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cakesunflower · 4 years

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Just My Kind [Teacher!Calum AU] Part 1

A/N: So I caved and decided to post part 1 of this fic. The way I wrote Calum in this is different than the way I’ve written him in the past, I think--as in he’s just a little honey in this LMAO. I hope y’all enjoy!!!

The microwave in the teacher’s lounge was sparkling clean, and Odessa took that as good of a sign as any. The one in the high school she’d taught at in Nevada had never been clean, no one ever having the decency to clean up after their mess—and Odessa refused to do it, given that it looked as nasty on her first day there as it did on her last. It was why she always brought cold lunches from home so she wouldn’t be subjected to such filth. But this microwave was spotless, and Odessa had no qualms in placing her small bowl of spinach and chicken pasta to heat up during her lunch break.

As she waited for her food to heat up, Odessa allowed for her gaze to wander around the teacher’s lounge. It was large, bigger than her last, which wasn’t surprising given that she was from a town of barely four thousand people, with square table to eat at, couches, a bulletin board pinned with colorful fliers of latest school events. There was a hum of chatter from the few other teachers who were either on their lunch break or weren’t on cafeteria duty for the current freshman and sophomore lunch period. Large windows that looked out towards the front of the school parking lot allowed for the late morning sunlight to stream in, brightening up the space and bringing Odessa a sort of comfort her old town surrounded by mountains bought her.

“How’s your first day going, Odessa?” She turned to see Mrs. Brewer, the chemistry teacher, approaching her with a kind smile on her face. Mrs. Brewer was older than Odessa—as was most of the staff at the school, truthfully—but she’d been one of the first friendly faces to greet Odessa on her first day earlier that morning.

“Pretty well,” Odessa answered with an honest smile. Technically, it was everyone’s first day, given that it was the first day of the school year. But Odessa was new to living in a city she only came to for vacation, so her first day was relatively different than most people’s. With a gentle laugh, she added, “I’m in the same boat as the freshman so we’ve decided we’re in this together. The sophomores are pretty easy going, too.”

Mrs. Brewer chuckled, turning to the counter they stood by to prepare herself a mug of coffee. “Making friends with the freshman—smart.” Odessa smiled, opening the microwave when her food was ready. “Have you met any of the other English teachers yet?”

Odessa hummed thoughtfully. “I’ve met Bridget Donnelly and Justine Greggs.”

Stirring the sugar in her mug, Mrs. Brewer tilted her head as she followed Odessa towards the table. “You haven’t met Calum yet? I’m positive he’s the only other teacher here around your age,” she said with a laugh.

As soon as she sat down on the chair, Odessa’s eyebrows shot up at the name, clicking in her head like a snapping rubber band bringing forth a memory she’d forgotten about. Calum—of course! He was Luke’s friend, who Luke told her about as soon as she’d mentioned the school she’d gotten a job at. Calum was one of Luke’s closest friends, and Luke had informed her that he was the boys soccer coach at the school as well as one of the high school English teachers.

In the haste of moving out of Nevada and to California and preparing for her job as she settled down, the fact had slipped right out of Odessa’s head. She’d never met Calum, but she knew of him because of Luke, who Odessa kept in touch with even after they graduated college and she moved back to Nevada and he remained in California. She saw pictures of Calum on Luke’s social media, knew that Luke was in a band with him and two other guys. What a small world that she ended up with a job at the same school he was at—and yet she had gone almost half of the day without running into him.

“Oh, look—speak of the devil.”

Odessa glanced up at Mrs. Brewer’s words, following her gaze towards the door where she saw a familiar face walk through. Her back straightened as Calum entered, offering a smiling nod to Mr. Engels, the government teacher. Odessa easily recognized him in his pale yellow button down tucked into black jeans, running his fingers through short blonde curls, soft on sight, and flexing the muscles on his tattooed arm. She bit the corner of her lip as she watched him make his way towards the bowl of fruit by the stove, deaf to the way her mind was telling her to look away. He was handsome, the yellow shirt downright beautiful against his inked skin, the pictures she’d seen of him not at all doing him justice.

As if feeling her gaze on him, Calum’s dark eyes met hers right as he picked up an apple, and Odessa felt her cheeks warm at being caught but before she could even think to look away, she saw recognition flash across his features. Then, to her surprise, Calum was making his way over with a knowing furrow between dark eyebrows as he asked carefully, “Odessa? Odessa Kline, right?”

Odessa told herself it was just her polite nature that brought her smile, not the slight accent he had when he spoke. She sat up, nodding as she answered with a light laugh, “Yeah, yeah. It’s nice to finally meet you, Calum.”

He grinned then, a smile that brought sharp crinkles to the corners of his soft eyes, and Odessa chalked the flip of her stomach up to her hunger and not the way he instantly pulled up a chair to sit next to her upon confirmation of who she was. His body faced hers, elbow on the table as he played with the red apple in his hand. “Yeah, you too,” Calum laughed, the sound deep and rich and dangerously fluttering something in Odessa’s stomach. “Luke’s told me a lot ’bout you.”

“Same here,” Odessa nodded, feeling a small surge of confidence as she added, “I was gonna try to find you at the end of the day so I could meet you but I guess you beat me to it.”

“Not too disappointed, I hope,” Calum chuckled, making Odessa shake her head in response. She was getting pathetically ahead of herself, but she highly doubted she could be disappointed in meeting him. Not with that smile and voice. Calum’s gaze then flickered over her shoulder and he lifted his chin, charming smile ever present on his face as he greeted, “Afternoon, Mrs. B.”

Mrs. Brewer smiled back before gesturing between the two of them, raising her mug as she asked, “You two already know each other?”

With a shake of her head, Odessa answered, “We’ve got a mutual friend.”

“Good—now you have more than just the freshman on your side,” Mrs. Brewer teased Odessa with a smile before getting up. “Excuse me, I should probably get my lesson plan ready for the afternoon classes.”

She left, leaving just Odessa and Calum sitting at the table, and Odessa faced him once more as he hummed. “Mrs. B’s right—us English teachers gotta stick together.”

Odessa raised an eyebrow, picking up her fork and shooting Calum a smile as he bit into his apple with a sharp crunch. “Against who? The students or the rest of the teachers?”

He swallowed the bite, sharp jaw working as a teasing glint flickered in his dark eyes when he let his gaze briefly wander over to the few teachers in the room. “Both,” he answered with a small smirk once his gaze met Odessa’s, earning a laugh from her. “No, but really,” Calum laughed, lightly slapping the top of the table with his free hand. “You need anythin’, let me know, yeah? Luke’ll throw a fit if I didn’t.”

Twirling the pasta around her fork, Odessa raised an eyebrow at Calum, unable to keep her smile from turning teasing as she asked, “Oh, so you’re only offering because of Luke?”

Calum scoffed lightly, giving a subtle shake of his head. “Any friend of Luke’s is a friend of mine,” he told her, and his kind words had Odessa’s cheeks warming once more. It was totally because of his subtly accented words and not the smile that accompanied them. They both took a bite of their food, and afterwards Calum spoke, “Speaking of Luke—I’m assuming you’re coming to his bar Friday night? Since the party’s for you and all.”

Odessa paused in reached for her water, head turning towards Calum with a raise of her eyebrow and tone falling flat as she asked, “The what’s for who now?”

Calum blinked in mild confusion, eyebrows knitting together as he took in Odessa’s own questioning expression. Then, almost comically, his dark eyes widened in realization and he bared his teeth, hissing as he inhaled sharply through his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut in self exasperation. “Ah, fuck, I don’t think I was ’posed to tell you that,” he groaned, free fist pressing against his forehead as Odessa kept her gaze fixated on him, silently demanding him to further explain. Sitting up, Calum informed, “I mean, it’s not really a party. He’s just having a few people come over to welcome you. You know how Luke’s always lookin’ for a reason to celebrate.”

Odessa’s expression fell at Calum’s words, a small sinking feeling settling in her stomach. “Oh, God,” she huffed, leaning back in the chair and blank gaze falling on her lunch in front of her. “He knows I don’t like being the center of attention.” Odessa glanced at Calum, a half smile curling at her lips before she added, “Except in the classroom.”

He laughed lightly, nodding along and Odessa had a feeling that he may, in some way, relate to her words. When his gaze met hers once more, a warmth that somehow had the power of making her feel at ease despite the news of Luke’s party, Calum lifted his chin. “It won’t be too bad. You should definitely still come.” Then, with a small, boyish smirk and a raise of an eyebrow, Calum added, “We’ll even perform a couple of songs for you.”

Her stomach flipped. She kept telling herself it was because she was still hungry and not because of the crinkles that appeared alongside his kind smile. And despite the warmth in her cheeks, Odessa still said, “How can I say no to that?”

*****

“Grams, Grandpa, I’m heading out!”

Odessa’s grandfather, Zeke, sat up from his recliner and looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow as he asked, “You’re not driving, are ya?”

“No, the Uber’s gonna be here in a minute,” Odessa reassured him with a laugh. She entered the living room, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek before stepping over to where Grams sat on the couch, a book in her hands and pressed a kiss to her temple as well. “I’m not sure when I’ll be back—please don’t wait up.”

Grams looked up at her, blue eyes holding a maternal concern as she asked, “You won’t be alone, will you?”

“No,” Odessa told her, shrugging on the deep red bomber jacket. “I’m gonna be with Luke—you remember him, right?”

“That tall, handsome boy we met at your graduation? How can I forget?” Grams grinned, earning a bemused scoff from Grandpa. Odessa merely laughed as Grams added gleefully, “Are you interested in him?”

Her question had Odessa laughing only harder, intensifying as Grandpa grumbled, “Kid looks like a mountain man.”

“I’m not interested in Luke, Grams,” Odessa laughed, her cheeks already hurting from the grin. She swore Grams was sometimes worse than her gossiping aunts, except she knew Grams only ever came from a place of warmth and good intentions. The same couldn’t always be said for her aunts. “He’s just a friend, and he’s got a girlfriend.”

Grams twisted her lips to the side, disappointment evident. Clicking her tongue, she looked up at Odessa pointedly and said, “I’m sure he’s got some cute friends. A boy like that’s got to.”

Odessa bit the inside of her cheek, a face flashing across the forefront of her mind that she instantly pushed back with a skip of her heart. This conversation was only bringing forth thoughts Odessa had repressed over the past week—particularly when she saw that familiar face in the school hallways or teacher’s lounge. He’d pop into her classroom in between classes, greeting her like they were old friends, chatting for brief periods before they had to attend to their students.

She appreciated Calum’s friendliness more than she thought she would. In the midst of settling down in her new job, getting to know new students and ironing out her lesson plan, it felt nice to wind down and relax for moments in the form of talking to Calum. He was sweet, charming, and from what Odessa gathered over her first week at teaching at the school, he was adored by his students. She was also pretty sure a bunch of them had a crush on him—not that she blamed them. Odessa herself wasn’t innocent of not harboring innocent crushes on her school teachers—or college professors.

Fuck. She couldn’t be talking about crushes and Calum in the same context.

Glancing down at her phone, Odessa noted the Uber waiting for her outside, and after a quick goodbye to her grandparents—as well as to Lettie, Grams’s American shorthair—Odessa was out the door and sliding into the backseat of the Hyundai. She kept busy on the ride by scrolling through social media, letting Luke know that she was on his way, who was still bothered that she didn’t let him pick her up. But Odessa had errands to run right up until she got ready, and she didn’t want Luke to wait around for her, and she didn’t mind taking an Uber—especially with driving being out of the question since she planned on drinking.

Her knee bounced during the ride over, a flutter of nerves making themselves known. Like Luke, Odessa was always down for a party—except when she was the center of attention. Honestly, she thought Luke inviting everyone to hang out to welcome her was both sweet and excessive, and when she had told him about her hesitation, Luke had been understanding. Of course, he’d cursed out Calum for ruining the surprise, but at the end assured Odessa that it wouldn’t be a big thing. It would just be people he was close with that he wanted her to meet, especially now that she was living in the area and Luke, who was a social butterfly, loved having all of his friends meet. And with Luke knowing how Odessa felt about parties centering around her, she felt a lot more at ease attending tonight.

Except it was easier to blame her bouncing knee on those kinds of nerves rather than the ones of seeing Calum outside of school.

Right as the Uber turned onto the street Odessa knew the bar to be on, she texted Luke that she was basically there, and as soon as she stepped out of the car after thanking the driver, she felt a smile grow on her lips to see Luke emerging from the bar, ready to greet her upon arrival. The sign above the bar was neon blue that read Borderline, the name of the joint, with windows on the bar front allowing to show how busy it was inside. Odessa prayed they were mostly people just enjoying a night out and now those who Luke personally invited.

“I still wish you would’ve let me given you a ride instead of wasting money on an Uber,” was how Luke chose to greet her, arms open wide to allow Odessa to step into his embrace.

She snorted, returning his hug, enjoying his familiar warmth as she returned dryly, “Hello to you, too.” When they pulled away, she smiled and patted his chest. “Next time.”

He rolled his blue eyes before dropping his arm around her shoulders and ushering her inside, bumping knuckles with the bouncer out front before they entered the loud, busy bar. It wasn’t bright inside, the lights dim and soft on the eyes as a DJ set up on a stand higher than the bar played music throughout. The first thing Luke did was lead her towards the bar, ordering Odessa’s go-to drink of a Malibu Bay Breeze which was ready for her quickly before bringing her to where a group of people—including a few familiar faces—were hanging out by a couple of tall tables.

Odessa returned the hug Sierra, Luke’s girlfriend, greeted her with before losing herself in the next few moments of meeting new faces. Luke’s friend Michael and his fiancé, Crystal, and Ashton with his girlfriend KayKay, and then finally—

Oh. Odessa hadn’t expected to see her.

