#i guess i'll go burrow back into my hole now

[glittter-vamp]

Ohio Is For Lovers | J.B

CHAPTER 7

Joe Burrow x Reader.

Warnings: 18+ MDNI. Mention of pregnancy. Explicit language.

Word count: 3,888

It's been almost two weeks now since you found out about Joe possibly becoming a father and you hadn't talked to him since. He still hadn't told you about the situation, Mariana told him you had been out of town for work so he had left you alone. You just couldn't believe that he would lie to you about this, sure you guys weren't serious but you were still having sex with the guy after all. Joe also completely threw away that new years game, you assumed it had been because of the news he got about him becoming a dad, which sucked for everyone else on the team and the fans. "Hey do you have aspirin? I have like a weird pain in my back from that stupid chair at work." Sasha asks you as you guys hang out in your living room having a wine down Wednesday without the wine. "It's in my bathroom in the medicine cabinet." You nod and she thanks you leaving to your room. "So, why are you so mopey?" Sasha asks coming to sit next to me. "Hm?" You hum. "You've been like not yourself for the past few days, what's up?" She asks. "Nothing, work just has my ass beat." You yawn. "Lie again." Sasha says and you roll your eyes. "It's nothing." You shake your head not wanting to get into your feelings right now. "Is it a certain football player?" She raises her eyebrow and you sigh knowing she's not going to let it go. "Okay, safe space time. Spilll your heart out!" She says turning towards you so you had her full attention. Sasha has always been one for deep talks even though she was the first one to make jokes and not be the serious one in our friend group.

"I don't know... I guess it bothers me that Joe still hasn't tried reaching out to talk about this whole baby thing, but I also feel like it's dumb to feel this ways because it's not like we're serious." You say. "I don't think it's wrong that you're feeling like that, just because you two aren't in a committed relationship doesn't mean him having a baby won't affect whatever it is you two have going on with each other. Like I can't imagine having your fun with him, building some sort of relationship... serious or not and then one day he's just like "so listen, I'm actually getting back together with my baby momma so bye" or worse that he's been two timing...which with men? Never surprising." She shakes her head.

"I guess you have a point, I just think maybe I'm being stupid cause we've only just started all this." You shrug. "Yeah but he's a sexual partner lying about something pretty big, I can see why the red flags are popping up to you." Sasha says. Before I could respond there was a knock on my door. You two look at each other confused since you weren't expecting anyone, Mariana was with Ja'Marr out of town because of some pre Super Bowl events and Peyton had to work late today and couldn't join us.

You get up from your couch and look through the peep hole and your stomach dropped immediately seeing who it was and you turn to Sasha giving her a stunned look. "Who is it?" She whispers getting another knock on the door. "Joe!" You whisper yell and her eyes widened. "I thought Mariana told him you were out of town?!" She whispers back. "That's what she told me!" You whisper back. There was yet another knock on the door. He definitely knew you were here and he was not going to leave.

"Open it!" Sasha says and you let out a big sigh. You compose yourself and open the door meeting face to face with Joe after a week and a half. "Uh, hey..." you say awkwardly. Joe looked completely unamused and frankly, like shit. He looked tired and washed out. "Can we talk?" Joe asks and you look back at Sasha who was looking at you two. "I have company over- actually it's getting late and I have work tomorrow. I'll talk to you later?" Sasha says getting up and grabbing her stuff. "Oh um, okay." You nod mentally screaming at her, to not leave. She gives you a hug and whispers good luck before she turns and gives a Joe a dirty look pushing past him. JOe looked at her confused but didn't say anything.

"Now can we talk?" Joe asks and you sigh letting him through the door and closing it behind it. "Say what you have to say." You sigh. "What the hell is your problem? Why did you lie about being out of town?" Joe asks and you scoff. "My problem?! MY PROBLEM? Are you insane?" You say back in disbelief. "Yeah your problem!? You're hot and cold with me, we agree to being friends with benefits, have sex without protection for gods sake! And then you practically ghost me and have your best friend lie to my face and say that you're busy out of town with work?! I know we aren't serious or anything but I don't appreciate being lied to" He argues back which made your blood boil hearing those last words. This man was about to get dropkicked, you thought to yourself.

"You know, you have some fucking nerve to call out anyone's lies at the moment with the one you've been keeping from me." You cross your arm looking at him and he looks at you confused for a second before his face drops. "Y/N, That's different- The hell it is! You're angry towards my lying about going away for work and not talking to you when I didn't but it's totally different to lie to me about having a fucking kid with the woman who had me being slut shamed online for weeks? God, hooking up with you has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever done." You say rubbing your temples. "It's a complicated situation Y/N! I don't even know if it's mine, she was cheating on me first remember? Whose to say she's just not fucking with me? And we just started messing around with each other, what would you have done if I just said "Oh, by the way, I might become a dad in a few months with another woman but we should keep fucking each others brains out anyway?" He says sarcastically making you scoff. "I would of respected you a bit more for being an adult and communicating with me what was going on, instead of having your friend and teammate be a man and tell me because even he thought I should be respected enough to know! If I got pregnant and didn't know who the father was, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm not and keep having sex with you! Which I know that's what you were going to do with me!" You snap back shutting him up.

"I'm sorry Y/N... I should of handled this situation better. I just felt like everything was finally going really good between us and this was going to fuck all that up." Joe sighs looking at you with eyes filled with sadness. "Well lying to me about things isn't going to ever help you Joe." You say to him. "Can we just over?" He says stuffing his hands the pockets of his sweats. He was wearing some weird rainbow pant, a blue hoodie and a beanie now that you were really looking at him. "I don't think us starting over every time we have an issue is the answer but I can settle on just being friends right now, I still have some stuff I need to think about. Like you said, all of this is a lot." You answer to him which you weren't lying about. You didn't know how you felt still having sex with a person who had no issue lying to you about serious stuff. "That's fine." He nods solemnly but you couldn't help but be distracted by his outfit at the moment.

"I'm sorry but dude what the hell are you wearing? You look like Eminem in 8 mile if he had a crossover with the wizard of oz?" You snort, Joe looking down at his outfit. "I like it." He shrugs not being phased by your comment and you chuckle shaking your head.

"I'm sorry about your loss by the way, that game was pretty rough." You say to Joe and he takes a deep breath letting it out. "Thanks, that was probably the worst game of my career so that's fun to deal with." He sighs. "You'll get it next season." You nod and he gives you a small smile. "I should get going, but I'll text you? Promise, no more lies between us?" He asks sounding of more of a question than a statement. "Yeah." You nod walking him out. "Goodnight." He says giving you once last look. "Goodnight." You respond before shutting the door and locking it. What a fucking night.

***********************

A few weeks later:

"That movie was so fucking stupid." Peyton says as we walk out of the theater. "You only think it's stupid because they killed off your favorite character." You laugh sipping on what's left of your soda before throwing it out in the nearest trash bin. "Exactly!" Peyton says. You and Peyton had decided to go to the movies on a nice Saturday afternoon since Sasha and Mariana were both busy and you both hadn't seen each other since New Year's Day. "Wanna get some gelato? My treat." You ask Peyton walking back to your car. "I could use a cheat day." Peyton agrees. You drive to the gelato place near the theater and park. "Only we would come and eat gelato in the middle of winter." Peyton says as we enter the empty shop. "This is the perfect time to eat it, it won't melt." You smirk. You two order some gelato and pay for it taking a seat by the window.

"So, how's life?" Pertain asks taking a bite of the gelato. "My job is opening up another branch in Rhode Island, they offered me a transfer with better pay." You say and Peyton's eyes go wide. "You're leaving Cincy bitch!?" He asks. "I haven't decided but it sounds kind of nice. Something new." You shrug taking a bite of my ice cream. "If you leave me, I'll die. I love Mariana and Sasha but those girls are way to boy crazy for me." Peyton says fake crying making you laugh. "You're so dramatic! You can visit me anytime if I choose to leave but Ohio doesn't feel permanent to me." You sigh. "Not to sound like an ass...but are you feeling like you need to leave because of the whole Joe thing?" Peyton asks. "It's part of it, I still get looks in groceries stores & im sure any day now news will break about his ex-girlfriends pregnancy so I'm sure that whole thing that happened the night we met will blow up again... I just didn't sign up for that." You shake your head. "That's reasonable. When that first happened I had a few journalists in my DM's trying to get information about you for the tabloids." Peyton shakes his head. "And you didn't tell me?!" You ask shocked. "No, you were going through enough." Peyton says unapologetic which made you roll your eyes. "You're annoying." You say making him laugh. You two finish your ice cream and leave walking back to your car when Peyton says something. "No way." He says stopping in his tracks. You look at where he was looking at and spot Joe across the street getting out of his car along with his ex girlfriend. Neither of them seemed content to be together. Staring at them Joe spots you and you can see the color leave his face. Peyton shakes his head at him and you look away and get into the car, Peyton following you. "You okay?" He asks. "Yeah why wouldn't I be?" I ask turning on my car. "I can keep my word and call my group of gay friends." Peyton says making you snort as you drive off. "Don't be dramatic." You giggle. "It's okay to be bothered- I'm not. It's weird but I can't be bothered and I'm not." You say continuing the drive. But as much as you said those words to yourself, you were bothered by what you just saw.

************************* After that whole weird run in with Joe, you made your way home after dropping Peyton off at his. You were in your apartment now and you couldn't stop thinking about seeing Joe with his ex or whatever she is. It made you glad that you decided not to continue having sex with him if they were that friendly to be riding with each other on a Saturday evening.

As you sat on your couch watching a re-run of The Office, your phone vibrates next to you. You pick it up and see that it was Joe sending me a text.

Joe: Hey, can we talk?

You sigh not really wanting to get into it right now with him.

You: If it's about today, that isn't none of my business.

Joe: You said we can remain friends and I really need a friend right now. Can you come over? Please, I'll send you gas money. 

You debate for a moment but for some reason you couldn't say no to him.

You: I'll be there soon.

Is all you reply. You get up from the couch and throw on some warm clothes and shoes. It was late and freezing cold outside tonight. You drive all the way to Joe's, once again the door flying open before you could ring the doorbell. "Gotta stop doing that." You mutter walking in and he chuckles.

"I made us hot chocolate... thanks for driving over here. I really appreciate it." Joe says as you follow him to the kitchen. "So what's up? Need help with the wedding planning?" You ask trying to lighten the mood and he gives you an annoyed look. "I think she's bullshitting me." Joe says handing you the hot mug. "Why do you say that?" You ask taking a sip of the hot chocolate which was surprisingly really good.

