Temperatures today in Linkon City have already reached a scorching 104 degrees. Remember, citizens: stay hydrated, keep to the shade, and bring your pets inside!
Feet away, there was a quiet thump and an even quieter swish as Valko's heavy tail flicked lazily against the laminate floor. He managed to evade the square splotch of sunlight that shone in from the balcony with a single, agile curl that took just enough energy to put a frustrated wrinkle between his brows. Anything to avoid the glaring and unrelenting heat of the sun… and anything to avoid actually getting up and moving.
Petra watched as he nimbly dodged the bright white spot that made its way from one side of her living room to the other. The sunspot's slow trek was the only thing she could truly focus her attention on; anything else would require too much movement, too much thought. Watching a movie or random TV show would get her too excited. Taking a bath would just leave her miserably hot afterwards — and sweaty again within twenty minutes. Going out for ice cream felt like a death sentence.
"You know," Valko began from his spot on the floor. He had decided upon that very spot an hour ago, and since then, he had not moved, his shirt bunched up around his ribs and his bare stomach pressed against what had once been a stretch of cool tile. "I have centralized air conditioning at my place."
Even just listening to his voice felt like it required too much brainpower to be worth it. Annoyance definitely required too much.
Petra aimed her handheld fan down the front of her shirt. The not-quite-cool burst of air from its straining blades sent her tank top billowing away from her breasts and sweaty belly, but afforded her precious little in the way of comfort.
"Oh yeeeeah?"
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Title: when the night has come (the so sweet remix)
Creator: ???
Work Type: fic
Work URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86080146
Remixee Name: Personaje
Link to Work Remixed: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78692771
Pairings: Lancelot/Merlin
Length: 2.8k
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: N/A
Notes: Oh my god, Kair, you have so many gorgeous works to choose from, and being matched to you was truly a gift. After much consideration (and, okay, staring in awe), this is the one I decided to remix, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed everything you've created for the fandom.
Summary: For almost a month now, Merlin has been coming to Lancelot’s room in the evening, after Lancelot has dined with his fellow knights. It’s been long enough for it to feel routine, comfortable and well-worn. Lancelot has the knife ready, and a clean cup for Merlin to drink from. He’ll cut his arm, bleed as much as Merlin will allow him to, and then Merlin will heal the wound, drink every drop from the cup, and be on his way.
It works, more or less, but Lancelot has still spent most of the day trying to work up the courage to ask for more.
Or: Lancelot asks Merlin to bite him for the first time. Everyone is happy with how it works out.
warnings: discussions of domestic violence and its physical and mental aftermath, allusions to fears of stalking/intimidation by an abusive ex-partner, lily being more than a bit self-loathing, heavy alcohol usage, casey being a very lovey and rambly drunk, some smooching, casey’s singular kidney catching strays, limited editing because fuck it we ball!
notes: this is a little snapshot into lily and casey’s dynamic i started very early in development that is, after multiple timeline changes and decisions being finalized, no longer canon. i still wanted to share it anyway. <:)
Lily was, by her own account, adjusting well to life back home.
Casey had been an angel. He’d always been a caretaker, even when he was laid up in a hospital bed. The nurses had hated it — the way he’d tried to hobble his way up and out of the bed to fetch Lily’s bag for her from across the room despite her protests, or the time they’d caught him stopped off at the vending machines when he was supposed to be doing a simple lap around the floor. He’d never been one to sit and relax, not when someone else was in need.
She shouldn’t have been surprised when he hadn’t grown out of it. No glass of water had gone unfetched, no trip to town made alone. Even on days when his body was screaming for rest, he spent his time meticulously caring for her needs, ignoring his aches and pains in favor of tending to the last vestiges of the yellowed bruises fading from her body. Secretly, she suspected it was penance — his own personal method for making up for the years they lost, and all the moments he couldn’t protect her.
She knew it was selfish, but she couldn’t help but bask in the attention. Every bit of him was warm, safe — a feeling she never could quite capture even in the early throes of Rhett’s overeager charade at wooing her.
It felt like a miracle sometimes — the fact that Rhett hadn’t appeared. She knew it was naive to think he wouldn’t, that his looming presence wouldn’t one day make its way to the front door of her happiness. Casey’s ever-steady presence made the thought easy enough to push away, but it was when he was gone that it started to creep in — the festering anxiety, the lingering fear that she’d peer out the front window and see Rhett’s truck come rolling into the drive to come drag her home by the hair. The police had promised not to disclose her location, sure, but the thought of just the right greased palm letting it slip anyway kept her up at night more often than she’d care to admit.
It’d haunted her still that morning, the first inklings of the summer sun warming the expanse of grass between the front porch and the barns as she watched Casey trudge towards the monotony of morning chores. She knew she needed to learn to be without him, to ensure he stayed a lover and not a codependency riddled crutch. Thus came the new wave of hobbies: reading out in the sunshine, tending to the long-neglected flower bed out front under Brenda’s watchful eye, and even an ill-fated attempt at knitting. She’d thrown herself into them all, just as much for her as it was for Casey himself. It was times like these when she almost wished he didn’t know her like the back of his hand, or coaxing him out for a night with his friends wouldn’t be so damn hard.
