#she's going to make a hat squad LOL

[vivwritesfics]

Military Flyover

The dagger squad don't want to do a military flyover of the Las Vegas grand Prix. None of them really knew much about and, those that did only really knew about Nascar.

She hated the Vegas Grand Prix as much as those doing the military flyover. But the cute WSO there to support his friends was making it bearable.

Robert 'Bob' Floyd x F1 driver!reader

5.6K

a/n: yes a military flyover doesn't make sense for vegas buuuut let a girl dream lol - i'm hoping I've managed to write this for an audience that might not really know f1 but idk how confident i am in my abilities lol

Bob couldn't quite believe what the two time Top Gun graduates were having to do. They had completed an insanely dangerous mission and returned to be permanently stationed in San Diego, except from when they were called away for deployment.

They were a part of the military, why were they doing this?

Well, at least Bob didn't have to actually fly. He was a Weapon Systems Officer, he didn't have to take part in this. But he still went, more to morally support his squad.

Nat wasn't happy about have to do a military flyover of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. She, Bradley and Jake were constantly complaining. None of them knew anything about Formula One, not enough to appreciate doing the flyover.

(May I just say, even if they did know about F1, they still wouldn't appreciate it. They'd train for years to be in the navy and now they were having to waste their time on this.)

The flyover was on the Sunday. Only Natasha, Jake and Bradley were taking part. Bob didn't have to go, didn't have to visit the track on the Friday and the Saturday with the three of them.

But Natasha had begged him. "Drive up with me," she'd said to him. "It's five hours and I could use the company."

So, Bob agreed. His dad had sometimes watched Nascar while he was growing up. He didn't know much of anything about motorsport but, if Nat wanted him there, he'd go.

The navy pilots didn't know they'd been invited to meet the drivers. Bob followed Natasha through the paddock. "Getting to meet the drivers might be the only good thing thing to come from this," Nat mumbled as she led the way.

The paddock was buzzing with life. There were cameras following people around, interviews happening as they walked through the paddock. Fans stopped men in team shirts and hats for pictures before letting them continue.

There was a familiar whistle, just loud enough for Natasha and Bob to hear over the crowd around them. They turned and saw Rooster and Hangman striding towards them.

"Where are we meant to be?" Asked Hangman as Rooster pulled off his aviators and looked around. The three of them (Natasha, Jake and Bradley) were in their overalls, looking proper in their uniform. Bob, though. He was dressed down, wearing jeans and a sweater (Vegas really wasn't that warm this time of year), his military issued glasses sitting on his nose. He looked cute, even if he didn't know it.

"Cyclone said the Ferrari garage, right?" She said as she looked between the other aviators. Bob, who had studied the itinerary, nodded his head and the four of them set off towards the red garage.

***

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was a joke. All of the drivers thought so.

The Ferrari drivers weren't happy about it (just like the rest of the grid). They had spent the season struggling behind the Red Bulls and driving on an unknown track wasn't going to help that.

She needed a lot of mental preparation for this one. Just like the other drivers, before the first practice session her only experience on the track had been through sim racing. She was nervous in a way she hadn't been before.

She donned her red fireproofs, the overalls hanging from from her hips. She pulled her cap onto her head when there was a knock on her driver room door. "Yeah?" She called and the member of Ferrari staff walked in.

"The navy pilots are on their way," she said and went to back out of the drivers room.

"What?" The Ferrari driver called suddenly, her brows furrowed. "What navy pilots?"

The member of staff gulped. "They're doing a military flyover before the Grand Prix," she said. "They're on their way here to meet you and Charles," she said.

The driver let out a huff. She grabbed her drinks bottle and marched out of her drivers room, heading to find her teammate.

Charles was doing an interview for Sky Sports when she walked through the garage. She didn't much care, though. She powered on, her hand on Charles's shoulder as she stood at his side. "Chuck," she said, looking at her teammate.

Lawrence Barretto moved his microphone back to his mouth. "Is that his official name for the Vegas Grand Prix?" He asked and moved the microphone towards her.

"Yes," she said as Charles shook his head, repeatedly saying 'no'.

She stood beside him until the interview was over, answering any question Lawrence sent her way. As soon as they were done she grabbed Charles and pulled him away, pulling him further into the Ferrari garage.

"What's up?" Charles asked. He was a brilliant teammate, one of her best friends. They'd known each other for yeas and were close enough for people to think they were together at one point. Brocedes 2.0, many commented on the pictures of the two of them posted on the Scuderia Ferrari Instagram account, as if they were a disaster waiting to happen.

"Did you know we're having to meet the navy pilots doing the military flyover?" She asked, hands on her hips.

Charles furrowed his brows. And then his face relaxed as he shook his head at her. "Start checking your emails, please," he said.

She gently pushed him as a member of the Ferrari staff, the same girl from before, approached them. "They're here," she said and left them to it.

Charles led the way back through the garage, heading to where the navy pilots were standing around his car. Three of them, the three that looked the part, chatted with Fred while one, one that was dressed down, stood to the side.

Suddenly, she pulled Charles out of sight. "What is it?" He asked quickly, concern written on his face.

She looked back around the corner at the pilots for just a second. "Holy shit, Cha, I think I'm in love," she said and Charles just laughed.

"Do you need a wingman?"

She furiously shook her head. "Don't you bloody dare."

She steadied herself and followed Charles over to the navy pilots. Fred spotted his drivers first. He gestured over to them as he back away from the pilots, letting the drivers take over.

Charles held his hand out towards them introducing himself first. She went next, giving them her name as she reached out to shake the woman's hand.

"Natasha Trace," she said with a smile as she shook her hand. "Callsign Phoenix."

She moved on to the man with the moustache. "Bradley Bradshaw, or Rooster," he said and shook her hand, his grip firm. He wore a smile, but it was respectful.

Unlike the man next to him. She could tell who he was from the moment she looked at him, wearing that flirty smile. "Jake Seresin," he said, pulling her hand up to his lips to kiss the back of it. "You can call me Hangman."

The smile dropped from her face and she pulled her hand away, clearly unimpressed. She looked past him, at the guy in the sweater and the glasses. "How about you?" She asked, completely ignoring Hangman. "Are you in the navy too?"

Bob blushed bright red as he stepped forward. "Robert Floyd," he said and shook her hand. "I'm a weapon systems officer."

"Oh," she said. Just that one word and she sounded incredibly fascinated. "Do tell me more."

She'd asked Charles not to wing man her, but he did it anyway. She might not have been aware as Charles spoke to the other navy pilots, doing the job for both of them. (Charles didn't know if Bob was the one she had fancied, but it was easy to guess. He looked like her type).

They spoke for a good twenty minutes before the drivers were told to wrap up the conversation. "You got a call sign?" She asked Bob as she crossed her arms over her chest and leant against the wall.

Jake had been wrapped up in the conversation he, Rooster and Phoenix were having with Charles until that point. Upon hearing her question, he placed his arm around the WSO's shoulders and grinned at the driver. "This is Baby On Board," he said with a grin, going to pinch Bob's cheeks.

Again, his cheeks were flaming as he stepped away from Jake. "It's Bob," he said. "Just Bob."

"Just Bob," she repeated as she smiled at him, completely ignoring everything Jake had said (something that Bob was grateful for). "It's simple, I like it."

Her engineer called for her. She turned and put her thumbs up before turning back to Bob. "Are you staying for the free practice?" She asked and Charles couldn't stop himself from answering.

"Sorry," he said to the pilots. "She doesn't read her emails."

She sent a glare in Charles's direction. The drivers said a quick goodbye to the navy pilots (although she hoped it wasn't for the last time), and got themselves ready for the first practice session in Las Vegas. They pulled up the red and white overalls and placed the balaclavas over their faces.

Bob watched as she pulled her helmet on, hiding her undeniably pretty face. He really did think she was beautiful, and she seemed interested in him, but he wasn't going to read too much into that.

He couldn't see as she gave him a smile from beneath her helmet. When she climbed into the red car with the number 53 on it, Bob knew which one he had to look out for.

The track wasn't ready, everybody knew it. But they didn't know how bad it was until they shower of sparks coming out the back of her car. "What the fuck was that?" She said to her engineer down the radio. "I just hit a fucking manhole cover."

The pilots were leaning forward as she stopped the car. The session was stopped, the other drivers coming into the pits. She jumped out of the car, waiting for it to be lifted onto the truck so that she could look at the extent of the damage beneath.

As the car was taken back to the garage and workers surrounded the manhole cover, she climbed into the medical car and was taken back to the pitlane.

Bob watched as she stormed into the garage, pulling off her helmet and balaclava. "Nine fucking minutes!" She heard her say to somebody in a Ferrari shirt. "I officially hate the Vegas Grand Prix."

She looked around the garage, eyes focusing in on the pilots. They were watching her, too, and she forced her expression to soften as she walked over. "Sorry you had to see that," she said, unzipping her race suit.

Bob shook his head. "'s no worries, ma'am," he said before he could stop himself. When his fellow aviators looked at him, his cheeks flushed red.

"We're just glad to know you're okay," Natasha said for him.

The driver smiled at them. But the interaction was short lived as she was called over to her wrecked car. (It looked fine on the top, but everybody knew the damage was beneath, invisible).

The nine minutes of practice wasn't enough to help the aviators get into F1. Rooster, Hangman and Phoenix wanted to head back to their hotels, but Bob wanted to stick around.

"My dad was into Nascar," he explained as the others left. They nodded, but they knew better. Their Baby On Board had a crush.

She hadn't expect him to stay, that much was clear. She'd seen the other aviators leave and had gotten on with what she needed to do, speaking to the mechanics about the parts they needed to replace and speaking to Fred about the potential consequences.

"Oh!" She said when she saw Bob still sitting there. "I thought you would have left."

Bob gave a polite smile and shrugged his shoulders. "I wanted to learn more."

The smile she gave him matched his own. "Well, you're not gonna learn much here," she said. "Let me get changed and we can get dinner."

Bob didn't expect dinner to be in the Ferrari hospitality suite. He'd didn't exactly think he'd be going out to dinner with her, but he didn't expect this.

She sat Bob down at a table and got a selection of food for them to share. "I can't exactly go crazy," she'd said as she sat down opposite him, placing the single plate in between them. "I still have a car to drive later."

Bob grabbed something from the plate. "Why does that mean you can't go crazy?" He asked curiously, innocently.

Every question Bob had, she answered. He told her that his dad watched Nascar while he was going up but he couldn't get into it. Didn't have the time once he joined the navy.

She asked him all about that, just as curious as he was about her job. Bob knew she was meant to be this big celebrity, but she was normal with him, and he really appreciated it.

He hadn't known who she was going into this weekend, but he heard the way the fans screamed her name. She was so famous, and he was just a boy from Montana.

"Are you and your friends watching anything else of the Grand Prix weekend?" She asked as she ate a piece of lettuce (literally just holding a big piece of lettuce to her lips and crunching on it).

Bob shook his head as he looked down at the table in front of him. "'Friad not, ma'am," he said, looking at her over the top of his glasses. Bob didn't know what compelled him to do it, but he took them off.

"Aw," she said with a pout. "I liked them."

"Really?" Bob couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. "I used to have ones with slightly thicker frames, but these are military issued," he explained, putting them back on his face.

She grinned at him. "They're cute," she said, resting her cheek in her hand. It was undeniably flirty, and her grin was only making it worse. Well, that would have been if Bob could have allowed himself to believe that was flirting with him.

"I could get you tickets, if you'd like," she said. "You and your pilot friends. You can come back back to the Ferrari garage, support us for the rest of the weekend."

Bob gave her a gentle smile. "I'd like that," he said.

They continued chatting until she had to head back to the garage. Bob followed her, walking behind her.

She took him back to the garage, leaving him to stand with the rest of the Ferrari guests while she disappeared into her drivers room. Bob couldn't help but think of her as she got herself ready, getting dressed into her fireproofs and race suit. If Nat was here, he could ask her for advice.

Ten minutes before the start of FP2, she walked over to Bob. He'd seen her dressed down in a Ferrari hoodie and cute cargos, seen her in her race suit, and seen her in her fire proofs, race suit sitting low on her hips.

That was how she walked towards him. He'd seen so little of her, but this was his favourite (and he certainly wanted to see more). "Want to sit in the car?" She asked, hands on her hips.

***

The first thing she did after FP2 was give Bob her phone number. He couldn't quite believe it, and made a mental note to recount everything to Natasha as soon as he got back to the hotel.

"Have you got a way back to your hotel?" She asked, her helmet tucked beneath her arm.

"I, uh..." No, he and Natasha had gotten a cab together.

She waved him off before he could give her a proper answer. "I can drive you, if you'd like," she offered.

That was how Bob found himself sitting in an F1 drivers car, telling her about his childhood as she took him back to his hotel. He told her about his big family and the mountains he grew up around. He told her about when he joined the military, about his first time in Top Gun and his permanent stationing in Coronado.

Before very long they were pulling up outside of his hotel. "Well, here we are," he said, patting his legs. He didn't move to leave the car, but she didn't much mind.

"I really liked meeting you today, Bob," she said as she tapped the heel of her hand against the steering wheel.

"It was lovely to meet you, too," he said.

"Promise you'll text me?"

"Promise."

She held out her pinky finger and Bob wrapped his own around it, sealing the deal. He looked at her one last time and climbed out of the car, heading into the hotel.

Bob couldn't hide his smile as he walked through the lobby and into the elevator. Just days ago he'd hated the thought of a military flyover for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Now, he couldn't wait to get back to the track, back to the Ferrari garage.

Nat noticed it the minute he walked through the door of the hotel room they were sharing. "Had a good time watching the rest of it?" She asked as she pushed away from the desk in the room.

Bob nodded as he pulled out his phone, clicking on her contact. But, the moment he was there, he didn't know what to say to her. "Nat," he called, looking up at her. "I need your help."

He only needed Nat's help to get the ball rolling. But soon, she and Bob were sending messages back and forth with just a second long gap between. Sometimes Bob took a little longer to reply, but only because Nat was reading the messages over his shoulder and assuring him that she was flirting.

Bob couldn't believe it. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't.

"I'll go with you tomorrow," Nat said as she climbed into her bed. It was incredibly late and Bob was hyper-aware that they were still texting. "Find out if she really is flirting with you."

"Nat..."

"Goodnight, Bob."

Natasha went to sleep, but Bob stayed up. She was still replying to his messages, and he couldn't bring himself to not respond. At least until she turned around and wished him goodnight.

When Bob woke up, she had already texted him. I don't have to be on track until later - wanna get food?

Who was Bob to say no? Natasha grinned as he got himself ready, including his glasses. (He had brought his contacts to Vegas because of how much he hated wearing his glasses. He didn't have time to put them in before they headed to the track the day before, but Nat didn't expect him to wear them now).

He walked out of the hotel, ignoring Hangman and Rooster as they called after him. They sat in the lobby, do doubt waiting for Natasha as they whistled at him.

Bob kept going. He saw her car before he walked out of the glass doors, and had to stop himself from breaking into a small jog. As he approached, she pushed open the passenger side door. "Hey, Robby!" She called, wearing a grin.

"Hey," Bob said, wearing a smile as he climbed into the passenger side.

As soon as he was buckled in, she began driving. "Have you ever been to Vegas before?" She asked as she headed towards the strip.

Bob shook his head. "No, ma'am," he said. It wasn't in the same way he'd said 'ma'am' before. No, those time he had been nervous saying it. This time, it was so fucking cute and she loved it. "I don't get enough leave for that."

"Why do you call me ma'am?" She asked, but she never wanted it to stop.

Bob couldn't stop his smile. "My momma raised me right."

That much she could tell. She parked the car and climbed out as Bob did the same. "Come on," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him along.

They went to a restaurant. Bob didn't catch the name of it as she pulled him through the doors. Even when sat gave the waiter her name, she was still holding his hand.

They sat down at a table for two. It felt far too intimate, almost like a date. She couldn't order a drink, but insisted that Bob did. He ordered one beer and made sure to make it last through their entire lunch.

She ordered a salad. Bob wanted to do the same, but she could see how conflicted he was. "Have whatever you want," she said, lowering her menu.

So, he did just that. Bob got himself a burger, the cheapest one on the menu (which was still incredibly expensive).

While they ate, Bob couldn't ignore the way her foot touched his knee beneath the table. He gulped as he reached for his beer.

While they waited, she told Bob about how she had grown up. Karting from a young age before moving onto single seaters.

The more she spoke, the more Bob could imagine getting into F1. Watching races, coming to see her in Vegas when he wasn't deployed. He just had to hope she still liked him enough to keep in contact with him.

They spent the entire afternoon together, until she was taking Bob to the track with her. Pictures of the two of them were taken as they walked through the paddock, too close to just be friends.

Once again, Bob stood in the garage while she completed the last practice session. She led, the fastest car until the Red Bulls were released onto the track.

But still, Bob couldn't stop watching the number 53 car. She came into the pits, had her tyres changed and went out a few minutes later.

Bob couldn't help but smile as he watched her climb the leaderboard. When practice ended, she didn't come in right away, doing a practice start with the other drivers.

When she got out of her car, she pulled off her helmet and balaclava, and spoke to her engineers. She had looked so happy when she climbed out of the car, but Bob watched as her face fell.

She walked over to him, unable to keep herself from sighing. The anger dropped from her face, replaced by sadness. "Wanna come sit in my drivers room?"

So, Bob followed her to her drivers room. She led him inside and shut the door behind him, letting out a breath as she leaned against it.

"Everything okay?" Asked Bob as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

She unzipped her overalls and let them fall to her hips. Bob shuffled over on the couch, giving her space. She sat beside him, shutting her eyes as she leaned back. "Because of the parts they'd had to replace in my car, I'm probably going to get a penalty later," she mumbled.

Her head fell onto his shoulder and Bob didn't move. He hesitated before wrapping his arm around her shoulder. That that, she shuffled slightly closer, which Bob didn't mind one bit.

Suddenly, she let out a weak laugh. "You're kinda making me want to stay in the states a little longer, Robby," she mumbled.

He looked down at her. "Would you? Seriously?" Bob could imagine it then, taking her to stay with him in San Diego, taking her to Montana to meet his mom at Christmas.

She shook her head. "I can't," she said and sighed through her nose. "There's one last race before the end of the season."

After that, Bob wanted to say. But he squeezed her shoulder instead.

When her trainer came in, Bob wished her good luck and headed back out to the garage. While he waited, he pulled out his phone and sent Natasha a text. She hadn't gone to the track with him, instead going with Bradley and Jake to the hangar they would be flying from.

If Nat showed Rooster and Hangman his texts, he'd never hear the end of it. But Bob realised he didn't mind. Let them talk, he was here with her.

The first round of the qualifying session was about to start. Bob sort of knew what to expect, she'd explained it to him while they sat in her drivers room, her head on his shoulder. He watched as she walked towards the car, her red, gold, black and white helmet on her head.

She climbed into the car and somebody strapped her in as somebody else spoke to her. She nodded at whatever they were saying and put her thumbs up.

Admittedly, Bob couldn't tell the difference between the practice sessions and the qualifying session. He watched as she went from having no time on the board to being the quickest car on track. But then she was knocked out of the top spot, down in eighth by the end of that session.

Bob had assumed that she was starting the race in eighth position after the eighteen minute long qualifying session. But then she and fourteen other drivers were going back out onto track.

Again she was at the top of the board, knocked out by the same driver. But she stayed in fourth, unable to get a quicker time in before the end of the session.

She went out for a third and final time. Bob heard her calling down the radio as somebody got in her way. But she put an impressive time on the board, finishing third.

It may have been obvious to everybody else in the garage, but Bob had to ask the girl standing next to him. She pushed her dark hair behind her ear and answered with a thick French accent. Bob thanked her and watched as the 53 car came into the garage.

She hopped out, did what she needed to do and came to find Bob.

It was near midnight and she couldn't quite believe he was still there, watching her. They'd spent the entire day together, and she'd loved every minute of it.

"Want me to drive you home?" She asked and Bob nodded his head.

She did just that, driving Bob back to his hotel. "They haven't confirmed if I've got a penalty or not," she said as she drove him. "So, for now I'm starting in P3." She quickly glanced at him and then looked back at the road. "Think you might be my good luck charm, Robby," she said and he blushed a deep shade of red.

She pulled up outside of the hotel, just as she had done the day before. And, like the day before, Bob was hesitant to climb out of the car.

As Bob reached for the handle of the door, she opened her mouth, ready to say something, and he stopped. But she closed her mouth. Still, Bob didn't move.

She sucked in a breath and tried again. This time, words came out. "Can I come up?"

Bob knew what that meant. How could he not? Some part of him had been wanting her to ask something like this for the last few hours. But still, he shook his head. "I, uh, I can't. I'm sharing my room with Nat."

"Oh," she said and looked down at the centre console between them. "Oh, shit. Are you and Nat- I didn't mean to overstep... I-"

Bob quickly shook his head. "No. No, Nat's my best friend, but only my best friend," he said. "But, her bed is a couple feet away from mine, so..."

She couldn't help but let a smile cross her face at that. "Can I kiss you, Robby?" She asked.

He leaned over the centre console. Her arms went around his neck, fingers playing with the short hair at the back of his neck.

Bob kissed her. He closed the gap between them, his arm awkwardly resting on her shoulders as his lips moved against her own. Her nose bumped the lens of his glasses, but neither of them minded.

If the expensive car left room for it, he would have moved her onto his lap. But he couldn't. He pulled away, staring at her as his eyes opened again. "Holy shit," he whispered and she grinned at him.

"I'll come and get you before the race," she said and Bob climbed out of the car.

***

He didn't wake up to a text from her. Immediately Bob's mind played tricks on him, telling him that, after they had kissed, she didn't want him.

He sat in the hotel for half of the day, in a perpetual state of anxiousness. Part of him didn't want to move until he heard from her, until he knew that everything was okay.

"You coming?" Nat asked him. He checked his phone one last time before following her out of the hotel room.

He didn't know what she was currently dealing with, that she had just found out about her grid place penalty. "This is such shit!" She cried as she and Charles walked through the paddock. She'd woken up to the news and hadn't had time to message Bob.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Charles said, stopping to sign things for fans (signs, hats, and even a packet of oreos). "How are things going with the navy guy?"

She grinned as they kept walking through the paddock. "We kissed, Cha," she said, suddenly much happier.

"Kissed and..." Charles tried to push.

She shook her head. "Just kissed."

Charles nodded as they walked into the garage. "Just kissed, but you wanted more," he said. "Are you gonna see him before we leave?"

"Yeah," she answered. "I'm gonna go and pick him up before the race."

Through the evening, she and Charles did what they needed to do for the race. When she got a minute, she texted Bob, but she didn't have many opportunities to check her phone.

As soon as she had a chance, she ran out of the paddock. She held her phone to her ear as she went, making her way to her car. Bob picked up on the third ring. "Hey," she said, opening the door of her car. "I'm on my way."

Bob hesitated before he answered. "I'm not at the hotel right now."

"Do you still want to come to the race?" She asked quickly.

"Do you still want me there?"

She let out a laugh. "Of course I do, Robby. Give me the address and I'll pick you up."

That was just what happened. She picked Bob up and took him to the track. She promised the other aviators that she would get him there to watch the military flyover and drove off with him in the passenger seat.

"Have you ever been to San Diego?" Bob asked as she drove. It had been playing on his mind a lot since they kissed, his best case scenario (which was currently happening. He could have laughed at himself for being so worried).

She shook her head. "I haven't had a chance to explore outside of the places we have Grand Prix," she answered.

"So, you haven't been to Montana?"

"Nope."

Bob couldn't help but smile. He sucked in a breath, steadying himself. "I don't know when you're gonna have time off, but I could show you Montana, if you'd like."

She grinned at him as she parked the car. "I'd love that, Robby," she said and climbed out of the car.

She checked the time on her watch, grabbed her hand and began running. "I'm late!" She cried. Bob was only happy to run beside her, heading into the Ferrari garage. He slowed to a walk, but she kept going, running to her drivers room to pull on her fireproofs and overalls.

Bob watched it all. He watched as she stood for the national anthem with her fellow drivers, watched as she completed the formation lap from the back of the grid (something he had to ask about), and watched as she raced.

Bob couldn't help but be impressed as she fought her way across the track, racing past most of the grid. She overtook ten other cars, finishing in 5th.

When she climbed out of the car, Bob could see just how happy she was from her body language alone. She did what she had to do, spoke to the team and was interviewed, before she ran over to Bob and threw her arms around him.

"That was incredible!" He cried, smiling down at her. "I didn't realise racing was so exciting."

She grinned and kissed his cheek. "Think you'll watch next weeks race?"

"Definitely," he said.

He hadn't expected her to kiss him in front of all of the cameras. But Bob didn't mind. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close until she pulled away.

"I leave in the morning," she whispered in his ear. "Stay with me, in my hotel. One last night."

"Until Montana?" Bob asked, his forehead against her own.

"Until Montana."

a/n: ok i loved this and it may need a part two lol

#bob floyd #bob floyd imagine #bob floyd x reader #bob floyd fluff #bob floyd x you #robert floyd #bob floyd smut #bob floyd x reader smut #robert bob floyd #robert floyd imagine #robert floyd x reader #robert floyd fluff #robert floyd smut #robert floyd x you #top gun #top gun bob #top gun maverick

[so-so-woso]

i wanna be the one | part 1

Edit: Changed title. Thanks to Dru for the suggestion. From the song "Things We Never Say" by the Bad Bad Hats. Great song, potentially relevant maybe who knows.

Summary: Reader is an English-American GK who joins the Arsenal squad and ends up in an interesting back and forth with Leah Williamson. This chapter is mainly set-up for the future. The vibes will probably be very different going forward lol

Warnings: Angst, swallowing self-doubt, and mentions of parental death in the first section.

Word Count: 3,284

London felt just like Seattle. You were expecting it to feel different, more European (whatever that meant), but when you stepped out of the airport and that familiar January rain hit your skin, it was a welcome feeling. It wasn’t quite Home – you hadn’t had one of those in a long time – but it was definitely welcoming, and nice enough that you didn’t bother with an umbrella. It would’ve been hard enough trying to carry one along with all your bags anyway, although by the look on your driver’s face he really wished you had at least tried. It was nice that the team had sent a car to meet you, especially since you didn’t really know anyone here that well, but you supposed they would do that for any new signing. The driver helped you get your bags into the car and then you were off to the club to dot some Is and cross some Ts to make everything truly official.