"I agreed to talk to her today face to face, that's why you saw us together and she just seems like she's lying." Joe says leaning on the counter in front of you. "Lying about the pregnancy?" You ask. "No, but lying about that I'm father. She went from, 'I think it might be you, to 'You're the dad and I know'. He says and you nod not really knowing what to say or how to feel about all this information. "She's what, 32 weeks now? I did the math. She was away on a girls trip 32 weeks ago, so she said and after that I was out of town for a week and a half for work stuff... we didn't have sex for two weeks...probably longer because that when the cheating rumors started and we were fighting every other day. How would it be mine?" Joe asks and you sigh. "We cant determine anything until the baby is here and you can get a paternity test done, Joe. The best thing you could do is get legally prepared in case she gives you trouble to obtain that test or has some trick up her sleeve." You tell him. Joe was definitely going through it right now, you did feel bad. I couldn't imagine having a baby with someone who cheated on you.

"The thing is...what if it's not mine and I'm over here being there for them both when she's giving birth and stuff. That's not fair to me." Joe says. "If that ends up being the case it really isn't fair but what if it does end up being your kid and you miss that special moment of when he or she is brought into this world? I think it's better safe than sorry." You say and Joe takes a deep a breath sighing. "I should of left her immediately after I found out she was cheating." He mutters. "I didn't know you stayed." You raise an eyebrow. "I very stupidly blamed myself for her actions because of how I was never home and then when I realized there was no excuse for what she did and I got angry... I did what I did because I wanted to get back at her." Joe says giving you a look filled of regret as you sipped your hot chocolate.

"Have you told your parents about all this?" You ask changing the subject not wanting to talk about what happened between you guys when you first met again. "Yeah... I don't think I've ever seen them so disappointed in me." He sighs. "My sister went through something similar, she was dating this guy back when I was in college who the whole family just hated for her, he treated her like garbage and cheating on her with her best friend. They finally broke up and a few weeks later found out that she was pregnant. She decided to keep it and my parents were furious, so were the siblings but we were there for her much more than my parents were. Fast forward a few years later and my parents adore that grandchild and she's happily engaged to a man that actually respects and loves her." You shrug.

"I'm glad things worked out for your sister and nephew or niece but, that's not how I pictured becoming a dad. I'm still not even sure if I wanted kids and dating at my age with a kid isn't gonna be easy." He scoffs which makes you snort. "Joe, you're a hot millionaire quarterback. You could have 6 kids with different women and you'd still have a larger dating pool than most guys. Look at nick cannon, dude is on baby number 68 with baby momma 54 and the women and kids just keep coming. All he does is rap battles and go on podcasts." You say making him laugh.

"Okay, maybe you're right but still this is going to change things." He shakes his head. "It is! But you don't have to go through it alone. You have friends and family that will be there for you." You nod. "I know but I don't even know where to start, the baby will be here in two months and I have no idea what to do." Joe says brushing his fingers through his hair which you've noticed has gotten a bit longer than usual. You weren't mad at it.

"Okay, follow me." You say hopping off the bar chair and heading upstairs. Joe giving you and look of confusion but he doesn't hesitate. You walk over to the closet guest bedroom that was to his bedroom and turn the lights on. You noticed even though it was tidy he had a bunch of shoe boxes stacked in here. "Okay, this here can be their nursery. The crib can go here, changing table here, maybe a rocking chair here. Baby cam up here, toys over here with a play pen and a dresser over here." You say finishing off and Joe looks at you in an amused way. "But we don't even know if the baby is mine so why would I spend time and money on the baby if I don't know." Joe says and you sigh. "Joseph, you spent thousands of dollars on me when you bought be those earrings not knowing what was going to happen to us why is it an issue for you to do the same for someone that might actually be your child?" You ask and he bites his lip nervously having nothing to say because you were right. "So, as I was saying...this would be a great room for them. It's close to yours and it's quiet and comfortable." You nod looking around before you turn back to him and you notice him staring at you in a way you've never seen before.

"What? Do I have chocolate on my face?" You ask and he chuckles shaking his head no. "I've just missed you putting me in my place." He says and you playfully roll your eyes. "I'm serious, I know I can be an ass sometimes and I appreciate you calling me out on stuff, especially...when you don't have to." Joe says inching closer to you. Your breath hitching in your throat. You can smell his aftershave on him and the hot chocolate he was drinking. Even when he's pissed you off, he still drove you mad. "Can I be honest with you?" Joe asks feeling his hands gently grab your waist. All you could do was nod as you got lost in those beautiful blue green eyes of his.

"I only brought up the whole the whole friends with benefits thing because I was scared of you rejecting me for anything more serious." He says and you raise an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?" You whisper. "Because I'm tired of all the lies and bullshit. I've liked you since I've met you, even if I fucked it up and showed otherwise." He says laying his forehead on yours closing his eyes. "Joe, I think you're just feeling really vulnerable right now because of the last few weeks in your life. You don't mean that." You say and he snorts. "You haven't left my mind since the second party we were at." Joe says. "That just could of been guilt because of the whole crazy tabloid and social media rumor stuff." You say and he leans back looking at you unamused. "Stop doing that. I'm being honest with you right now about my feelings, stop making excuses for what I've felt and how I'm feeling now." Joe says making you bite your lip.

"Sorry... I guess I kind of suppressed some of my own feelings too but Joe... C'mon what are we doing here. You might have a baby and our whole whatever this is we have going on, has been so up and down. I don't think a relationship is smart." You say to him and he nods looking down at his feet. "I know, I really wish things were different. I'm not asking anything of you but I just needed to tell you how I really felt. I at least owed you that." Joe says and you give him a small smile. "Look at you, being emotionally mature. Dad thing already hitting you." You laugh and he gives you an unamused look. "Shut up, come on. Let's go down stairs, I need help picking out stuff for this so called baby room." Joe says and you chuckle nodding. "But, before we go...just one kiss?" Joe asks with hopeful eyes and you chuckle. "Joe..." you sigh. "One!" He mouths holding up one finger and you grab the back of his neck giving him a sweet tender kiss filled with more emotion than you anticipated. It felt so wrong but yet, so right.

#joe burrow fanfiction #joe burrow fluff #joe burrow fic #joe burrow imagine #joe burrow x reader #joe burrow x y/n #joe burrow fan fic #joe burrow series

[monsoon-of-art]

Donut Hole - Chapter 14

The Cave

But I will hold on hope And I won't let you choke On the noose around your neck And I'll find strength in pain And I will change my ways I'll know my name as it's called again

[Barry finally gets a little break and Gaeric gets pissed. Bit of a smaller chapter, but big things will happen soon!]

[ao3 link]

Barry walked. And he walked. He wasn't sure where he was going, lost in a snowstorm with Pest on his head and Fern by his side.

The fogginess of his mind hadn't completely gone yet, and all he could think was that he needed to keep moving.

If he kept moving. If he kept moving. Things would work out eventually…right?

That mind-fog melted rather quickly once Barry tripped and landed face-first into a snowbank. Immediately his freshly-awakened mind jumped to panic.

He squirmed, internally screaming at the horrible, awful feeling of snow and ice creeping down the cracks and crannies of his clothing.

Ever-patient, ever-helpful Fern carefully gripped Barry’s waist and pulled the boy back up. Barry stood for a total of three seconds. Upon trying to step forward, he slipped backward and fell flat on his back.

“I think I’m going to start screaming,” Barry said, feeling the snow drifting around him, slowly burying him. “And I will not stop.”

Sitting up, Barry realized he was practically shaking. “H-How’d we even get here anyway? W-Where is here?” He pulled Pest off his head, holding the bug like a stuffed toy. “And why are you blue?!”

His memory was a terrible, fuzzy haze. All he could remember was traversing the mountain, running into Ingo(?), then suddenly being …here. Wherever here was.

Squinting through the snowstorm that surrounded them, Barry could see the peak of the mountain, the dark storm ominously looming above it all. It looked much different though, the smaller peaks were at different locations-

“...ARE WE BEHIND THE MOUNTAIN?!” he screamed, voice lost in the winds. “I can’t believe this - we worked so hard to climb that stupid mountain and now we’re back at square one! And! And! And! FREAKING SUBWAY BOSS INGO-”

Of all the things Barry expected in an alternate reality where Cyrus somehow won, Unovan Subway Boss Ingo wasn’t even in the ballpark of guesses. And he looked weird. Like he had somehow fallen into a woodchipper, or like he had died at sea, or something.

He also had a hideous gogoatee.

But he had challenged Barry to a battle. And for the briefest of moments, Barry let himself have hope. Ingo didn’t have any insignia to show he worked for Team Galactic, and he didn’t seem to recognize Barry. All he wanted was a pokemon battle.

Then Ingo called him Palmer. And Ingo kidnapped him. Just recalling the events, as fuzzy and distorted as they were in his mind, it almost made Barry want to spit up bile.

That was the last straw. He was hopeful with Commander Mars. He was hopeful with Palina. He was hopeful with Ingo. None of them wanted to help. All of them were liars and crooks and kidnappers-

Barry could feel himself trembling not just from the cold, but from anger.

(He was also shaking from the cold. Very badly. He was very cold.)

"OK! I need to think! How to survive a snowstorm!" Barry said aloud, looking between Fern and Pest. Unfortunately, his mind was drawing a terrible blank. He sat in the snow, his pokemon expectant for orders…but nothing was happening.

“Uhm. Uh,” so he sat there like a dope, feeling the snow beginning to creep up his legs and cover his shoulders. “...uh.”

Fern carefully placed his bag in his lap. Then, it turned to a sloping hill covered with snow, and it began to dig. It dug and dug, shoveling out the snow and using it to form a sort of ‘tunnel’.

When finished, it was a little burrow in the snow. “Uh. Good job, buddy-” Barry began to say. Then Fern gripped him by the shoulders and dragged him inside. It was still rather cold, but at least they weren’t being snowed on.

Barry rummaged in his bag, feeling the wooden pokeballs containing Mystery and Jen. Part of him was terrified that Team Galactic did something to his pokemon, and he needed to check.

Releasing them, he noticed that Jen’s beak was a bit chipped. “Wh-Wha happened? Did they do this to you- or-” Barry suddenly remembered the Rampardos in the mountains. “Or was it the giant dinosaur?”

Jen peeped to signify the latter. Mystery, meanwhile, settled next to the boy and puffed out its feathers. Barry was suddenly very aware of how warm the birds were, and how very cold he was.

Wordlessly he snatched up Jen and Mystery for cuddles. They didn’t seem to mind very much.

“O-OK. Shelter. And Warmth. And-And-And-” he paused, noticing the clean bandages around his leg. “I…didn’t change those.”

Why would Team Galactic change his bandages and clean his wounds? Didn’t they want him dead? Wouldn’t cleaning his wounds do the opposite of killing?

He wanted to explore this idea further, but a stabbing sensation in his stomach grabbed his attention. Curling in on himself - much to the concern of the two pokemon he was currently holding - he once again looked through his bag.“Ack- R-Right. Gotta eat.”

Unfortunately, all he managed to pull out were the smashed pulp of pecha and oran berries. “Crrrrrrap.”

Fern grunted as it stood, placing Pest on Barry’s head once more. It gestured - pointing at Barry, then pointing at the ground, as if telling him to ‘stay here’ - then carefully left the little snow fort.

