#I meant to post this like a week ago and life exploded on me so I apologize for the lateness

[mothwingwritings]

When The Smoke Clears

F! Reader X Katsumi Orochi

What’s this?! A Katsumi fic where he is the central focus and has all your love without anyone trying to fuck with your relationship?! It’s more likely than you think. (���⌐▀͡ ͜ʖ͡▀ )☞

I had forgotten I had written it until I was looking over some old drafts that I started forever ago and never finished. I unearthed this little number that I vaguely remember writing in a fit of passion after originally reading Katsumi’s fight with Pickle. It may be my favorite Baki fight thus far and filled me with all the emotions, so this was born from that lol. And now that the anime released, what a perfect time to finish and post it! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡ – ✧) Thanks past me and my horrible memory! :D

That being said, since it deals with post battle bullshit, it is a little angsty and you do pop off on Katsumi a little bit in this one. But other than that I just wanted to make something on the sweeter side for our dear boy. He deserves all the love and affection, dammit! 😤 I made it a bit mushy and maybe Katsumi is sorta OOC but to be honest… August has been dreadful and I think I needed it that way to keep me from completely losing it. ^^;

I hope you all enjoy~!

Warnings: Mentions of violence/gore, spoilers up through the Pickle fight w/Katsumi, some language, white lies, you are mean to Katsumi for a lil tiny bit but it’s just cause you are worried. :<

Katsumi Orochi has always been a horrible liar.

He would slightly scrunch his nose when eating something he disliked, while telling the chef he thought it was delicious. His face would noticeably tighten whenever someone was annoying him, even though he acted like they weren’t a bother at all. His shoulders would sag when he didn’t meet his daily goal, though he’d shrug it off and act like it was no big deal.  When he hadn’t done as well as he had hoped during a tournament placing, he’d always don a bright smile and laugh it off by saying there was always time to improve.

Maybe those excuses worked on other people, but you knew him far too well for them to fool you. Katsumi knew you could see right through him and that any attempts at concealing his true feelings were pointless. So it was only in the privacy of your shared home that he let his guard down, letting you truly experience how his self-perceived short comings broke him down.

These moments of self-doubt seemed to be happening more frequently in the past few weeks, specifically since news of Pickle hit the general population. Pickle’s arrival stirred something in the fighters of Shinshinkai Dojo, and try as he might to convince you otherwise, Katsumi was not exempt from this excitement. He always was a cocky man, often times too arrogant for his own good, and the thrill of besting a beast like Pickle was a siren song he could not ignore.

However his cocksure attitude and the exuberance he had for fighting was a double edged sword, often also being the instigator of the ruts he would find himself in. Through his life he had garnered a fair mix of friends and enemies alike- Admirers who were rooting for him and despisers who were praying for his downfall, all inexorably drawn to his proud aura. It wasn’t until Retsu had easily defeated him in the Maximum tournament that a major change sparked within Katsumi. Though admittedly for the better (nothing opens your eyes to your own faults quite like getting your ass handed to you), the total thrashing he had received at the hands of his friend opened his eyes to what was stunting him previously. It was a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one to shape him into the man he is now.

But the entirety of his doubt would not be quelled so easily, and it remained festering in his heart to this day. The challenge Pickle posed excited him, but also daunted him. The conflicting feelings irritated him, igniting him with the desire to attack, but fettering him from doing so.

When he got like this, no one experienced his lows and frustrations quite like you did. Katsumi’s anger and disappointment at his own limitations had a way of pouring out of him and spilling into you, making his torment become your own. In public it was so easy to get thrown off by his nonchalance and easy smile, his gusto so great that even if you were able to pick up on the turmoil that lied beneath it, it was easy for him to get you to believe he was OK and move on. 

But when you were alone at night and he was lying in your arms, lulled to sleep by the caress of your hand, it broke your heart to hear his whispered apologies. That he could be better and WOULD be better for you. Your gentle assurances that he was already your hero, that you loved him and no amount of losses or wins would change that, always seemed to fall on deaf ears. It ate you up inside to hear him speak so badly of himself. Since day one you had been his most ardent supporter, whatever flaws or negative self-critiques he had that he believed were imposing on your life were purely in his head.

How many times had you told him his feelings of inadequacy as a lover and provider to you were all nothing more than cruel lies his own brain concocted? You wished he would believe you, get it through his thick skull so that he could have one less thing to fret over. All you ever asked or expected of Katsumi was his love and honesty, and those you had unconditionally.

At least, you had until this morning.

Though usually an early riser, he got up sooner than normal, dressed and ready at the very crack of dawn. Smiling down on you as the sun was just beginning to peek through your bedroom window, he brushed your hair away from your sleep ridden face. He was typically eager to get up and go, but today he lingered in your presence, peppering your face and head with soft kisses. Taking full advantage of your barely woken state to express his love, it both warmed your heart and confused you. Katsumi was well aware you could be quite the grump in the morning so he usually avoided giving you too much attention too early, concerned that he may fully wake and irritate you. His slightly obtrusive presence was out of character, and you couldn’t help but be further roused by it.

“I’m leaving a bit early today love,” his whisper tickled your ear, causing you to hunch your shoulders. He chuckled, placing one more kiss on your temple. “…Thank you for sticking by my side. You deserve only happiness throughout your life.”

In your sleepy haze you almost felt you had dreamed his words, but as you squinted at him in the bedroom doorway, the look on his face filled you with concern. He kept his eyes trained on you, staring at you as if they were looking at something very far away. They held a wistful glimmer typically reserved only for painful goodbyes, and paired with the crooked smile on his lips, you couldn’t help feeling that if you let Katsumi leave now, you would regret it the rest of your life.

“Katsu?” You slowly pushed yourself up into a seated position, rubbing the grogginess from your eyes in the process. “Where are you going this early?”

When you turned your full attention back to the door, he was gone.

You dragged yourself out of bed, calling out for him as you padded around the entire apartment. Your cries remained unanswered, as did calls and texts to his cell phone, which made sense when you discovered he had left his phone discarded on the kitchen table.

Seating yourself at the table, you rested your chin in your palm, eying his phone with trepidation. Katsumi wasn’t one of those people who were glued to their phone, if anything he griped at you for how much time you spent on yours. But still, to leave so abruptly, without any means to contact him directly and little explanation to where he was headed… It wasn’t like Katsumi at all.

Distantly, you heard the TV in the background. You must have forgotten to turn it off before you headed to bed yesterday, the volume just quiet enough to blend in as background noise. The usually obnoxious banter of the morning news came as a welcome change today, the sound of other voices keeping you from feeling totally abandoned.  Your eyes flicked to the screen, a ‘breaking story’ about Pickle the hot topic again this morning.

You hadn’t been too keen on the Pickle hype from the get go. You understood it, sure. It was extremely exciting to discover such an intact specimen of humanity from a time when dinosaurs walked the earth, and even more astounding that they were able to revive him, get him up walking and interacting with people and his environment. You were just as tuned in as the rest of the planet, intrigued to hear what breakthroughs and discoveries come from reanimating this prehistoric man.

At the same time however, you couldn’t help feel disgusted over what a media circus his awakening had caused. From the initial live on air assault of that female reporter, to the subsequent late night talk shows hosting a multitude of specials on the moral standpoint of his existence, it all felt dirty to you. You couldn’t help but feel bad for Pickle in most instances. Alone in a foreign world he didn’t understand, surrounded by swarms of people requesting things of him he couldn’t comprehend, it must be an incredibly bewildering and lonely life. You felt equally bad for the people he unintentionally hurt, damaged (sometimes irrevocably) by simply coming in contact with someone so feral.

And that is what put you off about Pickle the most, was how dangerous he was.

Not that he was a direct threat to you, per se, but as soon as news of him hit the media, the entire dojo was abuzz. He was all anyone could seem to talk about or focus on. His strength, his combat style, what it would feel like to fight him. The conversations reminded you of children on the playground coming up with pretend battle scenarios with their friends, their eyes lighting up as they discussed it during warm ups and spars. The first of the group to be truly captivated was Retsu, which took you by surprise. Retsu is one of the most disciplined men you know, so to see him become so single mindedly obsessed over one fight with a single opponent was disconcerting to you.

Curiosity was expected, but all-encompassing obsession could drive people to do unfortunate things, and that was the mindset that encompassed the men around you.

You weren’t thrilled when you learned a whole squad of fighters (Retsu, Katsumi and Doppo amongst them) had broken into a heavily monitored government facility just to come in contact with Pickle, especially when you found out the extent of their plan was ‘get in, find Pickle, fight’. You and Natsue made sure to give them all an earful they weren’t soon to forget when they returned.

You had a hard time comprehending their thought process. Was it worth risking getting arrested for potentially the rest of your life for the chance to battle one person? They all turned rather sheepish under your scolding, but their unified response only boiled down to ‘you just wouldn’t understand.’ You didn’t deny this; there was plenty in the world of fighting you had a hard time empathizing with. But that sentiment could go both ways, because you were positive they couldn’t begin to fathom the myriad of emotions that flowed through you as you watched their walk of shame back to the dojo, knowing  that should it come down to it, they left ready to die at Pickle’s hands. Did they even consider how their loss may affect the people around them, or was the appeal of a once in a lifetime battle so strong that they didn’t care?

You were no fan of Yujiro Hanma, but in this instance you were thankful he was able to get your boys home without further incident.

Alas, things only got worse after Retsu orchestrated the first battle against Pickle. At the time you were not privy to it happening, most likely because Retsu knew just how against the idea you would be and how much it would hurt you to know he was going to participate anyway.

Nothing could quite prepare you for seeing him in that hospital bed, leg half missing and shoulder torn to shreds. Retsu was one of your best friends, undoubtedly one of the strongest and most capable people you know. To see him reduced to a prone state, covered in bandages, chunks of his body missing… You were surprised you were able to hold your tears until you left the room.

Before even leaving the hospital, you had made Katsumi swear to you that he would stay away from Pickle. That whatever devil was sitting on his shoulder, whispering in his ear to go fight that monster of a man, was ignored from here on out. He had looked you in the eye, earnestly promising you he would stay away from Pickle. You had his word.

But now you feared it was all just idle chatter.

You wanted to have faith, and forced yourself to give Katsumi some time. Maybe he just went out for a jog, or had to run an early errand before going to the dojo? Surely you were blowing this whole thing out of proportion and only assuming the worst.

But the longer you waited, the more your anxiety mounted. You only lasted an hour before you started to make calls.

Doppo, Retsu, Baki, you even grew desperate and tried Katou-none of them answered your call. After a few attempts you were able to get through to Natsue, but she offered very little in the form of comfort, only telling you in a rushed tone that she had been in contact with Katsumi briefly and all was well, before saying she needed to go and disconnecting the call.

The hours that ticked by were maddening. The wait got so overbearing that you eventually decided to go to Shinshinkai to seek answers on your own. If no one would respond to you, you would just have to go to them and force answers from them yourself.

But to your great surprise when you had arrived to the dojo, you found it closed. Locked up and void of any inhabitants, you were dazed. Never before had you ever seen the dojo completely closed and locked up, with nary a soul in sight. Sure, there were holidays and week days where attendance was waning, but the building itself was never fully uninhabited. In fact, some people where there so often it felt like they practically lived there.

However as dumbfounding as it was, it did not change the fact that the Dojo was in fact closed for the day. There wasn’t even a sign on the door explaining why, and when you cupped your hands against the window for a better look inside, you were met with empty dark halls as far as the eye could see.

The building loomed over you, cold and barren as it mocked your attempt at clarification. Planting yourself on the front steps, you buried your face in your hands.  Completely discouraged, the dreadful, creeping realization that Katsumi had gone against his vow over took you. Though you could come to no other conclusion, your mind still struggled to come to terms with it. Did he really go after Pickle? Would he put himself in danger like that and not tell you? Heaviness had settled on your soul, tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

… What if Katsumi never returned home?

As if triggered by that horrid thought, your phone began to noisily ring, cutting the tension with its piercing jingle. Fumbling as you fished the phone from your pocket, the screen lit up to show the caller was Retsu.

“Retsu,” Your hurried voice answered before he could greet you, “Where’s Katsumi?”

Save for some background noises you could not decipher, there was silence on the other end. Your heart was pounding in your chest, the hand holding your phone shaking so bad you were worried you may drop the damn thing. After several agonizingly long seconds passed, Retsu let out a heavy sigh.

“He’s at the Ebara memorial hospital,” his voice sounded strained, like he dreaded telling you the news, “We all are. He’s in private room 309 in the ICU. Please come when you can.”

Your body turned to ice at the revelation. Your hand sprang to cover your mouth, muffling the sob that was desperate to come out.

“… (Name),” Retsu questioned on the other end, his voice much softer than previously, “… He’s beat up, but he’s OK. Please, take deep breaths and be safe getting here. The last thing any of us want is you getting into an accident and hurting yourself over this.”

You released a shaky breath, forcing yourself to calm down, “Thank you, Retsu. Tell Katsumi I’ll be there soon.”

~

You had spent the whole cab ride there mentally readying yourself for what awaited you. Was Katsumi in a coma, could he talk? What if he was hurt so badly you couldn’t recognize him? What if he was beaten so intensely he had become a vegetable? You tried to quell your concerns with Retsu’s reassuring words, but your anxiety kept winning out in the end. ‘OK’ was not the descriptor you were looking for, you wanted to hear that Katsumi was safe and in one piece, up and functioning. You wanted an explanation about the lack of communication- reassurance that it was just some big misunderstanding and he was sorry to make you worry.

But that was just your desire speaking, and the reality of the situation was that he truly had broken a promise to you and got himself hurt in the process, bad enough to be in an ICU in god knows what condition.  Tears stung your eyes as you forced yourself to breath, focus on the fact that Katsumi was alive and being cared for, that he was no longer in danger. But even the relief those facts brought was diminished in your heart, overshadowed by the immense pain you felt over his betrayal and what state you may discover him in.

When you arrived at the hospital, Retsu greeted you in the entrance lobby. His eyes were serious, but a tired smile graced his lips when he saw you rush through the door. As he led you to Katsumi’s room he did his best to try and soothe you, telling you that Katsumi was awake and alert, heavily drugged so that his pain was nearly nonexistent. You only half listened, nodding every now and again to let Retsu know you heard him, even if the words weren’t truly absorbing. Your sole focus was getting to Katsumi, seeing with your own two eyes that he was as alive and well as Retsu was stating he was.

Just as you had reached the door to Katsumi’s room, Retsu halted you from going any further. Shooting him a look, he placed a heavy hand on your shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I know you are upset,” his words were deliberate, his eyes fixed on yours as he spoke calmly, “And you have every right to be. We kept this fight from you to protect you, but I now see that even with our best intention, that has done more harm than good.  Just please understand (Name)… You are the most important person to Katsumi. He did not do this to cause you any misery or strife. I know I may have no right to ask this, but try not to be too hard on him.”

You gave Retsu a quick nod, steeling yourself as you focused your attention back to the door, “Please, let me see him.”

When the door was pushed open, a rush of emotions washed over you. Frozen in the entryway, words could not describe the consolation you felt seeing him sitting up in the hospital bed, his eyes lighting up in recognition as they passed over you. Your body began to shake, overcome with relief to see him breathing and attentive, elation coursing through you so fiercely you felt lightheaded. Another wave of happiness overtook you when he smiled at you, bright and full of love, the frigid grip of fear instantly began to loosen its hold on your heart.

But when you took in the rest of him, your joy began to waver. He was covered from head to toe in wounds, vicious purple and black bruising marring his pale flesh, cuts and scrapes painting him in strokes of vibrant red. And that was just the areas you could see-A vast majority of his body was wrapped up in bandages, as if someone was trying to mummify him while still alive, giving him a very macabre essence.

The most shocking however was the notable absence of his right arm. Despite the discourteousness you exhibited by staring at such an injury, you couldn’t look away. Katsumi noticed you honing in on it, his smile weakening at the concern reflecting in your eyes. He looked abashed, like a child caught by their mother after doing something they knew they shouldn’t have. He shifted his body slightly as if to try and hide the missing limb, growing increasingly bothered over how it was unsettling you.

“Hi baby. I’m glad you came.”

His words broke your spell, and you rushed to his side, stopping just as you reached the bed. You wanted desperately to fling your arms around his neck, pull him close to you and feel his warmth, experience firsthand the life force that thrummed through him. But you stopped yourself from doing so, partially out of fear of hurting him, but more so over just how jarring he looked close up. You were sure the doctors did all they could to clean him up, but blood still seeped through his bandages, irritated flesh held together by countless stitches made him look far too corpse like for your liking. His eyes seemed so tired, and you had a hard time discerning if the heavy bags and dark shadows that rested beneath them were due to exhaustion or were another lesion from the fight.

Tears began to pour from your eyes, coming in a violent downpour. Your breathing grew labored as you wept, your hands balling into tight fists at your side.

“Katsumi…”

His name came out strained, and his shoulders tensed as he watched you cry. You saw his right shoulder quiver, a deep frown immediately engulfing his face. He must have tried to reach out to you with his phantom limb, his body not yet use to its absence. But the reminder of what he had lost didn’t upset him nearly as much as your tears did.

“(Name)-“

“Shut up!”

You cut him off, a look of surprise flashing across his features over the bite in your voice. Your anger startled you as well-it had consumed you in a flash, leaving you with no choice but to ride it out and voice the worst of the pain you were feeling. Distressed, garbled words began to spill from your lips in an exasperated tirade, a culmination of all the frustration you had felt up to this point.

“What the hell is wrong with you,” your voice wavered, tears so heavy you could barely make out the man by your side, “Why did you do this Katsumi?! You promised me you would stay away from Pickle! You PROMISED me you wouldn’t fight him! Do you know how fucking scared I was when you left this morning? Do you know how horrible it felt not being able to get ahold of anyone for answers, how shitty it was to be left clueless? I thought you were dead Katsu! I thought I may lose you forever and I spent this entire day broken over the thought that I would have to live the rest of this life without you in it!”

Your hands wiped roughly at your eyes, trying in vain to clear the mucus and tears from your reddened face. Katsumi opened his mouth to respond, but thought better of it, letting you continue your vent uninterrupted.

“Was it worth it? Fighting Pickle, losing a limb and nearly your life, driving me to the brink of heartbreak? Did it scratch your itch? Do you feel better now? I just don’t get it, wasn’t it enough to see what was done to Retsu, or were you really so blinded with stupid levels of machismo that you felt you were untouchable? What would have happened if you actually died? How do you think Doppo and Natsue would have felt, or all the people in the dojo? What would I have ever done without you? If I lost you, I wouldn’t even want to live anymore you dumbass idiot! This whole thing is so fucking stupid!”

For a short time, the only sound that could be heard in the room was your muffled cries. Retsu had long since left, leaving you and Katsumi alone to wallow in your oppressive grief. Slowly, your tears began to die down, shrinking down from a raging torrent to small sniffles and hiccups. After sufficient time was given to collect yourself, Katsumi quietly addressed you.

“… (Name)?”

You looked up at him, slightly embarrassed now that your passionate explosion had died down. He took a deep breath before continuing, turning his full attention your way.

“I’m not expecting you to understand why I did this,” His words came out like a caress, gentle and kind, matching the sincere look he held in his eyes, “Honestly, I am not sure I completely understand it myself. What you said is correct; I did this for my own selfish reasons. I single mindedly went after Pickle to test myself, to prove that I could take him on, and out of fear of missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “Though you may hate to hear it, I don’t regret this fight at all, even with the lasting damage it did to my body. But what I do regret is how this has impacted you, and I realize now the way I went about this in regards to you was all wrong. I should have never hidden my intentions, I was just so afraid of upsetting you that I convinced myself that this was the best way to handle it. You know me, I guess I had to take the hard path to find out just how wrong I was.”  He gave a forlorn chuckle.

“I never want to hurt you. I never want to make you cry. The moment you became mine I vowed to keep you happy and smiling, but I broke that vow and went against my promise to you. You have every right to be mad, and I understand if you stay mad at me for a while, but I want you to know this. I only took on Pickle because I earnestly believed I had a chance at beating him, and I only believed I had a chance of winning because of how strong I have become.”

A wide smile spread over his face as he beamed at you, his eyes softening as he held your gaze.

“I am only this strong largely thanks to you, (Name),” He averted his eyes, a small blush gracing his cheeks as he continued, “Without your ceaseless support and steadfast love and commitment, I would have never made it this far. You give me strength, and each victory I claim is just as much yours as it is my own. I love you with all that I am, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone tear me away from you prematurely, be it caveman or otherwise.”

He laughed a bit, returning his focus back your way, “So please, stop crying baby. I’m here, and I don’t intend on going anywhere anytime soon.”

The warmth in his voice caused a fresh bout of tears to cloud your vision. You looked at your feet, unable to stand the pious endearment he was heaping upon you.

“I’m sorry,” your voice broke, your hands going to cover your face in embarrassment, “I’m sorry I yelled at you Katsu. I said horrible things to you that I didn’t mean, I was just so worried I couldn’t stand it…”

As your voice trailed off, you felt his hand rest softly atop your head. Pulling your attention back his way, you stared at his radiant smile through your fingers, butterflies flitting through your stomach as your eyes drank him in.

“No, I’m glad you can be honest with me. Sometimes I need someone to give me a verbal lashing to bring me back down to earth,” he chuckled, shooting you a worn out smirk, “And besides, you’re right, it is stupid. Though I did consider your feelings, I let my own overcloud my better judgment. I should have never kept you in the dark. I’m so sorry, baby. I never meant to hurt you like this.”

He leaned over, placing his wrapped hand on your wet cheek, wiping away any tears that lingered. Slowly, he guided your face towards his until your foreheads were touching.

“Thank you for loving an idiot like me,” He murmured, tears dotting his own eyes as they gazed at you tenderly, “I’ll never betray your trust again, you have my word.”

Unable to stand it any longer, you flung your arms around him, pulling him into a gentle embrace, gingerly stroking his hair and face as you cried out the last of your sorrow. He in turn buried his face into your chest, whispering words of love and thanks as if he were chanting a spell to help drive away your residual woes.

Seconds turned into minutes as you held each other. After an indiscriminate amount of time had passed your tears had been quelled, and an air of peace replaced the stagnant feeling of the once oppressive hospital room. Katsumi listened to your heart beat, sighing happily as he lost himself in your hold. You smiled down at him, kissing the crown of his head softly.

“Now that you scratched that itch, which do you prefer,” you asked teasingly, a sly smile taking over your face, “Pickle’s hold, or mine? If you answer incorrectly here I am going to use your weakened state to my advantage and kick your ass.”

Katsumi laughed loudly, pulling away till he was looking up at you, “Are you threatening a wounded man right now? And here I thought you were a sweet, gentle girl…”

“Only to nice people,” you flicked his forehead playfully, “Not mean people, like you. It’s going to take quite a bit to make this up to me, you know.”

“Oh yeah?” He cocked his brow, “Why not shoot me some ideas. Whatever it is to get back in my lady loves good graces, I’m all ears.”

“Hmm,” you mused, finger tapping your cheek, “How about setting up a fight for me? Pickle has pissed me off sufficiently by hurting not just my friends, but now also the love of my life. I think I have enough rage built up in me that I can finish the job you all started, don’t you agree?”

Another laugh, “As much as I would love to see that, I want you as far away from Pickle as possible, thank you. If that man laid his hands on you in any capacity I would be forced to break my promise and go after him again, understand? I think we both lose in that scenario.”

“You’re right,” you sighed dramatically, sitting yourself down on a seat beside his bed, “Well, I will think of something. But in the meantime, the only request I make is that you let me stay by your side, at least until you are back to full health. I’ve had more than my share of anxiety attacks today alone, so I would feel much better if you let me oversee your healing.”

He shot you a suggestive look, a smirk ghosting his lips. “What a coincidence, I was hoping for a hot stay at home nurse to be on standby should I need any assistance.”

“You’re pushing your luck,” you held back a laugh, but couldn’t stop the smile that overtook your face, “I will let your suggestive comment slide this time because I am feeling benevolent, but if you don’t take your healing seriously you are going to be in a world of trouble, understood?”

He leaned back in the bed, a thoughtful expression engulfing his face as he closed his eyes, “I hear you loud and clear and leave myself in your capable hands.”

You stood up, leaning over to place a gentle kiss on his lips, one that he reciprocated with a pleased hum. “I love you, Katsumi.”

“Love you too,” he kissed you again, smiling against your lips as he tugged you closer, “And I’ll make sure you never doubt that for the rest of our lives.”

[agaypanic]

can you do a reese request where your his best friend but you like him and you didn't get a chance to tell him before he left the army and you're mad at him for leaving and scaring you and you confess . fluffy and kinda smutty .

Come Back, Be Here (Reese Wilkerson X Reader)

Masterlist

Request Something!

Summary: Fate seemed so cruel to convince Reese to leave and risk his life because of a broken heart the same night you wanted to go to him with a heart full of love. But a few weeks later, fate seemed to be kinder. Because now he’s popped up on your doorstep, heart ready to be mended.

