#it just annoys me when i call for help and like 5 people just ignore and walk past me

[jellyjam]

im begging you if you hear a player honking for help to open a door or whatever please help them like it literally does not take even 10 seconds of your time and it actually saves theirs because they wouldn't have to stand there honking desperately for 15 minutes.especially if you're a chibi or a vet that knows some super cool hacks or something i know it's more convenient to glitch your way in but not everyone can do it so basically just.please help players it's the whole point of the game

#it just annoys me when i call for help and like 5 people just ignore and walk past me #sky children of the light #sky cotl #like wity how the game is a lot of stuff is not possible without help of other players #yeah i do think it's shitty that they force ''teamwork'' but that's just how it is

[ludwig-van-gaythoven]

Cabin Fever - (Regina George x F Reader) Part 5

Fandom;

Mean Girls (2024)

Pairings:

Regina George x Reader

Summary:

The students of Northshore go on a school trip for a week in the forest. You end up getting to know the apex predator in a way you’d never seen her before.

Warnings;

Underage smoking, underage drinking, Claustrophobia, homophobia mention

Parts;

Part1// Part 2// Part 3// Part 4// Part 5// Part 6

“Why the fuck is Regina in your room? Why are you even speaking to her? Dude! Fucking answer me!”

Janis’s voice is so loud down the tiny phone speaker that it makes it buzz like an annoying little mosquito.

You scowl and resist the creeping urge to hang up, and throw your phone far far away, maybe off a cliff. You click the volume down and try and muffle the sound of Janis ranting down the speaker by shoving the receiver deep into your pocket, but it’s too late.

Regina has already left. Her bedsheets are left thrown back and crumpled, she usually fixes the blankets back to perfection so she clearly left in a hurry.

You grab your jacket with a huff and stomp outside the cabin to stand in your usual smoking spot and light a much needed cigarette before putting the phone up to you ear.

Janis is still yelling, finishing a sentence you didn’t hear the start of. Some accusation about alliances with the enemy.

“Fucking hell, Janis! It’s not that big of a deal!” You finally snap.

The phone goes silent. It’s a welcome break but you know she’ll start up again.

“Yeah sure, my best friend suddenly being pals with Regina George, not a big deal.” She snarks. “Can I just remind you, that bitch nearly ruined my life! Is that why you’re ignoring my calls? Because you’re too busy becoming plastic?”

You sigh. “It’s not like that.”

That’s true. You haven’t been morphed into some sort of Barbie doll all of a sudden just because you spent some time with Regina. To be truthful, you realise Regina isn’t really like that either. She’s a little messy, she’s flawed, but you think she’s more perfect like that. Your face softens slightly at the memory of yesterday, her mascara dripping down her cheeks with a big grin plastered on her face. She wears a fake mask to protect anyone from seeing her real personality. You get it. It’s easier to take a rejection when you haven’t really shown your true identity.

Your heart aches to defend her. To tell Janis to back off, but you can’t. She wouldn’t understand.

“Look, she got roomed with me because she got drunk with Gretchen and Karen on the first night so the teachers wanted to split them up.” You explain as calmly as you can while your blood boils beneath the surface.

“So why didn’t you think to mention this when I called last?” She snaps back. She’s caught you there.

“Because I knew you’d go all revenge-crazed and pissed off like this!” You shout back. You hear Janis scoff.

“Whatever, I don’t give a shit about Regina. She literally means nothing to me! Less than nothing, I just want to see that bitch suffer-“

“Then why can’t you stop talking about her!” As soon as the words leave your mouth you regret them.

“Fuck you, man.” She doesn’t even give you a second before hanging up.

You take a long draw of the cigarette that’s spent most of its time burning away between your fingers. You felt guilty about arguing with Janis, she’d been your best friend since the start of high school, and you could still see the pain that Regina had caused was still playing on her. You didn’t know the full details but you knew that Regina had outed her in a cruel way and made her out to be obsessed just so she could be with a boy. But that was a while ago, people can change.

So why hadn’t you been able to tell her that you liked girls when she hinted at it? You couldn’t even trust her fully.

You couldn’t help your mind wandering to where Regina might be. That seems to be all you can think about recently. Regina. You never fell for her Queen Bee attitude, high school drama was boring to you, you’d rather steer clear of it. But this new, playful, carefree side to her? You couldn’t get enough of.

She’s probably snuck off to meet Gretchen and Karen. You were surprised that she’d actually followed rules for once and not gone to meet them yet. Was it because you had been there with her instead? She said last night that she had enjoyed hanging out with you.

How much of the phone call had she heard before she left?

You light another cigarette. It’s not like you to chain smoke like this but you can’t help it when you’re stressed. The smoke whirls out in front of you, lines of wispy grey entangle and then disappear in-front of your eyes.

You head back inside the cabin when you’re done. Regina still isn’t back.

You lift your bedsheets ready to try unsuccessfully to get some sort of rest and find tiny pieces of paper, shredded on your mattress. It’s the drawing Regina took.

She clearly heard more than she was meant to.

You brush it onto the floor, not bothering to collect the tiny scraps, that felt more like little broken pieces of your soul.

When you finally close your eyes you’re back in the clearing. This time you don’t feel afraid and you automatically start scanning the shadows between the trees. A pair of blue eyes catch yours, as usual, but as soon as you take a step forward,the big cat slinks back into the shadows and disappears.

When you wake up, Regina still isn’t back. Your stomach sinks. She probably won’t want to speak to you ever again, you won’t even get a chance to explain.

You know you have to be up and ready in 20 minutes but you don’t want to get out of bed, or risk bumping into Regina.

It’s pretty hot outside and you’re not sure what the activity will be today so you put on a black tank and some loose khaki trousers. Regina must have been back when you were asleep because her bed is made and her cupboard door is left open.

When you go over to the campfire pit, she is already there. She’s standing around with the usual two girls but she’s also next to Shane Oman.

That makes you nauseous. He’s grinning and so obviously checking Regina out.

She starts running her hand up and down his bicep and over his chest, giggling and leaning into him. He’s loving it and has a hand around her waist. You turn around so you don’t have to look at whatever show they’re putting on.

It feels like she’s doing it just to spite you.

Seeing her that close to him makes your stomach knot with jealousy, it shouldn’t, it’s not like you’re together.

“Okay everyone listen up! Today and tomorrow are the last days of camp, so you will be hiking and setting up your own camp for tonight. This will combine all of the skills you have learnt this week!” There’s a dull chatter of excitement as maps are passed around and people start getting into groups.

You secretly hoped you’d be paired in cabin groups so Regina might actually hear you out and stop being so pissed off. It would get her away from Shane too.

Much to your annoyance, you’re told you have to pair up with Regina, Gretchen, Karen and Shane because apparently it’s unsafe to go alone.

You’d actually rather be eaten by a bear.

Each group is given a tent, you’re given two, the teachers tell you Shane has to stay in one separately but you know that won’t happen. You’re hoping you can just keep that tent for yourself. You’re also given other supplies like cooking utensils, scissors, a mallet, rope etc.

Shane offers to carry both tents in a pitiful attempt to seem strong and manly. Regina plays straight into it and makes a big deal out of grabbing Shane’s hand and feeling his arms.

It makes you roll your eyes. You’re sure you see the corners of Regina’s lips curve in a smirk.

You end up carrying one of the tents anyway, it’s pretty heavy but at least it gives you an excuse to stay at the back of the group, it’s not like you’ll have anything to talk to them about.

Regina walks in-front of you with Karen and Gretchen on one side, and Shane on the other. You’re pretty sure everyone has forgotten your existence, apart from Regina perhaps.

She’s wearing a black crop top and baby pink mini skirt, it makes being behind the group kind of worth it.

After about 2 hours you get to a dead end, there’s a large rock ledge with a few crude dips for you to put your hands and feet to climb up. There are thick shrubs either side to stop anyone going around. This must be what they meant by testing the skills you’d learnt.

Regina goes up first, Shane is standing almost directly underneath her and is grinning to himself. It makes your stomach turn. She climbs up easily, and stands with her arms folded impatiently when she gets to the top.

Shane goes up next, again making a big deal of being so manly, he practically jumps from one step to re other up the ledge. It makes you cringe. He looks more like an ape.

Regina catches your expression and as soon as he’s up she’s all over him again. Is this some sort of punishment? But why would she be trying to make you jealous that way?

You go up last. It’s not too high so you’re not really afraid.

“Don’t fall, loser.” Regina spits and the whole group burst out laughing.

It stings but you ignore it and carry on walking behind them once you reach the top. Whatever she’s trying to do, to get under your skin, to piss you off, you’re not going to give her the satisfaction.

You notice Shane’s hand sneak down from her waist towards her ass and Regina visibly stiffens and moves away slightly.

Soon enough you come to a small opening in the rocks, must be the second challenge. Even from behind you see Regina tense up. It’s just a narrow crawl space that likely pops out quickly on the other side. There’s a wall of rock that seems impossible to climb that looks to go on for a while either side.

Shane goes through first, followed by Gretchen and Karen.

“I’m not fucking doing that.” Regina huffs once it’s just the two of you, raising her hands. “I’ll walk around.”

“It looks like you’ll be walking for a while.” You try and reason, but she’s already started walking.

“I’ll come with you.” You’re not sure why you offer. The suns setting slightly and you don’t like the idea of Regina going alone. Even if it is just a few minutes to walk around the obstacle.

You follow behind in silence as she walks along the rock wall, thinking about all the things you wish you could say. I’m sorry about what Janis said, I don’t agree with her. I like hanging out with you, I think you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, inside and out.

You want to reach out and take her hand like she was doing with Shane, especially since now you know how soft she is.

You want to gently cup her face and kiss her, feel her soft lips and be intoxicated by her warm vanilla scent. You want to ask her on a date, maybe go to the movies, take her for a nice dinner, kiss her on the front porch.

All the things she’s probably done, or will do with Shane.

It feels like you’re walking for ages, it’s quite a lot darker than when you started. Regina keeps a quick pace ahead of you. Her face fixed in a permanent scowl.

You finally turn the corner and see the entrance to the small cave.

Nobody is there, they’ve left. How long did it even take you to walk round anyway?

“What the FUCK.” She screams. It’s so loud you swear you see birds scattering off their branches. “What bitches!”

She growls and flops down, sitting on a fallen tree trunk. You can see a glimmer of hurt and confusion in her eyes.

“It’s getting dark. We have one of the tents , we should set up some kind of camp.” You say, dropping the tent bag on the floor.

“Whatever. I’m not helping though.” She huffs. You don’t bother arguing, you can tell she’s hurt and you don’t want to make things worse.

You unzip the tent bag and start pulling out poles. There are no instructions and all of the poles look identical. You start arranging them in a way that sort of resembles a tent, you bend the long metal pole and try to force it into a fabric sleeve of the tent material, you think it’s secure and let go but it pings back up with such a force that the whole structure jumps. You leap back, the metal projectile misses your face by millimetres.

Regina’s watching you with an amused expression. It makes you blush. At least she’s in a better mood.

After about an hour of wrestling with tent fabric and poles, you’ve made a structure. You’re not sure if you can call it a tent, or if it’ll stay up but it provides some cover.

As night draws close it gets significantly colder so you collect some wood and dry grass for a small fire. Luckily you always carry your lighter so it was simple enough to start. Both you and Regina sit opposite sides of the fire, on the floor, the smoke isn’t as thick as the silence between you.

You dig around in your bag, hoping that maybe you packed some supplies from the bag the teachers gave you. The others must have most of the food and cooking equipment.

You did pack one thing

Marshmallows.

You hold the bag up to Regina who giggles and finds two thin sticks for you to roast them on over the fire. Neither of you speak still as you hold the stick, turning it every now and then.

You remember one other thing you packed secretly in your bag, you rifle through again and pull out a small hip flask of vodka and take a swig. With no mixer, the liquid burns all the way down to your stomach, you offer it to Regina who grimaces but takes the flask.

You sit for a while, toasting Marshmallows and passing the hip flask back and forth before one of you is buzzed enough to speak.

“You and Shane make a good couple.” You’re not sure why you even say it, you don’t think that at all. Regina seems tense around him and you’re pretty sure he’s only after one thing.

“I know.” She responds flatly. It’s unconvincing.

You swallow another dreadful mouthful of vodka. It feels like willingly swallowing paint thinner.

“Why did you screw over Janis?”

Her brows furrow, she reaches for the flask and takes a drink. That was definitely the wrong thing to say but the vodka makes words tumble out before your brain has a chance to screen them.

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I guess you think I’m a bad person.” She doesn’t meet your gaze and her tone sounds defeated and a little ashamed.

“ I don’t.” You say quickly. “You must have had a reason.”

“Yeah… I did.” She sighs.

You decide not to push it any further.

“Are you looking forward to camp being over?” You decide to try and divert the conversation.

“Not really, there’s not as much pressure here to perform. I don’t like being a bitch you know, it’s just school, it’s survival of the fittest.” She starts “Out here I feel free. I actually miss middle school, I wish I never went to that party, or kissed Janis. I’m sick of everyone thinking I’m fake, nobody treats me like an actual person.”

She looks up at the night sky, a small tear running down her cheek, catching the moonlight which makes it look like a diamond.

“Being with you has felt free.”

Your heart skips a beat. You’re not sure if it’s the alcohol but you get the courage to go and sit next to her. You gently put your arm around her shoulders and she relaxes into you.

You fit together like a puzzle.

You look up and scan the stars with your eyes and find what you’re looking for. You point up to 3 stars in a row.

“There’s Orion’s Belt. Those 3 stars are several times bigger than the sun, and they burn tens of thousands of times brighter.”

Her gaze falls to where you’re pointing.

“It kind of reminds me of you, Karen and Gretchen.” Regina laughs at this. “You shine brighter than anyone else at the school. I know what you mean about just trying to survive, just try not to burn so bright you burn out. You’re perfect enough as you are.”

She sighs, her hand is on your lap now and you struggle to concentrate on the stars.

“And that one sort of looks like a lion” You point up again, Orion’s Belt is the only one you recognise. Luckily this makes her giggle more.

She lifts her head at the same time you turn. She’s so close you can see the stars reflecting in her eyes. In this moment you realise you have two options.

A look of hesitation crosses her face and she starts to pull away.

You make a sudden, probably stupid decision.

As soon as your lips meet you see stars explode behind your eyelids. Her lips are just as soft as you imagined, it takes a second before she’s kissing you back. Her hands reach up and tangle in your hair. It’s gentle and rough all at the same

You pull away. “ I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t-“

She cuts you off with another quick, soft kiss.

“I’m tired, I’m going to sleep.” She says, standing and walking over to the tent which is shockingly still standing.

You’re left, sitting on the ground next to the now dwindling fire, kept warm by the redness in your cheeks. You pull out a cigarette and light it on the smouldering fire.

The star lion in the sky beams down at you.

#wlw #mean girls 2024 #regina george #regina george fanfic #regina george x reader #regina george x you #mean girls #mean girls fanfic #renee rapp #cabin fever

[lovely-keii]

being their sibling

characters: tsukishima kei, oikawa tooru, suna rintarou

a/n: i write a fic every time i rewatch hq LOL sorry ik i said im abandoning this blog buuuut…happy bday to this blog!! (repost from 1/5 because tags broke :(( )

part 1

TSUKISHIMA KEI

looks out for you, but he can’t help that hes so emotionally constipated :’( he tries to give you advice because he genuinely is concerned for you but just is unable to word anything properly. see: “you need to stop talking to that person, you’re being a pushover,” but he just wants you to realize you’re letting people walk all over you.

god forbid he has to comfort you because hes the wrong brother for that - you’re definitely in better hands with akiteru. he might walk in on you crying and contemplate if he’ll even say anything or just ignore it flat out, or he’ll say something like “don’t cry, you look stupid.” if you cry more, he’ll end up swallowing his pride and sitting next to you. he’ll groan and reluctantly, “fine, spill it.”

other than that, he’s going to be a sneaky little prick. definitely the type to take revenge on you if you annoy him. you eat the last piece of chocolate he was saving and suddenly you find your charger hidden deep under your bed. also loves to take things without your permission. “why? i’m just using it, it’s not like you need it now.”

if someone picks a fight with you, he’ll be quick to extract you from the situation before saying something ruder and harsher than usual to the person. and if you tell him you like someone from his team, he’s going to look at you like you’re crazy. “are you insane?!” he’s honestly more bewildered than upset. doesn’t let you anywhere near the gym. he can make an exception for yamaguchi though. “at least it’s not hinata…or worse, kageyama.”

