Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Most people would think monsters would be living in a castle far away in some made up land, but in actuality we’re just living in the middle of no where after someone started killing monster hunters in gruesome ways and in the leaving monsters looking messed up to say the least.

It might’ve been my fault we were targeted next but in my defense how was I supposed to know? I definitely didn’t know I was going to move to the middle of nowhere where it was incredibly sunny and I had to apply sunblock every five seconds, Colby and mom weren’t doing as bad as me though.

It wasn’t that bad, a lot of unsuspecting blood drives I hope, or victims but I was told I couldn’t drink human blood because it’s a small town, but why couldn’t I cause a little havoc? It was even worse when the landlord kept coming over to check on us every hour or so, one time it was different. A girl about my age came with her, she was wearing a bright sweater and some loose fitting jeans.

Our eyes met and she seemed like she was searching mine for something, maybe a way out?

“Hello.” She chirps, stopping my train of thought. A greeting was murmured by my father who seemed to be as uncomfortable as the rest of them at the interaction.

I continued to think about the girl, even ending up staring at her during school which Jake just had to catch on to.

“Dad said we should try to blend in before we can maybe go back, he’s even trying to become a teacher.” Jake comments, looking over at me as I continue to stare

“Maybe you should make friends? It could be good for you.” He states, gesturing again to hart with a waving motion and before I knew it, grabbing my arm and pushing me closer to her so I bump into her.

“Oh hey Amy.” She greets sweetly as I try not to feel uncomfortable.

“hey.” I greet, stretching out the end which ended up making me feel uncomfortable. Jake walking up behind me and taking over the conversation after I couldn’t put my words together. Relief fell over me until I processed what Jake said.

“Oh, hanging out after school? Sounds good, I’ll be there later.” She replied, walking away and taking a moment to look back at me, a grin on her face.

When I turn to look at Jakeand his smile was somehow bigger “What is it?” I hiss, looking up at him.

“Nothing, just a plan working perfectly.” They answer, nudging my arm with theirs. I walk away, rubbing my arm where ours collided.

I skipped class, didn’t need it. All I needed was a plan on how to get out of this, which I thought solved itself after hart didn’t come immediately after school.

That is until there was a knock on the door, Hartley stood there until I instinctively shut the door. Jake walked over and opened it again and let her in.

“Hello Hartley.” Jake greeted as she walked over to the couch.

“Sorry I’m late, I was at a sunshine club meeting.” She states, looking at me with the dumb, overly happy look. Jake chooses to sit on the side of the couch I’m on, pushing me closer to Hartley.

Jake turns on the TV and the first thing was a show, Starling being the one on screen. It annoyed me to no end, or the fact that Hart was captivated by it.

“Starling isn’t that good.” I say annoyed, more than regular.

“She’s such a help to the community though, how could you say that?” She says, looking at me with an odd expression.

Jake left to another room, I following to see what he’s doing.

“Jake-Oo what’s this?” I say, my eyes locking onto something peculiar.

“It’s just something that transports people to a different dimension, Dad was hoping it would help us move- Amy no wait.” He stated as I grabbed the item and stared at it with a mischievous grin.

I wasn’t going to do anything, just grabbed it to bother Jake and that it did. He tried to grab it back, accidentally shooting Hartley into a different dimension.

“Oh my gosh, I just sent our neighbor to another dimension.” Jake yelps, looking at the place Hart was only moments prior.

“Wow Jake, where are we gonna move now.” I state, not really caring but at the same time caring because if we were going to kill her at least let me be the one to do so; I haven’t had fresh blood in awhile.

It did kind of suck though what happened to her, I didn’t like her but she didn’t deserve that I suppose.

“What’re you doing?” I say as Jake rushingly pulls out his phone, typing away.

“Trying to contact Dad.” He states, seeming incredibly stressed as he put his phone to his ear and the other one on his hip.

Dad comes rushing in after a moment, looking at Jake with concern at the predicament as Jake tries to explain to no avail what’s going on.

“Jake sent Hartley to a different dimension, now we need help either covering our tracks or retrieving her.” I state as Jake stops his blabbering and Dad rushes to the lair that was not here when we moved in.

“Nice.” I comment as I notice Mom and Colby also taking a liking to the place and sitting around the dimly lit lair.

Dad immediately starts inspecting the gadgets, making small noises as if he knew what he was doing. He starts grabbing separate inventions and tearing them apart for pieces, throwing something together within a matter of a few minutes.

“I’m not going in there.” Jake musters up the courage to say as Dad gestures for him to get into the portal “Well I’m not.” He barks, getting ready to push him in.

“I’ll do it, anything’s better than hearing your bickering.” I state, rolling my eyes as Dad hands me the gadget that supposedly let me back into the “normal” world and walking into the portal.

I immediately saw Hart taking cover, our eyes meeting as she runs over to me.

“What’s going on?” She yelps, seeing a giant rock on its way towards us.

“Well uh you see, Jake might’ve accuse just so happened to have sent you to a different dimension.” I state as she pushed me to the ground, another rock flying at us at a faster rate.

We lay there for a moment, trying to process what’s going on, her with the whole different dimension thing and me with the fact that Dad’s invention didn’t work but at the same time that makes sense.

She scrambled to get off me after she realized we were still on the floor, her blushing slightly before her whole expression contorts. I look up to see what she’s looking at.

“I wish starling was here.” I comment “So she can help us?” She replied “No I just want her to die with us.” I answered, her looking over in confusion.

“That sounds all too familiar.” She mumbled, looking at me with a puzzled look as rocks continued to fly towards us, I grab her and pull her down so one doesn’t hit us which is when she finally asked the question.

“Amy, who are you really?” I wanted to lie but something told me that I shouldn’t, maybe it was the fact we were about to die and that I had nothing to lose or maybe it was the look of desperation in her eyes for an answer, for the truth.

“I’m a monster, my Dad is an inventor and everyone kind of hates us especially your hero ‘Starling.” I say in a mocking voice, almost jealous of Starling innate ability to have Hart seem to like her so much and the ability to piss me off so much when she isn’t even fucking around.

Hart gives me a knowing look, as if all of her questions were answered in that short sentence, calm even, that is until Jake opens a portal scaring the shit out of both us as he appears behind Hart. Hart moved backwards into me as she heard a presence behind her.

“Amy, you knew I was going to appear at some point why were you scared?” Jake questions, looking down at the scene laid before him.

“I knew that part, just surprised at how ugly you are right now.” I state, Hart still leaned against me.

“This is how I always look- oh.” They state, standing there with a knowing look as I look smug.

“So anyway, did Dad force you into the portal?” I ask, already knowing the answer as I get up, helping Hart up “Of course he did.” Jake stated, opening the portal up in the lair that Hart looking almost as confused about it as Jake looked annoyed, muttering something about being left out as I lead Hart up the stairs.

The thing we see is who I can only assume is Colby shapeshifted to look like Hart, Mom noticing us and messing with the lights as Hart switches places with Colby who looked relieved to be back in their skin.

“Grandma, did you really need me to get the tool belt with the y’know what.” Hart says, continuing the story as I silently thank her when our eyes meet. She left with her grandmother after the issue was fixed.

I waited outside for awhile, not caring enough to bring down my guitar so I can play it so I just swung, looking up when I heard the slight rustle of footsteps by the king overgrown bushes in our front yard.

“Hey.” She greets softly as to not startle me, walking up to where I was and we meet in the middle at the steps on the porch.

“Thanks for y’know not telling your grandma we’re monsters.” I state, looking at her as our eyes lock “you’ll be telling them if you say it any louder.” She chuckled, looking at me with an expression I couldn’t quite place my finger on.

“I’m still kind of sour that you didn’t immediately tell me but I get it.” She states, her smile leaving her face for a split second.

“I thought you were all sweet and happy, I mean you run something called the sunshine club which sounds like and is in all meanings my sworn enemy, I thought starling was bad.” I answered, chuckling slightly at my own comment before glaring at my parents as I realized they were staring at us through the window.

“Welp, maybe it won’t be your sworn enemy for long.” She said, walking away and I could’ve sworn winking at me. I walked back in with a happy (ish) look on my face before realizing that everyone aside from Colby was staring out the window.

“So Amy, what were you talking about out there.” Jake asked mischievously as I thought about it for a second, a second too long as he already makes his own assumptions.

Chapter Text

It was a calm day, or as calm as it could be when your “genius” father and mother kept watching you as you hung out with your friend.

It had been 2 days since I spilled the secret to Hart and she’s been keeping it well, I still watch her to make sure she doesn’t slip up though because I still didn’t trust her.

She didn’t seem dangerous, sitting a safe distance away from me, getting slightly closer than when the movie originally started, moving closer when Dad started walking over and inspecting both of us in a way he thought he was being sneaky.

She looked slightly uncomfortable but didn’t say much as we continued to watch the movie, a Disney movie about zombies she said was good (it was not).

We got close throughout the movie but still being a safe distance away seeing as we were still barely warming up to this “friendship”. I couldn’t quite view it as that, the discomfort seemed to be mutual be her unreadable expression when she stared at me across the class.

“Oh my gosh! I’m going to be student of the month before I’m even here for a month.” Jake states excitedly as Colby comes down talking about how they only got 1 power and were “just a shapeshifter” as they looked at me, their eyes wondering back to their phone.

“Jake, we probably aren’t even going to stay long, we’ll probably be in like the Bahamas actually wait no, Alaska yeah that works better.” I mumble the last half, hart seeming slightly sad at the thought of me leaving.

“Wow, thanks for being supportive and happy about my accomplishments.” Jake retorted as he goes into the kitchen where Mom and Dad were stationed. After awhile the movie finished and Hart left, leaving me with a short goodbye mentioning my name in specific as she takes a quick suspicious glance at Dad as she leaves.

“Since she’s gone, I was thinking what do we have planned to get her to quiet up?” Dad asked the moment she was out the door.

“Could’ve waited a moment before bringing this up plus Hart is a good person and wouldn’t tell anyone.” Jake states “For once Jake has a correct opinion.” I agree, looking towards the door where Hart once was.

“We can never be too sure.” Dad stated as he looks through the window. I thought about it and ignored the thought for a moment until he brought that she was “too good” which might be true.

I couldn’t say he was wrong with that statement. I didn’t want to help him though, so I was going to be better than him. The plan was simple, I do something to get her into trouble at school and hold it against her. Hopefully she wouldn’t call my bluff.

I go to school early tomorrow morning, which will probably be the last time I’ll ever do that. I walk in, looking around for cameras as I think of what to get her in trouble for.

That’s when I thought of it; graffiti. It was perfect, it would only really affect school property and I won’t let her get caught so it was fine.

I started the painting process, splotches of paint all over school property. Dad walked in on this as he came in early.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Dad, halfway through a stroke “Doing my Job.” He states, gesturing to his slightly professional look suitcase.

“Since when did you work here?” I ask him in a loud whisper “Since I’m a genius.” He gloats like always, looking at me with a huge smirk as I try to look for Hart.