Where was it going? Barry hadn’t the foggiest idea.

He could feel Mystery grooming at his hair and Jen pecking at his soot-covered clothes. "Jen. Jen. Cmere. Cmere-" carefully the boy held the penguins face, observing the chip in his beak. "Aw buddy…I'm so sorry. That's all my fault, I should've recalled you."

Jen chittered, nuzzling against his cold hands. 

Pest had joined the cuddling session, producing silk from his mouthparts to try and patch up the many holes in Barry's clothing. All three of the pokemon huddled close to the boy, trying to keep him warm.

Barry was cold. He was so cold. It felt as if every scrap of warmth and energy was being drained from his body, even with three pokemon currently laying on him.

Maybe…he should close his eyes. Just a moment of rest. He could feel himself slipping into sleep. Just a moment. Just a moment. Just-

“Chanseeyyyy!”

Barry sat right up. Chanseys and happinys carefully shuffled into the little snow fort, leading the way for an enormous blissey. Behind all of them was Fern, looking mighty pleased with itself.

Barry rubbed his eyes, convinced he was dreaming. Weren’t chanseys rare? And happinnys and blisseys too? Vaguely, he could recall Lucas telling him how chansey and blissey eggs were overeaten in the past, leading to their small numbers. But now he had a gaggle of them right in front of him.

“Uh. Hey?” he said, voice cracking slightly. The group of pokemon chirped and chittered amongst themselves, occasionally looking to the large blissey for guidance. Fern would walk to Barry, gesturing to his bandaged leg and various bruising with a mournful croon.

The enormous blissey thought for a moment. Then, she gave a slow nod and started stepping closer.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa-” Barry immediately began backing up, terrified of what this pokemon was capable of. Sure, blisseys were tanky, but they could still learn a lot of moves that could do some serious damage.

Instead, the enormous pokemon knelt down, handing Barry the egg from her pouch.

“I-I don’t think I’m ready to be a dad,” he squeaked, carefully taking the warm egg from the blissey’s paws.

His pokemon squabbled and squawked to get his attention, Fern mimicking eating something as it sad besides him.

“I…I don’t-” It took Barry a moment to realize what they were trying to tell him. “OH. OH YOU WANT ME TO EAT IT- OK, that makes more sense. OK.” he paused. “Wait you want me to eat a raw egg? Like. Raw? Won’t I die?”

He wasn’t a stranger to having raw eggs on some rice for breakfast, but those eggs were under strict scrutiny by machines and people alike, before being packaged and sent to stores.

This was potentially a raw egg from a wild, giant blissey.

Barry glanced up at her. She nodded.

He then carefully cracked the egg, finding it cooked under the shell - Soft Boiled.

There was no way he could eat this egg without being a bit messy. It was a good thing he really didn’t care right now.

The way Barry and his team tore into the giant, soft boiled egg was almost barbaric. The egg didn’t stand a chance. By the end of the frenzy, all that remained were bits of egg shell littering the snowy floor.

He immediately felt so much better. He really should try to eat more consistently - and more frequently. But to Barry’s credit, he was unconscious for…honestly he wasn’t sure.

Cleaning the bits of yolk off his face, Barry spoke to his team. “Once it starts to warm up, we gotta get back up that mountain! But for now, I guess we have to wait…”

It was as if the hoard of egg-shaped pokemon were waiting for him to say that. Happiny and chansey swarmed further into the den, filling every little nook and cranny to form an enormous, cuddly pile of pokemon. The enormous blissey then sat in front of the entrance, using her giant body to shield them from the freezing winds.

Barry was warm, and he was full, and he was currently in a giant pile of squishy, egg-shaped pokemon that wanted nothing more than to cuddle and snuggle. He could feel himself drifting off. Mystery, Jen, and Pest were already asleep.

He turned to Fern, sitting near the front entrance with the blissey, wide awake and alert. “Fern buddy, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without ya,” Barry said with a sleepy smile. “Come relax and get some rest. Then, we’ll charge up the mountain and kick some galactic butt!”

Fern returned the sleepy smile, moving to sit by the cuddle pile. It sat almost in a meditative pose, but its eyes were closed, and it looked relaxed enough.

With his pokemon taken care of, Barry let himself drift into a much needed, but still hesitant, rest.

---

Gaeric descended upon the half burnt settlement like a winter storm.

“I WAS GONE. FOR A HALF HOUR,” he barked, finding the rest of the wardens by Irida’s home. “A HALF HOUR. I return to Lord Avalugg, turn around, and EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.”

Irida looked ready to cry. Palina sat beside her, looking almost equally as miserable. Ingo was unable to meet the man’s gaze, staring off into the vast distance. Calaba looked tired from it all.

“His mothim knew flamethrower,” Palina answered, voice barely above a whisper.

“HIS WHAT KNEW WHAT?!”

As if still in a trance, Ingo replied, “Incorrect, Mothim is incapable of learning any fire-type moves, with the exception of Sunny day-”

He stopped immediately, finally aware of what he was doing, and aware of the horribly dirty look that Gaeric was giving him. “...Sorry.”

“I told you this was a bad idea,” said Gaeric as he stomped closer. “I told you - I told ALL of you! This wasn’t our problem! We shouldn’t get involved! And HERE WE ARE!”

“Gaeric. Stop,” Irida stood. “No one could have predicted this-”

“I THINK I PREDICTED THIS, FAIRLY CERTAIN I DID.”

“Getting upset won’t fix it!” she barked back.

Irida and Gaeric were locked in a stalemate; Irida bristling like an upset starly, Gaeric huffing like an enraged walrein.

Eventually, Gaeric backed down, but he was clearly still upset. "If we're involved now, by God, I'm going to be involved."

"Gaeric-" Palina squeaked.

"No! No, I'm INVOLVED now! And with Sinnoh as my witness I'm going to solve this once and for all."

Without clarifying what that ominous statement meant, Gaeric stormed out of the village, just as furious as he came.

Once out of earshot, Ingo asked in a voice much quieter than normal, "Do you think he is upset with me?"

"Yes," deadpanned Calaba.

"I am going to Jubilife." Irida said, determination in her voice. "And I am going to tell them what's been going on. This has spiraled out of control."

#pokemon legends arceus #pla #pkmn barry #barry in hisui

[starkerscoop]

🌹🌹

for every "🌹" received in my inbox i'll post one random sentence of a random WIP i'm currently writing

Thank you for the roses! I couldn't decide on just one sentence, and I love sharing my writing, so I'm just going to break the rules and give you more.

The following snippet is from a WIP I haven't posted yet:

Tony knew nothing of riches now. He slept on a stained mattress he bought at a garage sale for five bucks. It was riddled with holes burrowed into the fabric by moths to lay eggs that have yet to hatch. 

He was perched on that mattress now, reading the two words printed onto the card, over and over, until they were seared into his brain. 

Caveat emptor.

Let the buyer beware.

Tony inhaled, deep and just a touch shaky. What did he have to lose nowadays? The meager earnings he sent to his landlord. The apartment that could never feel like home. The despairing eyes that bored into his soul whenever he dared look into a mirror. The moth-eaten mattress he thought was a steal. 

His list used to be infinite. It could be again.

-

And, for your second rose:

They’d anticipated his response. They were watching him. Tony dropped the phone and the card, the former dangling over the latter when it fluttered to the ground. His fingers curled into tight fists as he fought back the shivers that raced up his spine. 

Even in poverty he couldn’t escape the watchful eyes.

-

I guess this is a good opportunity to soft-launch this WIP and see what people think! Thanks again for the roses <3

#starker #ask game #for context the phone is dangling because it's a payphone

[casketscratch]

cut for suicidal alter talk, fugues (i guess? like?), etc. we're fine, don't worry.

switched in this afternoon in the middle of a field, in the fucking winter cold, with my cheeks frozen and my fingers numb and no memory of how i got there. i remember starting to feel weird - like really, incredibly, righteously angry at everyone and everything. i was fucked up enough to recognize it and be like, why did i even wake up this upset? what is going on?

according to my phone i left the house at 1:20pm and just started walking. it was a mile and a half away that i switched back in and went, oh fuck. big snowy field i didn't recognize, lots of houses around, nothing i recognized, my teeth are chattering. used the gps on my phone to get back and walk home again.

i used to do this all the time. i used to come to somewhere near-ish to home, and have no real emotional... anything, about such an abrupt blackout. tnot really distressed or scared, just, we are in this situation now and it is my job to get us back. (and on some level much deeper down: it's terrifying, this is horrific, how are we this sick still, all of that.)

once it was in the ravine behind the house we grew up in, but i had buried myself under leaves and dirt, and tried to burrow. other times i'd be on the train tracks, waiting, or just walking down the street, trying to get as far from anything i knew as possible. that was like, the heart of it somehow: i never chose directions i knew, or places i recognized. maybe everywhere i knew felt unsafe? i'd believe that.

in the city it was different: i'd come to on my balcony, on the 30th-whatever floor, and i'd have this lingering compulsion to jump. to get out that way instead.

and what i'm realizing is that every time this has happened in the last few years, it's when we get exactly this far in therapy, i think. last week orion took the session and he's supposed to tomorrow, too. to start trying to deal with the... whatever it is. the programming, i guess. the, this thing that happens, where i'll literally go lay down on train tracks and then have to march myself home with no memory of why i did that beyond following "the rules." but it never feels big or dramatic or confusing enough to register as like, really incredibly fucked up and scary to experience until i'm calmly typing about it at a computer. they're suicide attempts a lot of the time, basically, and i have so far caught myself. but it's so frustratingly hard to figure out beyond that when it's just a black hole now. it all feels so mechanical.

also at no point prior to this would i have ever said i experience fugues like all the diagnostic shit asks, but now that i'm rereading all that, uh, oh right, that's a thing that used to happen semi-regularly. now, i guess, to be an optimist about it, they're at least rare enough we register them and can try to help.

i don't know. at this point i really just hope whoever it is feels okay about therapy tomorrow because i really don't feel like freezing my ass off again.

#all i wanted to do on the walk back was get fucking wasted #i still don't know what that's about #self-destructive urges all hands on deck kind of afternoon i guess

[sophie-jen]

water lilies and tadpoles

read on ao3

James rolled onto his back. He looked up at the sun, shining joyfully in the cloudless sky, then immediately groaned, and rolled back onto his stomach.

"You look like a beached whale, honey."

James groaned again. "S'hot," he mumbled. 

"Why don't you go down to the lake and take a swim?"

James did not dignify this question with a response. His mother had been trying to kick him out all morning. She clearly didn’t want him in her way as she pranced around in her sunhat, gardening tools in hand. James was too miserable to care. He just groaned louder and rolled over again. But this was the wrong move, he realized belatedly, as he felt the crunch of his mother's favorite lilies being crushed under his weight. 

