#I'm halfway through little shop of horrors!

[milkyberryjsk]

(logs back in, covered in blood) hi!!!!!

[golden-cherry]

deal - cl16 (24/?)

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x Reader

Series Summary: Your whole life has gone to shit. Your boyfriend broke up with you, you just lost your job and the Monegasque, who suddenly stands in your doorway, claims that it’s his apartment.

Chapter Summary: Furniture shopping is more exciting when there's talks about buying new stuff - like a bed.

Warnings: 18+ (mentions of smut), fluff, Kika is the bestest friend on this planet

Word Count: 3.4k

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A/N: hello loves! part twenty-four is here and I hope you enjoy it! feedback is appreciated!!!

The fact that Kika is just lying on your bed instead of snuggling up completely in your fluffy blanket is a miracle. 

"I liked the light blue mom jeans best," she says as you stand in front of the large mirror leaning against the wall next to the door to your room and look at yourself. "With the white oversized turtleneck - smash."

You look at her through the mirror. "Haha."

"I'm serious." She leans on her elbows and tilts her head. "If you wear white sneakers with it, it'll even work with the sandwich method. I've seen it on TikTok. And I swear to you - people will turn their heads to look at you."

"I don't want people turning their heads at me," you confess quietly, adjusting the soft fabric of your top. "I just want to look halfway okay."

"Trust me. You look more than okay."

After Kika and Pierre have stormed your apartment with their spare key - which at first annoyed you, but in the next moment made you feel quite relieved - your girlfriend has taken it upon herself to unpack your suitcase and pick out an outfit for you that matches your trip to the furniture store.

Unpacking your suitcase simply consisted of pulling out one item at a time and tossing it aside if it didn't meet her expectations. The pile of clothes next to the bed is the result of her search.

" Let it go," she warns you as you adjust the position of the hem of the sweater on your shoulder. "You look good. When I think about my first outfit as Pierre's girlfriend - it was pure horror."

"But I'm not a girlfriend," you reply as you reach for the jeans Kika is holding out to you. "I'm his friend. His roommate. Nothing more," you exhale, "and nothing less."

The Portugese woman watches you slip into your pants. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Caught off guard, you look at her. Are your feelings for the Monegasque so obvious that she can even see it on your face? Is your affection written all over your forehead? You can't name your emotional state, you can't say a word that could even begin to describe what you feel for Charles - but there's no question that it's definitely something other than pure friendship. 

No matter how often and vehemently you try to convince yourself that Charles is your friend, you are an incredibly bad liar. 

"I remember being incredibly nervous the first time we went out in public. I think I changed outfits three or four times before I was halfway happy."

Oh.

You sit down on the edge of the bed with her. "I want all of this. I want him." You clear your throat as Kika gives you a meaningful look. "His friendship, that is. And I'm also willing to take the risk of people not liking me and talking badly about me." You clasp your hands in your lap.

Kika sits up straight. "But?"

You curl your lips into a thin line. "I - I don't know." How do you explain to her that you're worried that his fans could dislike you so much that they doubt Charles? You're going public as friends, something that bothers you a little more than it should. But the Monegasque has also said that people will think what they want. 

What if they hate you so much - your looks, your mediocrity, your being - that Charles catches on and he realizes they're right in their opinion?

"I just want to make a good impression."

Your friend reaches for your hand. "You will. And after all, you're just friends. The public's opinion isn't all that important." You don't see her look, which says so much more than what she actually says.

"Right."

Kika lets go of your hand and stands up from the bed. "I'll be with you the whole time. We'll work it out. I promise." She tosses her long hair over her shoulder. "So, let's get going. This room is pretty bleak and could use some color," she says before pulling you off the bed and out of the room.

As you slip into your shoes at the front door, the men join you.

"So, Pierre and I are sitting -" Charles begins, but suddenly stops when he sees you. His eyes wander over your body and goose bumps spread along their path. He remains silent until Pierre nudges him. "Uhm, sorry. Yes. We - um - we're both going to sit in the front of the car because -" He scratches the back of his neck nervously, but can't take his eyes off you. "The plan is for Kika and you to go through the furniture store together and Pierre is coming with me. Just so that we are seen together as little as possible, but are still out and about together," he explains. 

You understand why this is all going to happen. He wants to protect you and you want to let him, but you can't stop your heart from getting a little bruised. 

When Kika notices your offended look, she crosses her arms in front of her chest. "So much planning for simple shopping with friends? Is that really necessary?"

As you look up from your shoes, you look straight into Charles' beautiful green eyes. Something that looks exactly like how you feel flickers across his face. "It is." He stands up straight. "Shall we?"

Kika smiles gently at you. "Let's liven this place up a bit, then." She grabs Pierre's hand and together the two of them walk out of the apartment towards the elevator, while Charles and you stay behind. You both look after them. 

"Is everything all right?" asks the Monegasque and stands next to you. 

"Everything's fine," you answer him curtly. You don't dare look at him. 

"Y/N," he says as he gently grasps your wrist and turns you towards him. "Mon amour, you know why I'm doing this, don't you?" His hand slips a little lower so your fingers can intertwine.

"'Mh-hmm." 

"Hey." His other hand rests gently against your cheek, making you look at him. "Hey." His thumb gently strokes your cheekbone. "I'm trying to protect you. That's my priority. Making sure you're okay is my priority. And if that means we can't walk through any stores next to each other for now, just so the public can get used to you, then I'll put up with it." His gaze twitches briefly to your mouth. "Even if it's not what I want."

You nuzzle your face against his warm hand. "And what do you want?" you ask softly. 

"You." 

His answer makes the blood sizzle in your veins. It feels as if the warmth of his skin is burning through your face, as if the nerve endings under your skin are sending little electric shocks through your muscles and forcing your heart to stop. You take a deep breath.

"I want you near me." He squeezes your hand twice before pulling away. Your skin feels cooler without his touch. "But I'm responsible for what happens in public. And I don't want to risk anything happening to you because of me."

You nod weakly before wordlessly following the befriended couple. You hear Charles behind you, but you don't wait for him as you walk quickly to the others. The atmosphere in the elevator is tense as you are transported towards the underground garage, but no one tries to ease the tension. Kika and Pierre look at each other a little uncertainly, something that doesn't escape your gaze, and you can't blame them. The situation is just awful.

Pierre has thought far ahead, because when he presses a button on his car key, a large SUV opens up in the underground parking garage, sure to fit some decorative items. Charles' Ferrari, or God forbid your old Renault, might have been able to fit a picture frame, or at most a small mirror. 

You sit behind Charles, who has taken a seat in the passenger seat. Kika and Pierre are talking through the rear-view mirror while you look out of the window.

The longer you think about what Charles said - or didn't say - the more uncomfortable you feel. The hem of the sweater seems to have slipped, the collar feels too tight and the sleeves are scratching your elbows. You're not sure what you were hoping for, what the right answer would have been. But you're not particularly happy with the one you got. 

You also want to be close to him, permanently. And you can also understand why the plan involves you staying away from each other inside the furniture store. But is that really necessary if you're just friends? Has he done something similar with his other female friends, or are you the only one who has to put up with this fuss? 

Your thoughts are going round and round in your head, but as if by magic they suddenly come to a standstill. But it's not magic, it's Charles' hand that has squeezed past his seat on the right and is now gripping your leg. You feel his fingers slide under the fabric of your jeans, where they rest against your calf. 

You try to regulate your breathing, but you can hear the blood pounding in your ears. Charles touching you is nothing new. You've been touching each other non-stop since last night, which doesn't help your feelings or your friendship, but it still feels indescribably good. 

It feels right the way his calloused hand wraps around your soft calf. It felt right the way his thumb stroked your cheek. It felt right to lie half-naked next to him in bed. 

It felt right to want him as something more. More than a roommate. More than a friend. 

And that's exactly why you slide your foot towards the car door, so that Charles can touch you more easily. You block out the voice that keeps whispering hypocrite to you as best you can. And the warmer his skin feels on yours, the tighter his fingers close around your calf, the better it works. 

"I'll let you both out right at the entrance and we'll park in the back of the parking lot," Pierre interrupts your thoughts before they're no longer PG. "You can go inside and we'll follow. That's the easiest way."

"Thank you very much," Charles says. "I'm sorry we're shamelessly taking advantage of you."

Pierre has to grin. "You're welcome to give me a position in Bahrain, then we'd be even."

"You'd have to get close to me on the track first."

The two men argue amicably until the car comes to a halt in front of the deserted entrance. Just as you are about to open the door, Charles's fingers gently squeeze your leg twice and you have to suppress a smile, otherwise Kika would tease you endlessly. As you both get out and the car drives away, she latches on to you. 

"Are you ready?" she asks as you walk towards the glass door together. 

"Definitely."

Kika has very good taste in decorating and if she hadn't become a model, she could definitely have worked at Ikea putting together those fake rooms. As you push a shopping cart in front of you, she skips through the aisles, grabbing anything that matches in color or style. Picture frames, vases, mirrors and fake plants that would look good on the windowsill in your room. 

She's examining which of the candles in front of her would go better with the vases in the shopping cart when your cell phone vibrates in your pocket. 

Charles: If one of the candles burns down our apartment, I'll have to charge you rent. 

Confused, you read the message before looking up and around. Charles is standing about twenty meters away from you, smiling at you over the shelves. You bite the inside of your cheek.

You: You don't need my money, Mr. Ferrari. After all, you make millions a year. 

You raise an eyebrow challengingly as Charles reads your message. You can see his grin clearly, even from this distance. 

Charles: If you burn down my expensive apartment, I'll have to find a new one, and they're not exactly cheap in Monaco, as you know. 

You: I thought it was our apartment?

Charles: If you let it burn down, you're welcome to keep it.

You: So you'd let me keep it? Our apartment?

Charles: I'd give you anything, mon amour. You just have to ask for it. 

You don't have time to think about his answer because Kika throws a stuffed animal dinosaur in your face. 

"Are you done flirting?" she asks, playing annoyed. "I'm trying to decorate your room and you'd rather flirt than help me."

You feel the blood rush to your face. "Excuse me?"

Her grin almost reaches your ears. "Gotcha."

"You can't possibly have caught me doing something I wasn't doing," you try to wriggle out of it, but Kika has bitten down like a little terrier.

"And why are you looking like you've eaten the last spoonful of tiramisu without asking if anyone else wants the rest?" 

"I haven't eaten any tiramisu," you defend yourself and hug the green stuffed animal tightly to your chest. 

"Not yet," she says gently and puts one of the candles in the cart with the rest. "But I'm afraid you could get diabetic if you're not careful with the tiramisu. A small piece is fine, but a double portion could almost be too much." 

You narrow your eyes. "I haven't eaten any tiramisu." Without taking your eyes off her, you put the green dino in the shopping cart too. "And I don't intend to."

"You're a bad liar," she says and stands next to you, wrapping her arms tightly around you. "But that's all right. I still love you. And when your room looks really cool soon, I'll take the outfit pictures for my Instagram in front of your mirror."

She gives you a peck on the cheek and you roll your eyes. "Charles was right. We need to change the locks, then you can't disturb us anymore."

"Disturb? Disturbing what? Eating tiramisu?" she grins and you would have loved to suffocate her with the green dino. Apparently Kika can read minds, because she quickly lets go of your arms and continues to skip happily through the corridors while you follow her with the shopping cart. 

"How much do you think the things you picked out for me cost?" you ask her as she picks out more plants.

She takes a look at the shopping cart. "Something between two hundred and five hundred euros," she replies with a shrug.

"Kika, that's too much. Way too much," you try to stop her as she walks over to the rugs on display. "I can't pay for it. I'm unemployed, remember?" You're about to turn the shopping cart around and return the selected items to their rightful places, but Kika stands in your way. 

"Charles offered to pay for this," she says, confused, resting her perfectly manicured hands on the metal grille of the cart. 

"He what?" you ask, looking around in the hope of spotting Charles somewhere. But he's nowhere to be seen.

"Pierre sent me a text message to leave the car at the checkouts when we're done. He said that Charles wanted to pay for it and that we should wait outside for them," she explains, tilting her head. "I thought he would have told you. I know you're unemployed, but because of the text message, I thought that - I assumed we could just pick out nice items without looking at the price."

You run your tongue over your teeth. "Give me a moment, please," you say briefly and leave her standing there with the shopping cart. 

You walk through every aisle, looking over every shelf in the hope of seeing Charles standing somewhere. And when, after ten minutes, you spot his brown curls in the furthest corner of the store, you don't care if the two of you are seen together. He's standing in front of a gray, hip-high box spring, with nice, dark bedding and comfortable-looking pillows placed on it. When you stop next to him, he doesn't look at you.

"I want to buy a new bed," he begins the conversation. "The one I have now is too low for me. What do you think of this one? I've tried it out. It's really comfortable and the perfect height for -" He falls silent before he can finish the sentence. 

"Kika says you want to pay for my things," you change the subject without answering his question. You don't take your eyes off the bed either. 

"That's correct."

"I don't want that," you say tersely. "I don't want you to pay for it."

"But I want to," he replies, looking at you out of the corner of his eye. "Think of it as a gift."

