#Decided to pull out the wheel spinner for this one

[dmc-questions-anon]

Tagged by @basil-does-arttt (Their post)

Rules: Make a poll of your favorite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

@tiri5459 @ladynamida @lmae98 @silverstream2 @princesssakurasylveon and anybody who wants to!

[lukesvangelista]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑ᵏʲ⁹¹

in which y/n and kent hide a big secret from his teammates.

warnings; pregnancy, mention of kids, alcohol, vacation

Kent was the kind of guy who always seemed at ease, the life of the party but with a quiet confidence that drew everyone to him. You had fallen for him long ago, when the two of you were young teenagers, and now, you were his everything. This vacation with his teammates was supposed to be fun, a chance to unwind, but you had a secret - one that had been growing for months.

You were pregnant. 

Kent was ecstatic when you told him. He’d hugged you so tightly that night, whispering about the future, about how perfect everything was going to be. But now, here you both were, on this vacation with Sean Kuraly, Cole, Gavin, and Adam, and neither of you had told them. The timing wasn’t right - in fact, you guys hadn’t even told your families. Maybe they’d get suspicious, or worse, maybe they’d feel like you were holding out on them. Kent was sure they’d freak out once they knew.

But here you were, at Sean’s beach house in Cape Cod. While the rest of the boys had flown, you and Kent had decided to make the 16 hour drive from Columbus, simply to spend more time with each other before having to share a living space with the others for two weeks. Once you had arrived, though, everyone was exhausted and just wanted to spend the first night in. In fact, Adam had suggested a few card games.

There was only one problem. On top of that, Cole had suggested alcohol. You looked at Kent nervously, but he gave you a reassuring smile as Sean turned to you, “Y/N, come up with a challenge for us. Whoever loses has to buy drinks.”

This was perfect. You nodded, picking up your phone and opening a random wheel spinner. You had each of the boys pick an NBA team, but when it came to entering them onto the wheel, you entered Kent’s all four times. So, when the wheel stopped spinning, you announced the team out loud, “The Minnesota Timberwolves.”

Sean, Adam, and Cole all cheered as Kent pretended to roll his eyes, but he sneakily shot you a knowing smile before picking up his keys from the counter. The boys slapped him on the back a few times but he shook them off, gently grabbing your arm, “Since your challenge is the reason I lost, you’re coming with me.”

You playfully rolled your eyes, but immediately gave in. Adam snickered behind you as Sean and Cole let out a few cheers. Kent wrapped an arm around you and opened the door for you, gently leading you to his car. As soon as you were out of earshot, Kent spoke up softly, “You feeling okay?”

You couldn’t lie. The exhaustion was creeping in. The pregnancy was still early, and you weren’t showing much, but the morning sickness, the fatigue – it was all becoming harder to hide. Kent had noticed the change in you almost immediately, but knew that it had grown harder for you in the past couple of weeks. He was worried. He was so excited to have a little him or little you around the house soon enough, but also hated seeing how hard it was on you. On top of that, he knew that you wanted to keep it a secret for as long as you could, and he knew you’d be even more stressed if people were to find out, so he didn’t want to spill anything. 

In fact, he questioned even coming on this trip, but you had explained that you’d needed it. Whether he believed you or not, was only up for him to decide. 

He opened the car door for you and you waited to reply until he was buckled in on the other side, “Just tired,” you answered, offering him a small smile. 

He rubbed the pad of his thumb across your cheek, “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

You nodded, offering him another small smile. The drive to the liquor store was rather quiet. Kent had put on some Frank Ocean, which you both had softly hummed along to until you pulled into the parking lot. 

Kent turned off the car and exited his side, only to appear on your side of the car a few seconds later to open the door for you. You grabbed his hand and as soon as he knew you were safely out of the car, he placed his arm on the small of your back protectively. The cool night breeze rolled in off of the ocean as you made your way through the parking lot. The distant sound of the waves crashing against the shore helped ease some of the nerves that had been building up inside of you.

“I feel like I’m gonna slip up at some point,” you admitted, resting your head against your boyfriend’s shoulder, “Cole’s just gonna keep offering me drinks and it’s gonna be suspicious if I keep saying no.”

Kent rubbed your back with the pad of his thumb, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of your head reassuringly, “You’re doing great, pretty girl. But I’ll tell you what. We’ll buy an extra pack of drinks, dump them out, and then go to the grocery store to buy some non-alcoholic alternatives that we can put in there instead. I would say we’d just buy some non-alcoholic beer here and have you drink that, but Adam’s overly observant.” he chuckled.

You nodded, shooting your boyfriend a relieved smile. You always appreciated how calm and steady he was. Even though you were both navigating this secret together, Kent always managed to make you feel like everything was under control.

When you stepped inside, the cool air-conditioning hit you immediately as the door jingled behind you. Kent headed straight for the fridge, grabbing a couple cases of beer and a bottle of whiskey that he knew Sean would like. You followed suit, selecting a case of High Noon out of the fridge. 

“Ready?” Kent asked, shooting you a smile when you replied with a yes.

As you reached the counter to pay, the cashier raised an eyebrow at you and Kent, his eyes flicking to your stomach before looking back at Kent. You shifted uncomfortably, aware that people might notice your changing body sooner rather than later. Kent caught the look too but didn’t say anything, keeping the conversation casual with the cashier as he handed over the money.

When you stepped back outside, you breathed a little easier. “Think he noticed?” you asked, half-joking.

“What an asshole,” Kent muttered, rolling his eyes playfully. 

The trip to the grocery store was pretty uneventful. Kent had gone in and picked out a sparkling water brand that you liked, along with some flavored sodas that looked fancy enough to pass as mixed drinks. On top of that, he grabbed a few more things, making sure you’d have enough variety to keep up appearances for the next few days. Once the cart was full, he checked out, the cashier giving him a friendly nod as he paid for the items.

When Kent reached the car, he opened your passenger side door. “Now comes the tricky part,” he said with a grin, opening up the package of High Noon and dumping out the drinks. He grabbed a few water bottles from his trunk before flushing out the alcohol from the cans - and thoroughly.

“I think that’s good, KJ,” you chuckled, flashing him a smile. He looked up at you and flashed you one in return.

“Gotta keep my girls safe,” he explained, ruffling your hair before opening up the bottles of sparkling water and pouring them into the clean cans with the same care, resealing them to make sure they looked untouched. Everything looked perfect - no one would suspect a thing. Kent stood back and took a moment to admire his work, placing the resealed package at your feet before ruffling your hair again. 

You rolled your eyes, shaking him off, before he quickly made his way back to his side of the car and hopped in. You looked at him incredulously, “We don’t even know what we’re having yet!” you exclaimed, but you knew there was no point in arguing. Ever since you told him that he was going to be a dad, he was adamant that the two of you were having a baby girl. Of course, he’d be happy as long as the baby’s safe and healthy, but that didn’t change his fatherly instinct, as he liked to call it. You rolled your eyes again, chuckling softly, and were on your way back to the beach house.

When the two of you arrived back there, Sean, Cole, and Adam’s rowdy laughter could be heard through the walls as you and Kent slipped through the side door into the kitchen. When he looked over towards you, he noticed how you self-consciously had placed your arms over your growing bump. Sensing your discomfort, he softly placed the alcohol down and gifted you the hoodie off of his back.

You smiled gratefully at him, grabbing the “seltzers” from him as he carried the whiskey and beer. The two of you carried the drinks out to the main room, where Sean, Cole, and Adam were engrossed in a game of Black Jack.

“Finally!” Cole exclaimed, dropping his cards as he noticed the two of you walk in, “We were wondering what took you so long!”

You chuckled, placing the drinks down on the table alongside Kent, “It’s Friday night in a vacation town,” Kent explained, shrugging his shoulders to keep it casual. Adam nodded along, seemingly saying fair enough.

As the guys reached for the beer and whiskey, Kent grabbed one of the “seltzer” cans and handed it to you with a wink. You accepted it gratefully, taking a sip and letting the cool, refreshing taste calm your nerves. He then wrapped an arm around you as you cuddled into his side.

The night continued on, with no one suspicious about what you and Kent had just pulled off. The boys were yelling about the game of euchre they were playing, earning a soft but playful eye roll from you. Kent kept a watchful eye on you, making sure you were comfortable, all while seamlessly blending in with his teammates.

As the night wore on, the laughter in the living room began to slow, and you could feel the weight of exhaustion settling over you. Between traveling all day and the energy it took to keep up appearances, your body was calling for rest. You smiled at the guys, pretending to stifle a yawn as you pushed your chair back from the table.

“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” you said, glancing around the room, “I’m pretty wiped from today.”

Sean, Cole, and Adam all gave you understanding looks, still focused on their cards and drinks. “You’ve earned it,” Sean said with a grin, “We’ll try not to be too loud and keep you up.”

“Good luck with that,” Adam teased, “Cole’s not exactly the quietest person you’ll ever meet.” 

You laughed lightly as Cole smacked Adam upside the head. Standing up and giving Kent a quick look, your eyes communicated more than words could in that moment. He caught your glance immediately, knowing exactly what you meant. You needed him with you, but at the same time, you didn’t want to raise suspicion by him leaving too soon after you.

“I’ll be up in a bit,” he said, giving you a small, reassuring smile, “I’ll keep an eye on Cole and make sure he’s not too loud.”

You nodded, giving him a quick hug and offering the guys a wave before slipping away from the table. As you climbed the stairs, you could hear them still talking and laughing, their voices a soft hum in the background. Once you were upstairs, you exhaled a long breath of relief, the tension of the day finally easing as you made your way to your room. 

You changed into your pajamas, feeling the weight of the day lifting as you settled onto the bed. It didn’t take long for Kent to join you. About 30 minutes later, you heard his familiar footsteps on the stairs, and the door quietly creaked open.

“Hey,” he said softly, closing the door behind him as he moved toward the bed, “You okay?”

You smiled, nodding as he sat down beside you, “Yeah, just tired. It was a lot today.”

Kent slid into bed next to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his chest. “I know. You did so good today, pretty girl. No one suspects a thing.”

You chuckled softly, resting your head against his chest, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat calming you, “Thanks for helping me pull it off. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Kent kissed the top of your head, his voice low and comforting, “Of course, my love. We’re a team.”

The two of you stayed like that for awhile, the soft sounds of the ocean outside your window mixing with the distant murmur of voices from downstairs. It felt peaceful, the weight of the day finally lifting now that you were alone together.

“I can’t wait until they're here,” you whispered after a few moments of silence, your hand resting gently over your stomach.

Kent smiled against your hair, his arm tightening around you, “Me too. But until then, we’ll keep playing it cool for as long as we can. You get some rest, though, alright? You’ve had a long day.”

You nodded, feeling sleep begin to pull at you as Kent’s warmth and presence comforted you, “Goodnight, KJ.”

“Goodnight, Y/N/N,” he whispered, pressing another soft kiss to your forehead.

With Kent beside you, you felt safe and content, knowing that no matter what challenges the next days would bring, you had him by your side. As your eyes fluttered shut, the last thing you felt was Kent’s hand gently resting on your stomach, a quiet reminder that the two of you were in this together. Always.

a/n; would kj be a girl dad or a boy dad

[infiniteimaginings]

True Loves Kiss (Rumplestiltskin x Male!Reader)

Summary: Rumplestiltskin is an old friend of yours, you've known him for quite a while. He introduced you to his new maid for saving a kingdom from the great ogre war, what will happen when this 'maid' tells you her research for breaking curses? Pronouns: You/Yours, He/Him Warnings: Fluff Word Count: 4.6k A/N: This is specifically because someone asked for it in the comments (@aggsh-shs) and I will always write for once upon a time. This is also way longer than I expected it to be, can you guys tell I'm obsessed with this show?

The enchanted forest, a beautiful and daring realm filled with magic and wonder. A world where fairytales exist, where happy endings are prominent. But, where there is light, there is darkness. Where there is magic, there are loopholes. Where there is good, there is evil.

Within the enchanted forest, there was an extremely powerful man…well, he wasn’t a man per say. Man is humanity, and this creature was far from human. He had green, scaly skin, a dark grin, no sense of morals it seemed. He was a magical being, blessed or cursed with immortality, he was a witch, a monster. This being used his time in the enchanted forest to gain all the knowledge he possibly could by intimidation, he ripped people's hearts out, he created curses, he destroyed lives to be as powerful as possible.

This being, this monster, this crocodile, was named Rumplestiltskin. He was also known as the dark one, a magical entity that is corrupted with darkness, enveloped in the heinous shadows that surround the name, the whispers of the past dark ones swirling in their heads.

He resided in a fairly large dark castle with what seemed to be thousands of floors, rooms, everything. It was such a large castle, yet he was the only one who resided in such a space. No one was concerned if he was lonely though, why would people worry if the monster who comes to their towns and invokes fear into them is lonely?

No one was concerned until Rumplestiltskin had been spinning straw into gold, a usual pastime for him, it helped him think. His thinking time had been ruined by someone walking through a door to the side of his main room, his prize.

By prize it’s more of a condition. He had protected a kingdom from the great ogre war, meaning that he created a magical barrier around the kingdom to keep the ogres at bay. Therefore giving no reason for the kingdom to send their men to kill themselves for. Within this condition, he requested their princess in exchange for his help, the king disagreeing but the princess went ahead and sacrificed herself.

Her name was Belle, she was a bright and well read woman. She also was a prisoner of Rumplestiltskin who couldn’t leave. She was upset of course, but she would do anything to protect her kingdom. Her prisoner rank had been promoted to being a maid, she cleaned, dusted, poured tea, all of the sorts. That, in Rumplestiltskin's opinion, did not involve asking all the questions she decided she wanted to ask.

“Do you ever get lonely?” The brown haired woman asked, dusting along the shelves. She looked at the scaled man with soft eyes, no longer worried about whether he would hurt her or not, if he wanted to he would’ve already.

Rumplestiltskin continued to spin the straw, pulling threads of gold easily without thought. He didn’t even look away from the spinner, “No.” He spoke simply, foot stepping on the press to make the wheel spin. Belle pursed her lips at the vague response and continued to clean, “You must get lonely at least a bit, you’re always by yourself.” She spoke, her English accent ringing through his ears. He sighed, gaze flickering to her before going back to his work, “I’m not by myself…” He spoke to her, his voice in a concentrated mutter. “All the time, at least.” He added on the statement, his features softening slightly before concentrating once more. Belle put her hands on her hips, “I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, but I have not seen anyone else come through here other than that thief.” She told him, walking over to him with the confidence no one truly has to the dark one.

Rumplestiltskin stopped spinning his straw and looked at Belle with a bored expression, “I don’t have tea parties with the people I associate myself with.” He spoke, standing abruptly to walk to the door. Belle stayed near the spinner, frowning slightly, he was so adamant that he wasn’t lonely but, why was he never with anyone?

Just as Rumplestiltskin walked to the main door to exit, someone from the other side had already opened it. It was a man, he was looking down into a satchel overflowed with scrolls, quills, and possibly other things, but from where Belle was she couldn’t see it clearly. A few larger rolls of paper escaped the satchel as the man walked through the door. What surprised Belle though was that Rumplestiltskin wasn’t surprised by the visitor, he had rolled his eyes and picked up the papers, shaking them in front of the man's face.

That man was you. You picked your head up from looking down and smiled graciously, reaching to grab the papers but Rumplestiltskin pulled them away with his devilish smirk. “Your satchel is overflowing, did you steal them? Buy them? I would ask if you intimidated the owners but…” He looked you up and down, tilting his head, unimpressed, “You’re not an intimidating person.” He spoke simply. The scaled man tapped your head with the paper and you gently but swiftly took the papers with a soft glare.

