#I have some more of their shenanigans somewhere down in my notes

[princessbellecerise]

Court Shenanigans

Summary ✩ Missing their father, your children decide it’s a good idea to interrupt him in the middle of court

Warnings ✩ Mentions of pregnancy

Authors Notes ✩ Everyday I cry cause this man isn’t real but at least I have fanfic

You tried to stop them, you really did.

But being almost nine moons pregnant and having the most swollen feet known to man, it was almost impossible to chase after and keep up with two rowdy tots.

Usually, their nursemaids would have them by now and would be helping to assist you, but Aliza was sick and Joanna was with her family. Both of them would have scolded you for trying to run when you couldn’t even see your feet, but your kids were a mischievous bunch and you had a sinking feeling on where they were headed.

Aemma, the eldest of the two twins, had been complaining all day about not being able to see her father, as Jace had missed out on breakfast and lunch with her in order to hear a few extra petitions.

It seemed as if the Kingdom was more unruly than usual, and Lords had come from all over the realm to plead their cases.

Wanting to be a good King and make sure that he could adhere to all of his subjects, Jace had opted to spend a little extra time on the throne and a less with his family.

This of course didn’t sit well with Aemma, and as her shadow Jaelin followed right on along with her.

Try as you might have, you weren’t fast enough to catch up to them and your protests for them to stop didn’t do much good, either.

Before you could even blink, your twins were flying past the Kingsguard and bursting into the throne room, with little Aemma’s excited shouting making you want to crawl into a hole right there and then.

“Kepa!”

In no time your baby girl ran across the room, interrupting some poor Lord under a pink banner. You thought that he might’ve been from White Harbor, or maybe he was from Maidenpool.

Whatever it was, you didn’t pay much attention as suddenly, all chatter stopped, and you were the center of attention as you wobbled towards Jacaerys and fixed Aemma with a stern glare.

“Aemma! Come back here!” You shouted after her sternly, and thankfully Jaelin was too afraid of your ‘motherly voice’ to get any closer.

He stopped just short of the Iron Throne, choosing to remain by Ser Darklyn’s side rather than follow his sister up the steps. With horror, you realized that Aemma was headed straight to Jacaerys, exclaiming happily as she threw herself in her father’s open arms.

“Kepa!”

She bounced excitedly as Jace pulled her on his lap, looking amused while you struggled to catch your breath.

Running at your size was no joke, and you ached to sit down somewhere and rest. You couldn’t do that though while your two year old twins were causing mayhem.

It was unbefitting of a Queen, you knew that, but desperation had you hiking up your dress, climbing the the steps, and holding your arms out expectantly while Jace chuckled.

“Aemma. It’s time to say goodbye to Kepa and go back to our chambers. Now,” You told her, but that only resulted in the toddler shaking her head and burying herself even deeper into Jacaerys’ arms.

“No! I want to stay with Kepa!” Her defiant little voice shouted, and you winced as a few murmurs echoed through the court.

You were painfully aware that everybody was staring at the scene, which made it even more embarrassing when you reached out again and failed to grab Aemma.

After about the third attempt to pull her away with no avail, your husband seemed to finally take pity on you and sighed.

“It’s alright my love. She can stay,” Jacaerys said, and upon hearing this Aemma beamed. “It’ll be her seat one day after all. Let her gain some experience; even if it is during the middle of a petition.”

You gave him an apologetic look, and you made a mental note to apologize to Lord…well, whoever you were currently interrupting. You had to admit, the sight of Aemma babbling broken phrases to Jace while she tried to grab his crown was adorable.

You sighed reluctantly.

“Alright,” You said, willing to leave Aemma where she was. At the very least you could persuade Jaelin to follow you and take him away, but as you turned to go back down the stairs you suddenly paused.

Had there always been that many, you wondered?

You hadn’t really paid attention that much, but now that your feet were practically screaming at you to sit down, the idea of going down so many steps didn’t seem so appealing.

Of course, you could’ve just asked one of the Kingsguard to help you down, but you didn’t want to be a bother—as silly as it sounded. You also didn’t want to risk your knees giving out and falling, either.

You were in a dilemma, but before you could even decide, Jace did it for you. Your husband, ever attentive, noticed your hesitation and immediately got up.

“Here, my love. Why don’t you rest and I’ll stand for now,” He suggested.

Even more whispers broke out at this. What Jacaerys was proposing was sweet, but it had never happened before and the idea of the Queen sitting on the throne in the presence of the King was…well it was simply unheard of.

You were sure a few people would call the action scandalous, but at the moment though, you didn’t really care what they thought. Your feet were aching and you needed a place to sit down before your knees decided where for you, so you nodded and accepted his offer.

“Thank you, my love.”

You sighed in relief as you sat on the throne. Albeit, it wasn’t the most comfortable of seats with all the swords and points, and you would’ve much rather been in your cushioned chair in your chambers, but it was better than nothing and the pressure on your feet was gone.

Nodding his head, Jacaerys gave you a small kiss on the side of your head and then he stood with Aemma in his arms, and gestured for Lord whoever to keep speaking.

Had you not been out of breath, you would have laughed at his face and the face of many others as they not only witnessed their King give the most powerful seat in the realm to his pregnant wife, but also witnessed him stand up while bouncing his baby daughter in his arms.

It was an unusual sight, but an adorable one that you cherished.

Motioning to Ser Darklyn to bring Jaelin up so that your family would complete, you smiled in content and Jacaerys once again motioned for the man who had been interrupted to continue his petition.

“Lord Mooton. Please, do continue,” He said with a large smile.

You giggled.

Ah, so that was his name.

[str4ngr]

Hello!! Could u do number 5 angst with megumi jjk??

no. [crying.]

just not now.

m. fushiguro. | my drug, my addiction.

cw: angst, foul language, unrequited love, rejection, gn! reader. wc: 629. notes: we're not friends. not proofread

His eyes met yours like a scalding hot burn, piercing your soul in merciless indifference,

"Sorry, but no."

Megumi's voice echoed in your head, no longer the song that made your heart sing but what made it shatter. Your breath felt like it shrunk in your lungs while each word and emotion began to ball up into a lump in your throat. Your eyes were blown wide, staring right at him but it felt like you couldn't see him. The warm curves of his cheeks turned into the creases in his forehead as he raised a brow at you,

"What? Look, y/n, I don't see you like that."

It felt like autopilot, robotic smile on your lip as you nod, letting him walk away with a dry expression as he turned his back on you. He didn't look back, the uncomfortable glare of unreciprocated feeling lingering on your face as your back faced his. it felt hard to swallow, it felt like your head was coming unscrewed from how fast it was spinning. Were you truly that delusional?

They always say when a door in life closes, another open, but right now? Right now, it feels like every single molecule of space around you is a door slamming shut and squeezing you alive. Your feet dragged back to your dorm, phone discarded somewhere, muted as regretful texts from Kugisaki lit up your lockscreen.

Curled up beneath a behemoth mountain of sheets, you still felt cold, the reminder of his dismissive stare, his hands in his pocket, the way all those bubbly feelings in your heart bursted into searing rejection that felt like they tore apart your chest.

The wall felt happier to stare at then yourself. God, maybe you really were wearing rose-tinted glasses. You pursed your lips, think to every time your mind brought you to a hopeful la-la-land of your ideals.

Every time Megumi 'stared' at you, was he staring at you, or was it because you were sat next to Panda, who he was talking to? Or... when he remembered your favorite snack! Or maybe it's because Itadori told him, since he was the one who was supposed to get them. And he was the one you had told... How about your birthday? No, all he did was contribute to the collective gift given by the other first-years.

With how dehydrated you were, you weren't sure if it was now that you became deranged, or before. But probably the latter, considering your mind was now brutally slapping you in the face, each memory of your pathetic puppy love followed by the raging reminder of rejection.

Maybe today wasn't the day to feel confident, maybe you shouldn't have hyped yourself up in the mirror this morning.

Early morning practice was a weekly shenanigan; shenanigan because most of the time, those who were not dueling to the half-death were goofing around. Today was just another one of those days, with Maki and Kugisaki going head to head in a close combat training. Megumi had. just finished with Itadori, and fuck did he look beautiful, wrist wiping the sweat on his forehead, his fringe flipped back as his chest slightly heaved.

You couldn't help but admire the way the just risen sun's light glimered off each bead that trailed down his defined cheekbones, or how his sharp eyes glared into Itadori at some stupid joke he had made. Megumi had decided to go refill his water bottle, and you decided to trail along. God, did you regret that now.

How much more fucking obvious could it be? You were being delusional, desperate, grasping at the straws of romantically meaningless, platonic, actions, playing make-believe as if they meant anything at all.

Class would be much harder from now on.

notes: oh my gee i havent used y/n in so long....

[littlemissayu]

Hi, I really love your twisted wonderland fics, especially the ones where the twisted wonderland boys are being fathers, had me fangirling for hours!!! So I was wondering if you could do a Twisted Wonderland Boys x Reader: WEDDING EDITION!! (Proposal, Ceremony(with Wedding dance song), Honeymoon(kinda saucy)), Also with some Chaotic shenanigans? I've been watching a lot of Rom-Com movies lately, especially My Best Friend's Wedding.

A Quick Trip to The Alter

A/N: I wanted to write some sort of wedding headcanons so thank you for the suggestions!! I really love domestic so its nice to get to do it. It might have taken me a while to get to this due to working on something separate, but now I'm gonna spend some time trying to update more.

A/N#2: I don't remember the last time I was editing this but geez, it's taking me long to post anything at all, I've had ZERO inspo the whole summer, and now school's starting up again by the time I'm writing this author's note, but let's hope I get this out b4 September lol. Let's also hope somehow school will motivate me to be more active in posting A/N#3: I lied I wasn't gonna get this out before September, I apologize. As I am writing this authors note it is 9/17/24 and i've only finished Riddle's part....

Pairings: Heartsabyul x FEM!reader (romantic)

Proposal-

It's romantic obvi, he's so awkward, not to mention atp that he's proposing you guys have been dating for 5 years MINIMUM.

It was a sunny afternoon and the two of you were having tea out in your backyard right by the newly blooming roses. The table was filled with white rose red and (ur fav color). As you two were sitting Riddle was so obviously nervous, and when he spoke up you could hear the nerves in his voice.

“ Dearest, we’ve had a wonderful 5 years together, you’ve been the greatest addition to my life. Without you I feel like a kingdom without its ruler, lost and chaotic”

Riddle’s face was redder than his hair you might’ve mistaken him for a Christmas tree skirt.

“There is nothing more fulfilling than spending all my days in your presence. Your absence is my worst nightmare and your smile is my greatest treasure. A treasure I want to cherish for the rest of our existence”

You finally notice the black velvet box in his hand. He drops to a single knee in front of you, at your mercy. Looking up at you with pleading eyes he ask-

“My Darling Rose, will you become my Queen of Hearts?”

Ceremony-

The ceremony is in a banquet hall, filled to the brim with red and roses. Your favorite color and the blood red compliment the white decor and clam lights.

Riddle was at the end of the aisle, the nervousness on his face was evident. Trey as his best man at his side Cater in tow. And when you finally walk down the isle it's like time freezes in place, and his heart stops, seeing you all done up in your stunning attire, hair, makeup, and just everything about this moment was perfect. His heart warmed, a feeling of home washing over him.

"My dearest, Y/N, you are my peace and my home, everything that I am and will be is with you. The name on my heart is yours. I will spend every second of everyday devoting myself to you and our love. Being your husband is a title I will cherish for all my days"

Wedding song: Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey(instrumental orchestral version/Great Gatsby ver.)

Riddle would want the first dance to be romantic and classy just like you guys and this entire wedding, so y'all are totally slow dancing to this song, because the orchestral version just sounds romantic and grand(especially the ver. from the lady on TikTok who was walking down the isle to it iykyk)

Honeymoon-

I feel like ya'll would go somewhere in the country side, whatever the equivalent to the french countryside, where you guys will be in a beautiful vacation home there surrounded by fields of wildflowers and small fruits growing on bushes nearby, with a small town down the road. While Riddle would enjoy going out into he town with you and learning it's history and culture, he'd also enjoy other honeymoon activities in the comfort of your comfy vacation home, besides even the bedroom is so gorgeous it's only right to use it for one of it's many purposes.

Proposal- It will catch you so off guard. Picture this it's a night after a long day at the bakery and the two of you are walking home together as usual. He asks to walk a long route because it's more scenic and your like sure so you guys are walking and you stumble across a huge willow tree, specifically a weeping willow and you see two initials one are his and the one at the end of the plus has your first initial and his last initial so you joke how it would take a wedding ring to make that happen and he just says "So let's make it happen, Y/N L/N, would you make the decision to not only share a last name, but a lifetime together?"

Ceremony-

I dunno why but I'm convinced yall get married in a garden or something. Think about it a nice forest with luscious trees and greenery, complemented by the fresh white and complementing amber color, as you make your way down the isle the standing their a we smile on his face as you come down the isle. His family and yours watched the two of you in awe and filled with love in their hearts and their eyes.

"Y/N, so much is beautiful about you, your eyes, your hair, your teeth, your smile, your warm embrace, and your sweet face. But nothing can compare to the beauty of your love, the most precious gift anyone could give me. Now I don't have to waste a second yearning for your love cause now I'll wake up to it in the morning and it'll give me the peace I need to sleep at night. I will spend every second of everyday trying to give you the love you give me tenfold and more because you are so worthy of that love and anything you could ever ask for. Thank you for being mine."

Wedding Song: Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.

Vintage, romantic, classy. This is the song Trey would guide you in an intimate waltz with all his friends and family watching. Romance is in the air and everyone can feel the love between you two. And while the two of you are waltzing he's whispering all the things he plans to do to you the minute you're left alone.

Honeymoon-

Now if you've noticed I am RUNNING with this greenery theme but you two would spend your week away together on a lovely lake house that you rented for a week(or however long). The sweet sounds of birds chirping and the sun peeking through the small crack in the curtains as the sounds of the outside relaxed the two of you. The smell of the forest filled your nostrils from the small crack in the window. resting you head on his bare chest and the two of you are cuddled up under the covers. No view the lake could give would be better than the sight of him on top of you.

Proposal-

Think about it like this, the two of you are on a vacation together and he takes you to a private romantic dinner to commemorate your last day there (and take some cute pics for the gram). You finish taking pics and he mentions the beauty of the view. "But it would be more beautiful if you were in a wedding dress" you turn to look at him "And why would I-"

"How about a diamond to become a diamond for starters?"

Ceremony-

An evening/late afternoon ceremony. It's in a gorgeous town hall with marigolds and roses to compliment the warmth from the love that was bouncing off the walls. And as you walked down the isle in a dress that complimented and flattered you in ways that didn't seem possible. And as Cater looked at you, making steps closer and closer to be his wife, his heart melted. Only you could tell that at this very moment he wanted to shed a tear(ugly cry) at the sight of you. Everything in this moment felt complete.

"Thank you for giving me your love and affection. Nothing about you could ever compare to the love of anyone else, you are my home and my heart rest in your hands. Your delicate loving embrace holds my heart dear and guards it from the dangers of the world. My love for you is everlasting, every second of everyday my love for you will increase tenfold and all I want is to serve and love you the way you deserve as not only the fantabulous person you are but the way my wife deserves"

Wedding Song: Die with a Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga

Man maybe it's just cause I'm obsessed with this song, but I can just picture Cater and his new stunning wife dancing in the romantic lighting of the wedding reception to this heart warming song, that makes me wanna fall in love with someone so baddddd.

Honeymoon-

Whatever the equivalent to Greece in twisted wonderland that is exactly where your going. Think mamma Mia vibes. Maybe you're on an island, an island by the mainland with a Airbnb (well the test equivalent) that's right near the water with a stunning view, and you guys are near a market place too. You're out on the balcony where you're looking out into the sea as your husband wraps his arms around, his bare chest out and his head resting between your neck near the bruises and marks from the night before were, ones that he made sure were their himself.

Proposal- A part of me wants to say that he just randomly asks one day while you guys are eating dinner but I'mma trust him and say that he put some effort behind this because he loves you. So let's say you two were at a dinner with his family, and strangely enough the topic of marriage is brought up every so often. "You know lilies are pretty wedding flowers" "Don't you think that a summer wedding would be better than a winter wedding?" "Isn't the idea of settling down just darling, especially if you've been dating for a while, just seems like the logical next step doesn't it?". The only reason you weren't heavily suspicious is cause they always pondered out loud when you two would tie the knot. So by the time you left you hadn't really thought much about it. As you two head back to the car Ace asked if you wanna take a walk by the park that was only 20 minutes away walking and you were down. The walk was mostly quite the two of you just enjoying the scenery that there was to appreciate in the Queendom. Once you get to the park you two are walking deeper and deeper when you notice a small empty area near the flowers where fairy lights are set up? The fairy lights are hanging up on the branches of two trees and it was stunning, Rose petals dabbled around the area and you look at it in awe as your distracted you hear Ace clear his throat and you turn to him, on a single knee.

"Y/N, we've been together for, a while and I think I'm ready to spend my life with you, not as my girlfriend but as my wife, so would you like to be my wife?"

Ceremony-

An intimate wedding in a stunning garden. And there is totally fairy lights because when I think of Ace for some reason I think of fairy lights. Like imagine the fairy lights entangled in the seat to light your way to him and all the Rose petals and the smiles of your families. A beautiful arch adorned with roses the color of blood and ones a pure white as a compliment. Hints of gold everywhere really harp on the warm feel. Ace looks at you smirking, trying not to laugh, not cause anything's funny, just cause the fact this is even happening feels so unreal, you're seriously about to become his wife.

"Y/N, thank you choosing to stay by my side. I can be a hassle sometimes, you tell me as much, but you've never left. You've loved me and cared for me every step of the way. I plan to spend the rest of my days living up to being the perfect, or somewhat perfect, husband you deserve. I don't think I'll ever reach that standard but I'll do my damned hardest trying to. If you were to cut my heart open all you'd find is you, anything and everything about you. That is what I live for, to be your husband."

