#I wonder if my mom will pick out which two spideys I like during the movie;;

[svampiir]

Hopefully gonna see ATSV again on Monday so I can pick up stuff I missed. My mom wanted to see it so I am taking her too since it's her birthday and stuff. The only problem is that the movie is at like 11 am so I gotta get up and leave early like 9:50 in the morning.

[uwuwriting]

Breaking in pt.2 w/ Aizawa, Shinsou and Bakugou

Request: Hi!! SoooOO I recently found your stuff and it's safe to say I am ✨obsessed✨ I LOVED the post you did of the BNHA reacting to someone breaking in with Hawks, Dabi and Todoroki. I was wondering if you could do another one with like Shinsou, Bakugou and Aizawa. I feel like Baku would throw mad HANDS. love your work stay stuff and have a good day x - anonymous

Okay I too love rescue fics and being kidnapped or held hostage is one of my favorite tropes. Throwing your kids in the mix is immaculat at least for me because I’m a die hard fan of domestic AUs. So of course I’m gonna write this trope again with these three idiots. I enjoyed writing the previous one so hehheehehehhe. Love ya. 💖💖💖

masterlist II rules

warnings: some descriptions of violence, some crying but fluff/comfort in the end. 

Aizawa Shota II a son (Kaito)

-He was running late. 

-He hated running late.

-Today the class had extra training hours and it lasted longer than he expected, so much so that he had to call for someone to fill in his spot on patrol tonight. 

-In reality he really wanted to spend the night at home with you and your 2 year old son, canceling his patrol because the kids didn’t finish training was just an excuse. 

-He had shot you a text informing you that he would be home tonight but a little later than usual. 

-You had just picked up Kaito from his aunt when you got Aizawa’s message. 

-You were excited to spend some time with your husband. 

-Between your time teaching and his midnight patrols, the only moments you truly got to spend with him were in between the classes or when he came home for dinner and then immediately left. 

-You knew he felt bad leaving the two of you alone for so long and you knew he beat himself up for missing precious time with his son. 

-Opening your apartment door you were met with complete silence which was odd. 

-Usually your three cats, Mochi, Mocha and Coco would meet you at the door, mewing and purring at your feet, Kaito always wanting to be put down so he could pet them. 

-Now though none of them came and you immediately knew something was up. 

-Your spidey senses were tingling. 

-Setting your stuff down you held Kaito closer to you as you slowly walked around your living room and kitchen. 

-Nothing seemed amiss.

-Kaito let out a small whimper and shifted in your grip as something moved behind you.

-Just because you retired from being a hero doesn’t mean your skills have disappeared. 

-Oh no, as a new mom you were hyper aware of your surroundings and you easily dodged the blow that was aimed at your head. 

-Whipping around you came face to face with a hooded figure that seemed more like a burglar than a villain. 

-The dude's eyes quickly landed on Kaito and he let out a shaky breath. 

-They definitely weren’t villains.

-People were aware of Aizawa’s family and any villain who tried to get to him through you would have known about Kaito’s existence. 

- “Shit…. Yo she has a kid!” 

-Another one came pounding from the hallway, eyes quickly landing on the baby you had clutched to your chest. 

-Letting out an exasperated sigh the second intruder rolled his eyes, grabbing an umbrella from the hanger and slowly making his way towards you. 

-  “Just knock her out and tie her up, put the kid in a crib or something.” 

-You weren’t about to let them touch your son, they wouldn’t even be able to come remotely near him. 

-Activating your quirk, thrumming filled the air as you were prepared to fight them, to keep them away from the crying child in your arms and that’s when you saw him. 

-He is always so silent, his footsteps so gentle on the marble floor of your apartment that you have convinced yourself that he is indeed half cat at this point. 

-Aizawa was burning holes at the back of their heads, hair up as he activated his quirk, cancelling theirs. 

-You kissed Kaito as Shota let his capture tool fly across the room successfully trapping the two burglars. 

-In six strides you were next to him, checking for injuries on each other while simultaneously trying *and failing mostly* to calm your 2 year old down. 

-The police were called, naming this whole incident as a random burglary and not a scheduled attack, relieving both of you; you didn’t wanna move again. 

-That night Kaito slept in your room, cuddled on Aizawa’s chest as you were nestled under his arm. 

-Three fur balls were curled at the foot of your shared bed, purring away lulling you to sleep. 

-You found those three locked in your bathroom.

-Apparently Mocha had scratched the living hell out of one of the burglars and they had locked all of them in the bathroom for safe measure.

- “I’m sorry for this.”

- “Burglaries happen Shota, it wasn’t your fault. I’m glad you came when you did, fighting while holding Kaito would have been kinda difficult. I think I might be getting kinda rusty.”

-He stroked Kaito’s plush cheek before letting out a sigh. 

- “I have never seen him cry like that. When he sees me he always calms down but now-”

- “He was scared, Shota. He saw them before I did and the whole situation shook him up. But he’ll be fine, he’s got us.” 

-Giving you a kiss and then placing another one on his son’s forehead, he closed his eyes, arms tightening around the both of you a little. 

Shinsou Hitoshi II a daughter (Kei)

-Hitoshi had been to every single pharmacy in the area searching for Kei’s medication. 

-She had gotten sick and you had asked him to fetch some antibiotics your pediatrician had suggested you give her if her fever didn’t go down.

-Now, Hitoshi was getting desperate. 

-It was the flu season and almost all the pharmacies had emptied their shelves from this particular antibiotic. 

-He was ready to pull his hair out. 

-Apart from that, he also hated leaving you alone like this. 

-You both needed him at the moment and he wasn’t helping at all. 

-Kei was suffering from her fever while you were about 7 weeks pregnant and he was out here running around like a maniac. 

-In one last desperate attempt he entered another pharmacy and to his surprise they had what he was looking for and he was out the door in a flash, leaving the store without giving the clerk enough time to say a single ‘thank you, come again.’ 

-Sprinting home, he dashed into your apartment complex and up the stairs, fumbling for his keys as he neared your door only to find it already ajar. 

-Slowing down he looked at the open entryway; he was sure he closed it on the way out. 

-Why hadn’t you closed it? 

-Pushing it open he came face to face with a disheveled living room, Kei’s toys scattered everywhere while one of your armchairs was knocked over. 

-A small whimper suddenly pierced the air and Hitoshi would recognize his daughter’s cries from anywhere. 

-A deep voice told her to shut up which was answered by your angry voice threatening to beat the living shit out of them if they touched her. 

-With silent steps, Hitoshi tiptoed to your daughter’s room where he could hear the talking only to stop dead in his tracks when shuffling came from your bedroom. 

-Another figure emerged from your bedroom halting once they saw Shinsou. 

- “What th-”

- “Sleep.” 

-Without bothering to check if the intruder passed out, Hitoshi pushed open the door, his anger radiating all around him at the very thought that someone had touched his family. 

-The second person whipped around at the sound of the door opening, eyes wide as they met Hitoshi’s, fumbling to activate their quirk. 

-They made the fatal mistake of speaking though and soon they were unconscious just like their friend, laying on the pastel carpet of Kei’s room. 

-In one swift motion he had Kei in his arms and untied your wrists, rubbing the irritated skin and checking for injuries. 

-Kei wouldn’t calm down, her grip on his shirt turned to iron once the police dragged them out of your house. 

- “I wish I could beat their ass.” 

- “You know you can’t use your quirk right now kitten.” 

- “Yeah but they pissed me off.” 

-Your doctor had forbidden quirk use during the pregnancy and that’s why those two morons had managed to catch you. 

-The scowl on your face had become almost permanent and Shinsou couldn’t decide if he should find it cute or terrifying.

-Kei became attached to Hitoshi’s chest.  

-Hitoshi refused to let her go just like she refused to let him go, staying in his embrace for the rest of the day, any attempt to get her away from him resulting in tears. 

-You are kinda salty but some ice cream will fix that. 

Bakugou Katsuki II A son (Tatsuo)

- “Okay kids, you have a nice weekend and don’t forget to finish your family portraits for Monday. Tatsuo and I would love to see them.” 

-A multitude of goodbyes came through the screen as your kindergarten class, some of your students even opened their cameras to wave at you and your son who was sitting on your lap. 

-Tatsuo babbled back at them, little byes leaving his lips as he too waved back at your laptop. 

-Being in quarantine wasn’t that bad for a kindergarten teacher. 

-Your online classes weren’t difficult to manage and you got to spend more time with your two year old son. 

-The class loved seeing him and would ask if he was joining them each morning. 

-Closing your laptop, you hugged your mini Katsuki as you started heating up his milk. 

-You were humming, gently rocking him as you waited for the milk, giving him stray kisses here and there just to see his little nose scrunch up reminding you of Katsuki more and more everyday. 

-Checking your phone for any new messages, you let out a sigh at your husband’s message saying he was coming home; that was thirty minutes ago. 

-Hero work didn’t let up despite the quarantine. 

-Bakugou was as busy as ever, leaving first thing in the morning and most of the time returning home late in the afternoon sometimes staying out even after midnight. 

-Today though he had managed to get off earlier than usual, promising to cook for both of you tonight. 

-You knew he wanted to spend more time with Tatsuo and the fact that he was gone for the majority of the day was eating him up. 

-He was so worried that he was neglecting his son; he even convinced himself that Tatsuo would soon come to hate him. 

-Your son on the other hand was attached to Katsuki’s hip, always searching for his dad in the morning and beaming when Katsu came home. 

-He could never hate him. 

-The sound of the door opening snapped you out of your little Katsuki infused dream state. 

-Turning around you expected to see your husband in the living room, arms stretched out as he smiled at the two of you. 

-But you were met with three strangers; three hooded strangers holding a crowbar and two bags. 

-It was a staring contest for a solid five minutes before either of you moved. 

-One of them noticed Tatsuo and nudged his “coworker” who then informed the leader of the trio. 

- “Better not make a sound sweetheart, I’d hate hurting that pretty little face of yours.” 

-He took a step forward only for you to take a step back, until your back hit the cupboard. 

-He let out a chuckle and motioned for his rookies to search the place as he continued walking towards you. 

-Tastuo was gripping your shirt, eyes trained on the man, his brows downcast in anger. 

-Your phone lit up on the counter and in one swift move you grabbed it, pressing your emergency call button as the intruder rounded the counter. 

-You sprinted for the front door just as Katsuki picked up only to be grabbed by one of the other two and dragged back inside the house, Katsuki’s yells echoing through the phone. 

-Now you are aware that your husband is one of the top pro heroes. 

-You know that in order to rise to the top charts in this industry you need to have certain attributes like strength, tactical thinking ….speed. 

-You felt him more than saw him. 

-You were wrestling to get the hands of the intruder off of you when you felt the windows rattle. 

-And before you knew it, your husband had tackled the man holding you to the floor, knocking him unconscious with a single punch before pouncing on the other two. 

-Tatsuo was letting out small hiccups as tears rolled down his cheeks, his grip on your shirt never wavering but he refused to sob. 

-He had his father’s pride okay? Even at the age of two. 

-Katsuki had you both in his arms in a flash, calling the police before checking both of you over for injuries and what not. 

- “Did they hurt you? I swear I’ll kill them if they did.” 

-  “We are fine Katsu, just a little shaken.” 

-The moment Tatsuo was in Katsuki’s arms he began to cry, burying his face in his dad’s chest still holding on to your shirt. 

-It took an eternity to calm him down and even longer to put him to sleep, even though he was sleeping in your bed. 

-The next morning Katsuki was on the news for marching to the police station and beating the living hell out of the burglars. 

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[angelic-holland]

Puzzle Pieces // th x fem!reader

Summary: 

Sometimes puzzles don’t quite fit, it’s almost perfect, but that almost perfect doesn’t make a puzzle whole. 

Falling out of love wasn’t earth-shattering, it wasn’t a big revelation that hit you all at once, your world didn’t crumble to the ground around you quickly. Falling out of love was almost as painful as falling in love. Filled with many of the same moments, your chest tightens when you see them, your eyes grow wide when you think about your future, unsure and so wickedly unaware, you wonder if they ever loved you at all, or if that was the piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite fit. Defective. A factory mess up. Wasn’t meant to be. 

Warnings: angst, fluff, smut if you squint

Word Count: an excruciating 10k

A/N: (***) indicates a time skip, long groups of italics indicate a flashback

One night you came across a Spiderman puzzle in the window of a toy store.

The look of pure excitement when he came back from filming Spiderman: Homecoming to see you laying on the carpet with Tessa, the puzzle box sat in front of you was all he needed to know that he was home. 

“Hey baby, what’s this?” He asks, setting his suitcase by the door and greeting Tessa who ran up to him, jumping up and slobbering kisses all over his face. 

“Thought it would be fun, a little puzzle for us to do while you’re here,” you shrug, “saw it in the window of the toy store on my way to work and thought of you.”

“Tessa’s gonna destroy this in a minute,” he laughs as he settles on the floor next to you, Tessa curling up by his side.

“Then we’ve got one minute to appreciate our work of art,” you grin, dumping the puzzle pieces out of the box.

It’s 100 pieces but it’s been a while since either of you have completed a puzzle so you and Tom spend the rest of the night giggling and playfully fighting over which red piece fits where on the spidersuit. 

“It’s 2am,” you groan, Tom’s foot playing with your own as you push down the last piece of the puzzle.

“We’re like two pieces of a puzzle, fit together perfectly,” he says, fingers running over the last piece you added.

“That’s cute,” you smile, looking at your work.

Tessa was sound asleep next to Tom, stirring slightly as he moved to kiss you.

You rolled onto your back, Tom straddling your hips, “missed you,” He says, leaving kisses along your cheek to your mouth.

“Missed you more,” you sigh against his lips before your hands slid into his hair, letting yourself get lost in the feeling of his weight on top of you, one hand holding himself up, the other softly stroking your cheek.

His tongue met yours and you giggled as you heard Tessa rustling above you and the inevitable crack of the puzzle getting torn apart as she walked over it, wet tongue licking a stripe up Tom’s cheek, causing him to pull apart from you, body shaking with laughter. 

“Tessa! Mum and dad are getting busy here,” he grins, rolling off of you and standing up, offering his hand to you.

“Are we locking her out of the room tonight?” You say excitedly as he pulls you down the hallway.

“Technically it’s morning, but yes, Tessa, it’s bedtime, we’ve got important business to get to.”

“Wait! She’s gonna eat those puzzle pieces if we don’t pick them up,” you say, pausing in your path.

“I’ll put it away, you go get naked,” he says, pointing at your bedroom and giving your ass a light slap before running back to the living room.

You laugh as you hear him greet Tessa again, the sound of the puzzle getting put back in the box moving to the back of your mind as you quickly pull your clothes off, laying on the bed and waiting for Tom.

“Tessa!” You hear him shout and you see the grey dog run into your room, jumping on the bed as Tom scrambles in, too late.

You’re in stitches as you pull the sheet over your naked form, giving Tessa a belly rub as Tom leans against the door. Eyes twinkling as he watches you both. 

“My two favorite girls,” he teases as he tosses his jacket on the ground.

“Can we kick one of your favorite girls out, the other’s got a welcome back present for you,” you smirk and Tom nods.

“Get lost Y/N, Tessa and I have some cuddling to make up for.”

“Tom!” You scoff, tossing the sheet aside and crossing your arms, which may or may not have pushed your breasts up front and center.

“I’m kidding, pretty girl, now what’s that welcome back present you had in mind?” He laughs as Tessa jumps off the bed to greet him again. 

Tom ushers Tessa out, giving her one last cuddle before closing the door, raising his eyebrow as he slowly strips for you.

“Hurry up mister, I’ve missed you,” you say, holding your hands out to urge him into bed.

“As you wish pretty girl,” he smirks.

You two spent the rest of the early morning rolling around in the sheets, making up for lost time, whispered and breathless “I love you” as you both took turns making each other feel just right. And you both were giggling, giggling when his elbow accidentally smacked the headboard or when you told him to “use your spidey strength”. 

You remember telling your friend how you and Tom would usually find something to laugh about during sex and at first she said that was weird but then she quickly changed her mind.

“If you're able to find someone who can make you feel really good AND make you laugh while doing it? You must be in love.”

And you smiled because she’s right, you were head over heels in love.

***

And so it became a thing. Tom would leave for a little bit, you ignored how long he was gone, because it didn’t hurt as much if you weren’t constantly counting down the days until he’s back.

You would go about your normal routine, finding more and more elaborate puzzles for you to piece together when he got home. 

“Hey gorgeous, I missed you,” He says, laying on his stomach next to you, hand gently resting atop your own as you smiled at him, Tessa vying for his attention on the other side, nose nuzzling his head as he gives you a quick kiss.

“How was filming?” You ask as he pets Tessa with his other hand.

“Tiring, but nothing would make me happier than making this puzzle, what’ve we got today?” He asks, eyes twinkling with interest as your hand sifts through the small puzzle pieces in front of you.

“The Iron Man mask,” you nod at the box in front of you.

“Using the box is cheating!” He says hand moving to shove it away.

“Is not! It’s just a tool we can use if we get stuck.”

“But we never get stuck, not really, we work too well to not be able to figure out a little puzzle,” Tom smiles, breaking out into a chuckle when Tessa nudges a piece of the puzzle with her nose towards him.

“I think she wants us to start,” you smirk, and Tom nods, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as the two of you concentrate on putting the puzzle together while you talk about the fun times he had on set with the cast and crew of Endgame, the conversation quickly turns to the best villain in the MCU, which he argues is “totally Thanos since they’ve been building it up for years and years.”

“Nope,” you grin, confident in your pick. 

“Then who?” He asks, hand fiddling with a puzzle, only a few pieces left.

“Ego!”

“What? No way,” he says, shaking his head.

“Okay hear me out, you think he’s a good guy to start with right? Quill’s dad, finally found him after years and years of searching for him. You’re rooting for him and you keep rooting for him as he tells the story of how Quill’s mom and him fell in love, and you see Quill slowly let his guard down, his wall crumbles, he’s got a dad and he just wants to know more about him, who he is, what he can do. And it turns out who he thought was his dad was the villain all along. Absolutely devastating, nobody cares about Thanos or whatever shit backstory they’ll give him.”

“Okay, okay, I think you won this round, reminds me, let’s rewatch the guardians movies sometime okay? We can have a movie night?”

“I’d love that,” you say as your hand holds the final piece of the puzzle.

His hand covers your own as you gently place it where it belongs, the edges matching perfectly with the surrounding pieces.

“We’re like two pieces of a puzzle,” Tom starts and you erupt into giggles as his hand tickles you.

“We fit together perfectly,” you are able to finish as he kisses along your neck.

How something so perfect could fall apart so easily? 

The answer to this question kept you up at night.

***

“Hey,” Tom huffs out as he collapses on the couch next to you, a small smile adorning his lips when Tessa sneaks from across your lap to lay between the two of you. 

“Hi,” you grin, head resting on his shoulder as his hand intertwined with your own.

“Missed you,” he mumbles and you smile.

“Missed you more,” you breathe out. It was all seemed so easy. The little moments like this, the moments right after he returned, seeing him after he’s gone made your heart flutter. You were just so happy to have him home you wanted to spend every second he was back with him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible, you had work, you both had friends and family, but regardless, you carved out as much time as possible to spend with him. That’s why these silly little puzzles were so important to you. Because it was something the two of you did together, you always did, and it was something to look forward to. 

The puzzle is sitting on the table in front of you, open but not disturbed.

“Shall we?” You ask, nodding towards the puzzle on the coffee table in front of you, a new addition to your living room. You should’ve had a coffee table when you first moved in together but it wasn’t something either of you thought much about until your mom jokingly chastised you about it. 

“Where would you put your drinks, where would you put popcorn and snacks while you watch movies? And your coasters, just get a coffee table, you won’t regret it.”

And so you did, went on a furniture run and picked up a small coffee table that Tom and you put together one day. You smile at the memory.

***

“I can totally help,” you say, holding up the directions as Tom’s gentle hands build the coffee table.

“You’re holding the instructions upside down,” he laughs, turning them in your hands.

“I totally knew that,” you huff, smiling at him before showing him the next step. 

He looked so hot building it, sweat beading on his forehead, eyebrows knitted in concentration as he built. Biceps flexing as he moved. 

The second it was finished you practically jumped him, kissing him deeply.

“Did this turn you on?” He laughs as he sets you on the coffee table.

“Careful! We don’t want it to break!” You say, about to get up when his hands spread your thighs.

“Nah, I built it, it’s pretty sturdy, promise, we can test it out right now,” he says, kissing up your thigh. 

“Great plan,” you breathe out.

***

“Guess so,” Tom says with a shrug, eyes no longer glimmering in excitement.

You watch as he kneels on the floor, you follow suit and sit next to him. You move to rest your head on his shoulder and he leans back to stretch at the same time, making you almost fall into his lap.

Maybe before it would be funny, you’d laugh and lay there as he played with your hair. The vibration of his body from his laughter comforting you. Now you just sat back up, head tilting curiously at the man next to you, seemingly a stranger as he fumbled around with the puzzle pieces, slowly placing each one in their spot. It was a big picture of dogs, one of which reminded you of Tessa, which was the reason you bought it.

“This puzzle’s boring,” he sighs as you're about halfway finished. The conversation at a stalemate, neither of you had much to say. You never did anymore. Telephone conversations while he was gone were now short and to the point. You started counting down the days until Tom was home, each day filling your heart with a sloshy mix of impending doom and heartache. Your mind wasn’t sure whether to be excited about his return, or afraid that the inevitable was quickly approaching.

“We don’t haveta finish it now, let’s just go to bed, you’ve had a long day,” you say, moving your hand to rest on top of his. His hand is tense and stiff under yours. Cold.

“Okay,” he mumbles, getting up, your hand drops to the ground, neglected. Before he would pull you up with him, kissing you like he did on your first date, short but sweet and passionate. Now it was a mumbled goodnight as you both turned in opposite directions on the bed, Tessa squeezing between the two of you. An unspoken barrier as you slept.

***

“Maybe another night,” Tom smiles as he greets you, hand tugging you into the bedroom when he got back from filming reshoots of Chaos Walking.

You figured he wanted to spend the night doing something else, something a little more R rated than a puzzle. 

You sigh into his hug, his arms no longer bone crushing, lung squeezing, just limp around your waist.

“Missed you,” you mumble into his neck, kissing along it while his hands tighten on your hips. You think he’s going to pull you to him, make his body flush with your own, having you panting and moaning his name until the sunrise reminds you that you have other things to do.

Finally.

“Not tonight,” he says, hands pushing your body gently away from him. 

“Okay,” you nod, head dropping to look at the ground, the empty space. Feeling the wall between you get thicker, once paper thin it’s now tough concrete.

“Just tired,” he sighs, stripping off his T-shirt and laying on the bed.

You follow suit, brushing your teeth, taking a very hot and very long shower to mask the tears you let trickle down your face. 

When did his body start to feel so cold against your own? The hot water running over your bare skin reminds you of the heat you’d feel rise to your cheeks when he said he loved you, even after 4 years those three words managed to make you blush. It reminded you of his fingers dragging along your skin as you welcomed him home, an activity that wasn’t very common now. 

When you got back he was fast asleep, body curled up with Tessa behind him. 

You smile at the sight, something that never failed to make you smile even when you felt like this.

You changed into your sleep shorts and one of his shirts, carefully climbing into the bed so you didn’t disturb him. 

As you lay, breath shallow, heartbeat fast against your ribcage, you faced the wall, staring at the window as the stars twinkled outside, wishing you were anywhere but here.

You freeze when you feel his hands pull you closer to him, head resting on your shoulder as your back rests against his chest. 