OIKAWA TOORU

your life is never boring with this guy as your brother. you’re literally being dragged everywhere, practices, shopping, team events… you’re like “i’m not even part of the team.” he goes “we can fix that!” and the next day you find out that you’re the manager for the boys’ volleyball team. huh, wonder how that happened.

oh my god, he MILKS you being his manager. “hold my drink, my fans are calling.” “y/n get my towel please.” you’re absolutely seething at the power trip that this guy is on. eventually, you start doing all that for his other team members and not for him, and he gets so whiney. “y/n you’ll get big ugly iwaizumi a towel but not your own sweet brother?!” that earns him a spike to the head from iwaizumi.

he tells you all the gossip about the school, because believe me, he knows A LOT of things. he’ll do his skin care while he forces you to listen to his gossip, cue him getting mad if you try to leave. everyone realizes why you two are siblings when you two walk down the halls and pull the exact same faces at the people he’s told you about in his gossip.

he makes you his little scapegoat for his fangirls. “oh, you want my number? you’ll have to ask y/n for that, they keep my phone with them during practice!” (you dont) “now, why don’t you girls hand all these gifts to my lovely sibling for me?” (you almost immediately chuck them at his face when you see him) but you know the best way to get back at him? when he sees you even slightly conversing with ushijima or kageyama, all hell breaks loose.

SUNA RINTAROU

the devil if the devil was your brother. he takes the ugliest pictures of you, when you’re asleep, when you’re yelling, when you’re crying over a movie. he also loves to send you pictures of animals and send a “look at you in this picture, so cute”. he also takes your things without asking and never returns it, you’ll just find it in his bag one day.

he also is one to order you around, and it drives you mad. “pass me the remote, y/n.” “but it’s nearer to you.” “i’ll tell mom that you-” // “y/n get me a drink from the vending machine.” “why would i do that” “remember when you snuck out and i-” // “get my bag too when you get yours.” “no.” “what i post that one picture of you when you’re about to sneeze-”

but he’s always looking out for you. when creeps try to approach you, he’s quick to react by shooting them a nasty glare. he’s a silent kind of care. standing behind you on elevators, walking on the outer side of the sidewalk, staying up late til you come home and just telling you he just couldnt sleep. little do you know, it’s something he’s always done even as a kid. putting more food on your lunch box, holding the corner of tables when you pick something up so you don’t hit your head, returning your things that are sprawled around the house to your room so you don’t lose them.

and if he ever finds you crying over some guy, he sighs and sits down next to you. “why’re you crying over an idiot?” he then makes snappy insults at the expense of the guy, making you laugh. “see? you look better like that. now stop crying and let me get some sleep.” he closes the light and shuts the door on his way out.

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!! #oikawa x reader #tsukishima x reader #oikawa tooru #tsukishima kei #oikawa tooru x reader #tsukishima kei x reader #suna rintarou x reader #suna rintarou #suna x reader

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for being condescending towards an asexual kid in GSA?

🙃🏳️‍🌈 to find later

Long post so buckle up.

I (17, they/it/he) am one of three co-leaders of my school’s GSA, along with R (18, she/her) and N (17, he/him). All three of us are openly bi, and I’m also openly trans and (most importantly) very loudly aromantic. We’re all in 12th grade now but we were leaders last year (in 11th grade) too. The school/GSA is small enough that all four grades (9–12, so around 13–18 years old) are in the same GSA, there’s no separate upper grade and lower grade groups. We also have two advisors, both cis queer teachers; and some younger queer faculty members also join sometimes for formal events. We take turns running events during club time, such as fun crafts or watching music videos. Sometimes we also do educational stuff or documentaries, including having teachers come in to facilitate discussions.

I’ve been planning (since early December) to run a two part series of discussions about asexuality and aromanticism (separate discussions of each). I really just wanted to do one day about aromanticism, but R said that if I did that, people would derail it and just talk about asexuality anyways, which both N and our advisors also agreed made sense. So, it’s two days, and the asexuality one is first so that the aromanticism one can be closer to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (ASAW).

There’s a girl in GSA, let’s call her A (16, she/her), who’s in 11th grade. She’s very socially awkward and if someone points out that she’s accidentally said something rude or offensive she’ll make a big deal out of not knowing and generally derail the conversation. Also, two years ago A made a ton of “jokes” about me and my little sibling (16MtF) being “secretly dating.” When I asked her (politely at first) to stop, she said she was just joking around, and kept doing it. I asked her again and also asked the theatre teacher and school counselor for help, and eventually she did stop. But A kept following me around and trying to be friends with me, and I was super uncomfortable to the point that I asked the school counselor to facilitate a conversation between A and I so that I could ask her to fucking stop. It somewhat worked. Now she still keeps trying to start conversations with me in the hallways and such, but I just brush her off or ignore her.

The one place I can’t do that is during GSA. Since I’m a leader, I have to be civil to everyone and actually talk to people (R, N, and I set norms at the start of the year during our planning meetings). A is asexual but not aromantic, and today she showed up like 5 minutes into lunch (cafeteria lines are annoying) and loudly asked if she was late. We weren’t doing anything in GSA today, just chilling. At some point during the meeting I announced casually that next week we’d be discussing asexuality, and then the week after that we’d talk about aromanticism, which leads nicely into ASAW during February break. When I said this, A immediately said that she would be extra ace that week [during ASAW]. I was like, “during aromantic spectrum awareness week?!?!” in the same tone of that “during pride month?!?!” meme. She looked like someone had just given her an F on the most important test of the year and said she hadn’t known.

I also made a comment about how there’s way more openly aspec people at our school than at most schools, and N said that maybe the presence of role models is part of that (clear subtext: he was referring to me). I said pretty loudly (more people could hear) that it was kinda funny that I’m the “ace role model” when I’m literally not asexual. A looked super lost and confused at this, and I think she might’ve thought I was ace, even though I’m super open about not being ace, and have told her directly more than once.

Here’s where the potential assholery comes into play. There’s an ad for PrEP that was fairly common on the back covers of theatre playbills in the past year. The ad shows a Black man dressed in ripped leggings with fishnets, shiny knee-length heeled leather boots, and some sort of white leather harness, doing a bridge pose with one leg extended upwards so that the “r” in PrEP is resting on the sole of the boot. The ad has a bright red background and text that says “you cast of PrEP options is changing” along with a small QR code and website link. The pose is somewhat provocative, but not out of place on a playbill for an all-ages show.

During GSA, A was saying that she thought the ad was bad, because of the leather being “fetish gear” and “weird” (basically the same arguments people use to say that gay people shouldn’t be allowed in public). I told A that there’s nothing wrong with someone wearing leather, and she said that “it’s fetish gear and that’s disgusting and degenerate and just bad advertising!”

I explained calmly, like I would to a child (although I probably wouldn’t talk about this topic with a child), that PrEP is a medicine that people take if they anticipate having sex with someone who’s HIV-positive, so it’s okay that the ad is somewhat suggestive. She seemed to accept that, but still said that the leather was weird, and the ad should’ve shown “a diverse group of people getting pills at a pharmacy” instead, because “fetish gear” was too much.

I asked if she thought that all leather clothing was inherently fetishistic, to which A said yes, and then I asked, “do you know that people can’t just choose fetishes?”

She hadn’t known that, but she still said the ad was too sexual. I pointed out that it was a fairly well-targeted advertisement, using theatre references, but maybe A was not part of the target demographic. I also said that sometimes outfits are just hot without there needing to be any fetishes involved, which she didn’t refute, and that even if it was a fetish, that wouldn’t make it inherently “bad” or “degenerate” at all.

A said that she still didn’t like it, and I told her that she was entitled to have whatever feelings she wanted to have, but that doesn’t mean the advertisement itself is a problem.

Another person (17, he/him) called out “[OP], what do you think about kink at pride?” in a sort of nonchalant way, so I walked over while saying “i’m pro–kink at pride.” The conversation eventually moved in other directions, and then club ended and we had to go to our next classes.

TL;DR: given my position of power and responsibility as a GSA leader, AITA for being kinda condescending towards an ace person who’s 2 years younger than me because she was being very sex-negative about an ad for PrEP?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[redxwater]

Waiting Room (Chapter 1)

Leon Kennedy x F!Reader

(Warnings chapter 1 : depression, anxiety, harsh language.)

Chapter 1, Chapter 2,

° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - ° - °

“Yeah, no i’ll be fine Claire. Call you later” a young blonde boy spoke through the phone. Call connected to Washington D.C from NYC. On the other line in the capital was a younger woman. “Okay, text me if there’s anything!” The brunette girl smiled before hanging up. Claire was Leon’s best friend, but she isn’t always capable of helping him. She tries her best though.

Leon didn’t want a foster family, even if it was for the better. He lived with Claire’s family for a few months before getting a scholarship in a music major. He tells himself he’s lucky, in a way… Claire has known him for 4 years, since they were freshmen. Her family loved Leon, sometimes they hoped they would end up together, but they never did.

With a deep sigh, he rolled out of bed and put on the jeans that were on the floor, and a sweater. He threw on his old white sneakers and put some deodorant on. He grabbed his phone and headphones and was out the door.

He didn’t brush his hair, he hadn’t for 3 days. He stuffed some gum in his mouth and spat it out 5 minutes later, before heading into english class. He had been at college for a month, it wasn’t that bad, but he thinks it is. Everything sucks. Literally everything. Depression was something he struggled with even before he lost his parents. He tried therapy for a long while but didn’t feel like it worked.

Leon is a quiet observer, he knows most people in his classes. Well their names at least, today was no different. Despite his depression his grades are peaked, he has the same routine everyday and that includes school work. “Leon Kennedy?” the professor went through the absence list. He sticks his hand in the air and puts it down again. The man in front of the class nods and goes on until it’s done.

English was boring, Leon always has been a very smart kid. But maybe that was a good thing right now too. He didn’t have too put too much effort into everything.

The blonde boy hadn’t shared a dorm for a few weeks, he didn’t expect anyone to move in by now but when he opens his door at the end of the day, he’s surprised by boxes everywhere. He just tries to ignore it and grabs a glass of water.

Leon dials Claires number and waits for her to pick up “Hey what’s up?” The other line speaks. “I think i got a roommate, there’s boxes everywhere” he says while sitting on the small kitchen counter. “Oh cool! Are they nice?” She asks with enthusiasm, hoping Leon could make some friends, maybe. “Dunno, maybe. Haven’t met them yet. But it’s a mess here and i don’t like it” he mumbles a bit while inspecting the boxes in the room.

Leon has always been quite neat if it comes to anything but his bedroom. His bedroom is a mess, not disgusting but just a mess. “Can’t you put it all in their room?” She asks sounding a bit crisp through he phone. “Why would i? It’s not my shit. I’m just gonna be in my room.” He says and abruptly hangs up. He’s not annoyed about sharing a dorm. He doesn’t care. As long as they acknowledge each other’s presence and keep things to as much as a “hi” there should be no problem.

Leon settles behind his desk in his room and does some homework before playing a few games. Around 7 he goes out the door, there’s still boxes. Where could that roommate be?

“Oh shit i’m sorry!” A girl bumps into Leon in front of the dorm room he came out of. “Oh you’re my roommate!” You exclaim. “Right.” Leon dryly replies. You tell him your name and stick out your hand for the blonde guy shake. “Leon.” He shakes your hand. “Can you sort those boxes out?” He asks with an annoyed tone “Oh yeah totally” you smile and go into the dorm. “See you later, Leon” you close the door and Leon walks away.

You spend all evening unpacking and put stuff everywhere around the dorm. You accidentally open the door to Leons room, thinking it was the bathroom. The room is dark, it smells fine. Mostly like men’s deodorant. Even in the dark you see clothes everywhere on the floor. You shrug your shoulders, you’re not the neatest either.

After 2 hours Leon returns and looks slightly surprised for a second to see you. He’s not used to living with someone in his dorm. He doesn’t say anything and just walks by to his room. Before he can enter you speak “where did you go?” You ask trying to get to know him a bit. “Doesn’t matter” he cuts off and closes his door. Weird guy, you think. But there’s something about him, you just know.

-

Thanks for the votes on my poll pookies!! Hope u like it

#leon #leon kennedy #leon kennedy fluff #leon kennedy smut #leon kennedy x reader #re4 #resident evil x reader #leon kennedy x you

[screamingatanemptyroom]

The Healer Pt 4

The story continues. I'm still enjoying this one, so we'll keep going!

Part 1 / 2 / 3 linked here. (If I get to 5+ parts I'll make a master post)

Enjoy!

___________________________

ONE YEAR EARLIER

“Natalie! You’re here!”

Jack shouted with excitement when he saw me. Garrett and Rita trailed behind him, their expressions happy, if a bit mild and unenthused. I was still sitting on the ground, catching my breath after my first battle in this strange world. The corpses of the monster flowers had faded into the grass, leaving little evidence of my fight behind. I waved to them, feeling a strong sense of relief in seeing familiar faces.

The three of them had been my teammates in Fantasy Realm, even if they weren’t the kindest people I had ever known. While playing together they were often inpatient with me, unforgiving of mistakes, and constantly pushing me to spend more time and money improving my character when they knew I had very little of both. I had always given in, and disliked myself for doing so, hoping it would improve their opinion of me, knowing deep down it wouldn’t. I might call them friends… and I would be shocked if they called me the same.  But after waking up in this weird real world of the game, I was just happy to know anyone at all.

I was afraid to be alone.

The group reached me, and with a grin, Jack reached out and helped me to my feet. I brushed the dust off of myself and looked them over. They all looked like they had in our old world, the only difference was their clothing. Jack was dressed in leather armor, reinforced my metal along the chest and back. Garrett had a large sword strapped across his back, with scant coverings over the rest of his enormous frame. Rita had a simple cloth robe and a large wooden bow.

“We all chose our familiar classes.” Jack saw my studying look and informed me. “Seemed the safest thing to do given that we don’t know what happens if you die in here.”

Rita rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you guys are taking this seriously! This can’t be real. We're still in the game! It’s just some hoax, someone hacked the game. Eventually my dad will tear the VR company apart, sue them into oblivion and then we’ll be let out!”

I paused at that. “We weren’t playing the game when this happened though.”

“We just forgot.” She answered forcefully, her gaze annoyed as usual as she met my own.

Rita had always disliked me. Our parents knew each other, her father was a well-known lawyer who had pushed her to follow in his footsteps. As someone who had struggled with the weight of parents’ expectations, I sympathized. But she had quit law school after a week, turning to full time gaming instead. She didn’t do well enough to make any money, but fortunately her mother paid her bills.

Her father was disapproving to say the least. He apparently used me as an example to her of someone successfully “taking over the family business,” never mind that I hated the pressure, resented my parents’ strict expectations and escaped whenever possible. It didn’t matter. Rita despised me, and no attempts from myself or from Jack could smooth the rift between us.

Garrett looked me over from head to toe, confused. “You don’t have a weapon.”

I froze at his words. Garrett had a large sword, obviously a barbarian type class. Jack had a one-handed sword, a fighter or swordsman. Rita was an archer with her bow. But me…

There was only was class in the game that couldn’t use weapons.

“No…” Rita started laughing, so hard that tears were forming in her eyes. “No… you DIDN’T do something so STUPID….!”

Garrett was shaking his head, frowning disapprovingly. I ignored them, my entire attention was on Jack. We had been friends since freshman year of college. He had helped me find my first class, I tutored him in chemistry. We had supported each other through ups and downs, told each other about our fears and dreams…  

And he was looking at me with hatred in his eyes.

“You are a Healer.” His voice was quiet, but the lack of emotion in his tone made my hackles raise. I started to back away.

“Jack… I…”

His hand gripped my throat, and I was lifted off the ground. I gasped, unable to get air, and struggled against him, but with a strength stat of -10 I knew there wasn’t much hope. I wouldn’t be able to cast my healing spells either, without being able to speak the activation word.

I need to be able to cast without speaking. My brain focused on that, almost desperately avoiding dealing with the situation I was currently in: My friend was killing me.

**The Healer enters an early hypoxic state - 10 damage for each second that airway compression remains in place. **

**The Healer takes 10 damage. **

I had only seconds to live.

** The Healer takes 10 damage**

I grabbed his hand, focusing all my desperation into the need to cast my only spell: Small Incision.

** Through sheer force of will, The Healer has discovered Wordless Incantation**

**The Healer casts Small Incision. Jack the Hero takes 1 damage.**

As the messages floated across my vision, Jack yelped in pain, clutching his bleeding hand, dropping me to the ground. I laid still for a few moments, focusing on breathing, the pain of my neck and in my lungs a reminder of what had just occurred. I stared up at Jack, hoping to see remorse on his face.

There was nothing but rage.

