#anyways she’s my gay enemy if we ever see each other again it’s ON SIGHT

[gamerhamlet]

saw some tiktok screenshot that was st like ‘therapy isn’t enough I need to fight the girl I had a homoerotic friendship with’ and I haven’t stopped thinking about it all day

#when I was v new at my job there was another girl who was also super new #on day shift tho not nights. so we always ended up giving each other shift report #and we Definitely weren’t friends it was like. a homoerotic rivalry? hatred-ish? enemies?? #like she was always trying to prove she was smarter than me (redundant. I’m stupid as all fuck) #and she would like flirt w me at the same time? ? but also constantly interject that she had a boyfriend #I hated her. so much. irritating as all fuck #so obviously I flirted back #i was never rly sure if she was gay or if I was like projecting tho until! until like a month ago I saw #a fb post from her and the WIFE she’s somehow acquired in the three years since??? #anyways she’s my gay enemy if we ever see each other again it’s ON SIGHT

[purple-baby-d]

overthinking over you.

Lee Donghyuck (Haechan — NCT) X female reader.

Genre: Fluff, smut.

Word count: 8,672.

Content: student!hyuck, student!reader, sportplayers!nct, kissing, first time sex (male), dry humping, foreplay, fingering, depictions of violence that may be upsetting for some readers, I kinda made Johnny a dick so sorry to y’all beforehand, just some lovely and probably cringey au to have a valentine’s day feast before valentine’s day because I realized I haven’t written an au for my best friend in a while and the 90′s Love era Haechan has been attacking me for long enough so I decided to do something about it.

Brief: Captain of the hockey team, Honor Roll student, an amazing friend and the pride and joy of his parents, Lee Donghyuck certainly has it all to other people’s eyes, but what about the girl he’s dreamed of? No, he’s pretty much a great overthinker for that. But now that she broke up with her boyfriend, will his head get on the way of him getting to her heart?

Dedicated to @theravengoddess, happy Valentine’s day, bestie! I love you and thank you for being with me through the ups and downs 💜

After some long hours of practice, the hockey team was finally sent to the lockers by the coach, the old man’s chest was filled with pride by his back-to-back champion, the Neo Cultural Tech All-Stars. But of course, he didn’t want his players to slack off, so he wouldn’t let them know that.

The man of the hour, Lee Donghyuck, got out of his warm shower to dress up and go home, finding his fellow team players in the lockers. “Hey, nice practice today, Hyuck”, Jeno complimented, patting his shoulder. “Thanks, man. You were quite impressive out there too”, he smiled at him. “You guys wanna crash at my place to study for the finals? My last brain cell died trying to figure out the Algebra study guide”, Mark sighed, pulling his red hoodie down as he slipped his arms into the sleeves. “I’m down, I seriously need divine help for that one”, Sungchan said, tying the laces of his sneakers. “Me too, the question is if our savior will be there to help us”, Yangyang teased, looking at his team captain.

The blonde looked at him with a little smile, shaking his head. “You guys are truly a pain in the ass”, he sighed. “Oh, come on, Hyuck! I’ll pay for the pizza”, Yangyang pleaded, truly concerned about his grades. “You know if I don’t get at least a B, I won’t be able to stay in the team, what are you gonna do without your heartthrob?” he asked while pouting and batting his eyes. “But WinWin has good grades”, Mark teased, making his fellows laugh and Hyuck sigh. “Fine, but if you start staring at your phone instead of studying, I will whoop your ass”, Donghyuck agreed, and the rest of them high-fived each other.

“Ayo, Ten!”, Mark called out, looking at the guy who had just gotten out of the shower. Donghyuck saw something weird in him, he looked as if he was in a rush. “We’re having a group study session at my place, Hyuck will help us with the Algebra study guide, you down?”, he asked. “I’ll have to pass, guys. Johnny is pissed, it seems like he and Y/N broke up”, he said, making Donghyuck stop in his tracks, shocked. “What? What for?”, Mark asked again, concerned for Ten’s stepbrother, the star of the school’s martial arts team. “You know Johnny, she probably found out he cheated on her or something, but I’m still his brother, so I gotta be there for him”, Ten sighed, getting dressed within five minutes with his hair still dripping wet. “Anyways, maybe the next time, take care, y’all!”, he said before rushing out of the lockers’ room.

Jeno looked at his blonde friend, knowing exactly what he was probably thinking. His seemingly hopeless love was finally available again, how exciting was that? However, he looked rather terrified, and it was because his overthinking head was working at full speed.

Oh God, is she okay? Did Johnny hurt her badly? Should I text her? What if she doesn’t wanna talk about it? What if she doesn’t wanna talk at all? What if she doesn’t like boys anymore after this? Irene started dating Seulgi after Junmyeon broke up with her, what if Y/N does that too? Should I go with her? But I already told the guys I would help them... Jesus, Lee Donghyuck, you’re such an idiot.

Lee Donghyuck had many virtues, sadly his biggest enemy was his head.

“Guys, I think we lost him”, Sungchan said, as he saw Donghyuck spacing out. “What?” he said, once he realized his surroundings. Mark patted his shoulder, “Lee Donghyuck, you’re truly one of a kind. If y’all ready, let’s go”, he said, and their group left the lockers and headed to the parking lot, where everyone got into Donghyuck’s black Jeep to head off to Mark’s place. However, the team captain was still thinking about his long-time friend, who he’s had a crush on for the longest time. He simply shook it off, he was a man of his word, so he would help his friends and once they’re done with studying, his head would be clear enough to know what to do.

Because there was nothing better for Lee Donghyuck to clear his mind than a good Algebra study guide.

“Oh, man, thank God it’s over!”, Sungchan yawned, stretching after finishing the last problem of the study guide and the last slice of pizza left on the third box, “I get it all now, how did you do that?”, Yangyang asked, looking at Donghyuck with utter confusion. “Well, it’s quite simple if you actually get your head in it”, the blonde replied, saving the study guide back in his backpack before grabbing his phone, still wandering between texting you or not. It wouldn’t be weird, you’ve known each other since kindergarten and been friends for years. However, your ex-boyfriend, the widely-known playboy Seo Johnny, had kept you from talking ever since you started dating last summer, and honestly, Donghyuck didn’t want you to have problems because of him.

He loved you a lot to do that.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow, Jeno, do you want a ride?”, you asked the only one within your group you knew didn’t plan on staying over at Mark’s or lived close enough to walk home. Jeno logically nodded, picking up his bag and saying his respective goodbyes. Of course, something seemed to click in Jeno’s head when Donghyuck offered to give him a ride home: you lived in front of his house. Obviously, he wasn’t going to point that out, knowing Donghyuck, he would take back his offer, and he honestly didn’t want to walk the ten blocks that distanced Mark’s place to his.

“You think I should talk to her?”, Donghyuck asked halfway through, looking at Jeno briefly as they got to a red light. Jeno sighed, taking his sight away from the window to look at his friend. “Honestly, Hyuck? You’ve been in love with her since fifth grade, you should gather the balls to tell her once and for all, it’s so fucking frustrating to deal with your overthinking ass head”, he replied, taking a deep breath afterward. What hurt Hyuck the most was knowing that he was right and that even after all those years, he’d always see you run into another guy’s arms.

First, it was Lucas, your boyfriend from sixth to eighth grade. He had a wealthy family and was the school’s fencing champion. And then, it was Johnny, who you’d been with since barely months after you broke up with Lucas. Sadly, it has always been the same for Donghyuck: as soon as he gathers the courage to ask you out, you’d already started dating someone else. You have a long, toxic relationship with the new guy, he breaks your heart, you go to him. It was the routine he was used to, the routine his thoughts reserved for him every time. But after parking his car in front of Jeno’s house, he decided that was about to change.

“You sure you’re okay? I’m sorry if I said something-”, Jeno tried to apologize, but Donghyuck cut him off. “It’s alright, Jen. You said what was in your head and I respect that, mostly because you’re right”, he sighed, looking down for a while before taking a deep breath and reaching out his hand for a small handshake with his friend. “I’ll see you tomorrow”, he grinned, as Jeno got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride, drive home safely!”, the raven-haired boy exclaimed as he walked into his house. Donghyuck stayed outside for a while, and while he did, he sighed as he kept thinking what was the right thing to text you.

But decided to let all of that go, he just typed the first thing that came to his head and pressed sent, locking his phone so he wouldn’t keep looking at it on his way home.

“Johnny is a dick, and I think it’s time for me to say I told you”, Wendy laughed as you simply shook your head. Yeah, they all warned you, it’s true. But the truth also was you never really had super strong feelings for Johnny, nor Lucas, nor for any of the boys you’ve dated before. But then, why would you date them? Because you weren’t a fan of loneliness, and even though most of those guys were assholes —especially and at a ridiculous level, Johnny—, they wouldn’t miss the most stupid excuse to be with you when you were alone, which sadly because of your parents’ job was pretty often. “Yeah, I know I should’ve listened to you, Wen” you rolled your eyes as you threw one of your stuffed animals at your friend.

But as soon as she threw another one back, specifically the bear with the hockey team’s uniform, your eyes were about to bawl out. “Hey, be careful with this one!” you said, making sure it was still in perfect conditions. All of your friends looked at you, quite taken aback by your reaction. However, Demi, your neighbor, smiled a little before explaining your reaction. “All the other stuffed animals were from the idiots, but Lee Donghyuck gave her that one”, she sat next to you, as you both smiled while looking at each other. “Lee Donghyuck? As in the hockey team’s captain, Lee Donghyuck?”, Joy asked, quite excited. You nodded, letting out a small sigh as you thought of him.

“I’ve heard he’s gay, I mean, he hasn’t gone public about a relationship like... ever? And besides, he has rejected every girl that’s asked him out”, Irene said, quite as nicely as ever. “No offense, I mean, I’m obviously an ally... but, how come such a hot piece of cake like him has never dated someone?”. Seulgi looked at her girlfriend, quite shocked at her way to describe him. “Jeno told me he has a crush on someone since fifth grade, but he’s quite an overthinker, he needs to ask his left foot before moving the right one”, Demi chuckled, “But I think that’s cute, he’s been a good friend to Y/N as far as I’m concerned, and if he ever decides to step out of his shell, I bet he will be the exception to the all athletes are idiots rule”.

This last phrase stayed in your mind as Seulgi, Irene, Wendy and Joy left, as they had told Yeri they would go over to her house for a good spiriting session before the cheerleading championship you’d enroll into in a few weeks. You passed, you were scared as hell of those things, and honestly, you preferred to spend some quality time with your neighbor before she went overseas to a musical exchange program. “Ugh, I’m gonna miss you so much, bitch”, you said as you hugged her, making her chuckle. “Hey, I’ll be sending you as many pictures as you want, and I’ll buy you gifts while I’m there, I promise I’ll try every single street food dish London has to offer just for you”, she said, letting out a sigh as she watched through your bedroom’s window. “I’ll miss you and Jeno so much...”, she muttered. You playfully pushed her, “Hey, you’re with your wife right now! Stop thinking about your boyfriend, say you’ll miss me!”, you yelled at her as you both laughed.

Your phone vibrated as a message arrived, and you grabbed it from its previous spot in your bed. As you read who it was from, you simply smiled, something your friend didn’t miss out on. “Let me guess, it’s your gay best friend”, she mocked you, referring to Irene’s comment on the rumors about his private life. You simply looked at her for a second to return your attention to the text.

You typed the answer quickly, quite excited about the fact that he texted you first when it was usually the other way. Demi stared at you while you wrote the message, quite unsure as to why you looked so hyped up.

Hyuckie:

Hey, I heard about you and Seo, I’m sorry.

You felt a pillow being thrown your way, and you looked up only to find your friend looking at you, pretending to be pissed. “Hey, you’re with your wife right now! Stop texting your crush, let’s watch a movie!”, you laughed again at your silly “jealous” attitudes, and ended up turning on your laptop to watch a movie before going to bed.

You:

Hey... it’s fine, I was warned but I still did it.

How are you? I kinda missed you.

Of course, you’d chosen strategically to play the one movie Demi falls asleep watching so you could read Donghyuck’s answer to your texts, and you were a little too excited over it.

Hyuckie:

I missed you too, you should start cheering for the hockey team too!

Would you like to grab a bite tomorrow after class and catch up?

My treat ;)

You:

Are you asking me out?

You asked teasingly, making Donghyuck’s head insane as he laid in his bed, reading your message over and over again thinking about his next move.

Was it too soon? Is it too little? Should I say no? What if she was joking? What if she doesn’t want a date? What if I screw up and she never wants to talk to me again? Reply quickly, idiot! She’ll think you’re ignoring her!

Leaving his thoughts aside, he typed what his heart told him to and sent it, quite to your shock as you read it.

Hyuckie:

If I was, would you say yes?

Biting on your lip as Donghyuck’s hands trembled, you couldn’t hold back a smile. If your friend was right, this would end with the bad streak of dating idiots you’ve had so far, and you’d finally be happy with someone who actually gave you your place. So without thinking it any further, you replied something that made your friend’s heart skip a beat.

You:

Meet me tomorrow after class.

“You asked her out?!”, Jeno exclaimed in shock as he read the small text conversation on Hyuck’s phone. He nodded, and Jeno showed a huge surprised face, “What? I thought that was what you wanted me to do”, the blonde said, quite not getting his friend’s reaction. “I’m just... shocked. I thought it would still take you weeks, days at least. Hyuck, I’m so fucking proud of you!”, he hugged Hyuck as he patted his back. “Damn, our little Hyuck is finally growing up, this and the fact that we slew those Algebra finals is a matter of celebration!” Mark said excitingly. “You just wanted an excuse to throw a party, didn’t you?” Sungchan rolled his eyes, smiling at his friend’s enthusiasm.

“I think I’ll catch up later, I promised Demi I’d be with her tonight”, Jeno sighed. It was a mystery to everyone why he looked so down lately, and it was merely because Jeno wasn’t the sharing type. He liked to keep his problems to himself, in his books it was alright because everyone had their own stuff to deal with. However, quite frequently, the exception to that rule was Donghyuck, but he kept things to himself whenever they were with the rest of the guys.

So once the guys headed off to the library to study a bit more for the rest of their final exams, Hyuck patted Jeno’s shoulder. “I know something’s off, Jeno”, he looked at his friend in the eye, which made Jeno sigh. “Demi is taking off to London for the summer break, and God knows how much longer”, he finally told him. “And I don’t mean to keep her here, because I know that’s her dream, and had it been mine, she’d support me until the very end, but...”, Jeno stared at the ground as they kept walking, not really wanting to say what sounded so selfish in his head, but was truly the only thing that he had in his mind. “You don’t want her to leave”, his friend completed, wrapping his arms around him.

“Jeno, if there’s something I know for sure it’s how much you and Demi love each other”, he chuckled, trying to cheer his friend up. “You’ve been together... God, for as long as I can remember. You’ll survive this, you just gotta let things flow”. Jeno looked up at him with a little smile, “How come you’ve never dated anyone and you still give great dating advice?”. They both chuckled, only for Jeno to look back at him and pat his back, “That’s some great advice, Hyuck, you should follow it too”.

As they reached the exit, both of them went separate ways. Jeno’s words kept ringing in the back of Donghyuck’s head as he walked towards the outdoor field’s bleachers, sitting down as he waited for you still thinking about how he would manage everything. He made an elaborate plan right after finishing the study guide last night, with his mind clear enough to let him make his choices without any further doubts. He took a deep breath and followed the little pre-game ritual he had ever since he started playing hockey: he looked straight ahead and emptied his mind from everything but what he had planned for the day: making sure you knew he’d treat you better than the rest of the idiots you’ve given your heart to.

That was his plan for the most important task he’s had to date.

“Party at Mark Lee’s place tonight, girls!”, you heard Yeri exclaim as you got changed from your PE class in the lockers. The girls looked quite excited and you texted Demi to know if she would come as well, figuring that it would be somewhere in Hyuck’s plans for the night. “Someone looks quite rushed, do you have somewhere else to be?”, Joy asked you, as she slipped her red cropped turtleneck over her head. “I’m going on a date”, you muttered as the other girls looked at you, quite mesmerized. “A date?! With who?” Wendy had the courage to ask, and you smiled as you pointed at Donghyuck’s picture from last year’s yearbook. “Lee Donghyuck?”, Irene gasped, looking at you quite amazed. “Girls, there will be six more weeks of summer this year”. Your friends giggled as you shook your head. “I mean, you’re the first girl he’s asked out like... ever?”. You sighed as you put on some lipstick, blending it with the tip of your fingers.

Seulgi looked at what you were wearing and threw a piece of clothing at you, nearly making you smudge your mascara. “Hey!”, you exclaimed, quite shocked. “You don’t plan on going to Mark’s party later with that, right? Let alone to date the hockey team’s captain”, you looked at your plain red shirt and your white mom jeans, quite confused as you straightened the clothing ball your friend threw your way. “That’s my beloved white furry jacket, it will look cute with that and your matching bucket hat. And it will help you look like you made at least a little effort to look different today”. You dedicated her a little grin as you slipped the jacket on, finding yourself looking like a 90′s teen movie star. “Thank you!”, you told her, walking out the locker room as she yelled one final, “You better take care of it!”.

You jogged your way to the fields as you realized the bell rang twenty minutes ago, afraid of making Donghyuck think you’d forgotten or played with him. A part of you even thought he probably wouldn’t be there. However, you found him sitting in the bleachers, staring at his phone. “Hey, sorry, did you wait too long?”, you asked concerned, only to be greeted by one of his beautiful smiles. He got up, fixing his hair as he rushed down to your encounter, smiling your way. “I was talking to Jeno, I just got here”, he shrugged, a little white lie he made to keep you from feeling bad.

Because that’s how much he loved you.

“Oh, thank God, I was so scared...” you sighed, looking at him with a little smile. “Wow, I’ve seen you every day, yet you look so different”, you grinned, looking at how much his physics had changed from the little kid you remembered: he gained muscles, he was also taller than you remembered him to be, not to mention his golden-tanned skin looked somewhat more tempting than it did before. “Well, you’re still as beautiful as I remembered you to be”, he muttered, picking a lock of your hair behind your ear. That little moment had you feeling those cliché butterflies in your stomach like you’ve never felt them before. “Shall we go now?”, he asked you, reaching his hand out for you to hold.

His hands, good lord. You thought. There was definitely something about them that made you even more excited about holding them. As soon as you held his hand, it felt as if two pieces of a puzzle had been joined. As if the event was long overdue.

You walked over to the parking lot, where your jaw dropped as soon as you saw his ride. “Since when can you drive?”, you asked quite shocked. “I got my driver's license before the last championship, my parents gifted me this after we won”, he replied, opening the passenger’s seat door for you to go inside. “Wow, what a gentleman”, you said, acting as if it was a joke. But the truth was it somewhat made you feel good. No one had ever opened a door for you, and there was Lee Donghyuck, holding your hand to help you get inside his car after he opened the door for you.

Different from other guys you’ve had the chance to ride along with, Hyuck didn’t seem to care about your shoes being dirty when they touched the car, nor about you intending to touch the car. He made you feel as if his car was yours too, and you liked that. He closed the door once you got in and surrounded the car to get in the driver’s seat. You had this stupid smile on your face, and Hyuck noticed that. “What is it?”, he asked you, quite confused but still smiling. You shook your head, “Don’t mind me, I’m just recovering from the algebra test”. He chuckled, as he started the engine, “How come everyone says that? It was a piece of cake compared to the study guide”. You looked at him while laughing, shaking your head lightly. Ever since you were kids, Donghyuck was a genius with numbers. When the teacher asked him, he said it was because he liked to have an answer to problems, and that was when you knew you needed someone like him in your life.

However, due to the situation making you realize things in a totally different way, you surely were questioning the real intentions of that wish.

You stared at him as he focused on the driveway after lending you the AUX cable so you could choose the music, his focus unbothered even with your sort of intense glare. He truly looked like a 90′s boyband heartthrob. His sportslike red and white outfit along with the chains you remember giving him for one of his birthdays a while ago... he looked good. You also smiled a little as you noticed the color coordination you had unwittingly pulled off, you truly looked like a couple... and you liked it.

Donghyuck wasn’t blind, he noticed each one of your smiles but pretended not to since he liked to see you smiling, and his head was certain in the fact that you would try to hide them if he said something about them. “Where are we going?”, you asked him, quite curious about his intention. He wasn’t using any sort of GPS, so he knew where he was going, but that only made you more anxious as to where he was taking you. “Do you remember that place where your parents threw your birthday party in fifth grade?”, he asked, making you look at him with disbelief. “The arcade where I beat you in every single game?”, you giggled. “Yup, that one. I thought it would be nice to go back there, you know... for the memories”, he explained, only to add at the end, “and they also serve some great cheeseburgers”.

The pure definition of the word “nostalgia” hit you as soon as Hyuck parked the car in the place’s parking lot. It was nearly empty, with just some employees going around to check on the games and some people eating in the cafeteria. “Wow, this place is exactly like I remember, they haven’t even changed the games!”, you exclaimed as Hyuck looked at your excitement with loving eyes. You looked at the guy beside you, taking your wallet out of your purse. “Well, the food’s your treat, then mine’s the games”, you said, you didn’t even let him say a word before you went over to the cashier to pay for the coins you’d play with.

The old lady sitting behind the desk looked at you with a kind smile, “That young man came in yesterday when we were nearly closing, he asked us to reconnect some of the old machines, now I get why”, she told you while looking for a few bags of coins, counting them in a machine that later poured them in a little cup. “He sure is in love with you, you’ve got quite a catch of a boyfriend”. You were about to tell her he wasn’t your boyfriend when you turned around, and your eyes found him focused on a crane game, not exactly knowing what he was so focused on getting but certainly going down the memory lane to a 12-year-old Donghyuck pulling an adorable teddy bear out of the game and giving it to you two days later with the hockey team’s jersey and his number in the back.

“I totally agree”, you muttered, smiling as you saw him pulling out the toy he’d gotten. He was so good at those games, at every game being honest. You still couldn’t believe you’d beaten him back in the day. Once the old lady handed you the coin-filled cups, you paid her and she handed you your change. As you counted the money, you realized something was off. “Excuse me, ma’am... you gave me extra change”. She shook her head, looking at you with that same smile. “Half of it is on the house, I let you pay the other half because the young man told me that you were quite stubborn”, she giggled, “Now, go and have fun! Live while you’re young”.

You smiled, thanking her as you walked back towards Donghyuck. He smiled back at your happiness, handing you an adorable stuffed animal. “How come you’re so good at those games?”, you asked him while giggling. “It’s just a matter of space measuring, calculating the probabilities of the toy slipping out or falling off the crane, choosing the most available toy out of the bunch... and I’m boring you”, he smiled nervously as he saw you looking at the toy, an adorable white bear with a red bow. You looked at him again only to find him scratching the back of his neck.

“You weren’t, I like that about you, Hyuck”, you answered honestly. “I hate it when people are overconfident while giving answers to those questions, like when they say ‘I just can’ or that sort of stuff”, he looked at you while you spoke, making you feel listened to. He was truly listening to every single word that came out of your lips as if it was the most interesting speech ever.

Because he loved listening to you.

You spent every single coin playing different games, just like you did when you were kids, breaking your own records in every single machine you played in. You laughed the whole evening, and yet again, you managed to beat Donghyuck in every single game. “Booyah! In your face, twentieth game in a row!”, you mocked him, making your old little victory dance as he smiled, sighing. “Damn, you haven’t lost your touch”, he said, pretending to feel defeated, “Are you hungry yet?”, he asked you kindly. You nodded, and both of you made your way to the cafeteria, as you jokingly bragged about your smashing victory.

The old lady was patiently waiting for you to show up, with two gorgeous bacon cheeseburgers, french fries, and two milkshakes, what Donghyuck had told her to serve you the night prior. You looked at him in shock, “You remember all of this?”, you smiled as you sat down, thanking the lady when she left you your food. “It’s the house’s special, how could I forget it?”, he replied, as if wasn’t anything special. However, you knew deep down his intentions were all the opposite. You started eating, nearly crying at the sensation of memories flooding your head as soon as you gave it a bite. “It’s been so long since I’ve last had a burger this good”, you admitted. It wasn’t pretty usual for you to hang around these places anymore. It was pretty far away from your reach, yet Lee Donghyuck made it his task to make you remember the good old days.

“Why did you bring me here? I want the truth, Hyuck”, you demanded once you were done eating. He looked at you while taking a sip of his strawberry milkshake, swallowing before giving you an answer. “Well, a few years ago, on your birthday, your mother hired an entire show from the old animatronics because your friends loved them”, he started the story, one you certainly remembered. “However, you were scared shitless of them, so you ran out of the room as soon as the lights turned off for them to start the show. You thought no one noticed, but I did. And I ran behind you, only to find you looking at the zombie videogame your friends wouldn’t want to play with you because they didn’t like it”.

He looked at his hands, playing with his fingers as he left out a small chuckle. “Back then, you had this silly nickname for me, because of a bear you saw at the zoo that was named that way”, he said, only for you to complete his sentence. “Haechan”, you smiled, and he nodded. “You looked at me and smiled, and you said ‘Why are you here, Haechan? You should be watching the show, mommy thought you’d like it’. And I took out the coins I had in my pocket and told you-”. “I bet killing zombies with you is more fun”, you muttered, making him smile as you remembered it too. “Mom was so pissed she didn’t find me when the animatronics started singing the birthday song”, you chuckled, making him laugh as well. “That night, as we played, I remember thinking ‘wow, her smile is so pretty’, and it wasn’t until you first made that victory dance of yours that I realized how much I liked you” he confessed finally, leaving you speechless for a second.

You were that girl, you really were the girl Lee Donghyuck was in love with.

