#I was wiping his tears on my computer screen as I drew him

[h4wari]

I know I said in my last post it was all for today but surprise surprise!!! Got one more thing for my Warriors simps!!!

@mushroomwoods my lovely honey commissioned me to make an art piece to go together with the fic they wrote for @wayfayrr's bday!!

There you go!! Im very happy with how it turned out!! And I hope you all like it too <333

As always, even with my fragile heart, I love some hurt/comfort prompt hihihihihi

I was literally like this when I was reading and doing the art:

But it all ended up way thanks heavens

Also!! Next thing I'll do is work on the requests I got and then I'll do a raffle for hitting 100 followers!! :DDD

Now thats really it for today guys, hope you're all doing well!!

Toodlessss 🍃🍃🍃

[idesofrevolution]

Requiescat

"Alright, my Musical Mentees, welcome back to my Channel! I am your friendly neighborhood musical critic, Kyle Donaghue, and today we're going to be reviewing something a little bit out of our typical wheelhouse!" Kyle sat with feigned excitement in front of his webcam. Though on the outside he eagerly drew out his intro for the 250th episode of his "Musique Critique" web series, internally he was livid. The young YouTuber had dreamed of becoming the go-to modern music critic on the platform but after almost two years of barely breaking a thousand views, he recognized he needed to do some market research on what his 347 subscribers wanted to see.

Thus, after asking his audience for requests, the music of some newer wannabe rockstar gained traction to be reviewed. To the music conservatory graduate, such low-brow "music" was beneath him; yet reality dictated that the business of content creation was based upon supply and demand. His audience demanded it, and if he wanted to gain any traction whatsoever, he needed to pivot. So, when the band in question, Catalyst, announced a new single drop, Kyle decided he was going to be the very first reviewer to tear it a new one.

"So you guys have been requesting I listen to this band called 'Catalyst' for a long time now, and today is finally the day. Apparently, the lead singer of Catalyst announced a few days ago that a new single was going to be released. I haven't heard much about them, so I did a bit of digging." Kyle clicked around on his computer, dredging up whatever he found in his five minutes of "research" the night before. "So, this band literally came out of nowhere. They're independent and are in talks with some record company about a deal, but nothing has come of it yet, so I'm going into this completely blind. They're out of Austin, Texas, and it's four guys who started the band out of this lead singer's parent's garage. The guy's name is Jaxon Black."

Kyle was literally reading off of some Tumblr fan blog about all this, but his audience certainly didn't need to know that. Why would he put in any effort for a band of this low caliber? "Black is 27 years old and started the band in 2013 when the four of them were in high school. They haven't really found any success, which is one of the reasons I'm surprised you wanted me to review them in the first place. They play in dive bars and some small venues, but nothing really outside of that." Scrolling through the blog, a picture of Jaxon Black actually appeared on the feed. He looked like any run-of-the-mill traditionally hot bad boy that you could find on the cover of GQ. What was so special about him?

"So, it's interesting too. This guy looks completely different than he did back when the band was formed. I totally get he was a kid when he started it, and there's puberty and whatever. But I mean, can you say plastic surgery? C'mon, guys. This guy is a 'serious musician' to you all?" Kyle sighed and wiped his face clear of the disgust he felt inside, putting on the eager façade he felt he needed to emulate. "But for you guys, I will make an exception, I'll give Jaxon Black and Catalyst a chance. I'm doing this for you! Just know that!" With that, he began to screen share, and the handsome visage of Jaxon Black was plastered on his screen as it would be for the whole review. The single didn't have any album art or anything, it was just a Soundcloud link; so in hopes that his audience would see right through this charade, he let would make them look at the face of the man who wrote whatever terrible song he was preparing to hear.

"See what I mean, guys? Ugh. I'm sorry, anyways. Here it is. The link that's posted on this fan blog brings me to Soundcloud, and there's no title or anything. It's just called 'Untitled', so we're off to a great start. But like I said, let's give the guy a chance. So without further ado, here is Catalyst's 'Untitled.'" With the press of the space bar, the sound of a slower ballad began to play through his earbuds.

The song began with a slow and heavy bassline in A flat Locrian, immediately an odd choice to start with. Contrarian, in Kyle's opinion. In terms of influence, it was an odd mixture of stereotypical hard rock like Guns n' Roses or Aerosmith, prog rock like Yes and Pink Floyd, with a random hint of Santana? Kyle did his best to stifle the cringe which trickled down his spine, but his face could do nothing to hide it. He felt the corners of his lip tense up and purse, his left nostril tweaking in pure annoyance.

"Starting off in Locrian... that's an interesting choice." He muttered under his breath. Looking at the progress bar, he saw the song was a full seven minutes and thirty-six seconds long. Lovely. "I feel like this is gonna be 'Hotel California' but bad, not gonna lie to you guys." Though, as the electric guitar faded in, quiet and subtle, it took Kyle by surprise. The technique that Black employed in his riffs, with precision he'd rarely heard outside of a classical guitarist, was nothing short of impressive. "Okay, the guy's got some skill. I'll give him that."

The music felt lugubrious, giving the sensation of swimming through a vat of molasses, pushing and pulling at great tension. It was near impossible for him to put into words, but the gravelly tenor timbre of Black's voice deftly began to soar atop the dredging music below. Evoking Eddie Vetter or perhaps even Jon Bon Jovi, the words were not exactly easy to decipher. Frankly, the song was almost trancelike, as if he'd taken a handful of mushrooms before embarking on his musical journey.

"Guys, I don't know how to explain it, this shouldn't work but it... it kind of does? I don't... I don't know." Kyle leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. The song had actually piqued his interest and intrigue, it was unlike anything he'd ever really heard before. Yet, it felt so familiar in ways far outside his comprehension. Waves of goosebumps washed across his body, barrage after barrage. The music became a full-body experience, and he was rendered speechless for the first time in his life. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Kyle tried his best to analyze the theory engrained into the song but found his mind to be a mere void that was seemingly being filled with viscous liquid. The longer the song went on, the more his mind felt entirely numb.

"I'm... I'm impressed, guys..." Words began to falter, his tongue feeling swollen and heavy. Behind his closed eyes, ribbons of bright colors danced against the black backdrop, bursts of red and purple illuminating the periphery like clouds of heat lightning. He could feel the notes meandering through the air and landing on his body, pressing down with the force of a boulder each time. "He's... he's really good, guys..." A thick dribble of saliva oozed through the gap in his open lips.

It was as if he was being drained of all his energy, all of his willpower, every last ounce of strength which propelled him to live. And yet, despite the darkness he could feel creeping over his body, he was oddly at peace. As if moving of their own accord, Kyle felt himself shuck his shirt from his body, now covered in a sprinkling of sweat across his limber torso and head. The music pulsated from within him as if he were the amp himself, seemingly making the muscles in his arms expand and contract. "I can... I can feel him in there..." Kyle couldn't even fathom how he'd gotten here. He was in his room, sitting in his chair and yet, he was somehow with Black, inside the music. With every heavy pick of the bass, his biceps began to swell and firm; veins distinctly snaked down his strong forearms and into his callousing fingers. His body temperature was now sweltering, shedding every ounce of water and liquid within him into the beadlets of sweat which cascaded down from his thickening pecs and cobbling abs.

The drums and synthesizer came in, further enriching the already complicated chords which tickled his ear like a soft, warm breath. The bass line was an ebb and flow, weaving and bobbing as the song soared through the chorus, a melody that sent a ripple of lust across his body. It was as if he were on a ship in a storm, one which was luring him deeper into the dark waters as his thighs began to balloon out of the sweat-stained shorts he wore. The power of the music seeped into his veins, imbuing him with a foreign energy from a distant shore beyond his corporeal being. His calves spasmed and inflated, while his feet stretched out wider and stronger in his quickly ripening socks.

Black's voice was now all that Kyle could hear in his head, every indecipherable word rang as some existential truth. Kyle's thoughts were no longer his own, he was just along for the ride, a passenger in his own mind. He was no longer in control of his actions, nor his thoughts. His breathing had become heavier, slower... The music had invaded his very being and taken control. Spatterings of black ink began to sprawl across his glistening smooth skin, each with some sort of esoteric reference which he would not yet understand. Grim Reapers, skulls, geometric designs of unhuman origin now proudly displayed across his strong body.

"Fuuuck, man. This shit is amazing..." His voice gradually grew scratchy and smoky from years of singing for crowds of headbanging punks in cramped, smelly bars. He reached to his left, eyes still closed in euphoric bliss, snatching the small joint which now sat on the edge of his desk. Kicking his sweaty, buttery feet up onto the wooden surface, he brought the smoking j to his lips, dragging a heavy dose of creative vapor into his powerful lungs. "Fuckin' hell, you guys... I mean... shit." He blew out a heavy, grey plume of smoke from his wide nostrils. "This song is fuckin' incredible."

He pulled down his shorts and briefs, letting his lean but long dripping cock slap against his navel. Strings of pre seeped out of his pulsating cockhead, making winding rivers flowing down toward his sagging sac. A large prince albert ring now adorned the top of his uncut shaft, with three frenum piercings towing down his urethra in succession. The slightest touch from his calloused fingers wreaked immeasurable pleasure, radiating from the groin all across every inch of his body. Thus, as he wrapped his hand tightly around the limber shaft, gently caressing the prince albert with the tip of his index finger, he could barely breathe without a quiet moan escaping his throat. Quickly, the fondling turned into a measured, intentional pump with each beat of the music.

The drums and bass were now coming together in a thunderous crescendo, Kyle could feel his very blood bubbling beneath his skin as it made his way up his strong neck and toward his skull as he hastened his pace. The room around him began to blur and distort. Bookshelves formerly lined with music theory textbooks and repertoires of classical mainstays were warped into racks of well loved guitars: Fender, Gibson, Sqiuer, & Ibanez. The pristine white duvet-covered bed was now clad with sleek black satin sheets and a shiny vinyl comforter. The portraits of famous composers which once adorned the wall were now a collage of posters: Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Metallica, AC/DC, The Ramones, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden. Piles of ripped up, weathered clothes, marinating in the sweat of shows past now littered the dingy red carpet.

The blood had finally arrived at the precipice of his brain, and like a tidal wave crashing against the rocks, it overtook him. His hair darkened to a deep black, his brows furrowed, his lips now plump and curled into a permanent cocky smirk. This was his kind of music. This was his genre. This was the message he was born to bring to the masses. It was a message of rebellion, of raging against the corporate machine of whitewashed mass-marketed culture. A flash of bright red and teal illuminated the room from behind Kyle's closed eyes as rope after rope of his spunk shot from his cock onto the laptop and camera. He roared in climax, louder than he'd intended, but nothing his neighbors were unfamiliar with in regards to the activities the apartment notoriously beheld.

The music had stopped, the final note hung in the air for a moment before retreating back into the abyss as his shorts melted into a dense magenta slime, moving down his muscular legs until they covered his entire lower half before hardening into slick gator skin pleather pants and a pair of beat up black combat boots wafting the scent of his musky feet. Axel opened his now black eyes, letting out a sigh of complete satisfaction.

"Now that's what I call fuckin' music, man! See why I wanted ya to experience it? It's like a requiem for corporate machine, man. That's why Catalyst is my fuckin' muse. Their music is gonna take over the whole fuckin' world." A loud pinging signaled Axel to check his phone, where his bandmates, performing as Hammerthrow, were confirming their next gig in L.A. "Fuck yeah, guys. Just landed the Cali gig. I'm thinking we cover this masterpiece and mind fuck them into oblivion. Catch us in Azuza next week, kids. You don't wanna miss it." With that, he ended his recording, smirking mischievously as he uploaded it to his channel. The song certainly was going to change the world, even if the world itself wasn't ready.

[eveningstar1516]

The Adventures of Leviachan and the Case of the missing Ruri!`

Irritated at still not being able to find his figurine, Levi almost snapped at MC. He paused when he saw what they were holding. Blinking a few times, he blinked away his tears of frustration and wiped his eyes.

“R-right! Satan plays detective all the time when he loses things. We can do that too!”

Prompt: Detective

My written contribution to this year's unofficial Leviathan collab ^^ Thank you to the Moderators who organized it and for letting the fandom be a part of it!

Pairing: Levi and MC (Sheep-chan)

“This is not the last you will hear from me, Ruri-Hana! I will have my REVENGE!!!”

The sea monster on screen sunk into the whirlpool Ruri had created with her wand, disappearing below the water's surface before it became calm once again. Ruri floated above the waters safely, smiling triumphantly.

“No, Mr. Sea Monster. Not if I have anything to say about it! Ruri-Hana will always save the day!”

Levi had stood up with Ruri and flashed her iconic pose as she delivered her lines. Ruri-Hana and the Threat of the Seas had only been out for 3 days and within those three days, Levi’s already memorized the movie script word for word. The writing, graphics, animation, all of it drew him in and held his attention in a vice, and Levi, wouldn’t have it any other way.

The movie ended with Ruri flashing her iconic pose and the screen erupting in a burst of colourful flowers before the end credits. Levi reached over for his mouse to rewind the movie and start it again. It was a shame there was no end-credit scene, but that just meant he didn’t have to spend the next year worrying about a cliffhanger. While a second movie was teased, there wasn’t anything to back it up. Just as he was about to hit play, his DDD lit up with a text to come down for breakfast before he was late.

Levi quickly checked the time on his computer. The numbers 7:30 lit up the screen. He looked at his DDD again to double-check the time. He’d been up watching this movie all night… Groaning, Levi stretched in his gaming chair. Hearing his joints pop after spending hours in the same position was simultaneously reliving and painful. He could probably watch a regular episode from the series before- His DDD lit up with an incoming call from Satan. What could his brother want at this hour? Picking up his DDD, he answered the call. “Sa-“

“So you are still alive. Good to know. Come down for breakfast before Beel eats it all.”

“What- It’s 7:30. We still have half an hour before-“

“What “half-an-hour”. You didn’t forget about the meeting this morning, did you?”

Levi blinked a few times in confusion as he pulled up his calendar on his desktop.

“Levi…” a heavy sigh could be heard from the other end. “Get ready. I’ll save something for you. We’re leaving in 15.”

Satan hung up the call, leaving Levi dead silent on the other end. He was startled out of his shock when his DDD pinged with a message from Lucifer. Jumping off his chair, he grabbed his uniform hanging on the front of his closet and ran into the bathroom. He’d completely forgotten about the meeting for quarter-semester check-in. After struggling with his tie and buttons for a solid minute, he finally got his uniform on and grabbed his bag on the way out of his room. He texted Lucifer on his way down the stairs that he was coming and very nearly slid down the last step before catching himself.

Making it to the dining room, he avoided Lucifer’s stares and took a sandwich bag from Satan for his breakfast with a mumbled “thanks”. Grabbing his headphones, he plugged them into his DDD and put them on for the walk to RAD as he ate. Scrolling through his Impify playlists, he finally found the specific soundtrack from the Ruri movie and selected it; setting the rest of the playlist to play on shuffle.

Finally arriving at RAD, Levi didn’t bother taking off his headphones until he sat down and Diavolo began speaking. He pulled out the papers he needed for his part of the reports – progress on the afterschool curriculars for the tech department – and set them on the table. He half-tuned out the meeting, playing out scenes from the movie in his head and occasionally inserting himself into the scenes to fight alongside Ruri. He didn’t notice the meeting was over until Satan elbowed him to get his attention. Looking up, he could see the entire table looking his way. He blinked a few times before Lucifer cleared his throat, causing Levi to shrink into his seat after being put at the center of attention. “Umm… Yes? What was the question?”

Lucifer sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

“If you could pay attention now, Levi. I had asked if you had any improvements you’d like to recommend to your departments.”

Levi shook his head.

“Nothing I didn’t already bring up, no.”

“Alright then, I believe that settles all my matters. We’ll meet again next week, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.” Diavolo grinned and settled his hands on the table, looking at the brothers as crickets chirped in the background. Varying degrees of confusion on each brother’s face.

“My Lord…?-“

Diavolo waved his hand dismissively. “It’s a human saying, Lucifer. Never mind. I’ll text Lucifer the meeting date and time for our next check-in. You’re all dismissed.”

The brothers all got up and broke off into their own smaller groups. Various conversations mixing as they left the council room. Lucifer stayed behind as he organized his papers. He glanced up at Diavolo from the corner of his eye.

“That was very… spontaneous, even for you.”

Diavolo pouted and put on his best puppy eyes. “Aww, but Lucifer, Levi’s into that stuff, isn’t he? I’ve been watching human animation to prepare myself for his party.”

Lucifer shook his head with a sigh and a slight smile. “That is the wrong genre of animation, Diavolo. He’s more into Japanese animation and their mobile Gacha games. Believe me, it’s not worth devoting too much of your time to.”

“Now now, Lucifer. Isn’t that something for me to decide?” Diavolo rested his elbows on the table and his chin atop his hands. His head was tilted slightly as his voice jumped up an octave as he questioned his friend. He smiled as Lucifer seemed to stiffen and swallow his wanted response.

“Right, it was not my intention to overstep, my Lord.”

Diavolo rested his arms and turned around in his chair to face Lucifer, one arm resting on the table, the other in his lap. He chuckled quietly and kept his aloof smile.

“I was only teasing, Lucifer. You needn’t stiffen up. Speaking of Leviathan’s birthday, what are you planning for it? I know you always try and do something special for your brothers.”

Lucifer filed away his papers and while he had every notion to cut this meeting short, he wanted to get back at Diavolo, and what better way than to tease him back? He smirked and glanced at Diavolo through his peripheral.

“There’s a little something, yes. I guess you’ll have to just wait and see, my Lord.”

Lucifer couldn’t help but chuckle at the immediate pout from his response. He stood up and adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag.

“I guess I can give you one hint. It’ll be quite, magical~ I’ll see you tomorrow, Diavolo.”

Levi shut off his alarm, groaning in annoyance to having been woken up. Snuggling into his body pillow, he mumbled about sleeping in for 5 more minutes when his door burst wide open, a shrill scream escaping him as a result. Mammon however was undisturbed by Levi’s scream and marched right over to the bathtub, effortlessly lifting his younger brother out of the bathtub.

“C’MON SLEEPY HEAD! TIME T’A-AAAHHHHH”

Levi’s tail had wound its way around to smack Mammon square in the chest, knocking both him backwards toward Levi’s door and the wind out of him.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU DON’T JUST WAKE SOMEONE UP LIKE THAT YOU IDIOT! YOU STUPID MONEY-GRUBBING SCUMBAG IDIOT OF A BROTHER! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT-“

“What’s all this ye-“, Beel had popped his head through the door. He heard screaming on his way to breakfast and got curious.

“This idiot decided to break down my door and just grab me out of my peaceful sleep-“

“You were awake-“

“Shut up, Mammon!”

“He was making sure you weren’t missing your breakfast, Levi… We told him to make sure you were awake before I ate it all…” Beel tilted his head in confusion, but didn’t help Mammon off the floor. “Did you forget?”

Levi stared at Beel, blinking in confusion as he tried to remember what was so important about today that they actually arranged this. Before he could come to an answer, Beel provided it for him.

“You knew you’d sleep in since we don’t have RAD today and you knew Mammon was the most annoying out of all of us-“

“HEY-“

“So you asked him to make sure you didn’t miss your birthday breakfast. You don’t remember that?”

Birthday… Breakfast…? Levi grabbed his DDD off the charger and checked the date. His eyes widened when he realized that Beel was talking about his birthday. It was already the 9th!?

“Satan’s breakfast smells so good….” Beel drifted away from the door, quickly making his way downstairs toward the kitchen. They already made sure that Levi was awake so if he didn’t get to the food in time, well, that was Levi’s fault.

“W-WOAH! WAIT UP BEEL!” Levi in turn had rushed out of his room. Satan had told him his present would have been Ruri-inspired meals of Japanese food for breakfast and dinner. He wasn’t about to let Beel just devour it all before he could even get a taste!

Levi raced downstairs, his demon form disappearing as he made his way to the dining room. Satan was coming out of the kitchen with Beel practically towering over him, waiting for breakfast to be served. An entire spread containing everything from omelettes with Azuki-tan drawn with ketchup on them to miso soup with flower cutouts of tofu were spread around the table while the brothers filed in.

“Just sit down, Beel! This is for Levi. I have more for you in the kitchen.” Satan plated the last of the omelettes with a sigh, placing a hand on Beel’s chest and pushing him back. His other hand pointing towards the kitchen “Kitchen.” Beel quickly turned around and went back to grab his portion of breakfast while the rest of the brothers, sans Lucifer, sat down. Levi was too busy admiring the spread that he didn’t notice Asmo coming up behind him until he felt the 5th born throw his arms around him. Startled, Levi yelped and seized. Asmo only giggled and nuzzled his cheek against his older brothers.

“Happy Birthday, Levi! Oh your skin’s feeling so rough- you haven’t been staying up all night binging and gaming again, have you? I’ve told you over and over again that you need a good night’s sleep to keep it nice and clear. Your eyebags are starting to form, dear.” Asmo had grabbed Levi’s face with both his hands, squishing his cheeks and frowning over his complexion. “Come to my room after breakfast and I’ll give you the Birthday glow up~”

Levi grabbed Asmo’s wrists and slowly brought them down from his face. “My skin’s just fine, Asmo. And I don’t have eyebags. They form after a week up anyways…”

“What was that,” Asmo tilted his head as Levi mumbled the last bit.

“N-nothing!”

“Not to interrupt, but you might want to eat it while it’s still hot and before Beel finishes his own breakfast.” Satan addressed the two with his hands on his hips. Belphie was already asleep at the table and Mammon had just made his way downstairs.

“Were y’a just gonna leave me there on the floor!?”

“Where’s Lucifer?” Completely ignoring Mammon, Asmo sat down and reached for an omelette and pulled out his DDD to take a picture while Mammon continued to gush over the food. “Oh Satan, these little drawings are just adorable!”

Satan smiled proudly and took his own seat, reaching for a bowl of miso soup. “The designs were simple enough. Ruri’s design though, man that took me 10 whole minutes. Drawing cats on my omelettes make good practice though.”

“Shtiw Shweeping,” Beel joined the group while carrying an armful of various dishes and some rice in his mouth. He didn’t want to eat alone in the kitchen after all. Placing his plates down, he nudged Belphie awake and gave him some boiled buffo eggs before swallowing. “He was up late last night. I could hear him sleeping when I passed by his room.”

