#I get the explanation for why Ben is acting the way he is during this series (he died MANY times in quick succession and that takes a toll) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

caniruineverything · 1 year ago

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lean on me (when you're not strong)

a benmars fanfic

Summary: During a week off from White Flower business, Marshall is excited to hang out with Benedikt, as they two usually do when they have free time. However, Benedikt begins to act oddly, and when Marshall realizes why, he takes care of his friend.

The sound of footsteps faded to background noise as Marshall raced through the familiar streets of Shanghai, Benedikt as his right, and Roma at his left. As the wind tousled his hair and the sounds of the city blurred together, Marshall had never felt so alive. His favorite people, the ones who had taken him in when he had nowhere else to go, were keeping pace with him. Well, Roma was. Benedikt had slowed considerably from the steady, quick jog they had started at, and was lagging behind his cousin and friend.

"Ben?" Marshall began, quirking his eyebrow at his friend, "are you alright?" It was unlike Benedikt to be unable to keep up with Marshall, not after years of the two of them racing each other all over the city. Benedikt wiped his brow before replying.

"What? Of course I am alright, Mars. Why wouldn't I be?" Marshall just stared at the blonde, wondering if the other boy realized just how oddly he was behaving, unable to run, sweating buckets in the cool morning, and were his hands shaking.

"You-" At that moment, Roma, who had continued on, unaware that Benedikt and Marshall had stopped, jogged back to them.

"Hey, why'd you stop? Everything alright?" At this, Marshall shot a glance at Benedikt, wondering if he would respond the same way he'd responded to Marshall. Sure enough, before Marshall had a chance to say anything Benedikt ground out.

"I'm fine, alright? I am simply tired; I haven't been sleeping well. Now, if you are done asking me if I'm alright, I'm going to return home. Goodbye." He was gone before either Roma or Marshall could make a sound or move. Glancing at Roma, he saw his own confusion reflected on Roma's face. Roma, ever the peacekeeper, offered.

"Should I go see why he's in such a mood?" Marshall shook his head in answer. If Ben wanted to be grumpy, he would let him.

"No. Let him cool off alone. Can we get food? All this running has made me hungry." Roma nodded, and the two shot off in search of sustenance.

Marshall stepped into the apartment he shared with Benedikt, food in hand, and looked around for the blonde, who was nowhere to be found. Roma had left earlier, in search of Juliette. Well, he hadn't explicitly said that was what he was doing, but Marshall could easily read between the lines.

"Ben?" he called into the seeming vacant apartment. When he got no response, he put the food down on the table and walked around, looking for any sign that Benedikt was in the building. In the room they had designated as the living room, slumped in a chair, there Benedikt sat, reading a book with his head resting on his hand. "Ben?" At the sound of his name, the Russian boy looked up. Well, started, really, almost as if he had been on the edge of sleeping.

"Hello, Mars. How is my cousin?" That was it, no explanation of why Benedikt had left so abruptly. Surely, no book could be that important, right?

"Roma is fine. He is once again off gallivanting around with the Scarlet Heir." Benedikt scoffed at this, and replied.

"No surprise there. He and Juliette Cai probably think they are so covert, but alas. My dear cousin was never exactly subtle, now, was he?"

"That's Roma for you." So they weren't going to mention earlier. Okay, Marshall was fine with that. He was. "I brought you dinner. It's on the table if you haven't eaten yet."

"Oh." Benedikt blinked. "Thank you, that is very kind, only I'm not hungry. You can have it, if you want." Now Marshall was surprised. Sure, Ben had never had a ravenous appetite as Marshall did, but he was usually up for food.

"I've already eaten. I will set it aside in case you want it later." Marshall turned around before Benedikt could see his puzzled expressions. He walked back to the kitchen, placed the food he'd brought back into the fridge, and stepped back into the living room. Benedikt had resumed reading his oh so interesting book, though he kept blinking as if he was finding it hard to concentrate. Soon enough, Benedikt rose and declared he was going to bed.

Marshall stared after him, brows furrowed. Benedikt was quite the night owl, always being the one staying up, burning the midnight oil, while Marshall was fast asleep. Nevermind the running earlier, if anything made Marshall worry, it was this. If something were truly wrong, however, wouldn't Benedikt tell him? Marshall earnestly hoped that was true. He would hate it if his friend suffered in silence.

Marshall sighed, deciding there was no point in staying up if Benedikt wasn't there, and headed to bed as well.

Marshall awoke at the premature hour of 10 a.m. to sun streaming through the blinds. He blinked, surprised that no noise from Be had woken him up, as per usual. Instead, the apartment was silent, no signs of life besides Marshall. Had Benedikt left this early? Lord Montagov. had promised the two cousins they could be free from White Flower business for the week. Whenever that was the case, Benedikt and Marshall typically spent their free time together, while Roma took the opportunity to seek out the Scarlet Heir, if rumors were to be believed.

He slipped out of bed and wandered into the kitchen, searching for Ben or any sign that he had left. When he found nothing, he knocked on Benedikt's bedroom, which prompted no answer. Slightly uneasy at this point, Marshall made up his mind and slowly, as quietly as he could, opened the door peering inside. There, in his bed, lay Benedikt, clearly fast asleep. The slightest discomfort twinged in the back of Marshall's mind. Benedikt rarely slept in, rising with the sun most days.

In fact, the two had easily settled into a rhythm, with Benedikt waking up early and occasionally making breakfast for himself and Marshall, who woke when he could sleep no longer. Though he would never admit it, those days when he woke up to Ben's food were some of Marshall's favorite days, when, if he closed his eyes, he could pretend they were dating. Which, of course, was just a fantasy, as greatly as Marshall wanted it.

He shook his head, exiting his thought, and took in the sunlight bathing Benedikt in gold, his blind hair almost like strands of the precious metal it was often compared to. His skin was slightly paler than its usual rosiness, though Marshall chalked that up to having been asleep. He wasn't sure how long he had been staying at the figure on the bed, though it looked as if the sunlight streaming in had shifted infinitesimally. He refocused, and seeing as it was late enough, decided to bite the bullet and wake Benedikt up.

Marshall set his hand on Benedikt's shoulder and shook him gently. Benedikt made a slightly indignant noise at the sudden motion forcing him out of his slumber.

"Ben? Hey, sleepyhead, time to get up." Marshall murmured, slipping into the familiar tone he used with the blonde.

"Don't patronize me," came the slurred response, as even half asleep, Benedikt knew his lines.

"Rude. I came all this way to pull you out of dreamland, and this is the thanks I get?"Marshall may have been acting offended, but inside he was quite content. Hey, it wasn't his fault Benedikt looked adorable right as he was waking up. It wasn't a sight the Korean boy was often granted, so forgive him if he was going to enjoy it. Sooner enough, though, Benedikt pulled away, stretching awake, and the warmth against Marshall's hand was gone.

It was then that he realized how warm Benedikt was. That's what you get for sleeping in the sun, I guess, he thought. He brushed the thought off and left the room so Benedikt could get dressed. A few minutes later, Benedikt stepped out of the room, looking slightly more rumpled than normal. Another thing Marshall would only get to see when he woke up before Benedikt, he supposed.

"Breakfast is ready!" Marshall spooned the slightly burnt meal into two bowls, placing them to inform the two chairs facing each other at the table.

"Thank you, Mars." Marshall couldn't help the slight thrill that shot through him at the words. And the smile, god, the smile. Marshall swore he melted a bit every time one of Ben's dazzling smiles were sent his way. They ate, chatting occasionally, though Benedikt seemed quieter, somehow.

"Lot on your mind?" Marshall inquired, both trying to start conversation and genuinely asking.

"Oh," Benedikt started, "Yeah, I guess." He pushed his bowl away, then seemed to think twice and picked it up, laying it near the sink, and walked into the bathroom they shared, the only one in the admittedly small apartment. Marshall just sat there, fishing his own bowl. A minute or so later, he stood up and laid his own bowl by the sink. When he happened to glance at Benedikt's bowl, it contained almost the same amount of food as it had when it had been given to him. If you didn't like my cooking, Ben, you could have just said something.

"Come wander the city with me today."

". . ."

"Come on, it's only fair after you left me with Roma yesterday." And didn't eat my food, but he left that out. Antagonizing Benedikt's wouldn't help his case.

"Fine. I will come with you." Though he didn't seem particularly pleased about the exciting day ahead, which was odd. Marshall knew Benedikt had fun and genuinely was happy when traipsing ain't the city, though it wasn't as though the blonde tried to hide that fact. "I am truly sorry for leaving you yesterday. I was simply. . . busy."

"Sure. Now come on." Busy. Sure. When Marshall had returned, Benedikt had been reading. Super busy, right. Marshall elected to ignore his friend's dodgy answer, and grabbed his hand, pulling him out the door of their apartment.

"Where do you want to go first?" Marshall figured since Benedikt had agreed to come with him, the Russian boy could choose where they went first. Unfortunately, Benedikt must have been feeling indecisive, since he responded with:

"I don't mind. Wherever you want to go is fine." Alright then, Marshall was happy to supply a destination from his mental list of places to bring Ben. He just had to choose a place that didn't seem too romantic, as this wasn't a date, wasn't a date, as Marshall's internal mantra repeated.

"Well, I was out running alone last week"-when Benedikt had actually been busy-"and I found a really nice place to just sit and watch the city. How about we head there; it's not too far." Not that he had been looking for it, but when he said 'sit and watch', Benedikt had relaxed slightly.

With an excited "Follow me!", Marshall was off, dashing in the direction of the abandoned building where there was a really nice view. He glanced back every now and then to make sure Benedikt was behind him. He did not want a repeat of the other day, and it was quite easy to lose people when dashing through the crowded streets of Shanghai.

Though most of the moments he spent with Benedikt were beautiful, Marshall had to admit that he felt happiest when he was running through the city with his friend, even if that was all they would ever be. After maybe ten minutes, Marshall noticed Benedikt slowing considerably every time he peered back at him. He slowed to a stop and turned to face his companion.

"Mars, why'd you stop?" Benedikt was the first to say something when he had caught up. Marshall just kind of gawked at him, trying to formulate a response.

"You- I- you were getting slower, and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"Oh," Benedikt flushed, evidently embarrassed that he had been caught not being able to keep up with Marshall's pace. "I'm. . . fine."

"You would tell me if you weren't, right? If you don't feel like running, you can say so. I won't be mad, if that's what you're worried about." Marshall almost facepalmed for not saying something like that sooner. He'd Benedikt come with him because he didn't want to make Marshall mad.

"Oh, Mars. That's very kind of you. But I'm not worried about making you mad. You should know that by now. Let's just keep going, alright? I want to see this spot you are so excited about." Though Marshall was still skeptical whether Benedikt was telling the truth or not, he acquiesced and began running again.

Only to stop again when Benedikt did, only a minute or so after starting up again. Even from a few feet in front of him, Marshall could hear Benedikt panting hard. He opened his mouth to ask if the other boy wanted to sit down for a bit, when Benedikt's legs began to shake. It took Marshall a few seconds to react, but when Benedikt's eyes began to roll back into his head, the Korean boy kept forward to catch his friend.

When he was able to steady the both of them and lay Benedikt down on his lap on the ground, he could feel the sheer heat radiating off the unconscious figure in his lap.

"Goddamnit, Ben, why didn't you tell me you were sick?" Everything began to come together; Benedikt leaving early, going to bed almost before it got dark, not eating anything, not waking up at his normal time, and his reluctance to run. He realized his heat from that morning had been a slight fever that had only gotten worse as the day progressed, and his pale complexion was a symptom of his illness.

Marshall just sat there, on the ground of the alley they were in. Luckily, Benedikt's ailing body had chosen a spot to collapse where there were no people around. Even when as sick as he currently was, Benedikt did not want to cause a scene. Marshall would have found it endearing if he wasn't currently cradling the boy, since the latter had fainted in his attempt to gaslight himself and everyone else into believing he was fine.

Benedikt began to stir, and Marshall was surprised that he was watching Benedikt awaken for the second time in one day. "Ben? How are you feeling?" Marshall asked as soon as Benedikt seemed aware enough to answer. The boy in question looked up at Marshall blearily, still evidently confused.

"What am I doing on the ground?" Well, he was actually in Marshall's lap, but it wasn't as if that was what was actually important.

"You fainted straight into my arms, Mr. 'I'm Fine'. Seriously, please tell me next time. I think I almost had an aneurysm." Benedikt had the grace to look ashamed, though he was obviously still quite out of it. "Hey, let's just get you home, alright, and we can talk about this later, yeah?". Benedikt just nodded, and then attempted to get up.

"Nope. Not by yourself. I'll help." Marshall wished he could say he was surprised at Benedikt's actions, but he wasn't. Benedikt had always been the type of person to try and do everything by himself, either unwilling or forgetting to ask for help, though Marshall tried to make sure Ben knew that he would always be able to ask Marshall for help.

"I'm-"

"If you say you're fine one more time, I will-"

"Okay, okay," Aw, man. Marshall had really wanted to finish that threat. I will throw you into the Huangpu, even if he would never make good on it. "I just. . . want to get home. I don't feel well." Oh. If Benedikt was admitting this, he must have felt like death warmed over. How he looked, Marshall supposed.

"Okay. Please just let me help you. I don't want you to make yourself sicker than you already are." Marshall looped his arm around Benedikt's torso, and when the other boy didn't protest, began to walk slowly in the opposite direction they had been running in before.

It took a while, as painstakingly slow as their pace was. It wasn't as if Marshall minded, of course. He would love heaven and earth if Benedikt needed it, though it wasn't as if he would ask for it. They eventually made it to their apartment. When they got inside, all it took was one small "Bed?" from Benedikt for Marshall's heart to break before helping the weak boy into his bedroom. There had been a few moments where Marshall was sure Benedikt was going to pass out again, and he would have to carry him back, but luckily Benedikt soldiered on.

The moment he was laying down, however, he began to slip away into sweet oblivion. When he was sure Benedikt was fully asleep, Marshall began carding a hand through his sweaty blond hair. He wished, not for the first time, that Benedikt would have just told him that he wasn't well. They could have avoided this whole affair, and Benedikt would have recovered faster.

Though he knew neither of them were fully out of the woods yet, he was relieved that he knew the extent of what was going on with Benedikt, and that said not was resting in his own bed now. Marshall laid down next to him, as the bed was quite large, and Benedikt took up not even half of it, and fell asleep next to the boy he loved, content to take care of him until the two of them could get back to safely racing through the streets again.

#fanfic #benmars #these violent delights #marshall seo #benedikt montagov #chloe gong #fainting #hurt/comfort

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re-x · 1 year ago

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OK. Never Have I Ever 401 and 402 spoilers below.

Ben had two “I’m sorry” moments during the first two episodes of season 4.

1. During the parking lot scene at the end of 401 (explanation here) Here is a muddled recording of it:

2. Near the end of 402 (explanation here), after Ben told Devi that Margot had asked him to stop speaking to her. Devi challenged him on it and implied it was unreasonable, and here’s Ben’s response:

I believe he said it with such sadness in his eyes, and you could hear the heartbreak in Ben’s voice.

So why am I sharing this with you? Because I wanted to demonstrate that there’s so much more to moving pictures as a storytelling medium than just the plot. The acting is what makes or break a story. And Jaren Lewison is just about as good a 21/22 years-old actor gets.

#ben gross #jaren lewison #never have i ever #4x01 #4x02 #nhie spoilers #maitreyi ramakrishnan #devi vishwakumar #jaren lewison is such a fucking good actor

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heavenforblog1111 · 6 months ago

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The Diary of Jane is one of my favourite rock songs and it is definitely one of the greatest songs ever produced in rock history. In this article, we will talk about the possible story and meaning behind the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWaB4PXCwFU MUSIC VIDEO The music video starts off with Ben Burnley staring at the grave of someone he loved. That someone turns out to be the girl lying on the bath tub. She probably drowned in the bath tub and died. In the video she wakes up and runs around the house. She realizes that there are no mirrors in any of the rooms. At last, she reaches a room where all the mirrors have been placed. When she looks in one of the mirror, she is not able to see her reflection signifying probably that she is a ghost. Later, Ben places a rose next to her photo on the diary. He closes the diary which is placed on her gravestone and walks away. Jane Bryan The name on the grave stone is Jane Bryan. Jane Bryan was an actress whose career lasted only for 4 years from 1936 -1940. Jane's role was played by Season 4 American Idol contestant Sarah Mather in the song's music video. I don't really know if Jane has any connection to any member of Breaking Benjamin considering she never acted in movies after 1940. Her name even appears at the end of the Angel's fall video again by Breaking Benjamin. I don't really know why the band decided to reference her twice in different videos. Also, she acted in a movie called 'We Are Not Alone' which is also the name of Breaking Benjamin's sophomore album. Story and Meaning Note: This is my opinion on what the song might be about. I could be right or wrong about it, but this is my explanation. Coming back to the meaning of the song, in my opinion the song is based on unrequited love. This is the first idea that one normally gets after reading the lyrics of the song. The girl that the guy loved had passed away. According to sources, the guy probably thought that the girl who he loved also loved him back. However, when he finds her diary he is curious to know more about what was written in it and see if she has written anything about him. To his astonishment, she doesn't mention him anywhere in the diary. To make matters worse, the diary probably mentioned all the guys she had affairs with apart from him. Hence, the statement ' As I burn another page, as I look the other way, I still try to find my place in The Diary of Jane '. So, he is pretty shocked at the realization that she didn't love him and had other guys on her mind instead. He places the rose on her diary and closes it maybe signifying that despite all of that he still wishes love for her after her death and decides to leave the place after that. Also, there was another source claiming what Benjamin Burnley said during an interview about what inspired the song. Well, I’ll tell you not necessarily what it’s about, but what inspired it because I think that helps explain how it feels for me. It all started because I was watching a lot of Forensic Files stuff where there were a bunch of unsolved mysteries. There was a Jane Doe that washed up on shore and she just got buried with no story. It was like a meaningless person. Nobody knew who she was to the point where whatever she did was all gone. So, Jane references Jane Doe but then making a story up for her because she had nothing. That’s what started it and then once I started writing, it turned into more than that. Our lives are important. Your life is important to you, my life is important to me. We know that somebody is going to remember what we’re all about. This person Jane was just gone because they were unidentified for so long and lived this entire life for nothing. Benjamin Burnley (according to a source, not sure if its true)

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judeswhore · 3 years ago

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Hey my lovely, can I request MM?

