#I stinkin love characters like that man

[penheadie]

I've always been a fan of child characters in horror specifically being tormented by some sort of malevolent supernatural being that only they're capable of seeing like tattletale or fnaf and other games with that formula. I feel like Tiny very much is the "I see dead things" type of character often spewing nonsense about seeing living dead things, monsters living in the cracks and floorboards and predicting future bad events before they happen but nobody believing him because nobody would take the word of a blind kid. Why would they believe somebody who can't see? They can't give any eyewitness testimonies or be a reliable narrator when they're near sighted. Besides what happens in your nightmares aren't real right? They can't hurt you right?

For this many people think he is cursed, and he brings bad luck causing the said series of unfortunate events to happen seeing him as nothing more than a liability than an asset. Tiny having ties with the paranormal and supernatural with all of these evil demons living rent free in her head. If the demons actually found a way out of her head and into the real world it would be bad news bears so instead, she just has to carry this huge burden being used as a vessel with nobody believing him. Sometimes I just forget about how much of a favorite character he is of mine. And when I start officially writing his story, I can't wait for y'all to meet him.

[temiizpalace]

☆┆TEND TO MY WOUNDS !

SUMMARY: red alert! he’s injured! it’s alright, for the prefect of ramshackle is here to save the day.

CHARACTERS: leona, jade, jamil, rook, idia

(i spun a wheel to try and write other characters.. jamil and leona just love me teehee)

GENRE: fluff

WARNINGS: the boys get injured, but nothing is life threatening. — cursing — MENTIONS OF BLEEDING (not fatal)

ROMANTIC, ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP

reader is g/n, reader is yuu

🦁┆LEONA KINGSCHOLAR

“shit! ow—“

leona groans, feeling the stinging pain of alcohol rubbed onto his forehead. spelldrive didn’t go as it usually did.

everything was normal. practice was going well, and everybody was doing the proper training regiments. it was all fun watching leona and everybody practice by a nearby tree. except leona wasn’t practicing this afternoon.

today, he felt like napping right beside you. he laid his head in your lap, sound asleep. this all goes south when some freshmen decide to mess around, sending the disc flying in your direction.

typically leona would’ve been able to divert it with magic, but feeling a little hazy from barely awakening, it hit him straight on the forehead.

now here you both are, present in the infirmary, leona sitting on the cot, and you being his own personal doctor. “i can’t believe the great leona kingscholar got hit by a spelldrive disc. it is truly an honor to witness it first hand.” you joke, causing him to roll his eyes.

“tch.. whatever— FUCK.” it’s funny to see leona in such a state. one where his tough guy act isn’t all the way up. you thought he’d brush off the pain like a man, but surprise! we learn something new everyday.

“haha.. wait here. i need to find bandages.” you walk over to the cabinet, only to find all the boxes of bandages empty. except for one. a bandaid box. you snicker at the sight of them and take a couple out of the box. leona raises a brow as he heard your giggling in the back til you made your way back towards him.

you stood in front of him and placed the bandaids on his forehead. he liked the close proximity. he likes being by your side. you caring for him like this is actually one of his deepest desires. he won’t ever say it aloud of course, but he hopes you take the hints.

“you are now officially cured.” you grin, finally applying the last bandaid. he stood up, looking you in the eyes. he wanted to thank you. wanted to thank you for helping him. wanted to thank you for caring enough about him to do this. to help him.

but leona being leona cannot say thank you. “..I don’t wanna owe you any favors so,” he pulls out his wallet from his pocket and throws it to you. you catch it, nearly dropping all the thaumarks inside on the floor. “go buy somethin’ while you’re at it.”

he ruffles your hair, walking out of the infirmary. you flip through the wallet, it barely closing due to the amount of cards and thaumarks inside. rich boy privileges go crazy. ruggie wasn’t kidding when he said leona was stinkin rich. all you could do was stand there, shocked.

leona walks back out to the field, hearing the team laugh as he approaches. he looks at them with a puzzled look, the laughing becoming unbearable. “oi, what’s so funny? mind tellin’?”

“cute bandaids ya got there, boss. shishishishi..” ruggie chuckles, looking at leona’s super cute and silly unicorn bandaids on his forehead. at first, he’s confused. then he rips a bandaid off and looks at the patterns.

start running <3

🐬┆JADE LEECH

“jade, stop moving!”

you sigh, trying to place a bandaid on jade’s cut. you wanted to help him cook today since mostro lounge has been extremely busy lately. azul had been working him to the bone, so he used his time off as a way to spend time with you.

only to end up back in the kitchen, but whatever. since you’re there, it’s all good. while chopping a mysterious vegetable, (it’s a mushroom..) he accidentally cut his finger. he wasn’t paying attention to where he was cutting. cause he was looking at you.

normally somebody would wince in pain, but jade is jade. so. “oh my, this is unexpected.” he says, as his blood gets on his gloves and contaminates the mushrooms. “oh my what— OH MY GOSH, JADE.” you yell, as he’s abnormally calm about the fact blood was all over the mushrooms.

so now he’s sitting at one of the barstools in mostro lounge as you try to patch up his finger. anytime the bandaid gets remotely close to the cut, he squirms and jerks his hand away. you can’t tell if he’s messing with you or if he’s just sensitive to touch because he still has his dumb polite smile.

“jade. stop. moving.” you grunt, trying to grab his wrist to hold his hand still. “fufu..” his stupid chuckle is usually very nice but it’s just growing irritating.

for some reason he still has the impulse to tease you. even when injured. all you want to do is care for him, so why is he making this so difficult?! is he waiting for something?

oh. that’s an idea.

“jade, may i see your hand?” you ask, putting the bandaid on the counter. he raises a brow, but complies nonetheless. “of course. do be gentle though, im wounded.” well no shit.

you held his hand gently, raising a finger up to your lips. you place a gentle kiss on his finger. not on the wound exactly, but near it. his eyes slightly widened and his cheeks tinted slightly red. he loses his composure for just a moment, giving you time to apply the bandaid onto his cut.

you smile in victory, standing up from your seat. “there, all better!” you winked at him before making your way back to the kitchen. he sat there, dumbfounded. how curious.. if that’s a way to get free kisses..

“oh dear, it appears i had just cut my lower lip. what a shame. it appears i am in need of some assistance.” this wasn’t even five minutes later.

🐍┆JAMIL VIPER

“you scream like a girl.”

you laugh as jamil looks away from you. he couldn’t bear to look you in the eyes. a little earlier, the both of you were sitting in the lounge of ramshackle as comfortable silence filled the air.

he was flipping through pages of a book while you leaned onto his shoulder, playing a game of some sort on your phone.

“..AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

that silence was interrupted as you heard a high pitched scream next to you, turning your head to see jamil absolutely mortified and panicked.

“JAMIL?! WHAT IS—“ then you spotted it. the wretched cockroach crawling on the table. he shut his book and threw it at the table, missing. now he’s grabbing all nearby objects to kill the insect.

“JAMIL PLEASE CALM DOWN, PLEASE! FUCK, JAMIL—” he ended up using his magic, but used a lil too much. as you held him back, his leg bumped against the table, causing him to scurry back to the couch.

confirming that the roach had cleared the premises, you sat next to him and checked the bump on his leg. his breaths were heavy and a sweat was across his brow. you would’ve thought he looked insanely attractive if it weren’t for the incident just before.

now he’s embarrassed, his hood is pulled over, and he’s pouting as he looks away from you. “i think you got a small cut, but it should be fine. i’ll go get some bandaids!” you hum, getting up from the cushions to find the box of bandages.

he completely humiliated himself in front of you. he was weak in front of you. and he hates that. “im back and here to repair your boo-boo.” you came back with the box, sitting back down and opening it. you remove a bandaid and slowly apply it til you hear him mutter something.

“sorry.”

“hm? sorry, couldn’t hear ya. mind speaking up for me?” you heard him perfectly fine. he irks before speaking up, his tone hinted with annoyance. “sorry.”

“all is forgiven, my love.” you smile, wrapping your arms around him and pulling him into a hug. he sighs, reciprocating the hug and leaning onto you. “please forget you saw that..” he mumbles, his face practically burning.

you chuckle, playing with loose strands of his hair as the both of you now lied on the couch. “no promises..” he clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, but placed a quick kiss on your cheek. he shuts his eyes, needing to recharge.

“mhm. love you too, jamil.” you whisper, allowing him to rest on your chest. he fell asleep in no time flat. let him rest. or even better yet, join him!

🏹┆ROOK HUNT

“how’d you fall?”

you ask, seeing as rook lied on the ground. i don’t know how to explain his pose, he’s just a theatre kid.

“never mind the details, ma chère. all that matters is that you had rushed to my rescue!” he smiles as you stood there. the most deadpan expression on your face. “i’ll just go get you bandages and not question it.” “merci!”

you rush to the infirmary, grabbing the bandages and rushing out. if nobody knew better, they’d all have assumed that rook was dead. he hasn’t moved an inch.

“where’d you injure yourself?” you ask, crouching down and inspecting his arms. “non, non. you must guess!” he laughs, sitting up right away. you groan as he initiated such an idea. “rook. im not going to guess—“

“if that is the case, ill be stuck in everlasting pain! it’d be unbearable.” he sighs dramatically, causing you to furrow your brow. “fine. did you injure your leg?” you grumble, checking each limb.

he shook his head, smiling like an absolute idiot. “here, allow me to give you a hint.” he grabs your hand guiding it to the place of the wound. of course he can’t do it without teasing you a little.

he places your hand on his shoulder, his hand, his neck, til eventually he stopped on his cheek. “my injury can be found around here.”

you look at his cheek, but there is no cut, scratch, or bruise to be seen. you raise a brow at him, but he has no shift in reaction. “rook, are you lying to me?” rook shook his head, looking you in the eyes. “I wouldn’t lie to you, mon amour. perhaps you need a closer look.”

before he could even explain what that meant, he pulled you towards him. causing you to fall onto him. “can you see it now?” he asks, staring at you lovingly.

you sigh, pulling a bandage out and placing it onto his lips. his eyes widened, but he wasn’t mad. not in the slightest! he wrapped his arms around you. taking this opportunity for a cuddle session.

despite your “annoyance,” you smiled and laughed slightly. “you’re impossible, rook.”

he nuzzled his head into the crook of your neck, humming happily as you spoke. his fingers intertwined with yours as the sun hit both of your figures. creating a scene resembling one of a fairytale.

💀┆IDIA SHROUD

“you can’t lock yourself into your room because of this.”

you slightly chuckle as you patch up idia’s knee. moments before, his PE class had to do the sprints. looks like he went to class on the wrong day.

while he was running, he tripped on a conveniently placed rock and fell on his knee. ortho quickly went to find you and bring you to idia so that you can comfort him.

he had tears coming from his eyes, which caused ortho to panic. you both carried him to the infirmary since he had an inability to walk. you situated him onto the cot and grabbed some bandages from the cabinets. “don’t worry niisan! the prefect will take good care of you!”

ortho chimed, trying his best to comfort his brother. idia felt his stress lessen, but that doesn’t change the immense pain he was in. “thank you, ortho. but i don’t im ever gonna to go outside again.”

he mumbles, causing ortho to pout. you come back with the bandages, smiling as you sat to the side of the cot. “im gonna have to go explain to coach vargas why you’re not here! hang tight, niisan!”

you waved to ortho, leaving just you and idia in the infirmary. “idia, you’re not going to die because of this.” you smile, placing the bandage onto his knee. idia groans, picking at his fingers. “i looked so cringe just now. definitely not my moment.”

“you didn’t look cringe, idia. you got hurt.” you grabbed his hand and held it in yours. he smiles slightly as you tried to reassure him. it was endearing to him. “thanks.. but i want to lock myself in my room for like ever after this..” he quickly mutters, hoping you wouldn’t hear that. surprise! you heard him.

“no idia, you can’t lock yourself in your room forever after this.” you sigh, realizing this was the man you fell in love with. “what? you can come too. you’d be free from all the normies surrounding you.” he stated bluntly.

“..no.” you hesitantly said, squeezing his hand slightly. you both sat in the infirmary for a few more moments before you sat up and let go of his hand. “can you stand?”

“no.” he quickly replies, not even bothering to try. you stare at him before exhaling deeply. “i’ll bring your switch then. wait here.” he smiled as he watched you exit the room. he appreciated how understanding you were. how you knew what he wanted before he even had to ask. ..well, most of the time anyway.

when you came back, you sat next to him on the cot. you both played smash bros together, playing until the console runs out of batteries. lucky for him, his console lasts for almost an entire week before it runs out of power.

let me just say, he beat your ass in smash bros.

A/N: this sat in my drafts for a very long time. i had to brainstorm A LOT to see how idia could get injured.

date published: 1/27/24

© temiizpalce — don’t steal or copy my work!

[oneguardian15]

fuuuuck. i’ll be honest, i was never a ryan gosling fan. like when everyone was freaking out over him in like the 2010s and oh he’s so hot blah blah blah i really didn’t get it. but idk man. something has changed for me since the barbie movie. i didn’t know what i was missing, and i’ve been enlightened. i’m like kind of obsessed with him. i watched the nice guys a while ago and loved it. and now i just watched the fall guy tonight, and oh my fucking god. he was sooooo cool. like okay obviously it’s the character he plays that’s cool but like. fuck! his stupid messy blond hair and his stupid handsome face and he’s so stinkin cuuuute!! i love him. a lot. he’s really cool but he also has this babygirl sopping wet meow meow energy that i’m just really digging fr fr.

[stariisoda]

I've been gone a while, and I decided to come back to play the Arcana again, only to find the app got worse. Seriously? I'm sure it's been like this for a while, but I have to scroll down for the stinkin dailies. The pop up ads were already bad, but like... I can't

This is so sad. And I've heard about the news with all of the artists being striked for art and fan content. I can't believe Dorian would do that. But maybe I should. Because they don't really care, they just want money. And I hate that they have to shit all over a beloved game that a lot of us cherish, just to make a quick buck. So sad. I love the game for its characters and rich story. Not for the BS they added for advertising their own app. What a shame.

I don't know if it's true, but I keep hearing something about them taking down the app. Is that true? Man, I just want to enjoy this game without all this crap. Thanks, Dorian.

Dorian, go do something anatomically improbable with yourself.

[tamaruaart]

TAM!!!

First off, ily, you’re so stinkin sweet

SECOND!!

Oc interaction question 💕

Which of your ocs would interact with mine, (you don’t have to do them all) and what would their relationships be like? :D

CAMMMMMM ILYSM

Hmmm thankies for askin' :D This one got my brain juices flowin' lol (Sorry it took kinda long to answer bestie- Also I was thinking of making doodles but laziness won 😔)

Zhao:

So first off, she would definitely get along with Jun, that's a given. Zhao is a godmomma and Jun is a momma! They bond over their son <3 I also feel like, you know, something funny is that Zhao is like hundreds of years older than Jun, right? Though, mentally speaking Zhao is in her late twenties maaybeeee early thirties?

