managed to send it flying out of the field. He didn’t fight down the huge grin that stretched across his face when he sent that ball flying, letting out his own cheer as he threw down his bat and ran to each base.

“And there you have it folks, Lenora Hills High have won against their rivalling team for the first time in nearly a decade! And all thanks to their new rising star, [M/N] [L/N] who granted them their winning home run!” by the time he returned back to home base, he was greeted by his team and school huddling around him, grabbing a hold of him and lifting him up.

“That’s our [M/N]!”

“Way to go!”

“You did it, [M/N]!” he just laughed as they threw him up and down before finally letting him down, grabbing their jug of water and pouring it on him. He usually would have yelled at them for doing that but it felt refreshing on his hot and sweaty body, he took his helmet off and threw his head back, running a hand through his sweaty hair but grinned nonetheless and threw his fist into the air. After the game he was met with bustling students and parents congratulating him for getting the winning shot, he smiled and thanked them and was approaching his pick up truck but was stopped by a familiar face.

“H-Hey, [M/N]!” turning to see who it was, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of one of the Byers siblings “Congrats on the win.” his smile grew at his words, he readjusted the shoulder strap of his duffel bag and approached him.

“Thanks, Will. Did you see my swing? I’ve been putting a lot of effort into my swings as of lately.” the Indiana boy nodded his head, his face lighting up as he waved his hands around.

“Yeah, I was watching from the crowd! It was pretty tense, but I knew you’d get it.” [M/N] chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully “Um, now that you’re here, I was wondering if you wanted to come to the after party with my lot.” Will tensed up when he saw [M/N] point over to the boys who were jumping into his truck while hooting and hollering.

“Come on dude! Lets get going!” he laughed and waved at them to wait.

“Gimme a sec, alright.” they groan but do, [M/N] then glanced at Will again and give him a hopeful look “So? Will you come?” he inhaled sharply, raising his hand to rub his arm.

“I-I’d love too, but I—”

“Will! We gotta go man, come on!” they both glance over and saw the eldest Byers, Johnathan, waving his brother over while his sister Jane and their friend Argyle sat in the van “Mum wants us home, like, right now.” Will closed his eyes in disappointment as he turned back to look at [M/N], who looked just as disappointed but he chuckled softly.

“Ah, that’s a bit of a shame, but it can’t be helped.” he murmured softly “I guess I’ll see you at school next week?” he asked, Will nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, totally.” [M/N] smiled and sent the brunette a wink, causing him to fluster. [M/N] found the reaction adorable but latter groaned when he heard his friends shouting at him to hurry up, he waved Will goodbye then finally went back to his truck, chucking his shit at his passenger “See you later, [M/N]!” he exclaimed, this caused the [H/C] boy to grin and wave him goodbye before he turned on his radio and drove off with his friends and himself screaming to the top of their lungs to the music.

“Will.” he jumped at the call of his name, turning around, he saw Johnathan giving him a look “You good?” he nervously nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, I’m spectacular.” Johnathan nods his head slowly.

“Yeah…”

Will couldn’t explain when his attraction towards [M/N] [L/N] first arose. Maybe it was because he was different in comparison to the other students of Lenora Hills High School. He was apart of the popular crowd, and how could he not be? He was gorgeous, athletic, smart and did I mention nice? It happened when Angela was bullying Eleven, there wasn’t much he could do to stop it because he didn’t have that kind of presence to do anything about it, but that was when [M/N] appeared. He didn’t hesitate to put Angela in her place, giving her a clean smack across the back of her head and sternly telling her not to bully poor little Eleven. Without a doubt, despite the both of them being sophomores, they were already declared to be the next King and Queen of the school.

Anyways, [M/N] just had Will swooning. He always stuck up for him and Eleven, he was always so nice to them and the way he would always send a smile his direction, how could he not fall deeper? But the moment he asked if they could be friends, gosh, he was over the moon. He wished things could’ve worked out with Mike, he wished he had to courage to tell Mike his feelings, but he knew they wouldn’t be reciprocated, Mike already had El and he knew he had to move on. Now his eyes were on the boy that every girl had a crush on, god, he was fucking doomed. He was cursed for crushing on the wrong people, Mike was taken and [M/N] was wanted by everyone. Maybe he was making a mistake for falling in love with the most popular guy in school, maybe he was better off digging himself a hole and burying himself—

“Will!” he jumped, slamming his locker door closed then turning to see [M/N] waving his friends off then jog over to where he was “Hey man, how was your weekend?” Will waved his hand.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old. I wouldn’t say anything exciting happened, but, you know?” he laughed nervously, this caused [M/N] to chuckle softly while running a hand through his hair.

“I get it, it’s still a shame you couldn’t come to the after party, would have loved it if you were there.” ah, there he goes again saying stuff that makes his heart flutter “We couldn’t do anything too chaotic, but we had fun nonetheless. Maybe I should win our next game, then maybe you’ll be able to attend the after party with me.” Will snorts softly, punching his arm.

“Don’t go getting arrogant, [M/N], that’ll cost you the win.”

“Haa, you’re right.” he then leaned back a little so that he was standing on the heels of his feet, a slight flush rising to his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck once more “Actually, I was wondering if you were busy this weekend? I was hoping we could, um, hangout?” how badly Will wanted to say yes, this was a chance for him to get closer to [M/N] that wasn’t simply over help with schoolwork and actually hanging out with his crush, but he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry, [M/N], but I can’t.” this caused him to deflate.

“Well, why not?” he gave him a sheepish grin, now rubbing the back of his own neck.

“My friend, from Indiana, he’s coming here to visit my sister and I.” [M/N]’s shoulders relaxed a little, looking up in thought to remember the friend Will was referring to.

“Oh… right, Mike Wheeler, right? I remember you mentioning him in w passing conversation.” he then lets out a huff, kicking his feet like child “Then I guess it’s alright, wouldn’t want your friend feeling lonely while in a completely different state.”

“Right.” [M/N] then let out a grunt when someone elbowing him, he gave them a soft glare when he saw that it was his friends coming to collect him.

“Come on, dude. We’ve got math first, and that’s on the other side of the building. I don’t want to be late because you were too business talking to Byers, let’s go.” he scoffs and kicks them in the back of their leg, this caused them to stumble forward but they managed to catch themself and laugh as they scurried away, he shook his head.

“Well, duty calls. I’ll see you later?” Will nods.

“Yeah, see you later.” [M/N] nods with a grin then runs off to catch up with his friends, when he was finally alone, he let out a deep sigh as he collapsed onto his locker and probably would have slid down it if there weren’t people around him. He silently cursed in the back of his head, if only Mike was coming a week later then maybe he could have the chance to be with [M/N] “Dammit.” [M/N] himself curses under his breath, walking beside his friends to their class.

“Do you think I’m being pushy? Every time I’ve tried to ask him to hang out, he’s always got an excuse.” his friend let out a groan, slapping a hand onto their face and dragging it down.

“Dude, you’re overthinking it. You said his friend is visiting from Hawkins, right? That run down little town out in the middle of the sticks? A friend that he hasn’t seen for about a year?” he nods his head “Then let the guy see him, man. You’re acting like a boyfriend who’s upset that his girlfriend is meeting a childhood friend, who is a boy, after a long time and worried that he’s going to steal your girlfriend.” he immediately grows flustered, the tips of his ears turning red as he smacked his arm.

“I am not.” he sneers, this earned an eye roll.

“Are too, mister drama queen.” [M/N] sighed and continued to walk to math class, rubbing his face when the blush on his face continued to color his cheeks.

The moment [M/N] saw Will Byers, gosh, to him it was like love at first sight. He knew that it was wrong for a boy himself to fall in love with another boy, but his heart would not beat for another. It was during the beginning of their sophomore year and he saw Angela picking on the quiet but sweet girl of Hawkins who had recently moved to Lenora Hills, he quickly disciplined Angela and comforted the new girl, but then his gaze went to the brunette that was her brother. Will Byers, a soul just as sweet and had him melting. He was always on the back of his mind that he couldn’t just ignore anymore, so he asked if they could be friends, he was internally screaming when he said yes. He took every chance he could to be with him, whether that be lying that he needed help with his schoolwork that he had to come over to his house so they could study, he was basically a regular in the Byers household. He was odd and it certainly was creepy, but he just wanted to be as close to Will as he could.

Before he knew it it was already lunch and he was being dragged out of class by his friends, he laughed as they threw him onto his feet and he bounced a little before finding his footing. Being apart of the popular crowd, [M/N] was greeted by many students and he politely greeted them back, not being a fan of being rude to people. Because of this [M/N] was generally liked by both students and teachers, and so here he was sitting at a table with various people fighting to sit with him, but of course his friends always got dibs to sit at his table. He was in the midst of eating his food but his eyes continuously scanned the cafeteria, one of his friends noticed so they let out a sigh and smacked him in the back of the head, this caused him to spit out some of his food and let out a yelp from the pain.

“Dude, what the fuck?” another friend that sat across from him gave him a incredulous expression.

“Yeah dude, what the fuck? He spat his food on me!” he groaned, face scrunching up in disgust at the bits of food on his jacket, causing a few of them to snicker, the one that smacked him rolled his eyes.

“You’re so obvious.” [M/N] cleared his throat, looking at him in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” he scoffed softly, [M/N] raised a brow when he passed him a note, he eyed it before sitting up straight and taking it from his hand. His friend side eyed him and sighed softly when he saw that scared reaction, [M/N] was trembling as a look of panic could be seen in his eyes.

’I know you’ve got a thing for that Byers guy.’

”W-What…?” he could tell that [M/N] was trying not to break down and make a scene so he reached over and grabbed the note, crumbling it up and tucking it into his pocket, this made him look up at him with the same scared expression.

“You’re so obvious.” he repeats “If you thought I, your best friend since we were toddlers, wouldn’t notice, I’d have to kick your ass.” [M/N] glanced around at the others, who surprisingly didn’t notice what was happening between the two of them, and gave him a cautious look.

“You’re not… grossed out?” this caused him to roll his eyes.

“No. I’m more upset over the fact that you thought I wouldn’t accept you, you’re my bro, and I care more about being your best friend than your goddamn preference.” [M/N] would probably start crying if he wasn’t in the middle of the cafeteria, he wipes his eyes with his forearm whilst his friend gently rubbed his back.

“You’re a true bro.” he chuckled.

“I know, and don’t you forget it.” his eyes then lingered up and his lips curved into a smirk at who he saw, so he grabbed [M/N] by the back of his neck and pulled him up “And look who just came walking in~” he cooed, snickering softly when he saw that lovesick gaze [M/N] always had on his face when Will Byers came into view.

“Do you think he’ll sit with us?” he questioned.

“Doubt it.” [M/N] slumps on disappointment “You know he always sits with his sister, doesn’t want her being alone. And if you try and invite her over in hopes of getting him to join us, she’ll be uncomfortable because I’m pretty sure half of the people here have taken part in tormenting her.” he slumps even more.

“You’re right.”

“I know I’m right, I’m always right.”

“You are.” he grumbles under his breath, he then briefly glanced at Will again and lights up when their eyes meet. He happily waved his hand to greet him with a big smile, his smile only growing brighter when Will mirrored his expression and returned the gesture before turning to sit with his sister, [M/N] then sat back down in his seat with a look of content but it dropped when he could feel his friends gaze on him “Stop looking at me like that.”

“You’re gay.” he whispered quietly, he laughed sarcastically before throwing macaroni in his face, causing the others to laugh.

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious, genius.” he winked.

[time skip: roller shaking rink]

If Will wasn’t already having a pretty awful day, it just got worse. He thought he’d be happy to see Mike when he got to California, he thought they’d get to talk like they used to when they were kids still living in Hawkins, but he’s been too busy oogling Eleven to even hold a conversation with him. What makes matters worse is that she’s been lying to him ever since they’ve got there, saying things about being friends with the same people who has been bullying her and going to that roller skating rink to the point she forgot an important detail. It sucked being the third wheel, watching as Mike and El held hands as they skated around while he lingered in the back and watched in dismay as they looked happy while he was forgotten.

’Maybe I was better off taking up [M/N]’s offer to hang out then being stuck being the third wheel.’ he thought to himself, just the thought of the [H/C] boy made him smile but he frowned when he knew that it was already too late and since he was already here he was just going to have to suck it up until six when Jonathan and Argyle came back to pick them up ’At this point I don’t even know why I’m here.’ he grumbled, pinching the bridge of his noise as Mike and El blubbered on about something, not that he was listening, but he was completely unaware of that fact he was being stared at.

“No fucking way…” a voice muttered, he hears a slurp but didn’t pay it any mind as the owner of the obnoxious slurping came to a rolling stop beside him.

“What’s the matter?” ‘twas [M/N] holding two large cups of soda in his hands, he sniffled as he took another huge gulp from his drink while his friend tore his gaze away from the bored Byers to stare up at his friend “Did you see someone, dude?” he rolled his eyes, grabbing [M/N] by the jaw and turning his head in the direction he was staring in.

“Yeah, the guy that rejected you.” he furrowed his brows at that and tried searching to see who he could be talking about before freezing up when he saw Will, he probably would have crushed the drinks in his hands if his friend let him go “His sister is here too, along with some guy with god awful taste in fashion.” at this, they both cringed at what the guy was wearing.

“It must be that Mike Wheeler kid he talks about.” his friend glanced up at him once more, noticing the way he was fidgeting as he stared at Will.

“You gonna go over there and say hello, or are you gonna stay here gawking like a fish?” [M/N] swallowed thickly, his grip on both drinks growing tighter before he let out a sigh and relaxed.

“Nah, he’s with his friend. I think I’d be intruding if I just suddenly went over there. Let’s go, the others are waiting for us.” his friend nodded and was going to leave it at that, they both turned away and planned on skating away but he stopped when he saw that familiar looking blonde making her way over to where the Byers siblings and their friend were.

“Wait.” [M/N] does and looks over at him in confusion “We’ve got trouble.” he hums then glanced back over to see what he was talking about before visibly getting angry at the sight of Angela approaching the three with her goonies following closely behind her.

“Get the boys, I’ll deal with her.” he snarled out and proceeded to skate over to the table.

“[M/N], what are you— you better not hit her!” this caused him to laugh.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” [M/N] wouldn’t publicly punch Angela in the face, without any context he just looks like an asshole, but he’s got a plan to humiliate her without looking like a douchebag… well, he’ll look like a douchebag if it was an accidental regardless. He popped off the cup covers and sped up a little, this was going to hurt a bit, the moment he was close enough he purposefully tripped up, causing the drinks in his hands to spill all over the poor unexpecting soul.

“Oh my god!” she screamed out, feeling the soda drench her completely “What the hell is wrong with you?!” she exclaimed, everyone in attendance to witness what happened were in shock, [M/N] stifled a chuckle as he pulled himself onto his feet while Angela’s friends comforted her.

“Oh man, I am just so sorry, I’m still quite new when it comes to skating.” Jane felt a sense of comfort when she saw [M/N], smiling softly when she felt him place his hand on top of her head and ruffle it around while giving Angela a smug grin when she turned and glared at him “Accidents happen, you know?” his grin grew bigger when she grew agitated while a few of her friends took a step forward.

“Man, you’re such a clutz, [M/N]! Why can’t you be good at skating like you are with baseball!” he let out a soft grunt when his friend appeared behind him, slapping a hand on his back with a laugh, Angela and her friends backed down when [M/N]’s friend group appeared and gave him threatening smiles “Forgive him, he’s still learning.” Angela growled, hand closing into a tight fist before glaring at the both of them.

“This isn’t over.” with that she skated away, [M/N] let out a breath before smacking his friend in the arm.

“Still learning? Dude! Nice one, didn’t you face plant not too long ago?” this caused him to make a face.

“Now let’s not get arrogant here.” [M/N] rolled his eyes, he then looked at the residents of the table and grinned, waving his hand to greet them.

“Hey Jane, hi Will!” he said happily, the Byers siblings returned the greeting with a happy wave of their own, he then glanced over at the ravenette and gave him a confused expression “And hello… Mike, was it?” he gave an awkward wave of his own,  Jane stood to her feet and grabbed his hands while gesturing with her other to Mike.

“Yes, this is Mike! He is my boyfriend.” this caused a few of them to be surprised, a few of his friends whistled.

“Wow, little miss pretty has herself a boyfriend? Never would have guessed.” this earned him a smack behind the head.

“Stop it.” Jane giggled softly, always appreciating it when [M/N] reprimanded his friends from making offhanded comments “Will told me how he was coming down from Indiana, you two must be really happy that he’s here after not seeing him in a long time.” Jane nodded her head, [M/N] glanced at Will and noticed he didn’t look as enthusiastic as his sister.

“Yeah, totally.” [M/N] and his friends noticed Will’s less than thrilled response and glanced at each other, his friends spare each other a glance and nod in unison before one of them wrap an arm around [M/N]’s shoulder and pull him in, causing him to look at them in confusion.

“Well, why don’t we leave the lovebirds alone to catch up?” he suggested then glanced at Will, who flinched when all eyes were on him “Hey Byers, why don’t you join us? Don’t want you being stuck as the third wheel!” Will looked a little hesitant but he didn’t even get a choice when they grabbed him out of the booth and started pushing him away, he couldn’t even stop them even if he could because of the skates.

“Have fun you two!” they exclaimed, [M/N] was confused at to what they were doing and was going to question them but froze up when they pushed both him and Will together and into the skating ring. He glared back at them with a bright red face but it dropped when he saw all of them giving him encouraging looks followed with thumbs up, one of them grinned as they leaned against the barrier and continued to watch [M/N] panic as he held Will from evidently falling over.

“He’s gay, right?” one of them questioned, another nodded.

“Oh, totally! Without a doubt.” they each share a laugh and place bets to see if anything will happen before the day was over, now back to the two, [M/N] was apologising profusely for putting Will on the spot like they did while untangling himself off of the poor boy.

“I’m so sorry, Will! I don’t know what’s wrong with them.” a soft blush settled on his cheeks when Will looked up at him with that oh so cute smile on his face.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I get where they were coming from, and it did suck a little being the third wheel back there.” [M/N] gasped softly, bringing a hand up to hover over his mouth.

“No.” Will chuckled at the reaction, nodding his head.

“Yeah, while those two were glued together, I just hung in the background.” [M/N] hummed softly before lightly shoving him with his shoulder and skating ahead of them, Will let out a whoa and quickly caught himself before he fell over then glanced over at [M/N] and saw he had a big grin on his face.

“Well, now you have me! Lets have some fucking fun, Byers!” he cheered, holding his hand out for Will to take. He looked hesitant once more but the way [M/N] had an eager look on his face, his eyes practically begging him to take his hand, how could he possibly refuse. He lets out a laugh and took [M/N]’s hand, laughing even louder when he was pulled towards him and together the two of them spun around before skating a few rounds around the ring then leaving and going over to the arcade. Will watched as [M/N] went over to the game where you had to knock clowns over to rack up points, he grabbed the baseball and tossed it up a few times “I may not be as good as our pitcher, but I’d like to think I’m second best.” he comments, this caused Will to jokingly roll his eyes.

“Your arrogance is showing.” he flushed up when [M/N] winked at him.

“Only for you.” at the end of the game he won a lot of tickets, throwing his fist up with a victorious grin. [M/N] continued to win the games, a few times playing some with Will until they were holding too many tickets that it was ridiculous. They both glance at each other before bursting out into laughter and going over to the ticket stand and trading the tickets for prizes, though in the end they couldn’t think of what to get and gave their winnings to the kid behind them and went over to get some food “You know? I didn’t think I was going to see you today, but I’m glad that I did.” he said, grabbing a few fries and throwing them into his mouth.

“I agree, you made my day a little bit better.” [M/N] grinned at that, as the two of them continued to talk he glanced behind Will and his face scrunched up when he saw his friends from afar making those same encouraging looks along with kissy faces, he wanted to kick their asses. He panicked when Will noticed that [M/N] was staring at something so he turned around to see what it was but his friends luckily ducked down before they could notice, when Will turned to look back at [M/N] he just got an innocent smile on his face “Well, um, I’m really glad I got to spend some time with you.”

“Same! At least you weren’t stuck in between your sister and your friend.” Will had a bittersweet expression on his face.

“I know he just got here and that El— I mean, Jane, is his girlfriend… but I’m his best friend. I wish he talked to me just a little bit longer instead of ignoring me, it really hurt.” [M/N] gave him a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sure things will get better, like you said, he’s your best friend! I’m sure things will get better before you know it.” he reassured, this caused Will to smile.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” he nods.

“Anytime.” they stare at each other for a little longer then jump when a hand suddenly slammed down on their table, they then glance up at the owner and [M/N] couldn’t help but grimace a little when he saw that it was none other than Mike Wheeler.

“There you are, Will! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” he then gestured with his hand for him to stand up “I need to talk to you about something, so can we go?” Will pulled a face and looked at [M/N], he looked just as saddened but gestured for him to go.

“Don’t leave the guy waiting! I’ll be right here if you come back.” Will smiled before leaving, the moment Will was out of sight he let out a breath he was holding in and slumped into the seat, not even moments later his friends arrived and took over the booth.

“Well that was a disaster.” one of them said, a few of the other eating the food that was forgotten “You should have seen the way that Indiana guy was staring at you, dude. We were watching for a long time and that guy was giving you a dirty look.” another then dramatically held a hand to his forehead and fell back, one having to catch him before falling onto the ground.

“He must’ve been jealous that he was replaced and couldn’t stand the thought of his friend talking to a much better looking, well dressed, and friendly guy that isn’t him.” [M/N] rolled his eyes, grabbing his drink and taking a long slurp from it “We’re being serious, [M/N]. That guy definitely didn’t like the fact that you were with Byers, man.”

“You should shoot your shot.” this caused [M/N] to glare at the one friend he knew that knew about his sexuality, before he could say anything, he raised his hands and gestured to the lot of them.

“Dude, like I said, you’re so obvious.” he glanced at the others and saw they were all nodding their heads “Why do you think we were encouraging you that whole time, dumbass?” they all laugh when his head fell and thumped against the table.

“We’re your ultimate wingmen, trust us.” their heads shoot up when they all hear shouting, they look over and saw a crowd forming so they scramble to their feet and rush over, and there they saw Angela’s face bleeding due to the fact that Jane had hit her with a skate “Holy shit!” 

“You go Byers!” [M/N] shakes his head.

“Now’s not the time.”  “Sorry.” he shakes his head, he then glanced over at the siblings and saw they both had a panicked look on their faces before rushing away “Well that was anticlimactic, I didn’t expect her to do that.”

“Well what can you do? After all that torment that bitch has put her through, I was wondering how long it was going to take until she finally snapped.” he then claps his hands “Good for her, the wrong way of standing up for herself, but good for her.”

“Stop it.”  [time skip: later at night]

Today was just a fucking disaster. Will collapsed onto his bed and let out an exhausted sigh, if he thought the day couldn’t get any worse, he should probably shut the fuck up at that point. All was going swell when he was with [M/N], he had fun and it felt nice to be included, even more so being so close to the guy that made his stomach do flips. Mike had to ruin the moment but let it slide when he realised that Angela came back for revenge and evidently humiliated El before running off, Mike only coming to find him to help him find El. What made matters worse was when El slammed the roller skate into Angela’s face and it started bleeding profusely, god, he needed a break. He pressed the soles of his hands into his eyes and twisted slightly, dragging his hands down his face then throwing his arms open.

“What a disaster.” he closed his eyes and let his body relax into the bed, growing slightly irritated when he heard a subtle tapping, he lifts himself and glared over at the window. It stopped when he looked over at it so he let his body fall back onto the bed but not even a second passes when the tapping returns so he jumps off his bed and marches over to his window, ready to punch it but froze up when he saw that it was [M/N], who lit up upon sight.

“Will!” his voice was muffled through the glass but he definitely heard it as the boy waved his hand “Hi.” he shook his head with a laugh and opened the window.

“What are you doing here? It’s late.” he holds his hand up in a gesture for him to wait so he does with a slight giggle, watching as he ducked down to get something before shooting up with something in his hand. Will looked at in confusion then let out a sputter of words when [M/N] pushed it into his hands, he chuckled when he saw the excited look on his face “What is this?”

“It’s a gift. It’s for you.” Will furrowed his brows in confusion, a gift? He was going to question him again but [M/N] gestured for him to open it “Go on, open it!” [M/N] reminded him of a child on Christmas Day, so he just shrugged his shoulders and opened the nicely wrapped gift. He raised his brow in confusion at the sight of a box that was close shut by two latches, he looked at [M/N] and saw the eagerness in his eyes as he nodded at him for him to open it, so he did with a shrug. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw was inside, he couldn’t believe it as he lowered the lid to look at [M/N].

“I-Is this…?” he smiled and sheepishly shrugged.

“An oil color box set? Yeah, it took awhile to find this specific one, and it was really expensive as well, but what’s a few weeks allowance can’t do?” Will was at a loss for words, stuttering out a few that he managed to say as tears threatened to spill from his eyes “I remembered you saying that you were looking for one so you could paint while you were out, so I thought I would get you one and save you the trouble.” Will sniffled, raising a hand to rub at his eyes.

“But why? Why did you get this for me?” [M/N] looked at him in confusion, scoffing softly but realised that Will was serious,.

“Dude, Will… it’s your birthday.” Will couldn’t help but gasp softly at that, he completely forgot that it was his birthday, but that also meant that everyone else forgot about his birthday. He got a little bitter at that but what made it better was the fact that [M/N] remembered. A guy that he met in California, a guy that he told the date of his birth once and he remembered, a guy that was so popular that he was sure would forget, but he didn’t. He remembered and he even got him a gift. He then remembered to the start of that week that he tried inviting Will out to hangout, was he inviting him out for his birthday? “I don’t know what’s going on in your life right now, Will, but I hope you know I’m here for you. Happy birthday, Will.” he couldn’t remember what happened, what was going on in his mind for him to react the way he did, but he pushed the gift to the side and grabbed [M/N] by the collar of his shirt and yank him up. [M/N] let out a whoa, hands planting down on the windowsill to stabilise himself then let out a muffled gasp when Will pulled him into a kiss. He stared down at their connected lips in shock then his gaze fell upon Will’s eyes when he pulled away, a look of disbelief as they stared at each other.

…

… “Oh my god, what have I done?” Will muttered, still holding [M/N] by the collar of his shirt as he looked away, not noticing the lovesick smile that grace his lips as he let him go, letting the boy slump against the windowsill. All sorts of thoughts were circulating through his mind, thinking that he possibly ruined the best friendship he had in California forever and that he was going to lose a friend that meant the world to him and also the love of his life. He hadn’t even noticed [M/N] pull himself up until he was yanked forward, [M/N] having reach forward to grab Will by his cheeks and pull him into another kiss, this time, he was making sure Will felt that the kiss he gave him wasn’t one sided. When they finally pulled away, they stared into each other’s eyes before laughing.

“Will?” said boy let out a gasp and shoved [M/N] back and slammed his window shut, grimacing when he heard a loud thud followed by an oof and grunt but he ignored it as his mother opened the door to his room “Are you okay in here? I heard you pacing.” he gave his mother a reassuring smile, waving his hands to dismiss her.

“Yeah, I’m fine! Don’t worry about it, mum.” she gave Will a soft smile, blowing him a kiss before closing the door when she left. He waited until he couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore before turning around and throwing his window open and peeking out, he giggled to himself when he saw [M/N] wearing the biggest grin on his face as he covered his eyes with his hands “Are you okay?” [M/N] pushed himself up by his hands and gave Will a dopey grin.

“Am I okay? I’m fan-fucking-tastic!” he covered his mouth when Will shushed him for being loud, he quickly stood to his feet and returned to where Will was resting his folding arms on the windowsill and smiled “I can finally tell you that I’m in love with you. Your response?” Will laughs, pressing a hand to his cheek.

“I love you too.” they’re both smiling to the point it hurts, Will throws his arms around [M/N]’s neck and pulls him up into a hug, to which the latter reaches up and wraps an arm around his head as his other arm held the windowsill. When they pull away, [M/N] and Will stare into each other’s eyes once more and share a short and tender kiss, [M/N] winks and Will giggles.  “I’ll see you at school next week?” Will bites his lip, glancing back towards his door then back at [M/N].

“Do you want to stop by tomorrow? I’d love to spend some time with you.” he whispered the last part to himself but it didn’t fall to deaf ears because this earned him another peck on the lips, he looked at [M/N] and saw him grinning as he nodded his head.

“Yeah, I’ll totally stop by tomorrow!” he cheered “I’ll see you tomorrow!” he takes a step back but accidentally trips and falls back, Will leaned forward to see if he was okay but giggled instead when [M/N] shot back up but had a few leaves and twigs in his hair, but he didn’t mind it and waved his hand goodbye,

“Goodnight, [M/N].”

“Goodnight, Will.” he blows him a kiss followed by a wink, to which Will blushed but didn’t hesitate to catch the kiss. The moment Will pulled himself back into his room and close the window [M/N] let out a cheer as he threw his fists in the air, running back to his truck with an extra skip in his step “He said he loved me!” he shouts, he then heard cheering from his truck and saw his friends cheering for his accomplishment.

“Nice one, [M/N]!”

“Another win for you!”

Headcanons:

[m/n] is so in love with will that his friends have to tape his mouth shut if they don’t want to hear him talking about will this, or will that. it gets annoying.

the guys love will, don’t get me wrong, they just hate [m/n] for making the conversation all about his boyfriend. he’s in a relationship, they get it. no need to shove it down their throats with every chance he gets.

[m/n] told will that his friends know that they’re dating.

he was a little on edge to know that will wasn’t, well, straight.

[m/n] reassured him that they were cool, I mean, it was because of them they basically got to have a date back at the roller skating ring.

it made will feel happy to be accepted by a large number a guys.

it makes him even more happy that they’re happy [m/n]’s happy with someone that makes him feel the way he does. they tell will they’ve got his back if he ever needs it.

[m/n] more than once has will wearing his lettermen jacket, regardless of what people say.

will refused to wear it the first few times [m/n] asked him to wear it but was forced to wear it when [m/n] threw it at his face and ran away before will could give it back.

now [m/n] doesn’t get it back unless there’s a game.

totally worth it.

will totally shows up to [m/n] and his teams practices and their games. they all appreciate his attendance and whenever he’s there, they’re all at that a-game.

when [m/n] sees will in the crowd, especially if he’s wearing his jacket, it’s already over for the rivalling team.

he’s all the motivation they need.

will is totally their number one supporter.

jane noticed will has been happier as well, and without asking she already knew it had something to do with [m/n].

she saw the way will would look at [m/n]. he had that look in his eyes that sparkled whenever the boy was in the same room they were in or if he was brought up in a conversation. 

she might have accidentally caught the a few times together when will would sneak him in through the window so they could relax together or will would be sneaking out or back in from wherever [m/n] took him.

they had a sibling agreement to never bring this up.

joyce and jonathan had also noticed that will had being going out more and more.

they’d question him where he was going but fall short when they saw that oh so familiar lettermen jacket along with the sound of a honk.

peering out the window, there they saw their will rushing over to [m/n]’s pickup truck so the two of them can go out on a date. of course they don’t know that, but they’re happy will’s going out more.

will totally has [m/n] model for him when painting.

[m/n] blushed when will called him his muse, muttering the word under his breath more than once.

will always shows him what he’s working on and though [m/n] doesn’t have the best knowledge when it comes to art, he always shares his thoughts with will about what he likes about it.

will appreciated it.

together, the two of them are just so in love.

[m/n] doesn’t waste a second to show how committed he is to this relationship, always showering will in all the love his soul could pour out until he knew that will knew the extent he was willing to go to just to get a point across.

will also wanted to show [m/n] that what he felt for him couldn’t easily be replaced, that the only thing on his mind whenever they were together were the endless thoughts of how deeply in love he was with [m/n].

the two of them made it obvious that they were meant to be.

Rose

word count: 12,698

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Robin Buckley x Female!Harrington!Reader   Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic Occupation: University Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: n/a

this was requested by my friend @unparalleled-slothy​ and her friend @puresass​, so you can go thank them for giving me enough inspiration to write something.

this is going to be if billy and [f/n] didn’t die or get possessed by the mind flayer, so an overall happy ending for those poor unfortunate souls.

I know this is way past valentine’s day but I don’t give a shit, I was just lazy.

that is all.

Ah, valentines the day.

