Welcome to Monster March! This used to be hosted on my writing blog @borealwrites, but after three years I figured it was time to make a separate side blog!
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Friends! Lovers! Writers of fan fiction, foe fiction and original fiction alike! Are you drowning in WIPs? Do you find yourself procrastinating instead of writing? Do you abandon all of your current projects every time you think of a shiny new idea? Fear not! I’m here to make your problems even WORSE by bringing you a
The following picker wheels will randomly assign you a genre, a premise, a trope, and a subject (an item, concept or character that has to come up in your fic in some way).
The challenge is to write a fic up to 1000 words long.
For extra credit, make it exactly 100, 250, 500, 750 or 1000 words long.
Please reblog with the prompts you were given, and if you’re up to the challenge, link to your work in the comments!
If you like, you can add your work to the collection on ao3. It’s categorized as multi_fandom_flash_fiction.
I’ll also be regularly updating the masterlist here.
It's that time of year again: another round of July Break Bingo!
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a 5x5 card (with 5 alternate prompts)
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In which case Prince Tianlong struggles not to peel his fiance's Kamboda armor off of her with his teeth because she looks so sexy and so smoking hot in armor. What's a great military prince to do?
All the Epic, Amazing, Wonderful thanks to @monstermarchevent and @borealwrites for keeping this up and open for me to finally finish, BEFORE JUNE! It's a miracle.
Monster March 2026- Day 31- Freeday.
Tian and Zashti
Part 7- Kamboda Training.
Tian came to Zashti’s palace and nearly fainted at the sight of Zashti in fighting armor. She was somehow even more impossibly sexy. How he was not going to rip that armor off with his teeth to fuck her senseless into the courtyard would be a miracle.
His tail twitched and buzzed behind him as his hands gripped and re-gripped the handles of his weapons as he wished he could grip his already hard and weeping cock in his trousers that was still, ever so eager to get into her, as soon as possible.
“My big handsome Toothcutter! You made it.” Zashti cooed happily as she strutted up to him and tried to kiss him sweetly before his kiss morphed into one much deeper, with the neediness he was feeling as his hold on her was firm and possessive again. His chest churred without his permission. But her chur back only spoke of how much her body seemed to want his in turn.
“Every…thing…ok?” She managed to ask between kisses.
“You’re really sexy in armor.” He rumbled as he let the armor itself get between his teeth as he pulled on it, unzipping the neck down to feast on her neck as her breath of relief while her eyes closed as she stood on tip toe to keep her face and neck as close to his mouth as she could was all the permission he needed to continue as she clung to him harder.
“Hopefully I’m more sexy wearing nothing at all.” She licentiously teased, and that got him to rumble a bigger, deeper churr that could practically be felt in the whole courtyard and beyond which got her to churr back, in a higher pitch at a much faster rate while her wings fluttered in excitement, her tail buzzed and writhed behind her while her whimper was added music to his ears. Her knees went weak so that he was practically holding her up as she clung to him otherwise. His tail slid between his legs to allow her to have something to stand on while the end of it was something for her tail to wrap around once again. The way her tail constricted, writhed and pumped his tail was sending his body into overdrive as he found a tree to pin her up against as he was able to rut a few good strokes between her legs, at her core- between the plates of armor. As the keening moan she tried to stifle as she bit her perfect, pouty, bottom lip, had him churring again, rattling the tree itself he had her pinned against. He could feel her wetness flood that strip of cloth between her legs as they parted while her ankles hooked behind the handles of his weapons .
They were getting married in just two more days but that might as well have been two millennia away. He needed to get her gravid in the next two seconds, next two heartbeats if at all possible. She was practically sitting on his cock like a perch, imagining what it would be like for him to take her up against the nearest wall if this tree gave out while his hands shielded her body from the tree or anything else. How did such a divine being fit so perfectly against him?
Then the unmistakable sound of many carriages arriving, just outside the gate, had them both coming back to reality and pausing before going any farther as they were all heaving their breaths while lust, love and adoration burned in their eyes.
“Damn. We are definitely finishing that later.” Zashti purred before she untangled herself before she sauntered away, feeling his eyes on every curve she had while her tail was still up and in the ‘fuck me’ position, her body language practically begging to be tackled and fucked into the pavestones of the courtyard as she was zipping up her armor back up and getting recomposed before she was greeting her friends who had come, letting Tian get recomposed in the gardens as he had to take a several long moments to regain his control over himself as his claws sunk into the tree trunk to keep himself from tackling Zashti in her own gardens and giving everyone a first hand lesson on how to be bred properly and get gravid instantly as his jaw clenched so tight, he nearly cracked his own molars.
Once he came from the gardens to the courtyard, there were about 2 dozen young ladies there, no 2 alike, across the spectrum of dragonborn and three quarters of them were clearly of a culture other than oriental. While Zashti’s other sisters took up the very back of the group. All of them geared up and armed with wooden weapons as if they were all going to be going into a Kamoba arena as he stood, just on the edge of the gardens before it would flow into the open courtyard as he stood and simply observed them.
Once they all got to say their hellos, and began looking around for him, did he take a single step out of the garden as Zashti smiled so happily and adoringly and lovingly at him, and that gave him the confidence to meet all of these ladies without wanting to cower in fear.
“Ladies, it is my privilege and pleasure to introduce Prince Tianlong, however he prefers to simply go by Tian.” She proudly introduced as all the girls bowed to greet him respectfully before Zashti began to introduce them all individually. His head was spinning from all the names as he did his best to remember who was who. Each of them had their own special and unique kind of beauty but still, no one could be more beautiful than Zashti, not to him anyway.
“Won't you please lead the exercises for us today?” Zashti urged him before the others nodded eagerly.
“Of course,.” He nodded but kept her up at the front with him as they went through their stretches and warm up exercises. Then it took a few individual forms to slip back into his formal military training before he felt more comfortable, more confident leading his own personal troop of ridiculously beautiful women who all were warriors in their own right, which he greatly respected. Although he was pretty sure if any army came up against this particular troop, they’d gladly drop their weapons and surrender, practically stripping out of their own armor to be this troop’s ‘prisoners of war’ and ‘slaves of war’ practically.
Oh he could hear his men practically jeering from here if they had been able to witness this.
Then came time for the individual weapon exercises, all of them using blunt wooden ones. And while most had the advanced set, over half of them had weapons he had never seen before, much less, had ever seen to be used as he gave each one the opportunity to teach him about each of their weapons he wasn’t familiar with and how to fight with them, so that he wasn’t the only one giving instruction as he proved that while he was a great teacher, he was an even better student and was humble and eager to learn.
The other young women were thrilled that he was so eager and willing to learn from them, to do so genuinely, humbly and with respect and dignity was quite impressive. Then once he felt practicing with each other and then rotating so that everyone got to go through them with everyone else. He invited each one to spar with him, to not hold back, but to actively give him their all, so that he could really see how great fighters and warriors they each were in their own rights. He was impressed by their strength, not expecting such pretty and rather petite women to have so much power, nor was he prepared for each of them to put him into the ground, and use his own size against him to make him topple over. He got his ass kicked. And he couldn’t be happier or prouder for it because each one had to get more and more creative with how they did it as he did his best to adapt to each one. He was generous with praise, gentle and helpful in his constructive criticism and genuine in his words and deeds as he could tell, they were all practically swooning at his feet, which he was not used to, at all. He was just trying to treat them all with the respect and dignity they deserved.
By the end of it, they moved as one within that courtyard once they seemed to combine everything all together to create a new style all their own, a beautiful blend of techniques and skills, as he honored all the fighting styles in doing so, helping each one feel seen and heard and appreciated.
“I believe we’ve all worked up an appetite, Beloved. Each one’s household will be bringing part of a feast to share with everyone else and we’ll need this courtyard to set up the feast and seating for everyone. We should go through our cool down exercises and then relax in the gardens or at the pool house.” Zashti encouraged as it was clear that Tian was starting to run out of exercises to do in the courtyard.
“Oh, ok.” He nodded and then began the cool down exercises and stretches so that none of them would get sore from the workout.
“Thank you for being the best warriors I’ve ever trained with.” He thanked the group when they finished after a few minutes of meditation to help each one recenter themselves.
“Thank you for being the best instructor we’ve ever had!” Most of them called back to him which got the entire group to erupt in laughter and applause before they found their feet.
“Who would like to go to the pool house while our meal is getting prepared?” Zashti called and lifted her hand high above her head before nearly all the other girls immediately raised their hands too.
“Please!” They nearly all begged.
“Ok, ok, I give.” Tian nodded in agreement with a lighthearted laugh as they all cheered again and then grabbed their Kamboda bags and rushed inside to the loft before all the other girls stripped out of their armor and weapons and got changed into their swimsuits and then shifts to wear on the streets to be modest on the way since Zashti’s new palace was within walking distance of the pool complex.
The moment they exited the courtyard, it was descended upon by an army of servants from all over the quarter to make it the ideal place to have lunch for everyone as a veritable feast that was still being prepared.
Tian got changed too, worrying about popping a boner seeing Zashti, let alone all these other beauties in swimwear.
“Toothcutter.” He heard a whisper before his head and the rest of his body whipped around towards the sound of Zashti’s voice as she slipped into the room.
“Oh thank the gods it’s just you Flutter.” He breathed in relief as he gathered her up into his arms to hug her tight as she hugged him too.
“It’s just me.” She smiled into the crux of his neck and chest as she happily melted into him.
“I came to ask you something.” She began in a soft murmur, barely above a whisper, but her tone already sounded defeated, which caused him to frown.
“What’s wrong, My Heart?” He asked.
“My sisters are interested in courting you, they asked me if I would mind if they applied for your hand with the others to be true sister wives.” Zashti revealed as she did her best to sound neutral, but her true feelings still bled through, she didn’t want to share him with her fleshly sisters.
“Were any of them one of the original 9?” He asked.
“No.” She answered.
“Good, let’s keep it that way. I’m ok with letting your friends take care of the various temple complexes and join you as priestesses, but that’s as far as I’m extending any kind of invitation. And right now, no one is welcome into our union except for you and me. You and I are engaged. Tomorrow is the Kamboda. The day after that? Is our Cisora, and the day after that, our wedding day. I want and need our marriage to be just us for a while, please, for at least…for at least a few years, hopefully more like several...dozen.” Tian answered firmly and smiled softly to feel her relax fully into his embrace as she blew out a breath of relief as did he.
“Thank you. However, you’re going to have to say something to them. Because I didn’t give them an answer, I just told them I’d ask you to see how you felt about it.” She answered.
“Actions speak louder than words, what can I do?” He asked.
“Continue to treat them the way you have so far, pleasantly and respectfully but platonically distanced.” Zashti answered.
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Naruto (Anime & Manga)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Characters: Hatake Kakashi, Umino Iruka, Team Minato Ensemble (Naruto)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Hatake Kakashi Does Not Have The Sharingan, Merperson Umino Iruka, MerMay, Not Beta Read, Pre-Relationship, Flirting, Flirty Umino Iruka
Summary:
It seemed like all Obito ever did was cause Kakashi trouble. If it had been his idea, how come Kakashi was the one suffering the consequences? Spending hours alone on a tiny guard tower in the middle of the ocean wasn’t exactly his idea of fun.
But maybe he isn’t as alone as he thinks…
Written for thepromptfoundry’s Day 4: Sharks and Day 5: Tropical Waters of MerMay
And also fuck it, for @monstermarchevent Day 21: Merperson
Because now Junior has grown up from being a baby and a toddler into a kid and just in time because Pix is pregnant with baby number 2 and already in the last few weeks of pregnancy. However, because her belly is now so big, it means that Junior needs to remember to pick up his toys to keep his mom from tripping on them.
Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent and @borealwrites for keeping this open for me. I can't believe I got all of this done, under the wire before June. But hey! One more to go and we're all done.
Monster March 2026
Day 30-Giant
Junior
“Junior! Get back here!” Pix called after her son, as her pregnant belly with her daughter seemed to be weighing more heavily on her body than usual.
“Hey!” Hemi growled before his son practically froze as Hemi had been outside chopping wood and stacking it.
“Go back to your mother.” He urged him as Hemi Jr. gulped but obediently returned to his mother who had taken a seat at their dining room table as she rested her head over her folded arms so that her legs could spread wide and her very heavy pregnant belly could hang down.
“Yes Mama?” Hemi Jr. asked.
“Pick up your toys and put them away, I nearly tripped on them because my belly is now so big with your sister Vorna, that I can’t see my feet anymore.” Pix requested as Hemi had come into the house and Jr. could feel his father’s gaze bore into the back of his head.
“Yes Mama.” Jr nodded and went and did as his mother asked.
“How bad?” Hemi asked once his son had left to pick his toys up in the living room.
“Not terrible, but enough to make my heart race and stagger a little, I thought it was one of the puppies honestly.” Pix answered as the very puppies trotted inside and laid around her feet under the table.
“Speak of the Devil.” Pix and Hemi chuckled.
“Ok, they’re all picked up and put away, sorry I forgot after I was done playing inside so that I could go play outside.” Jr. offered sheepishly.
“It’s ok. Everyone makes mistakes and forgets.” Pix waved off as she lifted her head to grin fondly at her son.
“But you should be more mindful, especially when Mama could have been really hurt had she fully tripped and fell.” Hemi reminded his son as Jr. nodded his head in understanding.
“Ok, go play outside.” Hemi invited as he nodded towards the door before Jr. grinned and left the house to play with his friends.
“Wasn’t it yesterday or the day before that- that he was still a baby?” Pix asked rhetorically as Hemi washed his hands before coming over and massaging her neck and shoulders as she moaned and sighed in relief.
“It was. I felt like I blinked when he was a baby before he was a toddler in the blink after that and another blink he was weaned, potty trained.” Hemi muttered.
“Oh yeah. I don’t miss the potty training part though.” Pix murmured back.
“Well, you’re about to get to those days soon enough.” Hemi offered.
“Don’t you dare speak such words, I don’t need her to come out and try right now, I still have a few weeks to make sure she’s “fully cooked” as it were.” Pix warned before she knocked on the table before he started chuckling and knocked the back of his wife’s chair.
“Agreed. Did you start dinner or should I? You look pretty wiped out.” Hemi noted.
“Please do. I’ll love you forever.” Pix answered.
“Ok, you go lay down and take a nap. I’m gonna make dinner and hold down the fort.” Hemi invited before he helped his wife to her feet, helped her get changed into a nightgown and got settled into bed.
“Get some sleep.” Hemi urged her once he had practically tucked her in.
“Mmhmm.” Pix hummed and couldn’t even open her eyes.
Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent by @borealwrites for keeping this open for me, even when it's almost June. Just a wee bit late.
Monster March 2026
Day 29
Lovey Dovey- Dreams Come True
Dove tried to call Finley, just about the same time he tried to call her as they both floundered and flustered before they finally got to connect.
“Babe!” They both greeted the other excitedly.
“Jinx!” They both laughed.
“I got the best news!” They both urged before laughing even harder.
“Ok, ok, where do you want to meet?” She asked.
“Uh, I still have a few things to wrap up here.” He admitted, even as he was spreading out the now, perfected plans, that they had both perfected, newly printed, perfectly to scale and perfectly set while the rendering software finished the building itself with the new additions and tweeks to perfection.
“Ok, I’m coming there, heads up, you’re gonna need to lock your office door because I will want and need to fuck you on your desk.” Dove urged headily as she finished packing up her room and practically fled out of there to drive to his building.
“You never have to threaten me with a good time.” Finley purred.
“Yeah, well, I have quite a lot to celebrate tonight.” She hinted.
“So do I and by extension, so do we.” He hinted.
“Is it about the plans?” She guessed.
“It is.” He confirmed.
“Did they get approved?” She asked giddily.
“How about you come here and see it for yourself.” He purred.
“Oh come on! Don’t leave me hanging like that, just yes or no! Did it get approved or not?!” She whimpered as she got into her car.
“Yes, it did.” He caved.
“Yes!” She cheered.
“Ok, so, I’m gonna give you a clue as to my good news. It has to do with Maddison being back at work and kicking ass and taking names.” Dove began.
“Oh thank God.” Finley groaned in relief as he had to brace himself on his desk.
“Yeah, I got juicy, delectable, delicious details.” She practically growled as she got her car out of that parking garage and sped her way to his office and briskly walked through his office as others were about to get out for the day and recognized her from the other times she had come to his office to be with Finley. She nodded and politely greeted those who greeted her first before she saw Finley and jogged the last few steps to collide with him before he pulled them into the office.
“Behold. The final plans, our plans.” Finley announced as she looked them over and started to cry before she noticed the notepad that had all the positive feedback the plans had gotten.
“They loved it? They really loved it?” She asked as she sank down into his spare office chair he had gotten just so when she would come, she could sit next to him behind his desk.
“They did. They thought this was the most inspired design they had ever seen and are out to trademark and patent the features to the firm. Also, they got submitted to a summit and so far, it’s looking really favorable, globally, and it’s been submitted to multiple awards too. So, that means that you and I get to go to a few galas in the future.” He revealed.
“Aww, I can’t wait. Just let me know when and where and even if it doesn’t win, I’d want to go anyway.” She insisted.
“And I’d love to take you and show you off if you’d be up to it, being the brains and the inspiration behind this enlightened and inspired design.” He offered before she kissed him soundly.
“I can’t believe Mr. Crik in His Dick gave this amazing feedback.” She offered as she held up the notepad.
“He nitpicked every tiny detail when we presented it. I was totally expecting him to veto it honestly.” She admitted.
“He’s always been Mr. Critical. Usually the more he questions and nitpicks, the more he likes it and just wants to make sure that he understands the why as well as the how. And, best of all, once I was able to prove that Asshole 1 and Asshole 2 and Brownnoser 1 and Brownnoser 2 sabotaged me and then threw me under the bus, he did something about it.” Finley hinted.
“What did he do?” Dove asked with wide excited eyes at Finley’s giddy tone.
“He fired Asshole 2 and Brownnoser 1. And Asshole 1 and Brownnoser 2 got pulled off the project entirely, so that credit for the design stays solely with us.” He revealed and now she was crying happy tears.
“I need to get him, like a gift card for a massage or something.” Dove began to sniffle as she hugged Finley tight and ducked her head under his and just held him. Today couldn’t hardly get any better.
“I don’t know if he’d accept it but I’m sure he’d appreciate the thought.” Finely chuckled as she nodded.
“Also, since it got approved, I feel I should show you these.” Finley offered as he got the folder from under the plans and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” She asked.
“So, I may have done something that might seem sneaky but I did it for the best reason.” He began.
“I don’t remember signing this.” She frowned.
“I know you didn’t sign it in person, that’s the sneaky part, once I got your electronic signature in the system, I used it to put it on this.” He answered.
“A land deed?” She asked.
“Yup. It’s to the second plot of land next to the first one. Now granted, it went for nearly three times what the first one did. But, it will earn revenue and pay for itself, hopefully within the first two years after the building is open and accepting residents.” He answered.
“But I didn’t give…?” She began to argue when she looked at the total.
“So, that’s the other sneaky part, I took a dollar and a penny from your consultation fee that Draven sent over and your signature so that you co-own it with me. But you own 50 percent of the profits regardless.” He insisted as she was crying again.
“You…you are so smart. Now, granted, I’m usually not ok with this kind of sneakyness, but with you and this, I’m totally ok with it. I trust you. And obviously, you foresaw that this land would be needed.” She began.
“I bought it the night you overhauled the plans, when I saw what you did to the plans, I just knew I needed it. And then to have this firm lease that land from us, it’s going to continue to make us money without us doing anything to it.” He offered.
“So you got me a gift that will keep on giving.” She surmised.
“Yes. But from here on out, I will always discuss this type of thing with you. I promise to never agree to anything with your name and especially your signature without your permission from now on.” He offered.
“Thank you. Although, sometimes you have to strike while the iron’s hot and with our work schedules being what they are, you’ve proven that you have my best interests at heart. So from now on, if you see anything like this again, just go for it. Just, let me invest an equal share ok?” She tried to request.
“I will let you invest a reasonable amount, obviously I’m never going to do something so risky that I’d be calling you up and having us draining our bank accounts and savings though.” He offered.
“What would you think about at least joining a portion of our banking together? Get a joint checking account? Especially for things like this?” She asked.
“And I want to put what’s left of that consultation fee into it. Because I wasn’t planning on earning that much money. I’d want you to have a fair amount to work with. You’re really financially, fiscally responsible and minded. Especially since you and Draven are so close, all I hear from Phoenix is that once she joined their accounts and he got her out of debt and then got her set up with an investment portfolio that he manages for her, that she’s shocked how he’s been able to grow their nest egg into a whole damn nest full of eggs.” She admitted.
“Deal, although we may have to do so tomorrow because the banks are gonna close before we would have a chance to get there.” Finley noted the time from the clock on his wall.
“On our lunch break, absolutely.” She readily agreed.
“How long can you take for lunch? Because I’d want to take you to at least three places, like Draven’s office for one, so he can grow nest eggs for us too.” He posed before she pulled out her phone.
“I can get…about an hour and a half tomorrow. Because the busy season is slowing so I’m not chained to that place. Oh, speaking of work. So let me share my good news with you. Sit, sit, sit, you’re gonna want to sit down for this.” She moved him to sit down before she straddled him and then kissed him hungrily.
“Ok, are we talkin or fuckin? Or are you going to try to do both at the same time?” He asked as he grinded up into her which made her moan and steady herself.
“Talking while fucking.” She decided as she leaned his chair back as he braced himself and her as the chair tilted back so she could get the lights and the lock on his office door before they practically stripped out of their clothes before she seated herself onto his glorious cock and sighed in relief as she laid her head back as he attached his mouth to her neck and nipped and sucked, making new hickies for her as she scratched at his scalp, around his glorious horns.
“So? What happened at work?” Finley prompted once she lifted her head back up.
“Nadia quit today!” Dove crooned happily.
“Yes!” Finley cheered in delight and relief.
“Yeah, Maddison, now that she’s been back and came walking into the whole Premiere vs VIP nonsense. I spent, like, three hours giving her my evidence and my findings and my proof as well as showing her, via stacks of her own client files, what each of those bitches did to the clients and the more she looked at file after file, the angrier she got. And then not only did she get mad, she got even.” Dove revealed giddily.
“Oh, do tell.” Finley offered before he feasted on her breasts.
“So, the first day she got back, she got into Nadia’s room while Nadia was at lunch. And she took an inventory of everything in there, both, by what was in her room’s list of supplies, but got an inventory of everything Nadia had in there that wasn’t listed with the room. And then, she found it all online and then bought a copy of everything.” Dove began with a breathy moan as she leaned into him while her hips kept rocking and riding her prize in earnest.
“Why’d she do that?” Finley asked.
“For one, to prove that those supplies aren’t worth what Nadia and her crew had insisted they were. And two, “to prove ownership”. Because Maddison had finally finished with her interviews over the phone with all of her previous clients, and handed their asses over the phone before getting them rescheduled with her, after of course, they apologized to the rest of us, which has been heavenly since she’s been back. Because not only did she make them apologize to us, but take back their negative feedback and then actually tip us as usual in order to be seen by her again, or go back to ‘blind grab bag status’. Anyway, because Maddison had all those receipts, it, from a corporate point of view, proved ownership. And Maddison claimed ownership of all of Nadia’s supplies, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back because after that, Nadia and Maddison were nearly brawling. Granted, Maddison had me, River and Charlie holding her back because Charlie and River, being larger women, were strong enough to hold the ‘mama bear’ that Maddison is, back from actually ripping Nadia to shreds and it was so loud and so bad that the whole spa practically stopped and everyone was eavesdropping. All while I was torn between recording the event and keeping Maddison back and trying to talk her down from making it physical, and encouraged her to use her words, but Phoenix, Ottavia and Zyah got the best footage of it all because Ottavia and Zyah have those brand new, super awesome phones that have the super awesome cameras. Like they were able to track movement and zoom in and stuff. It was awesome. And Shayla, being a film student, asked for all the videos to be sent to her so she could make it into a montage. Because she actually pushed the Spa into making actual commercials, featuring the actual specialists and the clients, and I needed or wanted rather, to ask you if you would be up to trying that?” Dove asked.
“Are you doing it?” He paused from kissing up her neck and pulled back to ask.
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Ok. Granted, I can’t claim I’ll be all that photogenic or natural on camera. But I’ll give it a try. But for you and only you.”
“Thank you Love.” She cooed.
“Anyway, before I got on that tangent, so back to today. So, Bianca simply stood there, between them, just observing and of course recording everything while Mila and Annika did their best to hold Nadia back while Bianca made it clear that Maddison was speaking for herself too, because they were her clients first. And once Maddison got it all out of her and spilled that whole pot of tea and aired all of Nadia’s and her crew’s dirty laundry, Mila and Annika had the decency to be ashamed and outright, openly and humbly, genuinely apologize to all of the specialists for what they had done and took all the restrictions Maddison implemented on top of what Bianca implemented for them to stay with the spa, and not break the contract and not get fucking arrested or sued. All the others who had called in to quit and never showed, got served papers too and the remaining guilty ones, granted, not as horrendous as Nadia was, but still enough to be guilty as shit, they had to also apologize before they were allowed to quit and sign a special release that Bauvar had, that in exchange for acknowledgement for what they had done, which was malpractice against the patients, to forfeit any properties left in their rooms, that if they were unusable to the spa, would be sold off and forfeit their last paychecks to be added to the fund payout to all the affected clients for the class action lawsuit, which Mila and Annika were the first to do as well and they’re on a repayment plan to make it up in full too. But the others, once their supplies would sell, and their last paychecks and tips and things were calculated, if there was a difference, they were still on the hook to pay it back, which was in that waiver too- to just walk away with what was in their lockers and on their person to keep from getting arrested and sued. It was the best, most glorious justice ever.” Dove revealed.
“Wow.” Finley blinked in surprise.
“So did Nadia get arrested?” He asked.
“No, she fled before the cops could come but now there are multiple warrants out for her arrest.” Dove beamed happily.
“But what made it epic was that Bianca made it very clear, either they forfeit what they had, and their last paychecks just to walk away that day of their own free will, or, be prosecuted like what’s-her-face has been. But Nadia didn’t get such an offer, Nadia’s in the lawsuit, and Bauvar was there to serve Nadia her court papers too before they both called the cops. Bianca called the sheriff’s office to press charges against Nadia, Bauvar called the fucking FEDS. Because tax evasion on top of everything else is like blood in the water for sharks.”
“Oh go Bauvar!” Finley cheered.
“Anyway, while the clients remain VIP clients, there are now, no longer any VIP Specialists. Nadia was the last hold out. However, the two specialists that signed off on Nadia and her crew’s hiring, did get fired though and were added to the class action lawsuit though, because those guys let those bitches into the spa in the first place because Nadia and her crew got in, granted some, not all, did so by giving sexual favors if their skills were horrendous before those bastards would ‘take them under their wing and train them correctly’, which is why they actually got arrested. And now, there’s an open- ‘if you see something, say something’ policy, across all the teams. And thankfully Skye and the others were able to assure and reassure the latest recruits that in all the years she and the others had been there, this was the first time anything like this was happening. And once they would get past their initial 30, 60 and 90 day probationary period to have the chance to sign on as Velvet Spa Specialists because now that there's no VIP vs Premier, we’re all just specialists again. Which is so nice and simplifying again and the new contracts that we signed are now much kinder to the good specialists but there’s now enough warnings about malpractice and mishandling clients that it’s made an impression on all of us.” Dove admitted.
“But I’ll bet the single specialists will still get asked out all the time.” He mused.
“I swear it’s like a fetish! It’s kind of creepy actually. Like so many girls, once they get hired on and post a picture in the lobby in their scrubs and tag the spa, oh my stars, instantly thousands of hits, then tens of thousands of hits. Because the moment any of the specialists put on their social media that they work there, their DM’s get flooded! Whether they’re single or not.” Dove admitted.
“Except you never did.” He remembered.
“No. But I’m still, ever so grateful you asked me out when you did. And I’m still very happy I said yes.” She cooed as she ground into him with more emphasis.
“Me too, saving my life, daily practically.” He praised as he stared up at her in awed wonder and focused more on how the love he was lavishing onto her, was derailing her from making a coherent sentence as he drove up into her from below as the conversation trailed off before Finley got frustrated and just picked her up and spread her over his desk, laying a clean sheet of paper down to make sure none of the ink from the blueprints got on her skin before he poured everything he had into her. Ever so grateful that the love of his life was the verdant being in his arms, under him as he made sure to set her on his desk so that her horns could hang off the edge of the desk so she could lay her head back, exposing the exquisite column of her neck to him as he licked his fingers and shoved them to rub at her clit as she writhed in ecstasy on his desk as she tried to keep her voice in check, despite the hour in the office when almost everyone should have gone home by then. But still, just to be safe, she curled in on him and bit his shoulder to keep from crying out too loudly as her orgasm flooded her senses with euphoria as Finley came in a groaning moan as he buried his face into the crux of her neck and shoulder, breathing in her scent as deeply into his lungs as he could as his body stiffened then relaxed
over her as they held each other and basked in the after glow.
“Marry me.” Finley asked once he had recovered but looking down into her eyes, he couldn’t hold himself back anymore before he pulled his engagement ring from his pants on the floor. He did have a huge romantic blow out planned, but for some reason, this felt like the right moment.
“Dove Savannah Morning, Love of my life, will you marry me?” Finley asked as he got down on one knee right there in his office.
“Yes!” Dove said, not even looking at the ring and surged forward, kissing him soundly before he slipped the ring onto her finger. It was not an ordinary engagement ring. The main stone was this brilliant, vivid teal/turquoise color. It was gorgeous. And somehow so her? And so them? Like, it was a gorgeous balance in being unique yet traditional and there was a vintage look to it that almost made it seem like a family heirloom.
“So what do you think of the ring?” Finley asked once he got to his feet and then took his chair again.
“It’s perfect. Is this a paraiba tourmaline?” She asked.
“Acutally, that’s what I thought it was when I first saw it but no, that’s a diamond. A very fancy one, obviously. But surrounded by diamonds and set in platinum. I got it specifically because it’s the color of your eyes. And when I saw the loose stone, I just, I saw you, it practically glowed and sparkled, even in low light, which is what you do too. And then pairing it to that setting and when they dropped the stone into the setting to make sure it would fit, it was all over. I knew I needed it, just like it is now.” Finley explained as Dove’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
“I’m almost afraid of how much this cost then.” Dove breathed as she really took the time to study and appreciate the work of art on her hand.
“Worth every penny since you said yes.”
“And how long have you been sitting on this?” Dove asked as she playfully narrowed her eyes at him before he looked down and checked his watch.
“Four hours and 32 minutes.” Finley answered before Dove started laughing.
“But we’ve had this reservation for 2 weeks.” Dove pointed out.
“Because the jeweler took two weeks.” Finley offered as Dove nodded in understanding.
“How hot was this burning in your pocket?” She asked.
“I nearly burst into your work and proposed the moment I got it from the jeweler this afternoon.”
“Also, I have one more reason to celebrate.” He added as Dove gave him an expectant look.
