#I'm really hoping I get over feeling like every word is the absolute worst soon

[monvirtu]

hey, could u write kenny mccormick dating headcanons ? fem reader . tyy

𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐘

⋆ precis ~ what it's like dating kenny mccormick!

⋆ tags ~ profanity, mentions of smoke, drugs, teen!au, playful threats, and kenny being kenny.

⋆ notes ~ i hope you enjoy, and thank you for the request!

⋆        to nobody's surprise, kenny would be the biggest flirt during your relationship.

⋆        at first, you didn't understand how someone could be so flirty. where did he learn how to swoon you with just his words? it's how you both got together, after all—him flirting with you every second of the day.

⋆        but then you went over to his house, and the posters and magazines he had answered your question.

⋆        he threw them away as soon as you saw them and replaced them with photos you took of him and you.

⋆        but back to the point, kenny would be really good with his words. he knows exactly what to say to make you flustered, but the downside is that he often says it during the worst time.

"you know, you're stunning when you're pissed..." kenny spoke as you shot a scowl at him. "kenneth, you almost got yourself fucking killed!"

"the only thing that can kill me is your looks, sweetheart."

"i'm going to find the car that almost hit you and make them come back for a second try."

⋆        he would be very crafty when it comes to gifts.

⋆        since he doesn't have a lot of money, he has to find ways to make dates and gifts as good as possible.

⋆        because according to him, you deserve everything you've ever wanted.

⋆        you want to go to a fancy restaurant? he'll set up something like the movie 'lady and the tramp', and though it wouldn't be a fancy place, he makes it feel like you're in the fanciest restaurant in the world.

⋆        when it comes to gifts, they're often flowers he picked or stole from places—a little letter being attached in his messy handwriting. he tries to make it readable, but you still have to squint when it comes to certain letters.

⋆        this dude smokes a lot, by the way.

⋆        whether it be nicotine or weed, don't ask him how he got them, he smokes it. why? because why not? his parents used to smoke it all the time, so why shouldn't he?

⋆        he would smoke in front of you if you were okay with it, or he would even share if you wanted, but he has no problem smoking some other time if you were against it.

⋆        would he quit? he might try, but it wouldn't last awhile. at least he tried though, right?

⋆        he would introduce you to karen, in which she would absolutely love you.

⋆        she would literally drag you away from kenny when you both were supposed to be hanging out, but he doesn't care. he loves seeing his two favourite people getting along and laughing.

⋆        but he will pout about it just so you'll give him some affection later on.

⋆        he's a good cuddler, honestly. he would just smell like smoke all the time. but if you don't care, then cuddling him is heaven because he's like a heater with that jacket.

⋆         if it's cold out, which it usually is, he'll unzip his jacket and let you lay on his chest, and then zip it back of while holding you in his arms.

⋆        he'd be a sloppy kisser, though. not in a bad way, but he just likes to lazily kiss you unless you're just giving him a peck on the lips.

⋆        also, if you're insecure, you best believe that kenny won't allowed that.

⋆        you could be talking about a part of you that you dislike, and he'd just stare at you with narrowed eyes before standing up and kissing that area all over.

⋆        he's whipped for you, and because of that, he has no issue doing whatever it takes to make you see how stunning you are.

⋆        someone made a comment? bro's throwing hands like there's no tomorrow. you just dislike that part of your body? he's yelling sweet nothings until you make him shut up.

⋆        he'd talk about you all the time with his friends.

⋆        even if you're not a part of the topic.

"kenny, do you wanna go look at some xbox games?"

"only if my pookie can come."

"KENNY, TELL CARTMAN TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

"cartman, shut the fuck up, i'm talking to my pookie."

⋆        yes, he'd call you his pookie. he's all about those stupid nicknames.

⋆        pookie, honey boo-boo, schnookims, my silly willy little cutie, you name it. he'll make up anything just to hear you sigh at the stupid things he says.

⋆        but the things he says doesn't even compare to what he does.

⋆        you like superheroes? he'll dress up as mysterion.

⋆        you have a favourite flower? he always finds a way to get it to you every morning.

⋆        he once got caught stealing a flower from his neighbours yard one day, and he ran for his life.

⋆        speaking of his life, he tells you everything.

⋆        and when you talk about yours, he'll listen. he's actually a good listener.

⋆        also, when he speaks in a muffled voice because of his parka? he'll unzip it a bit and whisper in your ear to tease you during school.