The day where you celebrate love, whether it may be with your significant other or rather suffering in utter loneliness because you have no significant other. A holiday where the price of stuffed toys, a bundle of flowers and chocolate have doubled in price because they can do that. This was the first year [F/N] was going to spend Valentine’s Day with her actual lover, her beautiful girlfriend Robin Buckley, that wasn’t just some on and off fling but a girl she genuinely had a relationship with. Someone she almost loved just as much as her brother— almost, but she still had a place deep within her heart. Sure, [F/N] still had university to worry about but what’s a few missed days? Besides, she’s paid a few of her friends/classmates to take notes for her so when she returns she doesn’t flunk so hard.

Steve himself was just as excited for Valentine’s Day as [F/N] was, this time he was going to spend it with Billy. This was something new for the both of them, not so much Steve, but spending the holiday with another boy, yes. Steve’s heart was filled with so much love, he was ready to shower it all onto Billy, but he knew better than to overwhelm the blonde. Learning from him, he knew that Billy was starved of affection and was slowly getting used to Steve’s lingering touches, so he knew he had to hold back. Steve and [F/N] both had a plan for their lovers, they had all day to play and get their surprise ready for them, especially since neither one of them had school to attend and Steve was taking a day off from Family Video just to prepare.

“So what do you have in store for Hargrove, Stevie?” [F/N] asks, both herself and Steve lounging about outside by the pool despite the weather, a cold beer in her hand as they stared up at the dark sky above them “He’s told me he’s excited for what you have planned out, basically pleading with me to spare some details.” she hums to herself when she saw an excited grin stretch across his cheeks.

“Do you remember how lover’s lake has the best view after dark?” she nods her head, tilting her head back to take a swig of her drink “That’s exactly where I’m going to take him where the two of us are going to enjoy a night dinner under the stars.” her face lights up, snapping her fingers in his direction.

“Oh, I see. Are you planning it so that the stars reflect against the water?” he nods his head, snapping his fingers in her direction.

“Exactly that, sister dearest.” [F/N] applauds him for his creative idea, he sniffles softly and tilts his drink in her direction to gesture for her to speak her idea then took a drink “What about you? Robin has been begging me to spill what you’re gonna do with her.” [F/N] grinned, her couldn’t help but roll his eyes when he recognised that mischievous grin.

“You’re just gonna have to wait and see, my dear little brother.” Steve rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you’re planning, I bet it’s got something that could potentially get you in jail.” she laughs whilst throwing her head back.

“Please, I’ve been to jail too many times to count that it doesn’t even matter to me anymore!” he couldn’t help but stare at her, whether it be with disappointment or disbelief, it wouldn’t matter to her so he tilts his head back and takes a longer gulp of his alcoholic beverage.

And that’s where [F/N] found herself outside of Robin’s house on Valentine’s Day morning, she drove slowly down her street as to not alert the entire street that she was there, especially not Robin. Pulling up just a couple houses down to her house she eyes it closely then nods to herself, no one seemed to be awake in the Buckley Residence so now was her time. She drums her hands against the stirring wheel before leaning over to the passenger side to grab a rose from the bouquet, along with a small box of chocolates. Her plan was to deliver her a rose from the bouquet along with a treat to Robin throughout the entire day until Robin collects all the roses and completes the bouquet, then at the very end of school she would pull up and take her on a sweet date, then to finish it off they were going to watch one of Robin’s favorite movies then cuddle their way to sleep.

She nods to herself. Yes, such a splendid plan. Lacing her fingers together and cracking them, she hastily makes her way over to Robin’s window that she would always climb to secretly get into her room. What a Harrington trait, huh? Her window was a little high, but she always kept the window open no matter the weather. Well, snow days were an exception but they were their favorite cause they could get away with spending the entire day in bed snuggling. Tucking the box of chocolates into her pocket and putting the rose into her mouth, she takes a step back, then leapt up to grab onto the edge of her windowsill then proceeded to push herself up until she was able to reach into Robin’s room. With that, she spat the rose into her hand and gently placed it down on the windowsill followed by the box of chocolates. Glancing up, she smiled softly yet brightly at the sight of her sweet little birdie sleeping peacefully. She wished she could stay longer; she wished she had a bit of time to give her girlfriend and kiss on the forehead but the sound of her door handle jiggling caused [F/N] to panic and lose her balance, evidently falling backwards and onto the ground.

*THUD*

“Ah, hmm…?” Robin let out a tired groan when her door was open. Taking a peek from out of her pillow, she saw her mother standing over her with a kind smile on her face “Argh, mum…. let me sleep.” she giggles softly at Robin, watching her daughter turn her head back into her pillow to bury her face further into the plush cotton.

“Now, now, Robin. You can’t just sleep in today.” she laughs this time when Robin groaned louder “Today’s a special day.”

“Friday?”

“No, sweetheart, it’s valentine’s day. And this year, you don’t have to spend it alone.” this was enough to get Robin to push herself up, her mother was laughing cheerfully now at the state of her daughter. Her short hair was a mess and sticking out in all sorts of places with some drool dribbling out of the corner of her mouth “If you finish your school day quicker, you might get to spend some time with that girl you love so much.” Robin’s face quickly turned a shade of red.

“Mum!” she groans out “You know it isn’t like that.” this caused her to roll her eyes.

“Right, like I don’t see the way you look at her each time she comes to pick you up and drop you off.” she leans down and gently pats her head “No matter how hard you try to hide it, my sweet daughter, your father and I will love you, regardless. Just remember that, Robin.” she then presses a kiss to her forehead, proceeded to ruffle her hair with a soft chuckle, and finally left Robin to wake up and get ready for school. She tosses her head back to shake the loose strands out of her face and in the corner of her eyes she notices the deep shade of red sitting on her desk. Standing to her feet, she gasped softly at the sight of a rose next to a box of chocolates, she giggles lovingly at the sight and picks them up, only then to notice a small note attached to the chocolates.

’good morning birdie,

I hope you had a good sleep, thought you might like a little gift to start your morning. There is plenty to come throughout the day, so forgive me that I do not come to take you to school for I have much to prepare for the evening. But I want you to know that it will be worth the wait, so enjoy your day and wait, you shall be greatly rewarded for your patience.

from yours truly, [f/n] harrington~❤️’

Robin could feel her cheeks already starting to hurt from hood big of a smile she wore on her face, she quickly peeks out of the window to try to at least catch her while she was leaving but frowned softly when she couldn’t see her mustang nor did she hear it when it left. Well, this was enough to know that [F/N] didn’t forget, so she nods her head and gets ready for the day, very excited to learn what her girlfriend had in store for them. Little did she know, [F/N] was beneath her outside the whole time. She laid completely still when she saw Robin stick her head out in search for her, then relaxed when she disappeared.

“How long are you going to be lying there, Harrington?” not even looking up to the owner of the voice, she raised her hand in greeting.

“Good morning to you too, Mr Buckley.” he nods to himself when he looked up from where she potentially fell from then back down at her. He kneels down and gently knocks on her forehead.

“Don’t do anything too frivolous, young lady. She’s still in high school while you’re a university student.” [F/N] nods her head and salutes him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir.” he hums at her, nodding his head.

“Glad you understand.” she was a little startled when he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her up slightly but enough so that they were face to face “But if I hear that you did something to her, to my daughter, you’ll have to answer to me. I don’t give a damn if you’re a woman or not, I’m still that girl’s father and I’m going to treat anyone she brings home the same way until they understand that my daughter is not to be messed with, got it?” [F/N] rapidly nods her head.

“Yes sir, I understands sir.”

“I’m happy we could have this conversation. Now run along. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea.” she nods her head and hurries off the moment he let her go, he stood outside the driveway sand watched her flee to her car, hand on his hip with a cup of coffee in his other hand “… that girl’s dead the moment she breaks my girls heart.” [F/N] now found herself trying to hide her car as she pulled up to Hawkins High School and how she was able to pull it off, she didn’t know, she was just that skilled. Sneaking into Hawkins High wasn’t too hard, trying not to get recognised as one of the most notorious student from a few of her old teachers was almost a little tricky, but blending in with a few students made it easier for her to slither past them. The hallways of Hawkins High were littered with hearts, banners saying “happy valentines day” and other shit like that, barf, this school was always quite the try hard when celebrating all sorts of holidays. Her next mission was to find Robin’s locker, and with the help of Billy and even Wheeler senior, she somewhat knows where it is.

“They said it should be around… here!” [F/N] made sure that no one was looking when she proceeded to break into her locker, cracking open a lock wasn’t hard for her, she’s opened up a bunch of lockers when she was still attending this shithole for a school. She grinned when the lock sprung open so with a smug grin and whistle she opened the locker and was greeted with the sight of Robin’s stuff, she did double check to see it was hers and pulled out of her duffel bag the next rose, a box of treats with a note and a trinket from Robin’s favorite book series. Hmm, she wonders what sort of face Robin will make when she sees thi—

“[F/N]?” she lets out a shriek at the sound of her name, slamming the locker door shut and whipping her head over in the direction of the voice, though, she was greatly surprised to see who it was “What are you doing here?”

“Eddie? What are you STILL doing here?” Eddie Munson, [F/N]’s longtime best friend since her last year of middle school and throughout high school up till her last year where she graduated and left Hawkins to study out of state. She was greatly surprised to see Eddie, who was her age, at Hawkins himself. Shouldn’t he be out and about making a name for himself outside of Hawkins, away from this shitty town that thought he was nothing more than a freak? She stared at him closer before making a face of disappointment, Eddie’s face scrunched up when he recognised it “You dumb bitch, were you held back again?” Eddie pulls a face before raising a hand.

“Don’t avoid the question.” she scoffs at him, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms “I don’t see a reason for you to be here, on Valentine’s Day of all days. I thought you’d be out and about getting into any girl’s pants to satisfy your loneliness.”

“Ah hahaha, very funny. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make jokes on my loneliness. Thank you very much.” she sighed when he made a gesture for her to continue, for her to explain what the hell she was doing there when she had absolutely no business being there in the first place, she sighed as she scratched her cheek “Well… I’m visiting someone.” he raised a brow.

“Visiting someone? Who?” before she could answer, Eddie let out a yelp when she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and pulled him away and out of sight while also kicking her bag away. She held him close as she pressed herself into the wall behind her while he pressed his hands on either side of her head, their legs in between each other while they were face to face. Eddie was going to ask for her drastic reaction but paused when he saw her lean forward to peek past the lockers that were hiding them from the owner of the locker she broke in to. He leaned back and his eyes widened softly at who he saw. Robin Buckley? That band weirdo? No, it couldn’t be. He goes to make a joke when he turned back to look at [F/N] but paused when he saw that genuine look of love on her face that was only ever reserved for Steve and sometimes him and his group of friends, but this look? This look was new, she sighed lovingly as she draped her arms over his shoulders and rested her head on the side of his as she stared at Robin with a lovesick gaze. Her face brightened when she saw the rose she gave Robin that morning tucked into the breast pocket of her jacket, heh, the jacket she stole the year prior.

Robin was in a good mood that morning, seeing [F/N] definitely would have made it better, but she would have to settle for the surprise she had for her that afternoon. Steve was the one to pick her up that morning, but she sat in the backseat, leaving the front seat reserved for his boyfriend Billy. She drowned out their chatter for their afternoon date out and focussed solely on getting through the day as quickly as she could so she could see [F/N], oh, how she was graving to see her girlfriend right then and there. Pulling up to the school, she quickly gave her goodbye to Steve and Billy and rushed into the school, gagging out the few students who didn’t have enough decency to tongue fuck each other behind closed doors. She practically had to shove some random girl talking to her boyfriend because they were in front of her locker, she scoffed as she puts in the code to her lock then opens her locker, face brightening up to find another rose, chocolate and a gift inside.

’hi songbird,

Did you see the gift I left you? It’s a little trinket from one of your favorite book series you love talking about. I saw it in a shop and managed to buy it. It was the last in stock so I was quite lucky to snag it. Have a good day at school, Robin. Don’t slack off just because we’re doing something this afternoon. Love you~

From yours truly, your girlfriend~❤️’

Aw~ look at the face she was making. Her face was turning redder by the second! Ah hah, she’s hugging the note! Look, she’s grabbing the little trinket and putting it in her pocket. She likes it. She fully melts into the embrace she pulled Eddie into, her arms now wrapping around him as her head slouched into the crook of his neck, sighing dreamily as she watched Robin pick up the rose and add it to the first one inside her pocket. The moment Robin was out of sight [F/N] finally managed to collect herself and acknowledge Eddie, only to freeze up when he was staring at her with a suggestive expression.

“So… Buckley~” she scoffed at him, he laughed when he saw her face turn pink from embarrassment “I didn’t know you were into band nerds.” he burst out into laughter when she peeled herself off of him and pushed him away.

“Coming from a band nerd himself, loser.” they stare at each other this time before grinning at each other and grabbing each other by the hand, a loud clap echoing through the hallway the moment they grasped each other’s hands “So, you finally found the one that captured your heart. Do you love her just as much as you love your brother?” [F/N] pulls a face, tilting her head side to side before shrugging.

“She’s a close second place.” he scoffs.

“Dude, no.” she laughs with a shrug.

“She understood what she was getting herself into the moment she accepted to be my girlfriend, but I do tend to treat her with extra love.” with that she winked and blew him a kiss, he jokingly caught it then threw it in a nearby trashcan, she let out a gasp at his audacity “Anyways, think you know what class she has first? I wanna leave another rose.” Eddie lets out a breath as he looks down at his wrist to check the time.

“I don’t think you have enough time to do that, the bells about to—” the bell rung before he could finish, she let out a sigh at that “Welp, you better leave before you get in trouble. I, myself, have math class to attend.” [F/N] throws her head back with a laugh.

“Damn, math was never your strongest suit. Be well, soldier!” she salutes him and planned to leave but was stopped when a teacher appeared, it would’ve been bad if the teacher recognised her, it was awful because this teacher didn’t recognize her and thought she was a student.

“Oh, trying to ditch school, are you? With Mister Munson, no less.” [F/N] paused in her tracks, glancing back at Eddie then back at the teacher while pointing at herself, the teacher let out a sigh “Yes, you. Goodness, students these days. You think you can just avoid class to fool around because it’s Valentine’s Day, don’t you? Well, I’ve got news for you kiddos, you gotta suck it up and wait for the end of school so get to it!” [F/N] was then grabbed roughly by her arm, along with Eddie, and the two of them were dragged to math class. Eddie was giggling softly to himself as he and [F/N] sat at the back of the classroom, she herself had an incredulous look on her face that screamed she wanted to die. She glanced at him and gave him a glare, telling him to shut the fuck up, but he knew well and just ignored the way she was staring daggers into his eyes. A few other students attending that class were staring at the two in confusion, especially at [F/N] because they didn’t recognize who the fuck she was, the few juniors that were around when she reigned supreme in Hawkins as the fallen queen, were extra confused as to why she was there.

“Now students, I’d like for you to take out your textbooks and flip to the page that we were working on last week.” [F/N] scratched her eyebrow as she watched the lot of students do as they were told, she wanted to slap Eddie when she could feel him smirking at her as he pulled out his textbook that he would usually leave dormant in the bottom of his bag.

“Why am I here? I’m a goddamn university student, for crying out loud.” she let out a groan when her plans to leave gifts for Robin were stopped by this stupid teacher, dumb bitch. Whilst writing down a few problems on the blackboard, the teacher turned to observe the class but huffed when she saw that student she saw outside in the hallway, not paying attention. What irked her even more was that she had nothing on her desk and she looked quite bored, for heaven’s sake, even Eddie Munson has his book out and was at least writing something down “Is there a problem, young lady?” [F/N] glanced up when she spoke, looking around in confusion once more before pointing at herself.

“Me?” [F/N] asked, this caused the teacher to sigh.

“Yes, you. You have nothing out while the rest of the class is taking down notes. Is this class boring to you?” the young student had the audacity to yawn, she sniffled to herself as she proceeded to get comfortable.

“Boring? Oh no, it’s just calculus is quite easy.” she spares Eddie a glance “And I’m not sure why you’re attending this class when it’s quite difficult for the way your brain thinks.” Eddie shrugs.

“Have to pass it if I want to graduate.” he winces when she slapped his knee.

“Then fucking pay attention instead of sketching your D&D characters, numb nuts.” the two of them then proceeded to slap each other. The teacher has enough and slams her book shut.

“Well then, young lady. If this class is SO easy for you, you wouldn’t mind answering the few questions on the board, now would you?” [F/N] briefly looks away from Eddie to see the question. True or False, the graph of f(x) and that of f(x + 2) are the same, she rolled her eyes.

“False. The graph of f(x + 2) is that of f(x) shifted 2 units to the left.” the teacher was a little taken aback at the quick response, she quickly looks through the answers and exhales sharply when she was indeed, correct.

“Alright, what about the second one?” another true or false, the equation x = | y | , with x >= 0, represents y as a function of x.

“False again. Solve for y to find that y = | x | or y = -| x |; for one value of the independent variable x we have two values of the dependent variable y.” [F/N] chuckled with a smirk, now ignoring Eddie in favor of the teacher, leaning back in her seat and resting her face a top of her knuckles, her legs crossed over each other with her free hand tapping against the desk “Is that all you’ve got, ma’am?”

“Alright, fine.” pulling out a book of parametric equations, the teacher was quick to jot down the first question she saw. Eddie spared his friend a glance and saw she was eyeing down the question as the teacher went, in the parametric equation, x = 8 cos At, y = 8 sin At, 0 ⩽ t ⩽ 2π,​ how does A affect the circle as A changes? The teacher turns to face [F/N] the moment she finished, she didn’t spare her a look as she continued to look at the question, continuously muttering under her breath as she drew little equations in the air “Do you have an answer?” she didn’t like the smirk she wore on her face.

“I do.” lacing her fingers together she pushed them out and heard them crack under the soft pressure, she then rolled her fingers then opened her hand out “Eliminating t, x² + y² = cos², At + sin² At = 1, which is still a circle with radius 11 and center at the origin.” the teacher quickly looks through the book for the answer, in disbelief that she was able to solve that question without even needing to write it down, she was taken aback when she was correct.

“And your working out?”

“If we have A = 1/2 A = 2/1​, (x,y) = (cos⁡1/2 t, sin⁡1/2t), i.e. as t ranges from 0 to 2π, 2π, the equation starts at (1,0) (1,0) and stops at (−1,0) (−1,0). This means that it goes halfway through the circle. So A governs the rate at which the equation traces out a circle. Similarly, if A = 2, A = 2, the equation moves twice around the circle.” she winks upon finishing, holding her hand out towards Eddie, who promptly slapped his hand down for a loud high five. She wasn’t valedictorian for nothing, always at the top of her classes without properly needing to pay attention to anything, she really only graduated out of spite “Like I said, ma’am, calculus is quite easy.” [F/N] smirks when the teacher turned red, rather it be from anger or embarrassment, both outcomes were hilarious as she stormed out of the room. 

“Dang, you really made her angry.” Eddie murmured, she just shrugged as she dug her hand into her pocket, pulling out a flask.

“It’s her own fault for picking on me.” she unscrews the cap and takes a long swig, letting out a shudder as the sting of alcohol went down her throat, whining softly when he took the flask from her and chugged some alcohol down as well.

“You still haven’t lost your touch, have you?” she shakes her head.

“Nope.” [F/N] takes her flask back from Eddie to take another swig but paused when she saw a teacher she did recognise and they definitely recognised her, Eddie notices her gaze when she abruptly stands to her feet “I’ve got to go.” she grabs her duffle back and makes a break for it, she throws her bag through an open window before proceeding to throw herself out, letting out an oof when she landed on the ground with a thud. Everyone in the classroom watched as she sprung up, snickering amongst each other when they saw a bunch of leaves and twigs in her hair.

“You good, Harrington?” [F/N] blinked at him, then gave him a thumbs up.

“Spectacular.” she ducks down when the teacher she knew made an appearance, she briefly peeked through the window to mouth out “drama room” to him, he understood and gave her a thumbs up. She grinned softly and ducked away once more, scurrying out of view, then ran full speed to where the drama room was. She runs past a classroom but came to a stop when she saw someone, she briefly walks backwards, then ducks out of sight when she managed to find Robin’s class. A big grin appeared on her face when she saw her, peeking out from the bottom edge of the window to look at Robin. She hummed softly, giggling when she saw the look of absolute boredom on her face. She spares at glance at her duffle bag and smirks softly. Robin was at the verge of yawning during her time in history. The teacher was going on about something that was going through one ear and straight out the other. She was fiddling with the small trinket [F/N] got for her when she felt something hit her on the side of the head, she turned in the direction it came from but the sight of a deep shade of red caught her attention. She raised a brow in confusion when she saw that it was a rose, but where on earth did it come from? Sure Robin had no clue where it came from but [F/N] couldn’t help but smile blissfully, she nod to herself and ducked down once more than scrambled away to the drama room.

And that brings us to…

“Eddie said he wanted to discuss an upcoming campaign, said it was important.” Jeff murmurs softly as he, Gareth and Nathan walked to the drama room with the lingering first years following closely behind them. Glancing back at them over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but think back to the time where he and the other three used to follow behind Eddie and [F/N] during their first year, the two of them were full of so much confidence it was almost envious, though Eddie was the bark and [F/N] was the bite, a very dangerous duo “Don’t understand why he couldn’t talk about it during lunch in the cafeteria.” Gareth sighed.

“And where is he now?” Nathan crossed his arms with a scoffed.

“He got held back in English, he flunked on an assessment Mrs. O’Donnell assigned and she wanted to talk to him.” this caused all three of them to shake their head “At this rate he isn’t graduating, again.” Gareth raised his hand.

“Emphasis on the again.” now they’re all laughing, he then looked back at the first years again and waved his hand to get their attention “You guys are smart, right? Think you can give Eddie some pointers so he can pass SOME of his tests.” Dustin hums, looking up in thought.

“That’s a little tough. We’re all smart in different subjects, Gareth.” Lucas raises a finger.

“And Eddie has a different way of thinking, we all do.” Mike nods his head.

“And to adapt a way to teach Eddie where he can understand what we’re trying to explain to him is a challenge in itself.” he purses his lips “No offences to Eddie.” they all shake their head.

“None taken.” Nathan sighs as they approach the drama room.

“There really was only one person that was able to think down to Eddie’s level, even more so, get Eddie to study.” they think back to the time where on multiple occasions [F/N] was able to explain whatever she was doing and/or studying and explain it in such a detailed way that Eddie was able to follow what she was saying. Her proudest moment was when she managed to tutor him in physics and he got his very first C-, it wasn’t much, but he was better than a lousy F “Where have the days gone.” Nathan adds, a comical tear shedding from his eye.

“Really?” Mike questions, astonished that someone made Eddie STUDY “Who was it?”

“Not anyone you would know, but she’s a graduate and Eddie’s best friend.” Gareth pushes the door to the drama room open as he finishes his sentence, looking up from where he was he was shocked to see who was sitting in Eddie’s prized throne. Upon hearing the door open, [F/N], who was sitting on Eddie’s throne with her legs propped on the table whilst she read a D&D guidebook, looked up to see who it was and was immediately met with shocked looks. The shock quickly morphs into excitement and happiness as the boys cheer upon seeing her, the three first years stare in confusion at what was unfolding. What on earth was Steve’s older sister doing here at school, and why were their three seniors cheering at the sight of her? [F/N] quickly shuts the book and tosses it onto the table, standing onto her feet and throwing her arms into the air.

“Boys!” she cheers happily, she laughs when they copy her.

“[F/N]!” she rushes over to them and doesn’t hesitate to launch herself into Nathan’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and laughed aloud when he started spinning her around. When he put her down she cuddled into him as he squeezed her tight, she then moved on to Jeff and gave him the same bone-crushing hug then left Gareth for last. Since he was shorter compared to Jeff and Nathan, she wrapped her arms around his head while his were around her waist, she laughed as she pulled him close “Gare-bear!” she cooed softly, the two boys behind her laughed at the nickname that she and Eddie used exclusively for Gareth.

“Gare-bear?” Dustin whispered to Lucas, who shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch the exchange. Gareth lets out a grunt when she let go of him and instead held him in a headlock, digging her knuckles into his head.

“Dude, [F/N]! Stop that!” Gareth manages to push her off after a couple seconds of torture, she chuckles softly to herself and holds her hand up in front of her “My head hurts, thanks!” she winks at him.

“No problem, Gare-bear.” she hums softly when Nathan places a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you doing here [F/N]? You’re not exactly a high school student anymore.” she gasped, giving them a wounded look as she placed a hand on her chest.

“Am I not allowed to come visit my bestest friends in the whole wide world?” she deadpans when they stare blankly at her, she clicks her tongue and looks away while placing a hand on her hip “Alright, fine. I broke into the school to do some shit, you happy?” Jeff shakes his head.

“Of all the things you could do, especially on valentine’s day, you broke into the school. And here I thought you’d take this opportunity to ask out any unfortunate soul just so you can have your fun with them.” she scoffs at him, now glaring at him and pointing a finger in his face.

“Well unlike you three, y’all are hoeless! From my years of being your friend, I don’t ever remember seeing a girl in your arms!” now it was their turn to look offended, crossing her arms and looking away as they tried giving her every excuse in the book, her brow perked up when she saw Dustin raise his hand to get her attention “Yeah? What’s up little dude?” she questions, raising her own hand to keep Gareth out of her face.

“[F/N]? What are you doing here? And how do you know those three?” she laughs, throwing her head back.

“You seriously don’t know? Wow.” she doesn’t get to answer before Jeff appears from over her shoulder.

“She’s our best friend from back when she attended Hawkins.”

“That’s right! She’s an honorary member of Hellfire and Corroded Coffin.” she nods her head, grin so wide her cheeks started to hurt as she flexed her arm.

“That’s right, I’m one of the original members of Hellfire before I left!” she then let out a sigh, leaning back into Jeff’s chest “Oh, how I miss the good old days.” the four of them then start to talk about anything that came to mind, leaving Dustin, Lucas and Mike to look at each other in disbelief. [F/N], Steve’s older sister, was friends with the members of Hellfire? Does that mean she’s friends with Eddie? If they remembered correctly, [F/N] was at least a year older than Steve, that would make her and Eddie the same age.

“I understand you guys, but what is Eddie still doing in school? How could he flunk school for two years?” Gareth sighs.

“Without you to keep him from getting off track, that moron was pushing his assessments and exams to the side. He focused more on campaigns and his music, you were really the only person that could get Eddie to listen.” she lets out a long groan at the information.

“That damn idiot, I’m not his babysitter. I swear, he’s a dead man.” they all perk up at the sound of the door, [F/N] is cheering again when she saw Eddie enter the room “Eddie!”

“[F/N]!” the two are quick to approach each other, continuously slapping their hands together before grasping their hands together in a tight grip, they both then lean backwards before slamming their foreheads together. They let out dazed snickers, holding their heads after the harsh blow to the head.

“You two are so dumb.” Nathan comments, this caused them to giggle to themselves “Is this what you wanted to talk about, Eddie?” he nod his head, both himself and [F/N] holding each other by the shoulder.

“Yeah, I saw her this morning breaking into a locker and thought I’d keep her a secret for you guys. Did you like the surprise?” the three smile, yeah, they totally liked it.

“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re here in the first place, [F/N].” now [F/N]’s face drops when she felt Eddie smirk at her, before she could do anything to silence him, Eddie covers her mouth with his hand and keeps her locked under his arm as he leaned in close to the three so the three juniors couldn’t hear the private information.

“[F/N]’s got a girlfriend, so she broke into the school to leave her gifts.” Gareth, Jeff and Nathan’s face lit up, both in surprise and joy that [F/N] genuinely found somebody to love. [F/N] was bright pink when she ripped herself out of Eddie’s grip as she stared at them, she was now covering her face when they quickly surrounded her and spoke in hushed tones about who it could be.

“You’ve got a girlfriend? Wow, congratulations, [F/N]!”

“Who is it? Someone we know?”

“When did you meet her?” yeah, the boys knew that she was a lesbian, of course they did. They were the first to know when she realised that she didn’t really feel that sort of attraction towards the male population, she cried in joy when they fully supported her, but it did annoy her when they came to her about advice when it came to picking up ladies because she was still ridiculously good at it. They laugh softly when they saw her look away, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.

“I met her last year, at the starcourt mall when I came down to see Stevie.” this caused the four of them to look at each other.

“You were here last year? How come you didn’t come see us first?” she and the three children behind her froze up, but she managed to keep her composure as her mind wandered back to ‘84. They look at her in confusion when she just closed her eyes and smiled at them, not knowing the horrors she faced and how she practically died. She let out a shuddered breath but continued to smile at them, her hand subconsciously lifting up from her side to press against her chest, feeling the rough scar beneath the layers of her clothes.

“Oh, I was just really busy I didn’t have the time to pop in.” she knew they wouldn’t buy the lie but if she wasn’t telling them on purpose, they knew better than to pry, so they left it at that. She lets out a grunt when Jeff wraps his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close and giving her a grin.

“Well, we’re happy that we get to see you now. We’ve got to hang out again, just like old times.” they look at her in anticipation, she sighs at the puppy dog eyes staring at her.

“Alright, alright! I’ll make sure i’ve got time so we can hang out.” she laughs when they were all pulled into a group huddle, Eddie and Gareth shouting loudly.

“Woohoo!”

Team Hellfire were now in on the plan.

Gareth, Jeff and Nathan were just as surprised as Eddie to learn that she had fallen head over heels for Robin Buckley. They thought she would have gone for someone like Chrissy Cunningham, and though she was a catch herself, Robin was more of her type. She punched Gareth in the face when he started to tease [F/N] for liking someone like Robin, this caused the other three to hold their tongues if they wanted to keep them. Anyways- they acted like a barrier to hide her from others that could potentially recognise her, she was almost caught when she wasn’t paying attention and Robin appeared from around the corner, the four boys quickly got in front of her and she hid behind Nathan. Robin looked at them, a bead of sweat forming on her cheek when she saw they were acting weird; weirder than usual. She just shook her head and quickly walked by them, tucking her hands into her pockets, she flinched when she felt something. A big smile worked its way onto her face when she saw it was another gift and note, opening the small box, she gasped softly when she saw that it was chain ring. 

’hi robbie,

What do you think of this gift? I saw that you already had one, but what’s more to add to your collection? Besides, you’ll look good in just about anything I give, even more so, I think you’ll look good with not—

Robin quickly closed the note and pressed it to her chest, her face turning different shades of red. She looks around to see if anyone could have potentially have read the provocative note and let out a sigh of relief when no one was particularly close to see the contents, she takes another peek but decides to read it when she’s out of sight. Gareth raised a brow at the reaction Robin gave upon reading the note and looked back at his older friend, sighing softly when he saw that she was hanging off of Nathan’s back, a dopey little grin on her face as she stared dreamily at Robin’s retreating figure. Yup, they can definitely conclude that she had fallen deeply in love with Robin, she didn’t look at anyone like that for just about anybody, this girl was special.

Robin now found herself in band practice, her last hour before school was over and she got to spend her valentine’s day afternoon with [F/N]. Time and time again she got gift after gift, sometimes it was small things like a shiny rock, maybe even a pretty feather, then it ranged to things like rings and necklaces. So far her favourite was a spiked leather jacket, how she managed to sneak that onto her desk without her noticing, she’ll never know. Standing beside her was Vicki, the last person she had a crush on, after Tammy Thompson, and the ginger haired girl was rambling about her boyfriend and how he has plans for a date. She was listening but her words went through one ear and out the other, cause she just couldn’t contain her excitement about finally being in the arms of her gorgeous girlfriend.

“Hey, Robin.” she hummed, not really giving her attention to Vicki “Do you have a valentines?”

“Huh?” she giggled softly.

“I saw the roses and gifts you’ve gotten this entire day. You’ve either got a secret admirer, or you’ve got a boyfriend.” Robin couldn’t help but gag at the thought of being with a boy, people already thought that she was dating Steve while [F/N] was dating Billy. It was for the better that people thought that way, but she really wanted to flaunt about and declaring that [F/N] Harrington was her girlfriend.

