#And it’s hard to find time to be affectionate w/ my girlfriend because they’re always with their other boyfriend and I’d feel bad if I just

[pnuk-r0ck]

Wow I am. A bad boyfriend.

[tinyyoungblood]

hi!! adore your work love. could you maybe do smth where stark!reader has to get her wisdom teeth out but HATES the dentist so she brings her boyf peter and her dad w her?? and then when they get home the avengers are all waiting with like comical amounts of flowers and stuffed animals and then reader says some funny shiii and thor thinks she’s like dying lol. idk if that made sense but i’m getting my wisdom teeth out soon and i’m scared😭 thank u so so much love u babe

pairing: peter parker x stark!reader

a/n: tysm lovely :,) i rushed through this like my life depended on it, but i hope i’m not too late. either way, i hope you’re okay! it’s frightening but those bad boys gotta go because we don’t need that kind of energy in our lives. enjoy x

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

wisdom teeth? more like wisdoom

y/n has to get her wisdom teeth removed and it’s the singular most dreadful thing she’s ever had to do, which says a lot because her dad is tony richling stark

doing dreadful things she doesn’t want to do but still somehow end up doing just because she can is a personality trait at this point

no one really makes a big deal out of it since ~death~ is part of their job description, but y/n is terrified

and when a stark is terrified the only thing that will keep them one step from insanity is researching the hell out of it

that information will be info dumped into every conversation for the next few weeks leading up to the appointment

“y/n you need anything from the store?” "no thanks, did you know the side effects of getting your wisdom teeth out include ✨sudden death or blood clots✨ tho” “……..i have a coupon?”

the day of the appointment, peter comes along and literally doesn’t let go of y/n’s hand. he keeps touching her to let her know that he’s there and it’s so. adorable

he would rest his hand on her knee, gently stroke her back while holding her, or just play with her hair

happy drops them off and he’s too Cool™ for emotions but he knows y/n’s a wreck, so he just fist bumps her with a single nod and she almost breaks down bc it’s really affectionate

y/n is sitting in the dentist chair and genuinely nothing is happening yet, but she’s squeezing peter’s hand like it’s a sponge

peter might have a high pain tolerance but he’s in pain pain and he prays that his hand won’t just explode on him

the dentist notices how peter tries to keep it together and chuckles

“you okay there, son?” “yea it’s fine, had a better time when a building fell on me tho haha” “pardon?” “oh i mean i didn’t have a good time, i just had a better time”

because y/n is running Anxious Town™, the dentist gives her a sedative to help her relax 

plus, an injection of local anaesthetic to numb the tooth and surrounding area

she doesn’t feel anything and it’s GREAT

the procedure is quicker than expected and now the real fun begins

she tries to walk but she falls down so peter scoops her up bridal style and happy stays glued at her side

y/n doesn’t mind although she literally doesn’t recognise them and they’re practically strangers to her

but girly sees an opportunity and tries to flirt with peter bc why wouldn’t she

“you’re pretty” *blushes* “why thanks” “you should let your girlfriend know” “i should let her know i’m pretty?” “so you do have a gf? :(” “yea it’s you” “:)”

they stop for gas and peter goes in to get some water for y/n, and in her infinite wisdom, she decides it’s burger time

her mouth is completely numb and she’s practically leaving a trail of drool behind her, but she’d kill for a burger right now

so she wobbles around aimlessly for an hour on some random parking lot as if the ground might just magically open up like a rabbit hole and lead her to five guys

she’s going places. not back to the car. definitely not five guys. they’re closed. but places

peter finally finds her and he’s drenched from head to toe in sweat. he doEsn’T wAnt tO tALk abOut iT tho so she lets him take her to subway instead

normally, she would know that peter’s usual subway order is bread-lettuce-jalapeño

but in her drugged-up state, it had simply slipped her mind so now she’s staring at him like he’d just murdered someone right in front of her

“that- that’s your order?? no meat or anything just bread, lettuce, and a little spice?”

meanwhile at the compound, sam and steve are ordering everyone around bc they want to decorate this place before y/n gets home to surprise her

they take it very seriously too. they’ve watched like one HGTV show and said it’s our time

they finally get home and tony gives y/n a big hug, asking her what took so long

happy tells him that she was keen on getting burgers bc apparently someone has taught her that stressful times call for ~cheeseburgers~

he proceeds to look at tony with a pointed look

tony just shrugs and goes “she was a problem child. we don’t mention her dark past”

she’s swaying on the spot and keeps grinning like a fool and thor just stares at her weirdly before elbowing bruce and whispering loudly,

“what’s wrong with her? is she dying? should i start collecting leaves, i know this remedy—"

no one can tell if y/n is just happy to see the newly decorated home or if she’s just delighted to see everyone but then she goes around hugging the entire team

she doesn’t even acknowledge the sky-high pile of teddy bears and flowers everywhere bc she’s just squeezing everybody

y/n is so high, she just starts to spill all of her feelings about everyone and they’re already so overwhelmed by the hug chain they can’t take this too

“wanda i just want you to know that you’re like my big sister and you’re always taking care of me and i know you and vision are just going to make such good parents one day”

“bucky you absolute PRICK, you FIEND, you’re the best chess player ever and that’ll never change and i wouldn’t be good without you, i hate to say it but you deserve happiness even after you made me lose five times in a row yesterday”

“dad, you’re so strong and smart, even though we’re like never on the same page, you’re always along for the ride, i want to be like you when i grow up, i swear i’m gonna try to be as good to the avengers as you were to us” “aww- wait makes you think i'll be the first to die“

“nat you’re such a bitch about your protein shakes but you’re my best friend and i wouldn’t have it any other way, you can try out as many make up looks on me as you want”

“bruce, brucey, i would live with you in your lab for the rest of my days if i had to, whenever you ask me to hand you stuff i feel useful and important”

“laura’s way out of your league clint i have no idea how the fuck you got her but don’t lose her and i want to be your next child’s godmother”

“steve…we’re your family now. we’re always gonna be your family now. okay?”

“loki you’re not fooling anyone with your attitude, we all know you’re part of the family, you were just misunderstood and messed up bc of your dad–FUCK him by the way–but i realised everyone deserves as many chances as they need because of you”

“sam i would genuinely kill anyone who wronged you, even if they cut you in line at the grocery store, i would knife them no hesitation”

“thor, you poor golden retriever have been through so much, on my way here i made a wish on an eyelash for you bc you deserve better, your postcards always make my day, love you”

she mumbles something to peter that no one else can hear but he blushes and chokes back a sob

y/n orders hot soup and bucky brings it to her but before he even has time to react peter drops everything and ZOOMS across the room in .3 seconds

he barrels into bucky so hard they both go flying, but peter just smoothly rolls out of it and onto his feet like some kind of super ninja

“DUDE WHAT THE HELL” “😠 y/n is not supposed to drink hot liquids 😠”

all of this happens in mere seconds but sam has filmed it all and now slow mo clips go viral online of some mysterious kid knocking over the winter soldier

y/n’s a little in and out after that, but when she fully regains consciousness, she’s on a pile of blankets, surrounded by the team on the floor <3

* * *

let me know if this is actually comforting lmao stay hydrated pals

hc masterlist

[vigilantaes]

BATGIRL 02        🞂    FILE 004        🞂     CONTACTS       🞂      CASSANDRA SANDSMARK.

this is a relationship headcanon primarily about @lightnlasso​ with some more general romantic hcs mixed in ! i'm single ship w/ cassie from present day canon and onwards but discussion of past relationships and au ones are still open. this post focuses primarily on cassie and cass. i use kat’s post here as a guideline for cass’s side of things! 

to start off with exposition per usual, cass does not really know what being a girlfriend entails. she doesn't know how to be a daughter, a sister, or even a person. it's something she's only really started to learn after joining the bats. romance was never something she considered until early into her batgirl career where the late interest in it started. she explores her identity and interests in the unconventional ways a 16-21 year old human weapon turned vigilante would. dangerously and usually pretty off the mark, but... it’s a process.

her first "romance" was a short fling with kon el that did not last... at all. i imagine it was an impulsive kiss from cass's end because of her sorting out her feelings, a couple visits, and then they just lost contact. big ol comphet for her.  

her first genuine crush was on stephanie, but the problem with that is that she had no idea she was even crushing on her since she was her first friend. that's something she figures out later on when she looks back and remembers all the times she was pissy about her being with tim or more affectionate towards her than she would've otherwise been. hindsight is a bitch, but cass is under the impression that she wouldn't have been open to that anyway so it's not a loss. still got her bestie!

romance and affection comes very slowly to cass, mostly due to her upbringing and cptsd but her autism has factors in it as well. 

she's a very tactile person and enjoys touch a LOT. the problem is that she also gets overstimulated through excessive touch or sensation. hugs and little kisses are no issue for her normally, but when you get into more intimate stuff like cuddling and beyond? she's got a lot of trouble keeping still during that. 

affection in general is pretty foreign to her so shes more comfortable throwing a punch than kissing people. she CAN and does get to the point where she can more consistently handle lots of affection, but she'll always have her moments where she's like DON'T TOUCH ME. it's a slow process but patience is key to get an affectionate cass!

also pda? no. oh my god. cassie's a showoff that likes pda and doesn't care about public opinion at all. cass does not like pda and keeps her shit very private, especially when the media starts noticing that she's a billionaire's kid. she has to beat cassie off with a stick sometimes because theyre complete opposites on that front.

cassie manhandles the shit outta her and yaknow. this is a hot take but cass's canonical trend with her love interests are all people who are more powerful than her which is hard to find. she won't admit it but she’d like the manhandling. sorry.

on that same line of thought, she'll unintentionally manhandle others too by yanking them around or just like. assuming they're gonna go with what she says. she can't manhandle cassie physically but sometimes when somebody's so confident in something you just gotta go with it.

cass and cassie get married in their late 20's / early 30's. this is part is pretty verbatim what kat said on her post (linked on the top), but tl;dr they have two weddings, much to cass's dismay. she was HOPING for just signing the papers and calling it a day but unfortunately familial obligations are important for both of them. COWABUMMER. makes for a hilarious plot, though.

their gotham wedding was probably first since bruce would've arranged for it. overly fancy rich bullshit. they definitely escaped their own wedding and got ambushed by their friends shortly afterwards ghskhdg.

then they have to go to themyscira because  hippolyta would lose her shit if she didn't get to go to cassie's wedding. that's also a fucking doozy because cass is just a dude. is she even allowed here? (yeah. you are. nonbinary rights.)

she doesn't regret the weddings at all and she had fun but two massive events in a row in foreign new places and magic bullshit mixed in there? THE VOWS ARE NOT GETTING RENEWED, CASSIE.

at least they get a long honeymoon, though. also worth it.

cassie takes wayne as her last name so they BOTH get to be cassandra wayne!! if you really wanna differentiate them then cassie is cassandra elizabeth wayne. cass is just cassandra wayne. it's exactly like how recently taylor lautner got married to taylor doome and they're both named taylor lautner now? yeah. probably hit the news the same way because thats funny as shit.

when they take over for their hero counterparts as the new wonder woman and the bat, they try to keep their relationship private but. the other heroes figure that out quick. some villains probably find out. theres stir sometimes in the media with rumors. they're uh. they're not great at hiding shit. cassie's an affectionate excited bastard and cass is blunt as shit. not a good secret keeping team.

[sushinoyuhh]

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

Let’s be honest, he finds your hips or thighs attractive. Mostly your hips because he likes to grab them and pull you over so he can kiss you.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

Yes, he does want a child in the near future. He can’t promise you his parenting skills would be the best, but he swears he’ll protect you both with his life. It’s really sweet, actually.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

He’s like a koala. He’d swing his arms and legs around your figure and could probably stay there forever. In return you’ll wrap your arms around him. He gets that goofy, loving smile and tells you how happy he is that you did that.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

Get this, baking dates. A lot of the things end up a complete mess, but it’s still fun to do! Often times you’ll both get ingredients and come over either one of your houses. And then, bake pastries! They range from cakes, too cookies, to either scones. Best part is, you all make them scratch!

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…))

You’re his universe.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

Do you believe in love at first sight? Well hopefully you do now, cause that’s exactly what happened with Nishinoya. He took one look at you, and instantly he was in love. No doubt about it.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

He’s a little gentle. But mostly rough. He gives you a lot of bare hugs, using your shoulders to jump when excited, or simply grabbing your wrist to get your attention. He seems to only be gentle or careful when he’s cuddling you or doing a task for you. He’s hard working, so he wants little to no mistakes while doing a task for you.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

He likes to do the traditional hand holding. When your both on dates, he’ll intertwine his fingers with yours. He says he feels, “a stronger connection”.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

Let’s face it you were a god/goddess in his pretty brown orbs— forget Kiyoko, he’s just all over you know.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

Of course he gets jealous, like really jealous. He’ll often growl or bark at anyone trying to touch you without consent or steal you away from him. He’s very protective, so the moment someone looks at him that isn’t you or family members, he shoots a death glare or two.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

Despite being an energetic person, he definitely kisses you gently on the lips. He likes to be soft with them unless he’s kissing you all over your face because he’s being very affectionate that day. And of course he kissed you first.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

He’s first for this too. If was all of a sudden too. You were just being yourself around him, and all of a sudden he went like: “I love you, Y/N..”

M = Memory (What’s their favourite memory together?)

It was while you were both baking a cake with him. Of course you got hyped while making it so flour kinda went everywhere. You looked at him with a surprised expression before going into a laughing fit. Your smile was just so pretty to him, he’d never forget that memory or your smile.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

Well for one, he spoils you with affection, but also with materialistic things as well. Like little jewelry things or charms to go on your charm bracelet he’d gotten you a while back. It mostly consists of jewelry or like flowers he’s found outside in the local garden. That’s also causes him to be late to school sometimes.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?)

White, cause you’re pure to him. Also your favorite color.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

Little monster, baby, hot stuff, or lil’ mama.

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

He likes badminton so he asked you would you like to play it with him sometimes.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

He likes to cuddle with you and watch whatever movie you like. Sometimes he purposely chooses horror movies so you’ll hold onto him if your skiddish with those kinda movies.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

He really really likes it when you play with his little hair tuff or his hair in general. He always melts in your touch like puddy whenever you play with his hair. It’s always nice to see him calm with a soft smile on his face.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

He definitely talks about you all the time. Sometimes it gets a little annoying...

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

You either saying his first name and saying calm down or playing with his hair.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

He like to show you off. He usually says “look at my amazing girlfriend/boyfriend/joyfriend!!” Or “look at how beautiful my girlfriend/boyfriend/joyfriend is..” and the occasionally “ah, they’re an angel!!”

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?)

You’d both definitely have a wedding in Italy since he’s traveling the world with you. It would be really pretty too, you’d both be a gorgeous park. The park would definitely be architecturally advanced with mosaics littering its walls too. They’re would also be a lot of red and white roses surrounded while you bothe get married. And don’t think for a second he wouldn’t fly all of your friends there.

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?)

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

Yes, he’s been thinking about that ever since you both got together.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

I don’t know but I know for a fact, he’ll get you a German Shepherd or some type of loyal/sweet guard dog.

sorry if this was sorta long, I simp for him the most so can you blame me?^^;

[ilyrafe]

𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕 ; 𝒄. 𝒔.

*i’ll name him bruce

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

he is very affectionate with only you and his mother. his mom may be a tiny woman but she has the last word with him, and it’s the same with you. his love language is physical touch, so he’s always with an arm around your waist or shoulders, or holding your hand.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

as a friend, he’s very protective, kind of jealous and super funny. he’s like an older brother; he’ll intimidate your boyfriends, he’ll be annoying, but you know he loves you very much and only wants you to be happy.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

he won’t admit it, but he loves to be cuddled. he’s always expected to be the big man, the protector, and he is all that, but he also likes to be spoiled and loved, and you’re not opposed to cuddle him at all!

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

he knows how to cook the basic stuff (so he won’t starve), and he’s fairly organized. his ultimate dream is to own a ranch, have lots of horses and dogs running around.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

he’d be devastated, but he wouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time if the relationship were leading nowhere. he’d try to be gentle with you, not to make you cry, and he’d drink until he passed out afterwards.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

he’s very traditional, so yes. he wants to get married, own a ranch, have a bunch of kids and grow old and see their children doing the same, passing on the tradition.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

he’s very gentle. he’s not the most refined man in the world, but he has a huge heart of gold and his mother raised him right. he’s very polite (he tries!), he tries not to swear around kids, and with you, it’s another level. he truly treats you like an angel. he’s the kind of guy who puts his jacket over a puddle so you can walk.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

again, only you and his mother. the men of his family are still a little bit uptight with affection. although bruce likes to be held, he just likes it when it’s you and his mother.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

he knows the power of those words, so it takes him a little while. he wants to say them in the right moment with the right person (hint: you!).

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

oh. oh, boy. you’ve talked to him about it, he has nothing to worry about, he should trust you, and he says he trusts you, he doesn’t trust men. he can’t help it, he will lose his shit if he sees a man eyeing your body. he knows what goes through their mind because he’s done it before and he doesn’t want other man thinking filthy shit about his woman.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

he’s such a good kisser. he’s always a tease when he kisses you, and he does this thing where he bites your lip when he finishes the kiss. he’s a passionate kisser, either the kiss is quick or long.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

he likes kids. he likes their innocence and finds it funny when they swear. he wants to have at least three kids, he wants to teach them how to ride horses, how to play soccer and this kind of stuff.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

he normally wakes up very early. he likes to be alone in the mornings, see the sunrise and have a moment of peace with his thoughts.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

if he’s not completely worn out, you’ll have sex. if he’s exhausted, he’ll just put something on the tv and sleep to that sound. and of course, cuddles.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

it’s hard for him to be in touch with his feelings, and he has a lot of stuff in his head that he knows that he needs to let out, but it’s just hard for him. he grew up having to be tough, so being vulnerable and open was not an option. he still sees it as a sign of weakness.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

he’s sort of short tempered, but he’s learning to be more tolerant. he really hates it when stuff don’t go as planned.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

he’s old fashioned, so he knows a lot about you. he knows your favorite things, he knows you, and he likes to learn about you.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

his favorite moment is when he laid eyes on you for the first time. you were at the local pub, he was celebrating something with his friends and there you were, having a nice chat with your girlfriends. one of them was dating one of his friends and she introduced you to the guys. he can’t explain how he knew it, but he was sure you were going to be in his life.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

he’s very protective, it can be annoying. he’s only relaxed when you’re with him.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

although he’s romantic, he’s not very into big gestures. sometimes he forgets an anniversary, but it’s because he’s busy, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care, because if it is pointed out to him, he will make it up to you.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

when he comes home, after a long day, he’ll just plop down on the couch and take a 30 minute nap, and that’s not the bad part, the problem is that he’ll do it when he’s sweaty and looking like a pig.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

he cares about his beard. he treats it like it’s a baby. no one touches syverson’s beard.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

he does, oh my god. he thinks about you constantly, his life only makes sense because you’re in it. his friends teases him saying he’s under the ‘y/n’s effect’, and he doesn’t care, because it’s true.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

it was bruce’s grandma’s 90th birthday, and the whole family was reunited at his grandfather’s ranch. you saw how sweet bruce was with his grandmother. she had a lot of grandchildren, but it was clear bruce was her favorite. he never left her side and she was so happy to meet you.

“oh, my sweet brucie is a honey, isn’t he?”

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

he doesn’t stand when people are ‘always happy’ and vegans.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

besides being cuddled, he only sleeps with the door locked. it’s a safety thing.

[mikauzoran]

Marichat/Adrienette: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: Kiss Thirty-Eight

Read it on AO3: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: ...because they’re running out of time.

It was bad.

It had been an honest mistake, a simple oversight, but Marinette was now regretting it immensely as an akumatized Adrien fangirl tore the roof off the Gabriel warehouse where Marinette was doing her summer internship like the lid of a soup can.

Two days previously, Chat Noir had rescued Marinette when she got caught in the crossfire of the latest Gabriel Agreste-caused akuma attack. Unthinkingly, Marinette had rung his bell, called him her hero in a flirty, saccharine tone, and kissed him on the cheek.

One of the other interns (Marinette’s rival Benoit) had gotten it all on tape as he took cover behind a clothes rack and posted the video online, the sniveling coward.

