#I actually liked this one until i realized it gave off the wrong vibes

[elikajinnie]

You Are My Sunshine - K.S

P: Hufflepuff!Sunoo X Fem!Reader

Warnings: Minor Bullying? Fluff, Confessions, Minor Angst.

Synopsis: You were known as the grumpy, closed-off student at Hogwarts, keeping your emotions tightly guarded. That is, until Kim Sunoo, the ever-cheerful Hufflepuff, took it upon himself to brighten your days. With his infectious laughter and unwavering optimism seep into your life, you slowly realize that the warmth of his sunshine is quickly melting away your defenses.

a/n: sorry babes and pooks, this one is kinda short? exams are coming up and i only have a sliver of moment in the commute to and from school to write :) but hope everyone had a nice halloween! (anyone got an idea for Heeseungs slytherin fic?? Im brainstorming over here >:(

masterlist

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

You swore you were a nice person. It might not look like it, though—your face and demeanor often gave the opposite impression. You weren’t cold, but you had always been reserved, choosing to keep to yourself more often than not. Because of that, when you first arrived at Hogwarts, you didn’t exactly collect friends the way others seemed to. Only a select few ever got to see how friendly you actually were, but that was only after you decided you could trust them.

So, it came as a surprise—a big surprise—when one afternoon, while you were tucked away in a quiet corner of the library, deeply immersed in your studies, someone pulled out a chair and sat down right beside you.

Glancing up, you immediately recognized him. Kim Sunoo, the ever-smiling, ever-popular Hufflepuff. His presence was unmistakable, bright as day. His grin was practically beaming, and it momentarily threw you off balance. You blinked, wondering if he had the wrong table.

"Hey!" he greeted, voice light and full of energy. "Mind if I sit here?"

You stared at him blankly, unsure if he was serious or just passing by. He had already sat down, so you didn’t see much point in objecting. After a beat of silence, you returned your attention to the parchment in front of you, figuring the conversation might end there.

It didn’t.

"I’ve seen you around," he continued, undeterred by your lack of response. "You’re really focused when you’re working, huh? Must be nice to be that dedicated. I always get distracted in the library."

Your eyes flicked over to him, giving a small nod but saying nothing. You weren’t used to this—the friendliness so freely given, the casual conversation with someone you barely knew. Your face remained impassive, though inwardly, you were trying to piece together why he of all people was sitting with you. Surely, he had plenty of other, more sociable people to talk to.

Sunoo, however, didn’t seem to mind your quietness. In fact, he just kept going. "I’m terrible at Potions," he admitted with a sheepish laugh. "Professor Snape probably thinks I’m hopeless. I bet you’re good at it, though. You’ve got that… I dunno, that calm, focused vibe."

You couldn’t help but frown a little at that. "Calm, focused vibe?" you echoed, your tone flat.

He grinned even wider, his eyes almost disappearing into crescent moons. "Yeah! You just seem really composed all the time. It’s cool. I get stressed and panicky over every little thing."

"I wouldn’t say I’m always calm," you replied, voice as even as your expression.

Sunoo’s smile didn’t waver. If anything, he looked more pleased that you were finally talking. "See? Even when you’re denying it, you’re calm," he teased, clearly enjoying himself. "You’re like the opposite of me."

You stared at him for a moment, wondering how anyone could be so upbeat all the time. Sunoo’s energy was infectious, even if your face didn’t show it. Still, your brows furrowed slightly as you watched him speak, trying to make sense of why this popular Hufflepuff was suddenly so interested in chatting with you.

"I don’t usually talk much," you pointed out, your tone neutral.

"I noticed," Sunoo replied without missing a beat, completely unfazed. "But I think that’s fine. You don’t need to say a lot to be interesting."

You blinked again, your expression still not giving away the faint surprise you felt at his words. You had expected him to lose interest by now, to move on to someone who would match his energy and conversation style, but he stayed right where he was, grinning like he had just made the best discovery of the day.

For a long moment, the two of you sat there, him smiling, you with your usual stoic expression, and yet, for some reason, it didn’t feel awkward. It was as if Sunoo’s bright presence was enough to fill any potential silence.

You tilted your head slightly, studying him. "Why are you talking to me?"

His laughter was soft, but genuine. "Why not? You seem interesting."

"I don’t really come across that way," you said, voice deadpan.

Sunoo shrugged, still smiling. "You do to me."

And with that, he leaned back in his chair, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to sit there, in complete contrast to your serious demeanor, radiating warmth and light like a small sun.

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

During your next Potions class, you settled into your usual spot toward the back, where the dim light made it easier to focus without distractions. You liked this spot. It was quiet, and you could concentrate without anyone poking their nose into your work. But just as you began setting up your ingredients, you heard a familiar, cheerful voice.

"Mind if I join you?"

You glanced up, almost certain you had imagined it, only to find Kim Sunoo grinning down at you. His presence was the last thing you expected in this class. He was known for sitting up front, surrounded by his usual group, always cracking jokes and flashing that bright smile.

Sunoo slid into the seat beside you before you could respond, giving you an easy, friendly smile as he began organizing his ingredients. "I thought maybe if I sat by you, Professor Snape might be a little more… forgiving?" he whispered, his tone hopeful.

You raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Why would he be?"

"Well," he said, leaning in slightly as if sharing a great secret, "he likes you. Haven't you noticed? He doesn’t scowl as much when you’re around. I figured maybe I could absorb some of your calm, composed energy," he added, making an exaggerated face of concentration as if he were already channeling your stoic look.

You couldn’t help but let a small, amused huff escape. “If that’s your plan, I wouldn’t count on it working.”

Sunoo smiled wider, undeterred. "Worth a shot, right?"

As if on cue, Snape swept into the classroom, his dark robes billowing behind him. His eyes scanned the room with that usual, critical glint before landing on you and Sunoo. He paused, visibly surprised to see the two of you sitting together, but instead of saying anything, he gave a curt nod and moved on, barking instructions for today’s lesson.

You gave Sunoo a sidelong glance as he visibly relaxed. “See? I think it’s working already,” he whispered, giving you a thumbs-up under the table. “He didn’t even glare!”

You rolled your eyes. "He didn't glare because he’s focused on starting class. Don't think you're off the hook."

Sunoo just shrugged, a bit of humor still glinting in his eyes. “I don’t mind. Besides, you’re probably good at Potions, right? You could even help me. Professor Snape can’t get mad if you’re the one teaching me, right?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. But sure… as long as you don’t blow anything up.”

Sunoo grinned again, nudging you playfully with his elbow. "Deal."

As the lesson began, you quickly noticed that Sunoo seemed determined to keep up, his usual playful energy tempered as he looked over his cauldron with an unexpected intensity. It was strange to see him so focused, but oddly gratifying, knowing he was genuinely trying.

"Okay," you whispered, leaning over to show him your carefully arranged ingredients. "For this Draught of Peace, every step has to be precise. Start by adding the powdered moonstone, but remember to stir counterclockwise three times after each pinch."

Sunoo glanced at you, his face serious as he nodded. "Three times, counterclockwise. Got it." He leaned forward, following your lead and adding the powder in controlled amounts. His usual talkative nature was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an almost endearing determination to get it right.

When he looked back at you for the next step, you raised an eyebrow, testing him. "What’s next, then?”

He bit his lip, thinking hard. "Uh, lacewing flies… right? Only one… no, two wings, torn lengthwise?"

"Not bad," you said, impressed. “See? You’re actually getting it."

He smiled sheepishly, keeping his eyes on his work as he carefully placed the ingredients in the cauldron. "Only because you’re explaining it in a way that makes sense," he admitted, glancing at you. "Potions books make it sound way too complicated."

You had to admit, seeing him genuinely engaged in learning something he found difficult felt surprisingly rewarding. “It’s only complicated if you rush,” you explained, “so take your time with this part. And make sure to add a clockwise stir after each wing.”

He mirrored your movements, handling each step as carefully as he could manage, clearly hanging onto each of your instructions. When he managed to mix everything without a hitch, he turned to you, his face beaming. “Look, it’s actually working. It’s not grey!”

You gave him an approving nod. “See? As long as you follow the instructions and stay focused, you’re fine.”

"Well, when you put it like that, it’s not so scary," he murmured, watching as the liquid turned a gentle blue.

"Now, simmer it for ten minutes," you said, leaning back in your chair. "And keep an eye on the bubbles—they should stay small and steady."

He sighed in relief, clearly grateful for the help. "You have no idea how much easier that makes things."

When you caught his eye, he grinned. "If I sit next to you every Potions class, you won’t mind, right?"

You paused at his question, thrown off by how quickly he’d asked it. Sunoo had a way of being open and friendly with everyone, but this… well, this felt different. You weren’t sure what he was really after, and his sudden interest in sitting with you felt almost too friendly.

So, you just shrugged, keeping your face neutral. “If you want to,” you replied, glancing back at your own cauldron.

Sunoo watched you for a moment, seeming to notice your hesitation. But instead of getting discouraged, he just gave a small laugh, scratching the back of his head. “You don’t mind, right? I mean… you’re not gonna hex me or anything?”

You blinked, caught off guard, but his teasing smirk showed he was only joking. “No,” you said, “Not unless you mess up the potion.”

He chuckled, apparently finding your reaction funny. "Alright, noted," he replied, nudging his cauldron carefully as he checked the simmering liquid. “Guess I’ll have to be on my best behavior then.”

For the rest of class, he kept close by your side, following each instruction you gave him with an unusual attentiveness. He even managed to complete the potion almost perfectly. When Snape passed by, he raised an eyebrow at Sunoo’s work but said nothing, which was the highest praise he could give.

As you cleaned up at the end of class, Sunoo packed his things slowly, glancing over at you. “Thanks for the help,” he said, smiling warmly. “Not sure I could’ve done that without you.”

You simply nodded, unsure of what to say, but he seemed content with the small gesture. As he turned to leave, he glanced back one more time. “See you next class?”

“Yeah… sure,” you replied, giving a half-shrug.

As he left, you couldn’t help but feel a little curious. Sunoo’s interest in sitting with you still felt unexpected.

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

Days turned into weeks, and Sunoo became a near-constant presence by your side. Whether it was Potions, lunch in the Great Hall, or even the occasional study session in the library, he always seemed to find his way over to you, plopping down with that familiar grin and easy energy that contrasted so starkly with your laid-back demeanor.

At first, you thought maybe he’d get bored, or that your lack of enthusiasm might wear him down. But Sunoo was nothing if not persistent. No matter how often you shrugged at his questions or gave him short, deadpan responses, he just laughed it off, acting as though he’d known you forever. And even though you never rejected his company outright, you never really encouraged it either. Not that Sunoo seemed to care.

One afternoon, you found yourself in the library, a familiar routine now: books spread out, your head bent over an assignment you were half-heartedly working on. The sound of footsteps made you glance up, and sure enough, there he was—Sunoo, grinning, holding two mugs of butterbeer from the kitchens.

“Thought you could use one,” he said, sliding it across the table to you.

You gave a halfhearted sigh, accepting it anyway. “You know, you don’t have to keep showing up like this. Don’t you have other friends?”

He shrugged, unfazed. “Sure, but I like hanging out with you. Plus, you’re surprisingly easy to talk to, you know?”

“Is that right,” you said, taking a sip of the butterbeer, trying to keep your face neutral. “And here I thought I was terrible company.”

“Hardly,” he replied with a grin, leaning in like he was letting you in on a secret. “I think you’re interesting, even if you act like you don’t care. And… I think you like my company, too.”

You huffed, looking away. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

He laughed, “Alright, alright. I’ll leave it at that. But you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.”

You hid a smile behind your hand, feeling an unexpected warmth from his words.

As days passed, Sunoo continued to be your constant shadow, sticking to you like he belonged there. Whenever he leaned in close to explain something exciting or nudged your shoulder to get your attention, you didn’t push him away. Not even a grumble. And soon enough, people began to notice—whispers trailing behind the two of you whenever you entered a room together.

"Are they really that close now?" someone muttered one afternoon in the library, eyeing the way Sunoo leaned over to show you a funny illustration in his book.

"They’re, like��� polar opposites," another whispered, watching you with open curiosity, clearly baffled at how you, the reserved one with a permanent poker face, had Sunoo—the endlessly friendly, sunny Hufflepuff—so close.

The attention might have bothered you once, but Sunoo’s influence seemed to have rubbed off on you. You were a little more relaxed, even when people stared or asked questions. Sunoo’s laughter or his quick jokes were enough to break the awkwardness you might’ve once felt, and strangely enough, you’d even found yourself talking to more people—not necessarily by choice, but because he kept introducing you to others.

One evening, you were sitting in the library with one of your closer friends. They’d known you for years and were one of the few who really understood you. As Sunoo wandered over to grab a book from the shelves nearby, your friend leaned in with a small smile.

“You know, it’s funny,” they said quietly, eyeing you with amusement. “You and Sunoo… you balance each other out. Like, he brings you out of your comfort zone with all these people and conversations, and you, well… you help him calm down and focus more.”

You raised an eyebrow, a bit skeptical. “Sunoo? Focused?”

Your friend chuckled. “More than you’d think. Have you noticed how much more serious he’s been in Potions lately? And he actually sits through an entire library study session without talking your ear off.”

You shrugged, not wanting to admit just how true it was. “Maybe he’s just getting better at Potions.”

“Sure,” they replied, giving you a knowing look. “And maybe you’re just getting more social.”

You huffed, looking away to hide a small, reluctant smile. It was true that Sunoo had brought a new energy to your life, and whether you liked it or not, you’d changed a little since he’d attached himself to you. You actually found yourself looking forward to his presence. He made things… lighter.

Just then, Sunoo bounded over, oblivious to the conversation you’d been having. He plopped down beside you, smiling as usual. “Hey! Did you know they added a new dessert in the kitchens? We have to go try it later!”

Your friend shot you a look, clearly delighted by the way you barely rolled your eyes before nodding. “Fine,” you replied. “But you’re bringing it back here. I’m not going all the way to the kitchens.”

Sunoo’s smile only grew. “Deal. You’re finally starting to admit you like spending time with me, huh?”

You scoffed, looking away to hide the faint warmth creeping into your cheeks. “Don’t push it.”

But the truth was undeniable, and both your friend and Sunoo could see it: somehow, the two of you had found a balance.

It didn’t take long for you to realize just how well Sunoo had come to understand you. He could somehow sense when your patience was wearing thin, when you’d been around people for too long and needed to be left alone. Whenever he picked up on your waning energy, he would offer you a small, knowing smile, give you a light squeeze on the shoulder, and let you be. No questions asked, no lingering around to wait you out—he just knew.

And maybe, in some way, you’d learned to pick up on his cues, too. Sunoo, who was normally all bright smiles and endless chatter, had quiet days—moments when his laughter would be softer, his eyes a little distant, his usual warmth feeling dimmed. At first, you didn’t know what to make of it, but eventually, you realized what he needed. So, whenever he’d get that faraway look, you’d make an extra effort to bring a bit of lightness back into his world.

Like the time you found him sitting by the lake, lost in thought as he absently trailed his fingers through the water. Without a word, you’d sat beside him and started retelling one of Snape’s more ridiculous lectures with a deadpan voice, mimicking Snape’s mannerisms in a way that finally drew a soft, genuine laugh from Sunoo.

“You’re pretty funny when you want to be,” he had said, nudging your shoulder as his smile returned.

“Just don’t get used to it,” you replied, but you couldn’t stop the small smile from creeping onto your face.

And it did go both ways. Sometimes you’d notice his plate looking a little too empty at dinner, and without a word, you’d sneak extra food onto it, nudging it his way until he ate. On the mornings he’d wander into class looking groggy and starving from skipping breakfast, you’d casually slide a piece of toast or a muffin over to him without drawing any attention, not even acknowledging it as he glanced at you in surprise, a grateful look in his eyes.

Once, he’d shown up in the library just before lunch, clearly worn down from a long morning of classes. His face lit up as he saw you, but before he could say anything, you pulled a sandwich from your bag and held it out to him, rolling your eyes as he grinned.

“Eat,” you ordered, trying not to smile at the way he accepted it.

“You’re seriously the best,” he said between bites, eyes shining with gratitude.

You shrugged, not making a big deal of it. “Just don’t skip meals.”

As much as Sunoo’s constant presence had once felt overwhelming, you couldn’t deny how natural it had become. He was someone you didn’t mind looking after, just as he looked after you in his own way. And even though you still hadn’t outright admitted how much he’d come to mean to you, you knew he could feel it.