“Boyfriend? Yuck. I’ll take the secret admirer, hoping they don’t reveal themselves so they can continue to give me chocolates.” Vicki laughs when she saw Robin pull out one of the many box of chocolates she got, taking out one and throwing it into her mouth “Better than being in such a troublesome relationship.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know how being in a relationship feels until you’ve got one. It feels so nice, when you’ve found the right one, that is.” Robin had to agree with Vicki on that one, it felt very nice to be in a relationship with [F/N]. Even though [F/N] made it clear that Steve was still her number one priority, she still made sure that Robin didn’t feel left out or that she didn’t feel loved. She always made sure that she was going to be with Robin through thick and thin, that they were going to be together until death has them. Robin was called away so she and the other brass players can discuss what parts they’re playing for Hawkins high basketball team, not knowing someone sneaking in through a window that was miraculously left open. By the time Robin returned back to her abandoned instrument she was surprised to see an assortment of flowers inside her trumpet, she looked at Vicki and saw her shrug.

“You didn’t see who put those there?” she shook her head, but there was a knowing look in her eyes.

“Not at all.” Vicki laughed when Robin playfully shoved her, Robin took the flowers out of her trumpet and inhaled the aroma the roses were giving, smiling softly down them “This secret admirer of yours seems to like you a lot.” Robin’s face turned a soft shade of pink, nodding her head blissfully. The tuba player blows softly into their mouthpiece as their eyes drift to the side, raising a brow at the sight of [F/N] hiding behind the large instrument as she watched Robin.

“Thanks again.” she murmured softly, they rolled their eyes as they raised their hand, a smirk grew on their face when she slapped down a fifty dollar bill “We never speak a word of this.”

“Never speak a word of what?” she clicks her tongue and snaps her finger at them, nodding her head.

“Exactly.” how Robin didn’t witness her shuffle out of the room, they’ll never know.

[time skip: end of the school day]

“Whoa! Is that a mustang?!”

“Who’s got money for a car like that?”

“Didn’t Hargrove own a camaro?”

“Yeah, that was until it got totalled.”

Eddie scoffed as he and his lot exited the school and saw the students huddled around [F/N]’s prized mustang, even when she was no longer a student she was still the centre of attention. He furrowed his brows when he saw that there was a bit of a dent on her front bumper and her lights were replaced, what the hell did she do to that caused her to damage her precious car? The other three behind him seemed to have noticed the difference but their thoughts came to a pause when the already loud chatter got louder, they looked up and scoffed when they saw that it was just [F/N] exiting her car. There was no denying it, the Harrington charm was very effective, because both the girls and boys couldn’t help but gush at the sight of [F/N] Harrington. Even though she fell from her grace long ago, they were no denying that she wasn’t the girl people would kill to be.

[F/N] scoffed at the people that started to surrounding, opting to put her sunglasses on and sit on the hood of her car as she waited for Robin. She had this excuse in her head that she was going to pick Robin up and bring her to Steve, confirming the rumour that she in fact was going out with her brother and that she won the approval of his overprotective older sister. Yes, that sounded like a full proof place indeed, now all she had to do was wait for her sweet little birdie and hopefully not lose her temper with the approaching high school boys horny on valentine’s day and wishing to get in her pants. She had a blank expression on her face when some jock slid in beside her, she didn’t pay him any mind and continued to wait patiently…. as patiently as her mind would allow it.

“So, what’s a pretty thing—”

“No.” he sputtered back at her abrupt answer.

“Well, I was thinking that—”

“No.” he felt irritated that she kept interrupting him, Eddie and his lot paled when they saw that jock continue to push [F/N]’s limits but their jaws dropped when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pull her so that she would look at him.

“Listen, I’m trying to be nice here.” a few people whisper amongst themselves at the ordeal, watching closely as he leaned in closely to her face “How’s about you ditch your lousy date for me? I promise I can treat you… nicely?” he let out a surprised yelp when she grabbed him by his jaw with her free hand and slammed him down onto the hood, this time she leaned down towards his face but pulled down her sunglasses so he could get a good look at the disgust and anger in her eyes.

“What the fuck does no sound like to you? I am not here for a child like you who doesn’t understand basic english, maybe that’s why you’re still in school.” he let out a grunt, grabbing her by the wrist when he felt her tighten her grip on his jaw that was more than likely going to cause a bruise to form, a bead of sweat formed on his cheek when her glare hardened on him “Learn to treat a woman like a human before deciding to treat her like she’s a trophy to be won.” he shouts out in surprise when she lifted him up before proceeding to throw him onto the ground, the people watching all let out a roar of laughter at his shameless display “Don’t waste my time and get out of my sight.” she scoffed when he scurried off, probably off to the other jocks that put him up his poor attempt of getting laid. She shook her head and returned to her spot, flicking down her sunglasses until they perched themselves back onto the bridge of her nose and now waited in peace… despite the unneeded audience.

“What’s going on?” Eddie let out a startled yelp when he was shoved aside, looking to see who it was, he scoffed when he saw that it was merely Hargrove. Ever since 84′, that blonde has been causing nothing but trouble ever since he got here. Not only did he kick Harrington Jr. off his high horse and dethroned him, he apparently beat the guy black and blue at the Byers household. Why [F/N] hasn’t murdered that blue eyed bell yet, he’ll never kn— “[F/N]?” Eddie sputtered, Billy knows [F/N]? If he did, does that mean he survived an encountered with [F/N]?! She seemed to have sensed his presence because her head perked up and her face subconsciously brightened up at the sight of the blonde, going so far as to raising her hand to greet him.

“Billy!” she exclaimed, but then she realised her mistake. The rumour that she and Billy were a couple was still floating around and the fact that she was waiting at Hawkins High for someone, and now that she greeted him, can only confirm the rumour that these fuckers made up. Billy to realised what she had done because now everyone was looking between the two, a few of the female students were looking at [F/N] enviously that she managed to bag Billy Hargrove while the boys whispered their admirations and congratulations to Billy for hitching a date with the most gorgeous person within Hawkins.

“[F/N]…” he said again, muttering it this time. The two of them look at each other and they seemed to have been having a silent conversation between the two of them.

”Forgive me. I did it out of pure habit.”

“Yeah, and now people think you’re here for me.” she shrugged her shoulders, now looking away from him. Billy let out a grunt when he was grabbed by the shoulder and turned around, he raised a brow when he saw that it was Eddie Munson. If he remembered correctly, [F/N] mentioned in a passing conversation that Eddie was her greatest friend and she valued him very much, so he found it interesting that he was now face to face with the brunette.

“Hargrove, you know [F/N]?” Jeff looked him up and down.

“I for sure would have thought she would have beaten him up after what happened with her brother.” Billy flinched softly at the mention of that, thinking back to both events. 

“No, no, she did. We’re just on good terms now, she considers me one of her good friends now.” he raised a brow when a smug aura radiated out of the four of them, a bead of sweat forming on his cheek as they smirked at him.

“Oh, yeah? Well, we’re her best friends!” Billy rolled his eyes.

“Right.” [F/N] slaps a hand onto her forehead as she watched them interact, she drags it down her face and glanced anywhere that wasn’t Hellfire doing their usual tomfoolery and involving poor Billy.

“Hey, weren’t [F/N] and Munson a thing back when she attended?” her face paled at those words, looking over towards the person who said and she recognised it as a junior that attended while she was still around. That’s right, people thought that [F/N] turned baddie because she got together with Eddie, what made it worse was that both of them were always hanging off the other and Eddie was a naturally affectionate person and since she was deprived of any and all physical affection, she couldn’t help but lean into it every once in awhile.

‘No, please god no.’ she thought in her head.

“You don’t think…”

’Please, you stupid high school students!’

”Oh, my, god! Munson is picking a fight with Hargrove!”

“He must still have feelings for [F/N] after the two of them broke up when she went out of states! Ooo, what a juicy thing to see on valentine’s day.” she deadpans when everyone who heard started whispering their own conspiracies, Billy and Eddie were amused at the accusations.

“Really? You with [F/N]? Now that sounds like a fantasy.” Eddie scoffs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

“Says you. You oughta be dead for what you did to her brother.” Billy nods to himself, the two of them then stare at each other “… you wanna mess with her?” Billy couldn’t help but grin mischievously.

“With pleasure.” [F/N] was ready to call it quits and just go and find Robin herself but paused when Eddie and Billy came over and approached her, she stared at them in confusion when they took either side of her but neither broke eye contact with each other. 

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Munson, but [F/N] is my girlfriend.” she deadpans once more, what? Eddie laughed, taking [F/N] by her wrist and pulling her towards him.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Hargrove, I’ve known her much longer than you have, and we hadn’t officially broken up, so she’s technically still my girlfriend.” Billy shook his head as he grabbed her other wrist and pulled her towards him.

“Well, I wonder why she came to me when she came back to Hawkins instead of you, huh?” Eddie know couldn’t help but get a little irritated at that, because he too wondered why his friend didn’t come to see him when she was in town.

“You know, I tend to wonder as well.” the two of them then began to bicker about who was better, feeding into the lies that [F/N] was in fact dating one or the either and people were placing their bets on who it was. Did the former queen share her throne with her jester or perhaps with the new king who dethroned her brother? Billy and Eddie were abruptly interrupted when she ripped herself free from their hold then grabbed them both by their faces and pulled them down towards her face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you two? Is it fun that you’re taking great pleasure in my misfortune?” the two glance at each other then grin cheekily at her, she sighs at the silent response and squeezed harder on their faces. Her face then immediately brightens up when she saw the person she was waiting for, both boys let out a grunt when she threw them backwards and opened her arms “Robin~ there’s my favourite person.” she coos, Robin giggles to herself and reaches her hands out towards her girlfriend, to which she lowered her arms and took Robin’s hands into her own.

“You seriously waited for me?” she nods.

“Yeah, Steve asked me to come get you.” Robin’s shoulders slumped slightly, realisation dawning on her that she and [F/N] couldn’t even be open about their relationship, that [F/N] was hers “Lets get going, i don’t want to be here any longer than I need to.” she let out a grunt when she felt Eddie wrap an arm around her shoulder.

“Hows about you give me a lift as well? I missed being in your mustang?” she scoffed at him, smacking his arm off her shoulder.

“What happened to your van?” he waves his hand.

“It’s in the shop? Had to get a few things replaced.” she raised a brow.

“And you can afford that?” he places a hand on his chest.

“You wound me.” she was simply going to abandon him and only take Billy and Robin, which was the plan from the start, but a shout caught her attention. Turning to the source, her eyes widened at the sight of the same teacher that dragged her into her math lesson and she looked downright pissed. Eddie seemed to have noticed her distraction and turned to see what it was but was caught off guard when she started pushing him towards her car, she throws the door open and kicks him into the backseat. Robin and Billy seemed to have gotten the hint when they heard that math teacher screaming out for someone to stop the trespasser, that being [F/N], but no one did anything and just watched [F/N] jump into the drivers seat and quickly drive out of the parking lot.

“Well that was unnecessarily stressful.” she grumbled under her breath “Welp, it’s official, i ain’t ever going back as long as that teacher is still there. I think she’s gonna try and have me arrested.” Billy started to laugh, leaning forward from where he was seated in the backseat.

“I can’t believe you actually broke into the school.” she shrugged her shoulders.

“What can I say? I was aching to see my sweet birdie.” she cooed softly, reaching towards Robin’s face to twirl a strand of her hair around her finger before tucking it behind her hair. Robin immediately looked away to twirl a strand of her hair around her own finger, she then stopped when she realised what [F/N] had done and looked at Eddie in distress. He noticed Robin’s change in expression and raised his hands, giving her a look of reassurance.

“Don’t worry about it, Buckley. I already know [F/N] swings that way, I’m just more surprised she ended up with someone to begin with.” Robin looks at [F/N] and she nods her head.

“Yeah, he was one of the first people I came out to. I trust him with my life.” she then abruptly stops the car and turns back towards them, a look of irritation shining in her eyes “But fuck the both of you for what you did! Now people are going to spread rumours how I’m getting fucked by the both of y’all, and that thought alone is disgusting.” she sneers at them in disgust when they give her suggestive smirks “If you say anything I don’t like I’m gonna have you guys walk.” none of them could really risk going through with the risk so they just kept their mouths shut, she was kind enough to drop Eddie off first because Billy now lived in the trailer park after his father turned tail and bailed after the events that occurred during the 85′ and has been back since. Max’s mum, Susan, was kind enough to keep a roof over his head until he graduated but most of the time Billy was with Steve at their home. [F/N] greeted Wayne and he was more than welcoming when he saw her, opening his arms up and bringing her into a bone crushing hug, Robin laughed upon seeing her winded self nearly collapse to the ground when he let her go. She gifted the Munson’s a rose each and some chocolates, sparing them a kiss before leaving when Billy left the trailer and back into her car. [F/N] was instructed to pick Billy up and bring him around the house after the school while Steve himself hurried to pick the children up and drop them off home then race back to the house before her. He also told her to have Billy’s eyes closed before she made it home so when they was turning the corner to the Harrington residence she told Billy to do exactly that.

“Are we almost there?” she giggles softly. 

“Yeah, we’re nearly there.” she has to silence Robin when she nearly gasped at what was in the driveway, [F/N] instructs Billy to keep his eyes closed when she parks her car and gets out of the drivers seat.

“Oh goodie, you’re here!” Billy’s head perks up at the sound of Steve’s voice, Robin then scoffs softly from where she was.

“You didn’t just say “oh goodie” at the sight of your boyfriend.” Steve playfully glared at Robin.

“Oh, hahaha, very funny.”

“Steve, whatever this is, it better not be stupid.”

“I promise you, blue, that you’re gonna love this surprise. Both [F/N], Robin and I put this together. Just for you.” [F/N] smiled softly at her brother, she waited for him to give her the go to and when she did she gently tapped Billy on his arm.

“You can open your eyes now.” and so he does and his eyes immediately start tearing up at the sight of his new and repaired camaro sitting in the driveway, both girls gently caress his arms before stepping back to let Steve comfort his boyfriend. Yeah, it was Steve’s idea to tow Billy’s car out from the dump and get it repaired. [F/N] found him working on it in their garage and immediately asked if she could help in any way she could, this later led to Robin wanting in to help as well. They had only recently gotten everything repaired or replaced just before valentine’s day and Steve believed it would be the perfect gift for his sweet Billy “And I’ll leave you two here.” she blows Billy a kiss and bids them both goodbye then the two of them were off to enjoy the rest of their afternoon together.

“i can’t believe you actually broke into the school, [F/N]. I thought you put Billy up to it.” she shrugged her shoulders, letting out a laugh.

“It wouldn’t have meant as much as it did if he did it, sweetheart. He only helped me to find which locker was yours, other than that, it was Eddie who helped me get close enough to you to leave little gifts.” 

“Well, I really appreciated all those thoughtful little gifts.” Robin glances at her face and it brightens when she saw a big smile stretch across her lips followed by a soft flush of pink, seeing [F/N] react like this always made Robin feel giddy. She soon bites her lip, her hand slipping into her pocket and feeling for the small little gift box that had been sitting in there the whole day. Of course she had a gift for [F/N], she would have felt awful if she didn’t get anything for her, but it was nothing in comparison to everything [F/N] has given her so far and she wasn’t even finished with her surprise “[F/N].” she gently called, she got a hum in response followed by her turning the music down.

“Yes?”

“I love you.” the flush on [F/N]’s face turned brighter, this caused Robin to giggle once more.

“And I… love you too.” she brought Robin home first so she could freshen up and wear something more comfortable, she had yet another lecture from Robin’s father while her mother told him to lay off, telling [F/N] that she’ll be more than welcome to come by the Buckley residence whenever she was around. Robin now found herself in Billy’s situation, however, she had a blindfold over her eyes as she [F/N] drove her to an unknown location.

“Are you sure you’re not taking me out of town to kill me?” [F/N] laughs.

“Oh, please. If I wanted to kill you I would have done it without the need to leave town.” Robin shudders at the thought “Don’t even think about bringing up last years events.” Robin clears her throat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” [F/N] takes a deep breath to calm herself down “Are we nearly there yet? I want to look at you.” she chuckles at the impatience coming from her, tapping against the stirring wheel when they were stopped at the red light.

“Don’t worry Robin, you’ll get plenty of me and more when we get there, so be patient.” that comment was more than enough to get Robin to quiet down for the rest of the car ride, when they finally arrived at their destination Robin was led out of the car and taken on a bit of a walk. She held onto [F/N]’s arm as she trusted her not to let go, she let out a soft gasp when [F/N] did let her go but she held onto her hands and kissed the back of her knuckles “Just stand here for a bit and I’ll tell you when to take the blindfold off, mmkay?”

“O-Okay, just don’t take too long.” this earned Robin a soft kiss to the cheek, [F/N] quickly jogs away and sets up when she needs to get done, only a couple minutes pass when she hears [F/N] shout for her.

“You can take the blindfold off!” she was still a bit of a distance away from where she left her, Robin sighs softly and takes the blindfold off and the moment she did the sound of music hit her ears. She gasped softly at the sight of where [F/N] brought her, she had brought her to a beautiful lush rose garden and at the very centre of it all was a beautifully let gazebo and of course her beautiful girlfriend “Happy valentine’s day, Robin.” the wind picked up and blew some of the rose petals into the air, making the scene in front of her more romantic as she began to approach [F/N].

“When did you…?” she began to question, [F/N] chuckled softly as she took a step forward.

“One of the few fortunate things of being a Harrington’s child, you know a few good places for dates.” she sighed softly as she looked up at the gazebo “My mother told me how my father brought her here for valentine’s day, and though I’m not particularly fond of following in his footsteps, this place was too good to pass up on. So, hows about a nicely lit dinner between lovers on this sweet valentine’s day settle for a date?” [F/N] then reaches forward, extending her hand out to Robin for her to take.

“Heh, how romantic.” Robin finally settles her hand down in [F/N]’s hand, letting out a laugh when [F/N] pulled her into her arms and spun the two of them around, the both of them laughing to their hearts content “Did you book this place out?” she asked, [F/N] hummed as the two of them now swayed to the music.

“Mm hmm, I booked it weeks in advance and paid a lot of money so someone else couldn’t buy the spot out of me. You deserve the perfect view as we dine and dance on this very romantic day.” she muses, pressing her cheek into Robin’s “Do you like it?” she briefly pulls away to get a look at Robin’s face but hers dropped a little when Robin looked a little conflicted, she soon holds her hands and rubs her thumbs over her knuckles “What’s wrong? Is it too much?” Robin lets out a sigh, pulling back a little as she looked anywhere that wasn’t [F/N]’s pretty doe eyes.

“No, it’s just… I feel guilty that I won’t be able to treat you to something as grand as this. My gift can’t even match up to everything you put together.” [F/N] gasps softly.

“You got me a gift?” Robin meekly nodded her head “Can I see it? If it makes you feel better, you’ll be the first person— girlfriend, really, that’s gotten me a gift?” Robin whipped her head to look back towards [F/N], who chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her neck bashfully.

“Really?” she nods.

“Yeah, I played the male role in the relationship and was the one that usually gave my dates gifts. Most of the times I could tell that each relationship I had was one sided, that my love and attention would never get reciprocated.” Robin pouts softly, reaching forward to cup [F/N]’s face.

“Well, they’re stupid to not think of spoiling you either.” this caused a laugh out of her, Robin pulls away to dig into her pocket. She nervously held the small box in her hand, rubbing her thumb into the wrapping before handing it to her. She waits nervously as [F/N] pulls at the ribbon to unravel it then she removes the lid to look at what was inside, Robin watches her grab it and pull it out, revealing the small little locket that she bought from an antique store. She opens it and her heart melts at the sight of the picture inside, it was taken by Steve when she was in the hospital after she and Billy miraculously survived the onslaught they suffered through, it was of her and Robin cuddled together look happier than ever as they shared a kissed. On the other part of that locket had words engraved on it, ”you’ll forever have my heart, as I’ll have yours. through thick and thin, I will always love you; never forget that”. [F/N] couldn’t help but grit her teeth as her hand enclosed on the locket, her eyes began to water as the tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. Robin quickly cups her cheeks when the tears finally did manage to fall, she understood why [F/N] was reacting this way.

When she and Billy did recover after the Starcourt burnt down, [F/N] wanted nothing to do with Robin and Steve. She wanted to leave the state and stay out, not because she didn’t love them anymore, no, it was because she thought it was safer for the both of them if she wasn’t around anymore. It broke her heart that she was alive after everything she had done, she would have felt better if she died after that because at least she wouldn’t have to feel the guilt of practically cheating on her girlfriend while emotionally abusing her then physically beating the shit out of her and her precious little brother. Robin made it clear that there wasn’t anything that [F/N] said that was going to drive her away, [F/N] needed her more than ever and she was going to stay by her side and give her the help that she needs to recover; both physically and mentally. It took a lot of time before [F/N] was able to look at her again or even touch her without recoiling away, Robin was in tears when [F/N] managed to actually hug her without immediately pulling away, her heart swelled up when they were able to cuddle in bed like they did before. Robin thought of that little gift when she saw that locket in that antique shop she passed while in Indy with Steve, she was grateful for her brother when he still had that photo saved on film and quickly got it developed, shaped and placed perfectly in the locket. She thought that [F/N] would appreciate a gift that marked a pretty intense part of there life along with words that helped ease her mind that Robin was going nowhere.

“W-What did I do to deserve someone like you?” she sobbed into her shoulder, her arms wrapped around her torso as she pulled her close and held her tight so she wouldn’t disappear “Why did you stick around when I’ve become this damaged?” she inhaled deeply, rubbing her hands up and down her back.

“Because I loved you, and I knew what I was getting myself into the moment I agreed to be yours.” she gasped softly at that as another sob left her lips, Robin gently pulls back but doesn’t resist when [F/N] moved her arms from her torso to around her waist. She lifts her face up to gently wipe away the tears before pulling her into a much needed kiss, [F/N] couldn’t help but cry softly into the kiss “You deserve to be loved, and you deserve to be taken care of. You deserve love.” this earned a soft hum, the older woman leaning into the palm that cupped her cheeks as her body relaxed.

“I deserve… to be loved.” Robin nods.

“You do, and I am more than willing to give you my love.” she then takes the locket from out of [F/N]’s hands, quickly clipping it on around her neck then gently patting her on the chest “Happy valentine’s day, [F/N].” she smiled tearfully, sniffling softly as she held the locket in her hand.

“Happy valentine’s day, Robin.” she then kneels down to wrap her arms around Robin’s waist to lift her up and spin the both of them around, laughing to her hearts contents when Robin let out a squeal of joy, her hands planted on her shoulders to keep herself balanced. When [F/N] finally brought her down she continued to hold her in her arms but this time Robin wrapped her arms around her neck, the two of them stared into each other’s eyes then finally shared a kiss that they poured so much love into.

They were in love, and that was their moment.

…

…

“Are you alright?” a voice asked, the person they asked slowly opened their eyes and they had a pained expression on their face as a single tear ran down their cheek. They stared up at the sky above them and their face turned bitter as they raised their hand, swiping the tear away in one swoop.

“Yeah, I just had a nice dream.”

Tyrant

word count: 11,246

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Eddie Munson x Male!Reader Pronouns: He/Him Relationship: Romantic Occupation: Student Ability: N/A

Keys:

[M/N]: Male Name  [L/N]: Last Name  [N/N]: Nickname  [H/C]: Hair Color  [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: vulgar language, violence, alcohol consumption

might make a part two, you never know, you never know.

that is all.

“Look, there he goes again.”

“You’d think the teachers would expel him by now.”

“Did you hear? Apparently he jumped Thompson on his way to school and robbed him of all his shit.”

“What an asshole.”

“Oh shit, here he comes.”

The once bustling cafeteria came to silence when Hawkins Highschool delinquent stepped foot inside, those intimidating [E/C] eyes glared at anyone within a five foot radius. Grabbing his own tray of food, he sat down at a random table that was still full of people, but the moment he looked at them they quickly departed from the table in hopes of not being his new punching bag. There wasn’t a single redeeming quality about [M/N] the people of Hawkins could think of, he was rude, dangerous and ruthless, regardless of gender. People remembered a time when some prissy girl tried getting in his business, the type of girl that had a the mindset of “I can change him” or what not, she ended up missing several weeks of school because he beat her black and blue, tearing out some of her hair and knocking some of her teeth out.

Unlike Steve Harrington and Billy Hargrove, both being dubbed as the King of Hawkins, he was called the Tyrant of Hawkins. Billy was scary and intimidating in his own way but he had charisma and a charm to him that made people like him. Steve was just a pretty face with just the charm and no intimidation, all [M/N] had was the intimidation and demanding aura around him that people couldn’t help but obey his every word in hopes on not getting on his bad side. Whether they were the losers, the jocks or the popular people, there wasn’t anyone within Hawkins High that didn’t know the full extend [M/N] will go to keep what he calls peace.

And then there’s Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins. Lover of metal and D&D, a man who failed his last year of high school and was repeating the year in hopes of graduating that year. Eddie Munson, the man who wasn’t afraid to express who he was, regardless of who was in attendance. Most people find him downright annoying, some find him surprisingly endearing, but most people just think he’s a lost cause. People just thought he was bound for failure, there was nothing good about interacting with Eddie. Dustin, who was busy eating his food, glanced up from his meal to spare Eddie a look and soon noticed he was staring across the cafeteria.

“Eddie?” at the call of his name, the others sitting at the table, stop what they were doing and look at Eddie “What are you looking at?” he asks and soon they’re all following his gaze, a few of them turning pale when they saw that he was staring at the back of [M/N]’s head.

“Dude, why are you staring at [L/N] for? If he catches you staring, you’re dead meat.” Gareth whispered to him “And I am not up to watching you get beaten to a bloody pulp.” Eddie just lets out a laugh, brushing some of his hair back while waving them off.

“You guys worry too much, I’m not gonna do anything.” they all sweat a little, it totally looked like he was gonna do something, but despite knowing how reckless he was, he wasn’t someone who would poke a sleeping lion. Eddie would describe [M/N] as a person with a button you shouldn’t push instead of having a short fuse, he had a short temper as is and chose to speak with his fists instead of his words, they seem to get the point across better than an explanation “… do you think he listens to Iron Maiden?” Jeff gave him a look.

“Eddie, don’t even think about it. You’ll be met with a fist before he even agrees that he likes listening to them.”

“So you’re saying there’s a possibility.” they all let out a groan, a few of them slapping a hand to their foreheads or squeezing the bridge of their nose. The sound of shouting and gasps caught their attention so they all look over and in horror saw one of the jocks from the basketball team dump their food on top of [M/N]’s head, he looked like a freshmen because he was laughing aloud while the rest of the basketball team watch in disbelief at what the new guy just did.

“AH HAHAHA!! Come on guys, that was funny!” he continued to laugh, missing the way everyone backed away as [M/N] slowly stood to his feet “I don’t see why you guys are so scared of just one gu—” he couldn’t finish his sentence when a fist connected with his jaw, causing him to tumble to the floor as blood sprayed out of his mouth. Each time the punk tried getting up his face was met with [M/N]’s fist, he laid no waste to him as he continued punching his face until he collapsed onto his back by Eddie’s table. The brunette watched as the [H/C] male grabbed him by the collar to lift him up and continue beating his face in with no remorse, by the time he was satisfied, he let out an exhausted sigh, sweat and chunks of food bleeding down his face as his fist was drenched in blood, regardless if it was his or not.

“Carver.” Jason flinched at the call of his name, [M/N] didn’t raise his voice to call him, his voice was scary enough that he could bend anyone to his will “What have I told you about controlling your dogs?” he swallowed thickly from where he stood, shrinking down when [M/N] stood up.

“T-That if they get out of line… you’ll put them down.”

“That’s right.” he starts, looking at the table beside him and grabbing Mike’s tray of food then proceeded to dump all its contents on top of the unconscious jock “I hope you remember this the next time you decide to act like a bitch.” He growled as he threw the tray down, his eyes then wandered over to Eddie, who was staring at him with wide eyes and jaw dropped “The fuck you looking at, freak?” he snarled at the brunette, who in turn swallowed thickly, raising his hands up defensively.

“N-Nothing! Nothing, I swear.” he got a scoff in response as [M/N] turned away, kicking the jock one last time then stormed out of the cafeteria, kicking the doors open and disappeared to probably clean the food off of him. The cafeteria sat in silence and watched as the basketball team hurriedly dragged the unconscious player to the sickbay, when they were out of sight, the students all bustled into chatter at the turn of events that just occurred.

“God, that no good [L/N] is so terrifying.”

“He’s even got the jocks listening to him.”

“I can’t believe that dumbass did that.”

“Nobody warned him?” Dustin and Lucas pat Mike on his shoulder, watching as he took deep breaths to calm his beating heart. He wasn’t going to lie, watching him beat his ass was so satisfying but once he turned those anger filled eyes in his direction, he couldn’t help but pray that he wasn’t next, that didn’t mean he wasn’t sad that his food was now on the floor.

“You good Mike? You look like you’re at the verge of fainting,” he raised a thumb whilst trembling slightly.

“And there he goes.” Dustin says, watching as he revved his engine and drove out of the schools parking lot “You’d think the teachers would have dealt with him at this point, but to think he’s even got them to listen to him.” Lucas lets out a sigh, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I-I’m good.” now with Eddie, his heart was beating just as fast as Mike’s, but for a different reason. The way he watched [M/N]’s face scrunch up in rage, the way he watched his bicep bulge with each swing, the way he watched the sweat run down his neck as he beat his face in. He couldn’t deny the fact that he felt something when those [E/C] eyes glared in his direction as he sneered at him, called him a freak. It was just that tone in his voice and the way he presented himself that made his heart race. 

“That was so hot…” he whispered under his breath. At the end of the day, all Eddie could think of was [M/N] and no matter how hard he tried to think of anything else, his thoughts of the tyrant would just come rushing back. The moment he and his friends stepped out of school they heard the roar of an engine, and there was the man in all his glory starting up his motorcycle, a Kawasaki Vulcan 750. He treated that thing as if it were his child, people said that his bike was the only thing that ever made him smile, and the one time someone made the foolish mistake to mess with his baby, he paid them back by totally their car to the point of recognition.

“Yeah, unfortunately, he does not discriminate.” they each shake their head.

[family’s video store]

“Yes sir, yes I understand… have you ever tried checking to see if the VHS player is plugged in?” Robin Buckley, who was currently on the phone with a customer that recently purchased a movie from the store, had called up complaining that it wouldn’t play “So it wasn’t plugged in? Then that’s probably the reason why it wasn’t working, sir.” Steve walked behind the counter after putting the returned movies back on shelf and saw the look of mild frustration on her face.

“Old man again?” he mouthed to her, to which she nodded while making the finger gun gesture and pressing it against her temple, he snickers softly when she pulled the trigger but continued to speak in way that she’s sympathising with said man. Steve’s head perked up at the sound of a motorbike, leaning back on the counter to take a peak outside and there he saw the infamous [M/N] [L/N], the Tyrant of Hawkins, pulling up into their parking lot. He couldn’t help the bead of sweat that rolled down the side of his cheek as he reminisced the past when they attended high school together, he was the one person Steve knew not to mess with or look at the wrong way. He had a reputation that preceded him, they both did, so they had a neutral relationship between each other. He takes a deep breath when he saw [M/N] get off his bike and start approaching the store, jumping slightly when the doors opened and he came right up to the counter.

“Harrington.” he says, voice uncaring for the man in front of him as he stared at him with that same neutral and unbothered expression he always wore when he wasn’t angry.

“[L-L/N].” he cursed under his breath for stuttering, embarrassed that he was still afraid of the man in front of him “What brings you here? I don’t suppose you’re here to rent a movie?” he swallows his saliva when [M/N]’s gaze hardened on him before ignoring him and looking at Robin.

“Buckley, I need to talk to you.” finally looking at them, she acknowledge [M/N]’s presence but held up her finger, telling him to give her a second.

“I’m in the middle of something.”

“Can’t it wait?” she gives him a look then goes right back into what she was doing before she was interrupted, Steve took a glance at [M/N]’s face and saw he was slowly but surely losing his patience, the way his eyebrows scrunched up as he hand formed into a tight fist. Steve all but recognised this was what [M/N] would do before he completely lost all rationality and started throwing hands, he took a step forward when he saw [M/N] raised his hand but was surprised to see he only pressed the hook set to hang up the phone.

“Wha— hey! You can’t just hang up the phone when I’m talking to customers, [M/N]!” she shouts at him, he just shrugs.

“Yeah, well, that’s not as important as to what I have to tell you.” she raised a brow, they stare at each other in silence until she let out a groan, his face lighting up slightly when she caved.

“Alright, fine,” she gestured for him to follow her into the back room and he nods, jumping over the counter and going in before her “Steve, you can handle things alone up front, right?”