“Haven Heights Elite got approved. They’re breaking ground on Monday.” He announced as she lit up happily again and quickly, quietly clapped excitedly.
“And,” Finley prompted as Dove leaned in.
“Mr. Rocklan let Asshole 1 and Brown Noser 2- go, for unprofessional behavior for sabotaging me and come to find out, several other projects and designers, outright plagiarism.” Finely revealed.
Woo! Finally knocking these out. Enjoy more Dr. Otther the vampire dentist who treats modern monsters of all kinds.
All the thanks to @monstermarchevent by @borealwrites for keeping this open for me.
Monster March 2026
Day 28
Naga/Lamia
Cavities, Crowns, Root Canals Oh My!
“Hello Mr. Vrutema, how are you today?” Dr. Otther greeted pleasantly.
“Not great, I think that right rear fang is having issues.” Mr. Vrutema answered.
“Sensitivities? Cold? Hot? Sugary foods? Dr. Otther posed.
“Yes to all the above.” Mr. Vrutema answered as Dr. Otther hummed in response before Mr. Vrutema unhinged his jaws and opened wide.
“Yup, that has quite the cavity. We’re gonna have to fill that, possibly get a root canal, but keeping the venom gland intact will be tricky.” Dr. Otther noted.
“Please, I don’t care if that gland has to be removed, I just can’t keep living like this.” Mr. Vrutema answered as Dr. Otther looked at his schedule to see if he could do the cavity fill at least.
“Would you be up to getting it done today? What’s your schedule like?” Dr. Otther asked thoughtfully.
“I would love to get it handled today, my schedule will rearrange itself if it means that I stop eating things at room temperature or only eat on the other side of my mouth.” Mr. Vrutema noted.
“Oof, how long has it been like this?” Dr. Otther asked.
“Since last winter, I was waiting for my dental insurance to renew itself and then before I knew it, it was spring.” Mr. Vrutema answered.
“Oh, I know exactly what you mean.” Dr. Otther answered before he got his supplies out and numbed Mr. Vrutema, and got to work, fixing this for his patient.
A few hours later, Mr. Vrutema left with the right side of his face swollen and puffy but in so much relief to get a crown on it and once the numbing subsided to call Dr. Sydney to get that root canal taken care of.
Yay, another one before June. That's sadly such a huge achievement for me. Anyway, had this in the works since the list came out. Because it's my fave Drider pairing. Xuni and Kuvari 0art 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
and now their little ones are big enough and old enough to go to preschool. And Xuni is the epitome of DILF for the Drider Quarter in Dorierra. I may have been writing this and thinking of Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Where the moms are thirsty. Just, practically drooling, they can look all they want, they just can not touch or approach when he's with his family, especially his kids who he's also very protective over. And Xuni believes that while Kuvari is moura, she's still the epitome of MILF to him, and he's oh so protective, territorial, possessive and obsessive about and of her. Love it. Also heads up this is also gonna be NSFW at the end for a Mommy-Daddy Moment.
The most epic of thanks to @monstermarchevent and @borealwrites for keeping this up and open so long for me, I greatly appreciate it.
Monster March 2026
Day 27-Drider
Preschool
“Ok Ladies and Gentlemen, remember to mind your manners. No fighting, no roughhousing, no biting, no stinging, no venom for the love of chocolate and all that is holy. Respect other’s choices. Remember, some of them won’t always give you a verbal yes or no, so make sure you look for the nonverbal cues when you ask or initiate any kind of greeting. Respect consent, respect personal space and personal boundaries of others the way you want them to respect yours back. Keep your hands and your pedipalps to yourself unless you have someone’s permission to put them on them or anyone else.” Xuni reminded all of his kids as he gave them hugs and kisses and made sure he was getting all of them off of his abdomen, both on top and under it, having had to walk here practically on his tiptoes to keep them safe from the ground. They were supposed to be big enough to walk on their own, but many still preferred to ride him anyway with lots of hugs and kisses and reassurances to each one, with a set of hair and fur brushes and combs to make sure everyone looked their best and while they were bigger and heavier now Kuvari could only hold or carry one at a time now but for short times and distances.
Xuni did his best to ignore all the wistful sighs of the other drider mothers who had already dropped off their kids into the preschool but stayed to “talk, observe and admire”- aka gawk, watch, lust after, check out, gape and ogle Xuni. Because there was only one Xuni who was the epitome of father material and that was proving to be more attractive than most had ever expected it to be and was quite literally the epitome of DILF for the quarter, not just in looks but especially personality and behaviors and Kuvari was the most envied woman in the quarter. And especially since Xuni had just molted, again, two days before the start of school and apparently had that “fresh molt shine” to his illustrious intensely royal blue fur over his drider half but had only molted a day after all of his kids did, to get to their full size for their age. Especially since now that his kids were growing, so was he so that as they got bigger and heavier and were still just as clingy as they had been as babies and toddlers, because they were born later and had always been on the smaller, petite side. But now that they were full size but also full weight, Xuni had been spending all summer bulking up and strengthening himself for this and would continue to carry them for as long as he could until they would see it as "uncool" and want to walk on their own.
But now that they were pre-school age, they had caught up physically and were- at a glance, indistinguishable from any other drider their age even though mentally, psychologically, intellectually and emotionally they were always way ahead of the curve from everyone else. Everyone in the district could tell if a drider child was Xuni and Kuvari’s kid, because they were always very polite, very respectful, very articulate, very mindful and emotionally regulating, which was almost unheard of for kids their age. They were also incredibly conscientious, unbelievably intelligent, had massive vocabularies. They were also magnificently perceptive and socialized to an almost excessive degree which meant that they made friends easier both inside and even especially outside their quarter, which was something most driderlings had the hardest time doing, even as young adult driders.
And they could even tolerate being milked for silk, which was a huge milestone for them that most usually didn't do well until middle school. Granted, because they were so young- it was done very, very gently and carefully, since they had all been having their parents especially their mom and then their aunts and uncles on Kuvari's side of her family get them used to the tactile touch on their very sensitive abdomens and especially their spinnerets. Most of their drider classmates were still so touchy that to touch them anywhere on their drider half, was a surefire way to get bitten and envenomated. But not Kuvari and Xuni's kids. Their silks had even been appraised already and found that even though they didn't genetically come from Xuni, having Kuvari as their mom and silk milker and caretaker had them giving just as fine of a silk as Xuni had always given as Kuvari made sure to set limits on each of her children going forward that none of them would ever get milked dry or ever more than they could reasonably sustain no matter what kind of day they were having since for her, the quality of the silk from end to end mattered more than milimeters, centimeters or meters of length. Which is what made Xuni's silk always very fine and apparently, all of their kids as well, as it was clear it was both nature and nurture.
However, it was obvious having two parents, a father and a mother especially when one of those parents weren't drider- proved to be very beneficial. Technically, their kids didn't have to go to preschool and already knew what they were going to be taught but for Kuvari especially it was very important to her that they get even more socialized especially to and by other driders their own age. Because only driders their age could give the social cues for their generation.
“Yes, I love you too Darlings, and yes, I will miss you too, so so much. Please, please, please be good, ok? No sassing, no pushing or sneaking ok? Be nice to everyone, it’s everyone’s first day so everyone is nervous, so be kind and give everyone the benefit of the doubt ok?” Kuvari encouraged her drider children as she made sure to give them all hugs and kisses at the school house, as she made sure all the tops for her kids were on straight and not backwards or inside out as she also made sure all of the bows and flowers for all the girls hair were positioned correctly as well and only having to use her spit on her thumb to clean off a forehead here, a cheek there. And only two handkerchiefs to make sure everyone’s face was clean from breakfast, giving them one last once over before hugging them, kissing the tops of their heads and murmuring ‘I love you, have a good day.’ to each one before they would go in as they got in and quickly made new friends with the other kids in the quarter, namely the other sons and daughters of the other drider caretakers, silk spinners, and the like along with other driders their age as Kuvari also greeted her nieces and nephews as her drider children were so happy and relieved that they had friends and family in school already as all the kids made sure to greet the teacher pleasantly and respectfully before they eagerly climbed up to the upper levels, leaving the bipeds to have the ground floor, while the octopeds like them could climb the walls and get onto the various levels and layers that were almost like an amphitheater for all of them to fit after they got their name badges like necklaces so everyone could remember everyone’s name.
“We have a sneaky hider or two.” Xuni murmured to Kuvari as he could feel at least one or two try to crawl both under and around his abdomen in a spot they were sure they couldn’t be seen from as Kuvari went back there.
“Really? Sazai? Yallah? Do you really think your Daddy can’t feel you two trying to make your own nest on Daddy’s spinnerets?” Kuvari got after them and pulled Sazai off first.
“You, sweet, sneaky princess, still have to go to school, but your flower in your hair did get askew because you were climbing all over Daddy, there. Perfect. Go in! The bell is about to ring, don’t be late!” Kuvari reminded her as she brought her forward while giving her a little tickle as Sazai giggled gleefully before she fixed her daughter's bow as Xuni managed to pull his abdomen under himself and yank Yallah off too as Yallah squeaked in surprise and thought he could scuttle away faster.
“Gotcha you little squirt! Yallah, I love you more than anything, but you are trying all of Daddy’s and Mommy’s nerves right now, because you're now the last kid in and you’re now late for class.” Xuni reminded him as the bell really did ring as Yallah gasped and scrambled to get into the building at about the same time that Sazai did as the two practically raced each other into the classroom.
“We did it! All the kids, all 34 of them- in the schoolhouse, on time! Yay! I need to take a nap and I need a Mommy and Daddy moment too, either before, inbetween, after, or hell, all three, just, all the moments and all the naps.” Kuvari giggled which got him to laugh before he pulled her up to ride him back home, and making sure to give a warning look to his “admirers” as he did so which had them taking a few steps back, dropping their lustful gazes and flushing with embarrassment as they seemed to keep each other from approaching him. Because by now, they had all learned to know and do better, because approaching him with romantic or lustful or flirtatious intent while he was with his wife, and especially his kids, just his family in general was a surefire way to get on his bad side and to guarantee that if you wanted to be inseminated by him, it would only be artificially and he already had at least a third of the female driders practically on a restraining order when their one sided affection grew to be almost fanatical. Because since his kids had been growing, he did too and it both felt like and definitely appeared like he had either become a body builder or trying to be an orc/drider hybrid without the orc, but aesthetically from the neck down? Pretty close, like, really, really close. Still incredibly handsome face and otherwise really attractive royal blue tarantula style body. And for Kuvari she loved every bulging muscle, because she knew and understood why and how he had achieved that over the last few years, it was all so he could be the best husband and father to their kids.
And such things were also very well known by every other female drider in the district apparently. Xuni had had his entire upcoming fall booked solid for mating now and the upcoming spring and fall for every year for the next few years already, since he had started to get a courting list once he adopted a portion of Qala’s clutch when she had sadly passed, all of them waiting for when those kids would be in preschool and then kindergarten and then regular elementary school. But he had insisted that the first month of the courting season remain solely for his wife, because they needed the catch up time the most as they all mentally marked their calendars and their countdown to when they would get to have ‘a turn’ with him.
Because even though female driders were supposed to usually be ‘single moms’ to an extent and get bigger than the males, Xuni was one of the few in the whole district larger than all the other females and while the younger ones were intimidated, the older ones seemed absolutely giddy and practically drooling in their eager and, unfortunately- sometimes overly forward aggressive interest and advances, but all it took was for them to step over the line once with him for the last few years and especially this year- all spring and summer while they waited for him to become available. But that had backfired spectacularly. Thus, the restraining orders, because he had been with his family and out and about and Xuni did not tolerate any other woman, drider or otherwise coming onto him and flirting with him in front of his family, his kids especially. And he did not tolerate any female drider or especially their caretakers approaching Kuvari either for various favors to try to win Xuni’s favor and interest, like asking if they could borrow her laundry, specifically her undergarments so her scent, especially her personal essence could be used to scent mark themselves. Oh, that got him beyond pissed and riled up and he had had a list of female driders he would never service over that shit. Otherwise, if they had only flirted with him in front of his family or even just his wife, they would be making due with artificial insemination this fall and that alone had cleared up a year and a half of his schedule already even though it had quickly refilled in the last few weeks.
Because Xuni's heart, his affections, his loyalty, his commitment and emotional connection in his otherwise monogamous relationship, was with his wife, Kuvari and if they couldn’t respect that or the other boundaries he was more than ready, willing to specify exactly what those boundaries were, for the other females, it really was just a physical act, and nothing more, just like all the other males who were otherwise bachelors. And now there were all kinds of bright, yet dark royal blue tarantula driders running around, but while he could be kind, friendly and to a degree affectionate with his other offspring, his own boys he had raised with Kuvari whether he sired them or not, were always his most precious and made him the proudest.
They barely got into the house before clothes came off, Kuvari was moved around to Xuni’s front as mouths got attached and Kuvari barely registered that Xuni had carried her to the top nest to practically fuck her senseless, having seated onto her prize on the way up and moaned so loud it echoed in their house.
“My balls have been bluer than my fur.” Xuni growled as he powered a stroke into Kuvari as her head lulled back and her eyes nearly rolled out of her head.
“Oh don't I know it. I love our kids but they are the worst cockblockers.” She noted in a whine as he hummed in agreement as picked up the pace and suckled on her breasts.
“Too bad you can't get a special snack doing that anymore.” Kuvari teased.
“Oh don't tempt me beyond what I can bear.” He rumbled.
“I'm not saying our 34 kids aren't enough…” Kuvari felt the need to clarify.
“Of course not, let’s just get them into school full time before we approach that bridge again.” He readily reassured her as he grinded into her as she keened as her pussy clenched around him as he growled through clenched teeth to feel that as his eyes threatened to roll back into his head.
“I forgot how divine this feels.” He murmured.
“Me too.” She sighed happily and just enjoyed the feeling of her husband's intimate attentions and affections and how he practically worshiped her body with his own. Because the silent quickies in the shower or bed or whenever they got the chance were nice, but any moment or opportunity to have sex or make love and for either of them to not hold their voices or their bodies in check had been an art they had cultivated this whole time but to finally not have to do any of that was a great relief.
“I swear your cock has gotten bigger.” Kuvari keened as he slammed into her into the base and ground his hips into hers as she cried out in bliss.
“Actually it probably has, since the kids have been getting bigger and heavier and I’ve had to molt as much as they have, it most likely has.” He answered honestly.
“Just don’t get too big, you’re stretching me pretty good Love. Didn’t realize you were going to turn part orc on me.” She purred, even though she was loving every millimeter of it. Xuni was always bigger than her and so much stronger than her too. And honestly, having sex with his wife? That was completely different. Always to be enjoyed, savored, precious and practically sacred.
“More of me to please you with.” Xuni rumbled back as he did a full body lustful growl and Kuvari nearly climbed him like a tree when just that nearly got her off as her legs tried to squeeze his drider half off from squeezing him so tight as he hissed through his teeth but just kept grinding into her, her cervix almost going concave from the head of his cock pressing and nuzzling it as her G-spot was already beyond engorged.
“Suck.” Xuni commanded as he put his thumb into Kuvari’s mouth as she was more than happy to before he used his now slick thumb on her nub as she nearly screamed his name in pleasure as that echoed too, and got Xuni to beam proudly. Only he could please her like this.
“Xuni, Xuni, Xuni!” Kuvari whimpered as her face contorted into furrowed concentration before her orgasm bloomed and practically went off like fireworks in her body and especially her mind as she slammed down so hard onto him, her cervix was more than happy to give way and let him pump all of that precious seed, which, sadly wouldn’t take root in her, but because she was moura, meant that such a thing was far from painful for her, but incredibly pleasurable for her as he finally came and practically exploded like a geyser into her, her lower belly expanding with every rope spurted into her as her hands practically clawed his back and shoulders as her arms wrapped around his neck as her breasts squished into his chest and around her own as he cried out her name in turn and held onto her tightly, both with his hands but especially his pedipalps anchoring around her waist, hips and thighs to keep her spread wide for him, all while his thumb still continued to work her nub while his other hand grabbed her ass so tight his fingers dimpled into it’s softness. Because even though she hadn’t given birth to their kids, because of that lactation supplement, her body had changed as if she had and had taken on some dangerously sexy curves that Xuni loved and adored and was borderline obsessed with, her ass most of all, her belly and her breasts a tie for second as their extended and very overdue sexual release seemed to extend much longer than usual and be much more intense than usual too as they both rode it out and basked in the afterglow too before he finally let himself lay down with just his human half over beyond his pedipalps, still anchored around her waist, hips and thighs.
“I feel like I need to put all of this into those sleeves for all those artificial inseminations.” Kuvari murmured as she felt that full body relief and relaxation, especially in her lower back that was particularly divine.
“Don’t you dare.” Xuni rumbled as his whole body growled and buzzed, causing her to have a second orgasm and practically shriek, before he got to pump even more into her as he playfully bit and nipped at her shoulder, giving her another “love bite” but without his fangs or venom which laid down in his upper gums under his upper lip.
“Every drop of that is yours, as is every other drop from here to the end of the month.” Xuni insisted.
“Because you’ve already been giving it for the last few years of quickies, especially in the shower to help with the list for the artificial inseminations.” He reminded her.
“Even when we were better off not giving any to those fanatics.” Kuvari growled which got him to beam happily to see and feel her be so possessive over him, the same way he was over her.
“Exactly.” Xuni answered before he kissed her deeply again.
“Ok, nap, I ate, I’ve had the best sex of my life so far, now it’s time for sleep.” Kuvari insisted as she fought to open her eyes or even keep them open once she managed it.
“You always say that.” Xuni gently teased with a giddy smile.
“I mean it, especially this time, you rocked the stars into my eyes Love.” Kuvari praised with a stretch and a yawn.
“I try.” Xuni offered as he gently untangled his pedipalps from her and then put on a special kind of underwear on her so that once she “drained” his seed from her, it would catch but not make a mess but would also kill that seed dead so that no other could use it. He was not kidding or joking about his seed being for her and her only for this first month and every other first month of every season, that coincided with school, for the foreseeable future.
Once he got himself and her cleaned up, he laid in such a way so that they could lay on their sides and just hold each other and took a very well deserved and well earned nap.
In which Alan Tudyk is the greatest voice for every android ever and where you can hear K-2SO's sass from here.
Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent by @borealwrites for keeping this open for me for so long. I never thought it would be almost fucking JUNE by the time I got to the home stretch. Jesus.
Monster March 2026
Day 26- Robot
Bella Ciao
You knew you shouldn’t have done this, you knew that before you did it. But right now, was about survival. And there was no way you could survive the situation you had just left.
You landed on the floor and sprawled out on the safe, cold, clean floor of Necron’s lab. You had left a biomarker here, without him noticing. Which you thought was odd because you were pretty sure he was some kind of germaphobe. And while usually you would have preferred to call on anyone else, right now, he was the only person you trusted with your presence at the moment.
You heard the alarm, you felt the androids arriving as you fought to keep your eyes open long enough for the androids to charge, weapons drawn, but you weren’t where they expected you to be before the scanners scanned the area before your presence was detected on the floor before their aims pointed down and they redirected their focus.
“Bella Ciao. Don’t shoot.” You managed to say in a weak murmur, barely above a whisper, as you did the one thing you, as a superhero in your supersuit were never supposed to do, you took your mask off so that they could scan your face.
“Miss Eulia Valiere. You are trespassing.” The androids informed you as you just let your body rest, your mask, by your head but out of reach.
“I know, I’m sorry for that. I just didn’t want to die…where I was.”
“Well you are not allowed to die here either.” An android came forward, whose voice was different from the others as the other androids made room for him to come forward.
“Heaven forbid I not follow the plan or the schedule.” You remarked as you were having a hard time keeping your eyes open.
“Guns down, Miss Valier needs medical assistance.” The one android, clearly in charge, directed the others before their weapons were put away and they lifted you up.
“Do we have your consent to treat you?” The leader asked.
“Yes, please, thank you…what’s your name?” You asked as your eyes turned to the one who asked.
“My name is Sona.” He answered.
“Grazi di cuore Sona.” You thanked him with a weak smile as you were carried, rather gently over to a work table as the group of androids seemed to practically swarm you to take care of you. Nanos were poured into your wounds after your blood was collected from your wounds so the nanos could be ‘programmed’ to you. You fell asleep and lost consciousness a few times before you were put under for some invasive surgery as your supersuit was cut away from you so they could provide medical intervention.
You woke up, sometime later to Necron himself sitting in a chair at your feet, doing something on his tablet before Sona reached out to tap him on the shoulder before he looked up at Sona who was looking at you since you had just awoken before Necron’s eyes followed Sona’s line of sight to lock his gaze with yours.
“Ah, you’re awake.” Necron noted.
“Inamorata, why did you teleport here?” He asked as he stopped what he was doing with the tablet, set it down and stood up and walked over to you, staying out of reach.
“Because the last time I was here, I knew I was in no real danger and when your life is in danger, you subconsciously and instinctively go where you’re safe I suppose.” You answered as he opened his mouth and breathed in to argue before his mouth shut into a confused thin line as his brow furrowed.
“But you’re a hero. I’m a villain. This is basically going into the enemy camp, asking for aid.” He tried to point out.
“You don’t really believe in that bullshit do you? We’re all supers. Besides, I gave you two things. My real identity and my biometric data. You can say that you captured me and negotiate for my release and undo me if you wanted to. Not that there’s much of me to undo or much of my hero self to negotiate with or over.” You muttered.
“Actually you play a more vital role to your team than you realize I think.” Necron noted as he crossed one of his arms over his chest and then began to chew on the thumb of his left hand since he was clearly left hand dominant.
“I can’t possibly make you this nervous. I don’t pose any real threat to you or your facility or to the very kind and caring Mr. Sona either.” You noted as you looked from him to the android who seemed surprised he was being included into this discussion.
“Thank you Miss Inamorata.” He politely answered.
“No, Sona, you know the real me. It’s ok. Friends call me Genna for short. Only my mother calls me by my whole name, Eulia Genovosa Valaire Barbamachallo.” You noted as Sona’s digital eyes widened as even his system hadn’t known your real, full name, with your ‘branding’ your name got shortened to Eulia Valaire, it ‘sounded much prettier and simpler’. But, thanks to that revelation, they both had finally known the real, real you, before your super work, at all.
“Wait, you’re Italian?” Necron asked with a tilt of his head.
“And French.” Sona noted as his background check started to bring in all kinds of results.
“Italian on my dad’s side, my mother’s side is French. Try singing Bella Ciao at either family reunion and you’ll start another war. But having one Italian grandmother and a French one, I have absolutely no excuse in any market in the world to ever pick out bad produce.” You teased with a tired smile as Necron let out a laugh that sounded almost inhuman as Sona and you both looked at him before his face flushed with embarrassment.
“You don’t get to laugh very much do you? Not that stereotypical evil maniacal cackle for the close ups, but a true genuine laugh for something that’s actually funny or amusing.” You noted.
“No he doesn’t, not without a mirror to make sure he’s making the right expressions on his face.” Sona admitted before you snorted a laugh as Necron glared at Sona.
“It’s ok, I have to do the same thing, I have to be ‘paparazzi ready’ too.” You offered to bring Necron’s attention away from Sona and back to you.
“Actually, you do pose a threat, because I still can’t figure out how you teleported here.” Necron instigated.
“Really? You’ve had…all this time to figure it out. You have all my bio data, surely you’ve figured out how I jump from place to place.” You gave him a curious look.
“Actually no, I haven’t.” Necron admitted, as his jaw clenched harder.
“But you have a teleportation device.” You recalled with a frown.
“It obviously works differently than you do, so how did you do it?” Necron demanded.
“You’re smart enough to figure it out yourself.” You replied.
“You’re not leaving here until you tell me. One, it’s a huge security breach, second, it’s just rude. How would you feel if I gained access to your private space without your invitation or permission?” He asked as he glared at you.
“Yeah, ok, yeah, you have a point, it’s incredibly rude. I apologize. But it’s not like I had a way of telling you I needed a safe space to escape certain death. And I’m sorry that I instinctively felt incredibly safe and non threatened the one time I was here before, after you saved me from death twice before and the two times after. But you came to me and placed me in neutral space before, and I jumped into your personal space, I can see how that’s obviously a line too far. I just…thought after last time, that we had become something that might resemble friendly, but clearly, my mistake, I apologize.” You put your hands up and began to get out of bed before your head got dizzy as your head felt like it was spinning before both Sona and Necron moved to get you to lay back in your bed.
“It’s clear you are in no shape to go anywhere and clearly need more rest to make more of a recovery.” Sona insisted with a sharp look at Necron.
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to kick you out, I just…it’s unnerving is all.” Necron mumbled.
“I promise to never do it again.” You offered.
“No, I…didn’t mean…I’m sorry. Obviously with our history, I shouldn’t…I shouldn’t be like this. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to... I just, it’s been shocking and you caught me unawares and that has rarely ever happened to me and I..I’m not doing well with it. I just really need to know what you did and how you did it. Because I keep a lot of very valuable things here and I can’t risk…” He began to try to excuse.
“Necron, I get it. I crossed the line, I’m sorry. I promise not to take anything from here, other than the medical care I’ve already received. So just…bill me or whatever.” You muttered to him as you crossed your arms over your chest as Sona put a couple of heated blankets over you and began to tuck you in as the heat got your eyes to start to droop in between giving glares at Necron for his awkward and begrudging words. He was an android, but he had enough ‘humanity’ to know that Necron was the one who was crossing lines.
“I believe what you’ve already provided has more than made up for it, Miss Genna, and knowing why you felt you could and would be safe here and well taken care of, is not only high praise, but an honor and privilege that we are clearly, unappreciative and disrespectful and insensitive in handling, not to mention rude and we should be more gracious in our hospitality and strive to continue to be what we need to be for you care. And not obsessed with the details of how, but focus on the why rather than the what.” Sona offered to you while giving Necron the most scathing of looks.
“Thank you Sona, for everything you’ve done in giving me that care and obviously doing everything you could to save my life, I must have sensed your good intent, that’s probably why I felt so safe in being here both the last time and especially this time. Grazie di cuore.” You thanked him with an appreciative fond smile as you were close to falling asleep.
“Di niente. You don’t strike me as the type of person who would jeopardize the safety and security of this compound. You’re more than welcome to come back to see me any time you’d like to. But for now, please get some much needed rest, would you like a pillow for your knees?” He asked.
“Yes please!” You whimpered before he wrapped a pillow into another heated blanket and slipped it under the blankets and under your knees.
“Perfecto.” You sighed in relief.
“Please get some rest. You’re safe, no harm will come to you here. I promise.” Sona reassured you as he picked up your hand and pet the back of it as you squeezed his hand as he squeezed back reverently before you slipped into sleep before he gently laid it under the covers then roughly grabbed Necron and pushed him out of the room.
“Hey!” Necron tried to complain before Sona made a hissing/shushing noise as he shut the door.
“You will wake her up! I wish you too were an android so that I could run diagnostics on you to see what the fuck is wrong with you.” Sona chastized before he went to get more supplies for the space.
“Oh I’m sorry, do I need to design a dick for you so you can take your new girlfriend out on a date now?” Necron sassed before Sona actually struck him, backhanded him so hard that Necron was knocked down onto the floor 8 feet away.
“Ow.” Necron grunted.
“I understand that you play a villain. However that is to the camera and to the press. Otherwise you are usually an antisocial intellectual who prefers the company of the very androids who you can program their personalities to be as nearly robotic as yours. However, this was no time or place for that part of your persona that’s obviously more than just a persona but obviously part of your personality now- which is a shame. Because who you are when you’re not in that persona is usually a good person. I’m an android but at least I had the human decency to know that this was obviously a very special circumstance that needed special care and attention to be handled delicately with. So your villainous side should have never come out during this personal and private moment. Genna came here because she felt safe here! She could have gone anywhere, but she came here! Instinctually! Clearly, her powers are tied to her emotions, that much is very clear even to me. She sought sanctuary in one of the few places she should be able to find it. With the one person she has always previously found that safety and sanctuary with!" Sona criticized.
"You usually only give most in her position two saves as per your contract. Yet, you’ve given her four already. And this is the fifth! It’s a pattern! That even I can see! So either she’s tied to you, or tied to here, but if you'll be your villain self, then she gets to be tied to me and I'll quit and decommission myself from your service as soon as she's well enough to leave and leave with her, wherever she will go. And I believe I will be creating my own phallus if and when she would ever ask or need me to have one, because she treated me more like a person than you ever have." Sona practically seethed.
"Either way, it’s an honor and privilege that young woman could think and feel such things. What is wrong with you that you were incapable of returning when you should have naturally done so? Or is your obsession with knowing how she did it, really that much more important to you to completely miss the point of why she did it in the first place? I know you don’t like unexpected surprises, but you usually love puzzles and challenges. Why can’t you look at this as a puzzle? And look at yourself and look for the reasons why you keep trying to save her when you don’t have to. See why she would ever see anything in you- that would encourage her to feel safe in the same places you do? Only you know why you do the things you do. I was just following the usual pattern and protocol before now which has been and I quote ‘whatever it takes to save her’.” Sona explained as he continued to gather things in the space they were in now as Necron found his feet and pouted and bit at his left thumb again as he had to rethink this as his other hand wrapped around his waist.
“You, owe Genna an apology for your inexcusable behavior and your unforgivable comments. Life is supposed to be sacred. Not assets that can be replicated. Once a life is lost, it’s lost forever. You could have lost her today. Not Cerberus could have lost a hero. No, you- could have lost the one person you keep trying to save. Shouldn’t that have scared you? Shouldn’t that have meant something to you? All of her interactions with you before were always polite at first and then actually friendly and bordered on affectionate the last time you saved her- before today." Sona reminded him.
"Maybe you’re not you, maybe you’re the clone of the Necron I know, because the Necron who was there to save her the previous four times wouldn’t have cared about the how, he would have been humbled by the why. He then would have done whatever it took to make sure Genna felt welcome, comfortable and at ease at not just this facility but every other you have. This was the first time she met me in person, yet she could still sense my intentions once she met me. Maybe that’s why she had felt safe here, because in all of this, you’ve never had ill intent with her before today. So congratulations, you just lost any ground you had fought so hard to gain with her. And now that I’ve met her personally, she is even more lovely in person than she ever is on TV. And now that I know who the real her is, now I know that there is so much more than that filtered, framed, polished, persona everyone else gets. She didn’t need to give you that. She didn’t need to be so open or honest, yet she felt safe to do so before you absolutely fucked it up by hanging onto the how she got here over everything else and focused on the fact that you were caught unaware and you let your own embarrassment over that to blind you to the situation. I’m an android and even I feel sorry for you and mortified on your behalf.” Sona spat.
“You’re right, I’m sorry, I’ll…I’ll apologize once she wakes up.” Necron offered.
“Good, and get your head out of your ass while you’re at it. Drop the Necron act and actually be the Aiden that I know you are underneath all of that garbage. And take back everything else you said in there. And actually make it a heart felt apology or I swear I'll medevac her so fast to wherever she would want to go and I'll jump myself into any kind of meatsuit she'd want me to be in at least.” Sona encouraged.
"You don't have to threaten me." Aiden growled.