A/N: couldn’t think of a title bc i’ve already written something with kind of the same plot so i used a TS song lol

***

“What do you mean he’s gone?” You asked Malcolm on the phone. This had to have been some sick prank. “Malcolm, this isn’t funny.”

“Y/n, I’m not lying. He ran away and joined the army.”

“Why would he do that? Reese hates the government and anything that has authority over him.” The line was quiet, but you knew he was still on the phone with you. “Malcolm, did you do something?”

“Maybe.”

“What did you do?” Quiet again. “Malcolm?” He sighed, ashamed of what he was about to say.

“He caught me with his girlfriend when he went to tell her he loved her, and she broke up with him. He told me to take care of her, and we haven’t seen him since.”

“I bet you’re not even with her anymore.” You sneered into the phone. His silence confirmed it. “Oh my God, Malcolm, I think you might be the worst brother in the history of siblings!” 

“How do you think I feel, Y/n?! You think I’m happy about this?!” He exploded over the phone, his outburst shutting the both of you up.

“Have you heard from him at all?” You asked, voice breaking. You refused to believe that Reese wouldn’t contact his family at all. 

“He sent a letter; that’s how we found out where he went.”

“What did he say?” You asked immediately.

“He said he’s okay and that he wanted to wait until he was a success to write to us. He graduated first in his training post and got some kind of reward.” Your breathing quickened. Suddenly everything felt too real for you to handle. You told Malcolm you had to go before hanging up, a sob breaking through. You slid down against the wall, crying your eyes out.

You were absolutely devastated. Your best friend ran off to one of the worst places to run to, and you had no way to contact him or, at the very least, ensure he was okay. You felt guilty. So, so guilty.

You knew, realistically, none of this was your fault. The situation had nothing to do with you. But you felt like you could have prevented it if you were quicker.

You had no idea if it was the same night. But a few weeks ago, you had taken enough of pretending to be content with friendship. As cliche as it was, you had been silently in love with your best friend for a few years. One night, you had snuck over to his house, finally building up all the courage in the world to tell him. But he wasn’t home.

Now you know why.

You started sobbing harder. You hated this feeling. The feeling of missing Reese, who was somewhere in the world, instead of down the road where he belonged. Loving a man who couldn’t be confirmed to be alive and mourning him even though he wasn’t confirmed to be dead.

***

For the next two weeks, you were a mess. Your mom had to excuse your absences and later called you out until further notice. Extenuating circumstances, she said. It was sort of funny, in a cruel way. Extenuating circumstances meant a situation that provided an excuse for an action, but you didn’t even fully understand the situation yourself. All you knew was that Reese was gone, and Lois was determined to find him.

Some days you couldn’t even get out of bed. You would stay under the covers that protected you from the hurt and the worry and the fear. All you did was overthink, wondering where Reese was or if he’d ever be found.

Today was a better day. You took a shower and ate some food, eating in your backyard to get some of the sunlight you had been avoiding like the plague. 

Because you were outside, you didn’t hear the phone ringing in the house. And because you didn’t hear it ring, you didn’t think to check the machine when you came back inside. You went back to your room, cleaning it up a bit. But that soon felt like a mistake when you picked up photos of you and Reese that you’d been looking at. You reminisced all of the memories you shared with Reese over the years.

Share. You meant ‘share,’ not ‘shared.’ Because talking about him in the past tense like that alluded to the idea that he wasn’t around to share memories with you anymore.

Setting the photos down gently on your desk, you laid back down. As you drifted off into sleep, you failed to hear the phone ringing again.

***

Hours later, you woke up to banging on the front door. You were surprised your parents weren’t answering the door, but maybe they were working late.

“I’m coming! I’m coming! Jesus.” You rolled out of bed, exhausted despite all the resting you had done. You navigated through the house to the front door, where whoever was on the other side kept knocking. “What the fuck do you want?!” You shouted, losing the very little patience you had. You yanked the door open and were about to curse out whoever was on your front step, but the words you were planning to scream got lost in your throat.

“Hey.” There he was, in the flesh. Reese stood in front of you, acting shy. You felt so overwhelmed all of a sudden.

“Hey?” You were both taken aback by the anger in your voice. But you couldn’t stop yourself. “That’s all you have to say? Hey? Do you have any idea how fucking stupid you are, Reese?! Running away and joining the army, leaving me here to worry about you and wonder if you were still even alive! I can’t believe you, Reese!” The words soon became mixed with tearful stutters. Unable to take the distance any longer, you threw yourself on him. “I can’t believe you would do such a thing.” You were much quieter than before, face smothered in Reese’s shoulder while you sobbed into him.

“I know.” His embrace on you was tight, refusing to let you go. “I know. I’m so sorry, Y/n.”

“You scared me so much. I thought you weren’t gonna come back.” You almost started crying harder at the thought, even though he was alive and well.

“Of course, I came back.” Reese cupped the back of your head. “I couldn’t leave you.”

“But you did.” It was just a whisper, but he heard it loud and clear.

“I know. But I didn’t know what to do, Beth broke my heart, and I couldn’t go home to face Malcolm again.” You lifted your head from Reese’s shoulder and immediately, his hand moved to wipe the tears from your face.

“Sure, she broke your heart. But I could’ve fixed it.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” Although it pained you, you stepped away, slipping from Reese’s hold. It seemed to have hurt him as well, based on his expression. “I was gonna see you that night. I wanted to tell you I love you, that I have for years. But you weren’t there.”

He just stared at you. You would’ve panicked, automatically assuming that you had said the wrong thing and that you had just damaged your relationship with Reese beyond repair. He wasn’t saying anything, but then again, he didn’t leave either.

That had to be a good sign, right?

“Reese-”

“Say it again.” There was a sense of urgency and dominance in his tone as he stared you down.

“What?”

“Say it again. Please.” He took a step closer. As if you could read his mind, you knew what he was talking about.

“I love you, Reese.” He pounced on you, taking your face in his hands as he pressed his lips to yours and pushed you against the wall. He kicked the door shut behind him, keeping you pinned. You came over your state of shock quickly, hands clawing at his hair and shirt. You don’t know how long you two went at it, but when you pulled apart, you were trying to catch your breath with swollen lips.

“I love you, Y/n.” You could help the grin that overcame you. Words you waited years to hear from him were finally being spoken.

“Stay.” You kissed him. “Stay, please.” You fell into a cycle of pleading and kissing him.

“I’ll stay, I’ll stay.” He silenced you with his own pattern of a promise followed by a kiss. The promise followed you two as you dragged him to your room. And the promise was kept when you woke up the next morning, covered in sheets and sweat and him, just to see that he was still there with you. And the promise was kept every day after.

[sophietv]

What are your thoughts on 1975 fans trying to attribute a lot of Easter eggs to Matty in the new video? :( Someone on Twitter put a visual together of all the highlights and it’s so annoying because when it’s laid out like that I see it and I hate that I see it. Just like lighting visuals being very similar, and particular dates being significant to the 1975 and/or Taylor. For example, the July 9th 1:38 people are saying is for Taylor and Matty’s birthdays (the 13th and the 8th). I guess the timeline makes sense because early April when she filmed this video would have been around the time when she was hanging out with him and doing whatever pr nightmare that was…talk me off the ledge pls! Lol.

Hi!

Don't worry, I went and check the threads you were talking about and I'm confident that it's not related or at least not as they think.

The lighting in I Can See You Lyrics Video is the bisexual lighting and fits really well with the theme of the song.

Her comparing being in love with another woman to being a spy and having to navigate cautiously to not be seen.

The spy scene is remisnescent of a commercial she did:

(X)

And what she was trying to protect back then in the briefcase was a microphone you know to "Speak Now" maybe...

The videoclip has a lot of references to Look What You Made Me Do both MV and Eras Tour number, and I think it's very important and meant to point at Karma.

A girl, that is remisnecent of Lizz comes and save her with her beard at the time that shielded her.

All her outfit of her public appearance (X) emprisonned behing glass.

Side note on all of this is reminescent of the Tom Ford commercial Karlie did not long ago

With the lyrics video too:

Her being locked up in a Vault. With an orange door.

And the Eclipsed Sun imagery (do with that that you will ;-) )

Also some Karlie's parallel:

With Long Live lyrics on her arm.

"I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you"

Long Live was written a month after Chely Wright came out. And if you take the time to really look at the lyrics, you see how well this all fits together.

Someone counted all the marks on the wall, and there's 1468 lines/days.

The exact number of days between when her masters got stolen and her releasing Speak Now Taylor's Version (X)

When she's finally free. All the glass closet shatter.

And even more. The building holding her captive explodes once and for all.

The person who help her escape has stars on her right side (Eye theory I'm looking at you)

Stars on the face are there always to depict Taylor Swift TM public personna.

And she's the only one that can actually see Taylor and help her out.

Some say it might be gaylors, who can actually see the real Taylor.

But whoever this person is meant to represent.

She codes...

And has a ring on her right ring finger....

Now the dates:

It's tonight.

Remembre how Taylor said that Speak Now her version would be out on July 7th just in time for July 9th where we would be able to celebrate?

Now the time 1:38. The mission starts at that time. But how much time would it take to get her out? 20 minutes maybe?

Wich leads to: "Lit through the darkness at 1:58" and "That July ninth, the beat of your heart"

Both lyrics from last kiss.

To me it does sound like a rendez-vous. Now the only thing to determine is: is it 1:38 ET or 1:38 Liverpool time wich would be 8:38 ET (just before Taylor goes on stage for the show tonight).

And notice that in the countdown yesterday. Beside the clock in the front, every other clocks pointed to 1:58

And the other date is where it gets really interesting...

I found this last night.

May 22 2020

Here's what happened for Taylor on that date:

And when you type the adress, you are still led to her website with this ULR message:

"they wouldn't me do it Karma" (X)

And yes, I think it is exactly what you think it is...

Remembre how last week right before Karlie posted 6 palm trees (Karma was supposed to be TS 6th album)

The URL on karmaonthewall.com changed for "after Midnights it starts" to "Ready For It"

Suki, Austin and Kristine Karlie's sister also posted palm trees last week....

Here's a post I did about how Ready For It is relevent for all of this (X)

So yeah... everything in that MV is sooo important.

Nothing is related to Matty.

Now we just have to wait and see. And show a lot of support and love for that amazing woman who's been throught so much and deserves the world.

And after this URL change of last night... I think we can safely agree that karmaonthewall.com is really related to Taylor too...

[fatfables]

Farmhouse Five, or The Gainer Crusade: Vore Wars 9

A science fiction force feeding and vore-infused anti-gaining gaining story heavily inspired by Kurt VonneGUT's classic post-modern novel. (Why? Because it's the internet).

A sixth generation Swedish-American now living in easy circumstances in Minnesota [and still eating too much] who as a fat man's son, as a prisoner of the farmer, witnessed the fire-bombing of his own physique, a long time ago, and survived to grow and tell the tale.  This is a story somewhat in the obesogenic manner of the tales of the moon of the Surplus, where the galaxy’s biggest bellies come from. Eat.

All this happened, more or less. But mostly more. The gaining parts, anyway, are true. One guy I knew really was tube fed to death for refusing to breed with the Lord of the Pigs. So it grows. I returned to the farmhouse with an old gainer buddy of mine, to where we were kept for weeks. There we met a farm boy who was grown fat by the Surplus. We asked him how it was to live under Gainerism. He said that at first it was hard as it took time to get used to the strain of constant weight gain but now that he was used to it it wasn’t so bad. He was impressed with his belly and the way that it bounced over his belt when he walked. He liked how round it looked and how soft it felt. He was looking forward to seeing it be further accentuated by his dungarees. His brother was fattened till his heart exploded. So it grows.

I look neither forwards nor backwards, only waistwords. My Name is Billy Bondgaard. I’m writing this from my home in Minnesota, in this year. For thirty years I have worked, non-consecutively, as a gastric bypass salesman despite my own size. This has provided for me well and I have continued to gain all my life. I am now comfortable, fat and old, but I will not remain so. I have two chunky sons who follow in my footsteps. Soon they will be unborn again. My husband is dead from a car crash. So it grows. I look waistwords to seeing him again.

I am in the farmhouse with Jerry. My nerves are shot to hell. We are hog tied by our britches waiting for him to return. I am only 246 lbs. Jerry is hungry and delirious for action. He salivates whenever he hears footsteps. He appears to take joy from his captivity. He yearns to increase his capacity. My boxers are tight and stained, unsuitable for the task. I know that I will soon be forced to feed again and I am ill-prepared. I know that I will rely on Jerry to bear some of my burden and that he will resent me for it. He will get cross with me and will blame me for his situation. I will do my best but it won’t be good enough. I am out of my depth and I know it.

He enters, the farmer. He is six foot six and broad in the shoulders. Kind of Dutch looking. His wet black hair sticks to his head from the pouring rain outside. He speaks gruffly, “Hello, Piggies.” Jerry says hello. I remain silent, in trepidation. He weighs us. As is normal. Jerry weighs 387 lbs, he has the right mindset. I was never meant to be a pig, yet at the same time I always was. He starts with soup and bread, a gentleman farmer. Eighty fluid ounces of potato soup and half a loaf of farmhouse white. Jerry embraces the challenge but my stomach already aches and I begin to lack strength and struggle only half way through. “What the hell is wrong with you, Billy?” He shouts at me, “I hope you don’t expect me to pick up the slack again?” “No,” I say, one hundred percent aware that he will.

Roast beef and gravy follows. The gentleman farmer is treating his pigs well. This will not always be the case, there is plenty of swill to come.

My stomach bag is pounding harder and faster than my heart. I count the rhythmic convulsions that play a solid beat while I am forced to eat. Jerry has already finished his main course but I am no where near finished. A slab of half chewed beef falls from my mouth. “What a bad piggy!” The farmer states; “You know the rules, everything has to be eaten!” He picks it up from the ground and places it in between Jerry’s lips. Jerry looks like he wants to kill me, because he does. He swallows the beef and the rest of my main, and my dessert, along with his own. His belly is so swollen that it looks like it might burst open. It’s super distended and hanging low like the globular ball of fat that it is. I look down at my own overweight gut, it’s round and bloated and howling in pain. I really don’t know how Jerry does it? He is the one with the constitution for this. We will both grow fatter at the Farmers bequest but I will never be a real pig like him.

The farmer calmly states that it is time for my punishment. Jerry once more looks at me with daggers. I know that he wants to be punished but my pathetic performance never allows for it. The farmer approaches me from behind. I brace. And I am gone.

My sons, Edgar and Albert are returning from camp today. It has been their first summer away and my husband is excitedly cleaning the kitchen in anticipation of their return. He has prepared five large cakes for them. They will be very pleased but will fight over the odd number. They will feel bad about it when he is dead. My sons don’t believe me about the farmhouse. They think it is just a myth. That I am insane. They don’t believe that the Surplus would ever do that. They are true believers. I know better. I know not only where they have been but where they are going. I have been there. So it grows. I try to stop Edgar from punching Albert over the final cake. I am back there.

The Surplus moon is a strange place. Bland and hectic at the same time. The beings here don’t experience weight yet they are obsessed by it. They are in love with it but don’t feel it. Nothing is linear here. Only expanding. They say that it is the beginning and the end of everything. Everything is circular and after a while I say that I agree. “I agree.” They say that the universe is theirs to consume and that nothing that any of us does matters. I fear they are correct. I am circular. I am a zoo exhibit. They look at me with wonder. I am prehistoric, an artifact. They have never seen one so small. The first seven years I fell into a depression. Then he appeared. Kyle California. The boy from my dreams. The boy from my computer screen youth. At first he wouldn’t look at me. Or them. He was petrified. Snatched from his last moment. Another car crash. Chased by a representation of his own ego. So it grows. He always returns. Returns to me. After the first six months he accepts me and the crowd roar in appreciation when we perform the beast with two fat backs.

In the farmhouse he is here. The one. Like an apparition. I have only met him once but so many times. I know he is real. As real as the minced cow that engorges me. I am fifteen again. I will soon be 600. He comments on how well my belly is pushing against the floor. I knew he was going to say that. I also know what he is going to do next. He always does that. And Danni laughs. Through the pain I see the other. At least I think I do. I always think I do. Half man, half lizard. The warrior. I like him. One day he will save me.

Edgar has knocked one of Albert’s teeth out. The fifth cake is in pieces on the floor. As is Albert. At least he can reach it from down there. “At least you can reach it from down there,” I hear myself say. Albert starts to eat the cake despite the blood in his mouth. He is a good boy. I look at Edgar. He is pretending to be pleased with his victory. He goads his brother. He is my son. I see in his eyes that he knows he really lost. He will never admit it. No matter how many times it happens. Always the same. Always the fattest son who gets the cake. 

They tell me how much they enjoyed the camp. How they are both over 200 up. I am so proud of them. They look magnificent. They will return next year. I ask Edgar if he saw where the farmhouse used to be. “Edgar, did you see where the farmhouse used to be?” He gets angry with me. He says there never was any damn farmhouse and that I should give it up. “There never was any damn farmhouse. Give it up.” I give it up. Though I know that he is wrong. Jerry died there. So it grows.

Kyle is about to have his last ever conversation with me before his date with an intersection on the outskirts of Monterey. He seems unaware. He is always unaware. Why do I remember? “Are you satisfied with our life here on the Surplus moon?” He asks me. Next he will ask me how I possibly can be when we are trapped like overfed lions in a cage. “How can you possibly be when we are trapped like overfed lions in a cage?” I tell him because I know that I won’t always be there. “Because I know that I won’t always be here.” He asks me if I love him. “Do you love me?” I tell him a hundred times over. “I love you a hundred times over.” He seems satisfied. Then he is gone. So it grows.

I am totally alone. The giant lizard man is back. I ask him why I remember. “Why do I remember?” He smiles at me as his giant jaw begins to dislocate. His belly swells. Everything goes black. Danni screams. I am unstuck.

The oversized coffin is pushed down the church aisle on a trolley. It’s far too heavy for anyone to carry. I am back at my husband's funeral. So it grows. I look waistwards to seeing him again.

www.fatfables.com

[rebellum]

Ive had a bad day today (due to period and I think overexertion) after 2 good days where I did a couple hours each day of work (hence thr overexertion)(also i totally forgot how to spell that autocorrect saved the day idk if you guys would have gotten "over ex her sion") and so I'm having one of those moments where I'm just Fed Up. It feels like when there's a big snow storm in late March. Like, hey, this isn't rally unexpected, but come ON we are SO CLOSE cant this just be over yet?

And i worry that I'm actually lying to ppl somehow bc I feel like my boyfriend doesn't understand how sick I still am, even tho he definitely knows (and is the one to have to tell me "hey, picking a video game based on which is less likely to cause mass real life death from demons is a mental illness thought, just so you know") and so he definitely knows so I dont know why I feel like I'm lying. Maybe cause my friends don't know the details? But I think they know i have more than just anxiety and depression and trauma. At the psychiatrist office the other day I said i didn't have ptsd and we had a weird miscommunication where he thought I meant I dont have trauma. When obviously I do very much. And he had to be like "someone who wasn't traumatized wouldn't be crying in my office right now" (he said that much kinder than how I'm typing it) and I was so confused and then explained that I don't have nightmares about the trauma and he was like "yeah but you don't need nightmares to have ptsd" but then he immediately moved on , which was weird, like ok are you thinking I could have ptsd and don't know it?? But I dont think i do, it doesn't ruin my life like others, tho I'll admit the people I'm close to who have it have cptsd which has slightly different symptoms, I can see my fingers typing from the mirror that's near my bed and it confused and almost startled me for a quick second lol. Earlier today I experienced some heart palpitations like I haven't for a while, so I guess I have to keep an eye on that, it was bizarre because I was fine and just sitting there and suddenly it felt like my heart was a horse with 11 legs, I would have said a lesser number that would have made slightly more sense (i mean, 11 is too much, it wuldnt be able to go anywhere) but those were potentially numbers that didn't have their place in this post right now (tho I like using them some times, I have nothing against you guys)(sorry @ readers) but I mean my heart was beating so fast and so erratically and it was ODD like uh. Hi. Haven't had you get this bad in a while. It's fine though I'm fine, I have a beh nine heart murmur and tach ee cardia (or is it palpitations? Or both?) But turns out while my heart acts weird its still fine, like when someone puts on tap handles the wrong way. Did you guys know that's a thing? I don't mean like the cold tap says hot, I mean like its supposed to be a tap water runs when you move the handle towards you, but if you mess up it makes it so that to turn the tap on you turn the handle away from you, which can work if there's space, but when my brothers sink randomly exploded a few weeks ago (and started sending up a whole guys-er) my bro and parents went to fix it and put the taps on the wrong way, and it was against a wall so they had to go back to step like 5 of putting a sink together and redo it.

[brain-baby]

Vent:::

Nobody knows about my life on here, which should be a good thing but if you are to follow along there is a lot of context to be had. Although this is meant to be a vent post - I'll try and be as clear as I can so you can follow along.

Every fibre of my brain wants to scream "Fuck People!", but the part of me that has gone through rigorous therapy says otherwise. The rational part of me knows I need to forgive and forget but how can I do that when people keep throwing fuel onto the fire. How can I cope with the level of trust-breaking experiences I have been through if I don't get proved wrong about anyone.

I have a dilemma. I lived with people for 3 years, becoming a part of the family and being romantically attached to one of them. Unfortunately because of my past, I wasn't showing them my true self - burying it down deep out of fear. Not because they gave me any reason to fear but because of my old home life. the home life I had for 18 years. I am so grateful for everything they did for me, but I resent the memories due to not liking who I was during them. I lied, I cheated, I stole...I was every bad coping mechanism I could have been at the time. And they still housed me and loved me...

I broke up with the man I was with - leaving me out of the family in an instant. I know they have a lot of thoughts about me, I don't know whether good or bad and that drives me insane. I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel as though I tore up something I could have salvaged. I blocked them all a couple of months afterwards by pressure of friends. I haven't been able to stop thinking about him or the time I spent with his family...

In the meantime I exploded, fucking anything that moved and was good looking. Having grown up being told I was unloveable and disgustingly hideous, I was suddenly found in a place where I was socially viewed as attractive and single. I didn't know how to deal with my feelings, and a couple weeks after I broke up with him my mother died.

I had a group of friends that I quickly formed at the time. Courtney, Blaire (aka Lily), Ayla, and Alli. They were my life-blood, my saving grace. At the time they helped me a lot and I was overly honest with them - telling them everything my heart screamed. I swore that this was the group that was going to stay together...that was until I started seeing someone named Shawn. Shawn was a guy who lived with his ex girlfriend (told me that a month in) and was overly possessive and giving. i told him constantly I thought it was kind of like taking advantage of him, and behind his back told my friend group I had a feeling he would be obsessive. I was correct.

Blaire was supposed to understand me, we have the same mental illnesses and we were supposed to have each others backs - that is until she started hanging out with Shawn behind my back telling him over exaggerations of what I had said. Basically shit talking me behind my back, with no regard for what i actually said.

After Shawn told me I was the worst person ever, I gave Blaire another chance with one contingency - I didn't want Shawn knowing anything about me (after we broke up he proved his obsessiveness with constant checking in with my friends on me and always showing up when I went to hangout with them), so she couldn't be friends with him if she wanted to be friends with me. She agreed, but lied of course. After I found out I dropped her like a sack of potatoes. I don't do liars and I don't have respect for people who get second chances and waste them.

Couple of weeks later I found out she started dating the brother of my ex. She is now in the exact spot I was in not only half a year ago. Apart of the household and family...the only thing is is that family is adamant about HATING LIARS. As someone who was in that household and told many lies to them - I know that they would be crushed to find out about any of them so I have to keep my distance. But a big part of me wants to warn the poor family, the same family I took advantage of, about this snake they have welcomed in with warm arms. They would never take anything I have to say, Im sure of it, but they deserve to know who they are making a bed with. She's the lead singer in their band, close with both brothers and Im sure their parents love her too.

That big part of me that wants to warn them, I know its built out of rage that someone I hate gets to be in the spot I was once in - the safety and love that come with it. She doesn't deserve it, she doesn't in my eyes. Blaire deserves to have her lies topple around her, because clearly she doesn't want to fix anything or help herself. I gave her opportunities even before Shawn and she didn't take them. She is a liar and a stone cold statue with not a single non-wicked thought. The amount of pain and hurt she caused to so many people around her - all for what?

Courtney followed after Blaire, Ayla having gone with Blaire in the beginning. Courtney was my roommate at them time and was my closest friend. What she did stung even more.

First it was a kitten. She brought him in to be friends with my cat. Things were going ok, although the kitten was far too young for how she was treating it. It got so bad I needed to text her that we needed to find a solution, and she took that and got rid of the kitten without so much as allowing me a goodbye.

Then she started staying at her boyfriends place, every night. That would be fine if she wouldn't have left me her chores to do, left me deal with the problems in the place, left me to take care of the home alone. All I wanted was some help and so I asked for some - she then moved out a day later and told me I was a burden when my mom died.

