#Hopefully I finish by Wednesday?

[angelpuns]

working on smthn really special that I HOPE I can finish! Also ignore the weird anatomy I'm currently just trying to get the general look of it down :) Also if you wanna guess in the replies or smhtn that's be fun!

[sky--phantom]

old photo mode pics from ME1 (played in 2022) bc nostalgia

[intramoon]

[Previous] [Next] | ♫ I.F.L/Downside/baby bull - Brockhampton Transcription under the cut.

Wednesday: Are you cooking for a village?

Amelia: Sort of. [soft chuckle] It's for us, but Penny and I are going out. I said I'd make her breakfast before we left.

Wednesday: Noted, I'll take my plate outside.

Amelia: You don't have to eat outside.

Wednesday: Rather that than Penny's eyes burning holes in the back of my head.

Amelia: I wish I had an explanation or knew why she won't come around.

-

[doorbell] [front door opens]

Amelia: Wait your outfit is so cute!

Penny: Thank you! It's been sitting in my closet. I finally decided to wear it.

Amelia: Now I feel underdressed. [soft chuckle]

Penny: No no, you are so cute what are you talking about!

Penny: What are you making, it smells good and I'm starving.

[leaves rustling]

-

[flick of the lighter]

-

Miles: Hey, I don't mean to bother you I just wanted to introduce myself to my neighbors.

Wednesday: We need to get a house in the middle of nowhere.

Miles: That's easier when you live near a familiar face.

-

Wednesday: What a fucking nightmare.

[osamusriceballs]

Kinktober Day 25 <3

Iwaizumi x striptease

Warnings: NSFW, fem reader

Words: ~ 1,4 k

Kinktober Masterlist II -> Next day

"You're so fucking hot."

A low groan escapes his lips as his hips arch into yours while you straddle his lap. You continue to kiss his neck, your hands gently resting on his shoulders to maintain your balance on his muscular thighs. Athletic trainer? You almost snort. He looks more like an athlete himself. Iwaizumi's hands are restless, alternating between gripping your hips to sensually thrust into you and exploring the curves and contours of your body.

"You too," you sheepishly look up and smile at him, your cheeks warming as you admire his attractive face up close. The intense eye contact continues for a few moments, with both of you remaining silent, only the sound of your soft breaths filling the room.

That is until you can't resist any longer and begin to squirm on his lap. "Come here." He tilts his head and easily connects his lips with yours, much to your relief. You feel yourself melting into the kiss, savoring the soft caress of his lips against yours and the gentle increase of pressure. You moan as his tongue grazes your lower lip, silently requesting more access, to which you eagerly oblige by parting your lips.

Your passionate make-out session is suddenly interrupted by the loud music coming from the closed front door, undoubtedly from the new neighbors next door. You pull back slightly at the noise, just enough to notice a slight frown on his face, and he sighs deeply while squeezing your hips. Since the new neighbors moved in next door, they've made a habit of playing loud music every Saturday night, making you feel like you're in a crowded club. Their music is usually energetic and intense, probably used for home workouts, but tonight's music is different. It's a slow, sensual melody that makes you want to sway your hips as you cling to Iwaizumi.

You both exchange glances while the music plays, and his initial frown quickly dissipates along with your disappointment of the music ruining your sweet moment. "Dance for me?" He suddenly breaks the silence with a gleam of excitement in his eyes, his happiness evident as he gazes expectantly at you. "Really?" you hesitantly ask, feeling somewhat perplexed by the unexpected request.

"Hmm. The music is perfect for this." He grins, his expression so tender and affectionate that you give him one last peck on the lips, pressing your lips against his long enough to elicit a groan from him before you finally get up.

Your movements are initially stiff as you're not quite sure how to proceed, but as you notice his leg bouncing in anticipation, you decide to go with the flow. You're convinced that you can't go wrong; Iwaizumi has adored, praised, and cherished your body so many times that you can't imagine him ever being disappointed in anything you do.