Belle was curious to the interaction, she placed her duster down and walked forward, hands grazing the chairs as she walked closer. The two of you continued to interact until Belle leaned her body into your view, waving, “Hello.” She spoke with a smile but curious eyes.

Your eyes widened in surprise, “Hello…there?” You spoke with a questioning gaze to Rumplestiltskin who shot a dirty look to Belle for interrupting. The dark one nodded reluctantly, gesturing to Belle without looking at her, “Meet my maid, whatever her name is.” He waved his hands around as a movement of not remembering.

“My name is Belle.” She spoke right after him so you would know. You nodded in understanding, humming at the word ‘maid’. You shook her hand and introduced yourself, saying your name and telling her that you’ve known Rumplestiltskin for years.

She tilted her head with intrigue, “How come I’ve never seen you?” She asked, wondering how after all this time a man could show up and just…be well acquainted with someone people find terrifying. Rumplestiltskin sucked his teeth, “He’s been on a long journey for a few months.” He answered plainly, picking at his nails. He suddenly pointed to Belle, “How about you do what actual maids do and make tea instead of asking questions?” He asked, more of an order.

Belle gently smiled, used to the treatment and grabbed the porcelain tea set, “I thought you didn’t have tea parties with people you associate with.” She spoke jokingly, repeating his words from earlier. The man frowned and poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue, “And I thought when I received you, you would be more quiet.” He muttered under his breath, not even looking at Belle. You had gently smacked Rumplestilskin in his shoulder and told him to ‘play nice’ to which he scowled about.

This routine had gone on for a few more weeks. You would appear at the castle, or wake up there after falling asleep on the main room table. You would hold banter and conversation with Rumplestiltskin, the man would go do some errands, Belle would make you tea, the dark one would return and take you into multiple different rooms.

Something Belle noticed was that her captor was very gentle with you. When you would prick your finger on the spinning wheel, a small look of concern would flash across the scaled man's face before he waved his hand and suddenly your wound was gone. He would let you take any book you’d like, as well as touch any treasure of his with no complaints from the owner. As if you could do anything, and he would never darken.

You had leaned across him as he was at his wheel, he was blocking the way to a compartment you needed to get to. You tripped a bit when you pointed your toes to get higher ground and nearly toppled on top of him. You would've if Rumplestiltskin didn’t immediately stop spinning the straw and take hold of your waist. You didn’t even look at him as you just continued trying to grab the crystal like item from the shelf, the man holding you for your balance. You didn’t notice how his eyes would look over your face, his fingers would flex around your waist slightly, how gentle his expression was to you.

Once you had grabbed the crystal item, you moved down, Rumplestiltskin guiding you back down. You thanked him and walked to the table, Belle watching the entire thing as she wiped down a few possessions of her captors.

You had sat at the table, placing a few scrolls on the table and the crystal item next to them. Belle had poured you some tea and placed a cup of it in front of you. The other man didn’t sit at all near the two of you. His eyes followed you from the spinner and he cleared his throat, standing and brushing himself off.

“I’ll be back.” Was all he said before he disappeared with the wave of his hands.

Belle had stood up at this point to continue cleaning in a different area so you could focus but you stopped her, shaking your head. “Please, drink tea with me?” You asked her kindly and she accepted the offer, sitting next to you and pouring herself tea as well. You looked at her a bit before putting your cup down, noticing it was slightly chipped. “You can ask whatever questions you wish.” You said nonchalantly, pulling a few scrolls out, some were maps, some declarations, amongst other things.

You couldn’t pretend like you didn’t see how her eyes lit up at the offer, chuckling to yourself lightly. Belle had taken the chance to ask the millions of questions about you, about Rumplestiltskin, about the castle, about your history, about his history, she asked you everything.

Belle leaned forward, hands around the cup as a safety, smiling gently, “How do you know Rumplestiltskin?” She asked you immediately, curious as to how someone seemingly so kind could be with someone who acted so cruel. You took a sip of your tea, putting it back down on the table, “I know him because we lived in the same village.” You answered her simply.

“He lived in a village?” She spoke, clearly shocked at the new piece of information. “No one was scared of him?” Belle asked you, almost scooching her chair a little closer to you.

“When I met him, he was a man.” You informed her, her lips parting slightly. “It was in an ogre war-” You continued until Belle visibly flinched at the words. Your eyes shifted to her quickly from your cup, “Are you okay?” You asked her, cup now down,hand reaching to hers for comfort. The princess smiled gently at you and nodded with a hesitant breath. “Yes, it’s just…my kingdom..” She began and you nodded, encouraging her to continue.

She didn’t though. She exhaled, the breath sounded shaky and she appreciated your hand offered to her, taking it. “It’s alright, you should continue.” She expressed, her facial expression didn’t convince you completely but you continued for her sake specifically. You looked her in her eyes, nothing but warmth within them, “It was long ago.” You told her, almost as if you were telling a story to a child. “One of the first ogre wars.” Your voice was a little low for suspense, Belle enjoyed it, it was like when her father used to read stories to her. She noticed your words and blinked a bit at you, now leaning forward to you due to her interest, “That was… that was hundreds of years ago.” She responded to your comment and you simply nodded.

“You’ve lived that long?” She asked, “Are you a mortal?” She questioned, brows furrowed in confusion. You didn’t look like Rumplestiltskin with the scales and darkness, but you didn’t look like a fairy, you had no wings. You certainly didn’t look like a seer, those with eyes on their palms, their faces sewed up, thought you could have the powers, she was unsure.

You licked your lips with a huff of a laugh, “A fairy a long time ago told me that I would be needed for something, but I would need to live to that point,” You spoke, nodding, your nose scrunched, “so she granted me immortality.” You finished your comment and Belle nodded slowly. “Are you still…?” Belle began, unsure of how to word her sentence, but you understood. “I am still a man, I just can’t die.” You expressed to her, moving a few papers, your hand still in the comfort of hers.

Belle had many questions about that, but she decided to stick to the questions about the dark one. “Okay…so, he used to be a man?” “Yes, before he became the dark one, he was a man.”

“How did he become the dark one?”

You paused, thinking for a moment, squeezing your hand gently, “It’s not my story to tell of how.” You spoke simply, and before she could speak once more you continued. “The dark one is magical,” You stated the obvious to which the girl in front of you nodded, “and is drowned in darkness until it takes over completely.” You explained to her, pausing once more. You tilted your head, trying to find a way to explain this to her without expressing more information than needed. “But, since it takes over a human host, he’s not complete darkness,” You said, “no matter how much people say otherwise.” You muttered the last part, a flash of annoyance in your expression.

Belle was silent for a moment, thinking. She pulled her hand back, you didn’t mind and simply clasped yours hands in front of you on the table. “So he’s cursed?” Belled asked you after a while of silence. You tilted your head in each direction with an expression that showed you weren’t exactly sure of a correct answer to that, “I guess you could think of it like that.”

She went silent once more, hands in her lap, “True love's kiss can break any curse” She stated to you, eyes flickering into yours before looking back to the cups.

“You truly believe that?”

“Of course!” Belle spoke quickly, “But, I suppose you are not his true love.” She mumbled, playing with her fingers. The comment caused your head to snap to her, slight shock, but mainly confusion in your face. You shook your head lightly with a slightly uncomfortable smile, “How ever would you know that?” You asked her, hands clutching each other tighter. Belle noticed your slight tone, her eyes widening at she stumbled over her words for her explanation, “He is not his original self, so the must mea-“

“Me and Rumplestiltskin have never kissed.”

Your words caused her mouth to open, she was staring at you agape. “You two..have never kissed?” She asked, truly confused which puzzled you even further. She puffed air into her cheeks, “I assumed the two of you were romantically involved since he’s far more gentle with you than anyone else.” She continued to explain, wondering if she saw it differently.

Now it was your turn to stare, agape. You couldn’t ask her why and how she came to that conclusion until Rumplestiltski himself had returned. His vest was covered in blood so he took it off, leaving him in only his long sleeved under shirt. He tossed it to Belle who was utterly disgusted by the blood but used to the action, “Clean this for me, someone didn’t want to be compliant.” He spoke, teeth gritted as he turned on his heel to a different doorway.

He gestured to you to follow, so you stood quickly, sending an apologetic gaze to Belle. The princess, the prisoner of the dark one, stood and walked to a different doorway to where she washed and hung Rumplestiltskin's clothes to dry.

You had followed Rumple, something you call him, into a tower where he worked with potion magic. He had stood in front of a desk, mixing a few bottles of magic together to create something new, you always enjoyed watching him in his element. You looked along the the rows of ingredient bottles or fleshed out potions, looking through the labels and humming as you examined them a bit. Silence was between you two which wasn’t unusual, but you decided to break it. “You want to know something so funny?” You asked him, your backs to each other as you were on the other side of the room. Rumple gave you a hum of acknowledgement, not turning to you, “I highly doubt it will be funny, but continue.” He told you, waving his hand slightly before going back to the potions. “Belle told me that true loves kiss breaks all curses.”

Your statement caused the man behind you to stand up straight, looking directly to the wall. He cocked his head to the side, though you didn’t see it, “Maybe I shouldn’t let her read those books.” He said aloud, looking back down to his potion. You chuckled, rolling your eyes a bit, “I mean, it is true, isn’t it? From everything I've seen at least.” You spoke, messing with a bottle of unicorn hair. Rumple focused on his work but muttered a few words, “She's not wrong, but why would she discuss such a thing with you?” He asked, confused on what brought up the subject matter.

You didn’t tell him that you let her ask questions but you did express why she would bring up the product of the question, “Well, she believes you’re cursed.” You spoke almost too plainly, your mouth getting a little dry as you remembered the cut off conversation from earlier.

Your words had been so unexpected that he had put his potion bottles down a bit harshly, the bottles clinking each other. You turned to him with surprise and he turned, meeting your eyes. “I’m sorry?” He asked, mouth now in a thin line, arms crossed. You didn’t expect such a reaction but you shrugged anyways, “She thinks being the dark one is a curse and it can be lifted with true loves kiss.” You explained and he chuckled slightly in disbelief.

He began to shake his head with closed his eyes, “Don’t tell me she believes not only the ridiculous idea that true loves kiss will lift my name off that damn dagger,” He began, holding his hand out for you due to the way this rattled him ,”but that she thinks she could kiss me and all is well.” He finished, tilting his head at you when he looked up, his shock now wiped into amusement. You crinkled your face into a scrunch, “Not exactly.” You chuckled out, licking your lips subconsciously, looking down.

Rumple waited for you to continue and you kicked the ground, crossing your arms yourself, “She thinks I could be your true love.” You laugh, looking up at him after speaking such a ridiculous idea. You were met with pure silence, silence that was tense and the eye contact with the man in front of you never ceased. “What?” He asked you, his voice had never been so soft, so hesitant.

It caught you off guard so you tilted your head, smiling a bit, “She assumed I wasn’t your true love since you weren’t human, and I had to tell her we’ve never kissed.” You reiterated the moments from a little earlier, and were met with even more silence. “Why are you so quiet?” You asked, pushing yourself off the bookshelf to reach the middle of the room, now half the distance from where you were away from Rumple.

He looked to the ground, a concentrated look on his face before he looked back up, “She believes you could be my true love?” He asked you suddenly and you nodded, “She believed we had a romantic connection.” You told him honestly. You were unsure why the topic was one he was stuck on, he never really cared for such a thing when the topic had been brought up before. He sighed, “And she thinks true loves kiss is going to break whatever this is?” He asked, gesturing his hands down his body and you simply nodded. Your confirmation had brought Rumplestiltskin to shake his head, “Ridiculous.” he spoke, turning back to his project.

Another moment of silence filled between the two of you, once again, you broke it. “Have you ever tried?” You asked, gulping harshly, still standing in the middle of the room, tapping your foot. Rumple was looking at the mixture he created, waving his hand for the potion to glow, “Tried what?” He asked in response, not looking at you. You took a deep breath, now simply hugging yourself. “Looking for a way to not be the dark one without…dying for it?”

Pure silence filled the room, again. You didn’t understand why so much silence was coming between you two.

“Sometimes I think about it.” He answered honestly, voice in a mumble.

“Has it ever gone beyond thinking?” More silence was in response so you tried to stutter out a different response, trying to speak of how he doesn’t have to say, or to move onto a topic.

“No, it hasn’t.”

You walked a little closer, now standing next to him but he wouldn’t look at you, like he was avoiding it. “Do you think it ever will? If you do actually find a way?” You asked him, leaning on the table a bit. He didn’t answer the question, he just put his hands on the table, looking down at the bottles, “…Can I ask you something?” He asked you, taking a few deep breaths.

“Sure.”

“What if true loves kiss could break it somehow?”

You weren’t sure if he meant with you or in general, but you answered honestly regardless, tapping your fingers on the wooden table. “Well, then…” You began, adjusting yourself, “I say you could find Baelfire, and after you do you could kiss your true love and then be happy.” You spoke, shrugging a bit, unsure of if he was actually concerned about it.

“What if you’re my soulmate?” He asked you, head turning to look at you, you turned yours to look at him. “Do you truly believe I could be?” You asked in a slight whisper.

He looked at you, the man in front of him, he saw a flicker of something in your eyes. He couldn’t pin point what it was, you couldn’t even understand what it was. He sighed, rubbing the bottom of his face with his hand, “Even if it somehow was true,” He spoke, now fully turned to you, “being the dark one is a different magic. it’s not a curse.” He told you, seemingly trying to convince himself more than you.

You frowned deeply at him, if you stepped closer, the two of you would be nose to nose. “I do hate when you refer to yourself as the dark one.” You mumbled to him, keeping eye contact with him and he shook his head, a matching frown on his face. The mood was slightly solemn through this conversation, like there was hope for something that would never happen. “Why?” He asked you, “It’s true.”

You inhaled deeply, your chest aching a bit, “You’re just Rumple.” You told him simply, eyes soft. You noticed his harder expression softened as well, his frown more sad than frustrated. “The same man who brought me those skins when I was sick.” You reminded him, eyes glistening slightly. Rumple hadn’t said anything, just looking into your eyes before he realized you finished your sentence. He cleared his throat, standing now, “Children had stronger immune systems than you.” He spoke, biting the inside of his cheek, turning to a journal to write down the products of his potion.

“And yet you still took care of me.” You smiled at his actions, still leaning on the table.

He waved you off, not turning to look at you, “I do not appreciate your sentiment at the moment, go read a book or look over your maps or something.”

You laughed a little louder than you expected and dramatically bowed, “Of course your majesty.” You told him, shaking your head and walking to the door the two of you came in from.

Before you could go he called your name, causing you to turn to him. His back was still to you but your footsteps stopped so he spoke. “Why did Belle believe we were romantically involved?” He asked you, the question was strange to you but you answered anyway.

“She said something about how you look at me far more gently than anyone else.” You expressed to him honestly, not thinking much of it.

“Do you believe her?”

“I am not sure. We have been friends for a long time, I’m sure it’s a little more gentle.”

He was quiet for a moment, before turning to you, expression unreadable. “If we were true loves, and if I was back to being a man-”

“Rumple, I don’t mind that you're..” You began walking forward to him but he interrupted you. “A monster?” He asked and your eyes lidded and your pursed your lips, “The dark one.” You finished your phrase, the words making him go silent. You were now face to face with him, “I’ve known you long enough to know that you’re not all darkness.” You explained, his eyes looking into yours, “There’s something inside you, there’s light, there’s the Rumple I knew and still know.” You expressed to him, fingers tingling to grab hold of his but you decided against it.

His breath hitched when he noticed your fingers twitch a bit to him, “That light is because of-”

“Baelfire.” You had known the answer, you knew of his son. You knew his son and how much joy he brought to his father.

Rumple nodded but continued anyways, “And you.” You were a little shocked, your face showing that. He grabbed your hands, his rougher than yours, “You’re my hope for finding him.”