“Oh hey Amy.” she greets, as I get ready to ask her a question, the question “Could you move this paint for me? I have no room in my locker.” Waiting a few moments before she nodded in agreement and I would’ve pulled out my phone to take a pic as my body was getting controlled; when I turned my head I could see my Dad doing it.

My body moved as if I wasn’t in it at all, a bad dream. I would've panicked if I didn't see Dad controlling me as she continued to look at me with a worried expression. Once free I wobbled over almost falling until I caught myself, this wasn’t about getting at Hart but now about Dad.

“Ames, are you okay?” Hart asked, trying to help me regain balance as I nodded my head no. Her eyes glanced over the perimeter but not locking onto anything. She didn’t notice Dad so I’m safe.

Dad walked over after shoving something, a paper it looked like, in his face. He looked proud of himself as he walked over, head held up high.

“So want to give up?” He chuckled “Never.” I state in response, looking up at him.

After some small back and forth banter, I didn’t see him until multiple hours later. He walked up looking like he did earlier, Jake beside him not looking proud but he did look content.

“Guess who stole the mascot head.” He gloats, his arm wrapped around Jake’s neck as Jake continues to be fine with what’s going on.

“That could get her arrested.” I state, pointing out the obvious to a genius “Yeah, it’s blackmail plus why should you care either way?” Dad asked as I try to come up with an excuse.

“Uhhh, she will be forced to answer a bunch of questions in jail, about her life, which includes us.” I lie, which seemed to work as their expression and Jake’s go from proud kind of to concerned.

“Yeah, you can look through my locker.” She states as the cops start preparing to open it up as Jake makes a lie. Dad coming along and trying to help him as the cops search Hartley’s locker to find that it wasn’t there.

“Can you guys move we need to start a search starting with the one you’re currently in front of?” A officer asked as Dad moved, letting them search the rest of the lockers as he comes back and stares at Hart bewildered.

“I already knew what yours guys plan was, the whole paint thing?” She points out, only really seeming to be mad at them thankfully.

“Amy you were in on this weren’t you?” She asked, already seeming to know the answer “I heard that someone did an art piece on a school wall, with the same paint color as you had tried to give me.” Pointing something out which made me realize I was also in the line of fire.

“Black paint is com-“ I start before looking at Hart and nodding agreeingly at her statement. We went home after that since the head was found close by the statue, coming back to see something odd but when Hart tried to help Dad jumped out the closet.

“Gotcha.” They shout, phone in hand as Hart pretends to call the police.

“I can get used to this side of you.” I say smirking at her “Don’t.” She says, exchanging a smug look as she looks at me with a smirk.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t long after Hart left that I got bored, I’d gotten used to her presence seeing as I had nothing else to do than spend time with her.

I’d gone down to the lair, Jake sitting on the stairs staring at Colby as I go down and sit next to them. I see Colby using their power and how miserably they are doing so, turning into a few weapons before I bring something up to Jake.

“This is really sad.” I say, not sounding like I care much “Yeah, and?” Jake replied, looking at me expectantly.

“We create a plan to help them, I mean they’re a shapeshifter something related to that and then we cause a problem they’d need to solve, such as killing a “hero”, or at least almost killing but you’ll probably have to fill that role so maybe killing would be the best.” I joke, his face falling flat as he hears the last comment.

“How are we going to do this?” Jake asked as I think for a second “ I created the plan, you do the rest.” I answer, smirking before walking away. It was the next day and Hart had come over, a now daily occurrence.

We were sitting on the couch, maybe a few inches apart as we watched a movie I had begrudgingly let her choose. It wasn’t that bad, a superhero movie with a lot of blood.

It had got to about the end before Dad walked in, Mom coming down the stairs as the hero was about to say something.

“Oh that movie, yeah the hero dies in the end,” Dad starts before me and Hart let out annoyed sighs “also I invited someone over, they said their name was Mr.Tennyson or something, anyway they said they’d bring over a free cheese platter.” He chirps, looking around the room at people with reactions they didn’t expect.

“Why would you invite someone over when we’re hiding stuff?” Mom asked, her accent coated in annoyance.

“Worse, he’s one of those noisy neighbors who’s always bothering people and trying to find out their secrets, the last people he got thrown in jail for money laundering.” Hart comments, shuddering slightly as she looks at them then back to me.

“Did you guys not hear, free cheese, I mean cheese is worth it, why else would you name a kid after it?” Dad comments before walking away.

“Colby is named after cheese?” Hart muttered to herself, taking a moment to think.

“It’s better than their name prior, I mean we all either called them “3” or ‘the other one’” I state, her now looking at me, trying to decide which of these options is best. The answer is none of them, we’ve all debated this, mainly Colby themself.

We started a new movie soon after but we’re quickly cut off due to Celia coming over to look for Hart, glaring at me as if I murdered someone. I didn’t and I knew she was a human, yet she scared me.

“Are you okay Hartley?” She asked, Hart answering with an agreeing nod “You sure?” She questioned, looking over at me again. I watch as Hart leaves with Celia, wondering how they could be related.

I then go get Colby to start the plan, finding them sitting in their room. They were playing on their phone, throwing it into their pocket when they see me.

“Hello?” They say, looking at me with an odd look as they go back to looking on their phone.

“You’re coming with me.” I state, which they don’t agree to at first but do after I start dragging them out of their bed. We walk downstairs and they throw on their shoes as I start leading them to the school.

They look annoyed as they ouch open the already unlocked door. We both look around and see Jake dressed like a “hero”, or well one of the ones they considered heroes.

“What are you doing?” I hiss at him once out of hearing distance and he like normal says something annoying “You said to take care of it, I took care of it.” They responded as Colby comes over to us.

“Can we go?” They complain, looking at us annoyed. We both disagree and Jake explains what the plan was to my delight, him getting hurt.

“Wait really?” Colby says, looking at us as if were lying which we have done a lot of in the past.

“Yeah, Jake will stand there and you use your powers like so.” I state, screeching at him and knocking him off guard. He started fighting back and this continued until Colby tried to sneak away, getting hurt in the process.

“Ow.” They yelp, looking at us and then to their leg which was not how it was supposed to be.

“Can’t you just shapeshift into a normal person and be healthy?” Jake asked, the rest of us looking at him as if that would work for a shapeshifter.

“My pain would go to my new form as well.” Colby states, staring at Jake more intently now.

“Should we go to the hospital?” I ask, Jake gritting his teeth before replying “No, they make me feel guilty seeing as I’ve killed people.” Colby turned to look at him with an odd grin like they were trying to find the hood in the situation.

“We can just fix the issue here.” Jake lets out and with one quick motion tried to fix Colby’s foot.

“Do I look like I have regeneration as well?” Colby hisses, trying to move but failing.

“I don’t know.” Jake mutters, looking away as I have a genius idea.

“Why don’t we bring them to the vet? Quick Colby transform.” I say, slamming my hand into my other hand in realization. Colby does so, transforming into a bird, a big, black bird.

“That won’t work.” Jake states as we look at him weirdly, Colby changing into something else and getting into the crate we found. The walk there was short thankfully, the only plus to being in this middle of nowhere town.

“Our Pet broke their leg, and he seems a little shell shocked.” Jake jokes as I now notice Colby was a turtle. The person at the front desk gave him an annoyed look and then turned her head.

“Just sign these papers so we can bring him in.” They state, sliding over a clipboard.

“He’s a little nervous, I don’t think he’s going to be able to come out of his shell.” Jake comments as he laughs to himself. I sign the sheets and hand over the crate to be brought to the back.

Me and Jake sit in the uncomfortable chairs they had sitting in the waiting room, the lighting dim and one of the lights flickering being the main source. The person from before comes out and started pulling in a breathe to say something.

“The specimen you brought in is rare and you cannot keep them as pets, so we’ll have to take him off your hands.” They state in one breathe, giving us a long moment of silence before Jake starts saying something.

“What? Are you sure, I mean we won’t be here for long and are about to move so can we just have him back?” As the person continues to nod him a no. Once they left I stood up, getting ready to break in and get my sibling.

“What are you doing?” Jake asked, looking at me confused “Breaking them out.” I answered, looking back as I pick the lock.

“Help, raccoons are eating my face!” Someone screams to my concern, Jake looking at me as if it was my fault. I didn’t do it, it would be funny to see though.

“You’re here, my legs better so can you get my out.” Colby helps, looking at me annoyed as I go to get him free, Jake going to do it first and failing miserably until he finally let me do it for the first time.

“Ow!” Jake yelps as I laugh at his pain inflicted by yours truly. I finally release them from the cage as they shift back into their normal form, shaking off the stiffness of being in a different body for so long.

“So how was the whole body changing thing?” Jake asked as Colby nods nonchalantly a ‘okay’ as we walk home.

We could barely get in and I ended up against the wall immediately, Hart trying to leave but ended up landing in my arms that I had tried to use to reach out. The new person who I only assumed to be Mr.Tennyson looked at us odd as the machine seemed to be turned off and Colby walks in filming.

“This was just for my prank channel, yeah I used an industrial fan to have all that wind, you’ve just been pranked, this could make you famous.” Colby states, who states as Mr.Tennyson excitedly leaves that they just came through the back door.

Hart awkwardly moved out of my arms after a few moments of the fan being off, Jake looking at us with a smug grin for some reason I couldn’t quite place as Mom and Dad start talking about what just went down to my boredom.

Chapter Text

It was an average morning, I slipped into an outfit I deemed fitting and threw together the stuff I needed for school. Hart had emphasized how important me going to school was and how it would make me seem normal and most importantly, her happy. Not that I cared or anything, but her presence was a nice addition to my life.

I would never tell her that directly though, we’d only known each other a month and she’d started coming over every day, that didn’t make us friends; okay maybe it did make us friends.

It also didn’t stop her beginning statement to be weird.

“Grandma, are you sure you don’t want anything for Mother’s Day?” Hart asked, catching me off guard with her normal or what this place would consider normal.

“I like doing this, doesn’t mean I want to do it.” Celia states, glaring at my Mother.

“It’s not my doing.” She claims, Celia walking out as Hart stays “also what’s this on a day of worshipping Mothers?” She asked, looking directly at Hart but then changing her gaze to meet her kids.

“Oh, it’s a holiday we have where you buy your mom gifts and spend time with her, or in Mr.Madden’s case husband.” Hart specified as Dad tried to get out of it, or looked like he was about to.

“This sounds great.” My mother say sinisterly, or maybe that was her normal tone. Colby looked slightly scared but they and Hart continue to eat their breakfast as Dad checks the time periodically.

As we leave, I give one quick glance back to see my Mom pondering something, Jake scrambling to get out the door knocks me out of my thoughts.

“What was that for?” I hiss as I walk out, him giving me a shrug as I sit next to Hart in the car. Dad drove questionably down the rode, barely missing potholes.

We make it to school and when I think that I didn’t have to deal with anything more, someone was spending their sweet, sweet time.

“Can you move?” I hiss as Hart comes back from her locker, noticing the guy who’s at my locker.

“Yeah, yeah.” They state, walking away.

“Odd.” I state as I notice Hart standing right beside me.

