#If Nick catches them it can be called “ I saw my daddy making out with Santa Claus” and who doesn't love a joke

[itsbrucey]

Closeson fic where Darryl is dressed up as Santa for a Thing and Glenn makes out with him and someone catches them. My funniest version far is it either being the Twins or Grant bc it becomes a survival horror in unique ways.

Or something like that. Anyways.

#If Nick catches them it can be called “ I saw my daddy making out with Santa Claus” and who doesn't love a joke #Grant looking at his dad with enough physic force to shatter a boulder. not angry or sad or anything. just Stunned #If the twins got involved. you best believe they'll blackmail the shit out of them. little demons they are /pos #anyways just a dumb shitty little idea. i will post better i swear

[lovecanyon]

dad!harry’s coachella interview blurb!!!!

DAD!HARRY’S COACHELLA INTERVIEW

“Harry, I recently found out you have two children. So to begin with I brought you a record of lullabies that were recorded by Stevie Nicks!”

Harry smiles as he gets handed the record. He couldn’t wait to show Y/N this.

“Thank you so much.” Harry beams. “My fiancé is going to love this record so much.” He waves the vinyl that had Stevie Nicks’ name plastered on the cover. He felt jittery about telling his future wife about it.

The interviewer laughs as he watches Harry look down at the record.

“You really love her huh.”

“I really do!” Harry says, biting his lip trying to suppress a smile but he fails once his lips curl into a grin. He really did love her a lot.

“Since you love your fiancé so much I have here this shirt that says I love Y/N.” The interviewer unfolds a white shirt revealing Y/N’s name printed onto the fabric. What really made the t-shirt was a photo of Y/N and Harry fitted to be a heart.

Harry lets out a breathy laugh as he stares at the shirt. He completely loved it.

“Can I wear it now?” Harry questions grabbing onto the fabric. He really wanted to tear off the shirt he was wearing and put on the I love Y/N shirt.

“You know what, I would love that!”

Almost instantly Harry peels off the yellow shirt he was wearing and replaces it with his new one—his new favorite.

Quickly fixing his green necklace, Harry swipes down the wrinkled fabric.

“I’m never talking this off.” The musician smiles. He truly was never going to take the shirt off.

“I can tell. Your face lit up so much once you saw it.”

-

“I just want to ask you about the bracelet you're wearing. Who made it?” The interviewer points down at the colorful beaded bracelet on Harry’s wrist.

A smile forms on Harry’s lips as he glances at the brightly colored beads. The story of how he got the bracelet was one of his favorite moments ever.

A squeaky voice calling Harry makes him turn around to find his son. He was wearing one of his shirts which was so baggy on him that it almost touched the ground.

Standing up from his crouched position, Harry catches the tiny body that slams into him.

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

Beau jumps up and down in Harry’s hold which makes him laugh. He wanted to know why his bunny was so excited.

“What’s up B?” Harry beams, making the three year old shove something into his grip. Looking down at his hand he finds a beaded bracelet. “Is this for me!?” The father playfully gasps.

“Yes I made it with mama!” Beau smiles, feeling proud of the bracelet he made for his father.

Analyzing the colorful beads, Harry finds his name misspelled with only one R, so it’s spelled ‘Hary’. His name not being spelled correctly made it even more special to him.

“I love it. I’m never taking it off.”

Harry grins thinking about one of his favorite memories. He had the best children ever.

“My son actually made it for me.” He answers the interviewer which makes him widen his eyes enthusiastically.

“Your son?! That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“My name not being spelled right makes it more special to me.” Harry breathes out a laugh. He always wore the bracelet that misspelled his name, to shows, events, red carpets and even on movie sets. Wherever he was, the beads were on his wrist giving him good luck.

It never left him.

-

“I heard your little Inez is a David Bowie fan.”

Still wearing the I love Y/N shirt, Harry giggles as he nods his head. Inez was the number one Bowie fan. She loved every album of his since Harry had played them over and over.

“She is, all she listens to is Bowie!” The singer grins. “Since she was in her mum’s belly.”

“Since she’s the biggest David Bowie fan, I would like to give her this vintage Ziggy Stardust onesie.” Nardwuar hands Harry the kids size shirt.

Harry lets out a chuckle as he unfolds the small onesie to reveal David Bowie’s character Ziggy, Inez’s favorite. He knew once his daughter saw this a gummy smile would grow on her face.

“Inez is going to love this. I can see her face already.” Harry predicts little Nez’s reaction.

“I also have this David Bowie plushie for her!”

Harry loved it.

“This is so cute. I just know she’s going to be obsessed with this. Thank you so much.” Harry smiles at the interviewer feeling thankful.

“It’s not a problem, I know how much you love your family so I brought gifts for all of them.”

-

Being a headliner for Coachella was something Harry had never expected. He didn’t even expect all the fame after the band broke up, yet here he was getting interviewed about his solo career and even better his new family life.

It was an amazing feeling.

“So you’re going to perform at Coachella again this weekend?”

“Yes, weekend two.” Harry nods. He performed at the festival for the first time last week and it couldn’t have gone any better.

After the performance he drove his family back to their rented Palm Springs house, cooked his favorite pasta for them and had a dance party with his two troublemakers.

Even though it was 11 PM both of the Styles children were up on their feet instead of in their beds sleeping, Inez who barely started walking was attempting to jump up and down like her father and brother but just ended up flat on her bum.

Almost instantly, Harry swoops up Inez in his arms and continues to dance with Beau. Ironically the music that they were dancing to was Harry’s new album that hadn’t been released yet.

Harry’s House was Y/N’s favorite album so far. She loved watching her lovies dance around to the songs that were written about her.

And that’s exactly what she was planning to do.

Holding one of her disposable film cameras, Y/N snaps a few shots of Harry jumping around with their kids.

It's 'cause I love you, babe

In every kind of way

Just a little taste

Know I love you, babe

Music for a Sushi Restaurant was one of Y/N’s favorites. She vividly remembers the day he wrote it, it was one of the best days they ever had together.

“Mama come and join us!”

Beau’s voice made her put down the camera and rush over to her dancing family. Catching Harry looking at her made a smile grow on her face. She loved him so much.

“How was it?”

“It was one of the most exciting weekends I’ve ever had.” Harry beams.

-

tag list: @harrysmatcha @harryspinkpillow @helen-with-an-a @florencepughily @peterparkerbae @toji-dabi-wife @fallonx @drphilssoulmate @cherriesrae @alienorknight @valluvsu @ivegotparticulartaste @ayeshathestyles @hazgoldenstyles @eiffelmezarry @tsukishimawhore @renatavieira @michellekstyles @eleanordaisy @shawnsblue @academiaghosts @japanchrry @agustdpeach @hannahnikohl @whoscamila @ch3rryrry @msolbesg @seguin-styles1996 @futuristicpalacegardenpsychic @youusunshineyoutemptress @kaitieskidmore1 @cherryfragrancx @ssuziess @milkiane @golden-hoax @flwrmuse @sunshinemendes8 @your--sweetest--downfall @melllinaa @iluvjj @tenaciousperfectionunknown @cashtons-wife @stellarossii @scenesofobx @manifestrry @lomlolivia

#harry styles x reader #dad!harry #harry styles #harry styles au #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #harry styles writing #husband!harry #harry styles one shot #harry styles fan fic #dilf!harry #harry styles blurb

[slafkovskys]

Omg i was scrolling trough your account and i saw the juraj fic with him being sick and i fell in love w ur writing so i'm here to ask for a juraj x reader where they have a kid (a little son) and juraj is teaching him how to skate w the habs

“are you sure that you’re ready to start skating, honey?” she looks at her son with nothing but worry in her eyes, “we can wait if you want-”

“don’t wanna wait, momma! wanna skate with phe and dada!” lukas squeals, gripping onto the bench. at the mention of his sister’s name, she looks out onto the ice to find her oldest daughter lapping the rookies under close supervision of nick, which was her only requirement in sending her out on the ice early.

the chuckles of her partner draw her attention away from josephina and back to where juraj was tightening their two year old’s skates, “you’re more nervous than you were with josephina, no?”

“my child is getting onto the ice for the first time. of course i’m nervous,” she rolls her eyes, tugging her lip between her teeth, “now, you can’t let go of him-”

“i know, i know. is not my- hey, careful please, son,” he catches lukas as he tries to follow juraj when he stands. he picks the boy up and lets her make sure his helmet is secure enough, “how do you say? is not my first rodeo?”

“i don’t even want to thank about him doing the rodeo, juraj, please,” she stresses.

“daddy, are you coming?” their six year old calls as she skates by, a big grin on her face as she slaps nick’s hand, “i won again.”

“see? i teach winners,” he’s smug when he bends down for a kiss.

“i gave birth to them so i win,” she presses her lips to his before shooing them, “go before i change i mind.”

she follows them, watching from behind the glass as juraj carefully sets lukas on the ice. the boys feet slip out from under him, but juraj is quick to catch him, smiling at his giggles and send her a look, “is normal.”

her teeth are clenched as she nods, watching as he shows their son what to do with his legs. his legs give out a couple of times before he gets steady and when he goes a tiny distance on his own (with juraj’s arms caging his sides in case he were to fall) he whips his head around, “momma, did you see? i skated!”

“i’m so proud of you, baby,” the grin on her face only widens as josephina skates up beside them, having abandoned her rookie friends who seemed to be catching their breath in the corner.

“good job, lukas!” she encouraged.

“remember, this foot first, buddy,” juraj pats lukas’ leg and her heart swells watching her first love being surrounded by her second and third, teaching them to do one of his favorite things. “maybe you will do this and then the rodeo?”

“what’s a rodeo, daddy?”

send in your requests for sts!

#juraj slafkovsky #jurajxolder!reader #soft thoughts sunday

[ladykailitha]

Oh For a Muse of Fire! Part 13

Steve’s turn to come to the rescue? Hell yeah!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9 Part 10  Part 11 Part 12

Steve’s painting was coming along really well. He was trying to get the expression on Eros’s face right. It was becoming a problem. There was just something about the eyes being closed that didn’t work.

But he was supposed to be asleep when Psyche came in, but when Steve tried to paint the eyes closed, he looked dead and not asleep.

Steve sighed and decided to talk to Joyce about it after class. He told Eddie go ahead to the parking lot and he’d meet him there.

“Hey, Mrs Byers,” Steve greeted. “I wanted to talk to you about my final.”

Joyce looked up at him and smiled. “Sure, Steve. What’s up?”

“I’m having a hard time getting the face right, can you help me?” he said and handed over the canvas.

She took it gingerly to avoid smearing the wet paint. “It looks as though the face is giving trouble.”

Steve nodded. “Especially the eyes. I want them closed for the Eros theme but with the pose he comes off looking like a corpse.”

“Which,” she said with a huff of laughter, “not the look you’re going for?”

“Absolutely not,” he agreed.

“Steve...” Joyce said gently. “You do know that the myths and stories idea is just a guideline? You don’t have to stick to a theme if you don’t want to.”

Steve’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Um...really?”

Joyce laughed. “Yes, Steve. Try it with his eyes open and I think you’ll find it will be fine.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Mrs Byers.” He gathered up his painting and walked to the door.

“Hey Steve?” Joyce called out. “Why do you call me Mrs Byers? Almost everyone else calls me Joyce, except the really young students.”

Steve flashed her a bright smile. “It’s what I called you when I was babysitting Will. It’s a hard habit to break.”

She tilted her head to the side and then nodded. “Fair enough. Bye, Steve.”

“Bye, Mrs Byers.” He winked at her and walked off.

*

Eddie was waiting by his van having a cigarette when he spotted someone coming his direction.

“Shit!” he looked to see if he could just hop in the van and get away, but the other guy was too quick.

“Eddie? Is that you?” the far too cheerful voice cried.

Eddie closed his eyes and flicked his cigarette to the ground, grinding it beneath his boot. He opened his eyes and sneered. “Well, well if it isn’t Nick Mantrell. Did you get arrested?”

Nick was a tall man with light brown hair and deep blue eyes. His smile was as crooked as his personality.

“Daddy got me off,” Nick said with a smile that was supposed to be winning but Eddie had long since found to be smarmy.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. But then, Martin Mantrell always did have more money than sense.”

Nick’s mask dropped and his face became a dark and sinister thing. “You keep my daddy’s name out of your dirty mouth.”

Eddie huffed out a chuckle. “Man, I thought you liked my dirty mouth.”

And suddenly the mask was back up. “You know I do, baby.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Nick?”

Nike grinned. “I just wanted to catch up. See what you were up to these days. It been so long since I saw you, baby.” He got close to Eddie and ran his hand down his arm.

“I’m doing fine,” Eddie said through gritted teeth. “The band’s got an agent now and we just finished recording a demo that they’re going to shop around.”

Nick looked pityingly at him. “Oh that so sweet. And you’re sure he’s a real agent?”

Eddie frowned. He knew that’s how Nick would get under his skin. He hated how it almost worked again. “Pretty damn sure. His other clients include The Kestrels and Lonnie Hunter.”

Nick’s eyes went wide. “Those are some pretty big names, baby. I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

Eddie shoulders slumped. “Why are you here man? At the school I mean.”

Nick smiled smugly. “I’m here getting my degree in business. Daddy’s going make me VP once I graduate.” He batted his eyelashes at him. “What are you doing here? I thought higher education was against the Munson doctrine.”

Eddie shifted uncomfortably under Nick’s gaze. “I’m doing a favor for a family friend. I’m the live model for her art class this year.”

Nick licked his lips suggestively. “Too bad it’s too late to take the class. Maybe I can convince Daddy to let me audit it for the last few weeks. You always did look your best right before I fucked you.”

Eddie began to squirm. “I don’t think you can do that.”

Nick leaned further into Eddie’s space. “I think you’ll find I can do a lot of things with a little bit of persuasion and a lot of money.”

Eddie’s face burned with humiliation and shame. He just wanted to go home.

A warm arm slid around his waist and soft chuckle breathed in his ear.

“Hey, Sunshine!” Steve greeted cheerfully. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I hope you weren’t waiting to long.”

Nick reared back as if he’d been stung. “Who’s this then, baby?”

Eddie leaned into Steve’s side.

Steve cocked his head to the side and gave Nick his best mean girl smile. “Your worst nightmare unless you toddle off like a good boy.”

Nick sneered. “You always were a slut, Eddie. You would spread your legs for anyone with a good body and a playful smile.”

Steve eyed Nick up. “Honey, you aren’t my type and what Sunshine and I do is none of your business. Now shoo, before I get mad. And honey, the hulk’s a pussy cat in comparison.”

Nick turned on his heel and stormed off.

Steve sighed in relief. “Thank god that worked. I’m really bad at fighting and I would so fucking lose if we got in a fist fight.”

Eddie started giggling. And Steve flashed him a smile.

“You okay, now?”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, thanks for that. That slimy piece of worm-ridden filth is my ex-boyfriend. Met him when I was still young and stupid. It wasn’t until after the third time he cheated on me that I walked away.”

Steve bumped their shoulders together. “I’m sorry he was harassing you. Guys like that are what give gay men a bad name.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. “How did you manage to insinuate that we were together without out right lying?”

Steve frowned for a second. “Oh, the double talk?” Eddie nodded. “I learned it at the bar. It’s a customer service thing. Make them think that I promised them something when I really didn’t.”

Eddie laughed. “That’s amazing.”

“You still up for that coffee or do you want to go home?” Steve asked.

He leaned into Steve’s embrace further. “I just want to go home.”

“I’ll follow you to make sure you get home okay,” Steve said, gently removing his arm from Eddie’s waist. “Do you want me to keep up company until I have to go to work or would you rather be alone?”

Eddie immediately mourned the lost of Steve’s warmth. “Would you stay?”

Steve nodded. “Of course. I’ll meet you there okay?”

Eddie nodded back. Steve gave his arm a squeeze and then walked away.

Eddie watched him go, the warmth from Steve’s body making itself home in his chest.

Yup, he was so fucked.

*

Eddie led Steve up to his apartment feeling a tad nervous. It had been awhile since he brought anyone back to his place. And yes he knew it wasn’t like that, but his heart and his libido were screaming at him to change that in their favor.

He unlocked the door and let Steve go in first, fearing his reaction.

“Oh, wow,” Steve murmured. “This place is amazing. I have the same fucking floor plan you do and yet yours looks more homey and lived in then mine.”

Eddie cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, how’s that?”

He closed the door behind them.

“Robin and I both had parents that decorated our rooms for us,” Steve explained, “so when we went off on our own we didn’t have any real idea of how to make it ours. So it looks like a catelogue.”

Eddie pursed his lips and looked up. “Yeah, no. I can totally see that.”

Steve laughed.

“You want something to drink?” Eddie called from the kitchen.

“Just water is fine,” he replied. “But aren’t I here to take care of you?”

Eddie’s cheeks were red when he came out with a glass of water for Steve and a beer for him. “If you wanted to take care of me, big boy, we should have gone to your place.”

Steve grinned. “It’s not to late. I live two seconds away.”

Eddie grinned back. “Nah, it’s cool. I’m more comfortable here.”

Steve raised his glass, “Here’s to shitty exes coming back in our lives when we least expect it!”

Eddie chuckled. “Here’s that!” He raised his can and took a long drink.

“So how are things going on the finding fame and fortune front?” Steve asked after a moment or two of silence.

Eddie just shook his head. “I mean we finished the demo and our agent is going around to all the major labels starting with the ones closest to home and branching out. But it still feels like a pipe dream, you know?”

Steve cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. “Is that what the slimy ex said? That it was just a pipe dream?”

Eddie huffed out a bitter laugh. “Yes, but he just pegged an old insecurity that I’ve had for awhile.”

“Nothing quite like having someone opening old wounds for fun,” Steve said.

Eddie nodded. “Yeah. I had just heard of bands getting record deals right out of the gate by preforming at the Queen’s Crown...and I–”

Steve set his water down and scooted closer to him, to place his hand on his knee. “You guys should have gotten the deal. I don’t know why the agent was the only one that saw your potential...but seriously, Eds, you killed it that night.”

Eddie looked up at him through his eyelashes. “You really think so?”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “And not just because the new song was about me.” He winked at him.

Eddie burst out laughing. “So is the Jester and the King, you egomaniac.”

Steve winced. “Ouch! I’m assuming you wrote that one after I hit you?”

“Sure did, baby doll,” Eddie said with a grin. “And then after we talked I couldn’t leave it like that, so I wrote Thorns and Thistles.”

“It was beautiful,” Steve said, his expression soft and fond.

“I’ve been writing other songs for if they decided to give us the record deal,” Eddie said. “You want to hear some of them?”

Steve lit up. He looked at his watch and crumpled. “Shit. It’s almost time for me to go to work.”

Eddie deflated too. “Oh. That’s okay. Some other time.”

Steve got a wicked gleam in his eye. “You know...the new bartender hasn’t had an opportunity to tend with Opal yet...”

Eddie’s head shot up in shock. “Just what are you saying there, Stevie?”

“Well...” Steve continued. “Diamond has been saying I’ve been working too hard lately and that I should take more time to myself...”

Eddie’s eyes got the same wicked gleam, “Is Steve Harrington suggesting playing hooky for little ol’ me?”

Steve just grinned and pulled out his phone. He shot off two quick text messages. The replies came just as fast as he sent them. Both Robin and Diamond applauding his decision.

“Now, I’m all yours,” he said setting his phone aside and giving Eddie his undivided attention.

“How? Why?” Eddie stammered.

Steve’s face softened. “Look, I’ve earned some good will with Diamond after the incident with Nancy and I don’t mind using it to spend more time with you.” He put his hand back on Eddie’s knee. “Plus Crystal, the new bartender has to get use to running the whole night, he’s been there two weeks with me he needs to get used to working with Opal, because that’s who he’s going to be working with.”

“Chrissy,” Eddie corrected. “Call her Chrissy.”

Steve’s face brightened. “Chrissy then.”

Eddie hurried up to grab his electric guitar and sat back down. “This is one is called Flying Higher.”