"As a gift?" You raise an eyebrow. "As a gift for what?"

"For your friendship."

"You can have my friendship without buying me new things," you assure him, but you fall on deaf ears. 

"But I want to. I have so much money that I can't spend on my own, so I want to buy you nice things." He leans a little towards you so that your hands touch. "How expensive are the things? One thousand, two thousand euros?"

"Kika says five hundred at most."

"Then think of it as a small, early Christmas present," he says gently. Before you can object, he continues. "I want you to feel comfortable and if it costs me some money, then so be it. And it won't hurt my bank account in the slightest. So just say thank you and accept the gift."

"Thank you," you whisper reluctantly, but you know that it wouldn't do any good to go against his wishes. "Did you find something you want to buy?"

He smiles. "This bed, apparently. And bedding. And a mirror."

"Doesn't sound bad. I just hope you have as good a taste as Kika. After all, our things have to match," you joke.

Charles turns his head in your direction. "Then lie down on the bed, mon amour. I'd like to see how you look on it before I spend thousands of euros on it." As he says it and his fingers curl around your wrist, that feeling blossoms in your chest again.

You want to throw him on the bed in front of you, kiss him until you can't breathe and touch him until you can see stars. You want to feel his warm skin under your fingertips, feel his muscles tense as he pulls you on top of him and presses you against his firm body. You want to feel his weight on you as he lays you down on the bed and his lips trail down from your mouth. You want to - 

"Do you really think I'm going to try sleeping without you again when we've figured out that we both sleep better when we're together?" he asks, gently stroking the thin skin on your wrist with his thumb. You hope he can't feel your racing pulse underneath. "When we first met, you said that you hadn't had a decent night's sleep in a long time. And if it means I have to hold you in my arms so you can get a good night's sleep, then so be it. And it's not as if I don't enjoy having you close to me."

Before you can answer him, you feel a person standing at your other side and when you look, Kika is standing there. Her gaze flickers briefly to your hands before she turns to the bed as well. "Do any of you fancy a bite to eat?" she asks. "There's a restaurant nearby that serves incredibly good tiramisu. And it's never busy. We can go there if you like." She turns slightly in your direction and nudges you. "What about you? Do you want some tiramisu?"

More like a need than a want.

[tallgirl14]

Chilchuck angst

I love this lil middle age man but i aslo live for angst so her are few my ideas because I need tell someone and if you have angst dm me we can talk about it

He carries a wallet size family portrait (when his girls were little) with him when he goes down in a dungeon, and he looks at it when he miss them. ( I feel like photos are probably pretty 💰💰 so they only had few consist wedding photo, baby photo mayjack she's fist born, then one of the whole family ) and this photo is chaotic and It makes him smile.

This is the ONLY photo he has of his entire family and he hasent seen them in few years with his kids grown living there own lives and him and his wife are split this photos all he's got.

How far would this man go for this picture. I can see chilchuck getting badly hurt because he went back to grab it and as Marcille is lecturing him about his reckless action as she's healing him.

Marcille: "What could have been so important that you risk your life over??"

Chilchuck: "my family or what's left of it"

He shows her the photo and marcille feels her heart drop she finally got to learn something about him and its sad ( this miscommunication leads to his group to believe chil family is dead )

Chilchuck taught Mayjack how to pick locks, and in the manga, he says when he dies, if they need someone, she'd be their first choice. SO he obviously took her through dungeon showing her how to navigate because being locksmith in a shop vs. dungeon is night & day different, dungeon being high pace environment.

Could you imagine how traumatizing that would be if saw her dad die in front of her AND NOT KNOW THEY COULD BE REVIVED!! (Seeing anyone die would be scaring) Especially if she felt it was her fault.

At first, Mayjack was curious about going into a dungeon with her dad to see exactly what he does she rember as kid seeing him come home late tired excused but mostly worn down.

Whenever she asked him about his work as a kid he was always vague or if he did talk about it was pg version and normally he was just trying scare us about going into dungeon. BUT one thing he made very clear, he didn't want any of her or her sister near the dungeon, but now that she's an adult, he couldn't stop her.

" I still don't want you near the dungeon, but you are a skilled locksmith, so you would be valued and well paid. IF you're still interested, I'll have you shadow me on my next small job so you can see what it's like."

At first, it was like any job we met with the client went over to the terms dad took payment, and then we headed over to the dungeon. I was awestruck by the new environment, but it quickly became overstimulating it took me a moment to adjust. the first few levels, dad had pointed out things to avoid what were scams & how to detect traps and walked me through a few I felt confident. Most importantly, when talking jobs, always have a skilled healer. Now I realize why as we enter new room dad was working on trap I was observing the room when I noticed treasure chest peaking out corner not knowing it was a mimick.

Chilchuck was Halfway through picking his lock when his dad sense went off. He quickly looked around room and spotted may messing with mimick

Chilchuck: "MAYJACK TIMS! get away from that!!" He starts running towards her

May turned to look at her dad, confused " why I already unlocked it?"

Her body stiffened as she could feel presents inside the chest, but before mimick could attach, chilchuck pushed her out of the way taking damage as it jabbed one of its claws through his neck causing him to bleed everywhere all mayjack could do was watch in horror paralyzed with fear trying process what happened. One of group members took care of mimick while she scrambled to her feet to get to here dad trying to put pressure on his wound tears flooding out

"Nonononno im sorry I'm sorry 🥺 "

As chilchuck lay there dying, he was more concerned with the fact he could comfort his daughter. This wasn't how he wanted to see death for the first time. Afterwards, the healer from their group came over and assured her he was going to be fine as she worked on reviving him.

Chilchuck let out a gasp and cough out some blood that had remained stuck in his throat. He turns to mayjack " that's why I told you to stay near me..." He moves toward her noticing her hands are strained with his blood. " are you hurt?... may? "

She shakes her head, and tears start to fall down her face he pulls her in for a hug. " it's ok, I'm ok ... I'm right here. " she hugs him tight, and they stay in that embrace for a while. When they finally break the hug, chilchuck wipes tears from her face.

" im sorry you saw that... do you want to go home.? "

" but the job?"

Chilchuck shakes his head " don't worry about it I brought someone along for that exact reason"

[alchemistc]

Couched In Metaphor

"You want a beer man?"

Eddie tilts a look over his shoulder, already halfway through the doorway to his kitchen, and Tommy shoots a glance at his watch. "Mmm, no can do. I'm meeting Evan in a bit."

"Is this my cue to act a fool for your attention?"

There's a moment where Tommy wants to double down on defense for Evan, but it's a joke, it's just a joke and if Evan were right next to him he'd definitely enjoy the gentle ribbing. He tries not to examine the immediate desire to defend him too closely. Too much, too soon, it's barely been a few months.

"And he's got jokes, ladies and gentlemen."

Eddie grins: wide, amused. It's what he came for - the chance to get Eddie out of his own head for a few hours. "You guys doing anything special?"

"We're on a mission to pick out a new couch, apparently."

When Eddie stills, Tommy swears it's like he's just been frozen in place; the beer in his hand raised halfway to his mouth, lips pursed, brows raised, a cartoon character stuck in time. He plays it off a moment later, hastily lowering the bottle, nodding. "Don't let him bring a clipboard."

It's Tommy's turn to wrinkle his brow.

"No good can come when that man's got a prioritized list, Tommy, I'm serious."

"So we're ignoring the fact that there's apparently something about tagging along for furniture shopping that just made you freeze frame?"

Eddie tilts his head, squints his eyes, takes a drag off his beer. "That's a Buck and Tommy conversation, not an Eddie and Tommy conversation. You wanna know more about the clipboard, though, I've got about thirty horror stories."

---

"I feel like maybe I've been bamboozled," Tommy says, three furniture stores in. The couch Evan is currently testing is -- just like every other couch they've looked at so far.

"None of them have been right."

He's got that look in his eyes like he's been knocking on doors in a structure fire for too long.

"Are we worried about aesthetics, here, or comfort, or whether or not they fit the space? Eddie warned me about Clipboard Buck but maybe you should pull up your notes app and make a pro con list."

Evan flushes. Darts a glance down at his feet, and his thumbs dig into the seams of his hoodie pocket. "I just thought I'd walk in and find what I was looking for. Sort of thought it'd just - call to me, or something."

"It's a couch Evan, not a lifetime commitment."

And Evan flushes deeper, cheeks pinking, lips twisting. Tommy, who's been hovering nearby while Evan tests out what feels like half a million identical couches, feels himself sigh, bending and twisting to settle next to him, one hand reaching out to squeeze at Evan's knee.

"So it seems like maybe there's a story here I'm not aware of."

It sort of tumbles out of Evan, then, a rush of half apologies and stumbling explanations, and Tommy thinks of the snatches of conversations they've had about their past partners, their admittedly not great parents.

"And - you know, I just thought. I mean. I figured." He gestures, vaguely, and then more pointedly, a glance from beneath his lashes to catch Tommy's gaze as he waggles a finger between the two of them.

Oh.

Tommy waits a beat. Sometimes it's better to let Evan work it out in his own head for a second.

Also, he's - sort of reeling, a bit. Too much, too soon, he'd thought, but here he was, unaware of the significance of being asked on this little errand until he suddenly wasn't, and -

"Sorry. That's - it's not like - anyway, I've clearly put way too much weight into the couch thing, you're right, it's just a couch."

He's been ignoring the urge to curl his fingers around Evan's for the better part of two hours, now. He doesn't question it, usually, but in this specific scenario it's felt too couple-y, too forward, too much like begging a sales associate to make some assumptions Evan wasn't prepared to deal with.

Evan's still twisting his hands together inside the pocket of his jacket, and Tommy makes the snap decision before he can talk himself out of it - two fingers tucking into the pocket, pressing into the meat of Evan's palm, pressing up and pulling without any real force, and it's like Evan deflates, a bit, hand immediately following the soft drag out of the fabric to curl four fingers around Tommy's palm.

"It doesn't have to be just a couch."

---

They have their first fight, navigating the stairwell up to Evan's floor, and situate it in the room in stony silence. Tommy considers leaving, once it's exactly as Evan wants it. He's good at that - jumping ship at the first sign of trouble, and he has to swallow the urge down while Evan glares a hole into the armrest.

He's just opening his mouth to speak when Evan's voice drifts over to him, quieter than he'd expected. "I really don't want it to just be a couch."

And Tommy's never -

He's dated plenty of people - cared for less, and loved very few, but he's never steeped shit in metaphor and he's also never gone from "attracted to the straight guy again" to "this inanimate object is a symbol of our relationship" in -- ever.

"Evan."

There's a flatness to his voice that only ever comes out when he's truly upset, and he hates it, hates that he can just shut it all off. He makes a conscious effort, unfurls the fists shoved into his pants pockets. Tries again.

"We're hiring someone if you ever wanna move that damn thing again."

Evan's smile splits across his face like the sun breaking over the horizon.

---

Christopher eyes the couch with suspicion.

"It's a lot bigger than your old ones," he finally manages, with a shifty glance between the two of them, and Tommy has to remind himself that Evan had gone down a rabbit hole of research trying to find the best way to clean leather once they'd finally gotten over themselves and proceeded with the making up part of their argument.

Eddie clocks the look running across his face, and makes a face at Evan. Evan tucks his tongue into his cheek, but he can't quite hide his grin, and Tommy tries not to imagine the next time they'll need to go furniture shopping.

---

"Can I admit something?" Evan asks, fingers shifting across the expanse of Tommy's chest, head tucked neatly beneath his chin.

Tommy hums, still half asleep, trying to ignore the crick in his neck and the wide expanse of his lower back that keeps sinking into the crack between the cushions.

Evan presses his lips lazily into the side of Tommy's neck. "I actually hate this couch. It's the worst."

Tommy laughs, and laughs, and laughs some more when Evan presses up on his elbow to pout straight into his face.

Tommy can't help but curl a palm around his jaw, ring and middle finger sliding up to cup his cheek, reaching for the marks at his brow. "Can we skip the torture of another horrendous shopping trip and just toss this one to the curb when I ask you to move in with me?"

He only stills for half a moment, eyes already bright and wide and happy before he nods. "When?" he repeats, all puppy enthusiasm as he buries his face back in Tommy's neck.

"Keep it to yourself, though, I haven't decided how I'm gonna ask. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."

Evan hums, fingers drifting down his arm, now - it's a familiar, teasing path that always drives Tommy a little wild, and - yep, they skate over his wrist, dancing right along the length of his fingers and down across his hip, little finger spreading wide towards his inseam.

---

Evan breaks his couch the first night all his things have been unpacked.

He makes a little pleased hum, low in his throat, when Tommy pulls up the same site he'd used to buy it, adds three to his cart, and passes the laptop off to Evan for opinions. Curls a warm hand around the back of Tommy's neck, presses his lips to the crown of Tommy's head. Tommy takes a moment to enjoy the feel of it.

"Pick one," he manages through gritted teeth when Evan nips at his earlobe.

"It's just a couch, babe, whichever one you want."

