#(this is completely random - I didn’t just go to the movies lol)

[supernovafics]

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 5.7k words

warnings: explicit language, so so much angst (but with a happy ending), some fluff at the end, just a whole lot of emotions in this one!

summary: in which during steve’s birthday ski trip to colorado everything he’s been keeping from you finally comes out 

author's note: i had the idea for this specific one probably since the beginning of this series and now here we finally are many many months later<333 also this one is very much that one episode of friends coded where they were supposed to go skiing but never did. not once do i actually write them skiing in this but i promise the thought was there lol

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Winter 1986

When you first suggested the idea a month before Steve’s birthday, Robin and Eddie thought that a seventeen hour car ride to Denver sounded like hell. But, it luckily didn’t take a lot to convince them to agree and come along for the weekend trip. Because aside from gas and food, it was essentially a free trip to Colorado. 

You’d all be staying at the cabin that your parents and Steve’s went to during Thanksgiving; which, after enduring an hour-long phone call with your mom when they came back from the trip because she wanted to tell you all about it, you learned that the place was really nice and they all were happy about buying it as a timeshare before even seeing it in person. She also told you that if you and Steve and some friends ever wanted to use it, you could, and you only responded with a half-hearted, “Sure, that would be nice,” because you just wanted to get off the phone, but months later you thought it could be a cool thing to do for Steve’s birthday.

You mentioned it to him first and he liked it, saying that it sounded fun and it would be hilarious to see you finally attempt skiing. You only rolled your eyes and playfully hit his arm in response, and then you mentioned the trip idea that night to Robin and Eddie when you all were on your way to the movies. And once they agreed, the plan became set. 

It was barely four in the morning on Friday, the day before Steve’s birthday, when you all bunched into your car instead of Eddie’s van because he didn’t think it would be able to sustain that long of a road trip. Which, after spending many, many times in the old van, you completely agreed with him. 

The drive surprisingly wasn’t that unbearable— Steve drove a lot of the time because he didn’t really mind it, you forced everyone to play dumb car ride games to help pass the time, Eddie controlled the music for most of the drive, and Robin had to go to the bathroom every hour until she fell asleep for most of the afternoon and evening. When the four of you made it to Denver around ten, you simply picked your rooms and then went to bed because of how tired you all were. 

You woke up at some random time in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and the loud creakiness of the wooden floors annoyed you and washed away most of your tiredness. When you noticed that it was a little after twelve, you went to Steve’s room, which was right across from yours. You gave his door a quick knock before walking in, the bright moonlight shining through the open curtain of one of the windows did enough to let you see him in bed. He was fast asleep, buried beneath the covers and softly snoring. 

You lightly tapped his back to stir him awake and pulled the blanket off of his head a bit, which revealed his messy bedhead that you forced yourself not to laugh at.

Steve turned his head and looked up at you for a brief moment before letting out a soft, “Hey.”

You smiled at him. “Happy birthday, Stevie.” 

You could tell that he was too tired to playfully roll his eyes at the nickname you had for him that usually only came out during moments like these or whenever you were drunk. 

“Thanks,” He said instead, smiling back at you and letting out a small yawn. 

You walked around to the other side of the bed and got in, pulling the blanket over your legs. “Also, I’m sorry, but I’m an idiot and forgot to pack your present, so you’ll get it when we get back home Monday night.” 

He turned on his side to face you and rubbed his eyes. “Can I know what it is?” 

You nodded. “It’s that denim jacket that you saw a few weeks ago at our usual thrift store. I convinced you not to buy it because I wanted to get it for you. I went back and bought it the next day, and I also put some pins on it that I thought you’d like.”

Steve gave you a small tired smile. “Nice, I knew that you actually liked the jacket.”   

You laughed a bit. “I was honestly surprised that you didn’t immediately see through my lie.”

Steve didn’t say anything in response to that, and instead, you noticed his eyes slipping shut for a brief moment before he was looking at you in the darkness again. You smiled as you pulled the blanket off of you and got out of the bed.

“Okay, I’m gonna go. I’ll see you in the morning when we all go out for breakfast,” You told him, referring to the diner about ten minutes away that you had passed when you all were driving to the cabin and it looked fairly nice.   

“You can stay if you want,” Steve said as he turned and watched you head toward the door, and you shook your head at his words. 

“I know it’s only been a couple of hours, but I really like my bed,” You told him. It actually surprised you how easily you had found comfort in the full-sized bed. “So, goodnight and happy birthday again, Steven.”

You noticed his amused smile as he spoke. “No ‘Stevie’ this time around?”

“I wanted to spare you for a second.”

“That’s very considerate of you.”

“You’re welcome, Stevie,” You said with a nod and playful smile before you opened the door. 

You closed it behind you and then headed across the hall to the room that was designated as yours for the weekend. 

“Wait,” Hearing Steve’s voice at that moment surprised you; you hadn’t heard his door open again or the annoying creak of the floor. 

You turned to look at him, dropping your hand from your doorknob, and even in the darkness of the hallway you could tell that he looked much more awake than when you had left him just moments ago. 

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What’s wrong?” 

“I need to tell you something,” He said softly, and those words immediately made your mind travel back to that conversation you two had after playing basketball in the park. 

“Is it what you’ve been holding out on talking to me about for the past few weeks?” 

He gave you a small nod. “Yeah…”

During that conversation in his car all those weeks ago, he had said that what was going on with him was too hard to explain right then and you decided not to push him further on it because you knew that he’d tell you eventually. 

You weren’t entirely sure why you suddenly felt worried about it all and what he was going to say to you in this moment; maybe it was because of the look on his face that was a solid mix between serious and nervous. “Okay. What is it?” 

“I love you.”

The breath you let out was a mix between a laugh and sigh of relief because you were completely unfazed by his words. “Jesus, don’t scare me like that again. I love you too, Stevie.” 

Was that all he had to tell you? That didn’t entirely make sense to you because it wasn’t like you two hadn’t said those words to each other a million times before. You expected him to laugh and smile along with you, but he only shook his head at first, which made you confused all over again. 

“No,” He said, pushing a nervous hand through his messy hair. “I don’t mean it like how we’ve always meant it anymore. I’m… I’m in love with you.” 

There were only a handful of times that you could say that your best friend had ever rendered you speechless; it was hard to completely stun you into silence when it came to him. Not much that Steve did could ever truly surprise you or throw you for a complete loop because you felt like you knew him well enough that most of his actions just made sense. The last time it happened was when he suggested that you two get Harold, he had never been a huge pet person so it genuinely surprised you when he was the one to come up with the idea. 

And now you had another moment to add to the list; a moment that entirely topped all of the others. 

“Oh.” It was the only word that came to your mind at that moment, and it was barely even a word, it was more so a sound. But, it was the only thing you could say. You didn’t understand how it was possible for your mind to be simultaneously empty and running a thousand miles a minute. “Oh.” 

You could feel Steve’s eyes on you, but yours were fixed on the ground; your sock-covered feet and the dark wooden floors.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” He said, breaking the prevailing silence. And when you still couldn’t find any words to say in response to fill the quiet again, he started rambling. “This entire time, these past few weeks, I’ve been waiting for some sort of “perfect” moment to tell you, but nothing ever felt completely right. And then as you were leaving my room just now I realized that I don’t think that I was actually waiting for it to feel right to tell you— because, honestly, there were a bunch of moments where it did feel “right” enough. I was really just holding back because I was worried about what your reaction would be. And I don’t think there’d ever be a moment where I wasn’t at least a little scared or nervous to say it, so I finally decided to just do it now and tell you. But now, fuck, maybe I shouldn’t have said it.” 

“No,” You told him, suddenly somehow finding your voice and finally allowing yourself to meet his eyes. “No, um, honesty is good. You should be, uh— You should be honest about everything. We’re always honest about everything, y’know? It’s good that you said it, I think? Right?” 

You were certain that what you were saying didn’t make any sense; your mouth was moving much faster than your brain. 

A confused look crossed his face. “Okay? Yeah?” 

You dropped your gaze from his and turned around. “I’ll, uh, be right back. I just… I think I just need a second. I don’t know.”

You opened the door to your room and then stepped in, softly closing it behind you and leaving Steve on the other side. You let out a quick breath and leaned back against the door, shutting your eyes in the process, before sliding down it and sitting on the floor. It was cold and you could feel the goosebumps starting to rise on your legs that were only barely covered by your thin pajama shorts. But, the cold was surprisingly soothing, and focusing on that feeling helped clear your mind a bit. Slowly, your thoughts finally started making sense and your brain began moving somewhat normally again. 

The sound of the floor creaking on the other side of the door let you know that Steve was sitting down and leaning back against it too. You wanted to say something to him, but it still felt impossible to find any words right then. 

“I’m sorry,” You could hear his slightly muffled voice through the door. “I really didn’t want this to fuck things up between us, and now it has. And I’m sorry.”

“Things aren’t fucked up,” was what you immediately thought to say— it was actually the first coherent thought that came to your mind in the past few minutes— but, for some reason, it wouldn’t form on your lips. 

Steve’s past words started playing on what seemed like a constant loop in your head. 

I’m in love with you. I’m in love with you. 

The only way you could view this situation, the only way you would allow yourself to view it, was logically. You weren’t considering your own feelings in this moment— whatever they were; you weren’t sure how you were feeling, and you actually refused to think about it right then. 

“It’s not true, though,” You told him, making your voice loud enough so that he could hear you, even though it was hard to speak above a whisper.

“What?” 

“It’s not true,” You said again and then let out a small sigh as you leaned your head back against the door. “You’re not in love with me.” The words felt so weird falling from your lips, so foreign. “You can’t be. Whatever you think you’re feeling now, it’ll blow over in a couple days or whatever.” 

It was a thousand times easier having this conversation without having to look at him right then. You waited for him to agree with you, to maybe even let out a breath of a laugh as he said that you were right. Everything that happened in the past five minutes could become a moment that you two laughed at in a couple of weeks if he simply took it all back.

Remember when you told me that you were in love with me on your birthday? Yeah, that was kinda insane, right?

You actually couldn’t imagine playfully joking about this anytime soon. It would probably be the one thing between you two that would feel weird and awkward for a while— even more awkward than the moment when he accidentally walked in on you naked, and you accidentally did the same thing to him a few months later. But, just like those now unspoken of moments, this would blow over eventually too. 

“No, it is true,” Steve said instead and the absolute certainty in his tone surprised you a bit. “That morning after you picked me up from the bar, it just hit me like a ton of bricks, and it hasn’t changed since. That day at the park when we played basketball, I was jealous that you liked that guy and wanted to get his number, and that’s why I was being kind of an asshole.” He let out a small sigh. “And I did think that maybe all of this would go away and ‘blow over’ too, but it hasn’t. Honestly, it’s only felt more real.” 

You were quiet for a second, not knowing exactly how to respond to that at first. He was being a thousand percent honest— at this point, you knew that— but it was still just so hard to accept it all, to fully let yourself believe it. The thought of him wanting something more changed everything that you had been so sure of for the past almost ten years of friendship. 

“Okay, very dumb question incoming, but you remember us meeting, right?” 

“Yeah, of course,” Steve’s answer was immediate. “That cruise when we were ten. Our parents bumping into each other and meeting and then kind of forcing us to be friends, but we were both glad to hang out with each other instead of them, anyway.”

You nodded at his words even though he couldn’t see you, and felt yourself smiling as you started talking. 

“That trip was our first memory together, and it’s definitely still one of my favorites. We went to the arcade onboard like every day— I beat you a bunch of times at air hockey, but you were way too good at pretty much everything else. And we snuck into that stupid “club” meant for teens almost every night and never got caught, but we were still nervous about getting caught the entire time we were there. From the beginning, it was so clear what we were to each other, y’know? I think by the end of that trip I knew that you were my best friend. I knew that I wanted you in my life forever,” You said, slightly rambling and mindlessly starting to play with the hem of the t-shirt you were wearing, picking at one of the loose strings. “Basically, I guess what I’m trying to say is, the lines were clearly drawn pretty much the first day we met, and they’re not supposed to change.” 

Steve didn’t say anything, and it was then that you wished that you two were standing, or sitting, right in front of each other because you wanted to see his face and attempt to gauge whatever was going on in his mind right then.

“But, it did change,” Was his response after what felt like an hour’s worth of silence, and somehow it was hearing him say those four simple words that made you finally accept everything he had said in the past ten minutes. You finally found yourself believing him entirely. 

“At least, for me, it has,” He added, and there was something about the softness of the statement that managed to break you. A wave of tears hit you so abruptly that you didn’t even get a chance to process why it was happening before your vision became blurry. 

You sniffled and then sighed, haphazardly pushing away some of the stray tears that managed to slip out and attempting to swallow the apple-sized lump that now sat heavy in your throat. “Shit. I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’m crying right now.”

“Can I come in?” 

Instead of verbally answering Steve’s question, you stood up and opened the door and he didn’t waste a second to pull you into his arms; he had seen you cry enough times to know exactly what to do at this moment. You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face in his chest, letting your tears soak his dark gray t-shirt, unable to hold them back anymore.

“It’s okay. I promise it’s okay,” He said softly as one of his hands lightly stroked your back. “Let’s just forget this ever happened; forget I said anything. I’ll get over all of it. We can just add this to the list of things to take to the grave, okay?” 

He took your crying as a rejection, your way of saying that you didn’t feel the same way without actually saying it to him. 

You didn’t see it that way, though. You honestly didn’t know how you felt— during this entire conversation, you hadn’t considered yourself. It just felt like second nature to immediately try and protect what you two had and not let it change in the slightest. 

When you pulled back and looked up at him, you didn’t really know what you were expecting to see, but he didn’t look sad or upset, he just looked concerned about you. 

You weren’t even entirely sure why you were crying at that moment. Everything that had happened in the past barely ten minutes just felt so overwhelming and confusing. 

You sniffled again and then found yourself nodding at Steve’s previous words. “Okay.” 

“Okay,” He gave you a small nod back. 

You glanced down at his t-shirt, quickly taking notice of the wet spot on it even in the near complete darkness you two were in. “Sorry about your shirt.”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.” 

You hugged him again, pushing up on your toes and letting your arms circle around his neck. He didn’t hesitate to hug you back and that only made you hold him tighter.

“Can you stay in here, please?” You asked, voice quiet but Steve still heard you. 

You felt his nod in response and then moments later you and him were in your bed, not even bothering to get under the covers, and instead simply settling in a position that was completely familiar; your back against his chest, one of his arms wrapped around you and keeping you close, and heads against the pillow. You took hold of his hand and gave it a light squeeze, not completely knowing what you meant with the gesture. 

Neither of you said anything. Not for one minute, and then not for five according to the clock you took notice of on the nightstand.

There was a lot more that you knew the two of you needed to talk about. What just happened couldn’t be something that was forgotten and simply “taken to the grave.” It didn’t feel right to do that. 

However, you were falling asleep with your hand still intertwined with Steve’s before you could even try and think of something to say to him. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

When your eyes opened again, the first thing that you noticed was that it was still dark outside. You glanced at the nightstand, taking a look at the clock, and it surprised you to see that only two hours had passed; it felt like so much longer.  

You could feel Steve’s steady breathing behind you and that let you know that he was still sleeping. You shifted around to face him, surprisingly not waking him in the process. Your eyes were adjusted to the darkness that surrounded you both so you could see him pretty clearly; eyes shut and lips slightly parted and hair still a messy pile of bedhead.

For the first time probably ever you became so acutely aware of the close proximity between you two. You were only a few breaths away from each other, his arm was still around your waist, and your legs became a tangle of limbs. None of this had ever fazed you before, but it felt a little different now. 

But, it did change. 

It actually physically hurt realizing how right Steve was, and you had to close your eyes as you let the words swallow you whole for a second. 

There was still a part of you that wanted to not think about everything Steve had said— the I love you that meant so much more now— but it felt impossible to do that. It completely took over your thoughts; consumed them, really. 

You thought about how it was damn near effortless to picture something more with him; a something more that now felt so obvious, and in a way, so inevitable. You could see it all so easily.

You thought about past moments that had been shoved away for the sake of protecting your friendship. Late night drunk and high conversations shared between you and Steve that were always supposed to be long forgotten. Moments where the line between friendship and something more was playfully toed but never fully crossed, moments where you two would almost talk about actually crossing that line, moments where the smallest part of you would think about it.

Those moments, and the feelings that came along with them, were never supposed to be remembered when morning rolled around, but you always remembered them. And instead of doing anything about it or entertaining those thoughts in the slightest, you simply buried it all down and pushed it away. You placed all of those feelings in a box deep down inside of you that was never supposed to be opened. 

However, now with Steve’s burst of honesty, it was opened; and you honestly didn’t feel the urge to bury it and push it back down anymore. Instead, you let the feelings that would lead to completely uncharted territories between you and him wrap around you like a warm blanket and find a home in your heart. 

You opened your eyes again and let your gaze fall on Steve. You slowly pushed one of your hands through his hair, knowing that that would gradually stir him awake.

His eyes opened and he only blinked at you for a second before mumbling out a quiet, “Hi.” 

“Hi,” You said, matching his soft tone.

He gave you a curious look, and you knew that he was probably wondering why you woke him up. You simply stayed quiet for a moment, pulling your hand out of his hair and letting it find his cheek instead. 

“I love you too,” You whispered, not breaking his gaze. “I’m in love with you too.” 

Just for a second, there was a part of him that looked surprised hearing your words, but then he was smiling at you, the softest and sweetest smile that actually made your heart ache. 

Before he could say anything, you kept going. “And I’m sorry. I wish this could’ve been my reaction from the moment you said it first. I wish it would’ve hit me the second you said it. Books and movies make this thing look so much easier, but it’s actually really fucking hard.” 

“I know. That’s why it took me almost a month to tell you.” 

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”

“I’ve become a really good actor. Might make it my career now,” Steve joked and you laughed at that. 

He kept smiling at you and you smiled back. A comfortable silence took over as the two of you simply looked at each other, admiring one another in the darkness that you’d still be surrounded by for the next few hours. Your eyes flickered down to his lips for a brief moment and then met his gaze again. Out of all of the things that could’ve been said or done right then, it only felt right to close that last breath of distance between you two and finally do one of the few things that you had never done with one another. 

You let your nose brush against his for a brief second before you tilted your head upward a little and let your lips meet his. 

The kiss was chaste at first, Kindergarten-sweet, not much more than just a simple peck. But then Steve was quickly kissing you back, his hand squeezing your waist and pulling you impossibly closer to him, and your hand went from cupping his cheek to tangling within the hair at the nape of his neck. He deepened the kiss with a graze of his tongue against your bottom lip, which elicited the softest sound from you, and you were hit with the sudden thought that you never wanted this moment to end. You wanted to savor this first kiss, revel in it, pretend as if nothing else existed except for you and Steve and this moment that you wished you could drag out for minutes, hours, years.

In a way, it was a little confusing how even though this was completely new, it didn’t at all feel like it. Maybe there should’ve been at least a tiny bit of awkwardness laced within this moment, but the soft feel of Steve’s lips against yours felt familiar, like home, like it was something that should’ve happened a thousand years ago. It was so fucking right. 

