#BABIES!! WEIRD MORPHS!!! SO EXCITED

[reverie-starlight]

{Floriography- Kazutora H.}

in which you learn a thing or two about flower language and come to realize just how far you'd go for your boyfriend.

gn!reader, no physical descriptions, fluff. very short. an attempt at getting flower language right was made (aka: I googled flower meanings and used the most common flowers that represent the same things across a few different websites). hopefully I did him justice. no timeline specified.

You knock on the pale blue door of your boyfriend’s apartment and wait eagerly for the sound of his footsteps to get louder. The last of the water from the stems of flowers in your hand drips down onto your shoes.

Admittedly, you feel a bit silly. You’d bought the bouquet on a whim, just passing by on your way to Kazutora’s place when you saw them. The black paper encasing the bouquet and the golden ribbon holding it all together reminded you far too much of your boyfriend to leave it behind.

When you had gone into the little shop to pay for them, the florist smiled and mentioned something along the lines of how it had been a popular choice that day.

You’re not normally one to place too much emphasis on floriography- most people in your life wouldn’t read into flower choice too much anyway- but her words got you curious so you took the time to ask her if the bouquet was meant for a specific occasion.

You wouldn’t want to give him what was meant to be a sympathy bouquet, after all.

And now standing at his door, you think you’ve got their meanings down and ready to be explained should he ask.

The longer you wait, the faster the nerves in your stomach grow. Does he even like flowers? Will he think this is silly?

You shake your head to clear away the thoughts. Surely not. You're being cute and bringing your boyfriend flowers- there's nothing weird about that.

There's not much time to dwell on it as he finally opens the door with an eager smile that warms your heart and melts the nerves away. You don't think you've ever met someone who gets as excited to see you as Kazutora does.

His eyes flick down to the bouquet and his expression morphs into a blend of confusion and curiosity. He lets you in and shuts the door by leaning his back against it.

“Hi baby… what’s all this? Don't tell me someone tried to hit on you on your way over.” His tone is teasing and while he may look like he's fighting back a smile, you can feel the underlying worry radiating off of him.

You're quick to hold the bouquet out to him with both hands. “For you.”

Kazutora raises an eyebrow. “For me?”

Suddenly feeling a bit shy, you nod and keep your eyes trained on the petals. "The wrapping reminded me of you," you mumble.

He moves closer and takes them from you, not hiding his smile anymore as he admires them, turning the bouquet in his hands and bringing them up to his nose. "They smell nice," he tells you. He meets your eyes and you notice his cheeks are dusted with a shade of red similar to the roses in the arrangement. "Thank you, angel."

You follow him into the kitchen and sit on a stool while he goes around trying to find something to act as a makeshift vase. You watch him, curious about the way he's acting now.

You're long past the point in your relationship where there's a need to fill lingering silences or where any awkwardness that comes in the early stages of love remains- you're both more than comfortable with each other.

But you don't think you've ever seen him look so... content. He moves through the room with a small, barely there if you're not paying attention smile. His earring jingles as he reaches up into one of the cupboards, his ponytail swings as he turns back to the counter.

You know he's not exactly used to receiving 'just because' gifts, let alone a bouquet... or much affection in general, if your suspicions are correct, but there's just something about him that makes you want to shower every inch of him in love and remind him he's more than worth it.

You're so glad you took the time to talk with the florist. "Y'know, the lady who sold me these mentioned something interesting about the meaning behind each flower in the bouquet."

He briefly glances over at you as he fits the stems into various tall containers he found, letting out a tiny tch when none of them work as he had hoped. You bite your lip to keep from laughing at how focused he looks. "Oh? What'd she tell you, baby?"

“The primrose and baby's breath represent youthful, eternal and everlasting love…" you stand and make your way towards him. "The red roses to represent passion and romance...” you list off the few other flowers and their meanings, watching his expression as he takes in your words.

He leans back against the counter and crosses his arms, cheeks tinged red again, but he's grinning in the way he always does when you express your adoration for him-shy and boyish. "Yeah? What, are you confessing your love for me or somethin'? That's cute."

When you're within arms reach, he pulls you in by your waist and buries his head against your neck. Obviously he's just teasing- you've both exchanged those three words many times already, but you've learned with him that it's never a bad idea to add one more to your already countless record. You nod and wrap your own arms around him. You press your mouth close to his ear and whisper a soft "I love you," and trail some kisses from his jaw down to his tattoo.

The list of things you wouldn't do for Kazutora Hanemiya is blank. Honestly, the thought scares you a bit- you've never loved anyone the way you love him.

But he's kind, he's gentle. You're certain that if he knew the lengths you'd be willing to go for him, he'd never take advantage of it.

And while he's still finding his footing and getting a feel for being in love for the first time, he does so in a way that makes you question how many times you've already been in love with him. How many past lives were spent in each other's arms? How many timelines have you had the pleasure of seeing him for who he truly is and calling him home?

In this one at the very least- in the kitchen, your bodies pressed together and hearts beating in time- you make a mental note to buy him a vase and pick up a book on floriography next time you're out.

You're going to be bringing him a lot of flowers from now on, and you'll be damned if you don't figure out every possible way for them to be a declaration of love.

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

kazutora!!!! my baby!!! my beloved!!! he's here!!! finally!!! he is. so precious to me.

@emmyrosee our boy!!!

[javierpena-inatacvest]

Maybe, Baby?

Summary: You and Frankie aren't trying for a baby just yet, but when your weird symptoms start to throw your body for a loop, you start to wonder if you actually might be pregnant

Pairing: Husband!Frankie Morales x Wife!Reader (no use of y/n)

Word Count: 5.4K

Warnings: SMUT (18+), Unprotected p in v sex (wrap before u tap, silly gooses), creampie, praise kink, size kink (if u squint), unintentional breeding kink (lmaoooo, it's me, sorry not sorry), birth control/family planning, pregnancy (or maybe not? part 2 maybe? hehe) symptoms, Frankie and reader mention being closer to 30 than 16 (turns out when you're an adult, it's not a teen pregnancy anymore), reader has hair that can be played with, Frankie being the sweetest husband alive (all the gold stars for him), Frankie is so excited to be a dad that I just may pass away

A/N: I know y'all voted for me to finish chapter 20 but i lied (I'm so sorry), but I wrote this in a day and husband Frankie was really speaking to me on this one 😭 This one is brought to you by my raging baby fever and perhaps some real life inspiration WHOOPS, art imitating life on this one ig 💀 Poorly beta'd bc that's how I roll!!!

Ever since getting off birth control a few months ago, your body had felt… different. 

While you were glad you had made the change for yourself, you still found yourself shocked every month when a new sort of symptom decided to appear at some point in your cycle that you had never dealt with before- acne in new places, weird cramps, and crazy mood swings that showed up out of nowhere before your period were just a few of the things you were learning to manage as you figured out your body post birth control. 

Another symptom you hadn’t expected was that now, you were insatiably horny. 

All the time. 

While Frankie had been more supportive and caring in helping you deal with all of your not so pleasant symptoms than you could have hoped for, he was also more than happy to help you with your newly found positive one, too. 

The only problem was, after so many years of not having to worry about the consequences of your sex life on birth control, you and Frankie were finding it very hard to adjust to be more… careful. 

As you got hornier and hornier, the box of condoms that Frankie had bought after you stopped taking the pill had been seeing less and less use, and to be honest, hadn’t really seen the light of day from the back of his nightstand drawer in about a month an a half- and if you were being even more honest, on top of that, Frankie’s pull out game was almost nowhere to be found. 

You both knew that you wanted a family in the future- That was a part of your reason for getting off birth control to begin with. The two of you had agreed to hold off at least for a little longer to try and get your life more in order before bringing a baby into it, but with with your new lack of protection when it came to sex, and constant horniness around the clock, you both were beginning to have a feeling that that your agreed upon timeline for having a baby might be harder for you to maintain that you thought. 

Especially when you found yourself morphing into an unspeakably horny monster when you were ovulating. 

So little did you realize, that as you were brushing your teeth in the bathroom as the two of you were getting ready for bed and you caught a glimpse in the mirror of Frankie, stripping out of his shirt and jeans, leaving him only in his boxers as he searched around in your dresser for pajamas, that was the reason you nearly spit out your entire mouthful of toothpaste to try and get a mouthful of something else. 

You couldn’t help but ogle at your husband's broad body and freckled tan skin, muscles flexing as he shuffled through your drawers, pulling out an old, worn gray t-shirt and tugging it over his head, running his hand through his messy, curly hair before searching for his pajama bottoms.

At this point, you had honestly braced yourself on the edge of the bathroom counter to keep yourself from falling over at how mouth-watering he looked, already feeling the wetness beginning to pool in the cotton of your underwear at the thought of wanting to rip his clothes off just as fast as he had put them on. 

Letting out a yawn, Frankie raised his hands above his head so a sliver of his soft belly peaked out between his waistband and shirt hem before making his way into the bathroom, sleepily padding along the tile floor until his body was behind yours, chest flushed against your back and arms wrapped around your waist. Even more prevalent, his bulge pressed against your ass, making the wet spot in your underwear grow damper by the second. 

“You ready for bed, querida?” Frankie cooed, placing a soft kiss on your shoulder and smiling at your reflections in the mirror. 

While you were absolutely ready to get into bed, sleeping was not going to be your activity of choice.  

“I think that maybe…” You paused, turning around to face Frankie, his body caging yours against the counter, palms splayed flat on either side of your hips, looking down at you with his sweet, brown eyes, “I think that maybe we should do something else before we go to sleep.” 

“Something else, huh?” Frankie smirked, raising his eyebrows at you as your hands began to run up and down his arms, slightly squeezing the muscles of his biceps as your fingers crept under the fabric of his shirt sleeves. “And what might that something else be, Hermosa?” 

“You know exactly what it is, Fransisco. You expect me to watch you just roam around shirtless in our bedroom and not get all hot and bothered? God, you’re so fucking hot.” You moaned, letting your hands run up his shoulders and around his neck, pulling him in for a long, electric kiss. 

“Damn, what’s gotten into you, babe?” Frankie chuckled, trying his best not to blush at your comment, sliding his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him. 

“I don’t- Fuck, I don’t know, I just know that if you don’t fuck me right this second, I think I’m gonna explode.” 

While your statement may have had a flair for the dramatic, it was just about as close to the God’s honest truth as you could get- You were so worked up, you felt practically feral, the ache in your core so strong that you really did feel like you were on the verge of implosion. 

Before you even gave Frankie time to respond, your lips were crashing into his with a ferocious intensity, your hands grabbing fistfulls of his t-shirt as you stumbled back towards your bedroom, bodies bumping and bouncing against the walls and door frames, mouths never parting as the back of Frankie’s knees finally hit the mattress, forcing him to fall backwards onto the bed. 

Crawling overtop of him, you were already straddled over his hips, grinding your bottom half on the bulge growing in his pajamas as your hands crept under the hem of his t-shirt, running along the tanned, soft skin of his chest, making him let out a low groan that rumbled in his throat. 

Frantically shuffling himself further onto the bed, Frankie’s hands dug into your hips and over your ass as your hands slid down from his chest to his waistband, fingers tugging at the elastic to shuffle his bottoms and boxers down his legs, quickly followed by your own, dropping to a crumpled pile on the floor. 

Feeling your fingers wrap around his cock, already painfully hard, you swirled the precum leaking from his tip with your thumb before dragging your hand up and down his length, leaving Frankie sitting up in surprise while he watched you begin to hover over him, dragging his dick through your folds. 

“Hermosa, are you sure you don’t need me to-” But before Frankie could finish the rest of his protest to make sure you were ready to take him, you were already sinking down onto him, whimpering at the sweet sting and stretch of his fullness, followed by the ragged moan escaping Frankie’s lips. 

“Oh fuck… Nuh uh, Frankie. I need to feel you, baby. Needed to feel you inside me.” You whined, taking Frankie cock inch by inch until he had bottomed out inside you, his tip kissing your cervix, the fullness making you cry out in pleasure. 

Normally with Frankie’s size, you would have needed to warm you up first, but with how wet and worked up you already were, you were able to take him with ease, desperate to feel him buried deep inside you. 

“Jesus fucking christ, queirda, you’re so fucking wet. Fuck, baby.” Frankie moaned, feeling you begin to slide up and down his length, coating him with your arousal with each swirl of your hips. 

Arching your back, you jutted your hips forward, bracing your hands on Frankie’s strong thighs, circling your bottom half against his, whimpering at his fullness and the hairs at the base of his cock brushing against your clit, selfishly already longing to chase your own high to ease the ache that had been burning in your core. 

“Fuck, Frankie, you feel so good. Feel so fucking full with you in me.” You whimpered, bouncing even harder and faster on Frankie’s cock, the lewd sounds of your skin slapping his and wetness dripping from your heat coating the walls of your bedroom. 

“Yeah? This what you wanted, pretty girl? Wanted me to stretch this pretty little pussy out and fill you up?” Frankie groaned, gritting his teeth as he began to jut his hips up into yours as you rode him, the added depth of his thrusts making you cry out in pleasure. 

And for as fucking good as it felt, the horny monster you had morphed into had you greedily craving more- to have Frankie stretch you open in a way that had you seeing stars, so much that you could still feel the next day, long after the two of you were finished. 

“I-I want more, p-please, baby. Fuck- Fuck me harder, Fransisco.” You cried, your sweet voice whimpering his full name turning him almost as feral as you were, letting out a low growl as he grabbed you by your hips, flipping you so that your back hit the mattress and he was caging his broad body over yours. 

Practically ripping the t-shirt still covering your upper half off your body, Frankie dove face first between your breasts, groping one while hungrily sucking at the other, flicking your pebbled nipple with his tongue, his free hand reaching down to line his cock back up with your entrance, sliding back in to your aching core with ease. 

Frankie let himself sink all the way back in, filling you to the brim before hooking his arms around your knees, pressing your legs against your stomach, smirking to himself at the ragged moan you let out as the new angle opened you up even further. 

“You want me to fuck you harder, Hermosa?” Frankie mewled, slowly dragging his length out of your heat, looking down to see your shiny slick soaking his cock before looking back at you and the wrecked expression plastered across your face, frantically nodding in desperation. “Tell me how badly you want it, sweet girl.” 

“Fuck, I need you so bad, Fransisco, please.” You begged, damn near close to tears with how deeply you needed to feel Frankie ease the emptiness inside you. “Please, baby, I- oh fuck-”  

Before you could even finish the rest of your plea, your breath was already hitched in the back of your throat as Frankie began to pound into you at a relentless pace, tightening his grip around your thighs while he pressed them closer to your chest, grunting with each rut of his hips into yours. 

“This what you want, querida? Meirda- so fucking wet and tight, baby girl. You feel so fucking good, holy fuck.” 

It didn’t take long for the all too familiar tingle at the base of your spine to start spreading through your body like a wildfire as Frankie continued to slam into your g-spot, making you chant his name like a prayer, your brain at a loss for any other words than “Fuck, Fransisco.” 

And as if you already weren’t close enough, when Frankie reached down to thumb at your clit, rubbing in relentless circles against your sensitive nub, you knew you were a fucking goner. 

“That’s it, Hermosa. Cum for me, baby. Want that- oh fuck- want that prefect pussy to fucking soak me.” Frankie groaned, feverishly pounding into you, desperate to feel you come undone for him giving him long enough to fight off his own high that was rapidly building in the pit of his stomach. 

A few more thrusts were all it took to have the coil snapping in your belly, crying out Frankie’s name as you came, orgasm ripping through your body with a blinding intensity, eyes scrunching shut and jaw hanging open while pleasure and euphoria flowed through every ounce of you. 

Still blissed out and wrecked out of your mind, your eyes shot open as Frankie’s mouth crashed into yours, swallowing your whimpers and moans in a messy dance of tongues and teeth. 

“Fuck, you’re so fucking pretty when you cum. Jesus fuck-  fuck, I’m close too, baby. W-where do you want me, Hermosa?” Frankie asked, barley holding on long enough for you to answer, his thrusts becoming sloppier and sloppier as his hips began to stutter, gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow with every ounce of self control he had left. 

Still barley coherent enough to form a sentence, your brain blurted out the only thing you could think of, and the only thing that you really wanted in the moment. 

“Inside, Fransisco. Fuck, cum inside me, baby.” 

That alone was almost enough to send Frankie over the edge, letting out a long, low groan, sloppily rutting into you as his brain went blank alongside yours, starting to babble incoherently. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck- you want me to fill you up, queirda? Fuck, I’ll fucking fill you up so good you’ll be dripping out of me for days. Oh fuck, shit baby, fuck, oh I’m gonnaahhhhhh-“ 

Just like that, Frankie took one last thrust, spilling deep inside you, coating your walls with his spend as his body slumped into yours, the pair of your chests rising and falling in sync as you both came back down to earth. 

“Jesus Christ… Holy fuck, Frankie.” You giggled quietly to yourself, blissfully filled with post orgasm ecstasy as your husband carefully pulled himself out before rolling over next to you on the bed, pulling you close against his chest. 

“Fuck me, Hermosa, holy shit.” Frankie chuckled, pressing a soft kiss into your forehead, tracing small circles on your back as he held you, heat radiating off of each other's sweat-ridden bodies. “God, I love you. We should probably get you cleaned up. You wanna shower?” He asked, smirking as your face lit up at his nearly rhetorical question. 

“Only if you’re up for round 2, Morales.”   

“My eyes are up here, Fransisco.” 

“Hmmm? What did you say?” 

“Exactly my point. Can you stop looking with your man eyes and look with your normal, helpful people eyes to help me decide on a dress for Benny and Victoria’s wedding?” You sighed, laughing to yourself as you raised an eyebrow at Frankie, his gaze still fixed on your chest. 