Wistful thoughts crept into the back of your mind as you were chauffeured through the streets of London, and you decided for the first time in a long time not to fight them. Not here, anyway – not now. Not after everything it took to get you here. Get you here again, technically. You were born in London after all, and raised in Sheffield where your mother had grown up. Your father was an American, from Dallas, who came to England for graduate school and stayed for the woman he fell in love with. He often teased her about “real (American) football” but she converted him to Sheffield United fan, though he would never admit it – at least not until you were born. Match days became a family event as soon as you could stand up on your own, even though you were still too young to really remember anything at that point, but by the time you could run you wanted nothing more than to play. You were always bigger than the other kids so they made you play with the boys, but you knew a lot of the women’s national team players had played on boys’ teams growing up, so you didn’t mind it. You were never upset about that, but you were upset when they made you move to the goalkeeper position when you were eight. It was the boring position and you never got to do anything, but you were the only kid on the team who didn’t seem scared of the ball when it came flying at you, so the job fell to you. Many years later, it would prove to be the right choice, but for a while you thought it felt like a punishment from the universe. Then you found out what that kind of punishment actually felt like.

You were only eleven when your parents died. It was a car accident; your mom was driving. She took the brunt of it and was gone by the time the ambulance arrived. Your dad was in the hospital for two days, but he never woke up. You had been in the back seat. Heavy bruising, a busted ribs, broken collarbone, and a big gash across the side of the head was it for you. You were in the hospital too, for a while. Your paternal grandmother came all the way from Austin to pick you up and take you to live with her. Your mom’s parents had been gone for a while now, and GiGi – what you had called your father’s mother – was all you had left. You had only met her a few times before, but you didn’t really have another option, so across the pond you went.

It would be a massive understatement to say that Texas was different from Sheffield. It was truly a whole different world, but kids are resilient enough. You were famous for a while, because of your accent, and then you were weird for a while, because of your accent, and then eventually you became just one of the kids. Your GiGi was supportive as well, more than you had expected her to be. You didn’t know much of the specifics as a kid, but you knew she and your father had had some sort of falling out and weren’t as close as they had been when he was younger. You always thought it had to do with him choosing to stay in England rather than come home to America. When you got older it seemed like maybe there was more to it than that, but GiGi wouldn’t talk about it. She did help you get into therapy, so that you could learn how to process what had happened and all the big changes that came with it. You didn’t like it at the time, but in hindsight it was probably the best thing she could’ve done. She even started trying to learn about football – soccer – too, because she knew you liked it, and she made sure to sign you up for the local league. You think maybe that time doesn’t heal wounds, but it sort of scabs them over enough that they only hurt when you pick at them, so eventually you learn to stop picking at them, and after that life became kind of normal.

You eventually played soccer in high school – goalkeeper, naturally – and were good enough to get recruited to the University of Texas. From there, the NWSL draft sent you to Seattle for the OL Reign. You spent a season as the third-string goalkeeper, then a season as the second-string, and then were presented with an opportunity you couldn’t dare turn down. It had been Kim Little’s idea, apparently. She had only played with you in Seattle for a month or so, and you never really hung out, but she knew you had grown up in England and that you had really wanted the chance to play football in Europe. She would tell you later that she was impressed with your resilience, something you had heard often growing up, and that you had a “dead brilliant reaction speed” which you guessed sounded good. So when Arsenal’s back-up goalkeeper transferred out and they were weighing their options, she suggested they give you a look. She had said it offhandedly, like it wasn’t a big deal, but you would wager she fought harder for you than she let on. You had only played a handful of games in two seasons, and while you were admittedly good, the offer from the English club still came as a massive surprise. They were up front and adamant about your status as a pure back-up to Zinsberger, and while you would’ve had a decent chance to win the starting spot in Seattle, you just couldn’t say no to European football, to England, to the Arsenal.

That’s how you ended up in the back of a dark car being driven through the streets of north London in the pouring rain. Your fingers fiddled absently at the chain around your neck and the two golden bands that hung from it while you considered everything that led you here, hoping that you made the right choice. Only time would tell, you thought, as the car squealed to a slow stop. You hesitated for a long moment before tucking the necklace under your shirt and moving to exit the vehicle. The driver met you at the car door, an umbrella extended overhead. You were taller than him, so you had to awkwardly bend your neck as he moved to close the door behind you.

“This shouldn’t take long,” he said, “Then we’ll get you home.” You thanked him and stuffed your fists in the pockets of your coat as you followed him up to the club, your stomach slowly rising higher and higher into your throat as the series of decisions you had recently made began to congeal rather quickly into a hard reality. It was some grotesque mix of nerves and excitement and fear that just fully slapped you in the face when you stepped inside the building. You hadn’t felt like this in Seattle, or on the plane, or in the car, but now that you were here, physically, it’s like everything else was physical too. It wasn’t some amorphous Choice floating in the metaphorical ether of your life; it was a foreboding Presence leering down at you, clawing at your shoulders from behind, and whispering ‘you don’t deserve this’ into your psyche. Nausea began to swell up, to the point you were just starting to feel dizzy. Out of instinct you reached forward and put your hand on the driver’s shoulder, who stopped walking to turn and see what you needed. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but was interrupted by a distinctly Scottish, “Oh ‘ey, Tex!” behind you.

You both turned to see Kim Little striding down the hallway, followed closely by Jonas and one of the other coaches. You swallowed hard, all the torturous feelings slowly fading away as you saw a familiar face. “Hey, Little Kim, “ you retorted. She scoffed and faked a jab towards your ribs before she reached up to hug you.

“Welcome to the party,” she said, stepping back to introduce the coaches, who shook your hands. They welcomed you as well and explained that the evening would be brief, they were sure you’d be tired from the flight, but just needed to finalize some things on the business side and then Kim would give a tour of the facilities. You thanked them, probably too many times, and went with them all to finish your paperwork and pick up your official training gear. Your kit wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow since they’d have to put your name on and weren’t sure what number you wanted (you picked 18 because it was available and made sense for a goalkeeper). Kim showed you around, asked about the flight, and made you feel as welcome as she thought she could. It was nice to talk to someone for a while. You weren’t exactly an extrovert, but you were Southern enough you enjoyed being around people, and being able to talk to Kim, even if it was more or less small talk, made you feel better, and by the time the tour was done all of the earlier feelings were forgotten. You started to think that maybe this whole thing was a good idea after all.

“So no rest for the weary – first training tomorrow, yeah? Text me your address and I’ll pick you up. Since you won’t have a car, Uber’s always an option, but until you get sorted, you can get rides with me,” Kim said.

“Sounds good. Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Don’t thank me yet, I’m picking you up extra early tomorrow – the girls’ll want to meet you before kickin’ balls at your head.”

“Well, I guess that’s only polite.”

You both laughed and hugged goodbye before heading your separate ways, you pulling out your phone to look up your new address to send it to Kim. This was a good decision, you thought, this was a good decision.

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

Your apartment – or flat? – was nicer than you expected it to be. You had done a Zoom tour while you were still in Seattle and it looked fine, but you had tempered your expectations to be safe. Turns out, you didn’t need to. It was a two-bedroom and furnished with the basics, so there was plenty of space for you and plenty room to decorate as you saw fit. You had what was sometimes described as an eclectic taste by your friends, mainly because you liked to decorate with things that made you happy. That seems like an obvious thing to decorate with, but you were kind of – literally – a giant dork, which meant you had a lot of “nerd shit” as your friends would tease. You expected the Arsenal girls would do the same if they ever started coming over, but all of that would be a long time coming. Tonight, all you wanted to do was collapse into bed, which is exactly what you did.

Kim wasn’t lying when she said she’d pick you up early. At least she had the decency to bring you coffee, but she was completely taken aback when you admitted you didn’t really drink coffee and actually preferred tea. “Guess there is some English in you after all,” she had joked as she drove. She asked about your night and how you slept, and pointed out all the important-to-know shops and stops between your apartment and the training center. When you finally arrived, you asked her if she accepted tips for her tour knowledge – to which she responded with “only big bills”. You laughed as you retrieved your bag from the back of her car, and the two of you headed in.

The next few days were an absolute blur. You were introduced to everyone, and they all seemed pretty nice. McCabe kept talking about how tall you were, but from how everyone else acted that was normal. Manu was happy to have another goalkeeper in the squad despite the fact you would both technically be competing for the starting spot, even though you were explicitly hired as a back-up. At least it didn’t seem like there would be any weird hurt feelings or anything there, so you were glad for that. All your other time was spent trying to discern personality types and team dynamics, and also actually training. The coaches had told you they wouldn’t expect you to go full on for the first few days to give you time to acclimate to everything. You thanked them, of course, but that didn’t stop you from diving in head first.

By the time your official day three was over, you wished you had taken it a little easier. It felt like jet lag hit you late, on top of the normal physical tiredness of training. But that evening as the team as the team filtered out of the locker room, Katie McCabe slapped you on the back and said, “Drinks on you tonight, mate!” You turned to look at her, but before you could ask, Kim interrupted with a sharp “Katie–“

“Hold on, hold on! I don’t mean a big to-do, but we gotta welcome the newbie right, right?”

A couple of the other players voiced their agreement and Kim rolled her eyes. “Two drink maximum.”

“Four.”

“Two.”

“Three?”

“Two, McCabe.”

“Two and shots?”

“…”

“Two…and shots?”

“…one shot.”

“Fuck yes, best captain ever! You’re riding with us, Y/N!”

A mix of confusion and amusement spread across your face as you looked between the two of them, and Kim just shook her head and waved at you to go with Katie, so you let yourself be pulled away into whatever the night would bring.

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

Despite telling you that you were paying for drinks, Katie was nice enough to only make you buy the shots, and despite Kim’s hesitance at you all going out mid-week, it was a surprisingly calm evening. You ended up sitting at a table with just a handful of your new teammates. Most of them were joking around with each other, teasing and taunting. You sat quietly, unsure of how inserting yourself into the dynamic would come off. You thought of a few quips throughout the conversations, but made sure to hold your tongue, choosing to sip on your beer instead.

“You always this quiet?”

You glanced over in the direction of the voice, inadvertently locking eyes with Leah Williamson. You knew who she was, obviously – won the Euros and all. What you hadn’t known was that she was even more attractive in person. You didn’t even know that was possible, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise.

“Not usually,” you responded, drawing in a breath. “Just can’t get a word in edgewise with this one goin’ off.”

You gestured towards Katie, who didn’t even register the comment. It did get a chuckle out of Steph and Foord, though, which made you relax a bit. Looking back at Leah, she was still looking at you, but didn’t seem to react otherwise. You paused for a moment, chewing on the inside of your cheek, before deciding to just go for it.

“So in the summer do you ever get a weird tan on your forehead from frowning so much?”

That did draw Katie’s attention; you could tell from the way she practically guffawed.

“Oy, she’s got you dead to fuckin’ rights!” she said, leaning over to elbow at Leah. The Aussies had laughed as well, as did Kim. Leah didn’t look impressed at the remark, but from the twitch of her lips you would swear she was biting back a smile. She had nice lips. Were you staring at her lips? Your eyes flashed back up to hers and she was still looking at you. She would’ve been able to tell where you were staring. That’s…embarrassing. You swallowed hard, and quickly looked away, taking a long swig of your drink. If anyone else at the table noticed the interaction, they didn’t react. Katie started in on you immediately, dragging you into whatever she had been talking about before, and from there you spent the rest of the evening integrating yourself into the team.

The bar was really only starting to fill up when Kim decided it was time for you all to get a move on. There was some light-hearted grumbling, but everyone was professional enough to know how to behave. You had popped into the toilet before leaving, and when you came out of the stall, Leah was washing her hands. You hesitated for a brief moment before moving up to the sink next to her to wash your own hands, the little bit of alcohol you consumed tonight just enough to embolden you.

“Man, Williamson, what kind of a world is this where you’ve got those legs and no rhythm,” you teased, quickly busying yourself with the most thorough hand-wash you’ve ever done so you didn’t have to look over at her and see how poorly she took the remark.

“You spend a lot of time thinking about my legs?”

You froze. It would seem she didn’t take it too poorly at all. Taking a moment to compose yourself, you turned off the sink and turned to look at her. She was staring at you again. Seemed like maybe she did that a lot.

“Yeah, maybe,” you finally said. She hmmed a bit and cocked her head to the side. The glint in her eye was the only thing that kept you from worrying you were being too forward, and you silently prayed it wasn’t a trick of the fluorescent lighting overhead.

“You think you’re being all charming, with your little jokes?”

“No, not really,” you shrugged. “I think I have the personality of a 14-year-old boy and it’s the only way I know how to flirt with you.”

Leah changed at that. Her posture shifted. Her shoulders dropped slightly. The glint in her eye was gone. You fucked up, you thought. You’ve been here for four days and you already fucked up.

You moved to apologize at the same time Leah moved to respond, but both of you were interrupted by the door to the bathroom slamming open and a group of girls rushing in. You turned around and pushed yourself up against the edge of the sink to get out of the way, but Leah dipped her head down and shoved out past them, taking the opportunity to escape without you being able to stop her.

Yep. You fucked up.

#woso #arsenal wfc #arsenal women #woso fanfics #woso x reader #arsenal x reader #leah williamson x reader #leah williamson

[moldybonessmell]

Spider-squad winter outfits headcanons post!

you can tell i drew different charas in separate days oh wow

So i kinda posted few days ago about recent lack of atsv content Hobie content specifically so i had to deliver myself, amirite? Tho i decided to not stop on Hobie and did the entire spider-squad or perhaps, spider-quad? *badum tss* im funny see

also it's like -38C/-36.4F in my city and i be wearing like four layers at all times so i got inspired can't believe i still love winter when my ass be freezing this bad

So here's my headcanons for spider gang winter outfits!

Let's imagine they all have a mission in winter...

Gwen

She can't really wear her hood bc of wind but everyone teases her about looking bald without it lmaoo so she got one of these knitted hoods instead, also wears one of these fluffy soft jackets

Was wearing uggs until she lost one of the boots during a fight LOL so she got these uggs with velcro fasteners + leg warmers

pics: 1) found-store on Pinterest, 2) wglwkjg on Pinterest, 3) pey on Pinterest, 4) ·˚ Isabella·˚ on Pinterest

Miles

I see him wearing something kinda like his og itsv outfit but winter version with one of these gigantic puffy jackets and nike sneakers with fur inside + a hat with pompom

Let's imagine his jacket is opened, i didn't realise in time it makes his spiderman-outfit not-so-spider looking

pics: 1) Hipok on Pinterest, 2) Nordstrom on Pinterest

Pavitr

He got one of these fluffy earmuffs (because his hair needs to be looking perfect at all times!), a puffy cropped cord jacket, a pair of these puffy winter shoes (these have a ribbon so you don't lose them flying around a city) and a BIG scarf with mittens (he definitely lost one of these tho)

He's the least used to cold out of the squad, but he's being very brave about it and wears a socially acceptable amount of layers

pics: 1) Campus Gifts on Pinterest, 2) WTI Designer on Pinterest, 3) true deals club on Pinterest, 4) liisa rita on Pinterest 5) EtsyCA on Pinterest

Hobie

In contrast with Pavitr he would wear a disturbing amount of layers, definately one of these mfs who wear layers instead of one warm thing

He's got one of these plaid "winter" coats that are thin af but swears he's warm cus it gets hot during fights (nobody believes him cus they watch him start to shiver in real time) (Pavitr crocheting a scarf for him was the only way to make buddy dress fairly properly for cold weather)

At least Hobie got a warm hat, right? Yes, spikes on the mask do just go through it, but it's warm, right? -right? ("it's a ventilation, mate!" or whatever lol)

Got layers of sweaters over each other: a turtleneck-sweater, a cropped one on top + a vest over all these

Would wear his usual boots just with warm socks under

pics: 1) People on Pinterest, 2) Natalia on Pinterest 3) Fur Hat World on Pinterest 4) OLUOLIN on Pinterest 5) Elena Ilieva on Pinterest 6) EtsyCA on Pinterest

Disclaimer: english is not my native and i was SWEATING trying to find how all of these clothes are called in english so if i messed up some names ignore it pls or let me now how they are called correctly

Okay, this is all! Hope you liked it!

#atsv #gwen stacy #spider gwen #spider ghost #miles morales #spiderman #across the spiderverse #ghost spider #pavitr prabhakar #spiderman india #hobie brown #spider punk #atsv headcanons #headcanons

[hugmekenobi]

Wardrobe Change

A Bad Batch Series interlude oneshot

Image from the Popverse courtesy of Lucasfilm (my gif searches were being very uncooperative)

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Summary: Times change, uniforms change and this new design has its fair share of admirations.

Warnings: No use of y/n, pet names (sweetheart), Cid being Cid, I make up a timeline, affectionate possessiveness, fluff and feelings, Force communication working how I say it does, PDA in the form of making out and affectionate biting, spicy/suggestive dialogue, getting caught/interrupted, awkwardness

Masterlist for Season 1 chapters

Word Count: 4.7K

Rating: 18+

Author’s notes: It’s the last of the oneshots before we get into S2! This was purely because I wanted to start S2 off with the armour changes being understood and so I didn’t have to describe them lol but I hope there’s more substance for y’all to enjoy! Big shout out to @hugmedin who helped me when I got hit with a bad bit of writer’s block and wrote a section of this, including my favourite line in this fic that had me freaking out when I read it, love you my guy!! 

“Okay! I have them! Ugh this is so heavy!”

You all turned your attention over to the loud thud and you smiled as you saw Lyra collapsed over the container she had previously been carrying. She’d only just managed to get it through the doorway. “You should’ve told us. We’d have helped you bring it over.” You said as you stood up and walked over to her.

“It’s part of the service.” Lyra panted as she stood up and smoothed down her top. “I think you guys will like what I’ve done.”

“Can you get that out the way? It’s blocking the entrance! We don’t have all day for this. I have my own business to run!” Cid said by way of greeting.

“You weren’t exaggerating.” Lyra muttered.

“Give it 6 months and you’ll be on mildly better terms.” You uttered back with grin.

“Oi! Either help her or get out of her way. It’s bad enough you’re using my place as your fitting rooms!” Cid barked over at you.

“Better terms?” Lyra said with a small laugh.

“I did say mildly.” You replied, grabbing the other side of the box, and lifting it over to where the rest of your squad had congregated in the corner.

“Are they finally ready?” Omega asked excitedly as she gave Tech the datapad back.

“Omega, we haven’t finished-”

“Come on, Tech! I can do it later!” Omega griped.

Tech sighed in defeat.

“A quick break won’t hurt Tech.” You appeased.

“Let me see!” Omega said.

“Okay kid, hang on.” Lyra said with a smile. She opened the box and began the process of handing the updated armour out. “I played around a bit with them.”

“How much?” Hunter and Echo asked warily as they took theirs from her.

“Don’t stress. It’ll all look perfect. I changed the colours and symbols as requested but I got rid of a couple things that weren’t really necessary. You guys have more civilian type clothing to wear underneath now, rather than just those blacks you’d handed over. And that means you don’t have to always change into these clothes you’re wearing now if you want to take your armour off. Oh, and your codpieces are gone.”

“You took away a whole section of our armour?” Tech asked sceptically as he took his.

“They were annoying me.” She replied simply. “And I don’t think you’re in a position to act like it’s a super crucial piece you’re missing. You don’t have any thigh armour. That wasn’t a change I made, that was all you.” She added pointedly.

Tech opened his mouth to protest but he couldn’t think of a rebuttal fast enough.

You chuckled as you watched Tech walk away, mumbling something under his breath about how it suits his needs just fine.

“Where’s mine?” Omega asked eagerly.

“Alright kid. Here you go.” Lyra passed the pile of clothes over to Omega who grabbed them keenly and dashed off to change.

“Did I see a hat?” You asked as you watched her turn the corner.

“It makes the outfit.” Lyra replied with a smile.

You laughed. “I won’t question your style.”

“Good. Cause now it’s your turn.”

“You only changed the colour, right?”

“In a way…”

“Lyra…”

“Calm down. It’s nothing crazy. I still kept the hood and mask element you like. I just started from scratch. The top you bought from me before isn’t really suitable for what you do. I didn’t realise you operated with no armour at all. If I gave you the original one back, it would only be a matter of time before you had rips in it. I’m surprised it was in one piece for so long.”

“Okay… so?”

“So, I got my hands on this new material that is generally just sturdier so that’ll help, and you have some armour of your own.”

“Armour?” You said sceptically as you watched her reach down.

“Not a lot.” She reassured you. “I figured you liked the freedom of movement, it’s just a couple of things. Here’s the top.”

You took it from her, and you could already tell that it was better quality. The black fabric was thick but when you put it over your head, it fit snugly but still allowed for flexible movement. The mask and hood were indeed still there and where your previous top had red lining on the outside, this one now had a turquoise. Your eyes also noted the small white half skull that seemed to have been another element that was carried over. “And this was an essential thing you needed to keep?” You said, pointing to the sign.

Lyra grinned. “You both like it and don’t try to deny it.”

You rolled your eyes but smiled with her. “This is perfect though, thanks!”

“I’m not done.” She handed over the additional pieces to your ensemble.

You took the small parts of armour she’d give you. They were black and decorated with a mix of white and turquoise stripes. You also realised they were like the ones Hunter wore on his forearms. She’d also added a pair of black gloves.

“This means you’re also getting rid of that horrendous thing keeping that vibroblade on your thigh.” Lyra ordered.

“There’s nothing wrong with it!” You said defensively, glancing down to your thigh where your vibroblade was encased. Sure, the strap was fraying, and it was no longer the same colour as it was when you had first got it and some of the leather was showing cracks, but it served its purpose just fine. Plus, it had been with you through a lot of highs and lows and although a mantra throughout your life had been ‘no attachments,’ you had found that both Hunter and this strap were exceptions to the rule and you were rather fond of it.

Lyra just gave you a sad look. “Look at it. It’s disgusting. Throw it in here and never think about it again.” She insisted, turning the box towards you.

You sighed and chucked your vibroblade on the table before you threw your old strap into the empty container. You attached the new pieces to your forearms before you sheathed your vibroblade into the one on your left arm. You then put the next pieces that ran from your shoulders to the end of your upper arm. You were annoyed to find that Lyra was right, and you didn’t feel restricted by having them there.

“And you told me yourself your blaster holster is a hand-me-down from Tech. Put that one away too.”

“You were just waiting for a chance to upgrade my stuff weren’t you?” You grumbled as you took your blaster out and removed your holster. It joined your old vibroblade strap.

“Oh yeah.” Lyra said with a smug smile.

You attached the new holster to your thigh and put your blaster in it. “Happy now?” You asked, gesturing up and down your body.  

“You look hot!” Lyra said as she circled you, studying how you looked with the new parts on.

“Shut up.” You laughed, slightly flustered.

“Your sergeant is a lucky guy. How’d your secret project got by the way?”

Before you could reply, a shout got both of your attention.

“We’re ready! I love it!”

You turned to the sound of Omega’s voice, and you grinned as you saw her delighted expression. It had been a while since Kamino and Omega had definitely grown so it was about time she had something that fit with that, and she did now. She had grey bottoms and a red top which was worn underneath a light blue layer, and she had red fabric wrapped around her right wrist. The hat was a cute touch as well. The rest of your squad also looked pretty good. It was odd though, seeing them in colours that weren’t the signature ones they used wear and any insignia illustrating them being Clone Force 99 being gone.

Lyra clapped her hands together. “I truly outdid myself! You guys look fabulous!”

“Yeah, you guys look great!” You added.

Wrecker and Omega beamed, whilst Tech and Echo merely gave small nods.

“You look great too!” Omega said as she walked over to you.

“Yeah, Hunter’s got colours like that too. You guys’ll look good!” Wrecker added.

You smiled and rolled your eyes. “Speaking of that, where is our fearless leader?” You asked.

“He wanted to rearrange the scarf.” Echo replied.

“Scarf?” You repeated, your throat going dry. You looked over to Lyra.

She shrugged. “I like accessories. Sue me.”

You turned your head over to the sound of Hunter coming back into the main area and it took everything in you not to stare at him for an abnormal amount of time. His armour, like the rest of theirs had maintained most of its original structure-minus the codpiece- and his colours were indeed similar to the ones you had. He had the more civilian looking clothes underneath with the rest of his armour donning a mix of black, white, and turquoise. He had the same bit of orange running down the centre of his chest plate like his brothers had and his helmet still had half of it painted white to match the skull tattoo on his face. The red wrappings around his wrists mirrored the one Omega had and the red scarf… well the scarf was definitely a nice added feature.

Hunter nearly did a double take as he saw you. You looked… well you looked powerful, capable. Not that you didn’t look like that already but there was something about seeing you with actual armour that accentuated that part of you. Plus, the fact he was wearing colours that matched with yours was an added bonus.

“Well, my work here is done!” Lyra said cheerily as she bent down to grab the now empty case.

Hunter tore his eyes away from you and nodded his thanks to her before he saw that you were still looking at him. “What?” He asked as he joined the others and grabbed a drink. He brought his cup to his lips.

“Nothing. Looks good.” You said casually, turning away to follow Lyra out. Just thinking of all the things a scarf can do that a bandana can’t.

The choked splutter that followed had you smirking to yourself as you walked out the door.

--

“You sure we don’t owe you anything for this?” You double checked as you both stood outside the entrance to Cid’s.

Lyra shook her head. “You guys helped me out when I was being harassed by Marco and his goons. We’re even now.”

“Yeah, but getting to beat up Marco and Co is fun.” You said lightly. “You don’t need to repay us for that.”

“I wanted to. Besides, it was actually kinda fun. I haven’t had a project like that to work on in a while. Just point people in my direction if they ask who did this fabulous work and we’re all good.”

You huffed out a laugh. “You got it. I’ll see you around, Lyra. Thank you.”

“Yeah, see you around!” She grabbed her stuff and walked away.

You fished the necklace out your pocket and studied the small symbol on the end of the black leather cord.  It wouldn’t be noticeable under his clothes and armour. You just hoped he would like it.