A smile had broken out on your face a bit, “I’ve never seen you get sentimental.” You teased a bit, but he didn’t smile. He held your hands, looking down at them. “I think I can only be with you.” His words were heavy and they caused your heart to beat quickly and loudly. “I don’t want to be soft, but you melt me.” He explained, eyes looking back into yours, he seemed so gentle in this moment with you, like the old Rumple. “And there’s so many things I want to say and do But I don't want to risk…”

“True loves kiss?”

He hesitated before closing his eyes, sighing, and nodding. “Yes…there’s just too much on the line.”

You understood, if you were his true love and you kissed him, it’s possible he wouldn’t be the dark one anymore. He wouldn’t have the power and strength to get Bae back, and you didn’t want to be the reason he never saw his son again. You stepped a little closer, kissing his cheek gently, the action was quick, faster than he could process. When he finally did, he touched his cheek and looked at you with big eyes.

You were smiling softly, hands still in his, “How about that for now?” You asked him and for the first time that day, he replicated your smile. “Perfect.” He told you, gazing into your eyes with a fire he’s never had before. Well, the fire you’ve never noticed before now.

[tinydefector]

Reader with a disability- like a lost limb or two. And their cypertronian friendo’s make them new limbs?

I’d personally like to see it with the Decepticon‘s. But I’ll take anyone.

Upgrades

Tarantulas x reader

Warnings: none

Word count: 1.3k

Used the wheel spinner to pick a character for this one, and you got tarantulas, and he was actually a lot of fun to write. Based him quite a bit of the earthspark Tarantulas.

___________

They sit off to the side as Tarantulas works. Not being able to do much else other than wait for him to finish his work. The scarring on their leg aches and it makes them twitchy for sitting so long with nothing to do. "How much longer?" They ask softly trying not to scratch the area

He glances over at the human, a soft click comes from his mandibles. "Patience, my friend. These things cannot be rushed." He turns back to his workbench, carefully assembling components of the new prosthetic he was working on. "I assure you, the end result will be well worth the wait." 

 

They continued to sit there for a moment but eventually decided they were sick of just sitting. using the equipment beside themself they pull themself to stand, keeping a hand on it while hopping closer trying not to fall over. Tarantulas' optics briefly flicker towards them as they uncomfortably hop closer, clearly struggling without the support of their prosthetic. He pauses in his work, claws delicately holding a small metallic component mid-assembly. 

"I would not recommend straining yourself in such a manner," he says evenly. "The device will be completed as efficiently as I am able. injuring yourself will only hinder the process. One of his claws came out to steady them. He clicks the part into place with meticulous care, then glances back at the human.

"I'm bored sitting here Tarantulas" they admit while moving closer using his arm as a guide closer. "Can you put something on for me to watch or something, I can't handle just sitting here in silence, please I'd even suffer listening to the music you like so much" they hand brushes against his plating as they stand against his frame, pressing their head against the spider furr of his plating.

Tarantulas lets out an exasperated hiss as the human presses against him, interrupting his concentration. Still, he suppresses the urge to shove them away, he rumbles softly reminding himself they were a touchy one, it was only them and not someone else touching him. 

"Very well," he grumbles, reaching a clawed hand to tap at a nearby console. "I shall provide some 'entertainment' to distract that feeble organic processor of yours." The screens in his lab flicker to life, he types away for a moment with his other talons and brings up some mind numbing videos. He bristles again when their hand runs over the furr before he settles again. "Try not to leak your oils and fluids on my exoskeleton," he snarks slightly but settles into the light touch. He lifts them up, settling them between his shoulder plate and helm, talons subtly guiding them until they had sat comfortably. " now you're just being a dick" they state with amusement while snuggling against him. 

He turns back to the delicate work with a few small clicks. Tarantulas narrows his optics at the human's crass words, but otherwise does not acknowledge their playful jab. His thoughts are focused solely on completing the task at hand. With meticulous precision, he settles back into work, a talon coming up to check on them occasionally to check if they had fallen asleep. They'd make a small noise but other than that they were content watching the videos. 

Tarantulas soldiers the final connections, tweaking the calibration. "It is done," Tarantulas announces, and they peek up to look at the finished prosthetic. "Your patience has paid off. Shall we test its capabilities?" He holds up the brand new leg for them to look at for a moment. With care he helps them off his shoulder, setting them down gently. Once they are seated, he works quickly; multiple talons move with skill to fit the prosthetic into place, ensuring the connections are seamless. 

"How does it feel?" he asks while making sure to attach it the right way, checking to make sure the pins didn't pinch on the attachment, as he watches their reaction he's already working on another design in his processor. "Walk with it. Carefully." He steps back, folding all his arms but one as he watches for any sign of instability.

He olds one out for them to use encase they needed it, but For now, he watches. As they stand up and put pressure on it, it feels different to the other prosthetic. The first few steps are wobbly with Tarantulas guiding them with a servo to make sure they don't trip. "Feels weird, lighter than the last one.Tarantulas watches closely as the human takes their first tentative steps with the new prosthetic. His optics brighten with fascination at seeing his engineering in action. “What did you change?". It wasn't as heavy as the last prosthetic he had made for them. 

"I utilised a lighter alloy in its construction to reduce overall mass, while integrating cybertronian servo-motors to enable more natural movement. They should also allow for greater precision and control compared to your previous prosthesis," Tarantulas explains, a hint of pride creeping into his voice despite himself.  

"In time, it should function almost similarly to your original organic limb, perhaps even surpassing it in strength and capabilities. I can continuously refine the design as needed." He gestures to his workbench, laden with tools and components. "For now, simply continue acclimating yourself to it." His optics gleam with anticipation. It was something almost simplistic but they needed it.

 They continue walking around on it testing the feeling of the new prosthetic, after they sit down and watch the way the hinges bend with each time they straighten and bend their leg. "Still don't know how you do it Tulas, you would be an awesome prosthetic manufacturer you know" they shoot him a delighted smile. Tarantulas lets out an amused huff at the human's praise. 

"An 'awesome prosthetic manufacturer'? Hardly a fitting aspiration for one such as myself." He turns back to tidy up his workstation, sorting tools and components with methodical efficiency. "I engineer these enhancements purely as scientific curiosities, and for the opportunities they provide in helping you."  Picking up a small welding tool, he regards it thoughtfully as he continues. "But I admit, it is gratifying to see my creations appreciated."  

“Got a soft spot for me Tula?” they tease at him. Tarantulas sets down the tool and moves closer to the human, gently flicking them with one of his talons.  "But thank you, I know it probably doesn't mean much to you due to being Cybernetic, but this means alot to me to be able to walk, and you're making it easier with the knee bending." It's a sincere thank you. They look over at the other prosthetic. "Do you know why this one broke?" 

Tarantulas picks up the damaged prosthetic leg, turning it over in his claws as he examines it closely. "Inferior craftsmanship," he hisses in disdain. "Not unexpected from those human manufacturers. They lack true vision." He traces a talon along a cracked seam in the prosthetic's casing. "Substandard materials and shoddy construction. I could improve upon this base design in recharge."

Setting the leg down, Tarantulas turns his optics to the human. "Do not trouble yourself with their inept handiwork any longer. You shall walk solely on my creations from now on." 

They laugh at his crase words shaking their head in amusement, it was nice to see him enjoying working on something that to him was so basic yet to them was a life altering thing. They smile back at him as they disconnect the prosthetic, placing it in their lap to look it over. "It's pretty, didn't take you as an artist type Tula" they hum in amusement while admiring the patterns etched onto the fake leg.

Tarantulas tilts his head quizzically at the human's comment about his artistic sensibilities. "Artistry? Hmpf. I merely adorn my creations to...satisfy your simple organic aesthetic preferences." He steps closer and runs a talon along the etched patterns in the prosthetic's casing. "But I admit, an elegant design does complement the engineering within."  

________

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[covenofwives]

Relaxing with the Gods: Twister

DreamXD comes to the Godly Realm excited to show off a new game from the mortal world. Sapnap4K is excited to see it and they even managed to convince the unimpressed GeorgeHD to play as well.