Your body relaxes as his fingers run up and down your arm, goosebumps erupting along your skin, heart slowing to normal. 

He’s silent, maybe he’s asleep, maybe he was just waiting for you to fall asleep so he can roll to the side and ignore you for the rest of the night. 

You pushed aside the fear you would wake up next to an empty spot, covers pushed down, cold where Tom used to lay. You wanted to appreciate the now. Because you honestly didn’t know how much of this you had left. 

As your breathing slowed to normal, your body much more relaxed against his own, you felt his lips mouth something against your skin, the words barely there, hardly scratching the surface of reality.

“Like pieces of a puzzle,” he says, voice groggy and sleep riddled. 

That had to be the only way he’d say it now, in his sleep, he hasn’t said it in what felt like ages, why say it now? 

“fit together perfectly,” he says, voice soft against your neck, legs intertwining with your own.

Perfectly.

You let out a shaky breath, “love you.”

“Love you too,” he mumbles against your neck, kissing it gently.

He’s not asleep. You feel the concrete wall start to crumble.

***

Tom had to stay an extra day in Korea. Which would’ve been fine if he called and told you. You got home from work earlier last night, changing into a pretty dress, the same dress you wore on your first date, long and floral printed. You and he had plans to go to a fancy restaurant near your flat, he’d meet you there once his flight landed. 

The embarrassment you felt sitting in that fancy restaurant, hair done, makeup done, nursing a vodka soda while the waiter would come to check in every once and awhile was mortifying.

“Your significant other here?” He’d ask and you’d smile sadly.

“Think he’s ditched me,” you laugh, feeling the tears well in your eyes.

You quickly paid for the alcohol and left, not wanting to embarrass yourself further. 

You allowed yourself a long shower, letting the mirror fog up with the steam from the heat. 

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. 

Scrub the makeup off your face. You only did it to try to make Tom smile, maybe he’d call you his beautiful girlfriend and your smile would be so wide you swore it looked stupid, then he’d say he loved your stupidly wide smile. He was never a fan of your put downs. Always encouraging you to talk about the things you liked about yourself instead. 

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

Scrub the heat into your skin, pretend it’s Tom because the only heat you’ve gotten is the heat you feel when you’re arguing, a bad heat, nasty as a forest fire that’s about to destroy something beautiful. 

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

Scrub the pain in your heart when you think about what was and what is the status of your relationship.

Previously full of sensual I love you’s and long phone conversations when he filmed, about anything and everything and nothing at all, just to hear each other’s voices. 

Now it’s mumbled and what felt like insincere love you’s and phone conversations you weren’t even sure could count as conversations. Mainly “I’ll be home then” and “I miss you”.

Did you miss him? 

Once when he was finishing his press tour in China he told you over the phone he heard a song and made him think of you. You were shocked into silence. What did you say? What could you say? You weren’t expecting him to say something like that. You also didn’t expect him to think about you when he was away. Always busy, interviews, friends, photo shoots. Did he have time to stop and think about you? Despite constantly thinking about him, you figured his cold hands and concrete wall told you all you needed to know. 

“Yeah, they were playing English hits through the years and one of them was No One Like You, by the Scorpians, have ya heard it?”

“No.”

“Well I dunno, just made me think of you is all.”

“I guess I’ll listen to it then.”

“You should. I gotta go but I love you okay?”

“Love you too.”

You got out of the shower and wrapped yourself in a towel, feet now cold against the floor of your flat you changed into your pajamas, another one of Tom’s T-shirt’s, your eyes welled up at the scent. The scent of him, clinging to your body in the form of his dark blue shirt. It smelled like expensive cologne masked by nature, the smell of pine and grass from walks with Tessa. 

You settled on the couch, staring at the puzzle you had set up before leaving for the restaurant, lip quivering as you called him.

“Hi baby, how are you?”

“Forgetting something?” You ask, nothing but bitter discontent in your voice. 

“Fuck,” you hear him groan.

“It’s fine, had my first vodka soda in ages while looking like a loser whose date stood her up. It was fun,” you lie.

“They needed me to stay another day, I’m sorry,” his tone pleading but not apologetic.

“Well you could’ve told me.”

“I’m sorry! How was I supposed to know they’d want me here another day? Don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad at you Tom! I’m really not! Enjoy South Korea, please,” you sigh into the phone, fingers tapping at the coffee table, Tessa curled up by your side. 

“I should’ve called you last night when I found out. The timezones are messing with my head.”

“It’s fine,” your tone portraying the exact opposite.

All it took was one phone call, so fucking easy. Even a text message would suffice. Anything to tell you that he wouldn’t be home. 

“I’m sorry,” he says again.

“I’m tired, it’s late, I’m gonna go to bed,” you say, pausing, waiting for him to say something, an I love you. 

“Okay.” 

It never came. 

You hung up before any more words passed between you. Besides, what else was there to say?

***

You’re exhausted as you slip out of your work clothes, tugging on your pajamas as Tessa runs circles around you.

“Taken you for a walk sweetheart, let’s go wait for dad alright?” You say, feet dragging your tired body to the couch, all but collapsing on it as Tessa wriggles her body to lay right on top of you.

“Silly girl,” you giggle, eyeing the puzzle box on the coffee table. He’d get home and you’d put the puzzle together and you’d laugh as his hand covers your own, nuzzling your neck as he whispers, “we’re two puzzle pieces, fit together perfectly,” as the last piece slides in.

That’s what you wanted. 

Lately, it was a lot of, “Maybe tomorrow”, “this puzzle’s boring”, the puzzle boxes accumulating dust as they sat on your bookshelf. 

You hear the turn of the lock and Tom’s feet dragging into the apartment, much the same style as yours. 

“Hi,” he mumbles out, not bothering to stop in the living room like he always did when he returned from filming or press.

Tessa perks up and jumps off you, running to greet Tom. 

“Hi princess,” he greets her, voice enthusiastic and excited. You don’t even bother getting up as he walks down the hallway to your bedroom. You hear Tessa move back and jump up on the couch with you, whining and nudging your head to look back at the damn puzzle.

You grumble, sitting up and opening the puzzle box, spreading the puzzle out in front of you. You bought one with the London Eye, where Tom took you on your first date. Hoping, praying, that maybe this would bring back the long lost spark in his eyes when he looked at you.

You settled in on the floor, leaning against the couch with Tessa curled up next to you. 

“Might as well,” you sigh, collecting the edge pieces. 

Your heart pounded in your chest as you waited for a ‘goodnight’ that never came. 

What the hell were you doing here?

You feel a tear slip down your cheek and you laugh bitterly when Tessa licks it off, groaning at her slobber. 

“Tess,” you giggle, hands busying themselves with fitting the edges together. You worked and worked as you heard Tom moving around in your bedroom.

Eventually, the noise stopped, he must be asleep. And you didn’t blame him, flights all over the world really wore him down and he had every right to sleep. You couldn’t be mad at him either, for forgetting your date, for losing touch with reality when he was away. You could never be mad at him, not truly. Your hands work mindlessly putting together the puzzle and you ignore the dull ache in your heart. You don’t even recognize that you’re still crying until your tears drop onto the puzzle. Your hand shakes as you wipe them away, body shaking with silent sobs. 

What happened? 

Time happened.

Distance happened.

You didn’t try anymore, neither of you put much care or time into loving each other. It wasn’t effortless like it was in the beginning. Falling in love was so much easier than staying in love. Making time for each other took energy, both exhausted from the toll of life, even going out on a date took a month’s planning. And even then it sometimes didn’t work out.

When was the last time Tom and you went on a date? 

You laughed, the thought left a bitter taste in your mouth, face crinkled in disappointment.

Tessa noticed your discomfort and nuzzled her head against your middle, resting her upper body on your legs as you worked.  

Time didn’t seem to pass, or it passed all too slowly. One mind didn’t work as fast as two. You wished there were a second set of hands, one resting gently on a part of your body, your waist, thigh, back, the other excitedly helping you piece together the puzzle. His voice sweetly whispering how you two fit together perfectly.

Your hand shook as it picked up the last piece. 

This is it.

You’re done.

You gently whispered, “we’re like two pieces of a puzzle, fit together perfectly.” Your voice cracked when you said perfectly like your mind was telling you you’re wrong wrong wrong. There’s no fixing this. You frowned as you attempted to push down the last piece, a side of the London Eye’s base. A very important part, if this were the real thing, the whole infrastructure wouldn’t hold up, but it didn’t seem to fit, no matter how you turned it.

You sat back and your teary eyes scanned the rest of the puzzle, every other piece was where it belonged. 

Right?

You grabbed the box, the picture was flipped down, you didn’t want to cheat as Tom would say. 

Your eyes darted between the picture and the puzzle in front of you on the coffee table. 

Every other piece was right where it needed to be, nothing out of place.

Then why didn’t this piece fit?

Your hands shook as you pressed down the piece into the puzzle. 

Fit, fit, fit. 

Why won’t you fit?

You didn’t realize you said this out loud until Tessa’s ears perked up, looking at you curiously. She had settled down to rest with her body pressed against yours. Maybe she knew you missed the warmth of Tom’s body pressed tightly by your side. 

“I don’t know either,” you laugh, fingers angrily shoving the stupid puzzle piece in. It bounced right out, almost mocking you.

“Come on, come on, come on,” you cry out, knees tucking into your chest as you sobbed, tossing the puzzle piece behind you. Eyes squeezing shut as you breathed harshly through your nose. 

Pointless. 

You don’t hear the quiet patter of footsteps behind you, you don’t realize Tom was watching you this entire time, you didn’t see Tom sit down on the other side of you, puzzle piece in a shaky hand. Your eyes were squeezed shut, hot tears running down your cheeks.

The feeling of his hand on top of yours on the coffee table made you almost jump out of your skin. Your head turns wearily, forcing your eyes open to look at him. 

“It doesn’t fit?” He asks, eyebrows raised. 

He had a sad look on his face, it probably mirrored your own, his eyes were the same red-rimmed as yours, mouth downturned into a slight quivering frown. 

You quickly shake your head, no, it doesn’t. 

You were afraid to speak, of the word vomit that might come out of your mouth. Why is the world so cruel? Why don’t you love me anymore? Why don’t I think I love you anymore? How can we fix this? 

Your mind whirled with these questions as his thumb rubbed the skin of your hand. Warmth spread through your hand, up your arm as his arms draped over your own.

You stared at the puzzle with the missing piece, the emptiness of the wooden coffee table between parts of the London Eye staring back at you, almost making fun of the hollowness you felt in your heart as it pounded against your chest.

“No, no, no! It’s pointless, fucking pointless,” you shriek. 

 What was pointless?

Surely you looked like a hysterical mess, arms throwing his off, hands tearing apart the intricate patterns that hold each puzzle piece to the next. 

“Hey, Hey, it’s okay, I’m here, I’m here,” he says, voice shaking much like your body does as your hands toss the stupid puzzle on the ground, piece after piece. 

“You’re here,” you choke out between sobs. 

“Yes, I’m here, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, not for a while, I’m here.”

He kept repeating himself, voice stronger and more sure with each “I’m here.” 

Your hand grips the puzzle piece you’re holding tightly, the other closing in a fist and hitting the ground next to you. 

“Y/N…” he sighs, his arms wrapping tightly around you, not letting up as you try to swat him away, fist hitting his arm again and again as you cry. 

Bone crushing. Lung squeezing. 

Slowly your hand drops the puzzle piece to the ground, other hand gripping his bicep, tears staining his gray shirt as your head stayed tight against his shoulder. 

He let you cry in that awkward position, both your upper bodies turned to face each other but legs splayed out in front of you for a while. He was whispering into your hair as his hands steadied you into reality.

“I’m here,” he says, voice so sure, being strong for the both of you as you continued to cry.

Steadily he moved his arms to pull you into his lap, your legs perpendicular with his own as you wrapped your arms around his shoulders, clutching onto the back of his shirt. You were afraid, afraid that if you let go he would leave again, leave you cold and abandoned, the puzzle pieces scattered around you a cruel reminder of your state of being. 

“Don’t go,” you whisper, voice hoarse as his hands gently run up and down your back underneath your, his, shirt. 

You felt warmth spread throughout your body, a gentle warmth that you missed, the feeling of his fingers against your body welcoming.

“Never, never ever,” he whispers and you can’t help but think about how that was a promise that couldn’t help but be broken, there would always be another movie, always an obligation that took him away from you, and that was okay, because he was doing what he loved and you loved that he was happy. But worry and doubt couldn’t help but seep into your mind as you wondered if he would be better off with someone who had the same career, who could travel with him, who understood what it was like to be so utterly destroyed from jetlag. Understood parts of him you never could.

“Y/N?” He asks, thumbs running over your ribs as you took deep breaths, your eyes blinking away a few remaining tears, smaller hands still tightly gripping his shirt, your body is no longer shaking with sobs. 

You hum against his shoulder, afraid of what you’d say if you speak. 

“I’m sorry,” his voice is soft and sincere, he wants you to know how much he means it, how much saying this in person means. 

What is he apologizing for?

For the increasing distance between you both the past few months. For not saying “I love you” enough even though he was always thinking about it. For being gone when you needed each other. For short phone calls that he wishes he could extend but he was just so tired. For the sleepiness in his voice, the bags under his eyes and the stars that died in his eyes ages ago, now just filled with utter exhaustion. And it wasn’t any fault of yours, nor his, not really. Things got in the way, it wasn’t this hard when he was gone on the Homecoming press tour, what changed?

But he didn’t want to tell you all this now. He wanted to make things right, he’s wanted to make things right for a while but he never found the time. Neither of you did. But he was determined to make time. 

His heartbeat was painful against his chest as you continued to quietly sniffle, trying to collect yourself.

“I’m sorry too,” you whisper against him. He shifts under you slightly. 

“Don’t go,” you whimper, heart racing in your chest. Now’s the time he tells you he’s sorry but he can’t do this anymore, now’s the time that the concrete wall becomes unbreakable.

You didn’t realize you were falling asleep until Tom’s hands started to lift you, your heavy-lidded eyes opening wide.

“Don’t go,” you mumble again, please.

Your voice sounded so small and broken, Tom’s heart ached hearing how hurt you were. 

You both needed to stop being so stubborn and just lay out all your feelings, everything that’s happened in the past few months on the table. Now wasn’t the time though. You were falling asleep against him, grateful for his warm body against yours. 

Tom came home exhausted but was now wide awake, mind reeling with every possible scenario that could happen.

I don’t love you anymore, you’d say, and his world would all but collapse. 

I love you but I don’t know how to make this work, again his world would cave in on itself.

You could ghost him, something he had never thought of before but for some reason that idea was front and center. The thought of you completely dropping out of his life after so long caused his heart to pound in his chest.

“Gimme a second, let’s get you more comfy,” he says, strong arms moving back to your waist, helping you off him, your hands reluctantly letting go of his shirt as you slumped down on the ground.

“Come to bed, you need to rest,” he says, standing up with his hand outstretched.

You quickly took his hand in your own, he helped you stand up, your legs shaking as you looked at him, wide eyes staring into your own.

“Here,” he says, hands moving to grip your thighs, letting you jump into his arms.

It wasn’t an excited jump, like when you picked him up from the airport for the first, and last, thanks paparazzi, a twirl me around I’ve missed you and this is a cheesy romance film from the 1950s, jump. This jump was a jump of sheer exhaustion, both of you worried your legs wouldn’t be able to carry you the few feet to your bedroom. 

“I-, I-, I,” you try to get the words past your throat but they don’t work. Scared of the response you might get, or the lack thereof. 

“Shhh, I got you,” he whispers into your ear as he sets you down on the edge of the bed, tugging his t-shirt over his head before helping you lay down, facing away from him, your body flush against his warm chest.

You smiled weakly at how warm you felt with him next to you, the conversation you would eventually have to have pushed to the back of your mind. 

“I’ve got you,” he reassures you, hand running up and down your arm as the other rested under your head, trying to be as close as he could to you. He never wanted to let you go again. Your legs shook still and he noticed this, brows knitted in worry. He gently used one of his legs and guided it between your own, hoping the extra warmth and closeness will help calm you down.

You’re silent as your heart tries to calm down, hands gripping the sheets in front of you as you stare out the window, the night sky clear and beautiful, stars twinkling. 

“We needa talk,” you hear Tom say against your shoulder as the heavy weight of the day pushes you to sleep. 

***

You wake up the next morning, heart still heavy with the events of the night before, now laying on your back. You yawn, still tired. Always tired.

Your hand reaches out to rest of Tom’s warm chest next to yours but you’re met with a cold bed.

Fuck.

You quickly get up, the sheets shoved to the side as you raced out of your room. You expect to hear Tom moving around, Tessa as well. But it’s silent.

The silence of the apartment is the loudest thing you’ve ever heard as you run down the hallway, checking the bathroom, no, the guest bedroom, no, the kitchen and living room were empty too. 

The sinking feeling in your gut almost made you cry, tears welling in your eyes as your knees buckled and you almost fell to the ground. Out of the corner of your blurry vision you saw breakfast sitting at the kitchen table. What looked like a smoothie, eggs, toast. You tilted your head and moved closer, seeing a piece of paper with Tom’s handwriting scribbled on it.

You quickly sat down, shaking hand picking up the note.

“Took Tess on a walk, made you some breakfast before you haveta go to work, I hope you slept okay, love you, Tom xx”

You smiled at the piece of paper in your hand, heart fluttering as you imagined him waking up and taking the time to make you breakfast. The effort it took to make something other than cereal for breakfast when you both couldn’t cook very well. 

Time and effort.

You blinked away the tears as you ate, fingers tapping along the kitchen table. You had to be at work at 10, 10 to 5, another long day you didn’t think you could handle. But there’s no way they’d find someone to cover for you in such a short notice. What time was it anyways? 

Shit. 9:30. You had hardly enough time to quickly change into a nice blue dress and grab your purse, eyes darting to the living room, expecting to see the mess from the puzzle all over the floor. 

Gone. 

The puzzle was no longer strewn on the floor, the puzzle box not sitting up right on the coffee table. 

You wonder if Tom picked it up after you fell asleep. His body leaving your own, leaving you cold. You wonder if he put it on the bookshelf with the rest of your puzzles so you ignore the ticking clock, telling you that work is waiting, walking quickly to the bookshelf that had your set of puzzles from over the years, all sitting perfectly still, dust collecting over the past few months. 

You rummaged through all of them, even though you knew deep down it wasn’t here. 

Where’d he take it?

You didn’t have time to dwell on everything so you pushed everything down and headed out. 

***

Tom watched as you slept, his mind running a mile a minute, not letting him sleep. He thought about the puzzle you got, the London Eye, he wondered if you got it because it made you think of your first date. He wondered if he could ever recreate the feeling of your first date, not the awkwardness but the feeling as you left the London Eye, the feeling that he knew deep down you were the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

You were the daughter of his mom’s new friend. The two of them decided to make you meet once, while they were out for coffee. It was an awkward meeting to say the least. He thought you were pretty, beautiful, and after he shook your hand he was flustered and looking for something to compliment you without being weird. 

“I really like the way your skin feels,” He stammers.

What the fuck was that Tom? He thinks, almost smacking himself. 

Your eyes grew wide, an eyebrow raised, your cheeks slightly blushing but not a match to his tomato reds. 

“Nice handshake,” you laugh and Nikki elbows him.

The next day you agree to go on a date with him, telling him to make it worth your while. 

He brought you to the London Eye. As soon as you arrived he sort of regretted it, the line atrocious, wait times were upwards of an hour. You looked so pretty in your floral dress and he managed to compliment you normally this time, saying how pretty the red dress looked, telling you that lilies were his favorite flower, loving the pattern of them.

He was worried you’d be annoyed with having to wait for so long to go on the Eye, something you’ve probably done before, and only for a short time. What type of date was that?

But as the line moved, slowly but surely, you allowed yourself to open up, the conversation flowing from what you were in school for to him becoming a professional certified carpenter, something his mom made him do when he never got called back about auditions. You felt the disappointment in his voice when he talked about auditioning and never getting the role so you changed subjects, he laughed when you stopped your rambling for a moment to stare at him, eyebrows knitted in concentration as your eyes roamed his face. 

“This patch of freckles,” you say, fingers lightly tracing the side of his face, “looks like Ursa Major.”

“Hmm?” He asks, head tilted to the side as his eyes slipped shut, appreciating the feeling of your hand on his face. 

“The constellation,” you say, finger lightly tracing the constellation among his freckles.

“Never noticed that before,” he sighs. 

You’re at the front of the line.

You hop onto the capsule, ignoring as it filled with other people, situating yourself at the end, Tom standing beside you.

“It’s so pretty up here,” you smile as the capsule takes you up.

He turns, his body facing you. Your body was  turned towards him but your head was turned and watching the sunset over the London skyline. 

“It really is,” he says, eyes meeting yours as your head turns. 

And before he realizes what he’s doing or that there are other people in the capsule, or that this was your first date and you hardly knew each other he was kissing you. It was short and sweet and he pulled away quickly because he wasn’t sure if you were going to kiss him back and he was afraid he made things awkward. He was blushing and before he had a chance to comprehend your response your hands are gripping his shirt, pulling him back down to your lips for a longer kiss, his hands resting lightly on your hips. You kiss like you’re the only two people on the capsule, eyes shut as your hands release his shirt and he hopes and prays you don’t let go or pull away, sighing into the kiss when your hands softly rest against his chest. Neither of you pulled away or even thought to pull apart until someone coughed loudly behind you, making you both blush and pull your lips apart, foreheads resting against each other. 

“Wow,” you mumble, lips smiling as his thumb rubbed your hip over your dress. 

“Wow,” he repeats, eyes twinkling.

***

And so Tom knew what he had to do. He woke up early, letting you sleep, he knew you would miss his body next to yours but he had a plan. A plan to bring you back to where you first kissed, your first date, and not try to recreate that moment because that wasn’t genuine, it wouldn’t feel right. But to remind you and himself of all the reasons you fell in love in the first place. 

He sent a text to Harry and Sam, enlisting their help before making his way to the living room, eyes sad as he observed the mess from the night before. Tessa followed along behind him quietly, nose nudging some of the puzzle pieces as he picked them up, placing them in the box. 

He called his mom, knowing she would have a better idea of how to make his plan a reality. They talked in hushed whispers over the phone before he decided to make you breakfast before taking Tessa on a walk. He contemplated sending you a next to let you know where he would be but he decided that a handwritten note would be better.

Please, please let this work.

Please come back to me.

***

Your day was filled with mundane tasks at the library, there was no children’s reading hour so you spent the majority of your time putting away books, cleaning, and checking people out. You focused on the busy work to distract yourself from Tom’s sleepy words last night.

We need to talk.

Who says that? People who are about to break up with their girlfriend, that’s who.

Your mind continued to repeat those words, we need to talk.

Talk about what? How we can’t seem to make time for each other anymore? How you once traced constellations along his freckles and now you could hardly spend five minutes with him before he was on to the next adventure? How you had both grown tired and the growing strain on your relationship was too much to handle?

How you missed him so much, you missed him even when he was here because he was so distant. His words, his hands, his body, his eyes a million miles away even when he was sitting right next to you.

You said goodbye to your coworker before you made the walk home, not bothering to check your phone, there probably wasn’t anything from Tom anyways.

You made it back home, expecting Tessa and Tom to be hanging out on the sofa, catching up on Love Island or some other TV show he hadn’t gotten the chance to see while he was busy. 

The flat was empty.

You sighed, ignoring the living room and the reminder of your breakdown as you tossed your purse on your bed, laying down and taking a few deep breaths. 

We need to talk.

You reluctantly got up and walked to the kitchen, you hadn’t had anything to eat since this morning so you were starving. 

