#Deja is so me while i was making my final projects for this semester

[blissful-independence]

Code Lyoko: REvision

I just finished binge watching Code Lyoko on Netflix recently to relive my childhood & forgot how cool of a show it was! While it is an awesome story, some things couldn't stop bugging me that didn't line up. So I revised in a short format the entire series in a way that follows a proper timeline plus what I would've added for the show. I hope y'all like it!

Word Count: 3.3k

Characters

Lyoko Warriors

Jeremie Belpois

Date of birth: 22 February

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Season 3-4: 14-15

Height: 163 cm/ 5’4

Birthplace: Ville de Clichy, France

Family:

Daphne Belpois- Mom

Michel Belpois- Dad

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Yumi Ishiyama

Date of birth: 27 October

Age:

Season 1-2: 14-15

Season 3-4: 15-16

Height: 165/ 5’5

Birthplace: Kyoto, Kansai, Japan

Family:

Hiroki Ishiyama-Brother

Akiko Ishiyama-Mother

Takeho Ishiyama-Father

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Season 3-4: 2nd year (FR)/10th grade (US)/Year 11(UK)

Ulrich Stern

Date of birth: 13 January

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Season 3-4: 14-15

Height: 173 cm/ 5’8

Birthplace: Berlin, Germany

Family

Christoph Stern- Estranged father

Emilia Stern-Estranged mother

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Odd Della Robbia:

Date of birth: 1st April

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Season 3-4: 14-15

Height: 160 cm/ 5’4

Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Family:

Adele Della Robbia-1st oldest sister

Pauline Della Robbia-2nd oldest sister

Elizabeth Della Robbia-3rd oldest sister

Marie Della Robbia-4th oldest sister

Louise Della Robbia- 5th oldest sister

Mary Elizabeth Della Robbia- Mother

David Della Robbia- Father

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Aelita Schaeffer/Hopper/Stones

Date of birth: 25 September

Age:

Season 1-2: 12-13

Season 3-4: 13-14

Height: 160 cm/ 5’2

Birthplace: Zurich, Switzerland

Family:

Franz Hopper-Father

Anthea Schaeffer-mother

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade(US)/Year 9(UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

William Dunbar

Date of birth: 11 December

Age:

Season 2: 14-15

Season 3-4: 15-16

Height: 175 cm/5’9

Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland

Family:

Thomas Dunbar-Father

Fiona Dunbar-mother

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 2: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade(US)/Year 10(UK)

Season 3-4: 2nd year (FR)/10th grade (US)/Year 11(UK)

Kadic Academy Students

Elisabeth (Sissi) Delmas

Date of birth:17 May

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Season 3-4: 14-15

Height: 163 cm/ 5’4

Birthplace: Paris, France

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Patrick Belpois

Date of birth: 22 August

Age:

Season 4: 14-15

Height: 168 cm/ 5’6

Birthplace: Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Viktoria Klein

Date of birth: 14 February

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Height: 163 cm/ 5’4

Birthplace: Munich, Bavaria, Germany

School: Kadic Academy

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Nicholas Poliakoff

Date of birth: 8 July

Age:

Season 1-2: 13-14

Season 3-4: 14-15

Height: 173 cm/ 5’8

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Herb Pichon

Date of birth: 20 November

Age:

Season 1-2: 12-13

Season 3-4: 13-14

Height: 163 cm/ 5’4

Birthplace: Paris, France

Grade:

Season 1-2: 4th year (FR)/8th grade (US)/Year 9 (UK)

Season 3-4: 3rd year (FR)/9th grade (US)/Year 10 (UK)

Season 1

1x01: X.A.N.A Awakens Part 1 & 2

Similar to the original episode in the 3rd season

Jeremie meets Ulrich because of a biology project in Ms. Hertz’s class.

Odd gets introduced as the new overseas student by Jim.

Odd is partnered with Jeremie and Ulrich due to there already being an even number of students.

Yumi’s first year as a student at Kadic is explained when she meets Ulrich at the Pencak Silat class taught by Jim.

This is the explanation for why she doesn’t have friends & why people confuse her for Chinese.

Parallel to the episode, Ulrich and Odd discover the supercomputer and ‘Maya’ when helping Jeremie with his robots suddenly attacking him.

Odd eagerly volunteers to be virtualized first to Lyoko to meet ‘Maya’ following Ulrich when Odd is in trouble.

The boys agree to help ‘Maya’ and try to turn off the supercomputer the following day.

Odd notices Ulrich staring at Yumi while on campus, pushing him to talk to her even if he doesn’t know what happened in martial arts class.

Ulrich apologizes to Yumi for being standoff-ish & wants to continue practicing together.

Sissi gets jealous and follows them around, causing her to get caught in a XANA trap.

This is how she sees the supercomputer leading to the first return to the past.

The group promises to keep everything between them and help Aelita.

Keynotes for S1 storyline

The main goal is to bring back Aelita from Loyko.

Jeremie learns how Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi can feel phantom pains after being devirtualized on Lyoko.

Ulrich learns Yumi moved from Japan just the year prior.

Yumi introduces the boys to her parents and little brother since she has a good relationship with Mr. & Mrs. Ishiyama.

The boys learn how Hiroki is an intelligent kid while mischievous, something Odd takes note of when they hang out.

Due to both their somewhat poor communication skills, Ulrich and Yumi dance around the fact they both like each other.

Ulrich does end up having a girlfriend in S1, a blonde German girl named Viktoria.

Yumi represses her feeling once seeing Ulrich happy with someone.

Sissi and Yumi get into a fight when Sissi threatens Ulrich with exposing his journal to everyone.

A page having details of Ulrich’s feelings about both Viktoria and Yumi.

Jeremie struggles with the balance of Lyoko and the real world, forgetting about his parents to the point they drive to Kadic for a wellness check.  

Odd develops a secret crush on Aelita as time gets closer to materializing her.

The warriors learn about Ulrich’s estranged relationship with his family when Kadic hosts a Family Day. Ulrich is the only one from the group to not have a family member visit.

Mr. & Mrs. Ishiyama has sympathy towards Ulrich and wants to know what goes on with him in his schooling like a parent, even advising on how to help his grades.

Two of Odd’s sisters, Adele and Pauline, come for Family Day.

Sissi doesn’t leave Ulrich alone until it makes Victoria dump Ulrich towards the end of the season.

Yumi is a shoulder for Ulrich to lean on.

When Aelita is finally materialized and done safely with her ability to attend school in S2, Yumi can see Odd’s crush but promises to keep it between them.

Season 2

2x01

On Aelita’s first day enrolled in Kadic Academy for the spring semester, she is linked to Ulrich’s cousin instead of Odd’s.

As everyone comes back from winter vacation, Ulrich notices a new student in Yumi’s class named William.

Hearing from Odd through the grapevine of William, Ulrich isn’t a fan right away especially seeing how close William appears when speaking to Yumi.

Ulrich tries to not be jealous but can’t help it as Yumi seems to be enjoying herself when speaking to William.

Viktoria talks to Ulrich again to catch up, making Yumi internally jump to conclusions.

While in class, Odd asks Aelita to join him to take Kiwi out during lunch.

This confuses Ulrich & (especially) Jeremie, but Aelita agrees to have a breath of fresh air.

During lunch, Yumi introduces William to Ulrich and Jeremie but asks where Odd and Aelita are.

William jokes about Odd and Aelita being a secret couple.

Jeremie doesn’t find this funny and storms to the library.

Ulrich takes this as William being a rude person, a green light to being vocal on his dislike towards him, then follows Jeremie to the library.

Yumi doesn’t appreciate Ulrich’s attitude, following William for lunch.

Aelita and Odd come across an abandoned house called “The Hermitage” and enter the forest.

Aelita feels intense deja vu, suddenly having unknown flashbacks in the building.

Odd finds the place creepy, especially when discovering what looks like a little girl’s room.

Xana. Return to the past. Yumi and Ulrich reunite on a bench during the lunch period.

Yumi tells Ulrich about Odd’s crush on Aelita

Ulrich is surprised but also should’ve seen it coming after thinking

She understands Ulrich’s coldness towards William after the comment.

Ulrich says he’ll be better at biting his tongue and won’t tell Jeremie about Odd’s crush.

Aelita is back in the forest alone, standing in front of The Hermitage.

Keynotes for S2 storyline

Aelita is determined to discover her connection to The Hermitage with or without Jeremie’s help.

Aelita has been rewarded a scholarship to attend Kadic Academy.

William’s backstory of hot-headed comes more to light, specifically with Ulrich in physical activities.

Ulrich tries his best to not let William get the best of him, knowing it will blow up in his face if he does.

Yumi struggles with feeling homesick & out of place from being far away from Japan.

Sissi tries to mess with Yumi’s head about Ulrich and Aelita’s about Jeremie.

Viktoria tries to be friends with Yumi but can’t due to Sissi’s words.

Odd learns to become more mature to better himself after events blow in his face with Aelita.

Aelita is trying her best to be oblivious to Odd’s feelings as she has never been in this situation.

Odd actually does give something to Aelita for Valentine’s Day

Ulrich gives Yumi a necklace

Yumi helps give Aelita as much advice as possible, knowing she is also in the same boat since William came to Kadic.

Ulrich gives Odd advice to back off Aelita because he knows how much Jeremie likes her.

Jeremie finds all of Aelita’s personal information on Franz Hopper’s CDs.