“Y-Yeah, but—” he was ignored, he lets out a sigh as his hands slapped against his hips when he dropped them “Alright, I’ll be here.” Robin Buckley, lover of women, would never call herself anything special. Still in high school, she was just like every other average joe that walked those halls, though she was in band, that was probably the only thing cool she’d say about herself. So, never in a millions years would she have found herself in a sort of friendship with the cold and ruthless [M/N], however, right now he was anything but what his reputation says about him.

“I actually managed to talk to him this time!” he squealed out, hands cupping his cheeks as a bright red blush flushed across his cheeks. There was no trace of the Tyrant of Hawkins, all she could find was your typical high school teenage boy thinking about the love of his life, and his so happened to be Eddie Munson, the freak of Hawkins. Ah, now she can remember why the two of them got along, they both had that sense that neither liked the opposite gender and they became friends from then on. Most of the time it was Robin ranting on and on about a girl that’s caught her eye, but never actually having the courage to speak about her feelings, all [M/N] ever had to talk about how his feelings for Eddie continued to grow since he first saw Eddie.

“Oh yeah, and what did you say to him?” he then slumps forward, a dejected look on his face.

“I asked what the fuck he was staring at, then called him a freak.” she let out a defeated sigh, slapping a hand onto her forehead “I couldn’t help it, I was still angry that that fucking prick dumped his food on me.” his face turned sour at the memory, hand clenching into a fist but softened when she placed her hand on top of his.

“You really need to work on your anger management issues, dude.”

“I’m trying, I swear I am.” he lets his head hang a little, hand clenching and unclenching, showing that he was trying to calm himself “But my therapist is a pain in my ass, telling me shit that I already know is the problem and ain’t really helping me. I’m ready to throw hands!” he shouts as he stands to his feet, to which she quickly grabbed him by his shoulders and pushed him back down.

“You can’t hit your therapist, you could get into serious trouble for something like that.” he grumbles at that, soon that lovesick expression found its way onto his face again, he was probably thinking about Eddie again.

“I really want to be about to talk to him, Buckley, but I’m scared that if I approach him, he’ll take it the wrong way. He might think that I’m trying to beat him up, but I don’t want him to be scared.” she rolled her eyes, planting her hand on her hip.

“Well then, I don’t know, give him love letters.” he looked up at her.

“Love letters?” she nods.

“Yeah, if you can’t find the right words to talk to him to his face, write that shit down and put it in his locker.” she then smacks his arm with the back of her hand “Isn’t English your best trait? I’ve read some of the stuff you’ve written, and let me tell you, that shit hits harder than you think.” he looks a little flustered at that, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my friend.” she shrugs.

“Whatever floats your boat.” he seats there for a couple minutes before nodding his head.

“Okay, I’ll give your idea a try.” she nods when he stood up “I'll tell you how it goes.” she grins and gives him a thumbs up.

“Go get ‘em tiger.” they then fist bump and he walks out of the room, he glanced at Steve and mentally rolled his eyes when he saw him almost fall over. He was totally eavesdropping on their conversation, but he could give less of a shit, he was busy thinking of what to write down to give to Eddie. Robin walks in after he drives off on his motorbike, leaning down to rest on the counter as Steve gives her a look of disbelief.

“Since when were you friends with [L/N], Robin?” she shrugs.

“Since high school man, learn to keep up.”

“Wha— but he had no friends!”

[next day: hawkins high school]

In the early morning, [M/N] was at school with a letter in his hand. Taking Robin’s advice, he poured his heart and soul into what he wrote down that he wished he could say to Eddie. He had a faint blush on his face as he pressed the letter to his chest before finding Eddie’s locker and slipping it in, not before checking that there was no one there to catch him in the act. With his mission accomplished, he laid in waiting for Eddie to arrive, just to catch his reaction. He really hoped that he didn’t take it the wrong way, he didn’t think the letter was a joke and that someone was playing with his feelings.

“Hey, Eddie!” [M/N] quickly fell back behind the wall he was leaning on to hide, peeking out ever so slightly to see that it was Dustin calling Eddie’s name, who had just arrived with that cute little smile spread across his face.

“Hey Henderson! You ready for tonight’s campaign? It’s gonna be a real spectacle!” he cheered, to which Dustin’s face lit up immensely and nodded his head.

“Totally! Mike, Lucas and I can’t wait!” he chuckles softly.

“Well, it’ll be worth the wait, I promise.” Eddie soon opens his locker to get a few things but blinked when something fell and landed on his feet, kneeling down, he raised a brow in confusion to see a letter “Hmm? What’s this?” Dustin peeks over his shoulder then backs away as Eddie stands up straight, flipping the letter to get a look at the front and back.

“There’s no name.” [M/N] scoffed at that, of course he wasn’t going to write his name on it, it’d be even more unbelievable and he’d probably take it as a threat and not read the letter at all “Think it’s a love letter?” both himself and Dustin laugh at the possibility.

“Yeah, I highly doubt it. Don’t get my hopes high like that.” he jokes, he then tears the envelope open and pulls out the letter. Dustin tried to read it as well but couldn’t when Eddie would pull it closer to his face, [M/N] wished to see his face just to see if what he wrote was good or not. His wish was answered when Eddie lowered the letter and there he saw Eddie’s face turn bright red, all the way to the tips of his ears.

“Eddie…?” Dustin softly called out, reaching forward to grab his bicep and shake him “You good?” he stuttered out words, raising his hand to cover his mouth.

“I-It was a love letter…” 

“What?! Let me see.” he exclaimed and snatched the letter from his hands to read it himself, [M/N] wanted to punch the shit out of that little bastard for taking the letter that was meant for Eddie alone, but couldn’t help but feel a little grateful, because there he got to see his flustered and bashful reaction to reading the contents of his letter “Whoa! Whoever wrote this, they’re batshit in love with you.” Eddie bites his bottom lip, shaking his head in denial.

“No, whoever wrote it is probably fucking with me.” he replied, this answer was exactly what [M/N] feared.

“No, no Eddie, I don’t think so.” he then waves it around a bit and hands it back to him “If this was really a joke, I highly doubt it would be written with this much care. Whoever wrote it, they definitely had something they’ve been wanting to say to you for a long time. If this was a joke, I believe it wouldn’t have been written like it was a goddamn novel.” Eddie takes a breath, lifting the letter to read through it once more before pressing it against his lips.

“A-Alright.” he pulls it away and smiles softly at it, making sure to fold it up then tuck it nicely in his front pocket. [M/N] turned so his back was pressed against the wall and the look of joy quickly spread across his face. He internally squealed to himself, hands pressed into his face to hide the huge grin on his face that he couldn’t suppress. Robin’s advice worked and it wouldn’t have worked as greatly as it did if it weren’t for Dustin, he must thank him in some way for clearing up the misunderstanding. He nods to himself, taking one last glance at Eddie before leaving for his first class of the day.

“A mixtape?” he slowed his pace.

From that day on, [M/N] would continue to write letters and leave them in his locker, finding new things about Eddie that had him falling in love with him, it was his favourite thing to do, especially when he got to see the little reactions Eddie would have upon reading the letters. He would always turn a shade of read, sometimes he would twirl a few strands of his hair around his finger as he read through the letters, maybe fidget with a few of his rings, but just seeing him smile was all that made his day. At the end of his day he would always rush to Robin to tell her that it was working, telling her that her advice worked wonderfully and that it was slowly building his confidence to talk to Eddie face to face. Yeah, about that. There were a few times [M/N] managed to build up some of that confidence and was planning on talking to Eddie a few times but at the last minute chicken out a end of sulking about his failures. 

[M/N] was sitting in the cafeteria now, some bit of food hanging loosely on his lips as he stared at his notebook. He twirled his pencil around his fingers then tapped it against his forehead, rubbing the end of it into his temple as he tried to think of other things to put into his next love letter but his mind went blank. He groaned and fell forward with his head hitting the cafeteria table, he was running out of things to say, he needed to think of something quick. He sighs to himself and lifts himself up, closing the notebook and tucking it away then decided he was done in the cafeteria. He swings his legs out and starts walking out that he just so happens to overhear something from Eddie’s table.

“Yeah! I’d appreciate something like that, means they actually took the time of day to make something sentimental, you know?” Gareth scoffed.

“Just as long as they put in songs that actually mean something, if it’s just random songs, it won’t really matter.” Mike raises his hand.

“I second that.” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. I’ll remember what you guys said when I get a mixtape.” [M/N]’s face lit up, now that’s something he could do. With a new goal set in mind, he was going to ditch his last class in favor of making this mixtape when somebody slammed into his chest.

“What the?!” he exclaims, growling when whoever bumped into him spilt their food onto him “Fucking— again?! Watch it punk!” he shouts, grabbing the next victim by the collar of their shirt and pulling them forward, raising his fist to punch them across the face but stopped when he saw that it was Dustin.

“W-Wait, man…! I’m sorry, I d-didn— didn’t see you.” his friend group immediately stood to their feet to defend him, but what could they do against the tyrant, he could easily beat them all after tearing Dustin a new one. [M/N] took a glance towards Eddie, something Dustin didn’t miss, and saw the way he glared at him if he were to even leave a mark on him “I’m sorry, I-I’m sorry…!” he apologises once more, [M/N] looks back at him then closed his eyes, letting out a sigh as he let Dustin go.

“Accidents happen.” he says, grimacing when he looked down at the spilt milk all over his jacket “Just watch where you’re going next time, Henderson.” the cafeteria was brought to silence, absolute silence when [M/N] walked out. Did the tyrant just spare someone? Everyone was sent into an uproar just as Dustin collapsed, Lucas and Mike were immediately by his side.

“Dustin!”

“Dustin! Are you alright?” he was shaking, trying to calm his breathing but he nodded nonetheless.

“Y-Yeah… god! I thought I saw my life flash before more eyes just now.” he runs a hand through his hair as his friends helped him to his feet, what he couldn’t get out of his mind was the way [M/N]’s face showed annoyance but the moment he took one glance over at Eddie his face softened. He seemed to have been the only one to notice because they were all asking if he was alright and how lucky he was to have survived against [M/N], his eyes narrowed at the possibility.

‘He couldn’t possibly be…’

[with [m/n]]

“Mum! Where’s the cassette recorder?!”

“In the garage!”

“Thank you!” he dumps an array of different cassettes onto his desk, sorting them out by genre and splitting them up then grabbed the cassette recorder and player, plugging them with headphones so the residents of the [L/N] household didn’t have to suffer through the array of different songs throughout the night. A cigarette hung loosely in between his fingers, flicking the ashes into an ashtray as he listened to each song, bobbing his head while swaying softly “I hope he likes these.” he muttered softly, by the time he was finished it was two in the morning, but it was totally worth it. He laid on his bed, headphones in and listened to his final product, smiling ever so lightly. The next day felt like any other day, arrive to school early with barely anyone around and slip in a letter for Eddie but this time a mixtape, everything was fi—

“So it is you!” he let out a gasp, throwing himself against the lockers at the unexpected voice. Looking behind him, his face paled when he saw that it was Dustin “I can’t believe you’re the secret admirer!” he quickly slapped his hand over Dustin’s mouth, bringing his other hand up to press a finger to his lips.

“Would you keep your voice down?!” he snarled at him, he takes a quick look around to see if anybody heard, when he saw nobody he dragged Dustin into a supply closet and slammed him against the wall “Henderson! Don’t you know when to mind your own business? I thought you’d think twice about bothering me after yesterday, but I see you’re just as stupid as the rest of this fucking scho—”

“You’re in love with Eddie, aren’t you?” [M/N] sputters over his words, his tough guy façade slowly beginning to crumble when his previous threats went to deaf ears as Dustin smirked up at him “I saw the way you looked at Eddie yesterday, and after all those love letters I thought of the possibility that it could be you. I was really taking a huge gamble on that small little detail, but I guess I was right. You, [M/N] “the Tyrant” [L/N], is in love with Eddie “the Freak” Munson. Just admit it, it’s written all over your face.” [M/N]’s face was twitching as he fought to keep that glare on his face, but in the end let out a defeated sigh as he crumbled to his knees, hands holding a fistful of Dustin’s vest.

“I-Is it that obvious…?” Dustin’s jaw dropped immediately as soon as [M/N]’s true feelings revealed itself, he pushed himself back and saw his bright red face as he pressed his hands to his face “Yeah, I’m really in love with him it’s crazy.” even his voice sounded soft and meek, not a trace of that psycho from the day prior.

“Since when?” he was taken aback when a lovesick grin spread across his face, a look of complete adoration in his eyes as he tried to recounter the first time he saw Eddie Munson.

“Where do I even begin? It was probably during my freshmen year! He’s a year older than me but the moment I set my eyes on him, watching him be himself… ah, I was over the moon.” he then cups his cheeks, leaning into the palm of his hand “I fell in love when I saw him performing one night at a shitty gig that were  willing to let him and his band, Corroded Coffins, play. It was so mesmerising watching him play, I loved every second of it.” Dustin pursed his lips, raising a brow when he heard [M/N] let out a sigh as he leaned his back against the wall.

“Well, if you like him so much, why don’t you just tell him? You’ve shown him just how much you like him, so I don’t see the harm in just saying it to his face,” this caused the older one to let out a groan, throwing his head back then hiding his face in his knees.

“That’s the thing. I’m afraid I might say the wrong thing, I’m scared that I might scare him off. Don’t you remember who I am, Henderson? I’m the tyrant, the school delinquent that isn’t afraid to throw hands with a fucking teacher.” he runs his hands through his hair “I’m afraid when he finds out that I’m his secret admirer… he’ll think I was playing with his feelings as a new way to torture people.” Dustin placed his hands on his hips.

“Eddie always looks forward to seeing those letters.” this caused [M/N]’s head to perk up and look up at him “It’s his favourite part of the day, seeing what new things you love about him.” this caused him to grin sheepishly, closing his hands together and kicking his legs a little.

“Really?” he giggles softly. If Dustin where to mention [M/N]’s true personality to his friends, they would probably laugh in his face and tell him he’s ridiculous. That there wasn’t a single person in this world that the tyrant had a soft spot for, but that was where they were wrong. He’s seen the way Eddie’s face lights up upon reading the letters and now that he knows that they are really truthful— he lets out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’d like to consider myself a good friend of Eddie’s, like, really close.” [M/N] lets out a hum at that, acknowledging that fact by the fact he’s always seeing the two of them together acting like idiots “So… how’s about I give you a hand?” he gave him a wary expression.

“… what do you mean by that?”

“I think Eddie’s starting to like you, erm, the secret admirer.” [M/N]’s face lit up immensely at that “Eddie also has an interest in you, the tyrant, but it slowly turned sour after yesterday. He probably would have hated your guts if you actually hit me.” he groans.

“I know, that’s why I didn’t.”

“And I still thank you for that, [L/N].” this earned him an eye roll “If I were to have Eddie see you in a better light, and potentially boost up your confidence in talking to him, maybe I can help you two hook up.”

“Really? You’d do that?” he stands up but then stops, looking down at Dustin cautiously “What’s the catch?” Dustin smirks a little.

“Just your protection.” this caused [M/N] to quirk a brow “My friends and I are still losers, meaning we’re still targets in the jocks eyes. We by no means can protect ourselves from those assholes, so, I was hoping you’d keep an eye out for us in return for my services.” he let out a groan at that, why did he have to play babysitter. He genuinely wanted to refuse, but having Dustin as his inside man to help him get with Eddie… dammit, it was an offer he just couldn’t refuse.

“Alright, Henderson, you’ve got yourself a deal.” this caused him to grin, reaching forward to grab [M/N]’s hand and shake it enthusiastically.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” he rolled his eyes. Now, outside the supply closet was Eddie. He arrived a little early to school in hopes that he could potentially catch his secret admirer but upon opening his locker and finding the letter and a mixtape, all was for naught and he woke up early for no— wait, a mixtape? He felt giddy, taking the tape into his hands and opening the case and there he saw a little note written in it.

’I happened to overhear that you’d love to receive a mixtape. Thought I’d give you one as a gift. I hope you enjoy it, Eddie.’

~ secret admirer.

“Oh, what a sap.” the sound of a door opening caught his attention, he leaned back from out of his locker and narrowed his eyes when he saw [M/N] and Dustin walk out of the supply closet. He thought maybe [M/N] was threatening the younger one but was surprised to see Dustin laughing when the other grabbed the end of his cap and shook it a bit before pushing his head back and walking away “What was all that about...?” Dustin raised his head upon feeling he was being stared at, he jumped upon seeing that it was Eddie.

“Hey, Eddie! W-When did you get here?” he asked while approaching him.

“A couple minutes ago.” he then eyed the back of [M/N]’s back before he disappeared “Why were you in the supply closet with [L/N]? Was he threatening you again?” Dustin’s eyes widened before he raised his hands while shaking his head.

“Oh, no, no, no! I just needed advice for... intimidation?” he mentally slapped his forehead, even Eddie looked at him as if he were an idiot.

“Seriously? I’m surprised he didn’t give you a black eye.” Dustin waved his hand to dismiss him.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We just let bygones be bygones, alright? He’s actually a pretty chill dude.” Eddie rolled his eyes, tucking the mixtape and letter into his front pocket, intending to listen and read through them later.

“Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

And see Dustin kept his end of the deal, Eddie would ramble about anything that came into mind and he would later report it to [M/N], because of this, it gave him more material for his letters. Sometimes he would think of new gifts to give to Eddie, a few times they got a little too big so [M/N] had to break into his locker just to get it in there. But also keeping his end of the deal, whenever [M/N] would catch Dustin and his group of losers getting ganged by anyone with ill intentions, he just stands behind them and give them that infamous death glare. Mike and Lucas have been starting to notice the lack of black eyes they’ve been receiving, and Dustin has been weirdly confident for some reason.

“Dustin, what did you do?” Lucas asked, eyeing him weirdly as he walked beside him.

“Lucas is right, you did something.” Mike agreed, Dustin just gave them a cheeky grin. 

“I’ve gained us, boys, immunity.” they both stare at him weirdly “At first I thought he wasn’t doing his job right, but in the end, it worked out just fine.” Mike and Lucas share a look with each other.

“Oh yeah, how?” they enter the cafeteria, Mike and Lucas intending to sit down with Eddie and the rest, but were confused when they saw that he was walking somewhere else “Dustin? Dustin! Where are you going?” their jaws literally dropped when he confidently walked over to where [M/N] was sitting, dropping his tray of food in front of him then taking a seat across from him, practically startling the poor soul who was reading.

“What the-- Henderson?” [M/N] questioned, looking over at him in confusion, he rolled his eyes when the brunette grinned at him “What the fuck are you doing over here?” he merely shrugged his shoulders, taking his bag off his shoulders and putting it under the table.

“Eating lunch with you.” he scoffed, making sure to bookmark his page before closing his book.

“Shouldn’t you be eating with your friends?” he asked while gesturing with his heads over to them, to which Dustin shrugged “I still have a reputation to up hold here, Henderson. I can’t just let these dorks see me going soft, all because of you--” he stuttered back his words when Dustin raised his finger, he was greatly offended that he was shushed.

“And they won’t, but I think it’ll help Eddie see that you’re not such a bad guy.” this caused him to calm slightly “Like I said before, Eddie was interested in you before and I think you’ll gain his interest again if he see’s you’re not that hard to talk to. And by doing that, you have me.” [M/N] rolled his fingers along the table as he eyed Dustin before letting out a sigh.

“Fucking, fine.” with that Dustin happily ate his food, [M/N] picked at his food “... does he like the mixtape?” the younger one let out a hum at that, he quickly swallows his food and nods.

“Mm hmm, he listens to it all the time.” this caused a rare smile to raise to his cheeks,

“I’m glad.” those who were staring that managed to see that smile were in complete shock, the only face he ever wore was a scowl or sneer, but this was the first time anyone has ever seen him smile like that at something that wasn’t his bike. Eddie, who was watching the entire interaction, felt his eyes widen at how charming that smile was. He couldn’t help but snort softly when he saw Dustin say something and in return [M/N] threw some of his food at him, but there was a smile nonetheless.

“Since when was Henderson friends with [L/N]?!” Gareth exclaimed, Eddie chuckled softly.

“Actually... I remember seeing the two of them together one morning, I thought it was nothing, but I guess not.” at the end of lunch he was hounded for answers by his friends, though they backed off a little when [M/N] walked by them but not without ruffling Dustin’s head.

“Later Henderson.” he happily waved his hand.

“Bye, [L/N]!” he then smirks at Lucas’ and Mike’s dumbfounded face.

“Since when did you gain [M/N]’s favor? I thought that was impossible to do!” Mike exclaimed, hands in his hair and ready to be torn off “Was this during the time you bumped into him?” Dustin just grinned cheekily at them, shrugging his shoulders.

“Maybe, maybe not. Hey, Eddie!” said man looked at him “He does like Iron Maiden.” Eddie’s face lit up.

“Well, if he likes Iron Maiden, then he can’t be all that bad.”

“No, Eddie, just no.”

[time skip: a few weeks later]

Dustin continued to sit at [M/N]’s table, must to the other’s displeasure, and just straight up harassed him because he had the power to do so. Dustin’s time with him actually got him a few ups rather than downs, mostly because he started to learn more and more about him. He learnt that [M/N] was actually really smart and the reason he never put in any of the effort to the schoolwork was because the teacher’s thought he’d end up as a lost cause, so he just gave up trying so hard. But the one thing he did put a lot of effort into was English, Dustin would often ask for his help for his English work and though he thought it was a hassle, the younger of the two could tell that [M/N] was having some fun with it. 

Sure Dustin promised [M/N] he would help him with telling him everything about Eddie, but Eddie wanted to know more about [M/N] as well. Eddie learnt that though the delinquent enjoyed listening to a variety of different heavy metal songs, he quite enjoyed listening to classical music as well via vinyl's. It was a shocker, but it did help calm him down when he was having trouble with his anger issues. The school also noticed the way [M/N] was starting to soften up and act less impulsive, they all had Dustin to thank for that, making the tyrant less tyrannical.

“Whatever you’re doing, Henderson, keep at it.” Eddie said, patting his shoulder and looking up in thought “You think he knows how to play D&D? I’d love to ask him to join Hellfire personally, but I’m afraid he’ll think it’s boring.” Dustin rolled his eyes, recalling the time [M/N] told him that he self taught himself how to play D&D so he could play alongside Eddie one day during one of his campaigns.

“I’ll ask him.” Eddie grinned.

“You’re the best.” he shrugs.

“So I’ve been told.” with [M/N], he was sitting just outside the parking lot reading the Lord of the Rings Book: The Return of the King. He was always a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, it was one of the many reasons he ended up loving English a lot, but he took up reading the books again when Dustin told him Eddie tended to make references from the books a lot. He closed the book and chuckled to himself at the amount of page tabs he had on them from the time he marked down the best parts of the book, he believed he believed he read enough and was planning on going home but stopped when he heard shouting.

“Hmm?” he glanced over and saw what he believed was Eddie’s Hellfire Club huddled around, he thought it was nothing until he saw a couple of jocks “Well shit, and here I thought I was going to have a quiet Friday evening.” he puts his book in his bag and leaves it by his bike before marching over to see what ruckus was all about, the students immediately parted upon seeing him and when he saw what was going on his blood ran cold. 

[a few minutes before [m/n] arrived]

“You think you and your lot of freaks are untouchable, huh, Munson?” Eddie laid on the ground, blood running down nose and black eye slowly forming on his left eye as he stared up at the bastard who punched him “You think just because Henderson is in good graces with the tyrant we can’t hurt you? Well guess again, bitch, there’s nothing he will do.” Dustin glared at them from where he stood.

“You’re wrong, you asshole!” he flinched back when another jock took a step forward.

“Oh, yeah? That asshole doesn’t care about anyone but himself! You’ve gotten arrogant because of the fact that you can talk to him, Henderson. But remember this, the moment he sees no more use in you, you’ll be the next punching bag on his list.” Eddie spits out the blood in his mouth and stands to his feet.

“What makes you think we need [L/N]’s protection, huh? I can handle myself pretty well!” he lets out a laugh when he was grabbed by his vest, yanked forward and standing eye to eye with the jock “You guys are just as scared of him as we are, you just hate that he’s close to him.” he winces when the jock reeled his arm back but paused when it didn’t come, he opened his eyes and noticed that the jock was looking down so he followed his gaze and his eyes widened when one of the newest love letters fell out of his pocket.

“What’s this?” Eddie sputtered out his words but let out a gasp when he was thrown back, Gareth and Jeff caught him before he could fall just as the jock bent down to pick up the letter.

“H-Hey man, give that back!” he shouts out desperately, heart dropping when the letter opened and the jock looked at the writing inside it, he soon laughed at what it said.

“Well would you look at that? The freak seems to have an admirer!” he shouts, reading through more of it then looked at Eddie with an amused expression “Do you really think anyone has any feelings for you, Munson? It’s probably nothing more than a joke. Nobody loves you, there’s nothing to love.” Eddie’s hands closed into a tight fist, those words really damaging his heart.

“Y-You’re wrong!” this response made him laugh.

“Wow! You really believe these feelings this person wrote for you are actually true!” he then drops the letter, raised his foot and stomped on it, making sure to twist his foot on top of it “You don’t deserve to be loved.” those tears that were threatening to fall finally fell, though Dustin couldn’t help but feel fear run through his veins. [M/N] always treated those letters with care, and seeing someone stomp on them means that they have a death wish. 

“You’re dead...” he whispered to himself, though the jocks seemed to have picked up on what he said and turned their attention on him.

“The fuck did you say, nerd...” they trailed off when someone stepped out from behind Dustin, he glanced up and there he saw that enraged look in [M/N]’s face that he hasn’t seen in a long time. Eddie also looked up when someone pushed passed him and saw that same expression that charmed him, [M/N] couldn’t see anything but red. He grabbed the piece of shit that had the balls to insult him; to insult his Eddie and stomp on his letter, and pulled them forward “H-Hey, now wait a minu-- minute!” [M/N] pulls his arm back, glaring at the poor unfortunate soul.

“Clench your teeth.” was all the the warning he got that was laced with venom, and for the next couple of minutes, [M/N] was laying waste into him. There was nothing that could stop him now, not the countless of students that were yelling at him to stop, not the people who were trying to pull him off as he beat his voice to the point he laid there unconscious and unable to defend himself. He ignored the way the jock clawed at his face and arms for him to stop but couldn’t, he made his Eddie cry... and he was going to make him pay with his blood.

“[M/N], stop!” Dustin shouted, grabbing at the arm that he was swinging with all he could and pulled it back “You’ve done enough... please, you’ve done enough.” [M/N] glanced back at Dustin and saw the sheer fear in his eyes, he then looked down at the poor unconscious sap and the blooded mess he was in. When Dustin saw his fist loosen up he finally let go of his arm, [M/N] took a deep breath then stood to his feet and looked over at Eddie. The two of them just stared at each other until [M/N] looked down at the dirty and crinkled letter, bending down to pick it up.

“H-Hey, wait--” Eddie was cut off when [M/N] slapped it against his chest as he walked past him.

“Next time, take good care of your valuables, Eddie.” nobody said a word as [M/N] walked away, hopped onto his bike and drove away. Eddie’s hands held onto that note like it was his lifeline as his friends surrounded him, asking him if he was okay, but he couldn’t help but shiver at the way his name rolled off of [M/N]’s tongue. 

’He said my name...’

[time skip: a few days later]

“... wanna talk about it?”

“Shut up, Buckley.” Robin snickered from beside [M/N], the two of them laying outside on the grass at school, though [M/N]  was drinking alcohol out of a flask. [M/N] told Dustin to stay away from him for a couple days because he was afraid he was going to have another outburst and take it out on him if he couldn’t control himself. He really went too far this time, that was on him, but he just couldn’t control himself when he saw Eddie crying; when he saw that motherfucker step on his fucking lett--

“You’re balling your fists again, [M/N].” he lets out a defeated sigh, hands relaxing.

“I think I’ve gone and done it this time, Robin. I think I officially scared him off.” Robin watched him sit up, face in his hands as he shook his head “I just couldn’t stop myself, Buckley. Just-- jesus, I lost all rationality and let out the anger I hadn’t realized I was bottling up all out on him.” Robin rolled her eyes and sat up.

“You’re overreacting, dude.”

“I don’t think I am.” he whispered to himself, she shakes her head and places a hand on his shoulder.

“If you’re so worried, just go talk to Dustin. He’s your inside man, remember?” he spares her a glance and saw she was giving him a look of reassurance “I can even talk to Dustin, that little twerp and I became friends sometime last year.” he makes a face.

“... nah, I think it’d be better if I talked to him.” she grins, punching his arm.

“There you go.” he scoffed with a laugh “Now hurry up, and sick and tired hearing that kid miss talking to you.” he scowls at her.

“Right, I was quite enjoying my peace and quiet.”

“No you weren’t.” he pouts. He was now at his locker, getting a few things out of it, ignoring the people moving around him and whispering bullshit about him again. He stopped caring about what others said about him, some rumors were true while others weren’t, they just put the blame on him because it was easier that wa--

“Hey.” he slammed his locker shut at the sudden voice, turning his head, he started screaming internally at who it was “You think we could talk for a bit?”

’Oh my god, Eddie! You’re talking to me! I can’t believe you’re talking to me! Is this a dream? If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up! What a dream come true! Eddie, the love of my life!’ he had a straight and neutral expression but his thoughts said otherwise.

“Sure.” he cried on the inside at his short answer, fuck sake.

“W-Well, um-- I’ve been meaning to say thank you.” this caused [M/N] to raise a brow.

“Huh, for what? I don’t remember doing anything for you.” this is where Eddie nervously twirled a strand of his hair then moving it so that it was hiding the lower half of his face, something that [M/N] found adorable whenever Eddie felt nervous.

“No. When those assholes took that letter from me...” he trailed off, a pained look on his face “I couldn’t do anything, and their words really stuck with me. But you, you stood up to them. You could have just looked the other way, but you didn’t, and for that I’m really grateful.” [M/N] swallowed thickly.

“Yeah, well-- don’t expect me...” [M/N] stopped himself before he could finish his sentence, shaking his head when he realized he was going to come off as an asshole “No, I-- fuck! I mean, it’s no big deal, Munson. You’re Dustin’s friend, so I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.” he internally fist bumped, nailed it.

“Well, thanks, tyrant.” [M/N] chuckled.

“No problem, freak.” they both laugh. Robin had confronted Dustin and told the young boy to talk to [M/N], he was already way ahead of her and was making his way to his locker but stopped in the middle of his tracks when he saw him talking to Eddie. Wow, what a turn of events. He froze up when [M/N] saw him and before he could say anything, Dustin backed away but gestured for him to keep talking.

“So, [L/N],” Eddie cleared his throat, his little DM persona surfacing up as he gave the taller male a confident grin “you know the Hellfire Club, right?” he nods his head.

“Yes?” Eddie then tugs on his battle vest, a smirk raising to his face.

“So then you know how we play D&D, right?” he was given another nod in response to that “Cool! I-I mean-- ahem. As the Dungeon Master, as a thank you for your services for protecting my friends and I, I would like to formally invite you to Hellfire. Now I hope you understand how valuable this invitation is, [L/N], because not just anyone can be invited into Hellfire. You should feel really grateful.” looking up at him, he was expecting to see an unimpressed expression and was going to be brushed off, but what he got was a look of excitement as [M/N]’s cold eyes sparkled while a red hue flushed to his cheeks.

“Really?” his voice reminded him of that of a child, he wished he could stare at that face a little longer but it quickly disappeared as it came when [M/N] shook his head to knock some sense into himself “I-I mean, uh, sure. I’ll take up your invitation, Munson. No take backs.” Eddie couldn’t help but laugh at that childish sentence.

“Haha, alright.” he then takes a step back, waving his hand goodbye “Tomorrow, at Hellfire after school. Be there early, okay? I need to show the ropes and recap on our last campaign.” [M/N] nods his head, giving Eddie a thumbs up as the metal head walked away.

“R-Right, totally!” Eddie flashes him a bright smile before finally disappearing, [M/N] stood in the hallway for what felt like hours at what just happened. Eddie came up to him. Eddie was the one that talked to him. Eddie thanked him. Eddie smiled at him. Eddie invited him to Hellfire. He couldn’t fight back that huge smile and when he saw there was no one around, he let out a biggest squeal, jumping in the air while pumping his fists then punching his locker “Fuck yeah! I did it! I did it!” he then crouches down, pressing his hands together as he continued to smile.