I can't tell where I went wrong. Should I have been more lenient on them? Given more chances? I know these aren't the whole situations and I doubt anyone will read this far, but if you did, do I blame myself? Do I move forward trying to be more patient and allowing? Or do I protect my heart the way I used to? Or do I allow myself to hold these boundaries?

Do I tell the family that they have a demon in their midst?

[danielfuckingricciardo]

r/relationship_advice - Charles Leclerc x Reader

A collection of Reddit posts, comments, tweets, and fic

Pairing - Charles Leclerc x Reader

Synopsis - The reader is in a difficult situation, and decides to make a post on Reddit to get help with her predicament. What she doesn’t expect is for people to realise who she is.

Content Warnings - swearing, sexual references

Author’s Note - this is not just a standard fic! This is a collection of Reddit posts, comments, tweets, and fic. Sort of like a collage of different shit all telling one story! Because of this the perspective is different in each part, like the Reddit posts are in first person, and the fic is in second person as usual!

I wanted to experiment with something different structure wise, you know me, I like to fuck with stuff and do weird shit. If high school musical taught me anything, it’s that we shouldn’t stick to the status quo.

Please do tell me if you like the structure, if you don’t, if there’s anything you don’t think works etc! I’d love to do more shit like this so if you have any ideas of what else I could include in one of these (like text messages, DMs, Snapchat, insta stories, whatever) do let me know!

r/relationship_advice • 5d ago

Posted by throwaway27936

My (25F) boyfriend (27M) thinks I have a thing for one of my coworkers (25M). The worst thing about it is… I do.

I wanna preface this by saying that I’ve been with my boyfriend since I was 18. And I do love him. But last year I managed to bag my dream job and it meant us going long distance.

I wasn’t worried about the whole thing, after all, we’d been together for six years already and lived together for three of them. We had two cats together, and the word on the street was he was thinking of buying a ring to pop the question before I got my job offer.

The job is my dream job, and it’s actually what we had initially bonded over when we were at college together. When I got that email saying the job was mine he was so excited for me, and I was thrilled. It’s what I’d been working towards for so long!

But as things set in for him, and he realised I would be away for weeks and weeks, I could tell something changed. It was like he was faking being happy for me. The proposal never came, I suppose maybe because I was going to be away for days like valentines and both our birthdays, maybe he just couldn’t find the right time? Either that or he didn’t want to be engaged to someone who was hardly around?

He drove me to the airport, and no matter how sad I could see he was feeling, I couldn’t stop my excitement as I jetted off to another country to begin my work! I suppose that didn’t help either, him seeing how pumped I was and not being all tearful and sad to be leaving him. But I couldn’t help it, and I was sad, I just didn’t want to make our parting more upsetting for myself or for him.

The job kept me busy. Like super busy. But I did manage to come home every now and then, to tell him about all the amazing things I’d seen and done, do date nights snuggled up on the couch with our kitties Nemo (4M) and Milo (4M) but something was just… off??

And him being off, not being as affectionate and loving as he used to be, is what drew me to my coworker.

The final nail in the coffin was my trip home during summer last year. My bf and I pretty much argued the entire time, just over little tiny things, until suddenly, he just exploded. He berated me over the fact that I was never home. That he was the one stuck there looking after the cats, living a normal life while I was living my dream and flying around the world with my team.

It hurt, and I’m gonna be honest with you, I said some things I wish I could take back. Mainly along the lines of ‘it’s not my fault you weren’t able to make something of your life like I was.’

I regret saying that. I know that he struggled after college. It was a low blow. But I was angry, because I was living my dream, the dream we had bonded over that night in the sports bar just off campus when we met. He should be happy for me, right?

Well, after I left at the end of summer on a particularly sour note, I was ready to be done with him. I thought I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he’d gotten it all out of his system and that when I returned during a two week break in October, things would be better.

We hardly talked. September meant no FaceTimes, hardly any texts, no likes on my Instagram posts, nothing. Zilch. Nada. I tried, god knows I did. Scrolling through our WhatsApp chat makes me look so fucking desperate but I wasn’t ready to give up.

One day, after another period of being totally ignored, my coworker, who I shall call C, noticed I was upset. Before now I hadn’t spent much time with C as he was far more high profile than me. I worked in the wings but he was the star of the show.

I didn’t mean to trauma dump on him, but all these feelings just kinda came spilling out. I ended up crying on him and getting his shirt all covered in snot. It was gross, I apologised, he said not to worry about it.

The thing about C is, is that he’s beautiful. I know you don’t often see the word beautiful being used to describe a man, but he is. He’s gorgeous. Like don’t get me wrong, my bf is hot too, but C? Damn.

He was so kind to me, he listened, he wiped away my tears, cheered me up, and made me feel better again.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never cheat. I couldn’t. One of my best friends from college had her boyfriend of five years cheat on her and she was heartbroken. I still loved my boyfriend, I couldn’t do that to him. Besides, C himself already had a girlfriend. So anything between me and him was completely off the table.

But that didn’t stop me from catching feelings for C. There’s nothing cheaty about catching feelings, right? Especially when your bf is ghosting you the way mine was.

But C and I became good friends over the time we spent together throughout September after the whole snotty crying situation. He was a good friend, and it was nice to have someone in your corner when all of your normal best friends are halfway across the world.

When I went home in October, I arrived at my bf and I’s flat to find him sat in the lounge, surrounded by packed boxes and suitcases. He told me it was over.

Naturally I cried, I was hoping we’d have a chance to smooth things out, especially over Christmas when I’d have a whole two months to spend at home before I had to be back at work.

My bf showed me a picture on his phone, it must have been from some night out I can hardly remember after a good weekend’s work. And there I was with C. We were just dancing, but his hand was on my waist. Man we must have been so hammered.

My bf assumed I had a thing for him, which I did, but I would never have acted on. But I told him I didn’t, that we were just good friends, which wasn’t a lie. We were good friends, I just happened to fancy the pants off C but only in secret.

He wouldn’t listen to me, told me the whole long distance thing wasn’t working and that I either had to quit my job, or we would have to break up.

I couldn’t quit. I loved my job too much. It was exactly what I had dreamed of since I was a child. I told him that, and he said it was over.

He said he’d look after the cats until I found a new stable home someplace, and that he’d let me store my things in the spare room, but I didn’t live here anymore.

I left for my parents that night, in tears, and texted C. I told him what had happened, and he said I should get out, go visit him at home and keep my mind off of things before we had to travel again.

I knew I shouldn’t have. That it just made C and I’s relationship look even more suspicious. But I was upset, and angry. Besides, I wasn’t the only one at fault. If my bf had just replied to my texts more, and been willing to work harder on the long distance thing, I think we’d still be together now.

But I went to see C. And we had a great week. We hung out, played video games, got drunk, it was great. Of course his girlfriend stopped by every day for a few hours at least, and sometimes I’d be left alone in his apartment while they went for dinner and stuff. And that was when I cried.

I felt guilty for something that was beyond my control. I felt angry because, if my boyfriend had just been more willing to make it work, I wouldn’t have gone crying to C and I wouldn’t have ended up with this big fat crush on him.

By the time it was time to return home, I went and moved all my stuff out of my now ex-bf’s apartment and took the cats to my parents. I spent Christmas with them, and despite how much it hurt being alone surrounded by my family who were all coupled up, I had my work in 2023 to get me through.

But I also had C. We texted, a lot, after the breakup. I think he wanted to make sure I was okay? That I wasn’t feeling down.

But eventually it was my turn to check in on him, as C and his gf broke up. We spent a lot of time on FaceTime that week, being a pair of sad single losers drinking red wine and talking shit. He was my friend, and I cared about him a lot.

Come New Year’s Eve, I was invited to see in 2023 with my closest friends at a party one of them was hosting. And it was there I saw my ex-bf for the first time since I moved out.

I expected he would be there, after all, we had a lot of the same friends. But I was prepared for it. I’d cried my tears out, I’d gotten out all of my frustrations, and so when he asked me out on the balcony for a chat, I said ‘sure, why not?’

Call it a bad idea, call me foolish, but we ended up making out up there. We kissed at midnight that night, and promised to give it all another go. He said he wouldn’t get jealous of me and my job, and I said I’d try to come home more and spend more time with him.

The first week of January, I moved my stuff back into our apartment, brought the cats back from my parents, and we rekindled our relationship. Despite all the pain I went through, I still loved him. And he still loved me.

But then C texted, asked if I wanted to fly over and hang out for a weekend. My bf wasn’t too happy with the idea. He was still convinced I had a thing for C, despite me telling him most certainly that I didn’t. But I did still have a thing for C.

Thing were frosty between me and my bf for a few days, and as I prepared to return to work, he got increasingly more agitated. But eventually, when it came time for me to leave, he cried. I cried and hugged him as we parted at the airport. I promised I would call and text every day, and that I wouldn’t ignore him in favour of work.

I loved my boyfriend, I really did. But then I saw C again. And now I don’t know what to do.

I love both of them, so much, and I don’t know what I want anymore. Is it selfish of me to stay with my bf? Would it be stupid for me to call it quits with him and risk things with C even if he doesn’t feel the same? I’m just stuck in a rut and my emotions are going crazy. Help!

TLDR: my boyfriend thinks I’m in love with my coworker, I say I’m not, but after a shaky period with my bf, I fell for my coworker. Now I don’t know what to do! Help?

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Reindeerbuddy27 • 4d ago

I think your boyfriend sounds like a dick. It was his fault for ghosting you! If he hadn’t have reacted the way he did over summer you would have never bonded with your coworker and caught feelings. IMO you’d be better off breaking up with him and either being single or getting with C, though I’d give him some time to get over his own ex-gf before you try anything!

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Throwaway27936 • 4d ago

Yeah, it kinda was his fault I caught feelings in the first place, you’re right. I wouldn’t say he was a dick, he just missed me I guess and his sadness turned into anger the longer I was away and it just all exploded. Even so, we’re back together and on good terms, and I still love him. I don’t think I could break up with him without a valid reason to do so?

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ReindeerBuddy27 • 3d ago

I get that you don’t want to lose him, but if you’re not fully invested in the relationship with him and want to explore the possibility of having something with C, I think breaking up with your bf would be the fairest thing to do.

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Throwaway27936 • 3d ago

Hmm… maybe you’re right. I need some time to think about it. Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it! ♥︎

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Pedr0Pascal14 • 4d ago

Would you maybe be able to ask your bf about opening your relationship? Allowing you to pursue things with C to see where they lead while also keeping your bf?

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Throwaway27936 • 4d ago

Definitely not. He’s all about monogamy, and I am too. If I suddenly asked about opening the relationship he’d be even more suspicious of me and my reasons for asking.

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Demeter779 • 3d ago

Could you reduce the amount of time spent at work maybe? Like going part time so you’re only away for six months out of the year?

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Throwaway27936 • 3d ago

Sadly it’s not possible. My job is kinda all or nothing. If I asked about reducing my hours they’d laugh in my face and fire me. There’s plenty of people who would die for a chance to fill my role so I wouldn’t be missed.

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Demeter779 • 3d ago

That sucks. I would say tho, without being mean, it seems like your job is your number one priority and not your bf. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I think that’s where the problem lies. Especially if before you took the job he was always your number one! It’s probably been hard for him to adjust! I hate to say it, but I don’t think you two are meant to be and these problems are only gonna get worse this year with you being away. This situation really sucks for you OP, I’m sorry.

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LionVerstappen33 • 2d ago

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Hon3ybadg3r • 2d ago

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MonacoBaby • 2d ago

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r/relationship_advice • 6hr ago

posted by Throwaway27936

UPDATE: My (25F) boyfriend (27M) thinks I have a thing for one of my coworkers (25M). The worst thing about it is… I do.

Okay, ya got me.

Considering my life has already been put under extreme scrutiny from random strangers on the internet to literal news publications, I figured it couldn’t get any worse than it already has and so I’d post an update here.

I wanna start out by saying I am stupid. I made my post thinking I was fully anonymous, the account was a throwaway with no real ties to my irl identity and I tried as hard as I could to conceal the true nature of my work, but you F1 girlies are far too intelligent and I realise that now.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have deleted those comments, because it did just make me look more suspicious. If I’d have left them, maybe even replied to them and said ‘yes I work in F1 but can we please keep it on the dl as I don’t want anyone finding out who I am’ then right now I wouldn’t be sat in my childhood bedroom crying with a cat on my knee typing out this post.

I also wanna say that I hold no grudges with Twitter user LionVerstappen_ I mean, they’re far too clever for their own good, and they terrify me, but I don’t hate them, and all the hate that they’re getting is unjustified and wrong. It was my fault for posting on the internet thinking I’d be safe. That’s on me, not them, so please do leave them alone.

Since that post was made, a lot has changed. Obviously I had already returned to work, I was in the factory at Maranello working on some technical shit I won’t bore you with and getting ready for the livery reveal on the 14th and fine tuning for next season.

I had seen LionVerstappen_ and Hon3ybadg3r’s comments and deleted them as soon as I did. I didn’t fancy answering them, and thought ‘shit, this is getting a little dicey’ and disabled commenting on my post. I thought that would be the end of that, I had some good advice given before that, and I would mull it over before I next saw my boyfriend.

Suddenly, my phone just started fucking blowing up. I had a bunch of random people request to follow me on Instagram, and when I say a bunch, I mean a fuck load. Like 20k follow requests in the space of a few hours. Immediately I was like ‘what the fuck?’ Assuming I’d been hacked or something. I had like 200 followers before that, and I knew all of them in some capacity, and I hadn’t just become some internet celebrity (not on purpose at least) so what was going on?

That’s when I got a message from my friend back home. She’s an F1 fan and is pretty active on F1twt which is how she saw the posts. She sent me a link to the original tweet from LionVerstappen_ as well as to DeuxMoi’s Instagram stories. I was shocked, I really didn’t know how to react.

I couldn’t believe that my silly little Reddit post had actually been figured out, especially after I’d deleted those comments, I thought it was the end. I debated taking down the Reddit post, but really, what was that gonna do? There were already screenshots all over Twitter so it wouldn’t make a difference.

This all happened during my lunch break, and after lunch, I was called into my boss’ office. It seems the Ferrari PR department had also seen the tweets and the speculation, and they wanted to talk to me about it.

I burst into tears. My personal life was all over the internet, my boyfriend had probably seen it all and knew how I felt and that I’d been lying to him about my feelings. I knew it was only a matter of time before he called me and ended things with me again.

Thankfully, the PR team were nice to me. They said they’d handle it, and most importantly, that my job was safe. It was nothing to do with my capabilities as an engineer, after all, so I suppose it made sense. What they did do, however, is give me the week off to sort my life out.

I left the factory sniffling like a baby, packed my shit and got on a plane home. I called my parents to pick me up from the airport, and asked them to take my stuff back to their place but to drop me at the apartment my bf and I shared.

When I entered the flat I had to brace myself. I knew it wasn’t gonna be pretty. My bf was sat on the sofa, surrounded by packed bags and boxes again. Deja vu anyone?

He didn’t yell, or threaten me, or call me names like I thought he would. No, he stood up, and hugged me. And I started crying like a baby. Full on body shaking sobs.

I told him I was sorry, that I loved him, but I understood. He said it was okay.

We sat down together surrounded by the boxes of my things, he made me a coffee, and we talked. It was refreshing to talk to him considering last time he forced me out of the house without a word.

I told him everything, from start to finish. About how neglected and sad I felt after the summer break, how his ghosting was what led me to Charles, how I still really loved him but just didn’t know what I wanted, and how scary it was to have my private life all over the internet like that.

He was sympathetic, but ultimately he said that we just didn’t work together. He wished me luck, I took the cats, got in a taxi, and went home.

Funnily enough, I wasn’t really upset about the whole relationship ending. Mainly because I was just so relieved my ex was handling the whole situation so well. I’ll miss him terribly, he was more than just my boyfriend but he was my best friend too (I am aware of how cliche that sounds).

We had bonded over F1 all those years ago. I was cheering for Sebastian Vettel and he was cheering for Lewis Hamilton while watching a race in a sports bar. We ended up having an argument over who’s driver was better which after a few drinks evolved into us making out in the smoking area. That night I’d told him my dream, to be an engineer, to work for Ferrari. He believed in me, and it’s due to his belief that I managed to get my job. It’s a shame that achieving my dream was the thing that eventually tore us apart.

But anyway, now I’m at home. My parents are out collecting all my things from my ex’s flat right now, and I’ve finally calmed down enough to start typing this out. Mainly because Nemo has decided to curl up in my lap and have a big nap.

Consider my overdue cat tax paid:

When I settled in my room, Charles called me. I nearly didn’t answer it, but I did.

For the sake of his privacy, I’m not going to tell you all of what was said. But I can say that he doesn’t hate me, and if anything, he feels so bad for the situation I ended up in.

I suppose he knows what it’s like to have all that speculation around your personal life 24/7 and can empathise more than most of the people in my life.

I will also say, that we are just friends! That’s all. This isn’t a hallmark movie. He hasn’t hopped on his private jet, flown all the way to my home in bumblefuck nowhere to declare his love for me, and we all live happily ever after.

Real life is a lot more complicated than that. And a lot shittier and a lot more depressing.

I’m going back to Maranello tomorrow morning. I know they gave me the week off, but I’m going to spend some time in the area, maybe even look at getting a proper rental and moving out there full time. I have nothing really to tie me to my home anymore, not really (and yes I will bring the cats with me and pay a cat sitter!)

So yeah, this is my update. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m fine now, I think! Moving onwards and upwards. One day this will be a funny story I’ll look back on. It isn’t funny now, but it will be.

I do ask, however, that everyone reading this post thinks before they post. I’m a real person, and thanks to all this drama my life is fucked up and I’m now Googling how to emigrate to Italy.

Before you press that button, just consider how it will affect that person, and if it’s really worth it. Sometimes it is, I’ll grant you. But we’re all real people. Those of us in the factories, the TPs, the drivers, everyone. And we have a right to respect and privacy just as any ordinary person does. Think before you post.

I’m signing off now. It’s been a wild ride. Comments will be off, no doubt you’ll be making comments and dissecting my every word on Twitter anyways but at least I don’t have to see em.

I likely won’t update this again.

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March 5th 2023

No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t quite acclimate yourself to the dry heat of Bahrain. Your hair clung to your neck with sweat, and your team polo was already sodden and damp.

You weren’t quite sure if it was just the heat, or the nerves getting to you as the cars begun their formation lap. You fidgeted with the pen in your hand, your eyes firmly transfixed on the screen in front of you as you catch a glimpse of red zooming down the straight.

Lucky for you, things had died down. As the season began, people had the racing to focus on, and your silly little Reddit post had been almost forgotten. You were able to blend into the background, just as you had done that previous year. You were just another engineer hidden amongst a sea of red shirts, and it was nice.

You knew, however, that this peace would be short lived. It was only a matter of time before you were all over social media again, not as the mystery Reddit user anymore, but as Charles Leclerc’s new girlfriend.

You didn’t lie in your post, the two of you hadn’t gotten together on that fateful day. You were just friends. That was until February 14th.

The day of the car reveal, which also happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day. You didn’t mind, of course, after all, you had no plans. You were quite happy to have something else going on to distract you from your tragic love life.

Charles, however, had made plans. After the reveal you went back to his hotel room, where he had organised a fancy dinner with candles and roses. He asked you out then and there, away from the prying eyes of fans or paparazzi.

To you, it was the most romantic gesture anyone could ever make. It was clear he had thought of you, keeping the moment as private as possible to protect you.

He, of course, knew how you felt about him. He didn’t have to worry, he knew you’d say yes. And you did.

You spent the evening drinking wine, chatting, just as you had always done. But one thing was different - after dessert he kissed you.

The kiss was sweet, and it wasn’t just because of the tiramisu he had eaten.

He didn’t want to rush you, he knew that you were still healing from your trauma. But you weren’t so coy.

February 14th marked the first time you had kissed Charles Leclerc, but it also marked the first time the two of you made love.

Since that day, the two of you had kept your relationship a secret. You cooked for one another, or ordered takeout, watched movies, cuddled with the cats, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

It was exactly what you had wanted. A nice, private relationship with the man you had fallen so deeply in love with.

But there was a small niggling feeling in the back of your mind that it was all about to change. If he won this race, you wouldn’t be able to control yourself. You wouldn’t be able to stop the urge to throw yourself into his arms, to kiss him all over, to tell him just how proud you are.

A race winner always deserves a kiss, right?

You chew on your nail as the final cars pull into position, ready for lights out.

Charles had taken pole position that previous day, but you had managed to save your celebrations for later, sneaking over to his hotel room when no one was around and promptly sneaking out early this morning to avoid suspicion.

Lights out - Charles’ reactions are lightning. He manages to keep away from the rest of the grid, allowing the cars behind him to battle for P2.

The Ferrari garage is hopeful, but they know better than to cheer before the race is won. Too many bittersweet moments from the previous season haunted each and every one of them.

All was well, Charles was set for the first win of the season, until a collision at the back of the pack meant that the safety car reared its ugly head.

Max was getting closer and closer to the back of Charles’ car. They weaved behind the safety car, getting ready, preparing for the moment that it would leave the track.

As the car enters the pit lane, the power was in Charles’ hands. He needed to make a good move, surprise Max, get him on the back foot and out of sight.

There were only two laps left. Two laps to victory. Max just had to stay back, and Charles had to race like he’d never raced before.

You chew on your nails anxiously as Charles takes each and every corner, hitting the apex with precision. All that time in the simulator was definitely paying off.

They cross the line for the final lap, Charles was a car’s length ahead, but Max too was pushing hard. He wanted that first win just as much as Charles did. But you told yourself mentally that he wasn’t going to get it. This was Charles’ race, and he was going to stand on that top step of the podium.

The seconds felt like hours. You make eye contact with Vasseur across the garage and he gives you a small smile. A reassuring one, and you smile back. It probably looked more like a grimace but it was the best you could muster.

The final corner passes with ease, and it looks like Charles has hung onto his win. Max is practically driving alongside him as they cross the finish line. No one cheers.

It’s a waiting game, waiting for the photo to see who had crossed the line first.

You bury your head in your hands, unable to think, talk, move or see until the entire garage erupts into cheers.

He had done it! Charles had won the race!

Tears begin to fall from your eyes as you finally look up. You were sobbing, you couldn’t help it. He’d won.

You give every mechanic you see a pat on the back as you walk over to Vasseur. He was smiling brightly at you. He had so much faith in Charles, he loved him like a son.

He embraces you tightly as you cry onto his shoulder, and he whispers ever so quietly “go see him. See your love.”

You didn’t even care to ask how he was able to see right through the two of you. You just pulled away and nodded as you run out of the garage towards parc ferme alongside a sea of red suits and shirts.

You push your way to the front, definitely sure that your tear stained face would be onscreen for the world to see, but you didn’t care. The world had seen worse of you, after all.

When Charles takes off his helmet, your heart skips a beat. He was beautiful, every day he was beautiful. Even when he was still sweaty and breathing heavy from the adrenaline of the race, his face marked with balaclava lines.

He makes a beeline for you, pulling you in for a hug the way friends would hug one another.

“Kiss me.” You say.

“Are you sure, mon amour?” He whispers, and you nod.

Charles captures your lips in a kiss reminiscent of your very first just a few days ago. The cameras were definitely on you, but you didn’t care.

No doubt social media would be going crazy over the whole thing, but it was nothing new to you. At least this time you weren’t just in love with your coworker, but he was in love with you too.

Whatever the internet may have to throw at you, this time, you didn’t have to handle it alone.

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~ THE END ~

[papipopsicle]

AFTERTASTE PART SEVEN

Pairing: Archie Andrews X Reader

Summary: In which two best friends since childhood test whether sex and friendship can co-exist without causing conflict. Including OC's Flick and Cherry, a bisexual and lesbian in a sapphic relationship who are best friends of Y/N.

Song: Dream Boy by Waterparks

Warnings: swearing

Words: 2.1K

MASTERLIST

feedback is always appreciated

Y/F and Y/M Robins were far from perfect parents. Y/F had the mental age of a toddler at times, and being an estate agent who always has to go the extra mile- he often wasn't home when his wife needed him the most. Y/M, on the other end of things, had been a stay at home mum until Y/N turned 16 last summer, and now she helped with all the administrative work for Mayor McCoy. She was a maternal creature which, coupled with her brilliant sarcasm, made for some explosive conversations. The two met on the first day of university and got married a week after the last.

When Y/M first found out she was pregnant with little Y/S Robins, the two realised they wanted a quiet bubble of a town to raise their children and grow up with them. But it wasn't until their second daughter was about to turn seven until they found their forever home in the quaint town of Riverdale. Ten years passing before their eyes, and the picturesque place didn't seen all that anymore.

Jason Blossom's death had nothing to do with the short gunshot sounding over the waves of Sweetwater River, the noise which woke Y/N from her sweet unmemorable dreams every few nights. The summer days rolled into early August without anyone caring, Y/N spending most of them at Cheryl's side listening intently to her past adventures with her brother. Betty threw herself into an internship at a publication house; Flick and Cherry had volunteered at a summer camp, and Archie was helping his dad out more and more with constructions job.

