Heroes

"Ahhh!" A hiss of pain. "That hurts!"

Yumiko frowned at the older man who was holding up his hands in a defensive posture, blocking her hands from dabbing the antiseptic soaked cotton bud over the bleeding cut on his face. Looking at him like a mother would look at her child, Yumi swatted away his hands and leaned back in, careful and gentle touches wiping away the blood and dirt. Still the man complained.

"It stings!"

"What are you, five?" she snapped, although the smile on her face showed that she wasn't really angry with the guy. "Honestly, Alex, you spend your days joyfully bringing pain to so many people that I would think that you would be able to take a little pain like this."

Alex frowned at her but remained silent like a scolded child.

She giggled at him as she moved her hand away and leaned in closer to him, pursing her lips to blow softly on the cut on his forehead. "Don't sulk like that," she said softly as she sat back on her bar stool. They were in her kitchen, seated at the little breakfast bar in the warm, sunny room. Yumi put the dirty cotton bud aside and doused a clean one in the same foul smelling liquid before once more reaching over to 'torture' poor Alex's face, cleaning up another cut to his skin. "Thanks for doing what you did though." She smiled at him. "You were very heroic."

Try as they might, Yumiko and Dion's personal life still managed to leak out into the world beyond their door. They didn't keep their divorce secret, they didn't see a need to hide that fact. However, Dion felt it best they keep the reason why under wraps. Yumi didn't mind and at first everything seemed to be going rather well. Both of them were moving on with their lives. Dion had got himself a little apartment and Yumi continued living in their home in the quaint little village. She'd wanted to move, but since the house was already paid for and it was where Poppy was growing up she felt she couldn't really leave it. Not to mention Astareal wouldn't be able to stay with them if she moved to a two bedroom place. Nor Jung stay over. Or Wednesday. Gosh, there were a lot more people in her life than she realised.
Anyway, rumours however quickly leaked out, and some people felt the need to verbally attack the sweet looking Asian woman. One such man had taken it upon himself to inform her that what her ex-husband was doing was wrong and that she was teaching her daughter terrible things.

Alex who was out with her at the time did not approve of someone bringing Yumiko close to tears. Unfortunely, standing up for Yumi resulted in him getting quite the beating.

"He shouldn't have said the things he did," Alex explained. "Just because...you know...and...ouch....It was wrong of him to say things like that to ...ow...you."

Flicking her head to remove some of the hair from her eyes, Yumi gave Alex a small smile. Tossing the blood coated cotton ball onto the pile, she dropped her hands into her lap. Lowering her head, she fought back the blush that was threatening to flush over her cheeks. She felt like she was acting like some silly teenage girl blushing over the boy who stood up for her against the bullies. If the words hadn't struck her so deep, Yumi knew she would have stood up for herself. She wasn't weak and didn't like feeling weak. Still, it was nice that Alex had tried to defend her like that, even if he did get his butt handed to him. Maybe dentists just weren't cut out for fighting.

As she was staring at her hands, she saw a large pair fall over them. The knuckles were bruised and scrapped. He may have lost, but the other guy didn't get away unharmed. "Yumi?" Alex sounded concerned, and when she lifted her head to look at him, she saw the emotion she heard in his voice reflected on his face.

"Its alright, Alex," she said, smiling at him. She didn't need to force the smile to her lips, it came naturally to her because Alex really did make her smile - inside and out. It felt like forever ago that she'd wandered into the bar and came upon the man sat alone at the bar. At first she thought it was just him that needed the friend, but after spending more and more time with him Yumi realised that she had needed a friend too. Someone outside the circle of people she knew. Someone normal. Compared to the people she knew and the school she taught at there was no more normal that she could get than Alex. Even having a werewolf for a son didn't disrupt his 'normalness'.

Sliding her hands out from under his, Yumi slipped down from her own stool and moved to stand in the space between Alex's knee, looping her arms around his neck. Her smile brightened when Alex's own arms circled around her, hands going to rest awkwardly on her hips for a few moments before sliding around to the small of her back. "Even if you did get your ass handed to you, you're still my hero," she told him, fingers toying with the hair at the nape of his neck.

As he frowned once more and opened his mouth to reply, Yumiko leaned in and shut him up with a kiss.

No Rush

Red wine.
White wine.
Brandy.
Rum.

And that was just the alcohol that Yumiko had put into the food.