You grabbed a go-to of yours, peanut butter and jelly, too exhausted to make any dinner. You took your sandwich to the couch, about to sit down when you see the puzzle on the coffee table, you pause, feet stuck to the ground, a bite of your sandwich in your mouth, wide open. You quickly swallow before kneeling on the ground at the coffee table. The sandwich is forgotten next to a bouquet of flowers, lilies, your stomach erupted with butterflies. 

You glanced at the puzzle sitting on the coffee table, the London Eye, but it was complete, no missing piece in sight. 

This wasn’t the same one you did last night.

Next to it was another note in Tom’s handwriting.

“If you know, you know. Meet me at 6:30.” 

Your heart started pounding as you checked the time, it was already 5:45. You knew right away where he wanted to meet you, the completed puzzle told you everything you needed to know. 

***

Your mind raced as you sat in the back of the Uber, one hand tightly gripping your purse as the other tapped along your leg, bouncing up and down. You were never nervous for dates with Tom. At least you were going to assume that’s what this was until he said otherwise. 

“Date night?” the woman driving you asks and you nod, gulping. 

“Yep,” you voice shakes slightly with a nervous stutter. 

The rest of the car is silent as you pull up to where you were 100% sure Tom would be. 

As you walk up to the daunting ride, you look through the crowd of people, people taking pictures, people standing in line, looking for Tom. 

You find him leaning against the railing by the water, wearing a blue button up shirt and nice dress pants. He looked beautiful in the slowly setting sun. 

He waved, a backpack slung over his shoulder. Your feet moved faster and faster as you met him, breathless.

“Hi,” you smiled, faltering slightly, still so god damn unsure. 

“Hey,” He says, your eyes widened as they searched his eyes, finding a slight glimmer amongst the chocolate brown.

“What happened to the puzzle?” You ask, head tilted questioningly as you let your hand slip and intertwine with his as you stood in front of him. 

“It’s kind of a long story, but uh, shall we take a ride?” Tom asks, nodding at the Eye on your right.

“We’ll have all of fifteen minutes,” you try to explain and his other hand runs up and down your other arm. 

Step closer, search for those stars in his eyes and on his cheeks.

And your body moves with your thoughts, chest flush with his as your hand rests against his chest.

“I’ve missed you,” you say, eyes darting between his eyes and his lips. 

“I don’t want to miss you anymore,” he whispers, voice barely audible against the background noise.

You close your eyes, lips frowning as you thought about his words.

He didn’t want to miss you anymore? 

What did he mean? 

He noticed your curiosity and disappointment and shock over what he was saying, quickly following up.

“I just, I miss you constantly, and I don’t want to miss you anymore because I don’t want to be away from you. I can’t spend this much time away from you anymore. It’s breaking my heart,” he says, tears welling in his eyes as your thumb strokes his chest.

“Then I guess I don’t wanna miss you anymore either,” you giggle, blinking away a few tears, his hand moving up your arm to cup your face.

“Good,” he nods, wetting his lips as he stared at your own.

Your hand gripped his shirt, pulling his face down to meet yours, kissing him, mouths conveying everything that your words couldn’t.

“You know, I got us a special capsule,” he says when your lips finally pull apart, your cheek resting against his, lips ghosting your earlobe.

“Mhm? What’s that?” You ask, eyes glancing at the London Eye next to you.

“They call it the couple’s capsule or something, we get the whole thing to ourselves and we get extra time and everything,” his voice rising in excitement.

“And we still should talk,” he finishes, eyes looking in yours for cracks to your exterior.

“Okay,” you say quietly, eyes looking at the ground between you, your feet planted between his tapping against it. 

“Come on, let’s head up,” he says, quickly kissing your cheek before dragging you along with him. 

“What about the line?” you ask, nodding towards the long line of people all waiting in the evening summer heat for a few moments on the Eye. 

“Nah, we get to skip ahead,” he says, coming to a little side entrance.

You board the capsule and Tom slips off his backpack, setting it down on the bench before sitting down, tapping the space next to him.

You sit down, sighing as his hand moves to rest on your thigh, appreciating the warmth of his hand against your bare leg. 

“I’m sorry,” Tom starts and you interrupt.

“No, I’m sorry,” your eyes pleading with Tom to let you talk, to give you the opportunity to say what you so desperately need to. 

“I’m sorry for being so distant lately, when you’re home, when we talk on the phone. I guess I just couldn’t put in the effort, I guess I was scared that you stopped caring, so I tried to not care either and this is what it got us into this mess.”

“Why wouldn’t I care? Y/N, I could never stop caring about you, I’m so fucking in love with you, hearing you cry, feeling how upset you are, it breaks my heart so bad, I can’t stand seeing you upset. I wish I could take away all your pain, I want to do better. Life’s slowed down and I’m back for a good while. We can be us again, we can see cheesy old romance movies at the drive in, we can take Tessa to the dog park, I can attempt to teach you how to golf again, we can have sex,” Tom pauses, eyes searching your face for your reaction.

You giggled then paused.

In. 

“In?” You ask, lips quivering as you spoke.

“In? What do you mean?” He asks, eyebrows knitted in confusion.

“You said you’re in love with me.”

“Well yeah,” he says, a nervous laughter bubbling up his chest and out of his mouth, cheeks flushing like when you first met, “been in love with ya for a while.”

“Well yeah, you love me, I love you too, but you’ve never said that before, that you’re in love with me.”

“Huh,” Tom says, fingers pausing their movement on your thigh.

“I’m in love with you too,” you say in one breath, hand covering his own.

“Oh thank god, this would’ve been awkward if you weren’t,” he teases, nudging your side with his elbow.

“I thought, thought you didn’t love me anymore,” you whisper, not sure if you even want to say it out loud.

“What?” he asks, jaw almost dropping as he looks at you, visibly hurt that you would think that. 

“And last night, I dunno, that stupid fucking puzzle, when the piece didn’t fit, I thought it was a cruel fucking joke, that we were over and even a child’s toy was mocking us.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re a little bit superstitious?” He says, breathing evening out.

“Not funny, I just thought, there was this wall, right, here,” you say, gesturing to the inch or so between your legs where you weren’t touching, “and it was so thick and I kept pounding on it, but I just gave up. And you didn’t build it, this barrier I felt, maybe I just made it all up in my mind but it felt so real,” you sighed, eyes watching his face as it glows in the setting sun.

Your other hand, the one not resting on top of Tom’s, moves to his cheek, fingers lightly touching the brown freckles against his tanned skin.

“You got some sun,” you comment, “your Ursa Major looks like Orion now,” you observe, fingers tracing the constellation on his skin.

“I’m sorry, if it didn’t seem like I was, uh, like I wasn’t trying as hard to knock that wall down. I was so busy I just never recognized it was there until it was so thick we couldn’t knock it over. Is it, uhm, still there?” He asks, nodding towards the small space between you.

You grin, shaking your head slowly, body inching closer to him, legs and arms touching, “not anymore.”

“I uh, I got you something,” he says, pulling his backpack onto his lap.

“You didn’t haveta-,” you start but let Tom finish.

His hand leaves your thigh as he unzips his backpack.

“They were just little things that made me think of you,” he says, pulling out a small red drawstring bag.

“Oh Tom, this is beautiful,” you whisper, holding up the necklace that glimmered in the sun.

“Got it in Mexico, Harry had put a clip of me with that guy in the video on instagram and I was so worried you’d watch it and figure out I was getting you a present. It’s got a red jewel, your favorite color, and it sparkled so pretty in the sun, and it made me think of you in that red bikini when we went to Hawaii, anyways, I was gonna give you this right away, but mum’s a genius and told me to hang onto it, give you everything altogether when the movie press was over.”

You thumb runs over the jewel, breath quickening as you put the necklace on, smiling at how it fit around your neck, dropping perfectly on your chest. 

“From Mexico, yeah, and uh, here, this is from Bali, just a little hand stitched thing, they said if you hang it keeps the bad dreams away,” he says, handing you a beautifully stitched floral pattern on the small patch of white cloth surrounded by a wooden edge.

“Wow,” you smile, watching as Tom pulls yet something else out of his backpack.

“Here, tea from LA, the lady at the tea shop said it helps you sleep, and I know sometimes when I’m not home you can get restless and it takes you a while so. Yeah. And from New York, the new Janet Evanovich book, Becausewhen we were talking on the phone as I was in the book store you were telling me all about the murder mystery she wrote right before it and I saw this one was brand new so, yeah.”

You gulped, looking at the next thing he got as your mind raced with questions.

“And this is really pretty, it’s from China, I thought, it uh, matches your dress, you know the one you wore on our first date,” he says, hands holding a red silk scarf with a floral pattern. 

Your hand shakes as you hold it and he pulls something else out.

“From Korea; they call it Hanji, it’s the art of paper making, its super traditional,” he says, gently handing you a delicate piece of paper with a beautiful scene painted on it, a man and woman sitting on a bench, looking at the sunset.

“You, you thought of me,” you whisper, as he puts the gifts back in his bag.

“Why- Yeah, of course I thought of you, every second of every day I’m away I’m thinking about you. I get distracted in interviews because I’m wondering how you would answer the question, or what you’re doing, if you are missing me as much as I’m missing you. And I dunno, I would just see these things and think about you even more cause they remind me of you.”

“Thank you,” your voice cracks as he sets the backpack down and you both stand up. He leads you to the edge of the capsule, you’re almost at the very top of the ride, looking out over the water.

“I want to fix this, because I love you too much to see you hurt, and I love you too much to leave you for so long again,” he whispers, as he pulls you into a hug, arms tight around your waist, head resting atop yours as your cheek presses to his chest. 

You immediately reciprocate, arms tight around his shoulders as you smile.

Bone crushing. Lung squeezing. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I stopped trying, but I love you too, and I never wanna stop loving you,” you mumble as he kisses the top of your head.

“And I never wanna stop making puzzles with you, and kissing you,“ he says, kissing all over your face as you laugh in his arms. 

Your lips meet his and you’re the only two people in the world as you kiss, mouth open as his tongue meets yours. It’s passionate and it’s yearning and it’s needy and it makes you want to drag him back to your flat and show him how much you missed him.

So that’s exactly what you do. After hours of showing each other just how much you missed each other you shower together, enjoying the heat of his body along with the heat of the water against your skin. 

As you lay in bed, facing each other, Tessa laying on the other side of Tom, like you used to, your fingers tapping along his palm, you smile as he intertwined his fingers with your own, thumb rubbing the skin of your hand.

“We’re like two pieces of a puzzle, he says against your lips.

“Fit together perfectly,” you finish together. 

***

Taglist: @mutuallynotmutual @importantfireeaglefish @scarletwidow-shipper @la-bellezaa @tom-hollands-blog @spider-babes @practicallylivesonline @rageyoudamnednerd @sunnydays0803 @jackiehollanderr @khhbby @fancyxholland @thomasthetankson @lousimusician @peterbxrnes @relise_thefury @tessathedragon @thewinterslut @euphoricshawn @starsholland

[eeyore101247]

Flight to Hell

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: You’re finally headed back home after Christmas with your family, but it turns out your flight is a one way ticket through hell.

Warnings: Extreme fluff somewhere 😂

2,407 words

Masterlist

You were on your flight back to London after spending Christmas with your family. It was going to be a long 7 hour flight, and you were planning on getting a nap in before you landed. Tom had insisted on paying for your tickets, ensuring you were flying only the best, but you turned him down. You didn’t mind having to fly in basic economy seating, even if it was a little cramped. You also would’ve felt more guilty if he had paid for it. He spoiled you enough as is, with the expensive gifts and dates.

Letting out a sigh, you sat back as the plane took off, starting your long flight home.

You hummed softly as you slipped your headphones on, draping your new favorite blanket over your legs. It was a nice plush Spider-Man blanket Tom had given you for Christmas. You smiled fondly at the memory, running your hand over the soft fabric before starting the music on your phone. With a soft sigh, you laid your head back against the seat, staring out the small window.

Your peace was soon interrupted as your chair jolted forward. You bit back a groan, hoping it was a one time thing. Tensed up, you waited a few minutes to see if it would happen again. When it didn’t, you relaxed back into your seat, trying to focus back on your music. That’s one thing you hated about flying in general. Rude and disrespectful passengers.

You groaned as your seat lurched forward once more. Pulling your headphones down around your neck, you turned around to look at the people behind you. Sat behind you was a young boy with, who you assumed to be was, his mother sat beside him. He looked at you with a devilish grin, his feet pressed against the back of your chair. He kicked it again, and you had to bite your cheek to stop yourself from saying something rude.

“Can you please stop kicking my seat hun?” You asked sweetly, a fake smile plastered on your face. The boy just pouted, crossing his arms over his chest as his mother scoffed.

“He’s a young boy and is barely kicking your seat. You’ll be fine.” She said, dismissing you with a wave of her hand. She turned her attention back to the tablet she was holding, not even paying attention as her son kicked your seat with more force.

With a quiet sigh, you turned back around in your seat, trying to focus back on your music. He didn’t let up on the kicking, using as much force as he could as all you could do was listen to his mother laughing about whatever show she must have been watching.

Finally, you had a break from the kid kicking your seat and whining for the tablet because he wanted to watch a movie. You settled down into your seat, muscles relaxing as your stress levels dropped to a normal. You turned your attention to your phone, starting a Youtube video you had downloaded to watch. You weren’t very far into it when you were interrupted by the conversation going on behind you.

“I don’t know why my husband put us in basic economy. He makes enough money to fly us first class.” The mother from earlier said, complaining to the old lady sat beside her. “The seats are horribly uncomfortable and it smells. How are my son and I supposed to get any rest during the flight?”

You rolled your eyes at that. You had a bitch and her little asshole sitting behind you.

You could hear the old lady breathe in like she was going to say something, but was promptly interrupted by the mother continuing on with her complaining.

You shook your head before turning your video up louder to block out the noise of her bitching.

The mother had thankfully shut up as you pulled the blanket up over your shoulders. Exhaustion was tugging at your lids, sleep fogging the corners of your mind. With a yawn, you let sleep pull you under, leaning your head against your hand.

You thought about how excited you were to see Tom after this week apart. You couldn’t wait to feel his strong arms wrapped around you, hugging you close to him. His warm lips colliding with yours as your heart would try to jump out of your chest in joy and love. The warm cuddles you’d get when the two of you would return to your shared apartment. The night of fun activities that would await.

A smile tugged at your lips as you slipped off into the land of dreams, Tom’s adorably handsome and sexy face the focus point.

You were rudely awoken by the cool air against your arms, slowly traveling down farther as the hair rose. You stirred from your nap, rubbing your eyes as the warmth continued to disappear. Blinking a few times, you looked down, watching as the blanket was slowly coming off your lap. You followed the fabric, seeing the young boy that sat behind you pulling it off. His eyes widened as he saw you were awake, yanking the rest of the blanket off and trying to run off with it. You quickly grabbed it before he could get too far, grunting as you were yanked forward against the belt.

“Hey, excuse me. This is my blanket.” You said softly, trying to give the boy a smile as you held onto the edge. He just looked at you and yanked, his bottom lip jutting out in a pout. You sighed, but didn’t give in, gently tugging on the blanket. “Please give it back. It was a gift.”

You heard the mother scoff behind you. “Just give him the blanket. You’re too old for Spider-Man.” You grit your teeth in response, forcing the smile to stay on your face.

“My boyfriend’s a big fan and got me this for Christmas. I’d really like to have it back.” You said sweetly, patiently waiting for the boy to let go. You weren’t about to announce on a plane that you were dating Tom Holland, the MCU Spidey. Instead, you went with a half truth. He was a huge fan, even before he got the part.

The boy started to whine, catching the attention of a few flight attendants. They started to make their way down the aisle, telling the young boy he needed to get back in his seat.

“Just give him the blanket. I’m sure your boyfriend won’t mind anyways. It’s just a blanket. Not like you can’t buy another one.” The mother said, her voice slightly muffled behind her phone. Your smile faltered as you started to get annoyed, but quickly plastered it back on as the flight attendants got closer.

“What’s the problem?” The petite blonde attendant asked, brows furrowed as she looked between you and the young boy.

“This young lady was trying to take my son’s blanket!” The mother said quickly, her voice filled with mock anger. Your jaw dropped, surprised that this woman was claiming your blanket as her own.

“I’m sorry, miss, but this is my blanket. I came on the plane carrying it and this young boy was trying to take it while I napped.” You told the attendant, giving her an apologetic smile. The flight attendant that stood behind her confirmed that she saw you with the blanket, turning to the young boy and telling him to let it go. He did, but not without whining and throwing a fit as he walked away.

You sighed as you pulled the blanket back over you, thanking the attendants before staring out the window. You knew Tom would be annoyed when he heard what happened. He didn’t have much tolerance for people with a lack of respect, but was good at faking it. He was an actor after all.

You had managed to get some reading done, even with the kid throwing a fit behind you. He had resumed kicking your seat, which you could assume was payback for not giving him the blanket. You also heard snide comments from the mother. She called you and your boyfriend immature. That you were too old to be into superheroes.

You just rolled your eyes at these comments, blocking them out with the wonderful world and story your book was intricately weaving.

“Are these peanuts vegan?” You heard the mother ask the flight attendant who was walking past. She must have had a bag of peanuts, guessing that she had gotten them for her son.

“I don’t know ma’am. I can ask if you like.” The attendant responded. You heard the mother scoff, followed by the crinkle of a bag as it was tossed aside, presumably at the attendant.

“We don’t eat anything that’s not vegan.” She said, waving off the attendant. You heard as she leaned into her son, whispering. “You’re father is going to regret not flying us first class.”

You rolled your eyes once more, burying your nose in your book.

You had dozed off again while reading, your book sprawled across your chest. The blanket was tucked up under your chin, arms poking out the sides as you snored softly. Of course you hadn’t seen the end of the little boy as the cool air started to crawl against the newly exposed skin. You groaned as you felt the soft fabric sliding against your arms, book thudding as it hit the floor beneath you. You gripped onto the blanket before you opened your eyes, the little boy staring back at you once more.

“Please give me my blanket and leave me alone.” You groaned, gently tugging on the blanket to try and pull it back up around your neck. He tugged again, not planning on giving up anytime soon apparently.

“Gimme my blanket!” The boy whined, tugging on it harder. Irritation scratched at your veins as you gripped the blanket harder.

“I’m sorry, but this isn’t your blanket.” You said simply, lips pressing in a hard line as you tugged a bit harder.

“You’re too old for it, just give it to him.” You heard the mother say, a hint of annoyance in her voice. “Grow up.”

You grit your teeth, your grip tightening as you turned around to face the mom. “I’m sorry, but this was a gift. My boyfriend and I are very into the MCU and Spider-Man is our favorite hero. I’m not going to give up my christmas gift to please your spoiled child.” You hissed, yanking the blanket out of the boys hands. He started to cry, running to his mom.

“Look what you did! You made my baby boy cry.” You shook your head, picking your book back up and reading once more.

The last hour of your flight was miserable. The boy would not stop crying, kicking the back of your seat the entire time. His mother bitched the whole time too, taking jabs at you not-so-discreetly. You tried to ignore it, but the jostling of your seat was making it hard to read. You just started to count down the minutes until you can see Tom, hoping he could make this shitty day better.

You let out a relieved sigh as you made your way to baggage claim, backpack hung over your shoulders. In the distance, you could see a familiar staffie as you walked down the hall, tail wagging as she patiently waited for your arrival. She nor her owner had seemed to spot you yet, a smile making its way across your face. As you got closer, you could see the familiar mop of brown curls poking out from the hood of his sweatshirt. Your smile grew wider, pace quickening to make it over to him faster.

Your joy was quickly cut short as you heard the shrill scream of a child, followed by a blur as they ran up to Tom. Of course, the entitled brat had to be behind you and of course he had to recognize Tom. Normally, you didn’t mind if fans approached him in public, but you really didn’t want to deal with the mother, who gave you a smug look as she walked past. You just rolled your eyes as you made your way over, giving Tom a smile as he looked at you.

“Excuse me, but we were here first. Besides, you’re too old.” The mother said, arms crossed over her chest. You sighed, giving Tom a look that said it all. Of how tired you were and how you just wanted to go home.

“How was your flight darling?” Tom asked as he approached you, ignoring the dirty look the mother was giving you. He wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling you into his side as he kissed your cheek. You looked at the mother with a smirk as her jaw dropped.

“It could have been better.” You said softly, turning to Tom and giving him a smile. He smiled back, the corners of his eyes crinkling up like you loved. You leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “I missed you.” You mumbled against his lips, smiling as he returned the kiss.

“I missed you too love.” He said softly before pulling away, turning to the mother and son with a smile. “I’m sorry, normally I’d be all for pictures and autographs for fans, but I want to spend some time with my girl.” He then led you away, pulling Tessa along beside the two of you as you grabbed your luggage off the belt and walked out.

You watched as the mother snarled at you, just smirking in return. You turned your attention back to Tom, taking his warm calloused hand in yours. You took in his features that you missed the most. His crooked nose and messy brow, sharp jaw and the small bit of puffiness under his eyes. The small dip in his chin where the mole used to be. Joy swelled in your heart, spreading through your chest like a warm blanket. You gently squeezed his hand, pulling his chocolate brown eyes to you. He smiled, butterflies fluttering in your stomach as you admired him.

“I love you.” You said softly, moving closer to him and kissing his cheek. He chuckled softly, gently squeezing your hand as the two of you walked up to his car.

“I love you too darling.”

AN: Woo! Got a one shot posted!

Requested one shots are on the way! I just had this amazing idea during my flight Sunday and had to write it.

I also love the r/entitledparents subreddit lolz 😂

I also wanna say thank you to my amazing beta! Love ya Carrie! 💙

Thank you for reading!

~ LoLo *^-^*

If you wish to not be tagged, shoot me a DM!

Pink names mean the tag wouldn’t work!

Want to be added to my tag list?

Send me any questions, what you thought, or if you have any ideas!

Mutuals: @spidey-waffles11 @parkerpuffwrites @marvellousparkerpeter @marichatisfam @starlight-fires

Strikethrough means I can’t tag you!

Taglist: @moonwarriorx3

[meiwroo]

Can you write something along the lines of Peter being super obsessive over the reader and he sneaks into her room and hides in her closet every day after school, constantly takes pictures of her and has Polaroid’s of her all over his room, she eventually talks to him in class and they agree to do a project together, she insists that they should do it at his place and she comes too early and sees the pictures in his room? ~ what happens after that is up to you ;) -🎱 (can this be my signature?)

Can you tell I didn’t edit this one as much? Also, I think I’m getting into the swing of things? Enjoy

Okay, so there’s one thing that bothers me. Whenever Peter sneaks into your room, he’s wearing his Spider-Man suit—enough to get caught in broad daylight scaling an apartment building by a bystander—or even worse a villain. Do you know how many villains could peep this and start coming after you?? Anyway

When it comes to you, Peter has a one-track mind.

It’s always ‘Do physics homework—Check the camera to see what Y/N is doing; Cook dinner—Check Y/N’s social media and see if she posted anything new.’ 24/7 until something urgent pops up that requires his undivided attention i.e. trying not to die

And the way Peter ends up in your closet is gradual.