Reader thinks he’s cheating on her, being offish with her not his normal lovey dovey self but in reality he’s planning to propose? 💙

this is the first time someone’s requested a proposal and i’m shocked it took this long

not the plan - mason mount

Mason was avoiding you. Or at least that's how it seemed for the past week. He’d been getting up extra early to go to training, coming home later than usual at night and ignoring your calls during the day. If he did answer he was quick to brush you off, telling you he was too busy and had tactic meetings to get to.

He was being a lot less affectionate too, Mason was usually always touching you, kissing your head or shoulder, brushing his fingers through your hair or just reaching out to hold your hand. But you don’t actually remember the last time he’d held you just because. Usually when he got home, even if you were already asleep, he’d cuddle up behind you, content with just having you close, but the past few nights he’d slept facing away from you and had tossed and turned the whole time.

He’d even started being secretive with his phone, keeping it locked or taking it with him whenever he went to the toilet or kitchen. Whenever his phone rang with a call or beeped with a text he hastily excused himself and then would return looking all flustered and caught out. You’d even noticed the way he’d tilt his phone away from you if you happened to be sat together, brightness turned all the way down.

You didn’t want to think the worst, that he was slowly falling out of love with you, that he’d found someone else but your mind kept circling back to that. To the fact that the only logical explanation in your head for why he’s avoiding you so much is because he’s cheating. You’d never though that would be the case with Mason, you’d dated footballers in the past and you knew their reputation wasn’t always good, you’d been cheated on before but that was never what Mason was like.

He just wasn’t that person. But the more he pulled away the more you fixated on that idea that once again you’d been wrong. It had taken you a lot longer to figure it out this time, you’d been together for three years, you just didn’t understand how you could have been so wrong about him.

"So call him out on it." Ben was sitting on the opposite side of the booth in the coffee shop, croissant dangling between his finger tips. He'd pulled his baseball cap low over his eyes in an attempt to avoid the eyes of prying fans but he'd still been approached a few times over the past thirty minutes.

"And say what? Are you cheating on me because you haven't kissed me as much as usual? That sounds crazy, Chilly." You slumped in your seat, frown tugging at your lips because yeah you wanted to confront Mason, you didn't want to keep acting like everything was fine if he really was seeing someone else but you didn't want to sound like some over protective girlfriend if all he was doing was taking a little step back for personal space.

"(Y/N), you're worried about more than him just not kissing you. Look, we all know Mason, he's the most touchy-feely person ever, it doesn't matter who he's with. If you feel like he's not being as all over you as he usually is then ask him about it. Don't just sit back and torture yourself with the "what ifs", you did that with Josh and look how that turned out." You let out a sigh but you knew he was right.

You'd met Ben before you'd met Mason and he'd been there for you when you'd found out your ex had been sleeping with your then uni flat mate for weeks behind your back. You'd had your suspicions about them, they were always far too close whenever you went out with a group but you were just too afraid to confront either of them. That situation had ended with you finding them on the sofa in the flat and you'd had to spend the remaining two weeks of uni sleeping on your best friends floor. You weren't sure you could go through a repeat of that.

"Do you really think he would? Cheat on me, I mean?" Ben let out a sigh that matched your own, fingers tilting his cap back so you could properly see his eyes.

"From my point of view, and pretty much anyone else's who know you and Mason well enough can tell how completely in love with you he is. You're everything to him, (Y/N). You know we can't have one conversation with him somehow always bringing it back to you. It's always (Y/N) this, (Y/N) that, he's obsessed with you." You felt your cheeks turn pink at Ben's words and the thought of Mason always bragging about you to his friends but there was still that nagging feeling in your stomach. "But," Ben leant forward and your heart clenched. "I know he's my best friend but if he is cheating, I will punch him."

"I thought I was your best friend?"

"Exactly the reason why I'd punch him." He lightly flicked the end of your nose, grinning at the little glare you sent him. "For what it's worth, I really don't think that's what's happening but I do think you maybe need to talk. Find out what's really going on with him."

Mason was already home when you got in after your day with Ben and you found him in the kitchen, back to you as he leant over the kitchen counter. He had something in front of him, gaze glued to it and you're not sure he heard you come in because he startled at the sound of your voice.

"What are you doing?" Mason flinched slightly, body cringing as he tried to stuff whatever it was into the front pocket of his hoodie before turning to face you. His cheeks and the tips of his ears had gone pink and you can't stop the frown from climbing up your face at his reaction.

"What? Nothing, I thought you were with Ben."

"I was with Ben. But it's almost five and we usually make dinner together tonight." You dropped your phone down on the counter, eyes focusing on the lump in Mason's pocket, hoping that if you just stared a little harder you'd be able to see what it was.

"Dinner? I can't tonight." Those words had your heart plummeting and you had to dig your nails into the palms of your hands.

"Why not? We always cook together on Thursday's." You could practically see the wheels turning in his head before he stumbled over his lie.

"I know but.. I have to help Dec with some surprise for Lauren. I can grab something to eat from his place. We still have left over lasagna in the fridge from yesterday, you could heat that up." Before he'd even finished his sentence he was head toward the kitchen door, a barely there kiss being pressed against your cheek as he passed.

You let him get just passed the kitchen door before you spoke and your words had him stopping immediately, eyebrows drawing together in a frown as he turned back around.

"Are you cheating on me?" The look on Mason's face was one of complete shock, hands dropping from his pocket to his sides.

"What?"

"Just tell me, okay? If you are, have been, planning to, whatever, Mason just tell me." You met his gaze head on, determined to get it over with and not cry. At least not until he couldn't see you.

"Why on Earth would you ever think that? (Y/N), I'm not cheating on you, I've never thought about cheating on you and I never would." Mason took a step forward but you took one back, spine hitting the counter. "Why would you think I'm cheating?"

"Because you've been avoiding me! For the past week, Mason, all you've done is dodge my calls or claim you've got other things to do when we're home. You hide your phone and leave the room when someone calls you, does that not seem weird to you? When was the last time you kissed me properly? Or just held me in bed?" You could feel your throat starting to hurt, the backs of your eyes stinging and you tilted your head back to gaze up at the ceiling.

"(Y/N), I'm not cheating on you." You let your head drop again and Mason was standing directly in front of you, fingers reaching to grip your chin.

"Then what? Are you just bored of me now? Do you not love me anymore? Because if that's case you can't just keep stringing me along. What's happening with us?" Mason's fingers slid over your jaw, the softest of sighs pulling from the back of this throat.

"You really think I could ever stop loving you? You're it for me, (Y/N), there's never gonna be anyone else. You’re on my mind every second of the day, when I’m away from you all I can think about is how long it’ll be before I can see you again.” He was so close to you that you felt his nose brush over yours.

“Then what’s been happening? Did I do something that’s annoyed you? I know it probably sounds stupid but you’ve been off with me. You’re the most affectionate person I’ve ever met but these last few days…” You didn’t need to finish because Mason knew where it was heading.

“It’s not stupid, I have been distant it’s just…” He stepped back slightly, hand disappearing into his pocket. “God, it really wasn’t meant to go like this.”

“What are you on about?”

“I had a plan, it was going to be so romantic, I was gonna woo you and everything.” Mason wasn’t really talking to you, he had his gaze settled over your shoulder, still fidgeting with whatever was in his pocket. “But you’re gonna make me do it now aren’t you? It’s fine, it’s okay, we only really need the two of us, you can make it work, Mount, just wing it.”

You raised your eyebrows at your boyfriend’s nervous rambling, gaze sliding over his suddenly slightly pale face. “Mase?”

“You won’t be mad if I throw up right?”

“What?” Your heart suddenly stopped in your chest when Mason pulled a small white box from his pocket, flipping it open to show the most beautiful ring you’d ever seen. It was a small white gold band with a twisting of diamonds leading to a small opal gemstone in the centre, the gemstone you always tell Mason is your favourite. He was slow in dropping to one knee, soft eyes now settled on yours.

“I have been completely in love with you from the very first time you said hello to me. As soon as you’d said it I knew for certain that there’d never be anyone else, I’d never want anyone else, I knew there’d never be a single person who’d make me feel all giddy just by saying “hi”. You’re the first person I want to see when I wake up and the last before I go to sleep. I want to do everything with you, travel, have a family, I want you to be the only one at my games cheering for me. I want to let you stand on my feet while we brush our teeth because the tiles are too cold for you, forever. I don’t want to think about a future that you aren’t in, a future where you aren’t there to warm my socks in the dryer or shout at me for leaving my underwear on the floor. (Y/N), you’re the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want to grow old with you and let you tell our grandkids all about those times we got sick because we thought it would be romantic to kiss in the rain.” You watched Mason’s throat bob on a swallow, gaze dropping to the ring before meeting yours again, eyes hesitant. “Will you marry me?”

It sounded stupid but it felt as though everything else in the world had stopped and there was only Mason, knelt on your kitchen floor, hair floppy and falling on to his forehead, teeth biting into the inside of his cheek. You suddenly felt ridiculous for ever doubting his love for you, this incredible man who always wrapped you in his coat of you were cold, always gave you the last piece of chocolate, always made sure your feelings and health came before his. Mason had never once in your relationship made you feel like you didn’t want to spend forever with him.

“(Y/N)?” You didn’t realise you’d just been staring at him, no answer passing your lips and the soft but hesitant way he said your name jump started your heart and then you were nodding, grin brightening up your face.

“Yes! A thousand times, yes, Mase.” You we’re suddenly being lifted off your feet and spun around the kitchen, your hands wrapped tightly around Mason’s neck as he laughed. When he finally put you back on your feet, you kissed him, his face held between your hands, trying hard to fight your smile so you could do it properly.

“I love you, so much.” He mumbled, fingers brushing over your cheek to wipe away the tears you hadn’t realised had spilt over. He held the little white box up, gently prying the ring from the velvet and then sliding it down on to your finger, your heart beating wildly against your rib cage. You noticed the small numbers engraved on the side and a confused frown fell on to your lips when you didn’t recognise them.

Mason caught your gaze and his ears went pink, thumb brushing over the little numbers.

“It’s the first time you told me you loved me. It was after a game, the first time you’d come to meet me in front of everyone and you told me how proud you were of me and that you loved me.” His eyes met yours and you felt the tears start to fall again, love filling your heart so completely that you thought it might burst.

“You remembered the exact date?”

“I remember everything with you. This is why I’ve been so distracted and distant. I worked with someone on making the ring and he kept calling me to see how I liked it and I didn’t want you to know. And I was out late because I was trying to find the perfect place to ask you and I was working on my proposal with Dec and I just wanted everything to go perfect.” Mason slid his hands over your jaw, tilting your head back slightly to graze a kiss over your lips. “I’m sorry that I made you worry, that I made you think there’d ever be anyone I wanted who wasn’t you. I’ll always only want you.”

You lips tilted into a teasing grin, any doubts you’d had about how Mason felt about you gone with that incredible speech. “So was that the proposal speech you had planned?”

“God no. It was going to be a lot more romantic.” You brushed your fingers through his hair, the light bouncing off the ring you knew you’d never tire of looking at.

“I thought that was pretty romantic. It was perfect, Mason.”

“Yeah? I could probably do it again, add in a few more compliments.” You shook your head with a laugh, pressing another kiss against his lips.

“I don’t think anything could top this one. I love you.” Mason hummed, hands drawing you in closer.

“I love you, future Mrs Mount.”

#england nt #chelsea fc #football #football imagine #money mase #mason mount #mason mount fluff #mason mount fanfic #mason mount one shot #mason mount fic #mason mount blurbs #mason mount blurb #mason mount imagines #mason mount imagine #mason mount x reader

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elizapreg · 2 years ago

Text

Tale of Alora- Chapter 14: The Illusion of Choice

As he finished telling their story, Ben looked over at Beth. He was a bit shocked at how little she’d spoken up during his lengthy explanation, given how forward she usually was. But the innkeeper just stood there holding her chin in thought. He’d gone on for longer than he’d thought he could, with Nelia making corrections to his tale as necessary. “Well? Do you think that will get people to sympathize with us?” Nelia asked, looking up over her belly at Beth from her position of restraint. Beth ran a hand through her wild hair, exhaling loudly as she leaned against the jailbars. “Well, to be totally frank it sounds like something an amatuer author would write just to explain some outlandish situation…” She said, “But assuming people believe it, it definitely paints you guys as friends rather than foe.” Ben nodded. “That's the best we can hope for.” Beth shook her head a bit. “One concern though. If Nelia truly is some important former prisoner of the Demon hierarchy, isn’t her staying here the exact threat the people are worried about? Sure, she’s not an enemy, but you’ve already had an encounter with a hunter, who’s to say more demons aren’t hunting her down?” Standing stunned, Ben turned back to Nelia. “It's been weeks since we encountered the hunter. They had to have lost our trail, right? We’ve kept Nelia well hidden until now.” Beth cut in, louder now. “You know how powerful her people are! You think there’s not some spell that could locate her? How did the hunter find you to begin with?!? Are you seriously telling me you guys walked in here without even thi-” “CUT US SOME SLACK!!” Nelia suddenly shouted, catching the others off guard. “It should be impossible for demons to stay in this realm for long, and Ben just wanted to give Alora and me a safe place to be for a while! He’s…kinda had to provide for two pregnant gals so I don’t blame him for taking what he can get. Me though? I’ve had a long time alone in that room to worry about what might happen next. I still don’t even know how that hunter got into this world, and I don’t know if they can do it again. And then there’s all the other weird stuff about this situation. Whatever they did to me in that cell, it changed things about me beyond just this belly. I didn’t notice until we arrived here to be fair, but my eyes! Don’t you guys know anything about Demons?” Beth and Ben looked at eachother confused. “Your eyes?” Ben asked. “What are you talking about? You’ve had green eyes since we met.” “EXACTLY! I didn’t realize the change until seeing myself in the mirror on our way here, but all demons, everyone I’ve ever seen, have red eyes. I did too, before being taken. So whatever they did to me has caused this change. I don’t know how to fully explain it, I’m no expert in the magic arts, but ever since escaping, I’ve felt different. I became more sure of it after we encountered the hunter. I’m disconnected from the magic that connects the demons together. Reije… the hunter? He’s one of the best they have. Yet he seemed unprepared for when he ambushed us. Almost like he found us by accident and had to act-maybe the same thing happened to him when he came to this realm.” Ben thought back to that day, “Yeah, I mean, with how strong he was, I still don’t get how we got away, or why he hasn’t found us again.” Nelia looked down at her belly. “I don’t know what my role in their plan truly is, but I do know it has something to do with creating some sort of ‘super demon.’ I don’t think they would be taking their time to get me back without reason.” Beth sighed again, running her hand through her hair. “Maybe don’t say anything about a super demon in your defense speech,” she said. Then she suddenly gave the motion to be quiet as the door to the cell block opened and the mayor walked in with Captain Mac. Beth turned to them. “Come on you two, be reasonable, you know Ben, he wouldn’t bring doom to our doorstep. This demon has even lived in my inn for weeks and hasn’t done a single thing out of line. She’s harmless.” The Mayor seemed weighed down, shaking his head slowly. “I’m sorry Beth, that’s not for me alone to decide. I’m no king, I serve the will of the people. And they demand a trial.”

“They demand a bloodbath, morelike,” Beth grumbled and crossed her arms. “I thought she was supposed to be the demon here.” Captain Mac opened the cell, walking in and placing a collar around Nelia’s neck, similar to the ones on her handcuffs, before releasing her other restraints. He reached out a hand to the demon to help her to her feet, looking over at Ben. “Give me a hand, that collar will sap most of her strength, so we’ll need to help her walk to the platform.” Ben nodded, pulling Nelia’s arm over his shoulders to help her to her feet. As she stood, her knees buckled as Ben and Mac held her up. “Whhaa.. Woah.. Sorry. This… is making me…” “Tired, yes, it's just to keep you from making a run for it or fighting back. And should put the people at ease.” The mayor interjected. “Our legends and history have a strong hold in their minds. As far as they know you can breathe fire.” Nelia chuckled nervously hearing that. “That’d be nice. It's so damn cold up here.”

Exiting the prison into the blinding morning light, Nelia squinted, even a few blocks away, she could already hear the mob at the city center, chanting and rambling. Trudging her way towards the noise, her groggy mind wondered ‘Is this the end for us, little one? I hope Alora is safe… but she’d probably be on the mob's side after last night…’ Ben pulled her up higher on his shoulder, looking over into her eyes. “I know now's not the best time. But you really do have pretty eyes. I just hope they are as special as you think. Could be our best chance.” Reaching the mob, it seemed like the whole town was there. The various walks of life seemingly arguing among themselves in a mass at the foot of a large wooden platform with a podium and seats on each side. Nelia wiggled her nose, thinking this looked more like a festival than a trial. She was a bit relieved however, as she expected a noose, or a large hooded man with an ax. Ben and Mac carried the limp demon girl up onto the platform, placing her in a seat on the right of the podium, with Ben sitting next to her. “Try to stay calm ok?” Ben asked, grabbing Nelia’s hand in his “Do your best to… look non threatening?” Nelia looked over at him and chuckled. “I can barely stand, and look pregnant enough to pop. I think I got that covered.”