“You like me?”, you asked, still shocked. He nodded, not really knowing what to do with his hands. “I’ve been wanting to let you know for the longest time, but whenever I gathered the guts to do it, you started dating someone else. So I decided to keep it to myself, to be there for you as a friend if you needed me. Because even if it hurt me to see your heart break, I wanted to be there to help you fix it”, he explained to you, as the tears started coming out of your eyes. “You mean... when I started dating Lucas... you were planning to confess to me?”, your voice cracked, making him stop everything and reach out to hug you. He wrapped his arms around you and held you close, caressing your back. “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything, nor to feel guilty or bad for me. I was upset, I’m not gonna lie... but I also decided to set you free. If you came back to me, it was because it was meant to be. And you came back every single time, so I waited until the right time until I finally decided it was now”, he told you, as you pulled back slightly to look at him in the eyes.

“Hyuck...”, you couldn’t manage to get any words out of your mouth, but he made you feel as if it was okay to leave him hanging after such an adorable confession. You felt like the biggest trash bag on Earth, and the way he treated you made you feel worse and at ease at the same time. “You need to heal, and I get that. You went through a lot with Johnny, and I know that. I’ll wait until you’re ready if you want me to, and I’ll totally leave my feelings aside if you want me to. I’ll leave it up to you”, he told you, caressing your cheeks and adjusting your hat back in its place. “Mark has a party over at his place, do you want to go?”, he asked you softly, wiping your tears away.

You sighed, looking down for a minute. “Hyuck, I’ll give you an answer, I promise”, you told him, which he let out a little giggle. “It’s truly okay, Y/N. Come on, Jeno told me Mark’s already bragging about his b-boy moves”, he told you, reaching out his hand again after leaving a good tip for the old lady, thanking her again before the two of you left. He always found a way to make you feel better, even when he was probably the most upset.

Because he loved you.

“Yo, Hyuck! You came just in time for another round of beer pong!” Mark greeted his friend as he saw the two of you walking into the party, crowded as usual for one of Mark Lee’s parties. “You guys look fresh! Make yourselves at home, drinks at the kitchen, snacks at the table, dance floor by the pool, and the rooms upstairs are exclusively reserved for the hockey team, so you’re staying over tonight, I’m not asking”. Hyuck looked at him, “Sure, because you’ll get so drunk tonight we’ll have to babysit you again”. Mark stopped in front of him, patting his shoulder. “You know me so well, Hyuckie”, he said, messing up his hair before going back to the party. “Ayo, Winwin! Let’s go get more booze!”.

You looked at Hyuck. “Do you want anything to drink?”, he asked you, raising his voice slightly for you to listen to him despite the loud music playing in the back. “Just some Coke” you replied, and he nodded, walking over to the kitchen as you looked around for Demi, finding her sitting on a couch near the beer pong table. You hugged her, noticing she looked a little excited. “I want every last drop of the scoop, how did it go?!”, she asked you, her smile nearly going from ear to ear. “He likes me, Dem, I’m the girl Jeno was talking about. And I blanked as soon as he confessed to me”, you said, quite embarrassed. “He planned the most adorable evening ever, he did all of these adorable things for it to be perfect... and I couldn’t even say anything”. Demi looked at you concerned, only to change her expression as soon as her attention drifted to someone walking over towards you. “Girl, I don’t mean to be rude, but we really should-”, she started as she helped you get up, only to be cut off by a voice you knew pretty well.

“I see it didn’t take long for you to go over with someone new, huh?”, he told you, looking at you dead in the eye. “Well, the difference, Johnny, is that I at least waited until breaking up with you”, you replied, certainly not scared of him. “Lee Donghyuck? That shitball, seriously? So you’re messing up with my reputation for being some faggot’s cover?”, he asked you, chuckling at the idea, making Jeno and the rest of the hockey team walk over towards you as soon as they acquired awareness of the situation. “You ain’t not even a quarter of the man he is”, you replied and felt him grabbing onto your neck, freezing at the closeness. “Oh, yeah? That wasn’t what you said when I made you my bitch”.

“Hey, asshole!”, you felt released as someone pushed Johnny off of you. Demi held you protectively as Jeno walked over to the two of you, checking out to see if you were okay. “Oh, if it’s the man of the moment, I was looking for you to give you my congratulations, I guess some people settled with used things”, Johnny mocked, only to receive another push from Donghyuck. “You can say all you want about me, but leave her alone or else”. Johnny laughed in his face, “You? You will beat me? You would risk getting your ass kicked for some wasted-ass bitch? Face the facts, Lee! Lucas used her, I used her, God knows how many more have, she’s a fucking slut-!”, he was about to say something else when Donghyuck threw the first punch, with such strength it left Johnny bleeding. You gasped, knowing well enough Hyuck wasn’t the fighting type, let alone the type to start a fight, let’s not even mention starting a fight with the school’s martial arts champion.

As soon as he got punched, you felt your heart stuck in your throat. He tried throwing punches at Johnny, but the ladder returned them faster and harder. Jeno, Yangyang, Sungchan, and Ten rushed to break down the fight, looking at how Hyuck’s blood started to stain the floor. “Enough!”, Mark yelled walking into his house with Winwin and the booze they went for, with that authority voice that made him so respected and loved by everyone in his class. “Johnny, get the fuck out of my house! I give two shits, you have absolutely no right to disrespect my team captain, nor a friend of mine, nor a lady, not under my fucking roof! Get the fuck out before I call the cops!”, Ten walked him out before he looked for further trouble, mouthing a “sorry” your way. You rushed over to Donghyuck, looking at Mark once you realized how his face was bleeding.

“Do you have any first-aid kit?”, you asked him. “Upstairs, third door to the right”, he guided you. You held Hyuck’s hand and guided him over with you, quite concerned about the mess left. Jeno looked at you, knowing exactly what you were thinking. “We’ll clean this up and keep things going as if nothing happened, you go and make sure he’s alright”, he told you, “That idiot thinks everything so damn much, I can’t believe he didn’t think this through... just go with him, it’s gonna be alright” you nodded lightly. You would, you had to make sure he was alright because that fight made you realize just how different he was from every idiot you’ve dated.

Because it made you realize how much he loved you.

Having taken off Seulgi’s coat to keep it away of the blood, you found yourself tending to Hyuck’s wounds in one of the bedrooms bathroom. However, he looked more concerned about you than he was about anything related to his well-being. “Stop”, you ordered. “Stop what?”, he asked, authentically confused. “You know it’s not the first time anyone slut-shames me, right?”, you told him, passing a cotton bud over a slit in his lip. At least once the blood was off, it didn’t look that bad anymore. “It’s quite curious, due to how many campaigns women around the world hold against it, to think that the first ones to publicly degrade me were all girls”, you sighed, not wanting to look at him as you spoke. “Every girl that liked Lucas, every girl Johnny cheated on me with, every girl who wouldn’t make it past the cheerleading tryouts...”, you cleaned the mess you’d made, throwing every last piece of cotton you’d used into the trash bin.

“At this point, you could even say I’m used to it. I would even hear made-up stories about how I would be up for gangbangs with Johnny and his friends, how I sold some old man my nudes for him to pay my college tuition, how I was the one who made Seulgi and Irene bisexual...”, you finally sighed, letting out the tears you’ve held back so long it started hurting. Hyuck noticed that, and just like he did in the cafeteria, he held you close. “I’m tired, Hyuck”, you finally admitted, and he caressed your hair. “I know”, he muttered. “I’m so fucking broken I’m afraid to break the only guy who’s ever really loved me right”, you cried out, just wanting to let everything out as you pulled away from his hug, wanting to look at him as you confessed what has been going on in your heart. “Because I fucking love you, Hyuck... but I’m not even close to deserving-”.

You were cut off by his lips crashing onto yours, a sweet and delicate kiss was what you got as a response. Once he slowly pulled away, he looked at you in the eyes, his hands lightly resting on your cheeks. “You deserve the universe and more, nothing less”, he muttered. The tingling sensation that kiss left on your lips was something you’d never felt after kissing anyone before. And it was the final push for you to finally give in, for you to finally let yourself be loved.

You pulled him close again, your lips crashing on each other as your hands wrapped around his neck, his hands falling from your cheeks all the way to your waist, hugging you the way you did with him. The kiss felt so natural you just sunk into it, as well as he did. Even when his head was going insane with all kinds of questions, he decided to shut them off and follow his own advice.

He’d let things flow.

You broke apart only to guide Hyuck back to the bedroom, he looked at you as he read through your intentions. “Are you sure about this?”, he asked you, caressing your cheek. You nodded, looking at him with loving eyes. “This is the first time I’m a hundred percent sure I want to do this”, you told him. He took a deep breath and walked over to the door, locking it first than anything. He looked nervous, and what the girls had said earlier came to your mind.

“Is this your first time?”, you asked him, to which he nodded, an adorable blush tinting his cheeks. You smiled at him, he looked so adorable you wondered who was that intimidating hockey player everyone saw in the field. “It’s okay, just guide me wherever you feel like going, I’ll follow you”, you told him as you got close to him again. You learned to be cautious ever since you lost your virginity, you’d taken birth control very seriously since day one because your mother and your friends guided you to do so. So even now, when the moment came, you were calm knowing it would be alright, and you wanted Hyuck to feel that as well.

He held your waist, pulling you closer lightly and guiding you into a kiss that got more intense with time, he pulled away for a while only to sit down on the bed, pulling you into his lap to start kissing you again. Your hands grabbed his cheeks, caressing them as the kiss kept going. His hands ran down your back as the heat started rising between you, Hyuck’s kissing abilities were way beyond average, those lips of his felt like cotton candy against yours, and every time your tongue met his, you felt one step closer to heaven. He pulled you away briefly to strip down his torso, and your hands felt curious to wander around his strong build.

He played with the bottom of your t-shirt, looking at you before doing anything else. “Can I?”, he asked gently, his constant asking for consent made you even more sure you were doing the right thing. You nodded and helped him out pulling the red shirt off, revealing your black plain underwear. Once your tops were thrown somewhere on the bedroom floor, he went back to kissing you, his kisses slowly going down your neck as you reached your back to undo your bra, letting your chest fully naked for him to kiss. He took that as your consent, and his kisses went all the way down to your breasts as his hands caressed your back once more.

Little moans left your mouth as Hyuck started kissing sensitive spots of your skin, the fact that he used his mouth to roam around your skin was enough to make you feel like this was the best you’ve ever been treated in bed, and adding up the amount of love you could practically touch in him made you enjoy everything even more. You could feel something starting to press against your core as you started grinding over Donghyuck’s lap. “Fuck, you’re driving me insane, princess”, he groaned, in such a raspy voice it made you want more. You kept grinding against him, loving the small grunts that would come out of his mouth as he kept kissing you.

From one moment to another, you felt the bedsheets in your back, as Hyuck took off his pants, feeling the pressure of his throbbing erection painful enough to rush things up a little bit. Still, he managed to be somewhat delicate "throwing" you over the bed. Once there was nothing but his black boxers keeping him from complete nudity, he crawled on top of you, looking at the button of your jeans to ask "Can I?". You unbuttoned your pants while looking at the guy with a pretty smile, biting on your lower lip as he smiled at you, undoing the zip and taking the heavy fabric off your legs, then looking at your black lacey underwear to ask yet again: "Can I?". You giggled, sitting down only to reach for his lips.

He kissed back as your hand guided his to your dripping center. He looked at you, as his head made an effort to figure out what to do at this point, but remembering the shows he watched with the guys, he figured to start moving his fingers up and down, to his luck, on what turned to be your clit. Small moans made their way out of your lips, and due to your arousal, his fingers managed to slip inside you. He kissed you as he kept moving his hand at a medium pace until you pulled him away, only to leave him face up over the bed. You looked at him, playing with the elastic band of his Calvin Klein underwear.

"Can I?", you asked him softly, only for him to chuckle in embarrassment. He nodded lightly, making you smile as he watched your every move. Once his boxers were no longer a burden, you sat on his lap, making him curse as you started moving on top of him. "You'll set the pace", you told him, leaning down to kiss on his lips. And as soon as he aligned his throbbing erection to your entrance and slowly entered you, he swore he could see the stars. With his hands on your hips, he commanded you to go slowly, as you both moaned out how good it felt. Nice and slow, an expression you hadn't known before, certainly became your favorite after that night. And you kept kissing through the whole thing.

Because that's how much you loved each other.

After that steamy moment, you laid next to him after he helped you cleanse, your body holding his closely as he kept your hand in his heart and his arms surrounded you, one of his hands playing with your hair. He looked at you adoringly, unable to find fitting words to how beautiful you looked to his eyes in that moment. You closed your eyes for a few minutes, listening to his calm, steady breath and feeling his heart beating under your hand. For a moment, he even thought you'd fallen asleep, and that made everything ten times better to him. You slowly opened your eyes, finding that adorable smile you loved so much.

You smiled back, looking him in the eyes. "I thought you would be tired", you muttered, caressing his chest lightly. "I'm way too over the clouds to fall asleep right now, Y/N", he replied softly, making you lean over to kiss him lightly again. You looked at the hour in the digital clock that sat on the nightstand, it was 1:27 AM and the party seemed far from over. The music was still as loud as it was when you walked into the room to tend his wounds. You chuckled as you thought about the people you'd left downstairs, "Do you think Jeno and Demi are waiting for us?", you asked Hyuck, making him laugh a little. "Well, I hope they sorted things out if they are. Jeno was quite concerned earlier", he sighed, making you think the situation through.

Demi would leave in just a few days for that summer program, and Jeno would stay for the hockey team's summer camp, which was pretty much mandatory if he planned to keep his place as a headline player in the team. You knew how important he was to the team, but you also knew Jeno loved your best friend more than anything. And you knew for fact distance wasn't compatible with relationships.

"I think Jeno bought that plane ticket in the end", Hyuck shrugged, making you look at him in shock. "What do you mean?", you asked him. "Well, ever since Demi first applied for the program, he talked to the coach about it. Of course, the coach took a while to understand his issues, but as soon as we won the championship again, he gave Jeno the greenlight", he explained you, staring at the ceiling as he spoke. "Mark and I offered to help him with the expenses, and the coach even booked him in a good hockey camp in London", he smiled at the thought. "However, he's held back because he knows how much this means to Demi, and he didn't want her to lose focus because of him. If there's one thing the coach taught us well, was to get our head in the game as soon as we entered the field, and he didn't want to keep her from doing that. But I think Demi and him talked about it today, because he looked happy while talking to the guys before the fight".

You looked at him still in disbelief, making him giggle. "Is there something on my face?", he asked, and you jokingly punched him. "I thought he and Demi would break up! How could you know about all of this and not tell me?", he giggled and held you close again, as you "fought back", pretending to be angry. "Don't be mad at me, princess. Jeno had his reasons to keep my love for you a secret from Demi, I had mine not to tell you about this", he asked you softly. "They will be having fun in London, you and I will stay here. I think we should join them downstairs if neither one of us can sleep, just so you can have the tea spilled from them".

However, you shook your head. "No, the door is still locked and I still want some sort of compensation for keeping me from knowing my OTP found a way to make it through the challenges of life!", you asked as you grabbed his cheeks, making him smile and sigh. "Say no more", he said, turning the lamp off before kissing you again.

Happy Valentine’s season, everyone! If you love someone, let them know.

#haechan #nct haechan #nct dream #nct 127 #nct #lee donghyuck #nct lee haechan #nct lee donghyuck #nct haechan fluff #fluff #kpop valentines day #theravengoddess #I MISS YOU UNIVERSE

[poppysmc]

You Bet

CHAPTER 2: All Over Me

Poppy's group leave Belvoire early in the afternoon after their classes. They planned on perusing several stores downtown for the stuff she needed.

Why did she let Veronica talk her into this? If I get humiliated, I’m going to kill her. Poppy silently curses herself and her friend.

“V, if you’re not going to help, go outside.” Poppy’s eyes start twitching at all the frilly and fuzzy things that Veronica is sticking under her nose.

“But I am helping.” She drops the bear she’s holding and sulks, Chloe pats her in the back.

Several hours of shopping and she’s ready to pull all her hair out. Who knew it would be this hard. She normally likes shopping, but this? She can barely tolerate.

Poppy planned a full on romantic apology and then she’ll ask her out. That’s what girls want right? She just assumes, she's never been the romantic type. Even with numerous men and women clamouring for her affection, she never really felt a romantic connection with any of them.

She sets everything up, with the help of Chloe, her ever loyal pup. Veronica is tasked to distract the roommate, for a few hours at least. She’s confident that she’ll succeed in the first try, she could almost see the look in Veronica’s face. “I can’t wait to be driven around by Veronica.” She grins and continues preparing with renewed confidence. After all, who could ever resist her…

Poppy waits in the room; Chloe goes outside, hidden, keeping watch for Morgan. Tasked of texting her when she gets close.

Earlier, Veronica suggested that she surprise her. “Hide under the bed. Then when she enters jump out and offer her your flower."

" What the hell, V! Stop being gross.” Poppy turns away, blushing.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I swear. Get your mind out of the gutter, Pop. I meant your bouquet obviously. Why would you even think that?” She wiggles her eyebrows at Chloe, who silently laughs behind Poppy’s back.”

Should I do it? Ugh, who knows what I’ll find under there.  She decides to crawl under anyway, the floor was surprisingly clean, to her relief. She almost falls asleep, Morgan was taking way too long. Before she dozes off, Chloe texts her informing her that her target is entering the room. Poppy hears the bedroom door open, then she sees legs slowly coming closer over to her hiding spot.

Okay, deep breaths. One, two, three. Poppy tries to get it together, preparing for the surprise. She was ready to jump out when a shirt drops in front of her, followed by jeans. She instantly knew what was happening, Morgan is undressing above her.

“Oh god, no. this isn’t happening to me.” Poppy’s eyes widen and was blushing furiously. She thinks of ways on how she’s getting out. Her plans very quickly turns out into a disaster.

She sees Morgan’s legs retreat. She waits for a moment until she hears the door to the bathroom close, giving her a split second chance to escape, she slowly and quietly crawls out of the bed. There’s a soft click and the lights flick on.

A blood curdling scream is heard throughout the building. “God, what’s wrong with you, newbie?” Poppy straightens up and approaches her.

“If you’re here to kill me, you better make it quick.” Morgan croaks out, slowly backing away, forgetting her state of undress.

A beat passes between them. Poppy finally gets it. “Wait! No, I’m not here to-” She tries to defend herself, she was caught in an awkward position. Before she can eloquently pry herself out of the situation, almost half of the floor’s occupants rush in to see what the commotion is about. They see them both looking at each other, Morgan half naked with Poppy standing beside her.

Poppy realizes what’s happening, she comes closer to her and places her body to cover Morgan’s, to preserve her decency.

Poppy was absolutely mortified. She musters up whatever’s left of her bitchy aura to glare at the surrounding crowd, they mumble and retreat. She grabs the towel and throws it over to Morgan, not before catching sight of her toned body.

Oh, she’s hot too.  She walks out averting her eyes. She drags an equally embarrassed Chloe, who lingered by the doorway, she shoos the lingering crowd back to the hall and closes the door.

Poppy leaves Morgan all confused. She sighs helplessly and leans her back to the door. “What the hell was that?”

Morgan finally gets the chance to look around her room. The floor was scattered with rose petals and unlit candles. “What is happening?” A notification from her phone interrupts her train of thought. She reaches for it and surprise, surprise it’s their photos from earlier posted in The T.

 Good Evening Thoroughbreds!

Our very own newbie, Morgan Hughes is caught climbing something (or should I say someone) other than the Queen B’s rank. Kudos to Queen Min-Sinclair, Hughes is a catch.

- Kisses The T

Morgan sighs at the misunderstanding, they make her sound so desperate. She catches sight of a paper left in her bed, she picks it up and sees that it's a letter from Poppy. Of course her handwriting’s perfect too, all curves and loops.

Morgan,

I know we didn’t have a great start earlier, but it’s not entirely my fault that you were being too annoying, but anyway let me make it up to you.

-P

God, can she be anymore abrasive? Morgan tosses the letter over to her dresser, she could almost hear Poppy's voice as she was reading it.

Poppy and Chloe cut across the quad running, she quickly grabs Veronica who’s still flirting with Zoey, dragging her along. Veronica makes a “call me” sign at Zoey, who laughs at her. “Wait I’m still- W-what are we running from?”

“Poppy’s disaster.” Chloe casually replies, earning a swift slap on the back of her head.

“Shut up Chloe, and it’s not my fault anyway.” She grits her teeth at the memory.

They can finally catch their breath in the safety of the Zeta Sorority House. Their phones chime simultaneously a moment later. Poppy already knows what it's  about.Veronica pulls her phone out and bursts out laughing, earning a dirty look from Poppy. “How can you go from an apology to this? Only you Poppy.” She shakes her head, still snickering.

“I can never show my face to her ever again.” Poppy groans as she lies down in the sofa and buries her face on the cushion.

“Are you conceding? It’s been what, barely a day?” Veronica makes grabby hands, asking for her car keys.

“No. Stop that, not yet. I just have to think of something else.” It all comes out as a muffled reply.

“Maybe you should try for a more direct approach.” Chloe advises her while patting her head.

“How much more can you be direct, Chloe?” Veronica asks.

“You two just shut up.” Poppy growls, exasperated.

“Guess what? What in the hell?” Zoey walks in Morgan’s room; she sees her miserably picking off all the petals Poppy scattered in her carpet, which were too excessive.

“Zoey…”

“I think someone’s trying to tell you something.” Zoey chuckles, getting the vacuum from the storage. “She must have bought all the flowers in the shops downtown.”

“Please, I’m not going to fall for it. If she thinks for one second that I-” She picks up a bouquet on the other side of the bed, one that Poppy was supposed to surprise her with.

“You what?” Zoey looks at her knowingly.

“I’m still apprehensive, she’s all up in my throat earlier. What changed?” Morgan looks at the bouquet suspiciously.

“Maybe she just likes you and has a terrible way of showing it.” Her room mate shrugs.

“I seriously doubt that, maybe it’s a keep your enemies close sort of thing. Who knows what’s going on inside her head.” Still, as she says that, she can’t stop the warmth blooming in her chest. “I’m going to talk to her tomorrow.”

THE NEXT MORNING

Morgan tries to find her before her classes, to clear up the misunderstanding she caused but she couldn’t seem to find her. She sees a flash of strawberry blonde hair here and there but when she tries to follow, she immediately loses sight of her.

“She’s hiding from me.” Morgan comments over her burrito bowl, while having lunch with Zoey.

“Maybe she’s just busy?” Zoey cringes at her weak reply, even she didn't believe what just came out of her mouth. After the disaster yesterday all splashed over the T, she couldn't blame Poppy from hiding.

“I saw her try to duck behind the hedges when I called her name.” Morgan deadpans.

“Try to ask Chloe, she’s always following her around like a lost puppy.”

“Nevermind. I just found her.” She catches sight of Poppy walking inside one of the nearby buildings. Morgan jumps up and sprints towards her. "You’re not getting away from me this time" She mutters under her breath. When she enters though,  she looks around but she sees no sign of Poppy anywhere. “Damn, I lost her again.”

“Hi Morgan!” She almost jumps when someone suddenly spoke right next to her. A scream was stuck in her throat.

“Uhh… Do you need something?” Morgan questions the girl.

“T-This is for you.” The girl hands her a bear, she leaves immediately after handing it to her, offering no explanation. She looks down at the card attached.

Morgan,

I’ll pick you up at 7pm tonight, be ready.

-P

Her again? Why can’t she just speak to me like a normal person.  “Ugh, can she even be more annoying?” She walks back to Zoey, and she does the unthinkable; she hugs the bear to her chest. It smells like her...What am I doing?

“So, you followed her and came back with that?” Zoey asks her, eyebrow raised. Morgan didn’t know what to say, she just blushes. The students milling about were starting to look in their direction, snapping a couple of photos, presumably for The T.

“Let’s go Zoey, I hate when people stare.”

“You’ve been hot topic from day one, get used to it.” Zoey chuckles and stands. They begin their trek to the dorms.

POPPY POV

She has been trying all morning to avoid Morgan and she’s sort of proud that she’s doing a good job at it.

Veronica texts her: I heard you were avoiding Morgan. Wtf are you doing, you gay disaster???

I got it under control. Don’t worry. PS. I’m not a disaster, I do everything with grace and fyi I'm bi. Poppy types out a response.

Yeah right. I’m more worried about Chloe, she might die from second hand embarrassment. Anyway, just go to her, you’re making it seem like you hate her with all your dodging.

NO! Can’t show my face yet. I’ve got a plan, just watch and learn.

She receives another text from Taylor, her lackey. It’s done, Poppy. Attached was Morgan’s photo, hugging the bear with a small smile in her face. She smiles softly, staring at the photo. She forwards the photo to their group chat after realizing that she was staring at it for an inordinate amount of time. She captioned: SUCCESS! She can’t wait to rub it in Veronica’s face later.

>She walks back to the Sorority House while typing up a new text to Morgan. Hey, We’re still on at 7, right? –P

How did you even get my number? You’re such a creep.

I have my ways. So? Is it a yes?

So, you just assumed I’ll go out with you? Why exactly are you doing this?

You’re pretty, I’m gorgeous. We’d look good together. What's there to think about?

If this is your demented way of flirting, think again. It’s a no for me.

No one says no to me, Morgan, you’ll realize that sooner or later.

Like I said; it’s creepy, Min-Sinclair. I’m not going.

“Where did I go wrong.” Poppy thumps her head on the table in confusion and irritation.

#poppy x mc #Poppy Min Sinclair #myfic #you bet

[hotpinkrathian]

Double Date

(Kyalin) (Korrasami)

“I still don't understand why you agreed to this." Lin grumbled while Kya buttoned up the neck part on Lin's dress.

"Because, Korra and Asami have been nothing but nice to us since we... made the announcement. And it's good for us, and them."

