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sohnric · 7 months

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sweet like candy – e. sohn

pairing: eric sohn x fem! reader

genre: summer au, strangers to something more ?? fluff, suggestive. very much stargazing by the neighbourgood and fantasize by the boyz capsuled into a fic. eric is a simp and a hopeless romantic because i said so. a girl romanticizes sharing a lollipop (its me im girl)

warnings: alcohol, maybe some minimal swearing, a heated make out session that hints onto a hookup (no smut mentioned!). the use of a cheesy nickname babydoll (dont @ me or i will deactivate), reader has hair long enough for a claw clip

word count: 6.9k

a/n: almost cried while trying to name this fic somebody send help. Also this doesn't feel like my best work its kinda rushed imo but 🤠 yolo

part of the @deoboyznet summer on you event! cant believe i made it on time

a summer tradition of renting out a cabin every year invented by a couple of friends takes a turn for eric when a new addition to the circle brings him to his knees - in other words, he never knew tequila could taste so sweet.

If anyone ever asked Eric Sohn if he believed in love at first sight, he would, without a doubt, say yes.

What was the proof he had? Well, absolutely nothing. All he ever knew about love at first sight was from romance movies he watched during lonely nights with his roommate Juyeon, never having the experience of the whole world stopping and zooming in on one particular person, taking his breath away– but to put it simply, Eric Sohn is a true romantic. Call him cheesy if you want– he wouldn’t like it, but he also wouldn’t disagree.

On one summer afternoon, though, his world tilts in its axis– the moment comes, and he is finally able to test out his theory.

You walk out of the passenger’s side of a red 2008 Toyota Auris, hair put up into a claw clip, jean shorts showing off your long legs and a pearl white button-up opened and lazily thrown over your outfit, and suddenly, Eric Sohn finds his knees buckling and his palms sweating with affection. He was aware that Juyeon’s girlfriend was bringing her best friend to tag along to their little summer retreat (more like a trip to a cabin in the middle of the woods), but he sure as hell didn’t expect the stranger to make him feel this type of way.

Sure, it might just be him being incredibly attracted to you. But with how fast his heart was beating when you smiled at everyone after introducing yourself to the group, he was sure he was slowly, but surely falling for you. And he was falling hard.

He feels like the world is moving in slow motion as he watches the group go and unload the car– you and your best friend Yeri were the last ones to arrive– and what wakes him up from the haze is when he watches you struggle to carry a cooler out of the trunk into the cabin, his legs dragging him closer to the vehicle and near to your body.

Now is his time to shine. “Let me help!” he hurries out, sneakers crunching on the gravel. His hands firmly grab onto the handle of the blue cooler, muscles flexing under the weight (making him wonder why you would willingly want to carry the thing and not ask him or any of the guys for help in the first place), and when your eyes look up at come in contact with his, he presses a smile to his lips. “I’m Eric, by the way.”

“Ah,” you gasp, a grateful expression breezing over your features, “thanks. I’m Y/N, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Eric hums, watching your every move. Your figure walks over to the front of the car, your head popping in close to the window to look inside, and when a satisfied look overtakes your features, Eric finds himself asking. “Is that everything?”

“Yeah,” you nod, “we can head inside, I think.”

The boy tries hard to keep his cool, he really does. But with how he’s trailing behind you like a lost puppy, attempting to find a topic that would engage him in a conversation with you, he feels like a boy that is just experiencing a crush for the first time in his life. Everything about you is enchanting– and sure, you could say he was just painfully attracted to you and this had nothing to do with love– but he was also convinced that if you asked him to jump off the Empire State Building, he would do it without giving it a second thought (which is kind of worrying, but again– it says a lot).

You open the door to the cabin for him, and he finds himself speechless at the action. Once your eyes meet again and you offer him another subtle smile, he finds himself gasping at the sentence that comes out of your mouth.

“Hey! We’re matching, kinda,” you note, pointing towards his outfit.

And you’re right– Eric didn’t even notice at first, too enchanted with your sheer existence– but you two were indeed wearing the same thing. Jean shorts, and a white button-up– in your case, thrown over a white tank top, in Eric’s, closed (although he did leave it a bit open at the top, revealing his tanned skin). Suddenly, the boy is glad he’s wearing a red cap to cover up his hair, since he foolishly thinks the hat provides him enough shade in the face to not reveal his burning cheeks as he utters out a weak response.

“It looks so much better on you, though.”

With that, he walks into the cabin– escaping the situation, not really paying a single thought to chivalry and letting you go through the door first– and as he reaches the crowd of people in the kitchen, he prays for all high sources to find him, get to him and wipe his brain clean of all thoughts, because

even though you are basically matching (and he does think you look so much better in the outfit than he does), all he can think about is just how much more he’d like your outfit if the white button-up enveloping your body was the one he’s wearing right now instead.

The next time Eric finds courage to talk to you is when it seems like you’re not finding it to talk to anyone else yourself– the big group is currently sitting around a fire, marshmallows and sausages slowly burning in the blazing flames– and while everyone around was either talking to each other or singing along to the songs Jacob was playing on the guitar, you were sitting alone in the middle of two commotions: Chanhee and Changmin arguing about something seemingly important, and Yeri and Juyeon making out right in front of everyone’s eyes.

And Eric was supposed to listen to Sunwoo talk about his latest heartbreak– how the man still gets no girls despite having such an objectively handsome face, Eric truly doesn’t know– but the topic of the conversation was too boring for him to engage with it. That, and he was also painfully aware of your every move– you didn’t even move much– and word– you weren’t talking to anybody– and that was slowly driving him insane.

You looked a little out of place. Eric supposes it was because you didn’t really know anyone here– except from your best friend and her awfully sappy boyfriend– but even though it was logical and a little expected for you to be a bit excluded in such a foreign circle, the man took it as his mission to make you feel as welcome and as included as he physically could.

Completely ignoring Sunwoo’s blabbering (like he was doing for the last few minutes anyway), Eric confidently (and a bit shakily– hands sweating and breath hitching in his throat) walks to the other side of the bonfire, from where he’s been watching your stone expression through the flames, and sits down in the small place between you and Changmin. Changmin wasn’t even facing you, too engrossed in the debate he was having with Chanhee, and so it was Eric’s job to wobble his bottom into the place, efficiently making the older boy move away with a light elbow jab sent into his lower back.

“Hi,” he clears his throat, “are you having fun?” he asks, but mentally curses at himself right as the question escapes his mouth– does she look like she's having fun? Of course she doesn't, you stupid idiot.

You smile at the question, though, nodding. “Yeah,” you hum, “having lots of fun listening to your friends argue and my friends making out next to my ear.”

“You seemed like it too, y’know,” Eric laughs, “they’re always like this, by the way. They’ll forget about the fight in the morning.”

“Oh, that could never be me,” you sigh, shaking your head at the sentiment.

“No?”

“No,” you shrug, “I get too petty. If we have a fight, I’m not speaking to you for at least two weeks.”

Eric finds himself laughing at your comment. “I’ll remember that for future reference.”

Straightening your back and looking at your companion– as if you were going to call him out on his subtle hint of there being any future meeting between the two of you– you suddenly gasp and swiftly turn towards the bonfire, an honest mourn escaping your lips.

“Oh fuck!” you curse under your breath as your hand reaches towards a stick that’s had its end in the flame, the device efficiently resting against a rock in a position where you didn’t have to pay any attention to the snack you were cooking– more like burning– for yourself. With a quick move for the stick, you pull the tip of it out of the scorching red of the bonfire and look at it in an examining way, as if the result would be different and the marshmallow would unburn itself if you stared at it long enough. “I completely forgot about this!”

Eric takes a glance at the burnt piece of fluff, letting out a laugh at the black marshmallow in front of your face. “That’s not how you make a good s’more,” he notes, poking fun at your annoyed face.

“Oh, no shit, Sherlock…” you mutter under your breath, but your face looks a bit sad to see the piece go to waste. “I don’t know why I even tried, I’m bad at this stuff.”

There comes his moment, Eric thinks. “Well, you’re lucky, ‘cause you just met an expert at making s’mores.”

“Does a thing like that even exist?” you chuckle, rolling your eyes at the male in disbelief.

“Of course it does! You’re looking at one now,” he grins, leaning over you to take a brand new marshmallow out of the bag to your right– sandwiched between your thigh and the couple in love– before he reaches over to your hand and takes the roasting stick out of your hand, slides the white fluffy cloud through the sharp tip and hovers it above the flame.

“The key is to hold it above the flame, and not in the flame,” Eric chuckles as he looks at you from the corner of his eye, watching your expression change.

“Oh, but I thought the key is to burn the thing,” you ironically gasp, shaking your head at his teasing. “Where did you even learn all of this?”

“I grew up in the States,” Eric hums, “they would deport me if I didn’t know how to make s’mores.”

The comment gets a giggle out of you– a sound Eric almost folds at and falls into the open fire (thankfully, he held his composure– he doesn’t think 3rd degree burns would suit his look) – and it takes everything in him to not scream like a teenage girl at the thought of making you laugh. Yes, that’s how down bad you managed to get the male.

“Do you have a special recipe?”

“Just the basic one,” he shrugs, turning the skewer in his hand to make the marshmallow equally glazed on each side, “I will make it extra good for you, though.”

“I thought a master always does their best?” you tease, watching as the boy crumbles under your gaze.

“Not always. I don’t like to put effort into things that aren’t worth it,” Eric hums as he takes the marshmallow out of the burning fire, examining it, and after deeming it worthy, taking the skewer and holding it up in between his knees. The male takes a graham cracker and tears it in half, before adding chocolate to one of the sides. After he’s done, he carefully places the golden fluff ball onto the cracker and closes it, offering the sweet sandwich to you with a subtle smile.

“For you,” he winks as he turns back towards the fire, putting another marshmallow onto the stick to make himself a s’more as well (and also mentally kicking himself at the sudden burst of courage). He hears you take a bite out of the snack, his knee bouncing up and down nervously as he awaits the verdict.

“Man,” you hum, “this is so good.”

“Told you,” he says, “if there’s something I’m confident in, it’s making s’mores.”

“That’s a very unuseful skill to have,” you note, but continue to eat. The comment has him chuckle and shrug.

“Well, I used it now, so I’d argue it’s actually very useful.”

A hum cuts out of your throat at this, finishing the s’more he made for you with a satisfied sigh. “Is this how you got girls back in the States?” you ask, making the male choke on his spit.

Eric was too young to get girls when he learned how to make the greatest s’mores. He went camping with his dad and his older sister and he burned a couple before he got it right. He was in middle school and before what the kids call a glow-up these days (back in the days, you just called it overcoming puberty), but still– he decides to test the waters with another lazy, half-assed flirty comment. “Only the pretty ones.”

He hears a chuckle out of you– a reaction he decides to not pay much attention to or overthink, for he doesn’t really remember what a good reaction to flirting is anymore– but then, you sigh and nod. “Well, I give your s’more a 5 star review, so I’d find that believable.”

The comment has Eric press his tongue into the inside of his cheek, battling a victorious smile that wants to oh so desperately appear on his lips. Turning his attention fully to you, he looks at you with confidence coating his insides– it only grows when he notices you staring at the side of his face, the flame of the fire twinkling in your eye and making your features sharper and twice as attractive to the poor boy.

His eyes scan you over for a few seconds before he notices a glimmer of something on the side of your lip– a chocolate stain that has him cautiously lean in and swipe a thumb over the sweetness, not even thinking twice before smoothing his finger over your skin.

“You had a little… something there,” he hums as he licks the chocolate off his thumb. Your eyes still trained on him force him to avert his gaze back to the fire– for it was unbearable, as if sparks were flying and burning his skin, everything about the interaction making goosebumps appear over his body; even though he felt hot in his cheeks and not at all cold– when the sight of his marshmallow in flames suddenly comes to him, startling him awake.

Hurriedly dragging out the burnt snack out of the fire, he hears you chuckle at him from the side– so much for not ruining the moment. (It’s okay, though. As long as you’re entertained.)

“I thought you were a master at s’mores,” you poke fun at him, “got distracted?”

Meeting eyes with you, Eric shrugs, a lazy grin settling to his lips. “I guess you could say that.”

The night progresses quickly– with Sunwoo getting so drunk he borrows Jacob’s guitar and clumsily strums the strings, freestyle rapping about the most random topics with flushed cheeks and eyes dramatically glued to the fire; Hyunjae wanting to have a competition of who can jump over the flames and Sangyeon having to stop his drunk friend with the force of his own body– and Eric finds his eyes lacking the candy he’s been occupying himself with the whole evening. You disappeared somewhere into the house a few minutes ago, and although he didn’t want to be clingy, he walked up to the cabin with a nervous pep in his step– that’s it, he just wanted to make sure you were okay.

Eric walks through the doorway, having his body immediately be met with the joined common room slash kitchen area. The cabin is kind of small (too small for the amount of people currently occupying it) and kind of old, but it’s a tradition to rent it every year during the summer, so no one ever questioned the decision or made the move to rent out a bigger one, no matter the growing friend group.

Your figure finally appears in the dimly lit kitchen area, your back turned to the doorway. Standing at the kitchen sink, it seems like you were doing the dishes– tons of plates used to carry grilled meat and sausages dumped carelessly into the sink, forgotten in a minute and leaving the last remains of food dry up on them and get hard to scrape off, a couple of glasses and mugs with their ears broken off from their age waiting with coffee stains at the bottom– and Eric immediately feels his heart fall down to his stomach, because why would one do the dishes in the middle of the night? Those usually get left there until the morning, when the least hungover person will take mercy on the rest and take care of them. Were you feeling excluded from the conversation? Did you feel bored?

“What are you doing here so alone?” he asks, making you turn your head over your shoulder and smile at him– a stone falling off his heart at the action– before you shrug at him.

“Washing the dishes,” you say, as if it wasn’t clear already.

“I see that,” Eric chuckles, “what I meant to say was, why are you washing the dishes in the first place?”

“Well, somebody’s gotta do it.”

Eric huffs– and he doesn’t even know why he’s so defensive about it. “That someone didn’t have to be you, y’know.”

He’s standing next to you now– your eyes meeting as you stare at the boy for a heartbeat– a smile spreading on your face at his furrowed brows. The action has him visibly relax, watching as you shrug and get back to the dish washing. “I just wanted some alone time for a bit,” you muse, “outside was getting too loud for a second, I’m not used to crowds.”

“Ah… once Sunwoo drinks, he can’t shut up, so I kinda get that it was starting to feel insufferable,” Eric notes, nodding at you in acknowledgement before the realization hits him. “Wait– you said you wanted to be alone, so I should probably-”

You halt him with a soft laugh– the one Eric finds his heart liking a little too much, with how it jumps up and down and makes all of him feel warm inside– a soapy hand reaching out in his direction. “It’s okay, you can stay,” you muse, “I enjoy your company.”

“O-okay,” Eric stutters– so much for the smooth lines he had prepared in his head before coming in here, all of them flying out of his head straight out of the window– and to not seem so silly, he gets his hands occupied and reaches for the clean dishes you started stacking on the counter next to the sink, deciding to dry them and put them away. The kitchen falls into a comfortable silence that only gets broken by an occasional scream landing through the walls from outside, and Eric can’t help but indulge himself in the domesticity of the act.

He can almost imagine you two washing the dishes like this in your shared apartment after you two cook dinner together and eat it in your cozy living room. That scenario sounds almost too good for the boy, having warmth slowly ooze into his cheeks, and that, he finds to be the hint that he should probably stop thinking about you in that way now or else he’ll get too distracted and break the glasses he is currently putting away. (God forbid– there were not enough of them for the entire friend group in the first place.)

“Are you having a good time, though?” Eric finds himself asking through his weird delirium.

You smile– oh god you smile, you should stop doing that if you want him to survive the night– and nod at the boy, calmness overtaking your aura and slipping into his cracks as well. “I am. It’s nice meeting new people and everyone’s very nice,” you say.

“That’s good to hear. How long have you and Yeri been friends?”

“A couple of years,” you note, “we met during high school. We always dreamt of moving away to college and living together at dorms or something, so it’s… it’s nice that it worked out for us,” you say, having Eric nod at your words with a sweet smile.

“That’s great to hear,” he muses, “I met Juyeon and Sunwoo in my freshman year of college, and the rest just… came along after a while.”

“Your friend group is pretty big,” you point out, having the boy shrug.

“I guess so,” Eric mumbles, never really thinking of it this way– in his eyes, this was normal. This was how he operated, how he lived. A lot of people around him, always close– one would think such a large friend group wouldn’t be as close with each other, but it’s quite the opposite in his case, he thinks. Maybe he was just blessed.

“How do you do that?” you sigh, shaking your head in disbelief.

“I dunno,” he snickers, “guess you could say I’m quite the social butterfly.”

“I can see that,” you laugh. Eric watches you, his hands now empty of any dish– he’s been drying them quicker than you manage to clean (and rightfully so, the food is stuck on there) – he starts noticing the details of your sheer presence. How you have a slight smile playing with your lips even when your eyes are glued to the sink, how your hair slightly slips out of the claw clip and frames your face, how close you’re standing– his eyes slip towards your hands, noticing the water running down your forearms and dangerously close to the sleeves of your shirt.

Acting on reflex, mostly, the boy reaches towards your sleeves and gently tugs them up, the contact of your skin that he initiates and should realistically be prepared for making the tips of his fingers tingle, the action having you stop in your movements and glance up at him through your eyelashes– a sight he wishes he could engrave into the back of his eyelids so he could stare at it forever and always.

“Thank you,” you hum, voice barely louder than a whisper when he retracts away from you, taking his previous stance against the kitchen counter.

Eric hangs his head low for a second, clearing his throat to ease his own tension. Now is your turn to start up the conversation, a casual question falling off your lips as you get back to washing the last remains of dishes. “Yeri said you come here often?”

The boy nods enthusiastically to your sentence. “We do. We started in freshman year, because Juyeon was going to this exchange program to Paris for a couple of months, so we threw him a goodbye party. Then he came back, so we threw a welcome back party here. And then we celebrated Younghoon hyung’s birthday here, and it kind of stuck, I guess? We go here at least once a year during summer.”

“That’s a nice tradition to have,” you sigh, turning the faucet off as you finish rinsing off the last dish– a big bowl that Sangyeon used to marinate the meat a few hours ago.

“It is,” Eric nods, smiling fondly at the sentiment. He reaches for the bowl and dries it with the now damp rag (there were a lot of dishes to dry, after all), and moves to put it back to its place under the sink. With your figure still in its previous spot, the boy puts away the towel onto the kitchen counter and gently grabs your waist with his free hand, moving you away a few inches to the left. He crouches and opens the cabinet under the sink and puts the bowl into the pyramid of other ones, straightening his back when he goes back into a standing position, catching you staring at him from above, watching his every move. Your body is leaning against the counter, having Eric mirror your stance only a few inches away from you before speaking up again.