Another part to the Relaxing with the Gods series. Wooooo

Please enjoy

~~~

It seemed a common occurrence that whenever DreamXD would visit the retired God GeorgeHD, he’d always come with a new thing he learned from the Overworld. It would be a coin flip as to whether HD would actually be interested or not.

On one such visit, XD came with a new thing he was dying to show off to HD and was happily surprised to see Sapnap4K was visiting too. The raven haired God was just as much intrigued to see this new interest as XD was excited to show it.

“So you spin this. And whatever colour it lands on you move what it says onto the colour on the mat!”

XD held out the small black square with an arrow over it. On the edges of the squares were little colourful circles and XD excitedly flicked over the arrow to make it spin. The colours were sectioned off into ‘left hand’, ‘right hand’, ‘left foot’, ‘right foot’.

“What a stupidly simple game.” HD scoffed as he took the spinner to look at. “Are mortals so boring that this is the height of their entertainment?”

“You’ve not even tried it.” 4K was quick to defend the game before XD could, which XD was thankful for. While he loved HD, the God’s snappy grumpiness to near everything XD brought was disheartening. 4K was always encouraging and lightening HD’s mood a little. “It sounds rather fun.”

“Sounds annoying.” HD now looked down to the mat that XD had laid out with all the random spots of colour. “With a mat so small people will be getting in each others way.”

“That’s the idea!” XD perked up. “You have to manoeuvre your way around others to get to your spot. It’s an extra challenge.”

“Hmm. Now that sounds fun!” 4K’s eyes lit up. He was looking over the mat, taking in all the colours before looking back up to XD. “Are there any rules against messing with anyone?”

4K’s voice turned high and playful, getting that glint in his eye that XD had grown to know.

“Well…the rules doesn’t say it allowed or not allowed. A lot of mortals do try and knock the other person down or get them to fall.”

“Well I’m sold!” 4K beamed and warmed XD’s heart. “What do you say, grumpy?” He curled an arm around HD’s shoulder and pulled him in. “Wanna try it?”

HD scoffed and XD worried he was going to refuse. His eyes lingered on the mat for a while before giving a sigh. “Okay. Fine. One game of this isn’t going to hurt.”

“Yes!” 4K cheered.

“You’ll be too big though, 4K. It’ll be impossible to play with you.” HD quickly added which 4K wasn’t bothered about.

“That’s fine! I don’t mind being the one to spin the wheel and watch you and DreamXD play.”

The spinner was passed over as 4K held out his hand. He gave it a few experimental spins before seemingly being happy with it. The mat was far too small for the Gods, but that was quickly fixed with a wave of XD’s hand and the mat was grown to a size suitable for them.

“If I’m playing with you, then you can’t use your extra hands.” HD said as XD pushed himself to stand up. 4K had taken to sit by one of the corners of the mat. His legs criss-crossed and the spinner placed over his lap. “Those are cheating.”

“Well…fine.” XD mumbled. He didn’t want to admit he’d been thinking of using them to get an upper hand. “Then-Then you can’t use your helper hands.” XD added. “We each only use two hands for the mat.”

“Fine.” HD shrugged.

“Who wants to go first?” 4K asked, though he already flicked over the spinner before either of them could respond. He looked up again when it slowed to a stop. “Left foot red.”

XD turned to look at HD, trying to decide which one of them would go first, but just as his eyes set on the other God, HD had already placed his left foot over a red spot in front of him. He looked over at XD expectantly, giving a small shrug.

“Alright! I knew HD wanted to try this game!” 4K chirped excitedly.

“Oh shut up.” The starry haired God scoffed. “It’s XD’s turn.”

“Right, right.” 4K looked back down to the spinner, setting the little arm off again. “Left hand green.”

While it was tempting to set their hand down on that spot right beside HD, XD thought better of it. It would be unfair to crowd HD so early and it was probably a better advantage to give himself distance as well. Instead, XD found a spot somewhat far away enough from HD and set down his hand.

The game was tame for the first few turns, but like everything with the Gods it became intense fast. HD had a competitive nature in them so their huffing and eye rolling soon turned into intense stares and carefully planning out their next move. Even if XD wanted to tease them about it, it would feel very hypocritical since XD also had that strong urge to win.

At the start the two had enough space to manoeuvre around one another, but somehow they’d slipped closer the more the game went on. HD was stretched under XD, his arms crossed over awkwardly and one leg stretched far behind him. XD was lucky none of his limbs crossed, but he was straining to keep himself from touching his chest to HD’s back as the smaller God hissed that it was cheating and pushing him down.

Instead of calling out the next move, 4K let out a long, impressed, whistle. “Man, you guys are more into this than I thought. I for sure thought someone would have fallen by now.”

“Shut up and call out the next one.” HD snapped, but his voice wasn’t as snippy as before. Instead it sounded strained, like he was struggling to hold himself up. It gave XD a flutter of glee to think that the win was so close.

“So serious about this game you called stupid just a few minutes ago.” 4K’s lips widened with a grin. “Well you might be winning soon. XD’s arms are starting to shudder.”

“Wh-What! No!” XD’s voice was in a half gasp, and they realised just then how strained they were. Their arms were shaking above HD and they felt their face drip with sweat.

Okay, maybe XD was feeling just a little bit weak from having to hold the position for so long, but so far he wasn’t getting a colour that allowed any of his limbs to move and stretch. Meanwhile HD had their limbs near perfectly stretched, minus their arms being crossed over

“I am not…losing.” XD forced himself to stay, trying to keep his voice levelled and calm and not give anything away.

Though he couldn’t see HD’s expression, XD had perfect view of 4K’s, who didn’t believe him for a second. The Nether God just hummed and gave his tail an amused flick.

“Well, I don’t think HD’s going to lose either.”

“Nope.” HD added smugly, slightly shifting himself but never taking his hands or feet off their colours.

“Might go on a little but longer.” 4K gave an easy shrug. “Though honestly, HD looks like one poke away from toppling over themselves.”

“I do not!” The smaller God quickly denied. “And XD’s got no hands to poke me with!”

“Yes, I suppose his hands playing the game are rather busy aren’t they.”

XD didn’t know if it was the wording, or the tone, or the grin 4K gave him, but something switched in his mind like a light bulb going off. He had folded his lower set of arms behind his back to stop the temptation from using them, but he was also a cheat and would go back on his promise just as easily if it meant he could win. His arms that had been banned unfolded out and reached down to HD’s very tautly pulled ribs and scribbled their terrible nails all up and down.

HD gave a squawk of surprised laughter. His arms wobbled and almost crumbled before he remembered he was trying to win a game, and steeled himself to keep upright. It was hard to hold in laughter but even harder when HD was trying so hard not to move his hands or feet off their spots. He could barely even wiggle himself away, so his only hope was to plead.

“F-Fohohour Kahahay!” HD giggled out. “M-Mahake him stohohohop! Hehe’s cheheheatihihing”

The Nether God grinned, lazily tapping on the spinner. “Hmm, we agreed he couldn’t use his arms in placing them down. Buuuuut we didn’t really say he couldn’t use them at all.”

HD whined out in irritation and desperation as XD’s nails started to spider closer to their sides. “FoHOhOHoUR KAHAHAHAY!”

4K sighed. “Honestly HD, you make such a fuss. XD’s not breaking any rules. There was nothing about using their other hands for not placing.” He grinned again. “Certainly nothing against using your little helper hands either…”

HD’s giggling paused with a small gasp; his mind instantly pinging with the idea as his helper hands suddenly appeared.

The smile on XD’s face suddenly fell and he yelped when a hand squeezed around his knees and up his thighs. “HehehHE DEHeheHEHE! F-Fuhuck! YohOHOU cheheateheher!”

“Yohohou’re cahahalling mehe aha-AHAHA!”

XD’s hands skittered and squeezed down to HD’s sides. HD’s ethereal hands acted in defence to their master, with more appearing and rushing to his aid by launching into each of XD’s armpits.

XD’s laugh jumped up to a squawk. With the sudden attack thoughts of winning the game abandoned and they lost their balance in trying to protect their armpits. Which of course lead to HD losing his balance when XD suddenly fell on top of him.

The game was now a tickle fight with both Gods using their extra hands. HD may have had the advantage on paper, being able to call as many as they wanted, but XD got a good upper hand on them a few times, tasering into their sides while the blonde God would giggle. “Cahahall thehem ohohOHOFF! CAHahaHAHall theheHEM OHOHOHOFF!”

4K watched the fight before him with the widest grin. The spinner was moved off his lap as he rested his elbow on his knees and his head over his hands. While his heart longed to join into the tickle fight, sometimes watching was better.

“Wow you were right, XD. This is a fun game.” 4K chuckled, unsure if the two could even hear him over their laughter. “I should take it to the Nether and teach it to the piglins. This is much better than fighting.”

[kazoosandfannypacks]

All Ships Ship Week, #1, "accidental confessions," an Adristella drabble oneshot.

pairing: Adrian Alwyard X Maristella Arrington

word count: 1100

a/n: I used spinner wheels to randomly decide which ship, prompt, and type of creation I make this week. For day 1, I got my own ocs and drabble, with "accidental confessions/misunderstanding" as the prompts. I tend to come up with a lot of plot bunnies while writing, and I knew I had this one that perfectly fit the prompt, so I polished it up and made it a fic! (Okay, I cheated; I made it a oneshot instead of a drabble, but if you think about it, I basically just wrote eleven drabbles and stuck 'em all together like a scrapbook. Yeah, that sounds smart.)

Anyways, please keep in mind that, while I am the original author of this series and the creator of these characters, this story is still a transformative work, and is not canon or even really canon complaint. It's just a little idea I loved and decided to roll with!

You can read more stuff about Maristella, Adrian, and their friends, as well as see the occasional art and incorrect quote, over at my WIP sideblog, @theadmiralsdaughter!

also on ao3!

Close to Your Heart

The sea never could be quiet. She roared. She rocked. She splashed and she crashed and she moved you as she willed. Even if everywhere else around her stilled, the sea was alive and aloud.

Still, she wasn't loud enough anymore, her roar unable to drown out the flood of words as it ran its course in the back of Maristella's mind.

Some nights, when the crew was quieter, her mind rang louder. On nights like these, she'd slip out of her cabin, find a spot on the deck where the sea's sound was unmuffled, find herself a sanctuary on the edge of what's familiar.

Seated on a railing on the edge of the deck, Maristella sighed, letting the mist and the spray and the chill in the air fill her lungs.

Then, she pulled out a locket from under her uniform, a devoted secret, one that, by now, had become a part of her. Some days she hardly noticed the heart as it hung next to hers, but others it was all she noticed, especially on nights such as these. Once again she ran her fingers along the worn edges, the clasp opening almost of its own will, and though the lighting around was dim, she wouldn't've needed it to see the face held within— the face of Adrian Alyward.

How many times she'd lost him, she'd almost lost track, but she had loved him through them all. The last time, he'd told her she'd be better off forgetting him, that there was no way they'd make it, that he had to leave and wouldn't let her leave it all with him, and that this time it would have to be goodbye.

And still, she'd found him again.

It had almost been easier to pretend he was gone for good, that all she had left of him was a picture in a locket. That was safer, anyways. A picture in a locket couldn't come back to hurt you. A picture in a locket could never abandon you. A picture in a locket would always be there.

But now, he was a more than just a picture in a locket. Now, he was here. Now, all the what-ifs she'd dwelt in were words she could speak, were moments she could hold, were lives she could live.

And now that he was here, she couldn't bring herself to say much of anything.

She closed the locket and gripped it tighter in her fist, looking up to the heavens. She'd thought of a million things to say to Adrian, back when there was no chance to see him again. But now? Now that she saw him every day, and he was smiling at her and talking to her with a twinkle in his eye like there was so much more he wanted to say, too— now all those words fell flat. She'd always had a way with words, and he was always the only one who could render her utterly speechless.

She was started out of her mental wanderings when she heard the approaching footsteps of the night's watchman, and rather than explain why she was out and about so late, she made a swift escape.

"Wait, you dropped...."

The voice behind her sounded all too familiar, and stopped mid-thought as Maristella whirled around to confirm her suspicions. He was leaned forward ever so slightly, as though he'd bent down to pick something up, but stopped when he realized who stood before him.

As eyes found each other in the starlight, Maristella couldn't help but appreciate the irony, that she and Adrian had found each other once again.

"Maristella?" Adrian asked, his tone hushed, "what are you doing up?"

"I suppose I could ask you the same question," she said.

"Well, unless both of us were assigned sentry tonight and this is the first I'm hearing of it," he smiled, "you'll have to come up with a better response."

"I'll get back to you on that in the morning," Maristella said, turning back with defiance as she tried again to make her escape.

"But wait," he said, "you dropped this!"

Ringing through her mind like a wretched gunshot was the realization that her locket was no longer in her hand or around her neck. She turned back to see Adrian, on one knee, picking up her heart shaped locket off the deck. The hinges and clasp, well worn from frequent use, popped open in his hand.

She snatched it back from him, wondering if she could gather from his expression how much he'd seen.

"What's that?" he asked, smiling like a cat that had its prey cornered.

"Nothing," she said, closing the locket and returning it to its rightful place, around her neck and tucked away, out of sight, "nothing that matters, anyway."

"Nothing?" Adrian chuckled.

"What's so funny?" she asked, a little offended by his laughter at her flustered frustration.

"Nothing," Adrian said, and as he stood up in front of her, he fished his hand in the collar of his own shirt, and produced a copper necklace with an oval shaped locket.

"I just," he continued, "I thought it was funny, how much it reminds me of this."

She took a step closer to him so she could better see the necklace he held in his hand, and more importantly, the picture he revealed inside as he opened it to her: a portrait of herself.

"Oh, Adrian," she whispered, taking the locket from him.

"It's an old sailor's tradition," he said, "though you're probably aware."

"If someone's close to your heart, you keep them there," Maristella nodded, her words a solemn oath, "and the seas will bring you back to them."

"If someone is close to your heart," he repeated, breathless as a midnight prayer.

She closed his locket, clutching it firmly in her hand for just a moment.

Then she looked back up at him, and took a step closer. She slipped the necklace over his head, holding the chain as it fell around his neck, tracing along its lines as it lay against his chest, her hand stopping right before his heart.

For a moment, they both stood there. Only after that moment ended did he take her hand in his, the whole of the world coming to a standstill around them, even the rocking of the ship feeling like standing on land again.

Once again, Adrian had rendered her utterly speechless, but this time, his words made up for it.

"You are close to my heart, Maristella," Adrian whispered, "and I'm never going to lose you again."

[thisisforclass]

Blog Post 3

For this assignment, I was tasked with creating a game from scratch. I call it Landlord!

The objective of the game is to buy up as much of the center lines as possible. The game ends when one person runs out of pieces. Whoever has the most pieces in the center wins.

How To Play:

The first person will spin the wheel, whatever number it lands on will determine the amount of cards you get to pull. Then, add together the sum total of the cards you pulled, and that is your allowance for buying up space. The first row costs 4 points per space. The second row, 8 points, then 12, then finally 24. Points do not stack from previous pulls.

Session 1:

The very first playtest was a bit messy. It took a while to pull cards and sum up their totals. There was also the issue of keeping track of your allowance. The board originally allowed for power ups to assist the player if they roll too low. But sometimes even the power up isn't enough, and we got stuck in a rut of cycling through cards but not buying up any space. An important rule we established was that pieces cannot jump right into the center, even if they earn up to 24 points. Pieces must start from the bottom left corner and move vertically, horizontally, but not diagonal.

Change notes: 2/10

Maybe change it to where there’s less math?

There are several numbers to keep track of, but that could be part of the challenge

Session 2:

I figured the layout was still in need of change, so I switched the pieces from pegs to checker pieces. Even with some of the rule changes, I ended up in yet another rut where I wasn't able to buy up any spaces above 4 or 8 points. This gave me a lot more to work with in terms of rules and game balancing. I also attempted to switch the spinner and the cards. I hoped that using a dice to choose how many times you spin would be faster than pulling cards. But it became clear that remembering what number you spun might cause problems.

Session notes: 2/17

Add more power ups on the board

Allow points to stack

Less pins

You can choose to save up to 3 cards of your choice, but it will not count towards whatever points you earn that round

Once you use that card, it must go into the used pile

Replace cards with spinner, roll dice to figure out how many times to spin

Session 3:

The cards felt like the best way to go, so I kept that in combination with the spinner. I also decided to add a player hand at the bottom so it's faster to sum up the cards. It's also more organized and hides your sum total from your opponent. It's always more fun when you don't know the enemy's next move. On top of that, I lowered the amount of pieces altogether so the player has to move more carefully through the board. I also chose to allow pieces to move diagonally.

Session notes (single player): 2/18

Playtest 3: 2/18

Changed the layout of the board

Different pieces

Less cards/pins