You slowly dance to the music, gently swaying your body while maintaining eye contact with him. You do a little twirl, just enough to let your skirt flutter a bit, earning an approving hum from him. "Always so fucking pretty for me," he runs his hands over his pants and takes a deep breath, his eyes tracking every movement of your body.

"What should I take off first, Hajime?" you ask, batting your eyelashes as seductively as possible. His leg stops bouncing at your question, and he quickly licks his lips before leaning forward ever so slightly. "You're letting me choose?" You feel a shiver run down your spine at his expectant gaze, your body growing warmer as you stand before him, swaying to the music.

"Your shirt. I think it would look better on the floor." He grins, watching as you shift your weight from one foot to the other, slowly reaching for the hem of your shirt. "You don't like it, then?" You ask with a teasing smile, and he immediately shakes his head. "No, I love it! It's my favorite color on you." You raise your eyebrows at his statement, mentally noting to wear this color more often.

"Oh? Should I keep it on, then?" You let your hands fall to your sides, ensuring that you continue to sway to the music and let your hands wander down your sides.

"Baby," he groans in frustration, his hands caressing the fabric of his pants once more, and you decide to give in. You bring your hands back to the hem of your shirt and slowly lift it. You expose inch by inch, his gaze fixed on the movement of your hands as it trails down your chest, leaving your upper body clad only in an almost see-through lacy bra. Once you've finally pulled the shirt over your head, you hear his breath hitch. You know how much he adores the bra and the matching panties, that's why you chose to wear them today to surprise him - the perfect choice as it seems.

"What next?" You ask, your voice slightly higher pitched than usual, conveying how hot and bothered he's making you feel with the way he watches you with his bright green eyes, much like a predator eyeing its prey, ready to devour. "The skirt." His response is so quick that you know he thought about it while you were undressing, but that was exactly the effect you aimed for: to stimulate his imagination and to make his mind go crazy. You sway your hips just a bit slower, maintaining eye contact to intensify the tension while you unzip your skirt from the side, making sure to caress all of your exposed skin. The fabric falls down to your feet as you pull it over your hips, leaving you in a matching set of lace, almost bare in front of him. You don't feel the cold at all, not when Iwaizumi's gaze is so fiery and intense. The bulge in his pants is clearly visible, and you're relieved that the dark material of your panties hides the damp spot, which is nearly invisible from the outside.

"The bra next?" you tilt your head while you speak, your fingers fumbling with the cups of your bra as you wait for his response.

"Not yet. I want to savor you a bit. Do a twirl for me, love." You hold your breath for a moment and quickly nod, presenting your body from various angles as he watches attentively, his cock almost throbbing at the sight of you dancing so seductively only for him. Only for his eyes.

You keep your eyes on him when you bring your hands the the clasp of your bra, and this time he does not interfere. You fumble just for a second with it before you manage to unhook it, your body shivering in excitement. You let the fabric run down your shoulders, the movement feeling like a caress, and you find yourself wishing that he would finally touch you. That he would run his hands down your shoulders and kiss you and show you how much he loves you.

The bra joins the other clothes on the ground, and you let your hands roam along your body, touching yourself softly while you dance to the music. "You can't even imagine how sexy you look right now, love. So fucking sexy." He runs his hand through his dark hair, swallowing hard and raking his gaze over your body. He sounds so turned on, lust evident on his face, the tension in the room almost unbearable at this point.

You bite your lip and bring your hands to the hem of your panties to finish the show, but Iwaizumi moves quickly and catches your wrists before you can pull them down. You stare at him surprised, your eyes widened while you wordlessly let him pull you towards the bed until your back meets the soft mattress and he hovers over you. His hands go to your ankles and spread your legs, your core throbbing at this action, aching to be touched when he makes you feel even more exposed in your current position. Your jaw drops when he leans down and presses a kiss on your stomach, his teeth grazing at the lace of your panties, and you squirm under him when his hot breath meets your skin. A grin adorns his lips when he pulls the material back, just enough until it loudly snaps against your body.

"Just lay back and let me do the rest, love. I'll take care of this myself."