A few hours and several increasingly incoherent texts later, she found herself in the next town over, peering out the driver’s side window at the only bar in town. It was cute, she thought, the way he was propped outside the bar waiting for her. Flanked on either side by one of his equally intoxicated friends, she could see the way his whole body languidly shook along with his laughter. He was loose, relaxed — something she hadn’t seen in him in a while.
Guilt thrummed dully in her chest, wrapping its way around her heart and kissing her ribs. He’d lost so much already. How much longer could she ask him to shoulder her own burden?
Before she could lose herself too deeply in that particular spiral of misery, he noticed her. It was like watching a golden retriever — she could swear she could see his ears practically perking up as he spotted the familiar pickup. She rolled down the window, unable to hide her grin as she leaned out with an appreciative whistle.
“Hey, handsome. You come here often?”
The laugh she earned was her favorite: all squinted eyes with his head thrown back like she was the funniest person he knew. His push away from the wall was clumsy, prompting her to kill the ignition and slide down out of the cab. They met in the middle, with a remarkably loose-limbed Casey supported on either side by friends who weren’t far behind him. Matías stumbled, snickering and barely managing a jumbled “Hey, Lil.” before nudging Casey forward.
“Blind leadin’ the blind?” she mused, automatically slipping up and under one wiry arm to support his weaker side.
“I ain’t blind—” Casey started, eyes traveling from the parking lot in front of him to the head of blonde hair currently situated just below his chin. He blinked once, then twice before a dopey smile crept its way across his face. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey,” she replied, huffing out a laugh as she felt his face automatically nuzzle into the top of her head. “You gonna start chewin’? Spend too much time out with the heifers?”
His indignant noise was muffled, lost somewhere in the crown of her head. “Shut it.” He paused a beat, seemingly reconsidering before rambling on. “No, no, don’t—don’t really mean shut it. Don’t ever want you to shut it—“
She couldn’t help but smile as they reached the passenger side of the truck. “I know, honey,” she said, propping him against the cool, dusty metal as best she could. “‘s alright.”
“No, nah,” he started, snickering at himself as he stumbled over his own words. He paused, recollecting himself before he began to wander away from the truck and back into the parking lot, mumbling all the way. “I don’t—haven’t been out in a while. Was a nice time, I think.”
She couldn’t help but be endeared despite the lingerings of cheap beer tainting the normally pleasant feel of his warm breath spilling across her skin. He was right — it’d been too long. Underneath all the jokes his friends had made (“figured Walker’d fucked off to find his other kidney”, notably) she’d seen the flicker of real concern clear as day. It’d done him good, she thought, judging from the way he was coming alive from just one good night.
“Uh huh,” she laughed, moving nimbly to slip back under his arm and collect him once more. She staggered a bit under his weight as he swayed into her. “Seems like you had a real good night, Case.”
His grin split his face from ear to ear, hazy eyes still somehow sparkling as he came to an abrupt stop and nearly sent her pitching forward into the gravel.
“Why’d you—“
His mumbled “c’mere” was nearly lost in translation as he reached for her face, overshooting her jaw and landing clumsily on the side of her neck. He seemed satisfied with it, migrating to her jaw and finding enough purchase to maneuver her face up and meet her halfway with a generous stoop of his shoulders.
She had to admit it was hard to pull away, current wolf-whistling audience and the distinct sway in Casey’s posture notwithstanding. His kiss was firm, somehow the steadiest part of him as the night’s alcohol still rushed through his veins. Even here, stood unceremoniously in the middle of a bar parking lot, he still knew just how to make her world come screeching to a stop. The hand on her jaw slid down slowly, skirting over the sweat-damp skin of her neck before finding a home on her upper arm. He leaned back slow, gripping her arm like an anchor to steady himself before that same dopey grin spread itself across his face once more.
“‘kay. Ready to go now.”
As they returned to the truck, a wild cackle turned her attention back to the bar itself, searching for what she couldn’t help but think of as the other two Stooges. A flicker of movement near the parking lot revealed Matías fumbling with a lighter before seemingly remembering he’d quit smoking not six months before and pocketing it.
“Hey. Y’all got a ride? You ain’t drivin’ like this,” Lily called out, frowning from the side of the truck.
Matías raised his fingers in a lazy two fingered salute, gesturing at Cody before nodding down the road. “Ella’s comin’ when she gets off’a work, which is… fuck, I dunno. Time is it?”
“1:36,” Cody supplied helpfully. It’s the first words she’s heard him say all night, his soft voice drifting over from where he’s now found a home leaned against a nearby wall.
“Yeah,” Matías said, wildly gesturing at Cody as if he’d perhaps cracked the code to unraveling the universe. “‘s 1:36.”
