#but i like his ridiculous floof

[carcarcraziiv2]

Heartsteel Yone Boyfriend HC's

Yone -drooling- -fanning myself- -literally delulu over this guy-

Tryna be inclusive in these so using b/g (boy/girl) for the praises.

TW: Dom, Possessiveness, floof, -shrug-. Enter at your own risk ig? It do get a lil' dirty but nothing cwazy.

Yone is a very possessive man. Although he keeps a calm and collected composure around his peers, he seethes inside if anyone is giving you the attention you're only meant to get from him. He will grab you by the waist and glue you to his side like you're simply an extension of him. He isn't big on PDA; rather will do things such as praise you or use his words to get you flustered in the right scenario. "Good b/g" praise under his breath after you grab his hand when a man walks up to you at a club. You're not sure if he really even means for you to hear it, but you do none the less. "I saw that man approaching you. You're such a good b/g for coming back to me. Showing him who you belong to."

Yone isn't outwardly a big joker, but he loves to do little things to make you laugh. Your smile is everything to him, and he will do some ridiculous things just to see it even if for a fleeting moment. Even his little tickles make you laugh (ofc, you're getting tickled), and it makes you laugh harder when he gets upset that you got upset that he was tickling you (say that five times fast). Either way, Yone is a good time, even if he can be stern sometimes. "And then, Kayn got stuck in the wall! It was totally hilarious...Gods, that smile is perfect."

Yone is not overly worried about getting your attention, however he is a big tease when it comes to giving you attention. For example, if you are feeling needy and want his attention, he may ignore you all day to get you riled up. The result is that by the time he gives you his undying attention, it feels 1000% better. On the other hand, sometimes it turns brat mode on for you and then he has no choice but to give you attention, making sure you know to behave. You'll pester and annoy him until he has you bent over his knee. "You wanted my attention that bad, y/n? Couldn't wait for me, could you? Count for me. Smack. Good. Again. Smack..."

Yone kisses a LOT for someone who is so reserved. Always in the comfort of your own home. He wants you to think of his lips pressed against yours even when the two of you aren't together. Nearly every time he passes you, he at least leans down to give you a quick peck on the lips. Sometimes he will grab you and pull you close, so close that your breath lingers together like a caress. He will tease you, lean down, kiss the corners of your lips before pressing a soft one to the center. "You're so... perfect. -kiss- I can't get enough of you, little love."

Arguments are never easy, especially when the person you are with is as intelligent as Yone. Don't take it the wrong way, you have your own smarts, but this guy is smart smart. He manages a band of silly goofs and has the gumption to get his way. He is very stubborn and is hard to break when you are trying to get your point across. However, if you somehow manage to get his resignation, he will make it up to you (even if he's grumpy about it). "I'm sorry. I- I... Ugh. Do you want to go to your favorite restaurant? I'll take you there. Sorry, honestly I'm still upset you were right."

Yone is a busy man, so he doesn't have a lot of time to elongate goodbyes. He will however send you little messages throughout the day to get you excited for his return (as if you weren't already). When he returns, he nearly smothers you as if you are his oxygen, and he hasn't had enough of you all day. "On your knees tonight, I want to see you there when I open the door." "I've missed you, my love. I couldn't get you off my mind."

#Yone x Reader #Heartsteel Yone x Reader #Heartsteel x Reader #League of Legends x Reader

[autisticlancemcclain]

“I know, buddy, I know.” Keith scratches behind his big dumb dog’s ears, pressing a million kisses to his forehead because he’s got Black to himself for the next day and there’s no one (Shiro) to clown him for it. Kosmo barks excitedly, wagging his floofy tail so fast it beats against the dashboard and system controls. Keith laughs, moving his scratching fingers down the wolf’s head and neck and to his back, where he likes to be scratched best.

“I know you’re hyper, huh?” he coos, blowing a raspberry. “But that’s what you get. You know you always get too excited when you hang out with Lance. You should have stayed with me.”

At the mention of the Red Paladin’s name, Kosmo starts howling, bounding out from Keith’s lap and tumbling to the floor, nails clacking against the metal as he flips around Black’s cockpit.

Keith huffs. “You raise a wolf from a pup, showering him in treats and affection, and you still fall second best to the first guy he meets who teaches him to fetch. Figures.”

It’s ridiculous, is what it is. Two straight years together on the space whale, but Kosmo lays eyes on Lance for one measly second and falls in love. He’s genuinely obsessed with the guy, and it doesn’t help that Lance is unbelievably smug about it, indulging Kosmo’s every whim and burst of affection just to grate on Keith. He has on twelve seperate occasions radioed the Black Lion to talk to Kosmo only, completely ignoring Keith.

“I can’t blame ya,” Keith says quietly. His voice is still a little teasing, still a little exasperated, but even he can hear the gooey fondness in it. “Lance is just that good, huh?”

Kosmo barks again, loud and fast, then flashes as he blips out of existence then back into existence right on Keith’s lap. Keith chokes as 200 pounds of floof is suddenly deposited on his person, but recovers quickly. (Kosmo will never remember that he is no longer a little puppy. Keith is just going to have to get used to having his lungs crushed.)

He starts to stroke Kosmo’s fur again, gently this time, calming him down.

“I should say something,” he says, more to himself than to his dog. “Ugh. I mean, it’s Lance, right? He’s my best friend. He’ll most definitely tease me, but he won’t, like, mock me or anything. He’s good like that. He knows exactly when to be serious, like during that last gala thing we had when we landed on a planet a while back. He just knew I was feeling off, just like that.”

Keith buried his face in Kosmo’s fur, hiding his smile. “He’s just…everything, you know? I’m always thinking about him. I have been for years. Hell, I talked about him so much on that stupid whale that you recognised him before you even met him, buddy. That’s objectively bonkers. But I can’t…” He sighs, leaning back in the pilot seat and staring unseeingly through the windshield. A red dot flashes gently at the bottom corner, but he pays it no mind.

“He’s sweet when no one’s looking. And even when people are looking, sometimes. And I’ll die before I even imply it in his direction, but he’s funny, too. And his fucking brain, dear God, that man could outwit anyone if he was under enough pressure. He saved our asses more than once when we were stumbling our way through this co-leading thing in the beginning. And anyone with eyes can tell that he’s hot.” Keith’s ears burn a little, thinking of the Coalition videos. “Seriously hot. And…leggy.”

He cracks up, embarrassed giggles bubbling up his throat. His next words are muffled by the hand he has pressed to his face. “God, I want him to fuck me up.”

Kosmo raises his head from where it was resting on Keith’s knee, staring at him in what Keith can only assume is judgment.

“Shut up,” Keith says hotly. “You once farted so loud you scared yourself and cried for ten minutes. You don’t get to judge me about being embarrassing.”

Keith is losing it. He is defending his character to a dog. He groans loudly, dragging his hand down his face.

“I should tell him, shouldn’t I,” he mutters. “Just — come out with it. ‘Leandro Esposita-McClain, I am in love with you.’ Straight to the point. Rip off the band-aid.”

Kosmo yips quietly. Keith snorts.

“Yeah, you’re right. That’s crazy. He’s my friend, I don’t want to ruin things. I’ll just suffer in silence the next time he looks at me and the fuckin’ sun bleeds into his eyes and makes them look like golden honey or whatever. Jesus.” He reaches for his book and props it open, muttering to himself. “It’s always the fuckin’ pretty ones that get me, huh?”

Kosmo barks loudly in what can only be agreement, and Keith scoffs, flicking him on the shout. “Yeah, yeah, you lug. Bug off with the teasing and let me read in peace, alright? I’ll tell him someday. He doesn’t need to know now.”

.

.

.

(A beep echoes through the Red Lion’s cockpit as her paladin slams on the ‘call end’ button, eyes wide and chest heaving, having listened curiously when he’d been radioed out of nowhere mid-conversation between the Bladk Paladin and his dog. And then listened in shock as the Black Paladin had brought up him. Brought up being in love with him, with his heart and his eyes and his legs, apparently.

Red blooms on his cheeks.)

———

based on this post by @petricorah

#i just think that keith accidentally confessing to lance via butt dial is hilarious #vld #voltron #keith #keith kogane #kosmo #keith & kosmo #lance #lance mcclain #klance #pre klance #confession #fluff #whipped keith #pining keith #down bad keith #like actually #brown-eyed lance #brown eyed lance #my writing #fic #longpost

[butmakeitgayblog]

How is my favorite ball of floof, Sal?

I was just writing him today while waiting in the doctor's office 👀 he's good, he's good. Living his best life. Meeting one of his soon to be bestest friends ever

//////////////

The door swung up open before she could even finish her third knock. 

Clarke felt all the air escape right out of her lungs.

Because framed in the picturesque doorway was - possibly, potentially, easily debatable once her brain would start working again - one of the most beautiful women Clarke had ever seen in her thirty nine years of life. 

Just… not the one she'd expected. 

“Can I help you?”

Clarke blinked back at the rounded, deep amber eyes that stared at her in gentle questioning. Blinked at the sight of a messy curled bob of black hair that fell carelessly across the elegant line of petite shoulders. Dark brown skin looked almost velvety in the shadowed threshold between inside and out, and Clarke physically swayed foward on her toes just to catch a stronger whiff of her floral perfume. 

Mentally rolling her tongue back up into her skull, Clarke recovered enough to lean a sharp hook at the waist toward the left, just far enough to take another glance at the house number tacked on the side. 

‘Hm… Yep, I can still read…’

“I uh...” Clarke managed to right herself and actually stammer out loud when whatever celestial being she was gawking at only continued to look at her with serene patience, “Does, uh… Does Lexa live here?”

“Yes?”

Clarke frowned when nothing else came. “O-kay… Is she… Is she here right now?”

“Well I certainly hope so. Otherwise I'm breaking and entering.” White teeth shined in a perfectly aligned row when this riddle-baring goddess's lips bent into a teasing smile. But rather than feeling like the punchline of some joke she was being left out of, the effect of this sweet angel faced woman's charm only made Clarke smile in return. 

Before she could reconfigure the slog of words bumping around in her brain, a clatter of lazy tip-tap tip-taps grew loud enough to jerk Clarke's attention toward a rather large and decidedly hairy nose wedging its way into the exchange. A nose became a muzzle, became a panting white, black, and brown face. One with droopy eyes and even droopier jowls that nudged the door-guardian out of its way.

“Dude, c'mon.” Those ridiculously white teeth flashed in another soul brightening smile as the woman pushed herself away from where she'd been hip-checked into the door, and gave the beast-sized brute of a Saint Bernard a few scratches on the head. “Manners, my guy. What would your mother say about this kind of violence?”

Doleful eyes slid shut in a look of ecstasy at the rake of fingernails through his coat of cowlick laden fur.

A distant echo of muddled footsteps had the beautiful stranger turning, craning around to look behind her into the shadows of the house, which seemed entirely like an open invitation for Clarke to lift up on her toes and chance a peek into the darkeness beyond as well. Nothing gave itself away even as the padding of steps drew closer. Clarke rocked back onto the flat of her feet just before the door widened enough for another face to fit into the bizarre tableau, though it was the one single face that helped Clarke stop feeling like she needed to have an evaluation done of her own sanity. 

“What is the hold up out here— Clarke,” Lexa breathed as a smile lit up her blessedly familiar face. Glasses propped on top of her head and normal school attire button down exchanged for a tight knit Henley, the sudden vision of this entirely different version of Lexa added itself to Clarke's mental catalog of the woman. Lexa slipped past the mountain of a dog, giving it an absent command of ‘Back it up, big man,’ along with a snap and a point at the floor beside her that seemed sufficient enough to have him reversing several feet out of her way. She elbowed past the woman in the doorway to beckon Clarke inward with a wave of her hand. “Sorry, I didn't know it was you. Come in. You're early.”

“Uh, yeah. I hope that's not a problem.” Clarke floundered as she stepped in at the urging, eyes darting between Lexa and the dog who'd sat itself in a flop of limbs at her side, and the stranger now silently watching it all. 

“Not even a little.” The easy cadence of Lexa's words only helped to ease a fraction of Clarke's nerves. “You just said you couldn't make it for another couple hours.” 

Clarke tugged upward at the collar of her sweater that suddenly felt a touch too revealing. “I dropped Madi off with her dad a little early. Much to her numerous complaints.”

The soft tilt of Lexa's lips dipped into a frown. “Everything okay?”

“Of course. Just, getting her to understand that I actually had plans was met with great disdain. It's a theme we've developed, she and I. Ever since she's gotten her license, she doesn't seem to understand the concept that my car is not somehow now her car.”

Lexa's face relaxed into a kind of relieved understanding. “Ah, I see. A driving teenager. I don't envy you.”

“We're braver than the marines,” Clarke said amidst a roll of her eyes. 

In the quiet and fondness of Lexa's smile, Clarke let herself uncoil another fraction of an inch. She returned the soft sweetness of that green-eyed gaze with a herculean effort to not be the first to reach out. She'd pictured this moment more than a few times on the drive over - a few hundred more the previous evening, if she were being honest - but where'd she'd fantasized about just grabbing the woman and kissing her very pretty face off, possibly backing her into a hazy and ill-defined wall to have her way with her the second she would walk in, Clarke found herself rather perplexingly stuck to the spot. Unmoving in the relief of being in Lexa's space again. Unrushed and content to keep sharing smiles like a couple of idiots.

It was only an inelegant ruffle of fur and flapping jowls that broke the moment, followed immediately by a rather wet sounding sneeze prompting Clarke to finally drag her gaze away.

“You have a dog.”

Lexa glanced down at the mountain of black and tan fur at her side and back up. “I told you that I have a dog.”

“Uh, no,” Clarke laughed at that wild understatement and gestured to the device in her hand as though proof enough. “You text me an hour ago, ‘You're not allergic to dogs, right?’ And when I said no, you marked it with a thumbs up.”

Lexa seemed to pause in thought as her teeth worried at the plumped corner of her bottom lip. “... I did do that.”

“You did.”

“Okay, I think I might see where the breakdown in communication happened.”

“Solid work, Professor,” said a voice that drifted from over Lexa's shoulder.

“Your input isn't appreciated,” Lexa said to the startlingly still present but unidentified goddess hovering near the door. Forcing down a rather painful looking swallow as she nudged the glasses more securely up the slope of her nose, Lexa buried the obvious lede in the room and instead gestured to the hulking pile of dog sitting patiently where Lexa had left him. “Right, so I suppose introductions are in order then. Sal. This is Clarke. Clarke, this is my dog Sal. Sal, say hello.”

As if on cue, a giant paw went up in a clumsy mimic of a wave.

Clarke let out a surprised chuckle at the display, waving back on instinct before realizing that she was, in fact, waving at a dog. She let her hand drop. Idiot. “Hey, Sal. He's a… big guy, huh?”

“I'm convinced he's part moose,” Lexa sighed with an affectionate ruffle of Sal's ear. “In my defense, he was not this imposing when I got him.”

////////////

#anon #prof/stu au #teach me #lil sneaky sneak nothing special just a lil big guy Sal

[solvskrift]

“What is this?”

Jim’s cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling, but he angled his PADD and took another snapshot.

“It’s a puppy!”

“Ashayam,” said Spock patiently, the effect rather ruined by the wriggling creature in his arms. “I am aware of what a canine’s young is called. I was referring to the situation. Where did you find this puppy, and why is it here?”

Hearing Spock say ‘puppy’ like he was talking about a photon torpedo was even better than Jim had dared to hope.

“It’s not an ‘it,’ she’s a ‘her,’ and I adopted her!”

That little crease of confusion appeared between Spock’s eyebrows. Adorable. “You – ”

“Well, we adopted her. I have paperwork for you to sign, by the way.”

Spock held the little brown ball of fluff out at arms’ length and examined her with a critical eye, then looked at Jim doubtfully. The puppy’s hind legs scrabbled at the air. “Jim,” he tried again. “Why did you not consult me about this?”

Jim summoned his best puppy dog eyes - which, he realized belatedly, he was going to have competition at now - and chewed on the corner of his lip in that way he knew made Spock melt.

Spock’s expression barely shifted, but Jim just knew he was melting on the inside. Gooey and delicious, just like that Betazoid chocolate they’d experimented with that time on Risa –

Jim shook himself out of that thought. God forbid he say this, but it wasn’t the time.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he pouted, reaching up to scratch the pup behind her ears. She flipped her tiny head this way and that trying to lick at his fingers. Jim giggled happily, and when he looked up Spock was giving him that look.

