#I bet it makes schools more risky though

[actualmichelle]

People on here seem super worried about the CDC getting rid of COVID isolation requirements.....but it's not like they were being enforced?? At least where I am and in the places I go, I have been assuming people were unmasked and contagious for years. This isn't going to change much, and I still spend a lot of time trying to keep from getting COVID.

[cheegu3]

Enhypen - the glory (part 5)

summary; after rejecting one of the most popular boys at your new school, you soon realised that you'd done the gravest mistake of your life; these weren't ordinary boys, and now they were set on making your life a living hell - heavily based on the kdrama with the same name

warnings; yandere, bullying, swearing, alcohol, hospital scene, mentions of murder & suicide, affair

genre; yandere

wc; 4.8k

pairing; enha x f.m reader

note; this is more of a chill chapter, we get someone's backstory :D but yeah u won't be as stressed after as the last chapter lmao, also I've changed the narrating a little based on this poll I did, if everyone hates it I will change it lol, but I felt it added a little more flavour ??? to the characters.

masterlist

The sound of the phone hitting the floor echoed in the empty hallway. You backed away, slowly while never taking your eyes off of it; as if it had a camera inside and whoever texted was watching with a grin on their face.

It started ringing, vibrating violently on the floor. You ran up and picked it up, only because you were afraid they were still in the building and could hear it. But when looking down at the screen, you breathed out in relief. It was the number that Soobin had texted with.

‘’ Hello? ‘’

You waited in silence, not wanting to risk revealing anything in case that number wasn’t him either.

‘’ Y/n? ‘’

It was his voice, thankfully.

‘’ Soobin! I think they have my number. I got a text from someone else and I thought it was you. ‘’ you said in a hushed voice, starting to walk towards the entrance while hunched over.

‘’ What? Did you say anything? ‘’

‘’ Not anything that would make them think I was talking to you. But who do I say I thought it was? They will probably ask tomorrow. ‘’

Soobin quietened for a moment.

‘’ Maybe it’s best you don’t come to the academy tomorrow. ‘’

‘’ No, that’s a terrible idea! It will make me look really suspicious. ‘’

‘’ Will you really be able to lie to their faces if you see them though? ‘’

‘’ I have to try at least. But if I don’t succeed, a backup plan? ‘’

You heard him hum on the other side of the line.

‘’ We can use Yeonjun then. ‘’

Your face scrunched up, doubt written all over your face. You were pretty sure he’d reject it, rather rudely, based on him telling you to stay away from his brother the last time the two of you talked.

‘’ Or…Yena. ‘’ you suggested.

‘’ Yena? Who is that? ‘’

‘’ Jungwon’s sister. I’ve met her and she gave the impression of almost hating him. It’s a long shot bu- ‘’

Soobin sassily agreed, ‘’ It definitely is. ‘’

‘’ Backup plans don’t have to be super solid. I’m just gonna bet everything on plan A working out. ‘’

You didn’t have many choices after all. Yena was risky and uncertain, Yeonjun was almost certainly a no and you weren’t sure about Sunoo yet. With no other friends that could be undercover right under the noses of your bullies, all that was left to do was to believe in yourself and be confident; which was definitely a first.

‘’ What do I do if they text again? ‘’

‘’ Pretend like you knew it was them from the beginning. If they question it, say you were…drunk? ‘’ 

Your loud laugh echoed. ‘’ Soobin, your suggestions suck. ‘’

‘’ Sorry…’’ he mumbled back.

‘’ I might have to resort to that though, if it all goes to shit. ‘’

‘’ I still don't think you should go. ‘’

‘’ My parents want me to get good grades. I can’t lose my scholarship at this prestigious school. ‘’

‘’ But you already went today. Just use an excuse so you don’t have to see them. We can hang out instead, if you want? ‘’

Your phone vibrated again in your hand.

‘’ Hold on, I’m getting another call. I’ll let you know though. ‘’

‘’ Okay, bye! ‘’

You pressed answer on the incoming call after having hung up on Soobin. It was an unknown number again, so mentally you prepared yourself before putting the phone to your ear.

‘’ Hello? ‘’

‘’ Did you guess right? ‘’

The voice sounded familiar, but admittedly it was one of the last people you expected.

‘’ Sunghoon? ‘’

‘’ Well done! ‘’

‘’ How do you have my number? ‘’

‘’ Took your phone while Ni-ki was busy with you in the gym. ‘’

Ah, of course. It would’ve been almost impossible to divide your attention between all seven of them to catch them in the act if they went through your stuff. You were thankful for having changed your settings so you actually had a password now, making sure they couldn’t go through your phone and see Soobin there.

‘’ Do the others have it too? ‘’

‘’ Not yet. ‘’

You weren’t sure what to say next, letting the silence settle. You felt like there was something else, but he was taking his time saying it.

‘’ Oh, right! I forgot about that. ‘’ he shouted out abruptly as if talking to himself.

‘’ Forgot about what? ‘’

‘’ You texted me back, almost like you were waiting for someone to text you. ‘’

You panicked and was forced to come up with a lie on the spot in just a few seconds. Luckily, since he couldn’t see you, it was much easier to lie. Your face didn’t heat up and you didn’t have to maintain eye-contact with basically one of the living lie detectors out of the group. 

You were incredibly lucky today. If you were face to face, he’d be able to figure out you were lying very fast.

 ‘’ Yeah…my cousin just got a phone and said she’d text me today. ‘’

He went quiet for a moment, scaring you. Was he trying to assess your voice because he wasn’t sure if he believed you? 

‘’ Are you lying to me, sweetheart? ‘’

You froze but managed to press out an answer through clenched teeth, ‘’ No. ‘’

‘’ Are you sure? I can easily check up on your family, you know that. ‘’

But you had already made up your mind, it would be cruel and very stupid to throw Soobin under the bus now. The only option was doubling-down and lying until your nose turned red.

‘’ Yes. I’m sure. ‘’ you tried to put a little irritation to your tone to make it more believable.

After some time, he ticked his tongue and reluctantly answered,

‘’ Okay. ‘’

You waited with bated breath, for what he’d say next.

‘’ You’re coming tonight, right? ‘’

‘’ Tonight? What’s tonight? ‘’

‘’ Just hanging out. Jungwon’s house. Come over. ‘’

‘’ But- ‘’

Your protest was rudely cut off by the sound of the call ending. Looking down at the phone, a scowl formed on your face and you huffed. Another party? What was wrong with them?

You stood in the corridor, feeling completely dumbfounded. Could you even run away now, no- you glanced down at your arms, remembering what happened last time you did and cursing them for giving you such a permanent reminder.

Taking a deep breath you cautiously made your way to the entrance. Despite him not mentioning anything about the hospital, it was still pretty smart to be on your guard on the way out. Who knew if that girl had texted them as soon as you and Soobin left her room, and they rushed there to ambush you.

But it was fairly quiet when you reached the front desk. If they were hiding, they probably would’ve come out a long time ago, since you were just meters away from the entrance now.

You shrugged off the random burst of paranoia and sprinted to hail a taxi outside. Maybe they would let you go home quite early just like last time. There wasn't much you could bring to the table anyway.

You fished your phone out and texted Soobin, telling him that Sunghoon had called and told you to come to Jungwon's house. It felt a bit unusual. You’d never hung out with them after school up until the day before, when Jay dragged you to the party.

‘’ Miss, we’re here. ‘’

‘’ Thank you. ‘’

You got out and hurried inside as it was still snowing, albeit a lot less than earlier. They were standing in the entrance, all eyes on you when the taxi drove away. The gate stood wide open this time, and the front door was open which gave them a perfect view of the driveway.

‘’ Hey. ‘’ Sunoo smiled at you.

You groaned mentally, whole body screaming for you to turn back around and go home. They didn’t even give you a chance though. As soon as you had put your stuff down, you were dragged by the waist to the living room, where all those people had been last time.

However, this time the couches were empty except for when they started sitting down in them one by one. You shifted uncomfortably, being the only one still standing.

It was obvious that there was no party. No music and no other people, only the alcohol in the red cups was the recurring theme from the day before. Why did they make you come there all alone? You felt anxiety start to brew at the pit of your stomach. 

‘’ I-uh…can I use the bathroom? ‘’

It was the oldest trick in the book, but hopefully they had already had so much to drink before you showed up that they wouldn’t think twice about it.

Jake was the only one who answered, with an uninterested grunt. You went right away, in case they would change their minds. Locking yourself into the bathroom you texted soobin. 

6:00 pm

You: Soobin? They’ve dragged me to Jungwon’s house.

The phone pinged almost immediately, you panicked and turned off the sound, looking around in the silence to see if they might’ve noticed. Nothing moved around outside and no noises or footsteps got closer. 

Next you had to suppress a laugh as you noticed you named him cousin so the others wouldn’t notice anything. Naming him ‘’ baby ‘’ would’ve made all hell break loose if they had just spotted it once.

Cousin: What? Like a party? 

You: Not really, I’m the only one here.

Cousin: Can you get away? 

You sucked on your lip while thinking. There wasn’t really a way out of this unless you wanted to have more wounds on your body. The whole thing felt like a very annoying headache.

Cousin: Y/n? Hello? Do you need help? 

You: No! We have a plan, remember?

Cousin: Sorry :(

You: I’ll text you later

Cousin: I live close by, just run over

You: Will you drive me home? :) 

Cousin: ofc!

‘’ Princess? ‘’

You jumped and almost dropped your phone clumsily in the process of getting up from the toilet seat. The phone slipped into your pocket again. You unlocked the door and stepped out, coming face to face with Heeseung.

He only looked at you briefly, then pushed past you to get to the bathroom. You went back to join the others. Sunoo and Ni-ki occupied the only couch that wasn’t full so you went to them.

Sunoo lit up when seeing you and Ni-ki only said something under his breath before moving so you could sit next to him. Sunoo handed you a cup and you poured alcohol in it, downing it almost immediately in a poor attempt to fix your uneasiness.

‘’ Not drinking? ‘’

‘’ Not a fan. ‘’

Ni-ki sounded moody, resting his elbows on his legs so his whole form was slumped over. His head didn’t raise when he talked, indicating he wanted to be left alone. You looked at Sunoo for answers but he just shrugged, mouthing ‘ bad day ‘.

‘’ Do you still box? ‘’

He finally raised his head to give you a very vehement look. ‘’ Yeah. ‘’ 

Sunoo tried to avoid it when his eyes averted to him, knowing he was looking at him in disbelief over what he had blurted out when he was alone with you. Whistling innocently he looked away and pretended like he was interested in the intense and lively conversation Jake and Jay were having next to him.

Now that Sunoo was turned away from you two, you leaned in a bit closer to Ni-ki, asking what you’d been wondering for a long time.

‘’ Do you even like me? ‘’

He frowned and then looked a bit caught off guard, pulling his hood further up to cover more of his face. ‘’ Yeah? I…think so. ‘’

‘’ But like, as much as the others or…’’ you trailed off.

He glared at you through his bangs which made you close your mouth again, regretting saying anything at all.

‘’ Y/n? ‘’

Sunghoon called you over, patting on the empty seat next to him where presumably Heeseung sat in before. Reluctantly you sat down, glancing at Jake and hoping you wouldn’t catch his attention any time soon, since he was extra bad when intoxicated.

Sunghoon must’ve noticed, his long fingers came up to your jaw, turning your head towards him. You stared into his bleary eyes. He looked very drunk, long gone with his pupils struggling to focus on you. But there was still some tenderness in them.

Sunghoon was slightly anxious. He’d never been alone with you before, and not this close in such an innocent way too; they all acted as a group and stuck together as one, agreeing to not be alone with you for too long.

While leaning his head back on the couch the two of you were sitting on, he turned his head to look at you. It was embarrassing how nervous you made him, as if you were some crush he had in middle school. Just looking at you made his throat close up.

‘’ Do you like this house? ‘’ he randomly blurted out, through slurred speech.

You laughed lightly which made Sunghoon smile widely.

‘’ Yeah, it’s nice. ‘’

He wanted to say more, maybe the way to your heart was to make you laugh. But he didn't get the chance to before Jungwon plopped down on the other side of the couch, next to you.

He didn’t seem at all interested in flirting with you, instead going straight into a rather serious-toned conversation, a dead-pan look on his face.

‘’ Do you know why he invited you here? ‘’

‘’ No. Not really. ‘’ you tilted your head.

‘’ From now on, we want to see you outside of school too. ‘’

You turned to him. ‘’ Why? ‘’

His lips were licked as annoyance flashed across his face, his cold eyes piercing through you. ‘’ Because we said so. ‘’

The alcohol had started to rush to your head already, making your speech a bit slower, vision blurrier but also lips bolder. 

‘’ Why are you always so blunt with me? You’re kind of mean. ‘’ 

He grimaced at your whiny tone and got eye-contact with Sunghoon, who probably knew what his friend was thinking. But he could never really stop Jungwon, since he was the leader after all.

‘’ Because, you’re a brat. ‘’ he calmly said, although his eyes were anything but.

‘’ A brat? ‘’ 

You stood up and almost stumbled into his lap when the dizziness hit you. Tauntingly, you looked down at him while swinging your cup in one hand.

‘’ You’re the ones who fucking bully me, you piece of shit! ‘’

‘’ Y/n. ‘’ Sunghoon warned, seeing Jungwon’s eyes narow.

‘’ Don’t talk to me like that. ‘’

You groaned and almost ripped your hair out in frustration. His calm exterior always made you feel crazy; it made you look hysteric in comparison, and wrong when you had all the reasons to be acting like that.

‘’ Shut the fuck up! ‘’ you yelled.

He snapped. Standing up so fast you flinched and lost balance, he was there to jerk you towards him with a harsh grip around your wrist. You lost your chance to talk as he hurried to drag you upstairs, Sunghoon running behind. 

You get pushed into a bedroom and Sunghoon got the door slammed in his face just as he was a few seconds away from it.

The tension in the room is high. Even though your back was turned to Jungwon, you could almost feel how he seethed of anger, but it was controlled and calculated, he was in control not you.

‘’ Face me. ‘’

You shuddered at his low voice, taking as much time as possible to turn around. The door was locked, who knew what he was going to do to you, away from the eyes of others?

‘’ I’m sorry. ‘’

You finally turned, and immediately your eyes unwillingly welled up with tears. It was the last thing you wanted to happen, but you became that girl in the gym again. Just one look at him and you wanted to cower away, beg for mercy or cry like a helpless child. 

You felt like a different person outside of the school. Because when the day was over, so was the torture. Seeing him look like he wanted to tear you apart in a different environment than the bleak walls of the gym reminded you of your grim future; they would torture you in your safe haven now too. It wouldn’t be over as soon as you passed the gates. They demanded you meet them at their houses and text them. What would happen if you answered just one second too late?

Jungwon stared at you wordlessly. He felt his chest swell with pride due to the sadistic nature of the situation. He liked that you were so afraid of him and that he, more than the others could elicit such a strong reaction from you - only a puppeteer could know his toy that well, know exactly what strings to pull for what; and what is that if not love?

You saw his face unmoved by your sniffling, so as a last resort you pathetically went down on your knees, hands clasping together while incoherent pleas left your mouth.

‘’ Please…please- don’t hurt me. ‘’

He crouched and was careful not to show any emotions. ‘’ Say you’re sorry again. ‘’

You looked up at him and he almost became entranced by the look of your teary eyes, glimmering while looking up at him, only him.

‘’ I’m sorry. ‘’

‘’ Good. ‘’ His lips twitched. ‘’ Stand up. ‘’

They tugged upwards momentarily when you obeyed. You kept your head down, scared to provoke him, even by doing the slightest of things.

‘’ I’m gonna give you my number. When I text, answer. When I call, answer. ‘’ 

He turned his back on you to dig his phone out from a bag thrown on the floor. You got the sudden urge to attack him and then make a run for it, but that wouldn’t lead to anything but short satisfaction.

You recollected yourself in time for him turning back and handing you his phone. When you’re done and he took it back impatiently, he stared at the screen for a while. Then he pressed the number and your phone vibrated.

‘’ Save it. ‘’

You gave a fake smile and nodded. However, seeing as it didn’t seem to satisfy him, you quickly did what he asked on the spot.

‘’ You can go now. ‘’

‘’ Already? I haven’t really talked to the others, and they don’t even have my number except for Sung- ‘’ you pressed your lips shut.

