#And instead got ready to leave and cleaned the house I was at interspersed with a few short naps

[keepitdreamin]

Coming home from being gone almost a whole month just wanting to relax in my own space to find that the entire kitchen has been rearranged with no consult or input from me, most of my stuff is now up in a (badly) organized cabinet where I will now forget it exists (because ADHD) and never use again, kitchen Items that I actually use frequently are being given away, and then when I remembered there was ice cream in the garage, discovered that freezer door hasn't been sealed properly for who knows how long and all of that will have to be tossed

[bubblegumbeech]

My first Phic Phight fic!

For @ecto-american’s prompt

His name was Danny.

That was the first thing he knew for sure was true, when he had first woken up it was what everyone called him, and it fit just fine, wasn’t something off or uncomfortable so he let it settle over him before he tried to speak.

His voice didn’t come at first, and it hurt to try so the nurses made him promise to take it easy for now, to sit back and listen. So he did.

He listened as the people around him spoke at length about how much they missed him, about how they couldn’t wait to get him home again, about how glad they were he’d survived.

The loudest and most talkative of the people that visited him and called him Danny, was a large man in an orange jumpsuit that went on long enthusiastic tangents that Danny had long stopped paying attention to. He was almost always with a smaller, authoritative woman named Maddie, who insisted He call her Mom. They told him they were his parents.

They told him they loved him.

And then they told him everything else.

The first time Danny remembered something it was with excitement, he was still in the hospital room and between the visits from the men in the starched white suits, his parents, and the doctor, he had been wrestling with the feeling that something was missing.

It had only been when Maddie had finally taken off the hood and goggles of her jumpsuit had Danny gotten a flash of familiar red hair and asked, “where’s Jazz?”

His heart buzzed at the question, sure, so sure that it would get answered, that he had remembered something.

But both Jack and Maddie had just looked at him, disappointed, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask again.

Eventually, once the doctor declared him competent and unlikely to slip back into his coma, his parents had taken him home.

There were streamers all over the house and a giant party banner that read “Welcome Back” in thick black lettering and Danny forced out a small smile as he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Maddie walked up behind him and he flinched, his body acting before his brain could catch up.

She had frowned at his reaction, and when Danny, stuttering, tried to apologize she said it was okay, and with a tightlipped smile, she pulled him into a hug.

He forced himself to relax, frustrated with himself. This was his mother, there was no reason for his instincts to be so afraid. Jack had joined the hug and eventually Danny found himself relaxing for real, sure maybe getting his memories back was a slow uphill climb, but at least he wouldn’t do it alone.

Eventually his parents let him go and told him he was free to walk around the house and reacquaint himself with it. His room was the first door on the left upstairs, the bathroom was down the hall and the basement, apparently, was off limits.

So Danny went upstairs into his room. It looked something like a teenager’s room he supposed. There were the posters hung haphazardly on the walls and they were torn at the corners as if someone had ripped them all off the walls before hastily taping them back up. The bed was made too, and there was a lot less dust than he was expecting after being gone for a whole month.

In fact, it looked like he’d cleaned and organized the whole room before he’d fallen into his coma and Danny didn’t know why, but that thought set him on edge. Maybe he was just an organized person?

It was just… he didn’t feel very organized.

He kept looking around. There was that feeling that something was missing, something important to him, and he walked over to the nightstand by his bed. Placing a hand on the polished wood Danny fought the flash of a model spaceship that appeared in his memories. It wasn’t here though and Danny frowned. Was that something else he’d thrown away and simply forgotten?

Shaking his head Danny headed back downstairs, maybe he should just ask Jack, er, his dad? He should really get used to calling them mom and dad. But before he headed down he went to the room across from his and knocked.

Maybe he was being foolish, but he had expected someone to answer, had a name even come to mind. When no answer came he opened the door himself only to find a storage room, nothing but shelves and boxes and Danny scolded himself for the painful ache he felt in his heart.

It was another week before Danny had another memory, and just like the last two, it didn’t fit quite right. Like a piece from another puzzle jammed where it shouldn’t fit. So he’d asked Maddie.

“Sam?” she’d said, a carefully blank look on her face, “Oh! I remember Sam, she was an old friend of yours you used to talk about her all the time. Shame she moved away.”

And just like that, he’d had his answer as ill fitting as it was. Sam was a girl he knew that moved away, the memory he’d had, of her crying face screaming at him to stay awake just stay awake damnit, was probably from a long time ago. The pain he felt in his chest -just to the right of his heart- at the thought of her not being near and that he’d probably never see her again? That was nothing important.

It was another couple of weeks of sleeping in that house, waking up and going downstairs to eat with his parents, to chat about memories he didn’t have and tell stories he never resonated with, before he woke up screaming for the first time.

Maddie had instantly run into his room, Jack not far behind and Danny scrambled away from them both. His mind filled with images of painful green light and the ominous glint of red goggles twisting his reflection in their lenses as they looked down on him.

His parents had pushed past the barrier of pillows and blankets he’d made and pulled him into their arms, rocking him and shushing him until eventually he’d tired himself out from crying and fallen asleep again. The nightmares returned.

Eventually Danny stopped asking questions about his memories.

Either they were incomplete, fragments of something real that had been twisted in time, or they were wrong entirely, figments of his own active imagination. He’d never had a sister, they insisted. It was his mother, Maddie that had stayed up late some nights to help him with his homework and bake him safe, edible cookies as a reward. Tucker was a kid he knew at school, yes, but he’d moved away years ago and they hadn’t spoken in person since.

He had blue eyes, when he looked in the mirror, not green.

It was frustrating, being unable to trust himself- his own memories. If it was anything more than broken, incomplete fragments he’d have argued, insisted they were real.

But then again, he also had memories of Maddie leaning over him, scalpel in hand to cut away at his flesh. And he knew that couldn’t be true; the woman that smiled every time he came downstairs, called him sweetie and kissed him on his forehead every night, wasn’t the monster in his dreams. She couldn’t be.

So he ignored them.

He ignored the moments of instinct when Maddie or Jack went for a hug or a kiss and he flinched, ready for an attack. He ignored how he never seemed able to give a straight answer when they asked about his day, even if he hadn’t done anything interesting at all. And he ignored his nightmares, stuffing towels under his doorframe to muffle the sounds of his screams. There was no reason to keep waking up his parents like that.

But no matter how much he ignored, he compartmentalized, or he forced himself to smile, to hug back, and to spend time bonding with his parents, he never felt safe. Maddie insisted that he was, of course she did, this was his home. But even as he smiled and agreed and let her hug him again, he wanted to leave.

This time his dream wasn’t a nightmare. No scary, well lit labs with beakers and glowing buttons, or disgusting, painful flowers shoved into his mouth. Instead there was the ticking of clocks, rhythmic and constant. A gloved hand gently soothed his hair back, and Danny’s fear seemed so far away.

It was the first full night of sleep he’d had since he’d gotten “home”.

That morning he’d asked for an analogue clock. His parents had been confused, but they acquiesced easily and took him to the store to pick one out. The one he’d ended up choosing was a large ornate antique with little clockwork gears and a loud tick. He was excited to put it up in his room, right above his bed.

He slept better after that, and some of the tension that had been building in the house eased.

His dreams were still mostly nightmares, attacks by inhuman ghostly figures were the most prominent. But they didn’t leave the same bitter aftertaste, fear and uncertainty as the ones with the table, the scalpel, and the round, red goggles.

But now they were interspersed with better ones, fuzzy hugs and fields of blinding white, sitting in a garden pruning flowers as a soft, familiar voice gave him instructions, playing video games as the player character, confident and excited with a familiar presence at his back. And his favorite ones, the ones in the clock tower with the hooded figure and his soft smiles. The ones where he felt safest.

The ones that couldn’t be real, not if what his parents told him was true.

The next time they went out as a family after that Danny had wanted to go to a garden, and while at first Maddie was hesitant, Jack had insisted the great outdoors were perfect for helping him recover properly. Danny had been thrilled and hugged both of them in thanks, their answering smiles were soft and Danny had the thought that it had been some time since he’d seen those smiles reach their eyes.

Danny had a video game he apparently liked to play called Doom, and he was pretty good at it, judging by the level of his character. When he tried to message either of the two friends he had on his contact list though, the game glitched and his info got deleted. Frustrated he tried to reboot the system but the game itself had somehow gotten corrupted and there was no hope in recovery.

Just another thing that was apparently important to him that he’d destroyed or couldn’t find.

The worst was the time he woke with Maddie sitting next to him in his bed, she had a troubled look on her face and he didn’t know what it was he’d done wrong. Had he screamed in his sleep without knowing it?

“Danny honey,” she had said, looking over to him but not meeting his eyes, “do you remember what you dreamed about?”

He’d answered no, he hadn’t, which was mostly true. The only thing he really remembered about his dream was the feeling of safety and the ticking of a clock.

It took a month for Danny’s parents to feel comfortable leaving him alone in the house in order to go to work. He watched them walk out the door, fending off forehead kisses and muttered reassurances that they’d be home soon to check on him and that he should call if he needed anything, anything at all.

Once the door clicked shut however, the smile dropped off of Danny’s face and he set his eyes on the one thing he’d wanted… no, needed to do since he had that first nightmare.

He went to the basement.

The feeling of going down the stairs stumbled over a vague, blurry memory and Danny felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand. This was just to be sure, just to prove to himself that all those dreams, all those nightmares he’d been having since his parents brought him home, were just that, nightmares.

He opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, confused when there was no lock, no resistance at all. Hadn’t they said he was banned from being down here? Why wouldn’t they lock it? Even Bluebeard locked the door his wife wasn’t supposed to enter.

The basement was…

A basement.

There were no spooky ominous beakers of strange and unrecognizable fluids, no haphazard lab equipment lying around without safety devices, nothing sterile or blinking and there was certainly no large metal table to strap someone down on.