Although it hadn't been the start to the relationship Y/N had hoped for- the nervous giggles and hand holding, short and sweet kisses on late night walks followed by poetry worthy cuddling. There was a magnificent silver lining as Archie's muscles gained definition, and he suited the sweaty builder look far too well.

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y/n Humph!

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Cheryl busy being my own icon

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"Earth to my gorgeous queen? Y/N/N?" Cheryl quizzed her friend, who currently resided at the poolside of Thornehill Manor. Her mind was off on a glorious tangent about her rendezvous in the kitchen at two in the morning. Fixing herself a glass of water, when Archie slips his hand into her pyjama shorts, his other around her mouth muffling her needy moans.

The red headed beauty shoved her y/h/c friend playfully, warm skin sweaty under her pale touch. Y/N blinked innocently and sent her an apologetic smile, "What?"

"I asked if you've thought about dating anyone else since Clayton?" The fiery ginger girl enquired with her usual upbeat tone.

Cheryl knew she had a unique quality about her which made it almost impossible for Y/N to lie to her face. The y/h/c girl scrunched up her nose, hiding the smile the idea of Archie Andrews brought to her face. 'Yes. We started off as fuck buddies but never actually fucked. Then I drunkenly asked him to be my boyfriend, now a month later I think we may genuinely work out.'

"Maybe." Y/N bit her bottom lip, listening to her friend's squeal as she squeezed her sun tanned arm.

"I knew it! You have this euphoric glow you only get when someone else makes you climax." The redhead affirmed confidently, watching the Robins girl's eyes bug out before hitting her arm, "Y/N/N, you know your secret's safe with me."

"Fine." She sighed and took a sip of her fruity cocktail, "It started off as just fooling around, honestly I just needed to let off some steam after everything. I knew he was into the kinds of things I was, I mean he used to tease me about it non stop. And it was good, so good I stopped being a pussy and asked him to be my boyfriend."

"Holy freaking hell!" The Blossom girl grinned with excitement, "Dare I ask, who is it?"

Y/N deadpanned at her friend, "Guess."

"Please don't tell me it's that muscular oaf Reggie, he's pretty but there's not exactly much going on upstairs." Cheryl tapped her temples and rolled her eyes at the thought.

"Nope."

The ginger thought for a moment, consulting her liquid courage and splashing her feet around the waters edge, "It's Archie."

All it took was a side-eyed glance at the y/h/c girl's blooming rosy cheeks to know she definitely wasn't wrong. Y/N severely lacked the ability to lie, even if her tone held conviction, her features were far too expressive and told the truth all on their own. It's not like they were hiding it from anyone, but the past four weeks had gone far too quickly without any moments to spare for the world around them. They slept together each night, the majority of that time not actually spent sleeping, but they hadn't been given the chance yet to explore more romantic avenues.

"It's fucking Archie Andrews- you're fucking Archie Andrews and don't you dare deny it." Cheryl gawked in her gorgeous white and nude bikini, watching as her friend lay back against the hot marble slabs which encased the large pool with the largest grin adorning her plump lips.

"We haven't had sex yet, so technically you aren't completely correct." Y/N winked but carried on before the girl exploded with a hundred questions and could never be turned off, "Trust me, I want to, and I'm sure he does too. But you know, it's his first time, I want it to be perfect for him."

"Y/N/N, you really love him, don't you?" Cheryl gagged to begin with, but she found it sweet in truth. She wanted someone to hold, who would hold her right back just as tight for no other reason than needing to.

Y/N sat back up and paddled her feet, "You have no idea, Cher."

Arch 🧡

That new post should be illegal

Tiger 💛

Ooo

I like this reaction

Maybe I should post more

Like this one

Cheryl pushed me in the pool

And I may have had a drink

Or three

Arch 🧡

Well that's sexy

I swear nobody looks good like that how on earth

You're a goddess

But also

How's she holding up?

Tiger 💛

🥺😇

Broken

But she's strong yk

You coming over for dinner?

Arch 🧡

Yeah Y/D invited my dad too

Need me to pick you up from Cheryl's?

Tiger 💛

Awe cute we love a bromance, and it's all good my mommas coming now anyways :))

Hours had elapsed far too fast and soon the summer heat simmered into cool waves of wind brushing over sun kissed skin. Cheryl's arms were clasped around the blonde's shoulders in a tight embrace.

"Thank you so much, Y/N/N, I don't know what I'd do without you!" The Blossom girl professed with sparkling eyes and a brilliant smile.

Y/N beamed up at her, fingers carding through her damp y/h/c hair as she looked over her shoulder to see her mum pulling into the driveway, "You don't need to thank me, Cher, friends look after each other. Message me if you need me, okay?"

Cheryl promised she would and the two teen girls hugged goodbye, with Y/N soon heading home- listening to her mother gossip about Hal and Alice's screaming match last night, Y/N loved her inability to keep her mouth shut sometimes.

"Mom," The y/h/c stopped her mid sentence and received a side eyed glance in response, "I need to tell you something and you're totally not allowed to freak out while you're driving."

Y/M's eyes widened and her grip tightened around the steering wheel, her daughters very rarely confided in her. While she knew her youngest was safe in her promiscuity, neither of Y/M Robins' girls ever shared their secrets so for the most part she took finding out into her own hands.

"Honey," The forty four year old's calm tone was hardly comforting to the teenager, "if this is about you and Archie fooling around, your father and I figured that out a long time ago, like so long ago. Who do you think does your laundry? When your underwear starting looking like dental floss, we caught on pretty quickly."

Y/N felt like a deer in headlights, "Mum, what the hell?" Her cheeks heated to an inhuman temperature.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, as long as you're being safe and he's-"

"For the second time today, and I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but I am not having sex with Archie Andrews!" Y/N's high pitched voice sounded through the car. It truly was a blessing and a curse to have such open minded parents in situations like this. She thought about telling her mother the truth, but Y/M was a blabber mouth as well as a gossip, so Y/N chose to withhold certain pieces of information.

The Robins matriarch dropped the subject but didn't forget about her daughter's tone, and continued to ramble on about how odd she found Penelope Blossom and the whole Blossom family in general. "Like why on Earth is Rose in a wooden wheelchair? They know it's the twenty first century, right?"

As expected, the Robins household was once again filled with warm laughter and copious amounts of food. The topic of Jason was skimmed over, and Y/S found herself away from the dinner table. The eldest Robins sibling was currently pleading with Alice as she began shoving all of Polly's belongings in the boot of Hal's car. She couldn't comprehend life without her best friend, not after losing Jason. They were meant to be going travelling together for a year- working the worst jobs and staying up all night to watch the sun rise in different countries. But instead, Y/S's eyes were blinded by tears as she screamed down the street at the speeding car, with Polly Cooper taken out of her life indefinitely.

Y/N was oblivious to the dark inner workings of the Cooper clan, Betty's knowledge about her and Archie unbeknownst to the loved up teens. She'd spent every second not occupied by her internship trying to justify the romantic act as a fleeting moment of loneliness fuelled by alcohol. She wrote in her diary ideas on how she could win Archie back over, not knowing it was in fact, too late. Betty found herself hopelessly in love with the boy next door, unfortunately for her, the girl across the road was the only one his mind found.

Archie and Y/N washed up while their parents resided to the living room with three glasses and a bottle of white wine. The short girl turned the tap off after placing the last utensil on the draining board, flicking her sudsy hands at the boy's face. "What the-"

She didn't give him a chance to finish that thought, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his torso- planting a kiss onto his lips, then cheeks, then forehead. The two fell entranced by each other, planting pecks across nape of her neck and top of his head.

"Son," Fred's voice called out from the next room and the two immediately pulled apart, hearts beating in their ears, "we're going in a minute."

"Alright." He replied, placing his girlfriend on the floor once more.

"I wish you'd stay." Y/N pouted childishly, she meant the words entirely but hated feeling overbearing. Her life had been turned upside down this summer, it started off with her unable to fall asleep with another person next to her- now Archie's chest was her most comfortable pillow and is arms were the warmest blanket.

"Tomorrow night instead, Princess? I promised my dad I'd spend more time with him before senior year." The boy reasoned, holding her close and unknowingly feeling the exact same way, he adored holding her by her waist and pulling her close under the duvet.

"Monopoly night at yours?" She grinned and he nodded back in reply, the two sharing a final kiss in the kitchen before walking into the hallway.

Y/N felt at ease as she wished the two a goodnight and headed up to bed. She took off her tea dress and replaced it with Archie's bulldog t-shirt, managing to reach the same length on her thighs as her dress did.

Arch 🧡

I can still smell your perfume on my sheets

Tiger 💛

Marking my territory obviously x

Arch 🧡

I love it

Hope you sleep well baby x

Tiger 💛

Call me that tomorrow and we won't be sleeping so you better rest up tonight x

Arch 🧡

Whatever you say, baby x

Tiger 💛

Goodnight x

Arch 🧡

Night princess x

part eight?

wanna be tagged? just send in an ask x

[damnlance]

Klance angsty prompt 6 please 👀

Klangst Prompt #6

6. “You’ve never hurt me. Ever”

Summary: Lately, Lance has been stressed beyond the point of breaking… The end of the war was 3 years ago and yet, it’s not enough time to pass for Lance to feel better. Not even close. Everyone has always called him a hero. And since the day they landed back on earth, everyone has gone so far to ask for photos and autographs and all that. These days Lance is sick of it.

Or; the pressures of being the ‘savior of earth’ has been building up inside of Lance, causing him to erupt on any and everyone.

Good thing he has his amazing boyfriend.

-there’s a slow start, but I PROMISE it’s klance so just keep reading!

-also galra (kitten) Keith ?? I love him

-

It all started with a fangirl just a few weeks ago.

Lance decided to walk to his favorite coffee shop one chilly afternoon. He woke up really late and was immediately craving something sweet yet bitter. And since he lives with most of his family, running out of coffee five days after buying a brand new pack of it is very common, especially when no one wants to buy more for whatever reason.

So there Lance was, walking down the street. Hands tucked into his blue lion hoodie (thanks to all the merch the fans of voltron have made over the years), making his way to the closest coffee shop near his home. And then he hears the high pitched squeal of a girl at least 10 feet away from him. Then 9 feet.. then 6.. then 4 because she’s literally running at him with the speed of a hundred cheetahs chasing a gazelle until she’s right there, face to face with Lance.

“Oh my god!!” She yelled, jumping up and down like some 5 year old girl getting a puppy. She was about 5’7, short brown hair and huge blue eyes that almost resembled Lance’s. She wore this giant faux fur coat and beanie to match, and her phone was IN LANCE’S FACE.

She was all over him and it was attracting others to stare their way. Lance tried to calm her down by smiling and using a little of his charm but it was just making the girl fangirl even more. So he took a picture with her to be on his way before the coffee shop got too busy. But she wouldn’t back off. Apparently she wasn’t satisfied with the picture, something about how her eyes were closed? Or how blurry it came out? Lance couldn't remember, he just wanted his coffee.

The girl kept hounding him and following him, demanding that he retake the picture with her. Lance let her down easy, saying how he needed to be someplace important and that he was running late. The girl kept pushing him. Following his every move, right on his heels. Begging, pleading with him to take more pictures because she ‘needed them,’ whatever that meant. Lance tried his hardest to be nice and polite because as a former paladin of voltron and as one of seven someone’s who have saved the entire universe, his image is everything. Without him or his former paladins, there would probably be no earth. So he stopped in his tracks and took a better picture with the girl.

He felt good to see her happy because of something that he had done. Plus he looked really good in that picture, who knew the earth’s natural lighting at 1pm could make his skin look so smooth? Once he gave his approval of the better pic, he was on his way again, hoping that the line to the coffee shop wasn’t even longer now. As he started to fast walk down the busy sidewalk, something yanked him back by the neck and he came crashing down. Literally. He fell right back on his ass and when he looked up, this same crazy girl was looming over him like a mad woman. With his blue hand-knit wool scarf dangling from her grabby hands. The anger that had been simmering in Lance’s gut was at a full blown boil and he was just about ready to explode. So.. he kinda did..

Long and embarrassing story short, Lance yelled at her. He snatched his blue scarf out of her hands so fast, it scared her, and as he rubbed his most likely bruised tailbone, he got in her face and began blaming her for the world's most horrible fan interaction. He was so angry, that he balled his fists, stomped his foot and had veins protruding out of his neck and forehead. He called her names and most likely spit in her face, but he didn’t care. And when he was done, he took a step back and examined the girl in front of him. She was folded in on herself, holding her arms close to her body as her bottom lip quivered and fat, giant tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked so.. mortified. And actually.. scared of him. Like if Lance were to say anything or move a muscle, she’d flinch.

Seconds later, Lance’s face softened into something regretful and he went out to reach for her, to apologize. But, like he knew she would, she flinched. And then hurried away like he was a mad man. All the while crying and clutching her phone to her chest. Lance felt absolutely demolished inside. He tried to go after her but his feet were glued to the cement of the sidewalk. He didn’t even want his coffee anymore.

Thankfully, there were no viral videos or photos or posts about the incident. Lance ended up tracking the girl down a few days later and showered her with all the love he could muster, even taking as many pics as she wanted and liking them on Instagram when she tagged him. But.. something inside him still felt so horrible about the incident. For a moment, Lance had realized that he genuinely hurt that girl for no real reason. He just wanted some coffee but is coffee more important than the people who are thankful and want to show their gratitude for him for everything he did with voltron? If the roles were reversed and he stayed on earth, he would be bending over backwards to let all the paladins know just how thankful he was to live another day on their planet. That girl probably had family, friends, maybe a spouse and kids, and in the midst of that horrible battle 3 years ago, she most likely thought that one of those days would be her last with them.

It broke Lance’s heart thinking about it. He really hurt her. Sure, he made it right and she forgave him, but in that single moment, he actually hurt someone enough to make them cry, to make them run away from him. It was a terrible feeling. It wasn’t Lance. He never wanted that to happen again.

And at the same time.. he.. kinda never wanted to be the savior of earth. Not really.. he just wanted to feel like he had a place in the universe, and to know that he played an important role. That he mattered.

Guess he really matters now..

He sends a long text to Keith with shaky hands.

Message delivered..

The second he walked through the door, his phone rang. It was a three-way call with Hunk and Pidge. Lance pressed the green button to answer and placed the phone to his ear. Immediately, Hunk starts going on and on about how much he misses Lance and when the next time they’ll see each other will be. Lance smiled at his best friend’s inability to ever take a breath between sentences and replied with a warm ‘I miss you too, buddy.’ They got to catching up as Lance ordered his garlic knots and sat down at a private booth near the back of the place. He didn’t want to draw any attention to himself, especially when he got the call from his best friends.

Hunk tells him all the great things that’s been happening at the Garrison and even on the Atlas. He tells him how his restaurant is doing and how his family is doing and how Shay is doing. Pidge catches him up on things with her family, some new inventions she’s been working on, and how being the youngest teacher at the Garrison is going. Lance listens and gives his two cents on everything his friends tell him and honestly, he couldn’t be more happy for them. The way they were able to just get their lives together 3 years after the war is.. incredible. It made him think about everything he’s done since the war ended. Which wasn’t much.. he took over his family’s farm and brought it back to life, he helps out Colleen, Pidge’s mom, with medicine and finding cures to strange space illnesses with plants she has him grow on his farm, and his family’s market wouldn’t be as popular or swarming with business if he didn’t work there. Sad but true. And that’s really it. He hasn’t done much else. Nothing life changing or breathtaking like his friends.

But Hunk and Pidge don’t need to know that. So he simply replies with: “Oh, ya know.. same old, same old,” and hopes it works enough to keep the conversation flowing and follow up questions at bay. It does.

30 minutes into their conversation and Lance is starting to feel a little.. agitated. With the garlic knots consumed and digesting in his stomach, he sits in the booth, alone, listening to his friends go on and on and on about their perfect jobs and their perfect little lives. He gets lost a few times and at one point has literally no idea what they’re talking about. When he tries to ask what or who or even get the slightest details, Pidge lets out a sigh that Lance can’t help but feel like is out of annoyance. Lance sighs back and continues to stay silent because obviously he’s not getting anywhere. Why even bother putting him on a call that Hunk and Pidge could have just had on their own??

Balling his fist, Lance let out a loud, overdramatic sigh. He didn’t care if his friends heard it or how they took it. He was upset. The conversation between his two friends comes to a halt and then awkward silence. Pidge is the first to speak up with a:

“Something you wanna add, Lance?” The annoyance in her voice is very much there and Lance doesn’t miss it. He scoffs loudly and grits his teeth.

“No.” He says, voice deepening in anger.

“Oh really?” Pidge asks, poking the sleeping bear that lies dormant in lance. “Cause it sure sounds like it to me. Why don’t you stop being such a fucking child and tell us what’s bothering you this time??”

Lance damn near growls.

The line has gone quiet now. Hunk’s unsteady breathing is audible but other than that, silence. Lance digs his nails into the skin of his palms and tries to keep the angry tears in his eyes from falling down his cheeks. With a deep shaky breath, he smiles through the pain.

“You know what, Katie,” Lance spits and it makes Hunk gasp. “Fuck YOU and this stupid, shitty attitude you have all the time!”

“Oh, god..” Hunk winces.

“I don’t know what the actual fuck crawled up your ass,” Lance continues, “but I’m sick of it! I've been sick of it for years! I’m sick of keeping my mouth shut and quite frankly, I’m sick of YOU!”

Lance is standing up out of his seat now. His chest heaves up and down as the angry tears have fallen past his face and down his neck. His voice is two octaves deep from anger and the skin of his palm is bloody from how hard he’s digging his nails into it. The place has gone quiet now and Lance can feel multiple pairs of eyes on him. So much for not drawing any attention to himself.

The line is quiet. Then, the sound of a huff of breath. A small laugh.. And then:

“Wow. Nice one, McClain..” Pidge’s voice is small, but so full of something. “Go screw yourself, you asshole.”

The call ends. Whether Pidge or Hunk ended it, is unclear.

Minutes pass, and Lance is still standing in the same place with the phone to his ear. Tears are running down his face, and his Altean marks are buzzing so loud in his ears. His heart is pounding in his ribcage and ice cold sorrow runs through his veins..

He sends a long text to Keith with shaky hands.

Message delivered...

Now, exactly 3 months since that little incident, Lance sits alone in his home. In his childhood bedroom he can’t seem to rearrange because he’s still holding out hope that one day he’ll turn back time and be his child self and get a redo on his life. But hey, it’s better this way. After the whole dilemma with Pidge, Hunk tried to call Lance to help but ended up getting his feelings hurt. Yep. By Lance. Because Lance is a big jerk and can’t stop hurting everyone around him.

So he hasn’t talked to Pidge or Hunk since then. Mostly out of guilt and shame because those two are supposed to be his bestest friends and he hurt them. Nothing he could say or do could make up for his selfish mind and stupid mouth. Lance had this whole plan to go to Shiro about it, to get his advice so Lance could make it all better.

But Pidge being Pidge.. texted the whole thing in their group chat and.. well.. everyone saw it. Shiro, Hunk, Matt, even Keith possibly! It got so bad that Lance’s phone kept going off with alerts from everyone asking what happened and what he said. Curtis tried calling him and left a few messages. Shiro left him a long voicemail. And of course the word traveled so fast that it reached New Altea and Coran got involved. Which caused Romelle to be involved, too. She gossiped to Acxa, who told her girlfriend, who happens to be Lance’s sister, Veronica. Veronica blabbed to Rachel, who blabbed to Marco, who blabbed to Luis.. who blabbed to Lance’s dad.. WHO BLABBED TO LANCE’S MOM. And boy did she have some interesting words for him in the SEVEN, LONG voicemails asking exactly ‘what happened’and ‘why The Holt siblings were so angry with him.’

Everything escalated so fast. Lance can’t even remember what he said. Or why he said it. Since the war ended, it’s been so hard on him. Sure, it’s been hard on everyone, but for Lance it’s been different. Everyone looks up to him for some reason and expects him to do so good and be the hero they all think he is, when in reality? He was just a leg…

Exactly what did he gain from being a paladin of voltron anyway?? Get banged up and bruised almost everyday he was out there? Have people on his case, constantly reminding him how unimportant he was to the team? Pointing out all of his flaws and mistakes and focusing on those when there’s a million other good things he’s done that towers over all the bad shit?? Sure, he returned home to his family who he literally missed and cried for every single day, but he lost the love of his life in the process.

To put it all out there, Lance didn’t really gain anything. He got to travel through space, which was his dream since he was a little kid, and then space chewed him up and spit him out as some fake hero with PTSD and other trauma that will haunt him for the rest of his pathetic life.

So.. these past 3 months.

Lance has been sitting up in his childhood room.

Wishing he could use the power of Altea or something to turn back time.

And be his younger self.

His innocent self.

His happier self.

Back when he wasn’t so fucked up and had dreams and goals.

Back when everyone was proud of him.

Back to when he didn’t know who Allura was or that she even existed. Back to when Voltron didn’t exist either and everything was fucking fine.

Staring up at his ceiling, Lance counts the glow in the dark stars that he’s had up there since he was six years old. Somehow they’re still glowing and Lance is thankful for that because at 3 in the morning when the world is fast asleep and everything is pitch black, he could use the light.

It comforts him. Reminds him of a simpler, more happier time in his life.

Something sharp digs through Lance’s chest as he stares at those fake neon stars, and it hurts really bad. His breathing begins to quicken, matching the beat of his heart, and a lump finds its way up his throat. Tears pool in the rim of his eyes and spill down the corners, streaming down the sides of his face.

And they don’t stop. The stars get blurrier as Lance’s breathing gets heavier. His body begins to tremble with every hiccup of a sob that pours out of him and he’s crying so hard that his brain throbs in his head.

He curls in on himself in his bed and wraps his arms around his torso, crying uncontrollably into his space themed pillow. His Altean marks begin to buzz and glow and he can’t bring himself to care because all he wants to do is disappear.

Disappear from this game called life.

He types a text to Keith with teary eyes and a quivering bottom lip.

Message.. deleted…

As 3 in the morning turns to 4, a pod lands in the grass just a couple yards away from Lance’s farm. Boot covered feet step out of said pod and touch the wet grass waiting for them. It’s still dark out and the only light visible are the fireflies that buzz around a pair of cowboy booted feet. Those booted feet begin to walk, carrying a tall, broad, raven haired stranger up a hill to Lance’s home. The frogs and crickets seem to grow louder as the stranger in black cowboy boots makes their way to the front porch and pulls back the creaky screen door to a cold, locked doorknob. A set of keys are pulled out and a specific blue key is pushed inside the lock, turning and unlocking the door. The stranger walks in and is instantly met.. with..

Crying??

“H-Hello??” The stranger calls out. “Lance?”

The crying stops.

It’s dead quiet..

The door shuts on its own and the echo around the house is eery.

Light footsteps descend the stairs and before they know it, the stranger is being tackled to the ground in a bear hug.

“Ah-! Lance!?” They yell as the duffel bag from their hand falls to the ground.

“Keith!!” Lance yells out, voice rasped from endless crying.

Keith can immediately hear it and wraps his arms around Lance so tight, holding him close. His eyes glow yellow, something that usually happens out of fear, anger, or protectiveness, and his lips protrude to make way for his double set of fangs that are ready to bite any and everyone.

“Lance!” Keith tries to sit up but is pinned to the ground with all of Lance’s dead body weight. “Lance, honey, are you hurt? What’s wrong??”

A hand through curly brown locks and Lance’s crying dies down. He snuggles his face into Keith’s neck and hiccups through a response. Something too incoherent for Keith to make out, but he feels it has something to do with why he was told to go home ASAP.

A few weeks ago, Keith was contacted by Acxa via video chat. They talked and caught up for a few minutes before Acxa told Keith the real reason for her call. She explained that Veronica was having a tough time reaching out to Lance and that he might be in some kind of trouble. Not knowing the full extent of the story, Acxa only told Keith what she heard from Veronica and others. Fearing the worst, Keith packed up his shit and set a course for Earth as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, there were some setbacks on his way over where he had to make a few stops to tend to aliens in need because after all, that’s still his job as a blade member, but when that got finished, Keith hightailed it over. His Galra instincts wouldn't allow him to stay away for much longer anyway and having accepted his galra side a long time ago, it would have been best for everyone to let him go home.

Keith now lays in Lance’s bed, every inch of Lance’s body wrapped up around him like a snake. Keith strokes Lance’s hair soothingly and holds him close to his chest, right over his beating heart. A deep, soothing purr emits itself from Keith’s body and calms Lance’s nerves right down to the bone. Keith knows how much Lance adoreshis Galran features and at this point, Keith would do absolutely anything for Lance to feel better.

They talked about everything that happened and are now in the cuddle stage. Lance has his eyes shut, listening to Keith purr just for him. Long limbs wrapped around every inch of his boyfriend while Keith’s long nails scratch at his scalp, life is so good.

Life is so good with Keith around.

“So,” Keith says, voice as calm as ever. “What exactly did Pidge say?”

“Oh,” Lance answers, his voice quiet as a mouse. “You didn’t see the messages in the group chat?”