Although it was slowly starting to wear off, the alcohol had made you ramble again and by the look of dissatisfaction on his face, you could tell he wanted you to shut up.

‘’ You don’t need those yet. Am I not doing you a favor? ‘’ he stepped closer, making you automatically back away.

There were only a few meters until you’d back into the wall. You prayed to God that he wouldn’t force you to back into it entirely, so he could creep over you.

‘’ Do you want to be here? ‘’

Your mouth fell open at the horrible accusation. Why would you want to be at the house of one of your bullies, where they all hung around you, taking turns to poke their sticks into your skin to get a reaction?

‘’ No. I’m leaving. ‘’

He didn’t stop you, but you heard the arrogant scoff and saw the smirk when passing by him anyway. Your angry stomping down the stairs caught the attention of the other guys.

‘’ You’re leaving already? ‘’ Jake shouted, hurrying to get up so he could follow you.

Ni-ki and Sunoo watched you curiously, not saying anything.

‘’ You basically just got here. ‘’ 

He tried to pull you into a hug, which you quickly slipped out of, seeing Jungwon standing at the top of the stairs. 

‘’ I said she could go. ‘’

His stern voice made Jake freeze and he moved away from you, giving you a small smile which made you raise your eyebrows awkwardly.

‘’ Bye. ‘’ you mumbled, closing the door behind you.

Well that was…weird? 

*******

‘’ I’m here! ‘’

Soobin ran over to greet you, a big grin plastered on his face.

Footsteps approached the hallway and rounding the corner, the owner of them, Yeonjun popped his head out. His smile dropped when seeing you.

‘’ Y/n. ‘’ he said, rather formally.

‘’ Yeonjun. ‘’

Soobin chuckled. ‘’ No need to be so awkward. You’ve met before. ‘’

You took off your shoes and he strolled off in front of you, making you hurry to follow as you didn’t want to be alone with his grumpy older brother.

‘’ Are you okay? ‘’

‘’ Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. ‘’

He looked relieved and started walking further into the house, waving at Yeonjun to come with and ultimately stopping in the living room.

‘’ Maybe we can watch a movie. ‘’

‘’ I’m fine with anything. ‘’ you smiled.

‘’ Is this the part where I leave? ‘’

‘’ Yeonjun! ‘’ Soobin gasped.

His cute attempt at trying to look stern made you snort.

Meanwhile, his older brother threw his head back and groaned in discontent, plopping down on the couch and crossing his arms in protest.

‘’ For how long? ‘’

‘’ I don’t know yet. Don’t be rude. ‘’

Soobin pressed on the control and the large flat TV screen lit up. You almost ticked your tongue and shook your head. Of course he was a Disney nerd.

He turned around, looking childishly excited, and came over to sit down next to you. The movie quite quickly became forgotten, serving as background noise while you and Soobin passionately fought over the snacks.

‘’ I’ll go make you kids some food. ‘’ Yeonjun said, rolling his eyes at the two of you, and leaving you and Soobin alone in the living room.

Soobin craned his neck to check that his older brother had really left before turning to you. There was something he had wanted to tell you for a long time.

‘’ Does he not like me? ‘’

He smiled knowingly and shook his head. ‘’ It’s not that, I promise. ‘’

‘’ Then…did he have a rough childhood or something? ‘’ you sarcastically joked as you didn’t like when people used that as an excuse to be rude.

‘’ Something like that. ‘’

You caught the way his tone sounded borderline uncomfortable so you cleared your throat awkwardly. ‘’ Sorry, I was just joking.

‘’ His friend got bullied when he was in middle school. I’m sure he just feels a bit- well, vulnerable around you. ‘’ 

You weren’t sure how to respond so you just hummed, it was your turn to feel uncomfortable as Soobin was determined to continue no matter what.

‘’ He really struggled to see him like that. There wasn’t much he could do. When he went to the principal he was shut down, told that it was just ‘ friends playing around ‘. Later he found out their parents were pretty rich though, and at least one of them was a part of the anti-bullying committee. ‘’ Soobin shook his head, sighing while a sour expression overtook his face.

‘’ If he confronted them, they wouldn’t beat him. No, they were different, almost psychos despite being kids. They would bully his friend harder instead, knowing it would push Yeonjun away from him because he wanted to protect his friend. In the end, he was lonely. Everyone he loved watched from a distance, knowing that if they intervened it would get even worse. ‘’

‘’ What happened after they graduated then? Did he never get his justice or revenge? ‘’

Soobin looked away from you, his heart felt heavy.

‘’ No. He never did. ‘’

Silence filled up the living room. Hearing that both made you feel incredibly sorry for Yeonjun and also anxious for your fate. Would it be the same as that boy? Would Soobin have to suffer the same way - by the sidelines watching helplessly just like his brother?

You raised your head, noticing he wasn’t completely finished with his heartbreaking story. He had to hurry because the rummaging in the kitchen had stopped, indicating Yeonjun was on his way back.

‘’ It had a very unhappy ending. Remember when I said I recognized the look in your eyes when you were walking to the rooftop? ‘’

Your heart sunk. ‘’ Yeah…’’ 

Did you even really want to hear the next part? 

‘’ He saw that one night. While walking home from school. So just like I did, he followed his friend to a rooftop. ‘’

‘’ He wasn’t as lucky as you were? ‘’ you filled in when he got quiet again.

He nodded, a somber look on his face.

‘’ But, he didn’t jump though. ‘’

You frowned.

‘’ What? What do you mean? ‘’

‘’ He was pushed. ‘’

This time the silence was deadly, stretching on for several minutes. On the other side of the wall, Yeonjun was leaning against it, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

‘’ Did he get justice?

‘’ No. Of course not. The rich and powerful always get away with it. Yeonjun went to the police station but when they arrived, a bunch of black cars were already there. Took about ten minutes of inspecting before they concluded it was a suicide. ‘’

You felt nauseous. 

‘’ Did he…did he see who pushed him? ‘’

‘’ Yeah, it was them of course. The worst out of them all did it, and while they all freaked out, he barely flinched. As a solution, they were transferred to different schools in Seoul and it was swept under the rug. Even if Yeonjun wanted to get revenge, it would be almost impossible to find them. ‘’

‘’ Fuck, that’s heavy. ‘’ you leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, taking in everything that had been said.

‘’ I think the worst part is that nobody believed him. ‘’ you turned and saw that he was crying now, his knuckles were rubbed due to the rage he felt on the inside.

Breathlessly you watched him. You hadn’t seen Soobin like this yet.

‘’ What do you mean? ‘’ you softly whispered and tried to reach out for him.

He let you take his hand, and you rubbed his knuckles instead, but in a more calming and loving manner.

‘’ Since those fuckers cleaned it up neatly, his parents fought a lot about it. When he told them, crying out and looking for support, his mom didn’t believe him, but his dad did. So they got divorced. Then, his dad met my mom. ‘’ 

He ruffled his hair and scoffed. ‘’ Turns out his dad didn’t really believe him either after all. One night he got drunk and confessed he had an affair and just wanted a reason for divorce. ‘’

Your other hand wrapped around his shoulder.

‘’ But you believed him. ‘’

Soobin nodded. The endless tears had started to stain his shirt.

‘’ Of course I did. He’s my brother. ‘’ he mumbled, pain coloring his voice.

‘’ Is that…why you were so quick to help me? ‘’

‘’ I thought that if I couldn’t help him then, well…’’

Struggling to find the words, you filled in for him. ‘’ Then you could help others, to prevent it from happening again? ‘’

He grimaced. ‘’ I haven’t been successful so far. People don’t really believe in me. ‘’

You felt his words sting. It hit a little too close to home and you found yourself feeling guilty for doubting him like everyone else had.

‘’ I’m sorry. ‘’

Soobin let out an airy laugh, knowing what you were thinking of.

‘’ Don’t apologize, you let me in the end, didn’t you? ‘’

You smiled shyly. ‘’ Yeah. I guess so. ‘’

He smiled too, warmth spreading all over his face. But it faded quite suddenly as he had to look away. Why was his heart beating so fast?

-

-

I can't tag some of u and idk why tumblr is being a bitch??? does anyone know how I can fix this??)

taglist; @peaceout97, @ayadikreino, @beoms-sugar, @keikeu, @sunghoonnsupremacy, @lilyalone, @roses-and-blue-perennial-salvia, @eunchaesmileyface, @nunugget, @seunns, @nshmrarki, @huening-ly

[justasecretflower]

🤍- ouran host club with a Pregnant! S/o

Characters are all older.

Ouran! High school host club

~fluff.

Honey Senpai🍰

- He’s so sweet with you!

- you guys eat cake with each other 24/7

- offers to carry you everywhere if your feet hurt, he’s insanely strong and can lift you up easily.

- gets you all of your cravings.

- lets you hold his bunny when you have mood swings💕

- gets the baby their own bunny before they’re born with the name you picked embroidered on the ear.

- when you cry, he cries.

- you’re crying because you can’t have a craving? So is he, you’re crying because you just saw a video of a baby seal? So is he, you’re crying because you love the baby you haven’t even met yet? So is he, also he’s holding onto the ultrasound with a death grip

- speaks to your belly alllll the time like atp if people are around him they’d think an actual, real adult was speaking to him he’s so engaged in the little conversations with your belly.

“Hmm should we have strawberry or coconut cake first baby…let’s choose both!”

“You know I’ve been so excited to meet you, me and your momma. Look! Here’s a picture of you!” As he shows your belly and ultrasound

“Good morning baby, how are we feeling today?”

“Goodnight baby! Dont give your mommy a hard time this night alright?” He would whisper, kissing your belly goodnight with a bright smile.

- if someone makes you cry or feel insecure about having a big belly he just gives them a look and they run away.

-cries when he sees the tiny baby clothes.

Tamaki Suoh 🌹

- he’s so dramatic 🙄ughhh

- “are your feet tired my love?! You’ve walked 20 minutes already today! Your feet must hurt my baby must be kicking in there ready to rest!”

“Someone get my darling a foot massage and a back massage spa day booked right now please! She must be hurting all over!”

- he’s making sure you don’t move an inch.

- knows more about what you should and should not do pregnant more than you do?

- gets all of your cravings x10. Like, you want some corn? Suddenly, there’s fried corn, corn on the cob, corn off the cob, creamed corn, popcorn, corn and beans, corn on some mashed potatoes. Everywhere, and you best bet they’re the best corn that they could possibly get.

- he finds your bump so cute, you have new maternity pictures every month with a new theme he puts on the wall blown up in size.

- girl dad. Just saying…

- sometimes he just randomly stops his whole charming prince act, gets on his knees and hugs your bump, sighing in contentment.

- spoils the baby rotten before they’re even here.

Kyoya Ootori

-now..you’re not gonna like this but he’s a little disconnected to the child until he meets them irl.

- like, he just finds the kid a tiny bump on his wife’s belly.

-sometimes, you’ll catch him staring at the ultrasound, tracing the outline of the baby carefully.

- he hates getting woken up, but if you’re sick in the middle of the night he’s immediately at your side rubbing your back and asking for some staff to help.

- researches about all of your symptoms, cravings, mood swings, what happens to the body during pregnancy and during the after math in postpartum.

- already has a therapist and a calm down room for you if you get ppd or ppr so that you can simply feel at peace.

-he cares more about you ngl.

“My dear no- you can’t deli meat like that it’s highly risky for salmonella. Put it back now.”

Kaoru Hitachiin

- cries so hard when you found out. Just fell to his knees and started crying.

- he’s more open about his feelings, much softer than his brother, so he’ll talk to the bump and tell you everything he’s feeling, asking in turn how you’re feeling as well and if you need anything.

- very very understanding of your pain.

“I know, I know, you’ll be okay, I understand that it hurts right now though”

“Hey we’ll get through this, what do you need right now?”

When you throw up or are having severe back and feet pains.

- doesn’t let anybody comment or joke about your belly if it makes you insecure. He kisses it and tells you how much he loves you and your belly.

Hikaru Hitachiin

- you’ve never seen him so serious in your entire life.

-it’s like he’s a different person?,.

- he’s extra careful, makes sure you’re protected and feel safe.

-he jokes with you when you feel like you’re in pain or when you’re throwing up to make you feel better.

- finds you absolutely radient when pregnant lemme say..

“It’s so small!” When holding up baby clothes.

- puts his headphones on your belly to have your baby listen to music.

- when you try to do anything that you used to do like play fight or pillow fights he’ll barely even use strength.

“Come on Hikaru you seriously can’t even aim for me anymore?”

“I was! It just went the other way!”

“Hikaru it’s in the bathroom toilet.”

- keeps the ultrasound in his wallet.

Takashi Morinozuka

- 100% your #1 protector

- you’re not lifting a finger near anything that’s easily breakable or that can hurt you.

- one of the times you saw him break the non chalent act is when you first saw the ultrasound. He took a breath in and his eyes lightly lit up

- you’re never on the ground. Like, he’s always carrying you everywhere..

“Mori i can walk you know.”

Mori- “😒…”

- loves to feel the baby kick! He will literally sprint over to you if you say that the baby is kicking

“Mori do you think I’m fat?”

“No.”

“You😭definitely 😭 do😭”

“😟…”

Cuddles, cuddles, cuddles, he cannot get OFF OF YOU!!

- spooning you, he’s big spoon ofc, hugging you from behind, having your legs wrapped around his waist, carrying you bridal style.

Ritsu Kasanoda

-sobbed when he found out you were pregnant

-he’s such a softie like

- he crotchets the baby plushies

- gets the baby blankets, pillows, stuff for their wall, so much stuff, so many toys…

- when he smiles the biggest is when he’s leaning his head on your belly and stroking it gently, talking to the little one inside.

- constantly worried about what’s good or bad for you.

- “hi honey, how’re you feeling today?”

“My precious baby inside of this belly.”

“I’d burn the world for you and I haven’t even met you yet precious baby.”

-his staff is terrified, if they make even the slightest comment about your belly negatively.

-if someone does certainly they’re a rookie because nobody from his syndicate would say that.

- sobs when he goes to ultrasounds with you.

- reads parenting books. Tries to. He can’t focus for that long but when he can he’s reading parenting books.

need requests so bad

Tags

[billlydear]

How would Billy be when it came to asking you to a school dance or prom? Fluffy as you would like it :)

HC - BILLY HARGROVE ASKING YOU TO PROM

W.C 734 - INBOX (please request) - CREDIT TO GIF OWNER

a/n not to reuse a gif/header so fast but it fit too well 😅

i really, honestly think he'd make it a game - he'd ask you after school if you were planning on watching that night's basketball game, and if you said no, he'd ask you to please come and watch him.

you're flustered, of course, because you've really never even talked to him before! but you suppose the worst that could happen is nothing, he could just ignore you the entire time. so you give in, you promise you'll be there, and his smile is breathtaking

it's much different from the typical smirk he's always wearing, and something about it sends butterflies swarming through your stomach

you definitely try to look nice, but casual for the game. something that, if unnecessary, could be played off as just a good mood. after all, it's still a high school basketball game in a stuffy gym.

billy definitely has his fair share of admirers in the stands, moreso than steve, who's probably not used to the shift in attention yet. you would feel bad, but you're too focused on billy.

he definitely notices, too. he comes out bare-chested, shirt god-knows-where in the locker room, not even giving himself a chance at modesty. and he's giving 110% to the game, running more than he has to and taking risky plays that somehow always end up in his favor.

it means that there's a sheen of sweat over his upper half, dripping down his neck and matting his curls down by his face. it gathers at his pecs and you're sure that if he was wearing a shirt, he'd lift it to wipe his face and subsequently show off his stomach.

after every impressive feat he's glancing at you, having sought you out in the stands before the game even started. sometimes he offers you a wave, which you hesitantly return, other times he just grins, maybe a wink here and there. but you're definitely on his mind for the night, you know that.

it happens when hawkins is almost defeated, behind by just one lucky shot. and you're not sure how billy has such confidence in him (read: it's not just confidence, it's his ego), but he cups his hands around his mouth, shouts up at you, and all eyes are on you.

