#I do know that usually the youngest take all the attention and the oldest takes all the expectations

[judyjoy]

Can we talk about how Dexter is the only brunette in his family and how that is a great representation of how invisible he is to his parents? My knowledge about blonde hair and genetics might be limited, but I do know that natural blonde hair is hard to maintain and that with time, it can become brown. So probably Dexter had blonde hair, but due to the lack of care coming from his parents and servants alike, it became brown.

Or you know, you can also say that he dyes his hair to be *☆•°different°•☆* but I like my theory more 😌

[softguarnere]

Something He Can't Have

Edmund Pevensie x fem!reader

A/N: Not me falling back into one of my oldest hyperfixations after watching the movies this past week for Christmas 🥴 I honestly don't know what to say for myself, other than that I had fun writing this and it may have single-handedly saved me from my recent writing slump. Anyway, hope y'all like this, byeeee ✨💕 Warnings: none

Lucy lets out a groan that sounds so annoyed that it instantly draws Edmund back into the present moment. “Can I ple-ease say something now?” She asks Susan, who sits to her left at the banquet table.

Susan shushes her, but there’s no malice behind it. In fact, when she does allow a disheartened look to grace her face, she directs it toward Edmund. “No. I suppose we shouldn’t meddle.”

They’ve captured his interest. Which is something that seems nearly impossible, considering that he’s spent so much of this banquet staring at Peter and (Y/N) on the dance floor, watching his older brother enjoy dance after dance with her. And trying hard not to take it too personally when (Y/N) throws back her head to laugh every now and then at something that Peter has said. Usually, she only laughs like that at his jokes, and usually only when they’re alone together.

If Peter is making her come undone, allowing her to feel comfortable outside of the carefully crafted polite and diplomatic persona that (Y/N) has created for herself to use in Cair Paravel’s court, then she’s become relaxed with him. And who knows where that will lead?

“What are you talking about?” For good measure, Edmund tosses one last glance at the dance floor before turning his attention to his sisters.

“That!” Lucy exclaims, gesturing between Edmund and the crowd that swirl on the floor before them. “This!”

Edmund raises an eyebrow. “The ball?”

His younger sister groans, burying her head in her hands. “Oh, I give up!”

“Edmund,” Susan says sternly. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t get involved, but this has gone on long enough.” For a split second, the gentle queen loses her composure, though only ever so slightly. “I mean, for God’s sake! It’s downright painful to watch!”

Still confused, Edmund isn’t sure what to say that will clarify whatever his sisters are talking about without further upsetting them. Instead, he settles for biting his lip, glancing between his sisters and the dancing, trying to work out their meaning himself.

Susan sighs, turning to Lucy. “He’s either a better actor than we give him credit for, or he’s downright daft.”

“Help me out here,” Edmund says.

“(Y/N)!” Lucy hisses, leaning across Susan so that she can scold her brother without causing too much unwanted attention. “You’ve been following her around all lovesick for ages now, but you haven’t done anything. And now you’re all jealous watching her dance with Peter.”

“Am not!”

Lucy swats his arm. “You’ve been staring at them all night. If you like her so much, then you better do something before you lose her forever!”

In other situations, Susan might chide the youngest Pevensie sibling, telling her that she’s being a bit overdramatic before offering Edmund some sort of good-natured advice. Edmund looks to her expectantly, only to find her brown eyes full of disappointment; she agrees with Lucy.

“We can all agree that you wear green better than any other, Ed,” she says. “But jealousy is not a shade that suits you.”

“Me? Jealous?! Of who?”

But his sisters only fix him with knowing looks. It makes Edmund want to wither away from existence on the spot. He spent most of their lives before Narnia being jealous of Peter. It’s been hard, but it’s something that he’s worked on since they were crowned. He really thought that he had overcome it. Now, though, his sisters’ words, coupled with the funny feeling in his stomach . . . He feels like a man, trapped, full of guilt, and caught in the middle of something very private. Which innocent people with nothing to hide do not feel in situations like these.

I fancy (Y/N), he realizes, admitting it to himself for the first time. It feels demeaning, somehow, to put a label on the feelings that he’s been harboring in secret for so long. And I’m jealous because she likes Peter more than me, says the next one, which makes him feel even worse.

A warm hand takes hold of his and squeezes. For all the annoyance that Lucy has felt toward him in these past few minutes, she offers him nothing but a kind look and encouraging smile. “You have to do something, Ed.”

“I – “ The words clog in his throat, causing him to swallow thickly, trying to find some of the air which has suddenly become very scarce. As you spin by on the dance floor, Edmund can see how you’re smiling at Peter like he hung the moon, and how his older brother beams at you like you created all the stars. Who wouldn’t want to bask in the sun’s warmth like that? And what sort of evil would dare separate two people who appear to be so . . . so in love. “I can’t.”

“You can,” Susan reassures him. “Trust me, Ed.”

Edmund, however, can’t take his eyes off of you. “I can’t ruin that.”

“You won’t,” Susan says. And if Edmund had his wits about him, he would recognize that she says it with the tone of someone who is very sure of herself because she has access to information that no one else has. (She, after all, is your best friend. But facts like that tend to fall by the wayside in moments of intense anxiety such as this.) “Ed, it’ll be fine. Trust me.”

To unstick the words in his throat, Edmund reaches for his goblet and takes a swig of the drink from inside. If he’s really going to do this, he’ll need all the courage he can get, no matter where it comes from.

As the song ends, he pushes back his chair and begins to make his way around the table. Lucy squeals with delight from behind him, and both his sisters offer nods of encouragement and thumbs up when he turns back to them, unsure.

The next thing that he knows, he’s on the dance floor, maneuvering his way through the crowd to reach you –

He catches sight of you just as you excuse yourself from the dance floor. You disappear into the crowd before he can call out to you, though he reaches out a hand, like he might be able to catch you from afar.

“Edmund!” A well-meaning slap on the back announces Peter’s presence. His older brother throws an arm around his shoulders. He radiates heat after all that dancing. “I wondered when you might join us on the dance floor.”

“I’m not. I’m just looking for (Y/N).”

Peter’s smile doesn’t falter, despite the fact that the next words out of his mouth are devastating news. “I believe that she’s retiring for the night.”

“Oh?”

“She said that she needed some air, that she might go to bed.”

As one of Narnia’s kings, Edmund is inclined to stay present for the majority of this banquet. You, being a courtier, are free to go as you please, seeing as there are no diplomatic negotiations, no fates of any nations, resting on your shoulders. If things were different, he would find a way to go after you.

And he’s actually looking for an excuse to do so when Peter says something that makes him stop.

“I wish she would have stayed,” the High King sighs. “We were having such a good time.”

Edmund nods, hands involuntarily clenching into fists at his sides. His voice feels hollow when he replies, “It looked like you were having a good time.”

“I was thinking – “ A laugh cuts Peter off as he shakes his head, looking half embarrassed, half giddy. “I was actually just about to ask her to be my – my girlfriend.” On the last word, something most unusual happens – the High King blushes. Actually blushes! Who would have known that such a thing was possible?

To say that it catches Edmund off guard would be an understatement. He’s never seen Peter so vulnerable . . . so happy. It makes Edmund’s mouth go dry. He and Peter have had their differences throughout their lives, but he can’t just ruin his older brother’s chance at happiness.

“Oh.” Is all that Edmund can think to say. He hesitates for a moment before asking, “What do you think she’ll say?”

Peter laughs, breathlessly, happily. “Well, I’m hoping that she’ll say yes, of course. In fact – “ He glances in the direction that you disappeared in. “ – I would go talk to her now, if not for my responsibilities.”

“Go,” Edmund finds himself saying. He can feel Peter’s look of surprise mirrored on his own face. But if Peter is going to do this, if this is all really happening, he’d honestly rather get it over with. “I’ll cover for you here.”

Now it’s Peter who hesitates. After a moment, his face breaks into a wide smile. He claps Edmund on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, Ed.”

I wish I were better, the Just King thinks as he watches his older brother chase after the girl that they both love.  

From the banquet table, Lucy and Susan are giving him confused looks. Edmund only shrugs, then quietly rejoins them. He doesn’t speak, doesn’t want to explain what’s just happened. He recedes into himself, letting the party whirl by without him.

If only he were paying attention – then he would see the knowing look on Susan’s face.

. . .

It’s late when the banquet ends, and later still when Edmund slips into the library. He’s exhausted, but his mind is racing and won’t let him sleep. You and Peter had disappeared from the banquet hours ago. That’s plenty of time for his brother to have confessed to you and for you to have accepted. Dread fills him at the thought of the two of you happily announcing your new relationship the next morning at breakfast. He’ll have to face the two of you sometime, to muscle through his own pain and begin navigating a world where he has to accept that you’re in love with his older brother. But tonight, he can be amongst his books, which are a comfort.

He's so distracted that he doesn’t immediately notice you sitting by the fireplace, an open book on your lap, but a distracted look on your face as you watch the flames dance before you.

“Oh,” you both exclaim at the same time when you notice each other. The synchronicity makes you both laugh.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he apologizes.

“I didn’t mean to take your hiding spot,” you say in turn. You shut your book, but Edmund holds out a hand to stop you.

“You don’t have to leave on my account.”

You squint, studying him for a second, before nodding and settling back into the cushions behind you. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Carefully, Edmund takes a seat opposite you, gazing into the fire to gather his nerve. He didn’t expect to find you here. Didn’t expect to find you looking so . . . distracted and lonely as you stare into the fire, your book forgotten. He really shouldn’t pry. But you’re his friend, first and foremost, and he doesn’t want that to change. “Is everything alright?”

Delicate fingers pinch the bridge of your nose. You sigh, collecting yourself before looking up at him through the firelight.

“Peter asked me to be his girlfriend,” you confess. Though the library is quiet, your voice is dull, hard to hear. You do not look as joyful as he imagined you would when delivering this news.

“Oh,” Edmund offers. He fumbles for words. You look upset, so he can’t congratulate you. But then again, he’s not sure if he should console you.

You stare at him for a moment, studying him just as intently as he’s studying you. “I said no,” you finally explain.

“Oh,” Edmund says again, for lack of anything better to say. “I’m . . . sorry?” Except that he’s really not. He feels quite relieved, if he’s being honest with himself.

Your brows furrow. He’s said the wrong thing, but he’s not sure where he went wrong.

“I said no,” you repeat. “Because I have feelings for someone else.”

Edmund’s heart, only on the mend for a split second, plummets. “Oh. I see.”

“No you don’t,” you scoff. “Edmund, you’re the one I have feelings for! Have you really not noticed by now?”

The words echo through the still library. They hang between you for a moment. A glorious, albeit confusing, moment where Edmund can do nothing but stare at you, unsure if he’s heard you correctly. Narnia is a magical place, but there’s no way that you could have said the very thing that he would do anything to hear.

“You do?” His voice comes so quietly that when you don’t immediately reply, he worries that maybe he hasn’t spoken at all.

“Yes. And for quite some time, I might add.”

“But – “ Images of the night swirl in his mind. You had danced with Peter for ages, looking so happy. Everyone likes Peter. They always have. And much, much more than they like Edmund. To say that you have feelings for him . . . “Why?”

You blink, taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“I mean . . . Everyone likes Peter. He always gets what he wants.”

Even in the dim glow of the firelight, he can see your gaze soften.

“Oh, Edmund.” You leave your seat, coming closer to him. He rises, meeting you halfway, so that the two of you are standing together in front of the fire. Gently, you take his hand, intwining your fingers. Your hand is warm in his. You squeeze, and on instinct, he squeezes back. “That’s not true.”

“What’s not?”

“People like you, too. I like you.” Your grip tightens on his hand. “And Peter doesn’t always get what he wants. I know something he can’t have.”

“What’s that?”

A smile tugs at your lips when you gaze up at him and say, “He can’t have this.”

[ak319]

Lovesick Village Boy x Fem civil servant reader

Part II

➺Part I

It's been two days since your arrival at Al-Razeh. Maha, your PA, poured tea into your cup and hers, and you both sat down, enjoying the evening and relaxing on your estate's lawn.

"The weather is nice today, Ma'am," Maha said, taking in the cool breeze.

"Indeed," you replied, savoring the calm. After a moment, you turned to her. "By the way, you’ve lived here all your life, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," she answered, glancing at you curiously.

"So... any folklore tied to this village? Since, you know, villages are known to be famous for such things." You smiled, lighting the mood with a bit of humor. “Often having their own stories.”

Maha chuckled softly at your inquiry and drew her chair a bit closer to yours. “Well, not exactly folklore, but there is this family. Personally, neither my family nor I are closely acquainted with them, but…” She took a sip of her tea, her words now capturing all your attention.

"They are the Jafaris--Kadir Jafari’s family, they own general stores here, two of them. He has three sons. The oldest two are married and have children, but their youngest… he’s always been something of an enigma around here.”

Your curiosity piqued, you snorted softly. “An enigma?”

“Yes, ma’am, an enigma,” Maha’s voice took on a tone of anxious seriousness. “He’s known for his extraordinary beauty. I have not seen him myself though. So, up until he was about sixteen, everything seemed fine. But then, he suddenly vanished from his friends’ lives and stopped attending school. Despite the family’s best efforts to conceal the issue, it eventually came to light that he was... possessed. The situation was dire, his agonizing screams were reportedly heard throughout the quiet streets. This was happening around the time of his second brother’s wedding. Guests at the house, including those from the neighboring families, overheard the commotion. The disturbances along with conflicts within the family caused tensions to rise, and at one point, it nearly led to the engagement being called off. Fortunately, the wedding went ahead, but Habib was absent, cited as being ill by his family.”

You listened with growing intrigue, though a pang of sympathy tugged at your heart. Such occurrences were tragically real, and often, people not only suffered but sometimes perished.

"Let me guess," you said, shifting your gaze to Maha, "you mentioned he was--no, is--beautiful?"

"Yes, that’s correct."

"Then black magic? Possibly from relatives?" You inquired, noting the surprised look in Maha’s eyes.

"Y-yes," she stammered. "I mean, that's what most of the people think. The cleric himself when consulted by some of the village elders, particularly Kadir’s friends, didn't reveal anything except that it was indeed something paranormal."

"That's often the case with such situations," you remarked. "Clerics typically avoid naming names if it's a matter of black magic. If you discover the culprit on your own, that's one thing, but directly asking the clerics usually only gets you vague responses. Or maybe the family didn't want the details out."

Black magic presented a confusing challenge when it came to legal matters. The laws were clear, if someone was caught practicing black magic, they faced severe penalties. Yet, the shadowy nature of these practices often meant that many perpetrators remained hidden. Clerics, bound by their own reasons, often withheld crucial information about those involved. In villages like Al-Razeh, such issues could be predictably common. To you, black magic was not merely a mystical concern but a serious crime. The victims deserved justice, and those who perpetuated such malevolence needed to be held accountable.

“Ma’am, how do you know so much about these things?” Maha’s childlike curiosity brought a smile to your face.

“Nothing special,” you replied, “just a hobby. So, how is the boy now?”

"Oh! I missed a part," Maha said, her voice dropping to a more serious tone. "People, like you mentioned, initially suspected the relatives because that's common in cases of black magic. But his brothers were also under suspicion. They always seemed to harbor resentment towards Habib. After all, he’s the most beautiful of them, so it wouldn't be surprising if they were involved. Men too get jealous over these matters."

With a pitiful sigh, you set your cup on the table and leaned back. "It breaks one’s heart to hear such stories--family turning against family. This... magic stuff is no joke. Deep-rooted jealousy can lead to such tragic outcomes, tearing apart lives and families."

"Indeed," Maha agreed solemnly. "But it could just have been a normal possession and not caused by magic cuz like I said, he is said to be very beautiful. He's reportedly doing better now, but he hasn’t left the house since then. It might be the cleric’s advice, or perhaps it's his parents' protectiveness or... his brothers' doing. Some people speculate that he might have died."

“What? Died? But didn’t the cleric solve his problem?” you asked, puzzled.

“Yes, he did. It’s just a rumor--he can’t be dead. You can't hide something like that for so long. People who are the family's relatives and friends, have seen him inside the house. So, he’s definitely there.” Maha chuckled, shaking her head at the absurdity of such rumors.

"What about the cleric? He still here?"

"Oh no, he was from some other place. Kadir called him here for his son's treatment." You hummed and took in the information. Then a subtle smirk graced your lips.

“It could have been a lover, too,” you suggested casually.

“What?”

You petted Milo, your cat, who had jumped onto your lap. “It might have been a lover who cursed him, someone who wanted him. One of the leading cause for black magic."

“He was 16.”

You laughed, “So? She could have been 16 too. Who knows? Anyway, did you put the reports in my study?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, I’ll go freshen up.” You stood up, leaving Maha to enjoy her tea on the lawn. Your thoughts shifted away from the village story, focusing instead on the duties that lay ahead.

═════ ◈ ═════

Odai stepped into the small shop, removing his glasses as his gaze briefly settled on the figure behind the counter. What caught his attention were the eyes--unmistakably unique, as if they held a quiet depth. But the rest of the man’s face was hidden beneath a cloth, adding an air of mystery.

"Um, two packs of cigarettes." Odai glanced back at the car parked outside across the road. Through the tinted windows, he could see his reflection.

"I can't."

Odai’s head snapped back in surprise. Is he hearing things?

"Two packs of cigarettes, brother," he repeated, a bit more firmly this time.

But the man behind the counter shook his head again, those evasive eyes refusing to reveal more. What was going on?

"What?--what do you mean? It’s just a pack of cigarettes. Why are you saying no?"

"I-I can't sell them... I don't want to."

"Why? That’s your job! Why even own a shop then? Is this how you treat your customers?" Odai's frustration grew.

"No... I just don’t sell cigarettes... They’re harmful."

Was this man serious? Was he actually joking?

"Look, boy. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I need them, so I’m gonna ask one last time before I leave. Hand over the cigarettes."

But all he got in return was another silent shake of the head. That was it.