“Sorry, sorry, I’ll be helpful.” Frankie huffed, overdramatically rolling his eyes at you, playfully throwing his hands up in defense as he leaned back against the dressing room door, looking you up and down in one of the cute floral dresses you had picked to try on for your friends’ upcoming wedding. “It’s just that… Nevermind.” 

“It’s just that what, Frank?” You asked tilting your head in confusion at your husband as his eyes traveled back to your breasts, furled look in his brow like he was really staring there to prove a point. 

“It’s just that- Baby, I don’t know if it’s just the dress or what, but your boobs look huge. Like, they always look good, believe me, but like… Whew.” Frankie whistled, practically shaking his head in disbelief at how good you looked. 

“Really?” You asked, turning around to face the mirror in the dressing room, gently cupping your breasts, grimacing as you held them in your hands. “Yeah, I guess they do… Honestly, I was gonna complain about how sore they’ve been all day. I wonder if maybe my period is just coming early?” 

“Maybe? You did ride me pretty hard the last couple nights and put on a good show, so maybe they hurt from all that bouncing and-” 

“Frankie! We are in public!” You playfully scolded, giving him a flimsy slap to the chest to cut off the rest of his thought, the two of you quietly giggling to yourselves and trying to “Shhhh” each other from drawing too much attention to your dressing room stall. “The dress, you goofball, yes or no? Sooner we pick, the sooner we can go get food, because your wife is starving.” 

“I vote yes on the dress. You look beautiful in it, querida.” Frankie smiled, stepping behind you to press a kiss on the side of your head. 

“You just like it because it makes my boobs look huge.” 

“What? Can you blame me for wanting to stare at my gorgeous wife’s boobs all night?” 

“God, you are ridiculous, Fransisco. Fine, boob dress wins. Now let’s get out of here and go get some food before you get stuck in a titty trance and I die of hunger.” 

While the rest of your Saturday was spent enjoying the delicious Mexican food that you had picked up on the way home and a much needed night in on the couch with Frankie, there was a tiny part of your brain that couldn’t seem to shake his comment from earlier about how big your boobs looked. 

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t agree with him, because truth be told, they felt huge, too. They had been sore since you had woken up this morning, and while you had chalked it up to what you and Frankie had been up to the past few nights, or bad PMS symptoms, there was still just something about you that felt off. 

Later that night, during your movie marathon, you had paused whatever new action movie Frankie had been begging to watch since it had popped up on Netflix a few days ago for a popcorn refill. 

While Frankie meandered around the kitchen waiting for the next bag of popcorn to finish popping, you stayed curled up with your blanket in your corner of the couch, mindlessly scrolling through your phone, until a sharp twinge began to cramp in your lower stomach. The feeling took you by surprise, digging your fingers into your side to try and ease the dull and achy sensation as your face scrunched in confusion, wondering why in the world you had what felt like period cramps in your belly. 

“Hey, you okay, Hermosa?” Frankie asked, returning with popcorn in hand, his face painted with concern to see the pained look scrunched between your brow as you curled deeper into the couch. 

“Oh, y-yeah, I’m fine. I just um, I just had a weird cramp I guess. Probably just ate all that popcorn too fast.” You replied, trying to convince yourself just as much as you were trying to convince Frankie that you were overthinking whatever mystery symptoms had just flashed through your lower half. 

“Here, lemme just set this popcorn down and then I can rub your back while we finish the movie, okay?” Frankie smiled softly, setting down the bowl on the coffee table before crawling back under the sea of blankets on the couch with you, laying your head against his thigh like a pillow while his hand traced up and down along the small of your back. 

“Thanks, Frankie.” You whispered quietly, taking a few deep breaths as the familiar warmth of your husband’s palm worked up and down the worn fabric of his shirt that you had put on earlier. 

“Of course, baby. If you need anything else, just let me know, okay? Just promise me you’ll take it easy on the popcorn if you have any more there, Killer.” 

The two of you laughed quietly as Frankie leaned down to press a soft kiss into your messy hair laid across his lap before picking up the remote to let the rest of the movie play as your eyelids began to get heavier and heavier as you slowly drifted off to sleep. 

“What’s inside this box?” 

“Open it up and find out! It’s a surprise for you!” 

“Okay? Huh, why is it just a pregnancy test in there?” 

“It’s yours! Congratulations! You’re having a baby!” 

“Ahhhhh!” You shrieked, panting as you woke from a cold sweat, shooting up from the couch. “What the fuck…” You whispered to yourself, coming to and realizing that you were now awake and had only been dreaming moments before this. Running your hands over your face, you blinked a few times to be greeted by the dim light of the TV still flickering in the background, Frankie sprawled out and snoring by your side where the two of you must have fallen asleep on the couch during the movie. 

“What a weird fucking dream…” You sighed to yourself, shaking your head as you quietly pushed yourself off the couch to stumble to the bathroom, pulling your phone out of your sweatpants pocket to check what ungodly hour of the night it had to be since the two of you had crashed on the couch. 

2:07 A.M. 

You let out a low grumble, pushing your sweatpants down to your ankles as you sat down to pee, blinking your eyes open wider to look through the notifications piled on top of each other on your lockscreen. Mindlessly swiping through a few junk emails and text messages from group chats, one notification in particular caught your eye, rousing you from your half awake state. 

“Feeling down? As you begin your Luteal Phase of your cycle, it’s normal to be less cheerful compared to last week when you were Ovulating! Click to track your cycle symptoms for today!” 

Oh shit.  

You could feel your heart beginning to race as you opened up the app, scrolling to the calendar tracker for the month. Swiping through the days, it didn’t take you long to realize that despite all of your weird symptoms you had been chalking up to PMS, you were almost two weeks away from starting your period. Frantically scrolling backwards, you began to try and rack your brain of all of the times in the past week that you had sex with Frankie while you would have been ovulating, and out of that number, how many times he hadn’t finished inside you, let alone even attempt to pull out. 

And that number was a big, fat zero. 

That’s when it hit you like a fucking freight train- You weren’t PMS-ing.

More than likely, you were pregnant. 

“Holy fuck…” You whispered to yourself, your voice trembling and heart pounding as you buried your face in your trembling hands, your mind flooding with a million different thoughts all at once. 

How could you not remember that you were ovulating? Would Frankie be upset? The two of you weren’t even trying for kids right now. Would you be a good Mom? What were you even going to need to do to prepare? Your house was starting to get small for just you and Frankie, let alone a baby. How were you going to find a new place to live in 9 months? And get a new car? How were you- 

“Baby, you good in there?” Frankie groaned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he stumbled into the bathroom, letting out a yawn as he opened the door, bright light flooding into the hallway and revealing the sobbing mess you had become, still pants down, hunched over the toilet. 

“Woah, hey, hey, hey. Baby, baby, what’s going on? Talk to me, Hermosa. Are you okay? What happened?” You could feel Frankie’s demeanor immediately switch as soon as he saw you in the bathroom, instantly dropping to his knees by your side, his hands gently grabbing your face to shift your gaze towards him, carefully swiping his thumb to dry the tears that had been streaming down your cheeks. 

“Frankie, I- I- Fuck.” You stuttered, gulping hard as you tried to catch your breath, fighting back your nervous sobs as you locked eyes with Frankie, wondering how in the world you were ever about to brace him for the news you were about to tell him. 

“Hermosa, what is it? Please, tell me baby, what’s wrong?” Frankie pleaded, softly squeezing your face in reassurance as he waited for your response. 

You took a few more deep breaths, composing yourself enough to at least try to get a coherent thought out, swallowing hard as the words left your mouth. 

“Frankie, I-, Frankie, I think- I think I’m pregnant.” 

Frankie’s eyes went wide, his jaw practically hanging open as he tried to process what you had just told him, wondering if he hadn’t heard you right in his groggy state. 

“W-what?” 

“I think I might be pregnant, Frankie.” 

Before you could even bear the thought of looking at his face again, filled with fear that it would be a look of shock and disappointment, you buried your face in your hands again, fighting with everything in you not to cry and keep your composure. 

Frankie sat quietly for a moment, his hand covering up the gaping hole his jaw had made as it nearly hit the floor, shaking his head in disbelief before wrapping his hand around your wrist, pulling your hands to look at him. 

“R-really? You- fuck- You really think you’re pregnant?” 

As your eyes met his, you couldn’t believe the look on your husbands face- Not only was Frankie practically grinning from ear to ear, the sweet brown of his puppy dog eyes were welling with happy tears of their own, waiting on your every word as if he still didn’t believe what he was hearing. Silently, you began to slowly nod your head, biting down on your tongue, your heart feeling like it was about to shoot out of your chest. 

“You’re...y-you’re not upset?” You stammered, sitting up a little taller at Frankie’s reaction. 

“Upset? Hermosa, why in the world would I ever be upset?” Frankie laughed quietly, gently tucking a stray piece of hair behind your ear as his other hand cupped your jaw. “Querida… There’s nothing more I want on this earth than to have a family. And-fuck- The fact that it gets to be with you? That you might give me a family? How could I ever be upset about that? 

“Well it’s not like we were really trying for a baby, Frank. We said another year or two. With the house and money -” 

“Hey. We’ll figure it all out, okay? I promise, we’ll be more than okay.” Frankie smiled, his goofy grin still stretched wide between his cheeks, finally easing some of your worry. 

“I don’t even feel like I’m old enough to have a kid. I feel like I need to call up MTV to tell them I’ll be on the next season of 16 and Pregnant.” The two of you snorted, shaking your heads in awestruck disbelief that a stupid joke about a reality TV show could soon become your reality. 

“Well considering we’re married, have a house, and most importantly, are much closer to 30 than we are 16, I think they may have a hard time pitching the show “Married Couple Has a Baby”.” Frankie teased, giving you a playful nudge as the two of you laughed, giving you a few seconds to catch your breath before trying to dig into details. “Did- Did you take a test? How long have you known?”

“No, I don’t know for sure yet, Frank. It’s… It’s just a feeling, I guess. But the huge, sore boobs, weird, period-like cramps and the fact that we really haven’t been the most careful are all pretty good clues.” 

“Well, I mean, I don’t know, we’ve tried to be care-” 

Before Frankie could even finish the rest of his thought, you were already giving him the sassiest look you could muster in your overwhelmed and sleepy state, making the two of you laugh again he let out a sigh of defeat. 

“Okay, yeah, we really haven’t been that careful at all. Sweetie, listen, I- I know it’s not what we had planned, but… I mean, if you are pregnant…” Frankie paused, smiling at your stomach as he gently place a hand over your belly, tears welling in his chocolate brown eyes, “Baby, I would be so excited. Nervous as hell, but so fucking excited.” 

“Me too.” You sniffed, looking down at Frankie’s palm splayed across your stomach, heart swelling at the thought of Frankie being dad, thinking of how sweet and caring and perfect he’d be as you grew your little family together. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pulled Frankie in close, letting out a shaky sigh, whispering your words through happy tears. 

“I love you so much, Frankie.” 

“I love you so much too, Hermosa. More than anything.” 

For the sake of Frankie’s shoulder, you pulled away to wipe your tears to keep from soaking your husband’s shirt, quietly laughing to yourself at the fact that this whole time you had been talking to Frankie, you had still been pantsless, hunched over the toilet. 

“It probably would have been way more romantic to tell you all of this not at 2:30 in the morning, pantsless and hunched over the toilet like a little gremlin.” You snorted, Frankie following suit as he shook his head, running his hand through the sleepy curls of your hair. 

“I wouldn’t want it any other way, mi amor. C’mon, let’s get you up to bed.” 

As the two of you sleepily trotted your way upstairs, curling together under the warmth of your comforter with Frankie’s chest pressed against your back, you couldn’t help but smile as his arm draped over your stomach, hand resting on your belly while his thumb traced soft circles on your skin, imagining what it would be like if a few months from now if you really were getting ready to add another member to your family. 

The next morning, as the sunrise began to spill through your curtains, casting bright orange and pink shadows on your bedroom walls, you couldn’t help but stir as the familiar scent and warmth of Frankie’s body was missing from his side of the bed.

 As you sat up in the sea of blankets and comforters, softly rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you saw Frankie’s frame quietly sneaking through the bedroom door, fresh mug of coffee and bag of breakfast in hand with a stupid smile plastered across his face as he was greeted with your barely awake grin. 

“Good morning, beautiful.” Frankie cooed, setting down the coffee and breakfast down on your nightstand as he sat down next to you on the edge of the bed, pressing a tender kiss into the sleep-ridden ends of your hair before wrapping his arms around you in a long embrace. 

“Good morning, handsome.” You yawned, stretching your arms over your head, letting out a little grunt and laying your head on Frankie’s shoulder. “What’s all this for?” You asked, gesturing towards the coffee and oversized McDonald’s bag, assuming it was the reason for Frankie’s absence when you woke up. 

“I- I don’t know, I uh- I was just really excited when I got up this morning. It was early, and I didn’t wanna wake you up, so I made a trip to CVS to buy some pregnancy tests for you and figured I’d pick up breakfast on the way home.” Frankie smiled sheepishly, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, brushing past his untamed morning curls. “I know- I know you can’t really take the tests yet- I spent a lot of time reading the boxes in the store and wasn’t really sure what the best one was to take, so I got like, 4 different ones for when it's time.” 

“God, you’re so sweet. You’re the best, you know that? It’s about to be a long week of waiting before I can take one of those. Do you- fuck, Frankie, do you think it could really be positive?” You asked, tears beginning to well in your eyes again as you smiled up at your husband, already beaming back at you, picturing the two pink lines showing up on all of the tests he had bought for you. 

“Maybe, if we’re lucky.” He smirked, gently cupping your face, swiping his thumb across your face. “But if it’s not, then maybe… Maybe we start trying for a positive one on purpose.” 

“R-really?” You grinned, biting down on your lip in excitement. 

“Really, really.” Frankie replied, bringing his lips to yours in a long, slow kiss, soaking in the sweet taste of you on his tongue. “And maybe…” 

“Maybe, what, Fransisco?” You giggled, bringing your mouth back to his in a sweet and sloppy kiss. 

“Maybe…. We start trying right now, ya know, just to be sure. Wouldn’t want all those pregnancy tests to go to waste.”

Taglist:

@chaotic-iguana @rhoorl @whyjuliaaa @bbiophiliaa @pertinentpostmortem @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @pedrobaby @fatima-marisa @beboldbebravethings @poodlebae @kittenlittle24 @3sriracha @jungchloee @perennialdoll247 @prettyinpunk85 @partyofone3413 @harriedandharassed @pedrohoe04 @theorganasolo @endlessthxxghts @beware-my-thorns @missladym1981 @messinadress @milly-louise @jay-zzle @the-one-with-the-grey-color @persephone-girl @bitchesuntitled @pedropascallvr @millennial-teenybopper @nastiasnow @vee-bees-blog @hopplessilse @mxtokko @its-nebuleuse @mandoisapunk @msmorningstaarr @amyispxnk @honeyedmiller @mountainsandmayhem @picketniffler @burningnerdchild @copperhalfcent @theoraekenslover @bloodyinspirationaldemon @vee-bees-blog @amyispxnk @samgirl4life @pigeonmama @pedr0swh0r3

[dp-marvel94]

Gray Ghost Double Pregnancy

This cursed idea has been torturing me, so now everyone reading this gets to be tortured too. 😂

TLDR: Via ghostly weirdness, married Gray Ghost (Danny and Valerie) both ended up pregnant at the same time.

*Warning for allusion to two consenting married adults having sex*

Valerie Gray-Fenton is a half ghost because of a near-death experience which happened at 16 while ghost hunting in the ecto-infused suit which Technus modified. She found out about Danny being Phantom shortly after, and the two have been ghost hunting together ever since. They gave dating another try and, after being together for years, are very happily in love.

Once both graduated from college, they decided to get married and a few months later, Valerie excitedly tells Danny that she's pregnant with their first child.

Both are ecstatic. They’d discussed whether they both wanted kids well before even getting engaged and both agreed they very much wanted to. So both half ghost are incredibly happy.

Cue celebratory adult fun time. With ghost powers involved though, this has an unexpected effect.

Unbeknownst to the two half ghosts (they missed out on the ghostly bird-and-the-bees talk), ghosts have children by intertwining their core energy with the intent to create a child. The two talk and think about how excited they are to have a baby together. With their bodies and powers intertwining, a new ghost core sparks into existence.

Since Danny is the slightly more powerful ghost (and not currently pregnant), the new core implants in him.

Neither realize what happened at first. For a few weeks, Danny’s powers act strange and he's more protective than normal. Eventually he notices a pea-sized hard mass just below his core in ghost form. Worried about what is happening to him, he goes to the Far Frozen for a check up.

Frostbite congratulates Danny on the little one. He beams, thinking the yeti is talking about Valerie's pregnancy. But other ghost tilts his head confusedly; he wasn’t aware the Huntress was carrying as well.

Danny and Valerie do not understand, trading confused looks with each other which slowly turn to shocked disbelief. Frostbite explains how ghosts reproduce, about Danny’s symptoms and that the pea-sized sphere in his abdomen is a forming ghost core.

Valerie understands first. "Danny, you're pregnant too."

It takes a while to process but as Frostbite explains what to expect, the disbelief morphs into something amusedly elated.

Danny laughs hysterically. The situation is too ridiculous, too hilarious. He's pregnant at the same time Valerie is. They're expecting 2 children, not one.

[heyimkana]

Another snippet from Pillow Talk Part 2:

A certain glow in his eyes causes the soft hairs on your nape to rise. Every nerve of your body pleads for his touch, but he won’t grant your wish just yet. “But I have to be patient, don’t I, Sweetheart?” Jinwoo continues with a glimpse of arrogance written on his lips, knowing he already has you dancing in the palm of his hand. “After all, the game just started. Although…” He leans close, his lips barely touching your ear as he speaks hushedly. “I doubt I could resist it if my sweet girl started acting all needy for me now.”