Higher cards can be pulled now

Add more bonuses closer to the starting point

[journalofthehearth]

I have recently decided that my new years resolution is to commit to my craft and connect with my spirit guides. So to that effect I have started this blog to document my findings and journal my experiences.

And for my first entry, a manifestation ritual and tarot reading for the new year:

The ritual, involving the lighting of a candle (I currently use a white, coffee scented candle that I have dedicated only for my rituals) and the burning of a bay leaf, the phrase "I get what I want because I deserve it" must be written on the surface of the leaf before burning, intention is key. Then I ground myself, holding a flower quartz palm stone between both hands, and think of what I want to manifest. This coming year I will have my needs met, I will receive any money I need, I will foster new friendships and love, and my friends will also have their needs met, I will move to the place I want to go and do what I love to do. This will happen because I say so.

For the tarot reading, I pulled three reversed cards, the first being the page of pentacles. This card has expressed that I find myself stuck in a loop of wanting a certain goal to be met but never reaching it, despite my efforts and planning. This of course is spot on as usual. The next card illuminates the root of the issue, the ten of wands tells me I am carrying to much on my own, and I should work to relieve it. I have been neglecting my health both physically and mentally, I do not enjoy visiting doctors or therapists, but I cannot function efficiently without medication and this causes my depression and anxiety. Next is the ace of wands, I find it difficult to point myself in a specific direction and commit my ideas and ambitions to reality, but the time will come.

I decide to pull one more card for clarity, the wheel of fortune in reverse, this card in reverse represents a resistance to change, which I can feel is true for me, as well as bad luck, it also represents breaking cycles. In regards to the previous cards, I feel this means I am beginning to see the cycles present in my life that bring me pain and do not serve me, so I must work to break them and that starts by reaching out and relieving my burdens, only then can I begin to live my purpose and execute my goals.

I hope whoever is reading this will find some usefulness in it, either way this will be helpful for my record, to make sure I'm following the guidance I've been given. Happy new year

(For those curious, I am using the star spinner tarot deck)

[thirstyandbeautiful]

Request! It’s lockdown on the farm, you Daniel and Michael are bored senseless decide to play a game of twister and get into some very compromising positions…. Do your best hoe fairy!

KINKTOBER: Exhibition Kink (Aussies!Drabble)

October 24th 

“Red, 3.” 

You huffed as you lifted your head and saw where you would have to contort yourself to. Behind you, Michael blew air on the back of your thigh. You shivered, your ass shaking bare in the air as you stretched yourself almost into a downward dog pose as you reached across the Twister mat to reach the color that Michael had spun for you. 

“Hey there.” Daniel grinned down at you from his side, his chiseled body, sculpted by your second lover, was on full display as he leaned on his side to reach his won colors. 

Which put his cock right next to your face. 

You looked at the deeper complexion around the middle that stretched over the tip, the way his precum glistened on the smooth skin. It was so thick, with a vein that ran along the bottom and side of his shaft. You bit your lip when it twitched and bobbed in your face. 

“Blue, 2.” Michael sighed as he reached next to him. 

You and Daniel laughed at him as he groaned.

“You two are practically twisted together, and I’m over here balanced on a single blue line.” He groaned. 

You had been playing Sex Twister on the back porch in the Australian sun. It was fun, it was naughty and it was everything your men stood for. Your bodies were slick from sweat from a day in the sun, and your bodies were bare next to each other. 

There was no better way to spend your day.

You laughed when Daniel’s cock bobbed in front of you again, this time his hip visibly flexed with the motion. Glancing back at Michael who was trying to pull the wheel closer to him without falling, you looked at Daniel and smirked. 

Leaning forward, you opened your mouth and grabbed the tip of his cock with your lips and led it into your mouth. You drooled around the swollen head as you swirled your tongue around the weeping tip. He tasted so good, you felt your pussy pulse between your thighs. You couldn’t sink him any lower, your lips were too dry to part anymore at the seams than they currently were. Daniel stayed quiet, but his hips began to move a bit, lightly thrusting into your mouth. 

“Yellow- hey!” Michael yelled in your direction, “Get his cock out of your mouth, I can see you.” 

You rolled your eyes as you childishly let the swollen, thick length fall from your lips. Pushing on to your toes, you raised your ass and looked down between your legs, upside down you peered at Michael. 

“Yellow, 3.” He stuck his tongue out at you. 

You smiled big as you lifted your leg and placed it down on the dot next to the one your foot was currently on. 

“Fucks sake.” Michael growled, obviously looking a little too far North for your face. 

His own cock hung heavy between his legs, just like Daniel’s. The long cock was perfectly straight and his tip rubbed pre-cum into the playing mat. You watched as his hips pressed down, his cock tip rubbed against the floor, and wondered whether or not he knew he was dry humping the ground or if that’s just what the sight of your cunt did to him. 

“Spin, Papi.” you purred.

He tsk’d at you and spun again. His head turned back and forth between the floor and the spinner. Expecting him to be screwed again, you turned your head and smiled at Daniel before tonguing his tip again. You licked up his precum with the flat of your tongue. Keeping your four limbs down expertly on the mat, you rolled his cock around your face by pushing it around with your tongue. You had leaned in at an odd angle to lick his heavy balls when you heard the happy sound behind you. 

“Fucking finally.” Michael happily exclaimed. 

You looked back, Daniel’s cock between your lips as you started to suck him deeper. You saw nothing as Michael moved forward and bent in your direction. Daniel’s cock fell from your mouth as you squeaked, Michael’s mouth sealing over your cunt from behind. 

Your legs folded so you fell on to your knees, but that did nothing to deter Michael. His lips pressed to the ones between your legs as his tongue pushed into your hole. 

“Fuck!” 

“You’re both out.” Daniel told you as he quickly crawled to your side and brushed your hair out of the way, “I win.” 

He groaned as he pushed his cock between your lips. You reached up with your now free, but sore, hands and palmed his balls as your tongue licked up his juicy tip. Michael moaned between your legs and spread the skin of your inner thighs and ass further than they already were. You whimpered as both holes were spread completely open. 

The heat of your cunt mixed with his hot breath, making you moan and vibrate Daniel’s cock in your mouth. 

Suddenly, Michael’s mouth was gone, but his big hand pressed to your lower back, flattening you against the Twister board the stuck to your skin. 

“Fucking love Twister.” Michael groaned as his cock parted your pussy. 

“Me fucking too.” Daniel moaned as his hips pushed his cock down your throat. 

Your eyes rolled back as they filled both your holes. 

[angelofthebau]

The Boat Fic [for lack of a better title]

Aaron Hotchner x GN BAU Reader

Requested by @avengersbau and angel anon for Marley’s 1.2k Celebration: 💙 A smut one shot with a character of your choice, with a prompt randomly picked by a wheel spinner

Prompt selected: You’re stuck on a boat. That’s it... Contents:      smut [nsfw], some minor panic, throwing up      smut - giving oral, moan kink, penetration. Description:      Seasickness and a stranded boat makes for an interesting afternoon. Marley’s Celebration Masterlists

     It was one of those ideas that seemed sweet in theory. Coasting a huge lake on a boat, only the sound of the engine loud enough to drown out the sound of birds chirping merrily in the lazy afternoon sun. With him. It could have been so perfect, it could have been your moment. But no.      You had no idea that you were seasick until a few mere minutes after being on the water, suddenly running to the cabin to empty your stomach contents, the unnatural tilt of the boat under your feet making your head spin.      “I didn’t know you were sea-sick,” Hotch said softly as you opened the bathroom door, groaning.      “Neither did I,”       “I’ll get us to the other side of the lake as quickly as I can,” He mumbled. For a second, he stared at you, causing pricks of heat to flush down your neck under his gaze.       “I still don’t know why you took the boat instead of driving around the lake like Morgan,” You huffed, trying to initiate some kind of communication to stop his stare, albeit the words came out choked.     “I just thought you needed a few minutes of peace after that case,”      Your mouth twitched into a soft smile as you saw Hotch duck his head almost sheepishly.      “I guess I made it worse,” He apologized. Before you could say anything else, he was gone, striding purposefully out of the cabin. You took a few deep breaths, wiping the sweat beads from your forehead as you turned back into the bathroom. The cold water felt miraculous on your face as you washed it, trying to rid the sweat and heat in your cheeks. You managed to fish out some mints from your bag, chewing on one quickly, desperately wanting to pull yourself together.      After a very quiet pep-talk to yourself, you left the bathroom, only to be met by an even-more sheepish looking Aaron Hotchner. He was fiddling with the watch on his wrist as he flickered his vision from the floor of the cabin to your eyes.      “Out with it, Hotchner,” You joked, but he made a weird facial expression, almost cringing as he finally managed to latch his gaze onto you for longer than a few seconds.       “We’re stuck here for a couple of hours,”        “What?”        “Engine malfunction. I called Morgan and he said there isn’t anyone to help us for another couple of hours,”        Hotch decided to leave out the part where Rossi had grabbed the phone from Morgan and yelled ‘Attaboy, here’s your chance,” before abruptly hanging up.        Letting out a string of curses, you took a deep breath and made your way over to the bed in the cabin, flinging yourself down. You flinched at the sudden movement causing your stomach to feel like it was bubbling again, trying to lie as still as possible.       You closed your eyes for a few minutes, trying to ignore the waves of nausea that surfaced every time you felt the boat move slightly underneath you. You were so focused on breathing through the discomfort that you almost missed the feeling of weight at the bottom of the bed.        A large hand rubbed your stomach gently, the touch almost a ghost. Your eyes shot open and met his. His hand almost sprang back away from you. For a minute, Hotch seemed caught in headlights. He never acted like this, not around anyone. He was impenetrable, head strong and stern - now he was almost shy and bashful.       You didn’t say anything, but found some confidence and grabbed his hand, pulling it back onto your stomach. His face softened at the gesture and he continued rubbing, his other hand mindlessly trailing small, dizzying circles on your knee.       “I’m sorry, Y/N,” He sighed, and you shook your head, offering him a watery smile. You closed your eyes with a soft hum.        “I can feel you staring at me,” You chuckled, flickering your eyes back open.        “I just feel bad,”          “Well, stop,” You grinned, lifting your hand to poke him gently in his cheek. You had no idea why, and truthfully, he didn’t know either, but his face turned at the feeling of your skin on his, and he planted a small kiss on the side of your finger. The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by either of you as you both paused, staring at each other in a way that you never had, a war raging in your eyes against each other, buried in confusion and curiosity.      You never thought it’d have been you who made the first move, but that’s how it happened with your hand slowly grazed down from his cheek to the collar of his shirt, fisting the material so tightly that he was propelled forward, straight on top of you, with his mouth already knowing it’s destination.       Neither of you spared a second to think about what was happening. You were too wrapped up in each other. His mouth was hot and slick, with his tongue teasingly gliding across yours. The heat was almost unbearable until his hands found your shirt, slowly unbuttoning it, never breaking the deepening kiss.      “Please,” You mumbled against his mouth as you broke away for a few second of air. The sight of him on top of you, lips wet and slightly swollen, his face red and blown out was enough to emit a low moan from deep in your throat. Your clothes were gradually stripped away, leaving you in your underwear as he sat back onto his knees, unbuttoning his own shirt.      Since when was constant eye-contact this attractive?      Your desperation grew, partly from pure lust and partly from the fact that he was a perfect distraction from the sickness you felt.      With a smile, your eyes dragged across his physique as he undressed himself. He seemed to hesitate as he cast a glance down to his boxers.      “I want this,” You assured him. His eyes darkened almost instantly as he gripped the waistband of your underwear, pulling it down and ridding you of all clothing.      “You’re already dripping,” He whispered, almost in awe, as he began planting kisses along your entire body, causing your body to twitch and shudder in need and awarding him with ungraceful moans and whines. You felt like you were becoming erratic, your hands moving at their own accord and scratching at his waist. That last piece of clothing had to go.       “I didn’t think you were so impatient, Y/N,” Hotch mumbled to himself, finally ridding himself of his boxers. He paused for a minute, almost as if he was still trying to figure out if this was actually happening, but he soon snapped out of it once your mouth hurriedly wrapped around him, your tongue running hot streaks. You reveled in the taste of him as he hit the back of your throat, a low grumble emitting from his chest and setting your blood on fire. Within warning, he pulled you away from him by your hair, pushing you onto your back on the cabin bed.       “I really want to hear you. I want the birds to stop chirping because they can hear you. I want the world to go silent out there from the sound of you,” He commanded, the words cutting you as you let out a gasp of hot air, hurriedly nodding your head. His fingers inched towards your hole and you were almost screeching already, desperately aching for more contact. You managed to motion towards your bag, lazily slung on the floor next to the bathroom door. He followed your line of sight, quickly grabbing your bag and handing it to you.         You fished into the small zipped pocket inside, proudly displaying a bottle of lube.       “You keep lube in your bag?” He spluttered into laughter as you grinned, your words were gone - the only thing you could hear or say was his name as he began opening the bottle. You pulled the bottle from his hands and covered your hands with it until they were flooded. The groan he made when your hands then began massaging him could have made you cum right there and then, but you wanted him. You needed to know how he felt inside you.       He flipped you over and lined himself up, the lube threatening to drip from him at any moment. Slowly, he pushed himself inside of you, as gently as he could, your voice giving out a long moan at the feeling. His hands were placed on your waist, tightening their grip as he heard the sound of you.        He waited until you were adjusted to him before picking up a rhythm that grew faster and faster, to the point where the cabin was overloaded with the sound of slapping and pleasured screaming. He whispered things as he fucked, things you couldn’t even remember seconds after he said them, but they brought you closer and closer to the edge of white. He seemed to be approaching too, his rhythm becoming a disarray of sloppy and hard thrusts as your name joined in the chorus, smokey and strained.        With a final scream, you came, your arms giving out as you face planted the bed, him flopping on top of you as he twitched, still buried deep inside of you, his voice giving you sweet whispers of praise in between panting.       The euphoria lingered for a long while after, even when he managed to catch his breath and clean you both up, before nervously crawling into bed next to you, continuing to rub your stomach as if he hadn’t just made you feel like you saw God in heaven.

------

angel list: @avengersbau @babymango-writes  @mortallythoughtfulgurl @arganfics @rachelxwayne @ellvswriting @pumpkin-stars @xessx @fuxking-insxne @ptrs-prkrs @passionatelyacademic @averyhotchner​ @mrshadeelgibson​ @rousethemouse​ @whoreforhotch​ @baumarvel​ @iconicc​

[alleycat-arcade]

Game Start! Tip the Scales, Justice Prevails: Heart of a Lark(Sampler Fic)

Hmm Hmm~♪

Need me to fix up this machine here for you? Alright, give me a sec.

(Finally... my Tears fic is finished! I had it mostly done yesterday but I didn't want to release it without doing some editing and stuff. I was torn many, many ways on who and what to write, so I ended up pulling out Ye' Ol' spinner wheel to decide on a character and idea. I used Artem's English name for this, but if you would prefer his original name let me know!)

All Hallows Eve(Artem Wing x Reader)

Content Warnings: Just some fluff and mutual pining, brief mentions of horror decorations

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

When Artem had invited you to accompany him to an event hosted by one of his colleagues, you accepted in a heartbeat. You always enjoyed spending time with your work partner, and a party was a perfect opportunity to spend time with him outside of the office. "I was told the theme of the event was meant to be a surprise, are you sure you still want to go?" "Of course, Artem! It sounds like fun." You beamed up at him from your desk, twirling your ballpoint pen in your fingers. "Alright, if you're sure. Here's one of the invitations they sent me." The paper reminded you of a post card, decorated with intricate writings. On the back was an address located a little ways outside Stellis. "Would it be alright if I picked you up? To drive there I mean." Artem averted his gaze, bringing the back of his hand over his mouth to let out a soft cough. "Of course! When is it?" "Tomorrow, actually."

When Artem arrived, he found you waiting for him in your nicest outfit. He was dressed up as well, but he couldn't help but blush as he took your hand and led you to his car. Sure, you dressed up for court and the office, but seeing you in such a relaxed yet fancy outfit was certainly a thrill for his heart. The two of you spoke about the details of a recent NXX case as you drove to the event, the sound of classical music filling the dips in your conversation. Eventually, the location of the venue came into view. You couldn't help but be drawn into the orange and purple spotlights that shone into the sky. The theme of the party was defiantly clear as you pulled up, the variety of horror filled decorations plastered across the entrance welcoming you in. "A Halloween Party, huh?"