[oneinathousand]

I'm halfway through Gravedale High and I think I get the gist of it, so here are my random thoughts about it:

Of all the celebrity cartoons, this is one of them. Joking aside, this probably is legitimately one of the better ones from this time period. I am not distracted by Rick Moranis's presence, and I'm glad he's not going full nerd as in his usual typecasting. I keep expecting to see a Ghostbusters or Little Shop of Horrors reference, since this show sure does love its pop culture references, but so far, they've had the restraint not to do it in a direct way except for one of the background characters in one episode looking like a terror dog, but that could be a coincidence. I guess I'll find out eventually if they actually do make a reference.

I can't watch a lot of it in one sitting because if I try, I know I'll be filled with homicidal rage at all the constant catchphrases and verbal tics and schticks that every character has.

Gotta love how the creativity of the main cast ranges from "Personifying the trope of zombies as commentaries for consumerism with a wealth-obsessed, literal mall zombie" to "what if creature from the black lagoon but surfer".

J.P. doesn't seem to be any kind of monster in particular, Peter Lorre parodies are just their own Halloween species lol

Vinnie may be the Fonz as a teenage vampire, but it was very big-brained of whoever the character designer was to give him black nail polish in 1989-90. For all this show's problems, the character design for the most part is not one of them, even with how dated many of them are fashion-wise they're still very charming.

Sure, I ship Vinnie and Reggie. Before I watched this show, I assumed it was just typical shipping of best friend characters, but when I got to the famous ear-scratching scene from episode four, I was like "yeah okay I can see where they're coming from".

Of the main cast, Sid is probably my favorite because everything about him is so hilariously dated above all the rest, which is saying something: The rapping, the baseball cap, the pattern on his shirt, the random impressions... he's so lame that he circles back around to being funny. And apart from the irony, an invisible kid becoming a class clown so people won't ignore him anymore is one of the more genuinely creative concepts here.

Oh, but speaking of Sid, who's voiced by Maurice LaMarche... It was pretty awkward to watch Sid whenever he talked about his dreams to become a stand-up comedian, knowing what I know about what happened with LaMarche's own desire to rise up in the stand-up world on the same month that Gravedale High coincidentally premiered in. I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I won't go into it here because this post is supposed to be about a silly cartoon. If you're curious and can handle emotional matters, go read about it on his Wikipedia page under the Career section and see the events leading up to him becoming a full-time voice actor after September 1990.

Anyway, this is one of those cartoons where you can see a lot of potential, but since this came before or at the same time as other more ground-breaking cartoons like Ren and Stimpy or Tiny Toons, you get the feeling Gravedale is still shackled by 80's cartoon trappings despite its occasional dark jokes and pop culture references. If I were to make a new version, with or without Moranis, I would go for something a little edgy to make it stand out from Monster High and other shows of its ilk, do for horror what Clone High does for teen shows, either in a PG or TV-14 way.

[practically-an-x-man]

This isnt TST but an idea I had: Your OCs and their plus ones are all going to a halloween party and they come to you for extreme hollywood level makeup/effects/costuming. What do they get transformed into.

Bonus if you wanna write a fic/ramble: After the party you find out you're a Super whose powers are transformstions. All those partygoers are now really what you made their makeup/costumes for...

Ooooooh, thank you!! This will be fun!

Think I'm gonna skip that bonus part, just don't have the mental energy for it right now, but it's a cool idea!!

Talk Shop Tuesday (I'm still counting it lol)

Rae & Warren W: Honestly, I think they'd just be like "gimme the scariest thing you got", they're both pretty daring and adventurous people who are down for just about anything

Robin & Peter M: Frankenstein (it's frahnk-en-steen!) and the Creature from Young Frankenstein, Robin's favorite movie

Madison & Alex: They'd pay extra for all-night makeup service, they've got a plan. Both appear at the party looking completely normal, dressed in fairly plain clothes. Halfway through, they disappear - when they come back, Madison's a little scratched up, Alex has patches of fur and Wolfman claws, and both their clothes are torn. By the end of the party, they both disappear again, and later Madison is found on the floor of the kitchen, covered in blood and gruesome wounds with Bravo (her wolfdog) standing over her looking menacing.

Ophelia & Peter P: Oh, they don't need me. They both show up in intentionally-shitty costumes of the other's hero persona, having independently decided to try and fuck with each other in the exact same way.

Gia & Kate: Assuming Gia would even agree to going to a party in the first place... I could see them going as classic Goosebumps monsters. Gia's the humanoid plant from Stay Out of the Basement, Kate's a scarecrow from They're Alive! Alternatively, I could see them as a genderbent/WLW Seymour and Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, with Gia's clover mixed in with her prop Twoey (ok ok, that's partially bc it gives Gia an excuse to have her clover with her and fend off a little of that anxiety... but mostly because Gia as a character is based on Seymour originally and I think it's playfully ironic)

Jasper & Kyle: Frank N' Furter and Rocky, of course! Kyle brings a robe since it would get a little uncomfortable to just wear the Speedo the whole time, but he does wear it.... the things people do for love, lol

Kestrel & Warren B: Warren's the only one who needs a costume, Kestrel will just shift into what fits with the theme. And honestly, with that freedom, it could be just about anything. Probably something Indiana Jones-themed, since they're Warren's favorite movies.

Katherine & Ahk: Honestly, Kat would probably just revisit her Bastet costume from that first Halloween party and clean it up a little, and Ahk would wear what he normally wears.

Quinn & Billy: I can't imagine Quinn would want particularly heavy makeup, since she would have to have to deal with removing it all after the party (when she's already tired and in pain from being on her feet). Maybe Morticia and Gomez Addams? That would be fun, and if Quinn wears her platforms she can really make the height difference pop (she's 6'3" without heels, Billy is 5'11"). And of course, Billy's so undeniably smitten he doesn't even need to act the part of Gomez.

Eris & Rick: Hm... tough question. On the one hand, I could see Eris getting really into it, spending weeks putting together the perfect costume only for it to be some historical figure that nobody besides them even really remembers. On the other hand, I could see them being pretty open about it, and willing to follow Rick's lead with whatever costume he decides on - as one of Eris' little hidden gestures of how much they care about him. Sorry this one's a non-answer, I just can't really think of something specific for them.

Nikoletta & Abner: Honestly, I don't know that they're the type for costumes. Neither of them really grew up in an environment where they celebrated Halloween much (save perhaps for Nikoletta being exposed to all the tourists flocking to New Orleans for the holiday), so there's not really nostalgia in dressing up, and they wouldn't be motivated to spend their hard-earned and limited money on costumes or makeup. I could see them agreeing to a group costume (probably at Harley's insistance), but they wouldn't come up with anything on their own.

Jimmy & Lars: Honestly, it would be fun enough just to play up the whole Ghostbusters thing. They're something of local celebrities, but with Lars being more of a behind-the-scenes guy and Jimmy being... well, a ghost that doesn't look like a ghost, everyone just thinks it's a damn good costume until they demonstrate the reality of it. If Lars can get his idea for a painless proton stream worked out in time, he'll make a spectacular show of "catching" Jimmy. If he can't, he'll just make a spectacular show of missing.

Spider (pre-apocalypse, attends alone): Would show up with a detailed sketch of a monster of his own devising, something super creative and super creepy. Hell, he's probably got four-leg stilts and an articulated costume tail of his own, just to add to the effect - he's a film guy, he takes Halloween seriously!

[leonidas1754]

So last night I had a bizarrely vivid dream about a video game, so vivid that I had to google it when I woke up to make sure it wasn't some real game that my brain was reminding me of (It's not, apparently). Even now, half a day later, I remember a bunch of it, and I almost never remember my dreams. (Read More because LONG)

Also for a slight bit of context: I don't play many horror games, but I do watch people talk about them/stream highlights sometimes. However, what I usually watch isn't super similar to the type of horror I was dreaming of. I also barely know celebrities; I know a few names, but even the names I know, I couldn't typically tell you anything they've done or even any descriptors of them, they're just names I've absorbed through cultural osmosis.

Yes, both of these things are relevant, I promise.

So in this dream, I am playing a video game on one monitor and watching a video on the other, something I do very often. The video is, specifically, one of The Spiffing Brit talking about this new horror game, and about how he finds it really, really enjoyable but it definitely has some flaws (and not in his Perfectly Balanced(tm) sort of way, more like an informal review, which is not his usual style of content). This game is, in fact, the same one I'm playing in the moment.

The game is a third person survival one that has graphics akin to Nightmare Creatures (a game I've watched a review of like... once, half a decade ago, so I'm amazed I remembered what it was called).

At the start of the game, the protagonist, a teen girl, is at her high school with her two friends, up on the roof. They're setting up a 'warning' for the Girl's bullies, with fake blood involved. (I've been playing SMTV:V so if you've played that game you know why this sort of plot point was in my head.) While they're doing this, they're also discussing a Boy from their school who's apparently gone missing.

The next morning, however, the girl wakes up somewhere else. You know those really shitty tourist trap gift shops where you know the owner is just trying to scam money out of stupid vacationers and the cashier couldn't give any less of a shit about their job? Yea, it's like that, except the walls are entirely wood with no windows and a single door and everything feels just a little bit wrong.

When the Girl wakes, the cashier explains to her, with that same bored tone of every minimum wage employee putting in no effort, the rules of the game she's apparently now playing. I don't remember all of the rules, but two were these:

You may only go outside when let out, and you have a very specific and limited amount of time to be outside. If you're still outside past that limit, you will be shot.

You may not leave the sidewalk. If you do, even if it's only to cut a corner or jump a gap, you will be shot.

The Girl is told she needs to complete certain tasks in a time limit or she will die (although there are hints/implications that she will be killed at the end even if she does complete all the tasks, and completing them just buys her time).

Outside the shop is extremely dark, but not naturally, it's more akin to Silent Hill Fog, limited render distance and whatnot. The store is still entirely wood on the outside as well, and it appears to be on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere, with patches of trees, and the sidewalk The Girl restricted to is extremely windy and splits into different paths and such, all very nonsensical.

As she starts her tasks, she hears of someone else also seemingly trapped her: a Boy, specifically the missing boy from her school. Apparently, he found a way to become invisible/unseen (no clue how) by those in charge of this 'game' and has been running around causing havoc. While the Girl completes her tasks, the Boy continues to do so in the background, and as she hears about it, she starts to get a crush on the Boy? Which is... weird, but alright I guess.

About halfway through the whole thing, the cashier answers the phone on their desk/counter (as they have done several times throughout the events to hear about what the boy's been doing). Suddenly, the cashier's expression finally changes into something grave, and they tell The Girl that The Boy has apparently stopped causing havoc and took the risk to warn someone that he smelled sewage coming from deep, deep underground. (I don't know if this would actually happen, but I think? the implication was intended to be that it was a warning sign of a massive explosion or something that would kill everyone including the Boy and Girl, but I can't say for sure.)

And then I woke up.

Like I said, I had to google it when I woke up because it was so vivid, I thought maybe it was a real game I'd forgotten about. Because I could also remember from the dream that the game had a very specific name:

The Recasting of Reese Witherspoon

I am so mad at my own brain right now because I have so many questions and somehow it left me on a fucking cliffhanger, and because I know the game isn't real I also know I'm never going to get those answers. And I feel like I'm losing my mind because that's so specific?

What was going to happen next????? Who was running this weird game and why? WHY IS IT FUCKING CALLED 'THE RECASTING OF REESE WITHERSPOON'!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[valeriana-dioica]

Getting to know others meme

i was tagged by @friendamedes !!

last song: Little shop of horrors intro song/prologue! very fun musical. also not my last song but I have been really obsessed w "Amarillo by Morning" by George Strait lately... country music is very fun to sing

currently watching: I'm not watching anything rn but i recently finished season 2 of good omens and I watched the 2021 sequel to Candyman earlier today and enjoyed both of those things

currently reading: Making my way through Carmilla rn, and am technically halfway thru Good Omens but that one's been on pause for a while bc i got busy w school stuff and then forgot to get back to it lol. Also hoping to start and finish ancillary sword before i have to return it to the library lmao

current obsession: obviously tlt which is. the same story as it's been for months. however i also have been really into horror as a genre for a whileee so lately i've been trying to watch more horror movies and curate a list of good horror books to read and i'm very excited about that ! so if any of u guys have recommendations for good horror novels/short stories/movies/tv shows etc i am all ears 👀

i will be tagging uhhh @garaks-padded-bra @ds9jack @nomorethoughts

[thedaveandkimmershow]

If I had to guess, I wouldn’t really know what we did in October.

A lot, apparently.

First up:

It's SCHOOL again.

Well, not again... pretty much this has been ongoing for over a year now.

Of course Kimmer’s in the full throes of the current semester of her doctoral program. So, on top of her day job and the charting demanded by that day job, she’s also researching, writing, testing, collaborating in-class, and commiserating with fellow students in this fast-track program. 

The workload is insane… and Kimmer’s managing it on top of everything else.

For me, professionally, the month kicked off diving into and crafting the first cut of a large project about youth incarceration.

A lot of footage covering different points of view, narratives, and circumstances. Definitely the biggest, one of the biggest, projects of the year. I had the first cut done about halfway through the month. 🙂

Linzy had a bit of a month this month…

Although nothing like what’s coming up November and December. Among her gigs in October, I'm thinking about one of the many in Woodinville, this particular time at Efestē Wines where I ran into friends from a lifetime ago and we got to catch up.