You force out a scoff even when your body is eager to have his taste in your mouth. “You wish.”

He simpers at your reaction, entertained by your desperate attempt to mask embarrassment. He lets his lips brush against the shell of your ear as he speaks in a low, dark whisper. “Don’t try to deny it, love. I can see right through you. The way you’re clenching your legs together” —his hand grips your thigh, fingers pressing deep into your skin— “the way you bite your lip,” he kisses you, brief and chaste, but the soft, sultry moan he makes on purpose is anything but innocent. “You’re already getting needy, aren’t you?”

Your stomach somersaults at how his smirk breaks so naturally, so seductively on his lips. Afraid you’ll succumb to your desire, you push a hand to his face, returning the safe space between you. “Your turn to ask me now.”

Jinwoo lets out a small laugh at your childish act, gently prying your hand away from him. “Someone’s avoiding the question,” he says, amused. “All right, my turn. I’m going to make sure you answer mine, okay, Sweetheart?”

The subtle threat only excites you. “Fine. Just don’t ask anything weird. Or perverted.”

Your husband chuckles, sinking his head back to the dip of your neck again. He tugs on your strap with his teeth, his hand now brazenly glides over your chest, feeling the way your sensitive bud hardens under the satin but leaving it ignored—for now. “But you’d like the perverted ones, wouldn’t you?” His grin blooms on your skin before he places a warm, open-mouthed kiss on your shoulder. Your fingers clench into fists, doing everything you can to suppress your moan. When he breaks away, he carries himself nonchalantly as if he didn’t just grind his teeth against your skin a second ago. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll behave,” he finishes with a coquettish grin. “For your sake.”

He’s toying with me. “Just give me the damn question.”

“Patience is a virtue, my love. Let me think for a second. I don’t want to come up with something… boring.” His gaze turns playful when it meets yours, referring to your earlier question.

“Are you making fun of me again?”

“Me? Make fun of you? Never,” he coos as his smirk proves otherwise. Jinwoo gets an idea shortly after, another smirk forming instantly on his face. “If you could change one part of my body, what would it be? But, of course, if you think everything is perfect, you can say that, too.”

You send him a flat stare. “Your dick. Would’ve liked it better if it was bigger.”

He laughs out loud at your answer, his seductive smirk morphing into a perfect view of his marbled teeth. He appears so young like this, refreshing and sweet. “Oh, baby, you know I don’t lack in that area, don’t you? If you were saying something about my face, I would’ve believed you, but that…” He snorts in amusement. “Come on now.”

“Oh, you’re so annoying.” You throw a playful jab at his stomach. Well, it is true that he’s packing more than necessary down there, but… You’re not going to give him that satisfaction, are you? “Where does this confidence even come from?”

He chuckles, catching your hand. “Of course, I’m confident. After all…” His fingers slide past your elbow, up to your shoulder, traveling over soft skin until they cup the side of your neck. His thumb rubs over your lips, his eyes misted with desire when he says, “You look too satisfied most of the time. If not, always.”

You can feel his digit applying pressure on your lips, wanting you to part them open for him, but you stop him by curling your fingers around his wrist. “M-Maybe it’s just because you’re good at using it, not because of the size itself.”

Jinwoo smiles almost wickedly, his eyes gleaming in the dimness of your bedroom. “Careful now. I’m gonna get cocky.”

“I’m not complimenting you, dummy. I’m trying to make an argument!”

Your attitude only amuses him further. He pulls you closer, your body now flushed against his. His lips graze your ear when he speaks, his voice low and a little teasing. “Oh, no, Sweetheart, I can tell you’re complimenting me. Don’t worry, I know I’m the best. And I know you know that, too.”

You roll your eyes despite your heart thrashing against your ribcages in response. “Next question.”

Read Part 1 here.

Update: the chapter has been released! Read it here

If anyone wants to be tagged, feel free to let me know ❤️

[tootiecakes234]

Sanji x reader

(You come back from a mission injured. )

You come back to Sanji after you two were on two separate assignments. Initially you’re facing away from him so he’s just relieved that you’re safe. He comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your front.

“My beautiful one and only. I’m so happy to see you safe.” Words mumbled because His face is nuzzled up into your neck and he’s breathing in the scent of you. Even though you’re sweaty and gross, you’re his favorite scent in the entire world and that includes his cooking.

“Are you tired?? When we get back to the ship I’ll run you a nice bath yea??” Mind you he says all this in almost a sing song voice.

Normally you would be just as excited as he was, but you know. You know the time he sees your injury he’s going to 1000% flip his shit and you were trying to postpone the inevitable as long as possible.

When Sanji finally looked up he saw the strange looks the rest of the crew was giving and he was confused.

“What the hell are you idiots looking at? Why do you assholes look guilty?”

“Hey you guys can I have a moment alone with Sanji please?”

They all excused themselves and set off very swiftly because they knew the shit storm was a brewing.

He starts pulling his arms from around you but you quickly grab them and hold him still.

“Babe, can you promise me something??”, you whisper in the most even tone you can manage.

“Of course. I’d do anything for you. You know that.” And his arms tighten around you.

“Ok, remember. You’re a man of your word. Promise me you won’t freak out” You start to slowly pull away.

“Why would I-“

“Just promise me ok?”

“I promise me sweet.” And he chuckles a little at how weird you’re being.

The twirl you do around is so achingly slow but Sanji is nothing if not patient with you.

When you finally catch his eye, you see the smile morph on his face.

He is livid. infuriated. No there has to be a word that means “ready to burn down the fucking world and everyone and everything in it!”

“Who! Had! The Goddamn Nerve! To Touch you?!?”

“Saaannjii, baby. It’s fine. I promise you. It’s just a scratch. Chopper checked it out and he said it wouldn’t even need stitches.” Trying to keep the peace was not working. AT ALL.

“Who!? And where are they now?” He was seething.

You could feel hellfire coming off him.

The laceration was a long one coming up from your clavicle and wrapping up right under your chin, but it wasn’t deep. You had managed to dodge most of it.

“Theyre dead and gone. He only got the one chance. I promise, I’m ok. Everyone is ok and safe. So can you breathe?? Cuz I don’t think you’re breathing…”

“Where the hell was everyone when you were nearly KILLED?!”

“Trying to avoid dying themselves. I’m not some damsel in distress, even though I know that’s how you see me.” You had started to get a little testy but you had to remind yourself, he honestly just loved you way too much to be faced with a situation where you could’ve been taken from him.

You slowly get a little closer to him and reach out to grasp his hand, and honestly that touch did more for him than any of your words did.

His shoulders sagged just the slightest amount and you heard him draw in a sharp breath.

“I know you’re upset, you have every right to be, but I’m right here.” You said with all the love you could muster and lifted your other hand to wrap around the back of his neck and scratch at the back of his head.

Another breath and now his eyes were starting to soften.

You smile up at him and that sets his heart back to thumping at the inconsistent speed it always does when you look at him like that.

Next thing you know you’re being pulled into his arms and squeezed to the point where it’s almost taking your breath away.

You don’t realize he’s crying until you feel dampness from where he’s again tucked his head down into your neck.

His words come out all mumbled, “I can’t l-lose you. I truly fucking can’t… you- you’re the only reason my heart beats. The only thing that gives me the strength to draw another breath. I love you. I love you.”

And now you’re crying because damn. This man is everything to you, and the fact that he never fails to make sure you know how he feels the same way if not stronger…. Your heart is just so full.

“I love you too Sanji. And I’m never leaving… you’re stuck with me forever and ever and ever.”

When he pulls back his eyes are all red and puffy.

“You mean it?” His voice sounds all groggy now, like he just woke up. But also bright, like morning sunshine.

“Of course I mean it. You and me always.” You give him a small genuine smile.

“Then marry me…”

[amethystarachnid]

Please, please, I need to ask you for a part 2 of Snowy Love now... they had a little boy, an exact copy of Tony, and of course, his name is Anthony Edward Stark Jr. 🥰 and just as Tony promised, they are going back to the same place with their baby boy now 🥰 Tony is the best hubs and dad, always so soft and protective... one night, as they observe their beautiful baby boy sleeping so peacefully, Tony will tell her that he wants another one, and they decide to have another baby 🥰 if you want you can spicy things up too, thank you 😘

I love the idea of Tony and reader having a special place like this to go 🥰

SNOWY LOVE - part II

⤷ ANTHONY “TONY” E. STARK

ᯓ★ Pairing: Anthony “Tony” E. Stark x fem!reader

ᯓ★ Genre: romance fluff, a tiny tiny spicy scene

ᯓ★ Request from: normal request

ᯓ★ Story type: short fanfic

ᯓ★ Part I

ᯓ★ Word count: 8k

ᯓ★ Summary: after your son, Edward, comes in the world your little Alps getaway get more interesting, so interesting that you and Tony decide you wouldn't mind another baby Stark.

ᯓ★ TW(s): mentions of birth, a little spicy scene

ᯓ★ Comment if you want to be added to the taglist (specify if you want the everything taglist or for a specific character)

ᯓ★ My Masterlist

ᯓ★ MARVEL Multiverse - choose an AU, pair it with your favorite character and make a request!

ᯓ★ Songs & Superheroes tales - The Game (to make a request, follow the rules on the link!)

ᯓ★ MARVEL Bingo

ᯓ★ English isn’t my first language

The weeks leading up to your due date are a mix of excitement, nerves, and more than a few late-night talks about the baby’s name. You’d both been bouncing ideas around since the second trimester, but nothing had fully clicked for both of you. Then, one evening, Tony hit you with a proposition that he was sure would be a “slam dunk.”

“What if…” Tony begins, giving you his best salesman smile, “we make him a junior?”

You nearly choke on the sip of water you’re drinking. “Junior?”

“Think about it.” He leans forward, eyebrows raised, already envisioning it. “Anthony Edward Stark Junior. Our little legacy. Our kid gets a great name, I get a mini-me, and you get to say, ‘I’m married to Tony Stark Senior.’ Everybody wins.”

You stare at him, trying to process. “Tony, I don’t know… A junior? I feel like it’s setting up some pretty big expectations.”

He tilts his head, giving you a puppy-dog look. “What if we just call him Edward, though? Classic, timeless, elegant… just like his mom.”

You narrow your eyes, both charmed and trying not to roll your eyes. “You’re really playing the flattery angle here.”

Tony grins. “Is it working?”

“Fine,” you sigh with a smirk. “But I’m calling him Edward. You don’t get to sneak in any nicknames like ‘Tiny Tony’ or ‘Starky’ or anything weird, got it?”

He beams. “Deal. Edward it is.”

On the big day, when the contractions start, Tony morphs into a chaotic mix of superhero and headless chicken. The moment you tell him, he’s grabbing his jacket, his tablet, and two power banks (just in case, he insists). He practically hustles you out the door, giving the driver a set of instructions that makes it sound like you’re about to pull off an international heist rather than have a baby.

In the delivery room, Tony is trying his best to be calm and supportive, but his nerves start showing the minute you go into active labor.

“Alright, babe, you’ve got this,” he says, squeezing your hand. “Just… breathe! And maybe, uh, try some meditation?”

You give him a look that could melt his Iron Man suit. “Oh, really? Breathe? How insightful. Maybe I should just think calming thoughts while this tiny human makes his dramatic entrance, Tony.”

He swallows, wide-eyed, clearly realizing he’s treading dangerous ground. “Right. Just, you know, ignore me. I’m here. Quietly. Totally quiet.”

But every time a contraction hits, he’s there, full of commentary and ideas, most of which involve technology he wishes he could be using. “You know, I could invent a pressure reducer—some kind of… I don’t know, anti-gravity cradle? That way, all the pressure is off you—”

“Tony!” you gasp between contractions, managing to laugh despite the pain. “Focus, please. No inventions right now.”

Finally, after what feels like hours of huffing, puffing, and a whole range of Tony’s attempts at encouragement (that occasionally backfire), you hear the first cries of your son. The room goes still, and Tony’s hand grips yours a little tighter, his face softening with awe as the doctor holds up your baby boy, all squirmy and red-faced.

You’re exhausted but overwhelmed with joy as they place him on your chest. The little guy blinks up at you, and as you look down, you’re struck by how much he already looks like his dad. From the dark hair to the tiny furrow in his brow, he’s unmistakably Tony’s son.

Tony’s voice breaks the silence, soft and filled with wonder. “Oh, look at him… He’s perfect.”

“Yeah,” you whisper, stroking your finger over his tiny hand. “He really is.”

After a few moments, Tony leans over, whispering so only you and the baby can hear. “Hey, Edward. Welcome to the team, little guy.”

You laugh softly, glancing up at Tony with a smirk. “I suppose we’ll let you keep the ‘Anthony Edward Junior’ for the birth certificate.”

Tony grins, looking a little misty-eyed. “And we’ll call him Edward. Just like we said.”

The baby shifts in your arms, yawning with a seriousness that makes you and Tony both laugh. “Look at that,” Tony says, chuckling, “he’s already judging us. He’s got the Stark stare down.”

“Oh, he’s definitely yours,” you say, tracing his tiny nose. “There’s no denying it.”

As the nurse takes Edward for his check-up, Tony stays close, keeping one eye on the baby and one on you, as if he can’t decide who needs more protection. At one point, Edward lets out a small cry, and Tony practically jumps out of his seat, only to be gently waved back by the nurse.

“Alright, alright, kiddo’s tough,” Tony mutters to himself, trying to act casual. Then, under his breath, he adds, “I’d better teach him about building armor for all life’s tough moments. Soon as he can walk.”

You smile, shaking your head. “Not just yet, Tony.”

“Fine. Maybe in a few years.” He smiles down at you, giving your hand a soft squeeze. “You did amazing, by the way. Both of you.”

Later, as you’re resting in the quiet room, Edward nestled in your arms, Tony sits by your side, his gaze fixed on the little bundle between you. He reaches over, brushing a hand over Edward’s dark hair.

“I have a feeling this little guy’s going to keep us on our toes,” he says, his voice warm with anticipation.

You chuckle. “I think he’s going to be just like his dad. Confident, a little dramatic, always ready for an adventure.”

Tony grins. “Then he’s got some pretty big shoes to fill. But don’t worry, kid.” He leans close to Edward, whispering, “You’ve got a head start. You’ve got the best mom in the world.”

Your heart swells, and you glance over at Tony, feeling overwhelmed with love and gratitude. “And the best dad.”

He reaches for your hand, holding it tight. “Here’s to the new adventure, Mrs. Stark. Alps trips, tiny skis, and all.”

And as Edward settles back down in your arms, his little hand wrapped around Tony’s pinky, you know you wouldn’t trade this moment, this family, for anything in the world.

November brings a fresh blanket of snow over the Alps, and true to his word, Tony whisks you and baby Edward back to the chalet for your first family trip as a trio. But this time, Tony has leveled up his promise a little bit.

“Alright, brace yourself,” he says with a smirk as the three of you arrive at the chalet’s entrance.

“Tony, what did you do?” you ask, eyeing him with playful suspicion.

He opens the door with a flourish. “Meet the new and improved chalet,” he declares as you step inside and notice everything from the original cozy stone walls to the carved wooden beams… looking the exact same as they had before. It’s still the chalet you remember, but now, as you glance around, you notice subtle but elegant upgrades: a sleeker kitchen, plush couches, perfectly arranged warm lighting, and something tells you Tony’s fingerprints are on each and every detail.

“JARVIS?” you call out, testing your theory.

“Yes, Mrs. Stark,” JARVIS replies smoothly, his voice filling the room. “I am here to assist you with anything you need during your stay.”

You look at Tony, arching an eyebrow. “You put JARVIS in the chalet?”

Tony grins. “What’s a chalet without a little Stark-level luxury? Besides, he’s got the heat, lights, baby-monitoring, and full security on lock. Plus, the moment Edward gets fussy, he’s going to give us gentle background white noise. Like having a top-notch babysitter that we don’t have to pay.”

You laugh, holding baby Edward closer to you. “Only you would find a way to make a rustic mountain getaway smart-tech enabled.”

Edward blinks up at the sound of JARVIS, his big brown eyes going wide. Tony leans over, stroking Edward’s tiny head with a grin. “See, kiddo? We’ve got all the comforts of home—just with a better view.”

Of course, while the chalet is all set up and the vacation is planned to perfection, the reality of bringing a seven-month-old to the Alps sets in quickly. For one thing, Edward seems endlessly fascinated with everything in sight—the crackling fire, the pinecone decorations, the view outside—but especially, he loves testing his new babbling skills at full volume whenever you’re trying to enjoy a quiet moment by the fireplace. And when it comes time to bundle him up in his little winter gear for some snow time, things get complicated fast.

Tony holds up the puffy snowsuit, squinting at it like it’s a complex piece of machinery. “Okay, so we just… put him in here? I don’t think he’ll fit. Are you sure this is his size?”

You stifle a laugh. “Yes, Tony. Babies’ clothes just tend to look a little oversized. Trust me, he’ll fit.”

After a few minutes of wrestling with the baby-sized marshmallow suit, Edward is all bundled up, looking a little like a tiny, slightly disgruntled snowman, his cheeks poking out from the snug hood.

“Well, look at you!” Tony coos, chuckling as he lifts Edward up. “You’re ready to brave Everest.” He leans in and whispers conspiratorially, “Just don’t expect us to climb it anytime soon, okay?”

You take a few steps outside, holding Edward’s tiny mittened hand, and Tony follows with a knowing smile. “Alright, team, it’s time to introduce the little guy to snow. First snowball?” he asks, already forming a little powdery ball.

“Nothing too rough, Stark,” you say with a laugh. But before you know it, Tony tosses a soft, fluffy snowball—more like a gentle powder puff—onto Edward’s lap.

