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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄.
[0𝟗]. 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄
𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒?
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎 】
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❛ 𝘐'𝘔 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘈 𝘋𝘈𝘔𝘕 𝘚𝘌𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘋
𝘊𝘏𝘖𝘐𝘊𝘌, 𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘌 ❜
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𝐈𝐅 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 from reading about Djinn's, was if you're in a dream, you need to die to regain consciousness. Though, Night Hags were a bit different- considering you actually die in real life if you were to kill yourself in a dream. So, the nephilim supposed he needed to inflict as much non-lethal pain as he could to escape his head and not have Lucifer fuck with him any longer. A theory, but the nephilim was going to put it into play.

"It doesn't matter how many times you try to escape me, Nathaniel," Lucifer rolled his eyes. "The Night Hag has her eyes set on you through my request. You'll keep coming back here."

Nathaniel huffed. "Don't count on it."

And with that, Nathaniel took the fire iron from the chimney before impaling himself.

Abruptly, Nathaniel awoke with a start. And as the nephilim looked down, a fair amount of grace began oozing out of the hole in Nathaniel's chest. There was a slight groan on the nephilim's part, and everyone surrounding him in the library looked concerned. The boy-king being affected by the newfound monster had everyone on edge.

"Nate," Hope voiced from beside Nathaniel, pulling at the nephilim's shoulder. "Your grace."

Nathaniel looked down, finally realizing the fire iron sized hole in his chest. "It's fine."

Without much, Nathaniel placed both his hands over the perforation and the skin surrounding the nephilim's hands glowed a bright gold color. In seconds, there wasn't any discomfort on Nathaniel's end anymore, and the gap was patched up, as if nothing ever happened. Hope seemed relived at that.

"See? Good as new," Nathaniel in heavily.

But Nathaniel could still feel the uneasiness of it all.

An hour and some later, Hope and Nathaniel were brought into Doctor Saltzman's office after Landon had fallen asleep and roused with a pencil stab on one of his hands. It was safe to say Wednesday Addams and Nathaniel Forbes had the same theory while being lost in their own heads. Which made Nathaniel almost give the kid some credit. Almost.

And when Hope tried taking ahold of Landon Kirby's hand to patch up the kid's slight puncture wound, Nathaniel was quick to pull Hope by her hips and walk himself around her, towards Landon.

"I'll heal him," Nathaniel huffed, pushing at Landon's shoulder to make him sit.

Nathaniel grumpily grasped the underpart of Landon's hand to hold him still before the nephilim sat himself beside Wednesday and pressed his palm to the kid's wound. A white-gold light shined at the contact and Nathaniel's eyes turned a gold radiance as white distinctive veins popped below his eyelids.

Within seconds, the wound was nonexistent, and Nathaniel let go of Landon's hand with a huff.

"Thank you," Landon softly expressed gratitude.

Nathaniel puffed nonchalantly. "Try not getting hurt next time, stud."

Landon rolled his eyes as he turned to Alaric. "What do you think she meant when she said bring it home?"

"I'm guessing she means Malivore," Alaric replied.

Nathaniel snorted. "Lucifer has decided on labeling it the Walmart version of Hell."

Alaric swiftly turned to Nathaniel. "You fell asleep again? Why didn't I know this?"

"It was literally an hour ago," Nathaniel shrugged carelessly. "I got myself to wake up, and the wound wasn't that bad. I'm good."

Still, Alaric could feel Nathaniel hiding something.

"What else did Lucifer say?" Alaric egged on.

Nathaniel sighed. "A lot of things."

"Nate," Alaric narrowed his eyes on Nathaniel.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "To sum it up- him and the dear old Night Hag have a deal. Once the urn is on its way to Malivore, the Night Hag kills me. I'm supposed to be target number one on her radar."

Alaric was furious. "And you didn't think I needed to know that-? You are evacuating with everyone else. The last thing I'm going to do is put you in danger."

"This is why I didn't tell you," Nathaniel groaned, his hand exasperatedly pointing at Alaric. "I'm not leaving, Ric. I'm not abandoning this just because Lucifer is involved. I'm helping take this thing down."