And catch up.

And catch up.

Talking shop. Talking family and future with people who get it. You know?

Birds of a feather.

It was really really fun with Linzy providing the soundtrack.

Due to scheduling, our friends had to leave before Kimmer arrived. The timing was still good, though, ‘cause Linzy was on a quick break so we got in a little family time at the bar of all places. Afterward, she returned to her third set while we commenced date night. 

After that, we got all of Linzy's gear packed up and moved our van but somehow managed not to leave. We hung out at the back of the van talking shop like our family does.

Apparently.

I don't even remember what all we talked about. It was a bit stream of consciousness. But it was lovely still.

😊

Linzy’s gig calendar had something on every Friday of October.

Winery gigs on three of them. A Midnight High show on the first Friday of the month. There was a Palisade restaurant performance on the last Wednesday of October but the BIG deal was Linzy’s Dream Patrol show at Sunset Tavern in Ballard, Tuesday the 22nd.

The show was the best one so far. Between the production quality of the recorded tracks playing back through the house sound system, the writing, the arranging, the mixing, the layering of the songs, a pair of her Midnight High bandmates, masters both on bass (Tim) and lead guitar (Skylar), expert stage lighting from mains to accents, smoke, disco balls, and then Linzy's performance itself that was an aligning of planets, a coalescing of iconic look, vocal performance, and lead singer attitude.

No joke.

This was some next-level magic.

One of the Dream Patrol songs Linzy premiered at the show’s called “halloween” and a coupla days before I got it in my head to see how feasible it might be to make a music video for that song using the Text to Video function of RunwayML.

Turns out: very feasible. The thing knocked my socks off. And Kimmer’s. And the producer I’m working with. And the other editor who works with that producer. And so on. 😁

And yeah it's age-restricted due to language and horror elements. So Beware!

I said before that I completed the first cut of the youth incarceration project halfway through the month.

The big deal there was that it was a work in progress until it wasn’t. Meaning, I didn’t have a sense of the full piece until I was in sight of the finish line. So. End of the day, the producer and I watch it in its entirety. For the first time. And it’s spectacular in its polished, first-cut iteration. 😁😁😁

By the way, did I mention Kimmer made costumes?

Yeah. The Dream Patrol show was actually billed as a “costume event” and we were all-in from the get-go. I can’t remember what I thought of first for a costume but the second costume I thought of was Nevermore student vampire. It took a coupla weeks but Kimmer found the pieces for it, included her dark round lensed glasses, and crafted the formal jacket herself with blue and black stripes along with the Nevermore logo. Classic!

For herself, Kimmer made…

Actually, she found this fantastic silver material, an oversized dress actually, and was immediately inspired to craft an Eiffel Tower costume. She bought additional materials and had a sort of first draft laid out on our dining room table prior to sewing it all together. It would've been AMAZING.

What happened, though, is that Kimmer was at Value Village and ran across a purple T-shirt illustrated with the gang from It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! in their iconic costumes.

Later she was telling me about it and how she was thinking about getting it for me to which I replied

“Why didn't you???”

So next thing we're in the car to Value Village where we snag the shirt (thankfully still hanging there in the costumes section) and since Kimmer’s always looking… she finds this year’s costume. Actually, she finds it in pieces. 

The first piece Kimmer finds is kind of a lamp shade deal where, instead of shade, there are strings of reflective wires. So she grabs it, thinking how it might go with her Eiffel Tower costume still in the works. But then…

Then she finds an outfit that we don't know what it is but it looks cool, fits comfortably, and makes a statement.

What statement?

No idea. 

It has kind of, sort of, maybe a Jetson’s vibe? But then put the reflective headpiece on her head and now she looks like a lamp?

Sort of?

Kind of?

Maybe?

So she buys both pieces on the spot and then a few days later finds the ankle boots to go with it. White leather. Platform. And now with this third piece she definitely has a look.

Again, no idea what that look is, but then we're in Ballard walking to the show at night. We're both wearing our costumes, me without the sunglasses yet, she without the reflective headpiece yet. Nearing the venue, we pass a group of revelers and one of them pauses to tell Kimmer how much she loves Kimmer’s outfit.

Get it? Outfit?

See, this is October 22. Costume parties won't start ‘til Friday afternoon. So I'm pretty sure she thought Kimmer was normally just dressed this way and looked cool.

I thought that was very sweet.

And Kimmer did look cool. ☺️

By the way. That music video I made from Text to Video prompts? That was definitely on my own time but it did pay off professional dividends in that I now have a method of working with this particular AI tool and can actually explain it to another human being in a way that makes sense.

Ish.

Okay so last thing:

We watched and watched and re-watched The Diplomat on Neflix earlier this year and have been anxiously awaiting the dropping of season 2 that happened at 3AM Eastern Standard Time, October 31st, which meant midnight Pacific Standard Time. Which meant that's how we ended our Wednesday night, October 30.

Which.

We.

Did.

We watched the first two episodes straight through for ninety minutes.

Last I looked at the clock it was about quarter of two Thursday morning.

The 31st.

The End.

😊

[clarktooncrossing]

Giraffe's Eye View | The Ten Commandments (1956) REVIEW

Hello there people of today and robots of tomorrow! It is I, Clark, exhausted after four months of Holiday preparations. Between getting ready for Halloween and Christmas can take a lot out of a guy, especially for someone as meticulous and festive as I am. Sure, I could take the time to actually relax and rest, but there are cookies to bake, presents to wrap, and monsters to expel from my house, spam it! Especially werewolves, those hairy douchebags track their hair all over the place whenever they don't floor-scoot. Along with all that comes the annual movie marathons. For September and October it's non-stop monster movies like Little Shop of Horrors, the 90s Scooby-Doo saga, and the classic Universal Monsters. You haven't lived until you see a six-foot fishman try to woo a human woman. Gillman was robbed! Meanwhile, November and December brings forth festive flicks like Miracle on 34th Street, Hogfather, Batman Returns, and The Star Wars Holiday Special. The world won't know peace until everyone hears Carrie Fisher high off her ass giving lyrics to John William's iconic score. Disney, stop cowardly denying the world this amazing milestone of television!

That said, it also denies me the chance to watch anything new that's coming out around the time, resulting in my pile of things to watch backing up. As such, the first few weeks of January are designated as Binge Week, a time for me to catch up on anything I've missed. Since I've a massive windbag with a blog, why not share my thoughts on what I'm watching with all you weirdos? With no further ado, let's begin our binging with the movies.

This first video was gifted to me by my friend Alec in the form of his old VHS copy. For all you young wiper-snappers out there wondering what the heck a VHS is, I pity you. You'll never know the satisfaction of rewinding a tape. Netflix has robbed you of that joy! Then again it's also robbed you of having to stop the movie halfway through to put in the next tape or setting up your VCR to work with your modern day television, something I had to do to watch the cinematic classic The Ten Commandments (1956). That was a biblical effort on par with parting the Red Sea. Well, maybe not, but it was certainly a pain in my spotted butt! Complaining aside, what did I think of the picture overall?

It starts with a short, old man appearing behind a set of lavish curtains to speak directly to the audience. Hoo boy, I've seen Frankenstein, I know where this is going! Is he going to warn us about the frights that await us? Actually no, he says this picture depicts the birth of freedom, our more accurately the story of Moses, played iconically by Charlton Heston. No doubt this was helping him prepare for Planet of the Apes, for trying to escape the wrath of the Egyptians turns out to be equally as exhausting. It doesn't help this his brother Ramses (Yul Brynner) is Pharaoh. Eesh, talk about your family squabbles.

Really, is there any point to me recapping the plot? Hebrew kid gets sent up the river in a basket, gets adopted by the Royal family, finds out he's Hebrew, sees a vision of a burning bush, returns to Egypt to free the slaves, yadda yadda yadda. Why repeat all of this when chances are you all know this story thanks to its cartoon counterpart, The Prince of Egypt. Comparing and contrasting the two would prove just as pointless, both having released over four decades apart from each other, both telling their stories in different mediums, and both being impressive showcases of what Hollywood was capable of at the time. Both are equally epic, but when all's said and done I prefer Prince of Egypt. Why? Let me count the ways!

Firstly, there's the aforementioned personal turmoil between Moses and Ramses. As apposed to his somewhat sympathetic two-dimensional doppelganger, Brynner's interpretation of the character is a bastard and a half, a two-headed snake that ends up eating his own tail. Not to say this is necessarily bad. After all, why feel any pity for an Egyptian monarch who is pro-slavery? Especially when Yul delivers a powerful performance that rivals Heston's, crafting one of cinema's greatest scoundrels. It's because the fractured brotherly relationship between Val Kilmer's Moses and Ralph Fiennes's Ramses is more interesting and impactful. Seeing how much the two cared about each other before Moses is sent back by God makes what happens next so much more of a gut-punch.

Speaking of emotional gut punches, there's the songs. I know this especially isn't fair considering this movie was never meant to be a musical, but all during the opening scene I kept hearing this in my head:

More accurately the Jonathan Young and Caleb Hyles cover, but you get my point.

Which brings me to my third point; the length. This film is almost four fours long, nearly rivaling Zack Snyder's Justice League runtime minus all the unnecessary slow-mo. For crying out loud, the opening includes an introduction by the film's director Cecil B. DeMille, then a quote from old scripture, followed by the Pharoh plotting to slaughter all the Hebrew firstborns, only then cutting to Moses's birth mother sending him away in a desperate bid to save his life. All of that eats up a good chunk of the movie's runtime, as apposed to the short but effective musical number DreamWorks made. I mean, do we really need to see the Pharoh's logic behind butchering a bunch of babies? The act is freak'n messed up regardless!

That said, the film at least uses its lengthy runtime wisely. We get plenty of development for Moses's adoptive mother Bithiah (Nina Foch), his treacherous ex-lover and wife of Ramses Nefertiti (Anne Baxter), more time to see what agony the Hebrews are living with under the Egyptian rule, all good stuff. Still, the movie could've cut out the last few scenes, such as God's writing of the commandments while everyone at the base of the mountain throws the world's first kegger. Really, the commandments barely played a role now and they'll continue to do so immediately after they're introduced, so why even bother? It's almost like Shang Chi and the Ten Rings, naming your movie after a magical maguffin that's just barely explained. The only difference being the rings are at least used throughout their movie!

All that said, The Ten Commandments more than earns it's spot as a gold standard of film. The acting if wonderful, the writing is witty, and the sets are a sight to behold. According to Alec, this was made back when Hollywood felt threatened by television, resulting in lavish backdrops like this that couldn't be replicated on a small screen or budget. Wow have times changed. Now we have equally detailed and lengthy movies on streaming services like HBO Max, now with the ability to pause so we can actually go the bathroom without waiting for an intermission. Trust me folks, you're gonna wanna pee before you commit to this movie. Otherwise the Parting of the Red Sea will be torturous for you. Otherwise, I say check this movie out, it's a masterpiece of biblical proportions.

Circling back to the subject of Rings though, this brings me to the other VHS my friend sent me...

CURIOUS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? CLICK HERE FOR MY THOUGHTS ON 1977'S THE HOBBIT! MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[thorfemmes]

Hii I got this idea because of seeing so many tiktoks of how the stranger things characters would react if they walked in on you changing and I was wondering how you think Eddie would react walking in on the reader naked or in the shower? Him and reader have been friends for a little while and he’s got a crush on them and then accidentally seeing them naked? Im sorry if this is stupid though😅 thank youu 💖

Hi! Thank you for the request. I'm lowkey obsessed with this one so I hope you enjoy!

a/n: both Eddie and reader have graduated high school in this and are 20+ years old.

Saturday nights were movie nights for you and Eddie. They have been since you met back in freshman year of high school and you discovered that you both loved Star Wars. This particular weekend, you had worked a double shift the night before and had basically slept most of Saturday.

When you finally got up, you had about three hours before Eddie was supposed to arrive (he was supposed to be at band practice at the moment, then he was going to swing by Family Video to pick up some movies for you to watch). You quickly ate a haphazardly thrown together meal, and set out the snacks and candy you got from your weekly grocery trip with Eddie.

It was kinda cute the little routine you both had. Mondays were saved for grocery shopping together, Saturdays were movie nights. Ever since you both graduated you had less time to spend together because of work so the little scheduled hang outs were cherished by you both.

Still having at least two hours, you hopped in the shower.

Meanwhile, across town Eddie was wrapping up band practice early. They didn't have a show next weekend and he was in a bit of a hurry to see you. But he was keeping it subtle of course, only checking his watch every 30 seconds to the point that Jeff called it in early.

Eddie rushed to Family Video, thinking it might be a nice surprise to arrive a little bit early. Anything to spend more time with you. He grabbed three VHS tapes so you had choices, darting the teasing from Robin and Steve.

When he arrived at your apartment he was surprised that you didn't answer the door right away. He could've sworn you didn't have work today. He reached up to the top of the doorway where you kept a key especially for him, and let himself in.

"Hey honey, I'm home!" He jokingly shouted throughout the apartment.