Steve settled back into the cushions of Eddie’s sofa to listen.

Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17 Epilogue

Tag List: @artiststarme @allbymyselfexceptformycactus @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @itsall-taken @m-owo-n @zerokrox-blog @runyousillydetective @grimmfitzz @wonderland-girl143-blog @sapphirecobalt-1 @scheodingers-muppet @victor-thee-corvid @apricottree @bookbinderbitch @sleepyboosstuff @biatcgh @pixiefallingupthestairs @grtwdsmwhr @thepainisspicy @carlyv @eboyawstenn @bisexualdisastersworld @bidisastersworld @abstractnaturaldisaster @evix-syne666 @nerdsconquerall @lololol-1234 @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @a-little-unsteddie @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @elluminis @tailsfromthecrypt @danili666 @plyerice27 @alittlegreyfish  @n0-1-important @no-upper-limit-to-stupidity @maya-custodios-dionach @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @heaven428 @thedragonsaunt @ceaselessly-watching @imfinereallyy

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #art school au #gay steve harrington #bisexual eddie munson #ladykailtiha writes

[blazingparker]

What’s Up, Danger?

**so this is the fic that the lovely @snowstark allowed me to run by them to make sure it made sense to other people and not just my own brain. i really, really hope you enjoy it!

read it on ao3!

Summary: When Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider in his college’s lab, he doesn’t expect anything that comes next. Not becoming Spider-Man, not being hunted down by the Avengers, and definitely not a secret friendship with Tony Stark.

--

“So, let me get this straight. You want us to hunt down the one superhero in New York City that’s not mooching off my bank account, force him to tell us who he is, and then try and get him to join the team?” Tony could not believe what he was hearing. He sat back in his seat at the head of the table and stared straight ahead at Nick Fury.

“We don’t know that he’s a superhero,” Fury drawled, relaxing in his chair at the other end of the table. “He could be more evil than we know.”

“Yeah, I’m sure the guy plucking kittens out of trees and helping lost old Dominican ladies with directions is a supervillain in the making,” Tony deadpanned, clearly not impressed.

“Tony, orders are orders.” God, Steve was infuriating.

“Tell me, do you ever question anything or are you a walking lapdog?” Tony and Steve glared at each other until Natasha cleared her throat, breaking the tension in the room.

“Look, we’ll bring him in.” At Tony’s look of indignance, she raised a hand. “There’s no reason to go out there guns blazing, though. He hasn’t done anything to warrant that. If we show up looking ready to fight, he’ll avoid us. We will handle this professionally. With tact.” On the last word she stared pointedly at Tony, who pretended not to notice.

“So long as this ends with us knowing who’s behind the mask, I don’t care how you get it done,” Fury said as he stood. “I’ll let Pierce know you’re on board. That should get the prick off my back for a while.” With that, he left the room to the six Avengers sitting around the table.

“What is it with you and going along with whatever SHIELD wants?” Tony barked out, and Steve crossed his arms.

“SHIELD knows what’s best to keep this world safe. We should trust them to give us missions that are important and best left unquestioned.”

“Yeah, I don’t think telling us to beat up the guy who saved the owner of that deli that got blown up last week qualifies.” Tony huffed out an irritated sigh.

“Look, let’s just try and approach him one-on-one,” Natasha suggested. “That way no one feels threatened. Maybe one of us can form a relationship with the guy, get him to trust us.” When no one voiced an objection, she continued. “Tony, you can go first since you’re so protective of the guy.”

“Protective?! I am not-” Natasha left the room before Tony could finish.

---

The first thing Tony noticed when observing Spider-Man was that the guy had absolutely no self-preservation instincts. He literally flung himself off the top of a building, whooping and hollering all the way down until he almost made a little spider puddle on the ground before finally shooting out a web and swinging away. The guy ran into a burning building without a second thought and came back out with a kid in his arms.

That last incident was how Tony finally had the chance to speak with him. By tracking him with JARVIS, he saw that Spider-Man had stopped at a local playground. It looked like he was taking a breather, and was even more likely given the guy had just inhaled massive amounts of smoke. He suited up and flew over to the spot, clearly catching Spider-Man by surprise.

“Hey there, Spider-Man. Or should I call you Danger-Man, since you seem to have a knack for running right towards it?” Tony landed a respectable distance from where Spider-Man was perched on top of the jungle gym.

“What can I do for you?” Okay, so Spider-Man was young. His voice told Tony that much.

“Look, I’m not gonna lie to you. Nick Fury sent me. Us. The Avengers. But it’s just me for now.” Already, Spider-Man had visibly tensed. If Tony could see his eyes behind those pathetic goggles, he’d bet good money that they had narrowed considerably.

“What do you want.” Spider-Man said, his tone conveying it was a demand that Tony tell him now, not a question anymore.

“We want to know who you are. What makes you tick. What made you put on that god awful excuse for a suit and run into a burning building today.”

“Not all of us are billionaires, Stark. Some of us have to work with what we’ve got, and I haven’t really got much.” Tony’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile at that and he huffed out a laugh. Spider-Man’s quips were infamous, and now he could see why. The guy was good.

“Look,” Tony allowed his faceplate to flip up. Maybe that would help relax the agitated vigilante in front of him. Being able to look at his eyes had to be better than a titanium-alloy mask. “For the record, I was against this plan. I told Mr. Eyepatch up there that we should leave you alone.”

“Then why aren’t you?” Spider-Man sounded a little surprised at that admission.

“I got outvoted. The Avengers are a democracy, apparently. Cap’s a real bitch about it. I preferred the authoritarian model.” Tony sniffed, glancing away before looking back at Spider-Man when he chuckled quietly.

“Good to know you really are the big happy family that they show on the news,” Spider-Man shot back. Tony couldn’t help a real grin from forming that time.

“Oh yeah, big time. Ever seen Annie? It’s like that. Except Annie is actually the entire team and I’m Daddy Warbucks for all of them.” After a moment of shared laughter, things grew quiet again. Tony took a step forward, counting it as a win when Spider-Man didn’t scramble to get away.

“I’ll leave you alone from now on, since that’s clearly what you want. On one condition.”

“What’s that?” Spider-Man sounded wary but intrigued.

“Gimme your number.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Just because I’m gonna leave you alone doesn’t mean the others will. If they pull some stupid shit while trying to convince you to tell them who you are, I wanna know. Give me your number.”

“How would I call you if you have my number?”

“I’ll call you first.” Tony was surprised to find he actually truly did mean it. Spider-Man just stared at him for a second before rattling off a phone number and disappearing into the night.

This definitely wasn’t ideal. Tony knew that. But at least this way he had a way of knowing if the team went too far in their attempts to complete the mission.

Grinning, Tony plugged the number into his phone before hesitating over the space left for the contact’s name. He didn’t know Spider-Man’s identity, and definitely couldn’t plug in Spider-Man in case anyone ever saw. Remembering his very first quip to the vigilante, his thumbs flew over the screen.

Danger.

---

Over the course of the next few weeks, Tony and Spider-Man struck up a routine. After each encounter with the Avengers, Spider-Man would give him a call and let him know how it went down. Luckily, things hadn’t gotten violent yet.

Tony was also finding himself...attached. To this masked vigilante from Queens. Something that made absolutely no sense and was probably going to end in disaster for them both. This guy clearly wanted nothing to do with the Avengers - no matter how friendly the two of them had become.

A ringtone disrupted Tony from his thoughts and he grabbed his phone, smiling a little when he read the screen.

Incoming call from: Danger

“What’s up, Danger?” Tony asked as he answered, pushing back from the lab table he was stationed at and walking to the window.

“Are you ever not going to answer the phone that way?” An exasperated voice came from the other end of the line. Tony grinned. He’d taken to always answering with the same “what’s up, danger?” First, it had been because he didn’t want anyone to walk in and hear him greeting Spider-Man. But slowly, it was becoming an inside joke with the two of them.

“Not a chance. But c’mon, gimme the rundown,” Tony said, gazing out over the New York City skyline as though he might see Spider-Man if he looked hard enough.

“Cap and Widow came this time. Gave me the same rundown, telling me they were running out of options and didn’t want to have to resort to other measures,” Spider-Man informed him. His voice dipped lower on the last few words in an imitation of Steve’s voice. Tony’s blood ran cold at that, and he quickly sat down on the nearest chair.

Why was he so afraid for Spider-Man all of a sudden? They were just pals. The guy was a vigilante that clearly had enhanced strength and other powers and could take care of himself.

“What the hell does that mean?” Tony asked, clenching his jaw.

“I didn’t exactly stick around to find out,” Spider-Man said with a laugh. “You could ask him though.”

“And risk him finding out exactly how I knew of this threat? Not a chance. Then things would just get worse,” Tony explained with a sigh.

“You really don’t need to be so worried. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not worried.” The words came out just a little bit too fast, and Spider-Man chuckled.

“Sure, Tones.” The nickname sent..something through Tony. Not affection. It was not affection. Nothing like that. “Anyway, I gotta hang up. Got readings to get done.”

“So you’re in college!” Tony cried triumphantly, waving a hand in the air to try and tell JARVIS to add that to the file he had on Spider-Man. When there was silence on the other end of the line, he sobered up a bit. “I’m not gonna look into it. Promise.”

Another beat of silence.

“Alright. Talk to you later, Tony.”

---

The next time Tony’s phone rang, he was eating dinner with Natasha and Rhodey after being dragged out of his lab. When he saw Danger flash across the screen, he quickly excused himself and walked out of hearing range.

“What’s up, Danger?”

“Would you tell Hawkeye over there to quit it with the arrow-fest?” Tony’s eyebrows just about disappeared into his hairline and he clutched the phone a little tighter. He could hear Spider-Man’s breath coming fast, like he’d just finished swinging. He probably had.

“The what?” He asked, voice edging on a growl.

“He and Thor showed up, tried to ask me again. When I made it clear I wasn’t interested in joining the Brady Bunch and tried to leave, he took a shot at me. Without my danger sense, I definitely would’ve been hit.” Another interesting fact about Spider-Man, but Tony couldn’t pay attention to that now.

“He-fuck, I’m so sorry. That was never-I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” Tony ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly.

“It’s fine, Tony. You didn’t take the shot at me,” Spider-Man insisted. “I can handle a few pissed-off Avengers. Really.” After a moment of Tony trying to come up with a response, the vigilante spoke again with a softer voice. “Tony, I’m okay. It’s not your fault. I’m not hurt, I’m safe at home.”

Somehow, the knot that had been growing in Tony’s chest eased at hearing Spider-Man was safe at home. He nodded before realizing he was on the phone and that response wouldn’t really work. “Alright, as long as you’re safe.” Where the hell did that come from? “I-I hate to cut this short but I walked out on Rhodey and Nat and-”

“-and if you’re gone too long, the jig is up. No worries, I get it. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Tony couldn’t stop a smile at the understanding in the man’s voice.

“Talk tomorrow.”

---

After that phone call, Spider-Man’s run-ins with the Avengers got increasingly volatile. While Clint had admitted to losing his cool when he shot the arrow and acknowledged it had been a mistake, they’d lost whatever trust they’d built up with Spider-Man.

Well, the others had. Not Tony.

Each encounter had more biting remarks than the last, and their duration was getting shorter and shorter. The Avengers had even tried catching up to him multiple times in one night. All that resulted in was an exhausted, irritated Spider-Man - Tony could hear it in his voice when they spoke on the phone.

Tony was working on a new suit in the lab when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Glancing at his watch, he realized it was nearly two in the morning. His crooked heart started beating a little faster at that - only one person would call him so late.

“What’s up, Danger?” Tony asked cheerfully as he picked up the phone. The cheer dissipated immediately when he didn’t get a response. All he could hear was labored breathing and a groan of pain. “Hey. Talk to me. What’s going on?”

“Hey, Tony,” Spider-Man answered, words slurring together. Tony immediately moved to his closest functional suit, letting JARVIS transfer the call over as he got into it.

“What happened?” Tony tried his best to keep the panic from edging into his voice. The faceplate closed and he could see JARVIS running a tracking program, trying to find out where Spider-Man had last been seen.

“No big deal. ‘S just a guy. He had a big knife. Huge. ‘S not safe for the neighborhood,” Spider-Man answered. Tony felt a chill run through him - Spider-Man had been stabbed ? His danger sense never allowed anyone to land a blow.

“Apparently not so safe for neighborhood Spider-Men either,” he quipped with a shaky voice. “Are you doing okay? Have something to stop the bleeding?”

“Does pavement count?” Even in an injured state, the guy was still churning out one-liners like it was nothing.

“I have located Spider-Man, sir,” JARVIS piped up. “Plotting the fastest course.” Tony whirled around, blasting the nearest window and watching it shatter before shooting out of it at top speed.

“Why didn’t you dodge it?” Tony asked, desperate to keep Spider-Man talking to him until he could get there.

“Danger sense isn’t workin’.” Spider-Man’s voice was significantly quieter at that, like he was ashamed.

“Faster, JARVIS! Why not?” Tony barked the command at his AI but softened his voice for the injured vigilante.

“Tired.” The one-word answer was enough. Even if the Avengers hadn’t struck Spider-Man directly since the incident with Clint, they’d caused this. Their persistence had worn down a decent man to the point where he couldn’t defend himself against the common criminals of Queens. That wasn’t what they were supposed to be about, and Tony felt disgusted just thinking about it.

Luckily, he didn’t have to for much longer. The suit began to descend towards a rooftop in a sketchier area of Queens, and Tony spotted the red and blue jumpsuit the guy insisted on wearing. The faceplate flipped up as he landed and knelt next to the form lying on the ground.

“What’s up, Danger?” Tony asked, trying to tease as he gently pushed away the blood-soaked fabric to get a look at the wound.

“Oh my god, this again? Just leave me to die.” Spider-Man groaned, but didn’t push Tony away. The older man laughed, shaking his head. He then pointed his index and middle fingers at the wound, allowing a healing gel to spray out of the suit and onto the injury. It was a new creation of Tony’s - it would stop the bleeding and keep the wound stable until they reached a medbay and could get real medical attention.

“There we go, Spider-Man. We do need to get you properly fixed up, though. This is a temporary solution.” Tony said, leaning over the man still lying there limply. Slowly, Spider-Man brought a hand up to his head. Tony thought he was feeling for blood, and watched in shock as the hand gripped the hood of his mask and tugged it off.

Of course he’s hot, was the first thing that went through Tony’s mind. Floppy brown hair, soft pink lips, and those big eyes that reminded him of a certain deer from an animated Disney movie. Spider-Man shifted slightly, trying to sit up with a quiet groan, and Tony rushed to support him and help hold him up. Spider-Man looked up at him and gave him a crooked grin.

“It’s Peter,” he said. His name. Tony smiled brightly in return.

“What’s up, Peter?”

#blazingparker writes #starker #starker fic #peter parker x tony stark

[yanagiin]

𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬

dreamwastaken x reader

Dream and Y/n have been dating for almost 1 year and moved in together at their 7 months mark. But chat didn’t need to know that. Neither did your friends. Y/n and Dream wanted to keep their lives private, until now.

“Oi Clay, wanna tell people we’re dating?”

“Yeah sure, let’s make it fun tho” Dream said with a devilish grin. “When the other is streaming, you may drop any hints. If they find out in my stream you win, vice versa. Winner gets anything from the loser.” He is now sticking one finger in the air and chest out.

“Deal!” They shake hands, after he didn’t let go. He pulls her into him and places a kiss on her lips. Giggles slipping thru her lips.

“Good luck, I’m going to stream first.” He leaves after pressing another kiss to her lips and walks to his recording room.

“Ok- WAIT YOU DIDNT DO A FACE REVEAL ITS NOT FAIR!” Y/n is now pouting but laughs at her boyfriend’s silly antics. Let the games begin.

DREAM’S STREAM

Dream was streaming some timed speed runs while george, sap, and bad. As Dream was looking for the fortress, he got a donation notification from “dream’s sugar baby” with $100. He was too focused on killing blazes and the tts reads the message.

“Come to bed bb” He freezes. The boys were laughing at the donation while Dream was to busy calming down the red creeping up his face. At the moment, he didn’t hear someone join the call.

“Hey guys!”

“Y/N!! Guess what happen!”

“Dream is a sugar daddy!”

“George she was supposed to gues-”

“Oh that donation was me-”

“WHAT” They cut the girl off as the call goes silent.

“Dream’s your sugar daddy???” This brought said boy back to reality.

“AHAHAHA you guys are so gullible, Dream spent this much money on me before, i just want to repay him.” She says in a genuine voice, but her evil smirk negates what she said.

“Uhm guys thanks for watching! I have to go bye!” Dream ended his stream faster than a bullet. He leaves the call and rushes to his girlfriend’s recording room. Luckily she left the call before the others could her her door slam open with a very red Clay. “Wha-wh” She laughs and walks up to him placing a kiss on his cheeks.

“That’s a point for me” patting his chest and walking past to get started on dinner.

Y/N - 1 DREAM-0

NEXT DAY - Y/N’S STREAM

Y/n is a builder on the dream smp and works along with sam, awesamdude. They were currently working on the Tommyinnit Hotel. When she was adding the final touches to the outside of the hotel. A donation pops up.

“Calliewasfound donated $5, Are you and dream a thing or is it just a bit?” Read the tts.

“Callie thank you for the $5, it’s just a bit” She went back to building, going to the top of the scaffolding. A few seconds after a new dono was read.

“Y/N’s Sugar Daddy donated $500, just a bit, that’s not what it sounded like last night” y/n choked on air, accidentally falling off the scaffolding.

“Y/N?!?” Sam exclaimed as he came down to place his friend’s items in a chest.

“D-dream thank you for the dono, uhm” By now her chat was teasing her seeing how her face cam caught her expressions. Only she can hear Clay’s loud laugh boom through the house.

“Y/n are you okay? What happened?” Sam voiced with concern.

“Yeah just- this dono threw me off”

“Oh ok, well your stuff in this chest”

“Yeah thanks Sam” For the rest of the stream she couldn’t focus. Sure what he did got her as bad as she got him but she’s still not used to his flirty persona. When she ended the stream she ran to their shared bedroom and jumped into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Y/N-1 DREAM-1

Y/N NEXT STREAM (because Dream doesn’t stream :)

It was a chill stream today, she planned to build a house for herself on the smp. After settling for building a house and a few villager homes far away from the smp to avoid any griefing. She started her build and waited for the questions to roll in. A few minutes into the stream, she heard her bathroom door in her recording room open. Out of frame, Clay walks out with just a towel around his waist and hair wet from his shower.

“What are you do-” She was cut off by a pair of green boxers being thrown over her face. Followed by the sound of feet running out the door, closing with a click. She quickly removes the boxers, showing her red face. The only thing heard from the stream is her background music.

“sappymamas donated $5, who was that?”

‘shit’ “That was— my roommate! Yup just my roommate” Y/n says with an awkward smile. Then her door opens again.

“Just a roommate huh?”

“C-cla” before she can finish a hand out of frame grabs her jaw and chin pulling her into a passionate kiss. His shirtless top showing off his muscles. Chat was going crazy. Not only did they find out that the young streamer was taken, they believe that her boyfriend was the owner of the Dream smp.

“mushroomgeorge donated $10, Is that Dream?!” She decided to turn off her mic and camera as Clay watches in amusement. Quickly she apologizes to her chat saying she’ll finish building offline and ends the stream early. Oh this will be a pain to explain.

Y/N-1 DREAM-2

It’s all gone. A few weeks later after finishing her village, she comes back to see it all burnt to the ground and tommy holding a bucket of lava. Being on call with the dream team, wanting to show them her new build. George and Nick were angry. She told the two that she built each of them a house if they wanted to stay over. Both boys whip out their diamond sword and crossbow. Dream was quiet. He looked at his girlfriend’s stream to see that she is almost in tears. He remembered how excited she was to show him their new house in her village, a dog named after hers and a cat named after patches.

“Tommy.”

“Hey Big D!”