“Don’t open your mouth too much either,” Ben said, “apparently they think you can still breathe fire.” Beth came and joined them on the stand. “As much as I don’t understand, I’ll do what I can. I hope your story gets better with the second telling, Ben, or I doubt I’ll have many more visitors to my inn.” She joked, trying to break the tension. Walking up the other side of the stand, the Mayor came up, standing behind the podium. Behind him Jandyce took a seat, glaring over at Nelia with contempt. “Alright everyone. We are gathered here to witness the arguments for and against Nelia the Demon. For those unaware, she was found to have been smuggled into our city by Benres of the south forest villages, and Alora, the Elf maiden of Aalumond. For several weeks she has been kept secret in Beth’s Inn, though as far as I’m aware Beth was unaware of Nelia’s demonic heritage.” The Mayor turned to gesture at Jandyce. “My wife Jandyce Johnstock has come forward with charges of espionage and conspiracy against Benres, Alora and Nelia. Alora has not yet been arrested but we assure you once she is found she will be brought to be judged before you as her friends have. Due to the prosecution being obviously a person of great importance to me. I will not be the Judge of this case. I will refrain from input unless called upon, and as dictated by our city’s laws, the captain of the guard is the next in line to judge.”

Stepping back from the podium, and walking off the stand, Mayor Johnstock took a seat beside the crowd as Mac took his place behind the podium. “Let’s get this show on the road. Jandyce, you may present your case to the people.” Jandyce stood, pacing for a moment across the stand as she looked out across the crowd. “ A thousand years ago, our people were the greatest civilization in the land. Every race from the noble elves to the powerful giants sought to live among us and take part in our grandeur. Then, as we all know, came the Demon King and his hoards. They decimated the land, nearly wiping out the human race, and scattering us across the lands. It was only through the foolishness of their command, and the unity of those who remained that the demons were ever driven back. ” The old woman turned to point at Nelia, “And what do we have here? A demon sent not only to scout us out, not only to probe for our weakness, but to birth into our world the first wave of an invasion to wipe us from history.”

Ben nudged Beth in the elbow. “Hey, what’s that…thing that you’re supposed to say in a trial…when you think someone has said something wrong?”

“Are you thinking of…objecting?” Beth whispered. “That’s not-”

“Objection!” Ben shouted.

Jandyce raised an eyebrow at Ben, who had stood up so fast he’d nearly knocked his seat over.

“On what grounds, Benres?” Captain Mac asked.

“On the grounds that…” Ben pondered, “what she said isn’t true! Nelia’s not-”

“Overruled,” Captain Mac said, “the defense can give their testimony when it is their turn to speak. Please allow the prosecution to finish.” Facing the crowd once more she continued. “How are we to know that Benres isn’t the last survivor of the south? His people were wiped out by this demon's power. The mighty elves of Aalumond may not have fallen so easily, but there have been rumors that the daughter of one of their highest citizens vanished almost a year and a half ago. And in comes an elf girl bearing the tell tale gown of their culture. Alora, the fallen elf. Beguiled by this temptress and carrying a child of ruin.”

“No that’s wro-” Nelia started to shout, only to find Beth’s hand over her mouth.

Jandyce shook her head, looking up at the sky for a moment. “I spent much time with Alora over the last few weeks. She is truly a wonderful spirit and I’d been filled with such joy at the thought of her motherhood.” Looking down again, she got louder. “Only for that joy to be stolen away as I realized it was only a front- physiological warfare by the demons to hide the truth!” Pointing back at Nelia, Jandyce calls out “This threat to our civilization cannot be tolerated! I call all those to make the tough choice with me. SLAY THE DEMON!!” “YOU’RE DELUSIONAL JANDYCE!!” Shouted a loud, familiar voice from behind the crowd. Jumping to his feet, Ben looked out over the crowd, his heart soaring with hope and relief when he saw the purple hair of Alora, standing in the street with her hands on her hips, panting after that sonic blast. Her face red, Jandyce shouted to the guards “Seize her! She cannot be allowed to escape!” Alora’s determined facade quickly faded as she realized she’s as much of a target as Nelia…and the whole town was just informed she was carrying a child of ruin. “GET OUT OF HERE!! RUN ALORA!” Ben shouted out before Jandyce slapped him across the face. Looking around in a panic, Alora saw the crowd boiling as the soldiers made their way towards her. She felt her chest tightening, her belly feeling heavier than ever as she tried to formulate a plan. She turned to run before stopping herself, her mind racing. “No… NO! I can’t run! Think of Aluma… think of Ben.. think of Nelia! They all need me, I have to fight. No more running, no more fear. I’m in control of what happens!” Turning back to face the swarm approaching her, Alora felt a surge within her she hadn’t had to feel in weeks. Her hands began to glow as she tapped into her magical reserves of power. “Damn the consequences, THIS STOPS NOW!” The elf shouted, lifting her luminous hands as a light purple mist surges out from them, engulfing everything in a bright purple glow. As the light dissipated, everyone stood still, before they slowly began to fall to their knees one after another, some managing to stay conscious, others dropping out cold. Walking forward triumphantly, her glowing hands clenched in fists, Alora felt the searing pain of her belly contracting, the huge outpouring of magic taking its usual toll, yet she paused only for a moment to shake her head before she kept on walking, unphased by the pain, her eyes set on her friends. She pushed past the weakened guards with ease, looking up at the stand, Ben was out cold, Nelia seemed just as she did before, and Beth seemed to have taken it pretty well, remaining awake. Alora stomped up the stairs, but as she reached the top, Jandyce stood between the elf and the demon. The once helpful old woman scowled at the elf.

“You won’t get away with this,” She said, falling to her knees. “After all I’ve done for you…welcoming you with open arms, preparing you for the birth of your child…and it turns out you’ve thrown in your lot with her…a demon!” Alora reached out, grabbing Jandyce and looking at her at eye level. “You stupid bitch. ‘After all you’ve done for me?’ Abducted me into your ‘weird moms club’? Treated me like nothing more than a charity case all so you could feel high and mighty? I never asked for your stupid help! You never once asked me what my story was…about me! About what I wanted! Well I’m not just some demure little mommy elf! My power, and my friends are only your enemy if you MAKE us your enemy. If you truly want to avoid the dire fate you think we bring, you’ll listen and you’ll listen good. We are the best shot you have against what's coming to this world.” Alora pointed sternly at Nelia. “She has been through more trauma than you could possibly understand! And you have the nerve to treat her as a foe despite all she’s risked to STOP her people!?! Yeah, you really care about mothers-to-be, huh? When the one who needed help the most had to-” Alora paused, noticing Jandyce’s intense glare focused on her hands. They were no longer glowing with the purple light of her magic. She looked back at the mob. They were not stirring. Everyone was still on the ground. Even stranger, the very color of the sky had changed, as if a cover of clouds had rolled in when she wasn’t looking. A chill ran down Alora’s spine and she blinked, trying to shake the feeling that she was looking out at a street lined with corpses. No, they were all just sleeping. That’s all she could do. They were all just passed out.

All except for one.

Standing in the same spot where Alora had released her magic, stood a white haired woman, her back toward the crowd. She was dressed in a long robe, in no color a commoner could wear. Thin black smoke seemed to pour out from under it. Even from this distance, Alora could see the striking, dark horns piercing the air above the woman’s head. Quickly turning to Nelia, Alora shouted, “Who… WHO IS THAT?!?” Nelia was paler than Alora had ever seen her, her voice shaky she replied. “It… It can’t be, she can’t leave our realm…. It's… it's the Queen.”

“Queen?” Jandyce huffed. “There was no Queen in legend. Don’t you know your own dark history?” “Ah so even a traitor such as yourself remembers me. Flattering to know that even one such as you will always remember how to address me properly.” The Demon Queen said, her voice steady and conversational, yet loud enough that she could be heard clearly even from down the street. She slowly turned around, revealing her sharp face and the ornate patterns on the front of her robe.

“My wonderful child…we were so worried about you. I was beginning to lose hope we’d ever find you again. If your little elf friend hadn’t just set off the magical equivalent of a signal fire, who knows how long it would have taken,” She said, winking her red eye before vanishing, appearing at the foot of the podium in a puff of red smoke. Alora primed herself to fight, only for a sharp pain to shoot up her back, knocking her to her knees as she clutched her bump in pain, everything inside it cramming against her spine in an unbearably uncomfortable unease. Nelia tried to stand, only for the collar to make her fall back into the chair. The only one still standing, Beth, moved between the two pregnant girls and the new threat. The tall demon smirked at the display. “My oh my, what such short lives will do to a human! It should have been passed down that you drop to your knees before a queen. Yet, the traitor is right. I’m still in the demon realm, this is just a projection of my consciousness.” She explained, moving her hand right through Beth's chest. “See? No physical form here, so I have no choice to let your act of insolence slide.” Laughing, the Queen peered at Alora and Nelia over the innkeeper's shoulder. “But even if I'm not there now, I will be soon enough.”

Nelia scowled at the Queen, “We’ll be long gone before you get here then.” The Queen smiled, “That would be a problem, which is why I’ve appeared before you today. It seems the people of this village were wise enough to wrap you up nice and safe and sound for me. I’m here to ask that they simply keep you that way. If you are not there by the time my forces are able to enter the realm, then this proud woman,” she looked over to Jandyce, “will be made to watch as history repeats itself on her watch.”

The queen’s brow furrowed intensely, lines appearing all over her face. “You’ll face the same fate if any harm should come to my sweet, sweet angel. If you don’t value your lives at all, then let her go free, by all means. Every single one of my troops have heard legends about how sweet the blood of humans is.” Jandyce lies barely conscious on the stand, scowling right back at the Queen but giving no answer. The Queen turned back to Nelia, but her eyes never left the round mound under her overalls. Nelia found the strength to squirm in her seat, trying by any means necessary to avoid the hand that was now coming for her. Even though she never felt the burning touch of the Queen, she saw that hand press against her belly, and the life inside began to throw a fit. “Wait for me, my precious. Soon enough I will feel you in my arms.” She whispers to Nelia’s belly. Her face came closer to the bump, and this time, Nelia could feel a burning where the Queen’s lips would have connected. Just as Nelia began to cry out, the Queen vanished into smoke and the skies slowly began to lighten, leaving Alora staring at the pile of unconscious citizens now awakening in confusion.

Nelia struggled to her feet, kneeling down next to Alora and hugging her tight, the two girls' bellies pressing against each other, both of them starting to calm down for the first time. Tears running down Nelia’s cheeks, she sobbed “You came back… You came back…”

Looking over the confusion of the town square, the unconscious mayor and his shaken wife, then up at Ben as he snored in his seat, Alora hugged Nelia back. “Of course I did… But at what cost…”

#pregocs #taleofalora

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traincat · 3 years ago

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I’ve been trying to piece together a few things from your Twitter and Tumblr posts alike and still can’t make heads or tales of things, so would you mind helping out a FF & spideytorch noob? 1) what is currently happening with Johnny in the comics? (I’ve fallen head over heels for this guy, largely all your doing) 2) when’s the last time he and Peter have interacted, canon wise? (And do you think upcoming interactions are likely?) 3) your thoughts on if they’ll have him come out in the near future? (has that ‘biggest change to the fantastic four’ teaser come to pass yet?) Love all your content, thank you!

I'd say no problem but then I started thinking about this current run again and got a headache. But yes, I can do that to save you from reading it, because it is very largely not good.

So I don't think it's unfair to just flat out say the current Fantastic Four run is not very good, largely due to writer Dan Slott's efforts. Slott was previously on Amazing Spider-Man for 10 years, to mixed opinions, but a large portion of Spider-Man fandom, myself included, blames him near singlehandedly for the decline in quality of Spider-Man books over those ten years. I will say, in the interest of fairness, that Slott as a writer has an incredible fondness for the Spider-Man/Human Torch relationship, and that a lot of the recent teamups and interactions between them have been written or co-written by him. So it's all not all negative here. But in general, I personally find Slott's more recent comics (the last seven-ish years especially) to be badly plotted out, messily characterized disasters that feature characters written with all the emotion of a cardboard cutout. That's me putting it nicely.

To explain this fully, you have to understand the position Fantastic Four comics were in from the years 2015 through 2018, both in the fictional 616 universe and in the real publishing world. Following the 2015 Secret Wars event (great if you want some Johnny angst in the background of your plot), the Fantastic Four were disbanded -- Reed, Sue, and their many biological and found family children were presumed dead but in reality were remaking the multiverse, unable, for a reason that was never clearly defined, to reach home. Ben and Johnny were left on Earth. They had an unspecified falling out, likely due to Reed and Sue's absence, and went their separate ways -- Ben joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and went to space. Johnny was featured on both Inhumans and Avengers books. What's notable about this period is that it's the first time since 1961 that there was no Fantastic Four book being published by Marvel. Now the real world reason behind this is both complicated and extremely petty: Marvel really wanted the Fantastic Four film rights. Marvel denied this explanation at the time, stating that the reason was sales motivated, but it was a thoroughly flimsy excuse and Jonathan Hickman, writer of 2015's Secret Wars and overseer of the current X-Men plot, gave an interview saying the decision was film rights motivated. This decision kept the Fantastic Four books off the shelves for three years, up until the Disney-Fox merger, which secured the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights for Disney's Marvel Studios. Marvel then announced that the Fantastic Four book would be returning. So that's a little bit of background as to the precarious place the Fantastic Four currently occupy in the Marvel universe -- it's worth noting that this year is their 60th anniversary, and Marvel has done very little for it. Compare this to the X-Men, whose film rights Marvel also obtained during the Disney-Fox merger, and whose books are currently dominating the publishing lineup. The Fantastic Four definitely occupy an unpopular position, one Marvel themselves is at least partially responsible for forcing them into.

But to move back into the actual content of the book -- the readjustment period Slott wrote reintroducing the Fantastic Four into the Marvel universe can be described as clumsy, at best. It's never fully explained why Reed, Sue, and the kids couldn't return to Earth, something that was explored in Chip Zdarsky's 2017 Marvel Two-in-One, which featured Ben, Johnny, and Doom on a multiversal roadtrip to try and find their family and which I on the whole recommend, despite it having an awkward ending due to being cut short by Slott's announced Fantastic Four main title.

(Marvel Two-in-One 2017 #4)

Instead, the Fantastic Four return to a Marvel universe a little different than how they left it, with the Baxter Building -- formerly the offices of Parker Industries, the company Doc Ock started in Peter's body during Superior Spider-Man that Peter inherited after his defeat and then lost spectacularly when he trashed his own company to fight nazis (good for him) -- occupied by a different fantastic foursome in a plot that goes nowhere and does nothing. This is somewhat emblematic of the early days of Slott's run -- he introduces ideas that fail to go anywhere, including Johnny's rekindled relationship with his other best friend and former college roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot, who he was seen being very cuddly with in the early issues.

(FF 2018 #1) A small group of Fantastic Four fans have argued for a while that if Marvel was to have Johnny come out, a relationship with Wyatt would feel very natural -- they're already close, with Wyatt being an important Fantastic Four supporting character since the '60s. I have some further analysis here on the conspiracy theory that Johnny and Wyatt were supposed to be in relationship at the beginning of this run but that that plot was, for whatever reason, nixed. I don't know that I entirely believe this theory, for the record -- but I do think the pieces line up remarkably well.

Anyway, that didn't/hasn't yet happened, obviously. Slott instead for the most part put Johnny on the back burner for the beginning of his run, up until the Spyre arc, which I have reason to believe is the main story he pitched that he credits with securing him the Fantastic Four title. The Spyre arc suggests that the Fantastic Four's failed space exploration during which they got their powers wasn't just to beat the commies to the moon, as Lee and Kirby envisioned (simpler days), but to reach a specific planet outside of our galaxy. When the team sets out to conquer this mission, they arrive at the planet, but are quickly captured. The planet, they find out, operates like a soulmate AU -- everyone has a fated person that they are matched to via a gold armband. Reed and Sue are soulmates (and Ben is confined to an underground subterranean with the other monsters, because this is a Fantastic Four comic) while it's discovered! Shocker! That Johnny is actually the soulmate of the one the planet's inhabitants, a winged woman named Sky, with the suggestion that this is both why Johnny's previous relationships have never worked and why he loves space exploration -- he was just trying to get to his Soulmate TM.

(FF 2018 #15) "What's going on here? Where are my clothes?" As you can see, this didn't start off super great, with Johnny being separated from his family, stripped naked, and put in Sky's bed with a soulmate armband slapped on him. Did I mention they're only removable if your soulmate takes it off for you? And that Sky has consistently refused despite Johnny asking her to? Yeah. It's bad. (I think it's important to note Johnny's long history as a victim of assault plays into this narrative, whether or not Slott is personally holding that in mind while writing, which I don't believe he is. cw in the linked post for discussions of sexual assault.) There's an additional issue here in that Slott has a history of problematic writing regarding women of color, featuring characters he's created to act as love interests being oversexualized, infantilized, villainized, or some mix of all three, with two examples of this phenomena being Cindy Moon and Lian Tang, both of whom he introduced in quick succession in Amazing Spider-Man. Slott certainly didn't have to write Sky as manipulative or controlling towards Johnny, but that's what he chose to do, and that factors into the bigger picture of unfortunate themes in his writing.

Sky returns to Earth with the Fantastic Four despite Johnny appearing unenthused about the idea and initially generally reluctant to interact with her. Apparently they went on a few dates after this and kind of made up. I don't know because I stopped reading for about ten issues in there but I feel confident I missed very little. It's hard to talk about the Sky plot without referencing Johnny's previous interactions with a character named Lyja, a Skrull whose relationship to Johnny I have a long breakdown of here. It's doubly hard, because Lyja actually showed back up in Fantastic Four during this plot. Lyja's modus operandi has remained consistent throughout almost all of her appearances, which I guess makes sense, because she literally has no storylines that do not involve her being obsessed with Johnny, and this recent story isn't any different: Lyja shows up, Lyja disguises herself as another woman in Johnny's life to get close to Johnny, Lyja gets caught and claims it was all fine because she did it for love. This time she disguised herself as Sky.