"You don't have to be an asshole to the first real person who has ever been here. Yet here we are. Bella Ciao." Sona replied aloofly before he took his items and went back into that room to watch over you.
Yes I know it's May, almost June. Yes I know I've wanted this done for 3 months. I have six more days and most of those are already done. I always get stuck on Doppleganger. So this is kind of adjascent. So, for my Harpy submission, Dynasty, that's fantasy setting, here's modern day real life AU. Same characters, same premise just a very different setting and meet cute. Instead of moura mafia style, this is just, pure mafia but with it's own twist. Enjoy.
Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent by @borealwrites for keeping this open for so long.
Monster March 2026
Day 25- Doppelganger
Adora was practicing different kinds of stitches and got a call on her cellphone and frowned when she didn’t recognize the phone number, but her gut or instinct told her to answer it.
“Hello?” Adora answered.
“Is this Adora?” Came the voice that sounded like they were in the middle of a marathon. He sounded familiar but she couldn’t place where or how at the moment.
“Yes? Who is this?” She asked.
“This is Chez, Cesario Vitale from, uh, from school, listen, my brother needs medical help but he’s…we can’t go to the hospital. But he needs more than…can you come and try to patch him up? Please? He’s been shot, and he’s...” Cesario tearfully begged.
“Don’t you dare say I’m dying! I’m not! I’ve been hurt worse before!” Alessio snarled.
Adora’s eyes went wide as she gasped and shot up and began to move.
Technically she didn’t really know her biggest crush that well because she was shy and so was he and she had only transferred to the school almost a month ago. But they did go to school together and did have some classes together, had worked together in class only a few times and got along and were on good terms at least. She had no idea how he would even know she had any medical training. But he was clearly trying to hold it together and not panic and she knew he wouldn’t call her if it wasn’t an emergency. Clearly something was very, very wrong for him to 1. Get her number. 2. Call it.
“Yes, where?” She asked before he told her where to go as she wrote it down, practically shredding her clothes off and slipped into body armor she could wear under scrubs and then put said scrubs on and slipped back into her shoes while she had Cesario on speakerphone.
“Got it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She offered.
“Thank you so much, I owe you one.” He offered.
“Let's just try to get through this first, ok? Do everything you can and use whatever you have, fuck, strip the clothes you’re wearing off and use them if you have to- to try to stop those wounds up and put pressure on them like crazy and tourniquet the rest. I’m on my way, GPS says 18 minutes, I’ll see you in 15 or less.” She offered before she ended the call and grabbed her mom’s epic medic bag and left a note about why she took it and the general area she was taking it too and got in her car, throwing the bag in the back seat and plugged in her light and turned on the siren that came with it that to at least try to identify herself to the other drivers she was a first responder in their personal vehicle and thanks to those special tags and stickers that the traffic lights stayed green for her and cars pulled over so she could race there as she hastily put her bullet proof vest on and made sure the guns she was wearing were fully loaded since her bullet proof vest had extra ammo for her guns that she carried on the way too. If this was a shooting, it would be stupid to not assume more shooting could happen. But she said she would help and she was a woman of her word and that was why she was wearing body armor, a bullet proof vest, and armed. She’d done this before, she could do it again, but this time, do so responsibly. She sent a quick text to “The Greatest Grandpa Ever” and hoped and prayed he would either see it and do as she just asked him to or actually either text her back before he would try to call.
She got there 13 minutes later and hoped she wasn’t driving further into an active firefight. But from the sounds of it, it didn't sound like it was active, at least anywhere close to her or would be between where she was and where she needed to go, so she kept going and sent a follow up text to her Grandpa as an update before she finally got a text back of confirmation and that her favor was being granted which gave her relief before she requested just, one more favor which that too was granted. Oh her Grandpa must either realize how serious this was or be in a very generous mood. Thank God, and that was why he was The Greatest Grandpa Ever.
“Chez I’m here, is he still with us? Or did we lose him?” Adora asked.
“I’m still here!” Alessio answered.
“Good. So I have a light and a siren on my car, is that ok or do I need to turn those off?” Adora asked.
“Turn them off!” Alessio hollered, clearly in pain.
“Got it, they’re off. I’m driving northwest and I’m driving a…” Adora gave the make, model and color of her vehicle just in case anyone outside were to see her and hopefully they might identify her as the CLS she was. It stood for Combat Life Saver, this wasn’t military combat but obviously close enough as she looked at the note and knew she needed to drive in deeper.
“Thank you, I’ll let everyone know you’re with us.” Cesario reassured her.
“Thank you, otherwise what I’m driving towards is…” Adora tried to tell Cesario before someone else named Vance got the phone and walked her through how to get to them and assured her and reassured her there were no more hostile enemies in the area which was confirmed by the fact that gunfire had finally ceased and those directions matched the intel Grandpa gave her, another relief when she confirmed the route and that she was being directed by friendlies on the same route and got an ETA of when she’d most likely reach where they were, based on heat signatures.
She got to the warehouse where three other vehicles seemed to be guarding it as she stopped the car and turned it off as Vance reassured her those were friendlies and told her who was about to meet her and bring her in as she got out of her car, identified herself as they did the same before she put her side arm away and hastily got her medic bag and put it on like a backpack again as Trevor and Julio lead the way and then jogged in as Trevor lead and Julio got on her six before they got in the building and pointed to where Alessio was currently before she ran around Trevor and sprinted as fast as she could as she recognized Cesario with- who she assumed was Alessio were as Cesario holding his own jacket up to his brother’s wounds as she ran over to them.
When she was only less than a dozen steps away, she- in one fluid motion slipped the bag off from being a back pack and started the zipper and then used her own body weight and the bag’s weight and momentum to start to unzip itself so that by the time she’d slide into them on her knees, she’d reach them and the bag would open like a book and in one leap, flung the bag in front of her to give her more momentum forward before she tucked her lower legs in front of her before she then hit the ground with her knees and lower legs, tucked in such a way as to protect her ankle pieces she had put on in the car too. The force and momentum of herself and the bag allowing her to slide right as she let go of the one handle on the end and grabbed another one on the middle portion to get the bag to orientate itself so it would be at the perfect angle before she and the bag slid to a stop only 2 inches away from Alessio as Alessio, Ceario, and the three guards, Vance, Trevor and Julio just watched in awed wonder that she could just do that and do that so smoothly and practically effortlessly they wondered just how many times she had done something like this before? Babyfaced badass that she was.
Adora had helped put this medic bag together and always helped her mom repack and restock it as she had practiced where each thing was so she could grab without looking or thinking as she got gloves out and her bottles of her wound cleaning supplies out first, clearly they had tried to use what they could out of the medkits they carried but because of this degree, it wasn’t enough and either they had a doc or medic who died and was apparently too far away to go and retrieve the supplies.
“Any allergies to latex or anything like that? Besides the- at least one bullet in you?” Adora asked Alessio as she got gloved up as the dry joke landed and made them all at least crack a wry grin if not snort a laugh.
“No to the latex or anything like that, yes to the bullets though.” Alessio bit out through the pain but had a wry grin, appreciating the candor.
“Aren’t we all? Ok, can either you or anyone else tell me what I’m dealing with and where?” Adora requested, assessing what she was looking at, mentally already knowing what she needed as she cut his dress shirt off.
“Three Gunshot wounds and two stab wounds, pretty sure. The one right here, I can’t tell if it’s both on top of each other or just really close to each other.” Alessio answered as she put an oxygen monitor on Alessio’s finger to keep track of his oxygen level at least and then hooked Alessio up to a small portable oxygen tank before she pulled Cesario’s jacket away and cut the remainders to Alessio’s shirtback and quickly assessed the wounds and found the worst one and gave Cesario two packs of gauze with collagen sponges to help the wounds from bleeding too much and got more out for him to trade out when those got used up as she got Alessio’s right hand that had the better veins for her to get an IV.
“Yup, you’re right, this is a GSW and a stab. Ok, Chez, use these and press on this and this. Alessio, use your left hand to press on this. And I’ll tape these others, I need to get an IV. By the grace of God, does someone have a torch? A flashlight? I need more light and I need to see what I’m working with here better.” Adora asked before Vance and Trevor put their lights overhead to put as bright of a spotlight on Alessio as they could while Vance was on another cell phone, speaking rapid Italian and Trevor was on a radio getting status updates from others, but using very heavily influenced Mil-slang with some twists that were as surprising as they were interesting. And Adora, sadly, understood both and unfortunately caught every word. This was officially a shit storm. Oh she was so fucked if she didn't save Alessio’s life and play dumb as she made sure her facial expression revealed that she was ignoring everything beyond her focus on patching Alessio up. She was called in as a medic, that's it.
Don't ask, don't tell.
“I’m so sorry Leo. You shouldn’t have had to take half of this. It’s like one minute we were…” Cesario tried to apologize before a look from Alessio had him cutting his own words off.
“And the next it was a shootout. I don’t know what happened.” Cesario finished as Adora’s face finally changed in alarming realization but also like she knew or suspected or had gotten confirmation of something as she looked from Alessio to Cesario then back to Alessio’s chest and mouthed the words ‘fuck’ as she shook her head slightly and tried to refocus on Leo’s wounds as Alessio, Trevor and Vance noticed her reaction. She clearly knew something about Cesario that they didn’t seem to know.
Adora got an IV started on his hand and got a special saline solution going before she injected ESA, Albumin and everything she could as she tried to give him something for pain before she got out the purple IV bag and hooked that up too and had those IV’s lines wide open. She quickly tied the tops of the two bags together so that he wouldn’t have to awkwardly hold the ends up and passed the holding the two bags together to the guard who was holding the light above her and had put the beam over Alessio’s chest.
“Hold these please, I need the gravity feed.” Adora offered as she gave Vance the strap which he put to counter the weight of the flashlight because Alessio was losing more blood at a faster rate than she could stop right now before she taped as many collagen pads as she had on the other wounds to hopefully stabilize before she could get to them.
“What’s the purple bag?” Trevor asked.
“It’s a synthetic blood substitute that is universal for any and all blood types and is actually better than any transfusion I could give even if I had the blood to transfuse. It’s obviously not standard in most medical kits. But it’s standard in my mother’s. Once I got an IV, I gave an ESA which tells your bone marrow to make blood like crazy, and everything else my mom had for hemorrhaging to help your blood to clot and hemoglobin to keep the volume up, to keep your cardiovascular system from collapsing. Blood can run pink as long as you have enough volume, your body will fix the concentration later.” She answered.
“So this is your mom’s medical kit?” Alessio asked.
“Yup, she’s a trauma nurse, but she’s at work so she didn’t need it, by the grace of God.” Adora answered before she flushed the wound with saline and antiseptic as Alessio bit back a curse in a grunting growl.
“Don’t hold back on my account, if you need to scream? Scream, if you need to cuss? Cuss. Whatever will help you get through the pain, because what I gave you for pain is IV, quick in but also quick out.” Adora urged Alessio with a quick glance up to his eyes before focusing back on the wound she was working on as she had to go from kneeling to sitting cross legged, pulling the bag over to get what she needed as she continued to work, leaning on all the knowledge she possessed to get through this trial by fire as it were as she just followed protocol and procedure she was taught, but did so as thoroughly and quickly but also as efficiently as she could, but not realizing that as she sat cross legged, both of her ankle guns holsters showed on the inside of her ankles.
“Nice carry.” Alessio noted as he nodded to it.
“Thanks, Chez said GSW, if there’s one, you should always assume there’s potential for more, thus the vest. But when Chez also said that you guys were the only ones here, meant I could keep my big guys in my trunk. Don’t use a hammer when you need a scalpel and vice versa.” Adora answered casually as she set up her first few stitches as Cesario looked both shocked yet impressed, because of course his crush would be not only medically trained but also come in with guns, ready to blaze. Because of course, no one would suspect the sweet blonde shy girl in the front corner would be an absolute BAMF out of school. Fuck he should have asked her out on her first day at school or even that first week as Alessio blinked in pleasant surprise at his brother’s reaction.
“Smart. So where did you learn to do all of this? You don’t look…” Alessio asked before groaning through gritted teeth.
But he paused when she turned her gaze to him and time seemed to slow down to barely a crawl, something seemed to move behind her eyes, like a predator moving just enough to make sure the other predator in the habitat recognized it as it was- before moving back into invisibility and vanished from sight, but its presence fully felt in its enormity that made every other predator to think twice about getting any closer to something they only saw a fraction of and knowing that the small fraction was a kindness to them. A warning to not become a problem, either of interest or threat or most fatal of all, underestimation. Alessio immediately realized his mistake, he tried to make an assumption, a near fatal one, about the appearance of something he did not yet know or understand because he had yet to gain a frame of reference to try in the first place as he lowered his gaze to her lower lash line, a very subtle but very powerful display of apology and submission as it moved back behind her eyes before time seemed to flow back at a normal speed again.
“My mom was a Flight Medic for MEDEVAC, also known as DUSTOFF. Epic Medic, epic medic bag.” Adora answered before she nodded to the bag then refocused on trying to get this damn bullet out of this wound, it was like the knife shoved it deeper as she wished it had gone through him as her lip curled in frustration trying to get the damn thing.
“She may be a civilian trauma and triage nurse for Medflight now, but if she had it her way, every medical professional should have to be a Flight Medic for DUSTOFF so they don’t get whiney, lazy, spoiled or heaven forbid sloppy or biased. I’m just grateful she’s not here right now and grading my performance even though I am literally following her DUSTOFF protocols down to the letter.” Adora answered with a grunting growl as she finally fished the bullet out of the wound with her tool.
“Gotcha ya!” Adora grinned triumphantly as she pulled the bullet out of Alessio’s chest and then looked at it for barely a heartbeat before her grin vanished into an angry scowl when she recognized it as she narrowed her eyes dangerously as a fire seemed to burn in her eyes that was as gorgeously captivating as it was terrifying. Now that predator found a problem, irritated it was not worthy of its focus.
“Of course you’re a 10 millimeter auto. Nice, thanks a lot for making this so much harder! I didn’t need Boss Mode to jump to Ultra-Nightmare. No wonder you were a bastard to fish out! I don’t even want to think about the layers of what and who you went through to get that deep into him! And then to get stabbed in deeper? Your audacity as the motherfuckin monkey-wrenchin, overachieving narcissistic Napoleon short man syndrome, micro-penis havin’ fucking cunt! You just wanted to be a 50 caliber when you grew up didn’t you? And you made that everyone else’s problem!” She snarled in a rant with a growl as she rolled her eyes and shook her head as she put it aside, took a cleansing breath and tried her best to refocus as Alessio and his crew and Cesario’s eyes got wider before they looked at Cesario meaningfully in a very ‘where did you find this girl?’ as he looked at Adora like ‘I have never seen a more perfect woman in my life, I’m going to marry her as soon as I can.’
“Sorry, that monstrosity was practically doing the ‘Nana-nana- boo-boo, you can’t catch me’ from your chest cavity.” Adora tried to excuse and apologize as she flushed but dove right back into the fray as it were, already diving into tunnel vision, trying to get this wound cleaned up then stitched up like she should but also as quickly as she could too. Alessio was still bleeding and while she bought him time, she couldn’t buy him too much more.
She patched him up, wound by wound, from the worst to the least as she used a fibrin adhesive to seal the wounds the best she could that didn’t need stitches. She and Cesario had to trade places a few times as she moved around Alessio as Adora made sure to praise Cesario and Alessio for pushing through this as she put another pain med through to keep Alessio as calm as she could to keep his heart rate slower from the adrenaline dump and to keep his heart from pumping blood out faster than she could try to keep it in, because otherwise a tranq right now would kill him.
Cesario was actually shaking from the shock as she took a moment to reach out and steady his hands as that were over Alessio’s other wounds that she hadn’t gotten to yet as that touch seemed to steady him.
“Breathe Chez, stay with me ok? I still need you to be steady for me, be my rock so I can keep doing this. Try to do a 2 count breath for me ok? Once you got that, then bring it to a 3 count then a fourth count. You can do this Chez. Just count, breathe in- 1,2, hold 1,2, breathe out-1, 2. Hold 1,2. Repeat. Good job Chez, you’re doing great, keep it up.” Adora urged him as he nodded and focused more on his breathing and staying with her in the moment.
“Now, bring it to three, three counts each one.” Adora coached him because Alessio needed no such coaching, he acted as if this was the norm for him. As if bleeding in a warehouse was his everyday life before she got to the final wound that while it was the least of it, it still needed the same treatment and stitches as she did her best to make sure she was doing things correctly but also efficiently and with speed, because she had run out of numbing medicine so the stitches hurt like hell as she was on her last wound that needed stitches as the others were minor that she flushed and then glued closed.
And then they all heard the police sirens as everyone tensed while those that had been tasked with listening in on law enforcement chatter messaged them that they had an ETA of when law enforcement would arrive which meant they had a manner of minutes to get out of there as her phone pinged as she glanced at it and saw a message.
‘Time to go Baby Girl.’
Fuck.
‘3stx pls’
‘3 stitches, 30 seconds each.’
‘Thx’
“Three stitches, 30 seconds each, good to go after that.” She told them as she made the last two stitches in haste while making sure that 3rd anchor stitch would hold before she tied it up and cut the string.
“Go! Go! GO! You got 27 seconds to clear the building!” Adora urged them as she quickly tried to repack everything and make sure she didn’t leave anything behind that would tie her to this scene, purposefully setting a canister to the side as she pulled the oxygen tank and it’s lines from Alessio but left he IV’s in, he still needed what was left of them.
“Please come with us!” Cesario begged.
“No!” Alessio immediately shot down but Adora’s simultaneous echo held much more weight.
“Absolutely not!” Adora barked angrily as that took Cesario and the other guards by surprise as she moved as fast as she could to close up the bag as Alessio did all the could to get to his feet as Trevor and Vance helped him up.
“Why not?” Cesario asked before her phone pinged again and then Adora’s eyes got wider and immediately texted a reply.
‘GO NOW!’
‘Drp wght gne’. She texted back.
“Because my clock just ran out! And I did not just work my ass off saving his life, just to have all of us die because of your proximity to me and who I’m connected to and if I don’t roll out and clear this building in the next 11 seconds, we’re all bricked in the building! I just hope that whatever I did- will keep you alive long enough to get the fuck out of here too.” Adora warned them before she looked back up to Cesario as she finally got the bag to fold and tried her best to zipper it closed as she had to use her body weight on it to make sure it was closed enough to try to zip at least half to 2/3rds of it closed. She could get out of here with it if she could just get that.
“Chez, don’t you ever call me to do something like this ever again! This needs to be a one and done and out, for your sakes, not mine. I’m gonna stay in that blissful ignorance where plausible deniability is the greatest protection I have. I didn’t ask, and you guys didn’t tell and vice-versa. Let’s keep it that way! Now roll the fuck out of here! I’m gone!” Adora explained as she finally got it all the way zipped up and partially laid into it, got it then used her body’s weight to counter it to roll the other way so she’d get the weight to give her momentum and got to her feet, used her custom aerosolized hydrogen peroxide to spray all over the area that had blood on it to destroy as much of that blood that had that precious purple additive in it, because that sure as hell would show up on any DNA testing on it and then fled back to her car, hurled the bag in the back seat and drove like a bat out of hell as her Grandpa gave her the way through to get out of there using a line that her former associates and the incoming law enforcement wouldn’t use because they wouldn’t see it, while getting the light off the roof and barely managed to get back onto the main roads and into traffic in less than 5 seconds before the front bumpers of the law enforcement vehicles were seen before they then immediately turned onto the street from around the corner as Adora prayed the cops would think she was part of normal traffic as she secretly hoped that Cesario and Alessio could get away before she drove like the wind to get home and then gave her Grandpa the full debrief, not using any filters or anything. Because if anyone needed to know everything she knew? It was ‘The Greatest Grandpa Ever’.
He, of course, was so relieved she squeaked by under the wire and didn’t interrupt her once as he was very patient in letting her practically- word vomit. He was thankfully so sympathetic and empathetic and very understanding, but also generous with his praise and commendation for following protocol and procedure and getting practically a motherload of intel without giving too much away either, which was a great source of pride for him and he was especially proud of her for impressing upon them the truth-that she actually was way more dangerous than they could ever be, considering everything. He assured her that her parents would remain ignorant and asked if she had a preferred cover story already and if she didn’t- offered a few options he figured her parents would believe and would monitor the situation to make sure she was never tied to any of it. Adora asked if she just blew everything and would need to move again, she was relieved yet pleasantly surprised to hear that if anything, she made a potential ally and a great reason to stay. And if she was going to make new friends, she could have done so much worse than make the biggest ones in the bunch that got her to laugh despite everything.
“Let me get home and let me get this clusterfuck unfucked if I can. I used that aerosolized hydrogen peroxide on all the blood because the last thing I need the cops to find is grape juice in that DNA sample.” She offered.
“You got it. You know what? I think if anything, you’ve earned an epic medic bag of your own. I’ll see if I can plant a bug in your mom’s ear about it. But you get me a list of what you used besides grape juice and I’ll get you replacements for it on this side but I may or may not have gotten these old mitts on some things. And since you got to be the first stake in the ground, make sure it’s in a spot where it can hit bedrock, but not be tangled in roots where it can’t slip out if it needs to either.” He advised.
“Sir, yes Sir. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much Grandpa, I love you so much, thank you so much for covering my 6. I realize I just jumped head first into shark infested waters, wearing pork chops. But thank you for at least putting some sonar in those waters for me. That is why you are The Greatest Grandpa Ever, Of All Time, The Goatiest of GOATS.” Adora praised as she neared home.
“Baa.” He chuckled which got her to giggle.
“Ok, I’m less than two minutes away from home. Let me straighten up. I love you, I love you, I love you. Can’t wait to see you when you get here Grandpa. I think you’re gonna love the house. It has a ‘mother in law suite’ and I hid so many easter eggs for you, just to give you something to hunt for between naps to keep you from chewing on the furniture.” She offered.
“I thought I was the Goatiest of Goats? Where’s the barn? Who do I get to headbutt?” He teased which got her to laugh.
“Oh, I think I just found a few bulls for you to bully especially if we get to stay. Ok, I’m home, I’ll call or text when I get to come back up for air. Love you Grandpa, I have missed you so much. I’ll see you when I see you.” Adora offered as she pulled into the driveway and breathed in relief when she made it there, turned her car off and just took a second to rest her forehead on the steering wheel and smiling sadly at how much she wished it was her Grandpa’s chest.
“And you’ll be a sight for these old tired eyes Baby Girl.” He cooed.
“Hey, your body hears how you speak about it, if you tell your body it’s old, it’ll start acting like it. You are not old, you’re well traveled, well seasoned, you’ve been tried and you’ve held true and you’ve been wise enough to learn from other’s mistakes while not fooling yourself that you’ll never make any yourself and the last thing that can make you fall is your own pride, because it is the reason why you have the strength to stand in the first place. And those eyes are sharper now than they’ve ever been before because they have a wealth of knowledge and ten times as much wisdom and a hundred times the discernment to see the truth and the ten forests beyond the trees that everyone else is stuck behind and can’t see past. Thank you for keeping on the watch for me, it’s what kept me steady and I knew I wouldn’t get lost because I knew I was already found and would never be lost or forgotten. I’m just sorry if I kept you from resting or interrupted a nap. I’ll pay it back in westerns, sourdough bread and chicken and barely soup for the rainy days, sandwiches on the sunny days and cook outs on the weekends and fires in the firepit, especially when the stars are out, bear hugs and forehead kisses.” Adora promised, her eyes shedding tears but her smile shaming the sun.
“Paradise on Earth Baby Girl. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.” He offered.
“Paradise on Earth Grandpa. Bye, love you, be safe.” Adora offered.
“Be safe.” He ended the call and Adora looked at the time, took a big breath in and then moved. She had way too much work left to do and way too little time to do it in.
Meanwhile, previously…
“Where the fuck have you been hiding her? How have you been sitting on Miss Perfect this whole time? And how long have you had her in your back pocket?” Alessio asked Cesario as Cesario was helping his brother get out of there as quickly as they could as those sirens got louder from coming closer.
“She’s not in any pocket! She’s been hiding herself in plain sight! I didn’t even know she was a card in the deck, let alone something that was even on the table that I could use! I had no idea she’d be that wild of a wild card! I barely know her at school! She just moved here less than a month ago! And I’m kicking myself for not making more of an effort on that first day because I was trying to give her a chance to settle and find her bearings because I’m shy, she’s shy! She's in front of the class, I’m back of the class! She’s the one who graded my math classwork and got on me about showing my work. Believe me, if I knew that Adorabella was Miss Perfect- Highest Trump Card- Wild Card before today and instead found out the first time I got to meet her? I would have married her by now if I could!” Cesario confessed.
“The reason she even got on my radar for this clusterfuck was that at school yesterday, Manny bragged that she’s perfect for patching him up and never asked questions and that he could trust her and count on her to pull through for him because he's in an underground fight club for Christ’s sake! And I just assumed he had paid her accordingly! That's why I thought she'd be cool! I had no idea she'd come with…I don’t know what but even though she didn’t say much, she didn’t need to say more than she did. There is some serious fucking power there that has my soul shuddering as much these butterflies are fluttering.” Cesario defended.
“Oh our souls are shuddering too.” Trevor echoed.
“I just…I had no idea she would know or do…everything else. I had no idea that the girl that I’ve been crushing on is a badass! Did you see her slide in on her knees like a fucking action hero?! She’s like the epitome of BAMF and she’s my age! Adorabella is only 17! How is she only 17 and can know and do all of that?! Just the medic patch was way better than doctors three times her age! How did she even know that was a 10 millimeter auto?! I thought only gun enthusiasts and forensic experts would be able to do that! After they ran tests and shit! But nope! Not her! One second and one look, boom, instant identification after she removed it from your chest! And she cussed it out! Like it had personally offended her!” Cesario gushed.
“Because it did! Which is an ire I hope we never get because we wouldn’t survive! When she slid in did your brain slide out? She told us herself where she learned it and how- she and it came from the same place- the Military. Obviously you’ve made the near fatal mistake of assuming that just because she may look like a fellow student at your school that she’d be anything like any other student, that’s the best camouflage for her to allow her to hide in plain sight as she continues to learn as she grows but that doesn’t mean she’s not just as lethal or even more so than any other predator out there in the open. She’s growing into something we need to find a new frame of reference for. You didn’t see what I saw in her eyes. She did me a bigger favor of letting me see it in the first place than the other favor of saving my life.” Alessio appraised as Cesario finally seemed to understand that for all of his looking, he had clearly missed seeing the obvious, again.
“But she did see and acknowledge and praise you for pushing through and enduring. She saw you struggling, and gave you the steadiness to keep going. This wasn’t her first rodeo but she clearly didn’t want your first to be your last either, which means that someone has obviously done her the same favor that she was simply trying to pay forward. It was a gift that you’re still trying to grasp, but once you do, you’ll appreciate it for its rarity and pricelessness. If she saw all of that in you, including your potential, obviously you have what it takes too Chez.” Vance reminded Cesario and that helped him to hold his head up just a bit higher as he seemed to remember that too.
“Like her stamp of approval is a badge of honor I'll probably never get to have now though. She’s seen me at my worst too much already.” Ceshario murmured.
“Chez, you don't need to be taking this as hard as you are. She didn’t see you at your worst, she saw all of us drowning and gave us a life line. Doesn’t mean she thinks we can’t swim.” Alessio tried to reassure his brother, he had only ever seen Nick get this bent out of shape, but it was over a girl just as epically perfect though. Apparently the universe did make more than 1 of them.
“Oh but she has though! Today was just the most recent example for her! She is made in a computer- levels of perfect! I will probably beat myself up over fumbling the greatest catch and find of the century for the rest of my life! I will always regret not asking her out like when I saw her in the halls before class, as she was trying to figure out the school’s layout before Manny walked up, introduced himself and helped her out before I could even make a step in her direction. The only reason I didn't and haven't is because on her first day at school, in math, she chose to sit in the front seat of the same row I was in and she had to grade my math worksheet that I didn’t do because I hadn’t been paying attention to anything Ms. Hatfield was saying because I was paying more attention to Adorabella’s perfect cherub golden blonde curls! I got so distracted then I practically had a brain aneurysm trying to do in less than a minute something I could have done in less than 8 minutes of the 15 minutes we were given to do it that she got done in 3 because she's practically a math genius too! I blanked out on everything else so when it was time for us to grade each other’s papers, instead of passing forward, we all passed back which meant me being in the back of the row meant I had to get up and walk my disaster of a worksheet up to her and hand it over to her and I never wanted for the ground under my feet to open up and swallow me whole so badly in my life because I knew she was going to see it and know that I’m just as stupid as I look. So, of course she graded it as an F! I fucked up and assumed she would think I’m a brain dead idiot and there was no way for me to live that down ever since. God, if she could have just…known me or seen me outside of this clusterfuck, or that clusterfuck- what I would give for her to not see me or us at our worst.” Cesario groaned and whimpered because now it was his own injuries that he had ignored for Alessio that were coming back to bite him in the ass before Trevor came and helped Cesario while Vance helped Alessio get into another SUV that didn’t have the windshield shot out because a hail of armor piercing bullets most of which were those 10mm autos. And Adora had been right, it had gone through the windshield and the driver and his body armor and the seat to then get into the front of Alessio’s body armor and then into him.
“You and me both.” Alessio agreed.
“Regardless though, goddamn was she the perfect one to answer our prayers. You calling her in still saved my life today and it was everything I could do to not cry or scream but the way she had that pain killers pumping in after, I honestly didn’t give a shit and trying not to fuck that up for you Chez. Do you have any idea just how lucky we got because of her? Because she’s…she’s somehow the perfect person to call in even if it would come with nuclear levels of risk for whatever she alluded to. But goddamn am I impressed and so proud of her for putting her foot down and commanding that her boundaries demand nothing but the highest respect for because she wasn’t doing it for her sake. For ours, to keep us safe from the danger that came with her that clearly escaped the danger we were already dealing with. She’s perfect because she’s a predator that no one would ever suspect is there, which is a mistake she clearly wants everyone else to make, because it’s safer for her that way. She only showed us a glimpse so we wouldn’t make that same fatal mistake. Oh we owe her so big. Like that whole- ‘Esther- have half my kingdom’ thing. God and her name totally fits. She is as adorable as she is terrifying. Fuck. But you did hit this out of the park with her. Do you know if she has any sisters? Cousins on whatever side made her as adorable or even a fraction of badass that she is? Just because she’s dangerous and connected to something even more dangerous, doesn’t mean close family might not be.” Alessio offered with a giddy grin.
“She does, an older sister, in Juilliard of all places that she really looks up to and tries to emulate, because apparently the oldest in Julliard has all the finesse that Adora feels like she doesn’t have, even though she does, in spades, obviously, she calls her oldest sister Miss Especially Spectacularly Perfect. Which, if Adora is Miss Perfect, I can’t fathom what her idea of perfect would be. But… she does talk about another one, another older sister. But the way she talks about her, something…something happened there. Something bad. Something like her sister went no contact and she was too young to know or understand why, kind of thing.” Cesario recalled as both Cesario and Alessio didn’t catch the look shared between Vance and Trevor, both of them slightly wide eyed as those pits in their stomachs got way bigger and heavier.