I did it.

[time skip: the next day]

Eddie wasn’t in the greatest of moods that day. Sure, he was happy when he woke up that morning. Why? Maybe it was because he was finally going to be able to interact with [M/N] [L/N] for the very first time instead of watching him from afar and hearing new things about him from Dustin, he could finally talk to him and look at him from up close. Maybe he was also excited to get a new letter from his secret admirer, things were looking great for his end of the week. He arrived at school with a big smile on his face, he approached his locker and opened it but... there was no letter. He looked through every nook and cranny for it but there was nothing, his heart dropped and he couldn’t help but feel heart broken. The words of those bullies coming back to haunt him. 

“Nobody loves you.”

“There’s nothing to love.” 

“You don’t deserve to be loved.” 

What made things worse was that he didn’t see [M/N] throughout that entire day, he tried asking Dustin but the kid didn’t give him any concrete answers to go off of. When everything was finally looking good for him, it all just went away as fast as it came. Was [M/N] even going to come to Hellfire? God, what was he even thinking? Of course he wasn’t. That guy probably has better things to do than come to some stupid roleplaying game with Eddie “the Freak” fucking Munson! He collapsed onto his chair within Hellfire, the end of the day came faster than he would he have wanted and now he was going to have to do this campaign in a shitty mood.

“Eddie?” a soft voice called out, his head shot up and there he saw the man he hadn’t realized he was aching to see. [M/N] looked nervous where he was standing, he stepped into the room and rubbed the back of his neck, there Eddie noticed [M/N] was holding something behind his back but didn’t question it and stood up in a slightly better mood.

“You actually came, [L/N]! I kind of thought you were going to pull a no show.” [M/N]’s eyes immediately widened, a look of shock evident.

“W-What? Why would I do that?” he then winced when he remember that he hadn’t shown his face to Eddie that entire day, going so far as to not tell Dustin what he was doing, what he was doing had to do with what he had behind his back “I-I was busy this entire day, there’s something I need to tell you.” Eddie fixed his posture at that.

“Yeah?” [M/N] could feel how fast his heart was beating, an eruption of butterflies bursting in his stomach as he thought of countless scenarios in his head. Eddie continued to look up at [M/N], seeing a new expression on his face, one of anxiousness. Before Eddie could say anything [M/N] finally pulled his arm out from behind his back and handed Eddie an envelope, an envelope with his name written on the front of it with a very familiar penmanship “W-Why do you... why do you have that?” he questioned as he snatched the letter out of his hand, did [M/N] steal this out from his locker? Was that the reason why this fucker didn’t show his face the entire da--

“I thought it would be better to give it to you now.” this caused Eddie to pause, what? “I know you might have been confused as to why you didn’t get one this morning, but I've been needing to tell you something face to face. I've always been better at writing down my feelings rather than verbally saying it, so...” he then gestured for him to read it, so Eddie did just that, tearing the envelope open and pulling the letter out.

‘to eddie,

this will probably be my last letter to you. I’ve constantly told you how much I’ve adored you, from the way your eyes sparkle whenever you’re happy, to the way you always have this passion in your voice every time you speak. there isn’t a thing about you that I don’t love. 

the moment you spoke to me, it felt like I was on cloud fucking nine. I nearly blew it and told you to fuck off, but I’m glad I was able to pull my head out of my ass. you have no idea what you do to me, you have no idea what I would do for you.

I love you, eddie munson, and there’s nothing in this god forsaken world that could ever change my mind about that. I just hope that you can feel the same about me now that you know who your secret admirer is. I was always so scared that you wouldn’t like me.

I promise you, I will give you all the love that you want and need. I will give you everything so long as I live, and I promise you that I will always be by your side loving you.

~ [m/n] [l/n].

Eddie looked up from the letter and there he saw [M/N] looking so small, averting his eyes from Eddie’s as he laced his fingers together, twiddling his thumbs while trembling. [M/N] thought Eddie wasn’t going to buy it, he thought Eddie was going to accuse him of stealing that letter from out of his locker and saying that it was from him. He was expecting Eddie to reject him, there wasn’t a single positive outcome to come out of this situation, and when he was going to accept that reality he suddenly felt a pair of arms around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug.

“Thank god it was you, [M/N].” his eyes widened slightly, taking in a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in “I’m so glad that it’s you, [M/N].” he whispered, the latter swallowed thickly at that as he looked down at Eddie.

“W-What?” Eddie pulled away and [M/N] saw he had an expression that mirrored his “D-Do you mean you— you feel the same way?!” he exclaimed, Eddie laughed and nodded his head.

“I always felt a slight attraction towards you, [M/N], and I was quite torn whether or not I should fall in love with my secret admirer or the hot tyrant. I’m so glad you two are one in the same.” he then gently jabbed [M/N]’s side with his elbow “But who’d a thought you’re nothing more than a giant teddy bear. I’ve seen the way you act with Dustin when you think no one’s looking, you’re not very discrete.” this caused the taller of the two to let out a whine of sort, an embarrassed blush rising to his cheeks as he hid his face behind his hands.

“Stop it…” he mumbled.

“You’re really adorable.” Eddie sets the letter down on the table then reaches forward and grabs both of [M/N]’s hands, he rubs his thumbs along his knuckles. [M/N]’s was beating abnormally fast to the point he was surprised he hadn’t fainted from how happy he was, still not believing that Eddie felt the same way about him.

“C-Can I…” Eddie lets out a hum, smirking softly at the flustered man in front of him “… can I kiss you?”

“Hmm, can you, big boy?” he laughed when [M/N] pouted, wearing a face that resembled that of a kicked puppy “Alright, okay! I was kidding, you big dope.” Eddie watched [M/N] slip his hands free from his grip and raise his hands to his face, they gently cupped his cheeks and his thumbs caressed them. He probably would have purred at the affection but instead let out a hum when [M/N] finally pressed his lips against his own, it was a short and sweet kiss but it had Eddie craving for me. So when [M/N] was pulling away he let out a muffled gasp when Eddie wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him back into another kiss, next thing they knew [M/N] was laying on his back with Eddie on top of him pulling him into deeper kisses.

“Eddie… Eddie, please…!” each time [M/N] got a word out he would be silenced by another kiss, he later gave up and just pulled Eddie into a kiss that he poured his heart and soul into “I love you, Eddie…!” he smiled at that, briefly pulling away to rest his forehead on his.

“And I love you just as much.”

Headcanons:

the other members of hellfire came in to find [m/n] and eddie making out on the floor.

eddie sat on [m/n]’s lap with a triumphant smirk on his face while the other continued to lay on the ground, hands covering his face as he wallowed up in embarrassment.

dustin came up to them and held out his hand, [m/n] side eyed him but gave him a high five.

mission accomplished.

[m/n] immensely softened up after finally getting together with eddie, he didn’t mindlessly get into fights with people anymore and just eddie or even dustin’s mere presence is enough to get him to calm down.

robin was happy for [m/n], he literally came running up to her with the biggest smile on his face and hugged her; twirling her around and everything.

this scared the ever living shit out of steve.

[m/n] started sitting with eddie and his lot during lunch, this was enough to get the bullies to back off.

sometimes [m/n] would help eddie with any of his homework, that being eddie openly complaining how hard it was and that he needed help from his hunky and gorgeous boyfriend to assist him.

whenever eddie got an answer right he would be rewarded with a kiss.

most of the time they would get distracted and not even be able to finish the homework.

bike rides are a must.

eddie loved the feeling of the wind breezing through his curly brown locks, often cheering as [m/n] drove down the streets of hawkins.

the first time eddie tried getting on his bike without a helmet [m/n] would just give him a blank expression with his arms crossed and just gave him the most disapproving glare he could muster.

safety first.

when playing d&d, eddie would incorporate [m/n]’s tyrant persona into the campaign.

the others loved it. [m/n] was a barbarian goliah who was a tyrannical king in their latest campaign and they had to strategise how to overthrow him.

they lost epically before he swooned the dungeon master.

they called him a cheater.

he called them sore losers.

dustin believes he’s the greatest wingman because of the fact that eddie and [m/n] are together, the two of them definitely favor him a lot. this sometimes causes the others to get jealous, but all he does in return for their retaliation is hide behind [m/n].

they all though have access to [m/n]’s scary dog privilege.

however, they all know that [m/n] would absolutely do anything for his eddie.

they remember a time they absentmindedly told [m/n] when eddie was being harassed by a few of the jocks in the past. they didn’t see him for the rest of the day until they saw the same guy that harassed eddie run away blooded and crying.

[m/n] turned the corner with blood on his knuckles.

he didn’t see anything wrong with it.

eddie is always flattered, but his heart is always over the moon because [m/n] continued to write him love letters and make him more mixtapes.

they would end up in eddie’s van laying together, listening to the music through his stereo as [m/n] read a loud all the new things he loved about eddie.

he loved eddie.

eddie loved him.

the tyrant and the freak.

Support pt. 2

word count: 13,184

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach  Pairing: N/A x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her  Relationship: N/A Occupation: Mechanic Ability: N/A

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name  [L/N]: Last Name [N/N]: Nickname [H/C]: Hair Color

Warnings:

due to the fact that I started playing security breach/ruin while also watching theory videos about fnaf my obsession with this game has resurfaced and I thought of a part two regarding this story.

this has become more than what it was intended for.

there will be a part three because this was supposed to include the gameplay but it spiraled into something else.

that is all.

"Support" pt. 1

"Congratulations! You're being promoted!" [F/N], who was currently hunched over her workbench working on the latest upgrades for the main four, looked up at her boss with exhausted eyes. She blinked once, then twice, then a third before letting a sarcastic yay before flipping her helmet back down and continued working "Didn't you hear what I just said? You're being promoted!" she let out a sigh as she put down her tools and turned back to her boss, pushing the helmet back up with her thumb and wiping the sweat with the back of her forearm.

"I heard, I'm just not excited what I'm being promoted to." as well as the more you're going to dump on me, she didn't say that out loud but her face said it all. She cocked a brow when a mask was presented to her, she recognized it as one of the masks that technicians would wea-- "No, no way." he nods.

"Yes way." he places the mask into her hands and gave a cheery smile "You're being promoted to a technical engineer!" she looked down at the mask then back up at him.

"... but I'm a mechanical engineer, not a technical one." he waved his hand to dismiss her words.

"Pish posh, how hard can it be?" he looked away when her gaze turned scrutinizing, as if four years of studying to obtain her Degree of Mechanical Engineering was easy "If that doesn't color your fancy, not only do you get new tools, you get a pay increase." he smirked when he saw the way she cocked a brow, it was always the money.

"Well, I guess it's fine." she murmured as she flipped the mask over and saw the circuitry on the inside of the mask "Do I really have to wear this though? I'm gonna look ridiculous." he chuckled softly.

"The mask looks like that so when you have to work around the guests, you look family friendly to the kids." she flipped the mask back around to look at the unsettling face, she looked up at him with a really look on her face "Just put the damn mask on." she stared at him for a second longer shrugging and taking her helmet off and finally putting the mask on, nothing happened until it turned on and everything looked... different.

"Whoa, this is crazy." she awed as she looked around.

"Pretty cool, right?"

"Heh, I guess." she was then startled when dialogue appeared in front of her.

[Welcome to V.A.N.N.I., the Virtual Augmented Neural Network Integration Unit. Do not be surprised by your surroundings. You are still in the real world, but Fazbear Entertainment has made it better. With this security mask, you can locate and repair all the pesky security nodes that are locking down the mesh network here in the Mega Pizzaplex! Call me Helpi. You can always count on me because it's my job to help you succeed in your new job!]

"Don't tell me this thing is going to be around 24/-- ow!" she rips the mask off and rubs her head after feeling a stinging pain in her skull.

[Lucky for you, the transponder implant allows me to communicate wirelessly even when your mask is removed. Just another Faz-mazing benefit of being a class b technician. Of course, you will have to put your mask back on to get any real work done.]

"Argh, great. Now I've got a voice in my head, thanks." he grins.

"You're welcome." she rolled her eyes and placed the mask on her bench, he then handed her an odd looking tool "Now this is a Faz-Wrench, it's what the technicians use to charge conduits to grant them access into certain rooms, while in the AR world, it is used to breach security nodes and also reboot animatronics."

"Reboot them, huh? Have they ever needed to be rebooted?"

"Not recently, no. They've only needed to be rebooted when there's been a breach in their programming, but even then that's never happened. But, the best part about the mask is that the animatronics are unable to see you."

"What?" he nods.

"Uh huh. While wearing the mask, you can walk by the animatronics completely undetected. Additionally, the mask can allow you to pass through certain solid objects in the real world or cross AR only bridges, which allows you to access locations that were otherwise inaccessible in the real world." her eyes widened at the information as she looked between him and the mask.

"How the hell is that possible?" he shrugged.

"Fazbear technology." she closed her eyes "Anyways, your additional duties are as I stated. I expect you to be able to adapt to your new tasks with ease."

"How... fazerrific." he pats her shoulder.

"There's the enthusiasm!" he then finally backs away "Well, have a great rest of your day!" she slumped in her chair as she watched him leave then looked back at the creepy mask, why did it have to be so creepy looking? She tossed the Faz-Wrench on her bench while grabbing a cloth and chucking it over the mask, she didn't want it looking at her.

"At least I'm getting paid more..." she sat there for a moment before putting her helmet back on and going back to work, the Glam Gang needed these upgrades for their upcoming show.

[a few weeks later]

"Mum! A lady just walked through a wall!"

"That's nice, sweety. Now, go play with your friends so mummy can talk to her friend."

"But mum, I really saw it!"

"Uh huh, you have such a wild imagination." the child pouts and opens his mouth to insist that what he saw wasn't his imagination until he saw the same woman poke her head out of the wall, he gasped when he saw her bring her finger to the lips of the creepy rabbit mask she was wearing before disappearing back through the wall "Mum!" [F/N] snickered softly when she heard the boy cry out about what he saw before shaking her head and going back to fixing a circuit board, having this mask was so fun. Not only did she get to play pranks and mess around with the animatronics, but it was fun to mess with the children. She doesn't do it very often but she was prone to walking through walls in front of the children just to freak them out a bit, it was hilarious to hear children chatter about the ghost rabbit lady.

"Never gets old." she snickered as she pushed the mask to the side of her head and started working on a arcade machine that started playing up, complaints about how the ticket dispenser was jammed. When she finally got it fixed she put the control panel back in place and smiled when she saw the tickets run out smoothly, she grabbed the handful and gave them to a kid that just so happened to be walking by. She laughed when they took it with great enthusiasm and ran off to tell his friends, she puts the V.A.N.N.I. back on and turned to leave but something caught her eye, she noticed a very prominent purple cable leading to the back of the Fazcade, specifically to where the security office was. She picked up her clipboard and saw there wasn't much on her list so she followed the cable to see where it would lead, surprisingly, it didn't lead into the security office but to the far back where the abandoned arcade games were. When she was finally at the end of the cable she lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at what she found "Princess Quest? I've never heard of this game before." she murmured as she looked at the machine closely, seeing how it pulsated while being surrounded by black glitches. She took the mask off and looked at the machine once more, she tried turning it on but no matter what she did it wouldn't switch on. She then noticed that it said "Princess Quest 2", so there was another one? But where could it be?

"[F/N]? Come in, [F/N]." she glanced down at the walkie talkie strapped to her thigh, she unbuckled the holster and took the walkie talkie out of it just as Vanessa spoke again "[F/N], do you copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear, Ness." she heard the woman chuckle at the nickname.

"I hate to bother you, but one of the security bots that monitors Roxy's Raceway got damaged. Apparently it drove over a couple wires and they got tangled it its wheels. I'm gonna need you to fix it." she salutes her, not that she could see it.

"I'll get right to it."

"Thanks, hope I didn't interrupt anything." she looks at the arcade machine one more time before shaking her head and leaving the room.

"Nah, I wasn't doing anything important. I'm in the Fazcade right now, shouldn't take me that long to get there."

"Thanks, the last thing we need is to replace another security bot. We haven't been needing to do that thanks to you."

"It's what I was hired for." Vanessa laughs once more "I'll radio you once I'm done."

"Good. I'll be by if you need assistance, though I highly doubt you'll need it. See you later." with a new task added to the list, she puts her walkie talkie back in her holster and leaves the Fazcade. She made sure to say goodbye to DJMM before entering the elevator, questioning the odd "true facts" that plays in the elevator, then stepping out into the atrium. She smiled from where she was at the sight of the main four performing on the stage, the songs were repetitive but it was fun watching them rock out. And who do they have to thank for such a wonderful outcome? She mentally pats herself on the shoulder before finally making her way to Roxy Raceway, she ducks under the automatic shutter doors and hears the erratic sounds from the security bot.

"Alright, dingus, time to get you fixed." slipping the V.A.N.N.I. mask on, she deactivates the machine before pushing it over but setting it down gently to get the wires untangled from its wheels. She grimaced when she saw just how tangled they were in its gears so she had to be as careful as she could as to not damage to wires and the bot itself, it took a bit of time but she finally managed to untangle them. She set the bot upright then checked its system to see if anything else was damaged, she didn't see anything but rebooted the machine so that it would instead head to Parts and Service so she could do a maintenance check on it "Head to my workshop, I'll be there to do thorough examination on you." it salutes her.

"Aye, aye." she shook her head as it rolled out and made its way to Parts and Services, she began to follow after it until she noticed the same prominent purple cable she saw back in the Fazcade. She followed it and saw that it was leading into the Glamrock Beauty Salon, she looked back towards the exit before shrugging her shoulders and following it, maybe she'll find another one of those "Princess Quest" games. As she followed it, she would occasionally take off the V.A.N.N.I. mask to see any changes to the environment, the closer she got to more reality seemed to glitch out. She enters the salon and weaved past the security bots monitoring the building before finally finding the arcade machine hidden in one of the backrooms, and just like the last one, it pulsated while being surrounded by black glitches.

"Princess Quest 1, huh? So there was another one, but what's an arcade machine doing here? Maybe this one will work, unlike the other." she takes the mask off and looks the machine over once again, it was unlike any other arcade machine. It was predominantly black with red trim outlining the frame, giving it a bold but slightly ominous vibe. On the side there's a glowing yellow-orange silhouette of a princess, probably representing the character you play as, on the side, holding what looks like a small lantern or magical object "I wonder if it'll sta--"

"[F/N]!!" she let out a scream when the door to the room was suddenly kicked open by Roxy, before she could question why she did it she was picked up by the canine and dragged out of the room. She let out an oof when Roxy placed her on a swivel seat and spun around a couple times before finally stopping in front of the girl, she perked a brow before letting out a sigh when she saw the state Roxy was in "You've got to fix me! A kid got pizza sauce in my hair!" she leaned over and saw streaks of red in her frizzled hair, I guess she tried getting it out herself but only made it worse.

"You didn't make a scene, did you?" she sniffled, her usually perfect eyeliner and mascara now running down her face.

"I-I tried to keep it together, but once I was out of sight I came here as quickly as I could." [F/N] nods as she grabbed a box of tissues and handed them to the animatronic wolf.

"Good job, management doesn't like when you guys cause a scene in front of the guests. Well done, I expected nothing less of you, Roxy." she shook her head when Roxy beamed a little.

"O-Of course, it was me, after all." she nods.

"Anyways, how'd you know I was here?"

"I passed that security bot and asked if it knew where you were."

"Ah, I see." Roxy's ears flickered up when she saw [F/N] stand up and start walking away.

"W-Where are you going? Aren't you going to fix me?" she waved her hand to dismiss Roxy's anxiousness as she approached a jukebox, she saw that it was plugged in so she smack it a couple times before it sprung to life.

"Well, if I'm gonna give you a makeover, we might as well listen to some classics." she said as she cycled through the many vinyl's, she settled for Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" and turned back to Roxy "So, what are we feeling today?" she asked as she pulled out the many makeup sets provided by Fazbear Entertainment "I may not be as good as a professional makeup artist, but I am pretty good at bringing out a woman's beauty." Roxy couldn't help but gleam at that. It's almost been an hour since [F/N] had started when the salon doors were kicked open by none other than Chica, who was in search for Roxy, and she found [F/N] holding Roxy by the underside of her snout and apply a glittery green lipstick to her lips.

...

...

"Are you gals having a makeover... without me?" [F/N] let out a sigh when Chica started crying, she brought the chicken over to the empty seat beside Roxy, who was currently cooing over her newly applied makeup "Do me next..." she whispered softly with a pout, [F/N] deadpans at the puppy eyes Chica was giving her before pulling out a makeup pallet that matched her color scheme.

"What do you want first?" she clapped her hands in glee. She was going between both female animatronics, from doing Roxy's manicure to applying an eyeshadow that was a soft pastel shade of glittery pink to Chica's eyelids. She was fixing up the streaks on Chica's cheeks when the doors to the salon were kicked open once more, this time it was Monty who entered and was staring at the three of them in mild confusion.

"... what's going on here?"

"... don't question it." Chica giggled softly.

"Wanna join?" he took a deep breath.

"... sure." by the time Freddy arrived at the salon he found [F/N] on a stool as she styled Monty's hair into a pompadour with a comb in between her teeth and a can of hairspray in her hand as she shaped his hair, she tossed the hairspray away as she combed his hair the way she wanted before throwing it away as well then getting in front of his face. His glasses were resting on her head so they wouldn't get in the way and he could just briefly see his reflection through the lenses, she then pulled out just a strand of his hair and curled it around her finger.

"There, I always thought you'd look good with a pompadour." she murmured as she jumped off the stool and grabbed the mirror from Roxy's hands and showed him his reflection, he whistled when he saw what she did.

"Wow, I'm looking good! I should come to you more often, cher."

"Hah, I hope this doesn't becoming a reoccurring thing."

"So this is where you lot have been." they all look over at the sound of Freddy's voice, he raised a brow when he saw the three animatronics all look towards [F/N]. She looked at the three of them then nodded her head, he flinched when three eyes gleam in his direction and then he was suddenly grabbed and sat down in Monty's seat.

"It's your turn, teddy bear." Monty grinned.

"You're going to look so beautiful~" Chica cooed.

"[F/N]'s hands are blessed." Roxy praised, he looked past them towards [F/N] and shrieked when he saw her raise her closed fists and in between her fingers were different makeup cosmetics.

"How did I get here?" they couldn't help but laugh at that. When Vanessa finally found them it was Roxy and Chica doing Freddy's nails by filing and painting them, Monty was holding [F/N] by her waist as she wore Freddy's hat so she could do a different design regarding the face paint he usually wore. Freddy was giggling softly at how focused [F/N] was to not mess up the linework, it was only when she finished did Vanessa make her presence known.

"Ah hem." they all look towards the entrance and saw Vanessa, not looking to impressed to find them all hiding in the salon "Care to explain yourselves." they all look back to [F/N], who looked at them all before shrugging.

"What's a makeover before the big show, Ness? Don't tell me you want one too?" they all laugh when she raised her hands and backed away.

"No way." Monty put her down and she all but collapsed into an empty chair, breathing tiredly, while the animatronics gathered around, marveling at their new looks. Roxy couldn’t keep her eyes off her reflection — her face sparkled under the salon lights, glitter catching every flicker and gleam. She traced a claw along her jawline, utterly mesmerized. Chica was squealing with delight, spinning around in front of the mirror, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"Look at me! The pink really makes my eyes pop!" she gushed, fluttering her eyelids dramatically. Monty was admiring himself too, running a hand through his newly styled pompadour, the hairspray and sheen making him look even sleeker and wilder than before.

"Now this is rockstar material," he said, flashing a sharp grin at his reflection. Even Freddy, who didn't have the flashy changeable features like the others, looked pleased. His new face paint, swirled in soft blues and silvers, gave him a warm, friendly glow — like a true superstar.

"Sometimes," Freddy said with a chuckle, "a little paint can go a long way." [F/N] watched them, slumped in the chair, a tired but genuine smile tugging at her lips.

"I'm glad you like it," [F/N] said, her voice weary but firm, "but don't expect this to be a reoccurring thing." She flinched when they all turned to her in unison, a desperate gleam sparking in their robotic eyes.

"Oh, please? You made us look so good!" Freddy pleaded, hands clasped in front of him with surprising earnestness. "I'm sure the kiddos will love our new looks!" Chica chimes in next, nodding so fast her earrings jingled.

"Yeah!" Chica said again, practically bouncing. "I'm sure even management would love for us to have different looks from time to time — so we don't get boring!" Roxy leaned forward, her glittering makeup making her eyes look even sharper.

"W-We could do this maybe, like, once every two weeks? O-Or once a month? Yeah?" she bargained, voice hopeful, ears twitching. Monty threw an arm around Roxy’s shoulders with a loud clank of metal.

"We promise we won't cause a hassle," he said, flashing another cocky grin, "and we'll even make sure our monthly maintenance is up to date!" The others chimed in with enthusiastic nods and hopeful, mechanical smiles. She stared at them — these huge, glittering animatronics who were begging her for makeovers like overgrown kids. She sighed, rubbing her face.

"Fine," she muttered. "Once a month. Maybe. And only if you behave." she holds her hands out to stop them from grabbing her but that doesn't stop them, Vanessa couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of [F/N]'s arms strung over Freddy's shoulders as she was pulled into a forced group hug. Despite her tired and disgruntled attitude, she couldn't help but smile weakly as she returned the hug.

So—

Management did indeed like the makeovers [F/N] gave to the animatronics — so much so that they made it mandatory she continue to do so. At first, [F/N] was reluctant, already stretched thin between her usual duties and trying to survive the Pizzaplex’s chaos. But when they mentioned another pay raise, she quickly changed her tune. Instead of squeezing it into their regular monthly maintenance checks, it became its own event: Every month, like clockwork, the animatronics would parade back into the Glamrock Beauty Salon — excited, chattering, almost childlike in their eagerness. From new hairstyles between Roxy and Monty, to simple touchups to their makeup for Chica and Freddy, it was a peaceful bliss for all five of them. [F/N] liked it because all she had to do for that day was glamorize them then relax the rest of the day, maybe she had to thank that kid for getting sauce in Roxy's hair.

"Skeet, skeet," she snickered to herself as she rolled into Bonnie Bowl on her newly acquired Heelys. Why was she wearing them? Because Monty had bet she couldn’t use them without wiping out — and now, out of pure spite (and style), she was rolling around the Pizzaplex, mocking him each time she zipped past. Why was she at Bonnie Bowl? Well, apparently the pinsetter mechanisms for a few of the lanes were acting up, and it was her job to fix them before morning. She had a rope tied around a few Caution Bots, letting them lead her toward Bonnie Bowl. She cheered when she let go and coasted through the entrance — only to slam directly into the ball rack with a loud thud.

"Alright, let's see if I can get a strike," she muttered, grabbing a ball. Rolling up to the first lane, she swung her arm back and let the ball fly. It barreled down the lane, knocking all the pins clean off their feet. She pumped a fist in the air as she watched the strike and waited to see if the mechanism would fail. When it didn’t, she ticked a mark on her clipboard and moved to the next lane, repeating the process twenty-one more times. She didn’t get a perfect strike every time, but out of the twenty-two lanes, only six had issues with the pin elevators. Not bad. Rolling along the sidewalk behind the lanes, she located the numbered mechanisms and got to work fixing them. She was lucky they were numbered — otherwise she’d be rolling back and forth all night trying to find the broken ones. As she worked, she noticed an awful lot of Caution Bots lingering around in the back. Were they supposed to do that? Sure, they were designed to warn customers about wet floors and other hazards, but these ones were practically nudging her while she tried to work.

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped that, mmkay?" she said, shoving them back gently to give herself some space. They didn’t let up, though — in fact, more kept gathering. By the time she tightened the last bolt, she was surrounded by nearly a dozen bots. Dropping her torque wrench into her belt, she gave them a tired look. "Okay, fine. You've got my attention. What do you want?"

Instead of answering — not that they could — the Caution Bots began pushing her deeper into the maintenance area, further from the lanes. She started to feel a little uneasy. Were they about to kill her? But no — they stopped in front of a boarded-up section of wall. Confused, she looked down at them — just as one of the bots squeezed through a small opening. She knelt down and peeked through the gap, squinting into the dark room beyond. She could make out a cluster of bots surrounding...something she couldn’t quite see. The first bot beeped at her, urging her to follow.

With a sigh, she stood, pulled the small crowbar from her belt, and started prying off the boards. When she finally cleared most of them away, she put the crowbar back and grabbed her flashlight. Shining it into the dark, she still couldn’t quite make anything out — until she stepped a little closer. And then she saw it.

"What the hell is that?" she whispered. There, crumpled on the far floor, was a broken, battered animatronic. She took a step closer and let the light shine on it just to inspect the damage and try to see just which animatronic it was. It collapsed on the ground, limbs twisted and splayed out awkwardly. Its endoskeleton and inner wiring are partially exposed, and what’s left of his outer shell is filthy, cracked, and faded. Its once-bright paint — mainly blue and red — is grimy and chipped away almost entirely in places. Its face looked severely damaged: the jaw is hanging open unnaturally, one eye is popped out of its socket while both were glowing a sickly yellow "There was only one blue animatronic, Bonnie?" her finger gently brushed against his face and it suddenly sprung to life.

"S-S-Strike! Nice go-- going there, k-kiddo! You j-just got a-a-a str-- strike!" she jumped back in surprise when he spoke, but it wasn't really him speaking but a dialogue from his programming. When his body stopped spasming she finally let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, she approached him once more and kicked his head just to make sure he didn't suddenly wake up again.

"What is he doing here? The reports said he went missing in Monty Golf," she muttered, furrowing her brows. Her eyes dropped to his chest plate — or what was left of it — and noticed the deep, jagged claw marks tearing through the metal, exposing his inner endoskeleton.

Was he attacked?

She never personally met Glamrock Bonnie, but she knew he had been the bassist before... Monty. Her gaze flickered back down to the vicious claw marks. She shook her head. No — Monty couldn't have done this. It was impossible, right? He didn’t even have those claw upgrades until after Bonnie disappeared.

"... he’s still functioning," she mumbled, watching the faint flicker of life in the broken animatronic. She paused, thinking it over — then shrugged. It's not like she had anything better to do.

The next half hour was spent dragging Bonnie’s broken body — and whatever spare pieces she could find — into a nearby maintenance cart. It wasn’t easy; she was lucky his head didn’t fall off when she hoisted his torso up. Each piece was heavier and more fragile than it looked, and it took several frustrating attempts to get him situated without completely falling apart. By the end of it, she was sweaty, scuffed up, and exhausted — but she managed.

"I am not going to have fun lugging his ass back to Parts and Services," she grumbled under her breath. Before leaving, she grabbed a dirty sheet from a nearby pile and draped it over his broken form. He had been abandoned here for a reason — and she definitely didn’t want anyone spotting him.

Luck seemed to be on her side: none of the security guards, and thankfully not Vanessa, were patrolling the atrium when she rolled out of Bonnie Bowl. As long as no one wandered into Parts and Services, no one would know what she had found. Once inside, she carefully laid out each piece on the worktable, lining them up one by one like she was assembling a jigsaw puzzle. His limbs, his shattered chest plate, even the loose wires — everything had a place, and somehow, she’d figure out how to put him back together. Some pieces from his endoskeleton was missing, which was the worst part of all of this because she was going to have to get pieces from... them.

"Okay... I think I jotted everything down. What's missing and what he needs to power him back online." for a better look she was wearing the V.A.N.N.I mask to see which pieces she needed and wrote those down as well, that was when Helpi appeared.

[Proceed with caution about what you power up, [F/N]. Powering up dismantled machinery often leads to dangerous consequences.]

"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know." she murmured as she waved her hand to dismiss the text, but she started thinking. Why was she doing this? She didn't need to fix Bonnie, he was practically decommissioned and everything about him has already been replaced by Monty, just like Roxy did with Foxy. But looking down at his broken down body, clinging to what little life he still had... she was a mechanic, and it was her job to fix what was broken "Alright, bunny boy. Let's get started."

And so—

[F/N] had started picking up more nightshifts, dedicating nearly all her free time to getting Bonnie back up and running. She spent her days fixing what she could under the radar, and stayed overnight to get in extra hours without raising suspicion.