"Fine, keep running your business like this bud and you’re bound for success," Odai muttered, "And maybe don’t stock cigarettes in your shop if you’re not planning to sell them!"

He stormed back to the car, slamming the driver’s door shut accidentally. The noise made you glance up from your file.

"What’s wrong? Did you get them?" you asked, noticing his disgruntled expression.

"I’m so-rry, ma’am… um… the boy in the shop… he refused to sell. God, I can’t believe it--like, what even was that? But there's another store nearby so , we will go there." Odai stammered, frustration clear in his voice. Before he could shift into gear, you stopped him with a curious question.

"Wait, he refused to sell cigarettes?"

"Yes." Odai nodded, still baffled.

"That’s interesting. And did he say why?"

"They’re harmful." Odai’s ears flushed as he heard you chuckle softly. He wasn’t sure if you were annoyed or just amused by the whole thing.

"Now this is intriguing. Someone refusing to run their business properly... now that’s a case worth looking into." Still chuckling, you slipped out of the car before Odai could respond, but he quickly followed, his curiosity piqued.

Like him, you took in the scene before heading to the small counter tucked in the corner. There, the figure sat quietly, standing the moment you approached, his demeanor almost shy under your gaze.

"You’re the one who refuses to sell cigarettes because they’re harmful?" you asked, your voice curious yet firm.

He nodded. His eyes, though not meeting yours directly, seemed to speak in a language of their own--soft but full of meaning.

"Do you know who I am?" You wondered if the uniform might catch his attention.

A brief silence followed before his voice, barely above a whisper, reached you. "No.."

"I am the new DC."

"T-he DC?"

"That's right."

"I still… won’t sell." Odai huffed behind you, clearly irritated, but you hardly noticed. Your eyes softened, lighting up with quiet amusement at the childlike defiance. "Why? This is not how you run a shop, boy."

"I don’t want you....our… new DC to be harmed. I won’t let a pack… kill an honest officer."

For a moment, time seemed to still. Never in your life did you imagine hearing something so simple, yet so profound. His words, spoken with such gentleness, struck something deep inside you. Just who was this man? You could sense Odai’s stunned silence behind you, just as surprised by the unexpected warmth in those gentle words.

After clearing your throat, you finally asked, "What’s your name?"

"H-Habib, miss."

This… this is Habib? The Habib that Maha had told you about?

"They’re the Jafaris--Kadir Jafari’s family. They own general stores around here, two of them."

And here you were, standing in one of them. But how was he… here?

From behind a curtain serving as a door to an adjoined room, a man in his late fifties appeared, his presence steady and familiar. He moved to stand beside Habib.

'That must be Kadir, his father.'

"Oh! I’m sorry, I was just praying in the other room. How may I help you?" Kadir asked politely, his tone warm. Meanwhile, Habib stood quietly to the side, his gaze fixed downward, trying to shrink into the background, as if seeking shelter behind his father’s presence.

"Well, our DC wanted some cigarettes, and this boy refused to sell them," Odai interjected with a trace of frustration in his voice.

"Oh--I’m so sorry. Ma’am, please, forgive him. He’s new to this… and, well, he refuses to sell them to anyone," Kadir said with a chuckle that barely masked his embarrassment, as he reached for the cigarettes.

"No, it’s alright. Really, I don’t want them. And… you’ve raised a kind soul, sir," you said, your gaze briefly shifting to Habib, who still stood quietly, his presence almost ethereal. Maha was right. If those eyes alone held such depth and softness, then his face… You couldn’t help but feel a quiet curiosity bloom within you, wondering what beauty lay beneath the mask. Yet, it wasn’t a thought born of desire--no it was reverent. There was a satisfaction in knowing that Habib remained untouched by the eyes of envy or malice.

"I--thank you, ma’am. But, please, if you still want--"

"It’s fine." You smiled, your voice gentle. "I’ll just take those chips instead. Thank you."

Before leaving, your eyes found Habib’s one last time. For a brief second, he looked back, those soulful eyes meeting yours with a vulnerability that touched something deep inside you. And then, just like that, the moment passed. Something stirred in your chest as you made your way back to the car.

His demeanor, though shy and reserved, had an innate warmth that contrasted starkly with the pain you suspected he might have endured. Habib's eyes, so expressive despite their attempt to hide behind the mask of modesty, spoke volumes. How could anyone ever think to harm such a gentle, innocent soul? His kindness made him so pure, yet so brave in his quiet way. Your heart ached at the thought of someone cruel, someone arrogant, standing where you were now. If they had received the same refusal, what might they have done to him and his father?

Part III

(AN: I cried writing this due to the unspoken romance which is more to come and I just wanna give the biggest hug to Habib so bad 😭)

[deans-queen]

𝐂𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

Pairing: Dean x F!Reader (Y/N)

Summary: Reader meets Dean at Roadhouse and challenges him to a game of pool, with an interesting bet.

Warnings: sexual themes/tension (it gets a bit smutty but thats no surprise from me at this point 😜) , language, alcohol use.

Pre AN: this fills the Pool/Billiards square for my @jacklesversebingo card!

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

It’s Saturday night at the Roadhouse. The air is buzzing with chatter, the clinking of glasses, music playing from the jukebox, and the occasional crack of pool balls. I used to play a lot when I was a kid and I loved it, but it's been forever since I last picked up a cue. 

I walk toward the bar and take a seat on the wooden stool. Ellen – the owner of the place – turns around and greets me with a smile. 

“Hey sweetie, what will it be?” she asks me as she grabs a glass. 

“Oh, hey Ellen! Just the usual – whisky on the rocks.”

“You got it,” she says with a wink. 

As Ellen gets my drink, I glance around the bar. People fill the booths and tables, chatting with each other. A few are out on the dance floor, swaying to the music, while others are casually playing pool. My eyes drift to one of the pool tables, and that's when I notice him. Tall, muscular but not overly so, with brown hair, and wearing a worn brown leather jacket. He’s talking to someone, a much taller guy with longer hair. I can’t help but wonder who they are  – especially the one in the leather jacket. 

Ellen serves me my drink, and I can't help but ask, “Hey Ellen, who are they?” I nod towards them, while casually taking a sip. 

She looks up and sees who I am talking about. 

“Oh, those two?” She asks, while nodding towards them. “They’re family friends of mine, Sam and Dean Winchester.

“And what’s up with them?” I ask casually. 

Ellen hands me my drink, and as I take a sip, the smooth burn of the whisky goes down my throat. I can’t help but let my gaze wander back to the two men by the pool table, especially the one in the leather jacket. There’s something about him — that makes me curious.

“They’re brothers,” Ellen says, bringing my attention back to her. “Been through a lot, those two.” She wipes down the bar as she continues, “Sam - the tall one — he’s the youngest. Smart as a whip,  he’s a big softy. And Dean — the one wearing the leather jacket, he’s the oldest. Bit rough around the edges but good hearted. They’re hunters, ya know. They fight things most people don’t believe exist. 

Hunters. Now that’s something I didn’t expect to hear. 

“Like ghosts and monsters and all that?” I ask curiously. 

Ellen nods, pouring herself a drink. “Exactly, it’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it. Those two are the best hunters around.” 

My eyes drift back to Dean. He leans over the pool table, lining up his shot with precision. I can’t help but admire the way he focuses. As if he can sense my gaze, his eyes — sharp, green, and full of intensity — flicker up to meet mine for a split second. My breath hitches, it’s like he can see right through me. He leans in closer to the table and it’s hard to focus on anything else but the way his lips quirk up into a cocky ass smirk right before he does the break. 

As the balls scatter across the table I bite my lip, unable to tear my gaze away from him. His eyes are still on mine, amusement twinkling as if he knows exactly the effect he’s having on me. 

Ellen’s voice snaps me out of my intense thoughts. “You okay?” 

“Yeah…” I reply, a little too quietly averting my gaze. “I’m fine.” 

But I know deep down I’m not. My mind’s racing with thoughts I shouldn’t be having about a guy I just met — or rather haven’t met yet. 

“Enjoying the view sweetheart?” Dean's voice was blunt with a teasing edge to it as he straightened himself up, clearly pleased with himself. 

I don’t know if it’s the whisky or the sexual tension between us, but I’m feeling very bold tonight. The boldness surges through me, and before I can second guess myself, I find my feet carrying me toward the pool table. Sam is focused on his next shot, but Dean’s eyes are locked on me the entire time, his lips curled into that cocky smirk that’s been driving me wild since the moment our eyes met.

“Well, sweetheart, you gonna stand there staring, or you here to play?” Dean’s voice is low, teasing, and I can feel the challenge in it.

I raise an eyebrow, stepping closer. “Maybe I am here to play,” I reply, letting a bit of sass slip into my tone.

Dean chuckles, leaning back against the edge of the pool table, his eyes scanning me up and down, clearly intrigued. “You any good?”

“I used to be,” I admit with a shrug. “Wanna find out?”

Sam glances between us, shaking his head with a grin before stepping away from the table. “I’ll leave you two to it. Dean can use a good challenge.”

“Good luck, man,” he adds with a knowing smirk before heading toward the bar, leaving just me and Dean at the table.

Dean watches me for a moment before stepping around the table to grab a cue. “Alright, sweetheart. Let’s make this interesting. How about a little wager?”

I raise an eyebrow, curious. “What kind of wager?”

Dean’s eyes darken with mischief as he hands me a cue. He steps in close, his body heat radiating off him as he leans in, his lips dangerously close to my ear. “Loser has to kiss the winner.”

His words send a shiver down my spine, my heart racing in response. I swallow, trying to maintain my composure, but the heat between us is undeniable. I glance up at him, meeting his intense green eyes.

“Deal,” I say, my voice surprisingly steady. “But don’t be upset when you lose.”

Dean chuckles, pulling back slightly, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Oh, sweetheart, you’ve got no idea what you’re in for.”

We set up the game, the tension between us thickening with every glance, every small touch as we move around the table. I take the first shot, breaking the balls with a satisfying crack. Dean watches me closely, his gaze burning into me, but I focus on the game, determined not to let him get in my head.

The game goes on, each shot bringing us closer, both of us playing to win, but there’s something else simmering beneath the surface, a fire that’s growing with every passing moment. I line up my final shot, feeling Dean’s eyes on me the whole time. The cue ball hits the corner pocket, sinking the last ball perfectly.

Dean’s smirk falters for the first time, and I can’t help the triumphant grin that spreads across my face.

“Well, would you look at that,” I say, setting the cue down and stepping toward him. “I won.”

Dean straightens up, his eyes narrowing slightly, though there’s amusement dancing in them. He takes a step closer, closing the space between us, his body heat wrapping around me like a blanket.

“Looks like I owe you something, sweetheart,” he murmurs, his voice low and rough. “But I don’t mind losing to you.”

Before I can respond, his hand gently grips my chin, tilting my face up toward his. His lips crash into mine, firm and demanding, stealing my breath away. The kiss is intense, and I melt into it, my hands finding their way to his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath the leather jacket. His other hand snakes around my waist, pulling me closer, until there’s no space left between us.

Dean deepens the kiss, his tongue teasing mine, and I can’t help the soft moan that escapes me. His grip tightens slightly, possessive, and I’m drowning in the feel of him, the taste of him. It’s like he’s claiming me, and I’m more than willing to be claimed.

When we finally break apart, we’re both breathing hard, our foreheads resting against each other. Dean’s eyes are dark with lust, his smirk back in full force.

“Damn, sweetheart,” he whispers, his voice husky. “You kiss even better than I imagined.”

I can’t help the laugh that escapes me, feeling a little lightheaded from the intensity of the moment. “Careful, Dean. I might make you lose more often.”

Dean leans in again, his lips brushing against mine as he murmurs, “I think I’d like that.”

Dean’s lips find mine again, slower this time, more deliberate, savoring the taste of me like he’s been waiting for this moment forever. His hands roam over my body, his grip firm yet tender, pulling me even closer. I can feel his heart pounding beneath my hands as I run them over his chest, his muscles tense beneath the fabric of his shirt. The kiss deepens, and I lose myself in it, my body pressing into his, heat building between us until I can barely think straight.

When he finally pulls back, his breath is warm against my lips, and there’s a dangerous glint in his eyes. “How about we take this somewhere more private?” he murmurs, his voice low and husky.

I bite my lip, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. “Yeah… I think that’s a good idea,” I manage, my voice breathless from the intensity of the kiss.

He grabs my hand, and without another word, we head outside. The cool night air hits me, but it does nothing to cool the fire raging inside me. My heart races as he leads me to the his beautiful car — a 1967 Chevy Impala; parked under the dim light of a streetlamp. There’s something thrilling about it— something intimate, yet wild. He opens the back door for me, and I slide in, my body humming with anticipation. Dean follows quickly, closing the door behind him, sealing us inside.

The moment we’re alone, the tension between us snaps like a rubber band stretched too tight. His hands are on me, his lips crashing into mine with a raw hunger that sends sparks through my entire body. I gasp against his mouth, my fingers tugging at his leather jacket, desperate to feel him, to touch the warm skin underneath.

"God, you drive me crazy," he breathes, his voice rough as his hands slide up my shirt, lifting it over my head. He pauses, his eyes dark with desire as they roam over me, taking me in. His gaze is so intense that it makes me shiver.

"Not so bad yourself," I reply, a teasing edge in my voice, though I can barely keep it steady. The way he looks at me makes it hard to think straight.

Dean smirks, leaning in close, his lips brushing against the curve of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. "I bet I can make you say more than that."

I open my mouth to respond, but his hands are already on my waist, pulling me down onto his lap, and any coherent thought slips away. I can feel every inch of him, hard and ready beneath me, and it makes my breath hitch. His lips press against my collarbone, his teeth grazing the skin just enough to make me moan softly.

"You think you’re in charge, Winchester?" I manage to tease, even as my body melts into his touch.

Dean’s low chuckle vibrates against my skin. "Sweetheart, I think we both know who's in control here."

His hands move to my jeans, unbuttoning them with practiced ease, and I arch into him as he pulls them down. The anticipation is almost too much to bear, and I can’t help but bite my lip as his fingers skim over the sensitive skin of my thighs.

"You're killing me, Dean," I whisper, my voice shaky with need.

His eyes flash with something dark, something primal, as he leans in to kiss me again, his hands gripping my hips with a possessive edge. "Trust me, sweetheart. This is just the beginning."

I groan softly as he pulls me down onto him, the sensation overwhelming as he fills me completely. The feeling of him inside me is perfect, and I can't help but rock my hips against him, needing more, wanting more. His hands grip my waist tighter, guiding me as I move, the rhythm between us building quickly.

"Fuck, you feel amazing," Dean growls, his voice low and ragged. He thrusts up into me, harder, deeper, and I gasp, gripping his shoulders to steady myself as the pleasure builds with every movement. The car rocks slightly with the intensity of it, the small space only amplifying the heat between us.

I bite my lip, my nails digging into his skin as I ride him, my body moving instinctively, driven by pure need. "Dean… I–" My voice breaks as a moan escapes me, my head tipping back as he thrusts harder.

"Come on, sweetheart," Dean murmurs, his breath hot against my ear. "Let go. I wanna hear you scream my name."

His dirty talk, the rough edge to his voice, sends me over the edge. My body tightens around him as the orgasm crashes through me, and I cry out, my hands clutching him tightly as I lose myself in the overwhelming pleasure. Dean follows me moments later, groaning my name as he spills into me, his hands gripping my hips like I’m the only thing holding him to this earth.

For a moment, we’re both breathing hard, our bodies tangled together, the tension between us finally spent. I collapse against him, resting my forehead against his chest, feeling the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath my skin. His fingers trail up and down my back in slow, soothing strokes, grounding me after the whirlwind of passion.

After a long moment, Dean tilts my chin up, his green eyes softer now but still intense as they lock onto mine. There’s something different in his gaze, something deeper, as if he’s searching for the right words. His thumb brushes against my lip, his expression more serious than I’ve ever seen.

“I gotta ask you something, sweetheart,” he says quietly, his voice rough but sincere.

I look up at him, my heart pounding for a different reason now. “What is it?” I ask, though there’s a part of me that already knows this is something big.

He hesitates for a moment, his eyes searching mine, and then he finally speaks, his voice low and almost vulnerable. “Stay with me. This… us… it feels right. I don’t want this to be just one night.”

His words hit me like a wave, warm and unexpected. For a second, I can’t find the right response, overwhelmed by the raw honesty in his voice. But then a smile tugs at my lips, and I lean in to kiss him, slow and sweet, pouring everything I feel into that kiss.

“I’m not going anywhere, Dean,” I whisper against his lips when we finally pull apart. “I’m all in.”

Dean smiles, a rare, genuine smile that makes my heart skip a beat. “Good,” he murmurs, pressing his forehead against mine. “Because I don’t plan on letting you go.”

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞:

Hope you enjoyed this story! I’m sorry if the smut is REAL but I can’t help it — but you guys know me by now I’m gonna put smut in my stories! anyways, this one was really fun to do! And the gif — PERFECT TOUCH 🥵🥵🔥

Feel free to let me know what you think! I always love reading feedback!

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[solar-wing]

⚣ Duke To The Rescue 💈

⚣💈A/N → Usually, I write my reader characters as general as possible in all manors of looks and traits so as many people as possible can relate (whether male or g/n). But, I wanted to give some special attention since I rarely see any content like this being an African-American writer and reader myself. Hope you all like it! Plus, this is triggering some dark memories of when I used to get my hair cut so enjoy my pain lol.

⚣💈 Summary → You're the newly adopted Wayne kid after your parents are caught in the crossfire of one of Batman's battles. Bruce, trying to prove himself a better father, attempts to do your hair but since he knows nothing about African-American haircare, you're in for a painful ride. Your poor hairline...

⚣💈 Words → 2.0k

REBLOGS and replies are greatly appreciated, please!💛

⚣ ENJOY 💈

“Okay, so how do I do this?” Your dear old dad asks.