Wedding Song: I Think They Call This Love by Elliot James Reay

This song is so damn romantic and if Ace had to define you guys love I'm confident this is what he'd pick. If you haven't heard it listen to it please this song is so good and I really think it embodies Ace's love. If you've read my Rom-Com song picks you'll understand why, this song and that one have the same vibe in my opinion.

Honeymoon-

Yall totally going to like the TWST equivalent of Portugal. Imagine site seeing, Ace would say it's boring but he'd secretly be invested in the beauty of the culture and history. Especially all the palaces and market places. He loves it, the views are fabulous, the foods fantastic and the people are great. But his favorite part of this place isn't the white sand beaches, the detailed architecture or even the culture that was built into the place. His favorite part is when you two are left alone in your resort room when he's left to be between the warmth of your legs. Eyes to eyes, skin to skin. Yeah that's definitely the best part

Proposal-

He's nervous af. Sweaty palms, racing thoughts, stuff movements. This man is STRESSED. You two are taking a romantic blastcycle ride at sunset when he stops a cliff with a stunning view of a valley. You can just feel the nervousness radiating off of him and you rub his forearm to calm him, chuckling you ask him what's up and his face becomes flushed as he looks over his shoulder to the view right by the two of you as he begins to speak

"Y/N, you know that I love you.I'd do anything to ensure your happiness, even if it was without me. You're special to me, and that's why I hope you can have your happy beginning with me. Will you marry me?"

Ceremony-

Totally in a like a small chapel, with friends and family surrounding the two of you. The blue chrysanthemums and white jasmines decorate the chapel. The soft music of the wedding march playing as you make your way to him. He's sobbing. uncontrolably. You're just such a vision in white, you're beauty filling him with warmth but his love for you is really what has him in fat tears running down his cheek as he looks at you ever so lovingly, making your way to the start of your life together, forever.

"Y/N, I can barely describe my love for you. It transcends any word or saying or thought. I treasure anything and everything you say, do, think, or express. Your joy is precious and I'd do anything to preserve it and help it grow. I will do my best to be a dutiful and worthy husband. No gem could compare to the pricelessness of your love, everything I do will be to show my love for you."

Wedding Song: Line without a Hook by Ricky Montgomery

I have zero logical explanation behind this pick besides the fact this songs like Deuce, not voice wise, but tone wise. Something about this song is so moving and so Deuce kind of love, like this is how he would describe his love for you, but to him it'd never feel like enough, there's so much more to his love for you.

Honeymoon-

Sweden(the TWST equivalent ofc), like imagine you two staying in a quaint yet busy cute Swedish town. The warm lighting of the place and the warmth of the food, the people, the culture. Imagine waking to the sight of pure snow sitting on the buildings and people starting there day, the smell of fresh winter and the warmth of the hot chocolate warming you right up. But nothing can compare to the warmth you get from your now husbands bare skin against yours, warm and comforting. Your limbs entangled together under the sheets, very satisfied from the night before.

A/N: the fact this took me months get over with is ridiculous, let's hope the school year somehow, motivates me to write more. I dunno I guess when I don't feel busy I forget about all my writing but when I feel busy I wanna write desperately. Anyways, Ik I always say this then never release anything BUT FLOOD MY INBOX BABES. I will force myself to sit in front of my computer til I get something out of myself. You guys have great ideas and I'd love to recieve more to release more content, besides the ones I think of ofc.

If y'all think this deserves to be a series lmk, I think I'll actually be up to it

Heartsabyul Masterlist

TWST Masterlist

Grand Masterlist

[featguler]

we don't talk about it ────── you don't have the time — arda tries convincing you to come to his game.

♡ ────── pairing : arda güler x reader ♡ ────── tags : reader's gender, ethnicity, nationality, and appearance is not specified. situationship!arda guler. reader speaks turkish n is speaking turkish with arda in this. angsty i guess??? i keep asking myself why i keep on giving him these stressful situationship scenarios omfg ♡ ────── wordcount : 715 ♡ ────── notes : more situationship arda i literally dc. also sorry for not posting in a while im tiiiired with work and my intern!! >:(( title is from august by flipturn!! ♡ masterlist.

“So you can’t come?”

Arda breathes into the mic, his eyes immediately fluttering close as he hears shrugging on your end, his phone trapped between his shoulders and his ears.

“Yeah.”

Arda tries imagining you right now. He tries imagining the expression on your face, he tries imagining what you are doing—swaying around, sitting down, biting your nails, rolling your eyes—and he lets his fantasies feed more into his imminent heartbreak.

He is in the changing room. Practice was rough that day, though he thinks that maybe it’s just him. Brahim seems to be having the time of his life, and Federico is somewhere talking to Antonio about the shenanigans that his kids, plural now that the youngest have turned one, have been up to lately.

And the room is far from quiet.

It’s alive—full of Eduardo chanting a Spanish song that Vinícius just taught him, full of Jude giggling as he texts his family group chat, and it’s full of Arda’s ailing heart beating against his ribs.

“Sorry,” you mumble to his speaker. Normally, Arda would find a way to voice his disappointment; he would click his tongue, he would thump his head against the wall, he would hang the call and scream into his mouth. But not right now.

“It’s in a week,” he tries negotiating, “not a week, even. 10 days. It’s in 10 days.”

The background noise increases—maybe he’s hallucinating—and Arda decides that he wouldn’t let anyone notice his distress.

No.

A part of him is embarrassed that he’s mulling so much over someone who he has been pining for for ages. He wonders if his older teammates, like Toni or Luka, know what a situationship is. His mother certainly does not. He asked her.

And sure there’s nuances and context in every relationship, but it somehow feels humiliating to explain to his teammates that he’s sad over someone who he is crushing on, but is technically going out with, but also not dating, yet is in a relationship with.

“I know, Arda,” he hears something shifting on your end. “It’s just that I promised my friend that we would go hang out.”

“You can hang out at the Bernabeu,” he encourages, still, his voice light despite the disappointment anchoring his chest. “I’ll get you the tickets.”

Arda opens one eye and watches the changing room, making sure that nobody is giving him their time of day.

“I asked you a few days ago,” he mutters quietly, rubbing the back of his neck rather harshly at the pent up frustration he’s developed every time he speaks to you. “I mean, I asked you first. It’s not fair.”

“Not fair?”

You echo him, and Arda lets out a rather long, extravagant sigh.

“Sorry.”

“We’re not—” you sigh. “Not fair? And whose fault do you think that is?”

Arda bites his lips, thinking over his words.

“Sorry.” He sighs again. “My fault. It’s my fault.”

“Right,” you huff into the speaker.

“Right,” he repeats, before uttering out a weak, “I miss you.”

You didn’t answer him for a moment, and Arda fears that he might have lost his hearing, but he eventually hears a breath.

“I miss you too.”

“I miss you more.”

A stupid smile etched on his lips—an idiotic, hopeful smile.

“Whatever.” He can basically see you roll your eyes. “I’m still not coming. I’m not coming to any of your games, you hear me?”

Until you make it official. He can basically hear you say.

He’s had this conversation a million times, and for some reason, it’s not enough push for him to commit to a relationship. He feels like if it were anyone else, he would not have much of an issue in putting a label on your relationship.

But it’s you.

And he has spent so long wanting you. What if you become his, and then you leave? You break up with him, leave him shattered? There is no breakup if there is no relationship in the first place—the senseless voice in his head keeps on whispering—there is no being left alone if he never decided to stay.

“Tell me if you change your mind.”

You huff to the phone again. “See you, Arda.”

He holds back an I love you, and laughs softly.

“I’ll see you around.”

[yumiis]

ive had this idea for a while but idk if you have already done it (if you have please tag me) but like them being lovesick? like they are so in love with you, ive have literally seen ZERO of this. please and thank you!!!

YUP I LOVED WRITING THIS bc i myself get lovesick so EASILY so this came super easy to me

｡ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ｡ ﾟ。 sick for you ; blake, tanner, isaac

　 ﾟ･｡･ﾟ

genre; fluff

type; headcanons

read below!

BLAKE ;

Definitely keeps it to himself, doesn't let anyone else know he's feeling the way he's feeling.

The only one that would know he's feeling lovesick would probably be Isaac. Only because Isaac catches on to the small things really easily.

Isaac catches all Blake's little glances at you, he notices when his face goes red when you're mentioned.

As for how Blake feels when lovesick, he's super confined to his own brain and tries not to hang around you a whole lot, because he's scared he'll reveal himself and how he feels.

When he has to be around you though, he's always red in the face and trying to make small conversation with you.

Whether the conversation is awkward or not, he loves every time he talks to you, because he's getting somewhere.

He likes to buy you little gifts, just because. Y'know, he's in love with you. He takes note of stuff you like, because he wants to show he cares.

When he finally asks you out, or more so whenever Isaac told him to ask you out, and you say yes, he just pulls you in for the tightest hug ever.

TANNER ;

Oh my god he's such a fool when he's lovesick. He's the kind to feel physically sick when he's crushing on someone, because it hits him HARD.

Always feels giddy and happy around you, so he makes it a point to hang out with you when he can.

He's always cracking his best jokes around you to try and make you laugh, because when he hears you laugh it makes him so unbelievably happy.

Definitely the type to leave notes around you and label them as "-ur secret admirer <3" but he alters his handwriting so you don't actually know who it was.

The type to make jokes like "What if.. What if we held hands? Ahaha, only joking!" He is not joking.

He makes it so obvious, but you'd never tell him it was obvious, it'd break his heart.

After about a year of these shenanigans, he finally builds up the courage to ask you out. When you say yes, he has to stop himself from just jumping on you and kissing you.

ISAAC ;

He's subtle, but he's also not.. not subtle.

He likes to crack jokes like Tanner, "Hey, Y/n, how funny would it be if we dated?" "What?" "Nothing."

The only one to actively seek you out; he actually calls you and texts you daily. He isn't afraid of being straightforward!

He always texts you to see if you're down to hang out, and if you say yes, he feels physically sick all day.

Absolutely loves being around you, but it also makes him feel like he's gonna vomit.

That feeling doesn't stop until you guys are actually dating.

Him and Tanner are pretty similar, aside from the fact that Isaac actually makes moves.

He peppers in some pet names that could kind of be passed off as platonic, but his heart could burst when you smile at the fact of him calling you 'dear'.

When he finally asks you out, and you say yes, he could fall to his knees right then and there.

[blackenedsnow]

Ooo I have another fun idea! How about a friends with benefits relationship with Beetlejuice which ends up turning into genuine romance?

Like they literally met because Beetlejuice tried marrying them to get free, which doesn't work, and he ends up continuing to seek the reader out because they interest him and they go along with his shenanigans

During all those years they've known each other they've ended up being very close friends and roommates of sorts (who have absolutely slept with each other multiple times and will continue to do so) but they also unconsciously tend to act like an actual, loving couple

Anyone mistakes them for being a couple? Neither or them correct or deny that claim and just go along with it

Then Beetlejuice ends up realizing that he's deeply in love with them and he genuinely wants to marry them, not just to be free anymore

Sorry for rambling, this is how I write my oc's relationship with him and it's so much fun to write :3

dead serious

WARNING: None

PAIRING: Beetlejuice x Reader

NOTE: I love this idea SO much! Thank you for sending this request, and I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to drop more ideas like this anytime—I'd love to bring them to life. <3

SUMMARY: Beetlejuice thought it was just a bit of fun—until one day, he realizes he’s dead serious about you.

It all started with Beetlejuice trying to marry you.

The memory was a bit of a haze, him in that ridiculous striped tux, a minister who’d looked like he’d stepped out of a Halloween party, and a whole lot of confusion. Of course, the whole “marriage for freedom” thing didn’t work out, and somewhere between you foiling his plan and that wicked glint in his eye, Beetlejuice decided you were worth sticking around for.

Over the years, you two had… an arrangement. It was strange, fun, sometimes loud, and weirdly comfortable. You became roommates of sorts, though he tended to crash wherever suited his mood—on the couch, on the floor, in random places all over your home. You’d gone from reluctantly amused by him to genuinely fond of him. The playful insults, the late nights, the times you both ended up in each other’s arms—it all somehow just worked.

And despite both of you calling it “friends with benefits”, anyone who saw you two together assumed you were a couple. You two acted the part without even realizing it: hanging off each other, teasing, little gestures that were oddly affectionate. Beetlejuice’s arm often found its way around your shoulders, or you’d catch him leaning into your space with that wolfish grin of his, not minding any extra closeness.

Every time someone would go, “Oh, so you two are together?” Beetlejuice would just flash his sharp grin and shrug, “They just can’t get enough of me.” And you? You’d just roll your eyes and play along, half-laughing, “Someone’s gotta put up with him, right?”

But then one day, Beetlejuice started realizing that his feelings were a little too real. Maybe it was the time you calmed him down after he’d picked a fight with some Neitherworld spirits, gently telling him to stop being such an idiot as he just grinned at you, too close for comfort. Or maybe it was the time he woke up, half-sprawled across your lap, and you’d fallen asleep right beside him, looking peaceful in a way that made something in his long-dead heart flicker.

But the moment that hit him hardest was the time a stranger came up and assumed you were married.

“Oh, how long have you two been together?” they asked, clearly mistaking the two of you as something much more than a casual fling. Beetlejuice looked at you, wondering if you’d laugh it off as usual, but instead, you just shrugged with a grin, “Feels like forever, doesn’t it, Beej?”

“Yeah,” he murmured, caught off guard by the sudden warmth he felt in his chest. “Forever and then some.”

That was the beginning of the end—he couldn’t deny it anymore. He didn’t just want to mess around, have his fun, or even just be free from the Neitherworld. He wanted you. He wanted to be the one who could make you laugh, who you’d come home to, who you’d stick around for.

You two were in your usual rhythm when it happened. You were in the kitchen, cooking up something simple, and he was leaning against the counter, watching you with a smirk.

“Ya know,” he said, “you’re real cute when you’re domestic.”

You raised an eyebrow, flipping something in the pan. “Thanks, I guess? You’ve seen me make breakfast, like, a hundred times.”

“Yeah, but it’s still cute,” he said, brushing it off like it was no big deal. He got that look in his eye, though—the one that said he was winding up for something.

As you turned to grab something from the fridge, you felt him sidle up behind you. His hands rested on either side of you, and he dipped his head down, voice going surprisingly soft.

“I think I’m in love with you.”

You froze. For a moment, you thought maybe he was joking, this was so random, but something in his tone was different, almost… vulnerable.

“Uh,” you said, turning around to face him, a smile tugging at the corner of your lips, “are you serious?”

He gave a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his head. “As serious as I get, babe! Which, y’know, is pretty serious.” There was a nervous glint in his eye, something real.

You stared at him, feeling a rush of emotions you hadn’t fully let yourself consider before. He was looking at you like he’d just discovered something precious.

“You mean it?” you asked, still not entirely believing it.

He groaned, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, mushy stuff. I mean it, alright? I’m not saying it just to, y’know…” He shrugged, looking off to the side, “get outta the Neitherworld or whatever. I just�� want to.”

A warmth spread in your chest. “Well, I… I love you too.”

His eyes lit up, and his grin widened until it looked like it would split his face. “See? We’re a match made in—well, not heaven, but close enough!”

You chuckled, rolling your eyes. “How romantic.”

“Oh, you love it,” he said, pulling you into a kiss that was surprisingly soft, lingering in a way that felt different from all the other times. When you broke apart, he looked at you with a glimmer of something new, something genuine. But still... ew.

“Say, what d’you think about actually making it official?” he asked, voice a little gruffer than usual. “I know the whole marriage thing didn’t pan out last time, but what if we tried again? For real.”

You blinked, taking a moment to process. “You’re not just doing this to get out of—”

“Nah,” he interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. “I mean, yeah, I’d love to get free of the Neitherworld for good, but that’s not why I’m asking now. I’m askin’ ’cause… well, it’s you.”

A lump formed in your throat, and you nodded. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

[000marie198]

Are there any sonic au’s you would recommend? I am trying to find more to get into so would love to know if you have any favourites out there :D

Hello! Oh there are so many! :D I definitely have some favorites and some which aren't favs but are pretty great.

Putting these under the cut because there are so many! And there's definitely more cool AUs that I haven't seen or haven't saved.

Anyways, please enjoy my personal selection:

Seven Years Too Soon by NightFuchia. Basically what if a much younger Sonic accidentally set Shadow free from Prison Island. It has awesome characterization and happens to be one of my favorite stories. The rest of Team Sonic is also present

Brotherhood's Twist by @/drawloverlala even though I don't think it counts entirely as Au but it still sort of does. Unbreakable Bond ageswitch due to Zeti's meddling.

Passion's @sonic-tangled-au . I love it! So very much. The lore and backstories are so good.

Noonui's World Restored in Imbalanced Chaos au. Extremely engaging and good. Has a bunch of world building and fun concepts and lore.

Sonic's Super Totally Awesome Mixtape, though it seems to be discontinued, I'm not sure. It's pretty good so far! Takes place in the movie verse.

@brainworms-all-night-long is working on a Dreamtale Au which I'm hyped for. The tag in use is 'dreamtale and sonic tomfoolery'.

@/the-starlight-project comic is pretty good too. Mystery! And emotions. So many emotions ough.

And there's @the-emerald-isle-au by @0vergrowngraveyard . Very intriguing. 👀

Please do check out the Pandora Au by @/starrjoy. It's great!

The Fair Folk by Irritable_Fabulamancer, this fic is one of my favorites! Team Sonic as Fae my beloved! I love fae AUs.

On that note, if you're alright wanting to read a Fae!AU which is pretty much a sonadow fic, there is also I don't believe in fairy tales [but I believe in you and me]. Fantasy and Fae! Satbk inspired, another one that had me hooked.

My Arms Are Blue by thekyuubivixen and its unofficial, fan-continuation (My Arms Are Blue! Final Four Edition) by PlaystationPassenger. The story doesn't completely count as an AU but I'm recommending them anyway cuz they're really really good and has that watching your own show from different dimension trope. It's also hilarious and fun.

Burning Arrow, Wildfire Heart by Taranea is SatSR novelisation AU with Sonic's other friends present too, it's pretty fun. Not very accurate regarding the desert but it's a good read and I come back to reread it often. Must read in my opinion. Just don't dare use it as guide for desert travel or you'll be shriveled up in the sand somewhere

This fic. Read it, I will not elaborate this one. Just trust me :]

And don't miss out on @shadofiredragon's Legends Never Die fic. It's a future fic! And an awesome one. I won't spoil much but it is so good. She also has lots of fun AUs in the works.