"If I make this," He gestures to the hoop, chest heaving with adrenaline and shining under the lights of the gym, "Will you go to prom with me?"

you think it’s pretty high stakes, considering he’s betting the winning shot on your date. what if he misses? but if there’s one thing Billy Hargrove has it’s the audacity, and you know it. You nod, trying to ignore the glares and jealous whispers of his fan club.

he just grins, and of course, by some heaven-sent miracle, he makes the shot.

everyone goes wild. not only because he won the game, but because now he has a date. the rest of the team is all piling on him, shaking his shoulder and slapping his back and whooping

you’re sure half of them are only congratulating him on a potential hookup, not a date, but you’re hoping it’s not like that

the team stays on the floor for a bit and he catches you before you go, still sweaty and flushed. he jogs up the bleachers, and he asks if you really meant it, if you’re actually gonna go with him. you say yes, but you admit that you’re hesitant because you’ve never really talked to him before

he understands. his shoulders go up in a little shrug and he goes ‘yeah, you never really turn around in class. I see you a lot, though, I wanted to get to know you.’

you’re still a little nervous. but he seems genuine, there’s none of that Hargrove cockiness oozing from him like it usually is, despite having just won the game and a date. he’s smiling, not smirking, and he doesn’t try to kiss you or anything, just grabs your jacket and helps you into it

he’s hoisting it up over your shoulders, and tucking it tight to your frame, which means he’s close behind you. his chin hovers over your shoulder and your breath hitches, but if he notices, he doesn’t tease you for it.

‘you can choose our matching colors,’ he offers, tugging lightly on the hem of your blue shirt, ‘but I think you look fan-fucking-tastic in blue.’

[hannahmanderr]

ACTUALLY WAIT I ASKED FOR DANNY AND DAMON SO I ALSO HAVE TO ASK FOR VALERIE AND JACK AND MADDIE to make it fair 😌

(affectionately calling this Duly Deputized Hunting)

part 1 ~ part 2 ~ part 3

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

"So!" Jack clapped his hands together, nearly making Valerie jump from the sound. "I bet Danny told you all about the Fenton EctoScrambler, huh? Did you want a demonstration? I mean yeah, we're not using actual ghosts as test subjects anymore of course, but we can still -"

"That's okay!" Valerie said, throwing her hands up with a kind smile. "I already heard about it from Danny." That was a lie, but hopefully neither Fenton parent would pick up on her fidgety fingers and bouncing leg.

She would lose whatever nerve she'd gathered before coming here if she got sidetracked now.

Maddie, thank God, could see the somewhat unrestrained panic in her eyes. She laid a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder. "Honey, let's not overwhelm her. I'm sure I heard Danny say something about demonstrating it to her later this week." Valerie relaxed and met Maddie's eyes. A knowing twinkle glimmered behind the older woman's irises, a twinkle that carried the experience of taming her husband's energetic zeal. "You said you had something to ask us on the phone?"

And just like that, Valerie's heart rate skyrocketed again. She picked at the edge of her sweater, desperately wishing she had something to tinker with. "Yeah. I mean, yes. Only if that's okay, of course." She nearly smacked her forehead. Way to play it cool, Gray.

"Of course!" Jack said with a hearty laugh. "Why wouldn't it be okay? You're practically family! Danny's brought you 'round often enough, you should know that by now." He shot an exaggerated wink to Valerie as Maddie gasped "Jack!" and nudged him in the arm.

Valerie's face flushed warm, though strangely not from Jack's teasing. You're practically family echoed in her mind, sending an electric warmth down her spine and across her whole body.

It wasn't as though Jack and Maddie had never accepted her. Far from it, in fact; they'd been ecstatic to finally discover that the famed Amity Park Huntress was, in fact, one of their son's classmates, and his girlfriend at that. Jack in particular had been thrilled that there were more from the "younger generations" interested in taking up ghost hunting.

And both of them had supported her ceaselessly. They'd sponsored a paid internship for her the moment she'd gotten her high school diploma. Helped navigate her out of her contract with Vlad. Continued to provide her with whatever tech and repairs she needed, even after her internship technically ended. Designed gear specially for her.

It was more than she could've ever dreamed. After Danny had told her about how rough it had been getting them to let him keep up with his ghost fighting after they learned of his secret ("Of course I'm grateful they don't hate me," he'd told her, "I just wish they could be slightly less overbearing with their love."), she'd expected them to stick her with lectures about the dangers of the job and how she should be leaving such risky endeavors to the grown-up professionals.

She couldn't have been happier to have had her expectations blown out of the water.

"It means so much to hear you say that," she said, her voice beginning to tremble with emotion. Darn it, keep it together girl! "You two have done so much for me and taken me under your wing, and you've gotten nothing in return."

Maddie scoffed. "Don't be silly." She took the hand on Jack's shoulder and reached across his lap to lay it on top of Valerie's. The kind smile on Maddie's face nearly melted her heart all over again. "Not only have we gotten to see our Danny happier than he's ever been, getting to spend his time with you, but we've gotten to see you grow into a bright, beautiful young lady. That alone is entirely worth it." Jack nodded eagerly beside her.

Now the tears were truly threatening to fall, and Valerie Gray did not cry. She sniffed and took a deep breath. "These past years with Danny, getting to know you and Jazz and be a part of your family, they've been the best of my life. I know Daddy wasn't exactly keen on letting me hang out here too much at first, but he knows this whole family cares about me almost as much as he does.

"And I care about you too. I seriously can't even begin to describe everything you've done for me. I didn't even need to ask; you just did it." Another sniffle. "It's like you somehow knew what I needed before I even asked."

Maddie's smile faltered just slightly. "Well," she said slowly, "I wouldn't say that was entirely the case..."

"It was Danny," Jack said. "We wanted to help you, of course, but he was the one to tell us exactly what you needed. Kid was always fretting about how you wouldn't accept the help if it came from him, but he just loved you so much. He wanted to make sure everything was perfect for you."

Valerie's breath caught in her throat. "Danny..." she whispered.

God, she was going to strangle that boy the next time she saw him. And then kiss him like there was no tomorrow.

Breathe girl. In and out. "He's... he's done so much for me too. I wouldn't be who I am without him." In and out. "I can't imagine my life without him." In and out. "I don't think I want to live life without him."

Maddie jolted upright. "Oh my..." she breathed. "Are you saying...?"

"Yes." The tears were falling uncontrollably now, but Valerie's smile felt like it could split her face. "Yes, I absolutely am."

"What?" Jack looked back and forth between the two women. "What's she saying? What are you saying?"

Maddie had started crying too, clutching Valerie's hand in one of her own and Jack's with the other. "She wants to join our family," she said through her own tears.

"Really? That's what this is all about? Well heck, what's all the fuss for then? Like I said, you're already part of the family, Val!"

In spite of herself, Valerie giggled. "No, no," she said with a shake of her head. "I'm saying... I'm saying I want to spend every day with Danny. I want to be a part of his life forever, and I want him to be part of mine. I want to get to share you as parents, and Jazz as a sister. I don't care what might happen, I just know I want me and Danny to face it, together, for the rest of our lives.

She took another deep breath. "I'm asking for your blessing to ask Danny to marry me."

Valerie suddenly found herself engulfed by the warm embrace of two sobbing Fenton parents.

Soon to be her parents too.

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

part 2 here

[beloved-daydreams]

Folktober2023 Prompt: "Horror movie marathon" 🎬📺 Friday 13th October

An attempt by

Hosted by @jurdannet and @jurdannetrevels

📘1 500+ words

😎Characters: Jude, Cardan, Vivi, Taryn and Oak.

✒️Tags: Jurdan, fluff, wholesome, quality time, familial bonds, implied TarynXThe Ghost/Larkin

Was made in a hurry so it might have some errors but you’ll deal with it 💖

✏️✏️✏️

Last week, Vivi came to visit completely unannounced. A movie marathon for Halloween! She said. It'll be fun! She assured us. Taryn tried to turn her down at first, being 7 months into her pregnancy, she understandably found the idea risky. But Vivi being Vivi, she would not give up. And frankly, Taryn did need some family time and support. With no parents, no siblings and no husband by her side, although she doesn’t want to admit it, it must surely be difficult.

Meanwhile, Cardan immediately agreed despite our status. The High Queen and High King going to the mortal world only to watch movies? It’s a rather shameless behavior to display so soon, but Vivi said it makes us audacious for some reason that I didn't quite understand. The audacity! Or whatever.

Though to be completely honest, I'm pretty sure Cardan only wants to go for the caramel popcorn and to see Oak again. Oak who's now the only member of his "lineage" that he more or less appreciates. I'm worried. Nephew and uncle are maybe starting to get along too much. When Vivi found out Oak had punched a kid at school, instead of feeling sorry or ashamed Oak said "Someone who doesn’t respect others shouldn't complain about getting payback." Cardan said it wasn't his fault and it sounded more like something I would say. I beg to differ but he likes my begging so I just agreed and moved on. Vivi noted that he’s turning out to be a sassy child.

Now, we're lying down on the carpet while Taryn and Oak are on the sofa, Vivi is making the popcorn. She still isn't entirely back to being together-together with Heather. Should've figured, if she were I don't think she would've invited us. I hope things turn out well for them.

"Who wants it with caramel!?" Vivi asks from the kitchen, her head tilted to the side from the doorway so she can see us.

Cardan and Taryn lazily raise their hands.

"Who wants it salted?"

Oak and I raise our hands. Cardan looks at Oak like he’s incredibly brave for that, I roll my eyes. Salt only reduces or stops a fae’s ability to use magic for a limited amount of time, it’s not that big of a deal. I swear Cardan loves to overreact and exaggerate the dumbest things. The other day, I came back dragging the head of a traitor behind me to show the folk they can trust me to protect them. Meanwhile, Cardan said, "You know I love you but please think about the smell it’ll leave on the carpets." Well, Cardan dear, we’re King and Queen, we can get new carpets anytime if the smell doesn’t wear off. Also, Taryn is terrific at home decor anyway, I bet she enjoys decorating and redecorating our halls.

Oak puts his small hand on Taryn’s belly, then his ear against it. He’s excited at the idea of becoming an "unkie" to his future niece like Cardan is to him.

As soon as Vivi’s back with the popcorn, the movie starts. The good thing about watching movies at home is that you won’t be done with the popcorn before the commercials end. And although she’s the one who invited us, she keeps talking over the movie’s beginning, asking us how we’re doing and what stuff has been going on in our "fairytale hellhole." Then it quickly goes to the uncomfortable questions.

"So. Rynryn, I heard that a half-fae dude has the hots for you. How’s that going?"

Taryn cringes.

"Oh please, Larkin is ridiculous. Trying to court a widowed woman who’s still pregnant with the child of her late husband? He has no delicacy."

Cardan raises an eyebrow.

"The husband who died by the hands of his wife, you mean." I hit him on the shoulder and he utters a fake sounding ow. Oak is right there, I widen my eyes at him to make him understand but what’s done is done. Oak turns to Taryn once again.

"Why did you kill your husband?" Oak asks curiously with no discernible malice in his gaze or voice. Taryn smiles politely.

"He didn’t bear for me the kind of love that satisfied me nor did he treat my opinions and feelings with enough respect. And you know what that means?"

"People with no respect deserve payback!"

Taryn smiles and puts her hand on Oak’s horned head to praise him. Cardan and I look at each other a bit astonished. So that behavior partly came from Taryn, huh. I’m afraid that at this rate, he’ll become an amalgamation of all of our personalities. No matter. Vivi presses a bit further, putting Taryn back on track which only results in complaints from Taryn’s part.

"I swear he only ever wears plain and boring outfits, even for revels and casual occasions. Not to mention he has no common sense, poor table manners and his attempts at flirting are horrid, frustrating and awkward. How is he supposed to be a spy and assassin if he can’t even put two and two together? No way can he gain the trust of any of his targets that way." She suspiciously over-explains everything wrong with Larkin. Vivi smiles at her knowingly.

"Hmm. I don’t know, to me it sounds like he already caught his target." Vivi says.

"Why are you paying so much attention to him?" Oak chimes in with more accusations.

Taryn shifts her attention back to the TV, a furrow forming on her eyebrows. She tells us we should focus on the movie instead of whatever she thinks of Larkin. Which is none of our business, by the way. And so we do, we watch. Cardan seems to display no particular difficulty in understanding the images and plot but he’s much more entertained by the popcorn. That is until it runs out and he lets himself get swept away. His tail stands up straight like a cat’s every time he’s surprised by the sudden sounds or imagery, namely the jumpscares. It’s cute how his face doesn’t show his fear at all, he seems to be completely unphased if you ignore the tail. I suppose it must’ve been why he hid it all those years. It puts his emotions on display. Making his feelings obvious.

Near the middle, Oak is too tired to continue watching. Vivi puts him to bed. Near the end, Vivi and Taryn somehow manage to fall asleep on the couch. Vivi most likely because she’s not scared of horror movies in the first place, and Taryn because our presence hopefully calmed her down. In the end, this was mainly for us to get together again. Vivi may be clumsy with her words sometimes, but she’s still the same older sister who hugged us when we got into trouble or scraped our knees while falling on the concrete grounds of our neighborhood. I sigh.

While trying to get up, Cardan stops me. He whispers.

"Let’s sleep here."

I widen my eyes at him.

"On the floor?"

"On the carpet, dear."

I roll my eyes.

"I’m sure Vivi won’t mind if we borrow her bed for the night, as long as…" I don’t finish but Cardan gives me a sly smile nonetheless which makes me hit his shoulder lightly.

We get up and I properly tuck Vivi and Taryn in, leaving them to sleep comfortably on the sofa. Then we go to Vivi’s room and make the bed together. Well. "Make" is a big word, we’re both embarrassingly inept at tidying things up since our attendants do it for us. We just cover the bed with a cover we’ll sleep on, tucked in under another new cover so we don’t have to truly "get" into her bed.

As we lay there about to fall asleep, Cardan attempts to talk to me before I manage to make my way into dreamland, as he often does.

"Don’t you miss such things? Movies, popcorn, late night talks with your siblings? We could do that more often."

I smile and grab his tail, pulling it to my front so I can play with the tuft to fall asleep faster. It relaxes me. Cardan has enough only with hugging me, his arms just under my chest, and if his hands wander around to go higher when I’m too tired, I hit them away and he gets the hint.

"It’s fine. I believe it’s better for me to slowly move away from that, eventually we could try meeting in Faerie all together. There won’t be movies anymore, but the food can be brought here."

I’m not sure what face Cardan is making right now, but I think he didn’t like that answer judging by how his tail is flailing around.

"Don’t give up on that. I wish I always had that." He pauses then squeezes me tighter in his arms. "Or is it because of…"

I want my body to stay strong and healthy. My case is arguably completely different from other humans since I’m the Queen, but I’m not willing to risk it. When I reach my mid thirties or so, I’m thinking of stopping my trips to the human world. I hold onto Cardan’s tail in confirmation. And as I start to believe this might be the end of the conversation, he says one last thing before we fall asleep.

"We could try to install electricity in Faerie…"

I smile.

✏️✏️✏️

Please consider leaving comments and/or tags! Love you 🫵🫶

(And before you ask, yes I made the silly banner myself because I wanna look cool and semi-pro 😤) Tell me it’s working lmao

[theerurishipper]

Ok I am going to be controversial. If I'm honest, I don’t really understand the desire for Adrien to turn his back on Ladybug at the end of Strikeback. That's partly because I don't completely get what the writers intended Adrien’s struggle to be about in Season 4. I understand what Ladybug did wrong, but my thing is…

Does CN ever actually express to LB why he is upset in Season 4? Does he ever try to reason with her or advocate for himself?

I don’t remember him approaching the real issue until they were under Risk’s influence and he says “maybe that’s because you never tell me anything.”  I also remember that overall fallout feeling really muddy throughout the season.

From what I see, Chat Noir’s most valid reason for being upset is because she’s keeping him, her loyal partner, at a distance. She’s not communicating as well to the point that he ends up confused, outside of the plan a few times. He finds out she told someone her identity even though she's always been massively against that. Toward the end, he discovers she’s been working with an active Rena Furtive without making him aware. She said nothing between them would change, but he can sense this new distance and her secrecy. He doesn't quite know what to make of it, but he can't help but feel a bit betrayed. He deserves at least to know things like when a new Ladybug shows up at random or a secret miraculous holder being in the field with them.