“Long time, Odessa,” Paige, Odessa’s roommate from her junior and senior years of college, greeted with a too wide grin, stepping from the group and pulling Odessa in a hug she hadn’t expected. Paige’s rose scented perfume tickled Odessa’s nose as she returned the hug, hoping her mild discomfort didn’t overpower her surprise at seeing Paige, who pulled away with that grin still on her face. “I’m so excited you decided to move into the city! It’ll be great to catch up.”

The smile on Odessa’s lips felt strained, but she kept it in place as she forced herself to nod and respond, “Yeah, totally.”

If Paige picked up on the subtle lack of sincerity in Odessa’s words, she didn’t comment on it as she smiled and took a step back, grabbing her glass of mojito from the table. Gaze wandering over to Luke, Odessa saw the hint of apology in his blue eyes, and she bit her tongue. At least Luke was aware that she wasn’t too thrilled about Paige’s presence. Being her roommate for two years had been bad enough—Odessa didn’t have much of an interest in hanging out with Paige otherwise.

It wasn’t that Odessa hated Paige—it was just that Paige could be a bit much. In a bad way. It was always her way or the highway, and Odessa had become used to keeping her opinions to herself when she was around Paige in order to keep her then-roommate appeased and keep herself off of Paige’s shit list. Because she definitely had one of those. But after they graduated, Odessa had assumed she wouldn’t have to see her again—and she kind of wished Luke had given her some kind of warning that Paige was still a part of his life.

“Hey—the guest of honor’s arrived.” Odessa looked to the left to see Calum walking towards them, a friendly grin she often saw at school on his face as he made his way over, and Odessa tried not to think of how naturally she accepted his greeting embrace, the vague scent of cigarettes tickling her nose. The black lighter in his hand further confirmed he’d been smoking. She clicked her tongue at him at his words, and Calum chuckled and relented, “Right, right, this isn’t a party for you. Just a bunch of friends getting together.”

Odessa mirrored his grin, feeling her heart momentarily freeze at the teasing wink he sent her way as he grabbed the extra bottle of beer from Ashton’s hand. Next to her, Luke scoffed, “Yeah, thanks, man, for ruining the surprise.”

Calum shot him an apologetic grin while the rest of them laughed along, and Odessa came to his defense as she said to Luke, “You know I don’t like surprises. He basically saved you from getting smacked.”

Luke stuck his tongue out at her. “Last time I try to do something nice for you.”

The group of them gathered around a couple of round tables and chatted, and Odessa found herself feeling at ease in their company despite only having met some of them tonight. She was comfortable as she was asked questions about herself, the few who she didn’t know wanting to get to know her better, genuine interest lacing their tones, and Odessa returned the sentiment as she got to know them, too.

“So Odessa—you and Cal teach at the same school?” Paige spoke up, a curious smile on her face as she stood opposite of her. “How fun—it must be nice to have a familiar face in the building, right?”

“Yeah, it is,” Odessa answered carefully, stirring her straw in her cup. She had learned, a long time ago, to always be cautious when it came to talking to Paige. She knew never knew when her so-called friend would try to turn the conversation against her. Still, though, when Odessa answered, she glanced at Calum, who stood to her right and shot her a charming and agreeing grin that had Odessa’s stomach flipping.

Paige nodded, humming innocently, gaze sharp. “I bet; probably makes it easier, right? I know how anxious you get whenever you’re in a new place.”

Odessa bit the inside of her cheek. She genuinely wondered sometimes if Paige was being patronizing on purpose or if she truly didn’t catch on to the way she spoke to her. Instead of feeling embarrassed, especially since she had no reason to, Odessa shrugged. “I broke out of that habit a while back; it’s easy to when you have to teach a bunch of hyper high schoolers.”

Next to her, Calum scoffed and held his beer bottle out to her. “I’ll drink to that,” he said, and Odessa smiled as she tapped her cup to his bottle before they both took sips of their drinks. “Teaching those kids is no joke.”

Michael rolled his green eyes, waving his free hand as he said sarcastically, “Yeah, yeah, we get it—you’re modern day superheroes.”

Odessa laughed with everyone else, easily finding the good nature behind Michael’s words as she continued sipping her drink. All the while ignoring the feel of Paige’s gaze on her from across the table, refusing to meet her gaze as she allowed for Crystal to pull her into a new conversation.

“Hey, come here a sec,” Luke murmured about ten minutes later, and Odessa excused herself from a conversation with KayKay and Michael before following him a few steps away from their group and towards the bar. When she came to stand next to him, Luke looked down at her with an apologetic expression. “I should’ve told you that Paige was gonna show up—I wanna say she came to see you, but if I’m being honest, it’s ’cause she knew Cal would be here so she kind of just invited herself.”

Odessa blinked up at him, his words kind of taking her by surprise. An uncomfortable knot formed in her stomach as she reluctantly asked, “Oh, are they, like, a thing?”

Luke shrugged as he took a sip of his tequila, licking his lips after. “Not really. I mean, Cal said they hooked up a couple of times but if I’m being honest—” Luke offered a wry smirk. “—she’s more into him than he is into her.”

At that, Odessa chanced a glance to where their group stood, eyes catching the way Paige stood next to Calum as they chatted with Sierra. The music playing in the bar deafened Odessa as to what they were talking about, but it didn’t blind her to the grin Calum shot Paige as she said something Odessa wasn’t privy to. “Really?” she asked Luke, the doubt a lot clearer in her tone than she would’ve liked it to be.

“Yeah, trust me,” Luke scoffed out a laugh, and Odessa glanced to see him look back at her as well after following her gaze. “Cal’s just a nice guy. They haven’t hooked up in, like, months. I think Paige just doesn’t get the hint, ya know?”

“You seem to know too much about this,” she said suspiciously, prompting Luke to merely smirk in response. Odessa let out a sharp breath through her nose, shooting Luke a look as she turned to face the bar. “When has Paige never gotten what she wants?” she added dryly as she flagged down the bartender, her drink finished and in need of another one.

Luke rolled his eyes, knowing the the truth of Odessa’s words. “Fair enough. Still, though—can’t wait for the day she gets knocked down a peg or two.” With a smirk appearing on his lips to show off his dimples, Luke added, “I always knew I was right to have you as my favorite across-the-hall neighbor.”

That had her laughing as the bartender placed her drink in front of her, and the grin on Odessa’s face remained as she said to Luke, “I missed you too, Luke.”

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mythiccheroacademia · 4 years

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Beach Waves and Happiness

a little self-indulgent something i was hoarding in my documents and decided to share. maybe or maybe not bc i felt bad bc of all the angst i was posting. i hope you all enjoy it :)

A/N: In my mind, I imagine that Bakugo and his spouse would certainly have a bumpy marriage. I headcanon that his spouse is as headstrong as he is, if not stronger. They need to be in order to handle all that is Bakugo Katsuki lmao. But they grow with each day and are their strongest together. He’s also matured by then, so it’ll always work out in the end.

A little context. You and Katsuki have been married for a couple of years and have kids. Koji and Eva. Twins. Not much else to say but enjoy this sweet, sugary, domestic fic.

Warnings: Mentions of intimacy, cursing

Beach Waves and Happiness (Bakugo X Reader)

When the twins were old enough to walk and (mostly) potty-trained, that’s when you started taking trips. You were so excited to spend time as a family apart from dinner and bath time. Katsuki was excited to see you in a swimsuit again.

And family time as well!

Their first international trip was to Hawaii. Your husband had been a couple times and thought it would be a good and family-friendly vacation spot. You grew up on the beach so being on the island was perfect for you. Katsuki saw how you flourished under the sun, with the salty wind tousling your braids and the white sand on your feet. As you took your children to the waves, smiling like the sun as they squealed from the water, he felt heart swell with pride.

He never wanted to take for granted what he had been given.

“It tickles!” Eva, the eldest twin, giggled.

Koji was a bit hesitant to touch the water but gained confidence when he felt his sister grab his hand. When the waves began to roll in, they screamed with excitement and ran the other way. They continued their game of chase whiles their mother watched them with a smile.

Feeling eyes on yourself, you caught your husband’s adoring gaze and goofily posed. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” you joked.

And moment ruined. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he walked by your side. Katsuki placed his hand on your waist, inviting you to lean on his shoulder. You two stood there for a moment, letting the sound of your children’s laughter and waves settle between them.

“Don’t you wish we could just stay here forever?” you suddenly said.

“All the time, but money doesn’t grow on trees. You actually have to work for stuff.”

“Imagine that.” You raised your head catching Katsuki’s eyes. He hummed for your thoughts. “Nothing. Just kind of taking in everything. I feel at peace. More than I have in a long time.”

It was meant to be happy words, but it made the blonde hero deflate just a bit. A thought had been gnawing at his heart for a while and he found he could no longer hold in his question.

“[Y/N], are you happy?”

That got you to pause. You turned to hold his waist with your arms. “The short answer is yes, but what do you mean?” you said, eyeing how contemplative he looked.

Katsuki felt himself absent-mindedly play with your hair as he stared where the sand met the waves. He was never good with his words but damn it. He needed to know. Even if it could hurt him.

“It’s just…I know being with me isn’t the easiest.”

“Katsuki, if this is about our fight, I told you—”

“No. I mean yes, but not entirely. Let me just get this out.” You sighed but nodded. “When I asked you to move in with me, I half expected you to say no. But you did. And I know being thousands of miles away from your friends and family is shitty. Especially in Japan where you might feel alone. I mean, I know you made friends with Deku, Cheeks, Pinky, and all those idiots but it’s different. It’s not your home. But you never complain. You always adjust. Even after we got married and had children, and you felt like you were suffocating under all the responsibility when I was being a shit ass husband and father, you never said anything until you were at your breaking point.”

It pained him to remember how he didn’t know you were going through postpartum depression until it got so bad, he’d wake up to find you sobbing in the living room by yourself. Or when your mother called him five months into the marriage and nearly cussed him dead for her daughter feeling like she couldn’t even tell him she was going through a hard time. Sternly reminding him that you dropped everything to move to Japan for his career. That’s when she accidentally slipped that you were pregnant.

He was still young at the time and in the midst of a stressful time in his career. When he confronted you about it, he admitted he did more yelling than he should have. You took your ring off and he felt his heartbreak for the first time. You said you’d stay at a hotel, but he begged you to stay in the house and he left for his parent’s house. It was a tough week. One of the toughest weeks in your relationship. However, you preserved. As always.

Although, Katsuki still saw how exhausted you were. Even when he gave more than 100%, you were still tired, and he had a feeling it wasn’t physical exhaustion.

Your husband tucked a braid behind your ear and the look he gave you made your chest pinch. “I just don’t want you to get to your breaking point with me and before I can help it, lose you and the twins,” he said, voice barely above the sound of the sea.

There was only a small amount of times you’d see him so open about his feelings. Sometimes you’d admit you didn’t handle it well. Thus, the fights. You and your husband weren’t good at expressing your emotions properly and learning to do so was a journey. However, you always appreciated his willingness to grow—whether it was before or after the matter.

“Baby,” you cooed, softly kissing the corner of his lips. “Let’s get one thing straight. I’d have to be the coldest, most heartless, bitch on the planet to keep you away from Eva and Koji. No matter what happens to us, you’re still their father. A good one at that, and I would never separate you three. Besides, my mom and yours would hang me before I could.”

He chuckled. He knew you were only half-joking. Your parents were alike in more ways than one. It was kind of scary, but good for family gatherings.

“And, if I’m going to be honest, it was really hard at first. Sometimes, I thought I made the wrong decision, but then you’d come home, and we’d spend hours talking and every day I was reminded why I did it. The way your eyes would light up every time you’d talk about work made my heart flutter. Then you’d turn around, look at me, and tell me how being at your side made everything better. When I couldn’t tell you how useless I felt, you’d just know and make me feel on top of the world. When I’m hard on myself, you’re there to bully the insecurities out. I see the little things you do like buy more tampons and pads, without me having to ask, when I run low, wash the dishes as soon as you come home because you know I hate doing them, or turn the fan off in the middle of the night when I shiver, even when you’re hot.

We butt heads. We fight for sure. And we kind of suck ass at dealing with our feelings. But not for one moment did I stop loving you any less. Maybe I didn’t like you all the time,” she snickered and Katsuki snorted. “But I loved you. I love you. And I know you love me all the same.”

Katsuki didn’t know why he had been blessed, especially since he wasn’t the best person in his past. However, he never questioned it. He just cherished.

With no other way to properly express his gratitude, he pulled you closer and he pressed a heart-stopping kiss to your lips. You moaned, gripping his bicep, as he tilted your head, one hand under your chin and the other on the small of your back. Katsuki pulled back, your bottom lip between his teeth, to gaze at you in a way that warmed your body.

“Till death do us part, huh?” he smiled.

“You’re kinda stuck with me even after that.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Who knew you could be so corny?” you chuckled.

A hand came down on your ass and you gasped, laughing at his antics. “Don’t ruin the moment, dumbass.”

You continued your kissing, smirking between them. “You’re lucky you have a big dic—”

A tug at your skirt brought you two out of your…conversation.

It was Koji.

“Momma! We build castle!” he cheerfully smiled. Then he dropped his smile in 0.3 seconds and frowned at his father. “N’ you! Daddy no eat momma. We talk about dis.”

You snickered behind your hands as Katsuki’s eye twitched. Your son was at the age where he was forming an Oedipus complex. He and Katsuki had a thirty-minute conversation about him trying to “eat you” and “killing you” at night. It was endearing for you and annoying for him.

“Fine, you little brat. We’re watching your dumb castle,” he grumbled.

“You dumb!” Eva retaliated for her brother. Koji hmphed in agreement before running back to his sister.

You were openly cracking up and Katsuki was steaming.

“I’m glad you find this funny, jerk,” he mumbled.

“Hilarious actually.”

There was a moment of comforting silence.

“What was that about my big—”

“Koji! Your daddy’s tryna kill me again!”

“What the—? No I’m not!”

“DADDY!”