The one that said plainly to anyone paying attention that in Spock’s estimation Jim might as well have hung the stars in the cosmos.

“Fine,” Spock said. He shifted the pup in his arms so he was holding her less like a bomb and more like a - furry, yelpy, awkward - baby. “We may keep her.”

“Yes!” Jim punched the air and planted a noisy kiss on Spock’s cheek. He turned to their new dog, smooshing her face between his hands. “You hear that? You are officially the newest addition to the Kirk family.” Jim paused. “House of Surak family? What are we? Do you even have a last name?” He injected his voice with betrayal. “Why don’t I know these things? You clearly don’t trust me, I want a divorce.”

Spock just sighed, which was similar to him doing nothing at all, and turned away.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I presume you did not prepare sufficiently before bringing her home – ”

“Uhhhh…”

“ – so I’m going to make a list of supplies we will need to make certain she is given proper care.”

“See!” Jim cried. He spread his arms wide to illustrate his point. “This is why we make a great team.”

“You may pick a name for her, if you prefer,” Spock went on as though Jim were simply part of the furniture and hadn’t just spoken. “But I reserve the right to veto any ridiculous suggestions.”

Spock deposited the puppy on the floor, and she promptly trotted after him to paw insistently at his heels.

Jim frowned. “Admiral Floof is not ridiculous.”

“I am not referring to our pet as ‘Admiral Floof’ to others with the ability to hear spoken language.”

“I don’t know,” Jim grinned, “that was pretty endearing. Say it again.”

The Admiral chose that opportune moment to pee all over Spock’s new boots.

Spock looked up at him and narrowed his eyes as if this were all Jim’s fault.

Jim slapped on an open-mouthed smile and shot both fists into the air. “Parenthood! This is gonna be fun!”

#spirk #star trek #aos #or tos either way you want #though kirk's energy here is a lot more aos lmao #solv fic #the whumptober angst!!! was getting to me!!! #so #fluff 🤍 #also on ao3

[pokegalla]

I apologize for the long title @theneurodivergentdummy

And my god this made me gush and giggle. Lol enjoy!

(NSFW warning: dirty joke!)

Underfell bros with a smol half-moth monster S/o and meeting their huge buff father!

Red:

* God you are so ridiculously cute. So fluffy, so smol….

* You make him wonder how lucky he was to have someone as adorable as you as his S/o. When you first met, it was at Grillby’s and you were a server. The moment he saw you, he put his flirting game on. He melted seeing how you giggled at his puns and when you agreed to go on a date with him, he was over the moon.

* Seriously you have to pinch him awake so he knows it’s not a dream (he jokes about it all the time). And cuddling while messing with your floof is the BEST. Though he does get jealous with the lamp posts. (You caught him threatening it when you spent to much time staring at it. You just gave him a kiss making him blush realizing you heard all that).

* Now when it was around that time to meet your father? Mans needed a towel or bucket for the amount of sweat that was dripping down his skull. You told him that your old man was just a big softie with a big heart. That still didn’t calm him. This was a huge step in the relationship! Of course he’s nervous! But man he nervousness completely skyrocketed meeting the dad.

* NAH when you said ‘big.’ He didn’t realize you meant it LITERALLY. He was HUGE. Muscles and all. With comically small wings. His eye lights went out. He’s fucking DEAD if he messes up. How did such a smol cute moth girl like you come from THAT tank?!

* But he soon realized he’s worrying over nothing! The dad’s whole intimidating aura disappeared and he had the sweetest smile inviting them in. He showed him baby pictures, made them dinner and dessert (which was INCREDIBLE), and showed a magnificent garden! Now Red sees where you gotten your love of flowers. Even he was astonished by the vibrant colors of roses, daises, hell he couldn’t even name them all!

* He even learned where you got all those sweaters from too. Turns out her own father makes them by hand. He’s shocked by how kind the father is but feels much more comfortable over time!

Mini story time!!!

You went to the kitchen to gather a tray for tea and sweets. You were pretty nervous about today but you were so proud of your bone-friend. He was doing an amazing job and has even grown comfortable with your father. You began to walk back but stopped short upon hearing the two talk.

“What’s the difference between a G-spot and a golf ball?”

You paled upon hearing that. God Red please no….has he been telling your father dirty jokes?!

“Hm? What is the difference?” You heard your father ask.

“A guy will actually search for a golf ball,” Red answered. A moment of silence made you scared until you heard a sudden ROAR of laughter from both guys making you sigh.

“Boys will be boys,” You said giggling to yourself. You placed the tray down and joined them. Even cracking a few jokes yourself.

Boss:

* His first thoughts upon meeting you: must protecc-

* No seriously he is really protective of you. You just seem so soft and sweet….the thought of someone taking advantage of that or hurting you makes him worry. Though he does trust you. Smol or not, you know how to protect yourself too.

* When you first met, it was during a flower competition. You had won with flying colors as your brilliant bouquet was extraordinary. But of course someone got salty since you’re a half monster so it was ‘unfair’. That person was SUCH a dick that Boss was gonna throw dirt into their mouth. But MAN did you shock him when the person got a little too handsy….and YOU threw hands. That person was out in seconds and Boss was just lovestruck.

* Your mutual liking in flowers and his determination to court you made you agree to date him. He secretly loves to admire and help you tend to your wings. He feels good to help you and he finds your wings beautiful.

* Time to meet the parents! He studied everything he needs to know and asked you many questions. You could tell he was anxious but he just wants to make a good first impression.

* Ok…he didn’t expect this. Yes you said he was big….and Y’know Papyruses are very tall in general! That dad made him feel even smaller. The only thing small on this man was his damn wings. Boss was low key intimidated! But no….he won’t give up that easily!

* He helped cook and serve food, he cleaned the dishes, he complimented his gardening and sewing skills. But at the same time they both shared stories and advice to each other. Seriously they became great pals. You felt a bit left out as they even planned to meet up again another day. At least they get along….?

Mini story time!!!

“We Shall Meet At Saturday! That Is When The Knitting Club Gets Together,” Boss called out as you both were leaving.

“Hoho! Sounds like a brilliant idea! I’ll be sure to bring my A-game,” You dad called back, “Get home safe you too!” You both wave and head home.

You bone-friend was still excited, “Did You See That, My Dear?! Your Father Loves Me! I Knew All That Studying Would Pay Off!”

You laugh, “I’m happy that you two are getting along! But now….”

“Hm? What Is The Matter,” Boss asked.

“My two most favorite guys in the world were having so much fun they forgot about me,” You said wiping a fake tear. Boss kept apologizing multiple times while you had to explain you were just joking. You guys ended up getting ice cream together while laughing at what happened.

#my writing #self insert #undertale au #funny #fluff #cute #undertale au x reader #sans x reader #papyrus x reader #underfell sans #underfell papyrus #undertale au headcanons #reader is a half-moth monster girl #reader has buff moth dad #reader is smol bean

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Interlude

summary: They try to suppress it. The ever looming shadow of their homesickness. His presence helps.

Also there's a spider.

[Fic on AO3]

Whining, they shift closer, still clinging on to sleep as their heat source moves. Away? Away. It's trying to get away.

With a grumble, they raise a leg and drape it over their squirming, bony, warm pillow. It grunts and goes still as they use their arms to clutch it to their chest and bury their nose in something soft and feathery and familiar.

It's silent for a while, and they drift back into sleep before their pillow makes another valiant attempt at escape, hissing as it tries to free itself from their grasp. They groan when it finally breaks free and, when it seems as if their heat source is gone for good, they turn. Flopping onto the other side of the bed, they burrow deeper into blankets that should be softer. Thicker. Into a pillow that smells like detergent but should in all rights smell like a fresh meadow. They frown. And burrow even deeper, chasing their sleep before one of the brothers wakes up and decides he needs their attentio-

"G'AAAAAAAHHHHHH,"

They're up like a shot. Jumping out of bed and tangling in their blankets, they fall face first to the ground with their own yelp.

With a pained groan, they roll on to their back, kicking their legs to free themself from the confines of their blankets. Their room is too small. Cramped and dark without the fairy light like little lanterns that hung around it.

With another groan, they rub at their aching nose and try to focus.

Right.

They weren't home.

Or rather, they were home. Their human home.

Hissing, they sit up just as a familiar voice shrieked their name from within the apartment's bathroom.

Right.

Heaving themself off the floor, they rush towards the bathroom, stopping only to grab a baseball bat on the way. Pulling open the door with their bat raised high, they peek into the lit room. Spotting no one but Mammon plastered onto the wall next to them, their bat is slowly lowered, and then, when no further threat makes itself known, tossed back out the door.

They blink and rub the sleep from their eyes. "What?"

"Whadya' mean what! What the fuck's that!" Mammon point's a shaky finger towards their toilet.

They blink and rub at their eyes again. "It's a toilet," they reply through a yawn.

"Not that!" He snaps, swatting at the back of their head, "That."

They squint. Inching towards the toilet and peaking around at the wall behind it.

"Oh. You mean Gerald?" They yawn again.

"Who the hell's Gerald!? I meant that creature!"

"That is Gerald, and should you really be using hom - your home as a swear?"

"The fuck is Gerald?" He snarls, ignoring their rather obvious slip up. Whether for his sake or their own they weren't sure.

"He's a spider, Mammon. You've seen spiders. The Devildom has spiders."

"Not like that! Ours are large and they glow, nothin' like these small little suckers that could crawl into your hair and-" he cuts himself off with a shudder, floofing up his already dishevelled hair, "an' besides who names a spider Gerald!"

"He looked like a Gerald," they say with a shrug. "I can take him away if you're scared..."

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm a demon, I ain't scared of some puny human spider!"

With another shrug and a yawn, they turn to walk back out of the small space when Mammon catches them by the arm. His head is resolutely turned away, but they can tell he's pouting.

"Jus' take it away, will ya."

With no attempt at hiding their own grin, they walk back towards the toilet and carefully shepherd Gerald into their open palm, using their other hand to gently cup over him. Small, he may seem compared with a norma- with a Devildom spider, but he's a good enough size for an Earth one, taking up almost their whole palm.

Turning around, they walk past Mammon, who instinctively flinches back with flushed cheeks and a grumble, and back to their room. Manoeuvring open the window they place Gerald on the sill and nudge at him till he scuttles away.

No doubt he'll find his way back to his usual spot in the bathroom by the next morning.

They take a second to look out their window, taking in the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, the soft lights and noises that break through the night. They shut the window with a jarring crack when it gets too much, and the wave of homesickness threatens to strangle them. It's something they try not to think about too often.

Crawling back into bed, they settle into covers that just aren't right.

The brothers had taken turns visiting. Their neighbours who didn't think they were dating seven models were convinced they'd joined a cult. Which. And in spite of this. In spite of this, they had yet to quell the suffocating flash of intense longing they felt each time one of them turned to head back to the Devildom. Back home.

They curled up tighter. Clinging to the sheets.

It was silly. They were being silly. They'd been there for just a year.

Yet they missed it like one would their childhood home.

They felt a telltale lump form in their throat just as the bed dipped and Mammon slid back underneath the covers.

Instantly, they were on him. Winding their arms around his torso and clutching desperately at his back. Burying their burning face in his warm neck.

"OI. What the-"

"I missed you."

It was barely a whisper but hard to miss as their lips brushed against his neck, forming the words once again, "I missed you."

"What are you talkin' 'bout," his arm wound around their waist pulling them in closer, "ya dumb human," his other hand trembled as it carded through their hair, "I'm right here," his voice cracked.

"I ain't leaving ya."

That's a lie. He'll have to go back home. To his brothers. To his- their family.

But for now.

For now as their tears threatened to spill, and their heart longed for their own bed.

"I missed ya too, Dummy."

For now, this, here was enough.

With his lips pressed to their forehead and theirs to his pulse, they clutched at each other in something like desperation. Their last words whispered into the night as they drifted off.

"Get rid of that spider."

"Fuck off."

->

[Fic on AO3]

[First posted: 6th August 2020]

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me! #shall we date? obey me! #swd obey me #swd obey me! #shall we date obey me #obey me mammon #om! mammon #om mammon #obey me! mammon #swd mammon #shall we date mammon #mammon x mc #mc x mammon #mammon x gn!mc #mammon x gender neutral reader #mammon x gn!reader #mammon x y/n #y/n x mammon #mammon x you #you x mammon #mammon x reader #reader x mammon #oc x mammon #mammon x oc #obey me main character #obey me mc #obey me! shall we date? #obey me swd

[oliverreedmasterass]

Words: 8k

Synopsis: Based on a hilarious personal anecdote from the incredible @writingcold about seeing something bizarre at a hotel in Green Bay, the GVF guys find themselves caught in a heap of trouble. The problem is, they can't quite work out what they did.

Warnings: language, drinking, drug use, mentions of theft, drowning, and running into traffic

__________________________________________

“Do you know why you’re here, son?” a graying man dressed in a loose-fitting two-piece suit with a strewn purple tie leaned close to the young man who sat across from him at the aged wooden table. 

“No clue,” Jake avoided eye contact while wringing his hands together out of sight of the older man. He snuck a quick glance at the man’s golden nametag pinned to his chest. Doug. “I was just minding my business in my room and then somebody dragged me down here. Am I in trouble?” 

“Depends on how much you’re willing to share with me today,” Doug stared back at Jake with his piercing blue eyes. “I’m gonna need you to tell me what you were up to last night.” 

Jake’s face pinched as he tried to think back. He made a humming noise to stall, and wiped at his mouth - a nervous tick he had never been able to shake. 

“My band and I were out getting drinks,” Jake remembered. “At Ned Kelly’s Pub. Someone recommended the place to us since they’re known for their sour beers. It’s something I’ve been getting into a lot more recently.” 

It was a perfectly normal evening. Like, genuinely, nothing crazy was going down. Jake, Josh, Sam, and Danny all squeezed around a tall pub table, leaning over their pints to sip out of the top of the overfilled glasses. Jake wiped his mouth with the back of his hand to clear the foam from his upper lip and craned his neck to look over Josh’s head at the live band. They were playing a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, and it sounded good enough that Jake started to tap his foot to the beat.

“I can’t believe we’re in Green Bay,” Josh called over the music to his friends. Jake took another slurp from his glass and then nodded his head in agreement. 

“We had the opportunity to go anywhere in the world, and we settled on Wisconsin.” 

“I don’t regret it,” Sam shrugged. “It’s not too far from home and, hey, I’ve always wanted to get my hands on one of those Packers cheese hats.” 

Jake gazed at the ridiculous cheese hat that was perched atop Sam’s head and grimaced at how stupid his younger brother looked. 

“I’m becoming one with the cheese,” Sam proudly stated.  

Jake flicked at Sam’s hat, knocking it just slightly off of his forehead. 

“Are you really gonna keep that thing on all night, Sammy?” he asked. He had noticed Sam was earning some strange looks from the other patrons in the bar which gave him serious second-hand embarrassment. Sam let out a loud laugh at Jake’s question and forced the hat back down on his head so it was set in place. 

“I know you hate it, Jake. So, yeah.” 

Jake faked a scowl, but couldn’t help chuckling into his beer. He took a deep sip and let the taste of the sour beer wash over him. Their Lyft driver had totally been right when she recommended this place. It was by far the best sour beer he had ever had, which was seriously saying something.

Jake took in the bar around him while he worked on his drink. It was classy and pretty packed, which felt just right. He knew he had stepped foot in hundreds of bars like Ned Kelly’s Pub before, but that just made it feel more like home. 

When he finished his drink, Jake stepped away from the table and grabbed his glass, motioning back towards the bar that was only getting more crowded. “I’m gonna get a refill. Anyone need anything?” 

“Ask if they have peanuts!” Sam shouted with enthusiasm. He enjoyed throwing the peanut shells at Josh and getting them stuck in his curly floof. 

“Don’t do that,” Josh firmly told Jake. “It took me two weeks to get them all out of my hair last time. Two weeks!” 

Jake looked beyond Josh to Danny, who was mouthing at him to go and get the peanuts. Jake shook his head at his friends and made his way to the bar, where the bartender was finishing up another order for a group of women around his age. 

“Just a second,” the bartender held up his finger to Jake, who nodded his head with a smile. While he waited, he bobbed his head along to the live band’s Allman Brothers cover. 

“Hey,” a voice said next to Jake. “You look familiar.” 

Jake was curious where the conversation would go, so he turned to his left and looked at one of the women who was waiting for her drink. “Do I?” he asked with a cheeky grin. While he usually didn’t like the attention, he sometimes got a kick out of people trying to place his face. The amount of times people had mistaken him for Julien Baker was extraordinary. 