“You’re welcome to join us when we come back next time.”

The time reads 3AM– or at least that’s what his circadian rhythm tells him, because he doesn't bother to check as he twists and turns in the bed, too hot and too alert to fall asleep– when Eric decides to walk down the steep stairs and try to get some fresh air. The cabin is hot inside, but he still takes his lost button-up that he had thrown over one of the kitchen chairs and puts it on before he makes his way outside, knowing that the forest will make his bones get cold with the crisp breeze.

He opens the door and moves to sit on the little patio– the silence of outside is overwhelming even after the cabin has quieted down and everyone has gone to sleep (each one on a different level of tipsy ranging from completely chill Sangyeon to doesn’t know where he is Sunwoo– with Eric somewhere in the middle of the spectrum). His legs drag a little tiredly as he scans his surroundings– god forbid there’s a bear out waiting for him– when the sight of a figure sitting on the floor takes him by surprise, their head already turned to him after hearing the sound of the door opening.

“What are you doing here?” he asks as he walks over to you, noticing your frame dressed in a tank top and sweatpants, hinting that you at least tried to get some sleep before coming out here, just like he has.

“Couldn’t sleep,” you shrug, confirming his suspicions.

“Same here,” the man sighs, “mind if I sit with you?”

“You’re welcome to join me,” you smile at him, patting the floor next to you and watching as Eric crouches down before taking a seat on the wood, ignoring the sunbeds and old rattan chairs situated all over the patio. (If you’re on the floor, he’s on the floor– it’s as simple as that.)

You’re holding a lollipop in between your fingers, your other hand occupied with a half-empty bottle of tequila that was previously passed around the circle at the bonfire. Eric raises his brows at the sight, having you shamefully avert your gaze from him.

“I thought it would be a waste to not finish this,” you say, snickering, “and I also… kind of hoped that it would put me to sleep…”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures?”

“I guess you could say that,” you laugh. Taking a sip from the bottle, you gulp the alcohol down before putting the lollipop inside of your mouth, sucking on it and licking your lips after. This is not the way you’re supposed to drink tequila, but Eric figures that gathering salt and a lime would be too much work anyways.

“Are you really using that lollipop as a chaser?” he giggles, making you hum.

“Yeah,” you stare at him, a grin overtaking your features, “this girl taught me to do that at a party last year. It’s not as good as literally anything else, but it gets the job done. Wanna try?” you ask, offering him the sweetness on the stick and the bottle.

The truth is, you were only a bit tipsy when the group slowly started to scatter into their beds. Eric didn’t drink as much either– only enough to make him laugh at everything that was said and make his staring at you twice as obvious as it was before– so he thinks he can take some more. As you said, it would be a shame if the bottle went to waste– and also, something about the idea of drinking with you alone on the patio was making his hopeless heart hammer against his chest in dangerous measures.

“Sure,” he agrees, taking the bottle first. The boy takes a sip, feeling the alcohol burn down his throat, and when he moves the dark brown glass away from his lips, he is met with the image of you leaning closer to him, offering him the lollipop. His hand instinctively grabs the plastic stick, thinking you’re letting go of it, when he’s met with the feeling of your flesh under his fingertips. You put the lollipop against his lips, making him open up on instinct and suck on the strawberry flavored candy, a million different sensations (all unrelated to the alcohol) swimming through his brain– you’re so close, you smell so good, he’s holding your hand, he’s sucking on the lollipop you previously had in between your lips and it’s driving him crazy– before you take the candy out from between his lips and put it back into your mouth, tongue swirling around the sweet ball.

The lollipop had an aftertaste of tequila on it, but it was enough to chase down the faint bitterness– Eric finds himself wanting to taste more of the sweet strawberry, but foolishly desiring to get the sensation off your lips instead. His eyes stay locked with yours throughout the whole exchange, sparks flying in between the two of you even though the bonfire has long gone out, his fingers lazily dropping from the candy.

“How was it?” you ask, voice barely louder than a whisper– goosebumps appearing all over Eric’s skin when he swears your eyes flicker to his lips for a split second.

“Good,” he admits. It’s silly how he feels so breathless at the action.

The sound of the wind playing with the leaves of the forest is the only thing accompanying you two. It’s as if you two were thinking of the same thing when you pull out the lollipop out of your mouth and offer it back to Eric, watching with utmost interest as the boy leans closer to capture it in between his lips, never breaking eye contact. The action feels a little too electrifying to him, a little too intimate, but he can't stop– can't even imagine wanting to.

Taking a sip of the tequila, but not chasing it down with the candy, you speak up again, lazy eyes practically glued to him. “This would be a perfect moment for a kiss…” you mumble, licking your bottom lip for a split second before biting down on it.

“Are you flirting with me?” Eric foolishly asks, tone of voice a bit weak, a little unsure, the candy still in his mouth, making his words come out a little jambled.

“Mhm,” you nod, grinning to yourself– Eric wonders how much of your behavior and how much of his raging heartbeat is due to the effect of alcohol in both of your veins.

His fingers pull at yours as he takes the candy out of his mouth, voice dropping as he answers you. “Then we probably shouldn’t waste the moment.”

Even though the intentions are clear, the boy can’t bring himself to make the first move– he’s completely enchanted with your presence, staring at you with tension in his shoulders and eyes trained onto your face, watching and examining it for any shift or change. Focused on the way you move, he thinks you must have realized you were going to have to be the one to take the first step– your lazily smile before you lean closer, impossibly close– making Eric’s eyes flutter shut with anticipation, your breath fanning his face making goosebumps appear all over his body.

When your lips finally touch his, he feels like he’s being kissed for the first time again, with the amount of fuzziness in his stomach and buzzing in his ears. He regains his composure quite quickly, though, as he positions his head in a way that makes you two even closer to each other, lips pressing firmer against yours now. His hand instinctively reaches out to hold your jaw, fingertips glazing the soft skin under them, your lips retracting only to go in for more.

Blindly placing the bottle onto the floor next to your bodies, you peck his lips and sigh into the kiss. “Damn, you’re good at this…”

“We’re only getting started,” he muses, making you chuckle.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mhm,” he nods, watching as you once again lean in and suck on his upper lip, making his eyes flutter close again. A weight appears over him as you shift in your place and move to straddle his lap, your hand moving to cup his cheek and tilt him upwards, everything about the kisses getting more hurried– less gentle, less hesitant– when you tug on his bottom lip with your teeth and grant your tongue entry into his mouth.

Sweetness mixes in between you, your hands moving around his neck, heavy breaths shared across the patio. Eric feels like he’s levitating, his body having an out of body experience, yet being awfully present– every little shift pushing him to overdrive, the slightest touch making his skin burn and heart drum against his ribcage.

You shift in his lap, making him huff under the pressure, his lips trailing wet kisses down the side of your neck. Teeth glazing the jointure of your shoulder, kitten licking the place and sucking in a bruise that will eventually be visible to everyone when you two wake up in the morning, Eric feels your hands tugging down the sleeves of his shirt, fingers feeling up his biceps. The action makes him chuckle into your neck, but the smile fades quickly as he feels your nails scratching gently at his flaming skin.

“Take this off,” you mutter, and Eric finds it endearing– helping you take him out of the button-up, sitting under you in just a white tank top and black basketball shorts.

“Why?”

“Your arms looked good in this,” you hiss before you hide your face into his neck, leaning down to give him your fair share of kisses and love bites, having the male teasingly joke as his hands run up under your tank top, painfully aware of the fact that you weren’t wearing a bra anymore.

He moves his head to the side to give you more access before speaking out, tone of voice husky and coated in lust. “What if I get cold now?”

“Then I’m more than happy to move this to your room,” you purr into his ear.

Eric sighs, fingers playing with the hem of your top before he lets his palms drift towards your exposed stomach, roaming across naked skin. Goosebumps appear all over your body at the action, making the boy victoriously grin. “It looks like you’re the one that's cold, though, babydoll.”

Rolling your eyes at the male, you shut him up by latching yourself onto his lips before you speak against his mouth. “I’ll take that as an invitation, then?”

“Wake up Eric! The girls are leaving, you should at least go say goodbye!” Sangyeon roars into the boy's room, making the male turn over in the bed and huff out in frustration. He drags his arm up to shield his eyes from the sunlight hitting his face, the intention of just rolling over and sleeping more written very clearly in his face.

“Come on man, we’re leaving in an hour too, so you should go send them off and then pack your shit so we can load the cars,” Sangyeon says when he gets no reaction from the youngest. It’s to no use, apparently, and so as the oldest and most observant out of the group, Sangyeon decides to use physical force– he knows Eric would hate to have you go without saying goodbye. He’s not stupid. Or blind.

A strong hold on his calves drags Eric out of the bed and makes his half-naked body fall to the floor, a yelp coming out of his throat finally making Eric’s body fully alert and awake.

“Yo! What the fuck–”

“Put a shirt on and go say goodbye to Y/N before she goes, would you, sleeping beauty?” Sangyeon huffs before rolling his eyes at his younger friend, escaping the room and shutting the door close after himself with a loud thud (to add more effect to the scolding, Eric thinks).

The mention of your name has Eric quickly scrambling out of the bed. His heart hammers at the adrenaline rush, pulling a clean shirt out of his bag and dragging it over his head, the basketball shorts from yesterday’s night found on the floor being pulled over his lower frame in approximately 0.5 seconds. Eric takes the stairs 3 at a time– with how steep they are, he questions how exactly does he not trip and break his spine on his way down– and puts on a pair of slippers he finds at the door (that are not his, or his size, for the matter, making his heels comically stick out from the back).

Without checking his appearance in the mirror anywhere, he swings the door open and walks out of the cabin, watching as the group settles in a half-circle around your car, Yeri loading the trunk with her duffle bag before she closes it shut and smiles at her boyfriend Juyeon on the side. Eric joins the crowd, clearing his throat when his eyes fall onto your figure, the sight in front of him freezing him in his spot.

You’re standing there, in your jean shorts from the day before, an oversized white button-up enveloping your frame. A clueless stranger might not tell the difference, but he does– you put the shirt onto your bare skin and buttoned it just enough to reveal a bit of your cleavage– and it’s so similar to the outfit you had on yesterday, just with one difference.

You’re wearing Eric’s shirt. You’re wearing his shirt and your neck is scattered with red and purple-ish bruises, and no, Eric wasn’t that drunk and he remembers everything, but the events of last night suddenly play out right in front of his eyes like a movie, still nailing him to his spot and wiping out all of his vocabulary.

The boy feels hot in his cheeks as he watches you and your best friend pay your goodbyes to the rest of the boys, the men pulling you into side-hugs and fist bumps, shared ‘It was nice meeting you’s and ‘You should come by next time too’s resonating through the place. Soon enough, you reach the end of the make-shift half circle and lock your eyes with Eric, a playful smile softly appearing on your face.

“It was nice meeting you, Eric,” you hum, “I had fun,” you note, shooting him a knowing look.

“Me too,” he nods, nervously chewing on his bottom lip. He doesn’t know where the confidence of last night went, but he suddenly feels unarmed and lost. What does one do now?

The sight of you in his shirt makes him feel like his biggest (wet) dream has come true– call him cheesy, but it also wakes up a sense of déja vu in him from the day before– you with sunlight in your eyes, hair messed up in a claw clip. He feels like he just fell in love at first sight again. Is that even possible?

It’s good you have a sense in you that makes you take the initiative and be in charge when you see him faltering. A giggle cuts out of your throat as you lean in and hug the boy around his neck, your lips dangerously close to his ear as you speak in a hushed whisper, not wanting to be heard by the men around you.

“I stole your shirt from you, by the way. You should text me if you want it back, so we can meet up, or something,” you mouth, lips gently glazing the sensitive skin of Eric’s ear, and god does he feel like he's going to suffocate from the lack of oxygen this causes in his lungs.

“You look amazing in my clothes, so I won’t ask for it back,” Eric hums, “but I’ll text you just in case you ever wanna bless my eyes with the sight again.”

“Deal. I’ll make Juyeon text me your number,” you say before you pull away from him, shooting him a wink that almost has his knees buckling like a school boy in love for the first time.

You walk backwards and wave at the group, sending Eric one last look before you join the passenger’s side and close the car door behind you, the sound of Yeri starting the engine resonating through the quiet forest. The men wave at you until the Toyota disappears out of sight, only scattering inside when it does to gather their things and load up their cars as well.

Eric is woken up from his trance by a teasing whistle coming out of Sunwoo’s mouth and a father-like slap to his back from Sangyeon.

He wonders if he’s truly being so obvious. (He's unaware of the fact that you two had very visible matching love bites on your necks. It doesn’t take much effort to put two and two together– don't tell him that, though.)

Still, Eric shrugs and goes inside with a different kind of pep to his step.

When he licks his lips, he swears he can still taste the strawberries.

#dbn: summer on you #deoboyznet #the boyz #eric sohn #tbz #eric sohn x reader #eric sohn fluff #eric sohn angst #eric sohn scenario #eric fluff #eric angst #sohn youngjae #tbz fic #tbz x reader #tbz fluff #the boyz x reader #the boyz fluff

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mrowtastic · 1 year

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Ok I had a cool Idea about a dp x dc au that i want to throw out here.

The story takes place after the show. Everyone is in their early-mid twenties, (I'm thinking the Trio is around 22-23 and Jazz 26-27, depending), Everything that happened in the show happened here. It's been over five years now and Team Phantom is a well-oiled machine of ghost kick-assery.

The Drs Fenton are retired from the ghost hunting business. Inventing new gadgets and theories is their game and they enjoy it. They have gladly passed the torch to their two kids that they are so so proud of. (Maddie insists that they call at least once a week to chat).

Everyone has stuck together. Amity is healthier (ghost-wise) and is particularly peaceful. The gang goes to the same college (take your pick, i prefer Gotham thanks to ghosty biz), and realize just how much their ghostly know-how is needed outside of Amity. (Maybe Gotham calls in a favor and asks them to [spiritually] clean up her streets to help with the strain of everything?).

Team Phantom comes out of retirement to address the spiritual turmoil, hunt down naughty ghost, help the dearly departed to the other side, and steal mementos, haunted artifacts, and other dangerous occult items best left to the dead. The more morally-grey parts of the job force the Team into stealth mode. They work mostly at night but can work during the day depending on the mission. In order to stay anonymous they have motorcycles (with their assigned colors, the sporty kind) with helmets. (I'm imaging so many motorcycle chasing scenes. Maybe the Fentons invent a ghost whip that snags ghosts mid-chase? That sounds cool).

It's easy to get what they need between Sam's and Danny's wealth, Tucker's programming skill, Danny's engineering skills, Jazz's organizational skills, and Sam's ability to see the big picture. It's just like old times.

In a sense they make themselves a superhero group. To everyone else, however, they have come out of nowhere and are way to skilled to be newbies. It has the bats and other heroes scratching their heads. Shenanigans ensue. Constantine loves them and loathes them in the same breath. The Bats are running in circles because How do they keep getting away?

Everyone gets a superhero identity:

Danny: Sticks with Phantom. I know, boring, but no one outside of Amity really knows about him. (I'm thinking an info blockade from the government like in so many fics). He specializes in all the ghostly, magical parts of their exploits. Anything that needs to be done regarding ectoplasm and weird symbols is his business. Also is the only one able to make chemicals needed for their weapons and handle a hammer for repairs to equipment. I imagine him in either a black trench coat or motorcycle jacket with combat boots, black jeans, and regular black t-shirt. He wears goggles like Maddie's. (Like mother, like son). They make him look unhinged.

Sam: I'm leaning towards the name Thorn? She's the sharpshooter. The muscle. She can and will crack your head between her thighs and possesses 90% of the trio's impulse control (in most situations). I imagine her in knee-high, laced up, goth boots, leggings and killer skirt with a leather jacket and crop top. Her colors are still black, purple, and green. She is SWOLE. I love her.

Tucker: Now, I'm not sure what his name would be but he's basically the field tech. Having an on-site hacker is super useful. He's got twenty ways to get into every building. Security means nothing to him. He's great at stealth (not counting Danny cause ghost powers) and is great at thinking on his feet. His color are black and orange. Instead of wearing his red beret and yellow shirt duo he wears sneakers, tech glasses, a motorcycle jacket with a hoodie attached.

Jazz: Prophet is her codename. She's the lady in the chair. Tucker may make the programs that run the computer, but only Jazz can run them efficiently. She gets them where they need to go, gets them out of tough situations, gets info, assists Tucker, and so much more. Also, I want her to fly a ghost jet. I dont know why but she would be so cool doing it.

#dp x dc prompt #dc x dp #dp x dc #had ideas for sketches but they're not coming out rn so i thought id throw this out here in the wild #I may add the art later if i can get it out so stay tuned #Also had a cool scene in my head I may write out later #anyone is feel to run hog wild with this #if anyone writes anything tho please tag me!