“No.” Keith shrugs, laying his cheek against Lance’s forehead. “Been kinda busy.. And I actually don’t understand how a group chat works.”

That rises a chuckle out of Lance as he sits up a bit to reach for his phone on the bedside dresser.

“Idiot,” he whispers with a small smile on his face and it makes Keith light up, his purring becoming a bit louder.

Lance lays back on Keith’s chest as he scrolls through the messages on his phone. When he finds the message from Pidge, Lance clears his scratchy throat and sniffs.

“From Pidgeotto,” he starts, looking at Pidge’s name in their ✨Paladudes✨ group chat. “Just an FYI lance is a.. a total fucking jackass and I am no longer friends with him..”

Keith immediately frowns at that.

Lance continues. “He can suck my big toe for all I care. I’m done with him. Have fun being a lonely loser @LanceyPants.”

“What the fuck?” Keith says, eyes glowing yellow in the dark room. “Why would she say that!?”

Lance shakes his head, tears forming in his eyes again. “Because she was right. I am a jackass..”

“Lance, no!” Keith sits up, bringing Lance with him. They sit side by side as Lance holds himself and looks down at his space blanket. He shrugs once and sniffs.

“Keith, stop,” he says, wiping a tear from his eye. “Look, I said some very hurtful things to her and she lashed out in a perfectly normal way..”

“Normal!?” Keith scoffs, grabbing Lance’s phone and rereading the message again. “Jackass? Loser?? Come on, Lance, she’s completely bullying you and you know it!”

Lance whips around with an angry expression on his face “Because I deserve it!”

The room grows quiet. Keith takes a deep breath and reaches over to grab Lance’s shoulders.

“Calm.” He says, taking a deep breath for Lance to mimic. Lance takes a deep breath with him and lets it out. Keith begins to purr again and it calms Lance even more.

“I.. Sorry..”

Keith nods. He reaches up to cup Lance’s cheek and rubs his thumb across Lance’s tear stained eye.

“You know I would never hurt anyone on purpose..” Lance sniffs. “That’s not who I am. I’m just.. I’m tired of being this symbol of everything strong and good and brave.”

“Mhm,” Keith rubs Lance’s back, leaning in closer to him to nuzzle his forehead. Lance nuzzles back and Keith’s purrs.

“I keep.. I keep hurting everyone I care about..” Lance whispers in a voice so low and fragile, it nearly shatters Keith’s heart.

“That’s not true.” Keith pulls back a little to look into Lance’s teary blue eyes. “Lance, you are the most incredible, selfless, honest person I’ve ever known. You are strong and good and brave even if you don’t mean to be. Or want to be.”

Lance pulls away and stares at his hands. Keith keeps his eyes focused on Lance.

“I know you think you hurt that fangirl from a few months ago.” Keith continues. “Or Pidge. Or Hunk. Or your parents or friend or family or whoever, but you could never hurt anyone.”

“Yeah, right,” Lance shakes his head. “I already did. I hurt everyone.”

“And even if that’s true,” Keith grabs Lance’s hands in his own, “which it’s not, you’re not doing it on purpose. You have a right to your own feelings! And you have a right to speak your mind.”

“And what if that hurts people??” Lance looks up and meets teary eyes to indigo ones. “What if I accidentally hurt my mama or my sisters or brothers, or nieces and nephews because I can’t be who they want me to be, who they think I am!?”

“Lance,” Keith shakes his head.

“What if I hurt you???” Lance’s eyes go wide. He looks Keith up and down and exhales a panicked breath. “God, Keith.. wh-what if I hurt you??”

“Oh, Lancey,” Keith sighs that lovey-dovey sigh where his eyes go all big and black like a cat’s, and the purr in his chest gets louder. “You’ve never hurt me. Ever.”

Lance stares into Keith’s eyes like they’re his lifeline.

“B-but.. but what if-?”

“No more what if’s!” Keith cuts Lance off by covering his mouth with his hand. “Listen to me, Lance. Are you listening??”

Lance nods repeatedly.

“Good,” Keith smiles, all crooked and cute and beautiful. “The only person you ever need to worry about hurting is yourself.”

And there it is. The one thing Lance has been dying to hear without knowing he’d been dying to hear it. It’s like a breath of fresh air, or cool rain on a hot and sweaty day. The permission he needed but didn’t really need. He has a right to care about himself and put himself first but whenever he tries, the guilt eats him alive. Why should he care about himself when he has to care more about others???

No. That’s not the case. It’s never been the case.

“You’ve gotta stop doing this to yourself,” Keith finishes, stroking the endless sea of tears that are falling from Lance’s eyes. He strokes Lance’s glowing Altean marks and leans forward to kiss one softly. Lance trembles slightly, closing his eyes to bask in the moment.

“I’m sure Pidge has gotten over it by now,” Keith reassures. “She just has too much pride to make the first more and apologize. You know how she is.”

“Y-Yeah,” Lance hiccups, nodding.

“And Hunk?” Keith scoffs. “I bet your mailbox is full of letters from him, explaining how sorry he is and hoping you’re doing alright. You know if he can’t reach you from your phone, he has other ways.”

That makes Lance smile.

“There’s probably cookies on the way right now.” He looks into Keith’s eyes, exhaling a small laugh.

“Oh, yeah,” Keith agrees, laughing that angelic laugh and showing off his perfect pearly fangs. Lance’s heart skips a fucking beat.

“And your fangirl?” Keith’s purring stops. “Well, she never should have gotten all up in your space that’s for sure. You had every right to punch her.”

“Keith!” Lance squeaks, face contorting into shock and confusion. “I-I didn’t punch her!”

“Really?” Confusion etches itself all over Keith’s features and he puts a finger to his chin. “I could have sworn I read that in your text.”

“No way, man!” Lance defends, waving his arms around. “Why would I ever in my life-!” He stops mid sentence to see the shit-eating grin plastered on Keith’s face.

“Just kiddin, lil lady,” Keith says in his best southern accent, smiling big and wide.

Lance bursts out into a fit of laughter, hitting Keith’s chest and arms and back. Keith shields himself and laughs, grabbing Lance’s arms and bringing him down onto the mattress. They fall back with Keith looming over Lance, his long raven hair surrounding their faces.

Lance stares up into those beautiful, indigo eyes and sniffs, unable to look away. He reaches up and cups Keith’s face, rubbing his thumb over Keith’s Galran stripe.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Keith asks in his softest voice, eyes roaming from Lance’s teary blue eyes to his luscious lips.

“Yes,” Lance nods, not even bothering to blink because if he does, he’ll miss Keith’s everything.

“Don’t let anyone get you down, my sweetheart.” Keith whispers, leaning in closer. “Ever.”

Lance nods.

“And if they do,” Keith’s face turns serious, indigo eyes going dark. “I’ll bite their throats out and hand them to you on a silver platter.”

“Keith,” Lance exhales, going red in the face and ears. “Holy shit, you can’t just say things l-like that.”

Keith’s hard demeanor falls as he giggles and leans in close. Before they close the gap between their lips, Lance whispers, “And hey. I thought pet names were my thing?”

And Keith kisses him to shut him up.

They kiss like they haven’t seen each other in years and it’s the greatest Lance has ever felt. Keith kisses like he’s starving for it, craving it so much more than air and it’s hot and powerful and so, so damn good.

Lance wraps his arms and legs around Keith’s body and kisses him back with fervor. He allows Keith to make him feel better, and kisses his pain away. Keith pulls away slowly, licking into Lance’s mouth before he does so. Lance lets out a small groan and smiles before he opens his eyes.

“I love you,” he whispers, tucking some hair behind Keith’s ear.

“I love you, more,” Keith whispers back, settling himself between Lance’s legs. “Feeling any better?”

“A little,” Lance looks away, sniffling a little. His eyes focus back to Keith’s and a small smile appears on his kiss swollen lips. “But I know a great way you can make me feel all the way better.”

“Oh, yeah,” Keith smirks, burying his face into Lance neck to start kissing slowly. “And what’s that?”

Lance giggles like a little kid, running his hands up and down Keith’s sides. When Keith pulls back, he trails his kisses up the side of Lance’s face and stops at his Altean mark.

“Make love to me,” Lance whispers, rubbing his nose against Keith’s. “Touch me all over and hold me until the sun comes up and just.. love me. Please..”

Keith’s face softens into something full of love and adoration. He moves forward to peck Lance’s lips, then his chin, and then his other Altean mark.

“Anything you want, my sweet..” he kisses Lance’s cheek. “Beautiful..” he kisses Lance’s jaw. “Amazing.. wonderful..”

“Alright, enough!” Lance laughs, slapping Keith in the back. His cheeks are on fire as he closes his eyes when Keith starts nibbling on his neck with his fangs. A chill runs down Lance’s spine and tingles to his toes, making them curl.

Keith sits up one last time and stares at Lance like he’s the world.

“I’ll take good care of you, baby.” He says with the utmost truth in his sultry voice. “I promise. We’re in this together.”

“Yeah,” Lance nods, letting his tears fall down his face and glowing Altean marks. “Together.”

And as Keith kisses Lance so lovingly, Lance can’t help but be glad that he can’t turn back time to be his younger self. Because with Keith around, he feels all the happiness in the whole world just like he did when he was young.

-END-

(send me a klangst prompt)

[cyndavilachase]

I’m Looking Forward Now 💖Thank you and good bye

So, it’s been a little over a week since Steven Universe Future ended… 

I’ve been hesitant to write this, honestly, but I’m tired of holding myself back from properly expressing myself in fear of appearing overly invested in the media I consume, even in private. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and I feel like these thoughts in particular may resonate with many, so I want to share them. I want to talk about what Steven Universe has done for me personally, both as an artist, and as a person.

I’ve been around since the day the first episode of the original series aired. I actually remember when Steven Universe was just a logo on Wikipedia’s “List of Upcoming Cartoon Network Shows” list, back when I was a freshman in high school. It piqued my interest, but when commercials finally dropped for it, I thought it was going to be bad because of the way marketing handled introducing Steven as a likeable character. There was still something about it that made me want to give it a chance though, so I went online and watched the pilot before the first episode's release. I was hooked immediately. I knew I was going to love it, and I did. I fell so absolutely in love with Steven as a character, and the world that he and the gems lived in. I became obsessed. I was always so excited for new episodes to come out. Little did I know what else it would do for me as I went through my adolescence alongside it.

As the show progressed, it was evident that what I wanted out of a western animated childrens’ cartoon was finally coming into fruition: this show was becoming serialized. There was continuity, there was plot, there was character development-- it was getting deep. It was pushing the groundwork that Adventure Time laid out even further (thank you, Adventure Time).  

I will give credit where credit is due: earlier western childrens’ cartoons I grew up with like Hey Arnold, and Rugrats, among others, also touched on heavy topics, but Steven Universe was able to take similar ideas (and even more complex ones, concerning mental health and relationships) and expand on them outside of contained episodes and/or short arcs. These themes, which were a part of the show’s overarching story, spanned across its entirety. Continuity was rampant. 

What did this mean? It meant kids cartoons didn’t have to be silly and fun all the time and characters weren’t just actors playing a part in 11-minute skits. Steven and the gems would remember things that happened to them, and it affected them and how they would function and play a part in their story. This was a huge deal to me as a teenager. I always wanted the cartoons I grew up with featuring kid characters to feel more. In my own work, I often felt discouraged when combining a fun, cutesy western art style with themes as dark or layered as anime would cover. I always thought it had to be one or the other because an audience wouldn’t take a combination of the two seriously enough, based on discussions I had with classmates, friends, and online analysis I read at the time. Steven Universe proved to me otherwise. This show was opening the door for future cartoons exploring in-depth, adult concepts. I felt so seen as a kid, and was inspired to stick with what I love doing.

I was actually very worried about the show’s survival. It was in fact immensely underrated and the fandom was miniscule. Then in 2014, JailBreak dropped, and it’s popularity exploded. Part of it was because of the complex plot and the themes it was covering like I mentioned, but also because of its representation. 

I remember when fandom theorized that Garnet was a fusion due to grand, tragic reasons. Turns out, she’s simply a metaphor for a very loving w|w relationship. This was huge. I cannot stress how important it is that we continue to normalize healthy canon queer relationships in childens’ media, and Steven Universe finally was the first to do that proper. Introducing these themes offers the chance for a kid to sit there and ask themselves, “Why is this demonized by so many people?” I asked myself exactly that. Ruby and Sapphire were my cartoon LGBT rep. They were the first LGBT couple I ever ecstatically drew fanart of. I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia at the time, and they showed me that I was allowed to love women and feel normal about it. The process of overcoming this was a long one, but they played a part in my very first steps into becoming comfortable with my sexuality. I could go on and on about it’s representation in general-- how it breaks the mold when it comes to showcasing a diverse set of characters in design, in casting, and in breaking gender roles. It’s focus on love and empathy. Steven himself is a big boy, but he's the protagonist, and the show never once makes fun of his weight, or any other bigger characters for that matter. It wasn’t hard to see why the fandom had grown so large.

Fandom was always a joy for me. It was a hobby I picked up when I was in middle school, like many of us here did. I would always cater my experience to fun, and fun only. I only started getting more deeply involved in SU’s fandom when I had just turned into an adult. During the summer of 2016, between my first and second year of college, I drew for the show almost every day non-stop when the Summer of Steven event was going on and posted them online. This was a form of practice for me in order to become not just more comfortable with experimenting with my art, but also to meet new artists, make new friends, and learn to interact with strangers without fear. I dealt with a ton of anxiety when I was in high school. When I was a senior applying to art school for animation, I decided I was going to overcome that anxiety. I made plans to take baby steps to improve myself over the course of my 4 years of college. Joining the fandom, while unforeseen, was definitely a part of that process. I started feeling more confident in sharing my ideas, even if they were fan-made. I fell in love with storyboarding after that summer, when I took my first storyboarding class, and genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere with all of this. I remember finally coming to a point in my classes where I could pitch and not feel hopelessly insecure about it. I was opening up more to my friends and peers. 

But this process, unfortunately, came to a screeching halt. 

My life completely, utterly crumbled under me in the Fall of 2017 due to a series of blows in my personal life that happened in the span of just a couple weeks. My mental health and sense of identity were completely destroyed. All of that confidence I had worked for-- completely ruined. I was alone. I nearly died. My stay at college was extended to 4 and half years, instead of the 4 I had intended. I lost my love for animation-- making it, and watching it. I could no longer watch Steven Universe with the same love I had for it beforehand. It’s a terrible thing, trying to give your attention to something you don’t love anymore, and wanting so desperately to love again. I dropped so many things I loved in my life, including the fandom.

Healing was a long and complicated road. I continued to watch the show all the way up until Change Your Mind aired in the beginning of 2019, and while I still felt empty, that was definitely a turning point for me with it’s encapsulation of self-love. I was hoping James Baxter would get to work on Steven Universe since he guest-animated on Adventure Time, and it was incredible seeing that wish actually come true. The movie came out and while I enjoyed it and thought highly of it, I was still having issues letting myself genuinely love things again, old and new. It was especially difficult because cartoons were my solace as a kid, when things got rough at home. I remember feeling sad because the show ended, and not getting the chance to love it again like I used to while it was still going.

By the time Steven Universe Future was announced, I was finally coming around. I was genuinely starting to feel excitement for art and animation again. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole new epilogue series, but happily ever after, there we were! Prickly Pear aired, and the implications it left in terms of where the story was going did it. I was finally ready to let myself take the dive back into fandom in January of this year. My art blew up, something I wasn’t expecting considering my 2-year hiatus. Following this, I was invited into a discord server containing some of the biggest writers, artists, editors, and analysts in the fandom. I had no idea there were so many talented people in the fandom, some already with degrees, some getting their degrees-- creating stuff for it on the side just for fun. The amount of passion and productivity level here is insane, and so is the amount of discussion that has come out of it.

I didn’t realize it at first, but it was actually helping me gain back the courage to share ideas. I lost my confidence in pitching while I was taking the time to heal, and graduating meant there would no longer be a classroom setting I could practice in. This group helped immensely. 

I have made so many friends through this wonderful series, and I have so many fond memories talking to like-minded creatives, getting feedback and a myriad of sources for inspiration, as well as all of the memes and jokes and weekly theorizations that came about as we all waited on the edges of our seats for episodes to air. I needed this so badly, I needed to get back in touch with my roots, when I would go absolutely hog-wild over a cartoon I loved with people who loved it as much I did. Future has been a blessing for me in this way. I graduated feeling like I was back at square-one, but now I feel like I’m on my way again.

It’s 2020 and while I’m doing great right now, I am honestly still recovering from the total exhaustion that followed after graduating a few months ago, and finally leaving the campus where my life fell apart behind. Needless to say, watching Future was like looking into a mirror. Watching one of my favorite characters of all time-- one that grew up with me-- go through so many of the same things I went through not too long ago was absolutely insane to watch unfold. It’s such an important thing too, to show a character go through the process of breaking down over trauma and all the nasty things that come with it, and to have them go on the road to healing. Steven got that therapy. He wasn’t blamed. The gems were called out. The finale was everything I could have ever hoped for. The catharsis I experienced watching it was out of this world.

As I continue my own healing journey, I will always look up to the storyboard artists, revisionists, and designers that I have been following over these past 7 years, as well as the new ones introduced in Future. It's been such a joy watching these artists release their promo art for episodes, talk about their experiences working on the show, and post the work they've done for it alongside episodes airing.

Thank you Rebecca Sugar, the Crewniverse, and the fans, for making this such a truly wonderful and unique experience. Thank you for reminding me that I am, and always will be, an artist, a cartoonist, and a fan. Thank you, my followers, for the overwhelmingly positive response to my artwork. I have had so much fun interacting and discussing the show with you all again over these past few months. Steven Universe and it’s fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and it will always be a classic that I will return to for comfort and inspiration for decades to come. I am sad that the cartoon renaissance is over, but so many doors have been opened thanks to this show. I am so, so excited to see what this show will inspire in the future, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to be a part of that. 

Goodbye Steven, thank you for everything. I wish you healing, and I wish Rebecca and the team a well-deserved rest. ♥️

-Cynthia D.

[minimalismdiary]

Quitting social media | digital minimalism

I deleted facebook 8 years ago, snapchat 5 years ago, instagram 3 years ago, twitter 2 years ago and gladly never made tiktok

Shopaholic

I was influenced by beauty bloggers very badly which led me to have multiple identity crisis's and change my style many times. Shopping was a lifestyle and hobby for me since I never made space for saving any money. As a result my wardrobe was exploding in clothes that I wore once or twice or never even had the opportunity to wear. This was the pivotal moment that started minimalism because I had no choice but to get rid of my clothes and start decluttering.

Inconsistent style

Changing styles and experimenting with appearance was difficult to portray online due to fear of judgements. Through the years I had many different phases and would completely erase my feed and start from scratch for every new era. This made me worry about what others will think about my inconsistency

Going broke to look rich

Funding for the lifestyle for a perfect feed was expensive due to outings, diners, and mainly outfits. It seemed on the surface that I was wealthy but the truth was that every penny was spent on the image with nothing being saved or spent wisely. I would see a photo of a blogger and try to replicate it by buying a similar outfit and going to the same location

Insecurities

I was constantly comparing my appearance to that of others even though they have gone through plastic surgeries. I would spend hours contemplating going through these surgeries to feel as beautiful as them.

Makeup

My makeup obsession stemmed from my insecurities however social media encouraged me to be dependent on makeup. The perfect image meant I felt the need to wear a full face of makeup every time I left the house in order to be picture perfect every second. This made me feel worse about my true self and more insecure when bare faced. Now I only wear makeup a few times a year for occasions and I can confidently be natural outdoors. There's no more pressure for selfies.

Aesthetic lifestyle

Maintaining a certain style or aesthetic became exhausting and was draining my energy because I felt like I trapped myself in to one aesthetically pleasing box

False portrayal

I no longer wanted to deceive everyone by only sharing best moments when my reality was the complete opposite in every way from my appearance and makeup to what was really happening behind close doors. My life was far from perfect so I felt fake by presenting it as if it was

Jealousy and envy

Posting regularly and so perfectly invited jealousy and envy which negatively effected my life. A private life has become a much happier life. I don't trust that everyone wants the best for me and is happy for my successes so I keep everything to myself.

Poor time management

Every minute of the day was about taking pictures to share online in order to seem interesting or aesthetically pleasing. This wasted a lot of time and cause problems by missing things or running late. Especially getting a daily selfie before leaving the house.

Productivity

The lack of productivity was terrible. I never achieved anything for several years until I quit social media and focussed on improving myself. I now fill boredom and spare time for good habits. As a result I've studied 3 courses, joined 3 classes, read 15 books within 6 months, and take morning jogs a few times a week

Celebrity culture

It was part of my routine to check the pages of my favourite celebrities and show them some love. This love turned into idolisation and consumed me with their lives and drama. I would passionately speak about celebrity gossip in majority of my conversations. Now I'm oblivious and focus on my life and better it.

Conversations

I was having less conversations by being more focussed on taking the perfect photo instead of talking with the friend infront of me which made the quality of our time together worse on my behalf. I view this as inconsiderate behaviour now and give my full attention to everyone.

Socialising

Since I don't know what my few friends are up to and they don't know anything about me either I'm required to reach out and directly make plans together. This has made for better real life experiences that no one needs to know about through posting it online. I'm in the present moment.

Sleep routine

The addiction to blu light exposure was apparent in my tendency to mindlessly scroll until the sun would rise. Scrolling had no time limit which made sleep very challenging. Getting out of bed and getting tasks done also took a lot of effort due to scrolling on apps. Now I fall asleep quicker and get out bed faster.

[celestialvoid-fanfiction]

I told myself I’d never post about my mental health and toxic family on my blog again, but I feel like I’m going to explode and I need to talk to someone.

TW: coming out, gaslighting, villainising, toxicity

So, for those who don’t know, I grew up in a very abusive home. My parents were psychologically and verbally abusive. I am the youngest of 2 kids and almost all of the abuse was directed at me. When my parents divorced, I moved in with my mum because I thought my dad was the abusive one and I had no relationship with him, nor did I feel safe with him. So, I’ve been living with my mum for nearly 10 years and in those ten years, I have been subjected to 100% of her shit. If she’s angry, she takes it out on me; if she’s upset with my brother, it’s somehow my fault.  

Last year, I realised that I was nonbinary, and I felt confident enough to come out to friends and family - but only a few listened. So I tried again a few weeks ago: my brother didn’t seem to listen, his fiancé did, my high school friends listened and are trying, but my mum - the person I have to face every day - is another story.

Last month, I talked to my psych about coming out to her and why I was terrified of confronting her about my identity and I realised it’s because part of me is terrified of being thrown out of the house, but more so, I’m terrified of the backlash I’d face from her and of the idea of her not accepting me and me having to cut her out of my life because she’s the only family I have (my brother’s turning into my dad and doesn’t talk to me, and my dad is out of my life). But this was something that was eating me up inside.

Last week, my mum and I started watching the new season of Queer Eye and there's an episode where a trans girl sits down with her dad who didn't accept her transition to ask why because he meant so much to her (they ended up making up in the end and he's supportive of her). Anyway, I used this as a foundation for the conversation I needed to have with my mum, because she only seems to understand something if she has a reference as a foundation. And (as my psych suggested) I asked her directly if the reason she calls me my birthname and she/her is because she can't accept me as nonbinary. She said that she ‘doesn't not accept [me]’ (her exact words; as usual avoiding the direct answer I need which would be 'yes' she accepts me or 'no' she doesn't) but for 20+ years I've been a girl/her daughter.

I explained that I've never been actually been a girl, I've just been told I had to be a girl because of my biology, but I am nonbinary. 

My next question was “What can I do to help you remember or relearn my name and pronouns?" and this is where the toxicity came in. I asked if it would help if I reminded her or corrected her whenever she used she/her pronouns or my birthname, and she said "No, because you always bite off my head when you do that." 

1 - I have never corrected or reminded my mother about my name or gender because I live in fear the backlash I'd get from her. 

2 - She villainises me, so that I feel bad for speaking up. She makes me feel bad for asking to be recognised for who I am and makes it sound as though simply asking for something is an act of aggression (which is something my psych has pointed out: I never ask anyone for anything because I've been taught it's selfish and aggressive/abusive) 

3 - She continues to gaslight and abuse me. What’s more, just the other day she said she has never gaslit me, verbally or psychologically abused me, and it was only my dad who did when it was both of them.

What's more, even though I sat down to have this conversation with her and have come out to her many times before this conversations, she still refuses to acknowledge that I’m nonbinary, use they/them pronouns, gender neutral terms, or ‘Jay’ or ‘AJ’ (the names I chose). In fact, she intentionally goes out of her way to call me my birthname (Alicia), the shortened version of my name/nickname that I’ve hated since I was a toddler (Leash), and she/her. I pointed out that ever since I came out as nonbinary, she's been using she/her and my birthname more often and she said she hasn't. But, before I came out, she'd call me 'chook' (which I don’t like but tolerate) or AJ, but as soon as I came out to her early last year, she only calls me Leash and Alicia. So she's gaslighting me on that too.