“Did we go to high school together?” the woman guessed. Jake had heard that one plenty of times. 

“Not unless you grew up in Frankenmuth, Michigan,” Jake replied. 

“Really? You don’t sound like you’re from Michigan,” the woman observed. This comment threw Jake off. 

“Where would you guess I was from?” 

“You’ve got, like, an echo of a British accent. It’s really interesting.” 

“What can I get for you?” The bartender’s attention was finally on Jake. 

“Fill ‘er up,” Jake motioned down to his glass. 

With his glass filled to the brim once more, Jake made a detour over to where the band was playing so he could watch the guitar player. The guy obviously had a lot of experience under his belt, because he was hitting every note in perfect precision. Jake liked to think that he was a pretty talented guitar player, but this guy wasn’t making a single error, and it was blowing his mind. 

Once they finished their song, Jake gave them an extra loud whoop in front of the stage. “Bravo!” he added. 

“Hey, thanks,” the lead singer grinned at Jake. “Got any requests?” 

“Play Cream and I’m never leaving this joint,” Jake beamed wide. 

“You better get yourself comfortable then,” the guitarist chuckled before launching into SWLABR. Jake let out a whoop in glee, gave the band a thumbs up, and made his way back to his friends’ table. 

“Hey there, social butterfly,” Josh poked fun at Jake. 

“I like the vibe of this place,” Jake shrugged. “The band said they would play Cream for me.” 

“So what you’re saying is it’s gonna be impossible to get you out of here, right?” Danny stared at Jake. 

Jake swigged down more beer, and then nodded in Danny’s direction. “You’re gonna have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.” 

Danny shook his head at Jake with a smile between his pursed lips and Jake stuck his tongue back out at him. He jumped in surprise when he saw the woman from earlier at the side of their table. 

“I figured out where I know you from,” she announced, looking proud. Jake arched an eyebrow. “You’re from that rock band!” 

“Bingo,” Jake pointed at her. As fun as it was to get misrecognized, there was something gratifying in knowing that they were big enough to get spotted out in public. 

“My sister is a huge fan,” the woman continued. “She saw you guys during your last tour and said that your show was literally life changing. She’d die if she knew I was talking to you right now. But, uh, I’m sure you’re used to hearing this, so I’ll keep it brief. I just wanted to bring this over to thank you for making my sister so happy.” 

Jake stared at the tall pint that the woman was handing out to him in awe. 

“It’s a Copper State Sun Soaked - I overheard you ordering it at the bar,” the woman continued as she slipped the glass into Jake’s hands. 

“Thank you,” Jake told her, and he really meant it. The woman waved goodbye to him and made her way across the bar back to her friend group. Jake looked down at the pint in his hands, and set it next to his other glass. 

“Water for the rest of the night after this, I promise,” Jake looked around at everyone. “Mark my word.” 

“And that’s what I did,” Jake told the older man. “We hung around the bar for about another hour, and then we made our way back to the hotel. I went to my room and crashed almost immediately. Then, when I woke up, I was brought down here.” 

“Interesting,” Doug studied Jake. The kid looked like he was being sincere, which threw Doug and his hypothesis in for a loop. He searched Jake’s face for any signs of deceit. “I sent you down here to talk to me because there was vandalism reported in the lobby last night.” 

“Really?” Jake’s eyebrows raised. “What happened?”

“Let’s just say that someone tampered with something that’s really important to me and my hotel.”  

Jake had no trouble looking Doug in the eyes this time around. “I can promise you, sir, I had nothing to do with it.”

Doug gazed at Jake a few beats longer, and then nodded his head. “You’re free to go.”

“Oh thank god,” Jake heaved out and then rose from his seat. 

“But I want you to send in someone else from your party,” Doug continued. Jake frowned at that. 

“We have to hit the road soon.” 

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.” 

Jake gave a grunt, and left the room in silence. A few minutes later, his twin, Josh, entered into the hotel manager’s office, looking around at the IKEA-inspired decor. 

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Josh greeted Doug. “Fake plants are really in right now.” 

“Take a seat,” Doug motioned towards the wooden chair that his brother had just been nervously sitting in. Josh slowly lowered himself into the seat and then folded his hands politely in his lap. 

“Is this about the bathrobe I took from the bathroom? Because I thought it was complimentary. If it’s not, I’ll put it back.” 

“Don’t worry about that,” Doug shook his head. “It’ll just get charged to your card.” 

“Aw man,” Josh pouted. 

“I’m trying to fit the pieces of a mystery together, and I need your help. Can you tell me what you did last night?” 

Josh gave Doug a look that showed he was surprised by the question, but shrugged. “My pals and I went to this pub right by the river for their tap selection. We wanted to have a celebratory night out before we headed back home to Michigan.” 

The night was already exhausting. Jake, Josh, Sam, and Danny all squeezed around a tall pub table, leaning over their pints to sip out of the top of the overfilled glasses. Josh winced at the taste of the sour beer and nudged the drink away from him. The rest of his friends were still hard at work, slurping down the beer with content. Josh folded his hands in front of him and thought about their weekend away from home. Their trip to Green Bay had started on a whim, inspired by a side comment from Sam about how they had never really spent any quality time in Wisconsin. Paired with Danny’s recent That 70s Show obsession, it only seemed right that they would squeeze into the Jeep Truck and hit the road west. 

In their 72 hours they had enjoyed some hikes, visited a cool botanical garden, and, of course, hit up as many bars as they could. Josh wasn’t sure what he thought about Ned Kelly’s Pub. Although the massive chandelier made out of glass bottles was pretty impressive, Josh didn’t feel like it outshined the other places they had visited. However, looking around at his friends’ faces, he could tell that they were all enchanted by the bar. They were gonna be there for a while. 

After trading some jokes about Sam’s goofy cheese hat that he had picked up at the National Railroad Museum gift shop earlier in the day, Josh noticed that Jake’s big glass was already empty. The guy must have enjoyed that sour beer a whole lot more than he had. 

“Pace yourself, tiger,” Josh found himself telling Jake without thinking. Jake had promised that he would drive a leg of their trip back to Michigan the following day, and there was no way he was getting out of it by pulling the hungover card. He had used that one way too many times. 

Josh noted that Jake genuinely looked surprised by his alcohol intake, but his shock seemed to last a millisecond since he bounced over to the bar for a refill without hesitation. 

“Do you like this shit?” Josh asked Sam and Danny, pointing an unenthusiastic finger down at his sour beer. He was relieved to see Sam and Danny both shrugging. 

“It’s okay, I guess,” Danny sounded indifferent. 

“I don’t get what the hype is,” Sam chimed in. “This tastes like soap.” Sam then proceeded to take another long chug. 

“Jake seems to like it though,” Danny commented. They all turned to watch the guitarist saunter up to the bar, slam his empty glass down on the counter, and grin at the bartender. The three watched with more interest when they noticed a woman peel away from her group of friends to talk to him. Jake seemed to be torn between getting the bartender’s attention to fill his glass and listening to the woman, but he eventually started conversing with her. 

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Josh wondered. 

Sam snorted. “He’s probably trying to convince her he has a Grammy.” 

Josh noted that Jake’s body language was unusually confident as he talked to the stranger. The woman towered over him in her heels, but he seemed at ease as they laughed over something. When he got his drink, he looked like he was coming back to them, but then quickly diverted his path to head to the live band, who was playing Midnight Rambler. Josh couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw Jake move uncomfortably close to the stage, staring at the guitarist with his eyes wide. 

“He’s freaking that guy out,” Josh commented under his breath. Sam and Danny paused their side conversation about how Sam could style his cheese hat to watch Jake take slow steps closer and closer to the stage. “He looks like he’s on the brink of taking the guitar away from that guy.” 

“He better not,” Danny frowned. “We’re already banned from a handful of bars because of that.” 

They all exhaled in relief when the band broke into a Cream song and Jake, in complete euphoria, returned to the table. Josh watched in horror as Jake guzzled his second glass down in less than 10 seconds like it was nothing. He let out a burp, smiled happily, patted his stomach, and then jolted upright when he realized he had cleared his pint. 

“How is that surprising to you?” Josh asked Jake. “You’re the one who drank it all, it’s not like it magically disappeared.” 

“These are just going a lot faster than I had anticipated, I guess,” Jake looked troubled. 

They made a pact after some arguing that Jake would stick to water for the night, but that quickly went down the drain when the woman approached the table, gave Jake a wink, and placed another tall pint of sour beer in front of him. Josh wanted to scream at the lady to give that beer to literally anyone else in the establishment but Jake, but his mouth remained glued shut. He watched in despair as Jake, once more, threw the entire pint back like it was a shot. Frat guys around the world would be in utter awe of what he was doing. 

“Water for the rest of the night. I promise,” Jake promised, starting to slur his words. “Mark my word.” 

Jake did not stick to his word. 

Over the next 45 minutes, Jake managed to sneak three more pints of the Copper State Sun Soaked. Whether it be bribing someone to bring him a glass in the bathroom, sipping one under the table, or lapping up spills behind the bar, Jake’s BAC was guaranteed to be nearing staggering heights. 

When Jake decided to tear off his shirt and jump on stage to play the tambourine with the poor live band that was just trying to get through a Bob Seger song, Josh threw in the towel. 

“I can’t do this tonight,” Josh admitted to Danny, who looked equally tired of Jake’s antics. “I’m gonna go back to my room and watch some HGTV to unwind.” 

“And I left the bar after that,” Josh concluded his story. “I’m pretty sure I heard them get back to their room around 2am last night. They were a bit loud, but they quieted down pretty fast.” 

“Your brother said that he stuck to water last night after his third drink,” Doug tapped his chin. 

“Well then, he’s a liar,” Josh shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. But what does Jake’s drinking last night have to do with anything?” 

“Nothing you have to worry about,” Doug shook his head. Josh looked like he wanted to protest, but Doug quickly motioned for the door. “Please send your brother, Sam, in. I want to talk to him.” 

“Fine, but you better take it easy on him. He’s a sensitive guy, it doesn’t take a whole lot to spook him,” Josh warned Doug. He chuckled at Josh’s warning and, once more, pointed for the door. 

“No need to worry, I’ll be nice to the little guy.” 

Sam entered the room next, still wearing his cheese hat, which he had styled with a pair of black slacks, a yellow button up shirt, and yellow Adidas. 

“What’s up, Doc?” Sam greeted the older gentleman as he peeled a large orange and started to slide the slices into his mouth. Doug motioned for Sam to take a seat at his desk and Sam complied after he took a pause to snap a photo of Doug’s bald head with his fancy camera. “I never thought I’d get to chat with a hotel manager one-on-one like this,” Sam continued to chatter while balancing the orange peels on top of the desk. 

“Sam,” Doug cleared his throat. “I want you to take this conversation seriously.” 

“Are you mad at me?” Sam theatrically called out, his eyes started to well up. Doug started to stumble on his words, panicking over the fact that the curly haired one had been right about his younger brother. 

“No, of course not,” Doug assured Sam, using his sweetest tone. “I just need you to tell me about your time last night at Ned Kelly’s Pub.” 

“How did you know I was at Ned Kelly’s Pub last night,” Sam squinted his eyes at Doug.

“Your brothers told me.” 

“Oh, well, in that case,” Sam chuckled. He grabbed the desk lamp from Doug’s desk and flicked it on so he could hold it under his chin, creating grisly shadows on his face. “It was a cold and dark night in Green Bay, Wisconsin,” Sam started off in a dramatic tone. Doug took a seat across from him and held his head in his hands. This was going to be a long testimony. 

“Since you already know that we were at Ned Kelly’s Pub, I’ll spare you the details about Daniel and I stealing a horse downtown beforehand. You don’t need to hear about that.” 

“Wait,” Doug tried to interrupt Sam. “I actually do want to hear about that.” 

“I was standing at this tall table with my best friend and my brothers, feeling on top of the world with my cheese hat,” Sam cut off Doug, staring into the distance.

It was a bonkers night. Sam and Daniel kept flashing each other excited grins. They had taken something in the parking lot of the bar to really lean into the That 70s Show fantasy that Daniel was trying to live out. Sam had no idea what they had sent into their systems, but it tasted like cherries and made him feel like he was floating. 

He could hear what his brothers and Daniel were saying, but his head wasn’t processing any of it. He felt like he was on autopilot as he gave short answers and laughed when everyone else did. When the conversation shifted to Jake’s drinking, Sam found himself staring daggers at the bartender. He couldn’t help it, the guy looked just like Ben Affleck. In fact, the more Sam stared at him, the more certain he was that the guy really was the A-list actor. Sam had hated his portrayal of Bruce Wayne in Batman Vs. Superman; it was a travesty.

He was ready to storm up to the guy to demand who he thought he was, dating J-Lo and being the moody cigarette “it” boy and all, but Jake beat him to it. Sam watched Jake approach the bartender and let his shoulders slump in defeat. That was a fight to pick later. Plus anyways, Sam had a bigger bone to chew: there was a portal opening on the dancefloor. Sam stared at the streaking lights of blue, yellow, and orange that seemed to be flinging out of the portal in every direction and could tell that his eyes were dilating. 

“Woah,” he whispered out in awe. Josh gave him a quick glance but shook his head and went back to blabbing about how Jake was weird for liking the sour beer. Sam was pretty sure he had agreed that it tasted bad, but really he didn’t mind it. His sense of taste was heightened to God-levels, so each sip made him feel like he was consuming the elixir of life. 

Sam tried to send Daniel morse code messages by batting his eyelashes, but Daniel just winked back at him. He was disappointed that they hadn’t reached the point where they could telepathically communicate with each other, but he knew it was bound to happen eventually. 

“How do bus drivers exit the bus and close the door when they’re the last shift?” Sam wondered aloud. Josh didn’t hear him, but Daniel did and widened his eyes, his mouth hung open. 

“Dude,” Daniel mumbled in awe. Sam was too hung up on that philosophical question to notice Jake rejoining their table, cradling another pint. He only turned his attention towards his older brother when he saw Jake unhinge his jaw to suck down all of the beer in one animalistic gulp out of the corner of his eye. Sam paled at the sight and started to run through the possibilities. 

Was his brother a lizard person? Was that a normal thing that people could do? Or did he and Daniel take some seriously good shit in the parking lot? 

Josh started to yell something at Jake, and Sam cupped his head in his hand, focusing on breathing through his ears. He saw a woman with five arms approach Jake and slip another drink in his hand. All over again, Jake’s jaw unhinged and the drink was gone. He chewed the glass and everything. 

Sam couldn’t stay silent on the issue anymore, and tried to blink in morse code to Daniel, “BATHROOM” but Daniel fluttered his eyelashes back at Sam, obviously not getting the message. Sam sighed and jutted his thumb in some general direction. 

“It’s piss time for me, the piss boy,” he shouted over the music. Josh and Jake both paused from their arguing to stare at Sam, and then Sam scampered away. 

He was grateful that Daniel trailed behind him and leaned into his side when they were out of sight of the twins.

“Jake is a lizard person,” Sam shared. Daniel jumped away from Sam and shook his head in disbelief. 

“No way. But he doesn’t like the sunlight that much.” 

“Did you see him eat that pint glass?” 

“No?” 

“You must have been distracted by something else.” 

“I saw a guy standing in the corner of the room who claimed he was my great-great-grandfather,” Danny remembered. “Wait, what were we talking about?” 

Sam tried to think back on what information he had been so desperate to share with Daniel, but came up short. “I think the bartender is Ben Affleck,” he remembered. 

“That guy stunk as Batman,” Daniel clenched his fist. 

By the time they made it back to their table, Josh looked beyond fed up. He went on a rant about something, but Sam was too busy trying to spot the light molecules coming off the disco ball over the dancefloor to listen. Jake wandered away a few times and, each time he came back, his face looked brighter and happier, until he was a beaming ray of light. Sam squinted to see him. 

“I’m going back to my room,” Josh grumbled, tugging on Sam’s arm to get his attention. Sam made a comment that he thought might make sense, and then focused back on Jake, who had magically appeared on top of the bar and was missing his shirt. 

Ben Affleck shouted something towards Sam and Daniel, and his face turned tomato red when Sam gave him a thumbs up. Sam wondered if the thumbs up gesture meant something rude in Wisconsin, and made a vow to keep his thumb to himself. 