So you'd think that would be the clear cut reason, but I'm not sure? The writing gives mixed messages and Adrien brings a lot of his own baggage to the table. The increased neglect and secrecy by Ladybug is one facet , but if we’re being honest about what we were shown, there are some more factors:

The side effects of the guardianship in itself. The nature of the guardianship means Ladybug is now a leader responsible for the kwami and involving many more holders. More holders make defeating Monarch easier and Paris more safe, but it also means less time as a duo and more competition to play on CN’s insecurity. He worried about his being replaced as early as Season 3 with Carapace. His insecurity is exacerbated by her distance, but also by more holders in general. The average person might not have been as upset at getting a "break" for a few rounds, but to Adrien, it's a sign that he is finally being replaced. Even if he knew about Rena Furtive, I’m willing to bet he still would have felt uneasy about her threatening their relationship.

He is in love with her. Kuro Neko’s messaging is all over the place, but Plagg wasn’t completely wrong. Ladybug’s increased distance and secrecy hurts 50 times worse because Chat Noir is in love with her. If he were in love with Marinette instead at that point, he might even enjoy the extra load off and having fun with his friends at school, but he is very much in love with Ladybug. That makes his suffering hit much harder.

He’s upset about Carapace and Rena Rouge knowing each other's identities even though he can’t know Ladybug’s. To be fair, I rate the other holders' identities BS pretty low on my list of things to rage at Ladybug about because after Season 3 when all the heroes were revealed and Ladybug continued to give the same heroes their miraculous while also still being really anxious over identities, it was so nonsensical that I chalked it up to plot convenience rather than Marinette just being this stupid and risky. The show was not about to design new hero models so logic be damned. I don’t blame her for this anymore than I blame Chat Noir for being stupidly bad in battle at random a.k.a nerfed to make Ladybug look better. I also acknowledge the rules for the Ladybug and Cat miraculous hold an elevated risk. If Monarch knows Rena and Carapace identities he maybe has two new miraculous. If he knows Ladybug and Cat’s identities, he has his wish and the world is rewritten. 

His father also started neglecting him more after a big change in their lives. He’s projected his relationship with his father onto his relationship with Ladybug as early as Glaciator when she didn’t make it to his date. So possible PTSD.

There are also the reasons that the fandom projects onto Adrien as things he 'should' be upset about, but is never actually upset about and have never had any canon ground:

She’s the leader and the only holder with a cure. They’ve never been exactly equal despite that one line and he’s never had an issue with this on the battlefield. He only wants to know what’s going on. If he does have some leftover resentment at Fu not choosing or training him, his beef is with Fu.

He doesn’t know other holders identities. He’s only ever cared to know Ladybug’s. And this may be controversial opinion, but even if he wanted Ladybug to tell him the other holders’ identities, would he be justified in that? He’s not a guardian. Why is he entitled to demand the guardian hand them over? Especially without their permission?

Her plan with Luka to reveal their identities and erase his memory. This is to me her most egregious offense in season 4 and if he knew about it, it would make the argument against his forgiveness much stronger in my eyes. But he doesn’t. And it becomes obsolete information after the episode.

Even with all these heavy factors, all valid reasons to be upset, the only reason that validates righteous anger from CN’s pov and doesn’t make him look like kind of a tool is her secrecy around Rena Furtive and him discovering her keeping him out of the loop on some need to know info in Hacksan and one or two other eps. Emotionally, it goes much deeper than this for him. But these represent her responsibility in the matter.

The reason I can't see him justified in cutting ties with her in Strikeback though is that... this doesn't come up? He can't say he's tried to communicate with her. Nothing like “you’re keeping things I need to know from me and I don’t like it” or “you said things wouldn’t change between us as partners but you’ve distanced yourself from me. we started this together”. Nothing before Strikeback. I could see if he'd tried to talk about it and she dismissed him and didn’t try to fix things. But there’s no conversation around this in particular.

The weird thing is a lot of the other reasons come up in canon through his voice or someone else’s or both. He’s in love with her. He doesn't know what he'd do without her. All the new partners make him feel insecure and irrelevant. Why can’t we know each others’ identity and they can? In other words, the reasons that make him seem overemotional and self centered. These reasons also all center her or the desire for her love and adoration rather than his feelings as her partner. That’s what’s highlighted in Season 4.

But the actual legit criticism and bone to be picked with Ladybug herself does not come out of his mouth until he is under Risk's influence. Even then, it’s a one-liner. I don’t remember him ever actually trying to touch on the real problem with her prior to that. He either smiles and shrugs it off, even when she asks if he is ok, or he lashes out and runs away.  He doesn’t breach the topic and if he doesn’t communicate it, how can they work through it? 

Kuro Neko was the perfect opportunity to have Adrien really vent, but the initial argument is a textbook miscommunication. He shows up smiling over his pain and cracking jokes. Therefore she doesn’t realize how upset he is. Then he pushes the subject even though she’s out of time and she snaps at him for not listening. Hurt, he snaps back and runs. Plagg blames it on heartbreak alone. Ladybug takes that bait and laments that there’s nothing she can do but dote on him a bit because hey he’s just heartbroken. She's not responsible for his unrequited love. At the end, he never mentions the legitimate issues and nothing is ever wrapped up. That’s where I start to think, did the writers even mean for him feeling diminished as a ‘partner’ to be a real issue? Did they intend for this to be a lovesick issue from the start?

I don’t think this is just on Ladybug being impossible to talk to because of some vibe she sends out or her making sad face. Chat Noir has been pretty cross with Ladybug before over other less justified matters and she didn’t crumble or smote him. She did throw him in the trash but that took 4 seasons of being calm and reasonable in the face of some behavior that wasn’t always great on his part. He is usually the one supporting her, but she managed not to meltdown while he was struggling in Guilttrip and Reverser and support him.  She’s not glass and she’s not his father and I think he knows that on some level. I think his lack of communication is partially his upbringing.

But mostly, he's just written to undermine himself. Ladybug isn’t the only voice box for the writers. Adrien is too. Everyone in the show works to serve a particular narrative so it’s no wonder that his most valid complaint against Ladybug in Season 4 was buried under all of the less noble ones, even from his own lips. He needed Risk just to confront her on the part she was actually responsible for. Odd choice. I guess he wouldn’t have been the perfect boyfriend if he did it without Risk?

I think a decent percentage of the rage at LB in Season 4 is made more intense and inflated in combination with all those other factors. We as the viewers know Adrien's trauma, how starved for love he is, what little support system he has vs the act he puts on as both Adrien and Chat Noir. We know too the meta fact that the writers never allowed CN the dignity to be rightfully upset about it or voice his most valid displeasure at anytime except when he was under the influence of a villain.

Taking the show at surface level, I can see him forgiving her. I just wished they had talked about it. Adrien isn't helpless in the face of Ladybug. He's faced Gabriel. He went to school and told him he didn't want to model and opened up about feeling like his father never wants to talk to him. so I know he can be more honest with Ladybug without a villain spell. The only reason I can think of it never reaching that point is because the writers didn't want it to. Not only do I think that he would have expressed himself well and honestly enough if given the moment, but I think there’s a good chance Ladybug would have tried to fix things if she actually knew what he was upset about and didn't reduce it to 'he's in love with me.' Which I can't completely blame her for. She had help from both Plagg and Adrien.

Maybe that’s just me being wishful about the blorbos, but my early season blorbos are better than their later season counterparts. The latter just seem like shills for a plot that doesn't match them.

I really miss early Adrien anyhow. He took a lot more flack then because he messed up more because he actually had a personality that allowed him to disagree and have sassy moments. Sometimes he was right, sometimes wrong, but at least he felt more layered. 

Whew, this is a long ask! I'll take this part by part.

Ok I am going to be controversial. If I'm honest, I don’t really understand the desire for Adrien to turn his back on Ladybug at the end of Strikeback. That's partly because I don't completely get what the writers intended Adrien’s struggle to be about in Season 4. I understand what Ladybug did wrong, but my thing is…

The thing is, I don't want him to turn his back on Ladybug in Strikeback. I've said before that I love that scene. What spoils is for me is that the conflict is never addressed after that episode, and it just makes it come off as Chat Noir pushing away his hurt to be there for Ladybug once more. Like he just accepted that he'll be treated in ways he doesn't like. The scene in isolation is one of my favorites, but it's how the aftermath was dealt with that makes it bad.

Does CN ever actually express to LB why he is upset in Season 4? Does he ever try to reason with her or advocate for himself? I don’t remember him approaching the real issue until they were under Risk’s influence and he says “maybe that’s because you never tell me anything.”  I also remember that overall fallout feeling really muddy throughout the season.

You're partially right. He doesn't really try to actually talk with her until Risk/Strikeback. And part of this is because of his own trauma. But the other part of it is also because Ladybug has also become more and more unapproachable over the course of the season. When he does try to approach her in some way, he gets shut down.

You're pretty spot on about the other reasons for why he feels the way he does.

There are also the reasons that the fandom projects onto Adrien as things he 'should' be upset about, but is never actually upset about and have never had any canon ground: She’s the leader and the only holder with a cure. They’ve never been exactly equal despite that one line and he’s never had an issue with this on the battlefield. He only wants to know what’s going on. If he does have some leftover resentment at Fu not choosing or training him, his beef is with Fu.

I agree that any resentment he feels for Fu not training him isn't Marinette's fault.

This is getting long, so I'll put the rest of it under the cut.

He doesn’t know other holders identities. He’s only ever cared to know Ladybug’s. And this may be controversial opinion, but even if he wanted Ladybug to tell him the other holders’ identities, would he be justified in that? He’s not a guardian. Why is he entitled to demand the guardian hand them over? Especially without their permission?

So, he isn't entitled to their identities. I personally think he would have been justified in wanting to know before Season 4, but it's not really that way anymore. But in any case, that isn't the issue. The issue is Ladybug playing loose and fast with the rules, allowing others to know their identities and even revealing her own identity to someone else while making sure that Chat Noir sticks to the rules. He has a right to be upset about that.

Her plan with Luka to reveal their identities and erase his memory. This is to me her most egregious offense in season 4 and if he knew about it, it would make the argument against his forgiveness much stronger in my eyes. But he doesn’t. And it becomes obsolete information after the episode.

The point is that it shouldn't have become obsolete. She was going to do something awful to him. I don't think it should have been thrown aside. He should know about it. She's shown that she's willing to take advantage of his trust and she never actually learnt any lesson about not doing that or that it was wrong. He's entitled to information about her actions that could potentially have harmed him. That's something she should admit to.

The reason I can't see him justified in cutting ties with her in Strikeback though is that... this doesn't come up? He can't say he's tried to communicate with her. Nothing like “you’re keeping things I need to know from me and I don’t like it” or “you said things wouldn’t change between us as partners but you’ve distanced yourself from me. we started this together”. Nothing before Strikeback. I could see if he'd tried to talk about it and she dismissed him and didn’t try to fix things. But there’s no conversation around this in particular.

I think the reason for this is clear in your own next paragraph. I will say again that him cutting ties with her in Strikeback is not something that I want.

The weird thing is a lot of the other reasons come up in canon through his voice or someone else’s or both. He’s in love with her. He doesn't know what he'd do without her. All the new partners make him feel insecure and irrelevant. Why can’t we know each others’ identity and they can? In other words, the reasons that make him seem overemotional and self centered. These reasons also all center her or the desire for her love and adoration rather than his feelings as her partner. That’s what’s highlighted in Season 4.

And that's exactly it. The season spends so many episodes building up this conflict between them, building up Ladybug's secret keeping and Chat Noir's increasing resentment and insecurity over the fact, and then... reduces it to him being in love with her. There are plenty of valid reasons for him to be angry with her, but Kuro Neko, the episode where the Ladynoir conflict is supposedly at an end, tells us that the reason for all this is because "Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug." I call BS.

It's a severe flaw in the writing. They reduce the conflict down to being about Chat Noir being in love with Ladybug while brushing over everything else that was set up. Him being in love with her may have been a slight factor, but it was never the main problem. If he hadn't been in love with her, he would still have the right to be pissed. Reducing it down to him being in love with her reduces the whole conflict, and Kuro Neko actually ends with Adrien saying he was too sensitive (which is Gabe rhetoric) and him apologizing to her as though she did nothing wrong at all. Kuro Neko is just... a fucking awful episode.

Kuro Neko was the perfect opportunity to have Adrien really vent, but the initial argument is a textbook miscommunication. He shows up smiling over his pain and cracking jokes. Therefore she doesn’t realize how upset he is. Then he pushes the subject even though she’s out of time and she snaps at him for not listening. Hurt, he snaps back and runs. Plagg blames it on heartbreak alone. Ladybug takes that bait and laments that there’s nothing she can do but dote on him a bit because hey he’s just heartbroken. She's not responsible for his unrequited love. At the end, he never mentions the legitimate issues and nothing is ever wrapped up. That’s where I start to think, did the writers even mean for him feeling diminished as a ‘partner’ to be a real issue? Did they intend for this to be a lovesick issue from the start?

And I think you've hit the nail right on the head. This is exactly the problem with Kuro Neko and Season 4 as a whole.

I don’t think this is just on Ladybug being impossible to talk to because of some vibe she sends out or her making sad face. Chat Noir has been pretty cross with Ladybug before over other less justified matters and she didn’t crumble or smote him. She did throw him in the trash but that took 4 seasons of being calm and reasonable in the face of some behavior that wasn’t always great on his part. He is usually the one supporting her, but she managed not to meltdown while he was struggling in Guilttrip and Reverser and support him.  She’s not glass and she’s not his father and I think he knows that on some level. I think his lack of communication is partially his upbringing.

I do sort of disagree with Ladybug being approachable. I think Glaciator 2 did do some damage. See, it's always been their dynamic to banter and for Chat Noir to flirt. Ladybug herself has enjoyed their banter and has responded to his flirtatious comments with nothing more than a small roll of her eyes. When he does it at the wrong time, she tells him to cut it out and he does. Considering that, throwing him a trashcan is unnecessarily overblown. That's way out of line. It's clearly because she's stressed out and annoyed about the situation and because of everything else going on, but him never bringing up anything so as to not upset her is a pretty reasonable interpretation after that. And it does happen again in Kuro Neko. He offers to help, she snaps at him.

The situations with Guilttrip and others like it were when it wasn't about Ladybug. She is supportive of him and she does care for him, but it's always when it's not about her. When it is about her, she never actually puts in the effort to fix the problem and just smooths over the situation (Kuro Neko, Strikeback). Of course, a lot of his lack of communication is due to his upbringing, but Ladybug is also visibly more unapproachable now.

But mostly, he's just written to undermine himself. Ladybug isn’t the only voice box for the writers. Adrien is too. Everyone in the show works to serve a particular narrative so it’s no wonder that his most valid complaint against Ladybug in Season 4 was buried under all of the less noble ones, even from his own lips. He needed Risk just to confront her on the part she was actually responsible for. Odd choice. I guess he wouldn’t have been the perfect boyfriend if he did it without Risk? I think a decent percentage of the rage at LB in Season 4 is made more intense and inflated in combination with all those other factors. We as the viewers know Adrien's trauma, how starved for love he is, what little support system he has vs the act he puts on as both Adrien and Chat Noir. We know too the meta fact that the writers never allowed CN the dignity to be rightfully upset about it or voice his most valid displeasure at anytime except when he was under the influence of a villain.

Spot on.

Taking the show at surface level, I can see him forgiving her. I just wished they had talked about it. Adrien isn't helpless in the face of Ladybug. He's faced Gabriel. He went to school and told him he didn't want to model and opened up about feeling like his father never wants to talk to him. so I know he can be more honest with Ladybug without a villain spell. The only reason I can think of it never reaching that point is because the writers didn't want it to. Not only do I think that he would have expressed himself well and honestly enough if given the moment, but I think there’s a good chance Ladybug would have tried to fix things if she actually knew what he was upset about and didn't reduce it to 'he's in love with me.' Which I can't completely blame her for. She had help from both Plagg and Adrien.

Spot on again.

Maybe that’s just me being wishful about the blorbos, but my early season blorbos are better than their later season counterparts. The latter just seem like shills for a plot that doesn't match them. I really miss early Adrien anyhow. He took a lot more flack then because he messed up more because he actually had a personality that allowed him to disagree and have sassy moments. Sometimes he was right, sometimes wrong, but at least he felt more layered. 

I will say that Miraculous trying to make the switch from a monster-of-the-week type of show to having an overarching plot was an ambitious choice, but it did not work out well, for reasons you've mentioned here.