--

You and Hunter seemed to find any excuse to gravitate towards one another and touch each other, even if it was nothing more than a simple touch that lasted a matter of seconds. Yes, you’d started it with your comment about the scarf, but he really wasn’t helping with things. The air between the two of you had been charged ever since you’d walked back down those steps and now every touch sent warmth flooding through you, and you were sure it was the same for him. To the others, the hand wrapped around your shoulder seemed completely innocent since you were all engaged in casual conversations, but it sent a thrumming through your veins you couldn’t control. And, judging by the way he’d tensed up when you’d laid your hand on his thigh, you weren’t the only one. You all had shed your armour since Cid didn’t have a mission so that definitely wasn’t making things any easier for you.

It felt like a test. Who was going to be the one to give in first? You really didn’t want it to be you and you think you had a way to do that. As Wrecker and Omega got up to go play a game of Dejarik, with Tech and Echo going to watch, you turned to face him. “Can I talk to you outside?”

Hunter looked at you quizzically but nodded and followed you as you stood up.

You made your way to the exit.

“Where are you going?” Omega asked as she waited for Wrecker to make his move.

“We’ll be back.” You replied.

--

“Everything okay?” Hunter asked as you began to pace in front of him.

“Yes. I just- Look I’m- What I’m trying-.” You stopped with an aggravated huff. You’d rehearsed this countless times in your head, and it wasn’t a big deal, worst he could say was no.

“Sweetheart.” Hunter grabbed your wrist to get you to stop walking. “Take a breath, look at me.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Don’t call me that.”

Hunter tilted his head. “Why not? You usually don’t mind it. In fact, you tend to quite enjoy it.” He added with a smirk.

You shot him a playful glare and removed his hand which had worked its way to your waist. “Yes, exactly. You’re distracting me and I have a plan here. You’re not going to ruin it with your-” You didn’t finish your sentence, you just gestured to him.

Hunter held his hands up in mock surrender and leaned against the edge of the entry way.

You inhaled deeply and started pacing again. “I consider myself a pretty independent person, you know? Not one to be dependent on much, certainly not a man in my life. But then you come along, and suddenly I’m finding particular things I thought I would hate, quite, well, quite attractive. Take this for example.” You pointed to the half skull on your top. “I was convinced I would hate it, but I don’t. I don’t mind the message it sends.” You stopped and faced him. “However, I can’t just be what this suggests. You’re a part of me, the whole squad is, but I don’t want to be seen as someone whose only purpose is to belong to you.”

Hunter straightened up as he addressed you. “I know that. If I’ve given you reason to believe otherwise, I’m sorry. I’m sure Lyra could change it. I didn’t mean-”

“Hunter, I know.” You reassured him. “That’s not what I’m saying. I only mean I thought it would be nice if you maybe had something that- uh.” You broke off with an awkward cough before you continued, “Represented me.”  You brought the necklace out and handed it to him.

“Where’d you make that?” Hunter asked quietly as he studied the necklace which had attached to it a tiny metallic symbol. A symbol he’d seen many times during the Clone Wars. It was the symbol for the Jedi Order.

“Lyra gave me access to her stuff. Don’t worry, she didn’t know exactly what I was doing.” You added quickly as you saw the concern that flashed across his face. You looked down at the ground and scuffed the toe of your boot through the dirt. “Do you like it? I know it’s a bit risky but figured you could conceal it easily enough and I-” The strong hands on your waist that guided you backwards to the wall cut you off. You glanced up but before you could take your next breath, Hunter’s lips met yours and what little resistance you had left crumbled, but hey, technically he kissed you first, so you counted it as a win. You let him press his body tight to yours and you kissed him eagerly. You like it then?

Hunter didn’t answer directly. He just kissed along your jaw and nipped the skin by the spot behind your ear that he knew would elicit a moan from you and you didn’t disappoint. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” He said, still out of breath and his voice even lower than what it usually was.

You released a sigh and your head fell back against the wall as he continued to leave marks on the skin of your neck. I have a pretty good idea.

“I’m serious.” He slid his hand on your cheek, so you were forced to look at him and he very nearly lost it. Your eyes were wide, and your breathing was still uneven, and he wanted nothing more than to continue but he needed to say this first. “From the minute you showed up on Devaron to help, I was enthralled by you. You took out a line of droids with nothing more than a slightly longer vibroblade on your back and acted like it was a regular day. Sure, later on we discovered there was a bit more reason behind that.”

You smiled slightly but your eyes dipped down as a wave of guilt washed over you at the memory of your dishonesty.

“Hey.” Hunter said softly as he saw your mind leave the current moment. He tucked his finger under your chin and angled your face back up. “That’s not why I brought it up. Don’t go back there. Stick with me here cause there’s a point to all this, I promise.”

You sighed and nodded.

Hunter breathed deeply. “You were incredible and there was no hesitation from me, or the others quite frankly, when it came to offering a place with us. I just underestimated the impact you were going to have on my life. It didn’t take long for my brothers to start giving me a hard time, but I was too stubborn to listen.”

Join the club.

He smiled at you before he continued. “Remember, when there was that stampede of Reeks and I got hurt. It was about two months after you’d joined us?” When he saw you nod, he carried on, “You remember how I got injured?”

“The last dregs of the Separatist droids sent a final charge our way. The blast meant I slipped and fell into the cavern where they were running. You came after me and pushed me out the way.” You said softly.

“Yeah, I did. I- I was in love with you then.”

“Well, then we were on very similar timelines.” You revealed with a smile.

Hunter huffed out a laugh. “So, fast forward to now. You’re wearing something that ties you to me and I don’t think you realise exactly the effect that has on me. And then I come out to see I’m wearing the same the colours you are. And to top it off, you’re asking me to wear something that ties me to you? I can say with no hesitation that you’re a part of me too.” With that, he looped it over his neck.

You took a shaky breath as you watched him put it on and you understood why the half skull on your top had meant so much to him. “You think the colours thing only mattered to you? Why do you think I had to give it to you now?” You murmured. “You were killing me in there.”

Hunter nuzzled into your neck. “That why you dragged me out here? Couldn’t wait?” He muttered into your skin and began to place light kisses on your neck, altering what side had his attention.   

“That why you followed me out here?” You countered as you struggled to keep your composure. 

“I thought you wanted to talk.” Hunter replied, his eyes lifting to yours, an unspoken challenge behind them. 

“I-I did talk.” You maintained. 

“And now?”

“And now I’m done.” You grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him with fervour. And I’m counting this as a win. You broke first.  

Hunter chuckled and moved so his lips brushed against your jawline again as his hand trailed from your cheek down to your neck where it stopped for a moment before he continued, and his palm came to rest on the left side of your chest. Your heartbeat pounded beneath his fingertips.

You didn’t let him linger there too long. Wrapping your hands around the back of his neck, you pulled him in even closer and bucked your hips forward into him in an attempt to banish the remaining space between the two of you. As you did so Hunter let out a moan into the crook of your neck and the resulting vibrations sent your mind to mush. Your hands frantically grabbed at his shirt, the fabric bunching in between your fingers as you tried to bring him even closer. You let out a frustrated moan, you felt like he was holding back, and you were losing patience. 

Hunter let out a soft chuckle and you could feel his smile against your skin, genuine and unfiltered. “Relax.”  he whispered into your ear. “I’m right here.” 

Your hands slid from his waist up the length of his back, his muscles rigid but warm against your palm. You nipped at his ear, your hips still bucking into him, and you’d never been more thankful that Lyra had gotten rid of the cod pieces, but it also meant you became more and more desperate.  

“I need you closer.” Your voice came out strained as you looked up at him and you made no attempt to disguise your desire as you continued to press yourself against him.   

“That can be arranged.” 

The lights in the alleyway were dim but you could have sworn you saw a glimmer form in his eyes, the kind that only appeared when the two of you were alone. Upon seeing that, all sensible thoughts about the risks of doing this in public left your head completely. 

Bending down ever so slightly he brought both his hands to the back of your thighs lifting you up against the wall in one swift movement. Instinctively, you wrapped your legs around his waist as he held you in position against the wall. Your fingers found themselves wrapped up in Hunter’s hair which you used to gently tug his face away from where he was placing deep kisses along your collarbone. He let out a deep sigh which caught in his throat and resembled something close to a growl. As you held his head there you allowed yourself a moment to admire the way his eyes had grown darker, and his chest and shoulders heaved as he caught his breath. His lips remained parted as he patiently waited for instructions from you. Removing your hand from his hair you brought it back to caress his tattooed cheek, this time allowing your thumb to softly trail his lower lip.

He drew you into a deep kiss, the kind that left your lips raw and your lungs begging for oxygen that you swore you could definitely live without - but eventually you had to give into your reflex and come up for air. 

Hunter broke away first, bringing his forehead to rest tenderly against yours. His hands reached under your top; his gloved hands caressed your skin. “You sure about doing this here? I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop once-”  

Yes. You nodded eagerly but before you were able to continue, a horrified shout got both of your attention. 

“Ugh are you kidding me! You two really couldn’t wait?! Ugh my eyes!” Wrecker complained as he instantly turned away from the scene in front of him.

Hunter quickly let you down and he was sure your mortified expression matched his and you both turned to face the backs of Wrecker and Echo. 

“Oh, uh, hey boys. What, eh, what brings you out here?” You winced out as you adjusted your top.

At the sound of your feet hitting the ground, Echo turned to face you both and gave a disapproving stare. “Omega is about to play Tech and wanted to see if any of you wanted the next round so, we came out to ask. She nearly left to ask herself, but I figured based on past experience-”

“Okay.” Hunter interrupted him before he went any further.

You can turn around, Wrecker.

Wrecker took you at your word. “What happened to talking?”

“I mean… we did talk. Just got a bit carried away.” Your eyes focused on fiddling with the end of your sleeve.

“I’ll say.” Wrecker griped. 

“That’s the third time this month. We’ve talked about this. It was bad enough when Tech interrupted you guys in the cockpit.” Echo chastised you both.

Hunter couldn’t find any words. He just kept his eyes on the ground. 

“Hey, you didn’t have to listen to the lecture he gave afterwards on the importance of hygiene and sanitation.” You grumbled. 

“You’ve been lucky it hasn’t been Omega yet.” Echo continued, paying little attention to your words.

You knew he was right. The two of you had been pretty reckless lately and the very fact Omega hadn’t been one of the unfortunates to witness said reckless moments is something you thanked the Force for. “I’m sorry, we’ll be better.”

“Yeah, sorry boys. It won’t happen again.” Hunter said firmly.

A few beats of uncomfortable silence passed.

“You guys aren’t coming back down any time soon, are you?” Echo asked reluctantly as he nodded to where both of your hands were.

The two of you hadn’t noticed the new places your hands had found themselves in. Your fingers were lightly tracing up and down Hunter’s arm whilst his had found itself around your waist again and his thumb rubbed up and down your side. Upon hearing Echo’s words, you both glanced at each other. Tell Omega I owe her a game. We’ll be back later tonight. You said in a way of reply, your brain slowly starting to block the presence of the other two out.

Echo sighed tiredly. “Just get out of here. Come on, Wrecker. We probably don’t want to linger here much longer.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Wrecker hastily turned on his heels and walked back down the steps to Cid’s, with Echo following close behind.

“Well… that could’ve been worse.” You mumbled into his shoulder after they left before you trailed a line of kisses along his neck, your teeth lightly grazed his skin.

“I can’t say I can see how. That was- that was pretty awkward.” Hunter managed to stammer out.

“I could’ve been in a more compromising position.” You purred as your hand trailed down his chest and you made to kneel in front of him. You knew he was feeling more sensible, and you definitely knew it was better to head back to the Marauder but that didn’t mean you couldn’t have your fun.

He swiftly tugged you back up and shook his head at you as he saw the cat-like grin on your face. “Careful, or I’ll have to continue this here anyway.” Hunter groaned as you slowly ground your hips against him.

“Promises, promises.” You whispered back, tugging his lip between your teeth and you took pleasure in the low moan that left him. Your hands kept a tangled grip in the scarf as you kissed him and tugged him to you.

Before he really did get too carried away, Hunter pulled away, but he still kept you tight to him. “I believe you had some thoughts for the use of this scarf? I got some ideas.” Hunter rasped.

“Hmm, I’m much more of a practical learner.” You hummed against his lips.

Stifling a groan, Hunter kissed you once more before he wrapped an arm around your waist and the two of you hustled away to the Marauder.

Masterlist

Tagging@ @noeasyisnoisy, @tpwkcalli, @fuckoffthanos, @arctrooper69, @graciexmarvel, @flyingkangaroo, @nightmonkeysstuff, @a-streakofazure​, @ladytano420​, @dragonrider9905​, @keep-calm-and-drink-caf​, @yyourmotherr​, @xxeiraxx​ 

#the bad batch #hunter x reader #hunter x fem!reader #hunter x femalejedi!reader #hunter x female!reader #sergeant hunter x reader #sergeant hunter #hunter tbb #hunter the bad batch #the bad batch hunter x you #hunter x y/n #tbb hunter x reader #the bad batch fanfiction #star wars #friends to lovers #smut

[patisilence]

Ayyyy what are some hcs you have about your universe’s dork squad?

Ah coming straight to my Dms I see. I thought it's gonna be on discord but sure lol. I have few thankfully.

Jervis Tetch

Wanted to be real Hatter when he was a kid, aka wanted to make hats. But his parents said he wouldn't have that much money from it since not many people wear them anymore, so when finding what he could do, he got interested in hypnosis. At first, he thought of being magician but that got him further interested in the human mind. That's how he decided to be neurosciencist in high school.

That was one line I came up for some reason but I like the idea that he doesn't remember his parents. It might be just a delusion thing, where when he gets further into it he forgets people.

He got into drugs because it helped with his stress. I'm not sure what exactly he has but when stressed he starts cutting himself out of reality, which makes him get delusions.

Has sweet tooth.

Has hare named March.

Edward Nygma

Had abusive father and alcoholic mother.

Changed his name from Nashton to Nygma. He didn't want connections to his family plus he thought it was funny name play.

Worked for GCPD as detective and when Batman showed up he decided he will solve cases faster than him. Got really annoyed with police incompetence and decided show them how they wouldn't be able to take down real villain, even Batman wouldn't be able. That's how he became Riddler.

Is proud of his red hair and green eyes, thinks genetics is only good thing his parents gave him. Hates the fact that Pamela has it too.

Hates Barbie. Just entire concept of himbo/bimbo is annoying to him.

Has parrot named Riddlina.

Jonathan Crane

He was born out of affair which his great-grandmother was devastated by having a bastard in the family. She took him out for adoption, but his mother couldn't take it, so after great grandma (GG for short) refused to take him back, she killed herself. That made GG rethink it and took him back.

They had Tywin Tyrion relationship. Where GG still despited him but he was her blood, so if she was other boys picking on him she made so soon they won't get close again. That didn't stop her from abusing him, wanting him to be perfect Kenee.

She locked him up in closed and made crows attack him, though last one was for serious stuff.

In the end he killed her and refused to go back to that house again.

In the end he changed his surname to Crane after his father, because even though he didn't know him, he gave him less pain then GG.

Become atheist because of religious trauma.

Has green thumb from working on farm.

When GG was sleeping he read book under his cover with flashlight.

Like candy corns.

Has crow named Poe.

Was interested in goth aesthetic as teen but GG said it satanic clothes so he never dressed in that and now he feels he's too old for this.

#anserw #edward nygma #riddler #jonathan crane #jervis tetch #mad hatter #scarecrow #pati rogues #tw child abuse #tw suicide

[starsscarmyceiling]

We’re more ghosts than people sounds interesting af 👀

Okay AH again sorry this is a couple days late, but my work has been CRAZED, but I still wanted to get to this!!! Thanks for asking girl 🥰

AGAIN, if you have seen this prompt post that I wrote out, this was another one that had origins in what I wrote out in the AU section...

"Sorry I am on some Red Dead Redemption shit but I simply cannot help myself but to shove all of my favorite things together alright. Cal is apart of some kind of roaming squad (IF you chose a band of outlaws I wouldn’t be opposed), and they are in this one town for a bit. He starts to go to a general store where a Russian aunt and niece run it, and a lot of people just assume Merrin doesn’t even speak any English and dismiss her a lot of the time. But maybe he’s seen her at one of the saloons or tending to one of her horses and thinks that there’s more to her than what she is presenting to the world (and lol she is prettyyyy 😍) He goes into the store with Greez one day, and he ends up asking Merrin something, and Greez is like lol why do you bother she isn’t going to answer you. Cal is like pssssh this girl is trolling all of you I just know it. Merrin looks at him like he’s grown a second head, and then Asajj comes out and starts to put on the charm and Merrin just yeets right out of there. Perhaps Cal was wrong. Maybe she didn’t understand him, but that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t want to get to know her. So he just continues to go to the store anyway and keeps talking to her all the time (We all know the boy can ramble let’s go). Maybe he even runs into her at other parts of town, or even on the outskirts where she’s taken her horse out, and he happens upon her while he’s on his. She does some target practice with a pistol and he’s impressed. He wished he at least knew her name. There’s a Russian woman in their group, and Cal asks her about a few Russian phrases, to which she complies, but then asks why. Cal is all SUPER red and is just like LOL NO REASON K THX BYEEEE! Cal goes into the shop, tries out a phrase or two, attempts a hello and asks her how she is doing. He feels like he is making a fool of himself, but then he swears out of the corner of his eye he sees her smirk. He asks her name in Russian, and she sighs…so Cal assumes he’s asked her wrong he clearly couldn’t remember it right and looks at the ground. “Merrin,” she says. His heart races. Asajj comes out and interrupts them OF COURSE. The gang wants to move on soon, but Cal isn’t ready to let go. It seems silly because practically every interaction they’ve had have been one sided conversations, but he still goes to the store nonetheless and tells her they are going to be leaving. She looks at him poignantly, and he still just doesn’t know if she’s pretending or really doesn’t understand. He dips his cowboy hat to her and tells her it was nice meetin’ ya milady dasvidaniya. Merrin shouldn’t be disappointed in the American man who came into her shop all the time to annoy her, really it doesn’t matter. How could it? He was really just a nuisance more than anything else, that Calvin ‘Cal’ Kestis. But, he was truly the only person that she could recall in what feels like a lifetime that looked her in her eyes, talked to her like a person, even if it was at annoying constancy. And GD he even learned some Russian just for her…but she tries to just forget about that handsome, redheaded cowboy all the same. Merrin is tasked to travel to a few towns over to pick up a delivery for the store, and after the long journey wherein she is going to have to spend the night anyway, so she decides to go to one of the saloons. She rolls her eyes as she sips at her whiskey because more than one man has approached her and thought she was a hooker. A brawl breaks out and she rolls her eyes harder. Stupid men. All of them were just children.

But then this man comes in the middle of it and tries to break it up. His voice sounds familiar, but she thinks he’s hearing things. She tries to tune it out, but notices he gets punched anyway, and his hat flies off. Yeah, no there was no denying that red hair. She wants to leave, but she can’t; she’s stuck on her stool. Once the fight finally ceases, Cal is with that small man he came into the store with sometimes as he retrieves his hat. He talks with the short man, and she thinks he’s going to leave, and he is just going to be lost to her again, but then he seems to stay for another drink, probably wanting to nurse that black eye he’s no doubt going to get. He sits at one of the stools and downs a drink. Oh lordt should she go up to him now? After everything she’s lost, it seemed ridiculous to do such a thing, but she finds her feet moving of her own volition. Oh GOD what is she even going to say. “That is quite the punch you took,” she says, sitting down next to him, “I probably have something in my supplies that could help with that.” Cal whips his head to her and quickly voices her name, which she was certain he was going to forget. And he seemed most certainly shocked that yes she does indeed know English and has this whole time. There’s smiles all around as he offers to buy her a drink and she accepts. But she also has to make fun of how terrible his Russian was."

So then there was this one fine morning on the Merrical server where @myfaenwy posted this photo shoot of Cam that was so very rude of him, actually...I mean...look at this slut wtf

(affectionate, obviously haha we love him)

I then liked begged @myfaenwy to write the prompt that I wrote out, but then...I just posed the idea of writing with her (something neither of us have done), and much to my delight...she was down.

Unfortunately, we've both been pretty busy with other WIPs, so we have not actually started writing, but we've been talking about this like since before JS! We are wanting to follow a lot of my prompt. And since both of us are also big fans of Red Dead Redemption 2, it will also be pretty RDR coded (which is the inspiration behind the title)...

We've had a drunken brainstorming session LOL that also involved:

Greez running a saloon, obvs. Cere is the bitch who runs everything as the wealthy widow. Aunt and niece duo Ventress and Merrin as Russian immigrants that run the general store in town, also obvs. Cal's gotta horse named Beauregarde Deaugustine the First, and I mean...look at fucking Koboh...it's all right there!!!

Basically, this fic is just kind of begging to be written! We are soooo very excited to start writing it and be able to show it to y'all!!!

YEEHAWWW!!

Y'all think Merrin will want to save a horse, ride a cowboy?😏🤠

#sorry i don't have any preview to give...but i mean my prompt was pretty fucking meaty lol #i cannot wait until we start writing it! #guhhhhhhhhh i can never say no to plot ideas i get too attached to #i have a problem and i am making it all your problem too #esp because this fandom NEEDS more aus #TEEHEE #fanfic #my fanfic #merrical fanfic #merrical #wmgtp #wip title game

[snapdragoned]

sims tag!

tagged by @simmer-until-tender & @themeasureofasim (so long ago, whoops) thank you!

Favorite sims death?

I've only ever seen drowning, fire, and old age in my game (so boring, I know) but I think I have to go with Murphy Bed for sheer "unlikely but plausible" horror.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match with a little soupçon of semi-realism, particularly with hair. I just love that classic Pooklet shine.

Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

No way -- the Townie Body Diversity Project is one of my favorite mods for a reason! We need more fat sims! If I could have one no-questions-asked Sims 2 wish granted, it would be more diverse bodytypes for all existing meshes (dream on, I know).

Do you use move objects?

Who doesn't? I basically only have it off to place diagonal doors and windows.

Favorite mod?

This is such a hard question because there are /hundreds/ of tiny QOL mods that add up into such incredible gameplay. But I'm going to go with either the Community Time Project or Skilling on Community Lots! The latter especially makes so many community lots... actually worth it. I don't think I could play without it. Why bother otherwise?

First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

I think I actually got Nightlife before University and I loved it. Everyone was a vampire and had the most expensive car. Life was simple and good.

Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Live as in "we're going live!" The other way feels so bizarre in my mouth.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I will always have a soft spot for an alien sim named Laika from many, many neighborhoods ago. She was my icon for a long time!

Have you made a simself?

Only when I was younger! I like The Sims (and most media, tbh) to be as indulgent and escapist from my own life as possible. Like, what am I doing there?? I have the same reaction to self-insert fanfiction too. What is my purpose in this narrative? No thanks.

What sims traits do you give yourself?

For TS2: Lazy, Playful, Pleasure Aspiration.

For TS3: Vegetarian, Absent-Minded, Good Sense of Humor, Neurotic, Over-Emotional 🥲

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I assume this is a question tailored to one of the other games, lol. As a kid I always loved shortslick in red because it was a slightly different shade than the other red hairstyles in the game, and it felt like the closest I could get to a new hair color without CC (which I didn't know how to download).

Favorite EA hair?

I really love the paperboycap hairstyle that came with Apartment Life! I wish there were pookleted defaults of it that just retextured the hair and kept the hat. Sometimes I use it anyway even though it doesn't match the rest of the hair in my game. It's cute!

Favorite life stage?

I actually really, really love the Child life state! There is so much that children can do (painting! gardening! cooking!) and it feels like after a toddler life state that doesn't have much variety between sims, you finally get to get a feel for what kind of person they're going to be. Plus, so many cute social interactions between other children and their parents. I'm always sad to see them grow into teens :(

Are you a builder or are you in it for the game play?

Both! I'm honestly not a very good builder and often get impatient because I just want to play and take pictures. But then if the world doesn't feel "real" or visually appealing enough, I get frustrated because the gameplay isn't as satisfying. I constantly have to force myself to stop and focus on building so I don't overshoot on the playing in a way that feels dissatisfying. Fun hobby.

Are you a CC creator?

No, but I have a lot of practice downloading things :)

Do you have any simblr friends/a sims squad?

I've never been in the Sims community consistently enough for that, but there are plenty of names that give me the happy little "ah, you! 🥰" thought bubble over my head for when I see them on my dashboard!

What’s your favorite game (1,2,3,4)?

Must you even ask?

Do you have any sims merch?

I have a pair of plumbob earrings! They're understated enough that I feel like I can get away with wearing them to work. Someone actually correctly ID'd them once, too!

Do you have a youtube for sims?

No, editing pictures and posting here is enough of a timesink on its own. But I love watching speedbuilds!

How has your “sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Wow, so much. If this is about visuals, I didn't really have a cohesive style until I stumbled upon GOS in 2007 or so. The grungy look and my emo phase were like a wine & cheese pairing for the ages. When I got back into the Sims again in college in 2012, I'd shifted to a brighter style bordering on cartoonish (hello snapdragoned psd!). I think now I'm a sitting somewhere a little more muted, but hopefully still fun to look at 😬

If this question is geared more towards play style, I'm playing in rounds for the first time in... ever. I used to just wander into households and play until I got bored, or focus only on one family. What a difference it makes! I don't think I've ever been so hooked/consistently eager to play.

What’s your origin ID?

You people still use Origin?

Who’s your favorite cc creator?

Don't make me pick! There are a mind-boggling number of active creators out there still making beautiful, functional content. I adore and appreciate all of them! The game still feels so new and fresh. It was such a treat to come back to after a long hiatus.

How long have you had a simblr?

...eleven years 🥲 My GOD, do you ever feel old?!

How do you edit your pictures?

I should have read ahead before I mentioned the PSD, lol. I use Greenshot to take screenshots, then manually resize them in an old, super legal copy of Photoshop. Then I run a batch Photoshop action (sharpening, brightening, making colors more vivid) on them. Done and dusted.

What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

I guess I'll use this section for my dream mod. I would love more crafting benches/craftable items and more hobby options for the Freetime hobbies! Or a new Supernatural life state.

#long post #.txt

[somethingsupwithdrac]

24th May Huzzah! A message! From our dear Lucy! You know what that means, Tumblr Book Club friends? IT’S TIME TO MEET THE LUCY WESTENRA BOYFRIEND CLUB YESSS

Today we have an opening from Lucy thanking Mina for her letter and spilling the tea about her THREE suitors!