From 10:30pm to 12:30am, Sam stood in the bathroom, gaping at his reflection in the mirror. He could have sworn that his eyes were starting to droop down his cheeks the longer he stared, and the only way he could put them back in place was if he smiled as hard as he could. It was a daunting task but, after 2 committed hours, he finally decided that droopy eyes were actually kind of cool. 

He exited from the bathroom and turned in fifteen full circles looking for Jake and Daniel, but they were nowhere to be seen. Sam wanted to sob at the thought of being left alone, but he quickly reasoned with himself that they trusted him on his own, and had given him a quest to make his way back to the hotel in one piece. 

So Sam stepped out of the bar and dawdled around the empty Green Bay streets. At one point he shed his shoes and chucked them into the river for the fish to wear. He plodded through the desolate neighborhoods, whistling classical music to himself that his parents had played for him on Baby Einstein CDs as a child. He was everywhere and nowhere at once. It was beautiful. 

He couldn’t say for certain what he had accomplished in those hours, but he vaguely recalled something to do with a helicopter, multiple slices of Kraft singles, and a raccoon who wouldn’t stop screaming. 

Around 3am, Sam finally stepped foot into their hotel lobby and was struck with a jarring familiarity at the space. 

“This is my home,” Sam realized in delight. “I made it home. My journey is complete.” 

“And then I fell asleep until literally 20 minutes ago when Josh dragged me out of my room to come down and see you,” Sam finished his tale. Doug looked at him with a twitching eye. 

“You’re telling me you were the one who hijacked the helicopter off the top of the Bellin Building and drove down near the interstate to throw cheese slices at cars?” 

“Probably,” Sam shrugged. “I still don’t know where the screaming raccoon came in though.” 

“Tell me this,” Doug pinched at the bridge of his nose. “Do you remember seeing anything out of the ordinary when you came into the hotel lobby?” 

“I was on drugs,” Sam reminded Doug. “Everything I saw was out of the ordinary.” 

“This is no use,” Doug grumbled. “Is your friend gonna be any help to me, or was he out tripping balls all night long too?” 

“Daniel has a crystal clear memory, inebriated or not,” Sam proudly shared. 

“Send him in then,” Doug asked. Sam shrugged, popped up from his seat, took one more photo of Doug’s bald head, and skipped out of the room. 

“This is a nightmare,” Doug groaned before taking a couple aspirin. 

Danny wandered into the room, looking around him in a panic. When he saw the hotel manager staring at him, he gulped and forced his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. 

“Can I help you?” Danny squeaked. Doug’s furrowed brow loosened when he saw how much the poor guy was trembling. 

“Your friend told me that you have a pretty good memory,” Doug sounded out his words. “It would be a massive help to me and my report if I could get a detailed look into everything that happened with you and your friends last night.” 

Danny looked pale, but he slowly nodded his head. 

“What do you need to know?” 

“Tell me what happened from the second you entered the bar, to when you made it back to your hotel room.” 

“Okay,” Danny whispered. 

The night was frankly a mess. Jake, Josh, Sam, and Danny all squeezed around a tall pub table, leaning over their pints to sip out of the top of the overfilled glasses. Danny was feeling a bit woozy from the LSD he and Sam had taken in the parking lot before entering the bar. It had been Sam’s treat: he wanted Danny to feel like a teen in the 70s as much as he could. Weed probably would have done the trick, but Danny appreciated the gesture. 

It was clear that Sam was hallucinating more than Danny, because every glimpse he caught of his friend, Sam looked like he was seeing the world for the first time. Danny, on the other hand, was dealing with a gnarly headache, a rapid heartbeat, and an overall feeling of disorientation. Sure, he kept seeing a guy who kinda looked like him, but dressed in Pilgrim clothing, speaking in a hush about being his ancestor, but that was the only thing that felt out of the ordinary. 

He took slow sips of the nasty sour beer that made his stomach groan in even more protest, and listened as Jake and Josh poked fun at Sam’s cheese hat. Danny wanted to stand up for Sam and tell off the twins for not respecting the cheese hat, but he felt so queasy, he didn’t want to risk what would happen when he opened his mouth. 

Jake took a long sip from his beer, entirely clearing it of its contents, and Danny was relieved when Josh spoke up. 

“Pace yourself, tiger,” Josh warned his brother. 

“Oh, geez,” Jake murmured under his breath, staring at his glass in awe. Danny could tell that he was surprised by how fast the beer had gone down; they had hardly been standing at the table for more than five minutes. Danny knew: he could feel every second tick away. 

Jake looked conflicted, but eventually opted to take his glass back to the bar for a refill. While he was gone, Josh leaned forward to check and see if Danny and Sam liked the beer at all. Danny let out a burning burp that made him flinch, and then coughed out that it wasn’t great. What really wasn’t great was how his body was reacting to the LSD. 

He watched through squinted eyes as Jake chatted with a nice looking woman at the bar, and then meandered over to the live band that was playing the Allman Brothers. Once he got them to play a Cream song, he made his way back to the table, looking proud of himself. 

“Hey there, social butterfly,” Josh taunted Jake. 

“Fuck you,” Jake growled. "So maybe I like this place."

“So what you’re saying is it’s gonna be impossible to get you out of here, right?” Danny stared at Jake. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped in that bar while he felt like such shit. 

“You’re gonna have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming,” Jake chuckled in between drinks.  

“Jesus Christ,” Sam gaped at Jake. 

“What?” Jake asked, confused once more. Sam, Danny, and Josh all pointed at the tall pint in Jake’s right hand. Jake held it up to his eyeline and paled. It was empty again. “How the hell did I do that?” Jake choked out. 

“You drank that thing like it was a watering hole in the middle of the Sahara,” Danny observed. Jake studied his loose black button up top and took in the dark beer stains dotting his chest and collar. His face reddened in embarrassment. 

“I’ll tone it down, I promise,” he said. “I know we’re leaving tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, and you’re supposed to drive the second leg,” Josh nodded. “I’m not covering for your ass.” 

“I’d ask Sam to drive that leg before I asked you,” Jake protested. “You stink at driving.” 

“Look who’s talking, Mr. Go-95-On-The-Highway!” Josh exclaimed, waving his hands around in a fury.

“It was late at night, there was hardly anyone on the road!” Jake defended himself. 

“Hey, hey,” Danny waved his arms across the table to get the twins to quit bickering. It was really starting to hurt his head. “Let’s not argue over something that isn’t even a problem yet, okay?” 

Danny felt like he had gotten the situation under control, until the woman approached their table. 

“I figured out where I know you from,” she smiled at Jake, looking proud. Jake arched an eyebrow. “You’re from that rock band!” 

“You finally got it,” Jake laughed. 

“Here, have this on me," the woman said.

Jake stared at the tall pint that the woman was handing out to him with hungry eyes. 

“Oh no,” Danny could hear Josh whisper. 

“It’s a Copper State Sun Soaked - I overheard you ordering it at the bar,” the woman continued as she slipped the glass into Jake’s waiting hands. 

“Cheers,” Jake told her. The woman waved goodbye to him and made her way across the bar back to her friend group. Jake looked down at the pint in his hands, and then up at his band members. 

“Give me that,” Josh motioned at Jake. “Before you do something stupid.” 

Jake kept the glass firm in his hands, and tipped it back. 

“You’re kidding me,” Danny gaped. 

“He did it again,” Sam’s eyes widened. 

Jake’s hands shook as he gaped at the third empty glass he had seen in under 20 minutes. “I swear,” he croaked out, “I’m not doing this on purpose.” 

“It sure as hell seems like you are,” Josh countered. “You downed that whole thing while making eye contact with me. In fact, it felt really targeted.” 

“Water for the rest of the night. I promise,” Jake looked around at everyone. “Mark my word.” 

Danny wished they could have just gone back to the hotel at that point, but things never went that smoothly. After having a brief check in with Sam that confirmed Danny’s suspicions that Sam was having the trip of a lifetime, they returned back to their table to find Jake in a much worse state than they had left him. 

“He keeps drinking this shit,” Josh grumbled to Danny, motioning at the pile of empty glasses surrounding Jake. “I can’t get him to stop.” 

“Can’t stop, won’t stop,” Jake burped out. 

“Can stop, should stop,” Josh countered. Jake gave Josh a loud and juicy raspberry, and then tore his shirt over his head. 

“No shirt, no service!” the bartender hollered at Jake as he hopped onto the live band’s small makeshift stage and smacked a tambourine against his ass to their Bob Seger song. 

“I DON’T NEED SERVICE FROM YEW WANKER!” Jake hollered at the man in between barking laughs. Josh stared at his twin in silence for a few beats, and then shook his head in disappointment. 

“I’m not doing this tonight,” Josh spoke in a low grumble. “I’m gonna go back to my room and watch some HGTV to unwind.” 

Danny watched him step away from their table, flip off Jake, and silently move out of the bar and down the city street. He desperately wanted to run after Josh, begging for them to leave together, but he remained glued in place. Jake was transforming into Oliver Reed, and that was something you couldn’t leave unsupervised.

“BOB SEGER IS A GENTLEMAN IF I’VE EVER KNOWN ONE!” Oliver Reed hollered from the stage. He took a pause from his incoherent shouting to bash the tambourine a couple of times over the drummer’s head. 

“Security!” the guitarist called out in a panic. “Can you get this guy out of here?” 

Danny hurried to the stage, climbed up onto the elevated wooden platform, and hoisted Jake over his shoulder. “HOW DARE YEW PUT YER GRIMY HANDS ON ME YEW BIG OLD BUFFOON!” Oliver Reed howled at Danny while trying to scratch him. He got in a few good swipes that slowed Danny down, but he successfully carried his friend out of the bar and was even met with applause as they left. 

Once they were a block away from the bar, Danny set Jake down and forced his shirt into his hands. 

“Put that back on, dude,” Danny snapped. “It’s, like, 30 degrees outside.” 

“ME NIPS KNOW NOTHIN ‘BOUT WEATHER! I’M A MACHINE THAT DOESN’T FEEL COLD, YA TWAT!” 

Danny stared at Jake in disbelief. Oliver Reed was being more of a menace than usual. 

As if his words weren’t biting enough, Jake leaned forward, kicked Danny in the shin, and then tore in the opposite direction down the street. “I hate my life,” Danny groaned before chasing after Jake. 

“RUN RUN RUN AS FAST AS YEW CAN, YEW CAN’T CATCH ME CUZ’ I’M THE BDE MAN!” Oliver Reed cackled over his shoulder at Danny. 

Danny wasn’t happy that Jake was outrunning him by so much, but he could blame that on the LSD. It was challenging to run in a straight line when it felt like the night sky was below Danny’s feet. Talk about bad timing for the hallucinations to kick in. 

“Jake! Oliver! Whoever you are!” Danny called after his friend in desperation. “Can you please stop? I’m so tired!” 

“NO!” Oliver Reed’s voice echoed off in the distance. 

Danny huffed and tried to pick up his pace. Jake was edging closer to the waterfront, and it was making Danny nervous. When Oliver Reed came out, he was often motivated to dive into whatever water was closest by to “seduce the mermaids.” Danny knew for a fact that Oliver Reed didn’t know how to swim (the man sank like a stone), so the stakes were higher than ever. 

Thank goodness Jake stopped. Danny would have been more relieved if he hadn’t done it in the middle of six lanes of oncoming traffic. 

“I PART THEE, RED SEA!” Oliver Reed held a hand up to the cars that were swerving to avoid him. Danny forced back a scream and put his head down to power towards his friend without being smushed into oblivion by an 18-wheeler. How he made it to Jake unscathed, he had no clue. “THE RED SEA! JUST LIKE YER MUM’S PANTIES LAST NIGHT!” Oliver Reed screeched at a cab that just barely missed him. 

“OLIVER!” Danny yelled at the top of his lungs. He was surprised that he actually had his attention. Even though Jake had somehow acquired sunglasses and a fake beard since leaving the bar, making it hard to read his facial expressions, he could still see that Jake was listening to him attentively. “Get out of the road!” Danny continued. 

Jake stared at him a bit longer, and then started to sprint away from Danny again. 

“SKEEDOOSH!” Oliver Reed called over his shoulder with a barking laugh. 

Danny chased Jake nearly everywhere in the city, from the downtown area to the less-populated rural areas just outside of town. It was exhausting work, and Danny kept thinking that Jake was bound to flop over, but he wouldn’t stop. Danny was starting to think that the guy really was a machine, until they made it to the front doors of their hotel. 

“Best be getting me to bed,” Oliver Reed announced at the most normal volume Danny had heard all night. 

“Good,” Danny gasped for breath. 

Entirely unaffected by their extensive aerobics, Jake pushed the front door open and made his way into the lobby. 

“Wouldn’t turn down a sip or two of the good shit,” he decided. Danny tried to stop Jake, but he was moving on a mission towards the bar area, even though it was closed. Danny nearly tripped over Jake’s feet when he came to an abrupt halt, looking up at something in awe, as if looking into the face of a deity. 

“Would yew look at ‘at,” he breathed out as he took in the lifesize statue of Captain Morgan that was standing tall and proud in the middle of the hotel lobby. “The captain of the seven seas, Mr. Cap’n Morgan. I thought he was only a myth, but there he is. Wild shit.” 

“Take a picture, it’ll last you longer,” Danny said, trying to move Jake along. Jake stood firm, staring at Captain Morgan with a newfound interest. 

“He’s tellin’ me I’m shit,” Oliver Reed suddenly growled. “That old Oliver Fucking Reed himself is no worthy pirate. Well, I’ll show ‘im. I’ll show that bastard.” 

“Jake,” Danny’s voice squeaked in shock as he watched Jake jump at the Captain Morgan statue and tear his left hand away like a rabid animal. The sword that was in the statue’s hand loudly clattered to the floor, and Jake was quick to scoop it up. 

“WHO’S THE BEST PIRATE NOW, MORGAN? EH? THE BLOKE WITH ONE HAND AND NO SWORD? I DON’T THINK SO!” 

“Jake!” Danny cried out once more as Jake swirled the sword around and jabbed it into the statue’s plaster chest. 

“YAR!” Oliver Reed cried in triumph. “VICTORY ONCE MORE FOR THE BRITS! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! OR WHOEVER THE BLOKE IN POWER IS NOW!”

Danny had to plank to the ground with a yelp when Jake chucked Captain Morgan’s left hand as hard as he could across the lobby. They both watched it soar towards the front doors, which automatically opened for the hand and closed when it had fully passed through. Jake attempted to chop with the sword a couple of times as if he was cutting a head of lettuce, and then lit a large cigar to celebrate his victory. 

Danny rose back to his feet and, while Oliver Reed was chuckling to himself about what a great swordsman he was, he lurched forward and forced the sword out of Jake’s grasp. 

“BOLLOCKS!” Oliver Reed hollered in despair. “I’VE BEEN ROBBED!” 

“You’ve been saved,” Danny corrected Jake, holding the sword under Jake’s chin. 

“I’ll call it a draw,” Oliver Reed gulped. 

“You’re gonna do what I say, okay?” Danny growled at the troublemaker. Jake nodded, wincing at the feeling of the sword up against his jugular. “We’re gonna take a nice walk up to your room, you’re gonna get in bed, and you’re gonna have the best night’s sleep of your life.” 

“That sounds bloody nice,” Oliver Reed thought aloud. “Better than a sword through the heart, I reckon.” 

So Danny led Jake upstairs to his room, saw that he made it under his covers, and only left when he heard soft snores coming from the bed. Then he went to the shore of Lake Michigan and chucked the sword as far as he could. 

Finally feeling content with where things were at, Danny made his way to his own room and immediately passed out under the covers to sleep off the LSD. 

“I’m so sorry, Sir,” Danny told Doug with sincerity. “I tried to keep my friend from messing with your statue, but you should see how fast he moves while intoxicated. He’s like a cat.” 

“I should have talked to you first,” Doug gazed at Danny in interest. “That would have saved me a hell of a lot of time and a headache.” 

“What are you going to do with us?” Danny looked fearful. “I can promise you all of this was a big mixup, we have nothing against Captain Morgan, his brand, or your hotel partnership.” 

“Gather your friends. I want to talk to you all.” 

Danny looked on the brink of soiling himself, but he left the room and shortly came back with Jake, Josh and Sam. In his time away, Sam had managed to acquire a cheese board to serve as an accessory with the rest of his outfit. 

They all crowded into the cramped office and Jake shot Danny a worried glance. Danny wasn’t sure how much Jake knew or remembered, so he opted to keep his eyes glued to the floor. He hated how awful he was at lying when he was stressed; he should have done more to cover for his friend instead of recounting every part of the night in excruciating detail. Jake was bound to never talk to him again. Probably Josh too. Sam would most likely still be his friend because he thought it was funny when Jake got in trouble. 