Of course, Adrien’s rabid fans were now calling for Marinette’s head on a platter despite Adrien’s insistences that Marinette was not cheating on him.

Clearly this fangirl was a little slow on the uptake if she’d only found out about and gotten akumatized over the quote-unquote “scandal” just then.

“You!” the akuma (Marinette hadn’t gotten her name yet) shrieked like a banshee as she pointed threateningly at Marinette, flapping her harpy-like wings as she slowly descended. “I’ll show you, you little hussy! The penalty for breaking Adrien’s heart is death!”

Marinette groaned, standing her ground and letting herself be a sitting duck to keep the akuma’s attention while the rest of her coworkers fled to safety.

“News flash!” Chat Noir growled as he leapt through the hole in the roof the fury had created, bashing the akuma over the head with his baton like a baseball bat on his way down.

He landed in a crouch in front of Marinette, putting himself between her and the monster. “Adrien’s heart isn’t broken, and he’s pissed that you’re harassing his girlfriend,” Chat snapped as he rose to his full height, teeth bared.

Marinette mentally noted that her boyfriend was really hot when he was worked up over protecting her.

The fury recovered from Chat’s little love-tap faster than expected, hissing like a feral cat as she dropped to the ground, denting the warehouse floor with her clawed, bird-like feet.

“You and your lover will die!” the akuma screeched, pulling a cartoonish gun-apparatus off her shoulder holster and firing it at them.

Acting on instinct, Chat dove at Marinette, pushing her to the ground.

Unfortunately, it was a net gun, and the resulting net got a two-for-one special, trapping both Marinette and Chat Noir in one shot.

The harpy akuma cackled, slowly advancing on her prey. “I will sacrifice you both to Adrien, and then he will realize his love for me!”

“Hate to break it to you,” Chat grumbled as he and Marinette struggled to free themselves and only wound up making it worse. “but Adrien’s ninety percent vegetarian, and he frowns on human sacrifice.”

Checking to make sure Marinette was clear of his right hand, Chat shouted, “Cataclysm!”, and the rope trapping them dissolved away.

“Run!” Marinette yelped, half pulling him to his feet as they took off.

The akuma screamed in anger, folding her wings and giving chase much faster than a bird of prey that large should have been able to on land.

“We need somewhere you can hide while I lead her away,” Chat panted as they raced down evacuated hallways.

“Storage closet,” Marinette agreed, spinning on her heel and going back three doors to where they kept bolts of the three dozen hues of chiffon regularly used at Gabriel.

Just as Marinette managed to yank open the storage room door, the fury rounded the corner and shrieked, “There you are!”

She dove at them, snatching them up in her talons and tossing them into the closet together.

They landed with a thud, bolts of fabric raining down around them.

“Stay put,” the akuma commanded, shutting them in and piling debris up outside the door to make sure that they couldn’t escape. “I have to go get Adrien so he can watch your demise.”

And, with that, the girl flew off to find her idol, certain that her prey would still be right where she’d left them when she returned.

“Marinette? Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” Chat called desperately as he dug himself out of the fabric pile.

“I’m good,” Marinette groaned, shoving the blots of chiffon off of herself. “I’m probably going to be nursing some bruises later, but nothing’s broken or bleeding.”

Chat sighed in relief as he made his way over to her, helping to clear away the last of the fabric before assisting her to her feet. “Thank goodness,” he whispered, pulling her in for a gentle hug. “I kind of flipped when I saw that harpy monster on the news announcing her manifesto to put you to death.”

“My phone is in my purse in my locker, so I didn’t hear the akuma alert,” Marinette sighed, thinking, not for the first time, that she needed to come up with a way to stay on top of akuma notices even while at work because this was becoming a problem.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” he sighed, nuzzling her hair. “I was really scared.”

He shuddered even as he held her. His first thought had been of Marinette’s lifeless body being presented to him by the akuma, and that was quickly followed up by the terrifying thought that if Marinette was gone, there would be no Ladybug to restore her to him.

“You’re still freaking out, aren’t you?” Marinette realized, wrapping her arms around him tighter and nuzzling him back.

He nodded. “I couldn’t live without you. It would break me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised. “We’re going to get out of here, and then you and Ladybug are going to purify the akuma. Everything is going to be fine.”

He took a deep inhale of her scent, letting it calm him.

“Right,” he breathed. “You’re right. Everything’s going to be fine.”

She held him a little longer until his breathing evened out, and then she pulled back, giving him an encouraging smile. “Are you ready to get us out of here, My Love?”

He returned her smile weakly and nodded. “On it.”

“I’m honestly worried about Adrien,” Marinette sighed as Chat Noir squared off against the door. “He’s probably going out of his mind worrying about the both of us. You and Ladybug need to stop Harpy Lady before she abducts poor Adrien.”

“Won’t be a problem,” Chat assured, raising his right hand and calling out, “Cataclysm!”

Nothing happened.

Marinette and Chat frowned in tandem.

“Not enough juice for a second Cataclysm today?” Marinette hummed.

Frankly, she was impressed with how his abilities had grown over the years. It was a little unpredictable, and it changed from one fight to the next, but sometimes he could get off two or three Cataclysms before having to detransform, and the five-minute timer no longer seemed to apply to him.

Ladybug’s powers, on the other hand, hadn’t seemed to improve or grow at all. She still got one Lucky Charm and then detransformed five minutes later.

She’d asked Tikki about it, but that hadn’t gotten them anywhere. Tikki thought maybe Marinette’s stress was limiting her growth.

Marinette couldn’t bring herself to be amused by the irony.

Chat Noir’s ring began to beep in warning, causing the hero to groan. “Plagg, it hasn’t even been ten minutes. What the heck?”

“Has he not been feeling well?” Marinette inquired, a deep frown of concern etching itself into her brow.

Chat shook his head. “He’s been his same old annoying, cheese-eating self. I don’t know. Maybe I’m the problem. I am kind of off my game because an akuma is trying to kill the woman I love.”

Marinette grinned, stepping in to give him a sweet kiss on the cheek. “Aww. That’s kind of romantic.”

“It’s kind of annoying,” he laughed self-deprecatingly. “Unfortunately, this is my reality.”

She stepped back with an affectionate smile and turned to face away from him, closing her eyes and covering them with her hands. “Go ahead and detransform. I won’t look while Plagg recharges.”

He pressed his lips together, considering as his ring gave another beep.

“I promise I’ll keep my eyes shut,” she insisted, misinterpreting the cause of his hesitation.

He dropped his transformation and tossed Plagg a piece of Camembert.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped in, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend from behind.

She jumped, startled at the contact at first, but then settled back against him, enjoying the feeling of his bare skin on hers. She usually only got so much skin-on-skin contact during intimate moments, and the sensation now lit little flickers in her stomach.

“I love you,” he whispered into her shoulder, pressing kisses like a flower chain up her neck.

“Love you too,” she giggled, hoping Plagg would take his time with the cheese.

“Marinette?” he called tentatively.

“Hm?”

“I love you, and I can’t keep doing this anymore,” he confessed, making her suddenly go rigid as all of the happy, warm feelings vanished.

She swallowed hard. “W-What do you mean?”

“Keeping secrets from you. Lying to you,” he explained, nuzzling her neck and pulling her closer, his hand on her stomach.

“What exactly are you lying about?” she found the words to ask even as they stuck in her throat.

“Who I am,” he sighed. “I can’t do it anymore. I need you to open your eyes and look at me. I need you to know who I am because we’ve been dating a year and a half, and I’ve let this farce go on far too long.”

“Chat Noir, no,” she stressed, pressing the heels of her hands harder to her face. “I can’t know. We’ve been over this many, many times. It’s not safe while Papillon is still at large.”

“Marinette, all the things you’re afraid of aren’t going to happen,” he sighed in frustration. “I know you’re scared, and I’m not saying your fears are unfounded, but…Papillon doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, and I cannot keep up this act for another month, let alone another year or more. I’ve always respected your wishes because I didn’t want to force this huge burden on you without your consent…but we’ve passed the point of ridiculousness, and I need you to know now. I can’t hide this any longer. I won’t.”

“Minou, don’t be unreasonable,” Marinette coaxed. “I…It’s not safe.”

He turned her around to face him and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Open your eyes and look at me, or I’m breaking up with you.”

Her body gave a jerk, and her mouth fell open in a silent gasp of shock at his harsh words and no-nonsense tone.

“Please,” he returned to pleading, taking her hands and gently pulling them from her still-closed eyes. “Please,” he whispered against her lips, giving them a desperate kiss.

“Please,” he repeated in a tearful, strained voice, getting down on his knees, pressing his face to her stomach and giving it a nuzzle. “Please, look at me.”

He sat back on his heels, looking up at her plaintively, giving her hands an entreating squeeze. “Please, Marinette?”

Her lips were quivering as tears slowly trickled down her cheeks. Her hands too were shaking even as he held them.

Gradually, her eyelids did part, and her gaze came to rest squarely on Adrien Agreste, a supplicant mess at her feet.

She pulled back, falling over backwards as her hands went to cover her mouth.

“A-Adrien?!”

“I’m so sorry,” he rushed to get out. “You didn’t want me to tell you, and then things got so messed up that I didn’t know how to tell you. I’m sorry, Marinette. I’m so, so sorry.”

But she didn’t hear him. She was too busy panicking and shaking her head and trying to come up with reasons why what she was seeing couldn’t be true.

“—No,” she finally responded, cutting him off as he babbled apologies and tried to explain himself. “No,” she laughed just on the right side of maniacal. “I’ve seen you two together. I’ve made out with the both of you. I’ve seen the both of you making out with each other!” she accused, desperate to keep her understanding of reality in one piece.

He shook his head and replied in a very small, brittle voice, “Fox Miraculous.”

She blinked at him, not comprehending.

He gulped and tried again. “I used the Fox Miraculous to create a doppelgänger.”

She stared at him, hurt and betrayal flooding her senses. “You…used the Fox Miraculous…on me?”

Adrien visibly shrank, his shoulders rising up to his ears as he responded with the smallest, most timid of nods. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do. I…” He trailed off as she shook her head, her eyes cutting into him with the depth of their hurt and anger.

“How could you?” she asked quietly, calmly, leaving him wishing that she would just yell and get it over with.

He had nothing to say for himself.

He didn’t think she’d react well to “How could I not?” or “What else was I supposed to do?”

So he didn’t say anything. He just sat there, looking at her penitently, waiting for her to get to the part where she forgave him and told him it was okay. He waited for her to say she still loved him.

He wondered if he should say it first.

That didn’t feel right, though. He knew he still loved her, but he wasn’t so sure that she still loved him. He wasn’t good at fights. When his parents fought, they sometimes didn’t speak for days or weeks afterwards. Adrien had never gotten to see how those fights were resolved, how couples made up.

When Adrien got in trouble with his father, the usual protocol was for Adrien to stand still and take whatever verbal abuse his father threw at him until Adrien was dismissed.

He wondered if that’s what he was supposed to do now. Though Marinette seemed to be done talking. She seemed to be waiting for Adrien to say something.

Adrien had no idea what that something was. He didn’t usually get a turn to speak when his father took him to task.

He’d seen Alya and Nino argue about little things from time to time. They usually apologized, kissed, and made up…but Marinette didn’t look like she wanted a kiss.

“Well?” she asked, voice emotionless…like his father’s.

Marinette wasn’t supposed to make him feel like his father did.

Adrien looked for Plagg, hoping his kwami might offer some assistance, but Plagg was nowhere to be seen.

Adrien was on his own, feeling very tiny, stupid, and not good enough.

“I’m…sorry,” he tried miserably. “I love you.”

She stared back at him and sighed, shaking her head as she got to her feet.

Was she breaking up with him? Did her shaking her head mean that she didn’t love him?

The only thing he truly understood was the disappointment on her face. He was very, very familiar with disappointment.

“We’re wasting time,” she decreed, scrubbing at her face with her hands. “I’m sorry. We’ll have to talk about this later. I’ll come over to your apartment. Right now, there’s an akuma to fight, and you need to get us out of here.”

“R-Right,” he readily agreed, pushing himself up on shaky legs.

He tried to focus on the task at hand and not let himself think about losing Marinette’s love forever.

“Plagg?” he called, uncertainly.

The little deity flew out from behind a stack of chiffon and came up to nuzzle Adrien’s cheek.

The affectionate gesture almost made Adrien cry, it meant so much to him.

“Thanks,” he whispered in heartfelt appreciation before calling on his transformation.

Once the storage closet door and the pile of rubble blocking it was Cataclysmed away, Marinette was on the move, tossing an, “I’m going to find somewhere safe to hide. I’ll drop by your apartment after the attack,” over her shoulder as she went.

He tried to tell himself that her cold, distant behaviour was the result of shock. She was dealing with a lot of emotions, and maybe springing a reveal on her during an akuma attack where the akuma was trying to kill her hadn’t been the best timing.

He tried to tell himself that it wasn’t him. It was just Marinette panicking because that’s what Marinette did.

Somehow, those thoughts didn’t make him feel any less miserable.

 The akuma was purified, and, while that was all that truly mattered at the end of the day, the battle had been a clown fiesta that surely left Paris wondering what was wrong with its heroes.

They were a mess. Chat Noir and Ladybug were horribly out of sync, tripping each other up, misreading signals, and getting thrown all over one another by the harpy lady.

Everyone was just happy that they’d somehow pulled it off regardless.

No fist bumps were exchanged at the end of the battle.

This was a little disheartening because Adrien took it to mean that Marinette was so upset with him that she’d forgotten or didn’t care that Ladybug shouldn’t be behaving coldly toward Chat Noir because he wasn’t supposed to know that Marinette and Ladybug were the same person.

 Adrien collapsed on his bed, arms spread wide as he let out a long, bone-weary sigh. “Today is the worst.”

Plagg came over and settled on Adrien’s chest, giving his ward a nuzzle and a comforting purr. “At least nobody died,” he offered.

Adrien groaned, throwing an arm over his face as tears began to leak from the corners of his eyes. “I’m such an idiot.”

Trixx poked his head out of Adrien’s right shoulder and flew up to stroke Adrien’s hair. “You’re not an idiot,” he cooed, trying to be helpful.

Usually he left these kinds of interactions to Plagg who knew Adrien better and was, therefore, better suited to providing comfort. Today’s confrontation with Marinette in the storage closet had been particularly intense, though. Trixx could feel the way Adrien’s body had shaken and tensed and braced to be struck. Trixx could smell the stress hormones Adrien gave off, and he could tell that his holder needed more comfort than usual.

“I’m sorry Plagg and I didn’t give you the best guidance,” he whispered his regret. “We didn’t help you handle the situation well.”

Plagg snorted, stopping mid-nuzzle to look up and glare at Trixx. “We didn’t do anything wrong. This is all on Tikki. It’s her fault for filling her girl’s head so full of horror stories of identity reveals that went wrong in the past. It’s Tikki’s fault we got to this point. She knew Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person. She should have said something, told her girl it was okay to lighten up.”

Trixx couldn’t help but think that it was rather ungenerous of him to throw his other half under the bus like that. He would have thought that Plagg would show more loyalty to Tikki. On the other hand, Plagg’s kitten was suffering and had been suffering for quite some time, as the Adrichat charade had been going on for about a year at that point.

Plagg turned back to Adrien, insisting, “Kid, you know this isn’t your fault, right? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I didn’t really do anything right either,” Adrien mumbled despondently.

Trixx kept petting Adrien’s hair in the absence of anything more helpful to do.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Plagg coaxed.

Adrien only sighed in response. “…Are we broken up now, do you think? I’m not good at fights. That felt like a pretty big fight.”

“That’s not what I took away from the encounter,” Trixx offered, mentally crossing his fingers that his understanding of human interactions aligned with the reality of the situation.

“Kid, no,” Plagg assured, going back to nuzzling. “She’s just upset. She’s not dumping you. She said she’d be by to talk it over later, so—”

“—So she can dump me officially?” Adrien groaned.

“I believe this is what that therapist person we saw the other day referred to as the cognitive distortion of ‘catastrophizing’,” Trixx remarked, trying to be helpful.

“What the fox said,” Plagg seconded. “You’re doing that catastrophe thing. Stop that and go into your talk with your girlfriend with an open mind. Maybe she’ll scream at Tikki first and get all of her anger worked out before she comes here, so she’ll be able to think clearly and see that this is all her own fault.”

Adrien took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah,” he replied half-heartedly. “Maybe.”

He felt bad for hoping that Marinette yelled at Tikki because, deep down, he knew he was in the wrong too, but he had a feeling that Tikki could withstand Marinette’s anger better than Adrien could.

“Just try to stay calm,” Trixx coached. “We’ll deal with whatever happens when it happens, so there’s no point in worrying about it now.”

“Okay,” Adrien mumbled, trying to focus on his breathing and the comforting caresses of his kwamis.

 Adrien woke to muffled voices coming from the main room about two hours later. Trixx was still curled up beside him, his head resting on Adrien’s shoulder, but Plagg was nowhere to be seen.

Adrien wiped the crusty debris from the corners of his eyes and sat up, trying to make out to whom the voices belonged. He rolled off the bed and onto his feet, going to investigate.

He found Plagg and Marinette in the main room of the apartment, hissing at each other in hushed tones.

Her complexion was splotchy, and her eyes were red. She looked a mess, but his heart still leapt for her.

Sensing their audience, Plagg and Marinette looked to where Adrien stood in the bedroom doorway, and Marinette’s eyes lit up.

“Adrien,” she breathed, rushing to his side, wrapping her arms around him, and squeezing him tight.

Reflexively, he untensed, settling into her embrace and dropping his head to rest on hers, his face buried in her hair.

“I’m sorry,” she stressed into his chest. “I’m so sorry. I’m not breaking up with you. Ever.”

“O-Oh,” he choked, beginning to tremble as an overwhelming wave of emotions washed over him. “Good,” he managed.

“Come here,” she coaxed, tugging him to the couch so that they could sit before their legs gave out.

She pulled back to look him in the eyes, gingerly cupping his face in her hands. “I’m sorry for how I reacted before. I was really upset, and there was a lot going on. There was a lot to think about and digest, and…” She shook her head. “I’m hurt and I’m angry and I’m still upset, but I will always love you, even when I want to scream at you and slap you silly, okay? I can be mad and still love you at the same time, all right? Plagg wasn’t sure if you knew that, so I wanted to make certain we were clear on that point.”

Adrien had to swallow and take several deep breaths before he was able to reply. “…I wasn’t sure,” he admitted. “I’m not good at fights. I don’t know how this works.”

She nodded, stroking his face and petting his hair. “That’s okay. I know you haven’t always had the best examples in your life, so… When my parents fight, things can get ugly. Sometimes they say things they don’t really mean. I think everyone does that. The important thing is that once they cool down, they sit down and talk about what happened and what they were thinking and feeling, and they work together to fix the problem that started the fight. They say sorry, and they remind one another how important they are to each other, and then they try to learn from the experience and not make the same mistakes again. Ideally, that’s how it’s supposed to work,” she explained.

“So…” He frowned as he tried to wrap his head around this new information. “You said sorry and that you still love me. I said sorry earlier. Does that count, or do I need to say it again now?”

Marinette grimaced and had to remind herself that he was struggling to grasp this new concept, so she needed to be patient.

“It’s not quite so formulaic as that,” she informed gently. “Those were more guidelines than a script, but…Plagg told me how torn up you’ve been about keeping secrets from me and how hard it’s been for you not being able to tell me who you were, so…I know you’re sorry. That’s the important part. I believe you’re sorry, so you don’t have to say it again.”

He nodded, tentatively, still not quite sure of his footing. “So…you forgive me? Are we done fighting?”

She bit her lip, dropping her hands from his face to his palms as she looked away. “Yes and no. I’m still…feeling things. This is a lot to process, and I’m still mad and hurt and upset, so…I need some time,” she confessed, looking back up at him imploringly.

He averted his eyes, shoulders inching up towards his ears as he began to curl in on himself defensively.

“Okay,” he mumbled, even though her answer wasn’t the one he’d wanted to hear.

“It’s going to take a while for me to sort through things in my head,” she explained. “I still love you, and I still want to be with you, but…you lied to me.”

