#I am very tired and want to pet a dog so ... I’m looking at all of urs instead ..

[sergeantbarnessdoll]

An extra stubborn reader who wants Bucky to actually get solid sleep in an actual bed so they refuse to sleep anywhere but the floor unless he’s in bed. Not the sofa, not a recliner, nothing. They’ll be in bed with him if he asks, but it’s the cold floor or nothing. No blanket. No pillow. Either he gets his butt in bed or they sleep alone, cold, and on the floor.

Let’s just say that James Buchanan Barnes sleeps well in bed that night.

🩵🩵

The Bed Or Nothing » Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier

Pairings: Boyfriend!Bucky Barnes x Girlfriend!Reader

Summary: You try to convince Bucky to sleep in the bed so he can get a good nights sleep.

Warnings: Fluff, implied Smut (18+), language, stubborn!reader, kissing, Bucky’s dog tags, pet names

A/N: Thank you to the lovely anonymous person who requested this🩵

Written on my phone. My apologies for any mistakes.

Header made by @buckys-wintersoldier

GIF IS NOT MINE! Credit goes to the creator.

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!!🔞

“Can you not do this tonight, doll. I’m tired and I have to work tomorrow.” Bucky pleads tiredly.

You’re trying to convince Bucky to sleep in the bed with you so he can get a good nights sleep tonight.

“Do what?” You asked. “All I’m trying to do is get you to sleep in the bed with me tonight.” You say, trying to reason with your boyfriend.

“I’m perfectly fine with sleeping on the floor, doll.” He says.

“You’re not perfectly fine the next morning when you’re complaining about your back hurting.” You say.

“That was one time.” He says.

You just rolled your eyes at him.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me.” He says, almost growling.

“I won’t have to roll my eyes if you just sleep in the bed.” You say, crossing your arms over your chest.

“I’m sleeping on the floor.” He says.

“The floor isn’t an option anymore.” You say.

“Then I’ll sleep on the couch.” He says.

“The couch isn’t an option either.” You say.

Bucky sighs and rubs his hands over his face, too tired to deal with your stubbornness tonight.

“You’re doing it again, babydoll.” Bucky says.

“Doing what again?” You asked.

“Being stubborn.” He says.

“I am not.” You say.

“Yes you are.” He says.

“I am not!” You say, stomping your foot like a child who doesn’t get their way.

“Now you’re being extra stubborn.” He says.

“I’m not being stubborn!” You said once more. “I’m simply trying to get you to sleep in the bed with me so you can get a good nights sleep tonight.” You say.

Bucky leans against the wall and sighs at your stubbornness.

“That’s all you have to do, baby.” You say.

“You know how I feel about sleeping in beds, babydoll.” Bucky says.

“I know, but I’ll be in bed with you.” You say, wrapping your arms around his bare waist.

You stood up on your tippy toes to kiss his lips.

“Please sleep in the bed with me tonight.” You pleaded softly against his lips.

Bucky put his forehead against yours, his tired eyes looking in yours. He already knows you won’t stop being stubborn till he agrees to sleep in the bed with you.

“Ok, fine.” He sighs, giving in. “I’ll sleep in the bed tonight.” He says.

“Yay!” You kissed him again. “Oh and one more thing… no blankets and no pillows on the bed tonight.” You say.

“Then you’re going to be cold tonight.” He says.

“I won’t be if you get your ass in bed tonight.” You bit your bottom lip. “I have another heat source in mind.” You say seductively.

“Oh yea?” He says.

“Mhmm.” You hummed.

You unwrapped your arms from his waist and walked over to the bed. You took the pillows and blankets off of the bed, putting them in a pile next to the dresser. A squeak left your lips when Bucky picked you up and dropped you on the bed. He hovered over you, his Army dog tags dangling above your face.

“Looks like I have to fuck the stubbornness out of you tonight.��� Bucky says huskily.

Let’s just say, Bucky slept very well in bed tonight.

🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖

-Bucky’s Doll

[kiss-me-muchoo]

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 || 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐎’𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

part one (this one) // part two: Afterglow

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲_ Miguel falls for the sweet spider girl that opens a bakery on the HQ. Of course he had to ruin it, but… Did he lose the girl? 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬_ age gap (legal, not specified), implied Hispanic reader, angst, asshole Miguel, pastries and sweets,idk, no proofread 𝐀/𝐍_ read along cruel summer from my playlist!<3 (cruel summer coded fic)

♪ ♫ My Miguel O’Hara playlist ✰ Index (+ fics here)

Miguel O’Hara thinks you’re annoying, always giggling like a toddler and gossiping with everyone. Except him.

He had to accept you were creative; your iridescent suit was proof of it.

Your friendship with the spiders that gave the most terrible headaches to Miguel was annoying.

You’re laughing very hard with Gwen in the middle of the gym sector.

When Miguel looks up, he sees Miles tangled in a tight of webs in the ceiling.

“What is going on here?” He asks, walking in completely.

“Oh-“ Gwen mumbles, the laughing seizing.

“Hey, Miguel!. Can you help me come down?” Miles asks, causing you and Gwen to start laughing again.

Soon, silence reigned again after Miguel sent you and the blonde girl a death look.

The man rolls his eyes and sighs, tired. However, he goes and helps Miles to get down.

“pss…” Gwen whispers, indicating you quietly leave the gym. You nod, smiling.

It had been almost a year; since Miles learned about his destiny since the spot almost killed everyone, and since you joined the Spider society.

Yeah, a lot happened.

“I never said you two could leave…” Miguel spits without even looking. When he does, you and Gwen are holding hands, looking scared as if a spook was in his place. He could laugh if it wasn’t because of the image he had to maintain.

“I asked for that earth-01989 report two hours ago…” he said, frowning at Gwen.

“And I needed you in today’s mission with me,” so Miguel wanted you; he needed you out of all the spiders in the facility.

“I was in the nursing room getting stitches. See?…” you say, lifting your arm to show your bare skin sewn with a fine thread. Some blood was decorated around the long line that would likely transform into a scar.

Miguel’s angered face softened.

“Are you okay?” Even Gwen seems abashed when Miguel asks you that.

“Yes. It was this tedious variant of Mysterio and his projectiles” Miles finally appears on Miguel’s side, hearing the conversation.

“I don’t want you on any mission until that heals”

“Are you kidding?” You ask incredulously, thinking your boss was exaggerating.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” He could not be intimidating. Always making sassy comments, with a monotonous tone.

“I guess not…” Your face barely brushed his chest. And the one and only time his hand holds your body, you feel like a porcelain doll, small and delicate.

“Buena chica….” He finalized petting your head and starting to leave. It annoys you; you weren’t a dog.

“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Use your imagination, y/n. You’re a creative spider…”

Gwen, Miles, and you just stare in silence.

He thought you were creative; how sweet.

…

Miguel just finished a debriefing. He was finally alone until Jess entered the room, at least without her loud motorcycle.

“What are you doing? It’s lunchtime,” she points out.

Miguel smells sweet, sugar… or something soft.

“I don’t take my lunchtime. You know it…” When the woman stands beside him, he sees it.

There’s a little plate on her hands. Spider cupcakes and a cookie… with his mask as a decoration.

“What’s that?” He asks in disbelief.

“What? This?. Oh, it’s from y/n’s bakery” Miguel looks confused.

“…y/n’s bakery?” Jess shrugs, biting the cupcake.

“Yeah, you said the aisles beside the cafeteria could have a renovation.”

“I never approved a bakery.” He wasn’t mad but wanted to know why you didn’t ask. He would have said yes, only to you.

He started to move towards the exit and heard Jess sighing.

“Don’t be harsh with her, Miguel. It’s making everyone happy…” he didn’t say anything.

…

Half of the aisle was a cabin in the woods, with moss, bulb lights, bookshelves, and the smell of espresso all over.

The other half was the Italian Renaissance, similar to the Bradbury building of LA. Black and white floor tiles with a dark and elegant vibe.

Very interesting.

Some spiders greet him and say he needs to try his own cookies. Miguel doesn’t know if it annoys or intrigues him.

Until he walks to the cash register, you are with Pavitr and Margo giggling. Margo is taking the orders, and Pavitr helps you with the baking.

Miguel sneaks through the back door for the kitchen and grunts, making you and the boy turn around.

“What’s this supposed to mean?” Miguel asks. Pav drops some dishes and stares in shock at his boss.

“So-… I’m leaving,” Pavitr mumbles before calling it quits. You send him a lousy look before washing your hands from the dough in the process of being finished. Finally, you stare at Miguel with a smile.

“This is The spider’s lounge cabin bakery.”

“That’s a long name,” you laugh hard, slight dimples forming. And Miguel is annoyed. Cute

“Why I wasn’t noticed of this?” you blush, scratching your forearm. He never thought you would build a bakery while you healed.

“I wanted to tell you. But you’re always busy. Jess said she would tell you.”

Jess never said anything. He could always make time for you.

“Then she must’ve forgotten too,” you nod. Suddenly you don’t know what to say. Miguel feels the air shift; Margo keeps taking orders, and people keep picking cakes and cookies, but deep down, everyone wants to hear what Miguel is saying to you,

“I’m not mad, y/n.” He really is not.

“But I’m not happy either.”

“Just.., just try something,” he’s surprised but looks at the showcase shelves with many desserts; crème brûlée, cupcakes, a pink mousse, and slices of cakes. But there was a section that captured his whole attention; pan dulce. Pieces of conchas, torcidos, mantecadas, there’s even chocoflan, arroz con leche and more.

“Oh, yeah… you know about my Hispanic heritage. And… I did this whole section for you” his heart beats faster. But as the stubborn spider, Miguel only asks Margo for a polvorón. The girl hands him the cookie, which is small and covered in white dust that is sugar.

Honestly, you’re sweating. Too nervous to digest Miguel’s upcoming reaction.

He takes a bite of the cookie and slowly starts chewing it.

“Please don’t fire me…” he hears you but says nothing.

He has to suppress a moan from how good the polvorón tasted.

The cookie was perfectly baked, with small pieces of walnuts appearing once in between bites. And the sugar melted in his mouth.

“I want a report on how this is doing….weekly,” you nod. But there’s a little smirk on your face; you know he must’ve liked the cookie.

“As you wish. Thank you” he only offers you a slight nod before leaving.

He didn’t need a report. It was useless. But that meant he could see you around oftenly.

…

Jess was right. Everyone seemed to be happy with the Spider’s lounge cabin bakery. Miguel had to see donuts, cakes, and more, dedicated to different spiders or seasons.

And somehow, Miguel grew fond of you, but was terrified.

He promised to stay away from catching feelings. Maybe it was because of the sweet smile you always offered him whenever he passed by the bakery.

Or the stupid cookies you kept doing based on his mask.

It must have been because of your jericallas, his favorite dessert.

Every Friday, Miguel was there, watching you bake. There wasn’t a lot of talking, mostly just him finishing some reports and planning missions as you decorated pastries. It was a pleasant silence, though.

Quickly, after some weeks, both of you were used to it.

You sigh, looking at Miguel. The spider society was almost empty on a Friday night. But he was there sitting on the little desk. He looked ridiculously broad seated there.

He must feel tired, but he’s a workaholic. You admire him cause of that, only you can’t help but feel some sadness. Loneliness must haunt him. And you would love to be his company.

Suddenly Miguel smells something; herbs and sugar.

“Miguel…” you call him. Hoping to catch his attention, and help him to relieve the stress he was always in.

A cup of hot tea and a slice of pan de elote appeared before him.

“What’s this?…” you roll your eyes at him.

“You’re tired. And you didn’t pick any empanadas today. Please, eat something…” he didn’t know how perceptive you were of him. He was glad you were.

“Fine,” he accepts. You cheer, and he can’t help but smile.

The tea is sweet but no more than the pan de elote. It’s perfect, soft, and made by you.

“Do you like it?”

“You know I love everything you do…” you’re shocked. The feeling of getting blushed only increases.

He probably referred to your baking; that’s it. Maybe he referred to everything else.

“That’s so sweet of you, Miguel” Now he was blushing. Staring at each other, you’re the first to break contact, hiding your gaze by placing some hairs behind your ear.

“So you do this in your earth?”

“My grandma taught me everything. And then, I worked in a bakery for a while. Now I’m just in college,” he nods, taking another sip of the tea.

“Coding, right?” Now you nod with a smile, surprised that he remembered your major.

“Yeah. I wanted to major in arts, but my parents thought it wasn’t good enough to give me a stable income.” Miguel had some idea of the economy being totally different than the one on his earth. However, he’s very intrigued to know more about you. He thought it would be harder to converse with you, but surprisingly, that was not the case.

“What else do you like to do?” You realize you’re having the most extended conversation you’ve ever had with Miguel since… ever.

“I’m a home girl. I like staying in my room and reading and watching movies. I’m pretty boring. Anyways…What about you?”

“I-I really don’t have time for anything” Somehow, Miguel was embarrassed. His life revolved around being Spider-Man and leader of the spider society. And since he lost his family… that’s all he was.

You offered him a warm smile. You could feel he was not proud of that. And you blamed the trauma he had with his past. And from the bottom of your heart, you leaned to caress his big shoulder.

“You deserve a break, Miguel. The spider verse won’t collapse for you wanting a life” Something from your words touched him. He looked into your eyes and found kindness. You were what he needed.

“Would you hang out with me?” It was too late to analyze what he had said, basically a date. Miguel wanted to bang his head against the desk. Maybe you didn’t want to do anything with him, only coworkers. He was older than you and-… No. He was afraid of the date going well. Cause if that happened, he wasn’t sure if he would give in to you.

You’re blushing again.

“For real?…like friends? Or like… a date?” You were babbling. Never in your wildest dreams, you thought Miguel O’Hara would invite you to hang out with him.

“Whatever it pleases you,” there was no turning back. He was happy, though.

“I would love to have a date with you” The touch on his shoulder sends him a wave of tranquility. For one day, Miguel promises to not think about his past and enjoy the moment. He thinks he’s choosing a woman like you; intelligent, realistic, sweet, and kind. Everything could quickly go well.

“Okay then. It’s a date…” he smiles; it’s a short smile, but you’re more than pleased.

He stands up and cleans the desk. While he does, you have a dorky smile plastered on your face. And you are eager to find out Something.

“Miguel?” He keeps cleaning.

“Hmm?” His back faces you, but he can see you smiling.

“Why me?” Finally, he turns around.

You are so small. He can’t wait to see how your little hands will feel tangled with his. Your ear will barely press against his chest as he hugs you tightly. He couldn’t hide it anymore… he had feelings for you.

“You match what I need,” he said before leaving, not before giving you another brief smile.

Before that day, you weren’t even sure if Miguel cared about you. You were technically new to the society. And he barely shared glances with you.

But you matched his needs, and that was lovely.

…

A thrift store dress was always a good purchase. For this occasion, it was lilac, a y2k nostalgic dress. It matched your red lipstick, red purse, and chunky boots.

You were going to have a date with Miguel O’Hara.

He would meet you to see a movie at your New York historic theater and then… dinner.

Simple.

A few days before the date, you dared to kiss Miguel on the cheek after heading out of the HQ.

He blushed, and you loved seeing him like that.

Then Gwen and Lyla cheered and were all about your date. Jess, on the other side, was a little suspicious. However, she told you everything was gonna be okay. You didn’t understand what she meant.

When you showed the lilac dress, Lyla was sincere in telling you how pretty you looked and how it highlighted the best features of your body.

Everything seemed to be okay.

So you arrived five minutes late to the theater; 7:36 pm. And Miguel wasn’t there yet. A lot of couples were in lane to buy tickets. The popcorns smelled amazing, and you wanted to try the burgers beside the historic building. You were getting impatient, hoping to see the giant silhouette of Miguel.

But he was a busy man, so you waited.

You waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.

8:59 pm; he never came.

…

Gwen Stacy opened your bedroom window only to find the room empty.

Your butterfly lights that decorated your bookshelves are on. Your family is not home, Gwen can assume.

So she hears you; you’re sobbing loudly.

She panics and starts looking for you until she steps into the kitchen, and you punch a big chunk of dough… or something.

“Y/n… What happened?” The blonde asks, hurrying to come to your side and look at your face.

When you turn, your nose looks like a cherry and swollen and red eyes keep squeezing out tears that fall across your face and land on the dough.

“We were worried for you. What’s wrong?” You shake your head, returning to your baking, sniffing. Gwen sighs, taking her mask off.

“Miguel was looking for you like crazy.” The blonde noticed that, as he mentioned Miguel, you sobbed harder again, so he started to worry again.

“He can especially go and fuck himself,” you mumble with a broken voice.

“What? So the date didn’t go well?” When you try to reach for a bag of cocoa powder in the drawers, Gwen gets it with her webs.

“The date didn’t even happen because he stood me up” Your friend is in shock, her mouth is open in disbelief, and her eyes are wide open.

“NO WAY!. But-…No, Something must’ve happened. Why would Miguel do something like that?”

“Because he’s a fucking asshole,” you spit with so much venom. Even Gwen notices it, Something that it’s highly unusual for you.

“If he wasn’t ready, if he didn’t even like me, he could have avoided all of this,” you explain, trying to sound calm. But it’s nearly impossible with how much you’ve been crying.

“There must be a reason, y/n. Miguel seeme-”

“I don’t want to know, Gwen” She respects it, she stays quiet. You tilt your head, planning to sound softer with your friend.

“Look, I want to cry the whole day. So tomorrow, I’ll be able to walk into the HQ like nothing. So from now on… This never happened. Okay, Gwen?” She nods.

She helps you with a chocolate cake and gets at least three smiles from you.

You offer half of the cake for her and Hobie, as you promised to give Peter, Pav, Miles, and Jess a slice too.

But the whole night, you can only think about Miguel.

Why he had to be such a fucking jerk?

…

Miguel is working on a new serum when Gwen stomps in. She makes sure she’s being loud enough to draw their attention.

“You can’t be here,” he says to the girl.

“Why did you stood up, y/n?” That was enough to pull him out of his experiment. Miguel exchanged looks with Gwen before he remembered it.

The fucking date. He never came; he didn’t even let you know what happened.

“Mierda…” he whispers.

“So?…” Gwen asks, reluctant, arms crossed on her chest, demanding an answer.

“Didn’t Jess tell you?” Gwen shook her head, confused.

“A variant of the green goblin tried to make his own super collider. It was a mess…” Until that moment, Gwen noticed a patch on Miguel’s arm. She admits to herself it must’ve been pretty bad to make the great Spider-Man 2099 injured.

“If you didn’t come to say that, I wouldn’t have remembered it. How is she?” He tries to sound even; calmed. But he’s not; he’s stressing, and the embarrassment quickly invades him.

That Saturday, he was getting ready for the date when Ben called. Miguel grew worried about another super collider being created, so he ran back to the HQ.

The fight was very tough; he injured his whole arm, and when he returned home, he was knocked out. And the following day, he forgot about the date entirely. But he didn’t forget you, 'cause he looked for you like crazy.

“Not okay. She thought you stood her up. Which you did, but…”

“I didn’t mean to. I would never purposefully hurt her,” Gwen nods. Knowing she won’t be able to read Miguel’s face.

“Well… tell her, not me. But I warn you if this changes her forever…I’ll blame you forever” Miguel had an idea of Gwen’s words. You only had one true love before, your Harry Osborn, who died in your arms. You were only fifteen and since then… No love for you.

“I’ll fix this, Gwen. I promise…” he assured her.

…

Miguel was taking longer than intended to fix things.

He spent around an hour looking for you in the HQ, only to learn from Jess that you were on a mission with Peter and Hobie.

“Gwen said you stood her up. Why the hell did you do that?” Miguel knew the woman was mad at him. Even when Jess was older than you, she liked you a lot. Everyone did.

“You know what happened. You were there with me.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t aware it was the same day as the date. You could have let her know when you knew about the anomaly, Miguel.”

“I know, Jess. I know…” he was stressed… a lot. Jess shook her arms in surrender. But she also knew she could help her friend.

“Just talk with her. She might understand… both of you should give it a chance” She was right because the more Miguel thought if it was okay to court you, the more he realized he liked you.

“She’s arriving in ten minutes… be gentle,” he nodded. Looking at his gizmo, he saw you just entered Nueva York and were heading towards the showers.

Slowly, he made his way there.

A long hallway connected the pools and showers for different genders. Miguel found himself walking through it. Many spiders were in the pool, and some greeted him, but Miguel was fixated on seeing you.

A door opened; the ladies showered. You came out with wet hair, sweatpants, a baggy tee, and sandals. Miguel had never seen you without your suit before. Just a picture Peter showed him of an evening you spent with him and Mayday. That day you had a pretty sundress, and your hair was in a cute braid.

However, now…Miguel knew everything was different. Now he has a personal issue with you. One that he caused in the first place.

“Hey…” he called once he was an inch behind you. You turned to face him, only to roll your eyes and walk away towards the exit.

“Please, y/n. We need to talk,” he insisted, gently grabbing your forearm.

You weren’t expecting him to come and find you, but how regretful he was trying to sound enrages you.

“Now you wanna talk?. I’m sorry, but I’m not in the mood to talk” The hostility in your voice takes him aback.

“I just need some minutes, please,” you sigh. You don’t want to be immature but still think it’s unfair.

“Really? I just needed five seconds, Miguel. In five seconds, you could have told me an anomaly came in” he’s embarrassed. Gwen must’ve told you.