At first he happened to swing by as you were on your way home, and he trailed you

Then he swung by when no one happened to be home. Curiosity got the best of him, and before he knew it, he was putting Karen on mute and sliding open your window before dropping down in your room

One thing he loves is that right off the bat your room smells like you

Staring at the knickknacks in your room, noting whether or not your room and desk is orderly, all of it gives him a better gauge of your personality that he’s not able to see when he’s listening to you and your friends talk during lunch or in class

And then it happens again and again, until one day, his Spidey senses start tingling and he can hear you unlocking the front door and heading up to your room. On the spur of the moment, he hid in your closet. Stupid, if you were the type of person to hang up your clothes as soon as you got home. But for hours until you finally fell asleep, he was forced to sit in your cramped closet watching you in your natural habitat. It was truly a wonderful experience…

It made him feel stupid for not thinking of it before. So, every now and then he would treat himself into sneaking into your room. On particular days where he hardly saw you because you either called in sick, ditched class, or had a field trip with another class.

If you were already home, he’d wait and sneak in when you left the room, or if he was feeling particularly brazen, when you had your back turned and earphones in listening to your music at full blast, he would just slide your window open, climb on the ceiling, and gently sneak into your closet.

If you ever wonder where the sudden breeze came from, that’s Peter.

And it continues until every day after school, Peter beats you home by minutes, sneaking into your closet, getting his daily dose of you.

He’s gotten himself a routine, where he would accomplish all of his work at school before the final bell, head to your place and make himself comfortable on your closet floor, leave when you go to grab dinner and go eat dinner himself with May, and then head out for patrols, before coming back home to catch a bit of shut eye

That’s what? Only like 3-4 hours he gets to spend with you every day? Regardless it’s not enough

Peter does record you though. At first through his phone, and then through surveillance cameras he’s placed around your room; One in the smoke detector and then a listening bug in your light switch

It would be small minor things like you talking to yourself, telling yourself a joke, humming to yourself while you browsed the web, watching you rage quit at video games, and even watching you struggle with homework which frustrates Peter to no end.

Listening to you get upset over not being able to solve a problem makes him want to tear his hair out. If he could just pluck the pencil from your hand right quick and show you how it’s done…All he needed was a minute

Another thing that also irked him? You losing points on homework because you left a section blank or didn’t turn it in at all. During those times, Peter just wishes he could turn homework in on your behalf and not get caught. He’d do it in a heartbeat if teachers couldn’t recognize your handwriting and the assignment had no way of getting back to you

When it’s late, and he’s all snuggled in bed, Peter likes to watch the videos and fantasize about would it would be like if he was next to you. How you two would interact, and etc. He feels closer to you whenever he does this.

Sometimes he likes to fall asleep to the sound of your shallow breathing when you’re asleep

Every now and then Peter likes to ease into bed beside you after hard fights that leave him bruised and exhausted

It’s easy to pick your habits and routines like this. eating habits, bathroom habits, what music you tend to steer towards, what content you like to watch the most on the internet; All of your likes and dislikes, favorite food, color, drink, what’s on your wish list right, what’s even got you stressed right—which breaks his heart because he’s not sure what he can do to help

But Peter has this collection, right?  Of odd pictures that he snaps of you every chance he gets.

He has a collage of them—11 or so—on the wall against his bed. Easy to hide with a perfectly propped pillow if May were to ever walk in his room while he’s away. He hangs the ones that are both artistic and articulates your personality the best. It’s his little masterpiece. 

Let’s say he gets beaten up too badly in a fight and he’s forced to stay home while you recover. Those pictures keep him going

But then there’s the scrapbook Peter has (in his desk drawer). Tons of Polaroid snaps—dated and describing what you’re doing—in addition to nonsensical diary entries beside them about how you made him feel in that moment or what he’d love to do to you, or maybe even a little poem

It’s mainly filled with fun memories Peter wasn’t really a part of. Pictures of you hugging your best friend and goofing off during a field trip, you winning a small award and going on stage to receive it, you participating in extracurriculars e.g. track and field

And then there are the nonsensical ones like your face before you’re about to devour your favorite food, or your aloof expression while you sit outside during study hall, or your deeply focused expression while you cram in gym class before a test you have next period. 

In general, Peter takes a lot of pictures of you; And they’re everywhere. All you have to do is look closely and you’ll find a photo under his desk by the foot of his chair, or a more risqué one poking out from under his nightstand—even phots sprinkled between the pile of dirty laundry he’s been throwing in the corner

It’d honestly be bad if May ever decided to spontaneously do spring cleaning in his room

It’d be bad if you came across these photos which—spoiler: you do.

Everything was going great with Peter watching from afar, and then you had to go and talk with him

Don’t get me wrong, Peter was so happy he thought he would puke.

It had been in APES, and the class was doing a lab. Your friend who takes the class with you and had called in sick, so you decided to partner up with Peter, I mean he did sit directly to the left of you

His heart stopped, of course, he was praising the heavens that his voice didn’t crack, everything was great. His day was blessed, and he actually spent time talking with you which rolled smoothly between you to.

There was a report due on Monday, so you two decided y’all would both knock it out today after school at his place. 

Big, fucking, mistake.

Peter was so high on cloud nine, that he forgot about his little hobby littered around his room—the same room which you two planned to do the assignment in since May had her weird project occupying the majority of the surfaces in the living room which she explicitly told him not to move

It didn’t dawn on him until you asked to use his bathroom, and he walked into his room. 

He picked up a shirt, sniffed, and was ready to toss it into the hamper until two photos fluttered out.

And then magically he realizes that he had his scrapbook out with the recently developed 6-7 photos scattered on his desk.

He heard you exit the bathroom and his heart stops.

“Peter, you in here?”

His eyes dart between the door and the scrapbook comically

He could’ve webbed the door shut, climbed out the window, and then crawl in through the bathroom and say something like he needed to go retrieve something from May’s room—which he should’ve did, but instead there you are smiling at him in the doorway casually greeting him before your eyes flicker to all of the Polaroid's and decide to pick one up

“Y/N wait!”

Your brain takes a full minute to fully process what you’re seeing

Let’s say it’s a picture of you changing in your bedroom

When you look Peter in the eyes and see his panicked expression, it tells you everything you need to know.

You should’ve left after the first picture, but you needed to confirm, so you started picking up the nearest pictures, shuffling through them.

You grabbing coffee with MJ, you going shopping with your mom, you trying on dresses and browsing in a local department store, even you propped lazily against your friend’s car while you wait for them to lock their front door.

“Where did you get these?!”

“I—I can explain!”

You try to make a run for it, but Parker’s quicker than you, stronger than you; He pins you against the wall easily, both of your wrists clasped tightly in one hand.

He’s breathing heavily as though a panic attack was soon about to set in

“I can explain…” is all he says, staring into your eyes wildly

Feedback?

[4lix]

homecoming; lee felix.

oneshot; spiderman!felix word count: 4534 based off of the movie spider-man: homecoming although you don’t have to have any knowledge of the movie to read this! xx

the main thing that made this week terrible was the huge chemistry exam you had coming up, and lord knows you get nothing done with lee minho sitting next to you in that class. the boy could say anything and you two would be doubled over in laughter.

so you decide to spend the rest of your day at the public library, if you go home you know for sure you’re going to end up taking a nap and waking up an eternity later, and considering your grade at the moment, failing this exam was not an option.

by the time you’re done studying though, it’s nearing midnight, and exhausted is an understatement for how you feel. your eyes are ridiculously heavy and you broke curfew. you could already feel the headache your mother was going to give you.

you drag yourself out from the library, feet heavy as you walk towards the station.

the subway home is uneventful, the usual crowd of midnight travelers in queens, new york. it isn’t anything out of the ordinary for students to be lugging backpacks that weigh two tons on their shoulders during the dead of night.

your feet carried you home as they always did, the same routine. however the walk through the alleyway that absolutely scared you shitless even during the day was a million times worse at night.

you blink once and suddenly you’re pushed up against brick walls, a strong, calloused hand gripping your throat and closing around your neck, cutting off your oxygen.

“hello beautiful, i made a good catch today huh?” the man’s words are slurred, he reeks of alcohol, and you attempt to scream but he’s quick to muffle it with his other hand.

terrified, you begin kicking your limbs about in a futile attempt to free yourself, but the man kicks you with all his strength in the abdomen, causing you to fall limp in his hold.

you wince, squeezing your eyes shut as your ears are filled with his cacophonous laughter.

he grips at your hip, hand beginning to slide up your abdomen, you can feel your eyes burning with tears.

that is until you hear something whip past your face, a yelp in pain, and then the grip on your neck is suddenly gone.

opening your eyes, there’s absolutely nothing that could prepare you for the sight in front of you.

spider-man works hastily, already webbing a restraint around the perpetrator. once the man is restrained he quickly turns to you, hand immediately jumping towards your neck that is swelling slightly from the harsh actions of the drunk man.

“are you okay?” he asks with concern interlaced with each syllable, your heart is thundering in your chest, somehow the voice is familiar, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.

“y-yeah.. th-thank you.” you’re grateful for the darkness of the night, otherwise spider-man would very visibly see your face as red as a tomato.

“it’s nearly midnight, why are you out so late, it isn’t safe.” he scolds, helping you gather your belongings that fell to the floor.

“i-i was studying. i have a chemistry exam in a few days and i’m n-not ready for it.. i’m s-sorry for bothering you-”

“n-no i didn’t mean it like that, you aren’t a bother at all, this is my job anyway.” he says sweetly, and if you could see his face, you’d see the gentle smile he wears however his identity was a mystery, so the lilt in his voice was all you had to go by that he was being genuine.

“i love chemistry, one of my favorite classes actually my teacher always–  let’s get you out of here, yeah?” he says, stopping himself before he gets carried away and exposes his identity.

you tilt your head at him in confusion, but don’t push for an answer.

he wraps his arm securely around your waist, whispers gently “hold on tight” before his webs extend out from his arm and hook onto the building above you.

you yelp in fear, shoving your face in his chest and he laughs.

“it’s okay, i won’t drop you. you’re safe with me.” he reassures, his grip was incredibly strong, probably because he’s a superhero and all, but you shake your head against his chest, refusing to look up.

“g-god a little warning would’ve been nice you know.” you whine and he laughs out a pathetic excuse for an apology.

“i’m going to need you to tell me where to go though, i don’t know where you live. trust me it’s not that scary, it’s actually really pretty.” he attempts to convince you, but it doesn’t work, you can’t feel the ground beneath your feet, your brain basically shut down from fear.

but he was right, he had no clue how to get you home.

leaving the safety of spider-man’s chest, you try to find the courage to look at the city below you.

it was terrifyingly gorgeous, swinging from new york’s concrete buildings, the lights reflecting against glass windows, everything was utterly breathtaking from this height, especially at night.

“it’s nice right?” he looks down at your face briefly, watching as the lights of the city shine against your eyes like stars.

“yeah, it’s, s-so pretty...”

spider-man can’t help but think you’re prettier.

when you finally reach your apartment, spider-man sets you gently down on your firescape. you decided to go through your bedroom window, so that you can at least pretend to be asleep so your mother won’t strangle you for coming home at this hour.

“don’t you have a bedtime spider-man?” you ask jokingly, and to your surprise he nods.

“i do actually, my mom would literally burst a vein if she knew where i was right now.” he laughs and you open your bedroom window, crawling inside and releasing a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in when your feet touched the floor.

“ground, at last.” you say and spider-man only laughs again.

“mr. spider-man–”

“please, call me spidey.”

“spidey.” you correct with a smile, “ i’m y/n. but, thank you, really.”

“well don’t mention it y/n, i’m your friendly neighborhood spider-man, it’s what i do.” he says his trademark, you can hear the smirk in his voice.

again, the voice, incredibly familiar yet all the while you had absolutely no clue who it belonged to.

before you can ask him why the hell his voice is so goddamn familiar he’s already latching onto the building across from your window and just like that his figure swings away into the night darkness.

you fall face first into your bed, screaming into your pillow and kicking your feet wildly.

spider-man just fucking rescued you.

spider-man just swept you off your feet and swung you from building to building.

grabbing your phone, you immediately open your messaging app, frantically retelling the story to minho who of course was still awake although it was nearly one in the morning.

he calls bullshit before telling you to go to bed.

the next day at school you just don’t shut up about it. telling everyone and anyone about what happened.

when chemistry comes by you grip minho’s arm, shaking it frustratedly whilst practically screaming in his face “it happened minho! i’m not lying!”

jisung looks at felix knowingly. he’s the only one who knows about his second life.

october was the worst month of the year. why you might ask? it was homecoming season.

all your friends ever talked about was homecoming, their dates, what they’re gonna wear, how many countless boys and girls asked them out, and you just sat there, eating your potato chips with a bemused expression on your face.

“y’know if you stopped waiting for spider-man to swing down on a web again and sweep you off your feet maybe you’d actually have a date. you can go with us as a group if you want, consider it charity.” your friend nudges you, the girl wears a stupid grin on her face because the most popular guy in school asked her to be his date, so here she was with her ego all inflated trying to rub salt in your wounds.

“yeah no, i’d rather go to homecoming with mr. jyp than third wheel with you and that cocky bastard.”

“yikes, i’m right here y’know.” he reminds and you ignore him, stabbing your food angrily.

“shut up, asshole.”

“and you wonder why no one asks you out with a personality like that-”

“i can get a date easily if i wanted to!”

“then get one and quit complaining all the time.” he counters back.

“maybe i will!”

��good luck! you can’t pay them either, although i can’t think of any amount of money that would be worth spending a minute with you-”

“look here you little fucking shit-”

“y/n..” your friend puts her hand over yours, which was turning bright red from the death grip you had on your fork, loosening your fingers. “he’s just messing with you, calm down.”

“i’m leaving.” is all you say before picking up your backpack and walking away from the table, making sure to swat him with your backpack on the way out, he flips you the bird in response.

because of your fit of anger, you don’t notice the pair of eyes that has been watching you this whole time, not even as his eyes follow your silhouette as you exit the cafeteria.

lee felix stares at you admiringly from afar practically everywhere you go. he’s practically failing chemistry because he can’t keep his eyes off of you, but luckily he’s practically einstein so he doesn’t really need to pay much attention anyways. you sit next to minho in chemistry, the school’s heart throb and also your best friend. he’s funny, charming, and everything lee felix wishes he could be.

it’s bittersweet to see you laughing so happily at the boy he envied the most. he hopes one day he could make you laugh and smile like that.

the good thing about minho was he was gay as fuck.

currently in a relationship with some boy from a private school in upstate new york, bang christopher? something like that.

not many knew of his secret, but you did. felix certainly didn’t, he thought you and minho had a thing actually. which was another reason he never bothered to shoot his shot when it came to claiming your heart.

jisung just calls felix a chicken, even throwing in some obnoxious bocking sounds. if minho wanted you, he would’ve had you a long time ago.

and yeah that made sense, but felix needed to hold on to some excuse as to why he wouldn’t ask you out.

in reality he was just really insecure, scared that you would think he’s too lame or something to date you.

in chemistry you immediately confide in minho for support about what occurred during lunch, how your friend’s date riled you up and you look at minho sadly before asking,

“am i really that unlikable?”

minho bursts into laughter at the question, after a while he covers his mouth to suppress his giggles, feeling a bit guilty.

felix’s heart collapses in on itself, if only you knew how fucking incredible you were. he wanted in that moment to march up to minho, punch him in the face, grab you by the face, and kiss the living shit out of you, maybe then you’d know how likeable you were.

“wow thanks, remind me to never ask you for advice ever again.”

“n-no i’m sorry! it’s just, i’m the worst person to ask y/n.” minho says between fits of laughs and you just roll your eyes at him.

only you knew he was gay, which was kind of hilarious and maybe if you weren’t so sensitive you would’ve laughed too, but your ego was hurt regardless.

“who knows maybe spider-man will ask you out to hoco.” minho jokes light-heartedly, and at that felix’s head snaps upwards, jisung only snorts at how obvious he’s being.

“if only, right? he’s the only guy for me, y’know why i haven’t had a boyfriend yet?”

“because you’re waiting for spider-man.” minho finishes knowingly.

“yup, my one and only.” you say dreamily, minho nudges you before shaking his head, a small laugh leaving his lips, “you’re embarrassing.” this time you laugh with him.

felix on the other hand, has a face burning red and a heart hammering in his chest.

this is his chance.

“y’know if you just tell her you’re spider-man she’d even say yes if you proposed let alone asked her to homecoming.” jisung says to a still flustered felix, school already ended and it’s been hours since chemistry but his heart was still going haywire.

you unknowingly liked him... indirectly, you were in love with lee felix.

“i-i mean yeah, but she likes spidey, not me.” felix reminds bitterly, shoving his textbooks into his backpack before slamming his locker shut.

“in case you forgot, you’re the same person.”

“not really, spider-man is… spider-man. i’m.. felix.”

“that made zero sense?”

“yeah yeah shut up and let me be insecure okay.”

jisung doesn’t bug him further on the matter.

spider-man pays you a visit frequently, much to your liking. his stops were nice, whether it be him offering you help with chemistry or when he got a bit too injured during combat and decided to stop by for some help.

the first time he ever stopped by for medical assistance he was roughed up pretty bad. it was late, nearing midnight, and you could tell his face was bloody, if the crimson seeping through the fabric of his mask was anything to go by.

“c-can i take off your mask?” you asked gently and he vigorously shakes his head.

“u-uh not a g-good idea. mr. stark will kill me.” he says adding an awkward chuckle at the end.

“but you’re bleeding, how am i supposed to help you?”

“just being here is helping, i just needed a rest stop y.n.” he reassured.

he did it often. just stopping by, talking with you on your fire escape. you enjoyed his company, your mother didn’t like it all too much when you had friends over, especially guy friends so you can’t imagine how she’d feel about a superhero paying a visit.

somehow you had so much in common, so much you could talk about.

“who’s your favorite avenger?”

“definitely not spider-man. oh wait, you aren’t even an avenger.” you tease and he puts his hand to his chest in mock offense.

“well then, it appears that’s my cue to get going-”

“i’m joking idiot.” you grab his arm, pulling him back down.

“my favorite superhero has always been spider-man, i’ve been like, obsessed with you since you saved the decathlon team on the broken elevator.. that.. was insane.” your eyes unknowingly glimmer with admiration and felix feels his heart stutter.

“o-oh th-that was nothing.” he stutters and there’s something about that stutter that just eats away at your memory.

“spidey, this might sound crazy, but do we know each other? like, not as spider-man, as your normal form?”

fuck, he’s been caught.

after a few moments of hesitation, he finally comes up with his genius idea to avoid the question.

“y-yes mr. stark?” he suddenly holds his finger to his ear, pretending to be receiving intel from headquarters.

“ah yes you need me over right away? okay, i’ll be right there.” he heaves a sigh, putting his hand on your shoulder.

“sorry love, duty calls.” he blows you a kiss before swinging away and the conversation ends then and there.  

your face burns a bit at the pet name.

school was the same, nobody believed you and spider-man were friends, and the topic eventually became old news as excitement for homecoming was in full swing.

in chemistry you’re assigned a group to work with for your lab, minho, jisung, and felix being your teammates. you didn’t mind felix and jisung, they didn’t talk much and kept to themselves most of the time, so you assumed it would be an easy assignment to get done efficiently thanks to your intelligent group members (minus minho).

however the moment you carry your textbook and notes over towards felix’s table, the boy avoids eye contact with you like the plague, his face a vibrant crimson.

“you okay?” you ask worriedly, felix clears his throat awkwardly before nodding furiously.

“don’t mind him.” jisung says, patting his back comfortingly.

“he’s just not good with girls– fuck!” jisung winces, glaring over at felix who sends him a death glare.

“o-okay then. uh, minho is grabbing us goggles, did you guys write out your hypothesis yet?” you attempt to change the conversation and felix nods, not trusting his voice to speak without stuttering.

“could i read it?” you ask, eyes not leaving felix’s, the boy makes the mistake to look up, and his eyes immediately meet yours.

“u-uh y-yeah h-here.” he hands it over to you, hand shaking like crazy.

you take the paper for him.

“um.” you mumble awkwardly.

his sheet was covered in your name in various fonts, all surrounded by hearts. you bite your lip to suppress the laugh you can feel climbing up your throat.

felix seems to realize what exactly you’re referring to and he snatches his paper away from you  hastily, crumbling it up before shoving it in his mouth.

“what the fuck.” minho says blankly, dropping the goggles on the table, wondering just what in the world he just walked into.

you meet eyes with jisung, and the both of you just erupt into laughter, gripping your stomach helplessly and felix just shoves his head down on the table, hiding his cheeks although his ears still poke out, visibly showing his flusterment.

nobody mentions what happened for the rest of the class period, and felix practically keeps his eyes glued to his paper the entire time, not looking up for a moment, and you feel kind of bad.

felix was nice, and he was actually pretty cute. you just didn’t know much about him, since he was too scared to ever talk to you.

it isn’t until the bell rings signaling the end of class does he weakly call your name, eyes still glued to the floor.

he adjusts his backpack strap awkwardly, clearing his throat.

“i-i’m s-sorry a-about that… i- s-sorry if that made you f-feel.. um.. uncomfortable or s-something.” he groans internally at how pathetic he sounds and you smile kindly at him.

“it’s okay, you didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, i’m flattered actually.” you tell him reassuringly and that seemed to give him enough courage to look up at you, the corners of his lips turning upwards slightly.

“i-” he starts, but doesn’t get to finish, minho grabbing you by your backpack and lugging you out the room.

“i gotta piss come with me.” he says, ignoring your complaints as he drags you away, leaving a very sullen felix behind, his shoulders falling in disappointment.

he was going to ask you to homecoming.

“what the hell minho i was in the middle of talking to him. and i can’t even get into the guy’s bathroom you dumbass.” you complain, rubbing at your shoulders in pain.

“i just did you a favor.” he says, crossing his arms.

“the hell do you mean?” you ask in confusion.

“the little loser was going to ask you to hoco, i just stopped a disaster from happening.”

“you’re an asshole.”

the air conditioning in your bedroom wasn’t the best, and although it was october it was still quite warm in new york. so you frequently left your window open, just slightly, albeit, enough for an upside down spidey to shout boo! and scare the ever living shit out of you from your window when you’re exhausted from school, you nearly have a heart attack.

he laughs obnoxiously, and you give him the angriest glare you can muster.

grabbing the scissors on your desk, you walk over towards your window.

with one flick of your wrist you snip the webbing keeping him up, now it was your turn to laugh as you watched him fall down the countless stories of your apartment building.

i mean it would be really fucked up if it was anyone else, but it was spider-man, so it only took him seconds to get ahold of reality and latch onto the building again.

he holds that against you for what feels like an eternity.

like when he knocks at your window at two in the morning, and when you scream at him to fuck off and let you sleep he guilts you by reminding you of your heinous crimes.

“remember that day you tried to kill me, y/n? yeah, now open the door before i file a police report, it’s freezing outside.”

you look at him through the window, sticking your tongue out at him mockingly.

“aw little spider-man is scared of a high schooler now? you can take down big bad guys like the vulture but when it comes to me you have to run to the police to protect you?”

“the vulture isn’t even half as scary as you.”

“i know.” you say with a devilish smile, opening the window to your bedroom regardless.

he jumps right in, immediately plopping down on your bed.

it’s weird that this was your normality now. having spider-man laying on your bed.

“i’m so tired, and i have a test tomorrow morning.” he whines. and you tilt your head at the information.

“for what class?”

“chemistry.”

“oh. i do too.”

it’s silent for a while, until spidey clears his throat to cease the awkwardness of unsaid words.

“it’s homecoming season right? you’re going right?” he asks, although he kind of has an idea about your predicament thanks to his eavesdropping in chemistry.

“actually, no. nobody has asked me.” you sigh hands falling in your lap as you take a seat beside the superhero on your bed.

“nobody asked you? how come?” he asks, pretending to be surprised as if he doesn’t hear your whines and complaints every single day to minho.

“i dunno.. i guess i’m just really unlikeable.” you mumble, he immediately sits up, turning to face you.