It was just a normal basement with boxes and a desk, some chairs, a couple of old pieces of random furniture and Danny let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. This meant that Maddie was right, they really were just nightmares, probably some subconscious latent fear of going home with strangers that he couldn’t remember. That was all.

So why did he feel disappointed?

The next week was full of Danny waiting for his parents to leave before exploring the house more thoroughly. More than once he’d gotten caught in a half remembered routine that didn’t actually fit with his surroundings. Like bracing for a fight every time he opened the fridge, or expecting another flight of stairs after the second floor. Once he’d even risked going outside for a walk, trying to find his school based on half remembered directions that only served to get him lost.

It was a new routine that Danny found himself thankful for.

Not that he didn’t love his parents, he did! But for some reason, when they were gone, and it was just him with his space posters and his ornate ticking clock, and the piles of modified schoolwork that was supposed to help him when it was time to reintegrate into school, he felt a lot more relaxed. More carefree.

That was why, when he’d found the picture, it had felt like his world had crashed around him.

His parents had come home to find him sitting in the middle of the basement, tears long dried, and with the picture clutched tight in his hands, crumpled now with how long it had been.

“You lied to me.” he accused once they were within earshot. He didn’t have the energy to speak much louder than a whisper, but it seemed to echo in the silence nonetheless.

“Danny-boy we can explain-”

“No!” Danny shouted, getting to his feet, “You lied to me .”

Jack flinched back and Maddie stepped in front of him, protective, as if somehow, out of the three of them Danny might be the threat. He growled.

“I trusted you to tell me the truth, I trusted you with my memories, memories that were lost to me . I had a sister! You had a daughter . She existed, she was real, she’s in this photo! Smiling! ” Danny couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, it was all too much. To know that the girl in his shattered memories, the one with the soft hugs and the floral scents, that baked him cookies and held him when he cried at night, was real. And that she was gone, erased by the people he was supposed to be able to trust.

He moved to storm past them, to go upstairs or maybe even outside and look up at the sky and try to make something of the twisting, knotted mess that was his emotions, his mind, his everything right now. But Maddie grabbed his arm before he could, tears spilling from her eyes.

“We didn’t want to hurt you Danny.” she said, voice soft and broken, “we didn’t want to give and then take away.”

She pulled him into a hug and Danny didn’t bother to struggle or try and break out of it, just let her cry into his shoulder as he stood there, waiting for his own tears to dry.

The next day Jack and Maddie left for work with more reluctance, neither one willing to leave Danny on his own again. But worry didn’t pay the bills and whatever it was they were doing at their job, it was clearly important. That was something Danny was starting to remember, all the things that were more important than him.

Danny went to the library this time, determined to start figuring things out on his own. His parents had said that his sister, Jazz, had died in the accident that had put him in a coma. They said they didn’t want to hurt him, or risk him not wanting to recover his memories if they were painful and that grief was difficult to deal with even without the head trauma and emotional conflict.

His parents said a lot of things, Danny was starting to realize. And almost none of it could be trusted to be true.

The first thing he did was look for a death certificate for his sister, Jazz Fenton. After hours of searching, reading every single name that existed in every obituary for this town in the entire month when his parents claimed the accident had happened.

But there was nothing. Nothing at all.

So next he looked up phone records. Any Tuckers or Samanthas he could find, but he couldn’t remember their last names at all, just what they looked like.

How they had been crying over him.

He didn’t know if he believed that they’d just moved away. Then again, it was becoming increasingly clear that he didn’t know what to believe, if he believed anything at all. By the time he’d gotten home it was late, and his parents were already there.

At first they didn’t believe he was just at the library “trying to catch up on stuff” but they calmed back down once he’d shown them his library card and snapped that if he couldn’t even do that much why did they bother bringing him back from the hospital at all.

Dinner had been a quiet affair.

It took another week of library visits and recurring nightmares of dissection tables and glowing ghostly figures that attacked him before Danny gave up on finding out anything about Sam or Tucker. But he still didn’t stop searching for Jazz.

There was something almost obsessive about his search for her, he just couldn’t let it go. He had to know where she was, and if his parents, against all odds, hadn’t lied to him about that ... Well that was something he’d have to come to terms with when he came to it, not before.

He started scouring the Internet for her name desperate to find something, anything on her. And eventually he did.

There was an old article, from at least half a decade ago, that had her picture under the title “Four Teens go Missing in wake of Fenton Investigation”.

Next to her were two equally familiar pictures. Sam and Tucker… and then Danny himself.

Scrolling, desperate to find something, anything to add up the memories he was getting into a clear picture, he began to read the article.

In wake of the Investigation into the Fenton‘s possible abuse, Danny Fenton (15), his sister Jazz Fenton (17), and two friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley (15), have seemingly disappeared.

The discovery came shortly after Jack and Madeline Fenton were released on parol and allowed to return home to spend time with their children since no physical proof could be found of any alleged wrongdoings.

What could have caused their disappearances remains a mystery. The prevailing theory is that they were involved in a cult that may have demonized the Fenton parents due to their controversial occupation as “ghost hunters”. Another popular theory is that the children fled the results of the case, afraid of the alleged illegal experimentation. Other theories include kidnapping, witness protection, the possibility of murder, and tying up loose ends.

Will we ever discover the truth? It remains to be seen.

Ghost hunters …

Danny felt his stomach drop, a wave of nausea rolled through him and he had to fight off the urge to relive his lunch.

Experimentation?

Nightmares and half remembered memories started clicking into place, finally , and Danny couldn’t stand it. Why were the only answers that made sense the ones that hurt the worst?

Would it have been better if he’d just let it go? If his memories never returned at all? If he just kept living, eating homemade cookies and flinching from hugs until eventually the itch underneath his skin dulled and he could just be happy as he was.

He closed the tab.

There was no one home when he got there, and it gave him the chance to pack what little belongings he had that held any meaning to him at all. The motions were familiar and he had the faintest feeling he had done exactly this before.

Maybe he had.

He’d made it out the front door by the time his parents pulled into the drive.

There was the urge to run, to go back inside and hide and pretend he hadn’t been doing exactly what they caught him doing. But he was tired. He was so tired of feeling wrong and scared and uncertain and never knowing why.

So he held his head up as they got into the car and approached them with their hands raised, cautiously, like he was a wild animal they were afraid of spooking.

Was that what they thought he was?

“Danny, we can talk about this,” Maddie said, beseeching.

He met her eyes with his own. “Will you promise not to lie anymore? I don’t even know how old I am-”

“You’re fifteen son-” Jack interrupted, lying again.

“I was fifteen five years ago!” Danny yelled, his hand tightening into a fist, “I found the article! I read about the case! Five years ago.”

“Danno…”

Oh, he was crying. It was novel almost, Danny had thought he was too tired to cry, that there wasn’t anything more that could hurt him enough to create such a response and he didn’t quite know how to react to it.

He raised his hands awkwardly to scrub the tears away and stepped back, frightened, when Maddie tried to move closer to comfort him.

“Stay back! Stay back…” he looked at his hands, they were young hands, his reflection too, hadn’t changed from the picture in the article at all. Experiments. “What did you do to me?”

“It was an accident.” Jack said, before Maddie stopped him with a gentle hand on his arm.

“We didn’t know Danny. How could we have?” She said, keeping her distance, cautious. “We tried to fix it-”

“Fix what? ” He hissed, “you haven’t told me what happened! You haven’t told me anything!”

“You!” Maddie finally snapped, tears falling heavy down her cheeks. “We were trying to fix you… but it wasn’t working and you just kept getting sicker… weaker… we had to stop.”

It was too much for her, and she turned away, leaning into Jack’s large frame as he comforted her. “We didn’t want to lose you, Danny.” He said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“You already did.”

Danny left his parents there, crying on the driveway of a house that could never have been a home. He had a clock tower to find.

[lovestruckay]

Request: "Hi there! Loveeee your writing for Fire Force and was wondering if you could do headcanons (SFW and NSFW if that's ok!) for Akitaru and a fem s/o for celebrating birthdays or holidays?"

Pairing: Akitaru Obi x Fem!Reader

A/N: Happy birthday, Obi! I’m a little late but I made up for it by making this 2.5k words, haha. NSFW content is below the cut, it’s mixed in throughout instead of separate! I used these HC as a way to talk about some of the days I celebrate personally from the Wheel of the Year - eight holidays that celebrate the spring equinox, the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, the winter solstice, and the four cross-quarter days between them.

Akitaru loves the holidays. He’s the kind of person who plans celebrations a month in advance, sometimes even longer depending on what the special occasion is. He’ll put out decorations, bake pastries, cook whole meals, and even throw parties where he’ll give mushy speeches.

You think he leans into celebrating even more for the sake of the rest of Company 8. Nearly all of his companions had come from troubled backgrounds or had lost their loved ones and he was always clear that the Eighth was their family too. Akitaru is the father figure of their ragtag company and he takes that role seriously. Not just in protecting them and guiding them but in doing the little things that family did - like celebrating holidays.

So, when these special occasions roll around, you better get ready because this man is not just celebrating for the fun of it but because it’s a way to bond with you and the rest of Company 8. 

The Holy Sol Temple has generic, catch-all versions of all the seasonal holidays. With the Temple worshiping a Sun God, their holidays are centered around solar events like the solstices, the equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days between. December celebrations are all bundled up into the Winter Solstice, Ostara and Easter became the Spring Equinox, Samhain and Halloween became the Autumnal Cross-Quarter Day, and so on.

Even though these combined holidays are the most frequently celebrated, the pre-Cataclysm holidays still exist and are still celebrated. It is on a much smaller scale though so this makes celebrating these holidays a much more meaningful affair. If you celebrate a particular day, whether it’s because of tradition or your heritage or something else entirely, Akitaru is excited to learn and be a part of something so important to you.