“I found a gift for your mom, for Mother’s Day not just in general; it’s this.” She says, showing me something that was from a “hero” my Mom should’ve killed.

All of those people they call heroes are just dicks who try to kill other monsters, so I was confused at the gift.

“Why that?” I ask, she then explains the meaning behind it.

“Oh, interesting.” I replied, looking at it.

“This the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in awhile, thanks Hart.” I say as she smiles brightly at me. I look away quickly, hiding my face as to not embarrass myself.

It was odd, blushing at this but I was able to quickly turn back as she said the next thing.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” She says giddily, I can feel my skin burning. It felt like my skin was burning anyway.

I turned back and stated I was going to walk to the place and get it but Hart grabbed my arm.

“No, we have to go to first period, the bell is about to ring.” She states, letting go of my grip as I decide going with her to first period isn’t that bad of a decision.

It was still bad, just not as bad as I zoned out of the lesson. It was on history of myths and monsters, explaining how we were going to have a ton of useless assignments one of which being a huge percent of our grade.

I get it was the last month of school but they didn’t have to assign that much work, at least I was able to talk to Hart the whole lesson. The next few classes up to lunch were mostly the same thing, since for some reason this town was obsessed with “monsters” and “heroes”. Hart might be on the more normal side when it comes to this, only really obsessing over Starling around others and not me thankfully.

It was a hot day, but what do you expect from Texas? I covered my eyes after accidentally looking at the sun, using sunglasses I had slipped into my pocket prior.

“Wow, better than me?” Jake comments, noticing my shades “Yes.” I answered to his and Hart’s dismay.

The rest of lunch went as normal, me and Jake debated on if we’d win in a fight against a “hero” and he keeps saying that he wouldn’t fight them but if he did he’d win. He wouldn’t win which I told him as he stated repeatedly he would until we parted ways.

I didn’t part ways with Hart however until science which was boring, especially seeing as it was review. A plus to having a genius as a dad, seemingly the only one.

“Hey.” She greets when we meet back up after that class, sliding her hand in mine. I didn’t complain about it, I mean this is what friends do right?

I suppose that’s what we are, friends that is. We walk to our next period together, sitting closely as she pays attention to the lecture.

We start walking to the place she said it was located, our hands somehow sliding back together somewhere throughout the trip.

“Why do you never pay attention to the lectures?” She asks, looking up at me from her phone.

“They’re boring, plus talking to you is way better.” I answer, not really thinking of what I was saying until it came out.

“Oh is that true?” She says, smirking at me as she realizes the implications.

“Yeah, anything is better than listening to that teacher state in factual information, also we’re here.” I state, looking away as I barely keep my tone the same. My skin burning up as I walk in, the cool breeze being a nice change.

The only person there being a short, hooded figure.

“This is my collection of authentic merchandise delivered straight from the heroes using special ties.” They state, deepening their voice.

“Locker blocker?” I hiss, realizing who they were as they mumble something about their name being on their name tag I just noticed.

“Do you still have the power amplifier from Surge?” Hart asked, using the name my Mother was given by those scared of her like most of not all “monsters”.

We enjoyed these names for the most part.

“Yes, that’s my prized possession, and it will cost $10,000.” They state smugly, looking at us expecting the money.

We mumble something about the price, me making a plan as she disagrees with it, only agreeing as I state that it would be returning it to its rightful owner.

“My friend is cheap,” she starts as I walk over to the case, him now focused on her and the upper torso of a suit from an old super show “but I’m not so how about we try to strike a deal?”

They start raising the price as Hart tries to lower it, me grabbing the armor and running as she follows after noticing. A annoying alarm was going off still going off as he walks away screaming obscenities but not?

I heard him scream “Dag nabbit” or something loudly. We get home as I present the gift to my mom who thought I wasn’t going to get her something.

“This better not be empty.” She states excitedly as I stare at the wheel of punishments, Hart as well seeing as I didn’t mention it to her.

“My belt?” She says excitedly, a knocking at the door stopping our thought as she runs to the basement that’s a lair. A lair Hart was still concerned about.

It was Milo at the door and we argued for a moment as we lead him blindfolded down the stairs to the lair as he agrees to be willing to fight for it, being incredibly shocked we had “monster stuff” in our lair.

“We collect it like you do Heroes’ stuff.” Hart replied quickly; he seemed to take that answer well.

“They must be easy to rob, they are stupid.” He says, looking around and accepting the surroundings.

After that he made a comment about fighting for it, pulling out a device as Mom blasts him with energy and Hart looking around for something to use to help in the fight.

“That’s a lamp.” I state as she picks up a lamp and starting to point it at him. As the fight continued Mom noticed something weird, her demeanor changing as she states it wasn’t the real one and explaining how.

Milo was annoyed but made us promise not to tell anyone and he would take the boring looking helmet sitting on the counter so he wouldn’t spill the news.

The design looked like it was for someone small, perhaps Colby but smaller. We led Milo out with the same blind fold. Hart putting her arm on my shoulder as she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness that’s over.” Turning to face me with a soft smile as I nod in agreement, watching as Jake and Dad pile in through the door looking sore.

“What happened?” Hart asked with a simple reply from Dad “bull.” As he hands mom flowers and chocolates plus a box of her favorite tea.

“Did you get hurt, for me?” Mother asked him as he nods, an ice pack help to his side.

Jake tried to grab it as Dad hit his hand, Jake bought Mom something in a box that I wasn’t able to get a good view of.

Colby walks up and hands her a similar box yet slightly bigger, they looked slightly embarrassed as Mom opened it and slid what was inside into her pocket.

“Who’s getting punished?” Jake asked, looking worried as Hart looks confused. Eva looks around as they walk away backwards so that they weren’t there when she decided as I walk up to her.

“I’m sorry my present was shit.” I state, gritting my teeth as I await her reaction, accidentally biting my tongue.

“Honey, you gave me the first and probably only fight that I’ll have in this place, and I got to do it with my favorite daughter.” Mom says sweetly, a tone I wasn’t expecting as I look at her with what I presume to be a shocked face.

“So what’s with the whole punishment wheel? Wait, you were going to punish whoever got the worst gift weren’t you?” Hart says rhetorically as she looks at Mom annoyed as I smile awkwardly, her looking surprised at it as if she’d never seen my fangs, or smile for that matter which might be what caused that.

It was an interesting reaction as Mom left to make herself some tea, Hart staring at me intrigued. Leaving the moment she checked her phone, almost leaving her hat and coming back in a similar way as they did in cartoons if that was even possible as I shake my head, surprising myself by smiling.

My room was finally starting to feel nice as I sit on my desk, grabbing my guitar as I play a riff, no lyrics coming to mind as I continued to do so.

Jake walked past, making a joke about me making a love song as he walked past and I tried to ignore him.

The song did end up sounding like a love song but in a good way, I liked it surprisingly and tried writing lyrics in the same notebook I’ve had for years in decent condition with all of my past songs written down.

Chapter Text

Me and Hart were sitting on the couch, her leaning on me with the bowl of popcorn partially in both of our laps as Jake looks at me smugly, a corny monster vs. hero film playing.

I didn’t enjoy it but the others seemed to as I ate the popcorn and hoped it would end soon. It did abruptly for my enjoyment until I realized what it was a ad for, a hero convention.

“I get going to a anime convention or something, but heroes? Who would go to that?” I hiss as I look over at Hart.

“I’ve gone for the past few years, oh.” She says before realizing what I was saying but before I could tease her I see Starling on screen, grumbling in displeasure.

“I don’t know why you hate her, didn’t Jake create the memes about you guys.” She asked, maki g me remember the multitude of memes insulting the both of us, mainly me after a fight.

The most popular one now going through our mind, one after a specifically embarrassing fight.

“I’m still working on my revenge for Jake,” I state as Jake shudders “but he wouldn’t have been able to if Starling didn’t win.” I say as Hart looks at me, looking sorry for me; I don’t do sorry.

It made me feel slightly annoyed that she would think I need that, but not annoyed enough to move from my position.

She gives a simple nod as the movie goes back on, her changing it as Jake looks annoyed that I was enjoying the new movie better.

We continue to ignore the topic until lunch the next day.

“Amy, why are you brooding?” Jake says as if he was preparing to tease me about something.

“Thinking about the convention? I won’t go if you won’t.” Hart compromises, immediately regretting her decision but trying to hide it with a smile as she placed her hand on mine. Jake looks confused and smug after noticing.

I think about that for a moment, thinking of how nice it was but then thinking of how nice it would feel to finally get back at starling after all these years. The convention started the next day, plus Hart would be happy seeing as she would be able to go it’s a win-win.

She’d consider that logic incorrect but it’s my logic so it’s correct. I sound like Colby, ugh.

I go through the rest of my classes as normal, some states and glares like normal thrown my direction as people do the same with Hart who was standing next to me which were immediately stopped as they noticed I noticed.

The next day I try to walk out the door, my shades sitting on top my head with my phone in my hand. I go to open the door, Hart standing there with Jake.

“We thought this might happen,” Jake says, rolling his eyes “I’m just going for a walk and to screw with the neighbors.” I reply, rolling my eyes as he grabs my phone and the directions tell them everything they need to know.

They walk in, Jake grabbing something from behind his back and Hart looking at me sort of disappointed. I didn’t like the look, but of course she didn’t like me sneaking out.

“Here, we’ll stay here and play board games.” Hart chirps as I think this might be a boring evening, Jake nodding along as he finally makes it obvious that he had handcuffs in his hand.

I hiss as he slides them onto one of my hands, connecting the other to the stair rail. They leave in a rush as to pick something up, Hart looking at me as if deciding what to do.

“How am I supposed to play games now?” I ask as she continues to ponder something.

“You could just stare like a cute puppy as I play.” She answered, not realizing she unintentionally called me cute.

“Uh huh.” I nod in agreement as she goes to get a puzzle, me slipping out in the meantime. The door was unlocked and I was able to get to the convention quickly, no line being out front as everyone already piled in.

“You need a cosplay or costume to get in.” Someone says, pointing to the weirdly placed list of rules. I begrudgingly get a costume of everyone’s favorite star.

The cosplay was simple, dark grey boots with a silver and dark purple cape, the rest of it mainly consisting of White and light purple. I didn’t put on the mask however, I wasn’t going that far. As I walked around with a concoction that I knew from prior fights injured her slid right into my pocket as Hart runs into me.

“I finally found you.” She says as I blink a few times, trying to realize what’s going on.

“You’re me, cute.” I tease, looking at the accurate account of my suit, black boots with what you’d presume a vampire to wear with my twist, or well Dad’s twist as he made all the suits.

“It was the cheapest one.” She states, an obvious lie seeing as she got every detail.

“Sure.” I reply as Starling passes, looking at us and complimenting me. Hart tried to calm me down as I continue to fidget, noticing a familiar brightly colored suit with a guy with brown hair suited in an ugly style with yellow converse.

“Jake?” I call, him turning around embarrassed but then trying to turn the blame on Hart.

