#I honestly wanna do so many more but I don’t have any good ideas yet

[starsinthesky5]

you belong with me l || joe burrow x reader

description: you and joe have been best friends ever since ohio state and you’ve been his biggest supporter for as long as you both could remember. it was always the same dynamic between you both, friends. very very very close friends. but what if you wanted to be more than just friends?

a/n: best friends to lovers HELLO? you are both so oblivious yet so aware of your feelings at the same time it is crazy. so many little moments that have you like “how the hell are you not aware you’re in love with each other?”.

you’re in denial for a lot of this fic, and Joe pretty much knows what he wants but is a little scared to actually do something about it 

part 2

warnings: language, mentions of sex (no actual smut)

word count: 13.3 k 

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Thursday

You had just gotten home from running a few errands, absolutely exhausted from all the running around you had been doing from Christmas shopping and planning for your sister's wedding. You left all the bags in your entryway and collapsed on your couch. 

“Ughh,” you groaned into the pillow. It had been a pretty chaotic week for you and you felt tired and burnt out, and were in desperate need of a night out. 

You heard your phone buzz in your pocket so you moved to lay on your back and pulled your phone out to see who was calling. The name on your screen immediately made you smile and forget about your fatigue, so naturally, you answered it. 

“Hey, Y/N,” Joe said over the phone as he sat down on his couch.

“Hi Joe,” you smiled as you started twirling your his sweatshirt string. Somehow you ended up with a few of Joe’s shirts or hoodies in your closet from when you’d be over at his place or him at yours. Currently, you have one of his old LSU hoodies which was a little big on you, but that made it even more comfier. “How was practice?”. 

“Good,” He breathed out, sounding a little weary. 

“Is something wrong? You sound extra tired,” you ask your best friend. 

“Nah, Just the usual tiredness from practice but I’m fine,” he lied.

You could tell when Joe would lie to you, the tone of his voice would usually give it away. And right now, he was lying to you. “I know you too well Joe, what's up?”. 

He let out a sigh and said, “The Bengals Christmas Party is tomorrow night and I’m dreading it,”. 

“Ahhh, I see. Mr. Hermit Crab has to go to a partyyyy,” you tease. 

“Really funny,” He says, rolling his eyes which you could feel through the screen.

“I know you don’t partially enjoy parties but it’s Christmas, lighten up,” you tell him. “There will be lots of people there to keep you company,”.

“And that’s just the problem. Everyone there is just gonna wanna talk about football and I need one night to just relax,” he says. 

You felt bad for Joe since you knew how all of this would get draining for him. It was already stressful enough that the playoffs were slowly creeping up and the background noise was only getting louder by the day, and then he had 50 other things on top of that to do. He didn’t get any break time once December rolled around. That’s also why it was hard for him to enjoy his birthday, which happened to be next Sunday. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I wish I could do something to stop you from going but you are the face of the team and not going would look bad,”.

As he listens to you, an idea pops into his head. He sits up and says, “You know, it would be a lot more tolerable if you came with me?”. 

Your eyes light up at his offer. Joe always ended up bringing you with him to events like this. Ever since he got drafted by the Bengals, you’d be right by his side at any team activities that needed a plus 1. At first, you weren’t really sure why he’d bring you along with him, and quite honestly you still aren’t really sure since he could just go alone or bring anyone else, but it always seemed to make him more comfortable when you were there and you’d be happy to keep him company at any given time.

“That’s if you're free?” He adds.

“Oh trust me, I am. I’m in desperate need of a night out so this might be the thing I need,” you say as you hop off the couch and walk into your bedroom to figure out an outfit for tomorrow. 

“Everything alright?” He asks as he gets up to figure out his own outfit for tomorrow now that he actually has a reason to go. 

“Yeah, just a triple homicide. Work, Christmas, and my Sister's wedding planning,” you say as you pull out a few Christmasy dresses, none really catching your eye. 

“Damn, December really isn’t our month,” he laughs. “You need a night out,”. 

“You got that right,” you smile. You're just about to ask him what he was thinking of wearing to the party but your sister calls you, interrupting you and Joe’s call. 

“Shit, my Sister’s calling me. Probably more wedding stuff,” you sigh.

“That’s okay,” he laughs. “I’ll pick you up at 6 tomorrow,” he adds.

“Sounds perfect. See you tomorrow,” you smile.

“Bye, Y/N,” he replies before hanging up. You then call your sister back, placing the phone on speaker and throwing it onto the bed.

“Hey Kaylee,” you say as you go back to outfit hunting for tomorrow. 

“Hey, you busy?” She asks.

“A little. I’m trying to find an outfit for tomorrow,” you say as you pull out a cropped red sweater. 

“What’s tomorrow?” She asks.

“Joe asked me to go with him to the team Christmas party,” you said as you dug through your closet for a black mini skirt and sheer tights to go with the sweater. 

“Aw that’s nice,” she says. “You know, with the number of things Joe brings you to or does with you, you’d think that you both would be a couple by now. You are practically his girlfriend,” she jokes, only partly though. 

You immediately stop looking through your closet and turn back to face your phone. “What?” you say as you feel yourself turning red at the mention of being his girlfriend, a thought you buried all those years ago because you thought it was silly. 

“I’m just joking, Y/N, kind of. But I mean, you are doing what girlfriends typically do. I know you’re really close friends and you have been for years, but he brings you to like everything and you’re always doing something together. People think you’re his secret girlfriend for a reason,” she says. 

You find yourself staring off into space as she’s talking. Deep down, you knew she was right but you just didn’t want to look at it that way. You were doing girlfriend duties for him and it became clearer as time passed by. At first, it didn’t bother you much, it was just two best friends doing best friend things right? It was completely normal for you to go to every single one of his games, go to these team events with him, and spend so much time together, right? But as time went on, you started to realize that maybe people’s comments weren’t totally out of left field. It did look like you were his girlfriend, especially since he didn’t have any other girl with him most of the time. 

You had feelings for Joe back when you first met at Ohio State, but you never did anything about them because you thought he didn’t feel the same. You spent weeks spiraling over your feelings towards him, but you eventually gave up because you didn’t want to lose him as a friend in case he felt differently about you, so you buried the feelings and moved on. Or so you thought you buried them. Clearly, that wasn’t the case since you were spiraling, again, at the thought of being his girlfriend and being told that you were acting like it too.  

You never pushed Joe about his dating life because you thought that was boundary stomping. Yes, you two were very close, but you didn’t really want to know the details about his love life for many reasons. You just watched that part of his life from a distance. He had a few girlfriends over the years, none of which stuck around or fizzled out over time. The only consistent girl in his life was you. And that’s why everyone thought you were his girlfriend when he first got drafted.

They were convinced you both were either dating or hooking up, neither of which was true. It was a little awkward when that gained traction, but it slowly faded out over time but still lingered to this day. You both tried to not let it affect your friendship and for the most part, it worked. You ignored and continued to support him in every way possible, but those thoughts of you being a couple were buried deep inside your mind and sometimes peeked through, just like how they were right now. 

“I haven’t really looked at it that way,” you lied. 

“Of course you haven’t. Why would you? Joe is such a great guy and has been a great friend to you for years. Why would you ever think that way,” she laughs.

Being best friends with one of the best quarterbacks in the league had its perks. But you weren’t one to take advantage of that often. You were just there to support your best friend and enjoy the ride. To everyone else, he was Joe Burrow. But to you, he was just Joe. And you loved that you got to see the real him and the guy you met in college was still there regardless of everything that’s changed since then. 

“Rightttt,” you say as you sit down on your bed.

“Well anyways, I’ll leave you to it. I was just calling about what the menu should look like for the pre-wedding brunch but we can talk about that later,” she says.

“You sure?” You ask.

“Positive. Have fun at the party and tell Joe I said hi,”.

“Thanks, Kaylee and I will. I’ll call you soon,” you say as you hang up. You toss your phone to the side and fall back onto your bed. The thought of you and Joe being a couple was stupid, right? You both had been friends for years and never once did he show any other feelings other than friendship towards you, so why was this even a thought? Were you not seeing something that everyone else was? Did Joe ever have the same thoughts as you?

He was the perfect guy. He was kind, selfless, funny, attractive, smart, and charming. Any girl would be so lucky to have him as her boyfriend. Wouldn’t it be nice if he was your boyfriend? He matches your vibe completely and you both have so much in common, plus you already know so much about each other. You would be the perfect couple and people wouldn’t even be surprised if you got together. 

“Nah, this is stupid,” you shook your head as you broke out of whatever fantasy you were dreaming about. 

But was it a fantasy, or was it something that you both wished was reality deep down?

Friday Night 

The next day flew by pretty quickly and you found yourself sitting at your vanity, applying the last bit of makeup before Joe picked you up. You opted for a cropped red sweater, a black mini skirt with sheer tights, and black knee-high boots. Jewelry-wise, you didn’t go all out. Just your usual earrings and necklaces, but you made sure to wear the diamond tennis bracelet Joe got you after he signed his rookie contract. You didn’t wear it often since it was so expensive, but whenever you did, Joe would notice and a huge smile would appear on his face. 

Flashback to 2020

You sat down on Joe’s couch as he brought over two glasses of red wine. He had called you over for dinner tonight at his new place that he bought once his contract money came through.

“I loveee your house. It’s very homey,” you chirp as you pull a plush blanket over your legs. 

“Thank you,” he smiles as he sits down, handing you your wine glass. “If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be upgrading in a few years,”.

“Oh trust me, it’ll go just as planned,” you say, taking a sip of the blood red wine. “You’re about to set the league on fire,”.

“I appreciate the confidence,” Joe laughs as he sips his wine. 

“I’m so glad you got drafted to Cincy. It was already tough enough that you were down in Baton Rouge for 2 years, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you got drafted anywhere else,” you sigh. 

“Sounds like somebody missed me,” he said as he threw his head back into the couch pillow.

“No shit, goofball. I missed my best friend,” you laughed as you playfully shoved his shoulder. 

“Well, take this as an apology,” he says, putting his glass to the side and reaching down to grab something from the side of the couch. He pulls up a small lilac gift bag and places it in your lap. 

“What’s this?” you question as butterflies fill your stomach. You place your glass on the side table and examine the little bag.

“An apology for being away for 2 years,” he says, raising his eyebrows and motioning you to open the bag.

“It’s not like I didn’t see you at all. I went to a few games and you still came back here during your breaks,” you said as you patted his thigh. 

“Still, I wasn’t at your fingertips like I usually am,” he laughs, causing a blush to creep up your face. “Just open it,”.

You nod and open the bag and are met with a beige box. You open the box and your jaw drops at the sight of a shiny, very real-looking, diamond tennis bracelet sitting inside. 

“Joe, what the fuck,” you whispered as you ran your fingers across the big diamonds. “You didn’t have to- This must’ve been so expensive,”.

“Don’t worry about all that. It’s a gift from me to my best friend and saying no would be rude,” he says, grabbing the bracelet and helping you put it on. “In case you forgot, I am a millionaire now, and you never wanna upset a millionaire,” he jokes. 

“Don’t send your minions on me now,” you joke as he clasps the bracelet onto your wrist. “But seriously, you didn’t have to do this,”.

He tilts his head, giving you a look that you never were one to argue with. “Fine, Fine. Thank you sooo much. I love it,” you say as you launch yourself onto him, pulling him in for a warm hug. 

He wraps his arms around you tightly and laughs into your shoulder. His hand runs up and down your back as you run your fingers through his soft hair. You weren’t sure how long you both were hugging; you were waiting for him to pull away, but he was waiting for you to pull away. But at the same time, neither of you really wanted to pull away. 

You appreciated the glamorous gift from him, and you’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel butterflies in your belly when you opened the box. Little did you know this bracelet was his first official purchase from his contract money. He knew that once the money hit his account, he wanted to buy you something to show how much he cared for you, the only girl that has been by his side through thick and thin. 

End of flashback 

Last night’s thoughts were no longer in your head as you reminded yourself that Joe was just your best friend. Nothing more, and nothing less. There was no reason to ruin your bond with a silly little pipe dream. 

You heard your phone buzz from what was probably a text from Joe. You opened the text, laughing at the text, which was a little inside joke you two had made over the years.

Joe: getaway car 

“Getaway Car” was a term you both would use whenever you needed to escape something. Whether it was wanting to leave a college party because you were feeling uncomfortable, wanting to leave an awkward situation, or like right now, when either of you needed a break from life and needed to do something fun. All you would say to each other was “getaway car” and you’d know what was up.  

You smiled at the text, grabbed your purse, and made your way out the door and down to his car. 

Meanwhile, Joe was humming along to the song playing on his aux, ‘Lovers Rock’ by TV Girl. You both had made a shared Spotify playlist years ago back at OSU and would often listen to the playlist whenever you were together, so naturally he had to play it on the way to the party. This song was clearly your addition as Joe’s music taste was a little different, but he’d learn to enjoy songs like this because of you. 

You also used to listen to this playlist during the time Joe was away at LSU and you would miss talking to him since he was extremely busy. He would do the same on those nights when he was alone and couldn’t sleep because he would be missing your silly little movie nights, thinking about if you were having these movie nights with anyone else while he was away. 

You made your way out of your apartment building, spotted Joe’s car, and walked over to it. You knocked on the window since he was too busy staring off into space to notice you walk over. He jumped slightly at the sudden noise but then relaxed as he realized it was just you. He unlocks the door which you swing open, hopping inside and letting out a deep breath.

“Woo, it’s freezing out there,” you say as you rub your hands together for some warmth. 

He stares at you up and down, taking in your outfit which you looked stunning in, his eyes stopping at your wrist which was decked with the diamond bracelet he got you. A smile creeps on his face, which you notice. 

“You look really beautiful,” He smiles as he puts the car into drive and exits the parking lot. 

You blushed at his compliment as you also took in what he was wearing. Black jeans and a dark green sweater along with one of his many diamond chains. He looked so good right now. The way his hair naturally fell into place, the way his mouth was curled up into a smile, and the way his sweater fit perfectly around his muscular arms. He just looked so good. 

“You don’t look too bad yourself, Burrow,” you tease. 

“Thanks for coming with me by the way,” he smiles over at you.

“Anytime,” you smile back. “Remember, just say ‘getaway car’ if you wanna leave if you get overwhelmed or something,”. 

“Aye-Aye, Captain,” he salutes. 

You take note of the song playing in the car and you blush again, and then hear Joe singing a bit of the song under his breath.

"While the others talk, We were listening to lovers rock, In her bedroom," he mumbles.

“Lovers Rock?” You question. “Damn, someone’s music taste def rubbed off on you,”.

“Actually, it’s our playlist that’s on right now. But yeah, I’ve learned to enjoy this kinda music. Might be because of a certain someone,” he shrugs. 

“Hmm, whoever she is must have excellent taste,” you say as you turn up the volume.

“Oh trust me,” he says looking over at you, the look on his face sending shivers down your spine. “She definitely does,”. 

A short drive later, you both arrive at the party. Joe turns the car off, hops out, and jogs over to your side, helping you out of the car before you can even open the door. 

“Such a gentleman,” you tease as you reach to close the car door, but he beats you to it. 

“For you? Always,” he winks as he closes your door and loops your arm around his, leading you into the party. You blush at the contact, but why were you blushing? He’s just being friendly, right?

Before you can dive deeper into those thoughts again, you find yourself already inside the party. soft Christmas music was playing over the speakers as the room was filled with people. You could see why he didn’t want to go now, especially alone. There were a bunch of food stations around the room, holiday photo ops, Christmas games, and the whole 9 yards. It was all a little overwhelming and it looked like Christmas threw up all over the party venue. 

“Merry Christmas,” you whisper. 

“See why I didn’t wanna come here alone?” he laughs. 

“Ohh yeah,” you nod as he leads you over to your friends. 

“Joe! Y/N!,” Jess says as she gets up from the table, a huge grin on her face. 

“Hey Jess,” you chirp as you pull away from Joe’s arm to hug your friend. 

“Hi Jess,” Joe smiles. “Where’s Sam?”.

