#( his mom has worn off on him lol ) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

livingislands · 10 days ago

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PUNCH OUT HCS CUZ I DONT GOT TIME TO DRAW THEM BUT THEY WONT LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

Something something the voices

This is so long I'm sorry

No I'm serious I started derailing I think

LITTLE MAC

Mexican-American! His ma is Mexican and immigrated to The Bronx, where she met Mac's dad (who we have nothing on lol, he dipped before Mac was born).

His ma? Oh yeah, she died :( He doesn't know how, just that he came home one day (latchkey kid) and saw the cops surrounding the apartment. Placed him in an orphanage but got into fights a lot and deemed him a 'problem child' (literally just an autistic kid grieving the loss of his mom)

As said, Lil Mac is autistic! For the most nonverbal and thus uses ASL, but also speaks English and Spanish from time to time(English from Doc, Spanish from his mother and childhood friends who helped him keep up). Spanish is his preferred language tho.

Narcolepsy haver. It usually doesn't interfere much with his actual boxing matches since he's learned to feel when they're coming and deal with them accordingly. Took him and Doc a while to figure out that he had it since they just chalked it up to his prior malnutrition(which also impacted his growth, capping him at a whole 4'9)

Affectionate(?): must be initiated by him. He's very much for hugging and holding hands but if someone else does it first he's like :/. Only people he's ok with is Doc Louis so far.

Trans: transman who figured himself out pretty early when he only played soccer with the boys out in the mud. His mom cut his hair super short as a 'punishment' for always getting dirt in his braids but jokes on her he loved it. Doc has been helping him with hormone blockers, and with the prize money saving up for surgery 🙏 you can do it maccie boy!!! No one else in the ring knows and he'd rather keep it that way thank you (both out of nerves but also why do they need to know 🤨 what are they the fbi???)

Fashion sense: if you try to get this boy in anything but a tank/shirt and shorts he will explode. This man rocks flip flops and sneakers for days and it's all that's in his wardrobe (maybe another hoodie or two). A lot of them are rather worn but he hates the idea of "wasting" money so he uses em till they're literally impossible to wear.

Very spiritual: believes in el Mal Ojo aka Evil Eye and such. (Mostly from his mother and the women on the block that took him in from time to time). If he thinks your vibes are off, he will do an egg cleanse and swears that they work (they do i can attest to that chat).

GLASS JOE

EDS HAVER!!!!! (Ie Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). This man has glass bones and paper

he don't care he will fight till he's dead! That and boxing actually does rlly help him with his joint pains. He finds it kinda funny when ppl worry about him like "sorry guys i gotta lie down real quick i think my ribs went criss cross". He prefers to get around on wheel chair but can get by with crutches(to which he just lays on the bed forever afterward)

Cat dad!!!!: less him having an actual pet cat than him just tending to whatever feline that crosses his path. May or may not have some scratches on his hands don't worry about it.

Actually really good friends with Mac: (we're going to pretend that they aren't literally thousands of miles away shut up). One of the few to make an actual effort to learn ASL rather than pick it up slowly or have Doc translate. In turn, Mac has gone about learning bits and pieces of French, enough so that both can communicate in their respective language and the other can (mostly) understand them.

This man is such a critic like what do you mean the food lacked a certain "je ne sais quoi" or the movie "insisted upon itself". He really wants to be nice but if it has any touch of French, he is going to murder it because it isn't French enough or actually accurate.

Had an ex fiance to which they broke off for reasons he'd rather not elaborate.

VON KAISER

Tics: he has em. They worsen under stress, but occur randomly or if overstimulated

Served in the military before being discharged. He doesn't like talking about and his tics start acting up if the topic is brought up.

Widower: wife died fairly early into their marriage and he was absolutely distraught. They both always talked about having kids, and a part of him still wants that, but it won't be the same without his Engelchen.

Career: he had wanted to be an engineer, but after serving in the military couldn't bring himself to go into it. That, and being a boxing teacher let's him tend to kids, even if it means getting socked in the stomach. He always acts like a strict instructor, both from his own experience in the military and because he wants to keep the kids at arms length. Also his wife being a kindergarten teacher had nothing to do with it nooooo

Close friends with Hondo and Glass Joe. Bear Hugger is a friendly fella but his loud and boarish disposition gets him riled up. Gets along well with Little Mac and if Doc isn't present for whatever reason, he's good at helping Mac calm down if he starts getting overstimulated and vice versa.

He also totally doesn't have Lil Mac be a pseudo son to him and think about his kis could've been potentially his age who said that.

Emotional support animal: German shepherd called Hugo. That's his baby right there

Disco Kid

That man's a fruit your honor!!!! No but fr tho he's a queer man living his best life.

Also a drag queen! (Name pending). Doesn't really care for how others perceive him and goes with the flow really.

Definitely fought with his dad a lot when he was younger, but as he grew his father came around and now they have a pretty solid relationship.

He's a total mommas boy tho he will literally die for her. He also has a little sister who he plays dolls with. (And yes she asks him to say it in his girl voice iykyk)

Gets along with pretty much everyone besides Mr. Sandman really (Aran Ryan is an interesting case. You heard it from the grape vine but they have an on and off relationship).

An art major for sureeeee. Idk what kind but im sensing something

Really good with machinery though. Usually just so he can fix up his car and stereos.

KING HIPPO

He is for sure not human. I always draw him more beastly but he's probably closer to whales/hippos than actual people.

Like hippos, all that's fat is really just pure muscle. No cuz google up a hippo and remove their skin them bitches are SHREDDED!!!

Naturally very affectionate, although he prefers his pals in the minor circuit (and Lil Mac. Yes this is Little Mac supremacy everyone will be his friend).

Absolutely loves cocktails. They come with fruit how can he not. Funnily enough he despises apples though.

Has multiple wives: a primary wife and secondary wives. Has kids with most of them and naturally, the first born son will take his place when the time comes. (He does love all his kids and wives equally tho so don't worry about them).

Surpringly eloquent" while he can't exactly form human speech, his writing is impeccable, both in letter and in word choice. No one knows how he does it with those claws and big ass hands.

PISTON HONDA

This man has so much manga it's insane. This mf probably has a whole room dedicated to his collection. Yes most of them are Shojo and yes he has a lot of Sailor Moon merch and memorabilia. (although he does also enjoy other such Mangas like JJBA and Inuyasha. I'd say he's embarrassed about it but bro was reading Sailor Moon out in the open so id say he's at least fine with reading it publicly.

Has gotten some of the other boxers to read some of his recs and watch some animes with him (he will force you to watch Madoka Magica and Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's only a matter of time.) It's also how he got into other shows like Candy Candy (by Mac), The Golden Girls(by Disco Kid. He likes his oldies what can he say), and pretty much any and every telenovela ever created (Wow wonder who it could be).

Has a pet Shiba Inu that he loves to bits but DAMN does she test his patience sometimes. And he has a lot of it.

Also began learning ASL when he caught wind of Glass Joe doing it, although he practically forced Lil Mac to learn Japanese because damn it, sometimes the dub doesn't do the show justice!!!

Has two older sisters!!! He's the baby of the family lol and it don't matter if he can pick em both up they'll still pinch his cheeks and tease him.

BEAR HUGGER

Trans: a transgender man who's loud and proud. Never bothered with top surgery he ain't cutting off his girls!!! He could pick up the vibe™️ with Little Mac but he's not the type to try and force the conversation. He'll let Mac come to him on his own time, and if not then that's fine too.

Loads of animals: similar situation to Glass Joe, although now it applies to all animals. Bro is a Disney princess. He sticks his arms out and birds fly to perch on them. Can seemingly hold an actual conversation with animals and no one knows if he's losing it or if they are.

Family: an only child, but with loads of cousins who fill in that sibling role. He's actually really good with kids and takes care of his nieces and nephews from time to time. He has thought about being a dad from time to time (he'd really like to have a girl) but always decides against it.

Affectionate: to the highest degree. That man is always asking if ya need a hug and it ain't just a threat for a grapple/ear clap. He and King Hippo get along swimmingly as a result (if only they didn't die if they went to each other's respective home country 😔)

Prosthethic: ya cant tell cuz of his clothes, but he has a prosthetic leg! (Stops a bit below the knee). If he ever takes it off for whatever reason, he always goes "aw man, guess I'm on my last leg" and the crowd goes mild. Thinks it's the funniest shit ever tho and he won't stop making the joke (Little Mac made it worse by giving an actual chuckle. Mac you've doomed us all with your horrible sense in jokes. I blame Doc)

GREAT TIGER

Loves cats: absolutely adores them. This man has a cat onesie I can feel it in my bones. He hangs out with Glass Joe solely for the cat (also the baguettes).

Gossip: he has a horrible habit of gossiping that he's tried to curb but astaghfirullah sometimes he's gotta talk about Don's receding hairline😔 Mac isn't helping him pinche chismoso!!!

Doesn't like going to parties involving alcohol with the WVBA because almost always he's forced into designated driver. Usually he just teleports away because he's not dealing with that yall are calling an uber!!!!

Actively avoids searching up ingredients in things he eats (like gummies) because if he doesn't know it's not Haram.

Sneakerhead: very proud of his collection. Also really into rap music (we don't talk about his career...that never happened chat) and you will hear it blasting from his car.

Sister!!! Stealing this from a fic but he has a younger sister who works internationally. If she's there with him she serves as his translator.

Magic: not limited to clones or what's seen in the game, but it's his preferred type of magic. He can also transform things and people into other things/creatures. He accidentally made Mac into a rabbit and everyone had a field day with that one.

DON FLAMENCO

Chismoso: this man will shit talk anything and anyone. If you talked with him chances are you're part of a gossiping ring with the older ladies who work nearby. I think they're talking about how you're a puta but idk

Former womanizer: this man banged anything that had a beating heart and a pretty body. It wasn't until he met Carmen that he knew what love really was. Once they got together UGHHHH this man was a fucking loser for his Carmen. Took years to win her over but it was all worth it for his amor.

They talk about kids sometimes, but this mf childish that he sees it as having to share his beloved fiance. (They for sure have kids later down the line tho. Give them a minute damn!)

Beef: tbh he doesn't really get along with anyone; he just dislikes them all to varying degrees. He and Mac hate each other on the principle of one being Hispanic/Latino and the other being a Spaniard. Do NOT leave them alone for any reason. Last time they both argued about the spanish word for 'straw' and sent each other to the hospital where they argued some more.

Telenovelas are his life force. If you interrupt his showing of La Rose de Guadalupe, he will literally kill you.

Got Aran Ryan into it by accident: he was watching Teresa in the living room when Ryan was crossing to go to the kitchen for a bite. An hour later he's sat on the couch hand in heads. They both watch it together now.

Great cook: he makes a means paella and he knows it. Always makes it to show off 'Spain Superiority'. Little Mac hates his guts but he's not gonna turn down a free paella.

ARAN RYAN

People joke and say he has brain damage which is why he's so crazy, but he actually does have CTE so 💀

Family: aside from his general knack for recklessness, having a piece of shit mom and an even worse dad (who of course had to die in a freak accident at work) does not exactly leave you the most sound. He has loads of sisters and brothers, being the second oldest of the bunch (with one older sister of which the hate is mutual). It's a big factor to why he doesn't want kids; he's spent a big chunk of his life working to raise them.

Boxing: to him it was both an outlet for his eventually anger issues and a means to raise money in the same punch. It did lead to fucking him up physically, as after a particularly nasty bout with Mr. Sandman, an eye got knocked out of place so he's working with only 50%.

Very jittery: you can never catch this man staying still. Even in his sleep he either tosses or twitches a leg or arm. Trying to make him stay still just makes it worse.

Repressed Bi it's not even funny. His excuse for his on and off relationship with Disco Kid is "well he's basically a lady!" He'll come to terms with it eventually, but that's one hell of a long road.

Superstitious: biggest thing for him is luck. he breaks a lot of shit but mirrors are not one of them!

Low-key misogynistic: "my sister punches harder than ye, boy!" Like damn your sister must be knocking ppls jaws clean off the freak. If he ever finds out that Lil Mac is trans it's just gonna be him like "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" cuz now he's gonna get canceled on Twitter dot com by Super Macho Man😔😔😔

SODA POPINSKI

Married!!! Has a tiny little wife that he loves to bits. She will scold him and he's just all :]]]] wife...I luv her sm... he's a total wifeman

They've been trying for a kid (bro you can't just say that...gross). Naturally this man wants a shit load of them god help that woman.

A major reason to why he's been making efforts to curb his drinking habits! Of course he still hits the bottle every so often, but he's for sure gotten better than his first time in the ring.

Cooking skills: surpringly decent believe it or not! Anything with meat he's killer with and he always makes ridiculously large portions. (Yes it's because he wants to make something nice for his lady let me make a wife guy!!!!)

Really likes Beyonce. Major fan actually he goes to so many of her shows.

Horrible with social cues. This man does not understand when he's being too overbearing (to the detriment of his friendship with many alas😔 especially Von Kaiser and Little Mac). Tries to apologize by offering them a soda like 🥺🥤

Speaking of Little Mac, he once tripped over him (6'7 vs 4'9...oh dear). Flash forward to them in the hospital. They both swear to never speak of this again (also Soda gets him authentic mexican cola so like...we're all good here).

BALD BULL

Anger issues galore: got his father's temperament(don't we all???) And in addition to being bullied a lot as a kid, he hasn't really found the best way to manage. Usually he just goes out to a secluded field or heads out to the sauna, but the press has done little favors to his mental sanity.

Cat magnet: not of his own volition. They are drawn to him like flies to honey. He doesn't really mind them and are a nice way to de-stress.

Music taste: while he usually listens to classical music and instrumentals, he loves himself some girlie pop music. You pull out his ear buds and just catch "Girls just wanna have funnnnn" Before he punches you into the sun

Cattle farm: Inherited from his family, he loves all his cows to bits. They are his pride and joy. He has Glass Joe come over sometimes for some cheese and wine.

Isn't particularly close to any of the boxers beyond Glass Joe and Soda Popinski. He spends some time with Lil Mac, usually just to go out and get some ice cream or something. He likes the kids company cuz he isn't as energetic or demanding in the same regard a lot of teens are.

SUPER MACHO MAN

He for sure has a purse dog named princess. It's a white pomeranian with a pink bow i just known it.

Was a child actor! His family got him into the world early, staring as the sweetheart of whatever show or movie he was in. In his later teens, he was the heart throb before he left the scene as an adult to focus on boxing. His parents were at first disappointed, but after seeing the money roll in? They had no problems after that.

Romance: as expected, nothing permanent. He usually just has loads of flings or one time hook ups that never amount to anything, and he doesn't bother looking for anything "real".

Probably has a kid out there somewhere but if he does, he's denying it till his dying breath.

Similarly to Don, he doesn't really get along with anyone. For him it's just a matter of his own superficial nature. He absolutely detests Mac, but is the only one to know ASL fluently due to a former childhood friend. He doesn't use it beyond wanting to be bitchy in secret.

I know he's super tan but I'm not allowing him to be white. He's a lil something...will figure that out later.

MR SANDMAN

Yeah ngl I don't got a lot for him. I don't think i have anything actually. Huh

He mains Kirby in smash.

He used to have a lisp when he was younger

Yknow how some parents will have kids super far apart? Yeah his parents did that what do you mean he was 22 and he got a new baby sister. What the freak.

He absolutely hates Macs guts but also can't take him seriously on account that he's 4'9. Whose child is this. Literally, when he first entered the ring, he asked whose kid was this and that children weren't allowed in the ring. Lo and behind this was the schmuck that knocked the lights out of 12 other fully grown men, and he was coming for your ass next.

BONUS

DOC LOUIS

Took Mac in when he was around 9, formally adopted him as soon as he could. Heard of a ruckus for a missing child some minutes away and when he came back with Little Mac, he thought he found his parents. Then he got the situation explained to him about how he didn't actually have anyone, everyone just agreed to look out for him. There he officially took him in as his son.

Put the kid back in school after learning he hasn't been in since his mom died. He's considerably behind for his age, but has taken great strides to catch up. He's now just a year behind.

Definitely a major learning curve when it came to raising a child, much less one who barely spoke english(if he spoke at all) and prone to outbursts. It's been years since then and he can't imagine a world without that kid.

Had a wife but they divorced after he found out she had an affair. Sent him on a downwards spiral but he managed to pick himself back up. Having a kid to raise really helps him out.

Close to his sister, but that's about it. She's who gave him pointers on how to raise a kid, as they were about the same age. He doesn't think hes have done as well if it wasn't for her.

Former coach of Bald Bull, but parted ways after arguments on what exactly that wanted to do moving forward. They're amicable now, though.

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sebuckyverse · 2 years ago

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roommates [chapter 1]

modern!eddie munson x fem!reader

series summary: Eddie Munson broke your heart once. Now, you have no choice but to move in with him. warnings: 18+ cussing, angst, sort of enemies to lovers lol; lmk if i missed anything word count: 1,8k a/n: hello i'm back!! happy valentines day to all my besties and my wife of course! i'm celebrating my birthday today so as a gift to you, i give you a new series! i'm nervous about this bc i'm convinced this is trash lmao LET ME KNOW WHAT Y'ALL THINK babes ps! i originally didn't intend to give this an era, but due to some things that happen in future chapters this turned out modern again lol sorryy

masterlist ↡ askbox ↡ next chapter ↠

chapter one ♫♪♩·.¸¸

''Absolutely not!''

''Come on, he's not that bad.''

''No, Steve. I'd rather sleep on the streets.''

''You'd rather be homeless then live with him?''

''Yes.''

Steve sighed, hands on his hips, striking his signature mom pose. ''What the hell happened between you two, anyway?''

''What, he hasn't told you?''

''He's told me his version of events. You on the other hand, never seem to want to talk about it.''

Sighing, you stared into the glass sat in front of you, filled with clear liquid with a greenish hue underneath, twirling the small paper umbrella Steve added as a joke.

''It doesn't matter. What Eddie Munson and I once had, or didn't have, theoretically, is in the past.''

''Then take the room. You're both working, you'll hardly ever see each other.''

Dragging your words, you nervously played with the ends of your hair. ''I don't know...''

''Look, I gotta open the doors. You can stay in the back office tonight if you want, there's an uncomfortable leather couch with your name on it. I'd let you crash at ours, but Nance has been... emotional.''

''She okay?'' you winced, hopping of the barstool you had been sitting on the last hour.

''She thinks she can feel the baby kicking but then she realizes that it's far too early for that and starts crying.''

''Oh,'' you cooed. ''She's just excited.''

''Yeah, I know. I'm excited, too.''

You closed the door to the office space that would be your bedroom for the night. It was small, but held a small desk with various papers scattered on it, a bookshelf half empty and as promised, a worn out brown leather couch. Dropping your purse on the desk, you retrieved your phone and sat down on the couch. You rested your head on the back of the couch, eyes closed, nearly falling asleep if it weren't for the sudden rock music booming outside. You'd almost forgotten you were at Steve's place of work, a bar downtown called the Black Room.

Staring at the bleak ceiling, you bit the inside of your cheek when you felt your eyes getting watery. For the past year, after graduating high school, you had been working your ass off at a local diner across town. You were saving money for college, and other things, since you didn't receive the scholarship you hoped would change your life. Every time you got a paycheck, you withdrew some of it and kept it aside. In the year since you started working, the saved amount wasn't big, but it was still significant to you and you were proud of yourself for keeping it and not spending the money like that little devil on your shoulder keeps suggesting sometimes.

But all of that was now gone, and all it took was a simple mistake of trusting the wrong person and all of your hopes and dreams came crashing down, taking your money with it. To save some money, you moved in with an old friend from high school, Jennie. What you didn't know, was that Jennie was also a pathological liar, who was in financial debt and to ease those debts, found the money you had kept hidden under your mattress (a dumb place to hide money, you know that) and stole it to pay off some of her debts.

Throwing Jennie out was not an option unfortunately, the apartment lease was under her name, so without much thought, you turned on your heel and marched right back out. Heading down the street, you had no idea where you were going. You made it two blocks from your home and nearly collided with a lamp post, when the sound of a bus horn somewhere behind you brought you back to reality. You hopped on the bus that stopped a few feet away from you and headed straight downtown to the Black Room, where you knew Steve would be working tonight.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

You must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing you knew, something was kicking at your feet.

''My, my... Look what the cat dragged in.''

You'd recognize that voice anywhere; deep, sometimes raspy from all the cigarettes he likes to smoke, or at least he used to. It's the voice you used to hear late at night, reading a book out loud when you couldn't sleep due to the thunder outside, or when that same voice used to whisper sweet nothings in your ear when you weren't feeling well. It's also the voice that, one day, in less than 12 hours, turned from sweet and caring to cold and distant.

Right, you forgot he worked here too.

You were laying on your side, feet hanging off the couch. You opened your eyes and the first thing you saw were pair of black jeans, ripped from the right knee and left thigh, one of his Converse clad foot was kicking your heels. A black Henley with the front tucked into his pants, the unforgettable handcuff belt on full display with the black leather more worn out than the last time you saw it, Eddie was looking down at you like a God above, the ceiling lamp above him casting a glow around his hair, still the same as it was in high school - at least some things never change.

''Edward.'' You pushed up from the couch, wincing at the tired muscles of your back. Steve was right, that couch was shit.

The use of his full name always used to irritate him, but if it bothered him now, he didn't show it. Instead, he clicked his tongue and took a few steps to his left and sat on the desk, his hands resting beside him, gripping the edge of the table. ''Whatcha doing here, sweetheart? Haven't seen you in years.''

''First of all, don't call me that,'' you sighed. ''Second, that's none of your business.''

Eddie smirked. ''You're at my place of work, it's kind of my business.''

''What time is it?'' you felt around for your phone, but didn't find it.

''Oh, it's uh...'' Eddie pulled a phone out of his back pocket, your phone. ''02:14 am.''

''Hey! Give me that,'' you held your palm up.

Eddie looked at your hand for a moment, before handing the phone back to you, the back of his knuckles grazing your palm. You swallowed down the spark you felt speed across your arm. The sleeves of his shirt were pulled up to his elbow, exposing tattoos you had never seen before as well as his toned arms. Doing a quick once over, you noticed his physique was fuller... everywhere. Does he work out? He was pretty tall and lanky back in high school, but now he looked like he had grown into his body; the jeans were hugging his thighs and his shoulders seemed more defined.

Clearing your throat, you asked, ''Why did you even have that? Is stealing your side hustle now?''