He didn't get a response, but heard shuffling in your room. He knocked on your bedroom door this time and still didn't get a response.

"Babe, you in there?"

He heard a muffled sound that sounded like "come in," so he quietly pushed your door open and was greeted by you with your headphones on and your Walkman playing, and your towel clad body just before you unwrapped yourself to get dressed.

"OH MY GOD!"

"OH MY GOD," You screamed, wrapping yourself back up again. "What are you doing?! There's no way it's five o'clock yet!"

"I was going to surprise you! Why are you listening to your Walkman wet out of the shower?!"

"My neighbors complained about my music!"

He looked you up and down, greedily enjoying your almost naked body. His eyes widened, realizing what he was doing. "Oh my God!"

He quickly shut your door and went and sat on your couch, sitting up straight and twiddling his thumbs like a child in trouble.

You cleared your throat to announce your presence. "So, what movie choices do we have tonight?"

He smirked at your ability to quickly change the subject. "Uh, we've got Little Shop of Horrors, Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and House".

"Ooh a horror night. Let's start with Little Shop of Horrors. Let me grab the snacks".

As the night went on, tension grew. While you'd usually be cuddled up together cracking jokes about the movies, you sat on opposite sides of your couch -stealing glances at one another. Halfway through the second film you'd had enough. Grabbing the remote and pausing it, you turned to look at him with a huff.

"Can we talk about it? You saw me naked".

"Yes I did, y/n," You cringed, he never called you by your name. "I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have been snooping. I shoulda waited in the living room".

"Yeah, but it happens right? Sometimes friends accidentally flash each other?"

"I mean, not really but, eh".

"Eh?"

"N-no! You're not 'eh'! Far from it!" He was rambling now. "You're actually kinda hot".

You raised your eyebrows. "I'm hot?"

"Very. I've always thought so, but that just confirmed it".

You didn't know what to say. Neither did Eddie, he was surprised that he even said anything.

"So I'm hot, and you've always thought so?"

"Yep".

"Okay".

You both sat in silence, taking in what he said.

"Look y/n, I just-" He took a deep breath. "I've always been attracted to you. I've liked you for a while now. I just didn't want to ruin what we have".

"How long?"

"Since sophomore year, when we went to that triple feature of all the Star Wars movies and I made you laugh so hard you choked on popcorn".

You smiled widely. Crawling over to him, you gently grabbed his hand and rested your head on his shoulder. "You know, I've had the biggest crush on you too. Pretty much since I met you, so it's really comforting to know you feel the same way. Even if it had to come out this way," You laughed and nudged his shoulder.

He laughed with you before going silent. Looking into your eyes with his large, kind brown eyes he quietly asked "Can I kiss you?"

"Please do".

And finally, finally your lips connected.

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

prompt #2: reika/magine, "i do adore" by mindy gledhill!

This song is super cute, I can't stop singing it to myself. Also, I had way too much fun writing Zyuran in the first scene of this story.

Song: "I Do Adore," Mindy Gledhill (Spotify)

i've noticed you're remarkably relaxed (and i'm overly uptight)

“Welcome to Colorful, what can we—hey there, missy, you’re looking sharp! Almost didn’t recognize you without your Legos getup.”

“Logos.”

“Right!” Zyuran leans on the shop counter like a genial bartender, hoping she can tell that he’s smiling—some humans have trouble with Kikainoid facial expressions. “Anyway, been a minute, hasn’t it? What brings you around these parts?”

Reika stares at him for a long moment, white-lipped, as if trying to decide how aghast to be at Zyuran’s familiar mode of address. Finally she says, “I was…in the area.”

Zyuran nods. “You looking for Magine?”

Her expression morphs from aghast to stricken. “How did you know?”

He taps his temple. “Old man’s intuition. She’s out with her little friends, promised them a trip to a haunted house, she’ll be back in a bit. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll do you a hot cocoa and you can wait for her.

---

By the time Magine returns from the haunted house tour, Reika is on her second cup of cocoa and halfway through a small packet of cookies. “Our parents took healthy eating very seriously,” she’s saying to Zyuran as the door opens, “and they believed sweet foods were childish, so until we were adults my brother and I never—”

“Oh! Miss Reika! How did you get here?”

Reika’s cocoa doesn’t quite spill, nor are any of the remaining cookies lost to the floor, but it’s close—she leaps to her feet, standing nearly at attention for a second before bowing stiffly to Magine. “Miss. Miss Magine.”

Yatsude and Gaon are both practically hanging over the counter. Zyuran is at least attempting to hide his interest, although poorly.

“Would you. Do me the honor.” Reika is still bowing, her gaze fixed on the floor. “Would you do me the great honor of accompanying me to dinner.”

Magine lets out a trill of surprise. “Oh. I’d, I’d love to. Um, tonight?”

"Y-yes. Tonight." Reika straightens up just as abruptly as she bowed. Her expression is unchanged, but there are spots of bright red high on her cheekbones, and her ears have gone bright pink. “If that’s acceptable to you, of course.”

"That's, um, yes! That's acceptable, that's great!"

"Then I'll call for you at, at half past five." Another stiff, visibly nervous bow, an uncomfortable pause, and then Reika walks out, not quite rushing, leaving her unfinished cocoa and half-empty packet of cookies behind.

Magine stands there for a moment, hands clapped to her face in surprise, as the others stare at where the door curtain still swings a bit from Reika's hasty exit. Then, abruptly, she lets out a little distressed cry of, "Oh no, I haven't got anything nice to wear for a date!"

"Well, I think you're a little tall for my old things, but I'm sure we can find you something," Yatsude says comfortingly, reaching over the counter to pat her on the arm. "Now, does one of you want to let me in on who exactly Magine's young lady is?"

---

"Yeah, she's here," Flint says over the phone, "she just showed up, like the engine room door opened and it was going to a library or something instead of the engine room and there she was. Apparently her weird brother took some kind of...impression of the ship, when we were bringing them home?" There's a pause, and then, in a tone of contemplative horror, "If he shows up because he wants to ask out my weird brother than I am going to shoot him. Just so you know."

---

"So how did you get here, Miss Reika?" Magine has been trying not to do so much nervous fluttering this evening, at the very least out of a desire not to catch the sleeve of the dress Yatsude lent her on the grill. "I thought the pirates had to bring you and your brother home last time."

"I had to ask my cousin to make a Book Gate for me specially," Reika says, taking a minuscule sip of wine. She's blushing again, which is really tremendously cute of her, Magine wants to tell her so but maybe that would be too forward. "He's an engineer for the order, he does most of the equipment and Book maintenance for Northern Base, and he appreciates challenge." A pause to flip a few pieces of meat over on the grill. "Of course," and her mouth purses into a little irritated moue, which is also very cute, "Ogami was there the entire time I was asking, which was. Uncomfortable."

"Oh, why, do you not get along?"

"Not especially, for fairly valid reasons, but the man's also...he gets this look, you know? An 'oh, I know what you're up to,' look, and then he. He said, 'So is he cute?' and he winked at me." The corners of her mouth go tight for a moment. "I don't know what my cousin sees in him, Tetsuo's such a serious person."

Magine's heart falls slightly. "Do you...prefer when people are serious?"

Reika's eyes go wide. "Um! No, no, I just. Dislike being teased. By him specifically."

"Oh, well, well that's fair. I think this is, here, these ones are done." Magine grabs her own tongs and moves a few pieces of meat from the grill onto their plates.

For a couple of minutes they just eat without talking, and then Reika straightens up suddenly and says, "Oh."

"Oh! What, what is it?"

There's a moment of carefully non-frantic scrambling before Reika pulls something out of her jacket and offers it to Magine with both hands, gaze nervously averted. "I brought this. For you. It's a gift."

Surprised, Magine takes the gift from her hands and peers down at it--a smallish hardback book with a lushly illustrated cover. "Ka...kaamira?"

"It's an illustrated translation of Carmilla, by Sheridan le Fanu. I...haven't read it myself, I don't. Read much fiction. But I asked the novelist--I asked Kamiyama for advice and he said he thought you would enjoy it." Reika isn't quite looking at her. "I had to make sure to bring a--in Logos families a book is the traditional first, ah, courting gift."

Magine's only been half-listening, paging through the little book and marveling at each exquisitely illustrated plate, but at that last comment she goes very still and says, "I, nu nu nu, I, oh my." She presses a hand to her cheek. "I don't know what to say. I mean it's, it's beautiful, I love it, I'm very excited to read, did you say courting?"

Reika's ears go pink just like they did earlier and she's so cute that Magine can't stand it. "If that's...acceptable to you."

Magine nods, maybe a little too enthusiastically. "It is, it really is, it's very acceptable, I mean. Oh my."

[tick-tick-moo]

Hey Moo, got any musical recommendations you can give me?

I've watched/listened to:

-Hamilton

-Les Mis

-In the Heights

-Come from away

-Dear Evan Hansen

-Into the Woods

Ooo I'm on a bit of a musical listening spree myself! I love what you've got so far! I've got plenty for ya, I'm flattered you have trust in my musical taste 😁 (it got a little long lol)

- Hadestown: This one is one of the newer and more popular ones, but it is amazing! Relevant to a lot of modern themes of climate change, working class disparity, and politics. (plus the only thing more genius than the lyrics is the music, it's awesome)

- The Six: Also new and popular, but I have to mention it. Cool retelling of an old story. The ending is weird and I don't particularly like it but it is still good music. It's got ups and downs, as musicals do, and it's generally a feel-good musical.

- Bridgerton: The Unofficial Musical(yes, the tik tok one): This musical is actually amazing, the music itself is amazing and I can totally imagine it going onto an actual stage. You don't need to have watched the show to understand it but I'd recommend reading a summary beforehand to understand who's who.

-(for Halloween) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Amazing musical, very disturbing. Cannibalism is involved but the story is cool and the music is cooler. This is another long one.

- The Sound of Music: A CLASSIC and a great feel good musical. Not Broadway, I think the movie is on Disney Plus, but its long and old fashioned so if you don't feel like sitting through it, just listening to the soundtrack is all right!

- RENT: The story is def wack but this is another awesome musical. I like it more for the music itself than the story. And pretty groundbreaking considering it was brought contemporary music to Broadway. There is a filmed version on YT if you wanna watch it.

- Wicked: Another awesome musical. Full disclosure, I've only made it about halfway through so I can't vouch for the ending yet but everything so far is awesome and I've heard a lot of good things.

- Phantom of the Opera: Another classic. The music is out of this world and there have been a few movies so hopefully it's more accessible if you want to watch. I love this musical so much.

- Tick, Tick... BOOM!: If you want to listen to it ahead of the movie release. The musical cast recording is also on YT and it is awesome(fun fact, this is one of my favorite musicals).

- A Chorus Line: THIS ONE IS HILARIOUS, its relatable in the stupidest ways possible. Another one that I've yet to finish though, but I have listened to the finale already and am very excited to finish listening through it.

- West Side Story: Another classic! You've probably heard of it, it's awesome. The movie is older and I have some problems with the plot but overall its touching. It gets cheesy and the make up is terrible in the movie but music is awesome and the story is cool.

- Newsies: Movie also on Disney Plus, this is a fun and sad one. I haven't listened to all of it yet but I'm working on it hehe.

- 21 Chump Street: Ok, this was only performed once and it's a one act with, like, six songs but its super catchy and it's a LMM one. It's only 14 min and its on YT!

- Little Shop of Horrors: The title lives up to its same. The music is fun and its kinda too weird to take the murder seriously(yeah, murder btw). Overall fun musical but it is certainly a ride!

Some that I haven't listened to/have only heard one song of but have good things about/more classics/are on my 'listen to' list: Sunday in the Park with George, Fiddler on the Roof, Once on This Island, Miss Saigon, Oklahoma!, Company, and the Tina Turner Musical.

These are mostly really popular or older ones, so you've probably heard of most of them but they are all worth a listen! There's prolly a bunch more that I'm disgracing by forgetting to mention them but oh well!!

Thank you for asking and stop by anytime 😁

[marley-manson]

If you're still doing the ships meme: Count D/Leon (because I've been reading fic of them lately lol) and/or Fraser/Ray (because I'm curious 👀)

Thank you!! Especially for giving me an opening to talk about Fraser/Ray lol.

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

D/Leon

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I read Pet Shop of Horrors because I knew I'd be into it, but what made me shift from 'they have a fun vibe' to 'oh they're in love in love' was D running away because he doesn't know how to love a human and Leon running after him.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Bickering frenemies who get really attached and fall in love. Leon coparenting his kid brother with D while still regularly accusing him of every felony under the sun lol. Going on a family vacation together. The hilarious "...him?" factor of mysterious supernatural being D falling in love with Leon of all possible people. The epilogue with Chris' drawing of them as a family as the thing Leon wanted to find D to return to him 😭

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Idk I vibe with the fic pretty well. Mmmaybe my semi unpopular opinion is that D's the one who needs to change to make a relationship possible, not Leon. I'm not really into fic concepts where Leon has to like, spend his time tracking D down bettering himself to be worthy or whatever. And I also got the vibe from the sequel (mediocre as it is lol) that part of the point is D changing and coming to like humanity more at least on an individual scale, and I dig that.