“You’ve probably pieced together why I brought you all in here today,” Doug shared with the group. 

“Nope,” Sam shook his head. “I’m still stumped.” 

“My Captain Morgan statue was desecrated last night, and it’s come to my attention that one of you is at fault.” 

Danny continued to study the floor. 

“Captain Morgan?” Jake’s voice trailed off. His face dropped. The previous night was coming back to him fast. He had not stuck to water after his three pints of beer. 

“Oh no!” Josh called out. “I liked that guy! Very nice decor. Very aquatic.” 

“Captain Morgan,” Doug looked at Jake. Jake stared back at him with wide eyes. “Son, you really need to tone it down with the sour beers.” 

“So I’m not the one who’s in trouble?” Sam asked around. When no one responded to him, he gave the room a peace sign and strolled out the door. “Later skaters,” he called over his shoulder. 

“I know,” Jake choked. “Sour beers aren’t good for me.” 

“They’re just not good, period,” Josh corrected Jake. 

“It’s my fault too,” Danny burst out. “I should have stopped Jake.” 

“You tried your best,” Doug gave Danny a sympathetic gaze. “You weren’t the one who tore off the hand.” 

“But I did dump the sword in the lake.” 

“For the welfare of everyone in the vicinity. I can respect that.” 

“Wait, Jake had a sword last night?” Josh looked around at everyone. “And I missed it?” 

“I’m going to ask that you cover the charge to fix Captain Morgan,” Doug told Jake. “Whether it was your alter ego or not, you were caught on those security cameras doing the dirty work.” 

“So you knew it was me all along?” Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Then why did you make us go through all of that interrogating?” 

Doug shrugged. “I mostly just wanted to try to understand why someone would destroy something as sacred as my Captain Morgan statue.” 

Jake pondered this and eventually nodded, like he understood where Doug was coming from. 

“But now I’m also sitting on a lot of information that the Green Bay police department would find valuable about that horse and helicopter theft that went down last night.” 

“You know, it’s been so nice meeting you,” Danny nervously chuckled, pushing on Jake and Josh’s backs to steer them out of the room. “Jake will get that check sent to you as soon as you get us the invoice. Whatever the price, we’ve got it covered. Thank you so much for your hospitality, and we’ll make sure to give this place five stars on Yelp.” 

Once they were out of the doorframe, Danny looked between the twins. 

“Run,” he hissed. “We’re not getting caught for any more of our crimes today.” 

#greta van fleet #gvf #jake kiszka #josh kiszka #sam kiszka #danny wagner #jake gvf #josh gvf #sam gvf #danny gvf #gvf fic #gvf fanfic #gvf fanfiction #greta van fleet fanfiction #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fic #rashomon #surprise #they get in trouble again #who'd have thought

[anonymousbeefriendfanfics]

Omg since you're writing for Touchstarved also,,,,,,could I ask for some Vere headcanons? With fluff? Pretty please i am in need of a crumb of floof content involving floofy fox-man 🤲

Of course!! My pleasure~ I love all of them so very much, and Vere just. Mmmh, I love him. Sorry this took so long, but I hope it was worth the wait!

Fandom: Touchstarved Character: Vere Warnings: Fluff, as requested! Not really a warning though. Mild spoilers for the demo below the blue text.

Dating Vere Headcannons:

Now this is an interesting relationship.

I don't think Vere sees himself as a relationship person. That isn't to say he's aromantic, or that he doesn't fall for people - he does. But I just get the sense that he holds back. He's a lone wolf - er, fox - and he's used to that. He doesn't really trust anyone, and I think whatever dark secrets he's hiding, whatever trauma his past holds... it has him convinced that he doesn't need or deserve anyone.

So, first things first, you have to earn his trust - and be able to trust him in return, which is no small feat considering he appears ready to kill you at a moment's notice. But it is possible, especially once he gets to know you a bit better. Earn his respect and/or intrigue him enough, and he'll become less and less likely to kill you. And that is ideal, if you're attempting to romance the foxboy and not, you know, die.

Eventually, though, you can win him over. Slowly but surely, he falls for you. At first he may not even realize what it is, but give him time. He isn't great with genuine affection, and it'll take him some time to process everything.

Demo spoilers below!

Deep down, I think he's scared. Vere is a monster, a tool of the Senobium, a pet kept on a leash and used to hunt and kill. That's all he's been for so long, he doesn't know how to be anything else, doesn't know how to be free. Certainly doesn't know how to be a lover. But that doesn't mean he won't try!

Oh, and try he does. Vere goes to such comedically extreme lengths in the beginning, it's honestly a little ridiculous.

I'm assuming it's not too hard to get your hands on a romance novel or five... dozen. Eridia must have libraries, surely, and the Senobium itself likely has some, even if just in dusty shelves for preserving the 'classics' or what have you. And when Vere finally comes to his senses and realizes that he's falling in love - and gets over the subsequent shock and panic - his first mission is to get his hands on these books.

He'll spend his spare time obsessively reading, and implementing the tactics he's learned on you... which means that you're subject to spontaneous acts of devotion, from showing up unexpectedly with a bouquet of flowers (and one between his teeth, of course) to him throwing rocks at your window and serenading you in the middle of the night until you come down or yell at him to knock it off... or until he realizes he's got the wrong window and has been professing his love to one of the Bloodhounds while you sleep soundly on the other side of the building. Oops.

Just allow me to say that this man doesn't have an ounce of shame in his body, and will probably embarrass you in public at least once with all of this, unless you can catch him before it gets that far.

He'll eventually settle down, don't worry. He's nervous and overcompensating, but once he gets more used to your relationship, he'll begin to relax and learn to show you affection in his own ways.

I think Vere is one of those people who relentlessly but lovingly teases his significant other. He'll inevitably cross a line every now and then, and you shouldn't be afraid to set him straight when he does, but he quite enjoys the banter. He's got quite the silver tongue, and if his partner has a sharp wit as well, he's going to provoke them into using it at any opportunity.

He'll often steal things of yours, too. Both for the fun of seeing you try to get it back, and because he just... likes having a physical bit of you close. Seriously, get him a necklace or bracelet he can wear, or a charm to keep in his pocket - something he can keep on him at all times, and he'll stop stealing your things.... as much. And yes, he'll always dangle things he's stolen juuuust out of reach with that damn smirk on his face. Every time.

He's very laid back, but I think he can also be a bit territorial. You're his now, and he's not afraid to let anyone else know - no shame, remember? He doesn't resort to fighting unless he must, but he'll do whatever he needs to do in order to regain your attention or make it clear to others that you're taken. The flirting goes up to 11, and suddenly he's very touchy and affectionate.

Speaking of being physically affectionate, I think Vere would mostly try to keep his distance in public, mostly because he doesn't want to risk the Senobium finding out about your relationship. He knows quite well what they're capable of, and one of his biggest fears quickly becomes being unable to save you from them - or from himself. Those who know him well enough can read the difference in his body language, but to outsiders looking in, it looks friendly, if anything.

In private, though, be it when you're alone together or somewhere like the Wet Wick where he knows the Senobium cannot see... well now, that's a different story. He's almost always close by, if not touching you somehow - assuming you're okay with that, of course. If you tell him to keep his distance, he'll respect you enough to do so. But if you're okay with it, best get used to the feeling of that fluffy tail of his brushing against your legs or curling around your waist.

Oh, and if you offer ear scratches, he'll deny them, likely saying something about not wanting to mess up his hair. Do it anyway, though make sure nothing fragile is nearby. His tail swishes around like a dog's, and he's likely to break something if it's within wagging distance. He also gets adorably flustered about this because he can't control it, which makes it even better <3

Writing Masterlist 🐝 Requests Open! Tag List 🐝 @ajatinker @.mossmosis @.makobones

#beefriend-writes #touchstarved #touchstarved game #touchstarved vere #vere touchstarved #dating headcanons #fluffy

[roohuh]

Summer Letters

Part 5 of year Five in Obliviate

Ominis X MC

Summary: Some of the letters you received from Ominis over your summer holiday

Warnings: just floof

Dear MC,

How are you? Are you rested from your journey home? Sebastian has been on his best behavior this week in efforts to repair his relationship with Anne. We will see how long that lasts. She is being gracious but they have a long road ahead of them before this wound is healed. What was the name of that book you were recommending? Have you started on your summer assignments? Summer in Feldcroft is always such an enjoyable time but for some reason it seems rather lackluster without your infectious laughter.

-Ominis Gaunt

Dear MC,

How are you? Thank you for sending me that book. It saved me from having to travel to Hogsmead to find it. It is quite an enjoyable read. I am nearly finished now, only having set it down to write to you. Sebastian’s good behavior was short lived and he is back to his ridiculous gallivanting. He has declared war on the Dugbug population determined to collect all the tongues he needs for the entire school year. I feel he has already reached his goal and then some but he persists. Anne wishes you were here with us saying a girl around here would be a nice change of pace. I was sorry to hear your panic attacks are back and will spray my cologne on the parchment before I send the letter as requested. I am glad you find my smell so comforting. I miss you.

-Ominis Gaunt

Dear MC,

How are you? I have finished the book, you were right, the ending did cause me to shed a few tears. Please do not tell Sebastian. I think your theory about his venting frustrations on the Dugbugs are correct. I caught him crying over Solomon's grave after which he disappeared for hours returning with quite the collection of tongues. I have a strange request which you are fully allowed to decline. But would you attach a lock of your hair in your next correspondence? I had not anticipated how much I would miss you over this holiday. What I wouldn’t give to hear your laughter once more. Every time I hear your owl I can not think of anything els until I have read the letter she brings. I am sorry you are having such a rough time of it this summer. I wish I could apparate into your home and hold you when the attacks come but know that you are constantly on my mind.

-Ominis Gaunt

Dearest MC,

How are you? I have something I would like to ask you but I feel it is better in person. I am counting down the days until we are together again at Hogwarts. I was wondering what classes you were going to be taking next year. Thank you for the lock of hair and the chain you attached it to was so thoughtful. I keep it with me always, it feels as if you are not quite so far away. Anne helped me pick and press the flowers I will fold into the letter. I hope they are to your liking. They had a wonderful smell when I picked them and Anne informed me that they are pretty colors. I would like to take you to the field we found them in when we are together again. I think it is a place you would enjoy. Do not forget your summer assignments. I have finished mine now if you have any questions about yours.

-Ominis Gaunt

Dearest MC,

How are you? I feel the sentiment must be growing old by now but I miss you dreadfully. I have a bit of a cold at the moment, I am sure it is from the damp cave Sebastian dragged me into. One day his scheming will be the death of me I swear. As penance he is making me soup grumbling the whole time about how soup in summer is some sort of crime. You said you had a dream about me? I would be interested to know what happened in the dream if you are comfortable with sharing. My head is starting to hurt again so I am going to have a lie down but I wanted to respond as soon as I received your owl. Don’t forget your summer assignments.

-Ominis Gaunt

Dearest MC,

How are you? I am feeling much better thank you for the tea leaves they did help my throat immensely. While on a walk the other day a dragon swooped down and snached a sheep from the field right next to the path I was walking on! The wind generated from the beast's enormous wings almost knocked me over. I wonder if it is the same dragon you and Poppy freed from the poacher camp. One more week until we are back at Hogwarts, please tell me you have finished your summer assignments, Sebastian is only now starting his and is completely overwhelmed by the amount of work. He keeps asking to copy mine but it serves him right for procrastinating. Your dream sounds like it was lovely, I am beside myself with excitement to see you. You will laugh at how long my hair has gotten. It will need a proper cut when I am near Hogsmead once again. I was wondering if after the sorting ceremony I could have a private audience with you in the Undercroft.

-Ominis Gaunt

#hogwarts legacy #ominis gaunt #fanfic #ominis x mc #ominis x reader #harry potter hogwarts game #hogwarts legacy ominis #ominis x you #ominis fluff

[bibookdemon]

''

"Purples and blues, here, have another bruise!" A common rhyme Kaiba had heard every day in the orphanage, quickly followed by a swift fist to the face. He knew he was different. He was smart, and ambitious, and a heck of a lot better than any of the others here. That's why they targeted him. That, and his skinny build. His metabolism was too fast to let him put on any weight, especially at the young age he was.

But whatever. He could deal with it. At the end of the day, everyone was brought in for a warm, homemade meal - something he knew was a privilege in this cruel world of orphans - and a bed with never too many and never too few blankets. There was also his little brother, who got along well with the younger children. Kaiba was so proud of that tiny floof of hair. He was going to make many friends in life. He would be kind. He would be good. He would find a family soon. The only reason he hadn't was because of his annoying insistence that Kaiba stay with him. It was endearing but...Mokuba needed a place where he could get proper love. Not the love of an older brother who probably wouldn't even be able to protect him if he tried.

The Next Day

The sun was bright, birds were chirping, and everyone was going on a field trip. Well, a hike. Walk? Whatever they might consider it to be, the children were being guided on a mysterious journey - the orphanage owners' words, not his - through the surrounding forest. Kaiba couldn't say he was excited, but Moki was, and that was enough for him to gather a small smile and some sort of shred of interest.

"You ready big brother?" Moki called him over, bouncing excitedly from foot to foot. "I hope we find unicorns!"

Kaiba chuckled. "I hope so too, Moki." He ruffled the floofy hair - soft and adorable as always.

"Oh! They're going! Come on, come on!" Despite the fact that the group was moving slowly, his little brother still tugged insistently until they were well in the middle of the group. Sudden gazes landed on his shoulders, so Kaiba ushered his brother onward toward the front. No need for him to become clued in to the hatred of the others. "I'll get some dragon scales just for you!"

"Ok, you do that." He grinned, but it dropped as soon as Moki was out of eyesight. The adults were all up the front, leading, so he was stuck with no potential protection. Not that he wanted it anyway. He would never let it be said that Seto Kaiba was a snitch.

"Well, lookie here." One of the largest kids bumped his shoulder roughly. "If it isn't sir royal buttface himself. Have anything new to tell me about the world? Have you discovered that dragons exist yet?" He burst out laughing.

"Yes, in fact." Kaiba's voice was enough to stop that ridiculous noise, leaving the boy with a stupid look on his face. "I've discovered that your breath smells like something a dragon would puke up after seeing your face."

"What did you just say to me?" He stepped in front of Kaiba, stopping him. A few of his cronies crowded in a circle around the two of them, snickering.

"You heard me, pukeface."

"You little...!" His words were accentuated with a punch, then another, and another. Soon, Kaiba was cowering on the ground, a pathetic dog humiliated by a master without love or mercy. "Hah, loser. I bet you die out here like that, huh?" They all laughed once again, then started sprinting to catch up with the group.

For a long while, Kaiba laid there, silent and panting. He probably had a broken rib at best, multiple broken ribs and a concussion at worst. The way his head spun when he opened his eyes led him to believe the latter. Then, suddenly, a soothing touch.

"Are you ok?" Kaiba whipped his head around - a painful choice - to see warm brown eyes and freckled cheeks staring at him in concern. A young boy, about his age. And...a gap where his two front teeth should've been. "Hey. Can you please answer? Father wants me back before the sun falls, and it's already starting to set."

"Yes." He closed his eyes. "I'm fine." The words made pain reverberate through his body.

"No, you're not. I can tell a lie when I hear one. Alright, up you go." And then he was hoisted up into chunky arms, his gangly limbs splayed in awkward ways.

"Hey! Put me down!" He was furious, but also...was this boy kinda cute? No, no. It was the concussion. Right? The concussion? But he looked like...an angel.

"No can do. You're coming with me."

Many Years Later

"And dat, kids, is how I met ya father!" Jou grinned and patted Kaiba's back roughly, causing the man to choke on his food.

"Can you not tell this story while we're eating?" He grumbled. It was the millionth recount, the least Jou could do was tell it to the kids for a bedtime story. It wasn't even a great story! Well...it was practically a fairy tale. So he supposed it was.

"I can tell it whenever I want!" He ruffled Kaiba's hair, looking back to their children. Two of them, two beautiful children they'd had together. A boy and a girl. Jou's crazy hair and freckles, Kaiba's gangly limbs and sharp nose. Adorable.

"Then I suppose you won't mind me telling them the story of how you confessed?"

Jou's face went pale. "Dat's embarrassin'! They don't wanna hear dat!"

"We do, we do!" Little Annabelle giggled and looked to Kaiba expectantly.

"Well, your father was still very young, and very daft..."