''It was laying on the floor, pardon me. Didn't want to step on it.''

''Fine. Thanks for not stepping on it, I guess,'' you mumbled, keeping your eyes trained on the bookshelf.

''Aren't you gonna ask me what I'm doing here?''

''Don't you work here?''

''Yeah, but not tonight.''

''Okay, I honestly don't care, so...''

''Oh, don't be like that. After all, I'm here to save you.''

You turned to look at him, and that turned Eddie's small smirk into a big Cheshire cat like grin. ''Save me?''

''Steve called me and told me about your predicament.''

Groaning, you threw your head back against the couch. ''God damn Steve.''

''Look, I know we have... history and everything, but I'm only here as a friend. Consider it an olive branch for how things ended back in high school.''

You gaped at him, your eyes bulging and your mouth hanging open. ''Wow. Okay. No, thank you.''

Eddie rolled his eyes. ''You have nowhere else to go.''

''Yes, I do,'' you lied, and very obviously so. You were never any good at it.

''Then why are you sleeping on this fucked up couch?''

Gritting your teeth, you rolled your eyes and looked away from him. Damn Steve and his loud mouth, you were going to hit him on the head. Eddie sighed and got up from the desk, coming closer and crouching next to the couch.

''The offer stands 'til the end of the week. You need a room and I need a roommate now that Steve's gone. I work here every Wednesday through Saturday and after that I usually sleep for two days to get ready for my next shift. We'll hardly ever see each other.''

''Tonight's Wednesday and you're not working.''

''I needed a personal day,'' he winked.

''You know, I've heard about your gigolo way of life.''

Eddie laughed, his eyes shining in the process. ''Gigolo?''

''You're a manwhore.''

Snorting, Eddie rested his hand on his palm, covering his mouth. ''Is that what Steve told you?''

''Are you denying it?'

''No,'' he mused, his voice muffled behind his fist.

''See, that's why I can't move in. I don't want to hear that every night.''

''You used to like hearing me moan in your ear.''

Eddie must have seen the hurt flash across your eyes, since he suddenly grew quiet himself.

His voice was lower now, more serious. What he said next, made you whip your head around and look at those big, chocolate brown eyes that you used to miss so much. ''I know you hate me, I understand that. Despite what happened back then, I still care about you. As a friend, of course. Yes, I sleep around and I am a man so the place is probably messier than you'd like, but I'm offering you a free place to stay. I know you don't have any money either, I'm good to cover us both for a while. Take it or leave it.''

''Why would you do this?'' you asked, looking deep into his eyes, like you were searching for his soul through them.

Sitting so close to him, your chest constricted at all the memories and what if's that have bombarded you throughout the years. Three years after you fled high school, never looking back, he still had a hold on you and you hated him for it. Hated the way he smelled exactly the same but new at the same time, the way he looked like he used to but more mature, the way you still felt your heart nearly burst out of your throat when he looked at you with those stupid brown eyes. You despised him, because after all this time, you still felt the same. If you do this, you had to keep your heart closed, lock it away and swallow the key. Eddie Munson broke your heart once, you won't let him do it again.

''Fine. I'll take it.''

#eddie munson imagine #eddie munson #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson smut #modern!eddie #modern!eddie munson #roommate!eddie #roommate!eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #eddie munson fanfic #sebuckyverse #roommates

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ddollfface · 6 months ago

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𝐅𝐚𝐫 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞

𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙎𝙞𝙘𝙠!𝙎𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙤𝙧 𝙭 𝙎𝙚𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙚!𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

"I have sea foam in my veins, I understand the language of the waves."

Trigger Warnings; Small mention of S/A (not described), reader being a bad mom (?), gore (mention of fatty tissue, blood, etc.) lovesick behavior, kidnapping, reader makes a grand escape, bad writing, I just wrote this for shits and giggles lol If I missed anything, then please let me know ♡

Shit!

You swore that it was here! There was nowhere else it could be; where could he put it? There weren't too many places one could hide something, especially in such a small Lighthouse. Rummaging through the wooden chest, your chipped nails scrapped against the splintered wood, gasping when a secret compartment opened, revealing it.

Your coat.

Yes! There it was! You scooped up the fluffy cloth, holding it up to your nose, and breathing the scent of it. It still smelt the same. The scent of fresh salt and cold air filled your senses, filling you with a sense of contentment. Biting your lip, you hold back tears as you hold the coat as close as possible, rubbing your face into the fluffy material.

The coat was still in good shape, with some small stains here and there, but overall it was perfectly fine. The coat was still a smooth, grayish-blue leather material, completely worn in, and fitted you quite nicely. It felt the same, smelt the same, and appeared to be the same. It's been so long since you've held it in your arms! You felt as if this was the reunion of your lifetime! Why have you been parted for so long-

"Mama?" You jumped, whipping around to face the doorway, grasping your hands around the coat, caught off guard by the soft voice. Your eyes met with ones of the same color, ones so bright and full of confusion.

Your heart clenched.

"What's that, Mama?" The boy pointed a chubby finger at the coat, which you quickly hid behind your back, giving the boy a soft smile. You quickly stood, making sure to keep the coat out of sight, and approached the boy.

You brought the boy close, kneeling in front of him, and rubbing the back of his head with a shaky smile, "Why are you awake? It's really late, Bubba..."

The boy's lips pursed, bringing the stuffed seal close to his chest. The sight of the stuffy made your pupils dilate and lips taught into a frown, but you resisted the urge to snatch the stuffy from the child's arms and rip it to shreds.

"Sorry, Mama... The thunder is scary, Mama," The boy's lip wobbled, and his rosy cheeks grew puffy. You sighed, picking the little boy up and holding him on your hip, straightening out his gray nightgown. Ruffing his blonde hair, you pressed a kiss on his forehead, attempting to not be repulsed at the sight of the child.

It's not his fault, you remind yourself, and you repeat it like a mantra. It's not his fault. It's not his fault. How could it be his fault?

There's no way this innocent, little boy could be a fault for this. He was just brought into this world without any will, brought into a family filled with unreciprocated love. So, because of this, you must push through and treat him with love, something he deserves.

But God is it hard, especially when he has his hair, his skin, and his face. He looks so much like him, practically the spitting image of him. The only thing you two shared was eyes, but even then they were in his shape. Even when away from him, you cannot escape him, a mini him staring right back at you.

How horrible are you? To where you cannot look at a little boy without anything but hate? How can you look at this little boy and not see your son? You birthed him, grew him from the womb, and fed him from your body. What more of a connection could you have with someone? And yet you cannot give him the time of day, refusing to play outside, denying him any attention a normal mother would give.

All of this was for today, the day you'd regain your dignity, freedom, and personhood, away from the monster you dare call your husband. You mustn't let the little boy grow close to you because it'll make parting all the worse. You need to be able to separate, and you have to carry that strength with you now. You must do so just so you can reunite with your brethren once agian.

It's been so long since you've seen them, and you miss them dearly so. Your throat tightens as you adjust the boy on your hip, leading him toward the stairs before setting him down. Huffing out a soft sigh, you tuck a blonde curl behind his ear, ignoring the dreadful thump of your heart and calling of your heavy consciousness.

You have to do this. If not for family, but for yourself.

"There's nothing to be scared of, Bubba. Now, go back upstairs and tuck yourself in," You kneeled down, softly speaking to the little boy, who just nodded, giving you one last hug.

"Mmk, Mama. Night night..." The boy whispers, grabbing your cheeks with his small hands, and pressing a clumsy kiss on your cheek, making you chuckle. Pressing your forehead against the little boy's, you lift up his bangs, just to press a kiss onto his forehead and bring him into a hug.

The little boy wraps his short arms around your middle, pressing his face against your chest, his lip wobbling. Racking your fingers through his blonde curls, you hold back the tears that pool in your eyes, knowing that you just have to pull through. You were so close, you can't let this go to waste.

"Alright, go to sleep, Baby," You pull away from the little boy, giving him one last smile before ushering him up the stairs. Waving at him, you cringe as he turns his head around, (E/C) eyes peering back into your matching ones. It's as if he knows something amiss, judging and observing you like it's your last moments together. And how correct he is.

You have to hurry.

The rain was heavy, beating against your back, and soaking through your thine nightgown. The raindrops began to blur your vision, or is it your tears? At this point, it's impossible to tell.

pitter. patter.

Your nose so cold it's red and about to fall off, cheeks matching in shade. Your hair is wet and sticks to your jawline, framing your head like a halo. Fingers scraped raw, blood smeared across your smooth skin, and seeping into the fluffy coat that is now matted with blood and water.

It's impossible to see where you're going, but you know deep in your heart which trail leads to where. The smell of salt and fresh dirt guides you to your home: the ocean.

pitter. patter.

Holding the coat close to your chest, careful not to drop it. If you lose it, this would all be for nothing, and you'd be dragged back to the hell you called home. The twigs and forest brush roll under your feet, causing your footing to be loose and inconsistent, warning you to be cautious.

Though it's been years since you've been outside, you know from your heart that you'll make it - you have to. The ocean is welcoming you with open arms. You can feel the way the wind is pushing you faster. How the waves are calling out to you, like a siren song ushering you to the depth of the sea. Or how the trees show the path toward the sandy gate.

pitter, patter.

You're almost there - you can feel it. Your feet are carrying you faster than you thought possible, but you choose not to focus on such things, instead, focusing on getting home. There's no way he should know, you've planned too long.

You can see it, the taste of freedom seeping onto your tongue. Quickly rushing to put on the coat, you sprint across the sand, relishing on how you sink into the grainy ground. The comfort of nostalgia causes you to slow and almost miss the sound.

pitter, patter?

Huh, how long has that sound been on loop, constantly playing in the background? You've been so caught up, that you hadn't noticed it, assuming it was just rain. Before you could even get another word, to even think of turning around, you're tumbling towards the ground.

A face full of sand is the last thing you expected, but quickly forgot about. The burning sensation of torn flesh and oozing blood welcomed the disheartening feeling of mind-rotting pain.

Quickly jerking your head to look behind you, you're greeted by the sight of a harpoon lodged into the back of your thigh. It felt as if your leg was getting torn apart, tissue and fat getting spread and ravished by the rusty head of the harpoon. It snagged and dug into your skin, causing blood and bile to creep up your throat. The sigh ungodly. You felt lightheaded and hadn't even realized that you were slowly being dragged away from the ocean.

The tugging of the metal head of the harpoon caused you to call out, a silent scream leaving your lips and flooded tears pooling down your cheeks. The wet sand rubbed against your body in a way that was no longer nostalgic, but torturous. The tiny grains smothered in your hair, itching your scalp. The sand absorbed the thick, scarlet liquid, causing blood to pool around your legs and create a stain in the sand as you were dragged back to him.

And there he was, the man you called your husband. His golden curls were a little frizzy but seemed to glow under the silver lighting of the moon. His skin tan and layered with scars, along with chiseled muscles that contracted with every harsh tug at the rope, connecting you to him. If you weren't in your current circumstances, you would've thought he was an angel of some sort, but you knew that was far from the truth.

And his eyes gleamed with bloodlust, completely bloodshot and fanatic. Eyes that were once a beautiful hazel, swirls of brown and green that resembled that of the grown we walk on and trees we lie under, are now churning with a possessive monster ready to break free and ravage you.

He was no longer the sailor you had grown to love and admire, instead, he was now a hunter, a man you should've swam from the moment you saw him on that pier. But how could you have known?

He looked anything but harmful, more similar to a young babe than a possessive maniac. Who could blame you for being attracted to him, especially after he had helped you after your tail got caught in some mangy nets? His hands were so delicate, making sure to be careful not to hurt such skin.

Though he didn't know you weren't what you seemed, he still treated you as a living, breathing being, when most would've deserted you, or sold you on the market. After all, humans seemed to deem seals good for soup.

You thought you could trust him, and that's why you revealed yourself to him, exposing your identity as a selkie. If only you had known...

If only you had known what was lying behind that charming smile was a possessive and delusional man waiting for the right woman.

If only you had known that though he had a pretty face, the prettiest face you've ever seen on a human, it wasn't something to be fooled by, instead, you should've swum back in the ocean the moment he freed you from that damned net.

If only you had known that he'd take away your coat, stealing it in your sleep, pretending it got swept up in the ocean. That he'd help you get it back, just come up to his Lighthouse. He'll help you.

If only you hadn't trusted that pretty smile, taking his hand, and going up to his Lighthouse.

If only you had known that he'd take advantage of you, ripping your clothes off, and taking your cries as an invitation for more. Maybe if you had known about the human anatomy, you would've fought a little more and screamed a little louder.

But you didn't. You didn't know, and now you are being dragged back into the hands that stole you from your people, your home, and stole your life, trapping you with a baby boy.

Now, he whispers in your ear, cradling your head as sobs rack throughout your body. Your leg is bloody and torn, no recovery in sight. Tears of shame, guilt, and rage build up inside of you, so you pound your fists against his chest, screaming at him through the sobs.

His large hands just hold you in place, letting you tire yourself out, humming sweet nothings into your ear as he slowly weaves your coat from your hands. Quickly picking you up, careful not to touch your injured leg, he begins his walk home, leaving gore in his wake.

The ocean, your only witness, cries for its loss. The daughter it once had, who was so close to coming home, was now snatched away by the hands of an evil man. The tides rise, ridding the sand of the gore and blood that once was.

Closing your eyes, the last thing you see is the calming waves reaching out for you.

"Honey, it's time to go home."

#𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙠!𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 #𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡'𝙨 𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 #lovesick #x reader #yandere x reader #yandere male #yandere x you #obsessive love #bad writing #yandere oc #yandere oc x you #selkie #selkie oc #selkie reader #merpeople #minor gore cw #this is kinda boring ngl #i went a little overboard whoopies

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superstarz9 · 6 months ago

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Ya’ll fw a couple MORE Mr. Puzzles hcs?

Cause I got them :}

He was gifted the hat by his mom. It’s a permanent part of him with how much he’s worn it.

He gets it, and won’t say anything about it, but he hates it when he regarded as just the scary “tv” head guy. He’s much more than a pretty screen, people!

The pants are custom made and he has like 20 pairs. He also has several pairs of his shirt and vest.

Will change the second there’s a spot on his clothes. He needs to remain as pristine as possible.

If he wasn’t a workoholic, he’d beat all the moms at candy crush. He’d try to be a literal god at candy crush, and would honestly buy extra lives if he was furious with how the match went and he ran out.

Plays computer solitaire to distract himself when the ratings aren’t good or he needs a mental reset.

Adding to these two, since he has computer elements in his brain (probably), he can probably predict where the game is going to go. The older the console, the easier it is.

He’d be a god at minesweeper.

Does not and will not swear no matter how bad it gets.

If he goes to a concert, he’ll just be doing the equivalent of maladaptive daydreaming the whole time, planning out shows and movies for the songs

Loves the orchestra. He loves movie scores and would totally go to those events where there’s an orchestra playing the soundtrack live as the movie plays.

He’ll whine about not having friends or being able to talk to people but he will refuse to talk to anyone in public, going so far as to mute anyone who tries speaking with him. If he’s at an event and someone tries sparking a conversation with him, he’ll look away awkwardly and reply with “uh huh, yep, oh wow,” and so on until they leave. In a relationship, you could introduce him to people but he’s still be the same unless you were apart of the conversation.

Loves movie/show trivia but it’s a double-edge sword. If you take him on a date to a bar for movie trivia night, he’ll have fun and get everything right (and infodump a lot) but a question will pop up and the official answer will be wrong and Mr. Puzzles will just go ballistic.

Canonically has hammer-space abilities in the shows and can pull out anything he needs. Need a first-aid kit? Got it right here. Emergency costume? Has your size in multiple colours to choose. Someone pissed you off? Just say when and he’ll have something ready.

He doesn’t have proper heating in the studio(since he doesn’t need it) and the place is freezing when there’s the slightest breeze outside.

He uses different colognes and even used febreze a few times to smell his best, but he perpetually smells like cigarettes

He kins spongebob.

Technically canon but he’s an entrepreneur, and has multiple businesses (a tech company based on the keyboard from it’s gotta be perfect, selling the showgrounds). He also phrases puzzlevision as his “latest business venture,” in the movie’s teaser. He bounced between different businessed to earn enough money to buy the studio and the equipment he’d need.

With that being said, he’s unintentionally a con artist. Though he tries to have a somewhat clean business, he cuts corners often to get the products out sooner or doesn’t perform proper safety protocol. He doesn’t really care, though, as his main goal was and is Puzzlevision. He pretty much stopped the second he found the smg4 crew.

Terrible at art. He tries, but not even you can hold back your laugh if you see his art.

If he hasn’t slept for a while his voice is warped and a little glitched.

I forgot if I already posted this but his underpants are so those heart boxers but instead of hearts they’re stars.

So real quick, I just wanted to say that ONE OF MY HEADCANONS HAS BE CONFIRMED LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It is now confirmed that Mr. Puzzles CAN speak multiple languages, but still needs subtitles. God, I love being right /j

Fr tho, it’s really awesome having him back so soon. Maybe a little early, but I’m not complaining lol. From the sounds of it, he’ll be a reoccurring villain like SMG3 used to be, which I’m honestly relieved by. It’ll be rlly refreshing having a silly antagonist again honestly. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this fricken nerd lol

Also if you guys have any suggestions or requests please let me know! Questions and comments are also appreciated! Thanks and have a great day!

#headcanons #mr puzzles #mr puzzles headcanons #puzzlevision

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rustboxstarr · 1 year ago

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🗡"Seeking attention like some common whore"🗡

Summary: Eddie doesn't think before he talks when he's pissed, he regrets that now when he has to explain to his daughter why her mom can't wear whatever she wants.

Pairings: Dad!Eddie Munson x Mom!Reader

Warnings: Angst, fluff, some fighting, Eddie being a dick, Eddie and R being a healthy couple and talking about their problems lol

Wordcount: 2.6 k

A/N: I found this in my docs and thought why not post it? Idk where the idea for this came from but I guess its mildly funny 🤷‍♀️

Love yas!

Check out my other works!

You woke up in a sour mood on Saturday, head pounding and your mouth extremely dry, a bitter taste resting on your gums. Your week had been long and challenging, you hadn’t even been that keen on going out partying Friday evening but Cindy, your closest colleague had psyched you up and made you feel excited about the whole thing, you even enjoyed yourself, had quite a few drinks, lots of laughs, some stumbling around with some other girls from the office as you made your way out and a permanent sloppy grin painted your features as you got out the cab and stepped through the door to your small house where so much love had been shared you were comfortable calling it a home. That grin was wiped clean off the moment you stepped through the door.

A hangover was beating down on you, made even worse when you woke up with no long muscly arms wrapped around you, or any limbs even touching you for that matter. You craned your neck from your position lying on your side to see Eddies back to you, shallow even breaths making his torso expand evenly. It felt melancholy, not waking up with a comforting warmth wrapped around you, and you almost let that feeling overtake you before you rolled your eyes as you remembered what had actually gone down the night before, the reason for why there would be no awaiting tylenol and water on your bedside table and no lazy saturday morning cuddles before Ophelia woke up.

You dragged yourself out of bed, the weight on your feet feeling undeniably heavy and sagging as your post drunk state hit you like a slap in the face when your head leveled upright. Taking a deep breath you decided to go downstairs and get yourself some pain killers, a very large glass of water or two and a strong cup of coffee.

Rubbing your eyes of sleep you sipped your coffee at the kitchen table, sunk into the wooden chair, much too hard for any slouching to be at all comfortable. Footsteps pattered against the wooden stairs alerting you that someone was coming to join you, much to your dismay it wasn't a light pitter patter of tiny feet but heavy steps of a tired grown man probably equally as sour as you. The thuds alerting his presence caused you to quickly adjust your worn cotton nightgown, pulling the hem up comfortably to cover any awkward cleavage.

You didn't even look his way as you heard the same footsteps enter the sage green and powder blue kitchen, you made no effort to stand up and greet him in any way instead you just sipped your coffee and looked out of the window. Your husband’s and your own car parked in the driveway in front of the empty quiet street of the suburbs. Green grass damp with the morning dew brightening up the dark hours of the early winter morning, a colorful painted mailbox even more a stark contrast to the blacks and deep blues that painted the sky.

Eddie poured himself a cup of coffee and folded himself into the opposite chair, a low groan slipping past his lips at the action. All you did was glance over to him, at the interruption, but Eddie's eyes were fixed on the maple of the table as his hands wrapped around the dark Star Wars mug, the same one he drank his coffee in every morning, just like you with your Zelda mug. Before you flicked your eyes back to the view of the street through the window you noticed Eddie was shirtless, pale skin dampened in the lack of light shining at him, torso littered with tattoos, snaking up his arms and chest, down to his hips. He too hadn’t bothered to change into day clothes yet.

The silence loomed over the small open kitchen as you both sipped your coffee in quiet, you refusing to meet his gaze as Eddie chanced glances at you, trying to gather what mood you were in and by extension how the rest of the day would look like. All he could understand was that you were nowhere near happy and that meant that his day would probably be even longer than the workweek had been.

He cleared his throat in an attempt to get you to look at him but you blatantly ignored him and continued staring out the window. Just as he was about to try again the familiar noise of tiny feet tread the steps down the stairs that he had taken not long ago. In an instant both of your heads turned in the direction of the hall awaiting Ophelia, eyes fixed on the corner before a head of messy brown curls appeared.

In her blue whale pajamas, clutching her favorite teddy bear, Mr Burr as she so pleasantly called him. Rugged white fabric, fluff lost with the amount of love it had been given the past four and a half years and stuffing unevenly placed in the head and body, leaving a thin long neck on the seal in its rightful position of Ophi’s elbow.

“Hia baby” had it been any other day your voice would be alot more chipper, but today, you couldn't muster up the strength, your tone was flat and croaky, clear evidence of the night before. Eddie winced behind you as he heard it, you were probably not feeling very well and he couldn't help but feel the slight guilt that part of it was his fault with the fighting yesterday, but also not being there to dote on you the morning after you had been out drinking.

“Hi” Ophis' voice was near a whisper, still tired and not fully awake, she walked over to you, holding her hands out expectantly. You groaned as your weak muscles worked to pick your daughter up and sit her in your lap, that too made Eddie wince, guilt bubbling up even more than it already had. “Sleep ok?” he leaned over the table to let her slide her small hand into his big palm “No it was too loud” she complained as she let her dad wrap his fingers around her wrist. “Oh I’m sorry baby, were mommy and daddy talking too loud? you should have come in and told us” you hugged her to you as you felt bad about keeping your daughter up. “Probably would have helped me get to bed faster than staying up till 4 am” you mumbled, too groggy and hoarse for Ophi to understand what you were saying. Eddie let go of his daughter's hand with an eye roll, occupying himself with a large gulp of bitter coffee instead.

