#Evil ass cliffhanger

[drdeathly]

WHAT THE HELLLLLLLL OH MY GOOODDDD NO WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I haven’t been caught off guard this hard in so long. Woah. Like I’m rereading this and I still find it hard to wrap my head around all the edges. What a cliffhanger.

[blushinggoku]

Been thinking about Goku so much recently that I dreamed about him

Anyways he took down a cult

[chaos0pikachu]

okay so like be real the most evil and hilarious shit korn did was also one of the best cliffhangers of the show like

porsche is out here trying to find out what happened to his parents leaving his big dick man behind while Kinn and Pete watch Porsche's peach ass drive off with Vegas and Kinn is hearing Olivia Rodrigo's Traitor in his head while Pete is internally going "man I let the worst men taze my balls and eat my ass out" then like Porsche's uncle gets shot in the head john wick style or whatever and other plot stuff happens then porsche shows up at Mr Rogers house like "I know your a fake ass bitch fess up" and Korn is like haha what if I pull a Darth Vader instead and is like "Porsche, I am your Uncle" and Porsche is like FUCKING WHAT??? and the audience is like FUCKING QUEEEE??? and THAT'S HOW THE EPISODE ENDED for a whole ass week everyone was like lol they wouldn't....right? and they didn't but Korn really let Porsche believe he was fucking his own cousin all over the twunk mafia mansion making the cleaning staff work overtime every god damn day for months for an entire ass minute only to go "LOL JK she was my foster sister" and then the following week you find out he kept her ass in the attic for two decades flowers in the attic style

top-fucking-tier show

[suja-janee]

Oooh this might be a controversial take (for the bireena community maybe) but I feel like I need to get it off my chest

I don’t ship sekhan, I feel like that is completely obvious, but-

I didn’t want bireena in khaos reigns either (even before it came out and sekhan became canon)

At most, I wanted them to meet, try to kill each other maybe, have no choice but to team up, and then leave off on a cliffhanger on what the future could hold. LIKE that was it. No romance yet, maybe not even an official friendship, just obscurity to set up their future.

I feel like we’re still at a point where Bi-Han needs to make a lot of personal growth first. The last thing I want him doing is putting his nasty unredeemed hands anywhere near my precious SAREEEENNNAAAA!! If they were to interact at any point in future games or kombat packs, I want the focus to be on redeeming the two (mostly bi-han) cause at the end of the day, I am a Bi-Han fan first, bireena fan second. I will even take it if they just end up as friends if that means he can finally redeem himself and not go down the constant path of evil and being someone’s side-kick.

From my time on twitter I’ve noticed the constant need of some bireena fans to attack sekhan and complain that we didn’t get bireena, which is fair they’re allowed to do that, but I think that’s genuinely the wrong way to look at this whole situation. I mean, if you wanna think in context to how Bi-han acts/ presents himself in this timeline, I actually think he and sektor make perfect sense. He doesn’t like people disagreeing with him and sektor is basically the embodiment of an enabler/ loyalist. OF COURSE, he’d be down for that (which is not to say I like sektor’s writing either, I wanted her to betray Bi-Han and push her own image onto the Lin Kuei). But I think the point of putting him with her (though I don’t want to give NRS any writing credit yet) is to show how messed up his mind is and how he goes for the wrong methods to get what he wants (like liu kang said).

I know we shouldn’t exactly take the Johnny cage announcer voice as canon but I feel like everyone is missing the “future” part in “bi-Han’s future bestie”. They still haven’t even officially met if you don’t count him kicking nitara’s ass at the Ying fortress. If they had gotten together in khaos reigns it would’ve been just as bad and poorly written as sekhan. If you wanna attack sekhan and call it forced because her entire story revolves around a man then you need to also keep in mind that if Sareena had been written as a romantic interest to Bi-Han in khaos reigns it would be the exact same thing. Sareena still has her own soul to redeem and her own past to confront. The last thing she needs is to be with a man that has all the mental maturity of a group of middle schoolers who frequent Hot Topic.

(This portion is my own headcanoning and how I want them to meet, I’ll mark where it ends)

As stated before, I think the main priority should be Bi-Han and Sareena focusing on their redemption arcs if they are to interact with each other in the future. Bi-Han needs to see the error in his ways of thinking and let go of his pride. Sareena needs to see she’s more than just an underling to Quan Chi and break free from his control. If anything, I think the best way to approach this is to maybe bring up MK Mythologies again and have them meet through that. Maybe Bi-Han gets betrayed and gets stuck in the netherrealm and has no choice but to spare a life (Sareena’s) and relies on her to help him get out. That way it would teach him the value of mercy that he didn’t understand in Khaos Reigns. And from there I think in terms of Sareena’s story she sees someone with a tainted soul and feels some empathy about that. Helping him to redeem himself- to her- would be like a way of helping her understand that no soul is too far gone and she herself can be redeemed and help others.

As far as how he would act after being “redeemed” I can’t exactly tell you how I think he would act, especially since he’s not really the apologetic type. But maybe an interesting route he can take is Kuai Liang’s old role in the previous timelines. He’s seen how fa pride can take you and how destructive it is. That way he’s the perfect perspective to redo/ remodel the Lin Kuei. Kuai Liang seems too focused with the Shirai Ryu this time around so if anyone should be redeeming the Lin Kuei it should be the guy who has taken the most mental and physical damage from being a part of it. And from that little plot line, the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei can make peace with each other.

Again, THIS DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ROMANTIC FOR BIREENA. I’m more than happy if they’re just friends in the end. I just want some sort of redemption and closure for them for ONCE! They’ve been subject to so much heartbreak and evil in previous timelines, they deserve better than this one dimensional writing.

(End headcanon here)

I know this may all come off as hypocritical coming from me, the most frequent poster in the bireena tag 😂, but keep in mind the type of content I post. I VERY CLEARLY do not take myself or my art very seriously and most of my art is comedy based. So before you sharpen your pitchforks and sum me up as just another bireena artist, just know I draw what entertains me the most and I’m usually not serious about it.

Do I still want bireena? Or course I do. I just don’t want it NOW. I’m willing to wait- I don’t want forced/ rushed writing on a ship I’ve devoted myself to for the past year.

[despairots]

could you do a story where miles from earth-42 and our miles are twins and we cant decide which one we like better as we like both of them? you can write the story however you want to!

━━━━━━━━ if i were you, i’d do me.

earth1610! miles morales x gn! hacker! reader x earth42! miles morales. fluff and if you like squint really really hard you’ll find angst. 18 and above please dni, unless your my moot or something… i forgot to change my requests to open but u can send me requests (only abt atsv) just like be patient cuz im daydreaming and shit 🙏

pls ignore the title its nothing suggestive i was braindead and was listening to my saved audios on tiktok this was thw first one on my saved so el oh el 🤕 i gotta keep my writing grind up. keep in mind that earth 1610 miles will keep beinf spiderman and earth 42 will keep being prowler. if y dont know sliver wolf from hsr, switch her up cuz reader is heavily based off of her

this’ll be left on a cliffhanger cuz like idk i just dont wanna make another part and sometimes things are better off with cliffhangers since you guys have creative minds you can come up with your own scenarios

where in a dimension, earth42 and earth1610 miles morales are twins, may look the same but have completely different hairstyles and different personalities also another weird, interesting fact, you’re a sucker for twins, especially them.

interesting fact about you, specifically you, is that you almost got caught by the government when hacking into their system to steal some information.

and of course, them having connections to spiderman, told him to go after this hacker who causes a lot of trouble for the government.

miles morales obviously being under that mask and friends with this hacker who knew that you hated authority (yes, you’re an anarchist), didn’t bother doing anything, probably just telling you to stop messing with them.

on the other hand, his twin bother, myles morales, encourages this behaviour. polar opposites but two cuties, and you, who got roped into romance with them.

“[name], what’d i say about hacking the government?” miles scolded you as you chewed on bubblegum with your feet propped onto your desk, holographic screens in front of you.

“i don’t know, me forgot.” you nonchalantly shrugged, spinning your chair to go back to your screens and swiping left to play the weeknd.

miles spinning you back and placing his arms on your arm rests, too close to your liking.

you smirked with a light scoff, “your brother likes it.” miles rolls his eyes at the mention of him, “i don’t care what he likes.” he snapped back, obviously lying.

miles leaned back with a sigh, “god, what am i gonna do with you?” “maybe get off my ass.” you muttered, not knowing if miles heard that, to which he did.

“i’m sorry, what?”

you jumped at that, quickly shooting your arms up and trying to find excuses, opening your mouth like a fish.

your voice’s overlapped eachother, unable to hear his twin brother opening the door to your room, mask off and everything.

he looked at you who kept stumbling on words.

miles spider sense went off and looked at the entrance, seeing the one guy who encourages your behaviour, “what - what did you tell them?” myles smirked and shrugged.

“i didn’t say anything, bro.” he placed his claws on your bed and sat down on it, “i am not your bro.” miles chuckled and sat down on your bean bag.

“um actually-“

“shut up.”

“cope.” you playfully stuck your tongue out at miles who smiled and rolled his eyes, god you loved his smile. i mean, what?

you don’t love them, boo, you hate them.

“dude, tell [name] that if i don’t catch the ‘hacker’ i’m gonna get my ass kicked.” miles and his brother made eye contact, “i hope you do.” myles replied with a playful tone.

miles threw his hands up, “you guys are actually evil.” you laughed at his comment, “we’re actually vigilantes.” myles pointed out, patting his brother’s shoulder (the bean bag literally beside your bed).

you smiled at the two with light pigment on your cheeks, “i really wanna kiss you guys—“ you paused your sentence with embarrassment, realizing you were saying your thoughts out loud.

the two paused and looked at you, blinking, “eso es adorable, amor—“ “get out.”

“¿qu�� dijiste, amor?”

“i hate you guys. kill yourselves. espero que te resbales y te caigas en tu próxima misión.” you rolled your eyes and buried your face into your hands as the two twins looked at eachother.

“you don’t mean that, amor.” you groaned at the nickname the two labelled you. it made you want to giggle, twirl your hair and kick your feet like a schoolgirl.

you blushed when you felt an arm sneak around your neck, hugging you against your chair with their head beside your ear, “te gustamos los dos, ¿verdad, amor?”

god, you couldn’t choose between the two.

[name] when they keep getting teased and literally cannot deal with it.

[avoxrising]

The Feral One • Ch 28

Finnick x Y/N

Series Masterlist Link

This may be the last chapter for a few days as we’re approaching the end of the story rapidly and I haven’t finished editing it yet lol. I apologize for leaving it off with a cliffhanger but I want to make sure the end is perfect before posting it. Life’s been busy this week so I haven’t had the time to finish it the way I want to.

Content Warnings - Injury, death, medical issues, I promise Finnick isn’t being stupid this time lol

The next week was full of recovery. You slowly regained your strength and were able to try solid foods again. The doctors polished all your scars off, including the one on your face from your games, at your request. You wanted nothing left to remind you of them.

You started physical therapy, as well as regular sessions with Dr. Aurelius. He allowed Finnick to join you, realizing you felt more comfortable with him nearby. You still had to use a walker to get around, but you were making progress.

A few weeks after the war ended, Coin called all the victors into a meeting. There were barely any left, mostly due to the war.

“I’ve called you all here for a very symbolic vote,” she states. You don’t like where this is going.

She proceeds to pitch her idea for a hunger games featuring capital children. There are mixed reactions from the remaining victors, with some believing the idea to be fair and others believing it to be cruel. Votes are cast around the room and it finally comes down to Katniss.

“I get to kill Snow,” she tells Coin, who agrees to this proposition.

“Then I vote yes,” she states. “For Prim.”

You can’t even process what this means. Another games? Was Coin out of her mind? You finally realized what you had been denying all along, as long as Coin was in charge, you would never be free.

Finnick brings you back to your shared room after the meeting. You allow his touch but still flinch away at everyone else. Dr. Aurelius had been working with you on that but it’s hard to undo the trauma of many years.

“I just want to go home,” you tell him.

“You have to stay here for a bit,” he explains. “District 4 doesn’t have the resources for your treatment. Once you are better I promise you can go back to 4.”

“What about you?” you ask him. “Are you staying?”

He hesitantly shakes his head.

“I have to go to 4 for a few weeks but I’ll come back as soon as I can,” he states. “Johanna will be here with you in the meantime and I’ll call every day.”

“You’re leaving?” you ask, dumbfounded by his response.

“I promise it’s for a good reason,” he says, squeezing your hand. “I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t important.”

“When do you leave?” you ask.

“In two weeks,” he responds. “I’ll be here for the first bit of your treatment and return before it’s over. Then we will both go back to 4 together. Do you trust me?”

“Always”

That afternoon Finnick helps you walk out onto the avenue to stand next to the other victors. Snow was finally falling, and you were both alive to witness it.

Standing in front of all the capital people made you uneasy. What did they think of you? Were they going to hurt you?

You’re lost in your thoughts when suddenly the crowd erupts into chaos. You look up to see Coin lying dead on the podium, an arrow in her heart. A mob of people begins rushing towards Snow, eager to kill him.

Finnick quickly scoops you up and carries you away from the commotion. When he finally sets you down, you ask what happened.

“Katniss killed Coin,” he states. “Snow is dead.”

He has to take you back to your room before you have a breakdown. What evil creature was going to seize power of Panem next? All of this was too much.

You end up collapsing on the floor of your room, shaking uncontrollably.

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[keigokoutarou]

“Do you like my hips?” Pt. 1.5

Simon “Ghost” Riley x AFAB!Reader

Pt. 1.5 bc I love cliffhangers *smooches*

Find Pt. 1 here! | Pt. 2

Warnings: welcome to my tit talk (literally that’s all that’s here) Suggestive content

Oh you were writhing. Shaking. Beaming with excitement in your seat as you looked at yourself in the review mirror. The ride to base had never felt so fucking long. This 20 minutes used to feel like bliss before you had to deal with the guys but today? You were sure the speed you traveled was considered reckless.

Pulling up to the gate, you stopped for the MP to check your I.D.

“No camos today again sergeant?” The MP asked, trying so hard not to eye your chest.

“Another maintenance day.” You shrugged. “Gotta get the buggies in good shape before our next mission.”

“Yes ma’am.” He smiled. “Have a good one, Sergeant.”

Oh, I will. You thought to yourself as you waved him off and headed toward the yard as you and soap called it.

Pulling in, you noticed a few other cars and began counting them out.

Price’s Raptor, Gaz’s AMG and Soap’s old FJ. You groaned in annoyance.

“If he doesn’t show today, I’m going to lose it.” You grumbled, pulling your keys and sliding out of your rebuilt rx-7 before shutting and locking the door behind you.

You almost stomped your way through the yard to the last set of buggies that needed attention.

“Swear I could hear you coming down the highway in that thing.” Soap laughed, rubbing his hands on a greasy towel.

“Funny, I didn’t think she was loud enough.” You smirked, following Soap back to the one he was working on.

“We’re about done, just need to do two more oil changes.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead to clear the beads of sweat.

“I can start on one then.” You nodded your head.

“I laid everything out already but um, don’t want to like cover up first?” He raised an eyebrow, lifting his hands up to his chest. “Lieutenant seemed pissed on Tuesday about it.”