(FF 2018 #32) Not gonna lie, kind of proud of him for this one. That's one of my problems with Slott -- very occasionally, he busts out good moments, only to undermine them with the rest of his narrative.

In the same issue, Alicia Masters, the first woman Lyja impersonated in order to get close to Johnny, uses her supervillain stepfather's radioactive clay to control Lyja's mind and send her back to space, and I do think she utilized girl power when she did this. Johnny, left reeling after Lyja's latest attempts to trick him into a relationship, ends this issue by sleeping with Victorious, Dr. Doom's right hand woman.

I know she pegged him. I know it. This scene was a little controversial in Johnny fandom, because a lot of people viewed it as Johnny cheating on Sky and thought that that action was out of character for Johnny. I'm personally of a little different opinion, which is that regardless of whether or not you view Johnny and Sky in a committed enough relationship that Johnny's tryst would count as infidelity when all Johnny and Sky are bound by are magic plot soulmate bracelets, I think Lyja's involvement changes things significantly when it comes to Johnny's characterization. All of Johnny's "playboy" periods, if we can call them that, coincide directly with Lyja having been in and then left his life again, which I think makes a certain amount of sense -- it's Johnny trying to wrest control back after a situation where he had none. None of this is explicitly canon, I have to note, but sometimes in comics you have to do the work yourself. So I think this is a case of something being accidentally extremely in character that Slott accidentally stumbled into because he had these love triangles in mind, not because he put a lot of thought into it.

Speaking of love triangles! Johnny sleeping with Victorious gets more complicated when Dr. Doom announces his intent to marry Victorious -- not because he has any romantic interest in her (this engagement caused a lot of uproar in Fantastic Four because Victorious had been previously referred to as being like Doom's adopted daughter) but in order to install her as Latverian regent in his absence. I'm not going to lie, I love a political wedding. Victorious, for some reason, thinks Doom will be deeply upset that she slept with some closeted blond twink and the member of the Fantastic Four he views least as an enemy and more as an annoyance. Johnny, who Sky is currently not talking to because she "felt" him sleeping with Victorious through their magic plot soulmate bracelets, also feels nervous about Doom finding out about this, which I guess is slightly more valid. Anyway, for some completely ridiculous reason, Victorious decides the best time to tell Doom about this little indiscretion is when they're standing at the altar, which coincidentally the Fantastic Four are also standing at, because Doom asked Reed to be his best man in a not at all homoerotic little setup involving midnight swordfighting and Reed slipping Doom's emerald ring onto his own finger. Sorry to sidetrack into DoomReed territory here but it's just like. It's just a lot.

(FF 2018 #33) Also, Ben walked the bride down the aisle. :,) Look at his gigantic hand.

Anyway then Doom decides he's going to kill everyone in a completely reasonable and not at all overblown reaction to Johnny and Zora having what was most likely both disappointing for Zora and weepy for Johnny sex. And that brings us up to where Fantastic Four comics left us yesterday -- in answer to your "big change" question, that's most likely coming up in the next issue, so it hasn't come to pass yet.

Having gotten all that out of the way -- the last time Johnny and Peter interacted canon-wise was in the recent Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four, at the end of the Empyre event:

It was cute! Slott does right good interactions between them. This is possibly the Stockholm Syndrome talking. I don't know if more interactions are likely imminent -- the Empyre event was fairly recent. On the other hand, Slott does like writing interactions between them. So I'd give it about a 50/50 shot. I was skimming the letter page in the latest issue and someone wrote in asking if Peter was likely to appear in the pages of Fantastic Four again any time soon, so there is definitely a demand.

As for Johnny coming out -- I don't know. It's not a call I feel comfortable making at this moment, which I guess means I wouldn't bet money on it. I'd like to say yes, especially because I think Slott set up, whether that was his intention or more likely not, several good places in his run where Johnny could have come out. The beginning, when he's implied to be living with Wyatt again and where he and Wyatt are paralleled against Ben and Alicia. Ben's bachelor party, where Johnny laments not finding the right person -- specifically person and not woman -- and where Ben tells him to "be brave, Johnny Storm." And the soulmate planet plot, where I think could have had a very different and much better ending if Johnny had told Sky that she couldn't be his romantic soulmate, because he knows he wants to be with a man. But those are just places that I think would have made good opportunities for a coming out story. Instead, Johnny's been involved (dubiously) with three different women over the space of the last 10 issues, which is more heterosexuality at one time than he's been confronted with in the last 60 years. So my thoughts are still that it's going to happen eventually, but quite possibly not anytime soon.

Hope that helps! And that my incredibly long answer about what's currently going on with Johnny in comics sheds some light on things!

#johnny storm #traincat talks comics #*replies #long post/#wednesday spoilers

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majorsoapfan · 3 years ago

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The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Episode Titles Analysis

Now that the episode titles for season 3 have dropped, I’ve spent the last few days wondering and theorizing just what they could mean. Most of what I’ve gotten so far rests on symbolism, headcanons, potential theories and a lot of googling, but we all need some way of staying sane until season three drops, right?

Now this is just what I’ve come up with so far, I could be massively wrong in all of these, but these are just my predictions based on what I know of the characters and plot so far, previous ways of naming episodes and the very little I know of the comics.

Meet The Family

Now this one is very self-explanatory and we’ll most likely get to know our birdies very well in this episode. We’ll probably be seeing a flashback to the Sparrows as children fighting crime - maybe already being better at it than their Umbrella counterparts were when they first started.

I’m hoping that we’’ll see another montage of introducing the siblings as adults like we saw in season one with our Umbrellas - which had been so helpful to me at the time as I had started watching the show about a week before season two dropped. I had known absolutely nothing about the show when I started, I had only clicked on it because Robert Sheeran was in the card as Klaus with his pink umbrella and I thought he was pretty. I became a massive fan all because I had thought Robert was pretty and I was bored.

So yeah, I loved the initial introduction montage of the siblings as it helped me figure out who was who quickly without wasting time. And I think that doing something similar for the Sparrows will also help give a better and quicker insight into their personalities and how they work when we see them in episode one.

The World’s Biggest Ball of Twine

If you google ‘ball of twine’ it does mention that this is an archetype for an odd roadside attraction. Now if we’re going literal here, there are plenty of such attractions in the States, including one of just this in Texas, where our dysfunctional family had been last season. Maybe an indication of a road trip or even them fleeing the Sparrows and New York in order to regroup and figure out their next step without the birds circling in?

Ball of twine can also mean wrapping really strongly around something, especially as the material mentioned is usually very strong and durable. A ball of wool isn’t the episode title after all. Now this could mean maybe a family or an emotional issue that is massively at play here. Or more likely, the Umbrella’s and more specifically Five, are trying to figure out their exact steps and actions in the 60′s and just how badly they changed the past and future, both in the general sense of the world and for their own personal lives.

Ball of Twine can also mean wrapping around something tightly, so maybe a trap is being put in place or enacted. Either for the Umbrellas by the Sparrows, or the Umbrellas are trying to lure their counterparts into a trap to regain the upper hand.

Pocket Full of Lightning

Now the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this title is something like this being described or mentioned regarding a character and their abilities. Now the characters that come to mind immediately when referenced to this are either Vanya or Christopher. Or maybe it may have something to do with a team-up, more than likely the Sparrows and what can happen when they team-up and combine their powers.

But lightning also has a lot of symbolism in many different societies and periods and in all honesty, I feel like I have to mention this. Symbolism includes but isn’t limited to: illumination, destruction, punishment, inspiration and revelations. Lightning is also highly associated with the King of the Greek Gods Zeus. Maybe Marcus or Reginald?

Marcus is after all described as a natural leader after all, gaining perhaps a Zeus like image in the public eye?

Whereas Reginald on the other hand would definitely see himself as being as King and acts like it at times, using his children as his soldiers to advance his agendas. Zeus isn’t a very kind or forgiving God either so unlike Marcus maybe this has something to do with the Hargreeves patriarch?

Kugeblitz

Thank you Tumblr for having already given me the definition for this episode title when I had first found out the episode titles so I know that it means a black hole formed from radiation.

Luther and Five when I think of this title in terms of its definition a kugeblitz has me thinking of both space and science, as both topics are highly associated with these characters. Black holes have ties to space which Five who’s powers are teleportation and Luther who spent four years up in space both have ties to a title like this.

But of course we can’t forget the actual alien in the family Reginald Hargreeves. A black hole could be a reference as to what happened to his original planet, or maybe signalling a potential threat later on in the season. Will it cause another apocalypse or a warning for an alien invasion perhaps?

But it also might have links to a well known Umbrella Academy villain, Dr Terminal. I haven’t read the comics so I will admit to a lack of knowledge on this villain although I will Google him later. But as the season will be focusing on the Sparrow Academy and potentially any previous villains, Dr Terminal seems to be the most well known in the fandom and thus the most likely to make an appearance, whether in flashbacks or in person. A few people here seem convinced that this episode title will have something to do with him in some form.

Kindest Cut

When I think of this episode title, my first thought goes of course, to Diego. People can often get cut with knives and they are of course Diego’s preferred weapon of choice.

Maybe however they are referring to another powered sibling and what harm their abilities can cause. Top contenders after Diego of course, are Vanya whose power we know can cut after seeing what she did to Allison at the end of ‘The Day that Was’ in a moment of anger.

But if we go with the Sparrows then Alphonso is at the top of my list. His character sheet is mentioned as him bearing the scars from his years of crime-fighting. His power is assumed to be the voodoo from the comics and if he can transfer the injuries he obtains or inflicts on himself to others, this may be what this title means.

But, and this theory I think is the one that I’m most obsessed with right now, is that the episode title could be an adaptation of the saying ‘unkindest cut’. The definition for this is ‘a cruel or devastating injury or insult inflicted on you by a supposed friend’.

If we go by current timeline we’re in then my money is that Five may be joining the Sparrows either under duress or having worked out an agreement with Reginald that his siblings would be spared if he did. Only his family might not be aware of what Five has planned and agreed to and would only see the apparent betrayal of what they have all gone through together as a family. Of only seeing their brother join the team that probably want them dead.

But this betrayal may also be coming from the Sparrows and Sloane perhaps. Sloane is an inverse of Five in a sense in that while Five is driven by his desire to save his family, Sloane often feels like hers are holding her back from experiencing her dream of leaving. Maybe she betrays the Sparrows in some way by letting an opportunity to capture the Umbrellas flee or seeking them out as allies.

Marigold

According to what I can glean from the comics, marigold refers to the balls of light that eventually became the 43 super-powered children. So could we be getting an explanation as to how these supers came to be and why?

But like with episode three’s episode title, I can’t not mention the symbolism connected to this title. Marigolds often have conflicting symbolism today. In modern western society their bright colours often have them being associated with the sun and positive emotions and energy such as happiness, optimism and good luck. Not what I think the episode will be about.

But on the darker side of things, which is something that I do think has more ties into what to expect, is that they also refer to jealousy, grief, despair, mourning and cruelty. It is a flower associated with death and the Day of the Dead in Mexico and is said to offer protection from evil spirits. This connection with death is what I first thought of when I saw the episode title and the most obvious character associated with Death is none other than our ghost-boy Klaus Hargreeves.

Klaus as a character has a lot of ties to death naturally and I did see a post on here describing how Klaus will be entering the fourth stage of grief which is depression for both Ben and Dave during season three. This makes sense as they are now both gone in a way that not even his powers can reverse nor can he summon their spirits. Marigolds can often symbolize a despaired love and strong passion as well as well as pain and grief, so it could be a reference to Klaus’ depression over permanently losing both his closest brother and his love. But the main reason I do think that this episode does tie in heavily with Klaus is that it’s a mid season episode and so far that’s usually when Klaus undergoes most of his development. Maybe it’ll continue that way in season three.

Of course if Marigold will also represent a despaired love there are other options in the Umbrellas other than Klaus and Dave: Diego with both Eudora Patch (who is possibly still alive in this timeline) and Lila Pitts still bouncing around the timeline. Allison dealing with leaving her 60′s husband Raymond Chestnut and maybe trying to track down her ex Patrick to find out what happened to daughter Claire in this timeline and Vanya with love Sissy Cooper. Or maybe even Five and Dolores or possibly a love interest for Luther could be a reference to this title.

Explaining how the Umbrella and Sparrows came to be wouldn’t take the whole episode giving us time for some potential (doomed) love.

Auf Wierdershen

This is very likely to be a Klaus focused episode, even if Marigold isn’t.

The episode title is German for goodbye and Klaus is the character most associated with Germany. Klaus is the only character to have spoken German during the shows events so far and his name is of German origin (interestingly enough, all of the male Sparrows bar Ben, have their names tied to Germanic origin. Meanwhile, Fei’s name is of Chinese origin, Jayme has both Spanish and Hebrew roots, while Sloane is derived from an Irish surname Ó Sluaghhadáin). Not only that but it is considered fanon that Klaus was born in Germany just like Diego and Vanya’s roots are considered to be Mexico and Russia respectively.

Not only that but he literally has ‘goodbye’ tattooed on his hand.

‘Goodbye’ has many different interpretations for what this could mean especially if this is a Klaus centric episode like we are assuming. And like I mentionned above with Klaus going through the fourth stage of grief in season three, this might be the episode where he moves into the fifth and final stage: acceptance. Perhaps by having one last talk with Umbrella Ben in the afterlife or by trying to track down Dave after Vietnam and discovering he (seemingly - I do have hopes for Commission Dave later on) did live a long and happy life after the war.

Mending fences with Ben and both getting the chance to air their genuine grievances with one another and mend their relationship from the horrific state it was in at the end of season two might help Klaus find closure. Klaus and Ben both love each other but they crossed a lot of lines and hurt each other deeply with their behaviours last season and they deserved the chance to try and fix the issues as well as say a proper goodbye to one another. This could give Klaus the opportunity to say just that as well as moving into accepting Ben’s death once and for all.

And when it comes to Dave, maybe just knowing that Dave moved on can help Klaus move from depression into acceptance. He was more than fine with stopping Dave from enlisting in the army during season two even knowing that it would mean that Dave would never meet or fall in love with Klaus. He was willing to sacrifice his chance at love with Dave if it meant that Dave would survive. Perhaps if he knew that Dave had been happy and safe in his later life he could then move on and say goodbye?

And maybe by coming to terms with the departure of two of the biggest influences in his life, motivate Klaus to embrace a new outlook and control of his life and his powers?

Wedding At The End Of The World

This very clearly has ties to the very first episode of the show which is ‘We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals’. Both have marriage and death connected in their titles. The characters that we know have been married so far out of our Hargreeves family so far is Reginald and Allison.

Reginald was married on his home planet when his wife died. Not a lot is known about her other than she was the original owner of Vanya’s violin in the original timeline. Maybe we’ll get information on her and just why Reginald left his home planet?

The next character married so far is Allison who so far has been married twice already (maybe they’re going three for three this time?). And judging by the episode title in season one, that event was the last time the Umbrella Hargreeves (bar Five) were all together as a family until they arrived for Reginald’s funeral. Maybe there’s a link there.

Or maybe this is referencing a whole other wedding that may be happening during the events of season three? I wouldn’t be surprised if Five reunites with Delores and decides just to get married to make it official. To paraphrase Klaus, it’s probably one of the healthiest relationships that family ever had regarding love.

Six Bells

Now this tile had me stumped for a good bit and it will probably make more sense when season three does drop and we watch the episodes, but for now I can just theories on it.

Bells have often been associated with religious services, which may tie in with the last episode, but can also be rung for important events or in deference of important people.

But what is really getting me is that the title is six bells and there are six Umbrellas left so far. Could the bells be in reference to something regarding them, some sort of trap perhaps? Which will definitely tie in in some way to the seasons finale:

Oblivion

Now like episode one this one seems fairly self-explanatory. This seems like Hotel Oblivion is finally coming into play here, meaning they are probably switching the order of stories from the comics. But the question is: if it is Hotel Oblivion, did the Umbrella’s enter the Hotel/prison out of free will or were they trapped here by the Sparrows? Anything goes at this point considering that it’s the last episode of the season.

But when it comes to the Hotel there are so many possibilities as to what happens here:

- Are all of the Umbrella’s trapped inside or did one escape and their other cell mate is a Sparrow perhaps (Sloane maybe for trying to leave the Sparrow Academy?)

- How will this set up the cliff-hanger for season four? Will all or some of the Umbrella Hargreeves be trapped in the hotel once the season ends and that helps set up the tension for the next season. Or maybe a break out of prisoners just like in the comics occurs and the Umbrella's are forced to deal with it?

-Where will this leave our Sparrows at the season end, because I know that we’re going to get attached (I know I will). Will some of them come with us into season four? Maybe they are split into two teams as the season ends, each containing a mixture of both Umbrella’s and Sparrows?

Well that’s all I have, maybe I’m right about some of it, maybe I’m all wrong, just need to wait until season three to find out.

#the umbrella academy #tua #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #marcus hargreeves #fei hargreeves #alphonso hargreeves #sloane hargreeves #jayme hargreeves #christopher hargreeves #christopher the cube #reginald hargreeves #the sparrow academy

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hapalopus · 3 years ago

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Cross Your Heart Chapter 17 live blog/initial thoughts

@karkalicious769 I've been so excited for this chapter I went out and bought snacks to really make it a special reading experience. I can't believe we're finally gonna figure out what's going on!!!

I'm tired of tumblr's image limit, so instead of screenshots I'll just copy-paste whatever quotes I'm reacting to. And I'm on mobile, so I can't do line-breaks only paragraph breaks RIP

Anyways without further ado...