Valentine’s Day is one of his favorite holidays because it’s a celebration he gets to spend with the woman he had fallen madly in love with - you. He likes that there’s a holiday dedicated to your love for each other and he tends to go overboard with making sure you know how much he cherishes you.

Akitaru is really cheesy about showing you how much he loves you. He always starts the day by waking up before you and sneaking into the kitchen so he can make you breakfast in bed. He’ll cook your pancakes in the shape of wobbly hearts and there will be a protein shake there with your orange juice. He has covered your entire bathroom with sticky notes, each note containing sweet messages he had written throughout the year about how much he loves you. You have a hand bound book on your shelf filled with pressed flowers and love notes that he had made for you one year.

He once hired a skywriter plane to write your initials in a heart in the sky. He loves you so much that it turns him into the corniest, sappiest man on the face of the planet.

He takes the Firefighter Calendar very seriously and he’s absolutely playful and confident enough to wear something sexy for you as a surprise. If you surprise him by wearing some revealing lingerie, he will spend the rest of the night absolutely worshiping you and showing you how beautiful you were.

Akitaru is such a big man but he can be so delicate that the tenderness he touches you with makes your breath catch. But sometimes he forgets his own strength, especially when you’re wrapped up like a present, and he tears the wrapping paper. You know better now than to expect whatever pretty lingerie you buy to survive the night.

He makes sure that you can’t get out of bed when he’s done with you and that works out great for him because, guess what - dinner in bed is on the way.

The Spring Equinox mornings are always spent outside basking in the nice weather and the warm sun as you plant new flowers in the cathedral garden. You spend the afternoon spring cleaning your home, sweeping behind all the furniture and packing up winter clothes. The afternoons are spent painting eggs and hiding little gifts of candy and sweets around the cathedral for the rest of the company to find.

Every year, the Autumnal Cross-Quarter Day (or Halloween as most call it outside the church) is a day-long affair. Mornings are spent carving Jack-o’-lanterns and baking cookies decorated with icing in the shapes of skulls, bats, and spiderwebs. During the afternoon, you’re putting out last minute decorations and filling bowls with king-sized candy bars for the trick-or-treating children that stop by the Fire Force cathedral.

Somehow, Akitaru is always able to convince everyone at the Eighth to dress up in costumes. He especially loves doing coordinated outfits with you, like Frakenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein or a werewolf and a vampire. One year, he was able to convince the entire company to dress up as zombies and you all spent the day making zombie noises at each other and giggling.

If you like getting a little scared for Halloween, he'll take you to a haunted house or a haunted trail where he will inevitably be clinging to you by the end of the experience. If you get chased by the workers wielding fake chainsaws at a trail, he will get so scared that he will literally scoop you up into his arms and run away.

If you’re more interested in staying home and spending time together, you’ll nestle up on the couch together with a bowl of candy and some of the pastries you had baked earlier and binge watch horror movies. He has absolutely no talent whatsoever for video games - you swear the man can’t even figure out how to hold the controller half the time - but he will happily cuddle you and cheer you on if you wanted to play some scary video games instead.

Once you two are alone, Akitaru can’t seem to get his hands off of you. He thinks you are so beautiful every single day but there is something so alluring to him about you dressed up. If you’re wearing one of those revealing costumes, his eyes are glued to you the entire day and, once he can finally get you away from everyone, he’s tearing it off to get to the sweets underneath.

He is very sensitive to the fact that winter holidays can be very personal to a person depending on their background. Most people in Tokyo celebrate the Winter Solstice but there are people who still celebrate the pre-Cataclysm holidays. Whichever holiday you want to observe, Akitaru wants to support you and celebrate with you.

You want to build an altar for Yuletide? He’s bringing home pretty rocks and little trinkets he found that he thought you might like to give as offerings.

You want to light a menorah for Hanukkah? He’s cleaned off a special spot in the kitchen window for the candelabrum.

You want to decorate a tree for Christmas? He’s driving around looking for a pine tree he can cut down for you.

You want to decorate the house for Kwanzaa? He’s singing with you as you both hang brightly colored kente and he’s memorized all seven core principles to talk to you about during the week.

You want to host a dinner for Las Posadas? He’s in the kitchen helping you make tamales and he even stuffed and hung two piñatas - one for the new recruits and the other for you both and the rest of the company.

When it comes to gifts, Akitaru is really good at picking out presents for you. He always listens when you talk and he makes sure to remember when you talk about things that you like. He’s the kind of guy who will buy small presents throughout the year and stow them away in the back of his closet until the winter holidays roll around.

He’s extremely easy to buy gifts for, he loves the traditional “dad” gifts. Get this man some brand new winter socks, a new jacket to replace the coat he got too muscular for, and some new underwear and he is happy. If you give him something a little more exciting in addition to his gifts, like taking off your robe to reveal you’re wrapped up in a bow, he will gladly unwrap you and give you a present of his own.

For New Years, he likes to host a little get together with Company 8 to celebrate. You all make a big dinner and maybe even get a little tipsy before going up to the roof to watch the fireworks. You sit in chairs you had set out earlier, Akitaru settling you into his warm lap instead, and watch in amazement as Company 1 puts on their yearly fireworks show in the sky over Tokyo.

When the show reaches its climax and the clock rolls over to midnight, he kisses you.

Whether you’re drunk on a little alcohol or just the excitement of the night, sex on New Years Eve is always fun. It’s so easy to be yourself and to feel beautiful with him - he is such a light hearted and openly loving man - but tipsy sex is always full of smiles and laughter interspersed with little gasps and moans. There’s no shame and it just feels good to be complete with the man you love.

On Lunar New Year, he is taking you out to shop for new clothes and he’s helping you give out cards and gifts. He makes sure to buy a bag of sweets to leave as an offering once you clean the altar at home later that day. In the evening, he’s once again in the kitchen, helping cook eight different dishes for the reunion dinner with a communal hot pot always being the centerpiece of the meal.

Akitaru loves the holidays but his favorite celebrations are the ones for you two specifically: your birthdays and your anniversary.

For his birthday, he just wants a small get together with the rest of the company and maybe a couple friends. He is still as ridiculously easy as ever to shop for, just buy him new exercise equipment and he’ll love it. He works out so much that he wears down and breaks his equipment and he’s always excited to try a new machine.

He especially loves it when you surprise him in the bedroom with something new. If you teach yourself how to deep throat his impressive size, he’ll be wrapped around your little finger for a week straight. If you give him the remote to your vibrating panties while you’re out getting dinner, he’ll break down halfway through your meal and pull you into the bathroom to make you see stars. You never need an excuse to experiment in bed but it’s always fun surprising him with something every year.

For your birthday, Akitaru will always ask you what you want instead of trying to surprise you. He doesn’t want to overwhelm you with a party if you don’t want it and he doesn’t want you to be craving more if he plans for a day at home.

If you want to go out, he'll take you to the amusement park for games and roller coasters (one of which he couldn’t even ride because the safety harness didn’t fit over his muscular body). If you like the outdoors, he’ll take you on a hike through one of the nature preserves and lead you to a picnic he prepared for you. If you like to dance, he’s taking you out and trying his best not to step on your toes.

If you want to stay in, Akitaru will buy you a copy of the newest video game you had your eye on and will order pizza so he can watch you try to beat it in one sitting. He’ll spend the morning baking and decorating a cake from scratch and it comes out incredible. He’ll give you a massage and his almost too strong grip feels so good it sends shivers up your spine.

On your birthday, he is in the palm of your hand. Whatever you want to do, anything you want to try, he is so eager to please. He’s an open-minded man and there really aren’t many things that are hard passes for him in bed. He isn’t particularly well versed in the kinky stuff so he’ll need a bit of an explanation sometimes but, once he understands what you want, he will gladly give it to you.

Without a doubt, your anniversary is Akitaru’s favorite holiday of the year. He loves that your anniversary is a celebration of your bond and a reaffirming of your love for each other. He’s honestly just as dramatic on this day as he is on Valentine’s Day - if not more so - and he will come up with the most cheesy, romantic ways of telling you he loves you.

Sticking to tradition, he took you out to a fancy dinner one year to a restaurant with a dress code and no prices on the menu. Even with the overly formal atmosphere, he was still his usual boisterous self throughout the dinner and his sunshine smile puts you at ease. The dinner was spectacular and, even if you normally hated stuffy environments like that, his happiness is contagious and you feel comfortable.

On your anniversary, he makes it his Sol given duty to fuck you until you scream when you cum. He makes it a point to give you the best orgasm of the year, making you finish over and over until your pleasure climbs to a high that has moans shamelessly spilling from your lips. You absolutely cannot walk the day after your anniversary so, every year, you take not only your anniversary off but the day following as well.

Akitaru pays such close attention to your moods and your likes and dislikes when it comes to the holidays throughout the year and tries his best to make you happy. At the end of the day, he just wants to be with you and for you to have a good time.

After all, he loves you so much he wants to spend the rest of his life making happy memories like these together.

[war-sword]

the ilvermorny exchange (6)

Part 6 | index | masterlist

summary: you’re an Ilvermorny student, and you’ve applied to the International Magic Student Exchange Program to attend your sixth year at Hogwarts instead. You and your friends are excited to go to school overseas, but a certain blonde prefect has decided to personally make your exchange year suck. You decide to give him a taste of his own medicine. (draco x reader, enemies to lovers, female reader) words: 7,699 A/N: Hi guys! Welcome back! So many people asked me to continue this fic so I decided fuck it lets go. And here we are!!! Hope you all enjoy. Small side note, when I was writing the first 5 chapters of this story I did originally have a side-plot of Alex having a crush on Ginny Weasley. I took those parts out because for some reason I thought it might be distracting?? Or people would think it was weird?? Idk but now I'm putting it back in because the person irl who Alex is modeled after asked me to lmfao. So I've gone back and added those into the past chapters, in case you wanna go back and refresh yourself anyway! taglist: @tragically-cordelia @mhftrs @2pumpkin-pasty @gingerlouisgirl @seriouslynotfunny @clockworkherondale @cherrie511 @songforhema @marvelrose @acciodracoo @eltanin-malfoy​

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“Fucking finally.” Alex smirks at you good-naturedly as you meet her in the corridors between the Horned Serpent and Thunderbird dorms.