Dion say on the bar stool watching the woman he was once married to in her own world. Whenever Yumi was cooking she fell into her own private little world that she only allowed people into when she wanted to. As absentminded as she could be, Yumiko had never burned anything in all the years he had known her for.

"You're really pulling out all the stops for this bloke, aren't you?" Dion asked her, glancing down into the wine he was swiling around the inside of his glass. "You never cooked me anything special for a date."

Spinning around, wooden spoon in hand, Yumi pouted at her ex husband. "We had never dated, Dion. You just up and proposed to your best friend." She walked over to her side of the counter where he sat and took the wine glass from him, lifting it to her own mouth for a sip of the fruity red wine. "Besides, Alex has only been here a few times and I don't want him as absolutely nervous as he was the first time. It was like he was a virgin or something."

Dion took the wine glass back from her as Yumi floated off back to stirring the various things in the pots and pans on the hob. "Was he really that nervous?"

"I've been talking to Vincent and while he holds a lot of contempt for Alex, somewhere inside him he really does want his father to be happy."

"And by talking to, you mean you were being nosy, right, Yumi?"

She giggled, shaking her head. "Anyway, Vincent was around Poppy's age when Alex left. He's not really had to deal with children - epsecially little girls," she responded, completely ignoring Dion's comment.

"He's a dentist, he knows how to handle kids."

"He's the big scary man with the needles and drills. Kids behave for him because they're scared of him." She pointed a finger at Dion "You're scared of him too, Dion. It took you a whole month to schedule that appointment for your tooth ache." She waggled her finger accusingly while smiling brightly at her best friend. "I really like him, Dion. He's odd and has a few quirks, and not everyone can deal with him - but inside he needs someone who likes him for who he is and not what they could make of him."

"Do you see yourself with him in the future?"

"Do you see yourself with Collin in the future?"

"I..." Once more Dion stared into the deep red depths of his wine glass. "I'd like to hope I'm still with him. I've learnt that it doesn't matter what you think or want to happen; its that whatever happens - happens."

"Exactly." Yumi knelt down before the oven and opened the door, examining the contents within for a few moments before standing upright against and transferring what was in one pan directly into another then tossed the now empty saucepan into the sink. "It might have been better if I had learned it from Alex himself, but Vincent told me without asking - about how Alex and Vincent's mother got married."

"Should you be telling me?"

"I tell you nearly everything, Dion," she told him with a smile, receiving one in return. "Alex got her pregnant and then proposed. Having a family was apparently not something he was planning. But at least he tried. I'd think you and him would have some common ground there."

"He's not gay though."

"He still went with someone else."

Dion chewed on his bottom lip as he heard her reply. Yumi had a point. A very valid point. If he up and left Yumi and Poppy would he really be any different from Alex? Would he be able to reconnect with his daughter in ten years if he'd left her? "I never realised just how much we both had in common..."

She smiled at him again. Warm, bright and full of sunshine. Yumi simply could not hate a person. She could find all the bad points a person had, and all the good too - and choose to see a person for everything they were. She never wanted to change anyone, or stop someone from beign who they were. Alex had abandoned his son and wife. He was a bit of a leech, and hung out in bars. He had rough edges and a personality few people could like.

But Yumiko liked him.

This was the young woman that had married her best friend who after a few years finally stopped pretending and came out of the closet he was hiding in. They had a child together. She had every right to hate Dion - but instead she continued to love him like the best friend he'd always been for her. Alex Lyall was not the type of man people saw women like Yumiko Callahan with, yet for her it was as if he was ideally made for her. As Dion watched her dance around her kitchen, he realised just what had drawn him to Yumi in the first place.

She accepted people for who they were - and gave them the friend they needed.

"Yumi?"

"Hmmm?"

"If Alex ever makes you cry, I'm going to kick his ass."

The Ree Effect

A.N.: If we were all famous, and people knew all about our characters I'm certain they would create pairings that we would only cringe (or laugh) at. My grandkids are going to know of the wonders that are TG and StD. If they're not creating characters like I do then I'm going to disown them.
But enough about the characters...
This is about the writers.
-stands before the firing squad- You may proceed to shoot me now n_n

(This is all written as if the CBox we all live in was one big house. Like Big Brother. Only we're all awesome)

The Ree Effect

Shy & Ree

Sipping at a freshly made coffee, Ree looked up as Shy entered the kitchen. They greeted one another with a silent nod, and Ree sipped at her coffee while Shy set about making her own drink.
"Sssshhhhhh-aaaaaiiiiii..."
"What?"
Ree grinned around her penguin mug. "We're in a kitchen."
Shy glanced at the set of kitchen knives on the counter and promptly burst out laughing.