#bakugo katsuki #katsuki bakugou x reader #bnha #mha #mha scenarios #mha fanfiction #mha x poc!reader #mha x black reader #katsuki x black!reader #mha domestic #katsuki domestic #he's domestic af #mha children #one-shot

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yikesharringrove · 4 years

Note

What if Billy did l leave to Cali and moved in with his old friend, the guy who was kind of his boyfriend before Neil dragged him to Hawkins. After couple of years of him living there, they would go out to a bar with Billy’s old friends and him and the guy would kinda have this fwb thing going on. But then, Billy sees Steve. The guy he had a crush on before he decided he wasn’t good enough for him and left after a night where he had finally fucked Steve senseless —

Pt. 2. Billy would be shocked to see him and before he realizes, Steve’s already coming towards their table. He has came with one of Billy’s friends, Steve being that guys date. There would be some confusion and jealousy from both of them, but they would still end up fucking after the night. (lmao i’m sorry that this is long)

This is from forever ago, I’m sorry it took me a thousand years.

It doesn’t actually have smut, bc where I went with it, it just didn’t feel like it fit, I’m sorry about that.

“Billy, we haven’t gone out in like, a month.” Billy rolled his eyes.

“We went out last weekend, you little baby.” He pushed at Danny’s face. “Git outta here you monster, and maybe I’ll consider meeting you there.”

“Kyle is bringing that guy he’s been dating.”

“And?”

“I was talking to Andie, and she said he’s totally not Kyle’s type. Apparently he’s like, super femme.” Kyle was known for going for absolute macho douchebags. “So we’ll get to meet him, and totally make fun of Kyle for whatever he’s tryna do, changin’ everything up like this.”

Billy threw his head back, groaning at the ceiling.

“Fucking fine. But if he’s an asshole, like Kyle’s guys always fucking are, I’m leaving.”

They met the rest of the gang at the bar, pushing through the small crowd to reach the large table they had claimed. Billy greeted his friends, elbowing Kyle a few times and asking where his new honey is.

“He’s getting us drinks, lay off.” Kyle shoved Billy away, made him bark a laugh. he turned around, was going to head for the bar, but stopped in his fucking tracks.

Steve fucking Harrington was making his way towards him, a drink in each hand.

He hadn’t seen Steve since the night he left Hawkins four years ago.

They had been moving towards something for months, had finally fell into one another, having a night of the most tender sex Billy has ever had in his entire fucking life. Steve had looked at him with those big perfect eyes, and had told Billy he loved him.

Billy left when Steve fell asleep, packed up his car and didn’t stop driving until he reached the Pacific.

Steve spotted him, stopping in his tracks, glaring at Billy. He stomped forward, pushing a drink into Kyle’s hand.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Everyone turned to look at Steve when he spat that at Billy.

“Meeting my friends. Why are you here, Harrington?” Steve gestured lamely at Kyle.

“You two know each other?” Kyle looked at Billy with wide eyes.

“Yeah. Remember when I lived in that shitty hick town for two years? Steve is from there.” Steve looked livid. “Good for you for getting out, Pretty Boy.”

“You’re a real piece of shit, you know that, right, Hargrove?” Everyone was watching with wide eyes as the two went back and forth, heads turning like they were watching a tennis match.

“What the fuck did I do?” Steve’s eyes seemed to crackle.

“You know what the fuck you did. You couldn’t’ve even bothered to say goodbye? Had to run away like that?”

“Wait, did you two fuck?” They both ignored Danny.

“I had to get out, Harrington. You don’t know shit about me.” Steve’s eyes narrowed. Billy admired the pretty eyeshadow on them.

“Max told me everything. I knew it all. You’re just a fucking coward that couldn’t take the fact you felt the same way.” Everybody had lost the conversation, couldn’t derive enough from the fight to figure out exactly what had happened between these two.

“I was saving you from yourself, Pretty Boy. I was always gonna leave. Better right away than let you get your hopes up.” Steve stamped his foot.

“My fucking hero.” He picked up one of the drinks he had brought, chugging it down before slamming the glass back onto the table, grabbing Kyle’s hand. “We’re dancing.” He turned to Billy. “Don’t fucking talk to me tonight.”

They disappeared back into the crowd. Billy made his way to the bar, downing two shots right after the other.

“You used to date him, or something?” Billy shook his head, not looking at Danny.

“Nah. I fucked him once and he told me he loved me. I packed up and left the next day.”

“Wait, you only fucked once and he said that?” Billy slammed another shot.

“We were friends, I guess. He had a thing for me, and I just wanted some ass.” That was a complete lie, but Danny didn’t need to know the sweet warmth that had settled in Billy’s gut when Steve said he loved him, how badly he wanted to say it back, how he had gotten scared and made the stupidest decision he had ever made.

“And then you left without saying goodbye?” Billy nodded. “That’s kinda fucked up.” Billy just stared at him.

“What?”

“You knew the guy was into you, and you just dicked him and ditched him without saying goodbye. That’s fucked, Billy.”

“I don’t need this from you. You do not understand what that fucking town was like for me.”

“No, I understand perfectly. You’re a bigger asshole than I thought.” Danny shook his head. Heading back to the table. Billy downed two more shots.

His head was fuzzy as he stumbled into the alleyway for some fresh air.

He tried a few times to light a cigarette when he heard a quiet sniffle.

He turned to see Steve leaning against a wall further down the alley.

“You okay?” Steve stiffened.

“What’s it matter to you?” Billy shrugged.

“If Kyle tried anything-”

“Oh, shut up. He dumped me because of you.” Billy took a few unbalanced steps towards him.

“‘Do you mean?”

“He asked about what happened, and I told him. How you led me on for over a year, how you would let me open up to you, let me cry and feel insecure and would tell me that I was enough the way I am, how you fucked me and ran away the next day, didn’t even bother to call or even write for four years.” Steve had silvery tears running down his cheeks now, illuminated by the streetlights. “How I waited for you, like a fucking idiot before letting myself move on.” He wiped his eyes. “God, I told myself I was done crying over you.”

“Steve, I didn’t mean to-”

“Doesn’t matter. You still did it.” Billy’s heart sank. Steve looked fucking broken in front of him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run like I did. Especially, especially because you’re right. I was scared of how much I felt for you. Scared that if I let myself love you, I would’ve stayed in Hawkins forever. Would’ve never gotten out from under my dad’s thumb.”

“Bill,” Billy’s heart fluttered at the way Steve’s voice sounded when he said his name like that, was immediately transported to late nights sitting in his car overlooking the quarry. “I would’ve left with you. I didn’t like it there, either. I would’ve left with you.”

“I was an idiot. Still am sometimes. But I’m sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for dragging you into my mess. You deserve a lot better than me.” Steve took a shaky breath.

“Y’know, it still sucks. After all these years of telling myself I hate you for what you did, standing here with you, I still-I mean I could never hate you.”

“You wanna come back to my place? Nothing implied, just to talk. Catch up.” Steve chewed on his bottom lip. His lipstick was a pretty deep red.

“Sure. We can, we can catch up.”

Billy led him the few blocks back to his two-bedroom he shares with Danny. He grabbed them each a beer while Steve studied the pictures tacked to the walls.

“Are you two together?” He pointed tot the picture, one of many, of Billy and Danny at the beach, arms around one another.

“Nah. We live together, and we fuck sometimes, but neither of us would be good in a relationship together.” Steve just nodded. “You date much?”

“Not back in Hawkins. I spent about a year there after you left. Robin graduated and moved out here, and I moved into a shitty apartment in Hawkins until she finished her first year and moved out of the dorms. I live with her now. She’s helped me embrace myself more.”

Billy remembers a night when he and Steve got drunk in Steve’s bedroom, how he’d found some dresses in Steve’s closet, the way he’d broken down and cried and said that he just liked to feel pretty, that sometimes he didn’t even feel like a boy.

Billy had held him all night. Bought him some makeup from the drugstore the next day. Probably shitty stuff, but Steve had looked at it like it was made of gold.

“I’m happy for you. I’m glad you get to be yourself here.” Steve sat down next to him on the ratty couch, leaving a solid two feet of space between them.

“You seem a lot happier out here. Like, you just seem lighter.”

“I am so much happier here.” Steve’s smile was tight, a little bitter. “I just mean, without my dad here, I’ve been going to therapy, and I have this support group for queer abuse survivors, and I’m just not angry all the fucking time like I used to be.”

“I’m proud of you.”

Billy had forgotten.

He’d forgotten that Steve had this lovely way of saying something simple and making it the best thing that’s Billy’s ever heard. Making billy realize he’d never heard that simple thing said to him before.

He didn’t even think.

Just leaned across the space and kissed Steve.

he pushed him away.

“Billy, I won’t let you do this again. It took me years to get over what you did. You can’t just kiss me and think it’s all okay.”

“I’m sorry, Steve.” Steve shook his head, went to get up off the couch. Billy grabbed his wrist. “You know, I wanted to say it back that night.”

“Don’t say that.” Steve’s voice was small.

“I did. I felt that same. But I got fucking scared. And I left and I shouldn’t have.”

“Yes, you should have. We just established that you’re doing better here!”

“But I could’ve held out a little longer, long enough that you could’ve come with me.” Steve finally turned to look at him.

“Billy, you did what you had to do. I forgave you a long time ago. When I first saw you tonight I was just, it made me remember the hurt.”

“I know I hurt you. And I’m so fucking sorry.” Steve blinked at him.

“You get one chance. One more chance. Do it for real. Take me out on a date. I want the whole nine. Pick me up, tell me I’m pretty, take me somewhere inexpensive but nice, hold my hand, kiss me on my doorstep, all of it.” Billy just nodded.

“I’ll do it. I’ll do anything. Whatever you want.”

Steve smiled at him, turning over his hand to hold Billy’s.

“Then pick me up tomorrow at six. Don’t be late.”

#yikes writes #steve harrington #billy hargrove #steve harrington x billy hargrove #billy hargrove x steve harrington #harringrove #harringrove fic #harringrove ficlet #harringrove drabble #i feel like im gonna throw up im just tryna write until all my problems go away honestly

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captainillogical · 5 years

Text

Devil’s Ballroom Ch.7

A year after the events from the earth’s final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and there’s a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As you’re typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. It’s her. God can’t help us now.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

ya’ll im sorry lmao

You spend the rest of your evening doing exactly none of the errands that you needed to deal with today. Instead, you're laying on your couch and texting your friends.

Y/N: I'm so tornnnn.

Y/N: Do I say something about the cheek smooch?

Y/N: Should I leave it be?

Y/N: Because she's texting like nothing happened.

Y/N: What if I'm reading too much into it??

Y/N: What if that's just how she shows friendship affection???

Y/N: I might make it so fucking awkward if I assume something!

Y/N: This entire ordeal is mortifying!!!

Y/N: I want nothing more than to dig a big hole and lie in it forever.

Y/N: I might be low-key having a panic attack about this rn but what's new.

Harper: Y/N. chill. you're way overreacting to this.

Harper: even if it meant nothing, she still likes you as a friend right?

Harper: i think it would take a lot for her to like.. not wanna stay friends lol.

Alex: im just saying you could probably kiss her and she'd be ok with it

Alex: cheek kisses are pretty forward

Harper: don't listen to him. all of his relationships ended in failure.

Alex: wow

Alex: im seriously hurt

Harper: am I wrong?

Alex: no..

Harper: my point exactly.

Harper: i’m not saying you have nothing to lose or anything.

Harper: because i myself had to tread very carefully with leah..

Harper: but i think you should just see where it goes and not like

Harper: put too much emphasis on this incase it was nothing.

Y/N: Yeah see now you have me worried it WAS nothing!!

Alex: oh my goooooooddddddddddddddd

Alex: the both of you approach women so.. pathetically

Alex: take a risk

Alex: live a little

Alex: what is seriously the worst that could happen

Alex: she kills you??

Alex: lmao

Alex: its funny cuz of.. you know

Harper: i can’t wait to be home and smothering him with a pillow instead of affection.

Y/N: You and me both.

Y/N: Try being the only one available to play games with him.

Alex: both of you fucking love me okay

Alex: alsooooooo i get to be home the day after tomorrow

Alex: the alex is back, babieeeeee

Y/N: Harper please come home I’m BEGGING you.

Harper: sorry you gotta deal with him alone for another month lmao.

Y/N: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Alex: can i get a fucking crumb of love here please

You swipe over to the couple of messages Spinel has left you in the past couple of minutes while you were talking to your friends.

Spinel: It’s another stupid ball, I just found out.

Spinel: I told her that I’m sitting this one out this time.

Spinel: She has so many others that would absolutely love to help her, and yet, still absolutely insists that I must be there.

Spinel: I don’t want to go back to homeworld right now, and not for this.

Y/N: And you put your foot down? Hell yeah, dude.

Y/N: Planning a ball for a bunch of gems sounds like a chore anyway.

Spinel: oh, it is, believe me.

Spinel: And they need everything to be PERFECT.

Spinel: Which isn’t realistic anymore now that they don’t expect any of the gems to stay in line with their gem class nowadays.

Spinel: The last ball they threw almost 4 months ago was utterly chaotic.

Y/N: For thousands of years y'all as a race never pushed to deviate from the norm, and now that you guys are allowed to? I’d go batshit with it too.

Y/N: Being stifled in everyday life, and finally you’re free?

Y/N: Fuck, I’d go around fusing with anyone!

Spinel: That is precisely what too many of them did.

Y/N: Lmao. I wish I could’ve seen that.

You tab back over to your group chat for a moment to see what they’re talking about.

Harper: see? they’re everywhere.

Harper: i wasn’t expecting the campsite to have so many.

Alex: you could have built an army and instead you took pictures

Alex: do you know how easy it is to lure chipmunks?

Alex: oh that lil guy on the bottom right is so fucking chunky i love him

Harper: that’s the one that got the closest when i fed them. :3

Alex: oh i fuckin BET

Alex: you dont get that chubby in the wild without takin a few risks

Alex: if u know what i mean ;)

Harper: i hate whatever you just implied.