#yugioh #ygo #fanfic #fanfiction #duel monsters #jounouchi katsuya #seto kaiba #joey wheeler #violetshipping #puppyshipping #children #childhood #tw bullying #tw bullies

[leviathanverse]

Chapter 32: Doing a favour

You watched the dragon use its jaws to lift the dome of a bar off. You saw Zika behind Urogi's hind leg, hiding from the dragon everyone thought had went extinct 67 000 years ago.

You were shocked to see a dragon as big and majestic like it. You guessed that it could swallow one of the brothers in one go.

They were predators for all dragon species. Not to mention that they had all the abilities of each dragon.

You looked at the gate right under the seats of where the crowd was, seeing a red button. You moved towards it, and inspected it.

You heard the dragon hiss at you like you were some kind of threat. Zoha only snarled and used his body to shield you if the dragon decided to attack.

You pressed the button, and many roars echoed from the gate that had opened. Dragons of many species came out in a flurry of colours and sizes.

The Sirensong made a trill, and the dragons flew towards the ocean. Not only was it the ancestor of all dragons, but their QUEEN AND KING AS WELL?!

And they could control dragons?! Whatever God decided to create a massive dragon clearly knew what they were doing.

The dragons flew towards the direction of the ocean, growing smaller the further they flew away from this horrid place.

The last dragons in view were gone, only small black specks before vanishing. As if they were never even here.

" Who are you two, humans? And be honest with me, or you end up like the ones I had killed."

You heard the brothers snarl at her comment, her threat of killing you and Zika like she had done to the other people.

" I.. I am Y/n L/n, your majesty..."

You got onto one knee and lowered your head. You were not going to be disrespectful, you weren't raised like that.

Zoha hesitantly stepped away. As if he knew what you were doing was something to show respect to the massive dragon.

" And my friend is Zika Shi... We mean no harm to any of the dragons..."

" And the five Forest Dragon subspecies with you?"

You were shocked. How did she know about their species by one glance?! How did she know that they were a subspecies?!

You heard the five brothers growl and trill, snarling at her. You lifted your head and gave them the death glare. They stopped immediately.

" Red one is Sekido, green one is Karaku, blue one is Aizetsu, bird one is Urogi and the smaller one is Zohakuten or Zoha for short..."

" How did you end up in a place such as this?"

" Someone who betrayed my Boss's organization and words..."

You turned your head to look at her, seeing her lean in closer to you and Zoha. Zoha snarled and got in front of you, but you stood up and walked into view.

" The organization I work for serves to help and free dragons from hunters or get them out from being sold."

" And who is this traitor of yours?"

" I- .... Yami..."

" I see... So you have been betrayed by someone you thought you could trust, yes?"

" ..."

You said nothing and held your arm, looking down. It's was as if you were ashamed to say yes.

Zoha nuzzled you, and you rubbed him under his chin. His pupils immediately increased in size.

" And where is this Yami?"

" I don't know..."

" I thank you for your help in freeing my descendants. But I ask for a favour."

" May I ask what it is?"

" Help the aquatic dragons to their natural homes. Fresh- and salt water alike."

" I will... It was what I have done for the past seven years..."

The dragon hummed before opening her wings and took off towards the ocean. Right where her home was, you guessed.

You turned to look at the four brothers and Zika and almost laughed at the ridiculous hairstyle Zika gave to Urogi.

" What do you think, Y/n? I tried to make if a ponytail, but I seem to have messed up... his hair is also thick!"

" I- it looks great!"

You burst out laughing when Urogi's hair floofed out upon being loosened. He looked like a puffed up owl now.

You heard the brothers chuff and roar, laughing alongside you. Even Zika's squeaky laughs filled your ears.

You had to laugh it all off first before you could do the favour for the Queen of Dragons.

You had a feeling that it would take you all a while to calm down. Not that you minded. You had all the time in the world to complete the favour.

A favour from the Queen of Dragons that was thought to have gone extinct 67 000 years ago.

Previous <-•-> Next

#demon slayer #hantengu clones dragon au #dragon hantengu clones au #angry oc with a hatred for humans #the hunter assassin book #hantengu #sekido #urogi #aizetsu #karaku #zohakuten

[insomniac-jay]

Birds of a Feather Rarely Differ

Synopsis: Halle doesn't trust anyone with Christine's whereabouts--especially her suitor.

Halle was glad that Christine left for Chicago even if she would miss the smaller woman's singing. After all the shows she'd been headlining, she earned a well deserved vacation. Even the best singers needed a vocal rest.

In the meantime, Halle went back to her work as a model. She'd just gotten done with a shoot when her assistant came in to her dressing room.

"Miss Jefferson, you have a visitor."

Halle's eyes narrowed and her eyebrows pinched. I thought I made it clear that I don't take visits during work hours unless it's business related. The sound of approaching footsteps made her more suspicious of this unexpected visitor. And she was right when she saw who walked through the door.

"Hello, Miss Jefferson."

It just fucking had to be you, Halle cursed at herself. "Mr. Chapel."

"Please call me Darius." Darius stood across from her, almost blocking the door. Somehow his outfits got more ridiculous everytime she saw him because of the purple pinstripe suit with his signature lime green and black accents he wore.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Halle. I know how you feel about having guests while working but this is important." Darius tipped his hat probably only because her assistant was still there. Had they been alone, no such pleasantries would be exchanged.

Halle took notice of the little swan shaped pin in his pocket square, which made his intentions clear. But rather than let him know she knew, she'd pull it out of him. "Which is?"

"Your friend Belle." Darius gripped onto his cane.

"What about her?"

"She hasn't been to the club today and no one will tell me why." There was something in his tone that made Halle recoil. She'd had her fair share of intimidation but Darius was something else entirely. He spoke like a covertly relentless predator on the hunt for his missing prey. "I figured you'd know since you're her closest friend."

Halle knew it. Ever since the day he introduced himself to Christine, he"d been keeping a keen eye on her. In fact, he was the reason she was headlining so many shows for the past two weeks. One of those was an act called "White Swan" which Darius seemed to be a big fan of.

"Honestly, Darius, I don't think I have any reason to tell you."

Darius's eyebrows furrowed. Seems like everybody wanted to keep secrets from him today, especially the management of the club. Luckily, he'd have that sorted out in no time. "Why not?"

"Maybe I just don't feel like it." Halle leaned against the vanity, hoping to keep her composure inconspicuous. She'd rather die than ever tell him where in the world Christine was. His fixation with her was borderline obsession, the last thing Halle wanted for her dear friend.

"That's a little unfair, don't you think?" The sudden drop of his voice almost scared the life out of Halle. Despite his obscured eyes, Halle could feel the pierce of his gaze on her. "As her...boss, I deserve to know."

Before Halle could say anything, her assistant came back to inform her of another shoot. Taking one last glance at the man, Halle swiftly left the room and headed to the shoot.

Darius grimaced. Nobody wants to tell me? Fine, I can wait. In the meantime, I'll make sure there are some very different faces running things at the club.

@floof-ghostie @calciumcryptid @mayameanderings @biandbored

#jay's writings #ship: musicbelle #phantom of the cabaret au

[autisticlancemcclain]

“Ooooooh, that looks interesting!”

Keith groans, as loudly and dramatically as he can. He tries to emulate Shiro every time he was finally forced to actually do his job and mark student papers after weeks of procrastinating.

(He’s pretty successful, if he does say so himself.)

“Please,” he begs the red paladin, yanking on his sleeve to dissuade him from turning into the store. It does nothing.

“C’mon,” Lance says, ignoring his agony. “One last store, okay?”

“You’re a dirty liar. You said that two hours ago.”

Lance reaches back blindly to pat Keith patronizingly on the head, missing by a mile and smacking him on the face instead. Keith has to bat his hands away. “There, there. You once tried to fight a ten thousand year old zombie dictator with your bare hands. You will survive.”

“Fistfighting Zarkon wasn’t nearly this painful,” Keith grumbles, but lets Lance pull him into the store, anyway.

God, he’s fucking whipped. He’s embarrassed of himself. Truly.

He dutifully takes the basket Lance hands him (on top of his twelve other shopping bags, full to the brim, Keith might add) and holds it out whenever Lance gasps excitedly and swipes something off a shelf or a hangar.

“Allura would look great in this skirt!”

“Wouldn’t Pidge look adorable with this hair bow?”

“Oh, Hunk has been looking for this!”

“Gasp!” (He actually says the word gasp, out loud, with his mouth.) “Hair chalk! Maybe Shiro will let me dye his floof!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Keith tells him. He sounds so fond that a random passer-by raises an amused eyebrow at him, which makes Keith want to melt into the floor. “Like an irritating wind-up toy.”

There. That should cover his tracks.

Lance pauses for a moment, turning to face Keith and squinting at him. For a brief, foolish moment, Keith feels something like hope — maybe this horrible torture will come to an end!

“Didn’t you collect wind-up toys when you were a kid?” he questions, head tilted. “You had like four boxes of them in your shack. I stole a little stegosaurus.”

Keith opens his mouth, then shuts it again. His ears burn.

“First of all, you have a kleptomania problem,” he points out, instead of stop knowing so much about me and let me live in peace. “Second of all, you are a snoop and I hate you.”

Lance snorts. “Yeah, yeah.”

Keith is about to say something else, something scathing, something to make him the clear winner of this dumbass, not-real argument, but then Lance absentmindedly links his arm through Keith’s and pulls him close as he strolls down an aisle full of puzzles and games.

Keith’s throat goes dry. Lance smells faintly of something floral, sweet.

Briefly, he squeezes his eyes shut and prays for strength. It will do nothing, because the universe likes to put Keith in horrible situations and laugh at him, but he tries anyway.

They walk in mostly silence for a the next little while, interrupted only by Lance’s quiet humming and occasional points of interest. He’s agonizingly slow to walk through the store — Keith is sure at this point that he’s doing it on purpose, no one likes shopping for this long, he’s definitely punishing Keith for drinking the last of the red juice packs — but perks up excitedly when he sees an aisle lined with jars on one side, and various tubes and pallets on the other.

“Look! Look look look! They have a skincare and makeup section!”

Keith turns his head to the sky. “Why do you despise me,” he mutters to it.

He is never getting out of this goddamn store.

“Come on, you drama queen,” Lance says, dragging him towards the first shelf of various products. “Shiro and Pidge keep stealing all my products because they are horrible people who don’t know how to ask for things. I need to replenish. Come help!”

He yanks Keith forward. Yelping, Keith stumbles after him. “I’m coming, you goober, yeesh! Ease up a bit.”

Smirking, Lance ignores him. He reaches for a shiny pink pot, unscrewing the lid and taking a sniff. He makes a face. “Blegh. Here.”

Keith indulgently smells it and almost gags. “That smells the way final exams feel.”

He trails after Lance for the next fifteen minutes, smelling weirdo products and laughing himself to tears at Lance’s various reactions. He has the pleasure of making Lance laugh, too, with all his creative descriptions; making his brown eyes light up and his bright smile making Keith’s heart do dangerous things.

He’s so fucked. He’s so fucked!

“Oh, hey, I have an idea. Close your eyes.”

It doesn’t even occur to Keith not to listen. That’s the embarrassing part. Lance tells him to close his eyes and immediately his world goes dark.

He feels something approach his face.

“Smell this,” Lance says.

Keith grimaces. “Can we be done with the nasty smells?”

“This one isn’t nasty, promise. It’s lip gloss. Guess the flavour.”

Keith hesitantly leans forward and inhales. To his surprise, the scent is pleasant, familiar.

“Mint?”

“That one was too easy,” Lance says. “Keep your eyes closed, smell this one.”

Less wary now, Keith does. This one is even better than before.

“Oh, oranges!”

Lance grumbles to himself. Keith hears rustling, like Lance is digging through something, and then a sharp intake of breath.

Keith peeks an eye open. “Everything okay?”

“Close your eyes again,” Lance orders. Keith does, hesitantly, noting that Lance’s expression is very particular, in a way he can’t place.

“Guess this one,” he says quietly.

Keith does. He frowns, tiling his head in confusion.

“D’you give up?”

Lance sounds closer. Much closer, actually. Keith’s breaths get heavier.

“No.”

Lance says nothing for a moment, and Keith is tempted to open his eyes. He feels Lance get closer, feels the heat of his breath on his cheeks. He’s still for a moment, and Keith’s heart pounds as he breathes rapidly, strangely familiar scent of the lipgloss getting closer and closer.

“…You want a hint?”

Keith nods rapidly. The smell gets even stronger, and then something warm and sticky presses against his lips.

Lance is kissing him.

He pulls back as quickly as he leaned in, but not far. The scent of the lip gloss is still cloying, intermingling with the scent of Lance, sweet and fruity.

“I don’t think I’ve ever tasted it before,” Keith rasps. He cracks open his eyes, barely, and finds them level with Lance’s nose, close to those shiny lips.

Lance hums. “It’s sweet pear.”

“Oh.” That makes sense. “It’s nice.”

Lance leans in again, and Keith does too, like a magnet drawn to Lance’s polarity. “Wanna taste again?”

As if Keith would ever say no to that.

———

based on this post

#this is so dorky teehee #vld #voltron #keith #keith kogane #lance #lance mcclain #klance #getting together #red paladin lance #black paladin keith #whipped keith #truly down bad #pining keith #my writing #fic #fic fragment #longpost #brown-eyed lance

[ipsen]

Blank Canvas 20

THE FINAL CHAPTER!!!! VERY EXCITED AND THANKS ALL FOR READING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read on AO3. content warning: sexual content Summary: The world keeps changing. Word Count: 6536 Chapter 19 Master Post

“After nearly a decade of victims, the Torso— revealed to be longtime taxi driver Karao Saeki— is dead. His body was found in a river in the 17th ward, stabbed to death by an unknown assailant with his eyes pried out of his skull. The Washuu Task Force is unable to determine anything else at the time of reporting.

“In addition, tapes of Saeki communicating with Kousei Kaiko, CEO of Kaiko Industries, have surfaced from a raid of his home. The details will have to wait, however, as sorting out the relevant tapes will take some time, or so claims Koutarou Amon, a lawyer and one of the survivors of the Priest’s orphanage.

“In other news, Sen Takatsuki is holding a press conference today to announce her new work: a graphic novel in collaboration with an unknown artist…”

———

“Listen, Sauce,” Hide stared at Haise from the living room, “I think the suit is more than enough.”

“I-I know!” Haise was still in the bathroom, his hands full of gel and his gaze boring a hole into their mirror. “I just— I should make an effort for this! It’s a press conference for the book— er, comic— no, I mean—!” He sighed. “You know what I mean; it’s important!”

“If you say so!” Hide put up his hands in defense. “Frankly, you look ridiculous, but that’s just me.”

“Hina did this for me for Red Tongues! I-It works!”

“Cool! Still ridiculous.”

Touka’s laugh rang from the pantry.

“T-Touka!”

A month had passed since the incident with the Torso, making it December. After another week’s worth of recovery, Haise was discharged from Taiwa, and he and Sen finally finished their work: The Folly of the Hierophants. Sen asked him multiple times if it was too on the nose, but he reminded her that people don’t know about V like she did.

To kick things off, Shiono and Shoeisha arranged a press conference for the day. It would be Haise and Sen’s first public appearance together, so they had to make it count. At least, that’s what Haise thought of the whole thing.

Not only that, but the news of Kaiko Industries’ possible connection to the Torso was being spread like wildfire; once the story hit the shelves, it was going to fan those flames.

“That’s the idea, at least,” Sen had told him. “But you know the public; a little too stupid for their own good. There’s a brilliant mind among them every now and then, sure, but plucking them out from the masses is always troublesome.” He remembered her looking him up and down then. “Sometimes, though, it’s worth it.”

The memory made him shiver, but it also reinforced his resolve. He had to make sure he was presentable for her sake.

After ten more minutes, he shut the bathroom door, making some minor adjustments to his hair, which he had slicked back. To accompany it, he was wearing a simple black suit and matching tie— the only ‘fancy’ thing in his possession. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Touka peeked out from the kitchen, a peeled banana in her hand. “Wow,” she whistled. “Not bad.”

“Meh,” Hide said. “I still think the hair’s too much. None of that signature Sauce floof, y’know?”

She smacked him lightly on the head. “I think the effort will be appreciated.”

“Thank you, Touka,” Haise said, nodding at her in approval. “I think so, too.”

“Gasp! Is our boy being sassy with me?” Hide’s mouth hung open, a hand on his chest. “You hang out with that Sen girl too much, young man! Respect your roommate!”