[hai-nae]

nothin new, just the first few attempt doodles. enjoy catface jack from w/e old comic variation yr etcetc

[itwoodbeprefect]

Fic Writing Review 2024 🌈

i did this last year and tagged a bunch of people, and this year i'm going to continue the tradition but not tag anyone, i think, because i'm very late. but if you're reading this and you've posted anything to ao3 in 2024, consider yourself tagged, and please tag me if you still do it! i'd love to see other people's lists!

for me this was, uh. probably my least productive year since i really truly made the switch to english fic (2018), and it's definitely no 2019, when i posted 56 fics. but not every year can be a 2019 (or should be one, frankly), so that's okay.

-

Words and Fics (on ao3) 📚

words posted: 18,404

fics posted: 12! of which 2 were technically late crossposts from starsky & hutch fandom events in 2023 (though i also wrote a 2024 s&h advent calendar fic that is yet to make it to ao3, so if we really do the math we maybe get to 11 finished works. but i'll stick with those 12 posted within the timeframe for the rest of this, for convenience's sake, and because 1 fic per month makes a nice round average.)

first fic: With every guitar string scar on my hand, a bad buddy pat/pran fic, on jan 24th

last fic: By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol), a thame-po heart that skips a beat fic (which is, well. thame/po), on dec 28th

-

Ships and Fandoms ⚓

according to ao3:

Starsky & Hutch (5)

แค่เพื่อนครับเพื่อน | Bad Buddy: the Series (TV) (3)

Hawaii Five-0 (2010) (2)

เธม-โป้ Heart That Skips a Beat | Thame-Po: Heart That Skips a Beat (TV) (1)

บ้านหลอน ON SALE | Peaceful Property (TV) (1)

the most shocking thing here by far is that there are only two (2) h50 fics on this list. it doesn't even feel that way! i still spent a really good chunk of time thinking about h50 fic, it just didn't amount to much in terms of actual finished products. starsky and hutch is still going strong (relatively speaking, at least), and last year i noted that i wished i'd gotten any of my bad buddy projects posted, which clearly sort of worked out for me this year, though there's still More. the other two are two thai series that took me by surprise, which, hey, fingers crossed that will keep happening, because i really need to start writing some fic again about things i'm actually currently watching. it's good for the soul i think.

-

Top 5 Fics by Kudos 🏆

Ain’t no other that can sweep you up like a robber [h50]

Meet me at the edge (I’ve already fallen) [h50]

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) [bad buddy]

With every guitar string scar on my hand [bad buddy]

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) [thamepo]

h50 is easily outpacing everything else, with both of those way at the top here. what i like is that the ink/pa bad buddy fic extremely comfortably landed the third spot, with almost double the kudos of the pat/pran fic that's in fourth place. the world craves femslash i guess! along with a host of other, more likely factors (it probably has a more catchy description, it's tagged for both ships because patpran still show up, possibly more people in 2024 were looking for fic for characters played by milk and love because they're still actively working together, etc), but wouldn't it be nice.

the thamepo fic (which is thame/po. it never stops feeling a little goofy to explain the ship when it's in the title, but you could of course be writing other things anyway) taking the fifth most kudo'd spot came as a bit of a shock, but honestly, i've written for so many Smaller Fandoms in 2024 that it's not actually very odd. it's my most recent posted thing but this show is currently airing and seems to be getting a decent amount of traction, so it has the benefit of being current.

my kudos total for all 12 fics i posted this year is as of writing this at 1,235, and there's a stark contrast in this being about ~700 kudos below 2023's How to build a triangle (ted lasso, jamie/roy/keeley) all by itself. i did NOT hop into any ted-lasso-at-its-peak sized fandoms in 2024.

-

Top 5 Favorite Fics 💖

well! the upside of writing 12 fics is that i can put, like, over two-fifths of them on this list. in no particular order:

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) - i mean, i think today's episode of, uh, Thame-Po: Heart That Skips A Beat may have pushed this fic a little farther from following canon than it originally seemed (apparently thame was not aware of his own lurking romantic feelings for po, at all. oh my god) but i had a fun time writing this! it's short and not very specific and i enjoy the repeated number thing. (this kid was really rushing across the city to ask to memorize the number of a guy he apparently assumed he was just trying to be friends with. i do love him very dearly already, gosh.)