“What does she call that one?” Alessio asked.
“Vera- Vera Very Wild.” Cesario supplied as Alessio seemed to shake its way from the back of his memory and practically flew off the shelf and tried to fly straight at him.
“Why does that sound familiar though? Like I’ve heard it but it had to be like a few years ago or something. It was something like that but slightly different. Vera Very…Violet? Volatile? Plus Adora, she looked…she must have one of those faces, why do those names sound…? I can’t, I lost too much blood, my brain isn’t working.” Alessio rhetorically asked as Vance and Trevor looked at each other again, their eyes slightly wider as they wordlessly urged the other to tell him.
They knew.
But was it the right time for the Vitale Gentlemen to know? There was only one other person who referred to having a sister named Vera, but she had been referred to as Vera Very Violent. Because she was, apparently, violence incarnate. There was no way this was a coincidence as Trevor and Vance instantly realized who and what Adora was and what danger she had only needed to allude to but that they were still very well aware of- that they should have avoided the first time they were warned. They got lucky last time, because that danger allowed the person that had warned them away from seeing them as a problem, to either solve, or to neutralize, but that they weren't worthy of that danger’s focused attention, and do ignore it in favor of something that was worthy. It was the most harrowing experience that they had ever survived. And if they were right, it meant that they were just in the presence of the most precious, most beloved, most prized and protected pride and joy of that same great danger that was the most apex of apex predators, the kind that was indistinguishable from the deep blue sea, only when it swallowed a blue whale hole like it was simply taking in a breath where the blue whale was in the open water one heartbeat- then that danger’s stomach the next, eviscerated in the space between heartbeats and dead before they got the chance to register the instant and the pain with it, of their own death.
“What was her last name again?” Alessio asked Cesario once they barely managed to hide from the cops on their way out, in an alley, behind a dumpster.
“Fortunada. God I hope Adorabella made it out of there.” Cesario answered as he turned and looked through the back window as Alessio looked at the guards with wide shocked eyes as Alessio finally seemed to catch up then Alessio’s looks turned pleading as he subtly shook his head no as Vance and Trevor nodded before Vance drove out of their hiding place then home.
“Beautiful Bella Baby Girl.” Alessio breathed in a shudder because the last person who had said those words about the wonder he was just in the presence of, was a wonder he genuinely believed the universe had only made in its own perfect singularity only once. He knew her by another name but Miss Especially Spectacularly Perfect…fit. Alessio swallowed thickly and blinked back tears.
“What?” Cesario asked, barely registering that Alessio had even said anything.
“Nothing, we need to get home.” Alessio offered, but as much as his gut was wanting to dive into the deepest trench to escape, something told him to pause, to wait and see. He had told Cesario that assumption was potentially fatal. He couldn’t be a hypocrite and do the same. Assumptions did kill. And Adora? She chose to save a life, not end it. She didn’t need permission, she didn’t need orders or instructions, she didn’t need to think about it, she didn’t need to see if it would benefit her. In fact, she came when she was called, she helped because she could, and she did it, knowing it would cost her, knowing it was a risk. Because she knew a life was on the line, and she wanted to save it. That’s all she knew. And for her, that’s all she needed to know. Beautiful Bella indeed, but a baby girl- no more.
When Adora got off the phone with her grandpa, she grabbed the clothes she had been wearing before and took the hydrogen peroxide on the medical supplies shelf after she put the bag down on the bench to repack after she took care of herself. She got into the laundry room and poured that hydrogen peroxide on all the blood on the scrubs and then put the scrubs in the washer and dumped the load of dirty laundry on top of it and started the load of laundry as she got redressed and then once the washer and dryer were running she ran back to the ‘medical office’ and quickly cleaned up the bag, using the rest of the hydrogen peroxide to get the bit of blood that got in it and on it, and then double and triple checked everything to make sure not a single thing was missing or out of place in this epic, spectacular, perfect medical bag. Once she repacked her mom’s bag and had made a list of what she had used and what she had repacked, just in case her mom especially would notice in the inventory, she took a picture of it, sent it to her grandpa, got confirmation and agreed on the cover story and blew out a breath of relief once she was all done, thankfully before either one of her parents got home, or her little siblings from elementary and middle school, which was the true clock she set herself to. She practiced the story she was going to tell her parents the whole time.
Because ‘hey I go to school with the brother or son of a mafia boss and he just called me in to do a favor for them because they just had a shootout with a rival in a warehouse that I went into without even knowing if they were still in the middle of shooting it out. So now I’m connected to the Vitale Mafia or whatever it would be named, and they now owe me a favor but will most likely ask for more favors back and forth and once you’re in and once you help, you’re in it for life. But that’s ok because Cesario, for coming from a mafia family is the sweetest, purist cinnamon roll that I would slay every other mafia family for if it meant I could protect him and keep him safe and keep that light in his eyes to burn as bright as any sun, any star,’ was never going to fly. Especially since her oldest sister had already…Adora couldn’t bring herself to finish that thought or sentence as Adora realized the parallels of the situation she now found herself in and her oldest sister’s as that seemed to settle like an anvil in her stomach as she prayed that this would not be or turn out like that.
Because Adora could already feel and sense and intrinsically knew that the magnetic pole that her life had always orbited around, and found that if she orbited closer the length of the proverbial leash actually got longer, the collar looser. And she had been practicing slipping in and out of it. The leash would always be attached to the collar, because if it wasn’t it would be wrapped around her so tight, she would have died before she ever would have gotten a chance to live. Vera had rebelled, bit and ripped and shredded the collar until she was muzzled and caged and she had warred against it until she was practically broken, her will dying just a little bit, every day, believing that if she ever moved, ever barked, ever whined, she’d be snuffed out completely. Her oldest sister, Miss Perfect, had never tried to escape it, had only pulled once and when she was yanked back, she didn’t try to pull again and instead fallen in line and was perfectly obedient, all while a wrathful, rageful resentment festered as it ate more and more of her soul making her a shell, only warmed from the fury inside, Vera, as cold as the metal around her, hiding the last flickers of a candle, waiting for the one with the keys to finally come back, either to kill her or set her free, she didn’t care, just as long as the one who held the keys would hold no others for anyone else. Both were just different kinds of dying, because they had yet to see and get the point.
Bend before you break, don’t bend so far that you broke your stem, don’t stand so rigid you broke when the wind blew harder than you could stand. Bend with the wind, knowing that after it blew, you could stand up again. That was what she had learned and it allowed her to grow much more than most ever saw or could really perceive either and growing an inner strength a mental one, an emotional one and especially a psychological one as she amassed as much knowledge and truth and details and ‘receipts’ as it were. Because of her orbiting so close the magnetic pole had already shown her how they did what they did and she could see and understand the why and once she understood the how, the map made sense. The assets, the resources, the leverage, the loyalty, the duty, the service, and what each member of this very extended “family” had access to, what tools they had, and what tools they preferred and leaned on the most. And she had oh so subtly picked up the ones they never used and while she had to use a little bit of manipulation towards the magnetic pole and the owner, instead of her buying them, they were given to her as something of an inheritance, as something of a responsibility and a ‘starter tool’ for her to learn how to use and how to use well. And if anything, now, she had picked up so many “little tools” that now, no one seemed to notice it. Not even the magnetic pole. And what she had been oh so quietly building with it, would hopefully be enough to either switch the polarity of the pole, or, if she could, turn the damn thing off and keep it off.
But right now, she needed to practice this cover story, over and over as if her Grandpa was there, having her repeat it and getting the sense, the stress and the modulation just right until it would be perfect as Adora chided herself that her oldest sister would have gotten this on the first run. Vera would have gotten it on the second. Only she felt like she needed at least three. But yet, she could still hear her oldest sister remind her of something she seemed to forget often. She only needed one. The right one, the perfect one. It didn’t matter how many she had to mentally go through, thousands, hundreds of thousands if need be. But one, the right one, the only one. That’s the only one she needed.
And that’s what she had now.
“Hey Honey…what’s wrong?” Her mom, Isabella asked as she came home from her shift and saw that her daughter was pacing in the kitchen, as it was clear she had been trying to make dinner but didn’t get very far while her other children were already at the kitchen table doing homework once Adora was able to finish a full 2 minutes before she had to get her younger siblings off the bus and had spent the time from that point, to this one, staging it. It was ready, it was time.
She was ready. She was terrified, but she was ready.
“I did something both good and really stupid.” Adora answered as her eyes glazed with tears before Isabella took them to the mud room by the back door, because Adora wouldn’t be like this, if it wasn’t something bad or at least really serious.
“Ok…?” Her mom nodded.
“And I don’t want dad to overreact or give me consequences just for being a good samaritan.” Adora continued.
“He’s not gonna.” Isabella insisted as she furrowed her brow in concentration.
“A kid I knew from school came into class, a few weeks ago, and then again a few days ago, looking beat to hell, both times. His parents don’t have health insurance and the school nurse did jack shit for him. I barely know him but I felt really bad for him so after school, both times, I had him come to my car and I got my first aid kit out of my trunk and did what I could for him, all he told me was that he got beat up, which considering his wounds? Hell yeah he did. But after that second time a few days ago, I just had a feeling that whoever was beating him up was just going to keep doing it, I didn’t know if he had an abusive parent or family member or what, but he didn’t want to open up about where or who or why or anything. But, I just…I had that gut feeling. Not the one that says ‘if I don’t do something right now, they’re gonna die’, but a ‘when they’re ready, they’ll see the danger and do something. And when they do, they need to have the right person to ask’. So I gave him my number a few days ago. And I told him to use it when he would need me to help again. Even if he would just want me to help, all he had to do was ask.” Adora began.
“Ok, so what did he ask for today?” Isabella asked.
“He asked me to save his life.” Adora choked on a sob as her hand went to cover her mouth, her other to her stomach, fisting her hand in her shirt before her mom pulled her tightly into her arms and hugged her so fiercely as she hugged just as fiercely back.
“He was in a warehouse by the docks. But it wasn’t his life specifically, it was his brother’s. I didn’t ask but considering what I saw and where we were, I could only assume they’re in some kind of underground fight club. But, I know from talking to him before that his family also has all of his surviving grandparents and his great grandmother, all of them living with him and his family, five generations all crammed in together in this tiny apartment and I’m guessing they were doing it just to make extra money for their family or something? Because he doesn’t dress or brag or threaten or anything like that. I have never seen him show any signs that he ever used or uses any of it for himself; he has just enough to blend in with everybody else and that’s all he needs. But I was the only one he could think of to call in for help. Their grandparents must be undocumented or something, and his parents may not even have…but he was scared, they were scared that if someone called an ambulance that there would be police involved and deportation and all that. But I didn’t ask, and they didn’t tell me a whole lot besides the injuries I was working on, and plausible deniability was the only thing I could think of to do to protect myself from whatever was going on. But that’s what the context clues I was able to notice told me. I’m shit at Spanish, especially any and all other dialects out of Spain. And they were speaking so, so, so fast I couldn’t catch any of it because I was too busy trying to pull the fragments of the bullet out of his brother. But, deported was the one thing I was able to catch. And that was the only word I needed to know as to why he felt he needed to call me, not to save himself, to save his brother, someone clearly trying to share such a heavy load and burden with and I couldn’t…five generations! I couldn’t…they can’t…break.” Adora sobbed into her mother’s shoulder. The tears, the heartbreak, the determination- the story- to a degree, even the faces in her head all real. She simply put them as stand-ins in the setting. That’s the only detail she changed. The only thing that mattered, protecting the one thing she needed to protect.
Now, action.
“Apparently, who his brother fought, didn’t take kindly to losing and they ended up shooting his brother three times and stabbed him twice, I don’t know at what order what happened, but from the worst wound, it was a stab on top of a bullet wound, that knife only broke the fragments apart even more and made it so much harder! I almost lost him, more times than he should have ever had to endure. There was no way for him to wait to get traditional care, he would have died today if I hadn’t intervened! I’m proud of myself for going in anyway and when he called, I held up my end and answered, he called, I answered, he asked, I helped, just like I said I would. I did everything I could. I followed the DUSTOFF protocols, your protocols, down to the letter. I followed the procedures, step by step. I worked on the worst wound first and then worked from worst to least and I had my friend put collagen sponges on the 2nd and 3rd worse wounds to help stop the bleeding, I gave his brother everything in the bag for hemorrhaging to get and keep the blood volume up as much as I could.” Adora explained before she started shaking in real fear.
“But at the same time, what I’m more scared of is if Dad tracked me there and I don’t want him to come home and think I’m involved with whatever went down there before I got there. I was just there to help save a life, that’s it! But I don’t want Dad going after them either because they’re already in a compromised situation and I don’t want Dad making things worse for them or think that they pose any kind of threat to me, they don’t! But I pose the largest, greatest, most terrifying threat to them on account of Dad and him watching me like a hawk, especially from work. I saved a life, but I don’t want so many lives destroyed just because I helped someone who may not be…” Adora sobbed.
“Worthy.” Isabella breathed as Adora nodded as Isabella's heart broke even more. If anyone who Bella felt was worthy to help, they were worthy. Adora did not extend a helping hand easily or carelessly. She was always discerning, always watchful, always trying to see the real person, the real needs, but also the real wants, the real strings if they had any and how they tried to pull them. What games they would be playing or what methods of manipulation they used and if they were honest, honorable, loyal, trustworthy, but also if they were noble, because nobility of character had nothing to do with the blood in their veins, it had everything to do with their heart, their intentions, their spirit, their motives.
“I can’t… not after what Stella…” Adora sobbed harder as Isabella scrunched up her face at her eldest daughter’s nickname.
How that went down was wrong. And she could feel Stella pull away from everyone and turn much colder. Stella was still with them out of duty but also preservation, her own and who she too had saved and helped, and who she actually, genuinely loved. But she kept herself separate from him to keep him safe from the forces in the family that most couldn’t even comprehend the kind of power and influence they could pull, draw and apply as they wanted to and needed to- to protect the family as a whole, keep them safe, keep them taken care of where no one in the family gets left behind, unless they left first. With or without the family’s blessing as a whole. Stella pulled away and grew colder even towards Adora, when Adora was innocent and hadn’t done anything to deserve the distance or the coldness and Adora had tried to reach out and tried to scale the walls Stella had put up around herself to protect herself from everyone and everything, especially the rest of her family as a whole in general. Adora didn’t know or understand- the what or the how or the why, other than Stella was pulled away from someone after she saved them, because who she saved, her father and especially her grandfather and everyone else in… “their family” didn’t approve and didn’t think was worthy either, especially once it was clear she had fallen in love with him, even for as complicated and dangerous as he was, all on his own, but with Stella, it was clear she brought the best out of him, but still, it had to be Stella’s choice, especially when Stella was made to choose between who she saved and loved, but knowing that if she did, she was out. Out of the family, out of their protection, out of everything, her family’s love as a whole and her place among them included. And if anything happened to her, even if she called, even if she had innocent children she was trying to save, no one was going to answer. And if they did? They were out too. Because who she had saved and who she fell in love with posed a greater threat to her, her immediate family and the greater family as a whole by association because of who and what he was and who he was to everyone else outside of her and her immediate family. But neither Stella or who she loved were going to give up. Because Isabella had found a single loophole, a single lifeline between them and herself and her children. It was the only thing keeping Stella, her love and Isabella and her kids together and their own cell in their family, in their extended family.
But, right now they were actually looking forward to having Grandpa with them. And Adora did love and adore her grandfather and he loved and adored her twice as much. Had since her birth and especially after…
Isabella shuddered a sob as she tried to stay focused on Adora and what she was saying.
“But, there was so much blood, there was no way for me to make out if they had any gang tattoos or whatever and while I couldn’t catch what they were saying, how they were saying it didn’t sound like ‘We’ll get them back for this’ it was all fear! It was all ‘if the cops come, we’re fucked and our families are fucked’. They were scared, they were scared for this guy’s life but they were also so scared for themselves. So, I just got tunnel vision on the injuries, and keeping him alive was all that mattered to me and I at least tried to explain what I was doing either before or while I was doing it to have something akin to informed consent. And I made a list of what I used, I used a lot and I know it’s not cheap and I know it’s hard to get a lot of this stuff.” Adora insisted as she couldn’t help but start to shake even more as her mom softly shushed her to get her to calm down and to stop shaking.
Adora, rightfully, but heartbreakingly- being more fearful of her Dad’s reaction than whatever danger her daughter went into was a problem that needed to be fixed as Isabella started crying too. She was going to make sure her husband Lior would not react badly to this and Adora was not going to face any consequences over this either. She knew Lior could and would be overprotective sometimes, but even he needed limits and let their daughter slide on this. This was obviously a worst case scenario. Adora got the list out and put it into her mom’s hand behind her back as Isabelle took a quick glance at it, not caring how much it would cost to buy the replacements or who hard it could be either. Her daughter saved a life, she did something good, even at serious risk to herself, but also did it even when Lior posed a greater threat to them, just by connection and association.
“I know Honey. I know you’d never knowingly get mixed up in something or anything like that. Don’t worry about Dad ok? I’ll handle him. And trust me, I will see to it that Dad will understand and I’ll make sure he doesn’t discipline you for obviously doing the right thing. He may not be happy about where you did it, but that was clearly outside your control and you did the best you could with what you had and I’m so proud of you for taking everything you needed. I’ve needed to make you your own medical bag anyway and this is the perfect excuse to get you one and it’s going to be fitted out just like mine is and just like your Dad’s is. But you were so brave going in anyway, because you knew a life was on the line and you were the only one they knew they could turn to, that they could trust to help them but also trust your confidence too. They could trust that you knew what you were doing and that they could count on you to pull through and show up for them especially since you were the only one who could. They’ve both been your patients and while it wasn’t in a hospital, HIPPA still counts and patient confidentiality still counts too. And your dad respects plausible deniability just as much. And that’s just one more layer of protection for you.” Isabella soothed and comforted her daughter.
“Thank you. It just sucked because of course, after the gunshots, everyone else scattered so that by the time I got there, it was just him and his brother and a few other close friends who I didn’t know but I’m guessing were in the same circumstances he’s in? Most likely? But I did what I could to save his brother’s life and when I left, he was still alive and getting dragged to a friend’s car to get out of there before the police could come because, again, gunshots, of course that would get reported to the police. And thankfully I did what I could before they showed up and I got away before I could get caught or detained or questioned or anything and I passed the cops on the streets, after I pulled out of there and was far enough away, I hope they assumed I was with regular traffic. I have no idea if they got out or not and I did my best to not leave anything that could trace me there either, other than my GPS. I didn’t ask any questions that could be incriminating or whatever, neither did I get names or anything like that, I didn’t even get his brother’s name, the guy I was working on. I just needed to know what the injuries were, not names, not who did it, not what they were doing or why or whatever. It was stupid that I went into the situation blind, beyond knowing a GSW and stabbed. And it was stupid to practically run into a metaphorical fire without any other gear than your medic bag. But I asked him not to call me again for anything like that ever again because I didn’t want to be involved with whatever was going on there. Fixing him up at school is one thing, this was something completely different. While I’m proud of myself for choosing to help anyway. I’m not cool with ever doing anything like that again. And I already blocked his number and I feel bad doing that, but I don’t think either you or dad would be cool if I became a Florence Nightingale for an underground fight club or whatever. I know I’m not.” Adora explained, crying and being as truthful as she could be.
“Adora, I’m so proud of you! You did the right thing. I’m proud of you for going in there and doing what you could and I know that you know enough as far as procedure and protocols and I’ve seen you practicing stitches all the time and nothing forces you to know and use what you know like those kinds of situations. It doesn’t sound like you gave yourself a chance to panic until after you got home, obviously. I’m not mad or upset or anything. Being a good samaratan is never a bad thing or something you should ever be punished for. I’ll talk to your Dad and make sure he doesn’t go after who you were helping either, because if they’re undocumented or whatever, they shouldn’t be punished for needing that help either. And being in that location when you were can be explained away a thousand different ways. And I’m also proud of you for putting your boundaries down after the fact too. But I wouldn’t block his number or anything like that. You were obviously the only person he’s known that he can count on for something like that and obviously it was a huge favor that he can probably never repay.” Isabella soothed.
“No, he can’t. I don’t want him to even try either.” Adora offered as she shook her head as she nuzzled her face into the crux of her mom’s shoulder and neck as her mom petted her head and hair, soothing her more.
“Because you’re a good person with a good heart and you care in a world that doesn’t. It doesn’t sound like he was taking any kind of unfair advantage of you either. It was an honest and genuine emergency.” Isabella offered as Adora silently nodded her head before Isabella pulled away slightly to hold her daughter’s face in her hands and kissed her daughter’s tears away by peppering her face with kisses and repeating that she loved her and was proud of her between each one until Adora started to giggle before Isabella hugged her again, but tighter too before she felt her daughter relax and sag which was what most people did when they finished getting all of that kind of thing out.
“Here, you rest, you had a really big, rough day, I’ll finish dinner. Don’t worry about Dad ok? If he asks? I’ll answer with what you’ve told me, as the honest truth as it clearly is. And if he has any further questions? But not obviously entrapping or incriminating ones, I’ll help you answer or if you don’t know? Then you don’t know. And I’ll make sure that your ‘I don’t know’s’ are accepted, because you can’t give what you don’t have. Again, you didn’t ask, they didn’t tell and you can’t tell what you don’t know and he also knows that assumptions are dangerous because what you assume and what the truth is may be way off and it may not even be that bad, or even if it was worse? You didn’t know and your ignorance is another layer of protection too. Honestly I’m so relieved it wasn’t an active crime scene that could have been like a gang on gang thing or even a mafia thing because I think that area belongs to- I don’t know, I don’t keep up with any of that, but that is a thing in this area too. But a warehouse even on someone else’s turf is still fair game for stuff like that. But even if it was? You’re ok. You’re safe and in the clear. Because you came in and helped, not knowing and especially for not asking? It means you’re golden and if anything earned even more respect and trust. ” Isabella reassured her as Adora simply nodded and tried not to cry anymore.
“Did you tell them about what risk they took when they called you?” Isabella asked.
“I only alluded to it, I never told them any specifics or anything or even who or where or what it could be. But they seemed to pick up on it and seemed to believe me. When I was almost done, last three stitches on a wound I couldn’t get glued shut and we heard the sirens and tried to get the fuck out of there after I did the last three as fast as I could and cut the string before I told them ‘I could never do that again because I posed a greater risk to them than they and whatever they were into -to me.’ And at least I learned that lesson through Vera and not personally. But Dad could very well have used those same drones or satellites to track and hunt them too and I just don’t want him to. And I called Grandpa just in case, and I told him everything already. He agreed I did the right thing but he did remind me that I should probably look before I leap next time but he agrees that I should probably get my own medic bag that to him, I earned it and that if you weren’t pissed at me or disappointed in me for using such precious supplies for who I did, that if it was an active engagement, you’d be cheering me on so loud you’d grow wings.” Adora admitted as Isabella laughed through the last of her tears.
“Well, yeah Grandpa is probably the best person you could have told about this and if anything Grandpa will protect you like he always has and especially if he was proud, Dad will be too. I promise that I’m not pissed or disappointed. I’m just as proud of you right here right now. Because to me, it might as well have been an active engagement. And honestly, if they mess around, they will find out. All it takes is one move, one word from you to either Dad or especially to Grandpa since you are his favorite, always have been, always will be and he’d send troops, squadrons and a literal army for you. Otherwise, they’ll have the unit up their asses so far they’ll be puppets.” Isabella snorted a laugh and nodded as Adora nodded emphatically with big, wide eyes.
“At least you warned them. That warning, if they take it seriously, will protect them too. Because while you helped, you can unwittingly harm too and they can’t afford the risk you come with.” Isabella noted as Adora kept nodding emphatically.
“I just…I would rather they be protected by never being on the radar in the first place.” Adora answered.
“Ok, consider it done.” Isabella nodded.
“Baby Girl, you did so, so good. Don’t worry about this, I’ll take care of this. No biggie. And your dad never notices until we get down to three or less of anything. And we have like, six or seven of this stuff, I sincerely doubt he’d ever notice. Besides, I keep that inventory, not him.” Isabella reassured her.
Thankfully, Lior had been working, directing the unit deployed overseas anyway and hadn’t noticed but once Isabella told him as he was driving home, then he called Grandpa and Grandpa told him what he and Adora agreed he would tell him and he agreed with his wife and Grandpa that Adora had done the right thing and he would be praising her but would keep this under wraps and off the radar. Lior came home and just hugged Adora tight as she started crying again as he just held her and comforted her.
“Baby Girl, it’s ok, I promise it’s ok, everything is fine. You’re ok, I’m ok, everyone else is ok, that’s all that matters. You’re ok, you’re safe and sound and still in one piece, that’s an achievement trust me.” Lior soothed as Adora mumbled a ‘but…’ into his chest as his shoulders sagged.
“No buts Baby Girl. I’m so sorry that you have to worry more about me reacting than you did about going into something like that. Honey, I would never punish you for this or anything like this either. You did the right thing, you were called in an extreme emergency and you answered because you said you would. That’s what matters. You followed through and you are a young woman of your word, just like I’m a man of mine. I’m very impressed that you were able to do all of that and if he was still alive when you saw him last? Holy cow did you do great! I’m so proud of you too! And you got away too?! Epic, Baby Girl!” Lior praised his daughter as she stopped her sniffles and peeked up at him as he cupped her cheek in his palm and then kissed her forehead.
“You did good. I’m so proud. And if law enforcement or whatever try to attach you to any of that? I’ll take care of it. You had the choice to help or not to help and you made the right choice today. You chose to help, you chose to go in and help when everyone else was running away and honestly, you were perfect for something like this, and they made the right call in calling you in the first place, they really lucked out with you. Plus, you have patient confidentiality, HIPPA, plausible deniability, don’t ask- don’t tell and a squeaky clean record going for you too, you’re all kinds of covered and protected and we’re on your six ok? You have such a good heart and you temper that with a firm grip on reality and healthy boundaries and you don’t get taken for a fool or are naive to think that just because you’re a good person, doesn’t mean everyone else is. You do all of that to keep yourself safe. Plus, you’ve never given me any reason to worry or especially any reason to doubt you or not trust you and you’ve earned every bit of respect and trust and faith. I never have had a reason to worry about you. Plus, you’ve never betrayed any of it and you obviously aren’t gonna start now and I’m so proud of you for calling Grandpa in first, because you know he’d pick up and he’d listen and he’d always have your back because you didn’t know if either Mom or I would be in a position to drop everything to come and help, but Grandpa is. And that’s why he’s semi-retired. And I’m so proud of you for calling him before and especially after and telling him everything, down to the nitty gritty details, because you knew that even the smallest one might be important.” He praised.
“You have a good, level head on your shoulders and you were able to keep your cool through all of that and only gave yourself permission to panic after. Not before, not during, but after. That’s really extraordinary especially for you, especially for a girl your age and especially when this was your first big save. This totally counts as active engagement in my book. Totally brag worthy if you didn’t have to worry about them getting any heat off of it. You told the truth and didn’t try to downplay it or water it down either. You already told your mom and Grandpa everything that you knew and they told me what I needed to know, and honestly, I don’t need to know more than I already do about this. And I won’t be looking into it either. Because you’re obviously just trying to protect them from further harm too. It’s important to me to make sure I don’t threaten that. You want them off the radar? They’re off the radar and I’ll make sure no one, especially myself or even Grandpa or anyone else in the family will look into this or dig. Because you know that they have so much more at risk if we do. And we respect your own protection over them. That’s more than enough. Consider them protected. And if they ever need anything else or anything more, that’ll be your call to make. I trust you to make that call. Mom and I both do, as does Grandpa. This is your engagement. Only you decide where it goes from here or if it was a one and done, wham, bam, thank you mam? Great. If they’ll need help to protect them from ICE or whatever, or if they need resources or connections to make sure nothing like that is a threat to them? We’ll do all we can, once you give the go-ahead, if you think you need to. But a respectful distance, like you’ve asked, is honestly the best that you can do for them and that they can do for you.” He reassured her as he could feel her smile and smiled softly. He had been too harsh on Stella and even more on Vera, he couldn’t make the same mistakes with Adora. Adora deserved so much better than that. And he too was trying to find a way to make amends to help bring his family, as fractured as it had become, back together as much as he could.
“However I only have one question that your mom didn’t think to ask and Grandpa didn’t tell me.” He prompted as Adora simply looked to him to ask.
“Did you bring any of your guns?” He asked as she nodded.
“GSW, always assume that if there’s even one GSW that there’s a potential for more. But the threat was gone before I got there, so I kept my ankle ones on, and my concealed carry at my waist but left the bigger stuff in the trunk. Didn’t fire any of them though.” Adora answered.
“Oh Good Girl! That’s my Girl! My perfect Beautiful Bella Baby Girl!” Lior cheered in relief before he hugged her again and kissed the crown of her head and then all over her face in fatherly affection that made her giggle which made him giggle.
“I did my best to make sure I didn’t leave anything that could ever be traced back to me at the scene, but they still left with the IV bags, the Beefy and the Grape Juice, the latter might be a problem if they didn’t make it in time though and got caught by the cops. But I wore gloves, no fingerprints. And I wore my gloves until I got home and disposed of them here and then made sure to use hydrogen peroxide on everything to neutralize the blood and then wiped the car down and stuff. Just to make sure I didn’t bring any of that home with me. Mom told me not to block the number but I erased the contact and then all the data to make sure it wouldn’t show on my phone at least and Mom took care of the GPS data too, to make it look like I never left home.” Adora insisted.
“Oh, you are so, so, so smart! Covering your tracks destroying any trace that you were there. Even if they did get caught, and even if they talked and named you? Again, we have more than enough to prove assumed innocence. Like mom said, you helped him at school a couple times, and you’re right, that’s one thing and this is something completely different. And if they think they can use you to save themselves? They got another thing coming to them. But again, you didn’t ask, they didn’t tell, and they can use that just as well. They didn’t ask you and you didn’t tell- either. Otherwise, we won’t know until we know. And if he’s not in school tomorrow, or the next few days, it might be safe to assume something happened. But if he’s at school tomorrow, I think it would be safe to assume they made it. Just wait and see. And if I don’t go sniffing around, then no one will assume that there’s something to sniff out either.” Lior reassured her as she nodded.
“And I’m super proud of you for putting down boundaries and sticking to your guns, well, obviously not literally.” Lior praised.
“Thank you for giving me them in the first place.” Adora thanked her Dad.
“Oh Sweetie, of course, let’s go eat dinner.” Lior encouraged as he hugged Adora into his side and walked into the dining room with her as her mom was setting the food on the table.
The next morning, Manny met her at her car.
“Did Chez call you?” Manny asked.
“Chez? Don’t you mean Chaz?” Adora asked, perfectly playing the confused ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, are you crazy?’ role, like she usually did, to utter and complete perfection.
“No, Chez, as in Cesario Vitale.” Manny clarified.