You slowly pulled away when you needed to catch your breath and softly dropped your forehead against his, eyes still shut. “Shit. Fuck.”

Steve let out a breath of a laugh that fanned right against your cheek. “I agree.” 

You lifted your head and pressed a quick kiss against his nose before pulling back a bit, meeting his eyes, and giving him a small smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” He said, smiling back and giving your waist a light squeeze. The warmth radiating from his touch made you wish that his hand was slipping past the hem of your t-shirt and actually touching your skin instead. 

A part of you wanted to let out a small happy laugh at how things had so easily shifted. You were finally kissing the guy that you’d known since you were ten and since an irreplaceable friendship was forged on that weeklong cruise trip. Steve was still your best friend, that didn’t feel like it had changed at all, but that didn’t mean that things weren’t different now; better, in so many unexpected ways. 

However, it also abruptly became a little scary— the thought of potentially losing everything you had with him if things ended badly.

That thought was why you had pushed all of your feelings away and never acknowledged them in the first place. There would always be that part of you that wanted to protect the friendship you two had. 

“Promise,” You held out your pinky for him to take. “Promise that whatever happens, if this doesn’t work out somehow, we will not make it weird or grow distant or leave each other. I can’t lose you in my life. I need you, no matter what.”

He didn’t hesitate to link his pinky with yours as he nodded. “Promise.” 

“And we should just keep all of this between us for now, maybe,” You said, the idea coming to you randomly but it made sense in your head; it felt like the logical thing to do. “Just in case.”

“Just in case?”

“Just in case we end up imploding immediately or something, I don’t know.”

You could tell that Steve couldn’t really see that happening— and in a way, neither could you— but at that moment he let himself agree with you, anyway. “Okay.”

Your lips found his again for a second before you shifted around and settled back in the position you two had fallen asleep in. Steve pulled you back against him, arm circling your waist, and you let out a sigh in contentment as he pressed the softest kiss against your neck.

A comforting silence began to linger and you broke it after a few minutes, hoping that Steve hadn't fallen asleep just yet.

“I’m really glad this is happening right now. Like, really, really glad. I love everything about this moment. And I love you. Like, a lot. And, yes, I know exactly how cheesy I sound right now."

His mouth brushed right against your ear and you could practically hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. “Yes, that was very cheesy. I loved it. And I love you too.”

You only grabbed his hand and pressed a soft kiss against it in response. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Okay, dingus, I know that you’re probably gonna hate me for saying this,” Robin started as she set her mug back on the table of the booth the four of you had been sitting in for the past twenty minutes. The cup looked way too close to the edge of the table, so you reached out and moved it over a bit. “But, I really need you to get a picture of you and your smiley face pancake.” 

Eddie immediately laughed and nodded. “That’s a great idea.”

You turned and looked at Steve, smiling at him. “Please do it. It would be such a missed opportunity if that didn’t happen right now.”

He only rolled his eyes. “I hate all of you for telling the waitress that it’s my birthday.” 

The moment you mentioned it to Carol after she asked the reason why you all were in Denver for the weekend, she smiled and said a “Happy Birthday” to Steve before taking your orders. And then when everything came out, she also handed him a pancake that had a whipped cream smiley face, two cherries for the eyes, and a candle in the middle as the nose. 

Robin pulled the Polaroid camera out of her bag and pointed it at Steve. “Okay, hold up the plate and smile, birthday boy. God, I wish we had party hats right now.” 

“I’m glad we don’t,” He said with another eye roll but still proceeded to hold up the plate and give her a quick annoyed smile. 

When he put the plate back down, you stole one of the cherry eyes and then started on your waffle. The conversation shifted away from Steve and his adorable birthday pancake and went to talking about hitting the slopes in the afternoon. You had been in the middle of mentioning that the drive would only take about thirty minutes when you felt Steve’s hand find yours underneath the table and link it with his. The booth was small and you were already sitting shoulder to shoulder, so the action went completely unnoticed by your friends sitting across from you. 

You and Steve had held hands countless times before, but it felt so much more significant in this moment because now the meaning behind it was so different— this was no longer just a friendly handhold. It was hard to fight how much you wanted to immediately smile at the subtle action, but you kept your face straight and managed to finish out your thought. 

You fought the sudden urge you had to lean your head against his shoulder or kiss his cheek, and instead grabbed your mug with your free hand and took a sip of your coffee. You tried your hardest to pay attention to the conversation taking place at the table— Robin talking about how she was nervous about skiing for the first time, and Eddie saying that yes she probably would be bad at it. However, all you could really focus on was Steve; his hand intertwined with yours and the warmth radiating from the subtle touch. 

You felt equivalent to a lovesick teenager with a crush that actually wasn’t a crush at all because that word wasn’t enough to fully describe how you felt about him. It would be hard keeping this a secret for the time being, and the smallest part of you questioned why you even proposed that idea. But, for the most part, you still agreed with your “just in case” reasoning. If exploring this uncharted territory with Steve somehow ended up becoming the worst idea ever, it would be good that you didn’t tell anyone about it because you two could go back to being just friends without anyone else in the group knowing what happened. 

You hated thinking like that— that it all would or could end, that one or both of you would come to realize that this actually wasn’t a good idea. But, it felt too hard not to think about it for at least a split second. 

Steve gave your hand a light squeeze, it felt both comforting and questioning; maybe he could tell you were getting so deep into your head about something.  

“Feel free to steal the other cherry,” He told you. Your eyes met his and he gave you a look that said everything he really wanted to tell you at that moment but couldn’t, and you let your nonsensical worries wash away for the time being with that reassuring look. 

You placed your coffee mug down and then grabbed the second cherry from his plate, smiling at him as you did so. “Thanks.” 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[kwanisms]

» stray kids masterlist «

➮ bf!Chris × fem!Reader (× implied Minho) wc: 1.8k summary: Your boyfriend really doesn't like it when his friends pay a little more attention to you nor does he like it when you playfully flirt with them. genres/themes/au: smut; bar themes, established relationship; idol au, boyfriend!Chris warnings: adult dialogue, female reader, alcohol consumption, mc flirts with someone other than their partner (Chris), bar setting, sexual content (18+ mdni), see smut warnings under the cut! special tags: @yoonguurt @sanjoongie @millennial-fangirl MINORS WILL BE BLACKLISTED & BLOCKED. AGELESS BLOGS WILL ALSO BE BLOCKED.

a/n: i will be completely honest, I forgot I even wrote this. It's been in my docs for almost a year 💀 but here it is! Thank you for reading! If you like this, please reblog and leave feedback and as always, this is a work of fiction and all characters are not reflective of their respective irl counterparts. for entertainment purposes only.

smut warnings: semi-public sex, oral (f receiving), mild dirty talk, use of pet names, fingering (f receiving), mild degradation (f receiving), implied threesome. I think that's it lol

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[01:08] — isn't this what you wanted?

It was just a bit of harmless flirting. Something you’d done a few times before. It was just your nature to flirt when you drank and Chris knew that. He had never let it bother him before so why was it any different now.

Maybe it was the way he saw Minho’s eyes roam over your scantily clad body. Maybe it was the way you lightly laid your hand on his bicep when speaking to him. He didn’t like the way Minho teasingly flexed his arm, letting you feel the muscles he’d spent so much time working on in the gym.

He didn’t like how close the two of you were standing. He didn’t like the way his friend’s eyes lingered a little too long on your ass when you turned to speak to Han. Maybe that was the final straw. The push he needed to close the gap and grab you by the elbow, leading you away from his friends and into the empty bar bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind him.

“Chris,” you chastised him, trying to step around him and return to the bar. He wasn’t having any of it as he pushed you against the wall, arms caging you in as he placed his palms flat against the tile walls on either side of your head.

You’d only ever seen this side of him once before. The time you were over at the dorms for a movie night and as a joke, Seungmin grabbed you by the waist and pulled you down onto his lap as you bickered with Felix about making space for you on the couch. The guys hadn’t known back then that the two of you were a thing but Chris had made it abundantly clear later that night as he was pounding you into the mattress in his room, pinning your wrists above your head to keep you from muffling your moans.

Since then, no one had attempted to make a move or flirted with you. Until tonight anyway.

Chris thought of himself as not being the jealous type but the moment he had seen you perched on Seungmin’s lap, laughing along with the guys, the green monster reared its ugly head and he wanted the world to know you were his. He could handle random guys flirting with you because he knew they’d probably never see you again. But his own members? You saw them all the time.

“What’s wrong, babygirl?” He asked, his tone low and full of what you discerned was lust. Even though you didn’t like his being jealous, you had to admit it was probably the best rough sex you’d had with him. Normally he was so sweet and careful with you, only going hard when you asked.

That night, he was completely in control and had his way with you and there was no shame in admitting you liked the contrast between the two personas.

“I thought you liked the attention,” he continued, his voice dripping with a mixture of desire and sarcasm. You felt your knees become weak as he gazed at you, his eyes darker than before. You’d really done it now and you knew you were in for a long night.

“I-I…” you stammered but faltered when a crooked smile spread across your boyfriend’s lips.

“You what?” He asked, pressing his body closer to yours, heat from him radiating into you.

“You thought you’d flirt with one of my friends right in front of me, dressed like that?” He asked, nodding down at your choice of attire.

It was a black dress, one you’d worn before and picked with the sole purpose of dressing up for Chris. You only ever dressed like this for him because you only wanted his eyes on you.

“It wasn’t like—“ you murmured but stopped when Chris brought one of his hands up, pressing a finger to your lips. “Wasn’t like that, baby?” He asked. “You thought you’d dress up a little and not expect to be the center of attention? That wasn’t your intent at all?” He asked, moving his finger to caress your cheek, a huge contrast from the way he spoke to you.

You leaned into his touch, lips parting as you let out a sigh. You felt the pad of his thumb brush over your bottom lip before he slipped his thumb into your mouth, pressing it against your tongue. The sweet gesture turned lewd as he watched the way your lips wrapped around the digit.

His own lips parted as you sucked, tongue swirling around the tip of his thumb the way it did when he had his cock in your mouth. “You’re such a dirty little slut,” he groaned, hips rolling forward to press his erection against you. “Fuck, Chris,” you moaned, his thumb still in your mouth.

“You sound so pretty when you say my name like that,” he mumbled, pulling his hand from your face and reaching down to lift the hem of your tight skirt. “Chris,” you moaned as his fingers pressed into your panties, your arousal pooling in them. “We can’t do this here,” you whimpered as he pulled aside your panties, pressing his fingers past your folds, finding your clit easily.

“The door is locked, baby,” he said, leaning in to tease your neck with his teeth. “Besides,” he added, whispering in your ear. “Who are you expecting to come in here? Minho?” He growled. “N-no,” you whined as he worked the pads of his fingers against your clit in slow circles, dragging them down to your entrance only to pull away, teasing you.

“Chris,” you managed to whine but fell silent as he lowered himself to his knees, throwing one of your legs over his shoulder. Keeping your panties pushed to the side, he leaned in, tongue tasting you as he toyed with your clit. Your hands moved, tangling in his dark locks, tugging gently.

Oral with Chris was never quick or to the point. He loved to tease and take his time, coaxing you to your orgasm. This time was different, he’d never managed to have you squirming and moaning in mere minutes, tongue flicking against your clit, sucking on it. “Ah, shit,” you cursed, chest heaving as your boyfriend ate you out like a mad man.

He shifted, managing to throw your other thigh over his shoulder but keeping you propped up against the wall as he dove back in, tongue lapping at your entrance. You glanced down, moaning at the sight of your boyfriend’s face buried between your thighs. His eyes were shut, no doubt enjoying the sounds you made and the taste, hands gripping your ass tightly.

Your eyes rolled back as you felt your climax rapidly approaching. “Fuck,” you hissed. “I’m gonna cum,” you moaned. “Do it,” Chris answered. “Come all over my tongue, babygirl,” he added before continuing his assault on your core.

Your hands in his hair tightened, fingers gripping his tresses harder as your hips moved of their own accord, bucking in his face as your toes curled. You came with a whimper of his name and moaned as he licked up every bit of your release. You tried to shy away from his tongue but his grip on you held you in place. “Chris,” you pleaded, feeling the familiar knot in your stomach tighten. “I can’t please,” you whimpered, feeling tears form. “It’s too much.”

Chris chuckled, the vibrations against your soaked core causing you to tremble.

You looked down when you felt him move his mouth away and the sight had your walls clenching around nothing. The cocky grin partnered with his lips glistening with your slick. It was all you could do to not push him onto the floor and hop on his cock right then and there.

He let you down, holding you steady as your legs shook. You managed to stumble over to look into the mirror, turning on the water to wet your hot flushed face.

Chris had gotten to his feet and pulled his phone out but what he was doing you couldn’t tell.

You noticed him moved behind you in the mirror and gasped as he pulled your skirt up, exposing your ass. “Chris!” You hissed trying to turn but he forced you to face the mirror. “Don’t move,” he ordered, grabbing your panties and pulling them down your thighs, letting them fall to your feet as he brought his hand to his lips, wetting two of his fingers before it disappeared behind you and you let out a moan as you felt his fingers enter you from behind.

He’d just eaten you out in a public bathroom and now he wanted to finger you? This was crossing so many lines but why was it so hot?

“Chris,” you warned, head dropping as his fingers moved in and out of you at a steady pace. “You like that,” he asked, his free hand moving to wrap around your throat. “You like being touched in a public bathroom?” You moaned as he curled his fingers against your walls, your knees threatening to give out.

“This is so wrong,” you whined, head falling back as you felt Chris’ lips ghost over the exposed skin of your shoulders. “Would you rather Minho be in here making you feel this good?” He growled, fingers moving faster. “That’s not what I—“ you tried to explain but fell silent. “Have you ever thought about the others when I’m touching you?” He asked. ‘What the hell?’

“What?” You gasped. “No!” You felt him smirk against your skin. He was teasing you. Teasing and torturing you for drunkenly flirting with his friend. “Have you thought about them when touching yourself?” He whispered, curling his fingers again. You let out a deep moan, causing him to chuckle.

“Does that turn you on? Thinking about other men when you touch yourself?” He asked. You wanted to tell him it was ridiculous, that you only ever thought about him but that wasn’t entirely true. You had thought about Minho like that before. Of course, it was before you and Chris had even started seeing one another. You were single then and free to think about what you like.

“It does, doesn’t it?” He asked again. “No,” you answered weakly. “Don’t lie to me,” he growled.

“You’ve already told me your fantasies, baby girl,” he added. ‘Shit,’ you thought. He was right.

You had mistakenly admitted you liked the idea of double penetration. Chris found the confession intriguing. “Have you imagined yourself, full of two cocks?” He asked again,

When you were done you heard a tap on the locked door. “Shit,” you cursed, pulling your skirt down. “We gotta get out of here,” you hissed. Chris unlocked the door and smiled at you.

“We aren’t done yet, kitten,” he said, pulling open the door and your eyes widened as Minho stepped into the bathroom. “What are you doing?” You asked Chris as he shut the door again and locked it.

“What wrong, kitten?” Chris asked, turning to face you. "After all,"

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

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[heart-of-the-morningstar]

I’m gonna write this down now so I can look like an absolute genius later (or look like a clown, but at least I said it with my full chest!)

❌ Spoilers for the FNAF Movie below! ❌

Ok, I might be huffing hopium here, but in my heart of hearts I STILL think Mike Schmidt is Mike Afton. If (or when) they make a sequel, there’s a way they can reveal this

So the most obvious thing from this movie is when Mike is in “Steve’s” office, and when “Steve” is reading Mike’s name out loud from his résumé, he stops mid-sentence. He looks at Mike for a weird amount of time, almost studying him, before completely changing the subject. There’s no way in hell “Steve” recognizes Mike from when he saw him as a kid when he kidnapped his brother Garrett 10+ ago, no chance. Also why would he go to Nebraska (unclear where the movie takes place, but let’s assume Utah because of the books) to kidnap a random kid and just drive off? Here’s what I think is going on…(also I’m gonna call him William from now on cuz we all know lol)

William fingered out that Mike is his son during that interview. My theory is that at some point, William was married and him and his wife have a son named Mike. And for one reason or another, they got divorced. This is when Mike was too young to really remember which is why he doesn’t recognize William during their meeting. Mike’s mom gains custody of Mike and remarries, she marries Mr. Schmidt. They have a child together, Garrett. Sometime after the divorce, William adopts a child, trying to cope after losing his only son. He adopts Vanessa.

William finds out about his ex-wife having another kid. He wants to cause her pain and suffering for leaving him. He follows the Schmidt’s and takes Garrett during the camping trip. Unable to handle the pain, Mike’s mom takes her own life, leaving Mike and his stepdad. Mr. Schmidt marries a little later to another woman, and she has a daughter named Abby. Sometime after this, both Mr. Schmidt and his new wife die, leaving Mike to care for Abby.

Vanessa owed William so much, he had adopted her while she had suffered in an orphanage for years. She would do anything he told her, even if it meant covering up his crimes. Years later, realizing what she was doing was wrong, she left her father and became a police officer, hoping to stop people like her father as she had failed to stop him.

Here’s another thing. Scott Cawthon knows that the fans are obsessed with the lore of FNAF. I think he knew he could make more movies, this isn’t going to be a one and done deal. Plus, he had his hand on this project every step of the way, he wouldn’t agree to anything that he didn’t want to happen in the story. Mike being William’s some is CRUCIAL to the story of FNAF (at least in the games). I think he’s trying to fake us out, you know how he loves to troll the fans!

Again, this is just a theory (A GAME THEORY lol), but I don’t think the idea of Mike being an Afton is dead just yet. Hoping and praying so I can look incredibly smart if or when the sequel drops 🙏🏻

[bbrissonn]

𝐚𝐥𝐥-𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 - 𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢

summary: in which no matter how much you tried, you were never good enough for him and you decide it was time for things to get messy within the hockey team

disclaimer: english is not my first language and this is not proofread so please excuse any errors and if any words are missing add them in your head :) also this is a work of fiction, this doesn’t reflect how these boys act in real life, and it isn’t how i imagine them acting 

warnings: angst, swearing , not proofread  

pairing: luca fantili x reader

wc: 5.4k (including lyrics)

a/n: i gave some guys on the team a girlfriend, completely random name so don't go trying to find them lol

guts masterlist

I am light as a feather, I’m as stiff as a board

I pay attention to things that most people ignore

And I’m alright with the movies

That make jokes ‘bout senseless cruelty, that’s for sure

And I am built like a mother and a total machine

I feel for your every little issues, I know just what you mean

And I make light of the darkness

I’ve got sun in my motherfuckin’ pocket, best believe

Yeah, you know me, I

You tried, you really did. You took note of every little things he’d mention, hoping that it would be useful in the long run, hoping he’d noticed how much you cared about him. You waited and waited and waited, but it never happened. All the efforts you made to be the perfect girlfriend for him always went unnoticed, brushed to the side. 