After all, Sunoo seemed to understand you better than you’d ever expected.

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

On a Thursday, right as you and Sunoo were walking down the hall from Potions, laughing quietly about some ridiculous mistake he’d made when a group of students passed by, whispering just loud enough for you to hear.

“Can’t believe those two are always together,” one of them sneered, glancing your way. “I don’t get what Sunoo sees in someone so… cold.”

“Yeah, must be a pity friendship,” another scoffed. “Who’d actually choose to hang around someone like that?”

The words hit you harder than you’d like to admit. You clenched your fists, feeling your cheeks grow hot with anger. Before you knew it, you were turning toward them, words already forming on your tongue.

But then, you felt a soft tug on your arm—Sunoo, pulling you back. His expression was a mix of concern and pleading, his hand gripping yours tightly.

“Don’t,” he whispered urgently, shaking his head. “They’re not worth it. Just… let it go, okay?”

But their words kept echoing in your mind, growing louder, and something about the way they’d insulted not only you but Sunoo too, made your blood boil. You could see how Sunoo was trying to brush it off, but the hurt flashed briefly in his eyes, even if he was trying to hide it.

“No,” you said firmly, ignoring his hold as you spun back around, voice sharp as you yelled after them. “Got something to say? How about you say it to our faces instead of acting like cowards?”

The group turned, surprised by your outburst, and you could see them tense, unprepared for confrontation. They exchanged uneasy looks before one of them, bolder than the others, sneered. “We’re just saying what everyone else is thinking.”

“Then let me make one thing clear,” you shot back, holding their gaze with an intensity that made them falter. “Sunoo is a hundred times the person any of you will ever be. So maybe you’re the ones who should keep quiet.”

They shifted, looking caught off guard. When they finally muttered a weak insult under their breath and walked off, you turned back to Sunoo, your anger still simmering.

Sunoo was watching you, eyes wide, a mixture of shock and something else—something soft and grateful—shining in his expression. He let out a breath, chuckling as he shook his head. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

You shrugged, still fuming, but now a little embarrassed at how strongly you’d reacted. “They don’t get to talk about us like that.”

Sunoo’s smile widened, and he squeezed your hand, which you’d forgotten he was still holding, looking at you with a warmth that seemed to melt away the remnants of your anger.

The hallway felt strangely empty around you, and though you didn’t say anything, the look you gave him said everything you couldn’t put into words.

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

You and Sunoo became a regular sight around Hogwarts: you, with your usual deadpan expression and arms crossed, and Sunoo practically glowing with happiness beside you. Wherever he went, you seemed to follow, trailing a few paces behind with that ever-present poker face, while he chatted, laughed, and animatedly waved to anyone who passed.

There were days when Sunoo would drag you into random "adventures" across the castle, whether it was sneaking into the kitchens to grab snacks or daring you to climb one of the tall staircases to see if you could spot your common room window.

Like that time he convinced you to join him on an impromptu “mission” to see if the Fat Friar really could pass through walls from the sixth-floor corridor to the third-floor hallway. Somehow, he managed to get you to run after the ghost with him, dodging curious glances from students and teachers alike. Sunoo had laughed himself silly when you reached the third floor out of breath, pointing out the tiny, genuine grin that slipped onto your face as he panted beside you.

"Look, they’re smiling!" someone had gasped, and Sunoo turned with a proud grin, throwing an arm around your shoulder. “See? You just needed a little fun.”

You promptly rolled your eyes, but you didn't shrug him off. “I don’t know if chasing ghosts counts as fun,” you muttered, though the corner of your mouth betrayed you with the smallest smirk.

Then, there was the time Sunoo found out you’d never tried a Sugar Quill and insisted on “fixing this tragedy.” He dragged you down to Hogsmeade, where he bought you not one but two Sugar Quills, then made a show of pulling a face as he pretended to judge your expression with every lick. Even though you mostly kept your deadpan look, he saw right through you, laughing as you admitted they were “better than expected.”

“Wait, was that a compliment?” he teased, eyes wide in mock surprise.

You rolled your eyes, biting the end of the quill. “Don’t get used to it.”

But the most notable reactions always came during the quieter moments—the times Sunoo would ramble on about something, and you’d listen quietly, only to get caught off-guard by his laugh or one of his jokes, and let a smile slip. Whenever someone noticed, they’d gape in shock, like they’d just seen something truly unbelievable.

Like when you two were sitting by the Black Lake, and Sunoo was telling some ridiculous story about how he once tried to turn the Great Hall’s chandelier into a disco ball for a party idea (though, predictably, he’d been caught). You tried to hold it in, but a soft chuckle slipped out anyway. One nearby student stared so openly that Sunoo caught it too, and immediately grinned, elbowing you.

“See? People can’t believe their eyes. They probably think you’re a statue brought to life,” he teased, his eyes crinkling in amusement.

You gave him a flat look, but the tiny smile wouldn’t leave your face. “Maybe it’s you who’s bringing me to life,” you replied dryly, just to see him blush.

The two of you were a study in contrasts—your stoic, steady presence beside Sunoo’s unstoppable, bubbly energy. But somehow, people started catching those small, fleeting moments when you softened around him, when he made you smile in spite of yourself. And as much as you didn’t want to admit it, you liked that he was the one who could bring that out in you.

Life with Sunoo by your side continued to be an endless series of unexpected twists, each one gradually chipping away at your grumpy exterior. He had this strange ability to draw out parts of you that you’d long kept hidden, surprising even yourself in the process. And, somehow, you didn’t mind it as much as you thought you would.

One afternoon, Sunoo decided it was "absolutely necessary" to take you to the Owlery to see a particular baby owl he’d become fond of. “You’ll love it, I swear,” he insisted, dragging you up the steps. And despite your half-hearted grumbles about climbing “unnecessary stairs,” you found yourself actually smiling when the little owl pecked his hand affectionately. When Sunoo turned and caught the tiny smile on your face, he gasped dramatically.

“Stop the press!” he said loudly enough to echo through the Owlery. “They do have a heart!”

“Careful, or I’ll stop coming along to your ridiculous little outings,” you muttered, though the hint of amusement in your voice was hard to ignore.

“Oh, please,” Sunoo scoffed, looping an arm through yours as you both made your way back down. “You love every second of my company.”

You didn’t answer, but your silence was all the confirmation he needed.

Another time, during a Transfiguration lesson, you found yourself paired with Sunoo for a particularly tricky assignment. Sunoo, naturally, was struggling to concentrate, his wand movements lazy and absent-minded as he kept nudging you with random observations. “Did you know Professor McGonagall has a favorite cat?” he whispered, eyes wide.

“Focus,” you deadpanned, though the corners of your mouth twitched as you tried to stifle a smile.

Seeing your reaction, he grinned, adjusting his stance and mirroring your serious expression in an exaggerated way. “Like this?” he asked, mimicking your look perfectly.

You couldn’t hold it in this time—a small, genuine laugh escaped you, shocking the students around you. Even McGonagall raised an eyebrow, glancing over her spectacles. “Good to see you finding joy in Transfiguration, for once,” she said with a rare smile.

When class ended, Sunoo was practically beaming. “See? I’m finally getting you to open up,” he said, walking beside you with that familiar, almost blinding smile.

“Don’t push your luck,” you warned, but he only laughed, knowing you didn’t really mean it.

And every now and then, you’d catch students around the castle gawking when Sunoo would lean in close, pointing out something funny on a page or whispering a joke that would make your stone-cold demeanor soften for just a second. They couldn’t believe it, seeing you actually smiling or laughing in response to his antics.

One evening in the library, you were finishing up some homework while Sunoo sat beside you, absently doodling on parchment. He glanced over at you, tapping his quill on the desk.

“So,” he started, a little softer this time, “when did I officially become your friend?”

You didn’t look up, but your lips tugged upward slightly. “Guess it was the day you decided not to leave me alone,” you replied.

Sunoo grinned, leaning his head against your shoulder with a sigh. “Good thing I’m stubborn.”

You didn’t answer, but you didn’t move away, either. In fact, the small smile you wore spoke more than words ever could.

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

One quiet afternoon, you and Sunoo found yourselves sitting by the Black Lake. The sun was setting, casting a warm, golden glow over the water, and for once, there were no interruptions, no curious glances from other students. It was just the two of you, enjoying the peace and each other's company.

Sunoo had been unusually silent for a while, lost in thought as he skipped stones across the lake. Finally, he turned to you, his expression more serious than usual. “Hey,” he began softly, “can I ask you something?”

You glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “Sure, what’s up?”

He hesitated, biting his lip before speaking again. “Why don’t you smile much around people? I mean, you smile a lot when it’s just us, but with others… it’s like you shut down.”

The question hung in the air, and for a moment, you weren’t sure how to respond. You stared out at the water, watching the ripples dance across the surface as you gathered your thoughts. Finally, you sighed, deciding to share a piece of your past that you rarely talked about.

“It’s not that I don’t want to smile,” you began slowly, choosing your words carefully. “I thought I had people I could rely on,” you continued, still keeping your gaze down, staring at the grass as though it held all the answers. “But things changed. They either weren’t there when I needed them most, or…” You trailed off, not quite able to voice the ways people had let you down. “It’s like they didn’t care as much as I thought they did. I felt stupid for ever trusting them.”

Your voice was barely a whisper by the end, but you forced yourself to keep going, feeling the weight of your words start to lighten as you let them out. “After that, I just… learned to be careful. I figured if I didn’t let people in, they couldn’t hurt me. So I stopped smiling so much. I thought maybe if I looked… unapproachable, people would keep their distance. And for the most part, they did.”

Sunoo gave your hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said quietly, his voice laced with genuine empathy. “People can be selfish, and sometimes they don’t realize how their actions affect others. But I hope you know not everyone is like that.”

A lump formed in your throat at his words, the sincerity in his tone catching you off guard. “I know,” you replied, though your voice shook slightly. “It’s just hard to remember that sometimes. I didn’t want to risk getting hurt again, so… shutting people out seemed like the safest option.”

Sunoo shifted a little closer, his warmth a quiet reminder that you weren’t alone. “You know,” he began, voice gentle, “I had my own fair share of people who weren’t exactly the best, too. It hurt, and yeah, I thought about closing myself off sometimes. But then I thought, what if I missed out on someone who really could be a good friend?”

You looked over at him, catching the soft vulnerability in his eyes. “I guess that’s why you’re so… friendly,” you said, almost teasing but more thoughtful than anything. “You don’t want to miss out on the good people out there.”

He smiled, nodding. “Exactly. And… I knew you were different, you know. Even if you didn’t smile much, even if you looked like you’d rather be anywhere else than around people, I could just tell. That there was more to you. And look,” he added with a grin, “I was right.”

A laugh slipped out before you could stop it, a genuine one, and you shook your head at his optimism. “Guess you were,” you admitted, a little sheepishly. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you putting up with me, though.”

“Oh, please,” he scoffed, playfully bumping his shoulder against yours. “I knew there was something worth sticking around for. Even if you tried to hide it.”

The weight of his words settled over you, and you couldn’t help but feel a small surge of warmth. Sunoo hadn’t just pushed past your walls; he’d done it so gently, with such patience, that you hardly realized when you’d stopped trying to keep him out.

“Thanks for… sticking around,” you said, voice quiet, the sincerity in your words a stark contrast to your usual deadpan tone.

“Anytime,” he replied, a soft smile playing at his lips as he looked out at the lake. Then, after a beat, he added, “Besides, I like having someone around who gets me. You know how I can get lost in my own thoughts sometimes. You’re always there to pull me back.”

You both shared a comfortable silence, the kind you could only have with someone who truly understood you. After a while, you finally spoke again. “I guess I kind of forgot how nice it feels to let someone in.”

Sunoo nodded, a content smile on his face. “I’m glad you trusted me with that,” he said softly. “And… I hope you know I’ll never do anything to hurt you. Promise.”

You turned to him, meeting his gaze, and for once, you let down every wall and allowed yourself to believe him. “I believe you.”

He grinned, looking both relieved and happy. “Good. Because I plan on being around for a long time, whether you like it or not.”

Rolling your eyes, you felt the small, reluctant smile tugging at your lips once again. But this time, you didn’t fight it. “Guess I don’t really have a choice, huh?”

“Nope,” he replied cheerfully, leaning his head against your shoulder with a sigh. “I’m a very stubborn person, you know.”

Sunoo’s smile was soft and reassuring, his eyes shining.“I promise, I’ll never do anything to hurt you. You’re stuck with me now, whether you like it or not.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at that, a genuine smile breaking through your usual guarded expression. “I guess I can live with that.”

Sunoo grinned, leaning in a bit closer. “Good. Because I’m not going anywhere.”

☀︎⋆｡°·☁︎

You couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment it happened, the gradual shift from seeing Sunoo as just that kind, bubbly Hufflepuff who wouldn’t leave you alone, to… this. Somewhere in the days spent with him at your side, with his laugh brightening even your most tired moments, Sunoo had become more than just a friend.

It hit you unexpectedly one day, as you leaned against a stone wall in the courtyard, watching from afar while he chatted with a group of other students. He was laughing, the sound rich and clear as he threw his head back, eyes crinkling in a way that made him look almost ethereal. His presence lit up the entire courtyard, as if he were some rare creature, something precious that didn’t quite belong to the harshness of the real world.

For a second, you wondered how someone like him—so pure, so effortlessly kind and happy—had come to talk to you, much less stick around. And as the thought lingered, you felt an ache in your chest you hadn’t expected. Because no matter how close you’d gotten, you couldn’t shake the feeling that Sunoo was somehow beyond your reach.

He caught sight of you then, his gaze shifting from the others to land directly on you, and his face lit up even more, a broad grin spreading across his features. You blinked, feeling warmth bloom inside you as he broke away from the group, jogging over to where you stood.

“You just standing there, brooding?” he teased, his eyes glinting with playful mischief as he nudged your shoulder.

You huffed, trying to shake off the thought that had just been consuming you. “Maybe. Someone’s gotta keep the aesthetic,” you muttered, lips curling in a faint smirk.

But as he laughed, the sound tugging at something deep inside you, you couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever see you the way you were beginning to see him. If he’d ever feel that same tug of warmth and longing when he looked at you.

“What?” Sunoo asked, tilting his head when he noticed you staring.

“Nothing,” you replied quickly, looking away to hide the hint of pink creeping up your cheeks.

The days turned into weeks, and while Sunoo’s cheerful presence continued to brighten your life, you found yourself slipping back into familiar habits. Each time you spotted him surrounded by large groups of people, laughing and joking with ease, an unsettling fear began to take root in your chest. You pulled away, convinced that you would inevitably reveal too much—your feelings for him slipping through the cracks, leaving you vulnerable in front of everyone.

It wasn’t that you wanted to distance yourself from Sunoo; rather, it was the overwhelming dread of accidentally exposing your heart that made you withdraw. You’d sit on the sidelines, pretending to be absorbed in your own conversations or buried in a book, watching him from afar with a mix of longing and anxiety. Each time he glanced your way, a bolt of panic shot through you, and you’d quickly look away, heart racing at the thought of what he might see in your eyes.

You told yourself it was fine, that you needed space—that it was safer to watch him from afar, to keep things simple and keep your feelings hidden.

But that was easier said than done. Every time he’d glance over with that bright, hopeful smile, a pang of guilt and longing would settle in your chest. You’d nod in acknowledgment, force a small wave, and then slip away, heart hammering as you went.

And of course, Sunoo noticed.

One evening, when you were tucked away in a quiet corner of the library, a familiar figure appeared beside you. Sunoo slid into the seat, watching you with a curious, slightly hurt expression. "You’re avoiding me," he said softly, cutting right to the point.

You didn’t look up, keeping your focus on the parchment in front of you, hoping he wouldn’t press. “No, I’m just… busy. Lots of work,” you mumbled, hoping that would satisfy him.

“Really?” he asked, his voice edged with disbelief. “Because you used to tell me when things were bothering you. Now, it’s like… like I don’t even know what’s going on with you.” His tone was tinged with hurt, and you felt it like a weight in your chest.

“I’m fine, Sunoo. Really,” you replied with a weak shrug, not daring to meet his eyes. You knew if you did, he’d see right through you.

He let out a frustrated sigh. “Don’t do that,” he pleaded, his voice wavering. “Don’t push me away. I thought… I thought we’d built something together, you know? Something real. I want to be there for you, but you have to let me in.”

You swallowed hard, feeling your heart pound painfully. “It’s just… it’s complicated.”