LOL “Don’t tell the girls, you know they’ll be babies about it because I have a whole squad of eligible men begging for my hand in marriage and they don’t. Vanity, amirite?”

Again with the secrets, Lucy. “Don’t  tell anybody but Jon, because I know you’re going to, I would totally spill the beans to Arthur if our positions were reversed, but I have a BOYFRIEND CLUB and I need to tell you ALL ABOUT THEM”

First we have Jack Seward, Asylum Guy and OG podcaster, who is is strong of jaw and good of forehead. So much for that “oh he’d be perfect for you if not for that pesky fiance, lol" thing. I know that “cool" here refers to being calm and in control of oneself, but it’s much funnier if I take that to mean “OMG, Mina, this man is the biggest most awkward dork of a man, he almost sat on his hat and then sat there fiddling with a lancet like a weirdo until I wanted to scream, lmao"

Awkward boyfriend pitch time! “I love u and I swear I will make you so happy, I will be so sad if u do not love me back dear Lucy.” (I make fun of this because to modern eyes it’s a wee bit niceguy, but I know that it’s meant to be sincere, and it’s all honestly kind of sad.) And then poor conflicted Lucy having to reject him and the very noble “I want you to be happy and if all I can have is your friendship, I will be the best friend I can” speech, which, honestly? Sweet as hell, you get a point, Mr. Seward. (Which is perhaps the only point I am willing to award you for anything in this novel.)

This whole thing with Lucy having a good cry over having to hurt him by rejecting him is actually pretty sad and I just want the Lucy Westenra Boyfriend Club to pull itself together already. Later, though.

And  now, introducing suitor number two, MISTER QUINCEY P. MORRIS, AMERICAN COWBOY FROM TEXAS. He absolutely definitely speaks like a real authentic Texan and Bram Stoker absolutely definitely had spoken to Americans before writing this man’s character. (I snark, but only because I love Quincey as a character.) Quincey is an absolute gem of a man who knows how to sweet talk a girl and is 100% the guy this was made for:

He is young and fresh faced and charming, and ALSO knows how to take rejection gracefully, which puts him miles above at least 75% of modern dude characters. Lucy is like, “alas, my totally hot and very eligible American suitor, as I told Mr. Seward, I am in love with Arthur already” with genuine regret, and poor sweet Quincey is just

‘I understand little darlin’, I love you and want the best for you and we can still be friends, because friendship is valuable too.’ You also get a point, Mr. Morris. YEEHAW.

And then he joins Lucy’s Boyfriend Club with Arthur and Jack because Lucy Westenra (I keep typing Lucky, lol) is a damn smart woman and she is going to have all the boyfriends she wants.

Last, of course, is Arthur, who is...Arthur. Curly of hair and kind of heart, already engaged, betrothed, and affianced to our dear Lucy. Does this make him president of the Boyfriend Club? IDK, maybe?

“Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?”

YOU DON’T NEED MARRIAGE, GIRL, YOU JUST GO FORM THAT POLYCULE AND GET ALL OF THOSE VERY HANDSOME AND ELIGIBLE MEN.

(Sidenote: I love ‘I know what I would do...no I don’t’ and ‘A man always finds a girl alone...no he doesn’t’. It’s such stream of consciousness writing and I love that about Lucy.)

I cannot WAIT to see our friend Mina’s response to this. I know I am absolutely bursting to hear more about the Boyfriend Club.

(Sidenote number two: JFC, talk about mood whiplash. We go from Jonathan being in several flavours of mortal peril with a definite end date for his life to Mina and Lucy having a grand time talking about Boyfriend Club. It’s jarring, and it’s meant to be, and also, I think, necessary for keeping the tension up.)

#daily dracula #dracula daily #the Lucy Westenra Boyfriend Club #quincey p morris #HE'S A COWBOY Y'ALL #YEEHAW #arthur holmwood #jack seward #they're both there too i guess #but QUINCEY #i love this letter so much #it's so perfectly lucy #i cannot wait for Mina's reaction to the hot goss about Boyfriend Club #*insert the 'two wieners' meme but it's three boyfriends* #i am not innuendo-ing there i swear #okay maybe a little

[maybeimamuppet]

home away from home

heyyyy everybodyyyyy

sorry it’s been a minute since i’ve posted anything!! i’m going through some stuff in my personal life that makes writing kinda tough but nobody cares about that so let’s get into this!! 

this is a request fill for gracerailly on ao3 who requested the whole main squad going on vacation together so here’s 15k words of found family vacation brainrot. also the twins are back bc it’s my mental breakdown and i get to pick the characters so enjoy that lol

tw for 

brief discussion of pregnancy complications 

mentioned depression

and as always please let me know if i’ve missed something so i can add it in :)

enjoy!

—————

Cady and Janis are blowing up balloons. Very important balloons, because tomorrow is their daughters’ first birthday. Janis’ face is a bit red from the effort and Cady is getting progressively more exhausted. 

Cady yelps quietly into a balloon when their phones both go off at the same time. Janis laughs and checks hers to see what it is. It turns out to be a message from Regina in their friend group chat. 

reginald: Hey, by any chance do you guys have plans for the Fourth of July? 

reginald: Definitely not related to the girls’ birthday present at all.

snarkisian: i don’t think so ??? why ?? 

reginald: Good. Don’t. 

snarkisian: what ??? 

reginald: Don’t make any plans. For that whole week. 

reginald: And that goes for the rest of you too.

snarkisian: reggie wtf 

snarkisian: this is so ominous what are you planning 

reginald: Fun.

snarkisian: that’s not helping 

reginald: You’ll find out tomorrow oh my god. Just let me have this. 

snarkisian: ok ok damn

reginald: Thank you. Goodnight and happy birthday twins!! 

snarkisian:  ?????? goodnight 

“Reggie’s up to something,” Janis sighs, clicking her phone off. They both look around at the sea of balloons around them and realize they can’t see the floor anymore. “This is probably enough.” 

“I think so,” Cady chuckles breathlessly. “Let’s go to bed, we have a big day tomorrow.” 

“Big day indeed,” Janis murmurs, kissing her wife and leading them up to bed. 

————-

“Okay, let’s find out what this creepy mystery present your aunties got you is, hm?” Janis says, holding Leo on her lap. Cady has Layla on her lap next to them, and they help the twins open a large bag in front of them. 

Layla happily pulls out all the tissue paper and wags it around, seeming more excited about the crinkle sounds than the actual present underneath. Leo reaches in and pulls out a tiny sun hat. 

“Aww,” Cady coos. “How cute! Little hats.” 

“There’s more, keep going,” Karen chuckles as Leo puts the hat on and it falls over her eyes. The twins pull out two little bathing suits, and two pairs of adorable sandals. 

“So what does this have to do with… any of that shit yesterday?” Janis asks confusedly. 

“Where can they wear that stuff?” Gretchen asks. Cady looks up as she catches on to what’s happening. 

“A beach?” 

“We bought a lake house, we thought we’d take all of you there for the Fourth,” Regina nods. 

“Oh my god! That’s awesome!” Cady says. “Girls, you get to go on your first beach trip!” 

“That’s… not what I was expecting, but… wow,” Janis says. She looks at Leo, who now has both hats on and is wearing her sandals on her hands. “I think this one is more excited about the clothes.” 

Leo looks up at her and giggles when Janis adjusts her hats so she can see again. Janis bends down to kiss her chubby cheek. 

“Little goof. Only a year old and you’re already trying to be funny.” 

——————

They all have about a month to prepare for the trip, and gather supplies. Cady and Janis decided that trying to fly back to Illinois wasn’t quite something they were ready to face with two babies and decided to drive. Aaron and Damian said they’d drive with them, and the Plastics begrudgingly joined. So they all chipped in to rent a large van and decided to go together. 

Cady frantically researched tips for taking wee ones on long car trips, and found that the best tip is to leave early, while they’re asleep, so they’re quiet for a good chunk of the trip. Their friends seem much less on board with the idea of waking up at four in the morning to get going, but understand that it’s a necessary evil. 

Janis is the strongest night owl, so she’s told to be the first driver while everyone else sleeps in the back. 

All the luggage gets loaded in and pets dropped off at daycare the day before, so they can just hop in and go. Or so was the plan. 

-

Cady carefully transfers the babies to their car seats from their cribs so they don’t wake up, before she tucks them back in with their little blankets and stuffies. Janis puts them in the car, with Regina stuck in between. She’s the most… apprehensive, of the babies, so they decided to give her babysitting duty while the twins would spend most of the time asleep. 

“Is everyone here?” Janis yawns, taking a solid swig of her coffee to help wake her up. 

“Damian’s not,” Aaron replies. 

“Ugh.” Janis huffs. “I’ll go get him.” 

She opens her door and stomps back to her house, opening the front door to yell for her best friend. “Damian! Come out!”

“I’m gay!” Damian yells back. 

“To the car, dumbass! We gotta go!” 

“Car, I’m gay!” Damian replies childishly, coming downstairs in a onesie. “Chill, I had to finish my skincare routine.”

“Caddy wants to go before the smalls wake up, come on,” Janis grumbles. 

“It’s five in the morning!” Damian retorts. “We got time.” 

“You don’t know these babies,” Janis sighs. Damian clambers in the back next to his boyfriend while Janis climbs back into her seat. “Okay. For the love of fuck, do we have everything and everyone?” 

“Yeah,” Regina yawns. “Let’s go.” 

“Thank Christ.” 

————-

Janis and Cady switch places at their first stop, after about three hours of driving. By some miracle, both babies are still asleep. Regina is subbed out for Damian and they’re back on the road within fifteen minutes. 

The second break comes much quicker than they were hoping, only about half an hour later. Leo wakes up and rubs her little eyes with a fist, before looking around with a yawn. She whimpers when she sees she’s in her seat and neither of her moms are anywhere to be found. 

“Oh no, you’re okay,” Damian says frantically when she starts to cry. Leo looks at him with a little wail and reaches for him, straining against her buckles. “Uh… I can’t take you out, but you don’t have to cry! Your moms are right there, we didn’t steal you, I promise!” 

Leo’s crying wakes up Layla, who also begins fussing when she can’t find her moms. Damian frantically tries to calm them, dancing their little toys in front of their faces and making sure they both have their pacifiers. 

“Sorry Dame,” Cady apologizes. “They should calm down in a second. And we’re almost to a gas station, I’ll pull over there.” 

“It’s okay,” Damian says. “Poor things.” 

He tries to play peekaboo with both of them

at the same time until they can stop. It doesn’t quite work, but it distracts them enough that they stop crying quite so loud. 

“Here we go,” Cady says. Everyone stretches and works their way out, while Cady and Janis see to their daughters. Janis grabs Layla and Cady gets Leo. “Hi, munchkin! Did you wake up all alone? Poor baby, come here.” 

Leo gratefully cuddles into her mama and smiles when she sees Janis inside the building. Janis passes Layla over so Cady can go get them changed and dressed for the day. 

-

“Where’s Cady?” Regina asks, browsing the racks of snacks inside. 

“She’s with the babies,” Janis answers. “Getting them dressed.” 

“Speak of the devil,” Damian says as the restroom door opens and Cady exits, carrying Leo and holding hands with Layla. “Oh my goodness.” 

Everyone turns to see what he’s talking about, and give similar reactions. The girls are dressed as little watermelons, in green short shorts and red and black polka dot tunic tops with green trim. And complete with matching watermelon patterned sandals. 

“Aww, my little melons!” Janis coos, taking Leo as she reaches for her. “Hi Bee. You still sleepy?” Leo nods and rests her head on her shoulder. “Aww. You can sleep in the car. Sweet girl.” 

Layla lets go of her mama’s hand and takes shaky steps over to greet her aunties and uncles. She makes it to Aaron first and reaches to be picked up. 

“Hi Lala!” Aaron greets happily, picking her up and tossing her in the air before holding her close. She giggles and tries to stick her little fingers in his mouth. Aaron doesn’t let her, but he moves his chin to make her laugh. “Cool outfit!” 

Damian comes up and gently kisses his niece’s cheek. Layla squeals happily and leans closer into Aaron. “And these outfits are reversible. If you turn them this way,” he explains, taking Layla and holding her upside-down. “Little strawberries!” 

Layla laughs as she looks around upside-down, and shrieks happily as her exposed belly gets tickled. Damian laughs with her as he turns her back the right way. 

“Crazies,” Cady chuckles affectionately. “Are we ready to go again?” 

“I think so,” Gretchen replies, armed with the snacks her partners have purchased and made her help carry. Everyone else nods and heads back out into the parking lot. 

They settle back into the same spots, since this stretch of the trip was shorter than they had counted on. The twins seem more okay with their moms being out of sight now that they’re less sleepy, and are content to play games with Damian and babble about the things they see out the windows. 

Damian smiles as Leo grabs onto his hand and goes quiet, her little fists wrapped around his ring and index fingers as she looks wistfully out the window. Layla shrieks happily as she sees some cows out her own window. 

“What are those, Lala?” Damian asks. “Are they cows? What do cows say?” 

“Moooooo!” Layla replies eagerly, pointing to the creatures as they go by. Everyone laughs. 

“Yeah, good job,” Damian chuckles, tickling her belly. Layla giggles happily and tries to wiggle away as best she can. 

“She loves animals, she knows all the sounds,” Cady replies. “Except pigs.” 

“Why pigs?” 

“Janis never read that page in their story right. Now they think pigs say ‘you have a right to remain silent.’” 

“It’s important knowledge!” Janis defends. “How many times are they actually gonna need to know the sound a pig makes?” 

“When we get letters home from their preschool that they’ve incited a riot, you’re handling it,” Cady giggles. “I’m just glad they’re not copying you yet.” 

“I’m just raising them with street smarts.” 

“Uhhuh,” Cady replies sarcastically. “Have fun using that excuse to bail them out of jail.” 

“We’re raising them to be decent humans too, they won’t be in jail! I’m just doing this, like, you know. Just in case.” 

“Whatever you say, my love.” 

——————

After another few hours, it’s Damian’s turn to drive, and nobody is safe. 

Surprisingly, it seems to be going well for the first fifteen minutes or so.

Then, Regina pipes up from the back. 

“Guys?”

“Yeah?” Janis replies, looking in the mirror to see them from her spot in the passenger seat. 

“Where’s Aaron?” Regina asks. Janis whips around and looks, counting everyone. Babies, Cady, Plastics, Damian… no Aaron. 

“Oh my god, we left him at the gas station!” Damian screeches. “I’m a terrible boyfriend!” 

“Turn around!” Janis shrieks as well. 

“I can’t, this is a no U-turn zone! When’s the next exit?!” 

“I don’t know!” 

“Well, look!” Damian demands.

Janis does, frantically switching between looking for road signs and looking at her phone map until they find somewhere they can safely turn around and head back to the previous rest stop. Everyone in the backseats is howling with laughter. 

Finally, they get turned around and headed to rescue their lost passenger. Janis calls Aaron to let him know they’re on their way back. 

“I was wondering how long it would take you guys to notice,” is the first thing Aaron says when the call connects. 

“Babe, we’ll be right there, we’re heading back right now!” Damian says frantically. 

“Take your time. I’ll just be here. Aaaaalll alone. Because you forgot me.” 

“I’m sorry but now is not the time to be petty!” 

“You forgot me at a gas station!” Aaron huffs. 

“By accident!”

“Mmhmm,” Aaron chuckles. “Don’t worry, honey. I made friends with the cashier, got some snacks, it’s all good.”

“I love you!” Damian says desperately. Aaron laughs. 

“Uhhuh. You owe me for this,” he replies. Janis gags at the implications. “Sorry Janis.”

“Your room better be as far away from ours as possible,” Janis grumbles. 

“Whatever you want, babe,” Damian purrs into the phone.

“Okay hanging up now byeeee!” Janis says desperately before she hangs up on Aaron. She turns to her best friend and huffs, “You are paying for my brain bleach.”

“I love you.”

“I hope we crash.”

—-

As soon as he parks the car (rather poorly), Damian throws his door open and runs to find his boyfriend. The rest of them follow and find Damian clinging to Aaron like a lost child and frantically apologizing into his shoulder. Aaron, ironically, is the one doing the comforting as he weakly pats Damian’s shoulder. 

“Dame, smile,” Gretchen teases. “I’m making a scrapbook of this trip.”

“You’re all awful,” Damian grumbles, refusing to remove himself from his boyfriend. 

“I take it I’m driving now?” Aaron chuckles. 

Damian nods. “I’m distraught.”

“Uhhuh.” Aaron hums. “Alright, I’ve spent more than enough time here, let’s go.”

—————-

After many, many hours and several naps on everyone’s parts, they’re finally on the last leg of the trip. Gretchen takes over driving for Regina, which means Regina is in charge of the tunes. 

Naturally, she starts blasting Taylor Swift, to some mixed reactions. Janis laughs as her little ones dance along as best they can all buckled into their seats. Layla gives some very vigorous head-bangs that don’t totally match the vibe of the song, and Leo seems content to just wiggle in her seat to the beat of the music. 

After a couple songs, Regina’s playlist brings up I Knew You Were Trouble. Regina, Cady, Gretchen, Karen and Damian all immediately sing along. Janis and Aaron join rather more begrudgingly. And the babies, evidently feeling left out, begin to babble along as well. 

When it gets to the chorus, the volume level could rival a jet engine. Everyone screams along, including the little ones as they catch on to the rhythm of the song. They don’t quite get it at the right time, but they’ve got the spirit. 

“Yeah, sing it, girls!” Regina cheers, turning around to smile at her nieces. They can’t see her, but their volume does pick up a little bit in response. “Get those emotions out. Hell yeah.” 

“Don’t fucking swear in front of my kids!” Janis chides. Cady gently thwacks her on the back of the head. “Ouch.” 

“Practice what you preach,” Cady hums lovingly, popping up to kiss her wife’s cheek to make up for the clearly very severe injury she’s inflicted. “They already copy you, it won’t be too long before they start trying to copy what you say.” 

“They would never,” Janis scoffs, aghast at the mere suggestion that her children would ever so much as dare to curse. “Right, Bug?” 

“Aaah!” Layla says. 

“Ladybug, the song is over,” Janis laughs. “Should we play it again?” 

Layla nods eagerly, already wiggling in preparation to dance again. Janis bends to kiss her nose as Regina skips back to it. 

“You’re a very good dancer, Loopsy,” Janis chuckles. “And you too, Bumblebee.” 

Leo looks away from her window and at her mommy, giving a precious little grin when she sees her. Janis smiles back and kisses her cheek. 

Leo whines when she pulls back and reaches for her again. Janis smiles sadly and gently holds her baby’s little face. “You wanna cuddle? We’re almost there, you just have to stay in your seat a little bit longer.” 

Leo starts to cry when she pulls her hand away. Janis pouts and puts her hand back, but Leo doesn’t calm down. 

“Baby, it’s okay,” Janis hushes gently. “Just a few more minutes and then I can hold you, I promise. Oh my goodness, Bee, why are you so sad?” 

Almost like a repeat of the morning, Layla also starts to cry as they get closer to their destination and her window is no longer enough to entertain her. Janis pops between them to pepper kisses over their little faces in a ditch attempt to calm them down. 

Cady starts playing peek-a-boo with Layla from behind the seat, which distracts her enough that she stops crying. Leo keeps wailing no matter how many smooches she gets from her mommy. 

Janis is almost desperate enough to take Leo out of her seat while they’re still moving by the time they finally arrive at their lake house. Janis wastes no time undoing her baby’s buckles and picking her up for a cuddle. 

Everyone works their way out of the car and grabs either a baby or a bag to carry inside. Cady stops Layla from running full speed into the lake, and Janis continues trying to calm Leo down. 

By the time they cross the threshold, Leo is dead asleep against her shoulder. Cady enters with the other one, panting slightly after their little game of chase. 

“Sleepy little girl,” she hums quietly, kissing Leo’s teary cheek as she passes by. “Still can’t drift off without a cuddle.” 

“I’m not complaining,” Janis whispers, carefully holding the back of Leo’s head. Layla wiggles out of Cady’s hold as soon as they’re inside and runs off in the first direction she can. 

“Guys, heads up, baby incoming!” Cady calls to their friends in the living room. Her daughters have only been walking for less than six months, so she could easily catch her if she wanted to, but she feels it’s important for Layla to get some energy out. “Just don’t let her kill herself, please!” 

“We got it!” Aaron calls back. Cady grins and turns to her wife. 

“Regina said we’re in the first door on the left upstairs, can you go put her down?” 

“Yeah,” Janis replies, crouching down a bit so Cady can kiss the baby goodnight before heading up to their room. Cady heads into the living room to find the other one. 

Layla is running in a loop around the island in the kitchen and all the way through the living room. Their friends are all standing around watching her go, except Karen, who decided to join her. 

Cady crouches down behind the counter and waits. When two little pigtails pop out, so does she, with a, “Bwah!” 

Layla shrieks in surprise and freezes, turning to see her. She laughs when she sees it’s just her mama and carries on running around. 

“How long will she keep going?” Regina asks, watching her niece and partner chase each other in circles. 

“As long as it takes,” Cady shrugs. 

“As long as it takes to what?” Damian asks in slight concern. Layla suddenly collapses face first on the ground, sound asleep. 

“That.” 

“This happen often?” Aaron chuckles. 

“You have no idea,” Cady sighs as she goes to scoop her daughter off the floor. “Lotta energy in this little body. Goodnight, everybody.”

“Goodnight!” 

—-

Cady is woken the next morning by ‘singing’. One of her babies has evidently decided to begin her day with a little jam session, and Cady can almost recognize it as one of the Taylor Swift songs from yesterday. It’s a strange, but adorable change from how their days usually begin. She yawns and heads to go get them up for the morning.

“Good morning, gi-“ she says as she approaches the cribs. One of them is missing. “Girl. Bee, where’s sissy?” 

“Dedede,” Leo explains, pointing to the door and then her sister’s crib. 

“Uncle Damian took her? Should we get dressed and go find them?” Leo nods and reaches out for her, so Cady scoops her up and kisses her all over her little face. Upon turning back to the bed, she notices Janis is also missing. “What about Mommy, do you know where she went?” 

Leo shakes her head, sitting patiently on the big bed while her mama picks out her clothes for the day. Cady grins seeing her baby looking so small huddled amongst the pillows. 

“We’ll find her too then, hm? Or maybe we just stay here all day and hide together. I like Leo and Mama days, what do you think?” she chuckles. Leo shrieks happily as Cady suddenly leaps onto the bed next to her and starts tickling her belly and blowing raspberries on her cheeks. “Yeah, maybe another day. Let’s get you dressed, come here.”

Leo is very helpful as Cady gets her out of her jammies and into her little swimsuit and sundress that the Plastics had bought her. Miraculously, it all still fits perfectly. 

“There we go, you’re all dressed! You look very pretty in your little beach ouffit!” Cady coos. Leo grins and hunches in on herself sheepishly. “You’re so cute, I can’t take it. Okay, let’s go find sissy and Mommy, come on.” 

“Lalala,” Leo helpfully informs her upon hearing her sister in the kitchen. 

“I hear her too, I think she’s in here,” Cady says as she pushes the door open. “Yeah, here’s everybody!” 

“Hey!” Everyone choruses upon seeing the two of them. 

“I was gonna take both and give them breakfast but this little munchkin was still sleepy,” Damian says, taking his niece from Cady as she reaches for him. “But now she looks fantastic in this little tropical getup!” 

“Beach ready,” Janis chuckles, kissing her baby good morning and offering her some banana to eat. “You have pineapples on your dress, you look so pretty!” 

Leo giggles happily and munches on her banana. Layla looks up from her spot on Karen’s lap and bleats happily as she spies her mama. Cady laughs and goes to greet her other baby. 

“Good morning, my sweet girl! Did you wake up early today and hang out with your aunties and uncles?” she asks. Layla giggles and cuddles into her shoulder. “Aww, hi. I missed you too. Are you excited to go to the beach today?” 

“Eee!” Layla squeals happily. Cady laughs and kisses her temple. 

“Almost! Beach.”

“Eee.”

“We’ll work on it,” Cady sighs. “Should we go get you dressed too?” Layla nods and points upstairs, so Cady carries her back up to get her ready for the day. 

-

By the time Layla and Cady are both ready, everyone else has gotten changed and packed and sunscreened for a day at the beach. Cady returns to find Leo now fully decked out in her beach hat, sandals and some teeny tiny shades. 

“Oh my goodness, Leo, you look so cool!” she laughs. “Should we go?” 

“Yeah, come on,” Regina says. Their place is practically on the beach, so they just have a short walk to be on the shore of the lake. Layla toddles the whole way herself, holding her mothers’ hands, and Leo rides on Damian’s shoulders. 

When she sees the lake, Layla immediately tries to take off towards it to go swim. She makes it a few inches before Janis’ grip tightens slightly on her hand and she falls onto her bum. 

“Blelele,” she says pleadingly, pointing to the water. 

“You can go to the water in just a second, we just have to go with you!” Cady giggles. “Come here.” 

Layla lets her mama take off her dress and sandals so she’s left in her baby bikini. She giggles as Cady blows a raspberry on her tummy and picks her up. Janis does the same to Leo, and they head down to see how their daughters react to their first real body of water. 

Aaron and Karen both tear past them and cannonball into the water, making the little ones giggle as they hear the splash. 

“Okay, ready?” Cady asks, holding Layla aloft. Layla kicks her legs in excitement and squeals happily as Cady bends down to dip her little toes in the lake. “What do you think? Is it cold?” 

“She’s definitely our little fishy,” Janis laughs as Layla starts kicking again to splash. “Let’s see what this little munchkin thinks.” 

She bends down next to Cady and Layla to dip Leo’s toes in. Leo looks at the waves lapping against her little feet for a moment before she bursts into tears. 

“Oh no, baby,” Janis says sadly, standing back up and holding Leo close. “You don’t like it?” 

Leo wails in reply, wiggling herself as close to her mommy as she can get. Janis pouts and rubs her back to comfort her. 

“Mamamama,” Leo begs, reaching a little hand for Cady. Cady pouts and switches twins with her wife. 

“Come here pumpkin, it’s okay. Let’s go play in the sand, we can try the water another time. Shh, sweetheart, Mama’s got you,” Cady hushes. Leo sniffles and buries her face in her neck. Cady kisses Layla and Janis goodbye and heads to find where Damian and Regina are sunbathing. 