I will also say, when I criticize Marinette, it isn't often Marinette herself that I criticize but the writing around her. The sort of writing that involves other characters bending over so that she doesn't look bad, or Adrien being reduced to her emotional support partner who doesn't demand a thing from her. That's ultimately what Season 4 had him learn, that he isn't and never will be her equal and that he should just be okay with whatever she does. And since Adrien character is that of the abuse victim who has never been allowed to be his own person, it just paints a very nasty picture. So, I think we do largely agree on many things, anon.

Thank you for your ask!

[autistickremylecroux]

Could I pls request a zora x reader eenmeies two loves :d

zor/reder work at ocena bliz and both try 2 bet teh othe with boutny, butt 1 da read gets rlly inryed,zora rlly worry and confesion

(sossy for spelign itz lik 3 amnr)

Bounty battle-Zora x gn!reader

Hi! Sorry for the week wait, my school has caught up to me quite badly. And dont worry about the spelling. I really enjoyed writing this ! it was a lot of fun

WC:1559

Warnings:Blood, surgery, mentions of needles.

“Howdy [name]~” you cursed internally, turning your head to glare at the women behind you. The same face which matched the top bounty. 110,000. Hardly even above yours. Zora laughed at your glare, a loud sharp chuckle. “Not too happy I see? shame you just can’t seem to—“ she stepped forward, getting a bit closer into your personal space, her voice dropping to mock condescension “—keep up” she pulled back, twirling her pistols, before firing a bullet which grazed past your ear.

You forced back an annoyed scowl, she always knew how to get on your nerves. And you were sure she was doing it on purpose to annoy you. To mess up your ‘game’. You forced yourself to sigh, before smirking. “Oh i can keep up, not too sure you’ll be able to though.” You watched as she paused, turning around and raising an eyebrow.

“challenge accepted.” She whistled, before disappearing off into the surrounding woods. Leaving you standing there, you turned back to the board. Staring at your poster , which had a bullet in line with your forehead. Your scowl returned, and you ripped the poster off of the wall and put it in your pocket. Before taking a marker out and reaching up to Zora’s poster.

[timeskip]

You walked past the same bounty board, turning to look at it. Your bounty was now at 120,000. Zora’s hadn’t changed. It was a bit of a disappointing jump after your latest job. It had been risky. Although, after the 100,000 mark it was noticeably more difficult to climb the ranks. You were willing to take the risk. You couldn’t let Zora out perform you.

You snatched the posters down, taking Zora’s as a motivation of sorts. You know , to motivate you to do better. Not any other reasons. You were planning to hand them to Zora as a taunt. Not because you knew Zora liked to keep and collect them as ‘achievements’. You continued back to your base, planning out more ways to ‘annoy’ Zora. You knew exactly what to do. There was a Banzai blaster base nearby, and you had one hell of a heist planned.

[timeskip]

leaves and twigs crushed under your feet, your limbs were heavy and you were losing blood. But you needed to keep going. You needed to reach them, the heist had gone horribly. Some of the Vice Presidents or whatever had been there, and you hadn’t expected them to be there. And by the time you had realised, you had been shot, it didn't do much but it had caused you to slip, falling backwards out of the window. It wasn’t a big fall, since it was only a first ground window. But the glass had hit your side rather seriously, and it had started bleeding.

You trudged through the forest, before you spotted a familiar figure, you couldn’t make it all out as your vision had begun to blur, you focused on getting one foot in front of the other. You managed to push yourself through the brambles, being closer to the figure you knew was Zora.

You watched as she temporarily stopped threatening the other one, all you could tell was they looked like a yellow blob. Probably a Banzai Blaster, but you couldn't tell as your vision got worse. The last thing you could see was Zora, suddenly start running towards you, yelling out something you couldn't make out. Before you promptly faceplanted into the forest floor.

Zora cursed, scooping your unconscious body into her arms, she turned to the Banzai Blaster she was trying to get. Before starting to run towards the nearest Bliss Ocean outpost. Leaving the Blaster confused on the floor.

She stopped after a bit,realising you were losing too much blood, temporarily setting you down and ripping off part of her beloved poncho— if it was to keep you alive it was worth it. And tied it around your waist tightly, desperately cursing under her breath as the adrenaline kept her going. She picked you up, and dashed off again. “you better stay above snakes [name] “

She eventually made it to the base, bursting open the door with her foot, everyone there instinctively shuffled out of the way, Zora when angry was something. And when it had to do with you? Twice as much. Everyone seemed to know except you how much she liked you, mostly due to some things she admitted while drunk. Or because of the glares she sent anyone trying to flirt with you.

At this point, even Naven had taken notice of it. Which said a lot. As sweet as he was, he could be a bit oblivious at times.

None of this mattered, as you were almost dying. Blood gushing from your arms, legs and waist, some was coming from your head too, which left your hair damp and sticky. She shook the thoughts from her head as she ran into the medical bay, practically yelling at the nurse. “OI! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE—“ she yelled,setting you down at the bed.

The healer rushed over, they were one of the few people in the organisation who had an epithet, mostly because it was useful having someone with a healing epithet. They started examining you, clearly worried. “what happened?” they said, grabbing some damp cloths to start applying it to the wounds.

“i dont fucking know i wasnt there for fuck sakes” she snapped, pacing back and forth. Before stopping and looking at you, “are they going to be okay?” she whispered , her voice becoming a lot quieter. Almost scared. Which was a first.

“yes but they’ll need emergency surgery— if you could wait outside it would be good” they said, tensing as they hoped Zora wouldn’t flip out. Seemingly their prayers were answered. As she silently left and slammed the door behind her.

Zora paced around for the next six hours outside the medical bay. She didn’t get anything to eat or drink,just waited and waited. When she heard the door open, she snapped her head around. “[name] will wake up in about an hour,they’ll need to rest for a bit”

Zora sighs in relief, practically pushing the medic out of the way to get into the room. She sat beside you,your arms, legs and waist were covered in bandages and yet you looked peaceful. There were needles in your arm, most likely giving you some nutrients to makeup for the lost blood.

She stayed silent for about half an hour, before softly grabbing your hand. There was so much she wanted to tell you, whether it was to yell and cry about how reckless you had been. Once she figured out what had happened of course. But she also wanted to wait and tell you everything would be ok.

As the clock ticked on, she started speaking. “you better wake up you coot” she snapped, while subconsciously rubbing the back of your hand. “I'll kill ya if ya dont” she adds, watching as you shuffled around but stayed asleep.

You felt yourself come to your senses,but you didn’t want to get up, you heard the voice. But kept silent, you knew who it was. But she was acting differently than usual. And you wanted to hear what she would say.

“you’re a right idiot. “ you heard her say, her accent making her clip some of the vowel sounds out slightly. “ya got y’rself hurt just to one up me” she laughed, and you wanted to bottle the sound and get drunk on it every night. But you still kept quiet. You wanted to see what she’d say.

“i’m not sure why I even bother to love ya.” your heart felt like it stopped as you heard her say those words, and you visibly tensed. Which she noticed clearly. “…” she stared at you, and you could feel her gaze even if you couldn’t see. “ [name] ?” you opened your eyes slowly, turning your head to look at her, your vision still wasn’t the best. And the light was bright enough to give you a headache “How long have you been listening” she continued, her tone dark as she seemed to be rather annoyed.

“a bit” you admit, humming. It was silent for a second, as both of you tried to think of what to say. You chuckled as you noticed her looking away. It was surprising to see the all cocky and confident Zora flustered and embarrassed. “it’s nice to know you love me” you added, mostly because your inhibition was reduced from the painkillers. “i mean, i thought it was a one…way thing” you added,your words slightly slurred as you started to close your eyes again. Falling back asleep.

People noticed Zora spending more time in the medical bay in the upcoming days. They also noticed she seemed happier than usual, and slightly less murdery. And they knew it had to do with you.

[nowoyas]

Edible Arrangements 29

First - Prev - Next (coming Jan 22nd!) - M.list - Ao3

A/N: y'all the new op. the new op. I'm Unwell. The new op. asdkjfhdsjh

Chapter Summary: Winter break begins. You and Izuku spiral separately together.

Warnings: mmmm I don't think there's any this time around!

Word Count: ~3100 words

Exams and presentations arrive without another thought. You’ll end the semester with better grades than you’ve seen in your lifetime—as it shakes out, you do better in school without the constant stress of finances and other bullshit looming over your head. And, as a final hurrah, on the last day of exams, you have your in-class presentation with Neito.

It’s easy. It’s nothing that hasn’t been rehearsed. It’s actually more difficult for you to successfully keep your tone level through the conversation than it is to provide the information. (You don’t have fun. You won’t admit to something like that.)

When it’s said and done and you’re freed from this particular ethics course, you linger in the hall, waiting for Neito. He’s not long after you, talking with some of his perfectly poised friends in the class and carrying his laptop under one arm and a Hydroflask in his free hand. When he sees you, he waves them off and slips over to you, expression dropping from casual liar to polite smiles.

“I hope you know how uncomfortable I am with this.”

You shrug as he passes over the Hydroflask. “That’s fine. It’s out of your hands now.”

“What do you even need holy water for? You don’t intend—“

“Heard it was more hydrating than regular water,” you quip. “I wanted to test it.”

He levels a flat look your way. “Really?”

You snicker and slide the container carefully into your bookbag. “Yeah, totally. If not, I bet it’ll burn like alcohol on the way down.”

“Yeah, I doubt you’re really trying that. But then, what are you doing?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy?”

“…I take it you’re not going to answer me, then.”

You hum. “Sounds about right. Thank you for this, by the way. I know it was super risky for you to even be transporting it.”

“Not to mention for Ibara to get it. I had to convince her to wear gloves with some lie about it touching her skin tainting the water. I didn’t want to chance the possibility that touching the water at all would do to her like it did you.”

That idea catches your interest. “Want me to test it?”

“Absolutely not! You already nearly died. Your vampire would end my life if he even thought that—“

You laugh. “It’ll be fine. I’ll dip a finger of my other hand in later and let you know if it’s the thrall mark or just the whole body that’s sensitive. Worth noting, my burns don’t seem to have any splash marks where the holy water got away from the mark, and it’s not like your guys’ aim was accurate, so solid evidence lending itself to it just being the mark.” You slide your hands into your pockets. You still can’t wear long sleeves. (You’re rather looking forward to spending some time indoors, away from people staring at your arm.) “Anyways, thanks again. If I do test the holy water, I’ll let you know how it goes before I hand it over.”

“Hand it over? Who’s this for, anyway?”

You shrug and disappear down the Uni halls. This fight isn’t yours to tell.

~

“What’re you up to? You’re going to ruin your eyes like that.”

Izuku drags his eyes away from the screen. “I think being a vampire makes me immune to needing glasses, actually.”

“Tenya needs his, though.” (You hope that means something. He’d look great in glasses.)

“He must have had them before being turned, then.” He smiles and leans back to look up at you properly. “Did you need something?”

You shake your head. “I’m bored and curious. You’ve been focusing hard for a while now…”

“Just… tracking, I guess. There’s been more signs of the Death Adder lately. I think he’s getting closer to the city.”

You look him over with pity. He really does look tired. The past few nights, you’ve fallen asleep without him and woken up without him—you’re sure, at some point, he’s moved you or joined you in bed for a few short hours, but more and more your waking hours are spent alone. The bags under his eyes run deep, hair even messier than normal.

He gives you everything. You can’t let him run himself into the ground like this, tentatively immortal or no. You must give him something in return.

He told you not to get involved, though…

“Can you come take a nap with me? Even just lay down?”

“You want to sleep? It’s the middle of the day.”

You smile sheepishly. “Well, I don’t, but I want you to sleep. If it’s like, too much to ask for you to come sleep with me, then of course you can forget I asked, but, you know, it’s—“

It’s the first time you’ve outright asked for it since the incident, and it shows in the heat in your cheeks and the pink on his. “I don’t need the rest. But, if you think it’d make you comfier, I mean, I could—“

“Only if you want to—“

He nods, and you nod, and both of you nod until he’s coming with you to nap on top of the covers of his bed, where Sbeve (the little pain) is curled up in the dead center of the bed.

It’s harder to ease into when it’s not one of you half-asleep and the other already there. You don’t worry about cuddling up to a sleeping Izuku or a sad Izuku because then you don’t have to worry about the closeness of it, just the effects—your better sleep, his improving mood. Like this, you’re both red-faced and stammering as you climb into bed and maneuver around the kitten.

When all’s said and done, you find yourself the big spoon, holding Izuku close. He’s tired, you can tell in the weight of each movement. He clearly hasn’t been sleeping enough.

If this is what it takes to get him to rest awhile, you’ll do it without a second thought. Anything to make him happier, and healthier, anything for him.

God, I really am whipped. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he enthralled me to serve him.

That thought has you freezing, slowly looking down at the mess of curls atop his head. He’s not asleep yet, you don’t think. But what if he…?

“You okay?” He glances up at you with concern. “Y-you got really still all of a sudden.”

“Sorry. I just… crazy question. You haven’t, like…”

“Mm?”

“You promise you’ve never enthralled me, right?”

He lifts his head, shifts to stare you dead in the eyes. Your heart sinks in preparation to see him glow.

“[name]. I am never doing that to you, okay? You are your own person. I don’t want to control you or hurt you.”

He’s not glowing, and that’s a relief, but then you remember Yo, and the feeling of finding out that someone had been lying to you for the first time.

“Y-you didn’t say you hadn’t, though…”

“I have never enthralled you. I will never enthrall you. No lies, see?”

You nod, feeling the weight slip away. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Lie to me, just to check?”

“I want to remove your agency and trap you here.”

A glow.

You heave a sigh and pull him back in close to you. “Okay. Sorry. I just scared myself.”

“What brought that on?”

“Nothing important,” you mumble, bringing a hand up to pet him. How could you begin to tell him that? Oh, yeah, sorry, Izuku. I just want to give my world to you so much that for a moment I thought I was under the influence of something like mind control. Don’t read into that too much!

He doesn’t press it, and you don’t elaborate, and he sighs into your chest and falls into rest.

~

Izuku doesn’t want you to get involved. You know that.

And yeah, you don’t want to confront a serial killer. That would be dangerous! And scary! And bring up past traumas you’re trying hard not to let control your life! But…

Okay, so you’re not getting involved. Skimming news headlines during your downtime (which you find yourself with a lot of now that your university’s on winter break) hardly counts as chasing a serial killer. Glancing at Izuku’s corkboards when he’s out and about or in a meeting or working out downstairs isn’t the same thing as consuming yourself in research. And really, researching vampires in your spare time is just better informing yourself of the situation—it’s no different than when you sought out books on vampires to read back when you first moved in! You’re simply doing what you need to to stay safe. News is important! World events are important! You should know when things like strings of murders are happening around you and drawing closer!

And man, there’s a lot of information to keep track of every day. It’d be weird if you didn’t write it down, right? You wouldn’t want to forget everything!

Anyways, it doesn’t count as getting involved. No, not even if you now have a notebook quickly filling with notes on vampires and tracking movement patterns. Izuku doesn’t want you getting involved, and this doesn’t count, so you’re not getting involved.

No, you’re just delving into research. It’s pre-research to figure out what you’ll do for your senior capstone project next year, that’s all! Vampirism is a quirk, and—

Oh, who are you kidding. You’re glowing so bright even the layman could tell you were lying.

Between the “definitely not hunting a serial killer” and the “actually getting really into researching and theorizing about what vampirism is” you nearly lose complete track of time. Mina and Tsuyu and Izuku have to coax you out of the house—though, to be fair, you’re also coaxing Izuku. These days, he’s consumed with his own research. He does stuff for his online classes in the morning, and by noon, he hasn’t moved from his chair, just changed tabs to news sites, forums, and the like. He worries you.

(You worry him, too.)

He’s progressed to the point where you have to set reminders to drag him away from his computer for things like sunlight and air away from his work, and usually, you find him gray-faced and dead-eyed in that little dark room, muttering to himself, when you do. On this day, trying to pry your mind away from the general depression and stress of impending holiday celebrations, you find him the same way: lights dim, door shut, and Izuku, nearly unblinking, fangs worrying his lower lip as he looks through some document that, at a glance, appears complex and dubiously legal.

“’Zuku.”

He doesn’t look away or even respond. He’s talking to himself, fast and low and impossible to follow. If his state these days wasn’t scaring you, you’d ask him to speak up, or sit there and listen. But it’s been too long since he last drank from you, and he doesn’t even seem to have noticed the absence.