“As in like that…that Cesario who just pulled into the parking lot and has been driving his new BMW as a birthday present? How could he ever call me? I’ve never given him my number and he’s never asked for it or anything else like that either and vice versa. He’s never even talked to me outside of class. I wouldn’t be a blip on that snob’s radar if I didn’t grade his math homework in class. I piss him off for getting on him about not showing his work. Like, that makes absolutely zero sense. Why would he call me? And for what? I wouldn’t even know how he would ever get my number either from anyone else either. Unless it’s one of those prank date things. In which case, I’d beat his ass, his daddy would probably sue, but it’d be worth it.” Adora asked as she got out of her car and put her backpack on.
“Ha, well, you see…he, he called me yesterday, he got hurt and needed to get patched up like you’ve patched me up. So I gave him your number.” Manny excused.
“Oh, well he may have called but I don’t answer numbers I don’t know and I never got a voicemail. What time would he have called me?” Adora asked.
“Sometime after school?” Manny offered as Adora showed him her phone screen and the call logs and Manny blew out a breath of relief when he didn’t see Cesario’s number on her phone. He must have fudged the numbers and Manny had already blocked Cesario’s number on his phone.
“Yeah, he never called you, don’t worry about it. Obviously he’s fine, cry baby.” Manny rolled his eyes as Adora snorted and nodded and put her phone away.
“Well he doesn’t look bruised and beat to hell, at least from here. I’ll see if he limps though or if he’s in that long sleeved turtle neck for any reason other than he’s cold.” Adora shrugged.
“Nah, it’s nothing, no need to worry about it, you don’t owe him shit and neither do I. He didn’t call, he didn’t ask so you didn’t answer or give. Besides, he's probably one of those ‘I look so dark and mysterious but I’ll use and abuse you’ types.” Manny offered.
“Eh, I don’t care. It’s not my problem. Like you said, he didn’t call, he didn’t ask, so I never got the chance to say yay or nay to whatever it could have been, still don’t owe that preppy snob jack shit. Plus, isn’t his family like, super loaded? Why would he call me to patch him up? Why wouldn’t he just go to a hospital or whatever? If his parents bought him that BMW, they can obviously afford health insurance. Who knows? Maybe they own a health insurance company or a hospital or something. Plus, I don’t need to get sued for malpractice just trying to do that whole good samaritan thing. I know you have genuine need, there’s no way he does.” Adora waived off.
“You’re right. He may have just called me to say that, but it was probably just trying to hook up with you or something.” Manny shrugged before Adora gagged sarcastically which made Manny laugh.
“Oh God bless you Adora, you’re the best. I’ll catch you later.” Manny offered before he jogged after his friends before Adora simply paused and looked over her shoulder to see Cesario slowly get out of his car and gingerly get his own backpack on. Fuck. She hadn’t known he was hurt too before she turned and went up to him.
“I should have asked if you were hurt too.” Adora murmured.
“It’s nothing compared to…” Cesario tried to shrug off.
“Did he make it?” Adora asked as Cesario could still see worry even as conflicted as she still was.
“Thanks to you.” He nodded.
“Good.” Adora nodded as she blew out a breath of relief.
“Did you guys make it out in time?” Adora asked next.
“Yeah, by the skin of our teeth. Did you?” Cesario asked.
“Yeah, I was already in traffic when I passed them.” Adora nodded.
“Oh good.” Cesario blew out a breath of relief which made Adora give a small grin. Aww, he cared.
“Did your parents or whoever come down on you?” Cesario asked next.
“No. My dad was…on duty. He didn’t notice. My mom did though, but she’s cool, proud of me actually. Told her that it was an underground fight club and that your brother won the match and who he beat didn’t take kindly to losing to him and stabbed him and shot him in retaliation, or at least, that’s what the “context clues” told me because, again, I didn’t ask, no one told. Plus, gun shots make people scatter and also call the police. I also may have told her that the reason you called me was because your parents and or grandparents were undocumented and didn’t have health insurance and that you were speaking a dialect of Spanish or something that I don’t know and that the only word I caught was ‘deported’ and that I noticed a few weeks ago and then a few days ago where you came to school beat to hell and I used the first aid kit in my car because the school nurse doesn’t do shit and that ‘beat up’ was self explanatory, I just had no idea about the fight club until yesterday. And, again, all that I had to go on was context clues and that I didn’t ask and no one told me besides what injuries he had and that I never even got your brother’s name or the names of anyone else, who I could only assume were also in the same circumstances. Also, plausible deniability and HIPAA and patient confidentiality are things she absolutely believes in. Bought it hook line and sinker and then proceeded to sell it to my dad for me, and he never got on my case for any of it- once he did come home. His only question to me was if I brought my gun and if I fired it so he’d have to go and destroy evidence and erase my presence, even in any evidence, which again, he’s done that a few times before then too for..way too many people. And all it takes is a single phone call and things disappear, but usually that phone call means that the people who caused those things to be in existence in the first place disappear too. And I’m just relieved he’s never had to do that with me, yet. And I’d like it to stay that way too. Which is why the deported story needed to land and stick. And with that excuse, it meant they won’t go sniffing and if they don’t go sniffing, it means that there was nothing to sniff out in the first place. Which is much more important to me, besides saving your brother’s life.” She explained as Cesario nodded and breathed a big breath of relief.
“Plus, considering the circumstances, I take it you needed someone who- 1- knew what the fuck they were doing. 2- wouldn’t ask questions they don’t need answers to and 3. Was trustworthy enough to know that patient confidentiality means that anything that I saw and heard was between me and you and no one else has any right to know or put their nose where it doesn’t belong. And 4- Don’t ask, don’t tell, saves lives. And your brother’s life needed saving and that’s exactly what needed to happen and the only thing I cared about, which was why I did it in the first place. But I hope you can understand why I can’t ever do that again. I got them off your trail this time, I most likely won’t be able to next time, if there ever is a next time.” Adora prompted as Cesario nodded in confirmation.
“Yeah, I figured as much. Plus my mom had plenty of supplies at home to restock when I got home. And my dad never does the inventory, she does. So she’s covering me on that front too.” Adora informed him as Cesario grinned and nodded. Oh she was so much smarter than she let on and if she didn’t have something he still couldn’t grasp was a bigger threat than anything else he knew of, she’d be perfect girlfriend material, wife material, whatever he could manage to get.
“Perfect cover story and you’re right, those things were factors into why I called, small factors but factors nonetheless. I’m glad you could restock her bag though. Because I was gonna try to see if I could get you- your own medic bag like hers, not as a favor, but, just as thanks. Bare minimum replace those supplies that you used.” Cesario praised which made Adora grin. That tracked.
“Unless you have military connections, you’re not gonna get half of it and the other half you’d have to go to a hospital known for treating patients who don’t do blood transfusions for religious and or medical reasons. They’re the reason that a whole bunch of substitutions and synthetics got created and came into existence in the first place and new tools and machines and techniques for surgery got to be created and exist now too. And now, it’s not just them that need it or want it, whenever it’s offered, it’s usually taken, no matter if you’re religious or not. Necessity is the mother of invention. We call it Grape Juice or just Grape. And because of all of that, it all makes regular and traditional transfusions the riskier option. And then the military found out that they’re much more stable and are worth the investment and they’re shelf stable at that and last much longer too, it’s saved a lot of soldiers on the field. The key isn’t the concentration of blood, it’s the volume. That’s why I gave him what I did. I was trying to slow down his heart to keep his heart from pumping it out faster than I could plug it in while making sure nothing collapsed, but I couldn’t give him any tranquilizers cause that would slow down his heart and kill him faster than his hemorrhaging was trying to.” Adora explained.
“But, too bad I was a nervous wreck when my mom came home though. Still working on the poker face- especially when I don’t have one, kind of a problem. Part of being an EMT is not to freak out and tell the patient who is clearly dying, that they’re dying, as they’re dying. Got the dark humor down, though.” Adora offered with a huff like hum as Cesario simply looked at her and now that he was looking closer and taking the time to really keep her as his sole focus, just being this much closer to his crush, he had never realized just how much more beautiful Adora was this close or now that he was looking at her, he was pretty sure nothing outside of her existed. He was so foolish for never realizing what a total badass she was, or clearly something so wonderful and precious that had a heart of gold that was more concerned about him and his family and recognized the situation and the risks and did it anyway because his brother’s life was on the line. And chose to do it anyway. His respect for her was so high it was practically butting its way into heaven at this point;
“But hey, he lived, that’s all that matters and I don’t regret doing it. I just wish…” Adora paused as she searched for the right words.
“That it wasn’t a family business. Even though we’ve been doing our best to get out of it for years now, yesterday was our attempt to get out of the worst of it, obviously we failed.” Cesario supplied regretfully as she looked back up at him as it was like they had an entire conversation with just their eye contact and meaningful looks and suddenly saw each other as each of them truly was, and it was like no one had ever looked and seen them like this before. His expression was begrudging acceptance, as hers was sympathy, because it was clear that he was just as trapped as she was, just as conflicted, just as complicated, but on opposite sides of the same coin. It wasn’t fair that they were both so young but had to deal with forces outside of their control that heavily impacted their lives and were things that they would always have to deal with, well, unless she turned 18 and got out from under all of that. And he could always try to get out too. For her? He’d try, if she would ever like him back and want to try either.
“Yeah. That’s why I don’t want you or your brother or anyone else in your family to think that it’s a favor I ever need or want to be paid back for. I didn’t mind helping yesterday. I’m glad I did actually. But I can’t be a Florence Nightingale either or always or ever be on the hook for that kind of thing either going forward. I understand your need for anonymity, and secrecy. That’s how that kind of family business survives. Hell, it’s how my family survives, in sadly, a very parallel way. Nothing is black and white, everything is a shade of grey and honestly, if anyone in my family were to even try to judge, they’d be hypocrites. That’s why I don’t judge you or your brother or your family or whoever. At least your family gets to be known as a deterrent, mine is only known as a lethal consequence. But then get to be phantoms before and then phantoms after. That’s why because of who I’m connected to, it’s way too dangerous for you and yours. We got lucky. I got lucky especially, but I’m never lucky twice.” Adora offered before her eyes got glassy.
“What happened?” Cesario asked so softly and Adora somehow sensed that of all the people she could tell, he was probably one of the few who could keep that kind of confidence.
“Suicide… my cousin’s, he was older than me but he watched me like he was one of my older brothers too. I only saw the one wrist that I was trying to wrap a towel around. I didn’t see his other wrist until after. The water looked like red paint and his other wrist was in his lap so I couldn’t see through the water, too opaque. My aunt was out of town and his dad was on mission with mine, my mom was in the helicopter, delivering another patient. I was the only one there. I wasn’t even supposed to be there. I wanted to have him come over and help me make cookies or something. and I slipped into his house across the street, cause I saw his car and assumed he was at home because my older siblings had their after school stuff and I didn’t, that’s why he would watch me. But he was the youngest in his family too so I was the little sister he got to have. I used his cell phone to call everyone I could think of. I called Grandpa first, but he didn’t answer, but my mom did, because she knew he wouldn’t call unless it was something serious. Between my sobs she told me to wrap the towel around his arm as hard and as tight as I could and to keep talking to him to keep him awake until she could get there. She barely touched down and all but kicked the patient off the copter and flew straight there, landed in the front yard. He was already gone before my mom ever got back into the air to come. It’s why we we’ve moved the greater “family” in a sense so much. And it feels like when something happens to any of us… “kids” we move again. And it’s why we’re here now. And I didn’t want yesterday to be why we all have to move again.” Adora tried to explain.
“I talk about my Grandpa, and he isn’t, by blood my grandpa, neither was Steven technically my cousin either my adopted Grandpa was actually Steven’s literal, by blood grandson and because Steven saw me as his little sister that meant Grandpa saw me as his granddaughter, before and especially since. But “our family” is a large, extended family no matter what. Especially in the sense that the blood of the oath is always thicker than the water of the womb, that’s for sure. But because of Steven treating me like I was his little sister and doing what I did, that’s why I’m Grandpa’s favorite and in his mind and heart, only granddaughter at that. And it’s why he’s in my phone as The Greatest Grandpa Ever.” Adora revealed as Cesario simply nodded. Another nail in the proverbial coffin.
“We moved here to both keep us close and also to get away from…everything else. All of our “parents” did that to make sure none of them are ever more than 20 minutes from our collective home and it's why they all watch the rest of us like hawks. But instead of cages, it’s tethers, it’s collars and leashes. And it’s why all of my older siblings left as soon as they turned 18, and why all of my cousins do the same. Because they can’t handle that kind of overbearing or the intrusions into their privacy, or the leash or the fucking choke collar. Doesn’t stop any of the parents or especially Grandpa from tracking them all via satellite and drones though. Just “checking in”. And my younger siblings and younger cousins think that it’s normal because they don’t remember when it wasn’t like it is now. But that’s what makes me near nuclear, at least for you and yours. Cause you can’t afford the kind of fall out and exposure that comes with me.” Adora explained, knowing she should keep her distance but couldn’t fight the magnetism that got stronger the closer she got to him either as she tried to dismiss it as traumabonding or something. It was a- ‘one and done and walk away like it never happened’, kind of thing and she didn’t understand why she was telling him so much. Or telling him the most important parts of who, where, when and why, and especially the how.
“I know about the nuclear thing. My older brothers looked into you, found out about your dad and your whole extended family then ordered me to stay away from you and never talk to you again.” Cesario offered, biting his tongue to keep himself from mentioning ‘Stella’, because he couldn’t risk her having a bad reaction to that.
“And yet we’re talking?” Adora smiled and tried not to laugh.
“Hey, you came up to me, practically cornered me.” Cesario put his hands up in surrender that made them both laugh.
“Oh I know, practically holding you at knife point here.” Adora teased.
“Uranium.” Cesario teased back because her smile was so beautiful and her laugh was quickly becoming one of his favorite sounds and he had no idea her eyes could ever be so green in the morning sun as a fantasy of waking up next to her seemed to bloom in his head. Oh he should have gotten over his own introverted nature and asked her out long before yesterday, should have asked her out the moment he saw her and instantly had a crush on her.
“Uranium, right. If you haven’t deleted my number yet, you should save me under the name Uranium. Totally fits.” Adora encouraged sarcastically.
“There.” Cesario offered after he pulled out his phone and did just that before he showed her his phone screen. Adora giggled and did the same, having memorized his phone number the previous day anyway.
“There, now we’re both nuclear.” Adora beamed and Cesario couldn’t resist anymore.
“If I were to ever call you, obviously for not, what I did yesterday, and not for any…family thing, just, just me, would you answer?” He asked, damning his own nervous stammer.
“I would, I’d like that, especially if I could do the same, no…nothing to do with family. Besides, I otherwise only know you from school, and I’ve never seen anything to make me think you’re not like everyone else, like I’m supposed to try and pretend to be too. it would be nice to have someone neither of us would have to mask in front of.” Adora nodded.
“I agree, that would be…so nice. And perfect and the biggest relief honestly.” Cesario offered as they both seemed to nod in unison.
“Likewise. You’re just Cesario, I’m just Adora, that’s all that matters and all we really need to know about each other, or care to ever remember. And anything beyond that is total and complete coincidence. Like names especially. How many Smith’s are there that have never been or never would be related? Plus, we could always speak in generalizations, nothing specific. And if we never ask or answer direct, uncomfortable personal questions, neither of us would really know for sure, and it’s unwise to assume anything you don’t know.” Adora suggested.
“Perfect.” Cesario smiled happily. Oh he was so gone, he was so hers. He was over the moon, passed the stars falling as hard as the nukes they both seemed to be for each other. He didn’t care, blaze of glory, elope, happily ever after, wouldn’t matter, them together for however long they could manage was always going to be worth it.
“Where did you get my number from anyway?” Adora asked. Seeing if he’d fess up too.
“From Manny.” He answered as he nodded over to the guy who was just now, walking into school, with his other friends since he had actively ignored beyond talking to Adora about Cesario.
“Ah, the one who actually does fit the description I gave to my mom. Nice. I know I shouldn’t ask about the favor thing. I just hope whatever he asked for wasn’t that expensive or hard.” Adora offered.
“Nope, it was more of a threat.” Cesario admitted under his breath as he pretended to cough which made Adora snort a laugh but also shake her head and roll her eyes too.
“Yeah, then he gets at least a freebie or two from me then to make it fair to him.” Adora aloofly informed him which made Cesario frown which only made her giggle again.
“Hey, Manny is a good guy, he didn’t deserve you threatening him over anything I already mentioned. He would have told you if you just asked and explained that you were in a pinch and needed my help, no threats needed.” Adora argued.
“Actually I did, because I tried that first and he tossed back that I’m rich and practically own a hospital, and didn’t need to and I quote- “encroach on his favorite medical outlet”.” Cesario revealed as Adora seemed blindsided by that before her eyes narrowed just a little as Cesario seemed to see the same thing move from behind her eyes. Obviously not towards him, but for him. Something he had never seen anyone but his own family do for him. She cared. She didn’t need to or should, but she did. And it warmed his heart and it gave him hope.
“Wait, what? His favorite medical outlet? Not his friend to turn to in times of need, his favorite outlet? Like I’m a shopping mall, outlet? And his favorite, as in he has several? Am I hearing this right? Is that the word he really used?” Adora repeated, her face now showing her offence at that.
“Yeah, outlet, that he needed to guard and keep for himself and only himself, like you were a precious resource he was very jealously guarding. He tried to give me the names of his other ones and what their prices were, but wouldn’t give me yours until I made him choose himself over you.” Cesario explained.
“Oh fuck him. He makes himself the most poor, pathetic, needy…” Adora growled as she turned and stared daggers at Manny’s back but turned around to face Cesario once a chill ran down his spine as Adora tried to take a cleansing breath as she tried to rein in that predator back behind her eyes who now seemed eager to go out on the hunt.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s none of my business, that’s between you and him. But that being said, I kinda want to know who the others he listed off were, because here I thought he was so needy he had no way of paying me for any of it, other than the goodness of my own heart. No wonder he… I don’t care how much that list would be, I would really like to buy it solely for the purpose so that the next time he asks, I can throw those in his face after I tell him to fuck off. Leo almost died. Him getting a busted lip is nothing he can’t fix himself. Especially if he has so many other “outlets” for medical care.” Adora admitted.
“There. Don’t you dare think you owe me or anyone else, anything for it.” Cesario offered as he texted her that information.
“Thank you. Same thing for Leo. Neither you, nor him or anyone else owes me for anything, other than not asking me to do it again for them. For you though? For you, yes.” Adora thanked him as Cesario was about to ask why she made an exception for him.
“Do you know where he fights?” Adora asked.
“Yes I do, that's what I threatened him with, getting raided at his next fight on Friday night.” Cesario nodded.
“I wouldn’t say no to getting that either. Because if my dad or anyone else ever gets curious, or if I would ever have any cause or reason, I wouldn’t mind giving him or anyone else in my extended family who would go hunting- a target. Especially one who sees me as an outlet and not a person who needed to be targeted for usury." Adora offered.
“Oh twist my arm.” Cesario teased as he texted her that too.
“Well since you’re being so generous, here.” Adora grinned mischievously before she pressed send.
“Who’s this?” Cesario asked.
“My favorite fixer, who can sell all kinds of things for the right price. Info, ammo, things that use that ammo, whatever. He’s one hell of a fixer. However, you need to buy in just to have an account, and then after that, you buy whatever you want or need. But- you do not haggle or negotiate with him. The price he gives is the price you pay, period. Otherwise, you run the risk of him turning you and burning you. And it's this much, but once you meet him, you tell him that ‘Vera Very Violent’ sent you to him, because if you give him my name, he absolutely- will alert all the wrong people.” Adora answered as she texted him the price.
“Otherwise, that reminds me I need to make an order from him. I’m low on Grape Juice, Jello, oh what was that third thing…fuel…no, not jet fuel…not blue fuel, red fuel, fool fuel…” Adora tried to jog her memory as she started snapping her fingers as she made a rolling motion.
“Game fuel?” Cesario suggested.
“Oh, ooh, I need that too, but I needed the other kind of fuel.” Adora quickly added that to her list.
“Food as fuel?” Cesario was at a loss.
“Oh! Now I remember, dream fuel and nightmare fuel, cause I’m all out.” Adora noted as she sent him a quick text.
“Count me terrified for what that nightmare fuel could possibly be. I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t just hear the epic badass that you are- utter something that makes me want to shit a brick and piss myself.” Cesario seemed to take breath and look up and away as if he had gotten sucker punched which caused Adora to snicker a laugh.
“There’s no need for you to worry. I would never use it on you. Dream fuel? Yes. Nightmare fuel? Never. That stuff is inhumane. It’s a last resort, last recourse, scorched earth, poison the wells levels of..fucked up.3 The particular kind that I just asked for is just a little something that I may have used on someone who was being a thorn in everyone’s side, mine the most because he was a bully and because he had a high ranking dad and felt he was untouchable, and that tyranny needed to stop, that may have been just a little too strong, because it sent him into a psychiatric facility. Where he's still there to this day. Obviously, you didn’t hear that from me.” Adora offered which got Cesario to giggle.
“Girl, if you don’t stop being the most perfect secret weapon, I may just keep you come what may.” Cesario playfully threatened.
“Oh don’t tempt me beyond what I can bear. And don’t threaten me with a good time either.” Adora insisted before Cesario just went for it and reached out, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her as Adora made something of a whimper, hum, keen, moan, something that made Cesario grin into the kiss before Adora opened her mouth and deepened the kiss. And before they knew it, their backpacks were on the ground in the parking lot and Cesario had pressed her up against the side of his car because this kiss felt magnetic, electric, addictive, like he hadn’t been living or breathing before kissing her.
And Adora had no idea how she had jumped up into his arms, or wrapped her legs around his waist while hand kept her there as he pressed her up against his car, or that his hand that was now holding the back of her head, keeping her mouth on his, threading his fingers into her hair could hold such reverence and desire at the same time. Or that being in his arms, for as dangerous as it was, could feel safer than she had ever felt before.
“Wait, aren’t you hurt?” She asked as she recalled.
“I’ll live.” Cesario tried to say as he seemed to struggle before she gingerly got out of his hold and had him put her down.
“Come on, I’ll patch you up.” She offered as she picked up her backpack and his and walked to her car and popped the trunk where a rather large medical kit was in the trunk before she had him sit on a special stool she pulled out from her trunk before she patched him up the way she should have yesterday as she took three bottles of water and put in three different packets of powder and shook the bottles up, one turning blue, the other turning red, the last turning purple.
“What is that?” He asked.
“Project Recovery.” She answered.
“Take these with this and chug.” She urged him as she had been putting together a little cup full of meds.
“The blue tries to taste like blue raspberry, but it tastes like blue balls.” Adora commented as Cesario tried not to choke on it or snort it through his nose and actually did end up having to hold his nose to get it down.
“Now take these, this tries to taste like Red Punch and it tastes closer to a bloody mary.” She offered next as Cesario did the same, and drank it down and started sweating when it felt like he was almost drinking hot sauce.
“And last but not least, Grape, this one actually tastes like concord grape juice and it’s the nicest of the three.” She offered next as he just swallowed the pills and this one, he chugged enthusiastically.
“There, you’ll be ok.” Adora offered before he pulled her into his lap as she readily got back into it before he kissed her again as she melted into him and kissed him back just as enthusiastically.
“I should have done that the first day I met you.” He admitted.
“No time like the present. Besides, I have a feeling we’re just getting started.” She smiled back.
Or, aka Kabluey Part 7 where Sasha finally gets justice. Over Jake and his dad, the Alpha of the Meadow Pack who has been turning a blind eye to all of his son's horrific actions and has now had to come to terms of his own misdealings. Also Part 6 is the only one not in chronological order. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. Also I would like to apologize for the inconsistancies in the moodboards. It is on my list of things to do, it just happens to be towards the back/end of it.
(Also I would like to apologize to the Lautners who actually do own Gull Meadow Farms in South West Michigan, I've never met you and don't know any of your names and if any names match up that is an accident and a complete coincidence I promise. You guys run an amazing apple orchard that I love so dearly and is a 'Can't leave Michigan in the fall without going and picking apples and eating doughnuts and go through the maze in the fall' thing on my check list. I'm sure you're all lovely people. And this is no way shape or form an attack of any of you or your amazing farm. I just grew up going to your farm and loving it and as a writer, you write what you know and it's not fair that I'm pitting Leduc's against Gull Meadow, because one is- blueberries and the other is apples. I just needed something that's grounded in reality. Thank you.)
Again, I apologize for getting this out in freaking MAY. But with poor health and chronic illness, it just goes with the territory. But I promise I will finish this so help me God. I only have 7 left. I can do this, I can do this. Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent and @borealwrites for keeping this open for me. I really appreciate it. Enjoy.
Monster March 2026- Day 24- Werewolf
Kabluey Part 7
Records of All Manners
Sasha wanted to throw up. She had been both trying to prepare for today and dreading it at the same time. Because, her days in court had finally come to bring Jake and his father and others who were guilty of the crimes that had come against the Meadow Pack now had to answer for them.
She wasn’t worried about seeing Jake again, or his dad Michael, or the others who had come to the call that Jake had made when he had tried to come and kill Tristan the last time they were in the same place at the same time.
No, what worried her was the witness stand. She didn’t know if she had the nerve to try to talk about Jake’s assault. Even though the army of lawyers from the Brotherhood, the Alliance, the Coalition had taken a joint venture in this case, all of them had insisted that her pre-recorded testimony was more than enough. She just had a gut feeling that Jake or Michael would pull something. Insanity plea? Or something worse?
But her army of lawyers assured her that they had more than enough ammunition to practically nuke Jake and Michael and the other guilty parties. Plus, Sasha had Tristan on one side of her and Zara on the other and her immediate family behind her, as was Tristan’s, and Maggie and Don especially were there. Representing themselves as both family and representing the Brotherhood too, today was the first day of court hearings the charges would be read and evidence submitted to make sure that each party accepted the mountain of evidence.
And while Amaryllis was whimpering because she could feel Sasha’s anxiety as her own and it tore Sasha’s heart out to hear it as she tried not to break out in a sob and just jump the barrier to get Amaryllis and flee with her in her arms and just let Tristan handle this. And Ari wasn’t even 6 months old and obviously still nursing since her mom had put a nursing cover on. Autumn was trying to hold Amaryllis but Amaryllis was doing that ‘I have no bones, body is made of limp jelly’ tactic. And while Sasha appreciated the support, there was no way for everyone who supported her could come in here and honestly, Sasha wanted to keep this to as few people as she could. She did not want to relive the assault by having to talk about it to a court room full of people who she never met, let alone never wanted them to know the worst moment in her life. She felt violated even having to record the testimony in the first place but with Brie there for it, and holding Sasha’s hand since Brie had helped Sasha through that darkest of moments, she helped get Sasha through it and helped Sasha realize that all Sasha did was speak the truth, her truth and it wasn’t as much of a violation as it was- setting the record straight. But still, Sasha just sat and stared at the witness stand with dread.
And then, something surprising happened. Patricia, Michael’s ex-wife and ex-Luna to his Alpha too, came in with Pam Hodgens, Michael’s secretary and assistant who had been Michael’s father Sean’s secretary and continued her work as the Official Secretary and Executive Assistant to the Meadow Pack and their Alpha and his leadership. She was always an exceptional records keeper and had been doing so since day 1 of her filling that position. But since Michael’s arrest, the Meadow Pack imploded and there was no longer a Meadow Pack. But that just meant that a new pack, the Knight Pack- took it over and got to replace it, practically overnight and was able to get into the Brotherhood without a problem. And they kept Pam on for their pack, serving the same job and function she had always served.
Pam had still faithfully recorded everything, even down to the very last session the Meadow Pack had in the Pack Hall when it was decided to disband since the Meadow Pack had practically imploded ever since Sasha had tried to go there and plea her case but Michael had dismissed her before she ever got half way through her plea and especially since Michael and Jake and all those who had answered his call had been arrested, it left the pack without an Alpha, without a Luna and without anyone who could inherit it. Besides, the pack members who had stayed true to the Meadow Pack had much bigger problems and way bigger fish to fry since it came out that a Priestess of Aura had been there, defending Tristan as everything he was with the Brotherhood, the Coalition and everything else, they were all instantly screwed and had been arrested right in the Pack Hall, trying to have an emergency meeting, as their last meeting. Ever since then, they all had the Feds so far up their asses, they couldn’t tell which end was up anymore and would have their own day in court after all of this.
Patricia came over and gave Sasha a hug and praised her for finally getting the courage to find her voice and making sure she was heard and had gotten an army of lawyers who had come together from so many firms and had salivated at the mountain of evidence. Patricia whispered something to Sasha as Sasha was thankfully hidden in Patricia’s voluminous chocolate curls that Patricia had done on purpose to hide Sasha’s reaction.
“Thank you so much for coming. I’m sorry if this is hard for you.” Sasha offered as tears filled her eyes.
“Sasha Sweetie? It’s not hard on me at all. Don’t worry about me. I’m so happy I could be here for you and support you however I can. Don’t worry about a thing, ok? Records of all manners. It's their own words against them. Not against your word, and definitely not against the mountain of evidence. None of them will ever see it coming, because they all made the mistake of underestimating us. Us girls got to stick together, through thick and thin. So just stay strong ok? Stay brave. Stay courageous. Justice will be served. I promise. Thank you.” Patricia whispered into Sasha’s ear.
“For what?” Sasha asked as she pulled away.
“For saving us all. You’ll see.” Patricia grinned with a nod at Sasha who gave a small smile in return before Patricia moved her attention to Tristan.
“Hi Tristan, it’s always great to see you.” Pratricia offered sweetly as Tristan had already stood up and hugged her tight.
“Thanks for coming.” Tristan murmured.
“Of course. I wouldn't miss this chance to give and show support however I can. Especially to Sasha who needs it the most. The first day in court is always so jittery and makes everyone nervous. But it’ll get better. It’s going to be ok, you guys will pull through just fine. Just keep taking care of the best girl ever, like you have since the day you met her and every day since. I’m so proud of you for everything you’ve done and will continue to do. Sasha couldn’t be in better hands.” She praised.
“Thank you.” Tristan replied gratefully, because while Jake was practically a sociopath, as was his Dad. Patricia was wonderful and honestly, a godsend and helped and gave support however she could, whenever she could and was the ally that was the most surprising for Tristan to gain, once Sasha revealed her as such. Because when the army of lawyers were collecting evidence, Patricia had been the first to offer everything she still had access to. And only hoped it would be enough for the cause, because she knew that every little bit helped.
“You and Sasha will get through this just fine, you’ll see.” Patricia offered as she pulled away and gave him an adoring smile and a nod before she withdrew, but walked by Zara who was there in her priestess of Aura regalia.
“Always a pleasure to see you.” Patricia offered as Zara got up and hugged her.
“I see you brought the fireworks.” Zara whispered in Patricia’s ear.
“Yes I did and they are spectacular.” Patricia whispered before she gave a small giggle.
“How’s that new man treating you?” Zara asked.
“Legs are still mostly jelly. It’s a wonder I’m walking, let alone in heels.” Patricia snickered which got Zara to snort a laugh.