He flinched but didn’t bother saying anything to defend himself.

“Like…a huge lie. For a long time,” she stressed. “That isn’t something I’m just going to get over. It doesn’t feel good to be tricked and betrayed like that, Adrien, so it’s going to be a while before I’m able to forgive you. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore, though,” she reiterated, wanting to make sure that he believed her. “Do you understand?”

He nodded, trying to make himself smaller so that he would, hopefully, shrink away and disappear.

This hurt worse than when his father scolded him. When he got in trouble with his father, it was usually for something Adrien had no control over. It hurt worse when he had actually done something wrong and knew his punishment was justified.

“But we’re going to get through this, okay?” She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “This is just a rough patch. We’re going to come out on the other side stronger.”

“Okay,” he whispered, trying to believe her.

It was hard because he had always been a screwup, and he didn’t anticipate that changing anytime soon. He would always disappoint her and make her question the trust she placed in him. He’d been doing it for five years now, and it made him wonder which time would be the final straw. He always felt like he was on the precipice of losing her forever.

When he tuned back in, at least a minute or two had passed, and Marinette was in the middle of saying, “…you ever thought this was a good idea. I just…I don’t understand. How could you trick me like that?”

She stopped talking and looked at him expectantly.

He looked up and blinked at her.

She frowned. “Adrien, are you listening to me?”

“I…” He gulped. “Sorry. I don’t usually get to say anything, so…”

Slowly, her left eyebrow drifted up toward her hairline. “When have I ever not let you talk?” she inquired in honest confusion.

“Not you. My father,” he informed. “When I’m in trouble and he’s yelling at me. I don’t usually get to say anything, so…” he trailed off again with a shrug.

Marinette stared at her boyfriend as a cold chill walked its fingers up her spine. “You feel like you’re in trouble and I’m yelling at you…like your father does.”

His shoulders rose back up to his ears, and his gaze cast around on the floor for something to look at instead of her. “That’s…yeah. I mean…it’s a little different because you said you loved me, and that…that doesn’t happen with my father, but…yeah. …You’d think I would get used to being told what a disappointment I was,” he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

Marinette didn’t laugh. “…You’re not,” she stressed, taking one of his hands in both of hers and squeezing tight. “Just because I’m disappointed in something you did, that doesn’t make you a disappointment.”

Tentatively, he peeked up at her. “Is that anything like the saying, ‘You are not your failures’?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly. Just because you did something that disappointed me, that doesn’t make it a part of who you are. It was just…just a mistake. Human beings make those.”

“Even you?” he ventured softly.

“Especially me,” she agreed. “I’m sorry, Adrien. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad; I just wanted to understand what had happened, but… What your father does to you is horrible, and I don’t want things to ever feel like that with me. Say something next time.”

Taking a deep breath and finally meeting her gaze, Adrien asked, “When we fight, afterwards, do I get to talk about what I’m thinking and feeling too?”

It hurt her that he even needed to ask.

She nodded, assuring, “I care very much about what you’re feeling and thinking.”

He blew out a long exhale. “Okay. So…I don’t get to make choices often. I mean, I do this past month now that I’ve moved out, but…my whole life, I’ve just kind of had to do what people tell me. This past month is the first time I’ve been able to pick what I wear or what I eat or what I do with my free time, so…thinking for myself and making decisions on my own is a bit of a foreign concept.”

She had known that on some subconscious level, but now that he spelled it out for her, it was horrifying in a whole new way how tightly controlled he had been.

“I know you said you still loved me, even though you were mad,” he continued uncertainly, “but…will you still love me if I’m mad at you?”

She blinked at him in surprise but nodded, assuring, “Of course…but…why would you be mad at me?”

He took a deep breath, gathering his courage. “Usually, when my father is scolding and punishing me, it’s for something that wasn’t my fault. Normally, I keep my head down and take it without protest because I have no control over the situation, no say in what happens to me…but…this relationship isn’t like that, is it?”

Slowly, she shook her head. “No. It’s not.”

He held her gaze as he continued shakily. “You’re not my father. You’re not unfair like that, and you care about what I have to say.”

She nodded vehemently.

“And it’s okay to fight with you because you’re not going to stop loving me,” he added and waited for her to confirm it, needing to be sure.

“Yes,” she promised, internally bracing herself, even as she squeezed his hand tighter.

“Okay,” he breathed out shakily. “In that case…Marinette, I’m kind of tired of always accepting the blame for things that aren’t my fault.”

Her eyebrows drew into a frown of confusion as she tried to parse his words for meaning.

“I’m not trying to say that I didn’t do anything wrong because I know I did,” he rushed to explain. “I never thought it was a good idea to pretend to be two different people. I never wanted to do that, and it wasn’t like it was all fun and games for me. I hated lying to you…but even though what I did was wrong, it wasn’t entirely my fault.”

She pursed her lips, trying to figure out what he meant, if he was trying to blame Plagg for giving him bad advice or what.

“Marinette,” he called imploringly, eyes wet with the start of another round of tears. “You didn’t give me a choice.”

Her mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief.

“What was I supposed to do?” he pleaded. “It all got really messy really fast right from the very beginning. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you as Chat Noir. I didn’t mean for us to get so close, but we did, and that wasn’t something I could give up. You have no clue how horrible it was in that deserted mansion all by myself, always feeling like an impulse buy my father deeply regretted but couldn’t return. I felt safe with you. Your house was always a happy, warm place, and you made me feel like I was worth something. I couldn’t keep away,” he explained, praying that she would understand even a little bit where he was coming from.

He shook his head. “I couldn’t stop coming as Chat Noir…and then I fell in love with you, but that day when I accidentally tried to kiss you as Adrien, you said there was someone else, and, I mean, that someone else turned out to be Chat Noir, so…I was just so overjoyed to have my feelings finally returned that I didn’t stop to think that it was stupid to date you as a masked superhero. I didn’t think,” he sighed, mentally kicking himself for the thousandth time. “And then I accidentally kissed you as Adrien, and you accidentally kissed me back, and…”

He pinned her with an intent gaze. “Remember how I tried to tell you who I was that night? After the kiss in the library with Adrien, I came over that night as Chat Noir, and I was going to tell you everything, but you wouldn���t let me. You said no, and I respected your choice because you were right; it is a really freaking big deal, and knowing my identity could potentially put you and the people you love in danger, and that wasn’t something I could force on you. I respected your choice. Was that wrong?”

He stopped, offering her space in which to speak.

She took a measured breath and blew it out slowly, confessing, “I don’t know. I wasn’t operating with all the facts. I don’t… I think…maybe you should have said something.”

“I tried,” he whined. “I dropped so many hints, Marinette. As things got further and further out of hand, I kept trying to tell you. You always said no, but I kept trying. I let so many things slip, hoping maybe you’d figure it out so you could stop beating yourself up about cheating on me, but… Marinette, I even asked you as Adrien, ‘What if I’m Chat Noir’. I tried.”

“…You…did, didn’t you?” she replied hollowly, image after image of him trying to tell her flashing before her eyes.

He nodded miserably. “The whole dating myself thing was purely idiotic, but I panicked, and I just wanted you to stop being so distraught over quote-unquote cheating on me when that was mostly my fault in the first place for not being able to keep my hands off of you as Adrien. I was stupid, and I messed up, but I was just trying to make you happy. I asked you again and again to let me tell you my identity, and you were aggressively against it…so I just let it go. When you wanted Chat Noir and Adrien in the same room, I figured out a way to make it happen, and that was that.”

He shrugged helplessly. “I was going to say that Chat and Adrien couldn’t find a time in their schedules that worked, but…you were so excited for the three of us to all get together,” he groaned. “I couldn’t let you down, and then when I asked Ladybug for the Fox Miraculous—”

Marinette paled, feeling incredibly stupid as she played the scene over in her mind.

“—I asked her if I could just tell you my identity, and she said no too, so…and then it just kept going for so long it felt like I couldn’t say anything anymore, but today… This has been eating me alive, Marinette,” he sighed, sounding every bit as exhausted as he looked. “I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m sorry. I knew I was in the wrong the whole time, but I didn’t know what else to do. Like I said, I’ve grown up my whole life with very little opportunity to think for myself and make decisions, so those are things I really struggle with. I’m sorry, and I’m working on it.”

“Oh, Adrien,” Marinette cooed, pulling him into her arms. “I’m sorry. I can see why you didn’t feel like you had a choice. I’m so, so sorry.”

She tipped her head up, pressing her lips gently to his.

He leaned into the kiss, his heart fluttering at the contact.

When they pulled back, he gave her a goofy smile. “I was so scared you’d never kiss me again.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she sniffled, stroking his cheek lovingly.

“I’m sorry I lied and tricked you,” he answered, touching his forehead to hers.

“I’m actually really touched that you put that much time and effort into trying to make me happy,” she giggled through the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

He gently brushed them away with his thumb. “I’m glad that that’s worth something.”

“It’s worth a lot,” she assured. “You’re worth a lot.”

A light blush spread across his face, and he smiled, leaning in to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I really, really love you.”

“I really, really love you,” she responded with a giggle.

They pulled back just to look at one another, smiles pulling their mouths wide.

“…Hey,” Marinette remarked after nearly two minutes of gazing softly into one other’s eyes.

“Hm?” he hummed in answer.

“Have you eaten?”

Adrien frowned, trying to recall. “I…Maybe? I don’t remember.”

“He hasn’t!” Plagg and Trixx called out in unison from the arm of the couch where they were watching the scene develop.

Adrien blushed, looking away sheepishly. “Thanks, guys.”

“You’re welcome,” Plagg snickered.

Ignoring the kwami of destruction, Marinette forged ahead with her plan, “We should make dinner. How about I prep some salad for us while you brew two mugs of mint tea? Then we can snuggle on the couch while watching that one anime you mentioned the other day. Maybe even make popcorn. What do you say? I think we could use some low-energy bonding time after the day we’ve had.”

Tears spilled over down Adrien’s cheeks as he nodded enthusiastically. “You know just how to make me feel better.”

[moody-bloosh]

can you write headcanons about la squadra with their tall girlfriends (maybe even taller than them lmao) who looks really intidimated but deep down she is just a little puppy at heart. like, clingy and affectionate, loves receiving headpats , giving them the best puppy eyes and has the cutest pout Ò w Ó

While writing this, I was watching compilations of Scorpia from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She really embodies this ask, I think XD ((please watch SPOP it’s really good I love it so much

others are under the cut because it’s a bit long ;;; it’s all of La Squadra after all uwu 

Risotto Nero 

There’s nothing he loves more than coming home to you after a long day. When you hold him in your arms, he feels safe, warm, loved. 

Usually, Risotto is a stern and fair capo, when you bring out the puppy eyes though. He just melts. 

“Fine, we’ll foster the dog, just until we can find him a good home, alright?” 

Adores how affectionate you can be with him and without any shame, he’s always under a lot of pressure from work so there’s nothing he loves more than being doted on by you. 

Loves it when you run your fingers through his hair as he lies on your lap and he tells you about his day and you in turn give such comic responses to his wacky days. 

You live for Risotto’s headpats! 

Sometimes he wonders what he did in this life to deserve someone as wonderful as you. He will voice out his concerns, will tell you that you deserve someone better than him. But you tell him that he is already the best and nothing he can tell you will make you think otherwise. 

The little spoon. Do not take this away from him, or else someone will end up seriously hurt. 

Prosciutto 

He is one tough cookie to crack! Prosciutto is a little more firm than Risotto, your puppy eyes and pout won’t work on him.

However, he is very protective of you. If you so much as get a single scratch on you, he gets very irate and vows to take down whoever caused you harm. 

You’re a little more rash. Since his Stand isn’t made for direct combat and yours is, your job is mainly to protect Prosciutto. Something he gets super annoyed over. 

Isn’t he supposed to be the one protecting the love of his life? 

It absolutely tears him apart when he sees you all bruised up and bloody. He will berate you for being so reckless, while his words are biting, you know where he is coming from. 

“I’ll protect your body, Prosciutto, because you’re the one protecting my heart. I need to make sure you’re alright, so you can take good care of it.” 

He kind of just - reboots for a minute. Your words have a profound effect on him. Then he gets super blushy as he tells you that of course he’ll take good care of your heart. You’re the one he loves more than anything, after all. 

“So take good care of yourself too, idiot.” 

Pesci 

He gets super flustered when you engage in any form of skinship with him. 

Though, sure enough, with time, he gradually begins to warm up to you and your super affectionate nature. 

If Prosciutto gives him tough love, you give him all the sweet love you can muster. Doting on him with plenty of tender love and care, he really doesn’t know what to do and he gets super shy. 

Really it’s because you’re the first person he’s ever been in a relationship with so he doesn’t want to mess things up. 

You never tire of reassuring him how much you love him

Illuso

HUGGING ILLUSO IS THE BEST THING EVER SO YOU CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH 

His clothes are so poofy and fluffy, it’s like you’re hugging a teddy bear. 

Illuso says the filthiest things but he turns into absolute putty when you do cute things with him. 

Holding hands and swinging it around as you walk around, giving him a big hug when he gives you something surprisingly thoughtful, booping your noses together !? Be still, heart! Illuso can only take so much of your cuteness!!! 

Really loves it when you squeeze his hand to reassure him whenever he feels jittery. Whenever you do that, he makes sure to press a kiss on your hand. 

GIVES THE BEST HEADPATS, and you always give such cute reactions when he pats your head that he can’t help but always kiss you afterwards. 

Illuso just wants to protecc you, always trailing after you to make sure you aren’t getting bullied. 

Illuso is only kind and sweet to you, he’s still a total rat to the others. But that’s alright. He’s the rat you fell in love with

Formaggio 

Formaggio loves it when you get super affectionate with him! 

Sometimes he will even shrink himself so you can dote on him more and just get a cute attack over how sweet and smol he is. 

Sometimes though, he likes to shrink you just so that he can be the one giving you all the love and affection you want. 

Weak to your puppy dog eyes, just hit him with it and you will get whatever you want. Yes, whatever you want, the sky's the limit. 

Ghiaccio

When Ghiaccio gets mad, I can see you being the one to calm him down. You pick him up and sort of just rock him around to calm him down. 

REALLY LOVES IT WHEN YOU’RE BEING SUPER TOUCHY AND AFFECTIONATE WITH HIM 

BUT HE WILL NEVER ADMIT IT !!! 

It might be a little difficult though, because Ghiaccio will snap at you when you are being touchy with him. So tearfully, you withdraw but then all of a sudden he’s apologizing and trying very hard to explain himself. 

And you just sort of melt, apology accepted. You wrap him in a big hug while he sits on your lap, sort of just soaking in your affection. 

He actually leans in your touch and tells you, that he’s not really opposed to you embracing him. 

“I like it ...actually.” 

“Aww, Ghiaccio, your tsun side is cute too.” 

“Shut the fuck up and just continue cuddling me.” 

Melone 

Loves it when you carry him princess style. 

He loves to spoil you with cute things. You secretly really love them but you don’t like using them because you think that they don’t suit you. 

Melone will be all, “no, baby, you are an angel and you will look lovely no matter what, I swear it.” 

Melone loves you in such a way that you gradually learn to love yourself too

You two are a super duper lovey dovey couple. You give everyone toothaches from how sweet you two are being! 

The two of you can’t keep your hands away from each other but in such a way that you’re either always holding hands or hugging. You give Sorbet & Gelato a run for their money! 

Sorbet & Gelato 

Absolutely loves when you can carry the both of them in your arms at the same time. 

They’re already very touchy with each other so with the addition of you, y’all will be very much inseparable. 

Sorbet & Gelato love to talk shit to the other members of the squad and then run to have you protect them. 

The others are a little intimidated to fight you but also since you’re such a darling they never really want to hurt you. 

You’re the only one aside from Gelato who can make Sorbet smile. He always comes out smiling after you lift him up and swing him around. 

Gelato likes to make you carry him around piggy back style or even princess style if he’s feeling it. 

You’re always so happy to dote on and lavish love and affection on your darlings. 

[imjeralee]

Wallflower: Chapter 12 - The Elusive Eli

Raihan x F!Reader

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon

Note: This is my first Pokemon fanfic. I hope you enjoy it :) Originally posted on Archive of Our Own.

Summary: You’re an unassuming Pokemon breeder who works at the nursery in the Wild Area and he’s Raihan, the fearsome gym leader of Hammerlocke who has more than a million followers. You don’t want anything to do with him but he’s…persistent.

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Warnings: Lemon, smut, violence, language

THE ELUSIVE ELI

...

...

He leaves the nursery, rubbing at his chin and jaw until he spots a familiar boy dressed in pink standing by a tree, smirking at him. The youth looks at him up and down, taking note of his rather bedraggled appearance and scoffs under his breath, "Well. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

Eli joins his side and the two boys begin to make their way down the path. "What are you doing here, Bede?"

"Chairman Rose sent me to get you. We've to go to Motostoke. I saw you talking to Raihan and that girl. What was that all about?"

"Nothing."

“Nothing?"

Having been pressed, Eli relents. “Hmph. People like him really piss me off. He isn't anything special." He says with a scowl. Bede says nothing, except stare at him silently. Turning to Bede, Eli adds, "Don't associate yourself with the likes of them, Bede. The gym leaders - they're all a pathetic and pitiful lot. None of them are worthy of their titles. Work hard and don't show mercy to the weak. Don't forget that. Am I clear?"

"Yeah." Bede replies, "Crystal."

”Good.” With that, they continue their journey to the city.

You'll see, Eli thinks to himself, frowning, You'll all see. I'll become the most powerful trainer in Galar and you'll regret not choosing me, Rose.

...

With Eli gone, the nursery settles into a discomforting silence. You return Goomy and Dreepy into their pokeballs because they seem shaken by Eli's presence. It occurs to you that you have never seen Raihan angry before and you stare up at him as he watches the door, as though waiting for Eli to come back for seconds.

However, when nothing happens, his dark expression clears up and he turns to you with the biggest, cheesiest grin and coos at you, “Are you okay?”

You’re stunned at the quick turnaround until you slide your gaze to his hand and you gasp. “You’re bleeding!!! Oh wait, is that Eli’s blood?”

With an eyebrow raised, Raihan lifts his hand up where there’s a trickle of fresh blood over his knuckles. You don’t wait for him to respond - reaching for him, you tug on his clean hand and lead him inside the nursery.

“Am I allowed in here?” He asks, as you pass the storeroom and the nursery and towards the staff bathroom.

”Yes, of course.”

“Where’s your boss?”

”She went out and won’t be back anytime soon.”

Once you’re at the door, you push it open, revealing the cramped, tiny space but you usher him in and Raihan looks around himself - his back hits the sink and you stand in front of him, reaching for the medicine kit that sits on the shelf above the toilet. You rummage inside and pull out a plaster along with a few cotton pads, a roll of clean bandages and some cooling gel.

”Give me your hand.” You mutter, and Raihan obediently sticks his palm out for your taking and you scoop his hand into yours. You dampen the cotton wool pad and begin to carefully dab and smother at his bloodied knuckles. “Tell me if I hurt you by accident, okay?”

“Okay.” He observes you as you tend to him the entire time which you don’t notice because his hand looks like it’s turning purple and that doesn’t bode well. After you’ve cleaned the blood, you grab the cooling gel and apply it over his knuckles, spreading a thin layer and making sure to massage it thoroughly into his skin and when it dries, you grab the plaster and it’s then you notice that he’s staring at you with the same goofy smile and you feel your cheeks going a little warm.

”...W-what is it?” You ask; before he can respond however, and you automatically assume the worst. ”Did I hurt you by accident? I’m so sorry!”

”No, you're fine. You didn't hurt me.” He plops his other hand atop your head. “Don’t be silly.”

You mumble an 'okay' under your breath and continue dressing his hand and once you’ve tucked the bandage neatly into itself and tied the end so it won’t fall apart, you let go of him and Raihan inspects his bandaged hand. He only punched a dude in the face but you’re worried he injured himself when punching said dude.

“Thanks.” He grins at you widely as you pack away the med kit. “You’re good at this.”

”Well, baby pokemon falling off high shelves is a very common occurrence here.”

Raihan laughs before he reaches for you, pulling you into his embrace and holding you so tightly, you think your back might break in half. "Did he hurt you?" He murmurs as he lets out a gentle sigh, pressing his nose into your hair.