Down the Foxhole series by MoonlitNightin. Sonic Prime AU series which is great! Tails' pov. The Shatterverses have their own Sonics. Engaging and great.

Feel free to check out @/Son1c's 10verse and other AUs. Those are some pretty great ones. Love the different lore and variants given to the Shatterverses in 10verse.

Spirit of the Wind by TrenchCoatGecko. Satbk inspired fantasy au. Sonamy, has focus on magic and lore and other characters as well.

If you'd like some Forces angst with Unbreakable Bond focus, please do read Illusionary are your arms around me by @nixoon-again. The feels will kill you /pos

Chaos Barren by but_why_not. I forgot to add this earlier (this is an edited addition). Takes place in the Blue Devils AU, great story!

Baby Tails shenanigans by @myymi . Tails got turned into itty bitty infant kit. (And also check @0vergrowngraveyard 'baby tails' tag for more little gremlin scenarios)

Myla is also working on @tails-and-the-ink-machine au

Feral au by Oneshot_bravo. Little short stories or drabbles taking place in Unleashed but the werehog is feral yet keeps his memories. Very lighthearted and fun and cute

Three or more foxes form a skulk by @/chiropter36 . Post Prime au fic, loved it! Go read.

Also, @donelywell 'roadtrip! sonic au' and 'Casino Nights Au'

Haven't yet started reading The Fox's Burrow by @/space-gutz but I'm planning to. Recommending it either way cuz I feel like it's gonna be good. Unbreakable Bond but ageswaped au.

@/sonicchaoscontrol comic. Another in-progress au which is also quite intriguing. Sonic jumps through a portal and exits in future where the planet is a mess. The mystery of what and how it all happened and what's going on slowly unfolds.

The Buzzsaw Dillemma by redpenship. I haven't personally read it myself but I've heard many good things about it, especially it's world building.

Incomplete and won't be updated anymore but if you haven't read them yet, DO NOT miss out on Ghosts of the Future and The Murder of Me fancomics by Evan Stanley (spiritsonic) and Gigi Deutrix (gigi-D) respectively. They're a must read. Both are available on DeviantArt.

The Heart of a Monster comic, @/the-heart-of-a-monster. It's in progress and updates regularly. Unleashed retelling, really really good with some extra lore and everyone involved.

Sometimes the Picket Fence isn’t Perfect and Sharp Edges (Sonic Prime AU) series by @/skimmingthesurfaces. I'm holding off the first one to read later, like that one book you've been saving so I'm not sure if it completely counts as an AU, still putting it in recs, and the second one is intriguing so far. I have heard a lot of good thing about the Picket Fence series.

Dark Boom by Smash50. The entirety of Team Dark in the Sonic Boom universe. Alongside it, there's also Boomtober by the same author.

It Always Snows by the 24th by Selendred had me hooked even though it's a oneshot. Great au and would love to see it explored more.

No One said I Wish by SylWritesStuff. One of my fav stories from the Sonic Platonic Fairytale Week event. It's really funny.

Sonic Phantom Forces (SPF) au comic. Sonic Forces au, blue boy gets taken away but not in the way you think, pretty cool story so far. It's in-progress and available on both Tumblr and DeviantArt. @/spfau

If Black Doom tried to be a better father by Tirainy. Don't take this one seriously. It's pure comedy and I love every second of it. Shadow is having a time for sure XD.

Silent Talkers by @brainworms-all-night-long. Takes place in the Prime Bros verse, feels intensified, all the good ones. A must read, trust me.

And speaking of the Prime Bros AU (in which all Shatterverse foxes also got adopted by Sonic and are now brothers), feel free to scroll through the 'prime bros' tag here. So many awesome posts for this particular au by everyone!

There's so many more, cool ones, epic ones. I haven't saved all and I'm probably forgetting some great ones too so I'm leaving this open for others to add. If y'all have more cool AUs, plz add to these (I wanna check em out too)

....

And now a few from the Fanfiction.net site because it doesn't have much audience compared to AO3 and there are some actual gems hidden there;

Premonition by thekiyuubivixen (not entirely an au but it feels like one due to the unique ability Sonic gains)

The Sonic Project by SconnieSA. Rated M but it's a pretty awesome AU and the rating is due to more serious themes and uncensored language in some parts. Highly recommending this one

Survivor's Resolve by DC111. Not entirely an AU but I must rec this fic it's so good and doea havs some AU vibes.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Attorney of Law by thedraconicwerewolf. Ace Attorney type AU with Sonic and Tails as main characters. Not too adventurous but very very fun and interesting and still managed to keep Sonic in character. Though it has a sequel started, I only rec the main story, not the sequal as it seems to be abandoned and isn't needed to be read like them cliffhanger stories.

beLIEve by Meow21. I have only read snippets from this, waiting for this story to continue but it seems to be discontinued. Felt like an epic story too and deserves to be recommended.

Sonic and the Golden Journey. Sonic gets thrown in another storybook, this time it's a children's classic fairytale. Short but very comedic and fun. Go read it.

Tales of a Samurai. I am begging you to read this one, please it's so good. Also by Taranea.

Wonderful and it's sequal Sanctuary by Inflamore for some Unbreakable Bond angst. (Kindly ignore the obliviousness of earlier ff.net for not knowing the meaning of certain symbols, there's nothing of the sort in story, trust me.)

Regrets by MazzyBooks. A high school au of sorts. Sonic centric with some heavy angst. I'm not kidding about the angst part, trust me. It had me hooked from the first chapter though and I believe it deserves a rec.

You need the cracks (to let the light shine through) by king.needlemouse. Istg this is the most underrated thing I've ever come across, it's one of my absolute favorite fics which I can never forget. Do read it.

Within this Nightmare by sonicfan1990. Sonic get transported to an alternate universe which has gone post apocalyptic and his counterpart in that universe has been dead. Pretty great story, lots of angst and everything.

And that's all I could remember and have saved for now. I'm leaving this open to more AU recs (yes even self plugs are welcome) so if you know any I missed, plz feel free to add. I hope you enjoy all these great AUs!

Thanks for the ask!

[laswells-ashtray]

(Mother-hen)Price and (Father-hen)Nikolai antics and shenanigans.

I dunno, let’s just say that one day Soap and Gaz get hurt when roughhousing and the two try to play it off like nothing happened. Well, two minutes later Price has them both sat down and is scolding them while he patches them up, saying something about how they’re always ‘too rough’ and how they need to ‘settle down before they make a mess’.

Nik is always the icebreaker in the situation, cracking jokes here and there to soften the blows Price delivers and making promises that they’d go to the shooting range later and have a competition on who the best shot is.

I also think that when Ghost doesn’t take care of himself like he usually does, they all get worried, but not as worried as Price.

He won’t barge or force Ghost to talk, but he will stick around longer than he usually does and keeps an eye on him for a second more before going about his business. He’ll also give him meals that he randomly made throughout the day and makes sure he eats before moving on to whatever he was doing.

Nik on the other hand just invites Ghost to help him fix his helicopter, and when the two finish they’ll sit on the floor of it and quietly have a cigarette together before going about their day.

…

Also, random side note: how was your Thanksgiving? Hope the food-crash was delectable bc mines was.

I won't lie I am deeply Scottish and have never done a Thanksgiving event/dinner in my life. But my day was generally uneventful in a good way, I had a tattoo consultation that day and my artist likes me so it was chill.

I've always held the belief that they don't intentionally practice awful self-care but as men so busy with their jobs and also the entire traumatic response of constantly being surrounded by the carnage and bloodshed they find themselves some days at 3am wondering when the last time they drank water or ate anything slowly enough to taste it was.

I think while Nikolai can also suffer [as a treat], he's the best at staying on track and keeping the rest of them on track and Price falls into the mentality of those are his boys and he'll be in a body bag long before he lets one of them get there.

That being said:

"Lads, it's a spar not a fuckin' scrap. Act yer age, not yer shoe size."

Both Soap and Gaz pause, heads popping up to look at him in a way that's reminiscent of meerkats. They'd been rougher than usual and for a second John had wondered if they had been trying to work something out off of the field. He knew better though, if they two argued then neither of them would exchange a word until they got their heads out of their arses and then got drunk together after it all washed over.

"Wisnae tnhat bad, wis it, Gaz?"

He can see MacTavish wince as he straightens up, a hand hovering over his ribs and the trail of dried blood coming from his nose is far from subtle.

"Just dickin' about, sir."

Garrick's lip is split and a drop of fresh blood bubbles from it when he smirks, he's also avoiding resting his weight on his right leg.

"Bench." Is all he answers with, heading away to grab a first aid kit they, after many mildly violent incidents, decided to keep in the gym.

By the time he reaches the bench the two sergeants are nudging each other and bickering like boys, Soap nudges Gaz's foot and in retaliation, Gaz elbows him. In a horrific moment of self-awareness John realises he had been much worse as a sergeant. He quickly packs that thought away in a mental box entitled "things I'll never admit to Mac" somewhere between the shirt thing and the river incident.

"Quit it, you're supposed to leave the blood to the field." He scolds half-heartedly before setting to work trying to fix however they'd fucked Soap's nose.

He's passing Gaz an icepack for his foot when Nik walks in, shaking his head in mock disapproval as he approaches. The act is ruined by his immediate questioning.

"Who won?"

John cuts in before it can delve into another round of bitching.

"The people who're trying to put us in caskets if that's how the two of them fight."

He's met with a snort and two affronted squawks before he's assaulted with a barrage of verbal bullshit defences that he doesn't pay attention to.

He looks back at Nik with a curious expression.

"Hangar, babysitting after the bird."

The disbelief on his face is about as subtle as a hand grenade.

"All by his lonesome?"

There's an almost sheepish look on Nikolai's face until he relents.

"He is smoking."

"That's more like it. You two will be joining us in the mess later, I take it." It isn't a question, Nik doesn't mistake it as one.

"Да, captain." Nikolai would drag Simon by the scruff of his neck like a cat if he had to.

"Good."

[turtlecleric]

Me: We don't give rise!Raph enough attention

Me to me: Then write something for him

Me: ...

Me: ...

Me: You've convinced me

-

Female pronouns used, suggestive toward the end but nothing happens because Raph is a gentleman, I promise

---

"Told you she wouldn't last."

For a moment, Raph doesn't know what Leo's talking about. Then he follows his brother's amused gaze to where you're passed out on the couch and smirks right along with him. You'd been so adamant - so stubborn. All those claims that yes, you were gonna make it through all three movies they'd picked. Yes, really. All three. 100%, for sure, you would not fall asleep. And here you were. Halfway through the first one and already out cold.

You make a small sound in your sleep, your brow twitching slightly before smoothing out once more. Raph feels himself soften, feels his smirk shift into a genuine smile. He couldn't blame you, really. You'd taken a double shift today and still come by for movie night. Even now, as you slept, he could see the exhaustion weighing you down.

"Eh, leave her alone, Leo," Raph says, keeping his voice low despite how loud the others were being as they quoted the movie and tossed popcorn into each other's mouths. "She deserves some rest."

Leo is quiet for a moment. Then he speaks with a tone that hints at something that Raph doesn't quite catch. "She deserves to sleep somewhere better than our ratty couch. Don't you think?"

Raph pulls his eyes away from your face, trying to read Leo's expression and failing. He's not smirking anymore, but there's something there that Raph isn't seeing. "...Yeah. I guess so."

Leo hums. The corners of his mouth tick upward. "Maybe you should take her to your room. Quieter there, yeah? More comfy, too."

Raph narrows his eyes. Searches Leo's face. Looks back at you, noting that your neck is at an awkward angle against the arm of the couch. Looks back at Leo.

Hm. That tone usually means Leo is up to something, but he's not wrong. And Raph would hate for you to get woken up by their stupid shenanigans after you'd had such a long week.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll, uh," Raph grunts as he pushes himself up to stand. "I'll let her have my room tonight."

He gently scoops you up, and his stomach does a strange little flutter. Too much soda. Or too much pizza, maybe. Either way, he pushes it down, carrying you slowly so he doesn't jostle you too much. You're warm. Soft. Pliant in his arms.

He's walking slowly so he doesn't wake you. That's all.

When he makes it to his room, he's pleased to find that it is, in fact, much quieter in here. Slowly, gently, he lowers you into the bed and pulls the covers up to tuck you in. You don't wake, though you do make another soft sound in the back of your throat. There's another flutter in his stomach.

Weird.

He pulls back, knowing he should return to the movie, but. He doesn't move. He doesn't really know why, but he wants to... stay. Watch you sleep.

Wait, that's creepy, isn't it? He should go. He should...

He wants to stay, though.

"Raphie?"

Your voice makes him jump despite how quiet and raspy it is from sleep. He feels his cheeks heat, feels his eyes widen as he takes in your bleary stare. He clears his throat, squeaking out, "Yeah?"

You look so tired. Barely even conscious. Even as you reach out a hand, making a grabby gesture at him, he can tell you're still halfway asleep. It's... really fucking cute. And then you speak again.

"Lay with me?"

Okay, now his chest is doing something weird. He's really starting to wonder if he's actually getting sick or something.

You're still reaching for him, your arm starting to shake in the air and your mouth pulling into an adorable pout despite your eyes having fallen closed once again. Then you make a sound of distress that has him huffing out an exasperated, fond sigh.

You're gonna be so embarrassed when you wake up tomorrow, Raph thinks.

He climbs into bed, settling in behind you. Careful, always careful, he places an arm across your waist and holds you closer. It's not close enough, apparently, as you scoot yourself backward so that your back is flush against his plastron, so that your legs tangle with his. You pull his arm from your waist to your chest, wrapping both of your arms around it and holding it close. He stiffens at that, while you let out a contented sigh.

Something is definitely wrong with him. His heart is beating way too fast, and his chest feels like it's... too full? Or something? He should leave so you don't catch whatever it is that has him feeling so-

You make another breathy sound in your sleep. It's completely innocent, it's just a sound, but at the same time... it does something to him. With him pressed so closely against you, with his arm trapped against your chest and the smell of your shampoo in his nose and the way the blanket falls over your curves, he suddenly has the mortifying thought that he wants to-

Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

He's going to kill Leo tomorrow.

[ihavethedreamies]

Best Friend's Brother | Doyoung

Kim Dongyoung (Doyoung - NCT 127)

Rating: M (18+) MDNI

Word Count: ~5.4k

Pairing: Doyoung x AFAB!Reader

Genre: Reader-Insert, Smut, Some Plot, Friends to Lovers

!!This is smut…if that much isn't clear you should probably leave now!! MDNI!

Warnings: She/Her Pronouns used, Small Age Difference (Like 5 years, reader is 19 and he's 24), Swearing, Kissing, Oral (M! Receiving), Fingering, Spanking (once or twice), Unprotected Sex (Use a condom! She's on the pill)

Author's Note: I wrote this a long time ago and had it saved somewhere else and totally forgot about it till the other day, lol. I Beta-ed it myself but there might be some errors still.

I am cross-posting this on Archive and Wattpad. Please reblog! If you know anyone that would like this or future fics but they aren't on here my name and icon are exactly the same on the other sites. Happy reading!

You had always had eyes for your friend's brother. It was nearly impossible not to give the fact that he was simultaneously the cutest and hottest thing on the face of the earth. There were times where Doyoung would smile or laugh and you heart would melt; the other times he would get angry or annoyed, and THAT look…made your ovaries explode. His broad shoulders and narrow build appealed to you more than the ripped guys you'd meet at the gym. You did always wonder what he had hiding under there though, because every time you were at the pool, he either didn’t get in or wore a shirt…Though, the wet fabric clinging to his body didn’t leave too much to the imagination. The worst part though, was that your best friend knew EVERYTHING. And she would tease you mercilessly for it. She was never disgusted by your crush on her brother; however, she requested to never have to see anything between the two of you. Fat chance at anything happening though. To him, you were like another little sister. You had been friends with his actual sister for many, many years, and he probably still saw you as the toothless six-year-old that hit him in the head with a plastic baseball bat. It wasn’t on purpose of course, but he, and his sister, never let you live it down.

Luckily, since he was five years older, there was never a point where you two were at the same school. You weren’t sure you could handle all the stares and attention he got from other girls, because he for damn sure got it. You remembered one valentine's day the amount of chocolates and notes he brought home from school. The year after you had decided to make chocolates for him yourself, but when they turned out terribly misshapen -still tasty- you ate them yourself.

Little did he know, you had a framed picture with him on your vanity…Not in a creepy way. It was from a few summers back where your group of friends had gone camping and he went along with some of his friends to basically chaperone. Therefore, there were other people in the picture, not just him. Your favorite part of it was that he is standing behind you with that beautiful smile, his hand resting on your head. Right after the picture was taken, he ruffled your hair, then dispersed with the rest of the group. That night, several of your friends flirted and joked with his friends, but you and he sat aside, watching the shenanigans. You were both exhausted but would be teased endlessly if you went to bed, so you sat together under a tree watching the fireflies. It wasn’t until later that you had found out you had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and he fell asleep with his head resting on yours. Rumor had it, your best friend had a picture, but refused to show you. She claimed she needed it for when she did something otherwise unforgivable and needed an out.

One day you were over at her apartment, both of you studying on a hot late-spring day, the open windows allowing for a nice breeze to waft through. Her apartment was settled above her aunt's bakery and so she got a discount on rent. Since their aunt and uncle had no children themselves, Doyoung was set to inherit the business in a few years. On nice days, they would sit outside and offer samples and coupons to people walking by, and his beautiful face always drew people in like flies. It was honestly amazing to listen to him chuckle and converse with customers, but also distracted you from your studies. Often your friend would catch you, eyes closed, reveling in listening to him, daydreaming.

"Yah! Get to work." She tapped the end of her pencil on your notebook.