“Let the show begin.” Zara offered as Patricia gave Zara a nod as her grin grew knowing and mischievous before turning she turned to Maggie and Don and gave them a little wave and happy smile to see them again before she walked over to where Pam was, who was seated right behind Michael.
“Thank you for coming.” Michael thanked Pam once she had come into the courtroom, gave her polite nods but otherwise came to sit as close to Michael as she could manage as Michael had never wanted to hug another being more but was still in chains and chained to the table. But having her here was the most comforting thing in the world to him- in that moment.
“Well, while the Meadow Pack disbanded, and my duties and my contract have been fulfilled at the hall at least, I still wanted to come, and try to be of service. And while this is a courtroom and not the pack hall, you are still an Alpha, whether you have a pack or not, or even if you and Jake are all that’s left of the Meadow Pack, at least in that respect, I still take this as my duty. ‘For the records, to keep them whole, to keep them complete so that not one thing is missing. Records of all manners. To the best of my ability’.” Pam repeated, always, that same phrase that was quite literally in her job description that she had written out herself on her first day at the Meadow Pack Hall. And for as often as she said it, and the way she said it, like everything they did mattered, that everything about the Meadow Pack was worth keeping an account of. For Michael, it had been for posterity. But now, it was a strange comfort to hear those words. Because for him, he had been worth remembering, as now, he wondered if it was a more of a cautionary tale at this point. Never put your own flesh and blood over the pack as a whole. Because that had killed his pack, and had killed countless others too.
“It’s been my life’s work and it has been my honor to do so. And it should be done just as well today, as it was on day 1.” Pam insisted as she took out her trusty pen she always used. It was one of a set, one had blue ink, one had black and the only way to tell them apart was that the one with black ink had a black ring around the end, and the one with blue ink had a blue ring. They were a gift from Sean Lautner on her first day. They were pens that were exceptionally well made and had never once shown any wear in all these years. And she still had boxes of ink cartridges/refills for them as the “official pens of the secretary for the pack for records of all manners,”. Michael’s eyes grew glassy at her declaration.
“Faithful to the last, Mrs. Hodgens. You have always set the standard of perfection for all secretaries to all packs, even for my pack of 2. It means the world to me that you’re here. Even when…the worst things…” He tried to say but his voice cut off.
“Alpha Michael, it doesn’t matter what the records will say from this point forward, all that will matter is that they will be complete. They will be whole. Not one thing will be missing. Not even the end, whatever it will be. Records of all manners, remember? To the best of my ability. You are one of two left of the pack and you are still Alpha Michael Lautner of the Meadow Pack. That means my contract is still valid, because you are still here as you’ve always been, the Alpha. Just because the location has changed, doesn’t mean my record keeping will end. Also, thank you for sending me those tapes while you’ve been away with the various conversations you and Jake have had with your legal team as the pack members you two still are. It has helped a great deal. Because once I was able to transcribe what was said, it has allowed me to keep a record and it was outside of my ability to attain them in person. I was so anxious and so upset and distressed that the records would be incomplete, that so much of the records would be lost. I deeply appreciate your efforts to keep records even outside my own ability, but it was in yours. Thanks to your efforts in this endeavor, even as limited as you are. You made an extraordinary effort to use what you did have as a manner of record keeping, that it counts and thank you for signing them, even though I was only able to get the last pages for your signatures for filing.” She thanked him.
“Records of all manners.” He nodded in agreement with a nod.
“To the best of my ability.” Pam smiled and nodded and opened her portfolio where a legal notepad stayed, since Patricia had brought a bag of extra legal sized note pads and simply set it on the bench next to Pam before she had come over to greet Sasha and those with her.
She and Patricia had given the legal team practically a mountain of copies of all the records of everything that she recorded for the pack for Michael's time as Alpha for the pack. They accepted but honestly, couldn’t waste time going through the mountain besides the records she had made the day Sasha had come into the pack hall, since this was about Sasha, but Sasha never came up again in the pack hall meetings. So to read transcripts about meetings that didn’t matter, was a waste of time. Especially since Zara, being a Priestess of Aura and with Sasha being under the Order’s protection, meant that this was so accelerated that the attorneys assigned to them, had barely gotten a chance to look over all the overwhelming evidence in the case. But just knew that they honestly couldn’t do much of anything in their clients defense, especially when the Order never accepted plea deals.
Then Patricia came over and sat down next to Pam as Michael and Jake were both surprised yet, comforted that she had come there anyway. Even when she had divorced Michael more than 2 years prior. Because the moment that Patricia learned what Jake had done, she demanded that Michael bring this to the Meadow Pack Hall so that Jake, even as heir apparent, would receive discipline, same as everyone else. And Michael refused, claimed Sasha was lying and believed his son, that he hadn’t done anything wrong. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for their marriage. She cut ties with Jake at first, horrified at what he had done, but still wouldn’t admit to, even now.
And when Patricia had taken Michael to divorce court and had gotten full custody of the rest of her children, since Jake was an adult and still chose to live with his father, who just kept turning a blind eye and between Jake and Michael, they were such horrible influences on her other children that the court agreed with her on that. She still got a ton of child support and alimony and the best of Mike’s assets and just a few privileges of access that she maintained was for Jake’s benefit once she had appeared to come around since she was still his mother after all and to continue to be the primary assistant to Pam, that she had always been, whether she was Luna or not. Patricia had remained civil, and even polite, some would say cordial even- to Michael since and while she was no longer Mike’s Luna, that didn’t mean her purposeful presence everywhere else wasn’t felt thanks to those privileges she got to keep. Besides, without having to be Mike’s Luna and her duties in the Pack had ceased as the pack’s Luna. However, her other roles she played that didn’t have anything to do with her Luna status she could still keep. And while her remaining roles took a fraction of the time it used to be, she very wisely spent her time elsewhere and had already reaped the benefits.
“Thank you for coming Patricia.” Michael offered.
“You’re welcome. You were my husband once upon a time and I’m still Jake’s mother. I owe it to both of you to be here. Plus, as Pam’s assistant, I have a duty to her as well.” Patricia offered serenely, in a tone that would keep her above suspicion as Jake and Michael smiled appreciatively and turned around before Patricia turned to Pam and the two shared a small grin and a nod.
The court proceedings started and everything seemed normal at first.
But as the court dates proceeded, and it was time to call witnesses to the stand, the first witness from Sasha’s head Lawyer, Mr. Maxwell. And to Michael and Jake’s shock, it was Pam as their Lawyer, Mr. Fisher, rifled through his bag to grab the transcript from Sasha’s time in court, since that was, to Mr. Fisher, the only relevant thing in there even though Pam insisted that he needed to keep the whole record of that day, so that that single record for that single day would be complete which Michael insisted would be the only thing to keep her at ease.
Mr. Maxwell began with the usual questions and Pam’s answers were neutral, as Michael and Jake figured they would be.
“Mrs. Hodgens, I understand that when you worked for Alpha Sean Lautner, that you insisted that he sign an agreement. As Exhibit A, can you verify that this is a copy of that agreement?” He asked as Michael remembered that when he had become Alpha, he had signed the same agreement to keep Mrs. Hodgens as the secretary and assistant since she was quite literally the best records keeper ever. It was about record keeping but since it was always a stack that had the pack meeting’s transcripts and he just always turned the stack upside down, and signed his name for her to put in the filing cabinets for the year as she was able to keep the previous year’s copies off site at her discretion, which he never had a problem with and even when Sasha had come through, he just wanted to sign it and have it filed away and figured it would never be a problem. Even though it had been unusually thick. But he hadn't cared to see why.
“Yes.” Pam nodded.
“And for Exhibit B, this is the same agreement that was signed when Michael took the Alpha position in the pack.” Mr. Maxwell offered as she looked at it and nodded.
“Yes.” Pam affirmed.
“It’s interesting verbiage that is used in both agreements, “records of all manners”. Can you explain to me what that means?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“That all manners pertaining to the Alpha and his leadership and the pack is recorded, transcribed and filed. For the records, to keep them whole, to keep them complete so that not one thing is missing. Records of all manners. To the best of my ability.” She repeated, not having to read it, but knew it by heart as the author.
“And how long have you been keeping these ‘records of all manners’ for?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Since my first day as the secretary and assistant to the Alpha of the Meadow Pack.” She answered before she gave the date and time as Mr. Maxwell read from Exhibit C which was that first day’s first page as he handed that to the judge to see for himself, that she could still recall it from so long ago, as if it had happened only minutes ago.
“And that was Mr. Sean Lautner, Michael’s late father, correct?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Yes.” Pam nodded.
“And when Mr. Michael Lautner was appointed as the Alpha of the Meadow Pack, since he was a new Alpha, he signed this agreement as well?” He posed.
“Yes.” Pam confirmed.
“Now, there is one other piece of verbage, that I’d like to point out, was that you had in both agreements, that you specified- “whoever it would be,” is that correct?” Mr. Maxwell continued.
“Yes, my agreement is always with the Meadow Pack first, and then to Alpha of the Meadow Pack, whoever that may be. Not all packs are hereditary. Alphas can be elected, by a democratic vote. And one never knows when a pack can change from one way of selecting leadership, to another.” Pam explained.
“That is very smart of you to do. Especially when all manner of things can happen to pack leadership.” Mr. Maxwell commended as Michael still stared daggers at Mr. Maxwell’s back for that last comment.
“Yes.” Pam nodded in agreement softly.
“Now, for exhibit D, this is an example of one day’s worth of records. It’s actually quite heavy and there’s a lot here. How long does it take Alpha Michael Lautner to go through them?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“His average is about 5 seconds, between me putting them on his desk and his signature to the last page, before he hands it back to me to file.” She answered.
“He goes through this entire stack in just 5 seconds?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“He has claimed that he has remembered all that he said and does not need to read it on the page as well. And has claimed that he has heard all he needs to know from his leadership team and does not need to read their words as well since he will also remember what they said to him. But they are complete, and whole, not one thing is missing. Records of all manners. To the best of my ability. ” Pam answered.
“Now what I find interesting is that there are two colors of inks used in these records. One black, one blue. Why is that?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“It is to differentiate the manner in which the record was taken. Black ink is for formal proceedings in the pack hall, the blue ink is to make a record of what was caught on the cameras of the security system and all other goings on in the pack hall when the Meadow Pack would meet for various reasons. If anything happened at the pack hall, there would be a record of it.” She offered.
“How in the world can you manage to make a record of everything?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Well, it is true that I can not be everywhere at once to hear everything that everyone says. I have an excellent team of assistants that help me and they too help transcribe everything so that their many hands make the work load quite light. I could not have done anything if it wasn’t for my excellent team of assistants. Especially for what those in every position in leadership might say in their offices, because there are no microphones, only a lone camera that may show any activity for the Alpha and his leadership in their offices at the pack hall. However, I still have a duty to record everything, to the best of my ability, no matter when or where the Alpha and his leadership would discuss pack affairs and politics.” She answered.
“When you say offices, do you mean only the offices at the pack hall?” Mr. Maxwell asked as he kept his face neutral even though he could practically feel Mr. Fisher, Michael and Jake tremble through the floor as they suddenly realized just how dangerous this now was.
“No. As you know, the members of pack leadership conduct all manner of pack business outside the pack hall. That is why I have entrusted the recording of all pack business that is discussed outside of the pack hall to others who are there where it happens. Especially their offices at home. And all that is recorded through other means to make a record. That is why it specifies who had recorded it, by what manner or method was used in its recording, then transcribe the recording onto paper.” Pam answered.
“Why do you transcribe everything onto paper?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Because technology changes, technology breaks, methods of recording change. And precious records can be lost, or even discarded, or deleted or altered, especially in this digital age. And if that happens, the records will be incomplete, they will not be whole, that is why I have worded the agreement the way I have, because as technology changes and methods of recording change with it, instead of specifying all the methods of recording that can constantly change, instead of signing a new agreement for every new method of record keeping. I simplified it to ‘records of all manners’; it leaves room for change. It is a simple and elegant solution that encompasses all the methods, and therefore falls under all manners, without the hassle of creating an exhaustive list of the methods.” Pam explained.
“And with paper, the hard copies, that are stored correctly in a facility that keeps the ideal stable conditions, the records will always be there. As whole and as complete as possible to the best of my ability.” Pam answered as it suddenly dawned on Michael why Patricia wanted to keep her primary assistant position with Pam for the last two years. She was helping collect every shred of evidence she could get her hands on. Because while Sasha was the final straw, it didn't mean that she was the only skeleton in Jake’s closet or Michael’s for that matter.
“Now, who were your assistants to get all these other manners of records to you?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Most of them are the wives of pack leadership which is usually dominated by males, as their wives are usually their own personal assistants. They are able to record pack business as it is discussed. And thanks to many advancements in technology, I was able to use their various methods that fall under all manners so that I could do my best to make the records whole, complete, with not one thing missing, to the best of my ability.” Pam expounded.
“Now, what I find interesting is that you have a separate sheet for the assistants to sign. This is Exhibit D. Could you please read what it says?” Mr. Maxwell requested.
“Of course.” Pam agreed as he handed her the document, yet Pam could quote this word for word also.
“As assistants, since they have the duty of assisting me, Mrs. Pamala Hodgens as the Secretary and Assistant to the Meadow Pack’s Alpha and that Alpha’s leadership. Due to conflicts of interest. No assistant may be in leadership beyond the Alpha’s Luna. Since all other assistants are not in leadership, even if they appear in the records themselves, they, in their faithful service of collecting records of all manners so that they may remain whole, remain complete, with nothing missing to the best of their abilities as well, will have immunity just as I, Mrs. Pamala Hodgens also has immunity. And that they are not responsible and can not be held accountable for what is in the whole, complete records about themselves since the casual nature in which they gather these records would encroach on personal and private family life. If any assistant is a mother, their children will have the same immunity, until the age of 16. And then they must be accountable for their own actions. Since they most of all need to be protected as the most vulnerable members in the pack.” Pam read.
“Again, that is very thoughtful for you to include a special protection for mothers and their children. Why did you draw this up on your first day, working for the Late Alpha Sean Lautner?” Mr. Maxwell inquired.
“Because on the first day, I noticed that the way Alpha Sean Lautner conducted pack business in the pack hall, there was a disturbing detail. While the young ladies and their mothers were allowed to cast a vote in the meeting hall, they only counted that one vote for themselves. However, when their fathers casted their votes, he, as the head of his house, meant that his vote came with additional votes that covered his spouse and all of their children. So if a family of five came in, having two sons and a daughter all of which would be over the age of 16, if the mother and daughter voted either for or against any ruling, their own single votes would be counted. However, if the father and the two sons voted the opposite, the father would have his one vote equal to the number in his family. So in this example, the father’s vote would count as 5 votes. And then the son’s votes would be counted again, each one as their one vote for themselves as well. So in this way, it was not fair that the mother and daughter’s votes of 2, would never be enough to combat the seven votes total that the father could count between himself and his sons. And there was always meetings between the Alpha and his leadership with all the fathers and all boys, even as young as 10, could be a part of so that before the meeting at the pack hall, the entire pack, no matter how the girls, young ladies and women voted, they would never be in the majority and whatever agenda that was decided in the pre-meetings would pass.” Pam explained.
“Did you ever ask Alpha Sean Lautner why that was?” He asked.
“Yes, it is in day 2’s records.” She answered before he pulled out a copy of that as Michael knew this was going to dig his grave.
“Yes I have that here, would you please read the highlighted section?” Mr. Maxwell requested.
“Yes…” Pam read the entire conversation.
Tristan’s jaw was on the floor as were others in his immediate family. But not Sasha, who already had known about this, she just sat in resignation, since she got to learn all about this from Patricia.
“So, you made this, as a protection for the women and the children?” Mr. Maxwell posed.
“Yes, because I would like to read a comment that Alpha Sean Lautner had said in the privacy of his own office, but thanks to tape recorders I had put all around the pack hall, in every office, in every place that I could think of at the time where I could make a full record, a complete one, with nothing missing, to the best of my ability. And since I was not allowed to be in those pre-meetings, even when they used the pack hall as the location. It was the only way for me to keep a record of all things pertaining to the Meadow Pack. Since it was the pack, that I truly have served. However, Alpha Michael who was then Heir Apparent, since he had watched as a boy and a teen how stressed and anxious I would get about the pre-pack meetings and it technically put my duty to the pack as a whole in jeopardy, he agreed that the pre-pack meetings, since they were at the pack hall, he made me a promise, that when he would become Alpha, he would disband the practice of pre-meeting meetings, and he promised that when he became the Alpha, he would let each pack member have only their one vote count for themselves, no more corrupted way of counting votes. And he made sure that any recording equipment that would be found, he and his friends had claimed that they saw it in any media that spies and espionage and when technology changed to better methods of recording like a security system, so that I wouldn’t have to rely on hidden recording devices anymore, which did make things for me at the Pack Hall much easier. And he helped me keep the records for the pre-meeting meetings. And especially since it was forbidden by Alpha Sean Lautner should anyone reveal the true voting counting system, even as rigged and corrupt as it was, would face the following consequences that I have kept a list of, since he would continually add or subtract any or all manner of threats and consequences to keep his absolute power of the Pack and it’s politics. That is why he became my official assistant, to grant himself immunity too. And when Alpha Sean discovered our other methods of record keeping, he realized that he was faced with a problem he could not solve without exposing his own corruption. And since he had already granted me immunity and since he could not dismiss me for not doing my duty as what he had hired me for, nor could he discipline Michael for technically doing the job that he had already signed off on, Michael made a deal of his own with his father, a deal that came with its own promise to his father. And that was that when he became Alpha, he would make sure that I included all the records of all manners in his report of what happened in the Pack Hall. Every day that I had something to put into the record. To which, Alpha Sean agreed to. And with the work around being the security system, there would be nothing to happen at the pack hall done in secret for me to record by other means in the first place.” Pam explained.
“So, did Alpha Michael keep his promises? About the pre-meeting meetings? About the votes? About this counting system change when Michael Lautner came to be Alpha?” Mr. Maxwell inquired.
“At first, yes. However, whenever the pack, having not been guided the same way his father had guided their fathers, would vote how their conscience dictated it, and if it was against how he wanted things to go, he then reserved the right to enact the traditional counting system if it would sway the vote in his favor. He claimed it was a system that had kept the Meadow Pack running perfectly smoothly for 9 generations of his family at that point. And since it wasn’t broken, there was no need to fix it when it could be still be useful, especially when it Alpha Michael felt it was needed. And then he added one more troubling detail, that ‘if any one came into the pack hall to present what he had claimed were “false cases” he had the right to veto them and that his decision to veto meant that all pack members present counted as a unanimous vote’.” She answered.
“And while he did disband the pre-meeting meetings at the pack hall, when he became the Alpha, he would still have them, but on the weekends disguised as socializing. However, once the former Luna, Patricia Lautner had realized what her husband was doing, when she had double checked something in the records and saw proof herself that her husband was following in his father’s footsteps in a manner of speaking, following the same patterns that his father followed. Her response was to formally request to have an arts and crafts workshop at the pack hall for the children and it would include socializing among the mothers. However, she requested that for those activities at the pack hall that she sign off on those meetings, since they would still be at the pack hall, and in the security system, but also that while having it recorded by me was one thing, but that she did not want Michael or any of his leadership digging through what would be considered private family matters from others, and requested that those records also be sealed, and only unsealed by her as a protection of privacy if not for the families as a whole, but especially the children that would be there and Alpha Michael Lautner readily agreed and signed off on it. In addition, even when she stepped down as Luna, since it was still a tradition once a week to meet with all the mothers and their children for a unifying community outreach program, she retained the power and right to sign off on those reports and have them sealed.” Pam explained.
“So, what about all those records by all manners?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Every female member of the pack- aged 16 and older, had signed on as my assistants and at these meetings, that was when they all would give me all records they would gather by whatever methods they deemed appropriate and necessary and they had even included their own transcriptions of their own records, just in case they needed to erase or destroy the records via any type of media after they would be downloaded onto my memory bank- so that would keep themselves safely above suspicion to their husbands, to their fathers, their brothers, to the leadership and to Alpha Michael Lautner most of all, just in case he were to bring back all the previous threats and rules about breaking away from the pack. However, because Alpha Michael Lautner had been using the vote counting system that his father had used, and since I put into the records by which method was used to achieve the final decisions, it meant that when Patricia as Luna asked, I did not say anything, which is also in the records. But the previous Alpha had only stipulated speaking about the voting system, but that the Alpha and the Luna could access any records for any reason at any time. So I showed it in the records as an answer. And it was Patricia as Luna who decided to pass that particular record around. And then, made it her own voting system as well. This time, it was the daughters who got twice, it was the mother’s votes that counted for her entire household. And because they were all immune as assistants, meant that they would never have to fear any retaliation against the Alpha or any of his leadership either, and it also protected them from their husbands and sons of any and all ages. In this way, by using records of all manners, I have been able to keep a true record of all that has happened within the pack, for all of Alpha Michael’s leadership.” She recounted, always staying perfectly neutral, objective and simply stating facts, as was her way.
“Thank you Mrs. Hodgens. Now my next question was if Alpha Michael signed off on the recordings of all manners, being involved as an assistant, wouldn’t he have known or at least suspected that you would continue your rather covert way of gathering records? Using the umbrella term in ‘records of all manners’?” Mr. Maxwell asked.
“Yes.” Pam nodded.
“Now, surely there is no way to transcribe footage, or pictures beyond a description when there is no audio correct?” Mr. Maxwell prompted.
“Correct, that is why I have since had a hard drive to keep all manners of media safe as well which is the most vulnerable and susceptible of records to being altered. And it is always with me and I have made sure that it contains everything that is described in the records as well. And that it has many firewalls and many layers of protection and encryptions to keep it safe, and only I, and one other person has the access codes. Myself and my Lead Assistant. And all media files on it have- I believe the correct term now is metadata. So that digital forensics can inspect the media to authenticate it and confirm that it is not altered in any way and that when and where it was taken is correct as well, since many have- again, I believe the correct term is geotags as well.” Pam explained as she took it out and showed it to the judge.
“And is it true that you have also provided all the media that that drive contains and submitted it as evidence along with all of your other records?” Mr. Maxwell posed as Michael and Jake knew they were about to be eviscerated. It wasn’t Sasha’s or Zara’s word against theirs, it was their own. And every dirty little secret that they thought they had that they had assumed would never see the light of day.
“Yes of course. So that the records may remain whole, so that they may remain complete with not one thing missing. Records of all manners. To the best of my ability.” Pam confirmed.
“Your honor, I believe that now, everyone can attest that all the records that Mrs. Hodgens has taken great pains and extreme care in collecting and preserving all manner of records through all means possible so that it is wholly correct but also so that it may stand as its own true witness, without opinion, without bias, without question or deniability in this case and can be taken as the factual objective record that it is?” Mr. Maxwell petitioned.
“No objection.” Mr. Fisher shook his head no.
“Excellent.” Judge Gardinia smiled happily as she confirmed such a request.
Thankfully Sasha did not have to attend court nearly as much as she thought she would. And instead everyone took turns as that blessed records of all manners and the written agreements to the immunity of those who took them, meant that it was only the guilty parties that faced justice. And the media frenzy ate it up and even as Jake and Michael tried to plea their case to the media, the backlash once all the dirty laundry came out, made The Meadow Pack synonymous with corruption and with Maggie and Don also speaking for The Brotherhood and that this was why they had not been accepted into the brotherhood and then listed Lance’s pack as another example before even Lance’s pack got heat for what he had done to Sasha too as the Brotherhood got them on their list too. Sasha never had to do any press, never had to give any interviews, which was a relief to her, but that also meant that Zara did and got to call bullshit in the media for Michael and Jake’s interviews too. And Pam, was only on record for saying what she always had. ‘For the records, to keep them whole, to keep them complete so that not one thing is missing. Records of all manners. To the best of my ability’ and was seen as the perfect example and gold standard for all secretaries for all werewolf packs and even clans and any other type of people who still held onto a similar organization structure for them as well.
True to Patricia’s advice it did get much easier for everyone. The only things Sasha had to go onto the witness stand for was about going into the pack hall and trying to plead her case and immediately got rejected and denied my Michael, which the records did in fact show and how Patricia pulled her and Pam aside so that what she would have had to say and what proof she had would still be collected and still put into the record for anyway, because it still happened and thanks to Patricia’s community outreach program, she and everyone with her, with Sasha there, revoted the matter without Sasha having to say a word and they had it in their own record how it was repealed and how Sasha was given the only justice Patricia at the time could give. Which was recognition of the severe wrong and the crime, the harm Jake had inflicted on her and their general refusal to believe anything that came out of either of those two’s mouths- by every girl, every woman that Jake had done a serious crime and while Sasha did not wish to pursue any further legal action at the time, that was enough for her at the moment. But now, because she had signed off on her permission that at any time for any reason that all proof and evidence could be brought back, which Sasha was glad that she had signed, both as a minor and as an adult too, thanks to Patricia’s efforts and Pam’s insistence that it stay in the records, sealed away from Michael and Jake so that they would never destroy it or doctor it.
Otherwise the only other time she had to attend was as a witness to the very public threat and attempted premeditated murder which thanks to the text messages being saved, couldn’t be erased or destroyed either. And because Tristan was there with her, and her family and her inlaws there as the support they were, and even witnesses because they too got to hear everything too and others had recorded it and posted it to the internet and had submitted the recordings and came in and gave their testimony too. The mountain of evidence just kept getting bigger and more damning and Mr. Fisher tried to do what he could but there was no way he could get them a plea bargain or anything and simply refrained from asking any cross examination questions, only to have Michael Lautner take the stand and Jake Lautner take the stand and simply try to give any excuse they wanted before cross examination from Mr. Maxwell ripped them both to shreds. And other than getting apologies and confessions. They weren’t left with anything to ever atone for their overwhelming amount of sins. Jake especially had to admit to everything he had ever done because as Heir Apparent, he had his own set of records too. And his were especially damning, because he bragged about what he had done to others. And because of his mother getting copies of all of his text messages and copies of the phone calls themselves. All he could do was admit to everything and was forced to take all responsibility for his actions and had to admit to why he had obsessed over her- it was because she was arctic tundra, even if she didn’t visually express it like most others did. He simply saw her as a prize and willing to do whatever it took to claim it, even when he had no right to or permission to, and he had raped her trying to impregnate her so that he would have a tie to her bloodline. It wasn’t about Sasha as a person, he only saw the bloodline and that’s what infuriated Sasha the most. But at the same time, it only showed how pathetic he was too.
Zara’s testimony was suckerpunch, and Andrew’s, complete with a back up of everything else and thanks to his computer skills was able to demonstrate why his metadata matched Pam’s. Then for Khiro and especially Brie who had witnessed everything too. And once again, to have Tristan there who was such a calming, reassuring presence helped the most and when he got to the stand, he gave the final blow. Because they had been destiny mated and their pairing was something that they both felt. But also because without the Brotherhood, without the Coalition, without his pack or his place in it. He was Sasha’s mate, plain and simple and it had nothing to do with her bloodline, but everything to do with her as a person and that’s what made all the difference and with him recounting meeting her previously and how it was practically love at first sight for him and even if she would reject him, how he was prepared and ready for that too, just incase Sasha couldn’t feel it as a ware. But that he respected her and her choice either way. Even if she decided to not choose him. Because he loved her and wanted her to be happy even if that wasn’t with him. But since she had, he outlied what steps and what actions he had taken to keep Sasha safe, to keep her family safe, to keep himself and his family and their pack safe. And admitted to even the smallest of things that Sasha hadn’t noticed before but that meant the world to her that her trust and faith in Tristan to always take care of her- was very well founded and placed. And it was the one time that Sasha happily took the stand to confirm it, confirm that she did have just enough ware in her to see and recognize Tristan as her mate and what courting rituals she had reciprocated with and how, even if she did have any ware at all in her, even if Tristan wasn’t ware at all either, she’d still choose him and still love him regardless. Because who Tristan was as a person was all she ever cared about. And even if he wasn’t ware himself and the roles were reversed, she too would have
And he was practically made into a media darling as the perfect example of what werewolves in this modern era should be.
At the judgement, it was a packed house and the jury was unanimous, guilty on all charges. And Judge Gardenia was happy to give maximum sentences. And once court adjourned, Pam gave Michael and Jake and everyone else one last message.
“I hope you all rot in hell. The hope to finally have these days long overdue days in court were the only way I could survive being a secretary to the worst, most despicable pack in all of waredom. I’m so happy that everyone you all tried to hurt survived and got to see the very long overdue justice finally get served you mangey mongrels.” Pam offered in the most dangerous growl that had ever come out of her before.
“You tell ‘em Pammy.” Maggie offered as she put her arm around Pam’s shoulders as it suddenly dawned on them that Maggie and Pam were actually related as they had never noticed the family resemblance before the two were standing together, as the wares in them finally seemed to realize and understand that the most meek and mild and underestimated pack member who wasn’t even part of the Meadow Pack at all, just the secretary, was the cousin of the Grand Alpha Female of the Brotherhood herself as Pam finally seemed to drop the disguise she had always hidden behind, hiding the fact that she was actually the largest, most terrifying and ruthless enemy, hiding in plain sight, only needing the perfect opportunity to strike with deadly force. Because Sean Lautner had done to Maggie what Jake had tried to do with Sasha, and this was the best way Pam knew how to get back at him, by destroying the very legacy he dearly loved by going after wares with the right 'blood lines' instead of the ware as a person. He had failed then and his grandson failed now and ended that dynasty for good.
“I’m really happy you decided to go with our maiden name for the new pack. The Knight Pack. It has a really good ring to it.” Maggie offered sweetly to her cousin.
“Me too, and Gary is so happy to agree. And Patricia is going to lead that pack as Alpha in the right direction. She’s seen how not to do things. And now it’s her turn to do things right. That’s what all those girls and young ladies and women deserve. I’m really happy she’s opened it up for other survivors who have had similar circumstances happen to them from all over, even the ones who aren’t ware. She’s so gifted and so intelligent when it comes to community outreach and never making things about herself, but about the pack as a whole, and the ones who need the protection the most. Which is what every Great Alpha should do, and she's made things completely democratic! I'm so proud of her.” Pam gushed happily. Because now, no longer his secretary or having to be objective or neutral, but finally express herself as herself before she wrote ‘The End of Meadow Pack’. On her notes, putting an end to them before turning the notebook over and showing them before they were taken away to prison.
And then as they left the courthouse to the media on the other side, Pam was finally able to say the last and most important part of the saying, showing how she had written it so that when placed over a flame, the words finally appeared on the page. “For the records, to keep them whole, to keep them complete so that not one thing is missing. Records of all manners. To the best of their ability. Because nothing should ever be off the record.”
MAYbe you're interested in doing a little writing? Well, good news, because May brings plenty of writing challenges! We've got @whumpay doing whump, @domaystic with domestic prompts, May Trope Mayhem from @duckprintspress, the @come-what-may-challenge, @magical-may, and @retrowrimay! Plus, @thepromptfoundry's May challenge, which is MerMay this year. Lots of variety to chose from this month. (As always, check out the actual blog if you want to know the full list of prompts!)
Happy writing, and if you've got any other writing goals, good luck!