⋆        he will literally mumble about how much he loves you and when someone comes over, he'll just zip up his jacket and start talking in that muffled voice again like he wasn't just expressing his devoted love to you.

⋆        conversations with him can go from 1 to 100 real quick, by the way.

"kenny?" you question, and he looks up from the sidewalk as you both continued to walk hand-in-hand. he gave you a slight nod to continue what you were wanting to say.

"how much do you love me?" he raised his free hand to unzip his jacket a bit, and he gave you a slight smile. "to the moon and back."

you smiled at him as you squeezed his hand, and suddenly, he smirked. "speaking of back, does my ass look fat today? i caught you staring earlier."

"KENNNY, NOBODY IS LOOKING AT YOUR ASS!"

"now, that's a lie. it's so fat that it takes up everyone's vision."

"i will shove you into oncoming traffic," your threat only made him snicker.

"my ass will act like an airbag."

⋆        aside from that, life's just like a comedy show with kenny.

©𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐔𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

writings are to not be reposted, translated, or plagiarized. if you wish to show your love for my work, feel free to reblog, comment, or like.

[softonshanks]

Can i request a Shanks x female reader in which she's the only female member on the crew and she's her period and everyone freaks out? I think it'd be hilarious thanks

Hey, thank you so much for your question. I really like this prompt, I tried to keep it funny as you asked, with a little bit of fluff. I hope you enjoy it (:

Characters: Shanks x female reader

Total word count: 1445 words

It was a sunny afternoon on the ship, but instead of enjoying the day on deck with the rest of the crew, Y/N was curled up in her hammock, clutching her stomach in pain. She had woken up that morning feeling awful, her abdomen cramping in a way she’d never experienced before. It didn’t take long for her to realize what was happening: her period was trying to kill her for good this time. Normally, it was just mild discomfort for her, but this time, it hit her like a tidal wave. The pain was sharp, radiating from her lower stomach down her legs, and it left her feeling nauseous and weak. The worst part? She had no idea how to deal with it on a ship full of men who had absolutely no idea what she was going through.

At first, she tried to tough it out. She didn’t want to make a fuss over something as natural as her period. She usually tried to keep it cool every month, and she always succeeded, but this time, by midday, she couldn’t take it anymore and retreated to her hammock with a groan.

Word spread quickly through the ship that Y/N was sick, and before long, a small group of panicked pirates had gathered outside her quarters. Benn Beckman was the first to peek in, his expression filled with concern.

"Hey, Y/N," Benn said cautiously, "uh, we heard you're not feeling well. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Y/N groaned, her face half-buried in a pillow. "It's just… cramps."

"Cramps?" Benn echoed, looking confused. “For what? Have you hurt yourself again trying to carry stuff way heavier than you?” he asked, worried.

"No, Benn,” she quietly laughed. “And I can handle heavy stuff,” she pointed out before placing her hand on her aching stomach again. “It’s just… girl stuff," she muttered.

That immediately sent Benn backtracking. "Oh! Oh, right, okay. Uh… anything we can do? Maybe… get you some water?"

Y/N chuckled weakly. "I think I'll survive, Benn. Thanks, though."

But Benn wasn't the only one concerned. Soon enough, several other crew members began showing up, each trying to be helpful in their own way—though none of them really knew what they were doing.

Yasopp walked in with a blanket. "You cold, Y/N? You need a blanket? I heard you're supposed to stay warm." She tried not to laugh while she told him, "Thanks, Yasopp, but I'm already warm enough."

Lucky Roo appeared with a tray of food. "Brought you something to eat. Maybe it'll help?"

Y/N glanced at the plate, her stomach turning just at the sight of food. "Thank you so much, Roo. I’ll just eat it later when I’m feeling better."

The men hovered around, trying their best to be supportive, but Y/N could see they were all clueless and a bit nervous. After all, they were used to facing sea monsters and enemy pirates—not a young woman dealing with period cramps. It was sweet, really, but she couldn’t help but laugh at how out of their depth they were.

Finally, Shanks appeared, a wide grin on his face as he shooed the others away. "Alright, alright, you bunch of goofs. Give the lady some space. We can't be crowding her like this,” he said, making Y/N burst into a loud laugh.

“As if you know what to do to make a lady feel better when she’s on her period,” commented Benn, taking a puff from his cigarette.

“Of course I do, I’ve had much more experience with the ladies than all of you,” the captain answered, laughing, while the rest of the crew started to make fun of him.

“Best thing to ease period cramps is to have sex,” he said seriously. Benn put his hand on his face, while Y/N, still in her hammock, threw her pillow at the captain.