Y/N: It’s not a conversation with Alex unless you roll your eyes at least 3 times.

Alex: hey i thought it was 4 times

Alex: dont insult me

Alex: anyway, y/n

Alex: are you workin the day i come back

Y/N: Yeah I’m actually scheduled a double.

Alex: scheduled

Y/N: Yes.

�� Alex: a double

Y/N: Yes.

Alex: he can’t SCHEDULE you a DOUBLE

Y/N: He can if he asks me ahead of time as a favor.

Alex: that fuckin bastard

Alex: always ruining my plans

Harper: you’re still mad at him for firing you last summer, huh.

Alex: OF COURSE I AM

Y/N: Bro you stole like $300 of cotton candy sugar that summer.

Y/N: It’s only fair.

Y/N: Besides, I’m only doing this because he said he’d give me a long weekend for it.

Alex: kay well

Alex: i guess i’ll just go bug you at work and wait for you to get off that day :'(

Y/N: Get me written up again, I swear to god.

Your phone chimes several times, and you swipe down to see messages from both Spinel and Steven. You check Spinel's first.

Spinel: Do me a favor and ignore any messages Steven has sent you.

Y/N: What are you, my boss?

Spinel: I MEAN IT

You quickly switch over to Steven's texts.

Steven: I was going to ask you if your date with Spinel went okay, but I'm assuming it went fine considering she hasn't really stopped talking about you.

Ohhhh my god, this is wild. You reply to him.

Y/N: It wasn't a date as far as I know.

Y/N: I had fun.

Y/N: She's telling me to not read your messages, lmao.

Y/N: Also what do you mean she hasn't stopped talking about me??

Steven: She’s been lying on my floor for the last hour basically gushing about you.

Steven: But you didn’t hear that from me!

Steven: :D

Y/N: Haha thanks, kid.

You switch back over to text Spinel, and get up off the couch to make yourself some tea. Pulling out your kettle, you turn the stove on and grab some raspberry flavored abomination tea bag that your dad loves more than any of the other good tea flavors.

Y/N: Sooooo.

Spinel: You talked to him, didn’t you.

Y/N: Hahaha noooo. :)

Spinel: The fuck did he say?

Y/N: Absolutely nothing.

Spinel: Seriously? I was sure he’d reveal something embarrassing.

Y/N: Nope! You should probably get off his floor eventually, though.

Your kettle goes off and you grab a clean mug, and pour the boiling water into it along with the tea packet. You look down at your phone, and grin.

Spinel: goddammit.

You let the bag steep for a little bit, and add in a small amount of sugar. Walking up to your bedroom you take a snap of Jellybean half lounging, half falling off the stairs and send it to Spinel. She replies with a couple heart emojis, and you wonder if Steven was the one to show her the proper use of them. You set your cup of tea down on your desk, and turn your computer on. It’s evening now, and it’s much too late to do anything left with the rest of your day productivity-wise, so you settle in on playing more minecraft. Your thoughts wander quite a bit, and you find yourself stuck on thinking about Spinel. Naturally. You wonder about a lot of things she’s learned while staying on earth, from things like - does she pay rent? Does she have a job? Does she know what taxes are? Does she know what a relationship with a human looks like? She said she watched a movie, but didn’t exactly elaborate. You don’t know what human-norms she’s been exposed to. You can’t even concentrate enough to mine any of this redstone for Alex, and you nearly die in-game when the thought of ‘does she know what sex is?’ pops into your mind. You grab your phone and shoot Spinel another message.

Y/N: Quick question.

Y/N: If you don’t mind me asking.

It takes her a few minutes to reply.

Spinel: Sure?

Y/N: Do you know how humans are made?

Spinel: w

Spinel: Yes?

Spinel: Steven told me about it a few weeks ago actually.

Spinel: Why are you asking?

Y/N: No reason! Just curious is all.

Spinel: Hm.

Yeah you’re not too confident that she actually knows, and you’re too chickenshit to elaborate right now. You’ll enlighten her later. You spend the rest of the night browsing memes on your phone, and texting your friends and Spinel on occasion. Before you know it, your eyes drift close with your phone in hand.

You wake up when your alarm goes off for your morning shift, and curse at yourself for not charging it last night. It’s at a solid 32%, which isn’t really enough to go about your day, but you’ll have to make do. You get ready for a hopefully not shitty day, lock up the house, and head in to work.

It’s a complete shitshow when you come in, and you turn your phone off to save battery and concentrate on dealing with more than an average amount of tourists. You find Mr. Smiley sleeping in the breakroom/office/supply closet, and have half a mind to lock him in there from the outside for the rest of your shift. It’s pretty busy, and messy, and it isn’t until you’re there for several exhausting hours that you finally have enough time for a break. You turn your phone on, and instantly you’re flooded with messages from several different people. Ugh.

A couple from your dad - just checking in, really. Group chat too as usual, but none of it seems overly important. One from Spinel, and several from Steven. You open up Spinel’s message first.

Spinel: Do you think we could talk about a couple of things later?

Vague, and a little concerning. You text back an apology for getting back to her so late, and open the messages from Steven.

Steven: Hey are you busy?

Steven: I’m dealing with a bit of a situation right now, and could use your help.

Steven: Spinel locked herself in my bathroom, and she won’t come out.

Steven: She refuses to answer to anyone, and several of us have tried.

Steven: I’m just really worried about her, and you guys seemed to bond, so I was hoping..

Steven: That maybe you could come over?

Steven: Thanks regardless.

You check the timestamp, and that was over an hour ago. Jesus christ.

Y/N: Steven I’m so sorry, my phone was off and I’m at work, give me a few and I’ll be right over, okay?

Y/N: I’ll be quick.

He replies almost immediately with a “please” and you pocket your phone. You try not to worry too hard about Spinel as you rush over to grab your things, and knock on Mr. Smiley’s office/broom closet door. He opens it groggily, clearly just waking up.

“Yeah?” he slowly blinks at you.

“I gotta leave early. Emergency.” You stare at him, trying to not be pissed at his lack of work ethic.

“Are you for real? You’ve got another 3 hours left.” He says and crosses his arms, and you glare at him.

“I’ve been working my ass off while you’ve been sleeping this whole time, AND I’m covering your ass tomorrow so you can go meet your old friend! So the LEAST you can do is let me go early when I have an emergency!!!” You almost yell out at him, and he holds his hands up in defense.

“Okay, okay! Fine. Only because you’re a good worker.” He says, and has the gall to look at least a little ashamed of himself.

“Damn right I am.” You spin around and head out of the building, practically running.

You almost trip and bite it several times on the way over to Steven’s place, but you’re more worried about Spinel. You’ve only been to his place twice, but once you’re there you run up the stairs and open the door without knocking. You’re greeted by the only two people in the living room, Pearl, and Steven.

“Oh, she’s here!” Pearl says and nudges Steven, who looks up from typing on his phone.

“Y/N! Thank god you’re here.” He says with furrowed eyebrows.

“What happened?” You say and shut the door, and cross the room over to him.

“I’m not sure! We were just working on something together for Amethyst, and she got a call from Blue and Yellow. She’s been ignoring them lately, and they’ve been bothering me in turn because of that, so I asked her to take the call just see what they want.” He runs his hand through his brown curls, and just for a moment, you see that 12 year old him in again. The obvious stress masks just how young he really is, and you feel bad that he can’t live life like a normal kid. “She went outside to take the call, and was out there for quite a while. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I did hear some yelling. And just when I was going over to make sure they were alright, she comes back in tears, eyes spiraling like months ago, and nearly knocks Pearl over rushing into the bathroom.”

“And nothing since?” You inquire, fidgeting with your hands.

“No,” He says, frustratedly. “I’ve been trying to reach the diamonds to see what this is all about, but I’ve only been getting the pearls. I don’t know what to do. She hasn’t been like this in months. What were they talking about to make her this upset?”

“Maybe I can find out. You said she’s in your bathroom?” You raise an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, the one right over here.” He says and points to it.

“Is it locked?” You ask.

“No,” Pearl glances towards the bathroom door and crosses her arms. “The lock has been broken on it for a while, since Peridot joined us actually. Both Garnet and I tried opening it, but I think once Spinel hears someone trying to come in she blocks the door.”

Hm.

“I’m gonna try something, but you guys are gonna wanna stay away.” You say to the two of them. “I don’t want to overwhelm her with more than one person.”

“Let us know if we can do anything?” Steven makes to pass by you and gives your arm a light squeeze. “And thanks for coming to help.”

“Anytime, dude.” You give him a half smile, and walk over to his bathroom. You turn to take a look back at the other two, and they’re already in the kitchen discussing something in soft tones. You move to knock at the door, make two light taps against the frame, and wait for an answer.

A couple seconds pass, and nothing. Not even any movement. Nervously, you knock again, a little louder this time, and wait for a good ten seconds.

Still nothing.

You take a deep breath, reach out to grab the door handle, and very slowly and quietly open the bathroom door. You see nothing but absolute darkness, and step in. You feel around the wall to your right and flip a switch just as you close the door behind you with an audible click. The room instantly floods with the dark red light of the heat lamp, and before you can even think about finding another light source, you find yourself slammed up against the wall and let out a surprised yelp. You open your eyes to see Spinel’s face inches from yours, pupils wild, her hands splayed against your shoulders.

“U-um,” Your voice cracks a little. “Hey.”

You watch her eyes take a second to find yours, and almost instantly, she lets you go, arms trembling.

“W.. what are YOU DOING HERE!?” She cries, large tears pouring down her face, eyebrows raised in confusion, mouth trembling. Her hair is in loose pigtails, strands untamed around her face, cheeks stained with tear tracks. She looks like a mess, and your heart breaks, just a little. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt y-”

“I’m fine.” You cut her off. “I should have said who it was outside the door, I’m sorry. And um.. Steven texted me while I was at work, and told me what was going on so I rushed over..” You trail off as you watch Spinel’s entire body shake, and she covers her face with both of her hands.

“I can’t believe I just did that.” You hear her wavering voice, muffled behind her fists, and she lets out a choked sob. “Maybe they were right. M-maybe I’m not meant to-” She quickly moves her hands down to look at the floor with wide, vulnerable eyes, and struggles to form the rest of her words. You hear her breathing pick up pace, and you’re starting to realize she’s hyperventilating.

“Spinel, look at me.” Her eyes shoot up to yours, lips trembling. “I need you to breathe.” You do what your friends have always done with you, and gently grab both of her hands and hold them with yours, thumbs stroking her palms in slow circles. She freezes up instantly, and you’re about to panic, because while a familiar touch helps ground you, you register that maybe it’ll make it worse for her. But before you can pull your hands away, her hands relax ever so slightly, and she lets out a shaky breath. “Good. Just like that.” You motion for her to follow your breathing inverals, and she copies you, hands still shaking in yours.

It’s been a while since you’ve had to deal with something like this, but you’re thankful for having similar life experiences. After a solid minute or two of this her breathing is back to a normal pace, but she’s still crying, and now not meeting your eyes. Almost like she’s avoiding them.

“Look, I.. I don’t know what happened with you and the diamonds, but you can talk to me about it if you’d like. No pressure, though.” You give her hands a small squeeze, and she whimpers, looking up to meet your gaze. Tears are still actively streaming down her face, and you have no idea how to make any of this better. It physically hurts you to see her like this.

“C-can I not talk about it? I don’t think I’m ready..” She pulls a hand from yours, and wipes at her face. She just kind of smeared half of her face with wetness, and she looks miserable.

“You don’t have to talk about anything, Spinel.” You look at her, making sure she sees it in your eyes. You slowly let go of her other hand, and hold your arms out in a silent question instead. Her mouth opens slightly, the red glow of the light around her making her look extremely vulnerable and soft, and she looks at your open arms with a blank face for a moment before understanding. Almost instantaneously, she throws herself against you and wraps her arms around your shoulders, shoving her face into the cradle of your neck. You envelop your arms around her tightly, giving her sides a squeeze, and you feel her start to shake again.

She lets out an unsteady sigh, and hiccups out another small sob. You pull her to lean fully against you as you stand there, bracing your back against the bathroom door. She lets you maneuver her, and you rest the side of your face against her temple while she cries. You resign yourself to letting her cry on you until she’s done, if she needs to.

You feel her sniffle against your neck, and try not to mind that she’s getting your shirt soaked. You give her back a few gentle rubs, feeling her body quiver against yours as she’s trying to control her choked breathing. You’re not really counting the minutes, as right now you’re currently having way too many rampant thoughts about what the fuck the diamonds could’ve said to her. You’re mad as hell, honestly, and if you could say shit to them, you would in a heartbeat. You don’t want to make anything worse for her though, as much as you want to steal her phone and video call them to curse them out. It takes a few more minutes, but eventually her crying dies down, and you feel her breathing even out. Slowly, she dislodges her arms from twisting around you two, and you feel a sigh, her breath hot against your neck. You do your best to school your facial expression as you’re realize just how close you are to her, and she pulls her face from its resting position to look at you. She looks awful.

“U-um,” She lifts up her hand to attempt to wipe her face, failing to rub half the tears away. “I don’t really want to go out there yet..”

“You don’t have to.” You say, quietly. “I can leave if you’d like some quiet to yourself.” Her face looks panicked for a second, and she grabs your wrist.

“Please don’t leave me.” She says, voice wavering again. You try not to let your heart shatter at her tone.

“I won’t if you want me here.” You say, and sigh softly. “Here, hold on a second.”

She lets your wrist go as you move slightly over to the sink, turn the hot water on, and grab a clean hand towel from the counter. You soak it in water, and squeeze out all the excess. Towel in hand, you turn back to her, and she’s looking at you cautiously. You lift the towel slightly, motioning to her face.

“May I?” You ask, and she nods slightly.

Tenderly, you brush a couple strands of hair away from her face, grasp her chin with your left hand and pull her forward, gently pressing the towel to her cheek. She closes her eyes, and her shoulders sag a little as she lets you dab at her face, cleaning her of any tear stain marks. She sighs into your touch, and it strikes you that it would be so easy to just.. lean in and kiss her.