"Sorry." You snapped out of it and got back to taking notes. Summer break was approaching, which meant so were finals. Not too worried about it you realized you might gain a reason to be if you continued to drift off into Doyoung land. It had become soon to closing time for the bakery, staying open till about six pm that time of year. You decided to take a break and got off the floor to pace her apartment. The remnants of the food you had delivered had been put in the refrigerator and the dishes had long since been picked up by the delivery boy. Opening the fridge, you scan through it, feeling a bit snacky but not sure what you wanted. You also had a bad habit of opening the fridge when in the kitchen even if you weren’t hungry. Going to the small balcony, you leaned on the railing to watch Doyoung sweeping in front of the store and wiping tables down. The sleeves of his white button-up were rolled to above his elbow, and his jeans were perfectly hugging-

"How's studying going?" His voice startled you and your eyes moved from his ass to his eyes. He was looking up at you like a curious bunny and it was the cutest freaking-

"Uh, it's going." You huffed a small laugh awkwardly, hoping he didn’t catch you staring.

"Do you need any help?" He asked and you blinked back. Should you take the opportunity? You really didn’t need help…You glanced behind you at the pile of books and papers on the table, as well as his sister conked out, drooling on her homework.

"Uh, yes please. I'll be right down!" You called as quietly as you could for him to still hear you, but not wake her up, and shuffled back inside to grab your study materials. Your sandals flapped on the stairs as you descended the outside staircase and moved to meet him out front.

"Let's go sit inside, it’s a bit cooler." He smiled and motioned for you to follow. He closed the doors, flipped the sign to closed, and you found a table. There were only three small tables inside, so you had to put some of your stuff on the windowsill next to you. He removed his apron - dear lord his buttons were STRUGGLING - and moved the chair from across to next to you.

"What class are you studying for right now?" He asked.

"Advanced World History." You weren’t exactly having trouble, but it was the hardest class you needed to study for. His eyes widened then he blinked at you.

"You're, what, a second year? I could have never at nineteen." He shook his head.

"Can you now?" You asked and he laughed. Your heart thudded so hard it's like she fell over the railing of a balcony.

"I can try…I should have asked what class before I offered." He huffed a nervous laugh.

"Well, maybe you can just help me go over the study guide. You know, make sure I know what I'm talking about." You handed him a green-paper packet and he turned his chair to face you better, leaning back into it. He began to go over questions, and you answered, but he tripped you up. You had memorized them in order, and he was reading off at random. This meant you had to actually know what the answer was instead of relying on repetition.

"Daeng! Try again!" He eyed you over the top of the paper playfully. You crinkled your nose, thinking.

"You're so cute." he whispered, but you heard it. Your head shot up to stare at him, and realization crossed his face that he said it out loud. You expected him to brush it off as some little sister thing, but his cheeks and ears turned a bright red.

"I'm cute? Me? No, no, you're cute." You had no idea where the confident flirtation came from, but you were dead serious. He blinked at you again.

"Cute." You pointed at him. Your deadpan stare and serious tone caught him off guard. He cleared his throat nervously and wouldn’t meet your eye.

"Next question." You waved the situation off, screaming inside. It was like you were having an out-of-body-experience and your filter had been removed, letting him your instinctual thoughts.

"You really think I'm cute?" He put the paper down, sitting up straight.

"You are the cutest thing on the face of the earth." Once again, you were completely serious. His whole face bloomed red, and he brought his hand to his mouth, trying to hide his giddy smile.

"Come on, keep going, we didn’t finish." You pushed the paper toward him, but he just glanced at it.

"Questions." You poked the paper.

"How long have you thought I was cute?" He put his hand down, the embarrassment dissipating and turning to smugness.

"Forever, continue." Paper was shoved. Finally, he picked up the packet and when his face was hidden, you released a rush of air to try and calm down.

"On a level of one to ten, how cute am I?" Man, he was like a dog with a bone. You rolled your eyes.

"Eleven."

"How long have you liked me?" That threw you off a bit.

"I never said I liked you-" You tried to play it off. He put the packet down.

"You think I'm cute." He smirked.

"Puppies are cute, bunnies are cute, you are cute. In what world does that mean I like you?"

"Why do you have the hoodie I lost a few years ago in your closet?"

"H-how did you know about that?"

"Saw it in the picture on your story when you were modeling the animal onesies you two got to match."

"It could have been any red hoodie; how did you know it's yours?"

"I didn’t…not until now. Plus… it’s way too big." He smirked and your violent intentions flared to life.

"You little shit!" You scolded and he guffawed. You were sure your face was as red as that sweatshirt.

"How did you even get it?" He questioned and you exhaled harshly.

"I was at your house when it was just me and your sister. We had ordered pizza, but I was in my bathing suit since we were playing with the hose outside in the heat. The doorbell rang and I wasn’t answering the door in my school swimsuit, so I grabbed the first thing out of the clean laundry I could find." You shared and he hummed.

"Just you in my hoodie, hm?" His gaze had changed, and you weren’t sure how to feel.

"Oh, hush, pervert." You mumbled, glancing out the window at the setting sun. You heard the chair scrape on the floor, then felt him standing next to you, close enough to feel his warmth. Turning to glare up at him, your neck cracked having to bend back too far. He was so close. If you breathed too deeply your chest would brush against him. That thought made your breath hitch. Do not breathe. However, the air was stolen from your lungs when his hands, his BEAUTIFUL hands, cupped your jaw.

"Can I kiss you?" He whispered, his lips already slightly touching yours.

"Ye-" You didn’t even finish your acceptance and he instantly latched onto you. You whined, any sass draining from you instantly. Carefully, you lifted your arms and clutched his shirt above where it was tucked into his jeans. His hand moved from your jaw to back of your neck, deepening the kiss. His other hand ran down your arm and settled politely on your waist. Doyoung finally pulled away and your breath came out harsh, sucking in air. After your lung's respite, he was on you again, this time his tongue snuck past your lips, brushing at yours. You gasped and he swallowed it, backing you up till your back hit the wall. Both hands ended up pinning you in as he placed them on the wall and your hands left his side the clutch the fabric over his chest. Once again, he pulled away right as you needed to tap out for air. A small trail of saliva connected your lips, and he licked over his own, breaking the connection. He moved to bend down, most likely to kiss your neck, but you stopped him.

"We can’t, not here. Your sister could come down any minute. At least let me get the rest of my stuff. We can go to my place, it’s closer." You whispered and he backed up a bit.

"Don’t you live in a dorm?"

"Yes, but my roommate works nights." You were still so close that your lips brushed as you talked. He grunted, backing up, and you moved toward the door so fast, you almost slipped. Your left sandal came partially off, and you fixed it, before shuffling rapidly out and upstairs again. Being as quiet as possible, you entered her apartment and grabbed your other things, shoving them in your bag. You bumped your leg on the table as you moved around and fought back a grunt. His sister was still asleep, so you laid a blanket over her shoulders and shut the windows, hitting your leg again on  the other corner of the table. Coming down about five minutes later, you saw he was behind the counter when you reentered, probably finishing last-minute business. You shoved all your study materials haphazardly into your bag and then waited patiently for him to finish. You were sure you looked EXTRA sexy with frizzy humidity hair, panting like an old dog with two still-forming bruises on your shins. He went into the back then came out with his own bag and smiled innocently as he met you.

"Ready?" He whispered directly into your ear, and you wanted to scream YES! but refrained.

"Yep." You tried to stay casual, and he chuckled. He led you outside and across the street to his car. It was nice, not super fancy, but still pretty nice. It was a dark blue with black leather seats. You weren’t sure your bare, sweaty thighs would love the upholstery. Getting in, you threw your bag in the back along with his and before you could reach for your seatbelt, he was doing it for you. Right as he clicked it, he gave you a brief peck on the lips. He went to start the car and your hand flung out to rest on his arm.

"Wait…I need to know, what- how do you feel about me?" You did not want this to be a one-night stand, a fling. You were pretty sure this was more than a crush, could be full-on love, and you didn’t want your heart broken. Especially not by him, anyone but Doyoung. His gaze turned to you, soft, and he sighed.

"Honestly, it was last year that I really realized what was going on. It was your birthday party at the noraebang, and you were singing with one of the guys there. I don’t remember his name. Anyway, it was a romantic duet and despite the fact that he could sing, and you cannot-"

"Hey!"

"I couldn’t stand seeing you so close to another guy. Watching you struggle to read the prompter because your contacts weren’t the right prescription, was just so freaking cute. Then you smiled at me so brightly when the song ended, at least I saw it that way. I only wanted you to smile at ME like that. I've been hiding it, because I didn’t think you would want to go out with your friend's big brother…" He tapped awkwardly on the steering wheel, giving you a sheepish look.

"My dude, that is like the most popular trope in fanfiction, you realize that right?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, that and a daddy kink-"

"Okay, thanks, that's all I need to know!" He sighed again.

"I really, really like you." He finished and you brought your hand to rest on his, wrapping your fingers around his, resting them on the center console.

"I really, really, really like you." You emphasized the third really. He smiled sweetly and leaned in to kiss your forehead.

"If this is too fast for you-"

"I have been waiting YEARS for this. Drive!" You pointed forward and he laughed, doing as you said. Once you got to campus, you directed him to the parking lot nearest your dorm building. There were still people walking about in the dusk light, and you grabbed your stuff and his hand, leading him inside. Going up to your floor, you drag him down the hall, awkwardly nodding to your neighbors. They were gawking at Doyoung, and it pissed you off. You grumbled as your keycard refused to work the first time, getting more upset that you were letting them eye-hump your man…In reality it was probably because there was a dude there, not what he looked like. You finally saw the light turn green and heard the lock click open. Shoving the door open, you yanked him inside. Throwing your bag on the floor, you used your card to enter your room as he looked around the tiny dorm living room. Another room was across from yours where two other girls lived.

"Don’t worry these walls are REALLY soundproof." You reassured, shutting the door as he entered.

"How do you know that?" He smirked and you rolled your eyes.

"Because if one of them ever brings a guy, I don’t hear anything." You motioned vaguely. While your room was clean, bed made, you panicked upon seeing your rabbit stuffed animal on the bed. You grabbed it, its name might or might not have been Doyoung, and yeeted it into your closet.

"What are you hiding?" He teased and you closed the door to the closet, before being backed into it.

"Nothing." You tried to cover the act up by resting your forearms on his shoulders, linking your hands behind his neck. He hummed suspiciously, bumping your forehead with his, before very softly kissing you. It was different than before, this felt more like love than lust. It made your head swim more than the previous kisses. He pulled back after a much shorter time, and he ran his hands over your frizzy hair.

"You're beautiful." His soft voice made you want to cry.

"So are you," You brought him down to your level again and he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you so close you could feel the buttons of his shirt dig into your stomach. One hand drifted to your short-clad ass and gripped. You let out a gasp and his tongue once again invaded. He was the best kiss you'd ever had. You also had a feeling he was about to be the best in other ways too. Disconnecting your lips, he moved down, laying wet kisses and sucks on your neck. You let out a shaky exhale as he sucked over your pulse. You knew the position he was in was probably not comfortable, having to bend over so far due to his height.

"Move to the bed?" You offered and he laid one more kiss on your neck, then pulled back to allow you both to move. You barely sat down on the bed before he pushed you lightly onto your back and crawled over you. He stared warmly down at you for a second, then shoved his knee between your legs, grinding his thigh into you.

"Ah!" You moaned softly and his lips reattached to yours. He dominated the kiss, and you were totally fine with it. As his tongue wrapped around yours, your hands flew to the buttons on his shirt, shakily undoing them as quickly as you could.

Much to your disappointment, he was wearing a white tank top underneath, hiding his bare body. He broke the kiss to remove the shirt and…fuck. Just seeing his bare shoulders did enough for you... While to many that may not be sexy, that was the most of Doyoung's skin you had seen. He smirked at your gawking, watching your reaction as he removed the tank top and let it fall to the floor next to the bed. Despite the fact that you had never heard of or seen him work out, he was nicely toned. For a man who liked to lie in bed all day, he had a nice body.

"Your turn," He argued when you tried to kiss him again. You swallowed, nervous, but none the less sat up to remove your own tank top. You were in a sports bra underneath, super sexy, and you hesitated, but removed it as well. Instantly, he was on you. He manhandled you to wrap your legs around his waist, and his lips latched onto a nipple. You sighed at the feeling, never being much sensitive there, but since it was him, you actually shivered a bit…He let go with a pop and you felt a surge of adrenaline, pushing him off. He landed on his back, using his elbows to prop himself up. Before he could question you, you straddled him, running your hands over the smooth skin of his chest and stomach.

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to see you like this." You whispered and he huffed in amusement. As you stroked his skin, his hands grasped at you, linking his fingers through the belt loops of your jean shorts. With a handle to hold onto, he pulled you down and grinded up into you. Since you were both wearing denim, there wasn’t a ton of sensation, but the act itself made you both groan. You could tell he was getting harder by the second, and you were sure your underwear was already ruined. He continued to grind up into you, making your hands falter.

"Okay!" you declared, climbing off of him just enough to move down the bed and fumble with his belt. He seemed shocked, but when he tried to protest you shot him a glare. He relaxed back onto his elbows again as you undid his pants. You rubbed his cock through the fabric of his boxers, salivating slightly. Finally pulling him out, you gasped, staring at him. While not absolutely huge, he was bigger than anyone you had been with before.

"(Y/N)-" Doyoung's thought dropped off when you ran your tongue up the length of him. Unfortunately, no moan or groan came out, be he did let out a harsh exhale. You had no idea how long you had wanted to do this, and no one, not even him, was going to stop you. Not that he wanted to stop you. After a few more licks and kisses, you wrapped your lips around the head and began to descend. Finally, he let out a light groan and it sounded heavenly. You couldn’t get all of him in your mouth without using your throat, so that’s what you did. When your lips met the skin of his pelvis and you swallowed, his arms gave out and he flopped onto his back. His gorgeous fingers dug into your scalp, gripping your hair but not moving you. You swallowed again and then began to bob your head, taking him into the base each time. He was getting louder, and his noises made you moan.

"Fuck!" He cursed at the vibration. So, you did it again.

"(Y/N) if you don’t stop, I'm gonna cum." He warned. You didn’t stop. You wanted him to cum down your throat. Continuing, if not increasing your pace and sucking strength, he let out a whining moan and thrust up slightly as you felt his cum shoot down your throat. Swallowing it all down, you slowly pulled off as he caught his breath. He looked up at you as you made sure to get every drop that had spurted around your lips. Seeing that did something to him, and he shot up, pining you down roughly against the bed. You squeaked in surprise as he rapidly undid the button of your shorts and yanked them off. He paused at your panties; they had little ducks on them. He gave you a look, to which you shrugged, and then those too were yanked off. You watched as he took his fingers and ran them up your soaked slit. You moaned, eagerly anticipating him fingering you. His hands were just so-

"Doyoung!" He had suddenly shoved a finger inside of you. He quickly found your sweet spot, surprisingly so, and the pleasure shook you. Without warning he added another finger, scissoring them as you tried to catch your breath. Hovered over you, waiting till you got enough air for him to kiss you. When you could finally breathe easily, his lips attached to yours, his tongue wrapping around yours. You were in heaven, and he wasn’t even fucking you yet. You weren’t sure you could handle the pleasure. He left your lips, and you threw back your head, the pleasure of his now three fingers building rapidly.

"Oppa, I'm gonna cum." You moaned and something about the pet-name got to him, and his movements intensified, his thumb moved to your clit.

"Then do it," he ordered, and you saw white. He continued his assault, helping you ride out your orgasm. Before you got too over stimulated, he pulled his fingers out, bringing them to his mouth to suck your juices off. You gaped at him, body feeling limp. By that point he was completely hard again, and he spread your legs, placing one knee up over his elbow, rubbing the head of his cock against your still twitching hole.

"Oh, please-" You encouraged, and he slowly began to ease into you. The stretch stung a bit, but the overwhelming feeling and emotions overpowered it. As he slowly got deeper you tried desperately to not cum again so soon. Having Doyoung inside of you, finally, was better than you ever dreamed. He finally was in all the way, barely bumping your cervix. You felt so full.

"G-give me a second." You gripped his biceps, controlling your breaths to get used to the feeling. He kissed over your face as you got used to him, ending with a soft peck to your lips.

"Ready?" He questioned and you nodded. He started slow, barely pulling out before going as deep as he could, grinding his pubic bone against your clit. Your breath hitched each time.

"More." You pled and he smirked. He hitched your other leg up as well then began to thrust harder, pulling out halfway before slamming back in. You could already feel an orgasm building, it made your head swim. Nothing had EVER felt this good. He continued the half-thrusts and after a particularly hard grind you came undone again. It shocked both of you, and he halted his movements as you clenched around him. His brows furrowed at your tight walls fluttering, trying hard not to cum himself. He wanted to give you the most pleasure he could before he finished. Once your orgasm had calmed, he began the slow pace again. He quickly built speed though and you practically screamed when he began to fuck you in earnest. You were were practically bent in half as he loomed over you, fucking you into the mattress. Your hands flew up to grip at his bare back, your nails dragging and leaving red lines. Doyoung groaned at the feeling and dug his own nails into your thighs. The slight prick of pain excited you, more than you thought it would. That was something to be explored later, though. All of a sudden, he pulled out and you exclaimed.

"What-!" With much more strength than you thought he had, he flipped you over onto your hands and knees. You barely kept your balance before he slammed back in, knocking your arms out from under you. Your front half fell to the bed, and you gripped the sheets to hold on for dear life. He was deeper now, each thrust ramming his head against your cervix. Tears pricked at your eyes; the pleasure so intense you almost weren’t sure you could handle it. Then, his hand came down harshly on your ass and you yelped.

"Fuck, do that again please." You pleaded and you could practically hear him smirk. He landed another hit, on the other side this time, most likely leaving a big red handprint. The somewhat flimsy wooden bed frame provided by the college rocked, the headboard knocking into the painted brick wall. If you weren’t being fucked out of your mind you would have made note that despite the unsteadiness, a lot of students had probably done something like that. That alone proved the resilience of the beds. Your hands above your head were gripping your sheets hard, and his hands left your hips to cover yours. He linked his fingers with yours, his thrusts getting slightly off rhythm. As he fucked his cock into you, each time he buried fully back into you, more of your braincells floated away. Nothing else came to mind but your impending orgasm.