“Oh did he?” You quirked an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“Heard him bitching to himself about you ‘flaunting’ all over base after you left.” Soap shrugged.

“Seems like he just needs to get over himself.” You giggled.

“Or he needs to get laid.” Soap chuckled along side you.

“Is he even coming today?” You threw in, silently thanking Soap for leaving the opening.

“He’ll be in shortly. Said he was meeting with Alejandro, the guy we have our new mission with.”

“Ah.” You nodded. “I’ll get started then. Wouldn’t want lieutenant pouty to have my ass.”

“I dunno, he might want to.” Soap winked, turning his back to you and returning to his work.

“Oh you have no idea.” You mumbled to yourself before heading toward the truck.

Time had flown by since you laid on the creeper and rolled yourself up under the buggy with tools in hand.

“Ah, fuck.” You groaned as the bolt to the oil pan fell straight into the drip pan with oil spouting out over top of it. Rolling your eyes, you huffed and dropped your wrench and socket beside you before leaning over to look for the bolt.

“Little shit.” You hissed at the little metal knob for falling instead of staying in the socket. You leaned the opposite way, dropping into a random pan you had found to hold anything important and prevent them from rolling away.

Laying back on the creeper again with a huff, you looked at the engine oil staining your hand and like a light bulb switched, you were filled with a genius idea.

“Whoops.” You giggled to yourself as you wiped the oil on the front of your shirt and purposely made sure a smear or two landed on the tops of your breasts. “Wonder how that got there.”

Evil it was and evil you were. Maybe you had started this deadly war, you thought to yourself as you waited for the oil to drain, but Simon made his move and it would be wrong not to engage in such a fun game of chess.

You were impatient as time passed, closing up the oil pan as it finished draining. On the last turn to tighten it with all your might, you heard your favorite sound.

“She should be around here somewhere.” You heard a deep voice break the every day noise of the base.

It was your beckoned fucking call. You smiled, checking your cleavage to make sure it was ample in its beauty before looking to the sides of you to spot Simon’s signature walk.

To your left, you noticed him approaching from the direction Soap was in. Beside him you noticed another set of legs and you realized that it must have been Alejandro. Your smile turned from excited to devious in seconds. This was going to be fun.

You waited until the got closer, assuming Simon had seen you since he called out your name.

You pushed yourself off the suspension and slid out from under the buggy on the creeper. You held your hand out to shield your eyes from the sun and to catch a clean look at your Lieutenants face.

He held his hand out to you, offering help to get you up so you could properly greet. You smiled, meeting his eyes with a knowing smirk as he not so shamelessly eyed your chest. This time, he wasn’t subtle. His hand gripped yours tighter than ever and in that instant, you wondered what it would feel like grabbing at the inside of your thighs.

“Sergeant.” Simon sounded so annoyed. You were glad.

“Lieutenant Riley.” You were absolutely beaming.

“I’d like you to meet Colonel Alejandro Rojas.” He gritted his teeth, trying so hard to maintain an even tone.

You narrowed your eyes slightly in a playful way before turning your attention to the man beside him.

“Sergeant F/N L/N.” You smiled, extending your hand for a handshake. “Nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure is all mine.” He might have smiled a little to hard but you knew Simon caught it and that’s all you cared about.

“I’m excited to get a chance to work with you. Captain Price says you’re great with a Lachmann.” You ignored the tall angry man beside you, fully engaging with Alejandro.

“He speaks too highly of me.” Alejandro chuckled.

“I doubt that.” You waved off his comment. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”

Alejandro nodded, fully unaware of the part he played as pawn. Sure it was a cheap move but it was too easy. Too easy to dig the hypothetical knife just a little deeper into Simon’s side.

“Price wanted to go over some finer details with you before tonight’s big debrief.” Simon interrupted. “He’s in the large building over there, I’ll catch up with you.”

Alejandro nodded, bidding you one more small smile before walking off and leaving you with Ghost.

You crossed your arms, being sure to push your chest out just a little more as you turned to fully face him in a challenge as you looked up at your lieutenant.

“Playing dirty now, aren’t we?” His tone was shifting, dare you say to a more angry one.

“Was I?” You played innocent, almost batting your lashes at the man.

His eyes seemed to flash with excitement at the realization that you wanted to play. Not just submit to him because that would be too easy. You wanted to draw out this game with him as long as possible.

“You little minx.” He shook his head, crossing his arms to match your stance.

“Lieutenant Riley, I’m not sure that’s how you should speak to your peers.” You tilted your head to the side. “It wouldn’t be great for team morale.”

He looked at you, eyes darting between each of yours and then squaring with your chest.

“This is a dangerous game you’re playing at, Sergeant.” His voice was even now, smooth and coated in lust.

“Is it now?” You stepped closer to him, looking up through your eyelashes. “If I recall, you’re the one who started this little game of ours.” Your smirk was wicked and he loved it. “I thought about just giving into you because I’m sure you’d just love that… but giving up this soon would be a waste.”

“You look tough now.” His hands fell to his side, making a step to match yours and close the gap. His index finger found its way under your chin, tilting your face up toward him and making your lips part slightly. “I bet I can wipe that cocky smirk right off.”

“Is that so?” You were trying. So. Fucking. Hard. You almost felt like you were shaking with excitement.

“Give me one chance.” When had his face gotten so close? You could almost feel the puffs of air coming through his mask.

He was being blatant now and that earned him a sweet little gasp from your lips.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” His words were now close to your ear, breaking every rule in the book by playing this game with you out in the open. “My quarters tonight. 9 P.M.”

He stepped back, allowing you to breathe. You took an extra step at the snap back into reality.

“I didn’t take you as a beggar, Simon.” You smiled. “We’ll see about tonight.” You waved, turning on your heels in an unknown direction to put distance between you and Simon.

“Fucking hell.” He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as he watched you walk away and out of sight.

[frizzle-mcshizzle]

the first 4 kotlc books summarized in the most unhinged way possible, because it’s been like 6 years since i’ve actually read them

Keeper: You’re an elf Sophie, you have to live with your new guardians who have a pet t. rex, have fun being an outcast at school, secret messages from your creators?!? actually you where dumb and went near fire and now your guardians don’t want you :(. oh no child kidnapping!! girls first time almost dying in elf land!! she gets to stay in elf land and gets adopted happy ending YAY!!!

Exile: girl finds a magic HORSE, girl goes to prison to vist a ✨psychopath✨ and make him go 🔥insane🔥 because that’s a job for a 12yo!?! oh no she accidentally causes a man to go insane from guilt (his children hate her now) oh no she’s allergic to MIRRORS, time to go on a field trip on your magic horse and meet a old man in a cave, oh no the bad guys attack!!!, SHE CAN TELEPORT?!?, fixes the man she broke though the power of happiness and 💕 love 💕 the last non cliffhanger of the entire series 

(12 year old girl attacked by 5000 year old man happens sometime in these two books)

Everblaze: time to fix the psychopath you made go insane, oh no, he committed arson and killed somebody important!!! ogre king puts the fun in funeral by announcing his intention to commit mass gnomeocide and the girl commits WAR CRIMES FOR THE FIRST TIME (she should have known better you can’t even blame this on lack of elf lessons), your best friend is tricked into to making a torture device just👏 for👏 you!! the council is making you wear it as a punishment!! your dead adoptive sister was killed by her fiancé!?!, oh no your new dad is trying to kill him, you 🔥destroy🔥your torture device and plan to join a rebel organization, you are 13 years old, this is the start of the series cliffhangers 

Neverseen: children join rebel organization by following a old man through paris, ✨surprise✨ a mother stowed away with them (she knocks the man on his ass), boys fight over girl and end up being forced to basically kiss through their magic breathing tube for a unknown amount of time, T R E E H O U S E S!!!!, children meet the leaders (that they definitely don’t already know under different names), 🦄ALICORN SEX SCENE!!!🦄 the rebel leaders take the kids on a field trip! (it’s a prison brake), OH NO!! one of the hot boys™️ get stabbed by B U G, family puke party while he gets better, the children go to prison school for the man who they failed to prison brake!! Girl set herself on 🔥FIRE🔥 (don’t tell her parents), they meet twins!! one was bansihed for property damage and not because there’s society has no ability to teach overpowered middle schoolers hot boys™️ big brother comes to visit!! they go on ANOTHER field trip and this time Commit MORE WAR CRIMES, oh no!!! the big brother is actually evil!! oh no!! Tree lady activates tree power to save the other tree people!! 

part two

[ladykailitha]

Batshit Soulmates Part 6

The second one today. I'm trying to get through my backlog because I have almost twenty chapters that are finished and ready to be posted. And that isn't counting the fact that with my daily goal of 400 words a day, I'm definitely going to have more than that the longer it takes for me to post.

This here is my schedule for the next two weeks, but as I said, since I'm always writing, that "return to one chapter a day" on the 11th? That's probably a pipe dream. So I might end up adding a fourth day to my posting schedule so that I can at least put out a chapter a week for each of my WIPs.

We'll see.

For this chapter we have fun times at the Wheelers (heavy sarcasm), that talk and a cliffhanger? Yeah, a cliffhanger.

In Medias Res| Prologue|Pt 1| Pt 2|Pt 3|Pt 4|Pt 5|

****

They had been traveling awhile when Eddie decided to get the lay of the land by getting higher.

Which was great in theory until he saw the vast expanse of...shit he didn’t even know how to describe it other than evil. And it stretched as far as he could see.

He turned around to get back down when Nancy called out.

“Don’t step on the vines!”

Eddie froze. “Uh what now?”

“They’re connected to the Upside Down,” she said with a huff.

Eddie looked to Steve to translate.

“They’re part of a hive mind,” Steve explained. “You step on a vine and basically you’re stepping on Vecna and basically everything else in this hell hole.”

“Shit!” Eddie hissed as he tried to come up with a way to get down without waking up the whole Upside Down to their presence.

“I was thinking that now would probably be a good time to get my guns,” Nancy murmured.

Eddie finally decided that fuck it, he was just going to by pass all the vines jump down.

He landed deftly on his feet and as he pulled up his jeans a little he said, “You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns at your house? Guns as in plural?”

Robin pointed excitedly at her. “I know, isn’t she bad ass?”

“I have a Russian pistol,” Nancy said with a cock of her head, “and a revolver.”

Steve huffed out a laugh. “You almost shot me with that one.”

Nancy smiled back and with a teasing lilt to her voice replied, “And you almost deserved it.”

TWAP!

Steve stepped back with the force of a denim vest being thrown in his face. He looked up at Eddie in shock.

“For your modesty, dude.”

Steve looked down at the vest in confusion. “Wha–”

Just then there was great big roar and the ground shook. Robin tumbled into Eddie and Steve barely managed to catch Nancy before elbowed him in the side.

Steve and Nancy were able to keep on their feet but Robin and Eddie fell to the ground.

Eddie looked at Robin and then back at where the noise came from.

“Guns are really starting to sound good right now,” Eddie muttered.

Robin looked back at him and nodded. “Oh yeah.”

Eddie was rubbing his shin as Robin’s heel had kicked it on her way down but his brain turned off when he saw Steve walk by as he pulled on Eddie’s vest.

Shit. He had miscalculated on that one. He hadn’t wanted Nancy Wheeler to ogle his soulmate but he didn’t take in the fact on how hot Steve would look wearing his battle vest. He only barely managed to help Robin to her feet before he was hoping forward to catch up with Steve.

His little lizard brain lighting up with, “Hot boy! Must follow hot boy now,” as his feet danced around the vines to be by Steve’s side.

And just maybe Steve wanted it too, because as Eddie fell in step next to him, Steve blushed and ducked his head.

Eddie grinned up at him as they made their way through the darken forest of the Upside Down.

****

Eddie kept looking over at Steve, who was looking like he had merely taken a tumble in gym instead of being eaten alive.

And yeah that was hot, it was also worrying as fuck. Eddie was starting to think that maybe Steve wasn’t a dick, the dude was just traumatized.

Robin and Nancy walked slower behind them to give them some privacy. Finding your soulmate in the middle of the end of the world, again, sucked.

“Hey, I wanted to thank you for saving my ass back there,” Steve said, softly.

Eddie bumped their shoulders together. “You saved your own ass, man. What you did there was very Ozzy.”

“Who?” Steve asked, confused.

“Ozzy Osborn? Black Sabbath?” Eddie prompted. Steve’s confusion only deepened. “He bit the head off a bat on stage.”

“Wha?” Steve said, rearing his head back. “I don’t know you’re talking about.”

Eddie smiled faintly. “It’s okay. All I was saying that that was a very metal thing you did back there.”

“And metal is...good?” Steve asked, unsure.

Eddie chuckled. “Very.”

“Thanks,” Steve said, grateful the dirt and grim of the Upside Down hid his blush.

They walked on for a few moments in silence. “I was so jealous of you, by the way.”

Steve reared back his head. “Me? Why?”

“Dustin talks about you all the time, man,” Eddie said. “Like all the time. Never shuts up about you, in fact. The kid worships the ground you walk on. Called you a badass on more than one occasion.”

Steve scoffed. “Dustin thinks I’m badass?”

“Oh, yeah,” Eddie said thoughtfully. “I think I just couldn’t accept that Steve Harrington was a good dude, you know? Rich parents, popular, good with girls, not a douche? There was no way. It just flies in the face of life, the universe, and everything. Including my very own Munson doctrine.” He twisted the rings on his fingers nervously.

Steve reached out and gently took his hand.

Eddie took a deep breath and let out it slowly. “I’m still jealous because you’re the real deal. I’m learning that outside DnD, I’m no hero. I see danger and I turn and run. Or at least that’s what I discovered about myself this week.”

Steve squeezed his hand. “Hey, give yourself a break. There was nothing you could have done about Chrissy, okay?”

Eddie let out a shuddering sigh. “The truth is that if those two ladies hadn’t dived in after you, I would still be up in that boat. I don’t know how you managed to get the loyalty of two of the smartest girls in school, especially with one of them being your ex, but holy shit dude. Nancy just dived in no hesitation.”

But before Steve could answer another rumble ripped through the Upside Down.

“Jesus!” Steve hissed as Eddie said, “Here we go again!”

They clutched each other as they struggled to remain on their feet. Steve looked up at Eddie and his breath stopped in his chest, tightening like a vice.

They were so close that Steve could taste their mingled breathes. He yearned to just lean forward and–

Robin tapped his shoulder. “Come on, let’s get to Nancy’s before another quake hits us.”

****

When they got to Nancy’s room, their hope for salvation turned to ash like the dust falling from the sky.

“What do you mean they don’t exist?” Eddie hissed.

Nancy looked like she was going to cry. “The Upside Down is stuck in 1983. Most likely the day Will vanished and I didn’t get my guns until after.”

Even Robin looked disappointed at not being about to see Nancy’s guns.

It truly seemed like all was lost when Steve suddenly stopped.

“Holy shit!” he cried. “Can you hear that?”

Nancy and Robin shared a glance.

“Hear what?” Nancy asked.

“Dustin!” Steve said happily. “I can hear Dustin! And Lucas! And Max!” He giggled.

“It’s like they in the walls!”

Eddie grimaced. The pain must be really getting to the guy if he was hallucin–

But then he could hear it too. Steve and Eddie shared a look and they turned, booking it for the door.