You always made sure you looked your best whenever you’d go to his game, wanting to fit the role of the stereotype hockey girlfriend, even though you were far from it. Your body wasn’t as slim and fit as the others and you didn’t have a model like face, but Luca always though you were perfect. You didn’t believe most of time, there were hundreds of girl, prettier girls, that would jump at the occasion to be his girlfriend, so why had he chosen you? 

You went to every single home game, even if it’d meant you’d have to stay up late to do homework, you even went to the games at Michigan State. You were always there to support him, but he was never there for you. You knew it was hard for him to always be free, not having access to his phone for a solid three hours during the afternoon, and when he’d get back to his dorm, he’d fall asleep right away. You never really saw him much during the days, with him having all his classes in the morning, while yours were mainly in the afternoon, nights were the only time you could see each other. 

Even when you spent time together, it was rarely alone. He was close to all his teammates and apparently spending all afternoon together wasn’t enough for them and they always needed to spend their nights together. You two barely ever got alone time, but you tried not to think about it too much since Luca was always more focused on you than his teammates sprawled around his shared dorm room. 

His teammates liked you, you were nice to all of them the moment you met them and they could see how much Luca liked you. Some of them didn’t really understand what he saw in you, something you wish you didn’t know as you overheard them one night during a get together at the senior house. 

You had been outside for a while now, talking to your mom on the phone as you walked around the small backyard of the senior house. Luca was with you for the first couple of minutes of your call, talking to your mom a bit before heading back inside and letting you have alone time with her. As you started making your way back to the backdoor, you saw a couple of figures standing there, nothing unsual. You were planning on just walking past them, smiling at them and letting them go along with their conversation until you heard your name. 

“Wait, who are we talking about again?” Dylan asked the others, before taking a sip of his beer. 

“Y/n.” You heard Johnny answer, and you stopped dead in your tracks. You knew you shouldn’t, it was wrong, but you couldn’t help it. They couldn’t see you since you were on the side of the porch, and no lights were they, you were like a ghost. 

“Oh, yeah, totally agree with you man. Don’t get me wrong, she’d nice and all, but like she barely ever talks.” The Duke boy said, making a couple other guys agree with him. 

“Exactly, what does he even see in her, anyways?” One of them said, making your smile drop. 

“She’s just shy, doesn’t like big groups, that’s all. Once you get to know her, she’s always talking, it’s great ‘cause Luca leaves me alone now. She’s makes him happy, that’s all the really matters.” You recognized Adam say, making your smile grow a little. Over the last six months, you had grown quite close to your boyfriend’s little brother, and hearing him defend you warmed your heart. 

“Dude, all we’re saying is he could do better.” 

“Whatever, I’m going back inside.” Adam said, and soon you heard the door open and all the figures disappeared. You stood there for a while, thinking about everything that you had heard. Your feelings being hurt a little before shaking it all off and walking back inside, quickly finding your boyfriend, who was standing with his brother. 

You never told Luca, or any of them that you had heard their conversation. You knew Luca would get mad at his teammates, and that was the last thing you wanted. You did realize that after that night, Adam started being even nicer to you, always telling you how happy you made your brother, and how thankful he was that you were the one making him this happy. He truly felt like your own little brother in a way.

But something in you changed that day, whenever you’d be having the smallest interaction with any of them, there would always be a voice in the back of your mind reminding you of that conversation. So, you didn’t make much effort to become good friends with any of them, clearly most of you didn’t even think you should be dating their teammate so why would they want to be friends with you? 

Luca wasn’t exactly happy that you weren’t that close to anyone, but you were with Adam, so he considered it a win. He always reminded himself that just because his teammates were his best friend didn’t mean they had to be yours too, he just happy none of them hated you. 

As time went by, you’d now notice some of the weird looks his teammates would give themselves whenever you’d hug Luca after their game, or when you’d be with him at a party and his arms was always around you. But you didn’t let it bother you, you were happy in your relationship, you didn’t need the opinion of other’s, and honestly, they didn’t really have a right to be judging two people for being in love with one another. 

You didn’t know whether or not your boyfriend knew about how some of his best friends felt about your relationship, but you really hoped he didn’t. If he did, it would break you, that he knew what his friends were saying and thinking, but didn’t defend you like his brother had, or that he hadn’t told you about it. 

That all changed one cold night in February.

You were currently standing outside of the Yost arena, Luca had texted you barely minutes before telling you to go wait outside for him. You didn’t really understand why, considering how cold it was, but you did anyways. No one else was around, all the spectators had left almost an hour ago, and all the other girlfriends were waiting inside, in the warmth of the arena. 

“Hey.” You heard your boyfriends voice, making you turn around with a bright smile. 

“Hi, baby. You played amazing!” You told him, rushing over to his warm body and hiding in his arms. The boy chuckled a bit before wrapping his arms around you. 

“I need to talk to you about something.” He mumbled after a couple of seconds, making you pull away from his body. Your hands reached down to his arms, that had fallen from your shoulders, your mittens covered hands holding his bare ones. 

“What’s up, loves?” You asked, only to be met with a sigh from him. Your smile dropped right away, what was going on? 

“I need you to know that I am sorry, okay?” You nodded slightly, confused as to why he was saying that. “I think it’d be better if we weren’t together anymore.”

“What?” 

“I just- I need to focus on hockey, and school.” 

“Oh.” You whispered, your hands letting go of his and falling next to your body. A heavy sigh left your mouth as you tried your hardest not to cry. “O-okay.” 

“So, we’re good?” His question broke you. Not you weren’t, you were far from good. The boy you had fallen in love with in early September had just broken up with you, how were you supposed to be okay with that?

“We’re good.” You lied. Luca smile brightly before giving you and small hug, and before you knew it, he was gone. You were left all alone outside in the freezing cold as he headed back to his friends, ready to enjoy their night, while you were left heartbroken. 

Maybe his friends were right after all…

Forgive and I forget

I know my age and I act like it

Got what you can’t resist

I’m a perfect all-American

The next week was hell, everywhere you went, you’d see one of his teammates. It was like they had all mutually agreed to just be everywhere you were, follow you around just to make you remember every single second of every day that your relationship with Luca was over. 

But clearly he hadn’t even told him, the text from Adam asking if you two had gotten into a fight since you hadn’t been to their dorm in a couple of days, and Luca was talking about everything but you. Your feelings were hurt a little, that he wasn’t even acting like your break-up fazed him at all, like everything in his life was perfect. It hurt even more that you had to be the one to break to news to his brother, scared that Adam would choose to break off all links of communication the two of you had. 

Luckily for you, he didn’t, if anything, to him it just gave you an extra reason to become even closer to him. He knew how much you loved his brother and how much Luca loved you, so he truly didn’t understand why his older brother had done it in the first place. Just because you and Luca weren’t together anymore, didn’t mean you had to lose him too, were his exact words. You knew in that moment that you had a real friend in Adam, one that you wanted to keep for the rest of your life. 

You hadn’t gone to any hockey game after that, no matter how much Adam begged, you weren’t ready to go back to the place where your relationship ended. But when the team had made it to the semi-finals of the big ten championship, facing off again Ohio State, you knew you had to be there. Even though you weren’t physically at the games, you were still watching from home, your heart dropping every time Luca’s name would be mentioned. 

Being back felt weird, it was a place you had grown so fond off, watching your boyfriend and your so-called friends play the sports they love with each other, befriending all the other girlfriends, it was truly special. But it was so different now, you felt like you didn’t belong here anymore. Adam had tried to convince you to seat in the same seat Luca always had for you, but you didn’t want to, not wanting to face all the other girlfriends yet. 

You came with your best friends, so you wouldn’t be alone, and made sure to be near the back rows, you knew the boys always liked to spot people in the crowds, and you didn’t want them to know you were here. You had made Adam promise not to tell anyone you were here, and that you’d wait for him after the game in your car all the way at the end of the parking lot. He was the only one on the team you wanted to see tonight, you came here for him and only him, and because your best friends wouldn’t shut up about going. 

Unknown to you, Luca had spotted you the minute he stepped onto the ice. He hated to admit it, but his eyes still searched for you in the crowd, only he was always met with disappointment when he would not find you. Tonight was different, you were here. Part of him felt like he should be happy you were, or even sad, seeing as it was the first he’d seen you since the break-up. But he wasn’t, no he was angry. Why? He didn’t know. 

After the game ended, with Adam getting two goals and two assists, your friends had gone home right away, tired from all the yelling they had done during the night. So, you waited alone in your car, making sure to park right under a street light so Adam could spot you easily, and so you could see if any weirdos were approaching. 

Luca had left before his brother, Johnny and Gavin walking next to him as they walked out of Yost, and that’s when he saw your car. He knew he should’ve just ignored it, kept walking home, but he couldn’t. He knew you were here for his brother and him only, Adam had told him after Luca corned him after the warm ups. The right thing was to just leave you alone, pretend he didn’t see you, but his legs were moving faster than his brain was. 

The loud knock on your window made you jump, yelping at bit at the sound. You looked to your left, only to be met with an angry Luca. You bit your lip slightly before rolling down your window enough so you two could hear each other. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He asked. His tone was harsh and mean, something you had never heard from him before. 

“I am here for Adam, so if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to step away from my car and leave me alone.” You answered him, matching his tone. If he wanted to be a bitch to you after he broke up with you, then he better be expecting the same energy back. 

“You shouldn’t be here.” 

“And who are you to be telling me this? Last time I checked, this is a public parking lot, so I have every right to be here.” You said, you knew that wasn’t what he meant, but you didn’t care. He had no right to walk over here, and talk to you like this. 

“You know that’s not what I fucking meant.” 

“Am I not allowed to cheer for my school? Is that illegal now, Luca?” You said harshly. Luca’s eyes were staring into yours, and you could tell he was holding back from yelling, which scared you a little. 

“You have some nerves-” 

“Oh, I have some nerves? You broke up with me, Luca, not the other way around, and your stupid if you think that’s gonna stop me from coming to see Adam play. I am not here because I wanted to see, if that’s what you’re thinking. I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Adam. So, get whatever stick you have shoved up your ass out of it and leave me alone.” You said firmly before closing your window and going back on your phone. Luca started knocking over and over on your window, but you didn’t move. You were done with this for the night. After about a minute or two, the boy ended up sending you a text, making you roll your eyes. 

Luca 

ur so fucking petty omg, grow the fuck up and get out of your car

You let out a scoff before turning to look at him with a ‘are you serious’ face. If you were being petty, you didn’t even know what word was describing him at the moment. Thankfully, Adam arrived and the two of them began bickering like little children until the older boy eventually walked away, not before sending you a death glare, and the younger one joined you in your car. 

You started driving immediately, neither of you talked, but you feel Adam’s gaze on you every once in a while. This was exactly why you didn’t want to come to the games before, something was bound to go wrong. 

“I am sorry.” He mumbled after a couple of minutes as the car was stopped at a red light. When you turned your head to look over at him, his eyes were already looking in your direction. 

“It’s whatever. He’s an asshole.” 

I am light as a feather, I’m as fresh as the air

Coca-Cola bottles that I only use to curl my hair

I got class and integrity

Just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear

With love to spare, I

About a week later, you were laying in bed, your laptop on your lap as you watched the team celebrate their win. Adam had played wonderfully and you couldn’t be prouder of him. Your heart still dropped a little every time the commentators would mention Luca, and even more when they showed the boys after the game. 

You knew it was wrong, you shouldn’t be thinking this way, but you couldn’t help it. He looked so good with his slightly damp hair, the wide smile on his face as he hugged all of his best friends making you smile as well. But you quickly reminded yourself of what he had done and said, making you close your laptop in a heartbeat. 

You then sent a text to Adam, congratulating him for their victory before going to bed. Well, you just laid in bed in the dark, your phone’s screen being the only source of light. Adam answered you almost an hour later, thanking you and saying he’d call you the next morning. You went to sleep not too long after answering him, wishing him a good night and a safe flight home. 

It was almost noon when the younger Fantili boy called you the next day, you could tell he had gone to bed very late, well early this morning. His voice was still a little stuffy like he had just woken up, making you giggle. The two of you chated for a while before he informed you the hockey team was throwing a party that was pretty much open to all students. He hadn’t invited you directly, but made sure to state very clearly that you were always welcomed if you wanted to stop by for a bit. 

You almost laughed at his words, he was a little delusional if he though you’d like the spend the night with your drunk ex who’d probably be making out with a girl the whole time. He was a little sad when you told him you probably wouldn’t come, but he understood, especially after whatever Luca had said to you last week. 

Weirdly enough though, as the clock hit seven at night, you were standing in your bathroom, getting ready for said party. Why? Revenge. You knew deep down what you were about to do was fucked up, but you didn’t care. They deserved it, all of them, Luca more than the other, but they still did. All those people who pretended to be your friend, only to act like you didn’t even exist the moment you and Luca broke up. Not to mention that conversation you over heard was constantly replaying in your head since your break-up. Yeah, they deserved it. 

Realistically, your plan wasn’t that mean, you’d just be ruining a night celebrating a victory they had worked so hard for during  the whole season. You had gotten some information through Adam that the boys always “shit talked” some of the other girlfriends, of course without mentioning what you had heard from them. Long story short, at least one of them all had a problem with someone’s girlfriend, but they never said anything to the boyfriends. Pretty fake in your opinion, because truth be told, they weren’t really brothers like they always said, they didn’t like some at least. 

When you walked into the senior house, the place wasn’t that full, but this wasn’t any surprise to you considering it had started almost four hours ago already and most people had probably went home by now. Finding Adam was pretty easy, he was in the kitchen refilling his cup when you gently tapped his shoulder. A wide smile appeared on his face when his eyes met yours and his arms quickly wrapped around your waist. 

“You came?” He asked surprised as the two of you pulled away and he grabbed an empty clean cup for you. 

“Got a little bored, I guess.” You told him, filling your cup with water. You hadn’t came here to get drunk out of your mind like all the others here, you came here with an endgame. 

“Well ‘m glad you did. I think I saw that girl you always talk about from your English class, you-” 

“Cool, I’ll go find her!” You lied before walking away from him. Honestly, you didn’t really care that she was here, your eyes not bothering to find her as you walked through the house, spotting the group of girlfriends immediately. They were all chatting between them, but quickly stopped when they realized you were standing there. 

“Oh, please, don’t let my presence disturb your little conversation.” You said with a smirk, only making all of them look at you with weird looks. 

“What’re you doing here?” Ethan’s girlfriend, Hailey, asked. The two of you were never really close, same with Nolan’s girlfriend, Taylor. 

“I just really wanted to say how it’s so cute that you’re all able to be friends with each other and like one another, unlike all the guys. Real cute.” 

“The fuck does that mean?” This time it was Jacob’s girlfriend, Bianca, who spoke. You looked over at her, sending a massive grin before answering. 

“I am just saying, some of them are real good at pretending to be your friends, but then go shit talk about you to each other.” You said, before showing them the text message Adam had sent you. It clearly stated that they all talked about the other guys’ girlfriends badly, but never in front of whoever they were dating. Clearly just showing that they’re “we’re brothers” thing they’d always say whenever a new girlfriend was introduced was complete bullshit. 

“How do we know it’s not fake?” 

“It happened to me too. Heard a couple of them talking about me outside one night. Go ask your boyfriends if you don’t believe me.” You shrugged before walking away from them. A smirk was plastered on your face as you stood outside, sipping on your water, knowing the girls were confronting the boys at the same moment. 

You were standing outside for a couple of minutes before Adam joined you, giving you a stern look.

“What’d you do?” 

“Nothing.” You said, your smirk only growing as you looked inside, the house now empty of all the strangers. The only people left were the players and their girlfriends, who all looked like they were not having a pleasant conversation. Well, that was until all the guys started yelling at each other. 

“Y/n.” Adam mumbled sternly, making you roll your eyes. 

“I just told them the truth. About how you all talk shit about them behind their backs, but then none of you have the guts to say it to each other. I mean, why would they right, you couldn’t tell me or Luca.” Suddenly, you found yourself angry at the boy in front of you. He had let both you and Luca that your couple was loved by all of them, let you believe they were all your friends. His face turned white at your words, only making you scoff. 

“Y/n…”

“It’s pathetic really, all that bullshit about you guys being like brothers, but then you pull some shit like this.” You cut him off. Right as Adam was about to say something else, the sliding door behind you opened and your body was pulled inside the house.

Forgive and I forget

I know my age and I act like it

Got what you can’t resist

I’m a perfect all-American Bitch

With perfect all-American lips

And perfect all-American hips

I know my place

I know my place and this is it

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Someone asked as you now stood infront of everyone, all the guys looking at you with angry eyes, while the girls all hugged each other, some of them crying. 

“I think the real question here is, what the fuck is wrong with all of you? Talk shit behind our backs and then acting like your our friends five minutes later. If you don’t like someone, don’t fucking pretend like you do and then shit talk them when they can hear you.” You spat, your eyes looking between all of them until you spotted Luca, who was standing all alone in a corner. “Hoping that your “brother’s” goes to shit ‘cause you don’t like who they’re dating. Seriously, how old are you? How insecure of yourself do you have to be to say things like this?” 

The house was silent after, all the girls were nodding at your words. The boys, well at least the guilty ones, all looked at the ground, while the innocent ones looked angry and pissed, but not at you anymore, at each other. 

When none of them said anything for a solid minutes, you just scoffed and made your way out of the house. You had done what you came here to do. You started walking down the sidewalk, back towards your dorm, when you heard someone call out your name. You turned around, only to see Luca chasing after you. 

“I didn’t know, I swear-” 

“I know you didn’t, Luca.” You cut him off with a soft smile. 

“I didn’t break up with you because of them. I really like you, I really do. You’re amazing, Y/n. But, I just… I don’t want a relationship right now.” He explained, your smile turning into a sad one. 

“I get it. I want you to be happy, Lu, and if that means us not being together, then I’m okay with it.” It pained you to say it, but it was true. All you wanted for the boy was to be happy, and if that meant you having to leave his life, you were okay with it. 

“‘M not saying never, though. The way I feel about you, I’ve never felt this way for anyone before. Like… I don’t how to explain it-”

“Right person, wrong time?” You asked with a slight smirk on his face, making the boy in front of you smile slightly. 

“Yeah.” 

“Let me know whenever the right time comes, yeah?” You asked softly, the boy nodding slightly before resting his forehead against yours. 

“I’m sorry about how I broke up with you, you deserved a better explanation.” He whispered, closing his eyes as he let his body relax. Your right hand moved up, cupping his cheek and you could feel him lean into your touch. 

“It’s okay, Lulu.” 

“But it’s not. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have done it that way. And I shouldn’t have came to your car and talked to you like that. I am so sorry, baby.” He said, as snow started falling from the sky. You could tell how deeply he meant his words, his voice cracking slightly. 

“Hey, look at me.” You whispered, gently tapping his cheek that you were still holding. After a couple of seconds his eyes opened and stared right back at yours. “It’s okay. It’s in the past.”

“You should hate me.” 

“I don’t think I could ever hate you, Luca.” You admitted, bitting your lip gently as the boy smiled down at you. “I really need to go home.” 

“I’ll walk you.” 

“It’s alright. I think they need you more than I do.” You said, nodding towards the senior house, making Luca sigh a bit. 