When Odd tries to move on from Aelita, he ends up making regressing back to immaturity with girls as a ‘casanova.’

Xana takes control of the ‘return to the past’ program, causing the gang not to use it in S2.

Jeremie teaches Ulrich how to use the supercomputer first in simple terms for basic things.

Ulrich’s father surprises Ulrich and meets his friends, showing a strong dislike for Yumi, which causes a stronger refit between the two.

Odd tells Jeremie his feelings for Aelita after her almost dying on Lyoko.

There is ambiguity on what Jeremie does with this information.

When it is the end of the year & time for everyone to go home, Aelita stays with Yumi for the over month-long summer break.

Viktoria tells Ulrich she isn’t coming back to Kadic after this year. She also tells Ulrich to go for it with Yumi.

Ulrich decides to spend most of the break with Jeremie in France instead of going back to Germany.

Season 3

3x01

The Warriors come back to Kadic from their summer break, where luckily, Xana hasn’t done anything to harm Earth. A note Aelita takes as Xana, knowing they were apart without a trace.

The Warrior’s all meet in the courtyard as they wait for their new class schedules.

During the break, Jeremie reprogrammed the Return To The Past and added new programs to the supercomputer.  

A new additive is Odd, gaining unlimited laser arrows and flexibility similar to a cat.

Jeremie asks Odd if they could speak in private, going to a bench away from the others.

The two talk about their mutual crush on Aelita and promise to not let it get between them as friends.

Jeremie asks if Odd really likes Aelita and is surprised to hear an honest, genuine response from him for once.

While everyone is waiting under the arches, William comes up at Yumi, eager to catch up after the break.

Ulrich remains distant to William after the constant back and forth, which William has no problem with.

Yumi can see the discomfort from Ulrich and excuses the two of them to another part of the campus.

Sissi catches Ulrich & Yumi holding hands ‘demands’ an explanation but doesn’t actually get one.

After returning back from the core of Lyoko, the talk about adding a fifth member is first brought up.

Keynotes for S3 storyline

Outfit changes for everyone to start the new school year.

Yumi changes her from black all around to a pink skirt, black tights, and a thin long sleeve skull top.

Aelita’s outfit is an updated version of what she was wearing when virtualized on Lyoko. A purple heart baby T-shirt with black shorts and pink tights plus lace-up boots.

Odd is lowkey with his acts of kindness to Aelita.

Ulrich’s mother, Emilia, comes to visit, where she catches Ulrich and Yumi together under a tree. Emilia doesn’t like Yumi right away.

Emilia and Ulrich argue about their distance as if it was only Ulrich who caused it.

Ulrich states how he’s the kid and shouldn’t be reaching out all the time to his parents.

Jeremie and Aelita show Yumi and Odd how to use the supercomputer after a mission where Jeremie cannot use it.

William is initiated as a Lyoko Warrior in the middle of the season.

Yumi is highly vocal against it the whole time because she doesn’t trust him.

Odd and Ulrich help train William to be a better fighter but notice his cocky attitude never changing even after a few Lyoko trips.

Aelita gains the power of foreshadowing instead of Odd getting it back.

Yumi is honest about her feelings to Ulrich after he doesn’t return at all from a mission.

He gets frozen in Xana’s dome.

They finally get together.

Ulrich teaches Hiroki and Johnny how to approach girls respectfully.

Aelita and Jeremie have growing tension from Jeremie’s repetitive stubborn overprotectiveness.

Odd and Aelita grow closer as they expand their creative passion for music.

Jeremie becomes jealous of Odd and Aelita spending time together only to make it worse with Aelita.

William takes Yumi and Ulrich’s new relationship way too hard. He becomes irresponsible when on Lyoko resulting in him getting caught by the Scyphozoa.

Aelita blames herself for William as she hazily saw the mission leading in that direction.

Season 4

4x01

Following Lyoko getting destroyed by Xana, the warriors are on high alert of anything on Earth.

Aelita is the one to find what Franz Hopper sent to the supercomputer to help reprogram Lyoko.

Jeremie and Aelita set up Sector Five and the forest sector first before other parts of Lyoko.

Jeremie improves Yumi’s telepathic ability and gives everyone super sprint instead of only Ulrich. (Aelita with flying)

When on Lyoko to find William, they see he can mimic what Jeremie programmed, such as

His version of flying like Aelita

Getting an over bike like Ulrich

Throw his sword like Yumi’s fans

William devirtualizes all of the warriors

The Warriors think of a plan to handle William the next day.

Yumi and Hiroki get into an argument about Yumi’s diary getting lost.

Hiroki stole it to give gossip for Milly but had it fallen out of his backpack.  

Ulrich tries to help find it, knowing his situation with Sissi last year.

Hiroki gets caught in a Xana trap that smacks him unconscious, causing Yumi to panic for her brother.

Yumi stays on Earth with her parents while the others go to Lyoko to deactivate the tower.

After the return to the past, Jeremie begins looking for a temporary solution for William’s absence.

Yumi, Ulrich, and Hiroki go out for ice cream as all is forgiven.

Yumi tells Ulrich she’ll one day show him what she wrote before they got together.

Ulrich promises to do the same.

Keynotes for S4 storyline

The William Clone is programmed to have adaptive sensors, making him somewhat normal to the unknown person.

Odd’s parents and older sister Marie come visit Odd to watch his short film.

Marie gives Odd advice for his love triangle dilemma.

When it is time for the week of Christmas break, the Warriors find a way to spend the holiday with Yumi to be all together.

Ulrich and Yumi almost break up from a misunderstanding by Xana disguising themselves as each other.

Xana-Ulrich creates an argument with Yumi while Xana-Yumi kisses another classmate.

Odd mischievously submits Aelita’s mix CD for the Subdigitals audition when she cannot make it.

Aelita is grateful to Odd when she is picked as a finalist.

Odd gets kicked out of the group for showing the new exchange student Brynja the factory.

Once back into the group (called on by Jeremie), Aelita and Odd get into an argument that lasts longer than any Yumi and Ulrich fight.

Jeremie is the mediator for Aelita and Odd, telling the two to be honest with each other.

Odd tells Aelita he likes her finally, and Aelita says she doesn’t know her feelings. Jeremie tells her it’s okay if she likes Odd back.

Aelita needs time to think, and the boys give her as much space as she needs.

Jeremie’s cousin Patrick enrolls at Kadic permanently, allowing the two to grow closer as family.

Patrick helps Jeremie come out of his shell a little bit, and in return, Jeremie tells Patrick about Lyoko.

Patrick promises to keep it a secret and thinks Lyoko is insane when sent to be part of ‘Return To The Past’.

William comes back a little bit before the last episode.

Yumi and William have a conversation where he apologizes for his actions on Lyoko and reacting horribly to her and Ulrich’s relationship.

William does a whole apology tour with the Warriors about his carelessness that led to getting trapped by Xana.

Odd and Ulrich are verbal about their distrust for William, especially to his face.

As Aelita finishes destroying Xana and comes back to Earth, Odd is the one to catch her as she cries for the loss of her father.

Series Finale

With Xana now destroyed thanks to the power of Franz Hopper’s sacrifice, the warriors must now turn off the supercomputer as there is no real purpose anymore. To Yumi’s surprise, the rest of the warriors are hesitant to turn it off. Yumi gets upset when everyone but her vote to not turn off the supercomputer and is quite confused by it.

Yumi distances herself from the rest of the group, not wanting to hear what their excuses are.

In an irritated voice due to Yumi being stubborn, Ulrich says he likes being a hero who feels unstoppable. He doesn’t get that feeling on Earth where he struggles in school with parents who are hardly present in his life.

Yumi says encouraging words about how Ulrich is a great person on Earth who cares for his friends and others.

Jeremi tells Patrick and Aelita how he is scared of turning back into a loner after shutting Lyoko off.

Patrick tells Jeremie he shouldn’t worry about that because the Warriors are all really close.

Aelita says they have a bond that can’t be broken even if they all live in different countries.

While in gym class, Aelita asks Odd why he didn’t want the supercomputer to be shut off.

Odd doesn’t want to turn it off then begin to miss it, but he knows it is for the best.

William tells Jeremie they need to shut the computer down after everything that’s happened bad to him.

Yumi apologizes for her stubbornness and hears out everyone's reasoning for not wanting to say goodbye to Lyoko yet.

Aelita talks to Odd about what they could be like in the future.

They never fully say out loud what happens, and there are no hard feelings from Jeremie.

One last hiccup from Sissi resulted in the last return to the past by Jeremie and Patrick. Aelita and Odd are sitting together on one bench while Yumi and Ulrich are under a tree.

[wbywebseriesreviews]

Headcanons ask: can you rewrite Season 2 of Good Morning Call after Nao and Uehara breakup?

BUCKLE UP CAUSE THIS IS GONNA BE LONG: 

The morning after telling Uehara “let’s break up” feels like waking up from a years-long dream. After icing her eyes (swollen from all the sobbing) she discovers that it takes no time at all to make one breakfast and one lunch instead of two. She’s finished so quickly that, for once, Nao’s early to her first class. 

It’s in the middle of the period that she realizes with a jolt that she’s taking all general education courses, because she has no idea what to study. Her only dream has been to be Uehara’s girlfriend and, eventually, his wife. 