Satan rolled his eyes and scooped up a spoonful. “Tch, of course he couldn’t even be up for this.”

“Easy Satan, you don’t know what he could have been doing last night-”

“I know what he was doing, Asmo. I’m just saying.”

Levi wasn’t paying much attention to the conversations around him. He was too busy with the breakfast in front of him. He took out his DDD and took a few pictures of the little customizations Satan mixed in with the breakfast. He wondered how much prep this would have taken. If breakfast was this nice, he couldn’t wait for dinner to see what Satan would come up with. “It’s even better than the official Ruri themed snacks and official meals. Thank you, Satan.”

Satan looked up at his brother and smiled. “Wait until you see dinner. Today and today only, alright, Levi?”

“Yes,” he laughed and grabbed a fork. He had taken the omelette with Ruri’s chibi face on it and with a heavy heart, cut into the design. Just as he did so, he felt something bump into his leg. Looking down, he noticed MC walking around looking seemingly half asleep. Picking them up, he set them in his lap. That immediately earned him jealous looks from the rest of his brothers. He smirked and grabbed a small bowl of rice for them to start with while he ate his eggs. It was his birthday and he intended to keep MC to himself today.

Lucifer did eventually show up near the end of breakfast looking like he’d spent all night marathoning his paperwork on the computer. Asmo immediately launched into a spiral over his appearance and invited him to join him and Levi in his room after breakfast for a spa day. Levi swallowed down his bite with some tea and blinked at Asmo. “I never agreed to that-“

“You didn’t say no either,” he waved his hand dismissively, “Ne- Lucifer, what do you say? A little one-on-one time with-“

“I’m busy, Asmodeus. Another time.” Lucifer walked by the dining room toward the kitchen to brew himself some coffee. Hearing the coffee pot going, Satan rolled his eyes.

Levi finished his breakfast and grabbed the soup MC was drinking. With MC in one arm and their soup in the other hand, he slipped out of the dining room back to his room. He knew his brothers would have some sort of party planned for him today, but that wouldn’t be until later tonight. He specifically requested not to do anything this afternoon. He wanted time to relax and prepare before socializing later with his brothers, Purgatory hall, and the royals. Everyone was invited and he was praying that someone told Solomon Satan was taking care of the food. The last thing he wanted today was food poisoning from Solomon’s cupcakes…

Sitting himself down in his gaming chair, he reached over to grab his headphones and a smaller set for MC. He gave them their soup and set the headphones atop their head. They could just listen to him game for now. He’ll pull up something 2-player later. Logging into his computer, he opened his game and wound his arms around MC on either side of them to reach his mouse and keyboard. Grinning as the game started playing.

About an hour later, he felt MC squirm in his lap a few times. “The round’s almost done MC. Just a second.” A few minutes later, the victory message played over the screen. A triumphant ‘Yes!’ could be heard as Levi pumped his fist. “Alright MC. What do you want to play? Devil Kart? Demon Crossing? There’s Demon Boy and Angel Girl? Oh! How about this new retro game I found? Immortal Combat! Apparently it used to be a big arcade game back in the human realm.”

Levi pulled up his browser to search for the website he found the game on when he felt MC tug at his sleeve. “Huh? Just a second MC, let me pull it up. Unless you had something else in mind?”

MC shook their head and pointed to Levi’s desk shelf. Several figurines, gaming controllers and accessories were organized on the shelves. Levi turned his head slightly in confusion. “You want to play with the console instead of keyboard? Sure- “

MC shook their head again and hopped out of Levi’s lap. They pointed to an empty section of the shelf. A small spot where there was no dust. A ring of a clean base could be seen, like something was removed. Levi rolled over and looked over the shelf. His eyes widened when he noticed that his special edition figurine from Ruri-Hana’s new Searise Monster Movie was missing! Bolting up from the chair, he started looking around the area in a panic.

“No no no no! It was just there yesterday! M-maybe it fell somewhere? MC, help me look for it! It’s a brand new special edition figurine- only 50 were made and the first 5 were signed copies! There’s no way I lost my signed copy of the figurine!”

He took everything off that specific shelf, looking through every single one of the shelves around the room. Around the computer. Behind it, under it, under the desk and his chair. He even took his blankets out of the bathtub to look for it! MC didn’t have any luck either, and feel Levi’s frustration and panic rise with each passing second, they padded over to the costume bin. They knew it was likely Mammon either took it or Levi just misplaced it, but they didn’t want the 3rd born running around the house in a rampage and summoning Lotan… Grabbing a hat and magnifying glass, they walked over to Levi and tugged on his pant leg. Irritated at still not being able to find his figurine, Levi almost snapped at MC. He paused when he saw what they were holding. Blinking a few times, he blinked away his tears of frustration and wiped his eyes.

“R-right! Satan plays detective all the time when he loses things. We can do that too!”

He grabbed the hat and magnifying glass from MC and went over to his cosplay trunk before pulling out a trench coat, a monocular, and a smaller magnifying glass for MC. He put the trench coat on and helped MC put on the monocular. He stood back with his hand on his chin, thinking. There was something missing… browsing through his shelves, he looked for something in particular…

“Aha! Yes!” Grabbing an Azukki-tan pin, he pushed it through the chain of the monocular and fastened it before grabbing one for himself and pinning it to the brim of his hat. “There we go. All set! The Mystery of who took the Special Signed Edition of Ruri-Hana Searise Monster Movie Figurine will be solved and the figurine returned to its rightful spot on its shelf! Let’s go MC!

Running out of his room, he looked behind him to make sure MC was following him. They were padding after him; looking through the magnifying glass. He couldn’t help but smile and blush slightly at how cute they looked like that.

“First, we’ll need a list of suspects! Now, let’s see. I was alone in my room all night yesterday. No one came to see me. I don’t remember if it was there when I woke up or not, which means someone must have stolen it between then and breakfast! No one was left alone in my room besides,” he looked down at MC for a minute, the two of them nodding their heads, “Mammon!”

Together, the two marched over to Mammon’s room, Levi taking the lead by busting down Mammon’s door much like he did with his this morning. “MAAMMMOOONNN!!! WHAT DID-“

MC cut Levi off by tugging on his trench coat and folding their arms. Shaking their head, they pointed to their magnifying glass. Levi looked down at the matching one in his hand and remembered. There were a few questions that needed to be asked first. Looking back at Mammon – who was still seated stunned on his couch – he pulled out a notepad from one of the coat pockets.

“Where were you this morning between the hours of- what time did I go to sleep last night…”

Mammon blinked at Levi for a few seconds before he realized the 3rd born was expecting an answer. “How the hell am I supposed t’a know!? I passed out after 11 last night cause I knew I had t’a be up to wake you up early today!”

“Okay so you weren’t in my room when I was sleeping. Then- What were you doing while we were all at breakfast between the time you came to wake me up and came back down?”

Mammon blinked once again at Levi, confused as to what the hell was going on and where all this came from. “Are one of yer things missin’ again-“

“Aha! I never said what was wrong! Only the guilty would kno-“

“Y’a only act like this when one of yer things are missin’, Levi. ‘Sides, why would I steal somethin’ from y’a if I’m gonna give y’a a gift anyways?” He rolled his eyes and went back to counting the Grimm on the table in front of him. “I didn’t take nothin’. I got off my ass- thank you for knockin’ it flat, by the way, then came downstairs t’a eat before Beel ate everythin’.”

“Is that so… And where did all this money come from, hmm? My Figurine is worth at least double so if-“

“I got paid yesterday, Levi”

Silence stretched throughout the room for a full minute before Mammon looked back up at Levi from the corner of his eyes. “Levi…?”

Levi was looking around Mammon’s room, stunned by his older brother’s responses. Hearing his name, he shook his head to clear his mind.

“Are y’a good?”

“You really didn’t take it?”

“I may be ‘scum’, but seriously Levi. No I didn’t take nothin’. Maybe tomorrow but- owww! The Hell!”

Levi narrowed his eyes at Mammon and struck him in the head with the bottom of his magnifying glass. Scoffing, he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Sorry… Do you know who it could have been?”

Mammon rubbed the top of his head and looked up at Levi with one eye before opening the other. “Y’a should be sorry. An’ no, I don’t. Ask someone else.”

Frowning in defeat, Levi looked at the Grimm on the table and took a small handful. Mammon jumped to his feet, tensing and trying to reach out to swipe the Grimm back from Levi. “HEY! Y’A DON’T-“

“You still owe me 300 Grimm for last week, Mammon. Don’t forget that.”

Leaving Mammon alone in his room, Levi left the room and shut the door once MC was out with him. He scratched the top of his head. “Okay but if it wasn’t Mammon… who else could it have been?”

He walked around the house with his chin in hand, thinking aloud. “I haven’t seen Asmo all morning. Satan was busy making breakfast. Belphie’s always asleep… Beel was by my room this morning! To the kitchen!”

Levi started speedwalking toward the kitchen when the sound of Beel’s stomach caught his attention from the living room. Coming to a stop, he backtracked to the living room and peeked over the sofa where Beel was sitting with Belphie asleep in his lap.

“Beel?”

“Satan won’t let me in the kitchen… can you get me something to eat, Levi? I’m hungry and Belphie fell asleep on me. I don’t want to wake him up…” Beel gave Levi his best puppy-dog eyes. He really was hungry but Satan won’t let anyone into the kitchen so they don’t eat the food he was making for dinner.

“Buddy I don’t think you’ll wake up Bel-“

Beel gasped as MC handed him a bag of popcorn. From where they got it, no one knew, but Beel now had some food. He reached down to hug MC tightly. “Thanks! Now I don’t have to wake Belphie up!”

Levi shrugged and took out his notepad. At least now he could have Beel’s attention without him focusing only on his stomach. “Where were you between last night and breakfast?”

Beel’s chewing slowed down as he thought about it. Swallowing, he tilted his head. “I was watching the New Super Devil Bro’s with Belphie last night, went for a midnight snack run, went to sleep. Woke up for more snacks because I was hungry, went back to sleep. Woke up for my morning jog, came back, tried to get a snack, but Satan had already started breakfast and wouldn’t let me in- he did give me a bowl of poisonberry’s though, so I ate those, took a shower, then found you yelling at Mammon in your room. Then we went to have breakfast.”

Levi put his notebook down about halfway through Beel’s recap of last night and this morning. There was nothing telling from any of that. “And you didn’t go into my room at all?”

Looking up at Levi with a bit of confusion, Beel shook his head. “No… is something wrong, Levi?”

Groaning, Levi sat himself down forcefully, hitting his head with the open notebook, mumbling into it. “Someone took my special edition figure and it wasn’t Mammon… Whenever Satan plays detective-“

“IT’S NOT A GAME!” Satan’s voice could be heard shouting from the kitchen. He came out with a hand towel, leaning against the doorframe. He smirked at the looks he got from the 3 in the room. “Demons have good hearing. You lost your figurine?”

Levi nodded and leaned back against the couch, turning his head to look at Satan. “How do you normally find things when you play detective?”

“Like I said earlier, I don’t play detective. I become a detective. It’s not the same. When did you lose it?”

“I don’t know… I’m pretty sure I had it last night. I didn’t even notice it was missing until MC pointed it out.”

“So it went missing between last night and this morning?”

“Yes, but Mammon didn’t take it. I checked. He and Beel were the only ones in my room…”

Satan smiled and slung the towel over his shoulder. “Are you sure?”

Levi tilted his head at the 4th born. “What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I’m sure.”

Pushing himself off the doorway, he waved as he went back to the kitchen. “Then good luck searching.”

Levi groaned and facepalmed, sinking further into the couch. “Yeah. Big help, Satan.”

“ANYTIME!”

“Why do I get the feeling he knows more than he lets on…”

“Maybe ask Asmo if he’s seen it?” Beel munched on the fistful of popcorn. He already seemed to have finished half the bag. Levi got up and slid his notebook back in his pocket. “Yeah- might as well. Detective Levi will find a clue somewhere! …It sounds better when Satan says it.”

“OF COURSE IT DOES-“

“SHUT UP SATAN! Geez, come on MC. Asmo should be in his room.”

Pulling out a granola bar, MC handed it to Beel before hurrying after Levi. Walking through the halls, they felt bad over how dejected Levi seemed to be with each dead end. Pressing themselves against his leg, they looked up at him. Levi looked down to see MC’s face. He pouted and pet the top of their head. “Don’t look at me like that… you’ll make me feel sorry for feeling sorry.” Laughing quietly, he gave MC a small smile. “We’ll find it today! Don’t worry!” Whether he was trying to cheer himself up or MC up, he didn’t know. He just wanted to find his figurine. He didn’t think he’d be able to enjoy his birthday party if he was too busy wondering where it was.

Reaching Asmo’s door, he lifted his fist to knock when the door swung open. The front of his shirt was grabbed as he was dragged inside. “W-WHOA! What the-“

“You actually came! Don’t worry about anything, I have the whole setup spread out! Oh we’re going to make you look perfect for your party! I just knew you’d come! MC darling, have a seat right there. I’ll get to you once I’m done with Levi, kay~?”

MC climbed up onto the vanity stool and kicked their legs, stifling a laugh as Asmo started doting over Levi. Pulling out their DDD, they pulled up Mononoke Land to pass the time.

It was about 2 hours later before they were finally released by Asmo’s clutches. Levi sat in the corner while he finished up with MC. “So you really have no idea where my figurine is?”

“Levi hun, I didn’t even know you had one-“

“Of course I had one! I’ve been talking about this movie a month before it came out!”

Asmo put down the brush and let MC hop off the vanity before packing everything up. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m sure it will come up when you’re not looking for it anymore.”

“Jee… thanks… Let’s go MC.” Levi stood up and left the room with MC. Feeling his DDD buzz, he opened it up to the group chat. Everyone else began arriving for his party, but he wasn’t really feeling it. He looked down at his companion. “If I don’t show up, do you think anyone will notice?”

MC looked up at Levi, blinking twice.

“Right- of course they’d notice. I’m the Main Character for tonight.” Sighing heavily, he made his way to the living room. “We might as well see what Satan whipped up for dinner.”

Walking into the living room, he took off the coat and hat, laying them over the arm of one of the couches just as the Purgatory Hall residents came in.

“Happy Birthday Leviathan! Oh? What has you so down?” Simeon held a wrapped present but placed it on the table when he saw the look on Levi’s face.

“What’s with the costume?” Solomon held his own gift, gesturing to the coat Levi just took off.

“Hey guys, thanks. Oh, it’s nothing.” Levi shrugged and sat down. He could smell Satan’s dinner, but Diavolo and Barbatos weren’t here yet, so the food wouldn’t be coming out soon. Satan himself did pop out of the kitchen though. He looked over at Levi sitting dejectedly on the couch. “Still haven’t found it?”

“Found what? Did you lose something, Levi?” Luke perked up. He’d brought some cupcakes, carrying them over to Satan so he could store them safely in the kitchen as it seemed Beel hadn’t been allowed in there.

“My Special Edition Signed Figurine of Ruri-Hana’s Searise Monster Movie model is missing. I’ve been looking for it all day- well, MC and I have been looking all day.”

“If by lookin’ y’a mean harrassin’ us for it, then y’a, you were. Y’a still haven’t found the thing?”

Levi shook his head and glared at Mammon. He wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate as the others in the room exchanged looks on what they could do to cheer him up. In that moment, Lucifer came in with Diavolo and Barbatos behind him.

“The House of Lamentation, quiet? How often does that happen?” Diavolo’s cheerful voice carried through the room. “Happy Birthday Leviathan! Another wonderful year with the rest of your brothers and many more to come!”

Lucifer raised a brow at Levi’s lack of response. “Leviathan-“

“Right, right. Thanks Lord Diavolo. I guess…”

Lucifer sighed and shook his head. “Levi, what’s the problem.”

“He misplaced one of his figurines. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Lucifer?” Satan looked at his older brother and raised a brow, knowing full well but wanting Lucifer to say it instead.

“Ah, this figurine perhaps?” Lucifer smiled and revealed the signed movie figurine from his inner coat pocket. Levi looked up and sprang to his feet when he saw it. His eyes widened as he looked between the stand and his brother.

“YES! Wait- how- when- Why did you take it!?”

Lucifer chuckled and held up a hand to calm his younger brother. “Easy, Levi. I simply had to borrow it for your gift. Now she’s still fragile and only lasts for a few hours. She might not be a perfect copy, but it was the closest I could get. You can come out now.”

From behind Lucifer, a small child sporting 2 twin piglets and a bright pink and white dress stepped out. Big purple eyes looked up and around the room in curiosity before her eyes landed on Levi. “Leviachan..?” She walked over to the demon and tilted her head to the side before reaching out to touch him. “You are Leviachan, right?”

Levi stood rooted to the spot the moment he saw Ruri step out from behind Lucifer. His eyes darted between her and his brother, as if trying to figure out if this was real or not. When he felt her touch him though, he felt his face turn a bright red before his knees buckled. Simeon just barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

Ruri looked down at Levi with a tilted head and confused expression. “Oh… did I scare him? Hmm? Oh hi, what a peculiar companion.” Ruri looked at MC who seemed to be handing her the Azuki-tan pin Levi had attached to their monocle. Looking down at Levi, they summoned some cold water to splash onto his face to wake him up.

Mammon stared wide eyed at Ruri for a few moments before looking at her and Luke a few times and snickering. “Hey- she’s shorter than the Chihuahua. Y’a ain’t the shortest one today.”

“I’M NOT A CHIHUAHUA!”

[lingeriae]

you catching an attitude w your best friend!connie after seeing him posted up on a girls instagram? whewwww...

warnings - flufff, connie has nip piercing, mention of readers pum pum but there is no sex! kissing, ass slapping, connie literally says he's gonna have sex with the reader, jealousy, toxic connie if you squint a lil, cursing, reader is female,not proofread, raeder and connie are aged up to 21+

It's a wednesday night when you're scrolling through tiktok with connie on facetime, your laid on your tummy with your feet swinging behind you, thighs being squished by the pink thigh high socks you had on. you giggle at a tiktok your friend scent you moving to reply but pausing to roll your eyes at the deep voice that came from your phone speakers.

"What got you giggling like that?" his voice is raspy due to all the screaming and hollering he was doing while on the game with ony, he glances at you for a second before dragging his eyes back to his computer screen cussing said man for some unknown reason. "why this fool wont stay outta my business." you mutter showing the top half of your face so he wouldn't see the grin on your glossed lips as you watched how he side-eyed you.

Your phone vibrated as you got a notification from instagram, your brows drew together at the message immediately clicking it.

big cocky deja 👅

girlll....

shared @sasha's story

i be instigating or is that baldie???

aint yall talkin??

Lashes fluttering as you blinked at the picture, slowly sitting up as you clicked on the story zooming in lips slowly parting in disbelief. "What's wrong?" the sound of his voice sudddenly reminded you he was on the call, quickly clicking on to the call you rubbed your lips together with drawn eyebrows suddenly becoming irritated with his prescence as you felt your lashes get wet. "Who the fuck is Sasha?" you asked with a steady voice, pushing up your lips impatiently as you waited from his to answer the question.

Connie paused his game at your question, eye brows furrowing as he turned to look at you. He bit his lips as he looked at you, noting the irritation your face with a shake of his head he turned back to the game. "Don't wory bout it." Your face twisted at his words staring at his side profile for a minute before sucking your teeth not carying if he could note how upset you were.

"Alright, bro, bye." not giving him the chance to answer you hang up deciding to go on 'sasha's page to stalk her itching to find out who she is, and what relation she has to connie. Mid scrolling you pause at a picture of her kissing connie's cheek, it was posted a few months back but it still made you feel a pit in your stomach and made you gnaw at your lips while tears ran down your cheeks. Connie was messaging your phone non-stop, telling you to stop playing and answer his messages, trying to explain shit between him and the sasha girl, but you didn't bother reading any replying with a simple thumbs-up emoji and muting him.

You thought about how silly you were being seeing as how you and Connie weren't even together, but it felt like you were. Always together and if you weren't you'd alway be on the phone, always telling each other shit, always sharing tender touches and meaningful glances at eachother - fuck he even called you 'his girl' infront of his homeboys, didn't that mean you were together? although, he didn't ask so that technically didn't mean you were but you weren't seeing nobody and he reassured you that he wasn't either, was that just a lie?

Sniffing you clicked off of sasha's profile, leaving your phone on the bed as you got up to use the bathroom. Looking at your puffy eyed expression you sucked you teeth mad at yourself for crying over some boy, you gently washed your face with cool water before using a towel to wipe away the water and applying baby oil to your plump lips, the sudden knocking on your door had your eyebrows furrowing until you realized who it could be. The thought alone caused an annoyed sigh to leave your lips, and for you to feign ignorance to the fluttering of your stomach, because of what could possible happen.

Taking your time to walk to the door, stopping at the mirror on the wall to fix your appearance and unbuttoning your snoopy pajama top to show a little of your cleavage, a gold necklace with the inital 'c' glistening against the pretty brown skin of your supple breast, you turned to look at the shorts bending over to shake your ass a little but quickly standing up as Connie's knocking grew louder.

Rolling your eyes you walked up to the door, pulling it open to reveal Connie. Your pussy did a thump thump as you took him in, a black tank top you're sure he just slipped on in a hurry, his nipples along with his nipple piercings pushing against the material of it and grey sweatpants. His hands were shoved in the pocket of his sweatpants as his eyes roamed your body slightly pausing on your thighs that spilled through the material of your socs, jaw clenching as he finally met your eyes with an eyebrow raised.

Leaning against your door you look him up and down before looking at your coks clad feet, fidgeting as you felt his gaxe pierce into you. "What do you want Constance? It's late."

He squinted his eyes at you letting out a sarcastic laugh with his tongue poking his inner cheek, "You too good to look at me, or sum?"

Cocking out your hips with your arms crossed over your chest, you shook your head before rolling your eyes at him moving to shut the door while muttering "I aint got time for this." softly under your breath. Your breath hitched as Connie held unto the door, pushing it open and walking inside before shutting it behind him leaning against the door and refusing to break eye-contact with you.

Scoffing you turn your back to him before walking to your room, an extra sway in your hips as you feel him walking closely behind you, eyes on the fat that spilled out of the material of your shorts. he let out cuss under his breath as he almost hit a wall which caused a small mischievous smile to pulll at your lips. falling unto your bed with a huff you glared at him. You hated the fact that he looked so good, his muscle straining againt the material of his tank top as he crossed his arms looking down at you, dick straining against his sweatpants, your mouth almost watering at the sight had you looking away.