Bonnie’s outer shell was severely damaged — cracked, and dented — but it wasn’t beyond saving. Fortunately, Fazbear Entertainment still had most of his original parts gathering dust in the basement, tossed aside like forgotten junk. Navigating the basement wasn’t easy though; the place was crawling with old, half-functional endoskeletons. The only way she could get around them safely was by using the V.A.N.N.I. mask — a trick she wasn’t exactly proud of, but desperate times, desperate measures. She set up a separate, hidden room to work on him, far from the main Parts and Services bay. That way, if someone happened to walk in, they wouldn’t see what she was up to. Bonnie stayed hidden most of the time, tucked away safely — she only pulled him out when she needed to use the Cylinder to properly align his parts and test his systems.

"Okay... I think I’ve fixed most of your programming. Most of it got fried by something," [F/N] said as she typed away at the terminal outside the Protective Cylinder, eyes flicking between lines of code.

[Whatever caused Glamrock Bonnie to malfunction has been completely overridden. Good job, superstar!]

"It wasn’t easy. Whatever was inside it was bad." she said as she huffed a laugh while she flexed her sore fingers. "What can't this Faz-Wrench do?" It had taken multiple attempts just to flush out the corrupted data before she could replace it with something fresh. Whatever had latched onto Bonnie's systems was stubborn — outdated, malicious, and deeply rooted. "It was completely outdated. Fitting him with something new should bring his systems back online."

[Very much so. That chip is what all active animatronics are fitted with — though his differs slightly. Since he hasn't undergone the same maintenance cycles as the others, his endoskeleton remains heavily outdated. He will not be able to access the shared network.]

"I see..." she muttered, frowning thoughtfully. "But what can we even do with so few resources for his model?" She pushed the final command. The Cylinder doors hissed open, revealing Bonnie’s partially repaired frame inside. Pulling her V.A.N.N.I. mask up and out of the way, she stepped inside with the small chip in hand. Carefully, she slotted it into the back of Bonnie’s head, following the intercom's calm, mechanical instructions. One by one, she began plugging his limbs back together — reconnecting joints, wiring, hydraulic lines — rebuilding him piece by piece like a forgotten relic being stitched back to life.

[Now, all that's left is for the final touch.]

"Yup." she holds out the Faz-Wrench and watched as it buzzed to life.

[Reactivation: 0 of 1]

...

...

[Animatronic Reactivated]

SAFE MODE...

REBOOT...

SYSTEM INITIALIZATION... CHECKING COMPONENTS... OK INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS... OK INITIALIZING AI ENGINE... OK MEMORY STATUS...

ALL SYSTEMS... OK

Bonnie’s body twitched once — a sharp, sudden jolt — then fell still. A few tense seconds passed before another shudder ran through him. His fingers twitched. His head gave a slow, mechanical tilt. Then, with a sharp hiss of vented air, his eyes slowly flickered open — soft, unfocused glows against the dim room.

"Hmm... optical receptors seem to be operational," [F/N] said, her voice casual but focused. The sudden sound startled Bonnie. His head snapped toward her voice, mechanical joints creaking in protest. He found [F/N] looming over him, studying him closely as she tapped a knuckle lightly against his faceplate. "Only one of his eyes was damaged but I had to replace both with some spares from Monty’s stockpile."

"H-Hello..." Bonnie’s voice crackled weakly to life. [F/N] perked up immediately, grabbing the clipboard she had left nearby and scribbling down notes in a quick, messy hand.

"Voice module’s operational too," she said, grinning a little. "Good — real good. Glad I managed to patch that one up." Bonnie watched her silently, blinking slowly, still trying to make sense of what was happening — and of the stranger who was putting him back together piece by piece.

"Wh-where…?" His voice was weak "W-who are…?"

"Oh, that's right. I'm new to you, but I've been around for nearly a year now. My name is [F/N], and I'm the new mechanic for Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex." Bonnie blinked slowly, the flickering light behind his eye struggling to stay steady. His whole body trembled slightly, like it was taking real effort just to sit up. Without thinking, [F/N] took a step forward and grabbed his arm to steady him. "Whoa, easy there, champ. You’ve been offline for a long time. Gotta let the systems catch up." she spoke, her voice now steady.

"What... what happened?" she shrugged as she helped him settle back down.

"Why don't you tell me? I found you abandoned behind Bonnie Bowl, and might I add, in pieces. It took me forever to put you back together. Your systems were fried, your frame was a mess... I’m no professional technician, but," she tapped her chest with mock pride, "I think I did a stupendous job reprogramming you." Bonnie’s lights flickered faintly as he processed her words. His hands, clunky and trembling, flexed weakly at his sides. He didn’t understand how or why — but somehow, he was here. And somehow, she had brought him back.

"Thank you..." she chuckled softly.

"Don't worry about it," [F/N] said lightly, flipping through her clipboard. "It's my job to fix those who are broken. But you're still not completely patched up yet. You’re missing a couple components that I need to replace before you're one hundred percent operational." She tapped the side of the clipboard with her pen, scanning the list of parts she had ordered — all disguised in the paperwork as "upgrades for the other animatronics." Bonnie shifted slightly, servos whining as he tested the movement in his repaired limbs. He looked up at her, the faintest trace of awe in his voice.

"This is... surreal. The last mechanic I remember was a man." [F/N] chuckled under her breath.

"Yeah, well... that was a really long time ago. Fazbear Entertainment’s been without a real professional mechanic for a while now."

"Really?" Bonnie tilted his head, confused. "How strange." She narrowed her eyes slightly, stepping closer.

"Hmm. I'm sure I fixed your memory bank. Maybe you just need some time. Systems like yours don’t exactly reboot overnight." ," she said thoughtfully, reaching up to lightly tap the side of his head. Her fingers drifted lower, brushing across the newly repaired surface of his chest plate — the metal cool and smooth under her touch. "Whatever damaged you and left you back there... they didn’t want you being found." Bonnie remained still, his glowing eyes dimming slightly as if he was trying — and failing — to reach for memories that weren’t there anymore.

"I apologize." she shook her head.

"There isn't a need, we still have plenty of time to get you back in shape. I'm sure Freddy, the gang and the children will be thrilled to see their favorite and loveable bunny up and running again!" she cheered and that seemed to lift his spirits.

"Yes, yes! I have missed them very much! M-May I see them now?" she gave him a guilty look.

"Unfortunately... not yet," [F/N] said, frowning sadly at the defeated noise that came out of him.

"Oh..." Bonnie visibly deflated at her words, his shoulders slumping with a faint mechanical creak. Seeing it tugged at something in her chest. She sighed, setting the clipboard down and crouching a little to meet his gaze.

"Listen, Bonnie," she began, choosing her words carefully. "I... wasn’t supposed to fix you. I wasn’t even supposed to find you." He blinked slowly, confusion and sadness flickering behind his damaged optics.

"What?" she nods.

"It was a miracle I even managed to, and that’s only because the Caution Bots wouldn’t stop bothering me." She huffed a dry laugh under her breath, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "If management finds out I wasted resources on a 'decommissioned animatronic'..." she hesitated, grimacing. "The worst case? I get fired."

"So... what, then?"

"So... if you want to stay — really stay — I have to bring you back to perfect condition," she said, her voice firming up again. "Good enough that management can’t just write you off. Good enough that they have to let you stay."

"O... Okay," he said, voice crackling faintly but sincere. [F/N]'s face lit up instantly. She reached out without thinking and gently took his hand, giving it a small, apologetic squeeze.

"Good, good!" she beamed. "And I'm really sorry you can't see the others yet — but I promise I'll get you up and running as fast as I can." Her enthusiasm was infectious. Even in his weakened state, Bonnie felt a flicker of something warm inside his worn-out systems. It wasn’t much, but for the first time since reactivation, he managed a small, genuine smile. Weak — but real.

And that’s how [F/N] spent the following weeks — carefully, patiently — getting Bonnie back up and running. Like the other animatronics during her first week at the Pizzaplex, he was wary of her at first, flinching slightly whenever she got too close or adjusted his wiring. It was understandable. From what she had been told before becoming the go-to mechanic, their last technician had been cruel, treating them like nothing more than broken machines to kick back into shape.

But [F/N] was different. Sure, she knew what they were — robots, circuits, programming — but there was something about them that felt alive. Something that made her treat them like more than just animatronics. And little by little, Bonnie began to realize it too. It was a little embarrassing, but when she was checking his motor skills and teaching him to walk again after laying dormant for a long time, she treated him as a toddler who was walking for the first time.

"Come on, big guy! I'll be right here to catch you." she reassured as she stood a couple feet from where he was sitting, she chuckled softly when he pressed his pawed hand over his eyes to shield himself from the embarrassing image.

"I-I can do this by myself..."

"Sure, bunny boy. But what's a little help, hmm?" peeking out from between his fingers, he saw her standing there, hands still outstretched, patient and encouraging. "I promise to catch you." Bonnie hesitated a moment longer... then slowly dropped his hand and pushed himself up with a mechanical whir, joints clicking softly as he found his balance. "There you go," [F/N] teased, hands still out. "C'mon, don’t leave me hangin’, superstar." Bonnie grumbled under his breath, ears twitching in clear embarrassment as he took a shaky step forward. His servos whined from disuse, and his heavy frame wobbled precariously.

"You're doing great," she said, grinning wide enough for him to see it. "Like a big ol’ baby deer."

"I am not a baby," Bonnie muttered, taking another uneven step — and immediately tipping sideways. [F/N] laughed and lunged forward just in time to catch him, staggering slightly under his weight but managing to steady them both.

"Whoa, easy there, big guy!" she said brightly, patting his arm like he was made of paper instead of reinforced alloy. "What’d I tell you? I'd catch you." Bonnie stayed frozen for a second longer than necessary, blinking down at her with wide, embarrassed eyes before slowly straightening up, careful this time.

"Th-Thank you," he mumbled.

"Hey, no problem," she said with a wink, stepping back. "Besides, I'm not letting you face-plant after all this work fixing you. That would seriously ruin my repair record." Bonnie huffed out something that almost sounded like a laugh — shy, but real. By the end of the day he was walking all on his own, under her supervision, and though he wasn't yet able to move as well as he did in the past, at least he wasn't fal-- oh, spoke to soon.

"Hey, no problem," she said with a wink, stepping back. "Besides, I'm not letting you face-plant after all this work fixing you. That would seriously ruin my repair record." Bonnie huffed out something that almost sounded like a laugh — shy, but real. By the end of the day, he was walking on his own, moving carefully under [F/N]'s watchful eye. His steps were still stiff and unsteady, but he was upright — and he hadn't needed her to catch him for a while now. Progress. She leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, watching him pace the small room.

"Look at you go, practically a track star." Bonnie huffed again, a little louder this time — almost a laugh — as he focused on taking another solid step forward. At least, until his foot caught on a loose wire. He stumbled, arms flailing in a desperate attempt to catch himself — but it was too late. "Oh, spoke too soon," [F/N] muttered just as he crashed face-first into the floor with a loud metallic thud.

...

...

"You okay down there, champ?" [F/N] snorted, trying and failing to hold back a laugh. Bonnie groaned miserably into the floor, one hand giving a feeble thumbs-up.

Bonnie was now resting inside a charging station, his systems whirring quietly as he powered down after a long, exhausting day of rehab. Meanwhile, [F/N] sat hunched over a cluttered worktable, sketches and blueprints spread out in a messy fan around her. She twirled her pencil between her fingers as she stared at the latest design she was working on: a new, custom upgrade for Bonnie’s hands.

She was basing it off both his original schematics and Monty's claw design — trying to create something better. Stronger, yes, but more refined. The claws Monty had weren’t exactly her favorite piece of tech. They hadn’t been designed by her, and they had clear flaws. Sure, they let him play the bass better with the strength boost, but Monty’s lack of regulation often meant snapped strings, shattered basses, and more than a few frustrated tantrums.

[F/N] tapped her pencil against the table thoughtfully. Bonnie deserved better than that. He needed precision and strength — not brute force. She glanced over at the charging station, where the faint blue glow around Bonnie’s frame pulsed with each slow breath of the charger. A small smile tugged at her lips.

"I'll get you something even better, big guy," she murmured under her breath, scribbling a few more adjustments onto the blueprint. "Something that won’t just make you strong... but make you you again."

Hours passed. The Pizzaplex had long since fallen into its eerie nighttime silence, save for the occasional mechanical whir or distant buzz of a maintenance bot roaming the halls. But in the tucked-away workshop, the only sound was the scratch of [F/N]’s pencil and the occasional tired sigh.

She was determined to get it right. Every line on the blueprint, every measurement, had to be perfect. Bonnie wasn’t just another project — not to her. But eventually, exhaustion crept in. Her pencil slipped from her fingers, clattering softly against the table, and her head dipped forward until she slumped against her arms, fast asleep. The soft, even rise and fall of her breathing was the only movement in the room.

Across the way, the charging station gave a low hum as it completed its cycle. The doors hissed open, releasing Bonnie in a mist of cool air. His systems rebooted sluggishly, optics adjusting to the dim light. For a moment he simply stood there, trying to get his bearings — until he noticed her. [F/N], curled up awkwardly at her workbench, fast asleep amidst scattered blueprints, loose wiring, and tools.

Bonnie’s ears drooped slightly, a strange, unfamiliar feeling stirring somewhere deep in his still-recovering systems. Carefully, quietly, he stepped forward, mindful of the newly calibrated servos in his legs. He moved with surprising grace for someone who could barely walk earlier that day. He stopped just beside her, tilting his head as he studied her sleeping form. There was smudged pencil lead on her fingers, a wrench tucked under one arm like she was guarding it in her sleep, and a soft little frown of concentration still lingering on her face even in rest.

She’d worked herself to exhaustion — for him.

Bonnie’s gaze shifted to the blueprint in front of her. Even without fully understanding all the technical details, he recognized the shape of the new hands she was designing: built for precision, for control, with a strength that could be guided rather than forced.

Built for him.

Slowly, Bonnie reached out, his newly repaired fingers hovering uncertainly for a moment before gently pulling a nearby spare cloth over her shoulders like a blanket. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

"...Thank you," he whispered, his voice barely audible, before sitting down against the wall nearby, content to keep quiet watch until she woke. It wasn’t until a couple hours later that [F/N] stirred. She blinked blearily, sitting up with a groggy groan and rubbing her eyes. Her fingers brushed the cloth draped over her shoulders, and she froze for a second, confused. She didn’t remember grabbing a cloth... her sleepy gaze drifted across the room — and there, sitting quietly with his back against the wall, was Bonnie. He stiffened the moment he realized she was awake, his optics darting away quickly like a kid caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. [F/N] blinked again, then smiled sleepily.

"Were you... watching over me?" Bonnie shifted awkwardly, fidgeting with the edge of his paw plates.

"N-No... I was just... resting," he said, very unconvincingly. She let out a soft laugh, sitting up straighter and letting the cloth fall into her lap.

"Right. You were ‘resting’... conveniently right next to me." Bonnie's ears twitched, and if he could blush, he probably would have. [F/N] stood up, stretching her arms over her head with a loud yawn. "Well, I appreciate the concern, Bunny Boy. Guess you’re sweeter than you look." Bonnie ducked his head shyly, but a faint, pleased whirr came from his chest. She moved to her worktable, tapping the designs she’d fallen asleep over. "I’ll have your new hands ready soon. Then we can finally get you back to playing bass — without snapping it in half like a certain someone." Bonnie chuckled softly under his breath.

"Thank you," he said again, this time a little stronger, a little more sure. [F/N] grinned at him over her shoulder.

"Anytime, big guy. That’s what friends are for, right?" The word friends made Bonnie's chest give a tiny, unfamiliar flutter — a warm, strange feeling he couldn’t quite explain.

But he decided he liked it.

Very much.

Bit by bit, Bonnie was slowly becoming himself again.

As she worked with him day after day, [F/N] couldn't help but wonder about the animatronic sitting before her. She never personally met Glamrock Bonnie before — at least, not when he was fully active. When she was little, she remembered visiting a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria once or twice, but her memories of him were hazy at best. In her mind, he was always just the bunny with the bass... or was it a guitar? She couldn’t even remember which.

But Freddy and Chica remembered him.

And when [F/N] had mentioned Bonnie’s name in passing conversation, both had lit up with a fondness that was hard to ignore. They missed him terribly — and from the way they spoke, Bonnie had been quite the lively character. Freddy described him as "boisterous, but dependable," while Chica had simply called him "a big, goofy show-off with a heart of gold." [F/N] smiled a little at the memory as she adjusted the fit of the prototype hand she'd built. Bonnie watched her closely, his newly repaired optics focused on her with a cautious but growing trust.

"You know," she said as she tightened a few screws, "from everything Freddy and Chica have told me... you were a real handful back in the day." Bonnie's ears perked slightly.

"Handful...?"

"Yeah," she said, glancing up at him. "Loud. Energetic. Always goofing off between shows. You sound like you were the life of the party." Bonnie stared at her for a moment, as if trying to reach back into half-broken memories. His expression softened, and then, faintly — a chuckle.

"I... I think I remember," he said, almost shyly. "I liked making them laugh." [F/N] grinned, giving his newly installed hand a little test squeeze.

"Sounds about right. They miss you, you know." Bonnie blinked slowly, his voice dropping a little.

"...I miss them too." She sighed softly, reaching out and gently taking his hand into hers, her other hand giving the top of his paw a reassuring pat.

"I know you do," she said quietly. "But at the rate we’re going, I’m sure to have you up and running in no time." Bonnie's optics softened, and a small, genuine smile crossed his face. Her confidence, her steady presence — it was comforting in a way he hadn’t realized he needed.

"Okay," he said, his voice steadier. "I trust you." [F/N] beamed at him, giving his hand a small squeeze before stepping back.

"Good! Now, flex your hands," she ordered, her voice flipping from compassionate to all-business in a blink. Bonnie couldn’t help but chuckle — a deep, low sound — at how fast her demeanor changed. Still, he did exactly as she asked without complaint. Slowly, he opened and closed his fingers, testing the new joints. There was a slight stiffness at first, but already he could feel how much more natural the movement was compared to his old ones.

"Not bad," she said, watching closely, a pencil tucked behind her ear. "How's it feel?"

"Different... but better," Bonnie admitted, flexing his fingers again and rotating his wrists carefully. "Stronger. Smoother."

"That's what I like to hear," she said with a proud little grin, jotting a few quick notes onto her clipboard.

Now came her biggest problem yet — she needed a bass guitar. She couldn't just take Monty's. He would definitely notice if it was tampered with, and if it went missing for any length of time, he'd throw a tantrum the size of the entire Pizzaplex. The last thing [F/N] wanted was to deal with that kind of fallout. Ordering a new bass was off the table too. Management would absolutely question why she needed one when Monty’s was still perfectly functional. She couldn't afford to draw attention — not with Bonnie still a secret project hidden away in her workshop.

That left her with only one real option: make one herself.

She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as she stared at her notes. It wouldn't be easy. She'd have to dig through the piles of discarded parts, broken props, and scrap metal collecting dust down in the basement — the same place she'd scavenged for Bonnie’s replacement parts. It was risky. Time-consuming. Honestly, a little crazy. But when she glanced over at Bonnie, quietly recharging in his station with that peaceful look on his face, she decided it was worth it.

"Guess it's time to play junkyard hero," she muttered, grabbing her flashlight and tightening her toolbelt. If she could rebuild an entire animatronic out of scraps and stubbornness, she could definitely build a bass guitar.

Right?

Well—

She was sprawled over her workbench, the mask slipping off her face, her duffle bag of parts spilled across the table in disarray. Why was she so exhausted? Because she'd been darting around the basement, collecting parts while carefully avoiding the endoskeletons. They were usually dormant, but tonight—something had changed. They were more active, more aggressive. It would have been impossible to gather anything if not for the V.A.N.N.I. mask. Still, they'd gotten too close, closer than she was comfortable with.

“What the hell is up with them?” She shook her head, dumping the contents of the bag onto the table. She grabbed a couple of busted guitars, each showing signs of years of damage. Most had broken necks, some were missing tuning pegs and string trees, but the one in the best shape just needed a few parts replaced on the body. She wasn’t a luthier, but she could build a bass from scratch. This project had to be a secret from Bonnie. She wanted to surprise him with his own personal bass after he'd lost his to Monty. Each time they went through his maintenance, she’d make sure to hide everything related to the bass, keeping it out of sight so he wouldn't find it. Even when she had to leave Parts and Services to do her work as the mechanic and technician for the Pizzaplex, she made sure it stayed hidden—no one could know.

But, all the projects were slowly taking a toll on her body.

“If Moony catches you, he’ll be very upset,” Chica warned, watching [F/N] dismiss the concern with a casual wave of her hand.

“Eh, I’m doing great. I’m not causing any incidents—so all’s well that ends well,” [F/N] replied, trying to brush it off. Chica pouted softly and gently reached forward, cupping [F/N]'s cheek.

“I can’t help but worry we’re overworking you,” Chica said, her voice softening. “You’re one of the few mechanics we'd actually miss if you suddenly left,” she added with a chuckle.

“Aw, don’t worry about me,” [F/N] grinned, though it didn’t quite reach her tired eyes. “Besides, I highly doubt management will find anyone to replace me. I’m one of the few people who actually puts up with their bullshit.” Chica raised her hand as she saw [F/N] start to sway slightly, her exhaustion obvious.

“Okay, sweetheart,” she said, her tone shifting to one of gentle concern. “Just make sure to visit the Daycare, or I’ll send Moony after you myself.”

"Are you threatening me?" [F/N] laughed, her own smile returning despite the heavy weariness tugging at her. "I never took you for that kind of person." They shared another easy laugh, the moment light and natural, before [F/N] turned back to her work. She knelt down to check over Chica’s frame again — but paused when something caught her eye inside the animatronic's open chest cavity. Leaning in closer, [F/N]'s brow furrowed. Reaching in carefully she paused when she pulled out an empty chip packet.

"...Ah hah," Chica started, averting her gaze from the mechanic "How'd that get in there?" [F/N] shook her head in exasperation, tossing the crumpled wrapper into the trashcan behind her with a practiced flick.

"What did I say about eating the garbage, Chica?" Chica gave a sheepish little laugh, her servo claws fidgeting.

"I know, I know," she said, voice lilting with guilt. "I just... I get really hungry." [F/N] couldn't help but laugh, a tired but fond sound, as she wiped her hands on her pants.

"You're lucky you're cute," she teased, tapping Chica’s beak lightly. "Otherwise I'd have to report you to the janitorial team."

"Heh, thanks."

"Don't make me catch more trash inside you," [F/N] warned, crossing her arms. "You know what it does to your systems. It screws with your wiring and it's a pain to get it all out."

"I'm sorry, truly," Chica said, hanging her head in shame. Satisfied, [F/N] nodded and took a step back, pressing the correct colored buttons to reseal Chica’s chest plate. With a soft hiss, the panel clicked back into place. "Thanks again, sugar. My voice box had been acting up lately," Chica said brightly, giving a playful salute.

"Don't worry about it," [F/N] said with a tired chuckle. "Just be careful with what you consume, okay?"

"I will!" Chica chirped before twiddling her fingers in a cutesy farewell and skipping off toward her elevator. Once the bird was gone, [F/N] all but collapsed into her seat, burying her face in her hands. The exhaustion she'd been fighting — from the endless repairs, Bonnie’s reconstruction, and the slow, painstaking restoration of his bass — was finally catching up with her. She groaned softly, rubbing her face in an effort to ward off the overwhelming urge to just pass out right then and there.

"I'm so close," she told herself stubbornly. "What's a few more hours?"

Just as she reached for her clipboard again, a thought struck her.

"Wait a minute... what time is it—?" Before she could even glance at the clock, the power abruptly cut out, plunging the room into darkness. A low, sinister chuckle echoed through the air, and the faint jingling of bells quickly followed. [F/N] sighed, shoulders sagging in resignation. "Go ahead, do your thing," she muttered into the darkness. From the shadows, long, spindly limbs wrapped around her gently but firmly, and a familiar, unsettling face — all bells and toothy grin — appeared at her side.

"It's past your bedtime," Moondrop whispered, voice dripping with faux-sweetness as he cradled her against him like a wayward child.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's just get this over with," [F/N] grumbled, waving a lazy hand at him. Moondrop only giggled — that eerie, childish sound — before whisking her off the chair like she weighed nothing at all. She didn’t even bother to struggle; her body was practically deadweight by the time they reached the Daycare.

True to his word, Moondrop had already prepared a little tent in a quiet corner, complete with a pile of soft cushions and a blanket. Without much ceremony, he tucked her inside, setting the blanket over her as if she were one of the Daycare kids. No disturbances. No alarms. Just the quiet hum of the Daycare’s systems. When the lights inevitably switched back to day mode and Sundrop sprang to life, he immediately noticed her sleeping form and smiled warmly. Grabbing a facemask from the first-aid kit, he carefully slipped it over her eyes to shield her from the sudden brightness, patting her head once before quietly bustling around to clean the area. Every now and then, he’d tiptoe past her on exaggeratedly quiet feet, making absolutely sure not to wake her.

Throughout the night, a few of the animatronics stopped by one by one — Freddy, Chica, Roxy, and Monty — peeking in through the entrance of the tent. They each lingered for a moment, quietly ensuring she was okay before slipping away again without a word. None of them dared wake her; they just shared small glances among themselves, respectful and oddly protective. The Daycare — usually so chaotic and full of noise — was, for once, calm. And [F/N] slept on, wrapped up in a rare, peaceful stillness she hadn't felt in weeks.

Hours later...

"Mm..." [F/N] laced her fingers together as she stretched her arms over her head, hearing her knuckles crack with the movement. She blinked herself awake and tugged off the mask shielding her eyes. It took a second to register where she was — the cozy little tent Moondrop had set up for her. She smiled, tired but genuinely grateful. "I definitely needed that," she muttered, brushing hair from her face. Her attention shifted when Sundrop appeared at the opening of the tent, arms crossed, his usually cheery face pulled into a dramatic frown of disapproval. "Thanks for caring so much," [F/N] said softly, her voice free of sarcasm, her gratitude genuine. Sundrop beamed.

"Well, of course! There's isn't anything we wouldn't do for you, friend!" She smiled warmly, her heart squeezing a little at the sincerity of it.

"I appreciate that. Then stop eating glitter glue, dammit." At that, Sundrop immediately averted his gaze, whistling innocently.

"I'll do almost anything for you," he mumbled under his breath. [F/N] rolled her eyes but laughed, the sound light and infectious. The others chuckled along, unknown to them, Vanessa had been making her rounds when she noticed that Rockstar Row was suspiciously quiet. Curious, she followed the trail to the Daycare—and froze, blinking at the sight before her. Peeking through the door, she caught a glimpse of the impromptu "sleepover": all the animatronics were piled together in a loose circle, with [F/N] fast asleep in the middle, completely content and safe among them. Sundrop fussed with a blanket over her while the others lounged nearby, watching over her like protective siblings. Vanessa smiled to herself, letting out a quiet, relieved chuckle.

"And here I was getting worried she'd drop dead in the middle of one of her shifts." Shaking her head fondly, she stepped back and let them have their peace.

[weeks later]

"Haha! I did it! It's done!" [F/N] cheered, her arms thrown up in triumph.

Spread out on the workbench before her was Bonnie’s new bass, gleaming under the workshop lights. It wasn't perfect — not by Fazbear Entertainment's shiny, corporate standards — but it was theirs. Every part had been carefully scavenged, restored, and repainted with steady, meticulous hands. She ran her fingers gently along the neck of the bass, admiring the deep, rich blue accents she added to match Bonnie's original colors. It was sturdy, well-balanced, and most importantly, made for him.

“All that’s left is to tune it,” she said with a grin, grabbing a nearby tuner and sitting down with the bass cradled in her lap. The familiar feeling of strings under her fingers, the subtle vibrations humming through the wood—it almost made her giddy. She wasn't a professional by any means, but after tuning Chica’s guitar and Monty’s bass more times than she could count, it had become almost as easy as breathing for [F/N]. Her hands moved automatically, adjusting the tension of each string, plucking lightly to hear the notes ring out. It sounded terrible, of course, but it wasn't going to take long for her to get it sounding like new.

The low, steady hum of the bass strings filled the otherwise silent room as [F/N] carefully plucked and adjusted each one, her brow furrowed in focus. She sat cross-legged on the floor, the newly restored bass resting against her legs, the fresh paint gleaming under the workshop lights. She didn’t notice the soft sound of footsteps behind her — or the tall figure that lingered just beyond the doorway.

Bonnie stood there, one paw braced lightly against the doorframe, his ears tilted forward in curiosity. His eyes, brighter now thanks to her repairs, softened at the sight before him. He didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. He simply watched. The way she worked, with such care, such deliberate attention to every small detail — it stirred something in him. She wasn't just fixing something broken. She was giving something back to him. Something he thought he had lost forever. He caught the small smile that tugged at her lips when she strummed a note and heard it ring true. She tilted her head, tuning by ear, completely immersed in what she was doing. There was a quiet joy about her — a kind of pride and excitement that made Bonnie’s nonexistent heart ache a little.

And still, he didn’t disturb her.

Instead, he leaned silently against the frame, arms loosely crossed over his broad chest, content just to stay in that moment. Watching. Grateful.

He could wait a little longer to say thank you.

Bonnie's ears twitched slightly when he heard her voice — so soft, so full of affection for something she built just for him. He watched as she cradled the bass like it was something precious, her cheek pressed against the cool metal of the neck, her excitement lighting her face from within.

"He's going to love you," she whispered, tying a bright ribbon into a neat, proud bow around the bass’s neck. Bonnie felt something in his chest that he didn’t have words for. A warmth that buzzed through his frame, low and steady. He stayed silent, letting her have this moment without knowing she had an audience. She stepped back to admire her handiwork, hands on her hips, beaming with satisfaction. Something about it made Bonnie's own smile tug wider. Not because of the gift itself — though it was beautiful — but because of her. The care she put into it. The way she thought of him even when he wasn’t looking. She turned around and the presence that was watching her disappeared back down the hall he came from, she looked around once more before picking up the finished bass and putting it away before Bonnie could appear and see it. "I can't wait for him to see this."

And that’s where we find [F/N], hunched over Bonnie’s frame, polishing the metal and preparing his paint job. The body was smooth—free of dents or cracks—but still devoid of the signature colors that made him who he was. A photo of Bonnie, from before he was trashed, lay next to her on the workbench, the only reference to guide her as she worked. She glanced between the photo and the blank canvas before her, carefully adjusting Bonnie’s chin with one hand, holding him steady as she worked.

Her fingers, skilled from years of doing Roxy and Chica’s eyeliner, moved with ease, applying the delicate touch around his eyes. The eyeliner was subtle but precise, creating the sharp outline that defined his expression. She was meticulous, ensuring the curve was just right, just like she had done a hundred times before on the others. As she finished, she took a step back, making sure everything aligned perfectly, her tired eyes scanning his face for any imperfections that didn’t exist.

Next, she moved on to the paint. The airbrush in her hand hummed softly as she began to layer color over his frame, each stroke smooth and deliberate. There was no damage to cover, no wear and tear to fix—just an empty surface awaiting the familiar hues that once adorned him. She worked quickly but with purpose, spraying layers of color—deep blues and purples, with accents of gold—building him back up, piece by piece.

“Nearly done…” [F/N] murmured to herself, finishing the purple lining along Bonnie’s jumpsuit. She admired the smooth, flawless strokes with a small smile before reaching for a purple earring. Standing on a nearby stool to get a better angle, she carefully clipped it to Bonnie’s right ear. She chuckled softly, flicking the earring gently with her finger. Once satisfied, she stepped down from the stool and grabbed a brush to tidy up Bonnie’s hair. With gentle, precise strokes, she smoothed the strands into place, making sure every lock was styled just right.

The air was quiet except for the soft sounds of her movements, but as she finished and stepped back to take in her work, Bonnie looked as vibrant as ever. The purple hues, the gleam of the earring—it was as if he’d never been damaged at all. She took a moment to admire the work, the small but significant transformation that brought him back to life in her own way.

“Perfect,” [F/N] said with a satisfied smile, stepping back to admire her work. She grabbed a small mirror from the table and held it up in front of Bonnie. “Don’t you just look beautiful?”

Bonnie took the mirror from her slowly, almost hesitantly, his fingers brushing against the glass as if uncertain it was real. He lifted it to his face, eyes widening as he took in his reflection. The vibrant purple tones of his jumpsuit gleamed under the light, the freshly applied eyeliner sharp and precise, and the small earring catching the light just right. His face softened, and for a moment, there was a trace of disbelief in his eyes, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He turned his head slightly, inspecting every detail, the smooth metal surface that had once been dull now shining with life.