Your brain almost short circuits and you snap your thoughts back to reality. There’s a time and place for everything. This is not the time, nor the place.

Once you’re satisfied that she looks a lot better than before, you pull your hands away to toss the rag in the sink, and Spinel, for a brief moment, looks disappointed that you had stopped. Which.. kind of gives you an idea.

“Can I try something? Harper used to do this thing with me when I.. had similar breakdowns.” You ask her. She raises her eyebrow in response, clearly exhausted from crying so much. “Here.” You say, and take her hand and lead her over to the rim of the bathtub. You sit down on the edge, and motion for her to sit in front of you on the floor. She takes a seat in front of you, still confused, but obeys nonetheless. “Can I touch you?” You ask her, watching her face to make sure she’s alright.

She looks up at you, the red light in the room flooding the entirety of her face, making her hair darker, and the whites of her eyes a bit more dramatic.

“Yeah.” She says in reply, voice tired.

You reach out to her hair, and stop for a moment.

“Can I have you face the other direction, actually? Come over here.” You move to open your knees, making enough room for Spinel to turn around and lean against the bathtub. She’s close to you again.

“What are you..” She trails off as you start to take the hair ties out of her pigtails, one after the other. It takes a second, as it’s a bit tangled, but you manage to get both out, and let her hair fall down. You comb out her hair with your fingers, gently, and she sighs audibly while leaning into your touch. You run your short nails along her scalp, scratching and massaging as you smooth out her hair, attempting to pull all the tangles out.

“Touch used to calm me down, and Harper was really good at it, honestly.” You say while pulling out a particularly difficult tangle without hurting her. Her hair is long like this, and you like it. You wish you could grow your hair this long, but it’s kind of a pain to deal with, and the longest you’ve ever had yours wasn’t even to your mid back, you think to yourself. “Sometimes she’d give me shoulder and neck massages, but I preferred that she’d just play with my hair. There’s just something different about another person touching your hair.”

“I kind of get what you mean.” She says, tiredly.

“Can I braid your hair?” You lean closer to look at her face.

“Do what you want.” She says, looking fairly relaxed.

“Cool. Anyway, while Harper was good at that, Alex, on the other hand, was just terrible at any kind of physical comfort. He’s genuine, and he tries, but he’s an idiot. He’s a lot better at distractions, for the most part.” You run your fingers through her hair one more time, before starting to separate her hair into three parts for a french braid. “He’s funny, and comes from a large family, so he always has stories and jokes. Whenever I’d have a panic attack, those two were always so good about being there for me. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

You notice that Spinel‘s shoulders have lost most of the tension in them, and you’re secretly relieved. You keep talking to fill the quietness around you two, because you’ve always hated the quiet during moments like these. Your friends aren’t here, so it’s up to you to make up for it.

“It was kind of hard, at first though,” You say, and start looping the chunks of hair around your fingers, starting at the top of her head. “Because for a while there, back when I was 16 and dealing with the worst of my abandonment issues, I clung onto Harper like a baby koala. I had this super weird crush on her even though we had been friends since we were practically babies. I think I idolized her because she was just.. good to me.” You accidentally tug a little too hard on a strand of hair, wince and utter an apology while massaging the spot on her scalp. “I’m glad that didn’t ruin our friendship, but for a while there I really pushed my feelings onto her, which was kinda fucked up on my part.”

“Hm..” Spinel mumbles. “I kind of had a thing for Pink, I think. Which ended up screwing with me even more after what she did.” You stare at the back of her head and pause your hands for a second. Huh. Yeah, you had a hunch.

“If she were still alive, I’d punch her in the face for you, I hope you know.” You state, in full seriousness. This gets the first chuckle that you’ve heard from her today, and you’re secretly overjoyed.

“I’d pay to watch that.” She says, and you laugh out loud. You see her smile, just barely.

“So,” You continue, with both your hands and conversation. “A week or so after my 17th birthday, right after Harper talked to me about this guy at school that she liked, I confess to her. And not like a, ‘oh hey, you’re my best friend and I really like you’ kind of way, either. It was more like a, ‘have a mental breakdown over your best friend liking someone else and make them feel like shit about it on your walk home from school’ kind of confession.” Your hands reach the nape of her neck now, braid mostly done on her head, but you’ve got around another 20 inches of length before being finished.

“Harper avoided me for nearly a week after that. I was absolutely pathetic, and inconsolable. Alex was fed up with my shit after a few days, and nearly slapped me over it. He would’ve been in the right, doing so, honestly. I was a selfish asshole who only thought about her own feelings, and not about her best friends.” Your eyes drift to Spinel’s face, and her eyes are closed, eyebrows unfurrowed.

“Anyway,” You’re nearly done with the entire braid now. “She did end up forgiving me. Thankfully. I don’t know what I’d do if it were my fault that I’d split up our friend group.” You pick up the discarded hair tie from earlier, and tie it around the end of the braid.

“I’m all done, by the way.” You say to her. She opens her eyes tentatively, and she looks sleepy. You stand up, and stretch your back. She also gets up on wobbly legs, and turns to look at you.

“Um.” She’s avoiding your eyes. “Thank you. For this.” She’s twisting her hands together, nervously. You lean your face closer to get at eye-level with her.

“Anytime.. and for the record, you look really cute in a braid.” You say and smile, giving her a cheeky wink. You watch her entire face from the neck up turn bright red, and think that you could probably do this forever, and never get tired. She gives you a noncommittal grunt, halfheartedly smacks your arm and you grin at her.

You hear a quiet knock at the door, and look over to Spinel. She shrugs, so I guess it’s okay now.

“You can come in!” You say to the door. It opens slowly, and you see Steven peek his head in.

“Um.. are we okay?” He asks, clearly very worried about her.

“I’ll be okay.” She says, and you think that maybe she should lay down and sleep. You verbalize this immediately.

“Spinel. I think you should go take a nap.” You look at her, and she blinks at you. “I’m serious.”

“She’s kind of right.” Steven says in agreement with you. Spinel gives the both of you a shrug, and even that seems like it’s taking a lot out of her.

“Okay.” She says, and turns to walk out of the bathroom. Steven opens the door wider, and you can see Pearl in the kitchen leaning against the counter, trying to not seem like she’s intently watching all of you.

Spinel makes her way over to the couch and takes a seat, sitting up rigidly. You walk over to her to make sure she’s okay before you leave for home.

“You know you can text me, right? And if you need me, I’ll be available. I’ll leave my volume turned on.” She gives you a nod. “Oh, and.. take this,” You say, and pull off the pullover hoodie you’re wearing right now, and hand it over to her. “Alex used to let me wear his oversized sweaters, and they used to help me sleep, so..”

She tentatively reaches out, and takes it from your hands.

“Thanks.” She says, and gives you a small smile. With her hair pulled back like this she almost looks human, for a fleeting moment. You sometimes forget she’s a gem. You return the smile back at her, and turn around to leave.

After grabbing your bag that you set down earlier from beside the couch, you head over to the front door and open it. Shouldering the bag, you start to shut the door and see Steven behind you. He closes the door behind him, his face searching yours for something you don’t quite know.

“I don’t know what you did, but thank you.” He says, completely genuine.

“You don’t have to thank me. I’d do it for you, too, you know.” You say to him, and he smiles.

“That’s why I like you, Y/N. You’re sweet.”

“Yeahhhh, don’t tell anyone, though. You’ll ruin my reputation.” You smirk, giving him the side-eye. He laughs and pats your back.

“Ohhhhhh no! Whatever will you do!?” He rolls his eyes in jest. “Get home safe, okay?”

“No promises.” You reply, and jump down his steps, two at a time.

It doesn’t take you long to get home, and you’re pretty tired yourself. You make yourself busy by preparing dinner, cleaning the kitchen a little, and calling your dad for another check-in. Before you know it, it’s nearly 11, and you need to sleep for your double shift tomorrow that you almost forgot about. You’re laying in bed browsing social media before drifting off, and you receive a text from Spinel. You swipe down and open the message.

Spinel: Thanks again for today.

Spinel: I baked some new cookies with Steven, and would like to give you some tomorrow if that’s okay?

You smile to yourself. Ughhhhhhhh, you’re catching the feelings disease, and you swat the air around you like it somehow physically manifested around you.

Y/N: I work literally all day, but feel free to stop by and give them to me.

Y/N: Then I get to see a pretty familiar face to break up all the lame tourists.

Y/N: Cuz that sounds super nice. ;)

Spinel: I’ll see you tomorrow, then.

She didn’t react to your obvious teasing, but you won’t let that discourage you. You fall asleep thinking of the many different ways you can poke fun at her, and this time, you charge your phone.

You wake up the next morning feeling well-rested for once, and get ready for work. Alex has sent you a couple texts about when his flight will arrive, and when he’ll roughly come to meet you. Sometime around 4pm, apparently. You shoot Spinel a good morning text, and she replies almost instantly with the same, which makes you smile.

You head to work, texting your group chat about what happened yesterday with Spinel, and give them basically all the details. Alex makes fun of you for a bit, so you curse him out and pocket your phone as you clock in. Today’s going to suck, but you’ve got a few things to look forward to.

You make it a couple hours into your shift before you finally get a break, and Spinel texts you that she’ll drop by sometime in the afternoon once she’s done helping Bismuth with something. God you hope it’s not when Alex gets here, because you are so not fucking ready for that interaction. You eat your lunch and pray to any god out there that you could have one more day of peace.

You’re outside the main building repairing a couple parts on the carousel, ignoring the bulk of the tourists to focus on work. You don’t realize that quite a while has passed by, because someone walks up to you as you’ve got your head in a small door, and kicks you slightly on your ass. You jolt and bump your head against the opening, and you hear Alex burst out into laughter as you groan in pain.

God fucking dammit, this guy. You pull your head out to glare at him, screwdriver pointing at him threateningly.

“Do you want this up your ass? Because I can do that.” You say to him, and he laughs even harder. You roll your eyes at him.

“Don’t promise me with a good time, Y/N.” He says, and you stand up to smack him.

“I don’t think the pointy end would be a good time, idiot.” You deadpan stare at him. He grins.

“You don’t know what I’m into.” He shrugs, and flips his hair dramatically. You hate that he’s stupid and charming, and you love him so much.

“I know I haven’t seen you in 2 months, but like, I feel like you’ve grown taller?” You stare at him, a little mournfully. You’re the shortest one out of your friends, and you’re of average height. He also seems.. handsomer. You think he definitely got a lot more tan. He’s definitely grown into his looks, his dark curly hair and recently shaved face making him look older than you’re used to.

“I don’t think I did, but I think you’ve grown shorter.” He laughs obnoxiously, and you smack his arm again, which makes him laugh harder.

“You’re so mean to me, like all the time. Why do I love you?” You cross your arms and pout, because you know it gets a rise out of him.

“Youuuuuuu knowww, because I’m just so loveable and gorgeous and the smartest one in the group??” He flutters his eyelashes at you like he thinks he’s cute.

“Wow, you are none of these things.” You reply, smirking at him. He puts his hand over his heart in mock offense.

“Y/N, I’m offended. I’ve been here for like, five minutes, and I’ve received absolutely no affection from you. If I don’t get love, I will wilt and die. Do you want to be responsible for my death?” He opens his arms wide, and you roll your eyes dramatically, and stand there.

“We’re not doing this in public.” You say, standing your ground.

“Ohhh, YES we are, Y/N.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Prepare yourself for the onslaught.”

You take a couple steps back, prepared to run. He grabs your arms, wraps his around your torso, and picks you up, swinging you around.

“Nooooooooooooooooo!!” You cry. “Put me down you oaf!”

“No! I want love!” He all but shouts, and spins you around. He grabs your cheek with one hand and starts giving you big ‘ol smooches all over your face, and you’re giggling and trying to push him away, when you hear something drop and spill on the pavement a good twenty feet from you. You look up.

It’s Spinel.

Her face is twisted with heartbreak, and before you can even speak up, she bolts.

You look down, and see the cookies she made you scattered on the ground.

#spinel x reader #spinel #su #steven universe #spinel self insert #fic #my fic #devils ballroom #look. im not sorry yall. i promise next chapter youll get what u want LMFAO

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muertawrites · 4 years

Text

Muggle Magic (George Weasley x Reader)

Summary: George Weasely hires a squib to help him out in the shop, only to learn that magic doesn’t always require a wand.

Word Count: 3,100

Author’s Note: Remember when I said I was gonna post this a few days ago? lmao that was clearly a lie. But it’s finished! And I’m actually really proud of it and I promise I’m not gonna delete this one like the last couple fics I’ve posted because I’m convinced that this one doesn’t suck! I might also be posting more regularly now since I started a new antidepressant that actually makes it so that I want to do productive things with my time and constant need for escapism. I hope you like my first Wizarding World fic because there will be more, considering its the one fandom I let myself get somewhat obsessive about. Enjoy, dearies~

~ 💀🌸 Muerta 🌸💀

( masterlist )

Working for George Weasley brought magic back into your life.

He hired you a little over two years ago, and to say he took a chance on you was an understatement; you were a squib - come to London to get a master’s degree in the hopes of becoming a muggle historian - who had stumbled into Diagon Alley in an attempt to reconnect with your magical roots. You’d stepped into Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes during a rare moment of calm when the shop was empty and, noticing the history books peeking out of your bag, George struck up a conversation with you, mentioning his father’s long-lived love of muggle culture.

Despite the stigma you carried, your first conversation with George offered him a shortened version of your life’s story; how you convinced your family to send you away to a muggle boarding school when your letter to a magical institution didn’t arrive by the time you turned eleven, spending your teenage years learning everything there was to know about living outside the magical world. He enjoyed your wit and passion, your lively intelligence, the comfort you had with yourself in the face of discretion, and, deciding that keeping anyone else around would be a bore after making your acquaintance, offered you a part-time position in the shop to help pay your way through grad school.