Five minutes later and a shovel shaped dent in his skull found James making his way toward the stupid lake. As he pushed his way valiantly through swarms of mosquitoes, he considered the very real possibility that he would drown in his own sweat before he ever reached water. 

The suffocating heat made everything hazy. Overhead, branches swayed. Leaves rustled. Underfoot, twigs crunched. Moss whispered. Streams of light danced around him. Birds croaked. Frogs chirped. A mushroom tipped its cap to him. 

Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, it occurred to James that he might be lost. Just as the beginnings of panic started brewing in his stomach, his foot caught in a root and he went toppling down a hill. He rolled to a stop next to a small glittering lake, and groaned. This was definitely not the lake his mother had been referring to. He hadn’t known there even was another lake in this area. It really was quite small, resembling more of an oversized pond.

There was something emphatically off about the happy twinkle of the water and the ethereal glow that bathed everything in a golden light. He also couldn’t help but notice that the water lilies were eyeing him suspiciously. To their left, a large, judgmental looking trout poked its face out of the water, took a good look at him, and with a disappointed shake of its head, went back down to report what it had seen. And sat on an outcrop not three feet away, looking straight at him while her fingers combed through her long tendrils of red hair, was a mermaid. This was a little much for poor James to take, and mercifully, after one last groan for good measure, consciousness fled and everything faded to black. 

                                                      *

James gasped awake. He lay in the dark for a few seconds, contemplating the strange dream he had been having, before sitting up. As he did, something cold and slimy slid off his eyes and down his face, taking his glasses with it. He felt around for the glasses, slid them back onto his nose, looked at the lily pad that had dropped into his lap, and felt his stomach drop with it. 

"I thought it might help cool you off."

He looked over at the girl who sat not far away. She was looking at him with an expression of mingled apprehension and curiosity. And sure enough, when James looked down, he saw curled under her a long gray tail, scales shimmering in the sunlight. He had to make a considerable effort not to faint again. 

"I’ve found lily pads are really refreshing. I was afraid you had heat exhaustion or something,” the girl said. 

“Oh. Thank you.” James didn’t know how to explain to her that it most likely wasn’t the heat exhaustion that had caused him to swoon. 

“I'm Lily, by the way."

James considered her for a moment. Considered at what point between rolling onto his mother’s lilies and meeting a mermaid named Lily he had lost his mind. Considered the lily pad laying limply in his lap. Made a decision. 

"I'm James."

                                                      *

“So, uh…” James kept his eyes on the small blue fish eating out of the mermaid’s hand. He was trying not to stare at her webbed fingers. “You live here? In the lake?”

“No, I actually prefer to perch on tree branches.” She gave James such a deadpan look as she spoke that he was inclined to believe her. At this point, he was inclined to believe just about anything. 

“Yes, of course I live in the lake,” she continued after a moment. She turned back to the fish, which was stretching as far as it could out of the water, vying for her attention. 

“Ah. Right.” James mulled this over for a moment. “But where do you-” he paused, trying to think of the best way to ask the question. “Well, where do you, you know, live?” Well said. “I mean, have you got a bed at the bottom of the lake or something?”

“Yep. I even splurged on a water mattress recently.”

To James’ surprise, a snort of amusement escaped him. Lily smiled as she stroked the fish, which flapped its tiny fins happily. 

“Honestly, I mostly sleep on land. I like looking at the stars.” She gave the fish a final pat, before leaning back onto her arms, her tail stretched out in front of her, and tilting her face towards the sun. “I couldn’t really do that much back home.”

“Back home?” 

“I live in the ocean.”

“What are you doing here?” 

“I got caught in a storm and washed up in a river somewhere, so I swam up here.” She leaned over and lifted a clump of moss off the end of her tail, where a large translucent fin lay. The left portion of the fin was in tatters, and an angry looking rip spanned almost the entirety of it. "I can't swim properly with my tail in that state." 

"So, what, you're just stuck here?" 

"Until it heals and I can try finding my way home. But I honestly don't mind. I grew up surrounded by angelfish and dolphins, so lake trout and tadpoles have been a nice change of pace.“ 

Despite her lighthearted tone, she didn’t look particularly thrilled as she said it. James immediately felt compelled to do something, though what that something was, or why he even felt compelled to do it, were beyond him. Instead, his mouth moved of its own accord. "Oh, so you're usually surrounded by a much more so-fish-ticated crowd, then," he said, placing emphasis on the “fish”. He regretted it immediately.

“Did you just-” She looked at him incredulously, but James was thrilled to hear the laughter in her voice. “That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Yeah, my bad, won’t happen again.”

“Unbelievable,” she said through a giggle. 

Not wanting to push his luck, he stayed quiet, and they sat in silence together. The fish, realizing it wouldn’t be getting anything more from Lily, swam up to James and gave a hopeful wiggle. He stroked it distractedly as the mermaid next to him sighed and readjusted the moss covering her fin. James only hoped she couldn't hear the frantic whirring of cogs as he tried to make sense of the pretty redhead and her tail, quietly soaking up the sun beside him. 

                                                      *

"Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop looking at my tail."

"It looked at me first."

"It's impolite to stare."

"Social norms don't apply when your cousin is a guppy."

A lily pad thwacked James across the face.

                                                      *

The sun was beating down mercilessly. James sat at the edge of the water with his feet dipped in up to his ankles. He watched as Lily resurfaced, yet another trinket in her hands, and swam closer to add it to the row of eclectic objects she had set out on the sand. She called them her treasures, although they looked more like what a demented three-year-old might drag home from the playground. 

While she fiddled with what looked like a vaguely heart-shaped ball of algae, he examined one of the rocks. She had said it reminded her of the hammerhead shark that would dig up her garden in search of crabs. It was oblong and one of the ends was slightly flat. To James, the resemblances ended there, but Lily had been thrilled at the discovery, so he had smiled and praised how hammerheaded the rock looked. 

He set the rock back down and checked to see what Lily was doing. She was still poking at the green blob. Her hair looked darker now that it was wet, pooling like blood in her collarbones and trickling down her back in rivulets. He looked away as soon as she turned toward him, and stared intently at a chipped snail shell. 

“I know, it’s not very impressive.”

“What? No...” 

She raised her eyebrows in skeptical amusement. “I wish you could see the collection I have at home. I’ve got this gorgeous pocket watch I found with all these flowers carved on the back. It doesn’t tell the time anymore though.”

“Where’d you find it?” asked James. He slid into the water and made his way towards a water lily he had spotted. 

Lily hadn’t seemed to notice, focused on smoothing out the wrinkles of the snake skin she had laid out. “We collect them from shipwrecks,” she explained.

“That’s morbid.” He snapped the flower off the stem and waded back over to Lily and her treasures. 

“Is it? I remember when I was little, my sister and I used to go looking for sunken ships and scare the octopuses living in them.”

“Here, add this to your collection.” Lily turned toward him, and he handed her the water lily he had picked. 

“I can’t add that. It’ll start wilting soon.” She took the flower from him, her fingers brushing his as she delicately held the white petals. He dipped his fingers in the water to quell the tingles. 

“Oh. I just thought it was pretty.”

She studied the flower for a moment, before placing it in her hair and securing the stem behind her ear. He watched as she fussed with it, trying to get it wedged properly. “There. That way we can enjoy it while it lasts.”

“I can get you another when it turns brown,” James offered. 

“No, I like this one,” she said. “I don’t want to replace it. Some things are meant to be temporary anyway.”

                                                      *

"GAAAHHhhbrrggllslg..."

"Pipe down, you'll scare the fish."

James came back to the surface, spluttering and coughing. “This clearly isn’t working,” he wheezed. 

“Really? I thought we were making great progress.” 

“Funny, ‘cause I thought that’s the third time you’ve nearly drowned me.” James rubbed his eyes a final time and opened them. Lily floated next to him, her hair like a pool of blood around her. He pulled a piece of it out of his mouth. 

She rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair, picking out a snail that had gotten tangled in the strands. “You’re being dramatic.”

“Well excuse me for having a sense of self-preservation.”

“You’re acting like I’m trying to kill you!”

“Lily, I don’t have gills! You can’t just push me underwater without warning!”

She looked surprised at his outburst, her green eyes were wide with worry, and James immediately felt bad. 

“Listen, it’s fine. I just got freaked out for a moment,” he backpedaled. 

Lily wasn’t listening. “Maybe we should stop.” 

“No, really, it’s fine! I’ll just make sure to plug my nose next time!” 

But she was already swimming away, and with a flick of her tail, she had disappeared to a place where he couldn’t reach her. 

                                                      *

The bite was oozing. Oozing what, he didn’t know. Didn’t really want to know. He had never thought he would be having to deal with fish bites. Hadn’t realized such small fish even had teeth. Evil little bastards. Always sweet and cuddly when Lily was around. But this was apparently a summer of firsts. 

He poked at the angry looking marks, and hissed. Lily would know how to take care of this. Fix it. He had no idea where she was. She hadn’t yet resurfaced. 

Not knowing what to do, he climbed onto the outcrop where he had seen her for the first time, and stretched out. Warmth enveloped him on all sides, immediately making him drowsy. As he drifted off, he thought about how unbothered he was. Everything was fine. He let himself be pulled under, into the depths of sleep, not worried in the slightest. She would turn up. She always did. 

                                                      *

He’s sinking deeper into dark blue depths. His legs keep up a frantic pace as he kicks, trying to propel himself forward. All he can see is her: her long, slender fingers, her wrists, her collarbones, glowing in the murky water as she hovers, ethereal. All he wants is to go to her, but with a laugh she turns and swims further down, engulfed by the darkness. 

He can just make out her tail undulating as she moves inexorably on, never slowing down. As he follows her, going ever lower, several jellyfish zoom by, their tentacles tangling together to form a billowing cloud of exhaust. Somewhere to the side, a school of clownfish float in a large reef together, studying. A preoccupied looking manatee comes out of a dense wall of seaweed and almost bumps into James, muttering an apology as it hurries away. 

James is undeterred, his focus only on the mermaid in front of him. She turns to face him, curls one finger in a beckoning motion, and her smile is a hook that snags him, reeling him in, pulling him closer to her. Her lips are moving. He can tell she’s saying something, something important, but he can’t understand her. The water is filling his ears, muting everything, and he strains to hear her, to make out something, anything. Panic rises in his throat as her face grows troubled, panic so thick it’s suffocating. He can’t breathe, and she’s floating further into the murky shadows, and he hates the greedy gloom taking her away from him with every fiber of his being. As she grows ever more distant, his panic grows, and he’s never felt so lost, so helpless. He has to reach her, to stop her, and she’s screaming, screaming his name, over and over and-

                                                      *

“James!” He opened his eyes, gasping for air. After several steadying breaths, the darkness began receding. He blinked while the world came back into focus. The panic he had felt so acutely was already fading, dripping through his fingers, leaking out of his ears. It was replaced by the feeling of solid rock under his back, the sun wrapping him in warmth, and Lily’s hands cupping his cheeks. Her face was right over his, her hair forming a curtain around them. 