“What are you doing.” Dream whipped out his enchanted axe

“I saw this ugly village and wanted to burn it do- WHAT THE FUUUCKKKK!!”

Tommyinnit was slain by Dream with [Y/N PROTECTION SERVICES]

“YEAHHH LETS GOOOOOO”

“POGGGGG”

George and Sap cheer.

“If you get near me or my girlfriend again Tommy. You will lose your last life. I promise you that.” Dream says walking away

“WAIT WHAT??” The people on the call break out of character as they find out that their suspicions of the two were true. Y/n’s character comes into view as he sees her crouching near a burnt down house of what he assumed to be their house. He slowly walks up to her and drops her favorite flower in front of her named “my heart”.

“Let’s get started shall we?” She nods in game and irl and they head off together to start gathering materials. With the help of sap and george who are still trying to get an answer from the couple who continues to ignore them.

“Wait dream, it was you who threw their boxers to her face?” Sap wheezes as he brings back what happened in the stream a few weeks ago.

They managed to finish a few hours later. Grabbing an item frame, Y/n places it above her bed with the flower she received from Dream. Out of nowhere, Clay comes in and places a bed right next to hers.

“Hold on.” She quickly runs out and a few minutes comes back with a poppy in hand. “Here.” She drops the flower in front of him and he basically melts at the name.

“I love you too Y/n”

“Hehe” now it’s her turn to melt seeing him put a frame and the flower up. The couple completely forgetting about the other two in the call.

The bet was all forgotten about as they slept through the night next to each other.

BONUS

“Clayyyyy,Tommy’s trying to take our flowers.” Y/n pouted as she watched Tommy’s stream, heading towards her village.

“Don’t worry. I got this.” He places a kiss on her forehead after typing something quickly on his phone.

“Alright chat, the plan is to steal the flowers and force them to trade it with the discs.”

Sapnap joined the game

Georgenotfound joined the game

Dream joined the game

“What you doing tommy?”

Tommyinnit was shot by GeorgeNotFound with [PROTECT Y/N]

Georgenotfound left the game

“WHAT GEORGE THAT WASNT THE PLAN” Dream wheezes out.

“I’m tired, and colorblind”

Dream left the game

Walking out of his recording room into their bedroom to see his lover sprawled on the bed facing up. He grabs her ankles and pulls her to the edge of the bed. Hovering over her small frame.

“Just to let you know, I won the bet.”

“Oh yeah? What do you want big boy?”

“You already know…” his voice trails off as they both lean in to meet in the middle.

oneshots navigation

#dream x reader #spotify #georgenotfound x reader

[iloveitwhen]

jasonette but like siblings but like angst- like that whole trope where they are blood related and got separated, or they didnt get separated idk thats cool too i just want some sibling jasonette😅

Wow. ok. uhmmmm. this is a lot i think?? I got a little jk a lot carried away and this past week was super busy so i’ll finish the second part later??

Again... a lot...

Jason is walking home after another night at the bar when he sees a small woman, teenager? Slip into a dark alleyway and two men follow in after her a few moments later. 

Jason curses and bolts across the street, what was this girl thinking? How stupid do you have to be to go into a dark alley where no one will hear you or care to help?

He jumps into the alley to find one man already slumped on himself on the floor and the other getting kicked in the teeth by army boots then falling limply. 

Jason curses again, impressed this time. He scans over the men noting that they probably had pretty good concussions judging from the dent in the garbage can the first man was laying next to and the way the second guy’s head smacked onto the concrete when he fell. He lands his eyes back on the woman, no, definitely a teenager, with a smile on his face that instantly falters. The girl is in a fighting stance and waiting for him to attack so he quickly raises his hands to placate her.

“I’m not here to fight you, I saw you get followed and I was coming to help.” 

“Nobody helps in Gotham,” she states, a dangerous edge to her voice that held a carefully hidden accent. 

“Not from around here, are you?” 

The girl narrows her eyes, “I was born and raised here, take a step further and you won’t be waking up tomorrow.” 

Jason pockets his hands and smirks. He likes her, she’s a fighter, she reminds him of himself when he was younger. 

“Ok. Just make sure you make it home safe. A girl’s going to get some unwanted attention at a time and place like this.” He turns around and crosses the street but as soon as he’s out of her sight he turns back and hides in the shadows to track her and make sure no one else tries to catch her alone. Just because she could handle herself the first time doesn’t mean she’s necessarily safe from the next attempt. 

The girl exits the alley and starts toward the direction of Jason’s apartment calmly as if she didn’t just get attacked. At least that means less walking for him. After a few minutes she slips into another dark alley, of course she does, and Jason crosses the street again going into his own empty alley before pulling his helmet on and scaling the building. As he peers over the side of the building his helmet scans the area giving him feedback he would normally miss due to the horrible lighting and telling him that the alley was empty. He figured she had somehow gotten into one of the buildings and decided to go home by rooftops since he was already up there. 

However, as he landed on the opposite rooftop his feet slipped from underneath him. Jason managed to roll out of it but before he could get his footing his hip was kicked into and he stumbled, tripped over a seemingly perfectly placed rock and smashed his head on the side of the stair house. Then, just as quickly as this all transpired, there was a body behind him, they hooked their fingers under his helmet and lifted it to expose his neck and press a knife with jagged points onto his neck. How did he know the knife had jagged points? Good question, it was, as previously mentioned, against his neck and piercing into his skin, drawing blood. 

“Why are you following me?” a girl’s voice filters through his mask and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His mask let him know through the constant visuals that the voice belonged to a female in their late teens, not that he didn’t already know that. 

“Making sure you got home safe,” he says carefully, weighing his options and trying to decide if he should let her feel like she got him or escape with a slight nick on his neck. 

Eh. Jason preferred to not have a bleeding neck no matter how small the cut. 

“Lies,” she hisses, digging the knife a bit deeper as a warning, maybe getting out sooner was a better idea. “What do you want?” 

“Knife off my throat first,” he manages without pushing his neck further onto the blade. 

A second later the girl releases him and jumps back with enough space between them to react if he ended up deciding to attack her. 

Jason gives her a quick glance as he stands up, a hand to his throat to check for blood. 

“I wasn’t lying-”

“You’re not fooling anyone you Red Hood wannabe,” she snaps. Jason just laughs in surprise, no one has ever accused him of being a Red Hood wannabe. He's the one who made the mantle into something to respect, something to fear. He stops laughing and levels a glare at the girl, his helmet telling him unhelpfully there was no match of facial recognition in any database. 

“I am Red Hood-” he started to growl out but she cut him off again. The audacity. 

“Red Hood wouldn’t have been caught by the person he was trailing, Red Hood wouldn’t have been caught off guard, Red Hood doesn’t have a stupid streak of white hair on his head. He may have been a theatre nerd but he wouldn’t do that.” 

Wait what. 

“What are you talking about?” But it was more of a demand than a question. 

“You’re not…” she trailed off waving her hand in the air trying to find a word, “slick. Same jacket, same shoes, same build, yeah. You’re not fooling anyone.” 

“Ok. Whatever, I’m going home.” He turns and starts jogging across the rooftop towards home. So much for helping out. 

“Where is he?” she calls out after him.

“Right here, princess,” he spat before jumping to the other rooftop. 

But as soon as his feet leave the building a big dark blue warbly hole appears and swallows him before he can react. Unfortunately for him the other side of that weird black hole was a face full of concrete. 

“Prove you’re him.” 

Oh this girl was something else. Jason shakes his disorientation away, he didn’t know how she did that, nor did he care but he was pissed. He swings his foot around and connects with her ankle, she falls as expected but easily bounces right back up and hops out of his range. 

“Do that again and I’ll have to break my no killing kids rule,” he growls out, staring her down for a moment. Her face was finally lit by the dim yellow street lamps and he could see the entirety of her face and all the raw emotions she was trying to hide. For a split second familiarity passed through him, like when you see someone at the library then at the store a few weeks later or you see an old school friend ten years later and can’t quite place them. Jason dismisses the feeling and turns to go. 

“Wait.” She says it so vulnerably that Jason gives her a chance, when he turns she pulls up her sleeve and shows off her forearm. 

In the center of her arm is a faded black tattoo that was a writing symbol, but because of its name and one of its uses it was used to brand child soldiers in Gotham from a particular gang that Red Hood obliterated as soon as his first order of business in Gotham. 

‡

It was the double dagger, or better known in Gotham as the death dagger. The children were expendable although highly trained and dangerous, they could give Damian a run for his money in the child assassin department. The tattoo was a reminder to the children and to the people they came across that they were soulless, emotionless, their lives and actions were not their own and they would give their lives willingly for the mission

Meaning who they were before was dead. No family, no connections, no one would notice if they went missing and no one would be able to identify their bodies if and when the time came. Sometimes poor families would sell one of their children and promise to forget them and to never contact them. 

Jason was led to assume that this was another child soldier looking to thank him, or kill him. It was 50/50 these days, some of those kids just never recovered. 

“So what is it that you want? You want my autograph across your head?” Jason asks dryly. 

The girl just huffs and pulls her sleeve back down. 

“I want to know if my brother is underneath that mask.”

I want to know if my brother is underneath that mask.

The words struck Jason deep in his chest but it only fueled his anger. He didn’t know why that hit so deep but he was not in the mood for this nor would he be at any time. 

“Just because I ended that gang doesn’t mean we’re family. Go find your other assassin siblings to play house with.” 

“Annette,” she calls after as he turns his back again. A strike of familiarity pulses through him and when he hesitates she continues, “that was my name before I was initiated. I was one of the first. Daddy’s little girl,” she was still talking louder than necessary since he hadn’t turned back around. “I’m the only one left from The 13.” 

Right. The 13. That’s what everyone called the first batch even as they were killed off, they were the most ruthless being the oldest and were also the most aggressive in proving their worth. It was common to find a number from 1-13 placed strategically behind at the crime scene, whoever had the most successful missions would be highly rewarded, or so he was told. 

“Do you remember?” 

“I remember destroying that gang and their stupid leader and having to kill some of your little friends and I also remember The 13 died within the first year and a half and were easily replaced by their younger friends.” 

“Do you remember me?”

“Look, kid,” he finally turns to look at her, “I don’t care, ok? Yay whoopdeedoo I saved you, get in line. It’s what I do, kill bad people and let the rest walk away. You’re not special.” 

“Annette Marie Todd,” she says hurriedly, like it’s a last resort. “Jason Peter Todd,” she continues, “just you. Me. And a blitzed out Mom.” 

Jason did not like this, he knew the Dagger Children were ruthless and expert manipulators but this was pushing it. He spun around to face her, ripping off his helmet, she already knew what he looked like and it was in the way of his death glare. 

“You don’t know who you are messing with. If you really were a Dagger you’d know that I am not one to be fucked with.” He slides his helmet back on and without a backward glance he runs off to the next roof and continues home. Thankfully not another portal thing opens up in front of him. 

———————————

Jason didn’t have a sister. He did not have a sister. He would remember having a sister. He would remember having a Dagger for a sister. But Annette was such a familiar name. And she had said her name was Annette Marie Todd. Todd. 

No that’s stupid. Impossible. She was just messing with him, for all he knew she could have been subtly showing her face in random places for him to react to the familiarity of her face and she could have said the name sometime in the last few months for him to vaguely recognize the sound of her name but not place it. 

But the Lazarus pit did alter his memories from childhood, it was like looking through a fog of red anger, or maybe it was always like that even before the pit, and it also completely wiped out other parts of his memory. But a sister? No. No way. 

Hours of this, circling around the possibilities and shifting around on his bed trying to get comfortable until he finally drifted off in a very restless sleep. 

Jason found himself in a familiar apartment, the one he lived in before his “mother” died. He looked around and it was more of the feeling of familiarity that convinced him where he was than anything else. He steps aside for a younger version of himself to run by him and turns to the window that led out to the fire escape and watches him climb out of it and close the window. Jason turns back around to see what Young Jason was hiding from. A man hands a thick envelope to his mother, Catherine Todd who had wrapped herself in a thin silk robe, her bony frame visible as well as her happy focus on the money inside that envelope. Jason couldn’t make out the man’s face but he turned around and grabbed the small hand of a little girl in pigtails. She turned her head and faced the window sending a smile but he couldn’t quite make out her face so he instead turned to himself sitting outside.

As he turned his surroundings changed but in his dreamstate he paid no mind to it. This time he was standing in an aisle of a store as a child. He looked around and found his mother dressed embarrassingly in a thin tank top and ragged jeans and flip flops. He feels a squeeze of his hand and looks down, his little sister is looking up at him and pointing to a rack of stuffed animals of Clifford the Big Red Dog that were suddenly there. He sends her a smile and looks up, intent on catching up with his mother and asking her to buy one but as he chases her his intent slips from his mind and instead he wants to taste the cupcakes he just saw. He opens a case and takes a bite but yelling makes him turn around and there is Batman towering over him. Instead of a tasty cupcake he is holding something thick and metal, a crowbar. He throws it at the man and turns to run away and jumps out of the parking garage and jumps into the air flying up. But he’s too slow, he tries kicking and swimming in the air to propel himself further away from Batman but a hand wraps around his foot. 

Jason jerks awake, breathing heavy and feeling uncomfortably hot. This was much more mild than his usual nightmares, if it could even be called a nightmare, but it was bad in a different way. It wasn’t unusual for Jason to be getting chased in his dreams by one thing or another and it always ended before whatever or whoever was chasing him got him but it was getting a little old honestly. 

His head was pounding so he slipped out of bed and poured himself a glass of water from the kitchen. As he takes a sip he recalls his dream and how he had looked down at his sister. But that couldn’t be right. 

A searing pain in his head forces him to tighten his grip on his cup before it goes away again. Stupid head. Stupid dream. Stupid girl trying to get in his head. 

As he lays back down a memory of clear grey eyes flashes across his mind’s eye. 

---

Throughout the next few days Jason tries to ignore the headaches and his dreams of the young black haired girl with grey eyes and of getting chased which was more frequent and more urgent than he remembered them being. It was just all a big waste of time. At least the Dagger girl wasn’t trying to find him anymore, he didn’t know how he would react if she showed up again. 

After another dream of getting chased, this time he was just so tired of it he got a few good punches in on the Bane/Joker demon that was chasing him when his phone buzzes, startling him awake. He ignores it in favor of a cup of coffee and checks the time on the oven that he never uses, it’s almost two o’clock. 

His phone buzzes again several more times in quick succession. He finally heads over and clicks his phone on to see five messages from Stephanie. 

Replacement’s replacement🤰

so u have a little sister and u never told me???

anyways shes at the big house and getting interrogated by bruce and i think hes ready to adopt her

hello

so rude

i mean it looks to me shes tellin the truth but like seems sus for obvious reasons and ur the only one that'll actually know so… hurry up??

Jason curses and rushes to grab his things before running outside and zooming to the Wayne Manor on his motorcycle. 

welp i’ll add with another part soon that i havent finished yet but anywho let me know if jason is too ooc or something😁😁

#sibling jasonette #maribat #this is real late #sorry about it #is it angsty?? #im not that great at angst #also tumblr was not letting me use the cool version of that symbol #just rude #btw I edited this feb.23 just so you know but not very big changes #i dont know if you care or not

[tibby]

If you have the time can you please please please recap season 4 of riverdale. I was going to binge it on Netflix but things happen and then I saw your post about the graduation episode and HAD to watch that happen and now I’m recommitted to the cause and need to know what happened while I was gone