The name of the game - this is starsky/hutch and i think it's sort of sneaking in here! i was just happy this was a Complete Fic when i posted it (it had all the necessary parts, so i was sending it off), but then people were SO sweet about it in SUCH overwhelming numbers that it's probably a huge part of how i fell back in love with it myself. that's always a little magical to me. also: the sisyphus line about starsky may be my favorite thing i posted in 2024.

Rest your heart easy - also starsky/hutch! but less of a surprise. this was written for the ShareCon 2023 zine, and i don't reread it very often, but when i do it's like, yeah! i'm glad it was this fic of mine that got to participate in the zine. it's nice, it's warm, it flows.

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) - the bad buddy ink/pa fic! this sounds so silly when saying it about a thing that took over my life for a few months and still makes me drop to the floor when i see one (1) scene for whatever reason and am immediately attacked by the memory of how much i love it, but i'm REALLY still figuring out how to write these characters. they are my best friends and i have no idea who they are, apparently. but i like the attempt i made here, and i think i might like it more than both of the finished pat/pran focused fics, though that could be purely because i reread those far too many times in trying to Get It Right before hitting post. also. i like ink and pa! and they deserved to kiss. (and on that note, it's 2025, why is there still such a strict dividing line between GL and BL in nearly all cases? let the girls and boys hang out together, please. i won't pretend that if bad buddy could do it then everyone can (those are entirely unrealistic standards in most cases), but they could at least try.)

Home goes where the heart is - this is a peaceful property fic that is only vaguely peach/home shippy. (peaceful property being, on all levels that count, not BL.) in hindsight, i think i should have gone with one of my alternate title options and called it Pang pang! It’s a Home invasion! (because one of the characters is called pangpang and another one is called home), but hey, this slightly more serious title is fun too. i'm not even sure this is necessarily one of the best things i wrote in 2024, but it just makes me happy. there's a second peaceful property fic of which i wrote most on the night that the finale aired, but then it got longer than intended and it ended up stuck in limbo. but i still have hopes that i may give it an ending one day, because these characters in their weird kind loud ghost & cooking show that made me cry several times really deserve it (and i think there are some funny lines in the wip, and if there's one thing that makes me want to see a fic finished, it's a joke that the world should be able to read).

-

Fandom Fic Events 🤝

it's not on ao3 yet (i may do that soon-ish), but my fic for this year’s Starsky & Hutch Advent Calendar, The Simple Things! if starsky and hutch is your jam, don't forget to look at the rest of the calendar too!

-

Projects for 2025 👀

hmm, well. hmm.

2024 was an incredibly chaotic year for me, writing-wise. i'm not entirely sure what i was doing or where i was going, and i wasn't extremely motivatived to figure it out, because i was doing other things. (like figuring out how to write thai letters, for example.) i think if i want to write more, then part of my 2025 has to be to read more fiction, because it's truly just, like. words need to go in for words to come out.

i REALLY want to get a flip-flop state of mind finished up for real this year. i want to get better at/allow myself more slack to just type up something short and quick and probably not too deep, rather than feeling some need to turn every single wip idea into a months or years long project. those are great too! i love chipping away at a fic for an eternity, and the beauty of hobby writing is that there's no reason not to still do that, too! but i also need to keep things moving a little bit so i don't get stuck in a loop of looking at the same words which don't inspire me anymore and not adding anything, which also doesn't get me anything new to jump off from tomorrow.

so. write some h50 fic. write some starsky & hutch fic. write a bunch of thai series fic (and allow myself to play some jazz when it comes to character voices, because i still keep getting stuck on that too often. it's fine if they're My Version, that's what fic is). maybe something else, if i feel like it? my project for 2025 is Fun, and it would be really neat if i could get 13 fics (or more) posted (to get that yearly number moving back up again), but if not, that's also fine.

honestly maybe what i need in terms of fandoms is something in thai which is also queerbait (or queercoding), because that's where i'm at currently + what historically is best at getting me to write. i've heard a lot about high school frenemy, and i only keep dodging it because it has high school in the title, but hey, who knows! maybe watching two men who are 26 and 27 play high schoolers in some sort of feud who are obviously in love but don't kiss about it will fix me.