Correct me if I'm wrong by all means but I'm pretty sure Jun is older than that so I feel like she would still scold Zhao like she would be scolding a younger sister- Like:

"Oh, don't be so sassy young lady! >:["

"Jun, what-"

"You heard me! You put Wukong to shame with all that attitude-"

Also since Zhao was also on the jttw she would still see Chenguang in Jun sometimes </3

As for another lady she'd get along with? Probably Zhēnzhu, I 'dunno. They just kinda give off those calm vibes and I'm like "Yeah, they'd get along!" Also I feel like Zhēnzhu wouldn't call her "Zhao". She'd either call her "Zhaoyan" or "Yan-Yan" (I love having 50 different nicknames for my characters leave me alone-)

Also childhood friends Ling and Zhao anybody? They're both Celestial girlies- Also I low-key really ship Ling with Wukong even though they're not 1000% confirmed ���👈 And we all know Zhao kinda really dislikes Wukong LOL- He's like that annoying coworker-

I imagine Ling being like

"Zhao... Not going to lie.. Wukong is kind of.. 👀"

Zhao:

"Oh shut up you had a crush on a stinky lion man-"

"True but at least Azure didn't pee on the Buddha's goddamn finger, LING-"

"...Touché-"

Quanshui:

I have no doubt in my mind that she would adore Meihua. She would probably nickname her "Mei-Mei" (I already told you I love nicknames leave me alone-), and I'm turn Meihua would nick name her "Shu-Shu". You can find them at the most UNGODLY hours going on and on about flowers and bugs.

Also, in my mind Quanshui would look up to Lychee. Mostly because she respects her a lot. And when I mean "look up to" I mean, Lychee is that one cool teacher who you like being around because they're so cool.

Also, just a brainrot though but Quanshui and Ehuang? I 'dunno XD Ehuang is just so fiery and I'm a sucker for the ":D and >:|" friendship dynamic. I honestly see them as kinda Polites and Odysseus in EPIC. Like they're jaded but such an older sibling and softie to this one precious cinnamon roll 🥹

Also her and Bao have an auntie-niece relationship me thinks

I don't know a lot about Chyou, but judging by the vibesies yeah, I think they could get along :D

Yueliang:

No one.

No body likes him /j

For Yue I feel like also Jun, they just have that Calm Mother and Chaotic Son dynamic, you know :D (Also bestie that kissing booth doodle of them amsmdnfnkskdjdjdjmdmddm it's like free therapy for both me and Yue)

Also, this a kinda weird one, but Yue and Asterius? I feel like they'd have a sort of frenemies dynamic. Mostly because they're both space babies and I can just see them waving at each other while flying threw space- Like-

"Hey, dude!"

"Hey, idiot."

(They say passing beside Saturn-)

I also think Polaris would find him cute. Not in "Aww what a cutie" sense but more in an "Awh who is this funny, loud space boy?" sense XD

And we all know Ling and Yue's dynamic- Not going to lie, no matter how much Yue LOVES TO ANNOY this woman... sigh.. Chaotic Aunty and Chaotic nephew vibes-

(Ehuang, Jiang and Suyin would absolutely hate his ass though lmao 😭😭😭😭 They're definitely members of the "I fucking hate Yueliang" club, along with half of China-)

Now, for their JTTW book versions, uhh I thinks it's essentially the same. Except Zhao is an even BIGGER witch asshole in that book so she would definitely get along with Xin Yan more. They'd be ✨t h e w i n e a u n t b e s t i e s✨. Also I totally can imagine book Zhao to be a sort of material figure to Daiyu. Because they're both twisted magic ladies-

And yeah! This was honestly so fun to write :D Feel free to send in more asks like this <3 (Also I'm now checking your OCs and I realized I literally did them all 💀💀💀💀💀💀)

[freesia-writes]

The Master Post of All the Tags Lately

Jeez, you guys, I feel so stinkin loved. I've been here for literally 3 months and it's just... the best. It's redeemed social media, LOL. So much creativity and fun and humor and just absolute awesomeness.

ANYWAY. I've been hyperfixated on my smutty Crosshair fic collab with @lightwise, so I haven't answered any of the fun things y'all have been tagging me in lately, so I'm doing them ALL AT ONCE. ;)

Last Song: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd

Currently Watching: nothing, can you believe it?!

Currently Reading: The Gospel of Mark and amazing fanfics (I'd tag em but there's too many and I fear missing someone)

Current Obsession: Clones right now. Fanfic writing, sexy clone fanart.

@sunshinesdaydream @rain-on-kamino

My Mood Board/Core/Aesthetic -- Total disclosure, I hand-picked the images to reflect all the sides of me...

@sinfulsalutations @the-bad-batch-baroness

The Latest Line from my WIP:

Crosshair’s hand was suddenly on the small of your back again, warm and deliberate, a life preserver in a tumultuous ocean of emotions and memories; he stiffened as he felt your tension and the slight shudder as you fought to maintain composure.

@clone-anon @annwayne @ladyzirkonia

9 of my Favorite Characters:

They actually are in order from least to most favorite, coincidentally. Although I might switch Gregor and Rex. ;)

@annwayne @techs-stitches @photogirl894

I'm too lazy to figure out the snow globe date thing but I can tell you it'd be me and my man in a forest by a river with a bunch of snack food. @anxiouspineapple99

A scent I love: RAIN

Something I'm looking forward to this week: a super chill weekend with family and a ton of progress on the smutty Crosshair fic ;)

A book I'm currently reading: see above

A game I'm currently playing: Super Mario 3D World or Mario Kart on the Switch with the fam

Most recent movie: I never watch movies. Idk why. But I can watch hours of TBB or TCW, haha. So uhhhh. GEEZ. Honestly, no idea.

Watching anything on TV: not consistently. Occasional episodes of The Office. Taking a break from Star Wars as I'm writing and reading like crazy here. ;)

Favorite season: GARLIC IS A SEASON, @doublesunsets!? You're my hero. I usually say fall (basic white girl) but this year it's been spring. I love rain, green, salamanders, creeks, fog, etc. I was raised in Oregon but am in California now, so it's nice to have glimpses of the Pacific Northwest.

Something I've learned lately: Zoloft can significantly decrease your sexual responsiveness. ;)

Have I had water today? Heck yes. I tote my giant water bottle around everywhere.

Also too lazy to make a picrew, but sending love and hugs to you @thecoffeelorian, haha

Holla if I missed any! XD

[galar-abortion-clinic]

*sends all of the oc ask game asks* jk jk I'm not THAT evil.

BUUUT 🎹 🥊💎 for Jules!

And just to be funny also 🌺

ZZZAP its the jules-clusive post

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Meat Loaf in rocky horror picture show, The Scorpion from the devils carnival (the hairstyle in particular), team yell’s Fat Boy Swag™, and the overall fashion and attitude of the psychobilly scene. One of my favorite things about pokemon is the gimmick characters with pun names, I thought it’d be funny to make an electric-type specialist named after joule units. Geddit? Greased lightning?

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Outside of being a big stinkin gearhead? I think he very casually styles his pokemon from time to time! Doesnt think much of it, he just enjoys hanging out with his lil buddies and often finds himself spiffying em up by default. It’s one of those hidden talents that’s so hidden even he isn’t aware of it

🥊 - What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

I can’t think of very much Jules hates, he’s not the sort of guy who vocally dislikes much at all. The only thing i can imagine him saying fuck no to is desk work lmao. He’s a mechanic because he loves keeping busy, he needs the noise and sparks and excitement. Ask him to calmly sit still and focus on papers and watch him lose his mind just from imagining how boring that’d be

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Honestly my first impulse is to say yes, absolutely. I can picture his last words being “LADS WATCH THIS”. At the same time tho, i feel like hes too dumb to die. Hes always in the right place at the wrong time

🌺 - Do they have any love interests?

Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, stinker

🎓- How long have you had the OC?

FUCK okay so jules is TECHNICALLY my oldest oc of the bunch, i just changed him up to fit a new fandom. Believe it or not my man used to be a steven universe fangem i made as a sweaty 15 year old, then he went through a whole bunch of revisions before I settled on what he’s become now. Unfortunately (but also thank fuck) i dont have the first scribblings id ever done of him, but here are some early design concepts i bounced between while figuring out how he fits into the pokemon fandom:

(Again, i do NOT take very good care of my sketchbooks)

[mexicangela]

15 questions and 15 mutuals

i was tagged by @movrings, thank you lovely 💕

were you named after anyone?

yes! i was named after my abuelita angela, my dad's mom. i think if i had been born a boy i would've been named after my abuelito so i guess there was no way i wasn't going to be a namesake haha.

when was the last time you cried?

yesterday. over theodore lasso. or at least the version i'm writing of him currently. :')

do you have kids?

i do not. someday, hopefully.

do you use sarcasm a lot?

i think i do, especially when i'm around certain people who know what my brand of sarcasm looks like.

what's the first thing you notice about people?

i don't know if it's the very first thing i notice, but i'm always looking out for peoples' character. i feel like i'm pretty good at gauging whether someone's a good person/if we'll mesh well after a conversation or two with them.

what's your eye color?

brown!

scary movies or happy endings?

give me a happy ending any day of the week. the world's too bleak as it is. although, i do have to have my angst along with it so maybe i have a problem.

any special talents?

i like to think i'm a moderately talented writer lol. i write prose and poetry and other people have told me i'm decent at it. aside from that, i did theatre for over a decade so there's that.

where were you born?

good ol' florida, usa baby (i hate it here 😭).

what are your hobbies?

writing, reading, annoying my loved ones

have any pets?

i do! an elderly pomeranian named odis and a 7 month old great pyrenees named apollo. pictures because they're so stinkin' cute!

what sports do you play/have you played?

the only sport i've ever really held enough interest in to play is basketball but only recreationally. was on a team once but then my older brother gave me stage fright so i never played LMAO.

how tall are you?

5'7"

favorite subject in school?

it was always reading, writing, and theatre. i'm not a STEM girlie, what can i say?

dream job?

i don't even know man. i'm just trying to make money to survive right now.

i'm tagging @roamwithahungryheart, @biscuitboxpink, @deardarlingthings, and whoever else comes across this that i wasn't confident enough to tag for fear of being annoying <3

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: Just a Spector (issue # 5)

Moon Knight, Issue #5: Ghost Story

Written by Doug Moench and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz

Let’s go further back. Back to early 1981 and back to the start. 

Before things were set in stone, designs were still settling and the characters were still being fleshed out. 

Back when Moon Knight was still very much a supernatural sort of comic. 

I skipped this one originally because it is just a story and there was no real development here. But don’t be fooled, I do love this one. And perhaps, with enriched eyes, we may see a little more than just a story. 

And with any good ghost story, we start with two teens goading each other on to sneak into the locally haunted house. 

We see a large house on a hill with red windows. 

"It's filled with all the ghosts from the red hunter's killin'--And I've seen the shadow of the red Hunter himself, movin' past the windows, holdin' his shotgun..." 

And of course the one kid forces the other to go inside to prove themselves. When the kid refuses, the other decides to prove himself and go in. 

Just as they are about to sneak inside, a real spector eclipses the moon, terrifying the boys into taking off at a run. 

Yeah... He did that on purpose. 

"Sorry I had to do that... But if Creach and Parkins are here, it's better if those kids keep running for miles..." 

He is indeed a Spector on a hunt. A family cemetary sits just off to the rear of the house and before mentioned Creach and Parkins are making their way up through it. 

There used to be three of them. 

"I don't like it, Parkins--It's such a creepy old place! Maybe we should just be satisfied with what we've got and --"

"Are you kiddin', Creach? No way! Not after what Redditch did to us! We ain't leavin' till we find him and get the rest of his lousy 'treasure'!" 

"But how do you know he even came here?" 

"Because he's hurt and he's crazy, that's how. And because he always used to talk about the perfect hiding place for loot-Buried under his mother's house." 

They found Redditch's car out in the woods leading up to the house so they know he's there. 

Parkins grew up with Redditch and was forced to run in his pack due to the small rural area and lack of options. 

It would seem Redditch was known to be pretty crazy. 

"There were some disappearances around here back then. They stopped after Redditch's old man was killed! And they never found the other "Hunter" who shot him. The theory was that after the guy killed him, he panicked--didn't think the cops would believe it was self defense--and never came forward with his story. Anyway, at the time I was too young to care about the gossip." 

He's pretty sure that Redditch killed his own father. He notes he was a real Momma's boy who often stayed home with her rather than going out to play.

In fact, earlier in the day we see Redditch talking to the other two as he reads the paper. 

"My Mom... She's dead... I hadda put her away nine years ago... Never got a chance to see her again cuz the stinkin' cops woulda grabbed me...And now she's dead...and they didn't even tell me..." 

The other two note that Redditch's mom had thousands of dollars hidden away in an old shoe box and a sealed lockbox missing a key. 

Having just robbed a liquor store and wanted by the cops, Redditch can't go claim his mother's inheritance. 

Pissed off, Redditch decides to go rob the bank and steal his inheritance and he demands that the other two help him. 

Apparently it didn't go well. 

Now they're looking for Redditch and his money. 

"They're trapped inside now--And if what Parkins said is true, all three of them could be in there... But it's odd that both the kids AND the crooks should be so obsessed with ghosts-- Especially after what happened this afternoon." Moon Knight watches them enter the house from the rooftop. 

EARLIER back at Grant Mansion…. 

Now, this is a few issues before Jake Lockley figures out he can wear a fake mustache. So it’s weird looking at that incredibly handsome face in his trademark clothes without his friendly ‘stache. 

Also I love Jean-Paul. “Time for zee Moon Knight’s prowl, no?” 

“Eh–? Oh…Yeah…Sure. Listen–Can I tell you something weird, Frenchie–Something that makes me sound even more crazy than I am?” 

“Oui, Marc–tell me. We are all crazy born into madness.” 

One has to admire Frenchie’s approach to life. How willing he is to go with the flow. How accepting he is for any and everything that may be thrown at him. 

"It's got nothing to do with birth, Frenchie--Maybe rebirth, but it's mostly about death. It's this statue of Khonshu--From the tomb where I 'died', And was reborn as the Moon Knight. 

He's supposed to be the Egyptian God of the Moon...And also some kind of an avenging Angel of Death, well, the weird thing is... Sometimes I believe it.

I get a chill when I pass the thing--All kinds of weird vibrations... ANd when I stare at its face, I could swear I'm in contact with something inside it... With its ghost, I guess... 

And it makes me aware of my own spirit, something restless stirring inside me... My own ghost, even though I'm not dead yet." 

Oh yeah, we’re dealing with Marc Spector here, and his constant struggle with his death, rebirth, religion, and personal spirit. 

"Now that you mention it, Marc, it has always conjured a touch of zee strange for me as well. Perhaps it is not so crazy after all." 

"Yeah, well, let's move. I'll be Lockley tonight--start out in the cab. You follow in the chopper--Fairly close in case I need you." 