“Dr. Midoriya?” you try again, hoping his name and title might drag him away.

Still nothing. Except for the barely-there movement of his lips, he doesn’t even seem to move or breathe. Dragging him to bed with you every night just to get him to rest is one thing, but…

You bite your lip. “Izuku?”

When still he barely even seems to notice you, your last bit of will breaks. You’re crossing the room in an instant, stride purposeful. He doesn’t notice you come up, and in fact has no reaction at all until you’re moving his chair and slinging a leg to pull yourself onto his lap.

And oh, there’s a reaction. Eyes wide, cheeks flushed, Izuku stammering and stunned. You’ll file his expression away for later use, but for now, you settle on his lap with a firm look. “Izuku. You’re losing yourself.”

“[n-name], I—“

“I know that this is important to you, Zuzu, but you have to take your mind off it for a moment.”

“I… I can’t just…”

You cup his cheeks in both hands, meeting his eyes firmly. “I get it. I promise, I do. But you’re not infallible. You’re a vampire, but you still have to drink. Do you even remember the last time you fed?”

He racks his brain for the answer, you can see it in the pout that instinctively reaches his lips. His hands have settled heavy on your hips, a support you’re glad to have with the awkward positioning. “U-um… was it—“

“Ten days ago, Izuku. It’s been well over a week since you fed, and you took less than usual the time before that, too.”

“Oh.” His eyes roam to your neck. You think he understands that it’s true when he sees that the most recent set of bite marks has already faded significantly.

“Yeah. Oh.”

“So this is what we’re doing. You’re going to take a long drink. You’re going to go until I’m dizzy, and then a bit more because you’re underfed. Probably you’re going to have to care for me for a bit until we’re sure I’m okay to move around again. You are going to take a long, hot shower, brush your teeth, and wash your face. I’ll make your hair look presentable again. And then, after that? We are going to go get coffee and go book shopping and get out of the house, because honestly? Neither of us have been out nearly enough this month.”

A sheepish smile flicks across his face. “It’s not that far into the month, is it?”

“Izuku. It’s December twenty-first.”

“O-oh. Really?”

“Yes, really. I checked before I came in here. Do you even know when your students submit things late these days?”

“I’ve actually got a TA for the abbreviated winter semester. She’s a gem, she’s handling all the grading and updates so I can focus on—“

You let out a dry laugh, dropping your forehead onto his shoulder. “You mean you haven’t even been working in the mornings? I thought that was at least what you were up to. I could have been bothering you to take care of your body at any time of day—“

He laughs, smooths a hand up your spine. The sensation brings a shiver. “Sorry. I should have mentioned I got a TA.”

“What you should have done is taken a break from the computer. I know you get focused, but seriously. Focus on the matter at hand. We’ll start with you biting my neck.”

“Y-you always have to phrase things like—“

“I know, I know, get biting.” You lift your head from his shoulder and tilt for access. As always, he adjusts your posture, shuffles you further up his lap both for postures’ sake and to secure you.

He smiles softly, lets out one of those little half-laughs that have your heart melting. “You keep me sharp.”

You cock a smile his way. “Well, it’d hurt a hell of a lot to get bit with dull fangs.”

He sinks in his teeth. You can pull him back.

~

It’s at the shopping center, Izuku clean and fluffy, you looking stupid with a winter coat worn on only one arm, that the thought occurs to you.

You don’t know whether Izuku celebrates any holidays.

You can’t ask him about it. That’d be too obvious. But you can’t just not get him something, right? Could you do something for it? You don’t celebrate anymore, but—

“You’ve been staring at that book a while. Should we get it?”

Your eyes snap away from the title you’d picked up—it’s some random holiday romance, nothing particular interesting to you. Really, it looks like someone attempted a novelization of a Hallmark movie and actually got published with it, which is honestly just impressive. You’d kill to see how they pitched it without making it obvious that it’s the same recycled small-town-guy, big-city-girl plot they show twenty times a day on the Hallmark channel this time of year.

“Nah, just getting lost in thought.” You slide the book back onto the shelf carefully. “We should get something for Sbeve while we’re out. Can we stop at the pet store after this? If it’s okay?”

“Yeah, of course!”

The redirection has him talking about what the kitten did the other day during your exams, and you listen, soothed to know your plan to get him away from the house is helping. The pair of you wander through the store, and when his story is finished—you laughing at all the right parts—you smile his way. “I can’t believe we’ve already been living together for three months. Or that it’s only been three months.”

“Yeah,” he breathes, smiling back at you. “The house feels a lot warmer thanks to you.”

You bump your shoulder into his, cheeks heating. He can’t mean it that way. “Well, I am pretty hot.”

He laughs, and you break off into looking at more books. As you pick up one with an interesting-looking title, you continue to speak. “Did you want to do anything for New Year’s, by the way? I think several people want us to host.”

“I’d be okay with that! It’s kind of fun, having so many people over. I haven’t been to a New Year’s party in years, though.”

“I skipped the past few years,” you offer idly. “I guess I’m the kind of person the party has to come to if I’m going to go at all? It’s a wonder Mina hangs around me.”

“You’re a fun person, though. I’m sure she can see that even if you don’t party like she does.”

Boring. You shelve the book, pick up another. “Thanks for saying so. Still, if you’re okay with hosting, we could start organizing it once we’re home…?”

And oh, isn’t that plan perfect? Izuku can’t leave you to organize alone. He knows you get stressed to hell even trying. More to pull him away, more to keep him close, more to hold his mind to shore. Part of you feels dirty for this. Part of you knows it’s necessary.

You won’t pull him away from something so important to him. But you’ll anchor him until it’s the right time for him to set off.

Tags: @tooloudarts​ @sapid-rose​ @xxangelpridexx​ @warmchoccymilk​ @lirinstaalem​ @izoodles​ @my-bnha-things​ @denise-the-death-goddess​ @themerpenguin​ @sincerelybubbles​ @fudobaby​ @imabootywarrior​ @chickynn​ @fuc-kingmonkey​ @vinumumbra​ @the-secret-thief​ @lianatriestosurvive​ @kc-korra​ @kiliakit​ @hay-leeeah​ @meowkid1000​ @mha-baku-todo-deku-kiri​ @jojo-buttercup​ @starfishlovingbnha​ @neomuxuxi​ @lollawindsay​ @mrsreina​ @anime-simps-blog​ @wwwwyamd​ @omiwashere​ @emilytheeggy​ @subwayslander​ @thelittle-witch​ @sparkexplosive​ @shoutaaizawas​ @vanilladyfics​ @stargazerunlimited​ @luigisdivorcelawyer​ @chaoticevilbakugo​ @deeplightgarden @stxrrielle @idonthaveanameideayet @snowymaltese @bnha-babygirl

If your name is in the list but not underlined, I was unable to tag you! If your name is on the list and in bold, this is my second attempt to tag you. You will be removed from the taglist after a third attempt. Please ensure that your blog is set to appear in search results to be able to be tagged on the taglist! If you would like to be added or removed from the taglist, please fill out this form! No hard feelings if you want yourself removed for any reason! <3

[monaisme]

Sicktember: Day 2

#2- Too Much of a Good Thing/Overindulgence

Mr. Harrington clapped his hands together, trying to get the attention of all the teenagers around him, “Alright, everybody! I know you’re all excited about the return of the school fair, but we still need to come up with some ideas for fundraising!”

A hush fell over the classroom... almost. A couple of excited titters came from the cluster of girls toward the back as the one girl they’d nominated to be spokesperson threw her hand up in the air. “We have an idea for that, Mr. Harrington,” the blondest of the bunch, Lena offered (at least that’s what Peter thought her name was?). “What about doing a kissing booth? It’s totally classic, right? And we—” she gestured to her and her clique of a friend group, “could take turns covering the booth. It wouldn’t be too hard to convince some of the football players to volunteer to balance things out, and then we’d sell kisses for...” She looked back at her friends again, “What do you think, girls? Ten dollars a kiss?” They all nodded vigorously in agreement, prompting Lena to turn back confidently, “Ten dollars a kiss. And we’re sure there’s already some booth built and hiding back in the storage shed that we can paint fresh. No big deal, and then we’d be in business!” Lena grinned big, like she’d solved world hunger. “What do you think?”

A couple of ‘less civilised’ seniors high-fived each other while Mr. Harrington stood there, obviously uncomfortable with the every aspect of the idea. “I think...” he trailed off as he tried to find a way to diplomatically explain why this was an absolutely awful idea.

 “I think the school board would love having to shut the school down because of an in-house covid outbreak,” MJ muttered from her seat at the front of the class, just loud enough for Peter, Ned, and Mr. Harrington to hear.  

Mr. Harrington glared not so disapprovingly at his Aca-Deca captain, she had made a reasonable point after all, and then addressed the room at large, “While the idea may have had merit at one time, times have changed, and I’m certain the school board will deem it too risky, at least from a public health perspective to approve.” He smiled sincerely, “Thank you for being so... willing to help, though.” He added.

The groans of disappointment took a minute or two to die down but eventually the meeting moved forward when Flash raised his hand from his seat near the back of the room. “What about doing some sort of eating competition instead?”

Mr. Harrington thought for a moment, not immediately shutting the idea down, “Okay. I’m intrigued, but what exactly were you thinking about, Eugene? Remember that we are working with an extremely limited budget, so it can’t be cost prohibitive.”

“Well, I was thinking that we could always approach some of our local businesses; see if they’d be willing to work together and donate something in large enough quantities that we could make it a competition of sorts. Like Joey Chestnut, you know?” Flash took the opportunity to make another dig while he could, “In fact, maybe Parker here could convince his boss at Stark Industries to cater the whole thing for us?”

“Eugene, behave, please.” Mr. Harrington cut him off before he could go any further, “I’m sure that Mr. Stark would absolutely be willing to help, but the premise for this event is to bring the community together. Let’s see if we can make an effort to keep this a little more home grown, shall we?”

“Um—” Peter raised his own hand awkwardly. Flash’s idea didn’t suck, and they were all there to help so he could run with it—“I could talk to Mr. Delmar. I mean, he’s definitely a part of the community, and I bet he’d be willing to connect us with some of the other local business owners to get this all done.”

“I think that’s a fantastic idea, Peter... and you, too, Eugene,” Mr. Harrington added before Flash could get upset at the order of things. “Seeing as you’re both so eager to contribute to its becoming a reality, let’s get you two working together to make it happen. Lena?” Mr. Harrington turned his attention to the girls in the back again, “I’ll put you and whomever you decide to corral into helping in charge of tracking down a booth, painting, and setting up once you’re assigned a location, okay?” He stepped back and addressed the class in general. “Anyone who hasn’t specifically been assigned a task by this point, be ready to jump in when you’re asked for help. For now, though, anticipate helping out with advertising—distributing flyers, hanging posters, and so on,” he nodded to MJ in acknowledgement, “or set up, ticket sales, or 50/50 sales on the day of.”

As he had begun, so Mr. Harrington ended with a clapping of hands. “Only four weeks to go till go time, everyone! Thank you so much for participating, all! This fair is going to be amazing!”

Peter and Flash each gave each other the side eye. This was not how it was meant to be.

“Don’t forget to bring updates to our next meeting. You are dismissed!”

/-/-/

“You guys are so screwed.”

Both Peter and Flash cringed at Ned’s statement, knowing that he wasn’t wrong. “Well,” Peter piped up, “At least we know it was easy to paint the sign up booth.”

Flash snort laughed at the understatement of the century, “Ya’ think?”

And, honestly, Peter was trying really hard not to. “To be fair, who’d have thought that the only item anyone would have been willing to donate would’ve been...” He couldn’t even say it out loud.

Oh, but MJ could. “Bananas.” She planted herself between the two of them as they stared in disbelief at the boxes upon boxes of bananas stacked in Coach Wilson’s office being kept out of the sun until the competition that was scheduled to start only an hour from then. “You know, my art teacher told me I should contemplate using some colour in my distress sketches. In this exact moment?” She clapped them both on their shoulders and nodded, “I can see it.”

“Stuff it, weirdo.” Flash stepped out from under her hand. “Besides, this is all your fault, Penis,” Flash crossed his arms in frustration. “If you actually had a real internship with Tony Stark, you could have called him up and we’d have been done. We could’ve done pies, or cakes or, I don’t know! Something that didn’t have to be so stupid!  But nooooooo...” Flash scoffed as he gestured to their chaos. “Here we are stuck with a bunch of ripe freakin’ bananas—and this fundraiser is going to flop.”

“Maybe you can send any leftovers home with the winner along with their trophy so they can make banana bread?” Ned offered not helpfully.

Peter gritted his teeth and breathed deep. He wasn’t even going to reply to Ned. And he definitely wasn’t going to admit to Flash that he’d intentionally chosen not to call Tony about all of this. Would Tony have said yes if Peter had asked? Absolutely! But their relationship was... changing? And no way was Peter going to start asking for favours now that he and Tony were getting closer—ESPECIALLY now that they were getting closer. “Stuff if, Flash. It’ll be fine. We’re a school full of science nerds and a couple of pretend sports teams. The expectation is not that high.” Peter flushed with embarrassment.

Okay.

Maybe it was a little bit higher than bananas.

“Whatever, losers. Mr. Harrington says it’s time to get this all outside.” She moved past them and grabbed the small cart they’d parked in far the corner. “And while I normally believe in an equal division of labour, I also believe that I have some sketching to do.” She pointed to the boxes. “Get loading, you three. The masses are waiting.”

/-/-/

The fair was well underway by the time the four of them exited the school with their stacked cargo and made their way to the parking lot where all of the exhibits and games were set up. It didn’t take long for them to find their booth and tables, along with a very grumpy football player.

“You had two people sign up for this, Flash,” he waved a clipboard in the air in frustration. “Except they thought you were just, like, selling bananas, so you actually have no one, man.”

Of course the football player knew Flash.

“I know, Josh- I know—” Flash commiserated with him, “But what could we have done? Oh, wait! I know!” Flash made a show of dragging his gaze over to Peter. “We could have called our imaginary billionaire boss and made this booth into something, well—” Flash looked back at his buddy and shrugged in defeat.

“If I had to make a choice, I’d have been totally down for doing the kissing booth, is all I’m sayin,’” Josh continued.

And Peter said nothing. What could he say? Yeah, Flash had done the exact same schmoozing with the neighbourhood business folks as Peter (they’d made a script, even!), but maybe Flash had been right and he should have pulled some strings?

“Ah, perfect!” Mr. Harrington snuck up amongst the group and took everything in. “Lena’s committee did a great job on your set up,” then he patted the top of the stack of boxes, “and I’m so glad to see that the community really stepped up and came through!”

Was he looking at the same stack of bananas as the rest of them? How could this man be so optimistic?

Mr. Harrington picked up the clipboard Josh had been holding, which apparently gave Josh the permission he’d been waiting for to bolt for places unknown while Mr. Harrington checked out the list. “Oh!” His forehead furrowed, “That’s a little light...”

Ugh. Peter couldn’t bear to disappoint his favourite teacher. “Well, uh, we were thinking of switching things up and seeing who we could convince to join us from the crowds, ya’ know—playful peer pressure and all that,” Peter was grasping now. The plan had been for this to be a one and done and then he, along with Ned and MJ were going to check things out too, but no way was that happening now. “And oh!” Peter had an epiphany! “Flash is going to live stream it!”

“But-!” Flash had apparently had plans, too.

But Peter’s face said enough that Flash’s eyes bugged out as he became enmeshed in Peter’s plan. “Uh, yeah!” Flash was definitely not impressed. “But first, Peter here is going to get the party started by eating the first batch of bananas and he’s gonna keep it up until we hit a hundred dollars either in sign ups to join in the banana eating contest or in straight up donations towards the fundraiser, so...”

Now, Peter hated Flash, but he also hated bananas more than just about any food on the planet thanks to some nasty banana flavoured antibiotics for a particularly nasty case of strep throat as a kid. Every part of him was ready to throw his hands up and head over to the guy making deep fried oreo cookies... but this was Mr. Harrington, so... “Yup,” Peter smiled big, “In fact, Ned is going to go and get them to announce this over the loud speaker right now.”

Ned was quick on the uptake and nodded eagerly, “I can do that—Banana eating for the cause- live streaming- give us money—in just a few minutes, right?”

Peter nodded. Sooner started, sooner done, right?

“Got it,” Ned replied, then bolted for the main tent and the event emcees. “I’ll make sure they hype it up.”