Haise laughed. “Sorry, sorry… Maybe it’s the nerves.”

“Oh, yeah; this thing’s gonna be on TV, huh?” Hide fetched the remote. “When was it, again?”

“This afternoon, but you don’t have to watch it; Chie must have something for you to do, especially with the other news that’s been going on.”

The two of them, as its collectors, were also overseeing its distribution with Tatara and the rest of Chì Shé, which was apparently more than a theater company.

Hide waved him off. “She wants a bit of a challenge, at least for today.”

It was weird to Haise that Hide was part of an underground effort to collect information on V. Though, given Chie’s ‘job’, it wasn't exactly weird, but the fact that Hide had worked in close contact with Sen right under Haise’s nose was baffling. He had discovered a side of his best friend that he would have never found out about thanks to— wait a second.

“Hide, did you know about Sen’s connection to…” he gestured vaguely— “everything when you signed me up for my job?”

His roommate looked over, confused. “What?”

Touka rolled her eyes. “C’mon, don’t be stupid. If you two were working together on V stuff, then wouldn’t that mean you knew each other?”

“Oh, that? No, we were working anonymously through Chie,” he explained. “Very sensitive information, y’know, and remember the part where I travel the world? Don’t want people knowing my face or name, right? We actually only figured each other out because I signed you up!”

Touka snickered. “So it was sheer dumb luck?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hide shook his head. “I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”

“That’s right.” She ruffled his hair with a smirk. “Looks like Mr. Nagachika’s finally cracked, Sasaki.”

Hide opened his mouth to retort, but stopped when he saw Haise smiling. “Don’t do me like this, man.”

“Sorry, sorry…” Haise waved his hand about in a poor attempt at stifling laughter. “It’s just nice to know that even you’re human, Hide.”

“Uh, duh? I am extremely human! I have the proper circuit boards and everything!”

Haise laughed again, then headed for the door. “I gotta go now before I’m late. See you later!”

“I’m still right about the hair, by the way!” Hide called just before the door shut.

—

After a few ID check-ins with some vaguely familiar guards, Haise found his way into the back room of the building the conference was held at. Sen was waiting for him there, and she was beautiful. She wore a black turtleneck shirt, a blue flared skirt with gold patterning near the hem below her knees, and a cardigan faintly patterned with tiger lilies. Her hair was bound in a single ponytail gathered on one of her shoulders.

“Well, well, well; someone’s dressed up,” she commented upon seeing him arrive.

Haise rubbed his neck. “I-It is a conference, right?” He showed himself off a bit, albeit hesitantly. “Do you… like it?”

“Hm…”

She came up to him and studied him. Her eyes roamed his body, and at some points, he wondered if she was mentally undressing him. He didn’t mind the idea, and was rather used to it now, but he still swallowed while she adjusted his tie and brushed his shoulder. She smelled good, he idly noted, but that was always true.

“And lastly—” she reached up and roughly messed with his hair, ruining a half-hour’s worth of work — “there! Perfect.”

“H-Hey, I worked hard on that…!” he protested, even though he was laughing.

“You don’t have the face for it, sadly.” Sen shrugged and smiled. “I prefer you like this: all wild and messy.”

His spiteful side wanted to punch Hide the next time he saw him.

“Well, in that case—” Haise took her hair tie, making her breath hitch, and gently pulled it off— “that makes two of us.”

Her hair spilled over her shoulders, and she instantly turned scarlet. Recovering quickly, though, she pushed him with a chuckle.

Just then, Shiono appeared from the front. “Oh, Sasaki! Great timing; they just finished getting ready. You can come up whenever you’re ready.”

She fanned out her freshly loosened hair. “Oh, joy… Ready, Haise?”

He felt his stomach churn at the reminder of reality. “Not really, no…”

“Oh, hush— you’ll be fine.” She linked their arms together to reassure him. It worked… sort of. “Smile at the cameras, speak only when spoken to, and try to look straight ahead as much as you can, ‘kay?”

He nodded stiffly. “O-Okay…”

Even with those instructions, the flash of a camera as soon as they stepped out nearly blindsided him. Meanwhile, Sen smiled with familiar grace and practiced ease at the small crowd. He tried to copy her by waving himself, even though he was mostly squinting at the lights that were already beginning to hurt his eyes. He wished his glasses offered protection; this was gonna get bad fast.

There was nowhere to sit, which he expected, but Haise’s stomach sank to the floor when he thought of how long this might take. Combined with the sheer amount of people here, he was cruelly reminded that he was, in fact, dating a celebrity.

Sen took her spot at half of the mics on the table, while he positioned himself next to her at the other half, hands clasped behind his back. Hopefully, he didn’t look ridiculous, though the mere thought of that probably made it true. It was also kinda hot in here; was anyone else hot?

“Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting so many of you,” Sen said once it was silent, chuckling fakely. It snapped him back to attention. “The last time I saw nearly as many was for the announcement of The Black Goat’s Egg!”

Haise actually recalled the event. He had skipped class that day to watch it on TV, since it was in the middle of the day, once Hide assured him a hundred times that he’d get Haise the required notes and papers. Sen had dressed up far more fancily for that than this one, and now that he actually knew her (in more ways than one), he felt that she’d done herself a disservice.

A few more pictures were snapped, and he swore most of them were of him. It made sense, in a way; he was a novelty, or maybe an anomaly, in Sen’s otherwise lone wolf career.

That said, neither her clothes from that day nor the cameras were his main concern. His main concern was, still, the length of the previous presentation. As an avid reader, he hadn’t minded and wanted to pick her mind apart until it was laid out before him in all its glory, but now that he was standing with her as her equal, he found himself dreading the next two hours of his life. And that wasn’t even factoring in the fact this was televised.

“Well, before we get into questions—” Sen’s voice brought Haise back down to earth, as always— “I’d like to say a few words about the creation of this book.

“Firstly, I apologize to anyone willing to read my scribbles for the wait. Once The Hanged Man’s MacGuffin released, I found that my next idea simply wasn’t taking the form I wanted it to. All of the ideas were there, but the moment they left my mind, it turned into garbage, even by my standards!”

A smile and even a few laughs rumbled through the crowd. She was so good at this, Haise thought while playing with the cuff of his jacket. Maybe he wouldn’t have to do anything but stand here, but that also made him feel bad. It also sounded a little tedious.

“A week became a month and a month became a year, yet the page was still blank. And so, my editor, Shiono, suggested I try to turn it into a graphic novel. He said the new format might be inspiring. And so, after much searching, I chose this one: Haise Sasaki!”

At his name, he visibly coughed and tried his best to smile and bow. “H-Hello! I’m… I’m Haise Sasaki, and it’s… it’s such an honor to work with S— Ms. Takatsuki on her first graphic novel!”

It was probably best that he left out the fact that this was also his first graphic novel, and his first officially published work.

Sen, however, had other plans. “I wanted someone with as little experience as me with this sort of thing, but I also wanted someone who was very familiar with the style of my written works. I was very lucky that Haise here—” he flinched when she aggressively pronounced his first name, to the point that he had to adjust his glasses— “checked both boxes and more! He was able to color the canvas where I couldn’t, and the result will be released with the new year.”

She smiled at him, and he caught the familiar glint of affection in her eyes. He returned it with his own, like it was their little secret.

“Now, let’s get to questions.”

The first question was for Sen, and it was probably the most obvious one. “Ms. Takatsuki, what was your source of inspiration for this story?”

“Oh, the usual,” she replied with a knowing smile. “I’ll just say that it’s surprising what you find when you go where people don’t want you to go. I encourage you all to do the same. Experience life and adventure, then maybe you might find what you’re looking for.”

The second one was also for Sen. “Ms. Takatsuki, what were some of the unique challenges presented to you with the graphic novel format?”

The third one? “Ms. Takatsuki—” Yep. Sen.

“Ms. Takatsuki…”

“Ms. Takatsuki!”

For the next hour or so, Sen was pestered over and over by interviewers who were more content with treading familiar ground than taking a chance with a picturesque newbie. Though Haise was partially relieved that there wasn’t much attention on himself, there was a rare instance of irritation welling within him for Sen’s sake, and the way her fake smile widened with each new, more boring question told him she felt the same way. They were supposed to be partners— equals— yet no one was treating them as such.

And then— “Mr. Sasaki?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin. “Y-Yeah?! Er, sorry!” He cleared his throat, suffering some laughs. “Yes?”

This interviewer was younger, and looked a bit more timid than the others. Still, they were the first to take a chance on him. “Could you… Could you tell us what it’s like working with Ms. Takatsuki?”

The silence weighed heavy while the world waited for his answer. “W-Well…”

Sen was looking at him too, with that glimmering, curious gaze of hers. He felt his mouth go dry at the sight.

“Ms. Takatsuki is…”

What could he say that wouldn’t embarrass her? Public opinion wasn’t anything like talking to Hide or Touka; he couldn’t exactly be honest about the whole thing without raising some brows. Then again, this work was going to help connect the families of V to the likes of Donato and Saeki, so really, what was he even worried about?

“She’s amazing,” he said with full sincerity. “And I think you’ll enjoy what we’ve created together.”

Some time was taken for everyone to jot down his answer, and he wondered if he had been too brief. He also felt Sen’s eyes on him, but from the corner of his gaze, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. He did, however, manage to catch her eye twitch when the next person stood, and begged for her attention. She must have thought her reprieve would last longer.

“Yes?” There was a slight sharpness to her voice.

“What are your thoughts on the ongoing investigation of Kaiko Industries and the Torso?”

A new type of silence settled in: anticipation. What did Sen Takatsuki think about the whole thing? Considering the messages and discussions around her work, it was just the type of thing she wrote and advocated for. Would she continue the pattern?

Some of the audience, particularly the older individuals, looked perturbed by the question. Perhaps they were people who disliked attaching real life events and politics to Sen’s works, who disliked the very idea of entwining the horrors of reality with the reliefs provided by fiction. Haise couldn’t understand that perspective. Art was influenced by real life, was it not? Stories about crime and punishment, corruption and exposure— were those not inherently political? It was like those people wished to drain the story of all life by ignoring its very real connotations.

He looked at her now, and saw she was smiling knowingly. 

“They’ll get what they deserve,” she said simply.

—

“Agh, I wish I could’ve said more!!” Sen, sitting in the passenger’s seat of Shiono’s car, complained.

The conference concluded without a hitch. After questions, Haise and Sen were asked for extra photos, and they revealed the title of the book as well. Shiono was driving them out now, helping them keep a low profile.

Haise, seated at the back of the car, tilted his head. “Why didn’t you?”

“I like writing, that’s all.” He heard the smile in her voice. “It’d be a waste to face an inconvenience with ‘controversy’.”

“You’re such a sap, Sen,” Shiono commented, chuckling.

“Oh, can it.” But she laughed anyway. “Maybe I am, so what?”

“Well, I think it’s charming. Right, Sasaki?”

She shot Haise a playful glare. “Don’t you start.”

He shrugged. “I thought you preferred the truth, Sen.”

Puffing up her cheeks, she reached over the seat to poke him, and he prepared to defend himself, laughing all the while. However, she couldn’t reach, so she just sank back into her seat and huffed.

“You two are unbelievable,” she muttered.

Shiono cackled. “We just get you, kiddo, and you hate it!”

Haise smiled. They did, didn’t they? Not only that, she believed them too. Shiono was understandable; he was her father, and he’d had nothing but a positive impact on her life. Haise was a bit more surprising, looking back. Seven short months, and now Sen Takatsuki trusted him completely? It felt like a dream.

Then again, he recognized himself in her words, and she recognized herself in his art. They were mirrors, two sides of the same coin; it would be weirder if they didn’t understand each other. Maybe it was that fact that pushed her to hire him in the first place.

Shiono and Sen had begun a new conversation, steered more toward the intricacies of marketing. Haise noted that he would be drawing a few extra pieces of promotional work to assist, but before he could formulate an idea, Shiono changed the subject.

“Do you two have plans for dinner?” he asked

“Uh…” Haise wracked his brain. “I-I don’t—”

“I’ve got a few ideas.” Sen turned over to him, smiling. “Remember? You were gonna cook something at my place.”

Haise was confused at first, but swallowed his question. His chin itched wildly as he responded: “Y-Yeah, I remember…”

It must not have been a very good performance, because she playfully rolled her eyes and faced forward.

Shiono whistled as he turned a corner leading to the 6th ward. “You really snagged a good one, kiddo. A cook? Absolutely crazy.”

She smirked. “I know.”

———

Haise didn’t even get the chance to admire Sen’s apartment before she locked the door, leapt into his arms, and crashed their lips together.

He gasped at the sudden contact as it stoked a flame inside of him. He scooped one hand beneath Sen to hold her steady, while the other groped at her ass. When he found a wall to pin her to, she grunted in approval.

“Is this okay…?” she breathed, tilting his head back and kissing his neck.

They hadn’t done this since he woke up in the hospital, and it only now dawned on Haise that that meant it had been a whole month. “Yes…” he gasped desperately, making a sound between a hiss and a moan when he felt her teeth pinch his skin. “Yes, yes…”

Perhaps that month— a bit more, if they were counting the days before he was kidnapped— had been why this felt a little clumsy. The way Sen was mindlessly biting his neck more than kissing it, the way when she found his mouth again, their teeth accidentally clacked, making them laugh— it was like the resort all over again.

Her tongue briefly swiped across his palate, then she bit gently on his bottom lip and tugged far harder. He let out a throaty sigh, leaning with the force, but he made sure to cradle her head so she didn’t hit the wall. Meanwhile, his hands hiked up either side of her skirt, pressing against her tights in  a vain attempt to feel the skin beneath.

Sen broke their kiss to catch her breath. “Tear them,” she said, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his jacket.

Haise helped himself out of the clothing. “What?”

“I mean it—” she let out a sigh when his tongue found the inside of her cheek, chasing the sensation— “Tear them, pry them apart.”

His head was too fuzzy to protest, so instead, after setting her down, he yanked down her skirt, letting it pool on the floor around her feet. Then, he got on his knees and quickly pulled down her tights.

“Haise—!” she began, even as she kicked them off. “I told you to—”

He planted his face into her exposed bush. The effect was immediate as she threw her head back and nearly collapsed on him.

“Fuck—!” she gasped.

He stopped immediately. “You okay?”

He didn’t need to see her glare. “Keep going.”

No complaints there. He followed the pitch and volume of her cries, flicking her clit and teasing her entrance with his tongue. Offhandedly, he remembered some awkward videos Hide had sent him once upon a time, and was almost ashamed at how much he was relying on them now. He was also upset they were working.

She tasted wonderful, though— a cross between sour, sweet, and satisfying. Or maybe those were the hormones talking. Either way, he needed more of her, even if that meant blocking the majority of his airways. He also took one of his fingers and spread her lower lips, massaging them as he sucked her entrance.

Her hands enthusiastically carded his hair, tangling themselves in the black locks, as he lapped up everything that came out of her, wasting nothing. In the meantime, his pants tightened more and more with each lick, cry, and squeeze.

“Bedroom…” Sen managed, half-delirious. “Bedroom, now…”

Haise obeyed her command, removing his face from between her legs and gathering her up in his arms.

“Holy shit…” She clung to him as he carried her over toward the door that he assumed was her bedroom. She planted a few lazy kisses on his cheek and spread open his unbuttoned shirt to access his shoulder. “Wow…”

He nearly tripped on the way there, and she squealed with laughter. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, laughing too.

“It’s fine…” She kissed him, loved him. “Careful, though; don’t get hurt…”

“I won’t.” He relished the feeling of her lips. “Promise…”

He finally identified the bed— a fittingly red color, he vaguely noted— in the dim light of evening, and let Sen fall against the mattress. She grunted at the impact, but the feverish grin on her face told him everything he needed to know. He shed his shirt, tossing it carelessly on the ground, and made to climb on top of her and continue.

“Ah, ah, ah.”

He found his path impeded by her bare foot against his abdomen. It barely hovered over the tent in his pants, teasing it with the ghost of touch. She sat up, more composed now, and far more controlling.

“The pants too.”

He glanced down past it, then took a few steps back. His hands fiddled with the belt, eager to continue—

“Slowly, Haise.”

She crossed one leg over, making a show of it. The display only made him harder, and the way that she teased him by barely lifting a finger— beautiful torture. And she knew it, too. She knew by the sultry sound of her voice, traveling across the room to caress his ears. She knew by the thin string weaving itself into his skin, gently pulling him every which way and encouraging him to obey. A siren’s tapestry, in other words, and one he succumbed to gladly.