"I can't possibly comprehend how this much stress is good for me."

"Oh Lin, stop being dramatic and get the keys. We don't want to be late," Kya said, rubbing the back of Lin's shoulders briefly before grabbing a purse and making way to the door. Lin bent the keys to her palm and followed, still grumbling under her breath.

"Hey, look there they are," Asami whispered to Korra, who had enticed herself by making a tune from hitting knives on the glasses.

"Hmm? Oh look, is Lin in a dress?"

"I think so."

"Bolin would love this." Asami nodded in agreement and the two of them played it cool while the older couple took their seats.

"Good evening Korra, Asami," Kya smiled, placing her jacket in the back of the chair.

"Good evening," Asami replied with an equally gentle smile.

"Lin nice dress," Korra blurted, getting an elbow to the stomach from her girlfriend. Lin just stared at her, her arms crossed and the same unamused look on her face.

"So, do you two come to this place often?" Kya asked.

"It's our favourite, it's central too so that helps. Some days we are together from 9 till 5 and others we hardly see each other. We always seem to end up here." Asami explained, taking a sip of her water when she was done.

"Oh I get it, I can't tell you how many times I've had to go to the station to bring Lin home from work."

"It's not that often," Lin protested, weakly. Kya rolled her eyes and Asami stifled a smile.

"Kya have you been to the air temple recently?" Korra asked.

"I was there the other day, why?"

"I was just wondering how everyone was doing. They're not around as much anymore, I hate to admit but I kind of miss Tenzin breathing down my back." Kya laughed and flipped the page of her menu.

"Tenzin has the effect on people. While he's around you hate him, when he's gone you miss him. Everyone's doing good, Jinora has really stepped into her role as a master, and Tenzin thinks that there's another arrow ceremony in the near future."

"That's amazing! I'm so happy for all of them."

"And how about little Rohan?" Asami asked.

"Well, he was crawling like crazy when I saw him, so he's mobile."

"Any sign of bending?"

"Not yet, but they didn't know the others were benders until they were a little older. There's still time." A waitress came, an empty platter in hand and a pencil and paper ready to go.

"My name Karina, I'll be your server today, can I start you girls off with some drinks?"

"I'll just get a virgin Margarita, Cherry please," Asami said.

"Yeah and I'll get one of those, with the alcohol in Lime," Korra added.

"I'll get a red wine, whatever's cheapest is fine," Kya grinned.

"I'll go for a soft drink, anything's fine," Lin said.

"Alright I'll be back soon enough" Karina smiled before taking off for the kitchen.

"Virgin Margarita, ill never understand, Asami," Korra joked.

"Well someone's gotta take you home."

"I know, I appreciate it. Even though I tease you." Asami blushed, and tried to hide her face from Kya who watched them with a sloppy grin.

Lin observed her surroundings, she tried to do the small talk like Kya had asked, but it was hard, and awkward. Instead she avoided eye contact, happy watching the workers move about.

"Well anyway, I show up at the precinct, and Mako is standing outside, this look on his face and I knew things were bad. I ran inside and I kid you not I busted down the doors to her office, Lin had a knife wound up her side, it was bleeding all over. And you know what she says to me? 'Kya it's not a big deal'" The younger girls laugh and Lin looked over to them.

"Okay honey, you're exaggerating just a bit. It wasn't a "knife wound" it was a scratch that just so happened to be caused by a knife shaped piece of metal." Lin added. Korra and Asami laughed, and Lin smiled, just a bit. She fiddled with the straw of her drink, halfhearted you listening to Asami tell then about one of their adventures on their vacation.

"Hey Lin, you okay?" Kya asked.

"Hmm? Yeah fine. I'm just going to the bathroom, excuse me." She replied, ignoring the worried glances from the rest of the group. She made her way to the bathroom, her brow sweating as more and more people set their eyes on her. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier today. She was out, and an aggressive older man had targeted her, because of her relationship with Kya. And now the four of them, being out together, it didn't feel safe..She hadn't told Kya, she knew how the water bender would worry, but she couldn't help but keep her eyes peeled on their surroundings, just in case another jackass tried to approach her with bad intentions.  The bathroom was empty, thankfully, and she let herself relax by the sink for a moment. Taking in the silence and solitude of the room. It wasn't long before the door swung open, and the Avatar stepped in, desperate not to disturb the peace.

"Lin. You uh... good in here?"

"I'm fine Korra, go back to the table."

"See you say that, but something tells me I should stay."

"You're confused."

"Hmmm, try I'm confused. Well not me. You. You say: I'm confused."  Lin sighed and faced away from the younger girl, putting a hand to her forehead on a crossed elbow. "Did someone say something? Was it Asami she can get pretty talkative sometimes. I don't get it you know? She says I have a habit of unnecessary rambling but I rarely speak-"

"-Korra. Oh my god."

"Something is wrong." Lin sighed again, this time Korra can you to her, stepping into her eye sight. "Lin you can tell me anything. I'll even keep it a secret if you want." Korra grinned, not a happy grin, but one that instilled confidence in Lin.

"I was attacked today."

"Ok not where I thought this was going, but continue."

"Some old bigot, guess he caught wind of my current relationship status, and that was too much for him."

"Wait, he attacked you because of..."

"Yeah."

"Does Kya know?"

"No! She'd get all angry, wouldn't let it down."

"Oh. Well honestly Lin, I have to hand it to you, you have the tolerance of Avatar Aang. If it were me... I would've been really destructive."

"Well its not like I didn't do nothing, I just didn't do enough."

"Ever since people found out about me and Asami, it hasn't been as happy go lucky as it used to be. So many people are happy for us, but there's still a lot of people who make enemies of themselves. I'm the Avatar and usually that's enough to send them running but you, you're a person."

"I'm the chief of Police,"

"That makes it worse. Some people have a problem with woman in power, a gay woman in power is just unheard of." Lin felt the corners of her mouth curve into a smile.

"Thanks Korra."

"Are you ready to go back to the table?"

"Yes, I am."

"Thank the Lion Turtles, I'm starving."

"Here they come, it looks like Korra got through to her," Asami whispered.

"Well I'll be darned," Kya replied as Lin and Korra sat at the table. "You good babe?" Kya asked.

"Great," Lin replied with a smile, kissing Kya in the cheek. Kya felt herself blush, and she spun the noodles on her fork in hopes of it fading. She caught Korra winking at her from the other side of the table and she smiled, releasing a discreet laugh.

"Where's the waitress?" She asked after a moment, "I'm ready for another glass of wine."

"Hell yeah!" Korra cheered, beckoning the waitress and getting herself a beer and Kya another glass of wine.

"Just bring the bottle," Kya told the waitress before she could leave. "So," Kya started, "What are we drinking to tonight Korra?"

"We, are drinking to Lin Beifong. For being the best bad ass in the city!"

"I can get behind that!" Kya smiled.

"Same here. To Lin Beifong then!" Asami added, raising her glass to theirs. Lin smiled, and with the motivation from her peers she raised her glass too, getting much more enthusiasm then she deserved. They took a sip at the same time, Korra and Kya's lasted significantly longer, nearly downing their newly refilled drinks in one go.

"Lin," Kya attempted at a whisper, "I love you," Lin smiled, and not without a small shake of her head she looked at her girlfriend.

"I love you too."

"Okay Korra, you and Kya can hang out tomorrow. Sure, Lin can drink with you next time. No we aren't stopping at Mako's stop teasing him it's not nice." Lin laughed as Asami put a four drink Korra into the car.

"Come on," she offered her own arm to Kya who stumbled a bit out of the restaurant, catching herself on Lin's arm.

"Lin I have been meaning to tell you all night, that dress really works for you."

"Tell me at home."

"Oh I will," Kya replied, rubbing her hand down Lin's cheek.

"You got that handled?" Lin shouted to Asami, who nodded, putting both thumbs up.

"Do you?" Asami asked.

"It's my job," Lin replied, boding farewell to the inventor and her girlfriend. Lin got in her own Sato Mobile, Kya leaned against the window, gazing out at the city lazily. They drove insolence for a few blocks, before Kya sat up, looking at Lin with a surprisingly straight face.

"Lin I know you pretty well," she said, "I know you well enough to know something bothered you today. You don't have to tell me, I'm just glad you're okay." Lin smiled, and let Kya rest her head on Lin's lap while she drove, using one hand to stroke her hair. The rest of the drive was silent, except the sound of their breathing, at one point Kya's became so steady Lin thought she had dozed off, but then she felt the waterbender adjust her head so she was looking straight up at Lin. From the look on her eyes Lin felt as though she was reading Kya's mind, your so beautiful. Kya had never let her forget it, and although the words made Lin feel awkward, she couldn't deny the small spark of joy each time it was said.

#kyalin #legend of korra #lin beifong #team avatar #korrasami #asami sato #avatar the last airbender

[scarlet--wiccan]

your ideal billy/teddy duo comic (plot, character designs, artists and writers involved etc)

One thing that I've always wanted to see is a comic about Billy and/or Teddy that was produced entirely by mlm creators. Vecchio, Robles and Gracia are all gay artists who've worked with the characters on recent titles, and I'm eager to see more from them. While none of these artists have ever shown the characters in a way that exactly suits my wants, they've each demonstrated a clear personal vision of who Billy and Teddy are that I can respect. I find that Vecchio and Robles, as illustrators, both articulate a gay sensibility in their designs and are able to represent a range of gay identities and expressions with not only dignity, but real love, which is frustratingly hard to come by. Oh, also, Kevin Wada covers, because duh.

Writers are a little bit more difficult for me. I love Anthony Oliviera and I know that he's got a lot of ideas for the characters, so I'd be delighted to see anything that he might pitch. Vecchio also does write, and his creator-owned series, Sereno, is an urban superhero story in a modern fantasy setting-- something he describes as Batman Beyond meets Sailor Moon. Based on that, I think he'd do a great job telling a story about a witch and shapeshifter from New York. I know that Sina doesn't work for Marvel anymore, but I've always wished he could've done Billy and Teddy in a sweet little rom-com miniseries, or even just a single issue special. He's particularly good at writing tender, funny, and just unapologetically gay characters who signal authentic elements of our culture and community without making them cheap or laughable. That is a quality which I find essential for Billy and Teddy, and it's part of why I want more mlm creators to work with them.

If you had asked me this question last year, I would have had an easier time pitching ideas for these characters. I'm eager to see what the future holds for them, but "rulers of an interplanetary nation" was never part of my vision for how Billy and Teddy would be spending their early twenties. I did have this idea for an ongoing series about their "college years", wherein Billy would be studying magic with Wanda and Agatha, and Teddy would work part time with Carol or Alpha Flight while attending community college or learning a trade, like piercing or tattoo artistry. The idea was that they'd often spend time apart, as they'd each be focusing on their own careers and having individual storylines, but they'd always come home to each other at the end of the day and lend each other support, in ways both mundane and super-heroic.

I used to imagine that they'd stay in that nice apartment Sunspot got them, which would act as sort of a crash pad/base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends. They could convert one of the rooms into a magical sanctum for Billy, and another into a study room or art studio for Teddy. Tommy, America, Kate, or whoever could crash on their sofa whenever they're in town or need to do a team-up. Wanda could help Billy ward the apartment so that he and America are the only ones who can portal in and out, but then Loki would find a way to get around the wards and cause trouble, and there'd be a whole dramatic reunion. The whole idea could easily be adapted as a Young Avengers ongoing if you widened the focus from the main couple and treated it as an ensemble piece with individually chunked plot-arcs, much like the original series.

Unfortunately, that idea no longer holds as much water as I'd like because, for one thing, they lost that apartment and never explained why-- it seems like it was passively retconned out in between New Avengers and Death's Head. More importantly, they now live in space, with Teddy being a busy ruler of an interstellar Alliance, and Billy his prince-consort.

I would still like to explore the idea of them pursuing separate goals and working in separate fields while never being truly apart. Empyre introduced a clever plot device wherein Billy is now able to sense Teddy's location and teleport to him instantly, no matter the distance, which, I assume, works in reverse as well. This feat of magic is made possible by their marriage, which binds them symbolically and draws on the power of their love. They can go anywhere and do anything on their own, and still be together again at a moments' notice, which is super romantic and also affords them more flexibility than most superhero couples. I would still pitch a series about Billy doing magic work on Earth while Teddy does diplomacy in space, and one can always warp to the other when they need backup fighting a bad guy. They could even switch back and forth between staying on Teddy's throne-ship, and getting cozy at Billy's little Manhattan apartment when they want to get away from it all.

I guess my final answer is that I want the two of them to be fully realized, individual characters whose love is illustrated through mutual support rather than, like, being glued to each other's hips. The things that I want to see Billy doing are very far removed from the things that I want to see Teddy doing. Superhero characters tend to lose momentum when you marry them off, and superhero couples tend to fizzle when you keep them apart, but Billy and Teddy's unique strength is that they're never truly apart, and their relationship never seems to lose steam-- they've been a pair from the start, and... they're a little obsessed with each other.

The Billy story that I most want to see right now is a full Maximoff team-up. It could go in one of two directions: A) a quest to uncover Natalya's history and finally vanquish the Emerald Warlock, in which they're waylaid by Doom and other magic villains from their past, while teaming up with their magical friends around the world-- basically a sequel to Scarlet Witch; or, B) a showdown with Krakoa and a resolution of their relationship with Erik, which, best case scenario, partially reverses the Axis retcon and proves once and for all that the Maximoffs are mutants. If we got a longer series, we could actually do both plots-- they learn something about Natalya which leads them back to Erik, and the two arcs become a larger story.

The Teddy story that I most want to see is a Guardians-esque space romp with political elements featuring Teddy, Xavin and Noh-Varr as, like, a sexy-alien-boys version of the Gullwings from Final Fantasy X. Does that make sense? I don't have a great grasp on the political landscape of Marvel Space so it's a little hard for me to come up with details, but I know that the status quo has been totally upended, so there are going to be different factions and movements springing up, and likely no shortage of villains and space monsters rearing their heads when the dust of the war has fully settled. Teddy's a monarch now, but he's also been set up as this Arthurian hero-king, so I think there's still room for him to go on adventures and fight his own battles with his magic sword and, maybe, a crew of loyal space knights.

Having said aaaallll of that, I would absolutely die for a full-on fantasy adventure story with Billy and Teddy. I mean, Teddy's a king with a magic sword and his husband is a super-powerful witch. It's gotta happen. I'd actually be into them having a rematch with Mother, who is a pretty adaptable villain, in that her abilities and motives will differ depending on how she's been summoned. I'd also really like them to have a chance to go up against Sequoia directly, and on more even grounds. Quoi is such a great enemy for them because they represent the same generation of Avengers babies, and, actually, Quoi's origins are directly tied to Billy's-- their respective parents had a double wedding together. Sequoia and Teddy's arcs in Empyre paralleled and contrasted each other beautifully, but the two characters had no meaningful interactions. I want to see thems as arch rivals, and maybe, begrudgingly.... friends? Plus, I love that they're both alien princes who live in sci-fi stories, but whose aesthetics and powers are pure fantasy-- Quoi's a dryad wizard and Teddy is King Arthur, if King Arthur was a gay anthropomorphic dragon.

Anyways, that's my Wiccan+Hulkling pitch. The first arc is Billy and Teddy facing off against Sequoia in a magic forest that he's grown on his new planet, only to find out that they've been set up by Mother.

In the second arc, the three of them grudgingly team up against Mother while hashing out their shared backstories and giving Quoi, who's literally never had peers to relate to, a chance to fully come to grips with the way he was conditioned and manipulated by his father. Instead of conjuring dead parents, Mother seems to be able to summon dead children, which makes her particularly dangerous around the Cotati, Kree and Skrull, who've just emerged from a war and have countless recent dead.

In the third arc, Mother has freed R'kll and they've set their sights on Earth. Billy heads out with America and Tommy to ask Loki for advice on defeating her, while Teddy brings Sequoia before the Avengers as his charge in order to ensure that Quoi receives provisional immunity.

Loki is able to provide insight on how Mother might have been summoned and what the parameters might be for breaking the spell that's tethering her to Earth-616. It turns out that Mother is essentially holding Anelle's soul hostage and has been appearing to R'kll in her form. Mother's hold, at this point, has spread to the entire Alliance, and Teddy will have to defeat her or else she'll use it to destroy Earth and decimate his nation in the process.

Teddy recruits Wanda to help face Mother down. (side note, I'm desperate to see more of their relationship as in-laws.) Wanda agrees to work with Sequoia but insists on calling Mantis and making them talk.

The final showdown is the three boys, plus Wanda and Mantis, against Mother, R'kll, and an army of dead alien soldiers. Mantis and Wanda are able to pull Anelle's soul from Mother's grasp, but this doesn't banish her-- Mother's true anchor was R'kll, who'd been carrying Anelle's ghost in her heart ever since the destruction of Tarnax.

R'kll believes that she's always acted in the best interest of her nation, and she thought that bringing back Teddy's mother would finally make him see her way. Anelle and Teddy have a tearful reunion, but he admits that the only mother he's really mourned was the woman who raised him.

Wanda, Mantis, and Anelle, as a trio of mothers united with their lost sons, are able to reverse and seal Mother's power, which was based on lost children. They are not able to banish her, however, until R'kll steps forward and sacrifices herself, believing now that the best she can do for her nation is to rid the Alliance of the curse she brought upon it.

R'kll and Anelle begin to dissipate, but R'kll's sacrifice has called forth the spirit of Mrs. Altman, who is finally granted some closure and dignity in death by getting a chance to see how far Teddy's come and the peace that he's built in her memory.

Lots of crying! I made this sad. I'm sorry.

#young avengers #teddy altman #hulkling #wiccan #billy kaplan #empyre #robintext

[necr0bvnny]

I Want To Get Better - Part 1

Pairing: Lady Loki x Original Female Character

Genres: Action, Adventure, Enemies To Friends To Lovers, Slow Burn

Content/Warnings: Needle injection, mention of child soldiers, mention of child deaths

Summary:

A few years after Jacklyne has gotten used to her new life among the Avengers, she's assigned to work with one of their greatest enemies, Loki Laufeyson/dottir. It turns out that because one of his children prefers the company of humans while the other one is a war criminal, Loki's father Odin has slipped into the Odinsleep, leaving her mother Frigga in charge of Asgard. Jacklyne can't imagine ever loving the woman enough to set her free after what she's done to the people of New York, but that's a mother’s love for you. It takes a mission going sideways for Jacklyne to begin to see the value in Loki's company and for Loki’s opinion of humans to gradually turn positive.

A/N: Hi! Loki in this story will be presenting mostly as a female cause. Im gay gjvhmv. Think more like comic Lady Loki, NOT Sylvie from the show. Also ngl the first like 2 chapters or so will be setting up Jacklyne’s character and backstory so sorry in advance about the exposition! I promise we’ll get to the gay stuff soon enough :’)

Link to AO3 post

————

September 1999

After some struggling, the two large men in black combat uniforms finally got their small yet surprisingly strong captive to sit down in the cold chair in the middle of the interrogation room. As they removed their hands from her the girl attempted to bite one of the men but failed, catching only empty air between her teeth. She rattled the oversized handcuffs on her wrists anxiously, growling when she finally realized that there was nothing she could do in this situation but wait and find out what these men had planned for her.

Her large teal eyes scanned the room, observing the odd honeycomb patterns on the walls and unsettlingly shiny table in front of her. Then her focus turned to the men, both tall, muscled and well armed with large rifles in hand. They stood behind her chair, statuesque with their cold eyes glaring down at her, almost daring her to try anything and see what happens. She huffed and turned back around, innocently dropping her bound hands onto the table to show that she would comply.

As if on cue, the door in front of the girl finally opened and in walked an older, fair-haired man with a suitcase. He bared an almost smug grin on his face which made the little one want to lunge forth and slash his mouth open, then see if he'd still smile so brightly. But knowing that would get her nowhere, she resisted and instead kept her dagger-like eyes locked onto him.

"Hello there. My name is Phil Coulson. Can you tell me yours?"

"I'm not telling you anything, puto." She finally spoke up, her little voice thick with a Spanish accent.

Phil ignored the insult which he immediately understood. He pointed at the logo on one of her arms which displayed a skull with six curling tentacles underneath. "So H.Y.D.R.A. uses children for espionage now? Do you understand how much danger you’re in?”

He didn’t intend for that to sound like a threat, but the girl took it as one anyway. “You’ll be in even worse danger if you kill me.”

Phil frowned at her assumption. Did she really think they were going to kill her just because she was a part of HYDRA? “We’re not going to kill you, we just want some answers.”

“Si, I’m sure that’s what you told my family before you slaughtered them!”

His brows furrowed slightly in confusion. “Your family?”

“You know what you did, S.H.I.E.L.D. scum. My brothers and sisters came just like me, and they never returned.”

Agent Coulson suddenly realized what she was talking about. There had recently been several break-ins into the headquarters and other minor bases of S.H.I.E.L.D..Some of the intruders were shot on sight while others were caught but killed themselves via cyanide tablets before they could be questioned. All the bodies wore green and black jumpsuits with the H.Y.D.R.A insignia on their arms. But the strange thing about all of them was that upon closer inspection, all of these intruders were just children between the ages of 8 to 10.

Judging by how this girl had a slightly different uniform with more armor and weapons on her, Phil assumed that within whatever program these kids were in, she must have been in a higher rank. This one knew how to use guns and put up a decent fight with the full grown, highly trained male guards before she was finally subdued and captured, so she was clearly more trained and experienced than the others.

“Ah, your brothers and sisters, right. The ones who failed where you almost succeeded. I must say, you’re clearly more capable than your siblings, but I know you didn’t just teach yourself. Can you tell me who trained you?”

“The best of the best soldiers at H.Y.D.R.A’s disposal. I could kill all of you right now if I wanted to.” She hissed.

Coulson smiled, unintimidated. “I’m sure if you could, you already would have.”

“I can and I will once I get these esposas off.” She rattled her handcuffs.

He ignored this and continued on with the questioning. “Tell me more about your ‘family’. Do you guys have a name?"

"You won't get anything from me. I will protect them until my last dying breath!"

The girl lunged forward, hopping up onto the table and going straight for Coulson but he quickly backed away. Before she could reach him, the guards jumped into action, both grabbing each of her arms.

"Please, calm down. We don't want to have to sedate you." Phil calmly pleaded.

One of the guards shouted out, "Stand down before this turns ugly!"

The girl continued kicking and screaming and growling like a feral kitten, baring her teeth and desperately trying to get out of the man's rough grips but to no avail. Phil begrudgingly placed the suitcase onto the table and opened it to reveal several syringes.

He took one of them out and displayed it in front of her face. "Please, I really don't want to do this."

"Hail H.Y.D.R.A!!"

Agent Coulson frowned, not at all proud of what he was about to do. Glancing up at the two guards behind the girl, he said, "Hold her still."

Suddenly she felt a sharp pinch in her inner elbow, followed by whatever liquid was inside the syringe rushing through her veins. After a few seconds, her muscles relaxed on their own and all her strength seemed to drain from her body. Once the guards felt her stop fighting, they cautiously let go of her and went back to their spots in the back of the room. Tears began forming in her eyes, overwhelmed by how completely helpless she felt. She lowered her head into her crossed arms on the table, heaving and sobbing to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry... Now let's try this again. What is your name?"

She didn't want to say anything, but something in her forced the words out of her mouth. "... J-87."

Agent Coulson smiled, though there was a deep sadness behind it. "Okay. Good. And how old are you, J-87?"

"… I'm 12."

"Can you tell me about your.. family? Your brothers and sisters?"

The girl choked out a whimper at the thought of them. "They're all dead. All 24 of them."

Phil hesitated, but after a moment of silence he couldn't help but lay a reassuring hand on J-87's back. At first she flinched away thinking he was going to hurt her as well, but after a few pets she calmed down and allowed him. She wasn't sure why she did, but it had been so long since someone had comforted her. It may have even been the first time ever. All she knew in that moment was that it suddenly made her relaxed and not want to cry anymore.

"It's okay… If you keep answering our questions, we can find you a brand new family. And a real name, all for you. Would you like that?"

“Mhm..” She whimpered out and nodded.

"Good. Did your family have a name?"

"They called us Project Ocelot…"

#lady loki x oc #loki x oc #loki x original character #loki x original female character #lady loki #phil coulson #s.h.i.e.l.d. #hydra #avengers oc #marvel #my post #marvel junk #mamas babies #jacklyne j ramirez #i want to get better

[unstoppablepjm]

My Ultimate Jikook Fic Rec Part 1

Hello everyone~

Finally! I’ll be starting my kookmin/jikook fic rec. This has taken quite a while and I have over 500 fics to share 😭I’ll be dividing my posts into different parts and hopefully when I read new ones, I can start posting them separately.

So again, some disclaimers before we start!

Most of the fics I read involve some pretty heavy tags and almost always involve smut (lmao sorry, I’m a heathen what can I say)

With that said, READ THE TAGS FOR EACH FIC. Remember kids: dead dove don’t eat. 

This compilation will include: one-shots (c*mshots hekhek), chaptered, on-going, completed, and discontinued (yes, sadistic i know).

There may be some fluff recs here. But don’t count on it.

I'll cut the summaries as much as I can so that you won't get the whole block of text some writers include ksjdkjs

Again, and I will not stress this enough, don’t come at me if there are fics with dubious tags. I am a pretty open-minded reader and I’ve read my sizeable share of dark, disturbing fics so if you see tags not for you, move along.

I won't tag side ships unless they're tagged as the main relationship too

Also, I’ll intersperse some personal comments/observation if I feel like it. Usually I have these if a fic is particularly good or if I love how it's written  😊

Here's the link to my previous fic rec post: My Ultimate Jikook One-shot Fic Rec

OKAY, LET’S GET IT!