“She was supposed to be at home.” He hissed as Hart replied with her rebuttal, me making my way to where Starling was at, Hart catching up soon after.

“That’s a lot of people dressed as me.” I say, sort of happy havoc-heads actually came to these places as Hart tried to lead me away. I notice the stage and immediately put the 2 together.

“Fucking bitch.” I mutter as Jake catches up, looking between everything.

“Of course you just had to let her come.” Jake scoffed as I start grabbing what was in my pocket, Jake noticing where I was somehow and panicking over the liquid.

Hart finally meets me as we lock eyes for a second, her also seeming to notice what was in my hand. My grip loosened as I saw her face, the worry in it as I continue with my plan.

At one moment, my grip loosened to much as I fell, the glass shattered as it hit the ground no where near starling.

“Been caught before?” She questioned as I scramble to get back to normal as Hart stands there and we lock eyes. Starling looks at us with what could only be described as an approving look as Jake draws her attention while me and Hart walk off the stage.

The first thing I notice being pretzels, looking deeper I notice that they were $12. I scoff at it as Hart attempts to tear into me about sneaking off until we get home and she seemed to cool off as Jake hadn’t seemed to have come home with us.

The rest of the day went normal as me and Hart hung out, her grabbing the TV remote as she put on a movie.

“What the fuck is monster high?” I question as I notice the title screen.

“It’s a movie I thought you’d like.” She says happily, sitting next to me under the blanket I had wrapped around us; it was too late for her to sneak back home being well past 10pm.

I cut my losses and started watching it, realizing 20 minutes in that Hart had fallen asleep on my shoulder.

“How’s the date going?” Jake teases as he grabs some food from the fridge and not refilling the popcorn I so kindly asked him to do.

“Ha ha.” I replied sarcastically as he walks back up and the movie continues. I start the other animated movies, seeming to fall asleep the moment I get intrigued by the plot.

I woke up to Jake taking a photo of us as I noticed Hart was laying comfortably on top my chest. I glared at him which seemed to be enough for him to run back to the dinner table. Hart starts blinking her eyes open, noticing that she was cuddling with me.

Her face turning red as she scrambled to sit up next to me. As I go up to change out of my pajamas and Hart going back to her house. As I come down I see her at the breakfast table and I start to eat breakfast as I look at my phone.

“I’m going to go bring the trash out.” Jake blurts as he grabs the bag and rushes out the door. Hart follows behind him suspiciously, I pay no mind to that as she liked helping with that kind of stuff from what I’ve gathered.

A few minutes later I see that a new salon opened and I walk out the door to ask if she wants to go with me, looking at her and Jake standing awkwardly as if hiding something.

She says no unsurprisingly which I was sad about but paid no mind to.

Chapter Text

I looked at Jake as I walked out, he looked lost in thought, as if something was puzzling him.

I didn’t pay mind as until recently that’s what Amy looked like around me, not so subtly hinting that she didn’t completely trust me until I helped her get a Mother’s Day gift the week prior.

I asked to do the recycling as he had it in his hand but he didn’t give it over, I found it odd and with little to no questioning learned about a paper with Starling’s autograph.

“Oh my god, you got starling’s autograph!” I chirp excitedly before reading it and realizing what it could mean, as I let out a ‘oh’ in response.

He looked concerned as I remembered she was still in town and that we could perhaps catch her to question her, Jake was concerned but agreed after a moment.

Amy walked out at that moment and asked me if I was willing to go out with her, I mean in a friend kind of way she would never like me in a romantic light.

We got to the place, sneaking in through a back door that Jake opened with minimum effort. I wondered where he got all the strength before remembering who he was prior to valley view.

It didn’t take us long to run into a bodyguard of sorts. They asked us for our ID and info, Jake creating an identity on the spot as I noticed a list of names, cutting him off.

“Sorry about my friend, they like messing around, where will we be stationed?” I said, looking around at the wide array of filming equipment and the spotlight that was getting shown specificity on Starling.

She looked around before her eyes locked on us. She talks to the people in lighting as they shrug, someone walking up next to us and taking us to get changed into “our” village costumes.

When I come out I saw Jake in a similar outfit, he wore cargo pants held up with a black belt and a plain shirt over it with a leather coat.

I discreetly took a photo and slipped my phone into my coat as Starling stood on stage. She took a good look at Jake, trying to place his face as they gave orders on what to do as they started filming.

She continued to stare at Jake with an off expression, trying to find exactly where she remembered him from. Her composure was held however as she continued to act out the script which continued to have to stop due to them not liking the way she wasn’t perfect at acting even though she was doing amazing; it was Starling of course she would do well.

Jake’s acting was a little off and I couldn’t help but fear mine was as well. During one of these gaps I check my phone to notice about 20 texts from Amy asking if I was okay and where I was. I didn’t reply, only leaving her on read as she set a frown as if sad of my absence.

“Are you guys okay? We’ve been acting all day.” Starling comments, looking mainly at me as I try not to think about how Starling was standing in front of me, the Starling. The same Starling I had been obsessed with since she started being a hero.

She seemed to be used to my obvious sign as Jake continued to try to subtly stop me from being a idiot in front of her as she continued to smile and make small talk; it was odd, mainly just asking us simple ice breaker’s like “what’s our favorite color?” or “if we had a superpower what would it be?”.

Jake answered with blue and his own power which seemed to answer her question well enough as she nods an interesting as she looks closer to finding her answer. They name the break over moments later, calling us back to set. Jake puffing up his chest before letting out a breathe, looking like a main character from a cartoon or something.

It was odd but I continued to try to not get hit by the giant show on set, the only thing that looked off from the rest of set, expensive equipment everywhere and guards at every entrance as if still worrying Havoc will come out of no where to mess everything up.

Starling also seemed pent up about something but that was about something else it seemed.

Jake held on to the ledge on the fake set, not able to use his other as Starling stood over them, a look of fear passing her face as she looked like she had a moment of realization. She waved her hand for a moment before asking in a serious manner “Who are you really?” Already seeming to know the answer as Jake lets out a sigh and a chuckle somehow at the same moment “Jake.” He answered.

She looks at him with a nod “could’ve sworn it was Chaos.” She says, calling out his obvious lie as his eyes go wide, mine as well as I worry what could happen to Amy and her family.

“I mean it is but-but I’m not him anymore, I’m becoming good.” He stutters in a hushed whisper as he realizes she hasn’t changed her concerned expression.

“I’m not going to turn you in, you haven’t seemed to cause any trouble so far,” both of us releasing a sigh of relief as we hear the news, time continuing to be paused, she asked him to hand over his phone however for a moment, giving it back within seconds as she directs us to the door “and tell your sister sorry.” She states last moment, almost as if she had been wanting to say that the whole time but only now got the courage to do so.

We grabbed what we had brought, making it to their place. Amy fell asleep on the couch, I assume waiting for us. Jake going up and grabbing me a pair of pajamas since grandma would kill me if I snuck back home this late at night.

I change into the pajamas and turn on a movie, too tired to sleep and the movie not helping that. Amy grumbled something as she woke up, half asleep greeting me with a smile.

I didn’t think I’d seen a genuine smile on her face since meeting her, much less expecting it towards me. That last comment Starling made stuck with me as I finish the movie, turning it off and trying to go to sleep as Jake comes downstairs, looking tired as he grabs juice from the fridge and makes a comment about us being a cute duo, or in his words a relationship.

Chapter Text

Hart and I were having a calm day, I thought it was going to be what I had started to consider “normal”. Until she brought up having to babysit.

“Are you getting paid, or is this out of the kindness of your heart?” Looking over at her as she looks back, her answer evident. Jake was texting away, not indulging in our conversation. It seemed like something he’d be into though, I can hear it.

“I love helping people, this sounds great.” Is something I would’ve thought he’d reply with or something else dumb. He’s been glued to his phone since Sunday, the same day I was waiting for Hart to get home, or see her next which was that morning.

I found it odd but didn’t care, questioning it seems dumb. Hart mentioned it probably being better for me to do so, ignoring stuff that is.

As I continue to question her about it, the bell rang. I hiss in pain at the sudden noise as she looks at me with a remorseful expression as we walk to class together. It was like every other day, boring. Hart told me about the Sunshine club and I couldn’t help but pay attention, not because I care I definitely don’t care that much, class was just really boring.

The sunshine club didn’t seem half bad, not that I wouldn’t not go. As the day goes by, we go our separate ways home, giving me some time to relax. At least I thought that, until I heard a knocking at my door.

I go up to my door, taking a breath as I open it; Hart rushes in with a look of relief.

“So I may or may not have to have the girl be over here while my grandma plays cards.” She says as I ask her why that’s bad before remembering its Celia for fucks sake, a knocking at the door brings me back.

“You already told her didn’t you?” I ask, raising an eyebrow as I open the door, the answer right in front of me.

The girl walked in, looking around the place as she sets her backpack down.

“Hey Scarlett, I’m Hartley and this is Amy.” Hart states, gesturing to me as I stand there. She seemed to be judging both of us as she looked us up and down before settling to watch TV, looking up at us as Hart starts asking trivia questions as I go to the kitchen.

A Colby doll was sitting on a chair.

“Oh Amy, uhm I’m stuck as a doll, can u help me?” The doll asked as I moved it to on top the fridge. They seemed good up there, probably not going to fall anyhow. What else was I supposed to expect? A doll not to be haunted or alive? Yeah probably.

I text Hart about the Colby doll as I walk back into the room, her look of shock and concern being a stark contrast to Scarlett’s sly smile as she talks about Havoc.

“You’re a fan of Havoc?” I question, surprised at the knowledge as Hart sits on the opposite side of me to the kid.

“Why are you a fan?” Hart asked, looking slightly concerned as she says “of course I’m a fan of Havoc.” It was an interesting response to my question.

“Yeah, I’m also a big fan, more than a fan really.” I say, standing up to go back to the kitchen as she follows me. As I grab something from the fridge she sits down, so I grabbed a drink for her, setting it down beside her as I sit.

“Hartley’s kind of a bore, don’t you think?” She questioned, barely out of ear shot if that.

“No, I mean yeah she’s different but in a good way, she just want to help you, maybe you could join her in a trust exercise or something?” I replied, sipping at my drink as she looks at me with an interesting expression, one of puzzlement as Hart texted me.

“Come here.” It scared me for a moment until she added a few emojis symbolizing it probably wouldn’t be that bad. I do and she grabs my hand to ask me something “Will you help me with her? She seems to like you.” I nod as I go back into where she was as I see a sly smile plastered on her face.

“I know that face, what happened?” I question, looking at her concerned as I notice Colby not where I put them. Fuck.

“What did you do with the doll?” She doesn’t answer instead shrugging. Hart now looks at me before looking back at Scarlett “We need to know where the doll went.”

“Oh that, yeah I gave it away, isn’t that what good people do?” She says before turning back to the wall.

I would’ve made a snarky reply to that but couldn’t as I pondered who could have the doll, Hart asking that exact question.

Hart and I turned at a sudden sound as Jake came downstairs texting someone intently and not looking up, as we turn back around we realize that she made a run for it.