“Why were you and daddy fighting?” Ophelia turned to you as she nuzzled her head to your collarbone “Me and daddy just had a little argument” you explained as a hand instinctively went to comfort her, smoothing down her hair atop her head. “What was it about?” she pressed as Eddie stood up from his seat to prepare a bowl of cereal for her and later on, her sister.

You looked over at him and decided, you may as well just tell her “Hmm well you know when Daddy says you can’t wear some things?” looking down at her. “Oh great turn our daughter against me” Eddie grumbled as he poured milk into a pink plastic bowl, you scowled at him as the little girl spoke “Yeah, I don't like that, he tells Woxy too” she frowned up at you, it was difficult to take her seriously as she tried to pronounce her sister Roxette’s nickname. “Yeah well daddy does that with me too” you explained in a soft tone, despite the fact that you were actually really annoyed at the fact. “Why? Daddy says it's because I'm just little but you’re old” you chuckled, not catching the way Eddie's lips tugged up at the corners. “Yeah, I’m old”

Eddie sat back down before placing the bowl and a small spoon in front of Ophelia's usual place at the kitchen table, signaling for you to let her down so she could eat. Ophelia crawled down and then up again to sit with her knees digging into the specially placed cushion on her chair.

“Daddy” she looked up after a few mouthfuls “Hm?” he turned to give her his full attention “Why can't mommy wear what she wants? She’s not little, she's a woman” Ophelia asked confused. The gears were visibly turning in Eddie's brain as he thought over how best to explain it, he couldn't exactly tell his almost 5 year old daughter that her mom couldn’t waltz around in skirts that he barely considered an actual article of clothing and tops that reveal the things that are only for his eyes to see. “Um… well” he was fighting for words. “Because sometimes Daddy forgets that I’m not little like you” you interrupted, booping Ophelia's nose to earn a light giggle “So he forgets that it's not okay for him to tell me how to dress” even though your voice is soft you shoot Eddie a hard glare giving him insight into how you were actually feeling about him at the moment.

Eddie rolled his eyes again and sat back in his chair, bringing the black ceramic up to his lips. “But listen Ophi, ok this is very important” you lent forward to catch her eye “When you become a big girl and same goes for your sister, if someone other than me or your daddy ever tells you what you can and can't do you have to come to us, and tell us ok?” Ophelia nodded in understanding “Especially if it's a boy ok? Because it's very important that you remember that you are your own person, and that no one can tell you how to dress ok?” Ophelia nodded again “You gonna come tell us if that happens?” “Yeah” Ophelia nodded happily as you sat back to mimic Eddie and bring your own coffee cup up to your lips and your eldest began her meal again.

You recognised Eddie's face as he stared unfocused behind you, he was clearly mulling something over by the looks of it arguing with himself in his mind. Under any other circumstances you would ask him “Penny for your thought princess?” in some corny southern british accent, but today you simply didn't want to know.

Ophelia seemed not to notice the tension between her two parents as she told you both about a strange dream she had where Eddie’s guitar had turned into an airplane and she had flown off with her friend Louise Harrington in it, both you and Eddie humoring her as she spoke with mouthfuls of cheerios. Soon enough she was situated under a blanket with various stuffed animals and a bottle of water on the couch to watch her morning cartoons next to three year old little Roxette who munched on some cut up slices of toast by Eddie and sat watching intently as bright colors lit up the screen.

As Eddie got Ophelia and Roxette settled you pulled yourself upstairs with the intent of a shower and a fresh change of clothes, but decided to belly flop head first into the soft pillows of your bed, almost dozing off as the door next to your right opened. You didn't bother looking up as you heard Eddie close the door carefully and tiptoed around the bed to his own side, under the impression that you had passed out but was instantly startled as you awkwardly turned your head to press your cheek into the pillows, facing Eddie as he was about to climb back into bed himself.

Your voice was muffled against the pillow as you spoke, “Come to shout about what a massive slut I am again?” Eddie cringed as he heard you, he took a deep breath before sitting down next to you, his back to the headboard. “No..” he sighed “You sure? Or would you maybe prefer attention seeking.. whore? Was it? No no wait, seeking attention like some common whore, that's what it was” Eddie shrunk in on himself as you repeated the words he had shouted at you in fury the night before, you knew Eddie would come around, you knew he would apologize, but this particular time you felt he had really crossed a line so you had no problem sprinkling some salt in his wounds.

“Baby.. I’m sorry” he whispered as he leaned over to place a hand on your back and rub it up and down. “Mmmm” you sarcastically hummed “I-I really shouldn't have said that, I was being an absolute dick” at that you hummed in agreement, face still half smushed into the pillows as you looked up at him. “I just, you know how I feel about Billy.. I already don't want him around you, and when I saw you come home like that I just knew he was probably lapping it up” a roll of your eyes “But I took my anger out on the wrong person, I’m really sorry” Eddie moved down the bed to lie on his side as his hand continued rubbing up and down your back.

“Mhm and?” you looked at him as his face was now level with yours “And..” he breathed fighting a roll of his eyes, he knew what you were doing “I just thought about you know if Ophelia or Roxette ever comes home with a boyfriend” “mhm” you coaxed him on “I wouldn't be that happy to know he was telling them what to wear” you broke out into a wide smug grin, even though there were a few more things to unpack about yesterday, an apology was all you needed for the moment.

“Yup” you popped the ‘p’ even more smug, this time Eddie did actually roll his eyes but a playful grin tugged at his lips. “But” Eddie’s face suddenly went serious “I would… appreciate if maybe you don't wear those kinds of outfits around, at least Billy in the future” he was feeling sheepish at his request. “In my defense” you pushed yourself up to lay your head on your crossed forearms “I didn’t actually know Billy was gonna be there” you grinned “also if I knew that, do you seriously think I would have worn that?” Eddie chuckled “Yeah ok no, that's true” another smug hum of approval. “Mmmm but why you gotta wear that stuff anyway” he started of with a hint of a whine “Who you tryna impress when you have a big hunky husband with the biggest dick you've ever set your eyes on” a loud snort rang through the room as you turned to lie on your side, letting Eddie scoot closer and wrap his arms around you.

“Maybe I’m tryna impress my boss, ya know get myself a sweet promotion, or maybe that so called big dick you pride yourself just isn't cutting it anymore” you nuzzled your face into his bare chest as it vibrated with laughter “Well first of all you are the boss, hate to break it to ya butchya’ can’t really get promoted babe, second whatchu’ talkin’ ‘bout woman, just last morning you were drooling over it” you rolled your eyes as a big amused smile spread across your face.

“Well now you're just lying, I was not drooling”

“Oh Eddie! Oh Eddie god! Oh my god! AAUUH Ugh! Your cock is so big oh my goood! Fuck Eddie yes! Yes! YEEES!” Eddie's voice turned into an awfully high pitched imitation of a girl's voice as he whispered as to not let the girls hear, whole body shaking with you in his grasp to get his point across further.

“Oh my god shut up!” you clasped a hand around his mouth which Eddie easily pulled away to kiss at your knuckles “I’m getting a divorce” you giggle as you cozy up to Eddie.

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writer-ishh · 8 months ago

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My Dungeon Meshi Modern AU Thoughts Instead of Writing My Economics Research Paper lmao

Ughhhh,,,, okay have been thinking about them all day and if one person manages to make it through the void and hear me out and talk about them with me then I’ll be happy lol.

WARNING: this is stupidly long, like I spent an absurd time writing every single little detail down. With that being said here we go:

cw//mentions and minor graphic descriptions of death, bullying, discrimination, injury, abuse, trauma, mental health issues, and abandonment

• Laios

- currently 26 and living with his sister Falin

- studying zoology part-time at the local college

- mostly does night classes since he works 1-2 jobs during the day to help pay for his and Falin’s tuition and apartment

- he and Fallin took their dog Muimui when they moved out, they also feed the local stray cats

- lived on a farm with his sister and parents when he was a kid, and is where his love of animals comes from

- however did not have the best of childhoods, as he was a frequent target for bullying due to having undiagnosed autism, and his father was very much a “nothing is wrong with you, toughen up the world isn’t going to coddle you” kind of person

- this was further cemented when he cried going hunting with his dad for the first time and refused to eat any of the deer or rabbit they had caught

- his mom had her own mental health problems that she was never diagnosed for, so often she fell into the same mindset as her husband when it came to Laios’ and Fallin’s behaviour, only she was more erratic due to her fear of one or both of her kids becoming like her

- never forgave his father after he sent Fallin off to a private middle/high school far away from their home, little did he know it was because the severe bullying Fallin was receiving was too much for her, and he wanted to send her away before she got hurt or worse

- nearly tried to run away at 16, however was caught by the police almost immediately and returned home

- completed his high school diploma and took off with Muimui without even saying goodbye to his parents, Fallin nearly joined him in the city but since she was still under guardianship of her parents, she couldn’t leave until she became an adult

- once graduated, she reunited with Laios in his apartment where they now live

- works nearly full-time at Senshi’s restaurant and works part-time as a janitor at their local zoo (he wants to be close to the animals lol)

- very busy but he makes it work, Marcille and Kabru have no idea how he does it without any meds or caffeine

- either has a worn out picture of him and Falin with their old dogs, or has a hand-made drawing of his theoretical strongest monster in his pocket that he looks at whenever he needs inspiration

- both him and Falin live wayyy out of the city center since rent is fucking abysmal downtown

- insists on taking the bus or walking everywhere since taxis and buying a bike costs too much, even if the commute is like 2 hours with 3 transfers

- despite this, he still has a drivers license

- the kind of guy you would expect to be eating leafy green tofu bowls from your local hipster vegan bistro, but is actually the kind of guy who eats the dubious $4 ground beef chubs and off-brand deli ham from walmart

- socks and slides with free college club t-shirts and cargo pants from the gap that come with like 50 pockets so he can carry all his stuff (the stuff mostly being dog treats and loose bird feed) bro has no drip aside from one outfit put together by Marcille

- uses the same highlighter blue and yellow adidas backpack he’s had since middle school, carries literally everything in there

- doesn’t listen to music, but if he does it’s rain/nature sounds with the $2 headphones you get from the dollarstore

- not much of a gym freak and usually just goes casually, prefers sports to working out (will have a protein shake but does not invest in creatine or other pre-workout supplements)

- either uses the same recyclable water bottle with the label torn off from a pack of 50 he got 3 years ago, or just uses one of his protein shake bottles I can’t decide

- hangs out with Marcille and Falin the most often (since Marcille constantly makes excuses to study with Falin at their apartment), sometimes gets smoothies or juice with Kabru if they run into each other

- hangs out with Senshi and Chilchuck less often, their time spent together is usually limited to having a beer after closing the restaurant or meeting together with everyone else to have dinner every couple months

- goal is to become a wildlife biologist when he graduates

- more to add if I think of it

• Fallin

- currently 23 and lives with Laios

- in her second year of studying veterinary medicine at their city’s main university

- grew up with Laios and her parents on their farm, also developed a deep love and appreciation for animals early on, but while Laios was more interested in the study of their behaviour, she was more interested in healing them

- also has undiagnosed autism like her brother, only when it came to her behaviours, she stood out a lot more and was subsequently bullied heavily for stimming, having major sensitivities to light and sound, self-isolating, talking to inanimate objects or “ghosts”, having a special interest in things like bugs or plants, and having a very specific schedule that adults had to help her with

- never really understood why adults or other children treated her differently, as she thought it was normal for everyone, however was still affected by having no friends aside from her brother during her younger years

- the bullying got so bad that kids began physically tormenting her, and since she never told Laios (who was in middle school and couldn’t always be with her), there was essentially no one to defend her

- very sadly culminates in an incident where she was intentionally locked in a graveyard overnight, and although she didn’t sustain any injuries she was fairly traumatized by the event, it was the final straw for her father to send her away to a private school at 12 years old to finish her education

- moved to a different city the next year where she stayed in dormitories, had her own room due to enrolling late

- also initially had a hard time making friends, and often cried since she couldn’t be with Laios, however no one bullied her for her autism and most often ignored her or gossiped

- had Marcille as a “buddy” to help her get acclimated to school life, however their relationship was quite awkward initially as Marcille thought she was unnerving and frankly a little stupid, however was completely shocked at Fallin’s nearly perfect grades

- school policy at that time stipulated that students had to return to the main hall for dinner at a certain time, however when Fallin doesn’t show up, Marcille has to look for her

- she finds Fallin at her secret hangout spot, similar to her dungeon in the anime, a corner with a group of trees and thick bushes that opened up into a grassy nook and a little pond, there they talk about what she does there and why she skips

- also similar to the anime, a fox (rather than a slime) catches them by surprise, but as Marcille tries to get it to run away by throwing rocks at it, Fallin stops her and explains it never comes closer than the tree line, she then points out that hurting while it’s already injured (has a slight limp) will cause it to die, allowing for the prey animals like squirrels and rabbits to eat away at most of the fauna surrounding the school, basically emphasizing the importance of all animals in an ecosystem and how it’s wrong to try and shift the ecosystem solely for our comfort or benefit (cheesy I know but it’s for the plot)

- she then offers Marcille the raspberries that grow on some of the bushes, and soon after Marcille asks if she would like to be friends

- they remain as friends in school only for another year, as Marcille graduates early and leaves Fallin behind much to her heartbreak, however does promise that she’ll visit and reunite with her soon

- by the time she graduates, she moves in with Laios and begins attending the same university as Marcille, there their friendship is reaffirmed, and they both start to develop feelings for one another

- full-time student but does work a few shifts at one of her university’s coffee shops whenever she can (tends to feel guilty about Laios helping her out with tuition on top of taking care of everything at home)

- in the honours program, and although she gets good grades her commitment is often questioned due to her habit of skipping

- reason for skipping is because she often does volunteer work at a nearby veterinary clinic

- unlike Laios, Fallin likes to bike to and from her classes

- it’s her main source of exercise, though she also does go to the gym if she has time, girl is absolutely built and is much stronger than she appears

- lives off of daily sweet treats and fried bologna sandwiches or tomato soup made by Laios

- frequently raids the raspberry bush growing outside hers and Laios’ apartment building, as well as the crabapple tree that technically belongs to the house next door but has its branches growing over the fence separating them

- also does not rely on excessive caffeine, but she does enjoy tea and coffee unlike Laios

- has a fjällräven backpack that Marcille gifted her for her birthday, mostly full of her textbooks but she does use it to carry rocks or sticks she finds interesting

- water bottle is a very dented bright pink hydro flask (also gifted to her by Marcille)

- has the jean shorts, tucked in t-shirt, and long cardigan look on lockdown, also wears hiking boots or converse, rarely is she seen in flipflops

- no make-up either, Marcille had to practically beg her to at least start using a clear lipgloss

- isn’t picky about music and usually just listens to whatever Marcille or Laios plays, sometimes she indulges in some lofi hiphop beats if she’s studying

- obviously best friends with Marcille but does not know she has a crush on Marcille, and thinks that her intense feelings of love and happiness are just normal girl friendship feelings (oh you poor thing)

- only vaguely knows of Senshi through the leftover food Laios sometimes brings home after his shifts, with Chilchuck she is more familiar since she sometimes visits him with Marcille on the weekends

- favourite thing is when her, Laios, Marcille, Izutsumi, Chilchuck, and Senshi all gather to get dinner together

- when it comes to her parents, she still maintains contact unlike Laios, though her messages tend to be generalized or cordial (not necessarily her intention it’s just she isn’t sure what to talk about in regards to her life beyond school)

- goal is to become a travelling wildlife vet

- more to add when I think of it

• Marcille

- is currently 26 and lives by herself (due to it being a modern au I’m imagining all races have the same lifespan of around 70-80 years)

- had probably the most normal upbringing and early adulthood out of all of the characters, both of her parents were very loving and attentive, always encouraging her and supporting her keen intellect through her hobbies

- however, they weren’t always around due to being very busy as government lawyers and often working late, she has very distinct memories of winning math and science awards as a child, looking out towards the crowd only to see her parents weren’t there

- was generally quite lonely during her childhood since she had no siblings or cousins to play with, a similar situation at school where most kids considered her stuck up or bossy when in reality she was just smart and was blunt about telling people when they were wrong about something

- is very close with Chilchuck, having known him and his family since she was little, although them all getting together was fairly rare, some of her fondest memories have been when they’d go on family trips together and she would get to play with Chilchuck’s daughters

- lost touch with him from ages 9-15 but reunited with him at 16 while he crashed at their place after his work injury and during his divorce, became very close with him during this time and developed a deep familial fondness for him despite all his teasing

- at 19 years old, she suffered a great deal of mental anguish as Chilchuck began to lose contact with her, Fallin was considering moving to a different city for university, and her father died due to a very sudden and unexpected stroke, she felt as though everyone in her life was slipping through her grasp and as a result, developed severe depression that would last until she completed her masters

- luckily, she had a good support system during that time and she was able to make it through the worst of it, however she still does struggle with motivation over simple tasks such as doing her hair or brushing her teeth

- her mood and outlook is much better though, having mostly returned to the same bubbly and dramatic personality that she once had

- is best friends with Fallin, and met her while at private school, mostly explained above, but her initial reaction of Fallin was quite negative before switching around after she realized that her way of thinking isn’t always the right one, even if the facts are right, her perspective and way of interpreting them isn’t always going to be sound

- this new perspective is what caused Marcille to become so enamoured with Fallin, eventually becoming a stupid crush that sticks with her to this day

- has her own studio apartment downtown, brand new building and everything (both parents are government lawyers so you can imagine the kind of money she has lmao)

- has a fawn floppy-eared bunny named Ambrosia

- despite her wealth, she doesn’t look down on her friends whatsoever, if anything she buys them expensive gifts as an act of kindness rather than an act of arrogance or condescension

- in the middle of attaining her phd in microbiology while doing independent research specializing in the study of telomere function

- attends the same university as Fallin

- graduated from high school at 16 and was done with her undergraduate by 19 and her masters by 21, a lot of people tend to think she’s full of herself but she often disregards them as people who don’t try hard enough

- born to carry her baby blue apple ecosystem in a cute tote bag, forced to haul her 7 biology textbooks in an ugly ass dark purple swissgear backpack she picked out when she was 12

- she has an unhealthy addiction to coffee and diet coke, literally cannot function without at least one per day

- cannot cook to save her life, lives exclusively off of pre-made grocery store meals or the sandwiches her university’s grab-n-go store sells, the kitchen aid mixer in her kitchen is practically a decoration at this point

- is actually the kind of person to be eating the leafy green tofu bowl from the local hipster vegan bistro

- has her own car and license, but lives close enough to her university to walk, Laios cannot fathom why she pays insurance every month for it but hardly uses or let anyone else use it

- I personally think she likes to rollerblade too

- jogging is her main form of exercise, but will also do yoga or calisthenics occasionally, probably the type of person to fall for a juice cleanse scam until Laios or Chilchuck scolds her for not eating enough

- I feel like she would be an intense swiftie (sorry :3) other than that, she likes the typical pop radio stuff that is played constantly

- at least she’s not a Stanley cup girl, she will use her scuffed gallon water bottle with the printed times of day until she dies

- very fashionable and loves to wear makeup, like wide leg pants or pleated skirts with penny loafers and cutesy blouses, a firm believer that any Korean makeup brand is far superior than anything Sephora could offer

- practically attached to the hip with Fallin, girl will find any excuse to study with her (the most pathetic sapphic ever someone put her out of her misery)

- otherwise, she’s buddy-buddy with Laios and Kabru but that’s about the extent of it, she’s known Chilchuck since she was little so he’s like an uncle to her

- she is quite friendly with Senshi and enjoys his cooking but hasn’t known him for a long time like the others, Izutsumi she treats like a little sister/niece and is always buying her things

- more to add when I think of it

• Chilchuck (you can tell he’s my fav because he has one of longest backstories lmao)

- currently 49 and living with Senshi and Izutsumi

- owns a two bedroom bungalow outside of downtown but still within the city, saved up for it after his divorce

- used to live in the suburbs with his ex-wife and daughters, but before that it was a shitty apartment close to where Laios lives now

- teen father, had Mayjack when he and his wife were 17 and had to graduate early so they could move out, they had Fullertom soon after and then Puckpatty by the time they were both 20, they got married at 22

- since neither could afford university at the time, Chilchuck went straight into a locksmithing trades program so he could have a decent income, his father had instilled a deep sense of responsibility and honour towards being a provider so he threw himself into his work which caused his and his wife’s initial frustration with one another

- when he was done apprenticing and when the kids were old enough to go to school, his wife went to university to begin studying teaching so she could become a professor, despite having to be home more often, Chilchuck still remained somewhat emotionally detached from his family

- by the time his daughters entered middle school, they had bought a house in the suburbs and his wife became qualified to teach

- feeling pressured by the mortgage, debt, and having to save for his daughter’s college, he began drinking more and taking a lot more hours at work, if he wasn’t working he was at the bar with his coworkers, he often didn’t come home until it was very late

- the final straw for his wife was when he showed up to work severely hungover and exhausted, then proceeded to nearly die in a home renovation project (passed out standing up and fell of a 20ft scaffolding, broke his hip and pelvis pretty badly as well as his humerus and quite a few of his ribs, also had a life-threatening brain bleed due to a skull fracture)

- at that point, all three of his daughters were already in university or trade school so his wife moved out and sold their house while Chilchuck was recovering in the hospital, she moved into a townhouse closer to the city’s main university where she still lives now with Fullertom

- having basically nothing in his savings, he crashed at Marcille’s parent’s place until he could save up a bit and get an apartment or townhouse (he and Marcille’s dad were friends in high school), essentially lived on their couch for about two years

- during this time, he became known as “Uncle Chil” by 16 year old Marcille and he developed a close uncle/niece relationship with her

- teased her as much as any uncle would, but also took her out shopping every couple of months, could never afford the stuff she wanted but he always got her lunch

- eventually, he saved up enough for the down payment of the two bedroom bungalow he lives in now and moved in, initially lost touch with Marcille but started being there for her more after her dad died, even began getting in touch with his daughters again at Marcille’s suggestion