“I don’t know! I’m just a kid! Aren’t you supposed to be the parent and know these things?” You asked with your hands waving around animatedly as you sat on a stool chair taken from the dining room into one of the many bathrooms.

Bruce gave you his signature frown while looking at the assortment of combs and hair products on the sink.

After your parents had gotten caught in the crossfire between Batman and one of his notable nemeses, the billionaire decided to take you in, making you an official Wayne kid.

For a 7-year-old, you were very knowledgeable. Something your new legal guardian immediately noticed after adopting you, and because of your age, you were now officially the youngest kid Bruce had taken in. 

You were also the only other African-American kid Bruce decided to take in outside of Duke. And that didn’t even really technically count since Duke was already a teenager by the time Bruce officially adopted him.

So, your adopted father was at a loss for words while staring in the mirror at your hair while you played games on his phone. Your hair had grown to a considerable length, and you’d been asking your adoptive father for a while now to help you get this new style that was becoming more popular called ‘twists.’ Well, new to you since you hadn’t seen it before.

‘I thought that was a dance move.’ Bruce thought to himself.

When you showed him the video you saw, the Dark Knight persona immediately decided he was taking you to a professional barber who knew more about your hair texture and maintenance to give you what you needed.

At least until Jason ran his big mouth.

“Wow, old man. Can’t even take care of your own kid’s hair. Shameful.”

He was really just patronizing the older man, always enjoying the moments when he got a reaction from him now and then. But, he’d begun to regret that decision when he along with your other siblings saw Bruce carrying an armful of hair products and tools to the upstairs bathroom while holding your hand in his other hand leading you upstairs.

It was quite comical seeing the frightened look you threw at your second oldest brother as he along with your other siblings watched Bruce’s towering frame lead your tinier one up the grand staircase with you looking like you were heading for your doom.

In hindsight, you might have been, and Jason could only smile sheepishly at you as Bruce led you toward the bathroom.

Now, they all stood outside the bathroom watching their shared father struggle as he read over the ingredients from the different hair products.

“How bad do you think this is gonna go?” Steph asked.

“Oh, I’m betting on a full shit show within the first 10 minutes,” Dick said while munching on some popcorn.

“10? You’re too graceful dickhead. I’m betting 3 and half minutes tops.” Jason threw out while reaching to grab some popcorn before having his hand slapped by the acrobat. “Hey!” He yelled in offense before getting into a sorta-ish fight with Dick, trying to tug the bag of popcorn from him.

“Cut it out, you two! You act like wild children throwing tantrums.” Damian snapped at the two vigilantes.

“Says the actual child who throws ninja stars and daggers during a tantrum when daddy grounds him from patrol,” The Red Hood persona remarked, stuffing his mouth with a handful of buttery popcorn after nabbing the bag from his older brother who was now mean-muggin' the shit of him.

Damian growled at Jason, rolling up his sleeves before Steph grabbed him by the back of his shirt, pulling him back to his place. The second Robin laughed while taunting the young assassin, throwing kernels at his face.

While that was going on, you sat and watched Bruce read label after label on the various hair-care product bottles.

“Uh, Bruce, are you sure we can’t just go to a barber?” You asked, a fearful tone evident in your voice which did not do well for Bruce’s confidence. Even as a 7-year-old, you could tell when a situation was about to go left without the side comments from your adoptive siblings.

“No, no, Y/N! I got this. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t take care of my own child’s hair.” Bruce said while reading the red bottle. He was holding his phone in the other hand, reading a review online under his breath, “...mixed with a high amount of sulfates to help cleanse build-up of oils and other products in the hair.”

“You realize Jason was joking, right? Right?! Jason, tell him you were joking!” You frantically shouted, turning in your seat towards the vigilante who held a sheepish smile while his mouth was full of popcorn.

“I was joking.” He tried to say, words muffled by his chewing.

“Y/N, calm down. If Bruce can handle taking down crazy madmen and women at night as Batman, how hard could it be to do a simple hairstyle?” Tim spoke trying to reassure you.

And it almost worked…until you felt Bruce try to brush your hair with what you were sure was Stephanie’s hair brush.

“Is that my hairbrush?” Steph asked.

“It says I’m supposed to pick his hair out before washing? Is brushing not the same as picking?” Bruce asked, looking at his kids with the most confused face.

“I’ll pray for you at your funeral, Y/N.”

The desperate and confused face on Bruce's face was actually so adorable that if you weren’t terrified for your scalp (and life) at that moment, you would’ve hugged him just to help him feel better.

Cass had walked into the bathroom before grabbing a larger comb off the counter and switching it with the hairbrush in Bruce’s hands before returning the purple hair tool to its rightful owner.

“Thanks, Cass,” Steph said.

‘You’re welcome.’ She signed back.

“Alright, here we go,” Bruce uttered before grabbing your shoulder and placing the comb at the base of your scalp, pulling back to ‘pick’ through your hair.

“Ow, OW, OOOWWWWWW!” You shouted in pain while holding on to the counter for dear life, feeling like your face would tear in half.

“Bruce, you’re going to rip his head off!” Dick yelled, coming to your rescue, “You gotta comb from the sides.”

He pulled the comb to the side of your hair causing your head to yank in that direction.

“OW!”

“Whoops, okay, maybe that was wrong,” Dick said, smiling in apology at you.

“Alright, you idiots, get out of the way. Looks like another issue I have to take care of for you.” Jason stated, placing the popcorn down before cracking his knuckles which really did not help ease the nerves and fear you were feeling in your stomach. He pulled up his sleeves and licked the butter off his fingers, which, gross by the way, “You gotta pull with some strength.”

“OOOWWW!” You yelled, glaring hard at your older brother who once again just smiled sheepishly at you.

“You guys are hopeless,” Tim sighed, grabbing the comb only to make it worse by tangling more into your hair.

“TIM!” You screamed.

“Maybe I’m hopeless too.” He said, a confused expression taking over his face as he tried to figure out how to solve this.

“Okay, simpletons. Move over.” Damian said.

Your eyes went wide at that.

“UH UH, back away gremlin!” You grabbed the nearest thing that could be considered a weapon which turned out to be another hairbrush. Not even caring, you decided you would make it work. 

Damian was not allowed anywhere near your hair.

“What the- I’m older than you!”

“So?!”

“Fair point, brother.”

Stephanie tried to help but only managed to get the comb fully lost in your hair. You could feel yourself getting dizzy and a headache coming on as your head had been yanked back and forth in different directions. 

As your family was busy yelling back and forth at each other while playing tug-of-war with your scalp, none of them even noticed when Duke came up the stairs, confused by all the chaos.

“What’s going on?” The Signal persona asked Cassandra.

‘They’re trying to do Y/N’s hair,” She signed.

Duke’s eyes went wide as he heard your cries of pain before rushing into the bathroom.

The tears forming in your eyes were clear as day as your tiny hands gripped the counter with everything you had, feeling like if you’d let go at any moment, you’d be yanked out of the chair and swung back and forth like a yo-yo. Duke also saw Damian creeping through the mess to grab at the tangled comb in your hair, giving it a yank causing another cry of pain from you making him smirk in cruel enjoyment.

“Hey!” Duke screamed at the top of his lungs, effectively shutting everyone up and turning their attention toward him. “Everyone out!” He pointed his thumb behind him. They all quickly shuffled out of the bathroom, mumbling to themselves while Bruce remained behind, looking quite beside himself.

Duke picked up the bottle the older man was holding in his hand before turning it over, seeing the ingredients and what he had pulled up on his phone.

“Really, Bruce? Sulfate?” Duke said.

The billionaire only groaned before his forehead fell into this palm, “I should’ve just taken him to a barber.” He grumbled,

Duke looked towards you, seeing how tense you were and the fresh tears in your eyes from the amount of pain your scalp was in.