At lunch, Ota and Marina talk about a hundred things going on that she can’t believe she doesn’t already know about. Every follow-up question is met with either a sheepish look (Ota) or a careless wave of the hand (Marina). “We’ve definitely talked about this before,” they say. “You probably don’t remember because you were busy with something.”

They’re sweet enough not to state the obvious about who that something is. 

Was. 

Within a few weeks, life without Uehara fills up with everything else that Nao has let fall to the wayside. She starts studying so she can actually answer questions in class, instead of making lists of the things that Uehara likes. Instead of desperately freeing up her weekends for potential dates with Uehara, she finally makes it to Daichi’s games. Nights usually spent watching the scary movies that Uehara orders online, are now reserved for low-budget spa nights with Marina, or going out for drinks with the girls from the sewing club.

When she goes out, men flirt with her, sometimes. Nao is still too shy (too heartbroken, she tells herself, though it sounds more like something that’s supposed to be instead of something that is) to ever flirt back.

Not texting him with dumb things, just anything she can think of to get a response, is harder than she thought. At some point, each of her friends will end up taking Nao’s phone and locking themselves in the bathroom with it. Nao’s always mad in the moment, but she ends up baking them dessert as a thank you every time . After all, it’s not like texting him would change anything, even if Uehara was the type to answer.

He probably would, Nao thinks. But that doesn’t mean she should do it.

Abe writes another play, and though he refuses to ever cast her with an onstage part again, he lets her be his stage manager. Though it fills her entire schedule for a solid two weeks, and she gets back to her apartment at wee hours of the morning, it’s an incredible amount of fun.

Even though the door next to hers remains closed, she knows Uehara’s light only goes off when she’s safely inside. It’s not enough, but it means something. Nao wouldn’t pretend otherwise.

Nao just barely passes her midterms by the skin of her teeth. She quits her job at the shop to find something on campus, so she can have more time to study. Luckily, the communications department offers one-semester positions at the help-desk to students. With her friendly demeanor and dedication to solving problems, Nao is readily accepted.

And if leaving her other workplace means that Natsume can’t watch her from the back room, eyes carrying all the hopes that he’s not brave enough to admit, then that’s just the way things are.  

Mitsuishi comes to visit. Naturally, he hears the story from Uehara first. He asks Nao questions, some of which are an easy to answer (It wasn’t because of Saeko) and some of which are harder (I don’t know what it would take to fix it).

“It’s funny, Nao,” he says, slinging one arm around Marina’s waist and the other around Nao’s shoulders. “I thought you’d have to be a very different person to dump Uehara. But you seem even more like yourself, lately.”

She laughs, shakes her head as though she doesn’t understand. But that night, Nao turns the words over and over in her mind like a diamond, wondering how it was exactly what she needed to hear.

Right before second semester, the problems start. Natsume visits Uehara’s apartment at least three times a week--perhaps to try to accidentally-on-purpose run into her, or possibly to try to get them back together, or Uehara’s just making sure she doesn’t end up dating him. Nao doesn’t know what to say to either man; with the way they stare at her, she knows that they expect something. It’s her responsibility, in their eyes, to say something that will fix it. Or at least to give them a clue on how Uehara can.

But, if she’s being honest with herself (and she promised she would, now that she’s going to be a real adult)? Nao doesn’t want to.

Instead, she finds a new apartment a few blocks down and moves in when she knows Uehara’s out of town to visit Yuri and Takuya.

Maybe it’s the coward’s move, but she can breathe easier after it’s done.

Her new apartment is big and bright, and when she decorates Nao finds all kinds of things that she’s long left untouched. Old photos of her friends, Kitaura’s cell phone number scrawled on a piece of paper so they could keep in touch while at separate colleges, a gift card from Yuri to a “real grown-up lady’s store”. Her high school certificate, the lumpy hand-stitched handkerchief she started and abandoned for her dad’s birthday, and finally a report she made in junior high, writing that someday, she would go to school to be a kindergarten teacher.

Nao sits on the kitchen floor, sobbing in shame and embarrassment, for centering her entire life around someone other than herself. Pressing her hands to her cheeks, she promises that from now on, my dreams should be about me.

Because she’s still unpacking, Nao orders ramen for dinner. She calls Kitaura’s number, catching up while she eats. When she quietly admits that things are over with Uehara, Kitaura laughs and says, “I thought that might happen.”

Nao wonders how everyone but her could see it for so long. The lack of pity in Kitaura’s voice is strangely exciting, though.

They make plans to talk again, and visit over break. It’s a weird joy to schedule her time around a group of friends, instead of a single boyfriend.

She submits her request for an education major. The next time she orders ramen, Nao and the delivery boy stare at each other in stunned surprise. Issei, as it turns out, has wondered what she’s been up to.

They go to a movie. A comedy, one that they both laugh at. One night turns into another, and another, and another. Sometimes Ota joins them; sometimes it’s Daichi and Nanase; but most of the time, it’s just the two of them.

When she tells him about Uehara, sitting on the couch red-penning the poster for Abe’s latest project, Issei seems to freeze. His gaze is guarded when he asks, “Do you miss him, Nao?”

It’s hard to explain how the answer can be yes and no. But Issei is the kind of person that won’t judge her for struggling with something like that, so Nao tries her best to explain.

Sometimes she thinks about kissing Issei. Not now, when she’s still getting pieces of herself back; but maybe someday.

Part of her expects the day to come when Uehara knocks on her door, breathless and not wearing a coat, arms hanging loosely at his sides like he doesn’t know what to do with them. It’s deja vu, when he asks her to come back and says he’s sorry, really sorry, I don’t want to be without you anymore. He starts to say he loves her, and Nao feels the words from deep within her heart spill out from her lips before he can finish.  

“The Nao that you remember, that you’re in love with, isn’t here anymore. She always chose you. This time, I choose myself.” 

Shutting the door on him is the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life. But she does it, and the world doesn’t end.

 Instead, Nao has finally found herself. 

[aircolar]

Pillow thoughts - Yamaguchi

A/N: Here’s some sweet Yama fluff that was rolling around in my brain! I hope it’s okay! I love Yamaguchi so much and he’s one of my soft babie favorites! Thanks for reading if you do! 

Tadashi has always subconsciously found himself drawn to strong people -- wanting to become stronger had been his rationale for joining volleyball back in high school, but now it suddenly felt like he had regressed in some fashion. Sure, he was now working in a home electronic store and he was able to do well at university at the time, but that didn’t really take much effort outside of what he was used to. All Yamaguchi could worry about as he was resting his head against the soft pillow every night is: why was he always so weak when it came to his love life and when did you start giving him nicknames that made him feel so nervous? Tadashi thinks back to the first time you all met -- it was back in high school and you were one of the nicest sights he could ever see. 

“Hey! You! The one with the green hair!” Yamaguchi could be clueless and definitely feared confrontation, but now that he was in high school he really had to start standing up to these pesky bullies. That didn’t mean Yamaguchi wasn’t frozen with upon hearing you call out to him and so he stopped moving but he didn’t turn around to meet the voice calling from behind -- it didn’t help that this was during a lunch break so the halls were especially crowded. Eventually, you came up to him, huffing and bent over as you tried to catch your breath, and when you looked up Tadashi knew he was an instant goner. Your face was flushed and yet you could not have looked more alluring as your eyes reminded him of stars and cheeks of blooming cherry blossoms. His thoughts were quickly interrupted as you clicked you tongue in annoyance and suddenly he remembered that you were a complete stranger! Why did you call out to him and was he blushing as hard as his cheeks felt, did you notice? “Hey, Tadpole! You dropped this pencil case back there and I decided to be a good person and pick it up.” Yamaguchi suddenly looked down and there was said pencil case, sitting in your hand, waiting for him to pick it up and put it in his bag. “Oh! I- I’m so sorry! I- I- didn’t even, uh, realize....” and suddenly his sentence broke off into a bunch of mumbles and squeaks. You just eyed him, grabbed his hand, and put the pouch in it. “It’s no problem! I have to go now, but please make sure to close up your bad correctly next time! Maybe I’ll catch you later, Tadpole!” Then suddenly you were gone around some corner and all he could think was “Tadpole?” before the bell rang, signaling that he was late to class. 

Thinking back to the first meeting made Yamaguchi chuckle a bit because he didn’t catch your name or even your year. Did you give all strangers nicknames upon meeting them? As he laid in bed, thoughts among the stars, his mind wondered to your second meeting.

The second time you both met was a total coincidence and it was when you were both first years at university. Yamaguchi wasn’t quite sure what compelled him to sign up for this ancient western civilizations course, but here he was sitting in the rather large and kinda empty lecture hall early one morning as his fellow classmates trickled in. Considering that it was the first week of class, Tadashi was not expecting to be assigned a group project and he was not aware that he would be working with his seatmate for the rest of the semester. He had no idea what kind of threatening stranger could be sitting next to him but it was too late now and so he took a deep breath and braced himself for the worst possible situation. But instead he was greeted with a familiar pair of eyes, ones that reminded him of stars, and an outstretched hand waiting to be shook. “I’m (y/n) and it looks like we’ll be partners for the semester, unless you drop the class or something.” Tadashi was hit with a sense of deja vu because suddenly he was frozen and stuttering, something he hadn’t done in a while, as he said, “I- I- I’m Yama- Yamaguchi Tadashi. Uh, it’s, uh, pleasure to get to work with you and I am pretty sure I won’t be dropping anytime soon.” In response, he recalls you stifling a laugh, instead replacing it with a small smile, and saying, “Alright Yams! I am looking forward to a successful class.” 