Now this early on, he would always announce aloud who he was going to be. Usually when going to Jake. It also almost felt like a sheepish announcement to me, but perhaps I’m reading too much into it. This is so early in the comics that it’s before they even realized their own individuality. To them, they were all still Marc pretending to be someone else. They were almost shy about trying to strike out on their own and be their own people. 

Anyways, it's always interesting how spooked Moon Knight often got early on when it came to dealing with ghosts, considering that he himself often thought of himself as a sort of ghost. 

Back to the creepy house, Moon Knight is still feeling spooked. 

"And little did we know that the night's patrol in Manhattan would end up out here...But it has so let's hope I can really end it--before dawn." 

Knowing that the team is armed with a shotgun, Moon Knight moves silently and carefully through the house. 

The two criminals are nervous as they too explore the house. 

This is normal. Owls get caught in curtains all the time. 

Creach and Parkins are spooked. 

"We ain't givin' up that loot, not after all we went through today to get it!" 

Earlier in the day: 

The estate lawyer is going through the effects from the Redditch estate. One of the people notes that "How can they be sure she's dead? She vanished, but..." 

"After non years, Miss Belvins, she is legally dead, and legality is all that concerns us." 

Just then, the three men barge in with their shotgun and demand the money. 

Just as the two are discussing what to do with all the cash in the office, Redditch busts in. 

Miss Belvins pleads for them not to shoot, she has an old mother she cares for. This enrages Redditch and he shoots. 

Creach and Parkins are horrified and make a run for it. 

Redditch meets up with a security officer as he makes a run for it. He is shot and he shoots in return. 

They dive into their get-away-car and make a break for it, but Redditch is hurt. 

Jake has his police scanner on in the cab and picks up the call for help. He makes a quick decision to head there in his cab. 

Crashing his cab to avoid a collision with the get-awa-car, he changes to Moon Knight and takes off. 

But now the three men are desperate. They take off across the bridge and open fire on the cops in pursuit. 

They make a mess of things, causing some nasty accidents. 

The Moon Copter follows, trying to catch up. 

Back to the present! 

Back to the chase! 

They stop for gas now that they've lost the cops. 

Redditch struggles to open the lockbox and manages to jimmy it open. 

He is excited once he sees what was hidden inside. 

"Listne-You guys can have the shoebox--I'll take this!" He gives up the money without a second thought. 

The other two are confused and demand to see what's inside the lockbox, thinking it's something more valuable. 

Redditch cries out that the treasure is his and bolts from the car. He jumps into another car and takes off. 

Moon Knight catches up and follows the car up to the old spooky house. And this brings us back to the point where Moon Knight scares off the two kids from before. 

Back to the present! Creach and Parkins find a locked door marked "Eddie's Room". It's Redditch's old bedroom. 

They kick down the door and find: 

There is also fresh blood on the floor. 

"Quit actin' like you're gonna have a heart attack, Creach! Ghosts don't bleed--but Redditch does. That cop nailed him good in the side. Don't you see--? All's we gotta do is follow the blood till we find Redditch..." 

The blood trail leads them to a cracked door. 

Redditch must still be inside!

Oh, wait, no. It’s more Skeleton. 

The Skeleton fires the shotgun! 

The men are spooked. A skeleton did just take a shot at them. 

Wait a second...

They’re doing fine. 

The men head down stairs to the basement, still in search of the treasure. 

And where is Moon Knight in all this gunfire?

“Someone else IS here–I can FEEL it–And somehow I know it’s not Redditch! But since I’m not quite ready to believe it’s a ghost, I’d better make my move now–Before someone innocent gets hurt…” 

Moon Knight… Surrounded is a strong way to phrase that. The three of you (four) aren’t surrounding anyone. 

Creach and Parkins freak out, thinking it's the cops. Thinking that if the cops don't catch them with the evidence (money), they can't charge them. 

They frantically light the furnace and throw the box of money in. 

The furnace, however, hasn't been maintained in a very long time and can't handle the sudden fire or build up of smoke. In fact, it starts to shudder and shake. 

It explodes! The explosion reveals a hidden trap door in the cellar floor! 

Still thinking the police are after them, they flee down under the floor and find themselves in a narrow tunnel. 

"It could still lead to whatever Redditch ran away with. He always said he had a perfect hiding place under the house --and I feel a breeze up ahead! Maybe we can find the box AND escape the cops! Keep goin'!" 

The tunnel does take them outside, but it leads right to the cemetery. And a waiting Moon Knight. 

Spooked by his ghostly appearance, Creach makes a run for it only to take a truncheon to the back of the head. 

Now it's Moon Knight vs. Shotgun. 

A crescent dart sinks into the hand that holds the shotgun. Moon Knight is in no mood. 

"You were wrong, Parkins! The ghost of the Moon...The avenging ghost of DEATH!" 

He punches Parkins hard. 

Frankie Parkins is out before he hits the ground.

Parkins' dropped flashlight illuminates a headstone that belongs to Edward Redditch. 

"Redditch?! Redditch is dead?" Moon Knight can't believe it. "There's a tombstone and an open grave for him?!"

And yes... There in the open grave lays Redditch. His hair is pure white and not only has he lost a lot of blood from the police bullet, but he also has a fresh shotgun blast. 

"Just like his dad." An old woman comes up behind Moon Knight. "...Always out hunting for something...Only coming home when he needed something...Covered in fresh blood...Red...COuldn't ever see anything but red...Then leaving right away...Leaving me alone again..." 

Ah….A sort of Norman Bates situation.

He finds the open lockbox that Redditch had been after. Inside, the treasure: The deed to the house. 

"He was named Edward too, you know...His dad was... Got hurt in a shooting accident, he did... Never came home...Then they put me away...But I had to come back home. So I could go out and get him...Bring him home for good....Take care of him... And now the boy's come back all red...covered in fresh blood like his hunter dad... All you can see...No matter which window you look out.." 

Seems she was waiting at home for Redditch and when he got back, he wasn't expecting to find his mother, who he thought was dead. Scared to death, the gun went off and accidentally shot him. 

Yeah, what I’m getting out of this is that he used to help his mom clean his father’s kills. (all the skeletons). His father was then killed by accident or in self defense by either the son, the mother, or one of his prey. She then went and collected his body and cleaned it to skeleton perfection, dressed it up in his hunting gear, and did a little Norman Bates. 

Now, her son is dead in his father’s empty grave, she goes to fetch his body too… But the house is burning and it’s time to end it. 

This was a fun little ghost story! Action, good storytelling, and a little spooky! Kinda felt like an episode of Twilight Zone or something. 

It also really sets the stage for how a lot of Moon Knight is going to go through the rest of Moench’s run. The story is more about the people fighting past demons, traumas, and their own ghosts. And his own fear/exploration that he himself is nothing but a Ghost out for vengeance. 

[scrunglepaws]

Is that SAILS doing the Captain Morgan??? Because PIRATE? (Yes). :D Anyway, if you want to hear me ramble about character design-

So! Sails! He's a pirate, so going with an ocean theme was pretty standard, but my little goober also has a romance theme! Because: he played a lute that one time -> he loves music -> I was like dang that makes me think of this lute-sounding song (idk if it's even a lute; I'm musically inept) and it's called the Romantic Sea of Tranquility -> I guess he's a sappy romantic now.

Fun fact: He's also a shipper, which is a completely unintentional joke. fgfdgdf

ANYWAY, he's got the lil wave marks in his ears and on his tails. The ones in his ears double as a heart to hit both themes at once, heck yeah! I was originally drawing the waves on his tails like giant, curvy ones but it was really hard to draw consistently and looked weird at certain angles. Then I had the Big Brain thought to do the generic, little waves. At the time, I hadn't drawn Kit as much and didn't realize this was also in his design. xD However! I FINALLY memorized which direction Kit's waves go in, and they're actually the opposite of Sails'. So I'll finally draw their tail swooshes consistently from now on. Hooray!

I considered changing Sails' tails to more gay little hearts (can never have enough gay little hearts!!! :3). But it looked too prim and neat, so I threw that idea out (this bitch scrungly). I did, however, add some more hearts to his ears- on the back! A broken heart and a happy heart, for his past and future. Hopefully Kit doesn't die so he doesn't have to get his other ear ripped off... >_>; But yeah, Sails has darker colored ears now. Which contradicts something from the first chapter of Aquarius, but you know what? Oh well. I don't think it will break the reader's immersion to have a tiny detail changed, so I won't let it bother me either. (Can you tell I struggled with this and it bothered me a lot kfklgfdl). I'm still debating about giving him darker paws/feets, but I'm really unsure about it. On one hand, they look really cute! Because sock markings on animals are stinkin' cute! But design-wise, it would ruin how nicely his darks/lights are broken up with his current clothing design. And I don't want to change it- I really like drawing his clothes (other than the head scarf)! So yeah... Dunno on that one. Most likely won't add them, though. I will, however, be making more of an effort to remember to draw the scar under his eye. I draw it much more exaggerated than it actually is, but that's fine because it adds to the overall scrungliness and makes him look like a tired old man. Which is good, because he is supposed to look older than he actually is. Living life on the salty ocean with the sun beating on you, constant stress from fighting/ect survival hardships, poor hygiene and nutrition... Doesn't do wonders for the complexion, or so I've heard.

Anyway, back to tails! I want my main dudes (aka Kaleidoscope + Someplace Tails variants) to have distinct enough designs that you wouldn't look at them and think they were clones of each other. Just weirdly similar instead. Because, in both AUs, they're actually not different versions of Tails! They're just coincidentally freakishly similar dudes from different planets. Because I said so. So we've got Nine (smooth, noodly thin tail with a tiny white tip), Tails (average, slightly bushy tail), Mangey (long, voluminous, BUSHY, styled tail with a red-typed tip), and... Well CaveTails isn't part of the main four, but he also has a distinctly tiny, SCRUNGLY tail, so I put it there. ANYWAY, then there was Sails. I could never decide exactly how I wanted his tails to differ in volume/texture/ect. I couldn't just go with a generic scrungly/scruffy, because honestly that's all of them (other than Nine and his extra short fur)! Then I thought, well, he's a pirate. He's been in a lot of scraps- he has some scars and he's missing an ear. What if he's missing some tail? And because I want these designs to be quick and fun for me to draw, I had to convey this in a way that was pretty simple. So I just tried rounding off the tip a bit, making it look just a little flat/chopped off. Which reminded me of how I draw a certain original species of mine's tails... That look like this nonsense:

And I was like shit... That's it. I've solved Sails' tails. They're fun as SHIT to draw and they look hella scrungly, but also soft and floofy at the same time. Perfect. 10/10. Very him.

Oh, and another quick note: I was fussing with differentiating his hair from Tails' SO MUCH. I tried making it wavy, bushier, swooping a different way, giving him a ponytail, but nothing seemed right. For the most part, I couldn't draw them consistently at all angles, or they weren't scrungly enough. It never occurred to me to make it scrunglier by making his hair SHORTER. Which, I did. It's probably too subtle for anyone to notice but me, but *I* can tell, so I'm finally happy with it. xD Same with his cheek and chest floofs.

Sooo, yeah! I think he's done? Finally??? (nothing I do is ever final... >_>) All I have to do now is find a point in the story where someone freaking BURNS his head scarf or something because I hate drawing it! xD Or maybe he starts wearing it around his neck again, like when he was a wee lad. I'd be cool with that. I got used to drawing the vest at least, so it can stay.

If you read all of this... Why... But also. MY MAN!!! *high five* >833333

[chiliadicorum]

1/8/9/16 choose violence ask

Man we are going with the punches with these aren't we lol but then the prompt did promise violence (keeping these to the tolkien fandom again)

1. the character everyone gets wrong

I'm still saying Thingol

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I'm going to probably tick a lot of people off and go with what seems to be the universal opinion that Everyone despised Feanor for not giving Yavanna the Silmarils. That opinion is wrong and I will not elaborate (here anyway)

9. worst part of canon

I'm giving 2 answers bc I honestly can't decide between them. I'm interpreting "worst" as in "this shouldn't be canon at all" and not "this is so tragic and awful"

The first is with the Dagor Dagorath, and I know nothing written about the End is necessarily concrete, but it's the part where Turin comes back to fight the Enemy and is a badass and all that. I hate hate HATE the suggestion so much it's one of the 3 "canons" I call bs on and refuse to acknowledge as canon. I know I really don't like Turin but there's more to it. whatever. Next!

The second one I refuse to acknowledge as canon takes place in the story of Beren and Luthien. (people who love their story, please don't read this. i'm not looking to start a fight) Granted, I've never cared for their story, but I really backed off on my dislike of it when I learned that it was more or less a reflection of Tolkien's love for his wife Edith. I tempered my dislike a lot after learning that, became much softer. That said, there's still one part that infuriated me when I first read it and still does to this day: the fact that Luthien and Beren came back receiving their "fate" as they did bc Luthien was a good crier. Really. That's what Namo gets moved by? (maybe that's a myth that started as a result. Sing to the Vala a woeful song and you'll be resurrected to get a chance with your sweetheart again!) Namo dealt with ALL of the Elves that died but no, bc luthien sang a gorgeous song conveying her grief SHE GETS WHAT SHE WANTS? What about all those other Elves who are just as (if not more) grieved over the loss of loved ones? Who were dealt far worse fates? Did they not cry enough, cry prettily, sing a song about it? Why her? what's so stinkin special about her brief relationship with Beren that she gets a second chance with him and NO ONE ELSE DOES?