And now that she’s resigned from her job and not looking for another one, she’s home 24/7 and I have to face this constant barrage. It’s tearing me apart but I can’t leave because she’s left me emotionally and financially dependent on her.

I’m stuck and I’m not allowed to be who I am or stand up for myself. I’ve tried so many times, so many different ways, that at this point, I don’t know what to do.

[allegra-writes]

"Bad together"

Prologue: Benjamin Reilly

Peter Parker x Reader

General audiences

Warnings: none.

"And if I'm dead to you

Why are you at the wake?

Cursing my name, wishing I stayed"

My tears ricochet - Taylor Swift

"... It's a disaster! Look at her! It's like someone took a look at Black Cat, selected everything that made her sexy and then took it out!"

Black Cat. The name froze the young photographer on his tracks right outside his boss' office. He hadn't heard that name in a long time, the last sighting had been well over a year ago. He would know.  After all, it had been him, the very last person to have seen Felicia Hardy, alive or dead.

"What are you talking about? That looks hot af, not to mention badass!" Jade's persuasive voice reached his ears, making him smirk: It was no secret the chief editor had a soft spot for the young intern. And, on her part, the petite brunette was a firecracker. Poor old Jameson didn't stand a chance. "Come on, dad. Single handedly taking down three of the Kingpin's goons? That's impressive. It deserves to be one of the slides!" 

"Not if we don't get a higher quality picture. That blurry video is good enough for a thumbnail, but not for a slide" Slides were a big deal, they were the Dailybugle.net's equivalent of a front page, and if J. Jonah Jameson took something seriously, it was his web site. He prided himself in the quality of the "receipts" of his "tea", as if that validated the trashiness of the bullshit articles he posted, more fiction from hyper imaginative wannabe writers than serious work from real reporters. 

"Well, then let's get the pictures. Where is that star photographer of yours?" 

The photographer rolled his eyes, typical Jade. As if the queen of cool didn't know his name. As if she hadn't graced his bed a handful of times already. 

"That's a good question. Dolores, get me Reilly!"

"I'm here, Jonah" Ben finally stepped inside the office, throwing an envelope on Jameson's desk before throwing himself on a chair across it. He could feel Jade's eyes on him, almost like a physical caress, trailing from the long, slick back curls on the top of his head, to the muscles of his arms, threatening to rip open the seams at the sleeves of his white t-shirt, to his jean clad thighs. Still, he didn't turn to look at her, refusing to give her the satisfaction. 

"What do you have for me today, boy?"

Ben gesticulated vaguely with his head in the direction of Jade, and Jameson caught the hint. 

"Jade, out!" 

"But, dad, my story!" The petulant reply left her mouth before she could stop it, undoubtedly the product of years of habit. But she had the grace to look embarrassed and leave the office without another word, trying to save whatever professionalism she had left. 

Once she was gone, Jameson opened the envelope, flipping through the various pictures of a masked figure swinging around New York in a black and red suit. 

"Hmmm… these are good" the older man praised, staring at the images of a frustrated robbery at 5th avenue

Ben snifled nocomitically,

"There was a fire at 16th avenue happening at the same time" He offered, "we could use that. Spider-Man forgets his roots and leaves his old neighborhood to fend for itself, running off to save some pretty socialite…"

"Oh, that is excellent! See, this is why I like you, kid. You have initiative. Unlike these snowflakes out there. Oh, but Spider-Man is a hero. Hero, my ass"

"Well, when you watch your so called hero sit back and do nothing as your life gets destroyed" Ben shrugged, "the rose colored glasses tend to fall off…"

Jameson made a face at that,

"Yeah, about that… I'm sorry. For the role the Daily Bugle played on that…"

Ben shook his head, 

"You thought you were getting the truth out there. It's not your fault to have been played, along with half the world. Plus," he added, sounding genuinely enthusiastic, "you gave me this job. And now we can really tell the truth"

"Even when our idea of the truth is somehow different" The older man scoffed, flipping around a picture of Spider-Man sat on what appeared to be a hammock of his own webs, eating a hamburger and reading something that looked suspiciously like a comic book, "Still hung up on that high schooler theory of yours?"

"Well, if it talks like a brat and acts like a brat…" Ben took out another envelope, this time containing a few burger king wrappers and, effectively, a spider-man comic book. 

"Where did you even get these?"

"Harlem" was Ben's curt reply, and Jameson knew that was as exact a location as he was going to get. 

"So you still believe this is a copycat? Some kid playing dress up"

Ben simply shrugged again. 

"Well, there seems to be an epidemic of those lately" Jameson admitted, indicating Ben to come closer, passing a tablet to him, "Jade just handled me this, take a look"

Ben took a deep breath, steeling himself, already knowing what he was going to see in it. Yet, a part of him couldn't help but hope to be wrong. To hope the silver haired figure facing three much bigger, stronger looking ones as he pressed play, wasn't the same one he had spent weeks memorizing last summer. Wasn't the body he had found solace in, when everything fell apart, once again, for the hundredth time in his life. 

To hope it wasn't you. 

But when in his twenty-two or so years of existence, had things ever gone his way? 

Ben felt the screen crack under his fingertips.

"I've heard of her" he lied through his teeth, "didn't even think she was real, to be honest. Extremely elusive, and cunning." That much was true, "I don't understand how something as mundane as a security camera managed to catch her…" 

Unless you wanted to be caught, that was. 

"Well, I don't care if she's the fucking Loch Ness monster, I want an HD picture of her on my desk tomorrow to go with Jade's article. I already have a headline: New Catastrophe Jen wreaks havoc on Hell's Kitchen" Jameson's eyes lit up with glee as he weaved his hands up in the air, like writing on an invisible marquee. 

Ben snorted

"Don't you mean Calamity Jane?"

Jameson's face fell, the color rising to his cheeks, characteristic vein popping on his forehead. 

"I meant what I meant, boy! Now, what are you still doing here? You have 24 hours to get me that picture"

"I'm going to need 72," came Ben's unphased reply, "and I want twice what you pay me for the spidey pics"

Jameson's vein looked about ready to explode,

"48 hours. And deal."

Ben jumped from his seat and bolted out of the office before his boss could change his mind, not realizing until it was too late that he was on a collision course with a sweet looking short haired blonde girl. 

"Watch where you're going! Jeez!"

"Me? You're the one who crashed against me!" 

Ben rolled his eyes, but crouched next to the girl anyway, helping her gather the papers that had been sent flying on impact back together.

"Peter? Oh my god, is that you?"

Of course. What an idiot, he should had recognized that annoying, shrilly voice the second he heard it. It had caught him off guard, something he knew he couldn't afford. But how could he had ever imagine he could run into Betty fucking Brant, Yale cum laude, in the freaking dailybugle.net headquarters of all places?

"Sorry, sweetheart. You must confuse me with someone else…" He mumbled, lowering his head even more in a vain attempt to hide his face.

"Of course not!" She insisted, "You're Peter, Peter Parker, we went to Midtown together!"

"Miss, I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Don't be silly, Peter!" She chuckled, completely deft to his tone or the way his whole demeanor had changed the second she had called him by the old name. "How have you been? Oh, just wait until I tell Ned, he's going to be so-"

CRACK.

At last, the tablet that had been in peril ever since Jameson had put it in Ben's hands, the one that contained his assignment, met its demise, both broken halves falling to the ground, along with all the papers he had picked up for Betty. It was several moments before he could get the shaking of his hands under control, before the tar black rage inside him subsided enough for him to be able to move without shifting. But it had.

"Peter Parker is dead." He deadpanned, dark brown eyes finally meeting Betty's stunned blue ones, "Tell Ned that, he'll probably be glad to hear it"

With that, he stood up and walked away, leaving a confused and agitated Betty behind. 

To be continued...

[hotpinkhoshi]

devour (m)

pairing: human!baekhyun x vampire!reader (f) genre: smut, paranormal warnings: mentions of blood, pain, monsters etc, explicit sex involving some slight dom/sub themes but not really. a lot of position switching, oral (m receiving), cursing  word count: 6.6k summary: you’re thirsty. so damn thirsty. and baekhyun is the only one that can give you what you want. it’s the last time, really the last time, you tell yourself.  a/n: hello my lovely amazing readers! thank you so much for being so patient with me these last several months, i know i haven’t been very consistent with my posting BUT i promise i’m trying. i started this piece about 3 weeks ago and my only goal was to finish it by the end of the month. thankfully i just barely finished in time! i hope you enjoy but first, a disclaimer: i haven’t read or watched anything about vampires in many years so i know there may be things that don’t technically make sense. vampire enthusiasts pls do not come for me, i did my best.  thanks to: all my followers, @jjinyounf for discussing vampire reproductive systems, & @flowerbeom​ and @jjpmoans​ for hyping me up and giving me love and encouragement whenever i need it, which is a lot!

Last time, you told yourself it was the last time. 

The last time you let Baekhyun into your apartment at half past three in the morning, so out of your mind starving that you could hardly even see straight. The last time you let him take you, command your body like it was no longer your own.

You should have known you were lying to yourself. 

You [3:28am]: are you up?

Baek [3:29am]: yea, why?

You [3:31am]: can you come over? 

After your last message, you got no response. Perhaps, you thought, he’d fallen asleep or worse, had no interest in being your blood bag for the night. You would be disappointed, but you wouldn’t blame him. 

You rolled over in bed, flopping onto your stomach as you buried your face into your pillow. Maybe you could simply push through and wait until morning, when Kyungsoo would be awake and able to help you. 

After you turned a few months ago, totally unexpectedly, it had flipped your world upside down. Kyungsoo found you, shivering and delirious by a dumpster where your fun little one night stand had left you. 

Kyungsoo was human, but he was the type of person that people trusted and allowed into their worlds, no matter who they were. As one of the general surgeons of the local hospital, he’d gotten himself into a position of substantial power over both the humans and the vampires of your city. He never used it as a weapon—only as leverage to keep the humans safe.

When he found you, he’d wrapped you in his jacket and carried you to his apartment, but you didn’t remember anything until many days later. Kyungsoo nursed you to health, providing you with a vampire crash course to prepare you for the rest of your life. Of eternity. 

Then he’d introduced you to some of his friends at a party after you were more comfortable, although you had yet to feed on a living human. There was a whole community of humans that got off on it, that lived for the pain and pleasure of letting a vampire feed on them. 

It was at this party that you met Baekhyun. He had a mischievous glint in his eye when Kyungsoo told him your name and left the two of you alone in the dimly lit, smoky club basement. Something about that look in Baekhyun’s eyes told you he knew you’d be his by the end of the night. 

The feeling, the taste, the pure ecstasy of finally consuming fresh blood was unlike anything you’d ever experienced before, even when you were alive. Your senses were heightened as a vampire as it was, but as soon as his blood hit your tongue, it was like your world exploded into a million colors. 

But even though you’d been the monster drinking his blood, Baekhyun remained in control. He laid you out on his bed and pinned your wrists to the mattress with one hand, his other wrist pressed into your mouth as he forced you to feed. 

You whimpered and cried out when it was too much, when the overstimulation of his blood and the way he was rocking into you at a brutally rhythmic pace had you seeing stars. He never relented; only fucked you harder as you writhed under him. 

After that night, you never wanted anyone else. Baekhyun was the only man you wanted to feed from. With him, you didn’t feel like a monster. You didn’t feel like a thing, like a horror story to tell in the dark. 

He made you feel human again. 

Tonight, the thirst was too much to handle. It was clouding your mind and keeping you awake as you twisted and turned under the covers. You couldn’t tell if you were craving his blood or craving him, but you were too weak to care. 

You hated the thirst. It was like dehydration, tenfold. Your head hurt, your lips were dry no matter how many times you wet them, and all you could think about was warm blood sliding down your throat. It was maddening. 

The telltale sound of your apartment’s buzzer had you sitting up in bed, so quickly that it made your head spin, the noise signaling that you had a visitor down at the main entrance to your building. 

You scurried off the bed and hurried to the door, nearly running into it as you slid on the hardwood in your socks to let him in. You told yourself the eagerness to see him was only because you were thirsty, certainly nothing more.

As soon as you opened the door, you felt embarrassingly underdressed. 

Baekhyun had dyed his hair since you’d last seen him. It was now a silver blonde, perfectly messy and framing his stupidly beautiful features. He’d been out tonight, you realized. The glitter on his cheekbones gave it away. 

His hands were stuffed comfortably in the pockets of his leather jacket with a faded graphic tee underneath, and expertly tailored black jeans practically painted onto his lower half. 

You tugged the hem of your T-shirt down, even though he’d already had you in positions that you hadn’t even thought were physically possible—vampire or not. For some reason, you still felt bare in front of him in your pajama shorts and oversized tee.

“Hmm,” Baekhyun hummed as he stepped inside, letting the heavy door close behind him. He smelled like smoke and rum. “Look at you. Is someone thirsty?”

You blinked, grateful that you were incapable of blushing. As ravenous and desperate for blood as you were, the way he looked you up and down made you feel small and shy. 

“Can I?” you asked, reaching for his wrist, half tucked into the pocket of his jacket. 

“Uh-uh.” He stepped back just before your fingers brushed his skin. “You know that’s not how it works, baby. You still need to work for it.” 

If you wanted to, you could muster your strength and slam him into the door, dive for his neck and bleed him dry before he even realized what was happening. But you didn’t. You wanted this, you wanted to beg and plead until finally, he rewarded you. 

“Baekhyun,” you whispered, then dragged your tongue over the dry, cracking skin of your lips. “I’m so thirsty. I’ll do whatever you want.” 

He seemed pleased by this, judging by the way his lips turned into a familiar smirk. “I know you will. Come on, let’s go sit down.” 

You followed him to the living room obediently, watching as he made himself comfortable on the couch. He shrugged his jacket off, revealing the expanse of his forearms down to his wrists, covered in bite marks in various stages of healing. 

All from you. 

If he had chosen to get his fix somewhere else, you wouldn’t have any reason to be envious or hurt. But it filled you with a sense of pride that he didn’t, that you were the only one he allowed to taste him. 

You moved to sit next to him, but Baekhyun stopped you. He took your hand, leading you to stand in between his parted legs. 

“Knees.” 

It took one word for you to drop to the carpet, your bare knees pressing into the old scratchy shag rug you’d had for ages. He kept your fingers in his palm, rubbing his thumb idly over the back of your hand. 

“Good girl.” With his other hand, he tucked your hair behind your ear, his wrist brushing against your cheek so that you could hear the pulse beneath his skin. 

“Baek…” you began, turning slightly until your nose brushed his skin. “Just a taste. Please.”

Baekhyun lifted your chin with his finger and locked eyes with you. You filled with warmth already, just one look enough to send your mind racing with images of everything you wanted from him. His blood was further down the list than you would have thought.

“Just a taste,” he repeated. 

With that, he let go of your hand and turned slightly to reach into the pocket of his discarded jacket. When he pulled out the shiny folded metal, you gulped hungrily. 

The pocketknife brandished with a metallic click. 

It wasn’t uncommon for humans to carry weapons these days. After all, vampires weren’t the only monsters that roamed the streets after dusk, and not all vampires were quite as friendly with humans as you were. 

Your eyes followed Baekhyun’s nimble fingers as he brought the very end of his knife to his middle finger, twisting the point into his fingertip until a spot of blood appeared. 

It took every bit of self control that you possessed not to reach out in desperation for his hand and bring it to your mouth. But you knew better—you knew if you broke, Baekhyun would stand up and walk out the door like you were less than nothing to him. 

He watched you with interest as he held his finger just out of your reach, eyes dancing with that mischievous stare he had when he teased you. You would despise it if you didn’t know that eventually, he always caved. 

Finally, when your mouth had gone dry and you could feel the warm tingle that meant your fangs were about to protrude, Baekhyun brought his index and middle fingers to your mouth. 

He slipped them past the parched skin of your lips, your entire world blooming as soon as his middle finger touched the center of your tongue. You moaned, eyes falling shut. 

“Look how needy you are,” he remarked after a beat. His voice was strained, though, as if watching your display of bliss was causing him physical pain. 

He let you go for a while, maybe half a minute, before he was removing his fingers from your mouth. You couldn’t help but whine, resisting every urge not to grab at his wrist to keep him there. 

With the small amount of his blood you’d been able to milk from his finger, you already felt renewed. A surge of energy coursed through you like you’d just been injected with adrenaline. 

“What do you say?” Baekhyun asked with a cocked brow. 

You swallowed, licking any remnants of his blood from your lips. “Thank you.” 

Without a second thought, you reached for Baekhyun’s belt, fingers quickly undoing the metal buckle. Your ears picked up the quickening of his heartbeat from the moment you undid the button of his pants. 

It was no surprise that most vampire-human relationships, if not ending in death, ended in sex. Feeding, in your experience, was extremely sensual and instantly created feelings of arousal within both parties. It was almost better than sex, and when the two came together? It was euphoric. 

You were pleased to find him half-hard already by the time you got his zipper down, your hand wrapping around the length of him under the fabric of his briefs. Baekhyun inhaled sharply, holding his breath until you had pulled his cock from his underwear. 

Only a few seconds passed before you leaned forward, parting your lips to run your tongue along the underside of his member. Your eyes remained open, locked on Baekhyun’s face to gauge his reaction. 

He loved it, of course. 

With a groan, he tipped his head back, exposing his throat and sending a shockwave to your core. You wanted his throat, his neck, all of that fresh, warm blood pumping beneath his skin. But you wanted to taste it while he was inside of you. It would be worth the wait. 

Your eyes fell shut as you took his length into your mouth, deeper and deeper with each stroke until he hit the back of your throat. Unlike men you’d been with when you were human, Baekhyun made no effort to remain quiet. He was loud, and you loved it. 

If you had your way, all of your days would be filled with Baekhyun’s voice. His moans, his rough whispers in your ear, his laugh, his hums as he completed mundane tasks like wiping down the counters or tying his shoes. Deep down, you wanted it all.

“Good girl, that’s my girl,” he whispered, reaching forward to lace his fingers in your hair. He curled his hand into a tight fist, a deliciously sharp pain spreading across your scalp. 

You whimpered, lips wrapped tight and wet around him. He guided you back and forth for a while with his hand in your hair, muttering soft praises all the while. By the way his hips were twitching towards your face, you knew he was getting lost in the ministrations of your mouth. 

Baekhyun soon dropped his hand from your hair, signaling you to pull away, just in time for him to stand up and pull you to your feet. 

A squeak of surprise fell from your lips as he lifted you, hooking your legs around his waist in a simple, swift movement.

“Bed,” he said simply. 

Baekhyun carried you through your apartment as if it was his own, lips kissing and nipping at your neck as he dodged every obstacle between the two of you and the bedroom. He stopped once, in the hallway, to lean you into wall and roll his hips into your center. 

His name came out as a sigh. 

Then, finally, he dropped you onto the center of your bed. It was messy from your previous tossing around in the sheets from your thirst, but neither of you cared. Baekhyun reached for the comforter, knotted and piled together under your lower back, and easily tossed it off the bed to leave nothing but the sheets under you. 

He stood at the foot of the bed, chest heaving up and down, and ran his fingers through his hair. The look in his eyes had you squirming, ready for him to devour you in every way possible. 

“Are you still thirsty, baby?” 

Your heart clenched at the pet name, even though he always called you that, loving the way it sounded on his lips. You gulped, nodding as you batted your eyelashes. 

“Yes,” you admitted. 

“Take off your clothes,” he told you, hands reaching for his jeans, still unbuttoned, to push them down his legs. 

It took less than a second for you to obey, clutching the waistband of your shorts and shoving them off of you. You knew he liked when you kept your underwear on, just so he could use it to further torture you by keeping a layer between you. 

You slipped your thin T-shirt off, throwing it to the side and laying back into the mattress again. Baekhyun had removed his own shirt, leaving just his briefs from letting you see all of him. 

You could marvel at his body for hours—he was slender, but solid. He wasn’t much taller than you, but his shoulders were broad enough to make you feel protected in those rare moments when he held you in his arms. 

This time, though, you noticed something new. There was a handful of bruises and scratches marring his body, completely different from the puncture marks that your fangs left when you fed on him. Blinking, you furrowed your eyebrows, fingers reaching out. 

“What are-”

“No questions,” Baekhyun cut you off, reaching for your hands before they could reach their destination. His face softened, ever so slightly, when you quickly retreated, curling your hands up near your own chest. “We’re not here to talk, are we, baby?”

Just like that, he made you forget the suspicious marks on his chest, even one slash that looked particularly painful. Almost like he’d been cut by a knife.  

Watching the way he licked his lips as his eyes traveled down your body, slowly, so slowly, you were easily steered back to the task at hand. You dropped your hands to the sheets, digging your nails into the fabric as he overwhelmed each of your senses. 

Even from here, you could smell his blood. From here, you could hear the steady, strong beat of his heart, taste the alcohol and nicotine of his kiss. Your body was calling out to him and you weren’t sure how much longer you could deny what it needed. 

“Baekhyun,” you found yourself whining, hips squirming under his hungry gaze. 

His eyes snapped up to your face then, so much desire and pure lust in his stare that you felt a brand new surge of heat travel through your limbs. 

“Mm, first…” he pressed one knee down into the mattress, then the other, until he was hovering over you. “We have to see if you’re ready for me, don’t we?” 

Baekhyun led a painfully light touch down the middle of your chest with his index and middle fingers, between your bare breasts, and down the valley of your stomach at a pace that had you biting your tongue just to keep from begging him for the nth time. It would only further encourage him to play with you, of which you could only tolerate so much. 

You knew his moves by now, knew that he would trail those fingers down to your waist, over the elastic of your panties until he found the evidence of your arousal between your legs. You knew his moves, and he still had you whimpering the moment his fingers brushed your clit through your panties. 

Your toes curled into the sheets as you tried desperately not to show how crazy he was making you. He knew already, though, the moment he slid his fingers beneath the waistband of your panties and found wetness between your legs. 

“Oh,” Baekhyun said with a smirk, tongue running cheekily along his lower lip. “You’re dripping, Y/N. You’re this wet just from sucking me off?”

Again, you were grateful for your inability to blush. 

“Answer me,” he demanded suddenly, eyes turning dark just the way you liked them. 

“Yes!” you replied, hips canting up towards Baekhyun’s hand. “Yes, I’m this wet just from sucking you off.” 

Even after you closed your eyes, you were sure you could see the cocky smirk that was undoubtedly painted upon his lips. He lived for this, the feeling of absolutely owning you. You, an immortal, bloodthirsty, powerful woman despite how weak he made you. 

As his fingers delved lower, just until he could dip them into your entrance, you mewled and turned your cheek towards the pillow. “Please,” you breathed. 

Baekhyun’s lips brushed your neck. “Please, what?” 

“Want you… want-“ you sighed as his fingers pushed deeper, to his second knuckle. “Want you inside.”

You’d be lying if you said it didn’t surprise you when he finally gave in, but you couldn’t complain. Though he didn’t concede without a few deep pumps of his fingers, enough to have you gasping and close to ripping the sheets apart beneath you. 

Baekhyun slipped his fingers from you and stood from the bed, his hands pushing down his briefs without hesitation. He nodded at you once, motioning with his chin to the headboard behind you. 

“On your knees, and face the headboard.” 

Renewed with your need to feel Baekhyun inside of you, you easily flipped over onto all fours, that warm sensation in your gums warning you that your fangs would extend at any moment. You didn’t fight it, hoping that it wouldn’t be much longer until you would need them. 

“Fuck,” Baekhyun exhaled, just before you felt the bed shift with his weight as he moved behind you. “You’re beautiful, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love seeing you like this.” 

You’re beautiful. 

The words echoed in your mind, though you knew they probably shouldn’t. He rarely complimented you so boldly, especially before he was inside of you, overwhelmed with pleasure and pain. Curling your hands into fists, you shoved your feelings down because you needed to. A survival instinct, really. 

Because if you fell for him, if you opened your heart, the odds were against you. You weren’t sure why he chose you, why you were the only one he allowed to feed from him, but you couldn’t let yourself see it as any more than a mutual transaction of pleasure.

Baekhyun snapped you out of your thoughts easily the moment he pressed up against you from behind, his hands molding down your sides until he could place them upon your hips. 

You hung your head between your shoulders, reaching your hands out to grip the wooden slats of your headboard. The anticipation was always the best, and worst, part of this. 

It almost scared you how well Baekhyun knew your body. He knew when he trailed his fingertips down between your shoulder blades that you’d shiver and bite your lip, using every ounce of willpower that you possessed not to beg him. Even though you were pretty sure that’s what he wanted. 

He knew when he leaned forward and kissed your shoulder, that you’d ultimately lose the battle with yourself and your dignity. You were hot, sweaty, and desperate. Desperate enough to give in and sob his name, squeezing your headboard so hard that you felt the wood splinter beneath your hands. 

Without another word, his lips still pressed to your skin, you finally felt the tip of his cock tease your entrance. You held your breath, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn’t drag it out any longer. 