You shake your head; your face is pushed into his chest that it's getting hard to breathe. "No.” is your muffled response. You wrap your arms around his back, holding him tightly in return.

"Did he touch you?"

"Just my hair."

He loosens his grip slightly to peer at you, smoothing his large hand over your cheek before he leans forwards and plants a kiss on your mouth. "You're okay?" He murmurs, pressing his lips against yours once more.

"Yeah."

And he smooches you again but this time, he doesn't pull away and begins brushing the tip of his thumb over your bottom lip. "What did he say to you?" He says, between kisses.

You decide to pull away. "Uh...He said I'm nothing like your ex-girlfriend. That I'm not as pretty as her, that he didn't think you'd go for a girl like me. And he said it hadn't been long since your previous break-up so you probably weren't even over it and that you're just using me." You mutter, and you're quite amazed yourself that you remembered all that. It's then you realise that you feel quite upset. When you think about what you just said aloud, you had been compared to Raihan's ex-girlfriend. You didn’t even know he had an ex-girlfriend but you figured he would’ve...sighing, you inhale and exhale loudly as you throw your gaze to the floor.

For a while, you were feeling pretty awesome about yourself. There were a few hiccups along the way but everything seemed to work out fine - you were with Raihan, there were no problems with your work and your friends and family were fine also. However, it has taken one very negative experience to knock you off the pedestal of happiness. 

Although you're aware that Eli has beef with Raihan and would probably use various tactics to get to him which may include getting into your head, you shouldn’t let his words get to you, but unfortunately they do. You don't know her or who she is and Raihan doesn't need to talk to you about his ex, or exes... but this hurts on a whole new different level and now you feel so insecure about...well, everything.

"Hey." Raihan says, cupping your cheeks again, "Look at me."

You slide your gaze to him slowly and your eyes meet.

"Eli's like that. He's even mean to Ball Guy." He mutters, but when he notices how despondent you are, he brings you into his embrace again and slides his arms around your shoulders tightly, giving you an affectionate rub. You let him hold you, closing your eyes before he adds, "Let's talk outside."

"....Okay." You mumble; he releases you so you can leave the bathroom, holding his hand and leading him outside to the back porch. It joins to the main nursery, so you make your way past some of the Pokemon who are too busy playing to notice you and you push the doors aside, revealing the large garden. You plop yourself down over the wooden floor, sitting cross-legged and so does Raihan, your knees knocking together.

"It's nice here." Raihan comments, before he takes out his phone and begins going through it. You're not sure what he's looking for, or what he's looking at but you decide not to pry.

"Yeah, it's really peaceful." You mutter, "Rai, you don't need to tell me about your ex-girlfriend if you don't want to. I'm okay, really."

He blinks blankly at you for a few seconds, before he casts his gaze to his lap. "Would it make you feel better if I told you though?"

"Um, well...I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

Now he chuckles, turning to you and ruffling your hair affectionately with his large hand. "You're so cute. You're always thinking about others instead of yourself." He says, and you blush like crazy as he clutches your hand and opens your palm, tracing his fingertips over the lines of your hand. "We weren't together for long. And we broke up a year ago."

Aha! Eli was just making porky pies to get to you, after all. Your breath gets caught in your throat as Raihan rubs your hand throughly. You don't know what to say... Maybe it's best to listen for now, so you stay silent.

"Everyone said we made a great couple." He adds, before his expression turns a tad stoic, "But it was a pretty stressful time for me."

"Stressful?"

"Yeah. She's on social media by the way so you'll find her easily. She's a lot different in-person than online, of course." He says this with a grin but somehow...you feel he’s smiling in spite of himself.

Online, huh? Your friend is really good at stalking people online so you could ask her for help later.

"We don't keep in touch." Raihan adds, before he lets go of your hand and suddenly moves to stand, looking around, "I should go. I don't want your boss to get you into trouble for me being here."

"Huh? Oh..."

You watch as he begins to fish around his pockets before he pulls something out. "Piers got me tickets to The Maximizers. He's the opening act and they're playing in Spikemuth tonight. Wanna go?" He hands you the tickets and you inspect them, your eyes bulging at the price tag. Also, they're VIP tickets... they're hard to get...

This must be the reason why Raihan dropped by your workplace in the first place. "Uh, tonight? It's a bit short notice but...sure. I got nothing better to do." You say, nodding.

He beams widely in response as you pocket your ticket. "I'll pick you up at seven."

"Okay."

"Great, see ya." Raihan brings you into another bone-crushing hug, pressing his lips against yours deeply - you melt against him at once - and then he lets go of you. "If Eli comes back, let me know."

"I'll be fine," You try to reassure him but nevertheless, Raihan seems adamant in protecting you from him. You lead him back to the main area but before he leaves, you bite down on your lip and grab his arm, "Wait."

He turns round and you gently slide your arms around his neck, pulling him down to your level as you go on tiptoe, leaning forwards; he blinks blankly at you for a split second before he grins and slips his arms around your waist, bringing you closer to him and your lips meet. 

You feel him smirking against your lips as you kiss, and you kiss for a long time before finally parting; however, you don't let go of him and he doesn't let go of you - instead, you stay in his clutch as he presses his forehead against yours. His teal blue eyes gaze deeply into yours before he lowers his gaze to your lips, and back to you. You smile when he begins nuzzling you affectionately, occasionally brushing his lips over yours in a fleeting, teasing manner. It’s nice to be in his arms, to be held like this.

With much reluctance, you let go of him after what feels like an eternity and he does the same - as he leaves, you wave him off, sighing heavily as your heart flutters.

Your day continues and you're feeling lonely since Raihan left even though he sent you a message seconds after his departure, reassuring you again that Eli was nothing but a rat bastard. Very good. Now you wonder if it's right to ask your friend if she can do some snooping to find out more about the ex-girlfriend instead of asking Raihan directly but what the heck, you send her a message, asking if she knows anything about her. And then you resume work.

"Bzrt, new mezzzage from Allister!"

"Thanks, Rotom." You check the message; Allister says they're attempting to identify the body in the woods using dental records - he'll keep you posted. You purse your lips in response, "Hm...guess that's kind of...good to know."

Earnestly, it's all very macabre and you can't help but feel a bit disturbed. The encounter with Eli has also put you into a questionable mood and it's not even lunchtime yet. Your boss is still in Hammerlocke, informing you that she won't be back until after lunch so you'll be on your own for a while. A few customers enter the establishment and you deal with them all; you go to retrieve their pokemon whilst they wait. 

Once you collect the pokeballs, you hear the front door being pushed open yet again, and you return to the main area just to see two new customers - there's a familiar girl standing behind the counter - Cheerleader Alicia. She spots you and in return, you stare at her akin to a Stantler caught in headlights. Shit, what the heck is she doing here?

"Oh my, so this is where you work?" She says, lifting one hand to cover her mouth, hiding a sneer. She's first in the queue and the customer behind her in line is a middle-aged woman who dropped off an Azurill, but Alicia's first and you really don't want to serve her.

"Yes, how may I help you?" You ask, a little warily.

"Hmmm. Let me think." She replies, fumbling in her bag for a pokeball which she proceeds to place onto the counter. "Here. Look after my Zebstrika for me. I'll come back for him in a few days or so. I expect him to be well taken care of. Actually, I'd like him to be EV-trained. I heard you're the EV trainer around these parts."

"Yeah, that's right."

"How much do you charge?"

"It's a daily rate of five hundred pokedollars." You state, gesturing to the sign that's taped to the wall that details all the prices.

"Five hundred pokedollars? That's expensive."

"Um, that's the standard rate across all - "

"Where's the manager? I want to talk to her."

"She's not here."

"Then you're not getting my business. I'm not paying money for that, it sounds like a complete scam." She adds, and she says this quite loudly and nonchalantly whilst throwing glances to the other customers in the nursery, as though she's trying to rile them up. However, she's just met with blank stares but she seems satisfied that she's creating a scene, which is totally unnecessary and you feel she isn't here to drop her Pokemon off at all. "On second thought, I don't want you looking after my pokemon."

You remain silent, unsure what to say as you feel all eyes on you. You feel your cheeks grow hot and bite down on your lip, embarrassed by the way she has spoken to you. You're not in the same mood as you were when you dealt with that angry customer the other day, no. 

You've returned to being quiet and shy and anxious and now you're not quite what to say to her. You shouldn't let her see you like this though and remembering the general policy on how to deal with upset customers, you mutter, "I-if you're not happy with our service, you can write or call up Macros Cosmos."

"Fine then, maybe I will." She adds, before she spins on her heel to leave.

The nursery grows silent when she exits and the next customer steps up to the counter. "What a horrible girl." says the woman, "No manners whatsoever."

"O...Oh, well, we get all kinds of customers." You say, laughing awkwardly. As usual, you’re trying to lighten up the situation by downplaying it.

After you've helped the rest of the customers, you're left doing some washing up on your own, re-thinking about what Alicia said to you. Her words repeat endlessly in the recesses of your mind over and over again, along with every little detail - from her stupid sneer, her spiteful stare and the poisonous words that escaped her vile mouth. 

You should've told her it's the standard charge rate for EV training and if she doesn't like it, then tough, it's her problem and not yours or the nursery. Oh, and that she is an annoying wee bitch. Yeah, maybe that too.

"Goddamnit." You mutter to yourself, your fist clinching around the sponge, causing bubbles to ooze out all over your rubber glove. "I should've said that. Why didn't I say that? Goddamnit."

It's too late to say anything now, and you're probably going to be up all night re-thinking about this. Lord help you. Shaking your head, you begin rinsing the dishes until the front door opens once more and you turn round to see a very familiar customer - if you recalled correctly, it's the angry man whose Thievul you looked after before he began complaining and screaming to your boss and yourself. 

Oh shit, what is he doing here? Worse thing is, he's not alone. There's three big and burly men with him - they're all punks - and they're definitely not here to drop off any Pokemon.

Before you can even speak, the man gestures to his group and quickly issues a command: "Let's trash this place, boys!!!"

Eyes wide, you hastily put down the dish you're cleaning as soon as the group begins to tear down posters, overturn furniture and throw objects over the floor of the nursery. 

"What are you doing?!" You shout in alarm; you attempt to leave the kitchen but you have no choice but to stop and duck behind the counter as someone throws a potted plant which promptly smashes against the wall, smearing the wallpaper with muck. You peek over the counter, ducking once more as the berry planter is picked up next and tossed towards your direction. You can hear the Pokemon crying in distress from inside the nursery due to the loud noise.

Before you can release Haxorus, you hear the door opening and it's your boss. "What in the shitting hell is going on here?!" She shrieks, as the group of men turn to her. "Fluffy, Scruffy, go!" She tosses two pokeballs into the air, releasing two Houndoom who snarl and bark loudly at the men when they emerge from their capsules. "Get 'em!"

"Let's get outta here!" The men make a run for it, pursued by the Houndoom and their flamethrower attacks. You peer out from the counter, watching the dark pokemon chase after the three men through the Wild Area.

The nursery grows quiet as your boss makes her way to the counter and spots you on the floor, shaking like a leaf. "Hen, are you okay?!"

You shake your head as she helps you up to stand; you're still trembling, your face pale.

"It's okay, those horrible men are gone now." Your boss dusts you down, trying to smile, "What were they doing here?"

"I-I don't know, they just came and started trashing the place. Sorry, they scared me. I'm so glad you're here."

"It was that horrible man with the Thievul from the other day, wasn't it? Chairman Rose will hear about this!!" Your boss mutters angrily under her breath. "Fluffy, Scruffy - get over here, now!" Your boss whistles and the two Houndoom abruptly return to the nursery. Once they arrive, they stop in front of the two of you and sit on their haunches, heads up high. "Good boys." You watch as your boss strokes their horns before she goes to the fridge and pulls out two large, raw steaks which she promptly tosses and the Houndoom snap their jaws as they catch one each, tearing into the meat with their sharp fangs.

"I didn't know you had Houndoom, boss." You utter, rubbing your elbow.

"They're good boys. I don't like to use 'em much but from now on, I'll get them to guard the nursery." Your boss says, squatting down beside her pokemon. As her Houndoom growl and snarl, she smiles at them and pats them affectionately. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. Did anything else happen?"

"Um....Eli came this morning."

There's a brief silence.

"Eli?"

"Yeah."

"Oh..." She mutters, "I see. Did he say anything to you? About me? About coming home?"

"...Um, well, he asked where you were and I told him you were in Hammerlocke on a few errands."

"What else?"

"Uh, then he told me that he was your son."

"Oh." She says again. "Okay. Alright." The nursery grows silent once more and you're getting the feeling that they really don't have a great relationship. Your boss sweeps her hair back and sighs heavily. "Thanks, hen. I should've told you earlier, right?"

"Huh? N-No, don't say that, it's your family stuff - it-it's none of my business, honestly..."

She nods and smiles weakly, "Yes, but Eli is quite the troublemaker. I always had a hard time dealing with that boy. I mean, he even ran away from home once and didn't come back for a long time." She says, shaking her head, "My family are all pokemon breeders, hen, and we always have been - one generation after the other - but I guess my son doesn't want to follow in our footsteps. He wanted to be a gym leader. He wanted to be gym leader so badly."

You're not sure what to say in this situation and a silence spawns.

"Ah well, it's nothing for you to worry over, hen. Don't mind me! Oh my, would you look at that! It's getting late, let's get a move on, shall we?" Your boss quickly averts her gaze to the clock on the wall and smiles widely at you. You can only smile weakly in response and you both begin to tidy up the nursery.

...

It's after work when you receive an update from your friend.

It's the information she managed to find on Raihan's ex-girlfriend online. She's sent you a few links to several articles, some photos and also her social media account. You find your eyes glued to the screen as you press on the first link - it's her social media account and you see that she has more than a thousand photos and over a million followers. Hot damn. Her trainer class is Beauty/Model.

It's worse than you thought, you realised. Her recent photo is a selfie which you click on - and you see that she is an extremely beautiful young woman, smiling sweetly at the camera. She has a rounded face but pointed chin, large eyes and a nice smile. But then you see she’s wearing this low cut top and the large amount of cleavage she's showing is astronomical and the comments below - oh, boy. 

Most of them are from thirsty males who respond to her photo with the emoji of an aubergine or three sweat drops or the lips showing tongue. She's also deliberately showing her hand, her palm poised under her chin with her lips apart, showing some pearly white teeth. On one of her fingers is a ring with a massive diamond sitting on top.

So, this is Raihan's ex-girlfriend.

You scroll through the rest of her feed to see more selfies and some photos of makeup products, electric type pokemon, more selfies of herself with other people (including Cheerleader Alicia, funnily enough) and also some photos where it's quite obvious it's an advert. There's also photos of her in various beach resorts. 

There are no photos of herself and Raihan. You didn't know Raihan's ex-girlfriend was a social media model. On the other hand, and if this is relevant at all, you recall Raihan's interview about his ideal type of woman and....well, you don't share any of the same traits with her, appearence-wise. She's a highly successful woman and you click another recent photo which is a selfie of herself with Elesa, the gym leader of Nimbasa City in Unova.

Intimidated and overwhelmed by everything, you leave her social media account and click on the article. It's dated one year ago and it illustrates how she's engaged to a rich, but old, tycoon from Kalos but she won't quit her job - she's a makeup artist, model, beauty blogger, travel vlogger and also, she is a trainer who works in Nimbasa City gym. That's quite the list. What happened to Raihan then?

You find the next article and this time, it's about Raihan and it's dated even far back. It's the first dating rumours that emerged, revolving around the dragon tamer of Galar and the article outlines how they've been seen together on several occasions and netizens and fans alike are speculating that they're dating and have been for a while. 

The more you read it, the more it's getting rather difficult. Unable to read the rest of the article and the remainder of the information your friend has gathered for you, you close the pages and look away from your phone. You can't help but wonder what Raihan likes about you and what he sees in you.

You thank your friend and you see she's typing a message. You wait for her reply, but to your surprise, she calls you so you pick up, "Hey." You greet her, trying to sound cheerful.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-yep, of course."

"What the - no, you're not."

"I can't help it." You moan, "Look at her! She's a bloody supermodel!"

"You know, somehow I pictured Raihan’s ex to be exactly like that and I wasn’t wrong."

"She's really pretty, like...insanely pretty."

"Yeah, I mean...it's Raihan, what were you expecting? He's hot stuff and she's hot stuff. She's from Elesa's gym for Raticate's sake. Everyone knows all the trainers from that gym are supermodels.”

"....Yeah, I know."

"It's like looking at my freaking yearbook and my high school reunion all over again - you know, all the hot, popular students and the nerds? They're the popular kids and we're the nerds. Popular kids don't end up with the nerds!"

You sigh heavily as some bad memories begin to resurface. "We're not in school anymore and things are... different, when you're in the real world."

"Yeah, I really wish school gave us some more life skills. But...just because she looks happy doesn't mean she actually is. Who knows? Maybe she's actually miserable deep inside. 

People like to post up the good stuff. It's like that person I know who posted up those photos of himself riding Rhyhorns in Spikes Passage, climbing Mt Coronet, and building a goddamn school from scratch for orphans!!! When I saw that, I was...I was like lost, for a long time. I was thinking 'man, what the hell am I doing with my life? I'm so fucking useless'."

"Uh, actually...I'm pretty certain she's happy."

"Look, don't compare yourself to her. She doesn't have what you have - she doesn't have Raihan, you do. You're the one he's with, you're the one he wants to be with. Not her. I know his ex married a richer, older dude, but still."

Your voice grows weak. "Oh.”

“Unless you’re gonna go off and marry an older, richer dude too - ”

“NO!!!!" You're on the verge of screaming down the phone, but you manage to calm yourself in time, "I would never do that to him! I love - um, I like him. I like Raihan a lot, we've done a lot of stuff together and he's such a sweetheart." You quickly babble, "Er...I gotta go now actually; we're meeting up."

"Alright, I'll talk to ya later. And don't compare yourself to her. Just because you don't look like her or you're not doing what she's doing, doesn't make you unworthy of Raihan or less valuable than she is."

You're surprised by her words and you hesitate, holding your breath, "Okay." You finally squeak out, "...Thanks for everything."

"No sweat. Bye."

...

You're running late due to overtime and it's most likely you've missed the first ten minutes of the concert. Raihan doesn't seem to mind and informs you that he's waiting for you at Hammerlocke pokemon centre so you can both head to Spikemuth together; when you arrive, he's looking at his phone which he gingerly puts away when he spots you.

"Rai!" You exclaim, and he grins widely as you hastily make your way over.

"Hey." He greets you casually and wraps an arm around you; you freeze up on the spot slightly but he doesn't seem to notice.

"Ugh, I had such a shit day today." You groan as he holds you in his arms. It's not like you to complain, but damn, you really had a shit day.

"What happened?"

"Well, first there was Eli, then Alicia came and harassed me a while, then the angry customer from last time came - but with some other punks - and trashed the place. I had to clean it all up."

"Alicia came?"

"Yeah, she came to insult me, the nursery and our prices and then left."

Raihan rubs the back of his neck. "...I'm sorry that happened. I'll have a word with her tomorrow."

You end up sighing. "It's...ugh, honestly, it's fine. Damn, I...I think I need a drink."

"Let's go to Spikemuth."

"Okay."

After calling the Corviknight taxi, it takes you to the small town in a matter of minutes and if your mum knew you had set foot in here not once but twice, she wouldn't be happy at all. You're unfortunately fifteen minutes late into the concert and you feel so rotten that you've made Raihan late too - it's beginning to eat you up inside even though Raihan assures you a few times that he doesn't mind. 

The concert is being held in the same nightclub where you met him which doesn't exactly tickle your fancy but hell, you probably need a lot of drink tonight and to let off some steam.

The venue is already packed to the brim - it's full of fans of The Maximisers and Piers alike and they are screaming, waving their banners and blowing into kazoos, throwing middle fingers and signs of the horns into the air and it's so noisy you think your eardrums might explode. 

In the darkness, the bouncers and their Machokes let you in and you and Raihan blindly enter the VIP section where you're incredibly close to the stage - you can see Piers close up.