[wikiangela]

wip wednesday 🎄

it's wednesday here already so starting today off with a new wip lol sooo, i said a few days ago that I'm not gonna write a christmas fic bc im focusing on my wips, but... today at work i made myself sad by randomly thinking about buckley christmas (no idea what prompted that lol) and buck talking to eddie about his childhood christmas and a new idea was born hah it's gonna be mostly cute and fluffy tho i promise haha so here's a lil snippet I literally just wrote so ofc it's gonna get edited and polished later lol

___

There’s maybe twenty minutes of the movie left, and Eddie feels like he’s starting to doze off as well, when he hears Buck sigh, and it sounds almost sad. Eddie turns his head to look at his best friend.

“What’s up?” he whispers, glancing down between them to make sure his kid is still asleep.

“Nothing.” Buck shakes his head softly, continuing to look at the screen with this longing expression. Eddie frowns and looks at the TV, too. (...) “I just-” Buck starts before Eddie’s tired brain can start connecting the dots. “Nevermind, it’s stupid.”

“Hey.” Eddie moves his foot to shove lightly at Buck’s. “I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not stupid. You know you can tell me anything, right?” he adds quietly, and Buck looks at him with a small awed smile and shiny eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” he clears his throat, then looks down to make sure he didn’t wake Christopher. Eddie can’t help a smile. “Okay. Uh, it’s gonna be so silly, so don’t laugh.” he averts his eyes back to the screen, and if it was any lighter, Eddie’s sure he’d see a slight blush on his cheeks.

“I would never.” Eddie answers, and Buck just raises an eyebrow with one more glance towards him. They both know they love making fun of and teasing each other, that’s true. However, Eddie has a feeling this is going to be more sad than funny. 

___

no pressure tags: @elvensorceress @gaydiaz @diazass @thebravebitch @silentxxsoul @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @arthursdent @diazblunt @911onabc @spagheddiediaz @housewifebuck @gayhoediaz @rogerzsteven @watchyourbuck @monsterrae1 @honestlydarkprincess @underwater-ninja-13 @eowon @weewootruck @loserdiaz @evanbegins @steadfastsaturnsrings @ladydorian05 @malewifediaz @pirrusstuff @theotherbuckley @911-on-abc @hoodie-buck @wildlife4life @fortheloveofbuddie @nmcggg @diazpatcher @jeeyuns @jesuisici33 @thewolvesof1998 @lover-of-mine @jamespearce9-1-1 @giddyupbuck @spotsandsocks @daffi-990 @exhuastedpigeon @disasterbuckdiaz @buckaroosheart @hippolotamus @thewolvesof1998 @king-buckley

[satancopilotsmytardis]

oops, got too sleepy doing other things to finish chapter 8 as well today, but chapter 7 is up now! Enjoy 7.8k of these two being Messy!

[captain-gillian]

It’s been a while since i’ve had anything to share for wip wednesday, but here’s a little more of the almost finished second part to my gift exchange fic for @nancys-braids (i’m so sorry it’s taking so long). thanks for the tags @paperstorm @bonheur-cafe @nisbanisba @carlos-in-glasses @everlastingday @lemonlyman-dotcom

“Does this make us a sapphic cliche?” Nancy jokes, as Marjan turns the key in the door of Nancy’s apartment. “Moving in together before we’ve even been on a proper date is taking u-hauling to the extreme.”

Marjan’s response of bright laughter fills the small living room as they step inside.

“Seriously though, thank you for staying while I get settled back in.” Nancy follows up, as she makes a bee-line for the couch where her cats Nova and Catpell Roan greet her enthusiastically.