“Hey!” Damian greets. His energy shifts when he sees the distraught baby in Cady’s arms. “Oh no, Leo! You didn’t like the lake?” 

“She’s just not ready yet,” Cady says, giving Leo a little bounce and drying her tears with her thumb. “We’ll hang out up here for a while and watch.” 

“Yeah, there’s plenty of room,” Regina says, scooting over a bit so they can sit between herself and Damian. Gretchen seems to be asleep already in the sand next to her. Cady settles on a towel and kisses Leo’s temple. 

“Dede,” Leo murmurs, pointing to her uncle. Cady grins and peppers more kisses to the top of her head. 

“You wanna sit with Uncle Damian? Okay, here,” she says, passing her over. Damian happily takes her and holds her in his lap. 

“Yeah, hey, Leo,” he says, propping her up on his knees. Leo finally smiles and reaches to grab his face. “Ow, watch the hair. Let’s see… can you say Damian? This is gonna be your first word or so help me. Damian.”

“Dedede,” Leo replies, tugging on one of his ears. Damian gently removes her little fist and looks into her bright blue eyes. 

“Daaaaamian. Day.”

“De?” Leo echoes. Damian nods. 

“Me.”

“Mee!”

“An.”

“Na.” 

“Damian!”

“Dedede,” Leo says again. Damian sighs. 

“We’ll work on it.” 

“Damian’s tricky, give her a break,” Cady laughs. “Janis is still just ‘Mee’.”

“Mee?” Leo asks, looking around for Janis. 

“Mommy’s with Lala,” Cady replies, pointing to her wife and other daughter splashing around the lake. 

She laughs as Layla gives a particularly vigorous one and they can just barely hear Janis call, “You little stinker!” as she’s showered with cold water.

Leo seems content now that she knows where her mommy is, and turns back to her uncle. Damian tickles her belly, earning himself a happy shriek as she tries to wiggle away. 

“Has she been in the sand yet?” he asks Cady. 

“No, do you want to try?” Cady responds. Damian nods and makes a sort of hoop with his legs, resting Leo in between so she’s contained but still has a little bit of room to explore. 

Leo looks up at him curiously, confused by the rough new texture against her little legs. Damian picks up a handful of sand and rains it down over her little feet. She wiggles her toes and grabs her own handful to investigate. 

“What do you think?“ Damian asks. “You’re not crying, that’s a good sign. No, don’t eat it.” 

Leo pouts as he catches her fist halfway to her mouth and brushes the sand off her chubby palm. 

“Don’t look at me like that, I can’t let you eat sand,” Damian pleads. “You look too much like a tiny Janis, I can’t handle it.” 

“Don’t they? I’m always saying they look like if she shrunk and had blue eyes,” Cady says. “Can you keep an eye on her? I wanna go check on Jay and Lala.” 

“Of course,” Damian replies. Regina doesn’t say anything, having joined Gretchen in dreamland. Cady kisses both Damian and Leo’s cheeks before she heads back to the shore. 

“There’s Mama, Ladybug, look!” Janis says when she sees Cady standing there. “Tell her to come swim!” 

“Mamamama!” Layla babbles happily, reaching out for Cady. 

“No way,” Cady laughs. “This lake is freezing.” 

“It’s not so bad,” Janis begs. “Come onnnn.” 

“Mamama,” Layla pouts, straining against Janis to try to get Cady to come in.

“Pleeeeease?” Janis adds. Cady rolls her eyes lovingly.

“Fine. You’re lucky you’re both cute. Stand back.”

“Why-ack!” 

Janis and Layla both yelp as Cady dives into the lake, showering them both with freezing cold water. 

“Caddy!” 

“I told you to stand back,” Cady giggles as she pops back above the surface. Layla laughs and reaches for her. “Hi, baby bug! Come here.”

“Can you show Mama what we practiced?” Janis asks. Layla nods and eagerly wiggles away. Cady almost panics when Janis suddenly lets her go, but Layla just turns onto her back so she can breathe and kicks her legs until she bumps into her mama’s chest. 

“Oh my god, Lala! That’s amazing!” Cady gasps. “Look at you go, I’m so proud of you!” 

Janis swims over too, squishing the baby between them as she leans to give Cady a kiss. “She wanted to swim, so… we worked on our backstroke.” 

“You guys did great,” Cady grins. “You’re such a good mommy. Huh, Ladybug? We love Mommy so much.” 

Layla nods and cuddles into Janis, who smiles widely and peppers kisses against Layla’s temple. “I love you too.” 

Layla giggles happily as she’s suddenly held high in the air, and splashes as she’s brought back to the water. 

“We’re gonna work on that next,” Janis huffs. “No more splashing.” 

Impishly, Layla splashes again, showering her moms in cold water. 

“Let her have her fun, she’s still little enough that she can’t do that much damage,” Cady hums. She’s suddenly hit with a small tidal wave. “I take it back.” 

“Not very nice, Ladybug,” Janis chides gently. Layla rubs her chest with her little hand to say sorry in sign language. “Aww. We forgive you, baby. Here, splash this way.” 

“They’re getting better with their signing,” Cady says happily as Layla gleefully splashes all she wants away from people. 

“Yeah,” Janis grins. “You want this?”

“Sure,” Cady laughs as she holds Layla aloft. “Gimme dis baby.” 

“I’m gonna go make sure Damian hasn’t killed Leo,” Janis says, handing Layla to her wife and kissing them both. “Or the other way around. Have fun.”

“You too,” Cady giggles. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Janis calls from the shoreline. 

Janis returns to find Leo lying next to her uncle on the sand, with her arms bent up under her head and her legs crossed so they’re lying in the same position. She’s also wearing Damian’s sunglasses and her own pacifier, and seems content to just chill. 

“Lishy, you look so cool!” she laughs. “Look at your shades.” 

Leo grabs them and pulls them down so she can see, and grins when she sees her mommy sitting down next to her. “Mee.”

“Yeah, hi baby,” Janis grins. Leo takes her sunglasses off and hands them back to her uncle, nuzzling into her mommy. Janis grins and gently brushes a hand through her short curls. “What have you been up to?” 

“Sananana,” Leo explains. “Dede.”

“Sounds fun,” Janis nods, as if she understands what Leo is saying. “Come here.” 

Leo giggles happily as Janis scoops her up and holds her in her lap, resting her head on Janis’ chest. Damian tips his head slightly to see his niece, and smiles as she seems to get much sleepier as soon as she’s being cuddled. 

“She’s so cute,” he says, watching Leo’s eyes flutter shut and her breathing even out. Janis carefully cradles her baby against her and nods. 

“She has good genes,” she murmurs. “My little cuddle bug.” 

“They’re already so different,” Damian says. 

“They always have been. Leo’s always been quieter and cuddlier. And Layla’s been running away from us since she could roll herself over,” Janis chuckles. “I just… like, you know I love you. And I obviously love Caddy more than I can say. But I never thought I could… love something this much. Let alone two of them. Like… they’re me, y’know? They’re only a year old and they’ve already helped me feel so much more confident and settled in myself.”

“I’m glad,” Damian murmurs. “And I can see why. They’re so sweet. And absolutely precious. You’re a great mom, Janjan.” 

“Thanks,” Janis grins, gently fiddling with one of her baby’s curls. “Have you and Aaron talked about kids at all?” 

“Not really. I think I got drunk once and kept talking about how we should have a baby,” Damian says, his eyes seeming a bit haunted at the vague memories. “But nothing serious.” 

“That’s fair,” Janis says, trying not to laugh at the mental image and wake her child. “You’d be a good dad. You’re already a great uncle.” 

“I try,” Damian chuckles. “They make it pretty easy.” 

“Yeah,” Janis grins. “I got lucky there. Once they came home they were some of the easiest babies I’ve seen. Made everything worth it.” 

“Worth it?” Damian asks, tipping his head in confusion. “What do you mean?” 

Janis sighs and tenses slightly. “Well, you know everything while Caddy was pregnant. That was a lot of bullshit. But we also only got pregnant on our third try. None of the embryos implanted the first time and we had a miscarriage the second.” 

“Oh god,” Damian whispers in horror. “I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“She didn’t want to,” Janis replies, looking out to the lake and smiling as she sees her wife laughing at Layla. “It messed both of us up for a long time, she just wanted to… process it on her own time and try to move on as best she could. And we wanted it to be more of a surprise when we actually got pregnant.” 

“That makes sense,” Damian nods. “And it definitely was a surprise. I didn’t think you even wanted kids.” 

“I didn’t either,” Janis says. “For a long time. But Caddy… she… she’s perfect. I knew she would be a perfect mama, that we’d be doing it together. I realized I just wanted a bigger family with her. And she had been asking for a long time, she kinda wore me down, too.” 

Damian laughs outright at that. “I’m glad. You seem so much happier now than you used to be.”

“I am,” Janis whispers, kissing the top of a little head. Leo stirs slightly, but Janis just slips her pacifier back between her lips and she drifts off again. “I think I’ll always have stuff going on in my head. But now I have more reasons to get out of bed and fight it. And I’m still in therapy and stuff. But yeah, high school Janis would not have believed you if you told her this is where she’d end up.” 

“I think that’s for the best,” Damian says. “I’m so happy for you.”

“I’m happy for you too,” Janis says. “You seem really happy with Aaron.”

“I am,” Damian says with a fond smile, watching his boyfriend act a fool in the water with Karen. “He’s the best partner I think I’ve ever had.” 

“Good,” Janis says. “You know what I’d do if he wasn’t.” 

“Easy, tiger,” Damian teases. “Please don’t murder my boyfriend.” 

“Just say the word,” Janis hums. 

They stay there for a long time, watching as Karen and Aaron play a slightly modified game of chicken with Cady and Layla. The little one shrieks happily every time she’s dunked into the water, even though Cady keeps a firm grip on her and she’s never under for more than a few seconds at a time. 

Eventually they move on to Marco Polo, and Janis grins as Layla tries to say the words as best she can from Cady’s hold. She giggles happily as they’re chased around, and wiggles with glee when it’s her turn and she tags everyone. 

Leo eventually stirs in her lap, yawning around her pacifier and blinking up at Janis. 

“Hi, baby bee,” Janis murmurs. “Did you have a nice nap?” Leo nods. “Good, come here.” 

Leo giggles softly as Janis holds her up higher and smooches her little cheeks over and over. She throws her arms around her mommy’s neck for a hug and cuddles in again. 

“Sweet girl. Should we go get sissy and Mama to come eat lunch?” Janis grins, gently scratching Leo’s back. She feels her daughter nod against her and stands up. “We’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here,” Damian hums, stretching back out on the sand for another relaxation session. 

Janis carries Leo down to the lake, feeling the baby cling to her tighter and squeak in fright as they approach the water. “Shh, it’s okay, we won’t make you do it again if you don’t want to. Let’s just sit here, okay?” 

Janis sits them where the sand is wet, resting Leo between her legs and holding tightly to her chubby little belly to help her feel secure. Leo whimpers when a wave approaches, clinging to Janis’ fingers. 

“Shh, I’m right here,” Janis soothes. “Watch, it’s just water.” The wave runs over Leo’s legs and then recedes, only going about as high as the baby’s hips. “See? It’s not so bad, huh? It’s just like a bath! You love your baths, baby girl.”

“Abababa?” Leo asks, tipping her head up to look at her. Janis nods. 

“Yeah, it’s just like a bath. Here comes another wave, look!” Leo watches the wave as it hits her feet and rushes up her legs. She’s got a very serious and thoughtful pout on her face, but she seems less scared with each wave that hits them. “What do you think?”

Leo shivers, making Janis laugh. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty cold, huh? Look what sissy and Mama are doing, do you want to try that?” 

Leo looks where she’s pointing, at Cady gently holding Layla and slowly bouncing her around in the water to lull her into a nap. Their games seem to have tuckered Layla out, since she’s accepting the cuddles without complaint. 

Leo looks up at her warily, but she does nod. Janis smiles and picks her up, holding her tightly against herself and slowly walking over to where her wife and other baby are. 

“Hey.”

“Oh my god!” Cady gasps in fright, whirling around to see them. “Hi, Bee! You’re in the lake!” 

“So brave,” Janis adds, kissing Leo’s cheek. “And choking me just a bit.” 

“Like you’re complaining,” Cady teases. She kisses Leo too and says, “I’m so proud of you, sweet girl! What do you think?” 

Leo looks around, clinging tightly to Janis’ neck and assessing the situation she’s found herself in. Cady grins as she kicks her little legs and watches the waves she creates ripple away. 

“Look, you can splash,” Cady says. Janis carefully pries the little one off her neck and holds her so Leo’s back is against her chest, so the baby can use her hands. Leo weakly claps one against the water and flinches as she accidentally splashes herself. “Yeah, you got it!” 

Leo splashes a couple more times, feeling the cold water against her little hands as she explores this new thing. She kicks her legs again, harder this time, and gives a quiet giggle when she makes more waves. 

“See? It’s not so scary,” Cady says. “Oh, I’m so glad you came in, I’m so proud of you.” 

“This one seems about ready to get out, though,” Janis chuckles, looking at the half asleep Layla resting on Cady’s shoulder. 

“It is nap time,” Cady chuckles. “Should we go get dry?” Leo shakes her head. “No? You don’t wanna get out?” Another head shake. “Not even for lunch?” Leo thinks for a second before she nods. “That’s what I thought.” 

“We’ll come swim again after lunch,” Janis chuckles. “Brave little bee.” 

They head back to the towel and beach umbrella pile their friends have made and get situated. Karen and Aaron have returned as well, and joined in the picnic Gretchen brought with them. 

Layla gets wrapped in her froggy towel and left to nap in peace, while Leo is wrapped in her ducky towel and sits on Cady’s lap to eat with everyone. 

Janis watches in silence as Leo finishes her bottle and sneakily grabs half of Cady’s sandwich to try a bite. Cady is busy talking with Regina and doesn’t notice until she finishes the first half. 

“Who-“ she says, looking around in confusion when she sees the tiny teeth marks in her sandwich. Only one person could be the culprit, and she’s caught red handed when Cady looks down to see her still chewing. “You little stinker, this is my lunch! You had a bottle!” 

Leo gives her most precious grin, instantly winning her mama back over. 

“Do I make good sandwiches, Lolo?” Gretchen chuckles. Leo nods and reaches for the other half in Cady’s hand. 

“You are what you eat,” Cady hums. “My little turkey. Here, you can have another bite.”

Everyone laughs as Leo chomps into the sandwich like a little dinosaur. Her mouth is too small for her to get much of anything but bread, but she seems happy regardless. Cady quickly eats the rest before her kid can steal any more of her food. 

When Leo looks up again expecting more, Cady shows her her empty hands. “Where did it go?” 

Leo looks down and points to her tummy. Cady laughs and kisses her cheek. 

“Yeah, it’s in your tummy. Clever little girl. Okay, let’s go play again, I wanna go with you this time!” 

-

After a long day full of playing in the lake, building sandcastles and sunbathing, everyone slugs back to the lake house, changes into pajamas, and collapses into bed. 

————-

A couple days later, Janis wakes up on her own. Which is odd, because the twins would usually be awake and trying to escape their cribs by now. 

Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she heads to the cribs to check what’s going on. But her babies aren’t in them. “Caddy?”

“Mm?” 

“Where are the babies?”

“I dunno,” Cady yawns into her pillow. “R’gina took ‘em. A while ago.”

-

“Oh, hang on,” Regina says, politely interrupting her nail tech when her text tone goes off. She pulls her phone out of her purse to see a text from Janis. 

snarkisian: where are my children 

Regina laughs and excuses herself for a second to go find the twins with her girlfriends. The babies are lying in between them on their massage tables, in matching face masks and little cucumbers covering their eyes. The twins seem to be asleep, since they’re not anywhere near as wiggly as they usually are when they’re awake. Regina snaps a picture to send to Janis. 

reginald: Sent a picture: We’re having a girls day. Facials and mani-pedis. You have a problem with that? 

snarkisian: i have a problem with you effectively kidnapping my daughters yeah 

reginald: We asked Cady, she said we could take them for the day. 

snarkisian: was she awake ?? 

reginald: Enough. 

snarkisian: …

snarkisian: just keep them safe.

reginald: Oh, we were actually gonna take them jet skiing and then to feed some wild bears after this. 

snarkisian: >:l 

reginald: Oh my god, they’re fine. They’re asleep now, we’re just gonna go shopping and get lunch after this and then you’ll have them back. They’re having a great time so far. 

snarkisian: fine. have fun, tell them i miss them

reginald: I will. Have fun with Cady on your little break. 

Janis clicks her phone off and blinks at the wall in confusion for a moment, before turning around and crawling back into bed next to her wife. 

“You find ‘em?” Cady asks, voice adorably rough with sleep. 

“The Plastics took them out for a spa day,” Janis says. “Apparently they got facials.”

“Hm,” Cady hums, already half asleep again. 

“So we have the morning to ourselves,” Janis purrs. “Whatever shall we do?”

“Sleep.”

“But-“

“Jayjay. We have twin toddlers. I wanna sleep in,” Cady begs. Janis can feel her resolve waver as Cady nuzzles into her chest and looks up at her, blinking those big, sleepy blue eyes at her pleadingly. Janis isn’t exactly well rested herself. 

“Fine,” she hums, rolling onto her back and pulling Cady on top of her. Cady peppers some gentle kisses against the crook of her neck in thanks. 

“I’ll take you back to bed later,” she whispers. Janis squeaks quietly, earning a breathy laugh against her shoulder. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Janis whispers, cradling her wife against her and drifting off for some much needed and deserved rest. 

——-

Cady did end up making good on her promise after a delightful morning of sleeping in, and they were nearly walked in on when the Plastics returned home with their babies. Damian and Aaron had a date day exploring the town, so luckily they had been saved from that particular bit of mortification. 

They quickly sort out their rumpled hair and get dressed before they head down to the living room. The Plastics instruct them to sit on the couch and close their eyes so the twins can surprise them with the new outfits they bought. 

“Are you guys ready?” Regina calls down the hallway. 

“Yeah!” Cady calls back. They hear the pattering of tiny feet as their daughters come running down the hall to find them. “Oh my goodness!” 

Janis breathes a sigh of relief that her babies are both in one piece, and smiles widely as Layla comes running over to show off her snazzy new outfit and pretty painted nails. “Hi, Bug! What did your aunties do to you?” 

“They picked their nail polish colors all by themselves,” Gretchen says. “Leo cried when she had to let go of the bottle, though. But we got cookies and everything was good then.” 

“Aww,” Cady chuckles. “Let me see, come here, Bee!” 

Leo runs over and does a spin, showing off her very fancy blue unicorn dress and sparkly blue nails. Layla has a matching dress, but her nails are red. 

“Woooow,” Cady says. “Did you pick these dresses, too?” 

“They might’ve had help,” Karen replies. “But mostly, yeah.” 

“Well, they’re lovely, good job,” Cady chuckles. Leo leaves for a second to go tug on Regina’s pocket. 

“Hi, honey, what do you need?” Regina asks. Leo does something with her hand, prompting Regina to look to Cady for an explanation. 

“She’s saying thank you, that’s sign language,” Cady replies. 

“Aww, you’re welcome!” Regina coos. Leo reaches for a hug from her aunties, so Regina hesitantly scoops her off the ground, unsure if this is the right course of action. Gretchen and Karen squish in on either side, making the baby giggle as she’s wrapped in a group hug. 

Gretchen shrieks when something else wraps around her leg, but upon looking down, discovers it to just be Layla trying to join. “Oh my god, Lala!” 

Layla waves when she looks down, as if she hasn’t just scared the wits out of all her aunties and her sister. Janis is laughing so hard she’s almost in tears watching the whole situation go down. 

Karen picks Layla up too, allowing her to join in the little love fest. None of them quite catch Cady sneaking a few pictures of the adorable scene. 

Leo wiggles her way down first, deciding she’s had enough and heading to show her mommy her new outfit and nails too. 

“Hi, Bee! What’s on your dress?” Janis grins, picking Leo up and resting her in her lap. She laughs as Leo makes a horse sound. “Yeah, I think that’s about what a unicorn would sound like. Can I see your nails?” 

Leo gently rests her tiny hand on top of her mommy’s, allowing Janis to inspect her glittery nail polish. Her hands and nails are still much too small to really be painted, but there’s neat blobs of blue on the end of each finger that work well enough. 

“That’s a very pretty color, you picked it all by yourself?” Janis asks, fluffing out the tutu on Leo’s dress with her other hand. Leo nods happily. “It’s so nice! Do you like it?” Another nod, and Leo gently taps her fingertip to make sure Janis is aware of the glitter. “I see, it’s sparkly! It’s perfect for the Fourth of July.” 

Cady sits down closer to them and leans into Janis’ shoulder, smiling at their daughter. “So… the Plastics got the two of us a hotel room for tonight. What do you think?” 

“Without them?” Janis asks in concern, looking at Leo. Cady nods. 

“Just for a night. Damian said he and Aaron would babysit.” 

“But…”

“We need a break, love,” Cady whispers. “We’ve only been away from them four times since they came home from the hospital.” 

“But I miss them,” Janis pouts. 

“I miss them too,” Cady says. “I love these two so much.” Leo giggles as she tickles her belly. “But I love you, too. And I miss having you to myself. Think of all we can do with a whole night.”

“Okay, yeah, we can go,” Janis says, seeming much more interested all of a sudden. Cady laughs. 

“That’s what I thought. I’ll go pack us a couple things.” 

—

The twins’ cribs get moved to Damian and Aaron’s room for the night, and Cady packs an overnight bag. With a quick cuddle, Janis and Cady leave with the Plastics while the babies are distracted. 

—————-

“Whoa,” Cady whispers as they walk into the lobby of their hotel. “Fancy.” 

“I fucking love having rich friends,” Janis says in delight. Cady thwacks her across the chest. “Ow.”

“Be polite,” Cady huffs. Janis pouts. “We’re not only friends with them for their money.”

“But it helps,” Janis says. Cady rolls her eyes and kisses her cheek. 

“You’re on thin ice.”

“Whatcha gonna do about it?”

“We’re alone for the night, keep at it and you might find out,” Cady hums casually. Janis flushes scarlet and looks at the ground with a flustered squeak. 

Cady gets them checked in and leads them to their room, and is immediately pinned to the very large bed by her wife. They’re both getting progressively more hot and bothered when there’s a knock at the door and Janis rolls off her with several mumbled profanities. 

Cady straightens her hair and clothes back out and answers the door, finding the Plastics on the other side. “Hey!” 

“Hey,” Karen replies. “We’re gonna go get dinner, do you wanna come?”

“No,” Janis pouts. 

“Sure,” Cady says at the same time, gently stomping on her wife’s foot. “Give us a second to get ready?”

“Take your time, they don’t even open for a while,” Gretchen says kindly. “Just not too much time, Janis.” 

“Hmph.” 

Cady closes the door and they both rush through putting on nicer clothes and doing their hair. Cady does some light makeup and kisses Janis on the cheek with a promise to continue their activities later, and they’re out the door. 

—-

“You guys are spoiling us,” Cady says as they sit across from the Plastics in their very nice booth in the dining room at their hotel. 

“We just haven’t seen much of you since the babies were born, we figured you might want a night off,” Gretchen says. “We’re glad you came.” 

“We are too,” Cady says. “We definitely need a break.”

“No we don’t,” Janis grumbles, still pouting about being so rudely interrupted. 

“Jay, my love,” Cady chuckles. “Those girls grew in me. I have the strongest connection to them out of anyone. And even I know they’re exhausting. We need a break every now and again, even if we miss them.” 

“But I miss them too much,” Janis whines. “I trust Damian and Aaron and all, but… they’re so little.” 

“And Damian understands that, he’s been around them enough to know what they need and want, they’ll be fine,” Cady comforts. “He’ll call if he needs us, but tonight is about us, come on.” 

Janis nods and takes a deep breath as she picks up their menu. Their waiter comes by to bring them their drinks and take their orders, and then they’re alone with the Plastics. 

“So tell us what’s been going on with you guys, I need gossip other than who has the worst behaved kid at daycare,” Cady says, leaning on the table and looking at their friends. 

“Actually, we did have… kind of an ulterior motive bringing you guys here,” Regina says. 

“Dude, you brought us to the nicest hotel in Illinois, an ulterior motive is the least of my worries right now,” Janis chuckles. 

“We’re getting married,” Gretchen says. Cady squeals excitedly and does a little tap dance under the table. “And we want to return the favor and have you guys as our maids of honor.”

“Of course!” Cady says. “Congratulations, oh my god! When did you get engaged?”

“We didn’t,” Karen says. Janis tips her head in confusion. “Not really. I just was like, ‘Hey, we should get married.’ and they said okay. And that was that.” 

“I mean, if it works,” Janis says with a chuckle. “Congratulations. Where are you doing it?” 

“Here,” Gretchen says rather sheepishly. “In October.”

“Did Karen pick that?” Cady giggles. Karen nods happily. “Cute!”

“We’re planning on a pretty big wedding, like, our whole extended families and everything,” Regina says. “That… understand us, anyway.” 

“That’ll be cool,” Janis says, understanding why Regina’s eyes have darkened a bit. Their food arrives then, and distracts them from the slightly heavy mood.

“So gimme all the details,” Cady says around a mouthful of carbonara. 

“Karen and I are the ones getting legally married,” Regina says. “For tax benefits.”

“Nice!” Janis laughs. “But the ceremony is for all of you?” 

They all nod. Gretchen says, “Kylie’s officiating, we’re just… adding another person to a pretty normal ceremony. And then Dylan is unfortunately our DJ for the reception.” 

“Fuck yeah,” Janis cheers, getting some dirty looks from the tables around them. She hunches in on herself in embarrassment. “Sorry.” 

“Nobody here cares, they just have to pretend to,” Regina shrugs with a chuckle. 

“Rich people,” Janis tuts under her breath. “Anyway, by here did you mean, like… here here?”

“Yeah. That was the ulterior motive, we wanted to check out some of the rooms and stuff beforehand,” Regina says. “And also try to bribe you guys into being our maids of honor.” 

“You don’t have to bribe us, we would absolutely have been anyway,” Cady says. She nudges Janis under the table in a ‘hush before I make you’ gesture before she can let out a disbelieving hum. 

“Doesn’t hurt though,” Regina replies teasingly. “Right, Janis?”