After parking, the two of you made your way to the entrance before being met halfway by one of the staff. They were dressed as some sort of murderous butler, but you couldn't really tell their expression as their strawberry blonde hair hung low in front of it. "Mr. Wing! It is good to see you once more. I see you have brought your guest. The two of you are looking absolutely stunning tonight." They gently took your hand and placed a brief kiss to your knuckles, and then repeated the same with Artem. "I hate to make you change again, but please follow me. Tonight theme is actually a costume party, if you couldn't guess." "Ah, but we didn't bring any costumes..." "Not to worry! My boss already picked out themed couples costumes for everyone and their guests tonight. That's why we had you send in those measurements prior."

"...Are you sure you still wish to attend this? You don't have to do this if you don't want to." Artem tugged his collar, which is to say his literal collar. You turned around to look at him as you finished putting on the fang caps you had been provided. "What's the matter Artem, it's not very like you to back out of a party." "It's not that, it's just.." He waved a hand to gesture at his costume. It was the stereotypical cute werewolf outfit, complete with a tail, ears, claws, and a collar with a shiny gold placard that clearly read his name. "Aw, c'mon Artie. I think you look cute! Plus, a Werewolf and a Vampire is a fun idea for a costume. If you're feeling cold, you can always borrow my jacket." You gestured to his exposed shoulders. He shook his head, not meeting your eyes. "If you're alright with it, I suppose it's fine. You do make a nice Vampire after all."

As the initial shock wore off, Artem returned to his usual self. The two of you conversed with the rest of the guests at the event, some of which you recognized and some which Artem introduced you to personally. For the rest of the night, you two were near inseparable. Whenever the two of you would get separated, either by choice or by accident, it wouldn't be long before you found Artem trailing behind you like well, a lost puppy. Artem was thankful that the tail that came with his costume wasn't real, because it certainly would've been wagging so violently as you took his hand and introduced him to an older client of yours. The event also wasn't just meant for idle chatter, drinking, and dancing like most fancy parties, however. There was a full scale haunted mansion that had been set up for the guests, as well as a few rides that looked like they belonged at an amusement park. Artem smiled at the memory of how you eagerly took his hand a dragged him to the haunted house, only to use him as a shield later when one of the staff popped out of a wardrobe, wielding a chainsaw in one hand and a machete in the other. You had also taken him on a few rides, but the sharp and quick movements did not react well with the small amount of alcohol mixed with food that sat in his stomach. The two of you decided to leave as you grew tired, Artem keeping a constant pace beside you as you headed out to the parking lot. Until you suddenly stopped.

"Artem, here." You took off the Victorian overcoat of your costume and draped it over his bare shoulders. The event organizers had said that you could take the costumes home with you, and had neatly hand-washed and folded up your previous outfits. "Ah, it's alright. You don't have to do that, I have my co-" "Artem, it's fine. You'll catch a cold if you don't wear a coat out here, and my costume is plenty thick enough without the overcoat." You cut him off with a fanged smile, buttoning the top button of the coat so it hung off his body without falling. The scent of your perfume/cologne permeated his senses as your jacket wrapped around him, bringing a little flush to his face as he smiled softly back at you. "Alright, if you insist, my dear."

It wasn't until he had reached his apartment after dropping you off that he realized he forgot to return your coat.

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

(I apologize if Artem is OOC! This is my first time writing with any of the Tears boys, and since the English version of the app only has so much of the personal story and my gacha luck is awful, I'm still trying to fully grasp their personilities. But I hope I did him alright. Hc's are next, so look forward to that, okay? :) It's a bit short but I hope it's alright >m<;; )

[ultimate-distaster-material]

-Saiouma Oneshots- Childhood Memories

!TW! Miu being Miu Swearing

KAEDE POV

I watched as Monokuma spun the wheel. The two lucky students would get turned into their past selves, which is them as kids. I watched, scared, as the wheel landed on Shuichi. I shot him a nervous look, which he returned as he sighed and walked onto the stage.

"Hey Kid! Since you unfortunately got picked, how would you like to spin the wheel this time? Cuz I'm so nice to offer!"

"S-Sure..."

Shuichi carefully put his hand on the spinner, and reluctantly spun it around. We all dreadfully watched as the spinner slowed down, and landed on one of us.

"K-Kokichi, you've been picked..."

"I can see that, Emoboy."

"I-I'm not emo!"

We all rolled our eyes, it was clear he was.

"How lucky am I to be chosen by the Ultimate Eyeliner Wearing Emo!"

"I don't wear eyeliner Kokichi!"

His annoyed voice echoed throughout the gym. Nobody knew Shuichi could be that loud, and say a full sentence without a stutter.

"Stop bickering and sit on the damn seats behind this curtain!"

Monokuma looked angry. They both took a seat and a device was put over their head. Kind of like a VR Simulator Headset. Suddenly, Monodam pulled a lever and the two males let out a piercing scream, then presumably passed out.

"Damn it! What did you do to them you Build a Bear Reject!"

"Oh nothing...It didn't hurt one bit! Don't worry, damn astronaut!"

"Welp! They are going to wake up tonight! If you're willing to stay here, you might be able to fill them in on the details of this truly wonderful killing game!"

"They're going to be kids?! How can we just tell them that they're in a killing game!? My sidekick would freak out!"

I furrowed my eyebrows at Kaito. Kirumi, Rantaro and Miu did as well. Miu decided to speak her mind.

"What about the other virgin! I know he's a little shithead and he likes this game but, he still has a heart!"

Kaito mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?! I can't fucking hear you space idiot!"

Kaito snapped at this statement. I don't think any of us were ready for what happened next.

"I SAID HE DESERVES TO DIE ALL ALONE! HE DOESN'T HAVE A FUCKING HEART, HE MAKES FUN OF BOTH OF MY SIDEKICKS, AND EVERYONE ELSE! NOBODY WANTS HIM HERE! SO WHY ARE YOU ALL ACTING LIKE HE'S DONE NOTHING? WHY ARE YOU ALL DEFENDING HIM!"

We all gulped. I'd had enough.

"Momota!"

Everyone looked at me, shocked that I used his last name. That usually meant I was serious.

"Did you even notice how nice he has been?! He has friends and people willing to put up with his attitude! Did you notice that Kirumi offered to be his mother? Did you notice how he seriously helped out Miu with her insecurities the other day? How about when he inspired Rantaro to confess to his crush? Of course you didn't! Because you're selfish! I really admire you Momota! You're a brave and friendly guy! You love helping people make friends! BUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING IS TRYING TO SPLIT FRIENDSHIPS APART! Can I ask you one question? DID YOU EVEN NOTICE THAT SHUICHI AND KOKICHI HAVE BEEN DATING FOR THE LAST 2 MONTHS!? A GOOD FRIEND WOULD NOTICE AND ACCEPT THEM! EVEN MAKI LET THEM DATE AS LONG AS SHUICHI WAS HAPPY! SHE'S ALSO MAKING AN EFFORT TO TRY AND BE NICER TO KOKICHI! SO STOP BEING SO SELFISH AND LOOK AROUND YOU FOR ONCE!"

(That was like 100 words I-)

Kaito was shocked, his eyes wide.

"M-My sidekick is dating... H-Him?! B-But..."

Maki glared at Kaito, scowling.

"You got a problem? Shuichi is happy. I hate that shithead with all my hatred but if Shuichi is happen than I'm trying to be nicer to the gremlin... A much as I don't want to."

We all stood in an awkward, shocked silence. We really shouldn't have started fighting... I don't think anyone noticed how long we had been fighting for either, as the stars were already shining in the night sky.

"What's going on here."

We turned around to see Shuichi, glaring at us. Kaito looked happy.

"Sidekick!"

"I'm not your sidekick. I heard everything. You mean nothing to me, you got that? "

We all stared in shock. He still looked so calm, like nothing was bothering him. He walked back to the chairs, and disappeared behind the curtain.

"W-Well... That was a bit different... But you probably don't want such a plain girl's opinion! Sorry..."

I walked over to reassure Tsumugi and tell her that she wasn't plain. That's when Shuichi came back, with Kokichi. I observed Kokichi, who was in tears. He had a bunch of bruises on his arms and legs, and two band aids on his face.

"Look what you did, Momota."

Kokichi huddled closer to Shuichi as Kaito was still going through shock. Shuichi and Kokichi left the room, Kokichi being carried by Shuichi, since he was still very emotional.

||Time Skip Cuz Lazy||

MAKI POV

I wondered down the halls after breakfast, carrying two plates. I said I would make an effort to be nicer to the gremlin, so here I am. I knocked on the door to Shuichi's dorm, presuming the tow would be in there. To my surprise, Kokichi was the one who opened the door, and also shockingly let me in.

"W-Who is it Kokichi?"

Shuichi seemed a lot more relaxed, kind of like while he was before... well, this. He was at his desk, writing things down.

"M-Maki."

I handed Kokichi the plate of food as he peered up at me. I smiled and ruffled his hair. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Shuichi smiling. He got up from his seat and walked over to us as I handed him the plate.

"S-Shu... "

"Yes Koki?"

"Can M-Maki stay for a while?"

"That's up to her, if she wants to or not."

Kokichi stared up at me and giggled as I nodded my head. He leaned into my ear.

"Wanna play a p-prank on Shu?"

I looked over at Shuichi who was happily reading at him desk. I smirked, starting to have a soft spot for the small boy.

"I thought you'd never ask..."

[sunarintoes]

Dear Whovever: [Kenma]

Synopsis: You and Kenma are both best friends and youtube gamers however you want to be more than just best friends so you decide to ‘man up’ one day and write a heart felt confession in a minecraft notebook before then putting it in Kenma’s personal chest.

WC: 3K

TW: slight swearing :)

[Episode one]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

“Hey gamers, Kodzuken here with Tulip-but-make-it-yellow! I've done a few Minecraft videos with Tulip before, but thought I'll start a new series that will be posted every Monday.”

“It's called Minedays with Tulip and Kodzu”

“I- no, Tulip. I'm not sure what we’re gonna call it. But you guys will know- obviously since it's the title of this video.”

You whine and pout into the monitor, “Kodzu I think Minedays is a cute name.” 

Instead of replying Kenma rolls his eyes and hits you ingame. “Should we introduce the challenge and get it started?”

“Yeah that's a good idea!” 

“Well, it's about eleven am right now, we have until eleven pm to build a Minecraft house from a random topic,” he pauses and moves to the side to point to a sectioned spinwheel, “on this bad boy,” whacks the spinner, “we have eight different themes, in a sec I’ll spin it and whatever it lands on will be what we have to build.”

You let out a high pitched ‘hmm,’ “I feel bad for Kuroo and Hinata, they’re both going to have to edit twelve hours of footage down to 10 minutes!”

Kenma chuckles, “fifteen minutes actually.”

This time you roll your eyes. “Hurry up and spin it you fool! I want to get buildinggg” 

Smiling, Kenma moves back a bit and spins the wheel, after thirty seconds full of anticipation the wheel finally stops and its small arrow is pointing at- “Yes! Cottage core theme!” you yell out while Kenma groans. 

“Really? That's lame why couldn't we have ‘Lucifer’s Bedroom’?” 

You poke your tongue out to the monitor - which Kenma could see, after all, you are in a Discord call with him. “Don't be sad just because you're prancing in my turf…. Looooooser!”

Kenma playfully glares towards you, “You’re on! See you in twelve hours!”

Unfortunately, the difficulty of building a cottage core house in the woods - in survival mode, proved more difficult than planned. 

“We spawned in a desolate area huh? Barely any flowers!” you hear Kenma make a sound of agreement as you sink into your comfortable ‘gamer’ styled chair. 

“Don't tell me you've given up? Just because you can't find any flowers?” 

You scowl at his cocky tone however your mood does a one-eighty when you suddenly get a good idea. “Ok everyone! I know what I have to do! I'm going to restart in another place because this isn’t working!”

Kenma makes a sound of surprise, “you're restarting? It's been an hour already-”

“Yeah and we have, like... eleven more.” Kenma sighs in response, “better get a move on.”

For the most part, the two of you kept quiet - not wanting to let the other know how well you were doing. However one look at your phone only to see that your twitter has blown up, you decide to take a short break, after all it has been four hours of you sitting on your ass playing Minecraft. Once you open Twitter you're met with a barrage of tags and mentions - all of which screaming ‘KenYn’ and ‘Kodzutulip.’ You felt heat rise to your face, you - yes you, Ln Yn with the online alias Tulip-but-make-it-yellow, has a big, fat, humongous crush on your best friend and fellow youtuber - Kenma, aka Kodzuken aka the cutest guy in the world. To make it worse - or better, you couldn't really tell, was that many of your viewers shipped you with him - as did his viewers. 

You are of course, happy with this but you can’t help but wonder if Kenma feels the same way, does he feel weirded out by all this shipping content? Does he find it uncomfortable? Does he find it unsettling to be shipped with his in-real-life best friend?

“Hey Yn?” Kenma calls softly, “you've been looking at your phone for the past ten minutes and your face looks sad.”

You instantly look up to meet Kenma’s face and try to find the right words to say, “I… I’m just kinda tired and eventually got distracted!! Sorry Kenken!”

Kenma visibly cringes at the old nickname - the one you gave him in primary school, “if you say so… better get your head in the game though - my mansion looks epic.”

Your eyes narrow, “mansion? The theme is cottage core!” Kenma quietly chuckles in response, “a mansion can still have a fairy aesthetic, you should know that”

You huff in faux annoyance as you place your phone away and ‘get your head in the game’ just as he requested. “Be prepared to be crushed! I am the cottage core guardian!”

There are ten minutes left to your’s and Kenma’s excruciatingly long Minecraft challenge, your ass hurts from sitting on it for almost twelve straight hours - including bathroom breaks. When the buzzer rings the two of you step back from your respective buildings and make your way to the starting point - which had been marked by a stack of 20 or so dirt blocks. 

“Well that was twelve hours of eye straining torture,” you say as you stretch your arms. 

“You're tired already?”

“Kinda… I can't wait to go to sleep after this.”

“Weak, I’m playing Battlefield as soon as this is over.”

You roll your eyes and scoff, “this is why you look like a living corpse in the morning…”

Kenma looks you dead in the eyes and with a completely serious face he says, “yeah but you love it.”

You choke on your spit at his boldness, “y-yeah I guess.” 

If you were being honest, you were not the best at reading people and it was dark in Kenma’s gaming room, the only light coming from his three screen/monitor computer setup, but you think you see a light blush creep up to his cheeks. And you hate it, you hate when he says things that make your heart flutter, you hate it when he just sits there and the digital glow accentuates all of his delicate features, but what you hate most is yourself. You hate yourself because you have fallen in love with your best friend, you hate yourself because you know he doesn't like you back and you hate that you continuously give yourself a sense of false hope. 

“Yn… you want to stay up and game with me don’t you? ”

You sheepishly look to the side, ‘mayhaps.’

Kenma sighs looking at you with a soft face as he whispers “then I won’t play Battlefield and I’ll go to bed and so will you, ‘kay?”

You smile tiredly at him, “sounds like a deal.”

“We'll get back on at the same time tomorrow and we’ll do the final part of this video - the reveal. Until then.”

You smile and wave at the camera “cya soon~”

[recording over]

After your call with Kenma ended you got ready for bed but for some reason, no matter how tired you were, you just couldn't fall asleep - your mind was screaming obscene ideas that you couldn't help but contemplate. At first it was just wishful thinking but then came a thought that refused to leave, ‘confess.’ 

It was a tempting thought, but how? Surely you couldn't just say ‘hey Kenma I've liked you since high school lets date!’ yeah no, that was a horrible idea. Maybe if you confessed with some originality he would be more likely to accept but for now, you were going to do your best to go to sleep.

[Episode two]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

In the morning you woke up feeling refreshed and excited for the day to come, Kenma had texted you and asked if you were feeling up to recording the reveal from last night and episode two today and of course you said yes. 

The video goes on without any troubles and soon you find yourself staring at the computer screen at eleven once again. 

“Remember to like, subscribe and comment below on who you think won this round.” Kenma’s voice is soothing - if you had to describe it you would say that it is silky like honey and smooth like dark chocolate; or maybe you would just say his voice is perfect. Kenma waves to the screen monitor, “hello? Earth to Yn! Are you dead or something? You look like a zombie.”

It takes a while to register, you weren’t really paying attention to the words he said as you were more interested in the way he sounded. You sit up and smile into the camera, “I'm awake… thanks for caring!”

He scoffs and swivels in his chair a bit, “I don't care about you, you're just my idiot best friend and flatmate.”

You playfully narrow your eyes, “well this idiot flatmate of yours helped you bake apple pie so you wouldn’t starve to death!”

“Hmmm, I guess. Well I'm going to head off. I'll see you later.”

You smile softly, “yeah I'll see you later, i'm just gonna stay on for a while.”

Kenma looks at you with an intrigued expression, “you're going to stay up longer? Better not be in this world, that's cheating. Want me to stay up with you?”

You roll your eyes and giggle, “it's all good I want to fix my house up in the other world. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He sighs, “if you say so.”

[recording over]

Your chair rolls back as you stretch, “maybe I should confess to him through a Minecraft journal…” you jump up. “Thats it! Thats a great way to confess! Its original and Kenma would appreciate it…. If he accepts my feelings that is…” 

You groan and slump back down into the chair, “maybe it’s best if I don't confess at all. No! I've wanted to do this for years! If he doesn't like me back it's all good! Maybe I just won't do this on a stream!”