They thundered down the stairs and they noticed the golden light glittering around the chandler.

But now the girls could hear the kids too. It sounded like they were in trouble.

All four them were drawn to the light. It was warm and comforting. And god, Eddie couldn’t stop touching the light.

“It’s warm,” he muttered.

The other three reached up and touched the glittering glow. Steve and god, how Steve seemed to watch to reach out to him as well.

“Does anyone know Morse code?” Nancy asked, trying to figure out how to communicate with the right side up.

Steve shook his head and even Robin wasn’t clueless.

Eddie licked his lips. “Um...does SOS count?”

Nancy nearly screamed at him, but let Eddie do his thing. They managed to communicate with Dustin, Erica, and Max, who had somehow gotten themselves under house arrest. Or whatever the hell the cops wanted to call keeping children against their will.

They managed to find a way to communicate with them through Holly’s LiteBrite. And so Dustin rambled at a million miles per hour about gates and murders and Vecna.

“Does anyone understand what he’s talking about?” Nancy asked.

Everyone shook their heads. So she simply sent back a single question mark.

“How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys trust me?” Dustin screamed.

Steve sighed. “Jesus Christ, this kid has to get his ego in check.”

Eddie leaned over so that he could talk to Steve around Nancy.

“It’s his tone, right?” Eddie asked.

“Yes!” Steve agreed, happy that he had someone who understood what a menace Dustin was at the best of times.

Basically it boiled down to needing to get to the nearest gate. Eddie’s trailer.

“Which great and all,” Eddie huffed. “But let me tell you, Forest Hills is no easy walk from here.”

Nancy looked around at them like they were stupid. “The kids left their bikes here. There should be four of them in the garage.”

Steve rolled his eyes. But they all dutifully followed her out to the garage.

The bikes were tiny. God, are they minuscule. They all climbed onto the bikes and rode all the way to the trailer park.

And if Eddie hung back to watch Steve’s ass all the way there... fuck you, no he didn’t. The view didn’t hurt, though.

They made it his trailer and they laid down the bikes in front of it. Eddie began to shake. Frozen in fear. He couldn’t go back in there. They couldn’t make him.

They could find another ga–

Suddenly there was a warm hand on his shoulder. “I know you don’t want to go in there. But we need to get back to the Right Side Up, breathing the shit down here isn’t good for you.”

Eddie gulped, but nodded.

“I’ll be right beside you,” Steve continued softly. “If you need to, take my hand.”

Eddie instantly latched on to Steve’s hand as he led the group into the Upside Down version of Eddie’s home.

He stumbled a bit as he saw the great, big, red, pulsating...wound.

“Shit!” he whispered, a little awed and a lot scared. “That’s where she died. Like right where she died.”

Steve squeezed his hand gently. “I’m sorry, Eds. We just need to find a way to contact the kids and get us out of here, okay?”

Eddie looked around at his home and just wanted to cry. Nothing was where it was supposed to be and yet exactly where it was supposed to be. And that really fucked with his head.

Nancy looked up at the gate. “It’s too high. There’s no way we can get to it without help.”

Steve and Robin looked around trying to see it there was something that could be used to pry it open from below.

Eddie knew he should help them. He knew where things were kept. But he just couldn’t move. All he could do was stare up at that red wound in his ceiling pulsating with a sick twisted form of life.

Just then something poked through it and Eddie screamed. He didn’t mean to, but the sound had escaped his mouth before he even knew what it was.

What it was when Steve got him calmed down enough to actually see it, was a shovel.

It didn’t make him feel any better, until that curly little mop of hair stuck through the now decent sized hole in the ceiling.

“Henderson!” he cried in relief.

“There you are!” Dustin called back. “Do you think that you guys can work it open from your end while we work it open from our end?”

“Is everyone okay?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Dustin said. “Let’s get you guys out of there, okay?”

Between them, they were able to get the Gate open and a mattress set up to catch their fall.

“What are those stains?” Robin sneered.

Eddie looked up at them and licked his lips. “I, um... I don’t know what they are, honestly.”

Robin’s lip curled. “Gross.”

The truth was that Eddie really didn’t know. He had gotten it used a couple of years ago when his old mattress fell apart. They could have been there from its previous owner for all he knew.

“So who’s going up first?” Steve asked.

“Not you, pretty boy?” Eddie teased.

Steve blushed. “I want to make sure everyone else gets up there okay.”

Robin eyed the sheet rope and then said, “I’ll go.”

Steve nodded and watched carefully as Robin scaled the rope. She flipped around and landed on the mattress with a flomf!

Dustin helped her to her feet.

“That was quite fun actually.”

Back in the Upside Down, Eddie looked at Nancy and Steve, but neither one moved, so he shrugged. “I guess that means I’m next.”

This was Eddie’s least favorite part of gym, climbing rope ladders. He didn’t ever see the point. Though getting detention for pointing out it was part of the military industrial complex was one of his best days in that class, so...

Up he went. It wasn’t that he couldn’t climb the damn thing, he just loved ranting about having to.

“Okay, Nancy,” Steve said. “You’re next.”

But she didn’t answer. Steve turned to her but she was just standing there. He called out to her again.

“Nancy?”

Eddie’s head immediately popped back over the gate. “Shit!”

Steve shook her shoulders, but she remained immobile.

No, no, no, no...

Not Nancy!

****

Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Epilogue

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@tinyplanet95

[miniwheat77]

Tough. (Captain Price x Reader.)

!CW! NSFW, angst, violence, reader gets tortured, forgive me for leaving you on a cliffhanger :)))

(Summary): 141 takes a liking to you after seeing what a badass you are.

The first time you ever met Captain Price, Laswell was introducing you to him.

You were beyond shy and stuttered a little when you talked and he decided you weren’t quite fit for the team he was searching to build.

Sure, it bothered you a little bit but that wasn’t anything you weren’t used to. You were used to getting people picked over you, there wasn’t much you could do about it.

But when she recommended you for the task force after he'd convinced her to allow him to, and he reluctantly gave in, he had no idea what was in store. He was under the impression you were some shy sweet girl that would cave under pressure, but he was soon going to find out just what you were about.

When you joined, you adjusted pretty well. You were quiet and Price kept you as a back up for the most park but during the mission of locating El Sin Nombre, they needed all hands on deck. You were trying to sneak through the house to keep eyes on Soap. You couldn’t blend in as well as Alejandro because you were a woman, and there weren’t many women around here. Only Valeria as far as you could tell.

You were caught by a man and had been beaten pretty badly and tied to a chair. In an upper level room. Your radio was dark for about twenty minutes, the longest 20 minutes Captain Price had lived through. They picked up your radio, taunting Captain Price. “Got your sweet girl ay.” Price shakes his head when there’s a voice across the radio.

“Price, they’ve got Y/N- hijo de puta-“ Price hears Alejandro groan. “She couldn’t hide as well because she’s a woman.” He says.

“She’s not very cooperative.” He hears a loud crack followed by a scream from you. Flinching as he heard it. You weren’t who he would prefer to get captured. You were so shy and seemed so scared. He was worried you would cave and tell these people more information than they needed to know.

“I got this pretty girl here ah? Would be shame if I were to cut her up. Anyone on the other line?” Price stays quiet. “I know there's someone on the other line. Or she wouldn't have the radio. Talk!” He hears a scream come from you and he jumps slightly. Price can’t see it, but the man wraps a wire around the radio, holding the button down before setting it on a table besides you. “You can do all you want. But I’m not telling you a goddamn thing.” You growl. Hearing this takes Captain Price completely off guard. He hasn’t heard you speak like that. “Shut the fuck up.” He growls. Followed by a slap he hears through the radio. “You don’t wanna talk little girl?” He laughs. “You’re a bad girl, and you don’t wanna know what I do to and girls ah?” He pushes his hand up your thigh. He can hear you hiss through the radio. “You dug your fucking grave.” You laugh, spitting blood in his face, “now die in it.”

Another slap. Followed by a few more. Than, he draws a knife.

Captain Price lines up his shot through a window, finally crawling around enough to get a good shot. He’s watching the man slice at your arms with a knife, flinching every time he did so. He could still hear you taunting him each time he pressed at you. "Tell me what you know." He says, lining the knife up with your wrist. Price sees you lean forward, smiling an evil smile. "Fuck. You." But you wouldn’t budge. You flinched each time he made a cut on you, but you wouldn't cave. “You’ve got one more chance little girl. Tell me what you know.” Price watches the smile form on your face. He presses the knife to your throat, and you his ass he starts to cut through your skin. “How does it make you feel ah?” He hears your voice. Everyone could hear what was going on from the radio. “What? How does what feel?” You spit blood from your mouth, teeth turning pink with blood. An evil smile playing at your lips. “How does it feel to know my pretty face is gonna be the last thing you ever see?” You smirk up at him, looking up through your eyelashes at him. Captain Price can't help but feel attraction for you. You were a complete badass. The man looks confused, his face dropping, but he’d realized too late. When Price takes the shot, it’s quick and the man falls to the floor immediately. He sees you hold your head back, laughing. Your nose was steadily bleeding. He sees you grit your teeth, yanking on the zip tie and freeing your hands. You rush to pick the radio up and hide before anyone else comes in. He smiles to himself. “Nice shot, Captain.” He hears your low voice through the radio.

“Just keep out of sight for now, sweetheart.” He mumbles.

———

When the operation is finished and Graves turned, everyone met back at Alejandro’s safe house. Price hadn’t heard from you. He wondered if you were hurt or dead somewhere. But you were sitting at a table, spinning a knife around in your hand. “Y/N.” He smiles. “Captain.” You’ve got dried blood on your face from where your nose had bled. Around your mouth. Mainly on your wrists were deep gashes, but you'd bandaged them up for the most part. The one on your neck was bandaged as well. It most likely needed medical attention.

“You made it out okay, was worried about you.” He pats your back. “Ah. I’m alright. They can’t kill me that easy. I had Ghosts help anyways.” You nod to ghost, “how bad did he hurt you ah?” He pinches your chin between his thumb and the top of his index finger tilting your head to the side. “Just some cuts and bruises.” Price notices a couple of your fingernails are missing. “Jesus. When did he have time to tear your fingernails off?" He asks, grasping your hand. “That 20 minutes I was dark. But it’s alright, I’ve been through worse.” You smile, “I don’t know what this new personality of yours is, but I like it.”

“It’s the one that blocks out trauma. The best one I got.” You salute with 2 of your fingers as he goes to walk away. He’s laughing, deep down wondering how you could endure all of that. He really thought you’d be the first to cave. But he guesses he was mistaken about you.

———

After Commander Graves had been killed, each of you had returned to a base to stay there. Looking for more information. Trying to find anything you could get your hands on.

You’d healed up a little bit but the wounds were still fresh. Price called a meeting and everyone was sitting around the large dark oak table. Price smiles at you. “Man that guy really did a number on ya Sergeant.” You shrug your shoulders. Your lips were split in a few different places, blackened eye. Gashes on your wirsts and missing fingernails. Couple bruised ribs that had you wheezing even, but you were still going strong. “Did anyone else miss this side of Y/N where she’s a complete badass and not some shy little cupcake, or was that just me?” Soap nudges you. “Nah we all missed it. And to think, Price passed you up on the first operation. We coulda used her help Cap. We got our asses beat.” Gaz smirks, Price rolls his eyes. “Not my fault she’s more resilient than you, Garrick.” Price is slick with a reply and everyone collectively lets out an “oooooh.”

“Guys guys.. it’s alright. You can just admit that you needed me. It’s totally fine that I'm the most valuable member of the team.” You smirk. “Oh come on now.” Soap says, nudging you. The rest roll their eyes. After Price explains the next mission, searching for Makarov. How long the task force would be staying in this military base until any information was found at all. Keeping this base secure.

-

Price was sitting at a table in the lunch room, glass of Whisky sitting in front of him, cigar at his lips. “Dude. Have you guys seen Y/N without her gear on?” Gaz says, walking into the room. Soap and Ghost look up, he grasps the attention of a few other men. “No, why?” Gaz motions to the hallway, quickly sitting across from Soap and Ghost. All eyes are on the doorway as you walk in, oblivious. You stop in your tracks as you realize all eyes are on you. “Uh.. is something wrong?” You ask. After a moment of silence, Gaz breaks it. “Oh no just.. on edge since the mission you know.” Gaz says nervously, turning back to the table. Sending a wink to Soap. Everyone goes back to what they’re doing. Price chuckles to himself. You’ve got on a fairly tight black v-neck. Your wounds had healed into small scars. You had your shirt tucked into your cargo pants, boots tight around your ankles. You grasp a bottle of water before walking back out of the room. “See what I mean?” Gaz laughs, “yeah she’s.. damn. Her body is nice as hell.” Soap smiles.

For the next couple days, it’s all Price hears about. How hot you were. He thought maybe they were just touch starved but that wasn’t it, even he couldn’t deny it. You were an attractive woman and even he lost a little bit of sleep over it, thinking about you.

One final meeting after Price had spoken to Laswell, and an entire plan was in place.

You looked down at the ground, thousands of feet in the air but actively descending. When the Chopper finally hits the ground, everyone jumps out. “Alright. He’s middle eastern, dark hair, darker complexion. Goes by Dmitri Kstuv. Do NOT kill him, we need him.” Price orders. Everyone nods their head. “Y/N.” He tilts his head to the side and you follow him. Everyone splitting off and going their own directions. You and Price were dressed in Ghillie suits, you’d be covering Ghost, he’d be covering Soap as they made their way through the compound. It was in the dead of night, that's how you were going to get away with it. The chopper dropped all of you off a few miles away which meant you’d have to walk pretty far, but you couldn’t get caught. Ghost and Soap moved in quickly but stealthily and you and Price walked together quietly, until you’d found the perfect area to set up. Once you're both in place, lying down on the ground next to each other in a very hidden spot, even in the night.

"Heading into the building now."

"Southeast doors, two of them. I got right, you take left." He breathes. You line up your shot, taking him out, Price firing immediately after you. Both of them fall down, and you line up, looking for more. Each of you take out the men, watching over Soap and Ghost.

"We no longer have eyes boys. Outside is clear, you're on your own for the inside." Price says into the radio. He lifts himself up, leaning up against a rock he had perched next to. "You know, you're all I hear about." Price smirks. You can't see it too well because it's dark but you can hear it in his voice that he's smiling. "What? In a good way I hope." You laugh quietly. "You've got most of the men around here in a death grip for some reason." He laughs. "All they talk about is how attractive you are." You scoff. "What the hell?" You laugh. "Yeah. You should hear the banter between them when you aren't around." You laugh. "That.. somehow does not make me feel very good." You laugh. "I don't let them say anything too bad sweetheart. Just figured I'd give you some ammo against them." He laughs. "Well. I appreciate it." You smile. "You got your eyes on anyone here?"

"Uh... not exactly supposed to have relations in the military." You blush. Price rolls his eyes. "Yeah right, everyone does. Who is it? I can tell you're thinking of someone."