Because Talisman was started with Monster March and it's one of my favorite series that I keep using Monster March to keep up with. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.
All the thanks to @monstermarchevent for keeping this open for me because chronic illness sucks. I'm late but I brought snacks, lol.
“Breathe, Love.” Bon urged as Udwar was pacing and clearly panicking as the boat was docking at his kingdom’s port before she reached out and held him before she framed his face with her hands as he fisted his hands into her clothing at her sides.
“I don’t want any harm to come to you.” Udwar breathed as his eyes grew glassy.
“Then we protect each other. Remember, the talismans chose us, before we ever put them on. They will only ever be on us. Everyone loses everything if anything happens to either of us.” Bon reminded him.
“Just... just stay by my side.” He insisted.
“There’s no other place for me to be.” Bon insisted as she stood on tip toe to kiss him soundly again before a knock on the door interrupted them.
“It’s time.” General Hendro announced.
“Thank you.” Udwar answered before they took a moment to get straightened up before Udwar made sure that the outfit showed off Bon’s back that showed the island on it so it was visible for all to see as proof of his reuniting with her.
“Ready?” Udwar asked.
“Ready.” Bon confirmed before she took his hand and walked with him out of the room, off the ship and down the path lined with his men, so that their path was clear as the inhabitants crowded around the route to watch them in the carriage as the procession made its way to the palace.
Udwar’s mother, Dowager Shahmi Aiobe stood, looking picture perfect at the entrance of the palace with priests and her high council around her as she watched that carriage come to her.
Finally, her son had succeeded where his father and grandfather had failed. He had her. The Hashimi, who she had been told was Sioban Vondrake, but simply went by Bon. Easy enough on the tongue, especially to the masses. She was supposedly human, by the looks of her, according to her sources. And very pretty. Black hair, eyes as dark as the chocolate her nickname implied. Skin like ivory. And within three days of coming aboard the ship with her son, had become as close to him as a hand in a glove. However, as long as both this Bon and her son remembered that she was the arm, and the body, to turn that hand into a fist as she needed to, all would be well. Besides, she was told that Bon was quiet, temperate but protective over Udwar. Perfect for molding, perfect for her plans of absolute control and power. Her reports told them that they were both in the ‘honeymoon phase’. Perfect. Because that meant that Siobon should be at least 3 months pregnant now. And Udwar should be able to divide his attention between the kingdom and Bon just enough for her to keep control of her power. The carriage came to the steps. Udwar got out and helped Bon out of the carriage as everyone around Aiobe cheered. She simply stood, smiling so proudly at him before she looked from Udwar to his Hashimi, Bon, who…didn’t look pregnant at all. And if anything seemed to look at her and then something flashed in her eyes as something in her bag flickered a glow. She wasn’t human, she was Nevaehen and had a dragon egg on her. Fuck. Nevaehens were not to be trifled with. She would have to be as covert and subtle with her movements and speech. She had to appear as approving and supportive and welcoming as possible. But she had also taken down others who were just as powerful. Bon wouldn’t be any different, no matter how much fear seemed to spike in her chest.
Domaystic comes from “domestic” + “May” and it's a prompt event that runs throughout May with a list of 31 prompts for its 31 days. And also 5 alternatives are back. The overall theme is that of the domestic trope: anything inside, outside, beside the house or that has that normalcy flavor of everyday life.
Anyone, in their own way of expression, is welcome to use the prompts and create: fics, art, gifs, podcasts, whatever tickles your fancy, there are no restrictions. For any questions or such, the ask inbox is always open :)
Hello, all! I’m @staticmothhell, stepping in for g. to make sure we have Domaystic this year! I’ll be doing my best to run it in the same way, so you all hopefully won’t notice too much different. The one thing is that I’ll likely be slow and/or erratic with my reblogging during May. Rest assured I’ll still be reblogging everything tagged as properly (as described below).
Thank you all for your patience with me!
-> Text prompts and more details under the cut!
Text prompts:
1. Dressing up
2. Quitting a bad habit
3. Tea or coffee
4. Unspoken message
5. Pillow fort
6. On the windowsill
7. Family recipe
8. Reassurances
9. Unlabelled container
10. Back of the closet
11. Fun-sized candy
12. Sharing
13. Cancelled trip/event
14. Startled by sudden appearance
15. Playing hooky
16. Cleaning the gutters
17. Bedridden
18. Relaxing evening
19. Play date
20. On the top shelf
21. Hair brushing
22. Being overheard
23. Stuck lock
24. New pajamas
25. Laughter
26. Getting a sitter (baby/pet/house)
27. Holding hands
28. Asking for advice
29. The next step
30. Put on hold
31. Coming home early
5 Alternatives:
A. “Don't give me that look”
B. “Don't make me choose”
C. “Don't tempt me”
D. “Don't stop on my account”
E. “Don't you have something to tell me?”
Other languages:
Español
L’italiano (coming soon)
Français
Deutsch
...and any other language anyone would like to translate the prompts into!
General rules and guidelines
All fandoms or original content are welcome.
Any kind of media is welcome.
No restrictions in ships, size, pixels, min/max word count or language.
There are a 31 prompts, one for each day of the month + 5 alternatives if needed.
If you plan to share your work, and if you want, you can add it on the 2026 AO3 collection; or, by tagging or mentioning this blog here on tumblr, I'll reblog it.
It's okay to combine more prompts together or with another event.
You don’t have to do all the prompts: do the ones you enjoy.
Domaystic runs actively throughout May; tracking #domaystic2026, mentions @domaystic, and previous years tags too; if you tag the blog on a later date, that’s fine too, I just reblog on a lower pace after May is over.
Tags to navigate the blog: tumblr post or page on blog
Tagging your tumblr post:
Mention: @domaystic or use the tag: #domaystic2026
Tell me the fandom name or if it is original content
Tell me if it is sfw or nsfw
Tell me which prompt you used if a day# or an alt#
For lengthy posts, please use the “read more option”: ctrl-shift-k on rich text; [[*MORE*]] on html (remove asterisks)
Please, TAG PROPERLY. If there are any trigger warning, I will base my own reblog on your tags so, please, take even a moment longer to carefully tag it. I hope all participants to stay safe in this event.
Here’s an example:
This is my fic/art @domaystic!
#domaystic2026
#day1
#[altA - E if alternative prompt is used]
#[fandom name or oc]
#[sfw or nsfw]
#[trigger warnings that I get from your post] tw
AO3 collection
As with the previous years, the domaystic2026 collection will be open from May, 1st. On the profile page you'll find all the info and prompts as well.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Monster March, both here and on Ao3! I’m seriously so touched you all put so much work into this.
But wait, you cry, I didn’t get to post all of my works! Is the collection on Ao3 going to close?! Will you not reblog works here?
The collection on ao3 will not close! In a week or so I’ll switch it to a moderated collection, so be sure to indicate somewhere what day it’s for, be that in your summary or your authors notes. And I will, of course, be reblogging fills here as well.
The collection will remain open until September 2026. Which is also when I’ll stop reblogging fills!
“Okay, I had an idea for a monster for next year’s list…”
Send it to me. Please. The reason the list has remained virtually unchanged is because I don’t have enough ideas for monsters to switch it up. There are a few things I won’t accept:
Anything that’s too human. Elves, dwarves, and so on. Because it’s boring.
Anything that is fandom specific. You’re never gonna see a balrog on the list.
I try really really hard to avoid things that are exclusive to one religion or culture. That isn’t always possible, but if I feel they haven’t permeated pop culture enough I won’t add them.
Things that can be added to another category. Example: If you send me “kobold,” I’d put that under “human/animal hybrids.” I know they aren’t the same thing, but it’s close enough. (You can also suggest better ways to word things. Like “humanoid animals and hybrids” instead of “human/animal hybrids”)
(New!) I have to be able to turn it into one or two words.
I won’t post suggestions but I will keep them in my inbox, so just know that even though I didn’t respond, I still saw. And as a warning: all suggestions might not get added. Please don’t get upset if you don’t see your suggestion.
Huge thanks to @monstermarchevent for keeping Monster March open for me, because I have had some unforeseen medical complications. And because I am a whole month behind I am totally going to do the whole- adjacent thing in an effort to catch up and by God, finish what I have started. There are mentions of taurs of all varieties in this though. So, hopefully that still counts.
Anyway, this is, of course a Velvet Spa piece. So that's fun. Enjoy.
Monster March 2026
Day 22- Non-centaur-taur
Anderane Elite Defense
Ander had thought that the way he had all the security teams and positions he had previously set up to its current state- in nearly perfect running order. Was more than good enough that he thought everyone was happy. But apparently not.
The Velvet Spa had 4 rotating shifts to cover it 24/7 that all had plenty of overlap at several key times when the risk to the specialists was the highest. And thanks to creative work arounds and compromises and then ‘test runs’ and several trial runs, they had finally worked out the formula and all the kinks, and it was working and running smoothly just the way it currently was. And almost everyone was happy. Bianca was happy, Maddison was happy, the other managers were happy, and all through this process, all the specialists had been more than happy with it. However, Bianca, Maddison and their managers and half of the specialists there- felt it was a little overkill sometimes. Which he found himself agreeing with- but compared to how it was before Ander brought Anderane Elite Defense into the picture, night and day difference. None of them would ever complain about being too safe at work. Especially when any client could turn into a" Dick Rick", as in, creepy stalker who had a hard time accepting no as an answer- they were actually very happy it was as robust as it was when that would inevitably happen.
Ander, as the Head of Security for The Velvet Spa, and the literal co-owner of Anderane Elite Defense who was officially and contracturally hired out to do all the security for the spa, he was perfectly happy with the current level and manpower of the security teams, there was a really great mix and balance of just about every kind of taur, rakshasa, satyr, minotuar, or literally anyone else who would need to use the spa, or even human, because they were an equal opportunity, as was the spa.
The only person who wasn’t happy? Was The Velvet Spa’s security sponsor. Ivan, who Ander knew just a little too well and had dual working relationship with him, that he honestly wished he didn’t in this moment, on today of all days especially, when a "follow up/check in" that was in his schedule to only be 20 minutes tops was almost 3 hours long. As Ivan had picked apart every minutia of everything and had was adamant that his own ideas and his own plans for how it should work, needed to be implimented immediately. Ivan genuinely believed that there was still too much risk and exposure and that there were problems everyone had that he had the solution for as Ander thought he did a decent job of covering up the shudder his soul did in his body.
Normally, if the sponsor demanded more than the person who was receiving the sponsored service in the first place, the recipient usually told them to pull sponsorship because the recipiant didn’t want to be overrun by the sponser and their demands which didn't fit the recipiants needs or wants. And Bianca was nearly there herself because she felt like, at work, there was a sea of security and had a hard time finding the damn specialist she was looking for, like finding a needle in a haystack.
But, at the same time, Bianca, thankfully was understanding of Ander’s situation, even as delicate, compromised and conflicted as it was. Because Ivan also had an alarming amount of Anderane Elite Defense stock and was now a legitimate share holder. And it was thanks to Ivan that Anderane Elite Defense as a business and a corporation doubled itself, twice, about to eclipse a third and was now making not just ridiculous amounts of money, but they were approaching making ‘fuck you money’. And because Ivan was ‘such a "generous" sponsor’, the spa and everyone who worked there and got services there, was now just as safe as…just about any mafia boss he knew, beyond Ivan himself, but you didn’t hear that from him.
So, purely, from a professional and business perspective, he could not afford to fuck this up, and he needed to be the middle man and negotiate like crazy to keep the peace and maintian balance and he felt like he was losing all of his balance, and his patience and wasn't maintaining anything, even his own composure and was now in free fall as he drove to the spa, practically growling and snarling in frustration all the way there.
Because what made this situation epically complicated was that Ivan was also Ander's fiance- Zyah’s Father. And add to that, Zyah’s best friend who was also her cousin- Ottavia, Ivan’s niece by blood. Because Ottavia’s dad, Gregor, was brothers in law with Ivan, because Ivan and Gregor had married sisters, Zyah’s mom Velizara, and Ottavia’s mom Nakita. And all of the parents were in their own "family business" but how that family business ran, was not how most other family businesses are ever run or should be run either.
Ander felt like he was living proof of why you should never mix business with family, because how Ivan and Gregor handled ‘problems’ with their family businesses, was not how he and Rane could handle Anderane Elite Defense, and definitely not how Bianca would, could or should handle The Velvet Spa as a business. Even as tempting as it could be sometimes, when dealing with difficult...people.
Ander tried to run through how he had it currently running to see if he could think of anything that could be used to meet the increase Ivan was demanding.
The 'Standard Shift' consisted of 2 stationed guards in the lobby to handle any issues that would arise there, one on each end of the very wide lobby. And then 10 more- who were "undercover" by wearing the spa's scrubs, that were just a little bit different than the usual standard scrubs, because they were specifically customized to who was wearing them because all of them were still carrying firearms and so much more, they just concealed it- very discreetly. And it honestly looked like Bianca had hired a lot more male specialists which, for her spa's optics was a boon. They would do security sweeps up and down the hallways during appointment sessions, wearing quiet sneakers as opposed to the loud thumping combat/tactical boots that were distracting and unnerving during the appointments, during the day, for both client and specialist.
The two stationed guards in the lobby used the wait time those clients had to watch their behaviors to see if any of them should be flagged for oversight, texting the front desk to put a various colored sticker on the back of the file, that would silently message the specialist to use one of the magnets the specialists could discretely move to the various corners of the magnet board to communicate to the security team, what they thought they might need for the appointment, when they slid the cover on the door to show whether or not that room was in session or not- if they sensed their current client might not keep it strictly professional and the specialist did not wish to recieve any unwanted advances rom that particular client. Or if they might need assistance with the appointment from another specialist just in case, an issue would arise and they would like a second opinion during the session with that particular client. And for those who asked, it was very easily explained away as 'just a precaution, just in case whatever issue arose, it would be treated with the professional attention and care that it deserved, to everyone's safe satisfaction'.
Upon the first initial sweep, if one of the 10 undercover security sweepers saw the corresponding magnet the specialist placed on the board before they closed the door to start the session- the undercover- messaged the group communication channel the others were in on and messaged that whatever room it was on- needed a 'sit in' aka- their sole attention, two of the floaters dressed the same way- came in to help finish that sweep and see if any others needed 'sit in's' too. And the one that was 'sitting in'- would get a folding chair from a closet in the hallway, with enough chairs so that every single person who had a room down the hallway, could have an undercover sitting just outside the room, who would also get looped into that room's video and audio feed, so they could see and hear, everything that was going on inside and listen for the various code words for them to either intervene, get the specialist inside- safe and secure by whatever means necessary.
Or- obtain another specialist to either assist or intervene with that patient's care. But most of the time, it was for those patients that might need assistance with the client- should their physical needs and abilities to get themselves in and out of the various treatment chairs- could, would and did benefit them from the additional assistance, of that undercover- that was always given in the same- respectful, dignified, caring, sympathetic and understanding bedside manner that any other specialist was also trained to give. In fact, it was the vast majority of the elderly clientelle who 'couldn't move like they used to'. Also seemed to ask for their 'favorite assistant' and hoped that they were working the same time and day their favorite specialist was. And those specific security guards did also want to make sure they were there for those clients and those specialists. Because it was really wonderful to have so much trust and familial affection from those elderly clients who always treated them like their favorite grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Which Ander did his best to make it happen and scheduled accordingly with the Spa's scheduling coordinator- Mary, because for the undercovers to blend in so seamlessly that most never realized they were there in the first place, was their 2nd goal, the first obviously being safety.
However, if the corresponding magnet indicated the specialist's intuition said that that particular client would try to give unwanted advances, try to flirt with them and cross professional boundaries, and may or may not become combative- that message was immediately sent to the team assigned to the "back of the house security" who were then alerted and geared up within less than two minitues in full on swat team/special forces style of geared up, if they weren't already geared up and on standby already- and then that team deployed four to go into the hallway that room was on. One would be stationed at the start of the hallway, a second was stationed at the end of the hallway, and two more would continuously sweep the hallway. And it was then- that that sound of big, heavy combat/tactical boots if the security personelle had feet to wear them with, or their hooves would be heard in the hallway which the specialist then felt more relief to hear as 'background noise', to know that help was literally just on the other side of the door. Unless the one sitting in- gave a silent signal for all of them to come to him because the need for that intervention was imminent.
Once that specialist said the code word, that would give that undercover less than 3 seconds to enter the room and would only get two minutes max to deescalate the situation and intervene with a difficult client while those four security guards would open the rest of the door and file in, and if the specialist was between the back walls and the security team, the client would then be surrounded before the undercover secured her out of the room because the undercover would, by then, have placed themselves between the client and the specialist.
But, if the undercover managed to get the specialist towards the door and had instead cornered the difficult client towards the end of the room- one member of security would secure the specialist, and then the undercover got to stand in and assist the other three in taking down the potentially combative client and then escort them out where law enforcement would already be on the way.
Otherwise, the back of the house security were there to respond when anyone, specialist, secretary, whatever kind of employee- in the spa would press a silent alarm, discretely disguised of course- just in case their client would cross a line or especially if that client's reaction to that employee's refusal from an unwanted advance- would be to become combative if they weren't already marked that way before. Then, a team of not 4, but 6 would immediately be dispatched to that room and or area and would, could and did break down any door between them and the employee being threatened and would absolutely assume the client was combative and treat them accordingly before forcefully removing that client while two of the undercovers secured the employee and if they were ok, if they had been assaulted and would be able to find out why the employeee had hit the silent alarm and give any kind of care that person needed, medical or otherwise.
All while 2 guards on the regular rotation got to man the security camera feeds for the outside of the building and especially the points of access to and from it, while an additional 4 were watching all the security feeds for all the cameras on the inside from the dozens of rooms down multiple hallways and coordinating with all the guys who were doing back of the house security, as well as the undercovers. Also, all while there were 4 assigned floaters with an additional 4 'volunteered' floaters, who were all dressed in their own undercover attire and fully ready and equiped to step in at any moment, as the undercover's back up.
However, if a specialist wanted or needed privacy with whoever was in that room with them for various reasons, there was a "black out button" that was actually black and illuminated with a red ring around the edges like a bullseye to be seen even in the dark- so that the cameras both obvious and hidden around the room and their video feeds and sound recording equipment would instantaneously shut off and shut down, until the "white out button" that was also convieniently white that also had a blue illuminated ring around it, to be seen, even in the dark that was literally on the other side of the room- away from the black out button so that you couldn't accidentally hit one or both at the same time if they could ever be, heaven forbid- so close on the same wall or heaven forbid in the same corner of two walls touching each other- that in an attempt to hit one and accidentally hit both would mean they would cancel each other out and the cameras and sound equipment kept on recording...everything. Causing the team of six security personelle in that video booth, both entertainment and embarrassment as they would "try" to black that room out for them. Some using that term 'try' far too liberally. Otherwise- unless the person who hit the black out button was seen outside of the room after and simply forgot to hit the white out button, they still had a way of turning it all back on. And it was called the 'gray haze out' button, that was also, convieniently gray. But was usually an inside joke that the "haze" was not gray, but usually pure lust and the heat of the moment and the debate on whether to turn that button from gray to any shade of pink or red or even orange to mimic flames, was a discussion everyone seemed to want to weigh in on until it was changed out to a gray button that had an LED light on it that color morphed the edge from pink, to red, to orange, to yellow then back to pink, etc.
Sadly, there were rumors that a "compliation" had been made so far that seemed to be added to on a weekly or even daily basis- to the point that they were catagorized as a volumed series. Those rumors were of course investigated, thoroughly. By Ivan in particular, and Bianca and Maddison and the other managers, of which Ander always had to accompany them and be there to actually pat any guilty party down. It was not a fun experience for anyone and everyone involved.
And thank God- Ander had a 'if I close my eyes, and someone, anyone either physically gives me or electronically sends me anything that either did or could incriminate them or anyone else- before the investigation, no matter how last minute, I will see to it that it is completely destroyed so that no evidence exists. And you will be deleting your copy too if it's electronic, so help me God. And if you have shared it, or heaven forbid tried to sell it?! I will absolutely hunt you down, kill you myself and mount your head on my office wall. And if you are or were so fucking brain-dead stupid to have uploaded it?! To anywhere on anything that has even the most remote chance of connecting to the internet?! I will personally hand over your entire personnel file over to Ivan who will hunt you down himself and personally make sure you suffer as much as you possible before you die. And there will be nothing left of you to be buried either, because the remains from your own corpse's incineration have already been pissed on as the worthless ash it is.' rule. Because he could not afford to have his neck or his own ass on the line any more than it already was.
Ander already had a habit of erasing all the 'incriminating footage' himself, on a daily basis. And especially since he had no room to judge because he himself had been featured on volume 4, but that didn't matter right now, this wasn't about him. Otherwise there was no way to buy your way out of it either. It was a firm 'own up to it, apologize' and do your best to remember to just hit the god damn black button before that door is even shut all the way -if and when it ever happens again. However there was a list of 'repeat offenders' who simply earned a 'if you see these two people together, walking towards a private space, just go ahead and black it out for them' list.
Because Rane, his business partner in their company that was literally the joining of his name of Ander + Rane= Anderane! Rane was the first name on that 'when see him anywhere near River, automatic black out protocol'- list. But Rane found a way to "privately and personally" turn it back on, but not sent to the security booth, but sent to himself, specifically streamed it to himself like his cell phone and his other devices, before he very unfairly got to make his own compliations that were also, in a volumed set larger than the rest of the collection twice over!
Ander was doing everything in his power to make sure that he and his team were not in the adult entertainment business. Neither were they in a dating service either. But, here he was daily, deleting footage. And it wasn't even all specialist/secretary/employee having consenual sex with clients that were specifically not in the system as their own personal dedicated client list. No, half of it was those employees of the spa getting it on with his own security team members! He had a firm- "no sex on shift rule!" That he unfortunately- in good conscience could enforce after he himself was guilty of it without being a huge hypocrite. Even Bianca the owner was guilty of it so she too, couldn't enforce it without being a huge hypocrite either. And honestly, Bianca preferred it if her employees, especially the specialists and secretaries- the public faces of her company got into relationships with the security over the clients who were oh so carefully put into the system so that it never looked like or ever was a breach in ethics or professionalism or trust or anything. Both Ander and Bianca were simply in a state of reluctant acceptance that this was inevitable. Especially since everyone in the current rotation had actually already gotten into relationships with the "Velvet Girls" if they had come to work for them single. In fact, Ander made it a point to make sure that no one who was in that rotation had been married because he didn't want to break up happy families.
So a compromise had been made and so, so, so, so many concessions and protections built into the very structure of the spa. It basically amounted to strong as fuck walls that could withstand a great magnitude super intense earthquake or a cat 5 hurricane or tornado right over or under the room and the structure wouldn't hardly budge! And of course, lots, and lots and lots of extra and triple redundant insulating soundproofing when Bianca had renovated and updated her spa for the whole- VIP vs. Premier thing. Which actually worked out because she, thanks to her own company's profits and especially Ivan's insistance and funds he gave and made immediately available for Bianca to buy more space to the point that her spa's square footage quintupled. Everything not only got updated, it looked and acted practically futuristic with some familiar touches that were always intrinsically associated with The Velvet Spa. The treatment rooms got to be bigger and have so much space for manuverability but never big enough to make it feel like a surgical theater. But also have so many advanced ergonomic features that suited every kind of person there was so that everyone could be accomodated accordingly. The biggest thing was the flooring. Especially the linoleum floors that looked and acted like hardwood floors but were infinately easier to clean and keep clean over carpet that stained from...anything and everything... bodily fluids included. Bianca had upgraded everything she had ever wanted or dreamed of. And as a result, The Velvet Spa now had more treatment rooms than active working employees! Even if all of her employees all came into work all at the same time, there would still be an entire side of a hallway that would be empty. Something that had never been possible to do before, even as fast as she was hiring them, because maternity leave was always a thing. Speaking of which, maternity leave was now, better than any other maternity leave anywhere else could offer, world wide. Again, thanks to Ivan's great generosity. And why Bianca and Ander both felt like they couldn't bite the hand that fed them.
But, back to the issue at hand, Ander was reminding himself that he needed to go through the security structure as it currently was to try to see where and how he could even try to impliment any demand that he had made earlier that day.
There was a dedicated external team who were a group of 20, with an additional 10- 20+ volunteers who were tasked to make sure no one else who did not have clearance or permission to park with the various employees- could ever have a chance to even try to "camp out", creep on, or watch and wait for the employee to try to pressure any of them for their time and attention or personal contact information for any and all purposes. and by now, no one in their right mind who had ever seen or experienced or even heard about any 'altercations' between the security guards and those that made themselves threats- got dealt with to a degree that it put the fear of God into them. And got put in the 'red folder'. If you found yourself in the red folder, it was better just to park in a different parking garage all together.
However, there was an exception made for any employee who had a roommate, friend or usually a family member and most of the time- a significant other who would prefer to sit and wait for their friend/ family member or partner to get out of work. They were the only other persons allowed to park on that level in one of two areas that were signified as 'special parking'. Their name, picture- which was usually given by the employee in a 'selfie' they had taken with that individual, along with a description of them and the vehicle's make, model, year, color and licence plate number would be kept on record for those security guards. And would be updated if any of the employees who had their significant others on file- ended the relationship with that person. Because it could, would and did result in that now ex-partner would then be a potential stalker. Otherwise, they were primarily there to escort each and every single employee along with the owner- of the spa- to and from their vehicles, if they desired it that is. They were there to escort the employees while they came in for work from their vehicles to the back door, and do so again when the specialist would then leave to get lunch, come back, then leave for the night at the end of their shifts again. There were always a pool of 30 or more usually, always more than that number of security guards to create a pool for all of the employees to choose from depending on what day it was, in what season, and how heavy and full the spa would be with specialists and clients.
His company had to build their own security booth for the external team to do one of three things between their duties of escorting employees- chill, work out doing calisthenics, or sit at their own learning annex in the security booth itself while 'off duty' when no one else actively needed their attention to do their jobs- taking various online college courses for free that the company paid for- for all of it's employees across the board. Which was, again, a perk and it’s own program funded by Ivan and a few of his "associates’". It was why Anderane Elite had a damn waiting list to get in and work there, that Ander and Rane were running out of ways and divisions or departments they could add to the business to make the hiring of these guys justifyable in a business sense so that these guys would have something to actually do- besides anything The Velvet Spa would want or need to be done. Anderane got 80% of their applications once it was revealed and known and recognized that Anderane Elite was solely responsible for the safety and protection of The Velvet Spa. Half of them didn't even ask for a paycheck, they just wanted to get on the team to be at the spa. Protecting all those drop dead gorgeous, sexy as all hell- diva-goddesses that were now world renowned as "The Velvet Girls", who worked at The Velvet Spa. The drool from the thirst over those "Velvet Girls" could fill olympic sized pools in seconds.
Because, as it was- everyone got full time pay, even when they worked part time - which just the base salary was already very generous and was already 30% higher- than the industry standard for being a full time employee, with exceedingly excellent benefits, especially health insurance, vision, dental, life insurance, D&D, hazard pay, 401K, retirement accounts, college education funds for any kids they might have and of course stock options that were based on seniority and performance. And the greatest benefit- free online education to help each employee to get any certification if they were leaning towards IT, or various degrees.
But there was a limit on how many times you could volunteer for any position, it couldn't be immediately before or after any shift, and it had to be on a day that you weren't already scheduled. With an extra incentives if you chose Monday- Thursday with the only limits being that you weren't already working a shift during those times, otherwise, you worked 5 shifts a week, only one ‘long shift’ and then 4 shorter shifts between either AM or PM Monday through Sunday- with an optional sixth that was not mandatory, it was purely on a volunteer basis that served as a bonus. And one and a half times the incentive if you managed to snag only 1- AM or PM float position between Friday, Saturday and Sunday AM and PM, if you weren't already working those shifts yourself. And double pay for filling in for sick co-workers, and triple pay to cover the security booth and the outside shifts during the holidays.
Most by now, had all gotten at least their Associates degrees, and all of their previous college debt incurred to even get that far on their own, was paid off by the company, with the promise that you would then work towards getting your Bachelor's degree. Or, if you came in with a Bachelor's degree, 50% of that college debt would also be forgiven. And if you wanted to continue to work towards your Master's degree, an additional 25% of it would be paid off while the remaining 25% would then be spread out over the next 4 years, divided by 12 months. For every month you worked, that monthly payment would be made towards that remaining 25% until either you worked the full four years, or you paid it off yourself. But that monthly payment was then your monthly bonus going forward.
But if you came in with a Master's degree, before you had started making payments on it, they paid off 50% off of the original total that it had been- just to sign you on. But if you then wanted to pursue getting your Doctorate, for free, while you worked, they would pay an additional 25% of the original total. With the same 25%+ however much you had already paid your college debt, was then calculated out to cover the next four years, however much was left after 75% was forgiven, and whatever payments you had already made, if there wasn't anything left to pay. That 25% that they would have covered over the next four years? Got to be either your one time bonus, or, spread out over the next four years as your additional yearly bonus.
But if you didn't want to pursue any higher education, however much you still owed, was calculated across the next four years and all 12 months of those 4 years. Where every month and year you worked, they would pay that percentage towards your college debt. So, by the time you worked for them for 4 years, all of your student loan debt was paid off. But, that also meant that after it was paid off- that monthly percentage, was used to be an additional monthly bonus. Or, if you paid it off before that 4 year period yourself, that's when that monthly percentage would then flip to a monthly bonus.
Or, if you got hired in from whatever branch of military you had come out of, you brought your military skills in, while getting your secular skills grown too, so that even if you were a high school drop out. They helped you get your GED, at the base. And if that's all you wanted, then only your job performance and time working there, would factor into your pay at the company. And because you came to them with no college debt to begin with, whatever was the mean college debt forgiveness that was paid monthly over four years between both the Bachelor's and Master's pay off plan if they were pursuing their next degree- that was your monthly bonus.
However, if you had graduated high school, and didn't have any work experience, or even if all you had was experience working security or being a bouncer somewhere, and wanted to get into this as a career, and could physically do the job and could work well with others, be part of a team and showed a willingness and aptitude to learn everything everyone in the military already knew by serving and you wanted to get a free college degree, up to a Doctorate's degree- for free- if you wanted it, every time you got the next college degree, the same thing would happen, but in reverse again, but instead of it being from the Master's and Bachelor's. It was simply from the Bachelor's. Whatever their mean pay off plan payment would be your monthly bonus.
That's why the shifts were set up the way they were. Because every day that you were on shift, you worked that shift in person, and spent the other time you weren’t on site- in the office, in the learning annex, that took up an entire floor, that was always staffed by actual teachers and tutors from every field of education there was. An entire, qualified staff of educators there to help and assist you, one on one or in small groups, get through the various courses on whatever subject you're studying. Everyone who was not on shift or volunteered to be a floater, this is where you spent the rest of your time. This is where your base salary came from. Where you weren't paid by shift at all. It was simply open to you from 8-6- Monday through Friday.