He leaned closer, his voice filled with an unfamiliar urgency. “Then let me in on the ‘complicated.’ I don’t want you to hide from me. Please, talk to me.”

You clenched your jaw, still not meeting his gaze. You could feel his intensity, his genuine care, and it tore you up inside. “Sunoo, just… drop it,” you said, voice quieter than you intended.

But he didn’t drop it. “Why won’t you just be real with me?” he nearly begged, his tone raw and vulnerable. “I hate seeing you shut yourself off like this. I hate that you’re just… disappearing. It’s like I’m losing you, and I don’t understand why. I thought we were closer than this.”

A pang of frustration bubbled up. He didn’t understand because you’d kept him in the dark, because you were afraid he’d never feel the same way. You had no right to be upset, but it hurt too much to bear alone any longer.

“Because, Sunoo!” you said, your voice rising. “Because I… I have feelings for you, alright?”

As soon as the words were out, your hand flew to your mouth in shock, eyes widening at what you’d just revealed. You stared at him, feeling a mixture of panic and regret swell up as the weight of what you’d just said settled between you.

You half-expected to see shock or pity on his face, but instead, Sunoo’s expression softened. Slowly, a smile spread across his lips, one of genuine happiness and warmth, lighting up his entire face.

“Do you… do you really feel that way?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper as if he didn’t quite believe his own ears.

Face burning, you nodded, too afraid to meet his eyes but not wanting to take the words back. “Yeah. I do,” you replied, voice quiet, feeling both relieved and terrified.

Without another word, Sunoo’s hands reached for yours, pulling you close. He looked at you with a joy that you hadn’t seen in him before, his eyes practically glowing. “I’ve liked you for so long,” he admitted softly, almost shyly. “You’re everything I wanted but thought I’d never have.”

You blinked, your breath catching as his words sank in. “Really?”

He nodded, grinning even wider as he held your gaze. “Yes. So… don’t pull away from me, okay? I want to be there with you, through everything.”

Still in shock, you finally let yourself breathe. Then, with a shaky smile, you whispered, “Okay.”

Sunoo’s face lit up, and he pulled you into a warm embrace, holding you close as if he’d never let go. And for the first time in a long time, you let yourself relax, feeling the weight of your guarded heart ease as you leaned into him.

Sunoo’s eyes searched yours, his expression a mix of excitement and hesitation. “Can I… kiss you?” he asked softly.

You didn’t need to think twice. Instead of answering verbally, you leaned in closer, closing the distance between you until your lips met his. The kiss was tentative at first, a gentle brush of warmth and sweetness, but it quickly deepened as Sunoo responded, his hand finding its way to the back of your neck, cradling you closer.

Every nerve in your body tingled as you kissed him back, the sensation blooming inside you like fireworks. It felt right, like a missing piece finally falling into place. Sunoo’s lips were soft against yours, and the world melted away—there was no noise, no crowd, just the two of you.

As he deepened the kiss, you felt yourself melt against him, your worries and fears dissipating like morning mist in the sunlight. Sunoo pulled back slightly, his forehead resting against yours, both of you breathless and a little stunned.

“Wow,” he breathed, his eyes sparkling with delight. “That was… amazing.”

You chuckled softly, still feeling a rush of warmth and happiness coursing through you. “Yeah, it really was.”

“Can we do that again?” he asked, a playful glint in his eye, and you couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm.

“Definitely,” you replied, heart racing with a mix of excitement and newfound affection.

With a grin, he leaned in again, capturing your lips with his, and you both fell into the rhythm of each other’s movements, the kiss growing more confident this time. It was a sweet, tender connection that spoke of the trust and understanding you’d built, a promise of what was to come.

As you pulled away again, your cheeks flushed, you couldn’t help but laugh at how easy it felt, how natural. “I can’t believe we waited this long,” you said, shaking your head in disbelief.

“I know, right?” Sunoo replied, still beaming. “But I’m glad we finally did.” He paused, a seriousness creeping into his expression. “I really like you, you know. I’ve wanted to say it for a while, but I didn’t want to scare you off.”

You felt your heart swell at his words, and you smiled softly. “You didn’t scare me off, Sunoo. If anything, you made me realize how much I needed you in my life.”

He grinned, his eyes sparkling with joy. “Then let’s keep making these memories, yeah? I want to know everything about you. All the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff. I want to be the one you trust.”

“Deal,” you replied, feeling a wave of warmth wash over you. “And I’ll try to be more open, I promise.”

“Good,” he said, and with a playful nudge, he added, “And maybe I’ll even get you to smile more often.”

You rolled your eyes but couldn’t help the smile that broke through. “Maybe. But only if you keep being so ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous is my specialty,” he laughed, and as the two of you settled into a comfortable silence, you couldn’t help but feel grateful for this new chapter in your life—a chapter filled with laughter, trust, and the thrill of discovering each other.

[writerunnamed]

note: I am both shocked, and grateful at the response this story has gotten. I didn't tag anyone, and I expected maybe a few people to be into it but you proved me so wrong. So thankful that you all like it, please don't be shy. Slide into the dms, spam me with asks, lets go nuts together. xo (thanks so much for going through and betaing this chapter @frannyzooey xo) Joel(stepdad), significant age gap, female reader. 18+ legal, reader is 20 (warnings: pov sex, shower sex, really inappropriate dirty talk, slight Dom-Joel vibes, daddy kink, heavy guilt) 4k word count masterlist

--

The guilt doesn’t creep in, it consumes like a five alarm fire. It’s weight holding you pressed to your bed as the shadows in your room stretch out with the fading of the golden hour light. The darkness helps, but not nearly enough to make any kind of a difference. 

He’d left after, closing your bedroom door behind him with your slick still smeared all over his dick and the realization of what you’ve done keeps hitting you. It keeps dropping stones in your gut, further weighing you down, naked, in the incriminating wet patch on your sheets. You hear your mother open the front door an indeterminable amount of time after. Your face burns, your heart races, she has to know. Surely she’d felt it, like a phantom limb while she was working, a ghost knife in the shape of her daughter, stabbing her in the back. 

You wait, barely breathing, sheets clutched in the talons of your fingersfor her to storm in, to rip you out of the house by your skin but it doesn’t happen. You hear him laugh, hear them chat as though nothing has happened. Your heart rate steadily lowers, and it becomes apparent that her wrath isn’t pending. 

The ax hanging over your head is being held by you, and no one else.

You stay there, uncomfortable, ashamed, cold, until it’s late enough that the house falls silent. Then, and only then do you get up and change the sheets. You pad out to the bathroom and shower, silently telling yourself that it was a temporary lapse in judgment. It was a psychotic episode. It was a hallucination, there’s no way you’d actually done that. It must have been imagined, but then you clean between your legs and feel the soreness and curse yourself all over again. 

You do your best to wash him off of you, wash the whole encounter, the whole mistake, and vow to yourself to never give it another thought. You console yourself with the thought that he must feel awful too, surely. He was probably lying there next to your mother, terrified with guilt. The devil on your shoulder, that cruel thing inside laughed at your naivety, practically yelling at you to smarten up. He doesn’t feel guilty, he’s probably snoring, his balls empty, his body pleasantly tired without a care in the world. 

Sleep eventually finds you, giving you the blissful respite of the dreamless dark.

—

A week goes by and you can almost convince yourself it had been a dream. Your mother is her normal, distant, distracted self. Joel works and blessedly you have managed to avoid any unsupervised interactions. Your brain however, has splintered and each shard has its role. The first keeps you sane, it does it best to make sure you focus on anything but the event you will not name. Another convinces you that things have almost fixed themselves since… well, that. It fools you into believing that it was somehow a cure. Things feel better in the house. The tension is gone, Joel seems disinterested, your mother is preoccupied. A tentative truce has somehow been enforced. 

There is another shard, an unwelcome and unruly and now untethered part of you that screams for a repeat performance. It begs and pleads for you to corner Joel and take what he gave again and again. The other aspects keep it restrained for most of the day. Work, responsibilities, the general needs and demands of the day take up most of your bandwidth but at night, at night it reigns supreme and without opposition. 

In the comforting dark of your now tainted space, that illicit part of you floods your mind's eye with the vision of Joel there, in your bed. It recalls the feeling of his mouth on your nipples with crystalline clarity, makes you feel the way he molded your body to take him, the way you came around his cock with that word in your mouth.

You were grateful for the toy, but he’d been so frustratingly right about it not doing much. After him, the toy was a tease. It was barely a taste of what he’d been able to do, but it didn’t stop you from using it. It was the safest option, until you could find someone appropriate. 

Or get the fuck out of that house and forget about the whole thing. 

-

More days pass, and that tension filters through your defences, It glides in and fills every angle of the house, every corner with a need borne of your interlude. 

Joel’s eyes linger again, he tracks your movements whether your mother is around or not. He smiles, he tests, pushes your limits with a passing hand on your lower back. His fingers linger when he hands you a plate or a mug, he sits close enough for his thighs to press to yours on the couch, the soft light of the tv and the lamp casting shadows across you both. 

Your mother doesn’t pay attention, or doesn’t see it. You are not a threat to her relationship, why would you be? In any normal, healthy family this would never be something to be worried about, not in a million years. In a proper family, a stepfather would not fuck his stepdaughter. 

A stepdaughter would not fantasize about it either.

The guilt builds the more time passes, but it wars with another, less wholesome feeling. Desire. Unadulterated lust. There is a part of you, a growing, strengthening part that craves him, that bombards you with different ways to have him inside you again, to beg him to fuck you harder, to give it to you longer, to beg for him to come inside you and mark you as his own and this scares you half to death. 

Soon though, it eclipses that guilt and takes you to the breaking point. 

It comes to a head one day, when you come home to both of them smiling and happy. 

“Hey babygirl.” 

He smiles when you set your bag down and you ignore the way your body comes to life with that endearment. 

“Go on up and get dressed, I’m takin’ my girls out for dinner.” 

Your mother beams, sliding her arms around his waist with a dreamy smile. “I got a promotion, Joel is going to treat us.” She’s in a very good mood.

“Oh, I’m alright, bit tired but you two go ahead. Have a drink for me.” You smile your sincerest smile, urging them to leave you alone. The toy floats in your brain, calling to you with the promise of the momentary relief it brings, however paltry compared to him. 

“Nonsense. Go on, we’re all goin’.” He raises an eyebrow, and you sigh, already resigned. “Go on, don’t make me ask you again, we gotta celebrate.” There is a playful, yet iron-strong tone that you know in your heart you cannot disobey. 

“We can go on our own if she wants to stay.” Your mom combs his hair back with her fingers, fixing it and he lets her, smiling down at her as you make your way up the stairs. 

“We’re all goin’-” It’s the last thing you hear him say before you close your door and go about getting dressed. 

-

It’s a pretty fancy steakhouse, a place you’d only ever been to once on a date. He’d put on a nice shirt, and your mom wore one of her nicer dresses. You couldn’t exactly wear leggings, so you’d dug out a dress of your own and trudged along despite your wish to be anywhere but. 

He slid into the booth beside you. You said nothing.

Your mother talks about her job, about how happy she is they’re taking notice of all her hard work and you’re genuinely proud of her. Growing up you don’t remember her holding down a job for more than a few months, Joel had changed that too. He’d pushed her to buckle down and take her employment seriously and it had paid off. It was just another one of those contradictory things about him, something you should have loved him for, a genuine, paternal thing but it didn’t mesh with your new dynamic.

Paternal. What a joke. 

The food is good, and you enjoy it in relative silence while your mother prattles on about her work, her manager, her team while Joel smiles and looks her in the eye. It’s almost pleasant, almost normal, the three of you, mother, father and daughter in a dark little booth celebrating a win. 

It’s almost nice, until you feel his hand on your knee under the table. 

You jump, the shock of it making you drop your fork. 

“You alright babygirl?” He smiles, genuine concern on his face as heat floods your body and you nod, frantically. With a tight smile you go to pick it up but he stops you, and ducks under the table to fish for it. Your mom laughs it off and you smile, blood pounding when you feel his hand again while he’s reaching for the fork. It moves your skirt up, exposing  more of your thigh. 

“I’ll ask the waiter for a new one.” He sits up and winks, adjusting himself so he’s a little closer. His hand lands back on your thigh and his thumb strokes at the skin, little circles that make you lightheaded. 

“I think I need to use the little girls room.” Your mother puts her napkin on the table and for a moment you think this is your chance. If she asks if you need to go, you’ll jump at the chance – but his hand tightens, just enough to let you know to stay put. 

She doesn’t ask, and when she rounds the corner he turns to you, eyes bright with the same lust you’ve been stomping down inside. 

“Happy you’re here babygirl, been missin’ you.” His hand slides up until it’s pressed against your core. Your breath comes in pants, and you’re rendered silent. 

“Been dreamin’ about havin’ you again. Been fightin’ the urge to sneak in and spread you out on that little bed, eat that pretty little cunt til you’re cryin for me to fuck you.” 

He presses close, tilting your face up to press his lips against yours soft enough to tickle. “You been thinkin’ about me?” He presses another little kiss, and you pull away, terrified to see strangers staring at you disgusted. 

No one is looking though, and he knows. 

“Joel, stop, not here.” You’re frantic, heart racing, pussy leaking. 

“Who am I?” he raises his eyebrows, expecting. 

You close your eyes, letting out a sigh. “She’ll be back any minute.” 

“Say it babygirl, say what I know you’re wantin’ to say. Who am I?” His hand lands on your thigh again. 

It’s on the tip of your tongue and you hate that he’s right, you do want to say it. You want to scream it. 

“...Daddy.” It’s barely a whisper, but it feels so good.

“Little louder honey.” He slides up, pressing his fingers against your clit. 

“Daddy, please–” You give in, and it comes out almost a moan. There’s that sense again, of falling into a trap you hadn’t seen him set but it’s secondary to the self-satisfied smile on his face, to the way your body primes itself for whatever he deems fit. Your thighs clamp around his hand, the restaurant falls away and all that matters is his warm breath ghosting across your face, his strength, the press of his fingers.

“That’s better.” He smiles, and moves away and it’s with an unspeakable relief that you see your mother round the corner again, eyes on her feet while you adjust and move further away. The guilt gnaws at you, but the other thing rages, paints her as an interruption for a moment before you reign it in. She smiles when she slides into her side of the booth. 

“How ‘bout we get dessert? I could do with a little somethin’ sweet.” He smiles, and she agrees. 

-

They chat idly on the drive back to the house. She mentions how the excitement has given her a headache, and he urges her to go rest. It’s terrifying, the change in him: his attitude with her, his obvious care and the juxtaposition to his behavior in the restaurant. 

Needing a break from the tension he built inside you earlier, you grab a change of clothes and run for the shower, grateful for the temporary oasis. 

You try to take your time, to focus on anything and everything except the overwhelming need to be fucked into your matress. A few, blissfully steam-filled minutes later you hear the bathroom door open. 

“Mom?” You call out, but after a few silent moments you think you might have imagined it. Until the curtain opens and Joel steps in as naked as the day he was born. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” You let out  a terrified whisper and your first instinct is to cover yourself. 

“Calm down, your mama’s sleepin’. She was feelin’ drained' from work and everythin’ so she took an ambien.” He steps towards you, forcing you to take a step back. “This water’s fit to burn my skin off.” He hisses but doesn’t adjust the temperature. 

He steps under the spray while you tuck yourself against the corner, shaking from the chilly tile pressing against your back. Your arm is pressed to your front covering your breasts, and the other is cupping your pussy, hiding your bits from his gaze. In contrast, he’s unbothered by his nakedness. His cock is soft, his arms are strong, his middle a little soft, but his beauty is undeniable. This is a man’s body, and you take it in with increasing want.

Your eyes betray you, your body betrays you, everything inside you seems to scream betrayal when he’s alone with you like this. He tilts his face up into the hot spray. He’s so fucking handsome, so virile, so hung. You kick yourself as you stare at his cock, already knowing that you’re going to give in to him, despite your mother being asleep just down the hall. 

“Come on babygirl, get under the water with me.” He reaches forward, taking your hand and pulling you towards him. You let him, heart fluttering like a bird in a cage at the feel of him pressing you close to him. The water cascades over you both, steam billowing out and his hands travel the expanse of your back. They slide over your shoulders, reaching down to cup your backside. He pulls you closer, pressing his mouth to yours and you can’t help but moan. 