“Here.” He felt his glasses being placed gingerly over his eyes. “You alright?” 

Lily’s voice was laced with concern, her eyebrows knitted so close together they were almost touching. Her face was so close to his that he could see every individual hair in her eyebrows. He focused on one hair that lay slightly askew, pointing towards a freckle on her eyelid, as he finished catching his breath. 

“Yeah. I’m fine. Just had a weird dream.”

“Oh. Sure. I have those all the time.”

“Really?”

“Oh, definitely. The other day, I dreamed that I had climbed up a tree, and I couldn’t get down. And you were in the water, and I kept calling you, and asking you to help. But you insisted that you couldn’t, because you had to practice your underwater somersaults. And I was so angry that I started picking crabs off the tree and pelting them at you. But you kept catching them in your mouth and eating them. And you were laughing the whole time. And then you said, ‘Look, Tulip!’ and did a backwards somersault with so much force that you created a huge wave that knocked me off the tree. And then I woke up.”

“Sorry about that.” James was trying very hard to keep a straight face. 

“I can’t believe you called me ‘Tulip’,” Lily said with a frown.  

She looked so genuinely offended that James immediately felt compelled to comfort her. “Like I would ever forget your name!” 

“What was your dream?” she said quickly. 

“Oh, I was just drowning.”

“Well that’s not bad. Why do you get to have normal dreams?”

“Probably because I know how to do backward somersaults.”

                                                      *

James stared at the water intently, looking for any disturbances in the smooth surface. In his hand, he held a freshwater mussel the size of a large baseball. Lily had dug it up from the bed of the lake for the game she had devised. She had informed him that the mussels' name was Petunia, mentioning something about the mussel reminding her of someone. 

He tightened his hold on Petunia, causing her to give an indignant shake in response. James had discovered that a firm grip was necessary when handling the mussel. She had a tendency to clamp down on his fingers when he wasn’t paying enough attention, and getting her to let go required threats of feeding her to the snapping turtle that lived nearby. 

A sudden ripple drew James’ attention to a spot on his left. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the flash of a tail flicking above the water. As he scanned the green surface, he spotted a smudge of red. Raising Petunia above his head, his eyes following the billowing of crimson under the water, he took a steadying breath, and aimed. He exhaled. Petunia went flying. 

“Fucking ow!” 

The cry told him he had hit his mark. The proud victor had only a moment to celebrate his success before a wave of water was flung in his direction, drenching him entirely. 

“Bit of a sore loser, aren’t you?” James smiled as the top of Lily’s head surfaced. Her eyes narrowed and the green flashed somewhat dangerously, but he took no heed. He was on a roll. “Seems I’ve o-fish-ially won!” 

His laugh was followed closely by a scream as Lily pulled him into the water, and he felt his nose being pinched shut as he went under, smothered by a wave of red tendrils. 

                                                      *

"You know I can't stay here." 

"Can't you? What's so great about the ocean, anyway? So it’s got dolphins. Did you know dolphins are actually vicious? I read that they kill porpoises just for fun."

“James-”

“And they’ve been known to attack people.”

“Are you honestly trying to slander dolphins?”

“I’m just saying, it’s a cruel world out there. But it’s safe here. I can guarantee you’ll never be attacked by a toad.”

“The other day, I woke up with a tadpole up my nose."

“Small price to pay.”

“Small price to pay for not being viciously attacked by a dolphin? Do you hear yourself?”

“I just don’t get why you have to leave right now. How could it possibly be safe? Your tail isn’t even fully healed yet!”

“It will be soon.”

Quiet settled over the little lake again. She broke the silence first. 

"Mermaids can live for up to 300 years."

"My dad is turning sixty next month."

“I want to go home, James. You can go home any time you want. You can be sure that you’ll be able to celebrate your dad's birthday with him. What about me? All I've got here are the tadpoles.”

"You've got me."

"What?"

"You've got me, haven't you? Or do I not count?"

"Of course you count, you idiot. You count so much, you have no idea." 

James' heart must have swollen so big it cut off the oxygen going to his brain because all he could come up with was, "I'm actually terrible at maths." 

She sighed. “I will miss you. But I can’t stay here forever, hoping you’ll visit me occasionally.”

“That’s not-”

“It is.”

                                                      *

The heat had somehow worsened. The pair floated in the cool lake water together, incapable of anything requiring any more energy. He could sense her presence, sensed it constantly, incessantly, tugging on his consciousness whenever he was around her. 

They floated in silence, the only sound coming from two particularly loud swallows. The birds were having it out over a spider they each felt entitled to. The angry chirping hadn’t ceased for at least the last ten minutes. 

James felt a ripple and saw Lily shift over and look up at the birds. She rolled her eyes and smiled at him. He felt the sudden urge to bottle up her smile and keep it stashed away, to take out and enjoy on special occasions. Instead, he dunked his head in the water and pretended with all his might that his heart wasn’t being constricted so tight it would shrink to the size of a marble and roll out of his mouth when he was sleeping. 

                                                      *

And then she was gone. Just like that, the lake was empty. James sat on the outcrop, and watched as a wilting water lily floated by serenely. A small blue fish poked its head out of the water. The fish looked around and then stared at James for a few moments, as though wanting to ask something, before diving back under with a small splash.

Here’s a painting that I think looks just like Lily

#this was supposed to be done so long ago #my bad #i guess i'll go burrow back into my hole now #mermaid!lily #mermaid au #jily #james x lily #james potter #lily evans #fic #oneshot #jily fanfiction

[miraculous-trinity-leo]

Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7)

Chapter 3: Kindred Spirits Always Find A Way To Assemble

•—–—–†–—–—•

Time: 5:30am

location: Louvre

Ladybug, Abeille, Bunnyx, Trickster, and Chat Noir are fighting an akuma, not anything major, just Mr. Pigeon and his pigeons trying to melt the Louvre with deadly acidic bird dropings, so yeah, nothing major. Just another early bird gets the akuma kinda day...

"Looks like the early bird is trying to melt the Louvre, what say you M'lady, shall we make this swift and- *Loud sneeze* Let me now *sneeze* when I'm *sneeze* needed" - Chat Noir

"For to long our kind has been oppressed, they feed us miserable seeds, when we beg for bread, we shall show them no mercy, as our justice shall be swift!" picks up two pigeons, holds them by their legs and aims the rear cannons "Surrender your Miraculous and your justice shall be swift and painless!!" with an evil villain laugh at the end bla bla bla.

" Anyone else getting Pigeon (French) Revolution vibes? No? just me? Cause I swear he said seeds instead of cake."

"Not the time Bunnyx." - Abeille

"Oh it so Is The Time." - Bunnyx

"Off with Mr. Pigeon Antoinette's Akumatized object!" - Chat Noir from a distance.

"Viva La Revolution!!!" - Trickster

"Dear Kwami, how did it come to a frickin Pigeon Revolution?!" - Ladybug

As the last line is said, Mr. Pigeon fires the -ehem- cannons at the heroes, only for them to be an illusion. In the confusion Bunnyx pops out of her burrow and wacks Mr. Pigeon on the head, effectively knocking him out.

"The Pigeon Revolution is over, we have taken back our home, and shall continue to defend it from the creepy Man of MOTH!!!!" - Bunnyx

and with that Bunnyx brakes the Akumatized object, and Ladybug purifies the akuma.

"Ok, I will admit that last speach was funny, now lets hurry back before hells bells go off." - Ladybug

•~—~—~—~—~—~—~•

" Bla bla bla, nothing important, bla bla bla bla, yada yada yada bla yada." - Mrs. Bustier

"'Viva La Revolution', that was perfect." - Whispering Alix

"It just came to me, but Chats 'Off with Mr. Pigeon Antoinette's Akumatized object' line and your 'Man of Moth' speech were really well timed !" -whispering Peter

"well of course, I'm always punctual with any time sensitive joke/pun." -whispering Alix

"Will you to zip it! we can't have these simpletons finding anything out!" -whispering Chloé

"Please, they all share a broken defective regect of a brain cell, I doubt they could ever put two and two together." -whispering Alix

"Hey, do you think we should start a protest in our classroom?" -whispering Peter

"... Viva.La.Revolution!" - whispering Chloé with a mischievous grin

"No." - Maria

•~—~—~—~ Later when Mrs. Bustier is out of class ~—~—~—~•

"I just don't know what to do." - Lie-la

" You think she finally realized how horrible that hair style is?" - Alix

"After visiting Gotham a few months ago I met Damian Wayne, you might've heard about him, he's just so amazing, kind-hearted, and brave. We had a wonderful time, but then he asked me out! And I don't want to hurt Parkers feelings, I care for both of them!" - Lie-la

"Man, she must be extremely full of it to keep pulling that sh-t out of her @ss every hour or so." - Alix

"Wow Peter, didn't know your cared for Ms. Rossi like that" - Chloé said in a sarcastic tone.

" I'd rather strap her to a supersonic rocket heading for a black hole, and I'm pretty sure this Damian Wayne would do the same... he probably has the money for it actually." - Peter

" Enough plotting, we still need to get enough money, if we want that summer trip, we've already crossed off: Baking sales, becoming a mime, jobs are out unless they're fine with you leaving right after joining, and we can't just ask for donations." - Maria

" I can use my MDC mon-" - Maria

"Oh hell no you won't! You worked your butt off to get that money, you said it yourself! That money is for when you apply to college! I refuse to let you waste your money on our ignoramus classmates!" - Chloé

Thankfully by now everyone was out of the classroom.

" Oh Kwami she's serious, she never uses her big words!" - Adrien

" Then what do you suggest Chloé?" - Maria

" I'll ask daddy to pay!" - Chloé

" I can also ask my father, he'll probably do it if Mr. Bourgeois puts in a donation." - Adrien

" But- " - Maria

" No! The decision is final all in agreement say aye!" - Chloé

"Aye!" - Everyone

"You've watched to many movies Chloé, fine, but please don't drastically overdo it." - Maria

" When have I ever drastically overdone something? Name one time." - Chloé

"Well, there was the time you over did it, by not sleeping for almost three weeks." - Maria

" and after that you got so fed up with one akuma that you kicked him with the force of a thousand suns down unda, you may have scared him for life after that honestly. " - Adrien

" Oh! or the time you went overboard with Peters B-day, and the cake landed on his face! - Alix

"Well in her defense, the cake was great, but it was kinda a mouthful." -Peter

"... I said name one time. (ー_ー)" - Chloé

•~—~—~—~—~—~—~•

Sooo, after all that happened Mr. Bourgeois, Fallowed by Gabriel Agreste, gave a very generous donation, so that solves that problem.And since I'm sure you don't want to see (More Lies) boring stuff, lets skip to two days before the trip begins.