- from then on, he took his work life more easily and tried to make time for himself in between shifts so that he didn’t feel he needs to drink himself stupid every time he came home, tried to pick up multiple hobbies and eventually settled on pottery making and brewing his own alcohol (that he sells…. mostly lol)

- meets Senshi at 42 when he is called in to install the locks and security system of the new restaurant Senshi is building, initially they had not been super friendly with each other, as Chilchuck found it infuriating how Senshi kept on wanting changes to be made to his security system, and how he was basically a walking construction accident waiting to happen

- once everything was finished however, Senshi offered Chilchuck a free dinner at his place as an apology for being stubborn, and unable to say no to free food (and alcohol) Chilchuck agrees

- they become friends after the dinner, however proceed to dance around each other for another 4 years until Marcille threatens to tell Senshi about Chilchuck’s feelings if he doesn’t confess himself

- Chilchuck does eventually confess (during a very charged “guy’s trip” to a resort in Mexico) and they start dating, after the trip, Senshi and Izutsumi move into Chilchuck’s place where they still currently live

- thanks to living with Senshi, Chilchuck adopts a more healthy lifestyle where he stops smoking, eats more, and drinks less, in return, he helps Senshi manage Izutsumi during her teen years as well as help out around his restaurant when he has time

- is generally living comfortably now, with a nice salary and more free time to commit to his hobbies, despite this he still deeply cares about his work and is a union man at heart who is always willing to rally behind his coworkers and organize when something happens

- mostly listens to 80s dad rock and some 90s grunge, is very proud of his CD collection

- dresses similar to Laios, however ditches the college club t-shirt and cargo shorts for polos shirts and chino shorts or dress shirts and casual slacks, also wears tacky boomer sandals for his feet or his construction boots

- drives a land rover defender that he bought in high school, cares for it deeply but isn’t a car guy by any means, he does the bare minimum maintenance to keep it safe and functional

- carries his minimal stuff in a sling bag and lunch cooler, but he also has a survival backpack in the back of his land rover for emergencies

- is a Stanley cup owner, has two, one from the 70s that his dad gave to him, and another white modern one from Marcille, his older one is covered in princess stickers from when his daughters were young

- pretentious black coffee drinker, makes fun of Izutsumi all the time for the amount of simple syrup and cream she puts into her iced coffee

- is okay at cooking, but is definitely more of a grill master, never ask him to deep fry anything though

- is also surprisingly handy thanks to the skills his dad passed onto him, speaking of his family, he isn’t very close to his mother and siblings since they all moved back to their home continent after Chilchuck graduated, he still sometimes travels alone on special holidays or on the anniversary of his father’s death but only if he can afford it

- is now a supervisor of his own crew, initially he wanted to own his own locksmith company, but he also wants to retire soon so he needs to save up as much as he can

- has two main friend groups, one he refers to as “the freaks” which includes Laios, Marcille, Fallin, Kabru, Izutsumi, and Senshi, and the other he refers to as “work” which includes Namari, Mickbell, Kuro, and Dandan

- is closest to Senshi and Marcille, seeing them as his family, however is a bit more distant with Izutsumi since he doesn’t want to automatically take on a “step-dad” role in her life, the reasoning mainly stems from his respect of her and her decisions on who she gets to let in her life, but is also because he wants to avoid things becoming awkward between them

- is, if not begrudgingly, friendly with Laios and Fallin, deep down he cares about them more than he lets on, is mostly cordial with Kabru

- is surprisingly close to Namari, however they keep their relationship strictly within their workplace and the bar they sometimes hit up afterwards

- is closer to his ex-wife and daughters now, having dinner once a month at his ex-wife’s house, they still haven’t really reconciled but they’ve allowed each other to move on

- more to add when I think of it

• Senshi (also super long please forgive me)

- is currently 52 and living with Chilchuck and his adopted daughter Izutsumi

- lives in Chilchuck’s house, but used to own a condo near the restaurant he used to work for

- when he was a child, he lived on an entirely separate continent in the remote far north, the village he grew up in was known for its mining industry, most of the community including his parents were miners, however an accident killed his father and cancer killed his mother when he was a baby, so his father’s friend Gillin took Senshi in when he was 2

- due to the mining culture surrounding the village, it was expected that Senshi also become a miner when he grew up, this coupled with the hyper-masculine ideas of honouring his late father and carrying on the bloodline, made Senshi not really put in much effort into school since he believed it had no use for him, a decision that would later hinder his career and degree options greatly

- once graduated from high school, Gillin immediately had Senshi take his safety courses and get his certification so he could get a job as soon as possible, with some references from Gillin himself, Senshi was able to land a beginner’s position within the company Gillin was in

- worked 7 years mining coal until the mine ran dry and he had to look for work elsewhere, jumped positions between 3-4 companies over another 8 years mining iron and copper until he landed a 2 year contract at a remote but booming silver mine

- was put into a 6 man team composed of himself, Gillin, Brigan, Invar, Totan, and Noor, where they would descend into a highly unregulated and dangerous mountain mine and extract the massive veins of silver, they all were paid well, but the conditions were next to abysmal

- 1 year and 9 months into the contract, a rockslide on the south side of the mountain caused a cheap tunnel support to collapse over the only exit leading out of the stope they were mining in, effectively trapping them indefinitely

- luckily they had a ventilation shaft, but none of them could fit inside and escape or yell for attention since they were trapped over 200ft deep and 500ft in the mountain, so their only option was to ration their food and wait for help to arrive

- they do try to escape in other ways, such as mining through the collapsed support, however this only leads to injury among the group, and as much as Senshi wanted to help, he was under strict instruction by Gillin not to over-exert himself, even though he wasn’t a kid anymore, he still had the most strength and wits among them all, this also results in him receiving the most food much to Brigan’s rage

- in an attempt to be useful, Senshi started drawing up the maps of the mine to see if there was a tunnel close by they could mine into

- as more time passes and they realized no one would be coming to help them, their escape attempts become much more desperate, one attempt to blow up the collapsed tunnel entrance with their remaining explosives leads to the death of Totan, another attempt to start mining over the collapsed tunnel entrance leads to the death of Noor, one last attempt to remove the panelling lining the ventilation shaft so they could be able to fit through leads to the death of Invar, leaving only Brigan, Gillin, and Senshi left

- after six weeks of being trapped under ground, Brigan mentally snaps and tries to cannibalize Senshi so they could eat his flesh, this leads to a physical altercation between Gillin and Brigan which ends in an unstable overhang of rock to collapse and crush Brigan and for Gillin to succumb to his wounds and exhaustion

- alone and starving, Senshi realizes he is now skinny enough to fit through the ventilation shafts and crawl his way out, he uses a combination of ropes and support spikes to help aid him, but soon quickly realizes he mostly has to navigate in the dark

- for two more weeks, Senshi follows the map he memorized and the feeling of airflow to make his way out, only surviving off of his remaining water, in the end he managed to crawl out of a shaft just outside the mining camp

- relived and also deeply saddened, Senshi remains near the shaft until some workers doing a perimeter check find him in the morning, he is promptly taken into the hospital to treat his injuries

- after explaining the situation to the police and his boss, his boss offers him a $30,000 payout to keep quiet and say nothing, the officers say it is possible to take his boss and the company to court, however it would likely put him into massive debt trying to find a good lawyer, in the end Senshi takes the money and leaves the camp for his village

- what’s left to him by Gillin is another $50,000 in savings and property assets, the rest is given to his remaining family, the first thing Senshi buys with the money is his adamantine pot and mythril knife, using both to make a soup Gillin would often feed him, and leaving five bowls of it outside of the collapsed silver mine before moving out of his village for good at aged 35

- he moves to the continent and city where all the other characters are currently living, buying his condo and deciding to enter into 4 year culinary school program

- during these 4 years, Senshi comes to realize that cooking is his true passion, finding it immensely rewarding and fulfilling, and even though he didn’t make many friends due to his unorthodox taste and recipes, it was still the most happy he’s ever been

- about 1 year after graduating and getting a job as the main line cook for a high end restaurant, Senshi meets and adopts 5 year old Izutsumi

- he initially sees her wandering around the green belt outside and behind the restaurant, kicking rocks and occasionally running and hiding in trees, he was always worried she was homeless, however would always see she was gone by the time he was done his shifts

- around five months of this, Izutsumi notices and begins to approach Senshi, as if she had wanted food, Senshi would usually offer some of his packed lunches or leftovers and she would always accept and sit next to him while they ate

- Izutsumi usually never spoke but was always ravenous, Senshi often worried that she was being abused, but whenever he would ask she would always say no, and since she was a healthy weight and never had any bruises or welts, Senshi reluctantly believed her, after that though he began packing more food

- eventually, a woman (Maizuru) approaches Senshi after one of his shifts and bluntly asked if he would like to take care of Izutsumi from then on, baffled he asked who she was and why she knew he was feeding Izutsumi, and she explained that she is her caretaker

- she also explained that since Izutsumi seemed to trust and respect Senshi the most, that he would be the best person to give her a chance at a normal life and raise her into an adjusted adult, due to the fact that she has no regard or interest or respect in her or the rest of her foster family, she then conceded that her question was rather sudden, but still implored Senshi to take her into his care or otherwise she would be forced into an orphanage

- thinking of Gillin, and with the wound of his crew’s death still in his mind Senshi, perhaps impulsively, agrees to take Izutsumi in, much to Maizuru’s delight and thankfulness

- the next day, she returns with Izutsumi and her things and tells Senshi that she will handle most of the legal paperwork aside from the few forms that he will have to sign

- from that point onward, he took care of Izutsumi and made sure she got through school, although she wasn’t completely responsive and obedient, he was still very patient and understanding with her, except for the first few times she would keep on running away from school to join him for his lunch breaks

- they have a very trusting relationship with one another, and Senshi is the only one Izutsumi will open up to, Senshi often encouraged her talent of athleticism by signing her up for various sports, he was and still is very attentive towards her needs and is always feeding her the things she likes (and dislikes)

- Senshi works at the restaurant for another 9 years, simultaneously saving up for his own restaurant and saving for Izutsumi’s college, at age 45 he meets Chilchuck during the construction of his restaurant and they form a close friendship

- subsequently, he is introduced to Marcille, Fallin, Laios, and even Kabru, but still mostly interacts with Chilchuck and Itsuzumi

- however he is quite close with Laios since he works as a server at his restaurant and is very enthusiastic about his cooking technique, flavour pallet, and types of dishes he serves

- at age 49, he officially opens his restaurant and starts dating Chilchuck, the three of them all move in together and become a household unit

- is now very happy with where he is at in life, works and manages his restaurant while still making time for Izutsumi and her hobbies, is very close with Chilchuck and becomes the first person he opens up to about his past and what he went through, generally the grossest and most sappiest old couple you will ever meet

- made a Senshi-sized hole deep into the fabric of Chilchuck’s home, converting his backyard into a full vegetable and flower garden that he maintains, is super proud about it and often leaves the prettiest flowers on Chilchuck’s side of the bed or in a vase on Izutsumi’s bedside table

- head-chef and owner of his restaurant, his favourite part is being able to cook what he wants for a very specific audience (people like Laios)

- his food is not super high-end but also not like a family diner either, a healthy mix of both, like kid friendly while still being classy and opulent enough to take someone out on a date there

- drives his beloved suzuki carry to and from work every day, does a good job maintaining it on his own despite it being boring according to him

- I honestly don’t really know what Senshi would listen to, I feel like the most in character for him would be folk music from his home country or bossa nova i can’t really decide

- coffee with lots of sugar but no cream or milk, prefers drinking black tea with milk and honey if he has a choice

- bag is a basic backpack with minimal items like wallet, keys, lipbalm, mints, etc… always has a change of clothes in case his gets dirty at work, also has extra hair and beard nets, some stuff for Izutsumi is in there too

- water bottle is also a vintage stanley cup, but his is wayyy more dented than Chilchuck’s and older (from like the 50s) refuses to buy anything else until it is unusable, has had the same piece of duct tape sealing a leak near the bottom for the past 20 years

- also can’t decide if he’s a t-shirt or Hawaiian shirt kind of guy, probably a healthy mix of both, also mostly wears shorts or a kilt-like garment native to his home country, lives exclusively in sandals you will never find him in close-toed shoes unless he’s working

- funny story deriving from this fact, the first impression Chilchuck ever had of Senshi (aside from “damn he’s kinda hot”) was “oh my god how the fuck is this guy not dead” due to the fact that Senshi showed up to the construction sight with flip flops, no safety helmet, and no safety vest on whatsoever

- more to add when I think of it

• Izutsumi (still a cat-girl in this universe)

- currently 17 and living with Senshi and Chilchuck

- used to live with the Nakamoto’s as a foster child, however hated living there due to the unfamiliarity and attempts at sweeping her past trauma under the rug and refusing to treat her for it

- life before the Nakamoto’s is fuzzy, it’s implied by her councillor and confirmed by Maizuru later on that she was raised by her mother until she died or abandoned her at 3 years old, was then placed into the care of another foster home who physically and verbally abused her, keeping her chained up in the basement most of the day and hardly feeding her, if not forgetting about her all together

- she was taken in by the Nakamoto’s at aged 4, and had a very hard time managing her due to her stunted social skills, anger issues, and delayed language development manifesting itself in avoidance behaviours such as running away and lashing out violently

- had frequent nightmares during this time, resulting in her becoming very clingy during the night

- would often run away to the green belt close to her house, the same green belt that was connected to Senshi’s restaurant

- initially only approached him because of the smell of food, her prior abuse and malnutrition resulted in an early form of binge eating, so she often sought any sight, smell, or taste food as a way of safety and comfort

- unlike all her previous caretakers, she found Senshi to not be malicious or uncaring towards her, especially after he started sharing and bringing food for her, her ease around him didn’t go unnoticed by Maizuru who then offered Senshi the deal to take care of her

- initially hated living in Senshi’s condo since the small space reminded her of the basement she was kept in, but soon found it to be much more comfortable if she could smell the food Senshi would make

- Received counselling for her trauma and slowly began to get better, however she would still frequently act out or skip school as a coping mechanism, however, Senshi helped her regulate her energy and emotions through signing her up for various sports, she did volleyball, hockey, wrestling, swimming, etc… until she settled on gymnastics and Muay Thai

- has somewhat of a complex towards love and attachment, in that she doesn’t fully believe an individual cares for her or loves her so will often do whatever she likes both because she doesn’t think it affects the other person that much and because it will prevent people from wanting to get close to her and have a meaningful relationship, a complex that stems from her past abuse

- is now in a much better headspace than she was in, as she has two caretakers who are patient and understanding with her, but are also willing to discipline her and prepare her for the outside world, she also has a good external support system and even a friend at school whom she often hangs out with

- she is currently in her junior year of high school, with decent grades, but only because Senshi and Chilchuck want her to do well so she has more options for university

- her best subjects are science, phsy ed., english, has a hard time with social studies and math

- her one friend her age is Tade as they both are frequently sent to the after-school homework program to help improve their grades, Izutsumi is usually good at shouldering off her homework to her in exchange for ice cream or food, but she’s usually caught and forced to do double the work

- Tade is also a foster kid of the Nakamoto’s, in fact she was the one Izutsumi would usually go to sleep with if she had a nightmare, so they never hang out at her house and either stay at Izutsumi’s house or hang out at the local park/mall

- is very talented athletically, and has won multiple awards at gymnastics and Muay Thai competitions

- still a ravenous eater, but with a crazy fast metabolism so she gains almost no weight, still picky with vegetables and mushrooms but will still eat them as long as their hidden in her food well enough

- coffee flavoured milk drinker, if there’s even a hint of bitterness in her coffee she’s throwing it out

- is into most old alternative or indie rock, appreciates Chilchuck’s taste in music immensely, she’s been learning how to play the bass recently

- has been learning basic recipes from Senshi and can manage a few dishes on her own, is much better at baking overall, never leave her alone with the blowtorch or barbecue though

- aside from sports, she enjoys playing video games and sleeping, she likes mostly storytelling or competitive console games like Skyrim, God of War, and Call of Duty

- bag is a simple black backpack that has all of her papers and textbooks haphazardly shoved in with no regard for neatness or organization, on a good day a pencil will be in there too

- water bottle is non-existent, she uses drinks from the school water fountain as an excuse to get out of class and wander around for a bit

- is old enough to drive and has her license, but doesn’t have her own car yet and still has to catch the bus, if she does drive it’s Senshi’s suzuki, Chilchuck let her drive his land rover once and she backed into a pole

- lives in crop tops and shorts, is actually quite fashionable but doesn’t have the energy or motivation to pull anything off, either wears converse, slides, crocs, or doc martens as footwear, most would describe her style as grunge-ish

- makeup is hit or miss, sometimes she can muster some concealer and eyeliner, but for the most part she just washes her face and nothing else, she is big into jewelry though and likes to wear lots of accessories

- has been allowed to pierce her ears quite extensively, as well as her nose, however both Senshi and Chilchuck have drawn the line at any other face piercings until she’s an adult, much to her dismay

- outside of Senshi, Chilchuck, and Tade, she is probably the most friendly with Marcille and Fallin as they frequently visit and interact with her, Marcille especially loves to spoil Izutsumi with treats and gifts since she never had a little cousin growing up

- Izutsumi likes Fallin for her quietness and ability to keep out of her business, however saw first hand how weird she can be when she held up a massive rhinoceros beetle without even flinching, also when she kept on excusing herself to their backyard to go snack on their strawberry plants

- Laios and Kabru she knows of, also finds Laios to be very weird but is less friendly about it than she is with Fallin, his lack of understanding of social cues also confuses her

- more to add when I think of it

AND THATS IT!!! This was stupidly long, I hope I didn’t bore you to death lol. I’ll probably do another one of these so I can include Chilchuck’s daughters, Kabru, Namari, etc… maybe with some additions to the main cast, but yeah that’s about the extend of it, hope you enjoyed :3

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #laios touden #falin touden #chilchuck tims #senshi of izganda #izutsumi #marcille donato #modern au #farcille #chilshi #labru if you squint #dungeon meshi minor characters #this took me forever I am so exhausted #I kinda wanna make a fic out of this but I have no idea what plot line or what character I should even focus on lmaooo #hooray for hyper-specific character interpretations!!

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crowandmousewritingco · 4 months ago

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Dream Daddies Pt1

Pairing: No pairing yet (eventual polyamory between the reader and Frankie, Joel, Jack, Oberyn, and Ezra. It's a lot but boy do I have a lot of love to give lol)

Words: 3.5k

Rating: G (will turn M at some point)

Series Notes: Reader as a child oc along with Frankie ("Ellie" short for Evelynn) and Jack (unnamed as of right now).

Warnings: This chapter is pretty good. Only has a brief mention of spousal death.

Summary: You're a new dad at a new school, and by happenstance you end up meeting some more dreamy dads.

Author: Mod Mouse

Notes: I have had so much brain rot for the game Dream Daddy so I needed an excuse to write a fic inspired by that game. So this is what that is. I can already tell ya this will be a longer series so buckle up buckaroos for a slow burn.

“Papa?” Your daughter asked as she gently tugged at your pants.

Squatting down so you could be at her eye level you asked, “What is it sweetie?” You gently cupping her small cheek in your hand.

She sniffled and your heart panged from her sadness. “I-I’m scawed.”

“Aww you don’t have anything to be worried about. Mr. Ben is a great teacher and you will have so much fun with him.” You tried to reassure your daughter. “I talked to him and he has so many fun crafts and games that you’ll love. I know you love glitter crafts.”

“B-But I miss you,” She sniffled and quickly wrapped her small arms around your neck. You gently hugged her back, running your hands up and down her small back in hopes of soothing her.

“I’ll miss you too, but guess what?” You said and kissed her soft hair.

She sniffled again “What?”

“We’ll see each other at the end of the day. Here look,” You replied and gently turned her small frame to the far wall. You pointed up to the colorful clock. “When the big hand is on the 12 and the small hand is on the 2, then we can see each other again.”

Your daughter smiled “Really papa?”

You smiled and kissed her cheek. “Really really baby, now how about you show your teacher your new backpack.” You encouraged her.

“Okay! Bye papa!” She kisses your cheek and hurries to her new class with none of the previous worry left on her small face.

You smile and lean back on the doorframe watching her interact with her new teacher. “You’re a natural at that,” You hear a voice say and you turn to see a middle aged man in the hallway holding a bright pink unicorn backpack. The dark flannel and the worn hat was quite the contrast from the bright colors in his hand. He seemed to be older than you imagined with just a touch of salt and pepper in his beard.

You smirked “And my guess is that that isn’t your backpack.”

He chuckled a nice deep hardy laugh and shook his head. “Couldn’t find any in my size. No, this is for my daughter Ellie.” He said pointing to a girl with an equally pink dress and pigtails talking to another kid. You smiled when you realized that that child was your own.

“Seems like our kids are fast friends,” You smiled the love of your child very evident on your face.

“Oh that one is yours? What’s her name?” He asked as he too watched them interact. Lily was excitedly showing Ellie her new lunchbox.

“Lily,” You answered. “It was her dad’s idea.”

“That’s a very cute name. Will he also be dropping her off?”

“Oh um no he…” You sighed, “He died when she was just a baby.”

The stranger paled “Oh god I’m sorry I didn’t realize,” He stumbled.

“It’s okay like I said it was years ago, and you didn’t know.” You held out your hand in introduction. “Sorry I forgot to tell you my name.”

He held out his hand and you took it. It was rougher than you thought. “That’s alright. I’m Frankie Morales. It was nice to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you too,” You smiled softly. “Will I see you at drop off more often?”

“Probably,” He smiled. “I get Ellie on the weekdays and her mom gets her on the weekends.” Frankie explained and peaked inside the classroom setting the backpack in his daughter's cubby. When he peaked back out he tipped his worn ball cap. “Will you be at the Start of Year celebration on Friday?”

“We plan on it,” You answered. “My daughter hasn’t stopped talking about it.” Your daughter always did love a party.

“Then I’ll see you there!” Frankie smiled and turned leaving down the hall. You watched the stranger before turning back to your daughter, making sure she knew you were leaving and you headed to work.

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

The first week of classes went by in a blink of an eye. Lily was excited to show you all the crafts she created throughout the week and you put everything on the fridge. She had even made a couple of friends whom she talked about constantly. And that included on the way to the Start of Year celebration. You smiled at her enthusiasm which grew when they entered the gymnasium.

Jackson Academy had their elementary and middle school combined into one building so there was a wide range of ages at the celebration. The amount of people you didn’t recognize made you anxious but your daughter was excited to go.