You are my home | On-going (15/?) | by: Erika1694

Summary: Jungkook is an awkward guy who befriends his next door neighbour Taehyung. Things go well until Taehyung introduces him to Jimin after which Jungkook's world turns upside down and he starts questioning everything including his sexuality.

His Pup | On-going (7/?) | by:Cho_Ha

Summary:Park Jimin must be going crazy because there was no way this disheveled looking guy was the cute little puppy he used to feed everyday after his night shift at the restaurant. Or Park Jimin feeds a puppy and meets a naked-ass dude.

Eden Afterworld | On-going (22/?) | by:Hadefex

Summary:Driven by rage over the public execution of his law abiding parents, Jimin enters the elite military district under the guise of being a prized Omega Positive to come face-to-face with the one person he hates more than himself - High Commander Jeon Jungkook. In a world where being Neutral is about as useless as being dead, how far is Jimin willing to go to get revenge?

Comment: i LOVE the writer's big mind. this is ot5 before jikook happens tho ehehe so if ur not down with that, skip

My Honey, You Taste So Sweet | On-going (7/?) | by:MyHope (CutesyMe)

Summary:Where Jimin only wants to find his soulmate but there is a war threatening him every second of his life

PHASES | On-going (2/?) | by:disneykoo

Summary:It was 4:30pm on a sunny friday evening in the middle of Seoul with nobody noticing that Park Jimin, son of CEO Park Jaemin, got kidnapped in the span of 15 seconds.

Typhon.exe | On-going (5/?) | by:kookiepeach

Summary:When grey hat hacker Jeon Jungkook sees Park Jimin at a party, all he wants to do is find out just a little bit more.

Your heartbeats told me | Completed (27/27) | by:Linn_Linn

Summary:What starts off with hate, soon turns to something else as Jimin and Jungkook begin to meet in secret. But what happens when secrets no longer can be kept? Friends comes and goes, but what about soulmates?

Comment: OMG I LOVE THIS FIC SM!! the gay awakening, the jk POV, the character development, the twists UGH! love it

Stockholm Syndrome | On-going (9/15) | by:expensive_latTae

Summary:“P-please, I’m sorry, let me go!” “You’re mine now. I’ll only let you go in death Angel.” Jimin never understood the Jeon Mafia’s Heir’s twisted obsession with him, and when did the pulsing pain under his skin and the artificial cage he was locked up in become a sign of love.

Comment: I'm interested to see where this goes. Hopefully the writer hasn't abandoned this yet

I Want Your Heart, Not Just Body | On-going (27/?) | by:IlovewritingJikook

Summary:When his village is attacked, Jimin is captured made a slave where he is bought on a whim as a birthday gift, and his life takes a drastic turn. Third Prince, Jungkook receives a surprising birthday gift- a beautiful, human named, Jimin. But Jungkook has no use for a personal slave, however, Jungkook has no choice but to keep him. The Two find friendship and love when they least expect it but can love between a vampire and a slave survive the lies, deceit, and betrayal that looms around every corner of the palace?

Kindred | On-going (2/?) | by:serendiplini

Summary:Jeon Jeongguk, heir of the illustrious Jeon Enterprises, is sent to a sleepy lakeside town to stake out a location for a new shopping mall. Unfortunately, his search quickly reaches a dead end—literally—when he learns the previous owner of the property has passed away with an iron grip on the deed to the land. Luckily for him, it just so happens that his eccentric innkeeper Park Jimin has a way of communicating with the dead. For a price, of course.

Soul Mates | On-going *Abandoned?* (8/?) | by:SomewhereAnywhere

Summary:Jeon Jeongguk, heir of the illustrious Jeon Enterprises, is sent to a sleepy lakeside town to stake out a location for a new shopping mall. Unfortunately, his search quickly reaches a dead end—literally—when he learns the previous owner of the property has passed away with an iron grip on the deed to the land. Luckily for him, it just so happens that his eccentric innkeeper Park Jimin has a way of communicating with the dead. For a price, of course.

the heart of a siren | Completed (16/16) | by:namakemono

Summary:Beware of what you take from the sea. She is not a treasure to be plundered, but a dark, vast void that will swallow you up and think nothing of it.

Comment: What a damn wonderful fic. The merman!JM fic I've always wanted to read. Loved the writing, the plot and how each character was portrayed.

Blood, Love & Tears | On-going *Abandoned?* (9/?) | by:Iamconfusion

Summary:You would think Jimin's life is like any other broke, 23 years old university student.

He has the craziest bestfriends.

He works a waitersjob at a highclass club.

He caught the interest of Jeon Jungkook.

Maybe it’s not so ordinary afterall.

This is Another Jikook Mafia au.

Comment: I hate that the writer seems to have abandoned this but good lord this fic is HOT.

The Lost Kingdom of Crows | On-going (7/10) | by:Priska

Summary:Jimin, who belongs to the widely spread kingdom of swans, falls in love with the youngest heir of a small noble family despite knowing they can never be. Jungkook, the youngest and wildest Prince of the crows, doesn't care about rules and restrictions. Wars and politics. He wants Jimin anyway. He wants him, even if it results in a curse that'll follow them through time and into a different reality.

Comment: Cute fic.

Life As a Beta | On-going (4/?) | by:lapetitemortjm

Summary:“Who wanted to present as a Beta?” Park Jimin had shit for luck when his unrequited love happened to be Jeon Jeongguk, an Alpha.

Dark Paradise | Completed (13/13) | by:makimonojjk

Summary:Park Jimin has life sorted. He does. He has a good job, a lovely wife and two beautiful kids. When he starts working at one of the most dangerous prisons in Seoul, he begins to question many of his life choices. When a certain inmate, Jeon Jeongguk, gets into his head and makes him rethink his whole life he knows he's in big trouble.

Comment: I enjoyed this fic sm. I loved the unique setting and ohhh myy JM is so hot in this one.

Arrangement Null And Void | Completed (15/15) | by:Holymotherofduck

Summary:Jungkook is the prince of the north. Dutiful to his position and passionate about his kingdom. When his parents announce they have found him a partner he is not surprised it is a member of the south kingdom. They had spoken for years on a union between the two sides of their country. What he does not expect is for that person to be a prince, in the same position he is and with the same passion. Prince Park Jimin. Unfortunately their views differ greatly and Jungkook has little respect for the south's soft approach, but Jimin is a prince just like him and will not stand by and let him have his way.

Comment: Nice plot progression.

Nemesis: Love | Completed (18/18) | by:AttilaTheHun

Summary:Park Jimin works hard, and everyone knows it. His boss likes him, his coworkers adore him, and he knows it's just a matter of time until he graduates from the ranks of the desk farm and into something better. All he has to do is conquer every single feeling of inadequacy he's ever had. Simple enough. Job-stealing newcomer Jeon Jeongguk doesn't seem to work for much of anything at all, and he's more than arrogant enough for them both. But he's certainly well-connected, tall and rich and good at everything. Jimin hates him on sight, and by the end of the first week he's sure they're eternal enemies. And sure, Jeongguk may be cute, even hot underneath his suits, but Jimin doesn't care about that. Not at all.

Comment: They say this is the must-read office!KM fic.

The Scent of Lemons | Completed (1/1) | by:Portent

Summary:There's Jimin, a dog, a duck and a tree. There's Jungkook, a little prejudiced, a little clueless and a whole lot gorgeous. Then there's this thing called love. Sometimes it hits like a truck and sometimes it blows like a gentle breeze.

Comment: The writing is awesome! This fic is too cute for words and literally JM is so cute here with his lil pets :D

a dose of salt | On-going (9/10) | by:Daisyjjang

Summary:Park Jimin is a renown cardiothoracic surgeon—a genius, a medical prodigy, the best surgeon at the hospital. He’s kind, friendly, handsome, and patient. He’s also the son of the hospital’s Chairman. But nobody needs to know that since he’s worked for and earned everything he’s accomplished on his own without the help of nepotism. Everyone loves him. Everyone but Jeon Jungkook, the hot new military trauma surgeon straight out of the army. The decorated veteran is brilliant and quick witted, but has a hot temper and absolutely zero tolerance for bullshit. When Park Jimin makes a bad first impression on him, things get extremely salty between the two very different personalities.

Comment: From one of my fave twitter AU writers, she never disappoints. The medical!KM fic y'all should read. Don't be bothered by the remaining chapter, I think it's only an epilogue to the story anyway.

Okay, this is it for now! I'll create part 2 in a while. Let me know if you loved any of these! Enjoyyy! Thanks!!

#jikook #kookmin #jikook fic rec #kookmin fic rec #bts ships #bts fic rec #my fic rec #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction

[buffyversefanfiction]

Felix Fierce (Buffy and Angel Fanfiction) Season 1

Episode 1 - Welcome to The 20s

Warnings: I do not own or claim to own the original content to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, the comics or any of the original characters from the “Buffyverse” all rights belong to Joss Whedon.

15 plus, displays of Violence, Gore, Torture and Sexual Innuendos, M/M, F/M, F/F.

Into every generation there was a chosen one until a powerful witch called Willow Rosenberg changed the rules forevermore.

No longer would Buffy Summers stand-alone against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness.

She was the slayer that changed everything but now it’s his turn.

Felix Fierce found himself running through the woods late at night frantically looking behind him until he found himself crashing into Thorn in full vampire mode, his body hitting against the vampire before he himself fell to the ground.

“Thorn listen this isn’t you.” Felix pleaded as Thorn pulled him off the ground.

“Your right it isn’t that’s kind of the point.” Thorn replied before sinking his teeth into Felix’s neck before Felix suddenly woke up in his bed within his bedroom.

He slowly sat up in his bed before hearing a knock at his door as his father Forest walked into his room.

“I see someone’s finally up I know it’s the holidays and that means allowing my 18 year old son to be as lazy as possible before the new year of school starts but you did promise to chaperone your sister tonight at the New Year’s Eve party.” Forest Fierce reminded his son.

“Dad,” Felix replied as he leaned over to his bedside unit, picking up his phone to check the time. “It’s still morning last time I checked parties happen at night.”

“Yeah but Fyre’s decided she needs to go shopping for an outfit and that’s not exactly my area of expertise.” Forest told him.

“Is this because I’m gay dad?” Felix asked his father.

“No this is because I almost had to take out a second mortgage last time you went on a date with your boyfriend and you decided to buy yourself a whole new wardrobe only to wear something you already.” Forest replied.

“Okay,” Felix yawned. “I see your point but at this point letting me loose with your cards is at your own peril now I’m thinking a new chaperone style outfit is going to need to be bought.”

“Who needs two kidneys anyways?” Forest joked before walking out of Felix’s room and closing the door behind him.

“Great now I’m stuck with my kid sister all day and night.” Felix moaned to himself. “Worst New Year’s ever!”

“Remind me again how I was roped into driving you and Fyre to the shopping mall?” Bryce Kane asked his best friend as he and Felix stood within the store located within Scorchville shopping mall while Fyre was further down the store searching the rails for a New Year’s outfit.

“Because like my sister you both have parties and have left it to the last minute to get an outfit so like the amazing brother and friend I am I agreed to help you both out in this archaic shopping mall that only stays open because of people like you and my sister.” Felix replied.

“Good point,” Bryce agreed. “I do need something other than bland to impress Malerie at her party tonight so let’s just pretend I never moaned to you and I’ve been thankful since the minute we got here.

“Yeah okay Bryce,” Felix laughed at his best friend. “Mercy’s still pissed at you for ditching us tonight so your best keeping me on side at least.”

“Mercy’s still mad?” Bryce asked. “Any ideas on how I can make it up to her?”

“Oh, I’m so not getting involved in a fight between my two best friends.” Felix made himself clear as Fyre walked over to them both holding a somewhat revealing dress in her hands instantly catching her brother’s attention. “Hell, no dad would very much like you to go into the year 2020 with your virginity intact.”

“Felix you’re like an old man it’s almost a new bloody decade let’s not go into it assuming certain outfits make a girl a whore.” Fyre Fierce scolded her older brother. “I mean you dress like a librarian, but I know for a fact you’re not going into the year 2020 with your virginity intact.”

“Well played.” Bryce said with a smile to his best-friend’s younger sister.

“Fine if your going to get bitchy about it you can wear the bloody dress but at least get a cardigan to trick dad with before we leave for the party.” Felix replied, giving into an argument he knew he had no chance of winning.

Fyre quickly walked away from her brother and his best friend and on wards toward the store’s changing room to try on her dress with a victorious smile on her face.

“She is only a year younger than you Felix you need to stop treating her like she’s seven and start realizing she’s seventeen.” Bryce told his friend.

“Here I’m just doing father patrol because dad’s going to be super pissed at her for picking that dress then me for allowing that dress and then she’ll be pissed at dad for being such an old man and then I’ll have to get pissed at dad because he’s pissed at me and before you know it it’s Christmas Armageddon all over again.” Felix explained to Bryce.

“If you think holidays are bad with your family just wait until your dad starts the new year as headmaster at Scorchville High.” Bryce revealed before realizing he slipped up. “Which I wasn’t supposed to mention until after the New Year.”

“You’ve got to be joking me can’t he just stick to teaching at that pompous New York school I mean sure it’s a commute but that comes in handing for sneaking Thorn in and out the house now I’m not even going to be able to sneak about school with him.” Felix complained to his friend. “How the hell did you find out before me anyway?”

“Well I’m captain of the Scorchville Swimmers and Mercy’s is Scorchville High student body president so between the two of us we know everything that goes down in that place.” Bryce revealed. “We were going to tell you, but we couldn’t decide who had to deliver the news and then she stopped talking to me.”

“Well just you wait till I see Mercy because it may just be me blanking the both of you.” Felix warned him. “Now let’s hurry up and find you something because I’m craving coffee.”

Felix and Bryce walked up to the new coffee store/book shop called Scorching Scorchville with a quote underneath the sign saying come in for simply scorching reads and charismatic coffee having dropped Felix’s sister Fyre back off at home after finding her and Bryce outfits for their New Year’s Eve parties.

It was a relatively new store and Felix tended to stick to what he knew best when it came to his caffeinated hot drinks, but he knew his friend Mercy Cole had become obsessed with the place recently and was currently inside meaning it was time to fix things out between her and Bryce but before they even got a chance to step inside they found themselves confronted by Felix’s high school nemesis Rick Star appeared from down the street.

“Well if it isn’t Scorchville’s answer to Ross and Joey.” Rick greeted them with a mocking tone as always. “I bet you guys take naps with each other all the time.”

“Seriously Rick do you just pop up to insult me or do you actually have a life outside of being an archaic school bitch?” Felix snapped back at Rick.

“I’m so glad you can make Malerie’s party tonight I’m sure she’s going to be pleased to see you.” Rick said to Bryce before giving Felix a bitch stare. “Just remember your weird little sidekicks are not on the list.”

“Sidekicks really? Someone really needs to give your side a kick or several.” Felix replied.

“I can’t wait.” Bryce said to Rick, much to Felix’s disapproval as Rick quickly budged past them both and made his way out of sight after turning the street corner. “Why do I have a feeling your pissed with me too?”

“I’m just going to stay focused on the task at hand right now because if I don’t, I may wind up aligning myself with Mercy.” Felix answered Bryce making it clear he wasn’t impressed.

“Malerie has terrible taste in friends but great taste in boyfriends.” Bryce replied trying to justify attending a party with the number one enemy.

“Yeah the jury’s still out on that one.” Felix responded by rolling their eyes.

“Did you really have to bring the traitor with you?” Mercy moaned after Felix and Bryce walked into the coffee shop/bookstore and walked over to her table.

“Play nice Mercy he’s here to apologize.” Felix told her as he sat down opposite his friend.

“I am?” Bryce asked until Felix grabbed a hold of him and forced him to sit down next to him. “Okay I am I’m really sorry.”

“I get the whole rush you seem to be in losing your virginity and I can even somewhat understand why Malerie’s the girl for you, but you’ve not even got a girlfriend yet and your ditching us for her.” Mercy moaned at Bryce.

“Mercy that’s a little harsh don’t you think?” Felix butted in only to get a furious glare from Mercy. “Okay I’m back to being Switzerland over here.”

“Look if it means that much to you, I’ll ditch Malerie’s party and chaperone Fyre with you guys tonight.” Bryce submitted to Mercy’s mood.

“Thank you.” Mercy replied with a smile.

“Okay Switzerland just got switched off for a moment,” Felix couldn’t help but say. “Mercy do you remember our anti-valentines pact last year before I got with Thorn?”

“Not really no, why?” Mercy asked her friend.

“That’s because it only wound up being Bryce and me because you decided to be in a throuple for that long confusing week and we were all like yay go for it because hey it’s something to tick of the list.” Felix defended Bryce. “Bryce has been relentlessly trying to give his virginity to anyone offering and he finally gets a sliver of hope and you’re going to stand in his way?”

“Remind me to remind you never to defend me again.” Bryce told Felix, clearly embarrassed.

“Hey that throuple would’ve worked if they didn’t both fall in love with me the same time, I wound up falling in love with Julien at the same time.” Mercy defended herself before giving in. “But I see your point.”

“So, do I get to go or not?” Asked a confused Bryce.

“Yes, but only because of your dated need to lose your virginity before your 19 if you fall in love with moronic Malerie I may have to disown you.” Mercy warned him.

“Please Malerie’s not going to last a month.” Felix laughed. “Also isn’t it a bit stereotypical to judge someone purely based on their intelligence?”

“When exactly does Switzerland switch back on?” Mercy asked Felix.

“I think Malerie and I have serious potential.” Bryce said in defense of his choice of woman.

“Of course, you do,” Felix mocked his friend while tapping his hand on Bryce’s shoulder before noticing Trix Lance over by the bookstore part of Scorching Scorchville instantly grabbing his attention as he realize she was reading the infamous book with the title Vampyr book. “Here the owner here is very peculiar.”

“I know right? She’s part of the reason I love this place.” Mercy admitted with a smile on her face as she and Bryce joined Felix as they observed Trix reading away within the library like area of the store.

Suddenly Felix began to feel a piercing pain in his head before his eyesight went and all he could see is whiteness before being thrown of his chair much to Mercy and Bryce’s horror as they watched their friend collapse onto the floor.

Felix found himself awaking from the same nightmare he had earlier only this time when he woke up he found himself lying on the floor of Scorching Scorchville after a glass of water was thrown in his face awakening to see Trix, Bryce and Mercy standing over him with Trix holding an empty glass making it clear she was the water culprit.

“See I told you it’s just a perfectly normal teenage collapse you children these days are forever skipping breakfast.” Trix told them all as Bryce and Mercy helped Felix get back onto his feet.

“Are you okay?” Mercy asked her recently conscious friend.

“Yeah clearly just need more carbs or something.” Felix replied to her.

“Are you sure because we could always drop by the hospital and get you checked out?” Bryce suggested.

“Nonsense the boy is perfectly fine you teenagers don’t want to be wasting New Year’s Eve in hospital just because your friend forgot to have breakfast.” Trix said to the three of them.

“Okay lady you seem way too invested in this considering you’re a stranger.” Bryce replied to the blonde-haired store owner.

“Guys I’m fine besides Fyre would literally kill me if I cancelled being chaperone to the party she’s going to.” Felix told Mercy and Bryce, attempting to reassure them both he’s okay.

“What did you see?” Trix asked Felix. “Every time that happens the person always sees something either during it or in a dream the night before.”

“Every time what happens Mrs Lance?” Mercy wondered.

“Fainting of course.” Trix lied to her.

“Okay as interesting as you clearly are, we’ve got a party to chaperone and Bryce has a first date to prepare for.” Felix declared, clearly wanting to get as far away from Trix Lance as possible as something about her made him feel uneasy.

“Very well Felix Fierce enjoy what remains of 2019.” Trix said with a smile before starting to walk away over to the store counter. “I have a feeling 2020 is going to be your year.”

“Hold up how does she know your name?” Bryce asked Felix.

“Beats me.” Felix replied.

“I’m crushing super hard right now!” Mercy admitted as she looked over at Trix with admiration in her eyes.

“So, I’m guessing by the fact your sister was happy when she came home that I’m going to hate her outfit?” Forest asked his son Felix and his son’s friend Mercy as the three of them stood at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway of the Fierce family home waiting for Fyre to grace them with her presence.

“Not half as much as I’m hating you as my new headmaster but if you don’t go all old man on Fyre then I’ll postpone telling her till after the new year.” Felix replied.

“Deal,” Forest gave in reluctantly before telling both Felix and Mercy. “Just make sure she’s always with at least one of you and you all come back here.”

“What are you doing for the new year Mr Fierce?” Mercy asked Felix’s father.

“I’m heading to your parents’ New Year’s Eve party like I do every year it’s a shame none of use will be there this year.” Forest replied to his son’s best friend. “Speaking of which where’s Bryce tonight?”

“He’s at a party where Rick the…” Mercy began to say before quickly changing her words. “Where Rick Star is attending because his soon to be girlfriend Malerie has terrible taste in friends.”

“I still remember the days when you and Rick were inseparable.” Forest said to his son who looked unimpressed with him for reminding him.

“I was friends with Rick before he became a dick.” Felix replied to his father just before Fyre began walking down the stairs in a silky black dress demanding all the attention from the room as she continued to go down the stairs until she was stood next to her father, brother and her brother’s friend.

“Fyre you look as beautiful as ever.” Forest told his daughter before giving her a hug and kissing her on the forehead lovingly.

“When’s Thorn meeting us?” Mercy asked Felix.

“He’s only just finished work so he’s going to meet us at the party once he’s had the chance to get changed.” Felix answered her as Forest broke off his hug with his daughter looking irritated by Thorn’s mention.

“You didn’t tell me Thorn was going to be chaperoning too.” Forest said to Felix in a disapproving tone.

“He is my boyfriend dad and it’s our first new year whether we’re partying or chaperoning or sitting at home doing nothing we’re going to be spending it together.” Felix replied. “Which is probably a good time to mention I invited him over for dinner tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow’s family only.” Forest told his son.

“Does that mean my invite’s revoked because my parents are going to be way too hungover to cook and even if they weren’t, I much prefer your cooking Mr Fierce.” Mercy butted in making it clear she wasn’t going to be uninvited easily.

“Of course, not you and Bryce are extended family.” Forest said sincerely making Mercy smile.

“Dad, if you don’t let Felix have his boyfriend round tomorrow then I’m going to go out tonight find myself a new boyfriend or maybe a couple of boyfriends and get them to gate crash tomorrow’s dinner.” Fyre warned her father.

“Fine,” Forest once again found himself giving into his children’s demands. “I hate when you decide to gang up on me.”

“Why do you hate him so much anyways dad?” Felix asked his dad, clearly annoyed that his boyfriend and father didn’t get along.

“I don’t hate him Felix I’m just not a big fan either.” Forest admitted.

“I guess that just makes tomorrow the perfect timing for everyone to become fans of everyone.” Mercy once again butted in, this time trying to calm the room before Christmas Armageddon had a New Year’s special.

“I don’t know what’s taking him so bloody long it’s our first time seeing the new year in together and he’s running late.” Felix complained to Mercy as the two of them stood within the balcony part of the nightclub The Avenue while looking down at the dance-floor monitoring Fyre who was busy dancing with a group of friends.

“He’ll be here Felix I’m sure he’s got a great reason for showing up late.” Mercy replied, trying to reassure her friend.

“Anything short of him being dead is going to be a hard sell at this point.” Felix told her before he was suddenly nudged accidentally by a man causing him to fall over the railing of the balcony.

Felix fell from the balcony instantly getting everyone’s attention as the entire club looked on in horror and the music stopped only for Felix to land from the long fall on both feet with ease causing everyone to instantly clap and cheer him on.

“How did you just do that?” Fyre asked her brother as she ran over to Felix. “Are you okay?”

“I have no idea,” Felix replied as Mercy began running down the stairs from the balcony to check on her best friend. “I guess I just got lucky.”

“Lucky’s definitely the right word there.” Fyre said before turning to the rest of the club and shouting. “Show’s over get the music going!”

“Despite my death defying stunts how’s your night going sis?” Felix asked his sister as the crowd went back to dancing as the music began playing once more.

“It’s alright except for most of the eye candy being brain farts the intriguing ones being stuck up and me just a girl looking for a new year’s kiss.” Fyre admitted to her older brother as Mercy walked over to them both.

“Are you okay? That was some fall have you been secretly taking in extra gymnastic lessons?” Mercy asked her friend.

“Yeah I’m fine.” Felix reassured Mercy before turning his attention back to his sister. “I’m sure you’ll find someone to kiss for the bells whereas my date seems to be…”

“Here,” Thorn butted in as he appeared from out of the crowd and starting walking towards Felix. “Your date seems to be here and he’s really sorry for being late.”

“Well at least you’re here now.” Felix said to his boyfriend before giving him a kiss on the lips only to feel a strange tingle when he kissed him making him pull a confused face.

“Are you okay?” His boyfriend asked him.

“Yeah it’s just been a long day.” Felix replied.

“You can say that again earlier he fell of a chair fainting and just now he falls off the bloody balcony and lands on both feet.” Mercy revealed to Thorn and Fyre.

“Wait when did you faint?” Fyre and Thorn asked Felix in unison.

“It was nothing,” Felix answered them while giving Mercy a glare. “Definitely not worth talking about.”

“Well I best give you extra attention tonight just in case.” Thorn to his boyfriend before hugging Felix and kissing him on the cheek unknowingly making Felix feel the same strange tingle, this time making Felix’s skin crawl.

“Happy New Year!” Thorn said to Felix as the two now stood at the balcony of the night club, before kissing his boyfriend on the lips after the entire club counted down to the year 2020.

“Happy New Year,” Felix replied after feeling something off with Thorn’s touch once again before kissing him again to see if things still felt off, which it did. “Is everything okay with you Thorn? You seem a little off.”