Jules & Ree

Jules stood in the middle of the lounge, hands on her lips and frowned. Frowned like she meant it. Glaring into the middle distance, she tapped her foot and waited. When nothing was forthcoming from the thin air, she turned and left the room, heading for the dinning room where Ree sat tapping away on her laptop.
"I've lost something,"
"I told you, Jules, you can't find your virginity again once you've lost it," Ree replied smugly, looking up from the screen. "Especially when I took it in the first place."



Jess & Ree

"Left a bit."
"There?"
"No, more, mmmmm, lower." Pause. "No, lower."
"How's that?"
"Mmmmmm...Up and bit and to the right."
"Make your mind up, woman."
Ree sighed and rested her head against the wall, arms aching from having to hold and position Jess' Supernatural poster on the wall.



Aki & Ree

Ree let out a cry for help and dove over the sofa and landed on the other side with a squeal. "Not the face! Anything but the face!"
Aki merely grinned and followed the other woman over the furniture - only with much more poise and skill- and sat on Ree's stomach. The older woman wriggled around beneath her, holding up her hands to her face.
"Noooot the faaaaaaace!"
Aki laughed manically and leaned down, close enough for the two to brush noses were Ree's hands not in the way. "Ree....Oh Reeeeeeee"
Spreading her fingers, Ree looked up at Aki. "Yeah?"
"We're behind the sofa."
Ree's grin spread and she moved her hands. Arms lifted and looped around Aki's shoulder. "Well..since we're down here..."



Brett & Ree

Pouting, Ree slumped forwards. Chin rested on the edge of her laptop and she stared at the screen that was barely inches from her face. "S'not fair," she mumbled. "I can't have sex with someone who's not here."



Cali & Ree

Rubbing the towel over her wet hair, Ree stumbled into the lounge to find the source of the music. Male voices floated out from the room in a language she couldn't understand, but it was pretty darn obvious who would listen to it. Well, it could have been Jules, but Ree was almost aboslutely certain it wasn't her listening to Korean Boy Bands. Dropping the towel around her shoulders, she grinned at the younger female sat focused on the laptop screen, fingers tapping away madly.
Slinking over, Ree collapsed onto the sofa next to Cali. With a sly grin on her lips, she turned her head to look at Cali.
"C'mere and finish what you're writing with me."






...I'll write more later x)

Dear Agony

It all started when he was just a kid. His father had never been a man that was cut out for fatherhood. Obviously all his attempts to try and stay with the mother of his child and play house were futile. Up in his room, Vincent could hear the muffled shouts of his parents arguing. He didn't know what his father had done to upset his mother so much. Seven years he'd lived in a family that just didn't get along. His father was a distant figure, barely around and then one day he just wasn't around at all.

Vincent found himself recoling within himself then. His mother just seemed to want to focus on the Church and his grades. He became the perfect little son, doing all his schoolwork and not getting into trouble. He didn't want to upset his mother. She'd cried a lot when his father had gone away, and now she always looked so sad.

He kept everything up until he was thirteen.

And then he was attacked.

No God would allow such a thing to happen to such a young and vunerable boy. His mother praised that fake heavenly host when her little boy made a swift recovery after being attacked by what he could only describe as a big, grey dog. No dog could have been that big though. No dog could maim a child, only for the injured boy to recover in under a month with barely a scar marking his skin. The full moon brought fourth the whole truth. The mother's perfect little son turned into a monster. She drilled it into him before she told him that she never wanted to see his face again.

A life that was harsh only seemed to get harsher. Vincent had no clue how to survive on the streets, but for near enough two years he did just that. Thin, emaciated and filthy, no one would look twice at the wretch of a human. He held such a self loathing of himself that there had been times when he'd just wanted to die. But he could never tie that rope. Countless cars had smacked into him as he stood in traffic, hoping to die some John Doe in a morgue - but the werewolf venom wouldn't let him die. Broken bones healed too quickly. There was no way a homless teen could find silver to stab himself with.

Then someone came along that seemed to want to offer the suffering youth a chance of redemption.

But even that fell through, slipping away like water through his fingers.