"Doyoung…gon-gonna cum~." You whined.

"Me too, hold on a bit, princess," he grunted, leaning over you more, one arm wrapping around your middle, so his hand laid on your lower stomach. His thrusts got shallower, but no less deep, pressing on your tummy to feel himself inside you.

"Cum inside." You told him and he almost outright stopped.

"I'm on birth control pills, please cum inside." You pleaded and he swore several times, grinding into you. When you felt his hot cum shooting inside, it knocked you over the edge. You saw stars and swore you blacked out for a few seconds. When you came to, he was pulling out and a great deal of fluid was flowing down the inside of your thighs.

"You squirted." He informed and you barely registered what he said.

"Huh?"

"You soaked me." He chuckled and you propped yourself up to look back at him. You gaped at the very obvious splatter of wet covering his lower half.

"Shit! I'm sorry! I've never done that before!"

"Shh, it's okay. It was hot." Doyoung chuckled and you sighed in relief. You slowly let your body fall to the bed till you were laying on your stomach.

"Where’s the bathroom?"

"Second door across the living room." You waved your hand, already feeling drowsy. You listened as he partially clothed himself, pulling his underwear and pants back on, then left your room. Since you didn’t hear anything, you assumed your roommates were not home and he came back with a warm, damp washcloth. He was incredibly attentive and helped you clean up. Slowly, you sat up as he threw the towel on your dirty laundry. He picked his shirt up off the floor and handed it to you.

"I have clothes to change into," you pointed at your dresser, and he shook his head.

"Please?" He gave you a smug look and you narrowed your eyes at him. Snatching the shirt from him, you buttoned it up and you smiled at how the fabric pooled over you. The sleeves went past your hands, and you could practically wear it as a dress and still be decent to go outside. He sat on your bed, and you just stared at each other for a bit.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked, almost sheepishly. You furrowed your brow dramatically.

"What kind of question? YES, of course!" You glared and he laughed, tackling you. Since you were on a twin sized bed, you both could barely fit. He pressed his back against the wall and hugged you so close to him there was still a good four inches of bed at your back. You buried your head in the crook of his neck and reached to pull the comforter over you two.

"What about when your roommate comes home?" He asked as you cuddled. You glanced behind you at the clock.

"I'll text her; she can sleep on the couch." He reluctantly let you get up to retrieve your phone. You stood, texting, and he admired you in just his shirt.

"Be nicer if it was red."

Master-Master List

NCT Master List

[keeksandgigz]

Hey Keeks! So I was day dreaming while I was looking at my ring that has a Lilith sigil on it and now I’m thinking about Witchy giving Eddie something like it

Im mixing these two @rebelfell hehe here's a little vignette, for some reason Eddie doing crystal shop deliveries makes me think of Kronk. <3

Hope u enjoy!!

You pick up the phone attached to the wall.

"Genesis Records. Eddie speaking, what's up?" you smile as you imagine him leaning against the wall, holding the landline phone between his ear and shoulder as he gets a pen and paper to take notes in case it's some important shipment information.

"Ed, it's me" you huff out, and you can feel the smile from the other side of the receiver, he likes it when you call him at work, his heart picks up- maybe at the chance that he might have to sneak off upstairs into his apartment when you happen to have coordinated lunch breaks.

"Hey, witchy, I'm about to go on my lunch, I'll see you upstairs in five-" you're quick to interrupt him.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, I'm not on my lunch. I called you because I need your help" you're overwhelmed and don't seem to be in the mood for his shenanigans. You can sense his smile dropping immediately, a slow cast of concern washing over his face.

"What is it, baby?" his tone is suddenly muted, like a child that got scolded for talking too much from his teacher.

"We're understaffed. It's just me and Naradea right now, we need someone to do deliveries, we're incredibly backed up with them" You purse your lips together, hoping for a decisive 'yes' "I'll send you a list of addresses and I'll pay for gas and stuff, you just need to drive around town and deliver some packages- crystals, potions, the works" you huff out, half- stressed.

It takes him a second to think about it "Matt can cover me, I'll be over in a second lemme grab my truck and I'll meet you in the courtyard?" and you exhale a sigh of relief as he hangs up and gets his truck over to the back entrance of your store.

You run out, a couple small boxes in your hands "Thank you so much for doing this, I'll uh... make sure you're rewarded plenty tonight" you whisper against his cheek, placing a small kiss where the warm air of your breath hit.

He grows red at the seductive invitation, slightly growing somewhere else as well, unable to keep his head from reeling at the thought of what would be waiting for him tonight.

"Consider me intrigued" he smirks against your lips, taking the boxes from your hands and giving you a delicate kiss as he fills up the back of his truck with boxes.

You show him a clipboard with the names of the witches and their addresses "See, you've got Arla on Lombard, Clemensia on Castro, Athena and Arachne both on Third street and so on. They should be placed in order so you don't have to go back and forth around the city" you point at the purple colored page.

"Am I gonna get hit on by any of these ladies, 'cause if I am you gotta warn me- can't be too charming if they're trying to fuck me" he snickers, you hit him on the arm "ow," he moans.

"'Kay then" you take off your ring, the one with the sigil of Lilith that sits on your middle finger "give me your pinky, this will tell them that you're already spoken for"

You slip the ring on his pinky finger "Witchy if you wanted to propose to me this is a weird way to do it, y'know?" he laughs "Am I just cattle to you?" he moans dramatically as he gets in the car, rolling down his window.

"Cutest cattle I've ever seen" you scrunch your nose as you lean in the open window to give him a kiss "I'll see you tonight at mine?"

"You bet, and you can tell me more about that reward you were talking about" he smirks, puckering his lips for a kiss.

"I'll go home to sharpen my knives, then" you joke, biting your lip.

"Mmm, kinky" he caresses your forearm "See you tonight, gorgeous" he says, before driving off.

"Hello Ms. Arla, my name's Eddie I will be delivering your goodies for all your witchy needs today" he says, in his charming tone, as he watches the old lady reach into her pocket to give him a candy that seemed to be at least 50 years old. Grandmas are all the same after all.

"My god, Clemensia you look divine today" he flirts with a close friend of your aunt Hilda as she blushes and lightly smacks his arm. He offers her the box full of her deliveries "your witchy goodies m'lady" he bows and is not allowed to leave until he's had tea with her.

During his rounds he's offered treats, biscuits, readings of all kinds as he politely agrees, unable to say no to these nice ladies who all seem to know him by name.

His last delivery is someone named Aphra- he's never met her before, maybe a new addition to the 'witch community' as he calls it.

She ordered two boxes of stuff. He carries them up a steep flight of stairs and rings the doorbell.

Aphra isn't old, she isn't young- she looks ageless, and that, for some reason, scares Eddie.

"Lady- uh- Ms.- your witchiness- Aphra?" he stutters in a bout of embarrassment as he continues "my name's-"

"Edward. You're the young witch's human boyfriend" she hums "She got in a lot of trouble for allowing you to be a part of our world" He remembers you being deprived of your magic until your trial. Two months of seeing you mope around your apartment.

He wasn't sure what to say.

"Despite that you stuck by her, even through your bout of confusion. Let's call it you being... 'lost'" she snickers as she reaches into the pocket of her jacket, extracting a token made out of black metal.

"Bring this to your witch, as a token of my appreciation. Have a good evening, Edward" she brings the boxes inside with ease, and closes the door behind her.

He looks at the black token. Ridged with the sigil of the coven- three indented stars.

Eddie plays with it on the way to your house, rolling it on his leg, wondering what it might mean.

When he gets to your house, much to his dismay, he has to stop you from jumping on him. The curiosity is eating him alive. He shows you the black token, and all color seems to drain from your face.

"Holy shit" you utter "Holy shit!" a bit louder this time.

"Wha- what? What is it, witchy?" he asks, as you guide him on your purple couch. Your breath seems to be knocked from your lungs.

"Aphra is the head of the coven" you're playing with the indentations of the token, Eddie mentally cringes at the absolute shit first impression he made with what appears to be the madame president of all witches, or something like that.

"This token is her blessing" you have tears in your eyes, Eddie's still confused.

"Blessing for what?"

"Blessing to get married" you shrill, and Eddie's heart almost falls out of his ass.

[seabirdtxt]

.Irminsul --amend -m 'Scaramouche'

Nahida has called in the book club to try and start discussions about the Creator's situation. Cyno actually kinda knows what he's talking about and Alhaitham is... mostly there for moral support... [< prev] [Blog Tag] [next >]

Notes: SAGAU, reader is the Creator but no cult shenanigans. Separate warning for my writing being all over the place on this one. all relationships are currently platonic!

WC. 2.6k

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There’s not much to do except wait for Alhaitham and Cyno to show up, unfortunately, so you have taken to chatting with Nahida and Aranyani about some of the games and toys that exist back on Earth. Aranyani seems to be interested in the mechanics of each, comparing them to existing games in Teyvat, while Nahida is more interested in trying them out for herself, someday.

Scaramouche doesn’t seem interested in the conversation, but he sits with the three of you anyway and watches the shadows of birds moving beyond the stained glass windows. 

You’d just been explaining the concept of the rubix cube and algorithms to the two gods when a sure knock is heard on the sanctuary doors. Scaramouche takes the opportunity to make his escape from the conversation, shuffling to the door and opening it for the newcomers. 

Cyno steps in, followed by Alhaitham, and the two of them hold each other at a polite distance as they walk down toward the dais, where the rest of you stand to greet them. 

“Hello, my friends!” Nahida exclaims, smiling brightly and clasping her hands together even as she and Aranyani take a gracious step back to allow you and the newcomers space. “Thank you so much for being here! We have a lot to discuss!” 

“We came as soon as we heard,” Cyno replies, nodding. He then turns to you with a little salute. “Your Grace, it is an honor to be in your presence.”

You put your hands up placatingly. “Please, there’s no need for formality…” you say, shuffling awkwardly on the spot as everyone looks at you. You clear your throat and gesture for the newcomers to continue. 

“We heard about the circumstances after your arrival in Teyvat,” Alhaitham states, stepping around Cyno, stopping at his side and crossing his arms. Straight to the point. “Do you remember the circumstances that led up to your descent? It might help point toward the root cause, and shed light on the ‘how’s and ‘why’s.” 

“Uh, good question,” you mutter, scratching your head about it for a second. “I was probably hanging out in my room or something, really. Playing, uh, games on my phone.”

You wonder if it’s too early to mention that said game was Genshin, AKA. controlling their world. You know they’re marginally self-aware, but the extent of which still escapes you. 

“Alright, and did you do anything different while you were playing on this ‘phone’? See anything strange?” Cyno picks up, pulling out a small notepad and quill. “Anything out of the ordinary, things that you don’t normally do or notice.”

“Well, my phone has been glitching a lot when I play games, lately,” you muse. “And I kept getting these buggy screens while I was in-game, but I figured that was just because my device was overheating or something. You know, they build them faulty on purpose so they can sell you a new one every few years? Apparently in France or something they made companies give people the right to repair their own phones, but we don’t have that where I live…” 

Cyno writes down most of the first half of what you say, but you seem to lose the crowd as you ramble. He looks up from his notepad to fix you with a level stare, though you can tell there's just a hint of confusion behind his expression.

“Can you say something that makes sense to people who live in this world?” Scaramouche interjects somewhere in the middle of your rambling, the first time he spoke since you guys first teleported to the Sanctuary of Surasthana. “Or at least stay on topic, or something.” 

“Oh,” you reply, blinking. “Right.” 

Cyno nods to you again, though he keeps glancing at Scaramouche out of the corner of his eye. Alhaitham doesn’t bother with subtlety, fixing the Balladeer with a level, analytical stare. Cyno clears his throat after a few seconds of awkward silence, preparing his notepad once more. “So, you were saying you played on this ‘phone’ device, aside from the problem you noticed, was there anything else you did differently?”

“Not really,” you shrug. “I was playing the game like I normally would, doing commissions and stuff. No, wait, actually I did do something a bit weird.” 

This causes Cyno to perk up, and he leans forward onto the balls of his feet as he listens attentively. 

“Because the game was overheating my phone, my ping was super slow,” you explain. “So I was lagging pretty badly. I was doing one of the leylines in the jungle and I was spamming the interact button on the flower because I was getting impatient…”

“And then?”

“... And then I think another dialogue box popped up, but I didn’t notice what it said.” You finish, sighing. “After that, I just remember waking up beside a leyline thingy right here in Teyvat.” 

“Do you remember the exact location of the leyline?” Alhaitham asks, to which you shake your head.

“The Traveler and Wanderer found me not too long after that, and took me straight to the city. They probably have a better idea than I do, honestly. I didn’t really have a chance to figure out where I was, at the time…” 

“Do you recall any distinctive landmarks? Anything that stood out in an otherwise unremarkable location?” 

You shake your head again, trying to remember what you saw. “No, uh, I was a little bit distracted by discovering I was suddenly in- uh, in Teyvat, and-”

“So you were not already aware of your location when you descended?” Cyno clarifies. You nod quickly.

“I only figured out it was Sumeru when the Traveler started bringing me closer to the city,” you agree, wringing your hands nervously under the general’s gaze. “The few little houses and tents that started popping up, the architecture kinda gave it away…” 

“Were there any inconsistencies you noticed between your knowledge of Teyvat and the actual Teyvat when you arrived?” Cyno asks, his head tilted to the side ever so slightly. “Just to make sure you’re in the correct version.” 

“Well, funny you should mention that,” you figure it wouldn’t hurt to share this, given the result of it sitting right next to you. Out of the corner of your eye, Nahida is giving you a thumbs up. “I got hurt touching a leyline, not the same one as when I first got here, though! I got a little cut on my hand, because the leaves are a bit sharper than I was expecting…”

Alhaitham’s attention shifts from the Balladeer back to you. “What happened when you were injured?”

“I, uh, I accidentally made Irminsul recover some deleted information.” You simplify as best as you can. “And now there’s several things that were added back to the world that aren’t technically supposed to be here...”

“I’ve never heard of leylines doing that, before,” Cyno remarks. “Then again, it’s not every day the Creator descends to Teyvat.” 

“Have you tried going back to the same location to see if it yields reverse results?” Alhaitham wonders aloud, seeming amused by the strange predicament. 

“And what is that supposed to achieve?” Scaramouche interrupts again, snorting as he crosses his arms. “Besides going for a leisurely stroll through the jungle, I mean. Irminsul already recovered the missing data, and the location itself doesn’t matter, if you haven’t noticed already, since you can find a leyline just about anywhere.”

“It’s certainly an unprecedented behavior for leylines,” Cyno agrees. “But again, the Creator has never descended before-”

“We heard you the first time,” Scaramouche deadpans, earning him a smack upside the head courtesy of you. “Ow! Do you want to figure this stuff out or not?”

“Be nice,” you grumble, though you do feel slightly annoyed at the repetitive line of questioning. “He’s just ruling things out, right?” You turn to Cyno, nodding encouragingly for him to continue. 

“Ley lines are a complicated but fascinating subject to study,” Cyno states, crossing his arms and tucking his notebook under one elbow. “However, I’m afraid interdimensional travel is a little bit outside Spantamad’s realm of expertise.”

“Honestly, that’s fair,” you give a resigned sigh, but Scaramouche cuts you off.

“But how’s that supposed to help you?” He sneers and rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “It’s like you want to be stuck here forever with no explanation for how you got here in the first place.”

“Can we just chalk it up to magic or something?” You ask sheepishly, a little embarrassed at having taken the time out of two of Sumeru’s most important figures’ days.

“I was looking forward to hearing about how you got into this predicament with your own two idiot hands, honestly.”

“What I want to know,” Alhaitham suddenly interjects, surprising everyone else with his initiative. “Is how the Creator and the Dendro archon are here, cozying up to a Fatui harbinger?” 

Four pairs of eyes blink at him in surprise, while Cyno nods in agreement.

“I think that’s the more pressing matter, here,” he agrees, and you can sense the tingle of static in the air as his previously-relaxed grip on his notebook starts to tighten. 

“Okay, see, that’s one of the things I was talking about!” You say quickly, the words leaving you in a rush in hopes of stemming the building tension in the sanctuary. “He was a harbinger before, but he’s all better now!”

“You say that like it was an illness,” Scaramouche snorts, to which you can only laugh.

“Yeah? As if you didn’t act a little bit sick in the hea-”

Nahida, who up until now has been doing an excellent job of pretending to mind her own business, decides to chime in before the general can come to his own conclusion.

“I apologize for not warning you two earlier, but I do have it on good authority—that authority being myself,” she hides her giggle with the palm of her hand, “that the Balladeer poses no harm to either of you, or the Creator!” 

“It’s also kinda my fault that he’s here, so I mean…” You trail off and give an apologetic shrug.

“How did you know I was a harbinger?” Scaramouche’s eyes narrow at Alhaitham and he crosses his arms as well, mirroring both the scribe and Cyno. “As far as I've been told, the memory of ‘me’ was erased from Irminsul.”

Cyno shakes his head. “No, there is recorded evidence of the Balladeer’s involvement with the sages’ god-creation plan,” he corrects, relaxing very slightly after Nahida’s reassurance but not dropping his guard completely. 

“I was present at the time of the Traveler’s investigation of the Joruri workshop, where they confronted the mechanical false god,” Alhaitham adds. “The person who fell from the machine indeed bears striking resemblance to you, but was confirmed to not be the Balladeer himself. However, Lord Kusanali’s own interjection confirms that you are indeed the Balladeer.” 

“He’s been reformed,” you say cheerfully, but your mind is running a mile a minute. Evidently Nahida and Aranyani are on the same page, because the two goddesses drift closer with curious looks on their faces. 

“So Irminsul has already started patching the holes in Teyvat’s history,” Nahida muses, hands on her hips. “It’s much faster than I anticipated, given the circumstances.”

“Not as surprising as you would think, little sprout,” Aranyani pats her head. “Irminsul is capable of very rapid computation, but the problem lies in resolving as many conflicting histories as possible. Two is faster, but three will cause some things to be shuffled around for a few days, still. The justification of the existence of multiple incarnations of the Balladeer may yet be subject to change.”