I go outside, hissing at the sudden amount of light as Hart noticed that she was in the tree.

“I should climb up there and get her.” Hart states as I stop her “I can’t go up there to get both of you out of a tree, plus I might be able to be more believable than you, no offense Hart.” I replied, looking over at her as she looked like she was shocked, how odd.

I start climbing, checking to make sure she didn’t follow me. As I get to where the kid was on the thickest branch as she notices.

“Oh hey,” she greets, seeming startled by my presence “so are you going to get me in trouble?” Me staying where I was and staying between the tree and the branch.

“Not unless you help us get the doll back, then you’ll have to do Hart’s exercises with us.” I state, realizing I had said that we would be doing it together. She nodded after a moment in thought, looking down at her phone as she typed something.

When I get back inside, there was a knock at the door and got the doll back as Hart offered to give them her number in case something bad happened.

“You never did tell us why you like Havoc so much?” Hart asked as she sat next to me with the kid on the other side of me.

“She seems brave and I mean her power set is amazing, imagine having fangs? It’d be great.” She starts, going on a long speech about how amazing I was “Wow, it’s nice to see other notice how great you are.” Hart replied after she left, that meaning more to me than anyone else said about me.

“Yeah it is.” I say, her hand slipping in mine as I turn on the TV to see Captain Valor.

“Ugh, he sucks.” I comment as Hart doesn’t try to disagree, seeing I was right like always.

“Ew gay people.” Jake jokes, looking up from his phone for once.

“You’re gay.” I reply, throwing a pillow at them. He looks slightly offended, I assume due to the pillow and not the fact I called him out.

“So are you going to babysit that kid anymore?” I question, looking over at Hart “Yeah, hopefully I can help them.” Her eyes moving down for a moment, before she realized she had to go home, leaving me.

Chapter Text

It was nice finally having someone to talk to aside from my family. It was easy for me to talk to Starling. I mean she understood what it was like to be an older sibling while also trying to balance her other aspects of life.

“Who are you texting?” Hart asked as I could hear Dad ticketing slightly out of ear shot.

“Oh uhm Starling.” I replied, hoping she wouldn’t relay this to her girlfriend or in her words “bestie”.

“I thought it was the other guy, that was definitely not my first guess; you can’t keep texting her, Amy might figure out plus either way you’re talking to her nemesis.” Hart informs, seeming incredibly annoyed at me for talking to her.

“She won’t,” I start as she looks at me with a worried glance “but if it’s so important then I’ll stop.” Lying through my teeth, which she seemed to believe as I check the time to see how long before Robert would get here.

Dad comes kicking in through the door as Hart leaves, being excited.

“So Jake, y’know how we haven’t done anything fun recently, I was thinking that we went out and did something,” bringing up something about legos “maybe destroy a cell tower.”

“We aren’t monsters anymore, plus I have plans with Robert, he said we could hangout today to help the city.” I state as his face droops and I start to feel sorry about not wanting to do so with him. I mean I had gotten so busy with work and talking to Starling to hang out with him.

“I’m probably going to be free in a few days.” I say, trying to boost his mood as he looks at me with a “you don’t have to lie” face, not believing my statement as Robert texts me, saying he’ll be there in a few minutes as Dad goes to the basement. I go upstairs, realizing I forgot something as Dad tells me to come downstairs.

When I go downstairs I see something that looks like me, slightly different, Darker brown hair, sharp fangs, and a completely different fashion taste.

“Hello Original.” It said in my voice, he didn’t did he? He cloned me cause of course he did.

“I’ll hang out with him while you go out, my problem is solved.” Dad said, looking all too smug for the current situation.

“What if they get out?” I ask, as Dad reassured me he wouldn’t.

“I forgot what I needed to get upstairs, please for my sake, kill it or something before it gets out.” I state, walking back upstairs as Dad nods and goes into the lair again as other me stands there, taunting me.

When I go back downstairs, Dad looked confused as to why I was there.

“I just saw you leave?” He says, his face going pale with realization.

“Shit.” We said in unison as Dad brought up the tracker he installed on the clone, wondering if they could get Colby’s help.

“Where has Colby been anyway?” Dad asked, looking to me as if he wasn’t always a know-it-all.

“They are still on the fritz.” I answer, his face showing worry for a few seconds before going back to trying to track the clone.

We track the clone to the school where Mom, Amy, and Hart were and Colby which I learned later on.

“His strength is double yours so maybe don’t-“ Dad tried to say as I tried punching clone me, hoping I could somehow detain him long enough, the sprinklers still going off which Amy turned on the moment she saw 2 versions of me.

“Could’ve told me that earlier.” I state as a fly goes and bothers clone me, Amy blasting g the clone as I punch it, knocking it out as Dad decides to teleport it to the lair.

“Wait what is that?” Hart asked, looking concerned as she remembered what it was from prior experience.

“Oh you know the thing I sent you to another universe with, I’m tweaking it to make it better, maybe adding a feature that could send you back to the original universe.” He explained, looking at us as we nodded in agreement.

We continued to go home, Dad not letting Mom drive home due to her past experiences with it. To the rest of our relief.

When we get home, everyone goes their separate ways but before Hart could go home she noticed my texting.

“Are you still texting her? Jake, y’know Amy would freak plus that’s just not good in general, I thought you were trying to be better.” She states as I shrug, noticing footsteps close by but not thinking much of them.

Chapter Text

“Hey.” She greets, coming from a clearing as I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say to her. I end up greeting her with a half wave, jumping over the fence as she just floats over it.

“Here.” I say, not sounding as proud as I was earlier, now feeling like she could’ve done better date wise. I had the date already set up, a blanket sitting on the floor of the abandoned junkyard, only a few parts still left from that era, those being covered in moss. Snacks were set aside in a basket.

“The moon sure is beautiful tonight.” She says, leaning against me but still being tense as we stare at the sky, stars speckled across it.

“You don’t see that in the city.” She muttered, grabbing one of the snacks and continuing to stare up at the sky. A rustle from a nearby bush through us off, our heads snapping in that direction.

“What’s this?” I hear Amy hiss through her fangs, walking closer to where we are.

“Havoc?” Starling questioned, tensing up more.

“It’s Amy.” She says blankly, not trying to start a fight but not looking like she would be against it as Starling sits there, trying to decide if they should fight.

“Oh Amyyy, why are you here ?” I ask awkwardly, standing between them as Amy glares at me “I could say the same to you Jakey” she hisses.

“Woah, uhm, so you changed your name ? Jake said you were different but I didn’t believe it.” Star comments, still standing there with a concerned expression, like she didn’t expect it and couldn’t tell if she was happy or not with this discovery.

“I haven’t changed that much,” Amy shrugs, immediately attacking Star. Star was taken off guard at first but then fought back. The only thing I could do was try to break up the fight. I got hurt slightly in the process, but the fight was broken up at least.

I suffered a few injuries, but it was fine; or at least I thought it was. That is, until Amy got free and continued to fight Star. Star mainly deflected the attacks, or at least, she tried to. I don’t know how it happened exactly, all I know is Amy got hurt. Starling stared at her, looking like she wanted to help-but just couldn’t.

Her eyes lingered on Amy, who was now trying to stand up.

“You haven’t changed either it seems Star.” She hissed, walking away from us. I wanted to follow her but I didn’t know if that was the best decision, looking back at Starling. She looked like she wanted to go after Amy as well, and after a minute or so I started going after her.

Hartley was already inside, staring at Amy with a look I couldn’t quite read.

“I knew he should’ve told you-I wanted to tell you,” getting cut off by Amy

“I knew I didn’t want best friends or just friends at all, now I remember why.” Amy’s words going through my head slowly as I try to process everything. Amy was still hurt and trying to limp to her room as Hart stared at Amy like she wanted to say something or to do something.

Hart then turned to look at me, it was a look I had sort of expected-it was a mix between sorrow and anger. Great. This was all just great. Why did I even try to like Starling? I knew it was going to end like this.

Yet, I continued to date her. I still couldn’t think of the reason why. Hart continued to stand there, wanting to go after Amy but not being able to.

“I-I gotta go.” Hart said, leaving quickly out the front door. I go upstairs, changing into something else and flip down on my bed while Colby was probably still in the lair getting tested. I sort of forgot about them while all this was going down.

All I could do was think about was how to fix this, I had to fix this. Yet, all night I couldn’t find a solution. I walk downstairs, still without sleep and answers after awhile. Then, I get pelted with a cookie and then another.

“Ow.” I yelp, not knowing how seriously I should take getting hit by cookies. I continue to think about a solution, Colby still being tested I presume. Mom and Dad probably being with them to do that. After awhile, Hart walks through the door, a container full of cupcakes.

“Oh.” Looking displeased by me standing here and not Amy.

“Amy’s upstairs, I don’t know if she’ll want to see you though.” I state as her face droops slightly more and just sitting down, opening the container and eating one of the cupcakes.

She groans, and looks at the stairs, wanting to go up and see Amy but not at the same time. After awhile, Amy finally comes downstairs.

“Hey Hartley.” Amy says while not meeting either of our eyes.

“Hey Ames.” Hartley states, all of her attention being on the other girl. They stand still, looking at each other like they wanted to say something more, but just couldn’t. I feel like that sums up all of the past few hours.

We still had school that day, and we walked in silence there. Once we got there it was slightly different.

“Amy, I know you’re mad at me, but can you at least talk to me?” Hart asked as Amy turns to look her in the eyes and she didn’t look mad or anything.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you.” Amy relents, rolling her eyes but not really meaning it.

“So, you’re still mad ?” Hartley asked while fidgeting with her hands.

“Nah, just at Jake now, it’s hard to be mad at 2 people at the same time.” Amy says while looking over at me. I would’ve made a comment on this but Amy’s glare made me stop in my tracks.

School continued as I tried to think of a plan to help Amy. It’s not like she really trusted me, or well Jake. We never really had problems like this when we were villains, all we did was break shit.

I got home, and I wait to see both Amy and Hart which wasn’t too long. Hart held some more sweets and was offering them to Amy who just chuckled and accepted it. She noticed I walked up but didn’t really want to care.

“So, uh, I have an idea, but I need you to come with me.” I state as she looks at me like I’m an idiot, which to be fair, I might be and Hartley tilted her head, looking at me like she knew what I was thinking.

“I don’t trust you, how do I know you won’t murder me?” Amy hisses, slitting her eyes as she glared at me. She shifted to seem as though she was taller than me, making me feel shorter than I already was.

“Geez, bring Hartley then, it’s not like I’d kill you either way, the whole being good thing.” I say, rolling my eyes at her as if it really mattered if Hart came or not, as long as Amy came it would hopefully work out. I get ready to turn around as she starts talking again.

“That’s not the point,” taking a breathe “but I suppose I’ll go with you.”

“Great.” I chirp, starting to walk towards the spot as they follow. I lead them to a cell tower just outside of town, sitting in a small clearing. Any crossing her arms and looking around, both of them still confused on what exactly I was thinking. After a moment, I finally decide to open up on the idea. That idea being that we do whatever we wanted like we used to.