sure. okay so the season sadly starts with the death of fred andrews in a very sentimental and moving episode that’s kind of seperate from the rest of the show so it’s not really until episode two that things kick off. the riverteens are kind of thriving in a parentless world because milf alice was kidnapped by a cult, dilf hiram and milf hermione are in prison, milf penelope is in hiding after killing a bunch of people, milf mary is kind of just There, milf gladys went back to toledo after her drug empire failed, god knows what milf sierra and gay kevin’s straight former cop dad are off doing, and dilf fp is the sheriff but because it’s fp he’s kind of bad at it. so the riverteens are horrified when their new principal mr honey expects them to be at school on time and disapproves of them throwing school dances because students keep getting murdered at them. cheryl, who an episode prior never wanted anyone in riverdale to celebrate the 4th of july ever again because of her brother’s death, considers this an act of oppression and throws a party at her house. however, as she is keeping her brother’s mummified corpse in the basement, she gets angry when reggie tries to sneak down there. meanwhile gay kevin is trying to make amends with betty for the time he tried to have her lobotomised because of the cult led by chad michael murray. betty uses this to her advantage to find out where the cult is, teaming up with her half brother, charles (not to be confused with chic, who was only PRETENDING to be charles back in season two). archie gets munroe, his prison buddy, to attend riverdale high, and reggie is weirdly jealous about it. archie discovers that this is because reggie is being abused by his father, so they smash in his car and apparently this solves everything. jughead starts attending stonewall prep, where he meets bret weston wallis, donna sweett, joan berkeley, and jonathan. he also reunites with moose, who disappeared in mid s3 after cheryl outed him to the whole school including his homophobic dad, and then his homophobic dad dressed up as the gargoyle to try and stop moose and gay kevin hooking up in the sex bunker they stole from dilton doiley after he killed himself, but it turns out that his homophobic dad was just angry HE never got to fuck gay kevin’s straight cop dad back in the day. it was this whole thing. anyway, moose is like “i’m going by my real name, marmaduke now, so people don’t find out about my dad” but everyone does anyway and so moose mysteriously disappears again. betty finds out where the cult is (after disarming a bomb attached to her sister polly using a bobby pin) and goes to rescue her mother. milf alice reveals that chad michael murray is using the cult money to build a rocket, and his wife/fake daughter evelyn is going to drive a bus full of cultists off a cliff. the day is saved! veronica finds out that her father’s real surname is luna and decides to start going by that as an act of rebellion because he keeps leaving the prison that he owns to fuck with her after she had him arrested. archie decides to turn his gym into a community centre with munroe’s help. cheryl, who, for unknown reasons, obtained custody of polly’s twins, immediately fires the nanny that toni hired because he said there were probably rats in the walls and went into the basement. cheryl goes to make sure that the nanny didn’t interfere with her brother’s mummified corpse, and toni walks in on her stitching him up. videotapes start arriving at the homes of the riverdale residents of said homes being filmed for hours. onto halloween! toni tells cheryl they can’t have a dead body in the horse and makes her rebury jason, at which point cheryl claims she is being haunted by a doll named julian, who is supposedly possessed by the spirit of her other brother that she ate in utero, but the haunting will stop if they unbury jason. toni agrees, but the doll continues to appear in weird places, and cheryl is forced to confess that while she WAS gaslighting her before, she isn’t right now. betty bonds with charles while receiving prank phone calls from polly, who is now in a mental institution. archie and munroe try to throw a halloween party at their community centre for the troubled youths but it’s interrupted by a drug dealing gang trying to start shit in the parking lot, thus giving archie a new enemy. reggie destroys mr honey’s office for the joke but mr honey catches him and is like “you do this because your dad hits you.” jughead uncovers mysteries surrounding strange disappearances of prep students known as “the stonewall four,” and donna drugs him so she and bretjoanjonathan can lock him in a coffin overnight as a bit. meanwhile, veronica burns a man alive in her basement. archie becomes a teen vigilante for the millionth time in the series, jughead and the other stonewall stags go into the running to be the ghostwriter for the baxter brothers franchise, veronica gets her mother out of prison but then finds out that her half sister, hermosa the PI, got their father out of prison, and he is now mayor again. betty and gay kevin start an fbi training course in which betty realises the serial killer gene is a real thing and she does have it, and remembers when she killed her childhood cat. jughead finds out that his grandfather who drunk himself to death but also abandoned fp but is also just some guy ACTUALLY wrote the baxter brothers franchise and is like “i have to reveal this!” so he takes it to his english teacher mr chipping but then mr chipping jumps out of a window before anything can come of it, and jughead is horrified when the stonewall stags have no reaction. cheryl is still convinced she is being haunted by a doll and things are further complicated when her extended family shows up. her uncle discovers jason’s body in the basement, threatens to send cheryl away, and is killed by toni. speaking of death, archie is still on his vigilante shit and asks hiram for help, at which point the near dead body of the gang leader, dodger shows up wrapped in carpet outside of the community centre. betty visits chic in prison to find out more about charles, and when chic threatens to reveal where milf alice buried the man she killed back in season two, charles and fp go to dig it up again and move it somewhere else. to get her family away from her and also in the spirit of thanksgiving, cheryl makes them think that they ate her uncle. dodger’s family show up at the community centre thanksgiving for revenge and there’s almost a shoot out, but thankfully the deep fryer explodes and chaos is avoided! milf mary later suggests the deep fryer exploding was archie’s dead dad’s ghost. betty and jughead spend the weekend at stonewall prep, where they play a homoerotic game of never have i ever with bret and donna. donna says that she and mr chipping were having an affair. now it’s time for the gang to go to therapy: archie gets diagnosed with gay but is also just suffering from an insane guilt complex, betty has mommy issues, veronica has daddy issues, cheryl is being gaslit but did NOT eat her brother in utero, jughead is just some guy. jughead finds out where his abusive alcoholic grandfather has been hiding out, and meanwhile his dad gets shot. veronica decides to fight back against her father by starting a rival rum business. polly rips off a nurse’s face and betty finds out that everyone in her family has a trigger word instilled in them by the cult, so she imagines herself going back in time to STOP her child self killing her cat to learn how to control it. cheryl uncovers her gaslighter by literally gassing her house, and it’s revealed that milf penelope was living in the walls and mad that cheryl had jason’s body. cheryl reburies jason and imprisons her mother in the sex bunker. archie’s uncle shows up, just in time for football season! the riverteens are playing stonewall prep, and reggie reveals that the preppies fight dirty, just in time for them to tonya harding munroe’s knees as he is their star player. archie’s uncle gives munroe steroids so he can play anyway, and riverdale loses but munroe gets a scholarship. cheryl feuds with her new cheerleading coach and locks her in her office so she has a panic attack. hiram threatens to sue veronica for stealing his rum recipe, so she teams up with cheryl (maple syrup queen) to create a new type. jughead joins the stonewall prep secret society, the quill and skull, and reveals that he watched a homeless man die. also, the cheerleading team performs cherry bomb. betty starts feuding with bret and decides to stand off against him in a quiz show, and although she wins, she is accused of cheating and is forced to give it up. she also wanted to use this to try and get into yale because apparently “cooper” is an uncommon name and people associate it with her serial killer father. veronica and cheryl enlist milf penelope and her former brothel in a hotel to run their underground rum dealership after hiram kept fucking shit up at veronica’s speakeasy. jughead is forced to come up with new stories for his baxter brother books, and so he writes about betty’s serial killer father (uh oh!) archie tries to restart his father’s construction company but his uncle’s shenanigans make it hard and gay kevin’s straight former cop dad has HAD IT. fangs is back from cult recovery, but gay kevin has gotten into non sexual tickle porn. toni and fangs get in on this they use this to blackmail nick st clair after he returns and understandably upsets cheryl, his would be rape victim. archie is attacked in the bathrooms at school because his uncle can’t mind his own business, but this plot was fucking boring so i don’t remember most of it. jughead and bret decided to duel, because of course, and betty uses this as a chance to investigate the preppies further. she finds out that bret films sex tapes and blackmailed moose with one, and also has one of her and jughead. she also finds a video suggesting donna lied about her affair with mr chipping. veronica goes to new york to visit katy keene, played by lucy hale of fantasy island fame, who tells her that her mother is dying. veronica returns home just in time to hear that hiram has a mysterious disease and decides to make amends. jughead is accused of plagiarism, meanwhile veronica realises her father thrives off war, and continues their rum battle. archie is now drinking at school and veronica accuses mr honey of being a fascist for having a problem with it. BUT. MOST IMPORTANTLY. ALL SEASON WE HAVE BEEN TEASED WITH DEADHEAD. AND IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING. IDES OF MARCH PARTY AT STONEWALL PREP. AND BETTY BASHES JUGHEAD’S HEAD IN WITH A ROCK. betty tries to prove that the stonewall stags did it instead but donna is an insane lesbian and thrives off gaslighting and fucking with her. because jughead died, betty gets his spot at yale. the core four are accused of murder but cleared of everything. jughead has a funeral, and bret’s attempt of proving jughead isn’t in the casket are thwarted by the sweet pea, the sweetest pea in the room. hiram shows up just to fire fp as sheriff. betty kisses archie to help with her grief, and veronica ends things with them both. but donna is not convinced, and goes around stalking betty, saying she watched her sex tape and knows that betty couldn’t last so long without sex with jughead. and she is right! because lo and behold, jughead is alive and hiding in the sex bunker, despite donna’s best attempts to catch them out. donna knows they’re up to something and implies she killed jonathan when bret doubts her. betty and archie are like “yeah we only dated for the bit :/” but their texting implies it was...more. betty and jughead return to stonewall and expose the preppies, but they decide not to interview jonathan because he “has food poisoning.” or he’s dead. their other teacher kills himself, and fp reunites with his abusive father. betty discovers that donna’s grandmother was one of the people killed for the rights to the baxter brothers/tracy true franchise, and the entire scheme was a complicated revenge plot by donna to get back at their teacher for killing her grandmother. betty blackmails her with this information so donna can’t have the tracy true contract, and everything is “wrapped up” just in time for gay kevin to announce he’s doing a variety show. gay kevin’s intentions of performing hedwig are destroyed when mr honey is like “no, this is inappropriate for high schoolers,” and so the riverteens decide to band together and have everyone perform hedwig songs as an act of protest. meanwhile, betty and jughead fight because jughead didn’t do his homework because he was too busy watching the stalker vhs tapes, and veronica and archie fight because he lied about her father working out at his gym, given that hiram has tried to kill him multiple times and doesn’t really care about his health. betty and archie use this as an opportunity to kiss during origin of love. the variety show is cancelled, but the core four and gay kevin perform midnight radio on the roof, and jughead watches a stalker vhs tape of someone in a betty mask killing someone in a jughead mask. tickle porn shenanigans continue, and gay kevin is threatened over cheating his original tickle porn handler out of money. mr honey then forces them to shut the website down. cheryl leaves the rum business after her mother is threatened because of goons that were mad at hiram. hiram decides to deal with this by going after said goons. archie writes a song for betty, they explore their relationship further, but she picks jughead over him even when he says he’ll dump veronica for her. jughead discovers that ethel watched his and betty’s sex tape, and he and charles uncover blue velvet video, which houses sexy films and snuff films, and jughead is like “oh this is connected to the whole vhs stalker thing.” cheryl is sent a video of someone dressed up as her father killing someone dressed up as her brother. the riverteens turn their focus to the fact that all of them except archie and jughead have been banned from prom for various reasons, and betty suggests they kill mr honey as punishment. jughead writes an elaborate murder fantasy about them doing so, and also kills off reggie and drives cheryl insane for the bit i guess. the riverteens conclude that mr honey was behind the vhs stalker tapes and have him fired, and he tells them they’re all deranged before going to teach at stonewall prep. the school secretary tells them all the wonderful things mr honey did for the school and hands jughead a recommendation letter he wrote him for college. jughead realises they fucked up and rewrites his story so mr honey lives, but uh oh! he and betty uncover a vhs tape of their fictional murder of mr honey, much like the others.

and that’s what you missed on riverdale!

#this is missing. a lot. but so much happens in this show. #ask #Anonymous

[percabethfiles]

Charlie

Uh... Hello? Anybody still here? I haven't been around in years and years. But I keep my fandoms stored in some corner of my brain waiting for something to tug them out. And of all things this time it was Taylor Swift re-releasing her old songs, because I used to imagine so many percabeth scenes listening to "Fearless". So have this little something that's been sitting unfinished in my archives for years now.

Remember that time Percy saw Sadie Kane and thought “Hey, this is what mine and Annabeth’s daughter would look like”? Yes.

(Also there are small nods to that fic I wrote about Logan, Hidden Heritage, but I've been meaning to re-write it someday because there were SO MANY PLOT HOLES omg)

When they find out it’s a girl it’s a bit too soon to know for sure, or so the doctor tells them. They’ll have to wait for the next appointment to know for certain. “So don’t go buying any tiny dresses yet,” he jokes and they laugh along, but they’ve been together for approximately eighteen years now, they can tell what the other’s thinking with a glance and the ecstatic grin that breaks through their lips lets him know they’re on the same page. Too late. They’re already thinking plush bow and arrows and a Merida costume for her first Halloween.

Percy tries to keep his cool. As the weeks progress, he tries not to get his hopes up, but in his heart he knows already. They hadn’t really had a preference before, they’d been too happy knowing their baby was fully human and had all its limbs (with the number of deities they’d pissed off, you never knew), but a little girl? It feels right after their two boys, it feels like their family will be complete.

(He thinks about a slight blonde girl with streaked hair and a British accent dropping from the sky on a magic camel, remembers thinking “if Annabeth and I had a daughter…” and his chest squeezes tight with happiness so raw he has a little trouble breathing)

When the doctor beams at them next appointment and says “Congratulations, Jackson family, it really is a girl,” he’s not surprised, but no less elated. He doesn’t hear the lame joke about Jackson Five, he’s too busy trying to be a manly man and not burst into tears because he’s going to have a daughter. When Annabeth’s in the other room paying for the appointment, and he’s waiting for the doctor to print the really impressive high tech 3D picture of the ultrasound, the man asks him “So did you go ahead and buy a tiny dress anyway?”

Percy blushes.

The man shakes his head in amusement. “Every time”.

His work colleagues, proud dads of little girls themselves, try to terrorize him with tales of tea parties and future boyfriends, and Percy thinks somewhere in the middle of all that teasing they mean well, but really, he’s mostly annoyed. It’s not like he’s new to parenthood, he’s got two sons already and they seem to be turning out okay, and before, when Logan and Nathan were just a nice dream for the future, there was Estelle, the little sister Percy had never expected, but loved to bits all the same.

And then Charlie is born.

She’s tiny, warm and pink, all curled up in her yellow cable-knit blanket, a tuft of blonde hair peeking out of a tiny, tiny beanie, features scrunched into the most adorable variation of a grumpy face. He’s not new to parenthood, he’s been here twice before, but the rush of affection and protectiveness and awe and raw love is just as genuine. He’s smiling like a dork, can’t seem to stop, walking from side to side, avidly searching her traits. She’s bigger than Nate was when he’d been born, but smaller than Logan. Her hair was light, like Nate’s, would it stay blonde or darken with time? Would her eyes be like his or Annabeth’s? And oh, she had her mother’s nose (they all did).

It never fails to amaze him how such a small, vulnerable being can shake up his whole world until it’s made a space for her. And he’s done this before, he’s no first time sailor this time, he’d thought he had it all under control. But she blinks and looks up at him with half-lidded eyes and a frowny face and—they’re green. Her eyes are the blue-green Logan’s are, Percy’s are.

(He’s got two sons who are his life, and he does love all his children equally, but holding his daughter for the first time, he thinks he understands his friends’ warnings. He doesn’t love her more, it’s just… different. It’s special.)

When he goes back to work, Nick takes one look at him and bursts into laughter. He claps him on the shoulder in commiseration.

“I told you.”

He’s completely wrapped around her finger already.

It’s not too different, he finds out. Especially having been pre-trained by Estelle. He’s got to brush up on his Disney princess knowledge, and hair braiding skills. He hasn’t gotten much better at color coordinating the polka dotted bows and tiny shoes, but Charlie is really forgiving. She is a very happy baby, much happier and easy going than any of the boys had been.

She’s also fucking crazy.

She is smaller and skinnier than her brothers, likes to wear frilly dresses and talk to plush animals and dance around the house in a pink tutu, but she’s wild. She never learned to crawl, just held on to the couch until she was wobbling on two feet, and it seemed like the very next day she was running across the house, the mall, the park, and if he turned his eyes away for one second, she was shooting off in the streets and nearly getting run over.

He’d found her dangling from the kitchen cabinets, trying to reach the cowering cat. She had a phase when she thought she could fly and she would climb furniture and stairs and the window sill and just… Launch herself into the air expecting her flying powers to manifest spontaneously. If they hadn’t been trying to raise them away from the whole mythological world, he would have sat her down and clarified that she had the wrong Olympian Grandparent in mind. She might have had more luck jumping into the ocean.

She had a way to jut out her lower lip, and turn those big green eyes on him that could render his every effort to be a responsible parental presence useless.

Besides, she was so funny. He could never muster enough anger to discipline her, because if he found her on the kitchen table covered in peanut butter, somehow sporting a very sticky Mohawk, and looking entirely unapologetic, well, he just couldn’t stop laughing.

One day he’s coming home from work and he hasn’t even pulled the key from the lock when Charlie calls out ‘you’re back daddy,’ in what sounds vaguely like a new jersey accent. He finds her sitting on the floor of the living room, drowning in one of Annabeth’s bathrobes, pink plastic barbie sunglasses on, holding a pooh bear sippy cup with one hand and a pinky stretched out.

“Charlie, what are you doing?”

“It’s wine Wednesday, daddy.”

“It’s what?”

“Wine Wednesday.”

He had half a mind to check if her sippy cup actually contained wine because they hid their alcohol way up in the cabinets she can’t reach but that girl could climb like a monkey. He knows he should follow that remark up with some kind of questioning of where she’d even heard of ‘wine Wednesdays’ and then explain that kids don’t drink wine or some other kind of responsible parent speech, but a sudden burst of incredulous laughter bubbles up in his throat and he takes refuge in the kitchen, lest he encourages her behavior.

He finds Annabeth there, hand over her mouth, clearly in stitches over their daughter’s performance. He wants to question if she gave her permission to wear her bathrobe but finding his wife nearly doubled over in silent laughter in the kitchen is too much and he finally lets out the guffaw he’d been trying to hold on to.

It’s not the first time Charlie leaves them breathless with laughter, and he’s almost scared of what she’s going to cook up in the future.

Charlie is a hellion.

There isn’t one person safe from her pranks, but she’s so adorable she hardly ever catches hell for it, and she’s learning to use it in her favor – thankfully, just in time for her parents to develop immunity to her puppy eyes. And she’s… difficult, yes, but not always, and not in a terrible way. For all her climbing the roof, organizing illegal cookie sales, getting in fights with her classmates, she’s not a bad kid. She’s got Percy’s penchant for befriending the kids no one wants to go near, and defending her ragtag team of losers. She’s loyal to a fault, and it gets her in trouble often.

She and Nate have epic jealousy fights over everything, including – but not limited to – Logan’s attention, the crayons, the biggest piece of cake and all the videogame characters in the world are not enough, they will always want whatever the other picked. It gives them many, many headaches. Logan, on the other hand, positively spoils her, and whenever Charlie gets in trouble they can be sure to find her hiding behind her big brother while he gives them this solemn look and says “It’s ok, mom and dad, Charlie promises she won’t do it again. We’ve talked.”

When the whole “Logan being attacked by a dracanae in school and thus finding out his Olympian heritage” debacle came to pass, and they started frequenting camp again, there was nowhere in the entire Camp Charlie would rather be than the stables. She’d spend hours there with the Aphrodite kids, brushing the pegasi and talking to them endlessly about all her classmates and her friends, and her dolls, and her new dress, and the new book grandma gave her. It was all really cute until Percy realized the pegasi were talking back, and she fully understood their replies.

And it’s funny, really, because Logan had taken after Percy, to a point where bathing him had been hard as a child because he tended to stay dry in the tub, and Nathan was Annabeth to a T, but Charlie was a perfect mix of them both.

He guesses it makes sense it would be so explosive.

When Charlie is twelve, she gets kicked out of school.

Percy is not overly worried about it himself – the number of schools he’d been kicked out of reached double digits, and this was only her first – but he is worried about how she will feel. Getting the boot from a place that’s housed you for years, where your friends are, where everyone already knows you and having to start over is never pleasant, no matter how used to it you were.

He’d expected the school to have gotten tired of all her pranks and misbehaving, which was fair, he guessed. But when Annabeth comes home from the meeting with the school director, she is seething, and not at their daughter. Charlie is angry too. In fact, it’s the first time he’s ever seen his daughter well and truly pissed off. The two of them are a sight for nightmares, both blondes standing side by side ranting with righteous fury, they look ready to start a revolution. What he gets from her angry snarls and Charlie’s rushed rambling is that Charlie had talked back to a teacher that was picking on the autistic kid and demeaning the thirteen year old who was repeating sixth grade.

She’d called him a brain-washing small minded overgrown bully who, he was quoting, didn’t get enough love from his parents.

And Percy is so proud his eyes even get a little misty.

Because he’s getting old and sentimental and raising kids is very hard. No one knows what they’re doing, not one person, not even the fancy psychologists with those books on raising perfect, well rounded, high-achieving members of society that Annabeth insisted on reading when she was pregnant with Logan. You do your best and you hope for the best, and you don’t know what you get until it’s basically too late to do anything about it. And even if he did have the best mom in the history of the entire world to draw example from, he was also half of an absent Olympian father whose heritage condemned him to dance in and out of battlefields half his life.

He’s always been terrified of being a crap father.

He looks at Charlie cussing out with every mild version of actual cuss words, stalking around the kitchen like a little lioness in a cage, furious at the unfairness of the whole situation, caring less about being expelled and more about who was going to defend her friends from that awful teacher when she’s gone.

His daughter is only twelve, but she’s already so brave, such a force of nature. She won’t stand for injustice, and she won’t take insult lying down. And she’s so kind. She’s growing up, and the person she is slowly turning out to be… is good.

And something in his heart shifts and settles down, smooths over old fears and anxious thoughts.

Percy doesn’t mean to brag, but he thinks he’s not doing half bad as a parent.

#fanfic #pjo #percabeth #percabeth kids #charlie jackson #back at it again with the old unfinished fics #percabeth fanfic

[wastelandlovingscenarios]

General reactions on how companions react to waking up to search for f!sole and find her playing/doing silly things/etc with their child in the early morning?

this is so fucking cute!! my heart can’t take it. i’m absolutely in love and this is the content i live for! please enjoy. <3 some are shorter than others but i hope you don’t mind.

i made nicks own a little different just because he physically can’t sleep.

-

he groaned, being pulled out of sleep and searched tiredly for his other half that usually cuddled up to him during this time of the morning. when his hand found nothing but empty space, he opened an eye to find that there was indeed no one occupying that spot. without another word, he sat up and grabbed a shirt nearby, throwing it on to find her. groggily, he quietly called soles name, rubbing his eye. as he peeked the corner of the hall going to the living room, he halted, watching the scene before him.

-

Danse:

his heart began to flutter at the sight of sole and his child sleeping peacefully on the couch together. their child laid comfortably on top of his wife, who wrapped their arms around their small, fragile body and god, danse could not think of a much more pure moment. the soft snores that left their mouth and the way the light shone from window and onto their faces was heavenly. danse found himself staring at them for a quite a while, silently admiring the scene before him. he wondered how he got here, how he got so lucky to have the things everyone yearned for in the kind of world. a happy family, a roof over his head, and a secured settlement- what more could he ask for? all those moments of pain, confusion, difficulties, and regret was all worth it, seeing that everything that he never knew he needed was right in front of him and he wouldn’t do anything in this world to change that. if he had to suffer through his downfalls one more time just for his life to end up this way, then he would do so without hesitation. silently, he’d walk over to his child and pick them up, placing them onto the middle of him and soles shared bed. then he returned to take sole into his arms and went to do the same, pressing a soft kiss to her temple while whispering a soft, “i love you”, as she snored under her breath. he went to his spot and wrapped his arm around both of them, closing his eyes as he let out a content sigh. out of all the moments in his life, this was one of the many that he wished to stay in forever. no responsibilities, worries, tasks- just him and his family together like this.