Hope shook her head. "Nate, maybe Doctor Saltzman's right-"

"Oh, screw you guys," Nathaniel interrupted, his eyes landing on Hope before they went back on Alaric. "You didn't send Wednesday away and he's human. He's useless as can be. I'm a damn Nephilim! Lucifer himself has nothing on me!"

"I was going to send him away too!" Alaric exclaimed, a shake to his head. "I was going to get to it, but you should be leaving with him."

That's when Landon interjected. "But I worked so hard to get here. If I run at the first sign of trouble, what's the point?"

Alaric turned to Landon. "The point, Landon, is that I'm trying to look out for you. As I am Nate."

"Honestly," Landon shook his head, a smile on his full lips. "You're all taking better care of me than anyone in my life ever has- of course, I had to stab myself to get your attention," he finished off, giving Hope a grin.

Nathaniel's eyes instantly turned gold. "Tread really carefully, Wednesday."

Alaric gave Nathaniel a warning look. "Behave."

Nathaniel huffed; his eyes turning back to their usual color before setting them on Alaric. "Whatever. But I'm not leaving, and you can't make me."

With that, Nathaniel stormed out of Alaric's office.

Interactions with Hope and Doctor Saltzman were put on complete hold as Nathaniel brooded for the next two hours. And it wasn't until the nephilim was close to dosing off that Landon Kirby came looking for him, the tribrid and their principal. Exclaiming someone about the creature actually not being a Night Hag but only really disguising itself as one.

"An Oneiroi," Nathaniel repeated, his eyes narrowing on Landon, looking skeptical. "So, a sleep paralysis type demon with a Djinn twist- okay, let's pretend for a second it is one; why am I not sensing it? I know what demon's feel like. And this isn't it."

"My biggest guess is it's masking itself," Landon shrugged, paging through the lore book he had been reading. "It's a shapeshifting dream demon. I don't think it wants us knowing what it is, so we don't have a chance at stopping it."

Nathaniel thought for a second.

Then the nephilim's eyebrows shot up. "Well, would you look at that, Wednesday, it seems you do have some use after all- but let's see if those wheels are still spinning: how do we take this thing down?"

Glances were quickly exchanged between the four.

And within the hour, Hope had a plan.

"A black winged- what?" Kaleb inquired.

Nathaniel huffed. "Shapeshifting dream demon. Are we all clear now or is it still fuzzy?"

Kaleb rolled his eyes.

Hope sighed. "Look, I know it sounds bad, but now that we know what it is, we can fight it."

"How the hell are we supposed to fight a dream demon?" Rafael asked.

"You don't need to worry about that," Nathaniel sighed, eyes going around the living area from Kaleb to MG, Rafael, Landon and lastly, Hope. "All you test bunnies are doing is helping me bring the thing out of the astral plane onto the land of the living. From there, he's mine."

Hope quickly shook her head. "Ours. Nate and I are taking care of it once it's topside."

Again, Rafael was hesitant. "How are we supposed to do that?"

"You give it a big ol' squeeze and pull," Nathaniel smiled passively aggressively while making the motions with his hands. "It's simple. Just don't get dead."

"Wonderful," Kaleb sarcastically said. "Is it too late to get on the evacuation bus?"

"No," Nathaniel quickly responded, arms crossed over his puffed-out chest. "If anyone wants to wussy out, that's fine."

Kaleb huffed.

Hope narrowed her eyebrows, giving Nathaniel a disapproving stare. "Okay, no- we're not going to force anyone to stay. It has to be your choice."

There was a small silence as everyone looked at each other around the room.

And in seconds, Landon was on his feet.

"I'm not leaving unless Hope does."

Nathaniel scoffed, turning to Landon. "You're not afraid to lose your tongue, are you?"

"Calm down," Hope put her hand on Nathaniel's chest, hoping it would sooth the nephilim.

"I'm not leaving Lan behind," Rafael piped up.

"I am a founding member of the super-squad," MG followed up, standing to his feet and holding his hand up to his chest. "So, I can't bail."