“Papa, can I go pway with my fwends?” She asked, pointing to where her class was gathered.

“Of course, I’ll be by the snacks if you need me,” You said as she scampered away. Now it was just you. You sighed. Well snacks it was. You picked up a paper plate in the school colors and took in your options. A variety of chips and dips with an entire bakery of cupcakes and cookies were at your disposal. You took a little bit of each just to give you something to do with your hands.

The plate was folding in on itself by the time you were done. You supported it with your other hand and looked around for a place. Everyone seemed to be talking with everyone else. Damn you had really hoped being the new kid stopped after high school, but that’s what happens when you have your own kid.

There was a place at the end of the basketball court that didn’t seem as busy so you claimed your spot and watched as your child interacted with her classmates. You really wished you still had her extrovertedness. She got that all from her dad. He would’ve known how to do this.

You absentmindedly pushed the ranch around with a carrot stick when you heard a voice, “I think the carrot has enough ranch on it.”

You looked up and smiled when you saw Frankie there happy to have a familiar face in the crowd. “Oh well you can never have enough ranch.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” He chuckled, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. “Do you have anyone else you’re meeting here?” Frankie asked.

“Uh no we’re actually new to this area of town. Just moved here a few weeks ago.” You admit. “Haven’t had the chance to explore the local hangout joints.”

“Really why do you join our little group? Just a few other dads who hang out. Unless you rather keep company with the celery sticks.” He smirked looking down at your plate.

You laughed. “I would love to meet your friends.”

“Great here we’re right over there,” He said and led you to one of the round tables.

You carried your plate over to the table and was surprised how similar that group looked. The similarities between these dads were almost impressive. They looked like they could all be related.

“This is Joel Miller,” He pointed to a man with salt and pepper dotting his hair. He seemed to be older than the rest of the group, the wrinkles a prominent feature. Joel gave a quick nod of acknowledgement in your direction. It seemed he really wasn’t much of a talker.

“Jack Daniels,” The man gave you a tip of his black cowboy hat. He was different from the previous dad with his well groomed mustache, and where Joel had the hint of Texan flair Jack was fully dressed in cowboy attire which would have looked tacky on anyone else. But for some reason it worked really well on him.

“Ezra,” This one had a streak of blonde hair that fell on his forehead. He wore a sweater that looked simple at first glance but you realized that there were deep subtle patterns on the fabric. This was paired with black jeans with slight rips in them along with thick black boots.

“And Oberyn Martell,” There was nothing subtle about this dad. Everything he wore was in some shade of yellows that somehow flowed well with each other. Gold chains adorned his neck and each finger had some sort of ring adorning it. Either he had a lot of money or he put a lot of effort into his wardrobe.

You gave a small wave before turning to Frankie. “You’ve got quite the group here.”

“You could say that,” He answered and he sat back down in his chair. You introduced yourself and joined him in the seat adjacent to him.

Though there was a bit of silence that you wanted to fill but you had no idea how to even start. Luckily it seemed like there was one of the dads who was just as uncomfortable with silence as you were. “What grade is your youngling in?” Ezra asked, leaning against his arm against the table.

“Oh mine just started kindergarten. I had her in a preschool, but I transferred her to this school,” You answered before taking a bite out of a cookie.

“That’s how we actually met,” Frankie added. “We ran into each other at the dropoff.”

“Seems like it was just yesterday I was dropping my child off at kindergarten,” Jack reminisced. He turned to look at you. “But now he’s in big boy day elementary school now.”

“Soon you’ll have to help him with math homework,” You chuckle. “Kindergarten I can help with, but I will be utterly useless when it comes to that homework.”

“Just wait till they decided to take honors trigonometry.” Ezra added. “I love them truly, but that is not my realm of knowledge.”

“I’m sure my daughter would help Cee in that department,” Oberyn added.

“Of course your daughter is quite affluent when it comes to arithmetic,” Ezra beamed and kissed his cheek.

“You must be very proud of her,” You mentioned looking in their direction.

Oberyn turns to look at you, “Everyday. She takes after her mother.”

“Oh is she here tonight?” You asked.

He shook his head. “Not this school year. She’s traveling with my other daughters across Europe since she wanted them to see the world before they started high school.”

Your eyes widened and part of you was jealous. Everything you worked for went to your child but you it wasn’t likely you could ever do anything that grand for your daughter. Almost sensing your internal conflict, Oberyn leaned over the table and gently took his hand in yours. “She had come into a recent inheritance and decided to put most of it in a trust fund. The rest was spent on this trip.” He explained gently rubbing his thumb over your knuckles. You blushed at the interaction. “You are an amazing parent. I can tell.”

“It seems like the red viper has eyes on one another,” Jack commented over the rim of the plastic cup as he watched the interaction. Joel hummed an agreement.

Before you could ask what he meant by that your daughter ran up to the table. “Papa! Papa!” You hear your daughter call for you and you turn to see her holding the hand of one of her classmates who you recognized as Frankie’s daughter.

You smiled, happy to see your child settling in with some of her friends. “Hi sweetie.”

“Papa Ellie’s dad can fly!” Lily told you excitedly.

“Oh is that true?” You asked and looked back at Frankie. He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Technically it’s true. I just fly a helicopter.” He admitted.

“Ya but that’s still really cool!” Ellie chimed in. “Maybe Daddy can show you his ship sometime?”

You giggled “I think I would very much like that.”

The two girls giggled and hurried back to their little group. You looked back at Frankie who was slightly hiding behind his hand.

“Seems like ya daughters are already setting you up on a date,” Jack winkied before taking another sip of his lemonade.

Frankie rolled his eyes. “Jack, you say that everytime.”

Jack smiled and leaned back in his plastic chair. “Well I’m just stating the facts, partner.”

“Is this something your daughter does often?” You asked him.

“Yes she’s convinced about true love ever since I let her watch the Princess Bride,” He sighed and fidgeted with his napkin.

“Better than my child. I am all for self expression but I could only take so many different renditions of My Little Pony,” Oberyn commented.

Ezra smirked and wrapped his arm around Oberyn’s bicep. “Though you have to admit the zombie apocalypse version had you on the edge of your seat. It was almost Shakespearan.”

Oberyn looked down at his partner and kissed his head. “Okay you do have a point.”

“Sounds like you have a little creator on your hands,” You smiled.

“Whatever creative outlet she wants to explore, I am more than willing to fund.” Oberyn answered.

You smiled softly. The conversation flowed well within the group and you really appreciated having other dads that could help you through your parenting journey. They weren't what you were expecting. Most of the dads you had met before were usually indifferent about their children and their interests, but it was really nice to see them all give their whole hearts into their children.

Before you could say anything else, the principal stood up on the auditorium stage and began his quick introduction to the school year. You didn’t know it yet, but it was indeed going to be quite the school year for you too.

~~~~~~~~

“I promise I can create programming,” You sighed, rubbing your eyes. The library needed something for the calendar for the fall season, but you swear you peaked last year. Sensing your turmoil, your favorite coworker swiveled their chair to face you.

“And I can tell you that you just burnt yourself out when you did the How to Fair and don’t forget the Scarecrow festival. You run that every year. And you run a bookclub on top of it.” They mentioned twirling a pencil in their fingers. “You already do a lot of programming. Just make Chris come up with something. You know he’s looking for any excuse to do something for the library.”

You groaned, leaning your head down against the coolness of the desk. “I hate it when you’re right.”

They gently patted your back and stood up from their chair. “Here give me your mug. It's clear you need a caffeine boost.”

You lift your mug up for them, your head not leaving the desk. “You are a god sent.”

“Well I’m not sure if a god sent me, but some powers that be sure did,” They chuckled and went back to the break room for a refill.

The quiet of the library allowed you some sense of calm while your mind raced. The library was a great place to work just sometimes it required a lot of your mental capacity. You stayed like that for a moment trying to brainstorm an idea when a familiar voice asked, “I have a feeling that it’s not just the Dewey Decimal system that’s got you all worn out.”

You looked up and was surprised to see Ezra here. “Not just Dewey. Marc has my number too apparently.” You rubbed your eyes. “But it’s nice to see you.”

“It’s a pleasant surprise to see you working at this establishment,” He mentioned leaning against the counter.

“Been working here for some time, just at another branch. I transferred here which happened to be closer to where Lily goes to school.”

“Well now I am more justified to come to visit this alluring library. Actually that brings me to my inquiry.” He perked up and leaned over the desk.

“You came to the right place. I’m all ears,” You chuckled.

“I’m actually looking for a book. Where might your copy of A Clockwork Orange be?”

“Let me check,” You say as you type away on your computer. After a few different searches you say, “Seems like our copy is checked out, but I can put a hold on it if you want.”

“That would be perfect,” Ezra smiled and pulled out his library card, handing it to you. You blushed as your fingers brushed against yours, but you quickly recovered.

You scanned his library card with a soft beep, and after a few more clicks you announced, “That book has been placed on hold for you.” You hand the card back over to Ezra who slides it back into his wallet.

“Thank you kindly as ever. I’ll hopefully see ya around sometime.” He smiled before turning away.

“Have a good day,” You waved after him as he left your area. A smile grew on your face.

You had to rub lean your hand on your cheek to hide the slight blush on your cheek. “Well now you haven’t told me about him yet,” The voice of your coworker made you jump. They chuckled and set the mug next to you. Plopping themselves back in their section, they said “Spill.”

“It really is nothing,” You state, holding the warm mug in your hands.

“Oh ya and I’m Santa Claus,” They roll their eyes.

“I don’t know what you do on the weekends,” You joke. “And you always take December off.”

“Touche but that’s not the point. You don’t just blush at every patron.”

“Ugh fine, we met at the start of the school year party. Frankie introduced me to his friend group. He was their with several other dads whose kids all go to the same school”

“Well that’s one hell of a meet cute,” They wiggled their eyebrows over the rim of their mug.

“Yes but I’m sure they have a partner. I saw them together at the party. They seemed to be pretty attached to each other.”

Your coworker was quiet for a moment and looked back to see if Ezra was still there. He lingered at one of the displays before heading out the sliding doors. When he left they turned back to you. “Pull up their file.”

You looked over at them quizzically, but pulled up their information that was still up from the hold. Tilting the screen so they could see. “Here.”

They rolled closer to you scanning the information. “I knew he sounded familiar. He comes in here with his partner for that poly support group that comes every Wednesday evening. I think his partner's name is Oberyn. I can’t forget a name like that.”

You blushed. “Then that’s him.” You turned back to his information and did a double take. Something about his address looked familiar. “Wait a second.”

“What?” Your coworker leaned closer to you taking in the information.

“This,” You pointed to the address. “That’s near my house. Like two or three houses down in the cul de sac.”

Their eyes widened. “That’s a crazy coincidence.”

You hurriedly typed another name in the search bar. Jack Daniels. You searched his profile too. Same thing two doors down. “How have I not noticed this?”

“What, what haven’t you noticed?” They frantically searched between you and the screen.

But you didn’t answer them. You typed in a few more names. Joel Miller. Frankie Morales. Oberyn Martell. One to the left of you, one to the right of you, and one on the other side of the street.

“Holy shit,” You whispered.

“What!” They raised their voice.

You blushed as you looked back at your coworker. “You remember that back to school party where I met all of those handsome men?”

“Yes and you wouldn’t stop talking about them. What about it?”

You paused before saying, “They all live in the same street as me.”

Their eyes widened and they turned back to the screen. “That’s so crazy! All of them?.” They turned back to you with a smirk when they realized what that meant. “And you’ve been talking about them nonstop this past week.” You could see the wicked gleam in their eyes.

“No I can’t go flirting with all those guys,” You quickly shut down any idea they were having.

“I know you and you’ve been wanting to explore your poly side for a while now. I’m not usually one to believe in fate, but when five handsome men just fall in your life you thank a higher being.”

You take a long sip of your coffee. You sighed “If I do this and that’s the biggest if, how am I to know if they are even okay with this?”

“You ask, you flirt and you find out.” They tell you softly. “I know you need this. Come on. You haven’t had this much fun in a while.”

You thought for a moment staring into the dark liquid. “I hate it when you're right.”

They chuckled and went back to their computer. “I can’t help it. I just call it when I see it.”

You lean back in your chair rubbing your eyes as you stare at the address. What have you gotten yourself into?

```````

Pedro Character Taglist

@littlemisspascal @burntheedges @carusolikey @thebeldroramscal @morallyinept @lady-bess

#crow and mouse writings #mod mouse writing #eventual romance #frankie morales #triple frontier #joel miller #the last of us #agent whiskey #kingsman the golden circle #oberyn martell #game of thrones #ezra prospect #prospect 2018 #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fandom #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedrohub #trans reader

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buggaboizz · 1 year ago

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Kwazii Ref Sheet +Character Details and Backstory!

Character Details!

Headshot:

He has a gold tooth, lol

Also, though he does wear an eye patch and has a scar there, he does in fact still have that eye. He wears it cause Calico Jack wore one.

Earrings:

I once read in someone else's headcannon that pirates would have a gold earring that said their home (like, in case they died away or smth) and I thought that was SO cool, so his say "Octopod" (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

Fish Biscuit

I just needed something to fill the space, he does love fish biscuits tho

Bandana

It's a red bandana with gold stitching that once belonged to Calico Jack. It was given to Kwazii before Calico Jack left for the Amazon River. Ever since he has worn it on his tail as a piece of his long lost Grandfather.

Knife

It's the knife from his pirate days. It doesn't get much use nowdays, but he loves using it whenever he can.

Kwazii's Backstory

Kwazii's father left as soon as he was told she was pregnant. Luckily, Kwazii's mom wasn't alone in this as she had her dad, Calico Jack. Unfortunately, she didn't make it through child birth, so Calico Jack had to face this on his own.

Kwazii was raised mostly out on the sea, being a pirate and learning the ways of the water.

Kwazii was only 14 when Calico Jack set off for the Amazon River. He didn't want Kwazii coming as he knew it would be dangerous, but he promised he would come back to him. He left Kwazii with his bandanna, the only surviving piece of his grandfather.

Kwazii spent years searching for Calico Jack. Sailing across the seas, searching every dock and town, but he never found him. He did sometimes find Calico Jack's old crew, but they all said the same thing. They didn't know where he was or what happened to him, or even worse, that he was dead.

Kwazii was at a dock town when he got into a fight with some sailors. He was sitting in an alleyway, beaten and bruised, when someone walked up to him. Barnacles was in the Navy when his ship came to this place. He was just having a night on the town when he found Kwazii. Kwazii was just some beat up kid in an alley with no parents or family, so he took him in and fixed him up. Of course he couldn't stay long as he was in the Navy, but for that short moment in time, he was the family Kwazii needed.

Why did Kwazii Join The Octonauts?

Kwazii continued searching for Calico Jack, and continued getting the same results. Years past until at the age of 22 he found himself at a dock. He overheard some Seagulls talking about this group of people that went around the world's oceans and helped creatures in need. He learned more about these people, they were called The Octonauts.

He had decided that he had done enough searching, that he needed to make something of his life. He was wasting himself and his life just searching, so he decided to join. But, deep down inside, he still had hopes that maybe he'd find Calico Jack on his journeys with them.

When he had his interview, Captain Barnacles was out, so Dashi was doing it. They decided it would be good to have a pirate on the team. Who knows the sea better than a pirate? Plus, he was very passionate about it. So he was made a member of the team.

Later when Barnacles returned he went to meet their new recruit. They recognized each other as soon as they laid eyes on one another. It was a very happy reunion. Kwazii finally had the permanent family he needed.

Headcannons and Bits

-Kwazii plays the fiddle

-Him and Barnacles like to groom together

-Kwazii was named after his mother

-He LOVES getting pets and scratchies

-He sleeps in a hammock

-His fur coloring is based off a local stray cat named Pickles (they are very sweet)

-Kwazii uses A LOT of pirate slang

-Kwazii transitioned after Calico Jack had left, so he didn't know Kwazii was now a boy. But once he was back they did have a heart to heart talk about it (CJ loves and supports Kwazii no matter what) that was also the first time the team learned he was trans (only Peso knew, cause doctor things)

-You can point to ANY of his scars and he'll tell this crazy story of how he got it

-He LOVES snuggling

-He HATES licorice (but that's cannon)

#octonauts #art #octonauts fanart #redesign #kwazii #octonauts headcanon #headcanon #backstory #Kwazii has trauma #captain barnacles #cat #pirate #pirate things #calico jack

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hughiecampbelle · 6 months ago

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In Another Life I Did Everything Right (Roman Roy x Baby!Roy)

Character/s: Roman, Connor, Kendall, Shiv, Logan

Word Count: 1,761

Inspired By: the popsicle I was eating lol

Requested: Can you write something with Roman and baby!roy? Whatever you want to do is fine. I really love your baby!roy writing and I adore Roman - anon

A/N: I took a lot of creative liberty lol, I hope you don't mind! Feedback is always appreciated my loves! 💜💜💜

It’s always the same memory, the same dream, that comes to him when the weather is warm, and humid, and he falls into a fitful sleep. It’s a realization that comes to him each time he sees your face: how young you are. Not the chubby cheeks of childhood, yet you remain untouched by adolescence. Though he knows he was a much younger man at the time, he is all grown up now. He feels his age, how old he must seem to you, how worn. Tired. He stands in the grass, the sun bright and willing to burn. He holds two plastic pouches. He knows what they are. He knows what you’re going to say, how worried you are that they’re beginning to melt: popsicles. They wouldn’t have been allowed in the house at all. They wouldn’t have made their way into the shopping cart, nor found a home in the freezer, had it not been for Connor. All his doing. He used to know the story, but tonight he can’t recall. Did you ask him for them? Were they a surprise? How could they have been hidden so well from the disapproving eyes of your father? It doesn’t really matter, he knows, but so much of this dream has become lost to him. It’s been so many years. He can no longer rely on his memory. This day has been contorted over the years, malleable and pliable, until, as far as he knows, it no longer resembles what truly happened. You’re on the pavement, legs dangling off the edge of the pool. The water is clear and, unfortunately, not as cool as you’d like. You wait, hand outstretched, for your treat. He makes you pick. Left, right, left right, left. Finally, you choose left. He smiles. Not then, but now. How big that decision must’ve felt, how harrowing it was to decide, blindly, the flavor. Older and wiser puts things into perspective. Time is funny that way. He’s grateful you remain untouched by this. Let this be your big decision. He tears yours open: orange. There is no mourning, there is no disappointment, though there is a mutual understand red is the best. He holds his up to the light, the wrapper giving way to a dark inky color. He’s glad you picked what you did: no one really liked grape all that much.

He wants to talk to you, to ask you questions, to understand where it all went wrong, but he is limited. The dialogue has been chosen for you. This is a reenactment, a loop, a labyrinth of muscle memory he must abide by. He settles beside you, legs crossed, listening to your teeth break through the ice and syrup. He wasn’t a spiritual person. He didn’t believe in God or Heaven or Hell. He didn’t have anyone or thing to turn to when things were hard, when times were tough. Sometimes he wished he was. A different person who could pray and believe and have faith. The cynic in him thought it was bullshit. The optimist, weak and tender, fought back as best as it could. There has to be something, right? There has to be something after all this? Life, mortal life, was so small in comparison to the time before and time after. How could there be nothing? He wants to ask you what you think, if there is God out there and, if so, how vengeful they must be. You were young, yes, but you grew up. There were so many opportunities for him to ask you, your views and opinions, and he didn’t. He wasn’t thinking as he was now. He didn’t have the perspective. Instead your voice slices through his thoughts, a knife to watermelon, it all becomes a sweet, sticky mess in the middle of his cheat. Where’s mom? You don’t have to clarify you mean your mother and not his. Logan’s latest ex-wife. They lasted longer than anyone expected, separating just a few weeks prior, when Spring turned to Summer. He speaks, and though he cannot hear himself, he knows his lines. He wishes now he’d been nicer. Kinder. Instead he is full of teenage angst and decides a snide comment is the best option to ease your growing unease given their recent split. Like all of your mothers, Connors and his and yours, they’ve left their children in the care of your father, though he understand this thought is cheap and really, only Connors mother couldn’t help it. Still, two out of three?

Did you see her today? You watch him, and wait, and your eyes are big, and there is melted popsicle down the front of your shirt. Yes, he admits, for a moment, but refuses any further details. Mascara ran down her face. She wheeled two large suitcases out of their (now Logans) room and down the hall, towards the stairs. He’s not sure where she was going, or for how long, and he suspected you wondered the same thing. Were the popsicles, similar to the cake Logan had bought Connor, some sort of bargain? A peace offering? Sorry kid, mommy and daddy are splitting. Here’s some sugar! Was this Connor’s way of making things better? He noticed the absence of his older siblings lessening these recent months. He found Shiv helping you with your school work, patiently listening to you ramble on about grade school drama: Leah liked Tommy, but Tommy liked Madison, who wasn’t your friend anymore because she was no longer sitting at your table during lunch, so Tessa was your new best friend. Kendall, with whatever he did to busy himself all day, took his evenings to hang out with you, trying his best to have something in common with a ten year old. Connor, who had never been lacking in your life, became an even more involved presence. Wrapped up with his own affairs, and probably several affairs, Logan had little time for his youngest. So here he was, doing his part, hoping a little attention wouldn’t leave you screwed up like the rest of them.

He wants to ask you what you think of all this. He should have, at the time, but he was uncomfortable. Uncomfortable that, finally, you were earning the Roy name. Your mother was just another wife, you were just another kid he didn’t like or want. You weren’t special, you weren’t going to change him. Uncomfortable because you were a child and children had big emotions. What if you cried? What if you got upset? He didn’t know how to stop it. He didn’t know how to help. You wouldn’t know it at the time (how could you?) but your mother would move on. She’d remarry a few years down the line, and have more children, and leave you behind. Her second husband wasn’t a fan of your father. By association, he wasn’t keen to you either. Roman never asked, even when you got older, how you were dealing with it all. Not just this, but everything. Adolescence. He figured, like the rest of them, you’d move on. Recover. Find your way. You couldn’t. You were in Logan’s custody sure, but it was her you wanted. Holidays, and birthdays, and events, you wanted her. Instead he decides the conversation is over. The in-between is murky. There are popsicles, there is this grimm realization, there is regret, and then what?