“Don’t worry, little bud, I got ya.”

~~~

A few hours later, everyone was waiting in the kitchen while Alfred served refreshments before hearing your happy feet skipping down the hallway, Duke right on your trail. Your hair was done, washed and conditioned, and twisted right into the style you wanted.

“Ta-da!” You yelled upon entering the kitchen, opening your arms as if you were giving a grand finale. A mix of delightful reactions and cheers filled the room from your family members, everyone smiling at how excited you looked. Even JDamian, despite how small it was.

“Wow! Look at you, Y/N,” Dick said, biting into an apple.

“Hold still! I’ve got to get pictures for my feed.” Steph said while coming to take some pics of you.

“You look quite charming if I do say so myself, Master Y/N,” Alfred said, before handing you a cookie.

“Thanks, Alfred!” You said, happily munching on the treat, before climbing into one of the stools without any assistance. Okay, you had a little help from Jason to make sure you didn’t slip, but since he didn’t mention it, neither would you.

Bruce walked up to Duke, who was still standing by the entrance to the kitchen leaning against the wall.

“Thank you, Duke.” He said, patting his shoulder, which was weird for Bruce, but he was learning how to show more affection to his kids now that he had you so everyone was slowly getting used to it. 

They were also weirded out by it too.

“No problem. Just glad I got here when I did. By the way, why didn’t you just take him to a barber?” He asked.

Bruce looked reluctant to say, so the brown-skinned boy didn’t push it, “Don’t worry. I won’t ask. But, if you want me to teach you how to take care of it, just ask. I learned from watching my parents do my hair growing up. Then, when I kind of had to start taking care of myself in the foster system, I picked up some different tricks here and there.” He explained, answering Bruce’s questions before he could even ask.

“Thank you,” The older man said before their heads turned at the sound of you screaming.

They saw Damian next to you with another smirk as you rubbed the back of your still tender head with an irritated grimace at the youngest Robin.

“Damian!” Bruce shouted.

“What? That’s what he gets for calling me a gremlin.” Damian said before he felt a harsh tug on his own hair, looking back to see you with your own mischievous smile.

“Ow!”

“Now, we’re even, gremlin.”

☀️ | Bat Family | ☀️

☀️ | Masterlists | ☀️

[lilyandthegenshinbrainrot]

Frederica Gunnhildr, and her familial ties

"For Mondstadt, as always" is the Gunnhildr family motto. Every time I use my Vision, I am reminded of my mother and the hopes of the people of Mondstadt. - Jean Gunnhildr

Frederica Gunnhildr, one of oldest leaders of Mondstadt, is the mother of Jean Gunnhildr and Barbara Pegg. She is the second-in-command of the expedition that Grandmaster Varka, Knight of Boreas, has led to unknown origins for unknown reasons. She has been working as a knight for longer than most of the current knights have been alive, and she enjoys being on the front-lines fighting for Mondstadt's safety. All according to Phonia, of course. She thinks incredibly fondly of her eldest daughter, as she taught Jean everything about their family's history, their nation, how to be act with the grace of the heir to their name, and swordsmanship. Jean is considered one of the best with a sword in the nation currently. She even wrote to her, saying that she has found a new sword for Jean and promising that it will do well to keep her safe easily. More so, Frederica hand-sewn the uniform that Jean usually wears to work, but the second outfit that Jean has used to be hers as well ! She does also love Barbara, as she sent her a lovely sunflower dress for her youngest to wear as she performs in her idol work and is written to be spending time with both daughters in Gunnhildr's Legacy description. Which tells me that she both knows of and supports her youngest's dreams and ambitions, even if she is not active in her life. Frederica does however give more time and attention to her heir, of course. She raised her alone. Which brings me to her marriage. Frederica, as established, loves the fight and loves the city. She is a proud woman with incredibly high standards and even higher work ethic. The woman was the inspiration of an entire generation of knights, and has long surpassed the requirements for becoming a Captain, if not for her own love for the front-lines. This is presumably, where she met Seamus Pegg. The Cardinal of Daybreak, a famed ex-adventurer whose name was once known across Teyvat before he settled in the Church of Favonius, cast aside his old self, and became the man of faith that he is today. I think she married him to secure her family lineage, because the way that she raised Jean is so focused on her future contribution to the city that even the people joke, A Gunnhildr learns to say "For Mondstadt, as always" before learning to say "Mommy." Which is why Jean is so... disciplined.

I think that she was excited to meet someone as formidable as herself- a respected adventurer- and she ended up with a man who... perhaps was unprepared for the Gunnhildr expectations. Sure, they were married with two children but I believe Frederica left Seamus. Remember what I said about Gunnhildr's Legacy, Jean's second outfit? Yes! Seamus kept her ceremonial clothes for years after their divorce. Why? She didn't care about those clothes ! She immediately tells Jean to keep them ! "Those were the clothes I wore when they granted me the title of 'Alder Knight.' You can take them, if you don't mind." And admittedly, while it would tragic enough that this poor woman married a man solely for her family name and for Mondstadt, I cannot help but wonder what they were like together because of that last line. Take them, if you don't mind. For a known proud woman, that sounds awful close to begging. Why? I wonder if this pious man, who quickly became an authority in the church, would turn to Ms. Gunnhildr in an effort to secure Barbatos' favor. After all, Gunnhildr's biography is public and everyone knows that Barbatos favors that family line. Was he the sort to marry for that ? Did he wonder if there was a family record, a Gunnhildr's autobiography ? Did he agree to marry Frederica in hopes of receiving private information about their nation? You know that they have it. It's suspicious to me that an adventurer would quickly rise through the theocratic ranks of one of TWO government reigning organizations in Mondstadt, when his wife was already a well-established name in the other. Seamus, a retired traveler and treasure hunter, what were you expecting in your marriage? Did Frederica leave once you gave her a legacy, or did she leave when you asked for things that don't belong to you?

[kittyscupcakeandbunny]

SET ME FREE x MIN YOONGI

[MAFIA AU]

PART ONE

Red Chopsticks

Side Characters: Kim Namjoon/police officer detective, Jeon Jungkook/police officer detective, Jung Hoseok/mafia member and Yoongis right hand.

Warnings: Smut, mentions of blood, death, robbery, killing, guns, torturing, fire, porn (a lot of it), drugs, cuss words.

Song: Gods and Monsters by Lana del Rey.

Next ->

………………………………………………………………………………….

I knew that working as an intern at the police station wasn’t going to be easy. As a young woman i knew that very well. But life wasn’t ever exactly easy for me, when i wasn’t fighting to survive i was planing how to survive tomorrow.

At least i was never bored.

“Another fight against the mafia Min left three police officers in the hospital in critical condition and five dead, the police said that they are taking care of the case right now and so far they can’t disclose any information about the investigation but, everything indicates that the mafia leader Agust d was behind it. We’ll be back after the break…”.

I took a sip of my coffee as i watched the news on the tv in wall of the coffee shop. This Agust d was one of the most wanted criminals in the world, they say he has deals with the Italian and the Japanese mafia. No one knew how he looked like, the only way to know he was behind a crime was looking at the crime scene. He had a way of doing in the most cleanest way. Bodies dropped dead in a blink of an eye and no one would know.

I always wanted to be a police detective just like my father, completely influenced by him but when he passed away i made the promise to take his place and do just as much good to the world as he did. To continue his legacy. Since I was the oldest I had to take care of the house and my younger brother. Who was still in high school.

After completing my training i was assigned to work as an intern at the police station. I’ve been working for almost four months now, it hasn’t been easy since.

Many male seniors looked down on me and tooked me for weak. But that didn’t stop me. It never did in the academy and It won’t here.

I’m gonna do my job and I’ll be the best at it.

Days are work were usually the same, sitting on my desk making documents and delivering documents with criminal information on crime scenes, criminals and people who passed.

I had to make sure every information was in order and ready to be documented and archived in the system.

At lunch break I would seat in the table with the few detectives that saw me as one of them, Namjoon was working on the Agust d case together with Jungkook and his other man, he would always take care of me when he could. As fathers used to know each other and for that reason he’s always been like a big brother for me in the station.

- how’s been work so far y/n? - he asked, a smile showing his dimples making him look even more attractive.

- same old same old - i said, sitting in front of him on the table. - how is the investigation of the Min mafia?

- don’t even tell me about it. The damn Agust d is like a ghost. - he held his chopsticks tighter, a deep look in his eyes showing me how much this case has been burning him, no one wanted to catch that man more than him - But just you wait…. I’m gonna catch him and make him pay for his crimes.

- I’m sure you will - i send him an assuring smile - no one can do that but you.

He replied my smile send a small one back to me, the air around seemed to have lightened up since.

- make sure you document our relatories right y/n - Jungkook the youngest detective said to me in a teasing way. Turning the attention to me.

- you do your job and i do mine - i said - I’ll be better then you once i become a detective.

- she’s coming for you man! - Namjoon teased, getting playful too.

- I’m not scared of girls - Jungkook stated, looking my way.

- well then I’ll make you scared - I said daring. We all just laughed after that.

Lunch time was always pleasant with them, as much as they can’t seem to stop teasing me for being the youngest, it was nice being with them.

After lunch i went back to work finding a new pile of documents with a small yellow note saying to transfer them all to the system. One of the other female workers who was a senior Looked at my way saying the boss requested me to do the documents and send it to him.

I sighed knowing it would take more then hours to complete the work, specially with how slow the system has been lately.

…

Finishing the last paper o looked outside the window at the office. It was night already, half past eleven.

I yawn getting up from the chair, time to clock out. As I walk down the stairs to the front doors of the station, Namjoon comes from the corridor of the left. I smiled at him and he does a little jog to come to me, accompany me as we both exit the building.

I take a deep breath once outside, finally time to go home.

- you need a ride home? - Namjoon offers.

- oh no, thank you though - i declined - I have my own ride home.

- don’t tell me you’re still driving that thing? - he asked incredulously of my ride home.

- hey! Don’t talk like that about my baby - i said. Hitting his arm.

- i swear that motorcycle is a monster… - he said playful.

- no it’s not… - I’m interrupted by my cell phone ringing, my brothers name shining on it. - sorry i gotta go, bye Joonie!

I quickly said by to him as i run to the parking lot, once my motorcycle was in my sight I took the call.

- hey bro what do you-

I couldn’t finished. My voice got stuck in my throat as i heard him sobbing, silent cries.

- they are coming to get me… I’m so sorry big sis…- he cried, I could hear laughs and other voices in the back.

My mind was doing loops. Different scenarios about what he might have gotten himself into that could have gotten him in that situation, i felt the rush in my body and completely lost control of myself. The only family I had was in danger and i just couldn’t breath at the thought of it. How could I not do anything?

Knowing i was just an intern at the police station but i would never turn my back to someone in need. Never.

I’m so stupid.

I moved out of instinct. Getting in the motorcycle. Turning on the GPS of his cellphone so i could track his location, finding out my brother l location was my focus now. Turning the key the loud roar of the motor was flowed through my ears. I checked the GPS once more finding out he was at the wets part of downtown.

My eyes looking incredulously at his location, just what in the world was he doing at one of the most dangerous parts of downtown?

Once I find him I’m going to smash some sense in his head, with my fry pan. Hard.

Driving this late wasn’t so bad, everyone was sleeping and those who weren’t were coming back from work or just going to parties, getting dunk or eating out. It was easier to get there faster, as i drove towards my brothers destination the streets began to slowly turn darker, and i don’t mean light sense.

I was struck by how things went down there. I never came a single kilometer close to this part of the city. Now I know why.

People fighting in the middle of the streets, some drunk men being dragged out of a pub, woman bearly clothed walking around smoking.

I stooped my motorbike to look at the GPS once again, he was close now one street ahead in the next alley. I drove there slower till I was close enough to go there on foot and made my way to the alley.

I couldn’t find words to describe this place, it smelled so bad my head started to hurt. Cigarettes and cheap alcohol, piss in the corners and some people laying on the floor. I didn’t know if they were alive but, i didn’t know if going there to check would be a good thing to do.

I had my own share of trouble to solve now. Once in the alley i felt paralyzed, honestly I didn’t know what to expect from this. I didn’t know what to do. I just knew my brother was i danger and i had to get to him quickly.

Once there i stood in the alley, my heart was weighing on my chest, as i saw three men cornering my brother. Two of them wearing big jackets and while one wore a baseball hat the other a bucket hat he was the one who held my brother against the wall while the other one threw a punch against him. Those disgusting pieces of trash.

- ya!

Anger boiled inside me. Now finally getting their attention. The one who threw the punch turning towards me. He was bald and had a dragon tattoo on his face that follow the side of his head to his left eye.

- there's nothing to see here princess - he said - get out or... we might not let you go.

- no, you leave - i stood my ground - i already called the coops, leave my brother.

They all just laugh, i didn't move an inch through if i wanted to win this I would have to fight. I knew I would.

- you all heard that? She called the cops - he said in a mocking way to the other guys and they all laughed - you must not be from here little girl.... the coops don't come here any more.

- yeah... - the other one who held my brother said, he took his cap off siding with the tattoo guy - Agust D made sure of that.

They looked at each other and chuckled.

- we gotta thank him for that... - the back one said walking towards me - thanks to him we can do whatever we want to little girls like you....

I felt like throwing up.

It wasn’t long before two arms held me from behind, a breath of cigarettes hitting my face. A forth men? I tried to break free from it but the man’s hold was strong.

Bald guy walking towards us a vile smile on his lips as he did so, my mind was completely blank and all i could hear was my heart beating faster in my chest and their laughs as if it was coming from far away.

My eyes desperately searching for my brother finding him laying on the floor, fear boiling on my body. I could only watch.

How useless i was.

- we are gonna have so much fun… - he said grabbing my face and smiling sickly. I was so disgusted and angry at the same time.

Still i spit on his face. For a second it seemed like he didn’t believe it, then he angrily cleaned his face with his hand.

- you bitch! - he was one second from slapping me in the face.

If I’m in hell, might as well shower in flames. I closed my eyes waiting for the blow, but it never came.

- what’s is all this garbage?….

A different voice said this time, before anything could happened, from behind the man in the other end of the alley a man stood there.

I couldn’t make his face as he was too far, he proceeded to light a cigarette and take a blow. Smoke flying above his face as he lets it all out. He was wearing simple clothes, ripped jeans a white shirt and flower shirt over it. Long black hair slick back. He walked slowly towards the commotion, as if this was nothing but exactly what he stated: garbage.

- we don’t need more people here friend… - the man in front of me said, walking towards the new stranger - just keep minding your own business.

- well you see… friend - he said closer now, eyes falling over mine and i noticed the scar on his face. It made him look mad. - i don’t like men hurting woman…

- I don’t give a shit about what you don’t like get the fu- before the man can say even one more word, scar men throws a punch on him, cigarette still between his lips.

He falls on the ground nose bleeding and groaning in pain, scar men takes a second blow lof the cigarette letting the smoke fall out of his lips slowly in the air watching the men on the ground, a smirk on his face.

- I also don’t like poor dirty vocabulary… - he said, throwing the rest of the cigarette on the man.

The two other guys went stray to the scar men, one of them throwing a punch on him but he quickly dogged grabbing the guys arm bringing towards him he punched his ribs then kicked him on the same spot, while this were happening the other one who just watched grabbed a piece of wood and went straight to the scar face men.

It happened so fast, the guy didn’t stood a chance as scar face held the piece of wood and his other hand before he could do anything, a sick laugh coming from scar face lips. He looked as if he was having the most fun but, more then anything like this was nothing to him.

I knew he went hard when i heard the sound of cracking, but it wasn’t from the wood. The painful groan that left the guy mouth was enough to tell me, scar men broke his arm then threw the guy on the floor two with another kick. He stood there pushed his hair back and looked at me, a smirk still on his face.

The forth men that was holding me finally let me go, turning back i only saw him walking fast as if he had nothing to do with this signaling to the other men to get out of there, one after the other they got up from the floor leaving quickly. I don’t know who that men with the scar is but although he helped me and my brother, he doesn’t seem like one to mess with.

As the alley was clear i ran to my brother, checking to see if he was okay. He hugged me as soon as i kneeled beside him.

- why did you come? - he cried on my shoulder - they could’ve hurt you…

- and they hurt you - I told him - how could i not come? Should I have just left your!? You punk.

I helped him up holding him by the waist, I honestly thought the scar men wouldn’t be here anymore. I was surprise to see he was still there looking at me and my brother. Both hands on the pockets of his jeans.

Noticing my look of surprise at him he only side smiled, I couldn’t read his expression.

- it’s still dangerous to be alone at this time… - he said walking to the end of the alley where he came from and towards the street - let’s eat something till things cool down in downtown.

I didn’t question. I didn’t know how things worked at downtown and if he’s from here he knows more then I do. Seeing how my brother was still in pain I thought that would be a good idea, at least until he gets better to go and as the scar men said till thing cold down.

So i follow the him. We walked without saying anything else, the streets of downtown seemed to really be quieting down now . He stopped in front what looked like a noddle restaurant, it looked old with rustic furniture and decor.

He walked around as if he new the place and quickly sat down in one of the tables on the back, i fallowed him sitting in front of him after helping my brother to sit beside me.

And old lady came to our table, she seemed to know scar face as she smiled at him.

- the usual mister Yoongi? - she asked him, he nodded.

- the same for them - he then replied, she looked at me once then my brother the expression on her face showing clearly. Pity.

She quickly went back to prepare the food, i looked at the men in front of me. The scar on his face gave him a fearful look, he had sharp eyes too and moved with so much confidence and control of himself. Nothing around his surrounding seemed to fazed him, he looked indifferent to everything.

He’s from downtown. The part of the city were crime was all over it, the mafia Min had control over it more then the military soldiers. No one could take this area down. They had so much power over it no one from the outside could even imagine what was truly happening here, everyone feared getting even the stlighly close to here.

I tried not to think about it so much as time passed, the food was put in front of us by the old lady. The scar face who’s name the old lady said before was Yoongi took his chopsticks blowing the noddles before eating.

His knuckles had some blood on them, but he just eat as if it wasn’t nothing to him. Are all the people in downtown like this? Born bad? Born with blood in their hands.

Now here i’m right in the middle of it. With this men in front of me who looked like he was some kind of mafia criminal.

- are you in the mafia? - I only realized I said my thoughts out loud when he looked at me.

He stoped mid eating, mouth slightly opened as he hold his chopstick. His eyes locked on mine and he stared at me, it felt cold the more i held eye contact with him. I couldn't decipher what was going on his mind, it made me even more intrigued and for a second it felt like time had stoped, everyone and every thing around us simply didn't exist.

How did I get here? Who was this men?

I couldn't breath. My eyes were glued on his, how could someone like him have this kind of effect on people? I felt a shiver run down my spine as he licked his lips smirking if that was somebody else I’m sure it wouldn’t look as attractive as he made it look and before he took a bite of his food he simply said without breaking eye contact with me.

- no.

Nothing else was said after that.

We all just eat our food. The silence was filled with only dish sounds and food being cooked, some old people talking about sports and how some areas were too dangerous.

I kept checking on my brother to see if was fine, he only eat his food quietly blood dried already on his bottom lip, a bruise on his right eye turning red. I hated the fact i couldn’t protect him. Even after becoming a police officer I couldn’t do anything to protect my only family.

Mat the sudden movement in front of me my eyes turning to Yoongi as he got up from his seat, he grabbed the pair of red chopsticks before looking at me one last time.

- i have something to deal with now - he said - you know that way out, don’t worry about the food… is on me.

Was all he said before turning his back and walking towards the back of the restaurant with the red chopsticks.

What a night.

Taglist: @missmin @whipwhoops @glosstwn @i-have-no-life-charlie @kooslilhoe @catlove83 @taegicity @ginger-coffee-addict @rosquilleta @tarahardcore @liveyun @manuosorio @thvlover7 @4ukiyo4 @sukonsukuna @passionandsuga @missroro @btspurplesky