"What's your problem?" laughing with a shake of your head you pointed a finger towards your chest. "Me? I don't got a problem, cause im not supposed to worry about it right? tuh fuck you take me for."

Connie groans running a hand down his face mumbling something in spanish under his breath, fueling your anger. After he disregards your question he comes into your house acting as if you were the problem, when he was out there laid up with other girls. You stand up from the spot on your bed smacking your lips together as you snatched your phone from it's position on your bed, walking past him making sure not to touch him as you made your way to the kitchen. His mouth parted at your attitude, hot on your trail as you began mumbling some shit under your breath.

"Don't even know why I fucking bother, aint like you my man anyway-" you inhaled deeply as connie pressed himself behind you, mouth running dry as you felt all the muscle beneath his tank top and his dick against your ass hands shoved into his pockets as he watched you take a water bottle out of the fridge with shaky hands, trying your best to ignore his presence behind you.

"Whatchu mumbling? Say it again so I can hear you." The vibration from his words runs throughout your body and straight to your pussy, your back straightens as you close the fridge spinning around to through him a weak glare that quickly flattered as he looked down at you through his lashes, his eyes almost seeming dark. Your legs shook as he licked his lips the action not going unnoticed by him, you took a deep breath before unlocking your phone, shoving it into his face a second later refusing to meet his eyes.

His honey coloured eyes dragged from your face to your phone, taking it from you to look at what you were showing him properly, his lips parting to release a huff that sounded something too close to a laugh had your eyes dragging from the floor to meet his, shivering a bit as they were already on you. Raising a brow at you connie licked his lips, "You jealous, ma?" giving him a blank look you tried snatching your phone out of his hand only for him to move it back, your chest now pressed against his. Biting your lips as you feel his nipple piercing rub agains your nipples, you try not to let a whimper escape you at the groan he lets out and the look on his face, bottom lip tucked between his teeth with a pink blush across his face and a look of lust in his eyes. You shiver as he removes the hand he has in his pocket, bringing it to rest on your back to keep you against him.

He rubs his nose against yours before resting his forehead against yours gently squeezing your hips, he kisses your lips twice transferring the baby oil you placed on them earlier to his lips, and you allow him savouring the taste of them like you have many times before. "Sasha's this girl I used to talk to," he says after a minute, letting out a breath through his nose at the way you tense beneath his touch and try to move away before he's pulling you back against him placing your phone on the counter so that he can hold your face. You look at him with your lips folded, hurt evident in your expression which caused him to sigh softly and kiss your cheeks. "We weren't together cause I found out she was messing round with some guy. I haven't talked to her since, and I wouldn't have known she posted that shit cause I blocked her."

eyes watering, the tips of your figer brush aginst the thread of his sweat pants as you play with the strings watching the way you twirl it around your finger, sniffing you slowly look up at him rubbing your lips together. "You promise?" humming he kisses you again, leaning back wiping under your eyes.

"Promise baby." you pull him down to kiss you again, parting your lips to give him access and sighing into his mouth as his hands slip under your snoppy pajama top. He leans back again pecking your lips and resting his forehead against yours with closed eyes, you feel his hands move from your face to your hips inching towards your ass before he gives it a squeeze laughing as you hiss at him and try to remove his hands.

"Looked too good not to," He says leaning down to kiss you again, " gonna fuck the shit outta you for giving me so much attitude." the sound of a smack sounds through the air as connie slaps your ass, rubbing it after and laughing at your whines.

"Connie! Don't do that shit it hurts!"

[imaginingmarvelandeverything]

Family Secrets

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x F!Reader

Warnings: Spoilers, crime mentions, injury mentions

Word Count: 1858

A/N: Here’s part 19 of Convenience! Thank you to everyone who commented on and reblogged the other parts, it really means a lot. This is a side blog so I can’t reply to comments but know that I read them all! Anyway, I hope you like it!

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Headcanon Requests Open!

Y/N reached her hand across the bed and sat up in confusion when she found cold sheets. “Bruce?” She glanced around the room but found no sign of him. It was dusk, but she had hoped he might wait for her to wake up before he left for the night. She got dressed, making sure to pull on her shoes because she doubted the mess downstairs would have got any better. She walked out of the room and froze at the top of the staircase. She leaned over the banister to get a better look at whatever was all over the floor.

The table had been pushed to the side of the room and three lamps were positioned across the floor. Bruce had spraypainted a mind map directly onto the wooden floor. The Riddler’s logo was in the centre with five branches coming out of it. Three were for the dead men: Coulson, Mitchell, and Savage. Their names were surrounded by crime scene pictures from the news and Bruce’s own contact lens footage. ‘No more lies’ was written above Coulson’s name. The other two branches were the phrases he had told her were spray painted on the orphanage walls, the first as an exact copy, the second as a question: ‘renewal is a lie’ and ‘the sins of my father?’.

She walked down the stairs and looked at the photos. She had been right, the bodies looked worse than the news would have let people think. A glance around the room told her he was not here, but she called out anyway. “Bruce?”

When she got no reply, she walked to the elevator and went down to the station. It too appeared empty. “Bruce?” Her voice echoed through the room, but there was no reply. She sighed and sat down in his desk chair. She looked at the books sitting on his desk. They were all old renewal files. She nudged the computer mouse and the screen powered up. It took her a minute to realise what she was looking at on the screen. It was from the contacts. There was a note in the corner saying ‘Where R U?’, and a cat. She hit play out of pure curiosity. She hit pause again when a woman came into the shot. It was the same gorgeous woman from two days ago.

Y/N could feel the band closing around her heart again and turned off the screens. She looked behind her in an attempt to keep the tears at bay and noticed that the charger was not on it’s ramp. She wiped at her face as she stood and looked around the room. It was in the main part of the station, the driver’s side door still wide open.

“What has he done to you?” She muttered under her breath as she ran her fingers along the body work. The bulletproof glass in the passenger side window was cracked and shattered from multiple gunshots, but it would be easy to change out. The armoured plating had done its job, there were only a few scratches, whish she could easily buff out. There was a bullet in the front passenger side tire, which was again, easily dealt with. She climbed in, finding the keys still in the ignition, and pulled it back up onto the ramp.

When she climbed out she noticed a trail of liquid against the concrete floor in the direction she had just drove. She swore before ducking under the car. She sighed, the fuel line was cracked.

She walked back over to the computer, ignoring the gorgeous woman, and pulled up the news from the night before. She read the article detailing the Batman’s car chase of the Penguin and sighed again. She grabbed her tool kit and got to work.

****

The roar of a bike engine reverberating through the tunnels drew Y/N’s attention. She left what she was doing and ducked out from under the car. She wiped her hands off on a rag as Bruce pulled the bike to a stop. He was still fully kitted up, sans cape, and she did not know if that was a good sign or not.

“Please tell me you didn’t lose another?”

Bruce’s heart jumped as he looked at her. Selina’s kiss had confirmed it for him, he knew what he truly wanted. But there was no time for that. So, he ignored her question and walked up to the desk. “Have you watched the news today?” He reached up and took off his mask, his hair sticking up at funny angles, before he started typing on the computer.

She walked over to stand next to him. “No. Why, has he killed again already?”

“No, it’s about-” He did not finish, the name of the video gave it away. He glanced at her before hitting play.

Thomas Wayne appeared on the screen, addressing the crowds in the orphanage. “From a very young age, my family, Martha’s family, the Arkhams, instilled in both of us that giving back is not only an obligation, it’s a passion. That is our family’s legacy.”

“The Waynes, the Arkhams and the L/Ns.” As the Riddler started speaking the image shifted to show black and white photos of Bruce’s parents and grandparents, and Y/N’s parents and her father’s family. All of people in the photos had their eyes scratched off. “Gotham’s founding families. But what is their real legacy. You all know the L/N’s legacy, they’re rotting where they belong.” Y/N tensed up. “But the others, twenty years ago, one reporter set out to uncover the dark truth.” Pictures of the reporter came up on screen. “He found shocking family secrets.” The image shifted to show a picture of a woman lying on a bed with her eyes scratched off. “How when Martha was just a child, her mother brutally murdered her father, then committed suicide.” The video flicked through the crime scene photos. “The Arkham’s used their power and money to cover it up.” Their death certificates came up with the word ‘accidental’ underlined multiple times. “How Martha herself was in and out of institutions for years and they didn’t want anyone to know.” The picture of Martha was also missing its eyes.

Y/N glanced up at Bruce when a picture of his mother in the yard of a mental hospital came up. His eyes were wide and his jaw locked in place. She wanted to reach out and grab his hand but she did not know how he would react.

The image shifted back to Thomas at his announcement shaking hands with various people. “Thomas Wayne tried to force this crusading reporter into a hush money agreement, to save his mayoral campaign! But when the reporter refused,” A cease and desist letter came up on screen. “Wayne turned to long time secret associate, Carmine Falcone!” Thomas’ eyes were scratched out but Falcone’s, as always, were hidden behind his sunglasses. “And had him murdered!” The Riddler’s words were hard to make out as he laughed manically as he spoke them.

Bruce tensed up, the shock and horror clear on his face.

“The Waynes, the Arkhams and the L/Ns! Gotham’s legacy of lies and murder!” The image shifted to show the Riddler’s usual backdrop before he walked into the frame himself. “I hope you’re listening, Bruce Wayne, this is your legacy too. Your wife already knows hers. But Gotham needs you to answer for the sins of your father. Goodbye.”

Y/N felt sick as she reached out switched off the video. Bruce bowed his head and clenched his fists. Throughout everything, the image he had of his father had never faltered. But with one video, it had been shredded to pieces.

“Bruce?” Y/N’s voice was timid, as if she might spook him. “You don’t even know if that’s true.”

“And who am I supposed to ask to find out? At least you can go and talk to your parents, Y/N!” He shot her a hard glare before a look of realisation crossed his face and he made a beeline to the elevator. He had shut the door and pressed the button for the penthouse before she figured out how to make her legs move again.

“Hey!” She called out but the elevator was already moving. She pressed the button impatiently, cursing herself for not moving when he had.

She ignored the mind map on the floor as she ran up the stairs. His bedroom door was wide open. The suit was scattered across the bedroom floor and she could hear water running in the bathroom. She walked into the room as it shut off and Bruce walked out of the bathroom, drying his face on a towel, the make-up gone. He was already wearing jeans and boots, but he pulled on a t-shirt and a cardigan after throwing the towel on his bed.

Y/N watched him as he finished getting ready, trying to figure out what to say. He went to walk past her but she moved in front of him and put her hands on his chest. He stopped.

“Where are you going?” She glanced across at the window, it was already dark out and he was clearly not going out as the Batman. The wild look in his eyes was worrying her. He tried to sidestep her but she moved with him. “No, you’re scaring me. Where are you going?”

“To speak to someone who can explain. Now, please move.” His eyes were focused behind her. He was clearly avoiding looking at her.

She shook her head, realising what he meant. “No. He won’t tell you the truth, you know he won’t. He’ll twist it into whatever he thinks you need to hear to be on his side.” She took a step forward into him, balling up the edges of his cardigan in her fists. “Listen to me, please. You know what Falcone’s like.”

“Seems like it didn’t stop my father.” His jaw clenched again. “Y/N.” He warned when she did not let go.

“Wait for Alfred to wake up, please. You know Alfred will tell you the truth.”

“Yeah, because he has up until this point.”

“He would have had his reasons, you know he would. Please, Bruce. Especially not tonight. That psycho still wants you dead.” She pleaded, knowing the minute he truly wanted to get around her she would not be able to stop him.

“Maybe then I can kill two birds with one stone.” He wrapped his hands around hers and pried her grip from his cardigan.

“Please.”

He faltered, just for a second the tone of her voice broke through to him. But he pushed it down and walked past her. She did not follow him.

Part 20

[messinwitheddie]

It’s been awhile since you’ve drawn it, but can you draw some more of that smeetry zim au agian? Honestly was pretty wholesome how you drew zim and the smeets together.

Sorry I probably won't get a chance to finish this, but here's a comic excerpt and some old dialogue for the smeetery au I dredged up.

Zim, in the living room, pacing in front of the TV. “Computer!! Disable the alarms already! Run a full security sweep of the whole base then activate code-"

Computer “Wait! Master, that might not be necessary.”

Zim “What?!”

The tv screen shows an image of one of the lower lab's interior. Dib is hogtied/ suspended by a mess of wires. Four smeets are zapping him with their Pak legs.

Dib “AGGGHHGGGHHK!”

Smeet “Zim, look! We shocked the monkey!”

DIB “That-- that's not what that means.” -gets a second shock" AHHHHGGGHHHK!!”

Zim -wipes away a single tear- “What cut-throat soldiers I'm raising. Zim is so proud. COMPUTEEER!! Lock down the genetics lab! I'll be right down. GIR! Guard the front door!”

Gir (salutes in duty mode) “Yes, my master!!” Sits in front of the door, returns to default mode and starts to play with a paddle ball.

Zim -exhales a frustrated growl. Looks back at the TV. “ Smeets!! Get away from the weasely Dib-human right now!! He's dangerous! And filthy!”

Smeets -disappointed- “awww…”

Gaz jumps into view; covers one security monitor with spray paint then tosses the can at another monitor, shattering it and causing it to crash to the floor. Just off screen, two other smeets empty Dib's SE briefcase then sneak inside to explore.

Computer “Woops. Spoke too soon. Second intruder detected.”

Gaz unties Dib, shoving him along. “Ok, I’m calling it. Mission aborted. Let's GO.”

Dib “But--"

Gaz “NOW!! -shoves harder- Haul ass, Dib! Full ass!”

Dib looks back as he grabs his brief case. “This isn't over, Zim!! I WILL expose you to the world!!”

Gaz, growling, drags Dib along. They manage to exit out the same vent.

A continuation of this post

Hope this suffices. ^^

Smeetery au credit goes to @megxolotl and @tearinglight

[almanacrat]

Hey idk if you would want to write about this but I'm currently starting to struggle with my ed again and I'm having a hard time with it.. could you write something with josh? Its okay if not 🖤🖤

HUGE HUGE HUGE trigger warning for this post. I do not encourage eating disorders in any way and they should never be glamorized. They are a serious problem that is brought on by today's unachievable standards and if you are struggling with an eating disorder please seek help. I know it's hard, but there's ALWAYS someone willing to listen. I struggled with an eating disorder for an undisclosed amount of time and I know how hard it is. If you are ever need someone to talk to, please message me because I am here for you guys. PLEASE DO NOT read this if you are triggered by eating disorders, especially anorexia.

suicide hotline: 800-273-8255

-

Societies standards are brutal. They're unforgiving and insatiable, yet everyone acts as if they live up to them. "Slimming" products at every commercial break and "natural" hourglass figures on every social media ad. It was breaking you down bit by bit and you hated to admit it. Reaching out for help was hard, and it doesn't help that everyone makes it seem simple. It's easy to stay silent when you don't have a clue where to start. Looking in the mirror was a temptation that led to destruction; an addiction that would eat you from the inside out. You covered the mirror with a blanket before walking out to your couch and beginning your online work. Your head spun a little as your fingers rapped quickly at the keys, watching the little black letters appear on the screen. Monotony was your worst enemy right now, and you currently possessed enough of it to last you for years. As you scrolled on your computer, reading some articles that your colleagues had written, an advertisement for fat burning dummies showed up. You knew they were a hoax and that the company was just trying to capitalize off of your insecurity, but it was working. Tears brewed like a storm on the horizon as you leaned back on the couch. You felt like you were making so much progress until recently. With a tear rolling down your face, you brought your knees to your chest and hugged them to your chest, a tightening sensation beginning in your lungs and going up to your throat.

"Hey, Y/n, I'm home." Josh greeted cheerily as he came back from a meeting.

"Y/n...?" He called out for you when he got no response, knowing you weren't out since your car was parked in the driveway.

You wanted to answer him to let him know you were there, but you couldn't make any sound if you tried with all your force. Josh's footsteps drew nearer as he entered the living room.

"Oh, baby, no." Josh said softly, taking notice of the covered mirrors.

Josh immediately set down his keys and phone, grabbing a blanket and sitting with Y/n, pulling her close and wrapping her in the blanket. She relaxed into his arms, tears still spilling silently down her face. Josh pet her head and wiped her cheek, letting her snuggle into him for comfort.

"How long has it been?" Josh asked gently.

"I don't know." Y/n's voice was hoarse and quiet.

"Y/n, I love you so much. You're the most radiant girl I know. You're so creative and I love you so much. Let me help you, please?"

"Okay..." Y/n replied after a few moments of hesitation.

"I'm gonna make you something to eat. I'm not gonna make you eat all of it, but you have to get something on your stomach." Josh told her before getting up slowly. "Do you want to come with or do you want to stay out here?"

"I'll come with you." Y/n brought the blanket with her as she followed Josh to the kitchen, then sat on the floor, wrapped in the red blanket.

"You cozy, mamas?" Josh smiled down at her, the sight of her wrapped up in a little ball amusing him.

"Mhmm."

Josh started making some soup on the stove, an aromatic scent filling the air. As he waited for the soup to cook, he got a sharpie and started marking out all the calorie labels on every box and can. After doing so, Josh plopped down on the floor beside Y/n, wrapping his arm around her.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Josh rubbed her back.

"It's just... everything, Josh. Every ad is about losing weight and how to get the perfect body, and then I go online and everyone looks so skinny and perfect." Y/n lamented.

"It's not real. None of it works and most everything is photoshopped. Everyone has a different body type and it's unrealistic to think that everyone can achieve the same body, especially in a healthy way. You're so gorgeous, mama. You could outshine all those other girls any day of the week." Josh comforted her.

"I know it's not real, but I just wish the pressure would go. I feel pressured to look like every other girl."

"You're not every other girl, though. And thank god for that. You're so adventurous and you make me so happy." Josh helped her up off the floor and sat her at the table as the soup finished cooking.

You swirled your spoon in the soup, hesitant to eat it.

"Just a few bites, baby." Josh played with your hair as you took a bite.

"It's good, Josh." You told him silently before taking another spoonful into your mouth. "Thank you."

"I'm here for you, Y/n. Always. I know it's hard and it's not going to be fixed overnight, but just tell me whenever you need something and it'll happen. I love you so much, and I'm here for you through thick and thin." Josh admired your eyes as he kissed your forehead, rubbing your arm tenderly.

[fairyoftbz]

childish fear | l. juyeon

⚔ pairing: stranger!juyeon x single mom! fem! reader ⚔ genre: fluff ⚔ wc : 3.2k ⚔ tw: none ⚔ a/n: im so sorry it's been so long but my work keeps me super busy and i hate my unposted fics that i wrote in the past, hence my absence. i promise to come back here asap!! <33 ⚔ requested: no

╰☆☆☆☆╮

“Mommy, where are we going?” your daughter asked for the nth time as you guided her foot by the ankle in her shoe. Her tiny hand leant on your shoulder while you fastened the Velcro straps and zipped up her jacket, walking out of your apartment to the corridor of your floor. She watched you locked the front door and sliding the keys in your handbag before grabbing her hand to the elevator.

“As I’ve told you, we’re heading to a coffee shop to see Uncle Kevin and Jinseon, remember?” she clapped in her hands as if she just learnt the news, despite her asking this question over five times since she woke up. You forgave her because she was at the age where she would find everything fascinating and barely pay attention to what you said. You chuckled and shook your head with a smile as her curious eyes observed the elevator, touching the mirror and gasping at the coldness of it under her palm. It was almost guaranteed that she didn’t listen and will ask again in a couple of minutes.

“Where are we going?” here we go again, her tiny voice reaching your ear above the roaring motor of the bus. She grabbed your leg as you were typing something on your phone with one hand, the other gripping the metallic bar as tight as possible as your daughter was not the most balanced child.

“Baby, I’ve told you many times that we are going to see Kevin and Jinseon at the coffee shop because Mommy and Uncle Kevin have to do something for work,” you looked at her with stern eyes, something you always did when she wasn’t paying attention.

“But why aren’t we going to their house? It’s so big!” she argued, and the bus doors opened, quickly sliding your phone in your back pocket and jumped out of the bus with your daughter in your arms.

“Uncle Kevin wants to change the interior of the house, so people work there, and it’s not safe for them and us to meet there. But I promise that we’ll go back there soon!”

“I won’t be able to draw with Jinseon?” you shook your head from side to side, and your daughter pouted, nuzzling her face in your neck.

“Not at his house, but maybe he brought a colouring book like yours today!” you exclaimed, and her mood lifted instantly, getting all giddy and happy to share her passion with her best friend.

Pushing the door of the coffee shop, you were instantly met with a reassuring warmth and the good smell of coffee, placing your daughter back on the ground as you lined up to order. The place was quite busy, but you were right before the time people were fighting to get a table.

“Mommy, this table!” she asked and pointed her little finger towards a table near the window, her little topknot moving on her head as she looked up at you.

“Good choice, baby,” you said, and she grabbed your hand again, noticing her gaze shifting to something scared. You frowned as she went to stand in front of you, her hands gripping your thighs as she stared up at you.

You asked for your usual order and a strawberry smoothie for your daughter, who happily giggled when she saw the sliced fruit inside of her transparent cup. She laughed and ran to the table you had agreed on occupying, her little hands pressed on the seat as she hoisted herself alone on it.

A few minutes after giving your daughter her pens and colouring books, your phone rang in your back pocket, getting you out of your bubble of focus as you stopped typing.

“Hello?” you said, and your best friend’s voice reached your ear.

“Hi Y/N, I’m really sorry to warn you only now, but I won’t be able to make it with Jinseon.” A wave of disappointment flooded your heart, but you didn’t raise it.

“Oh my. Did something happen?” you asked as your daughter was too busy colouring a monkey pink to even hear what you were talking about.

“Thankfully no, I uhm… I forgot that my in-laws invited us to a five-star restaurant today,” he said, and you bitterly chuckled, feeling sorry for him as you knew the exhausting relationship he had with them.

“Sounds fun,” you sarcastically said as you heard him sigh on the other side of the phone, “don’t worry, we can always meet up another time.”

“Won’t Chunae be disappointed?” Kevin asked, and you emitted a laugh, quickly looking to the side as someone at the table next to yours drew a chair.