“You wish it was, you pig,” she answered.

“Well, the Captain is actually right,” Hongo said, trying to regain his composure. “I mean, from a medical point of view, this is true.”

“SEE? Thank you,” Shanks said, throwing his hands in the air. “Anyway, there’s something that will work even better: laughing. So now all of you get out of here while I work my magic,” Shanks said, as the others slowly backed out of the room, murmuring well wishes before disappearing completely. “If he tries something on you, scream, we’ll come here and rescue you,” shouted Yasopp before closing the door.

Shanks approached her hammock and plopped down on a nearby chair, propping his feet up casually. Y/N, seeing the captain so close, pretended to scream, while he raised an eyebrow, shaking his head.

“That’s how you repay me? I’m here to make you feel better after all, I’m hurt,” he joked.

Y/N couldn’t help but crack a smile despite her discomfort. "Oh, really? You think you can make me laugh while I feel like I’m being stabbed repeatedly in the gut?"

Shanks winked. "Challenge accepted."

For the next hour, Shanks was in top form. He regaled her with stories of his adventures, mimicking the crew members’ quirks in exaggerated, goofy ways. He told her about the time he and Beckman had gotten lost on a small island while drunk and ended up at a fancy ball, pretending to be nobles. He even did silly impressions of Lucky Roo’s laugh and Yasopp’s serious face whenever he tried to shoot something, all while making absurd faces.

Y/N found herself laughing despite the pain, her body relaxing bit by bit with every joke Shanks threw her way. His carefree attitude and easy charm made her forget, even for a little while, how miserable she had felt.

Eventually, after another round of chuckles, Y/N sighed contentedly, her pain easing just a little. "Thanks, Shanks," she said softly, looking at him with gratitude. "You really helped me out today. You’re a really good captain, you know that?"

Shanks waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, I’m just a guy who doesn’t know how to leave someone alone when they’re in pain. But hey, I’m glad I could make you laugh."

Y/N took a deep breath, her smile faltering for just a moment. "It’s… It’s tough sometimes, you know? Being the only girl on a ship full of guys. You all are amazing, but there are moments where I feel a little out of place. Like when I get sick like this, or when I just want to talk to another woman…”

Shanks’ expression softened as he looked at her, his usual playful grin replaced by something more sincere. He reached out, placing a hand on her arm. "I get that, Y/N. And I’m sorry if we’ve a bunch of clumsy, noisy and confused man most of the time. But you belong here just as much as the rest of us. Hell, I’m happy you’re a girl because it means I have someone to stare at whenever I am in need of a pretty face.”

“Thought the only pretty face you loved staring at was Benn’s.”

“I know, right? His long black hair, his stare… the way the cigarette dangles from his lips,” he started seductively describing his first mate, causing Y/N once again to burst into laughter. He stopped, incapable of doing anything but listening to her delightful laugh.

“Yeah, Benn’s hot, but you’re lovely.”

There was a moment of silence as their playful banter shifted into something more serious. The tension between them, always present but never acknowledged, seemed to thicken the air around them. Y/N’s breath hitched as Shanks leaned in closer, his gaze locked onto hers.

"Can I kiss you?" Shanks whispered, his voice barely audible. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and closed the distance between them, his lips brushing against hers in a soft, tentative kiss. It was gentle at first, almost hesitant, as if testing the waters. But when he responded, kissing her back with equal warmth, the hesitation melted away, and the kiss deepened.

When they finally pulled apart, both of them were smiling, their foreheads resting against each other.

"That… was nice," Y/N said breathlessly, her cheeks flushed.

Shanks chuckled softly. "Yeah… it was."

They stayed like that for a moment, simply enjoying the warmth of each other’s presence, before Shanks finally pulled back and grinned at her. "So, do you think I’ll have to wait until your next period for another kiss like that?”

Y/N shook her head. “Of course not, but don’t ask my permission next time.”

She watched him leave, feeling an overwhelming sense of warmth and happiness despite the dull ache in her abdomen, trying to sleep as she started thinking again about their kiss and less aboout the pain.

[muntitled]

𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫

Ghostface!Anton x fem!Reader | Shotaro x fem!reader

Warnings: Language, College!AU, Ghostface!AU, Incel!behaviour, Violence, Body Insecurity, Stalking, Cheating Implied, Catholic Imagery, Smut +18 (Minors DNI), DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT, Dark fic, Inexperienced!Anton, Voyeur noism, Stalking, Masturbation, Cunnilingus, CNC, Dub/Con, Degradation Kink, Impact Play, Slight Bondage, Unprotected Sex, Mask Kink, Primal Play, Knife Kink, Blood Play, PIV, Mutual Virginity Loss

Reuploaded due to overcoming my writing insecurities. Read the warnings.