Edward stares at the snowball with a very serious expression, reaching out to poke at it. His face lights up as his tiny mitten sinks into the snow, and he looks up at you, babbling excitedly.

“See?” Tony says, grinning. “Total natural. And he hasn’t even tried sledding yet!”

You and Tony spend the morning showing Edward the snow-covered world, taking him out to a little sled where he sits on your lap, squealing in delight as Tony gently pulls the sled along. Every now and then, he looks up at you with pure joy, and your heart just melts.

Later that evening, after you’ve managed to get Edward fed and snuggled into bed (which was an ordeal in itself, as he spent half the time grabbing at your hair and Tony’s glasses), you sit by the fireplace, wrapped in one of the soft blankets Tony stocked up on. Tony finally joins you after setting up a baby monitor with JARVIS’s help, plopping down on the couch beside you with a tired but satisfied smile.

He wraps an arm around you, pulling you close. “Well, we survived the first day. Barely.”

You laugh, resting your head on his shoulder. “It’s different with a baby, isn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” he says, looking over at the baby monitor and grinning as he sees Edward sleeping peacefully. “But it’s kind of the best thing ever.”

You smile, thinking of all the little moments from the day—Edward’s excitement over the snow, his curious little face peeking out from the snowsuit, the way he’d babbled at the mountains like he was having a full conversation with them. “It really is.”

Tony’s hand drifts to your shoulder, and he kisses the top of your head. “Remember what I promised you? Yearly trips to the Alps, no matter what.”

You close your eyes, soaking in the warmth and the soft crackling of the fire. “And you’ve outdone yourself, Mr. Stark. This chalet is perfect.”

“Well, only the best for you and our little snow adventurer.” He chuckles, his eyes soft as he looks at you. “I can’t wait until he’s old enough to really take on the slopes. I’ll teach him everything I know.”

You raise an eyebrow, laughing. “Oh, so he’ll be an expert on the bunny slopes?”

Tony gasps in mock offense. “Excuse me! I did those bunny slopes with you for safety reasons.”

You grin, nudging him playfully. “Sure, sure.”

For the rest of the night, you both fall into comfortable conversation, talking about your favorite parts of the trip and laughing over Edward’s tiny adventures of the day. And even though there’s a new level of exhaustion that comes with traveling as parents, there’s also a new kind of joy, too—the kind that fills your heart in ways you never could have imagined.

As you settle in beside Tony, his arm around you and the fire casting warm shadows across the room, you feel it—the deep contentment of being right where you’re meant to be. You have each other, a beautiful family, and all the memories waiting to be made on snowy Alps trips just like this one.

The next morning, you and Tony have a grand plan: to get a family photo in the snow with the Alps as a backdrop. You picture a sweet little scene—Edward bundled up, the mountains glistening in the background, and you and Tony looking like that perfect, smiling family on a holiday card. But getting a baby and two semi-coordinated adults to cooperate for a “simple” photo quickly becomes its own comedy of errors.

First, there’s the task of getting Edward back into his snowsuit, which he’s now decided he hates. He’s wiggling, giggling, and pulling at the hood the entire time, giving Tony a run for his money as he tries to zip up the tiny suit.

“Alright, Edward, c’mon,” Tony pleads, one hand struggling with the zipper while Edward bats at his dad’s face with a mittened hand. “Just work with me here, buddy. Think of the memories.”

Edward lets out a little squeal that sounds suspiciously like laughter, and you can’t help but giggle as Tony finally manages to get the zipper all the way up.

“There we go!” Tony cheers, looking immensely proud, like he’s just invented a new suit himself.

With the baby finally bundled, you two tackle the next challenge: finding a spot outside where the snow isn’t too deep. Tony scouts ahead, and with JARVIS chiming in via earpiece to give him topographical tips, you both make your way to the perfect spot, nestled near a tall pine tree with a breathtaking view of the snow-capped Alps in the background.

Tony positions his phone on a nearby rock, sets the timer, and then hurries back to join you and Edward. But as he leans in, trying to hold Edward steady, his hand slips, and suddenly he’s teetering backward, flailing as he tries to catch his balance on the icy snow.

“Oh no—!” you gasp, holding Edward securely as Tony lets out a string of surprised curses and lands straight in a snowbank, his legs flopping over the edge like a giant starfish.

The phone’s camera timer goes off with a cheery click. The result? A perfectly crisp shot of you holding Edward, smiling serenely while Tony lies in the background, half-buried in snow, looking thoroughly betrayed by gravity.

You’re laughing so hard that Edward starts to giggle too, a bubbly little laugh that only makes the whole situation even funnier. Tony sits up, looking bemused but amused, his face pink from the cold. “Okay, that’s… that’s one for the family album.”

You grin, wiping tears of laughter from your eyes. “It’s a classic already.”

Not one to let the snow get the best of him, Tony gets up with determination, brushing the snow off with dramatic flair. “Alright, no one messes with a Stark like that. We’re getting this shot, and it’s going to be flawless.”

On attempt number two, Tony positions the phone on a steadier surface, checks the snow for any hidden ice, and rejoins you, looping an arm around your shoulder as you all face the camera with bright smiles.

Just as the timer ticks down, Edward reaches up, grabbing Tony’s nose with an impressive grip for a seven-month-old. The photo snaps just as Tony lets out a squawk of surprise, his expression halfway between amusement and “I’ve been captured by my own child.” The result is another photo that, while completely unscripted, somehow captures everything you love about this little family adventure.

“Alright, I’m calling it,” Tony laughs, taking a look at the new photo. “Apparently, we’re destined for candid shots only.”

You shrug, kissing Edward’s chubby little cheek. “Maybe that’s even better. We’re a chaotic family, Tony—why pretend otherwise?”

As you all make your way back to the chalet, Tony leans in, whispering, “Just so you know, I’m sending both of those pictures to Happy for our holiday card options. Let him decide which one says ‘Stark Family Adventure’ the best.”

Later, cozy by the fire with Edward dozing in his crib nearby, you and Tony swipe through the day’s photos, laughing over each and every attempt. The best shots—the ones where you’re all genuinely laughing, snow in your hair and mismatched expressions—are far from perfect, but they’re filled with real joy. And as you snuggle close, you know this will be the kind of memory you’ll treasure forever, a perfectly imperfect adventure in the Alps with the people you love most.

Three years later, you’re back at the chalet for your annual Alps getaway, and it’s no surprise that Edward is now an unstoppable force. At three years old, he’s practically a mirror image of Tony—a toddler with boundless energy, unfiltered curiosity, and a confidence level that has you equal parts impressed and on high alert.

“Okay, buddy,” Tony says, crouching down to zip up Edward’s puffy little parka. “Remember the rules for today. One, no climbing any trees. Two, no running past—”

“Got it!” Edward chirps, promptly bouncing up and bolting out the door, his tiny boots pattering across the snow.

You laugh, throwing Tony a knowing look as he sighs. “He’s got the Stark attention span, too,” you say.

Tony smirks. “Only the best traits, right?”

Outside, Edward has already discovered a stick and is poking it into the snow, chattering away to himself like he’s narrating his own discovery channel show. As you watch, he picks up a pine cone and waves it over his head like it’s a prized artifact.

“Look, Daddy!” he calls, holding up the pine cone with immense pride. “I found treasure!”

Tony, trying to keep up with Edward’s imaginative pace, kneels beside him, inspecting the pine cone with all the gravitas of a museum curator. “Ah, yes. A rare alpine pine cone. I’d say that’s worth at least ten points.”

“Ten points!” Edward exclaims, his face lighting up with joy.

You watch the two of them, warmth filling your chest. They’re a perfectly matched pair: Tony, the ever-encouraging, slightly mischievous dad, and Edward, who treats every rock, snowflake, and icicle as if it’s the most magical thing he’s ever seen.

Before long, Tony has convinced Edward that a snowball fight is in order. The two of them square off, and it’s a comical sight—Tony with his practiced aim and Edward with his… well, enthusiastic but chaotic form of defense, which mostly involves flinging snow in every possible direction.

You try to sit back and watch, but before you know it, Edward has roped you in. “Mommy! Help me!” he calls, his tiny face flushed with excitement.

“Oh, you’re going down, Stark!” you call, laughing as you crouch beside Edward, forming snowballs as fast as he can toss them.

Tony’s attempts at pretending to be defeated are the funniest part of it all. He stumbles around dramatically, flinging snow in the air and making ridiculous sound effects every time Edward hits him with a snowball. Edward laughs so hard he nearly tumbles backward, and his laughter is contagious, echoing through the snowy landscape around you.

After an hour of snowy chaos, you all retreat back inside, red-cheeked and chilled but perfectly happy. You wrap Edward in a cozy blanket, and he nestles up beside you on the couch, his head resting against your shoulder, still babbling about his “great snow victory.”

Tony sits on your other side, wrapping an arm around you both. “You think he’s going to be this wild every year?”

You smile, brushing a stray bit of snow out of Edward’s hair. “If he’s anything like you? Definitely.”

Tony laughs, his eyes softening as he looks down at Edward, who’s drifting off in the comfort of your arms. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

And in that moment, in the warmth of the chalet with your little family bundled together, you can’t imagine a better tradition. The mountains, the snow, and these beautiful, hilarious memories—they’re your family’s own perfect kind of magic.

After a long day of helping a highly enthusiastic but wildly unpredictable Edward navigate the beginner slopes, you and Tony are both thoroughly exhausted. Getting Edward to sleep has been an adventure on its own—he insisted on wearing his snow hat to bed, hugging his newfound pine cone “treasure” like a beloved teddy bear. But at last, he’s tucked under the cozy blankets, his soft snores filling the room as he finally rests.

You and Tony stand in the doorway, watching him with a mix of adoration and relief. Tony wraps his arms around you from behind, resting his chin on your shoulder as you both gaze at your son.

“Out like a light,” Tony murmurs softly, a trace of awe in his voice. “Gotta hand it to the Alps—only place that can actually wear this little guy out.”

You chuckle, leaning back into his embrace. “Only took skiing lessons, a snowball fight, and an epic bedtime negotiation to get him here.”

Tony smirks. “Can you blame him? Kid knows what he wants.” He drops a light kiss on your shoulder, his voice turning playfully suggestive. “Wonder where he gets that from?”

You roll your eyes, smiling despite yourself. “Pretty sure that’s all you, Mr. Stark.”

Tony pulls you closer, pressing his lips near your ear. “I think you underestimate just how… persuasive you can be, Mrs. Stark.”

You laugh softly, feeling the blush rise in your cheeks as Tony’s hands slip around your waist. “You’re incorrigible, you know that?”

He feigns innocence. “Just stating the facts. And for the record, I’m pretty persuasive too. I mean, look at this kid.” He nods toward Edward’s sleeping form. “That’s a whole collaboration project right there. A masterpiece, if I do say so myself.”

You shake your head, trying to keep a straight face. But then, as you glance back at Edward, all tucked up in his little cocoon of blankets, the thought slips out of you before you can catch it: “I wouldn’t mind adding to the… collection.”

Tony goes still, and you feel his arms tighten around you, the grin in his voice unmistakable. “Oh, really?”

You blush, nudging him with your elbow, but you don’t deny it. “Maybe…”

“Maybe, she says,” he murmurs, amusement dancing in his tone as he steps back, just enough to turn you around and face him. His eyes are sparkling with a familiar mischief, and you know exactly where this is going. “Well, Mrs. Stark, I don’t believe in wasting time.”

Without another word, he scoops you up in his arms, carrying you down the hall to your room with a determined grin. He pauses only to nudge the door shut with his foot and click the lock, just in case Edward decides to wander in on his way to a midnight snack.

The next morning, you both shuffle into the kitchen, happily disheveled but somewhat groggy after last night’s, uh, activities. Tony pours you both coffee while you tackle the task of assembling breakfast for the family, the scent of coffee filling the chalet. Just as you finish plating the pancakes, you hear the pitter-patter of small feet racing down the hall.

Edward appears in the doorway, all tousled bedhead and wide, curious eyes. He grins, hopping up into his chair with more energy than either of you can muster, and starts digging into his breakfast.

“Did you sleep well, buddy?” you ask, trying to keep the knowing smile off your face as Tony gives you a wink over his coffee mug.

“Yeah, I did,” Edward says, then tilts his head in thought. “Except for the weird noises.”

Your fork pauses mid-air. Tony freezes, eyebrows raising slightly as he trades a look with you.

“Oh? What kind of noises, honey?” you ask, trying to keep your tone light and innocent.

Edward scrunches his face, deep in toddler-level contemplation. “I dunno… kind of like ‘thump thump’ and then like… a squeaky sound?” He shrugs, perfectly unaware of the red hue creeping up both your faces. “I thought it was maybe animals outside. Like a bear!”

Tony chokes a little on his coffee, quickly composing himself as he nods, very seriously. “You know what? That’s exactly what it was. Just some… mountain animals. Bears, probably. Or… squirrels. Could’ve been squirrels too, I’d bet.”

Edward looks skeptical. “Squirrels? Squirrels go ‘squeak squeak’?”

You nod, putting on your best parental poker face. “Oh, absolutely. These Alps squirrels are, uh, very vocal.”

“And super fast,” Tony adds, trying to keep a straight face. “They must’ve just been scurrying around outside.”

Satisfied with this explanation, Edward returns to his breakfast, the mystery solved in his mind. But Tony can’t help himself—he sneaks a hand over, giving your knee a quick squeeze and winking at you over his mug, a mischievous smile dancing on his lips as he whispers, “Squirrels, huh?”

You bite back a laugh, nudging him with your foot under the table. “Keep it up, Stark, and you’ll be explaining squirrel noises for years to come.”

And as Edward chatters away about his plans for another day of snowy adventures, you and Tony share a quiet smile, thinking about how this mountain hideaway has become even more special to your family—memories made in the snow, and, apparently, memories made with a little help from the “squirrels.”

It’s a crisp spring afternoon in New York, and you’re back at Stark Tower, watching Edward chase his toy cars around the living room with endless energy. You can’t help smiling as he zooms his favorite red race car across the floor, making all the appropriate “vroom” noises, blissfully unaware that his whole world is about to change. You’ve just returned from the doctor, and the news you have to share with Tony feels like a small, joyful secret waiting to burst.

After waiting for the right moment all afternoon, you find Tony tinkering in his workshop. He’s bent over some project, half of his attention on JARVIS narrating stock reports, but as soon as he sees you standing in the doorway, he brightens up and sets down his tools.

“Hey, gorgeous. To what do I owe the pleasure?” He smirks, reaching for your hand and pulling you close.

“Well, I thought you might want a break,” you say, feeling the excitement bubble in your chest. “I actually have… some pretty big news.”

“Oh?” His eyebrow arches, his interest clearly piqued as he looks at you with that familiar Stark sparkle. “Do tell.”

Taking a deep breath, you let the words tumble out. “Tony, I’m pregnant.”

For a split second, there’s only silence as he processes what you’ve said. And then his face lights up with a joy so pure it makes your heart swell.

“You’re serious?” he whispers, almost as if he can’t believe it.

You nod, your smile growing wider. “We’re having another baby, Tony.”

His response is immediate; he wraps you in his arms, pulling you close, and you feel the warmth of his kiss on your forehead as he lets out a small, breathless laugh. “Another baby… wow. I’m gonna have two little Starks running around?” He pulls back to look at you, his hands on your shoulders, his gaze soft and a little awed. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

“Well, thank you,” you laugh. “But this is all teamwork.”

“Oh, believe me,” he says, his expression growing playfully mischievous, “I remember the teamwork.”

You give him a light smack on the chest, rolling your eyes. “Focus, Stark. We have another little person to tell the news to, remember?”

Tony’s eyes widen, glancing toward the hallway where Edward’s little voice can be heard playing. “Oh, you mean the future big brother. How do you think he’ll take it?”

“Honestly?” You shrug. “No idea. But I think he’ll be excited… once he gets past any confusion.”

Tony grins, his eyes sparkling with the thrill of telling Edward. “Let’s do it.”

You both head to the living room, where Edward is still entirely focused on his toy car, making it zoom up the arm of the couch and fly through the air before landing it perfectly on the carpet. At three and a half years old, he’s the spitting image of his father: curious, energetic, and already a little charmer. When he sees you and Tony approaching, he stops mid-vroom, looking up with big, curious eyes.

“Hey, big guy,” Tony says, crouching down to Edward’s level. “Mommy and I have some special news for you.”

Edward’s eyes light up with interest. “News?”

You smile, sitting down next to him. “Yes, honey. You’re going to be a big brother.”

Edward’s little face scrunches up in confusion. “Big… brother?”

“Yes,” you say, glancing at Tony for support. “That means Mommy has a baby in her belly, and when it’s ready, you’ll have a little brother or sister.”

Edward’s eyes widen even more, and he stares at your stomach, looking half-confused, half-impressed. “Mommy ate a baby?”

Tony immediately bursts into laughter, and you can’t help but laugh too. You shake your head, gently taking Edward’s little hand and placing it on your belly. “No, honey, Mommy didn’t eat a baby. The baby is growing in here. And in a few months, you’re going to have a little sibling.”

Edward’s hand stays on your belly, his face absolutely serious as he contemplates this information. “So… the baby is just there?” He presses a bit, as if expecting to feel something.

Tony chimes in, his voice warm. “Yep. Just there, buddy. Growing a little more every day.”

Edward’s face slowly shifts from confusion to excitement, his smile growing as he processes what it means. “I’m going to have a baby to play with?”

“Exactly,” you say, brushing his hair out of his face. “You’re going to be a big brother. And that means you get to help take care of the baby, teach them new things, and, when they’re big enough, play together.”

Edward’s grin is so wide now that it practically glows. “I’m gonna be a big brother!” He pauses, squinting up at Tony. “Like… like how Daddy is in charge of everyone?”