“I’ll handle her, don’t worry about it. Have fun with your most favourite people in the world, then!” you sarcastically said, and you heard him sigh.

“Thanks, but I’d rather die than witnessing my mother-in-law brag again about the new diamond necklace she bought and lie on how she’s not close to bankrupting,” you giggled and winked at your daughter, amused by the situation. That was what you got to have your stepson handling the family accounts and his best friend as an assistant counsellor. You both could see her lie to everyone, and it was funny.

“Try to make her understand that you know she’s lying in front of everyone else and see how she reacts,” you suggested and heard him gasp at your words.

“I beg you Y/N, can you please schedule us an appointment so I can ruin her?”

“Of course,” you opened another tab on your computer, typing and clicking on a few things to finally get to your best friend’s schedule.

“You can tell her that she can come on Friday at 1 pm to discuss about her financial state. I just sent her an email,” you announced, and Kevin sighed, imagining him biting his lower lip and clutch his fist in satisfaction.

“You’re the best. I gotta go now,” you took a sip of your drink and wished him good luck before hanging up.

“M-Mommy?” you heard your daughter whisper, barely making out her words as the coffee shop music and the hustling was quite loud. You smiled, but it immediately vanished as you saw her scared state, pen lingering on the pages of her colouring book. Her eyes were drawn to the table next to yours, her mouth trembling from time to time, close to crying.

Following her gaze, you noticed a man around your age and immediately understood your daughter’s fear as you took in the sight. The man was scrolling on his phone, his white t-shirt hugging his broad shoulders and slender torso perfectly. His biceps flexed each time he swiped up his finger on the screen or took a sip of coffee, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. You weren’t going to lie that he was super handsome, but something else couldn’t go unnoticed in your eyes.

His tattoos.

He was covered in them. Your eyes could scarcely spot some natural, intact skin. Arms, forearms, chest and neck, only his face remained untouched. His jet-black hair was as dark as his eyes, yet they still held something soft and human in them. A thin nose with plumped, pinkish lips, it would have been almost impossible for you to guess that he had tattoos all over his body if you only saw his face.

You found him quite attractive to say the least, but it was quite the opposite for your daughter. She found tattoos terrifying, only accepting the small, hidden ones Kevin had. Her eyes welled up with tears, and you gently called her name, gesturing her to come closer. She jumped out of her seat, carefully going around the table from the opposite side where the man was sitting and walked towards you.

“Baby, those are just tattoos. You see what you draw and colour in your books with Jinseon? This man decided to do it on his skin because he likes drawings too!” you explained gently as your daughter couldn’t tear her gaze off the man.

“But it’s scary,” she mumbled, and you shook your head, gently cradling her cheek.

“Do you find the drawings on Uncle Kevin’s skin scary?” you asked, and she disagreed, finally looking up at you.

“It’s the same for him. Like Uncle Kevin, he decided to get them on his skin because he likes the shapes and colours. Do you understand?” you smiled as she wiped her teary eyes, nodding, trying to look confident. But you knew your daughter, she was still scared.

“Do you want to switch seats with Mommy?”

“No,” she said in a frail voice, and you kissed her cheek while rubbing her back. It was always the same. Bizarrely, when she feared something, she wanted to stay close to it as if she was determined of getting over her irrational fear.

Chunae walked back on her seat and resumed colouring, her gaze looking to her left from time to time. You smiled and stared at your computer again, getting distracted by the man as well, but not for the same reasons as your daughter.

“You’re a mother Y/N, don’t let those stupid thoughts get inside your head,” you closed your eyes and mentally slapped yourself, heavily sighing as you answered some emails, focusing back on your work.

You were so concentrated on your tasks that you didn’t even notice what was happening in front of you. Chunae became terrified as the man caught her staring, his eyes transforming into crescent moons when he softly waved at her. Her eyes widened and started colouring faster, her nose almost touching the paper as if she wanted everything around her to disappear. It happened once, twice, but she remembered what you always told her; never talk to strangers. So when the young man whispered a small ‘hi!’ to her, she panicked and called for you.

“Mommy!” she got you out of your work bubble, and you stared at her from above your computer screen, fingers still typing on the computer. Your hands stopped when you noticed her little forefinger pointing at the man, whose chocolate eyes were quick to shift to yours.

Shit, he was really handsome.

“What is it, sweetpea?” you asked and lowered your computer screen. “I’m sorry for her behaviour, she's not usually like that,” you said, grabbing her hand as you sent an apologetic smile to the man.

He shook his head with a smile. “Don’t worry about it, I get it. She’s still quite young,” you were sized by a shiver when two sets of white, perfectly aligned teeth almost blinded you as his mouth stretched into a bigger smile.

“I’m five!” she said, pouting, crossing her arms on her chest, staring at the table with furrowed brows.

The young man’s eyes widened, and pursed his lips, trying to hold back a smile as he acknowledged her stubbornness. You puffed and rolled your eyes at her behaviour, noticing with a smirk that she was still glancing at his tattoos.

“What’s your name?” he asked after looking at you, asking for permission. Your daughter’s unsure eyes stared at you, and you nodded, allowing her to talk to him.

“Ch-Chunae,” she answered, and his mouth transformed into a surprised ‘o’, letting out a small gasp.

“That’s a very pretty name, I’m Juyeon,” he said, and your daughter blushed, a veil of shyness appearing in her eyes as he held out his hand for her to shake it. You smiled as he indirectly complimented you for choosing her name, his gaze softening as she timidly grabbed his hand. Her eyes couldn’t help but scrutinise his tattooed hand with attention, making the man smile fondly and brightly.

“I have drawings all over my arms, do you want to see them?” he asked, keeping a great eye on you to see any sign of reluctance. Or maybe it was for something else, but you didn’t need to know about this.

“But they’re scary,” she said, and Juyeon whole-heartedly laughed, drawing the sleeve of his t-shirt to the top of his shoulder.

“Look at this one,” he said as he twisted his biceps, noticing a dragon spitting fire and your daughter’s eyes widened. He then turned his forearm to show her a dolphin near the crook of his elbow, smiling as he watched your daughter’s expression change as she saw all his tattoos on his arms. She was now mesmerised by the tattoos, the gentle, deep voice of the man explaining to her as she stared at his inked arms.

“Do you wanna colour this one?” he asked, finger showing the rose on the back of his hand.

“Really?” Chunae was surprised by his question, and Juyeon smiled at you, your daughter already grabbing her red pen.

“You really don’t have to,” you embarrassingly said, but the man shook his head, resting his large hand in front of your daughter, who pushed all her belongings to the side.

“If that can keep her quiet while you work, I don’t mind,” he stated, and you raised your eyebrows, a grateful smile drawn on your face.

Colouring the red rose ended up inking the poor man’s entire arm, who had a lot of patience and discipline when it came to children. Chunae went over the line with her pen a few times, only to have him reassure and praise her to continue when she started feeling guilty.

“Oh no!” she gasped as her hand clumsily went over the scales of the snake circling his forearm, Juyeon chuckling before wetting his thumb to erase the misdrawn ink. “It’s okay, it’s okay, keep going,” he said in a gentle tone, smiling at your daughter as she was looking for reassurance.

You had told him a few times that he didn’t have to stay the entire day only here to occupy your daughter, but he genuinely was alright with that. He looked almost happy to talk with you and your daughter since you had stopped working a few moments ago to exchange a few words of politeness with him before heading home.

“Chunae, finish your smoothie before we go home,” you said, and she obeyed, nodding as she placed her pen down and started sipping on her drink.

“I’m really sorry for this,” you gestured to his arms, but he was quick to cut you.

“Ma’am, it's okay, please stop apologising, I gave my agreement for her to do this. You seem like busy parents with your husband, I’m glad I could help,” he smiled, and you frowned.

“H-Husband?” you asked and Juyeon’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“O-oh? Wasn’t it your husband on the phone?” you shook your head at his words, only to have him purse his lips in utter embarrassment. “Sorry for assuming,” he said, the tip of his ears turning pink just like his cheeks.

“It’s okay, it was my best friend. I’m actually a single mom,” you explained, and he nodded, his features expressing admiration.

“Wow, you must be super strong then,” he said, and you blinked a few times, discerning something sad appearing in his eyes as he stared at your daughter. It was inappropriate and way too intrusive to ask him about his reaction, so you just offered him a grateful smile.

“I have to admit that it’s not always easy being alone in this, but with a bit of discipline and organisation, you can manage to make it work!” you tried to enlighten the mood, and Juyeon laughed along, but his smile had lost its splendour.

He cleared his throat, and you stood up, your daughter being finally done with her smoothie. You helped her place her pens in the pouch before clearing your belongings off the table, Juyeon standing up as well.

“Will I get to colour your tattoos again?” Chunae asked, and you looked at her sternly, but Juyeon laughed and smiled, gently ruffling her hair.

“This only depends on if your Mommy wants to see me again,” Juyeon crouched down to her level and made sure to get her hair out of the way before zipping her light jacket up to the chin.

You were taken aback by his answer, looking at him in the eyes. Vaguely smiling, he stood back up and stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets, thumbs playing with the belt loops as he waited for your answer. You breathed in heavily as you stared around you but in his eyes, trying to find an excuse.

“I mean… why not?” you eventually said, and his face brightened, his ears going pink at your answer. You grabbed your daughter’s hand as she was about to run to Juyeon and walked to the exit of the coffee shop, not believing what you’ve just agreed to.

Meeting a man? After your ex? With all the work and busy life that you had? Were you crazy?

Juyeon held out the door for you, and you thanked him, your daughter now almost best friend with the man she feared when he appeared. You sighed and replaced your bag on your shoulder, offering a soft smile to the man.

“Is it okay if we wait a bit before all of... this? I have the deadline of a big project that is coming up next week and it has a considerable influence on the future of my career, I really don’t want to mess it up,” you explained, and Juyeon nodded, his hand going to your bag to shove your key ring back inside since it was falling out.

“It’s more than okay, I’ll wait as long as it takes you to finish this and be ready to meet up with me,” he said, and your mouth fell open, surprised by his attitude. The last man you dated and loved unconditionally dropped the family he had created with you for a career abroad and another woman, his words and behaviour offering warmth to your broken, lonely heart.

You got your phone out and took Juyeon’s number, a relieved smile painted on your face. Maybe not all the men were as selfish and nasty as your ex.

“Call me if you need anything. It can be help, someone to look after her, comfort. Whatever you need, I’ll try to help you out as much as I can,” he said and rested a hand on your shoulder, gently rubbing it.

“Thank you,” you said, and he nodded with a smile.

“Good luck with everything,” you beamed and waved at him, your daughter imitating you as you started walking to the bus stop, hailing the vehicle as it was approaching.

Juyeon walked in the opposite way to the small parking lot in front of the coffee shop, his leg swinging over his motorcycle. He sat there for a minute, watching you get on the bus before the doors closing behind you, holding his helmet in hand. You were a busy, ambitious woman, you had set your priorities high, and you were not going to change them for a man. He was a bit scared of committing to a relationship with a busy woman and a child, yet that didn’t prevent him from wanting to get to know you and finding you attractive. He loved it even if he was a bit anxious about getting hurt, as it happened in his past way too many times to his likings.

His gloved hand moved side to side as the bus drove past him, your daughter on your hip as you both waved at him. The smile you had plastered on your face reassured him, hoping that you would give his heart a break and not break it.

[babytaes]

reaction to s/o water breaking | svt- ─ ot13 ˎˊ˗

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

✧ seungcheol ∘*

You and Seungcheol had just finished the night with a quick drink, and the night was quiet and calm. You with your water and him with his wine.  You never imagined that tonight would be the night that all would change.

Something didn't feel right, as a moan escaped your lips you clutched your stomach. When you jumped to your feet, more liquid poured out from your thighs. You called for your husband as you gasped at the puddle in front of you.

As you realized it was time, Seungcheol awoke quickly and smiled. As you wobbled around the kitchen, processing the journey ahead of you, you dashed to get some slides on.

Before running to get everything else, Seungcheol grabbed the baby bag. As you all hurried to the car, giggling at the thought of the little life that would soon join this world, he shut the door and grabbed your side!

✧ jeonghan ∘*

You got up from the sofa and grabbed a bottle of water to cool down the oncoming heat from your forehead. As you staggered towards the counter, a wave of exhaustion washed over you. As you heard trickling liquid leaving your body, you looked down.

“BABEEEE, I THINK MY WATER JUST BROKE."

As he hurried over to you, he ran into the room, worried. You were taken aback by the fear in his eyes, as you had never seen him in this way before.

“All right, you put your shoes on. I'll get the baby bag, and you should hurry to the car. THE BABY IS ON THE WAY!”

You chuckled as you watched him frantically search the house for everything. As you got closer to the car, you turned around to see his disheveled self sprinting towards it, clearly out of breath.

“Love, we have to leave right now.”

As you backed out of the driveway, heading towards the hospital, you strapped yourself in and kissed his hand.

✧ joshua ∘*

As you sipped your lemonade in the backyard at Joshua's parents' home, the atmosphere was very relaxing. His parents have invited the two of you over for dinner and a fun get-together.

You took Joshua's hand and rested your head on his shoulder. When he noticed your odd facial expression, he stared down at you. Your hand flew to your stomach as you examined your pants, as if something had popped inside of you.

Joshua took your hand in his and helped you out of the lawn chair. You and he were both aware of what had occurred. As you tried to catch your breath, Joshua called out to his mother. You weren't expecting your water to break when you weren't at home, so you were caught off guard.

Joshua's mother bolted from the kitchen, alarmed at the state you all were in. As you took her hand and raced you to the car, her maternal instinct kicked in.

“Go get the extra baby bag from my place, Joshua. You never know, so I was ready for anything.”

A tear streamed down your cheek as you clutched his mother's palm, gripping it tighter as the pain increased. She embraced you tightly and kissed your brow.

“Don't worry, sweetie; I'll be by your side until the very end.” You've got this!”

✧ jun ∘* 

As you put the spoon on the stove, Jun walked through the door. He approached you and embraced you, melting into your touch.

“Long day love?”

You kissed his forehead and he nodded before letting go and going to the shower. As you returned your attention to the stove, you heard the water running. When you heard water trickling, you let out a yawn.

He must have left the door open for you to hear it that clearly.  Your foot stepped into a puddle of water without even looking down. Slowly peering down, you noticed that the trickling water wasn't coming from the shower, but from you.

You were in a panic because the due date was next week, not today. You stumbled around the house, looking for your stuff. Jun emerged from the bathroom, towel on, and turned to face you.

“Are you okay, y/n, do you need something."

You had forgotten that Jun was here as you quickly spewed out.

“THE BABY IS ON THE WAY; WE MUST LEAVE RIGHT NOW.”

As he rushed into the room, towel fully off and now rushing for his clothes, he looked at you in surprise.

“I GUESS I'M GOING NAKED.” Jun screamed as you laughed and dashed to the door.

✧ hoshi∘*

“Should we bring the tiger or the adorable tiger onesie with us for our little cub?” You chuckled at his question as you gently pushed him, laughing at his antics.

“Why don't we bring both just in case?” 

He grinned as he stuffed some spare socks, underwear, and hygiene items into the baby bag. You got up to go get some diapers, but you came to a halt in the middle of your tracks. As he gasped, Hoshi looked up from his seat and moved his hand to his mouth.

“IT'S TIME, OUR CUB IS ON THE WAY.”

As he hurried over to your surprised state, he quickly zipped up the bag and threw it around his shoulder, motioning you over to the door, putting light pressure on your back as you slipped on some slides.

You sniffled as you imagined the moment you'd have with your daughter and Soonyoung shortly. As you opened the door, rocking back and forth towards the car, you wiped your tears and heard your enthusiastic husband running after you.

“Please, Love, don't run; we've got time.”

Soonyoung chuckled and motioned you into your seat while holding your hand.

“You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to this moment; our little baby is on the way!”

✧ wonwoo ∘*

“How did your day go, love?” As you slid your dish into the sink, you posed.

As he sat back on the sofa, he looked up from his computer screen. You approached him and placed your hand on his lap. He gently rubbed your shoulder with his hand.

“Well, my members and I were ready for our recent comebacks. We decided to do something special for Carats because it's been a few years.”

“I'm curious as to what Jihoon is up to right now. I'm sure it'll be as fantastic as the others.”

He kissed your temple before returning his gaze to the screen in front of you.

Your hand flew to your stomach as you quickly sat up running towards the bathroom. As you flew into the toilet, water trickled down your leg.

“WONWOO, MY WATER JUST BROKE.”

He yelled back in confusion as he looked around.

“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO." 

You chuckled as you exited the bathroom, staring at him in shock.

“We literally just practiced the procedure yesterday."

He sprang to his feet, shaking his finger in the air as he realized what had happened.

"TO THE CAR IT IS!!"

✧ woozi∘*

The amount of time you and your husband spend in his studio was natural.  It was you guys  second home. As he turned on the latest video that Jihoon had made the other day, you chuckled at Bumzu.

“I mean it's getting there.”

“Hey,” Jihoon said.  As he moved Bumzu away from his keyboard, Jihoon turned around and put his hand to his hurting heart

You laughed at them as they started to argue over some cords. You walked over to Jihoon's fridge and grabbed some water before returning to the couch. As you shone your phone light on it, you noticed something wet running down your pants.

The worry in your voice alarmed Jihoon as you spoke out to him.

“I think my water just broke, love.”

He called for Bumzu to get the spare baby bag from the closet as he stopped tapping on his keys and pulled you off the sofa, motioning for you to get to the car.

As he raced you down the hallway to the car, you turned to look at him in wonder.

“You never know, now let's get you to the hospital now.”

✧ minghao ∘*

You walked into the practice room, waving to everyone as they hurried over to give you hugs and smiles.

Mingyu grinned as he looked at you, and Minghao rushed over to your side, concerned.

"When the deadline is again? I'm looking forward to meeting my favorite child.”

Minghao smiled as he pushed him away from you, chuckling. 

“You're referring to our child.” When you glanced over at the other guys doing random stuff, he motioned his finger between the two of you.

Your hand flew to Minghao's shoulder as you grabbed your stomach, the room came to a halt as you looked down to see water dripping from your leg. As you squeezed Minghao's hand for help, he grabbed your belongings while the member rushed around.

“Wait, I apologize for the mess."

As he motioned you guys to the car, Mingyu waved his hand.

“Just get to the hospital and do whatever needs to be done; we'll take care of it.”

You smiled as you ran to the car, waving to everyone!

✧ mingyu ∘*

As you thanked him for the meal, he put your plate down. You didn't always have time to eat as a couple, but you took this opportunity and ran with it, even though your son had other plans.

“While you get the bread out of the oven, let me get some napkins.”

He nodded and walked over to the oven, while you walked over to the pantry to get some napkins. When you looked over to Mingyu, you felt water trickle down your leg before you could reach the dining table.

He panicked as he ran over to you, his eyes widening as he placed his trembling hands on your stomach.

“I guess baby boy wanted to come out tonight.” As you walked over to the door, laughing as you awaited Mingyu, you said.

He hurriedly placed the food in the fridge and took the baby bag from the room before rushing over to the door and locking it, chuckling.

“He chose tonight out of all the days to come. He would undoubtedly follow in his father's footsteps. As you walked toward the car, you laughed at his joke and kissed his hand.

✧ dk ∘*

As you looked at your husband's antics behind the camera, a loud laugh pierced throughout the studio. He was currently discussing his highly anticipated comeback with BooSeokSoon.

You chuckled when you noticed his frequent glares when you looked in his direction. As the due date drew nearer, the love in his heart for you and your daughter grew stronger.

He'd always wanted a little girl, and his wish would be fulfilled in a few days, unless it was today.

You staggered forward, quickly looking down at your trousers, the wetness rising as you motioned over to Seokmin's manager, whispering that your water had broken.

As you called out to Seokmin, she called over the producer and informed him of the situation. With fear in his eyes, he ran over and grabbed you.

“Is everything alright?"

“Well, your wish is about to be fulfilled. She's coming”

As he ran over to tell the boys, his eyes lit up as he embraced you and kissed your cheek. As he drove to the hospital, they all joined you in the car, babbling about various topics.

“Our princess is on her way,” 

✧ seungkwan ∘*

As Seungkwan rubbed your stomach, you ran your fingers through his hair. As he sighed, he had just completed another OST for an upcoming drama and was exhausted.

“I have so much on my plate that some days all I want to do is hang out with you.” Simply take a few deep breaths and spend time in each other's presence. Is it really too much to ask?”

You crossed over to his arms and rested your head on his chest, your hand entwined in his.

“Well, technically, this is your job. And it's not all bad; at the very least, we'll have more time to devote to this little one soon.”

When you inhaled deeply, he grinned and laid his head on your head. As you quickly stood up and rubbed your stomach, a cough escaped your throat. Seungkwan became aware of your erratic motions and fixed his gaze on the wet spot forming on your jeans.

“Hun, I believe we should go to the hospital.”

As you staggered back from the oncoming motion, you were engulfed in an embrace. He snatched your hand and raced out of the room, thanking the managers as he went.

“Do you think we'll have time for an Iced Americano?”  You chuckled as you turned and smacked his arm.

“No, we don't have the time,” you said, rolling your eyes. You and your obsession.”

✧ vernon ∘*

As Hansol turned on the movie, you sat on the rug, resting your head on his leg. Hansol pressed play on the movie, while the other members and their girlfriends/wives rushed over to the living room and secured their place. As you looked at the scene in front of you, he rubbed your head.

When you saw your favorite actor on tv, a huge grin appeared on your face. Mr. Song Joong-Ki crawled out of the shadows, his pistol aimed at the intruders.

Hansol was shaking his head at your love interest, knowing that you had a huge crush on him. You stared up at him. He said to himself, "He's just an actor."

You slowly rose to your feet and excused yourself to use the restroom. You walked in and drew your pants down, but before you could sit down, liquid poured from your core as you examined the puddle underneath you.

You yanked your pants up and dashed out of the restroom, sprinting into the crowd.

“I apologize for interrupting, but my water broke and we need to get moving before it gets worse.”

As hoots of congratulations were yelled out, there were mixed emotions flowing through the room. As you waved goodbye to everyone, Hansol arrived with the baby bag and all of your belongings.

Hansol kissed your hand and laughed.

“I guess Mr. Vincenzo will have to wait,” 

✧ dino ∘*

You removed it from his grip as you pushed the paintbrush around on Chan's canvas.