“I know you’ve suffered enough to open up again with somebody. But I’ve been there too. And if you weren’t ready or didn’t even like me… you could have avoided having me waiting an hour in that theater like an idiot.”

“But I do like you. And it’s been a while since the last time I’ve felt like this” At that moment, Miguel didn’t know he had chosen the wrong words.

“SHUT UP!” A lot of spiders turn to see you and Miguel. You eye them shortly, slightly embarrassed.

“You’re an asshole, Miguel O’Hara. And if you ever try to play with me again, I’ll leave the spider society and make sure you can never come to my earth again.” You don’t even glance at him. But you want to. You want to forgive him so severely, to ask about the injury in his arm and bake him something. You open a portal with tears in your eyes as you head home.

You won’t. You know the pain of a broken heart, and you won’t go through that again.

And poor Miguel, chooses a woman to try again for love, and he messes everything. But he’s optimistic; he had chosen a woman and was confident it wasn’t the ending. He would try again until you were smiling again.

But you wished having your friends and saving the spider-verse didn’t depend on Miguel being the leader of the spider society. Because you didn’t want to see him again. Like…never.

How does the song goes?…. I love you, Ain’t that worst thing you’ve ever heard?

__________________

Comment if you want to be tagged in part two :)

[gracieheartspedro]

I Can See You

fem!reader x dbf!joel miller

Hi friends! It's been awhile (:

I am back to writing! This time, I'm planning on having many parts to this story. It's a DBF Joel Miller story, which I love to read, which means I had to write it, right?

I wrote this with no Y/N, instead each character gives her a nickname/pet name.

So here's Part 1, I really hope you enjoy!

Word count: 2.7k

Warnings: DBF! Joel, age gap-ish (reader is 25, Joel is 39), eventual smut, joel being a little bit of a perv, reader not having a filter, alcohol consumption

“Mornin’,” His Southern accent was even deeper than usual. My head peaks up from behind my computer, noticing his very tired eyes. The bags under his eyes still somehow did him justice. 

“Mornin’ Joel,” I mutter before taking a sip of my coffee. I watch as he finds his way towards my bosses office. He was only my boss at work, but at home he was just Dad. 

I watch his ass move in his jeans, shamelessly. 

Finding your coworker hot is one thing, it’s another when it’s also your dad’s friend and he was about 20 years older than you. 

I’ve thought Joel Miller was quite the looker since I was about 18. I had just started working for my dad. I was mainly just scheduling and doing work orders. Joel took me out to a work site one day, on my father’s request. He wanted me to get know some of the people who would be scheduling work from us. I got to sit around with the property manager of an apartment complex in a tight black dress in the dead of summer, watching guys replace windows. While outside that day, Joel worked alongside some of the laborers, his tanned skin and shaggy dark hair glistening with sweat. Something about him doing manual labor turned me on. Something awoke in me that day, and ever since then, I thirst over him in silence. 

I catch myself looking a bit too long, quickly averting my eyes to my computer screen. I act like I am typing something, glancing over to Joel and my dad walking out of his office together. They are discussing another project that Joel was overseeing that would keep him very busy in the upcoming months. 

“My girl here will be starting back at college in the fall, so she will only be part time for awhile,” My dad says, drawing attention to me. 

“Oh really, where ya going?” 

I blank out completely for a moment.

“UT Austin,” I finally answer.

“Smart girl, you living on campus?”

“Nope, just getting my master’s in Engineering so living from home makes the most sense.”

Joel shakes his head, “Master’s. Didn’t you just graduate high school?”

“I’m 25, Joel.”

His eyes scan me for a moment, realizing I’m much older than he remembers. 

“Ha,” He grumbles, “Time flies huh, Steve?”

“Sure does, you just wait for that Sarah of yours is off to college,” My dad laughs, slapping Joel’s shoulder. I wince, realizing again he has a young daughter. It wasn’t ideal, to say the least. 

“We got about 5 years on that,” Joel says, his eyes returning to mine, “Well it’ll be nice havin’ you around during our busy season.”

“Happy to help,” I reply, not really meaning it. 

“Hey, Joel, you and Sarah making an appearance at our BBQ this weekend? We invited the whole neighborhood and I can’t remember if you told me you’d be there.”

His eyes are still on me, “Yeah, I’ll be there,” his eyes return to my dad’s, “Just me and Tommy though, Sarah is goin’ over to a friend’s house.”

“Can’t wait!” My dad cheers, “Baby girl, can you make sure my schedule is cleared Friday evening so I don’t have to worry about when I can get the meat?”

“Of course, dad,” I grit my teeth, “I’m on it.”

-

“Hey baby girl, can you go grab me some extra plates?” 

My dad was over the top with his BBQs to say the very least. The whole neighborhood was in on it. Steaks, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, the whole thing. I spent all morning getting the huge backyard and cabana ready for all our visitors. We usually had someone come over to do all the setting up, but Dad made sure to remind me that I was living rent free and being paid on his payroll, so setting up was the least I could do. 

People littered the pool and backyard. I weave between people, giving smiles and welcomes where I could.

I walk in to the kitchen, the cold AC air hitting my bare arms. Luckily, I was wearing shorts over my bikini shorts, or else the goose bumps would be up and down my legs, too. I begin searching the cabinets for the large serving plates you always used for big gatherings. Leaning down, my triangle bikini top almost lets my boobs loose. I sit up straight, messing with the knots on my back. I knew tightening it could only help so much.

“Need help?” I almost jump out of my skin. I turn quickly, spotting Joel Miller standing in the kitchen with me.

“Shit, you fucking scared me,” I breathe loudly, patting my chest to make my heart stop racing, “I think I can get it.”

“Mhm,” He sticks a tooth pick between his teeth, “Lemme help, girl.”

God he was so fine. I hated myself for having a crush on him. But the domestic and simple gray t-shirt that hugged his arms so well and the blue jeans? I simply could not resist staring. 

No chance in hell. But I got to look at him every day and imagine it. 

I turn on my heels, holding the ties out to him so he could tie them. 

“I need them tighter,” I mutter, “Don’t want these puppies falling out in front of the Adlers.”

“Don’t want to excite Mr. Adler too much, he may have himself a heart attack.”

I smile to myself, biting my lip. He ties it, his fingers grazing my bare back slightly. 

“All good now, girl,” I turn to face him, looking up at him through my eyelashes, “Now what were you lookin’ for?”

“Serving plates,” I explain, “Dad is finishing up those steaks, needs more space.”

“Well let’s get ‘em and head out to all the fun,” He says, ducking down to the cabinet I was looking in originally. He finds them, handing them up to me. He looks so good looking up at me from this angle. 

“You want to grab us some beers,” I suggest, “I’ll meet you out there?”

“Your dad runnin’ low?”

“Probably, so grab three.”

–

“So, you going to be here all summer?”

I had no interest in talking to Tommy, but he was keeping me from toeing the line with Joel in my drunken state, so here I am. I sit in my lounger chair, wanting so bad to take off my jean shorts. I knew if I did, Tommy would take it as I’m making a pass, so I sweat extra. 

“I’m starting college in August, so yeah I’ll be around the office and staying home.”

He smiles, “Good to hear, love seeing you around.”

I smile back faking a cheery laugh, “Thanks, Tommy… care to grab me another beer?”

“No problem, sweetheart.”

I watch him walk away before searching the crowd for Joel. I spot him across the yard, talking to one of the newer neighbors. A single mom who moved in two months ago. My dad kept joking the other night that he’d be making her my stepmom, which only made me gag. She was beautiful, younger than my dad, but just about Joel’s age. 

A pang of jealousy rises within me. 

Joel finally catches my wandering eyes. He smiles gently, giving me a nod.

“Here, darling,” Tommy says sweetly, “Need anything else?”

“Yeah, actually,” Your brother, “Can you help me with something?”

“Sure, ‘s up?”

I sit up, leaning over making my boobs hang right in his eye line. 

If I couldn’t keep one Miller’s attention, maybe I could snag second best. My beer filled brain thinks about how they are cut from the same cloth, so they both are probably good at this. 

“Do you want to help me change a lightbulb?”

He raises his eyebrows, “I guess, where at?”

I smirk, “My bedroom.”

We sneak away, my eyes scanning the area. It didn’t appear as anyone was following us. My room was the last room on the left upstairs, so the anticipation as I guided him down the hallway was killing me.

Ever since Joel grazed my back earlier, I’ve been ready. So fucking ready. 

“Are we actually changing a lightbulb?”

I open my door for him, gesturing to him to follow me in.

In the dim light, Tommy was very cute. He was a sweet guy and I knew he’d be the first to jump on my idea. 

“You tell me,” I say, starting to untie the knot Joel tied. In my moment of trying to be sexy, I realize Joel tied the stupidest and hardest knot ever. Tommy notices my struggle, reaching around me, frantically trying to get the top off.

As it gets loose, I reach up to grab his neck.

“What the fuck is going on ‘ere?” 

His voice freezes me. Tommy looks towards the door in horror.

“Joel-“

“Tommy, you fucking know better,” His voice is so intimidating and scary, I cant even muster the courage to turn around, “Git.”

Tommy gives me eyes saying I’m so sorry, and I just stare blankly at my wall. I hear Tommy’s foot steps run down the stairs. I realize how drunk I am because my wall paper begins to move on it’s own. It doesn’t usually do that. 

“Now you,” His stride towards me is quick, “I’m not your Dad, but don’t think he’d like you fucking his employees.”

Maybe it was the liquid courage, “Who said I was trying to fuck him?”

I snap my head towards his stern and impossible to read face.

“Bullshit,” He spits, “He got through my knot, he assumed somethin’ was about to happen.”

“Well, even if that’s where it went, why are you putting your nose in our business?”

He chuckles darkly, “So now it’s ours, huh? I have you know, girl, Tommy’s business is my business. And you’re just makin’ my job hard.”

I tiptoe closer to him, “And what’s your job, again, Mr. Miller?”

“Make sure people are behavin’ themselves.”

I realize what he’s doing. My tipsy mind took a second to search his face for more, but I can't read him at all. 

“I’m behaving, Mr. Miller. I promise,” I reach up, touching his jaw, “No more funny business.”

It was the closest I had ever got to him. I felt a rush just touching him.

“Good, get your top back on and come down to the party. Your dad is looking for you.”

I look down at myself as he leaves the room. My fucking tits are out, and he didn’t even look down.

The game he was playing was not the same one I was playing.

–

The next morning, I have a pounding headache and no drive to leave my room. I was embarrassed and horrified. I knew I would have to face Joel and Tommy on Monday morning, so I had to make amends beforehand. I really didn’t want them to tell my dad and I was pretty out of line for trying to fuck Tommy when Joel wasn't giving me the attention my drunk ass thought I deserved.

After spending hours in bed, rolling back and forth thinking of a script to say, I figured that honesty is the best policy. 

Well, honesty with a little bend in the truth. 

I get showered and dressed. My usual summer time outfit was a crop top and short shorts, but today I needed to be more… conservative. 

I find a nice summery dress, that went to midthigh. It was yellow, not a lot cleavage, floral. Innocent. 

When I get downstairs, my dad sits in the living room, his feet propped up watching the news. 

“Where ya going, baby girl?” 

“I’m going for a walk,” I lie. 

“Wearing that?”

“Yes,” I nod quickly, “Do you need anything while I’m out?”

He shakes his head, “No, have fun, I guess.”

I could tell he was suspicious, but he wasn’t one to pester me too much. He had high expectations for me, but I always exceeded them. He never questioned me too much, unless it was about school. He didn’t even really care about my love life. He always got excited when I told him I was going on dates in college. I mean, I rather him be excited than bother me about the guys I was seeing.

I start my journey to Joel’s. I didn’t even know if he was home or not, I was going on blind faith.

It was hot as shit and I was not fully prepared to walk to his house in a dress and sandals. 

I could’ve just driven there and back. But no, I decided to roast in the hot summer sun.

–

When I arrive to his house, I just kind of stand in his driveway, catching my breath. He was home, his truck was here. 

I walk to the front door, knocking first then ringing the door bell. 

It takes about minute, but he gets the door. 

And he’s shirtless. 

It was the worst and best moment of my entire life. 

“What are you doing here?”

And it’s not quite the response I was anticipating when I arrived at his door. 

“I uh-,” I hear some stirring inside the house, which causes me to peak my head past Joel’s shoulder. 

I see movement, but my eyes find Joel’s again before I could focus in on it. He pushes me back a bit, coming outside and shutting the door behind him. 

“I came to apologize, but you seem busy.”

He shakes his head, “Not busy, just woke up.”

“With someone?”

What the fuck? Why can’t I shut my mouth?

“Pardon me?”

“Well I walked this whole way to apologize about my inappropriate behavior yesterday,” I explain, “But yeah, that’s it.”

The door creaks open and I am wholeheartedly anticipating a hot MILF or something. But instead, it’s a little girl. 

“Sarah, get inside!”

“Oh hi, I know you!”

I smile at the girl. She was cute, I had to admit. She looked a bit like Joel, mainly the smile. A smile I wasn’t too familiar with, because he wasn’t too keen on my jokes. Ever.

“Yeah, I work with your dad,” I explain, “Nice to see you, Sarah.”

“You too, do you want to have lunch with us?”

“Sarah she can’t st-” 

“I’d love to, only if your dad says it’s okay.”

He got himself in a pickle, but I was aching to have a conversation that didn’t involve me putting my foot in my mouth like I almost did again. Plus, some food and water would help the heatstroke I felt coming on.

He stares at me, almost like he wished I’d disappear, “Of course, come in. Sarah is making sandwiches.”

“I hope you like turkey and cheese!”

—

“Thanks for the sandwich, Sarah,” I say, wiping my face making sure I didn’t have mustard left over.

She smiles with her mouth full, “You’re welcome!”

“Hey Sarah, why don’t you go get ready for swim practice,” He suggests, “Me and your new best friend need to have an adult conversation.”

She looks up at him annoyed, “I guess, but don’t scare her away. She has a cool pool I want to swim in.”

I laugh out loud, “Yeah, don’t scare me away, Joel.”

He doesn’t laugh, he just looks at me with his lazer eyes. I just wish Sarah a farewell and shut my mouth, waiting for the storm. He stirs, eating another bite of his sandwich. 

“So you came to apologize, huh?”

I swallow, “Uh, yeah. I’m sorry for my inappropriate behavior. I had one too many yesterday.”

He nods, “Yeah you were practically falling out of that top of yours before you took Tommy upstairs. Surprised you didn’t have it off before then.”

My eyes widen, “Well that’s humiliating.”

“Don’t think anyone was particularly mad about it,” He says, “Maybe one of those neighborhood watch moms, but who cares about ‘em?”

I can’t help but smirk. Was he insinuating that he wasn’t mad about almost seeing my boobs?

“Yeah, they always give me the most disgusted looks when I’m out jogging.”

“Cause’ they miss bein’ young and beautiful,” He explains, “All their husbands stare, too.”

I can’t believe he’s talking to me like this, I find myself leaning in a bit to try to talk quieter. It seems like this is conversation we should be whispering to each other.

“Do you stare?”

Foot. In. Mouth. 

He smirks, giggling a bit. I finally got to see him smile.

“Of course, I do.”

----

Hehehehe tell me what you think! I'll be back with part 2 soon!

[romanoffsbish]

A Prompt List

Feel free to pick and choose from the list for your own stories, as well as send in requests (view my masterlist for who I write for) with whatever prompts if you please, 🥰

Angst/Fluff/Smut prompts listed. (18+)

Bonus points if you take the assigned genre and flip it 🤔😏

———

Angst

“Are you serious?” / “I never wanted this!���

“This was never real, was it?” / “I was just a warm body for those cold winter nights…”

“You are vile…” / “I can’t believe I ever believed someone like you could love me.”

“Nothing good ever lasts.” / “Goodbye.”

“I love you.” / “It’s not enough this time.”

“Please, don’t leave me, we can fix this.” /“You left me first, I’m just finishing the job.”

“I love you Y/N.” / “Why do people only say that to me when they’ve wronged me? Am I not deserving of the guiltless love? Like the ones I see in fairytales, where they get swept away smiling, and not where I curl up to weep in my bed for another damn night.”

“I’m sorry.” / “For what exactly? Breaking my trust, and in turn my fragile heart? Or do you only mean that you got caught?”

“I can’t even look at you anymore.” / “Please…” / “This is the end for us.”

“I can’t live without you, I won’t survive.” / “Then I guess I’ll be back for your funeral.”

Fluff

“There’s nobody else I’d ever love like this.”

“Everything I do is for you—my beloved.”

*while stargazing* “If I could, I’d rearrange the stars for you, have them map out your face, because a beauty like yours should transcend the bounds of Earth my darling.”

“I can’t believe that the world had infinite chances to find me a soulmate, and I lucked out and hit the absolute jackpot with you.”

“Did you know that a kiss is worth a thousand words?” / “You should kiss me.”

“You’re the most gorgeous person here.” / “I’d never lie to you darling, god, I wish you could see you the way I do” / “Perfect.”

“Call them —, the worst they could do is say no to you, and trust me, they won’t…” / “They said yes!!!”

“I’ve loved you since the first time I ever laid my eyes on you.” / “Well damn, why’s it taken you so long to make a move then?”

“I can’t believe my cat/dog loves you more than it’s ever loved me.” / “Actually, on second thought it makes sense, you’re far too lovable to even question it; *pets name* you have good taste.”

“I will never tire of watching you sleeping next to me, you’re just so peaceful, and I get to celebrate that you’re all mine.”

Smut

“Careful what you wish for baby, because I’m nothing if not generous…”

“Where should I sit?” / “The couch works just fine, but if you prefer comfort, my face works far better my darling.”

“I’m not letting you go until you’ve either drenched the sheets, or passed out.”

“Fuck me like you mean it —, let everybody know I’m yours before I no longer am.”

“Aww, did my precious little dove think I’d just let that little stunt go?” / “I was hoping so.” / “You’re sadly mistaken toots, now prepare yourself for a long night full of passion, and if you’re lucky—pain.”

“Mommy isn’t very pleased with the outfit you chose to wear tonight, you made those fools think they stood a chance.” / “Maybe they did.” / *incredulous laughter* “Is that right baby? I go on one week long business trip and you just forget who you belong to? Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll remind you.”

“Stay still, or I’ll have you warming daddy’s cock all night long.” / “That’s a good girl.”

“I-I can’t take anymore, please.” / “You can take it, and you’ll do it graciously, one more complaint and I’ll edge you all month.”

“Kiss me, please.” / “Is that all you want baby, is for me to kiss you?” / “N-no, I also want you to fuck me senseless, but a kiss sounded far more romantic.”

“If you don’t fuck me, I’ll be doing it myself!” / “I’m coming!” / “No, I am!”

[bio1]

Here a treat for Halloween, my complete fanfic in one post. Hope you enjoy this Earthspark horror themed story and thanks to @billy-jay-kisses-robots for co-writing and spell checking.

Let use begin

Act 1

Despite how close to midnight it was, the sound of footsteps could still be heard throughout the dugout. A combination of caffeine and late night movie watching was keeping Twitch Malto wide awake, while the rest of her terran siblings dozed off peacefully. In her defense, if Robbie didn’t want her drinking his energy drinks, he should have kept them hidden better. And the password to her father’s Netflix account should have been more secure than ‘bumblebee123’.

Though the entirety of the terrans had all stayed up to binge as many horror movies as they could think of (with the exception of Jawbreaker, who had his eyes closed the entire time out of fear), only Twitch was still awake. As she paced nervously up and down the dugout, she looked over her sleeping siblings one by one. Thrash was in his alt mode, somehow completely upside down. His engine was repeatedly reving up and stalling in a cycle, as if he was snoring. Jawbreaker was laying facedown on the floor, a comically small teddy bear perched carefully on top of his head. Hashtag, who had tried staying up later herself by watching youtube, had eventually fallen asleep as well, her phone autoplaying what sounded like Russian dashcam crash footage. And Nightshade… Hm, actually, she didn’t see Nightshade anywhere. Not that she was really paying attention, however. Her mind was too busy replaying everything she had seen earlier in the night over and over.

The kids had essentially gone to the horror section on Netflix and watched as many movies as they could before they got tired. From goofier horror comedies like "Critters" to things genuinely terrifying thrillers like "Halloween", and some striking and odd balance of the two like "Scream". What really got to her, however, was John Carpenter's "The Thing", and not just because of what happened to those poor sled dogs. That awful, morphing monster, the way it ripped the research team apart, really stuck with her. Possibly because it reminded her of a few of Mandroid’s own creations she had to fight before, especially that bear mutant from mother’s day.

She was so caught up in her own head that she didn’t even notice Fluffy Ears right in front of her. Twitch ended up tripping right over the family’s pet cow, who decided it would be a good idea to sleep in the middle of the dugout’s hallway. She managed to catch herself mid fall by switching into her alt mode just before hitting the ground. The sleepy calf roused her head, looked at the little red drone hovering directly in front of her, gave her a quick lick, and fell back asleep. The whole ordeal was quiet enough not to wake anyone else, but it did catch the attention of Nightshade, who poked their head out from around a corner near their lab.

“Oh, Twitch, I didn’t know you were still up.” They smiled. “Is everything alright? You look nervous.”

“How can you tell that if I’m in my alt mode?”

“Well, you’re shaking. Pretty violently.”