“Ms. Angeles had to pin my skirt! It was an emergency!” You reply.

Alex just rolls her eyes, and you head off in the direction of the center of the Ilvermorny castle. “Ugh. I wish Mr. Foxbrair had let me wear the boys outfit,” she pulls at the suspenders of her pale blue skirt irritably.

“At least we have pockets!” You say, digging your hands into them for emphasis. “I think they’re cute.” You spin as you walk, letting the skirt flare out. You and Alex, like all the rest of the last years, are dressed in your formal Ilvermorny uniforms. Blue suspender skirts and white long-sleeve button downs for the girls, while the boys wear cranberry pants and white button-downs. Everyone wears ties with their house emblem.

As last years, you’ve arrived at Ilvermorny a few hours early to change into your uniforms and prepare for the lower years to arrive. You get perform the opening dance at the First Feast tonight, and help younger students find their way as they settle in. But first– you want your wand.

There’s a bit of a line at the counter, which has multiple windows. You and Alex join the shortest one, and you peer over the shoulder of the person in front of you to watch the slender wand boxes fly around as the teachers working the counter summon them from the safe behind.

“I’m so glad this is the last time we ever have to do this. I can’t wait to do magic at home,” Alex sighs.

“Same. It’s so hard having to go from cleaning my room here and then having to do it manually all summer,” you agree.

You and Alex are both startled by a hand clapping down on your shoulders. You both turn to see Chris behind you, laughing.

“Chris! Hey!” You say, grabbing him around the middle in a tight hug. Alex piles on top and the three of you giggle, swaying unsteadily.

“What’s up?” He asks as you all separate.

“Not much,” Alex says. “You look good in those pants.”

Chris poses. “I think pink and red are my colors. Too bad I’m going to look like a giant idiot when we have to dance.”

“Chris, literally all we do is weave between the tables and shoot the streamers out of our wands. We’ve watched it happen for the past six years, do you not know how it goes?” You ask, incredulous.

“You think I pay attention?” He responds. You just laugh and move forward in the line.

 Alex gets her wand first and cradles it like a newborn. “Ohhhhh, my sweet baby, I missed you.” She kisses it gently for dramatic effect. You don’t even laugh though, because the second you have yours in your hand, you feel like you could do the same. Holding your wand for the first time in three months makes your nerves come alive and you feel like you could burst at the seams with happiness. Being reunited with your wand feels like being reconnected with a part of your soul.

You flick your wand and gentle wisps of glittery mist come out of the tip and dissipate into the air, making you grin. “I love magic.”

The three of you mill around in the entryway afterwards, greeting all your other friends you hadn’t seen over the holidays. Some of your friends from last year’s exchange trip come over, too.

“What’s up, Y/n?” Kenny asks as he sweeps you into a hug.

“Hey!” You and Alex take turns giving him a hug, and he goes in for a handshake with Chris.

“How was Taiwan?”

“Oh, so cool.” Chris’s eyes glitter.

“Whoa, I forgot you were going there!” You exclaim. “You were meeting family, right?”

“Yeah. So many cousins, so many family meals. I’ve never eaten so much zong zi in my life, dude.”

“Did you go anywhere else?” Kenny elbows him, a sly smile on his face. “England, perhaps?”

Chris just rolls his eyes. “No. Emi only ever sent me three letters, but she was in China visiting her family like I was in Taiwan. What about you guys?” He turns to you and Alex. “Either of you go to Europe?”

“Hell no, Portkeys overseas are expensive!” Alex says. Chris was, of course, referring to her visiting the Weasley’s. Alex had started dating Ginny towards the end of the term in May, shortly after the last Quidditch match. Ron was of course angry Ginny kept dating his friends, but the rest of you thought it was cute. Chris and Kenny look at you expectantly.

You shake your head. “Me neither. Draco was traveling, and we agreed against meeting the parents anyway. It was never that serious.” You give a shrug. It was true, though. Still, when you’d left Hogwarts in June, it had obviously been a sad departure. You’d been a little teary as you hugged goodbye.

“Are you crying?” Draco had asked, sounding both shocked and concerned for you.

“No,” you said grumpily, rubbing your eyes fiercely on the edge of your sleeve.

His eyes had softened and he brushed your hair out of your face. “Come on, you know you can’t lie to me. Why?”

You’d just buried your head into his chest, too embarrassed about being so emotional. “‘Cuz we’re breaking up and I can’t handle it like an adult. Ugh.” You’d mumbled.

Draco pulled you away from him a little so he could whisper in your ear. “Who said we’re breaking up?”

“We’re not?” You’d sniffed.

He’d had that stupid smile on his face that made you want to deck him but also make your heart jump into your throat. “Last I checked, I didn’t break up with you, so, unless you’re the one doing the breaking up…” 

“Oh, I hate you!” You’d groaned, but also smiling at the same time. Draco had picked you up off the ground to make you giggle.

“I hate you, too. So stop crying!” He’d put you down and pressed a few kisses on your cheek and your forehead. “Write to me, okay? I promise we’ll see each other again.”

“Okay, we better. Wait, I need your address!”

“Oh, shit. Do you have parchment?”

“No.”

“Uh, okay stick out your arm.”

You’d both been a giggling mess as Draco scratched out his address onto your forearm with one of his fancy Always-Inked Quills, your laughing interspersed with him begging you to be more still and not smudge.

“We’re such idiots.” Your tears of sadness had turned to ones of laughter.

“Speak for yourself!” He’d exclaimed. You kissed one last time.

“Bye, Y/n.”

“Bye, Draco.”

“Uh, ‘not that serious’ my ass.” Alex says, bringing you back out of your memories. “You were both crying.”

“We were laughing!” You defended. “And it’s true, we only exchanged a few letters. We were both busy and international owl post takes a while.”

“Damn, we all got the shaft from our British wifeys!” Chris complains.

“Aha, not me!” Alex does a little dance. “Ginny is coming for the Exchange this year.”

Chris and Kenny ooh’d. You already knew this, of course. Alex was lucky that Ginny was in the year below. It was unlikely you’d see any of your Hogwarts friends until you graduated, but Alex and Ginny would get a whole other year together.

“Who’s coming for the Exchange?” Sarah had appeared, walking up with Alice.

“Ginny Weasley,” you answer.

“Ooh, fun. Who else is coming?” Sarah asks.

You all exchange glances. “I dunno, I guess we didn’t really know many other people in the year below us while we were there,” Kenny says.

“I don’t think any of Gin’s friends are coming, she probably would’ve mentioned it,” adds Alex.

“Anyone want to go to the inner courtyard to go do some spells?” Chris suggests, changing the subject.

You all agree readily, and head outside. You take turns messing around– levitating rocks, each other, and you and Chris have a mini-duel, ending with his dress uniform completely ruined. Sarah expertly Scourgifies it clean again. Alex and Kenny work together to enlarge a small patch of mushrooms so you can all climb on them. Chris has just discovered they’re great slides when you hear a voice ring across the courtyard.

“WHAT DO YOU YOU ALL THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

Everyone freezes, your first instinct being fear. You turn your head, gazing down from the mushroom to see Ms. Bell standing a few feet off, watching you with a smile on your face.

“Uh, nothing!” Kenny calls.

“Hey Ms. Bell!” You, Sarah and Alice chorus.“We’ll put it back, don’t worry!” You slide down off the mushroom and run over to her to give your favorite teacher a hug.

“How was your summer? You need to come visit me and tell me about your Exchange year!” She asks, giving you a gentle squeeze.

“Great!I’ll definitely come by to tell you about Hogwarts.”

“Awesome!” She beams.  “Ready for your last year?”

“Yes! But also no, I’ll be so sad to leave.” You say, as the rest of the group comes over to say hello. “I’m going to sign up for your new class! the History of Magical Painting and Photography, right?”

“Yes, I’m excited for it,” she says, giving Sarah a side hug. “You should all sign up if you like art, I think it’s going to be lots of fun. I’ve been planning for it all summer.” Sarah and Alice nod, and the others politely say they’ll consider it.

“Alright, I’ve got to go. I’m on Exchange Student duty again.” Ms. Bell brandishes a scroll of parchment, her own dress cloak swishing as she moves.  “Fix those mushrooms back before you all leave, please!”

“Wait, which Exchange?” You ask.

“Hogwarts, same as last time.”

“Can we see the list?” Alex asks. “My girlfriend is coming, we just want to see if there’s anyone else we know.”

Ms. Bell unrolls the parchment and you all gather around to read it. Your eyes scan the paper and you don’t recognize anyone else except Ginny– Wait! Your heart skips a beat, and you blink your eyes and grasp the edge of the parchment next to Ms. Bell’s hand, making sure you read it correctly.

Draco Malfoy.

“See anyone else you know?” Ms. Bell asks.

Alex catches sight of your shocked expression and laughs. “We know him!” She points to Draco’s name.

“But… but he’s in our year. He isn’t eligible for the Exchange,” you say softly. “It must be a mistake.”

“Hm, I don’t think so. I remember he was a later addition.”

You’re still staring off into space while Ms. Bell rolls up the parchment. “I really have to go. Would you guys like to come along to greet your friends?”