“You must do it in this manner, in a circular motion, okay?”

As he whispered into your ear, he smiled and kissed you closer.

“Oh, I can do better than circular motions,” When you lightly shoved him back to his canvas, he kissed your forehead.

“Focus Chan,” 

He chuckled and looked around for more colors, seeing a puddle by your leg on the ground.

“Hey, did you drop your water cup? There's a puddle by your leg. As you jumped to your feet, he pointed to the ground, and you looked down at your soaked shorts.

“It wasn't the paint cup that dropped, it was my water.” We need to get to the hospital now!"

As you wobbled towards the car laughing, he dashed into the room, gathered the supplies, and dashed out the door.

“Imagine if you hadn't noticed, we'd be expecting a baby boy at the house right now.”

As you held onto his side, he shuddered at the thought and started the car.

“Let's focus now, because we all know that would have been disastrous.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

➳ Navigate to the Maze

𝚊/𝚗: who else is obsessed with Vincenzo or is it just me. I had to get this done before I watched the newest episode!! Also Seventeen as DADSS, my heart can’t take it- BT

[bandersnatchmywigho]

Henry Cavill Imagine - In the Night

A/N: I originally intended this to just be a fluff, but it evolved into something more

Summary: Henry has to pull you away from your hours of gaming on his new PC.

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Reader

Requested: No

Word count: 1,927 words

Warnings: Strong language, unprotected sex, and Arthur Morgan

You were sat at Henry’s computer, deeply focused on the game in front of you. You were hunched over in his chair, not resting your back on the backing or your feet on the floor. You quite literally looked like Sméagol, but you were too distracted to pay attention to your shitty posture. Arthur Morgan galloped away on his horse on the screen in front of you, a bounty tied to the back of his horse. You were just about to turn the bounty in when you felt an embrace from behind and someone’s lips kissing your neck.

“Fuck!” You yelled, dropping your controller and headphones in the process. Your heart pounded against your chest and blood rushed to your ears. Your hand clutched your rapidly moving chest and your feet were back on the floor. You took a second to collect yourself before turning to the laughing person behind you. 

Henry was keeled over in laughter and pointing at you. “That’s not funny, Henry. I wasn’t paying attention,” you complained, folding your arms. He wiped the tears from his eyes before standing up from his crouched position on the floor. He continued to silently laugh for a bit while leaning over to console you by kissing you on the forehead.

“C’mon, baby. It’s time to go to bed. It’s almost 2 am,” he said. You yawned in response and earned another chuckle out of him.

You sighed in defeat as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes: “Yeah, I guess so.” You turned back to the computer and exited out of the game before shutting the computer down. You stared at the black screen in resignation for a bit before he nudged you to get up. Spinning around in the chair, you lifted up your arms, motioning for him to pick you up.

“Are you serious?” He looked down at you with a quirked eyebrow.

“Pleaseeeeeee,” you pleaded. He thought to himself for a few seconds before scooping you up bridal style. You screeched in delight and wrapped your arms around his neck. You kissed him all over his face, his neck, his lips and snuggled your face into the crook of his neck. A laugh came from deep within his chest as he continued walking towards the bedroom. He gently laid you on your side and pulled the blanket out from under you before joining you underneath it.

You both assumed your usual sleeping positions: him laying on his back with one arm around you and you laying across his chest and tangling your legs with his.

“Hmm this is nice,” you hummed. He gently stroked your hair to which you moaned a bit. His grip tightened and he dug his nails a bit deeper with the next stroke. You moaned louder this time, your ulterior motives becoming more clear.

You turned in his arms and moved forward to meet his lips. He gladly kissed back as you pressed your face into his. It was gentle kissing at first, mostly testing the waters until he slipped his tongue into your mouth. As you fought to dominate the kiss again, the long forgotten grip on your hair returned and pulled your head back. You gasped in response and looked down at him through bleary eyes. His eyes were dark and lips were swollen.

“Get on your back,” he instructed. You obliged as he assumed his position over you, straddling your legs between his. He dipped down and continued to kiss you with the same fervor as before.

“Henry,” you moaned into his mouth and he moaned back. He broke away to kiss down your jaw and neck. Wet kisses littered your throat and clavicle as he continued his pursuit down your body. His hands were everywhere at once before finding their place at the hem of your shirt. He slowly lifted it up, urging you to take it off. You lifted your head and arms to remove it before tossing the shirt somewhere in the darkness of the bedroom. He stood up for a second to remove his before returning to your body.

You reach behind yourself to unclip your bra and were met with an onslaught of kisses and nips as soon as your breasts were freed. Your hand shot up to the back of his neck and pulled at the hair on the nape of his neck. Henry nipped and sucked at your left breast while fondling and pinching the other. He did this for a while before switching and paying the same amount of love and attention to your right one.

“Fuck, why are you so good at that?” You gasped. He laughed darkly and started moving further down your body. He pulled your pants and underwear down in one fell swoop. You suddenly realized how exposed you now were and attempted to close your legs in embarrassment.

“No no, don’t do that, baby. Let me see you,” Henry said, opening your legs again. Wetness dripped down your pussy and you felt it pulsating with heat and desire. He nudged your legs wider before dipped his head down to face it. You looked up to the ceiling and shuddered as he withheld himself from indulging so quickly. All you could feel was the breath from his mouth fanning rhythmically on you. You arched your back in an attempt to move closer to his mouth, but all you got was a heavy arm placed over your hips, pinning you down to the mattress.

“You didn’t think I was gonna give it to you that easy, huh? I’m just gonna sit here and watch you squirm until you say what you want me to do,” He teased.

You whined in response, but refused to concede. You weren’t going to beg.

“C’mon pretty girl. Just say the words and I’ll do anything you want me to. Say it. Say ‘Henry, I want you to lick my pussy and make me feel good.’”

You scoffed and folded your arms, but inside, your brain was screaming at you to just say it. Get over your pride and give in.

You must have waited a while because, all of the sudden, Henry was moving away from you.

“No no no, don’t leave! I’ll say it. I’ll say it,” you reacted. He looked you directly in the eyes and patiently waited. Your confidence diminished immediately at the intense eye contact you two shared and you found yourself right back where you started.

“Fuck,” you quietly cursed to yourself, looking away. Henry said nothing and made no movement otherwise. A few beats. “Ummmmm… HenryIwantyoutolickmypussyandmakemefeelgood,” you said through your teeth. Your eyes roamed the room and looked at everything instead of him.

“Huh? What was that? I didn’t hear you,” He said, putting his hand up to his ear. You scoffed again and repeated it in the same exact manner. Henry turned your face towards his: “Say it again and look me in the eyes when you do.”

You gulped.  “Henry, I want you to lick my pussy and make me feel good.” 

“Fuck, that’s all you had to say,” he groaned before quickly assuming his position from before. You had no time to reply before you felt his slick tongue slide achingly slow up your pussy. You were paralyzed with pleasure and let out a loud moan. He swirled his tongue around your clit and gently massaged it. Your legs shuddered and your hand found its place back on the nape of his neck. You guided his head where you wanted it.

His tongue was all over you. At some point he had added his fingers, but you were too preoccupied with the bliss he was bringing you to notice. It was all too much at once. His mouth. His fingers. His slick tongue. All of it bringing you to a peak.

“Henry, I’m gonna come,” you said frantically. His unrelenting motions continued and without fail, you came all over his tongue. The pleasure was blinding white as he drew more and more out of you. Your legs shook and your back arched off the bed. You moaned his name over and over. Eventually you pulled his head off of you as you become oversensitive. He had a big smile on his face, but you wiped it off with a kiss, tasting yourself on him.

You reached down to cradle his hard-on through his sweatpants and he moaned into your mouth. You continued to grope him: “I want you to take these off for me.” The previous embarrassment you felt shed off like skin from a snake.

“Shit, you don’t have to tell me twice,” he responded gleefully. You stared down as he removed his pants and boxers to see him rock hard. He kicked the ends off his feet before returning to you, stroking his dick and spreading his precum down the shaft. Thank God I’m on birth control, you thought to yourself. He was well-endowed.

You moaned as he slowly dragged the head of his cock through your wetness. He gently teased your clit for a couple seconds before moving down to your entrance. “You ready?” He asked.

“Yes,” you stated desperately. He slowly pushed in and you both groaned in unison. “Fuck, Henry. You’re so fucking big.”

Henry kissed you in response and pushed until his pelvis met yours. With his dick now fully sheathed within you, he slowly pulled out before slowly pushing back in. He slowly found a rhythm that had you both moaning messes. He ground his hips into yours as you clenched to meet him. He stuttered a bit before saying “Fuck, don’t do that, baby.”

You giggled before he hit a spot in you that had you seeing stars. You moaned his name and he took that as his cue to keep aiming there. Your back arched and made the pleasure even more unbearable. Searing hot pleasure starting coursing through your veins from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. Your eyes went completely black and you couldn’t distinguish where Henry began and you ended.

“Oh fuck you’re gonna come again, aren’t you?” he laughed at your state. His hands gripped your waist and pulled you impossibly closer towards him. Nothing could slip past the little distance left between your bodies. You were molded together like clay. He continued his strokes and you found that coil deep within you finally snapping. You moaned loudly as pleasure overcame you and Henry swallowed those moans with a deep, passionate kiss. You became putty in his arms as he chased his high right after you. His movements sped up and your body involuntarily clenched around him, speeding up the process for him. He came with a gasp and his seed filled your insides. You leaned up to kiss him again and he returned it. After a few kisses here and there, he finally pulled out and dropped down to the bed next to you.

“You did so good, Henry,” you cooed as he kissed the top of your head. “You too, Y/N.”

He untangled himself from your arms to stand up and search for a warm washcloth. When he returned, he cleaned you up first and then himself before rejoining you in the bed.

“Okay, now it’s really time for bed,” he stated, indicating the clock that glowed with the time 3:12 am. “Oh fuck,” you laughed.

“‘Oh fuck’ is right. It’s time to go to sleep. Good night,” he said, wrapping his arms tighter around you.

“Good night, baby. Sweet dreams.”

Henry Cavill tags: @seriouslygoodlookinggents @stephartrave​ @icygurl56​

[lazuli-bloom]

Roses and Styx

Chapter 3 – Kids' Games To Pass The Time

Beetlejuice x Reader

Word Count : 5,399

New day, new problems. Sure things aren't the worst they could be, but that new hire isn't making things all that easy at work.

Last Chapter | Archive | Next Chapter

--=--=--

An annoying, rhythmic buzz cut through silence. Light seeped its way in, chasing away the shadows of sleep. You groaned and rolled. It was too early to face the new day.

Compounding your groggy state was the fact you didn't sleep for shit last night. The chilly October night sucked the warmth from your room, and you had only a few blankets to shield yourself from it. And the chill didn't stop your mind racing most of the night. When sleep came to you, it brought restless dreams.

The first wasn't terrible, just strange. A weird bug followed you home wanting to be friends. The other dream, however... A vile pit formed in your stomach.

Your thoughts drifted to the dream. You couldn't move. Arms, legs, head, nothing. You couldn't budge an inch no matter how hard you fought. Something wanted you to stay still. And it wasn't as if your surroundings gave you any clues either. Darkness blanketed the room. No details, just a barren inky void. The only thing you found with you was a set of pinprick lights.

A voice spoke. It whispered beautiful words coated in honey. Your guts twisted. A warm touch held your face, and the voice asked you a question. Your words caught in your throat. The entity glared at you with icy eyes, and the sweet words soured to a nasty venom.

You clutched your chest as the memory of searing heat replayed. It sank blazing claws into your waist and arm, blistering and cooking the flesh.

You drew in shaky breaths and wiped away the leftover tears. It was just a dream. It was just a bad dream. You're safe.

You took in one more breath before getting up to start your day.

Normally you would go straight to the bathroom, but you wanted to check something. You stepped out into the main living space and found it empty. A DVD case sat on the coffee table, but the TV screen was dark. The couch laid devoid of any unexpected house guests. No sign anyone else was ever there. Your heart sank as you realized the encounter you remembered was just another dream cooked up by your tired brain. A frown pulled at your lips and you sighed. No time to mope. You needed to get ready for work.

You opened the bathroom door and peered inside. Rigel napped on the top of the toilet's water tank, surrounded by shredded toilet paper. At least it was less of a mess than yesterday. You clean up the ribbons and tossed them in the garbage under the sink. After you topped off his food and water, you hopped in the shower.

The water in your apartment only ever got up to lukewarm on a good day. And that was not a good day. Frigged rain pelted you, giving you goosebumps. Not wanting to linger, you got out and dressed a few minutes later.

You combed your fingers through your hair as you looted the kitchen. Damn cat, why'd it have to throw up on your hairbrush? You grumbled to yourself and pulled out the off-brand cereal to fix breakfast.

"What 'cha doing, babes?" A voice from nowhere spoke in your ear.

Your knees buckle and you collapse, taking the bag of cereal with you. You gripped at your chest to still your heart, and rolled to sit with your back to the cabinets. A man in a rotting striped suit floated in your kitchen, clutching his rounder stomach as he cackled.

"Oh sweets, that's great! I wasn't even trying!"

As the shock fades, your features scrunched up. You got to your feet and tossed the bag on the counter. With crossed arms you pivot to glare at the ghost, still laughing his ass off.

"Giving me a heart attack first thing in the morning," you said with a huff, "I came out here and you were gone. I thought I had dreamed the whole thing, you jerk."

"So you're saying you missed me?" He batted his eyes at you, setting your cheeks on fire. You would not dignify that with a response. Instead, you turned back to the counter and fixed your breakfast.

"Where did you go then?" you asked and riffled through the silverware drawer for a spoon.

"I was checking on your neighbors. Did you know the guys a few doors down have a shit-ton of electronics?"

"Yeah, and old lady Smith has a garden in her closet."

"Really? Which one is she in? I didn't find that."

"She's on the third floor, but don't bug her too much. She's nice. Plus she bakes amazing cookies for me whenever I help her."

You scarfed your breakfast, and double checked you had everything done. Rigel was in the bathroom with his things. You had your wallet and phone. After you finished the last bite, you set the bowl in the sink along with the one from last night.

You rinsed out the bowl and hummed to yourself before you glanced over your shoulder to the ghost. He grinned at you with a tilt of his head. You gave him a small smile, only to frown.

"I have to head to work."

That simple sentence wiped the grin from his face. His shoulders sank, and the color of his hair shifted. A dull purple seeped in and overtook the green. That couldn't be a good sign. "You're leaving me here?"

"Well, you could stay here, or..."

"Or?"

"If you can be out of the way and let me focus on my work when I need to, then you could tag along with me. It’d be nice having someone other than my boss to talk to during the downtime."

His grin stretched across his face again, and he spun up to you, batting his eyes. "Oh babes, you do care! Of course I'll go with you! Not my idea for a first date, but I'll take it."

You pressed your lips tight. Was this a mistake? Not like you can take back the offer, though. That would crush him. You let out a long sigh and rubbed at your temple.

"Not a date, dude."

"If you say so," he purred.

You shook your head and grabbed the keys before heading to the car. The ghost trailed you, with an ever present chill at your side. On the way to the car, he pointed out each of the apartments and spilled whatever secrets he found out. You had an inkling of some of your neighbors' crimes, but you weren't one to go tattling. It was best to let them deal with their lives and you deal with yours. So you ended up nodding along to what the ghost told you.

When you got to your car, you sat behind the wheel for a moment. Once your ghostly friend floated into the passenger seat, you took in a breath.

"Okay. A few things before we get there," You said as you fought to start the car, "If either my boss or a customer comes up and needs to talk to me, I would appreciate it if you hang back for a minute and let me handle them. Otherwise, I mostly just front-face merchandise and I can talk with you so long as I'm quiet. Also, I take my lunches in the cemetery, so I can talk a bit more freely there."

"Sounds good to me, toots."

You rolled your eyes and got the hunk of junk started. The car protested with clangs, but you drove off with a little more of a fight. On the scenic drive to work he asked you to turn on the radio, which got a dry laugh from you.

"What's so funny?"

"Radio's broke. Most things in this car are broken. Radio, heater, a/c. All of them are broken."

"Can't you get a new one? There's cars all over the place, just take one."

"Th-this isn't Grand Theft Auto,"

"It will be once you take a car!"

"Okay, technically true. I meant this isn't the game GTA, this is real life. And I would get arrested."

"Not if you had help from the ghost with the most!"

You rolled your eyes and turned onto the main road, heading for work. The rest of the drive, the "ghost with the most" filled the air with his own voice, singing a medley of songs. Some of them you recognized, others you suspected he made up on the spot.

You pulled into the employee parking and parked your car alongside the two much nicer ones there. As you collected your things, Beetlejuice pointed to the sleek mustang.

"That car looks fun! We should steal a car like that!"

"I'm pretty sure that's Brandon's car. I'm not stealing my coworker's car to take for a joyride."

"But it would be so cool!"

"Maybe later," you said, stepping out of your junker.

The bell chimed as you entered the store and caught your boss's attention. He came over to greet you and made sure you were doing better. You gave a small laugh and rubbed at the back of your neck.

"Yeah, I'm doing better." You glanced sidelong to the ghost wandering over to the front counter.

"Good. Now hopefully I can focus on training Brandon without as many interruptions. He keeps breaking away to chat with every customer that comes into the store. So I need you to handle the customers so he doesn't have an excuse."

"Got it. And if you need help with him, I can always smack some sense into him. The new order of mallets is in the back, right?"

Mr. Turner laughed and turned to go back to teaching Brandon. You smiled to yourself and meandered over to the counter. Your ghost pal sat on the countertop next to the computer.

"You never mentioned you get to hit people at your job, any openings?"

"Sorry, spot's filled. For now, anyway. But who knows, maybe we'll need a replacement soon."

"Save it for me. I would kill to get to hang around a pretty little breather like you all day and get paid for it. But doing that for free is nice too."

"You're a shameless flirt."

"How can a sexy beast like me not be with you around and able to see me?"

You shook your head and glanced at the computer. There was something you wanted to look up, you were sure of it. But what was it? You stepped closer and opened a new tab for the search. It sat blank for a moment as you retraced what the topic could have been.

"What are ya doing, babes?"

"I can't remember what I wanted to search for."

"One hundred great ways to skin a cat?"

You raised a brow and frowned at him. "I'm not hurting Rigel." A light flicked on in your head.

You typed in the cat's name and clicked on the page for the star. A picture of the Orion constellation to the side of the page showed off the stars. Most of them had fancy looking letters next to them, with a few having numbers attached. Rigel marked the lower right star, while the upper left was the only other star with a word.

"Beh-tell? Goose? Wait..." You jerked your head over to the ghost, who wore a Cheshire grin. "That's how you spell your name?"

"Yep. That's me. Behtellgoose."

You read the name once more. Betelgeuse. Such a strange spelling to sound like beetle-juice. Kind of cool though. You smiled and closed out of the tab when an unfamiliar voice called out to you.

"Good morning, Art. Great to see you doing better!"

"Heh, yeah. Feeling better." You forced a tight-lipped smile to prevent yourself from frowning. Brandon stayed still with his own fake smile plastered on his face. After a beat of him not saying anything, you asked, "Do you need something?"

"You forgot to go grab your apron. What if a customer came in? That would look very unprofessional. Here, I'll watch the counter and you can go grab your apron."

The corner of your mouth twitched, and you took in a deep breath. You stepped away and grabbed your stupid apron. As you threw it on, the bell chimed. You rushed back out, hoping to catch the customer before Brandon.

The counter stood unattended and you found Brandon down one aisle with a woman discussing products. You groaned and pinched the bridge of your nose.

"Isn't that what your boss wanted you to stop him from doing?"

"Yes, Beetle, it is."

You hissed out a sigh and shook your head. As you walked over to them, you prepared yourself to speak in your chipper customer service voice. Brandon insisted he could take care of the customer, only for Mr. Turner to order him to get back to training. Brandon grimaced and stepped away to let you take over.

Your smile was easier to keep on your face after that. You helped the customer find what she needed and rang up her items. She left with a wave and you went back to the computer.

"What the hell is that guy's deal?" Betelgeuse asked, gesturing with a thumb to Brandon.

"I don't know. I don't know if I really care." You leaned back onto your heels and let your mind wander. Whenever you were alone, stuck at the counter, you always pulled up simple web games on the computer to pass the time. But with Betelgeuse there, you couldn't ignore him to play games.

"What are ya thinking about, sweets? How hot it would be to make out right now?"

You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms. "No, you flirt. I'm thinking of what we can do to pass the time. All I'm coming up with are twenty questions and I spy."

"I'm fine with that," he said as he flashed you a sharp grin. "Okay, I'll start. I spy with my rotten eye, something... metal."

"Well, that narrows it down."

The two of you spent the rest of the morning going, taking turns playing those silly kids' games. Betelgeuse huffed and whined whenever a customer, or worse, Brandon, pulled you away to help them. Any time you called him out on his grumbling, he denied it as the color in his hair shifted.

He caught you staring at his hair once or twice, which exacerbated the shifting colors. Each time that happened, Betelgeuse quickly picked up whichever game you two had been playing. You left the topic alone for the moment, but stashed it away to ask about later.

Halfway into a difficult game of twenty questions, Mr. Turner came up to the counter. You ignored Betelgeuse's smug punchable face and greeted your boss, hoping your frustration didn't bleed into your tone.

"Cass, I'm stepping out for a bit to pick up something. I should be back for you to take your lunch break. Keep an eye on the store and Brandon for me, while I'm gone, okay?"

"Got it. Burn down the place and leave no evidence. Can do."

He shook his head with a laugh. Mr. Turner said, "you turd," before he waved goodbye and left the shop.

"Ooh baby, I love you talking about crimes like that! Tell me how you'd light up the place."

You turned back to the ghost. He floated with his stomach parallel to the ground as he held his scruffy chin in his hands and swung his legs pointed upward. You laughed at the dork and smiled.

"Well, the kerosene is over there, and the rolls of rags are an aisle over. There's a blow torch with some of the other tools."

"Artemis!" You whipped your attention to the stick in the mud, frowning at you. You didn't even get the chance to speak. "That kind of talk is highly unprofessional! Going over ways to burn down the store, shame on you."

"I was joking dude, it's not—"

"Well, I don't find that funny. And you shouldn't address your elders as 'dude', it is very disrespectful."

"Alright, I'm sorry."

"Good. Now I need your help."

You gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded. Brandon motioned for you to follow him, and once he turned back, you brought two fingers to your temple and jerked your head away.

In the middle of a tedious and painful walkthrough of creating an order of paint, the bell rang. Brandon broke away the second it chimed and went straight to helping the customer. That was irritating enough, but after the regular said they didn't need any help, Brandon insisted on assisting them.

You took in a deep breath and let the man dig his own grave. If he doesn't value your help, then he's not getting it. You marched back to the counter and found Betelgeuse picking his teeth.

He licked a striped tongue over his sharp teeth then said, "What a douchebag."

"Tell me about it."

The customer came up to the counter a minute later, followed by Brandon. You greeted the regular and switched the computer over to its register display. Your new coworker nudged you aside and insisted on being the one to ring up the customer.

"Artemis, you should have stayed at the paint desk. I'll meet you back there in a minute, after I help this gentleman."

You wanted nothing more than to slap that man. Who the hell does he think he is? Calling you unprofessional and pulling stunts like that? You grit your teeth and forced a smile before excusing yourself to head back to the paint desk.

Betelgeuse floated after you and lounged on top of the desk. You spared him a glance, but stuck to pacing the small paint pit, waiting for that douche-canoe to get back there. The customer didn't even have a lot of things to buy, so it shouldn't take Brandon that long.

"That freaking jerk," you said under your breath, "I can't believe Mr. Turner hired a guy like that."

"Want me to kill him?"

"Tempting, but no. I'm just going to talk to my boss when he gets back." You checked your phone for the time. A quarter after one, which means only fifteen more minutes until your lunch break. "God, I hope he's here soon."

You tapped your nails against the metal top of the tint machine, the speed of which accelerated the longer you waited. What the hell was taking him so long? Did another customer show up? This was getting infuriating.

"You sure you don't want me to kill the guy?"

"No, Beetle, I don't want you to do that."

"Art, who are you talking to?"

You turned around to the voice. Brandon stood at the threshold of the paint pit with his hand on his hips and raised a brow at you. Your face burned as you laughed, attempting to cover up your embarrassment.

"Oh, just this annoying little beetle. It was crawling under the tint dispenser."

"Do you regularly talk to disgusting bugs?" he asked. You opened your mouth to speak, only for Brandon to keep talking. "It doesn't matter. You shouldn't act so childish. How old are you? Late teens?"

"No, Brandon, I'm closer to my thirties than my teens."

"And you're talking to bugs, where any customer can come up and see that behavior. You ought to grow up and act your age, Artemis."

The bell chimed again, and you shuffled to the side to get an unobstructed view of the front. Mr. Turner stepped in with a smile and a wave. You waved back and checked the clock on the computer. One twenty-seven, perfect. You pulled your apron's strings and took it off in a swift motion.

"Where do you think you're going, Artemis?"

"Lunch."

Brandon frowned, and you folded up your apron with a smile. He probably wanted to stop you from leaving, but that shit would not fly with the boss back. Betelgeuse hopped down from his spot on the counter and followed. You tossed your apron behind the front counter and greeted Mr. Turner. After a quick rundown of what had happened, you left for your break, with a quick stop to your car to grab your food.

On the walk to the cemetery, Betelgeuse mocked the stupid things Brandon said. He was dead on with his impression, too.

"Artemis, do you think I give a shit? I'm a giant douche with a stick up my ass! There's no fun allowed in the store."

You did your best to hold back your laughter, but that only caused you to snort. A laugh roared out next to you in Betelgeuse's voice. You covered your mouth with your free hand, but that couldn't stop your shoulders from bouncing. As the two of you crossed into the graveyard, you glanced sidelong at the ghost, who shot you a grin.

In the cemetery, devoid of any other visitors, you veered towards your usual spot, off in the corner and near the front gate. You sat on the stone bench, setting your lunch beside you. Betelgeuse, however, sat on a gravestone, with his feet propped up on the one next to it.

You opened up your small bag of chips and started snacking on them. Betelgeuse looked over from picking at his nails and raised a brow at you.

"That's all you're going to eat, babes?"

"I have a granola bar too."

You grabbed the other half of your lunch and showed him. He tilted his head with a frown, but said nothing. It grew quiet, save for your munching on the chips. Your mind wandered, and you zoned out, staring unfocused in a random direction. Betelgeuse moved, catching your eye, and you studied him.

He gnawed at his black nails with jagged yellow teeth. Stubble covered his round chin, matching the same green mixed in his hair. Has his stubble changed color like his hair has? And why did his hair change color to begin with?

You hummed to yourself after finishing the last of your chips.

"What's up, sweets?"

"I... was hoping to ask you something."

Betelgeuse tilted his head to the other side and raised a brow and pursed his lips. You gave a half smile and laughed. He looked like a curious puppy. How could this ghost-demon look so cute?

"What is it?"

"I've noticed that your hair isn't always green." 

As soon as the sentence left your mouth, the color of his hair shifted to a deep purple. You shrank back as your stomach twisted into knots. Even without knowing what the colors meant, the frown on his face and sudden dodging of eye contact weren't good signs. On no. You messed up, didn't you? Why couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?

"I'm sorry. You don't have to say anything. Forget I ever mentioned it."

You dug your nails into your palms and turned your gaze to your knees. Betelgeuse produced a mix of a growl and a groan, and you peered up at him through your hair. His lips pulled into an almost smile as he kept sharp eyes pointed at his hands, where he raked his nails through the hair of one.

"I might as well tell you, you'd figure it out eventually. My hair changes color with my mood."

You dared to lift your head more. Your lips parted as your brain processed the new information.

"Like a chameleon?"

"Like what?"

He tilted his head and raised a brow as his nose wrinkled. You forced out a small laugh and smile as you wrung your wrists. "A chameleon, the little lizards that change color. It's to communicate their mood. Darker colors like black are when it's stressed, neutral tones are when it's calm, and vibrant greens, or reds can be excitement or aggression."

Betelgeuse lurched forward with a growl and ran his hands through his hair, shielding the deepening purple from view. Your stomach twisted into knots. This wasn't getting better. You parted your lips only to press them shut a second later. Why did you have to screw up and bring up his hair in the first place?

Your nails dug deeper into your palms. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"If you're going to strip a guy naked like that, babes, you could at least buy me dinner first."

Your face wrinkled as you tilted your head at him. Betelgeuse still held himself curled and closed off, but he wore a weak crooked smile. Your lips twitched, and you huffed out a dry laugh.

"Alright, we can go through the drive thru to get a few things off the dollar menu."

"Ooh! I wanna try one of those green sludgy shake things from that Old MacDonald place."

"Sorry to break this to you, but they only sell those in March."

"What? That's lame!"

"Everything is pumpkin spice right now."

He pouted and crossed his arms with a huff. Despite the childish act, the purple in his hair faded back to a muted green. You chuckled to yourself as relief washed over you. With a soft smile, you grabbed the other half of your lunch and hummed before you opened it.

"Hey Beetle."

"Hmm?"

"I won't bring it up again if you don't want me to, but I wanted to say I think your chameleon hair is pretty cool. Like, is it magic? Or is it a demon thing? Or—sorry. I'm sorry. I'll shut up about it now. Sorry."

Your eyes darted to focus on your granola bar. You fumbled with tearing open the packaging for a second, only for the wrapper to give. The force sent your food tumbling to the ground. You stared at the broken bar and heaved out a sigh. Just wonderful.

Your pocket buzzed, veering your attention to it. You pulled out your phone and checked the caller id. Unknown number. Chills cascaded down as you stared at the phone.

"Something wrong, babes?"

"Nope. Everything's fine. Just some spam call."

You shoved it back into your pocket and let it ring. If the caller wanted anything, they can leave a voicemail. Besides, you needed to get back to work.

You picked up your trash and nodded your head to the gate. Betelgeuse hopped up and floated alongside you. After a few steps out of the cemetery, your phone rang again. Every fiber in you tensed up, but you left your phone in your pocket. The third time your phone rang, Betelgeuse spoke up again.

"Who the hell keeps calling you?"

You shrugged and laughed despite your dry throat. "Who knows? I have to get back to work though."

With a hurried pace, you made it back to the store in a few minutes. The bell swung, chiming away as you beeline for your apron behind the counter. Brandon stood at the register with a phone up to his ear.

"There you are, Art! I've been calling you and you never once answered!" Brandon frowned at you and slipped his phone into his pants pocket. "You're obligated to pick up if I or Mr. Turner ever need to call you."

"O-oh, that was you calling." A small breath escapes passed your lips and you relax, only to register what he said. "Wait, how did you even get my number? I've only ever given this number to Sam and Mr. Turner."

"Why does it matter how I got your number? The issue is; if work calls you, especially if you have a shift that day, you need to answer."

"Fine, okay. I'll save your number so I don't panic again when I'm called three times in a row."

"Oh please, three phone calls make you panic? Artemis, you're an adult. You should know better than to be worried about something as simple as a phone call."

You grit your teeth and smiled. This conversation wasn't going anywhere you wanted, and you didn't plan on sticking around. You threw on your apron and marched to a far corner of the store to get away from everyone. Well, save for the ghost haunting you.

"Wow, babes, that guy is a major piece of work."

"Piece of shit is more like it."

You grabbed at products on the shelf and pulled them forward, turning the labels when needed. If you looked busy, maybe Brandon would mind his own fucking business. You clenched your jaw and growled as you brought more things forward.

"I shouldn't be worried about phone calls? What the fuck does he know? He's never had to put up with the shit I have!"

"And what shit would that be, babes?"

You glanced up to the ghost laying on his stomach across the top of the aisle shelving. Betelgeuse tilted his head. Soft and earnest curiosity graced his features. The corner of your mouth twitched before you closed your eyes and let out a hiss.

"I don't want to get into it," you said, keeping your voice quiet, "but I've had someone call me over and over before. It wasn't fun."

You pulled the rest of the items forward within arm's reach before sidestepping to get more. Betelgeuse floated after you as you inched down the aisle. He picked the games back up, and you welcomed the distraction.

There were one or two rounds of I spy, several goes at twenty questions—which you're positive Betelgeuse cheated and switched his topic multiple times. Towards the end of your shift, well after Brandon left for the day, you two asked a few "would you rather" questions. While he asked a few risque questions at the start—bite or be bitten, top or bottom—his questions took a tamer turn, similar to the ones you asked.

"Okay babe, would you rather find a rat in the kitchen or a roach in your bed?"

"I mean... I guess I'd prefer seeing another rat in the kitchen over finding more roaches?"

"M-more?"

"Donna hires her incompetent nephew to do the pest control for the apartments." You swept the line of dirt into the pan and tossed it into the trash. "Actually, speaking of, I should double check the traps and make sure something isn't rotting somewhere in the apartment."

Betelgeuse watched you finish the last of the closing routine. You clicked the pan back around the neck of the broom and stuffed it into a corner behind the counter. The only thing left was Mr. Turner to finish locking up the cash and heading out. You leaned against the counter and rolled your head back to look at the ceiling.

A quiet stillness overtook the store. It lasted a few seconds before Betelgeuse spoke up again.

"Would you rather have a nicer place but the same landlady, or the same apartment with a nicer landlady—"

"Alright Cass, you ready to leave?"

You turned your attention from the unseen ghost to your boss. He smiled and gestured to the door. You returned a half smile before exiting. Mr. Turner locked up, and you waved goodbye. A minute later you sank into the car seat and rested your hands on the wheel.

"Well babes, this certainly seems familiar."

You glanced his way and rolled your eyes before getting the car started.

"Yep, it's been an entire day since a demon followed my home, like a lost puppy."

"I'm way cuter than any puppy. Plus, you can keep me in your apartment all you want and your shitty landlady can't do anything about it!"

"Nicer landlady, by the way," you said as the car sputtered to life.

"What?"

"I'd rather have a nicer landlady than a nicer place. Donna would just let a nicer place fall to ruin."

You pulled out of the parking lot and drove home. At the first red light, you tapped your finger on the wheel and hummed.

"Hey Beetle, would you rather stay in a comfortable and familiar place with people that don't believe half of what you say, or cut all contact with them and be alone if it meant freedom?"

Betelgeuse tilted his head from one side to the other, closing his eyes as he mulled over your question. As he thought, the light changed, and you continued on your way home. A sharp grin stretched across his face a moment later.

"Easy. I'd take my freedom."

Your lips twitched up. "Yeah... me too."

[dw-writes]

Midnight Marathons - Stiles Stlinski x Reader

ey, look, another depression fic. why? because i can.

I hope you guys enjoy this!

Stiles didn’t realize the time until his phone buzzed next to his laptop, drawing his attention to the screen, the time, and then your text.

‘Are you still up?’ you asked. His phone buzzed against shortly after he replied, not even giving him a chance to stretch out in his desk chair. ‘Open the window?’

“The window?” he muttered. He turned to it far too fast, almost launching himself out of the chair, then shoved the window open with a grunt. Your head popped up over the side, and he jumped. “Seriously? You couldn’t have told me you were here before you started to climb up here?” he asked as he stepped back.

You shifted on the roof outside, pushing your legs in and dropping down to the floor. “Nope,” you answered, “Mostly because I didn’t think of that.”

“Yeah.” He reached around you to shut the window, swatting at a mosquito that had followed you inside. “I noticed.” His hand gave your arm a squeeze when he was finished chasing the bug. “You okay?” he asked, “You’re never out this late.”

You shrugged, taking a moment to pulling off your shoes, then sat on the edge of his bed. He didn’t bother to close his laptop as he sat next to you, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “I dunno,” you sighed. You sat further back on his bed, pulling one leg up to your chest. “No?”

His hand dropped to his lap with an audible clap, then waved around as he asked, “Wanna talk about it?”

“About why I’m not okay?” you replied. He nodded. “Not really.”

“So, why are you here?” You arched an eyebrow at the blunt question. He stuttered, his hands coming up as he bounced slightly on the bed, adjusting his legs beneath him. “Not that I don’t like that you’re here! Especially now – I mean, do you know how many times I’ve had a dream that had you coming to my room this late at night? Like dozens, probably more, that’s not the point.” You rolled your lips together as a soft chuckle pushed through your nose, your cheeks burning as he continued. “People don’t normally show up to another person’s house at midnight to not talk, you know?” He shoved his hands through his hair again. “Unless its, like, a booty call. Is this? Is this a booty call?” he asked.

You rolled your eyes and shoved your foot against his knee, ignoring the burn that grew hotter in your face. “No, Stiles.”

His hands fluttered between you. “Then?”

You shrugged and fell back against his pillows, dropping your feet into his lap with a sigh. “I just didn’t wanna be alone. My mind keeps running away from me and my sister’s asleep and I didn’t wanna bother her, and I don’t like being alone when my mind gets like this,” you answered.

Your feet were shoved off his lap as he huffed and crawled up next to you, flopping on his side to watch your face. You rubbed at your cheeks to make sure it was free of any moisture that had been running down your face an hour ago. He waited, staying quiet as you composed yourself, wiggling until he was more comfortable. One of his hands slid under the pillow you rested on. Your rolled towards him once you were satisfied, shoving a hand under your pillow to tangle your fingers with his. He drew your interlaced hands from beneath your head into the space between you both. “What do you wanna talk about then?” he finally asked.

You gave him a weak, one shouldered shrug. “Anything?” you offered, “Anything but bullshit running through my mind right now.”

Stiles rolled his lips together as he thought, pushing himself up enough to look around his room. “You wanna watch the OG Star Trek? It’s on Hulu,” he offered. He flopped back down to watch you. “Or we can watch Star Trek: Beyond. I know how much you like that movie.”

You nodded. “You know what? I’d like that a lot,” you whispered, “But only if we watch I, Mudd first.”

He snorted, his head rocking back against the pillows. “What am I, an idiot? Of course we’ll start with I, Mudd, it’s the best episode ever.”

“Amok Time is a close one, too,” you argued.

Stiles shoved himself up, waving a hand in your direction as he shuffled towards the end of the bed. “You wanna borrow some clothes? My lacrosse sweatshirt is clean.”

You took your time sitting up. You dug through his closet for the aforementioned hoodie, taking an extra long minute to search for a pair of gym shorts as you shucked off your tee-shirt and jeans. The bedroom door creaked as you were changing, and when you turned back around, Stiles was gone. You peeked out into the hallway to see that a light downstairs was on, and the faint rummaging of him searching for something reached your ears.

You turned back around and pulled his laptop over to the bed, situating yourself under the blankets. He’d already pulled up the Hulu tab, with the episode ready to play. You swiped a finger under your eye as tears started to form, then balled the ends of the sleeves up in your fists and shoved them against your face.

There was a reason you always went to Stile when your mind ran a mile a minute. He’d always get you out of your head, be it with talking, or sitting with you, or watching something, or sharing the latest weird werewolf adventure with you. He really knew how to give you the time for your thoughts to settle, even when you didn’t realize that they needed to, so that you could sort through them when you were fully prepared to do so. He’d even listen when you were having the kind of day where you really needed someone to work through your thoughts with you.

The whole thing made you tear up again, something you’d been really wanting to avoid since you first started crying over an hour ago.

“Hey, so, I have chips, I have soda, I have water, I have cookies!” He bounded into the room, his arms ladened with snacks and drinks as he beamed. “I’m ready for a marathon. Are you?”

You sniffled and wiped your face. His grin faltered, shrinking in size as he took in your red eyes. You held out a hand and grabbed at the air. “Those look suspiciously like my favorite chips,” you muttered.

He looked down at the bag in the crook of his elbow, making his way over to you. “Yeah, obviously,” he replied, voice just as soft as yours. You took the bag as he sat down. He spread the snacks out around the computer, then grabbed a pillow to place it on so it was easier to see. He glanced at you as he made the episode full screen. “If you wanna talk about it,” he whispered. His voice trailed off with an unspoken statement.

You nodded. “I know,” you said. You looked up at him. He was close enough for you to see the shadows under his eyes. “Not right now, though,” you added.

He nodded. “Course.” He scooted closer to you under the blanket, offering you his shoulder to lean on as he pressed place. “Just lemme know,” you whispered.

“I will.”

[soulmate-game]

Part 2: The same prompt, but Siblings this time

Tim paused the video on his computer, the red figure on it in mid-leap off of a building. Be rewound the video, played it, paused again at the same time stamp.

No, his eyes were not deceiving him. The video was not doctored.

So what the hell was going on?

“Hey Timmie, find anything on that Paris situation Bruce asked you to look into?” Dick’s voice made Tim startle, nearly spilling his coffee all over the keyboard and possibly deleting his hard-earned research. Rescuing his lifeblood from certain doom, he hugged his mug to his chest and glared at his older brother for a second. Dick was not in the least bothered, used to this sort of reaction from the younger detective. Dick just grinned, leaning on the back of Tim’s chair and looking up at the images on the large computer screen above them. He whistled lowly, impressed. “You’ve made a lot of progress, nice! Anything you wanna share with me before the debrief tonight?”

Tim clenched and unclenched his jaw, weighing his options. Dick waited patiently, knowing that sometimes Tim needed a minute to sort through his rapid-forming thoughts. Finally Tim sighed, setting down his mug grimly.

“Actually, yes,” he admitted. Tim’s tense tone immediately made Dick stiffen, straightening up. His eyebrows pulled down, and he returned his gaze to the computer.

“Okay, that’s your serious voice. What is it?”

“I… need your confirmation with something,” Tim turned around and looked straight at Dick. And he hesitated again, because certain… past interactions with his eldest brother once again flashed through his head. The entire Bruce-is-alive and being threatened with Arkham interaction, to be specific. But Tim needed to know the truth, it was his fatal flaw he supposed. He couldn’t back away in fear of how Dick might react.

“Ohhhhkay?” Dick just grew more and more concerned the longer that Tim took to actually speak.

“So, just to recap. There are only four people in history who have been able to do a quadruple somersault, right?” Tim asked, knowing full well the answer. Dick, predictably, shifted and grew even more on alert at the inquiry. He knew that couldn’t mean anything good. His jaw clenched, and his hands formed tight fists. But Dick also remembered the Bruce incident with Tim all that time ago, and he didn’t want to repeat his mistakes. So he forced himself to take a deep breath, and shake himself away from jumping to conclusions.

“Yeah,” Dick nodded. “Me, my parents, and my sister,” he confirmed rigidly. Tim nodded, and then rewound the video on the screen again, nodding to show that Dick should focus on it.

“Okay. But watch this,” Tim suggested, starting the video again. Dick watched as the red and black-spotted heroine of Paris, Ladybug, zipped through the air and around buildings with her yo-yo. He watched as she let go, at a height that even a normal person could manage, and executed four perfect somersaults in mid-air before landing nimbly on the ground. Tim paused the video again, his eyes never leaving Dick’s tense face.

“It isn’t doctored,” Tim said, filling the silence and preemptively answering the questions he knew he would get. “I checked. Magic is involved, but Constantine and Zatanna both confirmed it would have no hold over basic physical abilities like flexibility or… gymnastics. Only specifically combat styles used by past Ladybugs can be transferred magically to the next Ladybug, not this.”

“Tim,” Dick’s voice was terrifyingly blank. “What are you suggesting?”

“Nothing yet,” Tim was quick to hold up his hands in surrender. “I’m still doing research. It’s possible, though extremely unlikely, that she managed to teach herself how to do that. You tell me, Dick, how likely is it?”

Dick swallowed, not wanting to say it but knowing he had to look at the facts. “... At her age? Next to impossible,” he admitted. “She could learn it, theoretically, as young as seven or eight, but only if someone who knew what they were doing taught her since she was about three.”

Tim nodded again. He knew those numbers, he knew where they came from.

“Then— and this is only a theory right now— we have what I think is the more plausible scenario,” Tim swallowed. This was the hard part. “Your sister was kidnapped after your parent’s death, but the body that was found wasn’t actually her’s. It wasn’t in a state to be physically identified, so—“

“I know what state it was in, Tim!” Dick snapped, forcing himself to take a few steps back and just breath. Even now, the image of a tiny body burned beyond recognition was burned into the inside of his eyelids, there to taunt him whenever he blinked or slept and let his mind wander in just the wrong direction. She would be… what, Jason’s age, now? She was seven… only seven, when their parents died and she ran off into the Gotham streets in despair. When she was kidnapped, as is what happens in Gotham.

When Dick was presented with a body he could not say WASN’T her’s a week later.