Of course, your adjustment to the magical world after years separated from it was a challenge.

George kindly let you live in the apartment above the shop, taking rent out of your pay so that you didn’t have to bother converting such a large portion of your income into muggle money every month. Work, however, was a much more significant struggle; having no wand to help you manage the store and its immense inventory, you had to arrive early to most of your shifts in order to organize and replace product by hand, often putting yourself in danger traversing the stock room’s stories-tall ladder. After a particularly terrifying fall in which you narrowly avoided death, George took it upon himself to get you some help where genetics had failed you; he enchanted about a thousand paper cranes to pull stock for you, retrieving and storing anything you needed on command.

“With them around, what do you need me for?” you’d teased him, quietly thankful for his care to ensure no loss of life or limb would befall you under his watch.

“Eh,” he’d grinned, “they could never agitate me quite as well as you do.”

Though it was odd returning to a world you could never fully be part of, working for George Weasley made the vertigo of reassociation fun. He always had some sort of funny little trick up his sleeve, be it something malicious, like slipping sugar cubes into your tea that made your hair turn into ostrich feathers or jinxing the cash register to shoot fireworks at random when opened, or something winsome, like making it snow inside as the winter holidays approached or enchanting your textbooks so that their lessons leapt off the page, playing out before you in a theater of paper mache. He engaged you in his own work, inquiring your aid in developing new products, and was deeply interested in yours, enraptured with your retellings of a history he was unaware took place so near to his own. He even brought you books on magical history from Flourish and Blotts, stopping weekly on his way into work, suggesting you consider taking up the practice of teaching the subject.

“Seriously, you should look into it,” he told you. “If I’d had you instead of Professor Binns, I might’ve actually cared enough to pass a class.”

During slow hours, you and George would sit at the counter and eat lunch together, talking about everything and nothing and anything else in between. You told George about your childhood; how, growing up, you dreamed of doing things you would never be able to do, the horror you felt having your life’s path ripped from under you at such a young age, how you managed to find yourself again through art and history and literature. He told you about his own youth; the boisterous years of his life spent at Hogwarts, the incredible fantasies and ambitions he and his brother would dream up during late nights spent awake in their shared bedroom, the gaping hole his twin’s absence left in his soul the night he died. George was fourteen years your senior, but you were able to laugh and grieve with him as easily as if you’d been born a day apart.

You loved working with George. Being a part of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes gave you a sense of belonging you’d never felt before; You often felt caught between the magical and muggle worlds, standing in the threshold between the two but never able to set foot into either. In the shop with George, however, you could exist without conflict - the halves of your universe were indistinguishable from one another, and for once in your life you finally felt whole. You’d found your home in the last possible place you ever expected to.

As much as you loved the shop and your employer, there were certain things about your job that drove you absolutely insane - namely, the parchment bookkeeping system. It was true that all things ancient and antique were your area of expertise, but trying to keep track of a business with nothing but quills, ink, and a stack of heavy, leatherbound volumes was what you envisioned was similar to experiencing the ninth circle of Hell. Opening and closing every day took ages, and George’s office was so cluttered with paperwork that finding anything amongst his things required a full-fledged expedition into every cabinet in the building. Fed up with the chaos, you decided it was time to bring the wizarding world (at least the corner of it you occupied) into the Twenty-First Century.

“What the hell’s all this?”

George furrowed his brow in bewilderment as he traversed the stairs into his office, where you were seated at his desk in front of a shiny new Mac.

“A computer!” you told him, grinning. “We’re going to use it to help run the books. I sent an owl to your dad asking if he had anything like it laying around his shed; he sent this over last night.”

“So it’s a muggle thing,” George assumed, setting his briefcase beside the monitor as he pulled up a chair beside you.

You nodded.

“I’ll teach you how to use it. I’ve been here since six scanning files into it; we’ll be able to access and keep the books in order much easier now.”

You opened the spreadsheet you’d made outlining the last quarter’s numbers, smiling proudly as George’s eyes widened in awe.

“That’s incredible,” he said, leaning in to inspect the screen. “But what about our ledgers? How can this thing hold all of that information?”

You giggled at his curiosity, thinking it a bit adorable how out of touch he was.

“I’ve kept the ledgers so we still have physical records of everything,” you explained, “but having it all at hand on the computer will make the boring parts of the business a lot easier. I’ve got everything matched up with my laptop, too, so I can open and close quicker and all the numbers will be sent right to you.”

George quirked a brow.

“Laptop?”

“It’s a small version of a computer,” you told him. “The screen and the keyboard” - you pointed each of these parts out - “fold together like a notebook so I can take it with me wherever I go.”

George shook his head, clearly baffled by the complexity and convenience of muggle technology.

“Blimey,” he mused. “I never would’ve guessed muggles could do all this without magic. It’s bloody brilliant.”

You rolled your eyes, smiling to yourself as you gathered one of the volumes you’d been searching through and returned it to its place on the wall of shelves overlooking George’s desk.

“You need to give us more credit,” you bantered. “Muggles are a lot more magical than you’d think.”

The rest of the morning was spent digitally organizing documents and giving George a crash course in computer science, by the end of which he considered himself an expert in the subject. When the shop opened at noon, you could barely pull him away from his desk.

Aside from the morning’s excitement, the rest of the day ran as usual. You spent the afternoon fluttering around the building, keeping and moving inventory while George used the weekday calm to hole himself up in his workshop and concentrate on new product. By the time evening rolled around you were adequately exhausted, deciding to settle behind the counter with a book and a cup of tea while you waited to close.

“You said something earlier,” George announced as he finally returned down the stairs - the first time you’d seen him in hours - “about muggles and magic. I can’t seem to figure out what you mean.”

“Good evening to you, too,” you greeted him, glancing up from your book and shooting him an amused grin. “What’s got you confused?”

George hoisted himself up onto the counter, turning so he faced you and folding his legs beneath him. For someone fresh into his early forties, he still acted much like you imagined he did as a teenager.

“You said that muggles were magical,” he reminded you, “but you can’t be, really. Not without… well, y’know, magic. I can’t see what can be so magical about a world that doesn’t have what ours has.”

You shut your book, setting it in your lap as you searched for the right words to describe what you were thinking.

“It’s not… magic in the magical sense,” you attempted, earning a strange look from George. “Muggle magic is more about… defying the odds than doing the impossible. It’s also about how things make you feel. Things people have done and created… situations and experiences that inspire awe; that make you feel like you’re living outside the regular world.”

George continued to gaze at you, his eyes narrowing as he attempted to process what you were trying to convey.

“Like what?” he wondered.

You thought for a moment, folding your arms over your chest and leaning back into your chair.

“... Cathedrals,” was the first thing that came to mind. “When you stand in the center of a cathedral that’s been standing for hundreds of years, and you think about how incredible it is that something so lasting and beautiful could have been created by people who had so little in resources compared to what we have today.

“Or music. Like, how does something as simple as sound cause us to feel so much emotion? A good song can make you feel joy or bring you to tears and can connect strangers to each other in such an intimate way. I think it’s the most magical thing we have.”

George smirked at you. You noticed a new brightness in his eyes when your gaze met his, and you watched, bemused, as he slid off the counter and onto his feet, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What else?” he asked.

“Medicine,” you replied. “We can cure things most people died of fifty or sixty years ago. We can replace our organs if they’re not working properly - there are even labs that are working to grow organs outside of the human body or replace those that don’t work with artificial ones. We can even change the way we look if we want.

“And,” you stood up, pulling a pen out of the vase you used to hold quills beside the register, “there’s technology. Muggles have incredible technology! I mean, look at this - millions of people in this world who possess the ability to perform magic and yet you’re all still using quills you have to re-dip in ink.”

George chuckled at you, leaning in as he took the utensil from your hand, his fingers brushing against yours and leaving a delicate tingle in their wake. You couldn’t help but blush, glancing down at your feet before looking back up at him.

“I appreciate your sentiment, love,” he teased, “but I don’t think a pound store pen is going to inspire awe in anyone - magical or otherwise.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes.

“You know what I mean,” you said, taking the pen back from him and returning it to its place. “Muggles are incredible, and we’re incredible without magic making everything so easy for us.”

George, who still loomed close above you, placed a hand against his chest in feigned shock, his jaw dropping and eyes growing dramatically wide.

“Easy?” he taunted, his expression brightening ever so slightly as you grinned amusedly up at him. “You think magic makes everything easy? I’ll have you know, I nearly blew us to smithereens today trying to perfect our latest Whizbangs design. Bringing joy to people’s lives is extremely difficult and dangerous work, which you should respect me for, little darling.”

You smirked at him, letting out a soft chuckle as you crossed your arms and leaned back against the counter.

“Your stupidity with pyrotechnics is no one’s fault but your own, Georgie,” you joked, to which he gave you a tickling pinch in your side and scooped you over his shoulder as you bent down to fend him off. You squealed with laughter as he spun you around, setting you down atop the stairs when he felt you’d had enough. He sat on the step below you, giving your knee an affectionate pat.

“... You know, I do think there’s a type of magic we wizards share with muggles,” George said after a period of comfortable silence. “That is, if you muggles feel human emotion like the rest of us.”

You playfully shoved his shoulder, and he grinned mirthfully as he slouched comfortably into the side of your body.

“And what is that?” you inquired.

“Joy,” George answered matter of factly. He leaned closer into you, looking out over the empty, dusk-lit shop as he allowed his thoughts to guide his voice. “I don’t think… I’ve ever felt joy like I used to since Fred died. Not until you showed up, anyway. Having a laugh with you almost feels the same as it did with Freddie. I’ve missed that feeling… and no magic could ever replace it.”

You hummed thoughtfully, wrapping an arm around his broad shoulders as a gesture of comfort.

It was odd, you thought to yourself, working with George. He was your boss, but you had a hard time seeing him that way; Ever since he helped you move in upstairs, you’d seen him as a friend, and you knew simply by the way he looked at you that he saw you the same. You could hardly call what you had with him a business relationship - it hadn’t started that way, even from the moment you met him, and the more time you spent in his company, the more its trajectory changed into something much deeper and more significant.

It suddenly dawned on you that you loved him - in a way no one should ever love their much older employer and landlord.

As if sensing the way your heart dropped, fluttering wildly, into the pit of your stomach, George pulled away from you, taking your hand gently in his and stroking your knuckles with his thumb.

“You went silent,” he noticed. “You never go silent.”

You grinned a little, shame creeping into your features as a hot, blistering blush.

“I was just thinking,” you told him. “... Do you think love is another type of magic?”

George blinked, pondering the idea.

“Of course,” he finally answered. “Love is what won the war.”

You nodded, looking down at his fingers wrapped around your palm and twining them with yours.

“Your love for Fred is what keeps him alive,” you said. “I never met him but I always feel him here because of you. He’d be proud.”

George swallowed heavily; you could hear the tension in his throat, could feel the weight of hesitation pressing in the small space between you. You peered back up at him, meeting his brown eyes that watched you intently.

“Your passion is what gives you magic,” he murmured. “You don’t need a wand or any kind of innate ability to do it for you. I’ve realized… that’s the reason I love you. Among all else.”

Though you sensed the words were coming, they still hit you like a speeding lorry.

You stared at him, shaken, the last breath you took trapped in your chest. You had no idea how to respond. Should you tell him that you loved him, too? Should you be rational and tell him that this was inappropriate for a business owner and his subordinate? Should you kiss him? Every part of you wanted to kiss him; had been wanting to for a very, very long time.

You raised the hand that wasn’t twined with his up to his cheek, grazing your thumb over the warm, tender flesh there. Your fingers grazed the scar where his ear used to be, getting twisted in the tendrils of his amber red hair that framed the sides of his handsome, familiar face. You leaned forward and kissed him, the sensation of his lips at last touching yours causing an explosion throughout every nerve of your body. Despite the beauty of the moment, you couldn’t help but wonder to yourself, My god, if kissing him feels like this, I can’t wait to feel what sex with him is like.

George pulled away after what felt like equally too long and not long enough, giving you a dopey, lidded-eyed smile that made your heart combust all over again. You hated the feeling, but never wanted it to stop.

“Would you kiss me like that every day if I asked you?” George wondered, sounding so dreamy and unlike himself it took you somewhat aback.

You nodded, squeezing the hand that was still wrapped so intimately around his.

“Every day,” you assured him. “It’s the best kind of magic you could ever show me.”

George grinned, playfully tapping his finger against the tip of your nose which - in a testament to how far your relationship had already crossed the line - he knew you would hate, chuckling as he watched you flinch away from him.

“Just wait ‘til I perfect those Whizbangs,” he told you. “Then we’ll talk.”

#muerta's works #george weasley #george weasley x reader #george weasley x y/n #george weasley x you #george weasley fanfiction #harry potter fanfiction #fanfiction #weasley twins #george weasly fluff #george weasly x reader fluff #weasley's wizard wheezes #self insert fanfiction #posting again bc i want people to see it!!!!!!!!!

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Just wanted to thank people again for their reblogs and donations, I will never be able to describe how I feel about the support - both tangible and emotional - that people on here have given me over the past three months in particular. Especially now that I have a definitive diagnosis and course of treatment to aim for, and an optimistic timeline of maybe even having the surgery within the next few months, at least before the summer....it really just depends there on whether my insurance approves that expense or how much of it, etc.

I still definitely could use continued help, though I’m trying my best to not rely on it as much as possible. Its just...yeah. We’ve kinda hit the point where its really just not possible period for me to make it where I need to get to without support. The slight downside to all the positive stuff I mentioned above is I’m a very goal oriented person. And this has been a very long and constant ordeal for me, where its been nothing but seven days of constant stress and pain a week, not able to rest or relax or take a day off working or searching for work for literally months and months. The only way I’ve managed to keep going is by fixating on some nebulous future point I had to reach and kinda use that to drag myself forward day by day. Its not nebulous anymore. I have answers, I have concrete needs and timelines and all that. But that also means now I have a very clear awareness that I can not make it the rest of the way with just the resources I already have myself.