“I’m fine in fact I was about to say the same to you.” Thorn told him. “How about we go outside and bring in the New Year properly before anyone notices we’re gone?”

Suddenly Felix saw Thorn’s full vampire face appear before his face returned to normal within a blink leaving him even more confused as he was reminded of his earlier nightmare.

“Yeah sure.” Felix answered with uncertainty.

Felix and Thorn quickly made their way out of The Avenue kissing passionately as Felix decided to ignore the weirdness, he experienced leaving it in 2019 before Thorn suddenly threw Felix into the wall with force.

“Thorn what the hell?” Felix asked before being left horrified as Thorn’s face went into vampire mode. “I’m so hating my brain today!”

“Being with you is truly tedious you never stop talking and you and your friends are even worse I think I’ll kill them after killing you.” Thorn cruelly mocked Felix as he walked towards him.

“Thorn what’s wrong with you?” Felix wondered, clearly terrified by Thorn approaching him with a vampire face. “I had this dream before.”

Thorn plunged at Felix who quickly moved to the side before grabbing a hold of his vampire lover lifting his body upwards and slamming him into the brick wall before beginning to make a run for it down the alleyway only for Thorn to start chasing after him.

Felix didn’t get far before Thorn caught up to him as the vampire jumped on his prey making them both fall to the ground Thorn landing on top off Felix with Felix’s back to the ground.

“Don’t worry this will all soon be over.” Thorn promised him.

“Screw you!” Felix shouted before kneeing his lover in the crotch and throwing his body over his head making the vampire land harshly onto the ground as Felix quickly rose to his feet.

Thorn wasted no time in getting back on his feet and charging towards Felix again who quickly kick Thorn in the stomach before using his other foot to climb up his body kicking the vampire in the face before black flipping back into the same spot where he delivered a punch straight to Thorn’s stomach making Thorn crash to the ground once more.

“You’re a vampire.” Felix finally realized as Thorn once again stood back up.

“This isn’t over slayer.” Thorn promised before turning around and making a run for it as Felix suddenly heard a clapping sound only to turn around to see Trix Lance standing before him with a lit cigarette in hand.

“Preferably slayers stake the vampire, but I suppose that wasn’t a terrible first time I’ve heard of worst.” Trix said to him while taking a draw from her cigarette as Thorn was now out of sight. “But next time you go up against a vampire you should probably kill them.”

“He’s a vampire and I’m a slayer,” Felix began to understand. “I’ve heard stories I mean who hasn’t, but I didn’t think any of it was real.”

“Vampires, werewolves, trolls, ogres…the list goes on.” Trix revealed as she threw her cigarette to the ground and stubbed it out with her heels. “All of them are real.”

“I want to argue the reality of it all but I literally survived a fall without a scratch and I just fought with my vampire boyfriend who I guess now is my ex.” Felix replied to the blonde haired store owner as he walked towards her. “My only question is who are you?”

“Bellatrix Lance, your new watcher from the newly established Watchers Academy founded by Rupert Giles.” Trix admitted to her slayer. “We should probably start discussing your training.”

“Wow,” Felix said in shock. “Welcome to 2020 Felix Fierce.”

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy #btvs #angel the series #buffyverse #originalcharacters #originalcast #fanficcast #buffyfanfiction #buffyfanfic #buffyfandom #buffyfic #buffythevampireslayerfan #buffythevampireslayerfanfic #buffythevampireslayerfanfiction #angelfanfic #angelfanfiction #lgbt fanfiction #lgbtfanfic #gay fanfiction #gayfanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #slayers #vampires #werewolves #monsters #demons #watchers #witches

[nervousgaylaughter]

stolen glances and missed chances (chapter 1)

the 5 times Kate didn’t notice Eva and the 1 she did

read on ao3

1

Eva is only five years old when she’s captivated by a girl at the park.

There's not too many kids there for a breezy summer day, but Eva likes it better this way. This is the 'good park' as her mom calls it. It's on the other side of town, the park by her house is where all her friends go, but this one has a better playground than hers. The kids who go here all know each other from Kindergarten, Eva's the outsider, and when there's less of them Eva feels less alone.

She’s on the swings, daydreaming and staring at the sky when yelling pulls her out of her serenity. She looks over to see an auburn haired girl yelling at her friend from across the monkey bars. “Kate, it’s only six bars you can do it!”

The girl, Kate, looks nervous but her friend’s words of encouragement send her leaping to the first bar. Eva stops swinging as she watches the brunette reach for the second bar. “Chess it hurts I don’t wanna.”

“Hey are you gonna swing or can my friend have a turn?” Eva’s attention is pulled away by a sweet looking boy around her age who gestures to his friend, a girl with a high pony tail wearing a pink shirt with a horse on it.

“Sorry you can go,” Eva says as she makes her way towards the monkey bars. By the time she looks back up Kate is on the fifth bar. The girl is shaking, but has a look of determination in her eyes.

“C’mon Kate one more!” The girl named Chess yells as Kate makes the reach for the last bar and suddenly swings herself onto the landing platform.

“You did it!” Chess pulls the shorter girl into a hug, but before Kate can respond Chess says, “Now let’s try the big kid bars!” And Chess runs off, leaving a wide eyed Kate behind.

“You did really good on those. I can never get past one,” Eva says as Kate finally meets her eyes.

“Thank you! I was really scared but I bet I can help you do it too,” Kate says earnestly.

”Kate let’s go!” Chess screams from a ways away. Kate looks at Eva and says, “I’ll see you at school,” before she runs after her friend. Eva knows she won’t ever see Kate at school, but is left wondering if she’d ever be friends with the intriguing girl on the monkey bars.

The thought leaves her five year old mind quickly, however, when her mom calls her name. "Eva! Come over here and take the twins on the slide please mija." So, Eva runs over to her mom and little brothers and the memory of Kate has already been forgotten as she enjoys her day in the sun.

2

Sophomore year had just begun and Eva, despite not making it as a freshman, had just been accepted on West High’s cheerleading team. Right off the bat, she’s proving all of them wrong about not letting her on last year. By their third game, it’s looking like Eva is going to be one of the highest ranked flyers in the state. Though she has no dreams of pursuing cheerleading beyond high school, she lives in the moment and is enjoying the ride of being on the winning team.

Everything is going smoothly until the rival game: Giles Corey High vs. West High. Tigers vs Titans. It’s the privileged private school rich kids vs the local public high school kids, but somehow, even with all their money, the Tigers are absolutely atrocious at football.

It’s thirty seconds until half time and the score is 58-0 for the Titans when their cheerleaders, ever the positive force, are trying and keep up everyone’s spirits with a new routine. Six girls are making a pyramid while a flyer and few bases are setting up behind them. Eva can’t see how or why, but suddenly the flyer is on the ground, she must have been dropped and had passed out and rolled into the pyramid, toppling over the whole squad as the girls fell on top of each other. The whistle is blown for half time, the paramedics are rushing towards the cheerleaders, and West High’s squad is just staring at the pile of girls on the other side.

“I’m gonna go use the bathroom,” Eva says to her captain who nods in response. Eva makes her way towards the stalls, and goes past the Tigers cheer squad.

“Is Farrah gonna be ok?” One girl insistently asks the paramedics, but she’s pulled aside by the Tigers’ captain.

“Farrah isn’t drunk again, right?” The captain asks the teary eyed girl as Eva keeps walking.

“She’s totally stoned, you do know that Riley.” A dark skinned girl says to a redhead who is anxiously biting her nails.

”Uh guys I don’t think we’re gonna win anyways so it’s fine right?” The girl in the mascot suit says.

Eva doesn’t like eavesdropping but it’s impossible not to hear the panicked words of a squad in shambles. She finally makes it to the bathrooms where a dark haired girl wearing a black choker is banging on one of the stalls.

I didn’t know Giles Corey allowed their cheerleaders to wear jewelry, Eva thinks.

“Chess, no one is mad at you please come out.”

“Gimme a second Kate,” the girl behind the stall says.

“Chess please I don’t care what everyone else thinks I just wanna know if you’re ok.” Kate gets frustrated and turns her back to the door, slouching down to the ground.

“You know, I thought your guys’ formations were really on point tonight,” Eva offers to the girl in distress.

“What does it even matter? We can do a whole night of perfect cheers, but one slip up is all anyone will remember tomorrow,” Kate says dejectedly, and Eva notices that, though the girl is upset, she’s kinda cute. But Eva doesn’t let herself think about it, they’re rivals and cheerleading is an overwhelmingly straight sport.

“Well, screw everyone else, I’m rooting for you guys,” Eva says.

“We don’t need your pity,” Kate says as the door behind her opens.

“Let’s get back to the squad Kate,” Chess says, not looking her friend in the eye. Kate nods as she follows Chess out of the bathroom. Eva is about to say goodbye as Kate nearly walks into Eva’s shoulder as she passes her.

Eva doesn’t blame the girl for her rudeness though, Kate is taking out her anger on the first ‘enemy’ she could find. If what she overheard was any indication, the Tigers had a lot of shit going on that they so desperately need to deal with. Eva walks back to her squad thinking about the cute angry brunette who probably wasn’t allowed to be wearing that choker at all.

“Did you wash your hands?” One of her teammates asks her jokingly when she gets back.

“Oh yeah,” Eva responds as she realized she was so distracted she forgot to actually use the bathroom. Her team begins gossiping about and berating the Tigers, but Eva zones out daydreaming about the girl she met.

3

As the year progressed, Eva found herself becoming more and more captivated with science. Specifically the science behind climate change. Lucky for her, there’s a townhall tonight in Giles Corey High School’s auditorium with a Senator up for reelection who doesn’t believe in global warming.

Eva decides to observe for the first half of the town hall. Even though it’s a huge election coming up, she notices a distinct lack of people in the room. Eva came alone and was sitting by herself. There’s two girls sitting a few rows in front of her, a crew of guys to her right, and several teachers, but the 1250 person auditorium is practically empty.

They’re on the topic of foreign affairs when one of the girls in front of her gets the microphone.

“Hi. I’m Kate. I just wanted to ask what makes you think it’s ok to ridicule and sexualize a 16 year old girl on Twitter.”

Eva’s eyes widen and she mutters “Oh shit,” to herself. She looks up to see a girl wearing a flannel standing with her arms crossed. Eva recognizes the snark, it’s the Tigers cheerleader from the bathroom that night.

The politician’s eyebrows quirk, looking visibly annoyed by the question he replies, “And when would I have done that?”

“March 3, 2018 you tweeted ‘What a shame about that gymnast Francesca. Her talents and looks will be missed (by me especially).’ That’s when you would have done that,” she says with a sarcastic glare.

The girl next to Kate, who must be Francesca- Chess Eva realizes- shrinks in her seat, but Kate won’t back down. There’s an awkward silence

Who shortens Francesca to Chess of all things, Eva wonders when the Senator responds, “I was merely expressing my sadness that dear Francesca couldn’t go to the Olympics, that’s all.” He gives Kate a cheesy politician smile, but she won’t take that for an answer.

Well I guess all things considered it's better than Franny.

“Bullshit-” the moderator interrupts the girl, “Kate please restrain yourself-” but Kate just cuts him off too, “You’re gonna delete that Tweet and apologize right now.”

“I have no obligation to a girl like yourself.”

“This town hall is being livestreamed. Unless you wanna be the asshole of the nation I think you better do what I asked.” Kate and the Senator are in a staring match, and the young girl will not back down. Eva would say she was surprised at the girl’s directness, but she remembers her prior interactions with Kate and cannot deny her feisty nature. Though there’s only about 15 people in the room, the tension is palpable. If anyone knows the power of going viral, it’s Giles Corey High School.

The politician begins to look uncomfortable, he fixes his tie, “I will delete the tweet after this meeting, and Francesca, I apologize for the content of my tweet.”

Kate, finally satisfied, sits back down and looks at Chess who is anxiously playing with the sleeve of her jacket, but gives a grin to Kate. Eva is no longer paying attention to the moderator as she watches the interaction between the girls. If she’s being honest with herself, even though Kate is a cheerleader, she gives off gay vibes, and Eva is intrigued with the girl.

The two girls are having a hushed conversation when Chess gets out of her seat, making her way towards the back of the auditorium. Kate follows the girl’s path until she’s out of sight, when Eva catches her eye. They hold eye contact for a second, Kate scrunches her eyebrows trying to remember why the girl seems familiar which Eva finds adorable. Eva gives her a wave, and Kate just responds with a head nod, when her attention is diverted by the return of her friend.

Kate smiles for the first time that night when Chess sits down and Eva has a realization. Kate’s totally in love with Chess, but Chess is most definitely straight. Eva feels sad for Kate and the seeming hopelessness of their situation, Eva herself had a crush on her best, well ex-best friend, but the moderator announces, “Now onto climate change.”

Eva puts her thoughts about Kate’s disposition aside as she raises her hand to ask the politician her question. The microphone is brought to Eva as she notices Chess seems far more relaxed than she had been a few minutes earlier. She has stopped fiddling with her jacket sleeve completely, and is laughing at whatever Kate is telling her.

It's none of your business Eva, just forget it, she tells herself. She grabs the mic and begins her leading question on climate change as Chess and Kate make their way past her and out of the auditorium.

Once again, Kate follows Chess, and Eva watches and wonders if she would ever get to know the snarky girl better.

4

Eva is at JJ’s Bikes and Boards looking for a new skateboard when she hears the shop’s bell ring. Thinking nothing of it she continues to scan her options. For her thirteenth birthday, Eva’s parents got her a simple black longboard which she has covered with stickers over the years, but she wants to get into skate tricks which requires a skateboard. The rainbow one immediately catches her eye, but Eva thinks that might be a little too much, so she grabs the plain black one. She decides stickers are more her style.

She has to choose quickly though because her shift at the local pizza joint starts in 30 minutes which means she’s dressed in her signature red pizza hat, red pizza polo, and of course her favorite jean jacket. Not necessarily a skater girl look, but more of a girl who needs to support her family look.

“How would one go about painting a skateboard?” Eva hears a girl ask JJ.

Eva is endeared by that thought. She loved personalizing her longboard, but couldn’t do any form of art to save her life. She peaks over the rack of pennyboards to see who asked the question and of course it’s her. Eva just cant seem to stop running into the small angry girl from the Tigers. Eva hears JJ describe the kind of skateboard she needs and grabs the right one for Kate.

“So basically you have to sand it down and then when you’re done cover it with sealant,” JJ describes to a very interested Kate.

“Hey I overheard so I grabbed the skateboard you need,” Eva taps Kate on the shoulder.

“Oh. Thanks,” Kate begins to turn back to the register, but Eva wants the conversation to keep going.

“So why are you painting a skateboard?”

“It’s my best friend’s birthday soon and her current one is so ratty that I thought I’d make her a new one that’s unique like she is,” Kate says with a smile.

“Oh that’s nice,” is all Eva could manage before JJ rung up Kate’s purchase. There’s a box full of buttons on sale for 99 cents a piece and Eva sees Kate pick up one with a rainbow heart, fiddle with it a bit, and put it back before grabbing one with a black star and handing it to JJ.

Oh yeah, Eva thinks, she’s in love with her best friend and probably super repressed. Kate finishes buying her items and she gives Eva a kinda awkward salute on her way out, which Eva found completely adorable.

Why out of all the girls do you have to be so charmed by the repressed Tiger?  Eva’s thoughts are interrupted by JJ.

“Hey girl, whatcha buying this time? New wheels?”

“Nope, I’m getting a new skateboard so I can learn some tricks and not just cruise around.”

“OOOOH when you learn you have to come back round and show me some videos, ok sweetheart.”

“Of course JJ,” Eva hands JJ her debit card and, somewhat impulsively grabs the rainbow heart button. JJ makes no comment, she just smiles as she adds that to the purchase.

Eva grabs the skateboard and the button and heads back to her car to drive to work. She stares at the button in the palm of her hand. Everyone at school knew she was gay, so why did pinning it on her jacket seem like such a big deal? Kate was considering buying it, but so what, it’s not like Eva had a crush on the girl she barely knew. It should be nothing, but for some reason she can’t explain, it feels significant to Eva.

With a deep breath, Eva puts the button on the pocket of her jacket and begins to drive to work.

5

It’s been an overwhelmingly boring shift for Eva so far. She delivered the usual 2 cheese pizzas extra sauce (who gets extra sauce?) to the Andersons, the weekly munchie order for the stoned kids at the nearby college (they tip horribly), and even a whopping 15 pizzas for a spoiled eight year old’s birthday party (she got out of there as quickly as possible), but nothing eventful had really happened.

Her next stop was in a gated community (she hated delivering there, the guard always took so long to let her in) with a gluten-free cheese pizza going to 16 Hartcourt. She rings the doorbell several times before two girls come to the door.

One of the girls abruptly grabs the box and asks, “Do I know you?” They recognize her as West High’s flyer. That’s a first. No one has ever bothered to remember her before. The girls explain that they’re Tigers, and now Eva notices the Tigers jersey one of them is wearing. Eva awkwardly fumbles through her ramble about how she’s rooting for them, but she keeps thinking about the fact that this means Kate is somewhere nearby.

Just as she’s talking about the unfairness of their viral video she’s cut off as she sees the unamused expression on their faces.

“Well, uh it was nice to officially meet you.”

“Yeah well I’m sure we’ll see you again soon,” but the girl looks as if she wished that would never come true. Eva tips her hat at the girls and makes her way back towards her car when a figure comes storming though the darkness towards her. They just barely avoid colliding with each other when Eva recognizes the figure as a distressed Kate. She has tears in her eyes, her fists are balled up, and she’s breathing heavily.

Despite her better judgement, Eva calls after the girl, “Hey are you ok?” Kate completely ignores the pizza girl and continues into the house. Eva just sighs as she does unnoticed by Kate once again as she gets into her car.

Eva checks her phone to see how much they tipped her, since they’re rivals she’s not expecting much but a $3 tip for a $12 pizza is not too shabby. Riley might be the captain of the Tigers, but at least she’s not a monster.

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

It wasn’t until three days later when she’s scrolling through twitter and sees something about the Tigers that she realizes she was there that night. She was there when a drunk freshman killed a boy and two of the other girls, one of which is Chess. Kate's best friend.

Eva knows it’s absolutely none of her business, but she can’t help but wonder how Kate is doing. There’s no way the short-tempered girl is dealing with her feelings healthily. But then again, anyone who loses their best friend, crush or no crush, can’t be expected to react rationally at all.

Eva has no way of contacting Kate without it being totally creepy, so she just hopes that the girl is doing alright.

Then she gets an email. It’s from Giles Corey High School. They’re offering her a full scholarship, holy shit that’s $60,000, Eva thinks, and all she has to do is be on the cheer team. On one hand the Tigers have an amazing science program, and murder squad or not, she doesn’t think she can pass up that opportunity.

There’s no way someone on the cheer team will be murdered again, that’s just statistically improbable, Eva reasons. How can one pass up this chance, she loves West High and all her friends, but in order to go to college, she really needs a full ride, and more Tigers than Titans get scholarships, so the choice is obvious.

#we are the tigers #watt #we are the tigers fanfiction #my writing #stolen glances and missed chances #kate x eva

[greypatrick-blog]

{ CHARLIE COX, 33, cismale, he/him, muse f } welcome friend! you know, i just saw PATRICK GREY in town. it’s good to see them. they’ve been staying in town for ONE YEAR and making a living as a WAR VETERAN. not too bad. i hear they can be a bit STUBBORN, but KIND. so, really who blames them? i hear they’ve been thinking about STARTING A NEW LIFE IN AMERICA. good for them. { Jude, 28, GTM-3, she/her }

Hello everyone. This is Jude. I’ll be joining the group as Patrick. Down below you can find his bio. I’ll soon be posting some plots I’d be interested in. However, if you want to start plotting right now feel free to hit my inbox.  Please, mind the trigger warnings before reading.

Patrick is the youngest of three brothers. He was born and raised in the Ipswich, England. Their family fairly healthy, and they lived a comfortable life. As a kid he was fairly interested in music, he even took some piano lessons, but was never particularly good at it. Nevertheless, he grew up to be a talented man. Like his brother, when Patrick was old enough he was sent to London in order to attend King’s College. 

Going to London opened up his horizons, and he started to explore new possibilities, he took his degree in the art department. He was following his heart, even though this wasn’t what his Parent’s expected of him, they hoped Patrick would find a job and get married and have children, like his older brothers. Instead, he met a young man named Roger Gillian, passioned by life like he was, who could play the guitar like an angel and ended up stealing Patrick's heart.

Of course, coming out as gay would be too shocking to his family. So they always kept things quiet. The lovebirds moved to a house in the suburbs. Patrick worked on the fine art department of King’s college while Roger had a part-time job at a local pub and would play around town at night. On the weekends they hosted parties and Roger would teach Patrick to play. They didn’t have much, but they loved each other. Nevertheless, when the war broke, Patrick saw himself called by duty. All his brother were signed up and were ready to fight. He couldn't be any different. He needed to protect the people he loved. He believed he was making his country a service, but little did he know this was the beginning of the end.

Roger tried to go back to his hometown in America, stay safe far from the madness Europe was. However, Roger died during a German attack on the island. Patrick was just devastated. He lost most of the joy he had in life. Honestly, he hoped he never ever did it make it out alive. Even when the war was over, he would never see another happy day without Roger to bright up his life. He thought he finally would meet his beloved one again in when one of the bays was taken, enemy’s aircraft threw bombs over the English troops. He remembers well his body being carried away by the blast, his head hitting against something hard and when it was all dark he whispered his lover’s name.

Maybe by divine intervention, maybe by chance, Patrick didn’t die that day. He was rescued in time to survive but was heavily injured. He was in a coma for several months. When he woke up, he found out that the war was over, and he didn’t have to worry about not being able to see Roger’s smile anyway. His injuries were too severe, and he lost his sight completely. People said he was lucky. That he should be dead. Patrick wasn’t so sure, though.

He was sent back his home in Ipswich where his mother told him he was the only man in the family who had made it through the war alive. And this made him feel even worse. Patrick saw himself deeply depressed. He felt useless, lacking the motivation to live another day. But he had to try it a little more, for his mother. They only had each other now. Unable to work and with so little income from the retirement, Patrick and his mother had to grow accustomed to little. The little food and lack of wood to warm up the home were probably the reason for a serious pneumony to grow into Patrick’s mother’s lungs.

Mrs Grey joined her other children some years later. And Patrick was the only one left behind. He lost Roger, his father, his brothers... and now his mother. Patrick missed them. That was what triggered him to go to a pub, and drink as much as he could. And instead of going home, he would jump out of the River Orwell bridge. However, a song started playing, "We Will Meet Again”, sang by a beautiful lady voice. The lyrics made Patrick cry and he changed his plans for the night.

Patrick decided to move to Redwater, where Roger was from had spoken so much on how great it was. He wasn’t really sure what he would do there. But he was finally done with his grief, and want to try to live again.

TL;TR version

Patrick was born in Ipswich, England.

He went to London for college.

He met a boy there, an American musician named Roger, who he fell in love with and they decided to live together.

Patrick was sent to fight in the war.

Meanwhile, Roger was killed during a German attack.

Patrick was in bombing incident and lost his sight.

He came back to Ipswich to stay with his mother.

She died some years after of pneumony.

Patrick then was planning a suicide when he heard a beautiful song that made him change his plans.

He decided to move to Redwater, Roger’s hometown, and try a new life.

WANTED CONNECTIONS/PLOTS

Hunting Past: Patrick’s late lover, Roger, was from Redriver, and although he didn’t keep much in touch with his family, there might have been someone who misses him. Someone from his family, friends, ex-boyfriends, this is totally up to you. Their relationship can be either a supportive one (sharing good memoried and going together through their grief) or a destructive one (maybe this relative/friend even blames Patrick’s for Roger’s death).

Camarades: People who Patrick had fought alongside during the war. People who have to know his worse side, and might be surprised to learn that he his actually someone sweet.

A new love interesses: Patrick is still very wounded by the things that happened to him lately. But slowly he is learning how to move forward, and it’s time for him to meet someone to love. However, this won’t be an easy task, since Patrick might be still hunted by some ghosts. (Note: this connection must be a male).

Friends: People who are kind enough to keep Patrick company. He is rather a lonely man.

A volunteer reader: someone who could stop by his place every now and then to read him the newspaper, or even a book. They would be paid on tea and biscuits, and maybe some nice conversations.

Students: Patrick knows a lot about music, and would be willing to teach people how to play the piano, the bass, accordion, and even the guitar (his personal favourite).

#redwaterintro #tw: war #tw: bombs #tw: death #tw: sucide mention

[newgeht]

Binding Ink

Chapter 4: Misleading Entries Summary: Everyone had a name forever embellished on their wrist. This was the name of their mortal enemy… Or at least it was supposed to be. Characters: Minerva Orlando, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox, Sting Eucliffe, Lamy, Jiemma, Lucy Heartifilia Rating: T  Words: 4,510 AO3 | FFNet 1 | 2 | 3 

Trigger Warning: Graphic images of abuse up ahead. 

Her very own bike came speeding toward her, those great white lights filled with fury. Minerva pushed herself up against the damp alley wall, dodging Gray's attempt at running her over.

“That's my bike! What the hell do you think you're doing?” Minerva spat, her hands consumed with her magic. She knew better than to run after him, so she stayed to guard the door. “Do you really not trust me?”

 She received no reply as he rounded the corner, now completely out of sight. Now she went running after him, there was no way in hell she was going to lose her bike to a man -much less a fairy. A shirt was left on the sidewalk outside of the alley, Minerva knew that Gray meant business.

 “So you came here for a fight, huh?” Minerva turned on her heel, the spotlight back on her again. Her mouth cocked to the side, the black paint of her bike gleaming under the moon's shine. Those two white eyes coming closer by the moment and she leaped at the last second. Those chilly blue orbs meeting her own.