The image of Rook in Max's old 70s clothes is delightful and I need fanart stat! at least in my mind it's 70s, don't ruin this for me dfghgdd

"a tiny part of Rook was thrilled by his lack of respect today." THAT’S MY BOY!!! He's really grown as a character during this fic and it shines through in little things like this<3

"Even his eyes were the wrong shade of green." Yes yes we get it Blonko, you're madly in love with Ben and have memorized every detail of his face xD

"Rook certainly could think of worse ways to spend eternity. He was glad that he was sharing it with Ben, even if only one of them would get to remember."

"When Ben made no move to take the origami rose, Rook leaned forward a few inches more to tuck it behind his ear. Without his armor and gloves on, he could feel Ben's hair against his fur and had to resist the urge to stroke his jaw." When I tell you I had to stop myself from squeeing here. Oh man.

"Ben turned pink, eyes widening at the gesture as Rook's intentions sank in. His lips formed a silent "oh" HE HAD AN 'OH' MOMENT AAAAA!!! Good or bad, is there anything more satisfying than Oh Moments? no. no there is not

"Rook took a step back, even though he wanted to be closer." Excuse me miss?? How do you make the simple act of moving out of the way give me feels????

Paradox's dialogue is on point, I am 100% reading it in his voice!! And by that I don't mean the rest of the dialogue is not on point ofc, it's all great, sfjjhfdk

"though Rook doubted that the man actually had a doctorate" get his ass

""At first, I wasn't planning to speak to anyone at all," Paradox admitted. "I was simply going to end this timeline and move on. But you're close to Ben— closer than you should be, even— and I must confess to a certain level of, well… personal curiosity." For all the meta talk about how Rook isn't cosmically significant and how this timeloop has nothing to with him... it's oddly satisfying to know he's the reason the loop hasn't been ended yet. Even if the reason is less "your existence matters" and more "your existence is curious". Also, Paradox being able to just erase entire timelines is terrifying and I love him existing as some kind of eldritch being who views people as ants.

NO WATCH BEN CAMEO AAAA

"To demonstrate, Paradox snapped off the end of one branch. Everything that came before still existed, but there was nothing in the future, and there never would be again. Rook tried to imagine time just stopping and couldn't." This makes so much sense!! I feel silly for not catching on earlier, but then again it's been a while since I watched those episodes :3 But god, this is a really good explanation and suddenly the Eternity ending (or what I assume it revolves around) seems disturbingly likely o.o

""No, Ben can't be dead. He isn't supposed to die. Why—?"" THE CONTRACTION, I'M-

"Rook stared into Paradox's eyes and saw the endless march into infinity. He saw nothing at all." For some reason this really drives home how... idk, I keep repeating myself, but I really have no better word for it. Paradox is a terrifying eldritch creature. I imagine his eyes, matte and empty like shark eyes now. Dreadful.

"He was seconds away from launching himself forward and decking Paradox in the face." He should've :/

I always get a little bit of second hand embarassment when a character bares their soul like this, but it is a really good speech. However much I may dunk on Ben, Rook is right, he really is just a good person who does good things. And who can live up to something as simple as that?

And then the ending. If you hadn't been generous enough to share the date for tge next chapter I might drive myself mad with that "we need to talk" xD

Gah, I loved this chapter!!! So satisfying in so many ways :DDD

#cross your heart

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silyabeeodess · 3 years ago

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FusionFall Headcanons: Professor Paradox

Whether in FusionFall or the Ben 10 multiverse, Professor Paradox is just an much an enigma as ever. He can appear at any point in the timestream to lend a hand or give a cryptic warning, keeping much of his knowledge close to the vest. However, while it is understandable that many would be wary of him, this time-traveler is only looking to help.

Despite all of his abilities, Paradox does mention that there are “places he cannot go and things he cannot do.” For the sake of this point, I’ll bring up Omniverse. In the episode “Ben Again,” Paradox warns Eon against travelling to a place in time “with two time-travelers (himself and Eon) already there” since he could “cause a rupture” on an already stretched timeline and lose himself in time altogether. This would confirm that Paradox can meet past or alternative versions of himself and must be extremely careful as a result. Since Ben and Gwen have met their past/future selves, it seems to be a bigger issue for Paradox since he is an immortal time-traveler manipulating the events of history. If a separate Professor Paradox exists in FusionFall, the two versions would likely need to stay out of each other’s way and/or silently agree to keep to their own, respective multiverses.

Paradox doesn’t exactly get along with the Time Squad organization due to their goals not always aligning: Paradox travels through time with the hopes of improving the events of history while the Time Squad does so to ensure that history follows its correct course. He’s run into their officers on countless occasions, both allying with them and going against them. Ultimately, both sides want to positively effect the timestream, but they have separate ideas of how to do so. Paradox views members of the Time Squad as being short-sighted, with their general focus on a singular timeline as opposed to the wider multiverse. Time Squad officers, meanwhile, often see Paradox as a threat/criminal disrupting past events.

Because of this, just like how Celestialsapiens and Chronosapiens don’t like Paradox, he isn’t always welcome in FusionFall or similar universes by other time-travelers. He’s a force outside of their control/knowledge and no one knows what he’s going to change for his view of a better timeline. He doesn’t follow their sets of rules. Luckily for Paradox, he’s developed the wisdom to know how to best act in most situations, including sometimes discussing solutions with other time-travelers in roles like his own first in order to avoid conflict when possible.

I’d like to think that Paradox has messed up at times, in the very least when he first began his journey as a time-traveler, contributing to the hatred he gets from various beings.

As mentioned in other posts, there are quite a few people who’ve time-travelled in the world of FusionFall. (Samurai Jack’s backstory, the Time Squad, the PPG in “Speed Demon” and “Get Back Mojo”; Dexter in “Ego Trip,” “Deedeemensional”, and “Old Flame”; Numbuh 4 in “Operation F.U.T.U.R.E.”; Billy and Mandy in “Test of Time”; Gwen in “Time Heals”; and, of course, the research participants in Dexter’s experiments from the game itself.) Paradox has even helped clean up a couple of messes left behind during some of these incidents, and it kind of fascinates him just how many countering forces can exist in FusionFall without the timeline imploding...

As to why some of these cases have halted aging while others haven’t, it has to do with how their jumps through time occurred--whether or not a being was displaced outside of time like Paradox himself. For the sake of FusionFall’s combined storylines, I believe this may have been what resulted in Samurai Jack no longer aging given Aku’s explanation in Season 5 and how we see the greater effects of his time-travel abilities in the game “Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time.” The game’s alternate ending allows Jack to save Ashi from being erased from the timeline due to the future Aku’s death/entrapment in a timeless realm of his own creation. The state of this realm and its greater effects of events outside of it are what makes me think that Jack was possibly removed from time already during his initial jump via the magical portal. Like Jack though, most people don’t even know what’s happened to them or that such an incident occurred until they notice their unchanging state over the course of years. Paradox is aware of who fell out of time and who didn’t, but usually chooses not to interfere. For one thing, most cases are more similar to Jack’s than his own, where the fall out of time is “brief” to that individual. They have to cope with their ageless state, but don’t share Paradox’s understanding of spacetime. He wouldn’t mind helping them if an individual chose the path of an immortal time-traveler, in the very least to avoid trouble later down the road: He just knows that many won’t, instead finding other paths. As such, the most he does is keep an eye out for them in case they’re being threatened by other time-travelers and see how their involvement in certain events could change history.

It’s largely thanks to Paradox that the wormholes disappeared. Along with the return of Dexter’s research participants to the past, he was able to push certain events behind the scene that stabilized the timeline enough to fix them by the time the events of the Academy version occurred. Once the wormholes went away, most of everyone’s memories of them also faded aside from Paradox’s own. Most people just vaguely recall the messages sent through them, similar to how Gwen remembered what (future) Ben told her to do in “Ben Again,” but not the events surrounding that moment.

Some of the stones in the Crystalline Caverns are the same type of quartz crystals used for his initial spacetime experiment.

#fusionfall #headcanons #video games #this is by far one of the hardest characters i've made a post for #i've written stuff with time travel before but i tend to work linear #maybe playing around with fate and the grandfather paradox #multiverses can just get messy #and i really don't like it when they're used as an excuse for an author not to keep up with their own lore #thankfully ben 10 used it for the exact opposite and made it an integral part of the plot #aside from keeping AUs separate in a multiverse i fee like i don't know what i'm doing #i have no idea how much i'd play around with this character

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caprina-mints · 4 years ago

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Could we maybe get a scenario where EJ is in heat and doing the dirty with his s/o if that’s fine ówò

So This Became a Oneshot Because I accidentally made it a bit too Long! But I Hope everyone Enjoys This Though! : )

Type : SMUT

Word Count : 4208

E.J's HEAT

As Usual it's like any other Day at the Mansion being part of this bizarre family is really one heck of a ride. You never know what could happen like anything could happen. Anything.

You're fresh meat. You just joined the family two months ago and getting used to everyone and their behavior was a real pain in the ass.

But surprisingly you clicked well with Toby and E.J the two both have a unique and striking personality but the one that intrigued you the most was Jack.

He gives off a cold and mysterious vibe and you just can't help but to have your curious eyes gleaming at him. You two got along well and he told you a little bit of everything when it came to the human anatomy.

He's a bit over protective of you maybe it's because he sees you as a trusted friend? Well during those 2 months You and Him became a little Mushy together and a week earlier he has been acting extremely weird.

Like, He'd growl if another male creep came near you or even talked to you. He's around you all the time and the only place you're actually alone is your bedroom.

He kept tugging and nudging you just to get his attention and whenever you give him any form of physical touch he'd purr and lean onto you .

He's become very clingy and from the looks of it. It wasn't good judging from the looks the creeps were giving you.

They knew something You don't. Today you were sent on a Job which is unusual because you never get sent out alone but you are now.

Fortunately the Job was easier than expected so you went back to the mansion early.

You barely even touched the door and a Body was sent flying out knocking you along with it.

Groaning you sat back to see who it was and it was none other than the resident smile kid, Jeff.

" What the fuck? " You groaned standing up and brushing your clothes off of the remaining dirt.

" Y/n!... You're fucking back!? " Jeff sounded nervous and bothered seeing you and his expression and tone made it so obvious it offended you.

" Yeah? What's wrong with it? You think I'd never come back because of a tiny Job? " You threw a sharp glare his way and he didn't seem to give a reaction to your attempt on intimidating him .

" You gotta go. Now! ASAP! " Jeff tried shoving you back into the forest and you were dragged on the way.

" Hey! Let me go! What gives!? " You grumbled trying to pry his hand away from your wrist.

But your action was cut short when you heard a loud Yell which sounded more like an animalistic Growl come from inside the mansion.

" What the fuck? What's going on Jeff?! " You asked in panic and at the corner of your eye you could see Jeff Visibly Swallow.

It was definitely serious.

" Did you guys summon a Demon or something!? To get revenge on slenderman? " You jumped to your own assumptions because if he isn't giving you an answer you're going to make your own assumptions .

" No why on earth would we do that? Ok I would! But our Demon Boy is Going In Heat which means He's basically A Cageless Feral Beast on the Loose! " Jeff explained as he continued to drag you deeper into the forest but his pace had increasing by every passing second.

" What does it have to do with me!? " You yelled looking back at the doors of the mansion which were now pounding violently.

" Are you Dumb? Isn't it obvious? He's a demon. He's in heat. If Demons are in Heat they look for a Mate to Fuck and You're unfortunate enough to Have E.J see you as a potential Mate " Jeff explained and you were actually quite shocked by his statement... That's the most well executed Explanation you heard him say.

" Wow.. You sounded kinda uh... Less stupid when you said that " You commented which earned a groan of annoyance from the bleached Smile Child.

You two didn't manage to get far when the doors burst open and you could see. A Black figure heading your way at full speed and following behind that figure were Masky, hoodie, Toby, Ben , Helen and Even Puppeteer Seemed to be involved with the chase.

" Run! They couldn't Hold Him much Longer! " Ben yelled coming out from the mansion and Immediately You Bolted off with Jeff at Full speed never looking back.

You were actually terrified ... 1. if you stay You get Fucked By E.J who you have a hidden feeling for which is... Uh.. Kinda Great? But... 2. I heard Demons Eat their Partners After Sex and you definitely don't want to end up dead. It must be a fact because the one who told you about that was a demon... Jack himself.

" Mate! " You heard a rough growl from behind you his voice Echoing through the woods and when you looked back to take a peek boy were you scared shitless.

He was running on all fours his mask off and his teeth razor sharp, his claws extended and looked extra deadly and he has this domineering aura with him that made every cell of your body shout RUN. Behind him were the rest of the Boys Following Behind and even Puppeteer's strings couldn't hold him.

" Shit He's Catching up! " Jeff yelled and you couldn't help but give off a snarky comment.

" Ya Think!? " You snapped , Your feet were getting tired from running because you just got back from a fucking Mission. You didn't expect to be served a full course of Bullshit when you got back.

" Y/n! " Oh Lord the way he growled out your name made your knees weak and you stumbled on a rock but lucky for you Jeff wasn't being a prick and he pulled your weight back up while running .

" Don't Touch Her! " E.J's threatening Snarl was heard from behind and his Voice changed to something more vicious and ruthless.

" Jack! Stop Chasing Us! " You Cried out because your legs couldn't Take it Anymore, You were panting, sweaty and most of all Traumatized.

You once lived as a normal human who knows nothing about Demons and This World of killers. You were just dragged in unexpectedly and you can't take everything in one go! .

" Then Stop Fucking running from me! " You didn't expect him to reply and you felt relief wash over you.

" So you'll stop chasing us if we stop running? You'll Leave us alone? " You asked making sure you and him are on the same page.

You heard a loud audible growl before you heard his answer.

" Yes " It sounded forced judging by his tone and you were skeptical at first but Jeff had other plans and saw right through His.

" Don't listen to Him! I've lived with Him longer and obviously He's Lying! " Jeff stated and his words made the angry demon boy growl at Jeff, as if he was warning Him.

" Jeff. Don't Fucking Test Me! " He barked and that was enough to silence both of us.

" I can't take it anymore. Jeff even though you're an asshole you're gonna have to live on " You panted and Jeff Flashed you a questioning Look. You didn't bother to reply because it's time to face your fears.

You stopped on your tracks as you turned around Closing your eyes expecting the worst .

You felt sharp claws tug on your hips and your back was slammed on a nearby tree.

You heard growling , the type of growl a prey gives to a little bunny... Yeah it was that scary.

You forced your eyes to peek a look and you saw E.J's figure towering over yours baring his sharp teeth and his claws dug deeper on your flesh making you whimper.

" Why'd you run!? Especially with another man! You like others touching you Huh!?" He spat out angrily his face dangerously close to yours. He was using the same tone earlier and it made you weak.

" Why'd you chase us!? Of course it's a common instinct to run if you see something chasing you... Ready to eat you" You murmured the last part but E.J heard it loud and clear.

" I just wanted to be close to You But you ran away... You don't want to be with me that much? " He whimpered almost like a small dog who was abandoned by his owner.

He nuzzled his face on the crook of your neck your sweet smell intoxicating him but he knew he had to control himself.

His claws were no longer as sharp as they were before and you could hear him purring while rubbing himself on your form.

" Guilt Tripping me is a really old move E.J " You chuckled trying to pry him off you but he whined holding onto you even tighter.

Oh what the hell I'm going with it.

You placed your hand gently on his head petting his locks of brown hair, he started purring and leaned on your touch his hands going lower but the two of you were interrupted.

" Y/n! Get away from Him! " You heard the familiar voice of Jeff and this time Masky, hoodie and the rest were here.

You didn't get to react because Jack pulled you in his arms growling at the other males. Baring his teeth and almost hissing at them Jack took a few steps back with you.

" Stick your noses to your own fucking business! "

" Jack! She may be a potential mate but we can't have you fucking someone in the mansion just because of your heat. You may not even feel anything for-"

" She is MY mate, she is Mine to Keep and Mine to Love. I don't need your opinion to tell me what to Do! She'll be mine forever and I'll stay true to my words now fuck off! " Jack Snarled glaring at everyone else . The boys seemed to be communicating in a telepathic way because they just exchanged a few looks to one another before finally leaving.

" Y/n...last call if you don't want to just say so we'll help you" Hoodie called out and when you gave the slightest reaction to his question Jack Started whining and whimpering almost like he was physically hurt.

" Uh... I'll be Fine " You answered and Hoodie nodded walking off.

" So- Ah! " You squealed when you were thrown over his shoulder.

" Jack! Wait where are we going? " You asked when he started walking the opposite direction of where hoodie and the rest were heading.

".... I have a cottage around here whenever I'm having my heat... " He answered in a hushed tone .

You looked back at his features and you noticed how he kept realising puffs of breaths, His Face was oddly a different shade that usual and his hands were really fidgety.

" Jack if I'm heavy you can put me dow-"

" And let you run away again? you're not doing that you little Brat. Running away like that with another man. Oh you like teasing me don't you? " His tone was deep and taunting and you could feel his hand crawling its way up your ass.

You felt him squeeze your butt cheek making you gasp and groan when he smacked your ass.

" Jack stop! " You grumbled bit he didn't take that lightly.

" Oh? Resisting me too? " His hand trailed lower down to your pussy rubbing your pussy through the thin fabric of your leggings.

You bit back a moan closing your eyes , he didn't like it and started rubbing you at a rougher pace.

He didn't stop while maneuvering his way through the thick forest and by the time you two arrived at a small cottage you were soaked.

You survived that part by swallowing your voice and it seemed to have thrilled him even more taking it as a challenge.

Opening the door he closed it using his feet and immediately threw you on the couch were he towered over you glaring down at your form.

" Holding back your moans I see? You'll be screaming before you know it " He muttered his large hands gripping onto the fabric of your shirt and with ease he tore your shirt to shreds leaving you in your bra and the only piece of clothing you had now were your leggings.

Your heartbeat began to increase as you scooted away from him . He noticed that and grabbed your foot pulling you over in between his legs both of your legs spread and set on each of his sides and you could clearly feel his hardened cock from your position.