It’s like...desperation energy, that’s fueled me to get this far and last this long, but there’s a difference between desperation and futility, and motivating myself with the thought ‘just hang in there long enough to get answers and solutions and FIX things’, like, it did what it needed to do, getting me in sight of all that, but it took pretty much everything I’ve got to use all that to tread water, to just stay afloat to get to this point. There’s just not enough there to stretch that out to continuing to stay afloat WHILE doing three times as much work on TOP of that. I know my capabilities and have a lot of self-respect for them, but I also know my limits and I can’t afford to waste everything it took to get to this point just so I can pretend I’m capable of more than I am. Because that’s the other downside of being in sight of the finish line, but still having it far enough away its not anywhere you’re gonna reach in just a few more steps.....like, lmao, I’m fucking tired. I want to rest. And I’ve gotten just enough good news after nothing but years of new rock bottoms that my brain and my body are trying to take that as a sign that its okay for me to just collapse now and take a breather. But I can’t really. Because I’m still not actually there yet.

So on that note, putting the link to my paypal up here nearer to the top for a change, for people who don’t actually need my long-windedness, lol.

https://paypal.me/bigskydreaming?locale.x=en_US

And then on a related note, I just wanted to say again that I’m totally okay with and even eager for people to leave notes with their donation for any writing commission I can do in return. Again, this is totally MY issue, and not something I think should apply to all donation posts: expectations of a quid pro quo. People help out because they want to help out. As long as whatever information a donation post includes is sincere, however much or little that information is, I think that’s the only parameter that matters. People have different personal criteria for what motivates them to actually donate to a relative stranger on the internet. If someone donating to a person whose post is just a simple paragraph of need with no context for why or what their situation is, if that doesn’t make sense to you? It doesn’t have to. That’s not actually any kind of scam. Someone just wants to say, hey I need help and no, I don’t want to explain why? Sure, a lot of people might not feel inclined to donate but anyone who does, they’re not being scammed. Someone asked for x amount of help, someone else decided, hey I can provide this much help and I’m okay with doing that with no further context needed. The end.

Just wanted to clearly express my opinion there, before proceeding on: for ME, personally, I like a degree of quid pro quo for the help people give me, because that’s something that works for my situation. I don’t LIKE not being able to work as much as I want to, because thing is, I have been fortunate enough to make careers out of work that I actually enjoy. My income over the last ten years has almost completely stemmed from acting, writing and graphic design, all things I enjoy. LOL I rant endlessly about how much I hate capitalism, and its true....but I don’t hate doing things I love. Obviously for the past year I haven’t been able to do any acting jobs cuz of my health conditions, and my writing and graphic design work has been unreliable for the last several months for a variety of reasons.

The major way my health stuff (and related mental health stuff) has impacted me is not even with actual work, but finding new work. My headaches and chronic pain have lessened how many hours I’m able to be focused on work, but not so much that I can’t do what I need to get done when I have a clear objective and goal to focus on. It’s when that’s done and I have nothing else to work on and haven’t made the money I need yet. When I try to power through several hours a day of headaches/pain in search of new jobs as my lack of results amps up my stress and aggravates my health stuff even further....that’s what really makes days suck. And because of my mobility issues with vertigo and not being able to drive and all that, going out and getting a non-internet based job just flat out isn’t possible for me at the moment.

So I’m really starting to feel hopeful again that there actually IS an end point to all this and it might be soon even...and then I can get back to business as usual and build new client bases same as I did before, even get back to acting (omggggggg I miss it). But until that happens, as long as I still need to ask people for help and financial support, like, PLEASE do not feel like you’re imposing on me by suggesting something I can write in return, especially if you’re someone who’s been donating to me regularly. Or if you follow me in part because you enjoy my writing and my headcanons and fics and such. It’s not a chore, its something to do that I CAN do, that I LIKE doing, that I WANT to do. It actually helps make all of this more bearable, because like I said....writing and graphic design as my sources of income...they don’t feel like work. I ENJOY doing them. They actually get my mind off my issues, they give me a reason to get up in the morning, they make me feel productive, like I’m actually doing something with my life instead of just existing, and going through the motions day by day just to survive.

So if you make a donation and you can think of something you’d enjoy seeing from me, please don’t hesitate. All I ask is that you understand that I’m not in a place to make guarantees at the moment, but when and where I can devote my time and energy to a direction you’ve pointed me in with your donation, I’m happy to, and hopefully that might result in something sooner rather than later. And eventually, if all goes well, I will get to a point (quite honestly a better place than I’ve been physically AND mentally in years) where I CAN be better about staying true to my intentions.

For now, just a rundown of things I have been writing for people who did make requests (though most of them are friends whose names I recognized and I hunted down and badgered into telling me what they’d like so I could do this, lmao. There were definite GDI WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR ME TO MAKE YOU TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU convos being had, lolol I’m such a well adjusted person, honestly how do I stand it, science may never know).

Anyway, for anyone interested, the current slate of ‘commissions’ I’ve been working on, just so there’s no need to make a duplicate request:

Lightning Crashes Update - LOL a long awaited update to that beast. Its a 3 POV chapter, Kira, Liam and then Allison, and came out to around 10K. It’s done and just needs a final read through and polish, which I’ll do literally as soon as I manage to finish paying my insurance for the month and get caught up with what I owe my motel. Which means in the next couple of days for sure, if for no other reason then I like....have to make sure to pay those things by then one way or another lmao. But point being, for anyone still invested in that fic or interested in reading more, since its been so long and you’ll probably have to reread the existing chapters to refresh your memory, I think its pretty safe to go ahead and do that whenever, and the new chapter will happen somewhere in the next few days.

As to the rest of the fic after that - this is one of three fanfics that I’ve always sworn I really want to finish someday no matter what, and that remains true. The clusterfuck TW fandom became for me really hurt my ability to write that story the way I originally wanted to, mostly because I didn’t want my resentment of Stiles to affect how I wrote his necessary part of the plot, and by the time there was enough emotional distance between me and the show/fandom to write it again, like....all this happened, lol. So I do think once my health issues are resolved and I’m settled in an actual permanent place, I’ll FINALLY be able to resume it. There’s like, a couple hundred thousand words worth of unposted story already written there, lmao, its just I outline and then write nonlinearly, so most of all that just doesn’t work without me finally writing the bridge chapters that pull it all together.

Born Under a Bad Sign Update - Same thing pretty much, as this is one of the other Big Three fics I’ve always wanted to finish. Largely because its got a sequel that’s already written in full, lmao. The sequel is my YJ version of Under the Red Hood, but builds on the plotline I always had in mind for BUABS. The sequel was just easier for me to write first because it wasn’t as personal. BUABS doesn’t have as much pre-written as LC, but its not nearly as long either, and it has always been totally outlined and with a lot of dialogue for later chapters pre-written. Anyway, this is what I’d like to post after the LC update. It’s not finished, but its also not as long as the LC one. It’s a Roy chapter, and doesn’t have a time break but while writing it I’ve split it into two parts just for my own purposes. The first is Roy and Ollie confronting Catalina, the second is Roy and Ollie talking about their own shit in light of that. For this one, the first part is written, the second has the dialogue written but the rest needs fleshing out. It wont take that long to finish, its really just a day or at most two days of writing. When that’s done just depends on when I can next devote time to it.

Untitled X-Men One Shot - Someone asked if I’d write something about Scott and Bobby’s friendship and some kind of reunion between them after Scott’s return from the dead. I will of course be ignoring AoX completely, lmao. This one’s mostly done, its like 10K lmao (look those two had a LOT to talk about okay), but the last couple thousand words of that is all just dialogue I needed to get down before I had to focus on other stuff. So everything I need is all there, I just need to return to it to finish fleshing out the last quarter or so of it.

Untitled Dick and Jason One Shot - Someone else asked me to write something with just Dick and Jason interacting, set in the comic book universe. I’m going with a blend of pre-nu52 and a little bit of nu52 for the setting, pretty much ignoring Rebirth etc, because a) I think the Rebirth reboot mostly sucked and b) I really don’t know much about post Rebirth continuity cuz I’ve read so little of it cuz what I have read I think mostly sucks. This one is basically Dick and Jason finally airing out their shit and all the things I’ve long wanted them to say to each other and know about each other, so they can try and build an actual functioning relationship as brothers. Its got all the dialogue written, but not much else. The dialogue’s really the only framework I need to build a one-shot, so it won’t be hard to write around it, its again just more about when and where I get the time to do that. It will be Jason POV, as in canon its usually Dick reaching out (to whatever degree) and Jason not trusting his sincerity. So the angle I’m going with is this one shot’s about Jason realizing he doesn’t know his brother as well as he thought, and that if he’s always trying to get the family to accept he’s not the same person he was before, like....the same can be true for Dick. Neither of them are the people they were back then, so the reasons they weren’t close aren’t actually reasons they can’t be close now. And what Jason thinks are Dick’s issue with him might not actually be what Dick actually has a problem with.

Original Superhero Novella - This is likely the last of these things to be finished as its the longest and thus more on the backburner, like just writing 1 or 2K at a time on it. This one’s the request of a friend who knows enough about my original superhero universe (I call it the Ellis Eighteen universe) to know who she wanted to read about specifically. Which - not surprisingly, given that Batfamily is one of our shared fandoms - is my version of a Batfamily. Only not really, because lol I don’t like being derivative or writing analogs of existing characters aka I must be the specialest snowflake ever. So its more like I was like ugh I love the Batfamily but hate how rarely DC lets them like, GET ALONG, oh hey, I’m gonna shove all my resentment from that into making up my own dysfunctional blended family of superheroes who actually love each other even if they’re bad at saying so. Plus superpowers.

So their concept is there’s a C-List supervillain named Murphy, as in Murphy’s Law. He has low grade probability powers. Basically he makes it so anything that can go wrong will go wrong in a designated area. He doesn’t have any control over how that manifests, but he’s great for diversions, so he gets hired for a heist by some big name supervillains to just create mayhem while they do the actual work elsewhere. Except Murphy discovers the corporation they’re stealing from donates a lot to children’s charities and is heavily involved with ‘supporting’ the foster care system...as a means to seek out superpowered children who end up in the system, and exploit them for their powers. And while looking for the best place/way to make a diversion, Murphy stumbles across evidence of this, as well as four boys on site in advance of them being sent to a home specially intended to raise the boys to feel indebted to their benefactors and eager to do whatever they want them to.

Which doesn’t work for Murphy at all, because he’s not so much a bad guy as someone who ended up a criminal due to circumstances and desperation and from there just never found a reason to stop. This though, he’s not okay looking the other way, so he says screw this company and screw the guys who hired me, and he breaks out the boys and they go on the run, keeping anyone from getting their hands on them and moving from place to place while he tries to provide as much stability as he can, let them grow up and decide for themselves what they want to be.

Eventually though, the two oldest, Misfire and Crossfire (I call them the Fire brothers because even though they’re all biologically unrelated, they each have powers that lend themselves to picking the codenames Misfire, Crossfire, Ceasefire and Backfire). So anyway, after a couple years of this, Misfire and Crossfire end up sneaking out to be vigilantes. And Murphy catches them of course and is like wtf are you thinking, do you know how dangerous that is? What if you get hurt? What if they (asshole corporation) find you?

Only it turns out, they just wanted to be like their dad. Which Murphy doesn’t really know what to do with, cuz he never talks about his past with the boys. Because he’s ashamed of it, doesn’t want them to think of him as a villain. Which they don’t of course. He’s the one who rescued them, who gave up whatever his life was before to make it all about protecting them and always doing what was best for them. To the boys, Murphy’s always been their personal hero, so they kind of took it for granted....that’s what he was. Murphy was never a big name player, and they’ve always assumed that he was just some masked hero or vigilante who retired when he took them in so his old enemies wouldn’t come after them too.

So basically its a found/adopted family where the boys grow up to be heroes, thanks to the values and role model their father provided without ever having a clue how they really saw him, due to his own insecurities. And then it backdoors into Murphy eventually becoming a hero as well as its the only way he knows to keep making sure he’s there to look out for them, as well as like....he’s inspired by his kids, who in turn were inspired by him. He wants to be the man they see him as, live up to that image of him, not realizing that like, he always already was that man. That image of him is based on his actions, the way he raised them. So in reality, its not even that he’s inspired to heroism by the example his kids set, its more a gradual embrace of the role he’d always played for as long as they knew him, no matter how he personally had seen it (and himself).

And because I’m me, they end up making it the family business, with the older two boys and their dad working together to expose and topple companies engaged in exploitative practices, while the younger two ignore all orders to stay home and always stow away to make sure they’re part of the action. Like.....its the Batfamily with superpowers meets Leverage, if the Robins came first and Bruce only became Batman to be their partner and have their backs. And also he used to be a crook which is still way better than a billionaire. So, that’s that on that.

So that’s the slowest of the current slate, its at about 18K of a projected 30K, with this particular story being set after Murphy and the two oldest are already established as vigilantes. Murphy’s in his forties, Misfire’s 21, Crossfire’s 18, Ceasefire’s 16 and Backfire’s 14.

I’m open to writing pretty much anything I’ve ever talked about fandom wise, and that you know is something I’m familiar with. If for whatever reason a request is something I’m not open to writing or I’m not familiar enough with to write, I’ll just make a post about it and you can hop on anon and either clarify or ask for something else. And its okay to ask on anon ahead of time if I’d be open to something.

Anyway, on that note, I’m all done here, thanks again for everything!!!