“1:37 now.”
Matías nodded. “What Father Time back there said, yeah.”
Lily sighed, pointing at Cody. “You text me when y’all make it home, or I’m comin’ back out here myself.”
With a clumsy salute and a chorus of mumbled “yes ma’am”s, they disappeared back inside. She turned her attention back to Casey, who had now found his way halfway into the cab before seemingly reaching a roadblock. He waved awkwardly, a sheepish grin serving as both a wordless apology and a request for assistance.
“When’d you get so tall?” she asked teasingly, huffing with the effort of folding loose, lazy limbs into the passenger seat.
“Summer after seventh grade, mostly.”
She couldn’t help but snort, rolling her eyes at the way his own grin widened with the knowledge of earning just a hint of a laugh from her. His smile had always been one of her favorite parts of him — a boyish show of teeth that was always a bit too goofy looking to be anything but sincere.
“Was eighth grade, actually,” she said finally.
He was mostly tucked in now, enough for her to start to edge the passenger side door closed. Not ten seconds after it latched, his head came peeking out the window, eyebrows knit together in confusion as he peered down at her.
“Wha—?”
“Eighth grade. You was still barely taller than me the summer after seventh.”
Casey blinked, hazy eyes studying her face for a long moment before he started fumbling for the crumpled cigarette pack shoved in his front pocket.
“You remember that far back?”
She was rounding the front of the truck now, opening the door and hoisting herself into the drivers seat before turning the keys and firing it up. The radio crackled to life, some Springsteen song warbling over half-blown speakers.
“Remember everything about you, Case.”
He was silent then, so long she thought he’d nodded off sometime between the city limit sign and the shell of the abandoned gas station that haunted the edge of the highway.
“You remember those pigtails you wore for school pictures? Was, what, fourth grade?”
She did. They were hard to forget when that faded elementary school photo still gazed down at her from the entryway of her mother’s home the last time she’d visited. Nora hadn’t bothered to change it out when her fifth grade photos came home, and after watching sixth, seventh, and eighth pile up on the kitchen table amongst the sea of bills, Lily had started throwing them out before she even left the school.
“Jesus, I hated my mama for those, but yeah,” she replied finally, idly nodding along to the radio as she peered at him from the corner of her eye. He was sprawled in his seat, practically more liquid than man with his head firmly against the half open window. Something about seeing him like that — unburdened and wholly relaxed — practically begged her to continue ambling down memory lane. “Seem to remember someone tuggin’ on ‘em, like some kinda walkin’ talkin’ stereotype.”
Casey snorted, a quick puff of smoke expelling from his lips before flicking the burnt down stump of his cigarette out the window. “Dunno. Don’t sound like me at all.”
They were nearing the Walker Ranch now, smooth pavement giving way to the dusty dirt road that wound back to the driveway. She took it slow, already weaving around new and old potholes like it was muscle memory as she turned into the driveway itself.
“Right,” she laughed to herself, “‘cuz you was a goddamn angel on Earth at nine years old.”
His only response was silence. Lily blinked, her anxious mind already conjuring up apologies as she turned to face him. Sometime in the last minute and a half, he’d fallen asleep, loose hair dangling in his face like a privacy curtain. As she coasted to her parking spot and killed the engine, she turned to face him fully. She knew she should wake him, but some selfish part of her wanted to savor this moment — the peaceful way his lashes rested against his cheek, and how the dim yellow glow of the security light lit his features. It was hard to believe that he was the same man that’d broken her heart all those years ago, some hazy memory set right here in this very driveway. Tonight, he felt like home. Tonight, he was every second of her second chance at happiness. And for the first time in over a decade, she realized she didn’t fear what the morning would bring.
Title: visions are seldom all they seem
Creator: MusicalMoritz
Fandom: Archie Comics
Pairing: Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge
Length: 12589 words
Rating: Teen
Summary: A Beronica Sleeping Beauty au loosely inspired by one of the comics where Veronica is Sleeping Beauty and Betty wakes her. Contains dragons and witches and swords and, most importantly, girls kissing
Warnings: Mild blood & violece
Submitter comments: I am recommending this because the Archie fandom is small and I want to share this work with more people, because I’m very proud of it :)
Title: Not the Enemy
By: Tansyuduri
Gift for: Artemystic
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 7,857 words
Warning(s): Violence
Creator Notes (Optional): I hope you enjoy!
Summary: Merlin and Arthur travel to a nobleman's castle for a hunting trip. Little do they know this former friend and his new, not so human wife, have joined Morgana.
All it takes is a special herb to and a perfect trap to make it look like Merlin is part of their plot
Now Merlin's magic has gone haywire, and worse than that, he finds himself in a cell with a witch iron cuff preventing even that from being of use.
Not to mention a furious Arthur who now believes Merlin has betrayed him.
But what if the fact that Merlin's magic is not under its usual control is exactly the thing that saves them when things look their worst?