“The DNA…” Dick tried. “They said…”

“I know,” Tim’s voice was carefully soft. “But the records on your family’s DNA were all kept by the circus back then. The Talons had access to those files. It’s very possible they were tampered with. Switched. It wouldn’t be hard for them to burn your sister’s actual medical files and replace them with forged copies that had someone else’s DNA on them. The data of the girl who actually died.”

Dick closed his eyes, shaking his head. He didn’t want to hope, it would hurt too much if Tim was wrong.

Tim had been right about more unlikely things than this, a voice in the back of his head whispered. And yeah, that was true. But Dick was still too scared to hope.

“Finish your research, Tim,” Dick’s voice was strained with suppressed emotion. He couldn’t even look at the younger vigilante as he left the Cave. “Find out who Ladybug’s civilian persona is, and then we’ll talk.”

Tim could only sigh in relief when Dick was gone. That could have gone much worse.

—*—*—*—*—*

A week later, the entire family was gathered. This was the full debrief on the Paris case, rather than the progress update that they had had to do before. Research took longer than Tim had expected, he had years of data to go through after all. But he had come away with exactly what he had been looking for.

After running through the overall situation and where the fight against HawkMoth was at in the present day, Tim licked his lips and took a deep breath. This was it, the Who-Is-Ladybug part.

“I was able to get security footage of her detransformation, just one lucky shot from ten years ago, when this whole thing began,” he prefaced. “She was thirteen years old, and untrained as far as heroism goes, so it stands to reason she didn’t know yet how to be properly careful about transforming. This is that security picture,” he carefully put the enlarged picture up on the Batcomputer, as well as sliding a physical copy onto the table for everyone to pass around.

Dick didn’t even try to grab it, his eyes glued to the computer, expression unreadable. The picture was a little grainy, but most of the girl’s face could be made out. Pigtails, dark black hair that shimmered blue in direct light, blue eyes.

But it was the next picture that Tim pulled up that pushed everything over the edge.

“These are the official pictures of her that I was able to get from Paris records. This first picture is of her at the same age at the security footage, thirteen. The second picture is her now, age twenty-three,” Tim said, before the side-by-side came up on the screen. Tim’s eyes slid over to Dick, who was frozen in his seat, just staring at the images silently. He wasn’t even breathing.

“Dick?” Bruce asked, immediately noticing the behavior. His eyebrows furrowed. “Are you alright?”

Dick’s next breath came in with a shudder, and he clenched his eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears that came out. He choked out a broken chuckle, shaking his head and giving out a lopsided, watery grin.

“Heh. Another point for Timmy being right,” Dick jokes weakly, rubbing at his eyes.

“What do you mean? Tim?” Bruce turned to the younger of the two insistently. “What’s going on? Who is she?”

“Currently, according to Parisian records, she is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Tim told them. “More specifically, her full name is Marinette Gray Dupain-Cheng. Which I believe is what she chose to change her name to after she was kidnapped sixteen years ago from right outside Haley’s Circus, and illegally transported to France,” Tim clicked another button to bring up a third picture in the side-by-side. It was of someone who was clearly a younger Marinette, but in the very familiar costume of the Flying Graysons, standing right next to a twelve-year old version of Dick. “Because her birth name is Marie Natalia Grayson. Dick’s younger sister, who until now was presumed dead. But I was able to confirm that the medical records back then for Marie were forged, and the information on them could not actually belong to her. The body that was presented as Marie’s… was a red herring to hide that Marie was no longer in America at all.”

Dick’s sob-laugh drew everyone’s attention back to the first Robin, who was now silently, openly, crying. Nobody really knew how to deal with that, and the room descended into awkward silence as Dick tried to regain his composure a little.

“Marinette… Gray,” he whispered, chuckling again and shaking his head as he wiped at his cheeks. “That idiot… her ability with subtlety hasn’t gotten any better, that’s for sure,” he was smiling now, still staring at the pictures of Marinette on the screen. Of his beautiful little sister, all grown up and not buried six feet under like he had thought for far too long.

Because this was different from Hope. This was certainty. The face, the far too on-the-nose name, the somersaults, Dick had even noticed it in the way she swung on her yo-yo. The body memory from years of Trapeze, those little quirks he recognized as belonging to his sister that he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. But now, all together, he could admit to himself that it was her. It was really her.

Could it be a clone? Maybe. Maybe. But that was why Dick snuck out to France the very next day, informing absolutely nobody.

Because he had a test that only the real Marie would be able to pass.

—*—*—*—*—*

"How did you- No, nevermind, I don't want to know, plausible deniability and all that,” the deep, unfamiliar male voice made Marinette squeak in shock, nearly dropping the phone in her hands. She leaned so far to her right that she almost fell over, but her nearly perfect balance (that only failed her when she was nervous or self conscious) kept her upright.

Her eyes darted down to her phone screen, where an app that Max had helped her create was opened. It utilized at least five hundred little fly-shaped drones that Markov managed and kept track of to scan the city for corrupted butterflies and recognize the level of stress or other negative emotions that civilians were experiencing. It cut down severely on patrol time that the crew had to do, making it easier for them to balance their hero and civilian lives and also allowed for them to arrive at the scene of Akuma attacks twice as fast as before— along with helping with the original purpose of catching evidence to use against Hawkmoth, of course.

Marinette straightened her back, smiling sheepishly and closing out the app. She had just been making a routine check, it had only been open for a minute. How had he managed to sneak up on her in that time? Only chat could do that anymore.

That is, until Marinette turned around the rest of the way and got a good look at the man. Her eyes widened— what was Nightwing, a vigilante from Gotham, doing there?

“I don’t see what plausible deniability has to do with anything,” she replied in easy, unaccented English. She might not speak it often, but she did stay in practice. Even now a lot of her fashion notes and thoughts were in either English or Romani. “It’s just a game app that my friend created,” the practiced lie flew easily past her lips, and she was able to even smile confidently and begin to happily ramble about Max’s (public) achievements like she would in any normal situation. “It is still in the test phase of course, but it uses virtual reality and mapping technology to create a treasure hunt sort of adventure game that people can do as they walk around. Like Pokémon go, but with real-time footage of the city— with people not included besides the game characters of course— and it rewards caution as well as keeping active,” she explained their cover story for the app happily. But Nightwing only smiled easily at her with his arms crossed, clearly not believing a single word.

“Ah— but that probably isn’t interesting,” Marinette purposely stuttered, turning her face into one of (surprisingly genuine) confusion as she looked at the vigilante. “What are you here for anyway, Monsieur? This doesn’t seem like—“

“I have a riddle that a friend of mine told me to ask you,” he interrupted, instantly putting Marinette on guard. She took a step back, eyebrows pulling down at the odd request. But still, she chuckled nervously and shrugged. She had to maintain appearances after all.

“Uh, sure..? Riddles are fun, in the right circumstances I guess.”

Nightwing beamed happily, nearly blinding the poor girl. “Awesome!” His next words came out in fluent Romani though: “If a Hummingbird ever gets lost, what kind of animal will track it down?”

Marinette’s mouth went dry, her shoulders dropping. Her mouth opened and closed, the shock of the question leaving her unable to even pretend she didn’t understand exactly what was said. Nightwing’s gaze grew more intense, yet his smile got impossibly soft.

Marinette swallowed thickly, and she took a deep breath before responding in Romani: “You shouldn’t— only one person—“

“That doesn’t answer the riddle, ma’am.”

Marinette’s confusion turned into a harsh glare. “He would never tell someone else to ask me that. What are you trying to play at, Nightwing?” She hissed harshly, still in her native language.

“Listen, Marinette,” Nightwing held up both hands to try to calm her down. It did the opposite, making her take another step back. “Batman and the rest of our team has been looking into the Hawkmoth security—“ Marinette cursed, clearly seeing where this was going. “— We believe he found out who Ladybug is. But, we also found signs that your real name is—“

“Shut up!” She yelled in English, fists clenched tightly. Luckily she had gone into an alleyway to check her phone, or else they would be attracting attention by then. Her eyes sparked with anger. “You don’t get to use that name. And if you’re so smart,” Marinette tucked her phone into her purse and scaled the wall next to her nimbly, perching on the roof as Nightwing cursed and began to follow her. “Then try to predict my moves, birdy.”

It only took a few minutes and crossed rooftops for Marinette to call on her transformation and pick up speed. She knew by then that Nightwing, and probably the other Bats too, already found her out. Not ideal, but manageable. Now she wanted to show him why he shouldn’t come into her territory and dig into her past and think he could get away with it.

Somewhere during the chase, more Bats appeared one by one. Judging by what Ladybug was able to overhear, they had come as soon as they realized where Nightwing had snuck off to.

That made Marinette pause from where she hid behind a sloped roof, in the middle of a call to her own teammates. Nightwing hadn’t come on his team’s orders?

Why the hell had he come, then?

She shook thought thoughts away, focusing on her plan. Paris was her city, and she would make sure the Bats learned their lesson when it came to sticking their nose in Parisian business.

“Bug?” The soft, concerned call came from her yo-yo and pulled her from her contemplating. Max, in full Pegasus attire, was frowning at her in worry on the small screen. She just shook her head at him.

“I’m fine, Peg. Just don’t like how this feels like Gotham ruining my life again,” she remarked sourly. “But I’m fine. Start plan We’re Not Kids.”

Max nodded, but rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like; “even though we made this plan when we actually were kids…”

A portal opened in the air a few seconds later, releasing Honeybee in all her gold and black glory. The winged hero zipped through the air, immediately putting team Miraculous at an advantage since team Bat didn’t want to actually harm them.

It took a glorious five seconds for Honeybee to paralyze them all before Tortoise dropped out from another portal and surrounded the temporarily paralyzed vigilantes in a dome shield that kept them in just as easily as it kept everything else out.

One by one, Marinette’s teammates dropped out of more portals until Pegasus himself joined them. Ladybug took that as her que to come out, leaping over her hiding place to land in front of her friends, who had formed a half-circle in front of the trapped dome.

“Vixen,” she called to the fox-themed hero, whose ears twitched before she straightened to attention. “Create an illusion to hide us. The last thing we need are any pictures or anyone asking questions.”

“Got it!” Vixen agreed easily, raising her flute to her lips. A short melody later, and their surroundings warped. To those inside the illusion, it seemed as if the world merely ended off of the rooftop they were on, into only blankness. Outside, that very rooftop appeared empty.

It was then that Chat Noir stepped up to take Ladybug’s side, his acidic green eyes scanning over the Gotham vigilantes trapped inside Tortoise’s protective barrier.

“You can release the paralysis, Honeybee,” his order was noticeably softer than Ladybug’s clear commands. It was obvious that he was the deputy in this situation, the flexibility to Ladybug’s iron leadership. That was when the red clad hero crossed her arm, resuming control of the situation wordlessly. The Gotham heroes briefly glowed gold as Honeybee let their paralysis begin to gradually wear off.

“Paris is my city,” Ladybug’s voice was at a normal volume, but came out with such auditory steel that it was clear she expected to be listened to, or she’d know why. “If I needed or wanted your help, I would have asked for it. Now, if you had come here normally to offer aid, then we might be having a different discussion right now,” her eyes narrowed further. “But you dug into my past. You violated my privacy. And Nightwing, you crossed a line,” she would have continued if the blue and black clad hero didn’t use his sudden ability to move to rip off his mask.

Marinette’s voice died in her throat, and for a while she thought she might be hallucinating. Those eyes, that face— she knew them. She knew them, because she saw them whenever she dared close her eyes. Because the dreams she had, the dreams that made her never want to drag herself out of bed because she wanted to believe those dreams were real so badly, always contained those eyes. And that face, though it had been much younger in her memories.

She stumbled, and only Chat’s presence at her side kept her from toppling right over.

“Bugaboo?” He asked frantically, distraught. She just shook her head dazedly, pushing herself back to her feet and away from her partner.

“I’m fine, Chat. Just…,” she assured her partner, but her eyes never left Nightwing. She licked her lips nervously, before continuing; “... Bluebird,” she whispered, making Nightwing’s eyes widen. Her brother’s eyes. “That’s the answer to the riddle, right?”

Slowly, a wide smile split his face before he began to laugh happily, despite Robin slapping Nightwing’s mask back on his face with a furious grumble.

“Ladybug?” Tortoise asked, stepping up to her other side cautiously. Seeing as they were all adults now, none of them had to worry about time or power limits anymore. “Are you..?”

“Release the shield,” she ordered instead of answering, her eyes clearly damp behind her mask. “I need to strangle my idiotic older brother for scaring the hell out of me.”

That made the rest of her team make their various exclamations of shock, but Chat and Tortoise stayed silent. Chat just put a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder in support, while Tortoise zipped his wide gaze back to Nightwing before sighing and releasing his ability.

“Only you, Bug,” the green clad hero groused playfully. “Only you.”

If Marinette Dupain-Cheng suddenly introduced her long-lost brother to her closest friends and family that same night, nobody voiced the coincidence out loud.

—*—*—*—*—*

Part 1: Romance

Part 3: Bio!Parent

[dadsbongos]

Greetings! I got this idea for danganronpa AU where Nagito is like ghost "living" (or haunting idk-) his old house and the reader moves into that house and they slowly became closer and yk<3

hi i love this concept :)

Request for: Nagito Komaeda Warnings: nagito’s backstory, slight religious overtones, we breach minor ghost-fucker territory (but no actual ghost-fucking), no-killing game au also ~~~

The house itself was rather nice. Nothing too luxurious for who the previous owner was aside from the obnoxiously fancy chandelier hanging in the den.

The realtor was hesitant to explain that the reason it was selling so comically cheap was, in fact, due to the belief of a ghost. Not just any, however. It was the previous owner’s ghost.

People who even stepped into the house could feel his chilling touch. Hear quiet, shaky whispers in the night. The fireplace would crackle and burst to life at strange times with nobody near it. Visitors and almost-buyers alike would thrust their warnings to stay away upon anybody who so much as looked at the home.

But that didn’t matter much - a house was a house and it’s not like the ghost was malicious from description. Just… annoying. Perhaps a little eerie, but again, not harmful. Everybody escaped without physical injury. So, why not buy it?

Maybe the ghost just needed a friend? Death was probably a lonely time.

Bought on Tuesday. Moved in Wednesday. Finished unpacking… still pending.

It’s not like (Y/n) had anybody to impress anyways. She’d made the move for a fresh start; new faces, new stories.

The bumps began on Friday.

Sometimes they were taps. Sometimes crashes followed by the gentle rapping against the walls, as if to apologize for the loud noise.

She’d stayed through the month, undeterred by any of the ghosts’ activities.

Then the happenings seemed a little more… intimate.

A photo slowly sliding out from beneath the fridge, at first.

Three people in frame. From left to right, there was a figure with shoulder-length pink hair and a smile to make the heavens jealous - then white hair to rival a cloud-marshmallow love child, skin sickly pale and body wastingly thin - finally, brown hair with an ahoge sticking out like an antenna and posture that almost made him taller than the one in the middle. Well, not really, but attempting counted, right? 

“Which one’s you?” she asked the air, whether she was too tired, or simply didn’t care enough, to be embarrassed was irrelevant. 

A single droplet of water, from a leak she didn’t know existed until this very moment, fell from the ceiling before splotching over the face of the one in the middle.

“White hair, heavy eye bags?”

There was no response, but she took it as a yes anyway. What a pretty, pretty face. In a tragic way.

Because he did look rather ill. Frail build and purple hues under his eyes. Pretty but suffering - it made her feel bad. Of course, she already knew he was dead, but even so - suffering should always inspire empathy rather than romance.

And again, he was dead, so the likelihood of a romance between them anyway was slim to none. None. Unless she suddenly dropped dead, there would be no sweet kisses in the morning or gentle hugs from behind as one of them makes dinner. Maybe when she died, he’d be available for a ghostly date while the house gets put back on the market.

(Y/n) chuckled at the sudden thought of lightning cracking into her home, despite the sunny weather, and striking her dead where she stood. Ridiculous, but God liked ridiculous things.

The sudden thought hit her - what if that old photo was old old? Maybe he was eighty when he died and she just subconsciously signed herself up for a date with an elderly ghost?

Shaking her head, (Y/n) scolded herself for the thought. She’d already be dead by then, it wouldn’t matter what age he was...

Then, it was the scribbling on spare papers. Always specifically spares. Double copies she had put in recycling. Scraps. Even on the backs of paper-esque trash. It was an oddly considerate move for a ghost, though to be fair, she’d never met a ghost before and couldn’t tell if it was out-of-place or not for them.

The words always appeared when she was out of the room. Leaving to grab something and coming back to find the out-dated schedule for work out of recycling and on her desk with crayon sprawled over it. 

Hi 

Eloquently said, in her opinion.

“Hi?” she looked around the room, “Can you not talk? I thought people said they heard whispers…”

A bang in the other room drew her out. When there was nothing out of place, she returned to her desk only to be met with more words.

I’m Nagito Komaeda :)

“Dodging the question, huh?”

The process repeated. Bang. Nothing out of the ordinary. Return. New words.

Sorry :(

“Don’t apologize,” (Y/n) shrugged off before moving to her computer, “I’m just gonna look you up.”

A series of bangs - now that she truly listened, it sounded like a fist pounding to the drywall - resonated through the home. She did not get up nor did she pause her actions of Googling the man known as Nagito Komaeda. 

Until a piece of paper flew in from the open door.

Bad idea

“Probably, yeah,” she huffed, moving back to her computer.

Nagito Komaeda, born April 28th, first popped up as the sole survivor in an old plane hijacking report. Both parents, all plane staff, and the hijackers left dead after the plane crash caused by a meteor strike. Then he came up as a survivor of an old serial kidnapper/killer. Then as a boy who’d inherited the entirety of his parents’ fortune and won a large sum from a lottery ticket he’d found in the trash bag he was stuffed in by his kidnapper. Then as a Hope’s Peak graduate under the title Ultimate Lucky Student.

Finally, as a 25-year-old man who’d miraculously survived ten years post-diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia and advanced lymphoma before his death.

“Holy shit,” she nearly choked on her own shock, “You weren’t boring, that’s for sure.”

Another paper, this time written in marker as if he could sense that she didn’t wish to get up. Another strangely considerate move.

Thanks 

You’re not creeped out?

“I mean, it’s more sad than creepy,” her eyes scanned over a single line in the article once again.

“Nagito Komaeda, after all his fortunes and misfortunes alike, died at age 25, after ten years of illness, surrounded by friends who took the place of family. Out of respect, no interviews were conducted, but anybody, anyone at all even from a quick glance, could tell - Nagito Komaeda will surely be missed.” 

Her eyes watered slightly as she clicked out of the Togami Publications, laughing at the pure awkwardness of her situation, “Oh my God, that’s really fucking sad. I’m sorry your life sucked.”

Another paper.

It’s fine

I was just wasting space anyway :)

“No, you were- “ she gestured to her computer screen before covering her eyes in shame of her tears, “You meant so much to your friends.”

She expected memorial posts, maybe not as many as there were, but she saw them coming. What she didn’t see coming, however, was that each and every one would be dearly heartfelt - not a single one was disingenuous or vague in the slightest. She also didn’t see herself crying by the end of her little search.

But there she was.

Something light floated into her lap. A tissue.

“Oh my fucking God,” (Y/n) choked up again, picking up the tissue with a small smile, “Stop, you’re a ghost, you’re supposed to be scary and making me leave, not helping me dry my tears…”

Another paper atop the slowly growing pile.

Was that a ghostphobic remark?

“Oh, I’m keeping that one,” she stood, sniffling as she wiped away her tears, and picked up the last paper, nodding to herself as she muttered, “Yep. This one’s going on the wall.”

~~

Nagito stopped whispering because people ran when he did. His voice was always hideous, he didn’t to be reminded. Besides, (Y/n) seemed to prefer the paper method - she hung up her favorites along the walls of her office and if a visitor teased her about it she would ignore them. It was admirable, how their grins and giggles rolled off her back like water droplets over a duck.

He wished he could be like that.

Could have been.

He still had trouble with that.

Has.

Nagito looks up from his spot at the kitchen table where (Y/n) was cooking for herself. She seemed so at-peace in this house, and he’s glad for that. He never liked living alone and everyone else seemed to hate having him there. Not that he blamed them much.

Even so, he much prefers (Y/n) over any past guest as his living counterpart of the house.

She even leaves chairs open for him at the table; he smiles widely at the thought, patting his thighs and kicking out his legs in his seat- just like now!

She’d pulled out the chair upon entering the kitchen before calling out for him that she’d be cooking. She even knew he liked watching her cook!

It was selfish of him to crave so much attention, but in the end, Nagito was already dead so… did it really matter when he indulged in his wants more than he should?

Divine punishment isn’t real and he likes being around her, so why should he bother hiding himself away in the attic?

(Y/n) moved around the house with little to no liveliness, it made him chuckle. Her shoulders drooped and footsteps heavy, it was fun. To feel like he wasn’t alone.

He hoped she felt the same. That he was a friend… or, undead companion?

He hoped she would stay and not move out.

He hoped they could be real friends one day… if it’s not too much to ask, that once she dies, she’ll meet him. The real him. 

That would be heaven.

[bonnyskies]

come back to me [three] ⇢ jjk

you’re willing to do anything to save your marriage, even if that meant you’d have to sacrifice your own happiness to do so.

pairings — husband!jungkook x malereader, ft. ceo!jaehyun (that’s right babes, he’s in here)

genre — angst, sexual themes, idol au, exes to lovers-ish au, open relationship au, marriage au, parents au

series warnings — infidelity (kinda?), swearing, bisexual!jungkook, insecure!reader, unhealthy relationship, unrequited love-ish, slow burn, use of alcohol, mentions of divorce problems, (more could be added in future chapters)

word count — 2.7k

masterlist

You were utterly exhausted.

After last night, when discovering that Jungkook left you in the middle of the night to be with her, you didn’t get much sleep after that. You just laid out on your bed, staring up at your bedroom’s ceiling with tears in your eyes.

This morning, you felt like absolute death. Bags were evident underneath your eyes and your hands that were trembling uncontrollably, resting by your sides. It took you nearly two hours to get ready compared to your usual one, due to the fact that you couldn’t stop crying.

Jungkook didn’t come home in the morning, didn’t even bother to send you a single text.

It was painful, realizing that your relationship has to come that point where you two acted like complete strangers with each other rather than a married couple. Ten years together, and you never once thought it would ever come to this.