As the memory left him with a fuzzy feeling, Yamaguchi smiled at the familiar nickname as his head rested on the pillow because taking that course led to your current friendship -- and his current crush. After university, Yamaguchi began working at the home electronic store and every week since he started you would come in to “check out the merchandise” or because your friends mentioned some really cool new item that you just had to have. Tadashi never questioned it much, but the longer he knew you the more nicknames he was given and at this point it was getting kinda hard to keep up. What was up with you and nicknames? First he was “Tadpole” and then he was “Yams” and after that was “Yamayama” and so on. Every time you gave him a new nickname his heart swelled more and more and every night he would lay awake, head on his pillow, with thoughts full of you and those silly names. When was he going to get the courage to ask you out? It’s been years. That night before his eyes shut, Yamaguchi made himself a promise that he spoke out in a small whisper, “I’m strong enough to finally ask her out on a date.” 

Extra: 

Yamaguchi’s been on edge all day, just waiting for you to come and you do once every week. He sees your (h/c) and quickly calls you over, “Hey, Y/N! I was wondering what you’ve got planned for this weekend?” “Nothing much, Yama! Why? What’s up? Are you finally gonna ask me out on a date?” “Uh, actually, yeah! Wanna watch a movie at my place?” “OH! I, uh....” Normally the roles were reversed and so Yamaguchi’s heart swelled a little as you stumbled over your words, searching for a response. “Dashi, baby! A movie sounds great! See you Saturday at 6!” All Yamaguchi could do was smile as you walked away, knowing damn well that you would be in his dreams tonight. 

[piprocrastinator]

Cream Sauce of My Thoughts

MewGulf

Crack fic

Gulf has a bad day and goes to the grocery store

Warning - implied content and dirty words.. 

Length: 3703

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24746140

or 

Gulf was having a bad day.

Like a really bad day.

Worse than a moderate inconvenience day which seems to be most days that he has to go to class and work. It was worse than that. Although in all reality his tolerance for bad days was low and he had been called dramatic for his renditions of a whining child on his other so-called bad days, so maybe his perception wasn't too great with them, to begin with. Most days he complained about having a bad day were just average days that didn’t include him playing his mobile game for eight hours straight. And today he wasn’t playing his mobile game all day so you know, a bad day ... that seemed to escalate very quickly, like a rock rolling down a hill.

But he still somehow managed to land… a date with his crush?

Hold on. Was it really a bad day then? Sure didn't feel like one up until that moment.

His day had started out fine, besides the waking up part and having to go to class part. Otherwise fine. But he realized as he was awoken to the loud shrill sound of his alarm that he was late. Which normal meant, hurrah for him, he can skip and sleep more but not today. Today that meant that he was late and had five minutes to run to the library to print off an essay that was due that day and he had stayed up late last night finishing it because he spends the whole week playing mobile games instead of his paper. So today's late was not good, at all. Not if he wanted to pass his class.

Scrambling out of bed, slamming into the ground, hard, as his feet tangled with his sheets because why not have his morning start out being late and having bruises. He manages to just barely miss the door as he skids out of his room but stubs his toe in his haste against the wall.

It really should have been a sign from the universe that something was wrong. But he persevered because he didn’t get two hours of sleep working on a paper for nothing. Thankfully the journey to the library was quicker than usual. Normally it took fifteen minutes while today took six and as he ignored his throbbing legs and his screaming lungs as he waited for his paper to print he wondered if maybe he had joined the football team in college he might be in better shape to have made it even quicker. His glares at the machine as it slowly hums to life printing one of the sheets before claiming a paper jam. He checked the drawer. Nothing. He tapped the screen and the machine continued, one more page and then the paper jam screen.

Fucks sakes.

Repeated the process. One more sheet. He needed two more to be done.

Inhaling before huffing out an exhale as he repeated the process until his pages were all printed before sprinting to class, tripping up the steps and almost losing two of the sheets before thankfully catching them with his face against the ground in a second trip straight after the first, because the universe was feeling slapstick comedy today it seemed.

For those keeping track at home that’s-

Universe: 3 Gulf: 0

Quickly checking his nose for blood, finding none before sprinting to the door to his class. Glancing inside, he waited until his teacher was facing the board before sneaking in the back and finding the closest empty chair.

When class ended he followed the stream of students to the teacher's desk where he casually wrote his name in attendance while the teacher looked away before through his now stapled essay onto the stack with all the others.

Universe: 3 Gulf: 1

Feeling accomplished and most of this bad mood having dispersed throughout class he heads back to his dorm for some much-needed gaming and cookies. He wasn’t normally one for sweets but he had recently found these cookies that seemed to disregard his non-sweet tooth and he’d honestly been bingeing them for the past week. It also didn’t help that he’d seen Mew –that one classmate from his elective art class that he had the biggest crush on - eating them. He knew Mew had a sweet tooth and had not so subtle watched him eat ice cream after class a few times from the ice cream truck that makes rounds on Tuesday and Thursday to the campus. He was pretty sure Mew had a magical tongue.

For ice cream, strictly ice cream. He never had a dream about Mew licking a certain something else. Never.

The joyful thoughts of cookies and games filling his mind he failed to see the person speeding walking around the corner, and their precariously held open cup of coffee.

Coffee meet pants. Oh, how nice to scold you.

Universe: 4 Gulf: 0

Wait no he’ll give himself .5 for actually getting his paper turned in so

Universe: 4 Gulf: 0.5

Gulf hiss as the hot liquid spills over his jeans, he can hear the apologetic voice of the person he ran into but he waves it off. The dark cloud was back with a vengeance it seemed. He cared about nothing else at that moment then getting his pants off and as soon as he stomped into his dorm his pants flung across the room narrowly missing Mild who was sitting on their couch, textbook pulled to his nose.

“Welcome home.” Mild chided sarcastically glancing over his book to watch Gulf rummage through the cabinets like a crazy maniac. Which he was. He was mad and he wanted cookies. Where were his cookies?

“If you’re looking for your cookies, they’re gone.” Gulf glares before following the finger Mild has pointed to the fridge. The whiteboards read Grocery list then underneath Cookies in giant lettering and multiple lines underneath.

Gulf groans slamming his head into the fridge, he could hear the wince Mild made but ignored in favor of yelling at last night him for finishing off the cookies without proper forethought to future today him who needed the cookies. How rude of himself to be so rude to him.

“You can just buy more.” Mild states like Gulf doesn’t already understand that he could but he wants them now not in the twenty minutes it’ll take to get to the store buy them and walk back.

“You can just buy more.” Gulf mocked back in a whiney tone as he stomped to his room. He’s going to go buy more because what other option does he have.

He stared at his overflowing laundry basket and then his drawers, realizing that his past self procrastinating laundry day in favor of video games has come back to haunt him and all of his pants were dirty and the only cleans on left were a pair of shorts that were both too short and too tight but he refused to throw them away because both Mild and his mother had told him he needed too. It had been a matter of pride at the time that he can’t say he regrets but really wishes he would have thrown them out and bought a new pair as he puts them on now.

They weren’t that bad, they would do well enough for him to get to the store and back because right now he wanted cookies or he was going to do something crazy. Like jerk off and go to sleep ignoring all responsibility. Which he shouldn’t do. Look at him making the responsible choice for once and all in the name of cookies.

He needed cookies to make his day better so he could do laundry and then he could be comfy in clean clothes while working on his final projects as the semester was coming to a close and all his teachers seemed to think that he wasn’t some who procrastinated all semester and they all assigned projects. Projects that he was now in a time crunch to finish. Thus he was taking the day back from the humorless universe and for that, cookies.

“Nice ass.” Mild yells after him complete with a wolf whistle. Gulf threw a finger back at him over his shoulder, "And get milk too.”

Stomping through the isles in search of the holy grail was harder than he thought mostly because he refused to look at signs and they apparently rearranged the store without telling him (hindsight a few days later would have him realize that they, in fact, were not changed his mood just created a mist of denial). So who knows where his precious cookies are at. It matches his day so he wasn’t surprised by his troubles to find his precious cookies.

“Young man.” Gulf skids to a halt in front of an older lady, who looked about the age of his grandmother, she smiles at him before pointing to the top shelf. “Mind helping an old lady out. I need that jar of cream sauce but I can’t reach it.”

All the manners his parents had instilled into his flared into action because of course, he could help her. Sure it slowed down the process of finding his long lost love, cookies, but it was worth it to help someone. He smiled and reached for the jar, his fingers touched the side when he noticed movement down the aisle. A person, was that Mew? Fuck it was. Mew was walking down the aisle staring at him. More importantly, staring at his shorts. He could feel the gaze. It was those damn shorts. Thank you shorts?

It was at that moment that he realized the universe had one last trick up its sleeve. He was so distracted with Mew's gaze that his fingers tipped the jar, it hit the shelf before the lid popped off and the white cream sauce dumped from the glass container pouring down his chest and thighs. Which really, really was the frosting to his cake at that moment. The universe was literally jizzing on him. Oh universe, why?

“Oh, dear.” The lady clicked her tongue before pulling out a handkerchief from her purse and handing it to him. “What a mess.”

“Let me help.” Gulf head swiveled around to face Mew, who had managed to make it all the way down the aisle to them and was right there. Right there in front of him, staring at the white sauce messy he had all over his front. It definitely brought up images of a different white substance that Gulf had dreamed about just last night, it too involved Mew in front of him but they were vastly different circumstances. Somehow this scene was still giving him the deja vu feel because of how similar they were.