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜time skip " You're welcome, I'm here all eternity." - Bunnyx〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

•—–· At Chloés Hotel ·–—•

"Ok are we sure we have everything?" - Maria

" Yes now can we please watch something already, we've triple, and even quadruple checked everything, we're good." - Alix

" I have to go out and inform Tempête and Vipère, before anything else, be back soon." - Maria then heads out calling upon the other heroes.

" So what do you need?" - Vipère

" Do you have a top secret mission for us?" - Tempête

" For the summer Abeille, Bunnyx, Trickster, and Chat Noir will be unavailable, unless they are truly needed, I however will be able to travel back and forth via portals for fights. Paris will be in your care while we aren't here." - Ladybug

"It is our honor, we shall defend Paris with our lives." - Tempête

" Agreed, enjoy your summer." - Vipère

"Thank you, stay safe."  and with that Maria headed back to the hotel prepared to watch movies, only to be bombarded with questions as soon as she got back.

" HOLD UP! You know MAGIC?!" - Alix

" When were you going to tell us?!" - Chloé

"So cool, how does it work?" - Peter

" Can you teach us?!" - Adrien

" Spots-Off, yes I know magic, I swear I've told you before. Do you want a demonstration?" - Maria

They all shook their heads excitedly.

" Ok well, I'm able to Heal myself if I get hurt, but I don't wish to hurt myself just for that, I can also increase my Luck with magic, as well as Communicate/ Manipulate plants, and see peoples Souls, thanks to Tikki. I learned Protection magic thanks to Wayzz, and Illusion magic thank  to Trixx. I'm also learning Teleportation from Kaalki, which I've almost completed, and Mutitude from Mullo, which still needs work." - Maria

" If you can really talk to plants, what did we do earlier while you where out, hmmmmm?" - Alix

Maria then walks over to the roses near the couch and whispers to them, after a moment she turns back to her friends, and calmly says "Traitors."

" What do you mean?" - Peter

" You continued watching Star Wars: Clone Wars Without me!" - Maria

" Ok we believe you, but does this mean we can also use magic?" - Adrien

"Hmmm, let me see" as she says this her eyes start to glow an almost ethereal icy blue.

" Why are you eyes glowing?" - Chloé

"Looking at you souls... ok" she then claps her hands and her eyes go back to normal "Adrien, you can use slight Destruction magic on objects, if you use it on a person it would just cause them extreme pain, you can also cast Bad Luck on someone, so I guess thats good, and you can also learn slight Jubilation magic. Peter you can learn Illusion, and Protection magic. Chloé you can Learn Subjection, and Multiplication magic. And Alix, you can learn Evolution, Intuition, and Teleportation magic." As Maria finished, she saw the star struck looks in their eyes at the thought of learning magic became obtainable for them.

"Teach us!" they all bowed only to get a laugh from Maria in response.

"You would have to ask the Kwamis that, I only know what I know thanks to them." - Maria

And for most of the night they all started practicing magic. And when they woke up, they continued to practice, they had fun and were really enjoying it.

Then came the day Maria and her friends were to head for Gotham, and it was hectic, but everyone made it in one piece after an 8 hour flight, which at this point Maria was glad she sent all of her important luggage ahead of time, because somehow her luggage with only her toiletries and pyjamas was stolen, so all she had now was her back pack on her and the Miracle box in a Pocket dimension (thanks to the training from Fluff and Kaalki)

Lila was annoyed, when Maria didn't even care that she lost her bag with all her stuff (jokes on you she sent that one to the hotel 2 days ago HA!) they ended up checking into the hotel, everyone was with someone, Peter was with Adrien, Chloé was with Alix, and Maria... just had the Kwamis, yup that's right, apparently Lila has a condition that prevents her from being in any room below a quality vip room, so now she was upgrade and without a roommate, good for Lila, and Lucky for Maira, because now she doesn't have to worry about someone noticing her climbing out the window to go free-running across rooftops as Multimouce.

Around 7:30 pm. everyone heads out for lunch... and they leave Maria behind.

"Of course this happens." and with that she asked the receptionist for the directions to where her class went, afterwards she went out and proceeded to get lost, after trying to retrace her steps, she just got lost quicker, and her phone was at 20% what luck.

After walking for a little bit, she had decided to take a break, and as she leaned up against a wall, she closed her eyes.

'Maybe if I search for the receptionists Soul I can find my way back.' as she was doing this, she saw souls of all colors walking by, she even noticed a dark emerald green soul, and a dark blue soul across the street on a rooftop... and then she felt her hair stand on end, a few feet to her right was a bloody rust looking soul, she could tell it was a male, late 20s, average build, and 5'11, he was targeting her. As she opened her eyes  she did a quick scan of her seroundings, noticing an alley, she started to walk again. Sensing the slight increase in speed from the man now behind her, as he got closer, she made a sharp left into the alley, she made it a few feet in before the man started laughing and walking closer, she saw the disgusting look in his eyes, and the outline of a gun in his front left pocket.

"Come on now girlie,  I just wanna talk."

" I am good thankz." she made sure to add an accent to make him feel like he had an upper hand, which seemed to work, if his sickening smile was anything to go off of.

He stepped closer and Maria (the little genius she was) decided to act nervous, which only lowered the guys gaurd even more, once he reached to grab her in a quick motion she proceeded to do this.

She held the guy in a lock until he fell unconscious. As she stood up, she noticed a hand reaching for her, she then grabbed the hand and flipped the figure over her shoulder hard, hearing a yelp from the man as she did so.

When she realized who she had flipped over, her face turned bright red

"Mon dieu, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you are you ok Monsieur Nightwing?!"

"Yeah I'm fine and don't apologize, reflexes like that are key to survival here in Gotham, isn't that right Robin.... Robin?"

When Nightwing didn't get any sound from Robin he looked over to see the boy a blushing mess, then Robin snaped out of it, cuffing the mugger, and turning his attention to the girl.

" Ehem. Mam it's dangerous to be out here at this time alone, please allow us to take you wherever you need to go." - Robin

"Oh thank you um, do you know where Wayne Hotel is? I was supposed to go with my class to dinner, but they... “forgot” me, I decided to try and meet up with them, but I failed horribly." - Maria

"Wait they just left you? and in Gothan of all cities?! What kind of teacher does that?!" - Nightwing

" An instegator." - Maria said under her breath in French, she didn't notice the slight shock on both their faces from what she said.

"Anyway lets get you to your hotel before it gets any later." - Nightwing

"Thank you again." - Maria

She arrived safely, thanks to Nightwing and Robin, she thanked them one more time and went inside, when she got to her room she found her friends pacing back and forth in the room, Chloé and Peter looking like they would soon become two people on a mission to find her, but thankfully she was back, she of course had to answer alot of questions, but that was no big deal. After answering all their questions, everyone went to their rooms, and fell asleep, they had a big day tomorrow afterall... ... and then Marias' Akuma alert went off, ok so it took about thirty minutes to defeated the akuma 2 more before she could cure anything and another 5 minutes before she could head back to her room, and it was now 2am, but she could still wake up early right? hehe (・–・;) right?

No, the answer was no she couldn't, well technically she was up on time for when the bus "should" have started getting ready to leave, BUT turns out Lila SOMEHOW, managed to get everyone on board without even thinking of her an hour early! Maria asked for directions once again, and the receptionist had a worried and apologetic look on her face, Maria thanked her again, and headed out, this time however, she made it without getting lost and without getting mugged, Yay! She even had enough time to get a coffe (Tim special was a wierd name but oh well it did the job pretty well) from a shop near by (double yay!) before entering the WE building.

" You have to start the tour! we've been here for an hour and thirty minutes already!" - Ms. Bustier

"Like I said before, I will not start the tour until your student gets back, and if they don't get back, then we better hope nothing happened to them, or else it's your fault for your negligence." - Tour guide

"Sorry I'm late, the bus left earlier than what we scheduled, why didn't you inform me about the change?" - Maira

"Lila said you were the one who made the changes and that you were just trying to get attention, I am VERY disappointed in you Maria, now apologize to your class for delaying the tour!" - Ms Bustier

"I think you mean “I'm sorry we left you behind in a city where murder happens to young kids on a daily basis” now you apologize to Your student that is Your responsibility." - Tour Guide with a glare that could kill a thousand armys

Ms. Bustier proceeded to apologise to half the class's disbelief.

"Alright then, now that thats all taken care of, Hello and welcome to Wayne Enterprise, where we focus on making Gotham and the world a better place. I'm Dick Grayson, and I'll be you tour guide for today."

As the tour went on Maria stood at the front with her friends, she took notes of everything that was said, and she ignored whatever nonsense Lila was spouting, somthing about saving or dating Damian Wayne, she didn't really care.

When the lunch break came, she sat with her friends until she needed a long overdo refill on her coffee, she walked over to the coffee machine and started figuring what combination will keep her brain working for the rest of the day.

"Press button 3 followed by 5, 6, 8, 1, 2, 4, 9, and 7, that is the ultimate coffee mixture, if your mortal self is up for the challenge." - Sleep deprived guy

"I accepte." she presses the buttons in the exact order and then " Wait none of the cups are big enough."

"Here, secrect cup, from beyond the mortal realm." - Sleep deprived guy

" Thanks" she grapped the very large cup, and filled it with coffee till it was almost to the rim, she put the lid on and instantly took a big sip from the scolding hot coffee (she can heal, her tongue's fiiiiiiine)

"... Not bad, taste similar to the Tim Special I had earlier, but maybe a bit stronger." - Maria

" Kindred Spirit, let us be friends, you have drank the sacred coffee and are now immortal, congrats." - Sleep deprived guy

"It was not easy, but I have come this far, and I shall go the distance with nothing but coffee in my veins." Maria said in a serious tone as they shook hands "I am Maria, keeper of all nighters, and who might you be, my kindred spirit."

"I am Tim, the keeper of sacred coffee and all that is unholy."

"It was an honor to meet you Sacred Tim, may the coffee gods guide you in your journey, sadly we must part ways, for the lunch break is over, farewell..." and with that Maria left to rejoin the group.

"Dear god where the hell did you get that much coffee?!" - Chloé

"Kindred Spirits always find a way to assemble." - Maria

"Huh, so there is someone out there who is also a sleep deprived child." - Alix

The tour continued, and Maria noticed their tour guide kept looking at her with growing concern as she slowly made her way through the lovely coffee, she finished the cup within 1 hour and 30 minutes, and most of the staff kept looking at her as she now held the empty unholy cup, that was said to put people (that weren't chosen by the coffee gods) into caffeine induced commas, but she was fine, if anything she was more awake than yesterday and today combined. So yeah Today had a rocky start, but I'd say things are only just beginning.