“Stop saying thank you, it’s the least I can do.”

“The least you can do? You’ve taken another week’s annual leave and moved your life across town to sleep on my couch!” Nancy exclaims.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I want to help. And Captain Strand has been on my back to take my annual leave anyways.” Marjan calls out as she strides across to Nancy’s kitchen, opening cabinets until she finds mugs, and setting about making tea for them both. They spend the rest of the day much like the previous week, talking, working through Nancy’s daily PT exercises and cuddling up together to watch trashy tv—now with a cat in each of their laps. They make dinner together, a simple pasta, and find themselves slow dancing in the kitchen. Nancy really starts to wonder if they’re actually still taking things slow, on the one hand they’ve moved in together—even if temporarily and out of necessity—and haven’t been more than an arm’s length apart all day, but on the other, they haven’t kissed yet, no matter how badly Nancy has wanted to. And she’s wanted to so badly.

open tag because i’m late <3

[literateowl]

WIP Wednesday

Thanks for the tags @lemonlyman-dotcom @heartstringsduet @bonheur-cafe @carlos-in-glasses @alrightbuckaroo @whatsintheboxmh 💖

This is a WIP I have had for a while and returned to and wrote this part last weekend. It is also a rewatch relevant fic since it's a gap fill for Marjan in 4x09-4x11. The doc is titled "Marjan is crabby about desk duty" for now.

It was two days before the doctors said she was well enough to talk to the two Texas Rangers from West Texas in charge of the case. TK and Carlos were there with her. She asked for them to come, both of them being exactly what she needed at that moment. TK had given his own police statement from a hospital bed at least once, and Carlos because he was a cop himself of course. But more than that she knew her friends would be the exact right amount of steady and supportive.

While she retold what happened, TK sat next to her and held her hand in both of his, reassuringly rubbing his thumb over her wrist when something was difficult or she took a moment to think. Carlos had given some advice before the officers got there, and then stood on her other side, one of his hands on her shoulder and his body protectively angled toward the officers. Neither of them said anything other than polite greetings while the officers were in the room but she caught them throwing a couple dirty looks at the officer who when they tried to take a pitying tone or ask a biased question.

Open tag as usual

[nina-ya]

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE HAPPY MONDAY!! First monday of the new year!! I hope you all have a good day lets get this new year off to a great start!!

[galwednesday]

This week's deep dive rec is the Big Dig podcast produced by GBH News and hosted by Ian Coss:

There is a cynicism that hangs over the topic of American infrastructure — whether it’s high-speed rail or off-shore wind — it feels like this country can’t build big things anymore. No one project embodies that cynicism quite like Boston’s Big Dig. Infamous for its ever-increasing price tag, this massive highway tunneling effort became a symbol of waste and corruption. Yet the project delivered on its promise to transform the city. So how did the narrative go so horribly wrong? And what lessons can the Big Dig offer for the ambitious projects of today?

Similarly to other history podcasts I've recced, this brings a lot of context through reporting and oral histories to a project I was aware of generally, but didn't have a lot of details about. I'm always interested in how cities are put together, and what transportation infrastructure projects get built is a huge factor in shaping how and where people live.

[astrobei]

in celebration of me finally finishing the draft of my lokius fic here is a humble wip wednesday offering

[prongsfish]

jan... 29... i seriously am useless. so sorry guys

[captainsparklefingers]

Yes, it's technically Thursday, I'm always a bit behind the wheel. I got tagged by @grayintogreen, and I figured...well, what the hell. Maybe sharing a little bit of Unhappy Families will help with the writing motivation; I'm stuck in 1945 and absolutely dreading writing 1947, which is probably part of the problem. Turns out, trying to figure out how to write a downward spiral bender ending in a drug overdose? Not exactly fun!

But anyway. I don't really know who to tag but if you're working on something and want to share with the class, consider this a poke in the ribs?