He regrets deciding to go to this grocery store because he knows that Mews family owns it and that Mew works here. He purposely goes to this one store only when he looks good so he pretends that he wasn’t living a life fueled by fried basil pork and phone games -and now apparently cookies. He wanted to ogle Mew from a distance and in the off chance that Mew saw him, he looked good. He had set out that plan long ago to slowly attract Mew.

This was not part of the plan. And he defiantly didn’t look good now. He looked the opposite of good. He looked bad. Real Bad. He was wearing shorts that were too tight and too short, white cream sauce covering his front and he was pretty sure that there was a patch of hair sticking up somewhere on his head from the way he slept that he had purposely been ignoring all day. He looked a mess. He was a mess.

Universe: 5 Gulf: 0

Actually he takes that back at this moment he gives himself a negative point because he went to this grocery store and not a different one.

Universe: 5 Gulf: -1

Gulf wasn’t sure what happened but one second he was idly dabbing the front of his shirt with the borrowed handkerchief trying to not look up at Mew in the very vain hope that Mew wouldn’t recognize him (Blatantly ignoring the fact that they had previously made eye contact) and the next second Mew was ushering him to the back of the store and into some office. He kept his head down the whole time, maybe if he didn’t look at Mew then Mew would still think he was cute and not a mess. Maybe this embarrassing moment wouldn't ruin his non-existence chance with Mew.

Though to be fair he was pretty sure no matter what happened, he knew later that night he would one hundred percent be jerking off to thoughts about Mew licking cream sauce off his dick much like he’d seen him do the ice cream cones much time before. And yes he is aware that it makes him feel a tiny bit creepy thinking about someone else in that sense but Mew was too attractive and hot to not to.

He plopped into the chair as Mew turned and left the room. Now he was sitting in some uncomfortable old chair that looked older than he was, in a tiny office the was surprisingly organized for being so crowded with what Gulf assumed was paperwork. Now what. Sneak out before Mew gets back to save face? There wasn’t anything else besides the handkerchief to clean himself.

Maybe he should call Mild and ask for some shorts to change into so he doesn’t have to walk back to the dorm like this.

He smears the sauce over his thighs, making a lazy figure eight as he pouts. He didn’t even get his cookies. Now he’s going to have to go home and change then come back to get cookies. Before he gets any more time to try and think of a solution (ie, sulk) about his situation he hears the door open.

“Here,” Mew squats down in front of Gulf holding out a wet washcloth. Gulf flushes - because who wouldn’t when your crush is suddenly so close that only small movement could have him touching your knee or better yet falling into your lap.

“Thanks.” Gulf wipes himself off trying not to think of how close Mew is, or how close Mew's hand is as it hovers by his knee as if waiting for Gulf to ask for its help. And Gulf wants to ask. He is all for asking Mew to use his long veining hands to rub his thighs—

“It’s not cum.” Gulf sputters out then instantly tries to retract his words by sputtering before he finally stares, eyes wide at his legs. Why did he say that? Why? What was wrong with his brain to mouth filter?

Mew lets out a tiny awkward chuckle, “I’m very uh, aware of the difference between cream sauce and… cum. But uh, thank you for clarifying.”

“Yeah me too… uh, I mean, you’re welcome.” Gulf was pretty sure at that moment that his face had simply turned into flames and was burning off, melting into his lap. Or that is to say, his face was very very warm.

“Our shelves can be tall, maybe next time if you need help-”

“I’m tall,” Gulf shouts defiantly, then shrinks back. “I mean, I’m tall enough. I can reach them fine.”

“Are you sure?” Gulf could her the light tone that was meant to be a joke but the embarrassment must have fried his brain because he stood up out of his so quickly that Mew toppled over. There was a second where Gulf watch his flail before he reached forward to pull him into a stand in front of him. Mew hands on his arm for support, chest to chest (well almost because he was still sticky but they were definitely close). Mew's hands hoover over his hips for a moment before they fall back to his sides and Gulf can see Mew's eyes glance between them. It's definitely the shorts and he can't tell if he should wear them more or through them out but there's something in Mews eyes as he gives them a glance.

“See,” Gulf grumbles eyes looking over Mew's face. This was the first time he’d been this close and honestly, he wasn’t sure he could handle Mew being this close. All Mews very intense eye contact. What were they trying to say because they were dancing in a way the Gulf didn't understand but very much so wanted to. “Taller.” He whispers.

Mew snorts amused before reaching up to ruffle his hair -Gulf may or may not have felt his heart pouter to a stop momentarily at the action- before he said “You may be taller but I’m bigger.”

Gulf gulped at the smirk on Mew's face. His eyes trailing from Mew's face to his broad chest. Mew was one thousand percent correct about that fact. Gulf was a few centimeters taller but Mew was broader. He could blanket Gulf in a hug. Gulf wished Mew would blanket him in a hug. Maybe a naked hug. Maybe a naked sweaty hug. He stares at Mew’s chest for longer than can be considered decent and he knows this because Mew does a fake cough to get his attention and when they make eye contact again Mew raises a brow.

“I’m pretty strong too,” Mew says softly. Gulf nods absently trying not to think of how strong Mew might be. He doesn’t need any more fuel for his not safe for work dreams at night. “I can easily lift the sake of potatoes and throw it against the wall.”

Gulf opens his mouth in question but then laughs -a little louder than he meant to- because was that Mew trying to flirt? “What? I can’t tell if you're flirting or threatening me.”

“Wha-no, I was trying- you know.” Mew sputters and for the first time, Gulf sees Mew blush. “That was flirting.” He says in a low tone that borders a whine.

Oh, no Gulf’s heart, Mew’s not supposed to be both sexy and cute, he couldn’t handle it. “Throwing me against a wall is flirting?”

“Maybe not throwing…” Mew trails over and Gulf can see the muscles in his arms tense for a moment. “Lifting, holding maybe.”

“Like potatoes?” Gulf asks and then snickers when Mew rolls his eyes with a smirk.

“Not sure why you’d be flirting?” Gulf tugs at his own dirty shirt, “Is it because I’m covered in a white liquid substance?”

“You got me there. The white stuff is such a turn on.” Mew's tone was sarcastic yet amused, his eyes sparkling. Gulf was maybe just a little enamored. (ok super enamored.)

“Turns me on.” Gulf looks at him from under his lashes. He’s not really sure if it will work but he’s seen enough of those romantic comedy movies to know that it should. Gulf waits for a beat as Mew's eyes grow wide then says, “See that’s flirting.”

Gulf smiles widely at the belly laugh from Mew. Mew takes a step back as he settles down, his eyes still sparkling as he glances over Gulf. “Let me take you home?”

“I-” Gulf wants to say yes, of course, take him home, take him to bed. Take him anyway and anywhere, but, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Mew looks around the room, resignation written over his face. “oh, I thought… with the flirting that meant- ”

“Oh no, I mean yes, I was flirting. It’s just that today is a bad day.” He waves vaguely to his shirt then around the room as if it would explain. “Maybe instead, not today, something, you know a-another day…”

“Another day?” Mew questions, then nods. “Ok, another day. How about a date then?”

“D-Date?”

“Date.”

“Yeah… yeah, that would be great.” Gulf mirrors Mew's smile as his heart flutters in his chest.

Universe: 0 Gulf: 1

Bonus:

Their first date didn’t actually get to happen for a couple of weeks because of finals but they had exchanged numbers that day even if Gulf hadn’t gotten his cookies. Since then they messaged whenever they could. They also had one really good round of phone sex. Gulf had tried to get more phone sex but Mew convinced him to wait for when they could have sex in person. Which seemed reasonable enough to Gulf.

Mew smiles at Gulf from the doorway as he waits for Gulf to finish putting on his shoes. Both dressed smart yet casual. Gulf not so subtly glancing at the open buttons of Mews shirt that was one button too many not to be purposeful temptation. Mew, the little sneak trying to seduce Gulf. It's too late, he's been seduced for awhile now.

“So I was thinking for our first date-” Gulf looks up -from Mews delectable chest to his handsome face- Mews was smirking slyly down at him, hands in his pockets. “We could eat Italian, there’s this place up the road that has the best cream sauce.”

If Gulf was any less of a man he would have tackled Mew in embarrassment -or because Mew cocky smirk was hot- but instead he stands, calmly, stepping closer to Mew, looking up through his lashes. Let his finger trail over the button on Mews shirt, digging deep into his flirty mindset, and pulled out, “How about instead we stay here and I can eat your cream sauce instead.”

“You’re disgusting” Mild grumbles loudly from the couch a couple of feet away, adamantly not looking at them in the doorway. “But if that’s happening let me know so I can leave.”

Mew laughs, ruffling Gulfs hair before letting his hand caress Gulf cheek. “Don’t tempt me.” Then that hands slips down his neck and chest and tugs Gulf closer by his hip. “Although I wouldn’t mind a snack before dinner.”

“That’s it, I’m staying at Boats tonight.” Mild sighs exasperatedly.

“Kidding.” Mew chuckles before pulling Gulf out the door.

“He might be kidding but I wasn’t, stay at Boats. Thanks bye.”