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thewriterg · 1 year

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𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

pairing(s): simon ‘ghost’ riley x fem!reader, john ‘soap’ mactavish x fem!reader, simon ‘ghost’ riley x john ‘soap’ mactavish, force 141 x black!reader, r is referred to as ‘grim’

summary: You’re a new recruit to the force and being honest no one expected you to stick around, that was until they got a first glimpse. But their were only two left to stare in awe

word count: 3.2k+

warning(s): Red room AU, hints of past SA, hints of past abuse, usual cod violence, childhood trauma, trauma in general, teen pregnancy, child loss/abduction, death, blood, mentions of self harm, and language

A/n:—GIFs; @daniel-bruehl & @multi-fandom-imagine— Happy New year Writers! A surprise for my absence we have a new series, layout, and writing structure. Let’s start this year off to a good start :)

Soap was beyond annoyed with everything around him it was ass crack dawn in the morning less than fourteen hours after a rough mission that went that did not go to plan whatsoever and he was planning to sleep

“Alright I know all of you lot would like to head back to your bunkers, so I’m not going to piss around the bush.” Soap and Ghost felt like they could breathe feeling his shoulders relax at that Price kept it clean and cut and they both appreciated the man for the fact

“We have a new recruit.” Ghost’s tense shoulders were right back up again while Soap’s lips etched into a wide smirk before the sounds of boots smacking against the concrete floor that were familiar to the teams ears without a thought

Ghost feel he could take the knife that was stuck resting in the holster sitting at his ankle and slice you clean with it you were tense but too tense just to be introduced to a new team tense like you were a spy lurking around his base in the shadows he stood in

“Team this is—” Your eyes widened as the older man began to introduce you were quick to but in and cut him off without a second thought it seemed

“Grim” Your voice was rich and low Soap declared. You said nothing more and nothing less it was also barely muffled by the mask that rested on your face the only thing visible were your eyes and your curls that tousled past your shoulders and some down you back

those damn curls.

that were too long according to guidelines of the field

Price didn’t seem surprised as he waited a few seconds in case you had anything to say which he doubted and his theory was confirmed as the room sat in silence

“She’ll be joinin’ you lot on the Task Force and a few more missions to come. She’s a hell of a shooter and even better sneaker” Ghosts eyes met yours in the moment as Price began to unimaginatively introduce you it was withholding and bland

“Grim like, Grim reaper?” Soap questioned smiling brightly his groggy state long forgotten as he tried to figure you out yet your face never seemed to falter with a smile or any amusement just steady cold stone

“Somethin’ of the sorts” Your answers were short and direct and Ghost couldn’t help but see himself in you but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to focus on his surroundings when you spoke

It made his head foggy and he hated it

He also hated the fact that he couldn’t tell what you were thinking no matter how much he tried to secretly break you down you we’re already throwing him off

Being honest Price didn’t expect anyone else to be debated over permanently staying on his force or not but you were recruited by Laswell herself so who the hell was he to decline? Especially when he saw your charts for sniping

There was no doubt you were the best sniper on the force

“I want all of you to get along Grim is going to be around for a while. Simon I want you to show Grim to her room” As price spoke he gave the blonde a pointed look before walking out of the common room

As you went to pick up your belongings a veiny hand beat you to it as Ghost hauled your bags into his hands his usual skeleton gloves absent without any trace producing nothing more than a grunt before walking out of the room expecting you to follow which you did reluctantly

After less than a three minute walk and you slightly struggling to keep up with six feet and four inch steps you finally had made it to your room you opened the door for the man who you tried to figure out on your way here and while it took longer than usual it didn’t take long

He was quiet and didn’t try to make a ‘walking over eggshells’ conversation which you appreciated he sat your bags in one of the corners of your room you were dressed similar yet completely different

You wore full tactical gear your vest adding at least another ten pounds to your mass a black balaclava with a cut out smile looking animation almost resembling the joker himself covering every feature on your face except your eyes

Ghost having being in his comfortable attire since just gotten awoke from his sleep had plain grey sweatpants, a fitted Henley, and his own balaclava with a skull printed on it

“Get some rest we have a mission, forty-eight hours” and with that he left you standing in the middle of your room your eyes not tracing over his footsteps until the sound of your door closing brings you to reality

You stare out the window the light of the moon the only source of light you have as a guide around your room before you let out a soft sigh forever staring at the moon

💌💌💌💌

The past two missions you had been on were successful to say the least you accelerated your job each go round and Ghost didn’t know if he respected you for using your head and skills or hated you for being a ‘goody two shoes’

Now you all sat on the chopper Soap goofing around with his gun seeing how fast he could take it apart and put it back together while grinning like an idiot, Ghost sat cracking his knuckles any other bone he could to straighten it out, and you sat quietly…

Dead silence.

It wasn’t necessarily… unusual but in a sense it was at the same time. Ever so often Soap would usually get you to crack a smirk and even maybe join in just a tiny bit on teasing the lieutenant but now it was just

Dead silence.

Almost to the point where the man could barely tell if you were breathing properly not to mention you shaking leg that bounced up and down repeatedly never seeming to falter

Simon didn’t have anything on you and he would be lying through his damn teeth if he said it didn’t bother him none even when he tried to pry the information from Price he got a dead end

“Classified information Riley I don’t tell unless she does”

Classified information his ass.

“Chopper is reaching the margin L.T” Soap’s voice broke the lieutenants thoughts as he stood from his seat the door of the chopper coming to an open as the harsh winds of the sky brought a bit of stinging to his eyes

Surprisingly for you to be in the back of heli you reached the doors first, you were the first to drop, and the first to land not even waiting for your lieutenant to give you the green flag to go you were just gone

Gone.

Gone..

Gone…

💌💌💌💌

The mission was so sick it made you feel filthy and you had learned to evade yourself of that feeling a long time ago but you couldn’t help but feel it creep back onto you as you stared at the pathetic excuse of a man in front of you

He was tied to a chair as soldiers were coming and going inside and out of the cold warehouse You had a ringing in your ears as you both stared at each other the man with a smug you and You with pure disgust, hatred, and even devastation

Price and König were outside of the warehouse loading girls into different vehicles handing out blankets and water bottles while Ghost, Soap, and Gaz all stood around you and each other in a sort of half circle

Anyone and Everyone could tell, it didn’t take a genius to know that there was some sort of familiarity in the both of your eyes and before Ghost could demand you to tell him what the hell was going on the supposed mystery man spoke

“Never thought I would see the day, I get to see my favorite Scholar again.” Your eyes never left his as your fist that wasn’t clutching the M16 Rifle in your hand even though it was strapped around your shoulder and falling to your hip

“Never thought I’d get the chance to kill you” You usually smooth voice was now spiked with hatred as you gritted every word throughout your teeth you didn’t know you were stalking closer to his seated position until you were staring down at him your eyes blazing through your mask

“Grim” Ghost warned as the call for you went in one ear and out the other

“Is that what you call yourself now, you know I couldn’t help but take credit when people were splurging and talking about this girl taking down men four times her size, Sniping through thin air quickly and quietly without a miss, and moving with so much precision you would think she would be a dancer. A ballerina. I knew it was you. My favorite little girl.” He started chuckling the same chuckle that used to make your blood run cold now made it boil

“I’m not that same little girl Dreykov. I’m a grown ass women who could slit your throat before you could even perfect your stance. You will never hurt another girl or woman in your pathetic little life again, because it will be taken from you for all the lives you’ve ruined and traumatized” Your hands sat on the collar of the man’s collar his hair that was one brunette and full was now grey and thin

“Do you remember the time when I threaded your innocence? You fought and fought never let me see the tears that streamed your little face, a true warrior. That’s when I knew I’d had to save you for myself, never let those pretty curls slip my grasp” You couldn’t find the words in you to speak no one could even Soap who always had something say couldn’t utter a word

Ghost and Soap could help but pray and Ghost never found himself doing the act even when he was fighting for his life on the battlefield that what this bastard was talking about wasn’t what they thought he was even Gaz found himself holding his breath in anticipation

“And then we found out that, another addition would be added to our headquarters. That there would be an offspring a mix of our two souls soon to be padding around this base. God you tried and tried to remove yourself too the point you were put on heavy watch do you remember?” You could never bring yourself to forget even after five years it would always be in the back of your mind taunting you

They all felt sick.

“I was seventeen you sick bastard!” The pistol that usually sat in the holster at your hip now collided with the forehead of that man in front of you

Again.

Again..

And again…

Until you were thrashing against the tight hold of Ghost who scooped you up without a speck of struggle the only thing stopping him from keeping you there was your struggling against his firm grasp

“You raped me! You first raped me when I was fourteen! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!” You were screaming so loud it would be sure to take your voice it left you so dehydrated you were sure to soon start dry heaving

💌💌💌💌

“Okay one more push it’s almost here, come on one more big one!” Your legs propped up on either side of the medical cot underneath you a sheet blocking your view from seeing what was going on on the other side

But if you were being honest you could barely give an ounce of care what was going on the other side your this was worse than any dagger cut you could bring to receive or give yourself it was a searing pain that made your ears ring and bring you in and out of consciousness

“It’s a Girl” the female nurse smiled brightly down at the newborn in her arms and then back to you as sweat dripped down your body you tilted your head as you stared at the baby girl in her arms

“A girl?” You were sure that was the first time you smiled in all your years at the base the nurse noted it too

“What will you name her?” You had thought about it. The name of your child over the past nine months even if you didn’t want to your head couldn’t help but start to generate it

“I will name her Natalia. Please let me see her” You held your arms out and the women inched towards you with a smile ready to lay the crying infant in your arms

“Woman, what are you doing!? Don’t.” Both your smiles left at the sound of Drekovs voice and reluctantly the women backed away from you as your eyes began to water

“Please just once. Just one time” Your voice was hoarse as it cracked and shattered in your throat

“Dreykov please! Please, please Dreykov NO!” The man left without a word your baby in his filthy hands. You were too weak to get up, to run after her.

“It’s better for her Zero, let her go, just let her go” The nurse hugged you tight your head tucked underneath her chin rocking you back and forth as you screamed and cried along with your aching body

Your heart would never heal and that was the last day you cried in your life.

💌💌💌💌

You were in Soaps hold now when did you get here you had no Idea his grip was firm like Ghost’s but it was also cradling as if you were the most expensive porcelain on the market that’s what you didn’t want that’s what you’ve been trying to prevent

For everyone to tread around or walk on eggshells when it wasn’t from fear but pity holding you like glass as if you would b r e a k if the spoke too loud you hadn’t been held like that since that day

The sound of bones snapping evaded your senses as you looked to where ghost stood repeatedly smashing his fist the Dreykovs face bones snapped and you didn’t know if it was concerning that you knew the sound of each one

crack

that was the nose

crack.

that was the jaw.

crack!

that was the neck

creak

that was the windpipe

CRACK!

that was the skull.

You watched as the chair tipped on its side the man who robbed you of your chances of a normal life still strapped to it as blood gargled in his mouth you locked eyes as you watched him take his last breath and he watched as you took your first real one

You felt a tremendous weight lifted from your shoulders and you couldn’t tell if that was metaphorical or because Soap finally let you go

“Grim, do you copy!?” The blaring of the little box on your chest hurt your ears as Price’s voice ran through it out into the open

“Yes sir” Your voice void of any emotion as if you weren’t screaming bloody murder ten minutes ago the Boys stared at you as you kept your eyes glued to his dead ones

“Any issues?” There were plenty of them that you could count at least ten on all of your fingers that came to the top of your head

“Negative sir.” You turned around on the heel of your boot walking out of the room with the slam of the door

💌💌💌💌

Your way back to base was silent the only noise was the birds choppers swinging rapidly over your head and by the time you had gotten to your destination you were already headed towards your room not waiting for your lieutenant Ghost to dismiss you like you were supposed to

Your hands shook as you opened the door to your room and it made you heavily curse You were a sniper you never shook

Your clothes you had to talk yourself into putting into your drawers were back in your bag with an amount of Meer minutes and then there was a knock on your door it was time you knew it was

You stalked to your door your fingertips lingering on the knob before you opened it suddenly and there stood Gaz a beanie on his head majority of his tactical gear off his body

“Price wants to see you in his office” His voice was soft as he stared at you none of your gear was off there was blood splattered on your balaclava and your body seamed to tremble

You simply nodded pushing past the taller man so you be on your way and you got there too soon it felt like you were too fast on the way there like you didn’t use enough time You knocked on the door three times and a second past by before price spoke up to let you enter

“Take a Seat kid” Was the first thing that spilled from his lips as he stared at your stiff and tense figure standing in front of the door and even thought it was only a minute that past as you reluctantly sat down it felt like hours

“No one’s blaming you for what happened, I know. I’d never tell anyone, haven’t told anyone. The only people who know are me and Lawswell” Price’s word stuck in your head it didn’t go in one ear and o u t the other

“I’m, I’m not suspended?” You couldn’t help but question the one thing, the only thing on your mind as the white haired man inhaled the smoke of his cigar before letting it seep back out of his teeth shaking his head

“No, but I do have a job, a mission that you aren’t going to like I know you run off structure and discipline so you could claim this as a challenge more than a punishment.” You caught yourself holding your breath in anticipation at the pause in the air

“You’ll be going on a undercover mission… with Ghost and Soap to accompany you” Your fist balled up in your lap as you both stared at each other you finally let the bruising hold on your hands go before giving the captain and stiff yet swift nod standing from your seat

“And Grim” You turned back to face him your fingertips steady on the door knob

“You did well today” There was only a hum mixed with a grunt of acknowledgment before you left Prices office heading back down the hallway to your own room

Something you could finally call your own

💌💌💌💌

Resources;

National Sexual Assault Hotline; 1-800-656-4673

what to do if you or a loved one was sexually assaulted

how to cope with SA

Let me know if you wanted to be added to this series or any other taglist

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allgirlsareprincesses · 7 months

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Love At First Sight (2023)

Okay, we’re going to talk about the new Netflix romance directed by Vanessa Caswill, Love At First Sight, because I’m seeing almost no chatter about it and that cannot stand. Full disclosure, I’ve never read the book on which this movie is based, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, so I’m reacting only to the film (which I’ve now seen 4.5 times in 2 days).

The Surface Reading

It’s a perfect, tight, adorable little RomCom that’s heavy on the Rom and light on the Com, with a wrenching dash of angst and the most hair-twirling chemistry between two leads that has graced our screens in years. Truly, if all you want is 90 minutes of two actors being saccharine precious cinnamon rolls, look no further!

There are simple takeaways here, like that chance can only take you so far, but in the end you have to choose to love. Or that change and loss are part of life and you can’t run from them. Or that London is a massive labyrinth of eccentric people that probably looks 400% cooler onscreen than it is in reality (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never visited, so this and the 90s Parent Trap are the extent of my knowledge about the city, sorry).

Anyway, I adored how straightforward the story was - that the narrator (played brilliantly by Jameela Jamil) tells you directly in the first two minutes that it’s a story about love, fate, and statistics. She then repeatedly describes every development as it is happening, the characters’ histories and internal monologues, and all the context you need to follow the thin but fast-paced plot. The writing, performances, and production design are all solid, allowing the audience to get lost in the romance as it unfolds.

BUT if you’re slightly unhinged like I am and you’re always looking for more layers in your media, HAVE NO FEAR! There is in fact more going on in this little movie than you might expect.

Color Theory

For starters, the use of red and green in the film is fascinating. Yes, I realize the action of the story takes place a few days before Christmas, so you might assume it was just a seasonal aesthetic choice, but if you look closer, you can see very carefully selected shades of red and green repeating throughout the film. The red is a cool, deep rose color, sometimes pink, while the green is cool and dark, like oxidized bronze rather than emerald. Further, while they appear over and over, these hues are rarely used in a purely decorative or festive way. Instead, they play a role in the separation and coming together of the couple. On a color wheel, red and green are complements, perfect opposites that are never adjacent but always joined in the middle.

The title card during Hadley’s introduction is literally a green stripe over a red stripe, then the hallways of the airport are green, and of course Hadley’s ever-important backpack is a rosy red. As the couple grow closer on their flight, the light turns pink. Once in London, a green van takes Oliver one way while a red taxi takes Hadley the other. At her father’s wedding, Hadley is dressed in red (“the color of a bruise” she calls it), contrasting beautifully against her green jacket. Upon realizing Oliver’s true purpose, she chases after him on an iconic red double-decker bus. Meanwhile at the living memorial, Oliver’s father is dressed in red while his mother wears a faded green, as if to say she is already beginning to fade away. The event is decorated with green drapery and streamers, and there are even stacks of red and green chairs in the stairwell where Oliver begs his mother to receive treatment.

Hadley gifts her red and green bouquet to Tessa, and when she is driven away, a green-clad narrator returns the red backpack to Oliver. Wandering London alone, Hadley exchanges her painful red heels for a pair of green trainers (“sneakers!” she insists), and tries to call her dad first in a red phone booth and then on a phone from a stranger sitting in a cluster of red chairs. Finally, Oliver chooses to pursue Hadley to the wedding reception which is lit in pink, and where they finally share the long-awaited kiss.

There are many more examples, but in general we see that green indicates separation and loss, while red symbolizes joining, intimacy, and (what else?) love! It lends the film a gorgeous, subtle aesthetic without being garishly festive, and shows the lovers’ emotional journey from lonely childhood to vulnerable, loving adulthood.

Death and Rebirth

Speaking of which, there’s plenty of rebirth imagery too! When Hadley and Oliver meet, they are both still children, struggling with the impending loss of parental security through divorce and death. Thus, when they board the plane, it is as if they enter an underworld or womb, separated from their families and remade as new adults. They emerge on the other side into a hallway (read: birth canal), as each must still confront their own dying childhood before they can join as full and equal partners. Hadley journeys to a bright, red-strewn celebration of life, while Oliver must enter a dark green commemoration of death, his fear driving him deeper to hide in another hallway. Here his mother comes to find him, begging him to emerge into life, but Ollie still can’t confront her death alone.

Thankfully, Hadley travels to this underworld to find him, bursting into the memorial like a bright red flower. Even the bruise metaphor works, acknowledging the pain they are both experiencing at the changes in their lives. But Oliver still refuses to face his fears, trying to take a shortcut around death to life with Hadley. Still, she knows he’s not ready (likely because she’s not yet, either), and gently pushes back. And so, Oliver returns to the underworld, and Hadley walks off alone until she descends barefoot through a soggy riverside tunnel (birth canal again!). Finally, she calls her father and admits she is “lost.” When he arrives, Hadley at last gathers the courage to ask why he ended their old life, and to tell him how much it hurt her. But as Oliver predicted, she forgives her dad and even begins to accept his new bride.

Back at the memorial, Oliver is reminded by Hadley’s red backpack - his unaddressed emotional baggage - to be honest about his pain. In at last openly mourning his mother and his own childhood, Ollie takes a step into adulthood, just enough for his family to nudge him that extra bit to go after Hadley. And so, the family delivers him to his bride, who has meanwhile learned to dance again, even through her heartbreak. With one last confession, the two consummate their love with a kiss, bathed in pink light before an open door.

Happily Ever After

There’s so much more, with the hand-holding, numbers, Shakespeare, Dickens, the music, and beyond, but the point is that this cute, charming little romance is actually very deliberately constructed. It follows timeless patterns and motifs which we instinctively understand through visual and auditory language. And the narration plays a huge role in this as well, not unlike the prologues and epilogues of the Bard’s plays in that they state the story’s lessons plainly: that we cannot always be prepared for unwelcome surprises, but that we can make the choice to love every day.

Anyway, Vanessa Caswill deserves all the flowers and if you haven’t seen her gorgeous adaptation of Little Women (with all due respect to the marvelous Greta Gerwig and Gillian Armstrong), please do yourself a favor and watch that after you finish this!

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midnighmoonligh · 15 days

Text

Agere CoD Animal Crossing Head Canon's

(this is just for fun)

Item list; Denim Overalls (white), Kerokerokeroppi Pin, Pacifier (baby grey), Simple-accent Socks (white), Rubber-toe Sneakers (black), Dreamy Backpack (mint), & Panda Umbrella.