He smiles, moving his kisses to your neck, your shoulders and that thing inside you wins yet again. Your hands press against his chest, they move over the muscles of his arms that you cannot help but stare at, they caress his back and up to curl through the hair at the base of his neck. 

You pull his face to yours for a deeper kiss, the kiss you’ve been craving since he left you wet and trembling in your bed. He groans when your tongue licks into his mouth and then it changes. From an almost sweet exploration, to a desperate need to consume one another. His cock hardens against your belly and your cunt aches at the feel of it. 

“Give it to me, I want it.” Someone who cannot be you begs him, clutching at his hair when he licks at your neck, his hands palming at your breasts as your back hits the tile again.

“What do you want, baby?” He lifts your thigh, wrapping it around his hip as he slots his cock at the seam of your cunt. He doesn’t press, just glides it between your legs, never notching the blunt tip of it at your entrance like you hope he will. The head of it nudges at your clit and he rocks it against you, teasing you into madness. 

You know what he wants, you want it too. As hard as he is, as desperate as you know he is to slip inside, he has all the patience in the world.

He knows this. He also knows that you are much more desperate than him. 

“I want your cock daddy, please, I need it.” You all but moan, some, pathetic, half-human thing burning with a fever, begging to be fucked like a whore. Begging him. The one person you shouldn’t beg this from. 

“Such a good girl, such a quick learner.” He finally grasps himself in hand, making sure you watch him as he angles himself and slides home in one smooth, brutal stroke. The moan you let out is a loud, filthy thing. 

“Shh, can’t have you makin’ all that noise honey,” He slips his forearm under your calf to open  you up wide, his other hand coming up to wrap around your throat. He snaps his hips hard enough to make everything bounce and you cannot imagine ever being this fucking turned on, this hot for another person. 

“Or maybe you do, maybe you want your mama to come in here, see how well her babygirl takes her daddys cock.” 

You close your eyes at that, it’s too filthy, it’s too depraved but your cunt still drools out its passion for him.

“You get so wet when I tell you how well you take it, even here I can feel her soakin’ me.” He stares at the juncture of your thighs- watches himself spearing you with his cock. Your eyes are half-glazed, admiring the way his neck strains, the definition in his arms, the way his mouth hangs open. His skin red from exertion and the heat of the water.

He’s right, something inside feeds off his praise no matter how fucking wrong it is, you need it.

“Yes daddy, I like it.” You confess, already damned anyway. 

“I know baby, I know.” He lets go of your throat and holds onto your ass before sticking his tongue down your throat. You whimper into his mouth, holding onto his neck for dear life while inching closer and closer to the orgasm building in your hips, in the base of your spine.

“Wanna feel her now, come all over me honey-“ he begs in your ear, his hips stuttering slightly and a madness overtakes you as you shove your fingers into his mouth and slip them down over your clit. He moans, pressing his palm into the hinge of your knee, somehow opening you up even more and then it’s there, in your fingers, in your limbs and in your very soul. 

“Yes, that’s it baby, yes-“ he turns his thrusts into a grinding roll, and it’s with a horrified glee that you feel him paint your insides in his come. Your eyes glued to the place you’re joined, a curious thought springs up unbidden: nothing in the world could pull you away from him at that moment, with his cock inside and his hands on your body. That realization should scare you but it doesn’t. Would your mom bursting through the door make you come to your senses? Do you really want to know the answer to that question?

“Daddy… I can feel it really deep.” You say the words in what feels like a drunken stupor and he lets out a punched out groan, pulling out to watch as he drips out of the place you now know he fucking owns.

“That’s where it belongs, honey. Nice and deep.” He lowers your leg, but pulls you close and tucks you under his chin. 

“Daddy loves you, you know that right? I’m so proud of you baby.”

You’re exhausted, but the guilt doesn’t come as quickly as the first time. It’s hard for it to make it through the comfort of the hot water, the cocoon of his arms, the steady reassuring thump of his heart under your cheek. The soft press of his lips to your forehead. 

He stays. He washes your hair, cleans his come from between your legs and the fatherly lines of him blur even more. 

It’s wrong. You know it. It’s obviously so fucking wrong. But it feels so right, it feels good, it feels safe for him to shield your eyes from the suds, for him to massage the knots out of your back, for him to kiss you soft, for his fingers to pluck at your soapy nipples. 

When you’re done and in bed, you fall asleep, and dream of a steamy bathroom and soft, chapped lips at your temple.

–

The next morning finds you well-rested. That might actually bother you more than it should, comparatively speaking. That he would be the person to fuck you well enough to give you a good nights sleep seems like some cosmically cruel joke. Memories of your mother sleeping in on Saturdays after a night out with him make you groan into your pillow. 

Any acceptance, any complicity was far and foreign in the unforgiving light of day. All of the comfort you’d felt in the tail-end of that unholy shower now angered you. It was manipulation, it was coercion, how could you do that? Let him in, in all of the different ways he’d managed to push inside you in the time since you’d been home, past your protective walls and quite literally between your fucking legs. It had to be something he’d done to make you crazy. A temporary insanity, surely, 

You let out a huff, noting but almost unseeing the dust motes dancing in shafts of light coming in through the window. The guilt was heavy and hot in your belly, and not only because of the betrayal but because you knew, deep in your soul, that you would not–could not deny him. That was a fact. 

The pillow at your side found itself pressed to your face to cover the groan of frustration at the cringy realization that you were just another woman with daddy issues.

Hours you laid there, torturing yourself with so many flavors of guilt. 

Guilt at indulging, guilt at craving, guilt at knowing that you’d most likely doing it again, guilt at tentatively imagining other places you wanted him to fuck you. Guilt at the look of devotion on your mother’s face when he smiled at her. Guilt at the dark, cruel little thing that rejoiced at him wanting you so bad. 

They were both sitting at the kitchen table when you finally came downstairs. Your stomach dropped at the sight of him sitting there, in his usual place with the paper in his hands. His face gave nothing away when he looked up at you, a talent he shouldn’t have. 

“Good morning, sleep okay?” Your mom smiled, moving to the sink.

“Yeah, slept great.” You smile back and you almost feel Joel’s chest puff out. You ignore him. 

“That’s good, why don’t you come do groceries with me? I’m going to do a big trip so you guys aren’t starving while I’m gone next week.” 

She misses your frown as she empties the dishwasher. Something big wraps itself around you, something foreboding, something inescapable. His paper flicks almost imperceptibly in the corner of your eye and still, you ignore it. 

“What do you mean?” You question her, but it’s almost prophetic, because you already know.

“I thought I’d told you, I have a work trip. A conference, because of the promotion. I’m leaving on Monday morning, and I’ll be gone until Thursday. I wanted to leave the fridge full so the two of you don’t have to worry. Want to come?” 

She’s still focused on putting away the dishes when you finally meet his eye. Your stomach rolls at the wink he flashes you. You can feel his thoughts like a sunburn, skin tight with the burn of it, at the promise of all of the things you already know he’ll make you do. 

The things you know, deep down, you’ll beg him for. 

Fuck.

[prettyinpwn]

Hi! I don't remember if anyone asked this, but do you have any headcanons about Shermie Pines?

Ah, see, this is the part where I totally self-promote share this wonderful, totally not owned by me ask blog reply: https://askthestans.tumblr.com/post/756343677567336448/hey-stan-can-you-tell-us-stories-about-your

But here's a full summary of my headcanons on the guy:

Older brother to Ford and Stan. I know the timeline's screwy with that baby in the background of ATOTS, but I personally just headcanon that that's some other baby and Shermie's not around in the house because he's off in the military.

I definitely picture him being in the Navy. I picture he's got sailor's tattoos. And actual cool ones, no offense to Ford.

I can't find the reference for the life of me, but I swear to God I once read from Hirsch (I think it was a tweet?) that Stan learned the "you cuddle up to a girl, knock her up, suddenly your life's fallin' apart" oddly specific joke in Little Gift Shop of Horrors from Filbrick. Going with my headcanon that Shermie's the older brother, that means he's the oops baby.

Because of that, and Filbrick's general suckage, Shermie struggled a lot with his dad like the Stans did. I think like Stan, he wasn't especially exceptional - or at least in a way that could make them money like Ford's brains - and Filbrick might have projected a whole "my life fell apart after I had Shermie" thing on the poor guy. So... I don't imagine Shermie got along real well with Filbrick. I also headcanon the large gap in years between Shermie and the Stans as Filbrick's hesitation to have more kids. I think Caryn would have wanted more, and eventually convinced him to have another (and whaddaya know, two for the price of one!), but Filbrick all over just gives me the vibe of a guy that never wanted to be a father, and Shermie knew that even as a kid, so he felt rather unwanted.

In terms of personality, I see Shermie as like... a straight laced golden retriever. Like a pure heart of gold "sees an old lady struggling to walk across the street and gets out and helps her" type guy. Being Mabel and Dipper's grandfather, I think he shares Mabel's optimism but Dipper's sense of right and wrong, which is what makes him a bit of a square (see the Ask the Stans post linked above). Even so, he's not outgoing like Mabel, he's introverted like Ford and Dipper. Like... people picture introverts as moody and quiet with dark thoughts, but when Shermie's quiet he just has happy fantasies like his granddaughter, Mabel (except replace hamster balls and hot boys with, idk... probably baseball or a movie he saw one time and loved).

I see him as a family pillar of support type guy, too. As the older brother in a poor family, I think a lot of responsibility was put on his shoulders. He definitely helped run the pawn shop (though Filbrick got irritated whenever he gave too generous of a discount), and made extra money on the side for his family with a side job. Going into the military was not his choice - given the era, it was probably a draft - and he sent his money home. Caryn probably did Tarot readings on him every night between his letters home hoping they always turned up positive.

He sent little letters home to Stan and Ford, too. He'd make Stan promise to protect Ford for him since he couldn't while he was out at sea, which is what inspired Stan to be such a protector. Then, he made Ford promise to help Stan with his homework like he used to, but once again, couldn't while in the Navy. And he'd tell them about his "epic ocean adventures" to gloss over the horrors of what he was actually going through, which I like to headcanon partially inspired their obsession with fixing up the Stan-O-War so they could have epic ocean adventures someday like their big brother. It wasn't until they were older that they realized, oh... yeah, he wasn't swashbuckling with pirate ghosts in the US Navy. :(

Physically, I think he's the one who looks the most like Caryn. Stan and Ford are like Filbrick short king copy+pastes, but I picture Shermie more tall and lanky like their mother, and has her aquiline nose. Coloring-wise, he's a Pines: brown hair and brown eyes. And sailor tattoos, can't forget those.

I feel like he had to be a pseudo father-figure to the Stans because of Filbrick. Filbrick wasn't the type to teach them how to ride a bike or play a sport, scare "monsters" out of their closet, bring them home for dinner from the beach, etc. Like he fulfilled more of the emotional role of a father to them that Filbrick couldn't.

With Stan, I think he played defense for the kid against Filbrick. I don't think Shermie would have directly gotten angry with Filbrick, especially given his golden retriever-ness and the era, but he defended Stan in little ways. Say Stan broke something, Shermie might have stepped in and tried to smooth things over before Filbrick could get angry. But boy oh boy, if he saw anyone else picking on Stan (or Ford, for that matter), better watch out. He might be a golden retriever, but he's still a Pines, so he's got that whole, "Mess with my family and I'll send you to the hospital." thing going on.

With Ford, I think Shermie was like Stan to him, protecting him and generally trying to make him not feel weird for his polydactyly and nerdiness. While on the surface I think Shermie and Stan might have bonded more because they had more shared surface level interests, I think Ford really looked up to Shermie, especially since Shermie was - as an introvert - the closest to Ford in personality in their family. Shermie wholly supported his love of weirdness, even if he didn't understand what the hell he was talking about half the time, and often would go along with him and Stan on monster hunts as kids just to make sure they got home safe, even if he had no interest in the paranormal himself.

As far as flaws, I can see him having inherited Filbrick's temper and absolutely hating himself for it. Like normally he's a sweet, happy-go-lucky guy, but when he blows up he feels like such an ass afterwards because it reminds himself of his father. His golden retriever personality might have been a way of him trying his best to form an identity far, FAR away from Filbrick, so when parts of Filbrick come out, he feels gross. The Stans look the most like Filbrick, but Shermie - for as nice and sweet as he is - inherited more of Filbrick's bad personality traits than they did.

When Stan got kicked out, Shermie was out at sea and their mother hadn't told him about it, feeling awful she'd let Filbrick just kick Stan out. So when he got home, he was like, "Where the hell is Stan?", and Caryn had to tell him. Shermie always blamed himself for not being there to play defense for Stan like he always had in the past, but at the same time, he was P I S S E D that Stan broke Ford's science fair project. And given that Caryn felt guilty and didn't want to speak against Filbrick and Ford's opinions, and Filbrick is a dick, and Ford was still freshly wounded from the whole fight and disappointment... well, he got a biased view of Stan. He felt so betrayed by Stan for decades for having "hurt" Ford and the family. I think this would explain why he wouldn't have gone to Stan's "funeral" later on. Cue him feeling like an asshole after the events of Gravity Falls and Stan and Ford and/or the niblings tell their grandfather what went down the last three decades.

Even so, I think he tried to find Stan afterwards in his drifter grifter years, but to no avail. Stan didn't want Shermie to find him and disappoint him, and all the evidence Shermie did find seemed to prove what Ford and Filbrick said about Stan, so... :(

He worked in the IRS for his career after the Navy. It made Stan barf when he found out. But Shermie just wanted a good old normal family life and a boring job after what he went through in the war.

As for the way he interacts with Dipper and Mabel, just... pure cuteness. Picture the most stereotypical sweethearted grandfather. Stan and Ford are like the cool old relatives, but Shermie is the big softie old relative. He buys Mabel craptons of arts and crafts and knitting supplies for birthdays and holidays, and he buys Dipper whatever paranormal stuff or video games he wants. He fully sees Dipper as like a little Ford and a lot like his own son (D&M's dad), but he loves Mabel too, of course.

If I think of any more, I'll be sure to add them to this post. :D

[kaileedraws]

*+ Ships +*

So that there’s no surprises, here’s a running list of ships in this AU - it’s pretty much the same as canon and I’ll mention which ones end / what will be the endgame ships!

Main Characters ——————///

Ladybug & Adrien

Brief and innocent

Comfort and fluff

Not endgame nor dating - occurs briefly

Marinette & Chat Noir

Angst and rebellion (and more angst)

comfort/hurt

Heartbroken babies find unsuspecting comfort in each other

Always gave off “best friend” vibes — someone they can talk about their relationship problems to

Not endgame, nor do they date, but they have a sort of healing situationship for awhile

Marinette & Adrien

Sweet and healing

Forbidden love - it’s like the world doesn’t want them to work — especially because they have to lie to each other constantly.

Not endgame, but they do date for a while until they mutually agree, painfully, that it’s not in the cards for them - more angst

Ladybug & Chat Noir

Forbidden, secret love

Comfort/hurt

Endgame - they realize that the only people they can trust is each other

Adrien & Chloe

Trauma bond, emotional instability, situationship

Chloe craves the attention that her mother never gave her, Adrien is trying to escape from the grief of his mom’s death.

Ends early on: Adrien tells her that everything he was doing was just to make her happy. Chloe becomes upset because she wasn’t trying to take advantage of him and his emotional state, as she is broken too.

They both don’t have romantic feelings for each other and stay close friends. Chloe becomes protective of Adrien since she doesn’t want that to happen to him again.

Turns into a sibling-like relationship

Adrien & Kagami

Rebellion, understanding

Adrien is trying to run away from his feelings for Ladybug; Kagami finally finds the first person she can relate to and mistakes it for love.

They date for a little bit but Kagami is hurt about Adrien’s avoidance in the relationship. Kagami ends things but eventually returns in friendship once she figures out that she only loved the idea and perfection of Adrien — not Adrien himself (this would explain how she falls for Felix genuinely without it appearing like a rebound)

Marinette and Luka

Comfort/hurt

Marinette is running away from her feelings for Adrien, and Luka is there to catch her.

They date casually for a little bit, before Luka becomes concerned with Marinette’s avoidance in the relationship.

They mutually end things, and Luka tries to be okay with this. He’s secretly hurt, but more than anything, he just wants Marinette to be happy. Marinette wants Luka to be with someone who deserves him, and she knows that in her state, she can’t be that person.