" Oops to Late to run away Now" He grinned using his claws to tear the fabric of your bra and before you knew it he attacked your lips in a hungry Kiss his hands groping your boobs, squeezing and pinching your nipples making you moan in the kiss.

He bit down on your lower lip just enough to tear the skin drawing out a small amount of blood before continuing down to your neck and collar bone his sharp teeth pricking your skin feeling him suck, kiss and nip your neck, your shoulder and collarbone.

You tried pushing him off but he had your hands under his grisly grip before licking and taking your cold buds in his warm mouth his tongue playing and swirling around your breast giving a subtle bite before sucking on your breast each Mounds having the same amount of attention and pleasure.

You arched your back moaning slowly giving into the pleasure he released your hands before shoving two of his fingers inside your mouth . You got the hint and welcomed his fingers inside your mouth sucking and coating his fingers with your saliva while continuing his unfinished worked with your breast.

After awhile he pulled his fingers away and faster than you could say 'I' your leggings along with your soaked panties were ripped and thrown to the floor gasping when the cold air hit your glistening pussy and the very same fingers you sucked on earlier came rubbing on your clit earning a loud shaky moan to tear away from your throat.

He looked so smug seeing how wet you were and he didn't waste another second and placed both of your legs on his shoulders his face dangerously close to your heated flower .

" J-jack Wa- Ahh~" You couldn't stop him when his long Black tongue came lapping on your juices.

His tongue draped over your pussy in a slow and agonizing way making you whine and glare up at him with heavy lidded eyes.

He chuckled at your needy state before his teeth came in contact with your inner thighs biting down on your flesh making you flinch and squeak.

He left a noticeable bite mark on your inner thighs before his teeth grazed on your other thigh doing the same thing while your slick covered pussy was needy for his attention.

" Jack please " You whined biting your bottom lip and hearing you plead for him to give you more aroused him further.

His tongue sneakily slid past your folds and into your squelching pussy , your moans shaky and desperate your hands flailed around to find something to hold on and subconsciously you held onto his brown messy locks raking your fingers through his hair as his tongue went in and out of your fleshy walls and your walls wet and needy welcomed him desperately sucking his tongue in.

You could feel him so deep inside of you it made you squirm and cry out his name in pleasure.

How long is his tongue!?.

Your hips bucked and rocked while he ate you out his tongue playing freely inside you but that was when another tongue rolled out of his mouth and another one.

" Oh shit Jack! " You screamed when he inserted another one while the shorter one lapped on your clit and teased your folds.

Your core lit up when both of his tongues came wiggling inside your walls only making your walls clench tightly around his tongues and when a bubbly and hot sensation built up inside you and was ready to release he pulled back his chin and mouth covered by your juices and slowly dropped down on his chest. He stared at you with a lascivious grin when you grumbles and whine for him to finish what he started.

" You were resisting and running away from me earlier... Look at you now... So wet and Needy for me... What do you want mate? " He purred as he pulled down his pants along with his boxers revealing his thick veiny cock which was bigger than you expected.

How's that supposed to fit?

As if he read your expression he gave you an answer.

" Oh it's gonna fit. I'll make sure you're taking every inch of me for making me go through all that trouble chasing you around like a mad Dog" He growled his figure growing bigger , his ears began to grow longer as well as his claws . Now you know that this is the demon Jack had been hiding.

" Answer me! " He spat at you his hand snaking to your throat slightly choking you and damn hell it sure did turn you on.

" Your Cock... Fuck me till I can't walk anymore " You choked out and that was enough for him to ram his whole length in not even going gentle at first. He didn't give you time to adjust because technically this isn't Jack anymore. He slid inside easily because of how wet you were to begin with .

" Oh- Shit Jack! " You couldn't even finish your sentence because you were choked up in your own moans.

He was going so fast, You felt his Knot and the very shape of his Cock mold inside your pussy. He hit the deepest part of you with every fast and rough thrust.

His speed was in human and it felt so good you almost forgot how to breathe being choked up and at the same time being a moaning mess from his roughness.

You heard his gruff groans and pants not even holding back a loud snarl he placed both of his hand right next to your head trying to steady himself as he pounded is inside you mercilessly and everytime he pumped himself in, your walls would gladly squeeze the life out of him.

An animalistic growl escaped his lips as he gritted his teeth, his claws digging and ripping into the cushion of the furniture and you heard something crack. Was it the couch or the wooden floor.

Tears began to pool at the corner of your eyes holding onto his neck for dear life your legs tightly wrapped around his torso , you couldn't keep up with how rough he is you began to feel dizzy.

Every time he snapped his back and rammed himself in he could reach the deepest depths he could .

Your toes curled arching your back while moaning in pleasure as you reached your high releasing your juices all over his cock. Your walls dangerously clenching his cock which led him to bite down on your shoulder finally releasing his thick seeds deep inside of you.

Panting while staying on that position he pulled himself out of your cum filled pussy that leaked out his seeds.

He sat back on the couch panting before his hand came down on his cock jerking himself while staring at you.

It didn't take him 5 seconds and he was already rock hard.

Oh wow.

He yanked you by your arm and you sunk down on your knees infront of him with his cock standing hard with all its glory.

This time he guided your hand on his shaft letting you stroke him.

Did he really think you're that innocent? Hah. Just watch.

At first your movements were shy and timid and you stuck your tongue out a little to give his tip a few kitten licks.

Looking down at you he saw such an adorable expression in your face. He didn't expect you to directly take his whole cock in your mouth in one go unexpectedly.

He was completely caught of guard his clawed hand pulled on your hair and a loud breathy moan was forced out of his throat staring at you with wide eyes.

" Fuck " He groaned out when you started bobbing your head up and down while occasionally pulling away with a pop before trailing your tongue from his base up to his tip.

The sight of you was really something he'd kill to see. Kneeling right there with an Innocent face while taking his cock like that. Shit he found it extremely hard to control himself around you.

It didn't help when you took him whole once again your hands going down to massage his balls while increasing your speed.

You were so pretty and so good with your tongue. He just had to have you right now and that's exactly what he did.

He stood up shoving your head down on the couch befire you felt him his cock enter you again .

Gasping in surprise you felt his clawed had dig into the skin of your hips and your pussy took him in so tight and so well it made the both of you moan in sync.

Shit how the fuck are you still this tight after he literally wrecked you earlier? .

He didn't much for awhile and it irritated you. You wanted him to fuck you already. You raised your hips but his grip on your flesh made it hard to do so.

" Fucking Move! " You groaned clutching onto the cushion of the couch.

" I'm fucking working on it you impatient little Mate" He pulled back only to push himself back in again.

It made you moan and shudder your knees shaking and your hands trembling as you held onto the seat of the couch when he started ramming himself in again and again .

Your pussy swallowing his cock deep inside you every time he did so. You sucked him inside your walls so well he was so close to releasing again.

You cried out and loud pants and mewls filled the room because you were still so fucking sensitive and you were still being fucked by him at such an animalistic way.

You felt his weight in your hips and he started going even faster. You were practically drooling while moaning out his name.

Your mind felt so mushy and you were slowly seeing stars.

You started moving your hips to meet his thrusts and every time you did he kept hitting that one spot that could make you scream .

You cursed under your breath and felt your walls hugging his cock even tighter. He looked down on you seeing you at such a vulnerable state under his mercy was really something. A growl rumbling at the back of his throat. You were squeezing onto his cock like you were ready to milk him dry.

His thrusts became shallow but soon he sped up almost immediately catching his breath while you made a lot more sinful sounds underneath him.

After a few more thrusts the two of you came at the same time your cum mixed with his and you could feel it leaking out of your hole because of how much was inside. Panting while trying to keep yourself from fainting he stayed at that position for awhile before leaning down to trail soft kisses on your bare back.

" ... after my heat you are obligated to Date me. If you say otherwise... I have my ways to get you around-"

" Oh my God Jack I love you too ok? No need to go that far " You grumbled and from you position you heard his chuckle and another kiss was planted on your back.

" I'm glad you do Y/n "

" Oh and... You're not gonna eat me right? " You asked cautiously and he was quiet for a few seconds before he burst out laughing.

" You seriously believed what I said? I was just Joking Little Mate "

" Tsk... Fuck you Jack "

" Oh I see that you're ready for another round"

By the Time you two were finally done you were cum soaked and sticky, the two of you hopped in the shower but it led to something more again.

#creepypasta #SMUT #Creepypasta smut #Creepypasta Oneshot #Eyeless Jack x Reader #Eyeless Jack Smut #Send in more asks Lovelies!💞#Heats #Eyeless Jack x s/o #Smutshot

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scoopsgf · 5 years ago

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can i get a good night’s sleep? can i PLEASE get a good night’s sleep?!

or: five times peter parker doesn’t sleep + the one time he does

my contribution to the @friendly-neighborhood-exchange! this is for @snarky-drabbles - I hope you enjoy it!

The first time is actually just the first in a while. Peter’s had problems sleeping ever since he was a little kid; it was just one issue of many that stacked up on top of each other, resulting in his personal belief that he must be the most difficult kid to look after on the planet.

Asthma meant hundreds of dollars spent on inhalers, covering what their shitty insurance didn’t. His poor eyesight was the same story and the bullies that used to break his glasses had never helped. But it wasn’t just physical crap, of course: he’s had anxiety for as long as he can remember.

There are cute side-effects like panic attacks and nausea, not to mention the constant sense of impending doom he’s been nursing since… well, birth, probably. When he was younger he’d worry about whether or not the taxi driver had enough gas in his car to get them where they needed to go, or maybe Ben would get shot at work (ironically enough, he’d never worried that Ben would get shot off-duty, and there is a teeny superstitious sliver of him that believes maybe if he had considered the possibility it never would have happened, like some kind of a reverse jinx or something).

One of the other cute things that comes along with it is insomnia.

So here he is, pacing in his kitchen at three in the morning because May isn’t home yet.

Her shift ended at two. She’s usually back within a half hour considering the hospital isn’t far, hence his agitation.

He’s tried calling and texting to no avail, and he keeps telling himself that everything is fine, that she probably just got held up; meanwhile his subconscious provides a great slideshow of mental images that speak to the opposite—her getting kidnapped because somehow someone links her to Spider-Man, her getting hit with a car, mugged, shot, slipping on black ice—and that’s actually not far-fetched considering it’s January, there’s a lot of it, and so he pulls out his phone and types, You didn’t slip on black ice and die did you? to May.

No little dots appear to signify that she’s typing. The message doesn’t even change from ‘delivered’ to ‘read’.

She has her read receipts on. She’s promised him. There’s no reason she’d change that, right? But maybe she accidentally switched them off when she was scrolling through her settings.

He calls her.

“Hi, this is May Parker, I’m unavailable at the moment but if you leave me a message I’ll get back to you as soon as—”

Peter hangs up with a dissatisfied grunt.

It’s only then that he realises, to his great dismay, that he’s paced all the way onto the ceiling.

In his shock he loses concentration and falls. “Ow, fuck.” He pulls his aching knee to his chest. It’ll no doubt be bruised soon. “God has forsaken me.”

He picks up his now cracked phone and texts Ned:

I just fell off the ceiling at 3 AM in the morning

Don’t ask me what I was doing on it

Every bone in my body is broken :(

No reply comes which is pretty typical; Ned probably passed out in front of his PC like, hours ago. Peter can picture it: the light of his computer screen casting a blue glow over everything in the room, his head probably tucked into his arms to muffle his snores (and there’s also probably a bowl of stale popcorn spilled across his floor at this point), his creepy mother lurking in the doorway—or worse, trying to find out how to snoop through his laptop while he’s out of it.

Peter could totally go swing down there and help the guy out. It would be something to do anyway.

But no. The door is too far. His suit… too much work. It’s definitely better to just stay here curled up under the table like a little turtle.

But wait—a blanket.

Is it worth the effort? Probably. Peter scans his immediate surroundings and, oh boy, Lady Fate is actually on his side tonight because there’s a gigantic purple fluffy one hanging off the couch and it only takes a little bit of physical exertion to yank it down and wrap it around his body.

He burrows deeper into it and scrolls through Instagram. MJ posted a picture of a banana today. Literally like, just a banana. No caption, no explanation on her story, nothing.

Peter double taps it and comments: i hope u asked before u took his jacket

No like. No reply. That makes sense. It is three in the fucking morning, after all.

No. Three thirty. It’s been an hour and a half.

What had May said once? That it was okay to call someone if she was two hours late?

Peter tries texting and calling one more time and then just sits there, staring at his home screen and watching the minutes pass. At exactly four AM after much deliberation and stomach churning, he calls someone else.

Three rings later: “I’m in Vienna right now so this better be good.”

Peter feels even more nauseous than before. “Oh,” he says. “I guess—never mind, then. Sorry.”

“Wait, wait, that was just for show and I’m greatly intrigued as to why you’re calling me so… early? Late? Anyway I’m out of the conference room now so lay it on me.”

Against his will, Peter’s lip quirks up. “Um, it’s kind of stupid—”

“Nothing is ever stupid,” Tony says. “Especially when it’s coming from the brain of a kid with an intelligence quotient of 260.”

He feels his cheeks heat up and then it all just comes tumbling out, “It’s really late and May was supposed to be off at two and home by two-thirty, but she’s not and I don’t know what to do. I tried calling and texting but she’s not replying and I know that I’m probably just building it up in my head but I can’t help freaking out because like, what if she got stabbed or slipped on black ice or—”

“Hey Pete?”

“Yeah?”

“Breathe.”

Tony’s voice has softened immeasurably. Something uncoils in Peter’s stomach. He flops onto his side and closes his eyes. “I’m breathing.”

“That’s good, kiddo. Now just hang on a sec, I’m gonna call the hospital.”

“What? Why?”

“Well she works there, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“And you haven’t tried calling them yet, correct?”

“...Correct.”

“Ergo,” Tony says.

“But I—”

“Yeah?”

Peter bites his lip and then he just blurts it: “I don’t want you to hang up.”

He feels like such a child but the thought of losing connection with Tony is literally making his heart palpitate and his palms sweat. He needs someone. He needs an adult.

“Well lucky for us both I have two phones.”

Peter cracks an eye. “You what?”

“I’m Tony Stark, don’t question it. Hang on, let me just—hello, hi, um, I need this room. No, it can’t wait. Yes the whole room. Yes locked. I don’t know, five minutes? Ten? An hour? No, I’m not joking. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah. Okay. Bye now.” Something slams shut—the door to the office Tony just stole, probably. “Okay, just a sec, I have the number for the reception desk she works at in my phone.”

Peter, for some reason, feels immeasurably comforted by that. He sits in silence gnawing on his lip while Tony has a somewhat muffled conversation he can’t hear the other side of. Then, “You still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Okay, well, they said she’s covering for someone and can’t get to the phone because a baby had to have emergency surgery so she’s literally in the OR as we speak. Pretty badass and not bad as far as excuses go. Now that you know she’s fine and not dead by ice, how about you get some shut-eye, okay kid?”

Peter swallows. “Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Tony.”

“No Mr. Stark this time, huh?”

“It’s too late for formalities.”

“I see,” Tony replies. “Sleep, okay?”

“Okay.”

The line goes dead. Peter, slightly relieved but not fully consoled, rolls over to face the door. He doesn’t sleep at all that night and is still there when May comes home at six in the morning with bagels and apologies.

—

The anniversary of Ben’s death is always super weird.

This time it takes him a few minutes to remember what day it is: he’s in the middle of brushing his teeth and then it hits him like a train: oh, it’s been three years.

Then comes May. She usually tries to cook something for breakfast but like always it burns. He leaves the bathroom to the sound of the smoke alarm and fans a cookie sheet at the screeching little device while she swears up and down in Italian.

“It’s okay, May, really—”

“No, it’s not!” She snaps, tossing a batch of blackened cinnamon rolls into the trash. “I just want this day to be easy for you!”

Peter goes over to her and, after kicking the oven door shut with his foot, pulls her into his arms. May starts to cry even though she tries not to; sniffles turn into barely stifled sobs. He knows that it’s harder for her than it is for him. Ben was her husband and they’d been married for thirteen years when he died. Sometimes he still catches her looking to see if he’s laughing too when they watch TV, only to find an empty recliner.

“It’s okay for it to be a bad day,” he whispers. “You know that, right? I mean, I love you to pieces, May, but I don’t wanna see you bending over backwards for me.”

“But that’s my job, doofus.”

Peter pulls back. He’s an inch taller than her now. “No it’s not. We take care of each other, okay?”

Then comes school. Ned usually hovers nervously like an agitated gnat, too afraid to say anything, not sure if he should act normal or be sad in solidarity, which means it’s kind of Peter’s job to set the tone. As he’s putting his combination in for his locker he asks, “So did you beat that level of Obra Dinn last night?”

Ned, shoulders slumping with relief, starts to ramble on about how hard it was to do and how it took him like, thirty whole tries.

They go to class. Peter zones out. He doesn’t bother making more web fluid or ditching and he gets so inside his own head that Coach Wilson compliments him again during gym class. Peter deliberately slows down after that, even if it’s kind of irritating; being physically active actually helps work off his anger.

Because that’s what he is more than anything else: angry. At the mugger, yeah, but at himself more than anything else. It was his fault that they were out that night, anyway. It’s a wonder that May doesn’t hate his fucking guts.

When school is up Peter comes home to an empty house. He thinks about going on patrol but doesn’t really feel up to it, and then he feels bad for not wanting to do it because like, what if someone is dying?

So he puts on the suit and swings from rooftop to rooftop, but there’s no action today. Peter eventually settles on a fire escape with a burrito. A stray cat hops up after a while and, despite his matted fur and crazy eyes, Peter decides he has a kind of quiet dignity about him and names him Charles.

“Do you like beef?” He asks, holding some out for Charles to sniff. The cat yowls and, without any warning other than that, nearly chomps Peter’s fingers off to get the meat.