Universe: 0 Gulf: 2

[allurefm-blog]

hey ! my name is link ! i go by he / they pronouns , am 21+ & live in the cst timezone ! i’m an obnoxious aries , but i promise i’m nice for a clown . i’m excited to be here ‘cause i’m a slice of life h*e . & this here is my weirdo tommy , who i hope you’ll like a lot . under the cut , you’ll find some misc. info & wanted connections , but here’s his dossier & pinterest board , which has more information for you . feel free to like this if you’d like to plot & i’ll swing by in your ims ( or ask for discord which is honestly easier for me but it’s okay if you don’t ) !

☕ . ˚ ◝  (  kim jongin. genderfluid. he/they. ) thomas “tommy” song is a twenty-five year old gemini. the deja brew barista’s go-to order is matcha lemonade and grilled cheese. they like to listen to tempo by lizzo feat. missy elliott while they wait for their order. the employees of the deja brew think they are inconsistent but swear they’re totally versatile as well. maybe that’s why collected sketchbooks that remain empty, horror movie marathons, band tees paired with perpetually messy hair remind me of them.

misc. info : ( content warning for : emotional abuse & neglect, negative religious imagery )

they’ve always lived in the la area & don’t really see themselves leaving even if they hate it here sometimes for whatever reasons they made up in their heads

their father owns several businesses & is generally well off. he has people convinced that he’s a really good guy but in private he’s an unbearable asshole. just really nitpicky about everything & overbearing in forcing his opinions on his family

their mother was a struggling actress & the few projects she was in flopped & then she became too old by society’s standards to get work & tommy’s dad ragged on her for it, poking at her appearance / weight until she finally gave up & settled for being his assistant

not only is their dad just a dick he’s also extremely catholic which intensified his already aggressive personality. for as long as tommy can remember their dad nagged him for anything possible. they never seemed to be “enough of a man” for him which absolutely tainted the way they viewed themselves

this plays a large part into why they decided to dump the idea of being a man period. all their life they never felt comfortable with being masculine & felt like a failure any time they tried but it wasn’t until their late teens that they felt comfortable identifying as nonbinary

they also suffer from a lot of catholic guilt. their dad was that typical shitty religious guy who went on homophobic rants at random so those views affect them even now

while they consider themselves closeted & default to saying they’re straight when asked they don’t keep up with it very well. any time a pretty guy makes eye contact with them they’re gonna go for it then beat themselves up for it later

they’re a thot. they enjoy physical intimacy but don’t really believe in the idea of romantic love ( yep his dad ruined that for them too ) so they prefer to sleep around than try to get close to anyone

whatever relationships they’ve been in they probably ruined it by not being affectionate or caring enough because they never learned how to be like that with another person ( whatever feelings they and their mother shared were more out of pity than actual love )

also they might be a cheater. i haven’t fully decided if they have or not but they definitely consider it constantly when they’re dating ( if you want some kind of plot like this let’s goooo )

so basically they struggled growing up but just emotionally & mentally. they were great in school but they hated the experience & everything along with their parents caused them to become pretty anxious & introverted in their adulthood

they can & will go out but they prefer not to & they’re terrible at socializing. things can be pretty awkward with them without them meaning to. & their sense of humor is very dry so it can come off as mean ( again without meaning to )

they’re really interested in drawing & painting but they went to college for computer science & honestly it makes them pretty miserable but they’d rather suffer than deal with their dad jumping down their throat

they took a couple of years off from school to gather themselves mentally ( basically had a breakdown in the middle of a semester & their dad still drags him for it ) but are in their senior year now

they only answer to tommy. if you call them tom or thomas you’ll just get a scowl in response then ignored

basically they’re both a fake goth & art hoe. they wear black sometimes but not constantly but always refer to themselves as a goth & they buy more sketchbooks than they need ‘cause they never draw in them ( they prefer using napkins & their textbooks )

they roll up their jeans and their sleeves because they’re bisexual

dogs are some of the only things that will make them outwardly happy if you want them to lose their mind then just show them a dog or even pics / videos

they love matcha it’s their favorite flavor but they actually hate coffee despite working in a cafe. but they’re really good at making latte art & getting tips because they’re pretty & and good at flirting with customers

they’re obsessed with horror movies. they relate a lot to movie monsters for trans reasons & find them comforting even when they’re super gory. currently their favorite movie is midsommar so you can catch them going off about it a lot

they love slushies & smoothies. if it’s blended & has a lot of sugar then they fuck with it heavily. also most of the time they’re too lazy to make their own food so they use drinks a lot as meal replacements 

they can’t cook worth a damn. they probably get most of their food from deja brew

they love plants a lot & keep a bunch of them at all times 

they’re a hipster they love collecting vinyls & patches for their many denim jackets

they love going on drives to anywhere everywhere at random. they don’t need a destination they just wanna drive

they sleep in small four hour bursts & are pretty much always tired

they love pizza & pasta. if it’s italian they’re a stan

they’re super clumsy. probably run into things or trip five times a day

they’re secretly dramatic & gets upset when their friends / lovers don’t give them enough attention but they will never bring it up other than through playing it up 

they collect band tees even for bands they don’t listen to & they don’t care if they get called out for it

wanted connections : 

rooommates ( one or two )

exes ( any gender. it can be messy or friendly. i’m willing to have tommy be the issue since they can be rather uncaring & we could even do a cheating plot if you want maximum angst. also bonus points if they’re exes that are still “involved”. )

hookups / fwbs ( any gender. singular experiences or regular type things )

childhood plots for those who’ve lived in la ( childhood friends, first kisses / crushes, all that good stuff )

high school sweethearts

their first sexual experience with someone masculine. i want the awkward teen ( or early twenties whichever ) experience & it’s probably something that tommy gets ( dare i say it ? ) shy about even now

flirtationships that don’t go anywhere

maybe a regular customer that they keep flirting with & the customer thinks they actually have a thing for them but they don’t & it’s weird & awk

maybe they fuck up your drink and your muse is mad about it but they try to flirt their way out of it with either good or disastrous results

your muse is the person that has to deal with this behavior

one-sided crushes ( don’t mind who has the feelings ! )

mutual pining but they’re both idiots & have no idea

anything from this tag 

party buddies. horror movie buddies. video game buddies. road trip buddies. any of these can be combined

tinder date ( it can go well or not )

literally anything you can think of i’m probably down for it

[imaginezimbits]

Hey! I love your writing! Are you ever going to continue the football AU thing? I loved it!!

Here it is!  Took a while, but this chapter is longer than the first, so hopefully that makes up for the wait

Eric bit his lip nervously, turning his phone over and over in his hand.  He looked down at the message he had typed out again.

Hey is it weird if i ask your opinion on my prom outfit?  It felt weird but he thought that could just be him.  After all, he and Philip had agreed to stay friends after Philip went away to college and they broke up.  They had even talked somewhat frequently over the semester, but about innocent things.  School, their old friends in town, what the weather out in California was like.  Neither of them had brought up moving on, but if they were actually going to be friends long term, it was going to have to happen eventually.  Eric hit Send.  It only took a couple minutes before the bubbles that indicated Philip typing showed up, followed shortly by a reply.

Eh, maybe a little but whatev.  I’m cool with it.

Thanks :)

Eric smoothed the front of the suit jacket one more time and took a deep breath before letting himself smile and snapping a picture in the dressing room mirror.  He attached it to a new message and said: Be brutal, if I wanted compliments I’d ask mama.  The next reply came after a few moments of consideration.

Tbh, that suit makes me want to take your virginity all over again.  Do the world a favor and get it.  Eric felt a pang of longing, remembering when he and Philip had gone to get their tuxes for Philip’s senior prom the year before and they’d ended up making out in the dressing room.  He still laughed though, imagining the exaggerated leer Philip would’ve given him if he was there.

Alright, I’m convinced.  You’re the best! :-*

Give Mama a hug for me! Xoxoxo

Will do!

Eric put his phone down on top of the pile of his clothes and stepped out from behind the curtain.  When Mama saw him, she pressed a hand to her chest.

“Oh Dicky, you look so handsome!”  He smiled and told her,

“Definitely this one.”

Waiting by the front door, Eric fussed with his bowtie restlessly while he waited for his date to arrive.  He hadn’t met Bryan in person yet, though they’d been texting for a few weeks.  It was technically a blind date, set up by, of all people, two of  coach’s backup linebackers.  The duo called themselves Ransom and Holster, and had become inseparable at training camp back in August.  By the back-to-school barbeque, they had started to be referenced in one breath as RansomandHolster.  They had also taken Bitty under their incredibly large wings.

Part of having what amounted to two enthusiastic older brothers slash best friends apparently entailed having guaranteed dates for any and all social functions.  So when prom season came around and Eric was still single, they took it upon themselves to find him a date.  Ransom, who had apparently friended the entire freshman class of Samwell as well as a good part of the senior classes of both Marsh High School and James Madison High, had plopped himself down on the Bittles’ couch with his laptop and started scrolling through his Facebook and reading off the names of eligible young ladies.  

Eric had clammed up in the face of such enthusiasm but Rans didn’t get far through the list before Holster nudged him and waved his hand in a slicing motion in front of his neck, shaking his head.  Ransom ground to a halt and clicked a few times to a new tab and started reading again, instead listing guys’ names and accompanying descriptions.  

“Stop me anytime, Bits,” he prompted after the first five.

“Um, the rower sounds nice?”

“Excellent choice!”  Holster proclaimed, and Rans nodded along.