I need to stop. The salt's real with this, if you couldn't tell. Reading that genuinely disgusted me. I despise that romantic love is held up so much higher than any other love, and I know that majorly contributes to my disgust in this canon, in which it's exemplified. I know it led down to the choice of Elrond and Elros blah blah blah it was important, yes. but I think that part of the story, the WAY that outcome happened is such bullshit.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

this was kinda hard to answer. Picking just one, Caranthir/Haleth? I just i don't get it

choose violence ask game

[gretagerwigsmuse]

oh my god thank you!!! i haven’t known how to articulate my thoughts re all your lovely comments, that’s why i haven’t replied yet! this made me so happy and i squealed and kicked my legs reading it 🥰 i will endeavor to answer/reply to all of these below! thank you again!!! and to your final point - i finished writing this in my childhood bedroom on a freezing, windy christmas so we’re basically kin haha

similarly, as an overachiever, there really is nothing better than being told you throw a good party, but it’s so stressful - to say nothing of it your boyfriend is being deployed for 3 months and you want everything to be perfect? i feel like this was a big moment of just showing she’s human and she’s prone to jealousy and a little petty and bitter that he’s leaving? because the reader in fics is always like ‘awww it’s okay baby, i get you have to leave’ and yeah maybe she can be a little bitter about it?

jake absolutely DOES deserve a little shit still in this fic! and yup! smart aleck is definitely the type to ‘maybe forgive, but never forget’ and jake pulls some shit at the gala that only reinforces smart aleck still being wary of him? like they’re cordial with each other, but he’s not being named godfather anytime soon lol.

i totally get what you mean about bradley waiting for others to take the lead and completely agree! i’m glad you think it was in character for him! i try and make him very considerate and kind and to follow her lead with a lot of things in their relationship and that was partly why he was so nervous to ask her to move in with him (if you’ll have me - sir pls 🥹😵‍💫😮‍💨)? that being said, he does know when to push her out of her comfort zone, but to the point where it’s not aggressive or excessive? idk if that made sense?

the concept of being tired is soooo personal to me because there’s so many different types of being tired and i think i wrote that paragraph about five times before i really liked it enough, so thank you for calling it out! and she’s got SUCH a busy mind (and is totally a busybody haha) that i really like doing the whole stream of conscious thing with her inner dialogue sometimes? i don’t do it as much from his pov, but it really lends itself to her because how she perceives herself is def not how she’s perceived by others? someone mentioned she’s a bit of an unreliable narrator and i really liked that concept

the peanuts part was moderately self indulgent and i am in total agreement with you - i would absolutely want him to take me on the piano bench right then and there. i have another fic i’m working on where bradley plays the piano for her and it’s so stinkin cute 🥰 i feel like his twinkling on the keys before playing great balls of fire in the movie is very much overlooked in fic because that man is classically trained tyvm!

mav dad!! papa mav! i wrote like 60% of this and was like shit!! mav isn’t in it! because her and mav have a really close relationship throughout her and bradley’s relationship/story, so i’m glad i was able to give some background here! and like even mav knowing and her knowing that mav knows how much bradley loves her really speaks a lot to how much bradley 1) talks about her in general and 2) talks to mav (the person who knows him for the longest in the world) about her. and all she’s ever known is bradley and mav being close again, so it’s basically like she has his dad’s approval and friendship imo!

i really like sneaking in all the little tidbits about bradley’s life outside of the navy and this fic was really fun since i could introduce different friends of theirs without it seeming super forced? the otis redding thing was kind of random, but i thought still tied in with the movie a bit? i imagine he has a fancy record player on one of those tables from the 60s and it has built in storage for all his records? and yes! tiernan, kylie, and i have talked about bradley surfing quite a bit and just imagining him in that wetsuit practically sends me into cardiac arrest?? like he’s just so pretty??!

sharing furniture and grocery lists and just watching tv together and going to bed in the same place every night, night after night is just…idk it’s home to me? so i wanted to incorporate that for the two of them, especially since they aren’t home a lot? both of them travel quite a bit for work, so they are each other’s home?

yes! caroline is truly a real one! imagine smart aleck like had her underwear on still in the shower and caroline had to awkwardly watch her slather her boobs in soap suds and be like ‘this is what does it for him? this?’ and they have to take like five different pictures with the polaroid and it’s so funny and sweet. but also caroline mentions it to bradley once when she’s drunk of something and he’s so mortified 😂

and okay yes…the ending was a touch abrupt, i fully concede that point! maybe i’ll do something with their emails and her going about her life while he’s gone? especially since they’re gearing up for the big move 🥰 and their one year anniversary! idk i could write so much more for them haha

(christmas) baby please come home

summary: in which lieutenant commander bradshaw and his girlfriend throw a christmas party, complete with a christmas tree, copious amounts of champagne, blended friend groups, and the true meaning of the word home

OR what do you do when your boyfriend gets deployed over christmas and he get you two christmas presents?

pairing: Rooster x Fem!Reader 11.8k

warnings: 18+, explicit language, explicit sexual content

part of @notroosterbradshaw ‘s hello december challenge

masterlist and playlist

It was obvious that you knew how to throw a party. 

Furthermore, it was obvious that none of your and Bradley’s friends - baring Max, but only because he had professional help - would ever be able to pull off a party of the same caliber as your Christmas party. 

Subconsciously, you wanted your friends to be jealous of you and impressed with how well you and Bradley had pulled things off. It was, admittedly, such a vain and shallow thought - no, desire to want to be the best at this. At throwing parties.

The Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack was currently echoing throughout the downstairs on the Sonos, the twinkling jazz giving off a whimsical, yet sophisticated vibe, the Christmas tree looked stunning in the living room where it was covered in nearly three thousand white lights and countless ornaments, and the food that you and Bradley - but mainly Bradley - had spent all morning and last night preparing was laid out on festive serving dishes, complete with seasonally appropriate plates and napkins, perfectly folded in their napkin rings. 

You had scoured San Diego county for the most gorgeous garland possible to serve as the centerpiece on the dining room table, the berries and pine cones in it perfectly matching the plates and napkins and serving dishes. You had vacuumed the hardwood floor twice and washed it once before everyone came over and knew you would do so again once everyone left, if only so you could casually say it’s fine, you can keep your shoes on, we’re washing the floor tomorrow anyway. The candles weren’t overpowering, there was soft lighting all throughout the house, and you’d somehow wrangled a recipe for the cookies Bradley’s mom used to make from Sarah Kazansky and hadn't even burnt them.  

Because you wanted people to talk about it - the party. And to say did you see their bathroom? It was so clean, there weren’t any water spots on the faucet. The beef tenderloin appetizers were delicious, they had to have gotten the meat someplace special? No, definitely not Vons, maybe some local butcher in La Jolla? Aren’t they such a sweet couple? Such a good pair.

Because it had to be perfect. 

All of it.

Because this was Bradley’s Christmas. His only Christmas that year. Nothing could go amiss. And you wanted everyone to be jealous of it, so much so that tonight would be equal to if not better than how they celebrated the actual holiday with their own families - in their own homes - on Christmas Day. 

Because they weren’t going to be spending the holiday on a drafty aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific far from home like Bradley was. 

And Bradley deserved the entire world and all the happiness he could possibly have. The way his face had lit up when you’d first suggested the party after he’d gotten his orders at the beginning of November would stick with you for months. You’d told him that everything would be perfect, that you would pack enough Christmas spirit and love and gifts and food into one evening that it would take the sting out of being away from home - being away from you - at Christmas. Even if for just one night.

The guests had all arrived, some promptly and some not-so-promptly, with you and Bradley greeting them all, telling them to help themselves to all the food and drinks they wanted. Apparently, Max had a surprise for later that you prayed was not him putting on a Santa suit. But the conversation and drinks were flowing with ease, despite the blending of your two friend groups for the first time. 

It was a good party. 

Except right now, it was your turn to be the jealous one.

You watched, enviously, as one of your work friends leaned against the kitchen island with a glass of prosecco in her hand, while the other gripped Jake Seresin’s bicep. The jealousy wasn’t because of Jake or any attention he may have been giving her, mind you. 

(Because no, no - while you may no longer have had an intense hatred for Bradley’s nemesis cum friend, you still didn’t actively seek out his presence and you definitely didn’t want his attention - not for anything other than a great party as he left your - no, Bradley’s house later that night.)

No - you were jealous of her dress. Her gorgeous, deep garnet, midi-length, sleeveless dress. That looked absolutely stunning on her, though a touch too fancy for a Christmas party in South Park. She looked gorgeous, beautiful - statuesque. 

You absentmindedly fixed the bow on your wrap dress. Your long sleeved, silk wrap dress - that also did plenty to hide any unwanted lines or bumps around your stomach. And your arms. 

Weeks ago, back when the party was but a pipe dream, you’d been eyeing this absolutely adorable, sleeveless, mini-dress for the event. Like your friend’s dress, it probably erred on the side of slightly too fancy for a house party, but it had been so pretty and so perfect. It had sat in your cart online for at least two weeks - you just wanted to see if it would go on sale before you finally pulled the trigger. 

Until Thanksgiving. 

When you saw how unflattering your arms looked in the black cashmere tank you’d brought for dinner to your parents’ house. You thanked your past self for having the forethought to pack a cardigan, which didn’t come off until hours later after all your aunts and uncles and cousins had left and you were snuggled up in Bradley’s arms. 

Maybe you should try the HIIT classes on your Peloton instead of all those beginner rides you were still doing with Cody? Or get arm weights? The girls who worked out in the front two rows of your pilates class swore by them. They barely needed any input from the instructor - they just knew how to move their bodies that way. Or maybe you could ask your parents for a higher Class Pass subscription for Christmas? It would give you something to focus on while Bradley was gone. 

You hadn’t been this self conscious at the gala back in October and that dress was far more daring than anything you’d ever worn before; practically open back, with a risqué slit and a deep v neckline, to say nothing of what you had worn just for Bradley later that night. 

So, why now? Why tonight when you were supposed to be enjoying this time with your boyfriend and all your friends before the holidays? Why tonight, when everything else was going so right, were you being bogged down by this insecurity in your own home - no, no, it was Bradley’s home, not yours.

Was it because he was leaving? And you didn’t want one of his last images of you for three months to be your arms in a too tight dress? Because that was so shallow and silly and ridiculous. 

But what if it was true? Bradley was so pretty and handsome and charming and sweet, what if there was someone else on that boat that also thought he was pretty and handsome and charming and sweet? And you’d seen all the other aviators and naval personnel at that gala, they were stunning. What if Bradley thought that too - no, no, no. You weren’t going to focus on that for one of your last nights with him. 

Bradley loved you, Bradley proved how much he loved you every single day, Bradley catered to your every whim about this party with the biggest smile on his face. 

Bradley loved you. 

You were just being ridiculous and shallow and over dramatic and spiraling before he left. Bradley loved you, Bradley loved you. He loved you. He - was wrapping his arms around your waist. 

“How’s it going?” His voice rumbled in your ear and you leaned back against him. 

God, he was so strong and soft and warm and smelled so pretty all the time. You were going to miss him so much. You felt him fiddle with the bow tying your burgundy dress together and ducked your head. 

“Good, just came to get a drink.” Which you had been doing - about three minutes ago. “And wanted to make sure everyone in here was all set.”

Bradley hummed and swayed you back and forth in his arms. “Look at you, hostess with the mostess - or however that goes. You want me to make you another drink?”

You nodded. “Please.”

You both had decided to set up the bar in the kitchen, while keeping the food in the dining room and the dessert in the sitting room for later. Hours ago, before you had even hopped in the shower, the bar had been painstakingly set up and organized. Now, it needed some work. You cursed yourself for not checking on it earlier in the evening - you couldn’t believe your guests had been serving themselves from this all night. 

The glasses were no longer in neat rows, organized by type, the bowl with the limes was running dangerously low, and the caps to the liquor bottles and the champagne corks were scattered across the table. Without a second thought, you started organizing everything before Bradley could even get you a fresh glass. 

You could tell he wanted to say something, but - at least for that moment - he just rubbed your back and then poured you another glass of champagne, making sure to put the bottle back properly. Meanwhile, you scooped up the stray corks and foil and other bottle caps and threw them in the garbage underneath the sink. You had enough time, maybe you could pop those dirty wine glasses in the empty dishwasher? Wait - there was a puddle of condensation underneath an open bottle of champagne. You frowned. Clearly, someone hadn’t put it back in the bucket. Who would do that? Didn’t they know to put it back exactly where -  

“- You good?” 

Bradley’s voice was so soft and reassuring and you couldn’t believe you’d soon be going without hearing it for months. Unable to wait another second, you wrapped your arms around him in a hug, which he eagerly returned and you nuzzled his chest. Bradley’s shirt for the party was an exceptionally soft flannel in a solid navy color that you’d found on sale. He hated buying himself clothes, even more so spending a lot of money on them, but he always liked whatever you picked out for him. 

Maybe you could buy him some new clothes while he was gone? By now, you knew what he liked and didn’t like - right down to the colors and fabric types. He needed some new undershirts - and socks. You nuzzled your face into his chest. He felt so warm and soft and smelled so good. You had to buy a travel sized bottle of his cologne before he left. 

“You sure you’re okay, kid?” he asked again. 

“Just a little overwhelmed - and kinda tired.” You pulled your head back to look at him, but the two of you still kept your arms around the other. 

“Well,” Bradley started, “to be fair, you did do like all the work for this party, think it’s valid to be a little tired, sweetheart.”

“What? No?” You were offended on his behalf. “Bubs, you made all the food and -”

“- Yeah, but you helped with the food and did all the work getting the house ready.”

You cocked your head, considering this. “I mean, I did. Didn’t I?” Bradley chuckled. “Okay, fine - I’m tired. But it’s a good tired, I think?”

“A good tired, huh?” His thumbs were making the most soothing circles on your hips.

“Like a heart full tired? A changing for dinner after a spending a day at the beach tired - no, wait. A post gala eating french fries in bed and watching Moonstruck tired?” An after you fucked me so hard I could barely remember my own name tired. 

“You should’ve just led with that last one.” He kissed your temple and ran his hands up and down the silk fabric covering your arms. “Would’ve known exactly what you were talking about then.”

You lightly shoved his chest and then pulled him back in for a hug. “I’m also gonna miss you a lot…”

That was the crux of it. You were going to miss him so much you thought your heart was going to burst. And enjoying all the Christmas festivities tonight - on the second Saturday in December - made it all the more apparent that Bradley wasn’t going to be with you over the holidays. He wouldn’t be with you again until March. 

You two had gotten through plenty of training missions, short diplomatic visits, and off-sites - on your end - over the last eight months. But this was Bradley’s first, real deployment. 

God, if only Emily Simpson could see you now. You and Bradley had both been so cocky, so confident back in October at the gala about how effortlessly you handled the time spent apart. But you hadn’t been staring down a three month long deployment back then. 

Three months was a long time. Six pay cycles, at least twelve trips to the grocery, four off-sites, the entirety of Q1, five nail appointments, twenty four pilates classes, and if he knocked you up that very night, it could be the entirety of a first trimester of pregnancy. Not that you wanted to be pregnant - at least not for a while. Like quite a while. It was just a way to compare time. You didn’t want to be pregnant. 

Three months, three months, three months. 

And then he’d come home to you. To you and your life together.

That’s why the party had to be perfect. Because it would remind Bradley of home and all he had to look forward to when he came back in three months. 

“I’m gonna miss you, too.  Never really had someone to miss before on one of these - not like this.” 

And then he kissed you - quick, little butterfly kisses that soon turned bolder and more daring, especially considering there were five or so other people milling about the kitchen. Bradley’s tongue licked your bottom lip, eventually coaxing your mouth open. He tasted like the old fashioned you saw him drinking earlier. You slid your arms up his chest to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer and fiddled with the ends of his soft hair. 

The sounds of the party disappeared around you - you could no longer hear Frank Sinatra singing Jingle Bells, Jake and Georgie talking in the corner, or Javy getting drinks for him and his girlfriend to your right.

All you could focus on was Bradley. And how warm and soft and strong he felt in your arms and how -

“- Fuck’s sake, Bradshaw. Do you want us to leave or…”

You turned around to face Jake and Georgie, the latter of whom looked beyond embarrassed, and leaned back against Bradley’s chest. Shit - you’d forgotten you had an audience, especially Jake and Javy.

“Sorry…” You felt warm all over at getting caught. Normally, you and Bradley weren’t big on PDA, but you’d been needy lately - both of you had been. 

Further down to your right, Javy just chuckled. “Give ‘em a break. You’d be the same if you could hold someone down long enough.” Bradley laughed, while Jake turned beat red.