“Always have to clean up your mess, don’t I?” He joked, making you giggle slightly. 

“I’ll see you around, Lu.” You mumbled before pressing a kiss to his other cheek and walking away from him. The Fantili boy stood there for a bit, a smile on his face as he watched you make your way back to your dorm. Once you disappeared at the end of the street, the boy turned around and slowly started making his way back to the house. 

When he walked in, all the girls were gone, and the boys were now just all yelling at each other. Some were trying to calm the tension that was rising in the room, but didn’t succeed. Only, when Luca walked in, the room went quiet and everyone looked at him. Luca’s eyes found Adam’s, and the younger boy immediately knew what had happened out there, well almost. He for sure thought they had gotten back together, but he was close enough. 

“God, don’t tell me you got back with her?” Johnny said harshly, making Luca’s smile flatten as he looked over to his “best friend”. 

“Why do you care? Last time I check, who I date isn’t any of your business.” Luca sassed, making his younger brother smile slightly. 

“She ruined the night!” One of the guys called out, making Luca roll his eyes. 

“She said the truth. Maybe if you guys hadn’t talked behind their backs, none of this would’ve happened. I’m going home.” The boy mumbled before leaving the senior household once again, Adam following behind him. 

“So, are you guys back together?” The forward asked after a couple of minutes of them walking back to their dorm. 

“No. But, in the future we will, I know it.”

All the time

I’m grateful all the time

I’m sexy and I’m kind

I’m pretty when I cry

Oh, all the time

I’m grateful all the time (Greatful all the fucking time)

I’m sexy and I’m kind

I’m pretty when I cry

When summer came around, you had promised both Fantili boys you’d keep close touch with them, especially Adam since he’d be heading off to Columbus next season, which pained you a little, but you were happy for him. 

As the months passed by, you and Luca talked more and more every day, something Adam noticed and was quick to bring up to his brother. Luca was smiling at his phone all the time, and overall was just in a better mood than when you two had broken up. The older brother shrugged him off, claiming he was imaginating things, but they both knew it was a lie. 

You were over the moon when you arrived in Michigan, only to find that both brothers were already there, and a time to meet was quickly set. During your little hang out, it was clear to Adam that you and Luca were truly meant to be together, you both had giant smiles whenever you’d be talking to the other. For a majority of the night, it was mainly just the two of you in your own little world, but Adam didn’t care, Luca was happy, you were happy, and that’s all that mattered to him. 

“Don’t fuck this up, dude.” Adam whispered in his brother’s ear as the two of them hugged goodbye. Luca had admitted to him that he was planning on asking you out soon, something that almost made the younger boy scream. 

“I won’t.” And he didn’t. He asked you out, again, and you said yes, again, a week later. The two of you were just hanging in your dorm, you were complaining about how much homework you already had when he just blurred the question out. You were a little shock, but quickly agreed. 

When Luca told his teammates the two of you were back together, he received some questioning looks, but he just ignored them. He thought you were perfect, and that’s all that mattered to him. He didn’t care if his friends didn’t like you, he did and they’d need to learn how to deal with you being around even if they didn’t like you. 

You made him happy, and that’s all they should care about.

[prose-for-hire]

Toil and Trouble:

(Second part Here)

Pairing: Spike x Harris!reader

Request: Not requested, promise I am writing my requests it just happens so slowly (sorry). I got a bit overwhelmed! So when I get a random burst of inspiration like this it helps get me back into writing what I’m supposed to be writing lol.

(As always reader is gender neutral unless stated otherwise.)

Desc: reader is Xander’s twin, they aren’t a scooby they have their own friends and Xander has always tried to hide the truth about demons from them. What will happen when reader discovers an unexpected house guest in Xander’s basement room?

Warning: mention of heavy drinking (Xander’s uncle) and dysfunctional families. Cigarette.  Reader has hair long enough to be tucked behind an ear.

You and Xander had always been close. They called you and your twin double trouble, when you were younger. You had been partners in crime, if you will. You spent a lot of time together despite your different personalities. You shared the same sense of humour but after that, you were almost completely different. The arguments you had between you over what movie to watch could go down in the history books. But five minutes later you would be sharing popcorn together and cracking jokes about the movie you were watching.

However, ever since High school there was something of a rift between you. You no longer told each other everything. He started it, in your defence.

Xander was evasive and him and his friends were incredibly secretive, especially around you. You liked Buffy and Willow fine enough but you were always only an acquaintance of theirs. You had your own group of friends in high school and again in college. What you didn’t know about Xander’s increasingly comedic and unconvincing excuses and explanations was that he was trying to hide from you the dangers of Sunnydale. The demons and apocalypses and life or death situations.

He felt he was protecting you, despite Willow’s pragmatic arguments in your favour all the Scoobies agreed to keep it from you.

Where Xander had moved into the basement, you had moved on campus for college. You had promised to come home and stay for your uncles birthday weekend, however, and annoyingly Xander had the excuse of work to miss the predictably dysfunctional meal that was being held in his honour. He had passed you on the way out in his pizza uniform, grabbing you in a side hug before he left with an apologetic glance.

As predicted, it was torture. You had sat there whilst your uncle drank his way through the meal and had seemingly made it into a game of ‘how many comments can I make before they snap’. It reminded you just how glad you were to have got out of the house. The only real reason you came back was to see Xander and he had dashed out of the door.

Once the meal was over and everyone had stopped talking after the inevitable argument that had been brewing since you had stepped through the door, you slid away to try and collect yourself. Rather than going to what had been your room, which had quickly been changed when you had left, you walked down into Xander’s basement.

It was dark, you hadn’t switched the light on. You were going to sit in the chair he had down there and wait for him to rant to him about your uncle. As you felt around for the chair, you managed to touch something unfamiliar, you and the chair let out a yelp at the same time.

You scrambled for the light and saw a man sat in the chair, no, not sat in it. Tied to it. Tightly, too. He was cute, just your type too. You couldn’t help staring at him, something he caught as he smirked in your direction.

“Like what you see?” He raised his eyebrows, eyes not leaving yours. When you grinned at his words, he swore he felt his heart soar in his chest. A feeling he quickly tried to beat back down again. He wouldn’t do this again, fall for someone like this. Not so quickly, so easily.

“I’ve seen better, I suppose” You beamed when he chuckled, moving to sit on the edge of Xander’s bed.

“Hidin’ are you? Gotta say, your family aren’t exactly winners, pet”

“And there was me thinking I had won the ‘rental lottery” You offered before explaining, “I was only really here for Xander and he didn’t even stay for dinner. Just needed somewhere to…”

“Relax?” Something in his voice told you that he understood. Or at least

“Yeah, I’m not gonna even ask why you’re here tied to a chair” You smiled, you had been the kindest human he had met since getting chipped. In fact, probably of all time. He didn’t really want to tell you what he was and make you leave him here in the dark. He was enjoying the company.

For the first time in a while, he was feeling like himself again. Or at least some version of himself. One he actually liked. He decided to explain to you how he had got here, perhaps a slightly edited version. Well, a heavily edited version. One that would also make him into the hero, of course.

He spoke like a poet, you were hanging on every word. Every syllable. The story was clearly edited, but you really didn’t care. You felt it in the emotion, in the feeling of what he was saying. That couldn’t be made up.

As he spoke, the night had gone darker and the streetlights had turned on. You smiled softly, both of you were feeling a little lost in your own ways. You felt connected to him, even after only a few hours of knowing him.

“You know, in the light from that streetlamp, you glow” He let the words hang in the air, trying to gauge your reaction. In that moment, you knew he had sensed it too. Some spark. Some potential.

“I need a drink. You wanna go to the Bronze?”

“Kinda tied up at the moment, love” He moved his palms to prove it, showing a flash of black nail varnish.

You leaned in and untied him, your face so close to his. The proximity made the atmosphere around you both intense, your breath tickled his cheek and he closed his eyes slowly.

Once the ropes were loose, he jumped to his feet instantly, gripping your elbow as if to steady himself. Tiny surges of electricity fizzled through you at the contact. Though he didn’t need it for balance, he just wanted an excuse to stand close to you. His hand moved towards you, eyes never breaking from yours, catching a loose strand of your hair and tucking it behind your ear.

He looked as if he was going to lean into you, closing the space. You swallowed thickly, his brilliantly blue eyes dipping to your lips just as-

The door of the basement slammed open, hitting the wall beside it. Heavy footsteps could be heard descending the stairs towards you. Spike stepped backwards and you already felt cold from the absence of his presence.

You turned to find your brother, mouth agape as he stared between the two of you.

“Wh- why is Spike-?!” words escaped your brother in his shock.

“His circulation was getting cut off, stop panicking”

“I’m not panicking. I’m not. I’m not. Stop looking at me like I’m panicking!”

“Kinda looks like panicking, mate” Spike said, rolling his eyes and sliding on his leather duster.

“Me and your friend hit it off, I asked him out” You explained, tugging on your own jacket.

“Goin’ for a bite aren’t we, love?” Spike’s eyes sparkled as Xander caught his intended meaning.

“Tell them not to wait up. Or better yet, don’t tell them anything-” You gestured upwards as you started to leave when Xander, clearly in an argument with himself on whether to tell you something he had kept secret for a long time, decided he needed to say something.

“He’s my hostage!”

“I’ll bring him back, God, Xander you are so annoying”

“Don’t I get a bloody say?”

“No!” You said together, which almost put Spike off you entirely until you smiled at him again and then he was wrapped around your little finger.

He had never met anyone like you. You were strong, clearly, but so in touch with your emotions. All throughout the conversation you had for the hours before Xander walked in had felt more of a connection than anything he had said in decades to any other.

“Y/n, he’s dangerous! You can’t take him! This is my foot, and it’s going down!” Xander pointed to his foot and you gave it a light kick as you replied.

“What is it with you? It’s always, it’s my turn with the hostage, you’re a minute younger you can sit in the sandpit and wait!”

“BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP! NOW!” A call came from upstairs, masking Xander’s yelp at your kick and  sent you both into a whisper argument that even Spike could barely hear.

“Ought to get goin’ pet, we could go for a nice, secluded walk after” Spike’s smirk widened as you nodded and started for the door. Xander’s panic had reached it’s peak, he was flailing his arms around in urgency.

“Y/n, there are things- complex things that you don’t know about. Spike is… Spike’s a…”

“Vampire? Yeah, Xander, I know. He’s whiter than snow, I’m not an idiot” You rolled your eyes at your brother, how dumb did he think you were?

Obviously Spike was a vampire or this hostage thing would be entirely too weird for you to get involved in. Plus, Spike had explained that he had been chipped by the Initiative and you had told him that you were definitely not (and never would be) part of your brothers lame little Scooby gang.

You knew all about demons and vampires and the like. You and your friends had been fending them off since high school, just perhaps not as well as your brother and the slayer. And what’s more, you knew all about the slayer too. You had accidentally walked into the library one afternoon when your librarian and Buffy had been fighting something spooky.

You had hidden so they hadn’t seen you but you overheard them say something about the chosen one, the slayer and then you had done some research of your own. You waited for Xander to tell you himself but it had been too long now and you had just never confronted him about it.

“How long have you known?”

“About as long as you’ve been keeping it from me”

Spike, who had weirdly known better than to get involved again, just stared between them. He was bored, he just wanted to spend more time with you. Who knew being chipped would have led to something like this? Finding someone that he lo-

Really liked. You just really like them, you nit.

“We’ll talk, Xander. Just, tomorrow, okay? I’m going out”

Spike grinned evilly over his shoulder at Xander as he slung an arm over your shoulder, whispering lowly in your ear as you walked away. You and your brother would have to talk, maybe shout at each other for a while. But it could all wait.

Spike lit up a cigarette and offered you took a drag as you walked by his side. The night was young and full of promise. Spike spoke almost non-stop on your way there, something he hadn’t found himself doing in an age. He tried to impress you with stories of past fights he had won, historical events he had witnessed. He just wanted to see you smile.

Yeah, you could definitely get used to this.

[mabelstone]

Nympho

matt stone x reader

part five of provocateur <3

part four | masterlist

word count: 3.5k

CW: this is a fucking rollercoaster lol. warning: sex (but not too much sorry), mentions of nausea

***

I'd never seen anything like it. Even the airport in Dubai was something out of a movie, and that didn’t even come close to the beautiful city and the penthouse suite Trey had booked for us. I couldn’t even find the words, my mind struggling to keep up with what I was seeing. I’m sure I looked like a cartoon with wide, sparkling eyes with hearts shooting from them.

“Whadd’ya think?” He grinned from beside me, wheeling both of our suitcases to the walk-in wardrobe while I stared out the window, completely awestruck.

“It’s beautiful,” my assessment was beyond an understatement, the term not even coming close to the acclaim it deserved.

“And it’s all for you,” he announced, rolling up the cuffs on his dress shirt before popping open a bottle of champagne.

“Not for work?” I raised an eyebrow at him through a grin, striding across the sparkling marble tile to where he stood at the big, glossy, stone dining table.

“That? Oh, no. Work was just an excuse to get you here," he joked, pouring a glass for each of us.

“Well, that’s gotta be the worlds most expensive excuse ever," I started, cheersing glasses with him. "You know, you've already got me wrapped around your finger. I don't need anything fancy."

"I know," he smiled, slipping his big hand around my waist. "It is nice though, isn't it."

"This may be the best night of my life," I joked, though this was one of the most surreal moments for me. I'd never left the US in my whole 26 years of life.

“Oh, this is nothin'," he blew a raspberry through his lips, pulling my front into his by the small of my back. "You be a good girl, I'll give you so much more. This is just the beginning."

Holy fuckin' shit. This is a new side to Trey that is absolutely welcomed.

"But I am a good girl," I fluttered my eyelashes at him through a grin, letting out a squeal of surprise when he picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist. We skulled the rest of our glasses before he was throwing my down onto the bed, attacking my neck and chest with hot kisses, while I giggled with my fingers tangled in his hair.

You can imagine how the rest went.

In the morning I woke to sun bleeding through the curtains, bathing the suite in a warm golden glow. Our limbs tangled in the soft cotton sheets, Trey's big arm wrapped around me as I feel the rise and fall of his chest with each breath. The epitome of serenity.

Half asleep, he turned his head to me, groggily opening his eyes.

"Good morning," his voice was thick with sleep, kissing my forehead as I glowed on the inside.

Matt POV

I woke with a splitting headache and some inconvenient warmth spread across my lower half.

A leg. A leg that belongs to some random chick I picked up from the Little Red Door, the same place Y/N and I had our first kiss. Fuck her. I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to wipe any trace of her from my brain and instead use my few remaining braincells to plan a way to get this broad out of my bed. And out of my house, for that matter.

I can't even remember how I got here. The last thing I remember was doing shots with my boss after celebrating his divorce. The whole night was just so messy. All I know is that if I sit up too quick, I'm going to blow chunks all over my duvet and I don't want that. But... it would be the perfect way to get rid of the blonde mess beside me.

Then by some dumb strike of luck, she stirred awake, smudged eyeliner around her icy blue eyes like a cyborg panda hybrid blinking up at me. "Mmmm, good morning, Mr. Journalist," she groaned as she stretched, taking up too much of the bed for my liking.

"Hey... So, I've got work," I pushed through the nausea and climbed out of bed, stumbling around to pick up her clothes for her, tossing them at her feet. "I'm happy to call you an Uber?"

She paused for a moment, looking at me like I'd punched her in the face. "Wow," was all she said, shaking her head before peeling herself from the sheets, fully nude with no shame. "You're a total dick."

"I know," I sighed, though I felt no remorse. I was just happy she was so willing to leave. I've had a few run ins before where I've almost had to drag them out the door kicking and screaming.

"How's this for a headliner? 'Surprise! Douche bag journalist is a fuckwit.' Oh! Or, 'sleazy wannabe writer is really bad in bed'," She panted out while shimmying into her clothes, face red from anger, yet somehow, simultaneously paper pale from her hangover.

"You done?" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I didn't have my contacts in, I could barely even see her. For the best.

"Are you going to write about this?" She taunted, seeing herself to the door.

Why would I waste anybody's time writing about some random bimbo nobody knows? "Wouldn't dream of it," I smiled tightly, obviously very fake, making sure to lock the door she slammed behind her. She yelled something at me from the front, but I didn't hear, nor did I care to know what she had to say.

Instead I stripped all my sheets and threw them straight into the washing machine, then threw myself into a near boiling shower and scrubbed off any evidence of the night before. So. Much. Glitter. Maybe I picked her up later in the night after the Little Red Door?

I am never drinking again.

Y/N POV

Trey makes me feel like a giddy teenager every time I'm with him. He ordered us breakfast in bed and we made... whatever is between sex and making love. I feel like those terms are not synonymous. I may have nearly called him Matt, but quickly saved it with, "Ma- my God, Trey." He didn't seem to notice.

We quickly jumped in the shower and got ready for his corporate lunch - the whole reason I'm here. I don't really understand, but who am I to argue with a good thing?

He looked absolutely delicious, dark grey suit with a matching tie, a crisp white button up for contrast. I wore a similar coloured dress that was maybe a bit too booby for this event, but conservatively reached my knees, so surely it cancels out. I kept a sheer Burberry cardigan slung over my arm in case the venue was chilly - compliments of Trey.

"Beautiful," he grinned, shoving his keys and wallet into his pockets. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," I nodded with a wide smile, one that I couldn't seem to wipe from my face the whole time.

We got a ride to the venue in a Cadillac Escalade, and for some reason, that was the first time I wondered just how rich this dude was. I made small talk with his driver, while Trey was stuck into his phone the whole drive.

"You have arrived," the driver spoke with a thick Polish accent, pulling up out the front of a massive stone building with the biggest water fountain I'd ever seen.

"Thank you," I smiled at him, stepping out in awe. This place just can't be real.

Trey led me into the main hall where there were at least fifteen round tables draped in lace cloth, red napkins to offset the harsh white.

"Trey," a heavy set man approached us with his hand out, giving him a real firm handshake that screamed 'I'm important'.

"Mr. Todd," he nodded with a tight smile.

"And who might this lovely lady be? A daughter we didn't know about?" The tall man, Mr. Todd I presume, took one of my hands into his.

"Let's hope not," I joked, then soon realised that mightn't be appropriate given the scenario. "Y/N, lovely to meet you, Mr. Todd."

"Please, you pretty ones get to call me Jason," he corrected me, kissing my knuckles. "The pleasure is all mine."

We moved through the room as we greeted Trey's colleagues, all looking very important and expensive. The women were all presumed partners of the colleagues and looked at least 20 years older than me. And at least 20 times more glamourous. I'm sure I stood out like a sore thumb, and it really had me wondering how many people actually thought I was Trey's daughter.

After what felt like an eternity of me awkwardly hovering between Trey and his colleagues, we were finally seated. I was starting to feel a bit left out, like some background noise that's slightly inconvenient.

The food came fast, thankfully; perfectly cooked chicken drowning in some sauce I couldn't quite pronounce. I listened in on the chatter, the occasional wife speaking to me over the table. I think they could sense my unease.

"So, Trey," another man in an expensive looking pressed suit put his hand to his mouth, deciding mid bite was the perfect time to speak. Quite the etiquette. "How are the kids?"