She mirrored his actions with her shirt and bra, and there was a flush to her face that told him there was a touch of regret to her orders. She stared hard at his erection the entire time, not looking away for a second. He wasn’t any better; his eyes hungrily roamed her hair, her face, her hips, her stomach, and her breasts, each area with its own, equally tantalizing aspects.

Once Haise stepped out of the pool made of his pants, Sen’s impatience broke out to save them both. In a surprising show of strength, she seized him by the waist and dragged him on top of her, pinning herself between his body and the mattress and trapping him between her legs. Haise propped himself up on an elbow to not completely crush her, but he liked the heat of their chests pressed flush together, and indulged himself as much as he could.

While their tongues danced their familiar dance, Sen’s hand ran up and down his length through his boxers, and he grinded helplessly against the motion until it slipped in to feel the real deal. The other massaged the back of his head, making him shudder.

Meanwhile, his hand found her ass, squeezing as hard as he could without hurting her. She liked the pain, to a degree; at first, he’d been hesitant to comply with her demands, even after her demonstrations at the resort. However, after everything that had happened lately, he disregarded those doubts and gave it his all, and the cry she gave into his mouth was worth it.

She stopped stroking him and tugged on his waistband. Haise didn’t think twice and helped her expose him to open air. He came up for air from her mouth and reached for the nearby drawer, intent on finding the condoms.

However, Sen’s hand clamped around his wrist, cutting him short. He looked back in confusion. “Sen—” even as the request formed itself on his lips, he wanted to stop himself— “we shouldn’t—”

“I want to,” she interrupted, and her grip tightened. “I’m on the pill, you know. The condoms were always more of a precaution.”

He swallowed. Tantalizing curiosity prickled his neck and made him twitch. “But…”

“I want to feel you, Haise.” There was a shine to her eyes that was desperate, pleading. “Please…”

It was so tempting; more than once, it had crossed his mind to ask if she wanted to try this. But he didn’t know anything about her situation regarding birth control, and then to risk something that would only really cause her pain was enough to still his tongue. In hindsight, he should have just asked.

He nodded slightly, then nodded again. “Okay… You’re sure?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t.” She gave an encouraging smile.

Yeah, that was pretty stupid. Still— “If you change your mind, I’ll stop.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know.”

He stroked himself a few times to make sure he was ready, staring into her eyes the entire time. The resolve in her jade irises didn’t diminish in any way. When he moved to position himself, she spread her legs.

“Go on.” She shuddered as his head teased her entrance, which was soaked with her juices. It was more than enough.

Haise easily pressed into her, then saw stars.

It felt completely different from using a condom. Skin against skin, with nothing in between. A fire, no longer restrained, finally allowed to roar and consume everything it could get its hands on. It was such an incredible feeling that Haise nearly came on the spot. Sen seemed to feel it too, moaning and squirming like never before.

“Hah… Sen…”

“Haise… Haise…!”

For all that they read and learned from books, their vocabulary was reduced to unintelligible sounds and the other’s name as Haise moved inside her. It was an addicting sensation; he had a feeling he wouldn’t want to go back to condoms.

Sen seemed to be thinking the same. Her mouth hung open slightly, and her eyes were lidded with pleasure, vaguely focused in his direction. Even the slightest movement made her shiver beneath him. She was ethereal to him, his perfect imperfect person. The many images he had of Sen Takatsuki, the author, paled in comparison to Sen Takatsuki, the person; she got mad, she had moments of sorrow, she grinned and cackled when she was happy, and she was sometimes a bit too arrogant for her own good.

She was so unbelievably human.

He loved it.

He loved her.

Haise captured her lips again, trying to get as close to melting into her as he could. She eagerly reciprocated by wrapping her arms around his neck. He drank her like someone dying of thirst, and she opened herself to him, letting herself be drained.

The tenderness was short-lived. His pace sped up, and their voices grew in volume. Eventually, there was nothing left but Sen’s cries, his gasps, the slapping of their hips, and the feeling that he was going to cum soon. He tried to slow down, hoping to prolong the ecstasy for even a second longer, and busied himself by dragging his mouth over one of her nipples. She arched her back in approval and pulled him closer with her arms.

It wasn’t enough, not by a longshot.

“S-Sen…” he panted, shivering and twitching prematurely. “I’m gonna—”

“Inside me,” she whispered, begged. “Please…!”

It was that plea that gave him the push he needed. He slammed their hips together, burying himself as deep as he could, and spilled into her without a second thought. The rush from filling her up instead of a condom made him desperately sink his teeth into her shoulder. She cried out, a mix of pain and pleasure, tightening her legs around his waist and pushing him further into the area. He filled her for what felt like hours— a perfect, euphoric moment frozen in time, filled with their mixing sweat and breath.

Sen’s lips found the shell of his ear. “I love you,” she whispered, kissing it— a gentle gesture, helping him relax in the blissful tension.

He kissed the bruise he’d made in return. “I love you too.” He did so again, harder. “So much…”

It didn’t end there, though.

After catching their breath, she pulled him into the bathroom. Their first bath with each other took three times as long as a bath without. Haise memorized the image of Sen’s body slick with water and soap.

When she reached for the kettle in the kitchen to prepare tea, he grabbed it for her with one hand, while the other found her breast and squeezed a gasp out of her. The kettle was never put on heat, let alone filled. A sweaty imprint of her torso found itself on her counter, though.

Again and again and again, it seemed neither of them could be satisfied, but when the sun finally dipped below the horizon, they collapsed onto Sen’s bed, finally spent.

Sen was the first to break the pattern of noises: “Holy fuck…”

Haise, who felt like he was going to faint any second, could only say, “Uh huh.”

She struggled to her feet, her skin glistening in with sweat under the few hints of light in the room. “Tea? For… whew… for real, this time.”

He agreed with that sentiment. “I… I’d like that…”

Still, the way her bare hips swayed as she left the room, a trail of what he knew was a mixture of their fluids slowly trickling down her leg, made him think she wanted more. He was too out of it to take her up on it, unfortunately, so he just followed her.

Now that he wasn’t fucking her senseless, Haise finally had the opportunity to actually look at her apartment. The first thing he noticed wasn’t the patio overlooking the ward, the small couch and television, or the shiny metal fridge and kitchen.

No, the first thing he saw were the books.

Tons of them, crammed into shelves that lined the walls, and when there wasn’t enough space on those, they were piled on or around them in differing piles. After a while, though, the shelves stopped, and there were just piles shoved out of the way.

“Wow…” he said, drifting toward the nearest shelf-pile. “You have so many!”

Sen looked over from the kitchen. He tried not to ogle her bare chest. “It’s my actual collection. You like it?”

It really was nothing compared to their office. “‘Like it’? I-I love it!” Despite that, he stopped himself before he touched anything. “Er, may I?”

She gestured freely, smiling. “What’s mine is yours. I just hope there’s something here that lovely little brain of yours hasn’t devoured yet.”

He flushed. “We’ll have to see.”

While she got the kettle out, he examined her shelf— one of them, at least— with more interest. It was an expansion of the ones from their office, no longer restrained by a single space, and like their office, the books were vaguely organized by themes. The morals of war, bullshit politics, complications in criminal investigation, the horror of existence itself…

“What did you think of the conference, by the way?” Sen asked, coming up next to him. “Your first one, right?”

“Yeah…” Haise, far too engrossed in her collection, had to pause and think. “I guess… it was a little dull.”

She laughed. “They usually are.” She found a book and haphazardly paged through it. “Especially if you’re the one doing most of the talking.”

“I’m sorry; I—”

“No unnecessary apologies, remember?” Sen put the book away in a completely different spot and kept searching.

Haise pushed back this time and looked at her. “I meant that I’m sorry for you. You shouldn’t have to go through that and get your time wasted, even if it’s important to spread word.”

She found another book and met his gaze. “Thank you, but… It wasn’t all bad.”

His brow raised. “You sure? You were being bombarded by questions, and you looked—”

“Tired, yes.” She dropped the book without even opening it, and it toppled over a nearby stack. “And irritated, and bored, and a bit disgusted, too. But you were there, so that counted for something.”

It brought a smile to his face. “Sen, I—”

She cut him off. “You called me amazing. Did you mean that?”

He looked away, as if they weren’t completely naked in front of each other and covered in red marks courtesy of the other. “Y-You already know the answer, so—”

“I want to hear you say it.” Her other hand cupped his cheek, making him face her. “Tell me, go on.”

He was immediately sucked into her gaze. “Yeah…”

“Yeah, what?”

His hand settled on her waist. “Yeah, I… I think you’re amazing.”

She stood on her tippy toes and kissed him. “Good. I’m glad. Not so bad, right?”

Still humiliating. “Right…”

She glanced at the shelf again. “Did you find something, by the way?”

He followed her eyes, then spotted something familiar. He took out the book and showed it to her with a smile: Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. “Maybe.”

Sen shook her head, smiling. “Wouldn’t you rather read something new?”

“I-It’s a good story!” he defended. “Besides, it’s a, um, nice reminder of everything… How far we’ve come since we first read it, for instance.”

He was no longer a protagonist of a novel, dancing on the strings designed by the authors of his fate. No, he was the author now, drawing his own path to the future. Him and Sen both; they would chart their own course, speak their own words.

“You’re so sentimental,” she said, right as the kettle let out a hissing noise.

Haise decided to put the book on the counter for later. Sen handed him his cup of tea after a while, and they raised their cups together in a small toast. The silence in the air— and the smell of sex too— was enjoyed for a few minutes. The two of them, every so often, stole a glance at the other.

“What?” an amused Sen asked when she caught him.

Haise tried to hide behind his cup. “N-Nothing…”

“Tell me!”

His face turned a dark red. “Just admiring you…”

She rolled her eyes, but she wasn’t faring much better. “Charmer.”

More silence, more time to think, reflect. So much had changed since the coffee shop. Kazuichi Public Park, the White Blades, Cochlea, the resort, and then…

“What do you think will happen to V?” Haise asked, the thought occurring. “Torso’s dead, but he wasn’t the source of the problem…”

Sen shrugged. “Who knows? We’re attacking a very tightly wound organization. They’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of everyday life, and many people have lived and died under their control without even knowing. The first leak won’t change anything overnight, so we have to keep fighting.”

His brow furrowed. “You have more information?”

“Of course we do!” She took a smug sip of her tea. “You don’t release information as you obtain it, otherwise your adversaries figure out your strategy and kill you. Better to hoard things and trickle it through a funnel, then watch the foundations collapse.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t think about that. That’s smart.”

“It was Hide’s idea.” She waved him off. “Thank him when you see him.”

“You helped him, didn’t you? You and Chie; don’t count yourself out like that.”

“I guess so.”

“Sen.”

“Alright, alright!” She put up a hand in defense. “Thank you, Haise, for acknowledging my contribution.”

They both laugh at that, hearty and full and bare. It was nice, and Haise treasured the sound.

“We kinda did this backwards, didn’t we?” Sen said suddenly, circling the rim of her cup.

“‘Backwards’?” he repeated.

“Usually you spend some time together with someone before having sex at their apartment.” She shrugged. “That’s all.”

“Oh…” He chuckled. “I guess so.”

She tilted her head, amused. “Just a guess?”

“Well… Who decides what’s ‘forwards’ and ‘backwards’ with this kind of thing?” He took a sip of his tea. “We decide our own paths. We’re, ultimately, the authors of our own story, right?”

Though the interview at the shop had sort of fallen into his lap, Haise had chosen to draw in the first place. He had chosen to go to that coffee shop, chosen to accept that job, and chosen to go to that resort.

Perhaps there were obstacles in the way. His mother, his aunt, the complications of his career choice, Rize, and the Torso were some of them, but his choices had granted him weapons to defeat them. Sen, Hide, Touka, and everyone else that he had befriended over the years came to his aid. In choosing them, they had chosen him in return. And that was life, at the end of the day:

Choose and be chosen. Over and over until the end.

Sen’s smile was as soft as velvet. “How inspiring.”

———

The End

THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME TO THE END

#blank canvas #writing #etoken

[sidekick-hero]

some Take your time (I wanna cross some lines) pls pls pls pls pls <3

Hiiii! OMG I am so so late but my week and weekend were crazy busy between my grandpa getting married, going to the vet with the floof and work trying to eat me.

BUT I worked on Take your time, so I'm here with some lines for you and I hope you like them! Thank you for the ask and motivating me to write! 💜🙏💜

It is only a few minutes after getting a glass of water and putting it on the bedside table, as well as checking the air conditioning so it won't be too cold in the room when Steve is naked and sweaty later, when there is a knock at the door. Feeling his stomach plummet, Eddie freezes where he was just about to offer Steve his hoodie or something to cover up until their 'guest' arrives. Too soon, a voice in his head whispers, I'm not ready. Which is ridiculous, because this isn't about him. This is about Steve, whose soft voice calling his name finally jolts him out of his stupor. "Eddie, would you mind getting that? I'm a little indisposed."

Look at me finally getting to my FrankenWIPs 🫣

#steddie #wip game #steddie fanfiction #my writing #thank you so much for motivating me!

[dapandapod]

Dance floor kisses

HELLO!

I have so many finished pieces hidden away from y'all, oh dear. Working on it, promise!!

Anyway, please enjoy this floof because I want floof.

On Ao3 here

The room is crowded, but Jaskier notices nothing. Nothing but the witcher slowly walking to him, Geralt's eyes not leaving his, and it is making his heart pound.

He stands in the middle of the dance floor, probably being very much in the way of the couples swirling about, but Jaskier doesn't have time to care.

There is this strange energy sparking between them. The air is thick, charged like before a thunder storm. Unable to move, he waits for Geralt to reach him.

When he is only a few steps away, Geralt reaches for him, hands on his hip pulling him close, and Jaskier arches into it, tilting his chin up and looking at his witcher through lowered lashes.

"What are we doing?" Jaskier asks with a smile, his hands slowly snaking up over firm shoulders.

"I love you." Geralt says instead, and it steals the breath out of his lungs.

"Pardon?"

"I love you." Geralt says again, just as easily, leaning in just an inch.

A couple swishes past them, a dress brushing against his leg, and Geralt sets them in motion. 

Nothing more but a sway, a sad excuse of a slow dance, but it allows them to remain, for Geralt to navigate them as bodies twirl past.

"I know I should have said it a long time ago. I thought you knew. I love you."

Jaskier blinks a few times at this. He knew, in a sense. You can't live and travel together like they do without there being some kind of love involved. He for sure loves Geralt, has been in love with him for many years. But this?

It sets his heart in motion, making him feel alive, the beating of his heart so strong it feels like it could break free at any moment.

"Say it again." He asks greedily, and Geralt smirks, leaning in even closer. 

They must look ridiculous, the two of them. Faces tilted, lips inches apart, swaying from side to side with no heed for the rhythm of the song.

"I love you." Geralt whispers, tightening the grip on Jaskier's hips. "I love your stupid hat and your pointy nose. I love your creaking knees and morning breath. I love your cold feet and your ability to speak your mind, constantly. I love how you look when you perform. I love how you smell when you wake up in my arms. I love how you love me, even when I don't deserve it."

It is stupid, and it is rude, and it is fucking perfect.

With a quick glance around, Jaskier notes that Geralt has slowly been leading them off the dance floor. Clever witcher.

Grabbing the hands on his waist, Jaskier backs the rest of the way off it, leading Geralt to a side corridor and a very inviting alcove. 

The moment they reach it, Geralt's hands are back on his hips, pressing them together as he is being pressed against the wall.

"Are you just going to keep poking fun at my flaws, or are you going to kiss me any time soon?" Jaskier teases, his arms wrapping around his witcher's neck.

It is as natural as breathing, the swoop of nerves before something new, the plunge into the unknown. Geralt leans in the last few inches, capturing his lips in a surprisingly tender kiss. 

It feels unreal, unbelievable to be here, but at the same time inevitable. Sighing into it and parting his lips slightly, Geralt presses closer, closer still.

If Geralt ever calls Jaskier dramatic again, he will bring up this moment.

For now, there is just the feeling of being held in his witcher's arms.  For now, it is enjoying the tension finally breaking, molding them into something new. Maybe the air will be clearer tomorrow.

For now, there is not enough air in the world to whisper his own confessions against his witcher's lips.

#geraskier #friends to lovers #idiots in love #fluff #dance floor kisses #slow dancing #the witcher #dapanda writes #geralt x jaskier #first kisses #love confessions