He isn’t sure what it is that keeps him reliving this day over the others. There were plenty of times he spent with you, though usually you were drinking, attempting to run away from the family, your bloodline, your future. He saw you so rarely, you were such a different person when he got the chance to really look at you, talk to you. Logan shipped you off to boarding school the school year after your mother leaves. It’s prestigious, and sterile, and ruins any of that person he’s sitting beside. Somewhere between here and then you changed. Not just growing up, though is any other big brother really prepared for their baby to get older? You grew harder, colder, bitter. You drank more. You disappeared often. Your grades suffered, though that kind of information was kept mostly between you and the school. Every so often, Connor would send out a group text saying he was going to visit you. Roman, at least, knew what that meant: you got into trouble and needed someone to clean up a mess you made. Everyone had grown up and adjusted as well as to be expected. They were waiting, impatiently, for you to catch up in maturity. You were a teenager expected to act like an adult, treated like a child. You begged Logan to come home. Your school was far away. It was lonely. It was brutal. But it was the best education anyone could ask for and he believed you were being a brat.

You wanted to see your mother. It had been years, at that point, since you last saw her. Occasionally you’d receive a cold phone call, but that was all you were allotted. That’s the story, anyways. No one really knows why you went out that night, why it was so urgent, only that you were drinking and you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. They found the car wrapped around a pole. You took your place in the family mausoleum. As far as he knows, your mother doesn’t visit. But they do, all of them. This was years ago, a little over a decade. You’d be all grown up by now. He still sees you as a ten year old. He always will. Maybe he dreams this day, over every other, because it was before everything turned sour. Maybe he just likes the taste of popsicles. Either way, it’s always a treat. He wants to ask you everything he didn’t get the chance to, but he can’t, and soon he will wake up. He’ll wake up in a cold sweat and make a point to visit you sometime soon, taking this as a sign that you’re lonely and looking for company. For now, he looks at you, really looks, and takes you in. You’ve been talking this whole time about what you’ve been learning in school, what Shiv has been helping you with. He will nod. He was bored then, wondering who would take over babysitting duty, but he isn’t now. He soaks up every word. He misses your voice, your mannerisms. So much has changed since this day. So little has changed, too.

#writing #roman roy #roman roy oneshot #roman roy drabble #roman roy fic #roman roy x reader #succession #succession drabble #succession oneshot #succession fic #succession x reader #two death #death tw #death mention

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exouniverse · 1 year ago

Text

(My) Home

Pairing: kyungsoo x gn reader

Genre: fluff, established relationship, non-idol au, chef!kyungsoo au

Warnings: although it is very fluffy, there are small conversations regarding some sensible topics such as the mention of a dead parent, and tough moments during enlistment; however, they’re touched from a healing perspective and not explicitly detailed.

Summary: since the moment Kyungsoo met you, he has felt that being by your side is just like finding solace in the warmth of home. With this realization, he has meticulously arranged a surprise to propose the transformation of that comforting sense of home into a tangible reality.

Word count: 8.7K+

A/N: it’s finally here! My heart needed this fluffy fic so I indulged, the characters took me in ways I didn’t see coming so it took me a little bit longer to post (this was supposed to be the first fic I posted here, but inspiration hit with the birthday fics lol.) I didn’t want any angst but still, some happy tears are shared between them.

MOODBOARD

Some vocabulary insights I think I didn’t get to explain:

Bujubangjang - 부주방장: sous-chef | Dulce de leche: caramelized milk spread, also named arequipe, manjar, or cajeta | Gyeran-mari - 계란말이: rolled omelette | Seoleim - 설레임: Korean ice cream brand | Yeobo - 여보: honey, darling, sweetheart (commonly used between married or engaged couples) | Yeobobangjang: word play term from yeobo (여보) and bujubangjang (부주방장), created for the story’s purpose | Yukgaejang - 육개장: it is a spicy shredded beef soup.

The memories imprinted on the photo albums never failed to bring a genuine smile to his face and make him reminisce; not even the dust that tickled his nose could ruin these types of moments. He flipped through the well-worn pages, letting memories wash over him. He knows he has changed a lot through the years, but his essence is still palpable somehow; nonetheless, he doesn’t feel the need to alter anything about his personality. He’s loved by the people around him and, for once, he is comfortable and happy with the person—he has come to admit—he has surrendered his heart to.

He smiled, wondering how it would have been if they had met as toddlers, maybe at kindergarten or at school, and gone on beach trips with friends during the summer. His smile would have brightened even more just by seeing you posing beside him, poking his dimples as you are already so used to doing. Kyungsoo just knows deep in his heart that you would love what he’s been planning; he can’t let that little evil voice of doubt and insecurity win this one. You are clueless so far about his plans, but hints from you have also been received and thought through, so that’s what moved him to plan his proposal for moving in together.

“Kyungsoo, son.” He heard his mother’s voice calling from the kitchen, snapping him out of his daydream.

He followed the sound of her voice, appearing quicker than she had expected, causing her to jump in surprise. “Sorry, mom!” he exclaimed, letting out a chuckle as he approached, eager to taste the Yukgaejang, whose enticing aroma had already made his stomach growl.

“Hands off!” his mother scolded him. “I can’t let you get creative with Yukgaejang; your father likes it this way.”

He only continued to chuckle at his mother’s expression as he remembered the last time he tried and failed, earning him a week of an indescribable, odd-tasting soup. Teenager Kyungsoo would have likely tricked you into tasting it as a prank, just to have an excuse to be together in the nurse’s office, but he would have completely regretted his antics the moment he came to realize he liked you.

“Do Kyungsoo, did you hear what I said?”

“Oh, sorry, mom, need any help? Sorry, what did you say?”

Because of his giggles and daydreaming, he could have been doomed at that moment had his mom not been aware of the reason why he was behaving that way, so she only continued to give him the banchan she had served for him to set on the table.

“Have you decided which photos to take with you already?” his mom wondered, noticing the albums on the sofa before she sat down to eat with her youngest son, who was visiting for the day with a peculiar excuse.

“There are a lot. You can tell me which ones you want to keep, and I’ll choose from the rest.”

“It’s okay, you can take as many as you want.” She paused to think. “But do leave me the one from kindergarten where you have that big smile of yours; I don’t get to see it often.”

“Mom, I do smile!” Kyungsoo protested, perplexed at his mother’s bluntness but still amused.

“I know, I know,” she giggled. “It’s only directed to a specific someone nowadays.” And just like that, she delivered her last joke, playfully teasing her son just a bit more.

“Mom!”

The way his eyes widened in surprise amused her so much that she couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “I love Y/N! I truly do, but you don’t visit us as frequently as you used to,” she revealed, honestly.

Kyungsoo put a piece of haemul-pajeon on his mother’s rice at the same time that he offered her the smile she missed. “Ok, I’ll try visiting you more.”

Content with her son’s actions, she continued to eat the seafood pancake with a smile on her face. “Bring Y/N with you too; I miss our drama marathons,” she encouraged.

“I’ll sure do, mom.”

“Oh, they’re here!” You glanced toward the front door, leaving the cookie dough unattended as you rushed to the entrance to let your little guests in.

Kyungsoo chuckled as he witnessed your surprising speed. He went to check on the dough to see if he could help you in any way; he is the one that’s mostly in the kitchen, whether it’s yours or his, but you specifically told him not to do anything since you wanted to share this new recipe with him.

“Uncle Kyungsoo!” your older niece shouted out as soon as she saw him. He waved at her and she ran to embraced him. “Are you making cookies? Can you make them blue like you did last time?”

The shower of questions gave him away, so he tried to plead innocence by giving you an honest smile, which only grew bigger as he saw your two adorable twin nephews next to you. They both happily ran to hug Kyungsoo’s legs.

“I swear I didn’t change or touch anything.”

His ears could have burned to the touch, even when he was telling half the truth, because he indeed didn’t do anything—only thought about it, and got very close to tasting the cookie dough.

“I know those eyes, what are you hiding?” You squinted at him.

“Is it safe to leave my kids with you two?” your sister joked as she closed the door at a dramatically slow pace.

“Ari, he’s hiding something, right?” you kept teasing.

“I’m not.” Kyungsoo couldn’t stop his laugh. It could have given him away, but you know the nuances in his expressions too well. Also, it’s a given that he wouldn’t have had enough time to change anything.

“I’ll give you one chance; you can add one ingredient that you think could make it better.” His smile was like a reward. “He’s been pretending to keep himself busy while I’m making cookies,” you explained the context of the situation before you.

“Kyungsoo-ssi, you’re a chef, and isn’t today your free day?” your sister asked.

He only giggled and proceeded to taste the dough as everyone in the room expected his feedback; even your twin nephews paid attention, probably expecting a taste too.

He surprised himself; it was hard to tell, but there was some kind of ingredient that his palate was enjoying but couldn’t quite figure out because of the sweetness of the sugar and the distinctiveness of the vanilla extract present in the mixture.

“Are these chocolate chips?” he asked once he realized where the new flavor came from. There was a sweet flavor there that just didn’t taste quite like chocolate.

“Nope, they are dulce de leche chips; Ari’s friend makes them.”

Kyungsoo was incredulous but mostly confused. “Uncle, you don’t know what dulce de leche is?” your niece asked even more incredulously than him, making everyone laugh.

At that moment, your nephews started to build up energy and tried to climb up to Kyungsoo’s arms to see what he was eating. It had taken a long time for them to turn hyperactive, but they had been too entertained with his bunny slippers before. Kyungsoo managed to lift both of them to help them grab some chips from the bag that your niece pointed at and let her grab a bunch first.

“Remember the Latin American Festival we went to a couple of weeks ago? We tried dulce de leche with those small crumbly cookies.”

“Oh oh oh, yeah, I remember now. Mhmm, this is good, so good. I’m not doing anything; you even added sea salt, right?”

“Yeah, of course I did!”

“Well, I’m sorry to be a party pooper, but I must leave now,” your sister announced.

“Come kiddos, say goodbye to your mom!” Kyungsoo took them to their mom, but the older one started crying, realizing his mom was leaving. He jumped on his mother as soon as he was close, and it wasn’t long before the little one started crying too.

Your niece approached to try to calm her brothers, but you remembered you had just the thing to distract them so your sister could leave.

“Let’s go play in the camping tent; there are tons of balls to play with,” you told your niece so she could help you convince her brothers since they follow her lead all the time.

“Yes! And can we have ice cream?” She got all of the adults to laugh yet another time, but at least she managed to lessen the crying and desperation so your sister could talk to them and remind them that she needed to go for a while and that she was coming to get them later.

“I’ll go get the ice cream,” Kyungsoo offered. “I can accompany you downstairs.”

“Thank you, Kyungsoo-ssi. You’re so kind.” Your sister accepted his help as she put your nephew on the floor so you could take them to the camping tent you set for them to play in.

Kyungsoo led your sister outside after he took his wallet to go buy ice cream for everyone staying in your apartment.

In the elevator, silence fell, but for the generic music coming from the speakers. Kyungsoo spoke first, "thank you in advance. This means a lot to me."

“You’re so sweet; nobody has ever done anything like this. Y/N loves you like crazy, I can assure you of that, it would totally be the best surprise.” She searched in her bag for an envelope and handed it to him. “This should help with your plans.”

“In exchange, I will take good care of your kids, I promise,” he assured her as he held the envelope and handled it with so much care.

“Of course, you two are a great team. You always do a great job!”

While Kyungsoo went for ice cream, you were doing your best to distract the kids. The twins were like the moon and the sun, so the easier task was to leave your niece to play with the youngest in the tent while you tried to control the middle one, who was throwing the balls and even the toys at your sofa. The space in your living room where you placed the tent expanded to the whole house in about two minutes; all of the toys and balls were all over the place.

Luckily, you had finished the dough and were able to refrigerate it before the baking process, ensuring the mixture remained untouched by the Poké Balls flying about. This allowed you to attend to the children on your own until your boyfriend returned from the store.

You didn’t even need to get your camera to recollect the evidence for your sister because she knew her kids. However, you still took some pictures with your phone to send them to her, as you caught the kids’ enjoyment when they started playing together.

As you were writing to her, your phone rang with a video call from Kyungsoo, and as soon as the kids heard his voice, they all came running to say hi to him. He let out a quick giggle while his cheeks turned red. He hadn’t expected to have so much noise coming from his phone at the convenience store; he even bowed at some people behind the camera, apologizing.

“You can turn it to just a voice call if you feel more comfortable that way,” you suggested once the kids went quiet, expecting to see what their uncle was going to show.

“It’s okay; it’s quick. Just wanted to show these two options I had in mind for the kids.”

“They love the cookies and cream Seoleim—“

“Oh, but I want the banana one,” your niece expressed, creating a double echo from the little ones.

“Uncle, banana,” said the youngest, making Kyungsoo giggle.

“I can bring both, and do you want some vanilla ice cream to eat with the cookies?”

“You’re a genius!” you smiled. “Thank you, jagi.”

Kyungsoo mirrored your smile and waved goodbye. “See ya all soon!”

It didn’t take long for him to come back, so he got to see the chaos you got caught in again when he arrived. He ran to the kitchen before he was trapped by the kids at the entrance, and he gave them their ice cream fast enough for them to run back to you. Kyungsoo quickly hid the envelope in his jacket and put the vanilla ice cream in the fridge to eat later with the cookies. Since it was relay time, it was easier for him to hide the surprise with his belongings when you came to the kitchen to finally start to bake.

Taking care of your niece and nephews was challenging; Kyungsoo couldn’t even lie to himself that it wasn’t, but they were quite adorable and funny. You’ve been doing this for longer than he has, so it seemed to be so easy for you when he first saw you interact with the kids. However, he has worked on it and gotten to improve fast. Such as when your nephew started a tantrum because he wanted to go out to play but Kyungsoo saw it was about to rain. You came into the room to help, but he waved off your help, determined to handle it himself.

With them, he had learned to let loose and have fun, even if he had to act cute or like a clown. Who would have thought he could pull out some moves? Singing was easier, and karaoke rooms were witnesses to that, but he learned to accept that dancing was also fun, and he really wasn’t bad at it. It could be that or the opposite, but your nephew’s laugh was a reward either way.

For you, it was not just the little one’s laugh but Kyungsoo’s enjoyment. His face shone so much when he smiled, and his big eyes turned into little half-moons of joy. You instinctively grabbed your camera and caught as many of those moments as you could. The peace and comfort that he transmitted were priceless. You were happy that it didn’t take too long for you to finish setting the cookie dough to bake because you got to join them just in time, joyful to be able to catch more of Kyungsoo’s dancing and silliness with the kids.

At the end of the day, once you bid farewell to your sister and her children, reality hit you in every cell of your body. The exhaustion from playing all day, cleaning ice cream from the floor and carpet, cooking, and feeding left your muscles aching. You knew you now had to clean up your apartment, but leaving it all for the next day seemed more appealing than tiring yourself more by tidying it up.

While you were going back up to your apartment, Kyungsoo was picking up the toys that the kids left unorganized. Your sister had tried to get them to pick up everything they played with before they left, but you let them go easily since they seemed to be about to fall asleep in seconds.

You contemplated him once you entered your apartment; he was only bringing up smiles from you lately. “I can clean up tomorrow. I’m too exhausted now, aren’t you too?” you asked.

“I am,” he giggled, but he kept picking toys up from the ground. “I wanted to help.”

“You work tomorrow; rest up,” you said gently as you approached him, until you wrapped your arms around him from behind and rested part of your weight on him.

He stopped, feeling your energy drop. “I’m okay; I’m used to being tired from running the restaurant all day.”

“It was your free day today, though. I made you work too much. Kids and food are not the same.”

“Yeah, they’re not,” he recognized and looked back at you from his shoulder.

You smiled at him and managed to grab his hand. “See, just come with me. Let’s just chill for now. Let’s watch some variety shows and rest,” you suggested as you guided him to the couch and then grabbed the remote to turn the TV on.

You found a traveling variety show you hadn’t seen before, and it got you interested. The hosts were indulging in many unfamiliar and mouthwatering dishes, catching Kyungsoo’s attention. It didn’t take long for you both to get lost in the scenery and seemingly delicious food they showcased, and your exhaustion finally kicked in as you started to feel your eyelids getting heavy.

“Come closer; you can rest your head on my shoulder,” Kyungsoo whispered, and you followed his instructions. He was too content and expectant already. His smile, if only you could see it, might have given something away. His eyes, illuminated by the light of the TV, were incredibly expressive. “You did well today; I enjoyed every single minute,” he continued whispering, gently stroking your hair. All the while, he purposefully concealed that smile and look from you.

“I did too.” You gently grabbed his hand, and he squeezed lightly.

“You can sleep,” he giggled softly. “I can feel you drifting away.”

“No, I’m okay. Got to be here with you until you have to go.”

Kyungsoo knew you were tired, but he was sure something in the tone of your voice sounded different, and he couldn’t ignore the sense of urgency it conveyed. Although he had already planned to stay to surprise you, the change in the way you talked made him more determined to be there for you.

“I can stay; take the day off tomorrow and stay with you,” he offered, without giving much away.

“You’re leaving the kitchen unsupervised?”

It seemed you were still trying to keep your humor up and that nostalgia or melancholy unnoticed, so Kyungsoo tried to keep it up too, saying, “yeah, I can. I’m the chef.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He giggled, seemingly more amused than he is used to, and planted a gentle kiss on the top of your head. “Believe me now?” he asked, his voice filled with playful affection.

“Don’t buy me with your sweetness!”

Like a defiant toddler, he didn’t listen and instead shifted his body to cuddle and have you wrapped in his arms. “I just want to cheer you up,” he murmured tenderly.

There was a pause in your reaction, and suddenly, you held onto his hand again. “How…” you began, your voice barely audible as it caught in your throat. The word trembled on your lips, reflecting a mix of curiosity, surprise, and perhaps even a touch of vulnerability.

“You don’t have to say it if you are not ready.”

“Soo—“

“Rest. I’ll get you to your room and leave if you fall asleep.”

That smell was familiar—the pungent, savory scent of kimchi fried rice—paradoxically evoking only good memories with the people you love. You even smiled before you could open your eyes, but curiosity quickly appeared when you realized you were supposed to be alone in your house at this hour in the morning. Your sister couldn’t have possibly come today after the news she got yesterday. It was the low humming accompanying the sizzling sound of the kimchi rice that made you jump out of bed. The bedsheets fell on the ground, almost making you fall, and the door made such a sound when it hit the wall that it made Kyungsoo jump. The mixture of emotions was a tiny bit overwhelming, but your smile gave away the happiness you felt by seeing him in your kitchen making breakfast.

“You’re awake.”

“You’re here!”

His shoulders slightly went up and down as he silently laughed, connecting his gaze with yours in a way only he could. Your feet were smarter than you, taking you to him to yet again hug him from the back, but this time sharing your happy morning energy with him.

“Careful, you can burn your hand,” he cautioned, moving you both away from the heat.

You pressed your head against his back, inhaling the lingering scent of his perfume on his shirt. “I have you here, so I don’t mind.”

“How can you not mind?” He was surprised by your reply. “It’s painful, and I don’t want you to get hurt. You might even get me to burn the rice, so move, please," he insisted.

You looked at him, squinting, because of his unbelievable-expected, hot and cold reply. His teasing was cruel sometimes, but it really only added to his adorableness. He also said please, so he is forgiven.

“So is this the kitchen you’ll run today?” You had your wits too, and you used them wisely.

“My yeobobangjang, help me out, please?”

“Yeobo?” you chuckled. You were amused by his accidental play with the words bujubangjang and yeobo. He can’t just deny his cuteness, and you couldn't help but be charmed by his playful antics.

"Yeah yeah... I did say that," he giggled, realizing that he had let it slip without much thought. He rarely calls you jagi or jagiya, but yeobo is a whole different level of endearment that you still didn’t expect to hear.

With your help, breakfast was ready a lot faster, allowing you both to sit down and eat together peacefully. It was not a special occasion to celebrate anything in particular, but simply having him there in front of you was enough to make you feel grateful and happy. You also knew that he needed an explanation about yesterday. He wouldn’t ask unless you took too long to say anything, but he would subtly check in to see if you were ready to let him know.

"Thank you, Soo," you said, offering a warm smile and a piece of gyeran-mari. "About last night—"

"Y/N, I don't want you to feel pressured into saying anything," he interrupted gently, his voice filled with understanding. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me. Just… just know that I'm here for you."

You shook your head slightly, trying to show him that you still wanted to share. That’s all you wanted to do last night when you went back to your apartment and saw him. “I’m okay. I was feeling just a bit… I don’t know, sad? Nostalgic, perhaps?” you explained, and you noticed how his eyes were focused on you and whatever you needed to say.

"When we were getting the kids into the car, Ari received a call. Jongseung's mom is sick and was taken to the hospital," you explained, pausing briefly. "I wanted to go with her, but she asked me not to. I felt so powerless in that moment. I think..." you trailed off. Sensing your pain, Kyungsoo reached for your hand across the table, offering as much comfort and support as he could.

"I was sad because it reminded me of mom. I hadn't even thought about her in so long," you confessed, as the emotions were building up inside you. "And then, I also thought about how much Ari took care of me after mom died. I always feel like I should repay her for all that she's done. So, I wanted to comfort her and go with her, or at least help her with the kids... but she just told me to go back home. She said she would update me when necessary."

Kyungsoo jumped off his seat to take the one next to you. He brought his bowl and chopsticks and placed them next to yours. As he settled down, he gently turned you to face him, taking hold of both of your hands. With a small smile and caring eyes, he said, “you do more than enough for your sister; she knows that. You are incredible, Y/N. I bet your mom would be so proud of the person you have grown into.”

The light in his eyes—you swear, it could warm you up for days with just one look. Being loved by him feels like peace and comfort; it’s exciting, and there’s fire and playfulness all at the same time. His kindness fills your heart with so much joy. The tears coming out were not just because of sadness but happiness because of having the best boyfriend in the world. You couldn’t even feel the cheesiness of that statement in that very moment, not when he was holding your every sorrow in the warmest embrace.

“Do you want to do anything today?” he whispered once you seemed calmer. “We can stay in, but if you want to go out, I will be more than happy to take you anywhere.”

“Did you really take the day off?”

Your curious question made him giggle. “Why so surprised? I’ve done it before,” he reminded you in his best attempt to hide his nervousness. Not that he is a workaholic or anything, but it was more due to the whole plan for the day and that he already wanted to tell you all about it.

You slowly let go of each other, and you just smiled at him, knowing how much he has done to schedule both of your lives so you can spend the most time together and never miss anything. It has also taken a lot of effort from you because both of your jobs have always been complicated with free time. “Let’s maybe go for something to eat for lunch; we can just cuddle until then,” you suggested while you held his cheeks and poked his dimples.