“Nothing! I mean, uh…” Janis says, obviously having zoned out and only hearing the last sentence. “What are we talking about?”

“Jay,” Cady says with a chuckle. “You’re a goof. Do you need a moment?”

“No, sorry. I was just… thinking about the girls again,” Janis mumbles sheepishly. Cady’s eyes soften in understanding and she leans in to give her wife a comforting kiss. 

“They’re gonna be okay, my love,” she whispers. “You know them. You know Damian. They’re perfectly fine.”

“I know,” Janis whispers back. “It’s just hard.”

“I know,” Cady says. She gently takes Janis’ hand under the table and gives a comforting squeeze. Janis squeezes back and shyly looks back to their company. 

“We get it,” Gretchen murmurs kindly. “It must be tough. Being away from them. We didn’t mean to drag you away if you didn’t want to come.”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Janis says immediately. “You guys are right, we do need a break, it’s just…”

“They were premature,” Regina says with remarkable kindness and understanding. “You worry. If you’re not there you… can’t protect them. You have to trust someone else.”

“…Yeah.” 

“We get it,” Karen repeats. Janis gives them all a small, thankful grin and clears her throat. 

“Anyway, uh…” 

“Tell us how you guys got together again?” Cady interrupts, attempting to steer the conversation to a lighter topic. Janis gives her hand yet another thankful squeeze and takes another bite of her dinner. 

—————

Babies, unfortunately, only stay distracted for so long. Damian braces as Leo gets bored with her toys and stands up, wandering around to try to find her mothers. 

“Mee? Mee?” she calls in her squeaky little voice. “Mamamama?” 

“Your mommies left for the night, sweetheart,” Damian says gently. Leo turns to look at him. “They went bye-bye.” 

“Mamama?” Leo asks, as if to confirm they’re really not there. Damian nods, feeling his heart break as his niece’s lip starts to tremble and she falls to the ground in tears. She crawls to the front door, and starts crying harder when she notices there’s no car in the driveway. 

Damian goes to pick her up, closing the door and gently patting her back as she wails into his shoulder. 

“Mee!” she sobs desperately, pointing to the door. 

“Shh, I know,” Damian hushes gently. “They’ll be back tomorrow, I promise. They’d never leave you. You just get to spend the night with me and Uncle Aaron and then they’ll be back.” 

Leo wails again, weeping into his shoulder with more strength than Damian thought her little body could muster. 

“I know, I know, shh,” Damian says. He gently starts bouncing her up and down to soothe her and starts wandering around in a ditch attempt to get her to calm down. 

Eventually they make it to Aaron in the kitchen, where he’s making dinner. He’s well aware of their approach, since Leo’s crying can be heard from a mile away. 

“Have we been discovered?” Aaron asks his boyfriend. Damian nods and continues bouncing the baby. 

“She tried to find them and then noticed the car was gone,” he says. “She won’t calm down, I dunno what to do.” 

“I think she just needs to get it out,” Aaron says sadly. “A whole day without your moms is hard when that’s, like, a pretty significant portion of your life. She’s only one.” 

“But she’s so sad,” Damian pouts. “Makes me sad.”

“Just hold her,” Aaron says. “She’ll realize she’s okay soon.”

“Mmkay,” Damian says, gently hushing his niece. “Where’s your little… baby cork thingy.”

“Her what?”

“The… thingy,” Damian says, as if that clarifies anything. “That they suck on to stop crying.”

“Her pacifier?!” Aaron laughs. 

“Yeah!” 

“Baby cork,” Aaron tuts under his breath. “Check the other room.” 

Damian and Leo briefly disappear, and then return with Leo’s pacifier and Layla. 

“There!” Damian says. “No more crying and the other one isn’t dead.”

“Gold star, babe,” Aaron chuckles. “Dinner’s ready.” 

“What are we having?” 

“Butter noodles,” Aaron says. “I dunno how to feed babies, this seems like it probably won’t poison them.” 

“We just have to cut theirs up, I think,” Damian nods. “Sounds good, though, thanks honey.” 

Aaron helps wrangle the twins into their seats and gives each of them a bowl of the noodles, which have been cut into a safe size for their little mouths. He and Damian grab their own portions and sit across the table from them almost like a dinner date. 

Layla gets hers in her hair within thirty seconds, grabbing fistfuls of the mushy noodles and shoveling them in her face. Leo sits politely and doesn’t touch it. 

“What’s the matter, Leo?” Aaron asks. “You don’t want dinner?” Leo looks down at her bowl. “You wanna try some?” 

Leo hesitantly grabs a handful, squishing it between her fingers a bit and tasting it. She squeaks happily at the taste, but frowns at the texture coating her hand. Aaron quickly grabs a napkin when she holds her hand as far away from her body as she can and whimpers, before they have another tear fest on their hands. 

Leo looks at him in relief as he wipes the offensive pasta off her hand and thanks him in sign language. 

“You’re welcome, Lolo,” Aaron chuckles. “Come here, I’ll feed you. Little princess.” 

Leo seems much happier with this arrangement, sitting next to her uncle and accepting bites of her noodles off one of her baby forks. 

“She just wants to be clean, don’t judge her,” Damian says. “She’s like Caddy.”

“She really is,” Aaron agrees. He looks across the table to Layla, who seems to have gotten more pasta on her face than in her mouth and is wearing her bowl as a hat. “And that one’s Janis.” 

“Great,” Damian sighs. “Layla.” The baby grins impishly at him. “Don’t play cute, little missy. You made a mess.” 

“We probably should’ve fed both of them, to be fair,” Aaron laughs. “Can’t really expect a baby to eat by herself without making a mess. Do you want more, Lala?” 

Layla nods and does her sign for more, so Damian gently removes her hat and goes to get her another portion. 

“As much as I love your accessorizing, try to eat it this time instead of wearing it,” he says as he sets it on her tray. Layla grins again and digs back in. 

“Might be bath time after this,” Aaron hums. 

“Definitely.” 

—-

Layla is so covered in pasta by the end of dinner that a bath is an absolute necessity. Damian carries them up the stairs into Cady and Janis’ en suite and starts drawing them a bath. 

Aaron watches fondly from the counter as his boyfriend expertly keeps both babies in the tub and occupied while he washes their hair and scrubs them clean. It’s oddly domestic, in a nice way. 

He knows then that he’ll definitely be using the ring he brought before they leave.

—-

After bath time, the twins are lotioned and their hair is brushed before they’re zipped into their pajamas for the evening. 

They have a little bit of time before bedtime, so Damian turns on a movie and leaves them to play. Leo refuses to be put down with her twin, however, so she just cuddles with Damian and Aaron while they watch together. 

About fifteen minutes before it’s time for bed, Damian’s phone rings. Upon checking it, he finds it to be an incoming FaceTime call from Janis. Of course. 

“Hey, Jan,” he greets as he picks up. Janis looks very sheepish as she lies next to her wife on their very nice hotel bed. 

“Hi.”

“Couldn’t stay away?” Damian teases. Janis flushes further and nods. 

“They’re my babies, I miss them,” she pouts. 

“What are you guys up to?” Cady asks, leaning closer into her wife so she can see too.

“We’re watching a movie,” Damian replies, turning his camera around for a second to show that they’re watching Tangled. Layla makes an appearance as she toddles her way across the room. “Well, Leo and Aaron and I are. Layla’s exploring.” 

“Aww,” Janis chuckles. “Can we see them?” 

“Sure. Oh, Leo, what’s the matter, honey?” Damian says. Leo has tears in her eyes and gives a precious sniffle as she points to the TV before reaching for a hug. Damian looks to see they’ve reached the scene where Rapunzel is taken from her parents. “Oh, is the movie sad?” Leo nods. “Poor thing. Come here, you wanna say hi to your moms?” 

“Poor baby bee,” Cady coos sadly. “Hi, sweetheart! I miss you!” 

Leo perks up when she sees Janis and Cady on the screen and gives a delighted wave. Her moms both wave back and smile as she starts babbling about her adventures with her uncles. 

Layla comes running over when she hears their voices, crashing into the couch and falling backwards before Aaron picks her up and pops her next to her sister.

“Hi, Lala!” Janis laughs. “How are you, Ladybug?” 

Layla joins in the storytelling, eventually grabbing Damian’s phone from his hands to see better. Her mommy and mama are stuck in the screen, how can she get them out? 

Janis and Cady both laugh as they see her slide off the couch and start toddling around, still investigating the phone and telling them about her evening. Damian suddenly appears in the background with a teary Leo in his arms. “Layla, come back, honey! Leo wants to see your moms too!” 

“Oh, baby girls,” Janis says sadly when she sees the tears in Layla’s eyes as well. “We’ll be back tomorrow, it’s okay! We miss you too.” 

Layla accidentally hits the end call button and her mommies disappear. She looks at the phone in shock before she bursts into tears, toddling back to her uncle to show him the problem. She’s crying so hard she’s barely making sound, breathless with her desperate little sobs. 

“Oh no, did you hang up on them?” Damian asks sadly, pulling her into a hug. “We can call them back, it’s okay! Oh, lord, I hope it’s bedtime soon. Come here.” 

Damian returns to the couch and rests both very upset little ones on his lap. He brings Janis’ contact back up and gives her another call. She answers right away, seeming to know what happened the first time. 

“Oh no, baby loves,” Cady says sadly. Both babies stop crying when they hear her voice, and Damian visibly relaxes a bit. “What happened, sweethearts?” 

“Layla stole you guys and set this one off,” Damian explains, resting a gentle hand on Leo’s head. “And then she hung up on you by accident and got sad.” 

“Aww,” Janis hums sadly. “Poor things. Uncle Damian has you, you’re okay! Mama and I will be back tomorrow!” 

“Mee,” Leo says with a wave. 

“Hi, baby,” Janis chuckles. “Are you having fun with your uncles?” Leo nods. “Good. I miss you.” 

Damian lets the babies keep talking to their mothers for a while, holding the phone firmly in his hands to prevent any more incidents. Gradually, the babies start to slump down in his lap and their eyes grow heavy, and he decides to try ending the call for the night to put them to bed. 

“Give kisses, it’s bedtime for you little monkeys now,” he says gently. Each twin gives his phone a kiss and a wave goodnight. He thinks it’s gone well until he says goodnight himself and hangs up. Both of them immediately burst into tears yet again, reaching desperately for his phone. “Oh, this was a mistake.” 

—————

“See? They’re fine,” Cady says gently, lightly trailing her fingernails up and down Janis’ arm.  “They miss us too, but they’re safe. Damian and Aaron even gave them a bath. They haven’t been out of their sight since we left.” 

Janis takes a deep breath and nods, before rolling onto her side to face her wife and leaning in close for a kiss. Cady returns it, and hums into surprise when Janis sinks into it and tangles a hand in her hair. 

“We,” Janis murmurs in between kisses. “Have this whole room. This whole night. To ourselves. Don’t suppose you packed anything fun in that bag?”

“You know I did,” Cady gasps, grabbing her wife and pulling her back down.

“Tits.”

“I have those too.”

—————

Later that night, Damian is woken by a tearful, “Dedededede?” 

He opens his eyes expecting to see Leo calling for him, but is surprised to see Layla standing in her crib, cast in shadow and reaching out to him. 

“What happened, Layla?” he whispers, carefully climbing out of bed and heading over to see what the problem is. She has her pacifier and stuffed animal, and her favorite blankie. But she still whimpers and cuddles into his shoulder when he picks her up. “Did you have a bad dream?” 

Layla sniffles and wraps her little arms around him, clinging to him for comfort. Damian holds her in return and gently pats her back. 

“Come here, it’s okay. You can sleep with me and Uncle Aaron,” he offers. Layla whimpers again when he bends over to grab her things, thinking she’s about to be put back in her crib, but he gently hushes her once and she goes quiet. After a quick check to make sure Leo is still asleep, he carries his niece over to the bed and crawls in. 

Aaron rolls over in his sleep and tries to cuddle into him. He huffs in confusion when something blocks his way and pops an eye open. 

“That’s not ours,” he mumbles. “Why is she in our bed?” 

“She had a bad dream,” Damian defends, holding Layla closer. “She needs comfort.” 

“She can’t talk, how do you know she had a bad dream?” Aaron chuckles. 

“I just know,” Damian huffs. “Look at her, I couldn’t just leave her in there.” 

Layla, conveniently, rolls over, allowing Aaron to see her adorable little face as she clings to her stuffed elephant. 

“Aww,” Aaron whispers. “She looks so upset.” 

“See?” 

“Fine, she can stay,” Aaron chuckles. “Goodnight, Layla.” 

Layla waves, as close as she’s willing to get to a goodnight in her state. Aaron gently taps her elephant to get her attention. 

“Hey,” he whispers. Layla looks at him with an absolutely precious pout. “You’re safe, little one. Your moms will be back tomorrow, and Uncle Damian and I will protect you until then. We’ll keep all the bad dreams away, okay?” 

Layla sniffs and looks at him suspiciously. Aaron tucks her in a little tighter with her blankie and turns on the flashlight on his phone. Layla looks at the ceiling as he points upwards, rolling onto her back. Aaron props himself up on an elbow and holds his other hand over the light. 

“Look, it’s a bunny!” he says, making the shadow puppet bunny bounce around. “Or… maybe a doggy? Woof, woof!” 

Layla giggles quietly as the shadow dog barks. Aaron makes up a little story for her, and drags Damian into it when he needs more characters. Layla gradually drifts off to dreamland, her little head filled with her favorite animals instead of scary dreams. Aaron turns his light back off and rests his phone on his nightstand. 

“Do you have any idea how bad I want a baby with you now?” Damian whispers. “That was sickeningly adorable.” 

“You want kids?” Aaron replies in the same tone, rolling over carefully so he doesn’t wake the little one snoozing between them. 

“Yeah,” Damian replies. “At least one. Do you?” 

“Yeah. Sometime down the line, anyway.” Aaron says. “Did you know I’m adopted?” 

“No,” Damian says in slight shock. Aaron nods. 

“My birth mom was a teenager when she had me, and my bio dad wasn’t in the picture by the time I was born. She wanted me to have a better life, and stuff. That she… couldn’t provide. I was in the foster system until I was two,” he says. 

“Were your other siblings adopted too?” 

“Some of them,” Aaron nods. Damian was rather shocked to learn that Aaron is the youngest of seven children, and made several jokes about him being part of the Von Trapp family. “Ava, Owen, Alana, and I.” 

“Wow,” Damian says. “I had no idea.” 

“I didn’t think to tell you. They’re just… my family, you know? I don’t remember anything different,” Aaron whispers. “But I’ve always wanted to… pass it on, I guess. Adopt another kid. I don’t remember most of it, but I saw what the foster system did to my siblings. If I can stop that for one other kid, or at least help, then it’s worth it to me.” 

“I’ve always wanted to adopt too,” Damian says. “And thanks for telling me, now.” Aaron nods. 

“We’ll talk about this more later?” he whispers. “It’s two in the morning.” 

Damian nods with a grin. “Definitely.”

“Goodnight, honey,” Aaron whispers, carefully leaning across Layla to kiss his boyfriend. 

“Goodnight, babe,” Damian replies, kissing him back before he cuddles into the baby and drifts off to sleep. 

—————-

Janis and Cady get home around lunch time the next day, and follow the sounds of chaos to their daughters. 

Damian is evidently wrapping up bath time after some sort of fun activity. Leo is standing off to the side wrapped in her ducky towel while he finishes washing Layla’s hair. 

Janis sees this as a perfect opportunity to scare the wits out of her best friend. 

She starts tiptoeing into the room, preparing to attack, but she’s thwarted by a tiny gasp and a sweet little, “Hi Mommy!” 

Damian, Cady, and Janis all scream in delight and look at Leo, who’s peeking at Janis from under her duck hood. Leo jumps, startled by the sudden noise, and bursts into tears. 

“Oh no, baby girl,” Janis chuckles sadly. Leo toddles her way over for some comfort and cries into her shoulder. Janis picks her up and bounces her a little bit. “You just talked! I’m sorry we scared you, come here.” 

“Hi, my little ducky,” Cady murmurs, gently stroking the tears from Leo’s cheeks and kissing her forehead. “I missed you so much! And you’re talking so well, my big girl!” 

“Mama,” Leo sniffles, reaching a small hand out for Cady. 

“Oh, come here, sweetheart,” Cady says, smiling widely at her baby actually calling her Mama for the very first time. “Let’s go get you dressed, hm?” 

Janis kisses Leo’s cheek as Cady heads to their room. Layla is now wrapped in her froggy towel and comes running over to her. “Hi, Lala! I missed you soooo much! Did you have fun with Uncle Damian and Uncle Aaron?” 

Layla nods, and giggles as her mommy kisses her cheek before carrying her off to get dressed. Leo waves at her again as Cady pulls her shirt over her little head. 

“Hi, sweet girl,” Janis chuckles, waving back. Leo smiles and slides down to go find Damian again. “Well, that lasted long.” 

Damian comes back a few moments later with Leo. He sits down on the bed and holds his niece in his lap. “Okay, you can talk now. Say ‘uncle’.”

“Unca,” Leo parrots. Damian nods. 

“Close enough. Now say, ‘Damian’.”

“Dedede,” Leo replies. 

“Man,” Damian sighs. “How about Uncle D? Say uncle again.”

“Unca ‘gain,” Leo tries. Damian laughs and kisses her forehead. 

“Good job. Now say ‘D’.”

“Dee!” Leo crows happily. 

“Uncle D,” Damian coaches. 

“Unca Dee,” the baby echoes. Damian beams and tosses her in the air. 

“Yeah, that works. Okay, your mommies missed you, go say hi. We’ll play some more in a little bit.” 

Leo heads back to her family and wraps herself around Cady’s leg, sitting on her foot. 

“Hi, baby,” Cady chuckles. “Whatcha doing?” 

“Mama,” Leo explains. Cady nods slightly.

“Do you want me to hold you?” Leo shakes her head and cuddles into Cady’s shin. “No? Just gonna sit on my foot?”

Leo nods.

“Okay,” Cady giggles. “Hold on tight.” 

Leo laughs happily as Cady walks around, clinging to her mama’s leg and enjoying the ride. Cady laughs too, catching her other baby as she’s trying to crawl away from Janis as fast as she can in an attempt to escape getting dressed. 

Layla fusses as she’s captured and forced into some clothes, but she giggles as Janis tickles her belly and sets her down. 

“Man, what?” Cady says as Layla plops down on her other foot and holds on. 

“Cute boots,” Janis chuckles. 

“Thanks,” Cady grins back, striking a pose. “Made them myself.” Janis laughs and tries to pry one off her wife’s leg. They both absolutely refuse to let go. “Alright, come on.”

The babies both laugh as Cady attempts to walk downstairs, having to take swinging steps since she can’t really lift her feet. The stairs are a challenge, and she stops frequently to ensure they’re holding on tightly so they don’t fall off.

Cady looks down at her new shoes when they hit the bottom of the staircase. “You girls wanna go down to the beach?” They both nod. “Okay. Jay, can you grab the sunscreen?” 

“Yeah,” Janis says, grabbing it out of their beach bag and managing to pry a baby off of her wife. Layla fusses as she gets her sunscreen lotion put on, but she calms down when she gets to latch back to Cady’s leg and Leo is pried off. 

Once both babies and themselves are thoroughly protected from the sun, Janis grabs a blanket and her phone and opens the door for her wife. 

Very, very slowly, Cady shuffles her way down to the beach, holding hands with her wife and giving the occasional smile down at her daughters. Eventually, they make it, and Janis lies the blanket down on the sand. She sits on top of it, and Cady carefully eases herself down next to her. The babies finally release her legs and sit down on the blanket with them. 

“Here we go,” Cady says. “Gimme loves, bugs, I missed you so much!” 

Her daughters both grin and crawl over to give her cuddles. Cady smiles back and kisses all over their faces. 

“You know who I love most in the whole wide world?” Cady whispers, giving them even more kisses. “You,” she says, kissing Layla’s cheek. “And you,” she says, kissing Leo’s cheek. “And you.” She says, kissing Janis soundly. 

“I love you too,” Janis whispers against her wife’s lips. “And these two.” 

“You,” Leo says softly.

“What, Bee?” Janis says with a smile. 

“You,” Leo repeats. 

“What about me?” 

Leo huffs in frustration, trying to figure out how to explain what she doesn’t have the words for yet. She settles for cuddling closer into Cady with a sigh. 

“You love us too?” Cady asks quietly. 

Leo nods eagerly. “Luff you.” 

Janis blinks back tears, and hears a sniffle from her wife as she wraps herself around her family. 

“We love you so much,” Janis whispers. “So, so much.” 

They stay like that for the rest of the day. Damian drops off dinner for them, but nobody else intrudes on their day. Janis and Cady cuddle on their blanket while their daughters run to get some energy out, and they walk up and down the shore of the lake as the sun sets over it, hand in hand with the babies toddling between them. 

It’s a moment Cady and Janis will both remember forever.

—————

Three days later is the Fourth of July. Aaron grilled everyone cheeseburgers for lunch, and they spend the afternoon playing games on the beach and building sand sculptures along the shore. 

The fireworks show is just after sunset over the water, so everyone heads to change into more patriotic (and dry) clothing before they get going. 

“Look at my beautiful girls,” Janis says when Cady comes downstairs with the twins. Once they hit the bottom, she sets them down to go get Janis. “These outfits turned out perfect!” 

Leo grins happily as she makes it to her mommy and gets picked up. Janis laughs at her hairdo, one little ponytail on top of her head that turned out, ironically, like a little firework. Layla’s hair matches, but her ponytail has a blue bow on it while Leo’s is red. 

The bows came with their outfits, red and white striped onesies paired with blue shorts that Janis had insisted they buy because of, “The stupid little butt ruffles Caddy look!” but the little ones do look adorable. In spite of the butt ruffles. 

“Are you ready to go? We’re gonna go back to the beach to watch the fireworks,” Janis asks her babies as she holds them both. They both nod and smile as she kisses their cheeks. 

Cady kisses her wife and the top of each little head and heads upstairs to get herself ready, so Janis opens the back door and starts the short walk down to their friends. 

Aaron managed to get a fire going with exceptionally minimal help from Damian and the Plastics. Leo shrieks happily when she sees the bag of marshmallows they have to make s’mores with and wiggles to be put down so she can dig in. Layla, for once, is the one content to hang out on her mommy’s lap as Janis sits down in one of the empty seats. 

Cady comes down and finds the adorable scene of her wife and one of her daughters cuddling by the fire, while Regina reaches the other one how to make a s’more. Leo looks very concerned as her precious marshmallow is impaled on a stick and held over a fire. 

“Mama!” she squeaks happily when she notices Cady, making Cady’s heart melt again. She’s still not over her child actually being able to speak. 

“Hi, Lishy,” Cady says. “What are you doing?” 

Leo doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing, either. She simply points to the marshmallow she’s helping her auntie cook with a thoughtful look on her face. 

“I think it’s ready,” Regina says, pulling it back to examine it and finding it to be perfectly golden brown. “Yep.”

Leo watches as her marshmallow is squished between some yummy graham crackers and chocolate, and then her s’more is held in front of her mouth for her to taste. Hesitantly, she leans in and chomps down. 

She has to chew carefully, since she only has a grand total of five teeth, but her eyes widen and she looks as if she’s just tasted ambrosia. Everyone laughs as she grabs the rest of the s’more in her little hands and scrambles to take another bite. 

“Oh, we’re gonna have to watch you around sugar when you get older, aren’t we?” Cady giggles, leaning in to kiss a sticky cheek. “One of those five must be a sweet tooth.” 

Leo doesn’t answer, too occupied with her new favorite food to care about anything else. Regina just lets her have it and dig in, trying to pretend she doesn’t care about the sticky crumbs landing on her lap. 

Everyone gets temporarily distracted, until they hear a squeaky, “Mo’e? Mo’e?” and look back at Leo.

“You are that whole s’more?” Regina asks in shock, looking at the baby’s sticky little face. She checks the ground to make sure she didn’t drop it. 

“Mo’e?” Leo asks again, doing her sign too. 

“How big is your stomach?! That thing was, like, half your size!” 

“P’ease?” Leo begs, getting increasingly desperate. 

“Let’s cook you a hot dog, if you’re still hungry after some of that you can have more s’mores,” Cady says. Leo whines. “I know, I’m so mean. Come here.” 

“Mama,” Leo pleads. “Mo’e.” 

“You need real food first, baby,” Cady says lowly. Leo whines again and gives an unhappy wiggle. “Shh, I know.” 

“You want me to handle it?” Janis asks as Leo releases a very loud shriek for her size. Cady tries to keep a hold of the little tantrum tornado she has, to no avail. 

“You want to?”

“Does anyone?” Janis chuckles. “Come on, Bee.” 

Cady takes Layla as Janis takes Leo a bit further down the beach to handle the tantrum. “Hi, Bug.” 

“Lololo?” Layla asks in concern, looking at her mommy carrying her sister away. 

“She’s okay, baby love,” Cady says. “She’s just sad.” 

“Look at this, Layla,” Damian says, offering her a distraction in the form of a sparkler. “Hold it down here. Mama will help you.”

Cady carefully rests her hands on top of her baby’s to help her hold the sparkler, and Damian lights it for her. Layla looks at it in awe and shrieks excitedly. 

“Look at that, Ladybug, what is it?” Cady hums. She waves it around, bringing Layla’s arms with her. “What do you think?” 

Layla shrieks again, making everyone laugh. She continues staring at it until it hits the end and fizzles out. 

“Great, so I have a sugar fiend and a pyro,” Cady sighs. “You both really are like your mommy.”

“Just wait for the real fireworks,” Gretchen laughs. “Pyro’s heaven.” 

“Maybe I’ll get lucky,” Cady hums. “And you two will have a little bit more impulse control.” 

“Hopefully,” Damian hums under his breath. They all watch the fire for a while, before he looks up again and says, “Speak of the devil.”

Janis returns with a calmed baby, remarkably quick for their daughters’ tantrum standards. 

“Somebody,” she begins. “Learned a new word.”

“Uh oh,” Cady says. 

“A good word,” Janis huffs. “Come on.” 

Leo sheepishly heads to her mama when Janis sets her down. “Mama?”

“Yes, Leo?” Cady murmurs. 

“Sowwy,” Leo says quietly. “Sowwy, Mama.” 