“Yay,” Peter gave a pathetic thumbs  up as he lost his will to live. “So yeah, Mr. Harrington. We’re all under control. Flash and I are just going to get these bananas ready to go and we’ll be set to start. Right, Flash?”

Flash smiled big, too. “Right.”

Mr. Harrington handed the empty clipboard to Flash and smiled the biggest. “I knew I could count on you two. Good work!” With a spring in his step, Mr. Harrington left them to their final preparations.

Peter and Flash stood side by side until Mr. Harrington turned toward the back of the school and the midway.

“I really hate you, Flash.” Peter stomped to the boxes and got to work.

And Flash didn’t care. “You know, if you’ve got a problem, you could always call your boss and just have him show up, buy the damned fair, and call this done.��

Peter glared. Their reasoning may have differed, but it still led to the same outcome.

MJ, ever the devoted observer, flipped her sketch pad open to a fresh page.

Peter Parker was about to eat a load of bananas.

/-/-/

Peter was in the zone— so intent on trying to choke down another banana that he didn’t notice Flash’s eyes growing wider and wider from behind his phone.

Peter was also too distracted by his efforts to not vomit to notice Ned stepping behind Flash to take note of what exactly Flash was freaking out about.

However, when MJ joined in the fray, mouth dropping open in shock, Peter couldn’t help but finally figure out that something was going on.

“Ned?” Peter called over as he peeled his umpteenth banana. “What’s going on?”   

Ned made his way over to Peter, trying to stay out of the video Flash was still live streaming. “Uh, we’ve got a bit of a situation—like, an amazing situation going on and I’m not sure how to tell you without you freaking out...”

Why did Ned look nervous?

“Ned?”

Ned put his hands up in defence. “Hey, it’s not my fault that your freaky metabolism thing has kicked in!”

“What?” Peter was confused. “What do you mean?” –and what did his spider metabolism have to do with anything?

“Peter,” Ned gestured to the now empty table, “no one else is joining you. One guy had considered, but bailed after watching you do your thing.”

“And the best part!?” Flash called out from where he was still filming, “This banana thing is turning into a freakin’ mukbang—and people online are willing to pay for you to keep going!”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “People are—wait a sec.” Peter looked from Ned to Flash and then to MJ who shrugged.

“I’m going to go get Mr. Harrington,” she said, then disappeared into the crowd.

Hang on—crowd?

 Peter sighed and covered his face as he processed what was going on, “Everyone is watching me scarf bananas?”

Flash and Ned both nodded.

“And they’re donating?”

They nodded again.

“Can I ask how much we’ve raised?”

Ned and Peter both looked at Flash for that answer, “If my tally is right, and people follow through on their pledges,” Flash flipped the phone to stare at all of his viewers, “because they will!” Flash flipped the phone back to Peter, “We’re looking at more than a thousand dollars so far... and as long as you’re eating, they’ll keep donating!”

Peter dropped his head to the table. “How is this my life?” he muttered before taking a deep breath and mentally preparing himself to continue.

“You don’t have to keep doing this, you know.” Ned took a second and inched closer so he could speak more privately with his best friend.

“I know.” Peter laughed and leaned a little closer to Ned, “Dr. Cho is never happy with my potassium levels- what with my activity levels and all,” Peter confided, “So this can only be a good thing, right?”

Ned snort-laughed, “Or too much of a good thing?”

Peter took another deep breath. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

/-/-/

“Give me the final tally again, please?” Peter begged as he hunched over the toilet in the private bathroom of his bedroom at the tower. “Make this all worth it, please?”

Tony rubbed the boy’s back and sighed, “Two thousand three hundred forty-two dollars, my dear, sweet spider-idiot.”

Peter clunked his head against the arm resting against the toilet seat. “Mm-mm. That doesn’t sound right.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Fine, it was two thousand three hundred forty-two dollars and sixteen cents... better?”

Peter hummed in satisfaction. “Better.”

They stayed there in silence for a few minutes waiting for Peter’s stomach to finally settle when Tony finally said it, “You know, I could have just written a—”

“Nope.” Peter cut him off before Tony could say it. “Just don’t.”

“Don’t what? Say, ‘write—

“No! Don’t!” Peter protested.

“— a cheque?” Tony finished anyways, figuring there must have been something behind Peter’s insistence.

“Shhhh.” 

“And if nothing else,” Tony added, “I could have just bought you more bananas...”

@sicktember

[newsource21]

Americans are losing faith in the value of a four-year college degree. A Wall Street Journal poll last year showed that just 42 percent of respondents believed that it was worth the cost, down from 53 percent a decade ago. Prospective students have taken this to heart: undergraduate enrollment is down relative to 2019.

Are young people right to shun college? The answer is complex. College can be a path to a better life—but not always.

High college tuition costs deter many prospective students. Waning student demand and increased financial aid have pushed down tuition in recent years, though even adjusted for inflation it’s still higher than 30 years ago. Additionally, students face the opportunity cost of spending four or more years out of the labor force. Along with lost wages, that’s time that students don’t spend gaining work experience and developing their human capital.

College is also a risky investment. Only 62 percent of students finish a degree within six years, with fewer completing in the customary four. Dropouts see little benefit from whatever coursework they might have completed. The high risk of noncompletion makes college much less of a surefire investment than one might think. Whether college is worth it depends on whether the financial benefits outweigh these costs and risks.

While the median college graduate earns 68 percent more than the typical high school diploma holder, it’s misguided to interpret this differential as the financial “return” on a college degree. College students are different from those who quit education after high school. They might be more motivated, have stronger academic credentials, or hail from different family backgrounds. Some of the 68 percent “college earnings premium” is attributable to these differences, not to the degree itself.

In a recent report for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), I estimate the financial value of college, adjusting the college earnings premium for these preexisting differences, and then subtracting tuition costs and opportunity costs. Finally, I adjust for the risk that some students take longer than four years to finish their degrees or don’t finish at all.

The results show that college is still worth it—sometimes. The median four-year degree program increases students’ lifetime earnings by $160,000, after accounting for college costs and dropout risk. But not every degree performs so well. Nearly a quarter of four-year programs show no return on investment (ROI), meaning that students typically wind up no better off than if they never went to college. But plenty of degrees deliver returns significantly above the median—and some boost students’ net lifetime earnings by more than $1 million.

Field of study greatly affects ROI. Engineering programs yield a median lifetime return of $949,000, making it the highest-ROI major. Computer science, nursing, and economics are also good financial bets. The median fine-arts program, by contrast, leaves students in the red. The limited earnings gain from these programs isn’t sufficient to compensate students for the costs and risks of college. Other majors with low to negative returns include education, psychology, and English literature.

This isn’t to say that low-ROI majors have no value. But low-to-negative returns for some majors do signal a misalignment of supply and demand. Lots of engineering jobs with fewer qualified candidates mean high wages for engineering majors; fewer jobs in the arts with a surplus of college-trained artists lead to lower salaries for them.

Field of study is not the only factor behind variance in college returns. At New York University, one of the nation’s most expensive schools, the film-studies degree leaves students worse off by about $22,000. But at nearby SUNY–New Paltz, with its much lower tuition, the film program raises net lifetime earnings by roughly $148,000. All else being equal, lower tuition improves the ROI of a degree, even for traditionally low-paying fields.

College students can use FREOPP’s new data to become savvier consumers. Some evidence suggests that students are shifting into higher-ROI fields. In 2022, 123,000 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, the highest-ROI major, up from 86,000 such graduates a decade prior. That 43 percent jump dwarfs the overall 9 percent increase in college graduates over the same period.

Students have started to understand that not all college degrees are equal and have adjusted their behavior accordingly. But the onus shouldn’t be entirely on them.

Governments, too, can help ensure that the schools they fund don’t leave students in the red. The federal government is a particular offender in this regard. Uncle Sam gives out over $100 billion in Pell Grant and student loan funding to colleges yearly. About one-third of that money funds programs that fail to make students better off financially. To the extent that a student loan “crisis” exists, it’s concentrated among borrowers who attended one of the nonperforming programs.

For decades, students have been told that college is a surefire ticket to a better life. While college can be a path to upward mobility, that message should come with caveats. Plenty of four-year college pathways aren’t worth the cost, and some even leave students worse off. We should be honest about this reality—and empower students to make more informed decisions.

Preston Cooper is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

[mayhems-enstars-brainrot]

self introduction!!

what's good!! my name's mayhem, i use they/them pronouns and i'm an 18 year old college student majoring in japanese (playing ensemble stars actually does help me learn a little bit lol). i've been playing ensemble stars for a month or two so i'm only rank 43 right now :/ but holy hell i am obsessed with this game. i love rhythm games (even though i'm not very good at them) and the characters in this game are fantastic, i've been hyperfixated on it for like a month and my friends are sick of me lmao

as my bio says, i'm a shuP/valkyrieP; yes i love mika as well, but there's just something about shu that makes me adore him more than any other character in the game. maybe it's because he's weird and strange but also sweet at times? maybe it's the fact that he's a (technically successful) cringefail? i don't know. but ever since i saw ex-valkyrie's 2-episode arc in the anime he's had me in a chokehold!! his character development!!! the artistry!!!!! UNMATCHED!!!!!!!

anyway... other characters i love and why!!

-wataru: he's silly :3 and i love his voice. fills me with serotonin every time i hear him go SuBarAsHii~ in the middle of a live. he is... the only member of fine i don't hate. eichi is a complex character but i personally do NOT like him (also i'm a shuP of course i hate him). tori is a brat. and yuzuru is barely worth mentioning. but i love how chaotic and goofy wataru is. truly the only good member of fine

-mayoi: if you couldn't tell, i love men that are weird and strange!!! love them dearly. also i kind of relate to him, at least with him having intrusive thoughts (that shit fucked me over in middle school lol). i love his hair and i love his sharp teeth and i love how he actually cares so much that it's the only thing that can override his anxiety. lastly, if i had vents and could go from place to place without being noticed you bet your ass i would every time.

-rinne: now i haven't finished chapter 5 of part 1 so i'm not sure how his story ends. however, i can say i've thoroughly enjoyed seeing him cause problems on purpose. i love when i'm in a live and he goes KYAHAHA and i'm like oh right rinne is here. his character development in the first half of chapter 5 alone has been amazing so i'm excited to see where his story goes.

-rei: as someone who very much identifies with the whole goth/emo/alt aesthetic, you KNOW undead is among my favorite units. rei is an amazing character in the anime (i mean, he helps so much, trickstar literally wouldn't have been able to do any of the shit they did without him) AND he made eichi faint by whispering some hard truths in his ear. based.

-leo: sadly i haven't seen that much of him, both in-game and in-anime, but i adore his energy. i'm also a songwriter, so i get the artistic struggle and whatever bullshit. honestly i think he's really cute and i'm excited to keep watching the anime because i'm on episode 13 and they showed him in episode 12 so surely that means he'll be in the show soon right guys? right?

~

anyway!! now i'm gonna move on to my favorite songs (and you'll probably be able to tell what my favorite units are based on them lol)

2wink: play tag, welcome to 2wink acrobatics

AKATSUKI: akatsuki iroha song, festival night picture scroll, strike -blade of resolve-, wild blooming flowers, pale red promise, perfectly-imperfect

ALKALOID: believe 4 leaves, kiss of life, hysteric humanoid, living on the edge, artistic partisan

Crazy:B: ariadne at the fingertips, crazy roulette, honeycomb summer, risky venus, helter-spider (idc that it's for halloween it bangs)

Double Face: =EYE=, stippling (these are the only double face songs i know)

Eden: the genesis, dance in the apocalypse, majestic magic, sunlit smile (eve), the beast of the end (adam)

Fine: never-ending symphony, neo sanctuary, holy angel's carol, crossing heart, the tempest night (wataru ily. 「愛」!!)

Knights: grateful allegiance, little romance, mystic fragrance, voice of sword

Ra*bits: joyful box, fallin' love=it's wonderland (best ra*bits song by far), love ra*bits party, milky starry charm

Ryuseitai: comet halation, unrivaled meteor ranger, ryusei hanabi

Switch: majestic magic, fragments of imagination, emerald planet

Trickstar: only your stars, rebellion star, crossing heart

UNDEAD: gate of the abyss, immoral world, melody in the dark, nightless world, valentine's eve nightmare, destruction road

Valkyrie: acanthe, kohaku to ruri no rondo, gaisenka, cloth waltz (UNDERRATED ASF), memoire antique, raisanka, enthralling theatre, tonight on the moonlit castle, sei shounen yuugi, sajou no roukaku, eternal weaving

also. bukubu new stars. koga ball <3

~

i think that's pretty much it? i guess i could confirm i'd consider my "favorite" units to be valkyrie (duh), undead, crazy:b, akatsuki, and alkaloid. i'm also aware that valkyrie just released a new album like a couple weeks ago so i surely will be checking that out and giving it a good listen over the next few days. i'm excited to meet more ensemble stars fans :3 if you wanna be mutuals just lmk i'm starved for people to ramble autistically to!!!!!!

[necros-writing-stuff]

Can you do like being the Lis +1 at a wedding hcs

+wren and bailey+ leighton?

Yeeting Black Wolf and Great Hawk from this cause those two aren't going to weddings lmao.

Also this is my welcome back post after being flagged, pog.

Alex

Most likely a sibling's wedding.

Alex's parents will be happy to see you, pulling you over at the party to talk and ask about how things are while Alex says hi to the rest of the family.

You'll be hounded by their siblings. Who are you? Are you their partner? Are you getting married?

Will very much want to dance with you. Picks you up and twirls you around, even if they're clumsy.

You'll hear a lot of embarrassing childhood stories.

Avery

A business associate's wedding.

It is sophisticated and expensive, and Avery ensures you're dressed right for it.

You may have to deal with snide comments about how Avery should settle down and get married instead of playing with pretty young things.

Smile and be polite about it and Avery may just pay you extra.

Another chance to dance better than everyone else, to wow guests with your intelligence, or to stand and make the bride jealous by being prettier.

Bailey

You have no idea who this person is, all you're aware of is that this may be a mafia wedding.

There's an older man with rings watching everyone's move, and Bailey even disappears to talk with him for a while.

You're told to be polite, don't tell them anything personal, don't tell them anything about the orphanage.

There's free food and an open bar, knock yourself out. It's more than Bailey feeds you at home, so it's best to make the most of it. Bailey touches non of it.

You learn Bailey can actually dance pretty well when they get back from the meeting. They don't try to catch the garter/bouquet though.

All in all, a very strange, slightly stressful evening.

Eden

You were baffled when Eden held up the invitation. They know people? Apparently so.

You'll have to convince them to actually go.

On edge the entire time. Its so obvious they don't want to be there.

Will stick to you like glue and not let you out of their line of sight, unless you use the bathroom.

Happy to eat all of the food, though.

Will not dance. That's something you two do alone, at the cabin. An audience makes it scary, but they won't admit that.

Will pull you off into a closet for some... alone time. This is Eden, afterall.

Eden being taller than most of the other people there, having an unfair advantage in catching the bouquet/garter. You're already married, so there's no point in it, though.

Kylar

You know that John Mulaney bit where he talks about his ex-wife glaring at him during weddings because she wanted to get married? Kylar.

"Wouldn't this be nice for us, love? I bet we could have just as much fun as they're having."

Will ask questions to you about decor, flowers, dresses/suits, all to gauge what you like.

"The cake is chocolate. Do you like that or would you prefer another flavour?"

Eager to dance and let people know you're taken. Gushes over you to anyone that will listen.

Will of course try to catch the bouquet/garter thing. If they do, you'll never hear the end of it

Leighton

If anyone asks, you're not a student. You're a student teacher.

A risky move on their part, bringing a younger plus one. Will be asked many questions that they'll expertly deflect.

You'll see them put a mask on and be very different from when you're alone together. This is the Leighton school boards see, that officials see, not the sleeze-ball you've gotten used to.

Might have you wear some racy underwear beneath your outfit so they have something scandalous going on no one else is aware of.

Will get their phone out, take you to the bathroom, and ask you to lift your shirt/skirt so they can get pictures of the underwear before going back to the venue.

Robin

It's a distant relative, one unable to take Robin in after they were orphaned.

Of course they invite you to go with, who else would they take?

Saves up for a new outfit to wear to the event. Has a lot of fun going shopping with you, trying on things.