She hadn’t even realized that, but they were right. She even accidentally bumped into Fluffy Ears pretty hard. Startled, Twitch switched back into her normal mode and tried profusely apologizing to the calf. Fluffy Ears didn’t seem to mind, and got up from her spot to start aimlessly wandering around the dugout.

“I’m, uh, I’m fine, Nightshade. What are you doing over there, anyway?” Twitch attempted to change the subject, making her way over to Nightshade’s lab. At the very least, this might be a fun distraction. Nightshade’s bright green optics lit up at this, clearly excited to show someone their work.

"I am so glad you asked." They tugged on their sibling's arm and pulled them into their lab. On a table in the center was a large, ominous looking metal contraption.

"Wait, isn't that-" Twitch began, before getting cut off.

"The reverse beartrap from Saw, yes!" Nightshade beamed, proudly holding it up. "The movies we watched tonight weren't particularly the type I enjoy, but I did appreciate some of the creative inventions a few of them displayed." They looked over to see Twitch with a completely horrified expression on her face. "Oh, are you wondering if it works? I am too. This is just a prototype I whipped up based on how it was explained in the film. I was actually just about to test it-" They reached under the table and pulled out a full pumpkin. Nightshade extended their arms and eagerly gestured for Twitch to take the gourd. "Since you're up, would you like to do the honors?"

"... Actually, I was wondering why you built a torture device in the first place." She finally responded, nervously looking it over. "I mean, you've built some crazy stuff in the past, but this is, uh, kind of disturbing, Nightshade."

Nightshade looked somewhat disappointed at this, shaking their head a bit. "You've got the wrong idea! A torture device implies that the victim is meant to survive."

Nightshade set the trap down and activated it themselves. Within seconds, it ripped the pumpkin open, its guts splattering messily onto the floor.

"A person wouldn't have survived that." They added, clearly happy the machine worked as intended.

Twitch flinched and stood back, her eyes growing to the size of dinner plates.

"Twitch?" Nightshade asked, concerned. "What is-oh. I get it. Don't worry, it was never my intention to use this on any living being. I just like challenging myself, and building this seemed like it would be an interesting experiment." They began scooping the guts off the concrete floor. "The thought of this device ever being used for its original purpose… that's something I wouldn't even have wished for on Mandroid." They muse. Noticing their sister was still silent, Nightshade approached her, a worried look forming on their features.

"Are you sure you're alright? You didn't think I was really going to-" Twitch interrupted them.

"No! Oh, no, I know you wouldn't, Shady. I'm just kind of on edge tonight, I guess. Probably shouldn't have stolen Robbie's energy drinks." She attempted to brush off their concern as convincingly as she could.

"You probably shouldn't have! Caffeine can worsen the hyperactive aspects of ADHD after all." They agreed, patting her on the shoulder.

"...You think I have ADHD?"

Before Nightshade could respond, a massive crunch boomed out from above them.

"What was that!?" Twitch flew out in search of the cacophony. Nightshade, trying their best to keep up with her, tiptoed as softly as they could to prevent waking the others. They found Twitch looking through the camera screens in the main room of the dugout. There was nothing unusual on live feed, just a few autumn leaves blowing past the cameras Nightshade has placed around the ranch.

"Should we-" Nightshade began, getting cut off again.

"Check it out? Yes, obviously!" She seemed a little too excited to see what was out there. Perhaps she was just looking for an excuse to feel useful, or burn off some of her energy.

Without a second of hesitation, she switched to her alt mode and flew outside, wildly darting around the sky above the dugout. Twitch changed back into bot mode as she landed on the barn's roof. With the moonlight nearly hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, it was almost pitch black outside. Nightshade caught up with their energetic sister, surprised to see her standing still as a statue.

"Twitch! There is nothing out here but the nocturnal wildlife. Perhaps it was a raccoon who made that sound." Nightshade reasoned.

Twitch responded in a shaky tone. "Nightshade, what kind of raccoon could make a noise that loud?"

"...One with rabies?"

"Wait! Listen for a moment." She hushed, falling silent again.

Nightshade listened for something out there to satisfy their sister's paranoia. "I hear nothing Twitch."

"Exactly, Nightshade! There's nothing! No crickets chirping, none of the cows are making any sound, there aren't even moths near the lights!" She exclaimed frantically.

"Oh goodness, you're right. Now that is odd. The only time it's ever perfectly quiet outside is when there is something…dangerous around."

Nightshade glared in front of them, attempting to make out the source of the eerie calmness.

"That tree… wasn't there before." They noted, their voice shaky as they pointed ahead.

Twitch turned to see what her sibling was referring to. In the middle of the forest, several hundred meters away from the barn, a massively tall, crooked tree stood high above the rest. It only had three twisted branches, growing out of its spindly stalk in such a way to vaguely resemble a humanoid figure with bending limbs. One branch in the middle rounded out at the end to form the "head" of this horrific plant.

"Ok, so that certainly wasn't a raccoon then." Nightshade commented. Their sister began switching into her alt mode, before the younger green bot grabbed hold of her. "Twitch, wait! Going out to investigate… whatever that is right away probably isn't a good idea. We should at least think this through first."

Twitch struggled in their grip for a second before shaking herself off, but didn't immediately fly out like she wanted to. "What's the hold up? You seriously want to just head in and call it a night?" She snapped at them.

"No, of course not. I just think we shouldn't do it alone." They added, remaining calm.

"And give that tree-thing a chance to move in first? I don't think so." Twitch shifted and took off into the sky. Reluctantly, Nightshade changed into their alt mode as well, flying directly in front of her to block her path.

"Twitch! What's gotten into you?" They asked frantically. Thankfully for them, Twitch did stop in her tracks. "You clearly aren't doing well tonight. Whatever's got you troubled, I'm here for you, and so is the rest of the family."

"We obviously have bigger issues than my anxiety to deal with right now!" She shouted. "Things like… that are just more proof I haven't been doing enough to keep us safe."

"Is that what this is about? Twitch, this isn't your fault-" she cut them off.

"Well it'll be both of our faults if that tree monster gets its dirty roots on the others because we were busy screwing around here!"

Nightshade wasn't sure how to respond. Twitch’s panicked tone and expression made it clear how stressed and out of it she was. But how were they supposed to comfort her? This entire situation was making it hard for even them to think, especially with that giant tree staring at them-

Wait, the tree was staring at them?

Nightshade slowly turned their head to get a better look, and to their horror, the tall head of the ominous tree had sprouted a pair of huge, glowing eyes.

“We need to go back inside, now!” They grabbed Twitch's arm with their talons, dragging their sister behind them. Almost involuntarily, the younger mech let out an owlish screech as they dived back into the dugout from the entrance in the barn's roof.

Switching back into their alt mode, Nightshade rushed over to the console displaying the security cameras’ feeds. They displayed nothing but static, oddly enough. Nightshade, frustrated and confused, frantically tried fixing the console, but nothing seemed to be working.

After a few moments, Twitch quietly approached her sibling, meekly tapping them on the shoulder. “Shady, I need to tell you something…”

“I'm not mad at you, Twitch. Just, I need to focus right now-”

“That's not what an owl sounds like.” She continued.

Nightshade stopped what they were working on and turned to face her. “...I'm sorry?”

“I've been meaning to say this ever since you got your alt mode, but that owl screech you do isn't actually what owls sound like. The noise you make is more like an eagle or a hawk.”

Nightshade just sort of stared at her, not sure what to say.

“Oh.” Was all they could think of as a response.

“Wait, why would you bring that up now?”

“I'm sorry! I'm scared! I can't even really think straight, it feels like my brain is shutting down…” She grabbed onto her head and shook it, as if trying to forcefully wake herself up.

Nightshade tried to go back to fixing the camera system, but found that their own mind felt somewhat fuzzy as well. They've repaired similar errors on this exact console plenty of times before. Yet for some reason, the solution just wasn't coming to them now.

“It had eyes, didn't it? That's what those were, in the tree, I mean. Huge eyes.” Twitch finally spoke, her usually energetic voice noticeably slowed. “Do you think… that was something Ghost made?”

“I can't imagine what use they would have with a giant, monstrous tree.” Nightshade answered, putting down the wires they were fiddling with. “We should alert the others.”

“...Right.” their sister responded. She glided over to the nearest Malto sibling, that being Hashtag. The large purple bot was still peacefully dozing off with her phone now playing, of all things, Wendigoon’s conspiracy theory iceberg. As if this whole situation wasn't ominous enough.

Twitch gently nudged the larger Terran’s shoulder. “Hashtag? Get up, something happened.”

No response. She was completely out of it.

“H-hashtag?” Twitch shook her sister a little more forcefully now.

She still didn't stir.

“HASHTAG! WAKE UP!” Twitch yelled as loudly as possible, but this didn't do much besides startle the already well-awake Nightshade.

The smaller red bot, frustrated at this point, switched into her alt mode and fired a laser several inches from her sleeping sister. This also accomplished nothing.

“Twitch! What on earth are you doing?” Nightshade called out frantically.

“I wasn't going to hit her! I… I couldn't think of anything else, I thought that would work.” She admitted, her voice shaky.

Twitch flew over to Thrash and Jawbreaker, shouting their names and firing controlled lasers inches from their bodies in a reckless attempt to wake them. The brothers were similarly out cold, however, and nothing she did had any effect on them.

“You need to stop that! If you miss and hit them…” Nightshade began, stopping themselves off as they watched the red drone revert to her bot mode, a defeated and exhausted expression washing over her face. Her large yellow optics seemed to almost wobble in place, a streaking, cold light emanating from them. Nightshade got the impression that if Cybertronians were physically capable of shedding tears, she'd be sobbing right now.

“What's going on, Shady?” She barely managed to speak, nearly choking on every word.

Seeing their usually cheerful, energic sister in such a miserable state was utterly heartbreaking for Nightshade. It wasn't her fault, but Twitch seemed to truly believe whatever misfortune her family had fallen upon somehow could have been prevented by her.

Nightshade, not being the best at emotional support, tried to go for a more practical way of comforting her. “They… they aren't dead.” The younger Terran informed her. Walking over to Jawbreaker, Nightshade gently pried his eyelids apart to reveal intact, glowing optics. They weren't responding to any stimuli, but the fact that they were on was proof that the bots were in some kind of comatose state.

“How did you…” Twitch started speaking, but seemingly lost the strength to continue partway through her question.

“How did I know?” Nightshade presumptively finished for her. “I've installed vital trackers in all of us. If any of us were to go offline, I would get an alert.” They informed her.

“Oh, that's good. Thank you.” She seemed a little relieved, before realizing the full consequences of what her sibling just admitted. “Wait, I don't remember… when did you install those?”

“That's not really something we need to worry about now…” Nightshade mumbled, not expecting her to question their actions.

“...Nightshade, how many… things have you added to us?” She lowered her gaze a bit, inquisitively. Before questioning them further, her optics lit up, having remembered something.

“I just realized, we never saw Fluffy Ears!” She blurted out frantically. Twitch began zooming around the dugout in her alt mode, looking for the baby cow.

Nightshade gave a sigh of relief that her line of questioning was over for now, and joined her in the search.

“Where was she last?” They called out, looking around their lab while Twitch scanned the dugout’s hall.

“I… I don't know, she just sort of wandered off-Oh!” Twitch flew over to a far corner of the room.

“I found her! What are you doing over here, silly cow…” Twitch nudged the calf, who seemed to be fast asleep, resting her head on her flank. Fluffy Ears didn't stir, however.

“...Fluffy Ears?” Twitch was significantly more worried as she spoke this time, her voice getting louder. The calf didn't respond.

Nightshade looked over their sister's shoulders, noting that, thankfully, the little cow was still breathing.

“That's odd, very odd… whatever happened to our siblings seems to be affecting her as well.” Nightshade leaned down and gently stroked Fluffy Ears head, mostly in an attempt to steady themselves down. This entire situation wasn't making any sense, and that scared them. They needed to remain calm, however, if only to reassure Twitch.

The smaller bot looked to her sibling for answers.

“...Do you think it's gotten to everyone in the house?”

“Are you referring to whatever has put everyone here to sleep?” Nightshade attempted to clarify.

“Yeah, I mean, if it got to Fluffy Ears… Mom, Dad, Robbie, and Mo are also organic.”

“That's a good point, actually.” Nightshade pondered. They didn't even think of that. “Are we dealing with some kind of virus that affects both organics and bots? Does such a thing even exist?”

“Forget virus, it's obviously coming from that messed up tree outside.”

“The tree? That can't be right. How could it even…” Nightshade was at a complete loss.

“Seriously, Nightshade? This thing shows up, and suddenly, all of our family is out cold. That can't be a coincidence.” She was exasperated.

“I agree it's strange, but there shouldn't be any way a plant could incapacitate both organics and Cybertronians by just… I don't even know…” Their head was starting to throb, like a migraine. Trying to think critically was physically hurting them.

The two siblings just stood there, feeling their own bodies growing weaker with every passing second. It was a sensation similar to being sedated. A feeling they probably would have given into, had Twitch not noticed a strange black tendril poking out of a nearby vent.

“Is that a rat?” Twitch asked groggily. Wouldn't be the first time a rat got into the dugout. But said rats usually weren't so long. And slithering…

“Nightshade! Get down!” Twitch jumped and pushed her sibling down to the ground, just before a huge tendril swung at their head. The tendril instead hit the monitors Nightshade had attempted to fix. A single whack caused not only all the monitors to shatter, but the concrete wall behind them to violently crack.

Nightshade's optics widened with horror. There was no question about it. If that tendril had hit them instead, their head would have been knocked clean off.

The tendril dove for the pair of them, seeming to know exactly where they were despite not having eyes. They both moved to opposite sides, barely avoiding getting stabbed. As it pulled out of the small hole it burrowed into the floor, the tendril opened up for a second, briefly revealing a crimson reptilian eye that scanned the room before closing again.

Nightshade, in an effort to get out of the way, bumped into the table they had placed the reverse bear trap onto earlier. It fell into their lap with a clattering thud. An idea came to them, and they armed the trap to go off again.

“Twitch, take this and have it dive for you again! When it gets close, have it aim for the trap! I think it only keeps its eyes open for a few seconds at a time!”

“Twitch, take this and have it dive for you again! When it gets close, have it aim for the trap! I think it only keeps its eyes open for a few seconds at a time!”

Twitch, being the faster of the two even in her groggy state, agreed with a nod and flew past the tendril, the trap in her grasp. It took the bait and launched itself directly towards her, where it got the last several feet of its body caught in the trap’s mechanisms.

The tendril squirmed and rattled as the reverse beartrap’s countdown ticked. After a few agonizingly long seconds, it finally went off. Just as it had with the pumpkin earlier in the night, it absolutely ripped its prey apart with ease. Shards of metal and some kind of fleshy material flew to all corners of the dugout.

The worst part wasn't the sight of the impact, however, it was the dreadful noise it made. Whatever the tendril was attached to screamed in pain as its appendage was destroyed. It had a cry like a nuclear siren, low, loud, and ear-piercing. It felt like something you were never meant to hear, and simply perceiving was a sign that you as the listener were at death’s door.

What remained of the tendril receded back through the vents, leaking a runny black liquid with an odd, iridescent shimmer. A few of the larger chunks that had been ripped open were still slightly animate, curling where they lay like a dying spider.

Nightshade cautiously approached what appeared to be the eye of the tendril, or atleast what was left of it.

It was a translucent, jelly-like red substance with an awful black slit for a pupil that had sort of melted into the iris due to its injury. Said pupil shuddered in place one last time as Nightshade got closer, almost as if it could still perceive the bot somehow.

“Nightshade! Are you alright right!?” Twitch said, sounding out of breath despite not actually having lungs.

“Yes, I'm just a bit scratched up. It's nothing but a bit of polish won't get out.”

Without saying anything else, Nightshade grabbed and chugged down one of the energy drinks that their sister left out. “I know I said earlier that us drinking these was probably a bad idea, but I think they might help.” Their sister nervously fiddled with the can’s lid before managing to get it open for herself.

Nightshade scooped up what's left of the otherworldly tendril and brought it back to their lab.

Pausing to consider their next move, Nightshade eventually settled on attaching the still pulsating fleshy bits to a battery hooked up to a light bulb. After a few seconds, the light dimmed before going out completely. The battery was instantly dead.

“It appears you were right after all. Whatever this thing is, it emits some kind of field that drains energy from anything it's near.” Nightshade concluded.

“So that's what makes us feel so exhausted?” Twitch looked very concerned, her optics darting between Nightshade and her unconscious siblings.

“More than likely, yes. And you might have already guessed this, but I assume it's also keeping all our organic family members asleep. My current theory is that this is a hunting tactic.”

Twitch knew immediately what they were getting at. “Sleeping prey can't fight back.”

“Exactly.” Nightshade confirmed. “The fact that we were previously awake is most likely the only reason why we aren't currently unconscious.”

An uneasy silence filled the dugout. The siblings stood in place, the air around them cold and heavy with tension. Without saying a word, both of them knew what the other was thinking: that monster would be back any moment, and they couldn't keep up the energy to fight it back for long. It was a terrible calm before the storm, a feeling reminiscent of succumbing to hypothermia. An overwhelming, intoxicating urge to close your eyes and drift into a sleep you were well aware you'd never wake up from.

And at this moment, every light in the dugout switched off.

Act 2

The Terran siblings' optics were the only source of light in the now otherwise pitch black dugout. After the dreadful clicking of the lights switching off, the room was now eerily quiet once again.

“We didn't kill it.” Nightshade finally broke the silence, stating the obvious.

“No, you didn't.”

A voice replied, taunting the young bot. Well, perhaps calling it a voice would be too generous. Whatever responded spoke in a manner similar to rusted nails scratching at granite. Its pitch and tone managed to fluctuate in a manner that just barely could be recognizable as words. It was a sound that shouldn't be possible, as if scrap metal could somehow speak. It went beyond uncanny. Hearing something that otherworldly felt downright violating.

“What clever children you are, deducing my traits so quickly.

Most don't last long enough to find that out.”

Whatever monitors still remained attached flickered on, although they broadcasted nothing but static. When their adversary spoke again, the static shifted in time with its voice.

“My, such a colorful collection. So bright and shiny, sturdy with youthful vigor. Small you might be, but your remains will a part of something far bigger than you could ever dream.”

Twitch, with all her remaining energy, was not having any of this cryptic nonsense. She stormed up to the monitors and put her face meter inches from the screen in a confrontational manner.

“Get away from my family, NOW!” She boomed, slamming her foot onto the concrete floor.

The dying power on the monitor only showed one thing, the white enormous eye of their torturer.

“Oh my child, it's far too late for that.”

Twitch stepped back, trying her absolute best now to show how terrified she truly was. Too late for what? What was this thing implying?

“You're bluffing! You haven't gotten to them yet!” Nightshade answered back for her. “Now how about you save us all time and tell us what you want!”

Twitch wasn't sure what her sibling was getting at. Did they want to give into this thing's demands? And how could they know that their family hadn't been harmed yet?

“If you're already awake, I thought we might as well have a little fun.”

It was pretty obvious the creature was trying to be creepy, but neither of them knew whether or not it fully understood the context of what it just implied.

The dugout was completely silent and nearly pitch black, the abyss around them only just illuminated from both of the bots’ glowing optics.

“Nightshade! What do we do?! Our family is out there with that… that thing! I don't even know which way the exit is anymore, it's too dark…”

“There’s no reason for alarm, the dugout has a backup generator in the barn.” Nightshade tried their absolute best to remain calm for her, despite the gravity of the situation weighing on their mind as well.

“I'll go check on everyone in the house. In the meanwhile, you can start up the generator.”

“Wait, shouldn't that be the other way around? I can actually fit in the house, and you would know how the generator works.”

“Because I can grab everyone in one trip. It would take too long for you to back and forth. Plus, turning it on is rather simple.”

“Nightshade, I've seen the things you make, and none of them are simple.”

“It's literally just a red button labeled ‘generator’.”

“Nevermind, I should be able to handle that.”

Both of the bots carefully exited the dugout. With neither spotting the monster, Nightshade and Twitch split up, their goals both in sight.

Twitch approached the generator, optics darting around herself in paranoia.

“It's okay, Twitch. Just a few more steps.” The red bot assured herself, voice still shaky.

She stood in front of the machine, just barely out of arms’ reach. A chill ran down her metallic spine. Thoughts of what occurred earlier in the night ran through her mind. She kept imagining that if she pushed the button, something would come to remove her head from her shoulders.

“Twitch! HURRY!”

The loud voice booming from the doorway startled the poor bot. It was Nightshade, already back with their human family in tow. They were peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware of the danger around them. Nightshade dashed into the bunker, leaving Twitch to finish her task.

With a deep sigh, she pushed the red button, the lights around her flickering on. Twitch turned back to join their sibling before stopping dead in her tracks. Something was pushing itself through a gap in the barn wall. A black, pulsating mass with gray armor grew larger as more of its amorphous form forced its way into the room. Five huge tendrils sprouted from a central metal lump. It almost looked like…

“A hand.” She breathed, the terrifying realization overcoming her.

A monsterous hand, almost bigger than her entire body.

She drew out her swords as the hand flexed its grotesque fingers.

The monster, noticing her presence, immediately lunged at her. She barely had enough time to dodge or before the gnarled fingers could ensnare her. The hand instead grabbed hold of a solid wooden support beam directly behind her. Smaller tendrils unwind themselves from the fingers joints, constricting the beam completely until the pressure caused it to cave in. An entire, solid cylinder of wood, crushed by a single movement into dust. The hand, realizing it has missed it's intended target, reared around with gelatinous eyes protruding from its finger joints, searching for Twitch.