Tony grins, clearly enjoying this line of thought. “Well, not exactly. You’ll be a big brother, which means you’ll get to show the baby how to do all the fun stuff, like building towers and—”

“And playing cars!” Edward finishes with enthusiasm. “I’m gonna teach them everything!”

You exchange a tender smile with Tony, watching as Edward begins to babble on about all the things he’ll show his little sibling, his excitement growing with each idea. You can see Tony’s eyes soften as he watches Edward, his hand finding yours and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Edward scrambles off the couch and stands right in front of your belly, crossing his arms with determination. “Baby, you have to come out soon so I can show you everything, okay?”

You chuckle, running a hand through his messy hair. “It’ll be a few more months, sweetheart, but the baby will hear you.”

Edward nods seriously, placing both hands on your stomach as if he’s already the most devoted big brother. “Okay, baby. Don’t worry. I’m gonna be here to teach you all the important stuff.”

Tony chuckles, pulling you close with an arm around your shoulder. “I think this baby has a pretty awesome big brother waiting for them.”

Edward looks up at both of you, his face filled with pure, innocent excitement. “Is the baby going to look like me?”

“Maybe!” you say, smiling at his curiosity. “Or maybe the baby will look like Daddy.”

“Or you!” Tony adds, squeezing your shoulder. “But one thing’s for sure, they’re going to be very lucky to have you as their big brother.”

Edward beams, his eyes bright with pride. Then he suddenly looks thoughtful. “Does that mean I get to be in charge of them? Like when they don’t want to play?”

You and Tony share a glance, stifling laughter. “Well, being a big brother means you’re a helper,” you say. “And that means being patient and kind.”

Edward thinks about this, nodding slowly. “I can do that,” he says seriously. “I’m going to be the best big brother ever.”

With that, he dashes back to his toy cars, already chatting to them about his new sibling as if they, too, need to know the news. You and Tony watch him with affection, sharing a moment of pure contentment.

“Not bad, huh?” Tony murmurs, his hand slipping around your waist as he pulls you close.

“Not bad at all,” you reply, leaning into him. “I think he’s going to be amazing.”

Tony chuckles, his gaze softening as he watches Edward play. “You know, if he’s anything like me, that baby is going to have a lot of excitement to look forward to.”

“Let’s just hope they balance each other out,” you laugh. “Otherwise, I think I’ll have my hands full.”

Tony gives you a teasing smile. “I think you already do, Mrs. Stark.”

The snow has blanketed the Italian Alps in a serene white hush, and you can’t help but smile as you look out the chalet window, feeling at peace even with the slight ache in your lower back. You’re nine months pregnant, and the baby could come any day now, but you wouldn’t have missed this trip for the world—not when it’s become such a special tradition for your family. You’d made sure Tony understood that before you left. Despite his protests, he finally agreed. But only under the condition that you’d “take it easy” and let him handle absolutely everything.

The chalet has become even more luxurious, thanks to Tony’s constant upgrades and “adjustments.” And though it’s outfitted with everything you could possibly need, from a medical suite to Jarvis-powered heating control, Tony is still on edge. You feel his watchful gaze follow you even as you wander just a few steps around the cozy living room. Even more surprising, Edward seems just as watchful, hovering nearby with a little furrowed brow that mimics his father’s.

“Mama, you need more water?” he asks for the third time in an hour, holding up a glass in his little mittened hand, though he looks a bit wobbly carrying it.

You smile, reaching down to take it. “Thank you, sweetie. You know, I think I’m good for now.”

He looks relieved, climbing up onto the couch beside you and cuddling into your side, immediately leaning down to put his face near your belly. It’s become his favorite spot, his “sister perch,” as he calls it. “Hi, baby Mia,” he whispers, his breath tickling your belly. “I got Mama water like you need. But you gotta wait a little bit, okay? ‘Cause you’re supposed to come after Christmas.”

You giggle, reaching down to ruffle his hair. “I think she’s listening, Eddie.”

Tony walks in from the kitchen with his own cup of coffee and grins, watching the two of you with unmistakable fondness. He’s got his eye on Edward, who’s started this protective routine almost as if on cue. You’ve noticed that ever since you arrived, Edward has been watching you with extra concern, following you room to room with a serious expression that makes him look adorably like a miniature version of Tony.

“Keeping an eye on Mama, huh?” Tony asks, dropping into the armchair beside you. He catches Edward’s eye and gives him a wink, which Edward dutifully returns with a nod.

“Daddy said I gotta be extra good and make sure you and Mia are okay,” Edward explains seriously, his hand now gently patting your belly. “Because if she comes early, it’s up to me to keep you safe too.”

You glance over at Tony, arching a brow. “So, you’ve enlisted a tiny helper?”

Tony smirks, leaning back in his chair with a mock-casual expression. “Well, let’s just say I figured another set of eyes wouldn’t hurt. Especially with someone as stubborn as you, Mrs. Stark, insisting on a nine-month-pregnant trip to the Alps.”

You roll your eyes, stifling a laugh. “Oh, so now I’m the stubborn one?”

He just grins, leaning forward to gently place his hand beside Edward’s, rubbing soothing circles across your belly. “Mia, just for the record, we’d prefer it if you’d wait a little longer to make your debut, okay? Let’s give Mommy a couple more quiet nights.”

Edward chimes in, “Yeah, you stay in there, Mia!” He lowers his voice to a loud whisper, as though she might be eavesdropping. “Daddy says it’s cozy and warm in there.”

Watching Tony and Edward both focused so intently on you and the baby makes you feel an overwhelming rush of affection. Tony may be playfully aloof at times, but you know how protective he is, and seeing Edward’s instinct to care for you just as much—it’s almost too much for your heart to handle.

Over the next few days, their vigilance only increases. Edward insists on helping with every little task, from picking up anything you drop to insisting you don’t leave the couch without him.

One afternoon, you’re sitting near the fire, Tony stretched out beside you with Edward nestled between you both. Edward has his hand on your belly, his little face serious as he leans over, “talking” to Mia about all the things he’ll show her once she’s born. You glance over at Tony, who’s pretending to read a book but has a smile on his face, clearly listening in.

“Yeah, and I’ll show you the big mountain,” Edward whispers to your belly. “And all the squirrels! But you gotta wait a little ‘cause you’re too tiny now.”

“Big brother’s got it all figured out, huh?” you murmur, looking over at Tony.

Tony gives a soft laugh. “He’s thorough, what can I say?”

When evening falls, you sit with Tony as Edward helps him prepare dinner in the kitchen. Tony’s pretending not to notice that Edward is sneaking more carrot slices than he’s putting in the salad, and you’re listening to their banter with a smile. Just as Tony finishes the final stir, he glances over at you, his eyes brightening.

“Alright, gorgeous, dinner’s served.” He and Edward bring everything over to the table, setting it up with an odd mix of finesse and excitement. Edward clambers into his chair, looking proudly at the setup.

As you all dig in, Edward turns to you, as serious as ever. “Mama, do you think Mia can eat with us next year?”

You chuckle, nodding. “I think she’ll be joining us for a lot of meals, honey. And you can help show her how everything works.”

“I’m good at showing stuff,” Edward says, sounding very grown-up. He stabs his fork into his food, then pauses to look at you. “Mommy, is Mia gonna need to wait for food like me?”

“Maybe at first,” you say, glancing at Tony as you add, “But she’ll have a big brother who can teach her all about snacks.”

Tony nods seriously, reaching over to give Edward a high-five. “That’s right, buddy. You’ll have to show her all the important stuff—especially the snacks.”

Edward beams, looking very pleased with himself. Dinner continues in this cozy, easy rhythm, filled with little jokes and laughter, until you find yourself feeling so relaxed you almost forget how close you are to your due date.

Late that night, after Edward is tucked in, you and Tony settle into bed, and he wraps his arms around you from behind, his hand resting instinctively on your belly. You sigh, leaning into his warmth, grateful for the peace and quiet.

“Think she’s getting cozy in there?” Tony murmurs, rubbing small circles on your belly.

“She seems content,” you whisper back, smiling. “But then again, so am I.”

A comfortable silence falls between you as Tony presses a soft kiss to your shoulder. “I can’t believe we’re going to have two little ones soon.”

You chuckle. “And you doubted our Alps trip.”

He rolls his eyes playfully. “Hey, better safe than sorry. If I had my way, we’d be back in New York near the best hospital in the state.”

“Relax,” you say, lacing your fingers through his. “We’ve got everything we need right here.”

And as you lie there, cradled in Tony’s arms with the baby softly moving beneath your hand, you feel a deep, calm certainty—no matter where you are, as long as your family is by your side, everything will be exactly as it should be.

The evening is peaceful as you sit by the fireplace in the chalet, warming up after a full day spent playing in the snow. Tony’s got an arm around your shoulders, holding you close, while Edward is curled up on the rug in front of you, arranging his toys with focused concentration. You’re enjoying the rare calm, your hand resting on your belly, feeling the little nudges and kicks that Mia has made her daily ritual.

Suddenly, you feel a sharp, intense pressure low in your abdomen—a sensation that makes you gasp, your hand gripping Tony’s arm on instinct.

“Hey, you okay?” Tony looks at you, his brow furrowing in concern. Edward glances up too, his toy race car frozen mid-drive as he watches you with wide eyes.

“Um… I think…” Another wave hits you, stronger this time, making you tense. You can’t help but wince as a rush of pain makes it clear exactly what’s happening. “Tony, I think it’s time.”

“Time? Time for—oh!” Tony’s face goes through a series of rapid changes, from confusion to realization to full-blown panic. “Time! Okay, okay. That’s fine. We knew this was coming. I’ve got this.” But his eyes are wide, and his hands are already shaking as he reaches for his phone, practically tossing it out of his pocket in his haste.

Edward’s face scrunches up with worry. “Mama, are you okay? Is Mia coming now?”

You manage a reassuring smile for him, though it’s strained. “Yes, sweetheart. Mia’s on her way.”

Edward’s little mouth forms a perfect “O” as he stands there, frozen with his toy car clutched in his hand. “But she’s not supposed to come yet!” He looks to Tony for confirmation, a touch of panic in his voice. “Daddy, she’s coming early!”

“Uh, yeah, she sure is, buddy,” Tony mutters, trying to steady himself as he dials for the hospital. But when the call goes unanswered, he swears softly under his breath, his face paling. “Right. Nearest hospital it is. I’ve got this. Totally got this. Y/N, do you need a bag? Should I carry you?”

You laugh—well, as much as you can while clutching your belly. “Tony, just help me to the car. And grab the bag we packed in the bedroom. It’s all set.”

He nods, snapping into action as he wraps an arm around you, helping you up as gently as he can. Edward trails closely, his eyes fixed on you, looking like he’s ready to burst into tears. “Mama, is it going to hurt a lot?”

You nod, managing a comforting smile. “It’s going to be okay, Eddie. But yes, sometimes it does hurt a bit.”

With a nod, he straightens up, puffing out his little chest as if he’s trying to be brave for you. “I’ll protect you, Mama,” he says with a firmness that makes Tony’s mouth twitch, though he’s too frantic to fully appreciate the cuteness of it.

Tony helps you out to the car, keeping an arm firmly around you while Edward scrambles into his seat in the back, buckling himself with serious focus. He’s quiet as he watches Tony settle you in, his gaze darting between the two of you.

“Okay, everyone’s in. We’re good. We’re going to the hospital,” Tony announces, gripping the wheel and peeling out of the driveway with more speed than finesse.

The drive is quiet, save for Tony’s constant mutterings and reassurances. “Almost there, babe. Hang on. We’ve got this.”

Edward, still wide-eyed and silent, keeps glancing from Tony to you, his little hands clasped in his lap. Finally, he leans forward and says softly, “Daddy, is Mia going to come soon?”

Tony gives him a reassuring smile in the rearview mirror. “Pretty soon, buddy. But she’s going to be just fine, and so is Mommy.”

A few minutes later, the hospital comes into view. Tony whips into the parking lot, barely managing to park the car before he’s jumping out, rushing around to help you. The nurses spot the three of you, and within moments, you’re whisked into the maternity ward with Tony by your side, Edward clinging tightly to his other hand.

After a moment of hesitation, Tony looks at Edward, his expression softening. “Okay, Eddie, I think it’s time for you to hang out with the nurses while we bring Mia into the world, alright?”

Edward’s eyes are filled with worry as he looks up at you, his little brow furrowed. “Are you sure, Daddy? Maybe I should help.”

You reach out and give his hand a gentle squeeze, smiling through the pain. “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll see you soon.”

Reluctantly, he nods and lets go, and a nurse leads him to the waiting room, promising him hot chocolate. Once he’s settled, you let yourself focus fully on the task at hand, breathing deeply as another wave of contractions hits.

Hours later, as dawn breaks over the mountains, you’re finally holding a tiny, pink-cheeked bundle in your arms. Mia is here, and she’s perfect, with soft wisps of dark hair and the tiniest little nose. Tony looks at her with an expression you haven’t seen before, a mixture of awe, wonder, and pure love.

“She’s… wow,” he murmurs, his voice choked. He reaches out, his finger stroking her soft cheek. “She’s here. She’s finally here.”

You nod, tears slipping down your cheeks as you watch him. “She is. And she’s beautiful.”

Just then, there’s a knock on the door, and a nurse steps in with Edward, who’s clutching a small, stuffed bear that he insists is for Mia. He’s a little hesitant, staring at the tiny bundle in your arms with wide, curious eyes.

“Eddie, come meet your sister,” Tony says, beckoning him over with a soft smile.

Edward steps forward slowly, his eyes fixed on Mia with fascination. He gently sets the bear down beside her and looks up at you, his voice barely above a whisper. “Is that really her?”

“Yes, sweetie,” you murmur, shifting Mia just enough so Edward can see her more clearly. “This is Mia. Your baby sister.”

Edward’s face lights up as he takes it in. He reaches out tentatively, gently touching her tiny hand. “Hi, Mia. I’m your big brother,” he whispers, looking awed. Then he glances up at you and Tony, his voice growing more confident. “I’ll take care of you, Mia. Just like I promised.”

Tony chuckles, ruffling Edward’s hair. “That’s right, bud. You’re the best big brother she could ask for.”

Once you’re back at the chalet, it’s as if the whole place is holding its breath for Mia. Even the snowfall outside seems to have softened, the sky a soft pink and blue haze as the sun rises over the Alps. Tony helps you get settled on the couch, Mia tucked warmly in your arms. Edward is right beside you, eyes wide and sparkling as he stares at his sister, still in awe of the tiny new family member.

“Mommy, can I…?” He trails off, looking up at you with hopeful eyes.

Tony clears his throat, immediately stepping in. “Can you what, buddy?”

Edward meets Tony’s gaze with a bold determination. “Can I hold her?”

Tony opens his mouth, looking unsure. It’s clear he’s struggling, torn between letting Edward’s eager big-brother heart grow and the sheer terror of seeing his three-year-old son anywhere near such a delicate little bundle. You give Tony’s hand a reassuring squeeze, then smile softly at Edward.

“Of course you can, sweetheart. We’ll help you,” you say, and Tony shoots you a look that is part admiration and part mild panic.

With care and precision that would make any parent proud, you and Tony arrange Edward on the large bed, surrounding him with a fortress of pillows. He sits cross-legged, his little hands clasped in his lap, looking more serious than you’ve ever seen him.

“Alright, Edward, remember—very, very gentle,” Tony instructs, his voice a little shaky as he settles Mia in Edward’s lap. The look on his face says he’s ready to leap in at any second.

Edward nods with the utmost sincerity, keeping his hands steady as he holds Mia, his tiny fingers brushing over her soft blanket. He gazes down at her with awe, and Mia, as if she already knows her brother, blinks up at him, her eyes round and calm.

“Hi, Mia,” he whispers, his voice almost reverent. “It’s me, Edward. I’m your big brother.”

Tony, standing a mere inch away, watches like a hawk, his eyes locked on Edward’s every move. If there were any way for him to be closer without actually holding Mia himself, he’d probably do it. You catch him clenching and unclenching his fists, clearly debating if he should interfere, even though Edward is doing perfectly well.

You chuckle softly, nudging Tony’s shoulder. “Breathe. He’s got this.”

“Breathe?” Tony whispers back, glancing at you like you’ve suggested he let Edward juggle china plates. “Babe, our son is three. Mia’s barely a week old. This is like… a recipe for chaos.”

“But look,” you murmur, smiling as you take in the sight before you.

Edward leans down slightly, his face inches from Mia’s, his little voice filled with wonder. “You’re so small, Mia. But I’ll help you get big. Just like me.”

You feel your heart melt, watching your son speak to Mia with the wisdom and warmth of someone far beyond his years. Mia, sensing something special, gives a little yawn, her face scrunching up before she settles comfortably in Edward’s lap.

Tony’s shoulders ease just a fraction, and he shakes his head with a small smile. “Alright, you’re right. He’s got this.”

After a few moments, Edward looks up at Tony with a mix of pride and excitement. “Daddy, she’s not crying!”

Tony laughs, reaching out to ruffle Edward’s hair. “She’s not crying because she likes you, buddy. You’re already doing an amazing job.”

Edward beams, sitting up a little taller. “Yeah, I think she does like me. I’ve been practicing, Daddy. With my teddy bear, remember?”

Tony chuckles, nodding. “All that practice paid off, didn’t it?”

Satisfied that Edward has everything under control, you settle back, letting yourself enjoy this peaceful moment. It’s incredible to see Tony’s eyes soften with such pride as he watches Edward. When Mia stretches a tiny hand and accidentally grabs one of Edward’s fingers, Edward lets out a little squeak of excitement.

“She’s so strong!” he says, looking up at Tony. “Look, Daddy! She’s already holding my finger!”