“I… I don’t even recognize myself,” he murmured, his voice filled with awe. He lifted the mirror a little higher, his gaze lingering on the work [F/N] had done. “You… you really fixed me. All this time, I didn’t think I’d ever look like this again.” she chuckled, crossing her arms.

"Doubted me, hmm?" There was a pause, and he turned to her, his expression softening.

“Thank you, [F/N]. I don’t know what to say… I’m… I’m grateful.”

[F/N]'s eyes widened softly at the look in Bonnie’s gaze—the deep gratitude, the way it shimmered in his eyes, as if he could hardly believe someone had actually found him and restored him when he’d been left abandoned behind his bowling alley. He hadn’t asked her to fix him. Hell, nobody had. It had been a choice she’d made on her own, just because she could. But as Bonnie sat there, looking at her with such appreciation, she realized it wasn’t about what she’d gotten in return—what she had was a simple thank you. And that, in itself, was more than enough. She cleared her throat, breaking the quiet moment, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

"W-Well, don’t thank me yet," [F/N] said, her voice softening as she stepped back slightly. "There’s still one more thing to complete the look." She briefly left his side, disappearing behind a nearby shelf. Bonnie’s eyes followed her, a curious expression crossing his face. When she returned, though, he already knew what was coming. She pulled something out from behind her back—a bass guitar, the same one he had seen her tuning just hours before. [F/N] held it up with a hesitant smile. “It took me a bit of time, with all the pieces I had to scrounge for, and the fact that I’ve never made a bass guitar before... But whatever. I made it for you.”

However, [F/N] watched Bonnie stand up and carefully place the bass down, she was taken by surprise when he began approaching her. She instinctively took a step back, confusion flickering across her face. But before she could say anything, he reached her, and in one smooth motion, he wrapped his metallic arms around her, pulling her into a warm, careful embrace. She squeaked in surprise, her hands instinctively pressing against his chest, but she could feel the careful restraint in his hold. His arms were strong, yet he regulated his strength to make sure he didn’t crush her or bring her any harm. For a moment, the only sound was the soft hum of his body, the warmth of his touch unexpected and comforting.

"I’ve already said it a thousand times over, but thank you," Bonnie's voice was low, almost reverent. “T-Thank you for not giving up on me. This means so much to me.”

He gently pulled away, and [F/N] found herself staring into his eyes, wide and soft with a look that took her breath away. He wasn’t the same worn, broken animatronic she had found behind the bowling alley. He was whole again, and in that moment, his gratitude was unmistakable. He looked at her as if she had done something far beyond what she ever expected of herself.

"I wish I could give you something back," Bonnie said quietly, his voice sincere, his tone gentle. "You’ve done so much for me... I just... I wish I could show you how much this means."

[F/N] hung frozen for a moment, taking in his words. She wasn’t used to this kind of gratitude, not like this. Freddy and Chica were affectionate in their own ways, always warm and supportive, and even Sunny had his playful moments of kindness. But none of them had ever done something like this—not in the way Bonnie had just shown her. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized the depth of his words, the weight of his sincerity. His hands, though metallic, were careful and tender as he held her. It was something she hadn’t expected, and the softness in his gaze made her feel a wave of warmth, something she hadn’t realized she needed until this very moment. She cleared her throat, trying to shake off the feeling that was rising in her chest.

“You don’t have to give me anything, Bonnie,” [F/N] said softly, her voice a little shaky. “Seeing you back on your feet... that’s more than enough for me.” At her words, Bonnie’s body seemed to deflate slightly, a soft, almost helpless expression crossing his face. He stood there for a moment, the hum of his internal mechanisms filling the space, before he spoke again, his voice quieter this time.

"I’ve been on the receiving end ever since I reactivated,” he said, a faint sadness in his voice. “I want to be able to give you something, even if it’s small…” For a moment, it felt like she was dealing with a child, unsure and desperate to give something back, and it was clear he wasn’t going to let go of the idea anytime soon. She could see it in his eyes—the same persistence she’d seen in him when he was first reactivated. Her hand gently patted his arm, a comforting gesture, and she looked around for something to ease the tension. Her gaze fell upon the bass he had so carefully set aside, just to hug her. She smiled softly at the instrument, an idea forming in her mind.

“Well, um, how about...” she began, trailing off as a soft hue dusted her cheeks. Her heart fluttered embarrassingly slightly at the thought of what she was about to suggest. She cleared her throat. “How about you play me a song?” Bonnie’s ears perked up immediately, his eyes lighting up as he leaned forward.

“Oh, I can do that! I’ll play you the best song, just for you!” Before [F/N] could even process his excitement, he plopped her down onto a nearby stool with a gentle but hurried motion, his hands moving as he rushed around Parts and Services. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of him scrambling, grabbing a nearby bass amplifier and setting it up with a purpose. As he took the ribbon off the bass, he paused for a moment, studying it with an almost mischievous glint in his eyes. Instead of discarding it, as one might expect, he carefully tied it around his neck and fashioned it into a makeshift bowtie. The sight of him wearing it so proudly made her smile. How adorable. She couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh at the sight of him, so proud of his little touch.

"You look great, bunny," [F/N] said with a teasing smile, her eyes sparkling as she took in Bonnie’s new look, complete with the bowtie. His ears drooped over his face, flustered by the nickname that, somehow, now sounded different coming from her. A soft, surprised hum escaped him as he straightened up again, his metallic body now feeling a bit warmer from the unexpected affection.

“W-Well, you ready for the greatest song ever?” he said, trying to regain his usual confidence, though his fingers betrayed his excitement as they twitched in anticipation to finally play after so long. [F/N] grinned and nodded, leaning back slightly against the stool, her arms crossing in playful challenge.

“Yeah, big guy. Give me your best shot.” Bonnie’s eyes gleamed with determination. With one last glance at her, he took a deep breath and strummed the bass, sending a deep, resonant note through the air. The sound was rich and soothing, the music vibrating through the room as he settled into the rhythm, his hands dancing over the strings with a skill that made it clear he hadn’t lost his touch, no matter how long it had been since he’d last played. [F/N] watched Bonnie intently as he played, her eyes focused on his every movement. She leaned her face into her closed fist, a small smile tugging at her lips as she rested against the workbench. For once, she felt a sense of peace settle over her. The chaos of the past months, the countless hours spent repairing Bonnie, finding parts for his bass, and ensuring every detail was perfect—it all led to this moment.

It wasn’t just the music she was hearing—it was the culmination of everything she had worked for. Bonnie, whole again, playing the instrument he had lost, reclaiming what had been taken from him. And she had played a part in that. A small, quiet part, but one that mattered more than anything. She closed her eyes for just a moment, letting herself soak in the warmth of the moment. The satisfaction of knowing she had helped him find something lost, of knowing she had given him back a piece of himself, was a feeling unlike any other.

It was perfect.

Phoenix

word count: 12,767  Fandom: MCYT Pairing: Emerald Duo x Female!Phoenix!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Occupation: Fighter Ability: Phoenix Hybrid

The character is that of a phoenix hybrid, allowing them to have traits of a phoenix. They are gifted with wings of flames that sprout of their back, giving them the ability to fly, though they are capable of having them disappear and reappear whenever they so wish. They are also able to manipulate fire however they want, but since they are a phoenix, they are also have the gift of healing.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name

Warnings: vulgar language, violence, character death

“What in the actual hell are you doing?!” [F/N] shouts, stumbling backwards when Quackity, Fundy, Tubbo and some new kid abruptly barged into her house unannounced. She looked at their attire and saw that only that new kid was dressed in Netherite armor while the other three were wearing bloody aprons over their Netherite armor, each holding weapons that were just as bloody “Tubbo! What is the meaning of this?!” she shouts at the younger boy, before the boy could get a word out Quackity approached her.

“We’re looking for Technoblade.” this caused her to flinch a bit.

“What for?” she asked, she crossed her arms and tapped her finger against her arm and watched as Quackity circled her.

“We are looking for Technoblade because he is a threat to L’manburg.” she furrows her brows at the sound of that “We need to make an example of him.” now she narrows her eyes on Quackity before leaning back and looking out the window and her eyes widened at the sight of an odd contraption, there was a cage at the very bottom and above it was an anvil “We are going to execute him.”  

“Wha-- why?! That’s totally unreasonable!” she shouts “Techno is a different person to who he was in the past, he’s changed!” she reasons but it falls to deaf ears, she then notices Fundy swing his axe and actually shatter her window “What the?! The fuck do you think you’re doing?!” she goes to stop him but was grabbed by the arm by that kid, she goes to retaliate but noticed that he looked more nervous than she did, so she settled down despite how much of her anger was beginning to boil over. She then notices that Quackity and Tubbo start rummaging through her chests in search for something.

“You know where Technoblade is, don’t you?” she freezes at that, Quackity waves at Fundy to stop him from damaging anything else and to look through her chests and barrels in search for anything that could lead them to Technoblade, he then grabs a hold of her arm and tugs her forward.

“So what if I do?” he shrugs.

“All you have to do is tell us where he is, and we will stop this immediately.” she grits her teeth at that, watching as he leaned in close to her face, she growls at him and scowls when he snickers and leans away, opening his arms “It’s simply not that hard. We, the Butcher Army, are going to bring Technoblade to justice for all the wronging he’s done! Not only did he kill Tubbo during the festival, but he helped blow up L’manburg by spawning those Withers! We are only doing what’s right, and as a citizen of L’manburg, we order you to tell us where Technoblade is.” he now stood in front of her, his axe held tightly. She eyed it before narrowing her eyes on the short man, standing her ground and not the least bit intimidated.

“I’d rather die than tell you where he is.” there was a tense silence in the air as the two glare at each other, no movements were made as the two refused to drop their gaze but finally stopped when Tubbo let out a cheer.

“Hey Big Q,” they both turn and [F/N] gasped silently at the sight “look what I found.” in Tubbo’s hands was a compass that was labeled [Techno’s Compass], her heart started to beat rapidly in her heart when she started to remember when Technoblade gave both herself and Philza a compass that would lead them back to his house.

“Good work, Tubbo.” Quackity smirked at [F/N]’s silence, knowing that they hit the jackpot “It was really simple, [F/N], really simple, and since you disobeyed the orders given to you, we will be forced to--” he jumped when he heard a loud battle cry and turned to see that it was from [F/N], who started screaming before rushing over and snatching the compass out of Tubbo’s hands. They thought that she was simply going to put it away in her own inventory, but no, they were startled when they saw her raise her hand before throwing the compass on the ground and started to stomp on it. But that wasn’t enough, she summoned a Netherite Axe out of her inventory and started swinging it down on the compass, thoroughly destroying it, but she still went beyond by pulling out lava and pouring it onto the compass.

“...”

“...”

“Was that necessary?” she was panting a little as she stared at the smokey patch on the wooden floor and frowned, she let out a little cry as she scooped the lava back into the bucket and put it back into her inventory, she then turned and glared at the three, sparing the Enderman hybrid.

“You’re not going to get to him, you piece of shit.” she sneered “That compass was the second most valuable thing in my possession, and I don’t need that blasted compass to find my way to Techno, so it wasn’t a complete loss.” she took a step back when she noticed them take a step forward, baring their weapons at her.

“Then you’ll have to take us to him.” she scoffs.

“Over my dead body.” Quackity chuckles.

“That can be arranged.” she swallows thickly at that, her eyes move back to the Ender Chest behind her, she takes a breath and looks back at the trio, seeing them getting ready to fight her. The moment she saw Fundy take a step forward she punched him across the face before turning back and reaching towards her Ender Chest “Get her!” he orders, she quickly throws it open and grabs the [Friendship Emerald] Technoblade also gave her and Philza before letting out a grunt when Tubbo grabbed her arm, in response to that, she slams her forehead into his and he fell back. She stands to her feet and grins to herself, taunting the remaining two to come at her.

“Come on then, it’ll be just like manhunt! 4 vs 1, shouldn’t be that hard. Dream does it all the time!” the Enderman hybrid looks at [F/N] warily before charging forward, he swings the axe up and brings it down but she easily caught it before grabbing a hold of him and lifting him up “Sorry about this, kid!” she then threw him at Quackity and they both fell to the ground, she gave him an apologetic look before she made a beeline up the stairs “You seem like a really good guy, but I can’t take any chances!” she added before rummaging through the rest of her chests that were up the stairs hastily.

“Urgh, dammit!” Quackity cursed, pushing Ranboo off him before getting to his feet with Fundy and Tubbo behind him “Don’t let her get away!” they go to chase after her, but they managed to stop themselves before they ran into lava, to which she threw lava down the stairs to stop them from chasing after her before pulling out blocks of Obsidian and placing them down on the opening of the staircase then speeding over to her balcony. She kicks the door open and looks side to side, wincing slightly when the rain poured down on her, but she paid that no mind and turned her head to the right.

“Oh, please tell me you’re home.” she pleads, she wasted no time to pull out blocks of dirt to use as platforms to jump the gaps in between the houses that were besides her so she could get to the house that she was aiming for. When she finally reached the house she needed, she landed on the balcony of said house before kicking that door open “PHIL!!” she shouts, said man let out a startled shout as he looks up and was surprised when he saw [F/N] drenched from head to toe as she rushed down the stairs and approached him.

“[F/N]? What are you-- how are you in my house?” she shakes her head.

“It doesn’t matter! We have to go, old friend.” she hurriedly said, he gives her a confused look as he watched her rummage through his chests before opening his Ender Chest and pulling out his compass to Technoblade and the [Friendship Emerald], tossing them both to him and scurrying around to grab anything else necessary.

“Why? What’s happening?” she shakes her head in distress.

“It’s Tubbo. He’s gone insane thanks to Quackity.” when she grabbed everything, she goes over to Philza and steadily grabs his arms “They’re after Techno, Phil. They want to kill him for what he did to L’manburg.” his eyes widened at that, and he looked outside and saw that contraption they were planning on using to execute Technoblade “We have to go, if they can’t get me, then I sure as hell know they’ll be coming after you.” he looks at her one more time before nodding.

“You’re right, let’s get the hell out of here.” they nod, and they turn to leave but [F/N] froze when she saw the Butcher Army right outside Philza’s door.

“She’s here!” she heard Fundy shout, he swings the door open but let out a cry when she punched him in the face again then slamming the door shut “Ah, dammit! Again!”

“Sorry, nobody’s home!” she shouts, pulling out the Obsidian again and using that to block the door before grabbing a hold of Philza’s hand and running up the stairs, blocking the entrance to the stairs then rushing over to the balcony, Philza shivered when he felt the cold wind blow through his feathers as his skin tensed up when the rain poured down on him.

“How are we going to get out of here?” she grins, pulling out two potions.

“I didn’t have enough time to grab a lot, but this’ll make do.” she says before sculling down the two potions, Philza looked at her and saw the particles that were coming off her after having drunk the Potions of Speed and Leaping. She flexes her arms before kneeling and picking Philza up bridal style and turning in the direction where Technoblade was, she takes a few steps back before charging forward and stepping onto the railing then leaping into the air a good few blocks “Phil! Message Techno of our problem!”

“They’re getting away!” she heard Tubbo shout, they both turn back and notice and notice that the Butcher Army started chasing after them.

“Hurry!” looking down, she noticed the message board appear.

<Ph1lza whispers to you> they know where you are, get ready old friend

“Technically they don’t.” he shrugs his shoulders, still focused on messaging Technoblade.

“Well, at least it’ll grab his attention.”

“Hmm, true.”

<Ph1lza whispers to you> better kiss your retirement goodbye

<Technoblade whispers to you> please elaborate!

<Ph1lza whispers to you> they’re after the compass

<Technoblade whispers to you> who?!

“You’re torturing the poor guy, Phil. Just tell him who.” they both laugh, Philza letting out whoa when she kneels down before kneeling down and launching up into the air. She let out a grunt when she landed on the ground and cautiously glanced over at how much time she had left until the potions ran out and she sucked in a breath when she noticed that it was almost over.

“You won’t get away!” Quackity shouts.

“Oh yeah, fucking watch me!” she retaliates before looking around and gritting her teeth, she leads them on a wild goose chase but when both effects of the potion run out, she leads them away before skidding to a stop when she was on the top of a building and the Butcher Army was right behind them. She turns to face them, still holding Philza close to her, and briefly glanced down at the fall below them. She wasn’t wearing any armor to take the damage of the fall and she didn’t have a Potion of Slow Falling; she didn’t even have a water bucket nor any blocks to reduce the damage.

“This is it, [F/N]! You’ve got nowhere to go!” Tubbo shouts “Just give us the location to Technoblade and we’ll be out of your hair.” they both shake their heads at the demand.

“And let you kill our longtime friend? Go to hell!” Philza shouts, [F/N] takes a step back when they took a step forward, she looks at her back then at the Butcher Army before glancing down at Philza.

“Hey, do you trust me, Phil?” she asks, he looks up at her.

“Do I trust you?” he says, he chuckles and lightly hits her chest “To the ends of the world and back.” she smiles softly at that.

“Then forgive me for not telling you sooner.”

“What?” the Butcher Army were confused when she turned her back to them, she takes a deep breath before taking a few steps back then jumping off the rooftop. The four behind her look at each other before rushing forward, they go to look over the ledge but stumble backwards when a bright orange blur shot up into the air. Looking up, their eyes widened at the sight of the blazing bright wings on her back that sizzled into steam whenever the droplets of rain landed on her, even the underside of her hair was burning a bright orange.

“Catch you later, losers.” she snickers before turning away, tucking her legs in before flying off with Philza secured tightly in her arms.

“No! No, no, no!” Quackity shouts out desperately as she flies off.

“Dammit! We lost the only two people close to Technoblade!” Fundy shouts, caressing his snout after being punched twice by [F/N], Ranboo nodded his head as he hunched down to fit in the umbrella Tubbo had just pulled out and used to shield Ranboo from the rain. Sure, he was wearing armor, but it still hurt to be in the rain.

“Did any of you guys know that she could fly?” they all shook their heads.

“Not a clue.” Quackity growls, his fist turning white with how hard he was gripping his axe.

“To think she was actually a phoenix hybrid.”

[with [F/N]]

“You can fly?!” Philza shouts, watching as she weaves through the tree, flapping every so often to give herself some more leverage. She lets out a grunt when she felt Philza move around in her grip, trying to get a closer look at the blazing bright wings on her back “Why didn’t you tell us that you could fly, [F/N]?! We’ve known each other for years, and you didn’t bother to mention the fact that you had wings and that you were a rare type of hybrid!” she grits her teeth, wincing when the cold of the icy winds of the tundra biome blew in her face.

“I have personal reasons as to why I never mentioned it, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as I could.” she reasoned.

“But Techno and I have been your friends for so long, don’t you think we’re an exception?!” she sighs at that, lighting up slightly at the sight of Technoblade’s house in the middle of, quite literally, nowhere.

“I understand that you’re upset, Phil, but I’ve been living in fear over the fact that I’m this type of hybrid for so long that I didn’t have the courage to speak up about it, let alone show it.” she could see Technoblade’s figure frantically rushing around in his home as he was gathering up materials and such “I’ll tell you properly when we meet up with Techno, I promise you.” he narrows his eyes on her before nodding.

“Well, alright, as long as you explain.”

“I have no choice, do I?”

“Not at all.” they chuckle at that, making light of the situation at hand. When she was close enough to Technoblade’s home, she pulled back slightly so that her feet were directed at the ground before slowly lowering herself to the ground, as she set Philza to the ground, the door to the house was kicked open and Technoblade revealed himself fully armored and equipped with his axe and several potions.

“I’m ready!” he shouts but stops himself when he saw that it was only Philza and [F/-- he did a double take at the sight of the bright orange wings that were attached to her back that settled and folded itself as they both approached Technoblade “I’m glad that you two are safe, but what the hell are those wings?! Since when could you fly, [F/N]?!” she purses her lips, she raises her hand before hugging herself when the cold wind blew past them and through her feathers, causing her to shiver.

“Can we talk inside? I’m quite sensitive to the cold, and I was just in the rain so that doesn’t make my situation any better.” they nod their heads; [F/N] was currently standing in front of the fireplace as she used her wings to warm herself up.

“Now then,” turning her head, she frowned softly when the two had their arms crossed with stern looks on their face “care to tell us as to why you never mentioned you were a hybrid and that you told us that you were just a human?” she frowned again, she hugs herself before turning and giving her full attention to the two.

“As you can clearly tell, I’m a phoenix hybrid. Unlike most humans and hybrids, we are born with a single canon life, but it’s infinite.” she lifts her hands and a ball of fire appeared in the palm of her head, she stared at it before closing her hand and letting her entire hand blaze into fire “Our species is rare as is, but back in the day, there were so many of us we had our own little country all to ourselves. We were mostly known for the fact that our flame/feathers could heal any wounds imaginable, whether it was minor or extremely severe, it didn’t matter; our flames could heal it to the point it wasn’t even injured in the beginning.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you hid the fact that you could fly.”

“I’m getting there.” she stares at the flame a little longer before waving her hand and putting the flame out, she then brought her hands up and hugged herself once more, now beginning to tremble profusely, not due to the cold, but rather out of fear “We were hunted down like animals, used for farming our feathers in order to sell on the black market. When we resisted, they slaughtered us without hesitation.” soon tears of lava were running down her cheeks “But we are phoenixes! Our gift is that we can be reborn when we die, rising from the ashes into a newer body! But those hunter bastards found a way to keep us from coming back!” she falls to her knees, her hands gripping onto her head “I was afraid! I didn’t want to die! I didn’t want to be hunted down like some fucking sport, out on display like a goddamn trophy! So I hid, I hid the fact that I was a phoenix no matter how much it pained me that I could no longer fly into the sky anymore!” she then raised her head to the look up at the two “But I couldn’t let them get to you, Techno, or you, Phil. You two are the people I trust the most, so I swallowed up my fear and revealed what I am to the world.” she then lowered her head once more “But I still can’t help but be so afraid... I don’t want to die, there’s still so much that I want to do.” she whimpered out.

“ [F/N]...”

“Now do you understand why I never spoke about it? Why I never brought it up?” she sniffled to herself and stood in silence before letting out a quiet gasp when Technoblade approached her and wrapped his broad arms around her, she looked up at him and noticed her was trembling himself, but rather, out of anger.

“You don’t have to fear anything anymore, because we won’t let those bastards hunt you down.” Philza nodded his head, approaching them both and placing his hand on her shoulder, she looks over at him and sees him giving her a reassuring look.

“He’s right, as long as we’re here, nothing will get to you.” he then leans closer and wraps his wings around them both “You no longer have to fear death now that you have us.” she sniffles again before breaking out into a sob, wrapping her arms around Technoblade’s shoulder as she buried her face into the crook of his neck.

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry I never told you guys.” she whimpers out as she tightens her grip on him.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. We understand.” she then gasps as she pushes herself away when she realized that her tears were actually burning Technoblade.

“O-Oh no! I’m so sorry, I-I can’t control my tears!” she exclaims, he shrugs.

“I’m telling you, it’s fine.” she sighs softly.

“But...”

“Like I said, it’s fine. Besides, I can use a Potion of Regeneration to heal this.” she perks up slightly at that before turning to look at Philza, who raised a brow at the expression on her face.

“What?”  

“I mentioned this before, we phoenixes were well known mostly for our flames/feathers that were capable of healing injuries to the point they weren’t even there in the first place.” she approaches him and gently grabs his injured wing and lifts it up “How about I heal your wing for you?” his eyes widened at the suggestion “I’ve been wanting to heal it for so long, but I never had the courage of mentioning it.” she giggles softly at the eagerness in his eyes.

“Y-Yes... yes please.” she nods.

“Alright, but it’s gonna hurt.” she opens her wings and gestures to them “It’s still fire, but it’s more effective than using it as an ingredient for a potion.” he groans slightly at the news.

“Please be gentle.” she grins.

“No promises.” he grumbles, right now, they cleared everything out of the room so that it wasn’t in the way and Philza was currently shirtless with his back to [F/N] and Technoblade kneeling in front of him with his arms wide open, just in case Philza needed to hold anything “I’m not going to lie to you Phil, I haven’t done this in a long time and I’m no healer, but I do remember how to do it and that it’s going to hurt like a bitch.” he groans again.

“Can I back out now?” she giggles, plucking one of her feathers out.

“Nope.” Technoblade chuckles.

“Don’t worry, Phil, I’ve got you.” he groans as he reaches forward and wraps his arms under Technoblade’s arms and shakily gripping his shoulders, Technoblade wrapping his arms around his waist and reassuringly patting his lower back “You’ve got this, just take deep breaths.” he did so, trembling slightly as his breathing was shaky.

“Alright,” Philza winced at that, flinching and screwing his eyes shut as he hears her clap her hands with her feather in between them before her hands to her elbows were engulfed in a bright orange flame “I’ll count to three.” his shakily nods his head again, opening his wings slightly.

“O-Okay.” she exhales deeply through her nose.

“One... two...” she waits, Philza licks his lips and takes a deep breath himself.

“T-Three...” the only thing Philza could feel after that was an excruciating pain of his wings on fire, he immediately lets out a blood curdling scream, crying out in pain as he dug his nails into Technoblade’s shoulders, [F/N]’s eyes widened when she noticed that he was moving too much.

“Christ, Techno!” he flinches, looking up at [F/N] and noticed that she had a bead of sweat bleeding down her cheek as she tried to steady herself “I need you to keep Phil still! I’m losing my concentration with how much he’s moving around!”

“But he’s in pain!”

“If I don’t use the flames to heal what’s been broken, I’ll end up burning him instead!” Technoblade gasped at and looked down at Philza, he sucked in a breath before tightening his grip around Philza and resting his chin on top of his head.

“I know, I know it hurts, Phil, but you got to keep it together! The more you move, she’ll do more damage!” Philza whimpers.

“It hurts...” he lets out another cry when he felt the bones in his wings snap into place and start growing into the proper length as flesh grows over it and slowly feathers start sprouting out.

“I know it hurts, Phil, but I’m almost done! I promise you! And you’ll feel all better once I’m done!” she shouts as her hands got closer and started putting his wings into shape, using her flames to bring back what was burnt away and destroyed after shielding Wilbur and himself from the explosion “With this... we... are... done!” she shouts, throwing her hands to the side and watches as the remaining flames on her forearms linger on his wings and heal the little patches that she missed. Philza was gasping for air before throwing his wings open, flapping them a little as [F/N] opens her hands then closes them into a fist to extinguish the flames.

“Well done, Phil, well done.” he was panting heavily, finally loosening his hold on Technoblade and collapsing in his arms completely, his wings dropping limp behind him in the process.

“Weee...” he moaned out, [F/N] laughed gently before going over to him, kneeling and patting his head.

“And with that, I’m done.” his wings twitched a little as she looks down at what used to be broken, she smirks to herself “I fucking love myself.” she gently caressed his wing with her knuckles “It looks like it was never broken to begin with.”

“Tha... Thank you...” she hummed, now reaching over and gently brushing his blonde locks out of his face.

“For you, the world.” and with that he slowly lost consciousness, Technoblade rises to his feet with Philza in his arms, he looks down at [F/N] and goes to say something but was caught off guard when [F/N] collapsed backwards with a hand to her head. Only then did he realize just how pale she looked and how she was trembling slightly, beads of sweat visible on her face and exposed arms, even the flames of her wings and the underside of her hair have dulled a bit.

“[F/N]! Are you alright?”  she weakly waved her hand to dismiss his concern.

“Don’t worry about it, Techno. Healing a wound as severe as his was takes a lot out of me, especially if I haven’t done it in a long time. Just throw me in some fire and I’ll be just fine.”  

“But...” she smiles up at him.

“Just take care of Phil for now, he needs you more than I do.” he swallows thickly before nodding his head, he quickly rushes to his room and sets Philza in his bed, making sure he was as comfortable as possible before rushing back down where he left [F/N], only to panic when he couldn’t see her anywhere. At the sound of the crackling of the fire, he turned his head and jumped slightly at the sight of [F/N] curled up into a ball while relaxing in the middle of his fireplace.

“Jesus!” he shouts in surprise; she twitched slightly and opened her eyes and smiled tiredly at the sight of Technoblade, he settles down and takes a seat in front of the fireplace, Steve making an appearance and huddled behind the piglin hybrid so he could enjoy the warmth of [F/N], who was much hotter than the fireplace “How did you manage to fit yourself in there?” she giggles softly.

“I managed...” he chuckles as that and leans back into Steve, letting himself get comfortable as [F/N] turns herself to look up at Technoblade.

“Um...” she hummed, indicating for him to continue and that she was listening “thank you for, healing Phil.” she raised a brow at that.

“I mean, of course. Like I said before, since I knew that I was able to heal him, I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time, but I never had the courage to bring it up. I also didn’t want to make a potion because it wouldn’t have been as effective as doing it by hand.” she then rolled her wrist “But I’m also not a healer, like I said, but I couldn’t stand not giving it a try.” Technoblade raises a brow.

“Not a healer? Then what were you?” she chuckles softly, feeling a little embarrassed bringing up the past.

“Well, uh... I was a Warrior training to protect my odyssey.” his eyes widened in shock “I was one of the best as well, but after those hunters found a way to kill us permanently, our only choice was to flee instead of fight back. We couldn’t afford all of us being hunted down, we couldn’t go extinct, so we went into hiding.” she then sighs “As far as I know, I’m the last there is... but I hope not and that the others are hiding as well.” he nods his head.

“... can you tell me more about your culture?” she stares at him before a bright smile spread across her face, finally, she’s been wanting to discuss about her culture with someone for so long and it makes her happy that Technoblade wants to learn. The two hybrids didn’t even notice how long they’ve been talking for, Technoblade asking various questions while [F/N] happily answered each one of them with detailed answers. He goes to ask some more questions but stops when he notices her wanting to get up, so he quickly backs up, Steve doing the same thing and they both watch as she stretches and flexes her wings back while stretching her arms above her head.

“Ah... that was something I really needed.” she then giggles softly “Sometimes when no one was around, I would go into the Nether and bathe in the lava or relax in the fire. The Nether is where I truly feel like I can be myself.” he lifts his head, nodding slightly while letting out an oh.

“So that’s where you go most of the time I can’t find you.” she rubs the back of her head, a sheepish grin on her face.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” she then let out a hum when she noticed something through his trapdoor window, peering outside she raised a brow at the sight “Hmm? Is that Ghostbur?” Technoblade perks up at the mention of the ghost and he looks out as well, squinting his eyes at the man.

“He’s just standing there...” he muttered “I don’t know what Ghostbur’s doing out there.” she nods before pushing the trapdoor open and cupping her mouth.

“Ghostbur! What are you doing out there?” she shouts, she notices him smile as he approaches the house.

“Hello?” he calls.

“Hello.” Technoblade greets back as [F/N] waves her hand.

“Tech-- hi, Techno and [F/N]! How’s it going?” they both back away, closing the trapdoor, and go over to the front door and open it for the ghost. Technoblade going outside while [F/N] stayed inside the house but leaned against the doorframe “Hi, I’m-- I’m, I’m here. I was-- I was coming through the area and... oh! [F/N], are those wings?” she hums at that, flapping them a little show him.

“Yeah, they are.” he claps his hands.

“Oh, how wonderful! Now you’re like Phil!” she hums again, nodding her head.

“That’s right.” they both couldn’t help but laugh gently at how happy Ghostbur looked, he then grabbed a hold of her hand and pointed with his other at a sheep with its wool dyed blue.

“Look, look! It’s a sign.” she chuckles “Blue!”

“Right, blue.” he starts to chatter before stopping a lighting up a bit.

“You know, when I was in the area, I saw a couple of people around.” this caused the two to freeze up.

“Hmm?” both she and Technoblade look at each other “Ghostbur, can you tell us who exactly you saw?” he hums at that, looking up in thought to remember just who exactly he saw.

“If I remember correctly... it was that Tubbo, Big Q, Fundy and the new guy Ranboo.” the two hybrids freeze up at that before going into a state of panic.

“Oh, shit!” she curses “They must’ve followed me without me even realizing it! I’m so sorry, Techno!” he shakes his head as he rushes inside, [F/N] following closely behind.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m fully prepared.” he then turns and places a hand on her shoulder “And now I have you by my side.” she stared up at him before they both nod, he prepares himself once more, armoring up and making a few more potions, [F/N] doing the same as they both rush around his house. Ghostbur places a finger on his lip as he watches the two scurry to prepare themselves for the battle that’s about to come, [F/N] was in the middle of putting on a Netherite Chest Plate, now being mindful of her wings, when Ghostbur approached her.