While him and Javy started chirping at each other, Bradley took your hand and led you out of the kitchen, past all the guests congregating in the dining room and over towards the sitting room. 

“Here, I know what’ll cheer you up.”

There were only a couple people in this part of the house - Caroline and Max, Bob and Callie, and Natasha and Rory, the latter of whom had gone with her to the gala back in October. They were a relatively quiet crowd and looked to be captivated by a story Max was telling. But then again, people were always captivated by Max. 

“…so I say to Garoppolo, ‘you really wanna get the shit beaten out of you for the second time this week?’ Because a guy who folds in front of the fucking Broncos’ defensive line is not one I think can handle being humiliated like this on - aww, if it isn’t Bradley-Boy and our lovely hostess. Come here and give me a kiss, sweetheart.” You chuckled and started over towards Max. “No, not you, darling. I meant Bradley-Boy.” 

With giggles and jeers, everyone turned towards Bradley, who was definitely blushing. But ever the dutiful host, he trudged over towards Max and planted a sloppy kiss on his forehead. 

You had met Max over a year ago via your best friend from college, Caroline. Bradley, on the other hand, had met Max in late March at Mission Beach, right before the two of you had started going out. 

Since moving back to California, Bradley had taken up surfing again and relished his weekend mornings out in the chilly Pacific. It had taken a couple weeks for the guys to realize they were both regulars and get past the initial head nod greeting, but after that they got on like a house on fire. Despite Max being a typical nepotism baby, VC-firm-bro type and Bradley the outgoing, naval man, they were each other’s best friend.

And to be perfectly honest, you thought they may have been a little in love with each other.

Who knows, maybe you would have been at Bradley and Max’s holiday party if you hadn’t met him in April.

“All good now, peaches?” Bradley teased and then turned to everyone else in their little group. “Just so you know, the story ends with Jimmy G challenging Maxi-Pad to a closest to the pin contest and Max shanking his tee shot.”

You laughed and wrapped your free arm back around Bradley’s waist. “Was this how you planned to cheer me up?”

“Oh, god. What’d you do now, Rooster?” Natasha teased. 

“Can I call you ‘Rooster?’” Max asked, much to Caroline’s delight.

“Absolutely fucking not,” Bradley said and then turned towards Natasha. “And nothing, just trying to do everything so can to make sure my girl has a lovely evening.” Everyone let out various sighs and swoons, except Nat and Max, who feigned gagging. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

He grabbed your free hand again and brought you over to the upright piano in the corner, next to where Callie and Bob were lounging on the loveseat. You desperately hoped Bradley was going to play for you - maybe even some Christmas carols. He had such a natural talent for it, even beyond his usual Hard Deck repertoire of that damn Jerry Lee Lewis song. He could play Debussy, Ravel, Schumann - anything, really. You figured he’d start off with Jingle Bells or something like that, but he surprised you with something new.

Bradley’s fingers twinkled out the opening notes to Linus and Lucy and you, and the others in the sitting room, couldn’t help but laugh. He had been right - this did cheer you up. You had always loved the Peanuts. 

Growing up, you’d gone to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa too many times to count. It became your favorite place during your parents’ divorce and you always begged your dad to take you whenever you were having a bad day. But then, when the divorce had been finalized and you, your dad and brother eventually moved down to Berkeley, you didn’t get the opportunity to go as often. But your love for the cartoon characters never died and you had the sneaking suspicion that Bradley had learned the song for you - this was the first time you’d ever heard him play it.

You took a hearty sip of your champagne and leaned your arms on the top of the piano, eventually resting your cheek against your fist. Your cheeks hurt from the massive smile stretching across your face as you looked fondly at Bradley. He was concentrating so hard, his tongue was peeking out of his mouth. And his long, graceful fingers were flying across the keys. 

You couldn’t imagine how long it took him to learn this if he was already off book. Did you mention his fingers? His hands? God, they were beautiful. Strong and long and corded - was that the right word? You recalled it from those regency romance novels you had hidden on your Kindle. God, you loved him so much. So fucking much. You’d never loved a person this much before - oh, you were going to miss him so much.

“You two are just like Lucy and Schroeder,” Callie cooed, snapping you out of your thoughts and causing Bradley to fumble a couple of notes. He also was blushing, which was sweet. 

A couple more people filtered into the sitting room, drawn in by the music, and soon people were throwing out requests for Bradley to play while others chatted in the background. He took Pete’s suggestion of Jingle Bells and soon played a jazzy version of the song. 

While Bradley played, the older man came up to you to chat. Penny couldn’t make it to the party, which was admittedly a bit of a disappointment, but she was hoping to stop by later once things wound down a bit at the Hard Deck. 

“Hell of a party, kid.” He toasted you with his beer. 

“Thanks, I just wanted to do something nice for Bradley.”

“Pretty sure you could’ve gotten a pizza and he would’ve been happy.”

You considered that. “True, but that hardly sounds fun - plus, this way I could get a new outfit.”

Pete smiled and you both glanced over towards the piano for a moment as Bradley got Natasha and Bob to sing along with him. It was nice seeing them all carefree and happy and just lighter. Bradley glanced over his shoulder at you and winked. 

“It’s nice seeing him like this,” Pete said. “Hell, last Christmas it was like pulling teeth to get the kid over to Penny’s for Christmas Eve and to see him get a tree and have people over at his place is just - it makes me really happy. Sorry if that’s corny or -”

“- No,” you reassured him, “well, maybe a little. But corny is good sometimes. Especially around the holidays.”

“You guys gonna do gifts tomorrow or…”

You shook your head. “Nah, we’re gonna do them tonight after everyone leaves.”

Pete took a sip of his beer and nodded. “The kid wouldn’t stop talking about your gift, I swear he told everyone on base.”

You felt yourself heat up and glanced over at Bradley again. “Really?” Pete nodded. “I’m nervous now, we promised we were only doing one present, so I hope he likes mine...”

“He will,” Pete sounded certain. “You think you guys will do this at your place every year? Maybe start a new tradition?”

That was a lovely thought. Celebrating Christmas with Bradley for the next x amount of years. Plus, doing this before Christmas would give everyone the opportunity to get together before the actual holidays. 

“Oh, I’d love to,” you gushed, “but it’s Bradley’s call. It’s his house - what?”

Pete cut you off with a look. “Come on, by now you know it’s your house as much as Bradley’s…”

Oh, gosh. You hoped so - one day, at least. The two of you barely spent a night apart, baring whenever one of you was away for work. You barely considered your apartment your home anymore. Instead, it was on the couch in Bradley’s living room, watching TV. Or cooking breakfast together on the weekends and watching Sunday Morning at the kitchen table. Laying beside him in bed at night, his big arms wrapped around you, as you whispered how much you loved each other. You had never felt this way before Bradley, like another person was home. 

And you wanted to be home all the time. 

You could feel the heat creep up your neck, the warmth only amplified by Bradley’s soothing voice singing Let It Snow. 

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Pete apologized, “I just wanted you to know that I can see how much you guys care about each other. And he’s my kid - at the end of the day, I just want him to be happy.” He laid a reassuring hand on your shoulder and you ducked your head before nodding.

Back when you had first met him, you had imagined that gaining Pete’s approval was how you would have felt had Bradley’s parents been alive to give it to you. You thought about them often - more often than you’d ever let Bradley think - and especially as of late. Would they have liked you? Would they have gotten along with your parents? From what you’d been told, they would have made amazing grandparents. Maybe Bradley would even have had more siblings? Maybe, maybe, maybe.

“He makes me really happy, too,” you whispered. Pete pulled you in for a hug and then the two of you just watched Bradley playing for a few moments while the party continued around you two. 

“I’m gonna get another beer, you want anything?” Pete asked. 

You just shook your head. “Nah, I’m good for now, but thanks again for coming. It means a lot to both of us.”

“Wouldn’t miss it, just make sure the kid doesn’t drink too much. He always gets a little chatty…” And then Pete set off towards the kitchen, leaving you alone, but only for a moment until you heard Max’s voice in the hallway.

“Caro, darling, will you help me with something outside…” You crept over towards him, curious to see what he was up to and why he needed Caro’s help.

Caroline didn’t even look up from her phone. “I’m not giving you a handjob, darling.”

“Oh, please don’t,” you drawled, alerting them both to your presence, “Mr. Harrington already thinks we’re delinquents, can’t have him thinking we associate with them, too,” you said referring to your - no, Bradley’s neighbor. 

Mr. Harrington hadn’t exactly called you and Bradley delinquents - rather, he had called you a fresh young lady after you had unknowingly flipped him off at an intersection in another neighborhood, only to find out that he was the crotchety old man that lived next door to Bradley. He had been waiting for you in the driveway when you’d gotten home a few minutes later, demanding to talk to Bradley about you. But the old man hadn’t stood a chance with you and Bradley had just stood on the porch with a proud smile on his face as you gave him a piece of your mind. Since then, he’d just pass silent judgment whenever he saw you outside.

Max held up two fingers. “I’ll be on my best behavior, Scout’s honor.”

“It’s three fingers, dumbass.”

He breezed past you and started towards the door, gesturing for Caroline to follow him. “Good thing I was never a Boy Scout then…”

“Please, Max. Just tell me if you’re going to -”

“- Secrets, secrets are only fun unless you don’t share with anyone -”

“- That’s not even how it goes!” 

Max shrugged and grabbed Caroline’s hand, pulling her close to his side. “It’ll be fun, we promise! Plus, maybe Max won’t even come back to the party…”

Oh, he was definitely doing the Santa thing. But at this point, maybe it would be fun and memorable? And maybe you were just drunk enough to let it happen. 

“Fine, fine. As long as Max doesn’t come back to the party, you can do whatever you have planned -” 

Max cut you off with a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, love. Now, Caro! Your assistance, please!”

You waved them off towards the front door and made your way back to the sitting room where Bradley was taking requests for his next song. 

His eyes were scanning the room for whom you realized was you and a great, big smile spread across his face. “Nah, I got one already. Just needed my girl in here for this.” You chuckled and walked over towards the piano. “Figured we had to end on a high note, plus I heard a rumor Santa’s coming…”

There were hoots and hollers throughout the room, which didn’t let up even as Bradley played the first notes of the song he apparently needed you for assistance. 

“I’ll sing the first few lines, but then you gotta take over, alright, sweetheart?”

You sat next to him on the narrow bench and giggled, not quite knowing what he had up his sleeve, but more than ready to go along for the ride. “You got it, rocketman.”

Bradley pecked you on the lips and then turned to the room as he played. 

“I really can’t stay…baby, it’s cold outside…I’ve got to go ‘way…baby, it’s cold outside…”

Oh god. 

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

Hours later, after all your guests had left, fuller and far drunker than they’d been when they’d arrived, you and Bradley were tidying up the living room. The dishwasher was rumbling in the kitchen, the first of many loads you’d have to do tonight and tomorrow, but it was drowned out by the music still playing on the Sonos, while the extra food had been put away in the fridge.

From your spot across the room where you were fluffing the couch cushions, you glanced over towards Bradley. He sat, leaning against the chaise lounge, and idly sipped from a bottle of champagne that he kept putting down on the floor - though on a coaster, mind you. His hair was perfectly tousled and messy and he had a pleased smile on his face as he stared at the Christmas tree in front of him. His right hand was absentmindedly running up and down his thigh, just begging for you to ride it.

You joined him on the floor and he wordlessly passed the bottle of champagne to you before throwing his arm around your shoulders. 

“You did good, kid,” he said suddenly. 

A smile lit up your face. “Really?” Brady chuckled at your earnestness. “You’re not just saying that because this is like the first halfway decent party you’ve ever -”

“- Hey! I’ve been to plenty of decent parties! But I think - I think that this might be the best one yet.”

As a reward for his sweetness, you gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You think everyone got along? I only overheard one argument between Caro and Jake.” And it had been over the latest cryptocurrency scandal of all things. 

“Yeah, but to be fair, I think trauma bonding over your singing really brought everyone together.”

You were not as bad as Bradley had said - at the very least, you could carry a tune. Granted, you wouldn’t be on the Voice anytime soon, but if you were an SNL cast member and needed to sing for a sketch, you might be okay. And no one really focused on the actual singing during Baby It’s Cold Outside - it wasn’t exactly the paragon of Christmas songs or social norms. 

But it was just about the perfect duet, in that it was a crowd pleaser, a little slutty, and campy as hell. And as it so happened, you had been feeling a little slutty with all the champagne you had drunk throughout the evening. Plus, with Bradley on the keys and no one else sober enough to make fun of your less than stellar singing skills, you had been a glutton for attention. You had used your champagne coupe as a microphone and had only spilled a couple drops - at first.

“- But baby, it's cold outside -”

“ - This welcome has been -”

“ - How lucky that you dropped in -”

“ - So nice and warm -”

“ - Look out the window at that storm -”

“ - My sister will be suspicious -”

“ - Gosh, your lips look delicious -” Bradley kissed your proffered hand and you shimmied around the piano bench, eventually draping yourself over his shoulders while he continued playing.

Would you regret it in the morning? Probably. Did the song have a weird history? Yes. But it was your goddamn Christmas party! And you had wanted to have fun and fawn over your boyfriend. It had also been a good distraction from what you had correctly assumed was Max planning to crash the party as Santa with a sleigh full of presents for everyone. But Max was richer than Croesus; he could afford it.

“Come on, Bradshaw. How’s she been this year? Naughty or nice?”

You shot Bradley a glance, curious as to what his answer would be. But he just smiled wryly and toasted Max with his drink before taking a sip.

You closed the distance between the two of you and whispered in his ear, “Clever boy…”

He grabbed your ass, thankfully out of sight of your guests. “My smart girl…”

“Is that what you want me to be tonight?”

Frankly, you had been shocked Bradley hadn’t kicked everyone out then and there. 

But now you were cozy and tired in all the best ways and had Bradley to yourself for the rest of the evening. You burrowed your face into his chest and pressed a couple kisses to the column of his neck, suddenly desperate to touch him. It seemed Bradley was of the same mindset and carefully settled you on his lap. Your arms wrapped around his neck, pulling you closer and you shifted your attention to his lips. 

Somehow, the two of you wound up laying on the floor at the edge of the Christmas tree. The soft lights made Bradley’s brown eyes appear like pools of chocolate and you flushed. He groaned as you rolled your hips against his lap, already feeling the bulge forming in his jeans. Shit - were you going to fuck underneath the Christmas tree? Like properly fuck on the floor underneath the Christmas tree.

You started grinding against him, desperate to be closer, and then kissed along his neck in the hopes of leaving a reminder of this night for him. You peered up at the Christmas tree, lost in the beauty of the moment, when you suddenly noticed something. 

The presents.

The presents under the tree.

The three presents under the tree. 

Except…

There were only supposed to be two presents under the tree. One from each of you. You had been very clear about that right after Thanksgiving. Had even set a price limit.

Fuck. Oh, no. No, no, no. You pulled back and Bradley chased your lips with his own.

“Bubs! We said one present each!” 

He shrugged underneath you and kept rubbing his hands in soothing circles on your hips. “It’s nothing - well, it’s not nothing. But it’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while and I figured this would be a good time.”