 She successfully leaped over the charging machine, her heeled boot meeting Gray's chest. She hit him with a force like none other, sending him flying off the seat. His body went one way and her precious vehicle the other. Unlike Gray and her cherished bike, she landed on her two feet. Clashing and clattering followed the bike, but groans spilled from the other direction - Gray. Minerva was cocky, but at least she could admit it. How dare he try to run her over, and with her own bike.

Minerva was tempted to stalk in the other direction to grab her bike but thought naught. No matter how much she wanted to run over the ice mage, she held her temper. Lucy wouldn't appreciate it if she plucked Gray's wings. She noticed her motorcycle wasn't a complete mess as the lights shone on the two of them; her shadow creeping across the length of the eery street.

 Gray coughed and struggled to sit up, a blue light blooming from his fists.

“Don’t even try it.” Minerva kicked him and he grunted, falling back into the ground. His entire torso was littered with road rash and various scrapes. His arms were the worst as his forearms were bleeding, some of the asphalt sticking to his wounds. Settling her hand on her hips, she stood above him. She exuded confidence and reeled her foot back.

 “Where’s Lucy?” His voice was scratchy as he choked out the words. Minerva almost took pity on him, but she grinned.

 “Why is that any of your business? She’s not your girlfriend, is she?” Minerva knew she hit a sensitive spot as his face darkened. She kneeled down, mocking him. “Seems like she’s more interested in me than you.”

 Her fist glowed a bluish black as she pulled her hand back, sending it straight into Gray’s gut. He sputtered and failed to land his own hit on her. “That doesn’t matter. I love Lucy, unlike you.”

 Minerva nodded and tutted at the ice mage. “Of course I don’t. I barely know her.”

 Her words were insensitive and she knew it, which made the whole conversation even better. She hardly spent time with Lucy and the blonde was head-over-heels for Minerva. The thought made her feel better, she was going to win in any situation. The only problem was the frustration that Gray had been causing. He couldn’t seem to let go, it was something that made him weak -something that Minerva took advantage of.

 “Argh…” Gray sat up, his eyes level with her own. “Take me to her or face the wrath of Fairy Tail.”

 Minerva scoffed and stood, looking down upon Gray. With how annoyed she was, he was more like a fly than a fairy. “You’re acting like I kidnapped her. I didn’t. I thought you saw her willingly come along with me.”

 “But she’s seriously injured. Don’t be so ignorant to think that no one knows about that back alley clinic.” He pointed at the dark alleyway, his jaw tightening. “You should have just brought her to us. Not to that vile demon.”

 Minerva rolled her eyes. Lamy was a bit boy-crazy but she wasn’t vile. The other demons of Tartarus were far worse than what Gray had insinuated.

 “Tch, so low of you to think I would injure her on our first date. We all just went because my friend Gajeel got injured. His fight with Jackal wasn’t as easy as he expected.” She lied smoothly, so very smoothly.

 She only got a perplexed look from Gray as he staggered to his feet. “You mean to tell me that Leo is wrong?”

 “Leo?” Minerva questioned, knowing full well Lucy had called him out earlier.

 “Her celestial spirit! You would know this if you cared.” Gray drawled, his eyebrows pinching together.

 “Ah yes, I remember him. The flirtatious lion is probably jealous, just like you.” Toxicity dripped in her voice. Gray frowned and glared at her. He made himself so easy for Minerva to tease, and it was too hard to resist prodding at him. His own annoyance gave her satisfaction. An eye for an eye in the end.

 “Shut up, that’s not what this is about.” His face fell and he shoved his hands in his pockets. A dark cloud seemed to weigh on him and he sighed in exasperation. “Look, I’m sorry for assuming that she was hurt, just let me take her home.”

 Minerva could barely repress her laugh, he completely bought all of her lies. “Alright. I’m sure she’s ready to leave by now. But you owe me, that bike cost me a fortune to build.”

 “Oh, I’m sorry about that.” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he looked at the bike. “I guess I kinda took things a little overboard.”

 “And you got your ass kicked anyways. Just be glad this involved Lucy, otherwise you would be in much worse shape.” She rapped against the steel door, not ready to wait for Lamy. Gray followed in suit after he brought her bike into the darkened safety of the alley. She turned to look at the ice mage, unimpressed with him so far.

 “As much as I would love for you to pay for my bike, you don’t have to. I’m glad you destroyed it, it gives me an excuse to get an upgrade.” Minerva chuckled as Gray’s eyes widened.

 “I can at least give you some money…”

 The door was pushed open and the dim yellow light from inside shone on the two of them. Lamy began to hyperventilate, her eyes roving over Gray’s body. “Y-You brought me another pretty boy?! I still don’t know whether to hate or love you Minerva.”

 “I think the best would be to love. I’ve brought you so many at this point, haven’t I?” Minerva wasn’t wrong by a long shot and grinned as Gray’s face was wiped with pure irritation. “But like always, you can’t keep this one either. Find your own man for once.”

 “You’re the one who’s always dripping in men. How come you can’t share with me?” Lamy wheezed in rapid succession as she led them to the room that Lucy was originally placed in. It was evident by Gray’s fidgety posture that he wasn’t so comfortable in this place. No one ever was, Lamy was an absolute pig.

 Minerva shot a look at Lamy, daring her to continue her sulking. “You know my interest only

lies with women. And it’s not my fault that Sting is gay or that Gajeel is in a relationship.” She pushed the door open; Sting was lounging on a wooden crate.

 “M’lady, Lucy is… Who’s that? It better not be a new recruit.” He eyed Gray suspiciously, a small look of recognition gracing his features. “Why the hell do ya have to get involved with the fairies so much? All they bring is trouble.” He explained in exasperation, clearly not happy with today’s turn of events.

 “Hush, Gray is fine.” Minerva glowered at the ice mage, “As long as he behaves. Anyways, isn’t Gajeel fixed up yet? We really have to clear this place soon, or Jiemma will come after us.”

 Sting stiffened at the mention of her father, and she couldn’t help feeling a small pang of guilt.  “Y-Yeah, he is. Lamy didn’t have to do much, it’s just Lucy we have to worry about.”

 Minerva cleared her throat, eyeing the blond. “She’s completely fine, Sting. I’m sure she was helping Lamy patch up Gajeel. Right, Lamy?” Her hazel eyes shot the small bunny-demon and it elicited a wheeze.

 “I don’t know if I would call that blonde bimbo a help. She was too handsy with him.” This made everyone laugh.

 “Take me to them, Lamy. I need to speak with Gajeel in private.” The girl’s small head of hair bobbed as she acknowledged Minerva. Dutifully, she led her out of the room.

 Gray tried to come with them, but she held her hand up. “No, you stay. I didn’t say you could go anywhere. You have wounds that need tending to.” Minerva nudged him into the room, looking at Sting. “Get this fairy patched up, will you?”

 “I just want to get Lucy and go. She’s not supposed to be out this late-”

 “If she really cared, Lucy would have asked to leave long ago.” Another lie but Gray wasn’t phased by it. He muttered something under his breath and took residence in a rusty metal chair. Another fault of the fairies, they were extremely gullible. It was just too easy to win, Minerva thought. “I’ll be back with the both of them, soon.”

 Catching her look, Sting grabbed a box of randomly assorted medical supplies and began tending to Gray. Neither were happy with the situation but they came to a mutual understanding.

 Minerva exited and walked with Lamy down a small corridor. “You best hope she’s fixed or you’re dead.” Her voice was low and she could see the white sweat break on Lamy’s face.

 They walked into a room much larger than any in the small clinic. The room was dark and held a green filament, the ceilings being raised another twenty feet or so. In the middle of the room, there were rows of glass cylinders. Each was filled with a murky bile-colored liquid, which was still transparent enough to see through. These were big enough to hold any size animal, ranging from humans to the most dangerous of demons themselves. Which is why this operation is so illegal.

 After Tartarus’ disbandment, Lamy had taken all of her regeneration and youthonizing magic technology, and set up shop here. She had great dealings with the dark guilds, most using her curse to completely regenerate their guild mates and hideous monsters. But Minerva only used the girl on emergency occasions, such as this.

 It was evident that not a single container held a body, all of them empty and flowing with the same repugnant liquid. Lamy’s curse supposedly only worked on the demons of Tartarus, but she found a loophole. She kept it hidden from everyone as to exactly what she did, but Minerva was one of the only ones who didn’t care. As long as she was capable of turning everything back to normal. But not seeing that familiar head of golden hair, made her doubt Lamy’s abilities. “Did you even put her in?”

 “Ah, don’t worry Minerva.” Lamy cringed in on herself as she spoke. The green lighting of the room making the small girl look sickly. “I put her in right as you left.”

 “Don’t worry, buns.” She hated Gajeel’s nickname for her. Minerva’s hair wasn’t even in her signature style right now. “I got the blondie, right 'ere. She seems to be back ta normal, no scars or nothin’.” His piercings were eerily illuminated in the room’s light as he walked out from behind one of the glass encasings.

 For a split second she felt relieved to see Lucy but the feeling dissipated as quickly as it came. This was still strictly business, no matter how much that prophecy bounced around her mind. Her body was limp in Gajeel’s arms. It looked as if she still wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.

 “Good, I’m glad Lamy tended to you as well. But here’s the thing, we’re going to act like Lucy was never injured. A little fairy had the gall to come and find us.” The more Minerva thought about Gray, the more she despised him.

 Once she was done with Lucy, the ice mage was next on her list. A burning sensation enveloped her wrist as she thought of harming Lucy, and she gritted her teeth. This tattoo was going to be the death of her; the vision of their prophetic moment flashing through her mind.

 “Just follow my lead, Gajeel. Don’t say a word about anything that has happened today, not to one person.” Minerva quickly led them all back to the dingy patient room.

 Sting and Gray were silent as she walked in, looking at her with wide eyes. Gray’s upper chest and arms were bandaged, he had some nasty rug burns. But it wasn’t her fault that he chose to strip in the middle of battle, what kind of idiot was he? They both seemed like lost puppies. “Gajeel and Sting, you can leave now. Make sure you get the word out about next week.”

 Even with this big accident today, the fight club would still resume it’s activities. Gajeel nodded and handed Lucy over to Gray, taking his leave with Sting. Lamy began to weep over their absence, excusing herself from the room. Her heavy sobs, echoed in the silent hallway. Minerva was extremely displeased with her performance today. She deserved to cry.

 Blue eyes hardened, becoming void with emotion at Minerva’s presence. Gray coddled Lucy to his chest, looking over her features with worry. “I thought you said she was-”

 “She is. She just fell asleep while waiting for me to come back. Now make sure she gets home safely.”

 Gray cursed under his breath and stopped next to Minerva. Their shoulders were practically touching and the room’s temperature dropping significantly. “I can’t wait until Lucy knows how evil you are, “ the most lethal venom dripped from his voice. He shoved her out of his way, kicking the door closed behind him.   

Minerva was alone, the silence of the room drowning her. His words had stung her, punctured her heart severely. She didn’t know what the feeling was, but the emotional pain as insurmountable. She wasn’t evil, was she? Minerva bit her lip to repress the tears that were threatening to fall. What stopped her was the thought of Jiemma. He could do so much worse than the puny ice mage.

 With a deep breath, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Right now she had to worry about getting home before curfew.

By the time Minerva got home, the moon was beginning to crest over the horizon; peaking it’s shiny balded-head over the skyline. So far she had dropped her bike off at Sting’s home and had made the long trek to her own home on her own two feet. It was a couple miles from where she lived, but leaving the bike at her best friend’s house was a step in the right direction. There was no way she could get caught today. It was almost midnight.

 Looking ahead, her antiquated home stood as a flower in a dirt field. Her father constantly was renovating and updating the house’s features. Which meant she had to find another way in every time she stayed out too late, which wasn’t often. It was just her luck that he had gotten a new security system about a week ago. Jiemma never would have bought the technology, but he needed a way to assure that she wouldn’t try to escape.

 Minerva grinned at the thought. No one, not even her father could keep her locked up.

She stood with her hands on her waist, sizing the quaint house up. Her dad’s car sat in the driveway and there were security cameras hovering above the garage. The only thing that had changed from when she left this morning was the absence of dew on their front lawn. Minerva frowned, nothing had particularly stood out of place.

 Instead of some risky procedure, she decided she would crawl through her window. This was her usual method of sneaking in, but caution was always necessary. Even for something so basic.

 With a couple steps back and a great leap forward, she vaulted over her the gate leading to the backyard. Minerva used her hands to push off of the gate. Last time she touched it, the alarm was set off but not this time. Internally she applauded herself, all those gymnastics classes Jiemma forced her to take finally worth the time. She landed on her feet, immediately pressing her back up against the shingled wall.

 There were still cameras back here. But these ones surveyed their grand, olympic-sized swimming pool. Her father absolutely despised the rowdy teens that tried to take an evening dive. Or one who took a skinny dip… That was an absolutely horrible day. Jiemma accidentally blew up their previous pool with his maddening anger.

 Sucking in, she kept her body pressed into the wall, slowly moving along it until she stood under her window. Looking up, she could see that it stood open. Her silken curtains lightly kissing the window sill. That was odd, Minerva had sworn that she closed it before she left this morning.

 Closing her eyes, she imagined being up at the window sill. A small surge of magic filled her entire body and her hands grasped the edge of the window. She was so happy that she had teleported successfully, but a large tanned hand grabbed her own. In a single moment, she was yanked through the window and thrown to the floor. As she was pulled through, her side had hit the ledge. Minerva cried out, mostly in distress than in pain.

 Fuck, she thought. “Where were you?” That low voice was filled with danger. Minerva looked up and met her father’s gaze. She wished it was a burglar. She wasn’t capable of killing her own father.

 His eyes narrowed and he lifted his hand. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

 Minerva scrambled to get up to her feet, her heart beating too quickly. She had never gotten caught. “I was with Sting.” She managed to speak in a cool tone. It usually worked when she lied.

 Even with her tall stature, Jiemma stood heads above her. His presence was darkened, the light absent from his features. Minerva wished she could run away, just as it did. “You’re leaving some details out.”

 He wouldn’t be mad if she was at Lamy’s but he couldn’t know about her other activities in

the night. “We went to Lamy’s place, with Gajeel.”

 Jiemma scoffed, his eyes burning with rage as his hand marred her cheek. Minerva was an idiot to think she could deceive him. “Do you take me for a fool?”

 Her face felt raw and burned, tears briskly approaching the edge of her lashes. She didn’t dare look at him again, lowering her head in shame. Minerva’s cheek stinging and pulsating as a stray tear slipped from her eye, burning a trail down her face.

 That same calloused hand lifted her chin up. Jiemma looked at her with hollow eyes and yet his words were soft. “Pathetic. It only took one hit this time. I thought you were stronger Minerva.”

 Delicately he wiped the tear away, his fingers bruisingly gripping her chin. Her eyes still hadn’t met his and he frowned. “Look at me when I speak to you.” Anger was always underlying in his words, no matter how gentle he was.

 She complied, her lip quivering with fear; she was looking into the eyes of the devil. “Now tell me, Minerva…” His hand softly pet her hair, treating her like a broken doll. “Who’s name is on your wrist.”

 With the smallest movement, she shook her head. Minerva was completely at a loss of words, how did he know? His hand trailed down from her chin to her neck, those hardened fingers lightly skimming her throat. “I don’t even know who they are…” Minerva breathed out, fear digging into her skin.

 The hand of the devil clasped around her throat, his nails digging into the soft skin. Minerva’s breath was completely taken away. Grasping onto her father’s hand. Jiemma’s eyes filled with the beginnings of insanity as he continued to grip her throat. “You’re not the daughter I’ve raised. When did you protect pansy fairies?”

 He sneered with disgust, his hand flaring a dark and violent purple. Her throat erupted with blistering pain, the struggle to breath worsening. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she clawed against her father’s arm. “I… don’t…” She scrambled to get out. To feel a release.

 She had beaten Gray to the curb but that was just to show him a lesson. And Lucy was different, she was unlike anyone she had ever met before. But Jiemma knew about everything, he always seemed to know. This wasn’t any good for her upcoming plans.

 Jiemma’s eyes flashed with sympathy for only a brief moment and he released her. Minerva fell to the floor, a sniveling pile of utter failure. Jiemma didn’t look at her as he left, “You have training in a couple hours. Get your act together before then or you will face greater consequences.” The man was stone, his words holding truth.

 The door slammed shut and Minerva curled in on herself. She allowed all of her neglected emotions in, the barrier of apathy coming down. Rejection, failure, disappointment, the list could go on. These flooded her at an unbearable force and she wept, the tears never ending.  

 Her whole body wretched with insurmountable pain, everything crashing down on her. Gray’s words violating her mind. She wasn’t good, but she wasn’t evil. Everyone had to take a side, right? How come she couldn’t follow her father’s orders? Why hadn’t she murdered Lucy yet? Questions like this had bounced around her mind, her body quaking with despair.

 The more she dwelled on her thoughts, the more they consumed her. Overwhelming feelings and emotions at play within her body. And Minerva was trapped. She sobbed until she couldn’t, the tremors subsiding as her energy was lost.

 Minerva would take care of her wound and duties later, the chasms of sleep taking her in.

Lucy woke up with a startle, her dreams a distorted flashback of what occurred only a couple hours ago. She was in her own bed, the pink comforter tucked in at her sides. Lucy threw the covers off of herself, only one thing on her mind -her lacrima phone.

 Oh how she wished Minerva had been by her side when she had awakened, but that, sadly, wasn’t the reality she lived in. She was sure that the Sabertooth mage returned home safely. Minerva was just too capable.

 Scrounging through the items in her school bag, she couldn’t find the damned device anywhere. Lucy picked every piece of her room apart in the search for it, but it was no luck. She huffed and plopped down on her bed, the previous hours relaying through her head. The ride with Minerva had been fun but her little “club” was a shock… And then there was her battle with that insane and fiery red head.

 At the thought, Lucy frantically looked over her body for any injuries. Her wrists weren’t burned and her stomach…

 Lifting her night shirt, there wasn’t a scratch. And no blemishes on her skin to signify that she had been injured. Weird, she thought. She distinctly remembered the pain she had suffered not too long ago, but nothing, not one thing to confirm it. Maybe it had been a nightmare after all.

 Her bedside table rattled, the piece of furniture chattering. It was her pink lacrima phone! Picking the gadget up, there was an incoming call from Gray. She pressed down on the red button, sighing.

 When she scrolled through her notifications, she had many messages and missed calls. Most

of them being from her current problem, Gray. She really felt so bad for the guy, he was one of her best friends after all. She wished that he would get the hint already. No matter how Lucy explained to him she wasn’t interested anymore. At this point it was a matter of his stubbornness or that he really didn’t understand, she doubted the ladder choice.

 The rest were from Natsu, Yukino, and… Minerva. She grinned at the text, excited for what she could have possibly sent her.

 She left her phone open on the message as she got ready. Lucy was giddy and filled with a newfound energy, there was no way she could decline Minerva.  

 Minerva: Last night didn’t go as I expected and I’m sure you weren’t impressed either. Would you be willing to let me take you out again?

 She was so sure that today was going to be much better. That was until there was a timid knock at the door. The person she had least wanted to see standing behind that door.

#minlu #binding ink #minerva x lucy #lucy x minerva #w/w #gray fullbuster #gajeel redfox #lamy #sting eucliffe #lucy heartifilia #minerva orlando #jiemma (the bastard) #trigger warning: abuse

[ben243s-transformation-stories]

Was it only a dream? (Dark ending)