“Hold still.”

“How about no!” She yelled before jabbing her blade into its wrist. The palm of the hand writhed in pain, fingers bending backwards as it struggled to pull the foreign object out. The wrist was almost jammed like a metal rod between two gears.

Twitch grabbed the handle of the embedded sword and twisted it clockwise, separating the hand from its wrist. A spray of oily fluid landed on her optics, muddling her vision. The hand writhed in pain for a moment, finally curling up on itself.

A distant sound of pain could be heard, but Twitch felt like she had no time to celebrate as she went to join her family. The young bot slammed the vault door shut as soon as she made it to the bunker, not wanting to take any more chances. Nightshade has laid the siblings’ organic family into individual sleeping quarters.

“Twitch, are you alright?” Nightshade asked, concerned. Their sibling’s face was drenched in the black, oily blood of their adversary.

“Yeah, I just had my hands full.” she responded confidently. Though her words had the cadence of a joke, Nightshade didn't seem to pick up on it.

“Seriously, what happened?” They prodded further.

“That monster tried to crush me. Sort of like this.” Twitch crushed one of the emptied energy drink cans as a demonstration.

“But it doesn't know who they're messing with, and I manage to cut their hand off.” She smiled proudly, but residual unease from the near death encounter still hung to her tone. This bravado was an attempt to force her mood to improve, and it wasn't entirely working.

“Here, to wipe the oil off.” Nightshade handed her a large cloth.

“Oh, thanks.” She cleaned her face up, before looking down at the now dirtied rag. “Wait, isn't this Robbie's shirt?”

“Yes. I borrowed some spare clothing from all of the family and store it here, in case of emergencies.”

“Borrowed? He told me he couldn't find this shirt for months….” She held out the soaked t-shirt in front of her, rancid oily blood dripping onto the floor.

“Emergency preparedness is more important than a diverse wardrobe.” Nightshade took the soiled garment and threw it into a basket. “That'll come off in the laundry. Probably.”

In the corner of Nightshade’s sensitive optics, they picked up some movement on the now activated surviving monitor. The pair raced over to see what it was. Out of the darkness of the forest above, something jumped into fame. The figure startled Nightshade badly enough that they fell to the floor. After recovering from the near spark attack herself, Twitch realized what it was.

“Oh, it's just a deer.” She gave a sigh of relief.

Nightshade got a good giggle from the pair of them getting so startled by a cute little buck. Twitch had mentioned she cut off the monster's hand, right? Surely, it wasn't coming back…

Gazing at the screen, something reached out and snatched the poor animal. Their monitor’s audio played a sickening crack the moment after. It was the unmistakable noise of snapping bone.

The culprit emerged from the woods, towering above even the tallest of trees. In one gnarled hand, it carried the limp body of the deer, whose neck was now bent at an unnatural angle, clearly dead.

The other hand was missing, leaving a stub of black tentrals.

It was clear this wasn't some kind of wooden monster they had thought of earlier. This was far more alien.

This monster appeared to be wearing the outer armor of a Cybertronian, held together by mangled tendrils and rusted metal sheets. Its abdomen, neck, and joints were made of thick, wiry tentacles twisted together like ropes of licorice. Long, clawed fingers clutched onto the ragdolled deer. Its face, seemingly normal at first glance, appeared to have enormous spotlights for optics, surrounded by deep black rings. It was as if it had carved holes in whatever unfortunate mech’s face it was using to fit its massive eyes.

The abomination was mostly gray, with any remaining colors on its shell muted and drained. It reminded Nightshade when they learned from Bumblebee. When a Cybertronian dies as a result of having their spark extinguished, their body will lose its color. All that's left behind is a gray, empty shell.

The monster lifted the deer so that it was held directly in front of its ghastly face. Instead of simply opening its mouth, it split its own jaw completely in half. Row upon row of sharp yellowed greeted their prey, before sinking into the buck’s head. It antlers sloughed off and fell to the forest floor. The poor deer's head barely gave any resistance to the creature’s bite, getting chomped away easily as a stalk of celery.

Twitch immediately felt sick, the urge to vomit filling her despite not even having a stomach.

Nightshade starred, wide-eyed with morbid curiosity, unawall to tear away their gaze.

With one of its clawed fingers, it easily gutted and flayed the remainder of the deer with the precision of a surgeon. It swallowed each limb whole, not even stopping to back a breather between each bite. The deer's torso was impaled on the tallest tree around, seemingly leaving it for later.

Full enough for now, the metallic corpse leaned over, resting its damaged arm on the forest floor. Slowly but surely, the severed tendrils twisted and grew, sprouting forward from the site of the injury. Soon enough, it had a brand new hand, identical to the original.

All of the damage the siblings had inflicted on the creature was undone in a moment.

“This isn't happening…” Twitch’s voice was barely a whisper, her entire body fighting back the urge to retch.

“A Valiant attempt, little one, But not good enough.”

The creature's unnatural voice made the static on the monitor worse as it spoke. How it had heard her from so far away was a complete mystery.

The thing bent forward to show its back, smaller tendrils poking out of the monster's armor. They wriggled and writhed, pulling themselves from the beast's back. Falling out from the cracks in the metal, two smaller creatures collided on the ground before standing up. They superficially resembled Cybertronian protoforms, but were differentiated by the claws and soulless eyes of the original monster.

“Go get me the green one. The red one is yours… consider it a treat.”

It pointed towards the camera at the base of the tree. The pawn-like monsters listened, immediately making their way towards the barn.

“I'll be seeing you shortly, Maltos.”

It bowed at the camera, before walking backwards out of site, into the woods.

“We are sooooo screwed.” Twitch mumbled, once the whole ordeal had concluded. “How did it find that tiny little camera? And when did it learn our family's name?”

“Don't worry, we, um…” Nightshade’s usually calm demeanor was shaking, the panic getting to them as well. … ‘“We should be safe here.” They placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, metal clicking as they touched. Twitch immediately swatted their hand away, turning in place to face them.

“Safe?” Her optics went wide, sparking with a furocity Nightshade had only seen a few times before. “Safe?! You just saw that thing make more of itself, Nightshade! We are anything BUT safe right now!”

They knew she was right, and that their reassurance was an empty gesture she had easily seen through.

“I’m sick of this.”

She drew out both of her swords.

Nightshade looked visibly shaken from Twitch's outburst, justified as it might be. If they could cry, they would be tearing up.

“Twitch, I-”

Twitch cut them off again.

“I'm going out there to defend what I love!”

Even though Twitch was running off fumes, she would fight an army if it meant keeping their family safe.

Nightshade rubs their optics before putting a hand on her shoulder once again.

“Not by yourself. I'm coming with you.” Nightshade informed her with an uncharacteristically stirred tone.

“You need to stay here, with them.” She pleaded. “I've got more training than you. I can handle this.”

“With all due respect, there isn't a chance you'd survive going head to head alone with our advisory here. I doubt even Optimus could take that monster down by himself. I get why you want to me stay back, but we won't be of any use without each other.” They leaned in, giving Twitch a big bear hug.

“We're doing this together,” said Nightshade.

After a moment of hesitation, Twitch nodded firmly.

“Together.” she replied, hugging them back.

They made sure everything was secured before drinking what was left of the energy drinks in hopes of staving off the creature's parasitic exhaustion. Venturing out of the dugout, they double checked to guarantee the door was locked behind them.

The bots stuck close by to one another, Twitch leading slightly ahead. Just as Nightshade got an arm's length away from their sister, something jumped on their shoulders and wrapped its arms around their neck.

It was one of the odd gray things the creature had produced. The thing was about Twitch’s size, only barely taller than the average human. Nightshade was able to pull their assailant off them, slamming it against the dirt.

Cracks formed on the monster's armor, its left leg was bent in the opposite direction.

This seemingly didn't slow it down, however, as with a high pitch grunt it snapped its leg back in place before charging at the green mech.

“NIGHTSHADE! Go high, I'm going low!” Twitch changed her hand into a blaster before taking aim and firing. The laser shot hit the monster's bad leg, blasting it off from the knee down.

As the creature stumbled, Nightshade’s talons struck against its face. This almost completely destroyed one of its eyes, leaving a deep gash. They knock it back with a powerful upcut to its jaw, sending half of its pointy teeth into the air.

As it fell backwards, Twitch raised one of her blades. She sent an aggressive slash on its shoulder. The sword moves in a round arc, cutting its torso in two like a knife through warm butter.

Both halves of the body fell down. Horrifically, even though all the monstrosity had left was a single arm, it continued to drag itself towards them. The thing seems either unaware or unbothered by the fact that its insides were being scrapped across the ground as it moved.

Nightshade backed up a good distance from their pursuer before running back at it, full sprint. With one solid kick, they sent its head flying over the house.

“Goal!” Nightshade cheered, twisting around to check on Twitch. Their little joke seemed to have worked at lightening some of the tension, and she smiled back at him widely. “That was incredible, Nightshade!”

As the small monster's corpse finally fell still, the siblings celebrated by high-fiving each other.

Their victory was short-lived, however, as an enormous hand rapidly grabbed Twitch from around the house. Nightshade ran after it, coming to stand in front of the Goliath.

“Let me go!” Twitch demanded, taking a shot at the thing’s chest, leaving nothing but a small burn mark. It retaliated by squeezing her tighter. With its other hand, it picked up her swords before tossing them away into the woods.

“You! After all this… chaos! What more do you want?” Nightshade yelled as loud as their vocal processor would allow.

The creature flexed its long neck towards the ground, gargantuan eyes boring holes into Nightshade's very being.

“It appears your human masters didn't raise you with any manners, child. But for future reference, it's not considered polite to ask such questions before being given a proper introduction.”

It gave a devilish, cocky smirk. The sickeningly smug expression of a creature who knew it had already won. It was just toying with its prey now, watching them squirm and suffer for its own amusement.

“You may call me Exquisite Corpse. I've seen how smart you are, I assume you can guess how I earned such a title.”

Nightshade wasn't even sure how to respond. This thing's manner of speech was infuriatingly civilized, clearly in an attempt to further provoke them.

“As for your question, I am after you in particular, little owl.”

“Me?!” They blurted in response. “And what makes you think I'm going to go along with this?” Nightshade challenged, trying not to let their confusion and fear show.

The haughty grin on Exquisite Corpse’s face never faltered.

“Oh, I suspected resistance from you, child. There's a good reason I made my powers known to you from the start.”

It leaned in even closer, its massive face just inches from Nightshade. Bits of blood and refuge from the deer it had previously consumed clung to its metal fangs.

“You know what I'm capable of. You know what I could do to not only her,”

It shook Twitch around in its hand, causing the red bot to yelp in shock and discomfort.

“But to your entire clan if I wanted. So now that you're aware of what's at stake, I don't think you'll put up any more struggle when I tell you to come with me.”

“Don't even think about it, Nightshade!” Twitch barked.

“I didn't say you could talk, fly!”

It screeched, pressing its claws against her even further. Twitch's body creaked as she tried not to scream from the pain. It was clear that if Exquisite Corpse's grip got any tighter, those claws would rip right through her.

“Stop!” Nightshade begged. “Please, just put her down…”

“Oh, I'll do a lot more than that. Do as I say, and your entire family will get left out of this unfortunate little affair.”

It leaned its empty hand in front of the bot.

“How does that sound, owl?”

The lights in Nightshade's optics streaked, making their vision go blurry. Tensing up, they reluctantly grabbed a finger of the giant hand back, shaking it.

“I accept your terms.” they solemnly said, biting their lip in anguish.

“I knew you were smart. Very good.”

It tossed Twitch to the ground, the minion pawns standing behind her with baited breath, held back only by their obedience to their master like a dog on a leash.

Exquisite Corpse gently picked up the owl, exhaling a deep purplish smoke in their face. Nightshade immediately felt more tired than they ever had in their life. As their body went limp for exhaustion, they heard one final exchange from the monster to its servants.

“She's all yours.”

As they walked off towards the woods, the last thing Nightshade could process was Twitch's voice, violently screaming out for their sibling to help her.

Act 3

The cold, metallic clicking of leaking rainwater rose Nightshade from their unconsciousness. They managed to pry their optics open, the young bot's vision blurred from exhaustion and their injuries. Nightshade silently prayed to whatever might be listening that all this had just been some sort of horror movie induced nightmare. That when they got up, they’d find themselves awake in the cozy dugout, surrounded by their siblings. That they could go on and have another fun, peaceful day with those they loved.

But they were met with no such luck. They were lying on an unfamiliar rusted floor, faint light leaking in from a hole above them. Scattered drops of fresh rain pattered down, keeping the air around them cool. It was a sound they usually quite enjoyed, under happier circumstances. With no idea where they were, however, it only brought them a further sense of alienation.

As they tried to gather their thoughts, a voice they had gotten to know far too well over the past few hours made itself heard.

“Rise and shine~”

The voice called from a pitch black doorway, only the speaker's white eyes indicating someone was there. Nightshade tried to change forms, but residual weakness kept them barely able to move. Honestly, they were surprised still able to move at all, being so drained of-

“Energy” it said.

“You need it to survive like all things do. It will not be good if you're too weak to stand.”

Its eyes narrowed to pin pricks of light.

“Lucky for us, it seems like your kind is able to process organics. Looks like we have something in common.” A wheezy laugh escaped the beast’s mouth.

“Unlike your inferior kin.”

It tossed a plastic-wrapped packet into Nightshade's cell.

“Is this Jerky?” they mumbled, looking over the bag with bleary optics.

“Better than rats, I suppose. Or do your animalistic instincts crave raw vermin?” It tilts its head.

“How would you know my body can process organic material?” Nightshade questioned, weakly.

“You and your sister seem to process those caffeinated liquids just fine. Besides, I can't see it being possible for a techno-organic species to survive solely off of polluted water.” It leaned its metallic face closer, its nightmarish grin now barely visible in the pale light. “You mean to tell me that in the year or so you’ve existed, you never bothered trying any food?” Its smile somehow grew wider.

Nightshade cut the side of the packet, pulling out one strip of dry meat. They placed it in their mouth and chewed a bit. It was pretty good, surprisingly. Under different circumstances, they'd be excited to try out other human foods. After swallowing it, they still felt off, like there was a hollow feeling in them that the small piece of nourishment slightly filled.

The beast spoke once more.

“I will return when you recover your strength. Until then, stay here.” It taunted, knowing damn well they weren't going anywhere.

It shut the thick metal door behind it with a cold clank. Alone and in the dark again, the green bot pulled out another piece of jerky.

“I hope Twitch is ok.”

---

Sharp claws rendered the air next to Twitch, the red bot barely managing to dodge the swipe by a hair. She reared in for a punch to its face, but was instead met with a monstrous knee to the abdomen. She failed to stop her battered fame from involuntarily folding up like a lawn chair from the pain. Orange, shaky optics stared down the approaching behemoth as it made its way to the barnside.

Twitch managed to activate the fans on her circular wings, blowing the monster back as it lunged directly towards her. The thing yelped as it was knocked backwards, but didn't remain stunned for long.

With her processor still hazy and her movements sluggish, Twitch knew this wouldn't be an even fight. She'd need to end it quickly, because there was no way her stamina would keep up for long.

As the husk made its way towards her once again, Twitch used what little remaining energy she had to back herself up into the garage. She frantically slammed her fist down on the button used to close the garage's metal door, hoping it would buy her a little more time. As the husk lunged at her again, she raised her arm, with just enough space between them to take a clear shot.

In less than a second, her laser blew a hole directly into the monster's head, sending it flying backwards. The garage door slammed shut right as its body was about half way through the exit, moving quickly enough to bisect the creature horizontally. The thing’s lower half laid on the garage floor, legs violently jerking one last time before going still.

After a moment's hesitation, she carefully moved to get a better look at the split torso. Oily black ooze and wiry threads leaked from the opened wound. Inside were tightly wrapped threads, somewhat resembling muscles, clinging tightly to shiny silver bones. The red bot hesitantly nudged the tattered mass with her foot. Satisfied when it didn't move, she let out a sigh of relief.

She decided to inspect the garage doors, wondering how they had closed so fast. It appeared that Nightshade had added some sort of speed adjuster, currently set onto “Turbo”.

“Nightshade’s going to get one of us killed these days, if they keep messing with electronics like this.” She mumbled. “Oh no, Nightshade!” Twitch's mind was flooded with thoughts of the monstrosity dragging away her sibling. Panic surged through her circuits, making her trace the room in circles, cradling her head in her hands. If she could barely take one of its minions, she wouldn't stand a chance against the creature alone. That's when her optics landed on a car battery and jumper cables.

“What would Nightshade do…” Twitch pondered aloud, gazing over the batteries with inquisitive optics.

_ _ _

Nightshade had just barely regained the strength to stand when their host decided to return.

“Please, follow me, honored guest.” It gestured, holding a slender hand behind itself. Not seeing any other viable options, Nightshade did as they were told.

As the young bot trailed behind their captor, it became apparent to them that they didn't even reach past the monster's knee in height. Wherever they were, the quiet halls of this place were clearly designed to be occupied by beings of immense stature.

Nightshade decided now would be as good a time as any to ask the burning question on their processor. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Blissfully foolish little thing. If I planned to kill you, why would I have kept you alive this long?” Seemingly just to taunt Nightshade, it dragged its claws against the stone walls, leaving shallow marks and a grating noise as they continued.

“I don't know. You could have plenty of reasons. That's why I asked.”

The monster looked back at Nightshade incredulously, only to be met with a sincere expression from the green bot. It was genuinely a little surprised at how curious their captive was. If anything, they seemed just as interested in the logistics of this operation as they did their own fate.

“I want you to join me… Nightshade.” The thing’s smile grew to enormous proportions, only to fade as they realized Nightshade gave no visible reaction to having their name used.

“Aren't you curious how I knew your name?” It tried to sound intimidating, but the bot just continued to stare at them with a wide eyed, yet steady expression.

“I just assumed you overheard my sister referring to me as such.” They answered. “Is that not the case?”

“Uh, no, I… Nevermind.” It seemed embarrassed of all things, not getting to use its usual mindgames. “Scrap, I lost my train of thought. Where was I?”

“You mentioned you wanted me to join you in something?”

“Oh, right, thanks.” It coughed awkwardly. “Ahem. Anyway, my kind has a unique way to produce more of our species. It all starts with a small injection.”

Its tongue formed into a sharp, needle-like point. Nightshade's optics went wide, nervously taking a step back.

“Your body will undergo a beautiful transformation. You'll be stretched, strained, melted. Your insides will dissolve and reform into divine fibrous threads, while keeping your outer casing mostly in tack.” Having regained its sinister mojo, it leaned in menacingly.

“And most importantly, you will be able to spread your variation of life to all that you see. Your unique biology, I believe it's called your alt mode… it's the perfect blend of organic and inorganic material.”

It gestures to the room in front of them.

Inside, dozens of stasis pods filled with an odd silver liquid Thing against the walls, each with a glowing ball of light in their chests.

Nightshade peered in, before being struck with dreadful recognition. “No, those aren't-”

“Oh, but they are! Protoforms, just for us. You can think of them as our new family.” It laughed, a sound like metal scraping against itself.

“Your techoraganic DNA will make them perfect hybrids between you and I.”

“And why was I chosen for this?” Again, Nightshade’s tone, while clearly uncomfortable, also was bizarrely curious given the circumstances.

The monster scratched at its eye socket, as if it was getting bored.

“Your alt mode, little owl. Strong, swift, and capable of flight. None of your kin can compare in potential.”

“And why can't you just make your army on your own?”

Their bright-eyed, inquisitive questioning seemed genuinely rooted in fascination with this process, which was almost annoying to their captor. It sighed, and begrudgingly answered.

“My body is beyond repair, as you may have noticed. Its previous occupant was gravely injured when I took their place. I was going to just scavenge for more parts… but upon picking up signs of unique, *living* biomechanical parts nearby… Well, that gave me a better idea.”

The two of them continued their walk, finally ending up in an enormous room.

Trashed control panels for an unidentifiable drive and gnarled viscera littered the floor. The foul stench of copper and rot emanated from a tub in the dead center. The beast pushed a reluctant Nightshade towards it.

The scared bot hesitantly peered over the vessel, only to be greeted by a viscous red liquid.

Nightshade nearly gagged upon recognizing the horrific sight in front of them, stumbling backwards away from the blood. Their captor, apathetic towards their discomfort, grabbed the young bot with a single clawed hand.

“But before we comment, I will need approval from a higher power.”

It dipped its free hand into the blood, and began to paint a sigil on the wall.

It licks its filthy hand clean before hovering a clawed finger over Nightshade's face.

“I require one last ingredient to achieve communication.”

Nightshade tried to squirm away to break free as the point of the monster's claw made contact with their cheek. Searing hot pain engulfed their entire face.

The young bot desperately tried to hold in their screams, not wanting to give their tormentor the satisfaction. Having never experienced anything like this, anything this unbearably horrible, how very, they gave in, screeching at the awful sensation. The whole ordeal lasted only a moment, and the monster revealed to them a luminous green liquid on its finger tip.

For a second, Nightshade was confused in its origin. Realization dawned on them as they felt the liquid trickle onto their chest.

“I'm bleeding.” They stated, their tone cold and grim from shock.