Felix and Kagami

Enemies to lovers to partners in crime

Yeah Kagami falls for the antihero because she admires how bold and rebellious he is. Felix falls for Kagami because he admires how ruthfully truthful she is

Endgame ship

Gabriel x Nathalie

All of the freaking angst

Nathalie devotes her life to him, his cause, and his son

Gabriel finds comfort in Nathalie as he goes through the grieving process

Don’t ask them, they’ll deny it (probably endgame but we’ll see)

Other Character Ships ———///

Ivan & Mylene

Power couple that’s going to make a greener earth

Juleka & Rose

Gave off a sister vibe at first and then figured out they were actually in love

Marc & Nathan

Will make a husband and husband’s comic book about Ladybug and Chat Noir

Kim & Ondine

The mermaid couple

Not endgame - Ondine deserves better

Luka & ??? — leaning towards Chloe

I really want this good lad to be happy because he deserves it, but I can’t figure out who he’d be happy with.

The ship Chloe/Luka is kind of growing on me — post-Chloe’s character arc of course. I kind of like the thought of him being the calm to her storm, and her aggressively sticking up for him because he’s too chill to correct the mistakes of others. Ie she would call over the waiter and complain they got his order wrong and he would just be in the corner like “hey I said it was fine you don’t have to do that for me.” And with her, she would be about to get super angry and frustrated, and he would just be like “shh, listen to the music in the room” or some shit, or even just grab her hand and ground her, helping her arc. She needs someone to calm her and give her affection, and he deserves a woman that’s going to fight for him.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Zoe & ????? — leaning towards Ondine (or Aurore)

I want to establish a side character for Zoe, leaning toward her having a relationship with Ondine just on the basis of listening to the song “boyfriend” by Dove Cameron—

Ondine saying “fuck you” to Kim and running away happily and gay. Fuck Kim lmao

[queerdraws]

⚔️👒 Zolu Playlist 👒⚔️

28 songs Full tracklist, selected lyrics, n writeup below cut

(Contains: The Happy Fits, PUFFY, Illuminati Hotties, Paramore, The Shins, The Orion Experience, Best Coast, Utada Hikaru, etc) (+a couple songs absorbed from ao's zolu playlist)

1. The Shins - Simple Song Mixed POV, Zoro being recruited by Luffy. ... You sure must be strong And you feel like an ocean being warmed by the Sun // My life in an upturned boat Marooned on a cliff You brought me a great big flood And you gave me a lift // I know that things can really get rough When you go it alone Don't go thinking you gotta be tough To bleed like a stone Could be there's nothing else in our lives so critical As this little hole?

2. Slow Pulp - Cramps Zoro POV, vibing with being a pirate, actually. realizing he's a lot like Luffy / they have a lot in common. Wants to protect his crew. Part of a family now. But also specifically drawn to Luffy, drawn along with Luffy. Has a nice confident, grungy, fighty vibe. ... Be a better lover, I know that I'm a runner Oh no, I think I've become her There's nothing better than being the protector Out of a routine, the only one I've ever seen I wanna be a foolproof machine There's nothing better, wanna be like Heather I'll take anything That you wanna give But I want everything Everything

3. PUFFY - Friends Forever Mixed POV, perfectly in sync. friends forever. big adventuring vibe. facing the world together. slight nod to whiskey peak. sidenote: it's really annoying to find this song on youtube without scooby doo noises playing over it (official music videos my beloathed...) the "pokemon and their trainers" (...gijinkas) video is the best one for my region at least. ... Just when I thought I had to make it alone You were right there by my side Making a stand holding my hand the way you do There to remind me of a "me and you" When I'm with you all my fear disappears Like if I reach, I touch the sky You've got my back, pick up my slack when I can't see But nothing picks me up like knowing we'll be Friends forever Face whatever Friends forever Yay! we're never gonna be apart You and me, we are so oddly the same The way we think, the way we play Right from the start, so off the charts, about this thing But we didn't know at first that we were making Friends forever Bound together Friends forever Yeah! We'll always be there Oh yes, there also can be times that get rough And all that can be said is "sorry" That we were wrong and said some meaningless stuff And we'll go on together, through any nasty weather Yeah

4. Illuminati Hotties - Sandwich Sharer Luffy POV - flippant & happy vibe. but also visceral, grungy, fighty. kissing. sharing food. "you thought i was bleeding but that's just my spit!!". ... Restarted kissing You said "I'm dreaming" I couldn't stop from laughing Cause it's the realest thing I ever did Taking our clothes off Painting on rooftops Sit back on shingles in the shade, I bare my teeth at future fake outs we had coming Drooling tomato sauce, to make it look legit You thought i was bleeding but that's just my spit Sandwich sharer Unprepared for What comes after this Take the big half I will bite back What you won't finish Until we're finished

5. The Happy Fits - Sailing Zoro POV oops catching feelings for a friend ... My body's achin' My ship's left the shore Your eyes are waiting My knees on the floor And it's been so long Since I had a friend And it's been so long Why can't we just pretend? And I feel your laughter Your warm, open stare And I'm chasing after Somethin' that isn't there

6. The Pillow Queens - Favourite idk just vibes "tell me i'm your favorite" + "i'm being so normal" ... i’ve got no reason to be feeling like you’re mine for the next four seasons let it die, let it die i can’t help hoping that you think i’m really nice want some brief hand holding on the sly, on the sly hey you can say it, i’m your favourite hey you can say it, i’m your favourite

7. The Beths - Warm Blood Luffy POV - Zoro is warm and good feelings. Not "you make me feel protected", but "you are a raincoat". Feels very Luffy. "you really get me" ... Nothing makes me feel like this Nothing makes me feel like this Nothing but you Nothing but you My head is hanging from the roof I'm floating all about the room Because of you Because of you I wanna bask in the rays of the way I feel right now (Ooh oooh) I wanna bask in the rays of the way I feel right now (Ooh warming up my blood) You are a raincoat, you are a zeppelin flight You are a bonfire burning a three dog night You are an isle of calm on a stormy sea You really get, you really get You really get me I wanna be here when you call Pick up the phone and I would fall in love with you In love with you

8. MONKEY MAJIK - Around the World Mixed POV. During timeskip. Counting down the days until we can see eachother again. We'll change the world, make it better, we're training to make that happen. sidenote: the mixed eng/jpn version of this song is my favorite and the one i'm referring to here ... Every night I look to the skies And wonder what we did Always a naive point of view that breaks us in the end If I could find the meaning of it all I’d take the chance Maybe in time We’ll walk the mile and change it if we can It’s now and always (How did we get this far,did we get this far now) Always (We’re making a brand new start, just a brand new start now) Always (Nothing will hold me down, never hold me down now) Always (Wave goodbye to me!) Around the world 新しいことに(with the power to) Around the world 踏み出す力で(step forward to something new) Around the world 世界は変わる(I'll change the world) But don’t run away ’cause if it’s not OK! I’ll change that world Into something better honey!

9. Natalie Holmes - Hideout Zoro POV, Luffy brings light to all those around him, reawakens ppls dreams and leads his crew in to a beautiful inspiring new life :') ... Under the stars, out in the elements If there's no room, there are no elephants When you speak the waves are radiant You've got a face that softens every muscle in my body I’ve never needed all these things to feel whole Something familiar in the love that you provide (And now) I’ve got an empty hideout cause I don't need to hide now The wind can blow out the candle, cause I'm certain I can't fall You've got a face that softens All of the glass I’ve trodden Now I’ve got an empty hideout I don’t need to hide now I don’t need to Something in your love makes everything light up We don’t say a word although we want to Your heart was on the line now suddenly it’s mine There’s something in your love Something in your love Something in your love, in you love

10. Daft Punk - Digital Love just vibes. dreaming. dancing together. having fun. ... Last night I had a dream about you In this dream I'm dancing right beside you And it looked like everyone was having fun The kind of feeling I've waited so long Don't stop, come a little closer As we jam the rhythm gets stronger There's nothing wrong with just a little little fun We were dancing all night long The time is right to put my arms around you You're feeling right, you wrap your arms around too But suddenly I feel the shining sun Before I knew it this dream was all gone Ooh, I don't know what to do About this dream and you I wish this dream comes true Ooh, I don't know what to do About this dream and you We'll make this dream come true Why don't you play the game? Why don't you play the game?

11. Mitski - Stay Soft Mostly just like the bridge "open up your heart like the gates of helllll". But feels more like Zoro POV (thirsty). And touches a little the communication issues these two have ... Fury, pure and silver You grip it tight inside Like a knife, it glints in your eye It's why I've arrived, your sex god Here to take you where You need to go, to where the dark remembers you Open up your heart Like the gates of Hell // I am facedown on my bed Still not quite awake yet Thinking of you, I tuck my hand under my weight Just tell me what you want to do Tell me what you want to burn away 'Cause I could be your stoker

12. Air Traffic Controller - You Know Me Mixed POV. You know me! Perfectly in tune. ... You know me You know everything about me now My heart is in your hands, and you know you could break it But wouldn't you rather make me sing like this? You know me I try to find some good in everything Since you came along, somehow this got easy 'Cause all you wanna do is please me, my love This could be a roller coaster But we're gonna make the most of it Whether on top, or we're going down, you know me You know me (I know you) And how I get when I'm uncomfortable If I'm too hot, or cold Tired, bored, or hungry I'm fine when you're around me, boy And you know me I've never been on time for anything I do apologize, I know it's such a bother I promise to try harder for you, girl, oh I will

13. The Orion Experience - Honeysuckle Kisses Luffy POV. Desires filed away in a very Luffy way "All I want is all my wishes, and I've love to have your honeysuckle kisses". Romance as an afterthought to the great big adventure. ... They say we're crazy, completely insane I don't give a damn, I think we're fascinating We keep it moving and riding this train They can stop and stare But I don't care Oh, they just can't see who we are You and I, yeah We belong to the stars No matter how they try They won't tear us apart All I want is all my wishes And I'd love to have your honeysuckle kisses All I need to fulfill my bliss is Is your honeysuckle, honeysuckle kisses That's what I want

14. The Happy Fits - Around and Around Zoro POV, Pre-relationship, unsure about what's happening due to poor communication. Things are coming to a boiling point. And also "I could see the world with you" - be by your side forever, go on adventures. Do you want that? Do I? Will you have me? ... I don't know what I'm seeing, when the world keeps spinning around my eyes I think I lost my meaning Just another day to survive And I can't keep thinking about it, keep thinking about it Can't be still anymore No, there's nothing so simple about it, nothing simple about it Can't be still anymore I can't be still anymore I can't be still anymore I'll go 'round and around Go 'round and around with you No, don't slow me down No, don't slow me down, will you? And I could see the world with you And I could see the world with you

15. Paramore - Proof Mixed POV, during timeskip. They're apart. Missing eachother. Believe in you, ride or die. So strong! They'll meet up again, even stronger than before. ... It's really hard I can't cry in your arms 'cause you're not here It's not your fault, and if it was, I wouldn't care My heart is bigger than the distance in between us I know it 'cause I feel it beating So strong, it'll knock you down So strong, so strong Over here I can count the miles away from where I wanna be I bet your skin is warm and that you're smiling Yeah, that's what I always loved the most about you So strong, come and knock me down Hey! Baby, if I'm half the man I say I am If I'm a woman with no fear just like I claim I am Then I'll believe in what you say There's nothing left for you to do The only proof that I need is you

16. Utada Hikaru - Chikai (aka zolu "wedding" song. Primarily Zoro POV, making oaths, matching rings, liking someone so much it makes you feel uncool, waaaaaaauughhhhghgh😭) ... I don’t know about fate But this time I have to accept that it exists // Today is a day without lies It's a perfect day for making an eternal vow Don't need pretty flowers or witnesses Let’s wear rings of the same color // What I say now isn't borrowed words It’s not a promise, it’s an oath I can’t go back to being a liar Let’s wear rings the color of the morning sun Let’s dance with our hearts pounding Let’s celebrate being alive in this moment // Kiss me once, kiss me twice Give yourself to me Let’s listen to sound of the sun rising, side by side Let’s swear to live our lives together

17. Best Coast - When I'm with You Mixed POV ... The world is lazy But you and me We're just crazy So, when I'm with you, I have fun Yeah, when I'm with you, I have fun // I hate sleeping alone

18. Gerard Way - No Shows Pre-relationship. Not wanting to be tied down, but also being drawn in to it anyway, idk. ... Been weeks I been living And your smiles are giving me All types of treble Weak knees I been given And those nights are making me Star-struck and metal Stay free, don't go 'Cause we don't need no Try to be living as your vice And can you be my type? 'Cause we need to be given a good life And can I be your type of metal? Stay free, don't go 'Cause we don't need no shows

19. VUKOVI - Colour Me In Mixed POV - Follow you anywhere, die for you, we're one together (you're mine you're mine you're mine!) ... All I am And even more I'll give it to you Couldn't count All the ways That I'd die for you We are one We are whole And I'll go with you Breathing out, breathing in And I loved you again // Where you go, oh, I'll follow Through our bodies in the dark We want it and it's perfect With you in my arms Where you go, oh, I'll follow Through our bodies in the dark You're mine You're mine You're mine Mine

20. Opus Orange - It's What I Do Mixed POV - just vibes. I feel like it describes them but can't explain it ... every time you look for me you know i think i might disappear every time i look for you i know the bright lights interfere ‘cause i’m not the kind that’s so easy to find when you’re looking for me you’re not the kind with the salt water eyes at the bottom of the sea so take my hand we are the blind leading the blind no i don’t have a plan so let’s go where the sea meets the sky now we're gonna float away everything i want to say to you gets washed away downstream everything i want to give to you is a shade of blue or green i’m not the kind to draw straight lines in the desert sand you’re not the kind with peace of mind and a gun in your hand

21. Illuminati Hotties - Toasting Primarily Luffy POV. Just vibes. Short and sweet, flippant and reckless. They cause descruction and just laugh it off, and move on. ... Toasting a Pop-Tart And thinking of you There's a lot I'd rather do Instead I'm biting my lip And I'm biting yours too 'Til the blood tastes like chocolate goo Our bodies Are twirling The kitchen is burning When we both choke down the ashes You mention you're bored I guess I could've toasted more

22. The Happy Fits - Sweet Things Mixed POV after the end of their journey, pirate king and worlds greatests swordsman continue sailing together forever ... So tell me three things, three words that you know about me I'll say, I'll say "won't you come with me, baby?" Nothing lasts forever It's only now or never Tell me sweet things, sweet things that you know about me I'll say, I'll say "won't you bury me, baby? Underneath our loving forever" Don't you take me, take me all the way and then erase me I could be the one if you stay here Underneath our loving forever So take me home Well you say that nothing matters Well you said that nothing mattered except when I'm here with you Does it feel right? (Does it feel right?)

23. The Black Keys - Go Narrator POV - The two boys growing old sailing together ... There comes a time, two hearts of gold Leave together, run forever on the open road They gotta go oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh They gotta go oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh In the winter time, when the day is long You're halfway there, the field is bare And the fire is gone Are you all alone? Are you feeling cold? Find your flame, call her name, and hit the road

24. PUFFY - Love so Pure Mixed POV - love so sure. two people perfectly suited for eachother from the start. mutual trust. soulmates. :) ... I was his from the momentthe we first met From our solo to duet, it took no time Call it fate Or just two hearts magnetized But I never felt so high Since he's been all mine We've got a love so pure, yes a love so sure The kind of love you hold so tight We've got a love so pure, yes a Love so sure The kind of love that lasts a girl for life! With a kiss I can't resist on turn away All I want is him to stay, it's paradise With out a word Nothing heard me say so much With a look or silent touch I know we'll bе all right

25. Tegan and Sara - BWU Mixed POV - don't need to follow conventions to prove their love. ... I love you I don't need a ring to Prove that you're worthy You're under my skin It's easy I don't need a lock to Prove that you trust me I walk the walk To be with you Just to be with you Oh, to be with you Just to be with you Save your first and last dance for me I don't need a white wedding Save your first and last born for me We don't need a white wedding All the girls I loved before Told me they signed up for more Save your first and last chance for me 'Cause I don't want a white wedding

26. IRONTOM - Partners Just what it says on the tin. They're partners. lol ... Partners, we're partners We're partners, we're partners

27. Ashley Eriksson - Arguably Mixed POV - idk, vibes ... Sometimes I wish I was talkin' to you 'Cause you know everybody that I do You would hear my story, and you would agree We are always right on, you and me And you can always count on my company On and on and on, endlessly We're all loving creatures of the same decree But we've got one up on them don't we? Don't we? Arguably, don't we?