Big on-island design

Plays religiously when little

He will harass anyone he can to play with him

Ghost has to aggressively avoid Kyle when playing, he makes him regress

Has a Dark Academia theme

Favorite holiday is a mix of Halloween (favorite character is ofc Jack) and Turkey Day

Aggressively collects amiibo cards, has two binders full of them

The villagers he has are; Apollo, Wolfgang, Skye, Dobie, Chief, Kyle, Fang, Freya, and Vivian.

His starters had been Apollo, Daisy, and Pecan

Ghost's favorite villager is Kyle (looks like Riley & has Gaz's name)

Item list; Annyeong Tee, Baggy Shirt (gray), Dreamy Pants (blue), Jogging Shorts (black), Diaper (light blue), Mohawk Wig, Punk Hair Wig (orange), Pacifier (baby gray, Pacifier (baby mint), Holey Socks (blue), Knee Bandages, Knee Brace (black & blue), Basketball Shoes (light blue), Crossbody Boston Bag (blue), and Blue Umbrella.

All his villagers are jocks

His first animal crossing game was New Leaf

Prefers new leaf, but doesn't mind new horizons

The villagers he has are; Kid Cat, Samson, Stinky, Tank, Teddy, ED, Tad, Moose, Mac, and Lyman.

He collected the amiibo cards for a small time to get jock villagers, but he gave his collection to Ghost.

Soap's favorite villager is Tad

His favorite holiday is Bunny Day

His favorite character is Zipper

His original villagers were Teddy, Deirdre, and Poncho

Soap's Island is a cross between city-theme and kidcore

Obnoxiously into animal crossing conspiracies

He has loads of theories about Zipper

Item's list; Anorak Jacket (red), Colorful Striped Sweater (white, yellow, & red), Diaper (cream), Formal Shorts (white), Track Pants (gray), Crown, Colorful Striped Knit Cap (red), Pacifier (baby gray), Pacifier (baby pink), Color-blocked Socks (brown), Kerokerokeroppi socks, Pompompurin boots, Rubber-toe High TOps (berry red), Bug Cage, Butterfly Backpack, and Rainbow umbrella.

Big on bug collection

Maxed out the bug half of the museum

Gets so excited when seeing Flick

Casual player & often hangs out with ghost

Has had the same villagers since he started

Only really plays if he can play with someone

Got the crown from Ghost (both Ghost & Soap worked to get it for him)

The villagers he has are; Molly, Fauna, Beau, Erik, Deirdre, Pecan, Poppy, Kiki, Mapple, and Ike.

His starter villagers were; Fauna, Deirdre, and Pecan.

His favorite holiday is Festivale and Bug-off

Will take a day off just to sit and play the Festivale event

He'll spend an entire day running around collecting flowers because shiny

His favorite characters are Nat, Flick, & Kiki

The island theme he picked is a sort of glow forest

Item list; Colorful Striped Sweater (navy, light blue, & pink), Oilskin Coat (red), Explorer Shorts (beige), Pineapple Aloha Shorts (red), Outdoor Hat (red), Pacifier (baby yellow) Pacifier (baby orange), Pacifier (baby pink), Rounded Beard, Frilly Knee-high Socks (black), Knee Bandages, Rubber-toe Sneakers (yellow), Rain Boots (red), Fish Pochette, and Fish Umbrella.

The museum is fully maxed out

Shares an island with Gaz, doesn't decorate

He will get super anxious when things are suddenly different

Fishes ALL THE TIME

Only plays to fish for hours

Rich from the fish he catches

Gets lost on the island a lot

Will excitedly shake Gaz if he finds out CJ is roaming around

Is a pro at the fishing tourneys

He has all the special items you can get from CJ

Has the same villagers as Gaz

His favorite characters are CJ and Chip

Gets upset when things block the view of where he's fishing

Will complain about how clapped the villagers look

His favorite holidays are Fishing Tourney and International Museum Day.

Item list; Energetic Sweater (purple), Konnichiwa Tee, Mod Parka (green), Cargo Pants (avocado), Chino Pants (gray), Labelle Cap (midnight), OK Motors Cap, Pacifier (baby gray), Pacifier (baby green), Color-blocked Socks (green), Pom-pom Socks (green), Kerokerokeroppi Boots, Rubber-toe High Tops (olive), Nook Inc. Pochette, and Frog Umbrella.

Loves when it rains

Decorates like crazy

Super pretty and aesthetic island

Specifically created places where Price and fish

He's on fashion and his storage is full of clothes

Doesn't have enough space for his clothes and gets really upset about it

Island aesthetic is neutral neighborhood

He borrows Ghost's cards. He thinks they're really cool

His villagers are; Pietro, Julian, Elmer, Papi, Victoria, Roscoe, Winnie, Savannah, Reneigh, and Annalise.

The original villagers he had were; Julian, Alice, and Elise.

Gaz specifically picks the most obnoxious villagers to annoy Price

He forgets to warn Price when making changes to their island

Favorite holiday is Toy Day

Favorite character is Isabelle

Item list; Chick Tee, Culottes (white), Diaper (light blue), Boa Parka (gray), Denim Overalls (avocado), Kiki & Lala Pin, Pacifier (baby gray), Pacifier (baby mint), Color-blocked Socks (white), Nordic Socks (gray), Tube Socks (navy blue), Cinnamoroll Sneakers, Cute Sneakers (blue), Rubber-toe High Tops (blue), Bear Backpack (brown), and Pineapple Umbrella.

Only plays with Logan and/or Hesh

Shares an island with Logan & Hesh

Hesh's wife plays with them too!

Loves collecting shooting stars & their crafting recipes

Doesn't do anything in particular, mostly just follows Logan & Hesh around

Often watches Logan & Hesh fight over decorating (sometimes antagonizes it & finds it funny)

Logan enjoys having a fall scene, always skipping time to stay in it. Hesh prefers winter. So to compromise they split the island into three parts

Keegan went for a dark cottage-core on his side

Their villagers are; Phoebe, Charlise, Katt, Tybalt, Claudia, Filbert, Kitty, Tammy, Graham, and Vesta.

Their original villagers were; Phoebe, Kitt, and Charlise

His favorite holiday is New Years and Christmas

He always makes sure to play on holidays!

Favorite characters are Timmy and Tommy

Item list; Dreamy Sweater (blue), Garden Tank (blue), Kids' Smock (cherry blossom), Culottes (white), Diaper (light blue), Dreamy Pants (blue), Cinnamoroll hat, Prom Crown (silver), Pacifier (baby gray), Pacifier (baby mint), Pacifier (baby blue), Kiki & Lala Socks, Lace Socks (white), Cinnamoroll sneakers, Mary Janes (blue), Dreamy Backpack (mint), and Blue shiny-bows parasol.

Doesn't share an island with anyone, but is always having shadows play with him on his island

Half the island is worked on the other half isn't. It's been this way for two years

Has a fairy-tale aesthetic (mostly greyscale)

His favorite villager type is dogs

His favorite villager is Cookie

Favorite event is New Years (for the fireworks) and Fireworks show

Favorite character is Redd

His current villagers are; Goldie, Cookie, Portia, Shep, Bea, Butch, Maddie, Daisy, Lucky, Bones, and Boom.

His original villagers were; Lucky, Sparro, and Bam

He has a small collection of cards. He only bought them to collect the dogs more easily but ended up giving up

Plays more than anything when he's injured

Item list; bone Tee, Cardigan School Uniform Top (beige), Two-tone Pants (yellow), Worn-out Jeans (light blue), Paper-bag Hood, Ski Mask (black), Halo, Cosmos Crown, Pacifier (baby gray), Pacifier (baby yellow), Aran-knit Socks (white), Cute Sneakers (yellow), Mary Janes (red), Vivid Socks (yellow), Nook Inc. Knapsack, and Eggy Parasol.

Shares an island with Horangi

Horangi plays way more than he does

Plays New Leaf more than New Horizons

Only really plays when regressed

Absolutely terrified of the bugs and will run away from them or yell until Horangi catches them

Their villagers are; Bangle, Bianca, Claudia, Leonardo, Rolf, Rown, Tynalt, Patricia, Spike, and Merengue.

Their original villagers were; Bianca, Dozer, and Shari.

He really likes talking about animal crossing

He loves playing with people online

His favorite characters are Isabelle and Digby

Horangi conned him into having all the tigers

Island Aesthic is kid core (he begged Horangi)

He has ALL the fruits

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rottenpumpkin13 · 9 months

Text

Out of Context Shit Heard on the SOLDIER floor #4

A portion of these were sent in/inspired by an ask sent by @strawberrysnortshake

Zack: Ironically this isn't the first time I've accidentally eaten chalk.

Angeal: Attention everyone we're now taking votes. Raise your hand if you would sleep with Sephi—I DIDN'T FINISH SAYING HIS NAME PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN.

Kunsel: We're all out of duct tape. Angeal used the last of it to tape Genesis to the ceiling.

Sephiroth: Are you satisfied with your fish sticks, Zackary?

Genesis: Why does it smell like mommy issues in here—oh hi, Sephiroth.

Zack: I'm officially 23% goat milk.

Genesis: Well well well if it isn't my old nemesis, Heterosexuality.

Zack: Aww! 🥰 You're the antichrist!

Cloud: Yeah you're a SOLDIER alright, a sold your ass.

Zack: Where are we supposed to put this giant clown statue?

Lazard: WHY do you have a giant clown statue?

Sephiroth walking towards Genesis's office with a flamethrower: The goddess has had it good for far too long.

Essai: If we all chip in, we can finally buy Kunsel a face.

Genesis: I guess this means that the box labeled used illegal knick-knacks is off limits?

Roche: let's all dance maniacally and pretend we're gay!

Lazard: ANGEAL THAT ELEVATOR IS COMING OUT OF YOUR PAYCHECK!

Sephiroth: Are you, as the kids say, flexing on 'em?

Zack: Does anyone know what happened to my Sephiroth scented candle?

Sephiroth: I'll add murder supplies and can of whipped cream to the shopping list.

Luxiere: Let me guess, nobody cared about your light up sneakers?

Zack: 🎶 We take the pain out of paint 🎶

Roche: Have a slutty, slutty evening, director.

Angeal: Gen, can you let me have a cup of coffee before you start divulging your theories on why Cloud Strife is a time traveler?

Zack: I am going to default dance my way through hell!

Cloud: Cool trick! I'm a wizard now.

Genesis: I will start rumors about your sex life.

Lazard: Sephiroth I can't fire you, but I can mysteriously make sure you go bald.

Kunsel: This is a cave. Nothing really matters.

Sephiroth: how does one acquire a leprechaun? Can you order one online?

Roche: Commander Rhapsodos is so pretty. He reminds me of a prostitute.

Sephiroth: Genesis got me a journal for my birthday. I think I'm supposed to write down my feelings but I don't have enough pages for that.

Kunsel: when will we be free from the chains of foot pictures?

Genesis: If I find drugs in this office I'm confiscating it for my own personal use.

Lazard: Would anyone care to explain why there was a condom filled with grape jelly in the break room?

Zack(drunk): Good evening, my esteemed bastards.

Angeal: Bullying is only allowed on the SOLDIER floor if it makes Genesis cry.

Sephiroth: Mental healthn't.

Kunsel: is anyone here familiar with the concept of witchcraft? we're hexing Commander Rhapsodos at dawn.

Luxiere: Here kitty kitt—Oh that is a huuuge cat—OH IT'S GENERAL SEPHIROTH.

Angeal: Why did you spell salmonella as Sal Minella???? Who's Sal???

Sephiroth, while walking towards his office with an entire pie and a fork: Do not presume to question my actions.

Lazard: If we suffer any more budget cuts we're going to use Zack's hair as a broom.

Sephiroth: Which one of you locked Director Lazard in the Janitor's closet?

Cloud, watching Genesis recite LOVELESS: The evil gay red man is at it again.

#ffvii #ff7 #final fantasy 7 #genesis rhapsodos #sephiroth #ffvii crisis core #ff7r #angeal hewley #final fantasy #zack fair #cloud strife #ff #final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii crisis core #ffviir #ffvii remake #ff7 remake

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sarahowritesostucky · 23 days

Text

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Steve x ofc x Bucky; Steve x Bucky

Word Count: 1422

Tags: Dom/sub, bdsm au, dom Bucky, sub reader, hurt/comfort, enemies to lovers, gay sex'n'stuff, straight sex'n'stuff, Steve being a literal Golden Retriever, mental health issues, dub-con, forced submission, referenced childhood abuse and resultant mental health issues, bakery au, m/f/m, gentle domination, total power exchange

Summary: The stigma and shame of being a submissive has kept Mary unfulfilled and in the closet her whole life, until an inciting incident leads to Bucky and Steve taking her in and giving her everything she was always too afraid to ask for.

Now that the 1st is over for anybody unlucky enough to stumble across this: it's an April Fool's chapter- not real.

11. Cheesecake

Two days later, Steve decides to take a late afternoon nap. He wakes from a very deep sleep to the sunlight gone from beyond the widows, and before he can even groan over however the hell long he’s slept, the sound of Bucky and Mary arguing—loudly—reaches his ears.

“Well I don’t care what she said! This is insane! You’re not going!”

“You can’t stop me!”

“You bet your ass I can!”

Steve groans and turns over in the bed. He’s so sick and tired of this. Having Mary stay at their place was a good idea, in theory, but it hasn’t worked out at all the way either he or Bucky were hoping. All it’s done is make all three of them miserable, and put a strain on his and Bucky’s marriage. Getting up, he decides to put his foot down. They can’t keep doing this.

Steve goes out to the living room, where Mary is dressed in a shocking amount of nothing, and what she is wearing all seems to be red latex. “Mare?” he says groggily.

Bucky whirls around. “Did you know about this?”

“I told you he doesn’t.”

“Know about what?” Steve asks grumpily.

“Well it wouldn’t be the first secret you’ve kept for her behind my back.”

Steve lowers the hand that’s been rubbing his eyes. Uh oh. Bucky is half naked, he notices, with his joggers and sneakers on and nothing else. Steve figures he must’ve been heading for the shower, as the arm is off, too.

Over by the door, Mary is shrugging on her coat. “I’ll see you guys later. Have a nice life."

“Hey! Don’t you open that door.”

When she opens it, Steve is surprised to see none other than Thor standing in the hallway.

“Is that … the Pro?” he asks, confusedly. Behind Thor’s mass are two other people, a girl and a man, also decked out in bold and scant sub wear. Oh, Steve thinks. That’s the girl who Mary made friends with at the CDP the other week. What was her name again? Daryl, Deena, Diane ...

“Darcy!” Bucky growls, pointing at her. “What the fuck did you talk her into?!”

“She doesn’t need you,” Darcy says bravely (or as bravely as she can from behind Thor’s massive body). “She’s gonna come live with us and be our sister-wife.”

“Your what?!”

“Don’t worry, fellows!” Thor booms with a smile. “My harem is a lovely place to live. I promise I’ll take excellent care of her!” He ignores Bucky’s furious expression and shoots Steve a thumbs up gesture. “Perhaps we’ll see you at the social!”

“Mary,” Bucky warns, but Mary’s already grabbed her purse and gone out the door. She waggles her fingers at them and says she'll send 'someone neutral' by for her stuff. “Don't worry about me,” she says. "I finally figured out what I really need."

The door shuts behind her, and Bucky and Steve just stand there for a while, processing what just happened.

“... what just happened?” Steve asks.

Bucky goes and throws himself onto the couch, looking totally stunned. “Mary decided that she’s going to get her custody transferred to Thor so she can live with Darcy and her boyfriend whatshisface at their house."

Steve’s heartrate picks up. “But … the custody order,” he says.

“Yeah.” Bucky glares across the room at Steve. “Apparently she went to Linda and told her we refused sex, so Linda signed off on it. A judge gave her a new ruling yesterday.”

“What?!”

“Yeah. That’s where she was all day, not at work.”

Steve gasps, in disbelief. “Well … there’s gotta be something we can do?!” He flings his arm at the door where Mary just left. “Where the hell was he taking her, anyway?”

“A social.” Bucky’s expression loses some of its bite, and he shakes his head. “Maybe this is for the best,” he mumbles. “She wasn’t getting what she needs here. We can’t force her to want us. And she obviously doesn’t.” He shakes his head, sighing. “It would’ve ended like this, anyway. So maybe she just saved us a lot of awkward conversations.”

Steve huffs, frustrated by that. “How could she not want us?” he complains, gesturing down his own body where he stands and then Bucky’s. “We’re way out of her league! She should’ve been jumping for joy that we wanted to be with—”

“Yeah well obviously there were mitigating factors,” Bucky snaps, looking bitterly down at the left side of his body where the arm isn’t. “So she finally went and did something right for herself. Good on her.”

Steve can’t believe what he’s hearing. He puts his hands on his hips, pissed at Bucky’s defeatist attitude. “So you’re not even gonna go after her?”

Bucky shakes his head. “What’s the point? We didn’t have a future with her. At least this way she’ll get what she needs … with someone she wants it from.”

Steve scoffs, angry, but then he deflates some. “Well fuck.”

Bucky nods. “Fuck indeed.”

Steve’s shoulders slump, and his focus shifts to making sure that Bucky’s okay. “Hey,” he nudges gently, going over to the couch. “What do you need, babe?”

Bucky gives him a sad but fond smile and holds his arm out along the back of the couch in indication. “Just you, Sweetheart. C’mere.”

Steve sinks down to snuggle up beside him, and the two of them talk quietly for a while about what the hell they’re going to do now. Now that the heat of the moment's worn off, they both can concede that there's no better person to take care of Mary than Thor. And this way, she'll have a best friend in Darcy as well. Not all relationships are meant to last, but that doesn't make them not meaningful.

And as for the two of them? Well ...

“You know you’re all I need,” Bucky says quietly to him later, once they’re in bed, in the dark, hands clasped between them and cum drying on their bellies. “Always were.”

Steve rolls over and gives him a tender kiss. “Me too, Buck. Me too.”

They don’t discover the farewell cheesecake in the fridge until the next morning, when both of them have already made love again and showered and resolved to look on the bright side about how they at least accomplished one thing: and that’s that they definitely saved Mary’s life and helped her go from a very bad place, to where she needs to be.

“Oh man,” Steve groans when he opens the fridge and sees them sitting there. “I’m gonna miss this, though.” He pulls out the two plates of cheesecake to show Bucky. “She really got to know our tastes, huh?” One of the slices is blueberry, the other is Dulce. Bucky smiles fondly and nods. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “Yeah she did.”

They sit together and eat their respective slices at the breakfast bar, feeling much better about the outcome of things than they did yesterday. “I’m happy for her,” Bucky finally decides, because he is. “And we’ll always be able to keep in touch. So that’s good.”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees. “It’s good.” They share a warm smile of affection and briefly clasp hands. Steve raises his eyebrows at Bucky’s metal arm. “Do you really need that if we're just goin' to the farmer’s market?”