“How DARE you pick a useless class like healer?” He snarled, holding pressure on his hand to stop the bleeding while staring down at me. “Our lives could depend on doing well in this game, and you seriously chose a class with minimal fighting potential, whose healing abilities are worse than any potion that can be purchased in a shop?”

He stepped closer, and I flinched back, my heart beating wildly. “You are so obsessed with your parents’ disapproval, that even in a life-or-death situation you had to pick being a doctor? Are you really so messed up?”

I opened my mouth to explain. I knew this class well, the strengths and weaknesses. I could use it to the team’s benefit. I had been a good teammate, one of the reasons we had placed so highly in the last tournament. I wanted to say all this and more.

But as I stared into the disappointment in his eyes, I felt myself slipping into old habits. Of staying quiet and nodding. Of keeping the peace and letting myself take the blame. I hated it, despised myself for it… but kept silent all the same.

“Should we just leave her behind?” Rita asked, giving no concern to me as I struggled to catch my breath after Jack’s strangling attempt. “She’s useless after all.”

“She used to provide good support.” Garrett spoke up. “We can keep her on the team until we find someone more useful…”

“I am not giving a spot on our team to a healer.” Jack closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a moment, as if trying to calm himself down. Finally, he looked down at me coldly. “You can tag along with our team, without an official spot. You will do your best to be useful. Otherwise, we will leave you to die.”

Leave them! My heart screamed at me. Being alone is better than this! You didn’t commit some great sin by becoming a Healer! You just chose the best you could! Tell them!

Slowly, I nodded. “Fine.” My voice was still hoarse from the pressure he had placed on my throat. I adjusted my tone with the ease and familiarity of practice. “I’ll follow along.” I pushed the screaming voice in my head back, along with my pride. I knew I was worthless, a failure. I had been told that every day by the two people on the planet who were supposed to love me the most. Jack was only the latest person to say it out loud.

This was what I deserved.

The first month passed quickly. We went on multiple quests together, and settled into a comfortable rhythm. Jack would take the lead, with Garrett beside him to tank. Rita picked off far away opponents, and supported from the back. And I…

I did everything I could.

Outside of fights, I was cooking, keeping inventory, asking for quest information, and keeping the gear repaired and functional. Many nights I stayed up late, sharpening swords or repairing gear, only to have my hard work receive a nod and no other recognition.

In fights, I demanded even more of myself. Slipping in between enemies, causing damage. I delved down most of the “surgical” pathway of the healer ability, which allowed me to cause a diverse array of damage. I built up my MP until I could activate Wordless Incantation, as I found the group's irritation was a lot less if they couldn’t hear me. I immobilized enemies and allowed the others to finish them off. Because I had a hand in almost every single enemy’s death, I received a good amount of XP and fame from each fight, which angered Jack to no end.

“Stop stealing our experience!” He snapped after a fight, reading the notification that stated the rewards and experience given out.

“You asked me to immobilize them.” I answered quietly, feeling tired. “Do you want me to stop?”

“…” He glared at me silently for a few moments before answering. “Figure out a way to do it without taking my XP.”

“…sure.”

“I mean it, Healer.” From the moment he heard my class, he had never called me by my name. Our friendship, the time we had spent together… none of it meant anything next to the weight of the one undeniable fact:

I was a Healer. And therefore, in his eyes, I was a burden.

I kept my head down, trying to help out as much as possible. I learned not to ask for recognition. To not expect thanks. And I thought things would never change.

And then came the day we met Winter.

________________

PRESENT DAY

“Ouch!” Stephanie yelped as I carefully placed the needle through her skin, placing a simple suture across the wound on her calf. I didn’t hesitate with her cry of pain, tying the knot and moving on to the next stitch.

“The area has been numbed with magic, don’t pretend it hurts.”

“Yeah, I was just messing with you.” Stephanie laughed stuck her tongue out. “How did you know?”

“Because I know how it feels to sew my wounds shut without the local anesthesia spell.” I kept working without looking up. “You wouldn’t just be saying ‘ouch.’”  

“Uh…Well, thank you.”

I felt surprised at her words. After a year with the Hero’s party, I was so used to doing things without any gratitude or recognition. You’re not with them anymore. I let out a mental sigh of relief at the thought, and smiled at Stephanie. “You’re welcome.”

“YOU SMILED!” Stephanie tried to get up to hug me, but Alton reached over from where he was sewing cloth nearby and pushed her back down, shaking his head with a grin.

“Don’t interrupt her work.” Winter’s response was much colder, causing Stephanie to freeze in place.

“I’m on the last one anyways.” I squared off the last knot on the suture, cutting the tails and placing a clean bandage over my work. “Keep it dry for 48 hours, and then you can remove the outer covering and bathe.”

“Not to cheapen all the work you just put into repairing this cut for me…” Stephanie hesitated. “But wouldn’t a healing potion be easier?”

Alton shook his head, but before he could say anything Winter spoke up. “Stupid human.”

“HEY! I’m not stupid!” She glanced at me. “Right?”

“No, you’re not.” Raising an eyebrow at Winter, who settled down with a grunt, I continued. “Have you noticed that over time you’ve had to use more powerful healing potions?”

She thought that over. “Well, yeah, but… I’m higher level, and have more HP… Isn’t that normal?”

“Have you tried to use a basic potion recently?” I pulled one out, and tossed it to her. “Here.”

Stephanie caught it, clearly confused. “I’m only missing 5 HP… I don’t need something that heals 10…”

“Try it.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “If you insist…” She drank the potion quickly, and then flinched at the notification. “…It didn’t work? … Not even the cut healed.” 

Alton continued to sew, but spoke up. “The more you use healing potions, the less they work. Fortunately, this seems limited to healing potions… mana recovery and other types of potions such as detoxification seem to not develop the same resistance. It’s also a slow process, but it’s becoming a universal issue. If you check the world chat this is a heated topic of discussion. Most people believe the that it’s related to level… but that’s not the case.”

“How do you know that?”

“They still work on me.” I answered quietly. “That’s why I carry the basic ones around.”

“Foolish humans… these potions were meant for true lifesaving emergencies… a basic healing potion should be enough to recover up to 50% of your health… but you drink them like water until they are worthless to you.” Winter sighed, looking over at me with a small smile. “That is why the Healers are such a vital class. In a world of constant danger and battle, of destruction and pain, only they have the power to heal and preserve. They are a noble, selfless light that protects those around them… someone to be protected at all costs. There should be a Healer in every party… but instead Nat is the only one left.”

“You did save me before!” Stephanie did get up unobstructed and hugged me. “Thank you!”

“And me.” Winter added, staring at the ground. “She saved me as well.”

“Hey, I distinctly remember passing out in front of her and being saved too, guys!” Alton spoke up, tying up his thread and checking the repair on his cape before looking at me. “I guess we are all indebted to you.”

I stared at all of them, feeling disturbed in my heart. “You guys… I’m…”

I’m worthless. Weak. And my weakness was used to destroy countless lives.

“… Thank you.” I silenced the words in my heart, and spoke a simple thanks instead.

“…” Winter was staring. I always felt he could see more than I wanted him too, as if my hidden thoughts and feelings were on display in front of him. But instead of commenting, he simply bent down, plucking a blue flower from the ground, and handed it to me.

“That’s so cute!” Stephanie clapped her hands, before freezing. “Wait! Are you two…?”

Alton paused in packing up his things and stared in our direction.

I shook my head silently at her before turning back to Winter. “Thank you. The mountain wild flower’s petals have strong anti-inflammatory properties. I’ll dry it out and process it for medication at our next stop." I pressed the flower carefully in one of my books and packed it away.

Winter nodded at my words. “You’re welcome.”

“It’s for medicine?” Stephanie frowned, disappointed. “Well, that’s boring. Where’s my drama?!”

Alton smiled widely. “Oh, don’t worry, I got your drama! Look in the world chat!”

Pausing, all of us pulled up the chat, excluding Winter, who leaned on a tree nearby and watched the display over my shoulder. The top topic in the chat was skyrocketing with engagement… and seeing the title it wasn’t hard to understand why:

___________________________

“TROUBLE IN PARADISE? HERO’S PARTY SEEN ARGUING WITH NEW MEMBER REBECCA THE SORCERESS! IS THE USELESS HEALER MISSED?”

There was great discussion today among players as a loud disagreement broke out among the Hero’s Party after their last quest line. Although it is unknown the exact nature of it, it seems to be surrounding the recent addition to the party.  Rebecca the Sorceress is the newest member of the Hero’s Party after the departure of the much-despised Healer. Many had cheered her arrival, as well as supporting the apparent budding relationship between the Hero and his new magical lady.

___________________________

“And you guys ask why I think humans are stupid.” Winter muttered as he read along with me. I shushed him and continued on with the post.

___________________________

But is there a fracture in the once iron-strong team? Words such as “Useless,” “Hiding” and “Potion sponge” were heard shouted by Rita the Holy Archer, with the Hero defending and Garrett the Giant siding beside Rita. Rebecca appeared to be in tears. Is this bullying the newcomer? Is Rebecca actually dragging the team down? What does this mean for the plans to attack the forty second gate in a few days?

Discuss your thoughts below!

___________________________

I sighed and closed the chat, seeing that comments were mostly just going back and forth over the juicy gossip. “What a mess.”

“You don’t sound surprised.” Alton commented with a grin.

“No. I’m not. Rebecca… she’s…”

“Useless?” Stephanie interjected.

“Full of tears and excuses?” Was Alton’s contribution.

“A snake who poisons those foolish enough to trust it.” Winter quietly added.

I laughed. “… I was going to say she’s a lot of drama… but I like your answers better. They are used to a certain standard of having everything done for them, even if I backed off quite a bit towards the end, when things had gotten really bad. I don’t think Rebecca will see my role within the group as appealing, though.”

“Oh well, their loss is our gain!” Stephanie cheered, hugging me again. “Let’s go hunting! I want meat for dinner!” She pulled out her sword excitedly.

“Yes, Natalie should have some meat to help her recover from all the battles we’ve been through.” Winter nodded, checking his bow and following.

Alton stood up and looked over at me. “Meat for dinner doesn’t sound bad… what do you think, Ms. Healer? Do you want to go hunting?”

“I don’t want to ruin their fun…” I started to say, looking at the backs of the two already moving ahead.

Alton’s voice was serious. “No. I’m not asking about them. I’m asking what YOU want to do.”

I paused, and my gaze met his own. After a few moments, I smiled. “Meat sounds great for dinner.” And I meant it.

“Then let’s go hunting with them.”  Was his answer.

And hunting we went.

With only two days left before we would face the forty-second gate.

#writing #fantasy #the healer #violence #magic #video game like world #betrayal #friends

[just-another-star-47]

I've started playing HL again, this time with the aim of not rushing through all the quests like a Beserker and then realising that the ending is pretty modest.

In the process, I realised a few things that I only had vague feelings about the first time through.

Sebastian's questline edition (until finding the relic):

1. Sebastian is a lot cockier and bolder than I remembered him being.

2. He is definitely keen and interested in building up a certain reputation for himself (how often exactly does he tell MC what a bad boy he is? In the first crypt mission he explains that he likes splendour and so for me there's always a certain reputation involved, he's jealous because MC and Ominis have outstanding abilities and he doesn't).

3. He tends to all my inner sore spots (I think many people feel this way, otherwise he wouldn't be so popular). He protects his loved ones in the most unhealthy way there is - by sacrificing himself and not letting them make decisions about whether they want to or not. He thinks it's his duty to carry all the burdens alone because he thinks he's the only one who can.

4 I think he's one of those people who treats his loved ones the way he would have liked to be treated himself. (The moment in the crypt when he tells MC that he's proud of them??)

5. I don't think his interest in dark magic came with Anne's curse, even if it may have been purely academic before.

6. I find Sebastian and Omini's friendship rather... difficult. In the first run through I was actually rather annoyed by Ominis because I couldn't understand how he didn't want to help Sebastian - now I tend to go along with the people who call him the 'better' person of the two. I'd be really interested to know what their friendship was like before Anne's curse, because at this point in the game, I think the only thing holding them together is their shared past.

7. MC is incredibly manipulative and spiteful. The way MC convinces Ominis to go to the Scriptorium? Urgh. And after Sebastian calls MC ignorant - she counters with his uncle? What the hell?

8. That the Imperio curse was the first spell that popped into Sebastian's head makes sense, considering he's had no control over any major events in his life.

9. Just a thought, but if Sebastian taught himself all the unforgivable curses, he must have practised them too? Scary... but yeah...

#hogwarts legacy #sebastian sallow #hogwarts legacy thoughts #sebastian sallow thoughts #sebastian sallow headcanon #sebastian sallow questline

[squerlly]

flames of Desire chapter 13: finale

Alastor x (f! bunny reader) -FLUFF-

your POV:

I feel warm... my body aches and everything is quiet, I open my eyes to see I'm back in the hotel. sitting up my head starts pounding making me wince in pain, looking beside me Angel is sitting in an armchair next to me asleep "A-angel..." he opens his eyes before standing up "shit ya awake!!" "Angel what happened were-" Remembering what happened panic starts to set in "weres Alastor!!! is he okay, I- I have to find him!!"

swinging my legs over the bed I try to stand up "Wow there ya can't just get up, you're still in bad shape!!" ignoring his protests I use what little strength I have left to rush out of the room in search of Alastor. heading straight for his room I bust open the door to see Charlie hovering over Alastor who is sitting up on his bed with bandages wrapping his chest down to his waist, his ears perk up and he turns his head to look at me with wide eyes as I run towards his bed.

"You're alive!!! your alive your alive!!!!" I hug him tightly careful not to hurt him, he freezes for a bit before returning my hug, burying his face in the crook of my neck "Yes mon cher I'm alright~" he chuckles before Angel walks in with a huff "damn babes, how- how are you so fucken fast..." everybody in the room laughs.

vaggie stands beside Charlie with a smile "Alastor is lucky, barely making it if it wasn't for Angel calling us when he did" "Yes, thank you guys so much...for everything~" Charlie smiles brightly "Of course, were friends after all, an that's what friends do!". the moment was interrupted by yelling coming from the lobby that sounded like... "is that, Vox?"

everybody gives an annoyed "yes!" "I thought you guys killed him or something" "Ye well... we were thinking you should decide his punishment~" Angel says with a smirk. helping Alastor stand we all walk downstairs to the lobby seeing Vox tied up screaming at husk who's just ignoring him and cleaning glasses, upon noticing us he grimaces "I thought I killed you!!!" "It's going to take more than that to kill me, old pal~" Alastor says with his classic toothy smile making Vox's screen glitch.

I walk up to him as Angel stands beside me with a bat in his hands, handing it to me I hit Vox in the face with it "That's for kidnapping me!" smack "That's for dropping me 5 fucking times" Smack "that's for slapping me and hitting angel" and with one final hit to the head "that's for shooting Alastor!!!". at this point half of Vox's screen was broken only letting him see from one eye. I drop the bat with a huff "Now... vaggie how did you say you learned how to fight~?"

on top of the roof vaggie and Angel carry a half conscious Vox untying him "What are you gonna do kill me!" I look at him with a smirk "Nah that's too easy, have fun~" he gives me a confused look before I push him off the roof and into a chaotic fighting grounds for sinners, hearing him scream as he gets torn apart....

after that things were better, for well...everyone. Valentino was dead and Angel's soul was free, changing his name back to Anthony. Alastor healed off his wound and was back to his old timey overlord self! Vox lost his status as an overlord, his assistant taking his place as the new media overlord. needless to say, he was more responsible and even got approval from Alastor.

Charlie convinced her dad to contribute to the hotel, getting it remodeled and posted on 666 News, Alastor even got his very own radio tower which he was very pleased to have. I got the job of greeting people at the door when checking into the hotel with a uniform and everything. maybe hell wasn't so bad after all...

-bonus-

I was finishing checking in some guests, handing them their keys when I heard a knock on the door, I rushed over opening it "Why hello, my dear!"

thank you all for supporting me throughout my blog, I loved making this series and I intend to continue writing content for you all. I love you guys and I can not describe that enough!!! as always have a wonderful day/night and stay tunned~

-squerlly

@pooplyface1423 @strippezzz

for more content and writing please click this masterlist

#hazbin #alastor #alastor x reader #hazbin alastor x reader #hazbin hotel x you #alastor x reader smut #hazbin hotel smut #hazbin hotel x reader #alastor x y/n #hazbin hotel

[bookworm551]

The Great War | Part 2 | Neteyam Sully x Omatikaya!reader

Summary: You and Neteyam were childhood friends, always looking out for each other, but when the Sky People returned, neither of you could have anticipated the way it would affect your relationship with one another.