28. Animal Collective - The Purple Bottle Luffy POV. Frantic. Explosive big feelings. Can't stop talking --about Zoro to other people, and to Zoro about anything (sometimes i'm talkitive and you're not talkitive, I know...). And idk, the vibes. "purple" as a metaphor for sensuality, feels playful and lovely. But the end of this song really drags on so it's at the end of the playlist lol. ... I've gotta big big big heart beat, yeah! I think you are the sweetest thing I wear a coat of feelings and they are loud I've been having good days Think we are the right age to start our own peculiar ways? With good friendly homes // Sometimes you're quiet and sometimes I'm quiet, (Hallelujah!) Sometimes I'm talkative and sometimes you're not talkative, I know // And my dear dear dear Khalana I talk too much about you Their ears are getting tired of me singing all the night through Lets just talk together You and me and me and you And if there's nothing much to say Well, silence is a bore. // Can I tell you that you are the purple in me? Can I call you just to hear you would you care? When I saw you put your purple finger on me There's a feeling in your bottle Found your bottle, found your heart Gives a feeling from your bottled little part

------

Aaaand that's all of it! Thanks for reading :)

[angelsdean]

another thing about the "what did cas invent" poll responses, yes i absolutely hear ppl saying he wouldn't have invented anything actually bc he's just a regular angel, small and inconsequential, and i do totally vibe with that interpretation sometimes. but other times, i really do enjoy the idea that cas was one of, if not thee, first angel after the archangels to come off the factory line.

and well, he was chuck's first try at making a "regular" angel but he gave him a little too much power, made him a little too close to archangels, gave him a little too much spark. that crack in cas's chassis, all those "flaws", he was a prototype. chuck didn't realize how "wrong" he'd gone until it was too late. he tried to fix his mistakes with cas, and it held, for some time, like duct tape. he made adjustments for the rest of the angels. made sure they wouldn't get any fanciful ideas about humanity.

but anyway, cas was always closer to the archangels than any other regular angel. he was also popular and well liked, for a time. he was someone all the other angels looked up to as a leader. he was someone naomi saw as powerful and useful. if cas were really such a nuisance with no value, the angels would've just killed him a long time ago. but they kept finding use for him, they kept resetting him, wiping his memories, so he could keep being what they needed him to be.

and somewhere, along those billions of years, billions of resets and tampering with his memories, cas forgot. he forgot what he was. he forgot he was the first of the angels after the archangels. he forgot he was maybe a little more archangel than he should be. he forgot why he was there, out of all the other regular angels, walking on a beach with his archangel brother when the first fish came onto land. if he were just a random soldier he shouldn't have been there, right? he forgot he used to be one of chuck's favorites, before all his "defects" started showing. the other angels remember though. they know what he is.

anyway, just a headcanon but a fun one i enjoy rotating around in my mind from time to time.

[revserrayyu]

2.7 Penacony thoughts [part 1]

**Spoiler warning** for everything up until we finish our little shopping trip with Fugue. At the time of writing this, I’ve already finished all of the 2.7 story and may reference events that happen a bit later, so just be wary of that.

As much as I believe Sunday to be an intelligent man, I thought there was no way the people of Penacony wouldn’t recognize his handsome face and pierced wing just because of a simple outfit change, but call me a fool since he manages to leisurely waltz through the dreamscape undetected thanks to the power of Harmony so he can fiddle with everyone’s minds to help disguise himself.

Knowing now that Wonweek was just Sunday’s older self disguised, this moment doesn’t feel as comical as it did upon first experiencing it, but he sounded so calm and sincere here that I have no doubt Sunday would actually say this to a real pepeshi, and for that I love him.

Everyone say thank you to Jade for setting our angel free. A part of me wished we would see more of his rescue other than just the same 2.3 scene in a flashback, but oh well. Guess she really just freed him from his chains and disappeared among a sea of butterflies. Oh, wrong quantum character, tee-hee~

Breaking news: red text is still powerful enough to make me pause and send subtle fear into my heart, no matter how silly the situation appears.

He said the thing.

This was honestly so cute to hear about. Yeah he tells us it was one of his first failures but just picturing a young Sunday trying to fly is adorable. I read his character stories before starting the quest (which means I was spoiled about him joining the Express) and his first one also showed that playful side to him and while I know it’s mainly because he was a child when writing that letter but it made him feel more human to me. He seemed so closed off and seemingly perfect as a npc but now I feel like we’re getting to see more of his true emotions since he doesn’t have this huge pressure of being the Oak Family head anymore and I love that for him.

Out of all the possible disguises he could’ve possibly chosen, he decided on a lady intellitron. At least this shows how believable his disguise is to others.

For a moment I thought Sunday managed to fool Welt and slipped away unnoticed, which would’ve been quite a surprise, but thankfully Welt managed to pick up on the suspicious vibes this angel was giving off. Sunday admits he has no ill intent but Welt decides to make doubly sure of that by keeping a close eye on him throughout the remainder of this story.

I originally thought that part of Robin’s deal with Jade would be that the siblings could no longer see each other again, but since they did cross paths later on, I suppose I could rule that out, even if Sunday was still disguised. For fun, let’s just say she gave up her voice in exchange, since none of her lines were actually spoken (which I assume is due to the voice actor strike still going on.)

I wish I had the HI3 knowledge to know what happened to our dear grandpa. I seriously need to dive into some lore.. maybe watch a couple videos. Eventually.

Behold! All the Tingyun eidolons everyone received while pulling for Sunday! This is around the time I realized that Tingyun’s voice actor did indeed get switched. I know from the 2.7 livestream that Fugue had Anya listed instead of Laci, which didn’t seem too outlandish to me at first, considering the characters themselves had different names, but to replace the old va completely with Tingyun’s four star form too? Eh, that doesn’t really sit right with me. I get Tingyun and Fugue are essentially the same person, but they’re different enough that they could’ve made it work with both. If Ruan Mei could rework the girl’s body and give her more tails, I could believe her voice got messed up a little during whatever experiments she endured so we could have two different actors.

Again, I’m just gonna assume the replacement was due to the strike and I’m gonna believe that to be the reason why Himeko, Dan Heng & Stelle (& maybe Caelus, I dunno) didn’t speak either. Still a shame since I love hearing them whenever the story updates, but I can imagine their voices in my head if I try hard enough. Anyways, I’m sure Remembrance has gotta be one other paths influencing Amphoreus; as for the last one, who knows. Place your bets.

Can’t blame Wonweek for passing out after witnessing this while tuning. Evil and controlled Tingyun is on par with a nightmare.

His efforts weren’t in vain though because all the Tingyun eidolons did some fancy showcase and allowed the gorgeous Fugue to finally make her grand return! Or grand debut I guess since this is technically our first time meeting this version of her. Confusion aside, I seriously love this updated design for her. She’s so elegant! And now with the fire element and even more tails she literal became a Ninetales

Waking up with now memories is giving me Promised Neverland flashbacks and I’m suddenly so sad for our girl. And I know she’s constantly referred to as “Tingyun” throughout the entire story by other characters and even the text, but I’m still gonna call her Fugue.

Everyone say thank you to Ruan Mei for saving our pretty fox lady. Ain’t this fun? Knowing that someone like her and Jade, two characters people openly dislike, managed to both bring back another beloved character? Jokes on y’all because I’ve always enjoyed these ladies and now I can appreciate them even more~

I can’t hear “traveling merchant” and not think of Luocha. Just the mere thought of him makes me nervous, especially now since we learned at the end of 2.5 that his coffin contained a piece of Tayzzyronth’s body and if our mad scientist manages to get that in her possession I fear what else she’ll cook up in this lab.

After the sad flashbacks, we take Fugue on a little shopping trip to lighten the mood and we assist picking out gifts for Fu Xuan, Jung Yuan and Bailu and it was at this moment where I thought “oh no, she doesn’t remember Yukong?!” and started to freak out. Thankfully I worried for nothing as our beloved ace pilot shows up in person later once we meet up with Himeko again on the Radiant Feldspar.

Once again this whole reunion giving me Promised Neverland vibes, especially ch181 with knowing deep within your heart that you know these new people somehow from a past that you can’t quite remember as vividly as them but they still make you feel safe and complete. I really do wonder when Phantylia took control, or if we possibly never knew the old Tingyun at all and she was controlled by Phantylia from the moment we met. The story quest was a long time ago, so if there were any hints, the odds that I’ve forgotten are high.

It does warm my heart to hear her call us benefactors again. Whether it be a Phantylia thing or an old Tingyun thing to call us that, it just feels right coming from her.

To be honest, the 2.7 story didn’t feel all that long when compared to the last couple patches, but I’m gonna cut it short here and finish the rest in another two posts. Probably.

[imsparky2002]

Barbie in the Nutcracker: First Thoughts

The following is my thoughts while watching this for the first time.

Credits look awful. Still, it’s 2001 and this is the first installment so I’ll give it a pass.

Only know the basic Nutcracker song and theme but nice that it uses an orchestra

Barbie herself doesn’t look too bad but her little sis… yikes.

Kinda weird to see these dolls moving like mocap performers.

Heh! Barbie’s voice actor has the same name as her little sister.

Kelly very clearly sounds like an adult woman trying to do a kiddish voice.

Lipsyncing is odd, looks more like generic flapping.

Surprisingly decent snow effects.

I’m assuming Clara’s parents are either dead or abandoned them. Or they could also just be on vacation.

Is it wrong that I find Grandpa cute? Gives off a very distinguished vibe. Especially that voice.

They call gingerbread houses “christmas boxes”? That’s… interesting.

Kinda wish they gave Clara a different voice from Barbie, or at the very least a different hairstyle.

The lighting is actually pretty good! Nice warm hues, makes me feel like I’m at a cozy inn.

Her little brother looks like the kids who played Fortnite and would tease me in high school. Of course his name is fuckin’ Tommy.

This CGI is reminding me of early PS2 cutscenes.

Aunt Drosselmayer’s got that 90’s Leo DiCaprio/Hugh Grant parting in her hair. Bleh.

Why is Clara the only blonde in the family?

Ooh! We’ve got some family drama between Auntie and Grandpa. This is getting juicy.

Elizabeth is giving me confident bisexual vibes with the voice and manner of movement. Bet you that’s why Grandpa doesn’t trust her.

Looking at the wiki I just found out that Trixie’s VA voices the Aunt, Starlight’s VA is Barbie and Cadence’s VA is one of the kids! Must be a Canadian production.

I will never not find the word “nutcracker” to be hilarious.

Clara, why tf are you fighting over a toy with your lil brother? You’re like… 17? 18? I dunno but it’s way too old.

Seriously they gave Tommy the most punchable face ever. Not that I’d ever punch a kid but I can see why other kids his age would deck him.

Magic shenanigans are ensuing.

I like the medeival look of the rats. The CGI actually fits them well.

Clara wakes up to see an anthropomorphic warrior rat right next to her eating something and is just like “goddamn it, git ya varmint!” I love it.

Oh, she thinks she’s dreaming. That makes sense to why she’s so calm.

Hmm… I feel like the Rat King should look a bit more evil, and larger as well. Still, TIM CURRY! I’m gonna LOVE this.

Woah! We’re getting a fight scene! A swordfighting scene to be exact!

Oooh the Rat King’s magic and can shapeshift his weapon. That’s metal AF.

Tim Curry putting everything into his performance as usual.

I’m kinda surprised we’re already getting a Nutcracker-Rat King battle. I’d have thought they’d save that sorta thing until the third act.

Did they really have to change it to Sugarplum Princess? Fairy just sounds more powerful.

Wow! This snowy cave is beautiful! Something out of a classic painting.

EWWW THESE LIL SNOW FAIRIES LOOK DISGUSTING!

Did this nutfucker not realize that an icy fortress would have ice for the walls?

The fairies doing ballet looks weird because they have nothing to stand on.

Please don’t tell me the small fairy is staying, I hate her.

Dance is currently reminding me of Fantasia.

“The fairies probably went off to make a blizzard somewhere”. The way he said that nonchalantly had me cackling.

The effect of Clara’s footsteps turning into flowers is beautiful.

Pimm sounds like he’s an absolute troll online. Also gives me Psychicpebbles vibes (though I know it’s not him).

Wow the Rat King is a straight up genocider.

Why do all the kids look like Kelly?

OH DEAR GOD THAT LITTLE BOY LOOKS HORRIFYING.

Wait Prince Eric? Are they legally allowed to call him that? We all know how much Disney loves copyrights.

Man these kids are little shits and their outfits are gagworthy.

Major Mint definitely got a big personality, and the voice actor does a good job with it.

Ok Mint is hilarious and is so far the best part of the movie.

Nice to see some Asian rep with Captain Candy.

Wow, Rat King turns his failed employees into stone. Dark!

The zoom in on the Rat King as he says “that’s it?” made me giggle.

Thomas Astruc looked at the Rock Golem and got his first idea for an akuma.

Wait how the hell does Clara know that the Nutcracker is Prince Eric? I mean I already assumed because of the plot of the original ballet, but how does she know?!

The bridge scene gives me the willies, since I’m afraid of heights.

Wow this flower fairy is the only kid-looking character that has a decent design.

Didn’t expect a song to be interrupted by an enemy.

Lol, the Major’s monocle falls off as he sees the giant.

Glad to see the fairies serve a purpose other than dancing. Kick that giant’s ass!

Captain Candy’s a better man than Mint, as he actually makes sure that he gets saved.

Once again, the island is beautiful! Reminds me of Oz with the colored roads.

Ooh clever! At first I thought the castle’s backdrop looked really fake but I just factored it was because it’s 2001 CGI. But it was actually a trap!

Nice we see a test of Clara’s character that she passed.

The invisble hand touching Clara’s hand is actually making me feel kinda teary-eyed internally.

The Rat King definitely has a Napoleon complex.

Loving the character arc for Nutcracker with his final duel.

Ah! So now the Rat King is growing. Fits for the climax.

Huh… Prince Eric looks more like Jimmy Pesto than a prince.

Lol Major Mint realizes he’s been shittalking the prince.

Huh, so Clara’s the princess? I guess it sorta makes sense since it’s her dream.

For those princes out there who are hated by the public, all ya gotta do is fight a giant mouse.

Mint and Candy got the moves! Best dancers of the entire movie.

The final dance between Eric and Clara is absolutely gorgeous.

The villain was taken down by a snowball… I love it.

God Kelly Sheridan and Kirby Morrow really put everything into the scene where Clara disappears.

Lol Kelly’s Canana accent shows up when she says “It’s not a story”.

“What’s all this foolishness about mice kings and bats, Clara? Enough of your womenly hysteria! Time for a lobotomy!” Grandpa, basically.

Actually now that he’s in a suit, Eric looks a lot hotter.

I’m surprised Barbie’s little sister had the attention span to listen to a 1 hour story.

I'll be making a full review of the film soon. Let me know thoughts in the comments and reblogs. @artzychic27 @msweebyness

[starpearlz]

Could you Finnish up merry go round that fic w Nikki six I loved it sm ur writing is amazing

Starry Eyes -> Nikki Sixx

This will officially be my last Nikki Sixx story and I don’t wanna leave it alone forever bc I hate when people end the story and never finish it

not edited >1.0k fluff

gif by starry-eyed-ki

At that moment everything felt empty, but what people do say is true. That time heals, I didn’t believe it when people told me but it does. Now high school is over and I rarely thought about Nikki but that doesn’t mean I wonder what could’ve happened if he was still around. And now all I hear about is this Motley Crue band and when Linda go tickets for a show I knew I had to go. We got there pretty early so we we’re able toto stand in the front.

But when I went to go I didn’t expect to see Nikki there not even as a guest but seeing him play as bass was even more shocking. “Did you know?” I pulled Linda arm and screamed in her ear “What!” She exclaimed back “did you know!” “I can’t hear you!” Oh she definitely knew.

I knew about Nikki wanted to be a huge rockstar, he’s not huge but a rockstar he sure is especially right now. And the music is really good, I’m happy. I’m actually happy the music so good that I started dancing and made me feel like I was in high school again. But as all good things come to an end so did the concert.

We walked to the door talking about how amazing it was and how we have to go to the next one. We were about to walk out until a security guard stopped me, “uh is something wrong?” He was big buff guy making me nervous “Nikki wants you in the back.”

My heart dropped “he wants me?” He nodded “follow me.” I turned to Linda “I’ll be in the car.” I nodded and followed him leading behind the stage and met a door. He opened it with a key meeting with three different doors “he’s in the last one.”