It was the back of the house security that was the bulk of Ander's team. Usually, he kept at least 40-50 in there, just in case all 10 undercovers were used and it was down to all 8 floaters to run the sweeps. But, the push that Ivan wanted- was for that every treatment room, whether there was a specialist or a client in there or not- would have it's own sit in undercover, and then, also have every single room's sit in- to also have their own team of not four, or six- but ten fully geared up- back of the house security personelle at the ready just for interventions! And still have at least a 3 teams of guards, each team being 20 members minimum! If Ivan had it his way all the way? 50 gurads- all in insurgency formation dedicated to each hallway on top of that! It basically boiled down to- that Ander- after 3 hours, of just trying to get the numbers as simply of a formula purely for his own sanity- the minimum Ivan would accept is that for every single employee, no matter their actual job there- would have a pool of 5 sit ins to sit outside the room, but have a team of 10 intervention guards, plus a team of 20 insurgency guards, plus a pool of 10 escorts to choose from to and from their vehicle, plus an additional team of 5 dedicated sweepers just for that one room. That would mean that for every single 1 employee that Bianca had? Would have a ratio of 1 to 50. Litearlly. One spa employee getting fifty security guards- each. MINIMUM. If Ivan would get his way? Triple that! A ratio of 1 to 150. There was just no way. There was absolutely no fucking way that was possible.
If Ander did that? First of all, even if it was physically possible to do that, which based on square footage, no it absolutely would not be possible, even with the expansion, all of his security personnel were feeling cramped and cagy.
The spa itself- wouldn't be able to fucking function. It would look and feel like a military occupation. They'd need to buy all the surrounding buildings, and fully gut them, re structure them and remodel them just so that all of the 'Back of the House' security would be able to secure the back of the house! And to put everyone who was currently in the rotation- even if he cut it in half? Or even down to a single tenth? There would still be no way for all of them to get circulated in shifts enough for everyone to know everyone else and be comfortable. But Ivan was looking to do just that- buy all the buildings around the spa to 'gift' to Bianca just for 'future expansion' and to hold all of these security guards. Because it would "solve" Anderane's hiring problem, and Bianca's safety and security problem, and what Ivan had repeated the most- "the sadness problem". What on God's green earth could possibly BE 'the sadness problem'- one might ask? Apparently- for the last 2 'pop in visits to 'the girls',' in a row- aka those Velvet Girls who Ivan felt like he had adopted all of like nieces or like other daughters to him from other mothers and fathers- like maybe a sperm donar kind of way? It didn't matter- because that at least a few of them, who quickly became 'several' and then 'dozens' the farther into this conversation went- who were- by a miracle- still single- 'were so sad that of all the other girls who had become romantically involved with the security guards. And there was no one left for them.' Apparently, 'allegedly' they had communicated this with some puppy dog eyes and a pout and- were, again, allegedly- according to Ivan- about to break into tears! Oh those motherfucking bitches knew exactly what they were doing!
Ander took several long moments to simply nod and not say anything as he turned his head and the rest of his body towards his laptop as if he was going to type something into it so he could pull his hands infront of him, out of Ivan's line of sight and made the motion that he was about claw/strangle something as his eyes went wide with 'What the fuck DO YOU MEAN?!' As horror and rage combined into an ugly monster inside of him that he needed to keep caged for the duration of the rest of that meeting. This was not "a sadness problem". This was a jealously problem! This was a problem that the still single ladies who were that way by choice before they "allegedly" uttered such things. Ander seriously doubted there were more than like 6- 10, 12 tops- single young ladies who worked at the Velvet Spa and Ivan wanted to bring in- literally- thousands of men to fix that problem by the time you added and calculated all the manpower by all the employees who were not single themselves.
Ander was taught, all of his life, by his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, all that jazz- that - to put your hands on a woman to bring her harm- was never acceptable and you were a waste of flesh who didn't deserve to breathe...but right in that moment? Ander wanted to hunt down whoever had said or done that to Ivan, lock them up with everyone on the waiting list into as big of a conferrence room/event center/ whatever- that could hold them all in and then shut the door and let those girls have their pick- even though it would turn out like they were bait in a dog fight. But right in that moment, that was because that would be the only thing to keep their necks- OUT of his hands and tempt him to strangle them to death! Repeatedly! This was seen as the solution to problems that wouldn't exist if Ivan was not involved, is what this was.
Like those logistics were mind boggling. And Ander took his migraine medication immediately once his second secretary who had met Ivan and his team at the elvators. They had sequestered 3 of them just to get Ivan, his crew, and all this food and stuff up here- messaged him, giving him a head count and what was with them. Ivan came into his office in the brightest, most delighted, cheerful smile. He had hugged Ander, asked how his family was, how everything with Zyah was, how the wedding planning was coming along. All while everyone else "subtly" filed in, set everything else up and then filed out again. Ander just knew with a sinking feeling that got progressively heavier until he felt like he was at the world's core- when he realized that Ivan wasn't going anywhere and neither was he until this was explained and "sorted out". He should have known it was no regular meeting when Ivan had brought in what he had described was "a light snack" that was, in truth- actually it's own buffet that Ander had to have this meeting on his own couch, next to Ivan, the entire coffee table was covered in food towers. Food. Towers. There had been 5 of them! Plus! A dessert cart and a drink cart, that had literally tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of spirits on it. Thank God, Ander had a set of TV-trays in his office, those trays had to be their only surface to have any papers, pens and laptops on to take anything akin to notes on.
And while Rane and everyone else on the executive floor salivated, none of it- was worth the risk of sitting in on that meeting with Ivan for.
Rane just went ahead and called in a last minute catered lunch to satisfy everyone else. And you can bet your ass that the moment that Ander got the chance to get Ivan out of his office and back on the elevator, what was left of that feast? Was descended upon by everyone else except Rane who had been instantly getting ready to flee only seconds after Ivan would leave.
Before Ivan got there that morning. Ander thought he was doing a pretty good job as Head of Security. He had to be an equal opportunity employer, his staff consisted of a good percentage of female security guards, across all the species. He even made sure that there were both biped and quadruped security personnel. He already had every kind of taur there was in his security team and that the mix and ratios were even between those who escorted the specialists in and out of the building, the undercovers, the back of the house security and every other place where the presence of his security personnel was seen and felt.
Bianca felt that how Ander had organized things was a bit of an overkill. Understatement of the millenia. But she and all of her employees felt an overabundance of safety while they worked. But her patience in dealing with Ivan was wearing thin. As was his.
At least once a week, and especially earlier that day once his meeting with Ivan was over, he messaged 'the real women' at the spa for 'an emergency meeting in the spa's conference room', that he was now driving home from.
He, Bianca and Maddison and all their managers had all come in. They were, besides Ottavia and especially Zyah, were the only people Ander ever referred to as 'the real women', esepecially since 2 of them were trans, because they absolutely were real women, period, statement of fact. But they were the most senior, the most experienced, the only ones who kept this circus going, besides his attempt to secure the perimeter.
All of them, out of sheer habit, hitting that glorious black out button. They didn't even need to look at each other, they just came in, smacked that black out button as hard as they wanted to after they shut the door behind them with any and all manner of colorful explitives attached, which got a chorus of murmured hums of agreement and acknowledgement by everyone already in there, turned their phones off, put them into a sound proof container, and then sat at the conferrence room table that was the only conferrence room at the spa after picking an open chair, kicked off their shoes if they wore them and then just slumped over in their chairs and planted their foreheads and faces onto that table's surface and let their arms hang down since their legs had already spread to make room for any tummies and 'mommies' fit between them as their legs, or front legs if they happened to have a set of 4 of them. All the legs themselves would be in a variety of positions all around the room. And then all of them would groan in harmonized unity, once they were all be assembled.
Ander had insisted that he wanted to speak last, and it was more important to him to give himself the minor break from the fuckery he had already endured and to try to lift his own spirits to distract himself from his own dealings with Ivan that day, to which, he got pats on the back in sympathy from Maddison that was seated beside him and Mary who was seated on the other side of him.
Bianca, once again repeatedly cliamed and insisted that she never had any intention of her very legitimate business who hired and employed licensed, legitimate, referrenced and vetted professionals- into this fetishized thing. The Velvet Spa and specifically "The Velvet Girls" she employed. They did always remember the little details that mattered, though, which was greatly appreciated and acknoweldged, but they were never supposed to be seen as the next Playboy Bunnies!! She was not running a Playboy Club!! Or a dating service! She honestly didn't know how or why every woman who worked there, suddenly seemed to become the most attractive, siren- bordering on- succubus levels of magnitized attractive that any and all of her male clientelle, single or otherwise had ever seen in their lives, or literally by the entire greater and wider world either. She had other spa companies seeking her advice on how to turn their spas into what she had turned hers into. And what her "secret to success" in getting all the female employees to have all that allure and magnitizm and that piping, smoking hot sex appeal that was never there in the first place! Because she always kept everything modest and on the up and up with world wide recognition. Apparently she and her "Velvet Girls" had made modesty and subtlety the new sexy or something.
She now had international clients who came in, on a regular schedule. That would literally fly in- from continents away- just to come to her spa, just to have services from her specialists. If Bianca knew what the fuck that thing was- she would kill it with her bare hands, use every tool of destruction to destroy it, obliterate it and then blow it up with all the C4 she could get from Ander to do so! Which Ander confirmed 'he would give her- her own body weight of it, if he could help her to do that'. And then Bianca and everyone else dissolved into whimpers like toddlers, that they all wanted to cry, but couldn't and probably wouldn't.
Ander had chimed in- and once again, repeated that he and his company also were not in the dating business. Ander never wanted to be or ever could be, anything like Hugh Hefner. The Velvet Girls were in no way shape or form anything like the Playboy Bunnies, because The Velvet Spa was not, nor would ever be a Playboy Club. Ander recognized and verbalized that Bianca was fighting the same fight and the same battle right along side him. He praised Bianca in her efforts to make sure the best quality scrubs that were literally tailored to all the employees who worked there- were modest, easy to move in, easy to work in. And that came in a variety of various fabrics so that the person wearing them would be comfortable in whatever kind of weather or season they were in. He was proud that Bianca got everyone to focus on the medically licensed and legitimacy aspects. Ander knew that Bianca never wanted her spa to have any sexual connotations or implications or anything. He knew she had even used actual media and advertizing companies and thanks to Bauvar- every tiny bit of licensing and copywriting possible- to make sure that The Velvet Spa's public image was as squeaky clean as possible.
But, Ander and all those present with him had to admit that - where- women who could be viewed as pretty or beautiful- were, sexualization followed. It was just a fact, a rule and law of nature practically.
Although, Ander had allowed, that all the pictures and videos on every social media platform showing off all the Anderane Elite security personnel with those 'Velvet Girls' that they were in personal romantic relationships with- didn't exactly help, because they usually went viral.
Bianca had to cut in and remind him that while that was true, it was no where near as viral as the pictures and videos from the actual 'Velvet Girls' who posed for pictures and videos and 'get ready with me' and 'what having a service from me from my treatment room' videos that showed off the newly renovated, gorgeous, state of the art treatment rooms, with Bianca's permission of course- went as viral as they did. And her commercials that she had made to go along with her advertizing campaign, featuring her 'A Team' that she had made, that unfortunately did feature her more 'conventionally attractive employees' to which Bianca grimaced and winced even saying that out loud. She knew that everyone was beautiful in their own way. And that inner beauty was the most important in her book. But, again, thanks to Ivan's connections and financial backing, got all the proffessional entertainment industry components to go through all of her employees, with Zyah, Ottavia and all the employees to get legitimate makeovers, along with Anderane's most conventionally handsome personnel and the most attractive of all of their clientelle too! To shoot and show a new commercial just for the Super Bowl!
But that was literally the spa's part one of Anderane Elite's part 2 that also had Ivan's funding- that featured Rane and Ander, show casing their company and what they did to teach and train their security personnel and of course- used The Velvet Spa as the example. Rane and River, and Ander and Zyah of course were the stars, both of them 'trusting the safety of their fiance's in the hands of the security team they had built, trained and equipped'. That they trusted the safety of everyone who worked there- in the safe, capable, supported and equipped hands of their security. Doing the whole, my hands look like this, so her hands can look like that'- kind of thing. And of course- the most beautiful women who worked at The Velvet Spa were also showcased too. Especially Zyah and Ottavia who did have those bunny ears that both women had a love/hate relationship with. That also featured all those girls actually using their romantic partners as their 'clients'. The sexual tension was palpable and so thick, you'd need fucking grapple saws to cut through.
And then- Ivar paid for all the clients, all the employees, everyone on the security team who had all shown up to shoot both commercials also did actual interviews, before during and after too! That was also, now, a series. Bianca was vehementely fighting off the 'reality series' that kept on being proposed to her though. That's where she drew the fucking line. Because she would never expose the rest of her clients to that shit. Bianca had somehow turned a service she was trying to use her business to make accessable for everyone- into this...fetishized, perverted, commercialized monster that she didn't recognize half the time.
Then Ander said it best with 'you never did Bianca, Ivan did though. We all let him take the wheel for a minute and now we can't be angry with where he drove us too, because we let the distraction of his money and popularity and notariety become more important than doing our jobs, the devil is always in the details. Always.' Which got reluctant murmurs of begrudging acceptance that Ander had a point they couldn't argue with. And then Ander had made a point that, despite all of that, he was proud and happy to see that Bianca herself had not sold her soul for it. He knew and saw she handn't because she made sure that her OG clients got top priority when it came to scheduling and services, especially the elderly ones. Always the elderly ones, or especially the special needs ones too. Which was actually really comforting and encouraging.
Bianca thanked Ander for that. And tried to explain all her measures to be as equal opportunity as she could be. She instituted a double blind test, it always seemed that the girls outperformed the guys though, every time. They even ran applications and resumes through a filter that would take out any gender or ethnicity bias, including the names. The girls still, even with all of that, still got hired over the guys. It was not at all, intentional. But it was because the referrences and the skill set most of male applicants "claimed" they had, were usually either nonexistant or grossly overestimated and falsely claimed. Guys usually applied to positions even if they only had a fraction of the qualifications. Women usually applied if they felt they fit most of them. All of the skills specified on the application were critical for them to have. And because of that, guys disqualified themselves in their own application. It was honestly only because most of the men who worked for her, were 9 times out of 10, on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and she loved them, each and every single one of them because they were absolutely wonderful people in their own right. She had unwittingly turned her spa into 'a chick place' to work. Before and especially after those commercials.
It was the traditional barbershops for the males in all the various typs of people who went into this field of work, that she had tried to hire right out of barber school or specialist school, but they all usually refused to work at her 'chick spa', so they went to work instead at the barbershops. Even if they didn't have even a tiny fraction of the same amount of clientelle, that barely got them by. The only way they usually survived in this field was because usually the "new customers" who would come in- in a pinch because they couldn't get in at the Velvet Spa, because they had invariably fumbled one way or another to get back onto the schedule in a timely manner and while they were grateful the barbershop could get them taken care of in a pinch when they were in the lurch, they rarely, if ever scheduled back because they made sure to get themselves back into the books at The Velvet Spa. Those guys that blew Bianca off usually had no hourly wages, no benefits, no perks, no support, no structure other than, waiting for guys to meander into the barbershop. They were all alone against the world with nothing but their fragile sense of masculinity and egos. Also, all of them needed to fuck off the closest bridge because even if they refused to work for her, they still were usually paying clients themselves.
And not that she was petty, but honestly everyone in that room was- that was why she had 'the bastard tax' in her system, to be used for bastards who would spit in her face instead of even trying to see if they could work for her but try to successfully slide into any other specialist's chair at the spa at same time. Those guys got special stickers on the front and back of their client files before Ander adopted the same template.
She had done so- so that it was known to all, exactly who and what that client was. And Bianca had been blessed to have this exact scenario twice that day. It had been a great day honestly, before all of this.
The specialists who got the 2 'bastard tax clients', saw the stickers, and also, in a sense of pettiness towards their client, and pride and loyalty to Bianca and the spa in general, in the past and in the present- spent the entire appointment, giving the ideal service, asking all the questions like 'are you comfortable, is anything uncomfortable', but never asking the client any personal questions and keeping it strictly professional in their courtesy, making sure the client had verbally and visually confirmed such things, and got 'agreement that everything was wonderful and they didn't have anything to complain about'. And that was usually when the specialist was asked questions that sounded professional curiosity but was definitely geared towards personal by those clients.
And those specialists would and had and did- smile that smug, satisfied smile that they were finally able to tell those clients exactly what they got to enjoy in an overabundance being an employee there. Where they had all of these more than generous contracts that protected them as the professional specialist they were as much as it protected Bianca and her outstandingly successful business. Where they got all of these benefits, including their own private pool of security personnel who were always ready to come in solve any problem the client had with their treatment and service in the spa, including watching and listening in, which finally seemed to finally hit those clients that while they felt 'alone' with the specialist in the treatment room, they were far from alone as the specialist would point out the 'obvious' camera in a corner with it's own microphone.
And if the client tried to renege, the specialist woud pull out their continued client sheet where they had just signed and dated, agreeing to all the new security measures that were listed on the back, that those clients usually forgot to turn over and read, and just signed at the bottom where there was a signature line, just as they would softly rasp with their knuckles at the door where the undercover security personelle would always be standing just outside the door and open the door before the rasping of a knock would hit more than two knuckles. And it may or may not have been a competition among all the undercovers, even the floaters of who was the biggest and looked the meanest who could 'sit in' on those appointments too. Before those clients would realize that they didn't have a leg to stand on, no matter if they walked in on two, or four or none at all.
And then the specialist would pick right back up with practically singing Bianca's praises for building such an outstanding place for them to work for in the first place, and how proud they were to not only be so busy that they were usually 6 months to 9 months and some even 12 and 18 months out -scheduled ahead, before that client would get an apology from the specialist that unfortunately their books were too full to reschedule with them personally, but the Velvet Spa was always hiring new specialists, and hopefully there would be openings on their books to get scheduled back in agian before the security personelle usually personally escorted those particular clients out.
Bianca always did make it a point to be visible, and had, twice that day as they both walked towards the check out counter, and 'remember their names and thanked them for coming back in, even though their opportunity to work together had closed, she really appreciated their business nonetheless' with a tone so honeyed and smile that practically had 'fuck you' written on her teeth.
Then Bianca had blindly reached out towards where she knew Ander was sitting and pointed in his direction and thanked him for putting those undercovers on her work floor, even as numerous as they were, they at least made the place look balanced. And as much as they wanted to complain about anything and everything, but lately mostly about Ivan and his creeping vine like desire to control everything- they all knew that without Ander being the shield and go between them and Ivan, all of them would have quit by now and the business would be closed, dissolved only to be reformed somewhere else under any number of different names, taking all of their clients with them.
And while Bianca knew she wouldn't be able to hire Ander back at what he was earning now, he was willing to take the pay cut to keep his own soul at this point. But they made him promise and swear that when and if he ever put his 2 weeks notice in, while Ivan was still in contract with the spa, to let them know, and give them, like, at least a 24 hour headstart to do the same and get their shit together and get the fuck out, and let Ivan have his precious control over an empty building, and figure it all out on his own and then crash and burn when this industry would eat him alive. Which would get murmurs of thanks and appreciation directed at Ander. He had reminded them that even if he too tried to quit, he was still seen by Ivan as his son in law, even though Zyah and himself had only fairly recently gotten engaged. He loved Zyah too much to even try to get out of his place beside her, while also knowing that he had very little chance of ever supporting her on his own. Even if he could try and take her and run for the hills now, he was essentially locked in golden handcuffs. But, he was determined to stay as long as he could. Because if a shield was all he could do and be for them between them and Ivan, by God, he was going to go down as such too which usually resulted in pats and pets, which was honestly, rather nice, because these women were either like big sisters or aunts to him.
Maddison voiced her latest fantasies aloud of goring Ivan to death if he interrupted the spa's ability to function for either one of his 'pop in visits' or another stupid, pointless security inspection that was never warrented and this stupid clause that gave Ivan the technical right to do so- that wasn't supposed to be in the damn contract she and Bianca had signed that Bauvar had uncharacteristically failed to spot and ask for and get a full explanation and clarification before hand. Bauvar and every other lawyer he knew tried and spent who knows how many countless hours looking for any kind of loophole on that iron clad contract. And so far, had found absolutely nothing. And by now, Ander knew to send a message to Bauvar when he knew that Ivan was coming to the spa to do an inspection or even 'a surprise pop in'- to either get Bianca out of the spa or if her presence was requested that she couldn't find enough excuses to get out of, to come there after, with flowers, another apology, even though Bianca had asked him to stop doing that, but otherwise he would only hand her a container from her favorite steakhouse, with her favorite cut of steak, a bone in ribeye- cooked medium rare that she could eat with her hands like she was eating a sandwhich as she contemplated her life choices that brought her here that made the the lure that was a contract with Ivan so appealing, not thinking the hook and barb in that hook would get her- hook line and sinker; lock stock and barrel.
Everyone in that room was literally ticking off the days until it expired. All the women around Ander were contemplating if it would go by faster if any of them got pregnant again, even Bianca was tempted by that idea. Even though the two women who had unfortunately been born male, couldn't get pregnant, they wished they could if it meant that they'd get a break from Ivan. Otherwise, half of them had already either gone through menopause or were about to or were currently going through perimenopause themselves. They also wondered if they could pool their vacation days together and then claim that all of them had whatever total number of vacation days that would be. Thankfully Ander had the largest number of vacation days to offer said pool, before they were then agreed upon and then planned said vacation days accordingly.
Except for Ander, who knew he shouldn't put anything other than what Zyah put on his schedule and calandar for him. He didn't care if that made him sound whipped. He knew he was, and he was happy with that, and had accepted that. And Zyah was, after all, a master of scheduling. And that was why he had hired her to also schedule all of his work responsibilities and engagements. When she wasn't actually being a receptionist, she was the scheduling manager for the spa for a reason, because she was damn gifted at it, and the best scheduler Bianca or anyone else had ever known. Zyah was always more magnificently brilliant than physically beautiful, even though she might as well have been a goddess of beauty herself. For anyone who didn't get to see or witness that in action, was a shame and they missed out big time. Everyone who knew Zyah beyond a casual association had the highest respect her and made sure to praise her as much as they could for all that she did for everyone. Especially Bianca since Zyah was solely in charge of Bianca's schedule, along with nearly everyone else in that room too. Especially River, who benefited the most since Zyah insisted that she do River's schedule because of Rane.
Rane was the most horndogged, sex brained, beyond euphorically happy minotaur Ander had ever known or seen such a transformation happen in real time the moment he met River. Rane had quite literally transformed himself from ox under a yoke pulling a millstone right along side Ander, to highly prized stud who would mount his fiance River every chance he could and would refer to it as 'Bring my River this Rane!' or conversely, 'He needed to bring the Rane to the River!' He would always and had that day- practically bellowed it so that the entire executive floor heard him and had practically cheered Rane on as Ander could only jealously glare at Rane's back as Rane had strut out of the office only moments before Ander did. Rane had raced to the spa, parked in his own private parking space right next to River, who had barely gotten her client out of her room and passed the client and their file to another specialist, her back up specialist who was there just for these occurrences because she knew what was coming and said the code 'blos' before immediately grabbed a set of linens from the massage therapist's storage cubby into her room, because Rane had come to practically blow her back out, try to fuck her senseless, like he always did- every chance he possibly could and had and did and was already balls deep inter her before Ander had stepped out of his vehicle in the parking garage.
And even with all the super extra soundproofing River's room had gotten. Ander's ears flicked to the soft and muffled sound of River getting pounded into oblivion by Rane up against the black out button's wall. Not even a full 15 minutes ago, the moment Rane saw Ivan leave Ander's office, suddenly- Rane needed River's "attentions"- before he would be ready or anything close to willing to hear about the 3 hour meeting with Ivan that Ander had just had. How River found the strength to even try to walk after was it's own miracle.
Because of the frequency that looked sporadic but actually had a patter only Zyah seemed to be able to recognize and then predict with practically perfect accuracy- River now had- personally pool of 5 different people that were there, every day River worked. The actual pool was closer to 50 for everyone, that everyone rotated doing for everyone else. But always at least 10 of them came in every day- up to 15 or even 25 of them during the peeks of the busy season. They were there to pick up slack, take on clients whose specialists were running late and behind and when a specialist asked or needed a longer 'lunch break', they had coverage. Because Zyah masterfully put it there. But especially when that break was of the sexual variety, Zyah even put in a special code in the computer for it- blos block in their schedule. Technically it should be B.O.B.S.B.T.B.M.B.O. Because it stood for Black Out Button Sex Break To Blow My Back Out. But blos block sounded perfectly elegant in discussing scheduling or anything else about what happened at The Velvet Spa and way better and way more discrete to delicately refer to that. And when any particular specialist was having a particularly bad day, they could message their significant other's that 'they needed a blos block in their schedule' with an appointment time- and you can bet your ass that whoever that person was- stopped what they were doing and came ready, willing and eager to "help" or serve rather and was actually, usually early too. Ander even named his daily erasure of explicit content on the recording equipment- blos block cleaning. Because, as Ander had been having that meeting with his 'real women team' at the spa, Rane and River had taken nearly the entire time of the meeting to have 'a blos block' themselves.
Once everyone else in that 'real women at the spa meeting' had finished their turns of what really was venting- except for Ander, he finally took the piece of paper he had written everything down as clearly, legibly and succinctly as possible- the 'problems' that Ivan had highlighted and what he felt should be the one solution to solve, like it was hitting way more than just two birds with one stone- and handed it to Bianca, whose eyes had gone wider than Ander had ever seen them go in both shock and horror before she got her phone out of the bin, took a picture of the paper without blurriness from the small tremmor like shaking- her hands had started to do- from rage- and then passed the note around. Not saying anything, she was still taking the time to adjust from the shock as she looked at the image of the paper on her phone as it rested on the table because she couldn't hold it in her hands and read it clearly.
"Seriously?" Bianca breathed before Ander took a big breath in and released it in defeat and then recounted everything that had happened between his Ubrelvy dose, which is what he took for migraines- and him setting foot on this premisis. No other emotion in his voice other than a hollow acceptance of failure.
"What do you think? Like, not you- Head of Security you- not you- Anderane Elite you- But- You as the Ander you are as nothing but your true genuine, honest and authentic self with absolutely no filters whatsoever- you- what do you think?" Emily asked him as he smiled so gratefully and delighted she had asked that as specifically as she did. She asked, the others had lifted their heads to look at him and were all leaning in to hear what he was about to say- so he let it rip.
"The only thing that would keep me from hunting those "sad girls" down, to strangle them to death with my own two hands, and then resuscitate them, just to strangle them to death again and again, over and over- until they could no longer be resuscitated- because, again, I was raised to never put my hands in anger on any woman, but those girls aren't women, they're manipulative motherfucking soggy breast cow stomach bitches...who don't fucking count!" Ander hissed, growled and snarled as his ears pinned back as he barred his teeth and demonstrated how he wanted to strangle them as his claws extended like a cat's claws- in the air as the other women nodded in agreement and approval.
"The only thing that would keep that from happening? Would be to, again, hunt them down- then hog tie them so they can't escape, and then haul them to any space they- and every single guy on that waiting list and then every single person at Anderane who has ever written the words 'Velvet Girls' with anything close to want or desire- and put all of them into a closed, locked, secure space. Take the girls out of their restraints and then announce that 'since they're so jealous that they're "sad" that they're still single but obviously- not by their own choice but because they just'- "haven't found the right knight to be there for them in their shining armor"- to then gesture at everyone else in that room- and go - "here's your chance, I brought them all to you, you get to choose from here." And then immediately leave that space/ conferrence room/ event center, whatever- then lock and secure all the exits so that no one can escape. Whether the guys would fight to the death or the girls be the bait in a dog fight, who knows? I guess we'd only have to do it and test it out and see what happens." Ander sarcastically yet emphatically gushed that had all the women around him laughing instead of actually doing that themselves in that moment.
"I'm in!" Bianca and Maddison immediately raised their hands as all of them suddenly raised both hands before they're laughter eventually died down and the reality of the situation seemed to settle back in.
"As much as that would be the "perfect poetic justice", I honestly don't want to spend tonight in prison on any charge those things would get me, and spend the rest of my life behind bars...All I can say as both me-me, and both kinds of work-me can say...is please, don't react right now. Because I do not have the energy or the will power to react to anyone else's actions or reactions. I'm still hanging onto the only will I have and that is- to live- with Zyah specifically. And that is all, that is all I care about in this moment, let the rest of the world burn outside of whatever space I will find myself in Zyah's company." Ander begged as he pressed the tips of his index fingers into the conferrence table as the others nodded in understanding and agreement.
"All of this, because who knows how many girls- that once I know who they are- are getting fired, both literally set on fire and then drop kicked out of the door before they're fired in the sense of terminating their employment...otherwise...I'm...I'm done for the day, week, month, year, decade, century, whatever. I...I need...I need to go home. No, no I shouldn't go home because babies are at home, no. I can't...I can't scare them by reacting to this around them. I need...I need to go to the liquor store and buy something strong that will burn my tastebuds and my throat drinking it if it will make my wrathful rage burn just a little cooler at these sad girls and Ivan- and take myself and said booze to Bauvar's office and have him bang- as hard as he can- whatever this horror, rage, indignation, rebellion, hateful, vengence, revenge, vindictive petty whatever the fuck that it is- that I'm feeling- out of me. Like, I need him to just...hate fuck me? Is that...is that the right word? Am I using that correctly? Can Bauvar fuck all the hate I have for Ivan- and these sad girls- out of me?" Bianca stuttered and stammered as she tried to see past the blind rage her brain and body was trying it's best to slip into as everyone else simply had their eyes go wide. Maddison most of all. Because Bianca, rarely- ever stammered, she was always- cool, calm, collected- always knew the right thing to say and how to say it. But to see her break down to that degree that it was clear that her grip on her own sanity and any semblence of self control had started to slip out of the strangle hold she usually had it in- was now growing loose, and getting looser by the second.
"Um, that's...that's not what hate fucking is. It's fucking someone you hate. So if you wanted to hate-fuck, you'd either be hate-fucking the girls who were so jealous they were sad, or you'd be fucking Ivan." Rachel clarified.
"I'd rather set myself and this building and the fucking spa on fire then. Ok, yeah, nevermind. But definitely, whatever word there is that means- 'fucking someone you love, so much and to such a degree that you effectivley fuck the hate that your loved one is feeling for another person- out of them, because you love them' is- please text message me or in a chat or email to infrom me. But- do not call me. I would sooner break my phone in my fist or throw it off Bauvar's building's rooftop or stomp on it to crush it." Bianca corrected as she got up and slid her chair back into the table and her grip on the top of the chair made her knuckles white and her arms were shaking in rage so much, it looked like her arms were having a siezure as the rest of her body tensed as something terrifying now flashed in her eyes.
"Fuck." Maddison breathed as she scrambled to get up, get her phone in her back pocket. She knew her friend, and business partner. If Bianca of all people was literally shaking in rage- and stuttering and stammering and not filtering anything anymore- then Bianca was about to go on a warpath that would make anything Maddison did or could ever do look angelic. And make carnage of civilization looked after a natural disaster or nuclear bombing look like a scratch on a car's bumper.