Fraser/Ray V (lmaooo okay so you didn't specify which Ray, because obviously you don't know that Ray was replaced by a character with the same fucking name, so I'm doing them both.)

Ship It

What made you ship it?

SO I'd heard about Due South because back in like 2005/6 when file sharing comms got popular on LJ there was a burst of fandom activity in a lot of old fandoms as people shared the episodes around and they got easy to get into. Due South was one of these because it was very homoerotic and had an ending that involved Fraser and Ray riding off into the sunrise together. I was like, sounds fun, I should check it out!

It was playing in reruns on tv so when I checked it out to give it a shot the first thing I ever saw was the last five minutes of the second episode of season 1. The scene was Ray V handing Fraser a wolf license, and Fraser being shocked and overjoyed. "I only mentioned it once, and you got it for me?" "Well yeah, you asked for it right?"

And I was like, okay, I'm on board, let's go.

I only realized about halfway into season one that there were two Rays and the ship everyone talked about and hyped up was a completely different ship lmao, but it was too late, I was already sold.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I absolutely love their mildly fucked up dynamic and the show's self-awareness about it. Fraser's central character trait is his devotion to duty at the expense of himself and his personal relationships, and Ray's is his devotion to Fraser at the expense of himself, and there are multiple episodes that exist to examine it - a little imperfectly, maybe, and without full resolution, but very intriguingly.

Ray took an explosion for Fraser in the first episode and then crawled out of the hospital and flew to the NWT just to tell Fraser something he realized about his father's death. He mortages his house for him, he takes a bullet for him - twice - he carries him on his back through a forest, and nearly every time Fraser fucks him over in return, and Ray knows it, and he keeps sacrificing himself anyway.

I also think there's some deliberate classic gay subtext there, from certain lines and relationship parallels to the overarching themes. The first season is about Fraser being on a pedestal and Ray like, looking up at him in awe, and getting real, real weird about the possibility that his sister slept with him towards the end of the season, which reads as jealousy but also a sort of rejection of the idea of Fraser being touchable. And then he confronts his sister about it, and her response is to tell Ray that he's afraid to dream and reach for what he really wants. Which, I mean, come the fuck on, there's literally only one thing that could possibly apply to. And then the finale happens and that's all about Fraser falling off his pedestal and turning out to be human after all.

I also like that season 2 puts them on a bit more of an equal footing. They hash a lot of this out in the first chunk of season 2 after the season 1 finale shitshow, and Ray sees Fraser's flaws more clearly and Fraser starts to appreciate Ray more. By the end of the season they're pointedly very in sync. But their issues are never completely resolved either, which makes it like, perfect for fic imo - you can see how their relationship would develop further and how those flaws could be fully resolved with Fraser's continuing growth as a person.

Oh also I love Ray's constant constant bitching in contrast to his extreme loyalty. He will do uncountable amounts petty dumb annoying shit for Fraser and whine about it the entire time, but also if it's serious, he'll do it without ever saying a word about it. I love that Ray will bitch Fraser's ear off about having to drive him around the city during a basketball game he wants to watch, but he'll sing duets with him while carrying him around the Canadian wilderness.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Hmm. Idk, I think most people who ship it have a similar take on their relationship to some extent. Well, I don't think this is unpopular (but it's maybe not the most popular interpretation), but I really like the idea of Ray's stupid intense loyalty to Fraser easily overcoming the internalized homophobia he'd have from his roman catholic upbringing and abusive father. Like flipping a switch - oh Fraser is dtf, well then no problem, not even an issue, what's a sexuality crisis after nearly dying for this guy fifty times?

Fraser/Ray K

Don’t Ship It

Why don’t you ship it?

I tried, I genuinely really did lol. I really wanted to like it so I'd be able to enjoy all the fic, and I knew I might have a loyalty issue wrt Fraser/RayV so I specifically started watching the RayK seasons while I was still going through season 2 the first time to try to combat that.

Didn't work. My problem isn't the ship, really, it's the whole show. I don't like how it changed after Paul Gross took over - even mid season 2 has some of these problems tbh, though not quite as bad. But yeah I don't like season 3/4's tone, the themes completely shifted to basically the exact opposite (let's just say Fraser returning to the Canadian north would not be a happy ending according to season 1), the scope got way too big, the magical part of magical realism got too excessive, and, frankly, the writing got kind of shitty lol. I legitimately consider Due South season 1 to be the best piece of episodic storytelling I've seen. Season 2 is mostly fine. Seasons 3+4 just get purposelessly wacky and weird.

There's one episode I legitimately thought had to be a fucking dream sequence when I first watched it because it was so nonsensical and weird, and that's about when I knew I wasn't gonna be able to get into it.

What would have made you like it?

Better writing probably lol.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Facilitates Ray/Ray which can be pretty good.

[100sunny]

MayoBits Part 2

(It was too big for the ask box and Tumblr wouldn't let me submit this anonymously. I'm sorry for everyone I'm about to disappoint, I'm not a writer, I'm just part of the "make bits snap" competition. It’s a series now so I have to try to make it more series-ous).

Refusing to face the world as the walking embodiment of mayonnaise, StrawBits MayoBits ran straight back their room and hid under the covers of their bed.

“This has to be a dream… or a nightmare,” thought the Bits. “Surely people don’t randomly turn into mayo… do they?”

Bits cried softly as they slowly slid the covers off their upper body, once again revealing the shiny yellowish-white color their skin had become. As they did so, they watched in horror as pieces of their mayonnaise skin stuck to the fabric. It didn’t hurt, it was just disgusting.

Sighing, Bits reached for their cellphone to check the time. More mayo stuck to their phone. Only a few hours had passed since the avocado incident and yet they were already falling apart.

Bits couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if the rest of their skin fell off throughout the day. What even was their bones? Egg shells? Potatoes? Pickles? Perhaps there was no underlying structure holding Bits together at all. Maybe they were Boneless Bits. Whatever was in there, Bits didn’t want to know.

These thoughts began to take their toll on Bits’ mind. Bits didn’t want to disintegrate into nothingness, at least not until their Ao3 account was banned. Something must be done about this and it has to be done quickly.

Bits completely threw off their bed covers and left the room, leaving a foot trail of mayonnaise behind their path.

The soft plopping of mayo could be heard with each step, but Bits ignored it. There were much more pressing matters to attend to.

“What can be used to fix this…” thought the Bits.

Suddenly, realization hit them. They just needed to replenish the mayonnaise as quickly as it left. Bits ran to the kitchen and swung open the fridge door only to find... 2 slices of Kraft Singles American Cheese and a browned avocado with one bite missing. Disappointing.

Bits wished they hadn’t forgotten to purchase the rest of their groceries earlier. Now they would have to face the public as MayoBits.

They got dressed, donning their sunny shirt, a black jacket, and some gray sweats. Noticing how the moist from their mayonnaise skin was already seeping through the threads of their clothes, Bits stared at their shoes. It one thing to wash your clothes, but cleaning your shoes is just impossible. Washing by hand was out of the question considering how soluble mayonnaise was. Sure, you could throw the shoes in the washer, but then they’d never feel the same again.

Bits shook their head, deciding against wearing the shoes, and returned to the kitchen. There was only one option for footwear and that option was… cheese. Bits opened the fridge and grabbed the two slices of cheese. Slowly, they peeled the wrappers off and slapped the cheese against the bottom of their feet. Now they had footwear. Excellent.

It was time to go. Bits opened the front door and began their trek back to Walmart.

The journey to Walmart was fast and uneventful. MayoBits loaded up two full shopping carts with all the mayo and kraft singles American cheese the store had to offer. A few shoppers shot them dirty glances while the cashier had looked incredibly concerned. Embarrassing.

Bits eyed their large purchase as they walked out of the store. There was no way of carrying all this mayo and cheese home. Why did they walk here? Why didn’t they drive? Walmart was only a mile away, but this was a medical emergency!

“Yes… This is a medical emergency…”

With that thought and against all morals, Bits stole both shopping carts.

While the walk to Walmart had been short and swift, the walk back had become agonizing. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they were pushing and pulling such a large load.

They were about halfway home now. MayoBits decided to stop at a bench to take a breather. Bits noticed the cheese on their feet had slowly fell to pieces. What was left was starting to become infused into their skin. Sighing, Bits peeled off the remnants before slapping a replacement slice on their feet.

The sun was beginning to set and traffic was dying down. Bits could feel the afternoon heat slowly melting away their skin, literally. They rolled up their sweat pants legs and leaned back against the bench, closing their eyes in the process. It felt nice.

Something brushed against their leg. Bits eyes shot wide open only to find that they had been surrounded by 17 furry little creatures. Kittens to be precise.

Wait a minute… Kittens… Cats... Allergic.... Oh no.

They could already feel their throat beginning to itch and eyes water. Panic.

The more Bits tried to shoo them away, the more they rubbed against their legs. Bits grabbed both shopping carts and ran home.

Finally in the safety of their abode, Bits parked the shopping carts inside the kitchen and grabbed a jar of mayo. They walked upstairs to their bathroom ready to assess the damage the kittens had delivered.

Cat hair was infused within the mayo skin. Every time they tried to remove a cat hair from their leg, said hair would stick to the skin on their hand. It was impossible to remove.

Bits gave up, accepting the fact that they will be forever itchy.

Bits began to cry as they opened the jar of mayo. With their hand, they scooped out a large glop of mayo and began rubbing it on their skin, successfully replenishing the pieces that had been removed earlier.

Bits then acknowledged that this is something they will have to do every day now. From the day of the avocado incident to the day they die, Bits will wake up to a jar of mayo. They will forever smell of mayo. Sadness.

“An awful day of agony, but at least sleep will always bring peace,” thought the Bits.

Bits fell into bed and relinquished their body to sleep. However, peace does not come easily to those who hate the best condiment named mayo. Our mayonnaise will follow you into your dreams…

Bits didn’t dream well that night. They opened their eyes to a yellowish-white space. There were no walls or ceiling and the floors were shiny and sticky.

It was then that the Bits realized they were not alone. They heard a voice from behind them.

“Welcome to MayoSpace…”

Bits turned around to face whoever had spoken to them. But as they turned, their face contorted with fear for in front of them sat the one and only… Bowmeowi… sitting on a throne of mayonnaise jars…

He only said one word.

“SUFFER.”

[msmarvelouswinchester]

Invisible String

Summary - Dean Winchester was never a man who would freely speak about his feelings and emotions. The reader, is his best friend of many years but some wrong choices and words of Dean's pushes a the reader away.

Pairing - AU Dean Winchester x Reader

Warnings - Fluff (lots of fluff), angst-ish, swearing, mentions of abusive relationship, mentions of bad parenting, cheating

Square filled - Bestfriend AU ( @spndeanbingo )

Word count - 6150

A/N - This is written for @supernatural-jackles' Bi-weekly challenge. The prompts are in bold. Spn dividers by the amazingly talented @talesmaniac89 (go check her blog out) Beta'd by @mariekoukie6661 (she is a sweetheart for agreeing to take a look at this long fic. Thank you💕)

“So what are we watching?” You asked as you slumped down on the yellow couch. You were dead on your feet after a long week of work but you just couldn't break tradition and not hang out with your best friend like every friday. Pulling the comforter close to your body, you let out a sigh of contentment. Truth be told, no matter how exhausted you were, you always looked forward to movie night.

“I picked the movie last friday, now it's your turn,” Dean handed you a bottle of beer and took a seat beside you. Your eyes sparkled with a glint of mischief, a knowing smile appeared on your face as Dean's lips curled up in disgust. “No chick flicks,” he warned.

“I get to call dibs on the movie tonight so I picked,” you paused for a second to create a dramatic effect, “The Proposal.”

“No!” Dean cried out in horror.

“Oh come on, it is not going to be that bad. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock are in that movie.” you winked at him, making him groan and he picked up a cushion to cover his face, “Now, now don't be so dramatic.” He removed the cushion from his face and glared at you. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. “Pizza's here!” He exclaimed as he got up to open the door. You turned on the tv, opened Netflix and put on the movie.

“I don't understand how we can be best friends,” Dean grumbled as he came back to the room, “you eat your pizza with pineapple on it.” “It tastes good. You should try it one day.” you said and took the two boxes of food from his hand, setting them down on the table in front.

“Are you kidding me? Even if that becomes the only food available on earth, I still won't eat it. You can't put fruits on pizza,” he said, and took a slice from his own pizza and nestled into the comforter beside you.

“Tomato is a fruit, De,” you said, biting into the slice in your hand. You heard him mutter something under his breath which you ignored and shifted your focus to the movie playing on the screen. Halfway through the movie, you yawned and snuggled into your best friend. He wrapped his warm hands around you, pulling you closer to him. “You want to head back now?” He asked softly, leaning in to kiss your forehead.

“Nuh-uh,” you said, “I want to finish the movie. I need to see if Andrew got Margaret back .” That elicited a chuckle from Dean, the vibrations of his laugh shaking your body a little.

“You're so stubborn and they are gonna find each other, it's a chick flick for God's sake,” he said, “they love each other, clearly.”