“not true at all, and i’m sure there’s plenty of people that would love to go with you.” he nudges your shoulder, “don’t say mean things about yourself, y/n. you’re amazing.”

��thanks spidey, i mean, i think this boy in my chemistry class today was going to ask me, i found out he’s had a crush on me this whole time, but minho, the little shit pulled me away before he could ask.”

spider-man swallows, his heart stuttering for a moment.

“y-yeah? how did you find out he likes you?” he’s truthfully amazed his voice hasn’t failed him considering the rate in which his heart is racing.

“he doodled my name all over his notes.. it was really.. cute actually.” you admit, your cheeks blushing a bit at the memory.

“he’s nice, but, i dunno. i don’t think he’s going to ask me, homecoming is in two days, if he was, he would’ve by now. so i either go alone and third wheel with minho or just don’t go at all.” you sigh in defeat, before suddenly getting struck with a genius idea.

“unless you want to take me, spidey.” you tease jokingly, but spider-man is quick to reject the idea.

“no no no, you wouldn’t want to go with me.” he shuts down the idea immediately.

“what makes you say that huh?”

“well, i mean, if you knew who i really was, i don’t think you’d like me.”

“you don’t know that.”

“yeah i do, y/n.”

“regardless of whoever is under that mask i still like you, i’m not shallow, spidey.” you say earnestly, your hand reaching up towards his mask. he pulls away from your touch.

“y-you like me?”

oh shit.

“uh.. w-what-”

“you just said you’ll still like me, y/n.” he can’t tell if he’s happy or upset about it.

i mean, you have a crush on him, but technically it’s someone else at the same time. he can’t tell if this is a win or a loss.

“okay, fine. i like you. but so do thousands of other people so it doesn’t really matter.” you say bitterly.

“well, geez, didn’t realize i was that popular with the ladies.” he says cheekily and you flick his forehead, causing him to wince.

“is this how you treat the boy you love?” he fake cries, holding his forehead in pain.

“oh shut up, i didn’t even hit you that hard.”

“my forehead is throbbing, it’s probably red.”

“okay well let me see it then.” you attempt to reach up towards his mask again, but he dodges your touch again, grabbing your wrists.

“n-no y/n. i can’t.” his tone turns serious, looking at you earnestly through his mask.

“why not? do you not trust me?”

“i do trust you, you’re just, going to be disappointed.”

“i promise you i won’t. please?”  you try again, and he heaves a sigh before loosening the grip on your wrists.

carefully sliding your fingers beneath the edge of his mask, you lift the fabric gently and slowly, your heart pounding in your ears.

you’re greeted to warm brown eyes, disheveled honey colored hair, and freckles you know belong to only one boy.

“f-felix?” maybe it’s the shock of it all, or maybe you’re just relieved, but you instantly cup his jaw, rubbing his cheek gently.

“y-yeah. you’re disappointed aren’t you?” he says dejectedly and you immediately shake your head.

“not at all.. i-i’m.. i’m happy it’s you.” you admit finally making eye contact with him, eye to eye, and neither of you are sure who leans in first but before you can process anything your lips are pressed against one another desperately.

immediately your hand falls into his hair, tangling within the tresses, gripping at them when he presses harder against your lips, his tongue slipping past them and entangling around yours.

he pulls you down against your bed, you wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him as close as possible.

it’s felix. lee felix. this whole time.

things get heated, but then immediately goes back to being silly when felix accidentally bumps your teeth against one another causing him to wince against your lips in pain. he pulls away, laughing into your neck and you just shake your head at him in disbelief.

“you’re so stupid. i-i can’t believe it’s you.”

resting his forehead against yours, he just gives you a lopsided smile, his eyes forming into pretty crescents.

“are you disappointed or happy that it’s me?”

“are you joking. i just kissed the life out of you and you’re asking me if i’m disappointed?” you give him a dumb look and he just laughs again, his cheeks turning that familiar pretty shade of red.

“well then, go to homecoming with me?” he asks hopefully, a stupid smile on his face.

you lean forward and peck his lips quickly before pulling away.

“well how can i say no to spider-man?”

[ if you enjoyed this feedback is always extremely appreciated! my askbox is open as always! happy halloween! xx ]

psst.. double update for halloween ... stay tuned hehehehehheh 

- vivienne 🎃

[talltree-writes]

New Recruit

Summary: Percy Jackson is just trying to return to normal life after the War, but when mortals start noticing things the Mist is supposed to hide, how will he keep his identity hidden? Especially with Peter Parker getting suspicious of him. 

Genre: Mild angst, but it’s mostly just Percy helplessly trying to keep his identity secret