“What an adventurer, my love,” he joked at the same time that he carefully dried a couple of tears from your cheek, but he was the only one laughing when you playfully punched his arm. “I love it, I love it, I love you.”

“I love you, dumpling,” you exclaimed as you poked the dimple forming on his face.

“What?” His laugh echoed all over your apartment. “I haven’t heard you say that to me in so long!”

“What? Love you? Yeah… it’s been so long!” you said cheekily, but his antics still moved you, and you fought a smile by pouting.

“You dumb head!”

Your eyes widened at the audacity. “What did you just say?”

“You dumpling!” He also poked at your cheek.

“You didn’t sa—“ He cut you off with a kiss. You relaxed into it even when you wanted to just laugh out loud, but that translated into a smile, one that he mirrored while kissing you.

“We were eating,” he casually whispered while taking a small breath.

“We should probably keep doing so,” you whispered back, stopping him from getting any closer.

“Are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah, thank you.”

“Well, then you can do the dishes when we finish.”

“Yah! Do Kyungsoo!” You crossed your arms, pretending to be mad. “I’m only laughing because you are too. I love seeing you laugh. Also, thank you for cleaning yesterday’s mess, how’d you like to be rewarded?” you asked, teasingly moving closer, noticing your apartment being clean and all in order.

“Ahh stop,” he blushed, holding a giggle. You noticed him clearing his throat. “Let’s finish our breakfast.”

You often find yourself yearning for more mornings like this, with Kyungsoo playfully teasing you and your laughter filling the room. The idea of living together with him has crossed your mind from time to time, but you’re too hesitant sometimes, thinking too much if you’re in the right moment to take that step. You’re also guilty of letting other people own a place in your mind that tells you that it might be too soon, that you should possibly think about marriage first, and that settling down could mean risking your job and whatnot. Those voices really need to be quiet because you don’t see anything wrong with what you two have. Your job couldn’t possibly be jeopardized; two years of relationship is enough for you, and you’ve known him for almost five years already, so you might as well dive right in there and then.

It’s even funny how Kyungsoo is not worried about what to wear to go outside since he has at least five outfits in your apartment, even for someone who is quite simple when it comes to clothing. He even has one of his chef jackets and an apron for his uniform.

All of the getting ready went so smoothly that you could easily picture it all far ahead, but you were easily brought back to the present when you connected the dots of Kyungsoo wearing his faux leather jacket and gloves. You were seconds away from grabbing your camera from your bag and capturing that moment forever. It made sense in a way since you ended up cuddling and doing nothing for so long that you two ended up deciding to go on a picnic in the afternoon, so the jacket would serve well for the cold night, but the combination was surely making your heart flutter.

“What?” He turned around with a smirk on his face after grabbing his helmet. “Got yours too,” he said handing you the other helmet that was next to his.

“For a second, I don’t know why, I forgot you own a bike—a motorcycle type of bike.”

“You make no sense.”

“Never mind, let’s go.” Your thoughts were better kept inside your head, so you just put your helmet on and hopped on the bike. You felt the chuckle in his belly while you were trying to hold on tight. You always enjoy how comfortable he gets, but at the same time, he has made you blush way too much in just one day.

The change from summer to autumn felt more present in the past few days. The ride on the motorcycle exposed you even more to the change, as the weather was feeling nicer and you were not feeling like your head could burn from the heat inside the helmet. You held on even tighter and closer to Kyungsoo as you felt more comfortable along the ride. Somehow, you suddenly had flashbacks to the very first time you hopped on his motorcycle. You were just friends then, but now that you realize it, the feelings were catching up to you, and that was one of the first times that you thought about him differently.

You reached the first stop, which was his house, so he could leave his motorcycle parked. You had nothing really planned for the picnic, but you decided you were having it at Yeouido Hangang Park, so you would take the bus instead of worrying about parking. Kyungsoo had suggested the picnic and going to the Yeouido Bamdokkaebi Night Market, which surprised you a little, but it sounded great since you two hadn’t really had a cute romantic date in a while.

“Could you go pick up Meokmul and Hoochoo at the daycare?” Kyungsoo asked once he took his helmet off. You got lost in his eyes for a second, but then you noticed the ends of his hair were slightly damp and his nose was a little bit sweaty. He looked like his dogs, so you giggled.

“Y/N?”

“Oh, sure! Yeah, I’ll go.”

He shook his hair, hypnotizing you once more. You were completely lost and hadn’t even thought of fixing your own hair, but his hand found the rebellious lock on your left side and patted it back down. The proximity made you shiver, which made him giggle.

“Wait for me there; I’ll just go for my bus card and some stuff for the picnic.”

He dared to approach and give you a kiss on your forehead. Kyungsoo might have suspected it, but there was no denying that he had you eating from his palm from the moment you realized he had gone all bad-boy-look with his outfit today, just to match his motorcycle, just to tease you, just because—you wouldn’t know, but you’re more than grateful for the blessed view.

Haeun was at the reception today, so she waved at you with a wide smile on her face.

“Hey, Y/N! How have you been? Are you here to pick Hoochoo and Meokmul?”

You nodded happily, and when you reached the reception desk, you gave her your ID. “Haeun! It’s so nice to see you again. We’re taking them for a walk.”

Haeun’s eyes widened. She really was like a puppy taking care of a lot of other puppies. “Oh, they’ll be so happy! Come with me,” she invited, handing you your ID back after processing the discharge and calling a coworker in to take her place at the reception while you two went to get the dogs.

You trailed behind her as she led you down the hallway to the seating room, where the dogs' belongings were securely stored. "Hoochoo has been asleep for about twenty minutes now," she informed you, searching for the dogs' leashes. "Meokmul has been playing with Toben and Vivi," she added, providing you with an update on the dogs' activities.

“Oh, they’re here too?”

“Yes, she was lucky to have them here to play with. They’re really the best of friends.”

“Did Hoochoo have fun too?”

“Yeah, she played for a while but got sleepy after eating,” she giggled and pointed towards the playroom to let you know she was going in.

It was nice to hear that they were having the greatest time while you kept their dad away for a while. When you met them, there was an instant connection between the three of you. It had only taken a few seconds, and Meokmul was the first one to like you. Hoochoo was initially shy, requiring Kyungsoo’s gentle intervention to help the little puppy open up.

Funny enough, Haeun was the one who had introduced you to Kyungsoo when you coincidentally arrived at the same time to pick up your dogs. The three of them were harmoniously playing since they had already been friends for weeks. It just so happened that the owners hadn’t met yet. The bond that you all created was so strong that the loss of your dog two years ago was truly felt by them, but that only brought you closer to Kyungsoo and his dogs.

Meokmul had possibly smelled you or heard you because the barks in the distance were definitely too familiar. The little one ran towards you, making Haeun struggle a little with the leash, and the special treat you had taken from their bag didn’t help either. You showed it, and she ate it before you picked her up.

“I’ll go get Hoochoo with the carrier in case she’s still asleep.”

“Yes, thank you, Haeun!”

“Meokmul-ie, how are you? Hello, little sunshine!” You heard a chuckle behind you after cutely talking to the hyperactive dog on your lap. It was Kyungsoo, showing his most joyful smile. He was holding a little picnic basket, which made you wonder just how impromptu it would actually end up being. Knowing him, it probably didn’t even reach one percent.

“She woke up; she’s energized now, so—“ Haeun entered and stopped when she caught sight of Kyungsoo. “Oh, Kyungsoo-ssi! The two parents coming for their little girls; how cute!”

The both of you giggled and smiled at each other before bowing your heads to Haeun. “Thank you, Haeun-ah,” you said as you grabbed the double carrier and Kyungsoo took Hoochoo’s leash. “Let’s have a coffee together soon, yeah?”

“Welcome! We definitely should, just text me when you’re free. Have a nice day!”

“Enjoy your day, Haeun-ah!” Kyungsoo waved goodbye before he held your hand and led you outside.

The afternoon skyline was gorgeous, looking like the sunset was beginning soon enough. You contemplated it and squeezed Kyungsoo’s hand, to which he reacted with a chuckle. The reason was not important; just hearing that low, sweet chuckle of his was enough to make you feel all cozy and calm. You strolled along the sidewalk with your two beautiful dogs until you reached the bus stop, where you had to get the pups in the double carrier.

Kyungsoo scratched Meokmul behind her ear as she looked a little anxious. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Promise it won’t be long, little one.” He talked soothingly to calm her down.

He kept scratching her ear on the bus ride so she wouldn’t start barking nervously, and you gave her some treats to entertain her. Hoochoo received some too, but she was at ease in the carrier, all warmed up and happy with the company of Meokmul. The ride was indeed short, but Meokmul calmed down easily thanks to both of your calming attentiveness.

Once at Yeouido Park, you got both of them out of the carrier so they could walk along with you. Kyungsoo smiled at them and then at you. The picnic basket was on the floor next to the carrier, so the two little dogs couldn’t help but inspect it with their noses. “Ready for our date, little ones?” he chuckled.

Meokmul and Hoochoo barked as if they were answering him, waving their tails expectantly. You managed to take a picture of the three of them right in that moment, and when Kyungsoo looked back up, realizing you just took a candid photo, you said, “they know something’s up. What have you got planned, Soo?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Ah, it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. For now, let’s walk; we’ve got some food to gather for our picnic.”

“So there’s nothing in the basket,” you commented suspiciously.

Kyungsoo only laughed, shaking his head as he took the dogs strollers in one hand while the other searched for yours. He squeezed once he held it gently, looking for something in your eyes that made him smile so brightly. You were curious now, but you decided it would be even more entertaining if you waited for whatever he planned for the night.

You set off down the busy lane with one pup each, Kyungsoo not letting go of the picnic basket, and you holding the carrier. The street food market bustled with delicious aromas and a lively atmosphere filled with people’s laughter and small chatter.

You stopped at a tteokbokki stand once the scent translated into flavor in your mind. The draw was so strong thanks to the warm feeling it gave you just thinking about the taste of the soft rice cakes in your mouth. You asked the vendor for a medium serving to take away, and Kyungsoo put it inside the picnic basket. It was hard not to peek, but he was too fast at closing the cover, nervously giggling.

A dumpling stand caught Kyungsoo’s attention; he approached and looked back at you, smiling knowingly. You immediately poked his cheek. “What do you think about these dumplings, Chef Do?”

“They look delicious, right?”

You marveled at his expression, reminiscing on your requested class all those years ago to your newfound friend, who looked at you amused at your concentration with his cheek full of dumpling flour. Kyungsoo’s weakness was food. “I do see one delicious dumpling,” you teased, holding his gaze with fire in your eyes.

The words caught up in his throat, so he swallowed thickly before his voice could come out shaky. His ears heated up, and he tried to look anywhere else. He still giggled, knowing you were taking your chance at teasing him, just like he did earlier when he knew you were staring at him with those dreamy eyes because of his choice of clothing.

Luckily, the woman serving the dumplings caught his wandering gaze and asked for his order; otherwise, he would have melted in front of you. After ordering two servings of dumplings, one steamed and the other fried, he managed to pull off a playful smile at your teasing words once his heart settled. He found your gaze still lingering, your eyes glowing with glee and something deeper; he could only hope it wasn’t just his longing playing tricks on him. All of the surrounding noise drifted away, and he found himself present with only you there in that moment.

He wished to reach for you and confess everything he had planned for the night, but his question still weighed with uncertainty and insecurities, so he needed a moment of complete confidence and the setting he had already pictured. The crowd would make him nervous even when no one paid the minimum attention to them. There were still some more steps to take to reach that longed-for destination.

Kyungsoo was more than reassured when he felt your hand on his arm. You didn’t have to say a word; the slight scrunch of your nose when you smiled and the warmth of your gaze calmed his anxieties. With you, he felt not only seen but understood—a comfort that had been hard to find all those years before you came into his life.

Too soon, the order was ready. With a kind smile and a bow to the sellers, he thanked them and packed away the dumplings. Hand in hand, you continued your wandering stroll along the market, picking whatever snack you desired. Since you found some fried chicken and already had tteokbokki, you two decided to pass by the convenience store and buy some ramyeon for the perfect food setting.

It didn’t take too long to reach the camping and picnic area once you had all of your food. Kyungsoo found a great spot near a tree, where you managed to settle before the last bits of light from the sun touched the sky. He had come prepared, as you had expected.

“Let me rearrange everything; close your eyes,” he asked you as you finished getting the little ones in their carrier since both of them were tired from playing all day and walking along the market with you two.

You were surprised to hear that since you two had already set the blankets on the grass, and he had taken out his wooden house-shaped lamp and put it next to the picnic basket. You still carried on, hopeful for his surprise.

After setting the folding table and carefully displaying the indulgently selected feast with flickering candle lanterns and fresh strawberries he had brought from home, he asked you to open your eyes again.

You swiftly opened your eyes, and they mirrored the light coming out of Kyungsoo’s as you traced over all of the little details and felt your heart warming up. “Soo, jagi, it’s beautiful,” you breathed. “It looks even more appealing now.”

Hoochoo’s head popped out of the carrier, hearing the both of you laugh together. She now looked hungry, so before you started on with your meal, you gave her some of hers. Meokmul was fast asleep, it seemed, but halfway through your dinner, she woke up asking for food.

With full bellies and hearts lighter, conversation turned reminiscent, noticing how many moments you had referenced from your friends to lovers relationship beginnings. Although short and recent, you managed to get enough closeness that led you to develop such strong feelings for one another. Kyungsoo knew it was time now that the momentum was clear with your talk being about you two.

The sweet and careful touch of his hand over your cheek soothed you into a pleasant mood, interrupting your giggles with his gesture. Whatever he needed to say or was thinking about, you lovingly gave him all of your attention.

“Y/N,” he started. “I have a surprise for you,” he smiled.

“Another one?” you genuinely asked, immediately interested in all of the possibilities.

He nodded. “You could say so, yeah.” His hand lingered on your cheek, but with a light stroke on your cheekbone, he shifted towards the picnic basket.

From an outside bottom compartment, Kyungsoo reached for a gift box, carefully handing it to you. He looked expectant as you grabbed it, the corners of his lips forming a slowly growing, hopeful smile. His features were divine, lighted up by the candle lanterns, and you couldn’t wait long to see what he was gifting you.

You looked at the photo on the cover; you captured that moment just a few weeks ago at Kyungsoo’s house. It had been such an ordinary day, but you had matched sweaters on, completely unintentional. Meokmul was on his lap, and you were holding Hoochoo, who licked Kyungsoo’s chin and made you laugh. The view of such a lighthearted moment, as well as your guess at what could be inside the book, brought happy tears to your eyes almost immediately. As you looked back at him, you caught a watery shine in his.

“Why am I crying? This is just the first look at your gift,” you sniffled.

Kyungsoo chuckled, amused at your reaction, but he embraced you to try and soothe your crying. “It’s okay if you cry; just promise it is out of happiness. My intentions were never to make you hurt.”

“It’s happiness; I’m excited to know what’s inside.”

Kyungsoo was already beaming at seeing you so moved by just the cover alone. He dried your tears and planted two kisses on your forehead. “Open it,” he urged softly. “I hope you like it. I tried to do the most I could within my creative possibilities.”

You giggled softly. “You are creative, mostly in the kitchen. You’re a genius chef, and I’m so lucky to have befriended you,” you advocated for him, honestly.

“Befriended,” he simply repeated and chuckled.

You continued to open the photo album, still wrapped in his arms. He wasn’t stopping his surprises, it seemed. The first two pages of the book had photos of both of you as kids; you could see why he chose those pictures, and the caption soothed you and filled you with so much gratitude and love for him.

Were we destined to find each other? Our connection seemed to exist earlier than we could imagine, no matter where we were.

His sweet smile was timeless. You could see yourself meeting Kyungsoo as a kid at that beach, running around and playing on the shore where small waves washed over your feet. It wasn’t the same one, but something in the pictures looked as if they were taken at the same place, day, and time.

“I saw that picture at Ari’s house a couple of months ago. Undeniably so, I knew I had seen something similar before. I had my picture at home, so when I returned that day and searched for it, I could only think about how many more could show such similarities,” Kyungsoo explained, talking near your ear.

You lifted your hand to caress his cheek. “You’ve been crafting this since then?” you asked.

“Not right then, but I had been looking for pictures, and then the idea came. Mom and Ari helped quite a lot,” he chuckled. “Just yesterday, I finally got your childhood pictures so I could add them.”

You kissed his cheek and continued to flip through the pages. Pictures of you two at different schools but with similar smiles, different cities but the same colors in the sky, different dogs but the same pose. Your lives seemed somehow planned and destined to blend; your eyes kept pouring down tears of joy when you reached the page where your early encounters started to appear—all those pictures you took.

A picture of you two at the first New Year’s party with his parents specially moved you. You were still just friends then, but he invited you over since he was also carrying out the first celebration at his new apartment.

You told me about your mom two days before, and I wished with you that she was there with us. But you must be her mirror; I can see her in you from the little details you’ve shared with me.

Kyungsoo held you tighter. He hadn’t anticipated in the planning and crafting of this gift that you could be sensitive about your mom on this day, so he consciously kept you wrapped in his arms. He felt how you squeezed back, embracing the reassurance he was trying to give you.

“Thank you, Soo,” you managed to say, but while it’d be easy for you to find words to express your feelings, this time there were not enough.

“Turn the page,” he said, his voice cracking. You moved to face him, and he smiled through the tears. “I have something to say,” he managed to speak calmly, in spite of his rushing emotions.

You followed through and flipped the page. A carefully crafted collage portrayed the photos you sent him—while you took care of Hoochoo and Meokmul, or just a nice picture of a sunset you saw—along with letters while he was enlisted and some of the ones you took on his day offs.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath, and you carefully held his hand. “I…” he started but stopped when he felt his tears coming down; you cleared them carefully and softly smiled. “That time of my life was hard to get through. I don’t think I thanked you enough for being there and all that you did for me.” He finally found the right words as he brushed his thumb over your hand.

“All those letters, all those pictures, all those moments you shared with me—you gave me the hope I lacked. I told you many times that I had fallen for you slowly and carefully, but it was on my mind every day,” he smiled tenderly. “You have no idea how much I love you. I learned to say whatever is on my mind because of you; if I hadn’t said those words to you, I probably would have lost you.”

You slowly shook your head. “No, I was too head over heels for you already. I wouldn’t have let you lose me.”

He giggled and kissed you softly, taking his time to marvel at this moment with you and trying to release the last of his nerves. “Could you take a look at the last page?” he asked, breaking away for a moment.

Eager to know what that last page offered you, you turned it over and smiled. The last picture, a copy of one of your photography class projects where you captured the concept of “home,” greeted you; it was Kyungsoo’s side profile while cooking in his restaurant’s kitchen. Next to it was a photo he had taken of the two of you when you visited his friends in Busan.

You looked up at him, wondering, searching for the answers in his joyful gaze. Kyungsoo held your hand at the same time that the two little pups woke up. Both of you couldn’t help but giggle, thinking they must have wanted to be a part of your moment, so you grabbed Meokmul, and he put Hoochoo on his lap.

Clearing his throat, he began, “Y/N, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. Whenever I’m with you, no matter where we are, I feel at home. You are my home and safe place, and I want to have you as close as I can… would you like to start living together?”

He was a mind reader; you couldn’t help but reach to lovingly cup his face. Meokmul wanted her space with the two of you, so she started licking your hands and Kyungsoo’s cheek in the process. The both of you laughed while Hoochoo wagged her tail. “Of course, Soo!” you exclaimed between giggles.

When you could breathe easily and the pups calmed down a bit, you ran your fingers through his hair. “You’re also my home. You’ve loved every part of me, just as I have loved every part of you. Would you believe me if I told you I have also been thinking about it?”

His eyes widened, and a silly laugh escaped him. “I would actually believe it, but how are we so in sync?”

“I don’t want an answer; I just want us to keep working this way,” you admitted.

“You’re so wise,” he kissed your cheek. “Thank you; you’ve made all of my dreams come true just by being you. I can’t wait to wake up each day and see your beautiful eyes and fall asleep staring at them too.”

You pulled him close, softly brushing your lips against his; he placed his hand on your neck, his thumb slightly brushing your earlobe. Your lips met softly and slowly, making you feel at ease, like coming home—him—your home. “Thank you for loving me; it’s the greatest gift I’ve ever known.”

#kyungsoo #kyungsoo x reader #kyungsoo fluff #kyungsoo fanfic #d.o. kyungsoo #do kyung soo #chef Kyungsoo #exo #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exouniverse

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sunlightandsuffering · 7 months ago

Note

Any updates on those drabbles 😣🫣🫣

IT'S GOING WELL AHAHAHAH !! Here is one I wrote just from my own inspo bc I was listening to Drake, it's kind of silly, but Eren is totally a frat bro who listens to Drake and thinks he's the shit lmfaoooo! I was listening to girls want girls and I was like Mikasa totally HATES him for this and I couldn't get the mental imagery out of my head lol !!

“Go on Mikasa, you’ll be late and Eren won’t want to take you home.” Mikasa scowls miserably at the reminder, her lip curling up, teeth clenched together as she realizes what the next hour and a half of her life has to offer her.

“Maybe I should get a buss pass.” “Mikasa hush,” Her mother chastises her, pushing her towards the door, her backpack in hand and a bag of chips for the road. She feels like a school girl being shooed off for her first day of kindergarten, her mom tugging at her hair fretfully, righting the small green t-shirt dress that she now regrets wearing immensely.

When her mother is finally pleased, she steps back, one last perfunctory glance over before she nods to herself resolutely, “You look very nice.” Mikasa scowls harder and her mother makes a noise of irritation, “You’ll wrinkle, stop that!”

She forces her face into a neutral expression just as her mother pushes her out the door with one last lingering kiss goodbye, “Have a good drive darling, be nice to Eren. He’s doing you a favour you know!” And that’s how Mikasa finds herself in the familiar situation, high school all over again as she waits at the end of her walk way, backpack in hand, and chillier than she should be in the warm spring weather. Damned green dress, she should have worn ripped jeans, the wind is too cold on her exposed thighs. And of course, Eren is fucking late. Mikasa glances down at her watch again, 6:15, he was supposed to be here ten minutes ago, had texted her that he was leaving from his obnoxiously large house down the street. She could have fucking walked there and been faster.