A/N: First off, I just want to say that for everyone who enjoyed the first part, I want to give y’all a lil kiss on the forehead. I definitely got carried away (again), so I split what was going to be part 2 into parts 2 and 3, so I’ll have the next one up real soon. Also, in case you can’t tell, I firmly believe that Neteyam’s love language is physical touch. Hope you enjoy!

6.1k words

Warnings: canon-typical violence, angst

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

It was ten days before you were allowed outside the camp again. Though you had tried to get out sooner, you were under strict orders to rest from Neteyam and (more convincingly) Mo'at. You were bored out of your mind most of the time, but Tuk had been very sweet to visit you in her abundant free time. Kiri had also taken it upon herself to become your designated healer, much to Neteyam's comfort.

He had visited as often as he could. It was sweet, but you couldn't help but feel like he was hovering somewhat over you. He treated you like you were going to shatter if you so much as stood up. You knew he was just being cautious, but you were starting to feel suffocated in the tent.

Now, you had been given the all-clear to travel out into the forest for the first time. Your side still ached if you stretched too far, but for the most part, you felt fine. You still experienced headaches as a result of hitting your head against the crate, but you didn't want to be coddled any more than you already had been, so you didn't say anything about them.

Walking amongst the vibrant plants, you breathed in the fresh forest scent. It was refreshing to be in an open space after lying for so long in the dimness of the healing tent. You had no real destination in mind as you walked about, you just wanted to get out of the village. Besides, Kiri agreed that stretching your legs and being in the sun would do you some good after your days spent inside.

"Don't overdo it," she warned you as you pulled yourself over a large boulder. Your side ached dully, but you ignored it. "You sound like Neteyam," you called out over your shoulder. "I'll be fine." You heard her chuckle behind you. "If something happens to you, he'll skin me alive," she said.

You rolled your eyes. Even Kiri could see the overprotectiveness of her older brother. It was true though; he would be upset if something happened, which was why you didn't tell him you were going out.

"I want to go up," you told your friend as you stared up at the light dappling the leaves overhead. Catching up to you, Kiri followed your gaze at the canopy above. "We can go slow," she conceded. "But you have to tell me if you're hurting. If something happens, you're going to be back in the healing tents for another 2 weeks."

That was incentive enough for you to be mostly honest with her, but it was hard to be completely truthful when admitting you were in pain just made you feel weak. Before you could start climbing, however, a figure emerged from the brush nearby.

"What are you doing?" Neteyam asked as he caught sight of you up on top of the boulder you just climbed. You huffed in mild exasperation. Of course he was here. You had deliberately left while he was out to avoid his concerned objections.

"Getting some fresh air," you stated simply. "Care to join?"

He shot you and Kiri a look of disapproval. "You should not be climbing," he told you sternly. "You could reopen your wound." You sighed at his warning. You were starting to become annoyed by his constant caution. It was just a few days ago he protested the idea of you walking around, so you knew that at every milestone, you were going to hear some sort of resistance from him.

"She is doing fine," Kiri defended you. "I am with her to make sure she doesn't strain herself." Neteyam, you could tell, was still hesitant to let you out of his sight. "I'm just going around to stretch my legs," you said. "You can come, but you can't stop me from going."

He sighed and shook his head, but you were pleased by the small smile that tugged at his lips. Pulling himself up to where you and Kiri were standing, he said, "I don't think I can stop you from doing anything." You smiled back at him. "I'm glad you see the truth," you replied triumphantly.

The three of you pressed on through the foliage together. It wasn't long before Kiri became distracted by the beauty of the forest. You always found her endless wonder endearing. "How did you know we were out here?" You asked Neteyam as Kiri strayed away from the two of you.

"Tuk," he responded simply. You huffed out a sharp breath, peeved at the betrayal of the youngest Sully. He smirked at your reaction. "She didn't mean to tell," he explained. "She was complaining to a friend about how my grandmother made her stay behind to help her instead of going with you, and I just so happened to hear."

"I see," you replied solemnly. "Then I suppose she is forgiven." There was a brief pause, and you could feel his eyes on you. Meeting his gaze, you saw that he looked a little crestfallen. "You do not have to hide these things from me," he told you gently. You glanced away in discomfort. It wasn't that you were trying to hide things from him, but you just wanted a little break from his constant oversight.

"I know you're worried," you began carefully, "but sometimes, it feels like you are too worried. I am strong and healing well." You gestured to the laceration, now a large scab, that traced across the right half of your stomach. His eyes fixed on it for a moment before he blinked hard and looked away. You caught his moment of discomfort and sighed.

The both of you carried on walking in half-awkward silence. You pulled yourself up onto a large fallen log that was obstructing your path and leaped down onto the lower ground, the impact sending a jolt of pain across your stomach, but you managed to stifle your reaction.

"Did that hurt?" Neteyam asked. Okay, maybe you didn't manage as well as you thought.

"Just a little tight," you dismissed. He looked at you with a concerned gaze, evidently not believing you. Taking a deep breath, you turned to face directly in front of him and grabbed his broad shoulders with both hands. You held him for a moment and stared up into his eyes.

"You are too worried," you told him after a heartbeat. "I am not going to break. I need you to trust me when I say I am fine." You looked up at him pleadingly, keeping your hands resting on his shoulders. He gazed down at you softly with a small sigh. He brought his hands up and wrapped them around your forearms.

"I'm sorry," he said gently, rubbing his thumbs softly back and forth across your skin. "You are right, I am worried about you." You smiled faintly and corrected him, "Too worried." He rolled his eyes before nodding. "Alright, too worried," he conceded. "I will stop."

You nodded your head gratefully. "Thank you," you said, dropping your hands from his shoulders. Neteyam smiled at you, then made an exaggerated thinking face. "Well," he began reflectively, "I will never stop worrying about you. How can I not worry about you when you do stupid things all the time?" You rolled your eyes and shoved him playfully. He laughed.

"And you never listen to me!" He continued as you turned and started walking again. "How am I not supposed to worry?" You couldn't help but smile at that. "I do listen to you," you argued, "when you say something worth listening to."

After that day, you noticed Neteyam's overly cautious behavior diminish. Occasionally throughout the week, he would catch you wincing when you stretched your right arm up too quickly, or he would notice how you rubbed your temple when a migraine hit, but respecting the boundary you set, he never said anything.

A few days after your walk in the forest, you were invited by a handful of your tribesmen close to your age to join them in a morning hunt. You were extremely grateful for the chance to get out and do something more than wander around aimlessly with Kiri. For young adult Na'vi, hunting and foraging were sort of social events amongst friends, so you were eager to join.

As the sons of the Olo'eyktan, Neteyam and Lo'ak were also invited to come with the group. Besides the two Sully boys and yourself, there were three more in the party. Getting ready to go out, you could see the look of unease on Neteyam's face, but he said nothing until the rest of the group made their way toward the edge of the ikran rookery.

"Why don't we go on foot?" He asked. Everyone paused and looked at each other, mildly confused. "Why would we do that?" Lo'ak asked the question everyone else was thinking. Neteyam's eyes shifted to you uneasily, and you clenched your jaw, expecting him to call you out in front of the others.

"Isn't your ikran injured?" He asked you. It was a cover, and you knew it, but at least he didn't outright mention your injury as the reason for wanting to hunt on foot. You gave him a warning look. "I checked on her yesterday. Her injuries have healed nicely," you told him, emphasizing every word of your last sentence pointedly.

He understood your passive statement and held your stare. As subtly as possible, you gave him a look that said, Don't you dare. A beat of tense silence passed between you before he looked away and nodded. Taking your eyes off of him, you looked over at Lo'ak. His eyes were awkwardly glancing back and forth between you and his brother, one of his human-like eyebrows raised. He clearly caught the silent conversation you just had, and you felt your ears warm in embarrassment.

Walking into the rookery, you each called out to your ikran. Kazi descended before you, and you gave her an affectionate rub on the crest of her jaw. Her wings had indeed healed nicely in the time since the accident, and you were eager to take to the skies with her again. You could feel Neteyam's eyes on you as you checked the cinching of your saddle, and when you glanced over at him, you could read the apology on his face.

Huffing out a little sigh, you looked away. Sometimes, you wanted to stay mad at him, but he always made it so hard.

You attached your queue to Kazi and mounted onto her back. The six of you took off of the ground and rose over the trees. Feeling the rushing air around you made you realize just how cramped you've felt since your injury, and you couldn't help but give a few whoops of glee.

The sun shone brightly overhead. Even though you loved the feeling of its warmth on your skin, being in the brightness after spending so much time in the dimness of camp caused your head to hurt some. It didn't help that after 2 weeks of resting, your body wasn't so used to the physical demands of flying anymore. The tension in your core and thighs to stay balanced caused your breathing to become labored after a while, which didn't help with the onsetting headache.

Finally, the group swooped down to a clearing in the trees. There, you dismounted with the rest of the group and tried to hide your breathlessness. Taking your bow and a few arrows, you joined the others in descending to the forest floor. Given the time of year, you were all familiar with the migration habits of the deer-like yerik and knew there would be several in this area.

Jumping down from branch to branch gave you a rush of adrenaline you had been missing for so long. While still in the trees, you and your companions laughed and chatted together. Mekar, one of the hunters among you, was talking about the last mission the war party had flown just a few days prior. "Too bad you were taken out by a human," he told you with a laugh. "You could have seen how much damage we did."

His comment burned. It was embarrassing enough having to be on bed rest for so long, but it didn't help that everyone in the clan was aware of it, too. Already peeved by Neteyam's earlier attempt to coddle you, Mekar's words pushed you deeper into your irritation.

"That's not funny," Neteyam told him sharply. Being the son of Toruk Makto, his words held a lot of weight, so his quick reprimand shut down the other hunter. You moved in irritated silence, thinking about how you've been set back by your injury.

One of the worst consequences of your accident was that you were not able to conduct the Uniltaron trial at your designated time. The Dream Quest requires much mental and physical strength, both of which were affected by your injury. You were keenly aware that you and Lo'ak were the only ones in the group who had not completed the trial, though Lo'ak had nearly a full year left before he was eligible.

Your group finally reached the floor of the forest. You felt out of breath, and you could feel your heart beating hard in your chest which was making your head pound. Taking a few steadying breaths, you closed your eyes for a second, trying to ignore your migraine. When you looked up, you could see that your friends had already started to move in one direction, so you quickly sprinted after them.

You all moved in silence, looking for signs of a nearby herd. Lo'ak found it first, a single hoof print in the dirt. You all followed his lead, and soon enough, you could all see a large gathering of yerik through the foliage.

Lo'ak got first rights to the herd. He made a quick, clean kill of a buck, but as expected, the whole herd scattered as it fell. You all shot after the fleeing creatures, but Mekar was the only other hunter to catch one in the haunches, moving in swiftly to make a clean kill with his knife.

As you and the others gathered your arrows, you noticed a chittering noise in the distance, the sound of a forest hen. Perking up, you listened closely and turned in the direction it came from.

"There are forest hens over there," you told your friends, pointing in the direction of the noise. They listened attentively until another chittering noise echoed quietly in the distance. "Yeah," one of the other hunters, Meya, began, "but I would rather stay on the yerik." She pointed at where the herd had run off in the opposite direction of the forest hens.

The rest of the group deliberated until you all agreed on a strategy. Lo'ak and Mekar would take their kills back up to their ikran and try to find more quarry, Meya and the other member of the party, Nazátu, would pursue the herd, and you and Neteyam would go after the forest hens. You would all reconvene back at the top of the canopy by the time of high noon.

You and Neteyam set off in the direction of the forest hens. You were grateful to separate from the others since you felt that you didn't have to hide just how out of shape you were in front of Neteyam. You both kept a brisk pace through the brush, moving as silently as possible.

"You seem to be holding up well," he commented. "I should not have doubted you earlier." You smiled gratefully at him. "My head does hurt a little bit," you admitted. "But otherwise, I feel fine."

It was a half-truth. The whole truth was that your head hurt a lot. The pounding in your head hadn't diminished as you had hoped, but you refused to let it affect your ability to hunt.

You both reverted to careful silence as you stayed alert for the sounds of the hens. There were a few silvery feathers you found on the ground to encourage your tracking, and you carried on quickly in the direction they led to. You were eager to get this hunt over with now that your migraine had settled in deep into your temples.

A flutter through the trees caught your attention, and there a few yards ahead, you finally saw a flock of about 10 fowl-like creatures. Some were on the ground, but a few were walking along some low-hanging branches. Forest hens were bulky and had limited flight capabilities. They could be found scratching at the forest floor or low tree branches to eat any insects they could find.

Coming up beside you, Neteyam motioned at the ones on the ground and then pointed at himself. He was telling you that he would aim for the low ones while you could go for one in the branches. You nodded and notched an arrow. You aimed for the fattest bird you saw, and in sync, both you and Neteyam shot and hit your targets.

In a frantic flurry, the remaining hens took flight higher into the canopy. You managed to reset an arrow on your bow and shoot another one down as it was flying off before it could disappear with the rest of the flock.

Stepping out of your cover, you and Neteyam retrieved your quarry and arrows. "Looks like I'm beating you," you teased. He rolled his eyes at you playfully. "Show off," he muttered, tying his hen onto his hip. "Let's keep after them." You hesitated. Now that you had a prize to bring back, you were anxious to leave. You didn't want to raise any concern from Neteyam, but your migraine was really starting to get out of hand. Though you'd been having bad headaches since your accident, this was by far the worst one.

Despite your pain, you nodded at his suggestion wordlessly. You slung your hens over your shoulders and trekked after your friend. It didn't take you long before you caught up to the flock again. Aiming again, you both shot at the birds, hitting them cleanly.

As before, the rest of the flock scattered. This time, Neteyam got another shot in and took down another hen. He gave you a cheeky smile. "Now we're even," he said triumphantly. You tried to smile back, but your head was pounding painfully, causing you to falter.

He noticed your wince. "Is everything okay?" He asked in concern. You closed your eyes tightly for a moment and nodded. Looking up at him, his gaze was full of worry. You thought about what you had said to him in the forest a few days prior. I need you to trust me when I say I am fine. Well, now, you weren't so fine, and you felt you owed him your honesty.

"My head hurts," you admitted quietly. "It really, really hurts." You ground your teeth in pain. "Like an arrow through my head."

Setting his bow down, Neteyam put one hand at the base of your neck and looked into your eyes with care. "How long has it been hurting like this?" He asked with worry. You thought about it for a second. "It started when we left the village," you confessed, "but it did not get bad until we started tracking the yerik."

You waited for a lecture from him on how you should've told him sooner, but it never came. "Do you get them a lot?" He asked gently. You nodded reluctantly before clarifying, "Usually not this bad, though." He gave a small nod, and you could see all the concerned thoughts in his head, but he didn't say any of them. Instead, he lifted his hand from your shoulder to briefly cradle the side of your head. You leaned into his touch and sighed as the pain pulsed in your temples.

"Let's go," he said softly as he dropped his arm back to his side. "We can try to find Lo'ak and Mekar to let them know we're leaving." You nodded, disappointed in yourself for not being able to withstand the headache. How were you supposed to return to fight if you couldn't even manage an easy morning hunt?

Picking up your kills, the two of you headed back in the direction of where your ikran were waiting. The journey back up to the top seemed longer than you remembered, but maybe that was just the fact that going up is harder than coming down, especially with a raging migraine. Eventually, you found yourself at the top, but neither Lo'ak nor Mekar were anywhere to be found.

"Are you okay to go by yourself?" Neteyam asked. "If we both go, the others will think something has happened." You nodded. "I know, I'll be fine." He didn't look happy to let you go alone, but you took off on Kazi, leaving him behind as he watched your figure disappear over the trees.

When you made it back to the village, you immediately headed over to the healing tents, but to your sore disappointment, neither Mo'at nor Kiri were anywhere to be found. You thought about asking around, but you didn't want anyone to know you were in pain, and your pride won out as usual. You looked in one of the many baskets lying around the tent and found a bitter plant root that you knew would help you fall asleep.

You took and ate it as quickly as you could and washed it down with water. Then, you made your way to where your encampment was situated. You laid down on your sleeping mat, curled into a ball, and held your head until the root took effect, and you drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Waking up, the pain had diminished significantly. You propped yourself upright and drank some water you had stored. Exiting your tent, it didn't take long before you found Neteyam, Lo'ak, and the others from the hunting party sitting together skinning their game. They must have returned not long ago, meaning it was just past high noon.