The vampire wasn't interested in the boy. He wanted the werewolf - fierce, strong and unbeatable. Vincent's loathing for himself only fueled the power and rage in the beast. It took a while, but eventually Vincent started to see through the cracks. His sense of self began to lurk within the mind of the wolf. The vampire was not friend - but a captor. Something inside of the broken boy knew that he would not be caged. He was not some immortal's pet. Breaking free hurt deeper than being thrown out of the home he'd grown up in. It was the only place in years he had felt truly comfortable. But that comfort came at a price. No home was a true home when it came with bars.

Vincent stared up at the night sky, cigarette smoke drifting up from his lips in grey-blue tendrils leaking fourth from his mouth. Lips curled into a dry smile.

"That's quite the tale," Sullivan said. He'd received a text message from an unknown number requesting that he go to the park. What he had found was a boy only last month had he witnessed turning into a big, black beast. It had the shape of man and wolf combined, yellow eyes burning like fire in the sockets. Before he could even ask why vincent had asked him out, the eighteen year old had began talking, telling of where his life had gone wrong. Since Sullivan had witnessed him changing, there was no denying what he was, but for some reason Vincent felt he owed the older male an explanation. He meant something to Marshall - even if that something was shaky and fragile like thin ice.

"I'm rehersing it for telling my Dad," he announced, lifting the cigarette to his lips and taking another pull. "At least after the bit where he left."

"So why tell me?"

Vincent grinned - the curl of his lips and flash of teeth made the smile seem simply malicious. "Because I need someone in this world to admit that I'm a monster. I tell myself everyday that I'm strong; that I'm not some beast designed for pain and killing. I can hurt someone, like I nearly hurt you, but I tell myself that I will not let the wolf win. I shouldn't bury myself under my self hate." He looked away from the sky and directly at Sullivan, the fire that had been eyes of yellow in those brown-grey depths. "I want you to fear me like I should be feared. I want to die. I want to live. I want to rip my father's throat out. I want to crunch your bones in my mouth." He moved on the bench, crawling over to where Sullivan sat. "I want Marshall to hate me like he should. Hate and fear me like the monster I am."

Sullivan just sat there, only a slight trace of fear evident in his face and eyes. "You're no monster, Vincent."

"I'M A FUCKING WEREWOLF!" He reached out and slapped Sullivan across the cheek. "I should be caged! I should be hunted and killed."

"What would Marshall think if he heard you talking like this?"

Vincent sighed and tossed the cigarette away. He moved closer to Sullivan, but instead of striking him again, he laid down on his side and placed his head into the older male's lap. "Marshall thinks he's a monster, but he isn't. He's never killed someone. He's never seen terror in a person's eyes as you sink claws and teeth into them. He eats only what he needs to survive - I'm the wolf thats killing the sheep."

Sullivan, unsure of what to do, say or where to put his hands just placed them either side of himself while the younger male rested his head in his lap. "Neither of you are monsters. You both have so many human characteristics." Slowly and tentatively, Sulli lifted one hand and stroked it down Vincent's arm in a soothing manner. "You didn't invite me out here to make me hate you."

"When my mother witnessed what you had, she told me she never wanted to see me again. I'd been the perfect little boy for her. A good son. I went to school - I went to church. I did everything a good son would do that would make his mother proud. It took one night, one glimpse of me turning into a werewolf that turned all that I had done into ash. I'd pulled my own skin off like the devil and turned into a demon before her very eyes." He let out a shuddering breath that racked his entire body. "A werewolf's first moon is always the hardest. Pain beyond belief. Its what causes you to forget what you are and what you do while you're the beast. You pass out from the pain and the wolf takes over. I've been a werewolf for so long now that the transformation is easier. My body is used to the shift now. It also means I'm stronger and much more deadly."

"If Marshall hadn't come when he had..."

"I would have either killed you or turned you." He closed his eyes. "This is why I am more of a monster than Marshall will ever be. He can't kill a person - or damn them to the same Hell that I live in." He pulled his knees up to his chest, the arm he wasn't laying on curling around his legs. "I want to make Marshall smile. I want him to know that he's not suffering alone, but I just don't know what to say to him, or how to tell him."

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job at the moment, Vincent. He really likes you. You make him believe in himself again. You give him a reason not to hate himself."

"He should still hate me," Vincent admitted glumly. "When he's just eaten he smells simply delicious. He has such a sweet scent about him, of flesh within flesh. Blood like sugar. He should hate me for the way I feel when I can smell him. I just want to immerse myself in that scent."

Sullivan looked down at Vincent, taking note of how the male's profile looked in the gloom of the streetlights. "I don't think Marshall could ever hate you."

Vincent opened his eyes and stared out unseeing. "He should - because I love him."