“So you’re saying that what we currently perceive as fact, is instead false?” Cyno asks, having retrieved his notebook once more. As the goddesses continue to muse on the subject, he writes down their theories and makes some notes of his own. 

“I’d say sorry for that workshop fight,” Scaramouche says, addressing Alhaitham with a smug grin. “But I honestly didn’t even remember you being there. I guess you just weren’t that noteworthy to me at the time. No hard feelings, right?” 

Alhaitham doesn’t even bother to grace him with a look, much to Scaramouche’s annoyance. Instead, the scribe quietly listens in on the Irminsul discussion.

Meanwhile, you try to remember what team you had when you took on the Archon quest fight. It’s been a while since then, and you’re not sure if you’re thinking of the right fight. Maybe you used Alhaitham in one of your weeklies? Speaking of which, do those boss fights exist in the world of Teyvat, or is that just for you as a player of the game? If they exist, how do the characters feel having to go beat up the same people on a weekly basis? What about the characters who are weekly bosses, like Wanderer, Childe, and Ei?

Thinking about it is starting to give you a headache. 

You decide to tune back in as Nahida and Aranyani finish bouncing ideas between themselves, with Cyno furiously scribbling annotations in the margins of his notepad. What was it they were talking about again? You get the sense that maybe you should've paid a bit more attention. 

“- that’s the case, then we should contact Inazuma and see if there is a new history that came up.” Cyno offers, to which Nahida shakes her head.

“If we ask directly, the answer we will get is the same.” She explains, wringing her tiny hands. “To them, this knowledge will have always existed. They will perceive it as an unchanged fact, in the same way you and the Scribe believe the circumstances of the Balladeer to be a fact. The better people to ask would be the ones involved in the anomaly.” 

“Alright, and how do we find them?”

“See, that’s the funny part…” You begin, only to be interrupted by a sudden swirling pressure in the chamber.

It’s strange to see the teleportation from an outside perspective. You watch as Wanderer shimmers into existence, adjusting his hat. The metal charms on the ends of it chime as they settle. He looks up, catching sight of you first and raises a hand to wave, only to stop short when he sees the other guests.

“... Looks like I’m late to the party,” he remarks, drifting over to Nahida’s side. “Wanna catch me up to speed? Not that I care, but I might as well get the full picture so I can correct you where you're wrong.”

“I asked for the General and the Scribe to come visit so that we could get a better grasp on the Creator’s situation!” Nahida explains, smiling brightly at him. 

“Great, and how did that go?”

Everybody chooses to look in different directions, unable to look Wanderer in the eye. You hear him heave an annoyed, but resigned, sigh. 

“We might’ve gotten somewhere if Buer hadn’t sidetracked,” Scaramouche adds helpfully. 

“And you might’ve gotten the groceries like you guys said you would, too, but here we are,” Wanderer crosses his arms, pinning you and Scaramouche with a pointed look. 

You wince and turn around, subtly leaning over to Scara, whispering: “I actually forgot about that…”

“Me too…” he replies, not quite as quietly as you. You both startle as hands come down on both of your shoulders, Wanderer’s grinning face appearing between the two of you. 

“Isn’t this just a splendid opportunity for you two to go find the traveler and restock our pantry, while Buer and I go over the details of what you clowns didn’t explain right?” 

Scaramouche wastes no time wresting his shoulder out of Wanderer’s grasp with a noise of disgust. “Who do you think you are to order me around, teacher’s pet? I’ll go when I feel like it.” He sneers, stalking off toward the doors of the sanctuary.

You offer a light chuckle and a wry grin of apology to the others, who watch unimpressed at Scaramouche’s display, while Wanderer dismisses you with a shooing motion.

Right. Time to get those supplies. 

[blood-red-ocean]

can I request Mother Miranda next? i have this silly idea where MM's crow(s) has a habit of stashing all kind of shiny things near reader's house. Maybe she has a small porch that's not been used cause reader doesn't have time lounging around, and the sneaky crow is, like, yeah, this is perfect, and so reader goes about her life non the wiser to crow's shenanigans behind her back until one day she hears some sound outside and goes to investigate which ends with her stumbling upon MM rummaging through pile of... something. Awkward silence.

I don't know why I saw reader's house and immediately went 'ah yes, they live with Miranda' but ANYWAY enjoy <3

Small Thief (RL!Miranda x Reader)

Word count: 1.9k Warnings: None Summary: Cornelius is a sneaky lil gremlin.

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

“Babe? Have you seen my keys?”

Overturned couch cushions and the contents of upturned cabinet drawers laid in the wake of your frantic rummaging. The very thought of having lost a set of keys to the headmistress’s house scared you enough, but it would be even worse if you had not simply misplaced them and had dropped them somewhere on the Campus. Especially with Mia’s habit of being an absolute gremlin and showing up unexpectedly in places she wasn’t supposed to be.

“Hmm?” Miranda strode into the room, hand fiddling with the button on the other wrist of her shirt.

“My keys, babe, my keys. I need them.”

You knew what was coming immediately. You knew it so well that you could almost quote her word for word. “Now, what did I tell you about carelessly tossing your keys down, little crow?” She and you both knew that if she had spoken those words to anybody else, it would have seen as harsh chastising. But you knew her better than that, and you could easily pick up on the way her mouth quirked up at the corners. The Miranda version of a playful grin.

“Forget about your keys, darling mine,” She said, striding over to you to kiss your cheek. “I will be awake when you return, I’ll let you in.”

“Andy, you know I’ve got class till late tonight.” Miranda smiled a little more visibly at the nickname you had picked for her – Devil Wears Prada had quickly become her favourite movie to watch with you, and she didn’t hide her blush fast enough when you called her it playfully for the first time while playfully testing out different variations of her name. Mir, Mira, Andy… “Professor Dimitrescu is making us recreate a classical piece in our own style.”

“That’s… Out of character.” Miranda frowned a little. “Very well then. I’ll still let you in.”

“But—”

“I’ll be awake.” Miranda gave you a pointed look, and it hit you then. Of course she would be awake – without you around to help with the growing pile of student council paperwork, full of requests and grievances that were above even Bela’s station, she would no doubt spend considerable time poring over them, with Cornelius on her shoulder. She often turned to work when you weren’t around.

“Okay, fine,” You said. You reached up and caressed her cheek, a playful smirk growing on your face. “Just don’t drool on the papers when you fall asleep this time, okay?” This earned you a tut from Miranda.

Hours later, and back aching from spending hours at an easel, you trudged into Miranda’s – you and Miranda’s – house, dropping your bag at your feet. You leaned back against the door and groaned, rolling your shoulders slowly to relieve some of the tension. The smell of pizza wafted down the hallway and into your nostrils, stomach growling angrily. “Oh, fuck yes,” you breathed, following the scent like a cartoon character. There, on the kitchen counter, laid an open box of your favourite pizza, and a note beside it which stated, in Miranda’s elegant cursive, “I am in my office. Come find me when you have eaten, little crow.”

Pizza slice in hand, you navigated the house, making your way to her study. The door was propped slightly open, and a gentle push on it made it swing forward, revealing Miranda bent over her home desk as she pored over some paperwork.

“Pizza?” You asked, holding a piece out.

Miranda crinkled her nose a little and shook her head. “Not tonight, Feather. I don’t think I have the stomach for it right now.” She tapped her fingers on the top of the desk as she sat back, peering at you with concern. “Are you alright? You seem exhausted.”

“Because I am,” You mumbled around a mouthful of cheese, sauce and dough. “Dimitrescu made me restart my piece three times. Three times! All because I mixed the pigment slightly wrong.” Miranda kept tapping her fingers one by one, the familiar sound almost mesmerizing you – almost.

Click, click, thud, click. Click, click, thud, click.

One of her golden finger guards was missing, the soft thud of her bare finger hitting the wooden surface jarring against the clicking you were used to. “Hey,” You spoke up, frowning. “Where’s your guard?”

Miranda shifted uncomfortably, hesitating. “I have no idea,” She eventually admitted. “I removed all of them earlier to take a bath, and when I turned back, one was missing.”

“Ah, so the great Miranda doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head after all.” Miranda shot you a playful glare, affection vaguely hidden beneath. “I’m sure it’ll show up somewhere.”

“It is rather… Concerning, that things keep going missing around here. I’m not usually this… Disorganized.”

“You aren’t disorganized at all,” You reassured her, licking the grease from your fingers. “Maybe we have a ghost.”

Miranda rolled her eyes lightheartedly at that, returning to her work. You grabbed your books and papers, settling in on the couch opposite her desk to study. Yeah, you were exhausted, but you still had other classes to study for, and not even being romantically bound to the headmistress would give you endless exceptions when it came to your studies.

***

Weeks passed, hours and hours of late classes beginning to make you feel burned out. You spent the days counting down to when it was finally done and you could spend your time with Miranda again – and quicker than you thought, it was over. You left Professor Dimitrescu’s class with a heavy wooden frame in hand, a begrudging A+ grade, and a sense of smug accomplishment. You couldn’t wait to get home and tell Miranda all about how Alcina had squirmed, heaving sighs and muttering as she scribbled an A+ onto the piece of paper before her.

Upon arriving at home, however, Miranda was nowhere to be found. Propping the frame up against the wall, you dug your phone from your pocket and checked it – no texts, no missed calls. Venturing deeper into the house, you peered into Miranda’s study to see it empty and dark. Brow furrowed, you ventured even further into the house. It was unlike Miranda to not tell you where she was – or rather, command that you go and be at her side.

“Andy?” You called out. You peered into darkened rooms, intrigue growing as you saw parts of the house you hadn’t seen before. Between the rush of moving you in with her, and exam season, and Alcina’s late classes, you had barely had time to spend sitting quietly with your avian goddess, let alone explore the depths of the house.

Just as you were about to give up and try and call Miranda, a crashing sound came from the very back of the house. Pulse rushing in your ears, you immediately jumped to alertness, searching for something to wield as a makeshift weapon. Eventually settling on a discarded iron poker, you held it aloft as you took slow steps towards the crashing sounds. You eventually came upon a glass door, a faint glow emanating from behind it. With one hand on the doorknob, you took a deep breath and threw the door open, roaring.

“RAAAAAAARGH—Andy??”

Once the frantic flurrying of wings and dark feathers and Miranda’s cursing had died down, you could get a proper look at the small room you had entered. It was covered in screens rather than windows, and it took you a moment to realise it was a porch.

A porch filled with heaping miles of miscellanea, remarkably less organized than the rest of the house. Miranda stood in the midst of it all, her face flushed and scowling… At Cornelius. Eyebrows raised, you glanced between the two of them, taking a step back. Cornelius let out a rather loud, indignant caw, wings lifted at Miranda.

“You! She hissed, pointing her finger accusingly. “I knew it!”

A glint in the corner of your vision caught your eye, and at a single glance you heaved with relief.

“My keys,” You breathed. “Thank the gods—” You reached out to pick them up, and the fluttering of wings signaled Cornelius’s arrival. He stood with one foot on them, staring up at you with one burning yellow eye. It hit you then that this wasn’t some secret that Miranda kept, some uncharacteristic habit – no, Cornelius had been periodically stealing more and more items over the weeks, stashing him where he thought nobody would find them. You reached out again to try and take the keys, but he just cawed softly at you, clicking his beak.

“Hey, what—”

“You have to give him something else,” Miranda grumbled, sifting through the heaps of shiny objects. “I learned that the hard way.” She tapped her earlobe, and you noticed that one of her dangly gold earrings was missing, no doubt wherever Cornelius had stashed it again. On her finger was the golden finger guard, back where it belonged.

“Well, I don’t have anything shiny,” You spoke to the small thief. “But… You want my A+?” You held out the piece of paper with the grade and Alcina’s comments on it, and Cornelius studied it for a moment. With a quick chirp, he grabbed it from your hand and flew off to the back corner of the porch, no doubt to stash it somewhere safe. Miranda watched him with her mouth agape and threw her hands up in exasperation, calling after him, “Seriously? I feed you! I raised you from a baby! And they can give you paper?” Miranda took a breath as if to continue, then stopped, turning to you with raised eyebrows. “Did you say A+?”

Grinning, you nodded quickly. “Yep! Can we get pizza to celebrate?”

“Again, Feather? Aren’t you tired of it yet? I could order you something much nicer—”

“Nope, pizza,” You called out, moving back into the hallway of the house. Miranda followed you, pride in her eyes.

“Very well, then,” She sighed in mock exasperation. “But first, show me your work.”

There was a skip in your step as you led Miranda by the hand back to the entryway, where you had placed the painting. You held it up to her and watched as her eyes conveyed her emotions – surprise, awe, pride and then, as she gazed back up at you, love. “It’s beautiful,” She murmured. “We must display it at once.”

You followed her as she went to the kitchen, opening a cabinet and pulling out a small golden hook, and a nail. She hummed as she roamed the house, trying to figure out where the hang your artwork, and you blushed about it. Eventually, she settled for hanging it above her desk in her study, this simple gesture making your heart skip a beat, reminding you again her how she loved and prioritized you. She reached up, preparing to nail the hook into the wall, when a dark blur rushed by and left her hands empty. She growled a little under her breath and chased after it, leaving you in fits of giggling as she went.

“Cornelius! Get back here with that!”

To nobody’s surprise (but to Miranda’s chagrin), it only took the promise of some head scratches from you to get the hook back from the small thief. You could’ve sworn he gave an approving caw at the sight of your painting, as well.

[thatgoblin]

Summary: You thought you were taking a vacation to a ranch that would teach you how to ride horses and have a fun family trip. Instead, you were duped by your parents into being basically sold to a pair of Alphas.

Warnings: It's not as nefarious as it seems. Mostly. No sex or graphic anything. YET. Some abandonment by parents of arranged marriage without consent style shenanigans.

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My parents and I had been planning a family vacation for nearly a month with them asking me for help in picking a place to stay. Searching through a few brochures they gave me, I saw this horse ranch and thought it would be fun learning how to ride with my parents. I had just turned 26 and while my parents were getting older, I was taking more and more charge of our own ranch full of cattle. I was hoping that we could talk about maybe getting horses to help with the cattle and enjoy ourselves with down time we had never had before. Usually we’d just walk around or take an ATV, but with horses it would be so much easier in getting around. The whole drive I was excited and talked about what was going to happen on the trip, all the while my parents nodded and encouraged my interest, but they were oddly quiet on the nearly five hour trip.

Once there, we were welcome with a small note asking us to pick one of the spare rooms and make ourselves comfortable. My dad helped me with my bags first, taking my bigger bag to the room, while my mom went to look around the outside of the house. As I began to unpack, at my dad’s suggestion, I gave them a bit of time to bring their items in and pick a room before I heard a car pull away. Confused, I walked outside to see their trail of dirt from the car as they left, already hidden by the clouds of dust. I was frozen in panic, trying to rationalize what had just happened. Maybe Dad was going to go park somewhere or that they had forgotten something or really anything other than my parents leaving me behind.

They wouldn’t desert me. There was no reason to. We were on a family vacation and were just talking and enjoying ourselves. As my chest tightened, my head became fuzzy as my eyes refused to leave the trail of dust that was slowly settling to leave behind faint tire tracks. This had to be an accident. It had to be. Pulling out my phone, my hands shook as I pressed the call button.

They didn’t answer, letting it go straight to voicemail. I tried again and again and again till the phone said the mailbox was full. Swallowing hard, I went back to the porch to sit and wait to see if they would call back or come back. On a table on the front porch there was an envelope addressed to me. Picking it up, I hurriedly ripped it open in hopes to have clarification that this was all a joke or they were surprising me.

As I read over my Mom’s careful handwriting, I sat while resisting the urge to cry and scream and curse.

‘I know this is going to be hard, but we want what’s best for you. We love you so much and want you to be happy and thriving in your life. You can’t do that from home, living with us.

You’re an adult and should be finding your pack and mates. Again, we love you and have loved having you stay with us to help on the farm for so long, but it’s time you moved on. The last thing we want is for you to be a lone Omega on a farm when we pass.

Since you couldn’t or wouldn’t find suitable Alphas, people started to talk and make it hard on us to do business and have our lives, even going as far as offering to play matchmaker. It wouldn’t end well that way, we all know that, so your father and I found two for you. We’ve talked to them for the past few months now and they have proved themselves to be good people. They can provide for you and take care of you easily.

The Alphas are nice men, we made sure they understood that you were the stubborn type and may take some time to warm up to them, that helped with this decision. If we hadn’t done things this way you wouldn’t have given them a chance. It’s time to make a new life. No one back home could interest you and we thought you’d grow out of it.

These two Alphas will make you happy, we just know it. It’s not the ideal way to do things, but we had to do this for you. We’ll send the rest of your things in the next few weeks. You may be angry with us right now, but please understand that we want what’s best for you. We love you.

Mom and Dad’

Not having a mate at my age was odd, but it wasn’t so unheard of that I was an anomaly. Usually an Omega found a mate or mates at about 18 or so that were in their age range between 3-4 years on average, they’d move out, and then start their own family. I was 26 and even though there had been a few interested Betas and Alphas, I hadn’t wanted to be with them. I wasn’t really interested in finding a mate, considering I was from a small town and most of the available partners were not someone I wanted to be with. My life plan was to just live with my parents to take over the cattle farm we had after they retired, MAYBE find a mate, and they knew this. They just didn’t tell me they didn’t like it. Mom had left all the paperwork from the website that she found the Alphas on as well, showing me who they were and what they were listing.

The two strangers that I had just moved in with unwittingly were two Alphas that had contacted my parents over a website made for courting Omegas. It was usually done with the Omega’s permission though. When my parents reached out looking for Alphas willing to court an ‘extremely stubborn Omega,’ the two men saw the profile then began to message my parents.

Their profile from the website was also printed out. I recognized it as part of the brochure they had me look at to pick the ‘vacation.’ They had me pick my new pack without me realizing it, all based on the damn house. The information had their price for the dowry, their names, their ages, occupation, basically everything that prospective Omega parents would want to know.

Seeing the price made it sink in more. My parents had sold me to two strangers because they couldn’t bear the thought of the town knowing they had an Omega child who refused to be mated. After years of dealing with backwoods bullshit growing up, the two people I thought were on my side had lied to me.