“Oh, I think he’s over by the drinks with Ja’Marr and Ted,” she says as she pulls away from the hug. 

Joe looks over at you and you already know what he is going to ask, “Go,” you laugh. “I’ll be here with Jess. Yell if you need me?”.

“You got it,” he smiles as he walks over to the guys. 

“I guess Joe strung you along with him tonight?” Jess asks as she sits back down, pulling out the chair next to her for you. 

“Yeah,” you laugh as you sit down. “He didn’t wanna go and asked if I could go with him to make it more tolerable,”.

“Sounds like Joe,” she laughs. “He really hasn’t changed since college has he? He always used to drag you along to all the parties,”. 

“Not at all,” you smile as you see him laughing with the guys. 

“So, first thoughts about the party? Since it’s your first time here,” she asks as she takes a sip of her drink. 

“Verrry Christmasy and grand. Maybe a little Overwhelming?” you sigh. 

“That sounds about right,” she laughs, looking up and smiling, prompting you to turn your head. 

Joe was walking over, a grin on his face and a drink in his hand. “I got you your favorite,” he says, placing the Peach Mojito down in front of you. 

“Thank You,” you smile up at him, squeezing his hand for a second. 

“I’m not drinking tonight so make sure you drink for me too,” he says. 

“Say less,” you say while you pick up your delicious drink. 

“You good though?” He asks.

“I’m great, go with the guys,” you say, flashing him a reassuring smile. 

“Okay. But if you need anything, just come over,” he says. 

“Same goes for you,” you say as he gives you two thumbs up before walking away. 

“Always making sure you’re good before he does anything else. Classic Joe,” Jess smiles, causing you to freeze for a second. He always did that though, right? That’s just what he does with all his friends, not just you. 

“No big deal,” you whisper to yourself. 

“Hm?” Jess asks. 

“Oh nothing, just talking to myself,” you brush off. “So wait. Did Joe go to the party last year?” you ask, changing the subject as you take a sip of your drink. That question was floating through your mind all day, and you needed to know the answer. He didn’t take you last year but he definitely went, but with who? 

“Mhm,” she nods. “He went with Stella,”.

Your heart drops when she says that name. “Ohh right, his ex,” you sigh. 

“Yup,” she nods.  

His ex-girlfriend Stella. You didn’t really know much about her since you only talked to her a couple of times. One day she was in the suite, then suddenly she wasn’t. You didn’t push Joe to tell you what happened, especially since he didn’t seem too upset about it. All he told you was that they both just didn’t work. 

“What happened between them? You know I usually don’t push him about his love life,”. 

“Oh I know,” she laughs. “I don’t really know the full story myself. All Sam told me was that Joe felt like it didn’t fit. Like it wasn’t really what he was looking for relationship-wise or person-wise,”. 

“Interesting,” you say as you sip your drink. You rarely interacted with his girlfriends. Not just because they wouldn’t stick around so why bother, but also because you felt like they didn’t really like your vibe for some reason. Maybe it was because he would always talk about you and spend time with you, but did they care that much? You were just friends anyway and you thought that was obvious.

Joe’s POV

“Sooo, you brought Y/N?” Ja’Marr teases.

“Yes… I did,” you say, taking a sip of your water. 

“Anything going on over there,” Sam teases as he pats your shoulder. 

“What? With me and Y/N?” You scoff. “Please, we would never-”.

“Now don’t lie to me Burrow,” Ja’Marr says. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t go running to her if she looked at you that way,”. 

“Ja’Marr is right,” Ted adds. “It’s kinda obvious you have a thing for her,”. 

“Are you guys drunk?” You scoff. “What’s with the sudden attack?”. 

“Nah, but you might be,” Ja’Marr says. “Wake up Man. You clearly like her. You’re always talking about her, you’re always with her and don’t forget all those times at LSU when you’d be going on about how you wished she was with you right now. Those feelings ain’t die that easily,”.

“There’s a reason that everyone thought and still thinks that she’s your girlfriend,” Sam says.

“That’s just overly invasive fans and their stupid speculation,” you deflect. 

“Mmm, not to mention, have there been any ladies on your radar since Stella? You both broke up in January which was 11 months ago. And the reason was that you didn’t think she was the right person for you,” Ted says.

“Mhm, and does the right person that you’re looking for happen to be sitting there next to my girlfriend?” Sam adds as points over at you. 

You look over at her, smiling as you see her laughing like a hyena at something Jess said. She looked angelic as the soft glow of the lights reflected off her beautiful face; her cute laugh caught your attention even though you were so far away from each other in the crowded room. 

Deep down, you knew they were right. You didn’t want to admit it, but you did have a thing for her and have had a thing for her since OSU. You never brought up those feelings to anyone, not even Y/N. You didn’t know if she felt the same way about you and you were too scared that you’d ruin your friendship if she didn’t feel the same way. 

Those feelings even stuck around at LSU. They actually got stronger since you were away from her for so long. But you once again didn’t want to screw up your bond, so you repressed those feelings as much as you could and tried to distract yourself, but distractions were only temporary. That’s also why none of your girlfriends suck around. They weren’t what you were looking for and you weren’t invested.  What you were looking for had always been by your side since Day 1, but you just didn’t know what to do about it without risking your friendship. You knew you loved her, and she knew that you loved her as a friend. But she didn’t know that you loved her a lot more than how just friends loved each other.

She was the perfect girl. Any man would be lucky to have her as his girlfriend. She was stunning, genuine, funny, fearless, the epitome of a dream girl. Her being your girlfriend was a dream, but it probably would never happen. It never happened all these years you had known each other, so why now? 

But what if she liked you back? You wouldn’t know because you never tried that door, even though you had the key in your pocket all along.

End of Joe’s POV

The party flew by quickly as you talked with the WAGs for a little, ate some yummy food, and Joe made his rounds as QB1 talking to as many people as he could before his social battery ran out. Occasionally, he’d look over at you if he got a little nervous or overwhelmed. The mere sight of you always calmed him down. And once his battery died, he found himself sitting next to you, as usual. 

Joe’s conversation with the guys still lingered in his mind as he watched you chat and drink with your friends. He didn’t know what to do about the feelings he was feeling towards you and how to handle them, so he decided to let it be and just let things flow the way they were. If something was going to happen, it would. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t. Forcing something would be the last thing he’d ever do with you. 

You were extra giggly for the past hour, definitely drunk since you were on your 4th, maybe 5th drink of the night. You weren’t really sure anymore since you and the other girls did shots at the bar earlier, so it was definitely more than 5. 

“Y/N, how many drinks have you had,” Joe asks as he looks over at you. 

“Hmmm, I don’t know. Numbers are funny,” you giggle as you grab his arms. “You look really pretty tonight, Joey,” you giggle as you grab another drink. “Have you thought about being a male model? I heard Calvin Klein does some pretty fun shots. The girlies would lose it. I know I would,” you giggle.  

Joe’s eyes widened as he blushed a little. You were clearly out of your mind drunk and he knew exactly what would happen when you got this wasted. You’d be all giggly, then you’d have the zoomies, and then you’d crash, hard. He couldn’t have this happen at the party in front of everyone and he knew you’d kick his ass if he let you act like this in front of them. 

“Okayyy, I think that’s enough drinks for tonight,” he says, taking your drink out of your hand.

“Noooo,” you whine as you reach for the drink. “It’s so good though,”.

“And so is weed but you don’t see me being high all the time,” he jokes as he pushes the drink further away from you. 

You raise your eyebrow at him and say, “That’s funnyyyy. Those shades are glued to your face for a reason,”. 

He stares at you for a few seconds, taking in every detail of your face. How your glossy lips were curled up into a smile, how little strands of your hair were falling onto your face, and how you were practically glowing in the soft light of the room. 

“I don’t think you’d particularly enjoy being crossfaded,” he says matter-of-factly. 

“Do you have some right now? Let’s test it out,” You say as your eyes light up.

Oh hell no. How drunk were you? Joe thought to himself.  “Y/N,” he says, staring deeply into your eyes, grabbing both your hands. 

“What?” You giggle softly as you play with the wristbands on his wrist. 

“Getaway Car,” he says.

You immediately sit up in your chair and turn serious at the words that left his mouth, reminding you what those words meant and what they were used for. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”. 

“I’m fine,” he laughs as he grabs your hand that was playing with his wristbands. “But you’re not. You’re 2 seconds away from falling over,”.

“What do you mean? I’m amazingggg,” you laugh as you stand up to prove your point, almost falling over but Joe places his hands on your hips, catching you before you can. His big warm hands were firmly holding you in place as heat climbed up your body at his electric touch. 

“Yeaah, we’re going home now,” he says as he gets up from his chair, not giving you a second to protest. He grabbed your waist with one hand to make sure you didn’t fall over as you said your goodbyes and made your final lap around the room. The hand that was wrapped around your waist caused butterflies to fill your belly. His touch was so gentle and fulfilling, yet had you craving more.

He led you out to the car, his hand still gripping your waist, as you were going on about how much you loved Christmas. 

“I just love giving gifts,” you giggle as you lean your head on his shoulder. “It’s sooo fun getting to see everyone’s reactions when they open the gifts I give them. Speaking of, what do you want for Christmas Joey?”. 

“Nothing,” Joe smiles. “I already have everything I want,” he says, looking down at you. 

You pause for a few seconds as your drunken mind tries to process what he said. You didn’t see him look down at you, but you could feel his gaze on you. He wasn’t talking about you, was he? He was definitely just talking about his life and career. 

“That’s funny. I already got your birthday gift down for next Sunday, but you gotta meet me halfway for Christmas,” you say, quickly dodging those thoughts again. 

“Mmm, still don’t want anything. For either occasion in fact,” he says as you reach the car. He removes his hand from your waist to open your door and then helps you sit inside. 

“Well too bad,” you smile as he sits in the driver’s seat. “I guess I’ll have to figure it out myself,”.

“Have fun,” he says as he connects his phone to the Bluetooth; your playlist once again playing on the speakers. 

You fall back into your seat and bob your head along to the music as Joe pulls the car out of the parking spot, and leaves the party venue. A few minutes later, you’ve made it onto the highway. Your head is leaning against the comfy headrest as you look over at Joe. His tan skin was shining in the moonlight and his pink lips were curled up into a smile. You move your head to look out the window, taking in the gorgeous view of the Cinncinati Skyline, and then notice that Joe drove past the exit that you would take to get downtown to your apartment.

“Joe, you missed the exit,” you say as you flip your head back over to him.

“I know,” he laughs. 

“Uhhh, well are you gonna go a different way or?” you mumble.

“Nah, you’re way too drunk to be left alone tonight. We’re going back to my place,” he says.

“Joe, you don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine on my own and I don’t wanna intrude,” you say, sitting up in your seat.

“Intrude on what? It’s just me in that big-ass house,” he laughs. “Having some company won’t hurt,”.

“Are you sure?” you ask.

“Positive. I know how you get when you’re this drunk and I would be a terrible friend to make you deal with that alone,” he laughs. 

“Yeahh,” you trail off. “You’re such a great..friend,”. It pained you a little to say “friend” and you weren’t entirely sure why. It also pained Joe a little to hear you say “friend”. If only you would put “boy” in front of it, he thought to himself. 

“So it’s settled then. You’re getting the Burrow treatment tonight,” he winks, looking over at you, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight. 

“Uhhh, are we still talking about hangover care or?” you joke, breaking out into a fit of laughter. 

“Dirty, Dirty Mind,” he chuckles as he shakes his head. 

You bit your bottom lip as you stared out the window again, watching the cars pass by one by one you let out a content sigh and got comfy in the car seat again. But then, the song on the aux changed, immediately catching your attention and causing you to flip your head back to him. 

Joe’s eyes light up as he hears the soft music playing in the background, recognizing the song instantly and raising the volume. 

“Ohh yeah,” you say, moving up in your seat and swaying your shoulders as you recite the song lyrics. 

“Because I'm eighteen, And I still live with my parents. Yeah, they're not like yours,” you belt out as you close your eyes and dance in your seat. 

“Well, yours are more understanding. I've never fell in love, I've saved those feelings for you,” Joe sings, looking right over at you as he sings that last bit. He watches you cutely dance around in your seat, his heart softening as he takes in the moment. Something about you sitting in his car seat, after a late night, on the way back to his house, made him feel all giddy inside. 

“So let's do all the stupid shit that young kids do. It's me and you, youuu,” you sing as you open your eyes and point at Joe, who looks a little..lovestruck?

Lovestruck? Please, as if he would ever feel that about you out of all people, you thought to yourself. The alcohol in your system was really messing with your mind right now. 

About 20 minutes later, Joe pulled into the driveway of his house, which was massive. He definitely had upgraded from his last house, just as he had hoped to and just as you said he would do. It was just him in this big house, all alone. He would often get bored since he didn’t have anyone around to keep him company, so he was more than ecstatic to have you over for the night.  

After parking in the garage, he helps you inside the house. He walks you over to the kitchen island, pulling out a barstool with his leg, and motioning for you to sit down.

“First order of business, Water and Advil,” he says as he grabs a water bottle from the fridge, then moves to open the drawer to grab the bottle of Advil. He pulls out two tablets and hands them to you along with the water. 

“Thank you,” you say after you wash down the medicine with the water. 

“Second order of business, getting you something comfy to wear,” he says, grabbing your hand and yanking you off the stool. His warm hand molded perfectly against yours as he led you up the stairs to his bedroom. 

“But I don’t have any clothes here,” you mumbled as he pulled you into his room, still holding your hand. 

“That’s okay, you can just wear one of my big shirts,” he says as drops your hand and walks into his closet, returning to the room after a few moments with a purple LSU shirt in hand. “Is this good?” he asks.

“Perfect,” you whisper as you take the shirt from his hand. “Be right back,” you smile as you walk into his bathroom. 

You peel off your clothes from tonight, placing them into a neat pile on the vanity as you slip on his shirt. It was massive on you, no surprise there though. You smiled as you read the text on the shirt; it was his championship t-shirt from when he won the Natty. You scrunched up the fabric, bringing it to your nose, taking a deep breath, and remembering that amazing night.

Flashback to 2020 – New Orleans, Louisiana 

You looked over at the scoreboard, the score reading 42-25 just as the clock was winding down with only a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. 

“He did it, he really fucking did it,” you whispered as tears started to fall from your eyes, your friends all jumping up and down around you and screaming at the top of their lungs. 

“3..2..1,” Lydia screamed as purple and yellow confetti filled the stadium. The LSU tigers had just won the national championship, Joe had just won the national championship. After years of hard work and dedication, never backing down from a challenge, his dreams had finally come true, and you got to be apart of it and witness it. 

After watching the trophy presentation and the celebrations on the field from the stands, you made your way down to the field, hoping to get a moment with Joe before he was pulled in for media. 

You made your way through the crowds of reporters, players, and families in search of him, but you literally could not figure out where he was. 

“Did he already get pulled in for media?” you asked yourself as you looked around the field, your smile dropping. 

Suddenly, you felt two arms snake around your waist and pull you back into a warm embrace. “What the F-”.

“Calm down, Y/N, it’s just me,” he says, swaying you back and forth. You could recognize that voice anywhere, even in the loudest settings. You place your hands on his and turn your head up, meeting his baby-blue eyes. 

“Joe,” you whisper, feeling tears fill your eyes again. 

“Hi,” he mumbled before you flipped around in his arms and looped your arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug. 

“You did it,” you said, crying into his shoulder. “I’m s- so proud of you,”.

“Hey, Hey, why are you crying?” he asked, rubbing circles on your back for comfort. 

You pulled your face out from his shoulder and said, “Because, you’re a national champion now, Silly. This is what you’ve been working for and it finally happened. I’ve been fortunate enough to be by your side through the whole thing and can’t help but get emotional when my best friend just had his dream come true,”. 