Deacon:

he’d grin at the sight of his child and wife cooking breakfast, both playfully arguing with each other. the sight of their food stained faces and clothes made his heart melt completely. hed walk up to them quietly, crossing his arms with a fake pout. “wow, you guys are having a party without me? thanks for the invite.” sole and their child turned around, their hands full of bowls full of ingredients. before sole could let a word out, their child threw the ingredients on the table and jumped to deacon, who caught them and twirled them around a bit. “daddy! you’re awake!” hed kiss their temple, continuing to carry them in his arms as they stared at him with excitement. “we were just cooking you breakfast.” deacon would grin down at him, now carrying them with one arm and ruffling their hair friskily with his free hand, “is that so?” their child would nod happily, pointing at the failed attempt of pancakes on the counter and sole would shrug, a laugh escaping her mouth. deacon would step forward to place a kiss on soles lips, his hand cupping the side of her face. the way his lips fell on hers was tender and she kissed back with a smile. after a few moments, he pulled away and shot a childish grin at his child who beamed back, “how’s about we go eat breakfast? i’m starving and i definitely wouldn’t skip a meal made by my star chefs.”

Maccready:

god, if he could describe what heaven was, this was it. there his family was, having a small pillow fight in the middle of the living room at 7:00 am in the morning. he saw how duncan ducked at shauns poor attempt to hit him with the pillow and proceeded to smack him with the pillow of his own. shaun fell back with laughter, pulling duncan’s leg so he could go down with him. duncan fell on the floor with a loud, “woah!”, escaping his mouth and was thrown into a fit of laughter alongside shaun and sole. his wife would be proudly standing, towering both boys with a smirk on her face, “guess i won, boys. all those years of practice did me good.” they’d pout, both talking at the same time as sole chuckled at their stubbornness. “hey!” “that’s not fair, mom! you’re twice as big as us!” they were so focused on arguing that they didn’t catch mac grabbing a pillow nearby him, carefully aiming for soles head. before sole could let out another word, a pillow had met her temple, knocking her down on her knees instantly. with shocked expressions, they looked over to the side to find mac crossing his arms with a shiteating confident smile on his face. “don’t forget who has the real sharp eye here, honey.” sole would pout playfully as their children cheered, running up to hug mac who happily returned their embrace. “totally wasn’t fair! you caught me off guard!” he winked at her, “remember to always keep your guard up.” she rolled her eyes and stood on her two feet to place a small kiss on his cheek. “whatever. still unfair.” he’d chuckle under his breath and stare at her with loving eyes. yup, this was definitely heaven.

Hancock:

he stifles a laugh as his child jumps excitedly with hancock’s hat on their small head. “mommy! look at me, i’m just like daddy!” they bounced happily, holding the hat up with both their small hands to avoid it from falling off. she let out a melodious laugh, which replayed in hancock’s mind, and straightened his hat out to balance it. “of course you do! i’m sure daddy would think so too.” they beamed up at sole who giggled when the hat fell over their eyes once more, “you think so?! i hope daddy thinks so!” that was his cue. hancock walked forward and grinned at his child who attempted to readjust their hat, not noticing his presence in the room. sole did though and received an affectionate kiss on her hair, winking towards her direction. “you bet, kiddo. almost thought i was looking at a mirror for a second there.” they looked up with a surprised expression, the hat tilting back as they did so. their expression would soon turn into one of happiness as an open smile formed on their face and they’d raise their arms at him. “goodmorning daddy!” he’d bend down and take them into his arms, carrying them off the floor. “and a goodmorning to you too, kid. rocking that hat, i see.” they giggled shyly and placed the hat back on his head, “it’s too big for me. it fits daddy better.” hancock shook his head, “not at all. it’s fits me better but you look better in it as per usual.” hancock heard sole laugh in the background and he let a small chuckle of his own escape. “no way, daddy looks better!” they crossed their arms stubbornly, “prove me wrong.” he let out a thoughtful hum and sent her a smirk as an idea popped into his head, “sure, but let’s get some breakfast first, alright? why dontcha grab that box of sugar bombs in the fridge?” they nodded happily as hancock placed them back down, running to the fridge as fast as they could. hancock walked over to sole, who snickered at the expression on his face. he hugged her from behind, placing a kiss on her neck. “know any tailors in town who can make a hat? perhaps a suit too?” she leaned into his touch and looked at her child who made their way to them. “maybe.”

Nick Valentine:

the sound of loud, childish laughter was the best way to come home. as he peeked through the doorway, he saw as sole read their child a book with a variety of silly voices. with every new character introduced, they changed their voice, going along with the story. not only was their child entertained, but nick himself was enticed by the sight in front of him. the beauty and innocence of the moment made his heart ache with love and different kind of happiness he couldn’t find elsewhere. after the book was over, sole had shut it with a smile on her face, “and the end! time to hit the hay, honey.” their child pouted, crossing their arms as they whined, “i’m not tired though, mommy!” sole hummed in thought, looking through the pile of books, attempting to find another story. nick knocked on the door softly to get their attention and they both whipped their heads towards his direction, a happy smile immediately plastering on his child’s face. they jumped up and ran over to nick with open arms and he bent down and caught them. “welcome home dad! i missed you!” he pulled back from the hug, ruffling their hair gently with a smile, “i missed you too, sweetheart. i got you a little something.” his hands fumbled in his pockets and he pulled out a clean teddy bear, their eyes widening in amazement as he placed it into their hands. “wow! you got me this?! thank you dad!” they hugged him once more tightly before going to admire their new toy. sole walked up to nick and placed a hand on his shoulder, tiptoeing as she kissed his cheek. “where’d you get that, love?” he rested a hand on her waist, “some vendor had it displayed and i knew i needed to get it for them. their name was practically written all over it.” her eyes would flicker to their child who spoke to the bear innocently and back at nick who watched them lovingly, “thank you, love.” he placed a kiss on her temple, “anything for you both.” nick released the hold on her waist and took his child’s hand in his own, “its past your bedtime, sweetheart. it’s best we get to bed now.” nick caught the pout on their face and reacted quickly, “i’ll tell you a story or two before you sleep, deal?” they smiled up at him excitedly, “deal!”

Preston:

the sounds of laughter was more than enough to pull him out of his sleepiness, a fuzzy feeling radiating throughout his body. it was music to his ears and preston swore he could listen to it forever, even when he’s long gone from this world. he watched as sole tickled their child mercilessly as they attempted to wriggle themselves out of the situation. the way his wife’s fingers danced around their stomach made them laugh uncontrollably, losing their breath while pleading. “mommyyyy! stopppp!” they begged, a huge smile plastered on their face. sole chortled, “or what? who’s gonna stop me?” before she knew it, preston grabbed her by the shoulder gently, pushing her down to the couch with a grin. “i will.” he held her down as she fought back with a hearty laugh, failing miserably at doing so. “pressstonnn! let me go!” he looked over at his child who caught their breath and wiped their tears away, “wanna help daddy tickle mommy?” without hesitation, they scrambled over to sole and pressed down to her stomach, tickling her. preston did the same but near her neck. her laugh was contagious, causing both preston and their child to do the same as she writhed underneath them. “stop!” she breathlessly yelled, “i give up! you win!” preston let her go and leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead, wiping her tears away. “that’ll teach you to mess with us.” he bantered against her skin and she hit him playfully on the arm, the smile never leaving her face. his child latched into his arm, happily staring up at him with a grin, “thank you daddy, i knew you’d save me!” preston grinned and ruffled their hair, “always. i promise.”

Sturges:

he watched with a small laugh as sole fought her sleep, her head leaning on the couch as she watched their child play with dogmeat. she kept snapping back awake and he couldn’t help but feel bad for not waking up early enough to take her place instead. she was often busy with so many of her responsibilities and duties, so it’s understandable why she’d be so exhausted so early in the morning. sole eventually fell asleep, letting out soft breaths as she was lulled into slumber. sturges would quietly bend down and place a soft kiss on his child’s forehead as they hugged him. “mornin’ bud. seems like you’re havin’ a good time.” they’d smile and nod, petting dogmeat next to them. “yup! mommas tired, so i brought dogmeat to play with me instead!” he smiled proudly, placing his hand on top of their head. “a gentleman just like your daddy, huh?” he’d scoot over to sole and take her into his arms, jolting her awake. “oh sh-“ she stopped herself, her eyes falling on their child who continued to play with dogmeat with laughter, “sorry, honey. i didn’t know i fell asleep.” he shushed sole, cradling her in his arms as he pulled her close to his body. “shh, sleep sweetheart. i’ll take care of them, just get some shut eye, ‘lright?” she’d be too tired to protest, the sound of sturges heartbeat pulling her to sleep. “love you..” she’d whisper against his clothes. he’d let out a hum, watching their child with an affectionate expression as he caressed her hair, “i love you too, sweetheart.”

Gage:

the first time sole announced she was pregnant, he felt a sense of happiness and fear- fear knowing that he was unfit as a father and had little to no idea on how to raise a kid. all of his doubts of whether or not he was a good father drifted into nothingness as he caught both his wife and child sitting on the carpet, drawing on a piece of paper with crayons scattered everywhere. their child was humming a soft tune, scribbling something with a yellow crayon as sole watched happily with a content look on her face. their child faced the paper towards his other half, who observed it with curious eyes. “what do you think, mommy? do you think it looks like daddy?” he paused for a moment, processing the words that left their mouth and slowly connected the dots. was he drawing him? he attempted to put on a serious expression as he walked into the kitchen with his hands in his pockets. “does what look like me?” he couldn’t help it, curiosity was biting his ass at this point and he just had to see what they were referring to. their child shyly blushed at gages sudden appearance, hiding the paper from his line of vision. he’d crouch down, eyes still on the hidden gem that was held against their body, “don’t be shy on me now. it’s not like i’m gon’ bite ya or anythin’.” he teased with a small smile on his face. their shyness was so adorable and gage couldn’t help but be intoxicated by it. sole would nudge their child gently and they’d hesitantly show the paper to him with flushed cheeks. he’d take it into his hands and be pulled back at what was indeed a drawing of him and the words, ‘my hero!’ written horribly at the top. he’d be speechless at the wording on the paper as a small grin formed on his face unconsciously. “i know it’s not that great but i tried..” they meekly commented, growing uncomfortable at the silence. he’d look at sole and then back at his child with a soft expression, “quit it with the crazy talk. i love it.” the way their face lit up with happiness made his heart swell and they jumped in to hug him, muttering a small, “i’m glad you do”. his shocked expression would turn into one of tenderness and he smiled, using one arm to embrace them back. maybe he wasn’t such a bad dad after all.

#fallout #fallout 4 #fallout 4 companions react #fallout 4 companions #fallout 4 reacts #fallout+4+companions+reaction #fallout reactions #fallout reacts #fo4 reacts #fo4 #companions react #danse #paladin danse #hancock #john hancock #maccready #robert joseph maccready #nick valentine #deacon #preston #preston garvey #porter gage #gage #sturges #fluff #react

[inkribbon796]

What a Beautiful Wedding Ch. 1: A Sense of Poise and Rationality

Summary: “What a beautiful wedding” says a bridesmaid to a waiter. “And, yes, but what a shame. What a shame . . . 

Nothing bad happens here, I promise.

A/N: The music swells, the curtain lifts. Ladies, gentlemen, and all configurations of being: the show has begun . . .

Titles here are from Panic! at the Disco’s “I Write Sins not Tragedies”.

Okay, so this one’s been a bear to write so this might be uploaded a couple chapters today and the rest over the next day or two.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Eric looked at himself in the mirror as Roman set the final touches on his hair. His dark hair had small braids with tiny beads designed to catch the sunlight. His suit was an off-white color and his wrists were decorated with intricate bangles that kept his nerves from activating his powers and setting things on fire.

Despite the suits and dresses and other formal attire all the heroes were still in their masks. Secrecy was still important and they knew the press would be nearby. The only exception would be Eric, who got glasses enchanted, courtesy of the Host, to protect his identity from anyone who shouldn’t know it.

“And voila!” Roman announced and did a little excited jump, spinning the chair marginally and holding up a mirror so that Eric could see the back of his head.

“Awww, you look so cute,” Patton told him.

“R-eally?” Eric ducked his head nervously.

“Positively radiant, my dear,” Roman boasted, his red dress swishing as he twirled. “Not an eye will be able to look away from you.”

Eric’s eyes widened fearfully.

“Nice going Princey,” Virgil spoke up from across the room.

“They’ll look in a good way,” Roman promised. “They’ll see you and realize that you are the most beautiful man in the world.”

“B-ut that’s Illy,” Eric managed to force out.

Roman paused to think on that, “Well I won’t deny that he’s obnoxiously good looking but now you can give him a run for his money.”

Randall walked in, “How we lookin’[1]?”

Twisting around the chair, Roman grinned as he motioned to Eric. “Marvel at this masterpiece. I dare say Da Vinci nor Monet could have done better.”

“Very handsome,” Randall told Eric, both childhood friends smiling at each other. “Just came from checkin’ on the other groom. We’re just waiting fer a final sweep ‘a the area to make sure it’s alright.”[2]

“Alright,” Eric said.

On the other side of the building, Illinois was fiddling with his bow tie as he checked his hair and suit in the mirror.

“How’s it looking?” Illinois asked, his eyes moving to look at his adopted brother in the mirror.

“Nothing is amiss,” the Host told him.

“Marv still isn’t back,” Chase reminded. “I don’t like it. I haven’t heard a peep from him.”

“The Host spoke with Marvin, he is on his way back to the city with the Blade and the Angel of Death,” the Host took a seat. “While they will be late for the ceremony, Illinois and the attendants will find that they will arrive just in time.”

“Okay,” Illinois took a deep breath. He didn’t touch his lucky coin, he wanted today to be a good day. A perfect day.

He’d been trying to play his safe for months to hoard as much magic as possible. No adventures. No fights. Not even a card game with his siblings.

Because Eric deserved nice things. He deserved to be happy and safe.

After a while Dark checked his pocket watch, and Illinois walked out with him and the Host. The blind seer headed on ahead to wait with the other groomsmen.

Dark waited at one end of a long rug that led to a big outdoor gazebo with a dark wood roof. Chairs led up to the gazebo and had wooden structures protecting it from any accidental rain or glare from the sun. A matching rug was one that Randall would lead Eric down. The two grooms would meet in the middle and then walk up to the altar where Jackie, who had taken the online classes needed to officiate marriages.

The Entity paused, waiting for the signal from the organ that Dark could start walking. But he looked over at Illinois. The young man was looking around, his hand reaching into his pocket and resisted trying to pull out his lucky coin.

In the demon’s mind he thought of little Illinois, barely at chest level, with wide eyes that hungered for adventure but a body too small to take him there.

Dark had never liked thinking about how big Illinois had gotten. It reminded him that Illinois would walk out of his life and become his own person. It’s just . . . it had all been so wonderful while it lasted.

Illinois looked over at Dark and smiled. “Hey, 아빠[3].”

“Illinois,” Dark answered, trying to keep Damien quiet and invisible. Dark had to keep his hands to himself and his feelings out of the way. This was all for Illinois. He took a second to take a deep breath and schooled his features. “I’ll have your portion of the city ready for when you get back.”

“What?” Illinois asked, mostly in confusion.

But then the music began and Dark was offering his elbow. Illinois took it and promised himself that when he could pull Dark away again they’d talk. He didn’t like the tone Dark had taken when he’d said that.

Illinois and Dark stepped in time to the music and all too soon he saw Eric, his hands gripping onto Randall’s arm. He almost tripped when his eyes met Illinois’s.

Then all too soon, they were within arms reach. Illinois reached out to take Eric’s arm and they walked up. To Illinois, Eric looked like an angel he’d somehow snagged out of the sky and convinced to stay with him.

They walked down the aisle and Illinois kept the pace slow so that Eric wouldn’t have a single problem walking down the aisle. Dark and Randall followed them up.

Everything was going perfectly.

Illinois and Eric were looking at each other and Jackie opened his mouth to start the ceremony, when someone else walked down the aisle.

“I’m here!” Someone in a red tux announced. A smile as sharp as glass. “Shame on you, Damien, I almost missed the whole thing.”

Everyone immediately looked at the Actor, Dark got in front of Illinois as the young man was trying to push Eric towards Jackie.

“Get out,” Dark snarled in a furious growl.

“You’d done your job, step aside,” Actor snapped out a dark mass of aura and batted Dark to the side, the Entity slamming into the organ and let out a pained cough.

“아빠!”[3] Illinois called out. Yancy, who was closer, immediately raced to Dark’s side but the Entity shoved him away from both him and the Actor.

“I will admit,” Marc smiled as he waltzed down the aisle, “I didn’t recognize you at first. That’s my bad. But I did try and talk to you, and it’s quite an oversight not to personally invite me.”

Dark pushed himself back up to a kneeling position, his ringing shrill and aura coiling around.

“I didn’t invite you because you’re a piece of shit and you just attacked my dad, so fuck off,” Illinois snarled. He started trying to move over to Dark but the Actor slid into his path.

“Not possible,” Actor smiled, gesturing to himself. “Daddy’s here now and we don’t need . . .”

Actor glared back at Dark, “. . . to be worried about extraneous characters.”

“Get the hell out of here, I don’t want you anywhere near my family,” Illinois snarled.

“Oh, junior,” Marc smiled. “I’m trying to help you. Think of it: father and son. We’d take the world by storm.”

Illinois felt fury, thinking off all the foster homes and awful situations he’d been in, “Even if you were, you can fuck right the fuck off!”

Behind the Actor, Ranboo was trying to inch closer to Dark. He’d been sitting with the rest of the heroes. But he was trying to quietly summon up a portal to get Dark away from the Actor but when he inched too close the Actor spun around and slammed his aura into the young teen, knocking him back.

“If I wanted to take on the peanut gallery, I would have called you up,” Actor snapped.

“Enderwalk!” Virgil called out and raced over to him as the teen slammed against the wall of the gazebo and let out a grunt of pain. Immediately the room seemed to snap out of whatever haze they were in and moved as Marc moved to attack Ranboo again. Tubbo was already the closest.

Ranboo braced for the attack to hit but in the nick of time, there was a shattering of glass and Techno emerged from one of the eye portals. Shield and axe in hand he deflected the shot and blew a hole in the roof of the gazebo.

“I’m gonna have to stop you right there,” Techno smiled. “Come on, kid, I saw you using a weapon before, come on.”

“Boo,” Tubbo moved in as Phil and Marvin raced in.

“Anyone dead yet?” Marvin demanded.

“Bout time yeh showed up,”[4] Chase spat, pulled out his gun, a real one and aimed it at the Actor’s head.

Snarling in anger, the Actor exploded into black mist, making Chase miss his shot and nicked Illinois right in the face by accident.

Actor grabbed Dark and stabbed him with a dragged he pulled out of his black mist. “I don’t like being teased, Dames.”

With a slice, Dark screamed and the Actor pulled out a black day planner. “If you want something done right you should just do it yourself.”

Magic began to swirl around the Actor as bubbles began to form. They swelled in size and began to fill the room.

Bing began to visibly freak out and used his nanites to push Mini and Oliver away with his nanites, throwing them outside the gazebo just as a bubble expanded to snap up the rest of the androids.

In an instant the city rumbled and Dark . . .

. . . . . .

Dark woke up in bed.

He glared at the faintly glowing clock on the distant wall. It was barely a half-hour before he had to get up so there was no point in going back to sleep.

He smiled faintly when he heard Wilford snoring, the man splayed out to Dark’s left. The softer snores were from Chase who was cuddled up into Dark’s chest.

With a smile softening his features Dark decided: maybe he could sleep in a few more minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Post A/N: . . . Okay I lied big time.

Accessibility Translations:

1. looking

2. Just came from checking on the other groom. We’re just waiting for a final sweep of the area to make sure it’s alright

3. Dad. Informal, read phonetically as: Appa.

4. About time you showed up

#Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #footnotes #eric derekson #illinois the adventurer #ahwm illinois #roman sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #Darkiplier #randall voorhees #actor Mark #Actor Mark is an absolute diva #Ranboo #Ranboo being brave #magic #Ericilly #weddings are great

[letsgetusaghostfriend]

A Green Day concert, a bloody nose and a coming out – Sunset Curve & Green Day I

Summary: Luke and Bobby got them tickets for the Green Day show in LA on November 2nd 1994, also known as the night Billie Joe punched a homophobe and Alex came out to the guys.