What drove the knife in my back deeper was when they left, the two Alphas weren’t even there. I was dumped in a strange place, alone, and with no reliable phone connection. I wanted to go back inside to scream and cry, throw things and wreck the entire house to show them they fucked up in saying yes to my parents.

I didn’t though. The sudden energy brought on by my anxiety and grief was squashed when despite trying to call at least 20 times and sendings twice as many text messages, my parents didn’t pick up and didn’t turn around, let alone even try to call back or text me. Instead, I sat on the front steps to try to get some semblance of control over myself. I wasn’t going to cry, even as tears made my vision hazy and stung my eyes, I refused to. Taking a few deep breaths, I stood up to wander to the stables to see if there were indeed horses or if that had been a lie as well.

The barn where the stables were wasn’t that big, one side having equipment and hay while the other had a few empty stalls between the two horses there, a buckskin and a palomino. Both were eager for the pets that I was ready and willing to give. Since there was no one else to console me in my time of need, they would have to do. Neither seemed to mind though, enjoying the company and the soft touches as I stroked their face and finger combed their manes to give small braids.

“I hope the guys here aren’t bags of dicks,” I sighed, as I pressed my face to the buckskin’s neck. “This isn’t the ideal situation for me and I’m sure you two don’t really care so long as you get attention, but at least you don’t mind the attention coming from me.” The palomino huffed before shaking his head at me, moving away to eat hay in his stall while the buckskin just grunted and pressed against the door to expose his neck to me. “Such a good boy,” I cooed, stroking his neck.

I had a dog back home named Shelby, an Australian Setter, that I adored and loved more than anything. My parents adored her just as much, which meant she probably wouldn’t be joining me. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her properly, just some tummy rubs and kisses while promising to be home soon before heading out that morning. Swallowing a sob at the thought of my dog not understanding why I was just gone, I didn’t hear anyone come into the barn behind me.

“You know, Ollie doesn't like new people usually.”

Startled, I jumped at the voice, spinning around to see a tall, bearded Alpha with bright blue eyes. He looked at me with a bemused smile as I moved behind Ollie’s head to create a barrier of sorts. This was a stranger and I had been deceived already by my parents. There was no way I was trusting the Alphas there. I stood there tense as he walked over, hands in his front pockets of his jeans with an easy stride.

“You must be our Omega,” he said in a deep, gruff voice that had a British accent, stepping forward to hold out a hand. It wasn’t the stereotypical accent from movies or the ‘cockney’ of Dick Van Dyke either. Which left where he was from originally in the dark. “I’m John Price. Apologies that we weren’t here to meet you and your parents. My mate and I were on our way back from town with supplies for the cattle.” I flicked my eyes between his hand and his face, narrowing them, but not taking the hand. “Okay, seems we are getting off to a bit of a rough start.”

“A bit,” I said, my tone sour.

“I know that you’re probably not used to the idea of two Alphas, as well, we’re a bit older and it’s an odd pairing, but your parents think it’s a good match and so do we,” he said, moving to stand on the other side of Ollie. “We were told you were happy about the arrangement, excited even.”

“That’s what they told you?” I asked with a scoff. Shaking my head, I sighed to keep my voice from catching and betraying how truly devastated I was. “My parents didn’t tell me a thing about you or the other Alpha. I was told we were going on vacation. So, color me surprised when I’m putting my baggage in a room and suddenly my parents are driving off like the devil himself is chasing them,” I said.

“Fuckin’ hell,” John said with a sigh. “I’m so sorry about that. Every time we spoke with your parents over the phone or email, your parents said you were happy and that you were the one that picked us out of other offers.” I rolled my eyes at him, anxiously petting the horse, keeping my hands busy. “This isn’t ideal, I understand that, but-”

“Just save it. You’re not going to convince me this is for the best or that it’ll turn out like some romance movie or novel. It won’t. I’m here against my will and even if I got back home, my parents would bring me right back because you paid for me. I know that it’s perfectly legal and that I have no choice but to be here. So, let me make this perfectly clear,” I hissed. “I want nothing to do with you or your mate, so let’s just keep to ourselves, okay?”

“You live here now, so it’s going to be hard to do that,” he said, leaning against

Ollie’s stall.

“It’s actually really easy. Don’t talk to me unless you have to, don’t look at me unless you have to, don’t even acknowledge me being here unless you absolutely have to,” I said, the immediate area starting to stink from my distress. The Alphas would want to come closer and comfort me when they got a whiff. That was the last thing I wanted. But in the enclosed area a sour, tangy scent was quickly filling the area.

“Love,” John said with a sigh. “As much as I know that’s what you want, we can’t do that. You can’t go home, you have nowhere else to go, and as much as you hate it, you were a part of a deal made by your pack and we took you in. Legally and biologically we can’t ignore you and pretend you’re not here. You’re in our care now, whether or not you like it, especially for when your next heat hits.”

I couldn’t help the choked laugh that bubbled out of me that spooked Ollie a bit.

“What?” He asked, frowning.

“Oh shit, they really didn’t tell you?” I said. “I’m not surprised. After this whole date, I’m wondering if they told you anything that was true. I don’t get heats. I never have. As far as the doctors can tell, I’m sterile. So no heat driven Omega or suppressants to worry about.”

“Shite,” he huffed under his breath. It was the one thing I could do to put a twist in their obvious plans of knocking up an Omega and having pups. No one wanted a sterile Omega, especially Alphas who had arranged mates and paid for them. “It doesn’t matter,” he said after a few moments, breaking my one wish that they’d return me. “You’re still here, whether or not you like it.”

“Oh fuck off,” I growled, moving to walk past him.

“Hold on,” John said, reaching out and grabbing my arm to stop me. On instinct I turned on him with a growl, snapping my teeth at him. He was a stranger that had obvious intentions that I had no plans to allow to happen.

“No!” I shouted, spooking the horses as I pulled from John’s grasp before he could close his hand completely. “Do not touch me,” I growled, the angry animal in me that was cornered came out. Danger was everywhere and I was not about to be snuck up on or taken without a fight.

“Easy there,” John said, holding his hands up to pacify me. Not that I wouldn’t expect him to try and grab me again. I’d spent my entire life dealing with Alphas who didn’t think Omegas would fight back, so I knew to not let my guard down. “I won’t touch you. All I ask is that you don’t run off suddenly. We’re miles from the nearest neighbor and you don’t want to get lost out here.”

He was right. I had no clue where I was or how to get home. We were damn near in another state compared to my home and I was not about to shoot myself in the foot to spite the Alphas.

“Let’s head back inside and you can meet Simon. We’ll give you your space, promise,” John said. A moment of hesitation passed before I let him take the lead back to the house.

The house itself was a two story cabin style with a green tin roof. Perfect for a pack starting out. It was close to the horse barn with a thick mix of pine and oak trees to one side and the other a wide open range of tall grass and rocks and rolling hills. We were truly in the middle of nowhere.

Stepping inside, John let me go in as he shut the door behind us. “Have a seat,” he said as he pointed to a kitchen table worn with years of use before going to the bottom of the stairs. “Simon! I brought our new friend inside!” He called up the stairs.

Getting a better look at him, John was rough looking. Short, sandy brown hair with mutton chops and mustache that was trimmed neatly and close to his jaw while there were soft wrinkles around his bright, sky blue eyes. His hands were large and calloused from work as his body as a whole looked like he knew how to use it as a tool more than others. He would fit right in with most farmers and ranchers that I knew at least.

When Simon came down, I quickly realized how odd the arrangement was getting. While John had a decent tan with hints of rosiness in his cheeks from working in the sun, Simon looked like the adult version of the emo kid in high school. He was wearing all black, shirt, jeans, boots, as well as skeleton decorated work gloves and a skull balaclava with black eyeliner smeared around his eyes. His eyes were dark and looked darker with the black around them. These men had to be in their late thirties to early forties, over a decade older than me. They should have had a pack by then, their own Betas and Omegas with pups. Why were they looking so late in their lives? I found myself curious, but I pushed it away. I wasn’t there because I was sympathetic, I was there by force.

“This is Simon Riley,” John said, motioning to the man standing next to him.

“Pleasure,” Simon said, his voice similar to John’s with gruffness and accent as he held out his gloved hand like John had. “Your parents told us a lot about you.”

“So I heard,” I said evenly, ignoring the hand as I sat back in my chair with my arms crossed over my chest.

“Simon. . . They’re not happy about being here,” John said with a small sigh, as Simon dropped his hand.

“What?” Simon asked, confusion in his voice as he looked from me to John.

“Their parents didn’t tell them anything about us or moving here. They didn’t even tell us the whole story,” John said as he took a seat, scratching at his jaw before looking at me. “They said that you were coming here willingly and that you just had not had a heat in a while,” John said, looking at me. “That you had fallen ill a few months ago and that delayed your cycle for a bit, but should be fine in a month or two.”

“So it seems we all are disappointed about this,” I said, earning a stern look from John. “Where’s my room or do I not get one because you two planned out a whole deal of me staying in your bed?”

“It’s upstairs and to the right. We wanted you to have your own space,” Simon said gently. At least they weren’t too pushy, demanding I be obedient and fulfill my Omega ‘duties’ right then.

“I’d like to go lay down if that’s okay with you,” I said, standing up without waiting for their answer. “It’s already been a long, shitty day.” It had taken my parents and I over 8 hours to drive to this ranch, having left at 4 AM. I was tired, pissed, hungry, and just needed to be alone.

“When’s the last time you ate?” John asked before I got too far.

“I don’t know, probably this morning,” I said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. Had it been that morning? I wasn’t sure. The whole drive to the middle of nowhere and abandonment was messing with my brain a bit. It was getting late in the afternoon, almost 5PM. While I should have had something to eat with my stomach getting upset at the need to have something in nearly 9 hours, I didn’t want to on principle alone. I could be in control of at least one thing and that was food. “I’m not hungry and I’d rather just lay down.”

“You should eat something before laying down,” Simon added.

“I’m not hungry,” I said, doubling down on my stance.

“Alright,” John said as he stood. “Go ahead. If you get hungry, help yourself to whatever you’d like in the kitchen. We’re going to finish up chores then start dinner in a couple of hours.”

I nodded, taking the stairs back to the room I had originally picked as mine. While it wasn’t too big, I had originally assumed that my parents would take the big bedroom, it suddenly felt much, much smaller. The room I had demanded was not as big as I had thought it was, after all spending time in a room during a vacation is usually just to sleep and rest, not to live in.

Flopping onto the bed, I stared at the ceiling as I listened for the two Alphas to leave the house. It was only then that I let my walls down. Why had my parents felt they had to abandon me to two strangers to make sure I was taken care of? I could look after myself. I wanted to look after myself.

Hell, most of the time on the farm I was doing the work, whether it was with the cattle or the bills or taking care of the house. My parents were older than my peers’ parents were when I was in school, so to be taking care of things that most others my age had no clue about wasn’t odd. Was a headstrong Omega that odd and embarrassing that they thought I would be better off nearly a state away in a place I’d never been before? Was I a disappointment? I’d worked my ass off, earning respect for doing the same work that Alphas and Betas were doing with a pack.

But I’d always be ‘Just an Omega’ to everyone. No matter what I could do, no matter how hard I tried to prove myself, I’d just be a thing to trade for in a pack.

Tears pricked my eyes as I curled up into a ball as tight as I could, quietly crying myself to sleep.

For the next few days, I did my best to avoid the men, keeping to the house while they worked outside. The time inside wasn’t spent being lazy either. I cleaned and cooked and pitched in, but I made myself scarce around them when they came in. They would spend evenings in the livingroom after a shower and dinner watching TV, but always offered their company to me. Whether it was just them sitting there or eating, they offered.

I felt like I had to refuse on principle alone, to take out my anger and frustration on them. It wasn’t entirely their fault, but they were still a part of it. My parents still refused to answer my calls and texts, making my attitude worse than the first day I had arrived. I still did my chores, but stopped speaking to them before refusing to be in the room with them all together. They had given me space, but after a week of this, things came to a head.

John and Simon had come in for lunch as they usually did. I was hurrying to put the cooking dishes in the sink so I could leave, but Simon stood in my way of the stairs. His arms were crossed over his chest as he gave me a stern look.

“Sit,” he said firmly, pointing to the kitchen table. I tried to challenge him, growling as he kept his position in front of me, but when he growled back, something much deeper and stronger than mine, my body folded after a few moments. I sat back down with a huff, glaring hard. He followed, taking a seat next to John across the table from me, taking the lead in this ‘intervention.’ “I know that this isn’t an ideal situation, but we should make the best of it. We’ve given you some space and haven’t pushed for you to do more than the chores, but you can’t keep ignoring us. It’s not healthy and I doubt you’re ha-”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to be here. I can’t go home, I can’t leave, so this is what you get,” I said, holding back a growl.

“You will wait until I am done talking,” Simon snapped. It was shocking to hear one of them raise their voice, but then again I was being a bitchy asshole. I wanted to argue, to yell and scream, throw things, but his stare held me in place in silence. “Now, we are going to make the best of this situation. You have your room and we have ours. We are not going to make you do anything that you don’t want to do, but you have to be around us more. That means you are to come outside into the fields or at least out onto the porch while we’re in the garden, not inside by yourself. Understand?”

I gave a curt nod, not willing to say anything because I knew I would argue. They seemed to understand that as well, not pushing for a verbal answer.

“We are a pack now,” John said. “That means spending time together, helping one another, trusting each other. I know that you probably hate us, but we’re not going to leave you. You’re our Omega and we’re your Alphas. Bonded or not. Got it?”

Again, I nodded. My brain wanted to keep pushing back against them, yell, scream, making them miserable till they finally had enough and kick me out. At least then I could be free. As free as a jobless, homeless, packless Omega could be. Yet, I didn’t. It was stupid to do that and the Alphas weren’t being horrible. They were talking to me, accepting my need for space, and not forcing me to ‘perform’ for them. It wasn’t as bad as it could be and I was losing steam in continually pushing them away.

“Good,” John said. “Now, we have chores to do, so we’re going to show you around the rest of the homestead. You were on a cattle ranch before this?”

“Yeah,” I said, my tone drastically different than before. No longer was it biting or snide, now it was more even and calm.

“Well, we have a couple hundred head of cattle out in the pasture grazing that we need to check on. Have you ever ridden a horse?” He asked. Oh shit.

“Uh, no. I usually went out in a truck to check on ‘em cause that’s all we had,” I said, looking at him a bit worried.

“Alright, you’ll ride with Simon then,” John said before both men stood up. It took me a moment to realize I was supposed to follow and while I didn’t want to listen to anything they told me to do, one look from them had me swallowing my words. I walked behind Simon and John out to the stable where I watched as they got their horses ready to ride. Horses were not something I was familiar with aside from petting here and there, so I stood back to see how things were done. It was part of the reason why I wanted to go to this ‘vacation ranch.’ I wanted to learn how to handle horses, but I had almost no experience with them.

Both men were already dressed for going out on horseback in jeans, tall boots, and long sleeved shirts. With Montana fall settling in, they had grabbed wool lined jackets to slip on as well before heading to the barn. I just had on a pair of hiking boots, jeans, and a thin, long sleeved shirt. The trip was supposed to be short in the warmer weather so packing anything heavy didn’t seem necessary, let alone need anything jacket or coat wise.

“Did you bring a coat or jacket with you?” Simon asked, looking me over.

“No, I didn't think to bring it,” I said, standing to the side with my hands in my jeans’ pockets. He nodded as he handed the reins to the palomino, Charlie, over to me. Wide eyed, I held onto the leather straps as Simon went back into the barn. “I. . . Uh, what do I do?” I asked, looking at John who was just grinning.

“Hold onto ‘em,” he said with a chuckle as he led his horse back over to us.

“Okay,” I nodded, still unsure. While I was used to being around large animals that could hurt me if they really wanted, I was never in control of them like this and inside a pick up or outside a fence or head shute most of the time.

“Charlie’s a pretty relaxed guy, he doesn’t startle that easy,” John said, patting the horse’s forehead. “You’ve never been around horses much, have you?” I shook my head.

“Most time I’ve spent around them is when I go to the state fair and look at the livestock show,” I said, keeping a keen eye on Charlie.

“Here,” Simon said, coming back out. “It’s old, but it’ll be better than what you have on.” He handed me a similar denim jacket with wool lining, taking back the reins.

“Thanks,” I said, sliding it on. It was big, but with the wind picking up and no trees to break the wind when we were out in the pasture, it’d be better than nothing. “So. . . How do I get on?”

“I’ll get on first, then John’ll help you get up,” Simon said. He stepped into the stirrups to easily swing his body up and over into the saddle. Intimidation didn’t seem the right word to use for the image before me, seeing this large man on a large animal. Terror felt more apt. Having never been on a horse ever, I was hesitant, unsure where I’d go or how I would get up there. While both Alphas were tall and could easily pull themselves up into the saddle, I was barely tall enough to look over the back of Charlie without a saddle on.

“Here,” John said, wrapping his reins around a pole before moving over to me. “Hands here and here, then put your foot in the stirrup.” He placed my hands on either end of the saddle before helping my foot into the stirrup. “On count of three, jump and pull,” he said. “One, two, three!” John’s hands went to my hips and helped hoist me up as I pulled and jumped as I was told. There was no time to feel awkward about having the man hold my hips or how close we were because if I didn’t do as I was told, I was going to go flying over the other side. I swung my leg over and found myself pressed flat against Simon’s back, his arm reaching behind him to keep me from going past the saddle and onto the otherside.

“Where do I hold on?” I asked, suddenly very nervous when I saw how far up we were, not to mention that I was pressed right up against the Alpha when I’d never been closer than a quick hug from anything on two legs.

“Here,” Simon said as his gloved hands took my arms to pull them around his middle to latch together in front of his belly. “You’ll have to hold on tight because it can get bouncy.”

“Wait, what?” I asked as John moved away to quickly get in his saddle. Simon clicked his tongue, squeezing with his thighs to spur Charlie on. I yelped as we moved forward, tightening my grip on the Alpha.

“Alright, let’s move out,” John said with a chuckle. As much as I wanted to look and see where we were going, I was too scared to look. I buried my face in Simon’s back as we picked up speed, and indeed it did get quite bouncy.