Cady grins at Janis and pulls Leo onto her lap next to Layla. “I forgive you, baby. Thank you for apologizing. Let’s get you your hot dog.” 

Leo sniffles and settles in and watches as Cady starts cooking a hot dog for her and her sister to share. 

—-

There’s still a bit of time between dinner (and part of another s’more, somehow, in Leo’s case) and the fireworks show, so Cady sets the babies down to run and get their sugar high off. 

“Oh shoot, I left their headphones upstairs,” she says. 

“I got ‘em,” Janis says immediately. 

“Love, no, you-“

“Baby, it’s not a long walk back. Two minutes,” Janis says. “Not a problem.” 

“I’ll miss you,” Cady says. Janis laughs and bends to kiss her. 

“I’ll miss you too. I’ll be right back.” 

Cady watches as her little ones happily run up and down the beach, feeling the sand between their tiny toes as they work out how to use those chubby little legs. 

“Haha, hi!” she cheers when Leo crashes into her legs. “You’re so fast!” 

“Hi!” Leo replies happily. ‘Hi’ has rapidly become Leo’s favorite word. Someone always says it back.

“Hi!” Cady echoes. “Are you having fun?” 

“Fun!” Leo confirms. Cady laughs. 

“Good,” she hums. “Are you excited for the fireworks?” 

Leo tries to copy her again, but her newly speaking mouth can’t quite handle that many tricky syllables. So she just nods. 

“Good, they’ll start soon,” Cady chuckles. “Okay, go play, I’m right here.” 

Leo happily speeds off again, heading back to her sister to play something akin to tag. Cady giggles quietly as she hears Leo babbling, “Hi! Hi! Hi!” on her way back. 

Janis returns just before the fireworks start, sitting down next to her wife and watching their little ones toddle around in circles. “At least they’re entertained.” 

“Yeah,” Cady hums happily. The babies notice Janis is back and come running, but they’re interrupted by a flash of blue and a deafening boom over their heads. 

Both babies freeze and look up at the sky, watching to see if it happens again. A red one goes off this time, making Leo scream in fright and run back to her mothers. Layla watches it interestedly until the last sparkle fades and she continues her journey. 

She apparently was expecting that to be the end of it, because she jumps when another one goes off and yells, “Fuck!” 

Janis tenses, her eyes going wide as she looks at her wife. Cady has a terrified baby in her arms and her lip between her teeth in an attempt to keep from laughing. 

“This is your fault,” she giggles, looking to her wife. “Go get her, she’s scared.” 

Janis nods, cheeks still a truly spectacular shade of scarlet, and goes to pick up her baby. “Ladybug, good talking, but don’t say that word.” 

“Fuck?” Layla asks. 

“Don’t say that,” Janis says. She feels bad scolding her baby for saying her first word, but… “That’s a grownup word.”

“Fuck!” Layla yells. 

“Hey!” Janis replies. “Oh, man, you need a new word. Um… how about Mama? Let’s go get Mama.” 

“Mama,” Layla says innocently, pointing to Cady. “Mama.” 

“Yeah, that’s Mama,” Janis sighs. “There she is.”

“Hi, baby love,” Cady laughs, gently shifting a still teary Leo over and taking her other daughter. “Are you talking too?” 

Layla nods. “Mama.” 

“Yeah, that’s me,” Cady grins softly, kissing Layla’s little button nose. “Come here, let’s try these.” 

Cady takes the headphones Janis brought down with her and sizes them as small as they go before popping them on the twins. Leo pokes her face out from Cady’s shoulder when the scary loud noises stop. Layla giggles and holds on to the still too big headphones so they don’t fall off. 

Janis lays their blanket out over the sand, and smiles as her wife shifts to lay her head in her lap. Cady cradles a baby in each arm and smiles back at her wife. 

Janis spends more time looking at her family than the fireworks, watching the bright colors reflected in her babies’ eyes as they watch in awe and reminiscing about how far they’ve come in just a year. 

Last Fourth of July, the twins had only been out of the NICU for two weeks, and Cady was still deeply in the throes of postpartum depression. 

The fireworks had kept their newborns awake, and Cady had nearly snapped under the pressure. Janis barely managed to hold her together and convince her to take care of herself before they had a sleepover with the babies in their basement so the fireworks were muffled and everyone could finally rest. 

But now, a year later and with the help of counseling, Cady seems happier than ever, expertly comforting a frightened Leo and pointing to the fireworks as they go off and explaining the science behind all the different colors. 

Janis brushes the wispy hairs away from Cady’s forehead with a fond smile. Layla points to the sky with a, “Woooow!” and makes both of her moms laugh. 

“I know, look at that!” Cady says, matching their daughters’ excitement. She notices Janis staring at her then. “What?” 

“Nothing,” Janis murmurs. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Cady grins. “But you’re gonna miss them.” 

“Fine by me,” Janis chuckles. “I got three little firecrackers of my own.” 

“You’re such a dork,” Cady giggles. 

Janis does look up in time for the finale, but still knows it has nothing on the faces of her family. She has all the excitement and beauty she could ever want right in her lap. 

It’s far past the twins’ bedtime by the time the fireworks display ends, so Cady gently leaves them to snooze on the blanket under the watchful eyes of the Plastics while she takes a walk on the shore with her wife. 

Janis is confused when she suddenly drags her backwards a bit, leaps onto her back so she can’t move, and claps a hand over her mouth. 

“Caddy-mmph!” 

“Shh, don’t ruin it,” Cady says. Janis makes a confused sound against her hand. Cady points a bit further ahead, and Janis is suddenly grateful for the hand over her mouth. 

Aaron is on one knee, proposing to her best friend, illuminated by the moonlight and a pathetic little sparkler Damian has. They can’t make out the words being shared, which they don’t mind. It’s a private moment. 

What they can hear is Damian screaming,  “Yes!” loud enough to be heard on the other side of the lake and Aaron’s laughter as Damian takes the ring out of the box himself and shoves it onto his own finger. 

“Lovey, are you crying?” Cady giggles quietly. 

“No,” Janis sniffles. “I have sand in my eye,” 

“Uhhuh,” Cady hums. 

“…My best friend is engaged!” Janis sobs suddenly. 

“That’s what I thought,” Cady says. “Shh, love, they’ll hear us. Don’t ruin the moment for him. Let’s go get the smalls to bed, let him tell you on his own.” 

“Okay,” Janis snuffles. “Aaron better have picked a good ring.”

“I’m sure he did,” Cady comforts. “They treat each other well, he knows what he’s doing. Now come on.”

Janis continues sniveling as she carefully scoops up Leo, having to try to contain herself so she doesn’t wake her daughter. Cady grabs Layla and starts heading back inside. The Plastics gather everyone’s things and extinguish the fire before they follow them. 

Janis ever so carefully gets the twins changed into their pajamas and undoes their ponytails before she rests them in their cribs and bends to kiss them goodnight. 

“Jan!” Damian says, somehow whispering and shouting at the same time as he slams the door open. “Sorry! But. Jan!” 

“What?” Janis whispers, pretending like she doesn’t already know. Damian motions for her and Cady to follow him out to the hallway. They both do with matching, knowing, grins. 

“Aaron proposed!” Damian squeals as soon as the door clicks shut behind them, brandishing a hand to show off his ring. His friends both tackle him in a hug, knocking him into the far wall and then to the ground. “Janjan, why are you crying?”

“I just have a lot of feelings,” Janis snuffles into his shoulder. “Shut up.” 

“Congratulations, Dame,” Cady says. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks, Cads,” Damian grins. Cady kisses them both on the cheek. 

“I’ll give you guys some time to talk,” she whispers. “Come to bed when you’re ready, my love.”

Janis nods and continues clinging to her best friend. They’re a trio, they have been since high school and always will be. But she and Damian will always have a special bond, and Cady has never tried or even wanted to intrude on that. 

“I love you,” Janis sobs. 

“I love you too, Jan,” Damian murmurs. 

“Thank you.”

“For what?” 

“Everything,” Janis whispers. “Everything you’ve ever done for me. I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t have the family I do without you. I wouldn’t… be here, without you. Thank you. I’m so happy for you. You deserve Aaron.” 

“Thanks, Jan,” Damian sniffles. They’re quiet for a moment, listening to the ticking of the clock on the wall and the occasional sniffle the other lets out. “You don’t have to be scared.” 

“I’m not!” Janis says, immediately defensive. Damian chuckles beneath her, and she crumbles. “How’d you know?”

“I know you,” Damian whispers. “It’s just like you and Caddy. No matter who comes into my life. Whatever family I have someday. I love them, but my heart always has room for you too.” 

“Platonic soulmates,” Janis whispers back. Damian nods against her shoulder. “Does this mean no more sleepovers?” 

“I mean, maybe not tonight,” Damian laughs. 

“Tomorrow?” 

“Sure, Jan.” 

Janis gives herself a reasonable amount of time to calm down before she pulls back and wipes her eyes. Damian grins at her and ruffles her already messy hair. 

“I love you,” he says. 

“I love you too. Go get your fiancé.” 

“Go get your girls,” Damian grins, standing and reaching a hand to help Janis. “Goodnight, Jan.”

“‘Night, Dame,” Janis grins, heading into her room and shutting the door behind her. 

Janis is deep in thought as she checks on her daughters and crawls into bed next to her wife. Her definition of family has changed as she’s grown up.

But now she knows she has two. The one in this room, and the one in the other rooms. Biological and found. 

And as she drifts off to sleep in her wife’s embrace, she knows. 

Both her families are perfect for her. 

And they always will be.

————

tadaaaa hope you enjoyed 

kinda got away from me but anyhoo

happy pride month and have a great day my muppets!

lots of love,

ezzy

#cadnis #space safari #paint by numbers #cady heron x janis sarkisian #cady x janis #damiaaron #damian hubbard x aaron samuels #damian x aaron #poly plastics #polystics #the plastics #regina george x gretchen wieners x karen smith #regina x gretchen x karen #cady heron #janis sarkisian #damian hubbard #aaron samuels #regina george #gretchen wieners #karen smith #mean girls #mean girls the musical #mean girls broadway #mean girls musical #mean girls on broadway

[caspian-skye]

The Apoptosis Project: Character Voices

Hey squad, I did one of these way back in the Twilight Crusade days, but never got around to it for The Apoptosis Project. So, yeah. Here ya go:

Caspian - Kyle McCarley (9S)

NieR:Automata Best setting customizaton ever! :D

Alternatively, as weird as it may sound, Elijah Wood. His voice for Wirt has the same “not exactly nasally but almost there” sound. 

Over The Garden Wall - wirt being my introversion incarnate

Lazula - Ashly Burch (Aloy)

Horizon Zero Dawn - Helis captures Aloy - All Dialogue Choices - The Terror of the Sun

As a fun bonus, the voice of Helis (the dude she’s talking to) is the closest to Condor’s voice I’ve heard thus far. So this is about what chapter 81 sounded like.

Snow - Ryan Bartley (Rei Ayanami)

https://youtu.be/P-an-6-dbac?t=118

Makes sense since she’s heavily Rei-inspired

Moka: Cherami Leigh (Makoto Niijima)

Makoto Niijima (Priestess) Social Events 1-8 | Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

Noxis - Gavin Drea (V/Male Protagonist)

Cyberpunk 2077 Act 1 Ending

And, since it’s Noxis, I think need to include an example of him shouting. I don’t blame Cas for being intimidated. Cyberpunk 2077 Act 1 Ending

Lilly: Allegra Clark (Dorothea)

https://youtu.be/VHohe_zkZ-A?t=175

Dorothea, in this clip. The girl with the hat.

Ichigo: Zeno Robinson (Green coat kid? IDK lol)

https://youtu.be/9R_pvj-uIEM?t=172

The kid in the green coat in this video. I’ve never seen this show and honestly I’m not even sure what it is. But the actor was just revealed for a game I’m hyped for, and I was looking up his other roles when I found this.

Rowan: Max Mittleman (Ryuji Sakamoto)

Ryuji Dub Highlights || Persona 5: The Animation

Makes sense, because they’re honestly pretty similar as characters.

Laurel: Marisha Ray (Beauregard Lionett)

Beau and the Punk Kid | Travis is Broken | Critical Role C2E88 Highlight

I’ve always imagined Laurel having the same surfer-esque accent, Marisha’s Beau voice tracks just about perfectly

#rwby oc #rwby #rwby fanfiction

[crystallineirises]

Succession 4.3: Connor’s Wedding Liveblog

I’ve never done one of these before AYE

I turned my phone OFF for this. Not silent, OFF

HERE WE GO

“dramatic music playing” no shit you know what show this is

KERRY LOOKS FLY

yeah he likes you *eyebrow raise*

Those letters are pretty cool 

NO THE GERRI SLANDER OH SHIT

SO WILL YOU GIVE HER THE HEADS UP

NICER 

“you were close” WELP is that what the kids are calling it

GIVE. HER THE WORD. TODAY.

*lively music*

Shiv in black is a mood

Tom is Joan Rivers this season i’m living

GREGGING

GREGLETS

GREGGIES

Willaaaaaaa a princess hoe is life ugh love her

I can’t believe the Togan girlies are winning i’m so thrilled for them

OH SHIT CYD TOO

Karolina watch your ass 

DAMN Karolina said fuck my work wife

THEME SONG

my comment about Gerri blowing these fools away with hat!pistol really would be justified 

DAMN I’m glad I switched to the Ted Lasso side as far as romantic ships for this season cause we ain’t winning over here

GOLF CART RICH BITCH

Omg is that Laurie

babygurl is STRESSED

TOM LOOKIN SINISTER

MARTYN

GERRI KNOWS

SHE CANT GO TO EUROPE RUDE

WHY

DICPICGATE

SHE IS FUMING

I’M GOOD

The I’M GOOD heard around the WORLD

OH NO THE TEARS 

OOOOOOH this was bruuuutaaaallll

This poor wedding planner lol that’s gonna be me in two weeks

BEING CUNTY

ARE YOU BEING A CUNT

Kendall looking sharp AF go bitch go

Sup Julie you’re an icon too 

Every assistant level person on this show is an icon

Gerri’s like let me get wasted it’s about go down go DOWN 

Roman why’s your hair so fucked lol i know we’ve talked about it but like wow

What if that was Gerri texting him pictures of her pussy lol

This bitch ain’t sick stop lol

Wait

Wut

OH 

OH FUCK

guess it’s not 9/11 part 2 guess it’s just an old man being an old man lol

Oh it’s Grey’s Anatomy all of a sudden

ON THE GROUND

ON THE FLOOR

TONIGHT WE GON GET IT ON THE FLOOR

his poor sad voice BABYGIRL

YOU DID A GOOD JOB

my heart feels all PANICKED

wow no one thought to start looking for Shiv Jess would never let this happen

SHIVY HONEY

this camera work is beautiful 

I CAN’T HAVE THAT

Sarah Snook’s shaking hands just won her an Emmy

Not to be rude but does this mean Gerri is saved

lovely good plane people

JESS my other baby girl

KEN GO INSIDE WE DON’T LIKE KEN BY WATER

OH wow pilots saying no 

“he’s flying the plane, son” LOL

we were really thinking we’d have to wait around all season for this NO BITCH THIS iS LIVE

Damn

*pours one out*

I just literally poured seltzer water on my carpet

Damn Kerry I sure hope you got that baby though 

GASP

CONNOR

the framing of this shot is gorgeous 

HENEVEREVENLIKEDMEEEEEEEEEEEE

i never got the CHANCE to make him proud of ME

Weddings are just really not good for these people

i wonder how fuckin rich they just got dude lol

oh Roman is the babiest babygirl bad day for Roman all around

And Gerri can’t even comfort him or NOTHIN 

SQUAD

Karolina is that bitch and i’m so about it put her high up in the Kerry/Jess administration

okay $100 bucks says Kerry murdered him

KAROLINA SAID GET OUT LEAVE RIGHT NOW 

Gerri > POTUS as it should be 

DELETE THE LOGISTICS

oh TOM I LOST MY PROTECTOR Togan was real AF for these three episodes

GASP Gerri 

Oh Karolina tryna make up now I don’t know about that 

“are you just with me for money” you...but...like...

Reagan’s with tweaks lol

How do they know already wow did Greg fuck that up 

THAT THE DANCE YOU LIKE SHIV STAY SWINGING

ooook oooooh they’re alone in a room 

Just kidding Roman’s outside now 

CONTROLLL TO GET WHAT I WANT 

GANG IS BACK 

OH HE WANTED HER TO HOLD HIM SO BADLY DAMN us Roman/Gerri babies is suffering 

These strings are going crazy hell yeah scoring

lol everyone with their handshakes

PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS LOGANS DONT NEED MORE PRESS

WE INTEND TO BE THERE BAM

Roman said yeaaaah i know it’s stupid, i just gotta SEEEE it for MYSELFFF

#succession #succession hbo #hbo succession #succesion spoilers #succession season 4

[fortnite-auroxa]

Drew this awhile ago xD I realized for a long time Chance wears her hat backwards and I thought *gasp* she and Aura would totally be friends! xD **Aura would admire her hat for a bit

#she's going to make a hat squad LOL #i dont know if Tox would be low key jealous or just chill with it xD #ithinkshewouldbealilupsetifyouaskme xD #aura #chance #toxin #my skartch

[miekasa]

slow hands

+ pairing: levi ackerman x reader

+ genre and warnings: fluff, some angst? but hardly, levi is the sweetest, please do not mistake his quiet affections for apathy or lovelessness

+ word count: 3k

+ summary: based off of a request about physical affection and acts of service being levi’s love languages—which i agree! i’m so happy you asking about that, i could write essays about how physical touch is important to levi, but instead, i will leave you with this for now lol

i. in crowded spaces (so you don’t get lost, or so he claims)

Levi isn’t particularly fond of the way you like to go shopping in the inner walls. He is, however, fond of you; so he forgoes the prissy upper-class men and overall stingy aura of Wall Sina’s inhabitants just so you can get your favorite kind of bread and fruit.

Today, it seems like everyone and their mother wanted to visit the outdoor markets, despite the scheming merchants and obviously overpriced merchandise. From the crowd to the noise level, none of it is really up Levi’s alley; but he has to admit, watching people fail to successful haggle the price of eggs is immensely amusing to him.

What isn’t amusing is the way you keep stopping in the middle of the square, distracted by anything remotely shiny or with a pleasant smell you come across. Levi stops in his tracks, sensing a lack of your presence behind him; he turns around, and sure enough, you’re standing a few meters away, squinting at the price written above the basket of apples in front of you.

He sighs, trudging back to you, and watching from a step away as you scan over the fruit scrutinizingly. The merchant behind the stand does his best at selling you his product, boasting about how the fruit is fresh and hand-picked, and some other bullshit.

“These look good,” you muse to yourself, picking up a single, red apple in your palm for closer observation, “I could make a pie for the kids later.”

“Ah, pretty and she cooks, what a woman,” the bearded merchant smiles, adjusting his hat as he looks at you.

He only seems to notice Levi’s presence when he pushes forward just a little bit, looking at the apples, bored, then to the man, who speaks to him next, “Can I interest you in a basket, too, sir?”

Levi doesn’t respond with anything but a slight shake of his head, before looking back to you. You’re standing upright now, having placed your sample apple back with the rest, unfazed by Levi standing next to you; like you were completely unaware you’d left him in the first place.

He holds back a scoff. You can be so unaware of your surroundings at times, he honestly thinks it’s a miracle that you make it back from your missions alive. You’re also seemingly unaware of just how many inner wall pigs flirt with you, as you look completely oblivious to the advances of the merchant, who offers you two baskets for the price of one—the only caveat being that you allow him to take you on a date later that evening.

Levi lolls his head to the side, tired eyes gazing at the old man who tries to cut himself a bargain. He knows you’re prepared to give an overly polite and nonchalant response to wave the man off, but Levi doesn’t have time for your pleasantries today. 

Quietly, he reaches for your free hand, lacing your fingers together firmly before pulling you away from the merchant and the stand.

“Levi!” you call for him, borderline whining, “I wasn’t actually going to agree to a date with him, but the apples—”

“There’s a stand a few streets over that Hange claims is better than anything she’s ever eaten,” Levi grumbles, questioning under his breath about where the hell the piece of shit men in the interior get their audacity from, “And you don’t need two baskets. One is enough.”

Levi doesn’t turn your way, so he misses the fond look in your eyes and the small curve to your lips. He does, however, feel the way you wrap your other arm around his, leaning into him gently as to not disturb your stride as you keep walking.

“But I want to have enough to make a pie for the kids, later,” you tell him, slowly rubbing your thumb against the fabric of his blazer.

Levi scoffs audibly this time. “You don’t have to make shit for them.”

“I don’t have to do shit for anyone,” you smile, “But they’re just kids, Levi. Besides, I know you like pie, too, you big baby.”

Levi doesn’t say anything at that, only choosing to flash you an unamused scowl, before pulling you down a smaller, less crowded street.

“Let’s just get the fucking apples and go home,” he says, decidedly, passing by a group of MPs sharing a flask, “I don’t know how much longer I can stay in the interior without snapping some pig’s head off.”

ii. during long meetings

Levi thinks that if Erwin weren’t Commander, he could probably make a living as a pastor with the way he preaches for hours on end.

It’s going on hour two of this long, drawn-out strategy meeting, and Levi knows that he’s not the only one about to lose his fucking marbles. Albeit, he’s much more composed than some other people around the table; he still wants to retire to his office for the evening. Even the mountain of paperwork waiting for him would be more entertaining than this.

Levi listens, admittedly a little more carefully, when you speak up, offering information about the layouts of a small town destroyed on your last expedition, where you’d lost a member of your own squad. Erwin nods, looking back down at his map to take your words into consideration.

Levi looks to his right where you’re seated, notices the guilt flash in your eyes as you think about your last failed expedition. It wasn’t your fault, and you know that; but he knows, more than anyone, how difficult it can be to lose one of your own soldiers.

Quietly, he lifts his teacup with his right hand, and places it down in front of you. He says nothing beyond an almost unnoticeable nod towards the cup once it’s within your reach, before looking back towards Erwin and Armin.

If anyone else seemed to notice his gesture, they don’t make it known. Except for Hange, of course, who flashes him a knowing grin before resuming her conversation.

Levi knows you’ve finished the tea when he feels your hand resting lightly atop his knee, tapping your index and middle fingers against his pants—a silent thank you. In the middle of his own conversation, he doesn’t turn to you or say much other than slipping his right hand on top of yours, loosely curling his fingers between the slits of yours.

His hand stays there for the rest of the meeting, his thumb rubbing slow, unidentifiable patterns into the skin on the back of your hand; an empty teacup, and a mutual gratitude between the two of you.

iii. when you’re working too hard (or for too long)

If not the gigantic humanoid monsters out to swallow you whole, the paperwork is probably the worst part about being a captain in the Survey Corps. Levi would know, having spent countless nights up reading proposals, approving plans, signing documents, filling out death certificates.

It can be grueling work, even if it is, essentially, reading and writing whilst being sat at a desk. And while, sometimes, he can admit that the paperwork is more bearable than his own nightmares; he knows that for you, it holds no such solace.

If anyone thought that Levi worked himself to the bone, they must not have met you. Your meticulous mannerisms and work ethic could almost make him seem sloppy by comparison. It’s not uncommon to find you training yourself or your cadets into the ground, theorizing with Hange and Erwin, or—Levi’s personal least favorite—hunched over your desk, eyes scanning away at stacks of ink-ridden papers.

You must be five or six hours in by now, if he’s calculated correctly. The last time he saw you was around midday, when he’d been watching you spar with Jean. It’s dark out now, the other cadets and soldiers having retired to their rooms for the evening after dinner. 

“You’ll end up a hunchback if you keep this up,” he drawls upon entering your office. He watches as your head snaps up to him; he figured you hadn’t even heard him enter, seeing as you didn’t respond to his knocking. He wonders how it’s possible for you to be so aloof, yet so scrupulous all at once.

Embarrassed, more likely at your lack of awareness than his comment, you push yourself up a little bit, elbows on your desk and fingers crossed. “You’re not exactly one to talk, you know.”

Levi only hums at your jab, inching towards your desk. He likes the way your eyes track his movements as his proximity to you increases, stepping around your desk to stand behind your chair. 

“Sit up,” he orders, voice soft yet firm.

He waits for you to straighten your back, but frowns when you scoot your chair closer to your desk after doing so. He takes it upon himself to move your chair back, ignoring the terrible squeaking of the wood scraping across the floor. Well, at least that was an indication that the floors were clean.

“I can’t write if I’m this far from my desk,” you complain, just as the palms of Levi’s hands make contact with your shoulders.

“Good thing I’m not asking you to write anything,” Levi replies, digging the heels of his hands into your shoulder muscles. This would work better with your shirt off, he muses to himself, but this would have to do.

You open your mouth to protest, but your words fall short on your tongue, an exhale of relief coming out instead as Levi continues to massage your shoulders. Levi can feel you melting into his actions, your body going slack and the knots in your muscles uncoiling themselves. He counts about five minutes in passing before he hears your breath calm, too; the shallow exhales of your overworked body replaced with deep inhalations and extended sighs.

He lightens his movements as his massage comes to and end. The palm of his left hand runs across your throat gently, allowing him to tuck his thumb and index finger under your chin, and tilt your head backwards for you to face him. Levi’s thumb pads against your jaw line as you look up at him, and him back at you. 

Finally, he leans down, his lips making contact with your forehead for a gentle kiss, “You work too hard.”

“I learned from the best,” and just as gently, you reach your arm up and backwards, your palm clumsily finding its way to Levi’s hair, pulling him down, towards your lips this time, “You take such good care of me.”

“Obviously,” Levi mumbles, stealing another kiss between his words, “That’s my job, brat.”

iv. during dinner time

The Mess Hall is among Levi’s least favorite places, for obvious reasons; but he does enjoy sharing a meal with you, and ensuring that you’ve eaten a full serving to sustain yourself.

He can look past Hange and Nanaba’s overly enthusiastic conversations, despite sitting directly across each other, Erwin’s sloppy eating habits, and the overall rowdy atmosphere of the Mess Hall, as long as he has you beside him to numb the pain. Which is why he’s been exceptionally grumpy these past two weeks, as you’ve taken to sitting with some of the younger cadets during dinner time. 