Bucky chuckles and shakes his head. “Naw. You're right.” He comes around the breakfast bar and offers his left side to Steve with a loving smile. “Why don’t you help me take it off?”

Steve does, and he knows that they’re going to be alright.

Epilogue:

Mary forms a relationship with Thor and falls in love with him. Darcy and Ian are just her friends, and they all wind up living together in one house, in a polyamorous relationship.

Mary texts Steve and Bucky starting a few days after her departure, apologizing for how she left, but that she knows it was for the best. All three of them maintain contact through texting and the occasional event at the CDP, and they all forgive each other and form an incredible friendship (so much so that sometimes even Thor gets jealous!)

Bucky and Steve entertain the idea of dating around for a potential third, but they eventually decide that they’re it for each other, and Bucky just uses the Pro subs at the CDP from time to time.

All in all, they’re happy, and it’s very gratifying to know that they helped Mary get her life turned around. She even winds up opening her own little micro bakery not too far from their place, so Steve and Bucky can continue enjoying the delicious desserts she makes.

Mary, Darcy, and Thor have an informal poly wedding ceremony (which Bucky and Steve happily attend), opting against a traditional marriage that would only recognize one of them, and within two years, both Mary and Darcy are expecting!

Bucky and Steve enthusiastically agree to be the baby’s godparents. The experience convinces them to pursue adoption themselves.

And after the Christening, everyone gathers at the CDP for a wonderful celebration … with loads of cheesecake.

Please don't hate me for this ending! I really think it's in the characters best interests and a more realistic ending for all three of them.

... And it's April 1st though, so ...

This wasn't a real chapter. And it's basically the only harmless prank I can play on anyone today, so. There you have it. Happy April Fool's day! (and 🤞🏻please don't unsubscribe in anger 😅)

And in case you're not a fan of pranks: well I'm writing the next (real) chapter today and (should be) able to post either tonight or tomorrow night, so don't fume too much! 🥰

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linnavuligar · 3 months

Text

It's 2 am but I can't sleep so here's some design details for my qsmp eggs (sorry if there are incoherent thoughts)

• Ramon

Ramon is a electric dragon. His body is 90% covered in materials that are bad at conducting electricity so he can interact with people. He loves hug.

His tail is broken. I gave his tail a metal thing so he can charge electricity again. This design choice is to parallel qFit metal arm.

His shirt collar is this shape ⚡

He has baby face (so does Chayanne - 🎭💀) so he glued a mustache onto his goggles to hide it (the adhesive is terrible so he's working on other mustache alternative)

I designed him with lots of square shapes (with rounded corners though) and bright neutral colors. I want him to be sturdy, reliable, calm and a bit of a softy.

I also designed him with squares because I want him to contrast with Dapper who is dark gray with saturated red and would have flow-y clothes that are sharp triangles shaped.

His design is the most thought I have put into a character design.

• These four

Leo: I just put my spin on popular Leo designs. Red hoodie, dog hat/cap, black shorts red sneakers white socks and of course, a shark tail. (I'm planning on heavily changing her design) _ Hc: her power is crystal bending but right now she can only control amethyst crystals.

Tallulah: popular Tallulah design. Besides the orca tail, I contribute nothing.

Empanada: everything is pancakes, also her tail is the shortest of all the eggs. (Hc: her magic is to turn cake batter into copies of herself. She's learning how to morph it into other people)

Sunny: sun and clouds motifs. Her eyes are black with amber iris, giving her excellent night vision but detrimental during the day, that's why she wears sunglasses. Hc: sun magic. She can bend light and go invisible, or generate / withstand intense heat, her hair and tail fur glows. She's too young to control the weather ← there's a theory about how tubbo's mood control the weather so I want to give her sun power to parallel qTubbo (sunny is a bit op right now but I'm working on it)

#qsmp #qsmp ramon #qsmp leonarda #qsmp tallulah #qsmp empanada #qsmp sunny

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hanmeowsung · 3 months

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what if kenta is tony’s son

obvious disclaimer: i have not read the novel nor gotten any spoilers so if this is wrong pls dont hate me lol. it might just be a dumb theory but ! i may be cringe but i am free.

ok so these are the points my theory hinges on

1) kenta clearly doesn’t wear the other trafficked children’s uniform

every one of the trafficked ‘alpha’ kids wear a long sleeved white shirt with red track pants and white sneakers. we have seen this with babe, pete, charlie and jeff. but kenta just. doesn’t?

2) kenta clearly follows separate rules than the other kids in the mansion

does this not look weird? like ‘the outside world belongs to alpha children’ implies that kenta is not an alpha, but ‘normal’. we know that that doesn’t make sense because in a previous episode we get to know that tony only adopts alpha (and enigma) children. so why would he have kenta?

3) just weird behaviour

and also can i just point out that he just treats kenta way more different than other kids? like yes we’ve seen him throw way around a bit but that’s because he ‘fucked up’. he takes any and all frustrations out on kenta as if he has personally offended and embarrassed him. and kenta seems to have a bit more freedom than other kids. kenta also seems awfully defensive of tony when he’s fully aware of what’s happening to the children. is he brainwashed? or has he just grown up knowing that tony is his only family? (it kinda reminds me of gun and vegas from kinnporsche tbh.)

so yeah. haha.

#myself #pit babe the series #pit babe #kenta pbts #tony pbts #i have literally nothing to say for myselg #.

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demonichikikomori · 6 months

Note

hiiii <333 can i request maybe ruggie taking care of sick reader but in a nsfw way so she can "sweat it out" :o , maybe a lil bit of dubcon bcuz reader is too weak :( love u devil!!!!!!❤️

Hate That You're Sick

REQUEST

Ruggie Bucchi x Virgin!Fem!Reader Word Count: 3.3k+ Tags: Ruggie is A Sleaze/Sickfic(?)/DubCon

Art is by moneco17 on Twitter!

I love you too babes!~! You know I love love loooove dubious and I love love loooooove my Ruggie Bug!~! I haven't ever written a sickfic though! I think they're so wonderful. I want to be babied when I'm sick. I'm so pathetic when I have a runny nose or even a little cough. Truly embarrassing. But I hope you enjoy!~!

SUMMARY:

Sitting in bed all pitiful... Your nose red and your eyes puffy... Ruggie is a firm believer of sweating out the sick. So he offers to help you with that. Too bad you’re too weak to actually tell him no.

Grim went ahead to attend classes without you. To all that inquired about your whereabouts; the Ramshackle Prefect was currently releasing toxic spores that would kill anyone who got too close. So, he had placed you in quarantine to protect the student body. The truth was that you had come down with a horrific cold. You kept brushing it off as a scratchy throat and a migraine, but over the weekend was what solidified that you should stay in the dorm and recover. While brushing Grim free of old fur, you sneezed. The monster was left covered in yellowish snot that clung to the back of his round body and his striped ribbon. With an expression of horror, you apologized to the monster and offered to give him a bath, only to sneeze again. This time, on his face.

He did not forgive you.

And he probably won’t for a long time.

Unbeknownst to you, a ‘caretaker’ would be arriving shortly. An accidental courtesy of Grim telling a fluffy eared blond that you were a ticking time-bomb of disease. You wrapped yourself up in a thick blanket, now dressed in a fresh pair of sweatpants and a baggy shirt. You felt miserable after your cold shower to cool down from your growing fever. But instead of sweltering and sweating, you were now shivering with chills. While you tried to rest in bed with a lukewarm cup of water clutched in your palms… There was a knock from downstairs.

At first you ignored it, assuming that maybe you had misheard the wind shaking the rickety dorm. After only a minute passed there was another round of knocks. A playful voice called out to you from outside, pressing hopefully for you to let him in. It was only 10am. Having a visitor at this time was highly unusual, so you assumed that this was just a fever-induced hallucination that you were bored enough to play along with.

You left the comfort of your bed, placing your water on your nightstand before trekking down to the lobby. There was another series of knocks as you tiredly reached for the door handle. After opening it, your eyes widened and you quickly sniffled away a string of snot.

Standing on your porch was the droopy-eyed hyena you had grown fond of. He wasn’t wearing his uniform. Ruggie had dressed himself in baby-blue, baggy denim jeans that looked a size too big with ripped out knees. Black and white sneakers, and a black sweatshirt with his Magishift jersey number over his heart printed in a shimmering gold. “Awww, poor thing caught a cold?” Ruggie teased with a snicker following as his eyes scanned over you.

You didn’t want him to see you like this. You gave the beastman an awkward laugh and hugged the blanket around you, continuing to sniffle with the fear of snot trickling down your face. “I think it’s just from the weather changing so fast.” You came up with your own theory as to how you had fallen ill. You truthfully weren’t too sure how you had gotten sick. You avoided his gaze, listening to him snicker again.

“You look really bad, but don’t worry,” In his raised left hand was a bulging plastic bag. “I got you some stuff from Sam’s.” He purred softly and gently pressed his shoulder into you, herding you away from the door so he could enter Ramshackle. You allowed him and watched as he closed the door with a light kick. Here Ruggie Bucchi was; inside of your bacteria covered dorm. “Am I even allowed to come in? Grim said you’re on some sort of ‘quarantine’?” He asked jokingly with his half lidded eyes searched the foyer for any other signs of life. The ghosts were absent due to you complaining about a headache and you wanted to be alone for the day. And thankfully they were very respectful of your wishes. “Grim is just saying that… I have a normal human cold. Sneezing, super tired… The usual.” You responded with a light roll of your eyes. “Anyways, did you need something?” You croaked out and sniffed away a trail of snot with a frown.

Maybe the real reason he’s here is to pay back a favor you’re too exhausted to remember? “What? Am I not allowed to check on you?” Ruggie asked with a snort as he kicked off his shoes near the door. And in absolute honesty, Ruggie was the last person you would expect to see.

The plastic bag was placed on the coffee table and he began rummaging through it with you standing behind him. “Missing a day won’t tank my grades so I came over. I just wanted to see you.” He shrugged as he pulled out a box of tissues and turned to hand them to you. “Here, you shouldn’t be standing up right now. You look like you might fall over any second now.” Ruggie spoke with a tone of concern as you approached to collect the box of soft tissues.

They were the good kind too. Not the cheap papery ones, these were definitely the more expensive ones. You just couldn’t imagine Ruggie spending his own money on something like this for you. You whispered a soft ‘thank you’ as you peeled the box’s cardboard flap away. With a sniffle, you pulled out a tissue to wipe away the clear mucus running down your nostrils and threatening to roll over your lips. “I don’t want you to get sick.” You whimpered as a bead of sweat rolled down your temple, and you wiped your nose clean quickly. Ruggie’s ears twitched again as he shrugged again with a sly grin, now standing before you with his arms crossed over his chest. “Beastmen don’t contract human illnesses. You sneezin’ on me won’t get me sick. It is a lil’ gross though.” He snickered and you frowned with a shake of your head. “Seriously…” You muttered, noticing how he remained unshaken by your sickness. “I’m serious too. I won’t get sick. I wouldn’t have come over if it was a risk.” Ruggie assured you.

The hyena has more side hustles than you have fingers and toes. As if he would risk a potential paycheck to take care of you.

Which means he was being serious. He really won’t contract a human cold.

His large sharp teeth were on display as he smiled wide and leaned in close. “Sorry I wasn’t here sooner, did you eat yet?” He asked softly with his hands gripping the edges of your thick blanket. You haven’t eaten yet, you just didn’t have the appetite. Your silence caused the beastman to hum with discontent as he began to pull on the blanket, dragging you along with him. “Upstairs. I’ll make you something to eat.” He offered as you sheepishly looked at the bag on the coffee table. “Ruggie-” You wanted to decline the offer, but he was already pulling you towards the staircase. “Up. I ain’t takin’ no from someone who looks like they can hardly blow their own nose.” He teased as your face began to burn from embarrassment. With one final look to the hyena, you slowly marched back up to your dorm room to wait for him.

xxx

The hyena sat beside your bed in a wooden chair, blowing on a spoonful of soup with a small frown. He had discarded his sweatshirt at the foot of your bed. Now, sitting in a form-fitting white tee-shirt with a thin gold chain around his neck, he spoonfed you. As if you were too weak to do it yourself.

It was just you, and Ruggie ‘The Most Qualified M.F On Campus’ Bucchi alone in Ramshackle while everyone else continued learning. “Open.” He instructed and you obeyed with a small sniffle. Here he was, easing the cooled soup into your mouth as you sat up in bed, layered in multiple blankets to keep yourself from shivering.

The soup was warm and salty, loaded with vegetables and smooth, steaming broth. He claimed it was from a can, but the flavor didn’t compare to anything store bought. It was obvious he didn’t want to admit he took so long downstairs cooking for you. You had slapped a cooling patch on your forehead to help your fever, courtesy of Ruggie. He told you to rub some sort of minty gel on your chest, but you refused once he tried to wrestle your shirt off to do it for you. He had lit a small essential oils candle to fill your room with the smell of eucalyptus, claiming it would help you get well faster. And after you finished eating, he instructed you to bathe so he could wash your clothes and sheets free of germs.

It was a bit much, at least to you it was. You were used to taking care of yourself when you were sick, so having Ruggie practically coddle you was almost intimidating. Was he expecting something? Maybe he really was returning a favor that you had forgotten.

The anxiety of believing Ruggie may have some sort of ulterior motive killed your appetite and you nervously turned your face away when he tried to feed you another spoonful. “Not hungry? You only ate half the bowl.” He sounded dejected as you shook your head with a sniffle. “I think it's just ‘cause I’m sick… I’ll eat more later.” You wanted to eat it all, but your stomach couldn’t take anymore of his delicious cooking. “Sorry Ruggie.” You apologized quietly as he handed you the box of tissues so you could wipe your nose. The hyena began to pout as he placed the bowl aside, looking you over before his eyes lit up. “Wait, I have a perfect idea. And hear me out on it.” He began to smirk as you tilted your head in confusion.

“Why don’t we get you to sweat the sick out?” He suggested casually as he grabbed at your blankets, slowly pulling them away from you. Sweat it out? You’ve heard of the concept before, but it sounded more like a myth than an actual factual thing that people did. And wouldn’t that make you even more exhausted? “Ruggie, I don’t think I have energy to stand… Let alone exercise…” You were preparing to complain as the blankets were nudged away and Ruggie moved from his chair with a faint blush to his cheeks and that cheeky grin. There was a snicker as the weight on your mattress shifted. “Nah, you just have to lay there. I’ll help you.” He cooed sweetly, and your eyes widened.

That’s what he means by sweat.

You nervously scooted away from Ruggie, feeling your body become hot as he closed in on you. “Wait-” You weakly tried pushing him away as the hyena crawled on top of you. He began nipping at your jawline, causing you to flinch with another weak attempt to push him back. “No… Wait- Come on I’m sick…” You whined but Ruggie didn’t seem too keen on listening to you say ‘no’. “Promise you’ll feel waaay better after.” His words were like sweet candies. You ate them up in your feverish state as you began to relax against the mattress. Far more docile now as he began to yank your sweatpants down your thighs. “I’ll fuck you nice and hard, til’ you’re a limp little puddle.” He mumbled against your throat, kissing and sucking along the skin as you pawed at his white shirt with a gasp.

A more animalistic sound was pulled out of you as he dragged his tongue along your jugular, and you could feel him smiling as he rested on top of you. “And then, I’ll dump you in the bath.” He snickered as his voice lowered, and he kissed you. It was both gentle, and lustful as he rested his weight on top of you. Flattening your sweaty body into the mattress. “I got these fancy bath salts.” Kiss. “And they’ll help too.” Kiss. “And,” kiss. “I bought you some cold patches.” Kiss. Each of Ruggie’s kisses left you breathless as he spoke, telling you about the different treatments he had snagged from Sam’s shop. All for you.

You wondered if maybe he had some fantasy about taking care of someone else. It seemed out of place for him to be so caring. But all you knew about Ruggie was what he showed on the surface. After all…

Isn’t he technically taking advantage of you?

The thought returned and you tried pushing Ruggie away again. You didn’t think this would be a good idea. Truth be told, you weren’t even sure you liked Ruggie that way. You thought he was cute and had a certain charm that couldn’t be matched by the other boys on campus. But there were times he came off as a total sleaze. “Why’ya keep pushin’ me away?” He asked playfully between another round of breath snatching kisses. A hand had slipped between your thighs and nimble fingers snaked into your panties. “You nervous about somethin’?” The question was teasing as the beastman began slowly rubbing circles against your clit with the calloused pad of his middle finger. His mouth abandoned yours and returned to sucking at the flesh of your throat. Leaving you to writhe and moan beneath him as you attempted to gather the energy to create a coherent sentence.

Your body was shaking as you found yourself craving more and more of his intimate touch. You hadn’t made room for sexual advances since coming to Twisted Wonderland. So being eased into it like this felt intimidating, but far too pleasant to actually stop Ruggie. You expected sexy mood lighting, and to be much healthier. “It’s… It feels kinda scary.” Your tone trembled, masking an attempt to fight back a moan. Ruggie’s skilled fingers began to speed up while growing more and more amused by your reactions. The hyena let out a soft growl that vibrated against the skin of your pulse point, causing you to shiver in excitement. You had been the only person to ever touch that sensitive bud between your thighs, and having someone else do it was an entirely new experience.

You could feel sweat starting to line your skin. Sticky, and making your clothes and Ruggie’s weight uncomfortable. You wanted to ask him for a moment to collect yourself, but that idea was forced into the back of your mind when you felt him slip a finger inside of you. Your thighs trembled as he pumped the digit in and out, curling it up into your gummy walls as he pulled his mouth away from your neck. “Sorry, I don’t have a condom on me. That’s cool right? You don’t care do you?” His voice was soft and sly, as if he was expecting you to mishear him. Ruggie lifted himself up onto his knees while slipping a second finger into your now soaking cunt. You couldn’t stop your hips from bucking up towards his hand as you struggled to answer him. Of course you care about him using a condom. You could risk getting pregnant if he didn’t.

But the words never formed as he continued to finger your hole, his other hand began yanking your panties down your legs along with your thick sweatpants. You wanted to tell him that you couldn’t go on without one. But the idea of having sex raw… It was enticing. You’ve seen it in porn, but experiencing it yourself would be much, much different. “Let’s do it raw okay? I’ll make you feel so sooo good that you’ll wanna fuck like that everytime.” He snickered and slowly eased his fingers from your hole. They were coated in your juices as he yanked your sweatpants off of you and hastily discarded them. Your chest heaved for air as Ruggie began to unzip his jeans, revealing his erection. Leaking at the flushed tip, and precum dripped onto the skin of your thighs as he started to rearrange your exhausted body to his liking.