I nearly choked on what was in my mouth. Trey turned bright red. He seemed to nearly choke too, sputtering as he was caught off guard.

"Oh, yeah!" The mans' partner spoke up, pointing to Trey with her fork and wide eyes. "I heard May just started first grade. Are you and Lillian on speaking terms again?"

I felt instantly nauseated, smothered by an uncomfortable heat that rushed from my head to my toes.

"Uh, yeah," he cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact with me. "They're all good." All?

"And your precious baby boy," she continued, swooning in her seat just to rub a bit more salt in the wound. "He's what, three months now? Do you see him much?"

"That's rude to ask," her husband clicked his tongue at her, shaking his head disapprovingly.

"That's not rude, honey!" She rolled her eyes, swatting his arm with her napkin. "You guys settled 50/50, didn't you, darling?"

"Yeah, I get 'em every weekend," Trey's voice was hushed as he admitted this, eyes boring into his untouched food.

I abruptly stood up, noisily pushing my chair out from under me. "Excuse me," I smiled as politely as I could, but I'm sure my face was as pale as snow and I was being anything but polite.

I headed straight for the exit, not sure what my game plan was. I don't speak any Arabic, but I'm sure I could find someone who speaks English. How hard could it be to signal for a cab?

The sick, hot feeling wouldn't leave, even as the most beautiful breeze embraced me. How could he lie to me?

"Y/N," Trey came rushing outside like a cliché movie scene. "I can explain." Uncanny how much this felt like a movie.

"I don't have kids, haven't got time for them," I reiterated what he'd told me many times.

"I thought it'd put you off," he sighed, reaching for my hand, but I dramatically jerked away from him.

"Put me off more than being lied to?" I scoffed incredulously, wondering how the fuck I ended up here. "The fact you lied is bad enough, but you've practically got a newborn! What the fuck?"

"I know, I'm sorry," he sighed again, running a hand through his sparse hair. "How can I make it up to you?"

"I want to go home." I crossed my arms over my chest, unable to look him in the eyes.

"Seriously?" He furrowed his brow, palms thrown up in front of him. "You're the textbook definition of a nymphomaniac, and you're upset that I have kids?"

"Let me go home." My tone was stern this time, trying to seem composed when really I was seconds off bursting into tears.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath, calling his driver to collect me.

Next thing I knew, I was on a plane back home, red faced and angry, no doubt annoying everyone around me with my constant sniffling. Trey booked me an economy flight back home, and left me with enough money to get absolutely wasted on the plane. So I did without a second thought, polishing off two bottles of wine in no time. I would've had more if the air hostess didn't cut me off. I'm not sure the wine was helping my situation, but it didn't matter. I watched Pretty Woman, then the Notebook, then Forrest Gump, then cried my eyes out, and eventually fell asleep.

"...and on behalf of the crew bringing you to beautiful Manhattan, it is my pleasure to say, welcome home." I woke up to the announcement that we'd arrived, and groggily rested my head against the cold window as I watched the plane roll onto the tarmac.

Fuck, Trey drove me here.

I could get an Uber.

Or...

"Hello?" Matt answered groggily, sounding both confused and as if he'd just woken from a coma.

"It's 6pm, why were you sleeping?"

"Big night," he groaned, sounding inconvenienced. "What do you want?"

"Can you please... pick me up?" I suddenly felt very self conscious. The worst he could say is no, right?

"From Dubai?" He chuckled, and I could hear some shuffling from his line.

"No... JFK Airport." Here it comes, I thought. Laugh at me. Tell me 'I told you so' like the dick you are. Or, 'I last longer in bed than you did on that trip.'

"Oh," he sounded surprised. A big pause. "I'll be there in 40." Then the line went dead.

While I waited (and wallowed in self pity) I dawdled around the stores, opting to buy Matt a blueberry danish as my pathetic version of a thank you. I know how much he loves them.

He rocked up pretty much exactly 40 minutes later, handsome as ever in his stupid Mercedes. He reached over the passenger to open my door for me, immediately looking confused.

"All you have is a little paper bag," he noted, brows furrowed as he scanned me. "What, your bags get held up at customs? Is that why you're back? Trafficking drugs or something?"

"No, dick," I smiled for the first time in 15 hours, thrusting the danish into his hands. "My stuff is still in Dubai," I mumbled self consciously, throwing myself into the heated leather seat.

"So... where's Daddy Warbucks?" He grinned that stupid cocky grin that always struggled to read the room.

I pursed my lips, tilting my head to him, puffy, watery eyes on full display now.

"Oh... shit, I'm sorry, kid," he frowned, awkwardly patting my shoulder. "What happened?"

"He lied to me a bunch," I laughed dryly, running a hand over my face. "You were right. Total douche. Has, I don't even know how many kids. Made me look stupid in front of all these rich people."

"Is that why you're dressed like the First Lady?"

I tried to be angry but I couldn't, ugly laughing at his stupid (but accurate) joke.

"Mhm. He called me a nympho and everything," I rolled my eyes, that hadn't stopped stinging once. "Like, seriously, what kind of man would complain about that?"

"Yeah, seriously," he shook his head in disagreement. "It's literally my favourite thing about you."

"Can we just go home?" I rubbed my eyes. I then realised what I'd said, and that home wasn't the same place for us both. "Ah, sorry, my home."

"Aw, you wanna come home with me!" He joked, grabbing my knee. For a split second, I swear a fire ignited inside of me at his touch. "I'll take better care of you than Daddy Warbucks did, Annie."

"Oh my God, I forgot that you fucked Annie!" I laughed again, covering my mouth with my hands at his accidental double entendre.

"Come on, dude, you know I meant Annie the orphan," he sighed, face bright red as he pulled onto the street. "Don't ruin a nice thing."

When we got back to his, he ordered Chinese takeout and we sat on his sheet-less bed with the tv turned off. He was more interested in my failed trip.

"What, in front of everyone?" He paused in shock, chopsticks frozen mid air, just inches from his mouth.

"Yup," I sighed, glad that his reaction made me feel reassured. "Ah, well. I don't want to be a step mother."

"Yeah, fuck that," he shook his head taking a big swig of his beer. "And fuck that dude. Fuckin' asshole."

"Well, it lead me right to you," I grinned, noting the way his cheeks pinkened, despite his little murmured, idiot.

"Wanna get drunk?" He suggested, and how could I say no? Especially when I knew where it would land me - right underneath him.

We threw back shots, seeing who could keep a straighter face. I lost, miserably. Then we somehow ended up on the couch with my legs in his lap. And then as our speech began to slur and slow completely, my brain struggled to keep up with my mouth, and before I knew it, I was confessing, "this is like, your fault, dude."

"What's my fault?" He raised his eyebrows, toying with the hem of his shirt I was wearing.

"You always had me confused when we'd hook up," I blabbered on, not even processing what I was saying. "If things were more set in stone, I wouldn't have went out with Trey. Hah... set in stone. Get it?" I giggled, missing the way his expression hardened.

"What do you mean set in stone?"

"I dunno," I shrugged, lazily letting my head roll over the armrest of the couch. "I liked you. More than just a fuck."

"You cut things off with me?" He spoke pointedly, his arms now folded. "That's a bit unfair to say."

"What?" I picked my head up to face him, the room spinning around me. "I literally asked you if you'd be with me and you went, 'uh- um- uhh-' like a moron."

"Yeah, after you started seeing someone else." He was combative now. Awesome. Just shut the fuck up, girl. This won't end well.

"Yeah, but you didn't know that."

"I could see the Tinder notifications on your phone," he rolled his eyes, pushing my legs off him gently. "You're not the most discrete person."

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk about this."

"You brought it up!" He groaned emphatically, scrubbing a hand over his stubble. "If you don't wanna talk about this, why fucking say anything?"

"Jeez, can you relax," now it was my turn to harden my expression. "Stop acting like you care. You just wanted sex. Like everyone else."

"Why do you ruin everything?" He scoffed, climbing off the couch with a huff. "Maybe if you started respecting yourself, you'd realise you have a lot more going for you than your body."

I froze then. "What, you had a little crush on me?"

"Wasn't little," he shook his head, pouring himself another hefty shot. "And see? You undermine everything. That's why we wouldn't work. That's why I never set anything in stone, as you put it."

"Matt, I didn't know," I followed him to the kitchen, instantly sober. "I'm sorry, I thought you weren't interested. Like that."

He didn't speak, just stared right through me.

Wordlessly, I stepped forward and took his face in my hands, pulling him close enough that I could see each pore, each beautiful freckle, each little sign of his ageing that was almost invisible to the naked eye.

I kissed him differently than I'd grown accustomed to. No, this was like our first kiss at the Little Red Door. I was gentle, ghostlike over his lips, breathing him in. He took a moment, but then he grabbed my face back, kissing me with all the force of a single feather. He was warm, and he smelt good, and God I hate to admit it, but I actually missed him.

We moved synchronously, gentle and tender, our feet sweeping us away into his bedroom. But this time, I had the suspicion that it wouldn't be our regular type of sex.

And I was right.

Lips connected the whole time, we stripped off our clothes, tenderly touching one another as if we were memorising every shape and curve. He slipped himself inside of me with ease, both of us exhaling sharply through our noses.

We moved slowly together, my arms strewn over his shoulders as he skilfully rolled his hips against mine, warm fingers digging into the soft parts of my body. We exchanged breaths and pants, only disconnecting our lips to deliver praise. There was passion without all the aggression, sweat and cursing that came with it. Just pure desire.

I think we definitely still like each other.

Was this love making?

maybe one more chapter?

[tickly-trashcan]

Troublemaker {Jay, Zane, Cole, Kai, Lloyd}

A/N: AUGHGHH this was so fun to write and i realized only after that i basically just made a repeat of my other ninjago fic but.... i love these guys so i think its fine LOL im really glad this was the first prompt because it got me super motivated and now im even more excited to write!! it was hard deciding who to make the lee so i just. picked them all basically and i am so so happy i finally got to write Lloyd with the other four because im not sure if i had yet??? anyways i hope you enjoy and i hope you have a lovely day/night!!

Summary: On a peaceful day, Jay decides to be a menace.

Word Count: 2.4k (under the cut!)

It was a rather nice day out. There was a cool breeze to compliment the warmth coming from the sun, the area was quiet and calm, and the Bounty was docked by a beach, meaning the only sound was distant waves. It was actually a great day… too great.

Most of the ninja were taking advantage of the calm and taking time to relax. Ninjago wasn’t always this calm, so they enjoyed the peace.

At least, they tried to.

Jay, for some reason, was bored. He had been tinkering with spare parts that his parents had sent him all morning, and he was finally tired of it. Perhaps it was the fact that he was naturally much more energetic than the others, or perhaps it was just the odd calmness that the day had granted him, but he couldn’t sit still or relax.

So instead, he decided to go and bug the other ninja.

He wandered around the Bounty, looking for anyone. Nya and Sensei Wu had gone off to the city that day, meaning it was only the ninja on board.

Jay found Zane in the bridge. He was plugged into the main computer, tapping away at a few buttons as the screen flashed. “What’re you up to?”

Zane turned his head slightly, trying not to shift the wires too much. “I’m trying to upload our recent route into the Bounty’s system so we can have it in the map database.”

“Sounds boring.”

“Pixal agrees,” Zane said, gesturing to his head. “I’m almost done, then I’ll take a nap. I feel a bit drained from the upload.”

Jay furrowed his brows. He came here looking for some sort of entertainment, not Zane heading off to snooze. Jay walked over to him and leaned on the back of the chair Zane was sitting in. “Do you want to watch a movie? We could use the computer.”

Zane shook his head. “Nya would kill us if she found out we watched a movie on this. She says we can only use it if it’s important.”

Jay grinned. “I can think of a lot of important movies.”

Zane didn’t respond, making Jay groan. He leaned over Zane and began to press some random buttons, making him gasp. “Jay, don’t! You could cancel the upload!”

Jay stuck out his tongue. “Fine… Poke, poke, poke.”

Jay began to poke at Zane instead, making him squirm. “Jahay! Stop it!”

“My hands need to do something! If I can’t press those buttons, I’ll press yours!”

“My buttohons are all intehehehernal! Stohohop!!”

Jay chuckled, poking at Zane randomly while avoiding the wires. He eventually gave up on the random poking and just scribbled his fingers against Zane’s sides, making him shriek and nearly fall out of his chair. 

The computer dinged from the upload being complete and Jay stopped, now poking the computer’s dashboard. Zane scrambled to shove Jay away, still laughing. “Since when are you so grabby?! No more buttons!!”

Jay relented and laughed, running out of the bridge before Zane could scold him any further. He bumped into Cole on the way, who was coming back from the kitchen.

“What’s the hurry?”

“Zane kicked me out of the bridge!!” Jay whined, hoping for sympathy. Cole only chuckled.

“I don’t blame him.”

Jay opened his mouth to retort, but his eyes landed on a cookie that Cole was holding. Cole noticed Jay’s gaze and grinned. “Want some?”

Jay nodded vigorously and Cole immediately held the cookie high above his head. Jay gaped at him, making Cole laugh as he waved it around. “That is so not fair!”

“Someone else must’ve eaten them all; this was the last one,” Cole drawled, starting to walk away. Jay chased after him, trying to grab at the cookie as Cole chuckled. Cole was taller than Jay, so holding it above his head made it impossible for Jay to even try and grab it. “Isn’t snickerdoodle your favorite?”

“I just want a bite, Cole!”

“Should’ve grabbed it first, then.”

“Okay, now you’re just bullying me!”

Jay held onto Cole’s hip to try and boost himself up, making Cole jerk. Jay noticed this, taking a brief moment before flashing Cole a quick grin.

“Jay, don’t you dare,” Cole barely managed to speak before Jay shoved his hands under Cole’s arms. Cole immediately cackled, folding forward as he snapped his arms down. Jay was quick to snatch the cookie and run, laughing at Cole as he yelled at him. “Get back here!!”

He shoved the cookie into his mouth and ducked into one of the training rooms, silently chuckling as he heard Cole storm past. Jay looked up and saw Kai hanging off of a bar by his hands and staring at him with a raised eyebrow. “Should I be concerned?”

Jay shook his head, wiping his lips of sugar as Kai nodded slowly in doubt. He went back to his pull-ups, and Jay was not surprised at all that Kai chose to ignore his antics rather than involve himself. But Jay being Jay, he was going to try and get Kai involved somehow. “How long have you been training? I thought you’d be taking the day off.”

“I was, but I got bored. I can only play video games for so long before getting restless.”

Jay hummed, walking over to Kai. Kai scooted down the bar a little bit before continuing, eyeing Jay suspiciously. “If you think this is going to help you beat Cole in arm wrestling, you’re wrong.”

Kai huffed. “That’s not why I’m doing it! And even if I was, I’d have to be able to do this with one hand to beat Cole.”

“Then why don’t you try?”

Jay knew exactly how to taunt Kai. He knew how to taunt all the ninja, in fact, but Kai just happened to be the easiest. Kai pursed his lips in thought and Jay walked a bit closer. Kai couldn’t scoot any further on the bar, but he watched Jay like a hawk. It was almost like he knew Jay was up to something.

“C’mon, try it one-handed! I bet even I could do it one-handed if I tried…” Jay drawled.

Kai furrowed his brows. “Oh yeah? I could do it one-handed in my sleep!”

“Then do it!”

Kai didn’t move his hands. He hung there for a few moments in contemplation, and Jay finally grew bored. “You’re taking too long. Let me help.”

Jay grabbed Kai’s left hip and squeezed, making Kai shriek and jump. He let go of the bar with one hand and swatted at Jay, giggling frantically. “Jay, whahahahat the hehehell?? Stahahap!!”

“Prove that you can do it one-handed!”

“But yohohohou’re tickling mehehe!!”

“If you can do it in your sleep, you can do it while I’m tickling you.”

Kai whined, but his pride kept him from giving up. He struggled to pull himself up, both from the tickling and the sheer amount of strength it took. He almost managed to get above the bar, but then Jay grabbed his other hip. Kai fell flat onto the ground with a squeal as Jay laughed.

“You fell so fast! Oh, my— Oh, that was so funny!!”

As soon as Jay was met with a glare from Kai, he scurried away.

Jay was trying hard not to laugh as he snuck around the Bounty, now hiding from three of the ninja. As much as he loved messing with them, he very much did not like the repercussions, and now he was avoiding them at all costs. There weren’t very many hiding places left, however, so Jay quickly decided to duck into their shared bedroom.

He checked if it was clear and breathed a sigh of relief, finally allowing himself a small snicker of triumph. The door opened and he whipped his head around, expecting any one of them to be there. But it was only Lloyd walking in with a plate of cookies. He and Jay made eye contact and stopped for a few moments, both knowing they were caught.

“You say nothing, I say nothing,” Jay quickly spat. Lloyd nodded, shutting the door behind him as Jay sighed in relief.

“They’re all totally pissed at you,” Lloyd said, offering a cookie to Jay, who took it gratefully. The two of them sat down on Lloyd’s bed after Lloyd set the plate of cookies down.

“I’m hardly even doing anything! They just can’t handle my humor, I guess.”

Lloyd downed a few cookies, making Jay raise an eyebrow. “Easy there, you’ll give yourself a stomachache.”

Lloyd grinned. “I built up a resistance to stomachaches when I was younger. I could eat that whole plate if I wanted.”

“Oh really? How resistant is it?”

“It’s basically steel.”

Jay reached over and began to poke at Lloyd’s stomach, making him flinch and huff. “Doesn’t feel like steel. Feels pretty squishy, actually.”

“It’s a fihihigure of speeheeheech! Jahahay!” Lloyd giggled, swatting Jay’s hand away. Jay smirked.

“I don’t get what you mean. If you’re resistant to sweets, shouldn’t you be resistant to tickles too?”

“I dohohon’t think thahahahat’s how it works! STAHahap!!” Lloyd fell back on the bed, trying to curl up while Jay followed him, chuckling.

“If it’s like steel, is it shock resistant too?”

“No, Jay, dohohOHOHON’T!! Nohoho, not thahahat!” Lloyd squealed when Jay began to use small sparks of electricity to tickle him. Lloyd was quickly in a fit of hysterics as Jay laughed with him, not even hearing the door as it opened.

“Looks like we found the troublemakers of the day!” Kai announced loudly, making Jay immediately freeze. Lloyd continued to giggle softly, shoving Jay away as he quickly tried to bargain with the three that were staring at them with hard glares.

“Cole, I only ate one cookie!”

“You did not! You ate at least four!” Jay immediately tattled, trying to get at least some of the wrath taken off of him.

“Trying to save yourself in this situation is hardly feasible, Jay,” Zane pointed out, crossing his arms. Jay gulped and tried to make a run for it, only to be caught by Kai and practically tackled to the ground.

“I suggest you run while you can, Lloyd!!” Jay squeaked out, but Lloyd was already in Cole’s clutches and spilling nervous giggles and squeals.

“Zane, can you get his arms?” Kai asked, making Jay shake his head frantically. He heard Lloyd burst into bubbly laughter from the bed, already begging while Cole tickled him.