Friendship fic, super Alex & Bobby centred, Luke and Reggie are not straight but don’t know that yet. Also, I know most people think Alex came out way earlier, but he has to not be out for this story to work.

((warnings: homophobia, homophobic language (not fully written out except in the band name of the opening act), slight violence, mentioned: alcohol, underage drinking (I am german, so for me it’s not underage drinking but yeah), in general: swearing))

word count: 4.9k, read here on AO3 x

~

Luke and Bobby got four tickets for the Green Day show in LA on November 2nd in 1994, it was one of Green Day’s bigger shows at that time. The boys previously have been to other concerts of the band, but the last one was in a small club in ’92, of course, all four of them being way too young for that place. Luke and Reggie were the first ones out of their group to get fake ID’s, mainly to go to gigs and play gigs. In the beginning, Alex thought he would never do the same, too scared of possible consequences, but then Luke used his stupid puppy eyes. (They still work even after Alex crush died, dead and buried). And if he was being honest, it was really helpful for playing clubs if the owners can at least pretend that they believe the four boys are old enough to be there.

Alex was aware that Green Day’s opening act, Pansy Division, was an all-gay band. And he was excited and scared at the same time. He found out because this one kid in his English class, Josh, went to the San Diego show earlier that week and told one of his friends that he shouldn’t go to the LA show as Green Day was just a bunch of “f*g lovers” and not worth their time. So Alex was scared: what if his friends would say the same thing?

They arrive late and the line is massive, Alex anxiety pitches in and reminds him that if it takes too long for them to get inside, he might miss Pansy Divisions performance. Logically he knows that they wouldn’t start letting people in so late that the opening band already starts when most people are not inside yet, but his anxiety is not that into logical thinking. He can’t help being fidgety, at one point Luke noticed and asks him if the crowd is making him uncomfortable. “Yeah, a little bit” Alex responds, not wanting further questions about why he was so anxious. The boys keep close to the bar, staying in the back first, not too excited to get into the crowd just yet. Alex knows the others would be inside the first mosh pit if it wasn’t for his anxiety, but not once did they show any signs of annoyance about his hesitancy. They just patiently wait for Alex to get used to the crowd and atmosphere, never angry when he has a bad day and he never signals that it is okay for them to go into the more crowded areas. Sometimes, especially when Luke doesn’t know where to put his energy he and Reggie go, but they always make sure that at least one person stays with Alex. He probably should tell them how thankful he is for this more often (the others would disagree here since they feel like Alex thanks them too much).

When Pansy Division started playing Alex didn’t expect them to actually sing about hooking up with guys at rock concerts, loving men, having real, deep and meaningful relationships and just, in general, doing normal daily life stuff, living with a boyfriend and how it feels after a breakup. He feels so excited, almost jumping up and down to the beat, not able to put his excited energy out on the drums like he would if it was their own concert. Alex completely forgets to check the guys for any reactions, too involved in the music. He doesn’t see that the other three boys enjoy Pansy Divisions music just as much as he does. He doesn’t see Bobby eyeing him from the side, a knowing glint in his eye.

Alex doesn’t know that Bobby saw the way Alex would look at Luke when they were 14, at Brian from History when they were 15, and how he sometimes looks at pictures from Billie Joe Armstrong in magazines. Bobby also didn’t miss Alex’ obsession with the song Coming Clean. The other boys sometimes forget about how Bobby’s parents are genuine open-minded people, who introduce him to a lot more diverse people than his friends’ parents do. So yes, maybe Alex was discreet enough for Mr Luke Oblivious Patterson and Captain Reg Oblivious Peters, and his parents who anyway only see what they want to see, but not for Bobby. Bobby, who might from an outsider’s perspective looks like he is standing a bit outside this friendship group due to him being less loud and sociable than his friends, but Bobby who loves his friends with all his heart, Bobby who truly sees his friends and knows that this is where he belongs. Seeing the absolute bliss, happiness and excitement streaming from Alex like waves is contagious.

After Pansy Division finished their set and there was a short break before Green Day would start theirs, Bobby slips from their group, mumbling that he would get another beer. Instead, he goes to buy Pansy Divisions EP, because the band was genuinely good but mostly because he knows Alex wouldn’t buy it, but he will definitely want it. On his way to the little corner where they sell the Green Day merch as well as Pansy Division stuff, Bobby realises that it was actually packed, but he soon saw that it was just a long long line for the Green Day merch. Actually, there are so many people he can’t even see the Green Day merch salesperson. He manages to get to the guy who took care of the Pansy Division stuff, he greets him with a head nod and a short “hey”, while scrambling his money out of his pant pockets to count it. He’ll have to nick a bit off of Luke’s beer later, not having enough money left to buy another one. When he reaches out to hand out the money for the CD somebody joins the guy who cared for the merch. Bobby recognises that it’s the singer of Pansy Division and he smiles at him. “Great performance, really enjoyed you guys’ music!”. The singer grins at that and holds out his left hand, which Bobby finds a bit strange, but takes it nonetheless.

“Jon, nice to meet you.”

“Bobby, pleasure is all mine.”

“Ah, you’re a musician yourself!” Jon says while checking out Bobby as if he could tell whether the kid in front of him was any good based on his appearance. It took the guitarist a second to realise that Jon must’ve felt his calloused fingers from playing the guitar during the handshake. “Yeah, I’m actually here with my bandmates.” A voice in his head, that sounds suspiciously like Reggie tunes in with “We’re Sunset Curve, tell your friends.” But Bobby pretty much felt like a child trying to play in the adults’ league, so he doesn’t say anything else. Jon grabs the CD he was about to buy and opens it while asking “So Bobby, is the CD for you or someone else?” Taken aback by that question Bobby tells him without thinking “We kind of always share records. Em, so maybe Sunset Curve?” Jon who was about to sign the inside of the CD case, pauses and looks up again “You’re in Sunset Curve?”

“Yeah, rhythm guitar.” He answers without much of a thought, it takes him two seconds then he adds: “You’ve heard of us?” Jon chuckles at Bobby’s shocked tone.

“Saw you play a few months ago. Didn’t remember your name till Mike mentioned one of your songs, always called you “the band with the cute drummer” actually.” Jon casually explained to a still shell-shocked Bobby. The comment about Alex makes him choke on his own spit though. Jon smirks, but before he can say more Bobby’s mouth starts talking before his brain gave its okay: “You saw us well enough to say that Alex is cute, but you didn’t recognise me?” After the words left his mouth, he feels his face heat up.

‘Way to embarrass yourself by having too much of an ego, Robert, great job’, he thought to himself. But Jon again laughs it off, as if he made a funny joke, smirks and asks if Alex was here tonight.

“He is,” Bobby says, voice cold, “he is also sixteen.”

Now it was Jon’s time to look embarrassed. “Oh shit, never mind then.” He pauses. “Sixteen is a bit young to play that club you played, isn’t it?” He pauses again. “You guys take this whole music thing seriously, I like that!”

More at ease again after Jon’s reaction to Alex’ age, Bobby’s brain finally catches up with everything Jon said before he called Alex cute.

“Wait, Mike as in Mike Dirnt? As in Mike Dirnt mentioned one of our songs?” he asks astounded. Jon laughs at the utter bewilderment that the younger one’s face was showing. But before he could say something about it a loud voice behind Bobby sneers: “Oh look at that, Bobby the f*g lover.” He turns around and sees Andrew from his math class. “Always knew at least one of you would be a shirt lifter!”

Bobby tries to take a deep breath before he answers but Jon beats him to it. “I would really think people were clever enough to listen to lyrics, but you still find the poser ones at these concerts, especially since Dookie got Green Day so popular outside of the scene!” Bobby needed a few seconds to realise that Jon wasn’t even talking to Andrew but instead just talked about him to Bobby and the guy selling the merch.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that you fucking fairy!” Andrew sneers, stepping closer to Jon. As soon as Andrews anger is directed towards Jon and not Bobby anymore, the guitarists fight instinct kicks in.

“Fairy? Really?” he asks Andrew with a snigger in his voice, “Didn’t know we live in the 50s, Andrew. Learned all these terms from your daddy?” Bobby tries to make his voice sound as degrading as possible. For a second it seems like Andrew might shut up and leave but then Jon starts laughing loudly about Bobby’s comments and before anyone can react Andrew takes a swing and hits Jon right on the mouth. Without thinking, Bobby copies his action and the next thing he knows is that his hand hurts and Andrew has a red square on the side of his face. He glares at the guitarist and strikes again. This time the fist hits Bobby’s nose and he sees black stars in front of his eyes for a few seconds. After that, all hell is breaking loose and Bobby is being pushed around for what feels like a few minutes before he gets pulled aside and finds himself behind the selling booth with Jon by his side who has a busted lip that is still bleeding. Jon has a hand on the teen's shoulder and looks worried at him. “Fuck your nose does not look too good!” he says. Hearing the words Bobby brings his hand up to his nose and winces when he feels a sharp pain as soon as his fingers touch his nose. “Fuuuuuuuuck, Alex is going to kill me!” he groans at the thought of how the blond will react to seeing Bobby like this.

“Hey man, good punch you got on the dickhead there!” an excited voice states beside Bobby, which makes him turn his head probably a bit too quick, considering he just got punched in the face a few minutes before. But the guitarists' instincts were right: standing beside him was no other than Green Days’ singer, Billie Joe Armstrong. The blond (with fading blue in his hair) is smiling at Bobby and continues with “but I think mine was even better” while pointing at something behind Bobby, who turns around just in time to see security carrying a half-conscious Andrew out of the venue.

“You know that guy?”

“He goes to my school!” Bobby answers, still in awe looking after Andrew.

“Oh, you need to tell me about how he looks tomorrow, man I don’t miss high school but I’d love to go to school just to see that!” Billie Joe tells him and Jon, still sounding way too excited. When Bobby turns around again to look at the two musicians in front of him, he catches Jon telling Billie Joe that Bobby is part of the band they talked about the other day. Somehow getting even more excited by the news he fully turns back to Bobby. “Love that! We need more good people in this scene so we can make sure the music stays clean of dudes like that! Well, it was lovely punching homophobes with you Bobby, but I actually have a concert to play!”

And with that Billie Joe is gone through the door leading to the backstage area and Bobby looks at Jon hoping that he can find answers with him (like is he hallucinating?) but he just chuckles at the teenagers in awe face and takes the CD Bobby wanted to buy all along, as well as the money he had already paid and hands both back at the teen with the words “I think you paid enough for this already, thanks for sticking up for me!” And adding, when Bobby tries to give the money back again, “You better go so your bandmates don’t worry and you don’t miss the Green Day show!” Bobby thanks him and with a smile he makes his way back to the other boys while putting the money and the CD into his pockets.

When Alex finally sees Bobby come back to them, he feels relief washing over him. Alex always hates it when they split especially if one of them is on their own and Bobby has been gone for way too long. The first thing Alex notices is that Bobby doesn’t carry any beer or anything else that he could’ve brought from a bar, the second thing is that Bobby’s nose is bleeding. The easing relief is instantly replaced by worry as Alex's brain catches up with his eyes. As soon as the guitarist reaches them Alex starts searching his fanny pack for tissues and anything else that can help with a bloody nose, all while berating Bobby about getting into a fight. Reggie and Luke excitedly ask Bobby about it, but when their bleeding bandmate tries to tell them about what happened Alex just shushes him and gestures for him to look up so that he can take a better look at his nose. While Alex is still cleaning up Bobby’s face the crowd starts cheering and Alex turns around quickly to confirm his suspicion that the main act finally made it on stage. He keeps on cleaning his friends face from now slightly dried blood when he hears Billie Joe's voice over the speakers.

“Sorry guys, I know we’re late, but I had to punch a homophobe…” The rest of the sentence does not reach Alex’ brain as he looks at one of his best friends, whose nose was bleeding after obviously being punched and all he can hear is white noise, while the realisation, that Bobby being the homophobe who was just punched by Green Days’ singer, sets in. He feels a sharp sting in his chest all while feeling overwhelmed by fear, cold naked fear. And his thoughts race through his brain, too fast to actually make any sense, all he knows is that his worst nightmare seems to be coming true: the people he trusts the most will eventually leave him. They will hate him. They will think he is disgusting, and they will leave him. Unconsciously he takes a step back from Bobby, taking both his hands off his friends face but before he can totally spiral into his thoughts, he is caught by Bobby who holds the drummer by his wrists and looks at him like Alex offended him deeply.

“Seriously?” Bobby’s voice comes out sharper than he probably intended, softening his tone as he sees Alex flinch at him, “You actually think I am homophobic? Fuck Alex do you really think that poorly of me?” The guitarists' words and face are both filled with what Alex can only describe as hurt. Bobby attempts to say more but he is cut off by Billie Joe's voice coming over the speakers saying his name.

“A special thanks to Bobby from Sunset Curve! Make sure you check them out they’re a local band that’ll make it big one day, I’ll promise you! I swear, give them less than a year and they’ll be playing here on this very stage! Thanks, Bobby, for helping me punch a dickhead!” And with that they start into their first song, leaving the boys standing completely mind blown in the back, each one trying to comprehend what just happened. After a few seconds, Reggie, Luke and Alex all turn to Bobby with questioning faces, but Bobby concentrates on Alex’ face. “Do you believe me now?” When Alex nods the, still bleeding, guitarist feels relief wash over him. “Good! Because I already have your Christmas present and I literally know no one else who has the same taste that you have!” He actually manages to make Alex smile with his stupid comment, feeling like they might be okay again, he holds onto Alex’ sleeve, needing something to ground him, knowing that Alex is uncomfortable with public affection. He turns to Luke and Reggie who as soon as they have his attention try to bombard him with questions, but he stops them and promises to tell them later.

___

After the concert:

When they leave the venue, a wave of, for L.A. unusually cold air, hits Bobby’s face and clears his head a little, making it easier to think about everything that had happened. As he was the first one out of the four to step out in the cold air, he takes a deep breath before turning around to see the other three boys walk up to him. He notices that Alex pulls his jean jacket tighter around his body, clearly not enjoying the cold air as Bobby does. He smiles at Bobby and then follows Reg and Luke who started walking towards the side street where they parked the van before the concert. The two boys talk animatedly about the Green Days show, analysing every detail. Seeing one of their favourite bands live did distract the two enough for them to not ask any further questions, right now. Alex smile tells Bobby that the same did not count for the blonde boy. Bobby jogs up to Alex to walk beside him, but when he tries to initiate a conversation with his bandmate, the blonde just shakes his head and mumbles, that he has things to think, but as if to calm Bobby down, Alex takes his hand and squeezes it before they reach their van. The van they brought because they actually started to be able to book enough gigs to pay for it (and to actually need it), they all paid for it, even though they don’t talk about the fact that Bobby paid the biggest part, with him having the only parents who actually support the band.

Bobby is driving, with Alex in the passenger seat lost in his thoughts and Luke and Reggie in the back, trying to get Bobby to finally tell them about what happened at the venue. The guitarist promises to tell them as soon as they arrive at the garage, but despite the impatience from Luke and Reggie to find out about everything they still have a quick stop at a small diner on their way home to get their after-concert food.

Alex, Reggie and Luke all go straight for the couch while bobby prefers sitting on the floor, facing them. For a few seconds they all munch happily but soon Luke starts bugging Bobby about what happened at the club, so he puts his sandwich aside and takes a short breath. He doesn’t know where to start, he kind of wants Alex to know that he got the CD for him, but he doesn’t want to put any pressure on Alex, nor does he want the other two to find out about Alex liking boys before Alex wants them to.

“So,” Bobby starts, “we all really liked Pansy Division, right?” he asks with a nervous laugh tinting his words. He looks at the three boys on the couch for confirmation and gets it from two of the boys while Alex looks like he gets scared by the simple indication that he might have really liked the queer band they all saw tonight. Bobby acts like he didn’t see it while deciding, that he won’t tell the blond that Jon was hitting on him. That might be a bit much information for one night. “Well, I thought,” he continues while pulling out the CD he brought earlier “I’ll get us their CD.” He waves the CD then places it on the table in front of the couch so the guys can look at it.

“And that’s where I met one of the band members, Jon, he is the singer.” He looks up at his friends who all stare at him with a mixture of shock and curiosity on their faces, even Alex nervousness seems replaced. ‘I didn’t even get to the really shocking parts yet’, Bobby thought to himself.

“Okay, so we got talking, he found out I play in a band and when he asks for a name to use to sign the CD I just said Sunset Curve, because we always share records, like I mean I don’t even know who owns what anymore!” Luke looks dead serious while nodding his head, Alex starts smiling slightly and Reggie looks like he is trying really hard to separate their shared music collection in his head.

“Anyway, it turns out he saw one of our shows earlier this year and apparently, he was talking about one of our songs with Mike, but before you get too excited, I couldn’t ask him about it because that dick Andrew from my math class interrupted us. He called me a – eh, never mind” he stops himself, giving Alex a short glance – “he started calling me and Jon names and I kind of started making fun of him for using really outdated terms and when Jon laughed about that, Andrew hit him and then I hit Andrew and he hit me back and suddenly everything got crazy. Next thing I know is that I am behind the merch booth with Jon and Billie Joe Armstrong, and Andrew is being carried outside by security.” He tries to rush the words out fast enough so that Luke doesn’t stop him because of the band being recognised and Alex doesn’t stop him because he hit someone.

“And then Billie Joe finds out I am in Sunset Curve and he says something about it being good that more good people will keep the scene going or something and then he pretty much left to play the show and Jon gave me the CD and I went back to you guys so you wouldn’t worry too much.” When he finally finishes his story, he is staring at three really shocked looking faces.

“Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe both know of Sunset Curve?”

“Who knew Bobby is such a badass!”

“You hit Andrew?”

All three started talking at the same time, but then Alex stands up and he looks real mad and everyone else shuts up. Bobby looks at him. “Alex, I didn’t plan to, it just happened. I got so mad when he started calling Jon these awful names and when he hit him, I just snapped.”

“What about our no fighting rule, huh?”

“So, when someone is being super homophobic, I am just supposed to do nothing?”

At that moment Bobby realises that Alex didn’t process until now that Andrew was using homophobic slurs against Bobby and Jon. He sees Alex anger vanish from him in mere seconds, replaced by fear and sadness settling in his eyes. Lips pressed into a thin line Alex sits down on the couch again. It breaks Bobby’s heart to see his friend like this. They all stay silent for a while.

“What did he say?” Alex asks with a voice so quiet Bobby almost misses it.

“Alex,” he sighs, “I am pretty sure you don’t want to know!”

With that Alex's eyes, which were glued to his hands before, snap up and meet Bobby’s. “You know, don’t you?” Alex asks Bobby, seemingly completely forgetting that the other boys are in the room.

Bobby does not know what to answer, not wanting to make Alex come out because he feels like he has to, or because Bobby figured it out already. “I only know what you want me to know, everything else is just a hunch.” He finally settles on.

Alex laughs. “So, you definitely know, and I actually thought I was being subtle.”

“I still love you, you know that, right?” Bobby just needs Alex to know that. Even if this is a weird one, Bobby wants this to be the reaction Alex gets for his first coming out.

It takes Alex a few seconds but finally, he looks up again, searching Bobby’s face for any trace of him lying. As Alex realises that the boy in front of him means what he said he feels like the biggest wave of relief washes over him. This, black-haired, awkward and quiet boy in front of him, who buys CD’s from queer bands, punches one of his classmates because he was being a homophobic bigot to a complete stranger and whose first reaction to Alex half-assed coming out is to tell him that he still loves him. This boy, who is so uncomfortable with most people touching him, who still wants to hold all of their hands all the time, calling them grounding. This boy, who would probably punch more people to protect them because he gets crazy protective about the people he cares about. And suddenly it’s difficult not to start crying and Alex feels like his voice will break if he tries to talk so he just nods.