You were moved to lay on your side. A leg was lifted as Ruggie slid comfortably in between your parted thighs to straddle one, and hoist the other over his shoulder. “You aren’t a virgin are you?” He asked, his tone sounding a bit more serious now as your eyes widened and you shook your head. You lifted your sweaty hand to push at his chest as he sighed and knocked your hand away. “Stop being so nervous then. I won’t make it hurt.” He smiled wide as you glanced between your parted thighs with your eyes falling half-lidded. He misinterpreted your head shake for a response. It was you trying to refuse the situation all together. Will sex really make you feel better? Was he making this up?

It was scary to think that you would be losing your virginity to Ruggie while you were weak with a fever. “Don’t overthink it.” The hyena purred as the round tip began to breach your sensitive hole.

Feeling the slow stretch of his cock filling you up made your head spin until you felt dizzy. You let out a few short and soft gasps as Ruggie rolled his hips slowly to slide deeper and deeper inside of your tight walls. Every roll of his hips made the velvet lining constrict around the foreign intrusion. Squeezing. Sucking. Throbbing. All were alien feelings as each breath you took felt shorter and shorter. Your thighs were becoming sore from being parted for so long, and you couldn’t fight back the moans falling from your lips with each roll of the beastmans hips. “Ohhhh fuck, you weren’t a virgin right?” He asked, a hint of guilt lined his tone but you were becoming too overwhelmed to answer.

Your face was burning as a string of drool began to roll down your chin. Eyes rolling up into your head as you began to flutter around the hyena’s thick cock massaging your velvety walls. You didn’t have the strength to correct him as he grunted from above you, a small shaky laugh followed. “Guess it doesn’t matter now, ain’t that right, Prefect?” He asked with a snicker following as he began to pump in and out of you. His hips slapping against yours as he hugged your leg against his chest. You couldn’t stop your moans from flowing out of your mouth, whining and moaning as his cock massaged your insides in ways your fingers never could. You clawed at the blankets beneath you, at one point you attempted to crawl away from the beastman as the pleasure started to overwhelm your senses. But as his thrusts become rougher you feel weak once more.

The tip smacked into a soft bunch of nerves deep within you that you hadn’t once felt yourself. A string of soft shrieks poured out of you as he began to abuse the bundle inside of you.

Hitting it over. And over. And over.

The abuse wasn’t something you could take much more of, listening to Ruggie moan and spill curses from his tongue made you lightheaded as you joined him. With the sound of the bed creaking, the wet smacks of skin meeting, your body was on fire as you convulsed around Ruggie’s cock. Cumming hard enough to leave you shaking as the beastman continued to pound into you. Your weakened form struggled to get away, to escape the overstimulation. You could feel him throbbing deep inside of you as his thrusts grew sloppy and hurried. And with a quick stutter of his hips; Ruggie came deep inside of you.

You fell limp against the creaking mattress as he pulsated against your tightened walls. He had come so much, you could feel his seed overflowing down your thighs. It made your toes curl tight as he loosened his tight hug on your leg. You were coated in sweat, feeling as if you would faint at any given second. Your panting mixed with Ruggie’s, filling the space with a lustful harmony as he slowly pulled out of you with a whimper. You absolutely need a bath now. But Ruggie was right, you did feel a little better after that. You might need to sweat it out again. Just a few more rounds while school was still in session.

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aloneinthehellfire · 4 months

Text

Chapter Twelve: Down The Rabbit Hole

Gates Of Hell Masterlist

Word Count: 11k (the struggle was real)

Warnings: swearing, mentions of death, horror, gore

[A/N: immensely shocked at myself for finishing this chapter but ultimately that means there are some reallyyyy good bits and some that… I hate the ending but I wrote it five different ways and this is just word vomit now. We will be back with more GOH after the new year but until then, I hope everyone has a good festive period <;3]

Down The Rabbit Hole

White walls. Red blood. Green Eyes.

The same nightmare crept up on you again, raising your heart rate and jolting you awake. This time hadn’t been any clearer than the last, no matter how hard you tried to look for more clues, to escape. But it ended the same it always did; with those glowing green eyes.

You blink against the darkness, hearing soft snores and breathing in the space around you. Everyone else was sleeping, only Joyce and Hopper not to be seen. They must be on patrol.

When you look to your right, you notice a familiar head of hair in the cot beside you, facing the wall with steady breaths. Part of you wanted to wake him then, pull him into all of your spiraling thoughts. But that was selfish.

Holding your breath, you make as little sound as possible as you slip out of the bed, containing a wince when a pain shoots up your ankle. An unfriendly reminder of your fate. You hadn’t bothered taking your sneakers off when you slept, part of you worrying that something would have you rushing out of bed at a moment’s notice.

Thankfully, the door was quiet as you closed it behind you, taking a deep breath in an empty room. New maps were sprawled across the table now, different markings. Places Hopper was going to search in a dangerous setting all because you had a theory.

It was all too much to be thinking about now. Rather than stay, you head up a few measly steps and exit the ‘bunker’, finding yourself back in what you assumed to be a control room. The room was cast in a red light, the source held behind a long panel of glass.

The gate, while terrifying, was also strangely beautiful. It looked alive, if anything, thrumming in calm bursts of crimson lights, a few white particles scattering the air in front of it. You thought it almost looked peaceful as you leaned with your arms against a metal railing, noting the door that would lead you to the gate on a lower level.

What would be the last thing you saw? It was useless pretending like the virus wasn’t constantly in your mind. If you were to turn, where would it be? Would it hurt? Would you hurt someone? How would you avoid that?

You remembered how Holloway was barely human. You also recalled his momentary lapse of weakness, a glimmer of the man you once called a teacher. Did that mean he was still in there, in no control of his own body? And, if that were to happen to you, could you really live with yourself if you killed the ones you loved?

A heavy thought for an April morning.

The creak of the door caught your attention. You glance over to see the boy you survived four days with closing the door behind him, running a hand through his hair. Even with a bed-head, he might be the most godly guy you’ve seen.

“Sorry. Was I loud?” You wince but he’s quick to dismiss it.

“No, no. I… I tried falling asleep but, uh, haven’t managed to do that in a while, you know?”

You merely nod, returning your attention back to the gate as he joins you, mirroring your own stance.

Steve takes a long look at the gate in front of him. This was the very thing that started all his problems, ruined his life. Although, he supposed he was already doing that himself before he could redeem that part he had kept hidden away. And that wasn’t until the gate had spewed out a grey faceless monster. Funny, how he could be grateful for an alternate dimension when it was the birth of an apocalypse on the town he called home.

His eyes eventually shift to yours, his gaze softening. You looked tired, worn from everything you’ve been through over the past four days. He can tell you didn’t sleep much either. He could also tell you were overthinking something in the way your tongue was pressed against your bottom lip.

“Are you okay?”

You meet his stare and he almost feels himself melting. He had followed you out here for a reason, and now he was paying the price of nerves attacking him. He really hoped you couldn’t notice the red he felt creeping up his neck against the already rouge light.

“I wish someone would have dragged me into this sooner.” You sigh and he looks surprised. “I get my dad was just trying to protect me but… I can’t help thinking how different everything would be if someone just told me. Maybe… maybe I wouldn’t have been in detention in the first place.”

“Maybe.” He agrees quietly, fidgeting with his hands, “I’m glad you were, though.”

Your eyes flash towards his with a confused scrunch of your brows. “Why?”

“I don’t know what I would have done if I had to go through this alone.” He admits, avoiding your eyes by turning back to face the window. “It was nice, having someone there. Even if we, uh, hate eachother.”

You let out a small laugh, shaking your head slightly. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m kinda glad you were there, too. Even, yeah, even if we are sworn enemies.”

“Y/n.”

He finally looks at you and you patiently wait for whatever he has to say. The longer it takes, the stranger you feel, like a growing pit of anticipation, both good and bad. You watch as he struggles with the words, like he couldn’t choose or he genuinely didn’t know what to say, his lips forming them in small twitches but never speaking.

“I don’t hate you.”

You didn’t realise how close you were until you felt his shoulder brush against yours as he shifted to lean on one arm, looking at you, expecting a response.

“I…” You try, searching his eyes for some kind of hint that this was all a joke. But it was genuine. So genuine, you found yourself lost in his gaze, fighting the idea that you never wanted to leave it. “You don’t?”

“I thought I did.” He says, his voice merely a whisper. “But I meant what I said. I’m glad you were there at the beginning of all this. And… and I’m glad it was you.”

The sudden flutter in your chest was crumpled by the hand of anxiety, pulling you back down to earth, burning the incriminating evidence on your ankle as to why that hope you felt would never be. Timing was a cruel mistress.

“Steve…” You start, but he is already closer now, close enough to make you look at him.

“I don’t want us to hate eachother.” He says, and he meant it with every heartbeat in his chest, “I don’t… I don’t even know why it’s like this. The last four days just proved that I don’t have a single reason to hate you, Y/n. And… and I don’t want to pretend anymore.”

“I…” You hoped if you started talking, the words would just follow. But instead, they stay stuck in your throat in the same way your eyes never wavered from his brown ones. Those little gold flecks shone bright at you. You couldn’t do this to him.

“Do you hate me?” He asks, rearing himself closer. You catch his eyes dart to your lips and you hold your breath, your fingers unintentionally moving to his hand.

That delicious tingle of contact brushed against him, racing his heart across his body until he felt like it was over the moon, that painfully sweet anticipation of your lips against his…

But you pull your head away from his, your eyes squeezed shut.

“We can’t.” You whisper out, so quiet he thought he misheard you. He hoped he had, but he was so focused on your lips he knew each word as they left your mouth.

“Why?” Steve frowns softly, reaching out to take your hand in his, and you don’t snatch it away.

“Y/n… we don’t have to keep playing that stupid game high school made up for us. Okay? High school practically doesn’t even exist anymore-”

“There’s too many complications.” Your voice is strained, like you didn’t want to say it.

“Like what?” He looks at you for an answer, but you can’t meet his eyes. “Give me one good reason why, and I’ll go. Just don’t lie to me.”

“We haven’t spoken in years, Steve.” You finally look up at him and he can see the tears already pooling. “Not as friends, at least. I’m glad I got to see the real Steve Harrington, even if it was just a few days, but… but that’s not enough time to really know eachother. You don’t know me.”

“It doesn’t change how I feel.” He says and you so badly wanted to grab him and kiss him until all the pain went away, all your issues and burdens, the entire world if nothing at all. But you can’t. What if you committed to this and it all blew up in your face? What if it ended quicker than it began?

“I’m sorry.” You finally say, stepping back and wiping a tear. He doesn’t let you go. “Steve-”

“You claim I don’t know you. That I haven’t had enough time to.” He starts, concern marking his eyes. “But right now, I know you’re hiding something from me.”

Steve can’t believe that his past self was so adamant on hating you, returning your unkind favours with his own, battling out who could make the other’s life a living hell. It took an actual living hell to realise he was wrong. Without the distraction of high school, he was forced to admit his feelings. To himself. To you. The whole world was burning, but his biggest fear was that you wouldn’t like him the same way he has liked you all this time.

“Just tell me.” He pleads. “Y/n-”

“One of those things got me.” You finally blurt and he blinks, shaking his head.

“I don’t-”

“The demodog. At school.” You begin, gulping back the fear. It was time you admitted it to yourself. “When it was dragging me away… I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

“What are you trying to say?” He asks, but he already knows the answer. He wants you to prove him wrong, tell a different fate.

“It bit me.” The words were heavy as they tumbled from your lips, hitting the air with a cold smack. “And I’m pretty sure I’m gonna turn into one of those things out there.”

Steve doesn’t speak, doesn’t move- breathe. It would have been funny to see Steve buffering if you hadn’t just admitted your death sentence.

“No.” He says plainly and you shut your eyes. “No, that’s not- no.”

Rather than speak, you slowly reach down and pull up the leg of your jeans, revealing the damned mark to him once and for all. His skin was getting paler as he followed the black veins snaking along your skin, like growing vines.

“No, that’s not poss-” He stops himself with a deep breath, stepping back and resting his hands on his head. “If it was- you would have turned by now if it was true. The others didn’t take that long, right? It’s not…”

“I don’t know how it works. I thought… maybe, it wasn’t affecting me. But the veins… look just like the ones they have. I… I don’t know how long I have left.”

“We’ll find something.” He suddenly says with a hardened face and posture. “A cure. There’s gotta be a way out of it.”

“I don’t think there is one.” You say, cutting him off when he tries to speak. “We don’t even know how long this virus takes, or if it affects people differently- we don’t have the time.”

“Maybe El knows something.” He suggests, but even he knew it was a long shot. He just couldn’t believe he had been laying in that bed figuring out how to tell you his feelings, thinking the worst you could say was that you didn’t feel the same way.

“You can’t tell anyone.” You’re quiet, shifting on your leg with your head low. Steve can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“What- you… you expect me to just pretend like everything’s fine?” He exasperates, scrunching his face when you don’t respond. “No, Y/n, don’t- don’t just spring that on me and expect me not to help you.”

“They’re leaving today.” You finally speak, looking up at him with sad eyes. “They’ll head out to the school, go through a gate and try to survive while finding unknown evidence of my theory. If I’m wrong, then it was all for nothing. They could get hurt, or- or worse. And if I’m right… then what? How do we know they’ll be able to fight it? All of this while the kids are going to be listening in on every breath and every step, Joyce is gonna be wondering what to do if Hop never comes back, Jonathan- Mike is going to be scared for his life knowing his sister is down there. And then El… everyone already has so much weighing them down, so many things to be afraid of. I don’t even know if this bite is gonna do anything but I want them going in with clear heads, not constantly worrying about me.”

“Not even Robin?” He challenges, coming closer again. “Your dad?”

“Robin will be fine.” You say, convincing yourself. “And Hop… I can’t think about that right now.”

“Y/n-”

“No.” You snap, taking a deep breath when you realise how loud the word had slipped from your mouth. “Sorry. I just… even if I did tell him… what is he gonna do? What the hell are any of us gonna do? There isn’t a cure, or- or a way out. Either it’s fine and it doesn’t happen, or I’m gonna become one of those things. And… and I can’t become one of them. I can’t let my dad, you, anyone, watch me become one of those things.”

When you blink, a single tear catches and trails down your face. Steve places his hand on your cheek, gently wiping it away with his hand and you’re surprised by the contact, but you don’t pull away. He brings his other hand up until he’s cupping your face, a pained expression painting his own.

“I’m not letting that happen to you.” He whispers and you instinctively hold on to his arms.

Before you could utter another word, the startling creak of the lab door on the other side of the room catches your attention just as it’s thrown open, revealing wide eyes of the adults catching you in a moment.

Steve practically jumps away from you, assuming what he hoped was a casual pose and you tighten your lips.

Joyce is suppressing a smile, clocking Hopper’s hardened stare as his eyes flicker between you both.

“Hi, kids.” She smiles.

“Hey.” You respond, ignoring Steve’s flushed look. “How was the patrol?”

“I’m moving your beds.” Hopper states and Joyce rolls her eyes.

“He’s kidding.” She says as she steers him away from you both and towards the bunker door.

“He’s not.” Hopper grumbles but eventually gives in with a sigh. “We’re about to get everyone up and ready, we’ll need you both for this meeting.”

“We’ll be there.” You nod and he lets out another sigh.

“Come on.” Joyce teases, opening the door and stepping through.

Before Hopper followed, he paused with one hand holding the metal door open. “Oh, and Steve?”

“Yes, sir?” Steve suddenly straightens and your eyes widen in amusement.

“Three feet away from my daughter.”

“Yes, sir.” He takes a big step back away from you and Hopper hums in approval, finally shutting the door behind him.

Despite the tension still lingering in the air, almost-kisses and heartbreaking-declarations, you started to laugh.

“What?” Steve frowns, the tips of his ears bright red.

“Nothing.” You giggle still, shaking your head in disbelief. “Never thought my dad would ever be worried about me and Steve Harrington. It’s… god, it’s funny.”

“He’s scary when he’s like that.” Steve mutters and you have to walk away before you laugh any harder. “Where are you going?”

“To this meeting before Hop comes back and asks for your head on a stick.”

With that, his eyes widen and he clears his throat, nodding viciously.

“Yep, yep, one hundred percent with you there.” And he steps forward before pausing.

“What is it?” You raise your eyebrow and he scans the floor between you, making you groan. “Are you seriously staying three feet away from me right now?”

“He could be watching.” He whispers and you roll your eyes.

“God, you’re such a coward.”

“Better a coward than thrown in jail for the rest of my life.”

“He can’t do that- oh for god’s sake.” You move quicker than he can react and place your hand on his shoulders. He tenses and you smile. “See? No one’s coming to arrest you.”

He lets out a chuckle, looking down at you like you were water in the Sahara, before his face drops to a serious tone.

“You have to tell him, Y/n.”

You let your hands fall back by your side and bite your bottom lip. “I know. But I can’t. Not yet.”

“What on god’s horribly disfigured earth were you doing this morning with Harrington?” Robin persists with a low voice and you shoot her a warning look.

You and Steve had returned to the sleepy gazes of your friends, some still trailing in while rubbing their eyes, others didn’t even look like they had woken up yet. Regardless, Hopper’s voice was demanding, and you had shuffled your way over to Robin so you could focus. If you were standing beside Steve, the apocalypse wouldn’t be the first thing on your mind.

“Can we not talk about it here?” You hiss, aware of the ears around you that could pick up on the conversation.

“Fine.” Robin widens her eyes mockingly. “You wanna keep it on the down low, got it. Tell your boyfriend that first.”

She nods her head in Steve’s direction and when you look over, a blush creeps across his cheeks and he’s averting his eyes, making your heart flutter.

“Not my boyfriend.” You almost forget to correct, folding your arms and redirecting your gaze back to Joyce.

“El will be by the gate, ready to connect with Hopper and try to find whatever is causing these gates to open.” Joyce smiles at the young girl beside her. “As for everyone else, we’ll need people on radios at all times. Patrol will be done periodically as usual.”

“I got the radios sorted.” Dustin smiles, motioning to the pile on the table.

Steve takes a glance down before his stomach twists. How many times had he tried contacting Dustin before his heart couldn’t take it anymore? Too many.

“The plan is for us to be down there an hour at most. It will let us cover the area surrounding the school and if we don’t find anything when our time is up, we’re getting out and we’re coming back here for a new course of action.” Hopper states and Nancy nods beside him, mentally capturing the map in her mind with the intention of scripting their movements in the limited time period.

“And if you do find something?” Mike asks and Hopper furrows his brows.

“We’re not planning on getting close enough to say hello.” He replies lowly, “But I know El will have eyes on us the whole time.”