"Hey," Lo'ak called out as he noticed your approach, "you feeling alright?" You looked at Neteyam sharply. He subtly shook his head, silently telling you that he hadn't told them the reason why you left. "Yeah," you replied casually, "my body just isn't quite used to all the activity yet, so I came back early." Lo'ak nodded understandingly, and the rest of the group seemed to find your excuse acceptable. You shot Neteyam a grateful look, and he smiled softly.

"These are some nice birds," Meya complimented, nodding at the forest hens you and Neteyam had hunted. "Thanks," you replied sincerely, sitting down to clean them. You all worked to prepare your own game, talking and laughing in easy companionship for the rest of the afternoon.

Three days later, you were invited back to participate in the war meetings. You were eager to prove yourself again, and even more so to destroy as many humans as you could. You felt confident in your abilities, especially since you hadn't had even a minor headache since your hunting trip. There were a few reconnaissance missions that you flew with no action, but after gathering enough information, the Olo'eyktan believed it was time for another offensive attack.

You sat and watched as Jake outlined the plan for the next attack on the Sky People's weapons containment center. After a detailed description of the plan, Jake finished up his briefing with a nod and, "Dismissed." You all stood up together, and you started making your way toward Neteyam.

You called out to him to get his attention. He turned towards you, and you jogged to catch up to him. Approaching, you noticed the bizarre look on his face. He seemed startled out of deep thought. You couldn't deny that Jake's plan seemed bold, but you knew that you and the other warriors were more than capable of carrying it out. You opened your mouth to say something, but you noticed that Neteyam was looking past you at someone.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?" The voice of the Olo'eyktan was right behind you. You whipped around to face your leader in surprise. "Forgive me," you said respectfully and stepped out of the way to allow him to speak with his son.

"No, no," he said to you, glancing at Neteyam for a moment before looking back at you. "I want to speak with you." You felt your stomach tighten with sudden anxiety. "Oh," was all you could say. You glanced back at Neteyam, but he already had his back turned to you and was walking away.

"Listen," Jake began, "I know you are eager to join the party, and you are a fierce warrior." You felt your stomach sink with his words. It seemed that he could see the anxiety on your face because he sighed and glanced around in discomfort. "I think it's best that you remain behind," he said finally.

You felt your heart drop.

"What?"

Jake sighed again. "I need you to stay behind," he repeated. You shook your head faintly. You felt dazed, and your head started to ache for the first time since the hunt. "I am healed," you insisted urgently. "And my ikran is as well." He looked at you unconvinced. "I am well!" You repeated, gesturing to the fresh scar on your stomach.

Jake shook his head. "Listen," he said in a low voice, "I know what it is like when it feels like your head is going to split apart, okay? I know how it feels, and I know how distracting and debilitating it can be in a moment of action."

You were paralyzed, unable to say anything.

"You are a great fighter," Jake repeated, "but I need you to be all there when we fight. Any other condition and you become a liability to yourself and the others."

You felt like your chest was tightening. "No," you whispered desperately. "I can still fight." Your throat tightened as you fought off tears. Jake looked down at you regretfully. "I'm sorry," he said resolutely, "but I have made up my mind. If you are suffering from migraines, you should stay back."

You looked up at him in confusion. "But how..." you trailed off in the middle of your question and your blood ran cold.

Only one person knew.

The realization hit you like an angstik. He told. He told.

You looked away from the clan leader and stared at where Neteyam was just standing moments ago, trying to process what you'd just heard. How could he do that to you? The pain of Neteyam's betrayal quickly turned into boiling anger that filled your chest. Jake placed a hand on your shoulder in an attempt to comfort you, but you felt numb. "I'm sorry, kid," he said, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"Am I dismissed?" you managed to ask finally, not able to look the Olo'eyktan in the eye. "Yes, dismissed," he answered. You turned and walked away. For a moment, you walked aimlessly away from the war council, all your focus was directed at not crying in public, and the effort it took increased the intensity of your headache. The very thing that prevented you from fighting for your people.

With that thought, your hurt, confusion, and anger narrowed in your mind to point at one person: Neteyam. You broke into a brisk sprint towards his family's tent. You didn't think about what you would say to him or what you would do if his other family members were present. You didn't even really have any thoughts, just rage.

You burst into the tent. There he was, looking to be in the middle of packing some of his supplies and speaking to someone. When he looked up at you as you entered, his expression immediately turned to guilt. The sight of him caused tears to refill in your eyes, which just made you angrier.

In a flash, you crossed the floor of the tent and shoved him as hard as you could. He stumbled back but quickly regained his balance. "How could you?" you seethed. You had meant to scream it, but you were afraid that your voice would betray you if you raised it above a whisper. Neteyam raised one arm in front of him between you as a pacifying gesture, his fingertips a hair's breadth from your collarbone.

"Kiri, would you please give us a moment?" he asked the other person in the tent without looking away from you. You gave Kiri's sitting form a quick glance before returning your glare to Neteyam, but it was enough for you to see the startled expression on your friend's face.

"What is going—"

"Now," Neteyam punctuated with force.

Without another word, Kiri hurriedly stood up and walked out. With his sister gone, you smacked his raised arm away from yourself. You were fuming and didn't even know where to start with your anger. "Your father has grounded me from the mission," you told him and pointed an accusatory finger at him, "because of you."

Neteyam clenched his jaw and took a deep breath before speaking. "It is for your safety. If you are not well, you should not be flying during a dangerous miss—"

"I am well," you interrupted angrily. "I am well, and I can fly during a dangerous mission. You had no right to tell him what is not your concern. You have no right to interfere with anything." Your voice was getting louder now, the white-hot anger you felt in your chest burned in the words you spoke.

Neteyam scoffed quietly and looked at you with a scowl that would have chilled you if you hadn't already been so angry with him. "You are not well," he countered in a low, hard voice. "I saw you hunting. You were in so much pain, you couldn't even manage to focus on the trail. How is that supposed to make me feel knowing you wished to return to battle?" He gestured loosely to the entrance of the tent as though the battle was right outside.

"That was one time, Neteyam!" you shouted at him in frustration. "And now I can't join the mission because of a headache I had on a hunt." "But it was not just one time, was it?" he retorted in an accusatory tone. "You have had migraines since your accident, but you have been keeping them secret from everyone."

"No, I should have kept them a secret from everyone," you spat, tears returning to your eyes. "But I was a fool and told you instead. I trusted you." He flinched slightly at your cutting comment, but he didn't back down. "You have become a liability to yourself and the other warriors," he stated matter-of-factly. "I did the right thing and told my father to inform him of your weakness.

Weakness. That stung worse than anything he could've said to you.

Immediately, Neteyam realized what he had said. "No, I did not mean to—"

"Is that how you see me?" You cut him off quietly, voice filled with pain. "Weak?" You felt a single tear overcome all of your effort to withhold it and slide down your cheek. Neteyam shook his head apologetically and took a step toward you, but you took a step back away from him. "That is not true," he insisted gently. "I did not mean to say that."

You wanted to believe him, but memories of his behavior flashed through your mind over the past few weeks, and anger and hurt stirred in your chest. "But it is true," you accused as you glared up at him, wiping the tear off your cheek in anger. "You have been treating me like a helpless child ever since we invaded the Sky People's base."

Neteyam clenched his jaw and looked away from you in frustration. You continued yelling at him. "You have been consumed with a desire to control my every move ever since. I shouldn't wander too far into the forest alone. I shouldn't climb too high into the trees. I shouldn't ride Kazi anymore." With every sentence, you felt your anger and frustration melt into hurt and sadness, and you could feel more hot tears falling from your eyes. "And now I cannot fight anymore. I cannot fight because you think I'm weak!"

"You almost died!" Neteyam shouted.

You started and stood in mute surprise in front of him, all of your anger replaced by pure shock. He had never yelled at you before. After all of the strain that your relationship had been placed under, the snide comments, the frustrated arguments, he had never once raised his voice above an angry reprimand, and honestly, it was frightening.

"You almost died!" he repeated, still shouting. "And I could do nothing! Nothing!" His chest was heaving, and he glared down at you with so much anger and pain, it made you take a step back. He noticed the step, and it seemed to bring him out of his emotional outburst somewhat. He turned away from you and paced a few steps heatedly around the tent. You watched in mute shock.

"I cannot let you go too far into the woods alone or climb too high or ride your ikran because every second you are out of my sight, all I can see is the image of you bleeding out, unconscious, on the ground." You could see the tension in his whole body, his hands balled into fists at his sides as he spoke. He looked over at you after a moment, and you saw the anguish on his face as he recalled the memory. "I thought you were dead," he whispered in a taut voice. "And that was the worst moment of my life."

You were so overwhelmed that you couldn't stand to look at him anymore. Now, amongst the betrayal and anger you had been feeling, guilt stirred in your stomach, leaving the taste of bile in your throat. This was too much. You were feeling too many things to think rationally or come up with an argument. And your head hurt so much.

Neteyam heaved a regretful sigh, his own eyes shining with unshed tears. You had never seen him cry before. He crossed over to you, and even if you had wanted to back away, you felt rooted to the spot. Coming in closely, he grabbed your face with both hands. For one breathless moment, you thought he was going to kiss you, but instead, he just held you and stared at your face longingly.

"I do not think you are weak," Neteyam muttered finally, breaking the tense silence. "But you...you are my weakness. I am sorry I betrayed your trust, but I cannot see you harmed again. I will not allow it."

You didn't say anything. You couldn't say anything. You had reached your emotional limit. Your heart ached as you took in his image. He was strong and stern and beautiful, and you wished again for the millionth time that the war had never come to your home, had never come between you.

You sighed finally and shook your head. "You do not get to decide my fate for me," you said flatly, pulling away from his touch. "You do not have the right." Without waiting for an answer, you walked out of the tent.

Right outside, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk were sitting together. They had obviously been listening to your fight, and the way they scrambled to stand did not make them appear any more innocent. You sighed and turned the other way, not wanting to talk to anybody at the moment. Kiri called your name, but you ignored her and walked away as quickly as you could.

The siblings stood in the darkness for a moment, embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping. Then, Lo'ak decided to go in and check on his brother. He walked in cautiously and found him with his eyes squeezed shut as he rubbed his forehead in exasperation. Hearing Lo'ak enter, Neteyam looked over at his brother with a burning glare.

"Bro, what did you do?" his younger brother asked with concern. Neteyam let out a deep sigh. After a second, he responded, "The right thing." Lo'ak was unconvinced, and so was Neteyam.

Part 3

#neteyam sully #neteyam angst #neteyam x reader #neteyam fic #avatar the way of water #avatar #loak sully #kiri sully #atwow #neteyam x omaticaya!reader

[spotsandsocks]

Something Worth Staying For

🥳Happy Birthday to the wonderful creative supportive @cowboy-buddie who makes this fandom so much fun for me. Love ya Kels Please accept this little gift, my attempt at an enemies to friends to lovers AU. 5 chapters 1 coming at you everyday (so I have time to finish the last chapter🤣)

Chapter 1 2.4K Read on AO3

Living in a small town wasn’t for everyone but Eddie liked it. When he and Chris had settled here he hadn’t been sure but slowly the place had gotten under his skin and now he was as good as a local. Well almost, Chim still called him cowboy sometimes, but Eddie had decided ignoring that was the best plan and it had mostly worked. Chim only called him that these days when he wanted to be particularly annoying. Not that he doesn’t love Chim, the man has become like his brother. In fact he’s built a small family for himself and Chris here. It turns out taking a job at a small town newspaper was the best idea he’s had in years. He’s never quite gotten over the surprise of his new boss, the paper’s editor waiting for him with his wife outside Eddie’s new front door on the day they arrived.

Bobby and Athena had been there from the start ready with a home cooked meal for their first night in town, helping them unpack, and essentially making him and Chris feel more welcome than Eddie had ever expected when he’d nervously said yes to a fresh start  and moved himself and his son halfway across the country after his divorce was finalized. 

Now he’s made a home here and has an extended family he loves dearly. It’s almost perfect. Except, he does get a little lonely sometimes, Chris is getting older and  when he’s busy and Eddie’s all alone in his house he sometimes wishes that he had someone to share his life with, he’d dated a few of the women in town but nothing had clicked. Not that he was especially bothered by the failure, he hadn’t actually really liked any of them but it would be nice to have someone special.

He’s been here almost three years now and it seems pretty unlikely that he’s going to find his dream partner, after all what are the chances of the  perfect person just turning up in Eagle Creek one day and being interested in a thirty year old single dad holding down a quiet job writing local news stories for a small town paper. 

“Eddie?”

Eddie looks up and takes a breath. 

Whatever he’d been expecting when Bobby said his name it wasn’t to see the man standing next to him. He’s tall, well built to say the least, with sandy hair which might have been blonde or brown depending on the light, and extremely blue eyes. There’s a mark of some kind over his left eye and he wonders if it’s a bruise or something more permanent. It doesn’t diminish the man’s good looks in fact in Eddie’s opinion it enhances them. Frankly he’s gorgeous. Eddie knows he finds men as attractive if not more attractive at times than women but he’s never particularly felt the urge to investigate where those thoughts could take him. He’s not a casual kind of guy and the trouble with gorgeous people is they so very often know it and in his personal (and relatively limited) experience that does very little for their personality. 

This  guy is so pretty he’s probably a complete jerk. 

Despite those warning bells as they  look at each other the stranger smiles and Eddie can’t help how his eyes flick down then back up again almost immediately, it's a nice smile. A little shy, almost sweet even. The guy isn’t giving off any particularly arrogant jackass vibes. Eddie wants to but he doesn’t let himself look again, turning his head to focus on Bobby instead.  Actually the new guy looks a lot like Bobby, maybe he’s his nephew or something, just visiting. 

Eddie returns his boss and friend’s smile, feeling strangely apprehensive for some reason. Maybe it’s because Bobby looks guilty. Eddie recognises the slightly shifty expression on the older man’s face. What has he done?

He finds out quickly.

“Eddie this is um, Buck. He’s uh…  he’s going to be working here.” Bobby won’t look at him and is rubbing his hand across his chin nervously. 

Well that’s unexpected. Eddie can’t help the sudden sharp furrow of surprise and suspicion on his brow. Bobby hadn’t mentioned anything about someone new. Do they really need someone new? Eddie hadn’t thought so in fact he’s mildly irritated by the news. Why hadn’t he been told? He looks at this ‘Buck’ person again with fresh eyes. Maybe he does look like a bit of a jerk after all. 

Jerk or not he’s still ridiculously good looking and Eddie can just imagine the stir someone who looks like Buck is going to cause in town. Nightmare, he can expect a stream of people asking him for the new guy at the paper’s number. Urgh... Just what he needs.

Bobby’s still talking, “so Buck is gonna be helping with some stuff, improvements I guess you could call it.”

Blue eyes sparkle and the man beams.  What kind of name is Buck anyway?   And really who needs to be that handsome, it’s just excessive. And wait did Eddie just hear Bobby say improvements? A sinking feeling hits him, oh no,  he didn’t actually do it did he? Bobby’s been threatening to do something about the computers since before Eddie arrived, surely he hasn’t finally done it has he?

The scowl on Eddie’s face deepens and he fails to notice the smile slipping from his new colleague’s face.

“Buck and his sister have just moved here, Maddie’s a nurse and Buck here is…” Bobby pauses and Eddie’s suspicions grow. Bobby can’t quite meet his eye. Yeah he has a bad feeling about this, there can only be one reason Bobby’s springing this on him now. Only one thing this guy is here to do. 

Still looking anywhere than at him, Bobby takes a breath and reveals Buck’s role  at the paper.

“Well Buck here, he’s well, he’s a bit of a computer whizz and kind of a social media consultant.” He says those three words quickly and moves on. “He’s going to upgrade our IT, get us online and run the “socials.” Bobby  glances  proudly at Buck for getting the word right. 

Eddie doesn’t register the responding shy and pleased smile from the younger man all he notices are the air quotes dropping in around ‘Socials’ 

The word is unfamiliar and unwelcome on Bobby's lips. Frankly he feels a little betrayed, why hasn’t he been told? He bets Karen knew  which means Hen knew and that means Chimney does as well. They’ve all probably been very  amused about how badly he’ll take it. He also thought Bobby felt the same way about the perils of the internet as he did. It’s not that he can’t use it. He has a smart phone, he can download apps just fine thank you and while it’s a running joke around here that Eddie doesn’t ‘do’ technology he’s not actually an idiot. If he wants to, he can use computers just fine, he’ll accept that the internet is vaguely useful and if he wanted to have ‘socials’ he would. He just doesn’t choose to because it stupid and pointless and you can’t really trust the internet,  no one's ever been able to convince him his phone isn’t listening to him.