“Great arms, not too tall, high calorie diet.  Ideal partner for our itty bitty baker.”  Holster gasped.

“Broooooo, you totally got it!”

“What?”

“Eric’s totally sw’awesome nickname!  Bittle, Bitty?  Dude, it’s perfect.”

“Noice,” Ransom agreed, nodding and bumping Holster’s fist.

“Bitty?” Eric asked, arms crossed over his chest.  “Y’all expect me to answer to Bitty?”

“It’ll grow on ya,” Holster assured him.

Ransom promptly distracted them both by announcing, “Messaging rower dude now, operation Get Bitty a Prom Date commenced.”  It was honestly a little spooky how quickly Ransom was able to message Bryan, get a response, and have Bitty’s phone lighting up with a friend request quickly followed by a message that read,

hey your profile pics even cuter than justin said

And just like that, Eric - Bitty’s last semester of high school was off and running.

“Dicky, are you alright?” Mama asked, coming downstairs with her digital camera in hand, worried crease between her eyebrows.

“Yeah, Mama I’m fine.  Just…excited.”  Eric stopped fussing with the bowtie.  Mama tucked the camera in her cardigan pocket and come over to fix his tie herself.  

“Oh baby, you just look so handsome.  I wish your Moomaw could be up here to see you off, she’d love this.”

“Mama, it’s just the prom.  It’s really not a big deal.”

“Well you know how your grandmother fussed over your older cousins when they went to their senior proms.”

“Yes, and it is one of the hundreds of reasons I’m grateful that you and Coach moved us up North.”  Headlights flashed over the front windows of the house, cascading shadows across the room.  “And here comes another reason.”  Mama laughed and went to fetch the boutonnieres from the fridge where she’d been keeping them fresh.  Bryan had come by himself, apparently his mother had gotten a sufficient number of pictures of him in a tux at his own senior prom the previous month.  Suzanne definitely fussed enough for two mothers and maybe Moomaw too, directing them in what was essentially a full-fledged photoshoot.

“Wait wait wait!”  She called, making Eric pause just before he could pin the flower onto Bryan’s lapel.  “Hold that!  No honey, don’t look at me, look at Bryan!  Don’t twist your face up like that.  Good!”  And

“Oh oh oh!  One on the stairs; we need one on the stairs!”  And

“Richard!  Get in here the boys are leaving for the prom!…Oh honey no you can’t be in the pictures dressed like that, go put on a nice shirt real quick.  Yes I am serious, these pictures are forever!  Don’t - Oh good Lord what am I going to do with you boys?”

When she finally let them go, Bryan looked a little uncomfortable, tugging at his shirt collar as he slid into the driver’s seat of his car.

“I am so sorry about her,” Eric apologized.  “She just gets all excited whenever there’s an occasion to dress up.”

“Yeah, no it’s cool.  When I went with my friends all our moms went nuts, it was so annoying.”

“Well I try to indulge her a little, I mean she is my mama.  And she’s my best friend, ya know?  So I just want to make sure she’s happy.”

“Your mom’s your best friend?  That’s…cool, I guess.”  Bryan tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, looking out at the road.  Eric turned forward to look out the windshield as well.

“Yeah.”

The prom itself was pretty nice.  It was being held in a restaurant in downtown Samwell that used to be a mill building.  There were incandescent bulbs dangling from the ceiling and lots of exposed pipe and brick, old wide-plank wood floors.  After the students voted Emilio’s as the venue the prom committee had surveyed the space and decided to make it a steampunk theme, which yielded…interesting results.  There were a lot of vintage suits and dresses that had clearly been meticulously thrifted by members of the drama and history clubs.  A few people had broken out their old stovepipe hats from fourth grade Abraham Lincoln projects, and the prom committee had spray painted the edges of dollar-store swim goggles as party favors.  There were functionless gears stuck just about anywhere you could imagine.  As centerpiece, cardboard tubes painted like industrial pipes spilled “steam” from dry ice they’d acquired courtesy of the Samwell chemistry department.

Eric let Sammi from homeroom push a pair of sparkly goggles on him.  He put them up on top of his head to keep from getting awful rings stamped around his eyes, only to find that they shoved his bangs up in a ridiculous puff of blonde hair.  

“How do I look?” He asked Bryan, tossing his head a little to make the puff of hair wiggle around.  Bryan laughed and declined Sammi’s offer of a matching pair of goggles.

“You look pretty ridiculous.”

“Well that seems to be the point,” Eric said, waving to his classmates, most of whom were dressed much more elaborately than a pair of shiny goggles and a suit.

“Really, I’m good.  The theme was a nice effort, but not my thing.”  

“Alright, suit yourself.  Let’s go grab some punch or something.”  Bryan took his hand to walk over to the punch bowl, and Eric allowed himself to think that maybe that was a good sign.  Maybe he was shy?  Relax, Bittle.  They each ladled themselves a cup of what looked to be Hawaiian Punch with some orange slices tossed in for garnish, and headed for the table that had been commandeered by Eric’s friends from the journalism club.  “Hey, y’all!  This is my date, Bryan.  Bryan, this is Cameron, Deja, Sihua, and Josh.  They’re all on the e-board for the school news blog.”  

“Cool, cool.  I think my school has a newspaper.”

“And that’s precisely why we went digital,” Josh said.  “Before us, nobody even knew the paper existed.  It was just, like, a sad tumbleweed you saw crushed up in the hallway and in the school library archives.”

“The journalism club was basically a cryptid,” Deja put in.  “There was always a yearbook photo and there were always meeting announcements, but yet nobody could claim to have actually read an issue.”

“Until when we were Freshmen,” Bitty explained, “the seniors on the e-board decided to stop wasting the budget printing papers nobody was reading and instead built a website and just started posting articles on there.  They kept sharing the posts on their personal social media accounts and people kept reading them without realizing they were the school paper until they realized the articles were all about our school.”

“And so a legend was born.”

“Bitty runs a cooking vlog out of the home-ec classroom to teach people how not to be sad, underfed college students.”

“Sihua runs the advice column, Josh does our featured hard-hitting investigative pieces, Deja does lifestyle stuff -”

“Meaning I review the school play and all the shitty garage bands, plus whatever restaurant opened for the next few months in the perpetually abandoned old theater on Main Street.”  Bryan laughed.

“Hey, that’s still way cooler than anything we’ve got at Marsh.”  He downed the last of the punch as the song changed, and turned to Eric.  “Wanna go shake it?”’

“Only always,” Deja jumped in for him.  “Get going, I’ve been looking forward to this all year.”

“I take it you’ve got some moves?”

“Sweetheart, my depths are hidden and spectacular.”  

Just how spectacular his depths were had to wait for the afterparty, however.  Because while his teachers up north didn’t care if he danced with boys, or even kissed the boy in question a few times, they were in fact there to chaperone and therefore couldn’t reasonably let the dancefloor devolve into an ersatz nightclub.  

That particular part of the night was saved for Sammi’s living room.  Her older sister was supposed to be watching her while their parents were out of town, but she had ever so kindly agreed to be out at one of the Samwell football team’s infamous kegsters in the hours immediately following the Madison high prom.  As soon as she’d been crowned prom queen and danced with the king, she ducked out with the members of the prom committee who hadn’t also volunteered for cleanup crew and headed back to her house to start setting up.  

By the time Eric and Bryan got there, almost the entire junior class had packed themselves into the poor Victorian, teenagers spilling out onto the porch and into the backyard pool if the sounds of splashing and screaming were any indication.  There was another (much stronger smelling) punch bowl on the kitchen island, which had been turned into the bar for the occasion.  Bryan headed for that, dunking a solo cup from the leaning stack beside it.

“You do know that’s basically Jungle Juice, right?” Eric warned.  “I think it’s taking the paint off the cabinets as we speak.”  Bryan took a sip, eyes crinkling at the corners, belying the smirk he was hiding behind the drink.

“Don’t worry, Mom.  I can handle myself.  You want a cup?”

“Well, suit yourself, but I have places to be tomorrow so I’m gonna take a pass.”  Eric rummaged around in the cooler at his feet and pulled out a hard lemonade.  He poured it into his cup and added some iced tea from the mixers section.  “If I’m so hungover I can’t pass for just tired, my mama will tan my hide.”

“You southerners and your weird expressions.  It’s so cute.”  He stepped closer to Eric and wrapped his free arm around his waist.  “Come on, let’s go really dance.  No chaperones.”  Eric felt a flush creep up the back of his neck, but he nodded.

“Let’s show ‘em how it’s done.”

They took their drinks back to the living room where somebody had set up speakers and the student council treasurer was playing “DJ” since he was apparently the only one around with decent taste in music and no ads on his Spotify account.  The next song came on strong with low, heavy bass and Bryan plastered himself to Eric’s back as soon as they merged into the crowd, rolling his hips against Eric’s ass.  It made Eric’s face burn, even as his body moved to the music of its own accord.  He wasn’t kidding earlier that he was a good dancer, that he liked to dance, but the last time he was grinding on somebody, it was Philip.  At a pre-season kegster that Shitty had invited them to at the football Haus, laughing and a little sunburnt, not drunk because the guys felt ethically weird about getting the coach’s kid schwastey.  Everything had been hot and bright and wonderful.

In contrast, Sammi’s living room floor was already getting sticky with spilled drinks, and Eric had to move quickly to avoid getting a splash of Bryan’s awful mystery drink on his shirt when somebody jostled them.  The smell of the alcohol on Bryan’s breath was sickeningly sweet, and Eric was a little relieved when the cup went empty and Bryan told him,

“I’m going for a refill, you need more?”