“Ease up, Pet,” Simon said with a grunt. “I won’t be able to breathe if you keep squeezing me like a tube of toothpaste.”

“Sorry,” I squeaked. Chancing a look, we hadn’t even gone that far. Just a handful of yards to the gate where John was letting us into the pasture.

“You’re good, just don’t let go,” Simon said, reaching down to pat my leg. As quickly as I was to hate the two Alphas, try to challenge them and fight them, they were turning me around on the whole situation. Not completely, but enough to be civil. Once we were in the pasture, we didn’t stay trotting for long. Instead we began a gallop that had me burying my face into Simon’s back again while we flew across the fields towards their cattle.

Honestly, it was probably the most scared I’d been in a long time. The fear began to fade though as I opened my eyes and watched as the world whipped past us. I began to hear Simon laughing and realized John was too. This was exciting for them, thrilling really. It was second nature for them to go that fast as if they were flying low over the ground. I could feel that joy catching on with me, but the fear of falling was still in the forefront of my mind. With that speed, we reached the cattle in no time.

Calving season was over and most of the calves were big enough that they were weaned. Which meant less worry about predators and that come spring they’ll be big enough to sell. With the horses at a walk, I eased up my grip on Simon to actually look around. I was more familiar with this part of the job; counting cattle and checking for disease or lameness while they came up for treats or pets. The ranch back home only had about 50 head of cattle while John and Simon’s ranch had four times that almost. As we moved through the cattle, I relaxed more and didn’t even realize I was leaning against Simon with my cheek to his back and my arms loose around his middle in more of a hug than death grip.

This was something I could do without even having to think about it. Which actually made me feel, dare I say, more at home.

“Are you doing okay back there, Pet?” Simon asked as he began to slowly herd the cattle towards another part of the pasture. They had grazed enough in the section they were left in, so they were being moved to a new part to let that section regrow as well as move them closer to the house.

“Yeah,” I said with a hum, rubbing my cheek against him without thinking of it. The warmth of his body against mine was becoming more and more familiar as we worked with the cattle. It took a bit of time as we didn’t rush, but when we finished we didn’t run off at a gallop. Instead it was a slower, meandering walk that I didn’t mind one bit. Simon would reach back here and there to give my leg or thigh a reassuring pat while John would get close to lean over to kiss Simon or rub my back.

I was surprised given that most of the time Alphas didn’t mate together. They were in packs together, but that was usually because there was a Beta and an Omega or several Betas. These two seemed to be odd ones out.

Like me.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be in a pack with them. It would take more than just one horse ride to mate with them though. I couldn’t have pups and didn’t plan on even being mated. Friends though, I could probably do that.

Back at the house, Simon dismounted first before helping me off the back of Charlie.

“Fuck, Pet, your hair is a bit wild,” he chuckled as John took the saddle off Ollie.

“Oh shush,” I said, trying to finger comb my hair. I should have put it back with something, but that was too little too late. I winced, feeling the knots already there from being whipped around and pulled during the gallop. With a huff, I pulled it back as much as I could to at least get it out of the way. “I’ll comb it out later with some conditioner,” I said as the two men took care of the horses. Staying out with them, I watched as they brushed and watered the large animals, taking time to give them extra treats and soft spoken words of love.

“Come on. There’s some wood that needs to be chopped before it gets too dark,” John said, shrugging off his coat. “We’re trying to get enough done before winter so when the snow falls we won’t have to rely on the electric heater as much. That thing sucks up power and is a pain to pay for.” I nodded, taking the coat I had off as well, letting Simon have it to hang up again, before following them to the side of the house. There was already a large wood pile started and logs set up for splitting, so John took the lead with the ax as Simon and I helped with picking up the slit wood or putting the logs in place for the other to strike before the men switched places.

I wasn’t naive. I knew what men looked like, even Alpha men. The internet was a wonderful place to find things to broaden your horizon, but it was very different when the real thing was in front of you. At first I was shocked at how easy John split the logs in just one stroke each time, but then he took off his shirt. This handsome, strong, built like a goddamn brick house of an Alpha was just going to town like it was no one’s business as his skin started to shine with sweat. He was better than the internet too. I had always seen clean shaven Alphas as well, no hair except for on their head. John had HAIR. Up his arms, across his chest, down his belly and a sprinkle across his back. No one could have prepared me for how it would affect me to see this Alpha with a belly and hair.

It was getting to the point that Simon had to nudge me a few times to get me to pay attention, always having a husky, soft chuckle each time.

When Simon switched places, I wasn’t any better off. How the hell had these two Alphas stayed together and alone for so long? If they were in my hometown, they would have trails of Betas and Omegas after them. While John was built and a little shorter, Simon was tall and covered in tattoos. His biceps were the size of my head, I’m pretty sure at least. He did have hair as well, but it was a light smattering and shimmered in the light. John noticed my staring at the other Alpha as well, giving me a wink when he asked me a question about ‘the scenery.’ I choked out something that I thought was sarcastic as the men chuckled. Had I been missing out on this the whole time I stayed cooped up inside? Damn it.

After the chores were completed, we all went back inside for dinner and to clean up for the night. I made quick work of leftovers to serve while the other two took turns in the bathroom washing up.

The only downfall for the house was that there was one bathroom with a shower and a bathtub. There were two with toilets,one upstairs and one downstairs, but we had to take turns with showers. Letting John go before me, I went about with my usual habits of cleaning up the kitchen and washing dishes. It was a habit now, one I didn’t mind. Long days of work weren’t that unusual for me either, but these two were almost completely self-sufficient with their own garden, cattle, horses, and solar panels. Their work was twice as much as mine had been.

However, I could appreciate the effort put in to take care of everything and welcomed it. That meant no more sitting around and sulking. I would be too busy working to have time to continue my pity party.

When night had fallen completely, Simon and John were on the sofa freshly showered and watching TV while I cleaned myself up. Funnily, Simon kept covered all day, but at night he would relax in a tee and sweatpants. It was the first time I had seen him without a sweatshirt on or gloves, aside from splitting wood earlier that day. I guess it wasn’t just me that was getting more comfortable with a new living situation.

My hair had only gotten even more tangled as the day had gone on after I forced it into a bird's nest, refusing to come out even with a glob of conditioner on it. Giving up on it in the running water, I finished washing myself before stepping out. Dried and dressed, I carried a comb and leave-in conditioner with me to the living room to sit on the floor next to the loveseat they were on to work on my hair slowly and carefully.

Neither of them said anything at first, as it was our first real evening spent together. Maybe they were worried that I’d turn feral and bite them or we’d argue again. The TV filled the silence, making it less awkward than if it was just me grumbling softly under my breath as I painstakingly took my time with my hair.

“Are you still trying to get those knots out?” John said with a snort. I nodded with a huff as I kept working at the ends to slowly move the comb through it. Very slowly. “Come here,” he said, waving me over. I looked up, but listened to him. He spread his legs to let me sit on the floor in front of him with my back to the couch. Handing over the comb and conditioner, he took over while I watched TV.

Packs regularly groomed one another, so it wasn’t out of the norm to do it. I just wasn’t used to it. I had always been the one to take care of myself and my parents that it was second nature to fight against offered help. Then again my parents were Betas. They didn’t really know how to handle a willful Omega who was determined to do things themself. They would get frustrated with me or give up halfway through whatever we were doing.

Sitting there and letting John detangle my hair felt so simple and yet it meant so much more. No one had taken the time with me to help. Teachers, friends, even my parents never took the time to make sure I was okay or to see if I needed help. If they did happen to make an effort to ask, they didn’t mean it. There was no action behind their words. But these two Alphas. . .

John was gentle, never pulling or yanking my hair. He cared about not hurting me, showing me through his actions with simple gestures like combing my hair. As the night went on, Simon shifted to lay on the sofa next to John. My hair had already halfway dried with no more tangles, but I had stayed put between John’s legs in my place on the floor. I noticed Simon’s foot was next to me, hanging off the couch with the other in John’s lap.

Without thinking, I took it in my hands to begin to massage it. He hadn’t asked or indicated that he wanted me to do that, but I took the initiative. No one said anything, but I could feel their eyes on me as my hands worked deftly over the pads of his toes and foot. I kept watching the TV, not saying a word. It was a way for me to say ‘I’m okay with you,’ without having to actually say it. Because words are hard sometimes.

As the credits rolled for the crime drama we had been watching, I yawned and popped my neck. It was nearly 10 PM and I was usually in bed by 9 PM. Simon’s foot had moved to my lap, after the massage I had idly rubbed his leg while watching TV.

“Alright, I think it’s time to hit the hay,” John said. I patted Simon’s leg one last time before letting him move so I could. All of us stretched and felt joints pop before Simon checked the doors as John got the lights. I was already up the stairs and in my room when they walked by. I was ready to sleep alone again, to pass out from all the work we had done that day, but I paused. It wasn’t necessary for me to sleep alone anymore.

The Alphas had made it clear they weren’t going to hurt me, they weren’t going to force anything on me, and had helped me feel comfortable with them by respecting my boundaries. The small blow up at lunch wasn’t them forcing me to be with them, it was concern and worry for me, wanting me to actually be happy even if nothing came of us. Toying with my long sleeves of my oversized sleep shirt, I sat on my bed as I tried to decide what to do. I had been alone all week, but really, I’d been alone for most of my life.

It hadn’t occurred to me till I was forced to see it. But, I realized I didn’t want to be alone. To have a farm and work it by myself with just a dog for company wasn’t what I wanted after all. Maybe things would be better if I had met these two naturally and not through a scheme by my parents, but the maybes and what ifs didn’t matter anymore. What did matter was right then and there, where the Alphas were.

Reaching over, I turned my own light off as I pulled my shirt collar over my mouth, something I had done as a child when scared or nervous to ask for something. Stepping out into the hall, the bathroom was in front of me and the Alphas’ room directly to my right. The lights were all off in the house except for in their bedroom where a single side lamp was on, showing a king sized bed that John and Simon shared. With a small hesitation, my feet took me to their door where I shyly knocked on the door frame, getting their attention.

“Everything alright, Love?” John asked, sitting on his side of the bed as he plugged in his phone to charge. Love. . . It sounded nice, something people called each other when they were familiar with each other. A nickname of affection. In that second of him calling me that, I felt relief rush through me. It didn’t make sense, why was I relieved when they hadn’t said yes or no yet? Still, it solidified me asking for them.

“Can. . . Can I sleep with you guys?” I asked, shirt still over half my face as I pulled at the collar nervously. I felt so small and far away, like a child checking to see if their parents were awake as they were scared from a nightmare.

“Of course,” Simon said, his face uncovered to show his blond hair and scars. Seeing him like that, open and accepting, allowing me to be let in as I did the same to him and John, was perfect. He pulled back the covers and moved to let me have a space to get into bed, but I still hesitated. It was new and different and I was scared enough that I wanted to cry. But I wanted to run to them to hide. They didn’t move though, letting me take my time as I damn near tip-toed over to Simon’s side to crawl into the middle of the bed. Once I was settled, they both pulled the covers back for themselves before John turned off the lamp.

In the dark, I could feel them being careful to give me space as I was curled in on myself. I took a moment to calm myself before I turned on my side to face John. Reaching behind me, I grabbed Simon’s arm to tug on him to get him closer, wanting less space between us before reaching forward to do the same to John. Sandwiched between them my heart was racing, but the longer we laid there, the more their calming scents washed over me. I pulled my shirt from my face, nuzzling into the back of John’s neck as Simon did the same to me.

It was peaceful and fulfilling. Something I had not felt before with someone else, let alone two Alphas that were practically strangers.

I was still angry with my parents, so very angry, but not with John and Simon. No, I wasn’t angry with them or bitter. I was, dare I say, happy?

Masterlist

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[juustozzi]

more inajapan shenanigans in finland! quick edits on lq photos of train doodles, which you can see from the overall quality, haha..

no owlposting goes without culture explantion:

1st comic: soccer is "jalkapallo" in finnish, but it might be hard for japanese to pronouce correctly, due to japanese language not having the "L" sound finnish has (the L sound is tied to japanese R, which for explains how sometimes names with R in japanese are romanized with L). depending on the area, soccer can also be shortened to "jalis" or "futis" (from swedish "futbol" for soccer, I think?).

(oh! and someone mentioned in tags or somewhere that they think Endou would be good with languages? that made me think that what if Endou's good with them, but just not good at studying them? like, textbooks do him nothing, but when he's surrounded in another language, he's like a sponge and learns it like nothing on the go? I think I really like that idea!)

2nd comic: I actually drew this after watching the scenery on a 3 hour train ride - if you travel long distances here (on train or motorways), you'll see mostly forests, fields and lakes. especially up in north, there will be like swams too, but... it's pretty empty here. (I might be biased, but I personally love the scenery) ((and it was kinda freaky to visit tokyo and think that there was a looot more people than in my whole freaking country.....)

3rd comic:

sauna habits. yes, we gather a bunch of birch branches and hit each other with them. no, it actually feels good!! it's hard to hit so hard it'd hurt, the leaves feel nice and it smells good. you can also find them sold in bigger stores, right in the freezer section.

rally english: the way of pronouncing english like you pronounce finnish. it's dumb and fun and usually done by race drivers, hence the name. also to note: if you write it down, no english speaker understands, but every finn can read it (ai käänt rait it pat ai vil trai) ((if you want to hear it, here's a video. watch at least the first clip because poor timo...))

also: "voi juukelis puukelis" is literally how the finnish subs translate saiki k's "yare yare daze" and I love it so erne is gonna say it, even though I doubt no one actually says it

also also: not important but a fun fact, traditionally with summer cottages and other summer places, the sauna is a separate building. the living place is a bit further inland, and the sauna is close to the body of water. some newer cottages etc. can have another sauna in the actual building too, usually with an electric stove, instead of wood-heated ones used in the separate sauna.

[st7arlight]

meet the sims-blackwood family!! this is set post-200 in a new world where the fears are weaker and more hidden in the shadows, but quickly building strength as more avatars and artifacts are born. meet blaire and not-adam, two students in jon’s homeroom and english class!

worldbuilding and brainstorm notes under the cut :D

the student ocs i created here are

-a transfem student who straight up doesnt have a name. you can call her anything but her deadname. its a fun game the class plays. it started as a gag but jon went “yeah okay ive seen weirder and kids deserve a chance to explore” so he comes up with a different name every day during roll call. shes v chaotic and inspired (personality wise, not funky name lore) by an irl friend of mine

-the student she has a crush on and is best friends with, an AP art student who uses they/she pronouns

they both eat lunch in Jon’s classroom, where they eventually notice that he never really eats much? just. reads a book in his free time, maybe has cereal bars occasionally

they form really close bonds with jon and he sponsors their lgbt club,,,, the second student realizes she’s agender when hes explaining the ace spectrum,,,,,, they come across The Horrors that were released when jmart moved on to Somewhere Else and he saves them,,,,,,,,, after they start to understand that “something spooky is here bc of mr sims but he was a victim in it” they sneakily start categorizing what they call “The Horrors” into 9 groups and get into shenanigans. they save jon at some point

their romance follows the plot of jmart’s but jon notices student B treating student A like he did martin at the start of the year and intervenes

so theyre healthier

(maybe jmart adopt student b, as they’re in a rlly unsafe home environment and thats why they started lashing out at their buddy)

at the beginning of the year student A knows shes trans but isnt sure what name to use. her buddy suggests not-adam (as she isnt suuuper uncomfy with her deadname, just that its too masc for her) so they call her that for a good bit and it comes up occasionally until they learn about the fears and the joke kinda. sours.

jon called her anything but that. not-adam thought it was because he didnt want to deadname her (and she insisted she was cool with it and thought it was funny) but she said that he can use a name that isnt adam, just not to stick to one bc she didnt want to feel boxed in

so the joke of her being anything but adam began

!!! WHAT IF NOT ADAM HAS AN ENCOUNTER WITH A STRANGER OBJECT THAT MAKES EVERYONE UNABLE TO SEE OR REMEMBER HER??? AND (character B) IS THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS HER BUT STILL CANT SEE HER!!!! AND THIS IS HOW JON REVEALS HE KNOWS STUFF ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL

student b breaks down only a couple days in when she realized something was deeply, truly wrong, earing lunch (seemingly) alone with jon in his classroom. she says something with “not-adam” and “nobody remembers her but me” and jon’s trauma plus eye powers helps break his illusion, even though he doesnt remember her still

WHAT IF THIS IS AROUND WHEN NOT ADAM IS STARTING TO SEE HIM AS A FATHER

he adopts her bc she still legally doesnt exist and her family doesnt remember her , and its not like jmart already have fake identities anyways. they break the curse but everyone but B and Jon are completely wiped of her memory, just can finally see her now. its a mush of stranger, spiral, and lonely bc the horrors work different here

…she eventually settles on a name because she desperately needs to be reminded that they know her, they remember her, and that they remember all of her. (jon doesnt remember *everything* still, but most. every now and then she or B references something and they pause when they realize it was another memory lost to The Horrors)

oh also jon wears combat boots bc of daisy now. unrelated but important

im realizing my plan of them adopting B is a little funky with them adopting not-adam. however, unconventional found family prevails in tma. B just stays at their house most of the time bc she is neglected a lot at home so it usually isnt noticed when she disappears. theyre both 16 so fighting for custody when they can move out so soon is deemed too much stress on the teens. not-adam’s family actually are v loving and great, they just. dont remember NA. they dont remember how to love her, that they ever did

(thats why B needed to remember her. also, the effect intended of the horror was to torture NA until she died unnoticed and she will either be remembered by everyone when her body is found or will rot unseen until shes gone. or become an avatar, if she chose to embrace it. B was an intended victim of the leitner, the fear of nobody believing you and losing someone you love feed the Horrors)

(jon and his funky eye powers are likely the only reason NA didnt die)

in the end A picks the name astrid, but jon still calls her any name he can think of that starts with A when calling her down for food n stuff

anyways jmart unofficially adopting queer teens bc found family is so themcore but i *know* the fates would never allow them to do anything conventionally or fully legal

(all of this copy-pasted from me infodumping in a tma chat in the past couple hours)