•—–—–†–—–—•

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜 Bonus Art 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

This is what it looks like from Marias' normal vision, to her Soul Vision (~‾▿‾)~

Chapter 3 completed, hope you're all having a wonderful day, and staying positive BUG-OUT 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜 Tag List 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

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@lupagrimm

#miraculous ladybug #damian x marinette #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous damian wayne #miraculous fanart #miraculous fanfic #damimari #damianette #chloé bourgeois #adrien agreste #peter parker #nightwing #robin #damian wayne #maridami #marinette dupen chang #tony stark #tim drake #richard grayson #class salt #fluff #mlb x marvel #mlb x dc #batfam #badass marinette #bunnyx #ladybug and chat noir #mlb crossover #maribat #Whacky Gotham Goofy New York and Chaotic Paris

[joaquinwhorres]

ok ok i am picking Wren and Fred! (i’m in the process of reading the first chapter btw!) and ... now i’m picking a random number .... i haven’t even gone through what they are. so i’m picking number 23 (cause its my favorite number)! good luck!

Guess who got carried away? Me. The answer is always me.

Fwrend - 23. In relief

Wren watched in horror as the shoe hit the ground, bouncing once before lying still. No figures stumbled away from it and towards the house. Instead, it lay there, utterly alone in the completely quiet yard.

"No," Wren whispered, dashing out of the house. Ginny followed her, stopping only when Wren sank to her knees beside the shoe. "No, no, no."

"It could have just taken them longer to get there than they thought," Ginny offered, but her voice was thin, and when Wren turned to face her, pain was clearly etched on the younger girl's face. "It doesn't mean—" Ginny started, but Wren shook her head, taking hold of the shoe as tears began to race down her cheeks.

"Wren," Ginny said quietly, stepping forward and laying a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Fred's one of the most brilliant wizards I've ever met. He'll be ok. And Dad, I mean—" Ginny stopped. "Let's go inside."

Wren allowed herself to be helped up, the shoe falling from her hand and hitting the rusty oil can that also lay abandoned in the yard. Ahead of them Mrs. Weasley's silhouette stood in the door before the older woman turned away and bustled into the house.

"Hagrid and Harry should be here soon," Ginny said, firmly. "They'll know what happened."

But when Hagrid and Harry finally did appear, crashing into the yard, their explanation of events was far from reassuring. It wasn't a simple miscalculation or blunder that led to the empty Burrow. It was a coordinated attack by the Death Eaters.

The sinking feeling of dread was not helped by Lupin and George's arrival, because the first thing Wren noticed was that George was covered in blood and unconscious.

She screamed. The sound felt as if it were wrenched from her gut, pulling out all of her insides with it. Her chest felt as if it were caving in as she watched Harry and Lupin hurry George into the house, Ginny racing after them. Wren was following before she even realized her feet were moving, getting to the living room in time to see the men lay George out on the couch, turning his head to reveal a sickening dark hole where his ear once was.

"George," Wren croaked, moving towards him before stopping herself to give Mrs. Weasley room. The mother had immediately set to work muttering enchantments and commanding Ginny to run around and help.

"Wren," Mrs. Weasley said, grabbing Wren's attention. "Sit here and turn his head for me." The girl nodded, perching on the couch's arm and turning her best friend's head for his mother to continue her spell work. Gently, she smoothed his hair away from his face making hushing sounds that she hoped were more calming for him than they were for her.

"How is he?" Harry asked, re-entering the room.

Mrs. Weasley, set back on her heels, staring at her son. "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could have been so much worse….He's alive."

"Yeah," Harry said. "Thank God."

"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked, ringing a towel in the bowl of dittany.

"Hermione and Kingsley," Harry answered.

"Thank Merlin," Ginny whispered, and the two shared a tender look that Wren couldn't stomach, instead turning back to George to kiss his forehead.

"Come on, Georgie," she whispered before continuing to stroke his hair.

"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"

Wren jolted, her eyes darting towards the door that led to the kitchen where Mr. Weasley's voice boomed. Mr. Weasley. Fred. She hardly had time to register how angry and scared Mr. Weasley sounded or the flood of relief she felt before Mr. Weasley flew into the sitting room, Fred right behind him. Both appeared to be uninjured. And while Wren willed for Fred to look at her and assure her that he was completely fine, he had eyes for no one but his brother. He stood silent, gaping at George's hole.

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley seemed to finally break, a choked sob escaping her. "Oh thank goodness!"

"How is he?"

Mr. Weasley had come around the side of the couch and dropped to his knees besides George as the twin started to stir.

"How do you feel, Georgie?" Mrs. Weasley whispered.

George's hand moved up to the side of his head and Wren gingerly took hold of it, moving it away from the wound and back to where his other lay at his side.

"Saintlike," George murmured.

"What's wrong with him?" Fred croaked at last. He looked terrified, and Wren was dying to reach out and touch him. To hug him. Kiss him. Reassure him. "Is his mind affected?" he asked.

"Saintlike," George repeated, opening his eyes, and looking up at Fred. "You see…I'm holy. Hole-y, Fred, geddit?'

Mrs. Weasley broke into worse sobs as Fred colored.

"Pathetic," he said before clearing his throat to get his voice back. "Pathetic! With the whole world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"

"Ah well," said George, grinning at his mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum." He looked around. "Hi, Harry – you are Harry, right?"

"Yeah, I am," Harry moved closer to the sofa.

"Well, at least you got back okay," George commented. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"

"They're not back yet, George," Mrs. Weasley informed. George's grin faded. Harry and Ginny left the room as George strained to look up to Wren, pushing his head back into the couch and jutting his chin up.

"That you, Wren?" he asked.

"Yes, now stop moving," she chided, moving from her spot on the arm of the sofa to kneel next to Fred who instinctively reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers.

"Are you really feeling all right?" Wren asked George, Fred's touch easing relief slowly back into her body.

"I'm alive."

The weight of his answer was too much to bear, and Wren burst into tears. Fred stood slowly, pulling her up with him and guiding her up the stairs, past the other members of the Order who very carefully avoided eye contact with the two.

The couple reached the upstairs landing, and Wren fell into his arms, hugging him tightly. One of his hands smoothed her hair as the other clutched her back.

"You missed your portkey," Wren mumbled into his chest. "I thought—"

She didn't have it in her to finish the thought, but she didn't need to. Fred didn't give her the chance. Instead he tilted her head towards him and kissed her with all of the relief and desperation that she felt, pouring himself into it and pressing himself into her as if to prove that this was real, and he was here with her.

When he pulled away, both of their breathing was ragged, and Wren let her forehead fall against his chest, feeling his heart hammer against it.

"We should probably go down to George," Wren whispered.

"Yeah," Fred exhaled giving the crown of her head a quick kiss before releasing her and moving towards the stairs

#ship: fwrend #series: the fool #the fool outtakes #the fool asks #kiss asks #oc: nora randolph #fred weasley x wren collings #fred weasley x oc #fred weasley x f!oc #harry potter book 7 #harry potter and the deathly hallows #harry potter 7

[chokefriends]

Anatomy model Eustass Kid

By @godims0tired ♡ for my fic Life Drawing

Rating: E

Warnings: None

Characters & ships: Eustass Kid / Trafalgar Law

Word count: 2978

Summary: Law practices his anatomical drawing with Kidd as his subject. With his devil fruit abilities he can see right inside him.

Kidd finds this insanely romantic.

~~~

Read on Ao3 or below the cut. I know it's an older fic by now but I havent posted it here before so here!

~~~

Kidd jerked into full awareness as he lay sprawled in his bed. He checked around himself without moving and sensed a second heartbeat in the room, near enough that the dim echoes of its electrical impulses lapped at his skin like waves. Slow and calm. Just watching then; not yet poised to attack…

There were eyes on him.

It took him a moment to remember that the other heartbeat was supposed to be there. He wasn't used to having bedmates stay overnight.

Red eyes slid open and found keen grey ones fixed on him.

“The fuck you staring at.”

“You, idiot.”

The big redheaded sprawl snorted crassly at that and flopped over, returning the stare with sleepy menace.

Law smirked. He was wedged sideways in one of the heavy carved armchairs in Kidd's quarters, loosely wrapped in a sheet and busily scritch scritching in a large book. His gaze flicked from page to Kidd and back.

Kidd prodded him, “See something you want, Trafalgar? Come over here and take it.”

His limbs were still all loose and languid from when they'd fucked a couple hours before, but Kidd could stand to go another round. Especially with the sharp, evaluating looks Law was throwing him right now.

“Come on, c'mere.”

“Later. Go back to sleep, Eustass-ya.” The pen bobbed.

“Don’ wanna. What are you doing still up?”

“Just passing the time until my brain decides to let me fall asleep.” Law's insomniac woes again.

“A good fuck will do that for you. Lemme do the ligature thing and you'll be out like bam .” Kidd offered generously.

“Heheh. Thanks but oxygen deprivation is not the kind of sleep aid I need.”

“Your loss.”

Kidd burrowed into his cluster of satiny pillows with a sigh. For an infamously brutal pirate captain he sure liked his little extravagances. The whole room was draped with horribly clashing bits of luxurious fabrics and furs, and the odd shiny sharp thing. The manic magpie whims of past raids.

“Nah, that's no good,” Law recrossed long legs over the chair’s arm, well cushioned with some spotted pelt. “Go back to where you were a second ago.”

“Are you…? What, taking notes on me? Writing an ode to the sinful curve of my flawless ass?”

“Something like that. I'm adding my own anatomical diagrams to this medical text. It’s my favourite for reference material but the illustrations are scanty and kinda shit -- it's like they've never dissected anyone before.”

“Nice. Add a diagram of these.” Kidd kicked up a leg.

“Hah. I'm nowhere near the section on genital abnormalities, but I'll look you up when I get there. Turn on your side again, I was doing upper body musculature.”

“Ooo. I got lots of that, yeah.” Kidd complied.

The lamplight was flickering low behind Law. Kidd could see him and his book backlit dimly, the small hairs on his leanly muscled shoulders aglow like a nimbus. Tinged subtly blue.

Wait, blue?

“Do you have a Room up?”

“Yeah, so I can scan down and see the actual anatomical stuff.”

“Huh. That's handy. You don't even have to dissect anyone.”

“Yeah but it’s easier to see everything if you physically open someone up. You can isolate the individual structures that way.” Law peeked overtop of the book. “And it's more fun to do it the old-fashioned way, heh…”

Kidd gave a low laugh. Law wasn't even joking, he knew. He imagined waking up one night like this, to find some part of him delicately splayed open and the dark haired doctor sketching away with the same expression. If Law used his devil fruit power he could do it painlessly and bloodlessly, without even waking him. Kidd had seen him sever heads away from bodies completely within that blue sphere, both pieces still functioning as one. He’d never been the subject of that eerie power himself, though.

He didn’t think so, anyway.

Law untangled himself from chair and sheet, and finally came over to join him on the bed. Kidd was gifted briefly with a full view of the lithe figure. His recent handiwork was beginning to show in the mottling that ran up either thigh and the bites framing his chest tattoos.

The long limbs refolded next to him. “Stay there, I wanna do the neck muscles now.”

“Lemme see that first.”

“Don't be grabby,” Law complained, but gave up the book.