He stays silent for a few moments before he pushes your head back into his chest. “Thank you. For everything,” he says, his grip on your waist getting tighter. He remembered how you had been nothing but supportive of his dreams since you met. There were days back at OSU when he would come back to his dorm after practice, feeling shitty and lost since nothing felt like it was going his way, and you would drop whatever you were doing at the moment to go and comfort him since he didn’t want to be alone. Those many late nights you spent trying to help him study and catch up on his work so that he could focus on football during the day. And nothing would ever come close to how you refused to miss a single one of his games, even if you were watching back in Ohio. He remembers you telling him that at your friend's bachelorette party, you had the game pulled up on your phone and sat at the bar the entire night watching instead of doing shots and dancing with your friends. 

The day he decided that he was going to LSU was hard for both of you. He could tell how you were holding back from telling him how you really felt, which was incredibly sad and upset, but you knew he had to do this for himself, and he watched as you plastered a smile on your face and cheered him on, even if it broke your heart. 

“You are the most strongest, dedicated, and talented person I know. I am so proud of youuu,” you squeal into his chest. 

Joe felt fireworks in his heart as he listened to you go on and on about how well he did in the game. Those feelings he had for you were so hard to avoid, and right now he felt like ripping the bandaid off and telling you how he felt straight up. But he couldn’t. He wanted nothing more than to kiss your soft lips right now and tell you that he loved you more than anything in the world, but he just couldn’t. Instead, he just enjoyed the feeling of you with him right now during one of the happiest moments in his life. There was no need to ruin it with his pipe dream.   

End of flashback 

You spent a few moments fixing your hair and washing your makeup off before turning off the lights and joining him back outside, but you stopped as you realized something. 

“Fuck, I don’t have shorts on,” you realize. You were just in his shirt, your white lace panties, and your socks, and didn’t know what to do. The shirt was big enough to cover your upper thighs and if you avoided any movement that caused the shirt to ride up, you would be fine.

“He won’t care regardless,” you whisper as you shake your head and leave the bathroom. 

While you were changing, Joe had changed into a pair of sweat shorts and a short-sleeved tee and was sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone.

“Aren’t you cold? It’s December,” you giggle as you join him in the room again.

He looks up from his phone, heat rising up his cheeks as he takes in the sight of your bare legs and your body which was clothed by one of his shirts. Your cheeks were a little rosy, definitely an effect of all the alcohol you consumed. A feeling of nervousness now filled his body as he watched you put your stuff down on his table, the way your hips swayed from side to side, and how your hair bounced with each step. He realized that he hadn’t given you any shorts or boxers, so you were definitely just in your underwear right now, and that made him want to pass out. Why did he feel like a teenage boy all of a sudden? He had seen you in pajamas many times so why was he feeling like this? Whatever it was, it definitely was not helping the thoughts he had about your relationship earlier in the night because here you were, standing in his room, looking absolutely incredible. 

“You tell me,” he says as he raises his eyebrows. 

“Fair point,” you laugh as you walk over to his bookshelf, a photo frame catching your eye. He carefully watches you as you walk over to the picture, his heart feeling like it is about to beat out of his chest as he realizes what you are looking at. 

It was a photo of the two of you from one of his games at LSU. He was looking down at you, a huge grin on his face as if he was laughing at something you said. You were looking back up at him, smiling at his expression. You both were almost lost in each other’s eyes in this photo, something you hadn’t noticed before. This was Joe’s favorite photo of the two of you and he had managed to keep it to himself, up until now. 

Flashback to 2019 - LSU

You had flown into Baton Rouge early this morning and were going to surprise Joe at his game tonight since he had no idea you were coming. He had been begging you for weeks to come down for a weekend to see him because he missed you, but you kept pushing it off with lazy excuses so you could pull one on him. But little did he know, you had been planning a trip to see him for the past month. 

He caught a glimpse of you in the stands earlier, his entire face lighting up and his heart soaring. He thought he was dreaming for a second as he saw you sitting with his mom, wearing his number, and screaming his name, You waved over at him before the game started, but didn’t get a chance to talk to him as he was pulled into pregame warmups. Now, you were waiting in the tunnel as the game finished, eagerly waiting to see your best friend. 

You were chatting with Joe’s Mom as you waited for him to come out from the locker room. A few minutes later, you heard an all too familiar voice behind you. 

“You fucking liar,” he laughs.

You spin around, your heart skipping a beat as you see Joe standing in front of you. 

You walk over to him, launching yourself into his open arms and letting out a squeal as he tightly wraps them around your waist, slightly lifting you off the ground and swaying you from side to side. “I mm- missed you,” you sputtered, trying to hold back your emotions.

“And you said you were too busy with Jake’s cousin's wedding this weekend,” he says, his hand rubbing your lower back.

“Please, as if I would go to the wedding of my ex’s cousin rather than flying down to see my best friend who I haven’t seen in 5 months,” you say as he lets go of you, slowly sliding you back down to the floor. 

“Ex?” He asked.

“Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you over the phone. We broke up,” you say as you meet his eyes. 

“Really?” He asks, trying hard not to smile. He felt bad that you and Jake broke up, but part of him felt a little happy that there wasn’t any other guy in your life taking his space at the moment. Jake got to do everything Joe would do with you but couldn’t because he was away. The movie marathons, game nights, trying new restaurants, arcade runs, shopping, building legos, literally everything, he got to do, and it made Joe a little jealous. 

He never really got too involved in your dating life. He felt like it was uncharted territory since he was your best friend and a guy. It would be a little weird if he was getting involved. He also didn’t want to give the guys the wrong idea about your friendship. Although, he did have moments where he wished that it was a little more than just a friendship.

“Yeah,” you sigh. “Just didn’t feel right. He didn’t seem invested in the relationship lately anyway,”.

“Mr. Lovebombing not being invested? Shocker,” he teases. You felt your smile drop a little bit at his teasing. Yes, you were over him, but it still stung a little bit since you were pretty unlucky in the boyfriend department and this was just another addition.

He immediately felt bad for saying that, knowing how you felt about relationships, so he pulled you into a side hug. “Sorry, that was jerky,” he mumbles. 

“It’s okay,” you say as you pat his chest. “I should’ve seen it coming,”.

“Well if it makes you feel better, I never liked him anyway, he laughs. 

“Joe,” you say as you playfully swat his arm while pulling away from the hug. 

“Hey, can you blame me? He doesn’t like ‘The Office’. That’s a crime,” he deadpans. 

“I missed you so much,” you laughed, staring deeply into his eyes. God you missed him. You missed his cheery attitude, his million-dollar smile, and the comfort you’d feel when you were with him. Joe could turn your mood around in an instant and make you forget about everything bad in your life. No other guy could ever make you feel the way he did, it was an irreplicable feeling. 

“Me too,” he sighed. “5 months is way too long and you’re so far away,” he mumbled, looking down at his feet.

“I know but hey, I’m here now. And even if it’s for a few days, I’m here,” you say, gently rubbing his bicep.

He looks back up at you with a smile, “Yeah, you are,”. He looked into your chocolaty eyes, searching them for a few moments, hoping to find something in them that he’d been waiting for, but he was interrupted by your laughter. 

“They might have to force me onto the plane back to Ohio. I’ve been here for a day and I don’t want to go back,” you giggle. 

“I can sneak you into my apartment,” he shrugs. “Just act like you’re on the football team and you’re golden,” he jokes. 

While you two were talking, Joe’s mom snapped a few photos of your reunion, neither of you noticing the camera snaps.

“Oh yeahh. I’ll totally fit right in,” you say, shaking your head. “I can be your new star Wide Receiver,”.

“Ja’Marr and Justin might have a problem with that,” he shrugged. 

“They won’t when they see how great of a duo we make, on the field and off,” you wink. 

 End of flashback 

“I haven’t seen this one,” you smile as you look back at him. “Gatekeeping, Burrow?”.

“It’s one of my faves so yes, yes I am gatekeeping,” he shrugs. 

“Well, I’m stealing it,” you say, picking up the frame. 

“Uhh, no you’re not,” he says, slowly standing up from the bed. 

“Ohh yes, I am,” you tease as you turn around to meet his eyes. He walks over to you as you slowly walk backward, moving away from him. 

“Okayyy, I think it’s time for bed,” he says as he reaches out to grab you, but you take another leap back towards the door. 

“Nopeee,” you smirk. “Catch me if you can,” you say, sticking your tongue out at him before running out the door. 

“We are not about to do this,” Joe mumbles as he runs out the door, following you as you run through the halls of his house. Giggles and Laughter echo throughout the house as you run down the stairs, looking back a couple of times to see if he is still there, and he is. Even though he was exhausted, he was enjoying chasing you throughout the halls of his house. The usually quiet halls were now filled with your shrieks and giggles, a sound that he loved to hear. You run over to the kitchen, standing on the other side of the island as Joe runs to the couch to grab a pillow. 

“Joe!” you scream as he grabs a couch pillow, launching it straight at your head but you quickly duck. 

“You asked for it,” he laughed. 

“Oh, it’s on,” you grin as you place the photo on the island, making sure it didn’t get caught in the battle. 

“Whatcha gonna do?” he smirks as he places his hands on his hips, bouncing from side to side.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” you say as you slowly walk over to the comfy chair next to the dining table, grabbing a stray couch pillow and hiding it behind your back. 

He notices you hiding a pillow behind your back, so he leans down and grabs another one. While he was doing this, you ran over and started hitting him, gently of course, with the soft pillow. 

“Got youu,” you giggle as you smack him with a pillow repeatedly. 

“Nope,” he smirks as he grabs his pillow and swings at your abdomen. His strength was unmatched so the hit sent you back a little, almost causing you to fall over.

“Oh, now you’re done for,” you grin as you attack him with the soft pillow and he does the same to you. Giggles and squeals filled the room as you playfully battled it out, neither of you willing to give up. But soon, the teasing turned into a full-blown pillow fight as you both unleashed your inner children, swinging your pillows with wild abandon. Feathers flew everywhere, coating the floor in a soft, white blanket. A couple of swings later, you catch Joe off guard, tackling him to the ground as you place your legs on each side of his hips, caging him in on the floor. 

You hold your pillow above your head in mock triumph. He wriggled beneath you, trying to grab the pillow away, but you held it just out of reach, teasing and taunting him.

“I winnn,” you laugh as you look down, smiling at Joe's disheveled hair and flushed cheeks. You were so caught up in the childish moment that you didn’t even realize you were straddling his hips right now, and his hands were resting firmly on your hips. Your shirt had ridden up your thighs a little and you were definitely showing a little too much down there, but you were so caught up in the moment that you couldn’t care less.

“Zoomies?” Joe giggles as he looks into your eyes. 

“Zoomies,” you nod as you throw the pillow to the side, trying to catch your breath. A million thoughts were now rushing into your head at once. You were literally on top of him right now, but he didn’t even seem bothered by it. It was like he was enjoying it. Was he enjoying it? You move your hand down, placing each one on his biceps and digging your nails into his soft skin. 

Joe was trying so hard not to say something about how you were on top of him right now. He was just enjoying the sight of you above, as silly and sultry as that sounded. He looked down and noticed your bare thighs and the shirt riding up and you seemingly weren’t wearing anything under it other than your underwear, just like he had thought. God, you just looked so pretty and sexy, he thought to himself. Your hair was messy and your cheeks were blush pink, but you still looked gorgeous. You seemed so relaxed and comfortable, and he was trying so hard not to ruin the moment by saying something stupid. 

“You look so pretty,” he thought out loud, his face turning red as he realized he said that to you.

“Thank you,” you smile back, internally screaming at his comment. Was he being extra affectionate tonight, or were you just delusional? You definitely looked like a mess right now, and in no way did you look pretty, but his compliment still made your heart soar. A soft yawn left your lips as you rubbed your eyes, now feeling the ‘crash’ part of your hangover. 

“Crash time?” he asks as he rubs your thighs, your stomach fluttering at the contact. Why was he being so lovey-dovey right now? His soft hands massaged the plush skin of your thighs as you stared deeply into his baby blues, trying to make sense of what was going on. 

“Yeah,” you say as another yawn escapes your lips. You get off of him, slowly standing up as you are feeling the aftermath of the zoomies. Joe holds out his hands just in case you fall over as he gets up. 

“You can sleep in my bed and I can take the couch. The guest bedroom is kinda a mess right now since I’m using it for storage until they finish the basement,” he says.

“Hell no. I don’t wanna kick you out of your own bed,” you say as you pick up the pillows from the floor and put them back on the couch, your legs a little wobbly and your head feeling a little woozy. “I’ll take the couch,”.

“No way. You take the bed,” he says as he picks up the stray feathers from the floor. 

“Not happening, Joseph,” you mumble as you help him gather the feathers.

He heaves out a sigh, “I’m too tired to fight you on this. Why don’t we just share it?”. 

Your heart skips a beat as you look up at him, the look on his face telling you he is 100% serious. Although you and Joe had been friends for years, you had never slept in the same bed together. 

“As long as you’re not a kicker,” he jokes.

“Please, I sleep like a baby,” you say as you walk over to the trash can, throwing the feathers into the bin. “Besides, I’m more of a cuddler and not a kicker,”. 

“So that’s a yes?” He asks, trying not to sound too eager, especially at the mention of cuddling. 

“Fineee,” you smile. “If you insist,”.  

Internally, Joe was screaming. He told himself that he’d let things flow the way they were and let things happen naturally, that’s if something were to happen. He didn’t know if he was just reading into things a little too much, but was it just him or were you acting a little different around him?

Your heart felt like it was about to beat out of your chest. There was no reason for you to get so worked up over sharing a bed with Joe. It was nothing, just you sleeping right next to him, together under the covers, so incredibly close to his body. It was definitely nothing. 

A little later, you're getting ready for bed as Joe brings out an extra pillow for you. You walk over to the bed, open the soft covers, and slide in. His bed was so comfortable; so soft and like a cloud. He turns off the lights and plugs in his phone before joining you in bed. Your heart was beating so fast as he moved into the bed next to you. There was no reason for this to be weird, but you were making it weird. 

You moved back against the pillow, sliding down the bed, and pulling the covers up to protect you from the chilly room and to hide your nervousness. 

“Did you have fun tonight?” You asked Joe as you stared up at the ceiling. 

“Actually? I did. All thanks to you,” he said. 

“Really?” You giggled, moving your head to look at him. You could barely make out his face in the darkness, but you could tell he was looking at you. 

“Yup. You make everything more enjoyable and bearable for me,” he said, turning his head back over and staring up at the ceiling. “Did you have fun? I hope these football things aren’t getting too repetitive for you,”.

“Not at all repetitive. You know I love doing this stuff with you. I needed a break from life and this was just the thing. Thanks for bringing me with you,” you smiled.

“You don’t have to thank me, Y/N. You know I’m always here when you need something, even if it’s an escape from life for a day,” he says as he moves his hand down to yours, entwining your fingers together as he gives your hand a soft squeeze. Butterflies filled your stomach at his soft touch and meaningful words. 

“Besides, I enjoy having you as my permanent plus 1,” he laughs. 

“Permanent?” You ask, feeling the heat rise up your body again. 

“Yeah,” he sighs. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not having much luck in the girlfriend department,”. 

“Not saying you’re filling in those shoes and are a filler,” he says, quickly trying to soften his words because of how jerky it sounded. “I just like having you with me all the time, Ya know? That’s prob why people think you’re my girlfriend”.

“It’s okay, Joe. I know what you mean,” you say, adding a fake laugh into the mix. Your stomach did a somersault when he said that. Were you really about to have this conversation about that topic right now? 

“But please, I could name at least 100 girls who would be standing at your doorstep in an instant,” you giggle. 

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want any of those girls,” he says, craning his head over to face you, his hand still holding yours, now tighter. 

“I want someone who matches my vibe. Someone who makes me feel normal and doesn’t constantly remind me that I’m a millionaire quarterback. Someone that I can take home to my parents and can feel comfortable around. Someone who can enjoy the simplicity of playing Smash-Bros and building Legos as a date. Someone that appreciates the real me and not the superficial flashy shit,” he says. As he was saying all of this, the girl he pictured in his mind was you. He was describing you. You were what he wanted. 

“You didn’t find that with Stella?” You asked, completely oblivious to what he was implying.