And in that second, knowing he has Bobby on his side for this, he decides that he wants them all to know. So, he gets up from the couch and “gets on the runway” as Luke likes to call Alex’ nervous walking occasionally. After walking up and down three times, he suddenly stops, turns to Luke and Reg who look super confused by what is happening and he blurts out “Iamgay” so fast that there was no way that any of the guys could’ve understood a single word. So, he takes a deep breath and repeats: “I am gay” while standing there, eyes closed, and breath held.

“Oh, that…” Luke starts, but he gets interrupted by Reggie who says: “That makes so much sense, that is why you were staring at Brian so much last year! That really confused me, man!”

“I was... I was not staring at Brian Denver!” Alex sputters embarrassment creeping in his cheeks.

“You totally were, you even knew who Reg was talking about right away!” Luke laughs and gets up to pull Alex in a big hug, squeezing him tight. Reggie gets a hold of them and pulls them down on the couch where he squeezes between them, and wooshes through Alex’ hair affectionately. Alex, now half sitting on the couch and half lying on Reggie looks up to Bobby, who stands awkwardly in front of the couch. As the other two notice Bobby as well they all kind of freeze in their cuddle pile. Even as Bobby was more comfortable touching his bandmates than he was with touching his parents, or literally anyone else, he still never expressed any interest in being part of a cuddle pile before. Seeing how all of his friends stopped as he approached, the guitarist started taking a step back, but Alex stopped him by holding out his hand for Bobby to take. It takes him a few seconds but finally, he lets himself being pulled on top of Alex into the cuddle pile and even though it feels strange at first he likes the feeling of Alex’ soft t-shirt under his cheek, Reggie’s arm around his waist and the smell of Luke’s cologne.

Later that night Bobby snatches a picture of his best friends still cuddling on the couch hours later, now all fast asleep. He hasn’t shown that picture to anyone except for his daughter when she finds out about the band 25 years later and he decides to tell her about the loves of his life, even if most people wouldn’t recognise them as it since it was purely platonic love. And even though he got married, he never loved anyone as much, with the exception of his daughter, as he loved the three boys who left him when he was just 17 years old.

The next day Bobby snatches a picture of Andrews black eye. He shows that picture to Billie Joe, backstage at an event he attempts without his best friends after the man recognises him as the kid with whom he punched a homophobe. After that Bobby leaves the event early, not being able to hold up the image of Trevor, too consumed by grieve and guilt. Guilt over not being able to protect them. Guilt over not dying with them. Guilt over using their songs.

#julie and the phantoms #sunset curve #fantoms #jatp #alex mercer #bobby/trevor wilson #this is a bobby friendly blog #green day #sunset curve loves green day #that should be canon #reggie peters #luke patterson #friendship fanfic #julie and the phantoms before canon #before canon #set in the 90s #dookie tour #idk if i am missing hashtags

[carynnhalen]

Club Olympus was one of Carynn’s favorite spots in Gotham to visit. Usually because security was lax and it was easy to sneak in without paying the cover fee. Maxie Zeus was doing another stint in Arkham, and that meant it would be easy to score free drinks. Carynn weaved her way through the crowd of dancing people and headed for the bar, shoving her way between a couple of frat boys who were trying to work up the courage to ask Deadshot for a photo.

The guy behind the bar sent her a nod in greeting. “Sup, Carynn. You workin’?” his name was Nick. She’d met him a few years ago when he worked in a hole in the wall bar Josie’s that was in Hells Kitchen. He was nice enough. He was one of the only guys Carynn knew that still had a mohawk, but he was nice enough. 

Carynn scrunched her nose, shaking her head. “Taking the night off,” she shouted over the music. “Needed some peace and quiet.” 

Nick laughed, setting two glasses out in front of her. “The usual?” it was a rhetorical question. Nick filled one glass to the brim with whiskey, the top shelf option tonight, and the other filled with a vodka soda. “You stay out of trouble.” he said with a wink, pushing the two glasses towards her. 

“Always do! Later, Nick.” she scooped up her drinks, expertly heading back through the crowd and up to a balcony that usually served to be a little more quiet than the rest of the club. She hadn’t really had much of a plan for her night off. Mostly she just needed to blow off some steam. Between Captain America showing up to her apartment, and her phone ringing almost non stop with calls from Bruce, things were getting a little too mysterious and heavy all at once. 

Carynn plopped down in a booth, her kicking up her booted feet up onto the table. Taking a generous sip of her vodka soda, she pulled her phone out of her jacket and unlocked the screen. More calls from Bruce. A text from Cel. A few notifications from Dante commenting on her Instagram. 

She scrolled through her contacts; Bruce (even though she kept deleting and blocking his number it still seemed to find it’s way back onto her phone), Cel, Dante, Oliver, a few numbers of work contacts...was that it? Carynn sighed, downing the rest of her drink and picking up the glass of whiskey.

“I see you still have no manners.” a voice said in Russian just before Carynn’s feet were shoved off of the table.

Carynn’s frowned, looking up from her phone. “What the fuck do you think you’re-...oh, Christ. It’s you,” she rolled her eyes at the woman that was now sliding into the booth across from her. “Shouldn’t you be off somewhere skinning a puppy or something?”

Isabel Rochev. She was the current owner of Queen Industries and a certified nutjob. She smiled sweetly at Carynn, almost like she was happy to see her. She folded her gloved hands onto the table, leaning towards Carynn with interest. The large rock that had once belonged to Oliver’s mother was almost blinding in the flickering lights above them. 

“I’ve missed you too, Carynn.” she said again in Russian, passing a glance over her shoulder quickly before looking back at the red head. “You are hard to find. Not because you’re in hiding, but because you can’t seem to sit still. I almost thought I’d have to forego my little proposition.” 

“You could tell me Keanu Reeves is downstairs waiting to use me as a chew toy. I’d still tell you to fuck off, Isabel.” Carynn said, kicking her feet back up onto the table. 

Isabel laughed a genuine laugh. Like they were good friends catching up. “Unfortunately, that is not the offer I have for you. My contacts have told me that Oliver is on his way back to Gotham. I was hoping you and I could come to an...agreement. I know you and Oliver are not in the best of places. And I know that for the right price you remove problems.” 

Carynn had to admit, this was a first. She’d never really expected anyone to offer her cash to off Oliver. And maybe, if it had been anyone else sitting across from her, she might have considered the job. “If you want him gone you should do it yourself. Nothing says girl boss like killing your sugar daddy’s son...” she frowned, tilting her head. “Was he your sugar daddy? I’ve never really understood your relationship, at least aside from him definitely being married to someone else the entire time...” 

Isabel pursed her lips. “Do not patronize me, Carynn. You and I are far more alike than you will ever admit. You know this deep down. I am offering you a solution to both of our problems.”

“I’m nothing like you,” Carynn spat. “And Oliver isn’t my problem anymore. I don’t waste time thinking about him. I have bigger shit to worry about.”

“Well, what are these problems? Perhaps I can help you. We could form a partnership. Take what belongs to us. I have come a long way since I last saw you-” Isabel looked to her right, into the crowd below them. She visibly froze, her eyes set on something. 

Carynn leaned forward, trying to follow Isabel’s gaze. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The bar was a little less crowded now. Carynn could spot one of the exit doors nearby. There was someone standing next to it. She couldn’t really make him out. Long, dark hair. A leather jacket. The black mask covering his nose and mouth stood out the most, but in a place like Gotham it was definitely not the craziest thing she’d seen. 

Isabel looked over her shoulder once more, nodding quickly. A tall man, who Carynn assumed had to be Isabel’s security, stepped towards them. He looked down into the crowd, surveying the area before speaking into an earpiece. Isabel turned her attention back to Carynn, her smile more nervous now than genuine. 

“I must go. Something has come up...please, think of my offer,” she set her clutch on the table, fishing through it before pulling out a business card. “This is where you can reach me. The number is safe, don’t worry. I hope to hear from you soon, Carynn.” 

Carynn watched Isabel walk off with her security guard before sinking down further into her seat and groaning. So much for peace and quiet. She picked up the card, rolling her eyes at the idea of taking up Isabel’s offer. Another number to put in my phone, at least, Carynn thought with a sigh. 

She tossed back the rest of her drink, slipping her phone and Isabel’s card back into her pocket before sliding out of the booth. Maybe she’d go to another club, maybe she’d head home, she wasn’t sure yet. 

Carynn headed downstairs, waving at Nick before slipping out of the same exit that Isabel’s mysterious friend had been standing next to just a few moments before. Carynn didn’t really care who he was to Isabel. Maybe he was some pissed off ex boyfriend, maybe he wanted to kill her. Who could really know? Carynn just didn’t want any part of whatever shit storm Isabel was no doubt stirring up. 

The alleyway outside of the club was quiet tonight. Usually there were a few people milling around, someone puking into the dumpster or arguing about what club to hit up next. Maybe it was still too early for that. Or maybe Batman was out patrolling and had spooked them all. 

The closer she got to the mouth of the alley, Carynn realized she could hear another heartbeat. It was slow, very quiet. Maybe someone passed out in the trash? That was definitely nothing she hadn’t seen before. She slowed down a little, pulling her phone out to pretend she was busy as she approached the dumpster. 

The smell wafting from it nearly smacked her across the face. It wasn’t a bad smell. Completely the opposite. Sort of a smoky yet spicy smell that made her mouth water like in the fall when Pauli’s Diner was serving pumpkin pie. Carynn leaned forward to try and get a look at whoever it was hiding by the dumpster. 

Something hit her like freight train. 

Carynn had been completely caught off guard. Her back smacked against the brick wall, pain radiating down her spine. Her attacker’s hand was around her throat, the gloved hand making her gurgle as she struggled to breathe. Her vision blurred in and out, but she could just barely make out the man that Isabel had been watching just minutes ago. 

“How do you know Isabel? What were you discussing?” more Russian, great. This was very, very, very not good. 

His hand was like an iron clamp around her throat. She couldn’t speak even if she wanted to. Carynn reached out, swiping blindly at his face to scratch him. 

Mister tall, dark and creepy let her go with an eye roll. Carynn slouched against the wall, coughing. “Talk.” he spat. 

He had gotten the upper hand on her once, that much she could admit. That wasn’t something that would happen again. “I don’t know anything,” Carynn snapped back in English. “It’s not like we’re friends. She’s a pain in the ass...! Look, I don’t want any trouble, okay? I don’t really have much info-”

She pulled the knife she had clipped to her belt free and lunged forward. Her mystery man moved quickly, but not quickly enough. The blade pierced through his jacket, grazing his skin. 

He grabbed her throat again, slamming Carynn back into the brick wall. She’d been expecting something like that. She grabbed her knife, getting a better grip of it and kicking her feet up against his chest and using all of her weight to shove him away. 

Carynn rushed forward, Dark and Emo blocking her physical blows easily. He moved just as quickly as she did. Now that they were both fully alert, it was difficult for either of them to get a good hit in. Carynn noticed that he didn’t guard his left arm as vigorously as his right, and she saw a window of opportunity. 

She tried to bury her knife into his left bicep. It ripped through his jacket, but the sound that was almost like nails on a chalkboard made Carynn flinch and jump back from him. The blade of her knife had been almost snapped in half. “What the fuck...” she muttered, tossing the dagger aside. 

Her opponent leaned down, pulling a large, tactical knife that was strapped to his boots. He lunged towards her, Carynn throwing her arms up in front of her to block his swing. She kicked down hard at his shin, throwing him slightly off balance as he tossed the knife from one hand to his other, the blade stabbing through her jacket.

Carynn slipped down and around him, jumping onto his back. Her legs wrapped tightly around his wait, she put him into a headlock. Terminator man didn’t seem very panicked, regardless of his airway being cut off. He spun around, slamming Carynn into the wall a few times in an attempt of knocking her off of him. 

Her grip around his throat loosened, instead she decided to try and pull his mask off to get a better look at who was trying to attack her. Unfortunately that distraction left her open, and the man sunk his knife into her thigh. Carynn screamed out in pain, her opponent tossing her off of him easily.

She landed on the ground with a thud. She had to move quickly. He was stomping towards her, his hands clenched at his sides. Carynn ripped the knife from her leg with a grunt. This would definitely slow her down. She couldn’t afford to be slow. 

Carynn tossed the knife. It was better to keep him from it than having it to defend herself. The Masked Douchebag bent forward to grab her ankle. Carynn kicked at him, but he easily smacked her leg away. He lifted her up, slamming her into the wall. Carynn fell face down, groaning loudly. Get up, get up, get up, she told herself. 

The sound of boots stomping towards her made her panic. She reached inside of her bra as the stranger picked her up by her jacket, pulling out the pocket knife she kept there. Before he could throw her again, she plunged the knife into his side. This time it did more damage than ruining his clothes. 

He dropped her, grunting in pain and anger. Carynn used the distraction to push herself up off the ground, rushing away towards the dumpster to put distance between them. Her leg gave out from under her, and she fell into a pile of trash bags. 

Her opponent pulled the knife from his side, once again tossing it aside and heading straight for Carynn. She scrambled backwards, freezing at the sound of a phone ringing. The two went still, looking at each other as the ringing filled the alley way. 

The man reached into his jacket, pulling a flip phone out. “We have spotted the target. Enough of whatever it is you are doing. Get to the bottom of whatever Isabel has planned.” someone said on the other line. 

“Yes sir,” the Masked Asshole said. “Send me the address. I will find her.” he closed his phone, his eyes trained on Carynn. And as quickly as the altercation had started, it was suddenly over. He turned, grabbing his knife from the ground and wiping it clean on his pants. Without looking back at her, he strolled off and out of the alley way as if nothing had happened.

Carynn let out a loud, relieved sigh and sank back into the trash bags. “Holy fuck that hurts,” she hissed out, grabbing at her thigh. Her hands were covered in warm, sticky blood. “These are my favorite pants...I’m gonna find you you goddamn bastard!” she shouted after the stranger. 

She groaned, pulling out her phone. She would heal eventually, but now there was no way she’d be able to make it home on her own. And taxi drivers didn’t like it so much when you bled all over their seats. She opened up a new message, pinging her location and typing the word help to Dante. 

“I fucking hate this city.” she sighed, leaning back to look up at the starry sky above her.

#plot points

[imagine-loki]

Blushing in His Colours, Chapter 1

TITLE: Blushing in His Colours CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 1 AUTHOR: fanficshiddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki being a Daddy Dom, his adores and loves his little, worships the ground she walks on. She has vaginismus, but he couldn’t be more supportive with her. RATING: M

Mia walked into the party feeling a little shy, she looked around quickly and spotted Natasha and Wanda. So she made a beeline straight for them.

Parties weren’t exactly her favourite scene. But she had promised the team she would attend, considering she had managed to make up an excuse not to go to the past few.

Ever since she started working in the tower with The Avengers, her life had changed rather drastically. She had only gone there originally for work experience through college, but the team liked her and Tony wanted to keep her on in charge of their social media presence. She was super nice, so helpful too in other areas. Nothing was ever too much bother for her.

Being offered her own room in the tower and a well-paying job there had been too much to pass up, of course. There was no downside really… Well, aside from one, maybe.

She had a bit of a crush on one of the team members. Or maybe, a huge crush. But what made it a little tricky, was it was the trickster himself. Loki. She had been mesmerised by him from the first moment she met him.

He was a charmer, had welcomed her with a kiss on the back of her hand. Making her blush like a schoolgirl. She often tried to be in the same room as him when possible, without looking suspicious. But at the same time not getting too close to him. Luckily, she’d become good friends with Natasha and Wanda, so was often hanging out in the main living room where Loki sometimes frequented. 

She was barely able to get the courage up to speak to him. He was a literal God, after all. She even struggled speaking to Thor sometimes, but it was worse with Loki because she found him so attractive. It wasn’t just his looks, but his intelligence and mischief too. He seemed fun to be around, was often pranking the others which made her laugh.

It was his voice that always hit her the most though. She could just listen to him speak about anything at all, it was such a soothing and lovely voice he had.

But something she would never admit to anyone, not even Natasha and Wanda, was in her mind she thought that Loki was perfect Daddy Dom material… But then, she wasn’t sure if it was maybe just her fantasies that made her think that of him.

‘You look beautiful, Mia!’ Natasha said as she hugged her, so did Wanda.

‘Thanks.’ Mia blushed a little.

‘Did you pick that colour for a certain… Someone?’ Wanda asked, winking.

‘You do suit green though.’ Natasha said as she looked her up and down.

‘I… kind of.’ Mia said sheepishly.

Natasha and Wanda knew about her crush. Not that Mia had told them, but they had worked it out quite quickly. The way her cheeks went a little red whenever Loki was in the same room, how she would always glance over in his direction. Her general demeanour always perked up when Loki was around.

‘Oh, speak of the devil.’ Wanda said quietly, sipping her drink as she looked over Mia’s shoulder.

Mia froze, feeling a shiver run down her spine as she knew he was behind her.  

Loki had spotted a lovely figure in green, as he moved to get a better look, he was stunned to see it was Mia. She had her dark walnut coloured hair up nicely too, in a messy type of bun. He’d always found her rather adorable, but she was so shy and he was never able to get her alone to chat properly. She was a bit of a flight risk, often darting off when he made his way towards her. He felt she was intimidated by him, which he wanted to rectify if possible.

‘Ladies.’ Loki greeted with a nod, his voice like smooth velvet as he came into her view at the side. But then he looked directly to Mia and smiled. ‘Mia. You look beautiful, that dress is very becoming on you. If I may so.’ He said with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

Mia thought her face was going to combust with how badly she blushed. ‘Oh… thank you, Loki.’ She said quickly, not quite able to make eye contact with him.

He was looking very regal in his Asgardian armour, him and Thor always went all out for the parties. Making sure everyone remembered they were royal Gods.

‘I also couldn’t help but notice you didn’t have a drink… May I get you one?’ Loki asked politely.

‘Please… Thank you.’ Mia spoke quietly, able to look up into his eyes for a moment.

Loki nodded and went to fetch her a drink. She turned to look at Natasha and Wanda, who were grinning at her.

‘This could be your chance!’ Natasha said as she nudged her playfully.

‘Don’t be silly. He’s just being… polite.’ Mia shrugged as she looked over in Loki’s direction, he was getting her a drink from the bar.

‘He never compliments anyone, Mia. You should feel honoured.’ Wanda said, then went quiet when Loki returned with a drink for himself and Mia.

Mia was surprised when he handed her favourite to her. ‘How did you know what I like to drink?’ She asked, curiously.

‘I remember from the first evening you were here, when we all had a few drinks.’ Loki grinned and winked at her.

Natasha and Wanda shared a knowing look with one another. ‘We’re just going to get some food.’ Wanda said as she dragged Natasha away.

Mia’s eyes widened a little at being left with Loki. She started sipping her drink straight away, hoping to get some alcoholic courage. Loki could tell she was nervous. He wasn’t sure why she was so nervous around him. Though he was glad she hadn’t run away from him yet this time. But her constant blushing when he was around did make him wonder…

‘It’s nice that you’ve joined us, I know you tend to avoid parties normally.’ Loki said as he motioned for her to walk with him.

She walked along next to him around the side of the room. ‘Yeah… I just, am not too keen on big crowds really… Do you enjoy parties?’

‘Not normally, similarly to you I am not overly fond of huge crowds. Although, I am rather enjoying this party because of the delightful company.’ He winked at her.

She almost choked on her drink, but managed to quickly compose herself. Was he actually flirting with her? She almost couldn’t believe it.

The two sat down on one of the sofas near Pepper, Tony and Clint. Thor was over by the bar with Steve and Bruce, telling one of his jokes. Loki shook his head. ‘He thinks he’s hilarious.’

‘His jokes are better than yours.’ Tony said to Loki.

‘You’re the biggest joke here, Stark.’ Loki snarked back at him.