You and Alex follow Ms. Bell out of the courtyard, still slightly in a haze. Was Draco really coming? He’d never mentioned it to you, while you were at Hogwarts or in any of his letters. And besides, IMSEP rules were really strict; He was too old for Exchange. Alex elbowed you and broke you from your stupor.

“You didn’t know he was coming?” She asks.

“No! I had no idea! Is that like, allowed?” Even as you say it, thoughts are already bubbling into your mind. Draco, here, at Ilvermorny. With you. You’ll get to show him around, go to classes again, you can go on dates on weekends out… You were getting excited. Alex is smiling like crazy and clutching your hand. You can’t help but grin also.

When you get to the front lawn, the afternoon sun is getting lower as the last of the Portkeys come in. Students are arriving in descending order of their grade, so they can get settled into their dorms before dinner. First year’s arrive last, as well as Exchange students, so they can be sorted before the First Feast. You watch a group of eleven year olds go by, led by a teacher and another last year. Ms. Bell leads you over to an open patch of grass where the Hogwarts Portkey will let out, and checks her watch. “They should be here any moment.”

A moment later, there’s a whooshing sound and a group of almost twenty people land on the lawn pretty far away, some of who you can see toppling over as they land hard. “Oh no, we’re too far away!” Ms. Bell begins walking at a brisk pace towards the group.

Alex starts running, obviously already honed in on Ginny. You walk along with Ms. Bell, still not sure Draco will be there. As you draw closer, you spot his bright hair in the mass of people. You start running too.

Draco spots you coming, and looks slightly surprised, but still smiling. He lets go of his trunk and bag to open his arms, and you launch yourself into them.

“Hey baby!” He laughs into your ear as he spins you around. “Are you surprised?"

“You. Are. The biggest. Bastard!” You cry once he puts you down, hitting on his chest with your fists to punctuate your words.

“Ouch! Okay, enough with the hitting!” He’s still laughing though, pulling your fists away. You put up a tiny fight, but he’s much stronger than you. When he lets go you wrap your arms around him in another hug.

“Yes I’m surprised!” You say, pulling back again. You’re not sure if you want to hug him again, kiss him, hit him some more or just look into his eyes. There’s so much you want to do at once. “And wow, I think you got tan when you went to Italy.”

Draco chuckles. “It won’t last long. And look at you! You’ve cut your hair!” He takes his hands off your waist to brush through the strands.

“Yes! It’s a little shorter now. You like?”

“I love it.” His eyes keep flicking across your face and the rest of you like he can’t get enough, and you’re glad to know he feels the same way. He leans down and finally places a gentle kiss on your lips, and you feel like you could explode from happiness.

Ms. Bell finally reaches the group. “Hi Everyone! Welcome to Ilvermorny. Please look around and make sure the person you were standing next to is here, sometimes people do go missing… all good?” She retrieves the used Portkey, an umbrella, from the ground, and waves her wand. Everyone’s luggage vanishes, off to be kept until after the sorting. “Alright, let's go!” We don’t want to get behind schedule, we’ve got lots to do tonight before we get to eat!”

You grab Draco’s hand as you all start the walk back towards the castle. “So how were you allowed to come here? You’re too old for Exchange! How did you convince your parents? How long will you be here?” All the questions that were buzzing around in your head came spilling out all at once.

“I’ll be here all year,” Draco said. “I transferred, I’m not on Exchange. And lots and lots of convincing.”

You really didn’t have anything to say, you were just in happy shock. You smiled to yourself as you looked back at the castle and thought about Draco living there, too.

“I hope you’re not mad,” he said, looking over at you. “Should I have told you?”

“No! I’m not mad, just surprised is all!” You say. “Wow, I can’t wait for you to get sorted!”

“Should be interesting,” Draco muses. “I’ve been wondering how it will go.” The group had reached the castle, and Draco gives your hand a squeeze. “We’ll talk after, okay? You can show me around.”

Ms. Bell marches up the steps and stops in between the large statues of Isolt Sayre and James Steward, where the large group of first years are gathered. She motions for you and Alex to follow her, and you leave Draco behind with a wink. The three of you go around the set of big front doors and enter through a side corridor.

You part from Ms. Bell, and head quickly up the stairs to the balcony under the glass dome on the main rotunda. Alex spots your friends, and you both hurry to join them, muttering apologies as you make your way to the railing– last years get to sit at the front to watch the sorting.

“Hey,” you mutter, sitting down just behind your roommates, Stella and Grace. You hadn’t seen them since you moved in earlier that afternoon. “Guess what?”

“What?” Grace asks. Chris shifts back to be next to you so Alex can sit near the railing and dangle her feet off the edge.

“Y/N’s boyfriend is here.” Alex answers before you can.

“What?” Stella gasps. Grace’s mouth drops open in surprise. “You didn’t tell us!”

“I literally found out ten minutes ago! Sneaky asshole.” You look between Alex and Chris. “He’s transferred.”

“Oh, shit.” Chris looked impressed. “Because of you?”

“Maybe? I don’t know! We didn’t get to talk too much, we were coming in here.”

“Point him out to us when he comes in.” Grace says, looking towards the big double doors. Stella nods in agreement.

A hush falls over the rotunda as your Principal, Joan Rittler, sweeps into view below to stand on the golden knot on the floor, surrounded by the four statues of Ilvermorny. She’s wearing dress robes also, long black ones with intricate navy, cranberry and gold embroidery that swirl gently. Her long dreadlocks are piled on her head in a complicated knot that also has gold accents decorating it. She raises her ring covered hands for complete silence. “Hello, everyone,” she begins. “We are about to start our age old tradition of Sorting our new students. Please remember to remain quiet until the student has chosen their House.”

 She turns and raises her hands toward the double doors, and they swing open. The group of first years all shuffle in uncertainty, the older group of exchange students sticking out at the back because they’re so much taller. Principal Rittler ushers them to come further inside with a welcoming smile on her face. Once the blob of kids has made a rough semicircular shape at the edge of the room, the doors close back. You spot Draco near the wall, his eyes scanning the balcony for you, but you’re probably just a bit too far back. You elbow Grace and point to Draco’s blonde head.

“I didn’t know you were dating an albino,” Grace murmurs over the sound of the footsteps below.

You can’t even argue with her. “He’s actually tan right now, if you can believe it.”

“Merlin.”

Principal Rittler’s voice fills the rotunda without her even trying. “Welcome, students. You are all about to be sorted into your Houses. You will come up, one at a time, and stand on this knot–” she gestures to her feet– “and your House will be announced by the movement of the statues. You may then go over and join your new House mates behind the statue.”

“We have Thunderbird, for those with powerful and adventurous souls. Puckwudgie, for the strong and healing of heart. Wampus, for the brave warriors of body, and Horned Serpent for those engaged and scholarly minds. If more than once House wants you, it is up to you to choose, so think carefully.”

You felt a tiny twinge in your stomach at Principal Rittler’s words as you did every year.

“May the sorting begin.” Principal Rittler pulls her wand from inside her robes and conjures a scroll. She steps back off the knot and outside the circle of statues, and lets the long scroll fall open. “Acworth, Ames.”

A tiny girl with thin hair scurries from the middle of the blob and goes to stand on the knot. A few tense moments pass, and then the Thunderbird comes to life and beats it’s huge wooden wings. Thunderbirds all around the balcony burst into cheers as Ames beams and walks over to stand behind the statue.

It goes on like this, down the list. Ilvermorny is a huge school, and between first years and Exchange students there are at least eighty people to be sorted. You lean over and whisper in Chris’s ear. “Kinda makes you miss the fifteen minute Hogwarts sorting, doesn’t it?”

Chris’s eyes go wide as he gives you a deep nod.

You watch as the light changes from yellow to orange through the top of the dome. Two children have more than one statue offer them a place in their House, which always livens up the sorting. One girl immediately chooses Puckwudgie, while the other boy starts to cry before finally choosing Horned Serpent. You hope he’s not wrong, and make a mental note to try and find him at some point during the first week. 

Finally, all the first years are done, and it’s time for the Exchange students. Principal Rittler turns her scroll over to the back side. “Álvarez, Jose!” A tan boy steps onto the knot and is immediately made a Wampus.

When Principal Rittler calls out “Malfoy, Draco,” your heart starts to go double time, like it’s you getting sorted all over again. You lean forwards to look between the bars of the railing, and you can feel Chris, Alex, Grace and Stella all watching you as much as they watch him.

Draco steps out onto the knot. There is no movement for a second, and then, three statues come alive at once. The Puckwudgie raises his arrow up, while the Thunderbird beats its wings. The crystal set into the forehead of the Horned Serpent glows, and it twists its neck around.

Murmurs are heard across the rotunda. You’ve seen threes happen only twice more in your years at Ilvermorny. Twos are much more common, and fours almost unheard of. Everyone is watching with bated breath to see which house Draco will choose, but you have a feeling you already know.

When Draco walks over to join the group behind the Horned Serpent statue, you scream along with Stella and Grace. The rest of your House is the loudest it’s been all night.

Several other students go, and then it’s Ginny’s turn. Alex is gripped by the same anticipation as you as Ginny strides out of the group and onto the knot. She’s made a Thunderbird, and Alex whistles loudly for her.

You grab Alex’s shoulder. “Did you guess right, too?” You yell over the other Thunderbird’s raucous applause.

“Uh-huh!”

You and Alex high-five hard.

Finally, the sorting comes to an end. Another set of double doors opposite the main ones open into Ilvermony’s Great Hall, and the newly sorted first years rush inside to receive their first wands. While the wand choosing doesn’t take nearly as long as the sorting, it’s another round of waiting the upper years have to endure. There’s lots of traffic going down the two staircases from the balcony to the main floor.

“Aw, guys, that was our last sorting!” Stella pulls a face and puts her hand on her heart.