Takes the chance to go and unwind for the night. No orphans, no Bailey. Just having fun with you.

Making song requests all night, dancing really clumsily, stuffing your faces.

Gets withdrawn and shy when people start asking personal questions. You may have to jump in and save them a few times.

Sydney

One of Sirris' cousins is getting married, and on one drive home, the teacher asks if you'd like to come with them for the day.

Sydney will want to take you out shopping, just like Robin, and get ready for it together.

Both of you popping into the temple and letting them know that you won't be able to come in on that day.

If its out of town, being curious as to what other churches are like.

Sydney falling asleep during the ceremony and having to be woken up.

Syndey might sneak off for a nap, actually. They rarely get days off, and the band is very loud.

Save them some cake. They'll be back later, much more refreshed and eager to have some fun.

Whitney

Oh boy.

Whitney invited you because they want to have some fun. And with Whitney, that means trouble.

They don't tell you that they invited you because they hate how their family prods, asks invasive questions, looks down on them. You're their support system for the night.

Whitney might urge you to sneak under the tables and get them off.

Going outside and setting off fireworks.

Hiding shrimp in the hair-dos of the women that are around. There's so much hairspray they rarely notice.

Encouraging the younger kids there to go be chaotic and scream so no one notices Whitney taking a peak at the wedding gifts left unattended on the table.

You having to stop Whitney stealing gifts.

Wren

You're a bit shocked Wren would let you close enough like this.

It means a lot that Wren is inviting you places.

Similarly to Whitney, Wren is here to have some fun.

Will dance all night with you, if you let them. Can pull of some moves.

Of course ends up placing bets with people, and joining in on games of poker, blackjack, scabby Queen.

If its set at a casino? Keep an eye on Wren before they lose all of the money.

With no Remy around, they're even more daring. Might try to steak the veil or one of the rings. They'll give it back, of course...

Is going to try and catch the garter/bouquet, purely so they can tease you about it later.

[justminawrites]

Tower of Doors arc Where Everything is the Same Except..

..now it takes place after the auction with Rei, once all the votes have been redistributed, as a final game between Yumeko and Sayaka, and they end up betting not their own lives, but the lives of Kirari and Mary instead.

A common theme throughout Kakegurui XX is that the Momobami Clan has a tendency towards using incredible violence to solve their problems. And though they are skilled gamblers, they lack any kind of gambling spirit that both Yumeko and Kirari seem to thrive in. There’s usually failsafes and poison and mistrust running so rampant through the family that not one of them is enjoying the actual game itself more than they’re trying to reach some kind of outcome.

It was why the “ battles“ in S2 felt so lacklustre and devoid of enthusiasm— the game isn’t half as much fun if your opponent is just trying to kill you the whole time.

When you consider the Tower of Doors arc it’s safe to say it was entirely a Sayaka-centric plot point. We watched her turmoil, her confusion, her dedication, her loyalty, and her love for Kirari really shine through, all of which was very well done but seemed kind of flat when it came to the aftermath of it all.

Bluntly put, though Yumeko and Sayaka both had their lives on the line, it didn’t feel even the slightest bit Risky.

And why was that, I wonder.

I think it’s because the value of what was being put on stake was completely unbalanced. Sayaka didn’t just put her life on the line, her money, her worth as a person, she put her relationship with Kirari on the line too.

When all was said and done, through the imminent promise of death, all Sayaka would think about was wether Kirari truly cared about her in any way shape or form. Not her own life, but Kirari.

In contrast, Yumeko didn’t bat an eyelash or break a sweat, which was unsurprising to say the least. We’ve already seen firsthand just how little self-preservation that Yumeko has in S1, wether that be in terms of pride, money or even her career choices in life.

Therefore, her risking her life doesn’t have the same kind of emotional gut punch it would if it was Mary in her stead. Mary who puts her pride above anything. Mary who has valued herself from day one.

This would make the stakes even enough and provide some actual tension to the story in terms of the finale.

And it would make sense story-wise too because as far as we can see, the only person who’s ever asked Yumeko to take accountability for the people she’s hurt with her gambling, is Rei Batsubami; someone who knew her family and her past, someone who’s witnessed a version Yumeko we have yet to learn anything about.

Rei is someone to whom she explicitly admitted that her only assurance of guilt comes from not being as guilty as she should be.

It’s finally a gamble that would make Yumeko sweat, providing the perfect narrative parallel to how Mary risked her life to protect Yumeko from Miyo and Miri, despite establishing that the two know very little about each other.

Even if we don’t get an insight into Yumeko’s psyche (as we often don’t) this would be a great way to see her through the eyes of someone who cares about her but isn’t convinced of that care being reciprocated. Mary, the perfect foil to Sayaka.

Not only does she want to replace Kirari as President of the Student Council, she most likely wants to upend the status quo and turn this illegal gambling ring back into a normal, sensible school.

Essentially, this would mean that not only is Yumeko’s and Mary’s relationship being put at stake with the gamble, it’s also the one thing that Yumeko has relied on throughout her life: her gambling addiction!

Will Yumeko forego the thrill of gambling to safe her friend from imminent peril.. or will she simply add Mary to her list of people she’s affected with her compulsive behaviour?

Now, onto the logistics. Would Kirari agree to all of this? Well I think she would accept without a second thought.

Not only has Miss President stacked the base of the tower with the Emergency CrashPad, assuring her of no risk or attempted manslaughter charges whatsoever; she’s bored out of her mind at school. She hates the gambling ring she’s created because it simply isn’t fun anymore, being weighed down by all this responsibility. To have so much to lose but not a big enough risk to stake it all on.

[It’s why she finds Yumeko so interesting. In her eyes, Yumeko has the exact same mentality as her, despite not having nearly as much responsibility.]

Now we’ve seen in S2 that Mary is steadily pulling away from Yumeko, for reasons unknown. She wasn’t nearly as interested in gambling for council elections, only doing it out of bare necessity when Yumeko’s life was threatened, and doesn’t begin to amass votes like a hoarder either. She simply sticks with her 101 before declaring that she now wants to become student council President.

Ever since Yumeko walked into Hyakkaou Private Academy and won her first game, Mary’s life has been inextricably tied to hers (often against Mary’s will), so wouldn’t it be poetic justice to have her literally wager herself in this dangerous tower of cat and mouse?

Furthermore, we would’ve gotten some kind of reaction to Yumeko’s unique way of solving said tower problem— Sayaka’s doing her level best to save the President, trying not to make a single mistake in her reasoning while Yumeko’s.. staring at the moon? Does she even care about Mary????

Either way, the game would have ended the same, with Yumeko as the winner. Sayaka would rather throw herself out the window than hurt her beloved Madame President, Kirari jumps out after her, the whole bed of lilies scene, etc, etc, all is well that ends well..

Unless.

With all the talk of side bets throughout the season, it would a miss if there wasn’t one at the finale, so I think Kirari would challenge Mary into an under the table bet. Whosever champion reached the first floor first would win the other’s Election Votes.

Sayaka reaches the first floor first, but ultimately loses the game. Therefore Mary loses the 101 votes she amassed trying to protect Yumeko to Kirari, and has to start from square 1; and symbolically loses her trust with Yumeko as well.

I assume that Yumeko’s roundabout methods would frustrate and confuse Mary (as it usually does) who, in a fit of panic, breaks her friendship with Yumeko once it’s all over.

The gamble paid off, sure, but at what cost?

We end the season with YuMary in tatters, Yumeko hating (or at least mildly resenting) her gambling habits for the first time in the show, and Kirari Momobami now 101 votes richer than she was before, (still elusive and mysterious in her intentions as ever.)

A fittingly climatic ending where a compulsive gambler finally realises she has something left to lose after all..

Now wouldn’t that be exciting?

[early2000smovieimagines]

Meeting and Dating George Weasley

(Not my gif)(Requested by anonymous)

- You and George first meet when you’re both attending Hogwarts. Him and Fred are obviously pretty popular so you probably know about him before he knows about you. 

- As most couples in school do, you met because you were placed in the same class and wound up sitting pretty close to each other. This class also just so happened to only contain one Weasley in it; something I’m sure happened quite a lot with the trouble the twins always started. 

- Since he doesn’t have his twin, he’s a bit more focused on the classroom itself and eager to find himself the oh so important class buddy. While he was sitting at his desk, bored out of his mind, his eyes fell on you for the first time and he immediately perked up. He found his buddy. 

- Both of the Weasley twins are quite social; or at least not scared of social interaction, so he has no problem coming up to you and introducing himself. He’s eager to make you his friend and get closer to you, and since he’s funny, sweet, charismatic and much, much more, you’re more than happy to accept his friendship. 

- George sort of has a crush on your for a while before he asks you out; which Fred obviously rags on him for. And his crush on you only worsens as time passes and everyone he knows starts to catch on to his affections, hinting at him needing to ask you out. 

 - You were invited to the burrow at least once and his Mom even gave him a knowing look, telling him he should get a move on and saying “sure you don’t” when he shyly insisted that he didn’t know what she was talking about. 

- Although it takes him a bit of time, he does manage to ask you out with little problem. 

- George has always been a bit affectionate with you so when he took your hand in both of his and started toying with your fingers as you were doing something, you really didn’t pay it any mind. 

“Y/n?”

“Hmm?”

“Would you like to go out sometime, love?” 

- You froze for a second, not expecting to hear those words leaving his mouth, and his heart raced as he awaited your response. You looked over at him to see if he was joking or not and gave him a genuine smile as you were met with his sincere face. 

“I would love that George.” He smiled and pressed his lips to the back of your hand. 

- The two of you have sort of already done everything you could together; in regards to going to places at Hogsmeade and stuff like that, so you really don’t have a very extravagant first date. You both just walk around the more wooded areas of Hogwarts, talking, teasing, and nudging each others shoulders. 

- You share your first kiss that same day; he just couldn’t help himself. He was walking backwards in front of you for a while before he stopped, forcing you to stop as well. He took your face in his hands, looking into your eyes for a moment before slowly leaning in, giving you time to pull away if you wanted to.

 - Your lips met in a soft, somewhat chaste kiss and you both smiled at each other after pulling away. He kissed your forehead before wrapping his arm around you and continuing your walk.

- And just like that, everything in George’s life seems to fall perfectly into place. You’re his and he couldn’t be happier.

- Lots of Pda. He’ll usually keep his affection sorta innocent when you’re in the public eye, the idea of getting heated when one of his siblings can see is a bit awkward to him and he’s just more of a reserved person in general. The absolute most you’ll get is a makeout at a party, other than that, he’s just tooth achingly sweet. 

- He loves giving you affection but he especially loves you giving him affection. He had to share his mother and father with six siblings growing up so having one person; especially one that he loves so much, giving him their undivided and loving attention is like a dream.

- Handholding and hand kisses. He likes taking your hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it before he laces your fingers together.

- Getting pulled into his side whenever you’re standing next to him. He’ll wrap an arm around your waist and keep you close to him, finding comfort in you being all nestled into him.

- Cheek and forehead kisses.

- Having kisses pressed all over your face before he catches your lips in his. 

- Sweet and slow kisses. He likes keeping your lips on his for as long as he can. He also likes holding your face in his hands whenever he kisses you, lovingly brushing his thumb against your cheek bone as the two of you pull away. 

- You holding his face in your hands? Godlike.

- He loves when you straddle his lap as you’re snogging; nothing beats it in his eyes. 

- Sometimes, he’ll lean down and rest both his arms on your shoulder, his chin laying against his forearms/hands and there’s just something about it that never fails to fluster you; at least a little bit. It’s probably the close proximity and the fact that he brushes kisses along the back of your neck absentmindedly. 

- Princess, darling, love, etc. He adores giving you pet names. And you giving him them? He didn’t think he could love you more but he stood corrected the first time you called him one. 

- He likes spooning as much as the next boy but there’s just something about resting his head on your chest or borderline sleeping on top of you with his head in the crook of your neck that he finds so comforting. 

- Waking up next to you is one of the best feelings in the world to him. His eyes slowly opening to see the sunlight streaming on your face, hearing your soft breathing, having those snuggly, soft spoken conversations. He lives for it. 

- Him reading to you. It melted his heart the first time you cuddled up to him, asking what he was reading and saying that it sounded nice, admitting happily that you’d like to hear some when he asked if you would.

- George is used to being the one who explains things so if you have a question, he usually has the answer; and he always gives it to you with minimal teasing.

- If you ever give him a gift, just know that it will be worn, displayed or shown off with pride. He’ll always give you a kiss and an adorable thank you, showing it the upmost love as though it’s the best thing he owns. 

- He likes to rag on you for it but he secretly loves when you ask him to reach things for you. 

- Competitions and bets for kisses.

- Cheering him on at Quidditch games. Its quite funny to see how aggressive your typically sweet and fairly docile boyfriend can be whenever he’s out on the field.

- Showing him different muggle things. He’s a particular fan of Saturday morning cartoons. 

- Going to Zonkos. You’re always dragged there whenever you go to Hogsmeade, well, there’s less dragging and more relenting on your part after he gives you puppy dog eyes. 

- Going to Madam Puddifoots. He definitely feels a bit out of place but he doesn’t mind too much, he thinks it’s sort of sweet and finds the sight of you in the shop to be quite cute.

- Sneaking around the school using the marauder's map and just his impressive memory of the castles layout. You swear that he must have the entire school memorized. 

- Helping him and Fred with pranks.

- Getting to hear all about his new product and prank ideas.

- He’s sorta used to just going along with Fred's plans so he tends to be fine with whatever you want to do. He may teasingly whine and complain but he never really has an issue with any of it.

- Fred third wheeling or going on double dates with you guys, though it isn’t really third wheeling when it’s Fred; he’s just as involved in your relationship as you are. 

- Visiting the burrow and writing each other letters during your breaks. Molly absolutely loves you and welcomes you with open arms. She always finds something to invite you to.

- Helping out at the shop once they buy it. The two of you make goo goo eyes at each other from across the store and Fred teasingly pretends to gag whenever he makes eye contact with one of you afterwards.

- He somewhat fusses over you; especially when you’re out in the elements. He’ll pull your jacket collar closer to your neck, put your hat and scarf on for you, etc. He has this cute need to take care of you.

- Fred teasing the two of you; or just George when the two of them are alone. You’re pretty used to it by now but he does occasionally manage to somewhat fluster you.

- Him whispering little comments to you; especially when he’s bored. You’ll have to stifle more than a few laughs during class.

- He’s always able to make you laugh and he absolutely lives for it. It doesn’t matter if your laugh is the ugliest thing in the world, it’s still music to his ears. 

- He hates when you worry over him; though he does like the fact that you care about him enough to do so, so he’ll usually try and joke around to make you relax and feel better.

- Assuring him that you don’t mind his holiness. He’ll pretend that it doesn’t bother him but you know that it does so you take special care in reminding him that it doesn’t matter to you.  

- George has always sort of felt like the lesser twin so it means a lot to him whenever you reassure him that you only love; and have only ever loved, him. He could have proposed to you right then and there when you first said so.  

- He understands you better than anyone else. If you’re going through something, he’s right there with you, comforting you and trying his best to help. 

- We’ve got ourselves a jealous boy right here. Since George is a bit insecure, he definitely has a habit of getting jealous over you. He tries to reason with himself that it’s not his place to interrupt or ask you about the guys you’re around but sometimes he just can’t help it.

- He’s definitely a bit overprotective of you, almost in a maternal/paternal way at times. He’ll almost kill himself a dozen times for the sake of a prank but the minute you do something remotely risky, he’s trying to stop you like he’s your parent.

- Whenever anything upsetting or scary happens, he’s the first person to ask if you’re okay. He sticks by your side and watches out for you like his life depends on it.

- George is a lover, not a fighter. The two of you rarely have fights but when you do, they’re more so just arguments that may or may not get a bit heated; depending on the subject matter. 

- George has always been good at smoothing things over and understanding other peoples point of views so your arguments never last very long. You rarely ever not resolve an argument before you leave each others sides, unless you really need to leave for something, but when that happens you’re usually over it by the time you reunite again. 

- Lots of I love you’s and all kinds of them at that. He’ll say them sincerely, he’ll say them playfully, he’ll jokingly sing them; whatever comes to mind or fits the mood. He just loves to say I love you. 

- He may lose an ear but he doesn’t intend on losing you anytime soon. He knew you were the one the moment he laid eyes on you and he never ceases to be amazed by you.