“Ow, jeez!” Peter shakes his wrist. “I was literally giving it to you for free, but go off I guess.”

Charles blinks his big brown marble eyes and then literally jumps off the fucking ledge. Peter leans over and watches him scamper across the street, somehow not getting hit by any traffic. Sometimes he thinks his spidey sense is more like feline sense in that way: he could probably manage the same thing with his eyes closed.

After a while the sun sets and all of the streetlights turn on. Peter does another patrol around the immediate vicinity but again, nothing. He stays out anyway though because he’d rather do his Chemistry homework behind a dumpster than sit alone in the apartment with nothing but the quiet for company. At least out and about there are sewer rats and mangy dogs and shady characters who actually just turn out to be skateboarders.

Peter is almost done with his assignment when the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

He looks up and finds Iron Man himself coming in for a landing. The suit drops with a barely audible clunk; it’s Mark 54, the sleekest and most lightweight model yet.

“Oh thank God,” says Tony’s voice, “you’re not dead.”

Peter frowns even though Tony can’t see it. “No,” he agrees slowly. “Why would I be dead? What are you doing here?”

“Well, your aunt called me in a panic at around four when she got home and you weren’t there, and then I checked the scanners and saw that you’d been here, completely stationary, for like five whole hours—needless to say I had a little bit of a heart attack and here I am, relieved and also mildly infuriated. Care to explain, young padawan?”

Peter opens his mouth to speak. Closes it. Opens it again and, “It’s four AM?”

“Four fifteen,” Tony corrects.

“I didn’t even—I didn’t know! Shit, May’s totally gonna kill me, I might as well be dead—”

“Woah woah woah,” the faceplate lifts, “calm down, okay? No one is mad. Just, uh, concerned, I promise.”

Peter is still frantically packing up his school supplies and not really listening. He only stops when Tony gently touches him by lightly gripping his elbow. “Kid?”

Peter stares down at the older man’s hand. Behind the mask his eyes start to burn. “Ben died.”

“Pardon?”

“Ben died,” he repeats louder. “In this alley. Two years ago.”

All at once Tony’s face falls. He moves to sit by Peter on the grimy floor of the alley while the suit hovers nearby, a hollow shell, just the way Peter feels now.

“Kid,” Tony says, “take off the mask.”

“What? No, I’m in public—”

“No one’s around,” Tony says. “Just take it off, okay?”

Peter does, reluctantly peeling it back to reveal his tear-stained cheeks. Tony stares for a second and then, almost hesitantly, he wraps his arms around Peter. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I—” he chokes. “I’m just so tired. I’m tired of having to watch May be strong for me when I can’t be strong back, and I’m tired of Ben not being around. I miss him and it—it’s not fair.”

“Of course it’s not. It’s never fair. That’s why it hurts, kiddo. You’ve got all this love and no place to put it.”

Peter bites his lip to stop it from quivering and looks away, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. “I just feel pathetic.”

“Don’t,” Tony says firmly. “I felt the same way after my mom died and it… In some ways I don’t think the feeling ever actually went away, but uh, take it from someone who’s had a lot more time to process: no one is expecting anything from you, okay? And I can guarantee there’s not a single human that thinks two years is long enough to be perfectly fine again. You’re allowed to still be upset about this.”

And Peter is. He’s really, really fucking upset about it and so tired of holding it in. Tony pulls him against his chest when Peter starts to cry and it sort of seems like he’ll never be able to stop. There’s just so much, so much guilt and pain and all kinds of other bullshit that he refuses to lay on May.

So he lays it on Tony. And it’s surprisingly not horrible or awkward or even the end of the world.

“You good?” the older man asks, when Peter finally sobers up enough to wipe his cheeks dry and take a few steadying breaths.

“Yeah,” he says, voice ragged and awful-sounding. “Um, sorry. For freaking you and May out and ruining your shirt, I mean.”

“You know there’s this really snazzy invention called a washing machine—”

“Oh my god, shut up.”

Tony laughs and it makes Peter laugh too, and the tension between them just sort of dissipates. “Speaking of clothes,” Tony claps his hands together, “you got any to wear in that backpack?”

“Uh, jeans and a hoodie?”

“Fantastic, incredible. Throw them on, I’m taking you out for breakfast.”

“But what if someone sees?!”

“Let ’em. I’ll have Pep release a statement claiming you as my personal assistant or head intern or something.”

“That’s totally unrealistic.”

“Do I care? No. Just—okay? Up and at ’em, make haste, come on. What do you feel like, pancakes or waffles?”

They bicker about which is better the entire way to the little diner Tony choses, and Peter comes home full an hour later. May is fast asleep at the kitchen table. He kisses her forehead and starts on breakfast for her.

—

He’s thirty minutes into helping MJ study for her AP French test when she finally gets a question wrong. “‘Il n'est pas clair que’?” Peter queries, holding up the flash card.

“‘It’s not certain that’?”

He makes a pitying noise. “Close. ‘It’s not clear that’.”

“What’s not clear, exactly? That if I see one more word in French I’m gonna blow my brains out?”

Peter snorts. “No, actually it says more clarification is required on how much you like your boyfriend. Suggestions to improve that include: a hug, a kiss, both—”

“Neither?”

He pouts. “Mean.”

MJ rolls her eyes, but she kisses him first. She tastes like the Twizzlers they’ve been eating and her hands are in his hair and she laughs when he presses his lips to her cheeks and nose and forehead.

They somehow end up in an incredibly compromising position. “You know,” MJ muses, “I don’t think I’ve been studying the right kind of French.”

Peter, hovering over her (oops), nods in agreement. “This kind is definitely way better.”

She wraps her arms around his neck and he’s so consumed with this: her and him and the smell of her jasmine shampoo—that he almost doesn’t hear it.

Almost.

Peter rips away abruptly. “What was that?”

She groans. “God, you’re such a dog sometimes.”

He ignores her, sitting alert with his eyes narrowed at the window and, sure enough, there it is again: a faint, blood-curdling scream. “Someone’s being attacked or something. Maybe four blocks away tops.”

MJ squints. “Don’t tell me you can echolocate.”

“I—” Peter’s mouth snaps shut and then opens again. “I actually don’t know. Anyway, I gotta go.”

He presses a quick kiss to her cheek, throws on his jacket, and quickly ducks out her fire escape (which happens to be the same way that he came in). He slips the mask on and tosses his hood up; it’s raining in heavy, icy sheets and Peter is drenched within seconds of swinging. He remembers the first time he’d gone out during a storm; the webbing he’d made hadn’t held up because the chemical formula hadn’t accounted for the massive amounts of water-based reaction, so the biocables had evaporated as they left his shooters. Thankfully he hadn’t jumped first that day, otherwise he would be a Peter Pancake.

Another scream sounds. Peter follows it and winds up latched onto the side of a two-story brick building. There’s an incredibly dark alley below, but a quick flash of lightning tells him everything he needs to know: one man is trying to wrestle a woman down, while another is rifling through her purse. He’s also holding a gun.

“Oh, cute,” he mutters sarcastically.

Peter tries to time it right: he takes aim and shoots a web right at the weapon with the next bout of lightning, but to his immense misfortune, the armed mugger had already seen him and was aiming right back. The bullet hits Peter in the side.

“Ow,” he says, “that was uncalled for.”

He drops. His side is throbbing and hot but he ignores it in favour of disarming the guy who shot him. It’s a brief struggle but Peter ends up whacking the gun out of his hand and webbing it to the wall opposite. Then he knocks the guy out with a solid upper cross to the temple.

Peter rounds. The assailant has already fled, leaving the woman shivering but relatively unharmed.

“You okay, ma’am?” he asks.

“Me? That guy shot you!”

Peter looks down at his side which is now stained with blood. “Oh, yeah.”

He’d actually forgotten for half a second. Now that the adrenaline is wearing off, he’s starting to really feel it: a burning sensation in his abdomen, an aching that pulses from his stomach to his chest. Ah. Wonderful.

A little dazed, he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me. Super healing. Are you good? You need me to call you a cab?”

“What? No, um—the police station is like, down the block, I can go get them.”

“Are you sure? Because I can totally do that—”

“I can handle myself,” she says sharply, bending down to pick up her purse and the discarded items within. “It’s just… there were two of them and there was a gun and—”

“I get it,” Peter says, his hand pressing harder into his side as the world grows blurrier around the edges. “You really don’t want me to at least walk you down?”

“I’ll take a taxi,” she says. “You just, um, get yourself fixed up, okay? And thanks.”

“Yeah, sure, anytime! But, y’know, preferably never again,” Peter says, and proceeds to swing away.

—

Tony doesn’t expect to get woken up at two AM after only just falling asleep five minutes before, but such is life; FRIDAY’s voice bleeds through the speakers above to inform him that Spider-Man is currently rifling through the Med-Bay and bleeding from a wound on his side.

Pepper looks at him. “You heard that too, right? That was real?”

“It was real.”

They both scramble out of bed. Tony takes the lead, throwing on his jacket as he runs toward the elevator. It’s times like these when every second stretches out into an eternity; it takes maybe five of them to get from their floor to the Med-Bay, but it feels like forever.

The doors open and there’s Peter, perched on a gurney with his shirt gone and a whole lot of blood staining his side. He’s bent awkwardly, clearly trying to feel his way around whatever wound he’s got.

“Um,” Tony says, approaching, “What.”

Peter looks up and—yeah, he’s lost a lot more blood than Tony had originally thought. His face is fucking drained. “Hey,” he says, offering a jaunty wave before returning his attention to his side. “I got shot.”

“Oh!” Tony nods. “Oh, okay. What the fuck, kiddo?”

“I know, right?” Peter glances up. “Hey, Pepper.”

“Peter,” she returns. “Do you mind if I wash my hands and take a look at that?”

“If you want. It’s kinda gross, though.”

“Believe me, I’ve seen worse.”

Through this exchange Tony was already washing up, and now he dons a pair of gloves and sits on the rolling stool. “Looks like it’s through and through,” he tells Pep over his shoulder. “Could you grab a couple suture kits and, uh, the stuff?”

Pepper makes a face. “The stuff?”

“You know,” Tony says, “The Good Stuff.”

Her eyes widen. “Oh, that stuff.”

Tony feels around the area. “Do you know what kind of gun was used?”

“Looked like your standard nine mil,” Peter replies. His voice is growing a little slurred.

That’s good though, about the gun. Means there’s probably not any bullet fragments to worry about. Tony grabs a load of gauze and presses it against the wound. He checks Peter’s pulse while he’s at it and finds that it’s slowed considerably. “We’re gonna have to get you some blood, too. A neg, right?”

“Yuppers.”

Tony excuses that because after all, the kid is bleeding out on a table. Said kid actually starts to swing his legs back and forth and, yeah, that’s not gonna fly. “Do me a favour and lay back? I’m gonna put this towel right under you for now.”

Peter doesn’t have any arguments, or if he does, he doesn’t vocalise them. Pepper comes back in with the kits and drugs and, because she’s just smarter than him like that, bags of blood.

Tony grabs the vials first and loads up a syringe. Peter is pretty numb to all of it until the needle goes in. Then he frowns. “Why are you injecting me with alien blood?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “It’s not alien blood, it’s a pain killer. A serious one at that, so you’re probably gonna feel a little out of it for a while, okay?”

Peter frowns. “Is it for Steve?”

Tony tenses, but it’s only for a second. “Yes,” he says, somewhat tightly.

“Ugh. What a turd, Mr. Stark. You’re giving me turd vitamins!” Tony scoffs while Pepper laughs. Peter notices. “See? She thinks I’m funny.”

“You’re not helping me here,” Tony says to her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Here, have some thread.”

Tony sighs. “Just stay still for me, okay?”

Peter does. Pepper passes him various supplies and they work together to sew up both ends of the gunshot wound. By the time they’re done, Peter hasn’t moved once, but his eyes are open and he’s frowning.

“How do you feel?”

“Wired,” he says.

“Seriously? Bruce never said anything about the side-effects, but I figured they’d be like normal pain-killers; make you drowsy and all that.”

“No,” Peter sits up quickly and doesn’t even flinch. “I feel like I just got steroids or something. Are you—are you actually telling me that Captain America’s drugs are infused with a stimulant? What, so he can keep fighting even when he’s in the middle of dying?”

Tony blinks. “Well that was smart of dear Banner.”

“Yeah, or insane.” Peter flexes his hands. “I feel like I need to go for a run, or like, break something.”

“Let’s avoid that,” Tony says, pushing him back down. “You need to heal, not mess yourself up even more, understood?”

Peter stares. “Is it normal to see sounds?”

Pepper bursts out laughing again. “I’m sorry,” she says when Tony glares. “Really, I am, I promise. Peter, honey, how about we get you to a bedroom where you can rest up? We’ll call your aunt and explain everything.”

—

Everything is going fine until May asks, “How did you get to the Tower so quick, then?”

Peter blinks. “Hmm? Pardon?”

“If you were at Ned’s,” May says, “how’d you manage to swing all the way across town?”

Peter opens his mouth and closes it. “I, uh… well, funny story, um… I wasn’t actually at Ned’s?”

There’s a pause over the phone. Pepper, who’s holding it, raises an eyebrow. May says: “You told me you were going to Ned’s, Peter.”

His face feels hot. He hopes it isn’t red. Both Pepper and Tony—from the doorway with his hands stuffed in his sweatpant pockets—are staring. It’s almost as bad as if May were really here.

“Well I was going to Ned’s, but then I changed my mind and went somewhere else and oh—look at the time! I think we’re going through a tunnel—”

“Don’t even try to pull that crap! That’s it, I’m coming over there—”

“May,” Peter says, serious now, “you’re in the middle of a shift, there’s people dying. Just—I’m perfectly fine, I took my Captain America drugs and everything is gonna be okay.”

“But you lied to me.”

“No, I changed my mind.”

“And went where?”

“Irrelevant.”

“Peter.”

“May.”

She groans from the other end of the line and demands to speak to Pepper one on one. Tony’s fiancé grins and switches off speaker, before slipping out with a bright laugh to finish off the conversation. Tony stares expectantly. “So where were you?”

“Oh my god, not you too. You know, on second thought, I actually am completely exhausted and—”

“Uh, nope,” Tony flops down onto the bed. “Fess up.”

Peter sighs. He squirms down and covers his pillow with a head. “No.”

Tony joins him under it. “Tell me.”

Peter scowls. He rolls onto his side so they’re facing one another. “I was with my girlfriend.”

“Oooo—”

“Shush! It’s… it’s really not a big deal and I haven’t told May yet because MJ and I haven’t even really talked about it and it all happened super fast and—” he remembers to breathe, “I just… I always tell May everything, you know? But I kind of just felt like… this was something I had to figure out first on my own. Maybe it’s stupid, but I know she’s gonna be super hurt when she finds out it’s been a month and I haven’t said anything—”

“Kid,” Tony cuts in. “Calm down.”

“I’m calm,” Peter promises, because he is. He’s also just incredibly hyper and stressed.

“It’s a normal instinct to want to figure things out and define them before you start announcing them to the world. I get that. But you’re still a kid, Pete, and even if you don’t want people prying into your love life, we still need to know where you are in case something goes wrong.”

Peter harrumphs as he turns away. “There’s a tracker on my phone and my suit. It would be easier to find me than anything else.”

Tony clicks his tongue. “You got a point there.”

“I just wanted time.”

“I know.”

“But I really like her, okay? Like she’s so smart and she’s got this really dark sense of humour and she’s actually kind of terrifying sometimes—”

“Oh, the scary ones are always fun.”

They stay up talking through the night and, when the sun comes up, Pepper joins them with a tray of freshly made blueberry waffles. May arrives around the same time and, looking too tired to be mad, simply drops onto the bed with them and steals what’s left of his food.

—

Peter is on patrol when he hears it:

a soft, quiet yelping coming from somewhere down below the rooftop he’s perched on.

At first he figures he’s imagining things, but then his ears perk again. He leans over the building’s edge to find the source of the noise.

In the dark it’s hard to make anything out, so he climbs slowly down the side of the wall, squinting. There’s another yelp and a low whine, almost pained. Peter zeroes in on the sound and creeps toward a set of dumpsters; they’re so full of trash they’re overflowing, and it’s underneath a broken down cardboard box that he finds it...

A puppy.

Now, Peter is no liar. He’s wanted a dog since he was like, a fetus. The words ‘A dog’ have been on every birthday and Christmas list for as long as he can remember. It’s only recently, in the years since Ben’s death, that he’s pretty much given up—after all, May is so overworked and they can barely afford to feed themselves. How could they afford a pet?

But also…

This is the cutest dog he’s ever seen.

It’s tiny and fluffy and brown and has the biggest, saddest eyes he’s ever seen.

Peter kind of just stands there staring like an idiot for a good few seconds and then slowly kneels down. “Um, hi,” he says, in the gentlest voice he can manage. The puppy, who can’t be older than a few weeks and looks completely starved and exhausted, whines in response.

Peter holds out his hand for the dog to sniff. It lifts its head lazily and leans forward, nose twitching and dry. “You need water, huh? Come on, I know a place.”

—

“Shelob,” Tony greets without looking up from whatever project he’s working on. “What can I do for you at… one in the fucking morning?”

“I need your help with something, but you have to promise you won’t get mad or make me get rid of him—”

“Oh, for God’s sake, what have you done now?”

“He was just so helpless and cold and small and…” Peter swallows and reveals the puppy, presently wrapped up in his hoodie. “Meet Nugget.”

Tony’s face is the epitome of Disappointed Dad. He stares, open-mouthed, and after a second his shoulders fall. “Well, fuck.”

Peter snuggles Nugget against his chest and steps closer, but then Tony holds up a hand to stop him. “Nah-ah! Not until that thing gets a flea bath!”

Hope sparks in Peter’s chest. “You mean we can keep him?”

“I mean there’s no way I’m getting near him until I know I won’t break out in hives.”