"That's classified sir." you laugh. "I'll find out. One way other another, I know absolutely everything.” He shrugs. "Yeah well. I'm gonna test your patience because I'm the most secretive person you'll ever meet. Besides, you’re getting into the drama a lot for being a captain.” You smirk. He laughs. "Oh Cmon. I gotta have fun sometimes right? You don't interact with any of them very well. The only person you even seem to talk to is..." he takes a long pause. "Me." He starts laughing at your silence, your inability to answer him because there's no way you could deny it after being confronted with it. "Shit.. it's me isn't it?" He smiles. "Ah.. they'd be so disappointed if they ever found that out." He smirks. "Yeah whatever." You laugh. "Sweetheart you aren't even denying it." You roll you eyes. "Yeah, like I don't see the glances and shit you all take at me, I see that shit." You smile. He tips his head back with a laugh. "Yeah? Can you blame me? I mean... on the outside. You're this sweet little innocent looking girl who could sweettalk her way out of a gunfight. On the inside you're some badass who can take a beating like I've never seen and still smile in the end. Not only that but.. goddamn you are sexy." He smiles. "Are you sure this is a conversation I'm supposed to be having with my Captain?" You blush, trying to hide your embarrassment. "Probably not, but no one else is here to hear it, so really." He takes a drag off of the Cigar he had lit at some point. "It's like it never really even happened." He smirks.

---

For a couple weeks, the tension with him was insane. Anytime he passed you in the barracks, he was sending you smirks and winks. You always just rolled your eyes and shook your head as he did it. There was even once you and him were the final 2 in the conference room after a meeting and he was sitting next to you. He stood up and said. "M'gonna move over here, can't trust myself to keep my hands off of you."

You were so nervous but the way he made you feel on the inside was something so foreign. You couldn't help but love the way it made you feel.

You're relaxing, head tipped back to wash the soap from your hair, eyes shut. You're the only woman currently on base, so you had the women's showers to yourself. You loved that. But, you didn't love it now, hearing creaking, like someone had opened the door.

You frown, moving away from the stream. Cold air nipping at your skin. "Hello?" You ask. Getting no answer. You peek from the shower down the hallway and see nothing. Chalking it up to your imagination. You shut the shower off, spinning to grab your towel but noticing it was gone. You frown. "Looking for this?" your heart nearly jumps out of your skin, you whirl around. Captain Price is standing in the doorway of the shower you're in. You scramble to cover yourself. Noticing he's got no shirt on. Bare feet, no hat. The only thing he had on were his cream colored cargo pants and his belt. "What the hell, Captain." You shiver at the cold. "Thought I'd come pay my pretty girl a visit ah?" He passes you your towel and you take it, quickly wrapping it around yourself. He takes a step toward you, and you take one back. He sees the way he intimidates you, and it only fuels his fantasies further. He keeps stepping toward you until your back is flush against the cold white tile wall. "Do you want me to get out?" He rests his forearm above your head, leaning into you. Head tilted down to look into your eyes. You take a second to reply, looking down at his bare chest. Running your tongue along your bottom lip. "No." you look through your eyelashes up at him. "Still worried though, got your towel on." He smiles, crossing his arms. You grasp the top of it, pulling it loose and letting it fall by your feet. He smiles, leaning into you further.

"That's a good girl."

[beardedjoel]

closer | part three

joel x f!reader. non-apocalypse au.

series masterlist | main masterlist | ao3  

chapter summary: you try and avoid joel after your awkward kiss the other day, but it doesn’t take long for him to reel you right back in. 5.2k words.

warnings: 18+ MDNI, age difference (joel is 42 and reader is 25), inexperienced reader, joel being a menace, more flirting, it’s gonna go DOWN next chapter, reader wears a cropped shirt and jean shorts, reader is described only as having hair

a/n: i hope you are all enjoying this so far! i’m so sorry this chapter definitely ends on a bit of an evil cliffhanger <3

You’re officially hiding from Joel. You realize you’re a grown woman and should be acting more mature about this, but you can’t seem to help the embarrassment that you feel when you even think about seeing him again. You wonder what he must think of you - just some silly girl, afraid of a fucking kiss, that’s what he’s got to think. 

You’ve done everything you can think of to stay out of his sight for the last day, although you haven’t noticed any activity over at his house this morning, so it’s safe to assume he’s working today. 

The only interaction you’ve had with him was when you thought you’d caught his eye after you came out of your shower yesterday, wrapped in only a towel. You thought better of it, but you couldn’t help the little power trip that having him see you naked through your window gave you the last time. So, pretending you don’t see him, you drop the towel, parading around your apartment looking for something to wear for the day. You know it was probably too far away for him to see if you made eye contact, but you were careful to not look in his direction too much and give yourself away. You’d left the house with a smug smile, wanting to gain back a little of the power you felt you lost when you’d embarrassed yourself.

You try to keep yourself busy - starting your day with some shopping that’s supposed to be for your new apartment in Austin when you find one, but it ends up turning into clothes shopping, or more specifically, underwear shopping. You bite the inside of your lip, holding up different pairs of sexy underwear, tilting your head as you look at them. Sure, you own plenty of pairs already, but you’re feeling the urge to add to your collection, trying to convince yourself it has nothing to do with Joel despite the passing thoughts wondering which color he’d like to see on you. You decide to call Sofia, your best friend from back in Chicago while you’re ambling through the air conditioned stores, trying to stay out of the house as long as possible. 

“So, if I’m hearing you right, you’re telling me that you're embarrassed because you two kissed? Didn’t you want to kiss him?” Sofia says into your ear, sounding incredulous.

“Ugh, it’s not that. It’s that I fucking jumped when he tried to put his hand on my ass, like some teenage virgin or something,” you groan. 

“I think you’re overthinking it,” she tells you, “Like, it sounds like he was understanding, right?”

“I don’t know, I think so. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, I just get crazy when I’m around him. I wish you could just see him and understand what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah, first of all, I can’t believe you haven’t taken any sneaky pics of him for me yet - it’s truly offensive as your best friend that you haven’t shown me apparently the hottest man alive yet,” Sofia starts, and you laugh. “Secondly, I think you need to just… move on from being embarrassed about it. I know that sounds harsh, but seriously, it sounds like he’s into you.”

“I don’t know… how could he be?” you muse, feeling insecure. You’ve just been unable to see what Joel could find alluring in you when he could have someone more put together, more attractive, less shy around him, the list goes on. 

“You’re kidding me… you’re young, you’re hot, and did you already forget the part where he kissed you back and tried to grab your ass?”

You laugh. “Okay, you do have a point, Soph.”

“Of course I do. You’d better get back over there and kiss him again, and don’t even think about texting me or calling me again until you do,” she says, and you scoff in fake hurt. “Okay, not that last part, just kiss him, but please update me every 10 seconds because I miss you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I miss you too,” you say to her with a chuckle, before you wrap up your conversation, knowing she’s right, that it’s really not that big of a deal. You just hate how you feel like you’re constantly embarrassing yourself in front of Joel. By now, it’s the early evening, and you’ve managed to stay away for most of the day, avoiding both Joel and your own thoughts with some good old retail therapy and talking to Sofia. 

You take your dinner outside, a grilled cheese and chips, your favorite summer meal since you were a kid, and sit down on a lounge chair. You sit cross legged with your plate and book in front of you, taking in the way the heat of the day has finally turned into that perfect, comfortable evening temperature. You see no sign of Joel, no lights on at his house, and decide to enjoy a few moments of solitude knowing he can’t spot you right now. You get completely lost in your reading, one of the few reprieves you have these days, so you fail to notice lights flickering on next door until a loud, rumbling laugh catches your attention.

You feel like a deer in headlights as you peer over at the source of the noise and see Joel emerging out of his back door, someone trailing closely behind him. He’s wearing what looks like work clothes, although you haven't seen him dress in a whole lot other than t-shirts and jeans, and he has a six pack of beer in one hand. The other man next to him bears some resemblance, the same dark hair and tan skin, although he has a more boy-ish appearance than Joel does, and you assume it’s his brother that he’d mentioned, Tommy. 

You don’t know if you should move, run, or hide - a real classic flight or… flight situation. Luckily, it seems like Joel is occupied enough with his brother’s visit that his eyes haven’t made it over in your direction at all. You wonder if there’s an occasion, or they’re just having an after work beer, which you somehow find endearing, like everything else he does. They sit down on Joel’s patio table, supposed-Tommy sitting across from Joel, facing your direction. Good, this is good, you think, he doesn’t know who you are, so why would you catch his attention? You’re still trying to decide your next move, but find seeing Joel is a distraction from even that. You decide to try and sneak away without being noticed

“Hey,” Joel says, calling your name with a wave as you’re halfway up the stairs to your apartment. You groan internally, and grimace slightly before turning around. You’ve been spotted, and feel you have no choice but to engage now. You make it to the fence line between your yards, realizing you’re still awkwardly holding your empty dinner plate and book, and that combined with seeing Joel, turned around in his chair, looking at you, makes you already want to sprint away.

“Hi…” you say, trying to speak up but finding it hard right now.

“This is my brother, Tommy, the one I was tellin’ you about,” Joel says, and there’s something different about his voice, but you can’t quite place it yet. You furrow your brow, but then relax your face, not wanting to be rude. Tommy gives a little glance at you, and then Joel, as if trying to piece together why we’d been talking about him.

“Howdy,” Tommy says with a wave and a friendly smile. At the least, he seems disarming enough that your nerves are settled a bit.

“You joinin’ us for a beer, or what?” Joel says, and that’s when you place it. Joel’s is drunk, or at least tipsy. You think they must have had some beers prior to the six pack they’ve just started drinking. You’re not sure what to do with this information, how to feel about it, but you’re intrigued to see this side of Joel. Tommy, completely unaware of your pain, gives you a hopeful smile, urging you to come over. 

“Um, yeah, sure,” you say, and the nervous pit that’s been living in your stomach for days lurches. You want to forget the other day happened, just be normal around Joel, and think that maybe having a drink could be a good start. “Hang on,” you add, holding a finger up before you run up to your apartment, discarding your plate and book, and run back out, not before double checking how you look in the mirror. You scowl a little, feeling like you look spent from your recent sleep deprivation.

You join them a few moments later, awkwardly settling yourself down into one of the chairs. Tommy pulls a bundle of keys out of his pocket, using his bottle opener keychain to crack open one of the beers and starts handing it in your direction before suddenly stopping.

“Wait. You old enough to drink this?” he asks, eyeing you suspiciously. You laugh, not entirely sure if you should feel flattered by the comment. If anything, it makes you feel even more self conscious about the kiss you and Joel shared, your cheeks warm and buzzing just at the memory.

“Oh, yeah, of course. I’m 25,” you respond, and you can see Joel’s gaze shoot over to you as the number comes out of your mouth. You knew he had to have been wondering your age, and while you assumed he had a likely guess, he’s never asked you directly. Tommy gives over the beer to you with a smile now, asking your name. You tell him and he tries to make casual conversation.

“So, I see you and my brother have gotten acquainted then. New neighbors?”

“Kind of,” you say, and you explain the situation with your parents to him.

Tommy laughs, looking over at Joel. “Imagine one of us, doin that with Mom and Dad… whew, we’d have gone crazy. They’re lucky they’ve got a good daughter like you,” he says kindly, and you decide you rather like Tommy now that you’ve met him. He has a welcoming, warm energy that you’re extra appreciative of right now.

Joel chuckles at his brother’s comment, looking between the both of you. “She’s an angel, this one,” Joel says, his gaze landing on you again, and giving a small wink. You smirk and humbly bow your head at their comments. Mostly, you need to get out of seeing Joel’s piercing brown eyes looking at you. 

Tommy continues to ask you questions about your life - your time in college, growing up in San Antonio, what kind of hobbies you have. He’s a fun conversationalist, and he makes you feel listened to, looking at you with interest at every answer you throw at him. You manage to squeeze in a few questions of your own, but it seems like Tommy is more interested in hearing about you. Joel is mostly sitting back, listening, laughing here and there and throwing in some of his own comments. But every time you look over at him, it’s as if he’s just… absorbing you with his eyes, hanging on every word you’re saying about yourself. His stare is intimidating in its own way, and you find yourself equally averting it but unable to keep peeking over at him.

You’re now about two beers deep and can feel the light, warm feeling of it coursing through you. This isn’t so bad, after all, you think - you can totally be normal around Joel after your awkward, embarrassing encounter the other day. You’re lulled into a sense of security, enjoying this evening with the Miller brothers, watching them bicker here and there and just letting the conversation flow naturally. They both have a little color on their cheeks as they laugh hard at some inside joke and memory, your smile growing just at seeing how hard they’re laughing - it’s adorable, you think to yourself with a huge grin.

Your parents must have let Benny out in the yard, because he catches Tommy’s attention as he runs over to the fence line and barks at you, probably wondering what the hell you’re doing over there, and not at home with him.

“Now who’s that cute fella?” Tommy asks you, smiling at Benny wagging his tail and panting by the fence.

“That’s Benny, my parents’ dog,” you tell him.

“Ah…��� Tommy says, looking over at Joel knowingly, then right at you. “So you’re the reason my brother was late the other day,” he says with a smirk. You are in the middle of sipping your beer, and you immediately choke at Tommy’s words, the bottle falling out of your hands as you cough. It lands on the table with a loud thud, beer going everywhere - on your clothes, on the table, even some spitting out of your mouth as you choke.

“Oh shit,” you yell out in between coughs, quickly jumping up and standing back, seeing the beer dripping off of you, a large puddle on the table. You’re suddenly very aware of just how tipsy you are from the almost two drinks you’ve had - you forget how much of a lightweight you are sometimes. “S-sorry,” you say, trying to brush some of the liquid off of your arms and shirt, but you just end up making a bigger mess.

Tommy and Joel jump up with little chuckles, quickly ready to begin cleaning up the mess. “S’alright darlin’,” Joel says quickly, “Bathroom’s inside and down to the left, why don’t you go clean yourself up a bit,” he suggests to you, while he and Tommy get to work cleaning the mess with the beach towel he still had outside from the other day when you two got caught in the rain.

You rush off into the house, beer dripping off of you, barely bothering to inspect Joel’s house despite desperately wanting to. The sun has gotten much lower in the sky since you arrived over at Joel’s, so his house is relatively dark, and you search down the hallway clumsily, finding your way to the bathroom. Once the light is on, you blink a few times to adjust, and quickly grab the nearest towel, dabbing your arms dry. It’s not much use, considering your clothes are pretty well soaked, but you wet the towel and try wiping your shirt down a bit anyway. You take a few extra moments to calm yourself, feeling slightly dizzy from the alcohol and the way Joel has been stealing glances at you all evening. One more deep breath and you decide you’ll leave the bathroom, excuse yourself, and head back home to shower and change. Does Tommy know? Your brain is running off with the idea quickly before even having all of the information. Maybe he just meant the part about Joel’s injury, but you can’t help but picture that little smirk he had on his face. Fuck, you can’t stay, you can’t take it anymore, being around Joel like this after knowing what it felt like to kiss him, having Tommy seeming to know about it.

You open the door, steady your feet slightly, and turn down the hallway, and Joel is standing in the shadows, waiting for you. It causes you to jump a little, seeing his broad form just standing, leaning a shoulder against the wall.