You reach over to the bench and pull up your phone, “who to call, mmm ok let’s call Alisa I’m going to need some emotional support!”

“Hey gamers, Kodzu here in another Minecraft live stream, today we’re just in mine and Yn’s regular world and i'm going to build a house - a cottage to be specific,” he pauses and looks at the comment section; ‘no Yn isn't here right now, no Yn won't be joining this video, no I didnt know shes streaming at the moment, yes my favourite food is apple pie, yes I have a calico cat, no Yn is not my significant other, yes we are just friends.’ Kenma moves back and takes a breath, “wow you guys sure are interested in Yn huh? Maybe I should get them in more videos, might get more views that way,” he laughs a bit.

“Let's start off by heading to my base, I have the materials I’ll need there- oh uh what's this?” Kenma pauses as he stares at the foreign object, “I don't remember having a written book in my chest… maybe Yn went in here and put it in?”

Kenma stares at the book for a while before he opens it, only to be shocked. The comment section notices the blush on his face and continue to spam him with questions:

[kodzusbabe]: what's in that diary!!

[Kenmastan]: hahAAAHHA LOOK HE’S SO RED IN THE FACE

[piefacecutie]: ^^ omg you're so right @/Kenmastan hes so cute 💓

[Kenmaxyn]: I hope it's a confession!

[ynhater]: @/Kenmaxyn from who? Cause I didn't do it and I'd be the only one for Kenma oppAr

[kennismaken]: I hope it’s Yn! They’d be such a cute couple

[applepudding]: umm? Kodzu! Why did he get up and leave??

[ynhater]: babe come back!

[Kenmaxyn]: OMG MAYBE IT WAS YN !!!!

After your late night call with Alisa, you decided it would be best to just do it and then ignore Kenma for the day - well, not ignore him per se, just simply decline all his Discord calls and Facetime calls so you could put off being rejected a little while longer. You woke up with a throbbing headache that you could only blame yourself for, after all you are the dumbass who stayed up until God knows when just to write a heartfelt confession. Eventually the angst of waiting for a message from Kenma overwhelmed you and here you are now; streaming Overwatch to get your mind off of a certain someone.

“Ah no! Cant believe that stupid Hanzo got me! What a pain!” you frown at the screen and let out a sigh, “the round is over… bummer. Well while we wait an eternity for the next round I guess I should answer some of your questions… oh? I didn't know Kenma was streaming, no I’m not dating him… “ you feel your heart sink as you read the next comment; “what do you mean Kenma ran away after reading a book? Was he unhappy?”

The next moments felt like a blur, your heart was heavy and you felt tears well up in your eyes and somehow you missed the sound of someone breaking into your apartment and then your bedroom. Within a second you feel someone wrap their arms around you from behind, your body tenses up but immediately relaxes when you recognise the perpetrators scent; sweet yet salty, like caramel toffee.

“Kenma! W-what are you doing?”

“I like you too… I have for so long.”

Your eyes widen and it doesn't take too long for a smile to appear on your face, “I'm so glad to hear that.”

You feel him smile into your neck as his embrace tightens, “finish up your livestream so we can talk please.” 

“You don't need to tell me twice!”

It is eleven at night once again, but this time you’re not sitting alone in your gaming chair, instead you're sitting on Kenma’s lap - in his gaming chair as he slowly runs his hands through your hair and softly kisses your neck.

“So everyone’s pretty much freaking out over us huh?” you hum in response, “we’ve been officially together for what? Five hours?”

“Correct you are.”

You smile and hold up your phone while you continue to cuddle into him, “smile baby, I want the whole world to know that you're my player two.”

[Bonus - the love letter]

Dear Kenma,

This must be so strange - finding a journal in your chest. 

I have wanted to tell you this for quite a while and I guess I have never found the write words to say; or the right way to for that matter,

But I love you

I have loved you since our first year at Nekoma

It's been a while hasn’t it?

I'm sorry if this inconveniences you, makes you uncomfortable or makes you never want to see me again; 

Just let me continue for a little while longer because I need to get this off of my mind.

I love your smile - especially the rare one where you really smile, where your eyes crinkle and your cheeks begin to hurt 

I love your voice - it’s smooth and silky, like honey being spread across bread

I love your scent - it reminds me of salted caramel,  I can never get enough 

I love your mind - the way it works to make me laugh, make me calm and all else

I love your lips - not necessarily in a sexual way, but more so in the way you talk and speak, they move softly and slowly in a way only your lips could move in.

I love your body - how although you're hunched most of the time you still possess a fine elegance in the way you move. How at times it reminds me of a graceful swan floating down a lake. 

I love your hands - they are so pretty and dainty and soft, I want to hold them all day and all night

And most of all;

I love you

I love you in your entire

I could go ahead and pick the parts I love most and least but then you would no longer be you

I love you in your entire

Flaws and all

I know this may not be the most romantic, especially considering you’re reading this through Minecraft and I've never done this before but I had to let you know

Love 

Yn

Taglist: [open] @ladyrenart

note: sooo this is another style that i tried and i have mixed feelings about it :) also if you can’t tell,,, i’ve never written a love letter before :’)

[scoopsgf]

for a prompt peter meets the rouge avengers and they witness irondad at it's finest

It’s half past two in the morning when Peter’s ears perk at the sound of an old-fashioned, peppy ringtone.

He looks around in search of it. There’s Tony passed out at his workbench, face dangerously close to a slice of plated cold pizza; DUM-E is rolling around a few feet away chasing after a crumpled ball of paper Peter had tossed over his shoulder; there are tools scattered everywhere and blueprints and a whiteboard covered in equations.

But no phone.

Peter slips off his stool. He walks toward the sound, slowly, cautiously, and by the time he thinks he’s located the source the ringing stops.

Peter stares at Tony’s discarded running jacket. Throwing him a quick glance over his shoulder just to make sure the older man is still asleep, he reaches into the pocket and pulls out an old flip phone.

“What,” he deadpans, to absolutely no one.

Tony Stark, the former CEO of the world’s largest tech conglomerate. Tony Stark, creator of the most powerful mechanical weapon—sorry, prosthetic—of all time…

Is carrying around a dinky Nokia from 2009.

A Nokia which promptly starts ringing again (very loudly). “Shit!” Peter swears, jumping. On instinct he answers it. “Hello? What? Hello?”

“Tony?”

Peter glances at Tony again. He bites his lip. “Tony is unfortunately unavailable at the moment. I’m his… personal assistant. Would you like to leave a message?”

“Oh, uh,” there’s some muffled muttering on the other end, like the caller is relaying Peter’s words back to someone else, and then, “I uh—it’s kind of an emergency. Would you mind asking him if he’s got a minute to talk?”

And by now, Peter’s totally put the pieces together: crappy old phone, the voice—he is absolutely 100% having a real life conversation with Steve Rogers.

Again.

Peter doesn’t exactly know the full story between Tony and Steve. He just knows that whenever anyone brings up Rogers, Tony’s face darkens and he clams up.

Squinting at Tony, he asks, “Are you sure you need to talk to him?”

“Believe me, I wouldn’t have called otherwise.”

“But if you had, maybe, some other form of assistance? Say a web-slinging vigilante from Queens?”

There’s a pause.

Steve says, “Hey, kid,” with a smile in his voice.

“Hey Brooklyn,” Peter returns. “Long time, no speak.”

“Yeah, well, you know. So you’re working for Tony now?”

“I wouldn’t call it working so much as slave labour.”

A laugh. “Somehow I doubt that. What’s he doing?”

“Sleeping—which, y’know, he barely gets enough of as it is. So what’s the situation?”

-

“Nice disguise.”

Natasha Romanoff looks up from the paper kid’s menu she’d been studying. Her eyebrow, dyed blonde, is raised. “I was worried it’d be too effective.”

“You do realise Buzzfeed publishes weekly articles that are literally just blurry photos of you and the other rogues followed by a bunch of keysmashes?”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Peter slides into the booth opposite her. “So you’re here to what, feel me out?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve already done that.” She sets the menu down. “I was already in the area. We’re both waiting for the ride.”

Peter nods. He looks out the window while she studies his face. He’d had no choice but to forego the mask seeing as his suit is still under repairs back in the lab. FRIDAY had said it wouldn’t be fixed until morning.

Natasha kicks his foot. “Why do you look younger than I remember?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs. “But hey, since we’re playing Q&A, why’d you stab Tony in the back?”

“I didn’t stab him in the back,” Romanoff argues. “I just… the Avengers are my family—”

“Tony’s part of the Avengers—”

“Tony has a support system. Steve is nothing without us—and I say that with love. Without his team he’d just be a sad old man stuck in time.”

“But now with you and your amazing makeover skills, he’s at least caught up to the seventies with that beard.”

She kicks him again. “Shut up. I don’t have to explain my reasoning to a kid.”

“So why are you?”

Romanoff squints and leans forward. “Why are you here?”

“Because if Tony knew that you needed help, he’d stop at nothing to save you no matter how much he hated your guts—which he doesn’t, by the way, he’s just really hurt—even if it meant putting his own life in danger. I don’t want that.” Peter shrugs. “Plus you were pretty cool last time and I thought we could be, I don’t know, friends or something. Whatever, it’s stupid.”

Her lip quirks up. “It’s not stupid.”

“Really? So you’ll be my spider buddy?”

Natasha rolls her eyes. “Think of a better name first and then we’ll see.”

He opens his mouth to retort, but right at that moment the door to the Taco Bell chimes and Steve Rogers walks in.

“Oh wow,” Peter whispers. “The beard really does work for him.”

“Right?” She grabs his arm. “Come on, little spinner.”

—

Steve is not at all pleased at how young Peter is.

“I dropped a jet rail on a kid,” he proclaims for the upteenth time, knuckles white around the steering wheel.

“Yeah, a kid that can lift fifteen tons on a bad day,” Peter snaps back, a little irritated now. He finishes strapping on the kevlar gear Natasha had provided him with. It’s bulkier than what he’s used to, but better than no protection at all.

“I dropped a jet rail on a kid.”

Natasha reaches out. “Steve—”

“I DROPPED A JET RAIL ON A KID!”

“I’m FINE!” Peter shouts back, the only one in the van besides Barnes that doesn’t flinch.

“You’re eight!” Steve retorts. “You don’t even know what fine is!”

Peter closes his eyes. “Oh my god.”

“Steve, he’s enhanced,” Natasha reminds him, the only voice of reason. “Tony never would have brought him if he didn’t think Parker could handle it—”

Peter’s eyes snap back open. “How do you know my last name?”

“What did I say about how I’d already felt you out?”

“That sounds… so much worse than the way you mean it.”

“See?” Natasha pats Steve’s arm. “He’s already making dirty jokes. He’s fine.”

Steve is silent for a few seconds. Then he shakes his head. “We have to take him back.”

“What?!” Peter demands. “No! You need my help!”

“I need Tony’s help!”

“I can literally do anything Tony can,” Peter proclaims, and then pauses. “Probably.”

“That’s real reassuring,” Wilson pipes up from a few feet over.

“No one asked you,” Romanoff hisses.

Wilson rolls his eyes. “I’m just saying, Steve’s got a point. Look at this little twink. Have you seen him? He’s like two feet big.”

“I’m literally sitting right here,” Peter says. “And I wasn’t kidding when I said I can lift fifteen tons.”

“No,” Steve decides. “You’re too small.”

“Oh, are you shitting me?!” Barnes explodes. “Steve, you were a five foot tall asthmatic when you enlisted!”

“That was a different time!”

“It’s just a little stealth mission,” Barnes says. “The kid can pin my arm down. Even you can’t do that.”

Steve frowns. “You can pin his arm down?”

Peter takes a deep breath. “I’ll say it one more time: fifteen tons.”

Another pause.

“Fine,” Steve says. “Fine, Jesus Christ. But if he dies—”

“You’ll blame yourself like you always do,” Natasha finishes for him with a dry look.

Rogers sighs. “Yeah. Probably.”

—

Tony jolts awake at precisely four AM.

The first thing he sees is pizza.

It’s two inches from his face and disgustingly congealed. He pushes it away as he raises his head, and then notices a second thing: Peter is gone.

“Um… FRIDAY?”

“Yes Boss?”

“Where’s the kid?”

“He left approximately two and a half hours ago on urgent business.”

Tony’s eyes narrow. That stinks. Like, a lot. “Urgent business? He’s twelve.”

“I was only able to catch his half of the phone conversation—”

“Oh, well then just trace the call or whatever.”

“I’m afraid the phone he used isn’t advanced enough for that.”

Tony stiffens. He doesn’t want to look, but turns around anyway, eyeing his jacket. Slowly he grabs it and feels around in the pockets. “It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

“What do you think?! The phone! The little rectangular piece of garbage Rogers FedExed to me with the worst apology note of all time!”

“Oh, that.”

Tony freezes. His eyes close briefly. Then they seek out the nearest of FRIDAY’s cameras. “You didn’t wake me up, darling.”

“No,” she replies, almost sheepish.

“Whyever not?”

“Peter and I both agreed that the best thing for you would be for you to sleep as long as possible—”

“I don’t CARE what’s best for ME!”

He takes a minute to fume. Then he starts moving. “Is he wearing his watch?”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Fantastic, showstopping, incredible,” Tony slaps the housing unit on his chest. “Open the pod bay doors, would you?”

—

Peter is kind of kicking ass.

Like, not to brag or anything, but he’s taken down six HYDRA agents so far and for once hasn’t had to ask for help. He’s holding his own.

Maybe it’s something to do with being part of a whole unit. They move around each other, they fight as one; there’s a boost to the normal amount of adrenaline Peter feels in the midst of a fight. He knows that if he gets kneed in the chest and goes down for a second, Barnes is gonna swoop in and break a jaw with his metal arm. Likewise, Wilson knows that if he gets thrown back into the wall with that weird glowy laser gun, Peter is gonna web the HYDRA soldier up and subdue the threat.

It’s… kind of awesome.

They’ve split up, for the most part. Maximoff, Rogers, and Romanoff are working through the east wing while Peter, Barnes, and Wilson slowly carve their way through the west.

“Could use a little bit of backup,” Wanda says through the comms, in a rasping, out of breath voice.

Peter taps his ear. “Where are you?”

“Second floor, third room,” she reports.

Peter doesn’t waste any time. He shoots a web for the roof of the atrium and swings across the wide open space that separates the two halves of the building. He’d calculated the distance just right and hurtles straight into Wanda’s attacker.

“Thanks,” she huffs.

Peter shrugs, wiping Dilapidated Building Dust off of his suit. “Hey, no problem.”

“You know, they’re all hypocrites.”

Peter pauses. “What?”

“I was nineteen when we went to Germany. My powers just happened to be more convenient for their needs.”

“I, uh—oh.”

She slips past him. “I’m not saying they’re not good people. I’m just saying that when it comes to winning, sometimes morality goes out the window. In that way… Sometimes I think Stark might have had the right of it.”

Before he can really process that, Peter reaches out and grabs her wrist. She scowls. “What?”

“Two agents, twenty feet away and gaining.”

“How can you tell?”

“Heartbeats.”

To his surprise, she grins. “I’m not going to lie, that would come in handy a lot with the work we do.”

“Well, you know where to find me. Wanna trip em Suite Life style?”

“What?”

“Nothing, just follow my lead.”

—

When Rogers’ fist collides with the last agent in the base, and Peter and Romanoff have extracted all of the information she needed off of HYDRA’s underground databases, Wilson says, “Do your thing, Wanda.”

She nods. “Everyone clear out.”

Peter doesn’t question it too much. He follows Barnes’ lead outside. The base, disguised as a factory, is in the middle of the Jersey woods—so there’s no one around to watch Wanda’s hands glow red and for the building to collapse inward.

“Cool,” Peter breathes.

“Destroying buildings can be fun when it’s on purpose,” Wanda tells him, somewhat bitterly.

Peter frowns. “That wasn’t your fault.”

“Tell that to Stark.”

“He doesn’t think—”

“Tell me what?”

Peter’s blood runs cold. He doesn’t want to turn around, but he does anyway; slowly so as to delay his inevitable demise. Tony is hovering about feet behind them all with his faceplate down.

“Oh,” he says stupidly. “Hey.”

The plate lifts.

Tony does not look happy.

“Hello.”

“It’s uh… fancy seeing you here?”

“Oh, don’t try to be cute with me.” Tony drops down onto the ground. “How about you save me the heart attack by telling me what in God’s name you’re doing out in the middle of nowhere at four in the fucking morning—and you left with them of all people when I specifically asked you not to!”

Peter opens his mouth. Then he closes it and averts his eyes. “They needed… help.”

“Oh, they needed help,” Tony shakes his head. “You need help. Psychiatric help.”

“Hey, lay off the kid man,” Wilson pipes up. “He was just—”

“Excuse me?” Tony puts a hand to his ear. “What? I must be mishearing, it sounded like you were butting into a conversation that has nothing to do with you by defending the poor decision making of a sixteen year old kid who has a math test in four hours!”

Peter blinks. He’d forgotten about that. “Okay, you’ve got a point there—however, I’d like to present to the jury evidence piece six-hundred and five: my completely uninjured body!”

Tony opens his mouth. Then it snaps shut again. Opens again; “Just wait until Aunt May hears about this.”

Peter’s eyes widen. “Are you crazy?! She’ll kill us both!”

Tony hesitates. “You might have a point—but that doesn’t change the fact that this was incredibly reckless and stupid! You can’t just run off willynilly without even informing your parents—”

“Willynilly?” Peter interrupts, instead of PARENTS?!

“Enough! You’re grounded!”

Natasha steps forward. “Tony—”

“From what,” Peter challenges, ignoring her.

Tony sputters. “Uh, your suit, Karen, TV, that board game—”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what Dungeons and Dragons is called.”

“The name of the game is irrelevant,” Tony snaps. “Two weeks. Maybe three if you piss me off any more on the way home.”

“Don’t tell me you expect me to like, latch onto your suit.”

“And put you in more danger?! Fuck no! Happy’s waiting in the SUV.”

Peter sighs. He turns to the others. “Well, it’s been fun. Thanks.”

Steve Rogers blinks. “Uh, yeah. You did good, kid.”

Tony holds up a hand as Peter tries to pass him. He’s squinting at Steve, but seems to decide he doesn’t want to speak to the other man. He zeroes in on Natasha. “He did good?”

“Damn good,” she replies. “We could use him.”