Your wish was granted as he filled you in one long stroke, both of you releasing satisfied moans at the sensation. This... this was bliss. 

“How are you-” Baekhyun ground out through his teeth and squeezed your hips hard enough you’d probably bruise, if you could, “-always this tight? God.” 

His lips trailed across from one shoulder blade to the other, giving your body a moment to adjust to the girth of him, before he began to move. Just like every other time, he pulled sighs and moans from you that only his ears had ever had the privilege of hearing. 

“Oh, my god,” you breathed, your walls clenching around him each time he filled you, his pace making your head spin. 

“How’s it feel, baby?” Baekhyun asked, voice low next to your ear. 

It took a few more thrusts for you to be able to catch your breath to answer him, your head spinning from the way he was fucking you. It didn’t matter how many times you had him, he always made you like this. Crazy, hungry, and weak. 

“Good, so… so good.” 

“That’s right,” Baekhyun answered, one hand drifting from your hip down between your legs to find your clit. “You’re taking me so well. Think you might get to feed a little earlier than normal tonight, baby.” 

You clenched around him once more at his words. Recently, Baekhyun had started making you wait longer and longer to taste him. The last time, you’d been teetering right on the edge of your second orgasm when he finally bared his neck to you.

It wasn’t the worst thing in the world--no, that moment when his blood hit your tongue had sent you towards the most electric, trembling climax you’d ever had. But you had to admit your mouth was watering already at the thought of sinking your teeth into his skin sooner rather than later. 

“Please,” you begged, pushing your ass back towards him. “Please, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun rolled his fingers around your clit in circular motions, grunting as he thrusted hard, jolting you forward. You gasped and moaned, throwing your head back in ecstasy. 

“You want that, huh? You want me to fuck you while you drink from me?” He matched each stroke of his cock inside of you with the pace of his fingers, drawing tight circles between your legs. 

“Yes,” you answered, voice cracking. You didn’t just want it, you needed it. Your fangs were showing now, and you weren’t even sure at what point they’d finally protruded from your gums, a biological response to the thought that you would be needing them soon. 

Your world spun, briefly, as Baekhyun grabbed your hips and flipped you from your knees onto your back. It was quick, a move he’d pulled on you so many times you barely even noticed until he was pushing back inside of you. 

“Oh, look at you,” he said from above you. 

Now that you could see him, you could appreciate his rosy cheeks, the way his hair stuck to his temples, and the subtle way his shoulder muscles contracted each time he moved inside you. Holding himself up with one arm, he trailed his free hand down the side of your face and brushed his thumb over your lip. 

“You’re ready to feed, aren’t you, baby? So fucking needy. You think you deserve it?” The pad of his thumb slipped inside of your mouth, daring to trace over the shape of one of your fangs. 

All you could do was nod, the ability to actually speak coherent words completely lost on you at the moment. 

You waited, as patiently as you could while he was driving you insane, for Baekhyun to make the first move. You never reached for his arm first, never lunged for his neck or his shoulder, simply because you wanted him to have that control. 

Baekhyun leaned down, his lips trailing kisses from your chin up to your jaw, until he nipped at your earlobe. “Go ahead, pretty. Take what you want.” 

The next time he filled you completely with his cock, you finally sunk your teeth into Baekhyun’s neck, that same spot that you had claimed as your own already. You whimpered as his blood filled your mouth, sliding down your throat. 

You reveled in the way he tasted and the sinful way he inhaled sharply at the initial bite before he let out a long, blissful moan. Your body was on fire now, so consumed in Baekhyun and the way he felt buried this deep inside of your heat. It was like you were invincible. 

Wrapping your legs around his waist, you pulled him into you easily. It was different when you fed from him like this. You had to be careful, control yourself so that you didn’t hurt him too badly, but it tasted so damn good. 

Before you could get carried away, you forced yourself to pull back, licking any remnants of his blood from your lips. Even though you were no longer feeding, you felt the effects of his blood rushing through your body already. 

It was electric and overwhelming in the best possible way, heightened even more so by the way Baekhyun fit inside of you and stretched you so perfectly. The entire room had brightened around you as if somebody had switched on a light. 

When you were finally able to focus on the man above you, you were pleased to find that he looked just as fucked out as you felt. His arms shook, for a moment, maybe from the quick loss of blood or just the sheer pleasure of it all.

Taken by a moment of bravery, you used your legs hooked around his hips to roll your bodies over so that you could settle on top of him and let him rest for a moment. His wound would heal quickly—something to do with the healing properties of your saliva, according to Kyungsoo—but you knew he’d need a beat to regain his strength. 

The moment he filled you completely, you took in a shuddering breath and planted your hands on his chest. Baekhyun stared up at you, eyes filled with awe, lips parted as if he wanted to say something but just couldn’t find the words. 

“Wanna ride you,” you whispered, licking your lips once again. “I want to make you - make you feel good,” you admitted. 

Baekhyun’s hands found your thighs, pale and smooth, and dug his fingertips into your skin. Slowly, those fingertips trailed up to your hips to pull you closer, forcing you into a rocking motion atop of him. 

“Go on, then,” he breathed. “Make me feel good.” 

It occurred to you then that you’d been in this position with him only once before, and it only lasted a couple of minutes before he flipped you onto your back and took over control. This time, though, you wanted to take it until the end. You wanted him to see just a shred of the power you could have over him. 

Maybe you didn’t realize it until now, but you knew Baekhyun’s body just as well as he knew yours. 

You knew when you rolled your hips just right, he’d groan and his eyes would flutter closed as he fought not to thrust himself further inside of you. You knew his hands would start to roam, squeezing and groping at the smooth flesh of your hips and stomach. 

Not until Baekhyun had you learned to appreciate a man’s hands on you without feeling self conscious or try to cover up. Maybe because Baekhyun owed you nothing, there was no reason for him to lie to you or tell you what you wanted to hear. With his hands and his lips, he painted his honest truth on your body without saying a word. 

You started to lose yourself more and more with each roll, each circular grind of your hips on top of him, letting your needy moans fill the room along with his.

“Just like that,” Baekhyun praised, both hands holding firmly onto your waist. “Tell me, who makes you feel this good?”

You pressed your hands more firmly into his stomach and opened your eyes, only a little surprised to find him staring up at you again as if he was trying to drink in every inch of your body. 

Just when you were about to answer, Baekhyun bucked his hips up, pushing himself deeper inside of you—deep enough to make you shiver and lose any and all words that could have gone through your mind. 

“I-” you started, fighting the urge to close your eyes. With the way he was looking at you, you knew that Baekhyun wanted your eyes on him. “Y-you,” you could only whisper. 

“I said,” he said, through his teeth, surprising you as he sat up underneath of you so that your chests were flush together. “Who makes you feel like this?” 

“You, you, you,” you cried, feeling the familiar heat building in your belly and spreading down towards your thighs. “Baekhyun, oh, fuck…” 

“Mmm,” Baekhyun hummed, pleased, pulling you even closer to him. “Such a good girl. You know exactly who you belong to, don’t you? No one else can ever have you like this.” 

Even as far gone as you were, something about his words made you shiver, mind racing with all the ways he could mean those words. You’d accepted that you wanted more from him, more than a late night fuck and feed, but what if he felt the same way?

“No one.” 

Baekhyun pressed the words onto your lips. You clawed at his shoulders, not caring if you marked him, if you left scratches to match the mysterious half-healed slashes across his torso. You wanted him to belong to you, too, if only in one way. 

The kiss sent you closer to your high as your thoughts got the best of you, imagining what your life might be like if you could belong to each other. 

Maybe you could wake up next to him someday, help him with breakfast by frying the bacon while he mixed pancake batter. Or you could fall asleep curled up into his side, hand pressed to his chest, counting his heartbeats. 

“Close,” you whispered. “I’m so close.” 

“Me too, baby. Me too.” Baekyun pulled back first from the kiss, one hand in your hair and the other helping you keep your pace, gripped possessively around your hip.

When you finally tumbled over the edge, you could only speak incoherent mumbles and whispers of pleasure into the crook of his neck as your body bowed forward into him. 

Fireworks exploded behind your vision with your climax, a feeling you should have been used to by now, but you still found yourself practically blacking out every time. It was stronger, more powerful since you became a vampire. Like every cell of your body was exploding and putting itself back together again. 

“I got you, pretty, I’m here,” you heard Baekhyun whisper as he thrust into you from below, fucking you through the intense waves of your orgasm. 

The feeling returned to your fingertips what felt like an hour later, even though it was probably only a minute or two, and you found yourself able to open your eyes. You blinked a few times to let your eyes refocus, taking in the sight of Baekhyun so close to you, so close to his peak. 

“Baekhyun, I can’t-” you gasped, willing your trembling thighs to move so you could resume your movements on top of him. It was no use—you just didn’t have the strength. 

Baekhyun moved quickly, easily flipping your positions so that he was above you once more. He remained on his knees, grabbing one of your pillows to shove under your lower back. From this angle, he could wrap your legs around his waist and grind into you at the perfect angle. 

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned, hands scrambling to clutch the sheets underneath of you. All you could do was watch him, devour him with your eyes the same way you had devoured him with your mouth. 

From the moment you met him, you’d thought he was beautiful. It always struck you as unfair that he appeared to be without flaws, as if you had dreamed him up. He just simply couldn’t be real. And if he was real, it was a miracle he wanted anything to do with you. 

“You’re so fucking tight,” Baekhyun said through gritted teeth. He was losing control, moving closer and closer to the edge with each deep thrust.

Your fingers squeezed and tugged at the sheets beneath your hands, the only thing you had the physical strength left to do. “Please,” you whined. “I wanna feel you come inside me.”

It didn’t take much longer, only a few more perfect rolls of his hips before he came with a loud, shuddering groan. You felt him spill inside of you, liquid heat that felt like it was never ending. This was your favorite part. It was the closest you could ever feel to him, surrounded in every way. 

Once he had come down, Baekhyun fell forward on top of you, catching himself on his forearms. He breathed deep and heavy, face buried between your neck and your shoulder. You found yourself stroking his back, tracing words into his skin that you couldn’t say out loud. 

When he finally rolled off of you, he didn’t go far, just flopped onto his side next to you. Your breath caught in your throat when he pulled you closer, one arm around your back and the other grazing your shoulder. 

Outside the window, you heard the morning birds begin their chirping. It was easier to focus on their melody than just how close Baekhyun was. Close enough to hear his pulse, quick and strong. 

“You okay?” he asked, nose nudging your jaw. “You get enough?” 

You swallowed, suddenly remembering the whole reason Baekhyun had come over in the first place. Because you both had an itch that needed to be scratched—nothing more. 

“Yeah,” you replied weakly. “I got enough.” 

But he didn’t move, just let his lips rest softly against your neck. It had never been like this before. Soft, quiet, sweet. 

“Why do you only let me feed from you?” you found yourself asking, hand on his chest gently pushing him back. “Why me?” 

Baekhyun’s eyebrows pushed together in confusion. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean,” you sighed, sitting up and pushing your hair out of your face. “All your feeding marks are from me. I’m the only one, right?” 

Leaning up onto his elbows, Baekhyun could only shrug as if you’d asked him if he liked sugar in his coffee. “Yeah.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I like you,” Baekhyun offered. As if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

You blinked. Had you heard him wrong? Did he mean it… like that? 

“You like me,” you repeated. 

Baekhyun had the nerve to laugh, just a light, airy chuckle. “That’s what I said. Why am I the only one you feed from?” 

Gulping, you tore your eyes away from him and shook your head. You wanted to deny it—but you both knew it was true. You’d never told him as much, but you wouldn’t be so desperate for him if you could easily get it somewhere else. Correction: you could have, you just didn’t want to.

“Because I like you.” 

When you looked back at Baekhyun, he was grinning, the light catching on the glitter still smeared across his cheeks. He pushed himself to sit up, reaching for your hands. He tugged you closer to him. 

“Yeah? You sure you don’t just like my delicious, mouthwatering blood?” 

You scoffed and shook your head, feeling a smile tug at your lips. “It’s not that delicious.” 

Baekhyun laughed again, and this time you had to join him. It felt like it was too good to be true, him wanting you the way you wanted him. You wanted to pinch yourself, just to make sure you hadn’t blacked out and imagined this whole conversation. 

“Since that’s settled,” Baekhyun said, fingers grazing up your arm, your throat, until he was lifting your chin. You saw his affection for you in his eyes, so obvious it made you wonder if you’d been missing it all along. 

When his lips touched yours, it was a kiss unlike any other you’d shared with him before. Deep and slow, like you had all the time in the world. You sighed into his mouth, letting his lips quiet every worry you had racing through your brain. 

“Stay the night,” you said softly once you parted from him. 

Baekhyun smirked, pressing his forehead into yours. “It’s already morning.” 

You glanced at the window, noting the soft glow of the sunrise behind your curtains. “Oh. Never-”

“I’m kidding,” he cut you off, stroking his fingertips across your cheek. “Only if you promise to cook breakfast for me when we wake up. You do eat, right?”

“Yes,” you said with a laugh. “I eat. I don’t need to, but I love food too much not to.” 

“That’s my girl,” he replied in a low tone, giving you goosebumps. 

In order to keep yourself from jumping his bones, you pulled from him and climbed off the bed, searching for the comforter Baekhyun had thrown off the mattress when you’d first laid down. Once you found it, you settled on top of the sheets with him, pulling the blanket over top of your bodies. 

Your memories from before you turned were a blur. Some things you could remember, but it was like they’d happened to somebody else. You knew you’d had a series of unsatisfying one night stands, a couple of boyfriends, and a handful of crushes. You remembered the face of the man who turned you, but not his name or how it happened. A blessing, Kyungsoo told you. 

And although you couldn’t remember the faces of any of your past lovers, you knew without a doubt in your mind that you would never forget Baekhyun. 

You realized as he brought you into his arms that he didn’t just make you feel human, he made you feel like the girl you’d been before. 

[brelione]

Love and Hate (The Best Boys)

dude come on. you said you’d upload the next chapter on christmas and now it’s been a whole week after and it’s still not out. :(, hi! when are you posting the next chapter of tbb??, tbb????, Are you posting the next chapter of best boys soon? I miss her, when will you be posting the next part of the best boys series??, Ok I’m over TBB I’m just gonna say she ends up with Blah Blah and they live happily ever after, the end. Thank you for the amazing read, it has been fun❤️, TBB is literally the last series I have to finish before I can finally peace out of the shithole that is the OBX fandom for good but like no rush or anything baby❤️,When do you think you’ll be posting the last chapters of TBB?, Hey queen how’s the writing for best boys going, 

Series Masterlist

SHES HEREEEE

Yes, im aware this chapter is all over the place. I went through writing four different versions of this chapter and this is the one that I decided to go with. I know that this one is kind of a little ahfioshviowenvionae but it all comes together next chapter (I already started writing the next chapter). Im so sorry that this is so late. I’ve been having issues for a little bit. My grandfather and my dog passed away and I recently had a relapse and I think that’s why it was taking me so long. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter <3

Warnings:Nothing really, swearing and unedited. Also im sorry if you dont like this chapter but like....yeah.

You were awoken to the sounds of screaming.Topper ended up at the foot of the bed, Kelce still clinging onto you.Rafe was absent from his spot but the mattress was still warm and had a slight dent which let you know that he hadnt been gone long.

You had spent most of the night trying to find the perfect spot on the mattress, one arm thrown over kelce and your heel against the back of Toppers thigh.It seemed like it hadnt been a super long time since the sun had risen which meant that it was probably around seven in the morning by now.

Your heart was thumping in your chest, trying to pay attention to what the voices were shouting.Something about a mess and irresponsibility but you couldnt hear much besides that.Rafe stomped up the stairs, opening his door.He was shirtless, face red from yelling and his eyes slightly watery.You sat up, making Kelce grumble.

 Rafe’s jaw was slightly dropped, his nose beginning to run and his body trembling.“Hey, what happened?”You asked, gaining Kelce’s attention.Topper’s eyes opened slightly, looking over at Rafe.The tall boy didnt say anything, he just dragged his feet across the room and sat back on the bed, mumbling.You were hesitant to grip his hand, squeezing lightly.

He just stared at a wrinkle in the blanket but the sound of something breaking downstairs told you that it had been more than just bickering.Kelce was worried, knowing that his parents had gotten home late last night and would see the mess he had created. “He doesnt want me living here anymore.”Rafe spoke up, a few tears rolling down his cheeks.

You pulled him closer to you, arms around his shoulders as he sobbed, your fingers rubbing against the back of his neck.He squeezed you tightly when he head footsteps coming up the stairs, silently praying to any god that would listen that it wouldnt be Ward.Kelce’s phone kept buzzing but he ignored it, knowing exactly what it was.

He knew that it was coming and he would be lying if he said that he didnt expect it, nervous the whole night as he waited for his phone to blow up.“What are you gonna do?”Topper asked.As much as you wanted to scold him for asking that when Rafe clearly didnt want to talk about it it was still something that you had also been wondering.

Rafe didnt answer, taking in a deep, shaky breath that hurt his ribs before picking up his head and looking over to his friend. “I dont know.”He admitted.His voice hurt your heart, the realisation kicking in that there wasnt really many places that he could go.

Kelce’s phone buzzed again, all of your eyes falling on him.He sighed, glancing at his screen.He had missed calls from his parents, dozens of text in all caps telling him to come home immediately. “They found the door.”He replied, keeping his voice calm.A new wave of silence washed over the room, not knowing what to say to that.

Your eyes watered as you remembered how simple life was a few weeks ago, all of you eating breakfast, watching criminal minds and laughing as Topper recorded it all on his snapchat.Now everything was completely falling apart.You didnt say anything, trying to think of a solution.Rafe couldnt go to Kelce’s house or Topper’s house since Topper’s mother had one of those security cameras outside of her home and she’d recognize him immediately.

She was still pissy about Topper’s accident, she’d explode if he let friends over. “SO what happens now?”Topper asked.You were all out of ideas.A simple drive or icecream or a movie couldnt solve any of this. “I mean...think about it.We’re adults, right?Child protective services cant stop us if we leave.”Kelce muttered.Rafe nodded, snapping his fingers.

 “Yeah, yeah!You’re right.”He agreed, causing your eyes to widen.They were acting insane. They couldnt be serious about just getting up and leaving forever, right? “No, no hes not.We cant just-we cant just leave!”You exclaimed.They were actually going crazy.How could they even think like that? “Why?What do you have here, (Y/N)?”He asked.You paused, thinking about it.

You didnt really have anything.You had your house of course but other than that you had nothing but memories and your boys.You didnt want to admit that he was right, letting out a quiet sigh. “But leaving forever isnt the answer.”You muttered.Rafe rubbed your back, shaking his head. “Doesnt have to be forever, baby.”He answered. 

“But- but just cause we arent kids doesnt mean we cant be registered as missing people.They’ll come after us.”You told them.You knew that nobody outside of this room actually cared about you enough to report you as missing but you were scrambling through your thoughts, desperately hunting for a reason to stay on the shitty island that you had learned to love so much.Topper shrugged, not really caring. 

“Guys, guys. Okay, look. You’re all fucked, ill admit it. But thats fine! Are you guys forgetting that I still have a house- you guys can just stay there until this whole thing blows over just like you always have!”You reminded them, hoping they’d agree. “This isnt gonna blow over, (Y/N). I cant come back here.”Rafe told you, becoming aggravated. 

“THEN MOVE IN! All of you guys, you can just move in, okay? You dont have to leave- I still have my moms money! We’ll figure it out as we go and…. And it’ll be fine.”You insisted. “Move in with you?”Rafe asked. You nodded, wiping your nose. “You practically live with me already, it wont be that different.”You told him, gripping his hand.

 It was a messy blur as Rafe packed his things, grabbing anything that he thought could be important. A photo of his mother, his birth certificate and diploma, laptop and ipad, the Frozen ll record. Kelce and Topper just watched, neither of them ready for anything like this so early in the morning. 

Maybe if you werent so tired and upset you wouldnt have said it, but here you were in Rafe’s truck, a dufflebag full of his things at your feet with the boys in the backseat as he drove to your house, a few tears rolling down his cheeks as the thoughts finally took over his brain. Kelce had got aggravated and shut down his phone entirely, staring out the window. 

The last thing you were expecting was to come down your road only to see a car that was practically falling apart already in your driveway, a tall man with his hands over his forehead as he tried to look in your windows. “What the fuck….”Rafe muttered, reaching for the door handle when you gripped his hand. “Dont, we dont know what he’s doing.”You told him, hoping he’d listen.

 Turns out he wasnt the one you had to worry about, Kelce swinging his door open and sprinting up your driveway before anyone could even stop him. Wherever Kelce went Topper went, the boy struggling to get the seatbelt over his cast before jumping out of the truck and nearly falling into a puddle. “ESCUSE ME! MR SIR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LOOKING IN MY HOUSE?”Kelce shouted, purposely making his voice deeper.

 The man turned, confused as to why two half asleep teenage boys were walking towards him. “Your house?”The man asked. “Yes, sir. You ever heard of a gay couple before?”Topper asked, making Kelce break character for a moment. 

“Well, no, its not that. Its just that I thought this was someone elses house.”The man muttered, confused. You had slid down your seat, hoping that the man wouldnt see you. “He’s about to leave.”Rafe whispered. 

“Who’s the other guy in the car?”The man asked, pointing to Rafe’s figure. Kelce glanced over at Topper with wide eyes, trying to think. “Our son.”Kelce replied, cringing the moment he said it. The man only looked more confused, looking between the two boys. “How old are you guys?”The man asked, clearly not buying their story. 

“Excuse me? Are you saying that we’re too old to have a son? I did not spend years training for a medical degreee to have some random old man come and tell us how old our son can be!”Topper exclaimed.  “I didnt spend years trying to find a surrogate and figuring out a way to make a robot nanny for this!”He sighed, trying his best not to smile.

“Could you please leave the property before we call the police?”Kelce asked. The man was beyond confused at this point, quickly making his way to his shitty car before slowly backing out of the driveway, eyes still scanning the area before he gave up and went down the street. 

You let out a sigh of relief, moving to get up when Rafe placed his hand on top of your head to keep you down. “Hes coming around again.”He whispered to you, taking in a shaky breath and holding it in his lungs as the car passed a second time. Topper and Kelce were standing by the door, staring at Rafe almost as telling him to get out and make a run for it.

 “Open the door in 3...2…”You didnt wait, jumping out and running towards the house, typing in the key pad as quick as you could, Topper’s hand pushing you inside. “Here he comes again!”He exclaimed, coming in right behind you along with the others before Rafe slammed the door shut and locked it, letting out a laugh.

 “Oh god, that was scary.”He chuckled. Kelce and Topper nodded as well, eventually laughing. “Was that my dad?”You asked. “Maybe.”Topper answered. Now that you thought about it, your dad didnt same important. Nothing did. You lived on a huge rock that’s floating around space and you’re concerned about your dad when your boyfriends best friends are moving in.

 “What’d you tell him?”You asked. “We told him that we’re a gay couple, Topper’s a doctor and Rafe is our child.”Kelce replied. You giggled, snorting. “I mean, as you should.”You replied. “Hell yeah.”Kelce grinned. Topper tapped at his arm. “Bro, you wanna get married?”Topper asked. Kelce laughed again, nodding.

 “I’ll get baptised and get you guys married!”Rafe volunteered, all of you turning to look at him. “Did you just say baptised?”Kelce asked. Rafe nodded, eyebrows furrowing. “Is that not the right word?”He asked. Topper shook his head. “The word is ordained.”He informed the tall boy. “He’s trying his best.”You replied, sitting down on the chair that you werent used to sitting in. 

“You think he’s gonna come back?”You asked. Topper groaned, sitting down. “Well, I hope not. I dont want my husband and I to have to fight him.”He grinned. You rolled your eyes, changing positions in the chair. “Did he look like me?”You asked, leaning your head against the arm rest, groaning when Rafe pushed your legs aside and sat down with you.

 “Not really… he had rat tails for eyebrows.”Kelce replied, putting his fingers over his eyebrows. “Do I have rat tail eyebrows?”You asked, grinning when Rafe reached forward and poked your eyebrow, a chuckle slipping past his lips. “You wish.”He replied. “Fuck off.”You answered. “Dont be fucking rude.”He grinned, kissing you quickly before pulling away with a small smile. 

You were shocked, trying to hide your surprise. It wasnt like you werent used to kissing Rafe by now, it was just that he had never done it in front of the boys before. They looked nearly as confused as you, the thought of Rafe kissing you in front of them never even being a concern until now. They were used to him getting most of your love and attention but that had just stirred something within them. 

“So how are we gonna do this? I dont know about you guys but im not going back to my house anytime soon.”Kelce announced. Rafe lifted his head, looking over to the boy. “You could always sneak in your own window to grab your things...maybe wait until theyre at work. What about you, Top?”Rafe asked, turning his attention to the blonde boy. 

“What do I have at my house that I need? Like, really need.”He asked, grinning when none of you could answer. “Problem solved.”He replied. “What time is it?”Rafe asked, breaking the silence. “Ten.”Kelce replied, closing his eyes as he leaned against the couch. “Im going upstairs to take a nap then.”Topper yawned, slowly making his way down the hall into the first floor guest room. 