Notes: First part is out YES. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes I didn’t edit yet! 🥺💖🤭

[jenctrl]

yubaba's contract*ೃ༄

"the black cat runs into someone who she claims she doesn't remember or know, but it might just be a deep grudge. the "stranger" warns her to not forget her own name if she wants to find home and unfortunately for the asocial cat it doesn't end there."

warning; from the blackcat!Y/n series, the parts don't need to be read in order! however this one will have a continuation [ 1 ] , [ 2 ]

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

“All of these are terrible Yunjin,” the feline commented, loudly enough for the girl on the stairs to hear. Her nose scrunched up and she tilted her head to look better at the phone screen while leaning her weight against Yunjin’s back; her chin on the taller girl’s shoulder. 

“What?” The canine worriedly asked, looking over at Y/n whose eyes only moved to meet Yunjin’s gaze who caught a glint of something in them. That little glint Yunjin knew what it meant as Chaewon spoke up.

“Since when are Yunjin’s pictures bad?”

“Well they aren’t bad, but they aren’t genuine.” 

“What are you on about?” Chaewon groaned in annoyance at the youngest while Yunjin looked between them. 

“I know photography, okay.” Y/n calmly responded, her hand slipping the phone out of Yunjin’s hold, going through settings while listening to what her leader was saying. 

There was one thing the feline always loved doing and that was what the little glint in her eyes was; mischief, especially around Chaewon. Y/n was good at a lot of things, but something she was extremely good at and also enjoyed doing was riling up her leader for no particular reason.

“Your pictures are actually always terrible.” The oldest huffed and sat down on the stairs with the help of the railing as she crossed her arms, staring at the black cat and golden retriever. If she didn’t know any better Chaewon would assume that they didn’t even acknowledge her presence when they were together with how engulfed by each other they were. 

The backstage of the place where they had their comeback showcase was empty at the moment which was the perfect opportunity for pictures before others would show up for the same reasons. 

“No, I just intentionally make them bad when I take pictures for you, anyways they aren’t true to you because your smile is too forced,” Y/n commented and looked up from the phone, her arms coming around Yunjin’s shoulders from behind as she stood on her toes so her canine could look when she would take pictures. “You never smile at me like that,” she finished and watched the scowl that covered Chaewon’s face within a second.

“That’s because you literally just proved that you never give me a reason to smile at you,” the leader exclaimed, losing her temper as usual when it came to the feline who always knew how to somehow get on her nerves with ease. 

Chaewon could burst a vein before Y/n would break a sweat. 

Even though Chaewon knew that Y/n did it intentionally she still fell right for it no matter how hard she tried not to. The feline was impossible to win against.

“I’m just giving feedback and you’re being rude,” the girl mumbled, jutting out her lower lip as she looked at Chaewon, blinking her cat-like eyes in an owlish manner. 

The girl on the stairs watched how both girls in front of her tilted their heads to the side; Yunjin’s gaze filled with uncertainty as she stayed unusually quiet while Y/n’s gaze was menacing behind the feigned innocence. 

“I am not.” She stubbornly huffed, scoffing as she side-eyed both of them with an ugly glare of judgment. Her mind trying to process how Y/n managed to look so calm while crumbling her cool. 

“I think Yunjin would agree with me that you are.” Y/n quipped while angling the phone to get ready.

“She always agrees with you.” Chaewon retorted, her cool long lost as her blood pressure had risen tenfold, an accusing finger directed right at the poor canine who now had all the attention on her. 

It made Yunjin lean back and closer to Y/n at Chaewon’s accusation. Whenever the feline caused mischief, the canine always seemed to be present at the scene of the crime; defending the girl and like Chaewon said; agreeing with her. 

“You do look a little too nice and happy,” Yunjin finally spoke up, pointing out the same thing the girl, who was clinging onto her from behind, pointed out. 

It was enough to snap Chaewon up from her seat on the stairs as she stood up in anger with a scowl. “What else am I supposed to be if not happy!? Do you want me to look pissed off in my pictures—” Her furious ramble caused by Y/n and enhanced by Yunjin was cut short.

“Now we captured the real you.” Y/n’s mundane tone took up light as she smiled after taking pictures of her angry leader whose ears were turning red. She quickly handed the phone back over to Yunjin who took it without question while Chaewon was stomping down the stairs.

Y/n moved aside, still somewhat hiding behind Yunjin just in case while the anger-infused girl snatched her phone out of the canine’s hold. Chaewon hated dealing with the two all by herself, just Y/n was enough, but with Yunjin at the feline’s tail, it spiked her blood pressure and felt like a kindergarten. It made her wonder why she went with the two alone and didn’t bring the oldest member. 

“I told you that only one person loses their cool like this!” 

Their heads turned at the voice and Y/n snuck her fingers through the belt loop of Yunjin’s pants; the girl was her source of comfort, one that she usually appreciated during social situations. Y/n was aware of how socially inept she was, especially with people she didn’t know.

However, her posture relaxed the slightest at the person; Wonyoung who was a friend. It didn’t last long as the IVE leader came into sight after rounding the corner with a big smile. They quickly bowed at each other before Chaewon was pulled into a hug by Wonyoung.

“We were on our way to get something to drink and heard you.” Yujin happily exclaimed to the eldest, making Yunjin and Y/n snort and Chaewon send a glare their way.

“Uh, the vending machines are out of order here,” Yunjin spoke up, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb. 

Y/n stared behind the two girls, her glare was set on the wall behind them, but it was starting to grow on her. It was impossible to not feel the stare on her as they all talked. The feline sighed and fixed her gaze on the pair of eyes that weren’t leaving her alone.

She blinked as she stared back at Yujin who gave her a smile that didn’t make her smile back. The girl was overly excited and energetic for Y/n to even want to acknowledge her; her social battery was low after being away from home for the whole day and performing. Another outgoing person was the last thing she wanted or needed. 

She had enough of an excited and energetic canine around her all day already now a second one was staring at her with a similar pleading puppy-eyed gaze Yunjin would give her.

This one wasn’t one Y/n would melt from and say yes to. 

She didn’t know why the girl was drawn to her, but seemingly everyone who was the opposite of her was. 

“I honestly forgot the card.” The attention was drawn to Yujin who spoke and looked at Wonyoung with her lips pursed. 

Y/n finally thought she could relax after not having to hold Yujin’s gaze; refusing to let it go before the latter to not appear affected by it. In her head, she won the, albeit one-sided. stare-down. She leaned against Yunjin, her head resting on her shoulder, who wrapped an arm around her waist for more support. 

“It’s fine, Y/n has hers.” Y/n stood up straight and leaned forward to look past Yunjin where beside her Chaewon stood. The leader gave a sarcastic smile while the feline’s eyes bore into her soul. Oh how much Y/n would annoy Chaewon for setting her up for a social situation when all she wanted was to go home and be alone. 

“Oh no, it’s fine, we can’t just take her money like that.” Y/n looked away from Chaewon and at Yujin who bowed with a small blush covering her face at the offer.

“If only the rest of my members would be this considerate with my money.” The girl emphasised, shooting a glance towards her other two members as it seemed like the whole group of Le Sserafim lived in her wallet. 

“No, it’s fine, Yujin.” Yet the leader continued to push.

“Well, it’s not ‘cause I don’t remember bringing my card, Chaewonie.” The three other girls looked between the two. Yunjin’s hand soothed over Y/n’s back, getting the feline’s attention whose gaze was hard, barely managing to soften even for Yunjin at the moment. 

It made Yunjin look down as she cleared her throat, trying to further soothe her feline by rubbing circles over her lower back as she spoke. It didn’t do much soothing because if the feline had a tail it would be puffed up. 

“So uhm…Chaewon and I were getting drinks earlier and–”

“You know, it’s whatever at this point—” Y/n didn’t let Yunjin finish as she grabbed hold of her card that got taken out of the canine’s pocket who then gave her that look that Y/n hated. The feline found it embarrassing that she was close to trembling from how hard she was trying to stop herself from giving in in front of everyone because that wasn’t like her. Y/n’s mile-high glaciers didn’t melt for anyone and she always preferred solitary. 

“I will gladly buy my seniors something to drink. What do you two want?” The girl gave in, looking at the two girls as Wonyoung playfully rolled her eyes at Y/n’s stubbornness which washed away by a simple puppy glance from Yunjin. It was unlike the girl and she felt annoyance boiling up inside her yet she knew how to hide it behind her perfect facade and not show it. 

“I will come with you.” Y/n wished she even had time to decline it, but she was yanked away from Yunjin’s hold by a similar haphazard hold but this wasn’t her canine but Yujin. 

“You’re still all the same.” 

Y/n slipped her hand out of Yujin’s grasp and took a step to the side to put space between them, her shoulder almost brushing against the wall as they walked. The action would come off as rude and too blunt to anyone unless they were close with the girl, but somehow Yujin didn’t take offence in being dismissed by the girl. 

“How would you know?” Y/n grumbled, clicking her tongue when the girl still walked closer to her to close the awkward–four feet–space between them. The feline continuously flicked at the black card in her hand, not caring if it would at some point snap from how she was bending it. She wasn’t enjoying herself and was sure to make it known. 

“Because I know you, Y/n/n!” 

“Weird, if you did know me, I would know you too which doesn’t seem to be the case at all.” 

Her eyes stayed in front, completely trying to blur out the girl in her peripheral vision yet it felt impossible. The stranger kept looking at her with familiarity and fondness in her eyes. Y/n would declare that the only reason why she knew about Yujin was because she was an idol she had heard about. 

“You said you wouldn’t forget about me during the time away.” The coldness didn’t make Yujin’s warmth die out as her tone was laced with glee, her eyes creasing into crescent moons from her smile as they turned the corner. 

“I did?” Y/n threw the question over her shoulder, her tone apathetic as she wasn’t entertaining the girl. All she wanted was to get it over with.

She stopped in front of the vending machines as Yujin hummed, using her card before stepping aside to let the latter get the drinks. 

“Yeah.” She further confirmed, glancing over her shoulder as she crouched down to get the two drinks. A smile rested on her lips as she looked at the feline she knew, the feline who didn’t know her. 

However, Yujin wasn’t mistaking Y/n for someone else and knew that the girl was stubborn and that she wasn’t one to hold petty grudges, but instead removed the people from her life to the point of not knowing them. Was it the truth though? 

Yujin also happened to know that even if Y/n could strongly dislike someone with a passion and hold deep grudges that made her completely erase the person from her life; she wasn’t one of them and that she could make the feline come around without her claws out. She was optimistic and very sure of it. 

Yet Y/n wasn’t sure of what she was supposed to remember. “Weird, I can’t remember it neither can I remember you.” She persisted.

Yujin was unfortunately just as persistent though. “Oh come on, Y/n!” The older girl exclaimed with a light laugh as she stood up and looked at the girl who was leaning her side against the vending machine. Her eyes scanned the girl as they stood face to face, being only an inch taller, but their eyes met perfectly.

Yujin softened her posture and smile, coming off gentler instead of being ecstatic and overwhelming as she knew Y/n even if the girl said otherwise.

“You’re more likely to forget your name before you forget someone else’s.” She mumbled and pursed her lips after as the girl didn’t reply and stayed quiet, her eyes were on Yujin’s but they were distant and cold as she was thinking; thinking deeply at that. “You just don’t like admitting to it.” 

Y/n passed by Yujin as if she were a ghost, not uttering a word, however, the door was left open, letting Yujin follow right after her. She maybe didn’t say anything, but she didn’t lock Yujin out in the cold rain. It was just like Yujin said and Y/n would hate to admit to it being true and right now she was beyond annoyed with the girl who was trailing after her like a lost puppy looking for a home.

“Plus it’s only been a year.” She pointed out, skipping in her step as she couldn’t help but feel excited around the grumpy feline. She had tried to contain it, but it wasn’t possible as she could run circles around Y/n from glee. 

It had been a year after all.

A year of what? The feline thought.

“Y/n/n.” Yujin called out behind her as she walked with her arms crossed, in deep thought. 

Who was Y/n/n? Y/n had no clue, she didn’t remember the name, and she had no clue what it was. As far as she knew her name was Y/n. 

“We could meet up, I want to pay you back!” The puppy-like girl eagerly offered, doing a small jog to walk beside Y/n who at last stopped thinking.

Although she was far from done with thinking and contemplating, it was simply too difficult to do when someone was annoyingly persistent and needy right beside her. It wasn’t letting her think. She suddenly really wanted to be back at the dorm, locked inside her room all alone to be able to deeply think about every little detail until she could perfect it in her head and act out on it rationally.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to, it’s only two drinks.” She quickly replied, eager to leave as she hastened her pace.

“But I want to.”

“No.” Y/n bluntly declined as they were approaching the other three, but she almost flew back when she was stopped by her shoulder. She turned on her heels and looked at Yujin with a frown; the girl was stopping her from her objective as Y/n had her whole evening planned out now. 

“You have to, you can’t just bluntly decline your senior's request.” Yujin tried, but she knew that it was a futile attempt. 

“I literally do not care about senior formalities because if I did I would never get to be at home.” There was no one to stop her so she could bluntly decline every senior she passed. She wasn’t going to pass up on it now that her members weren’t around to stop her from being straightforward.

“Please?” Yujin pleaded, her eyes hopeful as she looked at the girl in front of her, but Y/n turned her back on her with another no as she walked away and towards the other three. She didn’t have time to ask again as the second she caught up Y/n was already leaving with Yunjin happily trailing right after her while talking. 

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

The feline rested her chin on her knees which she hugged while staring ahead; the green room was filled with chatter. They were about to leave any second. Yunjin was right in front of her on the couch as she put clips in the feline’s hair to make time pass faster while they waited.

She had tried to engage more with Y/n–having a lot to tell her as usual–but ultimately settled for her company in silence after realising that the girl was busy being deep in thought. It was fine for the canine, she loved Y/n’s company no matter what way it came in. 

Being quiet together in a rowdy room made it feel like it was just them and she liked that. 

She knew that Y/n was aware that she was willing to listen to whatever it was that had left her thinking the way she did; she often did, but Yunjin also knew Y/n enough to see that they were complicated thoughts.

Y/n had those often and never did look for solace because she refused to ask for help. She had always been stubbornly independent and rarely listened to anyone else’s input. But Yunjin was a rare case because she did open up to her albeit with some difficulty. She found the girl in front of her extremely comforting. 

However, her mind was loud as she was sorting everything out, going shelf for shelf until it was all perfect and she could make a final decision after analysing each option. Y/n was quiet most of the time, but this was a new type of quiet.

“Here you go.” 

Yunjin was the one to look up as Sakura’s presence didn’t seem to register for Y/n. The eldest let Yunjin take it before walking off. Her eyes merely inspected the folded piece of paper and she quietly slipped it into Y/n’s hold who finally looked up with confusion.

“It’s apparently for you,” Yunjin informed and reached for her phone to take pictures of the feline whose hair she had decorated with a few colourful hair clips. 

Y/n heaved a sigh and looked at the white paper that had been ripped off from a bigger paper; unfolding it with slight annoyance at how unnecessarily many times it had been folded. 

‘Don’t forget your name: you will lose your freedom if you let someone else take it away. 

You won’t find back home without it, Y/n/n >:( 

Saturday 1 P.M. I will pick you up’

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

[wonwoosthetic]

Hii!! I hope you're having a great day, I've been loving your pre-outbreak!joel fics (especially the way you write the Millers omg). On that note, could you write something fluffy about reader having a sick day?? And Joel and Sarah just taking turns watching over her. Thank you so much!! 🫶

A Day Off

warnings – flue, sickness, mentions of dizziness, medication, but mostly cute Miller fluff

word count – 6.2k

a/n – I decided to make it part of my “Couldn’t Love More” series, I hope that’s okay ˙ᵕ˙ Thank you for the request, I hope you like how it turned out!! And I hope you have the best day possible🫶🏼🫶🏼

2004

"Is mom okay?" The soft voice of Sarah rang through Joel's ear as he was preparing his usual morning cup of coffee.

While the two Millers were already downstairs, the little girl munching on some cereal and the oldest of the family standing in the kitchen with his favourite mug in his hand, you had run back up upstairs, having forgotten to put on deodorant for the long day of work ahead of you.

With scrunched eyebrows, Joel turned to his daughter, "What do you mean? Because of her cough?" 

 The evening before, you seemed to be doing perfectly fine, but almost as soon as that clock hit midnight, you couldn't lay still next to your partner anymore. All throughout last night, up until that morning, you had been coughing your lungs out, along with a runny nose that didn't seem to be getting any better.

Sarah nodded, "It doesn't sound good." The cereal still filling her mouth.

"Don't speak with food in your mouth," her father warned her, using that typical dad voice the girl has had to listen to all her life.

She swallowed. "I said it doesn't sound good."

"I heard what you said," Joel brought his cup of coffee to the dining table, taking a seat right next to the youngest Miller, along with a hot cup of tea he had prepared for you. "I asked her, and she said it's all fine."

His statement earned him an unamused facial expression. "And we both know that's not true."

He nodded with a sigh, "I know, but what do you want me to do? You know how stubborn she is."

"She's not!" She argued back. Joel closed his eyes for a second. Right. Don't tell the girl, who definitely got the stubbornness from his wife, that his wife is stubborn. How could he forget...

"Alright, but still. She won't listen to me. I already told her to stay at home."

Sarah scoffed, "And that's it? When I'm sick, you two don't even let me fight back. You basically lock me into my room."

"We don't lo-"

"Mum?" He was interrupted by you coming back down, catching the girl's attention.

You hummed in response, followed by a cough as you tucked the blouse tighter into your pants.

"Why don't you just stay at home today?" She wondered, to which you sent her a look of confusion, directing it towards Joel for a split second.

"Why? What's wrong?"

Sarah got up, the bowl in her hand when she passed you, only stopping to point a strict finger at you. "You're sick. That's what's wrong." Before continuing her walk to the dishwasher. "You should stay home."

You chuckled as you sat down next to your husband, whose hand found its way right to your back, brushing over it gently, motioning towards the cup of tea waiting for you. "It's just a little cold. If even," you blew on the hot water, hoping to lower the temperature. "Might also just be the result of someone at work thinking it's necessary to blast winter temperatures through the A/C."

Joel's fingers started running through your hair, detangling the small strands your brush had missed.

"Still," Sarah didn't stop arguing. "Sick is sick, and you should stay home." But you just shook your head with a smile. Another cough followed that you were able to hide into the inside of your elbow.

"See." The girl passed you with a knowing glance as she walked up the stairs into her room to get her backpack.

"You sure, you'll be fine?" Your husband's eyes were still on your side profile, sending you a warm smile once you turned to face him.

You placed your free hand on his thigh and gave it an assuring soft squeeze. "Yep," you nodded, "I'll be fine, don't worry." Just as you leaned in to give him a quick kiss, he dodged out of the way. You gasped, gazing at him with your mouth hung open.

"You heard her," nodding towards the stairs where your daughter was just coming back. "Sick is sick. And I'm not risking that."

"Wow...," you gasped, "Unbelievable. Not even a kiss?" Joel shook his head. A devilish thought crossed your mind, getting the corners of your lips to curl up. "What do you think about a stepdad, Sarah?" Making the girl immediately look at you in confusion. "Someone that would kiss me, even if I actually was sick." The man next to you rolled his eyes. The hunk of a horn coming from the garage let you know that the younger Miller brother had arrived. "Someone younger, hotter, more-" The gentle tug of your hair cut you off, making you grin as soon as you felt the familiar hot breath next to your ear. Thank God, Sarah had gone into the hallway to get her jean jacket.

"Careful, darlin'," his low vibrations tickled the side of your neck before you could feel his lips on your skin.

"Well," you shrugged, "I'm sure there's someone out there that would still kiss me even with a stuffy nose."

He had started petting your hair again. "Keep searching darlin', and the moment you find that someone will be the day I have my first kill."

"Joel!" You shot up straighter in your seat, turning your entire body towards him with a shock written all over your face - yet, a smile was still on your lips. The oldest Miller was in no way a violent person, that much you knew. But, when it came to family, you also knew that there was nothing he wouldn't do. Not a single thing. 

He shrugged a proud grin plastered on his face when your hand came up to push his cheek, mimicking a gentle slap followed by a chuckle.

Sarah passed you two again when a second hunk echoed through the room. "I'm going," she rushed to stand between you two, engulfing you in a big bug, "Love you!" Getting the same words of affirmation in return. She made her way to the door before stopping, "Oh, and mum!" 