Buck draws his attention back from Bobby when he speaks for the first time with what Eddie considers an unnecessarily smug quirk of his mouth,  “I’m here to drag you all into the 21st century.”

“I’m fine where I am, thank you.” His voice sounds cold even to himself.

Despite glaring at new guy he catches Bobby's wince out of the corner of his eye. He knows he sounds positively hostile but he’s annoyed. The newest member of the team obviously recognises that too because the smile vanishes.

Eddie doesn’t feel bad for being unwelcoming. Not even a little bit.

Bobby sighs wearily, “This is why I didn’t tell you. You know we need to modernize. It’ll be good for us. We can reach more people, be faster, it’ll make things easier for everyone.”

Bobby pauses obviously hoping for something back. He doesn’t get it so he just shrugs, “It’s going to happen Eddie .”

“You’re the boss Bobby.” There that was neutral, mostly.

Eddie stands, avoiding eye contact with both men. “I’m going out to get lunch.” 

He doesn’t offer to get anything for anyone, which he knows is rude but he doesn’t care much right now..

Eddie lets the door behind him slam on his way out.

Bobby sighs dramatically next to him as  Buck keeps his expression as blank as he can; that did not go well. That went very badly indeed.

“That was actually ok, I was worried he’d take it worse.” 

Buck turns slowly to stare at his new boss a little incredulously. Bobby thinks that went well? Shit how bad does this Eddie guy get?

When they’d walked in Buck had been taken aback by the man sitting behind the desk. His dark hair and soft brown eyes had looked inviting for a moment. He’d smiled softly and something had tripped and fluttered in his chest. He was a damn attractive man and then when he’d started scowling at him well Buck’s always liked a challenge but he’s not stupid. He knows instant dislike when he sees it.

It’s too bad he would have liked to have made a friend. At least he has Maddie to keep him company.

“He’s not particularly friendly is he?” 

Bobby chuckles dryly,  “He is, once you get to know him. He’s a really great guy.  I think you too could be good friends.” Another sigh as Bobby looks towards the door,  “It’s my fault, I did surprise him. I’ve been putting off telling him about you. it’s just  he really does hate computers.”

Buck arches an eyebrow at the door the hot angry man had just walked out of.

“I can tell.”

“Whoah man! Mind my door.”

Chimney looks up from behind the counter where he’s just finished pouring a coffee. 

“What’s got you all twisty.”

Eddie glowers at him, “Nothing, just come for my lunch. Is that a crime?”

“Delightful mood I see?”  Karen’s voice floats over from where she’s working on her laptop at one of Chimney’s tables.

He turns, as expected she’s staring  at him, unimpressed. She fixes him with a penetrating stare which he avoids. He’s very aware he’s in a bad mood and she should know why,  after all everyone else has been told. 

He can’t help the snap in his voice, “So why aren’t you in the office to greet our new colleague.”

Karen’s eyebrows lift eloquently. He knows she knows but will she admit it?  God he’s annoyed. He doesn’t really know why he’s so upset either. Except maybe there was a moment when he looked into blue eyes that he’d felt something only to have it washed away by Bobby’s words and his rush of irritation.

Karen sips her latte coolly, “I’m a free spirit Diaz, I go wherever I want and right now I want to be here because I like it here, I get to see my wife and she brings me coffee and I get to eat Chimney’s pastries. 

She pauses and looks at him with far too much insight.

“So he’s here then.”

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Chim retreat.  

He knew, she knew! Everyone but him, his irritation rises again, he can just imagine it don’t tell Eddie, he’ll freak out! He’ll make a fuss.

He ignores the tiny voice inside him saying 'and were they wrong? You’re not exactly winning employee of the month right now are you?' He ignores that and  lets the comforting haze of indignation wash over him. 

“So you did know! Charming.” Karen’s admission really does nothing to improve his mood.

Karen rolls her eyes at  him. “Oooh you really are in a snit aren’t you? Poor guy can’t have upset you already. He’s not even been here a day.”

“And…” she says with a waggle of her finger “you can’t blame Bobby for putting it off. Every time he’s so much as mentioned going online you pull a face.” She nods at him, “Yeah that one.”

 He quickly wipes the expression away,  “and you sulk for at least a day.”

“I do not.”

Another voice joins in, “You do.”

Chimney’s contribution is as unwelcome as this ‘Buck’ back at his office is.

However Chimney is as resistant to his glaring as Karen is. 

“Ok so maybe I do a bit,” he admits it reluctantly “But we don’t need to go online and we certainly don’t need that guy.”

“I’ve heard he is very good at his job annnnnd…” Karen adds nonchalantly, getting somewhere close to the hidden heart of his discomfort  “I’ve seen his picture, online , “ he throws her yet another narrow eyed glare for that jibe “and if I wasn’t a happily married lesbian I’d say he’s hot. He’s going to be a popular boy round here!” 

She laughs at the noise he makes.

“He’s not that good looking” he lies because he can, “and I don’t have to like him.”

Karen stands up folding her laptop as she does. She looks more serious, teasing gone. 

“No you don’t but you do have to work with him. And the poor guy’s not done anything wrong.”

He hangs onto his resentment justified or not, he’s no longer so sure, and answers with a single surly word and sits down.

“Yet.” 

“Eddie,” Karen sighs his name, “You’re being unreasonable and you know it.”

“Perhaps I like being unreasonable.” He leans back in his chair and folds his arms then unfolds them because it looks too defensive and he doesn’t want to prove her right.

Karen shakes her head, “Go play nice with the new kid or Bobby will put you in time out.”

Eddie ignores her. He’s not sure why but this Buck guy is already under his skin. 

Karen moves towards the door, “I’m going to go meet him, you’ll be back soon right?” 

He mutters “Sure” and accepts the warning look he gets from his friend. “I’ll be polite, promise.”

He can be polite to this new guy, he is  a professional  after all and it’ll be fine. He probably won’t have  too much to do with him anyway. 

Eddie waits for his order and wonders how annoying can one guy be? 

#buddie #911 fox #eddie diaz #evan buckley #buddie fic #happy birthday kels #911 on fox #911fic #911 fic #buddie au #enemies to lovers

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

favorite ocelhira hcs?

HELLOOOO ANON.

Do you have a day or two available? No pressing plans or engagements that might require your undivided attention soon?

For simplicity (lies and slander) I'll break it down into a few sections for you. 1. Headcanons for the Games Provided 'Canon'.

2. 9 Year Gap Headcanons

3. Happy Death Day Headcanons (AKA Kazuhira Fckin Dies Day)

4. Parasite AU Headcanons

5. Other/Non-Specific Headcanons

6. NSFW Headcanons Ready? Let's begin!

Headcanons for the Games Provided 'Canon'. In the Truth Tapes, Zero tells Kaz that he’s going to introduce him to ‘a network of messengers that will lead him to a man’ a man that Zero trusts ‘more than anyone alive with this sort of thing’. This is clearly Ocelot, and this is what I consider their original meeting. How it happened, and specifically at what time I can really only guess (although I go between late 1976-1977 for it myself) and it’s one I accept easily. It makes the most sense for putting one another on their respective radar’s and amuses me a little bit.

It's like..match maker Zero. If your match making is specifically for war crimes.

I have a prevalent headcanon that they have a sort of mutual annoyance thing. The kind that’s flavoured with ‘can’t live with ya, can’t live without ya’. I think they understand each other on a deep level they almost never or unwillingly talk about.

On Ocelot’s side, I think Kaz amuses him as much as he annoys him. On Kaz’s side, I think he feels a sense of what I call ‘regrettable freedom’ with Ocelot. In that Ocelot understands-deeply-how violent Kaz is deep down and is more than willing to call him out on it-or let him indulge in it, if he’s feeling that sort of mood.

Ocelot thinks of Kaz as a little overly hysterical, but he is one of the only people who doesn’t underestimate him or write him off as faff and a loudmouth (a mistake I firmly believe Zero absolutely made) to uninterested in him and bored with how bad of a spy he turned out to be.

I can see Ocelot considering Kaz, ‘histrionic’. (And, TIL there is something called HPD: Histrionic Personality Disorder. Huh. Sorry, got distracted)

Kaz fluctuates in how he thinks of Ocelot. I think when there is little else to occupy Kaz’s attention Ocelot gets the brunt of it (whether that be nagging him or just talking about whatever) but he can easily get ignored if Kaz is distracted by other things. I refer a little bit to some of the tapes where they have a decent conversation without insulting each other or being catty. They are very few and far between, but I can see them having perfectly normal conversations otherwise.

I think they both take their respective jobs very seriously, and they’re both very intelligent. This helps them out because they can have a mutual interest in a place where Big Boss leaves a gap. To expand on this-Big Boss is war and field smart, but not book smart. Something Kaz and Ocelot both are, if in different ways. Nor does Big Boss really hrm..care?

We know Kaz is exceptionally well-read, and Ocelot has a wealth of information under his belt. Getting drunk and having rambling talks is something I can see them doing-if Ocelot can get drunk (or hell even sober) and just. Talking.

Neither of them sleep well, if at all. Many chats happen at ridiculous hours about nothing, and everything.

They amuse each other. I think that’s one big draw for them, they can banter almost endlessly, and both have a mental category of ‘this is the good banter sections’ and ‘this is the I want to hurt you cruel banter’. Below the belt fighting is not off the table.

I do think they care about each other. To what degree depends on the time.

Ocelot knows exactly how to get under Kaz’s skin the best and can be quite merciless about it.

9 Year Gap Headcanons

They did so many drugs during this time. So many. They ran on it. Kaz often struggled to get the Diamond Dogs up and running and was continually frustrated for being disregarded.

We have small hints that he did black ops field work during this time too-and I can see Ocelot helping out there when it was available or necessary.

They visited clubs. Kaz picked up the family business more than once in desperation (this one I kinda restrict more to my fics, mind you). He tried on multiple occasions to get Ocelot to cough up information (almost always unsuccessfully, mind you) about whatever at first.

They hated each other on sight at the first meeting. Kaz was in a fighting mood, and Ocelot was just. Largely curious. At the same time, I think they were equal fascinated. In the ‘circle the other tiger in the cage’ way.

(Kaz immediately hated how hot he found Ocelot. Ocelot considered him attractive, but unless you’re shaped exactly like BB Ocelot’s attraction might be more minimal, IMO. See further below in the ‘NSFW’ for how I figure that turned out).

There is more than one destroyed motel room from their antics. Kaz itching for a physical fight anytime he feels the mood coming on, Ocelot more unwilling to indulge but eventually going with a ‘fuck it’ attitude because it does, eventually, shut him up for an hour or two.

Happy Death Day Headcanons (AKA Kazuhira Fckin' Dies Day) I’ll freely admit this one is almost entirely MGSV’s fault with the ‘death pact’ made in the ending, but I don’t care either. It’s one I find interesting, and I go with it because COME ON. How can I not? Part of me likes to think Ocelot did it himself, another part of me is convinced that Kaz would be utterly insulted if he sent someone else…which is also why Ocelot might choose that route. I do not think Ocelot would’ve used gas or poison as is suggested by the game, but nevertheless. Sometimes I toy with the idea of them faking his death, to amuse myself. And for AU potential. But there’s always the tried and true ‘once more for old times sake fck’ and a shot to the head. Ocelot probably took more than one trophy. The glasses were a necessity for Liquid, but I think he took something else. What that is I've yet to decide. I think Ocelot misses him periodically in the aftermath, especially as he gets older and more and more of their 'time' die out. Until he's reworked his brain to be Liquid-ified anyway. Parasite AU Headcanons Most of my parasite AU is detailed here. But I love considering parasite Kaz and experimenting with that in fics and other ideas. I like the idea of Ocelot having some housed on his skin and having a symbiotic little imprint with them. Extended by this I've also toyed with ghost Kaz haunting Ocelot after. Other/Non Specific Headcanons Here is my headcanon for Kaz and Ocelot orchestrating his capture together. It's it's own thing, but it's something I've toyed around with periodically and another one of those 'what if' ideas I feel prone to. I do think they have the potential for the most disastrous, but funniest dynamic out there. I like the idea of them having one of the longest working relationships in the series, and I find their mutual understanding, even if that's with an element of dislike or annoyance, fascinating. You could call it 'frenemies', but I think whatever they have is more disastrous and complicated. I also think they do enjoy each other's company, and have a pretty good working relationship. When they are perfectly in-sync they are an enemies worst nightmare. Whether that enemy is a man on the field or a very unsuspecting bar patron does not matter here.

NSFW Headacanons They fuck. Let's be real. They absolutely fuck. Ocelot's one and true love is probably always-and only-BB, but he's human (we think..?). Kaz is right there, and the man isn't a saint. Don't gotta love someone to fuck them (but I COULD see an argument for Ocelhira having their own type of love). I'll use 'fuck' more specifically because I think most of the times they do are pretty violent, and they destroy the room in the process. Tying into that, is because I think by then Kaz's best known form of foreplay is 'fight first' and Ocelot probably isn't going to say no when Kaz has such a lovely, punchable face.

They can (sometimes) have more standard, 'vanilla' sex but if you breathe the word 'make love' at either of them it's an immediate boner killer.

They have both used sex as a beautifully unhealthy coping mechanism.

There are kinks they share-how much they trust each other with those kinks varies considerably, but it almost never stops them.

Both of them have a higher sexual appetite than BB-this has consequences that are both good or bad, depending again, on the situation.

I think they both like strangulation and bloodplay a lot. As well as knife play. One of them has absolutely fainted mid act before. At least in my opinion.

'Safe Sane Consensual' did not always apply (they maybe got better later, maybe. Depending).

They have not always been sober during either act. I think they also find a certain amount of freedom in one-another, an alignment, if you will, in some shared kinks without it getting all confusing or complicated. A form of relief, without so much attachment.

And I'm sure I have way more! For some clarity's sake, here is my AO3 for more Ocelhira, and here is my standard headcanons tag, for anything I might've forgotten. Thank you for sending in!

#character posts: kazuhira miller #character posts: revolver ocelot #ocelhira #mgs #asks #answered asks #thoughts posts #i only have a few thoughts about them yeah- #nates headcanons

[imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl]

The One I've Been Waiting For {Part 06 of 13}

Word count: 2 K

Summary: Billy Hargrove is just one of the many students you're supposed to help. The last thing you expect from your interaction is that he'll start flirtt with you... Much less that Billy would stir up feelings you'd rather keep hidden. Despite the mutual sentiments that soon enough start to grow, there are a lot of reasons for whatever it is to be left alone, and one of them is your age...

{Stranger Things Masterlist}

A/N: In this story, reader is 5 years older than Billy, who's 18.

•••

Intimacy

 The first thing you notice when you wake up is the familiar scent on the sheets. Billy's cologne, which you grew to like. But he's not here, and when you're just about to call his name, you hear the shower being turned off.

 Sitting up, you run a hand through your hair, sighing. Maybe letting him stay wasn't a good idea. Weren't you supposed to end this? Or don't let it go anywhere? So why are you doing the exact opposite? Letting him stay, sleeping in his arms? Loving the brand new experience of sleeping next to someone?

 What went wrong from one point to the other? You lost track of it.

 You're still immersed in thoughts when the bathroom door opens, and a shirtless Billy comes out. He seems surprised to see you up, and you raise an eyebrow at him.

 You're seriously trying not to look.

 “I hope you don't mind me using your shower.”

 “Well, you did sleep on my bed. Guess it's ok to use the shower.” Standing up, you take a deep breath, eyes on the bathroom door to avoid staring at him. “My turn now.”

 “Hey.” He calls, and you turn around. “You look so cute when you're asleep.”

 His smirk makes you blush, so you roll your eyes and head to the bathroom, closing the door shut.

 You do take more time than necessary because you need to think. The thought of shutting Billy out crosses your mind, but something tells you that, if you even try, it's a battle your heart will win. So make up your mind for now. If Billy wants to go, because he'll have to go eventually, he'll do it himself.

 All that so you won't admit to yourself you want him to stay.

 When you're off the bathroom, Billy is nowhere to be found. It's a confusion of feelings between relief and loneliness, but before you can even start to work on that, you hear a noise downstairs. He's still here.

 Dressing up before going downstairs, you find Billy in the kitchen... Messing up with your stuff... Still shirtless.

 “...What are you doing? And please, don't set my grandmother's house on fire.”

 As you walk over to the countertop, Billy gives you an annoyed look. “I happen to be quite good at making waffles and you happen to have a waffle iron.” He gestures at the thing, already on.