Her irritated thoughts are interrupted by the tell-tale sounds of Eren’s arrival, thumping base, engine so loud it shakes the street lamps. It’s a brand new Subaru, sleek black and tricked out so much she doesn’t even want to know how much money he’s dumped into it.

She fucking hates the thing, it’s obnoxious. Yet, she also can’t deny the little flutter in her heart every time he pulls up to her house in it, what the neighbours must think of her, that she has a handsome rich boyfriend at her beck and call. She doesn’t, she has an idiotic sexist frat boy instead.

The only thing louder than the engine of Eren’s stupid car is his music, and he pulls up, windows down, the undeniable beat of a Drake album infecting her ears. His sunglasses slip down his nose as he pulls up, one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching towards her out the window, a sweet serenade… if not for the fucking lyrics. “Say that you a lesbian, girl me too.”

This is Mikasa’s final straw, her mouth parted in pure outrage as the music pours over the street. “I’m not getting in the car.” Her voice is barely audible over the engine and the base and Eren pouts as he turns it down, putting the car in park, “What?” “I’m not getting in the car.” Eren groans, “Mikasa.” Is it too late to take the bus? She glances towards the lone bus stop a few paces down the street, the bus she’s never taken because she’s always had her irritating neighbour to chauffeur her around. She vacillates for a moment, but one look at Eren’s smug face, the disgustingly expensive dior shades slipping down his nose, the tight grey t-shirt clinging to his arm.

Mikasa starts walking. “Miki,” Eren whines, and she makes it several paces away before he’s following her at a crawl, “Please my mom will kill me if you take the bus.” “I’m not getting in the car if you’re going to play that.” “It’s Drake!” Eren exclaims as if this excuses his faux pas!

“It’s sexist as hell and a little homophobic,” Mikasa bursts and Eren sighs deeply, “If I turn it off will you get in the fucking car?”

“I’ll consider it.” He pauses it for a moment, putting the car back in park and gesturing for her to get in.

Mikasa acquiesces, but only after an appropriate amount of glaring, she has to make him work for it. Eren opens the door for her from the inside, almost a gentleman but not quite, grabbing her backpack from her hands before chucking it into the back seat. “Why do you always have to be such a pain in the ass?” He asks without bite, his gaze honed in on her legs as she sinks into the plush leather of the passenger seat.

She smacks his shoulder, both for the remark and for the way he’s now unabashedly staring at her thighs where her dress has slipped just a little too high. And if she wore this dress for him, for exactly this reason, who is to say? He’ll never know.

“Ow,” His gaze finally snaps up to her face, the lips pulled into a pout, green eyes sparkling with amusement, “God you’re so mean to me Mikasa.” “Someone has to be!” He grumbles something in response and Mikasa holds her hand up threateningly, another smack to that ridiculously well-muscled arm of his. Because seriously she’d probably done more damage to her palm, who said he could be so muscle-y?

He fiddles with his phone for a moment, hitting the shuffle button and Mikassa glances at her own phone as she waits for him to drive off. The music cues up just as Eren’s hand grabs for the shifter, his foot shifting to the break peddle as he changes gears and Mikasa’s mouth parts in a mixture of shock and horror as the infectious beat of the next song slides over them, somehow even louder than before. “Bend that ass over! Let that coochie breathe!” It’s silent between them, save for the music between them, and she watches as Eren turns towards her almost robotically as ‘Rich Baby Daddy’ flows over the speakers. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Mikasa!”

She smacks him again, more aggressively this time, “It’s my drake playlist I just hit shuffle I swear.” She smacks him again for good measure, “Sexist asshole!”

He throws his hands up in surrender, trying to escape to his side of the car as he slips it back into park, “It’s not even sexy, really if you think about it, it’s women’s empowerment!” Mikasa almost assaults him in his own car, throwing herself over the console to get better access so she can finally throttle him.

He catches her wrist in his hands just as she makes her way across the console, her dress riding up much higher than is appropriate, threatening to show off the black lacy panties she’d chosen just in case she was feeling frisky.

“It’s a good song, don’t tell me you don’t bop to this during your gym sessions, c’mon Mika.” She will never admit that it’s on her running playlist, over her dead body, never! “I don’t!” Mikasa lies through her teeth and Eren manhandles her into a more comfortable position, tugging her all the way over the console and into her lap, and fuck why does she always end up in his arms? She’s breathing hard, fuming from their fight, hair a mess and cheeks ruddier than she’d like, he’s stolen her composure once again with barely a word.

Carefully, he reaches past her to change the song, looking at her with suspicion the entire time, letting her wrists go with the other, “Happy now?” “No,” Mikasa scowls and Eren groans, “You’re so sensitive.” “I am not!” She’s about to launch into another rant about the patriarchy and the sexism of male rappers and blatant sexualization of women in all these songs but Eren just shakes his head, “Please don’t lecture me again, I’ll let you pick the next song, I cannot do another hour and a half lecture.” She loses her steam a little, remembering the ride up from university back home for reading break, she might have gone a little overboard there. “Besides, it’s catchy, just admit it.” Mikasa pouts, “It is catchy.” “Thank you!” As she calms down she realizes she has once again found herself in Eren’s lap, in close quarters with the boy she likes to fuck on occasion, who haunts her dreams more often than should be allowed, and well, he’s definitely starting to notice too. His eyes are now locked on where her thighs bracket his own, how she’s sitting so pretty, that if they were naked he’d slip inside right now, and with how fucking wet she is it would be easy. Shit.

She’s about to sit up, but Eren’s hands settle over her thighs, rubbing tantalizingly up and down, warming her up from the inside out in her silly little dress. “You know,” Eren starts, his eyes locked on her mouth now, the teasing edge to his voice gone, replaced with something a little darker now, raspy with lust, “It’s really not sexist, actually kind of empowering.” “How so?” She asks, sinking further into his lap, just the hint of a grind as she feels him harden beneath her and god why does she always want him, even when he’s being a colossal asshole. “Rich baby daddy, I think she’s just using him for money, so really she’s winning here.” Mikasa scoffs, “Sure.” His mouth slips down to her neck, “You know if your birth control failed, I could be your rich baby daddy Mika.”

Eren speaks with all the confidence of a man who was inside her not two days ago and definitely came inside her without a condom, and she fucking hates that it turns her on.

He lays hot open-mouthed kisses up her neck, his teeth nibbling at her ear now, her heart in her throat, “Probably spoil you rotten to be honest, you’re too pretty to work Miki, think I’d keep you just for me.” “Fuck off,” She whispers but there’s no real heat behind it, not when his hands are skimming at the hem of her dress, teasing at the edge of her cunt. “I think you’d like it.” “I think I hate you.” “Nah,” He murmurs against her throat, “You don’t.”

And then he’s stealing her lips in a kiss that has her seeing stars, and she’s making out with Eren fucking Yeager in their neighbourhood cul-de-sac at 5:30 on a Sunday night, in prime view of dog walkers and horrified families.

Eventually, she forces herself off of him, glaring the whole time, and he lets her choose the music as penance, to which she chooses some Drake that’s a little more tame, not something she can get quite so up in arms about.

She pretends to pout the entire ride back to school, but she shares her all-dressed chips with him and when his hand finds her thigh ten minutes into the drive she doesn’t protest.

#lys's drabbles #fratboy and feminist au

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scoopertrouper · 1 year ago

Note

Was thinking about Barb’s funeral, the Hollands greeting Nancy and assuming she’s still with Steve + her surprise when Steve shows up.

no idea what it is about your prompts (if that was, indeed, what this even was lol), but damn.

every time i think - that's it! i'm going to write Steve and Nancy together now - i get a query like this, that digs deep inside my brain and won't let go until it's out. and then i saw this screenshot (because truthfully i had to do some googling to refresh my memory, it's been a minute since i did a full s2 rewatch) and it was game over.

this is maybe a little messy and not EXACTLY what you asked for, but I do hope, even so, that it seems true - true to the characters, and true to who they are at this particular moment in time (which, yes, is a warning for some fairly mild J&N content, if you can't hang with that at all).

it's all about the liminal spaces, man.

*~*~*

Nancy’s coat is too warm.

That’s the first thought that comes to her, staring at a coffin that will, within the hour, sit buried beneath the ground.

Barb’s face smiles distantly at her through an altogether too-cheerful wreath of roses, next to the empty coffin as hollow as the hole it’s soon to be lowered into, and all Nancy thinks is – “I should’ve worn a different coat.”

It’s true that it’s unseasonably warm for an early December day. But even so, the smart black blazer she’s chosen should, in theory, be perfectly appropriate for the weather.

And yet Nancy is stifling – barricaded in by a gravesite to her front, and Jonathan to her left, and Barb’s perpetually smiling, two-dimensional face to her right. Warmth is creeping up her neck, and under her armpits, and between the shallow valley of her breasts, and she longs to rip off all her layers, to take off running until the breeze cools the sweat she can’t stop from trickling down her back.

This should be comforting, right? This is what she’s longed for – a resolution for Barb, for her parents. Acknowledgment that she’s not just missing, with all the implications that can come with that. She’s dead, and someone (something) has been held responsible for it, and now they finally get to say their last goodbyes.

But what has this whole year been for Nancy, if not one long, drawn-out goodbye? A goodbye to Barb, to her innocence, to the ability to even walk down the driveway at night without jumping at the smallest sounds.

A goodbye to…no. Nancy shakes herself. She’s not going there. Not today, at least.

“Nancy?” Jonathan nudges her, concern plain on his face (plain to her, anyway, and she’s grateful she’s gotten to know him well enough to read that). “I know the Rotary Club’s wreath is pretty ugly, but setting it on fire with your eyes isn’t gonna make it better.”

It’s exactly the kind of dumb-serious joke she needs to jolt her from the death stare she’s been leveling at the casket for the past five minutes, and it’s doubly effective because it’s Jonathan, whose quips usually masquerade as wry commentary on the disarray of his life. (Nancy’s new place in it notwithstanding, of course. She thinks.)

But it’s also jarring, knocking her even more off-axis because, well, telling stupid jokes to snap Nancy out of it when she’d get too far inside her own head was usually how –

No.

Not. Thinking. About. It.

Because Nancy’s not thinking about…it, she slips her hand into his. It’s chapped, but warm, and it fits better against hers with every passing day. Even if sometimes she’s startled to find the fingers are too long and the palm too narrow.

She gives him her best attempt at a smile.

“Sorry. This is…a lot harder than I thought it would be,” she admits. Then, because it feels right, she squeezes his hand. “Thanks for coming with me today.”

Jonathan opens his mouth to speak, but before she can find out what he plans to say, a familiar voice cuts in.

“Nancy?” It’s Barb’s mom. “Oh, honey, I’m so glad you made it.”

Just the sight of her – red-rimmed eyes, clearly in between bouts of crying – makes Nancy’s throat ache.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” she replies, returning the surprisingly fierce hug Mrs. Holland offers. She resists the overwhelming impulse to squeeze her own eyes shut.

Nancy had been prepared to give up far more than she’d ultimately had to to ensure this day would come – but everything she’d been ready to sacrifice would still have paled in comparison to the totality of this woman’s loss.

“It’s not the way I’d hoped our search would end,” Mrs. Holland sniffs, dabbing at her eye with a well-used tissue, “but at least this way, we get to say goodbye.”

She doesn’t look particularly grateful – in fact, she looks gutted, like she’s been turned inside out and scraped down to the last ragged, exposed nerve.

For one wild moment, Nancy wonders if it would have been better for them to spend the rest of their lives wondering. Living with the hope that Barb was still out there somewhere, and might find her way home to them.

Wonders if the closure she’d been trying to secure for them had actually been a selfish disservice. Not everyone, after all, is as desperate for the truth – as willing to compromise everything to get it – as Nancy. She’s realizing that, now.

But it’s too late to wonder. What’s done is done, and at least now they have something to visit when they miss her.

Mrs. Holland seems to have drawn herself back together, and Nancy’s prepared for her to move on, to steel her spine and greet the next group of sympathizers, but instead she’s casting her eyes around.

“Where’s Steve, honey? I’d love to say hi to him before the ceremony starts, he was always so sweet to come with you to see us.”

Jonathan stiffens beside her, and for a full five seconds Nancy freezes – no thoughts, no breathing, heart displaced into her throat.

Even through the haze of her own grief, it doesn’t take Mrs. Holland long to clock Jonathan, standing closer to Nancy than most good friends would, or to recognize the tension apparent in both their postures. Nancy doesn’t let go of his hand, but it’s a very near thing.

She doesn’t know what excuse she’s going to stammer out to break the stilted silence – doesn’t even know what, exactly, she’s trying to excuse – when she’s saved by the best, worst interruption.

“Hey, Mrs. Holland. Sorry I’m a little late, I got held up at the doctor’s office.”

He appears over Mrs. Holland’s shoulder like a shadow – a shadow with at least half-a-head’s height on her. He cuts a darker figure than Nancy is used to, dressed for the occasion as he is in somber charcoals and blacks.

(With an uncomfortable start, she realizes she recognizes the sweater he’s wearing. She’s the one who’d picked it for him, an impulse buy on a lazy Saturday afternoon at the Bloomington Gap. It looks as good on him in person now as she’d imagined it would then.)

The plain delight on Mrs. Holland’s face goes a long way toward easing the worst of the awkwardness. Steve accepts her hug and congenial pat on the cheek with a surprised smile, and it’s clear that he’s touched by how touched Barb’s mom is.

“Thank you for coming, Steve. It means the world to see people showing up for our Barb.”

“Wouldn’t miss it, Mrs. Holland,” he says, echoing Nancy’s sentiments with full sincerity.

Nancy is overwhelmed by a shame that rakes claw marks up the inside of her throat, because hadn’t she just been prepared to explain away his absence based on the assumption that he would?

This, for whatever reason, wasn’t an eventuality she’d prepared herself for, even considering he’d diligently showed up to every dinner with (somewhat) minimal complaint, had made polite conversation through the most painful pauses, and had somehow managed to win over Barb’s parents to the extent that her mother was asking after him at their daughter’s funeral.

(If Barb could only see them now.)

Through all of this, he doesn’t look at Nancy once, and that absence lands about as gently as a haymaker to her solar plexus.

“Well.” Mrs. Holland clears her throat, appearing seconds away from dissolving again. “Don’t be strangers. We’d love to have you both –” she catches herself, eyes darting between them, and then Jonathan, and then back, “– we’d love to have you over sometime for dinner again soon.”

With a brief parting squeeze of Nancy’s shoulder, she moves on to Karen and Ted, and Nancy lets out a tight breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Finally, with no other distractions at hand, Steve acknowledges them, proffering a brief nod he doesn’t wait to see returned before he’s crossing to Jonathan’s left, settling a careful handful of paces away from them.

It stings, and Nancy considers saying something – what does she have a right to say, really? – but there’s no time, because the service is already starting.

It’s excruciating.

It’s barely 30 minutes long, and Nancy feels every single second of them. Almost immediately, Mrs. Holland loses the composure she’d managed to cling to through talking to Nancy, Steve, and Nancy’s parents, and now she’s sobbing into her husband’s shoulder, heaving sounds that echo painfully across the cemetery.

Steve is standing several feet away, still as a stone, but she feels his presence so acutely that he might as well be as close to her as Jonathan currently is.

She wishes he hadn’t come at all. Wishes he could make it easy for her to turn the page away from the Steve-and-Nancy chapter of her life – wishes she could write him off as an obvious mistake that dragged on way too long before crashing to its inevitable conclusion.

Instead, he keeps stubbornly defying her expectations. Letting her go with Jonathan with unbearable grace. Keeping her brother and his friends safe (even after he’d already been beaten to shit). Showing up for Barb’s funeral when he’d known she’d be here and had every reason not to come.

It’s maddening, because – look, she doesn’t regret her choice, okay? Jonathan is just – he’s a better fit. He’s been there for her, been with her, and he gets her. He gets that sometimes you can’t create understanding by explaining.

Gets that – that anger entwined with despair that she can’t control, this huge, black feeling inside that festers and grows until it demands an outlet, requires a purpose or a target so that it doesn’t turn inward and hit self-destruct.

She doesn’t have to describe that to Jonathan – not in words – and it’s a relief, because she wouldn’t even know where to begin.

So no, what she’s experiencing isn’t regret – at least, it doesn’t usually feel like it. But sometimes it might get close, on the odd occasion she sees him around school, tossing his perfect hair and flashing his surprisingly kind smile. All good looks and casual charm, with that little bit of Steve Harrington je ne sais quoi that Nancy has always admired and resented in equal measure (especially when it has girls twirling their hair at him in study hall, from the seat that used to be Nancy’s).

Or on the evenings when she can see his Beemer through the living room picture window, passenger side doors flinging open so that Dustin – usually only Dustin, but sometimes Dustin plus Lucas, or Max, or even Mike – can spill out into the street, chattering a mile a minute, shouting back at the driver’s side even as they make their way to the front door.

Especially during times like those, she can’t help but wonder – if he’d been like this while they were still dating, would that have changed things? Or was he always like this, and she was too wrapped up in herself and her guilt to notice?

She doesn’t like the way it makes her feel, to think about that, so she usually pushes it out of her mind.

Nancy has spent far too long feeling far too terrible about things that are far outside of her control, and she’s just – she’s tired. Exhausted. Because she did what she set out to do: she got Barb’s parents the answers they needed to move on.

Even if it doesn’t feel as good, as victorious, as final as she thought it would – it’s done. And now, it’s time for her to move on. From everything. Including Steve Harrington.

(Hopefully.)

She spends much of the remainder of the service in a fuzzy, numb fugue, barely aware of more than the anchor of Jonathan’s hand and the sound of Mrs. Holland crying, which has quieted to small snuffles that are somehow worse than the sobbing.

It’s terrible – she’s been waiting for this moment, this closure, for more than a year – but now, she can’t wait for it to end. Needs it to end so that she can shove the dull hurt into the overstuffed closet in her mind, right next to her anger and whatever it is she still feels when she looks at Steve. So that she can lock it up and walk away from it for good.

She’s been waiting for this for more than a year, but the next ten minutes feel even harder to get through than that.

But finally, the end comes. The reverend says a final prayer, the casket is lowered into the open grave, and Barb Holland is put to rest, in spirit if not in body.

Nancy doesn’t think she’s been crying, but when she lifts her face and feels the breeze against the damp-tight skin of her cheeks, she realizes she must’ve been. She was warm before, but now she’s cold, and she wipes the tear tracks from her face with her sleeve.

The Hollands are still standing in a tight clutch over the gravesite, showing no signs of moving anytime soon, but Nancy doesn’t know if she can stay another minute.

(She doesn’t think she’s needed for this part, anyway.)

“Nancy?” Jonathan murmurs at her, asking without asking if she’s ready to leave, taking her small nod as tacit assent.

As they’re turning to go, she accidentally locks eyes with Steve, who’s turning in the same direction, and she barely stops herself from flinching back.

There’s a barely-there line of bruising still visible on the right side of his forehead, and all at once, she remembers that he’d said he was late because he’d been held up at the doctor’s.

Her first impulse is to ask – are you okay? Nothing about the way Billy Hargrove had brutalized his face was within the bounds of a normal high school fight, and it makes her sick that that shithead is still swaggering around school like he owns it, hitting up parties and leaving a trail of swooning rejects in his wake.

But are you okay? is the kind of privileged information she doesn’t have a right to anymore – and the question is too broad for her to be brave enough to want to know how he’d answer. So she bites her tongue against asking, swallows it down and instead says –

“Thanks for coming today.” It’s barely a whisper, and he and Jonathan are both visibly surprised. “You didn’t have to.”

Steve’s mouth flattens.

“Of course I did,” he responds immediately. “Jesus, Nancy, I’m not that big of a –” He fumbles his words and looks covertly around, clearly rethinking whatever he was about to say based on the surroundings and circumstances. “I was just – I was never not gonna come, okay?”

He mumbles it, staring at the ground with his hands stuffed in his pockets, and Nancy feels that sense of shame clawing up her throat again. Sometimes, she forgets. Sometimes, she gets so caught up in the fact that Barb died because Nancy left her that she forgets – it was his pool.

She doesn’t know what to say; somehow, she doesn’t think I’m sorry is gonna cut it for this or anything else that’s happened over the last couple of months, and she’s not even completely sure what she’d be apologizing for in the first place. But she tries.

“No, Steve, I didn’t mean it like –” He cuts in before she can even form half of a coherent sentence, rocking back on his feet.

“It’s fine, no big,” he exhales in a rush. “Anyway, I gotta go get Dustin before he blows, like, a year’s allowance trying to beat Max’s Centipede score. So. Uh, see you both around school, I guess.”

She thinks both she and Jonathan make some vague noises of agreement, but he’s already escaping down the hill to his car in fast, long steps.

Out of the blue, she realizes that he must’ve shortened his stride for her when they were together. There’s no way she’d have been able to keep up, otherwise.

(Funny, considering it always felt like he was the one who needed to catch up to her.)

If this had happened just two months ago, Nancy thinks, she would’ve been standing next to him during the service. Holding on to him, and matching (trying to match) his steps. Sliding into the front passenger seat of his car like she belonged there. Maybe he would’ve driven away with just one hand, keeping hers in the other – or maybe he would’ve given her a soft, lingering kiss to try to chase the day’s troubles away.

It wouldn’t have worked, but she would’ve liked the feeling anyway.

That was then, though. Now, she’s following Jonathan to his little clunker that starts as often as it doesn’t. And he can’t hold her hand, because he needs both to manage the wonky steering.

But he’ll distract her by asking which tape she wants to listen to on the way back to his place, and when they get there he’ll hold her in silence until she feels like talking. And that – that works, too.

It’s not perfect. It won’t make the itching under her skin go away, and it won’t quell the constant urge she has to do and solve and act. But in its own way, it’ll feel as nice as soft kisses over the dashboard, and isn’t that enough?

Nothing is perfect, which is a truth that sometimes it feels like Nancy is taking the most painful path possible toward learning. Life is, as it turns out, a series of compromises. Maybe the Hollands won’t ever learn how their daughter truly died, but then again, maybe the almost-truth is good enough. It serves the same purpose, regardless.

Nancy has made her choices. They’re not perfect, not even close, but they’re her own, and she’s happy with them.

Happy enough.

#stancy #stancy fic #my stuff #prompt fill #steve harrington #nancy wheeler #maybe a little more pro-confusion than anti any ship #in this house nancy wheeler is allowed to be an uncertain teenage girl with lots of big complicated emotions

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