He's already singing and he’s supported by two guitarists and a drummer in the back; he spots Raihan and waves lightly, acknowledging your presences before he returns to entertaining the crowd with ear-pounding, head-thrashing rock music, belting out dark lyrics that goes well with the music. You glance around yourself awkwardly as you're jostled all over from the enormous crowd - the majority of the fans are big, hulking men with spiked hair and tattoos all over their arms and chests. Raihan's having no difficulty here at all - he's tall enough to rise above the crowd.

Suddenly, the music begins to grind to a slow and steady beat with the guitarists playing a riff with deep, bass undertones. You don't feel like you belong here at all and Raihan yells something but you don't hear him.

"What?" You shout, pointing to your ear, indicating that you can't hear him well over the loud music. He repeats himself but you still can't hear.

"I want to thank everyone for coming here today," Piers' amplified voice is carried over the music, the microphone emitting some feedback and you glance at the stage, "In a few minutes, The Maximisers are gonna come on stage. But before we do that, let's give them a warm welcome the traditional Spikemuth way - I want some of you to go over that side and the rest of you to go there. You all know what this means, right?"

Wait, what? A warm welcome, the Spikemuth way? What the heck does that mean? However, everyone else seems to know and you're left in the dark (quite literally) as the crowd begins to divide, parting like the Red Sea and soon, the crowd is split into two sections. You look around awkwardly; everyone has this...strange grin and glint in their eyes. What the heck is going on?

"Alright, it's looking good." Piers says as he assesses the crowd with a smile, "Good job, everybody. Now...Are you ready??!!!" He shouts out all of a sudden, and you look up at the stage, eyes wide. Holy Moltres, what is happening?

He's greeted with a mixture of bellowing, roaring and jumbled 'hell yeahs' from the audience and it's then you realise, turning to Raihan with your mouth agape. "Raihan, we need to get outta here! I think we're in the - "

You're interrupted when Piers yells into the microphone and the crowd begins to charge towards each other.

"MOSH PIT!!!!!!"

It's chaos. Piers thrashes his head up and down, and the drummer and guitar players begin thrumming their fingers over their instruments maniacally, blasting out heavy metal music; the small, cramped space is consumed with cheers and screams as the section soon turns into a warzone. 

The two sections soon clash and fans begin pulling hair, punching bellies, knocking out teeth and slamming elbows into one another and you cling onto Raihan who pulls you out of the crowd and pushes through the crazed fans; you're safe in his arms, thank Arceus, and he steers you towards the bar and away from the madness. Aside from the concert, the nightclub is still busy with its regular patrons so you quickly find an empty spot at the bar counter where a few Jynx are helping create ice cubes for drinks.

"We made it! We're alive!" You exclaim with relief as you stare wide-eyed at the fighting fans, you then turn to Raihan, noticing he's chuckling at you. "What? What is it? Is it my hair? It's my hair, isn't it?" You palm the top of your head worryingly but Raihan casually saunters to your side and begins smoothing your hair down with his large hands.

"Want a drink?" He murmurs, throwing his glance to the bartender.

"Alright, give me something strong. I think I need it."

He chuckles again and lets go of you to wave a hand, and the bartender is summoned in seconds despite being in the middle of serving another customer. "Yes, Mr Raihan, sir?"

"Any recommendations for a strong drink?"

"Er, well, the strongest drink we have is the Death in the Morning, it's got a teeny tiny quantity of Seviper venom in it so, er...yeah, it's pretty lethal. Won't kill ya, but you might have a helluva hangover next day. Also makes folks hella horny too. Don't say we didn't warn ya."

Raihan doesn't look too impressed and you definitely don't want to be steaming drunk or mega horny for the rest of the night, so you check the menu and decide to order a not-so-lethal drink, a Bounsweet Bomb. It sounds pretty safe...and you believe it shouldn't be too difficult for you to hold down. After all, it's a drink that'll come in a shot glass and it's made with Cheri berries. Sweet!

"And what will you have, Mr Raihan, sir?" The bartender asks, after taking down your order.

"Just the usual, thanks."

"Got it."

You notice Raihan has put your drink on his tab, so you thank him and he merely grins at you. Soon, another bartender shows up with your drinks - a small shot glass filled with a golden liquid is presented to you, along with Raihan's drink - which is just a typical beer - and you both clink glasses before drinking. You tip it into your mouth and it burns the back of your throat as it sloshes down your gullet, leaving a trail of fire down your windpipe in its wake. Sweet Foongus, it's strong! You accidentally choke as it settles in your stomach, which you feel is burning.

"Wait." You utter with your eyes narrowed, realising something feels wrong, "I didn't taste any cheri berries."

Raihan quirks a brow. "That wasn't your drink?" He says, and he waves his hand again; the bartender who took your order comes scurrying over.

"Yes, Mr Raihan, sir?"

"We've been served the wrong drink."

The bartender grabs the empty glass and sniffs it, then turns round. "Oi, who served this?"

A random server - the one who just served you, actually - comes over. "Uh, that would be me, sir."

"She ordered a Bounsweet Bomb. This is NOT a Bounsweet Bomb."

"Huh? And not the Death in the Morning?"

"Good heavens, lad! You muppet, you absolute numpty! No! Yer such a bampot!"

"I'm so sorry!"

The bartenders bicker and then apologise profusely to Raihan over the mixup - and the dragon tamer accepts the apology with no qualms. As you gradually become lightheaded, Raihan says, “I'll take you to the VIP section where you can sit down.”

Lifting you off your seat, he meticulously leads you away from the bar and towards a dark corridor where the entrance is guarded by a huge bouncer and his Hitmonlee. Your head's beginning to throb viciously, your senses dulling and the floor spinning - your legs will go under in a matter of seconds if you don't hold onto something, so you cling onto Raihan the entire time. The man lets you in after seeing Raihan and you're led further inside where you see a large but empty room full of comfy sofas and fancy drapes. You see a bar area here too but it's also devoid of any staff. You thought you'd stop here but Raihan continues leading you to a small, secluded space. “In here.”

”Huh?” You squeak, as Raihan lifts up the curtain and gestures for you to head inside. You duck underneath the lacy trimming and he follows, and you see it’s just an empty booth with plush seats. Ah, wait, you remember - you made out with Raihan on a couch like this one that night and you think he realises this too. You stare at your surroundings; you're numb all over and you're surprisingly weightless...

"You okay?" He asks, but his voice is distorted and his words echo loudly.

"Yeah, I'm okay..." You nod limply as he sits down on the sofa and you join him, climbing into his lap instinctively and settling yourself against him. He chuckles at your forwardness and adjusts you comfortably, drawing you into his chest. You snuggle against him, burying your face into his neck and he holds you, rubbing your arm up and down in an effort in keeping you warm. 

You guess you have no choice but to sit it out and wait until you're better; however your body feels hot and sweaty all over, your head throbs and Raihan's neck looks very inviting - you reach over and slip your arm around his neck, propping yourself up properly before you lean forwards and press your lips over his flesh.

He tenses under you and throws a questioning glance but you're busy occupying yourself. Your head is woozy as he utters your name but you merely push yourself further into his chest, holding him tightly as you begin to kiss the side of his face and jaw aggressively. It's the drink, it's the goddamn drink. Goddamn Seviper venom drink is making you frisky. Goddamn Seviper drink is making you hot all over. Raihan plucks your hand off his neck and you whine in frustration.

"You're not thinking straight..." You hear him muttering incoherently, but you don't care.

You move your lips from his jaw and cheeks and finally to his mouth, pressing sweet kisses again and again, cupping his face with one hand and pushing his headband off his forehead with your other hand before you decide to encircle your arms around the back of his neck again, tilting your head to the side as you push your lips against his roughly.

You hear him sighing and it's not long until Raihan wraps his arms around your waist and props you up once more; you break apart, your eyes meeting for a split second before he leans over, his lips claiming your neck. You moan softly, closing your eyes as his hot lips nibble and suck on your flesh gently. You can’t help but giggle as his hair tickles your chin and you slip your fingers through his dreadlocks. You let him kiss you, holding him tightly until he stops, and looks up.

"What's wrong?" You mumble, rubbing at your eyes. Your neck feels very wet and tender.

"I saw Eli." Raihan mutters.

"Where?"

"Over there."

You follow to see where he's gazing off to and it's then you spot a familiar figure through the lacy curtain. This familiar person is lurking around in the back, far away from your booth and heading towards the corridor - it's Eli. The blond-haired young man looks around left and right before hurrying away from your sight. "Oh? He's at the concert too? What's he in such a hurry for? That's awfully shady."

"I don't think he saw us."

"...You wanna follow him?" You add, grinning.

Raihan looks at you, brow raised.

You laugh in response. "We should! I don't have a good feeling about that guy."

"I don't think anyone does, princess."

"C'mon, let's follow him."

You climb out of his lap and you have the inkling that Raihan's moral compass is wavering towards 'don't follow Eli' but you're already tiptoeing towards Eli's direction so he can only sigh and follow after you. "Careful..." He mutters as he holds your hand; you both leave the private booth, making your way towards the corridor where you saw Eli venturing into, avoiding the fans as they squabble and brawl. "We can't be seen."

"Yep yep."

Everyone's too busy with the concert and mosh pit to notice the pair of you sneaking round the back. The Maximisers have appeared on stage now anyway, capturing everyone’s attention. You pass the mosh pit and into the corridor where Eli wandered off, stopping when you see Eli just a few feet away. You're getting too close now, so it's best to wait for him to move further. Raihan pulls you behind a pillar with him, and lets you peek out occasionally to watch his retreating back. 

The distance between you grows bigger and bigger; he's at the end of the corridor now and you realise it's the fire exit. He opens the door, pushing down on the bar, and leaves.

You and Raihan quickly abandon your spots and rush down the corridor, opening the door a tiny fraction and as quietly as possible, inching outside and glancing around warily. It's frigid outdoors and the music's quieter now that you're outside. Before any of you can move, you pick up the sound of distant conversation and Raihan spots Eli standing in the entrance to an alleyway across the street from the nightclub, speaking to a group of three men all dressed in black.

"Over here." Raihan pulls you over to hide behind a large dumpster that's conveniently to your left; it smells terrible but there's enough hiding space for the two of you - you see a few Garbador and Trubbish waddling around awkwardly, feasting on the smelly, dirty trash that's left discarded on the ground but they don't pay any notice to you.

"Do you think he saw us?" You whisper, as Raihan pulls you up against him; your back hits his chest as he holds you, arms around your shoulders.

"Don't think so." Raihan utters, peering out cautiously.

"Wonder what they're talking about. It's probably a bunch of bad guy stuff."

You both watch Eli speaking to the group before each of the men reveal that they are holding large bags - Eli reaches for them and opens them one at a time briefly, and quickly closes them - however, you still managed to spot the strange black rocks along with the brief red glow in each sack and it occurs to you that it's full of Wishing pieces. Eli takes all the bags, fumbles in his pockets and lifts out a bulging wad of cash which he hands to the men. The group converse more before quietly dispersing, splitting up into different directions.

Eli doesn't return to the bar however, and when it grows silent,  you and Raihan exchange quick glances before you utter, "I thought he was doing drugs, honestly."

...

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #261

“i hate you for every time you ever bled for me.”

If you have a job, how long is your shift? I'm unemployed. Do you ever wear your hair in a pony tail? It's too short for that. What language did you take up in high school? Latin for one semester, then I took four of German. Do you like sunflowers? It's illegal to live in the South and not lmao. Have you ever held hands with someone in a car? Yeah. Would you rather be called honey or baby? Hunny. What is your favorite card game? Even though I never learned it super well, I used to enjoy Magic: The Gathering and have actually been like dying to play it for months lmao. How many emails were you sent today? None. What was your favorite Christmas gift you got last year? Well I mostly got money life chose I didn't get to use, lol. I honestly don't really remember anything else prominently... sounds bad, but yeah, so is my memory lmao. What have you thought up yet for this year’s list? Well it's only April, but a treadmill or something like that is at the top right now. Do you have any embarrassing usernames? Ha ha, none that I still use. Do you have a backpack in a shape of an animal? No, but I almost got a meerkat one. But it was too small. :'( Have you ever waxed your legs? OW no. My hair is too long and thick. Have you ever taught a little kid to flick people off? lol wow no. Have you ever itched yourself until your skin was raw? I do that remarkably easy, especially on my legs. I literally have long scars from it. Do you always clear your history after using the computer? No. Have you ever had your food stolen by a bird? Ha ha nah. Are you responsible for stuffing someone's stocking? No. Do you make your own smoothies or juices? No. Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies? I absolutely hate raisins. What age do you think is too old to still live with your parents? It greatly depends on a lot of things: the person's health, financial position, etc. Have you ever watched Bob's Burgers? A couple times. It was pretty funny if I remember correctly. Denim, leather or varsity jacket? UUUUGGGGGHHHHH leather. I've wanted one since middle school. ;_; Has a teacher ever caught and read a note you were passing in class? No. I honestly didn't pass notes, but I find it mean as FUCK when teachers do this. Privacy is a goddamn thing that should be respected. I do not support passing notes in class, like you're there to learn, but having it shared in front of all your peers is not the fucking answer. I get heated about this shit. What's your favorite perfume that you own? I only own one that's called "Blush" from rue 21. It smells really nice, though. Do you clean things that are already clean when you're bored? No. I'd rather clean something that isn't already. Do you have an older brother? Yes. What do you do when someone overweight complains about being overweight? Lol I'd probably say "mood," but it depends on our relationship of course. Like there're times to be humorous and light-hearted about it and other times when you don't make it about you. If they're clearly more sad and especially if I don't know them well, I'd say something like "I understand," because I can almost guarantee I do about this. Have either of your parents ever been to jail? No. Have you ever been to jail? No, I'm a good noodle. :) Are your collarbones prominent? No. ;_; You can see them, yeah, but they're not like very obvious. It's one of my biggest motivators to lose weight though because I am dyinnnnggg for dermals there, but I think it would look weird without that contrast. Have you ever in your life worn overalls? When I was a kiddo. Ugly things. Do you own anything tribal print? No. Do you watch any beauty gurus on YouTube? I'm not even very interested in beauty, yet I love Jeffree Star??? Nikkie is cool too. I've found I watch more for personalities than content, in all genres of vids. Do you like Skittles? More like LOVE. Do you have a PillowPet? No. If you do, what kind of PillowPet do you have? N/A Do you have sleep paralysis? Thank the fuck to god no. That shit sounds absolutely terrifying. Is there anyone at home right now you wish wasn't? No. Do you like Placebo? Tbh I can't think of one song by them rn. I know I've heard them, Mom's even got a CD I'm sure I've tried out long ago when I got into her music, but obviously nothing stood out well enough, at least back then. Has anyone ever carried you to bed? As a kid, yeah, usually my dad. Could you happily date someone prettier than you? Yes???? Do you know anyone with cancer? Both my mom and grandmother right now. Are you easily offended? No. Do your parents buy you most anything you want? HI we've always been poor so no. Not just that, but they knew better than to spoil us. Have you ever tried to jump a fence? I have. Do you watch My Strange Addiction? No. How attracted are you to the last person that kissed you? A bit above moderately ig. Have you ever known a white supremacist? HUNNY I live in the South. In regards to who do you think "what if?" Jason as a fucking whole is my absolute "what if." Do you like the smell of a barbecue? Yes, even though I enjoy like almost no food at most of them. Doesn't stop it from smelling good. Has anyone ever called you apathetic or unemotional? I can't even imagine someone calling me that, no. I'm the polar opposite. How much money do you spend in a month on clothes or accessories? None in the average month. What was the last clothing item you wore that doesn't belong to you? A pair of Mom's pants. I didn't have any clean pairs. Do you own anything with your state or providence's name on it? No. Got no interest in sporting anything relating to a boring-ass, bigoted, racist state. How often do you hold back from saying what you are thinking? WOW A LOT!!!!!!!!!!! Do you like the Paranormal Activity movies? Yeah, I do. I mean yeah, they're fake, but what horror movie isn't even though it claims it is, honestly. How do you like your oatmeal? Apples & cinnamon with a bit of sugar. Does it make you feel better when an ex starts dating someone unattractive? No. Appearance doesn't mean shit when it comes to what the heart wants. What's your favorite way to eat peanut butter? In a sandwich w/ grape jam. Do you fall in infatuation easily? Infatuation, I'm not sure. Who has initiated most of your first kisses? Considering almost all previous relationships, usually me as they all knew I needed to go slow. I'd only do it if I was aware they'd wanted to kiss already, though. Do you like bows? Omg yes, cute shit. Has a boyfriend ever made you breakfast? Yes. Jason first went to college to be a chef. Are you more likely to show affection through your words or your actions? Probably words when you consider I'm slow with physically doing that, but I'm honestly really affectionate either way when I'm comfortable with you. Do you like Cheez-Its? VERY MUCH SO omg keep them away from me. Do you ever use coloring books? Not anymore. How do you feel about instrumental music? I have to be in the mood for it. Have you ever been on a trapeze? No. What's the coolest natural event you've ever witnessed? I still don't know to this day what it was, but I THINK it was a star exploding. Scared me, man. Seeing the big lunar eclipse last year was also wicked cool. Do you know how to use chopsticks? HA, I never could. Not with my tremors. Do you buy chocolate after Valentine's Day when it goes on sale? No, I don't need chocolate. Do you think bunnies are cute? I would fight God to give a lop-eared bunny one (1) pet. Do you personally know anyone who is an author? I've had a friend get something published in a magazine before, and during one stay at the psych hospital, I met a published poet. His stuff was really good. Last time (if ever) you were on an airplane, where were you going? Otw home from Illinois. Do you know anyone who is left-handed? Yeah? I'd assume everyone would at least know one... If people could read your mind, what would they usually find? The thought "I'm bored" every five minutes. What's a song that makes you feel happy? "Jump" by Van Halen came to mind first. How did you meet your best friend? YouTube. Do you need money to be happy? To a degree, yes. Money can buy happiness - but again, to a degree. Saying it doesn't is bullshit. What's a good idea you've had recently? Probably just OC ideas, lmao. I've thought of some decently cool stuff recently. what is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cinnamon rolls uggggghhhhhh How many slices of pizza do you usually eat? Two or three if I'm seriously hungry. If you could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be? Is "Mark's girlfriend" even remotely surprising lmao but no seriously she's an amazing and productive person like I WISH. What's the last song you listened to? "Roots" by In This Moment is on rn. Do you like the movie Zootopia? Ye! Do you ever go on Pinterest? Yeah. What's the last kind of chocolate you ate? A Reese's. Tell me a line from the song you're listening to: "I'm stronger than I ever knew - I'm strong because of you." Have you ever participated in a march/protest? No. Have you ever performed in front of a large audience? Yeah, for dance classes and school stuff. What did you eat the last time you went to the movies? Popcorn. I may have gotten sour gummies, too? Idr. Who was the last person to see you cry? Mom. Do you listen to music every day? There are rare days where I don't. I'll be watching too many actual videos. Do you have a hard time making decisions? A STUPID hard time. I'm extremely dependent, including when faced with decisions. I second-guess myself with everything. Do you start the shower water before or after you get in? Before. How many times have you been to a museum? A good number of times. We live pretty close to an art + science one. Are you going to be getting any new pets soon? Most likely not. Would you rather be a Panda or Grizzly bear? A panda so it wouldn't be legal to shoot me lmao. Do the stairs in your house have carpet? We only have one floor. Can you do a twirl like a ballerina? Oh wow, no. Even when I was a dancer, I SUCKED at that. When you were younger, were you ever in a relationship with someone you now realize was way too old for you? No. Is your family dysfunctional? To a degree. How old were you the first time you travelled alone? 22? What's the longest hotel stay you've ever had? I don't know. Not long. We only ever really stayed at one when we had to go to Myrtle Beach for annual dance competitions, and those were only like, a weekend. What architectural style was your childhood home? Uhhh idk. Very normal. Tell me a bit about your last relationship. What was it like dating them? It was great, but also stressful because of distance. What's the largest animal you've seen in the wild? Maybe like a large buck or something. Do any of your friends or family members have strange occupations? Not that I'm aware of. Have you ever been in weather so severe that you feared for your safety? Oh yeah. What political issues are the most important to you personally? Gay rights and the pro-choice stance. Does your neighborhood have a community garden? I've never even heard of such a thing. What small thing makes you automatically distrust someone? Acting secretive or cryptic about who they are as a person. Of all the states/provinces in your country, which one is your favorite? Visually that I've seen a good number of pictures of, Utah. Are there any obscure foods you've eaten that most people have never tried? I very much doubt that. What's the kindest thing a total stranger has done for you? I'm unsure. Have you ever used a meal kit delivery service? Yeah, I did one of those diet things before... but the name is evading me, even though it's super common. Nutrisystem, maybe? Do you have any pets? If so, how old are they? Venus is around five, and Roman is two. Do you have any psychological issues rooted in events from your childhood? My psychiatrist and former therapist predict my discomfort around men, particularly when they're behind me, and extreme fear of rape is rooted in two kids from pre-k that used to chase, randomly hug the hell out of, and try to kiss me. I'd actually entirely forgotten about it until we really started to dig deep, so I guess it's a repressed memory. Do you remember your locker combinations from high school? WOW no, son. What's your favorite DIY crafts youtube channel? I don't watch DIY stuff. What was your high school's mascot? Firebird. Who were your best friends in high school? Hannia, Megan, Maria, Girt, and Dennis were The Crew. Who was your first boyfriend or girlfriend? Aaron was my brief puppy-dog love, but Jason was my first real boyfriend. Would you rather sleep on the top bunk or bottom bunk? Bottom. If I slept on the top, but bottom is getting crushed lmao. As a little kid though when Nicole and I shared a room, I had to have the top bunk until I got a bit older. What insects are you afraid of? BEETLES, CICADAS, AND LARVA GET THE FUCK OUT. Honestly most insects scare me to a degree. Have you ever had a secret admirer that left you notes? I think the aforementioned Aaron did in middle school at least once before we dated. What was your favorite thing to do at sleepovers when you were younger? Swimming in the pool, if they had one. What's one way in which you're still a child? I'm dependent as shit on my mom. What's one way in which you're old? I now say "back in the day" sometimes lmfao. Do you feel old or young? Or do you feel both at different times? Both at different times. Did you ever skip a grade or get held back a grade? No. When you look at your baby pictures, do you recognize yourself? Only once at a certain age. What is your favorite thing to do in the pool? Just kinda swim around and think, or watch nature. Have you ever taken a picture at the perfect moment? I know I have, but they're evading me, gaaaah. What color(s) eyeshadow do you wear the most? I only ever wear black. What’s your favourite brand of peanut butter? Uhhh never really paid much attention to brands. Do you put all your stuff for class in one binder or several? When I was in school, I had one binder with dividers, but I also had specific folders too. What’s your favourite Lunchables meal? The nachos. How many languages can you recite the alphabet in? Two. What’s your favourite flavour of sunflower seeds? I hate those. What’s your favourite flavor of muffin? Chocolate oof. Have you ever had carpal tunnel? I do. I haven't had problems in a couple months, though. Are you one of those people who is really smart but has no common sense? OW FUCK OFF. How old were you when you met your first love? I was just shy of 16. Did you get ice cream from the ice cream truck when you were little? Do they still have an ice cream truck where you live? We occasionally did as a kid, but they definitely don't have that where we live now. Has the last person you kissed met your family? She met my mom, dad, and younger sister. What was the last strong emotion you experienced? Who was responsible for it? Remorse. Myself. Have you ever had to cancel a bank account? Yes. Was the last conversation you had an argument? No. If you knew you had the right person, would you marry them today? I am not in the financial or mental position to get married right now. Where was the last place you got completely wasted? I've never been "wasted." If you could have anyone as your roommate, who would you choose? Sara. Have you ever changed the prices of items at a store? Wow no. Well, MAYBE when I actually worked in stores and I was supposed to, but I don't remember doing that. Do you go for walks often? I never do because of having no area to (my house is along a dangerous curve), and I need to be very careful because of muscle atrophy in my legs. I need to have easy access to a place to sit and recover or else I get very close to collapsing. As mentioned, I desperately want a treadmill. Would your parents disown you if you got pregnant? No, I'm 24 years old. My mom would never in her life do that at any age anyway. How strange do people say you are? Idk?? That's not something I really try to find out because my AvPD would possibly make me cry asldkfjwe. Have you opened food at a grocery store & ate it without or before paying? I would never do that without, but I have before in cases of being very dizzy and knowing I desperately needed food. How artistic are you? I think I'm pretty artistic, but more in concept than actuality... Like I have so so so SOOOOOO many ideas, particularly with drawing, I just don't. Do it. Can you legally drive? Not currently, because my permit has been expired since last year. Did anything dramatic go down yesterday? No. Do you find smoking unattractive? Very. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to be around your ex everyday? No, thankfully. Have you seen someone recently you used to talk to, but don’t anymore? No. Are you comfortable sharing drinks with your friends? No; I don't even share drinks with family. Honestly, have you ever written something on a bathroom stall? No, I hate that shit. When you were a kid did you ever look up “sex” in the dictionary? Actually no. I literally didn't learn anything about it 'til family life in the 5th grade. Is there anything written on the shirt you’re wearing right now? No. Are you shorter or taller than most of your friends? I'm a normal height, really. Honestly, do you double dip? If I'm sharing, no. All you have to do is break the chip. What was the last junk food you ate? I had a little bit of popcorn yesterday.