The girl in question is nodding her head, face stoic and ready for her duties.

“We’ll head off in two hours. Until then, let’s make sure we have everything we need and take some time to prepare.”

And by that, he meant to prepare mentally. Nancy looked ready but her eyes kept darting to where Jonathan sat, already staring back at her. You supposed there must have been some friction when she decided to follow Hopper into the Upside Down. And in a mere two hours, a lovers quarrel would be the last thing to worry about.

“Y/n.” Hopper calls and you snap out of your thoughts, looking up. “You okay to do the patrol shift?”

“Yeah.” You nod, turning to Robin.

She was already walking away, her hands held up in silent protest and you understood her decision.

You absent-mindedly start looking to where Steve was standing, his arms crossed, back against a wall as Dustin chatted his ear off. The idea of being alone with him before all of this was excruciating, a thought that would never have crossed your mind. Now you were willing, and very happily so, to be spending time with him. He’s changed a lot from the King Steve you’ve grown to hate. He’s much more like that boy you met in middle school.

Hopper clears his throat and you realise you’ve been staring too long, returning your attention back to your father.

“I could-” You start but he’s already got other plans.

“Billy.” He calls over, summoning the boy by his side. “I need you and Y/n to patrol. Nothing long, just a quick check around the lab to make sure nothing has gotten in before we head out.”

“Sounds like fun.” Billy shrugs, throwing a smirk your way and you almost roll your eyes.

Content with his decision, Hopper gave a smile that said ‘that should keep you occupied’ and headed back to Joyce, probably to boast about how well he handled the Steve situation.

“Shall we?” Billy gestures to the weapons and you let out a sigh.

“Why not.” You say, throwing a look over your shoulder to where Robin was stifling a laugh. You pull a face at her before reaching the table, grabbing a knife.

“Last I remember, you were a pretty great shot.” Billy suggested, eyeing the shotgun. You knew he was genuine in his suggestion, but the thought of holding one again sent a chill down your spine. The shotgun didn’t save you last time.

“Like Hopper said, it’s just a quick tour of the lab.” You dismiss, smiling. “We better get it over with so you can prepare.”

“Right.” He chuckles, slinging the shotgun strap onto his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Steve watches in disdain as you leave with Billy, falling into easy conversation like the guy wasn’t a horrible human being. Part of him wanted to walk over and smack that smug look off his face but he was also fully aware of Hopper’s stare on him.

With a sigh, he re-immerses himself back into Dustin’s explanation on the notebooks he discovered in the control room upstairs.

“Most of it was pretty unintelligible. People need to learn how to write, or what’s the point?” He rambles, waving the book in the air. “I mean, the only words I could figure out were ‘green’ and numbers attached to experiments. Will’s much better at reading cursive than I am, so he’s getting information whenever he has time. Do you think they were doing other experiments here?”

“Are your radios gonna work?” Steve questions and Dustin looks in exasperation.

“You’re not even gonna attempt to be interested?” He complains and Steve pinches the bridge of his nose.

“We need to be focusing on this mission, not what some whack-job scientist scribbled in his diary.” He sighs. “So, radios. Are we sure they’ll even reach them?”

“Uh… duh. Or we wouldn’t be doing it.”

Steve resists the groan bubbling in his throat. “Well, it hasn’t been very useful so far.”

“What do you mean?” He looks up at him inquisitively, clutching his radio in his right hand.

Shifting uncomfortably, Steve lowers his head and purses his lips.

“Nothing, man, I’m just… I’m not convinced the radios work properly.”

“Why?” He pesters once more and Steve sighs.

“I tried reaching you.” He admits and the young boy’s eyes widen. “Like five times. And I know you’ve got that thing on you all the damn time. There’s gotta be a reason why it wasn’t reaching, or maybe you were just ignoring me.”

“I would never ignore you.” Dustin states matter-of-factly, shrugging. “And it wouldn’t have worked because I’ve been stuck in this bunker for hours on end, the frequency doesn’t reach this far down. I don’t think it’s built for stuff like that.”

“Oh.” Is all Steve can say.

“I would’ve answered if not.” Dustin assures and Steve slowly nods, swiping the bottle from the table beside him. “Plus, you should be thankful it never reached.”

“I should?” Steve raises an eyebrow, taking a sip of water.

“You would never have a girlfriend right now if I answered.”

Steve almost spat out his water, choking when the minimal requirement of swallowing said water went horribly awry.

“Knew it.” Dustin laughs.

“She’s not- we’re not-” Steve stumbles over his words, thankful everyone is too consumed in their own tasks to take notice. “Shut up, Henderson.”

The boy just laughs, content in his observation just as Nancy wanders over, picking up one of Dustin’s radios.

“Hey, this gonna work?” She asks and Dustin’s face drops.

“Why must everybody question me?” He grumbles, walking away without answering her question.

Nancy looks dumbfounded, turning to Steve. “Something I said?”

“I don’t know, that kid’s a ticking time bomb, anything could set him off.” He sighs, rubbing a hand down his face. “But, I wouldn’t worry about the radios. Henderson knows what he’s doing.”

She slowly nods, looking down at the object in question and Steve is unsure of what to say to her. They hadn’t talked since… well, not since they broke up. He wasn’t even sure if he was fully over her, or their relationship to be specific. It was the first time he really felt connected to someone. Until she started pulling away and leaving him to stare at himself for hours on end in that mirror of conscience.

“You guys are pretty close now, huh?” She queries, raising her head to meet his eyes and he clears his throat.

“Uh, yeah.” He nods, moving away from the wall and straightening up, wondering what to do with his hands. How did he used to stand? “He’s a little shit, but he’s pretty cool. Like having a little brother.”

“Right.” She chuckles under her breath. “But, um… that’s not what I meant.”

“What did you…” Steve began before it finally clicked and he tightens his lips, wincing. “Did everyone see us come in together?”

“I think most of them saw you follow her outside, actually.” She offers a smile and he starts to laugh awkwardly.

“It’s not- we’re… we’re just friends. I think. I actually don’t know if we’re even that right now. We’re not- that’s not…” He rambles, wiping his hands on his jeans. Was it always hot in here, why did he feel so hot? “Acquaintances.”

“Sure.” Nancy says knowingly, setting the radio back down. “I’m just… surprised. Last I knew, you hated her.”

Her smile drops when his face does, avoiding her eyes. She starts to shake her head.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, no. You’re right, I… I did hate her.” Steve shrugs, “The more I think about it, though… the more I wonder if I ever had any reason to.”

“You mean other than freshman year?” She asks and his eyes shoot up. “I don’t remember anything else-”

“What about freshman year?” Steve interjects and her brows scrunch.

“You don’t remember?” Her eyes widen when he shakes his head, letting out a breath. “Wow. Sorry, I didn’t realise- it was the biggest gossip. I wasn’t even in high school yet but everyone in my class talked about it.”

“About what?”

“The date.” She says it was a historic event. “All I heard was you guys went to Lover’s Lake, she tried… well, she tried something, and then got all upset because you turned her down. I remember Carol saying that Y/n took it so bad she tried turning everyone on you, using it to get closer to guys?”

Steve wasn’t sure if his memory was truly terrible, or if he shouldn’t be believing any of it. He couldn’t recall ‘the date’, or Lover’s Lake. Not even the part where you apparently came onto him and he rejected you? That made no sense.

“That didn’t happen.” He frowns, mostly muttering to himself.

“I wasn’t there.” Nancy tightens her lips sympathetically, “And I know now that anything Carol says can be a complete lie. But it’s the only thing I can think of. You guys never fought in middle school.”

“Nancy!” Mike’s voice carries across the room and she looks over her shoulder.

“Look, I should…” She motions to her brother, “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He dismisses with a forced smile. Nancy knows him better than that, but she also knows she’s on borrowed time to see Mike before she leaves, so she starts moving away from him. “Hey.”

She looks back expectantly.

“Good luck. Just in case I don’t get a chance to say it later.”

With a smile, she finally turns away and joins her brother and his friends, leaving Steve to stand with his thoughts, and wonder just how much of his life he had lost in those battles.

Everything was pretty quiet in the lab. There hadn’t been one ominous sound, not even an echo of a snarl. The only noise came from the soft thumps of footsteps between friends.

You wondered what Steve was doing now.

No, you tell yourself, stop it.

Whenever your thoughts drifted to Steve, they were automatically met with a wake up call from the sore curse on your ankle, feeding into the long list of reasons you couldn’t be closer to him. Your life had gotten spectacularly more complicated and, as a result, shorter than anticipated. You hoped you would at least feel when it was happening. Maybe then you’d have a chance to stop yourself before it was too late.

Billy lets out a yawn beside you, peering through a door that was slightly ajar before returning with no evidence of a monster in sight.

“So.” You look up to the boy beside you, welcoming a distraction. “Haven’t talked to you in a while.”

You can see his eyes retract from you, looking almost… sheepish. He must have been expecting this conversation.

“Yeah…” Billy coughs, rolling his shoulders. “Sorry about that. I was busy.”

“Hm.” You nod with a smile, tilting your head. “I can imagine how busy it must have been. How many missed calls was it? 7?”

“9.” He responds quickly before immediately clocking the trap you sent for him. “Shit.”

“Not too busy to see them, then?” You comment with a smirk. You weren’t upset about it.

Truthfully, you weren’t really close friends. More… friendly acquaintances. But he did just suddenly drop off the face of your earth and never explained himself. Avoiding you wherever possible, watching your calls ring through with no intention of picking up. You gave up after 9 days. That was enough to be satisfied you had tried your best.

“Okay, yeah, you got me.” He chuckles, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I don’t have a good reason for it, either.”

“It’s whatever.” You shrug when he raises an eyebrow. “Come on, we were just partners on a project, you didn’t stand me up at our wedding or anything.”

“Always figured you wanted something more.” He jokes with that smirk of his. You simply roll your eyes.

“In your dreams.”

“Every night, princess.”

“God.” You grimace, laughing. “You’re such a creep when you call me that. My dad’s the chief of police. And it definitely doesn’t suit me.”

“That’s what makes it so funny.”

“Whatever.” You roll your eyes and he chuckles to himself.

“How about I make it up to you later?” Billy nudges your shoulder and you laugh.

“Not necessary.”

“Nah, come on. We’ll go wherever you want.”

“If I recall, aren’t you about to go on a dangerous mission?” You try to keep it light-hearted and he shrugs.

“When I get back.”

“Okay,” You nod slowly, curious. “And where in Hawkins are we gonna go? Considering everything is a pile of rubble.”

“The chief said something about Illinois.” He recalls as he holds a door open for you, “How about I buy you a drink there?”

You laugh. “No specific place. Just Illinois.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re barely 19.”

“That’s not what it says on my ID.” He pretends to act shocked and you laugh, shaking your head. “So, what’d you say?”

“You get back from the Upside Down… and I’ll think about it.”

He clicks his tongue with a grin, shaking his head. “That’s fair. I deserve that.”

“Just focus on finding monsters.” You playfully push him away from you, ignoring that jolt of anxiety you feel when you notice a flickering lightbulb in a passing corridor.

“So, when we go for drinks.” Billy smirks, “Is Harrington gonna mind?”

You almost trip up. “Why would Steve care?”

“Look, I don’t wanna get in the middle of stuff.” Billy says and you’re slightly surprised. After all, he wasn’t known for his quiet and respectful nature at school. Your hesitancy must have shown on your face because he shrugs. “High school’s almost over, and I’m not looking for those assholes to be my ‘glory days’ or whatever. We all gotta grow up sometime.”

“And the thing that happened last year?” You suggest, “I don’t know what happened, but everyone seems pretty pissed with you.”

“It was a mistake.” His eyes darken, jaw tight and set as he looks ahead. “I was just sick of people ordering me around all the fucking time, you know?”

You go to answer when something starts echoing your way. It sounded like… scratches?

“The hell is that?” Billy frowns, shotgun slipping off his shoulder and into his hands. Your heart starts to race.

“Probably nothing.” You shake your head, and then the noise starts up again. Except this time, it’s a pounding of noises, harsh banging that had you stumbling back.

“Nothing is making a shit ton of noise right now.” Billy breathes out harshly, stepping in front of you.

He’s already moving toward the noise before you could offer any more dismissals and you have to follow, your knuckles paler from the tightened grip of the knife in your fist.

Your heart leaps into your throat, choking a gasp from your mouth when you reach a set of double doors, leading down the very hallway that you had discovered yesterday. The one that apparently wasn’t just in your nightmares.

“Billy.” You hold a hand out, stopping him from charging forward. “We should get back-up.”

“It’s fine, probably just another demodog.” He raises his shotgun, ignoring your protests.

Something suddenly snarls behind you and you both spin around, finding nothing under the furiously flickering lights. The banging noise starts again, in the same space you both stared at.

“Shit, it’s following us.” Billy curses, grabbing your arm and pulling you behind him. “That hallway leads to the other side of the lab. It’ll get us closer to the bunker.”

“Are you sure?” You glance over your shoulder, an unsettling feeling burying into your gut.

“Trust me, we’ve been using it for days now.”

His retreating footsteps weren’t giving you much choice as another snarl bites the air, forcing you to bump open one of the double doors and back yourself into the hallway.

And then the banging starts again. Except it’s behind you.

You both freeze, turning once again to the singular door at the end of the hallway, a snarl vibrating through the wood of it.

The door you had walked through swung itself closed with a loud bang.

Spinning around with no intention of being here any longer, you reach out and pull the handle towards you.

It didn’t budge.

You grab the other handle in your spare hand and pull harder, the doors rattling under your force, but never opening.

“Billy!” You yell, but he’s already pushing against the doors, eyes wide. “It’s locked! How is it locked?!”

“Shit!” He hisses, turning to ram his shoulder against it for extra strength, but he couldn’t keep it up forever.

And then the pounding against the door gets louder, more violent. He is using every bit of his strength to break through, but it’s not working.

“Shit, shit, shit!” He yells out, driving his boot down on the doors hard. It was just as successful as before.

The air is cut silent and you freeze, breathing heavy as you raise your head, meeting Billy’s eyes. He’s looking behind you, trying to figure out what was going on. But you knew. You’ve been here before.

“Billy.” You divert his attention with pleading eyes. “Go back to the bunker.”

“The fuck I will.” He protests, frowning.

Knowing you needed a solid reason, you put on your best front and nod at him. “Get back-up.”

His eyes keep darting between you and the door, a scowl masking whatever fear swam in his gaze.

“You don’t have any other choice.” You say and he lets out a frustrated sigh, nodding.

“Do not die.” Billy warns, jogging backwards before breaking out into a run, back through the winding hallways.

And you were left alone, slowly turning back to the door, waiting for your nightmare to begin again.

Steve was brooding. There wasn’t any other way to put it. Pouting, maybe. Like a child that had been left behind.

Right now, you were roaming the halls with Billy Hargrove, probably discussing that ‘moment’ you apparently had. He wondered if you would tell him about the bite, trust Billy like you trusted Steve. Part of him felt bitter about that thought.

He feels a shadow approach him and turns around from where he was standing at the window to the gate.

“Does something perplex thee?” Robin mocks with a posh British accent, earning a glare. She drops the act. “Damn, you do be perplexing.”

“No, I’m not.” He scrunches his face, glancing back at the portal to hell. “Wait, what does perplex mean?”

“The American education system has failed you, my friend.” She rests a hand on his shoulder, curving her head to meet his eyes. “There something you wanna tell me?”

“I mean, I did miss a lot of school.” He admits with a shrug and she whacks his arm. “Ow!”

“I meant about her, dingus!” She flails an arm out, her voice louder than anticipated.

“Shh! Jesus Christ.” His eyes are wide and Robin is resisting the grin ever-growing dimples on her face. “No. No, I’m not…”

She raises an eyebrow and he feels a blush creeping up his neck.

“Y/n and I are just friends.” He states sternly and she smirks.

“I never said I was talking about Y/n.” She points out and by this point, he’s beetroot red.

“Fine.” He whispers out. It was admit it or forever be haunted by it. “I… mightlikeher.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Robin prompts, holding a hand to her ear.

Steve grits his teeth. “I… might… likeher.”

“One more time.”

“Robin!”

“Okay, jeez.” Robin laughs, shaking her head. “You didn’t even need to say it out loud, you’re so obvious.”

“No, I’m not.”

“I’ve seen monkeys act more normal than you.”

“Yeah well, maybe monkeys can act normal because the monkeys they like actually like them back.”

Robin stares blankly. “You lost me.”

“I… I told her this morning. Kind of. Well…”

She raises a brow. “You either did or you didn’t.”

“There was a…” He waves his hand in the air, eyes squinting. “Moment.”

“And was this, uh… moment, inside or outside of your head?” Robin accuses and he slumps against the metal railing.

“Why am I even talking to you?” Steve mutters and Robin snorts.

“Because your only other friend is a child.” She laughs, quietening when she catches his glare. “Okay, okay, sorry. I’m just curious, that’s all. One minute you guys are literally yelling at eachother across a cafeteria and the next you’re sneaking off and sneaking glances and being all… mushy.”

“Horrible word choice.” Steve cringes.

“And Y/n won’t spill anything. In fact, she’s been distracted and kind of distant so naturally, I’ve come to the source.”

“She…” He isn’t sure how to finish his explanation. It wasn’t his place to tell her. If anyone should, it should be you. But he knew you would avoid the topic forever if you could. “I don’t know. Nothing’s happening between us, if that’s what you’re asking.”

She detects that tone of disappointment in his voice and her entire demeanour changes.

“It’s really hard liking someone when you don’t even know if you can be together.” She says quietly and Steve turns his head to her. She rests her hands against the railing, staring down at them. “Especially when it’s literally only one thing. And that thing is usually the most crucial part.”

Steve thinks about this for a moment, catching his reflection against the glass. The most crucial part to your relationship was, as it has been for the last four days, survival in its simplest form. But you might have this virus and Steve can’t change that. You might not survive.

“You just have to figure out if it’s worth trying anyway.” Robin smiles sadly at him. “Jump into the deep end. Sink or swim.”

Steve couldn’t decide. Was it better for him to lay it all out on the table, tell you how he really feels, give it a shot? Or is it going to be easier for him to just forget this ever happened? It was a horrible thing, to decide how you could live best after someone was sentenced to death.

“What do you think I should do?” He asks and she looks a little surprised, her mouth parting. And then she smiles.

“Well, it should really be your decision. But... if you really want my opinion...” She meets his eyes and tilts her head. “I happen to remember you’re a really good swimmer.”

Steve couldn't help but smile at that, standing beside a girl who might have the potential to be the friend he always needed.

A loud echo drums against the control room walls, snapping their heads to the sound. Steve frowns while Robin’s eyes widen.