Tony’s grin widens, and he’s now fully invested, crouching beside the bed to get a better look. “She’s a Stark, all right. Strong from day one.”

You share a knowing smile with Tony. Somehow, it feels like the chalet, with its vintage wood and cozy, fire-lit rooms, has truly become your family’s haven. This yearly trip has become more than just a tradition—it’s a ritual of love and connection, a reminder of the life you and Tony have built together.

When Edward finally looks up, he gives Mia one last gentle hug before releasing her back into your arms. “Mommy, can I hold her again tomorrow?”

You smile, nodding. “Of course, Eddie. She’ll need all the big-brother cuddles she can get.”

“Deal,” he says with a grin, hugging his knees to his chest, his excitement making his little feet wiggle.

Later, when Edward’s sound asleep and Mia is curled up beside you, Tony wraps his arms around you, pulling you close. The fire crackles softly, casting a warm glow around the room, and he leans down to press a gentle kiss to the top of your head.

“So, another perfect day?” he murmurs.

You nod, resting your head on his shoulder. “Perfect in every way.”

I love family man Tony so much you guys can't even understand

[synthapostate]

The Predator: I read this book for the first time in the back of my grandparents’ car on my way to spend the weekend with them. I was excited to have a Marco POV book at last. “Oh boy,” I thought, “Marco’s humor is so great! This book is going to be so much fun!”

Let me tell you, the TEARS I CRIED right in the middle of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

- My name is Marco.

I can't tell you my last name or where I live. Believe me, I wish I could. I would like nothing more than to be able to tell you my name is Marco Jones or Williams or Vasquez or Brown or Anderson or McCain.

Marco McCain. Has kind of a nice sound, doesn't it?

But McCain's not my last name. I'm not even going to swear to you that Marco is my first name. See, I'm hoping to live awhile longer. I'm not going to make it any easier for the Yeerks to find me.

I always did wonder what Marco’s last name actually was. We do eventually learn Jake’s, and by extension Rachel’s, since we also know that their dads are brothers. We know Tobias’s, unless that was magic-retconned by spacetime weirdness. We don’t know Cassie’s, but I feel like she might have dropped some hints. But Marco is the one I think would throw out a lot of false leads, and play his real cards close to his chest.

Even though. Marco. Baby boy. Given the way this book goes, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference if we don’t know your name. Visser One knows exactly where to find you.

- Three punks. Each of them probably twice as big as I was. I'm not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm not even average height for my age, although I make up for it by being incredibly cute.

And charming. And witty. And modest.

But I was pretty sure the three big gang members in that alley were not going to be very impressed by my cuteness.

Fortunately, I have other abilities.

Marco is the smart one. The careful one. The one who is trying hardest not to get himself killed. But he does have the capacity for heroism, just as much as any of the others, even though he’d be the first to pretend otherwise. And he is not about to let a bunch of assholes beat up some old man, so in a move worthy of Rachel, he morphs gorilla (in broad daylight, dammit kid) and kicks their asses. Unfortunately, he also scares the hell out of their intended victim, who steals a mugger’s gun and tries to shoot Marco. “Which just goes to show you why you should never get involved in other people's problems.”

- He describes Cassie as “like sincere or something.” Adorable.

- Ax’s big plan in this book is to steal a Yeerk spaceship so he can go home. Ax may be tech savvy, but he is very much not the brains of this operation. It’s a good thing he’s named Jake his Prince, because Ax should not be making his own plans.

- “According to Cassie and Rachel, Ax is cute. I wouldn't know, being a guy.”

Marco sometimes makes statements like this, but he is the most queercoded character in this admittedly very straight series. It was the ‘90s and he’s twelve, so I don’t expect him to come out as a genderfluid pansexual, but. You see my vision? I see my vision.

Also, he’s talking about Ax’s Andalite body, not his human morph, so either the girls are both into that, or Marco thinks boys aren’t supposed to understand even the concept of cuteness. Honestly, I want to go ahead and say Rachel and Cassie are tumblr-level monsterfuckers, decades ahead of their time.

- <Fear is unworthy of a warrior.>

He seemed a little too determined for me. I don't know much about Andalites, but I had a feeling I understood this one, at least a little. See, he was alive. But every other Andalite who had come to Earth, including Ax's brother, the prince, was dead.

So I took a shot. It wasn't fair, maybe, but he'd made me mad, acting like I was some kind of coward. "How many times have you fought Hork-Bajir? Or any other Controller?" I asked him.

His stalk eyes drooped. He pawed the ground with one hoof. <Never,> he said.

I nodded. "I thought so. So let me tell you something, Ax. It's scary. It's so scary that some times you wish you could just go ahead and die because it's easier than dealing with the terror."

Ax is so young here. The kids went to rescue a stranded Andalite thinking they would find someone who could take the responsibility of fighting a war off their shoulders, and what they found was a half-trained cadet who has never even seen combat. The five of them are far more experienced than he is. They already understand war. They know that Ax���s ideas about fighting for “honor” are bullshit.

There are no adults coming to their rescue, just some dumb kid who insists on calling Jake his Prince because he needs to follow someone’s orders. And the Animorphs, who in comparison are practically hardened veterans, are going to have to look after him.

- So anyway, we get some wacky hijinks at the mall.

- "So far, so good," Jake said as we headed into the mall.

I rolled my eyes. "Jake? Do me a favor. Don't ever say 'so far, so good.' The only time anyone ever says 'so far, so good' is right before every thing blows up in his face."

"So far. So far. Farrrrr. Faaaar," Ax said, trying out the sounds. "So. Sssso far so so so good."

"Oh, man," I said.

Andalites don’t have mouths in their own bodies, so speaking is weird for Ax when he morphs human. But mouths can do more than that! Ax ditches the guys and goes straight to Starbucks. Apparently he understands waiting in line to order, so Jake is forced to pay for his double latte.

- "A hole! In the lid! No spills! Ills!"

This was the coolest thing Ax had ever seen. I guess coffee cup technology hasn't advanced very far on the Andalite home world. Probably be cause they don't have mouths, and so drinking is not a big concern. But whatever the reason, Ax wouldn't shut up about it.

I love when Ax is blown away by mundane human technology, although when it comes up in the future, it tends to be alien fish out of water stuff just for the sake of silliness. This one actually makes sense.

- "Ahhh! Ohhh! Oh, oh, oh, what? What? What is that?!"

"What?" I asked, alarmed. I swiveled my head back and forth, looking for some danger.

"A new sense. It . . .I cannot explain it. It is . . .it comes from this mouth." He pointed at his mouth. "It happened when I drank this liquid. It was pleasant. Very pleasant."

It took a few seconds for Jake and I to realize what he was talking about. "Oh. Taste! He's tasting it," Jake said. "He doesn't normally have the sense of taste."

"At least he stopped repeating sounds," I muttered.

"Taste," Ax said, contradicting me. "Aste. Tuh-aste."

Jake never should have bought him that coffee. Opened a whole can of worms there.

- Ax was nowhere to be seen.

But then I looked down at the lower level. There was a crowd of people kind of surging. All moving in the same direction. Like they were running to see something.

"They're heading toward the food court," Jake said.

"Oh, I have a very bad feeling about this," I said.

At least he’s not hard to find…

- And there, all alone - because all the sane people had pulled away - was Ax.

He was racing like some lunatic from table to table, snatching up leftover food and shoving it in his mouth.

As I watched he grabbed a half-eaten slice of pizza.

"Taste!" he yelled as he scarfed a huge bite. He threw the rest of the pizza through the air. It just missed the mall cop who was closing in on him.

Ax couldn't care less. He had found a piece of Cinnabun. "This was the smell!" he cried. He jammed the roll in his mouth. "Ahhh! Ahhh! Taste! Taste! Wonderful! Ful. Ful."

"They do make a good sticky bun," I muttered to Jake.

So it’s understandable that Ax is overwhelmed by his new sense of taste. The kids often have trouble controlling their instincts in new morphs, and this is something completely unlike anything he’s ever experienced. It also makes sense that he doesn’t understand the idiom when Marco tells him to “throw away” his trash, and it’s just good comedy when he throws away the cinnamon bun and hits the nearest cop in the face.

But then he demorphs in the middle of a crowded food court. This kid is dumb as a rock.

- They escape the cops by running into the grocery store, jumping into the lobster tank, and morphing lobsters, a morph that is described as horrifying even by their standards. Then they’re purchased, and put on ice, which makes them zone out to the point that it doesn’t occur to them to demorph until the two hour time limit is almost up. And what is it that finally wakes Marco up? Steam.

- And maybe it was because I was so desperate to scream, or maybe it was just the luck of the morph, but my human mouth was one of the first things to emerge.

Small, open lips appeared in place of my lobster mouth.

I didn't have normal lungs or vocal cords yet, so I couldn't make a sound.

But I guess I didn't have to.

I guess suddenly having lips appear on a lobster was enough to make the woman drop me.

Lol Jesus Christ. They traumatize this poor woman who’s just trying to cook a fancy dinner. They traumatize themselves, too. Marco has a nightmare that night—shockingly enough, this is not something that occurs in every one of these books—and wakes up with someone holding him. He then further upsets both himself and his dad by saying, “Mom?”

They have a moment where they try to talk about her, but in the end it only reinforces how much Peter has been broken by the loss of his wife. Tragically, Marco thinks that when his dad looks at him, he’s only seeing “a picture of someone else.”

- "Two years, to the day. Two years since my mom died. And I don't know what to do. I don't know whether I should talk to my dad about it, or just let it pass. But I know one thing - this would be a really bad week for me to turn up dead."

Marco often makes this kind of argument in the early books, when he’s (rightfully!) concerned about a mission going bad. I really like the way Marco’s grief over his mom’s death is handled. His reactions when he’s reminded of his mom are often more mature than you’d expect from a twelve year old who acts like such a little shit most of the time, and that’s because he’s been put in the very unfair position of having to take care of his dad, who has completely fallen to pieces and shows no sign that he even wants to get his life back together. Out of all the kids, Marco is the only one who has lost a family member, other than Ax, who hasn’t had to deal with the aftermath of his brother’s death (and, being considerably younger than he was, doesn’t seem to have known him very well.) Marco has seen firsthand what grief can do to someone. More than any of the others, he understands what they’re risking by fighting this war.

But he also understands what it will do to Ax’s parents to have two sons go off into space and never come home, and never even know what happened to them. So Marco agrees to another dangerous mission, just like he always does.

- They have to sneak back into Chapman’s house to steal a very small piece of Yeerk technology, and in order to do this, they decide to morph ants. Ants. ANTS. Which they all ASSUME will go just FINE, NO BIG DEAL, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? IT’S JUST ANTS, GUYS. NO PROBLEM.

- It’s not okay. It’s not okay, it’s not okay, it’s not okay, it’s not okay, it’s not okay.

No other morph of the series will ever top the horror of ant.

I have been, at times, tempted to use this book as the inspiration for a kaiju hivemind fic, but I simply don’t have the stomach for it. No ants. NO ANTS.

No ants.

- Ax looked at me and smiled in that way Andalites have of smiling with just their eyes. He touched a small cube I thought was a paperweight. The paperweight lit up and projected a picture into the air in front of me.

"Cool," I said. "A computer, right?"

<Yes. A computer.>

I poked the air, pointing at a symbol that looked like it would be a folder. It opened. The document was written in some totally alien alphabet.

<You can use a computer?>

"Sure. Why not? This is a few hundred years more advanced than ours but - "

Haha, interesting given what we’ll later learn about the guy who invented Windows.

- <It is an announcement. The Yeerks have an important visitor arriving soon. Visser One.>

"Visser One? That would be like Visser Three's boss?"

As a kid, I was a little confused that some Yeerks were called by ranks—Vissers and Sub-Vissers all numbered to indicate their place in the hierarchy—and others used personal names, which were still numbered, but don’t indicate hierarchy? Iniss Two-Two-Six is supposed to be a high-ranking Controller, but he doesn’t have a rank. I don’t understand how their military works.

- “Everyone, morph back. Let's bail."

It was the moment I dreaded. I didn't want to return to that ant body. It made me want to cry, just thinking of it.”

Me, too. ANTS ARE NOT OKAY.

They are not okay. They make it out alive, but they are not okay.

- I saw Jake in the hallway at school. I pretended not to notice him.

I saw Rachel, too. She had a dark look in her eyes. Like she hadn't slept. Like something was really wrong.

Even Cassie seemed grim. It had gotten to all of us. It's not so easy to just forget terror. It's not easy to just ignore the memory of your leg being ripped off.

Of being dismembered. Torn apart.

One of these days, I thought, one of us is going to go crazy. Totally, lock-me-up-in-a-rubber-room nutso. It was too much. This wasn't how life was supposed to be.

One of us would snap. One of us would lose it. It could happen, even to strong people.

War is hell.

Sometimes it’s war against the Yeerks. Sometimes it’s a rival ant colony.

Either way, war is hell.

- "Yesterday . . .last night . . .it got to me," she said. She shrugged. Then she smiled her supermodel smile at me. "You grind my nerves sometimes, Marco, always joking the way you do. But keep it up, okay? We need a sense of humor."

"Humor? You thought I was kidding? You mean, you and Jessica aren't both insanely in love with me?"

"Dream on, Marco," she said.

A rare moment of bonding between Rachel and Marco, when he tries to stop her from fighting with a normal human girl at school. “And you, Rachel, of all people!” Assistant Principal Chapman exclaims, because at this point Rachel is still Miss Perfect—this is the first, but not the last, instance of her failure to compartmentalize the violence that becomes more and more a part of their lives. Marco tells Chapman the girls were fighting over him, which Rachel finds funny, and she compliments him for being so cool and in control. Rachel knows she’s losing control, but she’s still trying to fight against it. Just like Tobias in #3, Marco makes her feel normal.

Rachel/Marco is my favorite non-canon ship, by the way. They have a lot of friction, but when they do get along, they’re great together.

But in spite of Rachel’s assertion that they need him and his sense of humor, Marco decides to quit the team. This is going to be his last mission. Jake is surprisingly understanding, telling Marco he’s done more than enough.

I love that he’s given this opportunity to back out, and not shamed for it. These children have taken on the responsibility of saving the world, and that responsibility is far too much for them. They shouldn’t have to deal with any of this.

"But I'll tell you one thing, Jake. A year from now I don't want my dad going to leave flowers at two graves."

I’m not crying, you’re crying—okay, I’m crying.

- So yet again, the mission goes bad! Ax tries to steal a Yeerk ship by sending out a distress signal on what turns out to be an outdated frequency. Visser Three immediately spots that this is a trap, because Ax is dumb as a rock.

The kids are captured and brought aboard the mother ship to be shown to Visser One—who Visser Three clearly loathes. Yeerk politics! I’m so happy. The Yeerks are not a monolithic sci-fi race, they have factions.Finally, we find a weakness! The kids rarely score a major victory in battle, especially this early on, but they tend to see better results when they play the Yeerks against each other.

- Below us, blue and white and so beautiful it brought tears to your eyes, was Earth.

Sun sparkled off the ocean. Clouds swirled over the Gulf of Mexico, a big spiral, maybe a hurricane.

<Look,> Cassie said simply.

We looked. Through the eyes of the animals of Earth, but with the minds of human beings, we looked down at our planet.

This series is so full of hope, and so much love for our beautiful world. :)

So anyway, they meet Visser One.

- They marched up to the bottom of the ramp. A dozen soldiers leveled Dracon beams at us, just in case we wanted any trouble.

Then, in thought-speak that all could hear, Visser Three turned to the woman beside him. <You see, Visser One. I have taken the Andalite bandits. The crisis is over. Your trip here is wasted, and you can return to the home world.>

Visser One nodded. She looked up at us with those dark brown, human eyes.

Eyes I knew. Eyes I remembered.

The same eyes that watched me sleep every night from the framed picture beside my bed.

My mother.

Visser One.

(The tears I cried in the middle of the Sunshine Skyway.)

- When had it happened? Had the Yeerks taken her much earlier? Had she already been a Controller for those last years when she was with us?

When she had come to my bedroom to say good night, had that been a Yeerk slug, just playing a part, like an actor?

When I tried to fake sick to get out of school, had it been a Yeerk who saw through my story and kidded and joked me into admitting it?

Was it a Yeerk, handing out the presents on Christmas morning? A Yeerk, singing in the church choir? A Yeerk, pulling the puppet strings of my mother's body when she dragged me through J. C. Penney's and made me buy school clothes I didn't really like?

Was it a Yeerk I used to find making out with my dad like a teenager when they didn't think I saw them?

All of it an act? All of it fake? For how many years?

How much of what I'd thought was my mother, had been . . .one of them?

The tears I cried all the way across the Sunshine Skyway. My grandparents had no idea what was wrong with me.

- Marco comes up with a plan to escape their holding cell. It’s not a plan that will get them back to Earth, but it would let them get free and possibly disable or destroy the Yeerk mothership. It’s a good plan, even though it would mean leaving Tobias behind, and EVEN THOUGH IT INVOLVES MORPHING ANTS AGAIN. But before they can go through with it, Yeerk politics! Visser One’s people help them escape, which will be very embarrassing for Visser Three.

And they go home. Leaving Marco’s mother behind. Only Jake knows. Marco’s dedication to the mission, his personal reason for fighting the war, comes in the form of a secret he keeps from the rest of the team.

- <No one ever finds out. No one can ever know.>

<Okay, Marco,> he said.

<My mother died two years ago tomorrow.>

<That's how it will be, my friend.>

<Yeah. But someday . . .> Someday, somehow, in some way that I could not foresee, we would win this battle. Humans and Andalites together would defeat the Yeerks. And we would free all of their slaves.

All of them.

<Someday,> I whispered again.

<Someday, Marco,> Jake said.

I miss my mom.