Pairing: None

Warnings: Panic Attack, language, fighting, 

Word Count: 5.7k

Author’s Note: This is not canon compliant for anything post- Infinity War. I started (and finished lmao) writing this before Endgame or FFH came out. It’s also not compliant with anything post- Blood of Olympus. Also very sorry about the lack of warnings before, I’m still figuring out Tumblr formatting/etiquette. 

~~~~

Percy Jackson stood in the boys' bathroom at school when he majorly fucked up. In hindsight, maybe he shouldn't have been Iris Messaging Chiron in there, but it was the one no one ever used and it was during class anyway, so he figured it was perfectly fine. Until it wasn't.

Chiron listened attentively as Percy spoke. "Yeah, so I was thinking that this weekend I could teach some of the younger kids-"

"What the-?" Percy heard a voice behind him and quickly swiped through the mist and whirled around, already drawing his pen out of his pocket. Standing there, jaw practically on the floor, was Peter Parker, one of the Honors students at Percy's school. Percy put Riptide away.

Percy gaped for a second. What was he supposed to tell him? Did he play it off like there was nothing there, or did he fess up? He'd met Peter before, knew he wouldn't tell a soul if he was asked not to. But there was still the danger of a mortal knowing about Percy's world.

Before Percy could say anything, though, Peter shook his head and turned toward the door. It was then, when the light his face at a new angle, that Percy realized that Peter Parker had been crying.

He didn't hesitate. Whether he had seen something or not, there was something going on with this kid, and he was going to do his best to help him. He'd seen too many half-bloods look like this after the wars. "Wait!" He called out. "Are you okay?"

Peter stopped and hesitated, as if he wasn't sure what to tell Percy. Then, stiffly, like his body was acting against his will, he turned around as a fresh set of tears fell from his eyes. Percy inched closer and noticed the boy's erratic breathing and shaking body. A panic attack. Percy could definitely help with that.

Peter looked like he was going to run away, but his feet seemed uncooperative. "Hey, shh, it's okay." Percy said, keeping his voice calm in an attempt to calm the panicking boy. "Let's try some breathing exercises. Why don't you try to match my breathing?" Percy suggested softly. He breathed in deep and exhaled slowly, watching Peter try to do the same. "Is it okay if I put my hand on your shoulder?" He asked. He knew from personal experience that it was better to ask first.

Peter nodded, and Percy placed a hand on his shoulder and sat with him against the wall. As soon as they sat down, Percy slid his hand across the boy's back so that his arm was around him.

They continued the breathing exercises until Peter's breath slowed down. However, it wasn't until Percy felt him pull away that he removed his arm and spoke again. "Do you want to talk about it? I know that it sometimes helps." He offered. There was a moment of silence and Percy thought he had said something stupid. Who was he to barge into this guy's life and demand to know what caused a panic attack like that? But after another shaky breath, Peter started talking.

"Do you remember last May when the aliens invaded again?" Percy didn't know there had been a first time, but then again, Peter didn't know that he had been kidnapped by a goddess with a temporary split-personality disorder, so he kept quiet. "Something happened that I really can't talk about, but since then I've had pretty back attacks because of it."

Percy couldn't help be a little suspicious. Could he not talk about it because of how scarring it was? Or had he been told not to? Was he keeping some sort of secret? He dropped it though. No use stressing him out when he had finally calmed down. He'd just have to figure that out later.

After a few more seconds, Peter seemed to come to his senses. Looking uncomfortable, he spoke again. "Thanks for helping me, uh, Percy? That's your name right?" He asked, looking up at Percy with large, brown eyes. Percy nodded. "Oh thank God, that would have been really awkward it it wasn't. It was really nice of you to help me, though, especially since you're a senior, and I'm only a sophomore, and, honestly, I get the impression that most of you wouldn't have taken the time to do that for someone, especially an underclassman. You're really good at it though. Why is that, by the way? Do you have panic attacks yourself? It's cool if you do, I mean, not cool, but it's alright. I get it, obviously. But what were you doing when I walked in? What was that-"

Percy cut him off before he could ramble anymore. "Don't mention it, dude. I get it, and it sucks. I hope the rest of your day goes better than it has so far, but I need to get to practice." He couldn't let Peter get too far into his questions, and he was definitely remembering the Iris Message from earlier.

He quickly got up, making sure not to displace the younger student too much. Grabbing his bag, he pushed open the door and made his way into the hall. As he did so, the final bell rang, and he slipped into crowd, successfully hiding from the head poking out of the boys' bathroom. He thought.

Coming up beside his mortal friend, Charlie, at their neighboring lockers, Percy busied himself with grabbing the books he needed for homework and his gym bag. He heard the locker beside him slam shut while he was in the middle of shoving his Pre-Cal textbook in his bag and he anticipated the questions he was bound to have to answer. He may or may not have asked to use the bathroom 15 minutes before his Marine Biology class was over without coming back.

"So what was that?" Percy glanced over and saw Charlie's left eyebrow raised as he stood with his arms crossed.

Percy tried to play innocent. "What was what?"

Rolling his eyes, Charlie replied. "C'mon, man, are you okay? You were gone for so long that Mrs. Pruta was worried you had gotten sick or something."

Percy had done well at hiding the details about his life. It was for the best, the fewer people who knew about his world, the better. "Nope, not sick. I just helped out an underclassman and it took a little longer than I meant to. I'll talk to her on Monday. In the meantime, did you possible get the homework for me?" He shot his friend a hopeful grin as grabbed his bag.

"One of these days, I'm just going to let you suffer." Percy's face morphed into a pout. Charlie rolled his eyes again. "Read 13.4 and do the questions at the end by Monday morning. Turn it in online."

"You're too good to me." Percy grinned again. Charlie scoffed his affirmation.

They started walking toward the locker room. In the corner of his eye, Percy saw Peter glance his way, but head in the opposite direction toward the front doors. "So, what are you doing this weekend? Jacob, Ren, and I were thinking of doing something, and you should come. It feels like forever since we've all done something." Percy grimaced internally. Since he had come back, he'd spent as much time with his mom or at camp as possible, which left little time to hang out with his friends from school.

"Sorry, Charlie, I'm going back to camp for the weekend. They still need some help putting things back together." Which was true. They were still trying to get everything picked up after the war. Since it was the school year, most of the campers had gone home, plus the two wars had depleted their numbers anyway.

Charlie pushed open the door. "They ever tell you what happened?"

Remembering what Peter had said, Percy replied, "Uh, yeah, it was that alien attack from last year. It really did a number on the camp."

"That makes sense. I mean, I thought it only affected the city, but I guess any news about the country would be drowned out by everything else. Wonder why they wouldn't tell you that in the first place, though."

Percy shrugged. "I have no idea." After that, Charlie didn't have a chance to bring it up again. His attention was whisked away by the other runners as they started talking about something or another. Percy didn't really care. He grabbed his clothes and, as discreetly as possible, sneaked into one of the stalls to change. There would be too many questions if anyone saw his scars, and Percy really didn't want to relive them anyway.

He walked back in to the slam of locker doors and the laughter of his teammates. At his locker, he threw his other clothes in before joining the wave of boys headed toward the track to start warming up.

As Coach put them through drills, Percy allowed each footstep to help him forget the sophomore who saw his Iris Message.

Peter knew there was something up with Percy. For one, he had pointedly avoided nearly all of Peter's questions, secondly, whatever he had been doing in the bathroom when he walked in was definitely not normal. Besides that, Peter really didn't have any solid evidence that Percy was... abnormal, except for his intuition that said Percy had dangerous potential.

When Percy left the bathroom, Peter kept the tall, dark head in sight even as he kept his distance. This wasn't the first time Peter had to follow someone suspicious. He hid behind a set of lockers and tried to listen in while Percy was talking to his friend, but there was too much noise around him. When he started heading toward the locker room, Peter headed to the front steps with the kids who waited for their parents to pick them up and texted Mr. Stark.

To: Mr. Stark From: Spidey gonna be late today. could you look up everything you can on percy jackson? he seems okay, but theres something weird about him

To: Spidey From: Mr. Stark Yah ill let u kno wat i find

To: Spidey From: Mr. Stark b careful

Peter smiled at the last message. The two had developed something of a friendship since the Vulture situation, and Peter was even starting to look to Tony as something of a father figure, even though he would never admit it.

He waited in front of the school for a full three hours while the team practiced. Eventually, he moved to a nearby alley to change into his suit and wait on the roof for Percy. Finally, the entire track team filed out of the doors and started heading home, and Peter quickly caught sight of him.

As Peter trailed Percy, he got a call from Mr. Stark. "Hey, Mr. Stark! Got any news for me?"

"Yeah, kid." Mr. Stark responded, "I did what you asked and pulled up everything I could on this Percy Jackson guy and he's pretty interesting. First of all, his name is Perseus. Like, who even names their kid that anymore? Second of all, there is no record of a father. Like, none. He's not listed on the kid's birth certificate, there are no pictures of his oddly hot mom with a man around the right time. There's just... nothing. Oh, and he's been kicked out of so many schools it's not even funny. He even had a near miss at Goode when he caused some sort of explosion a couple of years ago. Not to mention, his ex-step-dad has been missing for six years and he's been the feature of a manhunt. He also went missing last year for a long time but was spotted in Europe a few times Kid, I think he's bad news. Keep an eye on him, he could be a threat."

From where he was perched on the edge of a building, Peter felt his Spidey-sense go off as a woman approached Percy. From his angle, he couldn't see what the older teen's facial expression, but his whole body tensed. Suddenly the woman launched herself at Percy, skin melting away to reveal a donkey leg and a metal leg. Her hair turned to flame and her already pale skin grew even paler. She honestly looked like a bad villain.

"Hang on, Mr. Stark. There's something happening with Percy. Someone or something just attacked him. I'm going to see if I can-" Just as Peter reached his arm out to shoot a web, Percy pulled a large bronze sword from seemingly nowhere. The two below began to fight in the middle of the city sidewalk while a crowd formed around them.

Peter's vision was doing crazy things. Sometimes it seemed like the woman was a normal lady, and sometimes she was a b-movie villain. "Peter? Pete? C'mon, kid, are you alright?" Mr. Stark's voice overcame the confusion in Peter's mind.

"Huh? Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Just a little confused. I'll call you back when I figure out what's going on."

Mr. Stark grunted his agreement. "Stay safe, kid." Click. The call ended and Peter turned his full attention to the duo below him. He crawled closer, clinging to a nearby building, until he could catch some of what they were saying.

Well, hissing, in the case of the woman. "I will have your blood, Perseus!"

Percy was fending her off with some effort, and through gritted teeth, said "Fat chance, Kelly! Braccas meas vescimini!" Peter had barely passed Latin, but he knew enough to know Percy had said something about pants.

Peter watched as Percy feinted right with his sword, and 'Kelly' fell for it, going to guard her left side. Meanwhile, Percy struck her right side and sliced clean through her abdomen. He watched in horror as the woman, instead of falling into two halves, she disintegrated into a golden dust that blew away in the wind.

Breathing heavy, Percy was finally able to glance around at his audience. "Shit." He muttered, bracing himself for the attacks. Instead, he was met with loud speculation.

"What was that thing?"

"Thank God he stopped it!"

"Who is he?"

"Do you think he's a new Avenger?"

"Maybe that's who Spiderman is!"

"Hey, kid, are you Spiderman?"

"No, you dumbass! Spiderman is up there!" The crowd turned to face Peter, and Percy took the opportunity to slip out and run for it. Spiderman settled the crowd as best he could before taking off after him. Maybe Percy wasn't a threat, but he certainly knew about one. Peter needed to call Mr. Stark back.

"Hey Karen?"

"Yes?" The A.I. replied.

"Call Mr. Stark back." There was a ringing in his suit and then-

"What did you find out, kid?"

As he ran across rooftops, Peter suddenly remembered that Percy was the fastest long distance runner on the team. "Only that Percy can fight and he knows about something that we don't. What do you want me to do?"

There was a moment of silence as Mr. Stark thought before he answered. "I'm looking at the footage from your suit, and I see what you mean. Bring him in. We need to talk to him, figure out what he knows, and maybe recruit him. I'll send Happy to your location to pick you two up. Oh, and I don't think I need to tell you this, but until we've made a decision about him, keep your mask on. We don't need him knowing about your identity if he's not trustworthy, especially since he goes to school with you." Another pause. "Good work, kid." He finished with a grunt.

The two hung up as Peter watched Percy check over his shoulder and slow down. As he did so, Peter slid down upside down on a web behind him. When he turned back around, Peter was right there, "Hi!" The older teen jumped back a foot.

"What the- where did you come from?" He exclaimed.

"The rooftops. Y'know, you sure were easy to sneak up on." Peter responded in an even tone. "Oh yeah, and after whatever that was that just happened, I'm going to need you to come with me. I have some friends that want to talk to you."

Percy immediately became defensive, hand edging towards his pocket, as if to pull his sword back out. "What kind of friends?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Woah, man, calm down. I'ts just some guys like you and me. They've never seen you before and they want to make sure you're on our side. Which, I mean, based on that fight, I'm pretty sure you are. But y'know, they want to check and blah, blah, blah." Peter shrugged, still upside down.

Obviously caught off guard, the look on his face told Peter that something was terribly wrong. "You saw that?"

Peter answered slowly, trying not to further panic the already nervous-looking Percy. "Yeah, everyone saw it. Didn't you hear what they were saying? They wanted to know if you were me or a new Avenger or something."

All the blood seemed to rush from Percy's face. He started muttering things; he spoke in such a low voice that Peter only caught some of it, even with his enhanced senses. "Shouldn't happen... the Mist.... something's wrong... gotta call Annabeth... have to figure out...' None of it made much sense to Peter who sighed and interrupted him.

"Listen, pal, we've got places to be. Superheroes don't like to be kept waiting."

"Superheroes?"

Peter continued to assure him. "Yeah, you know, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, those guys! They just want to talk to you and figure out what you're about."

Understanding crossed Percy's face. "Oh, those guys who got into that massive fight in Berlin a few months ago. Are you sure they're superheroes? They seemed to do more bad than good..."

"Yes I'm sure. They also happened to save New York a few times. And, y'know, the world."

Percy rolled his eyes and muttered "Haven't we all..."

Before Peter could reply, Happy pulled up in one of Mr. Stark's cars. Peter flipped down, detached from his web, and guided Percy to the car. "So Happy, the driver, is just gonna take us upstate, and then the Avengers are going to talk to you." Percy only nodded, guard up and features determined. Peter could already tell that, without a miracle, getting answers out of him would not be easy.

The car ride was especially awkward. Stilted conversation occupied the trip. With neither willing to give up too much information pertaining to their identities, talking consisted of questions and short answers.

The longer Peter sat near the guy, the more curious he became about him. There was something more to Percy, an air of both power and trauma that rolled off of him, similar to Steve or Bucky, and Peter wanted to know why . Why did he seem so powerful? Why did he know to fight like he did? Why was Percy so calm around a kid having a panic attack? Why, why, why?

After the awkward drive, the car pulled in front of the compound. Mr. Stark, Black Widow and Captain America were waiting out front. "Thanks, Happy!" Peter called as the two got out of the car. He was answered with a wave before Happy drove back to the garage.

When the trio saw them, Peter awkwardly waved, and Captain America turned to Mr. Stark, shocked. "This is the unknown we need to talk to? He's just a kid!"

"Rogers, you didn't see the footage. And it's less that is the unknown and more that he knows of the unknown. There's obviously a threat we haven't known about in the world, and he does." Natasha explained.

Percy piped up, a seemingly easy grin on his face. "I mean, I'll tell you what I can, but I'm really not supposed to tell anyone anything." If Peter hadn't been in the car with him, he wouldn't know what the smile hid. Percy was nervous. About what, Peter didn't know. Perhaps that he would say something that he didn't mean to, but maybe something else.

Mr. Stark responded, as if he wasn't expecting the kid to respond. "Uh, no. You'll tell us everything, and once you do, you can stop fighting whatever it is and let the big boys handle it."

Percy's smile grew. "We'll see." He walked forward, right between Captain America and Black Widow and entered the compound. Glancing back at the stunned trio, he asked, "So are we going to do this or...?"

Percy was terrified, and he had no idea why. Okay, maybe 'terrified' wasn't the right word. Nervous, anxious, paranoid. Maybe those fit better. And he obviously had no reason to be. He had faced monsters, gods and primordials and come out mostly okay, a conversation with so-called superheroes should be a breeze. He had made it five years without revealing his secret to mortals, he could go another 60 minutes. Sure, yes, absolutely. He could do this.

He could not do this.

He had only gotten in the car with Pete- 'Spiderman' because he needed to know how Peter Parker and all of those civilians had seen the empousa. They couldn't all be clear-sighted, which left no other option than something had happened to the Mist.

They led him to a small room, very similar to those interrogation rooms you see on T.V.. Spiderman was ordered to stay behind the glass, so Peter could assume it was double sided and he was watching from outside. None of the adults sat, so neither did he. They congregated around the table, Percy on one side, the trio on the other. The two men, Percy vaguely recalled the larger one from the detention videos they had started making him watch recently and the American history books Annabeth showed him, backed up to the corners of the room and allowed the woman to take charge.

"Have a seat." She gestured to the chairs. Neither of them sat. "Okay, let's start with the simpler stuff. What was that thing that attacked you in the street?"

Percy thought for a second about his answer. "It was a threat to me."

The woman smiled sweetly, "Listen, we're not going to get you in trouble. And we can keep secrets- we've all got them."

Percy kept his gaze level. "It was a threat to me and my friends."

The woman's face didn't change, and Percy supposed that she might have been trained in interrogation tactics. "Well, we'll come back to that. How do we fight them?"

"You don't need to. My friends and I can handle them. Besides, they're mostly only interested in us."

"What did you do to earn this attention."

Percy grit his teeth. "Nothing, we're hunted for who we are."

She tilted her head. "And who are you."

Percy's relaxed his features and forced his face into an easy grin; she was getting to him. "I'm Percy Jackson."

"Okay, then, what are-" Percy must have been really unlucky. Because for the second time that day, he got an Iris Message.

"Hey, Kelp Head! Guess what?" Thalia questioned from her place on Nico's back. Despite the situation two had just put him in, he couldn't help but smile. Thalia and the Huntresses had been M.I.A. for the last few weeks, and he was relieved to see that she was okay.

So, even though the three adults were gawking at him and his Iris Message, he played along. "Hmm, I couldn't possibly know, Pinecone Face. It wouldn't happen to be that you'll be at camp for the weekend? That couldn't possibly be it."

"It most certainly be-" she started, but Nico interrupted.

"Percy, where are you?" His face was serious, like he knew that they had just screwed up somehow.

"He's at the Avengers compound, having a little chat." The scrawnier man spoke up.

Both of his cousins looked shocked. "You're doing what?"

Panicked, Percy quickly said, "I'll tell you about it later. See you this weekend!" And ended the call. Defeated, he sank into his chair. "So, you saw that, huh?" Letting the situation sink in, Percy let his head sink down. "What do you want to know?" He muttered into the table.

"Why shouldn't we have seen that?" The one from the history books asked.

Percy responded, picking his head up from the table, but not looking up. "There's supposed to be a force that keeps mortals like you from seeing our world. You can't all be clear-sighted, which means that something is wrong with it."

He continued, "What was that misty thing?"

"That was an Iris Message. My friends and I use it to communicate."

The woman leaned forward. "Why not just use cell phones?"

"They're like a flare to monsters. They're able to find us easier than just by using our scent."

"What kind of monsters?"

Percy leveled his gaze with her's. "How much do you know about Greek mythology?"

Stepping in, the scrawny guy asked, "Like, Medusa, and stuff?"

Percy winced. "Yeah, like her 'and stuff.' Just be careful with what names you use, they hold a lot of power in my world."

The woman took back over with an annoyed glance at her smaller companion. "You said these monsters track you by your scent. What makes you smell any different than us?" She asked.

He hesitated. This is what he had been trying to avoid, but knew the questioning would inevitably lead up to. He could lie, but he had a feeling the woman would know, but that left telling the truth or not speaking at all. He could tell the latter option would get him nowhere with this group. He had a feeling he could the two guys, but probably not the woman.

Percy took a deep breath. "Because we're children of the gods." He finally said.

The scrawnier man rubbed his temples. "So you're telling me you're Thor's id? And he just never told us that he and his god friends had kids?"

Percy froze. They knew Thor? "Not exactly... I'm the child of Poseidon. You obviously know the Norse gods are real, but the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gos are also still alive. Um... is there any chance that Thor is here, right now?"

The woman narrowed her eyes. "No, why? Do you and Thor have a past?" They were obviously going on the defensive.

Percy quickly explained. "No! I've never met him! But most gods of storms don't like children of Hades or Poseidon, or their counterparts. I don't know how he feels about us. But I've never met Thor personally." He sat back in his chair and contemplated the three in front of him. "You know, you never introduced yourselves. That was quite rude of you, actually."

The men in the back balked. "You mean you've never heard of us before?" The scrawny one asked.

"I mean, I've seen big guy over there in those detention videos and my girlfriend's history books, but that's it. Spiderman said you guys were superheroes and saved the world."

"So you're telling me that you've never heard of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, or Natasha Romanoff until now?" The woman asked evenly. She didn't blatantly show her shock, but there was a spark of curiosity in her eyes.

"We were all in Europe at the same time, and I saw some news footage of what happened in Berlin, but otherwise, no. We tend to stay out of mortal affairs, and no one watches the news where I live. Most of the time, we're training." He shrugged. "I'm guessing you're Natasha, which leaves Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Now, normally I don't soak in everything Annabeth tells me, but I do remember her telling me about the super-soldier Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, and no offense, Mr. Stark, but you don't look like a super-soldier, which leaves Beefcake over here." Percy finished with a smirk on his face. If they'd done their research, they would know what he was like in school, which would mean they wouldn't think he was very smart. Well, just because Percy couldn't write a good essay didn't mean he wasn't smart.

Stark looked mildly impressed with his correct deductions and Natasha continued her interrogation. "Well, now that we know who you are, what can you tell us about how to fight these monsters? We'd feel safer trusting some professionals than a bunch of inexperienced kids to take these things down." She smirked back, thinking that she had the upper hand.

She did not.

Percy's features suddenly took a dark turn. "I'd say you're the inexperienced ones, Romanoff. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Stark rolled his eyes. "Try fighting aliens and reversing the effects of magic stones that killed half the population."

Shooting forward in his seat, Percy banged his fists on the table and stood as he said, "Try watching your friends die as you face off against not one, but two primordial beings because you're the center of two dumb prophecies. Try walking through literal hell with your girlfriend, where around the corner are more assholes you sent there three years ago. Try living a life where at any point, a monster you killed when you were 12 could come back and attack you again. Try that on for size, dickwad. Then tell me which of us is inexperienced."

Tony Stark, and Percy supposed everyone else, went slack-jawed, but he couldn't tell because his vision had gone red. He hadn't lost all of the friends he did just to be told that he was less experienced because he was a little younger. He'd for two wars for Hera's sake! He deserved some damn recognition. "Look, I'm on you're side if that's what you're wondering, but I don't appreciate being told I'm less experienced when you have a 15 year old in high-tech spandex staring at me behind the glass." He said, frustrated.

"How did you-" Stark looked incredulous.

"It wasn't hard. His voice cracked a few times in the car, and no one's voice craks that much except a guy in the middle of puberty. I figured Peter was around 15 or 16, so that was a bit of a guess, but you confirmed. And I've known it was Peter in the suit since he started following me at the school. Peter had already been following me around and when he suddenly disappeared and a spandex-clad kid took his place, it didn't take much to put two and two together." Percy had nearly completely calmed down. The subject wasn't his past anymore, which gave him a moment to calm his temper.

Stark huffed and crossed his arms, but didn't say anything. "Okay, so you know about us, and we know a little about you, but in order for us to trust you, we're going to need some answers."

"What kind of answers?"

"Some answers about your past." Steve was all business again, past the shock of Percy's ordeals.

Percy sat back in his seat. "What do you want to know?"

"Well first of all..."

Peter had no idea what do do with this new information. He supposed it shouldn't be that shocking, especially when Thor had been visiting a week ago. But Thor was from Asgard, an alien planet. Percy was from New York.

"...And if you remember that 'natural disaster' from a few years ago around the Empire State Building, that was me and my friends trying to save Olympus from being invaded by our collective evil grandfather inhabiting our friend's body." Percy explained.

Peter couldn't see anybody but Percy's facial expression, so he could only imagine the confusion Mr. Stark's face when he said, "Wait, Olympus, as in Mount Olympus? But I thought that was in Greece?"

Percy rolled his eyes as if he had had to explain this multiple times to many people. "It was, but with the movement of the spark of Western Civilization came the movement of Olympus. So right now it's above the Empire State Building on floor 600." Percy, at this point, had kicked his feet up on the table and was fiddling with a pen from his pocket. "Oh, and, uh, the Underworld? That's in Los Angeles."

Seeing the back of Cap's head shake, Peter could only imagine the shock he was going through, but before he could say anything, Natasha interjected. "What weapon makes you so special against all of these threats?"

"Now you people are asking the real questions." Percy grinned. "There are metals called Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold that only people from our world know about. The trick with these it that mortals are unaffected by it. But on the flip side, mortal metal does nothing to monsters."

Percy was having fun with this now that all of the cards were on the table.

"Jesus Christ, kid, who are you?" Tony exclaimed.

Percy took his feet from the table and wiped the grin off his face. "I am Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and savior of the gods twice over. I've done far more shit than you could have ever imagined, and maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be able to tell you about it one day. Do you need anything else, or can I go save my mother from the heart attack she's bound to have when she comes home from work and I'm missing. Again."

Tony uncrossed his arms as Cap stepped forward. "Yeah, we've got one more question," Cap said. "Care to join the Avengers?"

[patronusofthepugs]

Tony isn’t the only one with a spider child AU

 AU where Captain American gets a chance to flex his dad skills with a super-powered spider teen.

Alright so Tony has adorable science whiz kid Peter but what if Captain America has small, sassy, jock Cindy Moon as his adopted spider kid?

Imagine instead of being locked in a bunker for 10 years, it’s only two years and Capt is the one to discover her. 

Suddenly, he has this scared, angry 17-year-old girl on his hands who’s mourning the years that she lost in a world that easily moved on without her. A feeling that Steve can relate to a little bit too much. 

So why do they work as a duo?

Cindy has essentially lost her trust in the world and who’s better to regain that trust than freaking Captain America?

He’s the one to soothe her during her panic attacks and he pushes her to go on his grueling runs with him. It helps to run out her aggression especially since thanks to her spidey powers, she can keep up with him. The winner gets to pick their breakfast spot, and the two have practically been to every mom and pop’s diners in New York City. Steve gives every place 5 stars on Yelp. 

Tony and Peter have science but Steve and Cindy are all about art and history museums.

 For the longest time, Cindy thought that Steve was just straight up immortal. She’ll ask him what Alexander Hamilton was really like or which president did he liked to party with the most. Steve typically plays along because he finds it adorable and he’s too awkward to break the truth to her. 

They go to every sports game they can. Cindy isn’t afraid to call out the Refs for bad calls. Steve is less vocal but his simmering disappointment is enough for any Ref to revaluate their calls. Steve buys a gaudy foam finger at every game and presents it to Cindy. She always rolls her eyes and laughs but secretly she loves them.

The two of them are close and even though she misses her family, she can’t imagine not having Steve in her life. He’s the hero that she wants to be. He doesn’t push her into being something that she isn’t. He lets her go at her own pace. 

The only Avengers that know about her is Sam and Natasha but Cindy couldn’t wait to meet the rest of them. But then Civil War happens and everything just goes to shit.

Suddenly her favorite person in the world is an outlaw, and she’s left alone.  She sneaks her way to the airport fight to provide support and discovers that holy shit there’s a kid with spider powers too like what the fuck.  The battle is mostly just Cindy and Peter geeking out over one another while beating the absolute shit out of each other. 

Peter and Cindy become fast friends after the fight in a weird Romeo and Juliet fashion since their adopted dads/father figures are not speaking to one another.

But then Tony and Steve are forced to work together to prepare for the coming of Thanos where a good chunk of the meetings are comprised of them snarkily bragging about their kids. 

“Pete’s more of a looking out for the little guy type of hero. No task is too small for my kid, he even helps little old ladies across the street.”

“Wow, great on Peter. I wonder who he could have learned that from? Certainly not you. You know, did I mention that Cindy prevented a nasty car accident from occurring the other day? A truck lost control and almost crashed into a bus full of kids but luckily Cin was there to stop it single-handedly.”