“Vodka cranberry please,”  Eric smiled and handed his empty cup over.  Maybe he just needed to loosen up more.  He’d been with Philip so long, it was probably just that moving on still felt weird.  Bryan was cute and nice from what Eric could tell.  By all rights, they should get along famously.  Eric briefly found himself sandwiched between Sihua and Cam, who had taken to reenacting Night at the Roxbury with everyone they encountered.  He was nearly doubled over with laughter when Bryan returned, looking at them in bewildered amusement.  Eric took his drink with a smile and allowed himself to be pulled back to his date, waggling his fingers at his friends as they bopped off to harass Deja.

The night wore on, Eric stashing his suit jacket in the hall closet and letting his bowtie hang loose from his collar, buttons slowly making their way undone as the temperature in the livingroom rose with every drink.  He knew he was heading for the drunken side of tipsy and started slowing his sips, turned down the next offer of a refill.  Bryan on the other hand was pretty trashed after matching Eric drink for drink with whatever noxious concoction was in the cooler.  He swayed on his feet and his dancing was more awkward, as though he was suddenly back in middle school and unsure of how to control his limbs.  Eventually, Eric decided that it was probably more of a risk to the surrounding dancers to let him stay on the dancefloor and he needed to get him at least decently sobered up so he could - shit.  

There was no way for them to get Bryan’s car home.  Eric was way more sober but he’d never be good enough to drive in time to get them back.  They’d have to hitch a ride with Deja in her minivan.  Eric would bake her an entire strawberry pie in thanks.  But he should definitely try to get Bryan to dry out a little bit more before they tried to take him home in case his parents were waiting up.

“You know,” Eric said in the lull between songs.  “I’m getting pretty tired, why don’t we step outside for some air?”  Bryan nodded and allowed himself to be toted along like a ragdoll until they reached the front door.  “Oh how nice, there’s a porch swing.  Why don’t we go sit out there?”  Eric pushed open the screen door and stepped outside.  Stumbling on the doorframe, Bryan followed, almost pitching headfirst down the stairs, but Eric caught him by the belt.  

“Whoa,” he said, straightening up slowly.  His cheeks were ominously pale and going green.

“Um, are you okay?”  Bryan mulled it over for a moment, then shook his head quickly before doubling over and emptying the contents of his stomach all over Eric’s shoes. “Oh lord.”  Eric looked up to the roof.  “Oh god no.”  But yes.  There was hot boozy liquid seeping in the lace holes.  

“Oh god,” Bryan mumbled.  He wiped his mouth on the back of his shirt.  “Ohhhh that was terrible.  What the fuck?  Jesus was there fucking kerosene in that?  God that burned.”  He then promptly hunched over the railing and proceeded to heave into the poor  begonias below.

Everything was so suddenly too much.  His date was puking, his shoes were a mess, his suit jacket and friends were still all inside and he didn’t know what to do.  He wanted his mother to come to him, clean him up the way she would when he was a child, but he couldn’t.  He was drunk at a party and so were all his friends, and his mother could never know.  He opened his phone and started scrolling through his text threads.  He called Deja, the DD for the journalism club, but got voicemail.  He called Cam, but when he picked up they couldn’t hear each other and all he got was “GET IT, ERIC!”  

His eyes had caught on the thread below Cam next: Jack Zimmermann.  It was stupid and desperate to hope.  The football team was having a party too, for all he knew Jack was in no state to come and save him.  Or more probably asleep already.  And he probably wouldn’t want to help Eric anyway.  Sure they were friends, but  coming to the other side of town in the middle of the night to bail him out of an awful date was a pretty tall order.  But hey, he really was desperate and pretty well full of liquid courage, so he dialed the number.

The voice that answered was slurred from sleep and grasping at captainly composure but landing somewhere around half-panicked anyway.

“Bittle?  Bittle, what’s going on?  Are you okay?”  

“Jack, hi.  Um, I’m fine?”

“You don’t sound sure.  It’s the middle of the night.”

“Well I’m not great but it’s not an emergency?  I do kind of need help though.”

“What’s going on?  Where are you?”

“I’m at an after prom party.  Uh, my date’s really drunk.”

“What kind of drunk?  Are you in trouble?”

“No!  No, just um.  He puked on my shoes.” Eric glanced behind him to check on Bryan quickly.  “And now he’s asleep on the porch swing.  I just - I really don’t feel like being at this party anymore.  My date soiled Sammi’s garden, my socks are all gross, and I’m not sober enough to be dealing with this.  I really want my mom to come and fix it but I can’t call my mother drunk and I don’t know what else to do.”  By the time he was finished, his eyes were burning and his vision was blurring and he was so angry.  At Bryan for being a disaster, at Philip for leaving, but mostly at himself for crying on the phone with Jack Zimmermann.

“Bittle?  Bittle.  Can you hear me?”  Jack was speaking gently, soothing.

“Yeah,” he felt his cheeks burning in shame at the cracks in his voice, embarrassed that Jack was having to coddle him.

“Alright.  I’m going to come and get you okay?  There’s still a party going on downstairs so I have to hang up, but when I do, text me the address you’re at.  I’ll be right there, I promise.”

“Okay, I will.  Thank you Jack, thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem, Bittle.”  The line went dead.  Dutifully, Eric copied over the address from Sammi’s invite and then sat down on the steps to wait for his rescuer.

He looked up at the sound of a car coming to a stop in front of the house, and sure enough, there was Jack, climbing out of Shitty’s awful hatchback.  When he came around the hood and started up the front steps, Eric’s heart jumped in his chest.  Jack was dressed in soft-looking plaid pajama pants and a faded Habs t-shirt that looked just a tad too big for him.  A pair of wire-rim reading glasses were perched on top of messy hair, and he was wearing honest-to-God slippers on his feet.  Basically, he looked like somebody’s dad rolled out of bed, but on Jack it looked adorable.  

“Hey.” Jack greeted him.  Eric scrambled to his feet and looked up at Jack.

“Hey!  Hi, um.  Thanks again, oh my lord, I’m so embarrassed.  I can’t believe I dragged you out of bed for -”

“Bittle.”  Jack’s hand landed on his shoulder, warm and so big his thumb spanned across Eric’s collarbone easily.  “It’s okay.   I’ve got your back.”  He held up a matching pair of slippers in his other hand.  “I’ve also got your feet.”  Eric briefly contemplated crying again, and perhaps working in a marriage proposal because there was absolutely nothing in the world that would could make him happier than the chance to not be wearing his gross barfy shoes for another minute.  Instead he just said,

“Jack Zimmermann, you are my hero.”

“It’s no big deal.  Shits probably won’t miss ‘em.  Especially if he knows his slippers are saving his favorite future Wellie.”  Eric took the slippers and stepped out of his dress shoes.  Scuffs be damned, he couldn’t bear to touch the soggy laces.  He ditched his socks too for good measure and sighed as his feet sank into the fluffy soles.  “Better?”

“So much,” he sighed, closing his eyes in bliss.

“Good.  So, where’s this date of yours?  And your jacket?”

“Oh.  Darn, I forgot about that.  Um.  Well, date is over there.”  He pointed to Bryan, snoring on the porch swing.  “And I left my jacket in the coat closet.”  Jack contemplated Bryan for a moment before apparently deciding he wasn’t an issue and dismissing him.

“Alright, I’ll come with you and help you find your jacket.  Then we’ll stuff him in the backseat and get him home.”  This must be the kind of intensity Coach was always talking about with Jack.

“So when we get inside, you grab the jacket at the snap and then I’ll go long?”  Jack blushed, which, while not Eric’s intention, was certainly a lovely surprise.

“Keep it simple, Bittle.  Although I don’t think I’d mind punting that guy,” he nodded at Bryan.

“You and me both.”

When Jack stepped into the house behind Eric, the noise around them started to die down, confused silence following them through the living room to the closet.  He heard classmates yelling over the music,

“Who’s the old guy?”

“Shit, is he a teacher?”

“Is that someone’s dad?”

“Fuck, are we busted?”

��Hot damn!”

Jack pretty studiously ignored the last one, but Eric couldn’t help laughing when Jack grumbled, “Dad?  Jesus, what’s wrong with these kids?  I’m not that old!  Certainly not old enough to be anyone’s dad.”  Eric grabbed his coat and patted Jack on the arm.

“Well I think your dad glasses make you look distinguished.”

Jack handed Eric the keys to unlock Shitty’s car and hefted Bryan like a sack of flour.  While he held the door to the backseat open, Jack wrestled Eric’s groggy date into the seat and buckled him in, then jostled him until he woke up enough to focus on Jack’s face.

“Hey man, you got way too drunk.  I’m taking you home.  And when you wake up, you owe Eric an apology.”

Eric climbed into the passenger seat and pulled up Bryan’s address on Maps, letting Siri guide Jack as the three of them rode to the next town over in silence.  When they got to Bryan’s house, Jack got out of the car again, gesturing for Eric to wait behind.  He helped Bryan stumble up the front walk and took his keys to let him in the front door, leaving him to his own devices after he got inside.

“Well,” Jack sighed, settling back behind the wheel.  “That was a pretty terrible date.”

“Ya think so?  I dunno, I was thinking a summer wedding.”  Jack chuckled and put the car in drive again.