“Oh, uh, I can grab some more towels, to help clean up,” you offer, unsure of what he’s trying to do right now, but Joel doesn’t seem to hear you or care, and he approaches you quickly, crowding his body close to you and you end up with your back against the nearest wall. Joel is standing practically up against you, but his hands are still at his sides. He’s trying so hard not to touch you, to grab your hips and pull them against his. to cup your face and crash his mouth into yours. Fuck, he’d said to himself that he was going to let you come to him, but he can’t help it as his hand twitches towards you. 

“You’ve been avoidin’ me, pretty girl,'' Joel says, and he’s slurring a little. He didn’t seem that drunk to you, maybe just buzzed, enough that he’s coming off slightly different than normal. Hearing him call you ‘pretty girl’ sends you speechless, as his pet names always seem to do.

“I - I -“ you stutter, unsure of how to answer. You have been avoiding him, but don’t know how to tell him that, since it seems childish now that you’re faced with it. His large body is pressed so close to yours and you desperately want to lean into it, your mind scrambling completely at the proximity of him. 

“S’okay, sweet girl,” he slurs, sending another pulse of desire through you with another new pet name. His hands slowly come up and rest on your waist, the feeling of his strong hands wrapped around either side of you sends what feels like a jolt of electricity through you.

”I just can’t stay away… said I would, but look at you,” he says, letting his tipsy brain spill all his thoughts as he looks down at you, glancing up and down your body and resting his eyes on your face. “Just tell me what you want, ‘cause I know what I want,” he says teasingly, his voice going lower. 

“And… What do you want?” you finally muster the courage to ask him, lifting your eyes to search his face. You find his dark eyes staring back, lustful and heavy lidded. You gulp down the excited, panicky feeling you seem to continuously get around him and feel your stomach churning with desire.

Joel hums low, the sound deep and suggestive, followed by a small chuckle, pressing his forehead to yours delicately. One hand reaches up from your waist and gently touches your arm, and you can tell he’s holding back, practically restraining himself as his breathing quickens along with your own. 

“You need me to say it?” Joel asks, “Need to hear me say what I wanna do to you?” He groans a little, his hands tightening on your hip and your arm where he’s holding them, pulling you a bit closer to him. 

Your breath catches in your throat a little and you don’t know when, but you’ve started shaking slightly with anticipation. You feel the familiar aching between your legs once Joel’s body is pressed even closer to yours. You can smell the beer and the musk of him as you lean your head slightly, causing your nose to nudge his as you nod slightly, awaiting his answer. You’re curious to know exactly what he wants to do to you, and in fine detail. 

Joel takes a breath in to answer, but a sound from down the hallway towards the kitchen takes you both out of the moment - someone clearing their throat. You gasp and try to leap back from Joel, but the wall is right there, still leaving you at Joel’s mercy. Joel pulls back, but only slightly, as if he doesn’t care that Tommy is standing right there, watching all of this.

“Just came for some paper towels, but I see I’m… interrupting something,” Tommy says cooly, and his tone isn’t like you’d heard before, it’s much less warm and genial. He’s upset, you realize, and you think maybe he has every right to be, knowing how young you are compared to his brother.

“I- I’m so sorry,” you mumble, and to whom you’re apologizing, you’re not even sure. You start to slide out from under Joel’s form, still so dangerously close to you, and his hand falls from your arm, letting you go. “I should, I should go…” you mumble as you brush past him and start rushing towards Tommy to cut through the kitchen to the back door. You stop abruptly, awkwardly near Tommy and without looking him in the eyes, say, “It was nice meeting you,” before making a beeline for the back door. What the fuck had just happened? you think to yourself over and over as you burst through the door to your apartment, standing with your back against it for several moments to try and collect yourself.

“Jesus Christ, Joel, I was joking about her being the reason you were late,” Tommy chides, leaning back against the counter in Joel’s kitchen. “I didn’t realize… whatever the hell that was… was going on.”

Joel sighs, running a hand down his face, his buzz quickly wearing off at his younger brother’s scolding. “Tommy, it’s not anything. I’m gonna need you to mind your damn business for once in your life,” Joel retorts, feeling frustration rising up quickly in his chest.

“Right, just forget I saw that? She’s 25, Joel.” Tommy sets down the beer he was holding on the counter next to him and crosses his arms.

“It’s not that big of a deal, she’s just sweet on me, I think. I was a little drunk and she was… just there,” Joel replies, knowing his argument is weak, falling apart by the minute.

“And so you’re just, what? Egging her on for the fun of it? It ain’t a game, Joel.” Tommy’s tone is getting more serious, gearing up for an argument with his brother.

“God damn it, I realize that, Tommy,” Joel says, his voice rising dramatically. Tommy cocks his head, his eyebrows drawn, studying his brother as the realization begins to dawn on him.

“You don’t… Joel tell me you don’t have feelings for her.” Tommy sighs, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

“You don’t think I know it’s wrong? That I wanna be with someone nearly twenty years younger? Fucking hell, brother, I know it.”

“Shit…” Tommy says simply, at a loss for words right now. They stand in an awkward silence, Joel shifting from one leg to another, unsure of where to even go next with this conversation.

“Look, I’ve been trying. To avoid it, that is. Really hard, I’m trying…” Joel trails off, and Tommy looks over at him again, a softer look in his eyes now that he’s coming down from his anger.

“But…” Tommy urges him on.

“Seems you already know. Don’t know if I can stop seein’ her,'' Joel shrugs.

“Listen, you know I’ve done my fair share of stupid shit in my life so I’m not one to talk. She’s a sweet gal, though, and you shouldn’t be fuckin’ around with her like that.”

Joel sighs even more deeply. “I know you aren’t gonna believe me when I say this, but… I want to treat her right, Tommy. It’s not a game to me, swear.”

Tommy looks over at his brother skeptically. Sure, he believes his brother, but can Joel really follow through on that? He isn’t so sure. “My advice? Stay away from her,” Tommy says with finality, taking another swig from his beer. 

“Good thing I didn’t ask for your advice,” Joel says quickly, narrowing his eyes at him. 

“Why do you care so much, Joel? You don’t need to be messing with a young girl’s life, drag her into your shit.”

“First off, it seems she’s interested in me, and she knows she’s not my age, she ain’t stupid. She can make her own decisions.” Joel crosses his arms and stares his brother down.

“And secondly…?”

“She’s a sweet girl, kind, funny, and…beautiful, of course, but that’s besides the point, I think. Somethin’ about her… I can’t explain, Tommy.”

“So it’s more than just wanting to fuck her?” Tommy says, still suspicious of Joel’s intentions.

“I don’t know yet, if I’m honest,” Joel starts, scratching the back of his neck. “I think so. But we haven’t…” Joel admits before he can stop himself, feeling a little color creep onto his cheeks. Tommy sighs again, his frustration still palpable, but he breaks a little bit.

“Jesus, Joel,” Tommy breathes out, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If you’re not going to listen to me, just be careful, please?”

“I will,” Joel says firmly, and he means it. He doesn’t have any intention of hurting you, or messing with your life. He does want to fuck you, very badly, in fact, but he’s pretty sure it’s more than that at this point - he wants to spend time with someone sweet like you, someone who is kind and generous and loving. He’s found during the conversations this evening that he’s more attracted to you than even he realized, and he knows that Tommy is right, he’s completely fucked up for wanting to be with you like that. He knows deep down that his brother’s advice is sound, but after seeing you giggling all evening at their jokes, hearing the passion with which you talk about your hobbies and life, getting close enough to breathe in your delicious scent again, he knows he’s absolutely doomed. There’s no staying away from you.

Mortified doesn’t even begin to cover it. You want nothing more than to hide away forever, and yes, you realize you’re being dramatic, but having Tommy walk in on you and Joel all over each other wasn’t how you’d wanted to end your evening. You practically felt like you’d gone home with your tail between your legs, and you’ve been moping around for the last hour after you’d showered the beer off and changed into your pajamas. A quiet knock on your door before it opens alerts you, and you look up from your bed to see your mother coming in.

“Sorry to bother you, honey,” she starts, stepping tentatively into the room. You sit up on the bed and try to give her your best smile.

“No, that’s alright, mom, what’s up?” you say, your own voice coming out a bit strained sounding to you. She eyes you a little suspiciously, but decides to continue on.

“Just wanted to say hi,” she says, smiling at you, and you realize you’ve been so preoccupied with your own shit that you’ve barely bothered to check in on them when they are home from work. “And I’d just meant to say thank you the other day for fixing that cabinet. You know it was driving me nuts,” she says, straightening up some pillows and blankets on the couch before sitting down. You pause for a moment, debating on what Joel had said about you taking credit, but it felt… awkward to lie about. 

“Actually, it was uh, Joel… Miller from next door,” you admit sheepishly, worried about any follow up questions she might have. You’re not a great liar, and you worry she would see right through you if you tried to hide the way just talking about him makes you giddy, despite the conflict regarding him raging through you right now.

“Oh?” she says, urging you to continue with her head tilting. Your mom’s eyebrows are raised, and she looks absolutely enraptured by what you’re going to say next. She’s a sucker for random acts of kindness, you know. 

“He saw me trying to fix the gate, and then asked if there was anything else we needed help with, so… yeah. He works as a contractor, I guess, so he knew what he was doing. Unlike me.” Your face lights up a little just talking about him but the room is dimly lit enough you think it might hide it from her.

“We’ll have to thank him. That’s awfully nice, isn’t it?” your mom says with a smile, suddenly getting up. “Let me make him something, some cookies, oh, or a pie, and you can bring it over,” she rambles mostly to herself, already halfway to the door to put her plan to action. You groan - she is absolutely insane, thinking about making a whole pie at seven thirty in the evening, you think, rolling your eyes. The thought quickly strikes you that it would be a good excuse to see Joel again if you had a reason to go over to his place, and your heart rate picks up a bit. Maybe it would help, you think, if you were able to just try and talk things out with him. You haven’t stopped thinking about the question he’d asked you earlier - to tell him what you want. 

You think you finally have your answer. You know exactly what you want, and you’re pretty sure that you’re feeling brave enough to tell him tonight. You’re tired of hiding, of feeling too embarrassed to even look at him. You need things to progress one way or another, you decide.

You follow your mom back to the main house, helping her in the kitchen, and about thirty minutes later she has fresh chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and is plating them up with you. Your mother never ceases to amaze you when she gets into a mood like this - she’s one of the most efficient people you’ve ever met. She hands you the cookies with a smile, urging you to go deliver them now. 

“It’s kind of late, don’t you think?” you ask, wanting to make sure you don’t seem too eager.

She frowns a little as she glances at the clock. “I don’t know…” she says, and you can see the familiar overthinking anxiety taking over her instantly.

“That’s alright, mom, I got this. I’ll just run them over right now, I think he stays up kind of late, I’ve seen him out in the yard past eight o'clock before,” you reassure her, half for your own reasons, you think with a hint of guilt.

“Oh, good, thank you, honey,” your mom replies, a relieved grin coming over her face. “I just want to make sure we get off to a good start with our neighbors.” You almost laugh, thinking she doesn’t have to worry about that too much with the things you’re hoping to do with him.

“I’ll probably head back to the apartment and get some sleep after, so we’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” you tell her. You want to have an excuse if in case, and the thought alone makes you want to squeal, anything happens that keeps you at Joel’s longer than they’d expect you to be there. 

You leave out the back door, quickly rushing up to your apartment to change your clothing and get ready. You put on your favorite cropped tank top, tight around your chest, and it’s in a blue color that you think looks great on you. You choose your shortest pair of jean shorts for the bottom of your ensemble, feeling a little ridiculous putting on as little clothing as possible for him. You rush to your mirror, tousling your hair a bit to make sure it looks in place. You can’t believe you’re doing this for what’s supposed to be a quick visit, but you dab on a bit of makeup - some mascara and a hint of blush, just to give you a fresh look. You take a deep breath and smooth your hair one more time before leaving down the stairs, making your way to the front of Joel’s house. You have to do this before you lose your nerve, you think to yourself, mentally urging your shaking hand forward. You inhale one more time before knocking on the door, feeling your stomach flipping with anticipation as it starts to open.

[elliesflower]

i saw you in a dream [5]

summary; you attend ellie's open mic performance. and meet her...roommate.

chapter; 5/? 3.1k words

cw (per chapter); recreational marijuana usage, language

an; hi lol. i love u guys, thank you endlessly for dealing with my slow updating of this story. anyways, i think this may be my favorite chapter yet, please let me know what you think! i love a good cliffhanger ;) (as always, find it on ao3 here)

chapter 4 here

Friday came entirely too quickly—you breezed through your last final exam on Thursday, which left you way too much time to anxiously anticipate your upcoming…event.

“Date!” Dina exclaimed. “Ellie asked you to go because she likes you, it’s practically a date,” she singsonged, twirling a piece of hair around her finger childishly.

“Yes, because I’m sure we’ll have so much time to talk one-on-one and gaze longingly into each other’s eyes in between performances,” you replied sarcastically, continuing to rummage through your closet. “And, you don’t know that she likes me, maybe she just asked me because I was right there.”

“Okay, for someone so smart, sometimes you’re a little stupid,” Dina said, and you shot her the most evil side eye you could manage. “Ellie may or may not like you like that, but she likes you enough to invite you to something that sounds personal and important to her. This is your in! Now, you just have to get flirty.”

“‘Get flirty?’ Do you even know me at all?” You scoffed, turning to face her. “I am, like, the most awkward human being on the planet.”

“Okay, I take it back,” Dina laughed, standing up. “Let’s just focus on finding you an outfit.”

“What the hell do you even wear to an open-mic?” You complained, turning back to continue looking through your closet. 

“You could wear something of mine, if you want,” she suggested.

“Uh, no thank you,” you smiled, pulling out a plain black mock-neck from the depths of your closet, turning around and holding it up to your chest.

“Hey!” Dina gasped. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“No offense, but I don’t really think…whatever look you have going on is the one for me.” It’s not that you didn’t like the way Dina dressed, rather, you really did like it—but expressing yourself through clothing had always been hard for you, sticking to more muted tones, blacks and greys. Dina’s wardrobe was loud and colorful, she always looked so put together, and she never seemed to wear the same thing twice. You admired it, really, but still found yourself gravitating towards more basic clothing.

“Whoever said saying ‘no offense’ actually makes a statement any less offensive needs their ass beat, to be honest,” she replied casually, and you could hear her sorting through hangers in her own closet. “Just try this, at least. It would look nice with that shirt, I promise!” She was shoving a colorful chunky-knit cardigan into your hands before you could protest, and you grimaced. 

“I don’t know Dee,” you held up the sweater, contemplating. “I never wear stuff like this.”

“Just put the damn sweater on and let’s go!” She smiled at you. “Don’t you want good seats?”

You rolled your eyes, but went to look in the mirror nonetheless. “As if there’ll be a fight for front row seats at a college open-mic.”

“Oh perfect,” she sighed exaggeratedly before rummaging in her desk drawer. “Then you agree, you have time to split this with me before we leave?” She held up a small, white tube, and you pursed your lips. 

“Okay, fine,” you gave in, quickly pulling your shirt off over your head before pulling on the black long-sleeve. 

“Just one hit.”

—

You did not, in fact, take just one hit. It was more like four. Or five…or six, or who could keep track, really?