Clint and Mia laughed, making Loki grin.

‘Glad you could join us, Mia. Bad choice of dress though, wearing Loki’s colour.’ Nick said as he joined them at the sofas.

‘Don’t be mean. She suits that colour. Green isn’t just Loki’s colour.’ Maria said as she also sat down with them. Natasha and Wanda came to join too.

‘But you did wear it mainly to get Loki to notice you?’ Vision said, he had been hovering at the back.

If Mia thought she was embarrassed before, she certainly was now. With so many people staring at her, and Vision blurting that out.

‘I… need to go to the bathroom.’ She said, quickly getting to her feet and almost running out of the room.

‘Vis!’ Wanda chastised.

‘Sorry, was that not the right thing to say? I thought that was the reason.’ Vision seemed genuinely confused.

‘I’ll go after her.’ Natasha hopped up and rushed after Mia.

Loki frowned. ‘She wore green to get my attention?’

‘Duh! If it wasn’t clear to you by now, she likes you, Loki. But is too shy to speak to you.’ Wanda sighed.

-

Natasha found Mia in the corridor heading back to her room. She managed to catch up with her. ‘Mia! Wait!’ She called, glad when Mia stopped. Her eyes were watering, she felt so embarrassed.

‘Hey, you ok?’ Natasha gave her a hug.

‘I’m so embarrassed, Nat. Now Loki knows, how will I be able to face him again?’ She said sadly, looking down.

‘I certainly hope you will face me again.’ Came Loki’s voice, making Mia freak out internally as she looked up and saw him coming down the corridor towards them.

‘Loki.’ Natasha said in warning as he reached them.

‘Can I talk to Mia privately?’ Loki asked.

Natasha wasn’t totally sure, but she looked at Mia who nodded.

‘I’ll just be round the corner if you need me.’ Natasha said.

Mia was fiddling with her hands on front of her. ‘Loki… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to disrespect you… Or anything. I just… I…’

‘Shhh.’ Loki said softly and he cupped her chin, lifting her head up to him. Her heart was racing as she looked into his eyes. ‘No need to apologise, and why would you disrespect me?’ He frowned.

‘I don’t… I don’t really know.’ She swallowed hard.

‘Did you really wear this colour for me?’ He asked.

Mia knew he could tell when someone was lying, so she knew there was no point trying.

‘Yes… I wanted to try and get you to notice me… so stupid.’ She admitted, wanting the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She would have to leave and get a new job, there was no way she could stick around here now that Loki knew she had a crush on him.

Loki brushed his thumb up over her cheek, making her skin tingle as she realised he was still touching her. And he didn’t look angry at her admission.

‘Oh darling.’ He hummed, smiling down fondly at her. ‘You’ve always had my attention, right from the very start. And you are far from stupid, Mia.’ He said so softly she thought she was going to start crying with how nice he was being.

‘You’re just saying that.’ She laughed nervously and tried looking down.

‘The first day you came here, you were wearing a knee length dark blue dress, long sleeves with leggings and flat black shoes. Your hair was down and straight, if I remember rightly it was to help hide the blush on your cheeks when Fury introduced us. I know that your favourite snack is a double chocolate chip cookie. When you work, you are so focused you don’t even notice what’s going on around you. But you are so kind to others and extremely helpful, you go out of your way to help other people. Even if it’s just getting them a drink. Your eyes light up entirely when Maria brings her dog to work, so I will go out on a limb and guess that you love animals. You’re not a morning person, but you prefer getting work done first, so you have the rest of the day to relax. Purple is your favourite colour and I do believe that you love rock music.’

Mia was completely stunned, she was gazing up at him with her mouth parted.

Loki had taken note of all these things over the few months she’d been there. Also hearing bits and pieces from when she conversed with others. But he had stored everything he knew about her away in his mind.

But the rather lovely moment between them was ruined when Natasha came rushing down the corridor. ‘YOU FOOL!’ She whacked Loki’s arm as she stood at the side of them, hands on her hips.

Loki narrowed his eyes at her as he let go of Mia’s chin.

‘You’ve liked her all this time but haven’t said or done anything about it?’

Loki ran his hand down his face. ‘You’ve been listening?’

‘Of course! To make sure you weren’t going to be an ass.’ Natasha said.

Loki clenched his jaw, but knew she looked out for Mia, they were good friends. ‘In my defence, I didn’t think you would be interested in me.’ He said as he looked at Mia. ‘Because you’d always avoid eye contact with me, would barely speak to me. I thought you were maybe scared of me.’ He said honestly.

‘You dumbass. That’s just because she’s shy!’ Natasha said, hitting him again.

‘Stop hitting me, Romanoff.’ Loki growled.

His tone made Mia’s stomach lurch, in a good way. She loved it when he went all growly…

‘Nat… Maybe uhm, give us some time?’ Mia asked quietly.

Natasha looked to Mia, then back at Loki. ‘Alright. See you back at the party.’ She nodded and headed off, this time actually leaving them to it.

Loki looked at Mia, unable to stop smiling. He was really fond of her, he just had no idea how much she liked him, too.

‘May I take you out to dinner tomorrow night?’ Loki asked, taking hold of her hand and running his thumb across the back of it, causing goosebumps on her skin.

Mia couldn’t quite find the words. But she nodded quickly, over eager, making Loki chuckle.

‘Excellent.’ He grinned.

They did return to the party. Loki promised Mia that he would personally hang anyone who dared to make her feel embarrassed about wearing his colours.

She was secretly really pleased about that.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #Blushing in his Colours #Chapter 1 #Fanfichiddles

[electrictoes]

Wishing For This

For @dailysvu’s Amanda Rollins Week

Day 7: Family Characters: Amanda Rollins, Kim Rollins, Beth Anne Rollins, Fin Tutuola, Olivia Benson, Sonny Carisi, Jesse Rollins, Kat Tamin, Billie Rollins, Noah Porter Benson Relationship: Amanda Rollins / Sonny Carisi Warnings: None

Read on AO3

April 13th 1990

Amanda blew out the lone candle on the store bought cake Momma had gotten her. She closed her eyes and she wished for the same thing she’d been wishing for all year - on eyelashes, in wishing wells, on shooting stars that could’ve been airplanes - that Daddy would come back. 

She didn’t believe in Santa Claus anymore, but Kim still did and Amanda didn’t want to let her down, so she even wrote it on her Christmas list - that what she wanted was for Daddy to come home.

Some days she didn’t miss Daddy too much - when there wasn’t so much yelling and nothing had gotten broken in a while. But then Momma had brought Rick around, and Rick wasn’t any nicer to Momma than Daddy had been, and he didn’t like Amanda or Kim hanging around. At least when Daddy was here he’d talk to them, play with them sometimes; if he’d been drinking sometimes he’d sing to them. He wasn’t any good at singing but when he sang to them it felt like they were a normal family, at least as long as the song lasted.

Momma kissed Amanda’s forehead, “Happy Birthday, baby,” she said, and it for a minute it was a good birthday, because her Momma was here and Kim was standing next to her, waiting for her to cut the cake so they could all have some, and there was still time for Daddy to come home. He’d forgotten her birthday before, but she was sure he wouldn’t this time.

“Now,” Momma said, “I’m gonna cut you both some cake and you can take it up to your room, okay?”

“Why Momma?”

“You girls go on and watch TV, okay?”

Kim was still little enough she didn’t really get it - she never got mad at Momma for sending them upstairs or out back whenever guys came around; she never got mad at Momma when Daddy walked out the door. But Amanda was mad - it was her birthday and her own mother was sending her away.

“Momma, it’s my birthday,” she said, but Momma just passed her a slice of cake.

“You're ten years old now,” Momma said, “You can find your own way to celebrate.”

“Come on, Amanda, we can go play upstairs,” Kim said, because Kim didn’t know any better.

Amanda wanted to scream - she wanted to yell at Momma but she knew it wouldn’t do any good - Momma was as scared of Rick as she was of Daddy, and it’d only make Amanda’s birthday worse if they had a row.

She followed Kim up the stairs, but she stomped up them - bang, bang, bang - every footstep just so Momma wouldn’t forget how mad she was.

Kim had the TV on when she got to their room; a grin on her face. She’d already finished her cake - she had frosting all up her cheek and Amanda shook her head, helping her wipe it away. “Amanda, what did you wish for?” Kim asked, ducking away from her hand as she tried to clear off the last of the frosting.

“I can’t say, it won’t come true,” Amanda told her. She sat down on her bed, looking over at the TV. Family Ties was on but Amanda didn’t care today; this wasn’t the birthday she wanted.

“I bet you wished for Daddy to come home,” Kim said, “That’s what I’m gonna wish for on my birthday.”

Amanda didn’t answer her - she ate her cake, and they watched TV, and they both tried to ignore when the yelling started in downstairs. When it got late, and Kim had gone to sleep, Amanda curled up in her own bed, sitting with her arms on the headboard, her head resting on the window. She watched the street outside, keeping her eye on the front walk in case Daddy did remember her birthday - there was still time for her wish to come true.

April 13th 2011

Amanda had given up on celebrating birthdays; that had been a continual stream of disappointments. The way things were for Amanda right now, disappointments were all she had. She wanted out - out of APD, out of Georgia, away from Kim, and her mother, and the never ending train wreck her life had been so far.

The things she’d had to do to protect her family - the small things and the big things - they haunted her at every turn. She had that reputation now; the same reputation she thought she’d outrun when she left Loganville in the dust. Maybe some people just weren’t meant to escape their pasts.

She worked overtime on her birthday; didn’t tell anyone what day it was. Didn’t think anyone here much cared - not now. She went through the motions; took statements, interviewed suspects. Avoided Reynolds - the looks he threw her way each time he passed by. He knew. He had to know.

The only birthday present she was giving herself was the courage to get the hell out. She decided that on her way back to her apartment - that she was going to go to Reynolds and tell him she wanted to be transferred out - as far away as she could get. She wouldn’t have to say too much; lean on him just a little and he’d be putting in calls to any contacts he had out of state. She could leave this place behind and start over.

When she let herself into the apartment, she heard music playing - there shouldn’t have been anyone there, but she found Kim on her couch - a half empty whiskey bottle on the table in front of her. She was drunk, and she was high, and Amanda was beyond done.

“Happy Birthday!” Kim yelled when she saw her, and Amanda just sighed, locking the front door behind her.

“What the hell, Kim?”

“I came by to celebrate with you - but you weren’t here.”

“I was working late,” Amanda shook her head. “You can’t be here high. I’m a cop, Kim.”

“I know, I just wanted to spend your birthday with you.”

“Well, it’s almost midnight. It’s over now - you can go.”

“I can’t,” Kim shook her head. “Jeff didn’t want me to come over here. He’ll be mad.”

“Sleep on the couch then,” Amanda said - she was tired of this, of fixing Kim’s messes, of the way that Kim tore through her life. She’d been trying to build something here and Kim had crumbled it. But Kim was her sister, and Amanda knew family was family. “I meant what I said last time; if he lays a hand on you, Kim, I’ll arrest him.”

“He won’t. Not again.”

“Right.”

Kim walked to the kitchen, picking up a plate from the counter - a store bought cake with a single candle in rested on the plate. “Amanda, I got you a cake. Like Momma used to get.”

Amanda could have cried. The cake - Kim’s paltry offering - didn’t bring back memories of happier times. It reminded Amanda of birthday cake for dinner before being sent to her room to listen to her mother being beaten black and blue by the latest in the long line of losers. It reminded her of being ten, eleven, twelve… powerless to protect her mom and angry that they were trapped in this cycle, over and over. It reminded her of wishing for Daddy to come home, knowing year after year that he never would.

“Did Momma call?” Kim asked.

“She left a message,” Amanda said; she’d listened to it on her lunch break but she hadn’t returned the call. She hadn’t wanted to listen to her mother’s latest lecture - the last time they’d spoken, after Patton had dropped the charges against Kim, she’d been given a sermon on the important of family, like she hadn’t risked her career and thrown away a part of herself she might never get back in order to protect her little sister.

Amanda let Kim light the candle in the cake; let her sing Happy Birthday in a disconnected slur of words and murmurs.

She was done with all of this - she’d outgrown her small town twelve years ago, and she was outgrowing Atlanta now too. She needed a fresh start - by the time her next birthday rolled around she was going to be in another city, carving a new, better life for herself.

When she blew out the candle it wasn’t with a wish for change - it was with a silent promise to herself.

April 13th 2012

New York hadn’t been the smooth fresh start Amanda had been hoping for - there were some things too hard to outrun, and unhealthy coping mechanisms didn’t get left behind when you tried. But Manhattan SVU, the NYPD, it was different from APD. It wasn’t sunshine and rainbows, but at least here she felt like she mattered. The work she did mattered, the team around her saw value in her and her work.

They’d had a busy week working to catch the Soho rapist and dealing with a host of vigilante justice - by the time Friday rolled around Amanda barely even realised it was her birthday. She got a call from her mom, wishing her a happy birthday, with a side of guilt tripping and reminders that she belonged in Georgia; nothing from Kim, nothing from her father - of course. She didn’t let that sting.

When the end of their shift rolled around, Amanda was ready to pack up and head home. She was debating finding a meeting - preempting any late night thoughts that might come around when the loneliness set in, but Fin stopped her before she’d even put her jacket on.

“Drinks,” he said.

“What?”

“Birthday drinks.”

Amanda glanced around - the squad, sans Nick who had enough drama going on at home to have him out the door the second the clock hit 5pm, were all standing around their desks, looking at her, waiting for her. “What?” she said again.

“It’s your birthday,” Fin said, “We’re all getting drinks. Unless you’ve got other plans?”

"How did..." Amanda hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Sure that sounds - that sounds great.”

He gestured for her to walk ahead of him, and everyone else followed them out. Amanda was unexpectedly touched by the gesture; such a small thing, but she had come here to escape her old life and she hadn’t been expecting to find a group of people quite like this one. She’d hesitate to call them family, she was still new, still finding her feet here and working out how she fit in - but the rest of them, she knew, did think of this as a kind of family - not just the NYPD brothers-in-arms kind of family, but the team they had at SVU - the kind of family who had each other’s backs even when they screwed up; the kind where everyone chipped in and no one got left bearing the brunt of whatever life threw at them alone.

So they went for drinks - and they laughed, everyone wished her a happy birthday, and she enjoyed herself. When Fin clapped her on the shoulder at the end of the night, and told her he was glad she’d come along, Amanda really felt as though he meant it.

She and Liv shared a cab home, and Liv was so sincere as she told Amanda to have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of her birthday celebrations. She didn’t know - couldn’t know - that tonight was the most celebrating she’d done for a birthday in a long time, or that it would be more than enough to tide her over until the next one.

April 13th 2016

A lot changed over the years - the shift in Amanda’s world - highlighted no more than in her embrace of motherhood. Her first birthday as a mother started the same way every other day did - Jesse woke her just after 5am and Amanda went through her usual morning routine - feeding, changing, dressing, holding her little girl close and enjoying their time together before the sitter arrived. Amanda kissed Jesse goodbye, as she did every morning, and headed into work missing her already.

She loved her job. Loved the way things were now; not perfect, but solid. Fin greeted her first when she arrived - an enthusiastic happy birthday, followed by a “But you’re not getting out of this paperwork,” as she sat at her desk. Carisi arrived next; there was a bounce in his step and she knew he was up to something. He passed by her desk without greeting her, and she shook her head - he hustled into Liv’s office - he was carrying what looked like a cake box and he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it, but she let him have his little pretence.

There were flowers, and gifts, and Carisi picked up pizza for lunch - they all ate together in the break room, Barba dropping by in time for Liv to bring out the cake box - it was from a bakery, not the store, and something about that warmed Amanda’s heart - she blew out the candles and rolled her eyes when Carisi ask her what she’d wished for. She was past wishing on birthday candles.

They all came over after work - Liv stopping at home to collect Noah - Fin poured out glasses of sparkling wine and they sat together - Amanda and Jesse and this little family they had found for themselves. As they sat around her tiny apartment, laughing and joking together, Amanda began to open the birthday cards that had come in the mail, handing Jesse each envelope to scrunch in her tiny fists, smiling as Carisi deftly tugged the paper away from Jesse’s curious mouth, risking his own fingers in the process. There was a card from her, and from her aunt back in Georgia, a couple of from old friends, and not one, but two cards signed “Jesse” - both in familiar handwriting; Liv and Carisi had clearly had the same idea about how to mark her first birthday with Jesse in her life, and she felt her heart tighten as she read them both; overwhelmed with love for her makeshift family.

She thanked them both, quietly, separately - Liv hugged her - they shared a moment of solidarity; since they had both become mothers they had developed a new, different bond, and Amanda appreciated having Liv in her life more than she expected she would - far beyond what she imagined the first time they met, when every interaction was coloured by just a tinge of hero worship, when Amanda had been looking for a mentor more than the friend she now had.

Carisi, for his part, denied all knowledge despite the grin on his face betraying him. He had Jesse in his arms and he hoisted her above his head, revelling in the giggle she let out, "You're just that smart, aren't ya Jesse?" he said, before meeting Amanda's eye, giving her a real, genuine smile. "I'm sure it's nothin' Jesse won't do herself, soon as she's big enough."

April 13th 2021

Sonny had told her would meet her at the precinct - they were going for a family dinner he’d said - somewhere nice - so she’d changed out of the clothes she’d had on at work and into a seldom-worn dress that she knew he liked. He was late, though, and the rest of the squad had already said goodnight, wishing her a happy birthday on their way out of the door. She’d been suspicious at how quickly they’d all departed for the night, but she had already warned Sonny that if he was taking her to a surprise party she was going to murder him; and she was fairly confident could hide the evidence.

She heard the girls before she saw them - Jesse’s shoes clicking against the tiles as she raced across the bullpen, Billie scrambling to keep up. They were in matching dresses - dresses she’d never seen before - and when she looked up at Sonny she could see he’d changed into something new as well; she saw him in a suit everyday, but this one was particular well cut, and she enjoyed the view as he approached.

“Mommy, Happy Birthday!” Jesse called out, wrapping her arms around Amanda. Billie followed a second later and Amanda smiled down at her girls, in their matching party dresses, and her boyfriend hovering behind them - she still couldn’t get over calling him that; the newness of it all soaked in almost seven years of friendship - all of them here to celebrate her birthday. As much as she had said she didn’t want a fuss, she had to admit she was touched by the effort Sonny had gone to.

He leaned over Jesse to press a soft kiss to her lips, before turning and gesturing to the exit. “Happy Birthday.”

When they got to the restaurant, Sonny told the waiter they already had their table - and Amanda threw a faux-annoyed glare at him, wondering what exactly he’d arranged. “Sonny, I said-”

“I know,” he said, squeezing her hand in his - he was carrying Billie, his left arm wound securely around her; Jesse was on Amanda’s other side, clinging to her other hand. “Just family.”

“Dominick, if you’ve called my mom-”

He shook his head. “I haven’t.”

She let him lead them through the restaurant, still suspicious. They reached a table in the back and Amanda saw what Sonny had meant - saw and understood because this was her family - Kat, Fin and Phoebe, Olivia, Noah, even Barba - all smiling up at her, wishing her a happy birthday like they hadn’t only seen her an hour before.

A family dinner, just like Sonny had promised - they ate good food, drank some very good wine and followed it up with an excellent cake. As the evening wore on, the wine continued to flow as the adults relaxed. Sonny had taken Billie out of the highchair when she began to grumble, and she was now curled up in his lap, a damp patch forming on his suit jacket where she was drooling against him.

Jesse had switched seats with Liv, and she Noah were bent over his tablet, watching cartoons and oblivious to what was going on around them. Amanda let her eyes roam around the group; these people who were here to celebrate her simply because they loved her; and she loved each of them. Sonny reached over to her with the hand that wasn’t holding Billie to his chest, his fingers threading through hers, “Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you,” she told him, “For all of this,” she gestured at the table, at their friends - their family. “All of you.”

#amanda rollins #rollins week #svu fic #my fic #rollisi fic