[litlunacy]

Omigod I loved this week's episode SO MUCH it was so good it was the episode I'd been looking forward to the most and it did not disappoint! Bellara my beloved I am hooked I am gone I have lost my mind.

Her pattern-recognition number mumbling made my little OCD heart absolutely shriek in delight, I do that shit too (not out loud usually, but still!), and then the nerding out with Drayden (Bellara loves writers! And poetry! Ahhh!), and that tiny bit of a tragic backstory drop? Ooooooh I'm so excited.

And then the Drayden weird not-quite-magic bit was really cool (the more we learn about them the more convinced I am that they will either be in the game and important or they will die tragically at the end of the podcast and I reeeeeally hope it's the former).

Flicker? Baby? Absolutely precious? I wish we could've seen them, I was imagining the cutest cross between like an ESO nixad and Morph from Treasure Planet, but like mechanical. I hope Bellara can fix them, I was near tears when they got smashed. (Also technomancy? We have technomancy now??)

Also was that a rage demon? It felt like a rage demon following Nadia and feeding off her anger. 90% sure that whole thing was a made up fade nightmare just to give it more to feed on. Very interesting.

And the background music and effects were really fun (loved the water walking sound) and serene-mystic-spooky combo vibe was great.

But yeah. Fave episode, hands down, no notes.

[nocuref0rme]

Hello!!! You’re doing ahit request right??? Can I have a snatcher x reader who’s a witch, and tends to make really weird potions? (Bonus points if they have a black cat who messes with Snatcher’s little ghost tail.)

YES!!! YESYESYESYESYES

Snatcher x Reader

He does his best to keep up, but it’s almost if you pull these potions out from thin air sometimes. That’s not to say he hates it- he loves the excited look on your face when you bring another one to him, and he loves to help test them out! He just mixes up which ones are which.

“So, what was this… turning people into…?”

“No, the morphing potions were last week!”

“Oh, you’re kidding! I thought you did at least one every week!”

“Sometimes.”

“UUUUUUGH. You’re impossible to work with.”

He loves you, he really does. And, since he loves you, he loves anything that has to do with you… but- the CAT. He swears that it’s as if that cat finds the worst times to ambush him! He can hardly stand it! So, to even the score, he’ll poke the cat’s nose and- playfully, he doesn’t mean it- make fun of it.

“You’re a little ankle biter, aren’t you? You’re an allergic reaction just waiting to happen, with how much you SHED on my FURNITURE. You’re so spoiled, you… piece of fuzz.”

“Are you making fun of my baby again?”

“It pulled my tail! It’s only fair.”

THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING!!!

[cantxswim]

Talking about TLOU season 2 below the cut <3

There's something about this season that's bugged me since it started and I'm having a hard time articulating it. Maybe it's some of the dialogue? Maybe it's the speed at which we're going through events?

I think the show is drop dead gorgeous and has some changes that I liked! I liked that we got a little more time with Jesse and Issac etc. I love that we have an autistic, genderfluid, lead and got a queer relationship on screen! Yay!!

But

I feel like that little scene with Ellie getting captured by scars and hung was weird and was just there to pad time?? (Also, why are you taking Abby's scene from her LMAO?) I kinda like the Mel death in this one but there's something about the game version that I like a little more.... something about just having emotions drowning Ellie and there being nothing but that realization just hits harder imo

Also, the scene where Dina is comforting Ellie after she kills Nora (I like that Ellie says she just left her, yay for that!!) felt telly too and like there was just too much talking??? The scene in the game just feels like a tender moment between two people that love each other and Ellie "coming down" from a high of violence and it settling on her mind of what she actually did...

Also, I love Bella. I think they're an incredible actor but is it just me or am I just weak for game Ellie and how much of an edgelord she is?? I know it would be intense for people who haven't played the game but they know what they signed up for!!! They saw the first season. Part of the tragicness of Part II is we're losing the Ellie we saw in the first go around, we're losing our BABY!!! She's morphing into something we don't even recognize by the end of it all. So she should be one track minded and probs more grumpy but that's just me LOL.

Anyway, I would love to talk to other people about this cus I think the show is good but I can see areas where it could have been stronger. We'll see how they handle Abby and all her friends!! I'm actually pretty excited for this because we don't really know shit about any of them other than Abby in the game so they've got some room to play :)

[mewtwobootleg]

pt 2

Tw btw cause maybe freeky ahh themes?? 💀

The babytwo now named by its babysitters, Ken grew in only a span of 3 years cared for by other wild twos, which is how a normal ancient two grows. He was an adult and was 4 years when humans found him again. They hurt him and beat him, taking samples from him. 2 different groups were able to take samples from him, each with their own laboratory and qualities.  The 2 other ancestor mews still were nearby. These people were able to capture the mews like the other group did (these mews didn’t realize how rare they were, therefore becoming easy targets), and they tampered with them again, each in their own laboratory, facing each other in trying to make the most powerful clone with their mew. The ancestor mew with the shorter tail and big legs had 2 baby mews on the way due to the tampering and altering (AUGHH), and one of them had powers, so the humans tested only on that one. The mother mew died due to its injuries along with one of its baby mews, but the one with powers was able to survive and grow. Similar happened at the other lab, but the other ancestor mew had 3 babies, and only one had extreme powers again, so the humans took that one only and left the others to dust. It turned out that even though the ancestor mews were the ones that started all the bloodlines of certain species, it was only 1 in a million of a chance for the mew to be the next ancestor mew for a new species. The lab people realized that the tampering they did must have really increased the chance of a extreme power mew, due to the straight down injection of dna. They regretted killing the 2 ancestor mews they worked hard to catch… but at least they had the babies.

The babies had powers in all, but they still needed help to live, to the people cared for them until they got older. When the baby mews were 2 months, they realized they had began morphing into a two. Excited, each organization thought they were making perfect clones of Ken. But… it turns out that they weren’t. The babytwos started to morph into strange twos, one had a tail on their head, and one had a travel pillow thing on its back. They had power very quickly, and they escaped the teams.

Living in the forest they grew, and they had much powers. They found Ken, and they realized they all could fly and use telekinesis, and they realized they were all related. The 3 became leaders of the forest, and the two new ones were named “X-one” and “Y-one” due to their unique kind and so they could distinguish their names. They also were called “megas” because they seemed like a step up from original. During the time, growing up into adults, Ken mated with many twos in the forest and brought new species of twos into the woods. Some had little bits of powers, some didn’t. Some were artificially colored like Ken and some were still furry. When the megas grew up they copied Ken and brought hybrids of twos in the forest and many new kinds of species. 

A normal two lives 100 years like a human, but what was weird was that the megas lived until their 200s. But even weirder, before that when Ken was 60-70, he was captured again by humans and put in a glass container. By then there was more research and technology on how to grow something in a lab or preserve a creature, and Ken stayed in the tank, tested on and in a coma. He stayed in the tank for 200 years, somehow… not dying. Everyone he knew passed, except him. The amount of testing and power and things wrong with him must have messed with his age limit and who else knows what. As he stayed in the tank, the lab was destroyed by a storm and papers were lost in storages blown by the storm. Ken stayed secure in the tube, but covered by debris surrounding his tank. Somehow, it didn’t break. He stayed there for another 500 years… longer… longer…

Over the thousands of years, populations of twos spread, they couldn’t live in forests anymore because there were so many. Humans started to trust them, and they became as popular as humans. Ancient mews were hunted and hurt, and research done says that the ancestor mews and ancient mews left flew into a portal to live with the mythical and legendary mews. They only come back every few years to eat a small bit of food to keep them going for another few years, and they come out of the portal to eat and feed their baby mews milk they produce. They make nests in a tree and have their children, then when they’re older and no longer needing milk, they go and feed them berries and stuff until they’re older. Then they go back. Only in 1786 is when Ken was found again.

He was still in the tank, and humans and twos broke it (twos live alongside with humans now), taking him and checking him out at another lab. He was still alive. He woke up.

People and twos were shocked, and he went popular. But angered by everything going on, Ken destroyed the lab he was in. He flew far away, and again later in 1795 he was found and contained again.

The group who took him in treated him nicely, and he trusted them. He met some nice humans and nice mewtwos. Though he was older and less stable, he still moved on. He agreed to be contained again, because he felt nice in the solitude and cold tank, so he was put back in to be preserved. And now, over time, he’s still in the tank, cared and loved.

Xtwo and slash look much like X-one and Y-one, so they are very proud of who they are. They believe they have potential. All of kens story became very worldwide known, and some people made a game of him being feral and part of the “Pokémon games” and it was a game of befriending him after he broke the lab. Ken agreed to the game, and he enjoyed it. They also made it so they could make up stories that he could “mega evolve” into the mega twos as powerups. All this inspired “Mewtwo strikes back” where Kanto is an actual clone, but the movie was to represent kens life. In this world though… there is team rocket.

Team rocket in this world… there are no Pokémon, but team rocket is an organization that hates twos. They believe twos are no better than an experiment, and they want Ken most of all. They kidnap twos and hurt them and test on them, and they try to make better twos with them, to show their “true potential”. That’s why there’s metchamew, etc. no two works on team rockets team. Duh…

Ancient mews are rarely ever spotted now. Slash swore he saw one though… in the forest after the truck stopped and Kirble dropped him. I believe it. I saw it too.

and twos with extreme powers and not just a little warmth in their hands are special, meaning they have direct roots from ancient mews. They are targeted more by team rocket, and even some places give procedures to remove the powers so they won’t be in danger. Yet some wild twos still live with it…

YAY ALL DONE POOOT

[creature-of-the-stars]

Beyond Fortunate

Read -> here

Vreenak/OC

No warnings. SFW

Summary: Vreenak has been away on a diplomatic mission for almost a month. Once he returns home, he shares a tender reunion with his wife, Eve. A tiny Keep Your Enemies Closer sequel; takes place before the events of Rekkhai.

This little piece was supposed to be my third (and way overdue) installment for SoC, but it was too sweet to make spicy.

Tag list: @starrynightgardens @deepspacedukat @horta-in-charge @emilie786 @indignantlemur @darkmattervibes @wafflingchemist

If you want on this list, let me know!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Vreenak dropped his bags at the door and went in search of his wife. He had a good idea of where he’d find her, most likely babying her plants in the greenhouse he’d built for her, and was pleased when he saw her blurry silhouette through the dewy glass panes. 

The sight of her made the senator stop, standing transfixed as he savored the view. He was beyond fortunate that he could call such a prize his mate, and he told himself so nearly every day. But, though he could have stood there forever and watched her, the anticipation to see and hold his prize pushed him toward the greenhouse door. 

He called out in greeting, making Eve jump in surprise, and she nearly decapitated her delicate Terran orchids (which grew much better in their Romulan home than they ever did on Earth or Deep Space 9) with her shears. She’d been waiting anxiously all day for him to walk through the door, and now that he was cutting a path through the greenery - a good head taller than some of her largest plants - Eve was bursting with excitement. She was poised to run and throw her arms around him when Vreenak stopped before her, his expression morphing into shocked surprise.

“What?” Eve asked and worriedly looked at her apron but only spotted stray bits of dirt, nothing more.

“Nouhha…” Vreenak whispered as he drew near. “ I was gone for less than a month. How have you grown so large already?” 

He stared down at his wife in amazement - his wife, who looked significantly more pregnant than she had when he’d left. Vreenak had been on a diplomatic mission for a few weeks, and while leaving his pregnant mate for so long made him anxious, he tried to remind himself that a month really wasn’t such a long time.

Except now that I see her…leaving was a mistake, he thought and gawked at the exceptionally prominent bulge ballooning out from under his wife’s breasts.

Eve had to laugh. “Well, yes, love. That’s what happens.” She tossed her apron onto the workbench so she wouldn’t get potting soil all over Vreenak’s tunic. “It only takes nine months to bake one of these things. And, now that I’m in my second trimester, I’m only going to get bigger from here.”

Vreenak gingerly palmed the curve of her stomach as if afraid to break something. He could scarcely imagine his lithe wife growing even wider, but he couldn’t deny that the vision appealed to him greatly.

“Setting aside how huge I’ve become,” Eve joked, “How was your trip, love?”

“Too long,” replied Vreenak, crouching down so he was level with his wife’s bump. “I never should have left... I didn’t miss anything important, did I?” He looked up at her sharply, hoping she’d say no. 

This child was his first, perhaps his only, so he was going to be rather distraught if he’d missed out on anything significant. Just knowing that he’d been absent for a handful of his unborn child’s enthusiastic kicks was a jab to his heart. 

“No, no,” Eve reassured him as she played with his hair. “Nothing too exciting. Just back aches and weird cravings.”

Vreenak hummed and pressed his face against Eve’s stomach. He could swear he could hear the fluttering of something - or someone - as they twisted and turned, just beyond Eve’s soft skin. 

Beautiful, he thought lovingly.

It took a few minutes before he could tear himself away, but he did eventually stand and take his wife’s hand. Although Eve didn’t consider seemingly trivial things such as aches and cravings exciting, Vreenak was swimming in regret and was keen to make up for lost time. 

“And what about you?” he asked her. “How have you fared in my absence?”

She looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean? I told you, back aches and cravings.”

“I’m not talking about the baby or the pregnancy, e’lev. How are you ?”

A slow, warm smile spread over Eve’s face, and she was instantly reminded of why she’d fallen in love with her austere senator. Even though the way she’d met her husband had been intense and deadly, she’d willingly agreed to go with him to Romulus, thus turning her back on her career and altering her life forever. For a time, she’d been worried that she may come to regret that decision, but the life Eve had built with Vreenak was more fulfilling than anything she could have imagined. 

Eve smoothed her palms up her husband’s chest and stepped in close, or as close as she could manage, considering the extra person wedged in her belly. “I’m happy, deyhhan. Much happier now that you’re home.”

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

In Your Dreams

Moodboard by @softhecreator

Chapter Three: Would It Really Kill You If We Kissed?

AO3 info one two three four five six seven epilogue

All my work is 18+.

I know you don’t belong, I know you�� don’t belong to anyone. No, you can’t be tamed, love. And maybe I was wrong, maybe I was wrong for this, but you feel like the sun on my face.- All Time Low, Favorite Place

She was dreaming again. 

Lately, most of her Tim-related dreams were sexual in nature, and this one was no different. Of course, she could only really recall what was said and the actions they took rather than any actual sensations. 

Her head was bobbing in his lap as he sat on one of his couches, her tongue laving over the barbels in his shaft.

“Fuck, Lea,” he grunted before pulling her mouth off his dick and into his lap. “Lemme have you, sweetheart.”

“Okay,” she giggled.

“C’mon,” Tim muttered, aligning himself with her. “One last time, baby. C’mon.”

“One last time?” she questioned. “What’re you talking about?”

“Won’t get to do this anymore, even in dreams,” he breathed as he pulled her down onto him. “Fuck, that’s it. Bounce on it for me.”

She was too distracted by his body and general presence to question him further and did as she was told, and—like always—only really dreamed of the words between them.

“I love you, Lea,” he groaned into her mouth. “I love you so much.”

“Dream-Tim is the best,” she told him with a grin. “Wish I could have this all the time.”

“It’s me,” he insisted. “It’s me, baby. I’m real. You can have this whenever you want. If you want this, just fuckin’ tell me.”

“Don’t distract me from how hot you are with your dream-fantasy shenanigans,” Lea told him, running her hands over his bare chest.

“Dammit,” he moaned. “Fuck it, I’ll take what I can get.”

The dream faded away, morphing into his bedroom, where they lay tangled together amongst his sheets.

“I love you,” he murmured. “I love you more than anything in the world.”

Flushing despite the knowledge that it was a dream and therefore not the slightest bit real, Lea buried her face in his neck. “You’re a dork even when I dream you up, huh?”

He hummed, but didn’t respond directly. “You won’t forget me, will you?”

She pulled back, looking up at him with a frown. “What’re you talking about now?”

“When I’m gone,” he clarified, “I don’t want you to forget me.”

“What, you mean when you’re traveling or something?”

Even in her dreams, he still gave her that sad smile. “Or something, yeah.”

“No, I won’t forget you,” she told him slowly. “Though you should know that since you’re in my head.”

“Good,” he murmured, kissing her again. “I’m not in your head the way you seem to think, though.”

“Eh.” She waved him off. “Dream semantics.”

Tim looked at her for a long while before quietly asking, “Will you miss me?”

She blushed, burying her face in his neck again. “I always miss you. Whenever you’re not with me, I miss you.”

He wrapped her in his arms, kissing her temple.

“Why’re you asking me weird things, anyway?” she wanted to know.

“Don’t worry about that, sweetheart,” Tim said. “Just let me hold you.”

“Uh.” She blinked. “Okay then.”

His arms tightened around her, and he held her closer.

It was late at night in the middle of June when she got his text.

Her phone buzzed from where it sat on her bed, and she went to pick it up.

Tim

Come to the park with me ?

She frowned, wondering why he was randomly asking her to meet him somewhere so unusual. Still, she didn’t have anything else to do. She wasn’t visiting her mom back in North Carolina until the following month.

When?

He texted her back almost immediately.

Now, if you can.

She was always excited to see him, and she hadn’t seen him at all since May, too, so she squirmed happily as she replied. 

Okay! See you in a bit!

Lea managed to get ready in record time, pairing the ruby heart necklace and earrings he’d gotten her with a white ruffled top and bubble skirt from Saks.

She shot him a quick text that she’d see him in a bit, and then she skipped out the door.

——

She never got tired of hanging out with Tim. He was most definitely her best friend by that point.

He was sitting on a bench in Central Park when she found him.

“Hi,” she said with a grin, plopping down next to him on the bench.

“Hey,” he greeted, and then he looked over at her, turning towards her in the process, and she saw…

What the fuck?