“Zane, can you leave my arms alone??” Jay pleaded, but Zane was already pinning his arms down while Kai cracked his knuckles. Jay’s eyes widened and he chuckled nervously. “C’mon, you guys know I was just messing around, right?”

“Don’t worry. We’re just messing around too. Right, Zane?”

Zane nodded with a small grin. Jay looked at him and was about to try and bargain, but Kai’s hands found his underarms before any words could be spoken. Jay snapped his mouth shut and nearly exploded from trying to keep his laughter in, not wanting to give any of them the satisfaction of him laughing.

“Why are you holding back? Laugh!” Kai taunted, raking his hands down Jay’s inner arms before scribbling underneath his arms. Jay arched his back and shook his head, his face turning bright pink from holding in his laughter that was trying to force its way out.

“Zane, wanna help?”

“No!!” Jay gasped out when Kai pulled his hands away from his underarms and instead went towards his tummy. Zane nodded, clawing at Jay’s ribs while Kai scribbled all over Jay’s tummy.

Jay couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore and was quick to break into a fit of shrieks and hollers. Combined with Lloyd’s own frantic cackles, the room was rather loud. Neither of them were quiet when they were tickled, so it was quite the party for everyone’s ears.

“Yohohohou guhuhuys suck!! It tihihickles so bahahahad! This isn’t fahahahair!!” Jay whined, trying to pull his arms down when Zane targeted his underarms. Kai had finished warming up with the frantic scribbles and was now honed in on teasing and pinching Jay’s lower tummy, occasionally squeezing his hips as Jay practically screamed.

Lloyd wasn’t faring much better. Cole had Lloyd pinned in his lap and was holding him there with one leg while he tickled him relentlessly. He squeezed Lloyd’s hips and thighs with one hand and had the other hand shoved under Lloyd’s arm, sending him into complete hysterics as he tried to squirm away.

“I’m sohohohorry, Cohohohole!! I’ll nehehehever do it agahahain!!”

Cole hummed. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“I prohohohomise— NOHOHohoho!! Anywhehehehere but there, plehehehease!!” Lloyd hollered when Cole suddenly had both hands clawing at Lloyd’s ribs. He threw his head back and nearly pulled both of them off the bed as he squirmed. Cole chuckled at Lloyd’s reactions, glancing over his shoulder for a brief moment.

Jay was wiggling and flopping as much as he could, bargaining and pleading as he was tickled to bits. At some point, Kai had managed to slip his hands under Jay’s shirt and skitter his fingers across his bare tummy.

Cole eventually relented from tickling Lloyd, patting his back lightly while Lloyd didn’t even try to move out of his lap. He hiccuped with giggles as Jay was given a break as well, immediately curling up and swatting at Kai and Zane.

“That wahahas so uncahahalled for,” Jay said after a few moments, squawking when Kai wiggled his fingers at him again. He scooted away while Kai laughed.

“It was so not uncalled for. You’re lucky we didn’t give you chores instead,” Kai said, a small bit of triumph in his voice as Zane and Cole nodded in agreement.

Jay pouted, but he didn’t say anything else in protest. Lloyd timidly pointed over to the cookie plate. “There are still some cookies if you want some.”

Cole chuckled, bouncing his leg a bit so Lloyd jolted in his lap. “A peace offering, huh? I’ll take it.”

Kai grabbed the plate and passed it around. Everyone took a cookie and it did seem to work as a peace offering because the group was chatting as if nothing had even happened. Jay made a mental note to himself to have a stash of cookies in order to get himself out of trouble later on.

[23sanguinity]

As my friends know, I am both a long time lover of Moana and currently obsessed with the transformers. So when I wanted to make transformers art but had no ideas I looked at my tiny Moana doll and was like what. What if she turned into her boat

Info on design +refs used bellow cut (I ramble a lot, be warned)

I basically traced a picture of my tiny Moana doll and an image of her boat to design the initial concept and because my friends thought it was cool I wanted to color it, so I sort of traced the vague shapes of the sitting lady reference and made the second pictured sketch from that. I colored over the second sketch, and decided that while I usually don’t do line art it would look better with it, so i did that but after finishing up I didn’t like how little color it had without a background so I spent a little time doing that. Procreate tracked 3hrs36 but I was sketching some random bullshit before I had an actual idea so it’s probably about 2-3 hours? I think? I am completely time blind even on my meds.

Another note is that I didn’t consider how an actual transformation would work at all, just that the parts had to go somewhere. I imagine the head folds under between the two storage compartments

I actually have a lot to say.

The hair was tricky, I wanted to still evoke her hair texture as she wears it in the movie but couldn’t really do that so on the final drawing I ended up just implying that shape of the hair. The idea was that any little sticks and bits would be segmented with some rope running down the middle so they could move, but it looked a lot like braids, which while cool, isn’t really what I wanted.

I thought several times about how it would be cool to know about the actual wood types used in this type of boat and how the colors I was using likely would not match up with this, but did not end up doing any research to incorporate into the final piece. I think the tones I used get the job done but aren’t really true to the movie or any sort of real world boat. If I draw this design again I’ll definitely keep fiddling but for now I’m happy that the sail at least looks right.

Back to the hair (lol) I thought a bit about replicating her bun instead, but couldn’t quite figure out what to make it with. I might try a redesign that doesn’t have any hair, maybe with some segmented sticks going down her head but stopping at the neck, but idk

If I draw her again I also want to focus on more of the little details- sail texture, wood grain, the little pattern on the hull/legs, I’m just impatient af and rush everything I do (also probably why the hair didn’t quite work out, I can’t slow down enough to do it properly)

I also need to look at more references, the ones I included are literally the only ones I used, and there are a few things that would look better if I did

I didn’t incorporate her oar into the design, thought I wanted to, I both worried about messing up the scale (honestly the rushed background kinda did anyway, whatever tho) and unsure how to incorporate yet another long stick. Most of the design I got around the stick issue by segmenting them but I don’t want to do that with the oar, because while breaking it doesn’t compromise structural integrity it does have a more visible role in the plot. Also, I’m not entirely sure where to put it, because again, it’s more plot relevant than other individual boat components and I’d want it to be clearly visible.

You know I think this is what art teachers wanted from me. And I’m just doing it for fun now

[thewiddershinsme]

Finished Anastasia by Sophie Lark! Random thoughts with full spoilers below:

-you can definitely tell the author likes the 1997 animated Anastasia movie, there are some elements that feel inspired by/paying homage to that film (Damien/Dimitri similar sounding names, him calling Anastasia “Anya”, the music box, Rasputin’s greenish hue at times, and my favorite the white bat called Bat (Bartok!)). Even the illustrations bring that movie to mind.

-this is not a historical retelling by absolutely any means whatsoever (it is about as accurate as My Lady Jane - which is actually a good comparison cause that show also creates a magic filled alternate reality and the main premise is a doomed historical figure survives), but there are obviously real places and people mentioned which sent me down the Wikipedia and YouTube documentaries rabbit hole. So despite this being a complete fantasy novel, I actually learned a bit by looking up the real world history on my own! I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that Felix was a real person (and it was his Wikipedia entry that made me suspicious about the novel’s ending)

-I never was crazy about Damien himself (though his death touch was nice and angsty and added a whole new layer of obstacle to their romance) but I liked him and Anastasia’s relationship (even more post Revolution) I just wish had a few more moments and interactions when they were growing up together in a show don’t tell way. But I was so so looking forward to the complete grief stricken angst and breakdown as regret when he found out about Anastasia’s “death”; and it happens in the time skip! I love that trope, and was so annoyed it happened off screen.

-Anastasia’s relationship and interactions with her family was well-done. It really showed that even though her family was extremely flawed and in the wrong, they all desperately loved and protected each other (which I think is part of the tragedy of the last Romanovs, that they were well known to be a close and loving family but absolutely terrible autocratic rulers. They would’ve been happier not being the imperial family).

-the big spoiler: time travel solves (mostly) all. I suspected this was gonna happen when historical figures that are known to survive the Revolution were all killed off in the first timeline. In all honesty, I didn’t mind it. This was a fantasy story, the time manipulation element has been part of the plot from the beginning so didn’t come out of left field, and the foreword directly stated Anastasia was going to have her happily ever after. And as mentioned above, the more I read the more I realized in order for her to have a happily ever after, she needed both Damien and her family. I actually had more trouble accepting that Anastasia became Tsarina. I mean, it was a big thing that the girls could not inherit the throne, that was why Alexei having hemophilia and being sickly and likely to die was SO MAJOR politically, cause her dad just couldn’t “decide” to give the throne instead to one of the daughters….except that is exactly what happened. And not even Olga, the eldest child, but the youngest daughter! That part (weirdly enough out of all lol) broke my suspension of disbelief for a bit, but after some time I realized that it was the best ending for the AU to give the throne to the person that had lived the terrible alternate future and could lead Rusya to peace and prosperity for all (since no Revolution happened in the new timeline). I just had to headcanon it that it got passed through the Duma due to Anastasia’s time walking capabilities (which the heir was always supposed to have but she was the only one of her siblings to inherit). And I did like the symmetry of Damien (who was supposed to Attaman) leaving to become the Rusyan consort, while Alexei (who was supposed to be Tsar) instead becoming a Cossack. And you know what, it is still bittersweet that Anastasia lost the version of Damien that she first married, and all the moments and understanding and memories they had built together.

-so, this book felt like a fanfic, and I mean that in the best possible way. There were illustrations (which were gorgeous) and a soundtrack (with tracks interspersed throughout the novel so you know what part each song corresponds with). It does not replace the Anastasia 1997 movie in my heart of hearts (which will probably always be my favorite Anastasia retelling) and did not ignite a new obsession (which was kinda hoping it would). But this was very obviously a passion project, and I enjoyed reading it, and have already lent my copy out to someone else. In a couple years will definitely re-read it again.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Rasputin being a vampire was a twist that completely took me by surprise but I thought was a very clever fantastical take on Alexei’s dependence on his “healing” powers

[eemcintyre]

The Door is Open (Tom Cruise)

TW- Mentions of harassment. Other than that, just pure fluffy goodness with a dash of hurt/comfort to send us off.

Summary- you are a production assistant on the set of a 90s Tom Cruise movie, and he steps in when one of his costars threatens you (**I created a fictional movie and a fictional costar bc I'm not about to slander some random real-life actor for no reason lol**). Additional note: in this universe, he's only been married to Mimi Rogers.

A warm thank you to anyone who takes the time to read; this is just me having fun and taking the serotonin where I can get it

“Cut!” the director exclaimed as the cast finished filming the last of the scenes they had hoped to do before lunch. Just as crew members began to mill around set and the hum of conversation started up, as Tom Cruise ran a hand through his grown-out hair and did a couple of arm and back stretches, Y/N entered the soundstage balancing two cardboard trays full of drinks.

Although the caterer provided general meals and beverages, some of the cast and crew preferred to order drinks from an artisan café down the street. And, as one of the production assistant/PAs on the set of “Gold Rush,” it was Y/N’s job to run down the aforementioned street, to the aforementioned café, to fetch the aforementioned drinks, as well as do essentially any odd small job that anyone ranked higher than her asked her to do. And pretty much everyone was ranked higher than the PAs.

Although the work could be exhausting and she didn’t get a lot of please-s or thank you-s for what she did, Y/N was really enjoying the experience for the most part. She found it really interesting to see what went into all of the different units’ work, from set construction to costuming to lighting (when she wasn’t running for bottles of water or copies of the script, which was a lot of the time), but one thing she had not hoped to learn, at least so early on in her film career, was how slimy some of the actors could be.

While Tom Cruise, despite being the most well-known and successful actor in Hollywood, seemed from her observations to be the image of class and generosity, one of his co-stars, Bill Waters, was… less so. To be completely accurate, Bill Waters was a conceited asshole who faked affability around those he felt could benefit him and was used to getting anything he wanted at the snap of his fingers. And one of the things he had recently wanted, and was appalled to have not received, was Y/N. The other day, he had approached her alone outside the soundstage building and forcefully propositioned her, to the point that she had to slap him to escape his hold.

Ever since then, despite her rigorous attempts to avoid him, he had criticized, embarrassed, and overworked her at every chance. A couple of days ago, he yelled at her for taking so long to bring him a dish from a restaurant located across town, and yesterday, he’d purposely spilled the coffee she’d just brought him, just so she would have to get another one.

As she quickly made her way through the room, handing each coffee and tea to its recipient, she tried not to make eye contact with the fast-approaching Bill. When she thrusted the paper cup into his hand, he made a point to stroke her fingers when he took it from her. Y/N glanced up, startled, met with a faint smirk that made her sick to her stomach. She decided not to respond, hoping he would lose interest and go away as she moved on to the next set of people across the room, but he pursued her until he matched her speed-walking pace.

“Hey, this isn’t what I ordered,” he said, putting the cup in her face so that she had to narrowly dodge a passing crew member to not get doused.

“You said that you wanted a caramel brulée latte, and that’s what it is.”

“Oh, I must have forgotten to say that I didn’t want whipped cream. Whoops.” His smirk grew wider and more punchable as she kept failing to out-walk him without attracting attention. “Anyway, I’m not drinking this; you’ll have to run back out so you can get me the right thing.”

“Can’t you just skim it off the top?” Y/N protested, preparing to round a tight corner around a large set piece that several people were transporting, when she felt a searing pain across the front of her torso.

Dazed from the pain and the many eyes that were now on her, it took a moment for Y/N to register that the front of her shirt was splattered with Bill’s rejected coffee. A couple of her acquaintances from the hair and makeup department ran to get her some towels, as everyone else continued to stare.

“What is wrong with you?” Bill gasped, anger coloring his face. After a few moments of stunned silence, another voice chimed in.

“What the hell’s going on?” Tom Cruise appeared, confused, from within the assembled crowd. He sighted Y/N, dripping with coffee, and Bill, red in the face with obvious irritation, and his eyebrows furrowed suspiciously.

“She ran into me and made me spill my drink,” Bill complained, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, I saw you throw it at her,” Tom replied sternly. “You threw a hot coffee at Y/N. Why would you do that?” His voice was level and at a calm, low volume, but in his eyes, one could see that he was pissed. Even in the midst of the immense embarrassment, she was surprised and pleased that Tom Cruise, of all people, knew her name.

Y/N’s friends reappeared with handfuls of towels, and as they made their way to help dry her soaked shirt, Tom took one of the towels to hand to her as well.

“Well? What is wrong with you?” he continued to prod Bill. 

“What’s wrong with me?” Bill’s gestures and expressions were becoming more agitated. “She’s the one who can’t figure out how to order the right drinks, or even hold them- I want her fired.”

Y/N paled, feeling even more sick and now slightly dizzy, at the prospect of her film career going down in flames before it could hardly begin.

“Do you think that, just because you’re more famous than she is, that you don’t have to treat her like a person? Is that it?” Tom glared.

“Do you think just because you’re Tom fucking Cruise that you can talk to me that way? Because I won’t stand for it.”

“I won’t stand for that kind of bullshit on my set,” Tom snarled, his temper finally slipping through to the open. “You can be a decent fucking person or you can get out. We’ll find someone else; no one’s irreplaceable.”

“Except you and whoever kisses your ass,” Bill spat, storming out past the crowd.

“You are out of here!” Tom yelled after him, even though he and everyone else knew that he most likely didn’t have the authority to make such a decision, even given his status in the industry.

Taken aback by the scene they had just witnessed, it took a few minutes for the crowd to dissipate. Y/N retreated outside to the parking lot behind the soundstage, dabbing at her stained shirt, her mind reeling with the very real possibility that her time on the “Gold Rush” set was over.

Realizing Tom had followed her out and was gazing at her with concern, she mustered “Mr. Cruise, t-thank you; you didn’t have to do that. I don’t want to cause any problems…”

“Did you throw a hot coffee on him?” Tom asked gently.

“N-no…?”

“Did you just curse everyone out?” The hint of a smile flickered at the corners of his mouth.

“No…”

“Well, unless you start doing that, you have nothing to worry about, as far as I’m concerned.” He paused, studying how she avoided his gaze. “He isn’t any better than you or me.”

They experienced another awkward silence, as no one else was currently in that part of the lot.

“Was that the first time that happened? Because I remember he also spilled his coffee yesterday. Maybe he’s the one who can’t figure out how to hold things.” Tom met Y/N’s surprised look knowingly, and with that, she found herself beginning to lose her composure.

“No, it’s not the first time,” her voice cracked, and she crossed her arms in a self-soothing motion as tears began to fall. “He’s pissed because I wouldn’t sleep with him- oh gosh, Mr. Cruise, I’m so sorry for crying, this is the last thing you need…” She covered her face, utterly mortified to be having a mental breakdown in front of Tom Cruise. She inhaled shakily in an effort to rein it back in. “I’m okay, I’m fine.”

“I want you to take fifteen minutes,” Tom replied softly, reaching for one of her heaving shoulders. “We need to get you a new shirt- I have an extra crew t-shirt from when they were handing them out the other day- and speaking of drinks, have you had anything to drink recently?” Y/N shrugged, not wanting to admit it and seem even more needy. “That’s what I thought,” he shook his head. “You can sit in my trailer where no one will bother you, and then you’ll be ready to get back out there and finish the day on a high note.”

“Mr. Cruise, that’s very nice of you, but I don’t know…”

He realized she might be wary of the idea of his trailer after Bill had made his move on her. “We can keep the door open the whole time. I’ll sit on the opposite side of the trailer,” he grinned, raising his hands in a yielding gesture for emphasis.

“I- I didn’t mean-” she stammered, not wanting to offend another of the cast members.

“It’s alright.” He waved her forward in the direction of his trailer, and she conceded. “Now, we just have to stop this Mr. Cruise business. Y/N, please feel free to call me Tom.”

~

Once they reached his trailer, as promised, Tom left the door open behind them. After rooting through a few boxes and drawers, he located the aforementioned t-shirt.

“It is a men’s medium, and it’s not exactly a fashion statement…” he winced.

“It’ll do just fine; it doesn’t have any coffee on it, and that’s what I’m interested in.” Y/N finally found it in her to smile before quickly getting changed in the small trailer bathroom. She noted the towels, cologne, and other personal items on the sink counter, and it hit her more fully that she was literally in Tom Cruise’s trailer, a place she never could have envisioned visiting.

When she reemerged, she saw Tom leaning against the wall near the opposite end of the trailer, and a bottle of water that had been placed at the table down by her.

“I hope you like that kind; I mentioned I liked it and they sent me a whole case,” Tom chuckled. “Anyway, I can’t finish it all by myself.”

“Thanks.” Y/N slid into one of the bench seats at the table and took a sip. “At least my last day as a PA will end on a good note,” she winced.

“No one is going to fire you,” Tom insisted. “You’re a kind, cheerful person when you’re not getting hot coffee thrown at you, and you’ve got a great work ethic. Both rare things in this industry a lot of the time. You aren’t going anywhere, trust me; you still have a future.”

Y/N took another sip of her water.

“What are you hoping to do in movies? Are you another aspiring actress, or do you want something more niche like makeup, production design, directing?”