“Speaking of love, Cas asked me out,” you said, making Dean sit up straight. “What'd you say?” He asked

“Yes obviously. I need to dive back into the dating life,” you shrugged, “and Cas seems like a good guy.”

“He is but I thought you wanted to wait because of what happened with you know ‘ he who must not be named’,” he said, and you picked up the remote to pause the movie.

“I can't live in the past. I need to move on. It has been two years since I've gone on a date and it's not like I'm getting engaged tomorrow. It's just a date,” you said, messing with the loose end of the comforter.

“As you wish. I'm just looking out for you.”

“I know. You always do,” you said, giving Dean a tight hug, “and I kinda miss doing it.”

“Doing what?” “Sex,” Dean's eyebrows shot up, “oh come on, it's not like I didn't use to have sex with….him.”

“So,” he gulped, “so you m-miss doing….it?”

“Kind of. My fingers are not enough, you know what I mean right?”

“Of course, of course,” Dean cleared his throat, blush crept up his neck.

“And it's not just sex, I miss the physical touch, I miss those things that are part of a relationship,” you said, “I need this and I think I'm ready.”

“If you think you're ready, then it's fine. I just don't want to see my best friend with a broken heart again.” he said, his fingers getting entangled in your hair, as he slowly massaged your scalp.

“That feels good,” you moaned, “after that hell of a meeting with Azazel, I needed this night De. Thank you for always being there.”

“You're my best friend. I'll always be there when you need me even if you make me watch stupid romcoms.” he grinned, “Azazel creating problems again?”

“He never seems to approve of the templates and designs I make no matter how hard I try to make them loveable and on the other hand, the shitty designs made by Abaddon always gets approved.” you groan.

“Why don't you change jobs?”

“I can't. It's not that simple. Life's going good. I don't want to disrupt it by going on a job hunt.” you sighed.

“What if you start working for my company?” You immediately turned your head towards Dean and looked at him with surprise clear in your eyes.

“No.” “Why not?

“I'm a graphic designer, De. I'm not built to work in your company,” you said.

“Be my PA. I really need a personal assistant to help me keep upto date with my schedule and I'm a mess after Charlie left.” Dean said.

“But what is my job criteria? That I'm your best friend? It's like taking advantage of you. I can't do that.”

“What if you work as my PA after being interviewed for the job?” He asked. “Fine, maybe I can give it a shot,” you said.

“Awesome! Meet me in my office on Monday, ten in the morning, sharp. I don't tolerate tardiness.” he said, slipping quickly in the work mode.

“Aye, aye captain.” You giggled, but a deep frown soon appeared on your face.

“What?” “What if it messes up our relationship?”

“It won't. I know how to separate my work life from my personal one,” Dean assured.

“I guess, then it's okay,” you smiled.

“So about your date with Cas. Where's he taking you?”

“I have no idea,” you chuckled, “he said it will be a surprise.”

“That's-that's great but he should know that you hate surprises,” Dean raised an eyebrow.

“He doesn't know me very well. I'll let that pass this one time,” you told Dean.

“Fair enough,” he laughed. You yawned once more, as you tried to fight the drowsiness that was threatening to take over you.

“You want to head back home now or you want to crash here tonight, sleepyhead?” Dean smiled.

“I don't think I can drive all the way in such a state. Do you mind if I crash here?” You grinned, knowing very well he didn't mind because you crashed in his guest rooms on most of the Friday nights. He rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch.

“I'll prepare the guest room.” You sleepily nodded at him. You didn't realise you had fallen asleep but you were soon woken up when you felt your body move.

“Sorry, didn't mean to wake you up. I'm taking you to bed,” you found yourself in Dean's arms as he headed towards the guest room with you, “you looked too peaceful sleeping. Go back to sleep.” He softly murmured. Dean gently placed you in the bed, pulling the cover upto your chest as you snuggled into the warmth of the covers. Within a few minutes, you had dozed off.

“Morning, sunshine. Pancakes for you,” Dean's loud voice woke you up from your deep slumber the next morning. You sat up in your bed, as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes, the smell of pancakes hitting your nose.

“Breakfast in bed for my girl. Listen I gotta run to the office now,” he said as he handed you the plate of freshly cooked pancakes to you.

“It's Saturday!” You exclaimed.

“I know but Benny wanted to sign the deal with our company today. It's an important one, we can't let that go out of our hands,” he made you understand, “I'll be back within a few hours.”

“Sufe fing. I wif ve here,” you spoke with your mouth full, “Sure thing. I will be here.” You repeated your words after swallowing your food.

“Maggie will drop by. If you want to leave the house before I return, give the keys to her.” He said as he went back into his room to put his suit on.

“Hot damn,” you let out a low whistle as Dean stepped out of the room in his black suit, “Go get the deal, cowboy!” Dean did a full body laugh at your words, throwing his head backwards before he bid you goodbye and walked out of the door leaving you alone in his penthouse. Finishing your breakfast, you got up and got freshened up for the day. You picked up your phone and saw three texts from Cas.

“Meet me at 7.” “At the Season's 52.” “I'm looking forward to this.”

A smile crept onto your face, as you read the texts from him. “I need your help,” you shot a text to Ruby, “I've a date tonight. I don't know what to wear.” You waited for her to text back but instead of getting a text, you got a call from her.

“He finally asked you out?” She screamed from the other side of the phone.

“What do you mean “finally”?” You wondered.

“Oh come on, Y/N. How long have you two known each other?” “Uh-two months.”

“Two-wait, two months? You don't have a date with Dean?” She asked.

“No! Why would you think that?” You exclaimed, “Cas asked me out.”

“Cas? As in Castiel Novak? Dean's friend? And Dean's okay with it?”

“What's with the twenty questions, Ruby?” You said, annoyed at her questions, “And yes. Dean's fine with it. Why wouldn't he be? He is dating Lisa, in case you didn't remember. Now will you help me? I need a dress for tonight.”

Ruby agreed to go on a little shopping spree with you to find the perfect dress. Handing over the keys to Maggie, the housekeeper, you shot a text to Dean letting him know you were leaving his house. You waited for some time but he didn't text you back. You shrugged it off thinking he was probably busy with the meeting. Your whole afternoon was spent with Ruby as you tried to find a good dress for the date. She made you try on what seemed like a hundred dresses of different colours and style until a green bottleneck dress finally caught your eyes.

“This is a beautiful dress! You gotta try it on,” Your friend insisted.

“You sure? Look at the price - it's too expensive,” you pouted.

“Do you want to get laid tonight?” Ruby quirked her eyebrow.

“Yeah-I mean no….maybe,” you stutter.

“That dress - Cas won't be able to take his eyes off you tonight,” she smiled.

“Fine, if you insist.” Needless to say, the dress was a perfect fit but it was all for nothing.

Tapping on the hardwood of the table, you let out a frustrating sigh. Tears pricked at your eyes as you took a sip of the drink.

“Ma'am do you-are you going to-”

“Please bring the check. I'm done here,” you said, barely managing to keep your tears at bay. The waitress nodded and walked away from your table. You dialed up your best friend’s number and waited for him to pick up.

“Dean,” you said, sniffling a little as he picked up his phone after the third ring. “Y/N, you okay?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Can you,” you cleared your throat, “Can you pick me up? I'm at Season’s 52.”

“Sure,” you heard shuffling on the other side, “I'll be there as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” you replied.

“He just didn't show up,” you sniffled as Dean drove yourselves back to his house.

“Maybe-maybe he had his reasons,” Dean said, throwing a worried glance at your way.

“Reasons?” You scoffed.

“Cas is a good man. This is very unlike him,” Dean said.

“Am I-am I not good enough, Dean?” “Y/N, you know that's not true. You're pretty, smart, a little badass - you are a good person with a kind heart,” Dean smiled.

“Then why? Why didn't he show up? He could have left a message. I'm telling you Dean, I'm so over men now. All men are the same,” you looked at him, “except you.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. That is good to hear.”

“I sure do know how to choose,” you grumbled.

“Y/N, it's just one bad date. So what? Cas is not the only man in the whole world. You'll find someone,” Dean said, pulling into his driveway.

“I don't think so. Maybe he was right,” you opened the door of the car to step out.

“Who?”

“Alistair. Maybe he is right. Maybe the problem is me,” you said, tears pooling in your eyes. Dean grabbed your hands and pulled you back into the car.

“No. He is not right. Alistair will never be right. He was an abusive and manipulative son of a bitch. Listen to me, you are not the problem, sweetheart,” he said, “those men just don't understand you.”

“Is that why no one sticks around?” You turned around to face him with wet eyes.

“I did and I will always be there for you,” he said, his hands cupping your face.

“I know, De,” you leaned into his touch as his thumb gently caressed your cheeks. You opened your mouth to speak but were cut off by three harsh taps on the car window. Dean immediately opened the door and stepped out.

“Lisa.” He said.

“Unbelievable, Dean!” Lisa exclaimed. You couldn't see her face but you knew she was furious.

“It's not what it looks like,” Dean whispered.

“You just up and left me in the morning and now when I get back to talk things out, I find you cozying up to her. I'm done with you!” She yelled back. You shrunk back into your seat when you heard her scream. Dean didn't even tell you that he had broken up with her. You wondered why he hid it from you.

“I already said we were over Lisa, just go back home,” Dean said and brought his hand down his face.

“Three years of relationship meant nothing to you! Why?” Lisa shoved Dean, making him stumble back a little.

“I don't owe you an explanation, okay?”

“You cheating asshole-” “I didn't cheat on you, Lisa. I-I'm just not in love with you anymore,” Dean said, making her scoff.

“Have a nice life, asshole!” Lisa said and you heard her retreating footsteps. You stepped out of the car and saw Dean standing against the car, with his face buried in his hands.

“Hey, you okay?” You rubbed his arm gently.

“Yeah. I'm sorry you had to hear that,” he sighed.

“Why didn't you tell me you broke up with her?” You asked.

“It wasn’t important.” “Not important? You let me ramble all the way from the restaurant to your house but not once did you tell me you broke up with her,” you said.

“Y/N, I'm fine. Can we drop this now?” He snapped at you, “I'm sorry.”

“S’okay,” you gave him a sad smile, “I've an idea.”

“Does this idea include booze?” “What do ya think?” “I'm in.”

“What time is it?” You groaned as bright light hit your eyes. The throbbing pain in your head increased as you opened your eyes, trying to focus on the human figure standing in your doorway.

“You got wasted last night, sweetheart,” Dean grinned.

“Stop talking. Just stop talking,” you groaned and nestled deep into your covers.

“Aspirin. You will need these,” he kept the medicine on the nightstand, and walked away, “Breakfast is ready.”

“Morning, how's the hangover?” He gave you a cheeky smile as you walked into the dining room a few minutes later. Dean had his laptop opened in front of him, a cup of coffee beside the electronic device. “You're enjoying this too much, aren't ya? How come you're not hung-over?” You grumbled, “I'm hungry.”

“Here. I made waffles because my heartbroken, hung-over best friend needs her comfort food. Dig in,” he said and pushed a plate of waffles towards you, “I didn't drink much.”

“I thought we were drinking because you had a breakup.” “I told you already I'm not feeling miserable. See there's this girl I like who is not Lisa. I'm thinkin’ of asking her out so I did what I had to do. I ended things with Lisa,” Dean said.

“How come you never told me about this girl?” You narrowed your eyes at him. “‘Cause I wasn't sure how I felt but two days ago I saw her and I just knew that she is the one I want to be with,” he smiled.

“You're such a sap.” You giggled, “she must be very special.”

“She is very special. I have never met a girl like her,” he said, staring at you, “now, eat up.”

“Mhm,” you moaned, taking a bite of the waffles on your plate, “you know, you should give up your business and open up a coffee shop. You make excellent waffles.”

“Sorry sweetheart, no can do. People at work will miss me too much,” he chuckled, “you do remember you are interviewing for the position of PA tomorrow?”

“Yep but I don't know if I will get it or not. I have heard the CEO of the company is kind of a shithead,” you grinned.

“Oh really?” Dean looked at you with amused eyes, “You're terrible.”

“Yeah, so I've heard.” You laughed.

He shook his head at you, “Listen, I have a favour to ask.” “Shoot.”

“I would like it if you could accompany me to Sam and Jess’ anniversary party tonight,” he said.

“Tonight?” “Yeah. I know it's very sudden but it completely sli-”

“I'll go with you but I thought you told me that after what happened with your Dad last time, you wouldn't be attending another family gathering,” you said.

“Uh-huh. Sam insisted that I attend this party,” he replied.

“Fine I'll be there with you at the party to save you from John Winchester,” you giggled.

“You'll be my knight in shining armour tonight.” He chuckled.

You went back to your apartment to get ready for the party. Dean had told you that he would be picking you up at six that evening. As you touched up on your makeup, you heard three knocks on your door.

“Good evening, Y/N,” Dean smirked, looking dapper in a black two-piece suit.

“Good evening, Dean. I'll be out in a minute,” you blushed when you saw his eyes travel all over your body.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“De-” you snaked placed your hand over his, as you both sat inside the Impala with her engine turned off.