“Nah. She was great at first but as time went on I realized that she was more into the lifestyle of dating a football player than the actual relationship part. And I also didn’t feel fireworks with her,” he said.

“Ah yes. Fireworks. Just like your Mom told us,” you remembered. His mom had told you at dinner a few years ago that when she met his dad, she felt fireworks. Fireworks are what you feel when you meet the right person, according to Robin. You hadn’t felt fireworks with any other guy other than Joe, but you never told that to anyone. And he felt the same. He felt fireworks every time he was with you and he’d never felt that with any girl. 

“Yeah so I’ll probably die alone, he jokes.

“Please, we’ll die alone together,” you say as you take your hand out of hold and playfully shove his shoulder.

“I’m assuming there’s no guys on your radar?” He wonders, hoping you would say no.

“Nope. There hasn’t been any since Noah,” you replied.

“That was 8 months ago,” Joe gasped.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” you laughed. “You know I’ve never had luck with guys. None of them match my vibe and want something else out of the relationship that I don’t agree with. I want someone real, genuine, and serious,”. 

“I could name 100 guys that would be at your doorstep in an instant,” he says, echoing your words from earlier.

“Doesn’t mean I want any of them,” you say, echoing his words. 

“Fair point,” he laughs. 

“Yeah. So I’ll die alone too,” you joke.

“Technically not alone if we die alone together. We’ll have each other,” he said. 

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” you yawned, feeling another wave of tiredness

“Sleepy time?” Joe chuckles. 

“Mhmmm,” you groan as you stretch out your arms. “Don't ever let me drink that much again,” you mumble as you pull the covers higher. 

“You got it. Goodnight, Y/N,” he smiles as he turns his head over to you. 

“Night, Joey,” you smile before turning over and letting out a deep breath. 

20 minutes passed by and you were still wide awake, not finding comfort in his bed which was odd considering it was like a cloud. Your thoughts about you and Joe were also keeping you from sleeping. Ever since your sister mentioned that you were acting like Joe’s girlfriend yesterday, your head was spiraling and the alcohol from tonight was making it worse. And the conversation you just had with him was making it even more confusing. Sure, you did some girlfriend-type things, but you knew he would never look at you that way. He saw you as a friend and that’s all, at least that’s what you thought. 

Suddenly, you felt Joe’s hand creep around your waist, pulling you into his chest. Your heart stopped and your body froze from the sudden movement. What the actual fuck was going on. 

“Joe?” You mumbled, not meeting his eyes because you were literally about to scream.

“Hm?” He mumbled, half asleep. 

“Your arm,” you whispered.

“I’m cold,” he muttered as he held you tighter. “And you’re so warm and comfy,”. 

Your heartbeat picked up again as you felt his big hand sprawled out against your belly, not to mention that your ass was literally on his crotch right now. His body, although saying he felt cold, was hot. So very hot. 

“Is this weird?” he mumbles, opening his eyes. He really hoped that this didn’t weird you out.

You stayed silent for a few seconds, not knowing what to say or do. You didn’t feel weird oddly enough as that sounded. Something about this felt natural and so right. 

“It’s okay,” you softly spoke. “I’m good,”. 

Joe smiled at your response, feeling like he was flying through the clouds right now as he was practically cuddling with his favorite person. Everything about this just felt so right, and he wasn’t the only one who thought so. 

“Good, you said you were a cuddler so I hope this is comfy,” he mumbled. 

You felt your heart exploding as he moved closer to you. His arm around you felt like a safety blanket, protecting you from everything on the outside. A comfortable embrace that you wished you had around you forever. It felt right.

“Trust me, it’s perfect,” you whisper, closing your eyes and losing yourself in his embrace, too tired from the night to fight back. 

A few moments later, you were fast asleep, finally feeling comfortable and it was all because of him. 

The next morning 

Your eyes slowly flutter open as the golden light shines through the windows. You reach out to grab your phone, the time reading 7:35 AM. You felt your head slowly start to throb, a sure result of your hangover from last night. You were just about to get up but you felt a heavy force holding you down. 

“What the-” you whisper as you look down, noticing Joe’s hand is still wrapped around your stomach. You had forgotten that you were at his house and in his bed, and he was still wrapped around you. 

“Uh oh,” you whisper. You turned your head around and saw Joe sound asleep, looking so adorable as his hair was sprawled out against the pillow and soft snores coming from his mouth. You remember that he brought you here after the party last night, which meant you had no way of getting back home. You didn’t want to wake him up because first, he looked so comfortable right now, and second, you didn’t know how to talk to him after what happened last night. Those thoughts you had about your relationship with Joe only got stronger after the night you had. Although nothing like that happened, your feelings for him surely got more complicated. 

“Don’t leave me,” you heard Joe mumble in his sleep. 

Your eyes widened at his soft words, was he talking about you? You turned your head around to see if he was awake, but he was still sound asleep and snoring again. He must’ve been sleeptalking, you thought to yourself. 

You pulled out your phone again, opening up your messages to beg your friend Lydia to come pick you up. She usually got up early on Saturdays for Pilates so she should respond.

You: emergency! please come pick me up 

Lydia: good morning to you too lol. everything alright? 

You: everything’s fine I just uhh need a ride home

Lydia: home? where are you?? 

You: joe’s house 

Lydia: oh 👀 

You sighed at your friend's text. Now was not the time to have this conversation and you knew exactly what she was going to say. You and Lydia had known each other since Ohio State so she pretty much knew everything about you and Joe’s friendship since you were all a part of the same friend group. She was a huge advocate for you and Joe to be a couple back at OSU, but you always shut her down before she could get too matchmaker-ish. She claimed that she saw something “special” between you two, but your ignorant ass brushed it off over and over, just like how you were doing now. 

You: just pls come pick me up

Lydia: on my way ;) be there in 10

You let out a relieved sigh as you carefully peeled Joe’s hand off from your waist, quickly replacing it with a pillow so he wouldn’t feel the difference, and thankfully he didn’t. You walked into the bathroom, grabbed your clothes from last night, and quickly exited his room. You glanced back at him for a few seconds, taking note of the smile on his adorable face and his arms wrapped tightly around the pillow that he thought was your waist. 

“Man,” you whispered to yourself as you turned back around and made your way down the stairs. 

You waited by the door for Lydia as your mind was exploding with thoughts now that you were sober enough to process everything. What the hell happened last night? Was Joe just being the usual Joe because something felt different about his mannerisms, words, and attitude toward you the entire night? And even this morning, his arm was still around your waist and seemingly wasn’t planning on moving it. 

You heard a car pull up and peeked out the window, seeing that it was your bestie. “Thank fuck,” you sighed as you had to escape the scene. You don’t know what you would’ve said to him once he had woken up. Especially since you were 100% in your senses now. 

You quickly opened the door, softly shutting it on your way out. You ran over to her car and hopped inside without a second thought. 

“Damn, you’re in a rush,” she laughs as she locks the door after you shut it. 

“No rush. Just uhh, need to get home,” you say as you buckle your seatbelt.

“Whatever you say,” Lydia giggles as she puts the car in drive. “So how was it?” She asks. 

“How was what?” You say, raising your eyebrows.

“The sex, dummy,” she laughs.

“What?” You shriek as your eyes widen.

“Don't play dumb with me, Y/N. Is he as good in bed as he is on the field?”. 

You stare at her for a few quiet seconds before breaking out into a fit of laughter. 

“Oh my god,” you laugh as you lean forward. 

“Took you long enough. I’ve been saying this would happen for yeaaaars,” she boasts. “Why else would you need me to come to pick you up from Joe’s house at 8 am while you’re wearing what definitely is his t-shirt and I assume no shorts and just panties underneath?” She adds. 

“You’ve got it all wrong,” you wheeze. “I was super drunk last night from the Christmas party and he just brought me to his place,”. 

“Ahh, so drunken sex? Even better,” she teases as she winks at you.

“Lydia, we didn’t hook up,” you say, your laughter dying down. “He just gave me his shirt so I wouldn’t have to sleep in my outfit from the party,”. 

“Okayyy sure, but that still doesn’t explain why you ran out of his house so early in the morning and why he couldn’t take you home,” she said. 

“That’s a long story,” you say, taking a deep breath and falling back into your seat.

“We’ve got time,” she laughs.

“I don’t really know,” you breathe out, staring up at the ceiling of the car. “My sister mentioned the other day that I’m acting like Joe’s girlfriend and it just got me thinking,” you sigh. 

“Oh?” She says, a smile forming on her face.

“And last night was weird. I feel like he was being extra affectionate but I don’t know if that was just the alcohol in my system messing with me. And he was talking to me about how he hadn’t found the right girl yet, how he brings me everywhere and that’s why people think we’re dating, and how I’m his ‘permanent plus 1’ because he likes having me around,”. 

“Ohhhhh?” Lydia drags out, her face scrunching up as she tries to hold back from saying something about it.

“Don’t get too excited. I already knew that the general public thought that we were together, but I thought we were over that,”. 

“You won’t be able to get over that until you admit the truth. And the truth is that you like him. Like more than just a friend,” Lydia blurts out. “I see it, the public sees it, and I honestly think Joe sees it too,”. 

You stay silent for a few seconds, a little taken aback by her observation and not knowing how to respond to her since you can barely make sense of your feelings.

“Oh my god? You like him don’t you?!” She yells as she looks over at you.  

“I don’t knowwww,” you said. “There’s a lot of thoughts in my head right now and I don’t know what to think. I feel like he’s been acting differently around me, like more lovey-dovey differently but I don’t know if I’m reading into it too much,” you respond. 

“Okay, well what are the thoughts in your head saying?”.

“That I think I like him? Or still like him I guess. But I don’t know if he feels the same and I don’t wanna say anything because if he doesn’t, it’ll fuck up our friendship and I can’t lose him,” you say. 

“He’s so sweet and perfect. Joe knows me better than anyone and knows exactly how to cheer me up, calm me down, and make me have fun. I’ve never met anyone like him before and being by his side since day 1 has been a dream but also crazy. And the fact that he hasn't changed since we met is even more crazy. Even with all the money, fame, and attention, he's still Joe. My Joe," you smile. “The same adorable, nerdy, football player that was my lab partner in chemistry freshman year,”.

“Girl, you definitely love him,” your friend says, looking over at you with a straight face.

“Love?” You ask, your heart skipping a beat. 

“Yes, love. You’ve known each other since freshman year of college and if I’m not mistaken, those feelings have been there since then. You’re doing the same thing you did back then, letting your overthinking get in the way. You’re too afraid of losing him as a friend, but Y/N, what if he has the same feelings as you? This isn’t a matter of liking a boy, it’s a matter of you being in love with someone who you’ve had feelings for since you both met. That’s years and years of unanswered feelings that were being built up inside of you and spilling out right now,”. 

Were you in love with Joe? Have you been in love with him all this time? You find yourself smiling as you imagine you and Joe as a couple. Waking up to his adorable smile and sexy morning voice every day, going on cute little dates with him every week around town, kissing him good luck before every game, getting to curl up on the couch with him after every game, and talking about anything and everything together for hours on end without any limitations. It all sounded like a dream, a dream you wished was reality. 

Lydia looked over at your face, seeing you with a huge grin on your face and a blush creeping up on your cheeks.

“I knew it. You love him,” she says as she playfully shoves your shoulder. "There is a reason why none of your relationships work out. The person who you've been waiting for has been right in front of you this entire time,".

“Again, I don’t know,” you giggle. “I don’t wanna say anything to him because I don’t know if he feels the same way,”.

“I get that, I do. You don’t want to risk your friendship, but here’s my advice. Go with the flow. If something’s going to happen, it will. If nothing’s gonna happen, it won’t. Let things unfold naturally and if he’s there and waiting for you at the door, open it and never let him leave,” she says. “And I have a feeling that he’s gonna be at the door,” she adds. 

You spent a few seconds thinking about her advice. She was right, if you weren’t overthinking it and he really did feel the same way about you, he would be there. And if you were overthinking it, and he didn’t feel the same, you would accept it, bury those feelings for real this time, and keep the ball rolling.

You just had to wait and see.

To be continued! 

part 2

[jay7543]

okay so I absolutely LOVED your king!Konig x reader! I was wondering if you could do a Mechanic Konig and male reader? So reader has absolutely no idea how to fix his car and he goes to Konig’s shop for help, it can be fluffy or smutty

I love your posts and I can’t wait for the next update!!

Your hot new mechanic, könig

M4m

Sfw

Thank you so much! I’m so happy you liked it, I feel like there needs to be more gay/ bi man stuff so I am happy to provide. It’s a bit shorter than my other stuff, but I might make a part 2 that has more spicy stuff, so let me know if you want that too

Feel free to make requests!!! Doesn’t have to be cod

You have had your car for a pretty long time, by all accounts it’s an absolute piece of shit, but you love it. Lately you’ve been having so many problems with it, every fucking light is on and you just don’t know at all how to fix it, and honestly, you don’t care that much either, but your friend told you about a new mechanic nearby, and apparently he’s hot. You decide to call him

Reader-“hello? I’d like to bring my car in”

You say hesitantly, really not wanting to spend the money but also not sure about this supposedly very hot guy

König-“Ja, sure, come in when you can”

He immediately hangs up the phone, not even asking your name, well, if he’s as good as you’ve been told then who cares. You drive to his shop, not far from your house. When you get there he’s already waiting outside wearing partly ripped jeans and a white, sweat soaked t-shirt, almost as if he’s trying to show off, you guess he doesn’t have any other customers. You park near him and get out.

Reader-“hey uh, I talked to you on the phone?”

He looks you up and down, taking in you and your average looking self. You do the same to him, yet he looks a lot better, his hands covered in dried oil, his shirt soaked in sweat, his bright blue eyes staring at you, you can even see his abs through his shirt.

König-“I know, so, what’s wrong with it”

Reader-“uh, well, I don’t know much about cars, every light is on though”

You say with a nervous smile. He keeps his blank look and sticks out his hand, assumably for your keys, you hand them to him. He opens your door and pops your hood, doing…well you have no idea, you assume he’s doing what he’s supposed to, you hear him yell

König-“Was zum Teufel! When was the last time you changed you oil, or changed the damn battery”

You look around, debating whether or not you should talk

Reader-“well…I guess a few years”

He peeks out from the hood and glares at you

Reader-“I can pay whatever you need, i-I just don’t wanna get a new one. I don’t know a lot but I really like this one you know”

You say quietly, getting a bit embarrassed and sentimental about your shit box car. His gaze softens and he nods

König-“well, it won’t be easy, nor cheap, but i understand, and I’ll get it done”

He closes the hood and walks over to you, only a few inches away, you blush a bit as you start to smell whatever cologne he has on mixed with his sweat, it smells oddly good to you.

König-“you know, you’re a very pretty man, I’m not surprised you don’t know much about cars”

He chuckles. You blush even more, he called you pretty!

Reader-“I uh…well I guess you’re right. And thanks for the compliment, you look nice too”

He smiles at your obvious nervousness.

König-“let me go get something for you”

He walks away and comes back a few minutes later, he hands you a set of keys to a nearby car, an average car, nothing special but a car nonetheless.

König-“since you clearly can’t drive yours, use one of mine, I do expect It back however”

Your mouth hangs slightly agape, he’s letting you borrow his car till yours is fixed? This has to mean he likes you.

Reader-“well I-can I get your number? So we can call and text about my car. I don’t wanna have to call your shop”

He smiles and exudes an aura of confidence, as if he was waiting for you to ask. He grabs a piece of paper out of his pocket and a pen he had to write his number. He he takes your hand and places the paper in yours, keeping it held in his

König-“you know, feel free to call me, even if it’s not about your car, I know more than just cars.”

He kisses your hand and leans in to whisper in your ear

König-“I also think I could please you. No?”