 If Billy were anyone else, you'd be... Annoyed. You don't like people who you're not intimate with going through your stuff... But for some reason, you don't mind it. You're impressed. “Then I'll sit here and wait as you make me breakfast.” Moving to the kitchen island, you ignore his smirk. “Won't your father be mad at you not only for sleeping out but also for not going home at the break of dawn?” You can't help but ask when the thought crosses your head.

 “No, don't worry. He doesn't care. Actually, I think he can't wait until I find a job and get out.” Billy sighs, his muscular back moving smoothly. “And neither can I.”

 When you hear the pain in his voice, you curse yourself for bringing that up. So you decide to change the topic and lighten up the mood. “So... How many girls were lucky enough to have you make them waffles?”

 Billy giggles, putting the blatter in the waffle iron. “Believe it or not, you're the first.”

 “Really?”

 “The second, actually.” Furrowing his eyebrows, he leans on the countertop, looking at you.

 “Oh...” Clearing your throat, you look away, not wanting to think about who else might have had the pleasure.

 “The other one was Max. I had some made for me and Max had one.” He says and you look back at him, biting your lip. “What?”

 “Nothing, Billy.”

 “Alright.” He smiles, and soon enough he's done with the waffles and you decide to sit in the living room and eat while watching some TV.

 But the TV is quickly forgotten, as you chat about small things. Talking to Billy is... Easy. And with all those things away from your head, you feel able to enjoy his company.

 “What do you think about my grandmother's house?” You ask after drinking what's left of your orange juice.

 “I like it. Way better than my place.”

 “And how's your place?”

 “Trash.”

 Giggling, you roll your eyes. “Well, this thing is that when you have your own place you can decorate it the way you like. When I lived with my parents I had to endure those awful paintings they have in the living room.”

 “Let me guess. Some abstract shit.”

 Nodding, you laugh. “There's a huge painting, right above the fireplace. The background is white and there are only two vertical blue lines.” You laugh again remembering it, folding both legs under you and turning your body towards him. “My father says it's... Transcendent.”

 “God.” Billy mumbles, laughing too.

 “He says it makes him think about the duality of life and death and I'm like... How the hell did you get that from two vertical blue lines?” Furrowing your eyebrows, you shrug. “It just sucks, believe me.”

 “Oh, I do.” He giggles. “What are your plans for today by the way?”

 “Mmm... Lunch with Tanya and Liam. And since they have a date later tonight I'll head back home and I don't know, watch something nice maybe.” His staring makes you blush, glancing at the TV. “You? Do you have some girl to hang out with today?”

 “I will if you go out with me.”

 Whoa, he's not kidding. “What?”

 “Let me take you out.”

 “Billy...”

 “C'mon,” He takes your hand, and you look at him again. “Give me a chance. One date, that's all I'm asking. And if you hate it, or feel uncomfortable with the whole age thing-” He rolls his eyes. “-you just have to tell me and I won't bother you anymore.” He sounds so serious... As if he's pleading. Can a guy like Billy even do that?

 Your brain wants to say no right away. But your heart... “Alright.” You whisper, looking at your joined hands. “Tonight then. One date.” Standing up, you look down at him. “But I want a real date. Not whatever you do with the girls.”

 “Trust me, princess.” He gets up as well, standing tall before you. “I'll make it work.”

•••

 “You're going to do what?” Liam asks, coming back from the kitchen.

 As if he didn't hear the whole conversation. Rolling your eyes, you take the soda can from his hand, cracking it open. “I'm going on a date with Billy.”

 “A real date?”

 “A real date.” You repeat, taking a sip.

 “You know I'll stand by you no matter what, but you gotta be careful. You've never been through heartbreak and trust me, it's not nice.” Tanya warns you, putting her can on the coffee table. Liam, from the armchair, nods. You knew them only for a couple of years, but the connection was immediate. And the three of you have shared everything. So they both know you very well, and you always pay attention to their advice.

 “I've been through that before.”

 “Yeah, but you had crushes. And I don't think this one is just a crush.”

 “Tanya is right,” Liam adds. “The age gap, as minimum as it is, is a big deal to you. And if you managed to see past that... This is definitely more than just a crush.”

 Looking down at your hands, you sigh. It's not that you don't want to tell them, you just... You don't want to create false hopes. Or make it more real than it already is. “I like Billy, I... I like being around him. It feels good.”

 “It feels good being around the two of you.” Liam gestures at you and Tanya. “Because she's my girlfriend and you're my best friend. So just enjoying being around someone doesn't necessarily mean it'll take a romantic turn.”

 Yeah... you're aware of that. “We, Mmm... We slept together last night.”

 Tanya's eyes go wide, and Liam gives her a look. “What!!?”

 Wait. Wrong choice of words. “Whoa, that's not what I mean. Billy climbed through my window after a fight and... He was quite upset so I invited him to stay and that was it.”

 “That was it?” Liam asks.

 “And how did that feel?” Tanya asks, ignoring Liam's question.

 Blushing, you run a hand through your hair. “Just... Look, I know this is complicated. Billy has a bad reputation, and I'm... I'm five years older, but it's just a date. He asked for a chance and I wanted to give it to him. After last night, I just... If it doesn't work it's over anyway.”

 “You're good at judging character so I believe you'll be fine. But be careful.”

 “And have fun,” Liam says, winking at you.

 Rolling your eyes, you blush. “I will.”

 “Okay, what you gonna wear?” Liam asks in a sarcastic tone, in his best performance of Tanya's voice, making you both laugh.

 You're still on the fence about this, but you'd be lying if you said you're not excited. But it would be wise not to have your hopes so high because this date could be the end. And maybe it would be for the best.

•••

@aunicornmademedoit @alexa4040 @goth-cowgirl-03 @nyctophilic0vitnir @minispice-1

#billy hargrove imagine #imagine billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove x you #billy hargrove fanfiction #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfiction

[knullanon]

Mark Grayson with a s/o who’s like starfire?

yess i love starfire man

words: 896

warnings: stalking, lmk if I missed any!

mark would probably meet you through hero work. whether that's from you actually being a hero, or just helping him with rescue work, you catch his eye not only because of your abilities, but WOW you're cool.

in fact, you would probably be more of a puppy-dog/inspiration for him at the beginning of his time as a hero. he would more stalk you, both cyber and in person, to find out everything about you. from your favorite foods, to every imaginable trait you could think of. favorite color, perfume, music, even the time of day, is something he would memorize onto the back of his hand.

he would, eventually, get the courage to talk to you. eventually. of course, that's after a few months of stalking, studying, and observing you. he would make himself to be the person you would actively seek out once you know about them.

do you like happy go lucky people who are dumber than a rock? he will be stupid. do you like distinguished people who know what they're doing? he will become the smartest man alive.

after the whole awkward 'first friend' phase, he would slowly either drop the act, or change it in accordance to what you like. he doesn't stop stalking you, however, so don't get your hopes up. he still has some worries about you leaving him for someone else, someone who you might think would be better.

after a while, he would try to drop hints, but honestly, he would be so good at acting you wouldn't be able to tell if they were hints or he was just very comfortable.

of course, one day he will just say it straight but for a few weeks you'll be pondering over if he really does like you or if he's fucking with you.

when he is ready to ask, he would do it in a way he knows you would appreciate. dinner by the beach, watching a movie at home with your favorite snacks, it might even be a cute little handmade cardboard box that holds a note saying 'date me pls?'.

it doesn't really matter what method he chooses, because you will say yes. he's been stalking you for almost a year at that point, dude knows what you would want and what you wouldn't.

after it's established, it's honestly just cute couple times. little date nights are few and far between, because he's still a hero, but they are always a hit.

mark during the relationship would be very clingy. even if he can't talk to you in person, he would be calling you every day. even if you are a hero as well, it doesn't really matter to him. like, yeah you're patrolling, but he's talking to you while he's kicking someone's ass!

give him attention. he's like a touch starved puppy, he will not leave you alone until you give him attention. like, it's bad. he will text you, call you, and if you fly up to a mountain for some peace and quite, he will still find you.

however, while he does get annoying sometimes, you will always cave once he's actually in front of you. you can ignore your phone giving you 100 notifications a minute, you cannot ignore him when he's sad.

also, sparring! with a normal s/o he wouldn't even think to spar with you as, well, that is the worst idea anyone can think of. but if you have some of the same strengths and abilities as him, he becomes so happy.

he loves sparring in the later evening, because to him it leaves much more time to actually talk after, and also, he just likes sitting with you after a long and hard day. it makes him relax.

and after a good spar, you wouldn't be able to just tell him to go home, right? he even brought you your favorite takeout place, with all your favorite foods. can't he just stay? it's not like it's a crime for him to stay somewhere other than his parents house.

the only thing I would think that you would have a major issue with, even if you knew he was a hero, was how much time he spends as a hero. you aren't called out as often as he is, so for you it's more equivalent to a 9-5 job (hero terms, of course).

for him, it's something much bigger. he will be gone for a whole day (not without texting of course), and when he gets back it would be 2 in the morning as he's jumping around the walls while you're trying to sleep.

while there are many instances where you tell yourself "I should probably break up with him if he's going to make me this mad every day", he would probably notice and actually plan or make spare time you.

overall, he's pretty adorable and stupid once you know him, and he really does love you. of course, you don't really need to know how he stalked you in the beginning, or how he still does, as then everything would be ruined. he understands that this will be a secret he will take to his grave.

and honestly, does it really matter when your boyfriend is some lovable dummy? he would never do that to you.

he would never do that to you.

---

hey guys, guess who finished 4 different things for the last 4 weeks I've missed stuff??? me lol

anyways, te amo 💖

#yandere mark grayson x reader #yandere mark grayson imagine #yandere mark grayson #yandere invincible x reader #yandere invincible imagine #yandere invincible #yandere mark grayson romantic #yandere invincible romantic

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for talking irl to somebody who has me blocked online?

Backstory: I (18M) was friends with someone I’ll call Emery (18 NB, they/he). I met them in freshman year of high school and we were pretty good friends. We stopped talking because I moved schools, but still followed each other on Instagram and reconnected through that near the end of our senior year.

Since I still live in the same town, we ended up hanging out in real life a few times, going to the movies, sleeping over once or twice, just hanging out at the grocery store and shit, etc. I was really excited for this because I missed him a lot when I moved schools.

From what I could tell, he enjoyed our rekindled friendship just as much as I did. He even suggested that I got a job at his workplace and helped me through the process. (I didn’t get the job though unfortunately 🥲)

However, one day I realized that their Instagram account was… gone? This was the only place we contacted each other so I was worried and asked a mutual friend what happened. The mutual told me that his account got deleted (They’re a chronic comment arguer so it made sense lol) but that he had a new account! So I clicked the name the mutual sent me but… it said the account didn’t exist. I asked if they mistyped the username and they assured me they hadn’t. I ended up looking up the account on my brother’s phone and sure enough it was there. The fact that only I couldn’t see it confirmed what I worried about in the first place: They had blocked me.

I reread our DMs and looked at my recent posts on Instagram wondering if maybe I said something wrong, but couldn’t find anything in particular, so I have no idea what caused them to block me. However, I’m still going to respect it obviously and have tried my best not to worry about it and just accept the L and move on. I know how annoying it to make a mutual friend ask about that so I didn’t ask them to other than just saying “did they say anything about why they blocked me?”. Maybe I made a mistake or maybe they suddenly decided I have bad vibes; I’ll likely never know what it was so there’s not much reason for me to continue thinking about it.

Anyway, flash forward to now, there’s an event that started up recently that has meetings every week on Monday. I went to it last year and am planning to go every week this year as well. However, when I went on the opening day, there was Emery. I panicked, because wtf are you supposed to do when you interact with someone who has you blocked online!? I just said hi and tried to ignore them for the night, and they did more or less the same.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do from here though. I don’t want to go to them and be like “sooo why did you block me btw?” and I also don’t want to ignore that and talk to them like it never happened, but I also know I can’t just ignore them when I see them every week… The meetings only have about 5-10 people in them. We have to speak sometime.

So WIBTA if I tried to talk normally to somebody who has me blocked online??

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[mimisempai]

I'll find you at the end of the road - Chap 5/8

Chapter summary - Your now is not my now

They meet but how can a meeting go well when one knows and the other not...

On Ao3

Chap 1 - Chap 2 - Chap 3 - Chap 4 - Chap 5 - Chap 6 - Chap 7 - Last chapter

The Dirty Donkey - 2024

Eric exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday? We could have thrown you a little party or something. No one should be alone on their birthday."

Crowley replied with a lopsided grin, "I don't really like to make a fuss about my birthday. It's just the passage of time after all." 

Eric looked at him with piercing eyes and said gently, "You keep a lot to yourself, don't you?"

Even though he was beginning to open up a little more lately, Crowley couldn't argue with him, and besides, he felt strangely comfortable with the other man. 

There was no judgment in Eric's eyes as he continued, "There's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes I wonder what else you have in your life besides your work. Do you have a family? A girlfriend or boyfriend? Hobbies? A pet?"

Crowley was silent at first, but in the face of Eric's kindness, he finally began to talk about himself.

Furfur's house - At the same time - 2022

Furfur placed a glass of champagne in Crowley's hands. Still in a state of shock from the unexpected party, he let Furfur lead him to be introduced to his circle of friends. If one could call it a circle, when it gave the impression that half of the city was here. The next few minutes were nothing but toasts, hugs and congratulations. 

Now that the surprise had worn off, Crowley tried hard not to show that he was annoyed. 

They arrived near Aziraphale and Arthur, who had their coats in hand and were about to leave.

Furfur said in a high voice, "Crowley, I'd like you to meet Aziraphale and uh... Arthur. Aziraphale will help us find our lake house."

Crowley nodded at them and replied with a smile, "Hello. Thank you for coming."

The two men greeted him in return when suddenly, seeing that they were holding their coats, Furfur asked in a dramatic voice, "Are you leaving already?"

Aziraphale looked at them, his gaze slipping to Furfur's arm around Crowley's waist before he replied, surprising himself, "No, actually, we're staying."

He felt Arthur's irritated look on him, but decided to ignore it completely.

Furfur exclaimed, "Perfect! That's more like it. Come on Crowley, I've got some more people for you to meet."

Crowley gave a pinched little smile and followed his enthusiastic friend with a not-so-enthusiastic air.

A little later, Aziraphale was looking for a restroom and passed by a half-open bedroom door. Inside, Furfur was kissing Crowley. Aziraphale quickly stepped back and heard Crowley say, "Not here, not now. We have... guests... A lot of guests."

Furfur asked, "Were you surprised?"

Crowley replied in a tone that Aziraphale found more annoyed than pleased, "To be surprised, I was. When are they leaving?"

Furfur asked worriedly, "What is it Crowley?"

Crowley sighed and replied, "Nothing. I'm fine... It's just I've had a long day, plus the crowded train, I don't know. I guess I thought we'd be alone tonight. You know I don't like to make a big deal out of my birthday."

Furfur replied plaintively, "But they're my friends, babe. They'll be our friends. I want you to get to know them. We're going to make a life here."

Crowley sighed and said quietly, "I know. I know. And don't call me babe. I don't like it. And you know it."

The Dirty Donkey - 2024

"We moved in together after I graduated. He rented a big house. A beautiful place, north of the city. We were going to live there forever. That was the plan."

Eric, who was listening attentively, asked him softly, "What happened?"

Crowley shrugged and replied a little bitterly, "The problem was, it was his plan, not mine. It always was. I just followed. "

Eric nodded, looking understanding, and Crowley shook his head before continuing, "No, I'm not being fair. I thought I wanted it too. I don't know. Anyway, I ended it."

Eric put his hand on his arm and said soothingly, "It was and is your right, Crowley. You don't have to justify or apologize, whatever your reasons, you had the right to end the relationship. Maybe for a while you thought you'd be happy that way, and then you realized you wouldn't. Time has taught me that happiness can take many forms, you just have to grab it when it's there, but also know how to let go when it's gone."

They both took a sip of their drink and Eric asked, "So who are you writing to?"

Crowley didn't answer right away. 

He didn't know how to explain Aziraphale. 

Faced with Crowley's silence, Eric added gently, "Sorry. It's none of my business."

Crowley shook his head and replied, "No, don't apologize. You're right, there is someone. "

He twirled his glass in his hands to calm himself and added, "It's kind of a...long-distance relationship."

Eric's eyes lit up with interest as he asked, "How long?"

Crowley sighed, "A long time...sort of."

"How did you two meet? "

Crowley blushed slightly and replied, "We didn't meet. "

"What?"

"We just write letters to each other."

Eric laughed softly and replied, "Is that a joke?"

Crowley shook his head again and replied, "No, I promise."

"You mean it's like a pen pal?"