“But - but I only got you one!” 

Oh god - oh god. You ruined it. You ruined Bradley’s Christmas. You knew you should’ve gotten him that Otis Redding vinyl, too. But a Theragun? What had you been thinking? That was such a dumb gift. So impersonal, so boring, so basic. It was on three different gift guides from the Strategist for fuck’s sake. You figured it would be good for his back while he was deployed, you knew it had been giving him a lot of trouble lately. But now that Bradley had given you two gifts? In two separate boxes? 

You didn’t think the ornament you’d gotten him counted as a separate gift. Tacking it onto the box was just something your family had always done.

Clearly noticing the panic on your face, Bradley sat up slightly. “Hey, hey. It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s -”

“- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to ruin everything. I knew I should’ve had a back up present for you-”

He said your name firmly and you looked up at him. “- You didn’t ruin anything, alright? Hey, why don’t you open it first and then we can talk about it, okay?”

“Okay…”

You reached out for the present like it was going to explode, barely even taking notice of how nicely it had been wrapped. (Granted, you were still you, so you did actually notice, but probably would have fawned over the quaint wrapping paper and grosgrain ribbon a bit more had you not already been wigging out.) Next to you, Bradley bit his lip as he watched you peel through the paper. Why was he so nervous? He always gave you the best presents.

At first, there was nothing but a small gift box. It wasn’t terribly heavy. And it definitely wasn’t jewelry. Mainly because any of the jewelry you actually would have liked was definitely not within the spending limit, which Bradley knew. But also, it just didn’t feel like jewelry. It couldn’t have been an ornament, he wouldn’t have been this nervous.

So, what the fuck was it?

You slid your finger underneath the flap of the box and popped the lid open. But then there was the tissue paper. Goddamnit, Bradley! Why was he so good at wrapping presents! You glanced up at him only to see that he was blushing. Properly blushing. Like pink neck, pink cheeks - hell, even the tips of his ears were pink - blushing. 

Unable to take the suspense a moment longer, you dove into the tissue paper to find -

“- A key?” Your fingers gently picked up the offending object, only belatedly noticing that the key fob matched your favorite work tote bag. 

Bradley nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been wanting to ask you to move in with me for ages, it’s just we had so much time until it would become an issue, but then I got deployed and I know your lease will just about be up by the time I get back in the spring. So, I figured now would be a good time to ask if you wanted to move in with me? But if you think it’s too soon, I can totally wait. However long it takes for you to be comfortable with it is fine with me - I just want to have my life with you.”

“Bubs…” your voice was thick. “I uhh -”

“- I always want to come home to you - if you’ll have me?”

Oh god, oh god, oh god. You let out a disbelieving laugh. You would have Bradley Bradshaw in any way you could get him. He was your home.

You wiped away a wayward tear. “Bradley, this is - this is so unbelievably perfect. Yes, yes, I will move with you.”

He surged forward to kiss you and you temporarily forgot all your previous worries because Bradley wanted to move in with you. He wanted to share furniture and go grocery shopping for food that would go in the same fridge. He wanted to wake up beside you every single morning and come home to you every single evening and go to sleep beside you every single night. He wanted everything. And that’s what you wanted to give him.

“God, I love you so much.”

You never got tired of hearing him say that. “I love you, too. Sorry I made such a big deal about the presents…”

“No, I’m sorry. I should’ve just put it in with the other gift, I get how it could have thrown you off.”

He was being nice and not pushing it for the moment, which you really appreciated. “Say, why don’t you open your gift from me and then I’ll open your other one?”

You crawled over towards the other two presents under the tree and gave the one that said to; rocketman to Bradley, while you took the other one with your name on it. It was decently sized and relatively light. The thing with Bradley that always made you nervous was that he gave the best presents.

For your birthday, he had not only organized a trip for the two of you out to Catalina Island, but he had also learned how to fucking sail Penny’s boat, so he could be the one to take you there himself. He had been so excited and had looked so cute in his white linen pants and navy blue button down and you swore you had never been more attracted to him. 

And then, for your six month anniversary, he had somehow gotten you two into Addison out in Carmel Valley for dinner and then followed that up with a trip to the drive-in to see a special showing of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Though to be fair, neither of you had paid as much attention to the movie as you had been too busy necking each other in the backseat of the Bronco.

In short, he was a prince among men. Well, except when he wasn’t. But that wasn’t often. So, you were excited, but wary to open his gift, knowing nothing could possibly top the house key.

You tore through the wrapping paper to find another box similar to the one from earlier, except this one was heavier. Beneath the tissue paper laid a thick white envelope and an apron in a Liberty pattern. Your smile grew as you opened the envelope and saw that Bradley had gifted you cooking lessons for the next three months.

“Bubs.” You nudged his shoulder. “This is perfect, thank you. The apron is super cute, too.”

Bradley chuckled. “Now you can stop wearing mine and hopefully stop burning risotto -”

“- It was one time!” 

“Yeah and you almost burned down your apartment.” You made a face and he made one right back before turning serious. “But I thought it would be nice, something for you to do while I’m gone.”

You kissed his cheek. “I’m excited and I’m gonna make you the best dinner you’ve ever had when you come home to me, alright?”

“It’s a date.” 

“Perfect, now open yours!” You pushed the present towards him. 

Bradley was one of those people that opened presents like they were going to save the wrapping paper, which meant he did it slowly and purposefully. This normally didn’t bother you, but you were already a little on edge from earlier and had to sit on your hands to stop you from ripping the paper off yourself.

First, he took off the little ornament you had affixed to the package. Harkening back to your first date, you had gotten him a Saturn V Rocket ornament to add to the tree, giving your rocketman something to aspire to.

He shook his head. “I’ll get there one day, sweetheart…” he said fondly. “Now let’s see what we have here.”

The nerves settled in your stomach again and you barely let him unwrap the present before you jumped on him with an explanation.

“Wait, is this one of those -”

“ - It’s a Theragun. I know I make fun of you for having a sore back and being old a lot, but I thought this could help when you’re deployed and I’m not around to tend to your every need,” you teased.

Bradley conceded a nod. “You do give good back massages…” You preened. “But I get these ads on my Instagram all the time, so this is perfect, thank you.”

“I figured it wasn’t something you’d buy for yourself and it’ll come in hand -”

“- I bet it’s a wicked strong vibrator - owww!”

“Bradley!” You giggled. Holy shit, you hadn’t even thought of that. There were like five different speeds on that thing and six different attachments. Fuck. “In that case, maybe I should keep it…”

“You wouldn’t dare.” He slid the box behind his back and you crawled over to steal it away from him.

But before you could wrap your arms around him, Bradley pulled you into his lap and eventually the Theragun was pushed away and the two of you were sprawled out on the floor making out like a bunch of horny teenagers again.

Goddamn - you really were gonna fuck underneath the Christmas tree, weren’t you? Now that would be the perfect memory for Bradley to take with him. Festive and fun and spontaneous.

His hands felt sinful as they crept up your thighs. It was like he was mapping out the slowest route to his destination, especially as they cupped your ass and ground your body against his. Suddenly, you let out a hiss as your elbow hit the hardwood floor, but quickly reassured Bradley that you were okay once he stopped to check in with you.

He whispered your name. “I need you so badly.”

“- Fuck, me too. Want you to take me right here -”

“- Owww,” Bradley let out a groan against your lips.

You immediately pulled back, concern lacing your features. “Shit, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just - I don’t think we should do this on the floor?”

“But it’s very spur of the moment?” You glanced around the living room, past the Christmas tree and the wrapping paper from your respective presents. “What about the couch?”

“We just got it dry-cleaned - again.”

You sat further back on his lap and Bradley propped himself up on his elbows. Your wrap dress draped prettily over your bare thighs. “We can put a towel down?”

“Isn’t it upstairs?”

You made a face. “I could go get it? Or we could break out a new one?”

“Then I might as well come upstairs with you -”

“- But I want it to be spontaneous!”

He rolled his hips and you sighed. “We can be spontaneous upstairs…”

“Yeah, but…” You could feel the tears starting to form and your throat closing up.

Bradley tried to get in your line of sight after you ducked your head. “Hey, what is it? It’s alright.”

You sniffled. “I just want you to have some good memories before you leave and be spontaneous - especially since during the party I was pretty stressed and uptight -” The last word came out bitterly, but Bradley didn’t let you finish your sentence. 

“- Hey, none of that, alright? I knew you were a little stressed, but just chalked it up to the party. What’s really going on, sweetheart?”

You wanted to tell him. That you were going to miss him and wanted him to be able to think of the two of you doing all these fun and exciting and wonderful things before he left. That you didn’t want him to think of you crying and puffy eyed and sad. That you didn’t want him to think of you having sex in your bed, like any other night, but how you couldn’t even make it upstairs because you needed each other so much, so desperately and had to make due with the living room floor. 

Just say you were tired. Just say you were tired. 

But when Bradley took your hand and threaded your fingers together and started drawing circles across your palm, the tears came. And came and came and didn’t stop. You rubbed at your eyes with your free hand and repositioned yourself to lay beside him. 

“Hey, hey. It’s okay, come here.” Bradley wrapped his arm around your shoulders and let you rest your head on his chest. “Shh, shh, it’s okay, honey.” 

Once the tears slightly abated, you took in a deep breath to ground yourself. “I wanted everything to be perfect for you since you’re not going to be home for Christmas and all this stuff went wrong -”

“- Sweetheart, baby, no, no. It didn’t go wrong, everything went really really right.”

“Really?” you whispered.

Bradley chuckled. “Yeah, best Christmas I’ve had since - fuck, I can’t remember when. Come here.” He wrapped his arms around you.

“I know it was dumb to be worried about it - and to let myself get upset over it - but I think I was just so focused on the party and the presents and making everything perfect because I don’t want to think too much about you leaving.” You sniffled. “And I feel like that makes me seem childish or like I can’t handle this - your job, I mean. But I’m really just going to miss you, so fucking much. And I’ve never felt like this before.”

The look in Bradley’s eyes after you unloaded all that made you feel ten times lighter and you regretted not saying anything earlier. 

“Sweetheart…” He tucked your hair behind your ear. “It’s definitely not dumb to be worried about stuff like that and I know you can handle all of this - I’m not worried in that respect. I just want you to know how much I appreciated every single thing you’ve done for me these last couple weeks trying to make sure I had a good Christmas. And I know it’s cliche to say, but it’s the goddamn truth - I don’t care what we do for Christmas as long as I get to spend it at home with you, alright?”

Your heart soared and you felt the tears forming again at his words. I don’t care what we do for Christmas as long as I get to spend it at home with you. Because in the end, that was all that really mattered. You just kept your reply simple. “Alright, rocketman.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” You kissed him again. “I love you so much, bubs.”

“Even though I’m old and don’t think we should fuck on the living room floor?” 

You chuckled at his attempt to bring some levity into an otherwise heavy conversation. “Yes, Bradley. I love you even though you wouldn’t let me fuck you on the living room floor…”

This time, Bradley pulled you closer, so your body was spread out on top of him and kissed you, licking your bottom lip before opening your mouth up to him. His hands snuck underneath the skirt of your silk dress, skirting the edge of your panties. You sighed. His hands were calloused and a little rough, but they still touched you like you were the most precious thing in the world. 

“Hold up, I never said I wouldn’t let you, I just said I don’t think - hey!” Bradley tried to fend off your tickle attack, but could only get a few words out between his giggles. “Stop, you know I’m old!”

Your ridiculously handsome, thirty-six year old, naval aviator boyfriend was giggling on the floor of your house because your were tickling his sides. If only you could show this version of Bradley to the Navy - maybe then they wouldn’t take him away from you at Christmas. Stupid US Military Industrial Complex. Fucking Lockheed Martin. 

“Also, are you still upset that I got you two presents? Because if you are, can I just make you come once tonight? Level the field.”

You giggled. “Shut up.” Your kiss cut off any reply he had been about to give and you licked his bottom lip, coaxing open his mouth. 

“Uh, uh, uh.” You paused and tilted your head slightly to look Bradley in the eye. “Now, what did Santa ask earlier, huh? You been naughty or nice this year?”

There were two ways in which this could play out - with two different, though ultimately satisfying results. One would play out relatively quickly - and the other would ensure you were occupied all night. 

“Nice?” 

Bradley clicked his tongue. “Don’t know about that…”

“Why not? Haven’t I been good?” You pouted, completely exaggerated, which Bradley picked up on in an instant.

“Good girls don’t typically have to ask if they’ve been good…”

“Maybe I don’t want to be good tonight…”

Bradley sucked in a breath as you snuck your hand underneath his shirt and teased the waistband of his jeans. His skin was hot to the touch beneath your fingers as you unbuttoned his shirt. You leaned forward to press little butterfly kisses to his neck and gradually made your way down past the little tufts of hair on his chest. 

“Please touch me, sweetheart. Please.” 

There was a carnal need inside you to mark his skin. To give him proof of your love and need for him, so that he could look at the marks in the mirror until they faded. A kiss across his neck, a soft bite on his shoulder, another on his bicep by his tattoo. You’re mine. Mine, mine, mine. And I want everyone to know. 

“God, Bradley. You’re so beautiful,” you whispered against his skin. “So beautiful and all mine.”

Bradley let out a whine as your teeth grazed against the sensitive flesh on his neck. “Fuck, I love you.”

His hands inched up your thighs, getting closer to the throbbing heat between your legs. Maybe it was the festive spirit, the fact that Bradley had asked you to move in with him, or that he was shipping out in 28 hours for three months, but you were pathetically wet already. Desperate and needy and as naughty as he had joked earlier. 

“I can feel the heat pouring off you, sweetheart.” 

“Can we go - ahhh - can we go upstairs, please?”

He pulled back slightly. “What happened to fucking on the living room floor?” he teased. 

“Don’t want to fuck up your old man back anymore - Bradley!” you cried out as he smacked your ass. 

“Old man, huh?” His smile was sinful and you were putty in his hands.

You widened your eyes, trying to appear contrite. “Sorry, sir. It won’t happen - Bradley!” He cut you off again, but this time because he was tickling your sides and your giggles made it impossible to speak. “Ta-take me upstairs, bubs - please. Don’t - don’t want you to hold back.”

“Now how could I refuse that?”

Gradually, the two of you made your way upstairs to the bedroom, though with a couple of breaks in between for Bradley to press you up against the walls and on the staircase. You’d have bruises tomorrow, you were sure. But you wanted them to last - to be something to remember this night by for the weeks and months to come. 

You landed heavily on the bed, bouncing slightly, and peered up at Bradley. His bare chest was rising and falling steadily with each breath he took as he looked you over, like he was trying to memorize you. 

Without breaking eye contact, you rose to your knees and pulled at the pretty little bow tying your wrap dress. Hours ago, you’d felt self conscious about your body in front of everyone else, but at that moment you felt like the most beautiful girl in the world. Bradley’s eyes widened as he took in the way you slowly pushed the silk dress off your shoulders, leaving you only in your burgundy bra and panties. It wasn’t exactly a matching set, but the colors matched and that was enough for the two of you that night. 