The Captain has also embraced all of the Dad puns. Even in the middle of the battle, he can’t resist cracking a joke just to see Cindy’s horrified face over how lame he is.

Imagine Steve Rogers raising his tough, firecracker spider daughter. He’s an overly doting, old-fashioned dad but when he sees his girl score a goal at a hockey game or swoop in to stop a bank robbery, his heart swells with pride because she’s just so amazing. He knows that she’s going to be great and he feels privileged to lend a hand in that. 

Imagine after the Infinity War, after he just witnessed Bucky turning to ash. And fuck, he can’t even find Sam. Imagine him hearing Cindy’s small scared voice behind him.

“D-Dad. Help me, please. Something is happening and I-I-I don't know what to do. Oh god, Dad help me, it hurts.”

And he turns around and Cindy is there, mask down and crying. She’s reaching out to him and he rushes to grab her, to hold her close because please, not her. Not his kid. Just as he reaches her, as he is pulling her in for a desperate hug, she looks up at him with wide eyes and fades away in his arms. 

Imagine Steve and Tony not having a lot in common until they do. Until they are two Dads who just lost their spider kids in the worst way possible. 

Imagine Steve Rogers as Captain Dad and Cindy Moon as his Spider daughter. 

[blueroxset]

I Know Who You Are

Summary: What happens when Peter starts to spend more time with Michelle but he doesn’t know she already knows his secret. Will she reveal it to everyone?

Time Period: After Spiderman Homecoming

Pt.1

Peter was sitting in the living room with Aunt May as they were watching some movie he was obviously not really interested in.

"Peter honey, what's wrong?" Aunt May asks her nephew concerned.

Peter feels a tear roll down his cheek and responds saying "Nothing is wrong, I'm fine." "Peter, you know you can always talk to me." his aunt says getting up and walking to Peter. "Its Liz, she's gone and she moved away. I-I-I just, I don't know, she just moved to Oregon." Peter says with his voice cracking as he just throws his head in the palm of his hands.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry" Aunt May says sympathetically as she rubs his back. "Why don't you go ahead to your room, we can finish the movie another time."

Peter gets up off his chair and walks to his room, closing the door and locking it.

He was so upset when he got home from school about Liz moving, he didn't even realize he never did his daily check on the neighborhood like he was supposed to do. Peter hurried up and threw off his clothes and he began to suit up. He was pretty comfortable now considering Aunt May finally knows who he is.

She wasn't really happy with it but she said as long as it doesn't interfere with his school anymore or he doesn't get injured badly, it would be ok with her to continue being spiderman.

Peter opened the window and stared at their little neighborhood in Queens. "This always makes my day." he says through the mask.

He uses his web shooter to shoot a web at the building across and swings around looking for people in need or to help those in danger. Looking down, he notices a girl getting chased by two guys. Peter jumps off the building and swings around, following them to where they chase the girl to an alleyway as one is pointing a gun at her.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size" Peter speaks up, The two guys turn to face Peter. Getting a closer look at the girl he notices that he knows her.

"Michelle?" he accidentally says out loud.

Michelle looks at the masked hero suspiciously wondering how in the world he knows her name.

The guy with the gun aims right for Peter. "Spiderman, look out" Michelle shouts out. Right when the guy was about to shoot, Peter shoots out a web, covering up the gun and throwing it out his hand.

The guys try to put up a fight against Peter but eventually lose and the cops show up taking them away.

"You ok ma'am" Peter says to MJ trying to disguise his voice so she doesn't recognize him. "Yes I'm fine thank you but, how do you know my name?" she asks confused. "I do my research of the neighborhood in a totally non creepy way." Peter says.

"Yes, good one Parker!" he says in his mind. "Get home safely and you really shouldn't be out this late. You know Queens is a dangerous place during these hours." Peter says.

"Ok, thank you spiderman." Michelle says thanking him.

Peter shoots a web out, slinging away back to his apartment with Aunt May. "I know who you are spidey and pretty soon your secret identity won't be so secret anymore" Michelle says out loud with a smirk on her face as she watches spiderman swing away in the night.

Michelle puts her earphones in and continues walking home. She lives in the apartment building right across from the building where Peter lives and if her window is open, she can see right in Peter's room.

She finally approaches her building and climbs up the steps entering her apartment.

Walking in she sees her mom sitting on the couch sleep. Going over to her she lightly shakes her to wake her up. "Momma wake up, Im home" she says softly so as not to startle her in her sleep.

Michelle's mom open her eyes lightly and sits up quickly looking at the time on her phone. "Oh no, MJ I'm so sorry. I got home from work and immediately fell asleep that I forgot to cook dinner. Sweetie please forgive me." she says with guilt in her voice. "It's ok momma, I just ate pizza. I'll be fine."

Michelle knows her mom works so hard to provide for the two of them so she's not even upset.

"So did you ever tell that Peter boy you have a crush on that you like him." her mom says jokingly. "Momma, no. This is nothing to laugh about. I don't believe in dating someone you're friends with" Michelle says sternly. "Michelle you gotta be friends with someone before dating them."

"Which is exactly why I'm never dating."

"Michelle I have some news for you and please promise me you'll take it calmly." her mom says panicking.

"Yes momma?" MJ asks anxious to know the news she's talking about. "I have to go out of state for my job for the next 2 months and you have to stay with my good friend May Parker for that time period."

"But momma I'm 15, almost 16. Why can't I just stay by myself?" Michelle says with the worry in her voice.

"I know sweetheart but Queens is a very dangerous play. Besides, you'll love May and she has a nephew that lives with her and he goes to your school. Its time you make some friends." her mom said. "I have Ned and Peter" Michelle says confidently. "Well how come I never met them." "Never mind momma." Michelle stomps away rolling her eyes. Once she gets in her room she sits on her bed staring out the window.

Why does that name May Parker sound so familiar to her? It just wouldn't ring a bell to her for some reason.

She looks out the window to see Peter in his room on his laptop studying it looks like. Her whole mood changes completely catching a glimpse at the loser in the other window. "Hey loser." she shouts out at him making him fall out his chair.

"Not cool MJ" Peter says brushing himself off and picking up the book he was studying out of.

"Go to sleep!" Michelle yells while still laughing from when he fell.

Peter smiles at her and says "You should be he one to talk. Roaming the streets at night when danger is lurking." "How do you know that?" MJ asks raising an eyebrow. "Pft, what? Did I say that?" Peter then slams his window shut and turns out the light.

"Oh Parker. You're just making this easier for me to reveal your alter ego."

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe Secret Wars chapter 5: Enter Thanos (originally posted on February 5, 2018)

AN: And so, here we are everybody. The final chapter of the first part of what might be considered one of my magnum opuses. I’ve certainly had a blast writing this so here we go. Let the end of the cosmos begin.

“Anything yet guys?” Connie asked her fellow Crystal Avengers keeping an eye out for their friends. “Nothing yet Connie!” Wasp called from high above as she searched the skies with Lapis and Vision. “I can confirm, our companions haven’t returned yet.” the synthezoid added. “Way to state the obvious Vis.” Lapis replied.

“You were right girl, this town’s food is amazing!” Wolverine exclaimed holding a few fry bits on one of his claws like a kebab. “Never really expected you of all people to act like this Wolvie. But then again, I’m a guy who was bitten by a radioactive spider hanging out in a town protected by magical rock people.” Spider-Man said. “Hey guys, I think we can see something!” Peridot shouted pointing at a strange dark shape in the sky. “You think it could be?”

“Steven!” they all cried out as the shape came into view, revealing itself to be the spaceship belonging to the Guardians of the Galaxy. Landing on the sand, the Crystal Gems, Avengers and Guardians emerged looking very damaged from their fight with Mephisto, both physically and emotionally. The moment Steven’s foot touched the grainy surface below him for the first time in a long while, he was greeted by Connie, Lapis and Peridot all hugging him. “Oh, hey guys.” he said rather flatly. “Steven, are you all right?” Peridot worried. “Pink boy not feeling good.” Hulk stated. “Pink boy’s friends should leave pink boy alone for a bit.”

“WHOA! Are you that Hulk creature the mutant talked about?!” the little green Gem gasped in amazement. “I totally won that fight!” Logan shouted hotly. “Yes, yes I am.” the strongest there is confirmed with a cocky grin before regressing himself back to Bruce Banner. “And I’m also a genius scientist to boot.”

“He-hey, P-dot, Tidal!” Rocket shouted fistbumping Peridot before Groot came in and hugged the three incredibly tight. “I am Groot!” the flora colossus cried shaking them in his wooden arms. The mood suddenly lightened up and everyone was cheerfully meeting each other once again. All except Thor. He was still mulling over their recent fight with the demon prince, about how he was now working for Thanos and had known about the Mind Stone. The stress proved far too great on the thunder god before he interrupted the camaraderie with a loud yell of “THANOS IS COMING!”

The scene went deadly quiet once more as they all turned to the prince of Asgard. “I-is something wrong Thor?” Spidey wondered. “Didn’t you hear me, Thanos has five Infinity Stones and is coming here to Earth for the Mind Stone!” Thor explained pointing his hammer to the ground for added emphasis. The group were stunned at the god’s explanation, Lapis especially as she simply mumbled under her breath, “Thanos.”

“What shall we do?” Doctor Strange wondered. “I say we all stay here and take him on ourselves!” Nebula declared. “That madman has gone on far enough and mark my words, he will pay!” she snarled. “Hey, chill out Nebula! We can’t go too far ahead!” Steven exclaimed trying to calm her down. “Steven’s right, we must evacuate this town so that Thanos can’t hurt any of its people.” Cap stated. “I’m going to need someone to warn the mayor of the invasion and organize an escape route somewhere far away from here.”

“I’ll go. I came here before all of you on some business of my own, so it makes sense that I tell ‘em.” Iron Man stated flying off toward Beach City. “Right. Peter, Hank Janet, you lead the townspeople out of here. Carol, T'Challa, Strange, you’re staying with us. And the rest of you return to base.” Steve commanded. “Wait, we have to leave?! But why?” Wolverine complained. “Because we won’t be important to the story from here on out.” She-Hulk answered. “Okay then.”

Flying above the small town, the Armored Avenger landed in front of city hall and shed his metallic suit to keep up appearances. “I’m here to see the mayor of this town!” he announced shoving open the doors. “Mister, we know you have important business but can you not open the doors like that?!” one of the secret service agents present said cornering him. “Stand down boys, he obviously wants to see me.” a short, elderly woman in a green suit stated making herself known. “Mayor Nanefua Pizza Mr. Stark, at your service.”

“Tony Stark madame mayor.” Stark greeted the mayor. “Listen, my teammates and I compel you to organize an evacuation plan for a giant purple spaceman with a golden baseball glove is coming down to kill us all!” he urged. “Wow, that is certainly pretty crazy Mr. Stark, but I’ll be sure to get on it!”

Within a few hours, Beach City was nearly empty, its civilians already preparing to leave. “Keep it going everyone, Thanos should be arriving soon so you should all try not to die!” Hawkeye said leading them all away. “So let me guess this straight, some moonman is coming for Earth because he wants some priceless jewels to conquer the galaxy?” Lars Barriga exclaimed as his parents tried to insert the Off Colors into a large moving truck. “Basically, yes!” Steven reiterated the pink teen’s statement. “And if we don’t stop him-”

“Then the universe is seriously janked.” Garnet finished for him. “Seriously Garnet, we need to make you eat soap at this point!” Amethyst said. “Y'know, when I came back to Earth after you & Connie had that space adventure, I did not expect this!” Lars said. “But then again, I died and came back to life on an alien planet, so what do I have to say?”

“Yeah speaking of which, are you sure you’re that donut boy Groot met when we first came here?” Rocket said. “Y'know, come to think of it you do seem familiar.” the former donut boy stated looking at Groot. “I am Groot.” the tree alien said. “I am Lars.”

“Okay, let’s stop this before it gets too far again.” Rocket said breaking the two up. “Now then, since everybody’s leaving, I think you and Connie should come with them.” he said to Steven. “What, but why?!” the boy cried.

“It’s for your own safety Steven.” Pearl stated. “We know you and Connie are both fairly powerful on your own, but Thanos is another five levels once he gets all the Infinity Stones!” she fretted. “They’re all right Steven, who knows what this Thanos guy can do.” Connie affirmed. “Indeed, he could wipe out half of all life in the universe with just a snap of his fingers!” Thor added. “And the same goes for you Lapis and Peridot.”

“Us too? But we can fight!” Peridot protested. “I’ve been watching a few old kung-fu movies and actually picked up some moves along the way!” She then began demonstrating said moves to the heroes, despite being rather clumsy in doing so and capping off with a crane stance.

“I admire both your spirit, and your budding martial arts skills, but I fear whatever powers you have won’t be enough against a cosmic warlord bent on dominating all creation.” Cap stated. “The captain is right guys, Thanos is not one to be messed with.” Lapis stated putting a hand on her barn mate’s shoulder. “I should know because I-” She immediately stopped herself from speaking any longer. “Goodbye.” Picking up Peridot and Pumpkin, Lapis sprouted her wings and soared away from Beach City.

“What’s her problem? She looked like she was gonna say she knows Thanos or something.” Star-Lord quipped. “That doesn’t matter, we should get you two to your parents post-haste kids.” Iron Man finally stated. “We are truly sorry Steven, but it’s for your own good.” Pearl said before hugging her young ward and the other Crystal Gems joined in. “We’ll stop Thanos and bring everyone home.” Garnet stated. “Yeah, we’re gonna kick his ass!” Amethyst exclaimed.

“Well, guess this is goodbye everyone. Good luck.” Connie said before finally being led away by Stark.

“Okay gang, everybody’s not present and accounted for.” Yondu confirmed gazing upon the deserted town. “In fact, why do they call it Beach City when the number of people living here doesn’t make it a city?!”

“Same reason why evil threatens the universe.” Clint answered. “Now come on, we gotta prep for Thanos.” He led the space pirate back to the temple where the others would be waiting for them. “How’s everything?” Natasha asked. “All cleared out babe, not a soul in sight.” her archer partner stated. “I sincerely hope Steven is all right. This reminds me of when Jasper invaded and he fled with the rest of the citizens.” Pearl said. “At least he has one of your own to watch over him.”

“Uh guys, I hate to break up the ambiance,” Rocket stuttered in fear. “but I think that giant spaceship about to land in front of us may belong to a certain someone.” The heroes all raced outside to discover a titanic aircraft easily dwarfing Beach City in size right over their heads. They immediately knew who this ship belonged to as they all prepared for battle. “It is time.” Black Panther declared.

Meanwhile in a highway far from town, the citizens of the coastline village were busy making their escape from the wrath of the Mad Titan. All it took was one look at his warship from the rear-view mirror for Greg to get a good idea of what his late wife’s companions were up against this time. “Sheesh, whoever this Thanos guy is sure doesn’t mess around!”

His son however was relatively quiet the entire drive. He was too busy musing over their encounter with Mephisto during their space adventure. According to him, he had been involved in the Rebellion as well. But who did he fight for? He most certainly wouldn’t side with Rose but he’s not sure if the Diamonds would be that comfortable with him. Would that mean Thanos had his part to play in it. After a few minutes of contemplation, Greg broke the silence. “Anything all right Schtu-ball?”

“I’m fine Dad, I’ve just been thinking lately.” Steven replied. “Did Mom ever tell you about anything related to the Infinity Stones?” he asked his father. “No, as usual. In fact, unlike all the other messy stuff of that war, she must really want to keep that under wraps.” Greg answered. “But whatever happened, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” he assured his son. “Yeah but I’ve heard Thanos can destroy anyone given the chance, the Gems have a good reason for making me flee again! Hopefully there’s someone that can help me out here.”

“Did someone call for some emotional support?!” Spider-Man suddenly exclaimed peeping into the front window of Greg’s van. The two were immediately startled and nearly swerved into another car before regaining their composure. “Oh, you must be that spider guy.” Greg stated. “What was your name again? Scarlet Arachnid, Spinneret, Silk, Web Boy…”

“Spider-Man, thank you very much.” the spectacular webslinger corrected the former rock star. “Now as I was saying, did someone call for some emotional support?” he asked cheerfully. “I did!” Steven shouted raising his hand. “I can stop so you can get in if you want sir.” Greg offered. “Sure thing, but I prefer to web-swing.”

Latching onto the roof of another car, Peter used his web-shooters to pull open the back door and jumped right in, closing behind him. “And he sticks the landing!” he shouted before imitating a crowd cheering for him. “Yeah, whoo, go Spider-Man, do a flip!” Greg just chuckled still keeping his eyes on the road. “Wow Spidey, that was really cool!” Steven exclaimed. “Makes me wish I was as cool as you.”

“Aw don’t say that. You’re pretty cool the way you are.” Peter said taking off his mask to wipe himself off after the earlier landing. “I mean c'mon, you’re the son of an alien warrior lady who helped protect the Earth thousands of years ago! You still got a lot to learn kid. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.”

“Where did you learn that?” the boy wondered. “Someone important to me that I lost too, just like the Gems.” Spidey answered thinking back to his beloved late Uncle Ben. “So what do you say kid, wanna save the world?” he offered reaching his hand out. “Sure!”

“Now hold on just a second!” Ant-Man suddenly appeared in front of the two young men. “Steven, I know you have a legacy to uphold, but Thanos is just an absolute beast! With all six Infinity Stones, he could practically become God!” the scientist cautioned Steven.

“Oh lighten up Hank, he just wants to help.” Wasp stated growing into view as well. “How many more unexpected passengers can I get! Who’s next, Ghost Rider?” Greg joked. He then finally stopped the van and got out with the three heroes & his son, whom he hugged goodbye. “Be careful out there little guy, we’re all counting on you.”

“I’ll be okay Dad. I love you.” Steven said his farewells before jumping up on the arachnid Avenger’s back. “You ready kid?” he asked his young fan. “Wait, we should make a quick stop first. I know a few others who need a pep talk.” He turned on a GPS on his phone and began scoping the countryside scene before pointing to a building in this distance. “Let’s swing thataway!” he ordered. “Roger roger squirt!”

The two swung off into the distance leaving the winsomely astonishing duo and the car wash owner behind. “Steven is right, those Gems aren’t going to last long without a leader.” Pym declared shrinking down and hopping on the back of a winged ant. “Right, let’s fly!” Jan replied miniaturizing as well and chasing her husband.

The hour has finally come.

Thanos has arrived.

The Avengers, Crystal Gems and Guardians of the Galaxy stood their ground before the spaceship, preparing for whatever threat would come their way. The bay door opened revealing not the Mad Titan, but instead his minions the Black Order.

At the very center was their leader Corvus Glaive, a grey-skinned alien dressed in all black and carrying his namesake weapon. By his side was Proxima Midnight, a beautiful blue-tinted woman bearing a golden trident.

Behind them were Ebony Maw, a rather wormy looking fellow with a silver tongue, Black Dwarf, the brute of the team who’s size & strength could compare with the Hulk’s and finally Supergiant, a deranged wraith who can control gravity. The five aliens looked down upon their opponents with cocky grins decorating their features until Corvus finally spoke. “Well, it seems these Avengers have made some new allies.” he declared. “Quite familiar looking ones in fact.”

“Yes indeed, it’s been quite a while since we heard from the Crystal Gems. I was convinced they were all shattered or corrupted.” Ebony added. “Can’t wait to finish what the Diamonds tried to start.” Dwarf threatened bearing both his axe and his mace.

The heroes simply glared furiously at the Order, giving no answer to their boasting. “What is the matter? No words, just going to skip straight to the action?” Proxima wondered. Just then, Garnet finally spoke up. “Leave this planet immediately Black Order, and tell Thanos we’re waiting for him!”

“About time, all this abuse of the silent treatment was getting me bored!” Supergiant exclaimed with a sadistic grin. “Now then, let us get started!” She telekinetically summoned a legion of four-armed reptilian beasts that towered over the group, snarling at them. “Outriders!” Captain America exclaimed. “Get ready everyone, we’re in for the fight of our lives.”

The ultimate battle for the fate of Earth has finally begun. If the alliance between the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Crystal Gems and the lovable a-holes claimed victory, peace would return and the Infinity Stones would be left untouched by evil once more. But if Thanos won, it would mean the end of the universe.

It was a quiet night at the barn that Lapis Lazuli and Peridot had called their home away from Homeworld. It was originally the Crystal Gems’ base of operations while dealing with the Cluster and since became a new living space for the two Gems.

However, ever since Lapis had returned to Earth after fleeing to avoid another Gem war, things had become a bit different. Like for example, Peridot currently laid on a hay bale reminiscing about the Crystal Temps’ battle with the leader of AIM known as MODOK, his speech about she was there to provide comic relief instead of being useful to the Crystal Gems continuing to echo through her head.

“Well it’s because despite being a member of the Crystal Gems, you are pretty much useless to them! Only being there to provide comic relief. Join me and I shall help you learn your true potential!” he spoke in her thoughts. Looking once again at her miniscule form in a mirror, she sighed miserably and grumbled to herself. “Guess he was right. I really am useless to them.”

“Is something wrong Peri?” Lapis wondered flying to her side with Pumpkin in her arms. “It’s just that that Mo-whatever guy told me about how useless I was to Steven and the Gems. Now that we’ve been ordered to stay at the barn while they fight that Thanos guy, it makes me think that we really are there to provide comic relief.” the little green technician moped before her blue roommate got down on her knees and hugged her. “It’s okay Peridot, you aren’t useless. I mean, you helped save the Earth and got me adjusted to it! What matters now is that we should just wait until the time is right for us to become full on Crystal Gems.”

“And I seriously can’t wait for that day!” Steven called as Spider-Man touched down in front of the barn with Ant-Man and Wasp following behind. “Hey girls, how’s it hanging?” the web-slinger greeted them. “Is this really your home because I kind of expected something a bit more futuristic.”

“Oh it is alright spider-friend. This barn may have termites and a large crack in the ground, but it’s the best we can get!” Peridot beamed at the young man. “We usually spend our days here making meep morps, or what you humans might call art, and watching Camp Pining Hearts.” Lapis added. “Camp Pining Hearts? My Aunt May and I love that show!” Peter exclaimed. “Except for season 5.”

“I know, right!” Steven & Peridot exclaimed in unison before laughing. “I know all of us here are fans of that show, but let’s get to the important topic here: saving the world.” Hank stated. “Yeah, if we don’t race to Beach City soon, Thanos could kill us all!” Jan added, much to the barn Gems’ shock. “Wait, we’re actually going to fight him?!” Lapis yelled. “But that could lead to another war, and I don’t want to get involved in one.”

“C'mon Lapis, we have to do this together! Steven and the Gems need us!” Peridot tried to convince her to change her mind about battling the conqueror. “Earth is our home now. Isn’t it worth fighting for?” It took some time for the ocean Gem to think about this. On one hand, Thanos is indeed a force to be reckoned with and could certainly annihilate them if they’re not careful. But on the other hand, he could destroy the planet that they’ve decided to call home. She finally turned around and made her decision. “I’ll fight.”

“Great, now let’s head back to the town and help the others!” Hank declared mounting his winged ant again. “Wait, first I gotta make a call.” Steven decided pulling out his phone to talk to Connie.

“Hey Steven, are you somewhere safe yet?” she asked. “That’s why I called you Con. I’m gonna fight Thanos.” he declared. “What? Hold on, maybe I can get my parents to drive me to your location! Where are you?” Connie cried. “No, I don’t want you getting involved. You may be pretty powerful on your own, but deep down you’re just a human. I’m so sorry.” Steven began to cry as he hanged up on his best friend.

“It’s okay Steven, you’re doing the right thing just like what your mom would’ve done.” Peter dried his tears. “Thanks Spidey, let’s go.” Steven got up on the teen hero’s back again and left the barn, this time with Lapis and Peridot by their side. Pumpkin was left behind, but little did the vegetable canine know its home was in serious peril as a portal opened behind the barn.

“It seems you’ve gotten weaker since we’ve last met Garnet.” Corvus declared pinning the fusion to the ground with his glaive while the Outriders outmatched the others. “Guess without your beloved savior to guide you, you’ve also become more foolish.”

“We may not have Rose Quartz around, but we’re still capable of defending Earth!” Garnet declared gripping the blade and tossing Glaive into the sand. “Nice going there Garnet, keep him down!” Rocket cheered dismembering a few Outrider arms. “At this rate, we shall emerge victorious!” T'Challa boasted. “Is that so king of Wakanda?”

A new individual has shown himself, this time being the man himself. The Mad Titan, the nihilistic would-be significant other of Death. His purple skin, furrowed chin, blue & gold armor and his piercing red eyes looking down upon them as he sat in his throne were unmistakably recognizable.

Thanos.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” he wondered in a mocking tone raising his left hand to reveal none other than the infamous Infinity Gauntlet, containing five of the Infinity Stones. “Thanos!” Pearl cried readying her spear.

“The Crystal Gems. We meet again at last.” Thanos stated descending from his throne with both his arms out, almost like some holy figure. Touching down on the sand beneath them, he took a moment to examine the carnage that once was his army of Outriders. “And it seems not much has changed about you since the Rebellion. Now who do I destroy first?”

He prepared an energy blast from his left hand and aimed it at each of the heroes, deciding on which one of them to eliminate. “How about you be the first to die my dear Garnet?” Thanos threatened before suddenly, his face was suddenly covered in spider webs. “WHAT?!” he shouted tearing the silk off his face. “Ain’t nobody going to die here Thanos!” Steven cried as he, Spider-Man, Lapis, Peridot, Ant-Man and the Wasp charged into battle. “Ah, the cannon fodder has arrived.” the Mad Titan smirked. “I do love a moving target.”

“Wait milord!” Ebony Maw halted his master before he could do any more harm. “I must ask you, does that terraformer with them seem familiar to you?” he asked. “Now that you think about it, she does look like the one deployed during the Rebellion.” Thanos stated, much to the shock of the other heroes. “Greetings wayward Lazuli of Blue Diamond.”

“Wait, you know Thanos?!” Steven gasped as the ragtag group touched down next to their compatriots. “Yes indeed small child, my minions remember her quite fondly, Ebony and Dwarf especially.” Thanos answered. “It’s true, I have met them when I was sent to Earth.” Lapis began to reminisce on that fateful day.

The Rebellion was in full swing when Lapis Lazuli, a terraformer sent by Blue Diamond to form new Kindergartens on Earth, was thrust in the middle of it. She tried her best to avoid the carnage, the Gem shards raining everywhere and the soldiers fighting for their lives until she found a safe spot behind a lone tree.

She figured she would stay there until most of the fighting stopped until she bumped into a monster that towered over her. A monster with orange reptilian skin, empty yellow eyes, a mouth full of sharp fangs and dual-wielding both a stone mace & an axe.

“Where are you going puny water witch?” he snarled, causing her to back away into another being with grey skin, chalk white hair, ornate black & white robes with gold trim and devilish blue eyes that had a faint glow in them. “Are you lost little one, afraid perhaps?” this other creature purred. “I’m not lost, I was only supposed to make a quick visit before all this happened!” Lapis cried not being able to comprehend her current situation. “Who even are you two anyway?!”

“Ah yes, apologies for being so uncouth.” the grey alien bowed gracefully toward the ocean Gem. “I am Ebony Maw of the Black Order, and this is my companion Black Dwarf.” he, now calling himself Ebony Maw, introduced himself and the larger alien. “We are fighting in this war for our lord and master Thanos, who wishes to destroy both the Great Diamond Authority & the rebels led by Rose Quartz to conquer all that lives in this universe.” Black Dwarf stated. “See that shadow over there, that is he.”

He pointed toward their master in the distance, laughing maniacally as he ended the lives of all Gems, Crystal and Homeworld alike, that dared challenge him. The only one that was able to match the Mad Titan were a Rose Quartz and her terrifying Pearl. “Is that really your master?!” Lapis gasped as she watched the pink warrior face Thanos in battle. “Indeed he is terraformer.” Ebony commented silently rooting for his boss. “Speaking of which, do you ever feel like you feel dissatisfied with your current position?”

“What?! No, as a high-ranking member of Blue Diamond’s court I’m basically treated like royalty! I’m like my Diamond’s princess!” Lapis shouted trying to escape from the two.

“But that’s the thing, when all Gems are born they are ordered to do one meaningless task for the rest of their days. Does that seem boring to you?” Maw wondered getting uncomfortably close to her. “Yes, when working under Thanos we get to murder who we want, how we want and when we want!” Dwarf added with a bloodthirsty grin. “So what do you say little Lazuli, are you ready to earn your freedom?”

Lapis was now faced with a rather hefty offer. If she joined this Thanos they spoke so highly of, she could live her own free life and do whatever she should, but if she didn’t she would be as good as dead. But looking at Thanos, she would rather be shattered than join such a psychopath. Finally, with her eyes darkened, she made her decision. “I choose…” she began. “TO DIE!”

“I thought you would say that.” Ebony Maw stated motioning his bodyguard to his side with a snap of his fingers. “Black Dwarf, shatter her.” he commanded. “With pleasure.” Black Dwarf accepted preparing his weapons. He barreled toward the terraformer preparing to strike before she smacked him silly with a pair of water fists around her arms. “Leave me alone!” she screamed fighting back.

The two proceeded to duke it out while Ebony calmly spectated. Black Dwarf nearly came close to shattering Lapis and vice versa with Lapis against Dwarf. Eventually she dealt the finishing blow with a tsunami that washed the alien away as he vowed revenge. “Very well then. We shall meet again someday Lapis Lazuli, and then you will join us.” the minion of Thanos gave one last warning before retreating into a portal.

Lapis took a deep breath of relief after the fact. With that, she could be able to fly away from this planet as fast as she can before she felt a sudden sharp pain in her back as a Bismuth punched her in the gemstone. She had no time to react before her physical form fell apart and retreated back into her gem.

“So that’s why you shut your trap when talking about him.” Rocket said. “Guess I was right!” Star-Lord replied. “Looking back on the old days is fine and all, but we still got Thanos to deal with!” Captain Marvel exclaimed. “Exactly Captain, I am just eager to finally settle the score!” Ebony shouted giddily. “Dwarf, finish her off.”

“With pleasure Maw.” Dwarf snarled before charging at the alliance. They all prepared for an awesome showdown before charging into battle. Thanos just stood there and watched as his Black Order took on the accursed rebels and their allies. Captain America & Garnet teamed up against Corvus and Proxima while Pearl & Thor handled Ebony & Supergiant and Lapis contended with Black Dwarf. The rest all took on more Outriders summoned to fight.