Crowley nodded and Eric laughed again, but Crowley didn't join in and drained his glass before continuing, a little sadly, "That's the story of my life. Keeping everything at a reasonable, safe distance. Everyone... The man who loved me, who wanted to marry me, I pushed him away, I ran away, I kept running away. Whereas now, the one man I can never meet... I want to give him my whole heart."

Eric shook his hand and looked at him sympathetically, "So you've never really talked to him face to face? "

"Nev..." Crowley paused, suddenly realizing something, "No. Wait.  Once..."

Furfur House - 2022

Crowley had to get out after his talk with Furfur because he really needed some fresh air. He felt more and more suffocated and knew that he was partly to blame. 

He sat down on the stairs and, after a heavy sigh, suddenly realized that he wasn't alone. 

Aziraphale, the blond guy in the old-fashioned suit, was there too, all alone.

There was silence, neither of them knowing what to say. 

Then suddenly Aziraphale just smiled and said softly, "Happy birthday."

Crowley grunted and replied, "If one more person comes and says that to me tonight, I'll kill them."

Aziraphale looked apologetic and stepped back a little in surrender.

Crowley sighed and sheepishly replied, "Sorry for the reaction, I know it's no big deal. Just another year. I guess I'm not really in the mood to party."

Aziraphale replied, "Me neither, actually."

Crowley raised an eyebrow and asked, "Then what are you doing here?" 

Aziraphale hesitated and replied, sitting down on the steps next to Crowley, "I was hoping... to meet someone."

"Who?" 

"Someone Furfur told me about."

Crowley hummed and said, "Oh, I see, like a reunion?"

Aziraphale chuckled, "Something like that."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Aziraphale sighed and replied, "Trying to find some courage."

Crowley smiled, "I understand. Better than you think." 

He wrapped his arms around himself, feeling the chill of the night, and asked, "So you're the one who's going to find us a house on the lake, right?"

Aziraphale replied in a confident voice, "Yes, I will.

Crowley was a little taken aback by the certainty of his answer and asked curiously, "Are you a real estate agent?

Aziraphale laughed softly and replied, "Me? No! Absolutely not. But I do have a lake house."

Crowley looked genuinely surprised now, and Aziraphale spontaneously added, "And you'll be renting it when I move out."

Realizing his mistake, he coughed and pulled himself together, "I mean, you could. If you want."

Crowley, finding the other man a bit odd, asked, "When are you moving out?"

Aziraphale replied, "I'm not sure. I guess when you get your degree in astronomy?"

Crowley gave him a puzzled look.

"How do you know?"

Aziraphale wanted to punch himself in the head, he really wasn't good at lying, so he tried to make something up, "Furfur said you were in college and that's what you were studying."

He paused and the silence was awkward.

Crowley looked truly puzzled, and Aziraphale felt like he'd lost the thread of the conversation, if there was one.

Then Crowley asked him, "What makes you think I or we would like it? How can you be sure?"

Aziraphale replied earnestly, "You'll like it. "

Jumping from pillar to post, Crowley asked, "Can you swim? "

Aziraphale replied, a little surprised, not seeing what the other man was getting at, "Sure, I took lessons when I was a kid. At least my father gave me lessons." 

Crowley shook his head and laughed before saying, "No, I mean, can you swim in the lake from your house?"

"Oh."

Aziraphale laughed with Crowley at his misunderstanding and replied, "Uh, no. We can't do that. It's an inconvenience. There's no path to the water."

"That's too bad."

Aziraphale nodded before adding, "Actually, I thought.... You'd have to see it, but since I've been there, I've had the idea that I could change it. Nothing major. But a few new elements could really change the house. A patio out back overlooking the lake. And stairs..." 

Aziraphale paused, embarrassed by his enthusiasm when Crowley shouldn't have seen the house.

But Crowley continued his sentence, "Stairs down to the water? "

Aziraphale nodded eagerly, "Yes. That's it, a gentle downward curve.... That way we can walk out the back door and down to the lake whenever we feel like it."   

"That sounds really nice. In fact, I think I might like it."

Then he turned his head toward the house, where the party was still in full swing, and sighed, "It's pretty late. Shouldn't you be getting back inside? If you want to find the woman of your dreams tonight?"

Aziraphale replied with a wink, "Actually, that would be the man of my dreams."

"Oh..."

"Surprised?"

"Oh no, not really, it's always nice to know that I'm not the only one swinging for the other side or a little bit of both."

Then Crowley gave him a teasing nudge on the shoulder and Aziraphale chuckled in response before adding, "To answer your question, I'm not interested in finding the man of my dreams, I'm much better off here."

Crowley blushed slightly at the implication of Aziraphale's words.

Aziraphale then asked him gently, "Crowley, have you read Persuasion by Jane Austen?"

Crowley gasped slightly and replied in surprise, "It's my favorite book. Why?"

"I have a friend who likes it."

Crowley replied with a half-smile, "Your friend has good taste."

"Yes, he has good taste." Aziraphale replied, a mischievous gleam in her eyes, before adding, "I've been meaning to read it. Could you tell me about it?"

Crowley paused for a moment and thought before answering. He wrapped his hands around his knees and began to speak, resting his chin on his knees, "It's about... waiting. These two people meet. They almost fall in love, but it's not the right time and they have to go their separate ways. Then, years later, they meet again. They have another chance. But they don't know if too much time has passed, if they've waited too long, if it's too late for things to work out.” 

Aziraphale replied quietly, "That sounds sad."

Crowley shook his head and replied, "Oh, no, it's not. Not at the end. I wouldn't have read it, I hate books that don't have happy endings. I'll tell you a secret, I don't look like it, but I'm a huge fan of romantic comedies, you know."

Aziraphale winked at him and whispered softly, "Thanks for sharing that secret with me. I swear I won't tell anyone."

They sat quite close together, thighs touching, and Crowley straightened a little before turning his head toward Aziraphale, not seeing that the other man had also moved his face closer.

They stared at each other in silence for a long moment before leaning towards each other until their lips met.

They kissed for a long time, forgetting everything around them. 

Crowley felt the sense of suffocation suddenly vanish, and Aziraphale felt he was where he belonged, both of them experiencing an incredible sense of adequacy, of harmony, at that very moment.

After a moment, they parted to catch their breath and Crowley moved back, saying hesitantly in a hoarse voice, "I don't know why I did it."

Aziraphale raised his hand and gently stroked his cheek, "We both did this, not just you, listen Crowley, there's something I need to confess to you, I..."

He was interrupted by the door opening behind them and they quickly separated before standing up at the same time, facing Arthur and Furfur.

There was an awkward silence until Crowley decided to break it, "Oh, Furfur, hi. Uh, Aziraphale was just telling me about his lake house. It sounds really great."

Furfur, his face set like stone, replied in an icy voice, "Great."

Crowley turned to Aziraphale and continued, "We're, uh, definitely interested. "

Aziraphale nodded and replied, "Good. I'll be in touch." He stared at Crowley for a few seconds, then whispered, looking at the ground, "I promise."

Arthur, his gaze dark, intervened, holding out his coat, "Aziraphale. It's late."

Aziraphale reluctantly followed, taking one last look at Crowley before heading to his Beetle.

The ride home was deathly quiet, and he dropped Arthur off in front of his house. As he closed the car door, the carpet seller said bitterly, "You know, if you didn't want to have anything to do with me, Aziraphale, you should have told me. I know I'm intrusive, but you never say anything because you never want to hurt people. But not saying anything can hurt too, you know".

Aziraphale now felt bad that he had really hurt Arthur's feelings, and he was really sorry, because even though he didn't want anything to do with him romantically, Arthur didn't deserve to be treated like that.

He said sheepishly, "Arthur, I'm really sorry. I... I'm not very good at this. I really like you as a... friend, but I don't want to go any further. I... I'm in love with someone else."

As he said it out loud, he realized his own feelings for the first time, and he knew in that moment that it was true.

He was in love with Crowley.

Arthur noticed Aziraphale's realization and his face softened a little as he replied, "It's going to take me a little while, but don't stop coming to the store or talking to me because of it, okay? I like you as a friend too, not just as a lover. I don't want to lose our friendship. So I'm probably going to give you a hard time for the next few days, but that's okay. We will be fine."

Aziraphale nodded, touched by Arthur's kindness and promising to treat his friend better, "I... I don't deserve it, but thank you. "

Arthur said nothing, closing the car door gently and heading home.

Aziraphale drove to the lake house, lost in thought, and was surprised to see the mailbox flag up.

He opened it and grabbed the note inside.

Oh, my God. It was you. 

I remember you. 

Why didn't you tell me who you were? 

I'm waiting by the box, I know you're home at this time because I remember what time you left Furfur's house. 

So you can answer me now. 

Please do.

And once again started two years apart, another conversation, punctuated by the movement of the little flag.

A: You would have thought I was crazy.

C: But I liked you. There was something between us. This was our chance. 

You should have told me.

A: What about your boyfriend?

C: What about yours?

A: He's not my boyfriend!

C:Well, he's not my boyfriend anymore!

A:He was then! I mean he is now. 

C:Your "now", not mine!  And maybe this "now" would be different if you'd said something then. Maybe now would have come earlier, or maybe now would be our now, not just my now, you know?

A: No! I don't know!

Crowley's apartment - 2024

Crowley reread their conversation, grumbled in frustration, crumpled up the letter, and threw it across the room in exasperation. 

A missed opportunity. 

Harry whirled around his feet and rubbed his legs as if to comfort him.

Lake house 2022

Aziraphale, equally frustrated by Crowley's lack of response, threw down his pencil and stomped toward the house. 

Once inside, he slumped back in his armchair, sighing and gazing thoughtfully out the bay window as Harry lay down and rested his head on his feet, sensing his owner's distress.

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

Ineffable Husbands masterlist : here

#good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #ineffable boyfriends #aziraphale #crowley #good omens fanfiction #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale #human au #alternate universe

[angelllbby222]

Conflicted : Pt.5🎀

Maddy P.O.V

I woke up the next morning and took a shower throwing my clothes into the dirty laundry pile.

I couldn’t look at those panties anymore without thinking of what had happened last night between Izzy and I.

I went outside and to my surprise my brother was up early watching some cartoon called The Simpsons and eating a bowl full of cereal.

“Good Morning sleepyhead.” my brother said through his stuffed mouth.

I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt when I looked at Duff who had no clue what I was doing or thinking about one of his best friends.

I really liked Izzy and I wanted him to be my boyfriend.

“Do you know where Iz went? I woke up and all of his stuff was gone.” he asked coming around to place the cereal bowl in the sink.

“No clue.” I mumbled staring down at my nails that I was furiously picking at.

“Oh well. He’ll turn up sometime if not now.” my older brother shrugged grabbing his jacket and keys.

“Come on. Get dressed I’m finally taking you on that L.A tour.”

“Really?” I grinned real big.

At the end of the day I really missed my brother and I wanted to hang out with him alone, at least for one day aside from all the chaos surrounding his life.

“Duh. Now go get dressed.” he said.

Izzy P.O.V

I was at the usual diner the band would go to after we would perform when the door opened and I saw Duff and Maddy walk through.

Fuck. I was here with Angela.

“What’s wrong baby?” she purred in my ear grabbing at the side of my jean jacket.

“Nothing.” I said shrugging her off me.

Duff immediately spotted me and came running over with Maddy following behind like a lost lamb.

She really didn’t belong in L.A. She was too much of a good girl to be around here.

“Hey man! I didn’t know you would be here too. Why’d you leave the apartment in such a rush.” Duff asked while taking a seat down in the booth right next to Angela and I.

Maddy was just standing at the end of the booth awkwardly waiting for Duff to acknowledge her.

“Sis come sit next to me.”

“Actually wait why don’t you sit next to Iz because I always have to piss and it’s annoying asking people to get up for me.” he said climbing back out of the booth and tugging Maddy forward to sit in between Duff and I.

“Maddy scoot closer.” Duff whined practicing shoving Maddy into me.

She smelled so good.

Like strawberries and vanilla.

She was staring down at her hands which were in her lap and nervously played with them when I nonchalantly extended an arm around her.

“Get your arm away from my sis.” Duff groaned staring at my arm placement.

“Relax Mckagan. It’s barely even touching your precious baby sis.” I huffed rolling my eyes at his overprotective behavior.

“Oh so your Duff’s little sister.” Angela retorted.

“You look like a little child. How old even are you?” she laughed.

“I’m sixteen.” Maddy spat looking at her with an annoyed expression.

She was so cute when she got all mad. Her nose scrunched up and her lips squeezed back.

“Sixteen is still a child.” she joked blowing out her cigarette in front of the table.

“Yeah yeah. We get it.” Duff said clearly annoyed by Angela noticing Maddy’s discomfort.

“So what’s a little girl like you doing in L.A.” she asked.

“I’m here to visit my brother.” she said glancing at Duff who gave her a smile back.

“Hm.” she replied.

Duff and I started talking completely ignoring Angela and Maddy with our daily music discussions.

Which were arguing about who the better bands were.

The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin..

“I have to take a piss.” Duff quickly said scampering off to the restroom.

“Yeah me too.” Angela said getting up from her side of the booth and walking swiftly towards the bathroom.

I grabbed a cigarette from my jacket and lighted it up while chugging at the bottle of beer I had in front of me.

“You look pretty.” I said turning to face Maddy.

She had on these light wash blue shorts that would ride up everytime she moved around too much and a white babydoll top held together by two strings at the top of each shoulder.

We were sitting so close together that I could feel the warmth radiating off her body as my jean clad leg touched her bare one.

“Thanks.” she sheepishly blushed staring at her hands.

“Look at me Maddy.”

“You’re so fucking beautiful you know. Don’t hide from me.” I said bringing my finger to turn her face towards mine.

I could feel our lips brushing against each others but before I could close the gap.

She quickly pushed away from me and scooted away with a pout.

“I didn’t know you actually had a girlfriend.” she said crossing her arms with an angry expression.

“Angela’s just a fuck Maddy. She doesn’t mean anything to me.” I sighed taking a sip of my beer.

“What makes you think I’m different than her. For all I know I could just be some quick fuck for you as well.” she stated worriedly.

“You’re different. You should know that.” I told her scooting back to her again.

“I like you.” I breathed out.

“Really.” she asked looking up at me with those big brown eyes I fucking loved.

“Yeah.” I said before planting a big wet kiss on her pouty lips and pulling back slowly so that there was a line of spit still connecting us to each other.

“Izzy.” she giggled unable to hide her excitement.

“Izzy.” I mimicked playing with my hair and laughing sheepishly imitating her behavior.

“Stoppp.” she blushed.

“I’m only messing with you baby.” I laughed grabbing her and pulling her to my side .

“Iz stop. Duff will come out any minute now.”

“Don’t worry. Angela and him are quite busy at the moment.” I winked.

“Ew. Are you serious.” she groaned.

“Yeah. What did you think was taking so long.” I said shaking my head at her naivety.

I pulled her into my lap and continued to make out with her.

“You know…we could do the same.” I joked tickling her sides making her squeal.

“No. That’s dirty” she said looking into my eyes.

“What’s dirty baby?” I asked playing with her hair and twisting it tightly at the ends.

“Fucking in a dingy diner restroom.”

“You don’t like that? You wouldn’t want me to take you to the corner of the diner and into the bathroom to fuck the shit out of you?” I softly asked before tangling my hand in her hair and pushing her onto my lips.

“You make me so hard Maddy.” I groaned scooting her back a little so she could see the growing bulge underneath my black pants.

“Izzy stop. Not in front of everyone.” she quietly muttered before climbing off my lap and fixing her shorts.

“Okay guys. We should get out of here.” I heard a voice yell from across the diner.

It was Duff.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because the manager caught Angela and I in the bathroom.” he shyly admitted scratching the back of his head.

“Ughhh Duff stop. I don’t wanna hear it.” Maddy whined with a disgusted expression.

Duff and I burst out laughing as soon as we left the diner and made our way to his car.

“Wait where’s Angela?” Maddy asked.

“Don’t worry about her.” I shrugged hoping into the front seat.

“Your coming back to my place right?” Duff asked starting the car.

“Yeah. Your place.” I sighed leaning back into the seat and staring out the window.

I don’t know how to tell him that I like his little sister. I don’t think I ever can.

I hope Maddy can still be with me behind his back. I just hope she doesn’t crack under pressure one day and tell Duff about us.

Or else that’ll ruin Duff and I’s friendship forever and possibly even the band.

And I won’t let the band fall. Not even for Maddy.

#axl rose #duff mckagan #gunsnfuckinroses #guns n roses #izzy stradlin x reader #izzy x reader #duff gnr #izzy stradlin