It seemed like a good idea, a little something to take the edge off, maybe soothe the bundle of nerves that had formed in your stomach and in your brain and in your chest at the thought alone of seeing Ellie—god forbid, having to make conversation with her.

And while it did help a little, you hadn’t smoked as much as Dina, so it still felt as though your heartbeat grew louder with each step toward the theater. All that stood between you and Ellie—and, well, a handful of other attendees and performers—was a short corridor. 

“It’ll be okay, just chill out,” Dina tried to subdue you, and her voice was thickened by her intoxication, slower and almost more serious. Her eyes were low as she smiled over at you, bumping into your shoulder softly. 

“Thank you, Dina, because telling someone to chill out always works so well,” you quipped, shaking your head as she led you through the doors. Though, you did try to chill out, as it were, taking a deep breath and sliding the sleeves of the oversized cardigan up your forearms, nervously tugging at the neck of your long sleeve, fidgeting with anything you could think of to distract you from—

“Oh!” You exclaimed as you ran directly into a body around the corner, staggering backwards slightly before someone was gripping your arms, keeping you steady. Your eyes trailed up the body before you were met with—oh god, “Ellie!”

“We have to stop meeting like this,” she laughed melodically, smoothing her hands down your biceps before flashing her teeth at you. The chatter of the other attendees faded into the background as you felt your body heat up under her stare, painfully aware of her hands that were still on your arms. 

You could do nothing but let out an awkward laugh in response, nodding your head as she took her hands away. Dina cleared her throat obnoxiously from behind you and you turned your head to give her a look that you hoped conveyed: please for the love of god save me.

“Hi, I’m Dina by the way, or you probably know me as ‘the roommate,’” she said, sticking out her hand past you for Ellie to shake, and you had to admire her confidence for a second, the way she could unapologetically be herself in any situation. You’d think that from spending so much time with her, some of that confidence would have rubbed off on you, but no, you were still just…you.

“Nice to meet you, Dina,” Ellie smiled, and her voice was laced with honey, rich and slow spilling from her lips. She reached her hand past you to shake Dina’s, and you moved out of the way slightly.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Dina dropped her hand and stood next to you now. You looked over at her in shock, and you hoped the shaking of your head and wide eyes weren’t noticeable. 

“Uh, not so much,” you laughed nervously, trying to subtly kick Dina’s ankle. 

“Wow, you really do have that guitar player look to you,” she ignored you, gesturing to Ellie. “I love the tattoo!”

Your eyes were daggers glaring into the side of Dina’s head, but neither her or Ellie seemed to notice—though it was debatable whether that was good or bad. Ellie chuckled, instinctively looking down at her arm and holding it out as if to show it off. You felt like sinking into the floor, watching her arm flex as she rotated it, skimming her fingers down the length of her forearm, tracing the pattern. 

“Thank you,” she was slightly bashful, despite her eagerness to show off. She caught your eye for a moment and—were her cheeks turning red? It is pretty warm in here with all these bodies…yeah, that’s it. 

“Well, anyways, nice to finally meet you Ellie, I’m gonna go grab a snack,” Dina smiled politely between both you and Ellie, before patting your shoulder and slipping away. Oh god, why would she leave you to talk to her alone?

“I’m so glad you could make it,” she said, and suddenly everything was fading away again. You took a moment to look down at her outfit, trying to be as discreet as possible. She adorned a light blue flannel, cuffed just above her elbows and a pair of dark Levi’s—her hair was pulled back, save for a few pieces that fell loosely around her face, which you noticed she tucked hastily behind her ear when a strand tickled her nose before she said, “I love that sweater, by the way.”

Dina was going to have a field day with that one. 

“Oh, thank you!” You exclaimed, instinctively wrapping your arms around yourself. She smiled at you before continuing. 

“Anyways, I’m up last, so don’t feel like you have to stay for the whole thing, if you get bored or anything,” she explained, pointing at the stage behind her. “I’m just glad you could make it.”

On the inside, you were swooning, your eyes were in the shape of hearts and you wanted to reach out and embrace her—you wanted to smell that warm vanilla musk and the earthy savor of weed, you wanted to tell her you wanted nothing more than to spend all your time with her, know her inside and out, you wanted it all. 

“No, no, I came here for you,” you said instead, making fists around the material of your sweater and smiling at her. “Of course I’ll stay.” 

Ellie’s face flushed again, and you continued to insist it was due to the heat of the room. She glanced behind her, and you followed her gaze to see Dina filling up a plate with what looked like one of everything from the table. 

“I should go get ready,” Ellie mumbled before turning back to you. “Why don’t you go grab some snacks with Dina and I’ll catch you after the show?” She sounded hopeful. You nearly choked. 

“Yes, I’ll be here!” Of course you’ll be here, where the hell else would you be? You mentally face-palmed yourself before she was giving you a smile and disappearing into the crowd. You took a deep breath and made your way to the snack table, where Dina was still loading up. 

“Oh, hey!” She said when she finally saw you. 

“Hey, thanks so much for embarrassing the hell out of me,” you complained, stealing a cheese square off of her plate. 

“Embarrassing you? Please, I was helping you,” she laughed before stuffing a grape into her mouth. “And it kinda worked, didn’t it? I set you up for a nice little chat with your girlfriend.”

“Oh, shut up,” you bumped her shoulder, but you couldn’t fight the warmth that climbed up the back of your neck. “Let’s go grab a seat.”

The acts that preceded Ellie were actually entertaining—a few songs, a poem or two, and a stand-up act that wasn’t…terrible. Not to say it was good but…you know. 

And then the host, who you assumed was Ellie’s roommate, was waltzing back on to the stage as the audience applauded, her short black hair reflecting almost blue in the spotlight. She was eclectic, all mismatched patterns and silver jewelry that hung from her neck and her wrists and her ears. She was funny and vibrant, commanding the attention of everyone in the room every time she stepped onto the stage to introduce the next act. 

“Alright folks, please give a warm welcome to my best friend, the one and only, Ellie Williams!” She tucked her microphone under her arm before clapping, moving out of the way of the small stool that was behind her. Best friend? Ellie had only said she was her roommate. 

But it didn’t matter, because Ellie was walking on to the stage with her guitar in hand, smiling nervously at the crowd. You clapped as loud as you could, trying to reposition your body so that you could see her slightly better over the heads in front of you, though you doubted she could see you from your seat somewhere in the middle row. 

“Uh, good evening, everyone,” Ellie started, positioning herself on the stool and pulling the microphone down to her level. “I’m gonna sing a little song for you guys, if that’s cool.” There was a bit of scattered applause and Dina whooped loudly from beside you. You smacked her with the back of your hand. 

Your heart was beating out of your chest, partly from the excitement at getting to see Ellie perform, and partly from your second-hand stage fright. Even though you weren’t the one performing, you always seemed to absorb the nerves of the performer, just waiting for them to make a mistake, even if you didn’t want them to. You especially wanted this to go well for Ellie, and you bounced your leg nervously as she positioned her guitar in her lap. 

She strummed the first few chords and you nearly had a heart attack.

C, A-minor, F-major. You could probably play those in your sleep, now. 

“Holy shit,” Dina whispered from beside you, and of course, she knew too, from the hours and hours you spent listening to the song, practicing the song, getting taught the song. 

“Did I drive you away?

I know what you'll say

You say, ‘Oh, sing one we know,’

“Dina,” you whispered back, leaning into her, but not being able to peel your eyes away from Ellie. “Is that…?” But you already knew the answer. 

“Dude. She’s so. Into you.”

“But I promise you this

I'll always look out for you

Yeah, that's what I'll do,

You couldn’t help the smile that slowly spread across your face as you leaned back up, watching Ellie lose herself in the song. Suddenly, you were back in her room, the air thick and heavy, watching her sing softly and strum along when she thought you weren’t watching—that little crease between her eyebrows and the dreamy look in her eyes as she sang with the voice of a thousand angels. 

Maybe you had a hard time believing Ellie was into you, but she picked this song knowing you would be here. There was no denying that. 

“La, la, la, la, o-oh

La, la, la, la, o-oh,

The song ended entirely too soon, and she was smiling, standing up and adjusting the microphone back into a higher position. Applause was erupting from every side of you and you clapped as though you were the only person in the room, as if she could see the intensity in which you showed your recognition and your appreciation and your utter giddiness. 

The host was waltzing on stage again before you knew it, and gave Ellie a hug. You ignored the jealous twinge in your heart, for god’s sake you had literally hung out one time, and the applause continued as she thanked everyone for coming, wrapping her arm around Ellie’s waist and requesting one last round of applause for all the performers. You continued clapping, watching Ellie raise her guitar in the air like a glass of champagne for a toast, before the host whispered something in her ear that made her smile. You again ignored the skip of your heart, instead focusing on Dina’s hand gripping your arm. 

“Oh my god, you have to go say something to her, ask her out, something! The suspense is literally killing me,” she whined, pulling you along as the lights slowly turned back on and people shimmied out of the aisles. 

“I can’t just ask her out, it’s not that easy for me,” you replied.. You wished it was easy for you, you wished you could be more like Dina, just walk right up to her and say: I think I really like you, and we should go out sometime. But your anxiety paralyzed you, rendered you completely helpless when it came to love and lust.

“I swear dude, if I have to sit through any more of your pining and love songs I might request a roommate swap,” Dina said, leading you back to the snack table. “She likes you. And if you can’t see that at this point I don’t know what else to say.” You pouted a bit, like a petulant child, crossing your arms over your chest and surveying the room. Before you could even formulate a response, Ellie was emerging from a group of people who had gathered opposite the table. You quickly uncrossed your arms as she caught your eye and made her way toward you. 

“Oh look, who would have guessed,” Dina muttered, popping a grape into her mouth. She smiled exaggeratedly at Ellie before grabbing a handful of crackers. “I’ll leave the two of you to talk,” and you wished so badly you could flip her off without it being obvious. 

“Hey,” Ellie said quietly, and her voice was almost timid--a laughable comparison to barely five minutes ago when she had the entire audience wrapped around her finger. 

“Ellie,” you breathed, shifting your weight from one foot to another. “Your song choice was…inspired,” you said, wrapping an arm across your body. She looked down at her feet, and you wondered if her cheeks would be rosy when she looked back up. 

“Oh, yeah,” she looked up at you now, and you were right. Except, it wasn’t actually that warm in here. “Well, it’s a good song, you know.” Her hand went to the back of her neck, just like it had before, and you wanted to pull it away, to intertwine your fingers and just tell her, just tell her you want to go out, somewhere where she doesn’t have to teach you to play guitar and you can just talk, and mentally map the freckles that littered her face and learn about how she got that scar in her eyebrow and find out if she’d rather go to a tea house or a coffee shop and fuck, you had to ask her, now, before you lost the courage and your mouth was moving before your brain could catch up, 

“Ellie, I was wondering if--” 

“There you are, superstar!” A voice suddenly came from behind her, and you recognized it immediately. The host--or I guess, Ellie’s roommate--oops, wrong again, Ellie’s best friend, was appearing behind her, grabbing onto her shoulder and looking at her with admiration. Ellie seemed surprised to see her, somehow, as she turned to face her, plastering on a smile that looked…forced. 

“Oh, hey,” she replied, before the raven-haired girl was pulling her into a hug. You stood awkwardly as they embraced, looking down at the ground in an attempt to seem casual. Oh god, you couldn’t believe you were actually about to ask Ellie out on a date. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met,” the girl said abruptly, pulling back as if she’d just noticed your presence. She left an arm around Ellie’s waist, and you noticed the way Ellie suddenly appeared tense. Like, in a bad way. 

You offered the girl a small smile and stuck your hand out politely, giving her your name. She took it and shook firmly, her small hand deceivingly strong. Her eyes were painted with thick, black eyeliner, and they raked up and down your body. You felt like shrinking away under her intimidating stare, averting your eyes after a moment.

“Uh, this is Cat, my roommate,” Ellie said after an awkward pause, giving you a sheepish look. 

“And best friend,” she chimed, pulling her hand away. She leaned into Ellie’s side, resting her head on Ellie’s shoulder and using her free hand to pat her chest. 

“Ellie and I go way back.”

chapter 6 here

[zaenaris]

＃50「Meet his fate」: and today we say goodbye to TR best antagonist

wow, they really gave Kisaki a gay ass weird flash back(?) about Takemichi?

That "I just wanted to be like you" wasn't in the manga (even if, reading between the lines, even from the manga the reader could get there was this feeling involved, beside Kisaki’s superiority/inferiority complex towards Takemichi)

I didn't expect it since his death in the manga is quick and brutal but it's a very good adaptation choice, it makes sense and it explains better Kisaki's contrasting feelings for both Takemichi and Hina. But surely we had some kisatake fan in the anime team for this episode which, again, good??? but really unexpected

I like Kisaki, he's a good villain, but, I'm sorry Truck-kun arriving and doing like in "Mean Girls" is still funny to me (and I talk as someone who appreciate Kisaki as a character and as a villain lol). But after that, the way his limbs are all broken and he's like that on the street it's really sad/horrifying, Wakui was able to show how much pain there was in his dying body in that moment, beside the psychological fact he knew he was dying and didn't want to, he still had so much to do for his evil plan.

They kept unchanged the moments with Inupi and Hakkai on Inupi's bike which is cute, especially considering their past with the Black Dragon, with Taiju as Inupi's boss.

I would have like to see the relationship between the inuneko duo and Hakkai and Yuzuha, prior the BD arc, where of course they're opponents: what I mean, is that I would have liked to see their "everyday life" relationship: did they have to watch over Yuzuha and Hakkai - we know Taiju has a weird/abusive sense of familial love, but he still cares about them and kokonui are his second in commands and most trusted soldiers- or were they indifferent to the younger Shiba Sibling? Something else? we'll never know.

It's also cute considering the Thousand Winter🥹 and Hakkai's birthday pic where he asks Inupi for a strawberry lol

They also kept Koko, that should be on Inupi's bike with him, but he walks away, alone for the first time (and he will be alone from now on, kill me right now)

Also, they closed the season with a weird cliffhanger?

For the other parts we really had some Big Cliffhanger™️, here everyone gets that something is pending but well… I guess they really had no time, they made a faithful adaptation of the manga, there was no time to add anything else. The arc is not really closed like that, we still have to say our proper goodby to Emma, Izana and Kisaki, we still have the inukoko farewell...

...but alas, it is what it is.

I hope we'll get the confirmation for a next season, that sure, will open saying goodbye to the tenjiku arc, -it opens with an ending... weird- but i guess there was no other choice given the pacing of this season

[justmeinadaze]

Take It Out On Me Part 12 (Steddie X Plus Size Reader)

A/N: *taps mic* Is...is this thing on? Am I back on Tumblr? Lol I was totally going to post this last night but I couldn't log in on any of my devices lol

I need you to be proud of me when you read this because it took all my power to not go full "I'm in Control" and leave this chapter with ALL the angst! Lol Make no mistake...*evil laughs* There is angst but I didn't end it with a cliffhanger that would have y'all upset with me until I wrote the next chapter lol Enjoy <3

Warnings: Daddy Steve/Sir Eddie and Plus Size sub reader and all that implies (I regret nothing!), Light smut with all the angst, Y/N is referred to a lot as a whore/slut, mentions of aftermath from the last chapter (blood, cuts, bruises), Eddie talks about his trauma with his parents abandoning him.