[pivitor]

Emotional Roller-Coaster This Week

So, the last eight days have been an absolute whirlwind. Some really great things happened. Some really bad things happened. I’m kinda still reeling. I had some big firsts, and spent some time with great friends, had some real catharsis. I also fell further into depression than I have in a long, long time, and, oh yeah, got diagnosed with a chronic illness.

I need to get this all off my chest, cause I’m drowning. Join me? 

Before we start, there’s two things you need to know about me. Both are things I’ve mentioned in bits and pieces on here, but here’s the full story:

1. Three months ago I had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum (I technically tore it when I dislocated my arm in high school, and it’s been popping out on me once every other year or so ever since, but my most recent [and now final] dislocation was very bad and sent me right to the doctor). I spent about two weeks out of work, just sitting at home on the couch in a sling. The pain wasn’t great, but it was worse mentally: I put on a couple pounds and immediately started to feel terrible about myself, and being stuck at home when I wanted to be out there, doing stuff with friends or with guys or to reach a point where I can move out, felt terrible. I wasn’t in a great headspace for a long time. As of now I have about 95% of my arm function back, and am fully healed, just trying to get back the last of my range of motion and gradually increase back to my old strength threshold.

2. This one is a bit more complicated. I’ve talked a lot here about how I grew up in a cult, but I never went into further detail. Well, here we go: I was a J*hovah’s W*tness. (I’m censoring this because I don’t want this showing up in searches) It wasn’t something I would have ever chose for myself, but when you’re born into it, you’re pretty heavily indoctrinated -- I thought it was the gospel truth despite having many reasons not to. They’re a very homophobic organization, so growing up in it wrecked my self esteem. My entire childhood and time as a teenager I thought I was worthless and doomed, destined for eternal destruction. I was often suicidal. When I was about 18 or 19 the cult printed an article “clarifying” their view on homosexuality, and said they recognized that some people are just naturally attracted to the same gender and as long as they don’t act on it they’re still “acceptable” to God. It’s dangerous bullshit that makes me so angry now, but as a brainwashed, suicidal teenager, it felt like the only chance I had to live a worthwhile life, so I got baptized into the religion, which is the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life, because once you’re a baptized member of the cult, if you leave you’ll be shunned by everyone you’ve ever known. Your own parents will treat you as if you’re dead. I was very zealous for a year or two before realizing that I just couldn’t do it anymore, but it’s taken me nearly ten years to fully wake up from the indoctrination, read information from outside religions, scientists, and former members who have left. Currently I still live with my family and have to pretend to still believe (because the moment I don’t they’ll kick me out on the street), and am on the cusp of two promotions at work. As soon as those go through, I should be able to save money to move out, which I wanna do before the summer, and then I’ll be completely free.

Okay, the rollercoaster week itself:

Pre-Monday: For about a week, a week and a half before this all started, I’d been experiencing some pain in my side that was making it hard to sit up for long periods of time. This normally would’ve been a major red flag, but thanks to the shoulder surgery, I’d been having random back pains off and on recently anyway. I assumed it was related to me overcompensating for the shoulder and left it alone. Big mistake.

Monday: So one of my promotions at work involves a coaching center we’re launching. We were supposed to do our first presentation last Monday, and when my boss showed up for it, everything fell apart. It wasn’t totally my fault -- the general condition of the office itself wasn’t up to par, and the boss recognized that there wasn’t much I could do about that -- but a lot was, and I spent all week trying to fix things and get them running, and running into one major roadblock and frustration after another. We’re finally doing the presentation today, but it technically still isn’t 100% fixed. Work has been a major, major source of stress all week. I don’t think I’ll mention it again because there’s not much more to it than what I’ve listed here, but remember that it’s hanging over my head all week.

Monday night I was invited to a birthday party for a friend from my gym. Since the cult doesn’t celebrate holidays, I’d never actually been a birthday party before, complete with cake and singing happy birthday and everything. It was really nice -- even though it was truly just a bunch of guys hanging around a bar watching the Eagles, it still felt like something really special. I also spent about a half an hour in my car before I walked into the bar trying not to hyperventilate. I don’t feel guilty at all as I may have once, but I was still really worried about being seen by someone and my family finding out.

Wednesday: Tuesday was my only truly normal day of the week, and even then, we had my cousin staying with us up until Wednesday, so even then it wasn’t truly normal. We normally have church on Thursday nights (I have to attend so as not to blow my cover, but I tend to stand in the lobby and play on my phone the entire time; it’s a nice chance to catch up on my reading usually), but I had a concert on Thursday I was not going to miss, so I told my parents I was going to a different congregation on Wednesday night, but instead I went to Starbucks and caught up on Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s...depressing that this is what I’m reduced to, but I was happy that it finally occurred to me to just...lie about it.

When I got home and took off my shirt to change into my pajamas, I noticed a patchy, red rash on my stomach, side, and back, right around the same area I’d been having pain for the last week or two. I’d absolutely never had anything like this happen before, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I crossed my fingers that it was an allergic reaction, put some cortisone cream on it, and decided to wait a couple days to see if anything changed.

Thursday: On Thursday I drove up to Philly after work, and ate a few slices at my favorite pizza place, reading comics, until it was time for the concert. It was a free show from Pkew Pkew Pkew, a band I truly, truly love, and it was one of my favorite shows of the year. Just pure joy. They played for about an hour, but were the opening act, and I don’t care for the headliner (Beach Slang), so I had originally had a few ideas about what I could do afterwards, considering that their set was over by 10 or so. I could go home (coward’s option), I could go to the Barcade. What I really wanted to do was go to a gay bar or club. I’d gone right before my surgery and had a great time, but I’d been avoiding going back (or joining a dating app or anything else) until my arm fully healed because it would very much have gotten in the way of doing anything physical. I was finally in the place where I could use my arm, but now I had that strange mysterious rash, and didn’t think it was right to do anything like that until I’d figured it out/gotten it cleared up. I don’t wanna pass anything on to anybody.

By sheer coincidence, Philly’s Emo Night ended up being this very same night (this one is held once a month), so I ended up heading over there and dancing until 2AM. I got very drunk and had a fantastic time. But there were a lot of couples. There was this girl that kept hitting on me, and then getting pissy when I didn’t reciprocate. There was this extremely hot dude in a Misfits hoodie, and early in the night we were the only two who were dancing, and he gave me a high five that he pulled into a bro hug after the song, which got me all riled up, but I couldn’t work it into anything else haha. And then this group of about four guys or so showed up, dancing all night, very affectionate, cupping each other’s faces when they talked to each other and all that. I’d seen them before and both times thought they might be gay, so I stuck close and was kinda part of their group for the night, which was really really fun. At the end of the night, one of them mentioned their girlfriend, and I reeled way more than I had any right to. I had a fantastic night. I went home feeling very alone.

Friday: Friday was my gym’s Christmas Party, which, much like Monday, was my first ever Christmas Party. I had a really fun time chatting with everyone, eating, watching one friend get drunk, try to jump up on the rings, and get dragged home by his wife. We had rowing contests and the losers had to take shots. But there was one guy there I’ve always had a crush on, a very straight, very married guy, and he was looking extremely hot and was acting extremely funny all night, and it was rough. I went home and dreamed about him all night. I woke up feeling even more alone and frustrated.

Saturday: I was pretty depressed and listless by this point. Feeling really sorry for myself despite all the fun I’d had all week. I had plans to drive up to Asbury Park for an Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties show and I just...really didn’t feel like going. But I drug myself out of bed and made myself go, because you don’t miss the gig. Before the show I wandered around Asbury, basically torturing myself. I wanted to visit a restaurant but had eaten lunch too late and wasn’t hungry. I found a gay club but still had that rash, so I didn’t wanna go in. I ended up standing on the beach, in the dark, finally having a genuine smile as I dodged the waves, but also just thinking about how sometimes Kangaroos just walk into the ocean and...never come back. I was not in a good headspace. I made myself get off the beach.

The show though...damn, that show. Dan played the second Aaron West album, Routine Maintenance, from front to back, and it’s an album about Aaron making the people in his life proud of him, about his friends giving him direction, about finding redemption through being there for his family in their darkest hour. That kind of shit is my kryptonite to begin with, but all I could think about was how all I had ever wanted in my life was to make my family proud, and how I’d never be able to do it, how someday soon they’re just...never gonna talk to me again. I cried twice during the set. And afterwards I got to hug Dan and tell him how much the album fucks me up. It was really cathartic. I felt the cloud start to lift.

Sunday: So Sunday I finally go to the doctor about this fucking rash, which hadn’t gotten any worse but had not gotten any better either. The diagnosis?

I have fucking shingles.

For those who don’t know, shingles is the chicken pox virus. After you’ve had chicken pox it never really leaves your body -- it stores itself away in your nerves. As an adult, it can reemerge as shingles, which begins as an intense pain, then advances into painful rashes on one side of your torso. Without intervention, they can continue to spread and become almost immobilizing. I’m currently on a pill I have to take three times a day for seven days, which will stop the progression of the shingles, and then it will heal up on its own, but it could take a few weeks.

Thankfully, I’m not contagious -- I can only spread the disease if someone has prolonged, direct contact with the rashes. I can be around people, but like I feared, it does rule out sex for a while. The worst part is that shingles as a disease can’t really be healed. The symptoms will go away, but I’ll be susceptible to outbreaks the rest of my life. Fortunately, the doctor made it sound pretty manageable -- the pain in my side, in that exact same spot, will always be my first symptom, so as soon as I feel that I need to get to a doctor and get back on the seven day medication to end the flare-up. It doesn’t sound like shingles flare-ups are super common either -- reading up on it, it looks like most people have, at the most, three outbreaks in their life. But, it’s still a chronic illness, and it’s one that’s very rare to emerge at this young of an age -- this is something you normally get in your fifties or sixties, not your early thirties! 

Honestly, I could only laugh. Just my luck, right? I’m so frustrated. My arm’s finally reached the point where I can get back to trying to pursue guys, but nope! the shingles has to postpone it a few more weeks :/

But despite it all, the depression of the rest of the week had mostly lifted. I had processed it. I was feeling better. For a while.

Back in the spring I had joined a subreddit for former members of the cult, which is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, as it let me share my story with people who had been there and understood, and really helped clear out the last remnants of the programming from my brain. Every once in a while different gay Ex cult member will contact me on there, and I’ve struck up a few nice casual friendships. Last week a guy reached out to me on there looking for friends in the same situation as him, and I replied, and on Friday he finally replied back, and we texted each off and on Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday night, though, we got into a deeper conversation. He’s in his early twenties, and some of the stuff he was asking for advice about made it sound like he was just starting to wake up from the programming and just starting to think about leaving and being gay and everything. Eventually, as we talk more, I find out that that’s not fully the case. He’s jealous of some of the stuff I’ve done that he hasn’t -- going to Pride, going to gay bars -- but unlike me, he’s had a fair amount of sex. Like any closeted Witness, he had to drive into unfamiliar cities to do so, and it’s a strategy I’ve thought of trying but never pulled off. 

I dunno, I’m so depressed. I feel like such a failure. I know having sex doesn’t make you a better person, and not having sex doesn’t intrinsically make you a failure. But I feel like this because I want it so badly, because I always have, and I could have been doing it for years, and I’ve been really forced to confront the fact that it’s my own fear that’s been getting in my way all this time. If I’d really tried I could’ve done it by now. If I really tried I probably could’ve moved out and started my new life by now -- I’d probably be dirt broke in an apartment with like eight roommates, but I could’ve done it. I don’t feel like anybody else, including this guy I was chatting with, have been judging me for this, but I’m pretty disgusted with myself, irrational as it may be. I know it’s not true, but I feel like my whole life has been a waste of time. And I’m so fucking sick of it.

So. This is everything I’ve been processing this week. I don’t really know what to do with it. I’ve gotta be patient a little while longer. Keep working on my real estate licensing test so I can make some more money. Wait for the shingles to heal up. Get on Grindr and just, fucking, fuck some dude the moment I’m cleared up.

But fuck, I’m so fucking sick of waiting.

[simonxriley]

hi there, fluff alphabet for liz x ghost? :))

Hello :) My babies!! P.S I want to know who you are, I barely talk about this ship and people already like it? Let’s be friends anons!!!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

These two are homebodies, they just like spending some quality time at home. Sometimes they might have a competition and see who can get the best time in the pit. It usually ends with a quickie in a storage closet….One time Price walked in on them. Now if the kids are in the picture, they’ll figure out something to do, like go to a park, play in the backyard, see a movie, etc. 

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

That they’ve been through the same thing and understand what it’s like. They both had abusive and neglectful fathers’ and to find someone who will not only understand what that feels like, but isn’t going to use it as a deal-breaker because they don’t want to deal with someone who was a victim of abuse and say they have too much baggage. It’s cliche but they find everything beautiful about each other…well almost everything. 

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

If Ghost is having a rough day or is feeling down or even has a panic attack, she’ll cuddle him and thread her fingers through his hair. It helps calm him down and she’s been doing it before they even got together. Then she’ll wait until he wants to talk or sobs into her chest. 

Ghost is almost the same way, he’ll definitely cuddle her and let her rant or cry, depending on how bad everything is. He’ll also go out and buy her something sweet, like flowers and cupcakes because sometimes she would rather eat her weight in sugar. 

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

After they survived Shepherd’s onslaught, they lived one day at a time. Both fearing if they thought about the future or talked about it, it wouldn’t come true. But they are beyond happy on how it did turn out. Happily married with 4 kids.  

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

They’re equal when it comes to who is more dominate. Sometimes they might let the other be a little bit more, depending on the situation. 

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Yes they would, their arguments are never long or that serious tbh. Their fights are usually about one of them keeping their emotions in, instead of telling the other how they feel or if something is wrong. 

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

They are both very grateful for one another. Not only because they found someone who they share life experience with but for what they do for one another as well. They’ll always have each others back and both are willing to take care of the family. 

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Not really, sometimes they’ll not say how they’re really feeling because the kids might be in the room or they don’t want to worry they other. It never stays a secret for long, that’s for sure. 

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Ghost never saw himself as a husband or father until Liz came along.They never talked about marriage or children, just living one day at a time. Then one day Ghost just thought “someday I could see her as my wife”. It was out of the blue, but if it wasn’t for Liz he probably would have never thought about marriage. Even though their first daughter Faith was not planned, he couldn’t have been more excited or happy. Liz gave him hope and faith that he could have a happy life with someone he loves. 

If it wasn’t for Ghost, Liz would have never fell truly in love with England. She’s tried new foods, been to new places all because of him. She also wouldn’t have known what it felt like to be protected either. Ghost always protected her and made sure she was with him on all missions. 

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Oh boy Ghost does. The only people who are aloud to flirt with Liz is Roach and Soap and maybe Price but he’s on thin ice. If someone who isn’t them tries to flirt with her he’ll become grumpy and act like an asshole to them. Liz usually has to calm him down with a few kisses. 

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Liz is and I expect Ghost is too! It was when Ghost confessed his love for her. She didn’t say anything back because she was shocked and contemplating his words, it made him feel awkward and think that she didn’t share them but then. She grabbed his shirt, gently tugged him down until their lips met. 