“This is a horrible idea, you guys could get caught, I could lose you Amy.” Hartley yelps, looking between the two of us. Definitely not a cell tower.

“Hart, it’ll be fine, we won’t get caught, I won’t lose you, so let’s just have some fun.” Amy replies as Hart moves to stand to the side and watch us.

All it took was one blast. One blast. Then the lights were out and people came running towards where we were but all the power was out.

“Start whistling, they won’t suspect a thing.” Amy instructs as Hart fails to whistle while we book it out of there, running all the way home and going down to the lair.

“What happened? What’s with the power? Did you guys do something?” Dad says, already knowing that we did something by his exhausted tone.

“We may or may not have knocked over a cell tower.” I admit as both Amy and Hartley face palm.

“You. Did. What.” Dad yelps, looking from me to who I now realize was Colby. Colby was laying on a work bench, their body twitching in random increments before going limp for a few moments as they yelp in pain, their powers glitching as they switch forms constantly, going from their normal form to something else I couldn’t quite describe or really comprehend. All of us who just came down seemed to be staring and feeling the same dread.

“I’m fine Dad.” Colby says before going limp again, their eyes linking with mine as this happens,

“Can we do anything to help?” Amy asked after a defeating silence.

“You guys can go fix the power or whatever you did.” Dad ordered, lifting his arms in emphasis as Amy yelps before her face goes back to normal, shrugging and rushing upstairs as I follow her. The run was much worse going back, us having to cause a distraction so that the workers would rush away, Amy’s bat scream sure did some trick.

“Was destroying their hearing really the solution?” I ask as she starts climbing up the tower “well I could’ve drained them, that would’ve been great, as long as you didn’t snitch to Hart.” Amy says when she finally gets back to the top, grabbing too different ends of wires. Continuing to try to put it together and failing sort of miserably until Mom comes and helps hers. They both climb back down, the power now back on and the reflection of nearby lights being good enough proof as we rush back home to check on Colby.

“Amy !” Hartley yelps, staring at Amy as if something would’ve happened in time of us leaving and getting back.

“We gotta help Colby.” Someone (I think Dad) said, everyone stating their agreement and rushing to put on goggles.

“If you don’t put on goggles your face will melt off.” Dad said matter-of-factly but I’m not too sure if he was joking or actually being serious.

“Wait, for real?” Hart yelped, looking between him and the goggles.

“No, “ taking a breath “no, no I was being serious, you dying should happen later.” Dad answered, starting up the machine in an almost cartoonish way, electricity seeming to emanate from it as Colby starts shifting back to normal.

“Kid, you’re finally back to normal.” Mom says, a rush of relief falling over us all as Colby tried to escape from the hug which we all let happen as we notice them being uncomfortable, or maybe in some people’s case, noticing everyone else go back to normal.

“Well, I have to leave I was supposed to meet my grandma for dinner hours ago.” Hart yelps as her and everyone aside from me and Amy stay where we were.

“Also kids, you’re grounded.” Dad yells from the top of the staircase, peaking his head in before it vanished again, leaving us back to our staring contest of sorts. Amy’s glare was directed at me but I couldn’t tell if it was actually meant in a bad way or not.

“I know today turned into a mess, but, it was really good hanging out with you like that again, I missed that.” I state, clearing my throat afterwards right before she starts talking.

“Me too.” Her gaze moving away from me as if she was embarrassed “I don’t like what happened with Starling, and I’ll probably never understand it, but the way you were able to go against everything you stand for and became him again even for one day, shows that you’ll always be loyal to me.” I couldn’t help but turn this serious moment into a joke, why would I?

“Also shows they need a backup power grid, yikes.”

“Haha, but yeah, don’t hide stuff from me, I can handle whatever you throw at me, I may not always like it but I can at least do that.”

“In that case, what I felt for starling was real, it was the first time I ever felt like that with anyone and even through I know it makes it happy Starling ended it, I’m still pretty crushed that I’m never going to see her again.”

“Yeah, that might be a little too much truth.” She chuckles, rolling her eyes at my honesty. Going upstairs we laugh about the prospect of now teasing our little sibling who’s back to normal, hopefully forever.

Chapter Text

It was October 31st, a important day for most people as Jake had said when he and Hartley were trying to explain what normal things were normal, such as Christmas a holiday where some old guy sneaks into your house and gives you presents. Halloween was a time when people put up a lot of decorations, ate candy, and watched horror films or dressed up.

Hartley had helped decorate the house and it looked pretty good which even I could admit. It was over the top but in a good way if that made sense. I didn’t comment much on it aside from saying that, more or less just stared.

“What can’t be festival? You look disgusted more or less, how mean.” Jake smirks as I just roll my eyes, Hartley giving that tell-tale sign she wanted to say something more but didn’t.

“Hartley?” I shrug as I direct myself back in through the front door without moving my eyes off her as she and Jake follow with slightly more pep in their step or however that phrase goes.

“It’s your first Halloween, can you be more festive? For me at least? Holiday spirit?” Hartley asked as Mom walking in with a oh so familiar orb which I couldn’t recognize for the life of me until she started talking.

“A spirit showed up in the mail.” Trying to be gentle with it as everyone gave a range of expressions, from Dad’s and Colby’s annoyance to Hartley’s confusion. I thought family was for the turkey holiday, thanksgiving I think? I wasn’t paying much attention and neither was Colby it seemed from what I remember.

“What’s that.” Hartley yelped, moving behind me with a weird expression. She wasn’t really that much safer knowing Grandma.

“We don’t talk about your grandma like that.” As the gears started to move into place. She mumbled something still in confusion as Mom started to explain.

“My Mom was stuck in this orb, now she was the last thing we have brought back from our old stuff since apparently she would’ve been sold and probably been on whatever that popular show is called, this orb is the only thing that’ll contain her.” Hitting Dad as he mumbled an insult towards her mother.

“She’s an evil spirit and more dangerous than you’d expect, she’s the reason you have all those old folklore about body snatchers, or most of it surprisingly.” Colby stated as matter-of-factly as they could without as they try not to info-dump or whatever they were going to say before getting to the point “she can take over anyone or anything.”

“So, super evil?” Hartley says, moving to sit on the couch as she waits to hear what else we’re gonna say.

“Yeah, especially last time.” Mom shivering at the thought. She’d taken over all of our bodies, an unpleasant feeling to say the least. The aftermath might be worse however, you don’t feel like you. Even vampires feel something, but body snatchers only feel what they get when they have the chance and she takes that to a different level in comparison to most. It might’ve been the only reason she had kids, that was why a lot of people had them though wasn’t it? Maybe not even the mortal world could escape it from my knowledge.

“Oh.” Hartley says as Mom finished explaining what happened last time which I only realized as she finished telling it. Hartley wouldn’t forget that and I know she’s going to be more worried about my past than she was only a few minutes prior.

“Don’t let her out no matter what.” Mom warns as Dad argues about something with Grandma which I wasn’t paying attention to.

“Well I better be off before I have to hear more about that, don’t forget about the Halloween party.” Noticing my expression and trying to do whatever to convince me, even though I still would’ve gone without it “we’ll Bob for apples and be in costumes, have witch hat ring toss, and…wait is any of this offensive or?” I shrug my head.

“Will there be a haunted house everyone will be so terrified of so bad that they’ll cry?” I ask as she looks at me with an ill expression, stumbling slightly at the thought.

“No?!.” She responds, standing at the doorway “We aren’t trying to give people stress, that’s not very sunshiny.”

“Then I suppose I’ll have to make one.” Being as close as possible to me agreeing to go “the stress is the best part.” I say in faux sad voice, pretending to shed a tear. Jake getting sent to leave Grandma in the lair as Hartley leaves and all I could do now is think. Apparently she couldn’t be left on the porch or else she’d be taunting people all night.
—————————

Hart <3: the glee club is doing a Halloween thing at my event, DONT bring one of ur Dad’s inventions

Hart <3: sorry that was mean to assume, but still, don’t

Hart <3: remind ur parents that they still can come, and so can Colby

———————

Setting my phone down and leaving her on read.

“Hey kiddo, why don’t you bring me to your party, I’ll liven things up.” Grandma says as I presume she tries to break out for maybe the millionth time but still can’t move the orb.

“No, you’re not ruining her party.” Getting ready to go upstairs and switch into my costume since unlike most myths, I sadly can’t teleport. I see Dad talking to Colby about Halloween as I sneak past and switch into my cloud costume, only taking 20 minutes as I fix my makeup, going downstairs to check on grandma.

“Oh, so you didn’t forget, c’mon, you can say I’m a haunted orb and no one will believe you, plus how will I escape? No harm, no foul.” Sitting on the middle of the desk like she’d been left at.

“I like where your head is at.” Thinking for a second about that “or well body” picking her up and starting to walk out the back door all the way to school as she stays eerily silent the whole time. As I see Jake in his pumpkin guts costume, I set Grandma down, walking over to Hartley who I was matching. They were at a make your own spooky snow globe station.

Hartley didn’t see me before rushing off to help with the glee club since some kid hurt their throat which you’d think they’d be prepared for. Jake looks behind me, noticing Grandma and yelped, looking like he was about to start saying something before Grandma cut him off before he could.

“Grandma in the flesh, or well you know what I mean.” As Jake moves me over to the side with grandma in her hands.

“Amy!” I hear Hartley greet as she noticed me, walking over as Jake whisper-yells something at me as I wave at her.

“Move Grandma, she cannot pretend to be a fake crystal ball.” As I push her into his arms and we go back in forth as we bicker over who should have her as Hartley gets closer.

“Hi Hartley.” I say in a tone that made me seem more suspicious than I already was as Grandma muffled something as she sat in my arm behind my back. I guess she did have a mouth. Hartley noticed and looked confused.

“What was that?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she tilts her head.

“It was me y’know.” I rush out and look over at Jake before looking back at her.

“Oh, do you wanna go play pin the tail on the black cat?” She asks, fiddling with her hands as I go to hand Jake the orb from behind my back.

“Sounds like animal cruelty.” I respond as I push it back from my hand into his.

“It’s most definitely not.” She says as she tries to clear it up.

“Now I feel duped.” Hartley sighing, not clear if I was being serious or not before walking away to get something to drink. I or Jake, I’m not really sure, dropped it. Grandma was loose only moments after she left “fuck.” I mutter under my breath as I notice Grandma being in a scarecrow, moving stiffly around as she walks.

“No party like a grandma party.” Her movements getting slightly quicker.

“Cause a grandma party don’t stop.” Jake says as he cracks an awkward smile, worried as me.

“Let’s not do anything reckless…” which I hoped would calm her down, yet it didn’t “only allowed to scare crows, got it?”

“I’ll do what I want.” She says proudly as I try to think of what I could use to hold her until we got home. All I was doing was grasping for straws however. She announced her plans before rushing away as Hartley appears.

“Whatcha doing?” Giving Jake an odd look when she noticed he was still beside me.