Making you look up while Joel's gaze was still fixed on you, wondering how even with a stuffy nose and a cough that could scare away every kid, he was still as attracted to you as when he first saw you in that tight party dress you had worn.

"Let me know how that search for a stepdad is going!" Giggling at the reaction of her father.

"Excuse me?!"

While you laughed out loud, your hand falling back onto his thigh. Your laugh didn't last long, interrupted by another wave of coughing, that you tried to calm down with a sip of your tea. 

Joel stood up and tapped your head, "That's what you get for saying shit like that."

-

The lunch break was almost over, and each employee was putting their helmets back on, throwing their one-way coffee cups into the bins, ready to get back to work. The contractor was still sitting on one of the benches, looking over their final plan for the building behind him, the hot temperature of his beverage long gone, now ice cold. Tommy hadn't joined him as usual, but it wasn't all that new to Joel. Sometimes his brother tended to disappear during his break, coming back only barely on time and usually with his belt missing - no questions needed, everyone knew where he had been.

Just as the oldest Miller brother lifted his head, he squinted his eyes, for one due to the sun, but also to make out the silhouette of the younger brother as he run up to him. Unamused, Joel took a quick glance at his watch,

"Three... two... one... and you're late." He glanced back up at the now panting man, who was holding onto the wooden table.

"Late?!" Tommy exclaimed, "I literally just got back in time."

Joel shook his head, "You haven't clocked in yet," packing his stuff back up as he got up from his seat.

"Jeez, come on, man! Can you cut me some slack?"

He stopped in his tracks to turn back around, shoving the A3 piece of paper into the younger Miller's chest, "I've cut you some freaking slack often enough, Tommy. This shit's gotta stop."

"I just-"

"No," Joel shook his head, "No excuses. I've told you this before. We've got a tight schedule. There's no time for your stupid little acquaintances."

Tommy sighed, still giving no signs of moving while his brother was already a few feet away.

"Have you checked in on your wife?" He shouted out loud, making the older man stop again, glaring at him in confusion.

"What? Why?" It was unusual for either of you to contact the other one during your workday. You much rather enjoy the evening together, ranting about your coworkers and employees in the comfort of each other's arms rather than over the terrible connection through your phones.

With a proud grin, Tommy walked up to him, his hands secured in his pockets. "Well, that's where my acquaintances actually come in handy."

"What the fuck you talkin' about?" Joel was on the verge of his patience with his younger brother, more specifically with that massive ego of his.

"You know that blonde one from Y/N's office?" The younger brother questioned with a smirk, ignoring the glare of the other man. "Tall, blonde, green eyes, usually in those tiny skirts, and Jeez... those big lips that just look magnificent around my-"

"Tommy," he stopped him with a raise of his hands, "Get to the point. For God's sake...," mumbling the last part as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Right, right, sorry," the younger one snapped back into it, "When I went to see her, she told me that Y/N was sent back home because she almost blacked out at the-"

"What?!" Joel raised his voice as soon as the words rang through his ears.

Tommy crossed his arms with a deep breath, "Yeah, apparently she wasn't feeling well, but stubborn as fuck and wouldn't go home until her boss came."

"Jesus fuck..." without wasting another second, the oldest Miller snatched his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. "And you couldn't have gotten to the fucking point sooner." His fingers moved quickly, ignoring whatever Tommy was talking about in the background, as he clicked around hastily to call your number.

His grip on the rolled-up paper tightened while a sigh fell from his lips, dropping the phone again, "Of course, she won't pick up..."

Within a second, he pushed the floorplan into his brother's grip and took his helmet off the decorate Tommy's head with it instead, "Congrats," he patted his shoulder, "You just got promoted for the day."

"Wh-"

"I'll be back in a bit. I'm gonna go check on her," he was already brushing past the younger Miller, jogging towards his car, "You keep everyone else in check in the meantime!"

"I got ya!" Tommy shouted back at him, "Make sure she's okay!" Before Joel disappeared in the parking lot after sending him a last thumbs up.

The entire car ride was filled with heavy breaths leaving the older man's lips, curse word after curse word echoing through the small space - Sarah's curse jar would've gotten filled to the brim if she had been there to hear him.

He knew it wasn't a good idea to let you go to work today. No matter how stubborn could get, he deeply regretted not starting a possible discussion to keep you home. Now he had to rush back home in hopes of finding you there still on your feet, while his heart was daring to break through his ribs and chest. Never before had the drive to your shared house felt so damn long, even though he was sure to have broken multiple laws.

You insisting on not getting a car was making his anger bubble up just a tad more. You had told him that Tommy and he each having one was enough, and that you were more than happy using the public transport. Joel had given into that way too quickly. Your sweet voice tended to have that effect on him. But now, knowing that you had to take the bus after almost blacking out-

He didn't even want to think about that. Please let that blonde co-worker of yours have lied to Tommy. Or maybe she just heard a rumour going around the office - that shit travelled quicker than lightspeed according to your tellings.

Before his thinking could make his brain explode, he pulled into the driveway, leaving the car outside of the garage and sprinted to the door. He, once again, found it unlocked, making him almost shake his head - how was their daughter ever supposed to learn to lock the door when even you, her biggest role model at the time wasn't doing it. But that was a conversation for another time.

Once he busted through the front door, his eyes scanned the living room hastily. You not appearing right then and there just sent another wave of anxiety through his body. Joel continued to look for you in the kitchen. Still not here. With a heavy sigh, he shook his head. That's when he heard a thud coming from upstairs. He didn't waste another moment and raced up the set of stairs.

"Darlin'?" He called out for you. Before he could reach the top, your head popped out from the doorway leading to your shared room. A breath of relief washed over him.

You glanced at him in confusion, "What the hell are you doing here?" Joel ignored your question, coming up to stop in front of you, gently getting a hold of your jaw to get a good look at your face.

"Joel-" you swatted his hand away, "Wh-"

"Why didn't you call me?"

"What?"

Another sigh tumbled from his lips as he walked back downstairs after making sure you didn't hurt yourself on the way home. He still noticed your red nose and the slight scratch in your voice, so he was already planning on making you a second cup of tea.

"Why didn't you call me?" Joel repeated the question while moving through the kitchen to get everything he needed.

You followed him into the dining space, tightening the sweatpants you had put on after taking a shower as soon as you had arrived home. "Why call you? And what are you doing here?" Followed by a cough.

"Call me?!" He turned his entire body to look at you, "Maybe because you blacked out at work?!" He didn't dare to raise his voice much, just making sure the tone was enough to let you know how serious he was about this subject.

"W-...," you shifted on your feet, crossing your arms over your chest. "How do you know about that?"

The oldest Miller took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, "Your co-worker called Tommy. Sweeth-"

"How does my co-worker know Tommy?"

"It doesn't matt-"

"Yes, it does!" You argued back, now standing in the kitchen with him, your back resting against the counter.

One look from your husband was enough to tell you everything you needed to know.

You sent him an unamused facial expression. "No, he doesn't."

"Yes, he does," he nodded gently, pouring the hot water into the mug he had prepared for you.

"Joel-"

"It's not import-"

"It is to me!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" He wondered, placing the cup of tea right next to you.

You shrugged, "I don't know... Castrate him."

A chuckle fell from his lips followed by a sigh, looking up at the ceiling with his eyes closed before his gaze stopped on you again. He couldn't stay mad at you for long when you looked at him with those kind eyes and that little smile you were trying to hide.

"Why didn't you call me?" He brushed your wet hair away from your face, securing it behind your ear, his voice now back to the gentle tone you're used to.

"There was no reason to."

"You almost blacked-"

"I didn't," you interrupted him, "I got dizzy. I didn't black out. And before anything could happen, my boss sent me home. Nothing bad happened."

"But it could've," he reasoned.

"But it didn't." Your statement wasn't enough to convince him.

"Are we gonna fight about that now?"

You smirked, "Not if you just drop it and believe me. Instead of that desperate housewife of a co-worker, I have."

Joel closed his eyes for a quick second before nodding towards the mug on the counter beside you. "Drink your tea."

With a smile still plastered on your face, you opened your arms and took a step forward to wrap your arms around his torso. Not even a second passed before your husband engulfed you in a hug, his rough hand holding the back of your head close to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," lifting your head to catch his eyes, "I didn't mean to."

He glanced down at you, cupping your face in his palms, his thumbs tracing invisible lines of your cheeks. "I told you to stay home today."

"You did," you admitted.

"And Sarah said so too."

"Yep, she also did that."

"So you're gonna listen to us from now on?"

You put your thinking face on, pressing your lips into a thin line. "I'll think about it."

Joel shook his head, leaning down to press a kiss onto your forehead, mumbling against it, "You're gonna be the death of me, darlin'. Don't scare me like that again."

You chuckled, tightening your arms around him, "I'm sorry. I won't." Placing a loving peck on his chest once he let his arms wrap around you again. "I love you."

"I love you too," he declared like he always did, giving the top of your head another kiss.

A few seconds passed before you felt a soft pat on your butt and Joel freeing himself from your embrace, reaching behind you to place the mug into your hands.

"What do you need from the pharmacy?"

You lifted your shoulders, moving to sit at the dining table, "I don't know. Nothing, I think. It's just a cold, it'll go away."

"Darlin'," Joel's eyes didn't leave your form, "My throat hurts listenin' to you talk."

"Wow," you lifted your head to glare at him with an open mouth, "You really know how to compliment a woman, don't ya?"

He smirked, "I thought that's why you married me."

"Among other things, sure," you copied his facial expression as he got closer to you again to place the back of his hand on your forehead.

"Did you check your temperature?"

You shook your head, "Not yet, I took a shower right when I got here."

"Alright," he grunted, getting his phone out of his back pocket to check for any missed messages, "I'll go see what the pharmacy has and get a few things from the store for soup."

"Joel, I'll be fine just resting-"

"Do you want me to drag you to the doctor's office?" That question made you shut your mouth tightly. He knew how much you hated doctors and hospitals - that bastard used your weaknesses against you. He earned himself a glare from you.

"I'll take anything the pharmacy gives you."

The corners of his lips curled into a proud grin as he lowered his head to peck the top of your hair once again. "That's my girl." In the next moment, he was out the door, and you heard the roar of his engine.

-

Joel didn't cook rarely. Every now and then, you'd get the gift of his cooking - well... the gift of watching him cook since the food itself usually turned out... alright. Eyeing him in such a domestic scene was much more of what you'd be thankful for. But now, you didn't even get to enjoy the sight of him in the kitchen, thanks to him forcing you to stay on the couch, the TV being your only form of entertainment.

"Joel!" You cried out loud, "Please let me help!" Almost begging him since you knew, you'd eventually have to eat whatever he was putting together in the other room.

"Don't you even dare get up from there!" He shouted back before the clanking of pots and pans hurt your head, only motivating the headache that had started an hour ago.

"But-"

"No discussion!" You rolled your eyes. Normally, Sarah was in your position, and you or Joel would be in the kitchen, telling her the exact same thing. With you now right there, you were starting to understand the frustration of the little girl.

"I'm ill! I'm not dying!"

You heard his heavy footsteps before your eyes fell on his body stopping in the doorway, a kitchen towel in his grip. "Don't say stuff like that. And drink that," he motioned towards the medicine he had mixed up for you before disappearing again. You didn't even want to look at that glass. The colour that fluid had, looked toxic and like it shouldn't be consumed by a human. It smelled just like that as well.

"But it stinks!"

"You know, you're starting to sound like Sarah?" Making you roll your eyes. You were a big girl. You could do this.

With disgust written all over your face, you reached for the glass and without much more debating, knowing you'd back out of it, you chucked the whole thing in one big gulp. Noises of repulsion immediately left your lips that you clearly faked yet couldn't hold back.

Joel entered the room, a bowl in one hand, and a mug in the other.

"You're being dramatic," he commented on your actions, setting everything down on the coffee table in front of you.

"Maybe," you groaned, "But this shit is revolting."

"It'll help you get better."

"I sure hope so," you scoffed, leaning forward to get a hold of the mug.

He took a seat next to you, the pills he had bought for you now in his hand, out of their packages. He handed them to you, to which you grimaced. You hated swallowing pills.

"Take them," he rolled his eyes.

"You know, my mom doesn't believe in pills." She was a very spiritual person.

Joel took a deep breath, "I know. I talked to her about it."

"Oooh, yeah!" You laughed out loud, slapping his upper arm as the memory of their discussion at your wedding came back to you. Sarah was recovering from a cold she had, and while your mother was talking Joel's ear off about herbs and oils that would help, he stood his ground on his opinion about trusting whatever medicine she had been described - your mother did not agree with that.

He shoved his hand closer to you. "Just because your mother doesn't like them, doesn't mean you don't, right?"

You shrugged to answer him.

"You want me to grind them for you? Put them under some food?"

"No, no," you snatched the pills out of the palm of his outstretched hand - your other hand got a hold of the mug. One pill after the other, you threw it down your throat, a shiver going down your spine after each. Joel watched you grimace in amusement, his hand running down the back of your head with a smile.

"Good girl," he kissed your cheek, which earned him a death glare from you. His eyes widened, "What?"

"You know what that does to me, and you won't even kiss me!" You whined, throwing yourself back against the backrest of the sofa, a cough following.

A laugh erupted from your husband as his hand landed on your thigh, rubbing and squeezing it gently. You tried pushing it away, but that only entertained him more.

"Take your medicine and I'll kiss you all that much more once you get better," he grinned, placing multiple pecks on the side of your head and pulling you into his chest.

"Is that a promise?" You teased, feeling him shake from chuckling.

"That's a vow."

-

"Darlin'."

You felt a soft shake against your shoulder and fingertips tracing your face.

"Darlin'." 

A groan came from you in response as you opened your eyes, making realise you must have fallen asleep earlier. Your eyes danced around the room - you were still on the couch in the living room. They landed on the body hovering above you. Joel smiled as your gazes met.

"I gotta go back to check on Tommy and the guys, but Sarah's here now. She'll take care of you until I come back."

You shook your head and scrunched your eyebrows, "No, what about school?"

"She just got back."

"And homework? Friends?" You rubbed the sleep out of your eyes, "I'm sure looking after an adult is the last thing she'd want to do-"

"No, don't worry-"

"I want to look after you, mum!" Sarah interrupted her father, skipping into the living room, with another mug in her hands. You were starting to get tired of seeing them.

You smiled at your daughter, "That's very nice of you, Sweetie. But it's so pretty outside, don't you want to go do something?"

"Not if I know you're here sick," she quickly answered before exiting the living room again.

Joel watched her leave, a proud look on his face as he turned his attention back to you.

"She's too kind for her own good," you commented.

"I wonder who she got that from," he smiled, caressing your cheek with his fingers, making you roll your eyes. Joel crouched down to be on eye-level with you, lowering his voice as well, his fingers not leaving your skin. "You wanna go upstairs? I think the bed might be a bit more comfortable."

You nodded while he straightened his back, standing back up on his two feet.

He nudged his head, "Come one." Reaching out his hand for you to take, but you had a different idea. You shook your head with a pout and opened your arms. Joel chuckled with a shake of his head. He could've expected that. Your husband didn't need to be told twice before leaning down, pulling the blanket off you and moving one arm underneath your knees with his other wrapping around your back to cup you up. 

He couldn't help but let a quiet groan fall from his lips as he moved back up. With a chuckle, you slapped his chest,

"Come on, old man." A grin spread on his face, followed by pretending to let you fall, making you screech and wrap your hands tight behind his neck, "Joel!"

"Call me old again, and I'll drop you for real, sweetheart."

He felt your loving eyes on him as he carefully took step after step, carrying you safely upstairs.

"You wouldn't do that." Poking his chest to tease him.

You're right. He wouldn't. He couldn't. He would never drop you. You were safe with him. For now and forever.

-

Only moments after Joel left you alone in the bedroom, another pair of feet echoed through the upstairs hallway. Sarah appeared in the doorway, a beautiful smile decorating her face while holding tightly onto a bowl.

"Dad said you fell asleep before you could eat, so I heated it up again." She got closer to the bed, placing the dish on the nightstand to your right.

"You didn't have to do that," you pushed yourself to sit up on the bed, "But thank you."

"Wait for me," she quickly told you before rushing out of the room, leaving you for about a minute before coming back, another bowl and a book in her grip.

"You're eating your dad's cooking?" You jokingly wondered as she made herself comfortable on the other side of the bed.

"I'm very brave, I know." Her answer made both of you chuckle in chorus. Jokes about Joel's cooking would never get old.

With the two of you holding onto your bowls, you went in first to get a taste of what you had expected to be the most tasteless watery substance you could imagine. You were surprised by multiple layers of flavours. Sarah hummed in agreement.

"Oh wow," you commented.

The little girl nodded, "Not bad, dad. Not bad."

"Not bad indeed. I was ready for something else."

"I was ready to run to the bathroom and spit it out," Sarah stated, making you laugh.

You fell into a comfortable conversation, asking her about her day and what she was up to later in the day, only to get "obviously, looking after you. Just because dad can cook all of a sudden, doesn't mean he won't need my help," in response.

The girl had her way with words.

After you finished cleaning out the bowls, Sarah brought them back downstairs, only to join you in the bed again minutes later. Before she made herself comfortable again, she made sure you'd have tissues, a glass of water, and some pills Joel told her to keep close, right on the nightstand.

"Are you comfortable? Do you need another pillow or-"

"I'm perfectly fine, Sarah," you patted her hand as she laid down next to you.

"Alright, but tell me if you need anything."

You nodded with a chuckle, "I will."

After closing your eyes, you could feel her moving and rustling as she reached out to get something.

"I have to read this book for school. Can I read it out loud to you?" She wondered, placing it in her lap, glancing to the side to see your eyes looking up at her.

"Of course, sweetie." You pulled the covers tighter around your body, ready to listen to her soft voice. "What book are you reading?"

"Sweet Valley High," she told you with a deep sigh, opening the book on the page she had left it.

"You don't sound fond of it," her clear annoyance made you want to smile. You knew exactly why she probably didn't enjoy the piece of literature her teacher had assigned them to read.

"Because I'm not," she stated with a scoff. "This is ridiculous. It's a terrible book with a terrible plot."

"It can't be that bad if it's school literature, sweetie." You tried to explain, hoping to give her a sense of understanding, even though you could imagine how annoyed she must feel.

"But it is!" She whined, "Our teacher probably only gave us to read that because more than half of the class are girls. Ridiculous..."

Before she could even read the first word on the page, she closed the book again. "Can I please read one of yours?" That question wasn't unfamiliar to you. It happened more than you'd like to admit - a 14-year-old asking for books of yours because she found the literature for her age 'boring and all the same' and had even called some authors 'possible illiterates, as well as the teachers for assigning such books'. In reality, she was just unchallenged, and you were more than happy to help with that. But you still had to remember your role as an adult and, more importantly, her mother.

"But you have to read this book, Sarah."

"And I'll get to that once I have the patience," she got up from the bed. "I promise. But right now... I need to read something better than some girl's high school drama." And disappeared, not waiting for an answer from you.

Once she was back, you were already half asleep, but still noticed it when she found her way back next to you, humming in happiness as she made herself comfortable.

Before sleep took over you completely, you heard the first words fall from her lips, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents-"

You smiled to yourself. She chose Little Women, one of your favourites.

-

The moving covers and rustling made you open your eyes again. You were still laying on your right side, in the same position you had fallen asleep in. The only difference now was, Sarah wasn't next to you anymore. Instead, she got replaced by her father, who was not so subtly, trying to get into bed without waking you.

Joel found your eyes trained on him, making him immediately stop, the bed sheets in his hand up in the air, "Sorry, darlin', I didn't want to wake ya."