"Ya'll are gonna get yourselves killed," Kaleb huffed.

MG shrugged.

And Kaleb sighed, tilting his head. "But if MG stays, I stay. No child left behind."

Hope hummed. "In that case, it's naptime."

The preparations for said naptime was an hour and some later. The gym was turned into a kindergarten nap place with blankets and pillows spread out across the room enough for four people. And when Landon Kirby took notice of this, his first instinct was to furrow his brows in confusion.

"We're missing a blanket," Landon stated.

Nathaniel smirked, holding a pillow up to his chest as he walked across the gym. "No, we're not."

Landon scoffed. "Yes, we are. There're four."

"Yup," Nathaniel popped the p.

"And there're five of us," Landon continued.

Nathaniel dropped his pillow on his blanket. "You're not taking a nap, Wednesday- the probability of you dying in your sleep is greater than the rest of us. Not that I'm worried about your safety, but Hope is."

Landon shook his head. "Both of you don't get to make that decision for me."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "You're not the hero you think you are, stud. You're lucky you're even here to witness this and aren't on a bus out of here for your own protection."

"I'm doing this," Landon stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whether you like it or not."

Nathaniel groaned. "Will there be a day where you aren't a pain in my ass? - Fine. Fall asleep. And die there. I don't care."

And with that, Nathaniel stalked off in search of Hope when the auburn-haired tribrid collided with his chest. Nathaniel swiftly held onto Hope, pressing her against his broad chest before lightly separating himself from her. The tribrid in return held onto his shoulder and the back of his neck to regain balance.

"Sorry," Nathaniel murmured.

Hope shook her head. "It's okay- you ready?"

Nathaniel nodded. "Yeah, but Wednesday didn't budge, he's still doing this."

Hope sighed, giving Nathaniel a look. "You didn't even try to convince him, did you?"

"It's not my job to look after stupid, Hope," Nathaniel rolled his eyes, completely tired with Hope's continuing worry for Landon Kirby. "He's made his decision, and if he wants to get himself killed, let him."

Hope scoffed. "I asked for one thing, Nate. One thing. And you can't leave your ego aside to do it."

Nathaniel in return huffed. "Is this how it's always going to be like? With Landon smack in the middle of us? Because I'm not going to keep fighting for an us with him in it."

"That's not fair," Hope shook her head.

"No," Nathaniel disagreed, his eyes glazing over with a cold stare. "What's not fair is you saying one thing and doing a complete one-eighty with your actions. It's always been me? How am I supposed to believe that when you keep letting him flirt with you and constantly prioritizing his wellbeing?"

Hope scoffed. "So, you're jealous. Are we really going to fight about this?"

Nathaniel's nostrils flared as his jaw clenched. "I don't know, you tell me- ask yourself what you really want, Hope. Because as of right now, it seems all you want to do is keep Landon Kirby safe a hell of a lot more than you want to kill this demon."

Hope didn't even try to argue.

And a few moments passed.

"Silence is assent," Nathaniel kissed his teeth as he shook his head. "Make up your mind. I'm not a damn second choice, Hope."

Without another word, Nathaniel walked away with his head completely setting itself in the plan. Because if Nathaniel wasn't sure about Hope's feelings about him and/or Landon, then he needed to be certain that he was going to take down that demon.

And Lucifer with it.

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unedited.
Yo, it's been a minute. But truthfully,
it's because I wasn't sure how I wanted
this chapter to pan out. But, I think it
this is the better version.
Anywho, Hope is pulling somewhat of
a Lara Jean with stringing Landon and
Nathaniel along, and Nathaniel is not
having it because baby knows he ain't
no second, third or forth option.
Also, for those that are sad or upset
that Nate and Hope are fighting so
soon: just because they expressed
their feelings for each other, it doesn't
mean things are supposed to be
rainbows and sunshines!
OH AND, Johnny Depp is our Lucifer,
yes, ladies and gents, we're team
Depp up in this bitch.

++ THANK YOU SO MUCH ON
100K READS, IT MEANS THE WORLD
AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!