And without further adieu, here's a little bit from Unhappy Families (or: one went up, two went down), specifically from 1929:

Pops dropped them off along the banks of the Hudson after what felt like the longest, quietest, most awkward car ride of Jonathan’s life. Tony’d sat uncomfortably close to him the entire time, his hands balled into two white-knuckled fists. Pops was silent the entire time, only speaking when the car stopped and he popped the trunk open to hand them two shovels.

“You two, get diggin’. I’m going to grab a few things and pick up our guest, and I’ll be back in thirty. I expect to see a decent size hole when I get back, understood?”

He and Tony’d quickly mumbled out a ‘yessir’ that seemed to satisfy Pops, who gave them a short nod, got back in the car, and drove off. Without looking at Tony, Jonathan started to dig. It was almost second nature to him at this point; he’d been digging graves for his father since he was fourteen, it was easy at this point to just turn his brain off and work through the task methodically. In, up, out, in, up, out.

He let himself get lost in the task and didn’t notice right away that Tony wasn’t digging until he caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye, gripping the shovel and staring at it like he couldn’t understand what it was.

“Tony…ya gotta dig. You can’t leave me doin’ all the work myself here.”

Tony just kept staring at the shovel.

“Fer Chrissake…Tony, Pops’ll know you didn’t dig when he gets back. You gotta at least try, kid.”

Fuck, was he shaking? He’d been doing so well, too, kept it together in the car the whole time, why did he have to slip up now? Christ. With a groan, Jonathan shoved his shovel into the dirt and walked over to his little brother. “Tony. Look. I know what you’re thinking. And…you can’t think, with this sort of stuff. You think it was easy for me when Pops took me out to do this for my first time?”

He still thought of it sometimes, that night when he was fourteen, when Pops took him along to take out a few rival soldiers mooching in their territory. The way they’d begged and pleaded, their terrified eyes…how quick his father was with his gun, not even blinking as he shot man after man in the head. The way the blood spray looked on the wall behind them. The smell of blood and bodily fluids and gunpowder.

How heavy the shovel had been. How heavy the bodies were.

“You just…you get used to it. You learn to turn your brain off and go somewhere else. Don’t…don’t think of it as diggin’ a grave, Tony. Yer in Mamma’s garden, helping her plant the tulip bulbs in the spring. Just…we do what Pappa wants,” he said quietly, staring into the hole he’d been digging. “I’ve told ya before. Keep acting the way he wants you to, and when it gets tough just…hide in your head for a bit, let instincts take over. Eventually, it gets easier.”

“Is that what you do?”

“...yeah. Yeah it is.”

Tony sniffled and looked at the hole, the shovel, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he had this look of grim, strangely cocky determination on his face, and he shot Jonathan a toothy grin.

“Bet I can dig faster than you.”

“Like hell you can, you little shit!”

For a few minutes, the two of them were able to forget why they were engaged in a digging contest; they were just two brothers trying to get one over on the other. And…it was nice.

And then the car came back.

[rozzingit]

WIP Wednesday || Lachrimae

Vegeta's ki blast exploded the door.

The guards who had led him to this trainer's room hung back, grimly on edge as their Prince quite literally blew his way inside.

Vegeta stormed inside. There was a stale, sour scent in the air, faint but still distracting beneath the sharper scent of metallic scrap dust. His gaze barely had to search to find Trunks sitting there waiting for him. He was in loose pants and without a shirt, his hair damp and a towel slung across his shoulders, and he watched Vegeta with an unsurprised resignation.

Somehow, the lack of response to Vegeta's show of force just served to make him angrier.

"You dared to lay your hands on me!" Vegeta screamed at him.

Trunks didn't move. His elbows were resting on his knees, his hands hanging loosely between them. "I did," he said simply.

"The punishment for laying hands on the royal family is death," Vegeta continued.

"So I've heard," said Trunks. He tipped his head. "At least I'll go to my grave freshly showered. I can beat any of you one on one, but you might be able to take me down with enough numbers." His smile was devoid of humor. It was more like a grimace.

Vegeta lifted his hand, and the balcony exploded. Trunks didn't move.