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

They confessed it after being betrayed by Shepherd. Ghost couldn’t hold it in any longer and while they were in one of Nikolai’s safe-house while Price and Soap went after Shepherd he just told her how he truly felt about her. I don’t want to go into full details because you’ll see it unfold in my fic. 

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Yes they do and Ghost proposes at Hyde Park in London in front of the lake. And in front of a bunch of people. Their marriage isn’t much different from when they were boyfriend/girlfriend. They still work together, live together, the only difference is they call each other husband and wife and eventually mom and dad. 

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Liz calls Ghost - babe, Simon, and sometimes honey. 

Ghost calls Liz - Love, honey/hon and Liz. 

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

I actually haven’t figured this out too much for either character’s. All I know is that Ghost gets very protective of Liz and she just likes spending time with him. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint what they would do when they’re in the middle of a war. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Yes they are and don’t try to hide it either, besides everyone knows they’re together. Price just tells them to have sex in their own room and not in a storage closet. 

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship. 

I don’t know about this one I can’t really think of anything. RIP me. 

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Neither are really romantic but they try and that’s what counts. Ghost will buy flowers occasionally or small gifts to show his appreciation and love. While Liz is the more creative one, she’ll get him a new balaclava or clean his weapons for him. Sometimes Ghost will even surprise her with a nice dinner. 

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Oh absolutely and I think they’re succeeding thus far. And of course they believe in each other. 

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

They do follow a routine because military life, but sometimes they might spice things up. 

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

They are both empathetic and they know each other pretty well. They’re still learning about each other everyday. 

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life? 

To Ghost, his relationship with Liz means the world to him, everything else comes second, including work. The only thing that comes close is their kids. And the same for Liz as well. In a span of a year, they’ve been through so much, getting closer day by day. The relationship means the world to them! 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Ghost bought a baby version of his sunglasses while Liz was pregnant, even before they knew they were having a boy or girl. He didn’t care and when Faith was old enough to wear them, Ghost made sure she had them on every time they left the house. 

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

They both are affectionate, Ghost more so in private unless he’s really comfortable around everyone. They do love to kiss and cuddle though, especially Ghost. Cuddle time is the best time to him. While Liz enjoys kissing a bit more. 

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Ghost will do the pit over and over again, trying to get a better record time. Being in the pit gives him a way to focus on something else instead of missing Liz like crazy. If kids are in the picture than he’s on dad mode. 

Liz will try and occupy herself, whether it’s cleaning her weapons or bugging someone else. And if the kids are involved than she’s on mom mode. They kids will definitely keep her occupied. And very rarely she’ll use the pit as a way to occupy herself. 

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Yes, I think they would. I think they would go as far as to go to counselling if the relationship needed it. They’ve been through hell and back, quite literally, no one will ever come close to sharing the same amount of life experience as these two have.  

[mysteli]

....you know I have to ask for Chris and Aria for this fluff ABC... I miss my man so much 😭😭 (and I also love your writing so it's a win win)

thank you so much @flowerpowell and i miss chris too soooo 

be warned this is a lot (so much that I’m putting a keep reading thing there) 

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

It’s pretty obvious that Chris is a very active person. He plays football and attends the gym daily, even works out at home, as well as going on plenty of jogs. Aria is in fact the exact opposite to him. She’s lazy and doesn’t like exercising at all. But sometimes she feels like she needs to wanna do these things with Chris so she will insist on going to the gym with him. Big mistake, she would tell you that. Sometimes a jog is ok but those six hours were unbearable.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Chris adores Aria’s long brunette hair and he likes to smooth it out a lot and tangle his fingers in it and Aria feels the same about Chris’ hair. That’s why Chris gets a little upset when Aria cuts her hair because in his words he can’t “make her moan they way he used to” but it seems to work out eventually. Chris also has a liking for Aria’s lips. They’re soft and plump and it’s agonising when she bites down on her lower lip and she loves to tease him with that because she knows what it does to him. Aria also loves Chris’ sky blue eyes, gazing into them for what seems like forever and seeing how they darken when he’s turned on. 

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Chris is always having trouble with his skills as a captain and leader and he has a habit of doubting himself. Aria is an expert when it comes to reassurance so she’s always able to find a way to cheer him up. Then that always leads to sweet reassurance sex. Yep.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Aria and Chris are always light hearted when it comes to their future but they talk about it A LOT. Since they’re on their way to getting married, they tend to talk about what their plans are since they’ve left college. Chris gets excited when the topic of their future comes up because he loves telling Aria how important she is and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Sometimes there are more teasing comments about it too, a joke that Aria would be the strict mom and Chris would be the chill dad. 

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Chris and Aria like to create equal balance in their relationship. Chris doesn’t want anyone thinking that he’s above Aria because he know he’s not and Aria admires that about him. 

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Aria and Chris rarely fight anymore. Sure, there were problems in college but they’ve managed to put it behind them and work out their issues. They weren’t about to make the same mistakes again. Sometimes they fight over small things but never anything quite like they used to. 

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Chris thanks Aria all the time on everything she does, even her just being in his life. He doesn’t want her to ever think he’s forgotten how lucky he is and he likes to remind her a lot. Aria sure as hell isnt complaining though because they thank each other a lot

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

No. They hate hiding things from each other. Unless it’s to do with a surprise party but something to do with a friend, they tell each other everything because they have the fear that one secret could ruin everything. 

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Aria definitely changed Chris, making him feel like he should commit to a relationship and not just fear of getting hurt all the time. When he first came to college, he had serious trust issues but Aria fixed him and he’s forever grateful for that. Same goes for Aria. Chris helped her gain an understanding of the world and realise how misunderstood she can really be. 

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Chris tends to get more jealous than he should but it isn’t anything major. Aria is just really popular and she’s just so goddamn nice that maybe she doesn’t realise she’s befriending someone who secretly wants her. She loves to see the good in people so she wouldn’t notice or would simply ignore it but Chris... would wanna take control of the situation but he wouldn’t because he doesn’t wanna seem possessive or controlling. He never wants her to feel like property. In fact, that’s the last thing he wants. He may just want her to realise it on her own, by maybe acting a little more distant than usual and later when Aria questions him about it, he’d just let her figure it out. It’s a classic method and it works every time. 

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Chris was an experienced kisser when he met Aria but she didn’t have much. They’ve both learned together to improve so it makes their newfound ability reserved for only each other. As for their first kiss, we all know it was that sweet moment on the rooftop that can never be forgotten. 

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Chris is of course the one who said those three words first and it was such a sweet moment, with him wanting to make Aria feel like the only person to have his heart and make her feel like the only girl in the world. 

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Of course! They’re ready to get married! Chris obviously proposed at the end of Senior Year and many people would say that’s too soon but they don’t care because they love each other. Marriage would be just like they talked about, not even any different to how they were before. Just both their names on a contract and maybe Aria’s last name being changed to Powell. 

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Chris is more with the nicknames because he can pull them off a lot better, calling Aria things like ‘baby’ and ‘beautiful’. He’s always been a fan of the more classic ones and he knows how much Aria loves them. Aria can just about get away with ‘babe’ but sometimes she slips out ‘captain’ and that almost always turns Chris on. 

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

It’s VERY obvious to their friends. Who could count the amount of times Chris and Aria tell each other they love each other? It’s sweet but it’s also a lot. Chris sometimes doesn’t even express his feeling in his words, just wrapping Aria in a warm embrace and she melts into the natural heat of his body. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

PDA is always a given. They just love each other so damn much and Chris can’t help himself. He always needs physical contact with his girlfriend. Sometimes he’ll hold her hand or pull her onto his lap or simply wrap his arm around her waist. 

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

For some reason, they can always see right through each other and it almost helps when one of them are sad and require comfort. 

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Chris is such a cute dork and as cheesy as they come. He loves those classic dates and doing things like taking Aria out to fancy restaurants and giving her flowers and chocolates. Then of course, sometimes Aria’s plan comes in where they order pizza and watch a movie on Netflix. Both ideas work perfectly fine. Just a lot less effort. 

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Aria supports Chris’ career and she’s never once doubted him, even when he doubted himself. She wears his jersey when she goes to his games and there’s never been a time when he hasn’t spotted her face in the crowd. It’s one of the reasons why he loves her so much because she never gives up on him. 

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Chris and Aria can get experimental... in bed especially. More focusing on the places where they do it. Their regular life usually follows a simple routine and there are of course lazy days of sitting in and doing nothing. 

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Aria and Chris know each other like the back of their hand. They’ve learned so much about each other over the four years of having known each other and they want each other to know everything. Past present future. You name it.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Their relationship is the most important thing to both of them. Even when it seemed like a career was more important, they found each other to be the thing that kept them happy all along. Chris is almost scared to lose Aria again so he’s so much more careful with her than he used to be. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Sometimes Aria lets Chris braid her hair and the first time he did it was so cute because he didn’t have a clue what he was doing and it turned out so messy that Aria promised he wouldn’t have to do it again and he was very thankful. The cutest thing is he wanted it to go right and really tried hard. 

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

ALL THE TIME. Chris is so affectionate to Aria, especially in the morning. He loves waking her up in the morning whether it’s sweetly, carefully or even sexually. It’s his favourite part of the day by far. They of course cuddle when watching films or shows and even when they’re hanging out with their friends 

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

When Chris goes off for games that can last around two weeks, Aria misses him so much and even on breaks when they’re apart. But they text each other non stop and make sure to have regular contact with one another. 

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Chris would do anything for Aria and she would do anything for him. There have a set an unbreakable foundation for their relationship and they won’t dare do anything to jeopardise it. Not after everything they’ve been through. 

[yoosungiib]

rfa (and minor trio if you do them?) and stargazing w mc? i think it’s the cutest

I agree! It’s super cute ;)

RFA + Minor Trio stargazing w/ MC

~~~

★ Yoosung ★

When you asked to go stargazing, Yoosung was over the moon!

This is like one of his dream dates! And it means even more because  you’re his wife!

You two packed a small bag with snacks, a blanket and extra coats, and headed out to a beach where not many people go to, meaning you’ll have it all to yourselves.

On the the blanket on the beach, you two snuggle up to each other.

Your head rests on Yoosungs stomach so while he looks up at the stars, he’ll play with your hair a bit.

As he twirls a strand of your hair with his index finger, he softly asks, “Are you enjoying yourself, cutie?”

“I’m having a wonderful time. The stars. They’re so beautiful.” But you lean up a bit on his chest, your hand just on his bicep, and give him a cheeky grin. “But you’re much more beautiful~”

This boy is a blushing mess.

He’s lovin’ it. ba ba ba ba ba.

He internally squees! when you take his hand every so often and start kissing his fingers.

With some knowledge on the stars, you like to point out random constellations, which Yoosung finds so cool. He didn’t know you knew so much about stars.

You guys head home around eleven o’clock and Yoosung is pretty disappointed when he tries to find the constellations through his window, but of course can’t because there is too much light due to the street lamps.

“Don’t worry, honey, we can go again tomorrow if you’d like!”

♪ Zen ♪

Stargazing? With you? Oh, Jagiya, yes please.

Zen is a huge romantic, and what could be more romantic than stargazing with your lover? So clearly he is really excited about this.

You guys go to his secret place where there are no lights to cloud over the stars shine.

As a side note, he might grab a flower from a bush and tuck it under your ear while you’re concentrated on the stars.

Will be looking at you more than the stars.

The stars just don’t compare to your beauty!

He’s constantly asking if you’re comfortable, or too cold, or hungry.

You giggle softly when he drapes the silver coat that matches his hair over your shoulders. You look behind your shoulder and give him a small smile. “Zen, if you give me your coat you’ll get cold too!”

Zen grinned, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you so your back is against his chest. He gently kisses the top of your head then looks back up at the stars.

“I’ll just have to cuddle you to stay warm.”

You really don’t want to go home, but you guys have been there for hours and Zen needs to get up early for a rehearsal.

He’s practically dragging you away from the window when you guys get home so you can get to sleep.

“If I promise to take you stargazing again tomorrow will you go to sleep, Jagiya?”

You nod frantically.

❀ Jaehee ❀

You watched with great pain as your beautiful girlfriend became more stressed and anxious as the days lingered on with all the work she has.

One night, poor baehee had a breakdown, crying to you about all her troubles onto your shoulder.

It was then that you suggested going stargazing to help her relax and take her mind off of things.

“B-but MC, I have all this work-”

You placed your finger against her lips to shush her gently, a small smile gracing your face. “Have you ever let me work myself too hard? You think I’m going to let you stress yourself out to the point you’re pulling your hair out? We are going stargazing, and you are relaxing.”

Jaehee was a little tense at first because her mind was on her work, but as you two laid down on the blankets, holding each other, she finally relaxed.

Baehee loves these stars.

They’re so gorgeous, and she finds herself not wanting to ever leave.

You point out to her Scorpius and Hercules, and she asks how you know so much about constellations.

“Oh! My mom/dad/sibling used to point these out to me when I was younger. They always just stuck with me.”

Jaehee makes it a tradition for you guys to go stargazing at least once a month because she just loves it so much.

She gets wonderful quality time with you and it really did end up helping her to relax and de-stress.

☂ Jumin ☂

If you wants to go stargazing, then you go stargazing. 

Stargazing is not something Jumin has ever actually done before, but definitely something he wants to do. Especially if it’s with you.

“It will be fun!” You say.

His only request is that you guys do not lay down in grass. He doesn’t want to get his suit dirty. And yes, he goes stargazing with you in a suit.

b r U H

Jumin goes a little overboard with the stargazing thing.

He arranges for you guys to go to a vacation house he has on the beach where you guys can sit on the porch and look up on the stars.

You tell him the porches roof will cover up the stars, so he agrees to put recliners on the beech so you guys can sit there.

Silly boy tries taking pictures of the stars.

It won’t work, not only because his photography skills are terrible, but because stars don’t normally show up on a camera phone.

“Honey, it doesn’t matter if you have the most reliable phone in the world. It’s not gonna work.”

The two of you are out for about an hour talking to each other, pointing out visible planets, and holding each others hands when you see a shooting star.

You grab his arm, startling him a little, and start jumping up and down in your recliner. “Jumin! Did you see that! It was a shooting star! Did you make a wish?”

“I did. I wished that Elizabeth would have infinite lives.”

“Silly! You’re not suppose to tell me what you wish for,” you say resting your head on his forearm.

☺ Seven/Saeyoung ☺

“Stargazing!??? In space!!!???”

“No, sweetie, on the beach.”

Totally down for it!

Loves this idea. He’s getting really excited for this.

He makes a couple deals with Vanderwood so he can have the entire night off, no work, so he can stargaze with you for as long as your heart desires.

A lot of dramatic gestures.

Example: dramatically lays the blanket down for you on the beach by flailing it up in the air, causing him to accidentally trip and land face first in the sand.

He gets his glasses incredibly dirty and washes them off in the ocean water.

You two lay down and snuggle up on the blanket, keeping each other close since it’s a little chilly, but not too cold.

Seven surprisingly knows a lot about stars so he’s pointing out different constellations and planets, and he tells you a myth about the birth of stars.

Silence overtook you both as you laid against each other gazing up at the stars. Seven turned to look at you, a small smile on his face as he admires the look of bliss on your face as you gaze up at the night sky, taking every star in. He chuckles before he starts to tickle your sides, which enlists a few giggles from you as you try to stop him.

“Saeyoung! I’m trying to look at the stars!”

“Babe, why did the star get arrested?”

“Huh? I don’t know, you tell me,” you say, though you have a feeling you know what is coming.

“Because it’s a shooting star!” You laugh, slapping his arm playfully before cuddling back up to him as well as looking back up at the stars.

❆ V ❆

The idea to go stargazing came from a painting of V’s you found of a starry night.

V made the stars look so real for as small as they may be.

When you asked V if he’d be willing to go stargazing, of course he was up for it.

“There is nothing else that I’d rather do then go stargazing with you, my love.”

V knew a meadow where you guys could stargaze, a meadow he’s been to many times before to paint.

You guys take a long walk, stopping at a winery to get some wine along the way, until you reach the meadows.

You placed a blanket on the ground and you both sat down, pouring each other a glass of wine and looking up at the stars.

You turned to your husband and brushed some of his blue hair, which had begun to grow back, out of his face. He turned and gave you a grin, taking your hand and bringing to your lips. “I thought you wanted to see the stars, and yet you’re only looking at me.”

“It’s hard to when you’re so beautiful.”

“I could say the same thing,” V began, rolling over so he was on top of you, the stars completely out of sight at this point. “You outshine all of those stars. You are the most beautiful star of all.” And he concluded that with a kiss.

☻ Saeran/Unknown ☻

Y E S take this boy stargazing,

He lives for this.

This is his first time stargazing with someone else, let alone the one he loves, so you’ll be extra affectionate and loving to him than usual.

⊂（♡⌂♡）⊃

Seven rents you guys a pickup truck so you guys can lay in the back under and covered with soft blankets, able to cuddle, and just look up at the night sky.

Saeran and you pack some snacks Seven’s honey buddha chips, drinks, about four blankets, and a speaker to connect your phone to so you can play light music.

The truck is parked at a cliff side where the sky is clear and many stars are visible, and not only that, there is a wonderful view of the city below..

The second the both of you get out of the car, you are both in awe at the sight.

You set up the blankets in the back of the truck, out in the open, for you guys to rest on, and use the other three blankets to keep you guys warm.

You two cuddle into each other. Your head on Saeran’s chest, his cheek resting on the top of your head, and your limbs wrapped around each other.

There is a long silence for awhile.

“MC,” Saeran starts, taking you out of a trance from looking at the stars, and bringing your eyes down to his mint orbs that seem to captivate you every time you look into them. “I’ve never… stargazed with anyone before. When I was sad, upset, or angry, I’d go outside… and look at the stars, and I’d find peace. I like being here with you. I feel safe. And loved.”

You smile, moving a little on top of him so your face is just above his. You kiss his nose, then his lips, and lay back down on his chest, burying your face in the crook of his neck. “I love you, Saeran. If I could, I’d collect every star and give them to you.”

A large blush flushes across his face, and he’s glad you can’t see it only because he’s a little embarrassed by it. But Saeran smiles, squeezing you a little tighter. “Can we do this often? Come to look at the stars?”

“We can do this every night if you want.”

You guys go stargazing at least four times a week, since there are of course some nights where you guys can’t go stargazing.

He buys glow and the dark stars to put on the ceilings for you guys to look at on nights you guys can’t go stargazing.

protect this boy with your l i f e

✌ Vanderwood ✌

Vanderwood had just pulled into the drive way of the small home you too share after another long day with Seven who frustrated the hell out of Vanderwood by being rather incompetent and not doing his work. Due to the headlights, at first he didn’t see you sitting on the steps looking up at the stars in just a tanktop and shorts. But when he did finally see you, he quickly made way to you and draped his coat over your shoulders.

“What are you doing? You’re going to get sick.” He was about to pull you up but you stopped him, taking a hold of his arm and looking up at him with a smile that had a childlike aspect to it.

“Vanderwood! Look at the stars! Aren’t they beautiful? Will you please sit with me?”

Vanderwood looked up into the night sky, and he had to agree that the stars were absolutely breathtaking. As he thought about the long day he had at Seven’s bunker, stargazing didn’t seem like a bad idea. A nice way to relax!

Though Vanderwood denies it, he was really concerned about your health,

So he made you go inside first and get into suitable pajamas, ones that covered your legs and arms.

When he thought you were dressed properly for being outside in 30 degree weather to look at stars, he let you cuddle up to his side.

His arm was slung lazily around your waist.

You guys were silent, barely a word was spoken between you guys.

You both enjoyed the silent and the comfort given by just holding each other.

Vanderwood was about to tell you about a mission he had at an astronomers lab once when he looked down to see you fast asleep on his shoulder.

He chuckled, lifting you up, careful not to wake you, and bringing you inside, tucking you into bed.

As he got in next to you, laying on his side, he definitely thought you guys needed to stargaze again. But he’d make it more of a special occasion. Next time, he’ll make a picnic, and he’ll take you to a beach because he knows you love it even though he hates the sand.

And he’ll deny doing any of this to make you happy.

“Yes, I’ll do that,” Vanderwood mumbles to himself before falling asleep.