Tony throws his head back and laughs. “Fucking hilarious! Think again! I swear to God, if I catch any of you heathens near my kid again and you’ll be dead before my feet hit the ground. Kid, go to the car.”

“Tony—”

“No. Car.”

—

“What the hell, Rogers.”

“Tony—”

“No! This is not the part where you speak.” Tony takes a second to remember to breathe because his heart is still pounding and there’s red on the edges of his vision. “I meant what I said. Stay away from my kid.”

“Tony, he’s stronger than you’re giving him credit for—”

“Nope! Nope! No!” Tony blasts off before he has to listen to any more.

—

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Peter meets Happy’s eyes through the rear view mirror. Glaring, he slowly buckles his seatbelt.

“That’s more like it. So, did you have fun?”

Peter slouches. “Am I even allowed to say yes?”

“No.” Happy shrugs. “But hey, if it’s any consolation—”

Peter never gets his consolation; the car door swings open and Tony slips inside. Before he can even get a word in, he’s being pulled into Tony’s arms. The older man’s heart is hammering against his chest.

“Kid—”

“I’m sorry,” Peter blurts. “Really. I know I shouldn’t have gone, I just… I wanted to help.”

“I know.”

He breathes out. “They didn’t mean to—”

“Leave them out of it.”

“But I went along with it—”

“Peter,” Tony says, and then sighs. “Just… that can’t happen again, okay? Promise me?”

Peter wishes he meant it when he says, “Yeah, I-I promise.”

The drive home is quiet, but Tony lets Peter fall asleep on his shoulder, and when they get back to New York they stop at his school so he’s not late for his test.

And everyone sees who’s in the car when Peter gets out.

Kind of makes up for being grounded, if you ask him.

[lotus0kid]

OUaT: Finding Fate

((For the 2020 Rumbelle Secret Santa, using @dorkone's prompt "castle flirting vs. storybrooke flirting”. Hope you like it!))

Regina racks up enemies like it’s the latest fashion.  At least she doesn’t task Rumpelstiltskin with conjuring her wardrobe as well as resolving her current vendetta.  Someday he’ll enjoy making her understand that she was never more than a means to an end for him.  Until then, he sits at his wheel and ponders how to make things difficult for a certain mermaid.

He nearly jumps off his stool when the doors to the hall fly open and a voice that has no business sounding so cheerful within the gloom of the Dark Castle rings out, “I did it!” Belle strides straight for him, a broad smile on her face and a silver platter balanced on her palm.  “I knew I’d get it eventually.  I wasn’t sifting the flour enough.  Thank the gods I figured it out- this batch is the last of the almond stuff!”

As she circles around to stand at his side Rumpelstiltskin catches the scent of something baked and… minty?  He stops the wheel and inquires, “What strange act have you committed in the kitchens now?”

Belle rolls her eyes at him, “If you wanted a cook you should’ve dealt for one.  But you got me, and I’ve just made a breakthrough in my culinary practice.  Here, try one.”

The platter swings toward him, revealing a number of bite-sized macarons tinted an alarming green shade.  The smell isn’t actually bad, now that he’s a had a minute to get used to it, but he curls a lip anyway.  “No thank you, dearie.  I have no need for… whatever this is.”

“‘Whatever this is’ is a delicacy from my village.  We made them every midwinter.  I thought I’d never get to have them again, but with a little experimentation and perseverance, you can hardly even taste the difference!”

Rumpelstiltskin blinks up at her, then returns his attention to the wheel.  “Right, well, congratulations then.”

Belle lets out a soft snort of indignation before saying, “Won’t you try one?  Here, I’ll go first.”  She picks up one of her creations and pops the whole thing in her mouth.  The instant her pink lips close on it her eyes slip shut and she moans in pleasure.

Rumpelstiltskin locks his gaze on the wood grain of his wheel, the only thing that might save him from the in all ways unwelcome heat rushing through his body.  This is made more difficult when something green bobs into the lower right corner of his vision.

“O-pen u-up…” Belle sing-songs as he resists the urge to lean into the fresh, bright scent of the treat. When did I summon mint oil to the cupboard?  “You know food tastes better when it’s shared, just try one.”

In this second, he snatches for his seer’s sight in hopes of some guidance, receiving silence in response. His own imagination offers the possibility of slapping her hand away- perhaps throw her totally off balance and send the lovely tray of treats clattering to the floor.  The thought of the cold glare she would cast on his back sends a chill through him.  Perhaps not. So, he could go the other way. Do as told, and open up, let her set the macaron on his tongue.  He could even close his lips quickly enough to catch her fingertips, and taste her skin along with the delicate crunch and zing of mint.  

Rumpelstiltskin shakes his head to clear these imaginings- one far too cold, the other far too hot. Belle’s hand retreats.  “All right, never mind then,” she begins, but he reaches out and cups his palm under hers, taking the macaron with his other hand and bringing it to his mouth.

He grinds through it with brisk efficiency.  “A triumph, dearie,” he announces after swallowing, “Well done.”

She smiles, nods.  “Thank you.  It’s good to know I can feed you something.  I don’t care what you say about being sustained by magic, it’s just not healthy to not eat.”

The briefest accidental glance in Belle’s direction reveals a look of warm concern beaming down on him and in that instant a thick, heavy sob swells up in Rumpelstiltskin’s chest, tightens his throat, and makes his eyes burn.  She’s right.  He lets the magic feed him, and it feeds on him in turn.  Sometimes he must call up a gallery of memories of Bae in order to keep the darkness from consuming him.  Once or twice, he’s had trouble recalling the exact shape of his son’s face, which causes frigid fear to blast through him.

Remembering that fear, joined with the horrific likelihood that he might start blubbering in front of Belle, drives him to his feet, and he utters pardons a second before whisking himself off to his tower.

Belle is of course the problem, he decides while pacing stolidly and aimlessly and sighing away the ache in his chest.  He swore an oath to love no one as long as Bae is lost to him.  But she’s here, and she is…  That’s not to say he actually…  It’s his old spinner’s heart, the foolish thing.  It still hasn’t learned- the people he loves, they leave.  He needs to show it what comes of entertaining silly little hopes.  He must look ahead, and see how Belle will free herself from him.  He’ll be calm then.

This is easier said than done.  As proven moments ago in the hall, the seer’s sight is finnicky at best, coming and going as it pleases.  And when he can grab hold of it, it sometimes rattles through more possibilities than Rumpelstiltskin’s mostly human mind can comprehend.  But perhaps he can channel it, focus it in one direction.  Indeed, his focus is clear- it’s Belle’s future he seeks.

He shuts his eyes and extends his awareness to find her walking back to the kitchens, and so takes the opportunity to transport himself into her room and pluck a strand of hair from her pillow.  This he carries back to his tower, then flicks through a dense tome of spells on a desk until he comes to a powerful divination spell.  With his eyes screwed shut as he mutters the words that will drag his seer’s sight to heel, he does not notice a hair from his own head come loose and drift down to join Belle’s in his palm.  But as unremarkable days of caretaker duties unspool within his mind, a mysterious golden haze drifts through, and he feels time speed up to a blur.

He tries to haul back on imaginary reins- he has no interest in zooming all the way to Belle’s eventual death.  Slowly his awareness settles on one point in the future.

The first surprise is that he isn’t a ghostly spectator in this random moment to come.  He feels himself present in the space.  Looking down, he finds himself wearing, not his usual silk and leather, but rather loose-fitting wool trousers matched with a jacket and a shirt fastened by a simple row of buttons.  His only silk is a thin strip tied around his neck, discretely folded under the shirt collar.

His second surprise are his hands.  They appear as those of an ordinary man, a state which is anything but ordinary.  His right wraps comfortably around a gold-handled cane- in this peculiar vision he’s aware of his maimed ankle as a distant stiffness.  His left hand holds the bow and neck of a violin.  He doesn’t have much time to study the instrument before the sounds of an opening door and a ringing bell come from beyond a curtain hanging in the doorway of the room he occupies, which appears to be the storage space of a small shop of curiosities.

After a moment, the curtain is pulled back to admit his third and biggest surprise- Belle, carrying what appears to be a sack made of paper and wearing a skirt far shorter than anything Rumpelstiltskin’s ever seen on a woman of her station.  She doesn’t seem at all bothered by this, smiling wide as her eyes fall to the violin.  “Unearth something interesting?” she asks before setting down the sack on a small table nearby.  “You might want to wait until after lunch to tell me about it.  Ruby said Madame Mayor was snapping at everyone when she got coffee this morning, so we may not have long to eat.”

None of that makes sense to Rumpelstiltskin- or, at least, the Rumpelstiltskin of the present.  The Rumpelstiltskin to come replies with ease while his past counterpart observes from within, “If she requires another lesson in patience, I’m happy to provide it.  Come have a look at this.”

She comes to stand before him as he holds out the violin.  Its body is decorated with wood inlays depicting two people in profile with their arms outstretched.  Magic curls away from their hands, meeting at the strings.  “Lovely.  And powerful, I suppose?” she inquires with a raised brow.

“Versatile, more than anything.  Play a certain tune, achieve a certain magical effect, assuming you play well. Shall I?”  Rumpelstiltskin lets the cane fall against his hip and transfers the bow to his right hand, setting it on the strings but pausing there with his gaze on Belle.

She nibbles at her lower lip, but soon says with a sparkle of mischief in her eyes, “Why not?”

“Very well,” Rumpelstiltskin says with a grin of his own.  He closes his eyes and searches the enchantments laid upon the violin, and finds something that might actually be familiar.  An old tune his Aunt Iph used to play for Aunt Im.  The melody slowly emerges as he draws the bow along the strings. 

It’s not long before he hears a soft gasp and then a bright giggle.  Belle’s hands fall on his shoulders and he opens his eyes to take her in as she floats about an arm’s length off the floor.  Light shining through a nearby window gleams every part of her it touches.  He maintains the tempo and volume of the song, which keeps her from drifting any higher. After a moment’s uncertainty, she lifts her hands, swaying and bobbing slightly to the beat, turning a slow circle in the air.  Rumpelstiltskin can’t say when he’s seen anything more beautiful, and his heart melts with love.

When she faces him again her hands return to his shoulders.  Beaming down on him, she murmurs, “That’s the tragedy of musicians- they don’t get to dance.”

Her brow furrows slightly and her hold on him tightens, and he actually feels the magic he’s emitting flow through her back into him, settling in his feet as a lightness that almost tickles.  Then he’s rising, rising up to meet her.  Belle’s arms slide around his neck as the distance continues to close between them.  Her lips brush his and in that instant there’s a blinding flash of gold light behind his eyes and the vision snaps out of existence and Rumpelstiltskin drops hard against the desk, knocking the tome of spells into a mess of fluttering pages on the floor.

He grips the edge of the desk, feet and lips still tingling, trying to understand what just happened. Because it can’t be the future, what he saw.  It’s not possible.  Him and Belle, together, really quite unmistakably in love.  True love.  No, it cannot be.  Anyway, in that world it didn’t seem instantly apparent where Bae was, and therefore it was no world Rumpelstiltskin wants to live in.  Not at all.

He crouches down to pick up and turn the tome over and check for damage.  The spell on the page it falls open to is something to do with happy dreams.  Ah, clearly he misread earlier and cast this instead of a divination spell.  Of course.  He should try again.  Ensure he’s on the right page, and figure out what fate of Belle’s will take her away.

He definitely means to.  It’s just that a half-finished project catches his attention, and he forgets all about it.  And when it crosses his mind again, the hint of an old tune he only just remembered wanders through his mind, and he decides he doesn’t need to know.  Not yet.

[bug13underscore]

Kiss prompt: #39 Spin the bottle kiss. Alex/Reggie please

I had a lot of fun with this and the subsequent wheel spinner app I used as the ‘bottle’ to decide for me....also did not intend to make this 1116 words oops.

Read here on AO3 or below the line <3

Reggie wasn’t too shocked that after suggesting a group party night, Luke smuggly suggested the group playing spin the bottle, what did shock him was that everyone --namely Alex-- readily agreed to the game. 

Absentmindedly, he sat down between Julie and Luke, mind reeling from how confidently Alex had agreed. He came too when Luke dug his elbow into Reggie’s left side. 

“You good, man? You really don’t have to play if you don’t want to.” Luke’s eyebrows were slightly creased in concern but Reggie offered him a small smile. 

“No, no. All good, just zoned out for a second.” As Luke seemed content with his response, Reggie took to glancing at everyone’s spots around the empty water bottle they decided to use. Julie on his right, followed by Flynn, Nick, Carrie, Alex, Bobby, Willie and Luke. He noticed everyone else was gazing around too, all seemingly content with the order. 

They decided on rules before they all agree they were good to play, Alex, Willie and Carrie vocalized explicitly no lip-kissing anyone of the opposite sex, which was easily understood. They even went as far as going around and giving the okay for who was alright with lip-kisses, which ended up being everyone sans Nick. Besides those, and the obvious no-kissing-relatives rule, everyone seemed content and ready to play. 

Carrie insisted on starting and only when she spun the bottle did Reggie actually feel the nerves come on. When he’d played this before, it had been at house parties they had played at, with larger groups of people, people who weren’t his friends, which had made it easier. Namely, it was also easier because Alex never played, so Reggie had never really had any worry about fucking anything up before. He’d always played this game to try and avoid the feelings he harbored for his friend, one of his best friends. All he could do here is that he didn’t get Alex and potentially ruin the friendship they already had. Easy, totally easy. 

Carrie’s spin landed on Bobby, causing the siblings to roll their eyes but Bobby leaned over and obnoxiously pressed a kiss to his sister’s head, much to her disgust. Bobby gave a good natured laugh before spinning it himself, landing just to his right on Willie. The two shared an awkward look before shrugged slightly, swapping a quick, chaste kiss before Willie spun the bottle with as much force as possible. Carrie and Flynn were quick to laugh at their relatives' awkwardness though. Eventually Willie’s ridiculous spin finally stopped, landing on Julie who grinned and gave her friend a sweet kiss on the cheek before settling back into her spot and spinning. 

Reggie shared a dramatic eye roll with Flynn as it landed on Luke, much to the boy’s amusement. He pushed himself back, swapping spots with Julie so the two could have their little moment. Luke gave a flushed grin after she finally pulled away, spinning the bottle for himself. Reggie let out a laugh as it landed on him, where as Luke gave a pout. 

“Man, if you wouldn’t have moved I could’ve got two Julie kisses.” He sighed loudly as Reggie and Julie traded back. 

“You two are literally dating, you can get those anytime, drama queen. Shut up and kiss me.” Reggie taunted, sticking his tongue out at his friend. Luke only gave him a large, devious grin as he pounced on the raven haired boy, knocking him to the ground and proving Reggie’s ‘drama queen’ comment right, making a whole show of the kiss. 

Reggie blinked in shock as the brunette pulled away, before giving a thoughtful hum. 

“I don’t know if I’m ever going to cover for you to sneak Julie out on dates anymore, I see why Ray wants her door open when you’re over now.” He joked, spinning the bottle himself. For a moment, he was too focused on laughing with Julie over Luke’s kicked puppy expression. After he calmed down enough to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes, he turned to the bottle and everything seemed to slow around him. 

He glanced from the bottle, his eyes following where it was pointed to see Alex’s sharp blue eyes staring back. Reggie could practically feel the blood rushing to his face, suddenly extremely hot. He gave an awkward laugh as Alex shuffled across the circle, and the bassist made sure to avoid looking at anyone else because he was almost certain they’d be second away from teasing him. 

He opened his mouth to make sure Alex was sure, not wanting the blonde’s anxiety to act up accidently when he’s cut off by the boy's own lips on his. Reggie gasped slightly, stilling in surprise. Upon his reaction the blonde pulled away with a start, a wave of apology and worry overtaking his features. Before Alex could apologize though, Reggie found himself surging forward, recapturing his lips. 

Much to Reggie’s surprise, everything that was Alex and Alex’s lips completely faded away from his mind's focus. His hands quickly found their way into soft blonde locks, feeling the weight of Alex’s hands dig into his shoulders to keep himself suspended above Reggie. 

“Alright boys, plan worked, let’s roll out before these freaks do anything gross.” Luke called out, starling Reggie to the present for a moment, but there was no way in hell he wanted this kiss to end. 

“I don’t know how I feel about seeing my brother get made out with my boyfriend and his crush. Tonight has been weird.” Julie's voice grew distant, following the track of footsteps and finally, the slam of the garage door. 

Much to Reggie’s disappointment, Alex pulled away, although when he felt himself draw in a breath he figured he could excuse it. Though his eyes remained closed, he felt the blonde settle down beside him, his hands moving from Reggie’s shoulders to cup his face, drawing him back in for another kiss. 

“Wait,” Reggie pulled away slowly, blinking up at Alex. “Did you plan this?” 

“Well,” Alex avoided his eyes. “Maybe? I figured if we were playing this game and you didn’t seem to be as into the kiss as I was, I could apologize and it could just be a thing that happened because of a game and not because I fucked up?” 

“This is the cutest and by far dorkiest thing you’ve ever done.” Reggie snorted, tugging gently at the hair at the base of the drummer’s neck. “This means we can keep kissing right, I’d definitely like to get back to the kissing.” 

“Yeah, Reg,” Alex rolled his eyes, giving the bassist a small smile. “We can get back to the kissing.”