“Thank you.” I walked to the door as he walked off I passed the first one hearing a bunch of screaming and ruckus. Do I knock? I decided knocking three times. I heard some movement and the door opened then I saw him, I haven’t seen him in years. He looks so different now with black spiky hair and dark makeup on his eyes, yet he still has the same vibe. “Hi.” I whispered out. He moved aside not saying anything for me to go in, I walked in and saw cigarette butts and beers everywhere. Same old Nikki.

“I knew it was you, you still have the same eyes.” I turned and faced him laughing “yes I still have the same eyes.” His head tilted as he checked me out “you look so different, yet the same.” I laughed “I can say the same about you.”

He gave a smirk “I never thought I’d see you again.” I squinted at him “you? You’re the one that left me.” He sighed “I know I’m sorry, that day I left town I was scared. I was so in love with you that I thought you would hold me back.”

I guess he’s right but still it hurt. “Seeing you tonight brought back all those feelings.” He scoffed and looked down “you want to know something funny.” I tilted my head “what?” He looked back up and took a step closer to me. “I actually wrote starry eyes about you.. and seeing your eyes again made me realize something.” I’m gonna kiss him so hard right now.

“What?”

“I never stopped loving you.”

:)

[lfghughes]

This Ain’t Over Yet (pt. 2)

a/n: if you guys like this one and want a third part let me know because i have a heck of a pt 3 planned.

warning: cheating, cursing, a little bit of steamy making out

It was in between game days so you and Sebastian had decided to fit in all those New York cheesy things in, getting plenty of pictures and videos throughout your day. You enjoyed your time with Sebastian so you weren’t sure what Jack was going on about when he said you were bored with Sebastian. But the words had been haunting you since last night and you hated that you were even thinking about his words while you were out with your boyfriend.

By the time you two had made it back to the hotel you were both exhausted but you had made plans to go out with some of the girlfriends from New Jersey. Even though your thing with Jack hadn’t worked out the way you had wanted it to, you still maintained a good friendship with them and you were excited to spend time with them. It was a girls night that you were looking forward to even if you were exhausted. 

“Look at you.” Sebastian grinned from where he was laying on the bed, moving so he could sit up. “Gorgeous as ever.” How could you be bored of someone who gave you compliments like this. Who you didn’t worry about not being interested in you or just leaving when he made it very clear how much he loved you. “Ugh, I think I would rather stay in bed with you.” It was an empty complaint. You would love it but at the same time you and Sebastian both knew how excited you were for this. “You are going to have so much fun and I’ll be here when you get back.”

On the car ride over you decided Jack was wrong, he just thought you were bored but the reality was you were just in a healthy relationship. Immediately when you saw the girls your thoughts had gone elsewhere and hugged all of them. This was going to be a great girls night and nothing could ruin these vibes. A round of shots went out to all of you and the music in the club was actually pretty good. Everything was going smoothly until you guys were approached by a group of guys.

Not just a group of guys, once your eyes really settled on them you noticed they were a mixture of the boyfriends and some of the other boys. Yup, there was Jack amongst them. You couldn’t help but groan, knowing he would probably be a pain in the ass. “Don’t look so excited to see me.” He was starting off strong and you weren’t going to deal with this. After getting yourself another drink you hung around everyone else continuing your good night with your friends.

“You look hot.” A familiar voice said in your ear and you felt chills go all the way down your spine as you looked up at Jack. You hated him so why did it feel like he could suck all the air out of the room. “Thanks.” It’s like the words were almost stuck and you hated this feeling. “Can you come with me to grab another drink?” He nodded his head as he followed you to the bar. You waited your turn and it seemed like it would be a while before anyone made their way to you.

You felt Jacks hand go to the small of your back and you should have stepped away but you realized you liked the feeling of it there. The reassurance you felt with his hand there. “Do you miss it?” He asked, nodding his head back towards the group and you nodded your head. It was the truth, you liked hanging out with everyone in Carolina but you didn’t feel like the family the way you did up here.

Before you could even think, Jack grabbed a hold of your hand and pulled you along with him. You had no clue what he was doing until he pulled you out through an emergency exit door into a stairwell. “Uhm??” You asked, completely confused about what he was doing. “There’s no privacy in there and last thing we need is videos of us circulating the internet.” You were about to question what the big deal was with that but before you could get a word out his lips were on yours.

Your hands went to his hair, fingers tangling into his brown locks as you kissed him back. There were absolutely no thoughts in your head except what was currently happening in the moment. He backed you both up until your back hit the wall and his hands moved all over you, his lips were on yours one minute the next they were on your neck before going back to your lips. You could feel his hands go to the bottom of skirt, his fingertips grazing your skin and you were about to see how far he would go when clarity hit you of the situation you were in.

“Jack, stop.” You pushed him away, catching your breath. It was hot in here, way too hot and you felt like you couldn’t breathe. “You shouldn’t have done that.” You told him, not giving him a chance to respond before walking away. You left the club, going straight back to the hotel. Once you got there you noticed Seb was still awake in bed where you had left him. You changed into one of his t-shirts, your favorite one to sleep in to be exact and slipped into bed. The guilt was eating you alive but you didn’t want to have this conversation with your boyfriend right now about what happened tonight.

You slid in closer to him and his arms went around you, kissing the top of your head like he usually did. “Did you have fun?” He asked and you nodded your head. How could you have done this to him? Right now you hated yourself and didn’t even want to talk to him too much because you knew you’d start crying “I’m just ready to go home and back to our life.”

[whichuniverseisthis]

Ok, I swear this will be the last post I do about these two alone. Then I promise that in the next days I'll rewatch all the episodes and the interviews and I'll do a post for the whole cast, because it's unfair that I only focus on two when I really like all of them.

ANYWAY for now: episode 5. This is long, fuck. It's pretty much a brain dump about what happened and what I think could happen next.

Hoooly fucking shit. I still feel emotionally destroyed by it. Mind you, I like the pairing in general, but I recognize that the writing of the build up for it was not really top tier.

But god, the delivery sure as fuck delivered.

One thing I like in animated shows is when they manage to picture what a character is feeling with their expressions alone. In this case, the fear in Spencer's eyes was as clear as day, and it was a punch to the guts.

I just want to point out one thing: society will develop when people realize that if there's a conflict between two sides, the causes in most cases are both of them. Here, Diego and Spencer were both right and wrong.

Diego was in love (though it wasn't exactly well written, but I'm not talking about the first four episodes here), he is overall a hopeless romantic, based on what I've got from the greetings, and he decided to rushedly go for it because Spencer himself never gave him a signal of not being interested. But he also was too forward with it, he let his love take control and didn't stop to think what Spencer actually wanted.

Spencer wanted to focus, and the fact that he knew he was interested in Diego scared him. Is it because of his past relationship experience? Maybe, but we don't know yet. The point is, he never straight up told Diego he wasn't interested (because he was, as much as he and the haters wanted to ignore it), and the moment Diego confessed his brain went downhill. He let his fear take control and gave the power to Ivy, pretty much destroying everything he had built up until that moment in the game.

Basically I think the authors' thought process was: we need someone who goes too fast looking for a rose-tinted future, and someone stuck in the traumatizing past too slow to move forward yet. And here we go.

I've seen some people pointing out that Spencer's most prominent feat until now has been how much he lies to himself, because he wants to act smart and logical, but really most of the things he does are caused by his emotions. And that would be why he aligned with Jade, because she's actually how he would like to be.

And yeah, that makes a lot of sense, especially when on the other side is Diego, who's most prominent feats are his honesty and openness. It makes me wonder if the theme of this season will be honesty, both with themselves and with others (thinking about Ivy wanting to be the nice actress but having a mean streak or Marissa opening up to Anastasia about not wanting to enter the military, and these are only from episode 5).

The same people on Twitter made me realize that the reason Spencer was crying after Diego confessed was probably the nice stuff he said about him, and Spencer couldn't handle it. Why? Who knows. As much as he acts so sure of himself most of the time, he has actually shown multiple times his tons of insecurities (his past relationship first in line, apparently).

Anyway, Spencer fucked up, he got Diego out despite not really wanting it (Derek had to call him out to vote faster at the elimination), and put both himself and Jade in a tight spot. And to top it all off, I wouldn't be surprised if he felt guilty as hell. I myself know way too well that fear and stress are the worst kinds of counselors, let alone in the context of a game show.

Now, he could still salvage this if he doesn't tell Ivy about the idol, he convinces the Vibe Tribe to vote for Jade and he tells Jade to work with Hannah and Benji to take out one of the three, kind of double agent style. But the thing is, I don't know how lucid he'll be to manage a thought process, and how much Jade will trust him from now on.

Btw Jade has every right to be pissed at him. He lied to her, multiple times, and he betrayed the alliance because of his feelings. Everyone would be pissed in her place, let's be real.

And even more importantly, this elimination affects the entire team, because even if people don't like to see it, Diego WAS the one holding everyone together, being the leader, doing the yoga sessions and being the only one connecting with Hannah and Benji too in a way. So there's also to see how the team will handle this fracture now.

As for Diego himself, I think they're either setting up a comeback or a second season for the couple. Honestly, I hope at least for this season they don't end up together, just. On talking terms, you know. A reset of some sort, where they can begin actually knowing each other and develop more, be it together or on their separate ways.

[ticklystuff]

Heeyy!! For the ask game, my genshin team is: Alhaitham, Yae miko, Yelan and Zhongli

ask game is closed!

heyyyyy thanks for playing, everyone on your team is hot lmao

who’s the most ticklish character

m-my bias is telling me it's zhongli yes i hope u believe me it is absolutely zhongli

who’s the character that most people would assume isn't ticklish, but actually is

alhaitham, mainly because of the intimidating vibes and indifferent expression he gives off. if you ask him if he's ticklish, though, he has no problem admitting that he is because he doesn't really care if people know if someone tries to tickle him, though, then suddenly he does care hehehe~

who’s the character that everyone gangs up on and tickles

ALHAITHAM like miko and yelan are some of the most ler-coded characters this game has to offer and miko is absolutely the type of person to be upfront and tease alhaitham about how they never get to see his smile, whereas yelan is the actual threat because of how good she is at tickling when it comes to technicality. they also get a kick out of converting alhaitham's colder demeanor into frantic laughter. sometimes zhongli will join in but he's not as devious as the other two yelan and miko do go after zhongli too but alhaitham will not join because less involvement means fewer chances of being targeted in the future he thinks (he's wrong lol) ALSO yelan and miko are competitors as they are comrades and love to simultaneously tickle either zhongli or alhaitham and make them decide who is the better ler. OR one of them will ler for alhaitham while the other will ler for zhongli and they'll make it a competition to see who can break their lee the fastest (rip zhongli and alhaitham)

who’s the character that somehow knows everyone else’s tickle spots and reveals them to others

miko and yelan but they go about things differently. yelan will use this info as a threat and get the others to do her bidding like helping her to tickle miko. miko absolutely knows everyone's tickle spots but she might reveal fake spots too, just to watch yelan go after alhaitham only for yelan to quickly realize that miko purposefully gave her the wrong info and watch yelan suffer because alhaitham is also a surprisingly good ler when he wants to be zhongli knows everyone's spots too but doesn't go about revealing them because he believes in playing fair and square. when it comes to it, though, he will use that knowledge to his advantage

who's the character with one specific tickle spot that only one other person knows about

zhongli knows that miko has ticklish tails! ei told him one day in case there's ever a day that miko is being a little shit and she might need to be knocked down a peg or two

who’s the most likely to win gang tickle wars

hmmm this one is tough because like i think miko would win sometimes because of how easily she manages to slip out of people's grasps and i can see her bringing out her tails for tickles when things get dire, but also i feel like she'd tap out super fast if you do manage to pin her down. i want to go with zhongli for this one because at the end of the day he's still an archon and will have archon strength to humble these fools. he doesn't always resort to this but he absolutely will sometimes and it always catches the other three off because wtf when did grandpa get so strong

which character has a kink for tickling

maybe not necessarily a kink for her but it wouldn't surprise me if yelan might have dabbled with it miko will say yes on some days and no on others so we can't totally be sure

which character didn’t even know they were ticklish until another character tickled them

yelan because no one has dared to ever try tickling her until she met miko and miko likes to make it her mission to make everyone her personal tickle toy asdlkfjaslkdj

which two characters have tickle fights all the time

yelan and miko are absolutely rivals when it comes to tickling. they don't really do full-blown tickle fights, but will do subtle jabs when passing each other. they both know not to waste each other time when there are other more entertaining targets to go for ehehehe

[incorrectshantaequotes]

Marcus Millionaire and Sky's Bisexual Awakening

So. I was drawing Zapple for a thing ("is it something like what you did with Harmony-" no that's going to come after I've finished that unspecified thing. don't worry about it) and. Upon finishing Zapple and looking at how I drew her, I immediately went "oh, she has significantly more gender than I anticipated," and that led to me dropping the thing I was working on for a moment because seeing Zapple with this much gender gave me ideas and I needed to draw them out. Soooooo...spontaneous mini-headcanon time!

Ta-da! Zapple now has a drag king persona. As a treat. She can have some fun with her gender she's allowed. Anyway

When she was young, Zapple got into the art of disguise as a way to uncover conspiracies. Practicing with Vera as her audience, Zapple actually managed to get fairly good at making a whole new person for her to play, even if it was a guy! ...And it was only after investing a lot of time into learning the art of disguise that Zapple realized that her pointed ears were a massive giveaway that she couldn't really do anything about. Oof

Then as a teen, she was meandering around, not really having anything in mind for the day, when she walked into Armor Town's lesbian bar, saw an advertisement for a drag show, and went "wait, hold on. I have an idea"

And thus, Marcus Millionaire was born! When she dons her elaborate suit, Zapple takes the role of an eccentric businessman and playboy extraordinaire, claiming to live in a luxurious mansion somewhere secluded on Siren Island. Why, if you don't believe him, just look at the power lines underground! Ever wondered what those are for? They're for his mansion!

If this is starting to sound familiar, that is because yes, Zapple did, in fact, base her drag king persona off her conspiracy theory about all the mysterious power lines underground leading to some rich guy's mansion. She did this for two reasons: 1.), she thought it would be funny, and 2.), she thought if she did this enough times the real rich guy would show up to disprove her claims and thus prove her right. Obviously, the entirety of Seven Sirens kinda threw a wrench in that whole thing. And in Marcus Millionaire as a whole. She's in the middle of reworking Marcus' story, because she is not throwing him away when she spent this much time on him

But! Onto the other side of this! I've said before that Sky is bisexual, and her first sapphic crush (albeit in looks only) was Rottytops. This has not changed, but it was not quite enough to get Sky to recognize that she was bisexual. Like, yes, Rottytops is attractive, but being in a relationship with her? Hahaha NO. Rottytops is so far removed from Sky's ideal partner that she was initially able to write off her attraction as just noticing her friend is pretty...up until she accidentally went to the wrong showing during the half-genie festival, and ended up at the drag show instead of the dancing competition between Vera and Shantae.

...Yeah, the persona of Marcus Millionaire managed to hit all of Sky's ideal traits in a partner - responsible? Well, he was running his own business, wasn't he? Grounded? A bit more shaky, but she could respect the choice in location, given that the only time anything went majorly wrong for Siren Island was literally only a few days prior. Strong? Well, Zapple isn't as built as Harmony, but she does have some muscle from forging armor and carrying around a whole set of it everywhere, and that was something that Sky managed to notice. It also helped that he had a bit of a "bad boy" vibe going for him, because while Sky did end up dropping that trait in her search for a relationship when she recognized it wasn't getting her anywhere good, at that point in time she was still reeling from the sting of Armor Baron's betrayal, so...yeah.

Marcus' performance was particularly enlightening for Sky, especially when he called her out specifically (and yes, that dialogue is paraphrased from that one Tumblr post about a guy who accidentally walked into a gay bar, saw a drag show, and proceeded to have a crisis about his sexuality in the middle of it), and after that, she kinda had to admit she was attracted to more than just guys...but, funnily enough, for something so pivotal to Sky's sexuality, neither Zapple nor Sky realized the other was involved for the longest time. Zapple was too busy with her performance to give much thought behind Sky's appearance beyond "huh, she looks familiar for some reason," and Sky was blue-screening so hard that she somehow managed to miss the pointed ears.

They only realized what happened when Sky actually got into her relationship with Bolo and recounted the incident as the driving factor behind her realizing she was bisexual. Zapple happened to be close enough to overhear this, put two and two together, and went "damn that was you? I thought you looked familiar," and proceeded to shed some light on her side of things. Sky was immediately mortified when she realized this, because Zapple is nearly as bad as Rottytops when it comes to relationship material (at least to her), and that combined with her, once again, somehow managing to miss the pointed ears was incredibly embarrassing.