He looked… well, he looked dilapidated, frankly. He’d always kinda looked nineteenth century orphan-esque, but now… now he looked starving. Starving and very, very sick. He was skinnier than normal—which was saying a lot, ‘cause he was already thin as a rail—and his cheeks were sunken in. His eyes were sunken, too, with dark circles under them, and his skin was even more pallid than it had been when she’d seen him last.

“Tim?” she asked tentatively. “Are you okay? You look like you should be in the hospital, not hanging out with me.”

He smiled at her slightly, his eyes sad. “I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

“You look sick,” she pointed out, brow furrowing in concern.

“I know,” he said with a soft, barely-there chuckle. “Sorry you gotta see my sorry ass looking so awful. I’m sure it’s unpleasant.”

Lea shook her head with a frown. “No, I’m always happy to see you, I’m just worried.”

He sighed, leaning his head back against the bench.

“Don’t worry about me. Told you that before.” He sounded out of breath, almost.

“If I looked the way you do right now, would you worry about me?”

“Of course I would, sweetheart,” he muttered. “No way around that.”

“Then it’s hardly fair of you to not expect the same of me.”

He hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose not.”

“And wouldn’t you want me to tell you what was wrong if I was sick?”

Tim was silent for several moments before softly repeating, “Of course I would.”

“Then you should tell me, too, don’t you think?”

He sighed. “I’m sick, Lea.”

“Are you, y’know, getting treatment?”

Another sigh. “It’s terminal.”

Her mouth fell open in shock. “Terminal as, in, like— you can’t mean you’re—“

“I’m dying, yes.” He said it with such nonchalance that she wasn’t even sure if he was serious, but he didn’t laugh orsay he was joking, so he had to be serious, right?

Still, she hopefully said, “You’re joking, right? C’mon, tell me you’re joking.”

He looked at her sidelong. “No, I’m not joking. I asked you to come here so I could see you amongst the flowers when I went.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re dying now?!” 

He nodded slightly, a small dip of his chin. “Wanted to be next to you for it.”

“But— but why?” she asked brokenly. “Why are you dying? When did this happen? Why me?”

He stared at her with those sad eyes. “I’ve been dying since I met you.” She opened her mouth to speak, and he added, “It’s not your fault, and I wouldn’t change a thing if I had the choice. I’m happy I got to meet you. I’d do it a million times over. I just wish I’d had more time with you.”

“I don’t understand,” she said tearfully. “I don’t know what I’ve done to… to make you so sick, but—“

“No point in dancing around it, I suppose,” Tim mused. He watched her for a moment, considering. “I’m an incubus.”

She blinked at him. “A— a what?”

An exhausted smile. “An incubus, darling.”

“A demon who feeds on…” she trailed off, too embarrassed to say the words aloud. 

“Sex and orgasms, yes,” he confirmed with a tired sigh.

“Oh, well, um…” She recalled the dreams she’d had, the inexplicable pull she felt towards him, his strange ability to disappear. “I kinda figured you were a fae, but that… makes sense, actually.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You believe me?”

She shrugged. “You can just poof in and out of places. Plus, the dreams—“ she cut herself off. 

His lips split in a slow, lazy smirk. “The dreams? If I had more time, I’d insist you tell me what you remember from them.” Lea blushed bright red, and he laughed softly.

“You’re very sick, Tim,” she said instead of answering him. “If you need, uh…” A gulp. “Someone in order to get better, then I know there’s countless people who would jump at the opportunity—“

“Won’t work,” he cut her off with another sigh.

She blinked at him. “What? Why? I doubt anyone would even mind the whole life-sucking issue.”

“Suppose I should explain this to you.” He exhaled. “We don’t take anyone’s life force. I don’t even know where that idea came from. We actually prolong the lives of those we feed on.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “You do?”

Tim nodded. “It’s possible for a human to survive indefinitely if one of us is feeding on them regularly. We’re symbiotic rather than parasitic.”

“Well… you should have no issues finding meals, then, if they have nothing to fear.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that.” He looked away from her, gazing out at the trees surrounding them. “Finding a meal isn’t the issue. The issue is it no longer has any effect. I’ve tried plenty of times.”

“No effect?” she asked, concerned for this strange new friend she’d made these past few months. “So what, you’ll just starve?”

He hummed. “It would seem so.”

Tears prickled at the back of her eyes again. “I… I don’t want you to die, Tim.”

He turned his gaze to her once more. “I don’t mind it, really.”

She furrowed her brow. “You don’t want to live?”

“Of course I do,” he nodded, “but I don’t really mind the idea of dying.” At her shocked expression, he chuckled. “I have lived a very long time, Lea. Death doesn’t scare me.”

It was several seconds before she recovered from her shock. “And just like that, you’re fine with it being over?”

“Well,” Tim chuckled, “I’d certainly prefer to stay alive, but…” he paused, his eyes warm with affection as he gazed at her. “But if I’m going to die, I want it to be while I’m looking at the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

“Is that the real reason you asked me to come out with you today?” she asked. “So you could flirt?”

He smiled softly. “If you like.” 

His breathing was shallow, and his voice was breathless.

He was going to die. He was very close now.

“I don’t want you to die, Tim,” she said again tearfully. “Why… why can’t you eat? Is there anything I can do?”

Another sweet, gentle smile. “Nothing I could ask you for.”

Her heart leapt with frantic relief. “So there is something I can do!” Eager to help, she clasped his hand in hers, not really registering that his breathing evened out at her touch. “Tell me. Tell me so I can help you.”

“Alright,” he agreed reluctantly, his voice a bit stronger than it had been before. “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you.” He took a deep breath. “Most human women can’t have the child of an incubus. They’ll waste away if they try. But there is an occasional woman who can. These women are our mates, intended for a specific one of us, should they accept what we have to offer.”

“Which is?” she prompted, though she had no idea how this could relate to her at all.

He stared at her thoughtfully before saying, “Safety, wealth, happiness, children, more pleasure than they can comprehend, and an eternity of worshipful adoration and love.”

Jealousy towards his mate—whoever she was—swirled in her stomach, acidic and burning, her hand tightening around his unintentionally. “But why does that mean you can’t feed?”

“Once we meet our mates,” Tim began, “we can’t feed from anyone else. If they don’t accept us in time, we will starve.”

“So she rejected you?” she asked, shocked.

He shook his head. “I haven’t been rejected. I haven’t said anything about it until now.”

“Then you should tell her!” Lea insisted, standing up abruptly. “Tell me where she is, and I’ll tell her myself. I’m not letting you die, stupid. I—“

“Lea.” He grabbed her hand again. When she looked down at him in surprise, his expression was resigned and fearful all at once. “It’s you. You’re my mate.”

Tag list

@ellamaianderson @shika1200 @blackqueenstarseed1 @gatoenlaciudad @esmaada @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 @softhecreator @timolaurence @timmymyluv @oddlyenoughiamweird @leecrunchybones @s-we-e-t-t-ea @almostg @leespparker @bubblebuttwade @glizzymcguirex @starberry-cake

To be added, please ask 💗

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

12, 15 (I think I know this one but here's you're chance to wax poetic), 20 (can't be pyro), & 21 for avalanche!

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Since I have already posted a ton of headcanons for Pyro over the years, I'm giving this question to Morph from TAS. Exiles Morph was born with his X-gene activated (basically appeared as a white blobby vaguely human-shaped baby) and also lost his mother to cancer at around 13 or so. Since TAS Morph seems less powerful than Exiles Morph, I tend to assume they were born "normal" and developed powers later, but I consider the dead mother to be part of their backstory. So, my headcanon is that the first thing TAS Morph ever shapeshifted into was their mother - shortly after the funeral, when they were desperately missing her and wishing they could see her again. It completely freaked them out, and it took a little while for them to go, "Oh, I'm a mutant and also shape-shifting can be fun." But if any X-Man ever asks Morph how they discovered their powers, they always give a wacky joke answer because the truth is kind of a bummer and they don't want to get into all that, not to mention all the weird Freudian implications. (Of course, X-Men 97 might completely negate this headcanon.)

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

You're right, you know it's gonna be Pyro and Avalanche. Honestly, I just love the contrast of (relatively) serious, stoic, less chatty guy with excitable, extroverted gregarious guy (not mention the big guy/skinny guy aesthetic). I think Pyro is constantly dragging Avalanche out to DO things, and Avalanche (mostly) enjoys it. And the way those two have been together for so long, through thick and thin, Avalanche going with Pyro to the Savage Land to try to find a Legacy Virus cure even though he's not infected and there's no personal benefit for him. I can't imagine Avalanche going to such great lengths for anyone else. Like even in canon they are bros, even if the comics won't let them bang. From their very first introduction you see them having each other's backs and not really fighting with each other the way they both occasionally fight with Blob. And, much like Mystique and Destiny or Blob and Unus (or Black Tom and Juggernaut), I just love the idea of two criminals in love.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

For Not Pyro. Hmmm.....I'll say that I think Toad should be good friends with Blob, because they have both been on the same team (a few times), both have mutations that make them "ugly" in the eyes of most people, and are treated badly because of it. They've both been through some shit. And I think Freddy's general attitude of "Fuck you, I am who I am, and I'm okay with it," might help Morty deal with some of his own issues. Freddy doesn't really take any shit from anyone, and seems comfortable with himself in general, while Toad is always full of self-loathing.

But since Toad is currently part of the Exiles, I kinda hope he manages to bond with some of them. Third Eye at least reached out to him. Let Toad have some friends.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

For Avalanche - much like with Blob (or Pyro) I want to give him some internal complexity and not just write him as a dumb, violent criminal, even though all three of them often are in the comics. And filling in his backstory, of course, dude has been in comics for decades and we know almost nothing about him, even his supposed "wife." One of my headcanons is that he grew up in a large family as one of the older kids and therefore knows a lot about dealing with children because he was expected to help look after his siblings. Put him in a situation with a crying baby, and he will automatically take charge, whether he actually wants to or not, he just jumps into the role of "I guess someone has to deal with this." He has a love-hate relationship with his family, he hated all the expectations and responsibilities placed on him, but he misses the sense of community, and having a place where he "belonged." He also probably got kicked out for being a mutant.

What I don't like in fic - how the popularity of "Lance Alvers" from X-Men evolution has completely overshadowed Dominikos, and any fic with Avalanche in it will likely be Lance. Much like movie Pyro John Allerdyce has mostly overshadowed comics Pyro in fandom. And I actually like the adapted versions, sullen bad boy American teens Lance Alvers and John Allerdyce are both interesting characters. But they definitely are very different from their comics counterparts, Lance is basically just Rictor in all but name, and it's made it hard to find any fan works for the original versions of the characters.

[hmspogueobx]

Sunshine and Pine

Chapter Six: Dreaming of Dreamboats

It's Leah that finds me crumpled on the forest floor. Apparently she and Seth decided to join Jacob's band of rebels too. The brief mental silence I'd experienced was gone, but it was still somewhat peaceful to only have my cousins and Jake taking root there. Leah lays in the leaves and dirt with me tucked under her muzzle until everything around us starts to fade into grayscale. I haven't moved since I sank to the ground. I can't bring myself to cry, or scream or any of the things that my heart wants me to do. I lay there motionless, heavy head resting on my paws. Leah just stays there like an angel, lifting her head every so often to nuzzle me. Her thoughts aren't fully formed sentences, but I feel her swirl of consciousness. She seems confused. Faces of the people she knows are flashing through her mind sporadically, like a fifth grade powerpoint presentation. But there's an overall tone of longing. She's trying to match my reaction to someone in her life. She doesn't have anything like this to equate to. Then the images are Sam peppering kisses across Emily's face, Jared and Kim cuddled together on the couch, Quil and Claire running on the beach... Paul and I gazing at each other like lovey teenagers. A sob claws its way out of the throat at the image, and Leah turns to look at me. Her thoughts morph to concern and love. Suddenly the need to be in my own skin and finally cry is strong, and I will myself to shift back. Leah follows my lead soon after and lets me silently sob on her shoulder.

My nose starts to burn, the sickly sweet smell of a Cullen approaching making my hair stand on end. Even though I know there's not really any danger, this makes me straighten up.

Esme is walking at human speed towards us, a stack of clothes in her hand.

"I wasn't sure what size you were, so I grabbed a few things from all of the girls." I've really never paid any mind to any of the Cullens, no interest in being buddy buddy with the enemy. But the maternal tone in her voice melts my icy glare. Esme's eyes are downcast in a very unvampirey way. She's nervous, I realize. She must know how much we hate her. I glance up at Leah and I know I'm right. Leah has fixed her with a deadly stare. Poor Esme.

"I bleached them, and tried my best not to touch them too much. I didn't want them to smell."

I rise from my spot on the ground and slowly drift towards Esme. I can't seem to hate this woman, no matter how much my instincts are screaming at me to turn and run. Her eyes flick up to meet mine, a little bit of hope mixed into the shock. Reaching my arms out to take the clothes from her little hands, I fight a flinch when our hands brush against each other.

"Thank you." My voice is hoarse from lack of use, but Esme's beaming at me now.

Esme is the only one outside of my pack that I'm willing to interact with after that. She brings clothes and food every day and I realize that she reminds me of my own mother, you know before the whole evil vampire entranchtress nonsense.

I see Bella through the window once, I can faintly hear her giggling with Edward on the couch. The pure joy on her face as she cradles her belly is such a stark contrast to the 'death's door' look she's rocking. But seeing the two of them holding eachother like that, gazing down at the bump that is their unborn child, I know I've made the right choice. If it happens to come out doing baby sign language for blood, we'll deal with that when the time comes. But for now, all I see is a mom and dad, excited to start their family together. To welcome this piece of them into this weird world we live in. If I played a part in ripping that apart so violently, I'd never be able to live with myself.

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My paws thud across the ground quietly, barely making a sound as I slink through the forest at full speed. I've been running the perimeter for hours, keeping my eyes and ears trained for the sounds of my former brothers. Jacob has asked me to come in and take a break 4 times now. But I know the second I lose focus, I'll plummet into the pit of my chest. I refuse to be rendered to some mindless comatose zombie over a boy. Even if that boy is my anchor, and now I'm floating adrift in this terrifying raging sea of... NOPE! I snap my mind back to the skitters of a squirrel climbing his tree before I fall headfirst into the blackness.

Suddenly I'm not alone in my mind anymore. The voices of Jacob and Leah rush in.

Leah is high with relief. It seems Jake was going to send her back to Sam, but they figured something out. She's replaying the argument in her head, elated that Jake changed his mind. Most of her defense was not wanting to reprise her role as unwanted ex-girlfriend. But what finally won Jake over was saying she couldn't stand it if she left me alone like this. It makes my heart happy, if only for a second.

"Lucy, take a break before you collapse. We got this." Jake demands.

"No no. I'm good." I've been fighting Jake so long on this I'm surprised he's still asking. I can feel the exertion catching up to me, but I push through the scream in my muscles.

"I'm not asking Luce. I'm ordering. Go back to the house. Lie down!" Jacob's voice takes on the deep heavy tone of an alpha. I can't believe that he's pulled the alpha card for this. He's been bitching and whining the whole time about not wanting to be an alpha yet here he is.

"We all need to be at our strongest, Luce." And there's that puppet on a string shit again. My body is slowing and moving back towards the Cullens house, without any real permission from my brain. I barely make it to the backyard before I'm slumping into a ball in the grass, head heavy in my paws. And sleep takes me. Exactly what I'd been trying to avoid.

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It's not long before I'm submersed in the most vivid dream of my life. A memory. Like something inside me is trying to convince me why I need to go back.

"Is this everything you'd hoped for?" Paul is looking up at me from his spot in the sand. He's laying next to me on the beach, propped up on his elbow, looking sexy as hell might I add.

"Mmm... better" I mumble, mouth full with my last bite of cheeseburger. We'd been in Paul's living room watching reruns of some old show Paul loved when I'd declared I wanted a cheeseburger and a milkshake and I wanted to have them on the beach. And in response Paul had declared that I was the cutest person ever as I yanked him off the couch. I've just watched the sunset at the beach with a cheeseburger and a milkshake with my dreamboat boyfriend gazing up at me with love as I absolutely devour it all. It doesn't really get better than that. Brushing off my hands, I lay down with Paul and cuddle into his side. The scent of him washes over me. It's pine and faintly campfire and something manly that's just Paul.

"Thanks for indulging my crazy whims. I love you." I whisper into his chest.

Paul chuckles softly "Anytime honey. I'd do anything for you. You're everything to me."

That's when I'm shaken awake. The beautiful memory slipping away. My eyes open to see Jacob standing above me.

"Lucy, wake up. I have a plan."

[moondustlings]

open to: all muse: marlowe ellis, nepo baby yet good actress plot: marlowe and y/m grew up together (before the fame) but lose contact over the years; they run into one another at a party and sparks fly connection: childhood friend or neighbor who is now also in the industry (actor, musician, director, writer, etc.)

her nose crinkled as she looked around, nursing her drink. awards season was in full swing yet every single party felt the same. if she weren't nominated and therefore paraded around for pr for the film, she'd be at home, cuddled on the couch with either her cat, fig, or dog indie. letting out a sigh, she turns on her heel, her body accidentally colliding with another's. "shit, i'm sorry," she quickly apologized, thankful her firm grip on her drink prevented a spill. her eyes first went down to her frame, making sure the other was as equally graceful before her eyes moved upwards. the face she met with was so familiar she was taken aback. "holy shit," she cursed again, her surprise morphing from shock to joy. "holy shit," she let slip for the third time, "it's you." a face she hadn't seen for years, she instantly pulls them into a tight hug like no time at all had passed before she pulled back, face wincing. "sorry, was that weird? it was a little weird." her words were coming out too quick, too excited at the blast from the past, the alcohol she already had consumed not helping with her filter. "i can't believe you're here." a pause. "what are you doing here?"