"It's okay," you mumbled, moving closer to him as soon as he got under the covers, "You were never smooth or quiet at moving around anyways, Miller." Your legs interlocked with his, making sure you were as close to him as you could be. You had spent enough time apart, now was your time to enjoy having him right there next to you.

He chuckled at your confession, "I'm sorry." Once you were cuddled up to his side, he lifted his arm to wrap around you and place your head on his chest, but that was interrupted with a groan as he pulled something up from underneath him.

"Was Sarah readin' this?"

You opened your eyes and nodded, the soft smile back on your lips.

"Why on earth is she readin' a book from the last century?" He always remembered the little details you told him about the books and authors you loved.

"The more important question is why aren't you reading books from the last century," you poked his chest. Joel placed it on the nightstand and grabbed your hand into his bigger one, warming it up with the natural heat of his palm.

"You're right, I shouldn't have asked," he quickly commented before changing the subject. "How are you feelin'?"

"Better... I think," a yawn escaped from your throat, followed by a soft cough, "I slept pretty much the entire afternoon."

"That's good," his hand found your back, rubbing it in a comforting way. "You're supposed to sleep a lot."

You nodded. "How was work? Did the guys behave?"

"Yeah," he grinned, "Mostly. Tommy says sorry for sleeping with your co-worker, but also, and I quote, 'The ladies want, what the ladies want. And who am I to deny them of that'."

A moan in disgust erupted from you, "Oh god... He's disgusting." You both chuckled.

A few seconds of silence were shared with Joel's hand running up and down your body before he spoke again.

"You ate the soup?"

"Yeah, Sarah heated it up for me. And she also had a bowl." You lifted your head to look at him, "And we must admit, you did surprisingly well."

"What do you mean surprisingly?" He sounded genuinely curious about your answer as he glared down at you. "What were you expecting?"

"I don't know... but you know..."

"What do I know?"

"You're not the best cook, Joel," you admitted with a gentle smile, "So we were prepared for the worst."

"The worst?" He scoffed, "You two are unbelievable," and turned his head away from you, making you giggle.

"Joel," you whined, but the grin didn't leave your face, "Come on," you sat up straighter to cup his cheeks and turn his head to face you. But that man had his eyes closed. "Look at me." He shook his head. "Look at me, Joel."

"I'm not looking at you until you apologize."

"Are you serious?" You tried to contain your laughter as well as you possibly could, remembering that a girl was sleeping across the small hallway from you. "You know your talent isn't in cooking, handsome." Your fingers brushed through his hair as you caught him finally looking at you again.

"I actually didn't know that I was such a bad man in the kitchen, but thank you for the critique, I guess," he tried to keep the annoyed facial expression, but it was cut off by your synced laughter echoing through the room. He damn well knew about it. Sarah never let him hear the end of it. He will forever be 'an okay cook and a terrible baker'.

The sounds coming from you died down the moment your gazes met again, your fingers tracing his jaw.

"Would a kiss be apology enough?"

His face scrunched up, "With all of that bacteria still in your body?" You tried. With a roll of your eyes, you pushed yourself away from him, ready to turn around and go back to sleep, but his grip on your wrists stopped you. Joel pulled you in again, his lips hovering less than an inch above yours. 

"I couldn't ask for a better apology," he whispered, making you grin. You won. There was no way that man could go more than a day without stealing a kiss from you, and that's just what you wanted.

With that smirk still plastered on your face, you tilted your head up to finally meet the soft touch of his lips, pressing yours against his mouth. You would be ready to care for him once that man flu hit him, and you knew you would have Sarah right there with you as well.

joel taglist: @corvusmorte

pedro taglist: @leslieelainetrask

[starrclown]

Random things in my Hazbin Hotel rewrite that I added for lore, character, or because I think it's cool

(I might do this for my Helluva Boss rewrite because these take up alot of brain space and I wanna infodump so Tumblr is my bitc-)

Triggerwarning: Talks of death, suicide, murder, other nasty stuff.

Angel has a daughter named Isabella. (This is Angel Dust. I took the Dust out of his name because in my rewrite Angel is ashamed of his drug addiction. I wanna clarify incase someone gets confused.)

Angel and Husk were born in the same year, 1891. Angel died at 56 while Husk died at 86.

Husk and Valerie (Vaggie)are probably the most innocent at the Hotel.

Angel, Alastor, and Nifty have all killed people. Nifty has only killed one person, her husband.

Both Angel and Nifty were married when they were alive.

Sir Pentious is now a girl. She is now Madame Pentious.

Husk is Transgender.

Husk has a Russian background. He also knows Russian.

Angel and his family are not from America. His family are immigrants from Italy. They came to America when he was about 7.

Alastor is black. He's not mixed anymore.

Cherrie is almost deaf. She can hear somewhat but she is almost excessively deaf from being around explosions all her life.

Angel is blind in his right eye. Things... happened to it.

Since Cherrie is hard hearing and Angel has only one eye, they help each other alot. Angel learned sign language to talk to Cherrie if she's having a hard hearing day. Cherrie usually walks around with Angel if he's in a unfamiliar area.

Both Alastor and Angel are overlords. (I'm gonna have to work out what makes a overlord a overlord )

Charlie is a doll. Litteraly. Her parents made her with demonic magic. (More like a puppet but you get it.)

Charlie has a bad relationship with Lucifer. Lilith on the other hand is a loving an attentive mother.

Valerie even though she doesn't look like it, is very good with certain weapons. Not good with hands on though.

Mimzy and Angel are good friends.

Vox and Velvette don't like Valentino. They stick it out with him because their territories are objectively smaller than Valentinos. They are both weaker than Valentino.

Vox and Valerie have the biggest inferiority complex out if the main cast.

Tom Trench has had a crush on Katie Killjoy for about 20 years now. Katie is aware of it. She toys him along all the time.

Valerie can't speak.

Vox and Angel have a brother like relationship. Velvette shares the same thing with Angel. Only Velvette likes it.

Nifty was the youngest to die. She's 18.

Husk was the oldest to die.

Considering Nifty died so young she often can revert to a teenage life mindset. When someone (Mostly Angel) treats her like a child because that's what she is, she gets upset. Really upset. She doesn't understand why everyone treats her diffrently.

Nifty also tries to argue that she's grown up because she not only had a husband, she has to be bad like a adult because she's in hell.

Alastor shows blantent favoritism when it comes to the treatment of Husk and Nifty. (Hint: Husk ain't the favorite.)

Alastor is actually pretty nice. Despite how evil his is he is genuinely kind to most people. He was raised to be a gentlemen so he never really let that go as a adult.

When you die, after a significant amount of time, you can recive objects from your human life. There is two ways you can obtain objects from your human life. You either have it on you when you die or someone gives it to you as you die. Like being buried with a object or a object being set on your grave. This is how Angel has some memories of his family, someone set a scrap book on his grave. He has his necklace cause he was wearing it when he died.

Angel killed himself. He intentionally overdosed.

Charlie has biased when it comes to sinners. She's unaware of it but it's there. Charlie shows favoritism to younger sinners and to sinners who died from unnatural causes or to wronged sinners. This is demonstrated in the main cast. Charlie treats Nifty, Valerie, and Alastor better than Angel and Husk. She doesn't treat them hostility by any means but she gives alot more leeway to those three then Angel and Husk. She treats Angel objectively worse. If something bad happens and Angel has a part in it, then Angel will most likely take blame. She treats them worse for diffrent reasons. Angel because he killed himself and Husk because of how long he lived.

While Charlie doesn't like killing sinners, she will if pushed far enough.

Angel hides what he actually looks like. He didn't come down to hell looking as he does currently.

Valerie will do almost anything to get validation. Her self hatred is that big.

I have more but this is getting long.

Ask questions if you want. If your curious.

- ⭐️StarClown⭐️

[weirdoartist21]

I sure most know this but I noticed no one mentioned anything about it

So as we know Peppermint is 23 and Kale is about 38(Probably the best number we got according to the creator) 38-23 is well 15 so Kale was 15 when his sister was born. And as we know Peppermint has been clearly the favorite child since literally she would have been the one to take over if she never had left. Now imagine being in Kale's situation, you most likely want to be like your mom and take over then you get a sister suddenly. Then that chance of ever taking over your mom's company becomes slim, despite you are the oldest and usually in history or that the oldest is the one to get the 'throne' The youngest kid only would ever become heir to the throne if A the oldest one is unable to do it do to death or sickness or B they turn the title down and leave. But the only one that could fit this would be A but Roxanne would have clearly used Vandelay to heal her son upright if he did get truly sick which I theorize he got into the same accident as Peppermint that made her lose her leg or he got badly sick like Roquefort maybe that's why he let him join Vandelay cause he knew how it felt to be so sick that your body is failing you. Yet the description for Kale Boss looks said the keyword 'upgrade'. So either Kale never had the robot body before and decided now was his chance to actually live then suffer or he had a robot body but it wasn't cut out to him either he did need a better one for his health or he just wanted to feel stronger. The key thing is that Peppermint does mention Kale is always used by people but he would be an adult by the time Peppermint could even remember the earliest thing in her childhood. So not sure how she would have known who Kale was if clearly, she wasn't there for his life. I may be sounding crazy but I'm sure I would be real upset if my younger sibling suddenly became the favorite and took a dream of running my family company in seconds. I know Kale was a teen when Peppermint was born and babies need a lot of attention but we all remember how hard and struggling being a teen was. But I can say Kale is a bad person, I mean he mind-controlled his own mom to get what he wanted and tried to kill Chai many times and gave zero care when his coworker turned into fireworks/a pancake. But as we know people aren't born bad, they grow bad without the right help.

Anyway welcome to my ted talk sorry for my rambling

[echantedtoon]

does Angel and Karaku have any children?

yes! Quadruplets actually n one baby brother.(See attached pic for reference to what I envision them to look like). All of them one way or another seemed to have slight similarities after the clone they share the same eye color with despite Karaku fathering them. They suspect it has something to do with the clones essentially being one in the same person therefore sharing the same genetics in the end but they're unsure.

They're also completely human. Not sure how that happened either but they supposed human genetics are stronger when it comes to offspring.

From oldest to youngest-

Kido Kowarta/Hantengu: Oldest of the quadruplets and the crankiest. Of the bunch however he's pretty responsible for his age. He's always the first person to defend his younger brothers or take the blame for things if he thinks they're going to be in real trouble. Overprotective by nature but this mellows out as he gets older, by the time he's an adult he's completely out of that phase. Out of all his children, Hairou is the clingiest to their father and wants to be near him when around. Has a tendency to throw a tantrum if Karaku doesn't pay him attention when he's feeling really clingy.

Kara Kowarta/Hantengu: Second oldest and was named after their father since they share the most resemblance. He's very extroverted and likes to go out exploring, often bringing back little trinkets like flowers or weird looking rocks he found cool to Angel as gifts. While Kido is the most responsible, Kara is the most approachable and thus gets along the best with complete strangers whether this is a good or bad thing however is still undecided and he can be a little too trusting. Likes to play pranks with his brother Rogi and often hangs about him to keep him reigned in.

Rogi Hantengu/Kowarta: The third eldest and the one who causes the most trouble for his parents. He's very roudy and rambunctious, outgoing like Kara but in a more wild way. Child legit thinks chasing around terrifying his 'Grandpa' Hantengu and roughhousing with 'Uncle' Urogi is hilarious fun. Probably gives his parents too many heart attacks. Karaku especially when he's not careful around Urogi's claws. Has a knack for somehow ending up in the weirdest places. On the roof, under a boulder, once inside Zohakutan's dragon's mouth- Karaku ends up having a heart attack every time. Ironically tho is the only one of his brothers that inherited their mother's interest in the shamisen and music.

Zetsu Hantengu/Kowarta: The youngest, calmest, and shiest of the quadruplets. Was also born mute so he communicates by writing what he wants on paper, body gestures, and making faces. Because of this he's usually very quiet. No one knows exactly when he's going to suddenly pop up next to them and often accidentally ends up scaring the person. He's very shy by nature often just follows his brothers into whatever mischief they're doing, but don't let his quietness fool you. He's actually very smart compared to most children around his age during the time period including his brothers. It comes from his want to learn and love for reading. The only thing he can't read so far is his brother's sheet music.

Haku: The youngest and full of life. Curious about everything and anything but gets bored easy which can be hard to get him motivated on just one thing for a while. Can be lazy or procrastinate but if he wants to do something then it's going to get done. Closest one to their mother being the youngest(three years younger than his big brothers) and has inherited their mom's deadpanned attitude towards their father's antics. Was partially named after Karaku because they share the same emerald eyes.

[pepsiiwho]

I've been making myself super sick at the thought of Fidelio and Cassius being active parents for the last like month, and I feel that my only recourse is to further examine their relationship to their children, lest I melt like the wicked witch under the scrutiny of Dorty’s probing little stare. So because they have so many fucking kids, it must be easy to loose track and sort of see them as little more then a collective; their little gaggle of kitties and puppies. So, ofc, I thought I would give them a family tradition of each parent spending a weekend with one child once a month, undisturbed, so they can keep in contact with their kids. What this looks like is, typically, Cassius will take the first weekend of the month and Fidelio the last (and vice versa, it varies). Considering there's 7 of them, it takes up most the year and merely repeats as needed, lmao. Here is a list of each child's preferred events with each parent, in order of oldest to youngest child. Enjoy insane indulgences. 

Bernadette, Bernie, is the oldest daughter and by nature falls into the role of having to child-rear as she gets older. I refuse to let MY Cassius and MY Fidelio be the sort of parents to be so neglectful or so miserable they'd retroactively or openly parentify their young daughter and curse her with this gaggle of siblings to raise. But, even though they're doing their best and really are great parents, generally, the nature of having 7 children is that of having to let them self govern past a point. It's just an unavoidable evil. So our darling Bernie is left to care for the offshoots when a child is being given priority (sick, hurt, otherwise just more important in the moment) and she's usually happy to do so, as she knows it's just a given being the oldest.

(A conversation about the selfishness of two people who are so distinctly unfit to be parents having that many kids— especially mixed kids in the metaphor world of all places— can be had another day. For now, just enjoy the ooey-gooey yummies of happy family time) 

But because her attention is always on her sisters + Teddy, she misses being the child. She hasn't been their 'littlest girl' in... A very long time, and any trip with her parents needs to allow her a chance to be young and irresponsible. 

I, admittedly, don't know exactly what this looks like all the time. 

I think Fidelio is really touchy about his darling Bernie and feels horrible more often than not for the responsibility he's forced on her shoulders. He remembers vividly what raising Basilio all alone was like: the isolation, the fear, the lack of privacy and the lack of self. She isn't a parent— not yet thank god— and isn't expected to be as responsible as Cass or Del, but the point still stands regardless. For his daughter to feel even a quarter of what he felt for all those years is a failure on his part and he hopes to remedy it when he can (the sentiment is shared and echoed by Cassius as well, ofc, as this is the nature of being orphans who had to raise someone else at too young an age).

Fidelio wants nothing more than to let her be as stress free as possible. I think this shows itself by traveling to a different city for the weekend, their home in Altabury perhaps, and letting her just do whatever she wants in the snowy city. Go shopping for new pelts to fashion into a cloak or coat, one she won’t have to share with Lydia or hear Arabella bitching about? Of course darling, it’s yours. Buy the expensive sweets she usually can’t have because if it can’t be shared it isn’t worth the trouble? Whatever you want sweetness. That cooking class she couldn’t take because the triplets thought it would be boring and three against one is a fool's errand? Sounds like a great idea! A blank check and time being seen and heard and made a priority by her father is a gift and without fail the quiet but calm Bernie is left in tears at the consideration her father gives her…. He’d pluck the moon from the sky for her but thank GOD, she hasn’t asked for it yet. 

And besides, he enjoys getting to get away from work with her, as his family is the only thing that can get him to walk away from work and the King’s never ending shit shows he has to audit and keep in line. He’s always there for her, of course of course OF COURSE— but having his undivided attention to share anything bothering her (most things) is delightful. She already feels very othered in her family— she looks like neither parent, sharing no features of note (no third eye, no Mustari traits period, no folded ears, no pink complexion, no caramel skin. Nothing to prove she wasn’t found off the street or worse, a bastard. The thought keeps her up at night….). She just misses her father, his affection and time spent with him and just him. She’s a daddy’s girl— sue her. 

(insert sound of me vomiting out my own tears as loudly as possible) 

With Cass, it’s much of the same but also a degree of trying to better understand her mother and emulate her. She thinks of Cass as a hero figure: so capable and put together. She wants to be so unflappable, so unbothered by any and everything. She’s yet to figure out how to be so unbothered but she’s getting there. The two of them go up to Altabury and spend it shopping or cooking together, or well Bernie cooks and Cass watches helplessly and tastes whatever is made happily. On these trips they’ll sit by the fireplace in their pajamas and Cass will tell Bernie of her life, the stories she struggles to share with anyone else; the moments of doubt and fear and hate. It's an attempt to be relatable, to be human and not a deity on the parental podium. It’s… difficult, but she tries nevertheless because she knows how much Bernie needs this. How different she feels, that can’t be allowed to fester more than it already does. Any chance to reiterate that— “no, you’re mine and I’m yours and you always will be”— is always going to be worth the discomfort of laying herself to bare. Cassius is at her most talkative with Bernie, swapping worries and whispering to her as she cards fingers through her hair as it snows silently outside. Ugh. they're soooooooooo. Whatever.

Lydia, their worst child by a long shot, is a trouble maker thats never satisfied. Shes a creative who lacks a suitable outlet and, worse, genuinely just likes to see people struggle. She’s scary and sadistic and across the board a wicked girl. Yet, her mommy and daddy love her to death. 

Lydia struggles with boredom, finding the people around her tiresome and repetitive (which leads her to make entertainment for herself in the form of fucking with people tirelessly) but in a weird contradiction she prefers to spend her time with her parents in some secluded part of the world. She wants to be with them, in nature, and try to tap into something deeper. Something honest and real and gritty. They go hiking or climb up a mountain or something and she enjoys getting lost in the woods with her mother, amazed at how Cass has never once gotten left behind. She writes in between their treks and reads to her mother, sharing ideas and what plagues her creatively. Cass is remarkably helpful but even if she wasn’t she listens and enjoys every second. 

Fidelio knows his daughter can’t be tamed and he’s known this since she was a child (little tike climbs onto and over and under EVERYTHING and cannot be contained in any meaningful capacity) but he’s always terrified seeing how athletic she is even now, especially now. She’s never mellowed out. But he goes with her, doing his best to keep up and is thankful she keeps him in shape. She never smiles more then when they reach the top, their goal whatever that is this time, and how he grumbles in pain but does it anyway— every time. Because he adores her, of course. 

This is already like 1500 words, so I’m gonna write the rest tmw and add it. Ily ocs mwah

[cilil]

Not same anon, but I read your post and have a thought. Do all Finwe's children have a daddy issues? Just want to know your opinion! And thank you anyway! Wish you good day/night

Gladly! Thanks for the ask! It's always a fun topic to talk about, so let's jump right in :D

(Disclaimers added down below, just in case)

As for Findis and Lalwen, I can see it go both ways. It may be that they have wisely chosen to stay away from the family drama epicenter and focus on themselves and their relationship with other family members, while also maintaining a decent/good relationship with Finwë. It may also be that they at some point competed for their father's affection, but realized that Fëanor was the favorite child on top of his special position as crown prince and withdrew, feeling disappointed and rejected on some level - so the kind of daddy issues where you stop trying and seek to have your emotional needs met elsewhere. You could tie this thought into Findis' decision to stay in Valinor and/or Lalwen's decision to leave, though for the latter her relationship with Fingolfin is usually cited as the primary reason.