“You guys should play stitch the tail on the cat.” Jake offers as I agree before Hartley could correct him, taking her hand and dragging her over to play. Quickly I spin her around as she puts on her blind fold, being careful as to not get her pushed onto the floor. When I let her go to play it after commenting on the fact I had been spinning for awhile.

Jake comes running in, Grandma right in front of him as I let go of Hartley. Her following my voice and accidentally stabbing Jake.

“Did I win?” Lifting her blind fold and looking at Jake who yelled at the sudden prick. Sad he didn’t know a spell to help himself.

“In my book, yes.” Jake glaring at me as he grabs hold of Grandma.

“What’re you doing with the scarecrow?” Looking at him with an expression I couldn’t quite grasp.

“Dancing! Yup, monster tradition.” Starting to sing a crude song, even for him as she walks a slight distance away as he starts dancing before stopping when her gaze isn’t on him “Okay, grab something.” He declared as I grab the first thing I see. He starts squeezing the scarecrow but she escapes through the eyeholes of the pumpkin head (or jack o’lantern I think they’re called) slipping into Hartley’s body

“What’s happening? You guys have been weird all night.” She asked, her voice quivering slightly as I try to calm her down.

“Grandma is taking over you.” It took longer than it would have normally with a human “keep fighting, I don’t want to lose you forever.” I say as she keeps switching between the two. Grandma stumbling when she takes complete control, smirking at me “We have to get her to jump.” I say to Jake.

“Why? This vessel is so full of life and I’d live next door to you, I could be your grandma and your best friend, who wouldn’t want that?” Her expression causing unease as it doesn’t change, her voice and Hartley’s slipping into whichever as she talked.

“Me! I wouldn’t want that!” I yelp as she continued, Hartley shifting and looking more like Grandma apparently did, or maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me.

“Oh well, I’m here to stay.” Walking away as Jake mumbled something about how he should’ve crushed her. Not that I’d allow that. She continues to stumble around, throwing things and messing up Hartley’s party.

“Grandma, please, Hartley’s my friend, my best friend, she’s the only person who I trust and I know that because she’s kept our secret. I need her, aside from my family she’s all I got and I don’t know what id do without her.” I plead as she swings her arms around.

“What about me? I’ve missed you too! Being trapped in that orb. Don’t you want to be together again?” She responded and move her arms back to her side.

“Yes I do, which is why I have an even better idea for you because you don’t need her, take over my body.” It was the only chance Hartley had to live normally and without Grandma within her. That was worth a little sacrifice. Grandma thinks it over for a second as Jake yells something.

“Amy, you can’t be serious!”

“Yes I can, and I am.” Sighing as I look over at him “this is my mistake and I intend to fix it. Take me.” Shifting to look at her as she nods, I hoped it wasn’t as bad of an idea as I’d thought it was.

“If this is really what you want.” Shifting and starting to fade out as I notice Hartley almost falling over, stumbling to get back a sense of gravity.

“Yes it is.” Jake rushing over and trapping her as I turn around in surprise.

“Aha! I got you.” Jake squeaked in joy as he holds her protectively.

“How could you fool your grandmother?”

“How could you fool your granddaughter?”

“That’s differen-no wait no, it’s the same.” Now it was the snow globes problem to deal with her. Jake rushing away as I go to sit by Hartley. I’d really fucked up this time.

“Hartley are you okay?” I ask, slouching slightly as I wait for some form of negative reaction.

“Aside from getting my body snatched, other than that I’m good. What were you thinking?” Ending up being calmer than I expected.

“Sorry, I know, I shouldn’t have brought her, you did a great job tonight, with the party and stuff, I totally ruined what would’ve been an epic Halloween party.” I say as I sit at the bench, her moving to sit beside me.

“Thanks, by the way, I heard what you said to your grandma,” looking at me with a soft smile “you went up against her for me. It proves what a true friend you are.” Placing her hand on her chest

“Great, I’m glad, especially that we can put it behind us.” I sigh, looking at her with a smile, knowing that both of us were safe, for now that is.

“Not gonna happen.” She says, looking towards the door as if to make sure no one was there.

“Had to try.” As I follow her as we both stand up. Walking home and talking about whatever that would get our minds off this.

“That’s grandma! Do you know what you almost unleashed… again.”

“I’m so disappointed in you guys, why didn’t you just leave her at bowling in the ball return or something?” Dad says as Mom mentions that she’d have to leave her somewhere not here. Hartley sitting beside me but I still text her if she’s okay, her response being a thumbs up emoji.

“Can you stay the night? We need to make sure you’re 100% okay.” I whisper to her which she nods a yes to. Jake looking over as I know he listened it, smirking at me for some stupid reason. He was so stupid. I still don’t know how I could be related to him.

Chapter Text

She’d been humming the same song for the past hour and a half that they’d been sitting in study hall, mainly because the last teacher just so happened to kick them out not even 15 minutes into class.

That teacher just so happened to be her dad, which made it all the more surprising how he kept his job as a substitute. They really were low on teachers.

“Hartley, you’ve been singing the same song all of study hall.” Scowling at her before actually turning to look at her fully “for three days straight might I add. Is this some form of slow torture?”

“Sorry, the band at the roundup is doing auditions and I was hoping that I could try out. I just wanted to make sure I had it all memorized.” Her hands tapping softly against the table as she explained, looking sort of like a sad puppy after I complained. Which made me feel worse than it probably should’ve.

“Maybe I could help?” I offer “I know it all by heart due to the whole singing it for three days straight thing.” Her ignoring the last part as she nods, happily accepting the offer.

“Yeah, hopefully you have a better response than my grandma normally does which is yelling at me to move.” Her hand moving from tapping the table to grazing mine, although probably on accident “I mean it is the schools favorite hangout, so a good start, maybe?” Looking for my input.

“Free food isn’t worth it, especially since it has a two star on yelp so maybe not the best idea.”

“Can I run my audition by you? See what you think and all.” Ignoring my prior comment and smiling at me in a way that I’ve come to realize has a weird effect on me.

“Sure. What am I gonna do instead? Study in study hall?” My arms moving as she goes to stand up, crossing against my chest as I look up at her.

She stands like she doesn’t know how to, but she continues to sing no matter how awkward she appears.

“I wanna wake up, take the good with the all the bad. I wanna run right, left, cry, never looking back. What good is day without the night?” And maybe I did stop paying attention and zoned out just staring for no particular reason, mouth upturned into a lopsided grin. “So how did I do?” She asks after a moment or maybe longer of me looking at her like that.

“Wow, just wow. You’re amazing Hartley.” Standing up as she matches my smile.

“You really think so? Thanks.”

“Yeah, plus trying out for a hand seems fun. I never told you but I used to be in a band back in Centropolis and was the lead singer.” Her expression changed more into confusion as she waited for me to continue “we didn’t last long, our drummer broke up.”

“Don’t you mean the band broke up?”

“No, our drummer.” Realizing that that wasn’t a casual or okay thing after saying it, which was obvious by Hartley’s expression “yeah he was turned into stoned and destroyed into tiny pieces.”

“Hey Hartley.” Gem’s annoyingly familiar, overly faux sweet voice that was not needed at the moment (or any moment) from right behind her “and new girl.”

“It’s Amy but I guess that’s just too much for you to comprehend, even after months.” Now having to look over at her as I sit down, mirroring Hartley who’s doing the same.

“Funny how time flies when you don’t really care.” Turning to look at Hartley “anyway, hart heard you were going to try out at the roundup. Me too! Good luck, hope you don’t choke.” Smiling at her as she waved her hand around like some PTA mom at a meeting.

“It’s like she’s nice and mean at the same time.” I describe, basically fully encapsulating Gem. “Pick a lane!” Turning back to yell at her as she continues down the hallway, hoping it would’ve gotten a laugh out of Hartley who just looks sad.

“She’s right, if she’s auditioning then I’m cooked, maybe literally. A light could just fall on my head and I could die. Which would be better than dying of embarrassment in all honesty.” Hartley starts, saying most of the words as one and sighing as she stopped, waiting to see my response “Gem always goes up against me, and every time she does she wins.” Her smile drooping even more.

“So? You’re amazing, just because she’s auditioning doesn’t mean you can’t.” Smiling and putting my hand on her arm, although that smile probably could more like a grimace because she turned away blushing.

“When I was in the little miss valley view pageant, guess who always won. She pointed and laughed until I fell off the stage, while tap dancing.”

“Ah, I see your point about the lights now.” I attempted to joke “but c’mon, this isn’t just some weird beauty pageant which sure you made me watch all of dance moms but I still don’t get it. I mean seriously, you could’ve been little miss valley view. “ she tried to muffle a laugh at that.

“Look, you want that lead singer spot, then go sing and they’ll know just as I do how amazing you are.” Attempting to smirk instead of smile seeing her last reaction “you need to act like a monster, you don’t see Frankenstein backing down because he was a monster.” Her wrapping her arms around my neck as I say that. It’s not like we hadn’t hugged before, I just wasn’t expecting it, standing there, not realizing that I probably should’ve hugged her back until she let go.

“You are going to try out for that band and I’m going to be there to support you, or catch you if you fall off the stage.” Not knowing if this speech was lasting too long or if it was the fact that she was looking at me like I hung the stars that made me stop. The rest of study hall we didn’t study but the topic didn’t seem like much of an issue anymore.

Until we got there and she started questioning herself “You’re going to do great, you have an amazing voice and that’s half the battle of being a singer.”

“What’s the other half?” Picking at her nails as she looked like she forgot to breathe.

“Looks but you’re not supposed to say that.” Getting a laugh out of her as the band stopped setting up and started the auditions.

“Hey Hartley, and Hartley’s friend.” Gem comes walking up, flicking her hand for some reason.

“Again it’s Amy but I know that’s a big word for you to remember.” Hartley hiding a laugh this time, Gem just stalking off before she can make a comment about some failure of Hartley’s (which, was really impossible to think about for some odd reason to Amy).

“Good luck!” She yells, flipping her hair as the clicking of her boots start becoming more of a distant voice.

“She keeps saying that but I don’t think she means it.” Taking a drink of my soda as Hartley starts stressing more about it but the auditions had started at that moment and her name got called.

It was unclear what his name was, I didn’t care enough to pay attention to anyone else aside from Hartley who had her arm gripping mine as a lifeline before I shooed her onto stage.

Gem laughing at her before she could get a word in song wise, running off the stage.

“Come on Hartley.”

“Yeah give it everything you got.” Gem and whatever the other girls name was laughed. The song restarting and I had stood up, sort of afraid she might actually tap dance off the stage and onto the concrete.

Instead she ran off the stage, the members looking a bit confused but then called the next name, gem. Standing up was the hood move apparently, chasing after her before she got to far. Whether

“So much for my competition, got this locked in.” Crossing her fingers and smirking, her canines poking out as she said it and her eyes glistened as if she had won already.

“Not if I have anything to do about it.”

“What was that?” Her face shifting to confusion as I remember that I had to chase after Hartley.

“Nothing.” Looking away “you are so going to pay.”

“Are you talking to me?”