“A nice pretty green.” It laughed, mixing Nightshade’s blood into the sigil.

Nightshade watched in helpless horror as the blood twisted and moved upon contact, changing colors until eight white, luminous eyes took form.

_ _ _

Twitch shakily touched the two ends of the jumper cables together, watching with wide optics as they sparked at the contact. The jolt nearly scared the sprockets out of her, but she managed to take a deep breath to steady herself again. She stood over her unconscious younger sister, attaching the cables with an uncertain hum. A zap of energy filled the air before the car battery made a “pop” and went stone dead.

Twitch clutched her fists tightly, heat welling up in her face as her desperate attempt to wake Hashtag failed. She felt her knees go weak, and a strong urge to curl up into a ball and cry. Before she could give in, a faint whirring noise caught her attention. It was Hashtag's optics, groggily prying themselves open.

“Twitch? What's going on-”

With her energy revived by hope, Twitch rushed in to give her sister one of her famous bear hugs.

“Uh, good morning to you too.” Hashtag said awkwardly, patting her on the back.

Twitch grabbed her sister's hand, desperately tugging it as she tried to pull the larger bot up.

“We need to go, now! Something horrible took Nightshade and-”

“Whoa, slow down, Twitch. I just woke up.” Hashtag stood up, feeling the odd cables attached to her neck.

“I didn't go to sleep with these on, right?” She questioned.

“There's a giant monster keeping everyone asleep! I had to jumpstart you awake with that.”

Hashtag narrowed her optics incredulously.

“Giant… monster?” She parroted back.

“Yeah, the thing is probably twice the size of Mr Prime!” Twitch was practically dragging Hashtag outside at this point. “It sent creatures to attack us. But me and Nightshade destroyed one and I took care of another myself.”

Now outside, Hashtag didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

“Really?” Hashtag rhetorically asked. She thought this had to be some kind of poorly planned joke.

“Yes, really!” The smaller answered, frustrated that she wasn't being taken seriously. “Look, its remains are over here-”

The bisected upper half of the monster was gone, only leaving a puddle of oily blood by the opening of the garage.

Before Hashtag could react, her sister let go of her arm, frantically looking around the building’s exterior for any signs of the missing body.

Hashtag did her best to keep up with her, eventually finding Twitch directly behind the barn, seemingly frozen in place.

“Hey, what's wrong? You're acting-”

The upper half of the creature that Twitch fought previously cut Hashtag off. The two sisters watched in stunned silence as what should have been a corpse pulled parts of the other slain monstrosity into itself. Threads from its wound skewered and pulled scattered limbs, bones, and plating together to reconstruct itself. The final result took the form of a metallic homunculus centaur.

“So that's what you were talking about.” Was all Hashtag could say before the beast spotted the pair, instantly lunging for them.

They both were barely able to dodge the strike, causing the centaur’s arm to slash at a nearby bench, slicing it in two. After realizing it had missed, it started galloping on clawed legs in another loop before heading towards Twitch. She didn't have time to get up before it was upon her. Its front legs, the former arms of its lower half, held Twitch down as it prepared for a devastating swipe.

Hashtag took a moment to recover, before her optics lit up. She was right next to the family grill’s propane tank.

She ripped it out and triumphantly held it above her head.

“Hey, freak!”

The thing turned around just in time to have the tank smash its face in. Twitch scrambled free as it loosened its grip. She zipped away as the monster's head weakly turned to face her, its jaw hanging on by a few sinews.

She aimed her blaster at the propane tank.

“Yippee kayak other buckets.” Hashtag didn't get the Brooklyn 99 reference.

The tank exploded into a huge fireball. Chunks of the creature’s flesh and limbs flew all over the place. The sisters didn't have much time to celebrate before panic set back in.

“That thing must be doing something horrible to Nightshade!” Twitch belated frantically.

“Twitch, I mean…” Hashtag loosely kicked one of the detached parts. “It looks pretty dead to me.”

“No, a much bigger one got them!”

“Oh…wait, I've got Nightshade's signal! We can track them!” Hashtag said cheerfully.

“Wait, what?”

“What do you mean, what? Did Nightshade not tell you about those tracking implants they put in us? I can follow them.”

Twitch decided this wasn't the time to question that. She picked up her swords and gave her sister a solid nod.

“Let's get ‘em, Hashtag.”

_____

The bloody figure in the mural was similar to the monster’s minions, except for the enormous horns and eight spider-like eyes. Nightshade looked towards the thing to see a snarl replaced its grin.

His captors began, furious. “Where is SHE! I must speak with her you-”

“How rude of you to yell at your superior. Besides, she is busy at the moment. You should know that better than anyone… leach.”

The painting could somehow move, as if each brush stroke independently changed on their own.

“If you're asking to start your own colony, then the answer is still no. Even if she was here to allow it.”

“Why not? This one has the potential to bring a new generation into being. Plus, I have the strength and knowledge to lead the way to greatness.”

It pushed Nightshade forward like it was showing their teacher its homework, with a tinge desperation is in its voice.

“For one, you think you're anything special because you fused to a cybertronian body? Any brain dead husk could do that. Second, you are considered on line for execution for abandoning your duty and attempting to start a hive. Third, my lady wouldn't like to see this poor child be subject to your will.

So I suggest you just save us all the trouble of hunting you down, and end your life before we can.”

It finished with a scrap-eating smile.

“Leach.”

The beast's eyes narrowed, it's expression morphing into pure anger.

“You ugly son of a-” A barrage of swears and curses that Nightshade only heard in the movie came out of its mouth. Some of them were for languages they couldn't even begin to understand.

This gave Nightshade the chance to sneak away while it was distracted. When they were sufficiently far enough, they ran down what they thought was the outside door. They were met with a control panel that required a code to progress. Completely over this scrap, Nightshade just ripped the panel off.

After a bit of fiddling with the wiring, the door swung open. Nightshade sprinted into the cool night. They looked behind them to see their captor had apparently kept them in a crashed alien ship.

“Look, they're over there!”

A wonderfully familiar voice rang out of the forest. Not a moment later, Nightshade recognized the bright headlights of Hashtag’s alt mode, with Twitch, curiously, riding on her back.

“Hashtag! You're awake! Twitch, did you-”

Of course, they were interrupted by Twitch ramming into them for a hug. Nightshade awkwardly patted their sister on the back.

“Woah! Were you in there, Nightshade?” The largest of the siblings eagerly drove up the entrance of the downed ship. She was knocked backwards as the monster reared its head out of the entrance.

“YOU!” It bellowed, fangs bared. It reached towards Nightshade with feverish rage, clearly infuriated that it had been cheated.

Hashtag, still in her alt mode, took the initiative to drive at the monster's leg at full speed. Having taken it by surprise, it was off balance enough that she managed to cleanly snap its calf from its thigh. The leg went flying, and the monster screeched in pain.

“Wow, that actually worked?” She seemed genuinely surprised.

Twitch grabbed Nightshade and the satellite of Hashtag's alt mode, attempting to yank the two forward. “It's not going to stay down for long! We need to get out of here!”

“Aw, really? I mean, we took out its leg, right? That's gotta be enough. Can't I atleast get to check out the spaceship?” Hashtag pleaded.

The monster screamed again, rearing up to charge at them on its three remaining legs. “INSOLENT CHILDREN! I'LL WEAR YOUR CADAVERS AS NECKLACES WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU!”

“...Nevermind, I want to go home now.”

With Hashtag having the most energy of the siblings (and being the largest), she stuck to her alt mode with the other two on the roof of her van, racing through the woods with the alien on their tail. Having removed its leg had slowed it down, but not enough that out running it would be easy.

Twitch was using what little strength she had to fire lasers back at their pursuer, to little avail.

“Hey, I probably should have asked this earlier, but where are we going?” Hashtag's radio called out.

Nightshade glared daggers through the window of their sister’s alt mode. “What?! Hashtag, you're the one driving! Are we just headed in a random direction?”

“I panicked! This is terrifying! Just be grateful I'm not leaking oil or anything!”

Before Nightshade could respond, they heard the familiar chugging of a train. Sure enough, just up ahead was one of the unmanned Ghost trains. Finally, a fighting chance.

“Is that a train?” Twitch took a moment's break to look behind her. A flash of recognition in her optics told Nightshade she had just gotten the same idea they did.

“Hashtag! Can you control the-” She began, but it seems her sister was also on the same wavelength. Using her remote hacking abilities, she had the cybernetic train slow down, allowing her to drive across the track. “Hold on, I'm going to make a hard left!”

The monster, clearly not giving it the human made locomotive a second thought, turned around to continue its chase. The nanosecond it stepped foot on the tracks, Hashtag had the train pull forward at max speed, obliterating its remaining hind leg. With a hellish roar, their pursuer fell to the ground, where Hashtag preemptively ran its torso over and over again with the train until she was satisfied.

“I saw that in a movie once, it's called double tapping. You don't stop until you know it's dead.” She chimed, seemingly happy with the results.

Shifting back to bot mode, all three siblings cautiously approached the slain beheatmoth, its nightmarish body splayed in half. Oily guts coated the tracks and train, leaving a thick smell of burned rubber and iron in the air.

“...I think I'm going to pass out.” Twitch fell to her knees, exhausted, clutching her forehead. Both Nightshade and Hashtag ran to her side, picking her up by the shoulders.

“Woah, hey, Twitch, you're good, you're good. That was the main monster, right, Nightshade?” Hashtag's big blue optics glittered with hope in their sibling's direction, waiting for a positive response.

“Well… yes and no. From what I saw, this creature is part of some alien society with others if it's kind. However, it seems its… higher ups, for lack of a better term, don't have much interest in coming to earth.”

“So… it's working alone, right? We're done?” Twitch pulled herself up, gaining a bit of balance.

“For now. This is something we'll have to discuss with Optimus Prime and Megatron.”

“Oh man, Optimus… are we going to get in trouble for destroying this train?” Hashtag worriedly looked over the damaged Ghost train. Unsurprisingly, repeatedly ramminging it into a giant alien had done a significant amount of damage.

“I think they'll understand.” Nightshade reassured her.

“Are we… we need to check up on the others at home.” Twitch began hovering back to the direction of the family house, still determined as ever to keep her loved ones safe.

A giant claw smacked her out of the sky without a moment's notice, breaking both her wing and the eerie silence of the forest.

It wasn't dead. Not completely, anyway.

The monster's head and shoulder were still loosely held onto its right arm by a few mangled tendrils, allowing the wounded creature to drag itself slowly across the grass.

“Nightshade, we aren't done. Please, listen to me. I can promise you-”

Nightshade noticed a glowing orb hanging on to the lower part of its neck, appearing to be some sort of power cell.

They walked over as the creature continued its monologue. It seemed to believe the green bot was considering its offer.

Nightshade stomped on the power cell repeatedly, until it exploded into a pile of azure sludge. As they had predicted, all life signs from the creature faded, and its tendrils loosened their grip on its body completely.

“I am so tired of that thing.” They sneered, unusually bitter. Their facial expression softened as they turned back to their injured sister. “Are you alright, Twitch?”

“Ugh, I'm… yeah, I'll just need to get this fixed.” She confirmed, shaking her loosened wing to test its durability.

Hashtag transformed, honking her van’s horn. “Ok, you guys need to tell me everything on the way back. I'm so confused right now. Hop on already!”

---FIN—

[storytowrite]

|Because I’m obsessed with you ~ Yang Jeongin|

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Theme: Jeongin x Reader

Warnings: IN is a kind of stalker

Word Count: 5,155

Summary: I.N becomes Y/N's friend but his obsession with her is a little bit disturbing

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a dark September evening. You were coming back home from work tired both mentally and physically. You were living alone in a small neighbourhood. You had moved from your parents before  you started your studies and since then you were living on your own. 

The evening was cold and rainy. Not the best weather though. You were shivering because of your thin jacket. You were angry with yourself. Why didn’t you take a thicker jacket? And what made you come back home late in the evening? 

You finished your work a few hours ago but had decided to go with your coworkers for some drinks. So that’s why now you were completely annoyed by your previous decision. You hated going back home alone. You felt uneasy then. Most of the time your friendly neighbour, Chan, would come with you, but he was out of the town with some of his friends, visiting his family in Australia. 

You sighed heavily. You still had about a thirty minute walk to your small house. At this hour none of the buses were available. There was also no live soul around. Suddenly you heard some noise behind you. You quickened your steps being scared and not able to turn around. But the sound got louder. 

‘Aish! Mojo, come here! Don’t scare people!’ You’ve heard. Suddenly you stopped moving and laid down on the pavement. ‘I’m so sorry. Are you okay?’  A quite tall, young man was standing above you. He looked at you concerned. He gave you a hand to help you stand up. ‘I really am sorry. Mojo sometimes, well most of the time to be honest, doesn’t listen to me.’ 

‘It’s okay, I’m good, thank you.’ You smiled a little and looked at the white Samoyed, Mojo, who caused your fall. ‘So he made me fall?’ You asked laughingly. The dog looked at you back with curious eyes. 

‘Yeah… Sorry about that… Woah, you are really beautiful.’ He said quietly more to himself than to you. ‘Ehm… I’m sorry but what’s your name?’ The boy scratched his neck. 

‘I’m Y/N. Nice to meet you.’ You introduced yourself. ‘And you are…’ 

‘I’m Yang Jeongin, but my friends call me IN.’ He winked. ‘Do you live in this neighbourhood? I haven’t seen you here before….’ 

‘Yes, I live at the end of the street.’ You answered his question, petting Mojo on his head. 

‘You shouldn’t be walking here on your own. It’s not safe.’ IN said. ‘Do you want me to walk you home?’ 

‘I would use some company.’ You smiled. ‘Thank you.’ 

You both started to walk towards your house. You were looking at him with a corner of your eye from time to time. He was very handsome. His foxy eyes were scanning all the area. His dark brown hair was fluffy and probably soft when touched. 

‘So Y/n…’ The boy broke the silence between the two of you. ‘Why are you all alone so late at night?’ 

‘I was at work and then we went to grab some drinks… Usually Chan, my friend, walks me home, but currently he’s on holiday with some of his friends.’ You replied. 

‘Channie hyung?’ He questioned. ‘Aaah so you are the girl he was talking about. That makes sense.’ 

‘You know him?’ Your brows frowned. You shouldn’t have been surprised though. Chan indeed knew a lot of people. He had this ability to make friends with everyone. You were sure that if he stands in front of the kidnapper, he will definitely befriend him and make him change his way of living. 

‘Yes, we have some mutual friends. Also we jog every morning.’ The boy answered, smiling cutely. ‘He mentioned you a few times though.’ 

‘Oh really? And what did he say?’ You asked curiously. 

‘All good things… noona. Can I call you like that?’ 

‘I don’t know, can you?’ You asked teasingly. ‘You’ve called Chan hyung, so I guess I’m older than you though.’ 

‘Good.’ He smiled which made his foxy eyes even smaller. In your mind he looked purely cute. ‘Thank you noona.’ The accent at the last word made you goosebumps. You had to admit there was something about this boy. You instantly smiled at him. 

‘Thank you for walking me back home.’ You said. ‘To be honest I was really uncertain. I don’t like going back home so late at night.’ 

‘It’s okay. I can give you my number, so next time when Channie hyung is absent you can call me.’ He proposed. 

‘Yeah, that would be great.’ You smiled. ‘And I’m glad that I met you IN. I thought that there was some creepy guy or a murderer…’ 

‘Too many horror movies, huh?�� He asked laughingly. 

‘Yeah, you could say that.’ You admitted. You both stood in front of your front door. You smiled at the boy widely. ‘Thanks again for walking me home IN.’ 

‘You are welcome noona. So… till the next time? But if you want to meet, just text me.’ He gave you his number, and you gave him yours. 

‘See you next time IN, goodnight.’ You smiled and entered your house. He stood for a while in your front yard, but when you completely disappeared from his sighed, he moved towards his house. 

For the next few days you were busy with your work and came back home pretty late at night. Every night IN would walk you home with Mojo. You were glad that this decent young man decided to go with you. You felt really good with his company. He replaced Chan’s place though, but you didn’t mind that. 

You and IN became closer. You called him all the time. He walked you home in the evening, but during the day you both were chatting. You started to open up more to him. So did he. You both grew some kind of bond and your friendship started to be stronger and stronger. 

One night Jeongin couldn't walk you home. He had some projects to do for his studies. So you decided to go by yourself. Surely you could take a cab but you wanted to walk, as usual. The weather wasn’t that bad for late autumn. 

Once you were close to your house, you stopped for a while. Something was off and you could sense it. You looked at your house. There were some dirty marks on your porch. Someone had been at your front door. There were a lot of wet footprints there. Also someone had scratched your door and painted a small sign on it. 

You immediately felt like your heart started to beat faster out of the fear. Someone marked your house. You were afraid to enter it. You didn’t know what to do so the first thing you could think about was to make a phone call. You grabbed your phone and phoned Chan, but he still was unavailable due to his leave, so the second person you had called was none other like Jeongin. With your heart dropping from your chest you were waiting for him to answer. 

‘Hello noona? Is everything alright?’ He asked with a little sleepy voice. You couldn’t blame him, it was pretty late at night. 

‘IN… I… Because someone… and…’ You started but you couldn’t say a word. 

‘Woah, Y/N calm down. What happened? Do you want me to come over?’ He asked, concerned. 

‘Y-yes please… I’m outside my house.’ You answered and your voice stuttered. 

‘Why don’t you enter your place?’ He asked with curiosity. 

‘I can’t… Innie please, come as fast as you can. PLEASE!’ 

‘Give me ten minutes at maximum.’ He hung up. You stood on your own for a while observing the whole area around your place. Not able to move you were counting minutes. 

After six minutes Jeongin suddenly appeared in front of you. His breathing was rapid and intermittent. He must have been running. He was wearing sweatpants and an oversized hoodie. It was the first time you had seen him with such casual clothes. 

‘Y/N? Are you okay? What happened?’ He asked worriedly. 

‘Someone had been at my door. They scratched it and left footprints… I don’t want to enter my house.’ You said quickly and with an instant moment you hugged him tightly. ‘I’m sorry for calling for you that late, but I was too scared and…’ 

‘Shhh, don’t be sorry noona, it’s alright. Have you called the police?’ He asked, concerned. 

‘No, no I didn’t… Should I do this?’ 

‘Yes, you should, but maybe we will enter your house first? It’s a little chilly.’ 

‘But I’m…’ 

‘Don’t worry Y/N. I’ll go first.’ He answered and took your keys from your hand. He easily opened the front door and entered it. You were waiting outside. IN turned on the lights and checked all the rooms. Then he came back to you. ‘It’s okay Y/N, no one is there, come inside, okay?’ He grabbed your hand gently and led you to the living room sitting you on the couch. ‘Do you want me to stay a night here? I’ve checked everything, but if you…’

‘Yes Innie, please stay. I don’t want to be here all alone.’ You had answered before he could finish his sentence. 

‘Of course… I’ll make you tea,  okay?’ He asked and you nodded. For a while you were left alone, but you couldn’t move. Your whole body was trembling. You didn’t feel safe in your own house. ‘Here, drink it. You will feel better.’ He said handing you a cup of tea. You’d drunk it obediently. 

‘Thank you Innie. And I’m sorry for making you come here so late at.. ’  You said with a weak smile. 

‘Don’t be noona. I’ve told you I’m at your service.’ He winked and didn’t let you finish a sentence. ‘Okay. It’s pretty late now, so why don’t you go to sleep? I’ll keep my watch.’

‘You are probably right. I should go to sleep… I’ll bring you some blankets and a pillow and…’

‘I’m fine, just tell me where I can find them and I’ll bring them to myself. You go to sleep now.’

‘Okay… goodnight then.’ You said and went straight to your bathroom to change and then to your bedroom.

Knowing that IN is in the room next to yours gave you some kind of peace of mind. You instantly fell on your bed and went to sleep. You felt secure and safe. 

What you didn’t know was that in fact you shouldn’t have trusted Jeongin that much as you did. The exact moment when you fell asleep IN put his plan in the action. You might not know that, but he’d been stalking you for a while before you met. He knew about you from Chan who might have told him that you live alone. Since IN saw you first he fell into you and his small obsession grew bigger and bigger. He was dreaming about you, your soft body underneath him. He dreamt about all the things he could do to you. 

He put cameras in your house when you weren’t there. The footprints you had seen before were his. He destroyed your alarm so he could freely enter your house whenever he wanted to. And the fun part was that you didn’t have a reason to suspect him at all. He played it well. He stuck to his plan. 

And the plan was simple. He just wanted to make you his no matter what. He was going to do everything to get to you somehow. He had thought about you for such a long time. And finally he had a chance to do so, thanks to Chan who was too careless to even think what he was talking about you and to whom. 

You woke up the next day to the sun’s rays. You looked outside the window. The day was beautiful. Still cold due to the early time and late autumn, but beautiful. You smiled to yourself and got out of bed. You stretched a little and then went to the kitchen, where you’d found IN. You blinked twice, a little surprised. He was making breakfast. 

‘Good morning.’ He smiled widely. ‘How are you feeling Y/N?’ 

‘I’m good, thank you.’ You smiled back. ‘What are you making?’

‘Ah just some french toast and scrambled eggs. I hope you like it.’ 

‘Actually, that’s my favourite.’ You sat at the table. 

‘That’s good.’ He smiled and put food in front of you. ‘Bon appetit my lady.’ He winked. ‘What are you going to do today since it’s your day off?’ 