As for Fëanor, I think he wouldn't have daddy issues in the "traditional sense" that he was trying to get more affection from a distant father figure, since Finwë was doting on him. Maybe he was jealous when Finwë remarried and had more children with whom Fëanor then had to share his attention and affection. What I like to think, though, is that Fëanor has what I call "reverse daddy issues" for lack of a better term. Reverse daddy issues is when someone doesn't want a daddy for themselves, but they want to be the daddy (for other people). Funnily enough I also think this stems from Fëanor's mommy issues, the entire emotional turmoil sort of motivating him to become the sort of parent figure he on one hand had experienced growing up (Finwë) and on the other hand lacked (Míriel).

With Fingolfin, we enter daddy issues central. Out of all of Indis' children he was the one getting compared to and pitted against Fëanor the most, being the oldest male child of the four. I definitely think he was actively (and dare I say even desperately) competing for attention and affection from his father; as an example I'd point to the scene in which Fingolfin tries to convince Finwë to restrain Fëanor (not that way, perverts). Depending on what we all voted on That Poll, I can see this going the daddy issues route or evolving into reverse daddy issues later. Or it's fake reverse daddy issues to mask the daddy issues (say daddy one more time...). So yeah, Fingolfin definitely has something going on there, in my opinion at least.

Finarfin may be somewhat in the middle. I can easily see him having similar sentiments as Fingolfin, but to a lesser degree because he was the youngest and seems to have gone his own way like his sisters, staying out of the drama to the best of his ability. You could point to his marriage to Eärwen as an example of that mindset. I like to think that Finarfin was really taken aback when he suddenly found himself in the position to take his father's place and might feel weird about it to this day; he lived his entire life thinking it would be Fëanor or Fingolfin. Ironically, being in this position might have taught him some much-appreciated wisdom and humility.

Tldr: I think all of them had at least something going on in regards to daddy issues, but Findis, Lalwen and Finarfin managed to not let it affect them too much while Fëanor and Fingolfin got sucked into the daddy issues drama vortex.

 ˚ ੈ✧̣̇·˖ 　˚ .　　　✶ ˚　　✦　. 　 ˚　.　　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚　

Disclaimer 1: The intention of this post is not "Finwë bad" or even to highlight parenting mistakes. As per anon's question, these are just some lighthearted thoughts on how Finwë's kids may have interpreted the family situation and felt about it.

Disclaimer 2: Due to said lighthearted nature of this post, I use the terms daddy and mommy issues. Sadly they have been misused to degrade and invalidate the experiences of real people in different contexts. This is of course not the intention here. Please know that your real feelings about things that happened/are happening in your life are valid🤍

[tftword]

"Sorry, Cody"

Rescue bot angst rescue bot angst rescue bot angst!

"I'm home!" Cody yells as he enters the firehouse, returning home from school Monday at 4:30.

"hey Cody! How was school?" Dani asks, Everyone was busy in the firehouse so it was decently loud and Dani being near the helicopter pad she and blades were the closest to the door so she was the only one who could hear Cody coming in.

"it was good! But I have this-" Cody stops talking when he realizes Dani isn't listening, she was preparing for a new test flight, it was over griffin rock so blades was aloud to go without a driver, so he was polishing himself to "look good for his fans".

Cody walks past both of them putting his backpack down on a table, he looks inside at the family report that was due the next day the zips it up, he walks back over to Dani and blades

"hey guys I need your hel-" "sorry Cody me and blades have to get going soon" Dani interrupts Cody as she and blades get on the helepadvator. Cody watches them go up with a disappointed face "okay..."

Cody starts walking over to charlie and chase, deciding to go oldest to youngest with the rest of the family to ask for help with the report.

"hey dad, chase I need help for some homework"

"apologies, Cody but me and chief have a terrorizing lawn mower to go catch!" Chase says as he turns into his alt mode. Ad chief gets into chases alt mode he says "maybe you can ask kade for help." Then drive out the firehouse as Cody watches disappointed.

Cody walks over to kade and heatwave who were walking towards the ground bridge.

"hey kade hey heatwave, can you guys help me with homework?" Cody as he walks over to the two. "Sorry little bro, no can do, heatwave and I have to go to the mainland!" Kade says in his usual cocky voice "trust me Cody, I'd much rather do homework than go fix blurrs mistakes" heatwave says seeing Cody's disappointed face "by the way, could you help us with the ground bridge?" Asks kade as he walks up the runway "yeah, sure" Cody replies in a sad tone that is mostly mistaken for tiredness. Cody opens the ground bridge bridge and saddly watches the two leave. Cody sighs as the ground bridge closes "welp there goes 25% of my grade" Cody says to himself, the paper had to be sighed by 2 older family members, each was 25% and actually writing about the family was the other fifty

Cody walks over to Graham and boulder, they were working so he had already assumed the answer. "Hey boulder, hey Graham, can you guys help me with my homework?" Cody asks, trying his best to sound upbeat and Happy like normal, but it was getting hard at this point. "I'm sorry Cody but we are working on the new building plans" Graham says with his normal empathetic voice "I wish we could but it's due in about five hours at 9 tonight and it'll take at least 4 and a half hours" boulder says sounding just as empathetic "it's fine, I understand" Cody says as he grabs his backpack and walks away with his head down, boulder only realizes how sad Cody looked and sounded last minute when Cody is getting in the elevator. "Wait cody-" but before boulder could get Cody's attention the elevator doors already closed. "C'mon boulder, we have to focus" Graham says, sounding a tad bit guilty. "I know... But.. he looked so sad" boulder says looking down at Graham guiltily.

Chiefs and chases patrol went till 9:20, danis and blades test flight went till 9 kade and heatwave were at mainland till 9:30, Graham and boulder getting home soon after, everyone assumed Cody was asleep so everyone ate dinner and went to sleep

Though it was impossible to hear over kades loud snoring, Cody was crying in his room, papers littering his floor, a cold uncooked leftover on his desk as he struggled to write about his family, his eyes were red from crying and his throat hurt, it wasn't like he wasn't used to this, spending all nighters trying to do school things he didn't understand alone, get ignored and brushed off all day, crying till he fell asleep at his desk, it was all normal when your when family is a rescue team. He gets less than 26 hours of sleep weekly, not wanting to bother anyone about his work more than once a day, but the worst thing about tonight was no matter what the best he would get is 50%. His eyes struggle to stay open and suddenly he opens his eyes to the bright sun, he had fallen asleep and his project was a b- at best when it comes to the actual work. He groggily put new clothes on, he had forgotten to change into pajamas. He run to the bathroom making sure no one sees him, his eyes were crusty from crying and his face had dried up salty tears all over his face, he had horrible bags, his eyes were also puffy. He cleans his face with warm water, taking care of everything but the bags, he locks the bathroom door and takes out Dani's foundation. "Can't be that hard can it?" He says as he puts a little on his finger and dabs it under his eye, it made the bags way less noticable. He makes it look like no one ever touched danis makeup and goes out of the bathroom, when charlie burns calls him to eat breakfast he smiles and says hes not hungry, he goes straight downstairs and grabs his hover pad and says goodbye to everyone

When he gets back home he asks everyone if they want to play burns ball but it's all the same

"sorry Cody I'm busy right now with..."

"sorry Cody me and Hailey...."

"sorry Cody the law..."

"sorry Cody maybe later son...."

"sorry Cody Dani planned...."

"sorry Cody I planned"

"sorry Cody we got more blueprints to make..."

"sorry Cody the deadlines are Soon"

The next day on Wednesday when he gets a note home for not doing his work that needs a signature nothing changes

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

"sorry Cody"

But they didn't give reasons and didn't even really pay attention, and neither did anyone pay attention to him staying up all night crying and doing homework work, then falling asleep, with the words "sorry Cody" playing over and over again in his head, his bags were growing more noticable, not that he hung out with anyone enough for them to see it since he had been drowning in work he didn't understand. He had lost a couple pounds from not eating as well.

When he gets home on Thursday with a detention note, when he tries to tell anyone the same response comes out

"sorry Cody"

And it didnt help that his punishment atop of detention was more homework, he was becoming more tired and hungry and weak as the week went on, but he didn't let anyone know.

On Friday after school, being tired as ever only getting a couple hours of sleep that week he decided to visit someone he knew wouldn't judge him, someone who had experienced isolation like he did, professor baranova. So he went home dropped his stuff off except for except his homework, he also hoped on getting help from baranova or dr Greene, he needed the sleep later. So as he left he announced he was leaving, but everyone was to busy to notice.

It's been multiple hours. And everyone was finally finishing what they had to do, and all of them thought of one thing, Cody.

"hey have you guys seen Cody? I want to take him up on his burns ball offer" kade says as he walks into the main part of the hangout area "no I haven't, Im actually looking for him too, he said something about needing help with his homework!" Boulder says confused, as he had looked everywhere he could for cody. "I've been looking for him too, I want to take him for a joyride, it feels like a bit since we've had a real conversation" heatwave adds "has anyone seen Cody? He had something to tell me about school matters" chief burns says as he gets out of the elevator with Dani and graham. "Yeah, we checked everywhere upstairs!" Dani says sound a bit suprised he wasn't there "we knocked on his door and looked in his room and he wasn't there! He also left his comm on his bed!" Graham adds. "Well he's not down here!" Chase says sounding a bit worried. "Alright, that's it you guys go over to main land and check if he's at the training center, blades and me will check griffin rock! Rescue bots! Roll to the rescue!" Heatwave says as he and the blades into their alt mode "I'm going to head to mainland with the others" kade says to heatwave as Dani hops into blades "fine by me"

After about an hour and a half of looking around and asking people if they have seen Cody, to no avail, they even asked Frankie, but she hadn't seen him in a week out of school. "Yeah it's kind of weird, he got a note home and a detention for not getting it signed! And when he tried to say his family was busy he got two more days of detention!" Frankie says to heatwave before saying goodbye 'have... Have we been ignoring Cody?' Heatwave asks himself before he gets everyone else on their comms "anyone have any idea on where Cody is?" Heatwave asks, it was obvious but he was trying to hide her was in a panic, blades was blatantly freaking out and naming all the terrible things that could have happened to Cody, this caused boulder and kade to start getting anxious, untill chase lost his cool and in the most respectful way he could told blades to shut up, it sounded very threatening. "Calm down everyone we will find Cody, okay? For now everyone go back to the firhouse" Chief burns says, worry evident in his voice. "Okay chief I just have one more place to check" "okay heatwave see you at the fire house"

Heatwave drives up to Dr. Greenes lab and turns into his bot mode and heads near the garage are "knock kno-" heatwave quietly starts before he hears Cody's voice, he sighs relieved before he hides behind the outside garage doors and peers in "now that all that late work is done Cody we can get to that more private talk, but first id like to ask why you went to me instead of boulder Graham or even chief burns?" professor baranova asks "well... That's the thing everyones been ignoring me and pushing me off... Everyone is so busy and I've been feeling so isolated! I mean not even the bots hang out with me, even though I teach them everything I know try to help them at all costs and I've almost always been there for them! Recently it's been so much worse... I've been alone! And in school I've been getting in trouble because of how backed up on homework and schoolwork! But no matter how much I ask for help everyone's busy! And- I'm sorry I'm ranting" Cody starts ranting getting all his emotions out when he finally breaks and starts sobbing, 'this is all our fault... We haven't been here for him when he needed us' heatwave thinks to himself as he feels his spark ache, he feels him getting angrier at himself and the situation and everyone but Cody for not noticing their neglect. "No no, Cody it's fine, ranting and venting is a very healthy thing when done in correct proportions. Tell me, have you brought this up with everyone?" Professor baranova asks "no... I didn't want to give everyone more problems... They're already so busy and I didn't want to give them more problems... So I guess this is partially my fault" heatwave couldn't listen to this anymore, were they that neglectful? That it came to him blaming himself? The whole situation made his energon boil, he turned into his alt mode and quickly made it back to the fire house.

"hey heatwave you find anything?" Kade asks heatwave obviously in the middle of freaking out, but heatwave just walks by him no words, Almost stepping on him "agh! What the what man!? What was that for?!" Kade asks, emotions overriding him, but heatwave doesn't respond he just keeps walking toward his wooden training thingy "heatwave I know you're worried about Cody, we are too but being violent towards your teammates won't do anything!" Boulder and chase try to get Infront of him but he shoves them both out of his way, surprising everyone, he gets to his training dummy and starts punching and kicking it harder then ever, his grunts louder and angrier than ever, making everyone a bit more worried. "THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT!" Heatwave yells as he throws another punch "what do you mean heatwave?" Blade asks, obviously scared but really wants to know what he means. "Yeah heat wave, do you know something?" Chief burns asks "what I know is we failed our mission! We have been neglecting and IG-" heatwave breaks the dummy in half "-NORING CODY! He's been getting in trouble in school, drowning in stuff he doesn't understand, and is lonelier than ever! And it's because WE brush him off as if he's some dog or toddler!" Heatwave yells out in anger "what do you mean?" "Where did you get this information?" "I never thought of it that way..." Chief burns Graham kade and Dani also get decently worried "I went to doc greenes lab and overheard professor baranova and Cody talking about how isolated he is and how lonely he fes because we always think of him last!" Heatwaves voice gets quieter and more of a growl as he gets angrier "the worst part is, he blames himself, for not expressing himself enough and not wanting to add to all our problems... All he thought of his sadness was a problem! And that's because of how much we brush him off as if he is one!" Heatwave yells the last part. Dani tears up and kade looks mad "oh dear... We never thought anything was wrong he's always been fine-" chief burns starts before heat wave interrupts "he's always acted like he was fine!" But then Cody walks in, hoverboard in hand, the bags under his eyes were evident and he was yawning. "Hey guys what's up?" "CODY!" Everyone yells in sync running towards him, kade is full on crying and Dani has teared up, Graham and chief burns look disheveled. "What happened when... I was... Gone..." When everyone backed up a bit from Cody he passes out, making everyone panic, Dani was the closest so she caught him

"what's wrong with him?! Will he be okay?! Oh go oh God! Heatwave was right this is all our faults!" Blades says as he stays near Cody on the couch holding one of his tiny hands with two digits "blades it's okay, it's just lack of sleep and nutrients, he'll be fine, he just needs food and a couple good nights of sleep" Graham says trying to calm him down, chase is reading all about human health while whispering to himself Cody will be fine, boulder is painting Cody an apology picture and heatwave is pacing around mumbling how this is all his fault and degrading himself. "Huh? What happened?" A small voice could be heard, everyone ran over to Cody. "Are you alright?!" "Does your head hurt?" "I'm sorry this happened Cody!" "Please don't worry us like this again" the bots were the only ones to get full sentences as kade and Dani were babbling out apologies and hugging him, while chief burns rubbed Cody's back and graham was keeping an eye on his health monitors. Cody looked confused and tried to stand up, only for a digit to be placed on his chest and gently push him back down. "You're not in the right health to be standing Cody" heatwave says, his voice softer than normal. The bots look at each other and then their partners, then they all nod. "Cody..." Chief burns starts "we are so so sorry!" Dani continues "for always brushing you off and putting you last, we have been very unobservant recently and that really shows" heatwave adds "WE'LL NEVER IGNORE YOU AGAIN CODY!" blades says in his, if I was a human, I'd be bawling voice. "Yes, we must apologize for our carelessness and neglect" chase continues. "I made you a painting for an apology!" Boulder says bringing over once of his best pieces of art, being a picture of everyone hugging Cody. "Aw thank you boulder, and it's okay, you guys are all busy being rescuers!" Cody says looking around at all of them. "But it's not, we endangered your mental and physical health, so from now on no matter what if you ask for attention no matter how busy everyone is, you will absolutely get it" heatwave says, offering a soft smile. "... Thank you that makes me feel better." Cody smiles back even brighter. "Now! Cody! Hasn't your big brother taught you nothing? You need to eat!" Kade says putting his arm around Cody's shoulder making Cody laugh. "What do you say about dinner son?" Chief burns asks Cody "I say, who's making it?" Cody asks with a chuckle. "I will be making dinner tonight" chief responds with a smile. "Then I say yes please"

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

[tmnt-reticent]

How does Splinter treat all of his kids individually? Does he play favorites? Does he genuinely love them or is he indifferent?

OKAY SO i thought I made a post on this, but according to tumblr’s search function (which honestly I don’t 100% trust bdkwbdkwhd) I haven’t? BUT I did write it all down ages ago so here is Splinter’s relationships with each of the turtles!

i usually like to go from oldest to youngest when it comes to talking about the reticent turtles but I mostly have stuff between Raph and Splinter planned so

When the turtles were younger, Raph reminded Splinter of him when he was younger, so he became his favourite (this was more of a subconscious thing than anything). So even though Raph wasn’t the oldest, he was chosen to be the leader. This lasted a few years until Raph eventually confronted Splinter about his teaching style of teaching everything to Raph and then having him teach it back to his brothers. He felt bad for his brothers because they had to deal with him teaching them stuff that Splinter could be teaching them far better, and since he’s literally right there, Splinter should be teaching them instead, not him. Splinter was angered by this disrespect and stripped Raph of his leadership role, handing it off to Leo and then leaving the turtles to fend for themselves so he didn’t have a repeat of Raph, causing Raph to feel guilty as fuck over taking their dad away from his brothers, and him and Leo to have feud that’s lasted years because like wtf Leo this is so messed up why are you just going along with this??? Nowadays, whenever Splinter visits them (which is quite rare), Raph hides himself away so he doesn’t get into another fight with Splinter as whenever they fight, Splinter refuses to visit for months on end and he doesn’t really want a repeat of The April Incident™️

Leo is the one who gets to see Splinter the most after he leaves as he leaves the lair to train with him often. He internalises Splinter’s traditionalist ideals and the teachings of the Hamato Clan and teaches them back to his brothers, although they don’t internalise it as much as him as Leo isn’t really skilled in manipulation like Splinter is. He looks up to him and is constantly seeking validation from him, which he doesn’t always receive but when he does he’s always in a great mood because of it, and is the kindest to his brothers following receiving praise from Splinter. Leo is always the harshest to his brothers when Splinter visits the lair because he wants to prove to him just how great of a leader he is (an example of this is mentioned in chapter 3 of reticent, where Leo drags Raph out of bed to do his kata despite him having the flu). Leo feels like a “redo” or “a back up plan” a lot of the time as he knows he wasn’t Splinter’s first choice to be leader, which only excentuates his desperation to prove himself to his sensei. It isn’t really until he meets Usagi that he starts unlearning all of the toxicity that Splinter has passed onto him, although it takes multiple seasons as it’s a slow process (he’ll still be unlearning it following the show’s end, but he will have made a lot of progress by Season 5).

I don’t really have AS much for Mikey yet tbh- his attention seeking tendencies are worsened by Splinter as he never really talks to him or even looks at him when he visits, focusing mostly on Leo and Raph, and Donnie if he bothers him. He doesn’t like Splinter, but he would like to at least be *noticed* by him. He’s probably the least affected by Splinter as although he relies a lot on being around others and stuff he tends to not let them affect who he is as a person if that makes any sense at all dgwihdjwhd- he and Raph are also the ones most on to Splinter’s bullshit so that helps

Donnie loves Splinter, but is confused by him a lot of the time. He often receives parts and materials for his inventions that have a note from Splinter with them, but whenever Splinter visits and Donnie tries to speak to him about his tech or show him what he’s made, he always ends up getting yelled at or his inventions broken as there’s “no point to them”. Splinter sees his tech as useless as it’s not as if they can use it in battle, it’s simply shiny and frivolous and can’t compare to more traditional weapons made out of more useful and hardy materials (fuck you, Splinter 💖). Despite Splinter (and therefore Leo) constantly putting him and his tech down, he still loves him and seeks out validation from him. He doesn’t really understand why.

To answer your other question, he 100% plays favourites. His list from favourite to least favourite before Leo became leader was: Raph, Leo, Mikey, Donnie but now it’s Leo, Mikey, Raph, Donnie. He still doesn’t particularly like Mikey but at least he isn’t as defiant as Raph and Donnie are (he views Donnie as being a combination of both his problems with Raph and his problems with Mikey which is why he’s at the bottom of the list still).

And he doesn’t really love them, no. They’re a means to an end. He felt a fleeting sense of care towards Raph and he certainly would care if Leo died prematurely but the latter is more due to his goals, not because he loves Leo.

Thank you for the question! 💖