There is a phone call and Steve's dialogue is in RED.

I'm not going to lie that's more or less the main theme of this chapter is that feeling OF being abandoned. These three are going through it but thankfully they have each other. This, however, is a completely new feeling to Y/N so I think that's why she reacts the way that she does (you'll see what I mean.)

Word Count: 5109

Your eyes remain on the floor as you sit in the principal’s office, numb to his words as he continues to shout at the other boys in the room. Blood drips from Eddie’s fingers as it flows from his knuckles where he repeatedly punched the other student in the face. Steve’s hair hung in front of his eyes, blocking the cuts and scrapes that currently adorned his own features. 

“2 months. You seriously can’t wait 2 months till you’re out of my school to pull a stunt like this?!”, Mr. Higgins screeched. “Mr. Martin and Mr. Martinez, we do not use that kind of language at our school and we certainly don’t write it.”

“Yeah. That’s why we kicked their ass. Because words like ‘slut’ are not tolerated here at Hawkins High.”, Eddie sassed. 

“You didn’t ‘kick our ass’, freak. You’re just lucky we didn’t get to finish.”

“Didn’t get to finish. I’m sure you’ve heard many women say that to you in the past.”

“Fuck you, Munson!”

“ALRIGHT! That’s enough.” Everyone becomes silent again as the principal rises to his feet. “Everyone is suspended for a week and be glad I don’t bar you from graduation.”

“If I may.”, Mr. C clears his throat as he pats Mr. Higgins shoulder trying to calm him down. “Since Mr. Munson and Mr. Harrington were trying to defend a fellow student being bullied maybe for them, we can cut that in half. Three days instead of a week.”

The principal sighs as you feel his eyes swivel your way. “Y/N, my apologies. I forgot you were here.” He turns back towards his colleague when you don’t look his way. “Did she fight anyone?”

“No. She was the one that they…”

“Okay, okay. I get it. Um, fine. Mr. Munson. Mr. Harrington. You two are suspended for three days and Y/N, go ahead and head home. Take the rest of the day to recoup and we’ll count it as excused, ok?” Again, you don’t answer causing him to exhale once more. “Maybe…we should call your parents to pick you up…”

“Pfft, good luck with that. We heard they gave her to the Harringtons. How much are whores now a day, Stevie?”

Steve stood up angrily and your teacher quickly intervened. “Out now! And make no mistake, your parents will be called.” The other boys grumbled under their breath as they left slamming the door behind them. “You three follow me.” 

As he leads you out into the hallway, Masie jumps up from the floor she had been sitting on. “Y/N! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…I was just surprised… what-what happened?”

“Miss Collins, go back to class.”

Your best friend huffs as her jaw tightens. “No! She’s my friend and I’ve known her way longer these two. Before Steve Harrington grew a fucking conscience and Eddie Munson decided to meddle in her life like she was his personal barbie doll!”

Both men froze in place causing Mr. C to push them forward till he reached his now empty classroom. “Sit. All four of you.”, he commanded. “Except Mr. Munson. Stand in front of me here.” Eddie cautiously did as he was told as the teacher dug into his desk, pulling out a gigantic first aid box. “You’re not a teacher if you aren’t ready for everything.”

He reaches out to grab the metalhead’s hand, sliding off his rings before he begins cleaning the man’s wound. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a feeling. Since detention last year, I noticed the three of you hanging out more. To be honest, it was kind of nice to see Y/N get out of her shell.”

Masie scoots closer to you as she brushes some of your hair out of your face with her fingers. Eddie winced as his teacher began wrapping his hand with gauze. “Like almost everyone in this town, I grew up with your parents. Al Munson and I had a few classes together before he dropped out of school. Bill Harrington swung his dick around these halls like a fucking peacock. The original King Harrington for sure.”

He tapped Eddie up before gesturing towards an empty seat and beckoning Steve forward. When the boy didn’t move, Mr. C rolled his eyes as he grabbed his kit and kneeled in front of him to clean his face. 

“Your parents, Y/N, were just troublemakers, I swear to God. I remember one time your dad pulled the fire alarm to get everyone outside just so he’d have an audience when he sang ‘Let’s Stay Together’ by Al Green in a microphone in the quad to your mom.”, he chuckles at the memory as your eyes close and a tear falls down your cheek. 

“After they got married, I guess they decided to put things like that behind them. I never knew Wayne. He had already graduated when we started school and I believe trying to take care of your grandpa. The stories I heard; your uncle always seemed like a good man.”

He bandages Steve’s eye and hands him an ice pack to hold against it. After putting everything away, he comes around to lean against the front of his desk. 

“Boys, your fathers only ever cared about themselves even after they got married and started a family. Y/N, your parents knew they were in love the minute they met each other. I know Bill is over exaggerating this thing here because he needs to look like the good guy so I know the rumors aren’t true. I also know that if you are in a relationship with these two it’s real because you were raised by two people who actually made me believe love exists. You’re not a slut, Y/N, and I’m sorry this is happening because people fucking suck in this town.”

“You two…”, he points towards the guys. “…I have watched grow up, scared you would repeat the pattern of your parents. Eddie, you’ve been in trouble more times than I can count and Steve, while it may sound crass, Masie is right. You were a bit of an asshole.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Today, maybe.”, he raises an eyebrow in her direction as she smiles. 

“Since last year, I’ve noticed a change in all three of you. If this was toxic or bad in any way, I would recommend ending it now but… what I’m trying to say is don’t let these kids or your parents get to you like they did today. You have two more months. Then you can get out of here and do or be whatever you want. Fuck these narrow-minded people.”

Silently, you stand from your chair, exit the classroom and numbly head towards the parking lot. You hear feet behind you before a small hand touches your shoulder. 

“Y/N… you want to come over?”

You aggressively nod at Masie’s question as the tears start to flow more freely now. As she drives away from the school, you hear the boys screaming your name as they try and run to catch up to the car.

###########

“This…this is my fault, Maze. I don’t know what to do. I just…I just want to go home. I don’t want my parents to hate me.”

“Honey, they don’t hate you. They just…they don’t understand. If I’m being honest, I barely do.”, she sighs. “But I’ve seen Eddie and Steve with you especially after that game. They were so scared those three days you were at home. They asked about you every day.”

“I don’t understand it either. I didn’t ask for this. I just wanted to be left alone! Now I’m ruining people’s lives…”

“Hm. That’s very self-righteous of you.” Your eyes meet hers as you glare angrily at her assessment. “Y/N, you’re acting like Eddie and Steve don’t have minds of their own and can make their own choices. They CHOSE to be with you. They CHOSE to pursue you. I imagine they didn’t have a choice of falling in love with you but that just comes naturally when people are around you.” You smirk as she laughs. 

“Can I stay here tonight?”

“Of course, but I think you should call them at least. Let them know you’re okay.” She reaches for her phone, dancing it in front of your face before you concede and take it from her. “I’m going to go downstairs to get us some comfort food. Take your time.”

“Y/N?!” Eddie answers the phone after one ring. “Baby, is that you?”

“Hey Ed. Is, um, is Steve there to?” There’s silence on the other end. It takes him so long to answer you thought the line disconnected. 

“Yeah, he’s…he’s right here. Are you still with Masie? Is she in the room?”

“I’m at her house right now. She’s in the kitchen getting food for us.”

“Y/N, why are you using our names then if we’re alone.”

“E-Eddie, I…” Your eyes start to tear up again as he huffs into the phone, listening as he talks to Steve in the background.

“Do you know where her friend lives?”

“No. Why the fuck would I know where Masie Collins lives?”

“Steve, something’s wrong. She sounds different and she’s not using our titles.”

“You don’t think…”

“Y/N, tell us where you are. We’ll come get you so we can talk, ok?”

“I-I-I… No.”

“Y/N…Think really hard about what you’re doing right now.”

“I am. I…this is my fault, Eddie. I can’t have you both ruining your futures and struggling because of me. You got hurt! Twice! Steve got cut off. All of our parents are falling apart. At least… at least if they think what they think already at school, Steve can go back to ‘King’ status and you can find someone you don’t have to constantly keep fighting for!”

“What about you, Miss high and mighty? Just going to live with your red-letter A slut badge alone for the next couple of months? What will you be doing while Steve and I will apparently knee deep in pussy and favoritism from the student body and our parents?”

“Did she really fucking say that?”

“Hm. Got real quiet all of the sudden. Come on, sweetheart. I really want to know what the plan is. What’s going to happen to you?”

You placed your hand over your mouth to stifle the cries as you heard the sound of a lighter close on his end. 

“What’s the matter, baby? You don’t know? I do. Things are just going to keep getting harder. These kids are still going to pull shit like they did today but you’ll be handling it alone. Some of the meatheads may get some ideas…be a bit grabbier than usual. I mean if you want to wear the moniker so badly maybe you can give them what they want. Steve and I have shown you a lot, haven’t we, princess?”

“Please…”, you beg. 

“…fucking…I can’t…bitch…Eddie hang up.”

“Calm down, Harrington.”

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down! I fucking hate this! She thinks she’s doing us a goddamn favor?! Thanks for your sacrifice, Y/N! Now I have fucking no one! I gave you everything and I trusted you! I guess it doesn’t fucking matter now since apparently I’ll be rolling in money and fucking anything with legs…” His voice cracked as he spoke again, tearing your heart in half. “I thought her opinion about me changed. I guess she still sees me as that asshole from junior year. Fuck… I’m so stupid, dude.”

You break as they listen to you cry. Even though they are upset, it kills them to hear the sound. 

“Y/N… if you think we’d stop fighting for you just because you break up with us or whatever…then you aren’t as smart as I thought you were. We can play this game if you want and it will fucking hurt but we meant what we said to your parents. We love you.”

“I love you to, Sir. You and Daddy.”

“There she is. There’s our girl. Tell me where you are, baby. Please.”

You quietly hang up the phone, laying on your side in Masie’s bed as you close your eyes and sob. Thin arms suddenly wrap around your stomach as your friend hugs you to her chest. 

“It’s okay, Y/N. Everything will be okay.”

########

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to school today?”

“I can’t, Maze. I can’t handle all that today. I can’t handle seeing their empty desks.”

“You should go see them then.”

You shake your head as rub your arms. “I, um, I can’t. I’m going to go see my parents and then see what happens from there.”

“Can’t or won’t?” She nods when you don’t answer. “Y/N, I’m your best friend and I love you with all my heart. That’s why I’m doing this, okay?”

“Doing what?”

She looks out the window before opening the front door with a big grin right as Eddie had lifted his fist to knock. “Please come into my house. My parents are out of town this week but that doesn’t mean you can smoke inside and please no sex at least not on my bed.”

Your eyes widen as both boys slowly enter her home. 

“I may have come upstairs too early yesterday and heard your conversation.”, Masie sighs as she comes over to take your hand. “I’ve never heard you cry like that and it frightened me a bit. I get that you think you’re doing what’s best for everyone especially them but it’s not fair to make that decision for them.” She gently kisses your cheek before reaching down to grab her backpack. “So I *69ed the number and gave them my address. I love you! Bye!”

Eddie smiles after her as she closes her front door and disappears. 

“I like her.”

They both looked awful; like they hadn’t gotten any sleep. The metalhead reeked of cigarettes and both their faces were starting to bruise from where they had gotten hit. You slowly stepped forward, reaching out to touch Steve’s face but the boy quickly pulled back and moved away from you. 

“No. I can’t…handle you touching me right now.”

Your hand recoiled as you blinked back tears. “Leave please.”

“No. Your friend is right. We deserve to have a say in this.”

“A say in what, Eddie?! What do I have to do to get you guys to understand!? I don’t want to be with you anymore!”

The man sighs as he turns towards his friend. “Last ditch effort it seems. She’s trying to hurt us to push us away.”

“Yeah, well that won’t work. She already tore my heart out last night.”

“And you’re still here, Steve. You were right! My opinion of you hasn’t changed. You’re still that fucking dumbass, preppy daddy’s boy I always thought you were! And you!”

“What about me, babe? Go ahead. I’m waiting.” Eddie started moving forward, pushing you with his chest as he tried to corner you. “Need some help? I’m a freak. I’m like my dad…a no-good trouble making bad boy.”

You loop around him as you run up the stairs, his feet heavy behind you. You try to slam the bedroom door in his face but he blocks it with his hand. “Come on, Y/n! I’m waiting.”

“Fuck you!”

“Oh, I can do that to, if you want. We can go back to how things used to be especially if you want everyone to continue thinking you’re a slut. Let’s be honest though, they are probably going to think that anyway but at least we can still play with you.”

“We can play this game better, little girl. You think you can hurt us to get us to go away?” Steve sat on the bed as he watched you two talk, his tone laced with venom. “You know what, fuck it, Munson. She wants to go back to being our little fuck toy again we can do that. She doesn’t love us anymore anyway, right? RIGHT?!”

Your hair blocked your face as your head hung down to your chest. Eddie stepped closer to you as he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper to make sure you fully opened your ears and heard what he was about to say. 

“Tell us you don’t love us anymore. Look Steve and I in the eyes and say those words. As soon as we hear them, we’ll leave. We’ll disappear from your life and you’ll never see us again after graduation. These next two months, we’ll leave you be and won’t even look your way. But I promise you, sweetheart, that won’t change how we feel about you. You’ll always be ours.”

Your eyes meet his soft brown eyes as you collapse in his arms. He lifts you up, wrapping your legs around his waist as he carries you to the bed and takes a seat. Moving his shoulder, his palms grip your face as he forces you to look at him. 

“I’m just…tired of people…getting hurt.”, you hiccupped. “These past couple…of nights…I dream about my…parents and how…they called me a slut. When we got to school…I saw what they wrote on the board…and the blood on your faces—”

“I know, baby. I know. It was scary. You’ve been through a lot these past few days. We weren’t looking to start a fight. Steve tried to erase it before you got there but those kids got in his face… they swung first.”

“Daddy… I’m sorry. I don’t think of you the same way I did before. You’re…not stupid. I wish I could protect you guys…I was trying to…”

“I know, Y/N. I just need some time, okay?”

You nod, curling into Eddie’s chest as you cry. “Princess, you don’t have to protect us. It’s our job to take care of you.” He rocks you back and forth as he continues to try and sooth you. “You do so much for us already. I meant what I said. No one has ever loved me or cared about me the way you do.”

“Come on. We should…head back to your trailer.”, Steve sighs as he stands and heads for the van. 

########

You left Masie a note telling her what happened and that you’d see her at school tomorrow. As you entered the trailer, Eddie told you about how Wayne gave him some money and since you weren’t there, he had run to the nearest store to grab some clothes he thought you would like including the pajamas he handed you to get changed into. Steve was silent the entire way home, lost in his own thoughts. 

While the metalhead went outside to smoke a cigarette, an idea hit you. You wondered to where you remembered seeing Eddie’s uncle own collection of tapes, browsing them until you found what you were looking for. 

Without making eye contact, you swooped back into the bedroom where Steve was laying on the mattress. After inserting the tape, you turned to face him, hands laced behind your back. 

“Let’s Stay Together” began playing through the speakers, startling the man as he turned to face you. You smirked as you grabbed a brush on the dresser and held it to your lips like a microphone. 