“Not sure yet. I’m still trying to see what I like the most. Reading about it and doing it are two very different things, you know.”

Tom nodded, understanding. “You have family nearby?”

Y/N shook her head. “Tennessee.”

“A country girl," he grinned. "What do they think of your career choice?”

“They’re warming up to it.”

“I was lucky, my family was always really supportive.”

“Do you get to see them very often? It seems like you always go, go, go,” Y/N laughed quietly.

“Not as much as I’d like, but… enough,” he nodded again, as if confirming he was satisfied with his own answer.

Y/N suddenly recalled Tom’s recent divorce. Even though he and his ex-wife hadn’t had any children, they had still been together several years, and Y/N was sure it must have been difficult for him. As they were on the topic of family, she made a point not to mention even indirectly anything to do with those matters.

“Well, everyone’s got to take a break once in a while. Maybe after this picture wraps you can spend some time with them.”

“Yeah,” Tom replied, his gaze momentarily drifting into the distance. “But until then, it’s nice to have some company now.”

“I’ll have another mental breakdown just for you, so we can do it again sometime,” Y/N joked, trying to make light of her humiliation. To her relief, Tom laughed in response, diffusing some of her tension. “I should probably be going. They’ll be looking for me once they run out of drinks.” Y/N rose to her feet, grabbing her water and her soiled shirt.

“Well, if you would ever like to drop by again, my door is open- literally.” He gestured to the open trailer door. “And you let me know if Bill ever bothers you again- I’ve learned a lot of fighting moves from working on this movie and I can kick his ass.”

“Okay. I would love to see that,” Y/N replied, making her way to the front of the trailer and toward Tom. “No,” her tone of voice became serious again, “You’ve already done more than I could have asked for.” In the confines of the trailer, she and he came closely face-to-face as she neared the doorway.

“Well, sometimes, all you have to do is ask.” He smiled warmly and they shared an intense moment of eye contact before Y/N shyly looked away. Tom exited the trailer ahead of her, reaching out his hand for her to take from where he stood on the ground, to guide her down the couple of stair steps. “Now, go get ‘em.”

“It’s true, you really are a relentless optimist,” Y/N smiled and shook her head. They waved each other goodbye, and then she headed back in the direction of the soundstage, feeling like she could face the rest of the day again, and maybe even the rest of the production. Even though all of her anxieties didn’t magically go away, she figured that, with Tom Cruise in her corner, she had little to worry about.

[goldensunset]

it’s breath of the wild’s 7th anniversary can i get sappy and vulnerable on main real quick cuz it completely changed my life

so it was christmas 2017 when my brother received a nintendo switch and breath of the wild. i remembered watching him play a bit the day he got it and funny enough my first thought back then upon seeing the opening cutscene was ‘wow this animation is janky’ because i thought we were watching an animated movie. the moment i realized it was a video game i was shook. bc for a game WOW how beautiful. anyway i watched him mess around and die horribly and it was funny but i didn’t think much about it

flash forward a few months later. in april of 2018- a nice spring day, must’ve been a weekend or some other time i had time off bc my friend was over- my brother came home from college and brought his nintendo switch and this game over. he had me make a file and i didn’t know what i was doing at all because i was not only unfamiliar with the game and console, but largely unfamiliar with the concept of this type of video game at all

see, i was not a gamer at all. i had played mario kart/party and some random stuff on the ds but nothing resembling an action adventure game aside from super mario 64 ds. and i never got past like the first level or so on that game bc i was bad at it as a kid and also like.. scared? of games? like a game in which you had to fight enemies and could take damage and die. even something really simple like a goomba was actively stressful to me somehow. (to this day i still kind of have the hyper-empathy mindset where letting the video game player die feels like letting a real person die i have to treat a fun work of fiction like a real life-or-death situation so i just prefer not to get into danger when i can avoid it. all that’s changed is i have the skill to face danger and accumulate ways to protect myself now lol)

soooo i don’t know what manner of madness convinced me to even try a game like breath of the wild, which is immensely more complicated and difficult than super mario 64 ds. but maybe it’s bc i was older then or bc my friend was over to help me and we were like trading the console? but you get what i’m saying. as one might expect, i was pressing the wrong buttons, getting overwhelmed by basic enemies, falling off cliffs bc i lacked precision skills in my motion, etc.

and as one might expect, i eventually got frustrated and bored. i remembered my brother asking me what my long-term strategy or plan was for playing the game, and that question sort of overwhelmed me because i was thinking ‘do i really intend to keep playing at all?’. when i put the game aside that day (after having only reached/fallen off the great plateau tower, i mean) i wasn’t really interested in continuing, and i figured i could probably never be good at it anyway.

but for some reason, and i wish i remembered why, i picked it back up again not long after. me, who had never been willing to commit to a game. maybe it was my desire to correct my failures and figure out what i was at last doing. i felt ready for a good challenge and i got the sense this was the sort of game that was more skill than luck. maybe it was the beautiful scenery and ambience. maybe it was that sense of peaceful melancholy. maybe it was because i could see so much on the horizon, so many mysteries around me, that i just had to be able to reach someday. in such a massive open world in which the plot wasn’t spoonfed to me but i had to discover it, my interest had been piqued.

or maybe it was because i was bored and depressed. i was close to the end of freshman year in high school, which had been pure misery. difficult to understate just how awful life was for me during that point in time (but it was just the terrifying cocoon stage of becoming a butterfly). so yeah, why not pick up a new piece of media? why not dive into this world? i think we all know just how powerful it is to develop a new interest when going through a rough patch- it can turn absolutely everything around. (even if it ends up distracting you from the work you need to do lol. but in my case i consider that a necessary tradeoff for giving me the serotonin my brain doesn't naturally produce enough of)

and i think there's something to be said about the medium of a video game, which was basically new to me at the time- i think it's something about the ability to have control over what's happening. in tv shows things just happen. in real life i felt like i had no control over anything. so i was suddenly able to express myself in a way that i had never gotten to before, and it was powerful. especially in an open-world game with so much to do and discover. (something something the adhd-er's wild fantasy of being able to complete tasks and make progress).

i quickly became addicted- i could play for hours on end and barely put a dent in the smallest section of the map. i couldn't believe how genuinely massive the world was and i just wanted to explore more and more, but without skipping anything i came across. i still remember in my mind exactly where i was in my house when reaching many of those early-game checkpoint places, curled up in a chair in the corner, listening to my mom make dinner in the other room... etc. the definition of nostalgia. (which is something i only have so much of given how most of my interests i didn't get into until significantly later in life. i was 15 when this was happening whereas most people's childhood nostalgia type stories are from when they were like 5 to 8. but this was such a foundational time in my life y'know?)

i remember hours of getting lost in the wilderness (i truly had the worst habit of either not getting the maps or not heeding them) and never going on the clearly marked roads bc i was convinced i could take a shortcut by just taking a straight line to my destination. which often involved attempting to scale a ridiculously steep and tall mountain with like one and a half wheels of stamina. live and learn, right?

i remember the way it took absolutely forever to reach zora's domain (the fact that i didn't get the tower map beforehand probably significantly contributed to that) so the absolute joy and relief i felt when i got there and was safe at last. i adore all the champions so much but mipha is for sure the one that messes up my heart the most to this day, as both the first one i got and the one with objectively the most emotional story. something about water levels has always unsettled me- no matter what, to me they're always associated with being cold, wet, and uncomfortable, even if it's supposed to be beautiful (and vah ruta sure wasn't meant to be for obvious reasons). especially if the player has to swim- whether there's limited breath or not, i can't help but imagine how stressful it would be to dive deep and be under pressure like that. but on the flip side, once you're finally done with those levels and back on dry land, it feels comforting. warm, dry and stable again- sort of like how you feel after you're finished crying. you had to endure the drowning and the suffering and now you're safe. that's how the vah ruta quest feels to me.

each new ruin, or quiet little settlement, really just lodged its way into my heart, but i think the location that makes me the most emotional is the flight range- its beautiful broken melody, the howling wind and snow, its position in the middle of the wilderness like a little safe haven in the mountains, the faint memory of revali... i used to just go there and sit for hours. it's just gorgeous and it hits so hard. once again, it's all about that quiet, solemn peace after a tragedy has occurred- the sadness lingers, but you learn to live again. botw just excels at this in pretty much every aspect, enough said

which comes to the central conflict of the premise- our titular heroine, zelda, and her struggles to complete her duty, her guilt complex, the pressure and loneliness she felt, etc. i have identified so closely with her for the entire time i've known her. (done a fair amount of projecting too but listen. listen) the way she felt weak and powerless and just wanted to find a way to make people happy, especially her overbearing father who didn't care enough for her happiness... that hit so hard as an emotionally volatile teenager with similar issues. to this day my dad only talks to me to nag me about something important i need to do but he's never cared about my personal interests. he acts more like my manager than my parent. throughout high school especially i just kept falling back to zelda's story every time my dad was being awful and i needed to escape him, listening to him call me lazy, behind the ball, etc when i was clearly going through severe depression that would have never even occurred to him. and while unlike zelda i still have my mom she's always been incredibly emotionally distant so there was no looking to her either. i blamed myself for everything that went wrong even though i never could've done anything without the kind of help i needed, similar to zelda

for me personally the theme of failing to succeed in the role other people were pressuring her into resonated with me and my undiagnosed... whatever it is. i am positive i am not neurotypical. i've always more or less self-identified as adhd (my parents would laugh if i suggested that) and i've never received support or treatment or anything. that plus the undiagnosed and untreated depression. the way zelda just couldn't do something that she had no idea how to even begin trying to do, the way going through the rituals that worked for other people did nothing for her... that hit hard as someone just barely trying to stay alive in high school, who always felt alienated from others and never could understand exactly why, who was bad at a lot of things... but my dad only cared about results

and in turn. the emotional catharsis of her finally unlocking the latent power she'd been struggling to reach inside her. it's never been established exactly what it was that was wrong with her that prevented her from unlocking it but i think we all know it had something to do with her heart not being free until the moment she had the courage to do something brave, dangerous, and important through her own free will- going against the grain, standing up for someone she loved, etc. that's an essay for another time tho. to me that's what makes it so powerful- yeah this (back)story is still a tragedy, but there's hope. she found her own path. she still had to undergo lots of suffering afterwards but she had what she needed to succeed. and she got her happy ending in the end. i probably don't need to explain why that's so meaningful to me as someone who loves her so much and relates too hard. also her dad died (i am NOT wishing that upon my dad to be clear). i mean for her that's a bad thing bc he did regret his actions and never get to apologize to her and she wishes she had gotten to see him again but also that's in the fantasy world where one could reasonably expect their father to change. i've kind of given up on that but maybe someday after we've gotten some distance... idk

in short. botw hits me like a truck with the way it brings you so, so low, in the pits of despair, and then brings you back up. not everything is fixed and perfect at the end, the characters who died stay dead, but they finally get to pass on and rest in peace. we free zelda. we bring back the most significant parts of link's memory. we watch the broken and scattered world begin to grow and breathe again. perfectly cathartic and hopeful and powerful for someone going through such awful things. i'm not out of the woods yet with all my ten thousand problems but i'm in a much better place now. i've typed way too many words here and it's still like not enough to express just how much this game means to me. i could go on forever and ever about the things i find objectively good about this game but this ramble was meant to focus on the subjective meanings i've found within it. breath of the wild has been nothing short of a blessing for me. thank you nintendo, truly.

[supernovafics]

Hey love your “I’ll be there for you” series, recently read the one where Steve walked in on her and was wondering if you could write her walking in on him please 💖

𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐈𝐓

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 3k words

warnings: explicit language, brief-ish mention of reader’s shitty parents

summary: in which you and steve end up at your childhood home after a shitty party at the house of one of your old high school friends. a frozen pizza and some spilled wine lead to another awkward moment between you two, but the roles are reversed this time around

author's note: thanks for the request! this became a lot longer than i expected but it was a really fun one to write lol

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Fall 1985

“Are we living in a nightmare right now?”

You didn’t need to hear Steve’s response to know exactly how true your words were. 

Deciding to come to this party, and forcing Steve to come with you, was probably one of the worst ideas you’ve had in a while and you now fully regretted it. Even before going, you had a feeling it would suck— that it would be full of way too many people you knew from high school, most of whom you never really wanted to see again. But, when you were invited by an old friend after running into her at the diner you and Steve would frequent, it felt too hard to say no on the spot, and then just for one stupid second you managed to convince yourself that this could be a good idea; fun, even. 

And making Steve come with you would also make it a thousand times more bearable. Even though he was working a late shift at Family Video, you were still able to convince him to come to the party with you after his shift— mainly because you promised him that you would clean out Harold’s cage for the next two weeks. 

Barely twenty minutes in, you two had gotten split up somehow and you had minor conversations, none of which were started by you, with at least ten people from high school. What made it worse was that since it was Thanksgiving break most people were home for the week from whatever college they went off to, and all you heard about were stories of people’s college experiences so far, which quickly became way too repetitive. 

After hearing one too many stories about “having so much freedom” and “super crazy frat parties,” you desperately started searching for Steve so that you two could leave. You had spotted him in the kitchen in a matter of seconds having a conversation with a random guy, and as if sensing your gaze on him, his eyes immediately met yours. You gave each other a look that said everything that needed to be said and you met him outside moments later. 

Now your eyes were fixed on his car, which was completely sandwiched in by two cars that parked way too close, so there was no way that you two could leave right then. 

When Steve laughed at the current situation and at you saying that this entire night was a nightmare, you gave him a confused look. 

“Why are you laughing?”

He lightly shrugged, eyes meeting yours. “Come on, this is at least a little bit funny. When was the last time you’ve seen shit like this happen before?”

You let out a sigh that morphed into somewhat of a laugh. “Okay, so instead of a nightmare this is just some kind of fucked up comedy movie?”

“Yes, exactly,” He said with a nod. “So, now what? Should we go back inside?” 

“No way,” You told him as you leaned against the side of his car instead of going back toward the house. Steve didn’t say anything in response to that and simply joined you, standing close enough so that it was easy for you to lean your head against his shoulder. 

It was quiet for a few moments, probably because you both were trying to figure out how to salvage the rest of the night. On the drive back home, you were going to suggest that you two pick up something from the pizza place close by the apartment and then settle on the couch and watch a movie since it was barely ten o’clock, but now that idea felt pretty impossible.

You were about to say that maybe you two should go back inside the house and just find a room to camp out in for the time being— it felt like the only plausible idea that wouldn’t have you two standing out in the cold for the next few hours. But then you remembered the address of the house you two were currently standing outside of, and it finally hit you why the street name had felt so familiar when it was scrawled out and given to you on a random napkin at the diner. 

“Oh, my God. Samantha’s seventh birthday!” 

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed at your abrupt words. “What?” 

You lifted your head from his shoulder and looked at him. “Okay, long story short, this girl in my second grade class lived on this street and she was having a birthday party, and my mom dropped me off for it. I think that there was some confusion between her and my dad about who would pick me up from it, so neither of them ended up coming because they both thought that the other one was; or maybe they just forgot. Before Samantha’s parents could notice that I was the last kid left— and that I was the kid whose parents forgot to pick them up from a birthday party, which felt so embarrassing— I decided to walk home. It felt like an hour, but I think it was actually just like ten minutes. And that sad story was the long winded way of me saying that we should just walk to my house right now because it’s really close and who knows how long it’ll take for either of these cars to move.”  

Steve bypassed your final statement for a moment. “You walked home when you were seven, and this is a story that is just now coming up?” 

“Some traumatic childhood memories I like to keep to myself and completely repress unless it’s absolutely necessary to bring them up, and this moment needed that story.” You were only slightly joking with your words. “Anyway, my parents are still on that Thanksgiving ski trip with yours until Sunday, so the house is empty. Let’s go, Harrington.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Overall, you loved your childhood home, it was just your parents that had made it unbearable most of the time— which was what made you want to move out sooner rather than later. However, since your parents weren’t home, it wasn’t surprising that you were enjoying being in the kitchen with Steve right then. 

You had pulled a bottle of wine off the rack that was in the living room, and you and Steve decided to drink it out of mugs instead of glasses because it felt much less “adult” that way. You were sitting on top of the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen and Steve stood next to you after he put the frozen pizza that he found in the freezer into the oven— you were certain that you had bought it during the summer before you moved out because you truly couldn’t imagine your parents buying it themselves.   

The bottle of wine was already done, with the last of it going into your mug, and Steve took a quick sip of what was left in his before speaking. “Y’know whenever we tell each other shitty childhood stories, like that birthday party one, it makes me really glad that we have each other.”

You knew for a fact that it wasn’t the wine and your slight inebriation that made his words hit you so damn hard. Instead, they hit you hard because of how completely true they were and how you felt the exact same way. Nearly ten years of Steve being in your life and it was difficult, and equally painful, to imagine anything different. It was hard to picture what your life would be like if you hadn’t met him on that stupid cruise when you were ten. 

You were sure that you still would’ve had friends in this sucky alternate universe where you never met Steve, and you maybe even called someone else your best friend. But you were also sure that none of those friendships would be like what you had with Steve. What you two had was unprecedented, and as dramatic as it probably would’ve sounded if you said this to anyone that wasn’t Steve, it felt like something that was once in a lifetime. 

How deeply you’d been affected by his words right then may not have been due to the wine, but you knew that your sudden urge to cry at that moment was due to your slight inebriation. You brought your mug to your lips and took a long drink from it to settle the lump growing in your throat. 

“That feeling’s very mutual,” You ultimately said as you playfully bumped your knee against him. “Also, you’re being way too sentimental right now, which feels very out of character for you.” 

He smiled at that. “Oh, yes, I forgot. You’re the sentimental one when we’re drunk. I shouldn’t be taking over that role.” 

“Exactly,” You said sarcastically to match his tone and moved your hand to point at him, which you did way too fast and made most of the red wine in your mug spill all over his shirt and onto the floor. You immediately slapped your free hand over your mouth out of shock and so you wouldn’t laugh at what just happened. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.”

Steve laughed, which made it a thousand times harder to hold back your own laughter. “I had a feeling you hated this shirt, but now I know for sure that you do.”

You actually had nothing against the simple yellow crewneck he was wearing with the sleeves bunched up at his elbows, but before you two had left the apartment that night, you made a playful joke about his outfit; it was just fun to push his buttons sometimes. 

“I actually really like it. This was purely accidental,” You said as you sat your now empty mug down next to you. 

“Where’s the mop again?”

You shook your head at his question and pushed yourself off the counter, avoiding the mess on the floor. “No, I’ll clean this up, you should go change. There’s probably something of yours left in my room because I didn’t completely empty out all of the drawers when I packed.” You walked around Steve and toward the sink so that you could grab the sponge and clean the counter first. “And actually, you should maybe shower too unless you wanna smell like a vineyard for the rest of the night. And I personally don’t know if I’ll be able to stomach that.” 

“I feel like if I leave, you’ll somehow just end up making a bigger mess,” He said and you immediately rolled your eyes at that. 

“I’m sober enough to do this,” You told him. “You wanna see me walk in a straight line?”