“I can't do this Y/N. I can't face John Winchester again, not after the crap he pulled last time,” he gritted out the words, his knuckles turning white as he held the steering wheel tightly, staring off at the direction of his house.

“Why are you here?” He looked at you in surprise. “I-Sam asked me to be here,” he said.

“Exactly. Your little brother asked you to be here so you will go into that house and attend your brother's party. It's up to you if you want to make any small talk, I'll be there with you but Dean you can't avoid your father forever-”

“I'm not avoiding him,” Dean said.

“Yes, you are. Now go in there, ask him why he did that, demand answers from him,” you said.

“I-okay, let's go. Just don't leave my side tonight or someone might get hurt,” he said.

“You're not going to punch your Dad,” you mumbled, “even though he deserves it.” He chuckled at your words as you two stepped out of the car.

“I'll never get used to the fact that you grew up in a mansion,” you smirked.

“It's not a mansion. It's a….big house,” he smiled.

“Yep, whatever you say.” As soon as you stepped through the door of the mansion, Dean was immediately pulled into a hug. “I thought you wouldn't show up,” Sam said, letting go of his brother, “Hey Y/N.”

“Almost didn't,” the older Winchester replied as you gave the younger one a small wave. “He showed up, didn't he? What about Mom?”

“Mom and Dad are in the living room. Last thing I saw they are not speaking to each other even when they are in the same room. I just want everyone to act civil till the party's over,” Sam said, “Drinks are in the kitchen.”

“So kitchen first, living room later. Keep John out of my sight and everything will be perfect,” Dean patted his brother's shoulder and made his way towards the kitchen, taking you with him. Pouring himself a glass, he handed you one.

“Dean,” a deep voice came from the doorway, making Dean stand up straight. “Sam had one job. Dad.” He looked at John and gave him a curt reply.

There was a moment of awkward silence as no words were exchanged between the father and the son. You could feel Dean trying his level best to keep himself from screaming at his Dad. You put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

“I know you don't want to see me right now-” “You're right and you may leave now,” Dean said and turned his back towards his father.

“Son. You have to understand, it was a long time back and I didn't know what was going through my head. I-” John sighed.

“You what? You had a perfect family here. A wife, two sons. And all this time, you knew about Adam but you said nothing. You kept up with the charade of the perfect husband and father when in reality you were neither of them,” Dean gritted out.

“Dean. Maybe I was not the perfect husband but I did everything for you and Sam,” the older man said in a harsh tone.

“Really? You did everything? You were nothing but an absent father. I was there to take care of Mom and Sammy while you were away on your so-called business trips when actually you were plowing another woman's field,” Dean growled at his father.

“Dean!” His father snapped back.

“Mr. Winchester you should leave now,” you said, trying to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand, “John, please.”

“This is family matter Y/N. You have no right to get involved in this,” John retorted.

“Don't speak to her like that. She is more family to me than you ever were,” Dean said and stalked towards his Dad, “so you can leave now. I'm sure as hell Mom is not talking to you so you can get the hell out of this house now, John.”

“Dean-” “Now,” Dean growled.

“I would do what he says, John,” you said. John scoffed, turning around and got out of the house. Dean plopped down on one of the chairs in the kitchen, gently rubbing his temples.

“You sure you're okay?” “I need a stronger drink,” he murmured.

“I saw Dad leave. What happened?” Sam came into the kitchen and asked as he looked at his brother.

“I told you to keep John away from me. You had one job,” Dean snapped and stormed out of the room, grabbing a glass of drink with him.

“He just needs some time to cool down. John came to talk to Dean and-”

“Yeah I understood. I'm gonna check on Mom. This party was a mistake,” Sam said and left the kitchen leaving you standing there alone.

You squeezed your eyes shut as you finished up your drink. You were angry at John too. He had hurt Dean, your best friend. He was a liar and you hated liars. You needed to go find Dean. You placed the empty glass on the counter and made your towards the door but you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw him.

“Cas,” you said, “I didn't expect you to be here.”

“Yeah well, Sam is a good friend so he invited me over.” Cas gave you a smile.

“Oh.” You nodded.

“We should probably address the elephant in the room,” he gave an awkward laugh.

“Huh? Oh you mean how you stood me up last night?” You glared at him.

“Well you didn't tell me that you were looking for only a one night stand? I would have backed out sooner. I like you Y/N but I don't do one night-”

“Wait, hold on. Who told you I was looking for a one time, no strings attached thing?”

“Dean told me,” your jaw dropped onto the floor at his confession, “I'm sorry Y-”

“S’okay.” You brushed him off, “I need to have a word with Dean, have you seen him?”

“I think he was talking to Kevin over there,” Cas pointed you towards another room.

“Thanks and it's okay, Cas. We're cool.” You said and almost ran your way into the other room.

“I'm telling you man, you deserve someone better than Y/N. She is clingy and she doesn't take no for an answer. I can give you her number but-” Dean turned around and his eyes locked with your wet ones. You shook your head at him, a look of betrayal evident on your face. You heard him call out to you as you turned on your heels and ran towards the door. “Excuse me, Kevin,” Dean said and went after you but by that time you were already out of the house. “Y/N!” He called, as you pulled out your phone to call for an uber.

“Fuck you!” You exclaimed, “I'm clingy, I don't take no for an answer. Is that what you think of me? All this time while you pretended to be my best friend, is this what went through your head?” Tears were running down your face now, “how many times was I there for you when you needed me and this is how you repay me?”

“I didn't mean to say it like that. You are my best friend Y/N-”

“You are a fuckin’ liar! You told Cas that I was looking for a person to keep my bed warm for only one night. Why? You know what, I don't want to talk to you right now. Leave me alone,” you said.

“No, please,” he took a step towards you. “Don't you dare make a move!” You screamed, “You lied to me and I hate liars more than anything. You are no better than your Dad. I hate you! I regret that I ever thought of you as my best friend.” You heard shuffling behind you and turned around to see him leaving. A sob tore from your throat. Standing there alone on the porch of the Winchester mansion, with your smudged makeup, you waited for the uber to show up.

It took you one hour to finally reach your house. Your phone was getting blown up by messages from the Winchester brothers and Ruby. You broke down in tears as soon as you reached your house. You crawled underneath the covers without bothering to get out of your dress or to remove your makeup. Your body shook as you continued to sob loudly into the pillow. The same man, who acted as your rock when you had left Alistair, gave you shelter in his house when you showed up in the middle of the night because your ex-boyfriend was drunk and was on a rampage, was the one who continued to spew lies about you behind your back. Your trust was shattered just like your heart and you didn't know how to piece them back together. The crying had tired you out and in no time you slipped into a deep slumber with Dean's words haunting your dream.

Morning came way too quickly. You woke up to Ruby knocking on your door along with Dean calling your phone. Your eyes were red and swollen as a result of crying all night long.

“What happened? Who's ass do I need to kick?” Ruby barged into your house as soon as you opened the door as saw you had been crying.

“....Dean.” “Dean? Dean Winchester?” Her eyes widened in surprise which later turned to anger when you told her everything that had happened the day before. Ruby was furious and if Dean was there in the room, he would have been a dead man.

“Oh Y/N,” Ruby cooed as she pulled you into a hug, “I didn't know it was this bad. Sam called me to check on you because you left his house in a hurry. I'm gonna kill Dean Winchester.” You held onto her tightly as sobs racked through your body. She gently caressed your head while cursing the green-eyed Winchester.

You were miserable but what you didn't know is that your ex-best friend was also losing his mind over the incident. The guilt was eating him up alive and he didn't know how to fix it. Sam had punched him in the face and kicked him out of his house when he had told him what happened.

“Tell her the truth or don't ever talk to me again,” Sam had threatened his brother. With red eyes and a swollen cheek, Dean went into his office the next morning. He hoped that after the interview he would get a chance to apologise but you never showed up.

“Okay, Mr. Winchester, that was the last interviewee,” Jody poked in her head into the room. “That was the last? What about uh-Y/N L/N?” Dean asked.

“Uh-she dropped out - called us early in the morning to let us know she won't make it to the interview,” Jody smiled, “I need your decision fast.”

“Decision?” “Who we are hiring for the position of the PA,” she said.

“Sure. I'll let you know. You can go now Jody. Close the door on your way out,” Dean said.

He sighed as he dialed your number, “It's Y/N L/N. She can't get to her phone now. Please leave a message.”

“Y/N, sweetheart I'm sorry. You shouldn't have dropped out of the interview. I know you won't ever forgive me but I'm sorry.” You sniffled as you heard his voice message. He had left you exactly fifty-three texts, twenty three missed calls and seventeen voice messages - all had the same words, ‘I'm sorry’ but you couldn't forgive him.

“Stop listening to that asshat,” Ruby grumbled and snatched your phone from you. “I-I just can't understand why he did that? I thought he was my friend,” you sniffled.

“I'm sorry Y/N,” Ruby took a seat beside you and wrapped you in a comforter, “I brought ice cream with me. I heard they work wonders on a broken heart.”

“And you brought my favourite flavour. Thanks!” You hugged but were interrupted by the sound of your doorbell.

“Stay here. Let me check,” Ruby said and went towards the door. Opening it, she stared at a disheveled, sad Dean Winchester.

“Give me one good reason to not kick you out right now,” Ruby glared at Dean.

“I need to talk to her. Please,” Dean’s voice cracked at the end.

“No you won't. She is miserable and I won't let you break her even more,” Ruby challenged, “Now get out.”

“I don't care if I have to fight you but please let me see her,” he pleaded.

“You are one stubborn, lying piece of shit,” Ruby grumbled.

“Why are you here?” the two heads turned immediately towards you.

“I wasn't sure you wanted to see me but I had to see you,” Dean said.

“And why exactly?” Ruby snapped.

“Ruby. It's okay. Let him in. I need to hear him out.” Dean gave Ruby a side eye and let himself in.

“Y/N,” She started. “I'll be fine," you assured her.

“If you need me to kick him out or kick his ass, just call me,” she glared at Dean once more and left your apartment.

“She's scary,” the green-eyed man said. “Well she has to. She just saw her friend with a broken heart,” you threw him his words back.

“I can't tell you how sorry I am,” Dean said, his head hung in shame.

“Why?” He looked up at you, “I don't know,” he replied, making you scoff.

“You don't know? Well maybe because you actually thought of me to be clingy and the girl who doesn't take no for an answer,” you seethed, “and you even lied to Cas about me. You framed me as some whore who doesn't do relationships. Fuck you, Dean! You knew better than anyone how long it took me to get over Alistair. How could you do this to me?”

“I don't know,” he whispered, “It's just I lied to them because I didn't want them to be with you.”

“It's my life! I get to decide who I want to have sex with and who I want to date,” you hissed.

“Well I couldn't let you make those decisions because I didn't want you to choose them. I wanted you to choose me.” he blurted out. You sat there dumbfounded as you heard his confession, "What? Why?"

“Because...I love you,” Dean muttered.

“You love me?” “Yeah.”

“What are you, a kindergartener? Next thing I know you will be pulling my pigtails,” you sassed.

“I'm sorry. You know I'm bad with feelings-” “So you decided to lie?”

“Yeah.” “You're terrible, you know that,” you said.

“So I have heard,” he shrugged. “Come here you idiot,” you beckoned at him. He went towards you and sat down beside you.

“I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I was just-” “What? You were just fending off the boys?”

“Yeah. At first I was scared that I was falling for my best friend and you knew me, you knew all my horrible secrets, the thoughts that are inside my head which keep me up at night and I was scared that you wouldn't feel the same. I broke up with Lisa for you because whenever I closed my eyes at night I wanted it to be you with me, not Lisa.” You were stunned at his confession. Dean never talked about his feelings, he was extremely good at hiding his feelings so hearing him blurt out about how he felt, surprised you.

“Dean,” you said. “No. I need to say this,” he said, stopping you, “I don't know if you feel the same. Even if you did, I don't think I have a chance after the stunt I pulled yesterday. But sweetheart, you mean everything to me, I swear to never hurt you again. I was planning on asking you out after the party but Kevin had asked for your number so I told him all those lies about you but sweetheart I know what I did….said is unforgivable but please I need you. I need my best friend back.” He looked at you, locking his teary eyes with yours.

“I don't know whether to kiss you or hit you,” you said, wiping away the single tear that rolled down your cheek. “K-kiss me?” Dean’s eyes went wide.

“You are the most horrible person I have ever met. I hate you, Dean but I hate me more that I decided to fall for this horrible person that I call my best friend. Kiss me, before I change my mind,” you said and that's all Dean needed before he crashed his lips into yours. It was a harsh kiss but one filled with longing and love. His hands sneaked to the back of your head, his fingers entangled with your hair as your hands held on to his biceps.

“I'm sorry for hurting you,” he said after he let go of your lips. You sat there with his hands cupping your face, your foreheads touching. “Next time, talk to me,” you whispered.

“I will,” he kissed your forehead, “So Y/N L/N, can I take you out for dinner tomorrow night?” “Definitely Dean Winchester, but mind you I'm tough to impress,” you smirked.

“I have plans, special plans for a special girl. I will make you mine,” he said before he leaned in to capture your lips with his once again.