‘I don’t know… Maybe I will go to the movies?’ You answered and looked at him a little confused. ‘Uhm IN? How do you know that I have a day off?’ 

‘We were talking about it the other day, remember? You've told me that you have a day off today…’ 

‘Really? I don’t remember…’ 

‘Well yeah. You’ve been busy recently, so I guess you must have been too tired to remember that.’ 

‘Yeah, probably you are right…’ You answered back thinking about what he said. You indeed were a little too busy so you could’ve forgotten that you’d told him. ‘Anyway… Do you want to go to the movies with me? If you have time of course…’ 

‘Yes, I’d love to.’ He smiled. ‘And I know what we can even watch. There’s this new horror movie…’ He started talking about the film you wanted to see.

‘Woah, what a coincidence. I was thinking about this movie before…’ You said, a little confused. 

‘You know this saying…  Big brains think the same.’ He said smilingly looking at you. ‘Now get dressed and we can go.’ 

‘Don’t you want to go back to your place and change?’ You asked. 

‘No need to do that. I have some clothes in my backpack.’ 

‘A backpack? When did you bring that?’ You were confused. Yesterday you didn’t even see that he brought with himself something. 

‘Uhm… Yesterday? I came to you with a backpack. Seriously Y/N are you feeling okay?’ He asked, looking at you with worry. ‘I guess you were too scared to notice.’ 

‘Yeah, I guess you are right…Ehm… I'll go get dressed.’ You said and went to your bedroom. At the same time Jeongin cleaned the kitchen and changed into some other clothes. He indeed had a backpack with himself, but he didn’t take it yesterday. He went for his backpack in the morning when you were peacefully sleeping. 

He decided to take you out for a so-called date. He had always been thinking about it. You were one of the prettiest women he’d ever seen. He knew you well even if in person you did meet him a few weeks before. 

‘I’m ready!’ You shouted from your room and came towards him. ‘We can go.’ Your bright smile lightened the whole living room, where IN were waiting. 

‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘You look pretty noona.’ He winked at you. ‘Come, my car is in front of your house.’ 

‘A car? But I don’t remember you coming here by car Innie… When did you have time to…?’ 

‘What? But yesterday when you called me I drove here. Don’t you remember? Maybe the whole situation has a bigger impact on you than we thought?’ He asked, looking at you concerned. Or maybe that's what you had imagined. 

But you had a pretty good memory. And you were certain that IN came to your house without a car or a backpack. You remembered that yesterday night he was breathing quickly because he ran to your place. And he wore only sweatpants and a hoodie. Something was off and you could sense that. 

You looked at him confused. Did the whole situation make you forget some details? Was your mind playing tricks on you? 

‘Are we going?’ He asked, breaking the silence between the two of you. 

‘Hm? Ah yeah… Yeah. We can go.’ You grabbed your jeans jacket and keys and went out of your house. You closed the door. The mark that somebody had left the night before still was there. You started to think what did it mean? Did someone mark your house and will rob you? Or maybe someone will try to harm you? You were completely unaware that the person who did this spent the whole night in your house, with your permission. 

IN opened the door of his car and you sat in the passenger's seat. Then he leaned over you and fastened your seat belt. The strong smell of his cologne hit you hard. He smelled like a mix of cardamom, caramel and amber. It was an intense fragrance but somehow it fitted him perfectly. 

‘Thank you.’ You said to him still fascinated by his scent.

After the movies he took you to the nearby restaurant to eat. You spend a really good time together. He made you forget about the event from the night before. You felt good with his company. You even started to think that it would be nice to become something more with him. Did you perhaps start to grow feelings for him? 

‘Do you want me to stay another night at your place?’ His voice snapped you out of your thoughts. The two of you were already in front of your house. 

‘Nah, I think I’m good today. But thank you Jeonginnie.’ You smiled at him. ‘And thank you for today’s date. It was great fun.’ 

‘My pleasure Y/N.’ He smiled back. ‘But if something happens, call me I’ll come.’ 

‘I will.’ You kissed him on his cheek and went out of his car. He waved to you and waited for you to enter your house. Then he drove back to his place. 

You looked at your reflection in the mirror and smiled widely. The date went well. You felt like finally you found someone who understands you. You thought that it would be really nice to go for another date with IN. He was an interesting young man. 

You took a quick shower and took off your makeup. After all, the day was good, but you felt a little tired. You looked again at your reflection. The tiredness was clearly visible. The past events and a hectic period at your work have left their mark. But even though you were tired you felt very good. 

You were staring at yourself in the mirror when all the lights suddenly went out. You screamed. You hated darkness. Unable to see anything, you started to panic. 

Trying to find some source of light or your phone to lighten up your way, you hit yourself on the leg. You cursed under your breath. Finally you found your phone. Unfortunately the battery was nearly dead. You managed somehow with the lowest percentage of battery to find some candles and light them. Then your phone died completely. 

You were unable to call or even text IN. You put your candles on the coffee table and sat on the couch. A dim light illuminated the entire room. You could see weak shadows dancing on the walls. Then you suddenly heard a noise of footsteps on your porch. 

Your whole body had shivered. You straightened up and looked in the direction where the footsteps were coming from. You decided to stand up and took a pretty heavy vase that was staying on the table as a decor. You were going to hit whoever the person in front of your house was. 

You crept up to the door and were about to open it when suddenly the lights came back on. You looked through the peephole but saw no one on the porch. You put the vase aside and opened the door. Nobody was around. The only thing you could see was a small envelope with your name written on it. You took the envelope and looked inside. Instead of a message you saw a pendrive. 

You were scared and confused at the same time. Didn’t know what to do, you decided to charge your phone and call IN. When your phone was ready to use you quickly tapped at this name and called him. After three signals he had answered. 

‘Hello? Y/Nnie? Are you okay? What happened? Why do you call that late?’ He asked immediately.

‘Innie… can you… can you come here? Please. Someone was at my door and…’ Your voice was trembling. You didn’t realise how scared you were.

‘I’m on my way sweetheart.’ Was the only thing he said before he hung up. 

You were waiting for him to come. After fifteen minutes he was at your place, but you had the impression that at least an hour had passed. He entered your house concerned and looked around. When his eyes spotted your silhouette he quickly came to you and hugged you, seeing your expression. 

You hugged him tight and hid your face in the crook of his neck. He patted your back gently. After a while of hugging both of you moved away from each other. He looked at you with a worry in his eyes.

‘Are you okay sweetheart? Did they hurt you? What happened?’ He asked. 

‘Someone was on my porch. I… I heard some noise after the lights went out. I couldn’t call you earlier because my phone had died. I was so scared, Innie.’ Your voice stuttered. 

‘Shhhh, it’s alright, now I’m here so you don’t need to be afraid.’ He said calmly. 

‘They… they left this.’ You showed him a black pendrive. ‘It was in the envelope laying on my doormat.’

‘Have you tried to open it?’ He asked and took the pendrive from your hand. 

‘No, not yet… I was too afraid.’ You admitted. 

‘It’s okay sweetie. Let’s open it and find out what is on it, all right?’ 

You nodded and gave him your laptop. He gently put the pendrive in and opened the file. Inside it there were plenty of pictures of you. Your half naked body popped out. IN looked at you with great concern. You were too surprised to say anything. 

The last thing that was in the file was a short video of you sleeping on the bed. You were shocked.  Some pervert had pictures and even the whole video of you. He must have had hidden cameras all around your house. You looked at IN frightened. 

‘Wha-What should I do now?’ You asked quietly. ‘Innie, somebody has my pictures, why?’ 

‘Well, I don’t know Y/N. Maybe you should think of going somewhere else? You can come to my place if you want to.’ He proposed. 

‘But… I need to find those cameras. There is a pervert who has my pics!’ You raised your voice and started to panic. 

‘Y/N, sweetheart, calm down please. Let’s go find those cameras first, then we decide what to do, okay?’ He asked. 

‘Yes, okay.’ You agreed. The both of you started looking for some hidden cameras but you couldn’t find them. You sat at the bed and sighed heavily. You looked up at him, and asked. ‘How is it even possible that we have searched everywhere and we didn’t find anything? There is footage. Some pervert did have my pics. Why didn't we find any camera here?’ 

‘I don’t know Y/N. Maybe he took those pics earlier and took cameras when you weren’t home?’ 

‘I don’t know… maybe… or… INnie? What if he was here when I was sleeping and…’ The panic in your voice couldn’t let you finish the sentence. Suddenly your body started trembling. Your breath was sharp and quick. You felt like you couldn’t breathe. You look at IN, the panic was growing rapidly. ‘IN… I… I-I can’t….’ You couldn’t say anything. The panic attack began to intensify. 

In that exact moment IN kept his cool. He looked at you and before you could blink he kissed you. His action made you calm down. You were surprised yet you calmed fully down. 

You didn’t want to stop kissing him. His lips were plump and soft. Slow sloppy kisses started to be more and more intense. His method worked though. Your panic attack just has been gone. After a while you pulled away from each other. You looked at him blushing. 

‘T-thank you…’ You shyly said and your voice trembled. 

‘You are mostly welcome, Y/Nnnie.’ He smiled widely. ‘You good now?’ 

‘Yes, yes, I’m all right. Thank you. You just saved me.’ You looked at him and smiled a little. 

‘Do you want me to stay for another night?’ 

‘Actually yes. I will feel safer.’ You nodded. ‘Could you… I mean, if you want to… Do you want to cuddle? Tomorrow I will go to the police station…’ 

‘I agree… Come, take a rest.’ 

You both went to your bedroom and lied down on the bed. He wrapped his arms around your waist and cuddled you tight. You fell asleep in his arms. The next morning you woke up all alone. Sheets next to you were empty and cold. He must have gone early in the morning. 

You sighed. It would be nice to wake up with him next to you. You stood up from your bed and went straight to the bathroom to wash your face and teeth. You had decided last night that you had to go to the police to show them that somebody was secretly filming you. You didn’t feel safe in your own home. 

You dressed up and grabbed all the things you needed. Expect the pendrive. It was gone and you couldn’t find it anywhere. You started to panic. The pendrive was nowhere to be seen, but you could swear that you’d left it on the nightstand. You quickly grabbed your cell phone and texted IN, maybe he took it? 

You: Hey Innie… Have you seen the pendrive? I cannot find it anywhere. 

You sent the message but he didn’t reply. It was weird. Usually he answered back as soon as he got the message. You’ve decided to wait for a while. But the time had passed, and there was still no reply from him. You started to worry. A lot of what ifs… questions formed in your head. 

Finally you decided to leave your house.  You couldn’t wait any longer for his reply. With a pendrive or not, you still had to report what had happened the past few days. On the outside you saw some people. Your next door neighbour, Chan, finally came back from his holiday. 

‘Hi Chan. Long time no see.’ You greeted him coming to his fence. 

‘Oh, hi Y/N.’ He smiled as usual. ‘How have you been?’ 

‘I was good, a lot had happened though. Anyway, how was your holiday?’ You asked. He looked more relaxed and also more tan than before. 

‘It was great visiting Australia and my family for a while. But it is also great to come back home. Something new has happened?’ He asked, looking at you with curiosity in his eyes. 

‘Actually a lot of things… I met this guy, IN, he said that you know him. He is so sweet…’ 

‘Wait, what? You met IN?’ He didn’t let you finish the sentence. ‘But I’m not friends with him. Actually I don’t know him well. Jisung had told me that he’s weird and a creepy man.’ 

‘What do you mean?’ You asked nervously. 

‘Y/N, Yang Jeongin, if we are talking about him, is not a good person. He went to the same school as Jisung and Changbin. Jisung told me that he’d stalked multiple girls in the past and had been arrested a few times. Tell me what had happened during my absence.’

You were confused. IN who you knew was a sweet guy who helped you a lot. He replaced Chan’s place for a while. Of course Chan was only your friend and next door neighbour but IN was someone more. Something was definitely off. You told Chan about all the events that had happened when he wasn’t around. Chan seemed to be more concerned than before. 

‘Y/N you should have gone to the police as soon as the first event had happened.’ He finally said. ‘It seems like everything had happened when you were here all alone and when he suddenly appeared. For me it’s kinda suspicious, don’t you think?’ 

‘Well… I’m confused now Chan.’ You said. ‘Do you think that everything that had happened was his idea?’ 

‘I don’t know Y/N, but I think it cannot be a coincidence. Do you want to go to the police station and tell them about what you said to me? I can drive…’ 

‘I wanted to do it anyway…’ You admitted. You and Chan went to his car when suddenly IN’s posture appeared. He looked at you and then at Chan. His expression wasn’t as friendly as you were used to. 

‘Hello Y/N… Who is he?’ He asked and it hit you suddenly. 

Jeongin said that he and Chan were friends. He also said that Chan had told him about you. And you believed him. Till that moment. You were standing next to Chan, and IN didn’t seem to recognise him. If they were friends, he wouldn't have asked. But they weren’t friends. They weren’t even close. 

Chan was right. Everything had happened when Jeongin appeared. You were all alone, Chan was abroad and IN was suddenly in your area. You didn’t think about that earlier, but when you first met him, he knew too much about you. And also he lied about knowing Chan and jogging with him. You knew Chan well, he didn’t like jogging at all. You should have noticed this lie from the start. 

But you didn’t. So now you were more than certain that IN was in fact the person by whom you couldn't sleep peacefully at night. His recent behaviour was suspicious. Deep down you knew that something was off about him. But you also fell into him a little so you couldn’t notice all the things. 

You didn’t know what to do. You looked at Chan and then you moved your sight to IN. Both men were staring at each other. Chan clenched his fists. He was ready to fight if there was a need. You looked into IN’s eyes and asked. 

‘It was you, right? You are the one who left that mark on my door and left footsteps on my porch. You sent the envelope and had pics of me…’ 

‘Well, you shouldn’t know that, but yes.’ He admitted and smiled at you. There was something in his smile. It wasn’t kind. It was creepy. 

‘B-but why? Why did you do that IN?’ You stuttered. 

‘Simply, sweetheart.’ He said smiling and tilting his head to the side. His foxy eyes were piercing you. ‘Because I’m obsessed with you.’

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

masterlist

[fluentmoviequoter]

White Boulder Christmas

Day 5 of 12 Days of Ficmas

Pairing: Stu Redman x fem!reader

Summary: You experience your first white Christmas in the Boulder Free Zone.

Word Count: 2.5k+ words

Warnings: spoilers for The Stand (the book & the miniseries), fluff, angst, vague description of injuries.

A/N: The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time and I think about Stu a concerning amount, so I am very excited to try writing for him! He may be OOC but I'm planning to keep writing for him so I can improve. I used Gary Sinise's portrayal of him in the 1994 miniseries because he was amazing (I could talk about the 1994 adaptation and the book all day so if anyone has requests, feedback, or comments please please please send them to me!!)!

The last 200 miles into Boulder are the hardest. You thought the trip would be easier once you crossed the state line into Colorado. It isn’t. You haven’t seen another person in days, you’re tired, and the dreams are getting more intense. As the sun sets on a state you always wanted to visit - granted, it seemed more enjoyable before the virus, but it’s still beautiful - you break into a jog as you see the flickering lights of civilization. The town is tiny, and the only reason you know where you are is the small sign reading “Kiowa Creek Church.” Trying the doorknob of what used to be the municipal police station, you sigh as it opens easily. You thoroughly check the building before setting your backpack down, leaning it against a cell door to keep it open, and collapsing onto one of the cots.

“Boulder, here I come,” you whisper to the dilapidated ceiling before drifting to sleep, visions of corn fields and black crows invading your mind.

✯✯✯✯✯

When you wake up, there’s a wet nose pressed to the pulse point under your jaw. You jerk away from the unexpected and unwelcome touch, raising your hand to your neck. As you turn your body, you see a dog wagging its tail as it looks up at you. Your eyes widen as your hand falls into your lap before you squeal and lean forward to hug the dog.

“Kojak!” a deep voice yells outside.

“Is that you?” you ask the dog, scratching behind its ears as you stand. “Are you Kojak?”

When he hears his name, Kojak’s tail wags harder as he walks beside you, sitting at your feet as you gather your things.

“C’mon, Kojak,” you summon, snapping as he trots to your side to walk beside you.

The main door is barely open, proof that Kojak pushed inside to find you. Opening it the rest of the way, Kojak bounds out before you, stopping on the porch and looking between you and a man standing in the middle of the dirt road separating the buildings of Kiowa, Colorado.

“You find him yet?” another man, taller and younger than the first, asks, turning the corner.

“Kojak here found me,” you interrupt, waving shyly.

The younger man smiles a crooked grin that makes your heart drop as you forget why you’re in this deserted town in the first place.

“Well, then perhaps I owe him a thanks. I’m Stu Redman, this is Glen Bateman, and you’ve met Kojak,” he introduces, climbing the first step as he extends his hand to you.

You place your hand in his, shaking it as you introduce yourself. “Where are you going?” you ask, your hand still in Stu’s.

“Boulder. You?” Glen answers.

“Boulder,” you inform with a firm nod. “Not that I really had much of a choice.”

Stu smiles again and says, “Did any of us? I’ll assume you’ve met her then?”

“And him,” you add.

Stu drops your hand and steps off the stairs, gesturing with his head for you to join him.

“We have room for one more, right, Glen?”

You look down at Kojak, squatting to pet him again so Glen doesn’t think there is any pressure to say yes.

“Would it matter what I said, East Texas?” Glen replies; you’re thankful you can hear the teasing in his voice.

“East Texas?” you parrot, looking up at Stu.

“Born and raised in Arnette. Seems to have stuck.”

“Just like Kojak seems to be stuck to you,” Glen says. “What’d you do? Feed him?”

“No, he found me. I was asleep. I’m just glad to see another dog!” you exclaim cheerfully.

“Just the dog?” Stu clarifies, his brows raised playfully.

“Just the dog,” you agree, shaking your head as you smile.

“Well, then, who’s ready to get to Boulder?” Glen asks, pulling his backpack straps over his shoulder.

“Me,” you and Stu say together.

He slips his hand into yours to help you stand up, and you instantly know that the last 100 miles will be the easiest yet because you’re not alone.

✯✯✯✯✯

✯✯✯✯✯

Stu turns to you, and you look away, harshly wiping the tears from your face. He steps to you, gently grabbing your wrists and pulling your hands away. He drops his head to catch your eyes, but you refuse to look at him.

“I won’t say bye,” you mumble, fresh tears rolling down your cheeks.

“I’m not asking you to. I’m just giving you a hug to hold me over until we see each other again when I get back. Can you do that?”

“Only if you promise to come back.” You finally look up at him, and he releases your wrists to cup your face.

“I can’t make that promise.”

“And I can’t keep fighting without you.”

“I promise to do everything I can to come back to you. That’s all I can do for now.”

You bite your bottom lip and nod, your face in his hands. “I love you,” you whisper.

Stu’s eyes are glassy, but his smile is anything but sad as he looks at you. “That goes right back to you, ma’am,” he replies, leaning his forehead against yours after kissing it. “Wait for me?”

“Forever.”

You can’t stay with the other girls and wave them off because you know you’ll end up chasing him. Stu likewise doesn’t turn around when Larry does, instead keeping his eyes on the horizon as he promises himself and anyone else listening that he will do everything he has to do to get back to you. After he finishes the fight, he'll return to you, even if he can barely stand and has to fall into your arms.

✯✯✯✯✯

“Teddy, can you put me on the volunteer rotation for December?” you ask after a free-zone meeting. “It’s been the same people since we got here, and it’s almost Christmas, they deserve a break.”

Teddy smiles as he scribbles your name on a piece of paper before slipping it back into his pocket. “Absolutely. And thank you, they’ll really appreciate that.”

When you get a call the next day asking you to take a security post at the border of the Boulder Free Zone, you jump on the opportunity to help (and try to get your mind off Stu). The women in town are busy trying to do something small for Christmas but are worried that the scouts won’t be back in time, so there’s a debate as to whether or not it should be delayed until they return. In the anonymous vote, you chose to wait because you can’t imagine celebrating anything without knowing where Stu is. For tonight, though, you focus on your surroundings, not Stu’s crooked smile or East Texas accent. Or the moment he told you that he loves you.

Because of the low number of volunteers, the shifts are long. You’re five hours into a twelve-hour night shift when the first snowflake lands on your nose. You look up to the sky, unfamiliar with snow, especially in December. Within twenty minutes, snow is powdering the ground and continues falling, getting heavier each minute. 

“A white Christmas,” you say quietly to yourself. 

Then you laugh. Although your first white Christmas is in the Boulder Free Zone, surrounded by fear, fighting, and uncertainty, those little snowflakes are piling hope into your heart that everything will turn out fine.

Shaking your head, you return your attention to the night to protect your new family and temporary home, but you keep smiling as the temperature drops and the once-hopeless world turns white just in time for Christmas.

As the first rays of sunlight peek over the horizon, barely visible through the snow clouds, you hear an engine rumbling in the distance. The radio has been silent all night because no one else heard anything. As the noise gets louder, you’re positive someone is racing toward the Boulder Free Zone. You raise your rifle, looking through the scope to aim where the road twists around the hill. As the truck approaches the curve, it suddenly stops, and the engine dies. The night goes quiet, the sound of two doors closing the only proof you didn’t imagine the truck. When the first figure enters your sight on the scope, you drop your gun and run toward him.

“Tom!” you yell, fumbling to get your radio out of your pocket.