He smiles and pulls away, letting go of your hand. You’re so shocked that you can’t even come up with words to respond, you just nod and stumble over to the car he’s letting you borrow. You’re definitely gonna call him

[aer-arts]

small Danganronpa Despair time ramble, spoilers up throughout chapter 2

First off, Ace and Eden are tied for my favorite characters

second, these are all personal thoughts and opinions, you do not have to agree with me I just ask that you’re respectful

I have to admit though, while I am sad Ace is going to die, I am happy that Eden isn’t the culprit

I don’t want to get too far into an analysis of Ace, but my long story short is that I am so satisfied with this outcome, it’s so tragic yet so fitting and I can just sink my teeth into analyzing it (aka, I could absolutely write an essay if I wanted after i organize my thoughts)

but right now I wanna ramble about Eden, and I’m honestly really happy she isn’t the culprit. I feel like her being the culprit would just not work for the plot

especially in this cast, I think Eden is so vital to keeping balance, without her the cast would just be overwhelmingly negative and cyclical, she provides good balance. I also really appreciate the nuanced take on the idea of a good character. I think she is so much more impactful as a character who simply tries to be good without ulterior motives. Not every good person is doing it to manipulate someone. like, if Eden was the culprit, what would the message here be? That there is no such thing as a good person? That people aren’t nice unless they have something to gain? This show has themes of trust vs distrust, Eden to me represents the side of trust so if she were to be evil and manipulating Teruko here the whole debate goes out the window. It would just be “don’t trust anyone because no one is worth trusting” and that just wouldn’t sit right with me. We already have David for that

also, if Eden was to be the culprit, I feel like that would undermine the effect Min had. Despair time has a great first murder to me, and i genuinely did find Min to be an interesting culprit. But if Eden were to be the culprit in chapter 2, especially with the parallels between her and Min and both of their relationships to Teruko, Eden being responsible would kinda just be Min’s betrayal 2 electric boogaloo. It would mean that both chapters Teruko trusted someone who was trying to manipulate her, which would be repetitive. It would set this expectation that Teruko can’t trust anyone because she will be betrayed by them and it would sorta kill any suspense I would have going forward. Min’s murder is memorable because it feels unique (to me, I am also an idiot so take what I say with a grain of salt) but it goes out the window if every murder is like that.

also, narratively, culprit Eden just didn’t make sense to me? Like, genuinely, why would Eden kill Arei? I know I haven’t looked too far into any theories because I’m bad like that (I tend not to because I don’t want my expectations warped) but seriously, wouldn’t that be out of character? That might just be me. I do feel like sometimes people just don’t think characters can be genuinely nice/good, but that’s just my personal thoughts

also, as a joke, if Eden were to be the culprit that would just be a bury your gays trope, I know Ace is gay but that wasn’t brought up in the series so I’m not counting it

I don’t think I would have left as satisfied with the culprit Eden route. I bet the dev could’ve made it work and I’ll respect their decisions because it’s their story and characters and not mine

I am so excited to see where this story goes /gen

But yeah, just a small ramble. I’m having so many thoughts right now about the show/chapter 2 /pos

I could probably phrase all of this better but it’s almost midnight so who cares

[anime-grimmy-art]

It’s this time of the year again, folks. Time to wrap up the art Ive made in the last 12 months in another Year in Review! I’ve noticed that this is my fifth Year in Review in a row, so I’ll be making an extra post looking back on the progress in those last 5 years!

I've got a lot to say about this year, but purely art wise, I've gone all when it comes to comics, damn! I've kinda found a format that is messy, and therefore more time efficient, yet still looks good. I even made 2 animatics and lotsa shorts/reels! All that on top of opening coms twice, and, oh yeah, MAKING A WHOLE ASS 4MIN ANIMATION ON MY OWN.

How is my hand still alive.

2023 has been….interesting, to say the least. The first half year I was working on my thesis project, aka making an animated short all on my own (in the art department), which makes it honestly surprising how much I managed to churn out between animating. Trigun rly did have me in a choke hold.

Summer was a bit more spotty, esp. with me not being able to draw anything during August as I was writing my thesis (and doing commissions). And towards the end of the year, Kingdom Hearts tried to save me, but alas, Genshin Impact has finally sunk its teeth into me and dragged me to the bottom of the rabbit hole. It all started with me watching a story summary and lore videos while I was sick after my thesis and I was too intrigued to not dig deeper and well, first I fell in love with Kaeya and then the ships started dropping in left and right.

I’m not gonna lie, the last few months have been weird. I finished my masters in October, and have been on job hunt since, sadly without success so far. I’m existing in this weird limbo of still not grasping I’m not a student anymore after 18 years in education, not really being able to accept I’m an adult, yet desperately trying to find something so I can make a routine, cos rn Im too scared to build a rhythm as I know I’ll have a so much harder time readjusting again. It’s left me in a weird emotional state, where most of the time I feel fine, but when it counts, there’s just, nothing. No joy at getting my diploma, no anticipation to finally go to a convention again, neither any sadness hearing my grandfather died. It frustrates me that it extends to my art as well, there’s excitement over ideas and concepts, but no motivation to pick up the pencil, which makes me either not finish art at all or making so many shortcuts and just ending up with sth not satisfactory to me since it’s not the idea I sought after.

Tho, not everything is doom and gloom. I DID finish a whole ass short animation and got my masters degree, that IS sth to be proud of. Also, while Im struggling at drawing, I’ve also kinda started integrating my shortcuts into my style and some stuff I’ve thrown together actually turns out real good nowadays. Also, and this might be a bit of a weird one, I’m so fucking happy to know I can still enjoy gay ships. I’ve been a bit uncertain over the last few years because when I was around 16-18, I had a real big yaoi phase, which mostly came from the fact so much stuff came out that tickled my brain in the right way (Free, Haikyuu, etc.). But over the years, my enthusiasm died down, and I even started to resent some ships because it’s all some fandoms produced. I often found myself liking a hetero ship more than the popular gay ship, which really made me not wanna stick around because I did not care for most fanart and you can only go through a tag with art you don’t care about so long before you lose interest. I think in retrospect that it rly had nothing to do with the ships being gay ships but rather cos the fans just shoved it in your face when you didn’t care (and shipping culture nowadays also can get real scary). But I’m so happy to see I can still get obsessed with a ship and it’s all thanks to Haikaveh/Kavetham. It really just needed the right flavour for me to dig in again. And oh my god, I FINALLY like a ship with a SHIT TON of art and fanfictions, no more scrounging the crumbs from the bottom of the barrel. 

Anyways, enough lamenting. Here’s to hoping I can bite my tongue and get shit started properly in 2024, and that my brainrots may make me obsessed enough to churn out an obscene amount of fanart again.

[thesupreme316]

Could I have some of your favourite wrestlers reacting to the fem!reader heel turn

I GOT U (sorry for how long it took me)

Pairing(s): Hook x Fem!Reader (Platonic?), Eddie Kingston x Fem!Reader (Platonic), Darius Martin x Fem!Reader (Platonic), Dante Martin x Fem!Reader (Platonic), Daniel Garcia x Fem!Reader (Platonic?), Samoa Joe x Fem!Reader (Platonic)

Summary: How would these men react to you turning heel?

Word Count: 849

Supreme Speaks: hiiiii, I might do these reaction scenarios more often cause this was fun to write (so please send in more). To @hookerforhook sorry that this took me so long but its here neow. Also I hope everyone is doing well and please remember that you are loved and appreciated.

Warnings: slightly proofread, gifs are not mine, i repeat gifs ARE NOT MINE

Taglist (if you wanna be a part of it, lemme know): @hookerforhook @hooks-martin @sheinthatfandom @wwenhlimagines @triscillal

To the locker room and the AEW fans, your character was a very talented wrestler but always saw the good in people. Which often leads you to be hurt physically and emotionally. So after one too many broken hearts, you decided to turn heel.

How you turn heel is completely up to you so choose your adventure (I also included examples). You either…

Attacked your teammate after losing another tag team match (Bayley on Sasha Banks)

Attacked your good friend due to you being jealous of them (anyone really)

Didn’t allow your tag team partner to tag you in the match, making your team lose (Tbh I could find an exact moment but Layla on AJ Lee)

Attacked the referee and your opponent after losing the title match (Michelle McCool on Maria/Becky Lynch on Charlotte)

You got offered a better deal by the rival team and decided to take it (Seth Rollins on the Shield)

Eddie Kingston

This man would be so calm about it

*after you attacked your friend* “Well, they had it coming”

Would not see you differently

In fact he would just be happy that you’re whooping ass and you’re not taking any shit from people

Still keeps it 100 with you about things

“If you attack them from behind, then you’re a coward. But if you hit them in the face, then you’re a real one”

In his eyes, you’re not a heel but you’re not a face

You’re just a person going through emotions and decided to let them out

Eddie understands you cause no one is truly/fully on one side or the other

I think Eddie would just say as long as you don’t hurt him physically or emotionally, then you’re good

Overall…Eddie is happy you chose violence as your answer

Hook

It’ll definitely surprise him

He didn’t take you one for being a heel

But isn’t mad at the idea

Silent with his opinions 

But tbh I think he would believe the whole 180 change with you is hot

“You look very good…Almost too good.” 

Will tell you that he likes the aggressive yet playful mood you display in the ring now

Loves the change in ring gear and theme song

Will wear your new merch in instagram pictures

Honestly, might inspire him to turn heel himself

Overall…Hook loves to see this new attitude within you

Samoa Joe

OH THIS MAN IS A MENACE

NOW THIS MAN IS AN ACTUAL HEEL

He would automatically smirk and congrats you  

“Welcome to the dark side”

I genuinely believe he would become a fan of you

Constantly reference you or just show his support on twitter (cause that man is a menace)

Gives you tips on how to appear more of a threat to your opponents

I believe that this Joe would become a mentor

100% would teach you the Coquina Clutch

Will laugh when you embarrass your opponent

“I taught them that! I did that!”

Overall…Samoa Joe would be that supportive father who’s just happy you joined him

Top Flight (Darius and Dante Martin)

OKAY HERE ME OUT….they are all for it IM JUST SAYIN-

At first, Darius and Dante would be sad about it

Would be more saddened at the fact you have to stand across the ring from them instead of next to them

But will recognize that you are happier and are getting a lot more credit and camera time because of the turn

Will put your overall happiness over how they feel

Will still hang out with you behind the cameras (obvi)

Helps you decide on new moves or highflying moves you can do

Will hype you up backstage as you kick ass

“Kick her in the face Y/N!”

Will post pictures of you with the caption “We stan with Y/N”

Overall…Top Flight will be so supportive of you no matter what

Daniel Garcia

MENACE PT.2

“I CALLED IT”

Would immediately offer you a spot in JAS (please decline…)

Like Joe, Daniel would also reference you in tweets

I would like to believe that he would also start flirting with you 

Just full on rizz game on 100

“I may not be a photographer, but I can picture us together.”

Like Hook, would also believe this new attitude of yours is hot

Makes fun of your opponents and taunt them backstage (in effort to get you to join JAS, again say no)

Will also make fun of you (lightheartedly) and compare you to him

Will retweet you and start a banter with you just for shits and giggles

“So you think you can take my place as AEW’s favorite child?” “You were never anyone’s favorite.” “Take that back!”

Overall…Daniel would become infatuated with you and is happy for you

[sad-drake-lyrics]

alright, i’m having a lot of feelings™ about giyushino & i have to talk about it because otherwise i will implode. i’ve liked the idea of them together from s1, like most people who ship them seem to; but then i stopped thinking about them much due to obsession with other ships, and also because after their initial altercation on Mount Natagumo they don’t really get much screentime together, so i just lost interest.

but in my modern day obamitsu AU (you can find my ao3 link on my page!), i’m featuring giyushino as a background ship, & i am starting to catch fucking feelings myself from writing them. (if you head off to read the fic, there’s only two chapters posted so far & Giyuu + Shinobu are not in it yet, but will be very soon.)

so, here we go. gimme a moment to ramble about what inspired these HCs / character analyses before i get to the meat & potatoes.

street lights by killedmyself is one of my favourite songs despite the fact it being really more of a piece of audio art than a song - it’s mainly a movie dialogue sample mixed with sad boi lo-fi beats, but i play it all the time because it somehow hurts so good. so i was listening to it when thinking of the aforementioned modern AU, & i had an epiphany like “holy fuck, this is exactly how a giyushino relationship would go down, whether in a canon AU or any other story.”

the sample in the song is from No Strings Attached, a typical romantic comedy/drama about two close friends who have a deep understanding of each other and casually have sex, but the guy catches feelings and the girl wants nothing to do with a relationship.

(honestly, most people would probably find this movie boring - it’s a basic white het ship storyline; i only watched it because of the song, & the conversation in the song is literally the best part - otherwise the movie is hella bland & i wouldn't care if i never saw it again LOL so i’m def. not saying “go watch this” here.)

anyway, i’m listening to this song, and i’m like “omg, i can hear Giyuu & Shinobu saying every fucking line.”

basically, in my mind, Giyuu & Shinobu would start hooking up just for the sake of it - probably as a result of a quiet development of closeness born essentially out of convenience (they are always at the Ubuyashiki Estate together or working together), and then one night boning goes down. they’re attracted to each other; they like each other as people; and then the sex is good, so it keeps happening.

& very quickly, sad boi Giyuu, who is typically self-isolated and depressed, starts crushing hard. he’s alone and he’s desperate for human interaction and affection, even though he doesn’t realize it - and Shinobu is beautiful, and he admires her. plus they’re starting to have a lot of sex; & it’s pretty common for that to bloom some sense of love, ranging from base level attachment to infatuation to real feels - and it gets to the point where Giyuu wants to be with her.

but Shinobu doesn’t want the same thing. she cares about him (more than she can admit), but she’s fiercely independent and immensely dedicated to her work (with all her research and crafting of medicines & poisons). she puts this work above absolutely everything else with self-denying devotion - her happiness doesn’t matter; like she tells Tanjirou, she’s angry, and all that matters is success. a relationship for her would be a distraction, & she doesn’t need it - doesn’t want to deal with it; too many emotional ups & downs; too much drama; too much risk; too much intimacy with someone else, which actually terrifies her. so when Giyuu tells her he wants a relationship, she rejects him.

now let’s take the samples that slap me in the face with giyushino feels from street lights, which i can literally hear coming out of their fucking mouths.

Shinobu: You know me, this stuff freaks me out. It's fake. What’s wrong with what we’re doing? It’s working, we don’t have to fight -

Giyuu: Maybe I wanna fight.

Shinobu: Yeah, well I don’t.

Giyuu: What are you gonna do - you’re just never gonna feel anything? How are you gonna do that?

Shinobu: I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.

^ this exchange already starts murdering me because i feel like once Giyuu realizes he has legitimate feelings for Shinobu, and is wrestling with his own self-denial and inability to accept love from others because of how much he hates himself - he sees that Shinobu does the same thing - she doesn’t want to feel anything too deeply because she’s traumatized from Kanae’s death. she doesn’t want to love anyone else in a way that makes them more important than anything else (though, yes, we have to also acknowledge her love for Kanao here, but i imagine that's it for her - no more), so that she can’t experience loss again. she’s scared; she protects herself by being self-sufficient and dedicating herself to her work.

she's also stubborn asf, and sincerely believes in herself and what she's capable of, and so "I don't know. I'll figure it out." is literally what she would respond to this challenge.

Shinobu: I don’t need you to take care of me. I take care of myself. That’s what I do.

^ destroying me because this is exactly what Shinobu does. this is her MO; her armor.

Shinobu: Why don’t you go find some other girl who’s not gonna hurt you?

Giyuu: Because I love you.

^ help. why are they like this. it’s because Giyuu’s so alone, but when he feels, he feels deeply (seen even in his initially inexplicable sentimentality for Tanjirou & Nezuko from the beginning, all the way to when we finally hear his backstory with Sabito). he’s smart and intuitive, he can see right through Shinobu - right through everything she does to protect herself. he also doesn’t give up on people he cares about, and his sad boi meter is off the charts - he probably thinks he deserves rejection. plus we have Shinobu pushing everyone away so hard because she can’t handle it.

also going off the HC here that they’re casually hooking up throughout this: oh boy is this a mess of confusing emotions for both of them, both struggling to keep it bottled up, and Giyuu is clearly the weaker link. he just would be. he’s too sensitive.