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justanotherwriter243 · 7 years

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Complicated (Prt8) - Barry Allen x Reader

Complicated (Part 8) - Barry Allen x Reader A/N: Lmao rip. Feel free to message me if you have a question, if u would like to know more about the story, or if u just wanna talk lmao. oh also I can never find the perfect gifs 😵 Summary: After checking out the new crime scene, things start to get a bit hectic. Disclaimer: I’ve never actually watched Arrow, I apologize for that. If you notice any huge mistakes or gaps, please, message me and let me know. Constructive criticism is encouraged ! Warnings: suggestive themes, cursing, anxiety ig Word count: 2960 more or less hhhhh —

“Body was found by that bicyclist” Joe turned to the guy then back to the corpse, “Same M.O. as the first one. The victim was performing here last night. He’s a lounge singer named Julio Mendez” “Julio Mendez?” Barry inquired, “In Flashpoint he was Captain Mendez” “Flashpoint?” I cut in, “Like your parents, Flashpoint? Ramon Industries, Flashpoint?” I paused, “You and me, Flashpoint?” I raised an eyebrow at Barry. His expression changed as he seemed to remember the time he spent in the alternate timeline. It went from a sheepish look, to one of realization, to one of embarrassment. Barry turned a bright red, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. He swallowed hard before coughing. “Yeah,” he averted my eyes, “that Flashpoint” “So, in Flashpoint, this alternate timeline that you lived in, he worked at the CCPD?” Asked Julian, trying to get rid of the awkward situation I’d just created. “Yeah,” Barry answered him, he thought before speaking again, “Wait a second, the other the other vic, Stuart Holzman do we have a photo of him?” “Yeah” “Can I see it?” Barry asked eagerly. “Yeah, hold on” Julian said as he took out a his phone to show Barry a photo. “That’s him” Barry said, his face finally turning back to its normal shade. “What is it?” “He was a cop there, too” “Damn, cops gettin’ hate” I added. “So this is the second dead cop from Flashpoint?” “Yeah” “We got to figure out who this guy is” Joe obviously stated. “Well, if we hurry, there’s still a chance we can get some of the attacker’s residual DNA before this corpse disintegrates, but we’ve got to move quick” Julian said. “What are you waiting for, Allen?” I turned and teasingly raised an eyebrow at Barry. “All right,” he smiled back at me, “come on” he said to Julian. There was a whoosh and lightning trail. Before I knew it he was back and had dropped off Julian at S.T.A.R. Labs. “Did anybody see me?” Asked Barry. “Damn, I barely saw you” Said Joe. “I will never get used to that” I said. “Look, we got to get going” Joe told Barry, completely excluding me. “Where you guys heading?” I tried asking nonchalantly, but couldn’t help sound a bit jealous. Obviously, I was new here and wouldn’t be included in every hang out or get together they had, but that didn’t mean I had to be okay with it. I mean, Joe’s a great guy. Everyone here is. The thing is, they’re great together. They’re a family. They know each other. They’ve all been through so much. I’m the outsider here, and I’m making my way in one way or another. “We’re meeting up with Cecile and her daughter for lunch” Joe quickly told me and I frowned.

“Cecile?” I thought for a second, “Work Cecile?” “Uh, yeah–” Joe started, but Barry cut him off. “They’ve got this thing going,” Barry explained to me, “And we’re meeting her daughter for the first time” “Oh,” I realized, “Oh! Wow, okay–um–well, good luck I guess. You guys will be fine. Just gotta let your true selves shine for who you are. Um–I guess I’ll see you guys later then” I smiled politely at them. “Did you want to do something?” Barry quickly asked me, “Because I can skip th–” “No! No, that’s okay” I told him, “I was just going to go check out one of the apartments–” “Apartments?” Joe asked me. “Yeah, I’m finding a place to stay at. It’s just that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get around the city easily. I’ve literally been here a few weeks–but I think I’ll be fine! You guys have your lunch thing” I tried to not show my disappointment, but Barry saw through me. “I can meet Cecile’s daughter another time. I’ll help you get around town, let me just–” “You are not skipping this lunch, Barry” Joe firmly told him, “(Y/n) just said they’d be fine, so let’s get going” Joe motioned for Barry to follow him and started walking off. Barry gave me an apologetic look before shrugging. I gave him a soft smile and a wave. “Jitters later?” He said, walking backwards. “Jitters” I nodded.

I watched as he jogged over to Joe. I watched them visibly arguing, even from where I was at. I watched as they bickered about the lunch, or possibly me. I watched as they not-so sneakily turned around to look at me. I watched as they waved at me when they noticed I saw them. I watched as they walked off and disappeared behind a corner. I watched as they left me alone.

“Of course not, Cisco!” I walked down the streets of Central City while talking to Cisco on my phone through my earbuds. Which, Cisco had made and designed both items himself. He installed a bunch of apps on the phone including a Meta Human app that could notify me of an attack. The phone had been waiting for me when I first woke up. Apparently, Cisco had a feeling I’d be needing a new one and just decided to make me one. I was grateful, but confused as to why he had made me one. My phone was in my pocket as I spoke through the mic in my earbuds. “What? Why not?” Cisco asked on the other line, “It has an amazing view and was at a good price” “Exactly, it was at a good price,” I told him, “until that douche bag found out I was loaded with money and raised the price on me” “But,” Cisco asked carefully, “are you loaded?” A lot can happen in two years apparently. “I–” I sighed, “I-I have s-some money in a bank that wa-as stored for me back when … ” I rubbed my temple as I walked, “Yes, okay? I’ve kind of been doing my own thing with the whole money situation– ”–a-and I may have parted some money aside back when,“ I dropped my voice, "back when Oliver was running the company,” I groaned, “Of course I took some money, I knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it, so, yes! I am, kind of, loaded. Jesus, I’m such a bad person” I looked up at the sky as I continued to walk restlessly. “Girl,” Cisco started his pep talk, “You were doing what you thought was right at the time. You’re not your family and that was your money, too. You were being cautious and prepared” “But–”

“No but’s. Your family did the best they could and it’s up to them to decide how that goes for them. Now, you have that money for yourself so you can spend it on a nice apartment. Eat a good meal, settle down until you get your life back in check. "It can’t be that much money, right? I mean, what do you have? A couple thousand dollars?” “More like 6,” I swallowed hard. “Thousand? That’s nothing. Maybe you should’ve taken more–” Cisco tried joking around. “Million” I winced as I closed my eyes. “ … (Y/n)” Cisco said on the other line. “It’s not like Oliver would’ve realized I took anything! Like I said, he did stupid things with his money back then!” I defended myself. “You are so buying me pizza this week” he told me and I gave a weak laugh. “Shut up,” I shook my head. “I just don’t understand, you liked the place, why didn’t you just buy it?” Cisco asked me in confusion as he referred back to the apartment I was checking out earlier. “I wasn’t going to give the guy selling the satisfaction of winning me over,” I rolled my eyes, “Besides, I have a tendency to buy ridiculous things–er–that’s what my mother used to say anyways” I scratched he back of me neck. “Dude, video games are not ridiculous–they are amazing” Cisco told me and I laughed. “As great as they can be, I still haven’t found a place that I really like” I sighed, “Also, I think I’m lost” “Keep walking, another 2 blocks, and you’ll find Jitters on your right” Cisco informed me. “Really? Thank–” I stopped myself and stood in place for a second, I opened my mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. I looked around with a frown on my face, “Cisco–” “I may or may not have put a tracker on your phone” Cisco’s voice went up a pitch. “Dude,” I held my hands out in exaggeration and shrugged my shoulders, “don’t put a tracker in my phone without my permission” “It was just for precautions” Cisco told me.

“Great,” I started walking again, hopefully towards Jitters, “I don’t think I’ll ever find a place” Cisco was quiet on the other end. As I walked, I felt my phone vibrate. I took my phone out and saw it was a message from an unknown number. ’Yo u think I could help me out later ?’ I frowned at the number. “Hey, you know, if you don’t want to go through the trouble of looking at more apartments, you could just stay with me for a while?” I was taken back by the two suggestions. I was quiet for a moment. “I mean–only if you want to,” Cisco quickly added, “It’s just that, being here, waking up, missing everything–it just all seems like so much and I thought maybe–” “I’d love to stay with you, Cisco” I quickly said, “I’ll pay rent and I’ll buy you pizza and video games and” I smiled, “thank you” My phone vibrated again with another message. ’This is Wally btw lol Cisco gave me ur # Just wanted advice on speedster stuff thought maybe u could help idk’ I hummed at the message. “Great,” Cisco’s voice was enthusiastic, “I guess I’ll take that pizza tonight. Dinner is on you” I could practically hear the smile on his face. I laughed at that and we said our goodbyes. As I hung up, I went to respond to Wally’s messages. ’boiii Ur supposed to be having lunch with Cecile and her daughter stop texting me !! also y me ?¿’ I sent the messages and took the earbuds out of my ears. I held the middle of the two earbud cords and swung the tips around as I continued walking. I could see Jitters in the distance. I silently thanked Cisco for putting a tracker in my phone. I checked my phone again to see if I had gotten any new messages. Wally must type slow, huh, that’s ironic. While I was at it I went ahead and added Wally as a new contact. I started looking through my phone for things to keep my distracted while I walked. Then, I got a message. ’Idk i mean after all u did get struck by lightning, too Barry’s also telling me to pay attention to our lunch ugh u guys r the most annoying parents ttyl’ I chuckled at him comparing us to his parents. However, I was confused as to why he would do such a thing. I mean, his sister was dating Barry, wasn’t she? I didn’t bother responding, but I couldn’t stop staring at that first message. He was right. I was struck by lightning, too. Did that make me a speedster? Does it take a while for the powers to accumulate? Since I was in a coma for longer–does that mean I don’t get my powers early on? Or at all? Am I overthinking this? Am I not thinking enough? Questions raced through my head as I thought of the possibilities. What was to become of all this? My pace picked up as did my thoughts. I put my earbuds away and started fiddling with my hands to distract myself. I sighed, trying to relax myself, but only became more frantic. As I approached Jitters, I wondered if coffee was the best thing for me right now. However, I didn’t have much time to wonder. People starting coming out of the cafe in a frantic manner. I sped my way towards a woman of my age. Joe and the others could still be in there. “Excuse me!” I called out to her. She turned to face me with a sour look on her face. “Hi, I’m sorry to disturb, but what’s going on?” I said, my voice shaking. “There’s a metahuman in there, you should probably run” she told me, starting to frantically run again. “Oh! Wait! No, I’m actually–” I tried yelling and catching up to her.

“You’re actually helpless in the situation,” she said, cutting me off, “Unless you’re the Flash or Kid Flash, I suggest you run like everyone else” She then quickly ran off. I watched as she ran off, as everyone ran off. I instinctively reached for my phone to call for help–Oliver, Felicity, Thea–anyone. I stopped myself when I realized I couldn’t call them. A wave of anxiety washed over me again. I had to do this on my own. I couldn’t fall into old habits. I tried calming my breathing as I carefully walked up to Jitters’ entrance. I stayed by the wall, creeping my way up. If there was a metahuman attack, I’d have to be extra careful. I slowly peered over the glass doors. I saw a man in dark clothing speaking to a group of others on the second floor. On closer inspection, I realized it was Barry and everyone else.

As the man, assumingely the meta, approached the others, Joe pointed his gun at the man. My eyes widened and I took my gun out as I quietly walked in. As I did so, Joe shot at the man. Three bullets moved through the air in what seemed like slow motion. The three bullets disintegrated as they touched the man, and the remains fell to the ground. I stared in shock at the way the world seemed to move slowly around me. However, the feeling quickly went away as the man spoke. “Told ya,” the man said, reaching for a pillar holding up the floor everyone else was on. “Freeze” I spoke, pointing my gun at the man. The man stopped and slowly turned to look at me. He took me in, stared me down. He looked at my shaking hands and raised an eyebrow at me. I quickly glanced at Barry, giving him a signal to get everyone else out. Barry just shook my head at me, his eyes full of worry and panic. I looked back at the man and stood my ground. “They didn’t work when he did it,” The man gestured with his head to Joe, “Why should they work when you do it?” “Because I’m not going to shoot” I calmly said and the man frowned. I heard a swoosh and I felt a gush of wind. Oh, thank god, I thought. I didn’t move my gun, but I noticed Barry was still up with everyone else and that Wally wasn’t. “Stop,” Wally told the man, walking towards him. My eyes flickered between both of them. “Ah, ah, ah!” The man snickered, “You can’t touch me speedster” I noticed Wally and Barry look at each other, Barry signaling hand movements. Wally stopped and turned to me, I shrugged my shoulders. Wally rolled his eyes and gestured for me to leave. I frowned and shook my head. He gave me a desperate look and I started giving in. I backed up, not completely leaving, but out of the way.

Wally turned back to the man and started waving his hands around, I watched as, again, everything moved in slow motion. Wally created air funnels and the amount of wind caused the man to fall back and crash through the back glass door. I saw Wally normally run out of the room, while everything else still moved in slow motion. I felt myself shaking, a lot more than usual. Everything returned to its normal speed, and Barry came running towards me. His eyes were wide as he approached me. I looked down as I saw my hands moving in an inhuman speed. I dropped my gun in surprise. I felt myself start to freak out. I felt Barry grab my hands and keep them from vibrating. I looked up at him in shock. “I was struck by lightning, too,” was the only thing I managed to say. “(Y/n), listen to me, we need to get you out of here” Barry began guiding me out of Jitters. “Barry? Queen!” Cecile called out as she saw us rush out. Barry didn’t mind her as he opened the door for me. He quickly took me to an empty alley. My whole arms were shaking now, too. The rest of the world decelerated and I felt electricity run through my body. Barry seemed to be the only thing that was moving with me. “Barry, what–what do I do?” I looked at him with bewildered eyes. “We need to get you to S.T.A.R. Labs” he told me as I felt my whole body vibrate. “I can’t” I shook my head. As I did so, Barry slowed down. He stood there, slowly taking me in. I felt myself worry again. I was alone. Not even Barry could keep up with me. My legs were starting to shake harder and I needed to move. Calm down, I told myself, you’re okay–you’re okay–what would Barry do? I tried calming down my breathing. Concentrating on slowing down. When I did, I managed to understand what Barry was saying. “Run, (Y/n),” his voice echoed through my head, “run”

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