“Holy fuck.” Kidd flipped through studies of his back, shoulders, hands. “So that's how I look without skin, huh.”

He had been expecting more… yeah. Skin.

“I did say I was drawing the muscles.”

“And my bones and everything.”

“Yeah. Good skeletal structure too. Several odd calluses where breaks didn't quite set right, though.”

“You can see all of that?”

“Yeah, of course. Like I said, I can scan down to any level. Though it helps if I know already the shape of what I'm looking for.”

Something about the drawings was just so Law. The lines so precise, so sharp, somehow impatient. A little obsessive and overworked on certain details, like the hollow between his collar bones and the knobbly crook of his index finger, broken at least twice. Many practice studies on loose sheets of paper showed that Law had been trying to get these parts just right.

It occurred to Kidd that these weren't just anatomical studies using him as a model -- these were him.

Jotted notes crowded around the practice studies, but Law grabbed the book back before Kidd could read them properly.

“Trafalgar. Does that seriously say I have 8.2 litres of blood in me.”

“Nevermind that. Just an interesting fact. You have a lot of blood.”

Kidd stole another peek as Law held him off. “And that I have a grip strength of 68 kilograms in my right hand?”

“At least. That’s not something I can see; that's from uh, experience.”

Kidd leaned back with his hands laced behind his head to look at Law. “One might misinterpret this as a target profile of some kind.” Because that's exactly what it was -- a detailed map of Kidd’s strongest, and weakest points.

“Whoa, your blood pressure’s spiking.” Law grinned with more teeth than usual and leaned in to hover over him.

“Now you're just showing off,” Kidd complained.

“Does this disturb you?”

That wasn't exactly the feeling that was spreading through him, no. Or not entirely, anyway. Kidd just cracked his neck, stretching it out for Law's benefit, and raised an eyebrow.

“So you wanted some neck action? It's all yours.”

Law seemed to like the sound of that. He angled Kidd’s head away and up with a gentle press of fingers, so the ear and neck were exposed to him.

Kidd watched his shadow flicker on the opposite wall and listened to the pen scratch across paper. The undulating magnetic field of Law’s heart was so close now, washing over him. His own blood thudded in his ears, senses all on high alert from holding himself in this vulnerable position.

He could be fuckin patient. Sometimes. Well… when he had all of Law’s attention focused on him like this, he’d stay still forever. He could feel the sharp eyes on him like a touch. His own eyes started to wander back over…

He jumped a little when Law did touch him, nudging him back into place. And then trailing fingers over the mound behind his ear.

“Sternocleidomastoid,” Law mouthed to himself. “Levator scapulae…” The hand travelled down to his collarbone and rested there lightly, his thumb tracing little circles.

It was so calm. And strange. Rare for the reserved doctor to be so casually intimate. Even while they were fucking, touch was more like a struggle, hands straining against and into each other. Kidd was rough without even trying, but it was Law who seemed to flinch from any contact not resembling combat. Or medical care. Such structured things. He’d objected -- vehemently -- to being “pawed at” and “pet like a lap dog” often enough. As though anything less than bruising force would hurt more.

He was so guarded. It made Kidd greedy.

“You're hard, you know,” Law breathed onto his neck.

“Yeah I'm aware.”

“Heh.”

Tattooed fingers ran along Kidd’s side, over the tight bands hugging the ribs (“Serratus anterior…”), and pinpricks rose in their wake. Kidd found himself arching up against the hand desperately.

“Ah, fuck, Trafalgar…”

“Mhm,” Law responded, distracted. Or pretending to be. He followed a particular cord of muscle down Kidd’s powerful thigh with his thumb. “Sartorius. Gracilis.”

“Dick.”

“No that's not a muscle, Eustass-ya.”

“Oh for the love of GOD.”

Law made a sound that was probably a muffled laugh. “Hold still. I'm doing anatomical studies.”

“Oh is that what we're doing.”

“Obviously.”

“Where's the book.”

“It's…” Law looked around for a minute. “On the floor.”

Kidd covered his face with his hands and just laughed. Law sighed dramatically.

“Well. Guess I gotta start from the top again.”

 

---

Law could be a pushy bastard when he topped. But he kept up the slow, focused treatment this time and it was driving Kidd fucking insane.

“I'm gonna flip this the fuck around and pound you inside out if it takes any longer.” Kidd growled from under his arm, slung across his face.

This was as close as he could get to actually asking for it. Here he was laid out, so open and ready, core clenching and unclenching. Needing to be fucked, to have hands on him, in him, whatever. All of it.

“Nah you're not.” Law countered smugly.

“F-uck,” was all Kidd could come up with when a third finger twisted into his slicked up hole. His body tensed and spasmed before yielding itself open.

By the time Law was actually fucking him, Kidd had nearly popped a fucking vein.

Law pushed in slowly, slowly. Until they were pressed together as tight as they could go, breath hot on each other's faces.

“Shit, Tr--ahh…”

“Eustass-ya…”

He was done with all the slow shit. Kidd was a shifting mass of need under him and honestly, he was even more worked up. He dragged almost all the way out only to grind back in hard, and the tight body jolted.

“Aw fuck, yeah…”

Law braced his weight on his arms, pressing Kidd’s hips into the bed. He watched the muscles bunch beneath him with each impact, Kidd straining to meet him. Watched through skin so pale it was translucent, glowing and rippling.

Kidd still wasn't entirely sure what to make of that gaze. All hunger and splitting seams, open lips and ragged breath.

He quirked up one corner of a mocking mouth.

“The fuck’re you-- ah --staring at?”

Law didn't answer for a moment. Under Kidd's skin it was like… layers of red ribbons, wrapping him up. The ribbons all pulling and straining against each other when Kidd moved (when Law moved in him), like something inside was trying to burst out. Under them, ribs curving -- jealous fingers. Wetly clinging membranes. Then under that…

“Your heart. It's…”

Their bodies collided, beaded with sweat. Harder. More. Law could see, hear Kidd's heart beating faster as he picked up his pace. God, he could feel it in his palms. In his dick. Beating so strong it echoed in his ears, drowning out his own.

“Fucking perfect. It's perfect.”

Kidd laughed breathlessly. His heart. What the hell. “...You wanna get your hands on that too?”

Law did.

He wanted to grip it, feel it flutter, make it burst …

… What if I could? he thought. He slowed, thinking, and spread a hand over Kidd’s breastbone. Not just to incapacitate through dismemberment, but to cut a piece from the whole, one vital piece…

Kidd watched the pensive eyes flicker and gave him a swift jab of encouragement with his heel.

“You'll just have to get hold of it the old fashioned way. Hahahaaa…”

“Hah.” Law shook himself from his distracted state. He picked up a pace that was slower than before, though not less jarring. “Like… I should court you or like I should cut you open?”

“Whichever ...ah ... But you should fuckin get me off first.” Kidd guided the tattooed hand down from his chest to his dripping cock, and Law obliged, finally.

They fucked with foreheads pressed together and grips slipping on sweat slick skin. Kidd thought of Law digging his hands right into his chest and came in jerking starts like it was being beaten out of him, legs clamped tight around him. Skin thrumming with the echoes of hands and heartbeat.

 

---

Kidd flipped through the last few drawings with some undefinable flutter in his gut.

“That's some shit you won't see in any other textbook.”

“Mhm.” Law allowed himself to press against Kidd just slightly as they lay sprawled out, sweat drying in the cool air. He was in a fuckin good mood, kinda dazed.

“I do look damn good without skin, I'll say that much.”

“Heh. And with. You can see the suprasternal notch really clearly even under the skin, it's nice. I fuckin love all of that. That area.”

Kidd choked a little but Law didn't seem to realize what he'd said. And that's not even what he meant anyway, Kidd told himself.

But the whole thing kinda was the same as a confession, at least as far as Law went. The drawings, as vaguely threatening as they were, betrayed an intimate preoccupation with Kidd's finer points. Maybe even admiration. Definitely possessiveness. Need.

“I wanna do you too.”

Law grinned, “Already?”

“Not that, idiot. Draw you.”

“I didn’t know you could draw.”

“Well, draft. I can draft things -- just basic. For engineering stuff on the ship, mostly.”

“Oh, nice!” Law bounced up to get fresh paper from the floor by the chair. “How does one usually draft stuff? Don’t you need a triangle thing? Compasses, etcetera?”

“Maybe. I’ll just make an outline for now.”

Law seemed right into this whole idea. “Draw me like one of your machines, Eustass-ya.” He draped himself dramatically across the bed and Kidd shoved him with a grin.

“How do you want me, though.”

Kidd appreciated that question for a moment.

“Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “I don’t know how to draw from life -- like perspective or anything. So it’s gonna be pretty diagrammatic. I just need a few details and some numbers.”

“Like specifications? How to build a Trafalgar?”

“Yeah, so I can make another if this one breaks.”

That made him laugh.

“Okay lie out flat and lemme measure you.”

“With what measuring tools?”

“I'll just eyeball it,” Kidd insisted.

This turned out to mean that he was going to get his hands all over him, which Law supposed was fair. He tensed and shied but stayed mostly still, letting Kidd explore his dimensions and proportions. Pages filled up with ratios and vectors of movement. Things got off track again around when Kidd was testing the rotation arc of his arms and quickly became vicious rutting. Light, skimming hands could become crushing ones so quickly.

Anyway, turned out that Law could get off while his arms were being hyperextended behind his back. Pretty effectively, in fact.

After, when they were laid out next to each other once again, and Law’s breaths were finally lengthening into sleep, Kidd dared to try another light touch. Without their thin pretense of functionality this time -- just want. He smoothed a hand over all the tattoos he'd taken such careful note of earlier. A large heart on his chest with a grinning skull similar to his Jolly Roger. Hearts on his shoulders. Kidd’s fingerprints blooming dark purple on his upper arms.

Sixty-eight kilograms of pressure and Law hadn't made a sound, but a feather touch over the marks and a quiet ah pushed past his lips.

“Whose emblem is that tattoo?”

Law mumbled with his eyes closed, “Someone who died. Long time ago.”

“Someone…” Kidd repeated to himself, but didn't probe. “You going to get any more?”

“Nah.” His breath stuttered slightly when Kidd trailed knuckles down his jaw. “I just like… your marks…”

He fell asleep with Kidd's lips against the shell of his ear.

 

---

A roll of broadsheet tied with string arrived by carrier gull when Law was back on his sub some days later. He stole away to his cluttered quarters and spread the roll out on the bed.

Inside the broadsheet was a large-format technical drawing.

There were three flat outlines of Law: front, back, side. All heavily marked out in blunt pencil, all surrounded by arcs and lines, dotted and solid, indicating measurements and angles of motion. The insides of the outlines were empty except for perfectly to scale renderings of his tattoos.

#kidlaw #trafalgar law #eustass kid #fanart #thank you so much dude i really mean it! #its exactly how I imagined laws drawing style to be ♡