Giyuu: It’s obvious, I completely love you - there. You’re such a wimp.

Shinobu: I am not!

Giyuu: Well then be with me.

^ why is this dialogue like, canon. it’s their personalities to a T - the way they push at each other in a way of making fun of each other; the way Giyuu is honest despite his problems with feelings; the way strong, independent Shinobu would be so offended at him calling her a wimp (which he totally would fucking say) - calling her out on how she blocks out feelings for others to stay focused on her mission so she can protect them, but so she also can’t get heartbroken, because she can’t go through that again.

*cough*

anyway. there’s my roughly 1k word count essay on how i envision a romantic giyushino dynamic. i’ll be trying to work this into my modern AU - but considering Giyuu and Shinobu are secondary characters, i don’t know how much i can explore this; still, i don’t have the full fic planned out, so nothing’s off the table.

but seriously, this shit hits me in my gut so hard i could probably write an entire fic about them just on this premise lol.

anyway, yeah. woke up at 7:30, made a cup of coffee, sat down on the computer and just wrote this essay out of nowhere in an hour because suddenly giyushino is also ruining my life.

[organizechaoss]

Fic-Rec Friday - Hellaverse Edition

Hey lovelies, thinking of starting these up again but hopefully in a more sustainable fashion than last time I tried to do this with good omens 😅

First, imma ask y’all if you have any recommendations that you think I should read. I’m struggling to find good stuff and I wanna know you’re guys’ favorite fics to add to my tbr. You can send me an ask or just reblog/comment this post with suggestions ;)

Things I WON’T read:

- prominent OC’s

- Xreader

- anything with heavy religious elements in combination with porn but if they’re separate elements, I might read it

Things I WANT to read:

- huskerdust anything

- I wanna get into radioapple but haven’t found any fics that I like just yet. I appreciate ones that are aware of ace culture but honestly any good writing and I’m down (if there’s an equivalent of huskerdust’s When We Meet Again I wanna know)

- complete fics

All my personal recommendations will be posted every Friday under the tag ‘#orgchaos recs’ prob only one a week bc unfortunately I don’t have many to recommend at the moment (I’m hoping y'all will give me some ideas!) So I’ll see ya then!

[leeannsparksauthor]

A Touch of Green

A/N: Hello all, I’ve been replaying the Spider-Man games and now have Peter Parker brainrot because he’s just too freaking adorable. Anywho I was inspired by the dead plant in the opening scene and immediately thought, ‘oh this poor boy, he’s trying.’

Also I wrote this with game Peter in mind but you can really imagine any Peter you prefer, hope you enjoy!

The plain truth is that Peter Parker couldn’t keep a plant alive to save his life.

It was a hard pill for him to swallow. For crying out loud the boy could make web bombs but couldn’t figure out how to keep a succulent thriving for more than a week. You couldn’t help but find it endearing, especially when he would text pictures of his poor neglected plants. Always captioned with ‘I don’t know what I did wrong!’ Usually followed with crying emoji, a pouting one if he was feeling super defeated. 

You remembered when he first moved into his apartment, he was so determined to brighten the place up. It’s just a tragedy that so many lives were lost in his endeavor. 

“Oooo Pete look at this one, it’s only two dollars,” you pointed to the Rattlesnake plant that had seen better days. It was a sad sight, brown leaves falling towards dry potted soil. 

“Uhm, yeah that’s a good price but it’s dead baby, don’t you want to get one of the greener ones?” He asked with his chin resting on your shoulder. One of the many things you loved about Peter was how openly affectionate he was. You sometimes wondered who was the more touch-starved out of the two of you. 

After placing a quick kiss on his cheek you leaned down to move away a few of the dying leaves to reveal healthy stems and the beginnings of new growth. “Well it’s not fully dead yet, it just needs some love and new soil. I think I could easily save this patient, Mr Parker.” Teasing each other came as naturally as breathing most days. 

“There’s not a doubt in my mind about that Doctor,” he said while picking up the pot to place it in your shared cart. You both still lived in separate apartments despite being together for almost two years now. It wasn’t like you hadn't discussed it before but the fear of change and the idea of sharing space caused the topic to be pushed to the back burner. You did ease his worries when you told him that there’s no one else you’d rather live with, it would just take some time, maybe once your lease was up for renewal this year you could both come back to it. “Ya know maybe I should pick up one too…”

His fingers were playfully slapped away from the potential victim. “No, no absolutely not, you are not killing another plant on my watch Pete.” 

“Awww now that’s just not fair babe, I swear I didn’t even miss a watering day on my last one!” You couldn’t help but laugh at the affronted look on his face. He’s just so naturally charming it hurts.

You pushed the cart over to where the bags of soil were placed before attempting to pick up the indoor plant mix. The action was immediately halted by Peter nudging you aside so that he could grab it instead, ever the gentleman, you thought wistfully. “Yeah and then you ended up overwatering it love. You drowned that poor plant!” 

“I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to water it every day…”

“It was on the care card Pete, did you even read it?” You knew damn well that he didn’t but boy was it fun to mess with him.

His hand came up to scratch the back of his neck, “I…may or may not have lost the card on the way up to the apartment that day.”

You patted his cheek lovingly, slight stubble underneath your fingertips. “What am I gonna do with you?”

“Love me, kiss me, smother me with affection. It’s honestly the only way I wanna go at this point.” You loved his smile, it was so boyish and warm and it just made everything seem right in the world.

“Oh I’ll smother you with something…”

“Oooo you promise?” His hand discreetly traced your ass, which if you could feel it was it really that discreet? He had always surprised you with how flirty he could be, you assumed that he was just full of blushing anxiety when you first met him.

“Head out of the gutter pretty boy, we still gotta do some grocery shopping for dinner.”

His long eyelashes batted themselves at you, “awww you think I’m pretty?”

You smiled at his ridiculousness, “yes, very pretty, now I’ve got chicken thawing in the fridge so what do you think? Should I do chicken fried rice, alfredo, or some chicken soup since it’s kinda chilly?” 

“Hmmm, decisions, decisions…” you could see him suddenly freeze, his spidey sense pumping the brakes on your outing. His phone dinged in his pocket and sirens could be heard in the distance. He gave you an extremely apologetic look, puppy dog eyes and everything. You would have hoped by now that he knew you understood. New York needed their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, even though they didn’t always deserve him. “I’m sorry baby…”

“It’s okay hero, but you still gotta choose which one I make cause I really don’t wanna decide.”

“Uhm, alfredo! I love you so much, I’ll call you later!” He smushed your cheeks together before placing a quick kiss on the fishlips he had created. He was such a goober, but you loved him for it. 

“I love you too.” Your eyes never left him as he weaved between the aisles before barreling out the door. Apologizing to multiple angry New Yorkers he bumped into along the way. You couldn’t help but laugh, thinking to yourself, there goes my boy, off to save the world.

Once you picked up some noodles, broccoli, mushrooms and ingredients to make the sauce you started to make the trek home. Paper bag in one arm and your new plant baby cradled in the other. 

The train was a little late, but what else was new honestly? Once you were seated you heard a notification ding on your phone automatically knowing that it was about Peter’s latest heroics. You told him a while ago that you had notifications set on your phone for all things Spider-Man. You just wanted to know that he was okay, and you were also amused by the ridiculous articles on Spider-Man’s love life. Apparently there was a robbery happening somewhere but there weren’t enough details released yet, you figured Pete would tell you about it later when he came by. Finally arriving at your apartment you leaned against the elevator wall, drained from the day but excited to work on the home tasks you had been mentally compiling throughout the afternoon. 

Your new plant was situated in front of the window. It was much shorter and greener then when it arrived due to cutting away all the dead leaves but now it was nestled in fresh soil and ready for another chance. You couldn’t help the smile that rested on your lips as you looked at all the green surrounding the window. Jeez I really have a problem don’t I, you thought to yourself. Currently the biggest plant in your apartment was your grandma’s pothos she gave you when you moved. Under her care it had thrived and you were heartbroken when it reacted badly on the trip to New York. Luckily she was a resilient one, and you think she could win first prize if she felt so inclined. 

As you gently traced the leaves your mind wandered to Peter which happened multiple times a day. It was like a light bulb went off in your head as you scrambled to reach the top of your fridge that housed multiple empty glass bottles. You knew exactly which one you were looking for and let out a pleased sigh when your fingers grabbed the neck of the bottle. After snipping off a stem from the pothos you gently placed it inside the glass that was now filled with water. The leaves rested over the lip and you couldn’t wait to give the small gift to Peter. I swear if he manages to kill this I’m going to have to take that boy to a botany class or something. 

You were letting the sauce simmer on the stove when Pete called you, his caller ID was a photo of him in his Spidey suit holding an armful of puppies that were up for adoption. He had swung by an event the agency had set up in central park and decided to stay to help all of the babies get adopted. He messaged you insisting that you had to come by and see all of the adorable dogs. Most of whom were adopted by the time you got there. You remembered having to play pretend and ask Spider-Man if you could take a picture of him with the puppies. 

“Yeah of course Ma’am!” He had said in his fake deep voice that he put on for show whenever he got nervous. 

“Hey baby everything okay,” you asked once the call was connected.

“Yup all good, just another bank robbery but it’s all cleaned up and I’m heading your way now.” You could hear the exertion in his voice, the tell-tale sign of him swinging through the city. 

The sauce spoon was tapped against the pan to get all of the excess off of it. “Let me guess it was the hamburglar again?”

“Yeah, the guy just doesn’t know when to quit.” The sounds of the city played in the background, cars honking and people calling out as Peter swung above them.

“Well it’s a good thing Spider-Man was there to save the day. I’m gonna start boiling the pasta so I’ll see you in a bit, we don’t need you hitting another building cause you were swinging on the phone.” You would never forget the day that he slammed into a fire escape because he was too excited to tell you about his promotion to pay attention.

“How dare you, I'm a safe swinger…wait no, that came out wrong.” You could practically hear the blush in his tone and it made you giggle.

“You better be safe while you’re swinging!” The declaration was said between laughter at his words. 

“Always am, love you bug!”

“Love you too baby.” You blew a quick kiss into the phone, waiting for his responding smooch before hanging up. 

He ended up climbing through your window about ten minutes later beating all of the rush traffic. As soon as his feet hit the floor he ripped off his mask and set it on the chair that was designated for his quick changes. “It smells amazing in here!” 

“It tastes even better!” You called over your shoulder as you scooped the noodles out of their pot to mix into the sauce. His chest was pressed against your back as he placed a total of three tiny kisses to your forehead. You turned your head so that you could meet his lips in a soft kiss, you were always so thankful when he came back unscathed, most nights weren’t like this.

“Mmmm, not as good as you though.” Ever the flatterer this guy.

You placed another quick peck on his lips, “that’s very true…oh I have a little something for you!”

“For me? You shouldn’t have!” He exclaimed with ten times the energy you would expect from someone who just stopped a bank robbery.

“It’s nothing too crazy but here…tada!” You showcased the little plant chilling in its water bath and you could see the confusion clear as day on Peter’s face.

He held up the bottle, inspecting the leaves like they were his greatest mystery. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to have plants anymore?”

“No, you're not allowed to kill any more plants, which should be incredibly hard to do with this one.”

“Oh I’m sure I’ll somehow find a way.” He seemed nervous, like he was actually afraid that he was gonna fuck this one up. 

You made a grand gesture towards the small plant. “No cause see, this, this right here, is your son Peter. You love him, you nurture him and best of all you leave him alone! He’s basically just propagating right now so he just stays in the water and he’ll keep growing. I will of course check on him everytime I come over to your place.”

He teasingly fanned himself like he was overcome by the news. “I really wasn’t expecting to become a dad today, this is just all so sudden…wait is this from your big guy in the corner?”

“Yes and kind of selfishly I hope that you think of me each time you look at it.”

“I’m already thinking of you all the time so no worries there. Hey, is this a bottle from Julia’s place down the street?” It was also the place where you guys had your first date and had since become your favorite shared restaurant.  

“What a keen eye you have there Mr Parker.”

His eyes seemed to gloss over with affection, adoration, admiration, and all of the a words that described love and happiness. “I love you.”

You gave that look right back to him tenfold. “I love you too, and because I love you I’m going to politely say that you stink and that you need a shower before dinner.”

“Yeah you can just feel the love in the room.”

[yaralulu]

Thank you for the tag @sad-scarred-sassy @highlordofkrypton @achaotichuman !! This is so fun!!

Describe your writing process from idea to posting/publishing?

My writing process is very …ungraceful lol. Most of my fics stem from random dialogue that I came up with on like the bathroom floor and I just build a story around that dialogue. Usually I take a few days to kinda plan the fic and to brainstorm the overall scenes in it. Fill in the gaps on what happens before and after the main dialogue, figure out character dynamics and timelines,etc.

Once I have a solid idea of what I want to write, I will procrastinate for like week because I’m annoying 👍.When I finally get a surge of motivation/I force myself to open a new document , I just start writing whenever and wherever I can (I write on my phone because I am the farthest thing from a professional). I’m a relatively slow writer so it takes me either a week to finish something or a month,just depends.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Definitely plotter. I need to have a basic outline of what’s gonna happen before I even consider writing something.

What do you listen to when you are writing?

Nothing! But listening to songs that remind me of the fic i’m working on definitely puts me in the mood to write but I don’t listen whilst I’m writing.

What’s your drink of choice(while writing)?

Very rarely am I ever eating/drinking something when I’m writing. Either I’m slumped on my bed or I’m literally in the middle of a public place (professionalism 👍).

Promote yourself! What’s your favorite thing you’ve written?

My beloved luzriel fic Want by Proxy. I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing me talk about it but it’s my child. I’m very proud of it! (however my actual fav thing is lowkey all the things i’ve written for lucienweek hehe.)

Share a fic of yours that you think is underrated/deserves more love.

Oh boy. My tamcien angst fic a bridge between us flopped so bad on ao3 but I really love it!! It’s short and yet very angsty and exactly the kind of tamcien stuff that I like to read. Honestly a little scarred by how bad it did LOL but I’ll get over it.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

I’m a baby writer myself and genuinely my number one advice is: Stop comparing yourself to other writers. It’s such a hard cycle to get out of when you’re a new writer but you cannot keep looking at experienced writer’s works and comparing yourself to them. With time and effort, you’ll be just as good but beating yourself up because you’re not as good as them right now will get you nowhere. Just keep writing!! Have fun and write what you wanna read and before you know it you’ll be just as good!!

What is a writing style/technique that others do really well that you'd like to get better at?

Descriptive writing!! I feel like I’m slowly getting better at writing descriptive settings but still it’s very hard. I just wish I had the ability to string words together so beautifully that you could literally picture what I’m talking about.

Using prose and lyrical language is another thing I aspire to be good at. I really admire people who write absolute poetry in their fics. Like the flow and language they use is just insane and so evocative. Being able to make readers feel the character’s emotions because of the strong language used is definitely something I want to get better at!!

Is there a character you were surprised you enjoyed writing as much as you did?

Azriel!! He really took me by surprise but I really enjoyed writing his personality and stoicism. Writing guarded characters is very fun because even I don’t know what the hell they’re feeling lol. It was definitely a guessing game trying to figure out how he’d react to stuff but I enjoyed crawling inside his head.

Also Eris!! I now understand why so many of my mutuals love writing him because he’s genuinely so.freaking.fun to write. Something about his aesthetic is just so addicting. Like I had a blast picking out what he wore in my fic and describing the clothes and his hair like he’s literally a princess. His aura just makes my brain go brrr. He’s just such a fun character to play around.

Tagging: @the-darkestminds @olenvasynyt @viktoriaashleyyx @sonics-atelier and whoever would like to join in!!

[azrielslittleslut]

How are you doing today!

Do you have a list of wips you can show us? I'm just really into your writing but if not totally fine! <3

Hello! I'm doing good! I got homework done early, so now I have about 2-3 hours to write!:) (I've been daydreaming about The Lost Queen alllll day sooooo...)