“That’s not how fleas work.”

“Do I care? No. Come on, let’s go to the bathroom.”

—

“Why do you have flea shampoo?”

Peter’s inquiry is made tentatively. They both have their hands in the sud-filled sink as they systematically wash Nugget’s fur.

“There was… an incident a while ago. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Peter stares. Blinks. “Okay. Well, I think he’s clean.”

Nugget barks as if in agreement, and so Peter and Tony lift him out of the basin and set him on a pile of no doubt expensive, fluffy white towels. Tony takes the lead after that. He’s surprisingly gentle and patient with the yapping, impatient puppy—even when Nugget tries to claw at him and shake himself dry, Tony never loses his cool.

A few minutes later they’re sitting on their stomachs watching Nugget stomp around on a blanket. There’s water in a bowl for him at one corner and a plate of chopped up chicken at another.

“I can’t take him home,” Peter says morosely after a few minutes. “May won’t let me keep him.”

Tony raises an eyebrow. “Where does she even think you are right now?”

“...In my bed.”

“Wow,” Tony says, deadpan. “Okay, well, I most certainly can’t keep him either.”

“What?! Why not?!”

Tony sighs. “I’m Iron Man, if you hadn’t noticed, kiddo—”

“Oh, what, so you’re too tough to look after him?”

“No, I’m too busy. I spend like, twenty-three out of twenty-four hours in a day in my shop and the rest of the time I’m on my knees apologising to Pepper and begging for forgiveness. There’s no time in-between to feed the pup, walk the pup—”

“I could come by,” Peter blurts. “Like, once a day, and I could make sure he’s eaten and play with him and stuff. You wouldn’t have to lift a finger—”

“Except to press ‘purchase’ on my shopping cart full of dog food—”

“Tony,” Peter cuts in, pleading, “please? I can’t just drop him off at some kennel so they can—” he covers the dog’s ears, “so they can euthanize him in a week when no one buys him. He deserves so much better, you know?”

Tony frowns, considering it, and Peter waits with his breath caught in his throat until, “God, fine.”

“Yes!”

“But! But! A pet is a serious responsibility, okay? You might as well be adopting a child—”

“What would you know about raising kids?” Peter asks, only jokingly, but Tony just stares and then, for some reason, smiles.

“You have to make sure he’s happy,” Tony says. “You have to be there for him in whatever way he needs, alright? I’ll set up a pen in the penthouse and you can make sure he works off his energy there, and if I have time I’ll even take you both to the park. And if he ever happens to pee on my carpet, I’m counting on you to clean it up.”

“Don’t you have, like, housekeepers for that sort of thing?”

“Yeah, but this is character building stuff.”

“Ugh, fine, I’ll clean up the pee.”

They continue to iron out the details for a while and bicker over whether Nugget’s last name should be Parker or Stark, and it’s only when Pepper walks in—still in her pajamas, bleary eyed and complaining that they woke her up—that they both decide it should be ‘Potts’.

—

5. (+1)

It starts with a headache.

He’s bent over his desk studying for a Calc test when the throbbing begins. It’s not so bad at first, but after a half hour or so his vision is swimming and he keeps having to take breaks to massage his temples and close his eyes. The equations are all blending together and he can’t think straight anymore.

Peter decides to give up right around then. After all, if he’s not gonna retain any of the information, why bother?

May pokes and prods through dinner. Peter tries to fool her by acting like everything is normal and okay and even manages to make her laugh once or twice.

Inside, dread is coiling through his stomach like an irritated snake. He knows what’s coming next; after all, he doesn’t really get sick anymore, so what else could it be?

Peter tries to sleep but ends up tossing and turning for most of the night. He falls into some kind of half-conscious daze at around four in the morning and rouses about twenty minutes later, soaked with sweat and aching everywhere.

Feeling like he’s gonna vomit, Peter kicks off his blankets and strips the sheets off his bed. He takes his shirt off because the fabric is too abrasive against his skin and it’s like he can feel every fibre tickling against it, grating and chafing. He curls up into a tight ball and covers his ears with his hands to block out the now amplified sounds of the city: car alarms, dogs barking, music playing.

Normally Peter loves the way New York is never silent. Now, he just wishes everyone would shut the fuck up for once.

When he stumbles out of his room a little while later, May is already gone. She’d told him the night before that she had an early shift and for once he’s actually grateful. Haltingly, Peter gets ready for school. He’s already skipped three days this month and if he misses this Calc quiz he’s gonna fucking bomb the class.

May would kill him.

It’s better to suffer a little than die.

Brushing his teeth makes his head spin and the minute he wriggles into his clothes he feels like a caged animal about to claw his skin off. Everything takes so much longer than normal. He doesn’t eat because the mere thought of food makes the back of his throat sting with bile.

On the train, he closes his eyes and rests his head against the cool glass of the window, trying to tune out the constant screeching of the rails. One day, on God, he will make it a personal project to oil every fucking line in the subway.

At his fifth stop, an old lady boards and all the seats are taken.

Peter swallows thickly and stands. Black spots dance in his vision and he grabs onto the overhead bar—something he hasn’t actually needed to use since he was a little kid—and tries not to pass out.

He almost misses the stop to get to school, but slips out at the last second, millimetres away from getting his backpack caught in the doors. Peter is hot all over and lightheaded as he makes his way out of the station. It’s even hotter up above, what with summer coming now and all.

Peter is late and he doesn’t need his watch to tell; Flash’s car is already parked out front instead of zooming through the drop off to run him over (which, hey, silver lining), and the majority of the student body is already inside.

Peter has to stop multiple times on his way to Spanish just to breathe. By the time he gets there he’s at least ten minutes late for roll call.

“Mr. Parker,” his teacher greets, unimpressed. “So glad you could join us.”

Peter makes a noise and takes the proffered quiz. He wonders absently why some people choose to teach. What is it, like, some kind of power trip for them?

He has five minutes to finish the quiz but doesn’t make it past the first question. Ned volunteers to collect them and stops at Peter’s desk while Professor Scott outlines today’s lesson plan.

“Dude,” he whisper-hisses, “you look like complete shit. What on Earth are you doing here right now?”

“Test,” Peter mutters dully, resting his cheek on his hand and closing his eyes. “Here you go. Didn’t finish it.”

Ned takes it carefully, holding it with two fingers like it’s covered in disease. “Do you want me to get the nurse or something?”

Peter hums. “No. Just… headache.”

Slowly Ned backs away. “Um—”

“Mr. Leeds!” Professor Scott says, loudly. Ned jumps. “Is there a problem back there?”

Yes, Peter thinks. You’re the human version of nails on a fucking chalk board. Please, for the love of all that is holy, just start on the vocab.

Only he accidentally says all of that out loud.

The whole class is staring. Flash is slack-jawed. Betty Brant’s eyes are the size of small moons.

“Parker,” Scott grits out—and Peter has denominated him to just Scott now out of reciprocation and spite; “You just earned yourself a shiny new detention. I’d like you to take this slip to the principal’s office. Please.”

Oh, thank God. At least it’ll be quiet there.

Peter stands and brushes past Ned and it literally feels like flames of hell are licking against his skin. He almost vomits. This is decidedly not good.

He takes the paper. “Gladly, good sir.”

When he’s gone, there’s an outburst of muttering that his enhancements let him hear. It only makes the overload worse. Peter covers his ears with his hands again and, overcome with a sudden wave of vertigo, ducks into the bathroom.

He barely makes it to the toilet before emptying his stomach of last night’s food.

Peter sags against the wall, panting. He keeps his eyes closed and waits for the world to stop spinning. About ten minutes later, the smell of jasmine shampoo—normally welcome—causes him to lean over and retch again.

MJ pokes her head inside the unlocked stall. “Jesus,” she whispers. The second her hands touch his body he flinches and she immediately retracts them. “Fuck, sorry. Ned said you wigged out in Spanish. I looked for you in the Principal's office but you weren’t there and... What’s—what’s wrong? I thought you couldn’t even get sick.”

“Bad headache,” he mutters, spitting into the toilet. It’s easier than explaining about his freakish mutations and how they sometimes go completely haywire, leaving him on edge and nauseous and irritable.

MJ grabs him some toilet paper to wipe his mouth with. “Did you take anything?”

“Pain meds don’t work on me.”

“Does May know? You should have called in.”

“Couldn’t. Can’t miss my test.”

She sighs. “Your final is like fifty percent of your grade and you could pass it with your eyes closed. You can miss your test, you’re just afraid of getting anything lower than an A.”

Peter is silent. “You got me there.”

MJ’s hand twitches like she wants to touch him but knows she can’t. “You need to go home. Lie down, get some rest.”

“May is working,” Peter says, “and if I have to take the subway again right now I’ll die. I really will. It’s so—the smell and the noise and I can’t sit down and—”

“Give me your phone.”

“What?”

“Just give it.”

She’s holding her hand out for it and giving him a no-nonsense expression that kind of reminds Peter of Pepper Potts on a rampage. He’s seen what happens to Tony when he crosses her, so he fishes his phone out of his pocket and hands it over.

“Hold on.”

She stands and leaves. Peter closes his eyes again. He tunes out her conversation because if he doesn’t, he’s absolutely gonna vomit again and nobody wants that.

MJ slips back inside the stall. “Okay, solved. Do you still feel like you’re gonna vomit?”

Peter thinks about it. “No.”

“Good. We’re gonna go to the nurse, okay?”

“Oh boy.”

—

Tony Stark walks into Peter’s school and finds the hallways empty. The classroom doors are shut and the muted sounds of teachers lecturing are the only signs that anyone is here at all.

He finds Peter in the infirmary, sitting on the examination table with the heels of his palms pressed against his eyes.

He’s at his side in an instant. “Kid?”

It’s surprise that gets Peter’s eyes open, but the little spider baby immediately regrets it. He flinches and sucks in a sharp breath. “Tony,” he whispers, like the name is all he can manage and the questions will have to wait for later.

Tony looks him over. There are no obvious injuries. The girl on the phone had said it was just a headache, but Tony is way more experienced with Peter’s brand of bullshit and knows there’s usually something else going on beneath the surface.

“I’m gonna go talk to the nurse and then get you out of here, okay?”

A nod.

It’s always a bad thing when he doesn’t argue. Peter Parker would start a fight about what kind of pizza to order, even if you suggest the kind he really wants, just to be a stubborn little shit about things.

Tony slips out of the exam room. The nurse looks up when he enters her office. “Oh my—Mr. Stark?!”

“Yes, hello,” Tony takes a cautious step forward as she stands. He doesn’t bother to sit. “I’m here to pick up the little gremlin in there.”

Her face flushes. “I didn’t know you’d been called, I—I figured I would just let him wait it out, you know? He didn’t want to be touched, so it was hard to figure out what was up and—so it’s real? About the internship?”

“Of course. Why would he lie?”

She opens her mouth. Closes it. “Well… you know how kids can be.”

“Do I?”

She doesn’t seem to know what to say to that.

Tony sighs. “Look, Nurse—uh, Timms—Nurse Timms, can I please just sign the kid out and take him home? He’s clearly in pain here.”

She starts rifling through her desk for a form. “I mean, I can admit you to take him home, but I really suggest you talk with the principal first—Peter was given a detention before he was brought to my ward, see, and I was—” she shakes her head. “I thought he might be faking.”

Tony stares without blinking for a whole five seconds and then, “Detention? For what?”

“I heard he bad-mouthed a teacher or something. But to be fair, Professor Scott isn’t exactly what I’d call patient.”

“Well, be that as it may,” Tony takes the form she hands him to sign, “my kid doesn’t fake. He has a condition, see. Gets uh… overloaded. Sounds, smells, it can be too much for him. Probably why he snapped.”

“That… that makes sense.”

“Yes,” he says succinctly, and hands the paper back. “You’d know that if you bothered to ask. Anyway, I’ll be going. Thanks for the help, Nurse Times.”

“Uh, it’s—it’s Timms—”

The door shuts behind him.

—

MJ was forced to go back to class. She’d argued and protested but Nurse Timms was insistent. So, MJ had relented. She’d pressed the lightest of kisses on his forehead and it surprisingly hadn’t felt that bad, and then she’d gone.

Tony Stark had shown up about twenty minutes later and it’s just when Peter’s starting to think it was all just a vivid hallucination that the smell of coffee and motor oil fills his senses again. It’s overwhelming but not debilitating.

“Kiddo,” Tony whispers, “is it okay to touch you?”

Peter cracks an eye. Everything is bright but Tony’s suit is mercifully black, so he focuses on that. “I don’t know. I don’t wanna move.”

“Well I gotta get you outta here somehow.”

“But my detention—”

“I already got you out of it,” Tony says breezily. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Tony,” Peter says, cheeks flushing. “You can’t just bribe my principal into—”

“I didn’t bribe anyone. I just explained the situation and besides, Morita’s an old friend.”

Peter closes his eyes again as he frowns. “You’re friends with my principal?”

“I’m a benefactor for your school, too,” Tony says. “But don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret.”

Something shifts in the air. Tony is sitting now. “Happy’s waiting outside,” he says, “but whenever you’re ready.”

Peter thinks about it for a few seconds and decides it’s gonna have to happen at some point, anyway. Might as well rip the band-aid off now. Slowly he takes a deep breath and manages to sit up with Tony’s help. The older man tries to avoid touching him as much as possible, but surprisingly enough the weight of his hand against Peter’s spine isn’t crushing or aggravating. It doesn’t hurt.

“Baby steps,” Tony says softly. “We’ll take you out the side door, okay?”

Even getting to the door is slow going but Tony doesn’t seem to mind. Right before they open it, Tony stops and pulls his sunglasses off. “Here, try these.”

Peter puts them on. He feels ridiculous because like, they work on Tony who was literally born in the seventies, but Peter really doesn’t dig the groovy shades. Regardless they’re better than nothing and even help a little.

The halls are empty again. Most of the students will be in the gym right about now, or the cafeteria for lunch. They don’t run into anybody on the way out and as soon as they’re in the back of the car, Peter sags against Tony’s side. He feels like he’s just run ten miles.

“Drive, Hogan,” Tony says, and then the partition glides up.

For a few seconds it’s almost completely quiet. Noise suppression tech, Peter realises, and he feels like he could cry from relief. For the first time in hours there’s just… nothing. No traffic, no dozens of students talking at once. The air conditioning unit is filtered, so he’s not being attacked with the smell of body odour and clashing perfume scents and Axe cologne. There’s just Tony and beautiful, amazing, showstopping silence.

Tony shifts a little. “Better?”

Peter nods, figuring it’s still probably not safe to speak.

“We’ll be there soon,” Tony says softly.

—

Peter doesn’t remember much after the car ride. He can vaguely recall protesting getting out of the Audi, and he remembers Tony assuring him that everything would be okay, and the next thing he knows he’s lying on his back in an utterly dark bedroom. The walls are insulated just like the car had been, so there’s just no sound, and the bed sheets probably have the highest thread count of all time.

Something shifts beside Peter and he realises Tony is there, feeling his forehead.

“What—?”

“Oh, hey,” Tony greets. “I think you might’ve blacked out there. All the noise hit you at once when we got out of the car and you just…”

“I fainted?”

Tony snorts softly. “Relax. It happens to the best of us. How do you feel, Webster?”

Peter hums. “Bad.”

“Let’s try a scale of one to ten.”

“Okay,” Peter says. “Ten.” Tony lets out a little grunt at that and so Peter elaborates, “It was at like, a twenty this morning, so.”

“Ah, I see.” Tony’s grip shifts to Peter’s wrist to measure his pulse. “This okay?”

“It’s fine.”

And it really is. He doesn’t feel like burning his skin off or anything. Tony’s hands are just warm.

“Any idea what brought this on?”

Peter shifts a little. “I uh… haven’t been sleeping a lot lately.” He swallows. “Like, at all.”

“And how long’s that been going on for?”

“I don’t know. On and off for a few weeks, I guess.”

“Jesus,” Tony sighs and pulls his hand away. He rakes it through his hair. “Kiddo, what have we said about communication? Does May know?”

“....No?”

There’s a long pause where Tony just kind of sits there thinking, like he wants to say whatever comes next carefully. He massages his temples and then: “Alright, scooch over.”

“What?”

“Make room for me.”

Peter blinks and then, tentatively, scoots over a little to allow Tony room to lie down. The older man does, arching his back a little and grunting in pain because he’s like, ancient. They’re not touching, but very slowly Peter starts inching closer again. Eventually he works up the courage to try resting his head on Tony’s chest, which is terrifying not only because it’s Tony Stark, but also because he’d rather not have his brain implode.

Nothing happens. “Your fabric softener must be like, super expensive,” he whispers, because this is actually better than the sheets.

Tony snorts. “I’ll ask Pep about it.”

Peter makes a noncommittal noise and before he knows it, his eyes are closing. For once they actually feel heavy, and the steady rhythm of Tony’s heart beat is soothing, dependable.

Tony’s hands brush lightly over Peter’s hair and then thread through it. “Too much?”

“No,” Peter promises. “Good.”

And so Tony’s fingers run through his curls over and over, gently, lightly. His thumb sweeps over Peter’s cheek once, too, and then he starts muttering in Italian.

Peter cracks an eye. “Are you telling me your grocery shopping list?”

Tony laughs a little. “My mom used to do it for me,” he says. “Something about just hearing her speak the language made me feel… relaxed, I guess. Didn’t matter what she was saying.”

Peter smiles and wraps an arm around Tony’s torso. “Tell me something else.”

“You wanna hear about the time I almost blew up a Chem lab?”

“Uh, duh.”

So Tony launches into it, speaking in a low voice and absently twisting one of Peter’s curls around his finger. It feels nice and the headache is fading fast.

Peter sleeps.

#marvel #irondad #peter parker #tony stark #my writing #friendly neighborhood fic exchange #may parker #pepper potts #michelle jones #spideychelle #pepperony #nugget the dog #insomnia

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