Before he could answer, you quickly went over to the fridge and then turned around and started walking toward him, one foot in front of the other in a line that was somewhat straight. When you were standing right in front of him, you booped the tip of his nose with your finger. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at your current antics. “I don’t know if that helped me believe that you’re not drunk right now.” 

“Just go,” You said as you went back over to the sink. “If I somehow end up starting a fire, I’ll make sure to go get you before leaving the house or even calling 911.”

“That’s very comforting to know,” Steve told you sarcastically before he finally started heading down the hall. “But, you should definitely call 911 before getting me.”

“Yeah, yeah. It will all depend on how I feel in the moment,” You responded loud enough for him to hear, and you only heard him overdramatically sigh in response, which made you laugh. 

You cleaned up the wine that dripped onto the countertop and what spilled on the floor, and then you put both mugs in the sink and washed them. The mundane act managed to sober you up for the most part, and it also somehow made you need to pee.  

You were certain that Steve was already in the guest bathroom because that was the one he always used when he would come over. Therefore, you decided to go to yours, which was connected to your bedroom right down the hall.

At first, when you were younger, you hated having your bedroom on the first floor because it felt so far away from your parents, whose room was upstairs, and it was also harder to get away from the noise whenever they decided to have work parties at the house. But that hatred quickly changed as you got older because the fact that you were on the first floor made it so much easier for you to sneak out, mainly to Steve’s house twenty minutes away, or to sneak Steve in. 

The bedroom was now mostly empty and bare, but some things still lingered— your old bedding was still on the bed and some posters were still on the wall; ones that you didn’t want to bring to the apartment because they felt as if they just had to stay here. Even a smiling picture of you and Steve in his pool that was taken by his mom one Summer felt weirdly right to leave pinned up on the wall next to your closet like it had been for the past seven years. You bypassed the weirdness and slight nostalgia you were feeling at that moment and instead went to your bathroom. 

You did not expect to see Steve when you opened the door and you especially didn’t expect him to see him naked. He must’ve just gotten out of the shower because the towel that should’ve been wrapped around his waist was in his damp hair instead. 

The first thought you had when your eyes inadvertently traveled downward was that when the tables had been turned and you joked about seeing his “little Harrington” to make things even between you two, he was right by saying that it wasn’t little. It was actually nowhere near being little. You were unsure if that was a sober thought or a drunk one; it somehow felt like both. 

“Oh, shit, fuck,” You immediately turned around and then quickly realized that you didn’t close the door back, but you refused to turn around again, so you backed up a bit until you felt the doorknob and then harshly pulled it shut. “Fuck.”

“Did you actually start a fire?” You heard Steve’s voice through the door. 

“No,” You answered, eyes now firmly shut even though they didn’t have to be. “I thought you were in the other bathroom. You always use the other one. Why are you using mine?” 

“I only use the other one when you’re using yours. The water pressure in here is so much better.” 

“Oh,” You said, hating how much sense the short explanation made. “Well, still, fuck. And also, I’m sorry.” 

Steve let out a laugh, which surprised you because nothing about this moment felt like it should’ve been laughed about, at least not yet. “Y’know this moment feels like the worst kind of deja vu.”

You groaned. “Ugh, stop, we said we’d never bring up that moment.” 

“I know, but it feels like a very fitting time to bring it up,” He said. “And, at least, now we’re even.” 

“I guess that’s sadly true, but I was completely okay with us never being even on this thing,” You told him. “And now we have another moment that we’ll take to our graves and never speak of.”

“The list just keeps growing and growing.” 

“We should commit a crime so that we have less embarrassing things on the list.” 

“I agree.” You heard the door open and you kept your eyes shut even though you were still turned around. “It’s okay. I have clothes on now.” 

You let out a sigh in relief and turned around to face him. He was wearing your white t-shirt that had your high school name and “Class of ‘85” written across the front of it in dark green lettering— it was fairly oversized on you, but it fit him fine— and he had on a pair of black sweatpants that you knew were his because of the bleach spots on one of the legs. You remembered that they had been living in the bottom of your drawer since Junior year of high school. 

For some reason, it felt so damn awkward looking at him right then, even though he was now fully clothed. Now you completely understood why he had been so embarrassed when he walked in on you. You tried to think back to what you had said to him in that moment to ease the awkwardness, maybe those words could’ve been helpful in this moment, but your mind was drawing a blank. All you could think about and picture right then were things that you definitely should not have been thinking about or picturing. 

You then remembered the reason why you’d been heading to your bathroom in the first place. “I think seeing your little Harrington scared my pee away.” 

You refused to mention that you now knew that it actually wasn’t “little” because he did not need an ego boost right then when you were the one who felt way too awkward about this entire situation.

Steve let out a laugh and shook his head. “I don’t really know what to say to that.” 

You covered your face with your hands. “Don’t say anything, actually. I don’t even know why I just said that. This whole moment just feels so weird.”

“I think what you said to me that day when I did this to you was something like, Stop being weird and awkward about this. Let’s just forget this ever happened,” Steve said and you playfully punched his arm when he attempted to mimic your voice. 

“Fuck you. My voice is not that high-pitched.” 

Steve simply shrugged. “Close enough.”

“I did have very wise words, though,” You told him. “And we should listen to them and completely forget this moment ever happened.” 

“Taking it to the grave.”

You nodded. “To the grave.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[spicywhenspeaking]

If I'm There: Chapter Eight

read from part one!

Noah and Natalie meet in high school and developed a relationship through their love of music and art. Falling in love, innocent and young, they think nothing can keep them apart. However, sometimes in the pursuit of your dreams, the things you love the most get left behind.....

Warnings: mentions of alcohol use, mentions underage drinking, absent parents

“Hey Ky, I thought you were staying with dad?” I ask hesitantly not wanting to provoke his anger that I’ve grown so accustomed to. “I wanted to finish school in person. It doenst matter, dads place sucked anyway.” His smile falls and his shoulders tense. “Oh okay, well I’m gonna go back to my room.” I shuffle out awkwardly. “Okay, later.”

Natalie: so kyle is back…said dads place sucked. Wtf! 8:45pm

Noah: WHAT?! -_- your dad didn’t even call first? 8:47

Natalie: probably called my mom, but I have talked to her in a few days. She was passed out on the couch this morning. 8:47

Natalie: looks like she had a bottle of wine for dinner…or is it considered breakfast if you have it at 6am? 8:47

Noah: yikes. I’m sorry Nat. 8:48

Noah: did he say anything else? 8:48

Natalie: no, just started acting all defensive so I dropped it. 8:49

Noah: hm..think something happened with you dad? 8:50

Natalie: with Kyle? Probably. 8:51

Natalie: I’m just going to do my best to ignore him, and maybe we move movie night to your place lol. 8:52

Noah: lol of course, and you’re obviously welcome here anytime. I’ll come and pick you up anytime just say the word. 8:52

Natalie: my hero :) <3 ily

Noah: ily :)

We text back and for the rest of the night until I pass out on my bed. 

The next day Noah picks me up in the late afternoon so we can go to one of his shows together. Nick is in the back seat when I climb in the car. Greeting them both we drive off towards the venue they’re playing at for the night. Noah’s band has really picked up traction. He's put together a four member group of guys he’s found at other gigs, Nick is playing guitar and they have another guy Julius on drums and Mikey on Bass. They’re older and I don’t talk to them much. They’ve been asked to play in more bars and even some small venues. I can’t make all of them because of work but I try to go to as many as I can. It’s new territory for me. I’ve been to a lot of his shows over the summer but they're getting bigger and the crowd is rowdy. I have to stick to the back to not get overwhelmed but I’m happy to be there supporting Noah. 

The school year starts off strong. After a few weeks I’m managing my class work and work at the coffee shop pretty well. My AP classes are challenging but not impossible. Maggie from work is in my AP Econ class and it’s nice to have someone to study with. Sometimes Noah comes to surprise me at work. He'll order a drink and flirt with me the whole time I’m making it just to see how red he can make my face; those days he will wait until I’m off so he can drive me home. We’ll make out in the car until I have toI pry myself out before it gets too late. Noah and Kyle aren’t best friends by any means. They do their best to ignore each other in school and when Noah is picking me up or dropping me off but, that doesn’t stop him from making random comments here and there. 

“You came in pretty late last night, Noah hoping you flunk out completely and follow him around forever?” Kyle snips one morning as I’m making myself a bowl of cereal before catching the bus. “Since when is it your job to keep tabs on my comings and goings?” I say back to him “you don’t ever get any shit from me when you show up wasted on a school night. You know why?” I question. “Because I’m not mom or dad and neither are you, I can look out for myself just fine. But thanks for your concern” my voice is dripping with sarcasm. “Just be careful sis, he’s clearly more concerned with his own rockstar future than yours. Don’t throw your life away for some guy.” He finishes and I can almost hear genuine care in his voice. “You’ll end up just like mom.” With that I tense, my bowl of cereal placed down with more force than necessary, sending milk and Cheerios spilling over the side. “I am nothing like her.” I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulder. “And I never will be.” I exit the house without looking back at Kyle and slam the door, heading for the bus. 

Noah has a Thursday night show out of town and is all but begging me to go “I can’t Noah, I wish I could but I have an Econ test Friday and a science project due” I sigh, knowing I’m letting him down. “This show is huge baby. There’s going to be a lot of people there that could really help me.” He’s holding my hand’s against his chest and I can feel his rapid heartbeat. “Having you there would mean everything to me. I promise I’ll get you home right after the show, you’ll be in bed sleeping, fully rested for your test.” He says with the sweetest smile. “I need my Natalie with me” he kisses me and my defense melt “okayyy, okay, I’ll go,” I concede. 

“Yes!” He picks me up triumphantly and spins me around making us both laugh “thank you Natty” he squeezes me in a hug “ugh I love you so much” I return his hug and sigh like a love sick fool “I love you too”. 

Thursday night rolls around and while I have last period free, Noah and Nick skip their last class so they can meet Julius and Mikey to make sound check. The venue is a little over an hour away and we make it there by 4:30 just minutes before he needs to be on for sound check. The night goes on without a hitch; Noah and Nick meet a lot of people and seem to make a lot of connections but time is slipping away. Suddenly it’s 11:30pm and I cant find either of them anywhere. I’m searching the dark and smokey venue and can’t see Noah’s towering figure anywhere. Quickly becoming overwhelmed with all the drunken patrons bumping into me, I decide to go wait outside on the curb for them to finish up. I take out my phone and text Noah that I’m waiting outside so they can find me when they’re done. Finally they finish up and I notice it’s already 12:20am. The car unlocks and I take a deep breath as I climb in, exhausted from the night.

I’m used to being fast asleep on a school night by this hour, so I’m having a hard time staying awake as Noah excitedly recounts the night “Natty, that was amazing I can’t believe it, we played so well. I think that guy from Nashville is going to offer us some recording space! Isn’t that awesome?!” I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone muster the energy to respond. I let out a soft “mmhm” in reply. “I’m sorry baby, I’ll get you home soon. Just close your eyes and we’ll be there before you know it.” 

There’s a massive pileup on the way home and with the sounds of the sirens mixed with the lights shining I don’t sleep at all. When we finally make it back to my house it's nearly 3am. I just about fall out of the car before Noah is able to throw it in park. As I open my door, he goes to exit with me, exasperatedly I turn back and tell him, “Don’t worry about it. I’m going straight to bed.” If I had the energy I would have slammed the door. He exits anyway and races after me apologizing “I’m sorry Natty, I know I said it wouldn't be late.” I stop before opening the front door and look at him with exhausted eyes “I know you didnt mean too Noah. Look, I’m too tired for this.” I sigh. “I just want to go sleep for the few hours I have left before my alarm goes off.” I open the door and stand in the doorway “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” I say to him, sleep the only thing on my mind. “Okay, love you Natty.” he responds and leans to press a kiss to the top of my head. “Mmhm, love you” I tell him, closing the door and locking it. I head upstairs and crash onto my bed, asleep instantly.

When I wake up the next morning I turn over in bed and look at my alarm clock. “OH FUCK!” I shriek. It’s 10am.

I missed my Econ exam.

page divider from here :)

Next chapter here!

xoxoxox love you guys thanks for reading!!

taglist : @lma1986 @cookiesupplier @notingridslurkaccount

[oleworm]

on that post you've made - it almost like the burger place scenes are from the lens of Benson's eyes. Everything is taken to the extreme. The young couple aren't just inoffensive lovers who can't get their hands of each other, they are these inappropriate and sinister sex-crazed bullies, Kris isn't just some random jerk - there is a heavy innuendo (if not an explicit theme) to his abuse, the thirst for power and control. The girl is wearing those stereotypical "sexy" clothes (which would be inoffensive and totally fine in any other setting, but contribute to the overexposure of the moment), is all over her man and acts like his cheerleader in violence - a caricature of sorts, too. The manager is all about sex, hiding it behind propriety of a light suit. All while sex is heavily implied to be something negative in B's view - he borderline says so himself. But it's everywhere in that place, unavoidable. You can't even ignore it, stick to your routine and shut down the outside world - because it would be forced upon you by one of them through violence. The boundaries and consent are not very well respected there, to say the least.

All of this stuff happens in like, 5 min - to the point of being unrealistic and hyperbolic. The whole place has those heavy oppressing color of emergency yellow, they have burgers on their hats like targets, like they themselves are food, the secondary characters are so caricaturistic they feel like an explicit parody. It's all really surreal and bizarre, like inferno for someone with a trauma, lol. And then it all stops when the camera floats out of that place and into the wild - suddenly, people are friendly and nice, the lights are bright, the colours are normal and pretty with limited yellow highlights (thinking about the candies in the glass jar at the school's office - the colour of the sweater B wears as he is standing right next to them). It's like, when you have trauma, if something triggers your memory, normal things grow extreme, become overwhelming, a drop of red paint feels like dying, etc - then the panic ends and the world is normal again. But it's a movie so everything is taken to the extreme for drama.

You’re completely on point when you talk about these characters as caricatures, or caricaturistic. It felt that way to me too. They did not look like they were intended to look like real people to me. Jess’s loud and exaggerated screams, the gallons sprayed of blood a nod to slasher horror, which makes sense when you think that the studio that funded this film mostly makes horror movies. Then the film takes a different turn, focusing on the more mundane and real-life horrors.

It's not difficult to become disturbed when you’re faced with constant reminders of the traumatic events that shaped your life for the worse. And maybe I didn’t express myself very clearly, but that is exactly what I felt too—that Benson was focusing on these things because they are the ones that stand out to him, and that the filmmakers were intentionally bringing these elements to the fore. If you met someone like Chris in real life, you’d probably think he was an asshole. Keep to yourself, report him if he went too far. But that’s another thing that adds to the comparison of Benson’s past with his current setting. Hardy is aware of the hostile dynamics at play and doesn’t care, so if anyone actually thought to say something about it, they wouldn’t have anyone to turn to. If the boss is in on it, what do you do? Who do you tell? Does that remind you of anything?

I don’t know if I am reading too much into it. But yes, the way it was filmed, also, made me think of when a stimulus brings back a memory. It takes you out of yourself and at the same time turns you inward. When Benson walks out to his car, he is not only walking toward the gun and towards death but also walking away from the scene that so disturbed him. I think that though he might have decided that now he was really going to do it he also needed to physically remove himself from the situation because it overwhelmed him.

There’s this short clip that I liked, right after Benson and Randy take the bodies to the freezer. They’re mopping and sponging the blood off the floor, off the walls, and if it were not for the red you would think that it’s a normal workday. They’ve closed for the day but they’re heading home soon. They’re working side by side, wordlessly, in a way that I imagine them doing in better moments. But at the same time, I imagine that they’re thinking “I can’t believe I did that,” or “I can’t believe that happened.” And trying to ground themselves and keep it together.

I love what you say about the colour yellow. It makes me sick! I love it. I feel like this film took out my appendix. I need to rewatch some scenes, but now I am getting sleepy. Will answer that part (and your other messages) tomorrow.

[dixons-sunshine]

Ask delivery! 🫡🧡

📝: Do you prefer planning on a computer or on paper?

🫖: If you had a tea party with your blorbos you write the most, how would it go?

📚: What are some of the favorite things you've learned while doing research?

💬: Do you reread comments?

🕸: Do you outline? How detailed?

I've got a 'random' question, too, but I'll send it separately. 👀

Hiii my love!

📝: My phone 😅 I don’t own a computer/laptop, and due to an accident I had last year, writing with a pencil/pen is really uncomfortable and it hurts really quickly.

🫖: Soooo Daryl, Murphy, and Scud... Well, I personally think Scud and I would get along fine. Murphy and I would probably be okay, too (if we’re talking about him in the first movie). But Daryl? I feel like he’d probably just be uncomfortable lol. I can be really over talkative when I’m nervous and considering he probably wouldn’t know me, it would just be awkward.

📚: Brazilian dances! It was so cool to see videos of that for one of my fics. I loved it and attempted to learn some of them. It didn’t go well because I have two left feet lol.

💬: All the time, especially when I feel down in the dumps about my writing.

🕸️: To be completely honest, not really. I usually just write and hope for the best. I write and when I’m done, I reread and edit out what I need to.

(consider me intrigued 👀)

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Today I was washing my hands in the bathroom of the movie theatre and a lady next to me randomly goes “AH (mumble mumble) your bag!”

We’d accidentally locked eyes when getting soap from the dispenser so I thought she’d accidentally squidged some soap on my bag so I looked up in semi-alarm and confusion but also fully prepared to say “oh that’s ok”.

But then she was like “oh no I was just looking at your bag. I needed a bag” and again I was about to respond (as you would when someone says something) and really I was just gonna say “oh cool” but then she cut in once more.

“Yeah no I was thinking I needed a nice bag. I should go to Mimco” bc I have a mimco bag gifted from my mum and I nod and prepare to sell how nice the bag is and maybe even touch on the fact it was a gift.

“Oh yeah they’re nice” is what I was halfway through saying before she spoke over me again (all while I’m like half smiling bc this is completely random but I at least have enough social skills to entertain an abrupt convo with a rando in the bathroom)

“Yeah no I was thinking (mumble mumble) yeah they look quite nice and they got the (mumble mumble” because genuinely she was speaking so fast I didn’t absorb most of what she was saying.

“Yeah the straps are-” again this lady just keeps going, plowing right through any response I might have.

“Yeah theyre really good and I needed a bag and I saw that and (mumble mumble mumble)”

“Oh well. Fair enough then” at this point I’ve given up so I make a point of turning away to pretend to shake off the water from my hands and pretend to look for a dryer bc my polite smile has turned into something of an awkward grimace.

“Yeah ok! (Mumble mumble maybe something like a farewell here)”

“Kay” fully pivot and look away while wiping my hands on my shirt and exit the bathroom at speed just in case she continues the one-sided conversation while I’m drying my hands.

I’ve never had such a totally one-sided conversation with a stranger before where I can’t even attempt a noise of agreement to participate XD like amongst friends and family, sure. Sometimes the words are just vomiting out so nothing can be done. But most convos with strangers, they recognise the turn-based system for the most part and usually look for some sign you’re listening lol.

This lady basically turned me into a sounding board to bounce her own thoughts off of.