It’s not unusual and it doesn’t surprise him, or anyone really; everyone can see how much they all adore you. Especially Mikasa, strangely enough. Probably because of the way you treat Eren, and how much he and Armin look up to you; and probably because she was your first pick to fill a vacancy in your squad. 

He walks with you across the floor, the both of you holding your own tray of food—a watery soup, some bread, and a piece of fruit as a treat. He knows you won’t finish your soup, and that he’ll have to give you half of his bread to make up for it; but he also knows you’ll slice up your apple for him to eat in exchange.

So Levi is not too happy when he sees Eren waving your way, the clumsy idiot almost hitting Armin in the head from the uncoordinated shaking of his hand. You smile at the younger boy, turning your body to walk towards his table.

Levi, however, stops your stride before it can begin, pulling tactfully at the back of your shirt, and forcing you to turn back around. He pokes at the nape of your neck, gently pushing you forwards, and in the direction of the table where Erwin, Hange, Mike and Moblit are seated.

You seem to get his silent message, flashing Levi a sweet smile before turning to offer Eren a sorry glance as you continue to head in the direction of the table with your colleagues. Levi hums when you start walking again, following closely behind you, and turning back to offer Eren a not-so-sorry, not-so-friendly glare.

Levi was getting his apple sliced for him today, whether the brats liked it or not.

“You know, you should sit with them sometime,” you tell him, breaking his small loaf in half to dip it into your soup, “They admire you a lot.”

“I think they’d shit their pants if shorty even came near their table,” Hange jokes, earning chuckles from some of your colleagues.

Levi says nothing and refrains from rolling his eyes. He could care less about the admiration they hold for him, or for you. If Eren and Amin wanted to spend time with you that badly, then they should train their asses off and make it onto your squad.

“Oi,” you call to him, mocking his voice and tone, “Here, they gave us yellow ones today, I know they’re your favorite.”

Levi shoves you with his elbow affectionately, before taking the slice of apple from your hold. He chews gratefully, heart beating against his chest in admiration as you carefully place the rest of the slices on his tray.

He squeezes your thigh in thanks under the table once you’ve finished slicing both apples for him. Sure, he could do it himself, and sure he could technically see you in your room whenever he wants, but that’s not the point; Levi will be damned if he catches any of those other brats with his apple slices.

v. when you come home

It’s not often that Levi becomes overly worried about your well-being, as backwards and apathetic as it may seem to other people. He trusts you, and knows that you’re stronger than you look—stronger than him, even—and he has no reason to doubt you; you’ve always come back to him.

But now, it’s going on eleven days since your squad was supposed to return from specially designed and assigned mission from Erwin himself, and Levi was beginning to let his nerves get the best of him.

He knows he’s not the only one getting antsy for some kind of message—any kind of sign at all—that you and your men were okay. Two days ago, Hange had pestered Erwin for the greater part of an hour about sending just one more tracking squad to look for yours; Mikasa and Armin hovered around for any news that you had returned, and that you’d brought Eren back unharmed; hell, even Mike had come to check in with him, rocking on his feet, asking Levi if there had been any news from you.

It’s dark out now, the day coming to a close, marking the twelfth night since your estimated return date. Levi sighs, untucking himself from his desk, intent on marching down to Erwin’s office and demanding he let him go look for you.

“You know we have to give it fourteen days, at least,” Erwin sighs.

“That’s a bullshit rule and you know it,” Hange interjects, having burst into the room only seconds after Levi; hung up on your lack of return just as much as he was.

Of course she is—you’re Hange’s closest friend. Not to mention, you’d taken Moblit with you on your mission, setting Hange’s work back significantly without the presence of her valuable second.

“I know,” Erwin nods, “But the first tracking squad found no evidence of any bodies. They’re most likely alive.”

“All of them?” Hange questions, incredulous and hopeful.

“That’s what we hope for,” Erwin responds, voice heavy. He looks to Levi, “She’ll come back. She always does.”

Levi knows that; he knows. But he still can’t shake this feeling. He opens his mouth to refute, when Sasha comes bumbling into Erwin’s office, heaving.

“Commander Erwin, Captain (Y/N)’s squad has just returned!” Sasha squeaks, “No casualties, four in the infirmary now with minor wounds, but nobody’s in critical condition, sir.”

Levi can barely register the young girl’s words, before he’s storming towards the infirmary, desperately searching for your familiar face amongst the soldiers in the cots. He sees Moblit amongst some of your other men and hastily asks him about your whereabouts.

“She had Eren,” Moblit tells him calmly, wincing slightly as a nurse rubs alcohol into the cut along his arm, “I thought she’d take him here—maybe in one of the smaller rooms across the hall?”

Levi nods, grateful, and moves so that Hange can squish Moblit with her affections, heading towards the hallway. He sees just a sliver of light coming from a room two doors down, and he doesn’t hesitate to search for you there.

He all but bursts through the door, relieved to find you tying and cutting a bandage around Eren’s forehead. Levi wants to scold you for taking care of someone else wounds before attending to your own, but he doesn’t have time for that right now.

You stand up straight after you’re finished wrapping Eren’s larger cuts, with barely enough time to register that Levi’s entered the room before he has one hand around your waist, and the other cradling the back of your head.

Levi can feel that he’s knocked the wind out of you, but that doesn’t stop you from slowly wrapping your arms around him to complete the hug. He tucks his head into the juncture of your neck, ignoring the faint scrapes along your skin.

“You’re back,” he hums, holding you a little tighter against him.

Levi feels your laughter reverberate through his own body, as you mirror his hold on you; your right hand coming up to cradle the back of his head, your fingers loosely coiling into his hair.

“Of course I am,” you hum, reveling in Levi’s shallow breaths that tickle your neck, “I’ll always come back to you, Levi.”

#aot x reader #snk x reader #levi x reader #levi x you #levi ackerman x reader #aot fanfiction #snk fanfiction #aot imagines #snk imagines #levi ackerman fluff #levi ackerman smut #eren x reader

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 320: Deku vs. Class 1-A

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Kacchan was all “fuck Deku and fuck his stupid goodbye letters, I need to speak to somebody in charge.” Endeavor was all “hello, I am Somebody In Charge.” Kacchan was all “listen up asshole, you need to let us go out and collect our wayward nerd because you stupidly left him alone with All Might and that’s a fast track to disaster right there.” Endeavor was all, “[self-incriminating silence].” Rat Principal was all, “okay sure, have fun kids.” Back in the present, class 1-A was all “hi Deku” and Deku was all “I’M FINE!!!!!” and Kacchan was all “THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT YOU’D SAY YOU DUMB FUCKING NERD” and so the kids all got ready to fight, because OF COURSE they’re gonna fight. Sorry guys, but yeah it’s happening.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all “what’s up Deku you look like a possessed Rorschach test, so anyway how are the new quirks coming along.” Deku is all “they’re coming along like THIS” and uses Smokescreen to try and get away. Kacchan is all “PHASE ONE COMMENCE”, and Kouda, Sero, Jirou, and Ojiro leap into the fray to shower Deku with heaps of love and violence, because this is a shounen manga and kicking someone’s ass while simultaneously proclaiming your undying admiration for them is just how it’s done in these parts. The KoudaSeroOJirou squad then passes the baton to Satou, Momo, Tokoyami, Kaminari, and Shouji, who are all “fuck this mask” and do a bunch of stuff to tear Deku’s mask off because they’re the real heroes. Shouto is all “LOOK AT THE LITTLE CRYBABY, THAT’S RIGHT, GO AHEAD AND FUCKING CRY and by the way let us share your burden please,” and once again I swear this is all very deeply moving and touching within the actual context. The chapter ends with Tsuyu being all “look at me. I’m the cliffhanger now,” and damn.

lol what

I don’t think anyone was expecting that. I mean, not that I’ve got anything against Tsuyu or anything. anyways it’s a very nice cover and I love the colors and I hope this means Tsuyu’s gonna do something badass

also, “Deku vs Class A” -- pretty much the expected title, but it’s still got me hyped nonetheless fuck yeah let’s go

IIDA ANGST

Iida Tenya really said “fuck the uniform code, we’re leaving the helmet at home today.” sorry kids, prim and proper C-3PO Comic Relief Iida has left the building. can I interest you in some Serious Iida

meanwhile Kacchan is all “sup Deku, I heard you got a few more quirks, and might I just add that you look like the Snyder Cut of Detective Pikachu”

“you look like a tarred and feathered squid” okay easy there Kacchan. I mean it’s all true of course, but still

“thank you all for coming” OH EXCUSE ME SON, WERE YOU PLANNING ON GOING SOMEWHERE. LET’S JUST SEE HOW THAT PLAYS OUT

yep and there’s Smokescreen, right on cue

okay Horikoshi, I leave it in your hands. hopefully you can come up with some more interesting combos than my dumbass predictions lol

LOL THIS ISN’T A COMBO AT ALL

“explosions solve everything” -- Horikoshi Kouhei, 2021. something something shockwave, something something handwave ta-da no more smoke. lol okay then

oh, ouch

he would know, wouldn’t he. nice application of one of your many hard-earned life lessons, Kacchan

by the way you guys, just as an experiment, I’m going to try to anticipate some of the discourse this week in the hopes of preemptively addressing it and thus saving myself some time later on lol. so here’s our first test run!

ANTICIPATED DISCOURSE: “oh my god what a fucking hypocrite can you believe this fucking guy”

PREEMPTIVE REBUTTAL: it’s precisely because Kacchan has been in this exact situation himself that he’s able to recognize his past self in Deku now and call him out on it. just because it took him sixteen years to get it through his head that he can’t accomplish every single thing completely by himself doesn’t mean Deku has to go down that same path. so yeah, maybe it is a bit hypocritical, but if you insist that the only people qualified to call out stupid shit are people who have never done a single stupid thing in their own lives, then what you’re basically saying is that absolutely no one on earth is qualified lol. so yeah, I’d have to disagree

and one last unrelated note, I’m willing to bet the whole “you didn’t even say a word before you ran off” thing is possibly the first thing Kacchan’s said in this whole encounter that actually does stem from genuine hurt rather than his tough-love-harsh-truths strategy. I’M TAKING NOTES HERE HORIKOSHI. at this rate it’ll take twice as many chapters as DvK2 for them to hash out all the stuff between them, geez

anyway so I gotta say, so far Deku vs. Class A is looking an awful lot like a DvK3 wearing a hat, trenchcoat, and sunglasses lol

OH SHIT I TAKE IT BACK??

FUCK YEAH, YOU GO KOUDA. and I guess he ditched his mask as well! excellent

so far the strategy here seems to be “Kacchan says all the mean tough love shit while the rest of 1-A balances it out with warmth and kindness”, which actually works pretty well imo. Deku is one of those people that doesn’t usually need a Kacchan Translator anyway, but just in case, this is very efficient

mm but of course Deku is slingshotting himself away with Blackwhip. all right then, who’s up next!

FUCK YEAH

okay but seriously you guys, what is going on with Sero’s face in these last couple of chapters though, it’s really starting to unnerve me. is he trying to emulate Kacchan’s whole asymmetrical facial expressions thing?

in fact let me just quickly hit pause here because,

ANTICIPATED DISCOURSE: “SERO IS TOGA??!”

PREEMPTIVE REBUTTAL: no

oh snap looks like Jirou’s getting in on the action too!

poor Jirou probably spent days racking her brain trying to think of something she could bond with Deku over. is Horikoshi doing these in reverse order of the kids who have had the most interaction with him? that would explain why poor Kouda didn’t get a flashback lol

omg. well that answers that

so by my count, Satou and Hagakure are the only ones remaining in this first tier of kids who Still Appreciate Midoriya even though they’ve barely ever spoken two words to him in their lives lol. so they’ll probably be next, and then we’ll get to the next tier of kids who are pretty good friends with him but not quite besties. and then we’ll move on to the IidaRokiRaka trio, and then lastly, to the boy who is in a tier all his own

BUT FIRST, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

and by “sponsor” I mean the Dekuangst. just in case that wasn’t clear. indeed, many thanks to the Dekuangst for making this all possible

(ETA: okay so this whole “take me away” line seemed pretty weird to me, and sure enough it’s yet another one of those cases where only the verb is specified, and the object is left to the reader’s interpretation. so even though the translation says “take me away”, I’m pretty sure that what Deku’s actually saying is “take you away” -- as in, his loved ones will be taken away by AFO.

and that is literally the way he phrases it, though -- the verb used is “奪う” (ubau), meaning “to snatch away; to dispossess; to steal.” which, god, that hurts my whole goddamn heart though, because for him to say it like that?? not “AFO will kill you”, but “AFO will take you away from me.” he can’t have nice things anymore because of AFO. he can’t be around the people he loves because AFO will hurt them. he can’t have happiness because AFO will take it away from him. anyway so where the fuck is AFO right now, motherfucker I just want to talk.)

by the way can Ojiro just extend his tail to whatever fucking length he wants or what because it’s like twelve feet long in this panel lol

WOOO FUCK YEAH TOKOYAMI

YOU LOVE TO SEE IT!! BUT WHERE’S YOUR FLASHBACK? YOU’VE HAD A BUNCH OF INTERACTIONS WITH HIM, THAT’S NOT FAIR

okay so now Satou’s stepping in which is back to my anticipated order, so maybe Toko will finish his little moment afterward

dskfjfkk

“REMEMBER THAT TIME DEKU BORROWED SATOU’S FOOD COLORING” Horikoshi says, sweating. “AND REMEMBER THAT TIME HE, UM, SMILED IN HAGAKURE’S GENERAL DIRECTION”

actually I am curious about what Hagakure’s part will be because, you know, the whole traitor thing lol

(ETA: funny how we just skipped right over it huh. can we get a traitor reveal countdown started here? definitely getting close to that time.)

whoa lol wtf

MOMO??? THIS HAS MOMO WRITTEN ALL OVER IT DAMMIT

-- SWEET MOTHER OF FUCK

“SORRY MIDORIYA-SAN, I LEFT MY FUCKING CHILL AT HOME IN THE LOCKER NEXT TO IIDA’S HELMET” holy shit lmao

and here I thought she’d get a flashback to her time on the Baku Rescue Squad or something. but nope, no flashbacks from Momo, only terrifying sci-fi torture devices

poor Dark Shadow is such a trooper omg

“why am I the only one who has to make prolonged contact with his smelly disgusting self” taking one for the team there DS

FUCK YEAH KAMINARI NO JUTSU

THE PRICKLY BASTARD WHISPERER STRIKES AGAIN!! don’t suppose you brought any clean clothes you could sneakily force him into huh Kami

okay here we go, so now Shouji and Tokoyami are joining forces

um excuse me this is fucking awesome

wonder how he’ll break free? don’t think he’ll reveal Fa Jin until the end of the chapter, so maybe Air Force or something? idk

TOKO GETS AN EXTENDED MOMENT BECAUSE HE IS A TIER TWO PATREON REWARD LEVEL FRIEND YAY

WHY IS MOMO MAKING THIS FACE LOL YOUR THING WAS WAY WORSE

and Shouji just casually hitting him with what is easily the best comment from anyone yet. too bad Deku’s just gonna ignore it. you deserve better Shouji

KAMINARI OMFG

it only just occurred to me that Kami is currently trapped inside Dark Shadow right along with him lmao omg. realest one in the entirety of BnHA, right here. we will never forget your sacrifice

aaaaaaand Deku’s yeeting himself

do you really hate the thought of taking a bath that much my dude

oh shit the mask!!

-- oh shit the feels

o(TヘTo)

fuck. and I mean, we knew he was crying, that was a done deal. but still, to see him in this much pain is just...

and the acknowledgement that he knows they’re worried about him, but that it doesn’t change his mind one bit. this, right here, is why they have to be a bit harsh with him, you guys. because they’re up against the full, unbridled stubbornness of Midoriya fucking Izuku, and if they don’t match that stubbornness with an equal stubbornness of their own, they basically don’t stand a chance

(ETA: quick note that there is apparently another mistranslation here -- rather than saying that his friends are oblivious to the danger, what Deku is actually saying is that none of his friends have activated his Danger Sense once throughout this entire fight. which I had been wondering about, and it turns out Horikoshi actually confirmed it. so basically none of the kids bears any ill intent toward him, and there’s literal proof right there.

incidentally, as @class1akids​ pointed out, this also casts an interesting light on this chapter in terms of who hasn’t fought Deku yet. not to play the Hagakure Traitor Music for the billionth time you guys, but I’M JUST SAYING lol.)

anyway, but the good news is that they all seem to understand that. and the even better news is that we have reached the tier 3 friends!!

“OR ELSE” lol, great to see Shouto wielding his friendship just as aggressively as Deku once did towards him. I do love a good role reversal

p.s., ANTICIPATED DISCOURSE: “why is Shouto being so cruel to Deku can’t he see how hard this is on him”

PREEMPTIVE REBUTTAL: this is a callback to the classic “even heroes cry when they have to” Shouto line from chapter 137. Shouto is clearly following Kacchan’s lead here and going for the more ruthless approach, knowing that the gentle approach isn’t getting through to him (if anything it’s only making him more stubborn as we saw on the previous page). basically it’s his way of pointing out that even heroes are still only human, and so is Deku last time he checked

ah okay, and there Tsuyu is at last

okay real talk, I get why Tsuyu is included in the tier 3 friends, because she was one of the first people to team up with Deku going all the way back to USJ. but that said, this probably would have had more impact if their most recent interaction hadn’t been like 150 chapters ago

but anyway though it’s still a good speech. maybe not quite a cliffhanger-level speech, but a good speech nonetheless. in a way though, I’m glad to see that Horikoshi seemingly didn’t give a fuck whether he ended this on an actual cliffhanger or not for once

and that “headed toward the climax” part has me excited too, ngl. because if we really are getting to the so-called climax this soon, that makes me even more certain that there is indeed a DvK3 in the forecast. so I presume that next week (or I guess two weeks from now) will be the tier 3s along with the remaining tier 2s like Kirishima and Aoyama

and then after that, well... [orange and green banners being hoisted] [sound of screeching airhorns and vuvuzelas in the distance] [sound of All Might approaching in his car which I didn’t notice until I looked back at this page a second time whoops] THE PROPHECY WILL NOT BE DENIED

#bnha 320 #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #asui tsuyu #tokoyami fumikage #kaminari denki #todoroki shouto #class 1-a #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[dexters-bluemilkshakes]

i made “the 501st go to target” , “the disaster lineage goes to target” and “The Clone Wars Squad ™️ (+Satine) Goes To Target” and now i give you: The Rebels Go To Target

hera: got to relax for once. she found some magazines and read them in the asiles while drinking a coffee. she got the newest additions to book series she likes and bought a few DVDs for her and Kanan’s few and far between “date nights.” she bought chopper a cat toy.

kanan: does the shopping. finds all the groceries/ food staples that they are running low on. also buys plain clothing/ accessories to be used in disguises. he grabs many packs of hair ties because ezra and sabine were tired of him stealing theirs. when both he and hera were done shopping they walked around the store, hand in hand, chuckling when they heard laughing and screaming and everything in between from their kids, and were very thankful zeb drew the short straw.

ezra: mr.kleptomaniac steals little trinkets and whatnot by putting them his pockets or by making it look like it was already his. He is pretty smug about it at first but sabine saw the whole thing and a few days later let’s it slip that ezra shop lifted in a half-successful attempt to get the heat off of her for smth dumb she did. ezra sheepishly returned/ paid for all the items while a stern hera stood behind him. zeb could. not. stop. laughing. zeb got in trouble later bc he was supposed to be watching ezra.

sabine: ogled over the hair dye, graphic tees, and art supplies. Despite them not having spray paints, she finds a lot of different materials she’s never had the chance to use, or just materials most people wouldn’t think to put in a piece. she re-stocks on snacks and her preferred hair dyes/ purple shampoo/ products. it’s going to be a long time before they come back here.

zeb: was the Designated Parent for the day. He had to make sure Chopper didn’t destroy the whole store, make sure ezra didn’t steal anything (he failed miserably at that), and make sure sabine didn’t paint anything. he also had to make sure kanan and hera didn’t do the smooches in a quiet corner. (he failed even worse at that) he was very frazzled but during his running around the store he found a really nice pair of boots. he also jump scared ezra like three times and made weird noises in neighboring aisles to try and freak ezra out. ezra insisted it didn’t (it did).

chopper: pinched people’s legs while hiding under clothing display tables. eventually zeb put him in time out and he had to spend the next 10 minutes walking in (grumbly) silence with zeb until he could continue his chaos. repeat cycle. hera gave chopper the cat toy and that kept him very occupied for a while. despite his insistence that he doesn’t care for it, he now refuses to shut down without it nearby.

rex: ezra tried to get him to lift him into the ball crate. rex said no. (ahsoka then looked away for like five seconds and rex threw ezra in the pit with no hesitation. ahsoka saw and immediately face palmed.) he walked around with ahsoka, and they reminisced about all the times they came here with their friends during the rare downtime they got during the war. oh! there’s where fives managed to slip and bring down a shelf. oh! there’s where padmé and anakin were caught holding hands. oh! that’s the hair product obi-wan insisted he never used but he did. oh! there’s where this person and this person and this person and he and she and they and

they’re all gone.

ahsoka and rex tried not to cry.

(when they saw the still lingering stain from where the wolffe pack managed to burst 12 pens and get ink everywhere the tears began to fall)

ahsoka: she could hear the whispers of her friends still lingering on the shelves. she thought she saw obi wan and anakin and padmé and…

but it wasn’t them.

it’s hard going back to the places of your past when the ghosts still haunt you.

she and rex left before the rest of everyone else

all she got was a keychain of a dino that anakin swore he would get on their next visit

and he would have gotten it.

except there was no next visit.

hondo: no one knows how he got here. no one invited him. he mostly left people alone except to ask for them to pay for his things. no one did. he eventually just stole a cartful of random stuff. he got caught, so he flew away with bags of stuff falling out of his window while shouting “until next time, my friends!”. the rebels left soon after that.

kallus: (post getting stranded on a Geonosian moon w our favorite Lasat) was parent for the day with Zeb, even though he didn’t have to be. That is, until he found the hat section and spend the rest of the time admiring himself in different fedoras. he got a watch, despite never saying he needed one and no one even saw him near the watches.

bonus!

thrawn: does not shop at target. ever. but it was a late night and he desperately needed more coffee grounds so he had little choice.

tarkin: lol dude just sneered at everything and made haughty remarks about the state of the store.

he actually loved it and goes back with a black mustache taped on his lip.

#starwars #sw #star wars rebels #swr #hera syndulla #kanan jarrus #ezra bridger #sabine wren #zeb orrelios #chopper #alexsandr kallus #hondo ohnaka #ahsoka tano #captian rex #thrawn #tarkin

[djarrex]

I was just rewatching the “Battle Scars” episode of TBB, and I was internally squealing at Rex looking at Omega so affectionately, helping her across that rift, just all of his sweet little interactions with her! 🥰 While watching I couldn’t help but think of your fic and think, “Goddamn! This man DOES have baby fever!” Lmao! So, this all kinda made me wonder if you have any thoughts on how the Bad Batch (and Omega) would react to Rex suddenly having a wife and Priya? (Or if any of that even fits into your fics’ timelines? Lol!)

Hey there!

Hell yeah he's got it bad for babies and the making of the babies. Priya was born mere months ago and mans is ready for #2 😏

I was definitely planning on having the guys travel to Dantooine to visit the Gayiyla's! I'm thinking following the events of the season 1 finale - maybe they're going there to inform Rex of what happened/lay low for a couple nights/let Omega chillax for a lil while without pure chaos surrounding them.

Some thoughts I had for a future installment under the cut: (sfw)

They all, especially Echo, would be extremely happy for Rex. They've met his lady in the past only a couple of times (the most recent being when she was in the early stages of pregnancy - in the fic Insatiable), and were glad the Captain had something bright to hold onto in the darkening galaxy. Maybe they stop in town to grab a little wedding/house warming trinket (Omega's and Wrecker’s idea) on the way.

Omega loved Rex's partner from when she stuck with her on Bracca, and would be totally in awe with Priya and it would be just so adorable to see them interact. She'd ask right away if she can hold her, and Uncle Wrecker would be next in line! 🥰 *imagines Wrecker holding a very smol bean*. She'd end up falling asleep next to Priya's crib - curled up with a toy in her hand.

Hunter has grown a soft spot for children and even though he doesn't trust himself to hold the baby, he'd try to make her giggle by wiggling something in her face to elicit a reaction, but would snap back to his normal sabacc face when someone catches him being all 'vulnerable'.

Echo would be sort of nervous to hold her because she's too delicate and he's worried about the possibility of gripping too hard with his cybernetic arm, but after a million assurances from Rex and the wifey, Echo gives it a shot. And he loves it. Echo can't believe his brother created such a precious thing, and can't help but think back to his first meeting of Rex on Rishi. Even though Rex was his CO, Echo is just so proud of him for getting this far in life and allowing himself to settle down. "Wow... she looks like you, brother." and Rex's heart would explode just as it did when his wife said the same thing on the day of his daughter's birth.

Tech is... Tech. He wouldn’t play with the baby nor does he possess a desire to hold her, but that doesn't mean he's anything but happy for a fellow brother for getting to live a life like this. Truthfully, he's intrigued by Priya and her creation - a clone, created in a lab, has a child of his own? Does his offspring share the same kind of features and traits that made the clones so efficient on the battlefield? Will she age as the clones do, or will she take on the 'nat-born' trait from her mother? Rex would ask Tech to please stop inquiring about his daughter's genetic makeup (affectionate) telling him how she's not a science experiment like them, and shouldn't be inquired about like one.

After hours of entertaining Priya until she fell asleep, Wrecker would break out his poncho and hat to help Rex with the crops like he did on Saleucami with Cut. Meanwhile, Echo and Hunter would be going over what the next moves are for the squad as a whole on the Maurader, while Tech works on some random ship stuff.

I haven't figured out all the details - the next thing I'm working on for Post-Order 66 Rex is a lil smutty smut action (gotta stay true to the origins of this series) but there will be interaction with CF99 in the future!

Thank you for this! It makes me so happy that people enjoy this little series of sorts and are wanting to talk to me about it 😭💙

Please ask me all about the Gayiyla's and this series I love it so much 🥰

#m answers #thank you for blessing me with this ask #post-order 66 rex #rex gayiyla #priya gayiyla #the Gayiyla family #the bad batch