“So many lasts,” Chris adds.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” you interject. “This gets to be our first time leading the dance and the songs!”

“True.”

You finally emerge at the bottom of the stairs. You intend to try and find Draco, so he can know where to sit, but your Head of House, Ms. Angeles, is collecting last years at the back of the rotunda. You and Alex exchange an annoyed glance as you make your way over.

Ms. Angeles is attempting to count everyone, but gives up. She rests the tip of her wand on her neck and clears her throat. Everyone stops talking, lower years still filing into the Great Hall peer over at you all as they walk. “I sincerely hope that after six years you know how this is going to work!” Ms. Angeles’s voice sounds extra loud.

Next to you, Chris grimaces.

“If you don’t, stand behind someone who does and follow them. Four lines, please! And do not stand next to your house mates!”

Alex grabs you, and you in turn grab Chris. Grace and Stella follow you anyway as you make your way to one of the four lines forming. “Think again if you thought I’d listen to a single order Angeles tells me this year,” Grace mumbles.

Ms. Angeles evens up the lines until she’s satisfied. Through the open doors you can see that most everyone has taken a seat at the many tables, first years closest to the walls, with a cluster of empty tables in the center of the room for the last years to sit at. The edges of the room are fraught with excited conversations as eleven year old’s hold and compare wands for the first time, unable to contain their excitement. Ms. Angeles leaves you to take her seat at the staff table, and you all wait as the last few people sort themselves out. It’s then you notice Draco sitting all alone at one of the empty tables. He’s picked one on the edge so he blends in with the sixth years at the tables nearest to him, but it’s still a sad sight. You cover your mouth with your hands, not sure if you want to laugh or cry.

“Aw, Draco!” Alex notices, too.

“That’s literally the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stella comments.

“We have to go over there after, oh my God,” you giggle, tearing up. All your emotions from the past hour– seeing your friends again after summer, Draco suddenly appearing, and remembering you’re doing this all for the last time– are coming to the surface in a weird mix.

“Babe! Are you crying?” Alex turns around and puts a hand on your shoulder.

“No! I mean, yes, but… I don’t know, there’s too much happening right now!” You sniff, flicking away the tears that cling to your lashes. “Ugh! Okay, let’s go.” You pull out your wand and bounce on the balls of your feet, ready to get the dance started.

There is some whisper-arguing amongst the four leaders of the lines, and then they set off skipping, starting to clap in time. The two center lines wind their way back and forth between the tables through middle, while the outer lines go along the wall.

 “We stand as one united,

Against the Puritan.

We draw our inspiration,

From good witch Morrigan.”

 The students sitting down continue clapping while you all sing. Your line turns when you reach the staff table, and you begin to skip in the opposite direction of the other lines. Most of the first years sit at their tables and listen to the song, watching with excitement. Older students reach out their hands and you give them all high fives as you pass. Across the hall, Draco catches your eye, smiling as he watches you dance. You grin back as your classmates sing about Ilvermorny, the supreme wizard school, and green streamers come out of your wand as you twirl around.

After a long and satisfying First Feast, you jump up from your table to go find Draco. After the dance, you hadn’t been able to make your way to sit with him. Alex was also unable to find a seat near Ginny, and so you’d both suffered through the meal away from your partners. But now that it was time to go back to your dorms, you had the chance to find Draco and not be separated again.

As everyone exited from the hall, you squeeze your way over through the crowd. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He grabs your hand to keep you together.

“I knew you’d be Horned Serpent” you say, following your House mates out of the hall and towards the west staircase. “Did you pick it to be with me, or because you felt it fit?

“Many reasons,” he says. “But I will have you know I read up on Ilvermorny this summer and did think about it before I got here.”

“Really?” You’re impressed, but also that’s such a thing he would do. Draco doesn’t like unknowns.

“Of course. Got to be prepared, right?”

You don’t say anything, and instead just enjoy a moment to yourself gazing at his face. “Wait ‘till you see our common room, it’s so fun.”

You climb up several flights of stairs until you reach a large wooden door that’s covered in a grid of carvings. The door is already open, letting the steady stream of students through. “You get in my tapping certain squares in a pattern,” you say as you pass. “We’ll find it out from someone before tomorrow. And I want to take you around.”

As you enter the Horned Serpent common room, you turn to Draco to see his reaction. The Horned Serpent dorms are located in one of the five big turrets of the castle, meaning the construction leads vertically rather than horizontally. The common room is a the bottom, a large circular room with chairs, couches, and three fireplaces on the walls. Piles of books are all over the floor, separating clusters of chairs near the fires or windows, so people can study or talk in groups. Your favorite part of the common room though is the ceiling– perhaps hundreds of chandeliers, ranging from the largest one in the center to tiny ones the size of cups cover the room in a soft glow. On opposite sides of the room are entrances to the different dormitories, and you drag Draco over to the left one.

“This is to the girl’s rooms, I want you to meet my cats!”

“Can I go in there?” Draco says, unsure.

“Duh.” You roll your eyes. “I wouldn’t be taking you if I couldn’t”

You lead the way up a spiral staircase. You stop on the second landing, which is semicircular, and lead Draco to the second door.

“Hey.” You poke your head inside. Grace is already laying on her bed, reading, while Stella is at her desk struggling to open an ink bottle.

“Hey,” Stella and Grace answer in unison. “Did you bring him?” Grace asks, marking her place and closing her book. 

You nod. You step into the room and pull Draco in behind you. “These are my friends, Stella and Grace.” 

Draco looks back and forth between the three of you for a moment. “Are you guys… sure you aren’t related?”

Grace laughs and you sigh. “People get us mixed up all the time. Our hair looks the same from the back. But other than that we all look different, I’d say.” Your first year at Ilvermorny had been a tough one for teachers. Stella and Grace being your roommates, they were also your first friends, so you all had to endure lots of “Grace! No, er- Y/N!” “Actually, I’m Stella,” in any class and around the hallways. As you’d gotten older and the three of you had changed around your haircuts, it had gotten easier.

“Congratulations on Horned Serpent, Draco,” Grace says as Stella continues to struggle with her ink bottle. “It’s lucky you got to pick. So did Y/N.”

“Yes, she’s told me about it. And you all, too. Er, do you want a hand with that?” Draco asks as Stella slams the ink back onto the desk in defeat.

“Please.” Stella grabs the bottle and silently offers to toss it. Draco nods and catches it deftly with one hand, cracks it open in one go, and throws it back to a bewildered Stella.

“Show off,” you mutter, bending down to look under your bed.

“Hot,” Grace corrects. “You picked a better one this time, Y/N.”

You choose to ignore this comment. From under your bed, you pull a fat grey cat. “Draco, this is Benedict, one of my cats.” With Benedict’s massive body balanced against your chest, you reach onto your bed and scoop up a much smaller black cat with huge green eyes with your other hand. “And this is Sophie.” Now that you’ve woken the cats up, their voices start to filter into your head.

‘Who’s this?’ Sophie questions, sniffing the air.

��Mom, I don’t like it, he smells different!’ Benny starts to squirm in your arms.

“Settle down,” you say, clutching Benny tighter to you. “And be nice! This is Draco, I’ve told you about him.”

“Ahem, your cats?” Grace interrupts. “They’re my kids too now, I looked after them for you while you were gone.”

“Fine, our cats.” You hold Sophie out to Draco. “Here, she wants to see you.”

Draco takes Sophie from you with some hesitation. You wrangle Benny in more securely now that you have both hands. ‘Oh, he’s warm!’ Sophie closes her eyes and starts to purr. ‘I see why you chose this one.’

‘Mom NO! Sophie don’t, he seems strange! Don’t trust him!’

“Don’t be rude!” You scold. Benny continues to writhe in your arms so you put him down, and he runs over and jumps onto Grace’s bed.

“Hah!” She says triumphantly.

“He’ll come around,” you assure Draco. “But for now Sophie really seems to like you, she’s always been the friendlier one.”

‘More like reckless!’ Benny meows allowed, but only you understand what it means.

“Be nicer to your sister!” You say to him. He sulks back and hides behind Grace.

“What are they saying?” Draco asks, intrigued. He scratches Sophie under her chin and she purrs even more.

“Benny says you smell and Sophie says you’re warm and I made a good choice.”

Draco laughs, which disturbs Sophie a bit. ‘Ah, he can be loud though! I’m too hot now. I want to keep napping.’ She leaps from Draco’s arms and back onto her little hollow in your blankets.

“It seems like they’re done. Let’s go on a castle tour.” You move around Draco to go back out the door. Stella and Grace chorus goodbye as you whisk Draco out again.

As you re-enter the common room, Draco stops you. “Can I find my room first? I want us to be able to take our time and I want to know where I’m going when we get back.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. My bad.” You start to blush with embarrassment that you’d forgotten. “Want me to go up there with you?”

“I think I can manage.” He gives you that stupid crooked smile and you immediately realize you’ve been a little clingy.                                                                                                        

“I’ll wait down here for you when you’re ready,” you say as Draco disappears up the stairs. You settle into one of the chairs to wait, swinging your feet over the side. Several more of your House mates pass, including Alice, who gives you the pattern for the door. After what feels like an eternity, Draco reemerges from the boys dormitories looking pleased.

You close the book you’d pulled out to pass the time. “Are you with anyone you know?”

Draco shook his head. “No. You know Gao and Will very well?”

“Which Will?” You chuckle as you get up. “There’s at least 5. And Gao’s real name is Will too, by the way. We just all call him Gao.”

“Brilliant,” Draco sighs. “Also no. He’s got brown hair and green eyes if that helps.”

“Nope, two of them look like that.”

“I give up.”

“I’ll find out tomorrow and give you my opinion.”

You lead the way out of the common room and into the halls. “Where do you wanna go first?”

“I don’t care.” Draco takes up your hand. “Your favorite spots.”