“Hey,” you instantly jumped in your seat at the sound of a man’s deep voice, breaking you away from your troubling thoughts with your heart stammering at a fast pace. When brought back to reality, your eyes landed on none other than the CEO of Jung Enterprises and your boss—Jung Jaehyun. “Are you alright? You seem out of it.”

“Y-Yes, sir.” You answered, clearing your throat. “Just tired, that’s all.”

Jaehyun nodded hesitantly, unsure of your answer but decided not to push it any farther. “Oh, okay.” He then approached your desk, “Remember we have that meeting with our sponsors in about ten minutes. Is everything ready for the presentation?”

“Yes, sir.” You replied again, standing up from your chair and handing him the file that you two put together for today’s conference. “Would you like to go prepare for the presentation?”

Jaehyun nodded, “That’d be good.” He then walked over to your office’s door and opened it, allowing you to step out first, which you did. But when you passed him, you were stopped when Jaehyun suddenly grasped your wrist. “And {Name}, I’d like to also apologize for what happened yesterday.” The reminder made your heart stutter inside your chest. “It was highly inappropriate for me to do that, and I’m sorry if I anyway made you feel uncomfortable—”

“Sir,” you interrupted, “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. It was just shocking that’s all.”

And once again, Jaehyun only nodded, shoving his hands into his suit’s pockets. “Well, I’m still sorry.”

“It’s alright sir, really.” You smiled reassuringly, reaching up and gently placing your hand onto his bicep, feeling your cheeks heat up at the feeling of the strong muscle. You two then shared a small smile with each other before heading towards the conference room.

While walking alongside him, you couldn’t help but think about what yesterday’s events. The memories resurfacing in your mind.

.

When entering your workplace’s building, you couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation you and Jungkook just had in the car.

You didn’t know whether you believed him or not, if he was telling the truth when he said that he’d change and start trying. You just hope that he was. You’ve been left disappointed by him too many times already.

As you made your way to the building’s elevator, you were suddenly stopped by the company’s receptionist, Jenna. “Hey, {Name}.” Her cheery voice made you slightly irritated. Ever since the downfall between you and Jungkook happened, everything and everyone that resembled happiness made you feel sick. “Mr. Jung has requested for you to come to his office first thing today. Something about having to prepare a presentation for some visiting sponsors tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll head right up.” You smiled fakely, nodding.

After entering the elevator and going up to the highest floor—level twenty specifically. The few workers that worked on the level gave you greeting smiles, already knowing who you are. Out of everyone in the company, you’re the one who’s closest to the boss. You are his assistant after all. And since you’re so close to him, that meant you didn’t have to knock before entering his office.

“Hello sir,” you greeted warmly, smiling at the sight of Jaehyun behind his desk, dressed in the finest suit that hugged his figure perfectly, making every muscle in his body look more define.

“Hey,” Jaehyun greeted back, briefly glancing up from his computer with a bright smile on his face before returning back to the screen. “Glad that you’re finally here.”

“Yeah, sorry.” You apologized, closing the door behind you and quickly taking a seat at his desk. “I had a meeting with my son’s teacher this morning.”

“It’s alright, {Name}.” Jaehyun was quick to reassure you, noticing your uneasy expression. “I know you. You would never be late for work unless it was an emergency.” He then continued when seeing you begin to calm down. “Is everything alright with Minho?”

Your heart warmed at the mention of your son. Jaehyun knew about Minho—even met him, and your son even saw him as his ‘samchon’. “He’s okay, just some behavior problems.”

“Well, if you need any help, just let me know.” Jaehyun offered kindly, making you smile.

“Thank you,” you replied gratefully, smiling. “Now, about that presentation. Should we get started on creating it?”

“Yes,” Jaehyun answered instantly, turning one of the two computer screens he had on his desk towards you. “Now, I’m thinking of doing this type of set up for the presentation...”

The two of you spent the rest of the day on this important project. And after seven excruciating hours of staring at the computer, creating slides, applying data, you two were finally done.

With the once clear bright sky replaced with complete darkness, you and Jaehyun were still in his office, glass of wine in hand as you two celebrated this small accomplishment. By far, out of the five years you’ve worked for him this is the longest time you two spent on a simple presentation.

“Thank you for helping me with this.” Jaehyun showed his gratitude, smiling against the glass’s rim before taking a small sip. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.”

“Oh, stop.” You waved him off, lowering your head to hide the evident blush that was forming on your cheeks. “You’re just saying that because I’m the only one who is willing to stay after hours with you.”

Jaehyun chuckled. The sound of his deep laughter sending shivers down your spine. “No, seriously. {Name},” he then suddenly reached over and placed his hand on top of yours. “Without you, I’d be lost. You’re the one who keeps me grounded, who keeps me from going absolutely crazy from the stress.”

“W-Well that’s my job.” You anxiously stuttered out, staring at your conjoined hands. “I’m your assistant. I’m suppose to help you with everything.”

“That’s not what I meant, {Name}.” His voice, the way his said your name made your heart skip a beat. Silence filled the room as you two just stared at one another, eyes shifting down at each other’s lips.

You didn’t know who made the first move, but next thing you knew his lips were on yours, and you were laid out on top of his desk. His tie and jacket discarded on the ground and the first few buttons of his dress shirt undone, showing off his sharp collarbones. Your entire body was burning as your lips moved perfectly in sync with his, hands sliding down his toned torso, feeling his define muscles through the shirt’s material.

It was like you were in another world, the feeling of his lips moving away from yours and moving down your jawline and neck, leaving small, lingering kisses on your skin. You didn’t realize what you were doing until you felt his hands that were resting on your waist begin to move up and slide underneath your shirt, caressing your stomach.

Panic swept over you, making you instantly push away and wipe your lips with your hand. “Jae stop, I-I’m married.”

Jaehyun pulled away, taking a few steps back. “Shit, sorry. I-It’s just that—” he paused, running his hand frustratingly through his light brown hair, “—you haven’t talked about Jungkook for a long time and you haven’t been the same lately so I just thought you two separated.”

Your heart sunk from his words. “N-No, it’s okay. You don’t have to apologize.” You were standing up now, biting down on your bottom hard enough to where it drew blood. “Me and Jungkook are going through a rough patch right now,” you partially lied. “That’s why I’ve been acting differently lately.”

Jaehyun only nodded, swiping his thumb over his swollen lips. Neither of you knew what to say to each other.

“I-I should go,” you pointed towards the door. Again, Jaehyun nodded, reaching down and picking his jacket and tie up from the ground. “I’ll see you tomorrow, M-Mr. Jung. Have a good night.”

“You too,” was the only Jaehyun could bring himself to say as he watched you leave, chest heaving and lips still burning from yours.

.

“Well that meeting was a complete success,” was the first thing you said as you and Jaehyun entered his office, dropping the used file onto his desk before leaning yourself against it. “Congratulations, sir. You just got three new sponsorships for the company.”

“All thanks to you.” Jaehyun grinned, walking over to small fridge he kept inside his office and pulled out a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

You shook your head before correcting him, “Thanks to us.” You then watched as he poured himself and you a glass. “Are you sure drinking is a good idea? You still have to drive home.”

“I’ll be fine,” Jaehyun instantly reassured, handing your glass. “Plus we’ve got celebrate.”

Hesitantly you took the glass of champagne, “Would you be able to take me home?” And when he nodded, you gave in and took a small sip of the beverage.

And one glass soonturned into three, and then to four and now, you were completely wasted. You’ve always been a light head but Jaehyun, he was completely fine, pouring himself his fifth glass while watching you trying to hold in the champagne with amusement. “Okay, maybe that’s enough for you.”

You pouted when he took your half-empty glass away before gulping down his own. “Are you ready to head home now?” You then nodded.

Jaehyun and you then left the building, not having to bother saying goodbye to anyone else since you two were the only ones left at work. Jaehyun then led you towards his car, which was a beautiful black Ford Mustang. The sight of the expensive vehicle made your jaw drop, making Jaehyun chuckle at your stunned expression before opening the passenger door and allowing you to enter before closing it behind you.

“What is it?” Jaehyun asks the moment he starts his vehicle but doesn’t move, watching you with amusement as you looked around the inside with complete adoration. “Ugly?”

“No,” you instantly shook your head, smiling as you turned to face him. “It’s just really beautiful.”

Jaehyun raised a brow, “Doesn’t Jungkook have something like this?”

You shook your head, frowning slightly at the mention of his name. “No, he chose to trade it in for a more family friendly one for us when we got Minho.” You answered, running your hand gently across the dashboard’s smooth material. “We got a Mercedes SUV, but still, sometimes I miss his old Camari.” The many memories of the times you and Jungkook used to spend in his car began to flash through your mind, warming your heart. “It reminded me of the good old days with him. When everything was simple.”

Noticing the tears beginning to glisten in your eyes, Jaehyun reached over and placed his hand on your thigh, squeezing it reassuringly. “Hey, you okay?”

You quickly nodded, clearing your throat and quickly blinking away the tears before they had the chance of escaping. “Yeah, I-I’m fine. Let’s just go, yeah?”

Jaehyun kept staring you, eyes filled with concern but nonetheless nodded and started to drive.

The drive was completely silent, neither of you saying a word to each other. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable though, but rather the opposite. Jaehyun and you were close with one another, close enough to where you two didn’t even have talk and yet still feel comfortable with each other.

When arriving at your house, your heart instantly sunk when seeing that Jungkook’s car wasn’t in the driveway. It was near eleven and his practice ended at eight. You knew exactly where he was right now—with her. Jaehyun must’ve noticed your fallen expression because next thing you knew you felt his hand on your shoulder. “Hey, if you need anyone to talk to, I’m here for you. You know that right? Always.”

You gave him a simple nod, smiling softly. “Yeah, I know.” Glancing back at the empty driveway, your heart ached as heinous thoughts of Jungkook and Yeonha together consumed and haunted your mind, tears swelling up in your eyes once again. You then turned towards Jaehyun, “Do you want to come in?”

Your question shocked Jaehyun, making his eyes widen. He thought you were joking. But when seeing your glistening eyes, shining with tears, he knew you were serious, so he nodded.

.

.

.

Time flew by, and now it was one in the morning.

You and Jaehyun were sitting on your living room’s couch, you dressed in your pajamas which consisted of one of his shirts and a pair of boxers while Jaehyun was still in his suit.

Neither of you were drinking surprisingly, but instead had the tub of your favorite ice cream placed between you two, sharing it with your own individual spoon.

Jaehyun kept his word when he said that he’d be there for you. He sat there while you told him everything that has been going with you in the past week—hell, even the last six months. You told him about Jungkook’s love for you vanishing and him gaining feelings for another person. You told him about your guys’ open relationship, explaining how that was the only choice you had to keep your family together even if that meant you and Jungkook weren’t together.

Tears were spilling from your eyes uncontrollably and heavy sobs were falling from your lips, making your words come out illegible, but Jaehyun continued to listen nonetheless. “I’m sorry, {Name}.” He was speechless. “You don’t deserve any of this.”

You could only shrug, afraid that if you spoke again nothing but cries would come out.

“Jungkook’s a complete asshole—” Jaehyun was interrupted at the sound of the front door opening, both of you turning to see that it was none other than your husband himself entering the house.

The sound of approaching footsteps made your heartbeat quicken and hands tremble. Jaehyun stared at you, noticing your sudden change in demeanor.

When Jungkook approached the living room, his eyes instantly landed on you, and just as he was about to speak, his gaze then shifted on to Jaehyun who sat very close beside you, his gaze immediately hardening at the sight of him.

“H-Hey,” you quickly stood up from the couch, Jaehyun following. “Didn’t know you were coming home tonight.”

Jungkook’s glaring eyes remained on Jaehyun as he asked you, “Where’s Minho?”

“He’s with my eomma.” You answered, playing with your fingers anxiously while staring down at the ground, distancing yourself from Jaehyun. His tone was dark, angry almost. “Tonight’s date night.”

Instantly, you noticed Jungkook tense up. Every now and then, your mother would come take Minho for the night, allowing you and Jungkook to have the rest of day for yourselves, saying how having days together can go a long way in a marriage. But you and Jungkook haven’t been on a date in half a year.

“I-I should go.” Jaehyun awkwardly spoke up, clearing his throat and grabbing his suit’s jacket that was draped over the couch.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” You agreed, guiding him towards the front door. Jungkook’s eyes never left Jaehyun as you bid him goodbye, not missing the way you smiled at him or how your eyes briefly scanned his strong figure.

The moment you closed the door, your heart sunk to your chest. Turning around, you were met with Jungkook’s burning eyes. He was angry, furious even. And you knew exactly why.

Jeon Jungkook hated Jung Jaehyun with every fiber and bone in his body.

~ shit’s about to go down in the next chapter!

TAGLIST:

@xworldwidecutieguyx​, @yoongis-soulmate​, @jikookvfans​, @heartfeltscribblings​, @chrissfuk​, @blazedprince​, @btsfaris​, @sonderkook​, @rspctot7​, @http-je0n​, @magic-fox-555​, @moonfairyjoon​, @taozibun1​, @ephemeralkookie​, @thesquiglybumblebee​, @httpjazel​, @justqueerandhereforthetea​, @dreamer95​, @--xxchrissyxx--,

[agerefandom]

Bedtime Tears

Fandom: Hetalia

Characters: Regressor!Italy/Feliciano, cgs Germany/Ludwig and Japan/Kiku

Words: 1,650

Summary: Feliciano has been having trouble with bedtime lately. Ludwig and Kiku are concerned.

Warnings: tantrums, tears/shouting, some little smooches (hand, forehead, cheek), mild physical intervention (Feliciano is using his hitting hands, Ludwig holds them, Feliciano is unhappy)

“But I don’t want to go to bed! No!”

Ludwig glanced up from his computer screen, hearing Feliciano’s voice echo from downstairs. This was becoming an unfortunately common occurrence, Feliciano having tantrums before bedtime. Ludwig could hear the faint murmur of Kiku’s voice, and hoped he’d be able to reason with the regressor.

His hopes were shattered by the next shout.

“I won’t go! You can’t make me! I want to draw and play with Alto and stay up! Please Kiku, please don’t make me go…” Ludwig could hear the tears beginning to fill Feliciano’s voice, and he pushed himself to his feet with a heavy sigh. Kiku panicked around tears, which meant it was time for intervention. Ludwig double-checked that his work was saved, closed his email, and headed downstairs.

“Ludwig!!” As soon as he stepped off the last stair, Feliciano crashed into Ludwig’s chest. He was in full tantrum mode, tears streaming down his face. “Please, please, please, don’t make me go to bed! You know I’ll be good, don’t you? You wouldn’t make me leave?”

“What is all this trouble?” Ludwig said, putting a hand on Feliciano’s head. Such a small man, their Feliciano. How so much energy fit into that tiny body, Ludwig would never understand. “Why are you giving Kiku backtalk about bedtime?”

“I don’t want to sleep!” Feliciano sobbed. “I don’t want to stop playing.”

“You will be able to play more in the morning,” Kiku murmured, appearing behind Feliciano with no warning. Ludwig managed not to jump, having lived with the other man’s soundless movements for years. “Bed is important for little ones.”

“No!!” Feliciano slammed his fists against Ludwig’s chest. “No bedtime!”

“Feliciano, we don’t hit each other in this house,” Ludwig said severely, catching Feliciano’s hands before he could draw them back for another strike. “Even if you are upset, we do not hurt others.”

“But it didn’t hurt you,” Feliciano accused, tugging against Ludwig’s grip ineffectually. “You’re strong and I’m weak and… please don’t make me go.”

“We have rules for a reason. We don’t hit, and bedtime is ten pm. Those are the rules we agreed on.” Ludwig squinted down at Feliciano’s wriggling form, tugging uselessly against Ludwig’s grip. He wasn’t really holding him that tightly, but he kept his grasp. “You know that.”

“Let me go!” Feliciano finally huffed, and Ludwig immediately released his hands. Feliciano spun on his heel and ran off out of the room, fast enough that Ludwig could imagine a dust cloud spinning in his wake.

“Mien Gott.” Ludwig sat down on the stairs, staring at the doorway Feliciano had disappeared through. “This is the third night he’s fought us about bedtime. What’s gotten into him?”

“I don’t know.” Kiku frowned slightly. “He seemed happy before bed came up. He had no problems with his nap earlier. Do you think he had a nightmare?”

“And didn’t wake us? I doubt it.” Ludwig was well used to Feliciano’s nightmares, and he always woke them up crying, desperate for cuddles (and often for a midnight snack). “I’m going to find him.”

“Good luck.” Kiku sighed, and pushed back his bangs for a moment. “Tell him I’m not angry, if he worries.”

“I will.”

Ludwig pressed a kiss to Kiku’s forehead and headed out the door after their upset regressor. He hesitated in the hallway: Feliciano loved playing hide-and-seek, and he was notoriously good at it. Ludwig would never have guessed how many places Feliciano could curl his body up to fit inside. Once he’d found Feliciano in the cabinet over the fridge, with no idea how he’d gotten up there.

Now there was a house stretching ahead of Ludwig, with any number of tiny corners that could be hiding the little boy he was looking for.

“Feliciano!” Ludwig called, and regretted the military tone he automatically slipped into. Wincing, he made a conscious effort to soften his voice. “Feliciano, please come talk to me.”

There was no answer. Behind him, he could hear Kiku beginning to neaten the living room, putting away some of Feliciano’s toys.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Ludwig said, beginning to walk towards the kitchen. “We won’t make you go to bed, I promise. We’re ready to listen.”

“Pinky promise?” asked Feliciano’s tearful voice from somewhere behind Ludwig.

“Yes, Liebling, I pinky promise.” Ludwig turned, holding out his pinky. Feliciano cautiously emerged from the basement door, a cobweb caught in his hair.

“I- I’m sorry.” Feliciano ducked his head and came forwards to hook his pinky into Ludwig’s, avoiding the other man’s eyes. “Am I in trouble?”

“You’re not in trouble,” Ludwig said. “Will you come and sit with us?”

“Okay, bene,” Feliciano said meekly. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.” Ludwig turned on his heel and led the way back to the living room, Feliciano trailing behind him. He hated seeing Feliciano like this, so quiet and withdrawn, eyes still shiny with tears. But he had broken the rules, and it was clear there was a problem. Ludwig should not give in and fall back on tickles, on chocolate milk, or on big warm hugs to save the day. They needed to talk.

Kiku looked up from his tidying and straightened when he saw Feliciano behind Ludwig. Wordlessly, he held out his arms. Feliciano choked on a sob and ran straight into the embrace, clinging to Kiku.

“I’m sorry!” Feliciano bawled. “I’m sorry I yelled, and I was such a brat, and I won’t do it ever again! I wouldn’t blame you if you left forever and didn’t want to see me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Hush, little one.” Kiku patted Feliciano’s head. “It is alright. We will talk about what you need.”

“O-okay.” Feliciano drew back from the hug, wiping his nose and eyes. Ludwig sighed and grabbed several Kleenexes from the box on the side table, approaching the weeping boy.

“Blow,” he instructed, holding one of the tissues to Feliciano’s nose. Feliciano obediently blew his nose with a sad honking noise. “Good. Again.” Once Feliciano’s nose was clean, Ludwig used the other tissues to wipe his cheeks and clean the fingers Feliciano had been using to wipe his snot. “There. All done.”

Ludwig straightened and went into the kitchen to throw the used Kleenexes in the garbage, and by the time he got back, Feliciano and Kiku were both sitting on the couch. Ludwig sat on Feliciano’s left side, so that he was between his two caregivers.

“Okay, let’s talk. Why are you so upset about bedtime, Liebling? You know you need sleep.”

“I know.” Feliciano teared up again, his eyes cast down to his hands. “I’m sorry. It’s silly.” Ludwig couldn’t tell if Feliciano was still regressed or not, but he waited patiently.

“It’s just-” Feliciano broke off, sniffling. Ludwig passed him the box of Kleenexes, which got him a small watery smile. “Well, Ludwig, you’re so busy. I hate going to sleep because I know you’re staying up.”

“Feliciano…” Ludwig stared at him, at a loss for words. “I don’t have free time at night to play, honestly. I go to bed as soon as I finish working.”

“I know that.” Feliciano curled up, hiding his face with a tissue. “I guess I just hope? That you might have time? And when I go to bed, that hope is over. And I can’t. I can’t let go of the hope.”

“Schatz, I’m sorry.” Ludwig tugs Feliciano into his arms, cradles him close. “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy and I didn’t realize you were missing me.”

“I know your work is important,” Feliciano sniffled. “I shouldn’t… be so upset.”

“No, no!” Ludwig held him closer. “My work isn’t as important as you are. I could be delegating more of it. You know me, I… I like to keep a close eye on things. But I have a good team. They can handle some of the work.”

“Really?” Feliciano’s big eyes peeked up at Ludwig from behind his Kleenex.

“Absolutely.” Ludwig nodded, determined. “In fact, I would like to call in sick tomorrow and spend the day with you.”

“REALLY?” Feliciano’s mouth dropped open.

“Yes, really.”

“It will be good to see you more,” Kiku put in, placing a hand on Ludwig’s arm where it curled around Feliciano. “I have also been missing you.”

“I missed you both as well,” Ludwig admitted. “It’s been a long few weeks. I think a break with my favourite people will be… good.” The anxiety was already twisting in his stomach at the thought of taking a full day off work, but he pushed it back. This was his family. They deserved his time. Things at the company wouldn’t fall apart just because he stepped away for one day.

“I love you,” Feliciano whispered, pressing his face against Ludwig’s chest.

“I love you too,” Ludwig said, cradling Feliciano’s head carefully. “Now, why don’t we go brush your teeth and cuddle in bed?”

“That sounds nice.”

Feliciano looked halfway to falling asleep in Ludwig’s arms already, his eyelashes brushing his cheeks as he blinked longer and slower, his eyes clearly resisting being open.

“I’ll see you in bed,” Ludwig said to Kiku, and was met with a quiet smile and nod. Kiku reached out and smoothed Feliciano’s hair back from his face, then sat back.

“I look forward to it.”

“Love you!!” Feliciano said, reaching towards Kiku.

“I love you too.” Kiku caught Feliciano’s hand, pressed a small kiss to his palm, and stood. “Be nice for Ludwig, and I’ll see you soon.”

“You guys really are the best,” Feliciano said, sleepily returning to Ludwig’s embrace. “I want to be with you forever.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Ludwig promised, and he meant it.