It was arguably the worst since it also worked as your moms office, a queen bed pushed into the corner. You wiggled out of Rafe’s grip, smiling when he whined. You went into the kitchen, grabbing a poptart. For the situation you felt rather calm, opening the silver package and taking a bite of one of the sweet pastries. 

The energy in the house felt different than it had yesterday. You werent sure why, maybe it was just the comfort of knowing that the boys were going to be living with you now and you wouldnt have to worry as much about Rafe or Topper’s relationship with his mom. 

“So how are we gonna handle this?”Kelce asked, confusing you. “The house, I mean. You have this whole house and like...30 million dollars. We can literally redecorate however we want, maybe even clean out your moms office if youre okay with it.”He suggested. 

You nodded, the idea of getting the memory of your mother cleansed from your life sounded appealing. His excitement took over as he opened his amazon prime app, looking for new decor. “How do you feel about your moms room?”He asked, not wanting to push your limits. You shrugged, swallowing part of the pastry. “Shes not using it.”You replied, surprised by how morbid you sounded. 

He simply nodded, shifting in his seat as he added things to his cart. “Can we redo your room? It’s been the same color since we were fourteen.”Rafe suggested. You shrugged, not really caring. You didnt spend a large amount of time in your bedroom anyways. You scrolled through your phone for a few minutes, seeing a little red bubble next to your messaging app that let you know that you had gotten a text. Curious, you opened it. 

As soon as you saw who it was a pit grew in your stomach, eyes widening. It was her. “Sweet words, (Y/N).”The text read. You knew that it was your uncle just trying to mess with you but it still caused your anxiety to skyrocket, deciding to block the number and place your phone between your thighs, taking in a deep breath through your nose. 

Topper dragged his feet, coming out of the room with a frown. “That’s the most uncomfortable bed in all of history.”He muttered, sitting down on the couch instead. “You can go upstairs.’You reminded him, feeling your phone buzz against your inner thigh. 

He just hummed, leaning his head against the back of the couch. “How long was I in there?”He asked. “Literally not even ten minutes.”Kelce replied, still scrolling. “Did I miss anything?”Topper asked. You didnt reply, breaking off another piece of the poptart. “We’re gonna redecorate the house.”Kelce answered. Topper nodded, lifting his head.

 “Does that mean that office too?”Topper asked. You nodded, staring at a spot on your carpet. “Does that mean we get to open the file cabinet in the guest room?”He asked, all of you looking over at him. The thought made you feel nauseous. Even if she wasnt here to yell at you you knew that opening the file cabinet would still scare you anyways. 

“If theres a dead body in there I swear to god-”You muttered, earning a chuckle from Rafe. “A body couldnt fit in there.”he replied, making your eyebrows furrow. “How do you know where bodies can fit?”You asked. “No, no. Like, its not….well...maybe a raccoon body.”He admitted. “Rafe!”You exclaimed, smacking his thigh. 

He rolled his eyes, pulling you into his lap. “There’s no raccoon body.”He answered. “I think theres a raccoon body.”Kelce replied. “Theres not.”You answered. Topper grinned, skipping into the room and beginning to open the cabinet, the three of you following him. “Okay, who votes raccoon body?”He asked, his hand on the knob. 

Kelce raised his hand, grabbing your arm to make you hold your hand up as well. “Ready?”Topper asked before pulling the door open, looking into it. His face fell immediately, not expecting this. “What?”You asked, stepping past Kelce and looking into the cabinet.Guns were being held by small metal pieces, multiple clear bags full of plants and needles on the floor, bullets on sashes hanging with the guns.

 The two of you just stared, ignoring Rafe and Kelce until they came up behind you, equally as confused. “What the fuck?”Rafe asked, seeing the bags. Kelce slammed the doors shut, locking it. “We’re not telling anyone about this, right?”He asked, looking at all of you. “What are we gonna do with all that? We cant just keep it here!”Topper argued. 

Rafe shrugged, resting his elbow on your shoulder. “We smoke the weed and throw the guns in the river, obviously.”Rafe answered. “We’re not smoking weed, Rafe.”You answered. “Well your mom didnt have a liscense to carry, right?”Kelce asked. You shook your head, figuring it would be hung up somewhere in the house to remind you of the power she had.

 “Right, okay. So we cant call the cops and we cant keep it here.”Kelce answered, clicking the lock on the cabinet. “What’d your mom even do for a living?”Topper asked. You frowned, thinking back. You never really knew what your mother did, you just stayed quiet and hoped you wouldnt make her angry. She’d disappear for months, money would appear in your bank account, she’d pay the bills aned thats all you needed to know. 

She’d have long phone calls with people in her office, grounding you if you even dared to listen. “I dont know.”You replied, cringing at how stupid you sounded. “She has these cabinets all over the house, doesnt she?”Kelce asked. “The one in her room is actual files.”You told him, hoping that there were no sorts of hidden things in her room.

 “Should we go check?” Rafe asked, out of the room with a grin before any of you could even answer. You sighed, slightly annoyed that he was treating this like a scavenger hunt. “Its been here this whole time, im sure nothings gonna happen.”Kelce assured you, patting you on the shoulder before his fingers tickled your arm and wrist, gripping your hand and bringing you upstairs. 

“I ordered some tapestries, succulents, fake vines and some new blankets for our new movie room.”He told you, nearly slipping up. “Movie room?”You asked, nearly slipping on the stairs. “Your mom has a big tv, I figured it could be like a second living room if you’re comfortable with that.”He answered, pausing at the top of the stairs so he could wait for you. 

Rafe was in your mother’s room, carefully pulling on the drawers, eventually finding out that the top one was locked. He looked over at you, silently asking if you knew where the key was. You shook your head, letting go of Kelce’s hand and opening the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. 

Your mother kept most of your medical documents and anything like that to herself along with basically everything that proved you existed. Baby photos, ultra sounds, old school tests. “We could just move it into the other guest room.”Rafe muttered, hoping he wasnt making you upset. You ignored him, looking through all the little colored tags, your eyes falling on a silver tag, your eyebrows furrowing. No other ones had that color. 

You picked it up, sitting down and reading it over. The words were all bundled together, ink scratches and smudges told you that it wasnt a serious document. The only word you could make out was ‘arsonist’. Nothing else was eligible. “Can we take it right now?”You asked, placing the paper on the floor and closing the drawer. Rafe nodded, Kelce grabbing one side while Rafe grabbed the other. Topper grinned, leaning against your mothers unused desk.

 “I would help but my arms broken.”he laughed, watching as Kelce struggled, walking backwards. “Some moral support would be great.”Kelce rolled his eyes. You grinned, slowly clapping. “Great job, guys. You’re doing great moving that illegal file cabinet.”You held back a laugh. They turned carefully, shuffling as they eventually got to the guest bedroom.

 “How do you feel about this?”Topper asked, sitting down on the chair. You sighed, shrugging. “I mean, you know. Its not that I dont love the idea of you guys being here but like… its the circumstances.”You answered, sighing when he pulled you closer with his good arm, rubbing your back. “Thanks a lot for this, though. Like in all seriousness im really grateful that you’re in my life.”He blushed, looking up at you. You smiled, kissing his nose lightly.

 “I mean, I do provide you with half of the drama in your life.”You giggled, kissing him gently. “Where does the other half come from?”He asked. You shrugged, sighing. “Probably you.”You answered. “I cant believe you’d say that to me! You know im at a bad place in life and you put me in this terrible situation when you know that!”He fake cried, bursting into laughter. 

“Kourtney dont laugh at me!”You exclaimed. You felt a vibration under your feet, hearing a loud, dramatic sigh and the sound of skin colliding. They had successfully moved the file cabinet, the door closing as their loud footsteps hit the floor as they entered your mother’s room again. Rafe took a moment to look around, sometimes forgetting that the room even existed. 

It was the biggest room in the house, the ceiling going up at least twenty feet with only glass separating the room from the outside world. His mind wandered, thinking of all the fun nights the two of you could have in here watching the stars or listening to the rain.

 The bed was large and still, the blankets and sheets unwrinkled and untouched. He understood why you were creeped out by the house now, feeling like he didnt belong in the room. You all took turns trying to figure out what the writing said, eventually deciding that it probably wasnt even in english. “Should we put it through google translate?”Rafe asked, staring at the paper. 

Kelce shook his head. “Nah, its not reliable. I tried using it for spanish class in freshman year and I got detention.”He replied. “Well thats definitely not spanish. Maybe its like…. Ancient text.”Topper suggested, causing you to frown. “I highly doubt that my mother would know an ancient text. 

Maybe we should just leave it.”You answered. Although you werent exactly satisfied with it you just didnt feel like spending your time trying to decode a random paper. They didnt seem satisfied either but didnt want to push you, putting the paper down on the desk where it would be safe from your footsteps. 

Of course the boys just couldnt stay at the same place for long periods of time, deciding to suggest that you guys go out to a store to get some paint for the boring walls. You agreed, the four of you getting into your car instead of Rafe’s truck, locking all the doors and windows before you left. 

Kelce didnt suggest a McDonalds run which caused you to frown, knowing that he was probably too stressed to want to eat. You guys went into Walmart with one goal, heading right for the paint section and looking at the wall of colors. “Lets get four colors and kind of just make it up as we go.”Kelce muttered, looking at all the different shades.

 “We could all pick one out.”Topper suggested, reaching forward and picking a bright green. You agreed, picking a shade of light purple, watching as Kelce picked the color toffee biscuits and Rafe went for cotton blue. You doubted any of the colors would actually look good together but that wasnt the point of the project. 

It was more about making the room look fun rather than nice. Kelce grabbed a few large paint brushes, the four of you leaving before you could get distracted by anything that you didnt need. Topper decided to get right to work, spilling some paint on the floor as he dragged the brush along the wall, creating bright stripes.

 “I have an artistic vision! Trust the process!”He exclaimed, feeling your judgemental eyes on him. You didnt say anything, watching Kelce struggle to connect his phone to your speaker, playing the first song on his playlist. 

Line without a hook. Topper looked over at you, almost like he was silently asking you if you had told the boys about his top secret playlist. You shrugged, not wanting to give anything away to the others.

 “Oh my god, I love this song.”Rafe dunked his brush in the light blue, making a smiley face on the wall. “Can I paint an onion?”He asked. You raised your eyebrows, not understanding why he wanted to put an onion on the wall. 

“Ogres are like onions! We have layers!”Kelce laughed. “Who is we? Are you an ogre, Kelce?”Topper asked, not taking his eyes off of the bright stripes, painting a circle on the top. “Topper Harry Katherine Thornton, are you painting a penis on my wall?”You asked, connecting the dots. 

He grinned, ignoring you. “Of course not.”He replied, painting frantically so that you couldnt stop him, green drops rolling down the wall. You picked up your paint brush, painting two circles quicklly before pushing the brush into the center of each, laughing to yourself.

 “Guys, really?”Rafe asked. “Cant we make the wall wholesome?”He asked. You shook your head, a smile on your face. “Says you of all people, Rafe.”You shook your head. “She got you there.”Topper replied, dragging the brush across the painting and blending it out so there was no longer a penis on your wall. 

“What are you doing now?”You asked, wanting to one up him. “What are you doing now?” He mocked you. Somehow you ended up splashing Topper with paint and getting tackled into the mattress as he held the paintbrush over you, trying to get the bright green liquid on your face while you held his arm back. 

“Im gonna murder you!”You laughed, rolling over under him so your face was against the mattress. “Im gonna paint your hair!”He laughed, holding the brush just above it. “Topper, dont mess with her hair.”Kelce took the brush away. 

Topper groaned, falling next to you on the mattress. His eyes were closed, the sun from the window casting a beautiful glow over his face, a small smile tugging at the side of his mouth. You pressed a kiss to his cheekbone, your arm resting on his torso. 

It didnt take long for painting to be forgotten, a few cheap bristles sticking to the wall with messes of colorful lines and unfilled shapes. The song changed, followed by a loud gasp from Rafe. “This is my favorite song!”He smiled, hitting his knees with his fists repeatedly. 

He didnt know what about it made him so happy, whenever he heard it it reminded him of you guys. “You know what we should do?”Topper asked. “No.”Kelce replied while Rafe rewinded the song to listen to his favorite part again. 

“We should make soup. Like, spicy soup with potatoes.”He replied, mouth watering. “We could just order soup.”Kelce replied, not in the mood to go downstairs and hunt for ingredients. “Order soup from where?”Topper asked. Kelce simply shrugged, shifting around and putting his arms under his body.

That had been a week ago. Since then a lot had happened. You guys had developed a system, Kelce could do his laundry on Saturdays, Rafe on Mondays and Topper’s just got mixed in with yours.

 It was a love and hate relationship to have them there with you. You didnt regret your decision but sometimes things would get difficult. Grocery shopping was the worst since nobody could decide what they wanted and you had all agreed not to eat out as much. 

“We need an actual meal, we cant just eat chips for everything.”Topper would grumble, realising he didnt even really know how to cook. That just lead to late flights of searching for recipes o pinterest and watching Gordon Ramsey tiktoks until they decided to try and make bake and shake chicken. That didnt really work out well, having to open all of your windows and get the smoke out of your house. 

Then you guys decided to take a new approach, finding a ton of frozen pizzas and ingredients for sushi. Kelce was the only one who had any idea of what he was doing since he had always been talented in the kitchen, specifically with breakfast. That became more of a safe meal for you guys, making extra food in the morning to eat later for dinner until you got sick of toast, eggs and bacon. 

Kelce ended up banishing you all to the pool so that he could decorate properly, vines hanging from the door ways and landscape tapestries hanging in your living room, hallway and your mother’s old bedroom. “How long do you think he’s gonna be?”You asked, floating on your back in the shallow end, letting out a yelp when Topper grabbed you and dragged you to the deep end. 

“I dont know, probably like three days.”He replied, finally letting go once you were in the middle of the pool. “We could survive three days in the pool.”You replied, watching Rafe shake his head. “With my allergy to the sun?”He asked, making you turn over, going underwater for a moment. “You dont even sunburn.”You told him, splashing water in his direction before swimming away quickly so that he couldnt get back at you.

 Kelce kept getting calls from his parents that were asking him to come home but he never did. They knew where he was, if they wanted him back so badly they’d drive over and take him away. “Guys, i’ve finished my creation.”Kelce announced, coming outside. “So we can come in now?”Topper asked, gripping the ledge of the pool and pulling himself out, falling onto his stomach as he struggled to get up.

 “Yes, you can come in now! Hurry!”Kelce yelled excitedly before going back inside, waiting impatiently for you guys to hurry. Rafe helped you out of the pool, tossing you your towel so that you wouldnt trail water through your house. “Guys! Come on!”Kelce shouted again, the three of you walking across the hot pavement quickly.

 “I’ll clean up the water after- just come see what I did!”He said again. You rolled your eyes, walking into the house. Goosebumps formed on y0our skin from the cool air, eyes widening as you looked at the kitchen. He had bought a plaid tablecloth for the table, vines hanging from the ceiling and doorways, a tie dye tapestry hanging in your living room. It looked like he had taken the time to wipe down every surface and vacuum any mess of broken spaghetti or eggshells that had been kicked under the fridge.

 “Do you like it?”He asked, unable to read your shocked expression. “Kelce, im gonna be honest with you. I feel like im in pixie hollow right now.”You grinned, making him smile. “I think thats a good thing- but upstairs is better!’He exclaimed before making his way up the stairs. He was right. 

There were marble heart shaped tiles hanging on the walls of the hall, a sign on the new hangout spot that was made out of drift wood. He opened the door, revealing bean bag chairs on the floor, a new carpet, a light yellow canopy hanging over the bed that had all new sheets and blankets on it as well. 

He had even somehow managed to fix the paint on the wall so that there were different colored polka dots all over it. The boys seemed equally impressed, still taking it in. You hugged Kelce, not even caring that you’d get his clothes wet. “So I did good?” He asked, hugging you back. “You always do good.”You replied, feeling him hug you tighter.

 “So you’re happy?”He asked, letting out a small sigh when you nodded. “I am happy, Kelce.”you replied, kissing him lightly. He smiled against you, taking in a deep breath. “I found a new recipe for fancy grilled cheese.”He told you, kissing your forehead. This was something that you loved about having them live with you.

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[vivianweasley]

Rapunzel (Fred Weasley X Ravenclaw!Reader)

A/N: This is for @wand3ringr0s3‘s 1.9K writing challenge and the prompt is I See The Light from Tangled!

Summary: Fred is always there for you. No matter if it’s your birthday, or if you’re just having a sleepless night.

Pairing: Fred Weasley X Ravenclaw!fem!Reader

Warnings: insomnia (Fred comforting reader!), post-war trauma, mention of war

Word count: 1.8K

(Disclaimer: I do not own the gif)

Today’s your 18th birthday. Even though the atmosphere of the school was pretty intense with Umbridge in charge, you still had a pretty good birthday. Your friends threw you a little birthday party.

Everyone wished you Happy Birthday. Well, everyone except for one.

After the Weasley twins left the school, you’ve never heard from them since. You guys were good friends and you really missed them. Especially Fred. 

Even George sent you a letter wishing you happy birthday, along with some samples of their new products, but Fred never showed up. Did he forget about your birthday? Or did he just forget about you?

You weren’t sure when did your stupid little crush on Fred Weasley began. Maybe it was when he stood up for you when Umbridge was going to punish you. Maybe it was when he made you laugh when you were crying because you got a bad grade in potions. Or maybe it was long before all of this.

How you became friends with Fred was a funny story. It was two years ago, you were just on your way back to your common room, but suddenly you tripped. You dropped all of your books and the potion project that you spent the entire last week working on. Watching the potion bottle scattered into pieces, your heart broke with it. You looked up and saw a boy with ginger hair gasped and soon escaped.

You recognized that was Fred Weasley. You two shared a few classes together and you hated to admit it, but he and his twin always had their way to capture your attention. How could they not? They always had so many strange ideas that never failed to intrigue you.

The next day, you successfully cornered him in the hallway. “Weasley! Why the hell did you trip me! I worked on that project for an entire week!”

He was surprised that someone suddenly cornered him, but he still had that cheeky smile, “Oh I think you got the wrong twin. I’m pretty sure it was George. I’ll go find him for you-”

“Oh I’m sorry. I must’ve made a mistake then.”

“It’s alright, people mix us up all the time.” He smiled and soon tried to escape you again. But just when he started walking, he tripped.You waved your wand and tied his shoelaces when he was still busy trying to come up with some excuses and alibi. 

You walked in front of him and gave him a triumphant grin, “This is for my potion project. I know who you are, Fred Weasley.”

And then you just hopped away, leaving him still lying on the floor and that funnily, was the beginning of your friendship.

He was intrigued by your mind and your ideas just as how you were intrigued by his. You would always get him and George out of trouble just like how you could get them into trouble if you wanted to.

You felt ridiculous always checking the clock and fighting back the urge to check the owlery every other hour. If Fred couldn’t give you a birthday gift, maybe at least he could send you a letter?

Maybe his owl got lost. You knew the Weasley’s owl was a little silly. 

Or maybe he already forgot about you. He’s got a business and everything, who would have time for you?

The clock in your room finally stuck 12. It was officially not your birthday anymore and he never showed up.

You fell on your pillow and your mind drifted to last year’s birthday. The twins dragged you to the shrieking shack, telling you that they need your help for a grand prank. You opened the door and found Ginny and the twins actually prepared a surprise party for you. But this year, you only had Ginny.

A knock on the window beside you brought you back from your memory. You got off your bed and walked to the window, gripping your wand tight for you didn’t know what might happen.

But when you opened the window, the scene successfully put a smile on your face. Enchanted little pebbles were flying up to knock on your window. Along with the pebbles, there was also a little note that read “Oi Rapunzel, let down your hair!” You knew that carefree handwriting way too well. It was Fred’s.

You flipped the note and the back of it read “meet you at the door”. You chuckled as the butterflies in your stomach started to dance.

As soon as you rushed downstairs, you heard someone arguing with the door knocker, “Seriously, why are you so stubborn? If a serial killer is chasing after a student and that student just couldn’t answer your stupid riddles, are you just gonna let that student die? This doesn’t make any sense!”

You giggled and opened the door to see Fred with his cheeks flushed and still panting. You guessed that he must have ran upstairs just now.

“Oh thank Merlin! Y/N!”

“How did you get into Hogwarts?”

“Hmmm, my determination to be here for you on your birthday has made me unstoppable?”

Your heart fluttered at his cheesy answer, but you still kept a straight face, “Yet, you are still late.”

But instead of Fred’s explanation, you heard the portrait on the wall complaining first, “So do you want to get in or out? You can’t just stand here with the door open!” 

“Come!” Fred smiled at you and dragged you out of the common room.

“Where are you taking me!”

He brought you all the way to the astronomy tower. Thankfully, you guys didn’t run into Mr. Filch because Fred already knew the route too well.

You two sat down by the window. The weather was good tonight. The sky was clear and you could see the stars twinkling above. The chilly midnight breeze made the astrological instruments sing. You haven’t felt so peaceful in a while.

“Happy birthday Y/N.” Fred broke the silence first. He pulled out a bracelet from his pocket and placed it around your wrist. “I’m sorry I was late, but your present took me longer than I thought to make.”

“What is this Freddie?”

“Lumos.” He waved his wand and the bracelet lit up. Your eyes lit up too when you saw the bracelet on his wrist started to glow as well. “In case you missed the laughter and fun in your life, by that I mean, in case if you missed me, you can light up the bracelet and I will know.”

You stared at him, finding yourself speechless. A warm and tingling feeling started to rise in your heart and spread through your whole body.

“Don’t fall in love with me.” He laughed cheekily when he realized you were staring at him.

You looked at him and saw the light reflecting in his eyes. For a moment, it was as if your world has lit up, yet everything was in slow-motion.

Too late. That was the first thought that popped into your head

---

You woke up from the exploding and screaming in your nightmare. It was already three in the morning.

Nightmares and sudden palpitations were common problems that people who have been through the battle face and you weren’t an exception. You glanced at the calendar on your nightstand and felt slightly relieved when you made sure it was already a year after the war. Everything was fine. You were safe now.

You lied back and tried to sleep again, but the brutal scenes of the battle just refused to leave your head. After struggling for fifteen minutes, you finally gave up and got off bed.

You turned on all the lights in your room just to feel a little bit more secure, but the room was just so empty. You were craving for company. You missed Fred. You needed him.

You and Fred got together during the war, finally admitting that you couldn’t afford to lose each other. If the war left anything good in your life. There was that.

You wanted to see Fred, to talk to him, to hug him. You wanted to just apparate into his apartment right now. But you knew he was busy and had to wake up early tomorrow morning. Even though Fred told you that you could always go find him when you need him, but you just didn’t want to add to his burden. You knew it was your anxiety and insecurity lying to you, saying that you were a burden, but you just felt too exhausted tonight to shut them up.

So after debating in your head and listing out all the pros and cons, you decided to just light that bracelet. If you couldn’t cuddle him right now, at least the light from the bracelet could make you feel like he was right here with you.

Sleeping was probably not an option anymore tonight, so you decided to read a good book to distract yourself. But fifteen minutes later, you realized you were just staring at the pages without even reading the words. So you started to pace around in your apartment, trying to focus on all the corners that you didn’t pay attention to before.

Just when you were about to check that vase on your bookshelf for the third time tonight, you heard a knocking on your window. You immediately ran to the window, knowing too well what that meant. 

A little note with “Rapunzel, let down your hair” written on it flew into your hand when you opened the window.

“Darling, are you alright?” You turned and saw Fred has already apparated into your apartment. “I’m sorry I’m a little late, the bracelet went under my pillow-” 

His ramble was cut short when you rushed to hug him. He chuckled and lifted you up to carry you back to your bedroom. He placed you on the bed and tucked you in before joining you

You felt like you could finally breathe calmly as you were now secure in his embrace. You just felt so lucky to have him and a random question popped into your head.

“Freddie, when did you realize that you like me?”

“Hmm probably that day when you tied my shoelaces. I thought Merlin, this woman is going to be trouble.”

“Thank you very much,” you lightly pushed his arm to protest.

“I have a question for you too,” suddenly, he looked at you seriously, “how were you able to tell me and George apart at first?”

“Well, you are slightly taller than George and George’s voice is deeper than yours.” You simply listed out your observations.

“But these are all relative. That day when you tied my shoelaces, there was only me.”

“Or maybe it’s just cause I’m smart?”

He squeezed your waist at your cheeky answer and you squeezed his waist back. 

“It’s your eyes,” you finally admitted, “George’s eyes are soft, but your eyes are bright. It’s like my whole world has lit up when I see the light in your eyes.”

He looked at you with his eyes widened. You giggled when you saw his expression, “What? Are you feeling touched? Don’t fall too deeply in love with me.”

He squeezed your waist again. But when you were about to attack him back, he pulled you closer and pressed a kiss on your forehead.

“Too late, darling. Already did.”