Anyway, I'm so glad you enjoy my writing! That makes me so happy to hear!<3

So current wips, in no particular order.

-Kinktober fics, specifically the Eris one, which will be going up Thursday, and the Rhys drabble. I'm gonna try to have that one up by tomorrow, but it might be Friday.

-The Lost Queen Chapter 12. This is done, it's in the editing phase. It will be going up Friday or Saturday of this week.

Snippet: “Well, you didn’t have to scare the shit out of me,” you grumbled as he set you down on your feet, his hands on your shoulders to keep you steady. “Do you think- do you think I will be able to fly? Since I have wings?” Azriel’s eyes were wide as he glanced at your back, noting the current lack of wings. “If you can summon them again, I don’t see why not.” He ran a hand through his black hair, pushing the soft curls off his forehead. “You would have to learn, of course.” You nodded in defeat. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe we should focus on Operation Defeat Evil Queen first.”

-Azriel week fics:

Cool Quiet: I'm still working on this one, but I'm taking the line from ACOFAS that says: "Most of the camp women had ducked into their homes when he'd appeared. A rare visit from the shadowsinger. Both myth and terror." I LOVE the idea that Azriel is actually a myth among the people of Prythian. That he is the one who people tell horror stories of around campfires... that he haunts people's nightmares. So, yeah. That's where that one is going.

Scarred: This one will be dark, but it's going to be a look back into Azriel's childhood. I've tried many times to write a long fic about this, so I'm going to put all of my efforts into one and hope for the best.

Belonging: I honestly don't know about this one yet. Thinking of a found-family type situation for Az? I love him with the IC, but I want to explore him finding his own people who accept him for who he is. If you guys have any ideas, please let me know!

Paid Time Off: Azriel is going to go see his mother at Rosehall. Gonna be super sweet and fluffy with a lil bit of angst.

No Need for Poetry: This was going to be an Azriel x OC smut fic, but that's changed. It's gonna be some Azris smut because I refuse to get in the middle of this horrible ship war. So i'm gonna party on the boat that will more than like never leave the harbor.

Song of the Wind: Flying with Azriel.

Free: I honestly don't know. I'll happily take requests for what you guys wanna see with this one!

Other wips:

-The Frenzy drabble where the reader enters subspace. This won't be done until after kinktober and Az week, but it's coming!

-An unnamed series about Azriel and OC F!Reader. This is super top secret for now, and it won't be started until The Lost Queen is at least almost done. Just know it's gonna be smutty, angsty, and full of Azriel healing from his trauma.

[alphabetboyluvr]

hi Holly. I just want to appreciate u. u don’t have to reply but this is more just a message to you.

I think ur the best person I have a parasocial platonic relationship with. Not only do you write the best stories (my heart beats for BD) but you also are the best most good intentions, good morals, person.

I like that you constantly update us on your work, your thoughts, and other stuff. It’s like you’re the teacher who engages with her students and tells her kids “guys the marks will be released Friday”, doesn’t take a long time to mark, doesn’t bat around the bush, etc. You never alienate your readers which I feel like a lot of other authors do. I love how appreciative you are of ur readers and friends

Also thank you for posting about Palestine. This is what made me wanna write the message. Im currently typing through tears as I just watched a kid cry because he saw the bombing in Gaza. His trauma is already started and he’s just 3. Thank you thank you for being a good soul. A true girls girl. A true citizen who wants the best for her world. I value you a lot. I love that you’re another girl who has big boobs ( I have a H cup girl it’s fucking horrible but I love that I get to be appreciated through ur stories) , thank you for being so creative, thank you for just knocking it out of the park.

U deserve nothing but the best. Please keep your standards high because you are of the highest standard. I love u girl

<3

honestly i could have cried reading this, what a gorgeous display of kindness 😭 thank you so much.

this is a long answer so I'll add a read more haha

I think (in a way) I also have sort of a parasocial relationship with you guys - I'm often shown such generous amounts of love and support and it's a dynamic that I don't really know how to describe. we might not know each other and yet you all see such a huge part of my personality that a lot of people don't. you hear of virgo boy and of the little trips I'm going on and all sorts of intricate details and yet if you were to see me in the street, you'd probably have no clue of who I am 🥲 sometimes I wonder (when I go to army events / bts places) if I'm talking with people who have read my fics but we collectively have no idea. its a strange little life to live, but one that I enjoy.

in regards to Palestine, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, I'm deeply horrified by what we're witnessing and am devastated at my government (alongside other western nations) facilitating what's happening. if all I can do is spread awareness or write letter, then you best believe that is what I'll do.

I'm afforded with such kindness that it only feels right I should reciprocate that - I keep you guys updated because it keeps us all happy haha. I love doing teasers and getting that initial reaction from you guys, it's so much fun, honestly. while I write for myself, I'd be a total liar if I said I didn't care for other people's opinions. your input is important to me!!

I've friends in all corners of the world, of all faiths and diverse backgrounds, and the idea of any of them experiencing such horror for the simple fact of where they were born is unthinkable. the people suffering are daughters, sons, husbands, wives, siblings - they are people and they are loved and it is barbaric to see what is happening and not feel strongly about it, in my opinion.

we all deserve the right to safety, freedom and a comfortable living environment. i don't really think my views are that groundbreaking, but I'm glad to know many of you feel the same ♡♡

honestly the big titty agenda part made me laugh so much!! I've been wearing a posture corrector lately cause the girlies have just been a nightmare 🥲 and the titty worship in my stories??? comes from experience!!! you'll find someone who appreciates them, as well as appreciates you, I promise 😭

thank you so much for your message - honestly you've no idea how much it means. have the loveliest day!!!

mwah x

[noperopesaredope]

A Post-Series Collector AU

So, over the past few days, due to my Collector brainrot and new AU, I ended up creating a concept for a show idea based very loosely on my Servitude Collector AU. I actually kinda wanna make into an actual show now, and I’ve actually put it in my folder of “Ideas That I Legitimately Want to Pitch to a Network”, which only has, like, three or so things in it. 

I wasn’t going to talk about any of it on Tumblr (since I’m a bit paranoid about someone stealing my ideas or networks thinking that I had stolen my own ideas), but recently, after having finished the finale for TOH, I realized that this concept was exactly what the Collector fandom needed. So I changed some stuff up a bit (both for the show concept and for the AU), and have decided to put it out there as its own little AU thing. You’re welcome.

Spoilers for TOH finale:

As some of you may know, at the end of the finale, the Collector decided to leave the Boiling Isles and explore the universe to figure themselves out. This may have been unsatisfying to many, as the kid is in desperate need of proper friends and a good family, and they honestly shouldn’t just go off completely alone.

I felt the same way, and decided that they probably spent some time exploring the universe and making friends all over the place, each of whom taught him important life lessons.

I thought that that sounded like a fun idea, and whilst thinking a bit about it, I remembered that show concept I was working on. I realized that the basics of it worked way too well, because it is very much a found family story that takes place in space, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was exactly what the Collector needed.

It would definitely involve them going around the universe and making new friends whilst learning life lessons that they really need, but it would also make sure they weren’t alone whilst doing it. They could grow alongside someone, and that person could learn from him.

So I quickly wrote down the basics for this AU idea, and I’m pretty proud of it. But first, before I explain it, I need to explain one important thing.

Okay, so I didn’t want to talk too much about my original show concept, and it will go in a pretty different direction in comparison to this AU, but I will tell you one thing about it. By the way, I actually wrote my show concept’s main character long before I thought up this AU as a whole. The reason I say that is because you may think that because it will sound ridiculous, but trust me, this was actually my plan for my original story and OC. Okay, here it is:

The main character for my original story is a 30 y/o conspiracy theorist with a degree in astrophysics who is determined to prove that there are aliens on the moon (among other conspiracy theories). I’m not kidding. I was trying to think of a backstory for my human MC, and I thought to myself: “wouldn’t it be funny if he was a comedically paranoid conspiracy theorist who flipped between playing the straight man and the wacky one? Wouldn’t it be wild?”

I had everything for him planned out, from his personality to his motives to how he met the show’s version of the Collector (all the characters in my show are very different from the ones I’ll be using in this AU, and many elements of the plot will be different too). I love him so much. He’s so smart and normal and yet so stupid and chaotic and possibly has psychosis (that will be portrayed sympathetically).

Whilst turning this into an AU type thing, I considered making an OC for this AU, since we don’t really have any characters in the Human Realm who would fit his role and other important elements of his characters, such as stuff related to his character arc.

Then I remembered.

There is a character who fills all the criteria I need for this AU, possibly even more than I could possibly think of.

A character who has some pretty significant similarities to my Human OC (though not the same personality).

A character who doesn’t have any real attachments on Earth, and whom I can do whatever I want with.

A character who didn’t need a character arc, but could suddenly get one in my AU.

A character who I hate, but can work and even have fun with.

A character who could bounce of the Collector so well in terms of banter.

A character who could honestly fit amazingly with the kind of story I want to tell.

You know who he is.

I know who he is.

It’s a character that nobody expected me to use for anything!

It’s........

....

....

....

Jacob Hopkins, the conspiracy theorist who kidnapped Vee that one time

.............................................ok hear me out-

Let me just explain my basic idea. It will all make sense.

The AU’s Plot:

So, the AU starts out after the Collector has been bopping around through space for a few weeks after leaving in the finale. He wants to make friends, but isn’t sure how to make the first step, and he’s afraid of messing it up somehow. They tried going around to different planets, but kept chickening out in fear of rejection. They eventually land on an abandoned planet and sit next to a mysterious structure. This is important.

But not right now.

Now, let’s go look at Earth for a bit. Specifically, one particular human: Jacob Hopkins.

Jacob is, to be frank, a fucking loser. He’s a conspiracy theorist with no job and very few friends and has been deemed the “town crazy guy” that nobody really likes all that much. In order to prove that there are 100% extraterrestrials on Mars, he decided to secretly build a spaceship that would launch him into outer space and all the way to the planet, where he would finally find aliens and take pictures of them to bring back to Earth with him.

He has finally finished building it (as well as bought an actual space suit), and we see him open a package he got from the darkweb with a mysterious crystal inside it. The seller told Jacob that it’s basically a special type of rocket fuel, though we the audience know that something is definitely up. He puts the thing in his ship, gets on his spacesuit, gathers his supplies, and finally gets ready to launch.

He finally launches his ship into the sky, and part way up, it seems like it’s obviously not gonna make it. Jacob quickly realizes that this is a terrible idea, but it’s too late, as he’s already thousands of feet in the air. He closes his eyes, ready to accept his fate, but suddenly, the crystal inside the fuel tank starts glowing, and, in a really cool looking bit of animation, a wormhole appears in front of the spaceship. The ship flies straight through it and out a familiar looking structure: the structure which the Collector was sitting next to.

Meanwhile, the Collector, startled by the spaceship which just crashed next to them, hides behind a rock, and chooses to simply observe for now. Jacob finally opens his eyes, and realizes he is still alive, and on a totally different planet. He puts on his helmet and gets out, amazed at it. The Collector, seeing this slightly confused but harmless looking human, decides to finally introduce themselves. He walks up behind Jacob and simply says hi.

Jacob is at first horribly startled, then amazed. A real life alien. He starts basically fangirling and takes multiple pictures of the Collector, who is very confused. I’m having a hard time figuring out how to explain some of this next part, but Jacob eventually realizes that they aren’t on Mars and the Collector isn’t a Martian or even from that planet. He is disappointed, but then gets curious about the Collector’s deal.

The Collector explains that they’re traveling the universe to find friends, but even though they’ve seen so many different beings, they aren’t really having any luck with making friends yet. Jacob sees an opening, and says that if he could come along with the Collector, they could be friends. The Collector gets excited at this, then suspicious, and asks if Jacob is trying to manipulate them or something. Jacob, who currently has no morals, chooses lying. Even though he is kinda bad at it, he manages to convince the star child, because this kid is really desperate and bad at telling when people are lying to him. The Collector agrees, and they pinky promise, before the Collector asks if they can use Jacob’s ship to travel.

Blah blah blah, stuff about wormholes, blah blah blah, Collector improves the ship and suit a bit, blah blah blah, other plot stuff. Then they both get in the ship and start heading off. Whilst getting ready to wormhole jump, Jacob says that he never got the Collector’s name.

The Collector almost introduces themselves as The Collector, but then hesitates for reasons that will be revealed later. He finally decides to introduce himself as “Coco”. Jacob introduces himself, and they wormhole jump.

Most of the story (until it gets a bit more plot heavy) involves the pair traveling from planet to planet and helping people out whilst learning important life lessons that will be important to both of their arcs. I decided to not make any original worlds (didn’t want this particular AU to be too OC heavy), and instead decided to do something a bit more fun and easy with it. Basically, every new planet will basically be a crossover with something else, like an Amphibia crossover (though it’s implied that Amphibia and TOH both take place in the same world, so…) and a Gravity Falls crossover and a ton of other increasingly bizarre crossovers. While this is happening, there is a mysterious pair of bounty hunter type people who are tracing the Collector down, and the duo needs to keep escaping and outsmarting them, which is one of the reasons they keep going to different planets. The plot (which involves the Collector’s siblings) will pick up later, but I will write it all out in another post.

For now, that’s the basic premise!

There are a few major differences between my OCs and Coco/Jacob that will significantly change the story and vibes.

First off, my space child OC is very morbid, but much more self aware than the Collector, and also a bit younger. The two are both similar and very different, and that will heavily affect their respective character arcs.

There’s also my MC and Jacob, who are both very similar and very different. They may both be slightly unhinged conspiracy theorists, but their personalities are very different, and my MC is a bit more chill than Jacob.

On top of that, in my original story, I am relatively nice to my conspiracy theorist man, as he does mean well, he’s just…….himself. However, I refuse to be nice to Jacob. I will stop being mean to him once he gets far enough into his character arc and starts actually seeing the error of his ways and begins becoming a better person. That will take a bit, as I don’t want his change to be too immediate or seem OOC, but I will have him change and eventually become more likable, but in an earned way.

There is another major difference between the two stories. In my original story, the two main characters (basically the Collector and Jacob) develop a bit of a parent-child relationship, and it mainly starts out with the human guy feeling awkward and anxious whilst the star child is simply amazed by and affectionate towards him. That is not the case here. At the beginning of the AU, “Coco” and Jacob start out willing to give each other a chance, but their main dynamic is a bit less wholesome and a bit more “being annoyed with each other”. Overtime, however, they gain an almost sibling(?)-like relationship, and still banter a lot, but it becomes more friendly. This is honestly more of a story about the pair learning to become better and less self centered people through each other.

Most of the plot and many of the characters will be incredibly different from my show concept (most of my OCs won’t even appear in this AU), but I will also be using many types of ideas from it. I want my personal project to be unique and its own thing, but I also think some of it would work and could satisfy the Collector fanbase without battling canon. It could give the Collector a happy ending, and, fuck, it could even give my least favorite character a happy ending of sorts.

It will also follow some of the same themes as my show idea, but not all of them, and it will bring some new ideas into the mix. Its main themes (both shared and not shared with my story) are found family, friendship, kindness, redemption, purpose, responsibility, mortality, forgiveness, trauma, change, and probably some other stuff that will pop up as I go along.

I’m probably gonna call this: “Jacob & Coco Across the Universe”

Hopefully ya’ll think it sounds cool. I’m still gonna be putting out stuff for my Servitude Collector AU (since I still love it), but I’m also gonna focus a bit on this little AU and make it a fun thing to feed the fandom with.

[dekusleftsock]

I am begging you and every other MHA fan to raise your standards cause Kohei gave everyone a yuri couple only to immediately kill one off.

…how many times has horikoshi faked deaths in this series. Because it’s A LOT. Afo, allmight, izuku losing his arm, bakugou, touya, Ochako literally last chapter, like… the story isn’t done yet my dude.