“God, you’re gorgeous.”

Bradley lunged forward, causing you to fall back against the pillows and you wrapped your legs around his hips with a gleeful cry, which he promptly cut off with his lips. 

After spending ample time just kissing you and running his hands up and down your body, Bradley lavished attention on your breasts, licking and biting and sucking on them like a man possessed. Your nipples were peaked to attention, thanks to the slight chill in the bedroom and his thorough ministrations. With one hand, he paid special attention to the skin just below your nipple, rubbing his middle finger along the tender flesh while thumbing at the raised bud. Meanwhile, his other hand kept trekking downward towards your clit. 

“Oh god!” you cried out against his lips as he slid his fingers inside you and crooked them just right. 

“So fucking wet, sweetheart.”

Fuck. You could feel yourself clenching around him, desperate for something more. You were needy for him that night. Needy to have your boyfriend all to yourself. To give yourself to him completely. Your orgasm was well and truly building up inside you, but you wanted to come on his cock first. There would be plenty more opportunities that night to come apart in other ways. 

You’d work him all through the night if you had to just to get your fix before he left. The thought made you desperate. 

“Bu-bubs, please. I need more - need your cock inside me.” You pulled him closer, grazing your thighs against his throbbing cock. 

Bradley groaned. “Such a needy fucking thing, bucking against my fingers like that, huh?” You whined. “But I’m gonna fuck you nice and slow, yeah. Make sure you savor it.”

It sounded fucking sinful the way your cunt was sucking in Bradley’s fingers. He’d begun scissoring them inside you so as to not have to remove them just yet. 

More. More. More. You chanted the words mindlessly in your head. Mine. Mine. Mine. 

Finally, he pulled out his fingers and shamelessly dried them off on your breasts. “You ready?” You nodded frantically. “Don’t think either of us is gonna last long.”

No, you didn’t think so either. But you didn’t want to prolong this. You needed to be close to him and to know he was real and good and yours. At least for tonight. 

Knowing each other as you did, you raised your hips slightly, letting Bradley to slip inside you. You both moaned, you loving the stretch and him loving the tight warmth. You wrapped your arm around his neck, bringing his lips closer to yours, but not daring to lean in those final few centimeters to touch, and instead just breathed against each other. 

“Fuck,” you rasped against his lips, “I love you.”

“Love you so much.” He snapped his hips against yours and you cried out. “Gonna miss you.”

You ducked your head to swipe your lips across the scar on his neck. “Can’t wait for you to come home to me.”

Home. Home. Home. Bradley wouldn’t just be coming back to San Diego in three months: he would be coming home - to you. And to this great, big, beautiful house he wanted to share with you. And to the life he wanted to share with you. 

He groaned your name. “I’ve wanted this for so long. Can’t believe it’s happening.”

Tears pricked your eyes and you bridged the gap to kiss him. “Bubs, I’m so close, please.”

“Tell me how to get you there? I wanna wait for you.” 

If he kept saying things like that, you wouldn’t be too far behind. Without breaking eye contact, you brought Bradley’s hand down to your clit and he played with the sensitive nub. You keened against his hand, which was coupled with a particularly deep thrust of his cock. You felt that coil in your belly finally unraveling.

“‘M close, feels so good. Again…”

He repeated the action again and again, telling you how gorgeous you were as you took his cock and how much he loved you and needed you and you felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Because for tonight you were.

With a strangled cry of his name, you came and true to his word, Bradley followed shortly after. Fuck. He felt so good. He made you feel so good, so full, so loved. 

“Good girl, such a good girl for me.” He peppered kisses up and down your neck and across your cheeks, before settling on your lips. The two of you sat there like that for a few moments, trying to even out your breathing and be as close together as possible. 

But eventually Bradley had to pull out and you whimpered at the loss. He settled you back against the pillows and then started cleaning you up with the towel in his nightstand. Before he got to your still leaking cunt, he scooped up some of your cum with his fingers and brought it to your lips. 

“Open.” You did so without a second thought and cleaned off his fingers, getting high off the taste of the two of you mixed together. “Good girl.”

Then you let yourself get settled underneath the covers. You could go to the bathroom in a few minutes because right now you wanted to be with Bradley. Your bodies were both hot and sticky underneath the white sheets, but you couldn’t think of anywhere else you wanted to be than in his arms. 

“I’m gonna miss you so much, bubs.” You cupped his cheek tenderly, like he would disappear at any moment. A nagging little voice at the back of your mind said that he would, in fact, do just that - on Monday morning. But that night he was yours. 

Bradley nuzzled your hand, eventually pressing a kiss to your palm. “It’s not too long, just three months.”

“Three months without you.” Kiss. “Without your singing.” Kiss. “Your cooking.” Kiss. “Your smile and your silly little mustache.” Kiss. Kiss. “Three months without you, rocketman.” 

Your eyes were swimming with tears, but they were properly dripping down Bradley’s cheeks. 

“But we still have tonight.”

You still had tonight. And you’d be in each other’s arms till the morning light. 

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

Two weeks later, as you sat in your childhood bedroom on Christmas Eve, you were at once hit with a startling realization: it wasn’t your home anymore. It hadn’t been in years, really. Not since you’d officially moved out after college. But that fact had never been so apparent until you were waiting for the Facetime call to connect to Bradley. 

Your home was in San Diego with your friends and your job. Your home was with your boyfriend, snuggled up on the couch watching TV, perusing the aisles of the farmer’s market, watching him surf, and cooking dinner together. Your home was with Bradley. 

And you just wanted to be home - you just wanted Bradley. 

You had put on a brave face during Christmas Eve celebrations with your family - at least with your extended family. You had sung carols at church, helped Mary and your dad prep and lay out all the traditional Christmas Eve dishes, organized the Yankee Swap with your brother and Lauren, and had a few too many cocktails with your cousins. But as the last of your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins had left and your dad had turned on NBC for the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, you had lost it. 

Properly, honestly, well and truly lost it. As in fat tears streaming down your face, snot clogging your nose, remnants of your mascara rimmed around your eyes lost it.

Goddamn Harry Bailey got to come home in time for Christmas! Harry got to toast to his “big brother George: the richest man in town.” Granted, George had basically just tried to kill himself, so the comparison wasn’t perfect - but still! Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Navy pilot Harry Bailey got to be home for Christmas! Why couldn’t Bradley? Fucking Navy. Fucking stupid US Military Industrial Complex. Fucking Lockheed Martin. 

At the sight of your tears, Mary had just opened up her blanket and let you burrow against her side as she rubbed your back like she used to when you were a kid, while your dad had gotten you a cup of Sleepytime Tea. Eventually, once you had calmed down enough and they had said all the right words to soothe your heartache, you had kissed your dad and Mary goodnight  - Mary had hugged you a bit tighter than usual - and they both had told you to give Bradley their best during your Facetime call. 

They liked Bradley - a lot, actually. Of course, they’d given him a tough time when they first talked on the phone all those months ago, but by the time Bradley officially met them at Thanksgiving, it was like he’d known them for years. He just fit. 

He loved to talk to Mary about her history classes at Berkeley and how her students were doing. He had the same sense of humor as your dad and also loved the Patriots despite their recent offensive coordinator troubles. 

He just made you lighter and made things lighter. He fit. 

And you could only hope that one year he’d be able to come up to Berkeley with you to celebrate for the holidays instead of being all alone on an aircraft carrier somewhere in the Pacific. Fucking Navy. Fucking stupid US Military Industrial Complex. Fucking Lockheed Martin.

Shit! The call was finally connecting. You felt tears in your eyes as you finally got to see your beautiful boy again. Though the picture was a little grainy, Bradley was sitting in what looked like one of the quiet rooms in your office, clad in his green flight suit. And he had the most wonderful smile on his face at the sight of you.

“Hey, sweetheart. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas, bubs,” you said, hoping your voice didn’t come out as thickly over Facetime as it did in your room.

For what felt like the longest time, but was probably only a few seconds, you stared at each other, just drinking in the other’s face. Bradley already looked tired. This was your first Facetime since he’d left two weeks ago. Normally, you talked over email - which was actually kind of fun. 

Early on in your relationship during a one week special detachment, you had unironically sent him a pretty formal email to check in:

Bradley,

Hope you’re settling in well. Let me know when it would be a good time to connect via FaceTime. I can put some time on my calendar whenever you’re free. I’m heading to an off-site in Raleigh on Thursday, so I’ll be on East Coast time. 

Miss you and stay safe,

x

It had even been from your PwC email address, which he never let you forget. But soon quasi-formal emails became your thing. They probably set off a bunch of red flags to the censor team and you had never sent one from your work email again, but it was fun. You’d even thought of a couple code words and phrases to use.

“You have a good night? How’s your dad and Mary? Tell them thanks again for the package.”

Your parents had had the idea to send everything they normally would have put in Bradley’s Christmas stocking to him on the carrier. He had emailed the three of you a picture of the package, received in perfect condition, on his bunk yesterday. You two had decided that he would open it while you were on your FaceTime call. It wasn’t anything particularly special, except for two small gifts you’d snuck in before bringing it to the post office, but you were excited and could tell Bradley was too.

You held your breath as he parsed through the Dr.Jart sheet masks, Churchill cigars, various Christmas themed candies, new electric toothbrush heads, and scratch cards until he got to the bottom of the stack where your two special presents were hidden.

“Now, what’s this?” He shot you a teasing glance as he opened the envelope. 

You remained tight lipped, just glad it hadn’t been opened by Naval mail security. Bradley slid the object out of the envelope and you could see his eyes widen, even over Facetime, as he realized what it was before he promptly turned it over and glanced around even though there was no one else in the room with him. 

“Shit - how’d you - how’d you take this?” He leaned back in his chair and stared at it, clearly a little in awe.

You felt your cheeks heating up. “Well, I know you have a couple on your phone, but figured an old fashioned one might be nice too - especially if you’re in a tech blackout or whatever it’s called. But do you really like it - seriously, you don’t have -”

“- No, I love it. You’re not getting this back from me.” You giggled. “But you gotta tell me how you managed to get the Polaroid in the shower with you and still get the soapy titties in the picture?”

“Can’t tell you everything, now can I?”

(Caroline had taken them for you. It truly had been a bonding experience and was honestly not half as sexy as Bradley was probably thinking. But you just smiled - more than content to keep that a secret from him.) 

“Well, it is very much appreciated. So, thank you, I love it, seriously.”

You tried to peer into the box from halfway across the world. “There should be one more thing in there from me - and you don’t have to use it, but I know something similar always makes me feel like you’re right next to me…”

Bradley gingerly unwrapped the final tissue paper package only to reveal a travel sized bottle of your perfume. You giggled, watching him spritz his wrist and breathe in the scent.

“Fuck…I’ve missed that.” 

You rested your cheek against your fist and just watched him. For a minute, it felt like he was right in front of you. It made you want to do something terribly cliche like hold your palm up against the screen and imagine you could feel the heat from his hand as he did the same thing back.

But instead Bradley just smiled at you and asked you all about your Christmas Eve activities.

So, you told him about sneaking outside to smoke with your cousins, drinking too much champagne, eating too much food made from your grandma’s recipes from the old country, getting an actually good gift in the Yankee Swap, and crying over Harry Bailey. And he just listened and smiled and asked questions at all the right parts and kept telling you how much he would have loved to do all that beside you next year. 

And then with your remaining five minutes of calltime, Bradley told you all the goings on aboard the ship and how he and Callie and Javy were doing and about the fancy dinner and breakfast planned for tomorrow.

But then the dreaded countdown clock on the side of the screen popped up, signaling you had thirty seconds left. By then, both of you had tears in your eyes as you tried to say goodbye until your next call.

“So, we’ll talk in two weeks, okay? Should be just after New Year’s, but keep emailing me. I love reading them when I get the chance.”

You wiped a stray tear from your eye. “Of course, I’ll give you a full Christmas morning breakdown.”

Bradley chuckled, but seemed to glance at the countdown clock and sobered up. “I love you, I love you so much and I’m so happy I get to come home to you, sweetheart.”

“I love you, too. Merry Christmas, bubs. Please come home.”

-----------

a/n: sorry it took me so fucking long to write again, but a girl can only be so self indulgent! merry christmas, this taglist is shit sorry!

Taglist: @sunderlust @seasonsbloom @ticklish-leafy-plant @lass-that-is-gone @katcoquette @daniellef89x @double-j @bradshawswife @hufflepuffprincesse @cloudycluster @sithbelova @mavencalorers @fav-rooster-fics @thebeautifullydamnedone @unordinare @callsignvalley @pricklepearbloom @browneyedboys @cherrycola27 @whatblogisthis216 @agentofkrypton @lcahwriter @kyliesalvatore @noellreadfiction @coyotesamachado @heartsofminds @jocsrecs @notroosterbradshaw @roosterforme @iblogtopassthetime @karateperson @nessrin @frenchtoastix @piceous21 @princessphilly @spideyngwen @mrsjobarnes @calmpunker @softspiderling @feralforfrank @fivsecondsflat @sexualparkour @greenorangevioletgrass @sexygaypalpatine @moonyscardigans @carousallie @liveholland @supernaturaldawning @melancholyy-hill @currentlybradshaw @summ3rlotus @seesaw-jk @roostereads @milestomaverick @some-lovely-day​ @steadfastconviction​ ​​@sometimesanalice @jupitercomet @rae-gar-targaryen @oncasette @whisperofsong @call-sign-jinx @howdysebby

[bluskye-27]

Hey there! Just wanted to know if you could write a platonic Sanji x teen! Reader who sees him as a big brother, the reader is cute and innocent and is the sweetheart of the StrawHats. I just love when characters interact with kids cause its so stinkin wholesome.

Its completely ok if you wont do it and I understand that we all have things to do other than writing!

Please and Thank you! Have a good day/night.

Platonic! Sanji x Strawhat! G/n! Teen! Reader

Summary: You were really happy to have a certain Strawhat cook as your big brother 💙

- When you first joined the Strawhats, you were really nervous since you're one of the youngest (This is pre timeskip, you and Chopper have the same age, so yeah, you're 15 in this :)))

- Luffy, Chopper & Usopp are excited to have you in the crew, Zoro was skeptical at first but he warmed up to you eventually, Nami and Robin were happy, Franky and Brook were ecstatic while Sanji....

- Sanji doesn't know what to do with you lol

- Sure you shared the same appetite as Luffy

- Was good at cooking

- And you're adorable too so...

- Yep, you're officially his little sibling now :D

- Whenever Luffy got you (with Usopp and sometimes Chopper) into trouble (especially involving food), Sanji would be mad at ya'll, although he'll just slightly scold you while beating up the other three XD

- Whenever the crew was on board the ship or out in an adventure in a new island, you were always seen trailing behind Sanji, clutching his shirt as he protected you and the girls (which Usopp and Chopper protested at) from any kinds of danger

- Sanji teaches you his cooking techniques and you help him buy the freshest ingredients there were in return :3

- You would always volunteer to do the dishes but Sanji refused, so you set up the table instead (Sanji lets you do it, hesitantly tho)

- Expect to be spoiled during your birthday's, you'll get to eat the most delicious cake there is! (If you managed to eat some before Luffy devour the whole thing)

- One time, when you suddenly fell asleep during your night watch duty, the moment you woke up, you found yourself on your bed. You were confused and was surprised to know that Sanji was the one to tuck you in and took over your night watching :0!