“Are you alright, [F/N]?” she raises a hand.

“Ghostbur, now it a terrible time.” he tilts his head when he notices the distress in her voice as she rushes past him and grabs a couple more potions.

“Please, please. Have some blue, come here.” she pauses at that as he approached her and offered her some blue dye, she stared at it for a good few seconds before sighing softly, she sheathes the sword at her hip and takes the blue.

“Thank you for the blue, Ghostbur.” he nods, a blue blush rushing to his cheeks as a bright smile appeared.

“Blue will make you happy! It’ll make you feel better!” he takes her hand in his “Are you feeling better, [F/N]?” she nods.

“Yes, thank you, Ghostbur.” his smile never faded away, Technoblade then appeared behind her and grabbed her shoulder tightly.

“Are you almost ready, [F/N]?” she nods, putting her Netherite Helmet on “Okay, Ghostbur, I need you to take that sheep and get as far away as possible.” she nods once more before peeking her head over Technoblade’s shoulder.

“Hide over a hill or something!” she suggests after throwing Ghostbur a lead.

“O-Okay!” they watch as he goes outside and towards the sheep, attaching the lead to the sheep and leading it away “Come here blue boy. Okay, bye, bye Techno and [F/N]! H-Have fun preparing for the-- for the event.”

“Alright.” Technoblade goes back into the house as [F/N] waves Ghostbur goodbye, she takes a breath before staring down at the blue in her hand, she sighs and pockets it before going over to where Technoblade was and saw him staring out the trapdoor windows. She started doing the same before a sudden realization washed over her and she gasped as she grabbed him by the forearm, looking up at Technoblade, who looked down at her in surprise at the sudden gasp.

“Techno, what are we going to do about Phil?” she asks, his eyes widened at that, and he looks up at where his room was “He’s practically a sitting duck, even if he does wake up, he’ll be ridiculously weak and fatigued. That took a lot out of him.”  

“... he’ll be fine. As long as we keep them out of the house, they won’t be able to find him.”

“But they know I brought him with me.”

“But what they don’t know is that he’s out cold. All they know is that he’s here, but he could purposely be out of sight so that we can get the upper hand on them.” [F/N] knew that he was just as nervous as she was, neither of them wanted to leave Philza on his own and that he was only saying that to reassure himself, so she nodded her head and placed her hands on his forearm.

“Alright... as long as we keep them out of the house.” he nods.

“Then no harm comes to Phil.” they both nod, they both then turn their heads at the sound of chatter, their eyes widened at the sight of Ghostbur talking to the Butcher Army “Oh god, that plan to have Ghostbur hide over the hills did not work!” she shakes her head.

“Not at all!” she slaps her hands over her face “Urgh, Ghostbur!” she groans out, [F/N] was over Technoblade’s shoulder as they look through the trapdoor and watch Ghostbur’s interaction with the Butcher Army, they both gasp when Ghostbur looks at them.

“No, no! Don’t make eye contact with me—no, don’t wave at me Ghostbur! No, no! Do not wave at me!” [F/N] slaps her hands over her face again as she shook her head.

“Oh no, they’re punching him. No, oh no... Ghostbur you’re on your own.”

“We can’t save you, Ghostbur.” Ghostbur then starts walking over to them “Oh this is not good—no, no! Don’t walk over to us! Don’t lead them over to us! Oh—I’m starting to hate this guy so bad. I hate this guy so bad.” [F/N] just groans as she presses her hand to her forehead once again when Ghostbur starts waving his hand, Tubbo, Fundy and Ranboo behind him while Quackity was beside him with an axe in hand.

“Hey, hey Technoblade! [F/N]! The—They say they’re going to kill you, Technoblade.” he presses a finger to his cheek as he looks back at them “I’m not so sure about [F/N], but--” Technoblade shook his head as he opened the door and looked at Ghostbur.

“Ghostbur-- Ghostbur, why are you—why are you leading them over to my house? Why are you doing this?” Ghostbur looks back at the Butcher Army then back at them.

“What do you want me to say back to them?” [F/N] was over Technoblade’s shoulder again as she points at them.

“Tell them that we’re not here and to fuck off!” Technoblade nods his head.

“Yeah, tell them that they’re at the wrong place.” Ghostbur tilts his head to the side.

“But that would be lying.”

“I-I—I need you to—they're going to kill me! Why are you not okay with lying?!” they both look over and sigh “And they’re all here, they’re all here. They’re all right outside my house.”

“Oh my god...” [F/N] grabs Ghostbur by his arm and pushes him behind her before grabbing him by the arms and pulling him close “Ghostbur, hiding from them is not an option anymore.” she swallows thickly as she looks up at the house then back at him “Ghostbur, I need you to do me huge favor, okay? It’s really important, so you can’t mess this up, okay?” he nods his head, watching as she kept looking back at Technoblade and the Butcher Army then back at him.

“Oh! Of course, of course! I can do anything!” she nods her head.

“I need you to look after Phil.” she whispers softly just so the conversation was between them “Phil is in the house and he’s very weak, Techno and I can’t look after him right this very moment because of the Butcher Army. I need you to go into the house and keep Phil safe no matter what, if someone comes knocking on the door that’s neither Techno or I, don’t open the door. Phil’s life is your top priority.” Ghostbur nods his head.

“Yes, yes! I can do that! I can most definitely do that, [F/N]!” she nods with a nervous smile before pushing himself slightly towards the door.

“Good, then please, keep an eye on Phil.” he nods before trotting into the house, closing the door behind him for extra measure. She takes a breath before looking back over at Technoblade and saw that he was trying to calm down the four that were ready to take his life, telling them that he’s changed, but they just weren’t listening. She exhales sharply before spreading her wings and flying up, Technoblade heard this, so he stretched his arm out and watched as [F/N] perched herself on his arm, kneeling and glaring at the Butcher Army while resting her hand on his head.

“[F/N]! Are you going to fight by his side?!” Tubbo shouts, her gaze hardened on the young boy.

“Technoblade is my greatest friend, there’s nothing you can do or say that will sway my mind.” Quackity sneers at her before raising his axe and pointing it at her.

“So, you are going to betray L’manburg? You are going to betray us? You aren’t going to defend the country that you helped build with Wilbur?!” she closes her eyes at the thought before shaking her head, that was nothing more than a distant memory now, she narrows her eyes on him.

“L’manburg died alongside Wilbur. The L’manburg Tubbo is governing is nothing more than a graveyard that should’ve been left untouched.” she spreads her wings open as she takes out her enchanted Netherite Sword “If you want Technoblade, you’re gonna have to go through me.” he grins.

“You’re gonna have to go through us!” she hops off his shoulders and hovers behind him as she readies her Netherite Sword, Technoblade smirks as he grabs two potions and lifts them over his head “I choose blood!” he shouts before throwing the two potions, a Potion of Strength and Swiftness, to the ground and it splashes on the both of them, this caused the Butchery Army to take a step back.

“No!”

“Oh no!” she and Technoblade look at each other and they nod, she hovers backwards before flying up high then diving down towards Fundy, blade pulled back and arm stretched out. Fundy notices her aiming towards him so he let out a startled yip and started running away but she didn’t let up as she pulled her arm back and swung it at him, he had enough time to turn around and parry her attack but she put enough strength into the swing that she sent him flying backwards and into a tree.

“Hoo wah!!” she shouts before encasing her sword in fire then bringing it up and above her head, she then swings it down and a wave of fire was sent flying towards Fundy. His eyes widened at the attack and immediately he scrambles to his feet and flees to dodge the intense attack, he felt his body start to tremble at the sight of the trees ingulfed in flames before turning his attention back towards [F/N] and saw she had a tight grip on her sword as she glared at him ”Next time, I won’t miss.” she then kneels down, pressing a hand to the snow covered ground and digging her feet into the ground before shooting towards him. Technoblade let out a whistle at the sight of [F/N] practically chasing after Fundy and swinging her sword at him, waves of fire following with every swing.

“Damn... [F/N]! We’ve totally got to spar in the future to determine who’s the stronger one between us two hybrids.” she laughs at that, grabbing Fundy by the back of his neck and slamming his head into Tubbo’s, who was brave enough to some charging over to help his fellow hybrid friend out, only to be a burden and have Fundy thrown into him.

“I believe it’ll end like how all our other spars have ended, Techno! With a draw!” she answers back, watching as he easily dodged Ranboo and Quackity’s attacks, flat side of his sword to block Quackity’s axe, throwing it to the side before punching him in the face then going for Ranboo. He shook on the spot when the eyes of a predator were trained on him and he tried to attack, only for Technoblade to grab the shaft of the axe and take it off him, using it himself to hit the younger boy with the blunt side of the axe and send him into the ground “Ah, we should fight battles together more often!” she cheers, grabbing the two she was fighting and throwing them towards Technoblade. He lets out a laugh at the suggestion as he ducked, letting the two get thrown into Ranboo and Quackity, who managed to pick themselves up, only to fall to the ground once more when Fundy and Tubbo were thrown at them.

“We really should, it’s like light exercise.” she hums with a nod.

“It really is.” she then looks at her back, flapping her wings “I need it the most, it’s been so long since I’ve fought with my wings out; I’m a bit rusty.”  

“Ah, that makes sense.” she nods once more, charging forward as he ducks down once more. She jumps over him, her hand on his back as she kicked Quackity across the face when he managed to get up and tried to strike Technoblade, only for [F/N] to intercept. She lets out a laugh as she does a roll before standing to her feet, jumping up and down a couple times before approaching Technoblade once more, he raises his hand and she doesn’t hesitate to slap her hand against his.

“It’s fun fighting by your side, Techno.” his gaze softens at that.

“It’s good to have someone fighting BY my side.” her eyes widened softly at that before she frowns, she then lightly smacks him on the shoulder.

“Remember this, Techno. Phil and I will always be by your side, no matter the consequences. Till the end of days, we will always stand by your side.” he smiles softly at that; however, the moment was rudely ruined when a blade pierced through her chest. Technoblade’s eyes slowly widened at the sight as blood slowly dribbling out of her mouth, she looked down at the blade through her chest as blood started seeping out of her body and bleeding into her shirt “Wow... would you look at that. That doesn’t look good.”  

“[F/N]!” he shouts, he looks behind her and saw that it was Tubbo that stabbed her. The sight of his friend being stabbed; the sight of her blood, it made him see red and the voices in his head were going absolutely crazy.

[F/N]

[F/N]

HE HURT OUR FRIEND

KILL THE CHILD

HE DOESN’T DESERVE MERCY

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

BLOOD

BLOOD

“BLOOD!!” Technoblade shouts before pulling out his sword and charging towards him, Tubbo stumbled back as he pulled out his axe from his inventory, raising it up to block each and every one of Technoblade’s brutal swings, but he couldn’t stop himself from falling onto his back.

“Big Q do something!” he shouts, raising his axe one more time to block Technoblade’s sword from slicing his face “Big Q!” he growls and pulls his sword back one more time and goes to deliver the final blow but was blocked when a sword came into view and stopped him from striking Tubbo’s head, another growl rumbled in his throat as he whipped his head over to glare at the figure who dare stop him but froze at the sight.

“Stop! Stop, Technoblade!” it was [F/N], still with the sword lodged in her chest, as she used her sword to block his attack “You don’t need to go feral, Techno! I’m fine.” he looks her up and down, his eyes just trained on the sword still in her chest.

“How are you...?” she just grins, pulling away and reaching back. She let out a grunt as she struggled with the angle she was at before letting out a grunt, spitting out some more blood when she pulled the sword out of her chest. He lets out a sputter of words as he dropped the sword, raising his hands and reaching towards her in case something happens “[F-F/N]! What are you--” he cut himself off when her grin widens as she nonchalantly shrugs her shoulders as a flame burns over where she was stabbed as her blood sizzled away.

“I see you forgot what kind of hybrid I was, Technoblade.” she then pats her chest, raising her foot to slam it against Tubbo’s chest when he tried to get up “Wounds like these have no effect on me. See?” she grabs his wrist and gently places his hand on where she was just stabbed, he starts patting her chest before letting out a relieved sigh.

“A warning would’ve been appreciated, [F/N].” she shrugs.

“Well, I was going to tell you, but you went into a blood frenzy.” they both laugh.

“Technoblade! [F/N]!” they both turn their heads to the call and their eyes widened at the sight, Quackity was holding the lead to Technoblade’s most prized horse Carl with the blade of his sword at his neck, both Technoblade and herself lift their blades and point it in the direction of where Quackity was, though [F/N]’s foot was still pressed firmly on Tubbo’s chest to keep him pinned.

“You get away from that horse right now!” Technoblade shouts.

“This is how this is going to go, Technoblade. Because of how gracious I am, I only want you. I will let [F/N] go as long as you drop everything you have and come with us, if you don’t, I am going to kill this fucking horse.” [F/N] looked up at Technoblade and noticed his hesitance, her eyes then moved down to Tubbo and a smirk graces her lips.

“Or,” she starts, Tubbo gasps at the sight of a fire sparking in the palm of her hand before engulfing her entire arm, he flinches and his eyes widened when she points her hand directly at his face “you let Carl go and leave, or I kill Tubbo in cold blood.” Fundy and Ranboo take a step forward.

“You wouldn’t! He only has one canon life left!” Fundy shouts.

“Wasn’t he a brother to you?!” Ranboo adds, she glares over at them.

“Well, you’re threatening one of my greatest friends, so I can’t help but take drastic measures into my own hands.” she looked down at Tubbo and he flinched when he noticed that she wasn’t fucking around, he grips her ankle and gives her a desperate look.

“Y-You... you wouldn’t.” his face slowly drops when she sneers at him.

“For Technoblade? I would.” she then turns back to Quackity “Make your choice, Quackity! Give us the horse, or I kill Tubbo.” there was a tense silence between the six of them, the blazing and crackling of [F/N]’s fire was the only thing that could be heard as Quackity was lost in thought. Fundy and Ranboo were holding their breaths, not knowing whether they should approach [F/N] to get her to stop, but Technoblade was still standing beside her, and who knows what will happen if they try anything “Come on, Quackity, make your decision or else I’m melting his face off.” Technoblade looked down at [F/N] and noticed that she was indeed hesitating, telling by the bead of sweat bleeding down her cheek as she glared at the man threatening her friend.

‘I’m not actually going to burn his face off. I’m going to use a low temperature flame just to scare him enough to get them to back off, but Quackity is crazy enough to gamble with the lives of others just to benefit himself.’ her eyes narrowed on Quackity when she saw him lower his axe, his eyes looking side to side in thought ‘This will be enough to get you to reveal your true colors towards the other three following your lead and get them to question your ideals, Quackity. So, hurry up and make your choice.’

“Well, sorry Tubbo,” their eyes widened when they saw Quackity raise his axe over Carl’s neck “just know that your death was for the greater good of L’manburg.”

“Quackity!” they all shout, she grits her teeth before moving her arm away from Tubbo’s face and blasting a wave of fire at Quackity, this caused Technoblade to grab her arm and pull it down.

“Are you crazy?! You’ll hit Carl, too!” she shook her head as both Quackity and Carl were engulfed in flames.

“No, I was using a low temperature flame the whole time, so it should only warm them up.” she closes her hands into a fist when Quackity hadn’t let go of Carl’s lead, she was hoping it would startle him enough to get him to let go of the lead, but that hadn’t been the case as Quackity’s laughter rung throughout the entire area as he walked through the flames.

“I knew you didn’t have the balls to kill Tubbo, that’s why I gambled with his life.” she let out a grunt when Tubbo shoved her foot off his chest, stumbling into Technoblade’s arms, she watched as Tubbo scrambled to his feet and over to where Fundy and Ranboo were “And now you’ve lost your leverage against us. This is checkmate.” both she and Technoblade felt their shoulder gradually lower.

“Still think we can take them?” she asks, he shakes his head.

“Not without any harm coming to Carl.” she nods her head.

“Sorry for messing up, Techno.” he lets out a sigh as he shook his head once more.

“No, it’s not your fault, we just didn’t know how far Quackity would take things just to get his way.” she still lowers her head, she was getting ready to peel off her armor when Technoblade got in front of her “You only want me, right? Let [F/N] go and I’ll come willingly and unarmed.” this caused her eyes to widen, grabbing his arm and making him look down.

“No, Techno! You’ll die!”

“What are you saying, [F/N], Technoblade never dies.”

“Then what about Phil? What do I tell him that I let his greatest friend go and get executed?! I don’t have the heart to tell him that, Techno!” slowly, tears of lava starting to swell in her eyes once more before she let out a gasp when Technoblade pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She shook her head as she wrapped her arms around him, but she let out a grunt when Technoblade tightened his grip on her to the point that he rendered her unconscious and limp in his arms.

“It’s a shame you won’t be able to get a say in the matter, [F/N], so please don’t blame yourself for my choice.” he picks her up bridal style and looks towards Quackity “You want me, right? So just leave [F/N] alone, and I’ll come without a fight.” Quackity’s finger tapped the throat of his axe, looking up in thought before shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh, what the heck, fine. Ranboo, take [F/N] from him and put her inside.” Ranboo seemed to hesitate, he looked at Technoblade and flinched when he saw him growl at him, but he reluctantly approached the duo. He watched as Technoblade’s facial expressions morphed into one that was ready to bite his fingers off to one that looked so gentle and soft, when [F/N] was in his arms, he couldn’t help but let out a grunt with how heavy she was... maybe it was the amount of armor she was wearing or how heavy her wings are “Hurry it up, Ranboo, we don’t have all day!” Quackity shouts, he nods his head and quickly rushes inside to place [F/N] down in front of the fire, he made sure she was comfortable before rushing out and came back to see Technoblade stripped out of her armor while Fundy and Tubbo tying Technoblade up with ropes “You’re back, great.”

“She hadn’t made a fuss.” Quackity nods his head.

“Good, good.” he then waves his hand as he approached them “We got what we came for, so let's get outta here. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

[with [F/N]]

“Techno!!” [F/N] woke up with a gasp, shooting us from where she was laying down and shouted out Technoblade’s name, she looked around in confusion and noticed that she was inside his house, and yet he was nowhere to be seen and the only source of light was her. She immediately stood to her feet and rushed out the door, her heart dropped at the sight of the aftermath of their battle and they were nowhere to be seen. She spreads her wings and flies up into the sky and looks around, trying to look for any sign of where Technoblade and the Butcher Army and how far they went while she was out for god knows how long “Come on… come on, come on, come on! Where are you? You couldn’t have gotten far…”

“[F/N]!” she looked down and noticed that it was Ghostbur that called her name, he had his bright smile on his face while that blue sheep was by his side, she purses her lips when she noticed that he was waving for her to come down so she let out a sigh before flying down, he smiles at her when she landed on the ground, bouncing on her feet as she looked at him “I kept Phil safe, like you asked! He’s still sleeping as we speak, but I believe he should be waking up any time soon.” he let out an oh when he realized that [F/N] was shaking on the spot, it couldn’t be due to the cold, her body was pumping on adrenaline and her body was made of fire. He takes a step forward and cups her cheeks when he noticed that tears were threatening to spill from her eyes as she shook in anger and despair, he caresses her cheeks with his thumbs, pursing his lips and humming softly when blue dyed smeared onto her cheeks.

“I lost him, Ghostbur. They’re going to kill him, and it’s all my fault...” she lets out a gasp “What am I going to tell Phil? Oh god, what am I going to tell him?” he continues to caress her cheeks as he watches her get ready to start crying, she lets out an oof when he squishes her face and pulls her forward, making her stumble forward because of the sudden jerk of movements.

“Phil will be upset, surely he will, but he will also be happy to know that you fought by Techno’s side to the very end in order to protect him.” he shakes his head lightly “It’s not entirely the end of the world, [F/N]. There should still be time to go get him.” she nods her head.

“Y-You’re right...” she sniffles, pulling away and wiping away her tears before they could burn the ghost, chuckling softly when she looked down at her arm and sleeve and saw the blue dye from his hands on her cheeks and now her sleeve “I can totally beat them there and get the surprise on them.”

“You better count me in, then.” they both raise their heads, Ghostbur smiles and claps his hands while [F/N] gasped as she approached him.

“Phil, what are you doing out of bed?” she calls out as she starts nearing him, he raises his hand to stop her before giving her a stern look.

“It doesn’t matter, what matters right now is Technoblade.”

“I know that, but what could you possibly do? You should still be worn out after the healing, Phil.” he chuckles softly, she watches as he pulls out a potion before sculling it, she takes a step forward and noticed the immediate change the potion had on him as he stood up straight. She then stumbled backwards when his wings spread and stood out to their full length, she couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of his gorgeous wings returned to their former glory before they were burnt and damaged.

“A little potion should be more than enough to help me back to my feet.” he said as he stretched his arms and back, flapping his wings a couple times before turning towards [F/N] “Shall we get going?” she stares at him before smirking, tossing him a couple things before spreading her own wings.

“Lets.”

[at l’manburg, with technoblade] 

Walking up the steps to the cage that was to hold him in his cell for his execution was slowly dawning on him, each step he took felt heavy, almost as if he was trudging through ocean waters. It was unsettling that this was where he was going to die, what was upsetting was that neither Philza or [F/N], hell, even Tommy, wasn’t there to see him take his last breath. He was going to die alone with no one but his enemies to watch him, Fundy was the one to lock him in the cage and he turned around to face them as Tubbo took his spot on the podium to make his speech.

“Technoblade has robbed this country of what made it special; everything that defined what it was. He stepped in when he shouldn’t have. He caused chaos, he ruined the government! He— Punz is throwing fucking—“ Technoblade wasn’t bothered listening to the blubbering bullshit Tubbo was goin on about because it just meant nothing to him, but at the mention if Punz, he raised his head and saw the mercenary throwing an Ender Pearl down from where he was and made his appearance in the middle of it all. The Butcher Army was confused as to why he suddenly showed up but were taken aback when he threw down multiple potions to boost his own stats while causing a smoke screen, what really threw them in a loop was when he placed down TNT.

“Punz! What are you doing?!”

“Punz, stop!”

“Fucking get his ass!”

“I’ll— I’ll just sit here.” Technoblade muttered to himself, watching the chaos unfold as they all chased after Punz to stop him from doing what he was doing, Technoblade sighed to himself as he leaned against the steel bars of the cage “This is nice.”

“Technoblade.” he flinched slightly at the sound of a echoing voice, turning his head, he hummed softly at the sight of Ghostbur and that goddamn blue sheep right behind him, obediently following after him while nibbling on the hem of his yellow sweater “Technoblade!” he cheered once more, to which the latter pursed his lips as he slowly nodded his head.

“Hello Ghostbur.” he greets, rather calmly despite the fact he was about to die.

“I’ve named him— I’ve named him Friend.” he nods.

“That’s fantastic Ghostbur, that’s fantastic. I’m about to die Ghostbur.”

“Okay, fuck it. Fuck it!” Technoblade turned his attention away from Ghostbur when he heard Quackity shouting while rushing back over to where the lever was while the others dealt with Punz.

“Big Q, pull the lever!”

“Heh?!”

“Pull the lever!” Technoblade takes a step back, looking up at the wooden blank that kept him and the anvil intending to kill him away. The thumping in his heart was beating so fast that it was all he could hear, slowly, everything started going slow motion in his point of view. He opened up his inventory and pulled out the one item that he kept hidden from the Butcher Army that would surely save his life, but he also knew that it was going to hurt like a motherfucker. So, holding onto it with a grip that made his knuckles turn white, he closed his eyes shut and waited for the impact of the anvil to kill him. However, it never came and the only thing that followed was the sound of shouting and a loud crash, slowly opening his eyes, he raised his head and a shallow breath escaped his mouth as he looked up at the individual.

“What took you so long, [F/N]?” she only snickered, sitting on the edge of the cage with her legs crossed and an amused look on her face. What had happened was that she was waiting on the sidelines for the anvil to fall before flying over and kicking it away so that it wouldn’t land on Technoblade and kill him, tapped her cheek and gave him a bit of a cheeky grin “I was almost expecting you not to show up.” she laughed, throwing her head back.

“That’s mighty cruel of you, Techno. I believe if I were to let you die, Phil would kill me being dragging your ass out of the depths of hell.” he laughs at that.

“Yeah, I do expect him to do that.” the two share a laugh despite the dire situation they were both in, Tubbo now stood next to Quackity and looked over at the older man, flinching slightly at the angered and irritated expression on his face followed by a hint of nervousness.

“Why do you keep on interfering, [F/N]?! Don’t you know that we’re doing this for the greater good?!” she clicked her tongue at the reasoning, turning her head to sneer at him.

“The greater good? Is acting like Schlatt going to bring L’Manburg back to its former glory? What a fucking joke.” she only snickered when she noticed both he and Tubbo flinched at what she said, both probably having differents reasons as to why they reacted the way they did, telling by the faces they were making.

’Dammit, why the HELL is she always getting in the way?! The two of them alone are a force to be reckoned with, but now they’re together again.’ Quackity thought, closing his hand into a tight fist before glowering when [F/N] turned her gaze upon the four of them, not a hint of fear in her eyes ‘We should’ve killed her when we had the chance.’

”We still have the upper hand, Quackity!” Fundy shouts, rushing over to him and standing behind him “We still have Techno’s horse!” his composure slowly returned at the mention of that.

“Y-You’re right! You might be here, but all we need is that fucking horse is to keep you in line!” he shouts but the color in his skin began to drain out of his body when he noticed that she never dropped her confident expression, only now, she was even more amused.

“Oh, really? Then where is Carl?” she questions, they look over and noticed that the horse was gone, she soon killed before pressing a finger at her temple while giving them a psychotic expression “Are you stupid?! Are you that mentally subservient that you cannot think properly?! Hah! Did you really think I would interfere without being absolutely sure that the win was in my hands?” she then leans to her right while pointing to her right with her thumb “Dream was a dear and gave me a hand.” she cooed, they all look over and saw Dream holding the end of the lead to Carl as he led him away.

“Dammit! After him!” he shouts, they go to chase after him but came to an abrupt stop when [F/N] blasted a wave of fire in their tracks, they slowly look over and saw her sneering down at them.

“With that, we’ll finally be able to fight you without holding anything back.” at the mention of that, Technoblade perked his head up and looked up at her.

“[F/N], where’s Phil? Don’t tell me you left him alone at the house? I know that because Ghostbur is here with Friend.” she raised a brow at the mention of Friend? She glanced over and saw that he meant the blue sheep that was beginning to follow the forgetful ghost around, ah, so that’s what he called it.

“Haha! Don’t worry about it, Techno. He’s absolutely fine.”

“Yeah mate, I feel great.” he turned his attention away from [F/N] and a look of disbelief makes its way to his face at the sight of Philza slowly gliding down to the execution stage, he lands on the ground before reaching his hands through the bars and taking Technoblade’s hands “I’ve never felt better.” he lets out a weak chuckle, his head hanging before him as he shook it side to side.

“You’ve no idea how grateful I am to see you flying.” he grins.

“And we both know who we have to thank.” they both look over at her and saw her grinning before saluting them.

“And you know I’d do it again, yeah?” she gives them a soft smile “You guys are worth it all.” she then raises her hand, waving it over the bars of the cage and they melted. Technoblade takes a step out of the cage before offering his bound hands to her, she grabs the chains and they too melted because of the high temperatures that the palms of her hands were producing.

“Thanks for the save.” they pat his back.

“Any time, old friend.” both her and Philza place down Ender Chests filled with various potions, weapons and armor that would help them take down the Butcher Army in this second round. The winged duo step to the side, Philza to Technoblade’s left with [F/N] to his right, and they flare out their wings as Technoblade lowered his head to place his crown on his head before standing tall and he three of them glare down at the Butcher Army that were doing their best to keep their composure.

“Ah haha, did you really think, Quackity, that you could kill me?” Philza and [F/N] hovering off the ground before flying forward and taking down the other three, leaving Quackity for Technoblade, and they were having little to no trouble handling them. Hell, even Punz was a dear and was making it a three v three, their teamwork was absolutely flawless that the young trio were having a tough time landing a single hit on the other three that were giving them so much trouble. Quackity felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek when he noticed that the tables had turned and now he was on the losing side, he growls and looks towards Technoblade before letting out a grunt when he jumped off the stage and kicked him back.

“You... you’ve done so much fucking damage!” he shouts, swinging his axe in an attempt to do some damage to the Blood God, only for it all to be in vain as Technoblade had no trouble dodging all his febble attempts. He glanced down at his sword before swapping it out for a diamond pickaxe, he waits for Quackity to swing it down on him, when the time came he raised his pickaxe to catch the underside of the axe then he jumped over the smaller man and threw the axe away before turning back around to face him with the pickaxe held tightly in his grip.

“I have a pickaxe Quackity, and I’ll put it through your teeth!” he shouts, keep to his word, he threw his arm up and the pointed side of the pickaxe came into contact with his face. [F/N] couldn’t help but wince at the sight of the pickaxe piercing through the entire left side of his face, from his bottom left side of his lip to the upper side of his eyebrow, she didn’t even need to wait to know that he wouldn’t be able to see through his left eye again.

[Quackity was slain by Technoblade]

“W-Wha-- Big Q was--” Fundy let out a grunt when he was kicked to the ground once more, he raised his head and his ears pressed against his head at the sight of the four glaring down at them with an indifferent expression on their faces. Punz didn’t stand by them but he was close as the winged duo flew over to Technoblade, [F/N] perching on his shoulder while Philza stood by his side with his wings folded by his back.

“I don’t think I need to say this, but you guys bringing me out of my retirement when I told you I had changed my ways... this only solidifies my reasoning's as to why the government needs to be destroyed.” he says in a monotone voice, throwing his blooded pickaxe over his free shoulder and the four of them glare down at the Butcher Army “I promise you this, the next time you dare come looking for me or even step foot onto my property again, I will make sure that there won’t BE a next time, got it?” they didn’t even wait for an answer when they walked past the frozen trio and left L’Manburg.

[outside of l’manburg]

“Oh, that was absolutely thrilling!” [F/N] cheered, hovering off the ground while clapping her hands, she then turned towards Punz and saluted him “Thanks for the help, mercenary boy.” he merely waves her off, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“As long as the money is good, I could care less.” she rolled her eyes and threw down another Ender Chest, he opens it and his eyes let up at the sight of various diamond, gold and emerald blocks within it, he raises his head to question her but she raised her hand to stop him.

“The less you know, the better.” he gives her an OK gesture.

“Fine by me.” he puts the chest in his inventory and there Dream makes his appearance with Carl in toe, she and Philza hum at the sight of relief on Technoblade’s face as he rushes over, the two couldn’t hear the conversation between the two but she could just guess what he was saying to their friend, perhaps it was the same conversation the masked fellow had with her.

”I can already guess that the only reason as to why you’re helping Techno out of this pinch is because you want a favor?” she questioned after finding him and Punz watching the entire scenario of Technoblade’s execution from the rooftops of L’Manburg ”If you give me a hand, I’ll owe you a favor too.”

“Will you? I’m pretty sure you can handle this situation on your own.”

“What I want from you is for Punz to give me an extra hand, but for you to get Carl out of there.” she said, she leans forward to get a closer look at the situation, looking over to see Philza watching from a distance as well ”If a favor isn’t enough to pique your interest, I’ll double the amount you’re paying Punz.” now that definitely caught his interest.

”Really? Hell yeah, I’m in.” she then glances over at Dream, she could just tell that his eyes were on her wings, he lets out a hum before offering his hand towards her.

”Alright, you’ve got a deal. We’ll give you a hand, but you owe me a favor and you pay Punz double.” she nods her head, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake.

”Deal. My debt to you will go until it is paid.” when he was finished speaking with Technoblade, he turned to give her a look and gave her a satisfied nod when he saw her bow her head “Well, that went swimmingly, don’t you think? You didn’t even need to use that Totem of Undying, and you even managed to get a good nick out of Quackity! That was certainly satisfying.” Philza nodded his head as Technoblade jumped onto Carl’s back then rode off, going their separate ways from the two while [F/N] name and himself flew beside him.

“Certainly, and it feels fantastic to be able to fly again. Thanks again, [F/N]!” she winks at him. 

“No problem!” she then hums, bringing a hand to pinch her chin “But I do feel like we’ve forgotten something.”

...

...

“Oh shit, we forgot Ghostbur.”