BUT HEY IF YOU WANNA ACTUALLY CRITIQUE HORIKOSHIS WRITING THEN IM ALL FOR IT HAHA

So how do I think horikoshi has seriously failed mha… hmm…

1: her

Her entire character. Well, not entire character. She GOT a lot of screen time and development don’t get me wrong, especially later in the series, and yes I love the fact that bakugou and dekus relationship was more prioritized than Izuku and Ochakos, but does that mean he prioritized her character? No! Nope! NADDA! Ochako is repeatedly sidelined throughout the story, and is also somehow excluded from a lot of arcs that SERIOUSLY RELATE TO HER CHARACTER.

Imagine if ochako was a part of the stain arc at all. She joined for selfish reasons like iida, he has a blood quirk like toga (which could’ve EASILY been foreshadowing to her not being freaked out by blood like most people), could’ve been a great way to show some nuance to her character….

And yet… AND YET…

That brings me to mistake number 2: Shoto Todoroki

Do I think shoto’s character is written badly or wrong? No! Of course I don’t! The entirety of the todoroki storyline, especially with its connection to hawks and the dirty parts of heroics, is really really good! I think it’s one of the most well handled abusive families in all of fiction. It understands EVERYONE in the family, and horikoshi is still able to show so much character and development in just a few scenes, like Natsuo or Rei.

So what IS my problem?

The fact that Ochako, her story, her CHARACTER AS A WHOLE… becomes sidelined due to horikoshi’s choice to prioritize his character over her’s. Again, it’s a great story and I wish he could balance both of them in mha, but he COULDNT, and he made the choice to sacrifice a woman’s character over a man’s.

Though I will say, a note on how ochako could’ve been in the stain arc: toga as a concept was created later and for ochako specifically, so it does kind of make sense as to why she wasn’t involved. Plans change and writers change, their ideas for their characters and what direction they go will ALWAYS change, and sadly you can’t predict that you won’t change a character or it’s direction at any point. It sucks! But that’s how a lot of these really long manga’s go. They have to write and then draw it pretty fucking fast.

And tbh I don’t really know what id do in horikoshi’s shoes with ochako and shoto! But it is definitely a critique we can acknowledge. It would take some seriously extraordinary writing skills to be able to balance, what, 3 deuteragonists? Katsuki, Ochako, AND Todoroki? Especially since one of those characters has a very complex trauma storyline that involves like five other characters? I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in his shoes!

I just wish he had picked the woman out of the two of them, but I think everyone knows that his manga wouldn’t be half as popular were he to have made it focus on two guys and a girl, instead of three guys, one of which is conventionally attractive and has major main character energy.

Anyway number 3: the overhaul arc

Ugh I have such mixed opinions on this arc. On one hand it has some really interesting storylines… when they’re on their own.

From what I understand, horikoshi did this arc because he wanted to try his hands at a longer arc and he had never really done that before. And while it’s great and very obvious he learned things from this arc, it just… takes up so much god damn space and gives us absolutely nothing long term.

Like yeah it makes a few points, like how high schoolers shouldn’t be involved in all of this and kinda sets up the ending rn where the actual adult heroes are sacrificing themselves for the next generation (ex: the guy that I forget the name of who’s now bakugous heart, allmight for deku, midnight for Mina/all the other kids, Mount lady, Aizawa for deku and all the other kids, Mirko for bakugou, etc etc), where as villains sacrifice the next generation for THEMSELVES (ex: afo and shigaraki, overhaul and eri, the gun arm girl for deku, also afo for dabi, etc etc) which is really good to do!

It’s just. Yk. Done by basically every other arc.

AIZAWA REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ALLMIGHT REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ENDEAVOR REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS. Like it’s the entirety of Mount ladies arc, learning to be a hero and sacrifice for the next generation. Sacrifice and the fact that we forget 1-A are high schoolers is constantly shoved down our fucking throats; we don’t need this arc that takes so god damn long, only adds more characters that aren’t that important, TAKES AWAY FROM YOUR MAIN CAST OTHER THAN DEKU AND ALLMIGHT, JUST for it to tell you explicitly that “kids shouldn’t be fighting the battles of the previous generation, but they have to”. It just. Ugh.

There’s so much time in that arc fucking WASTED on nighteye or mirio’s character. Do I think the big three are really interesting? Of course! The contrast between mirio to deku is fascinating! It really shows how much deku can’t become allmight.

But you know. We talked about that a season ago mha. Yk. When he learns to use kicks instead of punches. Or yk. Gran Torino’s entire arc surrounds that. Everything about deku is nothing like allmight. That’s the entirety of their characters together. It’s repeatedly shown to be dekus biggest insecurity. He’s not allmight. YOU DIDNY NEED THIS ARC TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN.

It’s like, everything that matters in this arc has already been shouting at you throughout the entire show, and everything else is never really used again outside of a mention here or there. It’s REALLY CLEAR Horikoshi was just doing this arc to try doing a long arc, not thinking about the long term of said arc.

Hmmm what else is there to complain about…

Eh, I guess the fan service? Which is, yk, in every other shonen anime/manga out there. Sometimes with people far younger than anyone in mha.

Ugh it’s like people like you just want me to be screaming “horikoshi did this! Horikoshi did that!” Every five seconds. I read the manga, I’ve talked about these flaws before on my account. Sorry if I… enjoy the manga???? Wait… omg!

It’s almost like I’m an mha account and it says RIGHT HERE IN MY BIO! Crazy!

Like seriously, what was your point? You were mad at drawings on a screen and someone enjoying that story and just… wanted to make someone’s day worse?

Did you expect me to heave over and be like “yes master anon! Toga is the worst written character in mha and horikoshi is a bad writer!” He’s a capable writer who understands his audience more than people give him credit for.

EVERY story has flaws. Every. Single. One. And because mha is literally everywhere and the fandom can get annoying because, it’s literally everywhere, I can understand getting annoyed sometimes. But you can’t sit here and expect me to solely focus on how bad horikoshi’s writing is because you’re mad at one thing. Toga SHOULD be selfless for ochako, sorry that it means thinking that she’s going to die???? What do you want from me?

I don’t have to “raise my standards” because horikoshi uses a lot of subtext and symbolism. I have other gay media I watch or read.

But like every single lgbtq movement that’s ever happened, it takes BABY STEPS. There aren’t many, if any, gay shonens out there, and if mha wants to be the first one it has to play by the rules. It has to make you think this is every other heterosexual shonen ever.

Shojo didn’t just become gay, it had to have shows like sailor moon censor a lesbian couple to be “cousins” so that other shows could exist. Madoka had to be at least semi subtle about its queer coding.

That whole meme where it shows one show saying “x show walked so that y show could run”, yeah that’s how every gay genre was made. Horror didn’t just become gay, it had to have community and relatability build up over the years, along with those new gay writers remembering where they came from, who paved the way.

My point being: I don’t give a shit if you think horikoshi is an awful writer who you think I can’t criticize. However I DO KNOW that if toga and ochako fully get together you’ll NEVER be able to avoid mha. And that thought makes me smile so much more than just the fact that they’re canon.

[m0n0lithical]

Sims - get to know me

Tagged by @igotsnothing thanks so much I absolutely wanted to do this one! Also if ya’ll like occults you better go follow them.

1. What’s your favourite sims death? Either meteor because of HOW dramatic it is, or pufferfish since that’s like, the only way for your own sim to kill another sims (without mods, anyway).

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Mostly Maxis, but I do have mix elements (like the hairs that aren’t TECHNICALLY alpha but are so detailed they almost look it), especially in my fandom saves because the outfits in those are always alpha.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Nah, if I really want a sim to stay the same weight, I lock the weight/gain loss (I do this for my selfsim every time so she’ll STOP LOSING WEIGHT oh my god woman). But if I’m playing with it on, what happens happens.

4. Do you use move objects? I don’t even have to enter this cheat because it’s always ticked on my BBB.

5. Favorite mod? I mean the most practical favorites are MCCC and BBB, and really most of the ;must haves’ the majority of people have, so lemmie pick a lesser seen one – PreferencesPlus by Helaene is a huge game-changer for someone who really dislikes all the missing likes/dislikes in the game.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? ...I wanna say Outdoor Retreat? I know, horrible pick, I didn’t know how lacking it was.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? Like LIVing

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? This...is hard, but I’m gonna have to roll with Amie, because she’s evolved beyond being just a sim at this rate – she’s also my FFXIV character, as well as a VtM character. But she absolutely did START as a sim.

9. Have you made a simself? Yes – she’s set loose in EVERY save I have for sake of hilarity – I love passing by her in-game and she’s doing something utterly random. The last time I saw her she was shooting down a goth witch lady flirting with her – thrilled the sexuality update can make her proper asexual now, was so happy to see it without having to put dumb flags on her!

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? Lover, Unflirty, Lazy, Cat Lover, Creative, Foodie.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? I’m a pretty big fan of the middle red tone. Or the green, if we’re picking unnatural colors.

12. Favorite EA hair? The RoM updo short locs are SO good. Honorable mention to the EL undercut half-ponytail.

13. Favorite life stage? I’m gonna be boring and say YA, because the game is LITERALLY built around them so you have so, SO many more options.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I do a little bit of everything, but CAS is my specialty. I spend HOURS in there.

15. Are you a CC creator? If some hair/eye recolors and simple tattoos count, then yeah. I really can’t be fussed learning blender beyond pose-making.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? My social anxiety stops me from interacting a lot, even if I try my best to talk to people. Like, I know the chances of someone being an asshole to me are very, very slim and that most everyone is chill and laid back like I am – REASONABLY I know I’m being dumb, but also my brain is an asshole.

17. What’s your favorite game? In Sims, I’ve honestly only played 4 (a friend sent me 3 a while ago but I have yet to fire it up). Outside sims? Uh...Okami for single player, Guild Wars 2 for multiplayer.

18. Do you have any sims merch? God I wish.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? Hahahah like my internet would let me upload videos.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? Lord I have no idea...I’ve been fiddling with different types of sim face styles, but I keep falling back to the same one, really – at least for non-themed saves. And it doesn’t even stand out I’m pretty basic bitch.

21. What’s your Origin ID? Monophony! I mostly make sims, but there’s a few terrible builds there, too.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? That is a hard as hell question...but I wanna say @simandy,. For multiple reasons, but primarily because their hairs are just...to die for.

23. How long have you had a simblr? It’s been a year or two, but I took several hiatuses as I got distracted by my MMOs. I have a goldfish attention span.

24. How do you edit your pictures? I have several different reshade presets I’ll alternate between, and a good number of Photoshop actions and/or PSDs, and it’s always some combo of those. Each save has a different reshade/action (or PSD) combination to make them have their own looks (I have a word doc for ref so I know what save uses what combo).

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? Vampires will always be my favorite, but I was shocked by how much I also enjoyed Werewolves – I’m not a werewolf person, really. Non-occult...Growing Together really does add a ton through the whole game.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? I uh...well you see >-> I’M STUPID WITH MY MONEY I HAVE THEM ALL.

I’m only gonna tag a few peeps since I’ve seen most people having done this - @simarcana, @druidberries, @apricote, @lotus030, @salemssimblr if ya’ll wanna do this here’s your excuse! <3 Feel free to ignore if you don’t wanna!

[lyriumsings]

Besties and Lyrics for Octavia please, if you'd like! ~ @whowhatifs

Thank you for the ask!!

Besties: What’s their friendship with Rowan like? What are some things only he knows about them?

I think Octavia’s friendship with Rowan has actually changed a lot over the years. In the earlier days (pre Seven breakup lol) I think it was…shallower? For lack of a better term. Still very close and tight knit but very typical annoying sibling type dynamic. They very much saw Rowan as more of “Seven’s best guy friend”, as in Rowan felt slightly more like Seven’s friend than theirs sometimes. (Also this is just Octavia’s perception of their friendship I headcanon that Octavia is actually quite close with all of the band they just kind of underestimate how much people care about them to be honest.)

Now, after the breakup I think they got a lot closer. That’s when it kind of clicked for her how much Rowan (and everyone) valued their friendship. I would say Octavia got especially close to Rowan just because of how close they both were to Seven. And complains to Iris and Devyn felt like raining on their parade somehow?? They ended up having lots of serious talks about things they never had before and just really mourned that loss of friendship together. And not going to lie the idea of Octavia x Rowan as a full on romance given enough time would not be out of the question; BUT that being said I don’t think Octavia would ever be able to honestly say whether or not Rowan was a….second choice. If Octavia ever had to directly confront the fallout of that between them, Seven, and Rowan,,,,the guilt oof.

There is actually quite a few things that the band + Orion specifically know that Seven doesn’t know both because Octavia hadn’t told Seven yet when they were speaking and didn’t get to because they weren’t. But specifically Rowan? Rowan knows exactly what happened the night Octavia left their parents home for good (it was not good). And he knows more of the ins and outs of Octavia’s relationship with their last partner, Dean, who they dated on and off for about 8 months in the second year post Seven split. This was also very not good, without getting too into detail both involved “varying degrees” of domestic violence both physical and emotional.

Outside of like that lmao Rowan is actually the only other person outside of Seven allowed to look at their song book. He is the only person at all that’s seen their very, very messy lyrics about Seven post break up and some particularly sad ones about their mental health and their Aunt Lydia (who she was very close to and passed when they were a teen) Octavia is not really built to be alone, so after Seven it felt very natural that that void be filled on a friendship level. Obviously, nobody is replaceable but at the same time life goes on and people need people. Especially Octavia. They have a need for outside input and someone to bounce their thoughts off of and share their feelings to.

Lyrics: What are some songs you associate with your character? Any specific lyrics that really scream your character?

Since this is already so long lemme link their spotify playlist fksjdjd all of these songs are VERY Octavia and I headcanon them as canon songs for her and the band. But top five incase you don’t wanna listen to this mammoth of a playlist i keep adding to is:

1. Lonesome and Mad by Under the Rug

“I feel like I wanna go home but I am home.” On sooooo many levels.

2. Gilded Lily by Cults “Always the fool with the slowest heart”

3. Cigarettes and Feelings by The Haunt “i always fall for the things that will hurt me” Homegirl wouldn’t know a red flag if it announced itself and red is their favorite color anyway so baby what it do lmaoooo

4. Vices by Mothica honestly just the whole song tbh djsjd

5. Panic Attack by Liza Anne “I never learned to pull myself Out of my own damn head Shoulders caved in to protect All of my insides from falling out”

[yorshie]

I’m curious about all of your WIPs, but I want to know more about Darker Than Dark. Can you give the world a tiny synopsis of what it’s about?

Oh I am so glad you asked.

Alright alright. So. I have the first chapter ready to go, just haven’t posted it yet because I’ve got too many one shot ideas to be giving time to anything not SMR. However, I have been struggling with how to describe it so this is a good test run

There’s actually a snippet of this work floating around, I think I call it my darker TMNT fic. Might be snippet 1 now that I think about it.

Anyway- I don’t know why, but when I watched the first bayverse movie and they got the blood from the turtles, I kept thinking “three turtles, three vials” right? Well, probably not, but I went with it.

This story technically follows one of those vials. And it has to do with a waning Foot Clan, a foreign terror cell, someone affiliated with that cell (our dear original character Sophie), the NYPD and the Turtles all fighting to possess it.

Lots of fighting (poorly written), violence (probably more than the average human could stand but ya know), espionage (badly explained), and eventual romance that falls under the “we are literally enemies to fuck everyone’s tried to kill you and I feel kinda sorry for you to I understand you and the pain you’ve been through.” General feels are Angst. Angst angst angst.

——— I’ll add the paragraph I’m most happy about so far

She was five seconds ahead of them. The first attack whirled passed her as she landed on the first floor, the sharpened steel nicking her arm as the Sai embedded into the concrete where her hand had been a second before. Sophie reacted on instinct, the hair on the back of her neck stiff as she rolled, the crunch of something heavy landing where she’d just been.

So yea, that’s it in a nutshell.

Also, feel free to ask about any WIP. There is no way I’m gonna put a limit on someone letting me gush about my ideas, and I honestly don’t expect a lot of asks from this. So feel free if you wanna ask a second time.