“No, weirdo, mind your business.” Finally rushing off to find Hartley, who was curled up in her bed at home. Her head buried in a hoodie that Amy could’ve sworn was hers but didn’t want to pay too much attention to that “hey.” Making her look up out of recognition “are you okay? Well obviously you aren’t okay but this seems like something you would want to talk about.”

“I’m good, I’m just going to go back to YouTube.” Amy choosing to plant a kiss on her forehead before leaving because that’s what friends do, according to movies, Hartley was her only friend.

“Now, time to commence plan ‘taking revenge on Gem’ a genius plan that I have not thought through.” Already rushing back to the Round-Up in record time, maybe due to adrenaline (if vampires even had that) or the more likely that is that it was her powers.

Now, if hypnosis would help, it what was going to have to work. Hypnosis was probably the worst of the power set she got, even before she moved, she always thought it was a bit too much.

She started singing the song, but her voice started getting deeper and deeper until it was almost a growl. Hartley rushing in and over to the table, glaring at me.

“What did you do?”

“Sabotage her audition,” noticing the look on her face “after everything she did, it was bare minimum. The real question is why wouldn’t I?”

“We can’t stoop to her level, now even if she ruined a lot of good.” Looking at me for some weird reason “aside from a few things and totally deserved it. Just… can you go get another audition, for the both of us.”

“We’re going to ignore the fact that stopping is all I know.”

“You made it seem like I couldn’t do it by myself without my,” thinking for a second “which I probably can’t.” Completely ignoring that line of thought and then running off.

It took a moment before I followed behind, catching up quickly and following her to continue the conversation.

“This isn’t the monster world, you’re more than that.”

“I know, I have to actual pay for shit.” That joke landed badly “I already told you I was doing it for you, and if getting you both an audition is really, really what you want, I’ll do it for you.”

“You’d do that for me?” Seeming surprised that I’d do it, and that I actually am doing what she asked.

“Of course.”

“And Gem, both of us.”

“You’re so ridiculous sometimes.” It came across more like a grumble than an actual statement, but off I went “but since I agreed to this, can you do something for me?”

“Not let Gem get in my head?”

“No, taco pack.” Rushing off before I could see that annoyed look on her face. The band was closing up auditions, looking like they were ready to pack their stuff up.

“Can I help you?”

“I was wondering if Hartley could get another audition.”

“The girl who ran off into the bathroom?”

“Yes her, she actually is amazing, she just got nervous because of it. Is there any way she could get another audition.”

“Our front runner is our drummers mom and the manager of this establishment.” Looking around, a bit disgusted but agreeing by the looks of it.

“And Gem, feel free to say no.”

“Sure.”

“Wait, is that custom?” Pointing to the guitar as he nods again, handing it over gently as she continuing to stare, strumming a soft tune. He stared impressed at the playing, his mouth slightly agape.

“Sick shred, where’d you learn to play like that?”

“I used to be the lead singer and drummer in a band, you pick up a few things I guess.”

“Any chance you want to play a bit more? We’re learning to play a new version of our song.” Nodding and both of us moving to get onto stage “vocals and all that.”

“Hartley has been singing the song nonstop, I know all the lyrics by heart if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Great!” Sliding the stand over and slipping the guitar’s strap back over his head, “1,2,3, and 4” replaying the song lyrics in my head and only a line into the song before the beat stops.

“You’re in.”

“Uhm, no?” Putting the mic down and only partially processing the information. Leaving out the side entrance where Gem and Hartley were standing, oh boy. Turning her phone around she shows a video, completely out of context of me singing. Hartley running off, looking like she was on the edge of tears.

“How could you do this to me?”

“Hartley! Wait!”

“Wow, you didn’t even have to pull any mind games to break her heart, respect.” Gem’s smile making it worse, she looked happy, perhaps excited. Like maybe this shared bonding moment may help us become friends, replacing whatever me and Hartley have.

“That was really evil and if you ever, ever hurt her again, I promise that you will remember my name.” Looking a bit annoyed at me or perhaps flustered, I was too annoyed to tell.

Thankfully, Celia wasn’t there when I got there to talk to Hartley. I was this close to throwing rocks at her window but I think that might’ve been taken as a bad sign if I had.

She was sobbing, Phoebe Bridgers blasting as she sobbed, now wearing pajamas and that hoodie that I know was mine.

“It’s not what it looks like, I promise you it’s nothing like what you think.” Her face uncovered from the pillow at that, looking a little worse for wear “Gem is trying to turn you against me.”

“How do I know this isn’t just big convoluted plot.” She says but she allowed me to move and sit on the bed as I reached around her with my arm, pulling her closer “You got the lead singer spot, why are you even talking to me?

“Cause, you’re my best friend and the fact that I 110% didn’t go behind your back. I went to get you guys an audition and then I started talking about guitars and they asked me if I wanted to jam with them. When they offered me a lead spot.” Her moving closer, presumably taking that as a good enough apology.

“You’re still the lead singer, what difference does it make?”

“The difference is I turned them down, for you. Because, what Gem doesn’t know is that I did in fact turn them down. You should know that I would never hurt you.”

“You’re right, I do know that. You’ve never done anything to hurt me, I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“It’s okay, I know you really wanted that spot.”

“I did, but none of this would’ve happened if I just believed in myself. For all the times I’ve come down on you for being a supposed monster, this is the one time I think you were the knight of my story. Maybe your instinct was right about this one.”

“Why’d you have to make it all gross? Now, there’s a porch swing and a guitar just sitting to be played. Unless you want to hear about all the bad stuff I’ve done in secret.”

“The less I know about that the better, now what about a guitar?” Looking at me confused, trying not to laugh as I moved quickly to stand up, pulling her up with me.

“I know how to play guitar, you can sing, as well as your long list of other accomplishments and talents, why don’t we just play together?” She thought about it for maybe a second before smiling at me.

“Either way I think we should leave, my grandma is going to be home any moment so we should leave before she sees that I was crying. She scares me.”

“She scares me too.” Both of us walking hand in hand to the bench, rushing upstairs to grab my guitar. Coming back down she was sitting on that porch swing, looking excited about all of this.

Reciting the song, the strumming seeming natural (mainly because it was) and playing until the song ended, laughing as we finished.

“Now that you’re running off a dopamine high, wanna fly?” Not meaning to rhyme.

“I love you, but I don’t know if I really trust you not to drop me, even if you are a vampire.”

“C’mon the moon sure is beautiful tonight and you can actually see stars here.” A smile spreading as she grabs my hand, and we both started going up. It was probably dangerous but at this point it was well past 11 at night, the only light being the stars.

The moon was well hidden and we both went up, her arms wrapped around my neck, giggling as I started going higher, smiling dopey as I started humming the beat to an old song. It was probably by frank Sinatra, Jake was sort of obsessed with it at the current moment.

“I love,” looking up at the sky “moments like these.” Spinning the both of us around.

“I love these too.” Looking a little sad, but still, she sighs happily, shifting her head to look up at the sky.

Chapter Text

“Hey guys, it’s almost thanksgiving, how do you feel?” Hartley basically yells as she barges through the door, making Amy jump a bit as she’d expected a normal entrance from Hartley after she’d invited them over.

“Oh, so that’s why we have a week off.” Amy muttered, going back to staring at the tv as Hartley moved to sit down beside her, pulling Amy closer by grabbing their arm. Now slotted together as Hartley continues to hold her hand.

“You really didn’t know about this?” Fidgeting with Amy’s rings as Amy only huffs, not really seeing how big of an event it is.

“The only holiday we really have as monsters is where we pray we aren’t killed for being born or praising Onyx for not killing us. I thought I told you this when it came to Halloween.” Hartley now huffs, accepting that answer but being annoyed still.

“Well, for the sunshine club, I was doing a Friendsgiving and I was wondering if you would help.”

“Is this one of those things where you portray it as a question but in reality I have to do it?” Amy, surprisingly, leaning into the touch as Hartley nods, a smile on her face.

It was a nice moment, until Jake came and ruined it. Hartley choosing to move away to the other side of the couch, dropping Amy’s hand like she was caught in the middle of committing a crime.

“I’d love to help with a Friendsgiving.” He almost squeals as he completely ignore the scene that just happened, Amy staring at Hartley, hoping she’d say no but all she does is nod in excitement. And with that all of their schedules had the 20th marked and Jake finally left them alone so Amy took that as a win. Finally being able to start a movie, which Hartley picked.

“Why would they let the dog cook?”

“Amy, it’s not that serious babe.” Hartley laughing a bit about how annoyed Amy got at their first introduction to thanksgiving.

“They are eating jelly beans and toast.” Amy points out, agreeing with Hartley on that “We’re sorta like them, don’t you think? The candy cane one and glasses girl.”

“You’re so bad with names.” Hartley laughs louder this time, which was more so a scoff than anything as Amy kept her head positioned on Hartley’s shoulder, her eyes shifting so that she’d get a better look at Hartley’s face without her noticing. “It’s peppermint patty and Marcie.”

“You say tomato, I say potato.” Watching the credits roll as they go for the remote to choose the next movie. Which just so happened to be a horror movie set during thanksgiving. Having Hartley actually sort of intrigued the whole time as they watch until it was dinner time.

And for the next few days, Amy gets reminded about the sunshine club meeting every day by Jake. Siblings really perhaps were the worst.

And then the day came, Hartley’s excitement making Amy feel confident that it would go well.

And it did, everyone brought their own food, which only went wrong when someone brought garlic bread and Amy had to stay 6 feet away from it, and some even came before to help set up. Jake was being Jake, making sure everyone was happy and excited about his presence like any of their opinions will ever seep into our lives. Almost slipping up and letting his magic seem more obvious than just a slide of hands.

Especially when he slipped, floating a bit in mid air until Amy kicked him to keep him on the ground before their secrets were figured out. This wasn’t what they wanted when they told him to work on his magic.

But all in all, Amy thought it was a rather good Friendsgiving. It’s a good thing that thanksgiving is a normal holiday with no basis in historical inaccuracies. Plus, free bird is a funny movie.

“Was it good?” Hartley asks as they finally finish cleaning up, everyone else long gone. Grabbing her bag and looking expectantly at Amy, completely forgetting that Jake was there for a moment before her eyes flicker over to him before shifting back to Amy.

“No.” Amy replied with, shoving her hands in her pockets as she starts following Hartley out the door, Jake following a bit behind. Both of them crossing their arms due to “the cold” which leads to him offering Hartley his sweater which she turned down.

This third wheeling continued all the way until they got home and had to deal with more third wheeling from their parents or Celia and Robert.

Jake didn’t think it was that bad, but at this point they were probably together.

“Babe, can you get me a cup of juice?” Amy asks, blinking up at Hartley who stares at her sort of confused but still does so. Each time it’s a new pet name from the both of them.

They just haven’t said anything which is the big issue because maybe that’s just how best friends act. That’s not something he had the most background knowledge on.

Then Hartley started texting him when Amy had fallen asleep in her lap, trying to figure her own way out before giving up and deciding that that was the only option.

No one was really expecting the news. Or maybe they were hoping it would’ve somehow changed.