~~~

Check out my masterlist page to see rules for requests!

[foolish-idiot]

Ask Please! 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 45, 46, 47, 52, 55, 56, 67, 84, 86, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 115, 122, 126, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 138, 139, 150, 152, 153, 154, 157, 165, 179, 180, 209, 212, 213, 214, 215, 232, 234, 235, 236, 245, 253, 254, 255, 261, 264, 268. I LOV-E YOU AND ) (OP-E YOU AR-E DOING W-ELL

1-How are you?I am barely awake :D But I dont wanna sleep etiher, so good? Lol

2-Post a picture of yourself.Later (Bottom of the ask.)

3-Do you ever wish you were someone else?Yeah

6-Age you get mistaken for:Uuuhhhh, shit. I dont know? I dont normally?

7-Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality:Aries. Not really, not completely at least.But when does it ever right?

8-What did you do on your last birthday?Umm…. I dont remember.

9-What is one thing you would like to accomplish before your next birthday?A job would be nice.

11-Have you ever dyed your hair?Lots

13-If you could change your eye color, would you?Nope

15-Your opinion about your body and how comfortable you are with it:Shit.-100000/10 in comfort level and opinion.

16-Have you ever considered plastic surgery? What would you alter about your body?Nope.Everything. New body please.

17-Say 8 facts about your body:I dont wanna?I have fingers, I have toes, I have arms, I have legs, I have hair, I have two eyes, I have a mouth, I have a nose.

26-Something you are working on right now:This ask

27-Do you have any “rules” about food?I dont like spicy shit if thats what you mean?

29-What would you say is your best quality?Aint got one.

30-What do you think you’re really good at?Uhhh….. I think Im nice, mostly?

32-What talent do you wish you’d been born with?All of them.

34-Are you nice to everyone?Mostly

35-Say 3 facts about your personality:It changes.Im affectionateI’m goofy?

37-What is your ideal bed? Why?ideal bed?… Weird question.A soft one. Big soft one. I love soft beds and I love big beds with lots of room. Can fit more then one or two people? If you’re sleeping alone you have a whole giant bed of great softness? Theres enough room for the cat? I dont fucking know why xD

39-Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?Nope

40-What do you think about the most?:] Interesting question.

41-Share 2 habits:I talk loud when I get excited about thingsI chew the inside of my mouth

45-Is your life anything like it was two years ago?Oh hell no.

46-Do you replay things that have happened in your head?All the time

47-Have you ever had an imaginary friend?Had a whole tiny colony of Little People I called them.About the size of a spec of dust.More imaging Little People living with me and shit then an imaginary friend though. I always just observed or whatever.

52-Ever broken any bones?Nope

55-A random fact about yourself:I have what feels like the starting of a headache right now

56-What are three things most people don’t know about you?Define most people? Because honestly there’s a shit ton most people don’t know about me.I don’t know many people. So I could name any random shit, like that my right eyebrow is cut in half by a scar, and most people wouldn’t know that. But you know that. And some of my friends know that.Im actually an emotional fucking mess and my middle name is Love.There you go most people

67-5 things you want to change:Where I liveWho I live withJoblessnessThe state I live inNo money

84-What’s your favourite scent? And on the opposite sex?Fuck if I know. I have a perfume that smells kind of sunflower and I love it. But its my perfume,so back off.Thats the best I got for you.

86-What are the top five places you wish you could go before you die?France, Japan, London, Germany, Greece

107-Do you prefer to be friends with girls or boys?Why not both?

108-Who is someone you never tire of?You and Rose.Oops, thats two.

109-Do you have someone you can be your complete self around?Yupp :]

110-Who is your most loyal friend?This a rude question, assuming that I could pick one.Rose and Eli and You and Leah.

111-Is there anyone you can tell EVERYTHING to?Yupp :D

115-Say 5 facts about your bestfriend(s):They’re cute and adorableI love themThey’re goofyApparently they’re extremely distractable individuals :PThey’re funny but dont tell them I said that xP lmao

122-5 things that irritate you about the same sex/opposite sex.Uuuhhhh, I cant think of anything here.People irritate me in general really. Certain kinds of people at least.

126-Based on past relationships or crushes, describe your perfect boyfriend/girlfriend:I have answers for this that Im too embarassed to state publicly. xP

130-What’s your opinion on age differences in relationships?So long as both involved are legal adults, I dont have the right to an opinion.

132-Five guys/girls whom you find attractive:Fucking five? Fucking shit. Can I just list a bunch of adorable ass friends? Thats what Im gonna do.@luciferhimshelf , @masterpandachef , @mischiefinside , @polkadotsdesign , @megatravenThere, some of the cutest fucking people I know.

133-Do you have a crush on anyone?I sure do.

134-A description of the girl/boy you like:They’re a person. With like, person thoughts and person stuff.

135-Say 1 fact about the person your like:Why the hell is this question so bloody fucking hard to answer without giving shit away?!?!They have ears. There.

138-Do you think someone has feelings for you?Well, I mean I know you have feelings for me :P I would hope so at least lol

139-Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?Im thinking about me, damn questions lmao.

150-What turns you on?Something Im sure.

152-What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you?Hmm, not sure. Find out :P

153-What’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you?Be my friend

154-What’s something sweet you’d like someone to do for you?Let me spoil ‘em.

157-Are you in love?You know this answer too dork.

165-Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years?Probably not.

179-You’ll love me if…I already do.

180-Share a relationship story:This one time, I was in a relationship with some guy who kept asking me questions I was too damn lazy to answer. :D

209-A drunken story:I think I cried. And then I think I got stupid silly. Not really sure, you’d know better. I’ve been drunk a total of two times in my life, and once was with you.

213-If you met me what would you do?Already did.

214-YOU have to leave me a random/ridiculous question:Hey. Where the fuck is the question? Or does this mean I have to? Im confused, whatever.Whats you favorite kind of meat? Theres your question

215-YOU have to leave me a cute message:I love you

232-Say 5 things you love unconditionally:Gypsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My precious amazing toasted marshmellow YouRoseEliAll my friends reallyAll of theeeemmmmmmmm

234-Something that you’re proud of:Finally almost being fucking done with this stupid ass long ask.

235-Five words/phrases that make you laugh:“You wanna divorce Minnie because…. shes silly??”“NO SHES FUCKING GOOFY!”

236-Share the story of something that makes you smile:LA makes me smile.

245-What’s something you want to do that you’d be embarrassed to tell other people about?Well I mean if I’m embarrassed to tell others about it what makes you think I’d be less embarrassed to tell it here? Lol

253-Lyrics that apply to your current situation/mood.Is there a tired song? Ill have to find one.

254-Are you good at hiding your feelings?Not sure. Sometimes. I guess. Don’t know.I sure do try though :D

255-What’s something you hide about your personality?My anger. Working on it.

261-How you hope your future will be like?Not here is a good ass start

264-One thing you’re excited for:The next time I get to get out of here

268-Make a confessionI’ve done enough confessions for the last couple of months I think.I said Picture later. Heres the picture. Sorry everyone for the long ass ask. Ill put the picture under a cut.

[bbubbleddae-blog]

winter night

title: winter night

pairing: jongin x sehun

rated: pg

genre: fluff, fem!sekai

summary: jongin thinks her love for sehun is unrequited. but sehun thinks the same thing.

word count: 1.3k

part one of the kiss fic meme!

note: hopefully i didn’t screw this up since i don’t write wlw often haha

x - x - x

jongin steps out of the shower, grabbing her towel from

the rail on the wall. she pat dries herself quickly, before she takes her black bra and mismatched red underwear. she slips into her undergarments first, then clips her bra around and moves the straps past the curves of her shoulders. she bends down now, long hair falling and the ends barely grazing the floor. she puts her towel over the back of her head and rolls the towel with her hair, pushing it backwards and standing upright.

as she goes to take her toothbrush, jongin hears her front door open and close, and a shrill of voice. “jongin! we’re gonna be late!”

jongin rolls her eyes. sehun, her best friend, now girlfriend since… well, yesterday, actually. it was weird how things unfolded, being that them and their friends were all out together the night before and they were the only two that weren’t in a relationship. there was chanyeol and kyungsoo, which chanyeol was unbelievably affectionate toward his boyfriend, and kyungsoo just accepting it (and maybe returning it when no one else was looking). and baekhyun — with her girlfriend, yixing — was all over yixing as usual, kissing her neck right in front of all of them. jongin wouldn’t be surprised if there were more… lewd moments between them while they were out. or if they fucked when the time ended.

eventually, both jongin and sehun just up and left without saying anything. the atmosphere was uncomfortable, and nothing sounded better to jongin than walking with her best friend (and crush).

they were walking around the city, and jongin remembers vividly how radiant sehun looked last night. she always looks gorgeous, but there was something that really caught jongin’s attention. she was bare faced, as she prefers, but her lips were pinker, and a little shine on her cheeks that especially showed with the bright winter lights surrounding them. her black hair cascaded down till her mid-back, and was sprinkled with flecks of snow. she wore skinny jeans and a band tee, with simple, black combat boots. nothing fancy. she may have tons of sass, and pizzazz, but she hated fancy clothes unless it was on someone else (jongin especially, she has deemed).

jongin’s hands had become frozen against the winter night, and her gloves were left in her apartment. she had cursed under her breath, and sehun glanced over at her.

“something wrong, nini?”

jongin blushed, internally hoping sehun would just believe her cheeks were red because of the cold. “no, i-i left my gloves at home and my hands are just cold…” jongin put her hands in her coat pockets. “i’m okay, it’s fine.”

sehun stopped for a moment, and jongin too, only a step or two ahead of her. sehun’s small, (pretty), lips turned in a tiny smile as she offered her gloved hand out. jongin felt her heart beat rapidly and her stomach fill with those fluttering insects everyone feels when they love someone.

“i’ll keep at least one hand warm,” she had said cheekily.

jongin took sehun’s hand, shy and blushing. “o-okay.”

sehun’s glove was soft, and she could feel the warmth of sehun’s skin vaguely. their fingers were twined, and they remained quiet, the only sound in jongin’s ears was her ever increasing heartbeat. she shouldn’t have been that flustered, even if jongin loves sehun, they’re best friends. she was used to this… right?

at that point, jongin was blushing so hard, and feeling so much at once, the only thing she could do was stop walking, and hold on tighter to her best friend’s hand.

sehun had turned around briefly, and her eyebrows furrowed. “jongin?”

jongin avoided sehun’s eyes. the red in her cheeks was definitely darker than earlier, between the cold, and the amount she had been blushing. sehun could see it, so obviously.

then, jongin finally lifted her head, and her lip quivered when she met sehun’s gaze. she bit on her lower lip and her hand quaked in sehun’s hold.

“i-i,” she began, and stopped herself to breathe. “i need to tell you s-something and i need you to promise you won’t hate me, okay?”

sehun parted her rosy lips, and all but nodded. “of course.”

jongin caught her breath in her throat, and already felt her eyes fill with stinging tears. she’s going to hate me, she’s going to hate me…

“jongin,” sehun walked closer, and took jongin’s face in her hands. “you can tell me anything. i’m not gonna judge you, or hate you, come on. in what world would i ever do that, hm?”

jongin had to bite her lip again to save it from wobbling. she swallowed, breathed, let her heart beat the fastest it has ever done before, and blurted, “i love you.” there. it was out. “i-i’ve loved you for a while, and i think, god, i think i’m in love with you, and i always thought you would hate me for it or reject me so i—”

jongin had, again, avoided her eyes, not wanting to see what horrid expression sehun would have. but then, it happened. sehun cut her off, crushing their lips together, hands still on both of jongin’s cheeks. jongin was too stunned to even move, she couldn’t kiss her back. it was the most surreal moment — sehun’s mouth on jongin’s, and their bodies so so close. jongin remembers immediately pulling away, wide-eyed.

“w-wha—”

sehun smiled, cutely, still holding jongin’s face. “i love you too.”

“you… love me…?”

“why wouldn’t i?” sehun pulled jongin into her, petting her hair gently. it was a brief, but warm embrace, sehun’s vanilla scent invading jongin’s senses. when sehun pulled back, jongin saw nothing but adoration and care in sehun’s eyes. “i’ve kinda put off telling you that, but, seems this isn’t unrequited at all.”

jongin bit her lip. “you’re not messing with me, are you?” she said out of shock. “because that would be a sick joke.”

“no,” sehun laughed. “god no, not in a million years, nini.”

jongin let out a breath that she must of been holding longer than she should have. a smile graced her lips and she dived her head right into sehun’s chest. she felt sehun’s arms close around her, hands falling on her back and stroking her hair down to the ends. sehun kissed jongin’s head, and jongin doesn’t remember how long they stayed like they did, but after they separated, they walked back to jongin’s apartment with their hands together, and left with a kiss goodnight.

jongin smiles at the memory, and grabs the toothpaste.

“jongiiinnn,” sehun whines, and enters the washroom. “why didn’t you answer me when i called you, we’re gonna be late…”

“i was in the shower,” jongin responds, and starts brushing her teeth.

out of the corner of her eye, she sees sehun smirk a little and lift herself from the door frame she was leaning on. she unwraps the towel on jongin’s head, and removes it, allowing jongin’s wet hair to fall. her hands find purchase on jongin’s hips bare, and jongin tenses, halting her hand. her cheeks turn a bright red.

“what the hell, you’re so hot even when you brush your teeth. stop doing things to my heart, kid.”

jongin quickly finishes and spits the foam out, rinsing her mouth.

“first of all,” jongin turns around in sehun’s hold. “i’m older than you by three months, you can’t call me kid.” sehun playfully rolls her eyes at that. “second, you’re way hotter than me, so i don’t wanna hear it.”

sehun purses her lips. “if you say. but you’re still hot, babe.”

“ew, affection.”

“you love me.” sehun leans forward, until their noses are brushing.

“maybe.”

sehun nibbles on jongin’s lower lip, before she closes the distance, and moves their lips together.

jongin never thought she would have achieved this happiness.

[theceoofrusa]

So… I couldn’t stop thinking about @fallan-angel‘s headcanon (where Sapphire was a tsundere naturally before the personality switch) and it gave my head a lot of ideas. Let’s say I have written something. Well, I did, technically speaking, but it was all thanks to Fallan for giving me the courage to share my stuff. (Have I told you guys how awesome my friend and sister is? Well she is! Fallan is awesome and I am so blessed to have met such a kind, smart and amazing person. ^w^)

I’ve already published it on my FFN and AO3 accounts, but to those who didn’t have one, here it is. I… hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story. The headcanon belongs to Fallan.

Have I mentioned I dedicated a sort of franticshipping fanfiction to Fallan? Well, here it is too if you wanna, hehe. (FFN, AO3)

“Of course I’m a normal girl! I like cute things and… I even have crushes sometimes… As a matter of fact, I have a—”

Sapphire released an irked groan, placing her palms on her cute face, covering it out of sheer embarrassment.

Reminiscing some events in the past had its perks. It could either be embarrassing or nostalgic, depending at the person’s realization about the situation.

Reminiscing what she said back in Fortree City years ago couldn’t help but to make her feel embarrassed.

Why wouldn’t she be, really? She almost blurted about her childhood crush to Ruby, who happened to be her childhood crush. She was starting wonder if the Grumpig stampede didn’t happen?

Would things be the same?

Would she be this happy with Ruby?

Would she be able to see his warm, cute smile every time they’re together?

More importantly, would Ruby be this happy and contented as he always mentioned at every one of their dates?

She had to admit, really. Everything that happened between her and Ruby was unforgettable. There may be some ups and downs, but she didn’t regret anything. It all happened for a reason, after all.

Sapphire let out a sigh, leaning her back against the pillow, and removed her palms on her face.

It was hard.

It was hard to admit that she liked Ruby before she even managed to say those words to him.

“Of course I’m a normal girl! I like cute things and… I even have crushes sometimes… As a matter of fact, I have a—”

It took a while for her to admit it herself that she liked Ruby.

Before the Salamence incident, she always had this warm feeling forming in her chest every time she spends with Ruby. The warm feeling often made her smile every time Ruby attempted something cool or fun for them to do. It often lead her to be this sweet, little girl who treats Ruby like he was a very special guy to her, to which he was, but she ended up denying it over and over again.

Until, however, after the Salamece attacked them, causing her to change just so she could protect him and herself. Over the years, she never stopped thinking about him. She never stopped wondering about these feelings for him. It was not an ordinary feeling for a friend, which was a surprising truth.

She didn’t know she liked Ruby until she almost blurted about her feelings for him way back in Fortree. She was quite thankful about the stampede. It gave her time to realize her growing feelings for him and his younger self, and also got to know and appreciate him more. She learned to accept herself because of him, and she was still thankful for that.

They had learned a lot from each other thanks to their training at Mirage Island.

Sapphire bit her lip, recalling another situation.

There was a term Blue told her once about that attitude. An attitude about one kept on denying their feelings for someone. She remembered how Blue was giggling and teasing her about it.

“My junior is such a cute tsun.” Blue stated, covering her mouth as she fell in a fit of giggles.

Sapphire refused to accept she was a so-called ‘tsun’ until now. Recalling every moment she had in her childhood and her recent ones with Ruby made her realize she was a ‘tsun’, as Blue would say. She couldn’t believe she had that attitude before their personality switch. She held her breath, placing her palm on her chest, feeling her fast heartbeat.

So what if she was this so-called ‘tsun’?

There was nothing bad about it, right? It was a part of herself.

And Ruby told her a lot of times he loved her just the way she is.

But…

She felt kind of bad, though. She kept on denying her feelings for him all those time, thinking he deserved someone better. She felt guilty for it. She really needed to make it up with him.

“What’s the matter?”

Sapphire blinked her eyes, escaping from her trance. She felt Ruby’s arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close to him. She felt his nose touch and smell her hair as his soft lips pressed against her cheek, making her heart thump faster.

For how long was she in a trance?

“I…”

“Hey,” Ruby placed his hand on her cheek, stroking it affectionately. His eyes nothing but contained pure compassion and concern for his girl. “It’s alright. You can tell me anything.”

Sapphire broke her confused gaze at him, sighing. She bit her lip, burying her head on his chest, her arms wrapping around his back, returning the hug. “Just… realized some stuff…”

Ruby furrowed his eyebrows, pulling her closer to him. “About?” He asked, curiosity piquing into his tone.

“Well…” Sapphire started, removing her face on his chest. She furrowed her eyebrows. How could she explain it? She wanted to tell him what was going on with her, but somehow she was out of words.

“Sapphire,” Ruby whispered her name, gently yet passionately. He pressed and brushed his lips on her forehead in hopes to calm her down.

“B-Blue was right.” She choked the words out, her eyes still avoiding his. She felt embarrassed just by thinking about it. She could feel her cheeks heat up from it.

“A-About what?” Ruby continued to ask, confused. The last time they had seen their older friend was three weeks ago. Did Blue and Sapphire had another meet up without him knowing about it?

“W-With me being a… tsun…” Sapphire finished, whispering the last word, burying her face onto his chest. Mentioning it was embarrassing.

Ruby’s thoughts were jumbled.

His heart started increasing its pace at her answer.

It was true.

Sapphire had that attitude to which he find quite cute. He remembered Gold teasing him about it, embarrassing him the process.

Yes.

Sapphire was the cutest and most beautiful tsundere he had ever met.

It was true Sapphire was like that, but that was between him and Sapphire only. People mentioning about it could only make him embarrassed yet proud at how unique his girlfriend was.

Ruby took a deep breath, sighing. He felt laughter escaped from his lips. He was definitely proud at her cute attitude. He wouldn’t have it any other way. “But it’s cute.”

“Ehhh.” Sapphire flinched from him, surprised at his response. She expected he would laugh at it, but she didn’t expect he would like it. For how long did he like that attitude of hers?

“It’s what makes you unique from all the girls I’ve met.” Ruby responded, his arms returned around her waist, pulling her closer. “I love you for who you are, remember?”

“I…” Sapphire’s cheeks couldn’t help but to increase its temperature. She placed her palms on his chest, gripping his shirt. “I know…”

She didn’t expect it. But at the same time, she felt relieved that he liked that side of her. It was enough to drive her insecurities away.