So you take Draco around the castle. Ilvermorny is massive, and you show him little shortcuts along the way when you can. You take him to the halls where all the seventh year classes are located, and down to the hallway where Ms. Bell’s new history classes are taking place and halfway convince Draco to sign up with you. As you go through the halls, you greet all the statues you’ve come to know over the years. Ilvermony’s corridors are filled with enchanted sculpture, some small, some lifesize, and others so massive they require their own small rounded spaces and are situated in the middle of hallways. You take him to see your favorite, called Lady Lightfoot, whom everyone affectionately calls Lucy.

You pull Draco into her rounded hallway room, one side of which has huge windows that look out onto the East Lawn of Ilvermorny. Linda has long locks of flowing hair and is sculpted in a sheer dress. She’s in her true sculpted position, resting against a rock, when you enter.

“Hi, Lucy!” Your words echo in the empty room.

Lucy turns away from gazing out the window at the sound of your voice. “Y/n! What a lovely surprise, I should expect one of my favorite students to come and visit on the first night! And after such a long time, too.” The two of you walk to stand in front of her, and Lucy’s pale marble face beams down at you. Her stone locks fall about her face as though they were as soft as real hair. “Who’s this?”

“Lucy, this is my boyfriend, Draco. He’s from Hogwarts.”

Lucy gasps so loudly both you and Draco jump. “Boyfriend! My, you leave me for a year and come back with an English beau? And he’s handsome too!” She leans down to get a better look.

You laugh, and start to blush again. “I’m just showing him around.”

“How lovely,” she sighs, clasping her hands together. “I’m so glad you’ve opened your heart up again, Y/n.”

You draw in a short breath. This was not a subject you wanted to broach tonight, and take this as a cue to get out before Lucy spills anything else about your embarrassing lower year self. And why did everyone keep bringing it up?

“We’ve still got lots to see, but we’ll be by tomorrow. Bye!” You drag Draco to the exit and keep going down the hall. “Okay, I’ve saved the best for last. Come this way.”

At the end of the hall, you find a wooden door to the left of another big window. You tug on the door–it’s always a bit sticky– while Draco gazes out across the lawn.

“The Quidditch pitch here is huge,” he says, sounding impressed. “Much bigger than Hogwarts’.”

“Oh, yeah definitely,” you grunt, giving the door one last hard pull and it finally comes open. “That’s what we’re going to look at, but the view is better from up here.” You usher for Draco to follow you into the door.

It leads to a short set of stairs which have a trapdoor at the top. Draco closes the door at the bottom at your instruction, and you light your wand to see in the darkness. The trapdoor is easier to open, and you climb up and out.

You come out on a small landing, a circular balcony with a roof just big enough for four people to sit or stand. Draco emerges from the trapdoor and you firmly shut it behind him. “So this is what those tiny little turrets are,” Draco says.

“Yep, there’s little places like this all over the castle.” You use your wand to blow a few leaves and dust off the floor of the balcony. “Some are permanently closed, but others you can get to. This is the one my friends and I use. Mostly people use it for smoking, but I like the view.”

You join Draco in leaning against the railing. “You can see the pitch, and that building is the creatures barn, where all the magical animals live.”

You watch the sunset over the trees for a few moments before you feel Draco staring at you. “What?” You say, looking over.

Draco pushes off the railing and leans back against one of the pillars holding up the roof. “I don’t know what you’re waiting for.”

“I’m the one waiting?” You put a hand to your chest in disbelief. “I brought you up here.”

Draco opens his arms up. “Come on.”

“No.” You smirk.

Draco’s mouth drops open. “Stop being difficult, Y/n!” He pretends to sound aghast.

“I’ve never been difficult in my life,” you say airily, turning back to look out across the trees. Draco comes up behind you, wrapping his arms around your torso and resting his chin on top of your head. Your heart flutters in your chest with excitement. Draco reaches a hand up to brush your hair away from the side of your face, and you feel his breath on your ear when he dips his head down. There’s nothing you can do to stop the involuntary curl of your toes when he presses his mouth to the sensitive part of your neck, and your resolve is immediately broken.

You twist around in his arms, and your noses brush together as your lips meet in a much anticipated kiss. An entire summer of waiting comes to the surface immediately, and you’re pulling each other close with an almost desperate need. You hadn’t forgotten how well you fit together and the wonderful ways Draco could touch you that made you dizzy with desire, but it was nice to have a refresher.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” you say unevenly between kisses.

“Me too,” he responds, just as breathless.

After several long minutes of heated kissing, you end sitting on the floor in Draco’s lap, his fingers tracing patterns along the sides of your thighs while you catch your breath.

“I know how much you like Ms. Bell, but Merlin if I wasn’t angry I couldn’t kiss you like that when I first caught sight of you.”

You let out a soft laugh, and press a kiss to his forehead. “So tell me, I want to know the story of how you ‘go here now’.”

He lets out a sigh and looks off to the side, fingers still trailing across your legs absentmindedly. “I was so tired of Hogwarts. My father always wanted to send me to another European wizarding school, but mum wanted me closer to home. I told them about how all the Exchange students from America took much more useful and interesting classes and how schooling abroad looks impressive, and after a few weeks I had them convinced. Mother was annoyed I didn’t just apply for Exchange last year, but this way I won’t get behind in classes like everyone, because I’ll graduate with you all here.

Obviously I chose Ilvermorny because you’re here. But if you’re worried about this being some grand romantic gesture I was expecting you to return, that’s not it.”

You nod, taking in everything he’s said. You brush a finger down the line of his neck to his partially unbuttoned shirt collar. “I did wonder about that. But those are good reasons. Ilvermorny is superior, anyway,” you smirk.

“Good,” he says, running his entire hand over your leg now. “I thought you might be mad that I came without telling you, but I wanted it to be a surprise. I know you do like a little romantic gesture.”

“Thanks. I really think you’ll like it here, too. I meant it when I said I’m glad you’re– hey, stop that! I’m trying to talk!”

Draco’s slid both his hands under you skirt, making you gasp. You grab his wrists and put his hands back near your knees while he laughs.

“You know, it won’t be as convenient as it was at Hogwarts. We both have roommates now, it won’t be like when we could have your Prefect’s room all to ourselves all the time,”  you say.

“Yes I know, which is why I’m trying to get a head start.” He grabs one of your hands, brushing his fingers across your open palm.

Suddenly you feel a bit shy. “I hope you don’t regret transferring. It’s a lot different here than Hogwarts, and my friends can sometimes be a lot sometimes.”

“So I’ve gathered from Alex and Grace.” Draco flips your hand over and your fingers intertwine together. “I’m sure it will be fine, darling. I’ll make my own friends too, some of yours are bound to be obnoxious.”

That makes you laugh again. “I’m sure, especially since Ginny will be hanging around.”

Draco seemed to have genuinely forgotten this because he leans his head back against the railing and makes a face. “God, I forgot about her.”

“Come on, Ginny isn’t that bad! She’s less annoying than Ron.”

“They’re all annoying,” he scowls.

“Now who’s being difficult?”

He reaches out and pinches your sides, making you squeal. “No tickling! Or no kisses!” You warn.

“How about I get both?” He wraps his arms around you and pulls you against his chest, kissing you repeatedly on your cheek while he digs his fingers into your sides again.

“Nooooo!” You cry, wiggling around like your cat had earlier. You sucessfully pin one of his arms against the railings and grab his other wrist, your free hand groping at your side for your wand. He’s strong, though, and twists his arm around in your grasp to keep you from reaching it.

You wrestle for a minute, which unfortunately ends with you against the ground under Draco’s iron grip. The two of you never fully grew out of the fighting phase of your relationship.

“At least you can’t tickle me now,” you pant, blowing a wisp of hair out of your face.

Draco eyes are flirting all across your face and down your neck, just like when he saw you when he first arrived. Except it’s different now that you’re alone and pinned beneath him.

“Let me go,” you say, narrowing your eyes.

Draco stays silent and loosens his grip experimentally. You slip your arms out from his hold and instead rest them across his back, inviting him to come closer again.

You might not have Draco’s single bedroom this year, but you suppose the balcony isn’t too bad either.

[sapphicscholar]

Pride Month Prompts Day 14: Coffee Shop (Supercat)

From this Pride Month Prompts post! I’m taking the opportunity to write some short fics for a variety of pairings that I haven’t written for as much, maybe at all. They won’t be going on AO3, so I’ll be sure to tag them all with #pride month prompts so you can find them later if you want.

Day 14: Coffee Shop - Part 2 (continued from Day 11: The Movies; there may be a part 3…)

Pairing: Supercat

Cat sniffed quietly. “I suppose I should thank you for the ticket, then.”

“If you’re not busy, what about thanking me over a cup of coffee?” Catching sight of the raised eyebrow, Kara faltered for a moment before pushing on. “I mean, you know, it’d be good to catch up. And there’s a little café just three blocks away that serves the best pastries and espresso that’s up to your standards.”

After a long pause, Cat grabbed her bag and gestured in the direction of the exit. “Well go on then. I don’t have all night.”

Kara beamed. “I swear, they have a cinnamon chip scone that’ll blow your mind.”

“I believe Rob Lowe promised something similar, and yet life seems to be full of disappointments.” She bit back a smile at the sound of Kara stumbling behind her.

One short walk later, they arrived at a small café with furniture and mugs Cat was pleased to see weren’t all intentionally mismatched in that way that screamed, “We’re trying so hard to be quirky and unique!” Instead, the furnishings looked inviting, like a tasteful living room interspersed with wooden tables small enough to keep it from feeling like a coworking space.

“I’ll go order if you want to pick a seat,” Kara said, already heading up to the counter and ignoring Cat’s attempt to reach for her wallet to pay.