- You thank him but he just dismissed you with his charming smile.

- "You're like a little sibling to me, so of course, it's a duty for me, as your big brother, to take care of you!"

- Let me tell you a secret, Sanji confesses to you (when you guys are alone) that he actually had a toxic family and tells you his horrible experiences with them. Shocked, you comforted him with your bear hugs and words of assurance

- "Who cares about those stupid people? You got me, the crew and all of the Baratie people! We're your family, Sanji! And we always love you :D!" You told him as he cried softly between your arms.

- Your bond with Sanji strengthened ever since that day

- You always have each other's back too!

Bonus!

+ When you just recently settled in the crew, you were wary about your fellow crewmates at first, so you decided to skip lunch and dinner

+ Later, Sanji brought you food and told you to eat and sat a few distance away from you to not scare you away

+ You were hesitant but the aroma of the delicious food drew you in, quickly gobbling the food as Sanji watches in amusement

+ You thanked the man profusely but Sanji just waves you off

+ "We're nakamas now, so you don't have to worry about getting hungry anymore!"

+ You have a gut feeling that this man will play an important role in your life

+ And he actually did (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

Hello, Anon! I hope you like these wholesome hcs uwu

May you have a good day/night too!

[love-and-other-potions]

Master List of  Imagines {11.3.21}

Golden Trio Era Men

Draco Malfoy

Blissful Revenge

New Attraction

Rehearsals

Armed with Love (Part 2 to Ruins of the Heart)

Twice the Arrogance

Avoiding You

Come. Warmth.

Curses

Cloud Nine {deaf/mute reader}

Harry Potter

No Homo?

Devilish ‘Puff

Power of Fear

Savior From the Prat

Annoyed in Love

Ruins of the Heart

The Books Have Eyes

Blind to Your Love

Fiendish Part 2

Out of this World

Ron Weasley 

Praiseworthy

Tension

Caught

Interrupted

George Weasley

Coping Mechanisms 

Imposter

Handsome Devil

Fred Weasley

Dared to Love

Dead to Me

Stinkin’ Mischief

Knock Knock {Male Reader}

Comfort {Trans Male Reader}

L.o.v.e.r.s

Neville Longbottom

Sliding Into a Relationship

Insane for Love

Sleepover

Get with the Rhythm

Blaise Zabini

Enchanted Films

Taunting

No Touchy Please

Serpent Admiration Part 1 

Serpent Admiration Part 2 

Colin Creevey

Number One Fan

You’re His Rosaline

Gregory Goyle

Best Friends with Benefits

Only Romantic on Thursdays 

Times Like These

Vincent Crabbe

Scorching Love

House 

Lee Jordan

Confrontations

Unexpected Kindness Part 1

Prank’d Part 2

Dean Thomas

Addicted to His Love

Seamus Finnigan

Hogwarts Manwhore

Oliver Wood

Sweeping Around the Point

Keeper of my Heart

Math and Other Drugs

Staring Problem

Cedric Diggory

Daring to Claim Ownership

Insight

Victims of Love

You Won’t Believe This False Hope

Dennis Creevey

Weirdos

Theodore Nott

Fake It Until You Make It

Charlie Weasley

Protective

Bill Weasley

7x+21 {mute/deaf reader}

Marauders Era Men

Sirius Black

Confessions

Sarcasm Gone Right

Puns and Other Accidents 

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

Asshat

Punk’d

Remus Lupin

All is Fair in Love and War

Discomfort at Its Finest

Man of my Dreams {Male Reader}

A-were-ness

Eyes to See, Ears to Hear {deaf reader}

Accidentally the Best Day of my Life {blind reader}

James Potter

I’m a Bitch, I’m a Lover

Cuffing Season Part 1 

Cuffing Season Part 2

Lovey Dovey

Shower Me With Pranks

Voice of an Angel

Lucius Malfoy

Territorial Barbie

Tom Riddle 

Teasing Pains

Follow Your Dreams

Taking the Fall

Severus Snape

Go to Hell

Disputing Love

Alternatives

I’m Trying to be Serious, I Swear

Hooked on a Feeling

Regulus Black

Sibling Trouble

Barty Crouch JR

Shadow Shenanigans

Running Into Your Arms

Golden Trio Women

Hermione Granger

Life-Altering Research

You Should Have Toad Me

Liplocking 101

Doodles

Mutterings

Cho Chang

Coincidences 

Ginny Weasley

Drowning Your Love

Obsession

The Streets Know Best

Angelina Johnson

Breaking Down the Closet Door

Luna Lovegood

Melodies of Love

Quirks and All

Homework and Billy Wigs

Pansy Parkinson

Oh Love

Fleur Delacour

Winking Flower {female}

Marauders Women

Lily Evans

Bent for Love

Challenged

Bellatrix Black

Insomnia for the Win

Madness Part 1 {female reader}

Madness Part 2 {female reader}

Leave Me Alone Punks {female reader}

Professors

Professor Snape 

Anything For an O

Love Notes {male reader}

Tutoring Gone Right

Love Triangles

Possession {Draco & Harry} 

Competition {Professor Snape & Headmaster Dumbledore}

Competition Part 2 {Professor Snape & Headmaster Dumbledore}

Sold {Severus Snape & Voldemort}

Love Potions and Other Tricks {Sirius & Remus & James}

Love Potions and Other Tricks Part 2 {Sirius & Remus & James}

Teach Me Your Love {Draco & Harry}

Moment of Truth {Harry & Neville}

Poly

Doggy Paddling Into Your Arms {Fred & George}

Two Princes {Fred & George}

Other

Young Dumbledore

Drawn to Life

Order of the Heart

Voldemort

Voldyshorts

Fiendish 

Dinner Date

James Sirius Potter

It’s in the Past

Annuals {Deaf reader}

Letters From Your Comfort Characters 

Follow this link for directions! Thank you, love!

[squigglywindy]

Squiggles Ranks the Chain

It's time to rank the chain.

I don't know why I did this. I really don't. It was hard. I love them all. And my favorites in general don't align with my favorites to write and this list is changing every day but here it is anyway. I've told a few people I was going to do this eventually, so here it is. The List. Go ahead, come at me. But do so understanding that I love them all dearly. But, I love some just a little bit more than others. Or, at least, relate to them and rotate them in my mind with more frequency.

Proceed at your own risk

@triforce-of-mischief @silvercaptain24

9: Time. Oh, Time. My guy. The old man. The tired Old Guy surrounded by youngin's. I relate to him in my soul. I love him, I want to hug him, I wish him all good things al the time. I love his dynamic with The Boys, his entire thing with Malon, all of it. But somebody had to be last. And at the end of the day, it's Time. Although my least favorite Link still occupies a bigger piece of my mind than any other fictional character ever, so there's that.

8: Twilight. Twi. My Brother In Y'all. My lil country wolf boy who I love so much. I wanted to put him higher; it was a struggle. Maybe it's because he's been dying for a year and we haven't gotten as much content to love him for; I dunno. Either way, somebody had to be number eight. I'm sorry my lovely Wolfie.

7: Legend. What a legend. (Hah, couldn't resist). I hated him for a long time. Yes, I was projecting my frustration with ALttP onto the poor guy, but still. I was stuck in the game when I started reading still am but that's not the point, and then there he was. And I was just 'ah no. It's him'. And then he seemed like a jerk, and I was just like: 'figures'. And then??? Whoooo boy this guy can fit so much character development into him! He's so sweet. He's so soft. He took me out in Sunset 13 with his lil face.

6: Hyrule. The fluffy lil dude. He's like a human puppy he's stinkin' adorable. He's my Swiss Army Knife when I'm writing; my guy has a tool for every occasion. He's just so soft and sweet and has magic hands??? Very cool. I don't have a lot of coherent thoughts to say about him but I love him very much.

5: Wild. Ah, Wild. The man I thought would be my blorbo. BotW has my heart, and naturally, I thought he would do. And he does! He's a little chaos gremlin. He's also Dramatic and I love him for that. I have so much fun writing him because literally anything goes and somebody out there will be like 'yeah. Classic Wild'. What can I say that hasn't already been said about this controversial lil guy everyone seems to either love or hate? What a maniac. Respect.

4: Warriors. I didn't have a whole lot of feelings about him before I started writing, ngl. Hadn't played HW, didn't really know who he was, all that jazz. And then I started digging in and oh my gosh I can't go two stories without beating him up I love him so much. He's my go-to projectee. I love to hurt him and look at him and I love the dynamic he has with everyone. He is Very Cool.

3: Four. He's just the whole package. A nice lil mashup of someone who has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and someone who has definitely killed someone with his bare hands. Not to mention he is Smol. Like lookit him it's almost like he could be a backpack (shamelessly references my own absolutely unhinged story). And? And??? He's chronically miserable I just wanna give him a hug.

2: Sky. I just love him. He's sweet, he's squishy, and he's just so darn relatable. Standing there. Left in the dust, because running is hard. Just chillin', watching the world pass by from whatever random spot he's chosen to exist in. It's like looking in a mirror. He just loves his brothers and wants them to be okay and he's just wonderful.

1: Wind. I know many of you probably didn't see this coming. I hope you braced yourselves for the surprise. Number one, Blorbo Prime, my number one scrunkle, The Windy Boy. Where to even start? He's just an absolute terror, hacking up the bad guys with the big boys. And his lil face? It's so smooshable. He is babey and menace all wrapped up in one. The child that I wrap safely in my trench coat until it's time to torture him again. He lives on a pottery wheel in my mind, spinning around at unimaginable speeds. The blorbo ever.



[cc-mr-vip]

Season 3 Initial Thoughts

- ℂ𝔸𝕄ℙ ℂℝ𝔼𝕋𝔸ℂ𝔼𝕆𝕌𝕊 𝕊ℙ𝕆𝕀𝕃𝔼ℝ𝕊 𝔸ℍ𝔼𝔸𝔻-

Holy shit, this Season was a doozy. I absolutely loved this season. It was a lot more intense than both Season 1 and 2, but had the realism from Season 1 that I loved so much.

Also I was fucking wrong, boys. Well not completely. I did make the prediction that they’ve been on the island for at least 2 months, because for some reason that was a reasonable number in my head. A nice believable number for the kids to have survived and did all they did, but six months!? Like half a year!? They would have been 1.5 years away from getting blown up from the volcano in JW2. Bruh...

The Scorpius Rex probably had the most terrifying design I had ever seen for a hybrid dinosaur. It felt way more threatening than both the Indominus and Indoraptor, probably because of it’s very odd hodgepodge of a design. I also love the twist of it being extremely unstable and causing other dinosaurs to lash out after being poisoned. Having this thing chase around the kids was definitely terrifying to say the least. Also wasn’t expecting Sammy to get spiked by the poison too (and turn an odd shade of green, sorta narmy lmao). I knew she wasn’t going to die, but I wasn’t expecting a nice squick shot of the quills in her abdomen that was a fun treat.

Also finally! Kenji, my boy, finally has some character backstory and development! I will probably do a more deeper analysis on Kenji’s drawing of his family, but is already kinda confirmed what kind of person his father is. He didn’t care enough about his son to want to put pictures of him on the wall, only himself. It makes sense why Kenji was so self absorbed as well. I found it pretty heartbreaking that Kenji risked his life to try rescue his father’s “precious” art statue. I’m not sure if he tried to rescue it because he was scared of his father scolding him or if he just wanted to bring it back for his father for a pat on the back. Either way, it’s just brings up sad implications all around. 

Honestly Kenji had some absolutely great development this season, in my opinion, way more so than the others had and way more interesting too. I think the episode that really marked a change in Kenji was Episode 5 (Eye of the Storm), when Kenji took it upon himself to be in charge of packing. For most of the episode, he was acting like typical Kenji, but he began to take his job way more seriously when it came to the safety of his friends. When Darius took after Ben, he properly took charge of the group (nice contrast to Season 1 where he was more nonchalant about it and tried to pass off responsibility). It was around this point that we didn’t see Kenji acting all high and haughty anymore, he was fully devoted to saving his friends.

I definitely wasn’t expecting Kenji to run off with the laptop to make the trade and save Brooklynn. The boy tried to fight a man with a loaded gun to save his friend, how foolish and brave of him to try do so. It was amazing to see Kenji, who spent most of the series cowering behind others, fully devoting himself to protecting Brooklynn in the finale (leading her to safety and shielding her with his own body). I do think that Kenji has some issues regarding losing friends; I think that the Camp Fam really is the first friends he’s ever gotten, which is why losing them hurt him so much (Sammy’s faux death and Brooklynn getting kidnapped). 

The way at the end when Kenji refused to forgive and accept the idea that they were going to risk Brooklynn’s safety over the laptop...it was a very mature way to handle that situation. Pragmatically, Kenji was absolutely right, they shouldn’t be risking their lives over a stinkin’ laptop. It’s not they’re responsibility, they’re just kids. But his friends were good people and Kenji played along, but decided to take matters into his own hands. His friends are important to him and he’s going to do anything to keep them safe. 

From haughty jock who only seemed to care about himself to a team member willing to risk everything to keep everyone safe, Kenji really has grown so much as a character.

All in all, I’m surprised the kids actually made it off the island this time. My friends and I were placing bets on whether or not they would make it off the island this season. Everyone had voted that they wouldn’t, but they did...hopefully? They got a stowaway so I’m wondering how they’re going to deal with that. Go back to the island? Keep going? Clearly it all isn’t over because Kenji’s character arc isn’t quite solved yet. I wonder how many more season CC will have. I do enjoy the series, but there’s only so much they can keep right?

This initial thoughts ended up more of a Kenji reaction post, so I’ll dedicate the end here to some other thoughts I had overall:

Yasmina and Sammy’s friend-(or maybe more)-ship was really cute and wholesome. I found Yasmina’s chumminess afterwards Hello-Zuko-Here levels of second hand embarrassment xD (Are they a maybe-couple? When Brooklynn mentioned crushes that Sammy might’ve had she mentioned Yaz lmao).

Thank god, Bumpy didn’t die. She has her own family now...for at least 1.5 more years until the volcano explodes...

Ben, you stupid child, of course you want to get off the island. I would have knocked you out and dragged you on the boat myself.

It was nice of the pilot and mercenary to board the kids upon finding out they were children. Even though they died / ended up splitting up the kids, the meant well.

I can’t believe Dr. Wu was in this season. He isn’t as much as a bad guy as I thought. He still left the kids, but at least he didn’t...kill them? Set the bar too low maybe?

And that’s all for now. This being a chock-full Kenji season, I’ll probably be doing some analysis or posts on him, but thought I’d make a reaction post with all my initial thoughts for now!