“What was that?” She whispers out.

Steve’s arms begin to trail goosebumps along the skin as he pushes away from the window.

“I don’t know.” He replies truthfully, straining his ears for another clue.

“Maybe they’re on their way back and dropped something.” Robin suggests, and Steve wants to believe it’s true.

Until a hot blare of screeching sirens suddenly rings out above them, red lights spinning around the room in crimson shadows. They immediately clamp their hands over their ears, groaning at the ear-piercing sound.

Hopper finds his way out of the bunker, holding two shotguns and a hard stare. He had snapped into action as soon as he heard the distant warning bells.

“What happened?!” He shouts over the noise, but the duo shake their heads.

The door bursts open and a red-faced Billy stumbles in, panting as he tries to catch his breath.

Steve’s heart drops when he sees he’s alone, and Hopper immediately strides over to him.

“Where’s Y/n?!” He demands, and Billy stumbles over his words. “I can’t hear you!”

“She’s trapped and something’s in there with her!” Billy yells, and Steve’s blood runs cold.

Hopper immediately turns, chucking a shotgun toward Steve and the boy luckily manages to catch it.

“You two, with me!” He orders, turning to Robin. “Grab the others and figure out what’s going on with the sirens!”

She quickly nods and scrambles to get into the bunker as Steve and Hopper follow Billy out, wasting no time.

They didn’t know what to expect, and they didn’t care. Steve prayed they made it in time.

You stand there, pressed up against your locked exit as the door shudders from the impact behind, rattling the hinges with each force of a beating.

You weren’t going to wake up this time.

You scan the floor for what you remember seeing, Robin’s bracelet. It was different this time, like it hadn’t happened yet.

The door shatters into splinters and you almost stop breathing, a loud piercing sound of nails against the chalkboard.

Claws.

It was the first you saw in the darkness, and then a fog of breath.

Everything plunged into chaos.

The sirens start blaring and you wince against the sudden noise, clamping your hands over your ears. The lights were flickering out of control, leaving you dazed and disoriented. You struggled to keep your eyes on the door, knowing one moment of distraction would be your demise.

Something was breathing heavy, a dim silhouette growing until its head almost struggled to fit inside the doorframe. Then you saw it.

Green glowing eyes.

And it finally stepped forward, knocking the air out of your lungs as your eyes pricked with tears.

“Y/n?” A voice calls out, and for a mere second you thought you were free.

Until you realise that voice was echoing from the wrong direction.

The monster stops moving and you can just see a figure behind it at the end of the hallway, their soft features looking around with a frown. And then she sees it.

Robin finally sees the monster.

Her eyes widen in terror as the thing turns towards her, snarling, flexing its claws.

“NO!” You scream, and your best friend tries to run.

She doesn’t make it.

The monster hooks its claws into her back and she lets out a blood-curdling scream. You cry out, raising your knife and charging forward. One swift hand throws you back and you thump onto the floor, coughing for oxygen.

You try to scramble to your feet again, save her, kill it. But you’re too late.

Her screams suddenly stop and you watch as it rips into her, slicing through flesh like it was paper, your knife slipping from your grip as everything around you feels like it has stopped. You couldn’t even feel your own heartbeat anymore.

One motion from the creature’s claw and something is flung from the vicious actions, landing at your feet.

A glint of metal in a woven circle.

Her bracelet.

You let out a strangled cry, falling back to the ground. It stops, breathing heavily, and slowly turning back towards you.

It was similar to a demogorgon’s body, pale and unnatural. But much bigger. And this one had a face.

Two green eyes that stretched along each side, like they had been pulled back.

A long, gaping mouth, slots of sharp teeth slowly pushing through the gums.

Its arms were long and lanky, sharp claws scratching against the walls as it creeps closer to you, smearing red against the white. Robin’s blood. Robin’s blood.

Tears are streaming down your face as you try to scramble away, knowing there was no escape. It had murdered Robin- god - in cold blood right in front of you, and now it was going to kill you. Part of you didn’t have the fight left.

One terrifyingly high pitched roar escapes its mouth as it raises an ugly claw.

Your eyes squeeze shut, trying to imagine your family, Sara. Robin. Steve. You couldn’t let your last memory be that ugly face.

The sound of smashing glass had your eyes flying open in an instant, rattling sounds of a shotgun fire above you. You look with tear stained cheeks at the monster stumbling away from you into a run, startled by the attack.

Not before it sent another cold shiver down your spine with one look in its endless green eyes, clicking its tongue.

It had vanished down the hallway by the time Steve had managed to break through one of the doors. It was almost like it had opened by itself, never been locked. Nothing like how Billy had described it to be.

“Y/n?!” He yells, fear coating his entire body when he notices something further down the hallway. So much blood.

“Steve?”

Your small voice turns him to where you’re curled up in the corner, eyes wide and gleaming with the tears that hadn’t already fallen.

“Thank god.” He breathes in relief, meeting you on the floor and capturing you in a hug, wincing at the way you were shaking. “Are you okay? Did it hurt you?”

“No-“ A sob is caught in your throat and he pulls back, searching your eyes. “It… it got her. She’s-“

“Who?” Steve asks, his brows furrowed as bile rises in his throat.

Your eyes drift back down that hallway. He turns his head to see Hopper already walking over to the body, kneeling beside it. You suddenly scramble to your feet, startling him.

“Y/n-“

“It killed Robin.” You finally say and he starts to shake his head.

“No.” He frowns, placing himself in front of you. “Y/n, look at me. That’s impossible. I was just with her. She’s safe.”

“She came looking for me.” Your mind was distracted, a heavy weight pushing against your chest as you avoided his eyes, “I didn’t get there fast enough, I could’ve- it killed her right in front of me…”

Steve looks at Hopper in exasperation as the man raises his head, shaking it. Steve looks down at the body, actually taking time to take in what remained.

“Why didn’t I stop it…” You’re still whispering to yourself, searching the ground for the weapon you abandoned. “I have to kill it. I have to-“

“Wait, stop.” Steve’s hand flies out to grab your arm, but you yank it away.

“She’s dead, and it’s my fault.” You still mutter, swiping the knife from the floor again. This wasn’t normal, the reaction you were heaving. Where was the screaming, the crying? Your best friend is dead.

“No, look-“

You ignore him, gripping the knife and trying to charge forward, but Steve grabs both of your arms now and you start to struggle. “Get off me! I have to-“

“Hey! Hey, it’s not her! Look, it’s not her!” Steve yells at you and you stop to finally look at the body, breathing hard and frowning.

There was so much blood splattered around, gashes of flesh against the cold floor. But none of it belonged to Robin. Because it had never been Robin.

The same dark and bony figure you had seen take your form days ago was led there, its hands a dead giveaway. A shapeshifter.

“It's not…” You blink back tears, shoulders dropping in defeat, and you feel someone gently taking the knife out of your hand.

“Just another shapeshifter. Y/n, look at me…” Steve gently places a hand on your check, guiding your eyes to look at him. “She’s okay. Robin’s okay. You’re okay.”

A tear trickles down and he pulls you into a hug again. Except this time, you surrender to it completely and hold onto him like a lifeline, sobbing into his shoulder with all the tears that were physically causing you pain to hold back.

Steve can’t believe this happened again. He left you, again. Anytime you weren’t in his sights, the universe had to find some way to mock him.

“You’re okay.” He whispers, into your hair, his own eyes falling shut.

Alarms were still blaring out of control when you finally left those hallways, the repetitive noise drilling a headache into your mind.

When the door bursts open, Dustin gasps and Robin turns from where she had been hitting random buttons in an attempt to get the noise to stop.

“Oh, thank god, you’re-”

Her words were cut off when you almost flew at her, pulling her into an unexpected hug.

“You’re alive.” You whisper quietly and she frowns.

“Of course I am.” She shakes her head as you pull away, noticing the trails tears had left down your cheeks. “What happened?”

“A shapeshifter.” You sigh and her face drops.

“And… it looked like me?” She theorised, her lips tightening when you nod. Wordless, she pulls you in for another hug, squeezing her eyes shut.

“You found a way to get this thing to shut off?” Hopper asks, his raised voice sounding like a normal volume over the shrill sounds of sirens.

“I’ve looked everywhere, there’s no instructions or even a manual for this thing!” Dustin exasperates, flinging a bunch of notebooks everywhere. “All I got is this weird countdown!”

Hopper frowns, gently moving him aside to stare down at a screen implanted into the control room panels, staring at red numbers that were counting down from 7:00, assuming it had started much earlier before he arrived.

They had already lost 10 seconds before he finally turned back around, and you noticed the pale look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” You question, stepping forward.

“It's not safe here anymore. We need to leave.” He says, looking between the confused expressions in the room. “Now!”

“It's a lockdown.” Dustin whispers out in realisation, mouth dropping open.

“What does that mean?” He frowns, finding himself looking at where Billy was peering down at the ticking clock.

“It means if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll all be dog food.” He grunts, quickly moving to where Hopper was flinging open the bunker door, already shouting for everyone to abort the mission.

“Shit.” Steve spits, making sure you were already descending the stairs before he grabbed Dustin’s arm. “Come on, go, go.”

Everything was chaos. Groups were scrambling to collect different items, hastily shoving them into backpacks. Hopper didn’t need to say much to get them motivated, just his horrified look and a mention of an explosion to have them scrambling around to pack as much as they could before the time was up.

You hadn’t come with much, just one of Steve’s old backpacks still filled with various supplies. So, you make sure the kids are moving as quickly as they could, taking on different tasks, afraid of what will happen if you’re not out of the building when that clock hits zero.

“We need to go, now!” Hopper shouts and everyone drops whatever was in their hands, knowing if it wasn’t packed, it wouldn’t be coming with them. “Kids, follow Joyce! Billy, Nancy, Jonathan, go ahead!”

The trio in question nod their heads, arming their weapons and running up the stairs, Joyce just behind them. Hopper directs Mike and Will to follow, his head darting around for the other four.

“Guys!” You yell at Lucas and Max, pointing. “Go, quick!”

“Where’s El?!” Max worries out loud and you’re spinning around.

“I saw her head up already!” Dustin shouts as he runs past. You and Hopper share a similar nod of relief and you slip your backpack on.

“Let’s go!” Hopper yells again and you grab Robin's arm, knowing Steve would be following.

The increase of volume was as if you had walked into a room filled with high-pitched shrieking, wincing as Robin clamps her hands over her ears. She’s running through the door, Dustin and Steve beside her when you sneak a glance at the clock.

4:54

You were gonna make it.

As you turn on your heel to begin running, your eyes catch the window, processing something that almost tripped you over. The gate wasn’t as red as it had once been.

Dust was pouring out, flooding the railings with a sea of black. You shivered, deciding to run and leave it. It would simply be a pile of rubble in a few minutes.

But the distant screaming struck your spine and you found a girl struggling against its pull, taking shape to wrap around her body and tug her back towards the gate. Your eyes drift to where the door below the railing you stood on was wide open, like someone had run out. Someone who spent more time with the gate than anyone else.

El.

Steve glances over his shoulder and skids to a stop, steadying the shotgun that threatened to slip from his shoulder. The others kept charging ahead and he barely waited for you to appear before he began running back the way he came, one hand on the doorframe when he reached the control room.

“Y/n-”

You weren’t there. Shit. Why weren’t you there?

“Steve! Where are you guys?! Over!” Dustin’s voice blared through the radio strapped to his hip and his hand hovered over it, debating.

He couldn’t leave you behind again.

The first time he let you go, you were bitten by a demodog which could now be the very reason you wouldn’t survive. The second had you kidnapped and traumatised, a distant look in your eye that made him worry a hell of a lot more than he should be. The third you just disappeared, battling some unbeatable creature he had thought killed you. And now, a fourth time, that ungodly creature with glowing green eyes..

He wouldn’t let that happen a fifth.

“Henderson, listen to me. Get out of the building. Make sure everyone is out, don’t let anyone turn back.” He says into the radio, a hit of silence before Dustin’s voice comes blaring through again.

“And you’ll be out soon, right?”

Steve lowers his head, looking over at the countdown.

4:32.

“Yeah, we’ll be out soon.” He says, but his heart wasn’t in it, no vindication of truth in his words.

He straps the radio back on his hip, knowing if he talks too much he might feel the guilt of leaving Dustin. He could get you out in 2 minutes. Right? He checks his watch, making a mental note of the time. He wanted to track how long it took to find you. It was 9:28am right now.

If he could find you. Steve’s eyes scan the window of the gate, squinting at a blurry black shape. He’s been wondering if he needs glasses for a while now.

And then he sees you, leaning over the railing, screaming. His eyes dart to where he can just see El being dragged through the gate, heart leaping into his throat.

He didn’t expect you to push away and start running further down, closer to the entrance, further from him.

“Y/n!” He shouts out as he almost flies down the steps and out the door before his conscience could convince him otherwise.

He keeps shouting your name, and you keep ignoring it, trailing further and further down, your footsteps harsh against the metal staircase.

You didn’t have a weapon, no chance for survival. But you couldn’t leave her. You couldn’t watch her die. Not another sister. Not your sister. Not again.

It was stupid, reckless, suicidal what you were doing. No doubt as to why your friends were screaming for you to stop. But was it really a risk when you’re already so close to death?

It wasn’t just the bite, it was the veins, a black substance stretching around the wound. It was already too late for you, just like the other townsfolk plagued by the creatures ripping you all apart. You could have just sat and cried about it, helplessly ranted to your friends, to Hopper. To Steve. But what good would that do?

You hated yourself, but even that small miniscule part of you that still had faith was powering you to do something right for once.

To run into the wonderland of your nightmares alone.

Because who would ever follow you down the rabbit hole?

The difference between metal and rocky ground almost threw you off, ignoring that hiss of pain in your ankle. It was loud down here for a different reason, a thrumming of sound emitting from the gate in front of you. It was huge, taking up entirely too much space. And the dust was retreating through it, your sister already vanished.

How long has it been since the countdown? Probably too long for you to turn back, find another way. There were other gates, but this one was right here. El needed you.

Charging forward, you reach your hands out and pull apart the seams of the gate, pushing through what felt like some sort of unpleasant membrane. You tried not to think too much of it, driving yourself forward with what little will you had left.

The air felt thicker, white specks floating aimlessly around you as you drag yourself through the gate, wondering if it ever ended. Your foot catches on something and you fall forward, letting out a groan when you barely manage to bring your hands out in front of you in time.

You take in a breath, reaching out for the walls of the gate. Your eyes slowly open.

Everything was so dark in here. The sky, the ground, even the flashes of red lightning through the dark clouds. You push yourself to your feet, frowning as you take in your surroundings. If this version of Hawkins was meant to reflect your own, why were you outside?

“El?” You call out, frowning. You didn’t see any dust.

Something spits behind you and you spin around in a stumble, face dropping. The gate was towering over you once again, plastered to a wall of vines the same size as the lab you were just in. You look at your feet, gasping.

This was a flipped version of Hawkins. Except, somehow, you were standing in the ruins of a lab that once was. Like something destroyed it.

“El?!” You yell out, searching the dim blue for a girl, or at least a sign. You turn back around, feeling helpless.

The gate starts physically breathing, beaming a brighter red and casting your shadow behind you. You slowly back away. The humming of it grew louder, the vines it lay on slithering around it in unchoreographed patterns.

Something breaks through and you search the ground for a weapon, panicking. When it almost reaches you, you grab a rock and get ready to swing.

“Hey, woah, hey! Stop!” Steve yells out and you drop it, eyes widening, “Jesus, you could kill somebody with that!”

You blink, slowly shaking your head. “No, no, no, no, no…”

He frowns at you, quickly looking down at his watch. It just turned 9:30am, “Fuck, okay, we have just over two minutes to get the hell out before god knows what happens.”

“You’re not meant to be here.” You say, still shaking your head. “Steve! Why the hell did you follow me?!”

“Like I was gonna leave you?!” He gawks, gesturing to the gate. “What else was I meant to do?!”

“Get the hell out of the lab!” You exasperate. He shouldn’t have come with you. This was a death trap, he had to know it.

“We still have time-”

“I need to find El, you should leave before you run out of time.” You point to the gate but he’s much more stubborn than you think.

“I’m not leaving unless you’re coming with me.” He says sternly and you could almost scream.

“Steve, you’re literally wasting one of those minutes arguing with me, we can’t-”

“It’s fine, it’s still two…” Steve frowns, glaring at his watch. The hand hadn’t budged from the six. He looks a little closer, holding it to his ear. It wasn’t ticking. “What the…”

“What?”

“My watch stopped working.” He says and you scrunch your face. “No, I only just replaced the batteries, Dustin borrowed it and fixed it while we were gone, I…”

You stare at him. “So you don’t know how much time is left?”

He shakes his head vigorously. “I-“

A loud rumble shakes the floor and you automatically reach out to Steve, his hands grabbing your waist as you try to balance.

“What the hell was that?” You breathe out, and you both turn to the gate, something behind it growing brighter and brighter. “Steve…”

He squints against it. It looked like something was getting closer. Then, as he stares down at his suspiciously broken watch, his stomach drops. You were out of time.

“Run.” He breathes helplessly, not bothering to wait for your response before grabbing your hand and pulling you with him.

Steve desperately searches the area for some shelter, any kind of cover. He was standing in what looked like debris, a giant piece of… the lab? Whatever it was, it looked sturdy enough for him to pull you behind it.

He ducked his head down just as a giant blast of fire spat out of the gate, feeling the heat of it in the air as he held you tight. The shock left a ringing in his ear, his only reminder that he was still alive being the way you grasped his hand tight.

You move first, peering out over the slab of concrete and hissing when your hand accidentally makes contact with the burning stone. Everything around you was either burnt or burning, small flames dancing along the ground and chasing after screeching vines.

The lab had exploded, you realise, shoulders dropping. It was gone. And it took the gate with it, only a large crack against the surface left in its demise.

You turn to see Steve already standing beside you, taking in the scene just as you had, his hard stare softening into defeat. There was no going back.

“What now?” You whisper, afraid if you say it any louder the realisation of what you had done would come crashing down, taking away that last remaining piece of sanity with its tide.

“I…” Steve frowns, slowly meeting your eyes. He didn’t have a plan this time, no positives to share. You were both stuck in an alternate dimension, your exit blown to smithereens. “I don’t know.”

Four days ago, you had both survived the beginning of the apocalypse despite mutual hatred in every bone. It was purely a strategic pairing, unbeknownst to how much you’d learn.

Four days later, and there was a new beginning lurking in the air, staring at one another and holding hands like it was the only salvation.

This is it, Steve thinks, his eyes searching your own worried glaze of hue, sink or swim.

Chapter Thirteen: Three Weeks Later ->

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