“For Beach City, for Midgard!” Thor roared tossing his mighty hammer at Supergiant, who swiftly dodged it. “You missed Thor!” Pearl shouted. “Did I?” the future king of Asgard grinned reaching out for his trusted weapon. When it finally returned to him, it smacked the wraith square in the back of her head in its path. “You may be a god Odinson, but can you compare to a servant of Thanos?” Maw bragged summoning a large boulder over him with telekinesis. He chucked it at the duo but then with the combined might of Asgard’s finest warrior and the Crystal Gem, it was reduced to gravel.

“I have always wanted to fight such a stable fusion.” Proxima said clashing with Garnet. “Reminds me of the love between my dear Corvus and I.” she added gazing lovingly at her husband as he jabbed at Cap’s shield. “Wait, you two are in love?!” the fusion exclaimed trying to punch her in the face. “No you fool, we are married!”

“I would say congratulations, but you need to leave!” Garnet shouted landing a punch on Midnight’s midsection. “You wouldn’t understand fusion!” the female minion of Thanos shouted stabbing her opponent in the face with her trident, which caused her to defuse into Ruby and Sapphire. “What?!”

“We’re not just a fusion Proxima.” Sapphire declared creating a spear out of ice. “We are a conversation!” Ruby finished for her lover summoning her gauntlet. The two small Gems charged at the taller blue woman while Corvus continued fighting Cap.

“Why do you keep resisting fool? Don’t you see our master will destroy you once he obtains all six Infinity Stones again?!” he cried managing to produce a few dents in his shield. “Because we’ve beat him before and we’ll beat him again!” Steve declared tossing his shield and knocking out a few Outriders for Amethyst & Mantis before returning to his side.

Black Dwarf meanwhile was evenly matched with Lapis. Normally, he would’ve fought evenly with a Gem like Garnet, Rose, Bismuth or Jasper but Lapis was different. They were on a planet that was mostly water, her main element. She was basically on par with him here, but maybe if he could throw her off somehow. “The offer still stands terraformer, join us or face oblivion!” he boomed trying in vain to hit her with his mace. “No, I’ve chosen to defend Earth from the likes of you! You can shatter me all you want, but you’ll never take my freedom!” Lapis declared.

“That’s my girl!” Peridot cried as she rode on Hulk’s back while he plowed through Outriders. “Thanks Peri.” Lapis wistfully said turning to her best friend before being knocked face-first on the ground. “Well then, oblivion it is girl.” Dwarf snarled as he slammed his axe on her gem, cracking it. This in turn turned Lapis’s colors a darker shade of blue and her eyes glassy, almost mirror-like. “Oh no, not again!”

“Lapis!” Steven cried trying to save his friend. “Do not cry for her boy, she will perish just like all the Gems in the rebellion before her!” the brute shouted driving his weapon deeper, making her scream in pain. “That’s right! LOUDER!” he exclaimed, finding joy in her struggling. If his axe were to go any deeper, Lapis would be shattered right then and there. She couldn’t take this. She was powerless once more, facing the possibility of death and began to sob as he continued striking at the crack.

“You leave her alone you giant clod!” Peridot screamed using her ferrokinesis to grab Dwarf by his axe and toss him into a group of Outriders.

“Whoo, that’s my Kindergartener!” Amethyst cheered for her fellow shorty. “Yes, she is quite powerful!” Mantis added clapping before she was suddenly cornered by a very angry Black Dwarf. “Hey, leave my homegirls alone you big lizard!” the defective Quartz exclaimed grabbing him by the neck with her whips and tossing him around. “And I thought Thanos trained you better than that.”

“You ignorant worm! I shall grind you into dust!” Black Dwarf was at his breaking point, ready to destroy anything that dared cross him until his comrade Corvus stopped him. “Savor your strength brother, they are not worth our time anymore.” he stated. “Right, maybe we should let Master Thanos obliterate them.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Thanos added preparing for battle. He raised his gauntlet-clad hand once again with an air of superiority surrounding him. “You leave them alone!” Steven shouted summoning his shield before he was punched aside. “No boy, this is between me and the rebels.” the Titan stated marching towards the Gems. Pearl was the first to stand up to him as she clashed her spear with his finger. “I remember fighting you in the Rebellion Thanos! Destroying thousands of Gems all for the sake of Lady Death was just utterly heartless!”

“That reminds me Pearl, how’s Rose doing?” the conqueror asked her with a manic smirk. “Well she uh, uh.” the lost defective Pearl began to stutter before she finally gave her answer. “She died to give birth to a child, whom was the one you punched.” she said gazing at Steven as he healed Lapis off to the side. “And are you still in love with her?” Thanos added. “Yes, but I’m trying to move on from-”

“I��ve heard enough. To be a great defender, you must let go of past mistakes and look to the future, but I believe you prefer to stay in the past with your beloved.” the destroyer insulted her. “Well you shouldn’t be saying that Mr. 'In Love with a Cosmic Deity That Isn’t Interested’!” Pearl shouted before she was grabbed by the torso and thrown away. “That is where you belong Pearl, thrown away like a forgotten toy! Perhaps that’s why you abandoned your Diamond.”

Then Amethyst attempted to fight him, strangling him with her weapon. “My my, is that an Amethyst I see?” he wondered. “Excuse me little one, I want to see Amethyst.” Amethyst was understandably enraged by his insult and pulled him down to the ground with a scream. “Don’t call me little like that ever! Ya hear me?!” she shouted turning into her Purple Puma form, jumping into the air and smacking him with an elbow attack before he grabbed her arm and tossed her to his feet. “I expected better from a Kindergarten.”

“That is enough Thanos!” Doctor Strange unleashed a barrier around the hybrid alien. “Doctor Strange, how good to see you again. For the last time.” Thanos boasted. “Garnet, now!” the Sorcerer Supreme commanded the newly refused Garnet as she charged toward the Titanian and kicked him right in the jaw.

“Leave my comrades alone Thanos or face my wrath!” she declared preparing to launch her gauntlets like rockets at him. “And what would your "wrath” be? Just standing around and doing nothing while your teammates get up to nonsense chicanery?“

Garnet immediately ceased fire to comprehend Thanos’s words, when suddenly Hulk, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Wasp, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Drax and Groot attacked the Titan all at once. "PURPLE MAN HURT PINK BOY AND FRIENDS! HULK RIP OFF PURPLE MAN’S HEAD!” Hulk screamed. “Your days end here monster!” Hank shouted about to perform a flying kick before the Titan just mock-yawned and blasted them all away.

Then both Gamora & Nebula tried to fight him. “We’ve lived with your abuse for far too long!” Nebula screamed trying to stab her adoptive father before she was grabbed by the head and knocked out cold. “Take her away.” he simply commanded a lone Outrider who grabbed the Luphomoid’s unconscious form and scampered away, leaving the others crying her name.

“Get a load of this big guy!” Rocket roared while he and Yondu fired multiple arrows that simply failed to hit him not even once. “Are you all done yet?” was the flattest response Thanos could muster with a seriously bored expression on his face.

“We’re not done!” Peridot & Lapis cried out in unison preparing to stop him. “Oh look, the comic relief has arrived.” Thanos said turning to the barn mates. “You too Thanos?!” Lapis exclaimed incredulously preparing a tidal wave to wash him away. “Yeah, we’re Crystal Gems too!” Peridot added snatching Corvus Glaive’s weapon from his hands and took up arms. “If you claim to be Crystal Gems, then where are your stars?” He pointed straight at Peridot’s chest where that diamond symbol still hanged. “I-I’ll get mine soon, I’m just really hard to poof!”

“If these failures refuse to give you one, then maybe I can bestow it myself.” Thanos stated gesturing towards their fellow Gems as they struggled to get up before raising his left hand, preparing to destroy her and Lapis. Pretty much every one of the heroes was down for the count all except for two people: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. “There’s only one way out of this.” Stark glowered at the Mad Titan behind his back before calling for Jarvis. “Jarvis?”

“Yes Mr. Stark?” Jarvis asked, ready to accept whatever command he was given. “Bring in Veronica.” Tony ordered. “Are you truly sure sir? After the last time you used it, it’s still in need of repairs.” the AI tried to advise against it. “I don’t care, we need to stop him!” Tony shouted. “All right then. Sending in Veronica.”

High above the battleground, a jet launched a crate with the Stark Industries name on it and crashed down right on top of Tony. The crate broke apart to reveal a large Iron Man armor as tall as Dr. Banner’s mutated half. This was Mark XLIV, the Hulkbuster.

“This is where we finish this Thanos.” Iron Man declared as Cap and the Hulkbuster charged toward him, ready to just end it all. “No, this is where I finish you.” Thanos heartlessly tore the Hulkbuster armor apart and pushed Tony away while Steve stumbled back.

It was over.

Thanos had won.

“Now all I need is the Mind Stone to become omnipotent.” he stated. That was when he heard the Captain begin to chuckle, followed by a light snicker and then finally a loud laugh for everyone to hear. “Cap!” Steven cheered rushing to his idol’s side.

“Why are you laughing?! You’ve lost!” Thanos wondered out loud. “It’s because we may have lost against you many times before Thanos, but we’ll always come out on top no matter what.” Rogers declared smirking. “And as long as one man stands against you, you will never claim victory.”

“My mom saw the beauty in everything. But I’m sure she didn’t see it in you.” Steven added with a determined glare. “Such noble sentiments from two mortals who are about to die.” Thanos declared preparing once more for battle. This was it, the final epic battle for the Infinity Stones and the fate of all that lives within the universe. The half-human son of Rose Quartz and the First Avenger against the almost all-powerful Mad Titan.

Thanos made his first move, pounding the sand beneath them with his fist to blind the two and firing an energy blast from his hands. “Out of the way!” Steven cried and the two dodged it. “Good maneuvers there kid!” the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan commended his young fan’s brilliance. The boy had no time to geek out over this as Thanos prepared to fire from a large rifle.

“Stasis gun!” Rogers exclaimed before Steven pulled out his shield to block the blast. “The shield of that accursed Rose Quartz! Then that must mean-” Thanos realized. “You must be her son.”

“I know, but I’m not like her! My mom may have done some bad things in the past, but I’m gonna make up for them!” Steven proclaimed. “Typical Rose Quartz, always using others to further her own goals like the fool she is.” the Mad Titan sarcastically lamented. “No, you’re the fool here for claiming you can just win all over again!” Cap declared fiercely. Thanos felt something snap in him, as if a small string finally gave way. He did not like how this puny human had just insulted him and gotten off scott free.

Without even the slightest of hesitation, Thanos ripped Captain America’s shield from his hands, broke it in two, stabbed him with both halves and shoved him into the cliffside, knocking him unconscious.

“STEVE!” they all cried out for their friend, terrified at what Thanos has done. “That could happen to the rest of you if I am disrespected any further.” the Titan declared. “Now hand over the Mind Stone or this planet shall become a forgotten memory.”

“Just let him have it Steven, we just can’t take it anymore.” Pearl finally resigned as the Crystal Gems felt utterly defeated despite their efforts. “You can take the Mind Stone, just please don’t hurt any of my friends or this planet.” Steven begged Thanos. “Hm, I shall give you this. You know how to put the needs of others before yours.” the villain complimented him. “Go, retrieve your stone. And I solemnly swear your planet shall remain living.”

“Come on everyone. For Earth.” Garnet declared getting up and leading the other Gems to the Burning Room. Opening the door, they walked inside and Steven jumped up to retrieve the Infinity Stone in its bubble. The rebels took one long last look at the artifact, still glimmering within its bubble before taking back outside where Thanos was waiting, eagerly anticipating the final stone.

“Here it is Thanos, the Mind Stone.” Steven popped the bubble and held out the stone for Thanos to take. “Thank you very much boy.” he thanked the child taking it out of his mitts and finally inserting it into the Gauntlet.

It was all over, the Gauntlet was complete and Thanos has now become a god. With just a wave of his hand, entire galaxies could tremble at his feet or he could destroy the entire universe and remake it in his image. But as for now, he will just relish in this victory over the incompetent rebels Rose left behind.

“I shall have you know son of Rose, or Steven Universe as they refer to you, that from now on my reign of terror shall be blamed on you and your planet. What’s left of the universe shall desire to carve out your heart and sacrifice it to me as their new god.” Thanos boomed one last time. “Even centuries from now when your pitiful Crystal Gems fade into the wind, they will tell stories of how one little boy has doomed them all.”

“I don’t care, you promise that Earth will live, right?” Steven wept before sobbing in Garnet’s arms. “Indeed child, Earth will be spared from my wrath. For now.” He then turned back to his intimidating vessel. “My Black Order, return to my side! It is time to lay siege to a certain empire.” His loyal minions did as they were told as they wearily stood up and returned to their lord’s aide before entering the ship.

Thanos simply looked back at the Gems with an arrogant sneer before the spaceship’s entrance finally closed and it took off, leaving Earth behind. “Now then, let’s see how Rogers is doing.” Pearl stated blankly walking over to the others, in which Tony, Hank and Strange checking his vitals. “Anything Tony?” she asked. “He’s all right, just knocked unconscious and in critical condition. But we don’t know if he’s going to make it out okay.”

“I-it’s okay guys! Superheroes die and come back a lot! He’s gonna come back eventually, right guys?!” Spider-Man tried to lighten their spirits in his usual manner, but to no avail. There was an air of dead silence in the area.

To the Avengers, they had lost a dear friend and a leader. To Lapis and Peridot, though they hadn’t known him long, they felt their pain. To the Guardians, they lost a trusted ally. But the Crystal Gems took it the hardest.

Garnet lost someone whom she could call an equal. Amethyst lost someone she could aspire to be like. Pearl lost the man whom she bonded with and was the closest to him out of all the Avengers. But to Steven, he lost his hero, his idol, the very super he looked up to. He had learned from him to stand up for what is right no matter the odds, to be with the ones you love til the end of the line, but most importantly to bring hope to even the darkest of times.

This time of mourning lasted throughout the night until the sun finally rose. Normally, the sun rising would mean new beginnings but for this despairing crew, it meant the beginning of the end.

“Guys?”

The Gem Homeworld. A sprawling utopia that has been the home of Gemkind for thousands of years, Ruled by the Great Diamond Authority, this planet has been at relative peace until they started running low on resources, in which they tried to resolve it by harvesting other planets to create new Gems.

But now, a certain tyrant has invaded with a score to settle with Homeworld’s monarchs and has decided to attract them by shattering every single Gem within his sights. All except one that managed to flee his rampage and make it her mission to warn her Diamond of his arrival.

A lone Citrine raced to a nearby communication port and punched in a special code to contact her Diamond, only to be met with her Pearl. “Welcome to the Diamond Line, what do you want?” Yellow Pearl snarked in a snooty tone of voice. “Listen, you have to connect me to Yellow Diamond! He’s finally come for us!” the Citrine warned much to the Pearl’s shock.

“Pearl, what is this about 'he’ returning?” a deep feminine voice wondered picking up the projector to reveal none other than Yellow Diamond. “My Diamond, I have terrible news! Thanos has returned, and he has all the Infinity Stones! You must contact the others and assemble every Gem you got to stop him! We need-”

Before Citrine could finish, the communicator was totaled by an energy blast from none other than Ebony Maw. “Well well, aren’t we a bit tenacious here?” he chided the soldier backing her into a corner and preparing an energy blast. “Savor your energy Ebony.” Thanos declared gently pushing his minion out of the way and forcing Citrine to the ground, aiming his foot at her hand where her gemstone was placed. “When you perish by my heel, tell your comrades in the next world I said hello.” And with that, he stomped Citrine’s gem, instantly shattering her.

“Thanos has returned?!” Blue Diamond screamed in horror as she and her sister raced to confront Thanos. “Yes, a Citrine soldier of mine warned me he would return someday.” Yellow commented. “Now where is White?!”

“Still can’t find her.” Blue moaned before they finally reached the Mad Titan, having already reduced their united army into five Rubies, an Aquamarine, a pair of Topazes and an Emerald fearing for their lives.

“This is all you have to offer now? I expected better from intergalactic warlords!” Thanos exclaimed crushing an inactive gemstone in his hand. “Thanos! What brings you back here you mongrel?!” Yellow Diamond roared preparing to strike him down. “Don’t do it my Diamond, Thanos is not to be messed with!” one of the Rubies begged her Diamond. “This Ruby is right Yellow, stand down or face my wrath.”

“Maybe we should just listen to his demands and maybe he’ll leave.” Blue Diamond suggested, to which her Pearl readily agreed. “Never! This Titan has disgraced us for far too long, and it’s time I get revenge for Pink!” Yellow screamed preparing to face off against Thanos before he raised the Gauntlet and said a single word. “KNEEL!”

Almost instantaneously, the two monarchs and their Pearls dropped to their knees before the Mad Titan. Just then, Mephisto materialized behind him. “Master, your new planet is almost ready. Your fleets have already prepared several worlds for you to terrorize.” the demon announced bowing.

“Excellent Mephisto.” Thanos thanked his servant before turning back to the Diamonds. “Perhaps if you hadn’t done nothing but sit around and mourn the demise of that brat rather than do as you were meant to do, then maybe things would’ve been different.”

“What is he implying?” Blue Pearl mumbled. “I am trying to say-” Thanos began before he stopped himself. “I shall work out the details later. But right now…” He turned away and stepped forward, gazing upon the sky of Homeworld and thinking about the various planets that he could conquer, all for his beloved. “He’s really going to do it.” Mephisto muttered almost fearfully as the others looked at Thanos gazing at something that clearly isn’t there.

But to Thanos, this was the form of his beloved Lady Death, standing there in front of him, her black robes hiding her wistful, neutral expression. Thanos grinned as he raised his hand skyward. Now that he was a god, what was his first act?

A single fingersnap.

To be continued in Steven Universe: Secret Wars

Part 2: Battleworld

Well that’s it everyone. The day has finally come. Let the universe howl in despair for Thanos has risen. Can the Crystal Gems and the Avengers find a way to stop him? Find out next time, coming soon.

[tyleroakley-obsessed]

Pontotoc Lounge in South Main has been a hotspot for amazing craft cocktails and flavorful food since it opened in 2018. The sleek atmosphere and lighting make this a truly lovely date night spot, late drinks with friends, or brunch. This place is in my top five favorite cocktail spots in town, the bar helmed by award-winning mixologist Cady Smith. Whether you want classic, ultra-hip, or simple, she and her staff don’t disappoint. More on that in a bit. Whenever I read about something that touts “upscale” or “tapas” my Spidey senses—which have a lot to do with my bank account—tingle..in a bad way. But I’m fully sold now though, after trying the expert drinks and various iterations of the Pontotoc Lounge menus. Pre-covid, I almost always picked a bar seat at Pontotoc Lounge, though had tables and a community table underneath a tremendous crystal chandelier. It may not be the most colossal chandelier of all comparable light fixtures, but in that space it is oversized in an intentional, fun way. Post-covid, there’s no bar seating and the smaller tables are spaced out, plus there are additional patio tables stretching down the South Main sidewalk. The community table is out to allow for plenty of space to social distance. Above: Pre-covid Pontotoc Lounge. Below: renovated Pontotoc Lounge, fall 2020.     View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pontotoc (@pontotoc_offerings) on Aug 21, 2020 at 2:56pm PDT Craft cocktail menus these days are 80 percent gin or mezcal or other Fernet-ish potions, which is fine, but I am happy to see other spirits featured at Pontotoc. The aforementioned bartender, Cady Smith, has made quiet name for herself winning the People’s Choice award a couple times at the annual Mix-Odyssey competition and a general reputation for behind-the-bar excellence. Back to the cocktails… The French 95 always catches my eye. It’s a variation on the French 75 with bourbon instead of gin. While she made my drink (refreshing, sweetness balanced with boozy) I noticed her spraying an old-timey perfume bottle on the outside of a rocks glass. Curious. A week or so later I returned to find Cady again at the bar, but this time I brought a friend and an appetite. Turns out the perfume drink is the scotch-based Penicillin, which in Potontoc’s version is made of Monkey Shoulder scotch-misted (via the perfume-looking bottle) with more scotch for aromatic purposes. Think of it like the absinthe rinse in a Sazerac, but subtler. The word I used for the Penicillin was “medicinal”, naturally. I meant it in the best way possible. We got a Penicillin and a Manhattan; the former is for your adventurous aforementioned bitter potion appreciator while the latter is a classic made particularly well. They also have a dozen beers on tap and plenty of wine available in three ounce, six ounce, and full pours for your tasting convenience. The food menu is small but packs a punch, and it changes regularly expect for a favorites or two like the Mississippi Pot Roast and Chicharron Nachos. My absolutely favorite dish I ever tried there was the Duck Confit a few years ago, but I always appreciate the new things to try and the bold flavors and combinations on the menu. Mississippi Pot Roast with jalapeño cornbread at the new Pontotoc Lounge. Amazing! A post shared by Holly Whitfield (@ilovememphisblog) on Feb 5, 2018 at 6:41pm PST The signature dish is more down-home than most of the rest of the menu, but it earns its spots and popularity. It’s the most comforting comfort food I’ve eaten since the last time I had my mom’s Mississippi Pot Roast in actual Mississippi. Plus, Pontotoc’s came with a buttery jalapeño cornbread muffin. Such a simple dish could easily be an afterthought to fill out a menu in the winter, but it tasted like someone cared about cooking this. Here’s the Duck Confit I once loved. The menu said it came with a potato croquette. Whether from experience or a moment of cynicism, I expected a formed pile of mashed potatoes topped with some bits of pulled duck, maybe a syrup. No, no, no. I was so happy to be so wrong. Perched atop two hefty fried potato cakes sat two duck leg quarters sealed with a pomegranate glaze. We devoured the juicy, tender meat and the decadent, creamy potatoes, wholly full and fully impressed. It’s always good to keep in mind the role that expectations play in satisfaction, but I feel like this dish wins either way. As much as the Sister Shubert Beignets on the dessert menu tempted me, we couldn’t suffer another bite. Sister Shubert…beignets! What wonderful madness could that be? There’s also a Both times I went, the atmosphere was pretty chill, with only four or so tables sat, and the jazz guitarist on one occasion was fun and not overly loud. The bartender was also the only server at those times which made for a leisurely experience, one that we didn’t mind. I’m confidently assuming that during peak times they’ll have more servers on deck. They host live jazz trios or Latin jazz (they usually announce on their Facebook page) a time or two a week that I’m sure will increase the volume inside, but I’m here to say downtown could use some more live music off-Beale   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pontotoc (@pontotoc_offerings) on Aug 29, 2020 at 12:55pm PDT It seems like it would be fine to dine with kids earlier in the evening, but this spot is more of a date night or girl or guy’s night/nightcap sort of place, Go There: Pontotoc Lounge 314 S. Main Memphis, Tennessee 38103 Facebook page Instagram Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout https://ift.tt/1B5z3Pc

https://ilovememphisblog.com/2020/09/supper-sips-and-songs-at-pontotoc-lounge/

[todokori-kun]

0///////0 0.0 <33333 (<- my current emotions)

Thank you so, so much for the kind words. I’m not gonna try to express exactly how I’m feeling/how I reacted, but just know I sat there smiling at an idiot at the computer screen for quite a while and would probably have creeped out my parents if they saw me XD

I get insecure pretty easily to the point where it can seriously get ridiculous sometimes, but just, things like this actually help me so much. So again, thank you. *hugs*

(Also I might be overreacting because that was one of the nicest things anyone’s said about my art in a while)

I’ve played some Pacthesis games before and downloaded a few simple free dating games to play, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem with playing it :) who knows, I may join you in Otome hell someday (I think my main problem with these games, though, is that for some weird reason I find it difficult to get into the fandoms for them…maybe because the fandoms are usually small and I like having a lot of people to talk to about characters and plot? When I play games like these I just silently fangirl and never really do anything in the fandom lol.

 Also I have th problem where I start shipping dateable characters with each other rather than the MC)

Ok those two look really cute. I’m definitely going to play this <3 and it’s nice to hear the guys aren’t major jerks (like they often are in otome games)

Yep, I confused that with Hideyoshi at first too and it was like ‘WAT. Hide is coming back now? HERE??? But where is he? And who’s saying his name? And really, why NOW???- wait that’s 'hide’ isn’t it Ishida did you do that just to mess with the English-speaking fans’

I know, I wish there was more Urie/Saiko ;-; I just want it to be canon please Ishida

I might have gone 'aww’ over tiny Pride. And I definitely like Kimblee now.

I’m both super excited and super afraid for the last volume. I know I’m also going to be really sad because it’s the end of the series omg

I am honored to be considered an equal with the utlimate cinnamon roll Alphonse Elric. Thank you.

Ah, but I’ll simply charm you with the 'Al’ side of my personality. NO FLASK CAN HOLD ME NOW MUHAHAHAHA

Roy would try to prank you back, but unfortunately the Water Alchemist + the Fullmetal Alchemist…whoever introduced them is responsible for creating a monster (at least, in Roy’s eyes, that’s how it is).

And I think he’d get jealous a lot. He’d get super pouty and petty whenever he saw you getting intimate with someone else and not paying him enough attention (Roy Mustang MUST be appreciated ok, he’s the Flame Alchemist and he’s gonna be Fuhrer, you can’t just IGNORE him)

Also everybody makes jokes about the whole 'Flame Alchemist/Water Alchemist, opposites attract’ thing. All. The. Time.

(Guess who makes the most jokes and constantly trolls both Luna and Roy? A certain someone specializing in medicinal alchemy…tho tbh Evans is actually the biggest shipper and scolds (or tries to scold) both Luna and Roy like some sort of mother hen whenever they argue)

Omg now I’m imagining smol Mei trying to matchmake for 'Mr. Scar’

Yep, I think it is :)

Fear is the natural, most logical reaction whenever the words 'I’d like to recommend-’ come out of my mouth.

Ooooh tell me how it turns out, please? :D

Yeah, it was one of the most uncomfortable, awkward moments of my life XD I KNOW my face froze into the most painful expression ever during that hug and my body just kinda went all rigid (“please stop omg you’re touching you do know I don’t even like you or do you not know that is my reaction not making it clear help me mom”), hoping she’d just let go or something, but she just kept hugging me lololol

And I won’t be giving up on the piano! I love playing it and like you said, I’ve made quite a bit of progress and I don’t want to let all that go to waste. I’m taking lessons with a new teacher now :D

(tbh I used to kinda dislike classical music because I thought it was boring, but now that I’m actually learning to play it I like it a lot <3 currently learning a Haydn sonata and it’s really good. But I really want to play anime OSTs too…the AoT openings would sound so awesome on the piano)

Also, I’ll be sending you some more pictures :)

I’m glad I could make you smile ^^ You definitely deserve all the compliments in the world, because the art is definitely gorgeous! From the ones you’ve sent me, Hisoka and Maria are probably my favourites ^^ Though the Saiko is also really pretty (don’t think I missed the tiny dab in the corner XD) Also, Roy. Just. Wow. If anyone ever asks me who he is/to describe him, I’ll just show them that pic. 

I also see a few watercolour pieces! You seem to have good control over the brush! When I drew with watercolours, I could only manage blogs, never looking like anything, yet I instantly recognised what you drew!

Seriously, thank you so much for sharing the works with me! It means a lot to me that you trust me enough to show them ^^  *weeb voice* Ganbatte!

Pls join me I swear I’ll play any game you do so we can gush together, I’ll even write fanfics for you if you ask I just wanna see you in otome game hell. Please. Also, CP seems to have a developed fandom AND there’s a fandisk coming out soon, containing the after-ends! Sooo, it’s not over yet!  Then, there’s this game that’s available for the mobile phone, called Wizardess Heart, which has an even bigger fandom, and there are routes coming out quite often!  AND even if there isn’t a developed fandom, I’ll play it if you recommend!  Also, to tempt you even more, there’s plenty of suffering in Cinderella Phenomenon. I’ve played through the bad ends now, and damn, you should’ve seen it, especially for Fritz (White hair, tan)’s bad end. Lemme give you a general picture of how I looked: 1:30am. Not wearing pants. Tears streaming down face. Right hand holding a mug usually used for tea, that was filled with orange juice this time, left hand holding up the middle finger at the screen. I’m emotionally scarred. Also, I am not able to listen to the song ‘Lost Boy’ without almost crying because of Waltz. Help. Me. Pfft, that’s the magic of otome games! Pick the guy you like most/don’t ship with anyone and ship the others with each other! In Wizardess heart, the fandom is FULL of shipping dateable characters with each other, so definitely don’t worry about it XD

I’m glad to hear the news! Tell me when you enter the world of Otome Hell. 

Well, there is one major jerk, Rod (blond one, has a plush rabbit), but he does get better when his route goes on ^^ The other 4 are nowhere near jerks! In fact, one is the sweetest cinnamon roll you’ll ever meet (except for you!). ONE LAST THING (I swear it’s the last one!) Waltz (aka my absolute favourite, also very very high on the list of favourite characters of all time) calls MC ‘little star’. If I don’t almost melt every time he does it...

I’m still not over CP. 

I had to read that panel at least 3 times to understand what it meant. You can probably imagine my disappointment when I realised the actual context of the words. Ishida is evil, let me tell you. But he is also cinnamon roll. Hmmmmm.

Aha, good luck with the feels! Seriously, you’re in for one heckle of an ending. It’s a huge rollercoaster of emotions till the end. THERE’S EVEN AN OMAKE THAT MAKES YOU EMOTIONAL AF AND IT’S NOT EVEN A PART OF THE MAIN SERIES.

You’re not equal to Al in terms of cinnamon roll-ness. You’re superior!

And if I fill the flask to the brim with Urie/Saiko content? And art supplies? 

Muhahahahahahah we’re the ultimate duo *explosions in the background*

I think that he’s actually pretty insecure underneath everything, so, yeah, you’re probably right there. I guess we can have a ceasefire with the pranks for a bit. Just for a bit.

Yes, mom. We apologise *bowing* We won’t argue again (HA)

Mei tries to make subtle comments, but forgets to be subtle. Probably says something that might or might not embarrass you :P

Fun fact: Cap’s a war criminal in the new spidey!

I wonder why I always get the urge to skip a paragraph when i see the word recommend. I wonder, I wonder...

Well, I dyed it and it’s definitely not a ginger red. It’s mostly a red red, but also hints at violet/purple  This is the closest picture I could find:

But oh god the moment I started washing out the dye. It looked like I’d committed manslaughter. It was fascinating. 

I’m glad that you won’t give up the piano ^^ It’s been 4 years since I finished piano school and I still make it a point to practice once a week, because it’s always such a good feeling when you go somewhere, see a piano and are able to play it.  But I’m really sorry about the hug :/ Honestly, I have no idea why people who aren’t close to you try to hug you. It’s so weird >_<

Yep, classical music can also be really nice every once in a while!