When one dreams, strange things can go through your mind. Fantastic things. The events I am about to relate came to me while I was sleeping a few nights ago, so bear with me if they seem strange. Are they just a dream, or a glance into a future that is yet to come? Only time will tell. Several elections ago, a very charismatic man appeared from nowhere. People were tired of politics as usual, and he managed to draw in quite a coalition of people from all ends of the political spectrum. He didn’t run as a Republican, or a Democrat. He started his own party. No one would have thought it was possible, but somehow he managed not just to garner enough votes to win the election, but he won in a landslide. His election took all of the elites in Washington and all the pundits by surprise. No one had even given him the slightest chance of winning against the two entrenched parties. It wasn’t long after he took office and gave a few speeches that he managed to convert a vast majority of congressmen to his side. Most even joined his party. Through what appeared at the time as a series of coincidences, he managed to appoint a large majority of judges to the Supreme Court. Something odd was definitely going on, but the new President would give a speech, and everyone would fall under his sway and forget what they had been so concerned about. Soon he was the most popular president ever in the history of the country. Everything seemed great at first. Using his charisma he managed to broker deals other presidents could only dream of. The economy was booming, unemployment was the lowest it had ever been, and peace had started to break out all over the world. Countries that most would have sworn could never get along were now fast friends. People began to let their guard down. This was exactly the opportunity He was waiting for. He quickly and quietly began to pass laws. Some allowed him to bypass congress and issue whatever edicts he wanted. Others made him President for life. Any objections were quickly struck down thanks to his control of the supreme courts, congress, and most of the state legislatures. Some people were more resistant to the Presidents charms, and tried to sound an alarm, but they went unheeded. Soon he had established what could easily be called a police state, though most people were happy and there was little need for actual police. While most parts of the population faired well under the new regime, there was one population that ostracized and made into an enemy. This was the LGBT community. In what was an amazing turn of events, a community that had gathered wide spread acceptance with most of the population was quickly and efficiently turned into a boogeyman. They had to be removed for the good of the whole. They were stripped of all their possessions and rights and forced to live in communities were they were treated like they were nothing more than animals. These communities were set up all over the country.  There were separate ones for gays, lesbians, transgenders, and any other groups considered deviants by the state. While the communities were fairly nicely appointed with everything the residents would need, they were obviously intended to be warehouses. Once a person entered the camp, they would never return to the outside world. The residents of the camp were made to remain naked at all times. They had all of their personal items confiscated, and lived in comfortable but sterile rooms. They received quality food and medical care. They were treated with the respect one would give a beloved pet. Most even had access to community centers with Movies and video arcades. Life in these communities was generally unremarkable. Most people spent their days going about their business, resigned to their fate. There was an adjustment period for new arrivals, but they quickly got used to their new lives. Younger residents were kept segregated from the older ones until they turned 18, and graduated from high school. A basic education was deemed important, but that was as far as they went. I am a resident of one of the Gay camps in the Washington area. I graduated from the high school recently, and have just been moved into my place with the adult residents. While they have been getting more efficient, I wasn’t identified as gay until I was about to start at a regular high school. Most people knew what happened to the people found to be gay, and didn’t want that to happen to them. I had met another boy like me at summer camp, and we had developed quite a relationship. About a week before we were supposed to start high school, we had been a little careless, and left the door to my room unlocked while we were making out. My mother came home and found us in a passionate embrace. She ran from the room crying. I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. She wouldn’t talk to me about it, and kept blaming herself. The next day, A van pulled up into our driveway, and a group of men came into the house. My mother told them where I was, and they barged into my room and drug me out to the van, and took me to the closest camp. I couldn’t believe my own mother would turn me in. I don’t know if she managed to identify my friend or not, but I hoped he managed to avoid being caught. I was processed and released into the juvenile section of the camp. I was surprised at how young some of the residents were. I wouldn’t have thought they could even tell what their sexuality would be at that age. Anyway, it took me a few months before I got used to the forced nudity, and seeing the other kids that way. It took even longer for me to get over the betrayal I felt from my mother. I did okay in school, but I’m sure that I would have done better in the outside world. We were carefully monitored, so there was no chance of us having any sort of relationship while we were in the juvenile section. We were kept so busy with school and other mandatory activities that I don’t think I would have had the energy had we been able. Still I made a few good friends in my classes. The adult section was much more free and open than the Kids section. We were allowed to interact with each other in any ways we saw fit. There were a few guards to keep the peace, but we were mostly on our own. I settled into my new room, which didn’t take long, as I had no clothes or possessions, and there wasn’t much more than a bed, a desk, a couple of chairs, and a TV on the wall. The TV served as our entertainment and news source. There was a pull out keyboard that we could use to browse the web, but we couldn’t send any email outside the camp, and were similarly limited with social media. The camp essentially was our world. After flipping through the channels, Surprisingly we got quite a few, I didn’t find anything interesting, so I decided to walk around a get familiar with the area. I quickly found the dining areas. They were set up more like restaurants than the cafeteria style ones in the kids’ section. It was around lunchtime, so I grabbed a quick meal before I continued my explorations. I spent most of the day walking around taking in the sights. The people seemed friendly enough, nodding and saying “Hi” as we passed by, but none seemed interested in starting a conversation. I finally managed to find some of my friends rooms, and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking, and went out to dinner the next evening. Most of my days went along the same lines. We would wonder around and try and find ways to pass the time. You would think not having to worry about a job would be great, but its really not. The days would drag on and on. Before long my friends and I would run out of things to talk about. Now I know why the others were the way they were, it was easier just to tune out before the boredom caused you to go crazy. The weeks stretched into months. It was mind numbing. I started looking for anyway to get out of the facility, but soon discovered there were none. Besides, they were always located a good distance from the “normal” people. How far would I get with no supplies? Every once in a while there would be an opportunity to sign up for a research project. While research on humans had been banned long ago, since we weren’t considered human anymore, we were the perfect choice. We were still required to be treated humanely, and the projects had to go through a rigorous review process before they could even be considered. I passed up most, as they sounded like they would be painful, and I wasn’t interested in being a pin cushion. One day I got a notification that a new project had been added. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to check it out. I read through the proposal and something caught my eye. It was a program for behavior modification. They wanted to see if they could remove or modify unwanted traits or something like that. As a child I had come to accept being Gay as part of me, and gotten used to it, but since I have been stuck here, I have come to see it as a curse, and I wouldn’t mind a chance to get rid of that part of me. I signed up right away as slots filled quickly. I should have read a little more. Buried in the fine print it explained that this was not to remove traits, but to add new ones. I spent the rest of the week in anticipation of the project, hoping it would make me “normal”, not that there was anything wrong with me now in my eyes. Maybe it would give me a chance to return to the normal world. I could see the rest of my friends and family again. Yes, even my Mother. It had taken a while, but I finally forgave her. When Monday rolled around, I ate a nice breakfast, and made my way to the building where the project was to take place. I arrived a little early and found a few other men standing around waiting. We exchanged pleasantries, the stood in complete silence. After a few minuets, we were led inside and told to find a seat. As we entered the room we were each given an injection. I’m not sure what it was, but it gave me a nice warm and secure feeling all over. Once everyone had found a seat, a man in a white lab coat came onto the stage. He introduced himself as Dr. Stephenson. He started to explain what the experiment would entail, but I found it hard to concentrate. I looked around and saw that the others in the room were starting to space out as well. Must have been the result of the shot. After some time had passed, I’m not sure I can accurately judge anymore, we were escorted to separate rooms. Once there I was placed in a seat and strapped in. I was facing a large screen. A technician entered the room, and activated the screen and jabbed me with a syringe, injecting me with a second substance. I don’t know what it was, but it was a nice green color. As it took effect, the tech started a video and quickly left the room. The next thing I knew, several hours had passed. The tech returned to the room. He attached a device around my neck that would monitor me and track me. I caught a glimpse of myself in the TV, and couldn’t help but think it looked like a dog collar. How odd. It was late in the evening when we were allowed to return to our rooms or the night. I didn’t feel any different. I got a few interested stares when people noticed my “collar” but no one would dare say anything. I grabbed a quick meal and headed to bed. As I dreamt, I saw myself free and running around in a large field. I would often stop and smell things. I had a sense of freedom and contentment that I had never felt before. If I could have seen myself while I slept, I would have seen my legs and arms flailing about like I was running on all fours. Little did I know, that the screens in each room had a camera, and the techs were watching me as I slept. They were pleased with the results. The next morning, I returned to the lab for my second treatment. This time everything was the same except the injection was blue. I don’t know what that meant, but no one would tell me. Didn’t want to influence the experiment.  Again, I apparently watched some kind of video while I was under the drugs influence. After I was released from the second treatment, I started to walk home. I noticed that it was particularly warm, so I started to pant in an effort to cool myself. I had walked quite a distance before I realized what I was doing. I quickly stopped and hoped no one had seen me. I had a similar dream that night. I was running free, sniffing things, this time I was walking on all fours. It seemed so natural to me. I didn’t remember much about it when I woke up, but it left me with a great feeling. When I got to the next treatment, I was given a quick questionnaire before the treatment. I wasn’t sure what the questions meant, but I’m sure they were to give some idea of how the treatments were working. This time the injection was red. It seemed to work faster than the others. Again, I was subjected to a video. Little did I know that some additional suggestions were being fed into the room by the techs. My mind soaked them all in, making them apart of me. When I was released, I had to struggle to walk up right. I kept dropping down onto all fours. I would often find that I started panting also. It took everything I could muster to get home without looking like I was crazy. Once I was back in my room, I dropped to all fours, and couldn’t get up for the rest of the night. My dreams were much more vivid. I started to see myself as a full dog. It was a wonderful feeling. It felt like I should have been this way all the time. It seemed like all my cares were erased as I chased squirrels and barked. When I woke up the next morning, I wasn’t sure I liked what was happening. I didn’t want to be turned into a dog. This isn’t what I expected at all. I resolved not to go any further with this test until someone explained to me what was going on. That was the plan anyway. But I found myself compelled to return for more treatments. No matter how much I tried to resist, I found myself back at the lab each morning. Over the next few days I was given a different injection, first red, than orange, than finally yellow. I found myself taking on more and more dog related traits after each treatment.  By the end of the week, I was being kept in what could only be called a dog run in the facility. I was no longer able to function as a human, and needed round the clock supervision. The techs took careful notes and seemed pleased with my progress. I tried to yell at them, and tell them this isn’t what I signed up for, but all that came out were barks. The best I could tell, I was still me inside. I felt exactly the same as I had before the process. I still liked all the same things, but the human speech just wasn’t there. Walking on all fours seemed natural. I had an overwhelming urge to obey the techs and Doctor. No matter how human I tried to be, I found it difficult to express myself as anything other than a dog. Over the course of the next week, I was watched around the clock to see how well the conditioning had taken. I found myself thinking and acting more like the dog I was becoming. I was in danger of losing myself completely. By the end of the second week, my human mind and personality were almost completely submerged. I was behaviorally no different than any other normal dog. The doctor was heralded for his great success and even won a few awards. I was paraded around at various speeches. Much to my dismay, I wasn’t able to understand much of what was said- except when I was given a command. At that point I found myself instantly obeying. After the tour was over, I was allowed to visit with my parents and family. I’m not sure how they felt about their son becoming a dog, but I very much got the feeling that they considered this better than being a gay man. That realization made me sad. And was like a punch in the gut. We spent the rest of the day playing. I tried to stay angry with them, but I couldn’t. Every time they would throw a ball or give me a command, the dog mind would kick in and I would completely consumed with the task at hand. I soon found out they had made arrangements to adopt me as their pet. I was given an exam and the needed shots. I was also injected with a microchip identifying me as their pet. As the tags were attached to the collar, a little more of the human me died, but I was happy to be with my family again. Even if it had to be as the family pet. Over the course of the next few years, the dog became the prominent part of my personality. I almost never thought of myself as human anymore. I was nothing more than their dog. It seemed like everyone was happier that way, so I didn’t resist as my mind started to slide. One morning, a van pulled up outside our home. It was Dr. Stephenson. He spent several hours talking to my family. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but I know it was about me, as they kept looking over at me as they talked. Once they were done, my parents had clearly agreed to something. A leash was clipped to my collar and I was led away. After a short trip in the van, I was led into a waiting room. There I was injected with a sedative. When I woke up, I found myself in what looked like a surgical theater. I tried to get up but couldn’t. My movements must have alerted the nurses, as one soon entered the room. He undid a few straps and lifted me off the bed onto the floor. As the drugs continued to wear off, I noticed that my whole body felt different. I was standing on my toes, rather than my hands and knees, and I could see something extending from my face into my field of view. I wasn’t prepared for the shock as a mirror was wheeled in front of me. I was no longer human. I had somehow been transformed into a dog in body as well as in mind. As best as I could tell I was now a golden retriever. Something in me was excited by this, and my tail started wagging. My tail? Yep. I couldn’t believe it, but I had a tail, a muzzle, paws, the works. As far as I could tell I was indistinguishable from a natural dog. I opened my mouth and started panting. The doctor came in and ruffled my fur. He praised me. I felt wonderful. Waves of pleasure went through my body. I knew this was the way I was meant to be. Being human was all a mistake. After a thorough check up to make sure there were no complications, I returned home to my family, who were all happy to see me. I spent the rest of my life as their faithful pet. I was happy to finally be accepted. Even my mom seemed happy with me now. This wasn’t exactly what I had planned when I had signed the form so long ago, but I had to admit that I was happy with how it had turned out. My humanity was a small price to pay for my freedom. I was home with my family again and loved. What more could anyone want.

#dog transformation

[asoulofatlantis]

I would love for you to repeat the “scary” - Part for all thiose who have played Hajimari and made this idiot one of their favorite Trails characters ever. (I am serious here. Give this backstabbing murderer a freaking redemption Arc and and the Players are sudeenly pretending he is the greatest guy ever...)

It took me ages to actually fully understand that the curse not just makes them want war and stop thinking of any possible consequences, but also makes them forget their heroes who they would usually trust to bring an end to this nonsense. It takes away hope of ending this war before it started and also makes sure people only trust the military and no one else.

Xin is propably another victim of the Audio-Drama-CD-Course. Because once again, he is a character that suddenly showed up, had some sort of connection to the main characters (or at least one of them) and we have no idea who this person is or were the connection comes from. Its frustrating, really.

Its not like we as the players have any right to know or reason to want to know what those two are talking about... so keep it vague, its not like we care or anything... MY ASS!

I always wondered if they inteded for Jona to be Tios loveinterested eventually. Technically speaking, Tio belongs to Lloyds Harem, but with the direction Hajimari went and honestly the Crossbellgames as well I felt like it was always intended for Elie to eventually end up as Lloyds Canon-Partner, making character like Tio and Noelle available for other. (In Noelles case, it seems to go into Wazys direction... tho I always thought he way gay... but the game is queer-baiting a lot, so lets not even try to get there...) Anyway... I think that is a way smarter move then what they did with Reans harem. I mean, look at Hajimari. Technically speaking Rean has chosen his Girl at this point, is together with her for like half a year even, yet he gets into the hotspring with Claire, does his usual unintended and yet strong  flirting and here we are talking about a character you could never really date and yet, despite being REALLY at that age, she still is kept open just for staying an option for Rean. That is NOT a good thing for stronger who are as strong and independent as our Cold Steel Girls are. You might argue that an independent girl doesn’t need a boyfriend in the first place and to some degree you are right BUT keeping herself warm for Rean destroys the picture of independence completely. After all those years especially Claire deserved to move on. But I degres. (BTW... total bullshit what they do here. Schera already called him Jona, and we barely see his freckles from this angle anyway...)

Just in case you haven’t been down already, Jona makes sure that you will feel heartbroken, thinking of the fact that Scheras Name was the last thing he talked about before he got blown up and that there were probably many things left unsaid when that happened. And even tho Olivert mentions her, we haven’t seen her at all in CS3 and given that even Agate barely had any time for his princess, overprotective as he is, its very likely that Olivert and Schera als well did not have much time with each other. Given Schera probably lots of regrets.

Not enough pain for you yet? Watch Schera suffer while she remembers Oliverts last words to her and seeing how he got blow up while she was still in Heimdall doing Bracer-Stuff.  

And now we have FINALLY finished all the Introduction-Sequences and start with the actual Prologue. Yes, its been like 1 and a half hours or so, just watching scenes with non of our main protagonists. It felt actually like half the time the game was only making sure we remember painfully well that Olivert is dead. You know... just in case you had any hope left. We got nothing about Class7 not old nor new. Nothing about Rean. No sign of Osborne or Crow either. All we know is, that behind the scenes, people who are not class 7 are gathering to do what they can, while we are heading towards war very fast the curse is doing its job.

This here surprised even me XD Who would have thought of all people to start Cold Steel 4 with, we start with the Main couples of the previous Trails-Sagas and their adopted children? ^^’ Working together no less. I mean, obviously those characters know each other and have been working together before, but it is still a rare sight you would not expect in a freaking Cold Steel Game.

Honestly? I’ve I would have been ask to tell one single good thing that the Crossbell-Saga brought into the Trails-Saga then the answer would definitely be KeA XD So I can absolutely understand Estelle here.

Just in case you have forgotten that prince Olivert is dead or just in case you have been trying to get over it and move on... here is your casual regularly reoccurring reminder that we have lost him. When I played the game for the first time I already knew he was alive, but I had just finished CS3 for the first time and the pain of seeing him die was quite fresh so I still felt like crying every time they mentioned Oliver was gone and that happened A LOT XD

If you think about it, for us as the player, this prolouge was fanservice at best. WE do know what happened in Heimdall and we also do know the gist of what they are planning next. I get that they wanted to show us how those 6 found out about everything but it still seems somehow unnecessary to go all the way to create this section of the Orchis tower just for a Prologue that wasn’t exactly necessary.

Then again... this was probably supposed to be a hold-off. Think about it. The last time you saw Rean, he was in chains, propably still out of his mind, somewhere in the dark. Class7 old and new were still stuck in the Gral with all the enemies when shit went down. Tita, Tio, Towa (playing the T-Game just for fun here ;P) and the others were still fighting outside against strong enemies. We knew that Crow got his memories back but not what he was going to do with it. Same goes for Duvalie finding out that she was not happy with what her Lord decided. So right now, with the constant reminder that Olivert will not swoop in with his Couragous any second now to save our guys and girls, we are kept from finding out what happened to the people we really care about right now. Don’t get me wrong here, of course we are happy to see Estelle and Co. again, but its not like they have been in immediate danger last time we saw them. And yet... the way we have to go now is anything but short.

Its extremely adorable how, after you win a battle KeA comes running to the Victory-Screen to congratulate you XD

It makes one wonder how long it will take to see them back in action now that the Calvard-Arc is starting. Only 10% of Charakters showing up there will be know ones and it is hinted that we will only see people like Killika. Zin and Renne. So it might be a while (after Hajimari that is) until we see those guys again at all, yet alone working together.

#CS4 Mona Version

[andonewillbringhisfall]

I Wanted It to be Real

A fake relationship AU. There will be 6 chapters, all from Simon’s POV, and I’ll probably be updating every 3-4 days. Hope you like it!! (Also, warning: a bit of homophobia at the start.)

Chapter 1

Christmas break at the Bunces’ was a lot crazier than the Wellbeloves’. Usually I’d stay with Agatha, but since we broke up in October she thought it would be a bit weird if I stayed with them this year. She said she didn’t want her parents getting the wrong idea. Penny says that means Agatha didn’t want them bugging her, asking why we’re not together. (I want to ask her too, but I don’t want to ruin anything. I thought we were meant to be endgame, but even I can see she’s happier now.)

For one thing Penny has way more siblings than Agatha. Christmas is the one day of the year where all the Bunces will sit down to dinner together, and by the end of the meal everyone was threatening never to do it again. (Premal wasn’t there; Penny says he’s always busy with the Mage.) Two of the younger ones had a fight over presents and Penny’s dad just wanted to talk to me about the Humdrum.

It was crazy and exhausting and I loved it. I love that they’re all so different, but that they all belong there. No explanations needed.

Penny’s mum is driving us back to Watford. Penny’s in the front seat, and they’re talking about magickal politics while I stare out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the gate. Magic separates us from the world; let nothing separate us from each other. It’s always good to come home.

We park by the Great Lawn, Penny and Dr Bunce still deep in conversation. I crane my head, peering around at all the other cars pulling up, students walking out and slamming doors then heading towards the drawbridge. Agatha’s probably not back yet, but I’m not looking for Agatha.

‘Well, I’d better be heading home,’ Dr Bunce says, leaning over to hug Penny. ‘You two take care. Be safe.’

‘We will,’ Penny says, scrambling out of the car.

‘Simon?’

‘Of course, Dr Bunce,’ I say, even though it’s a promise I can’t make. The Humdrum’s still out there somewhere. Plus I have an evil vampire for a roommate, so being safe is never really an option.

Just as he crosses my mind, I finally spot Baz. He’s standing by a sleek black car with his dad, who’s just a little bit shorter than him and not as intimidating as I thought he’d look. Maybe that’s just because nobody looks intimidating next to Baz. I squint at them, and notice that Baz’s dad has his arms crossed and Baz’s shoulders are stiff like he’s watching for a threat.

I grab Penny’s arm and start walking towards them, even though they’re not really in our path to the drawbridge. Penny sees where we’re headed and gives me an exasperated look, but walks with me anyway.

We walk around so we’re approaching them from the other side of the car. I gesture at Penny to be quiet, even though I know I don’t need to.

‘…just here to study, and keep an eye on Snow,’ Baz says. I almost duck down behind the car to hear better, but Penny stops me with a look and a hand on my arm. Instead, we stand a little way away, hoping they’re too busy with their conversation to notice us.

‘I know, that’s your main objective, but these are your last few months at Watford,’ his dad says. ‘Why don’t you try talking to Miss Avery?’

‘Because it’s a waste of my time and effort,’ says Baz. I can’t tell if they’re plotting or if Baz’s dad is trying to set him up with the girl. She’s an eighth year, and I think her family is in the Wellbeloves’ circles. She’s not one of the Old Families, but she’s powerful, and brilliant in school. Way better than me, but then, who isn’t?

‘Basilton,’ his father says, annoyed.

‘You know I’m gay, Father,’ says Baz, though his voice is still carefully emotionless. My mouth drops open and I turn to Penny. She’s actually paying attention now, her thoughtful gaze turned on Baz.

‘You’ve never dated a bloke,’ Baz’s father says, and I look back at them.

‘I’ve never dated a girl either, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem,’ says Baz.

‘Would it kill you to at least talk to her?’

‘Need I remind you that I’m already dead?’

I whip around to stare at Penny again, gesturing wildly. Vampire, I mouth, eyes wide. She shakes her head, swatting my arm back down to my side.

‘Basilton!’ his father snaps, loud enough that I’d have heard it even if I wasn’t eavesdropping. A few heads turn, and I take a tiny step towards Baz, too small to draw attention to myself.

‘I’m serious,’ says Baz’s father. ‘I don’t understand why someone of your – of your status should still not have found someone in your last year.’

I look at Penny. She has that outraged look that she gets when she’s about to go on a rant, the one you don’t want to be on the wrong side of. I get it. I’ve never heard anybody speak to Baz like this, like he’s less than perfect. Like there’s something left to be desired.

Baz won’t meet his father’s eye. ‘I don’t know what to tell you,’ he says.

‘Don’t disappoint me,’ his father says. ‘You know how important this is to your family. Don’t disappoint your mo-’

Before I know what I’m doing, I stride around the side of the car, and both Baz and his father turn to look at me. Baz’s father looks annoyed that I’ve interrupted, and there’s a flicker of something I can’t read on Baz’s face before he’s wearing his usual cold sneer. I ignore it, moving into his space, and before he can step away and ruin my whole plan – not that it’s much of a plan – I slip an arm around his waist.

‘Hi, Baz,’ I say, heart pounding. I turn my head so my chin is on his shoulder and his dark grey eyes are inches from mine, and give him my softest smile. ‘I missed you.’

I keep my eyes on Baz’s, refusing to even acknowledge that his father is there. My arm around him tightens, and I will him to respond, even though I’m starting to realise this was probably a mistake. I’ve just given him the perfect chance to embarrass me.

Then I feel Baz’s arm go around me.

‘Simon,’ he says, and my smile widens. Not Snow.

‘Hey,’ I say.

For one second we just stand there and stare at each other and there’s nothing and no-one else that matters except the two of us and that look he’s giving me, the crease between his eyebrows, the little bend in his nose that shouldn’t be there, and his eyes that suddenly don’t look so cold. They’re more like charcoal. And then Baz’s father clears his throat and we both turn to look back at him, still glued to each other.

‘Uh, hi,’ I stutter, holding out the arm that isn’t around Baz’s waist. ‘I’m – I’m Simon. Snow.’

Seconds pass – four, five, six – and then Baz’s father finally takes my hand, his grip slack.

‘Simon Snow,’ he says. ‘Yes.’ I let go of his hand, and his arm hangs there for a second before he pulls it back. ‘Yes. It’s… nice to meet you.’

‘You too, Mr Pitch,’ I say, and then remember that he’s not technically a Pitch, but neither of them corrects me.

‘I suppose I should… let you get settled in,’ he says, taking a step back. ‘I’ll see you at graduation, then. Both of you.’ He nods at me, and then at Baz, and gets back into his car. We watch him back out and drive away, still holding on to each other until his car is out of sight.

As soon as he’s gone, Baz steps away, almost shoving me off him, gives me a furious glare and then marches towards the castle. I want to run after him, explain myself, that it was the only thing I could think to do and that I hated how his father spoke to him, but I know I won’t be able to get the words out.

‘Simon, what the fuck?’ Penny says, dragging my attention away from Baz.

‘I don’t – I don’t really know,’ I say.

‘I’m surprised he was so civil,’ she says, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the castle. ‘I thought he would tell you to stay away from his precious Old Family heir. Did you forget that you’re mortal enemies?’

‘No,’ I say. ‘Yes. I don’t know.’

‘Is Malcolm Grimm really going to let this slide?’ she continues. ‘He’ll probably take it up with the Mage, or something. The Mage won’t be any happier to hear about it.’

‘I can’t believe Baz went along with it,’ I say. ‘What was I thinking?’

Penny pats my arm and sighs. ‘Oh, Simon, you clearly weren’t.’

 *

 I trail Baz back to our room, still carrying my bag (I didn’t bring much with me, but since I stayed over at Penny’s for Christmas I’ve now got a new jumper, some gingerbread biscuits, some crayon drawings from the little ones, and Martin Bunce gave me a book on magickal ecology). I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to explain myself. First the eavesdropping, then pretending to be his boyfriend.

Maybe I should say I was just doing it to fuck with him.

The door still recognises me and swings open. Baz is at his wardrobe hanging up a jacket. He whirls around and glowers at me.

‘Snow. What. The fuck. Was that?’

I hold my hands up in front of my chest. ‘Look, I panicked, okay? I didn’t know what to do.’

‘And shutting up and staying out of it never crossed your simple mind?’

‘I wasn’t thinking,’ I say. ‘I just did the first thing that came into my head.’

‘And the first thing that came into your head was to pretend to be my boyfriend.’ He takes a step towards me, sneering.

‘I was just trying to help.’

Baz folds his arms across his chest. ‘You think making my father think I’m dating the Mage’s Heir was helping?’

The Mage’s Heir. I hate when he calls me that. More than I hate that he won’t ever say my first name.

‘You went along with it,’ I say, crossing my arms to mirror him.

‘You didn’t leave me much choice,’ Baz says. ‘You would have embarrassed me either way.’

I huff and storm over to my bed, throwing my bag down on the floor with more force than I probably should have considering there are biscuits and a book in there.

‘Fine,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry. I was trying to help.’

‘I don’t need help from you,’ Baz spits.

I sit on the edge of my bed, facing him, my hands balling into fists. ‘I just hated the way he was speaking to you,’ I say, even though Baz has obviously decided he doesn’t care why I did it.

He turns away, back to the wardrobe, so I can’t see his face. It takes a moment before he answers.

‘You shouldn’t listen to other people’s conversations,’ he says coldly.

‘Yeah, well, your family wants to kill me, so…’

‘Exactly,’ Baz says. ‘Didn’t think of that when you had your arms around me, did you?’

‘Alright,’ I growl. ‘I get it. It was stupid.’

‘I’m glad we agree.’ He slams the wardrobe shut and then does the same to the door of our room. I sigh and lie back on my bed.

Of course Baz doesn’t want his father to think he’s dating me, of all people.

Stupid.

 *

 Agatha’s giggling, one hand over her mouth and the other holding a glass, water threatening to spill over the edges.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ she says, putting the glass down on the table. ‘You pretended you were dating Baz? Why?’

I sigh, though my mouth turns up at the corners. Agatha’s laugh is infectious, and I don’t get to hear it often. Not like this, with her shoulders shaking and her eyes squinted. It suits her.

‘His father was being a git,’ I mumble.

‘But it’s Baz,’ says Agatha. ‘You’re not even gay.’ She pauses. ‘Are you? Are you bi?’

I shrug. (I’m not even sure I know what that means.)

‘What did he say?’ Agatha asks.

‘The usual,’ I say. ‘And that I embarrassed him.’

Agatha’s face falls and I turn my head away, staring down at the table.

‘Fuck him,’ says Agatha earnestly. I can’t help smiling again. (She doesn’t swear very often.)

Penny looks thoughtful. ‘Did you tell him why you did it?’

‘Yes,’ I say. I groan. ‘He hates me. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea.’

‘Hey, it got Malcolm Grimm to leave, didn’t it?’ Penny says. ‘So I’d say mission accomplished.’

I shrug. ‘Maybe.’

Agatha’s gaze turns to something over my head and she sits up suddenly. I turn around and see Baz coming towards us.

‘Fuck,’ I mumble. He’s changed into his uniform since we got here, his blazer and tie in perfect place as always, hair hanging loosely around his face. It’s gotten longer since the beginning of the school year, and it looks good. He looks good. And his grey eyes with the storm clouds are trained right on me.

I expect him to stop behind me, but instead he goes to the empty seat on my left. He rests one hand on my shoulder while he pulls out the chair with his other hand, and I can still feel the light pressure of his touch after it’s gone. He sits in the chair and turns himself to face me.

‘Simon,’ he says.

I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes to my head.

He leans forward and reaches out to swipe his thumb across my cheek. I pull my head back out of his reach.

‘Sauce,’ he says by way of explanation, and cracks a lopsided smile. Something twinges in my gut. ‘Just as attractive as always.’

I gape at him. This wouldn’t be the first time Baz has pointed out that I have food on my face, but it’s definitely the first time he’s been kind about it.

‘Bunce, Wellbelove,’ he says, nodding to each of the girls. ‘Did you have a nice Christmas break?’

What the fuck?

Penny and Agatha obviously share my feelings about this, exchanging quick glances and then looking back at Baz. Agatha looks confused. Penny’s expression is bordering on gleeful.

‘Um,’ says Agatha. ‘Yes, it was lovely.’

‘Excellent,’ says Baz. ‘Penelope?’

‘Yeah, great,’ says Penny. ‘Lots of time to do extra study, so don’t think I’m going easy on you this year.’

‘Of course not,’ says Baz, looking genuinely insulted. I’m turning my head from side to side watching them all speak, and I still have no idea what’s going on. Then I feel Baz’s hand brush against mine, and suddenly our fingers are laced together, hands resting on the tabletop.

‘Uh,’ I say, swallowing. ‘I think – me and Baz are – we have to talk,’ I say, standing up quickly. Baz doesn’t let go of my hand, standing up too.

‘Yeah, I think you do,’ says Penny. ‘Good luck.’ She smirks.

As we’re walking out of the dining hall, Baz ducks his head next to mine.

‘Better get used to the staring,’ he murmurs, and I resist the urge to put some distance between us. I peer around and realise that he’s right; at least half the school is watching us.

As soon as we reach Mummers House, I wrench my hand out of his grasp. We walk silently up the stairs to our room, Baz following a few steps behind me.