Tom looks up and says your name twice, first as a question, then an exclamation of joy. He drops his voice again to say, “He hurt his leg real bad.”

You look to your left and see the one man you’ve been waiting for since the moment he left. 

“You waited,” Stu says, smiling as you rush to him and wrap your arms around his waist.

His arms loop over your shoulders and grip you tightly, pulling you against him like he’s melting into you.

“Let me radio for help,” you say into his chest. 

Pulling back, you call Teddy and tell him that Stu and Tom are back before requesting a truck. He doesn’t answer with a yes or no, but the radio is full of cheers, yells, and crying, so you assume someone is on the way. Turning back to Stu, you let him lean against you and look down at his leg.

“Are you alright?” you ask quietly.

“I’m great now,” he answers, meeting your eyes when you look up.

“M-o-o-n, that spells great,” Tom says beside you.

“Is it just you two?” you whisper to Stu.

He nods, tightening his grip on you slightly.

“They saved our lives,” you add.

“It’s not just us,” Tom calls, “there’s one more. Laws, yes!”

You glance up at Stu, who furrows his brows. He catches on quickly and whistles. You look past him as Kojak runs around the corner and straight to you.

“Kojak!” you cheer, reaching down with the hand not supporting Stu. “I’m so happy to see you, buddy!”

“You didn’t get that excited about me,” Stu grumbles.

You look up at him and begin to say something, but the sound of a truck approaching cuts you off. The headlights on Teddy’s truck fall on you as he parks, helping Stu into the passenger seat while you, Tom, and Kojak get in the back. You can’t see much of him, but you watch Stu the entire drive to the hospital, holding Kojak as you smile, glad to have your boys back.

Once you get Tom home and settled, you and Kojak return to the hospital, checking on Fran before taking your seats in Stu’s room, Kojak on the end of his bed and you at the window, watching the snowfall. When Stu wakes up, he smiles at Kojak before looking around the room. 

“First time seeing snow?” he asks.

You turn when you hear his voice, smiling as you walk to his side. “No. But it is my first white Christmas,” you answer, slipping your hand into his. “I’ve always dreamed of a white Christmas. Dreams change though.”

“Meaning?”

“I would trade a white Christmas for a Christmas with you,” you admit shyly.

He kisses your knuckles before shifting in the bed, inviting you to sit beside him. You watch the snow and each other as you talk about your Christmas traditions pre-Captain Trips. The doctor comes in to check on him several times and gives you updates on Fran as well. When he finds out he can be released in a day or so, he starts walking through the hospital on his crutches, taking you and Kojak with him, determined to walk on his own by Christmas.

✯✯✯✯✯

December 22, three days before Christmas, you and Stu are walking out of the hospital with no crutches needed. He suddenly pulls his hand from yours, and as you turn around to ask him what’s wrong, a snowball hits you in the middle of the chest. Your jaw drops as you look at Stu, two more snowballs in his hands.

“After everything I’ve done for you,” you call dramatically, kneeling to make a snowball.

“You love me,” Stu yells.

“Luckily for you,” you reply as you throw a snowball, hitting him in the shoulder.

As you exchange snowballs, laughing and yelling with more joy than you thought was possible to feel given the previous year, you’re glad Christmas is on schedule. The people around you need it more than ever.

“Ow!” Stu yells, falling backward into a snowbank.

You drop your snowballs and run to his side, kneeling beside his uninjured leg. “Did you hurt your leg again?” you ask.

He raises a hand to your bicep and rolls over, pushing you into the snow as he hovers above you, smiling.

“You’re okay?” you ask, breathless. Stu nods, and you release a sigh before shaking your head at him. “You scared me.”

His eyes are locked on yours as he whispers, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. More than I can say.”

He leans down and kisses you, smiling against your lips as he slips his gloved hand between your head and the snowbank beneath you. Your hands rise to his shoulders as you pull yourself toward him, shivering against him. He breaks away, pressing a quick kiss to your forehead before standing and helping you up, your hand secure in his as he walks you home.

There’s a small Christmas tree in your front window, and Stu smiles when he sees it. Kojak meets you at the door, circling your legs as you take your coats, hats, and mittens off. 

“Stu?” you ask as he stands, wiping his hands after starting a fire. “Thank you for coming back to me.”

“I couldn’t leave you. Especially now that I know you’re celebrating your first white Christmas,” he responds, walking to stand in front of you, the Christmas tree on one side and the warmth of the fire on the other.

“So, what now? I mean, what happens after Christmas? Are you going home, East Texas?”

He cups your face, just as he had before leaving, and smiles when you lean into his touch, his warmth. “I don’t care where I go,” he answers, “As long as you’re by my side for this Christmas, and every Christmas after.”

“Even if they’re not white?”

“Say you want them all white and we’ll go wherever you want, ma’am.”

“I want to go wherever you are,” you state, wrapping your fingers around his wrists.

He drops his hands and grabs your waist, pulling you in to kiss you. He whispers against your lips, “We’ll figure it out after Christmas.”

You nod against him, waiting until you break apart to say, “I love you.”

“I’ve loved you since I laid eyes on you, and I will love you until there is no such thing as a white Christmas.”

You smile, ready to say more, but his actions speak louder as he pulls you in again, Kojak curling up at your feet as the snow grows heavier and Boulder turns white, just in time for your first Christmas with Stu.

[silkenblankets]

Master was driving.

Did you know that there’s these massive metal horses that just carry people around? Like you sit on the inside and it’s kinda cushiony and leathery and Master sits behind a wheel and we move?! I just get excited every time!

I think I was too excited. Bouncing up and down and-

“Gracie.”

Master had a very deep and grueling voice. Made my butt sit still in the seat that’s for sure.

“Thank you. What do you do now?”

Oh, I know! I looked at him with nervous eyes before I reached for my seat belt.

“Good, very good.”

I brought it over my chest, just as he had taught me. It was such a weird concept… why did I need a piece of fabric around me when we ride in the fun car?

I watched as Master gripped onto the strange handle by the steering wheel, pulling it down before the car erupted into life.

I think I know where we were going.

I have lots of different Masters now. The one that I think owns me is Master Art. I’m not supposed to know his name, but Master Loves calls him Art so I think his name is Art… a bit weird…

And Master Loves! That’s the Master driving right now. I don’t know his actual name, but I call him Master Loves because he’s always there when I’m really scared and alone. Master Art puts me into a really scary bed, ties me down and it’s just nice to have Master Loves there to stroke my hair and talk to me. I’m never alone…

I looked at Master nervously… I think we were going to visit Master Art…

Well she lost her excitement quick.

Her name’s Gracie. She’s a pet, I think about twenty years old. Yeah, I love her. She’s not hard to love.

I really, really don’t like pets. I’m not against it or anything, people can do whatever they want— but the concept is just as stupid as owning a dog. But I’m not heartless.

Buddy of mine is a cop, must’ve busted a drug ring or something— again I don’t care. Found a bunch of dead pets, I guess they thought they were all dead before Gracie rose her head from the pile of deceased bodies. Made my buddy pee himself for the first time since he was an infant.

And let me tell you, there was good reason they thought she was dead. Her legs had been sawed off.

Wasn’t illegal to kill your pet, so they couldn’t press charges on the crooks before they could get them for all of their drugs. Left Gracie homeless, and they couldn’t just let her free she’s been a pet her entire life. Plus she had an expensive medical journey ahead of her, who would want her?

Me. I did. What was I supposed to do? The plan was to euthanize her, but I met her and I was like— well this thing can’t die. Nobody is seriously gonna do something?

So here I am, on my way to her fifth doctor’s visit this week alone. My buddy Arthur has been a godsend, I dunno how we would’ve been doing this without him.

Like I always did, I stopped and picked her up a milkshake. Keep her morale up, make sure she didn’t hate me at the end of this—

The way her eyes lit up when I handed her the fifth Oreo milkshake she’s had this week just made my day. Everything was going to be alright.

When we pulled into the hospital, I scooped up the little body into a bridal carry as she happily sipped at the conclusion of her drink.

Getting a bit tired of this…

[mickittotheman]

Weekly Tag Wednesday

Huge thank to @mickeym4ndy for tagging me! I love these things 🤠

how’s your day going? could be worse! my boss was absolutely wilding today but I did get to spend most of my shift writing fanfic so that was nice.

are you okay? My Chemical Romance song plays faintly in distance

what is your favourite shade of your favourite colour? hmm definitely a pale sort of sky blue, kind of like this

are you single? very

are you happy about that? most of the time? 

what age do you feel in your brain? what brain? jk lol sometimes i feel like a little kid, sometimes i feel well past my prime. I’m in my mid-twenties though.

do you feel like the good times are behind you or ahead of you? hopefully ahead!!!

do you have a best friend? yes i have managed to maintain the same one since middle school

did you have a childhood pet? so many! over the course of my childhood I have had rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, turtles, a tortoise, crabs, hamsters, mice, fish, dogs, and turkeys (the turkeys sadly only survived one day)

do you sing or whistle around the house? sometimes i sing if no one is around and i’m in the mood

do you light candles or incense? candles but only on special occasions because i get sad when they’re all used up

are you busy Friday night? it's my dog's birthday! also the ides of march so very busy all around

if you were a circus performer which act would you be in?  my heart says knife thrower my brain says clown

what is your favourite outfit? hmmm i have these really soft worn dark green pants that look killer with a black shirt and an open dark teal button up layered over so probably that. bonus points if i add in a leather belt and boots and also my totebag with cartoon dogs on it. Another strong contender: tannish/orangish pants with a white tee open navy button up and my socks with weiner dogs that have hotdog buns and toppings. ideally though i would live in my pajamas (which are also almost all dog prints)

what's the last thing you created? I've been working on a fic for fun for a while now! haven't shared any of it yet but maybe someday lol.

what is your favourite fic or book of all time? ooooh so hard to choose. I absolutely loved etherized against the sky by snarfle. I’m a huge sucker for angst centered around secrets and misunderstandings and miscommunication. also it was so funny but also tricked me into a few unwilling therapeutic breakthroughs. 

what are you looking forward to? sleeping! I am so tired lol. also my dog's birthday party of course. 

what can put you immediately in a better mood? anything to do with my special interest. and also puppies

do you like hugs? ehhhhhh i’m like one of those cats who will rarely tolerate hugs and even more rarely enjoy them

what is something you wish people understood about you?  that i have no idea what is going on at any time ever and that everything is also so very scary but i am being very brave about it

Tagging: @wh0lemilk0vich @jezzibelle89 @swiftfootedachilles @sillygoofygoobersstuff @jademickian BUT only if you want to of course if not this is just me saluting you and also it might be thursday by the time yall see this sorry 😬🫡🫣

[she-karev]

Man’s Best Friend (Andrew DeLuca Gets a Dog Imagine)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giacomo Gianniotti (@giacomo_gianniotti)

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: Two of Three

Fandom: Station 19

Canon Episode: Season 4 Episode 4

Summary: Andrew DeLuca calls Amber and apologizes for comparing her to her father that she accepts. He later takes the dog to the shelter but backs out and decides to adopt the dog and take him home.

Words: 1222

April 8th 2020

Andrew DeLuca walks down the hall and goes inside a supply closet where he pulls out his phone and goes to Amber’s contact on his favorites. He decides to take Bailey’s advice and tell Amber how he feels instead of showing it to her. He paces the room for a few moments before pressing her name and holding the phone against his ear as it rings. It rings a few times before Amber answers and cuts to the chase. 

“Have I not made myself clear this morning?”

“Trust me you did I didn’t call for that I called…I called to say I’m sorry.”

“You already said that.” Amber numbly tells him, “Look I don’t want to hear promises of a better future for us I’m tired of hearing them.”

“I know that this isn’t that I meant I’m sorry for the things I said to you three months ago.” Andrew says truthfully and explains, “I had a junkie come into the pit after I saved his dog from overdosing on drugs, he gave him to knock him out. This guy he was…he was pathetic, he was cruel, and he was just a selfish son of a bitch all around.”

Andrew sighs at the memory and gets to the point of this phone call, “I think I saw your father in this guy and seeing him in person…Saying you would end like him earned me that slap that night and more.”

One Shot Here

“Andrew-”

“Just let me finish please.” Andrew pleads and her silence on the other end is answer, “You’re not your father, the only thing you have in common with him is your DNA and that’s it, nothing else. Don’t ever let what I said get in your head because it’s not true and I’m sorry I said them, I am so sorry…If one of us ended up like our abusive dads it’s me.” Andrew says bitterly in self-loathing, “And…if you give me another chance I will not run, I will earn back the trust that I lost…but I get if you don’t want to do that. But you need to know I am very sorry; from the bottom of my heart I am sorry.”

Andrew hears sniffling from the other end telling him that Amber is crying.

He hears her inhale before speaking, “Thank you, I needed to hear that.”

“I know you did. I know it’s what I would have wanted to hear from my dad so…I’m trying to do what he’s not.”

He hears silence in the background for a few moments before she responds, “Your…you’re doing great at it so far…not ending up like him.”

Her words catch him off guard and all he can do is hold the phone as he hears shuffling in the background, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She hangs up and for the first time since they broke up Andrew doesn’t feel so hopeless after a conversation with Amber. He puts his phone away and heads back to the pit.

Later at The Pet Shelter

Andrew stands inside the building where the pets reside after being dropped off or abandoned. He stands six feet away from the front desk where two women work. The dog he treated, Jazz, is on a leash held by Andrew who waits for the women to take the dog so he can head home and rest after the day he had.

“Name?” The senior woman, Betty asks.

“Dr. Andrew DeLuca.” The young lady, Mary, puts a clipboard and form in front of him, “No I’m not here to adopt I’m here to drop off this dog. He came to my hospital after his trash owner fed him drugs, I revived him and now I’m here to hand him to you guys.”

“Handing him to us?” Mary asks smug.

“Like a sack of old clothes?” Betty asks to shame him.

Andrew groans at this, “Look guys I’ve had a bad day which is the fourth one this week, I work at a hospital during a pandemic. I have patients up to my neck and I need sleep so don’t make this harder than it needs to be. I rescued a dog that is universally considered a good thing.”

“Someone wants a parade.”

He rolls his eyes, “No I don’t want a parade I just want to get home. You guys rehome animals so rehome Jazz.”

“Jazz huh?” Mary asks interested, “Do you think his old owners like jazz music?”

“I don’t know.” Andrew answers sharply, “I didn’t ask him when he came into the pit after his wife beat him with a baseball bat and he put a needle in his face.”

“Sounds like you have an eventful job.” Betty says blankly.

“You have no idea.” Andrew hands the leash to Mary, “Tell me where I need to sign so I can get out of here.”

“Come on man just take him.” Mary implores to his annoyance, “I mean you can’t be worse than the druggie with the bat swinging wife.”

“Gee thanks.” Andrew says sarcastically, “I work all day, I don’t have the time or patience for a dog. Where are the forms?”

“Right here.” Andrew clicks his pen to sign the release papers, “Maybe your wife could look after him, or girlfriend, or boyfriend.”

Andrew groans at the reminder that he is alone in the middle of a pandemic, “It’s just me, okay. I signed the papers thank you for whatever this was, but I am going.” Andrew starts to walk away, “This is a no kill shelter, right?”

“I mean mostly.” Mary’s words stop Andrew in place, and he turns to them as Jazz sits on the floor looking at Andrew. He sighs behind his mask before he starts to consider a crazy idea he might regret.

Later

Andrew walks inside his apartment with the dog in hand who pants excitedly as he enters the apartment with Andrew carrying dog food and a dog bed he recently bought for his new companion. He exhales in exhaustion before taking his mask off and closing the door. He unhooks the leash causing the dog to walk around the apartment limping. Andrew drops the stuff on the floor with a thud still on the fence of getting a dog.

He lays the small dog bed on the floor beside the kitchen and sees his new dog sitting on his bottom looking at his new owner with a tongue over his mouth panting.

“I’ll shower you with love tomorrow, right now I gotta shower and sleep so good night.” Andrew moves to the bathroom to shower and change into his pajamas and comes back to find Jazz laying on Andrew’s queen bed looking ready to sleep. He dismisses the idea seeing his bed as sacred space, “Hey no, no, off the bed it’s for humans not dogs off now!”

He snaps his fingers pointing down, but Jazz whines and keeps lying on his stomach with his head on his paw.

Andrew groans but complies, “Fine whatever I’m tired.” He gets under the covers as Jazz moves to the right side of the bed and laying against Andrew’s leg, “This is the last time, do you understand me?” Jazz falls asleep causing Andrew to sigh and close his eyes already questioning if getting a dog was such a good idea.

Next Part Here

[sergeantbarnessdoll]

Dinosaurs » Sebastian Stan

Pairings: Boyfriend!Sebastian Stan x Mom/Girlfriend!Reader with son Brandon

Summary: Sebastian meets Y/N’s 4 year old son for the first time.

Warnings: Fluff, language, nothing but cuteness, hugs and kisses, nicknames for son (buddy, sweetie), pet names for Y/N (dragă [sweetheart in Romanian])

A/N: I used Google translation for the Romanian translations.

Written on my phone. I’m sorry for any mistakes and typos.

Header made by @buckys-wintersoldier

“Sebby!” You say, throwing yourself in Sebastian’s arms.

Sebastian smiles widely and caught you by wrapping his arms around your waist. He walked inside of your house, closing the door behind him. He gently put you on your feet and kissed you passionately.

“I missed you so much, dragă.” Sebastian says against your lips.

“I missed you more.” You say.

“Impossible.” He says with a smile.

You two pulled away from each other and looked into each other’s eyes.

“Are you ready to meet my son?” You asked him.

“Yes.” He smiles. “Where is he?” He asked.

“Playing in his bedroom.” You take his hand in yours. “Follow me.” You say.

Sebastian follows behind you as you led him upstairs to your 4 year old son’s bedroom. You two walked in his room to see him playing with his favorite stuffed dinosaur.

“Brandon, are you busy?” You asked him.

“I’m not busy for mommy.” Brandon says, looking up at you with the cutest look on his face.

You and Sebastian sat down on the floor in front of Brandon. Brandon put down his dinosaur so you two had all of his attention.

“Brandon, this is mommy’s boyfriend Sebastian.” You tell him.

“It’s very nice to meet you, buddy!” Sebastian says with a smile.

Brandon looks at Sebastian, blinking a couple times.

“You’re Bucky!” Brandon says excitedly, pointing at Sebastian.

“Yes I am.” Sebastian says with a small laugh.

Brandon crawled onto Sebastian’s lap and looked up at him.

“I like Bucky.” He tells him. “So does mommy.” He says.

“Does she now?” Sebastian says, looking at you with a smile, making you blush.

“Do you like dinosaurs?” Brandon asks, changing the subject.

“Yes I do.” Sebastian answers.

Brandon reaches over to grab his dinosaur and held it up to show Sebastian.

“This is my dinosaur. His name is Mr. Dino.” Brandon says.

“He’s really cool.” Sebastian says with a smile as he admired the stuffed dinosaur.

“Do you like ice cream?” He asks, changing the subject again.

“Yes.” He answers.

“Can we get some?” Brandon asks.

“Only if it’s ok with mommy.” Sebastian tells him.

Brandon looked at you with puppy dog eyes. He didn’t need to give you that face for you to say yes.

“Of course we can, sweetie.” You smiled.

“Yay!” Brandon cheers. “Can you carry me?” He asks Sebastian.

“Of course, buddy.” Sebastian smiles.

Sebastian stood up with Brandon in his arms. You followed behind them and listened to Brandon tell Sebastian all of the cool facts he knows about dinosaurs. You smiled to yourself, loving that your son and boyfriend are bonding.

After you guys got ice cream, you and Sebastian took Brandon to the park so he could play for a while. He got tired after a half hour of running around and playing and ended up falling asleep in the car. You went to pick up Brandon from his car seat, but Sebastian stopped you.

“I got him, dragă.” Sebastian says softly.

You smiled and stepped out of the way, watching as Sebastian picked up Brandon and went inside of the house with you following behind them.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” You asked Sebastian, hoping that he’s able to stay over longer.

“Yes. You pick the movie and I’ll put Brandon to bed for you.” Sebastian says.

You smiled and went to the living room to pick a movie while Sebastian took Brandon upstairs to his bedroom. He carefully laid him down on his bed and covered him up with a blanket and gave him his favorite dinosaur.

“Sebby?” Brandon says sleepily.

“What’s up, buddy?” Sebastian asks in almost a whisper.

“You make my mommy happy.” He says.

“Your mommy makes me happy too.” Sebastian smiles. “Goodnight, buddy.” He says softly.

Sebastian quietly closed the bedroom door. He smiles to himself as he walks to the living room.

“What’s with the smile?” You asked curiously as Sebastian sat down next to you on the couch.

“Brandon told me that I make you happy.” He says.

“I told you that he’d love you.” You say with a smile as you cuddled yourself up against his side.

You leaned up and kissed him passionately. You two smiled against each other’s lips.

“What movie did you pick?” Sebastian asks you.

You didn’t say anything. A grin grew across your lips. Sebastian chuckled and playfully shook his head.

“Let me guess, am I in it?” He asks.

“Yes.” You say with a giggle.

“Are you going to tell me what it is?” He asks.

“Endings Beginnings.” You tell him, the grin never left your face.

“Oh god.” Sebastian blushes.

“It’s my favorite movie!” You say.