Cat ended up choosing one of the small sofas—she would not call it a love seat, no matter what the proper name for it was. If it reminded her a bit of the one in her old office where she’d spent many a late night sitting with Kara, increasingly impressed with her work ethic and her raw talent just waiting to be turned into something spectacular, well, she was a creature of habit in certain ways. A few minutes later, Kara returned with two steaming mugs carefully clutched in one hand and a plate with several pastries balanced on the other.

“I didn’t know what you were in the mood for, so I got all my favorites, plus a few things I think you’d like.”

Cat didn’t admit it, but everything smelled divine, and even though she didn’t make a habit of indulging in sweets she thought tonight she might make an exception. After all, she didn’t exactly make a habit of unplanned theater excursions or coffee dates with former assistants either.

Over coffee and pastries that ended up tasting just as good as they smelled, Cat let Kara ask her about traveling, about DC, about the White House, about her decision to leave, about why she was back in National City without having come back to CatCo yet. And, in turn, Cat slipped in her own questions, including a few about Kara’s more heroic duties, as well as her time reporting and mentoring Nia, the stories she’d most enjoyed working on, whether that boyfriend had ever come back from space (and nothing had quite prepared her for that story), how the fake-FBI agent sister was doing. For the first time since coming back from DC, Cat found herself actually relaxing with someone who wasn’t Carter. She let herself sink into the plush sofa, her eyes almost fluttering shut as she lost herself in the elaborate stories Kara wove for her with an eye for detail she’d watched Kara hone over the past couple years of reporting.

Eventually the barista began cleaning around them, collecting their empty plates and mugs, and finally letting them know that they’d closed half an hour ago and now that everything was cleaned up for the night, she really did need to ask them to leave.

Kara apologized profusely, and when she turned around, Cat slipped the woman a very generous tip, muttering a quiet, “Thank you for the extra time.”

The woman winked in return. “Don’t worry about it. Looked like a good date.”

A chair clattered to the ground, and a moment later a blushing Kara propped it back up, spouting apologies for her clumsiness.

As they exited the café, Cat found she wasn’t ready for the night to end. And god, that really did make this rather different from almost every other date she’d been on in recent memory. Not that it was a date. Just because Kara had paid for her movie ticket and her coffee and shared one of her favorite spots with her.

“Would you maybe want to walk for a bit? It’s a really nice night.”

Cat suspected she was nearing closer and closer to the woman who she’d sworn she’d stay away from, not wanting to corrupt someone so good and light with all the darkness that seemed to surround her, burning her once-good relationships past the point of recognition. But she couldn’t find it within herself to turn away again.

So instead, Cat nodded and gathered her things. And when they stepped outside into the cool night air, Cat let Kara take the lead.

[twothumbsandnostakeincanon]

I hope you survive The Unpleasant Thing! Maybe you could write some deter where Peter starts to build a home for the two of them (maybe leaving Derek very confused cause they are not together yet)?

Thanks for the prompt!! I totally survived. Just like a cockroach. Here’s some poor oblivious Derek.

“There’s a hole in the wall.”

“I know.”

“... A very big hole.”

“I’m so glad your powers of observation came back with the rest of you,” Derek said flatly without looking up from his book.

Peter looked up.

“At least there’s not a hole in the ceiling this time.”

The clenching of his nephew’s jaw was audible.

“Feel free to go literally anywhere else, Peter.”

Peter tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“I think I will.”

He was out the door half a moment later, missing the tense hunch of Derek’s shoulders.

__________

“Do you actually like the open, industrial look, or was it just the furthest you could get from people?”

Derek answered shortly as he continued trying to get a hold of Scott.

“It was in my price range, and had a lot of places to hide bodies.”

Peter made a little “ah” sound, and continued doodling in his notebook.

When Scott’s voicemail picked up, again, Derek growled out “Answer your damn phone, or I’m going to nail it to your head.” He hung up and threw his phone onto the couch in frustration.

“If you didn’t have to consider corpses, would you still go for the open industrial look?” Peter asked, still sketching.

Derek looked up at him, confused.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Maybe what? What would determine your maybe?”

Derek’s confusion was now overriding his frustration.

“What?”

“Maybe you would still like the open plan? Or maybe you would still like the industrial look?”

“I-” Derek paused. He honestly didn’t know. What did it matter what he actually liked? “The open plan, I guess. I don’t really care about the look, or whatever.”

Peter closed his notebook and chucked it at him. Derek caught it reflexively, growling and ready to throw it back, but Peter interrupted him.

“Take a look at the first three pages of designs and tell me if you think it’s open enough.”

Derek flipped through the floorplans, and then went back more slowly. It was a basic outline of what could be a beautiful single family home. Very open with a lot of windows.

Was Peter building a house?

Derek stared off into space. He wondered where Peter was building. It wasn’t on old Hale land, or he would have been notified.

Was it even in the county?

Was Peter moving?

Derek’s chest tightened- something he studiously ignored. He chucked the notebook back at Peter, aiming for the back of his head, but Peter caught it anyway.

“It’s open,” was all Derek said before snatching up his phone to try calling Scott again.

__________

The Lagarfljot Worm lay in many, many pieces at their feet. Everyone was sweaty, tired, and covered in guts.

Except Peter, who somehow always came out of a fight looking impeccable.

Bastard.

Honestly, not even a hair out of place. Clothes unstretched, still hugging his body perfectly, skin perfectly smooth… completely unmarked… just like a canvas, waiting-

“Hey Derek, what do you think of this color?” Peter asked.

Derek snapped out of his daydream, startled. He hadn’t had been lost in thoughts like that since before-

He cut himself off.

“What?”

“That chartreuse green color, on the pile of stuff over there. What do you think of having that as a furniture accent?”

“... That’s a pile of livers.”

Peter waved his hand impatiently.

“Yes, but what do you think of the color?”

Derek wrinkled his nose.

“It’s… a lot.” He frowned. “Maybe a couple of pillows, but not a whole piece of furniture.” Derek paused again. Was he really giving his opinion on Peter’s liver-based color choices?

Peter sauntered a little closer as Derek spoke, eventually ending up next to him, sliding his cardigan off. While Derek was busy considering what earth tones Peter might like to go with the ugly green, Peter started wiping the guts off of Derek’s face and neck.

Derek submitted to the handling without really thinking about it. Peter had always been the one to clean him up after a particularly rowdy full moon. Pack grooming. Laura always made fun-

Derek jerked back suddenly, eyes wide. Peter raised a mild eyebrow before folding his sweater back up and tucking it under his arm.

“I’ll look into more jewel tones instead,” he said. He leaned forward slowly, giving Derek a chance to move away, before rubbing their cheeks together in a brief scenting gesture.

Then he left.

Without taking care of any of the Lagarfljot Worm.

Bastard.

__________

“Open shelving?”

“Four or six burner stove?”

“Obviously a home gym, but how big of a home gym?”

Derek continued giving his input for Peter’s new home, always responding to his questions because it kept Peter around. As long as they were talking, then Peter was there, in the same space as Derek. Sometimes very close in the same space as Derek.

The scenting and pack touching slowly became heavier as the months passed. A hand run down an arm, shoulders brushing- and then more. A hand through the hair, wrist pressed against the side of a vulnerable throat. Fingers trailed down a bare back. Lips against a temple.

Nothing blatantly outside of normal pack- but just enough to make Derek ache for what it could mean. What it could have meant, in a different life.

Then the questions stopped.

For an entire week. Peter barely came to the loft, and when he did it was just for a momentary brush-by.

Derek was scowling morosely into his oatmeal when Peter finally came back, bursting into the loft with a bang.

“Are you ready?” he demanded.

The no was on the tip of his tongue, but it never arrived because Peter was already ushering him up and out of the kitchen.

It was a fifteen minute drive. The property was still on the edge of the preserve, but on the opposite side of town. There was space to run without the chance of crossing over old memories.

The house itself looked nothing like the old pack home- it was much smaller for one, and a more modern style for another. The coloring through the house was mostly shades of warm earth, interspersed with dark blues and purples. It reminded Derek of the bedding he’d had as a teen- the set he’d chosen on a shopping trip with Peter.

Peter seemed unusually tense, as if he was waiting for approval. Derek wasn’t sure why- Peter had never needed the approval of anyone anywhere, for any reason. But he was eager to ease the need anyway.

“It looks great, Peter,” he said gruffly. “It’s perfect for you.”

Peter still looked like he was waiting for something.

“... and you?” he eventually said. “Is it perfect for you?”

Derek’s brow furrowed.

“Me?”

“Yes,” Peter said. “I got the six burner stove like you suggested, but I went with electric.”

Slowly, so slowly that he could have been beaten by an oven timer, it dawned on Derek.

“Peter, did you build this house for both of us?”

Peter looked at him disbelievingly.

“Did you honestly not know? Derek, I asked for your opinion on dishware.”

Derek threw up his hands, defensively saying “I don’t know! I thought maybe you just needed help narrowing down the options!”

“Your loft is a literal hole in the wall!” Peter continued. “Did you honestly think I would leave you there? You, my mate?”

“Stop talking about the ho- what?”

Peter crossed his arms.

“You heard me.”

Derek’s mouth moved soundlessly for a moment before choking out, “Mate?”

Peter slowly stepped closer to Derek, a cautious look on his face.

“Mate. If you’re still interested. The last seven years- they’re not what I saw for us when you were younger.” He slowly brought his hands up to frame Derek’s face, staring into his lost-looking eyes. “But this is.” Peter tilted his head to gesture at the house around them. “We can have this, now. If you want.”

Derek’s mouth was still hanging open when Peter’s thumb started to brush back and forth across his cheek. It was still open when he leaned forward to capture Peter’s mouth with his own. His mouth was open when he murmured “Yes yes yes” in between kisses.

And it was still open in the morning as he smiled at Peter laying next to him in their new bedroom.