‘What are you doing?’ I stammer, after he shuts the door.

He strides past me into the room. ‘You started it. Now it’s only fair that you go along with it.’

‘But why?’

‘Because my father believes we’re dating, and so does my entire family, and soon enough my sister will talk to her friends and all the Old Families will know. That means someone’s going to figure out it was a ruse sooner rather than later.’

‘So?’

Baz rolls his eyes and walks towards the bathroom. ‘So we have to convince everyone,’ he says over his shoulder. ‘Or my father is going to have a lot of questions.’

He closes the door and I sit on my bed, frowning.

Baz already told me I’d embarrassed him in front of his father. Now what would his father think if he knew Baz had just pretended to date me? Just to prove him wrong, only for it to turn out that he’d been right all along.

Don’t disappoint your mother. Just thinking about it makes my throat close over. How can he try to make Baz feel ashamed? What would it do to Baz for his father to see him vulnerable like this?

Baz is right; I’m the one who started this. It’s my fault he’s in this situation in the first place, so I have to help him get out of it by going along with this. I have to pretend to be Baz’s boyfriend.

Alright, then. I can do this. I can talk to him and sit with him in classes and pretend like we don’t hate each other. I can hold his hand and let him wipe sauce off my face.

No problem at all.

So why is my heart racing?

#snowbaz #simon snow #baz pitch #penelope bunce #carry on fanfiction #ALSO HAPPY 2 YEARS SINCE THE RELEASE OF CARRY ON

[callumsmitchells]

Divide

Read on AO3

Anyone who came to Emmerdale village could see that there was tension between two families. It was always there and it seemed as though that would never change. It didn’t matter how much time had passed since the initial divide, or the fact that the families had become intertwined and there was now a baby Sugden to a Dingle girl. It was an unwritten rule: The Sugden’s and the Dingles never EVER got on. 

In fact, they would go as far as to say they were enemies. However, Robert Sugden had done the unthinkable and actually become employed by the Dingle’s, working in their garage. Except, working there didn’t really work out most of the time, especially when Aaron Dingle also worked there, and with him and Robert being the two that ended up working five days a week with each other, there was bound to be some tension and arguments.

It had become a well-known fact throughout the village that Aaron and Robert would more than likely cause hassle with each other. They both loved to get their own way, and, well, that couldn’t happen all the time. They’d never actually had a physical fight before though, the furthest they did was just annoy each other so that the other one would storm off. But recently, Aaron had been struggling mentally, not knowing what was going on in his head at first, but as soon as he worked it out, he became a closed book, not allowing anyone to even attempt to find out.

He was gay.

In reality, he had probably known about it for years, but him being a Dingle meant he was terrified to not only come out, but to admit it to himself first.

He was getting more sensitive as time went on. Robert didn’t see how on edge Aaron was until it was too late. Until after he had annoyed Aaron about a stupid customer. Aaron saw red, he didn’t mean to. But he punched Robert right across the face, his nose instantly bleeding and his eye bruising quickly.

He gasped as soon as he did it, “Shit, I-I’m so sorry!” He practically shouted, running to get some clean tissue to mop up the blood.

Robert was on the floor, his mouth hanging open in pain and his hand under his nose to stop the blood gushing out. “Here.” Aaron said, gently pressing the tissue against his nose, it immediately soaking up the blood.

“It’s fine.” Robert winced out, grabbing some more tissue ready to swap it over.

“No-no, it’s not. I shouldn’t have done it.” Aaron ranted, wiping the blood way from Robert’s face.

Robert chuckled and then winced, obviously not being able to move suddenly without it hurting. “At least it was you and not Cain, eh?” He joked. “Don’t think he would’ve stopped at a bloody nose.”

 Jack was furious. Obviously. As well as his anger, he was delighted to now be able to get one over on the Dingle’s. He knew as soon as Robert came home, his nose and eye all bruised and bulging, that Aaron had punched him. He gloated in the pub when he saw Aaron being handcuffed by the police and read his rights, not caring about all the Dingle’s who were glaring at him. He went home later that night, stinking of beer and slurring his words, and Robert was somehow able to make out that Aaron had been arrested.

 He had turned up for work in the morning and waited for Aaron to turn up, but he didn’t. Jack had told him again over breakfast that he rang the police and that he saw the young lad being dragged away, but Robert thought he’s be out by now.

Cain glared at him when he started to work on the car that had just come in, both of them working in silence until Robert spoke, “It wasn’t me who rang the police. It was dad. I didn’t tell him to do it and I didn’t even tell him who hit me. I probably deserved the decking anyway.”

Cain just grunted, signing off a contract and telling him he was leaving, and that Aaron would be in within the hour.

He was right, because not even twenty minutes later, Robert heard the crunching of the gravel and looked up to see Aaron walking down the path. “Please tell me you haven’t been charged with anything. I’ll get my dad to retract the statement-I-I’ll say I don’t want to take it any further.” Robert ranted, watching as Aaron sat down in the office chair.

“They let me off. Just explained to them what happened in my head and they said they weren’t gonna caution me.” Aaron said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just annoyed that I won’t get that time back.”

Robert nodded, glad that nothing serious had happened to Aaron. As much as their families didn’t get along, and that idea was passed down to the two of them, Robert had always liked Aaron, and when they got on, they got on really well.

“Why’d you do it then?” Robert asked, passing Aaron a piece of paper for a car they were working on.

Aaron sighed, putting the paper on the nearest desk and leaning back into the chair. “You can’t tell anyone.” He said sternly, waiting for Robert to agree- which he did. “I’m gay.”

Robert gasped in shock, banging his head on the car bonnet and wincing.

“You need to stop injuring yourself, you dick.” Aaron laughed, rolling his eyes.

“Sorry, but I just heard something come out of your mouth that I never thought I’d hear. Excuse me for being shocked!” Robert said sarcastically.

Aaron just shrugged. “I’ve been playing it in my head for months. Always knew there was something different about me and I guess this is it? But that was the reason I lashed out at you- because it was something I had to deal with on my own and I just got wound up about it. I know I shouldn’t have done it but you were there so it was either taking it out on myself or you.”

Robert walked over to him and put his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “It’s fine. I get it.” He said. “Anyway, if you want to go out to any clubs, I’ll be your wingman.”

Aaron tilted his head back and laughed, throwing some oily gloves at Robert’s back.

 Over the next few months, the boys got closer, despite still having the occasional run in with each other, mainly about trivial things. Robert had shocked everyone in that time, by coming out as bisexual. Jack had been enraged, obviously seeing a link between Robert coming out and the amount of time he had spent with ‘that Dingle boy’. He had kicked Robert out of his house, demanding that he could come back when he was straight again, and refused to even be in the same room as him when they were both in the pub or the café. Robert ended up lodging with Aaron, spending the majority of his minimum wage earnings on the rent and the rest on going to gay clubs.

Aaron had come out a month or so after Robert, people genuinely being more shocked by him than by Robert, for some reason or the other. Jack had been even angrier, saying that Robert had corrupted Aaron into thinking the same way as him. He’d been insistent that they were dating, despite both Robert and Aaron saying they aren’t and never have been.

Like most young people on a weekend, Aaron and Robert occasionally went clubbing. Sometimes it was with a couple of other villagers, meaning that had to go to the straight bars to save everyone the embarrassment, but when it was just them they always ended up at one of the big gay clubs in Hotten. Nothing ever happened between the two of them though, despite what people automatically thought.

Robert was pressed up against the bar, Aaron and Adam watching him, unbeknownst to Robert. It was a Friday night, sometime past 11pm and half the younger generation of the village were in the bar- even some 16 and 17 year olds who managed to sneak in with fake ID.

He was chatting to some girl who looked to be a bit older than him. Long curly brown hair cascading down her back, covering the skimpy dress she had on entirely. Aaron rolled his eyes and downed his pint, watching as she put her hands all over Robert’s arms- obviously flirting. Robert smirked at her, saying a lame joke that he repeated to everyone he found even the slightest bit attractive and Aaron watched on, hand clenched tight around his glass.

“Not jealous, are you lad?” Adam asked, grinning and laughing at Aaron’s reactions.

Aaron scoffed, “Of her? Nah. Couldn’t care less who Rob pulled.”

Adam just nodded, clearly disagreeing with Aaron.

He watched as Robert leaned closer to her, before both of them kissed and Robert’s hand landed on her arse, pulling her closer and then whispering something in her ear. She nodded and both of them walked over to the crowded door and Aaron lost sight of them.

 Monday morning came about and Robert walked into the garage, coffees in his hands and his overalls already half off and wrapped around his waist. Aaron was bent over looking into an engine, grunting as he fiddled with something. “Coffee for ya.” Robert announced, setting a cup from the café down on a tray. “Adam said you went out again last night.”

Aaron nodded, “Yeah, wanted another night out so I dragged him with me. Not that he complained like.”

“Didn’t think he would.” Robert laughed, taking a sip of his own coffee while flicking through some notes.

“So you got lucky on Friday didn’t you?”  Aaron asked, leaning against the bonnet, grabbing his coffee.

Robert snorted, “What, Sierra? No. We kissed and then she left, didn’t even get her number.”

Aaron did a tight smile and nodded, “Gutted.” He joked.

“Eh, not really. She’s fit but not really my type.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “Did you get off with anyone last night?”

“No.” Aaron said, walking over to the phone, presumably to talk to the owner of the car. “The guy I like wasn’t there.”

Robert nodded, not really listening to what Aaron said and walked down the gravel to speak to a customer who had just drove in.  A few moments later, the woman from the car had walked away, handing Robert her keys and leaving it on the driveway.

“What is it?” Aaron shouted over, putting the phone back down.

“Paintwork job. Told her it’ll be done within a couple of hours.” Robert said, throwing Aaron the keys.

They got to work with it, knowing that it would be an easy job and they had nothing else on until another customer came in. Robert thought about his conversation with Aaron, repeating the words over in his head. ‘The guy I like wasn’t there.’ Aaron liked someone?

The woman came back just as they had finished. Aaron took the money from her and handed her keys back, fake smile dropping as soon as she wasn’t in sight. Robert threw the old coffee cups away, grabbing a sandwich that Cain had dropped off for the two of them. “Something bothering you?” He asked Aaron, who had flung his body onto the office chair that hard that the wheels moved him backwards.

“No.” He shrugged, curling his mouth down into his signature look.

“Which usually means yes.” Robert grinned, sitting down on a cabinet. “C’mon, spill.”

Aaron ignored him, rolling his eyes and getting his phone out. “Is this about the guy you like?” Robert asked, making Aaron stop in his tracks, putting his phone back in his pockets.

“No.”

“C’mon! Who is it?” Robert asked, grinning.

Aaron sighed, going to stand up before Robert pushed him back down into the chair.

“Is it Adam?” Robert asked.

“Nope.” Aaron said, rolling his eyes.

“Andy?”

“Nope.”

“Me?” Robert suggested, wiggling his eyebrows flirtatiously.

“No.” Aaron said adamantly, expect his cheeks were now flushed red.

“Which as I said, means yes.” Robert smirked. “You like me?”

Aaron stood up again, this time moving before Robert could touch him. His feet touched the gravel and before he knew, he was halfway down the driveway and heading towards Main Street. Robert chased after him, the gravel underfoot practically jumped away from him every time his feet touched the ground. “Aaron, wait!” He shouted, only a few metres behind him.

Robert’s hands touched Aaron’s bicep and he twisted him around slightly. “You didn’t have to walk away. Come back.” He said softly.

“What’s the point?” Aaron asked, getting ready to walk away again. “You know now, and I’ve ruined our friendship.”

“Just come back.” Robert said again, pulling at Aaron’s arm and nodding back to the garage.

Aaron sat back down on the chair again, this time resting his head against his arm which was bent on the table.

“I’m glad you like me.” Robert said, throwing some paper in the bin. “Because I like you too.”

Aaron’s head jerked up, looking at Robert in shock. “You what?!” He shouted.

Robert scoffed and smirked, shaking his head gently. “I like you too.” He repeated, this time grabbing hold of the chair Aaron was sitting on and dragging it towards him.

Their lips were millimetres apart when Aaron spoke again, “Really?”

Robert shut him up by pressing his lips to Aaron’s, feeling Aaron’s body stand up to make the kiss move comfortable. Robert wrapped his arms around Aaron’s neck, dragging their bodies closer together and deepening the kiss. Aaron moaned as Robert bit down on his bottom lip, opening his mouth and letting Robert put his tongue there, both of them moving together. Aaron’s hands were on Robert’s waist, pushing his blue top up and letting his hands rest on Robert’s warm skin.

 A few days later, the two of them were in the Woolpack, Robert’s arm over Aaron shoulders and rubbing his arm up and down as they had a pint together. Aaron nudged Robert’s face, telling him silently to lick the froth away, embarrassed that his own boyfriend let it sit on his top lip for so long.

“Give me a kiss then.” Robert flirted, resisting the urge to get rid of it himself.

Aaron grinned, putting his hand on Robert’s cheek and leaning in, letting his lips touch Robert’s as he took away the mess from Robert’s mouth. It wasn’t anything special, just a longing kiss that didn’t seem to go anywhere. They had shared a lot of kisses like this exact one over the past few days, neither of them taking it any further than just moving their lips in time with one another and grinning in response.

When they pulled away, Robert saw Jack staring right at them, face visibly raging as he stood there watching his son and another Dingle kissing in public.

He stormed over to them, Robert instinctively putting his arms around Aaron again, tighter this time; protecting him almost.

“So the rumours are true.” Jack spat. “You really are gay.”

“Bisexual, Dad.” Robert interrupted.

Jack scoffed, moving closer to Robert’s face. “I don’t care what you are, Sugden’s and Dingle’s don’t mix.”

“With all due respect Jack,” Aaron started, putting his hand on Robert’s thigh, comforting him. “Nobody seems to care anymore. I mean, your Andy got our Debs up the duff, and your son is my boyfriend. It seems to me like we do mix.”

Jack stormed off, raging at the idea of Aaron standing up to him and defended his and Robert’s actions.

“Why’d you do that?” Robert asked, rolling his eyes and drinking his pint.

“Oh, sorry, I’ll just let him carry on like that shall I?” Aaron asked sarcastically.

“No. I mean, I’m glad you did it, because now he’ll leave us alone at least. I just didn’t expect you to defend us like that.” Robert confessed.

Aaron sighed. “I’m always gonna defend you. Anyways, I was getting sick of having to argue with you lot all the time anyway, it’s always been us lot that got on and your dad just got wound up about it. He’ll get over it eventually.”

 Aaron was right. Because eventually Jack did get over it. The Sugden’s and Dingle’s still had their disagreements, but there wasn’t any fighting anymore. The divide was non-existent, and Jack actually accepted Robert for who he is, a bisexual man who fell in love with Aaron Dingle.

#robron #aaron x robert #myfic

[milominderbindered]

thirty days of skam fic: day eight

beginning. accusation. restless. leaves. rainbow. flame. formal. under. move. silver. prepared. knowledge. denial. cans. order. thanks. look. summer. transformation. tremble. tent. mad. thousand. paper. winter. luxury. letters. promise. simple. future.

[ READ ON AO3 ]

Isak Valtersen has a nemesis.

He didn't ever think he'd be the sort of person to have a nemesis.  For the most part, Isak considers himself very chill. He doesn't really like confrontation and drama bores him; he'd gone through plenty of it in high school, and now that he's twenty, he just wants to keep his head down and have a nice college experience without getting wrapped up in a single bit of nonsense.

Which sounds great in theory.  It would just be nice if his upstairs neighbour had got the memo.

“It's every night now,” he complains, flopping down to lay his head on the kollektiv’s kitchen table and groaning.  Eskild slides a cup of tea towards him with a tut.

“Are you sure it's all that bad? I'm only two doors down, and I didn't hear anything.”

“Well, you wouldn't,” Isak grumbles, taking a sip of his tea. “Over the sound of what’s-his-name that you brought home last night.”

“Hey!” Eskild reaches across the table and slaps Isak’s arm lightly. “What's-his-name happens to be very important to me.”

Isak snorts. Yeah, it had sure sounded that way when Eskild kicked the guy out at four AM that morning.

“But it is so loud,” he carries on, as Eskild crinkles around opening a pack of biscuits. “And I don't even know what they're doing. I mean, sometimes it's just loud music, but it must literally be the room right above mine, cus I hear it all. And sometimes there's these noises like -- like they're fucking trampolining or putting up a set of shelves or something. At three in the morning!”

Eskild tuts again, but this time it sounds more sympathetic.  He offers Isak a biscuit.  

“But it's only started in the last month?” Isak nods, although with his sleep schedule, it feels like centuries.  “Well, nobody new has moved in up there since then. Maybe they just have a noisy guest staying. I'm sure it'll blow over.”

Isak just sighs, and takes some more of Eskild’s biscuits.

-----

He goes to Linn next.

“Have you been hearing any loud noise at night?”

“I wear earplugs,” she says, and goes back to sleep.

-----

In high school, Isak had awful insomnia.  It stemmed from a mixture of things; a natural predisposition to anxiety battling against his dad abandoning them, his mum not being safe to live with, and his repressed sexuality all at once.  He'd moved into the kollektiv when he was seventeen, but even without his mother ranting and breaking things in the next room, sleep had evaded him most nights.

It's better now, though. Not perfect, but a lot better. He speaks to his dad once a month, and his mum’s in a care facility, so even though she still has a lot of bad days, at least he doesn't have to worry about her hurting herself. And he's out of the closet. Well, mostly out. He's at least eighty percent out, and all the important people are fine with it, so that's a weight off his mind too. All in all, Isak’s been sleeping better for the past year than he ever did for most of his teenage years.

Until this asshole upstairs decided to do whatever they're doing and ruin it all again.

-----

By the next week, Isak’s exhausted.   The noise hasn’t let up for a single night, and while he sometimes manages to get to sleep in a reprieve from the weird activities, he’s woken up constantly throughout the night.  He’s considering going and putting a note through the upstairs door, but they’ve never actually met their upstairs neighbours, and he doesn’t know which one has the room above him anyway.  So he’s just remaining silently pissed off, and complaining to Eskild about it every chance he gets.

That Thursday night is particularly loud, and the next day, Isak is actually yawning as he hauls bags of groceries through the door.  It’s mostly instant noodles and Doritos, but he thinks he deserves some credit for actually doing his shopping for once instead of just stealing everyone else’s food.  He’s barely taken two tired steps in the door when he hears the sound of voices, though -- Eskild, unmistakably, and another man’s voice that he doesn’t recognise.  Probably another twenty four hour boyfriend that Eskild’s brought home, and fuck, they’re definitely in the kitchen, and Isak just wants to go unpack his bags of noodles without having to talk to anyone.

He trudges into the kitchen anyway, sighing through another yawn.  The second he’s in the doorway, Eskild leaps up from the table, making wide eyes at Isak and then at the guy sat across from him. And -- okay.  Wow.  The guy is mid-laugh, and he looks over at Isak with this huge smile, eyes all crinkled, and he’s sat down but Isak can tell he’s tall, and he has this effortlessly swooshed hair, and all of it just sets something tumbling in Isak’s stomach.  He feels breathless for a second.  It’s rare that he sees someone he’s this attracted to, but whenever he does, all he can think is that he must have been such an idiot to ever not realise he was gay.

“Hi,” Isak says, voice coming out a little breathless.  He drops his bags onto the counter, and the guy stands up -- he is tall, even taller than Isak, which does nothing to help the fact that Isak’s brain has shut down -- to shake his hand.

“Isak, this is Even,” Eskild introduces.  Even .  Such a pretty name.  Isak wants to get lost in it, except Eskild is still making wide eyes at him, and Isak doesn’t know why until the next thing Eskild says is, “He’s our upstairs neighbour!  I can’t believe we’ve never bumped into him before.  You know, it’s funny, but we were just talking about how the layout of our flats is exactly the same.  It seems like Even has the room right above yours.”

Oh.

Fuck.

Isak turns his gaze to Even with a sharp snap of his head.  But Even doesn’t look shamed, or contrite, or evil in any way; he’s just smiling obliviously, exactly as he had been a moment before.  Does he not know?  The noise is so ridiculously loud, and it only just started a month ago, surely he must have started doing something different and be aware that it’s absolutely awful.  Right?

“I feel bad, I’ve lived here for a year and never even met any of my neighbours!” is all that Even says, though.  He meets Isak’s eyes, and his smile gets wider, and for a second Isak is hopeless to do anything but smile a tiny little bit back.

So this is the guy keeping him awake.  

In that moment, Isak downgrades the noisy neighbour from nemesis to just a regular enemy.  It's not so bad if he's not doing it on purpose, right? Isak would feel bad having a nemesis who didn’t even know he was doing anything wrong.  (The downgrading absolutely, definitely doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he's six-foot-plenty with blue eyes and a smile like the sun.)

-----

The next Saturday, Eskild bumps into Even once again -- Isak is sure he was lingering in the stairwell for several hours to facilitate that -- and this time, he drags Even into a movie night at the kollektiv.

Even brings popcorn and his smile, so Isak is already two steps closer to liking him.  Or two steps too close to liking him already. Even sits closer to Isak than he probably needs to on the sofa, and he keeps telling them about casting choices and directional decisions as they watch the movie, Moulin Rouge, cus apparently it's one of his favourites and he’s the kind of person who knows that stuff about his favourite film.  

He keeps making eye contact with Isak as they share the popcorn, too. Isak very valiantly pretends not to cry at the end, but he's worried Even notices anyway.  

After he's finally gone home, Eskild shoots Isak meaningful looks for ten full seconds, while Isak glares back. Then he throws his hands up and retreats to his room with a huff.

Later, in his mind, Isak reclassifies Even from enemy to enemy, but without the part where I hate him.  

-----

For a while, Isak thinks maybe he can just keep living like this forever.  It’s not so bad.  There have been a couple of nights where he’s managed to sleep through the noise.  And when Even is doing aerobics or light carpentry or whatever the hell it is that makes so much noise, sometimes Isak can put his earbuds in and drown it out, or go sleep on the living room sofa if Noora isn’t there, or just lie in his bed and think about how pretty Even looks when they see each other in the halls.  It’s an okay life. Then Isak ends up falling asleep in a lecture.  Okay, he thinks, when his deskmate nudges him awake and Isak realises his notes have stuck to his face with drool.  I actually do need to get some sleep sometime soon.  

The next day, when Isak is studying at the kitchen table with an industrial sized mug of coffee, there’s a knock at the front door.  Linn’s in bed, and everyone else is out, so Isak groans and drags himself to the entryway -- only to be met with the sight of Even, looking all artfully ruffled in his denim jacket and beaming.

“Isak,” he says, voice all warm.  “I was hoping you’d answer.”  He says it like a conspiracy, and Isak doesn’t dare hope, but he’s also awfully conflicted because he’s tired and it’s Even’s fault and he kind of wants to hate him.  “I couldn’t borrow some eggs, could I?  I got halfway through making pancakes before realising I’ve run out.”

That’s such a neighbourly request that Isak can hardly turn it down.  “Sure,” he says, and traipses back into the kitchen, Even following behind him.  Isak doesn’t actually have any eggs, but he steals some of Eskild’s and hands them to Even, pretending that it’s totally his own generosity.  He wants to be the one to give Even food, damn it.  If Even ever comes knocking at the door for a cup of pot noodle, at least Isak will be ready then.

He expects Even to leave right after that, considering he literally just said he’s halfway through cooking, but instead Even lingers in the kitchen.  He looks at Isak’s textbooks as if he’s actually interested, and then spots the mega cup of coffee, huffing out a very cute laugh.

“Tired?” he asks, running his finger along the mug and raising an eyebrow in Isak’s direction.

Isak is tired.  Perhaps a little too tired to be making good social decisions, actually because in that moment, he just thinks fuck it.

“Yeah, actually.  I haven’t slept well for about a month.”  He tries to sound as jokey as he can, but it probably still comes out a touch too real when he says, “Some asshole in the room above me makes a ton of noise all night long.”

And all of a sudden, Even’s eyes go wide.

“Oh, shit ! No, you don't hear me, do you?”  Isak nods, sighing as he picks his mug of coffee back up for another long sip.  “I'm so sorry! I -- shit, I pulled the carpet up last month, the noise must be way louder through the floorboards. I didn't even think about that. Sorry.”

In the face of Even’s appalled contriteness, Isak doesn't actually know what to say anymore. His anger wavers, and then disappears altogether, leaving behind nothing but an unidentifiable emotion that is all too close to fond.

“What are you even doing up that late every night anyway?” he splutters out, mind a bit blank. Isak's had plenty of 3am nights, sure, that’s mostly just chilling in bed not doing anything -- not actively making noise that sometimes goes on til five, or even through the whole night. Even grins sheepishly.

“I kind of keep artist’s hours, I’m sorry.”  Of course he's an artist. “As soon as I get home I'll put a rug down or something, I swear.  And I’ll use my headphones at night. I really am sorry.”

“Uh, it's okay,” Isak assures him. He's pretty sure his cheeks have gone pink now, but he doesn't know what else to say.

-----

That night, there isn't any noise at all. Isak drops off to sleep at two -- okay, even with no disruptions to his sleep schedule he's still a college student with a Netflix account -- and doesn't wake up until the next morning. When he rolls over to check the time in his phone, there's a text waiting for him.

[ 08:52 -- From: Unknown Number ]

hi! hope it's okay but i bugged eskild for your number. it’s even by the way

[ 08:52 -- From: Unknown Number ]

just wanted to say i hope you slept alright ;)

----

In his head, Isak re-categorises Even once again. This time, he moves from enemy-without-the-hating-him-part to crush.

#evak #evak fic #skam #skam fic #isak valtersen #even bech næsheim #eskild tryggvason #30 days of skam #maia writes fic #evak au #even x isak #isak x even