“I’m pretty sure I know why it’s your favorite movie.” He says with a small chuckle.

You couldn’t help but smile at him as he laughs softly at your cuteness.

“Play the movie. I want to cuddle with you.” He says.

You pressed play and snuggled yourself against his side again as he wrapped his arm around you.

“Seb?” You say softly, looking up at him.

“Yes, dragă?” Sebastian asks, looking down at you.

“I love you.” You say.

“I love you too.” He says back, smiling widely.

🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

-Bucky’s Doll

[alexiusgoesrogue]

Status Update: Day Two

Once again, the morning started earlier than planned (8am). We chose to get ready and go to the shops to buy some drinks and snacks for our lunch boxes we wanted to make for today’s adventure. Bee cooked sushi rice as well for us to pack.

With our backpacks full, we made our way down to the cable car station.

Up the hills, we took a quick look around the museum/shop and enjoyed the view right next to the station.

Our next stop was the Space Place, an observatory and sort of small space museum. We got tickets for both the museum and the show which was scheduled to begin just a couple of minutes after our arrival. The museum itself was fun to explore, and the show was a 20 minute kids animation about the tilt of the earth, and a roughly 25 minute presentation of the night sky, constellations, and the insane size of space, all projected on the dome ceiling.

Afterwards, we went on to explore the park and gardens. About halfway through and after buying some souvenirs (which I won’t reveal here, because they’re gifts for family), we sat down to eat our lunches.

(Video for listening to the amount of noise the cicadas made the entire time)

Food Ranking:

Sushi Rice with Tuna and Garlic powder: 4/5, a really neat idea for an easy but tasty lunch, maybe could need a bit more spices or other ingredients to get a bit more flavour in (or just more tuna)

Apple Juice: 4/5, very similar to the apple juice I know but a bit sweeter. Not overly sweet, but sweeter than I’m used to

Apple-Mango Puree: 5/5, very neat flavour, really just a better version of apple sauce and really great for a small snack on the go

Strawberry jello with Mango: 3/5, the jello is fine and not very sugary (probably because it’s intended for kids to eat), but I found the fruit bits in there to not really fit the flavour profile of the jello

***

The trip continued, and our aimless walking and reluctance to reading the map had us ending up lost somewhere in the complete opposite direction of where we wanted to go. While trying to make our way back on track, we met a very nice woman who let us pet her dog and even take a picture of it.

The walk to the start was treacherous and very uphill. Turns out, we took it backwards, just like the walk around the space museum. We took a break in the grass to recharge and then went back the same path to the souvenir shop, determined to make it to the rose garden as intended. Near the succulent garden, I took the first Polaroid picture.

The rose garden was a very nice place, and right next to was a small market set up, but it was about to close down just as we arrived. Our destination was just around the corner though, a small waterfall with a bunch of ducks living their best lives.

Once again, we recharged for a while and agreed to head back to the hostel for a break. It was 2:15pm that moment, meaning we’ve been up and going for almost five hours already. And we noticed how our tours so far never took us further away from the hostel than a 20 minute walk, which is very convenient when your feet are getting tired.

The walk back was even more treacherous than getting lost on the bush trail in the park, requiring two short breaks before finally making it to the pedestrian bridge crossing the highway. We passed the Beehive, the parliament building, and I took another picture of it and Bee with my camera before reaching our hostel.

We took a couple of hours to unwind and to let our feet rest, then it was time for a small surprise idea Bee had for us, a horror maze.

I’ve never really done a lot of horror related attractions aside from the occasional ride at some fair, but I was willing to try it out.

We had to walk in a single file line, so of course, the coward that I am, immediately called out Bee to walk in front. The maze was pitch black with just very rare bits of light and red dots above our heads to lead the way. The scare actors did a fantastical job, they scared us so well all the time. In the maze, I genuinely was really scared and swore to myself I’d never do this stuff ever again, but it was so much fun after getting out. (Probably because it was finally over.)

(Below is my favorite picture taken of us in the maze)

Before leaving, Bee bought the pictures and video for us to cherish the stupid faces we made, and I got myself a Freddy pin for my collection. After that, we made our way over to a gaming cafe.

We each paid $8 for two hours of time. Bee played League of Legends the whole time with friends, I tried getting back into Halo Infinite and Among Us.

The day came to an end around 11pm, sitting together in the common room while I ate ramen noodles (again) and writing the rest of this report while Bee bullies me for the stupid faces I always pull (love you pookie lol).

Sponsorships of the day: One-way cable car tickets, tickets for the Space Place, Fear Factory tickets, chicken kebab, L&P lemonade

[bitletsanddrabbles]

"Dear Charles,

A man named Inkstead* took some pictures of me for Harper’s Bazaar a while ago (I never found out quite why) and one of me holding my secretary in my lap came out very well indeed. When I get the dozen I have ordered I’ll send you one. The secretary, I should perhaps add, is a black Persian cat, 14 years old, and I call her that because she has been around me ever since I began to write, usually sitting on the paper I wanted to use or the copy I wanted to revise, sometimes leaning up against the typewriter and sometimes just quietly gazing out of the window from a corner of the desk, as much as if to say, “The stuff you are doing is a waste of my time, bud.” Her name is Taki (it was originally Take, but we got tired of explaining that this was a Japanese word meaning bamboo and should be pronounced in two syllables), and she has a memory like no elephant ever tried to have. She is usually politely remote, but once in a while will get an argumentative spell and talk back for ten minutes at a time. I wish I knew what she is trying to say then, but I suspect it all adds up to a very sarcastic version of “You can do better.” I’ve been a cat lover all my life (I have nothing against dogs except that they need such a lot of entertaining) and have never quite been able to understand them. Taki is a completely poised animal and always knows who likes cats, never goes near anybody that doesn’t, always walks straight up to anyone, however lately arrived and completely unknown to her, who really does. She doesn’t spend a great deal of time with them, however, just takes a moderate amount of petting and strolls off. She has another curious trick (which may or may not be rare) of never killing anything. She has brought into the house at various times such things as a dove, a blue parakeet, and a large butterfly. The butterfly and the parakeet were entirely unharmed and carried on just as though nothing had happened. The dove gave her a little trouble, apparently not wanting to be carried around, and had a small spot of blood on its breast. But we took it to a bird man and it was all right very soon. Just a bit humiliated. Mice bore her, but she catches them if they insist and then I have to kill them. She has a sort of tired interest in gophers, and will watch a gopher hole with some attention, but gophers bite and after all who the hell wants a gopher anyway? So she just pretends she might catch one, if she felt like it.

She goes with us wherever we go journeying, remembers all the places she has been to before and is usually quite at home anywhere. One or two places have got her – I don’t know why. She just wouldn’t settle down in them. After a while we know enough to take the hint. Chances are there was an axe murderer there once and we’re much better off somewhere else. The guy might come back. Sometimes she looks at me with a rather peculiar expression (she is the only cat I know who will look you straight straight** in the eye) and I have a suspicion that she is keeping a diary, because the expression seems to be saying: “Brother, you think you’re pretty good most of the time, don’t you? I wonder how you’d feel if I decided to publish some of the stuff I’ve been putting down at odd moments.” At certain times she has a trick of holding one paw up loosely and looking at it in a speculative manner. My wife thinks she is suggesting we get her a wrist watch; she doesn’t need it for any practical reason – she can tell the time better than I can – but after all you gotta have some jewelry.

I don’t know why I’m writing all this. It must be I couldn't think of anything else, or – this is where it gets creepy – am I really writing it at all? Could it be that – no, it must be me. Say it’s me. I’m scared.

- Ray

*Actually John Engstead."

- Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler edited by Frank MacShane, pg. 49-51

**I don’t know if the repetition was intentional on Chandler’s part, an error in the letter, or an error in the book, so I left it as is.

[nickgerlich]

Fetch This

We love our pets. They are valued members of our household, and in some cases, we enjoy their company more than we do that of other humans. We speak to them as if they understand our language, although they are very challenged when it comes to communicating back.And we will do almost anything for them.

In addition to the 334 million Americans residing here, there are 89.7 million dogs and 58.3 million cats. That’s a lot of extra mouths to feed, but we do it because we crave their companionship, and without their faithful humans, they would suffer. All told, USAmericans spend $136.8 billion each year on their pets.

That’s a huge market, and while big-box chains like Pet Smart and Petco long ago realized this, I am surprised that mass marketers had not stepped up to the plate to claim a bigger piece of the action.Sure, all the big ones, like Target, Meijer, Walmart, and others, have extensive pet supplies sections in their stores.

But there is still money on the table, and that is pet services. These run the gamut from nail clippings to grooming and vaccinations, the kinds of things that typically require a visit to a veterinarian.

Walmart, though, has sniffed out a potentially lucrative strategy to break into that sector by opening its first pet center, with plans to open many more if it does well.

I am betting that, in addition to realizing this market is simply too good to ignore, that Walmart is also very much aware that change is afoot in the veterinary services field as well. Turns out that between 2017 and 2022, $45 billion in private equity deals were made to scoop up local vets and their clinics. That’s another way of saying that, while your local vet may look and smell like a home-town operation, they may very well be part of a much larger entity.

That’s your cue, Walmart, because if vet clinics are attracting that kind of PE money, there must be a lot more gold to mine. And, Walmart offers something that all the others do not: convenience. Stir in competitive pricing, and you have a 1-2 punch that will find shoppers bringing Fido to the store, and picking their groceries while he gets his nails trimmed and shots updated. It’s also not a whole lot different from dropping off your car for a tire rotation or oil change at Walmart while you do your shopping.

I have to smile, too, because this is something that is so NOT digital, at a time when it seems everything is going that way. It requires you to show up in person, along with your pet. You know. Be in the moment, and interact with other humans. And their pets. You might be able to book appointments and so forth electronically, but you can’t get a rabies shot online or through an app.

But there is a digital side to all of this, and that’s the new subscription service Walmart is rolling out for regular consumables for your pets. Heck, if Amazon will deliver my vitamins each month, there’s no reason Walmart can’t deliver a 46-pound bag of dog food on a similar schedule. Let them do the heavy lifting.

The new pet center will have its own dedicated entrance, which is a wise move, since I’m sure Walmart doesn’t want people and their pets entering the store along with everyone else. It will be staffed by employees of a separate firm, although it will all be branded as Walmart. This also makes sense, because Walmart does not have the types of employees needed to deliver such services.But it sure has the right venue for selling them.

The planned price list for services will also put Walmart in a good place. Vet clinics have had little or no competition in the past, but Walmart is about to shake the fruit off of that tree. With inflationary pressures finding more people, including pet owners, trading down or delaying spending money, this is a strategy that is consistent with Walmart’s overall mission to provide value.

Amid all of the effort to push forward into the future, to incorporate ever more automation, it is refreshing to see that there is still opportunity to make money the old fashioned way. I’m thinking my dog Huck would like this, and if and when we get this service in Canyon, we’ll be there.

Dr “You Want A Treat, Buddy?” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[notsufjanstevensblog]

Chinni. She was our family dog. A black pomeranian. She was a size of a cat when we first bought her. No. Took her away from the locals because they told us chinni was “too harsh”. I was around 12-13? I guess? I’m not sure. Soon chinni was a part of our broken family. Broken on all terms- family, finance, health, a happy home, you name it. Chinni was a hope that we all clinged on to. On our lousy days, our tired sundays, our evenings when all of us were really tired of whatever we spent the day doing, our mornings when mom & dad woke me up to catch that bus right on time and so many other days when life slapped our face to reality. We used to feed chinni 2 biscuits every evening and now that I think of it, maybe it took only 2 of those buiscuits was all that it took for our simple lives with chinni. Ruthless human being I am, I barely spent anytime with her. My mom and younger sister used to pet her so much and I never understood. But I just gave up one day and tried playing with her but it didn’t do me any good. Let me also tell you that i’ve always hated pets. For a person who is very conscious about cleanliness and hygiene, I was very particular about even touching chinni in the beginning. To my favour, chinni was very good and aware about everything around her. She never disturbed me and just sat with me, catching flies in the air. I don’t think it ever caught one- idiot. It used to be very delusional and chew something random on the floor. I always used to shoo it away because you don’t want your mango-eating-sunday-afternoons with chinni! I mean, come on.

Then we all grew up. Times changed. We shifted to a new house. Things were pretty great. I didn’t like the change but just like everyone else, I got used to it. I was admitted in a boarding school. I loved it there. I was a cute church going wanna-be christian girl reading bible and quoting psalms. I used to go back home every sunday to wash my hair and scrub my skin. My mom kept screaming at how tanned by back and my hands or legs were or how my hair keeps falling off in bunches. On a random sunday, I remember this very vividly. On a random sunday, I was sitting there after this very petty argument with my elder sister crying and holding a piece of chicken that my mom cooked everytime we came home from hostel. Chinni came sniffing and I threw it far far away. Chinni brought back the piece in her mouth, un-eaten. I was confused. I wasn’t going to eat that, so i told “chinni, you eat”. And chinni did. I went back home and mom had another one for me. I never really noticed chinni. I just knew she was watching me from under my car or the corner she always occupied in our car garage.

Times changed very rapidly. I was in my 2nd year of college. Dad was hospitalised with acute kidney infection stage 4. Dad sat on the garden wall and spoke to people for hours. Chinni just sat there with him, catching flies in the air. I mean literally that. Dad used to pat chinni a few times and look at the sky. He used to yell at all of us for not feeding chinni and cleaning her. By the end of covid pandemic, our family had gotten a little closer and I couldn’t have asked for more. I loved it. It was mundane and simple. I came to LOVE chinni. Chinni used to come wherever me and mom and my sister used to go to walk. Slowly, wagging its tail, barking at basically nothing. We had a favourite jackfruit tree in our fields where me and mom used to gossip about people closer to us. It was fun. Chinni used to sit there and act as if she knew what we were speaking and I used to just pat chinni and wash hands and legs off of the dust and her hair everytime I returned back home. Chinni was old. Infact, I never knew how old she was.

By now times had severely changed. Dad was diagnosed with covid-19 and had a pulmonary infection with underlying health issues. Chinni kept crying. Perhaps she knew her family wouldn’t be the same anymore. Chinni used to howl. I didn’t think she could do that until that point. My dad kept giving her buiscuits. But how many of them will she need to tune down the thoughts of her not having the same family in a few days and losing one of her best friends? And the world fell apart for chinni. My dad passed away. Now chinni was no one. Nothing. Just another dog. She couldn’t cheer us anymore. She couldn’t smile or eat anymore. Chinni only used to eat food when we had kept it on a plate and left. Chinni never ate food infront of any of us. I saw chinni’s teeth in the garden and I knew chinni was also getting old. I tried to be there for her as much as I could but I was broken enough to an extent to know that it would not be able to fix her. I just used to sit with chinni with a glass of tea in my one hand and phone in the other.

Chinni wanted her dad. To tell her stories telepathically. I could never be her. I could never listen to anyone’s stories in my family without being judgemental. Chinni started getting sadder and sadder. Chinni never came near our house now. It sat there quietly in a garage. It could barely see or bark. I went back to university and everytime I kept waving at her assuming she could see. Only if she were here to know that I would wave at her a million more times. Chinni’s hair was falling off. I never spent time with chinni anymore because she reminded me of the time that my life was at its best. It was a dream, a dream that had already passed. I didn’t want to fight to have it again. Very recently I went to meet chinni and she was fine. I had not talked to her for the past few months. So I fed the leftovers and came back home.

My uncle was very annoyed at the rat that kept roaming in the garage. He threw a big ass stick aiming the rat but chinni got hit. It was horrible. She got hit and her hip broke. Chinni kept crying. I couldn’t take it anymore. I came home and cried my heart out. All of us cried. We could never see chinni again. And 3 days later, chinni had passed away. I wasn’t informed. I went home and took 2 biscuits from the snacks drawer in our kitchen and then my mom told me chinni had passed away. Now that I come to think of it, I only have regrets. I could’ve maybe touched chinni more often. Played with her more often. Fed her her favourite treats. I could’ve done so much more but I’m happy that I atleast have regrets that keep me up at night reminding chinni- the best company I’ll ever have.

[bluiex]

you would have gotten this fluff sooner but since i was sat i went to pet one of my dogs and after like 5 minutes he completely got up and readjusted his laying position so he could curl around (as much as a fully grown labrador can) my hand and fall back asleep, it was adorable and we don’t deserve dogs but i just couldn’t use my right hand at all, i only just escaped an hour later, also my phone is being weird my app will suddenly freeze; the screen goes black with a frozen loading symbol for a few seconds; it then just does to my lock screen; i open my phone and apps/widgets dont show up, they exist but dont show up i think apple is purposefully breaking my phone so i get a new one/hj i think i also need to install a new update but this is just ridiculous

anyways here’s the fluff i mentioned earlier, and by fluff i mean hurt/comfort

here’s the tws: SH, PTSD, trauma, i only have a rough idea so add more if need be, unless your reading this then i forgot

—

“Scar,” Grian suddenly said walking into the room voice shaky and tired. Scar looked up at him a little confusedly face instantly morphing to one of concern and empathy.

Grian’s eyes were noticeably red and puffy, corners still full of unspilt tears. His body looking like it was barely supporting itself like it just wanted to pass out right then. And his face overall was the worse, his stair was messy, not in usual Grian fashion but more like he had been tugging at it and putting his head in pillows. His mouth was open just barely showing a sliver of shaky teeth, cheeks glistening very lightly and overall a look of sadness and exhaustion.

“Songbird? What’s wrong?” Scar asked instantly jumping up talking two steps towards Grian to show he was there but not invade his space incase he needed it.

“I’m sorry,” Grian simply replied eyes filling with regret as he cast them to the ground undoubtedly feeling to guilty to look Scar in the eyes. Scar could almost feel his heart break at that.

“What on earth do you have to be sorry for?” Scar asked trying to keep his voice steady, something for Grian to take reassurance in.

“I-I promised you I’d, that I’d try, but I-I just couldn’t, I needed to,” Grian said voice so small and regretful he seemed back to being a child having to tell a parent he accidentally broke a window playing with his friends.

Scar stood brow furrowed in concern and confusion till he noticed Grian purposefully keeping his hands away from his thighs where they should be.

“Oh sweetheart, you relapsed didn’t you?” Scar asked taking another step towards Grian wishing he could instantly just hug him and take all his pain and worries away.

“…Yeah,” Grian replied softly eyes staying unmoving from the floor.

“I’m not mad,” Scar said “or disappointed, or upset, or anything you’ve worked through your brain you think I am, I’m just worried” Scar said taking a pause between each thing he listed letting his voice stay smooth and soft but letting it show he was speaking the truth.

“Did you just put your pajama pants on without taking care of them?” Scar asked voice dipping slightly more concerned.

Grian nodded weakly still refusing to meet Scar’s eyes again. Scar carefully took more steps towards him waiting to see if Grian reacted negatively yo any of them till he was right next to Grian lightly rubbing his arm.

“Lets go to the bathroom so we can properly take care of them, it will be so much worse if they get infected, infected scars are no joke,” Scar said very lightly pushing Grian’s arm loosely in the direction of the bathroom.

“Alright,” Grian said voice still very small and quite and Scar gently led him to the bathroom. He asked Grian to very carefully take the pants off so he could clean and bandage the cuts. Grian did as instructed and carefully sat down on the side of the tub eyes still on the floor and tears very lightly spilling from the edges.

Scar grabbed some alcohol wipes, Neosporin, and bandages to use. He turned back to Grian doing his best to keep his face neutral as he looked at the fresh bloody cuts on his partners thighs.

“I’m going to clean them with the wipes first, it’s going to sting but they’ve stopped actively bleeding at least,” Scar said crouching down in front of Grian who nodded softly taking the extended hand scar offered him to grip onto as Scar very carefully started to sanitize them.

“Oh- Fuck!” Grian exclaimed hissing at the wipes doing their job. He held Scar’s hand so hard his knuckles went white but Scar didn’t falter trying to not prolong the pain of the cleaning process.

“Alright, alright its over, now I’m going to use a q-tip to apply sone Neosporin, shouldn’t sting that much, just a tiny but but not as bad,” Scar said letting Grian carefully un-grip his hand so he could unscrew the cap and squeeze the contents out on the q-tip for application.

“I’m sorry,” Grian said again startling Scar as he lowered the q-tip towards the cuts.

“Songbird I already said you have nothing to apologize for, relapsing is a completely normal part of recovery,” Scar said putting the q-tip down grabbing both of Grian’s hands together with both of his looking at Grain’s eyes who slowly raised them meeting his.

Scar kept holding Grian’s hands with only one as he applied the Neosporin causing a slight flinch but nothing else.

He then gently bandaged then after checking how Grian was to which he replied that besides mentally everything was great.

“Alright, I’m finished, how are you now?” Scar asked very softly running a hand on the bandages to make sure they were tight enough.

“Tired, can we just go to bed now?” Grian replied not meeting Scar’s empathetic eyes.

“Alright, if you need to talk I’ll be here all night and day tomorrow, or however long you need.” Scar said bringing himself back to his feet stretching gently offering a hand to Grian who took it using it to return to standing wobbling some.

They went to their bedroom where Scar pointedly ignored any red splotched tissues. He gently pulled the covers over both of them holding Grian softly petting his hair as they drifted off to sleep.

—

holy shit im so tired i can barly keep my eyes open this took me like 45 minutes goodnight

We don't deserve pets. They're the best ever

Aww Scar is the sweetest qoq