Zapple just thought the whole thing was funny as fuck. She then offered to do a repeat performance for her and Bolo, and while Sky was like "hahaha please don't," Bolo, interested both as a fellow bisexual and also someone who likes to get a bit weird with his gender sometimes, immediately went "actually I would like to see it," and after some debate with Sky, convinced her to watch the encore as well. Sky's score on the repeat was "god that is still really attractive to me, FUCK," and Bolo's score was "yeah I can see how that would make Sky realize she was bisexual. 10/10"

[copaganda-clobberfest]

I would like to submit Rebecca Thane and the Black November from Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

ME:C is beautifully gloriously amazingly anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian. The premise, the world-building, the protagonist, the antagonists, it's all so so so gorgeous in ways that might *seem* heavy handed until you look around the current state of the real world and realize it's just commentary. From the first moment to the last, the Authoritarian Dictatorship run by Capitalist Consumerism and Megabillionaire Families of the 'Meritocracy' is portrayed as wholly and unequivocally wrong and evil and cruel and threatening, and almost inescapable. Gorgeous. The game has its flaws to be sure, including a deeply unsatisfactory ending (they're trying to set up a sequel that never came, but execute it so badly that it leaves you feeling like the game you bought was unfinished) but overall it's one of those games where you can just spend hours immersing yourself into the world, and reveling in the clear and concise messages of Anti-Authoritarianism

But then there's Rebecca Thane.

For context, the heroes of the game are a group of rooftop smugglers who use parkour and free running to deliver illegal contraband to the citizens in secret. These missions range from "take these spices that we smuggled across the closed border and deliver them to a cook from a restaurant that uses them" to "sabotage the surveillance systems that monitor the city" to "distract the brutal police force so we can help this poor guy escape the city and rejoin his waiting family on the outside" sort of thing. The leader of the smuggler's group prides himself on his "neutral" stance; he's not trying to fight some dangerous war, he's just making things a little more flexible than the strict authoritarian government wants them to be. By contrast, Rebecca Thane runs the group of underground freedom fighters known as Black November, whose goal is to dismantle and overthrow the tyrannical system and win back freedom for all. Soooooo obviously they're all Violent Aggressive Evil Scary Terrorists who Bomb Civilians and try to Kill People in Cold Blood. <.<

the neutral leader of the smugglers ring has a history with Black November he's "not proud of" and he cautions the protagonist to stay away from Thane, and when the protagonist eventually ends up working with Thane and Black November anyway out of necessity, she and her friend are struck by the group's Scary Violent Tendencies and their habit of Going Way Too Far, and a good chunk of time is devoted to them trying to escape the group while acting like scared kids who got in way over their heads, treating the Black November as if it's twice as frightening and threatening as the government that has spent the whole game literally trying to murder them

The worst part is... it's all actually pretty well written! The tension you feel building throughout the story surrounding Rebecca Thane is great! It's really easy to get caught up in the emotions of the game; they did a great job of using their story to evoke strong emotional reactions. But they gave us the WRONG strong emotional reactions! The horror you feel when the bomb goes off is great! You just also wish that maybe it had been set off by the BAD GUYS, instead of the guys who want to fight the bad guys. The growing feeling of being in a really unsafe situation with dangerous volatile people who you have to work with in order to survive but want to leave as soon as possible because you get the feeling you won't survive for long if you stay, is wonderful! You just wish you felt that way about ANYONE ELSE but the group of people who are literally trying to liberate the city. And the vibe you get from Rebecca Thane, of somebody who is passionate to the point of instability and who could turn on you and kill you on a dime, is fantastic! You just wish you got that vibe from one of the characters who works as a lieutenant of the dictators, or perhaps from Dogen (a character who serves his own self-interest and is basically a gang leader who the protagonist owes a financial debt to and thus has to work for sometimes in an attempt to pay off her debt before he literally kills her) instead of from the one person in the entire game who is, once again, trying to liberate the city!

To make matters worse, Rebecca Thane is a black woman.

They designed a character who is a black woman leading a group of freedom fighters whose primary objective is to free the city from an Authoritarian Tyrannical Dictatorship that employs heavy monitoring and surveillance and Police Brutality to enforce their strict and ridiculously controlling laws designed to keep the people under their thumb... and wrote them to be Scary Violent Evil Volatile Dangerous Bomb-Dropping Murderous Terrorists who Go Too Far and are Too Extreme and Just as Bad as the People they Fight.

Thanks, I hate it.

.

[stuff-from-the-void-matron]

She's a Family Man Now (1)

-0-0-

(a/n: okay so this is pretty experimental. not sure if any of y'all will like this since i'm not deep into fnaf or anything but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. I wanna write more so if you guys enjoy it please reblog/comment to let me know and i'll post chapter 2 soon!💗)

-0-0-

The last thing you remembered was comfortably sitting in the backseat of your Uber ride, scrolling through your phone while what you think was Maroon 5 played over the radio. You’re not really sure but the song gave off that ‘good but strangely generic’ vibe that most Maroon 5 songs have.

Well as you were idly scrolling to fill the silence of the trip you glanced out of the car window to your right just in time to be blinded by headlights before pain shot through your skull, then in the same breath things went black. It felt like you were submerged in a thick viscous liquid, so thick your limbs couldn’t move without heavy strain. You didn’t need to breathe so you just floated there thoughtlessly before you saw a light some distance away. 

You squinted and without thinking just started wading towards the light, but a voice stopped you. It wasn’t coming from the light, but instead it came from the inky dark behind you. It sounded like a man’s voice, an old man, like really old. It reminded you of your grandpa kind of, and he was calling for help. You glanced back at the light before turning back to the darkness and walked in what felt like slow motion towards it. At some point you noticed the darkness ever so slowly shifting into a scene. Like the black was fading to reveal a melting nighttime landscape.

The more you trudged forward the easier it got to move, thankfully. Soon the blurry splotches of green, brown, and tan started to solidify more until they actually began forming the details of a dirt path beneath your feet and a forest on either side of you. You continued until you were walking normally, just looking around the dark forest, realizing it should probably be pitch black since it seemed to be nighttime but there was a light right on the spot you were standing. You looked up and around you but saw no light source, though when you moved the light followed you. Then it hit you, the source of the light was you, which made no sense at all. You didn’t look like you were glowing but you couldn’t think of any other explanation for you being able to see in the 8 foot diameter around you.

“Can you hear me?”

The voice that’d been calling for help suddenly sounded much closer, causing you to flinch from surprise. They definitely sounded closer, so you raised your hands to cup around your mouth to yell back… but your stomach sank before your hands could reach your mouth. You stared at the hands before you, heart speeding up as you realized.. they were not your hands. You damn well knew what your hands looked like, you’d been looking at them for decades. But the ones attached to you now were pale, the fingers long, almost spindly with the nails clipped short. 

Your breathing hitched as you watched the hands move as you willed them to, same as if they were your own. Your eyes traveled up your arms, thin unlike how they should be, but not weak either. You looked down and froze when you realized… your fucking boobs were gone. You could actually see your feet, neither of your lumps of fat blocking your view like they usually did. Your heartbeat was definitely faster now, panic settling in your veins like poison. What the fuck was going on? This wasn’t right. Why was your body not right? Were you dreaming? You had to be; the weird darkness and sudden forest and your body being wrong. It had to be some messed up dream.

“CC-aann yy-oouu hh-eeaaar mm-ee?”

This time the original voice, the male one, sounded spliced with another one, this one female. The more you listened the more the voice lost its male tone and solidified as a strictly female one. It was higher pitched and sounded really worried. You couldn’t tell who she was calling for, but it didn’t sound like your name. Though that thought slipped away when you noticed the scene around you washing away like ink from a canvas. Soon you were in darkness again and suddenly you needed to breathe, but it was so hard. You were struggling and closed your eyes to focus on making sure you were taking air in before letting it out, rinse and repeat. 

You felt suffocated, like you needed to reach the surface for air. 

Light spilled into your vision, causing you to close your eyes again. You could hear too many things at once, but they sounded muffled, like you were hearing them from inside a body of water. The clearer those sounds got the more you were pulled to consciousness. Each slow blink of your heavy eyelids showed you a different distorted view. 

You blinked.

First you were looking up into the faces of a man and a woman, both  of whom doubled in your vision, making you feel almost nauseous. Them shuffling quickly around you wasn’t helping with this. The woman gave orders you couldn’t understand to the man who barked something to someone out of your field of view.

You blinked.

More people surrounding you, different ones this time, in scrubs and face masks. But their forms doubled and blurred, making your stomach roil unpleasantly. Blinding lights passing by above you one by one as you were pushed along on something, a gurney? Yeah probably. You were in a hospital then. The voices talking all around you mixed with the ringing in your ears, causing the churning in your stomach to become worse.

You blinked.

You felt weightless for a second before you were on something cold. You sucked in a breath, but it hurt when you did. You let the breath out with a weak moan. Suddenly bright light was in your face, making you wince and clench your eyes shut. Thankfully darkness overtook your vision again and the light disappeared.

You blinked.

The bright light was gone, thank fucking god. But you felt groggy, but in a different way than you had before. Before you could do much more than glance around the room you were in, a woman came into your view with a calm smile on her face. Why was she wearing what looked like blue sleep clothes? She warned you to stay calm and not panic, which honestly just made you worriedly wonder if there was a reason for you to panic, but she went on to explain that you currently have a tube down your throat to help you breathe. She said you needed to remain relaxed so you didn’t freak out and trigger your gag reflex and throw up. You swallowed around the tube anxiously but otherwise didn’t react, which the nurse took as a good thing.

“Do you remember how you got here, Mr. Afton?”

It took a full 3 seconds before you registered what she’d called you. Your eyebrows furrowed as you gave her a confused look, not sure what was going on? Then your ‘dream’ from before flashed in your memory. You glanced down at your prone body laying in the bed and noticed two things very clearly missing. You could feel your heart speeding up in your ribs, as a matter of fact you could hear it too, both beating in your ears and from the electric tone of the EKG machine you were hooked up to. You could feel your hands shaking as panic washed over you. This wasn’t a dream anymore, what happened to you? You got hit in a car, but why was your body different? This wasn’t making sense.

The nurse gave the now rapidly beeping machine a concerned look, asking you if you were in any pain. You closed your eyes and focused on breathing to calm yourself, missing how the nurse hurried over to the machines you were hooked up to in order to check on your vitals. You opened your eyes just in time to see her hook up a vial to the saline drip, half hearing her tell you that you’d be getting some morphine in a moment to ease any of your pain and help you calm down. She was right, hardly any time later you felt your eyelids droop as lethargy took over your aching body and soon you were drifting off to sleep again.

-0-

The second time you woke up you were alone in your hospital room. You took your time blinking the sleep from your eyes before checking out the room around you. It looked pretty normal.. at first glance. It was more rectangle shaped than square with your bed against the middle of one of the longer walls. Huge windows that took up most of the wall to your right with a matching sofa and recliner under them, giving the room a more relaxed, less sterile feel. And to your left were two doors on both the short wall and the longer wall across from you, one was open and showing the hallway while the other was closed and went to what you assumed was a bathroom. The walls were almost a pale salmon color, while the floor was… carpeted? That was weird. Actually the more you examined the room the odder it actually seemed. There were floral curtains on the window and a big ass box tv in the corner on a dresser showing some juice commercial. 

And was that a fucking ashtray on the table next to you???

Okay, something was clearly fucking WRONG. You tried to recall the last thing you remembered, before the lady in the blue pjs. Bright lights.. people.. doctors most likely.. oh. You’d been in your Uber when you’d been t-boned by some asshole on your right. So that’s where shit went wrong. But that didn’t explain.. You looked down at the body you were attached to. The body that wasn’t yours. Your heart rate sped up and you knew it would pull someone in here so you closed your eyes and took deep calming breaths. It was okay, just breathe. Just breathe. In… Out... In... Out… Okay.

The machine’s beeping slowly evened out. You kept up your measured breathing even as you heard someone enter the room and call out ‘Mr. Afton?’ to you. You heard another voice pipe up and say ‘he’ was probably just having a dream. You’d never been super strict on the whole pronouns thing, but usually people just automatically used female ones with you. So hearing them use male ones was pretty surprising, though not impossible you guess. You listened as one checked your vitals and chatted amicably with the other. You heard them discussing you and you perked up to listen, curious what they’d have to say.

“Afton. Why does that name sound familiar?” One asked with a hum.

“He’s one of the men who opened that family diner out by 7th Street. The one with the singing robot bear for the kids. My niece loves that place, won’t shut up about it.” The other replied with a chuckle.

The first woman made an ‘ohhh’ sound of understanding before asking how in the world you’d gotten in the hospital. You listened numbly, the information not really sinking in that they were actually talking about you. Apparently “”you”” were side swiped pretty bad by some drunk driver and landed here as a result. You know that’s not how you got here but.. you think you might be in a coma. Why the fuck else would you be ‘Mr. Afton’ the guy who ‘made robot bears’. You’ll admit you just finished playing FNAF 4 again and watched one of the Game Theory videos on the series so maybe this is why your brain decided to do this for you while you were in a coma. Better than sitting in a black void you suppose…

“Oh! Turn the volume up, I wanna see this,” said the younger sounding woman. 

You heard feet shuffling over to your bedside before the tv volume got louder. You could hear a man with a genial voice talking seriously, and when he spoke you couldn’t help but furrow your eyebrows in confusion. 

“This is the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite.”

You knew who that was… sorta. He was a famous news guy, at least that’s what you’d gathered from that movie Bruce Almighty, where Jim Carrey gets all of God’s powers. He seemed to have a lot of respect for Walter Cronkite, enough to look up to him as inspiration and keep a framed photo of him at work. But you’re pretty sure Walter Cronkite was dead now, or maybe he was just retired? He was one or both of those, so why was he on tv? Maybe this was just your brain messing with you, like you’d figured before. If you’re in a coma then yeah your brain might have picked him to be on the news because it remembered him being a ‘news guy’. That and because.. you didn’t really know any other people in the news field.

You were so lost in thought that you didn’t notice falling back asleep.

-0-0-

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Information for each found below the cut. It could be some time before either series will be closer to having chapters ready to publish, which is why I'm opening requests for the time being! I worked on these a little while in the middle of the Hunter series.

"Wounded Wings":

Started out with the idea of being an x reader, realized "hmm, this feels more like an OC because there's a lot of Hey The Person Writing This Really Likes Birds And Is Projecting™ vibes about it" for what I've written of it so far and felt it's getting too niche for an x reader. Chances were not many Tech girlies (GN) were also gonna be Really Into Birds. [I could possibly re-write to make it an x reader.]

You're... gonna be reading a lot about made-up birds, most likely.

This series will take place Pre-TBB!Echo, and there is a chance he will not show up at all or until much, much later. [This will require me to actually get to Season 7 in TCW by suffering through a few fan favorite deaths I've been putting off (Tup, Fives, ect.) to have the full context of their TCW appearance characterizations.]

OC will be Force-sensitive, many possible instances of "the Force works how I say it does", and it works around the headcanon that Tech has some autistic tendencies. Smaller AU factors. Slow burn. Idiots (affectionate) to lovers sorta thing; Tech's bros see it a mile away, Tech just thinks she's a "Very Good Friend :)" for hopefully just the right amount of time.

"Hunting the Nexu"

HtN is an AU/fix-it series involving a fem!Bounty Hunter "hired" by the Bad Batch to spring Crosshair from Mount Tantiss. Meaning "Plan 99? Don't know her!" for all of us traumatized by the Season 2 finale.

No one dies in this series, at least not the major fan favorites.

Like "Sorry, Wrong Comms!" there will be hints of Reader having a backstory/aspects of personality that are not left quite so vague or open-ended; but for the most part flexible enough to put yourself in the place of the few uses of "[____] spoke with a slow drawl as she gave the marksman a cool look. 'Aw... I didn't take you for the type to hold a grudge, Crosshair...'" [not an actual sentence in-series] throughout the series.

This series does give fem!Reader an established moniker that you'll be referred to more often than an actual name.

Canon-divergent. One sided Enemies-to-Lovers vibes. [Would require me to stop putting off Season 2 re-watch.] Crosshair will not be a complete shit all the time, and there's going to be better coping strategies for everyone much like in S,WC! because they deserve 'em.