“I, I'm I'm so in love with you Whatever you want to do Is all right with me 'Cause you make me feel so brand new And I want to spend my life with you.”

“Y/N, no. Not right now.”, Steve responds but you can tell its half-hearted. 

“Let me say that since, baby, since we've been together Ooh, loving you forever Is what I need Let me, be the one you come running to I'll never be untrue.”

You grin as he softly smiles in your direction. Eddie, hearing the music, comes in to lean against the doorframe as he watches you dance and sing. Swaying your hips, you move towards him. 

“Oh baby Let's, let's stay together ('gether) Lovin' you whether, whether Times are good or bad, happy or sad Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad.”

After leaning up to kiss his lips, you focus back on Steve, reaching for his hands to pull him to his feet. As you continue to sing, his palms land on your hips as he starts moving with you making your smile grow as your face presses against his chest. He clings to you, threading his fingers through your hair as the song ends and a new one begins. 

“I’m so sorry, Daddy. I love you so much.”

“Yeah, baby. Me to.”

***

That night you three crashed before the sun had fully descended, completely exhausted from the last few days. 

The sound of you groaning in your sleep caused Eddie to grumble awake a little after midnight. His hand that was currently resting on your hip casually drifted up to brush your hair back and caress your face. 

“It’s…it’s ok, baby. You’re…ok…”

Your face scrunched together as your body pushed back against Steve’s chest, jostling his eyes open. 

“Wha…huh. I’m here!”

“SH! She’s having a nightmare again.”

The man behind you sighed as his arm tightened around your frame. “We’re here, baby girl. You’re safe.” Eddie’s eyes scanned your face as his friend soothed you, his own thumb gently rubbing against your skin trying to calm you. 

The metalhead scooted himself closer to you, tracing his fingers along your lips as you continued to mumble. 

“Y/N, come back to us, sweetheart.”, he whispers as he tenderly kissed your forehead. As he continued to place soft kisses along your face, his hand slowly slid under the waistband of your panties, cupping your sex in his palm. “Come back, baby.”

Eddie’s fingers gradually dip through your folds, circling your clit as his lips land on yours. Steve’s own mouth sucks on your shoulders and neck as his hands glide under your shirt, rubbing your soft tummy. 

“I love you, honey. Everything is ok. Your Daddy and Master are here.”

Your face steadily began to relax as your body curved into the boy behind you, you hand reaching out to land on the other boy’s back as you tried to pull him closer. 

“I love you to, princess. My beautiful, perfect girl. Can you open those gorgeous eyes for me?”

A soft moan left your lips as Eddie thrust two fingers into your core. “Ed-Eddie?”

“Yeah, baby. I’m right here. Can you feel me touching you, pretty girl?”

You subtly nod your head, still not fully awake and aware. “Steve?”

“I’m here to, Y/N. I’m not going anywhere.” His hands slid further up your body as he massaged your breasts, rough fingertips playing with your nipples. 

“Can you do what I asked, little one? Can you open your eyes and look at me?” Your hand abruptly clings to his shoulder as your eyes open meeting his beautiful chocolate ones. “There she is. Back where she belongs.”

Your grip moves to his bicep, your other hand holding on to Steve’s under the pillow as Eddie pumped his fingers faster. 

“Please…”, you whimper as his forehead presses to your own. “Please, Sir. Make me cum.”

The sound of your slick filled his room as his hand moved faster between your legs. Roughly, you reached for him, yanking his lips to yours; the move itself startling him as he wasn’t used to you being forceful like that. 

You panted against his face as you came hard, tears flowing heavily down your cheeks as you slowly came back down from your high. The problem was… you couldn’t stop them. You fell asleep into a nightmare and woke up in heaven. Even though it would have been because of you, you almost lost them and for almost a day you had. The love they felt for you, how good they made you feel, the dates, movie nights in, the protectiveness, the way Eddie made you laugh, and the way Steve made you smile… for a moment it was gone. 

“Y/N, baby, you’re leaving us again. Come back.”

You hugged your arms around him, pulling the metalhead as close as you could before tugging at Steve’s hand to bring him closer to your back. 

“Honey…”

“I’m sorry.”, you whispered. “I just wanted to help…”

#######

Your father flung open the front door angrily after looking through the peep hole and seeing both boys on his front step. 

“Get away from my house.”

“We’re not here to cause any trouble. We just wanted to get some of her things so she has what she needs till she graduates.”

Eddie decided before they got there that Steve should do the bulk of the talking, afraid that either he would agitate things or not be able to control his temper. 

“Look, she wants to play adult and live this kind of life she can buy new things.”

“Sweetie.”, he exhaled at the sound of your mom’s voice. “Where is she?”

“She’s at school.”

“Why aren’t you two there?”, your dad asks in a sarcastic tone. “Fighting I’m guessing by your faces. Jesus, my daughter she can pick them. TWO of them it seems!”

“We got into a fight defending your daughter because some assholes decided to call her a slut in front of the entire classroom!”, Eddie snarled in their direction. “Yeah, but we’re the fuckers.”

“Eddie…”, the other boy warned. “Please, sir. Wayne has already done enough taking us in. Let us do this and we’ll be out of your hair.”

Your mom lightly pushes him aside and gestures towards your room. They quickly head that way, grab a duffle bag from your closet, and begin filling it with clothes. 

“Did she not want to come herself?”

“Not exactly, ma’am. She doesn’t know we’re here. We, um…never mind.”, Steve smiles politely as he focuses on his task. 

Eddie softly grins as he looks at pictures along your desk. There were so many images of you and Masie together along your vanity mirror. In frames, you had a lot of photos of you and your family including one of you making funny faces with your cousins in New York. He paused, however, when he moved some things to the side and found some images of you three hidden under some of your school papers. 

“No, please, tell me. I want to hear it.”, you mother sits on your bed as she waits for his answer. 

There was a polaroid you had taken when they were finally able to take you to the beach. The sun paled in comparison to your smile that day as you constantly beamed at them while swimming in the water or pushing your toes into the sand. You suggested a photo and Steve held it up high to get all three of you as you kissed his cheek and Eddie wrapped his arm around your neck. 

“Fun at the beach! 1984 : ) I love these idiots!”

Another picture was one Steve must of taken when he took you to that play. You were wearing a gorgeous blue gown he had bought you. You didn’t know but his friend had spent hours with him wondering the mall trying to find something you would like. Steve kept insisting it had to be “beautiful like her”. In the photo, your back was leaning against his chest and he had his arm wrapped around your chest as his cheek pressed to yours.

“Night at the theater 1983. The play was great but the company was better *Muah!*”

“She’s been crying a lot these passed two days. At first, we thought it was the shock of everything and what happened in school yesterday but… she misses you both. After what your husband did, we were afraid that…even if she came with us…her having to see you two mad at her and looking down on her…it would just hurt her more.”

This photo Eddie didn’t even know you had taken. You held the camera above you both as he slept, his back had a good gleam of sweat still reflecting off his pale skin. Some of your make up had smeared down your eyes and your head was turned, looking at him with eyes full of compassion. 

“Finally saw Dio with this goofball <3 1983.”

“We meant what we said, Mrs. Y/L/N. We love your daughter and I’m sorry but we aren’t going to let you guys break her heart again.”

Eddie grabbed all your pictures and a couple of the frames, throwing them on top of your clothes as he cuts Steve off to zip up the bag. 

“Come on, man. I think we have everything.”, the metalhead mumbled as he started heading for the hallway. 

As they reached your front door, Steve turned around to face them both. “Thank you. Once we get an apartment or something we’ll come back for the rest. Her things and mine won’t all fit in Wayne’s trailer.”

“Both my parents abandoned me.”, Eddie blurted. Everyone in the room froze in place as they faced him. “My mother ran off to protect herself and never came back for me. She knew how he was especially with me and she left anyway. My father chose to continue to break the law instead of shaping up and being a dad. “

“Steve’s parent’s abandon him in that big ass house. For as long as I’ve known him, his dad was either on vacation or a business trip in another country with his mother. When Mr. Harrington is in Hawkins, he’s focused on his own business instead of his son. When we met Y/N, I’ll be the first to admit we were both assholes. It’s always been amusing to me how she thinks she doesn’t do enough for us yet she helped make us who we are today. She’s sweet, funny, extremely tough, so beautiful…I mean I could go on!”, he chuckles before continuing. 

“She tried breaking up with us the other night because she thought it would make everyone happy and according to her best friend it nearly broke her. I want you to think about that while you two are sitting alone in this house. That you would rather abandon her or have her be unhappy then to accept that she’s in love in with two people. That you would jump to calling her a whore then to understand how she’s feeling. She deserves better than that.”

With that he turned on his heels and headed for his van. Steve gave your parents one final nod, silently agreeing with Eddie before following him out the door.

##########

@manda-panda-monium @sherrylyn628 @eddiesguitarskills

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[mamashenanigans]

Okay. I’ve had time to process the spoilers for chapter 407: Paranormal Orphan.

Here are my thoughts:

-WTF?! They are twins?! What is it with Japanese mangaka and having unhinged twin relationships?! I’m looking at you, Nightow.

-AFO was born with his Quirk activated. Stealing nutrients from his mother then desperately feeding off of her corpse. Stole her Quirk too and seems to have some sentimental value in it as he still uses it often to this day.

-Low-key, I think there’s a hint here that the genetic change in babies and pre-pubescent kids started as some sort of STD that evolved considering their mom was a prostitute and “contracted” an illness. That’s just me, though.

-The first person he ever had was Yoichi and he held his hand right after birth. Also: JFC THAT’S A BIG BOY

-AFO is a victim of his Quirk like the other villains(Toga, Touya, Tenko). He was born wanting to possess things. I don’t like the whole “he was born evil” narrative. Yeah, he looks like a crazy ass Omen baby, but it makes sense he’d think the way he does.

-AFO is also an unreliable narrator here as this is all from his POV

-He says something to the effect of (we’ll know more once we get the scanlations) how, even though Yoichi can’t give him anything like he wants from everyone else, he’s still “his”.

-So, did he just get up and start walking and taking care of his brother out of sheer will when he was still a baby or did someone pick them up and raise them to the point when AFO wanted something from them and killed them when he didn’t get it?

-Yoichi still believes there is some good in his brother because he held his hand as a baby. 😭 Poor kid

-Poor wittle Yoichi getting kicked because he threw something at AFO. For how they’ve had to live, it makes sense AFO would react that way…in a manner of speaking.

-Yoichi learning to read from comics he finds in rubble/a dump. AFO takes notice and sits next to him. He then likes the part where the author says “One for All, All for One.” He should have had a name prior that he must have given himself as Yoichi has one. Though it would make sense that AFO named Yoichi himself as “first gift” since he was the first thing he ever had.

-AFO being jealous of the Glowing Baby is pretty spot on. All of this seems to hint that AFO and Yoichi were the first to have powers considering how AFO talks about the Glowing Baby and the 50 kids born in India.

-The last page is quite a cliffhanger and it sucks we have to wait 2 weeks for the next part(there’s no way this isn’t a two parter).

-How AFO is thinking about Yoichi leaving him is intensely possessive and reminds me of how Vader choked Padme when he thought she was betraying/leaving him. This also ties into how AFO didn’t know he had killed Yoichi.

-My guess is that AFO lashed out and sliced off Yoichi’s hand in a possessive rage. He was so startled by his own action that it gave the 3rd user time to grab Kudo and Yoichi then speed out of there.

-Is it just me or does anyone else hope AFO kept Yoichi’s hand? Parallel to Tomura having all of his family’s hands. I sure hope he did because I need even more twisted twin obsession.

-It’s most likely Yoichi lived long enough after this(and maybe with his blood) transferred OFA to Kudo. He then died from his blood loss and that’s why AFO didn’t know he had killed him.

-AFO crying over Yoichi’s death maybe the first and only time he’s ever cried. Yoichi did mean something to him, maybe even more than a “thing”, but he didn’t realize it until that one moment. He blames Kudo for his death because of the mental gymnastics he has to go through to convince himself that there’s no way he would have hurt the only person he’s ever actually loved—possessive as it may be. If Kudo hadn’t have taken him from the vault, he wouldn’t have reacted and cut off Yoichi’s hand, and therefore, Yoichi would still be alive.

-If he takes OFA with Yoichi’s soul in it, then Yoichi will be his again and “I totally didn’t kill him. See! He’s still alive!”

-The internet’s hot-takes that AFO is homophobic because he went full possessive Vader over Yoichi is weird. I said it.

-A part of me wants there to be a cliffhanger where we think Bakugo may have defeated AFO. We then get the intense fight between Tomura and Deku. Deku is about to win, however that’s going to happen, but then AFO shows up around the age he was when he kicked Yoichi, and he’s holding Bakugo as a threat, demanding Deku give him his brother back. But that’s just me. Again.

Anyway, I can admit when I’m wrong about a villain’s backstory. It wouldn’t be the first time and I honestly should have expected something like this considering Horikoshi going full on horror during this Final War arc. However, I don’t think AFO being born with his Quirk activated and “wanting to take” necessarily makes him “born evil.” The twins still had to survive on the streets as orphans, anti-meta people believing AFO is a diseased heathen and never wanting to help either of them. So, he took on exactly what they thought of him. It’s actually quite sad when you stop to think about it.

I’m going to be frothing at the mouth for the next two weeks to see how this backstory ends. Since it started with AFO going nuts and thinking Bakugo is Kudo, I’m assuming we’ll get further context of AFO’s thoughts when he’s crying.

[feralportalmaster]

I present: a word-barf of notes I took while watching The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

Not sure that’s how the tardis works but whatever

Hey the whole gang is here

Oh FINALLY we’re talking about the old woman

SUSAN??? AS IN SUSAN FOREMAN??? Did not see that one coming

Oh cmon not the evil tech giant trope that’s like the most overdone trope in the book

FUCK OFF WITH THE ANAGRAMS I hate anagrams

Sharpen the image?? Bruh

FUCK YEAH ROSE NOBLE JOINS THE PARTY!!

Mel is a slay honestly

“Hiding myself away” goddamnit

FUCK OFF WITH THE FOURTH WALL BREAKING

Oh yeah wait does that mean River is Susan’s grandma? Or would it be someone else?

“A Phoenix is just a bird until it burns” goes way harder than it should

Isn’t that just the Animus from Assassin’s Creed?

I just realised that Ruby would’ve been born a week before 10 went back in time to see Rose before he regenerated

Don’t remind me of the goblins

Jeez the waterworks feel excessive

He’s gonna die

Actually forget what I said about the waterworks Ruby needs a hug

Big ol’ cloud of death my old friend

Alexa, play Curses by The Crane Wives

Doctor he was waving so many death flags he may as well have been communicating in semaphore, you have far worse to punch a hole in a wall for

“Doctor who?” UGHHHH

So she’s astral projecting???

Hehe the tardis farted

*scanning sounds* says here you’re gay

Hell yeah Susan says eat the rich

ENOUGH WITH THE ANAGRAMS

glitching text what is this a late 2010s indy game?

…should I know who Sutekh is?? Is he from Stargate??

AWOOP jumpscare

Vecna looking ass

COME ON THATS THE MOST INFURIATING CLIFFHANGER EVER ARE YOU KIDDING ME??