You had absolutely no excuse.

Instead of pouring your attention into the gorgeous man peppering hot kisses down the side of your mouth, your gaze is planted on the casement window over Shotaro's broad, ruddy shoulder. And while he assaults your skin with a rain of sloppy, inebriated kisses, you can't help but let your mind wander as you think: it always seemed particularly sexist, that the boys’ dorm rooms had such a vast and expansive view of the city whereas the girl's dormitory was smack bang in the city centre on the other side of the district.

Perhaps not the best thoughts to be having while your study partner (and the college plug) was desperately trying to assimilate some kind of foreplay. Tiny cars strung along the streets created arteries of the city, as if the entire grid was a sentient being. It had the power to take anyone's breath away, but, the loveable, oblivious airhead above you, was very comfortable in the knowledge that your shortness of breath was all because of him…

"Has anyone told you that you're literally so hot?” You had learned pretty early on in your collegiate career that anytime a man veneered his words with this much of a slur, the chances that he was being honest was incredibly slim.. But then again, since when has honesty really been a defining male characteristic?

“Thanks, you too.” You whispered back with your eyes still firmly locked on the window. If only the city could be your lover

“I actually didn't expect you to be this kind of girl.”

Every single thing this guy said made your lady boner grow so horribly flaccid by the second. If he didn't penetrate your hymen soon you might be in dire need of artificial lubrication (which your roommate assured you was the very worst thing that could happen.)

“You just always seemed like the type to keep her head down,” Shotaro presses a surprising kiss to the very centre of your swollen lips. Your sudden influx of excitement at the action, not only leaves you partially relieved, but his hands digging firmly into the sides of your jeans is enough to reassure you that perhaps you weren't a raging asexual as you might have initially thought (and hoped).

“It isn't a bad thing, baby…" He continues to whisper as his plump lips find a particularly sensitive area behind your ear.

This was getting good…

“Just the thought that behind all that corduroy,” A kiss, “And pretentiousness," Another kiss, “And those undeniable book smarts,” His hand is cold to the touch as it slips beneath your woolen sweater, digging into your hip and wrenching an undeniable gasp from the bottom of your thoat, “I didnt think there was a nasty little slut so desperate to get fucked.”

Shotaro pulls back to admire your panting frame locked between his haphazard sheets and his exposed upper body. The sight of his red rimmed, droopy eyes and lazy smile glowing in the city’s technicolour spilling in through the window released in you, excitement and overpowered by an immediate feeling of insecurity.

“I like discovering people's secrets,” Shotaro grins before picking up his discarded jointcand taking one, long, sweltering drag. He leans down and your lips almost give way automatically, until he's blowing the smoke right into your mouth.

A groan mixes with a giggle leaves his mouth, and Shotaro presses your foreheads together before straightening back up, “I'm so hard right now,” He shakes his head before making quick work of killing the lit blunt and discarding it, somewhere in this room.

Shotaro lifts your shirt slowly, revealing the string of colourful beads dotted around your waist.

“It’s cultural,” You begin to quickly say,

“And fucking hot.” He concludes with a carnivorous grin before attaching his lips to your lower abdomen.

The air is vacuumed cleanly out of your lungs as your fingers find Shotaro hair.

He undoes your buttons while you feel the sudden inexplicable need to keep a firm eye on the open doorway leading out to the shadowy hallway. You vaguely know of a roommate yet you have no idea why Shotaro decides to keep the door open. However, the intensity in the idea of being caught spurs you both on.

If only you knew that the threat was not so hypothetical.

If only you knew that the pair of eyes you think you see lurking in the darkness is not, in fact, a mirage birthed from your overcast, sex-filled brain, but it's real.

And he sees you. And he is so undeniably disappointed in you for letting your natural instincts fall prey to such an utter predator like Shotaro. If only you knew that he saw you, even when you were seated in the very back of your Literature class. Never raising your hand but always mumbling along to a quote by Mary Shelley or Henry James, while the professor awaited the correct response from the rest of the class. Anton had always seen you, in spite of your shyness not despite it. It is from your wit alone and that narrowed look in your eye that has him tugging on his dick faster, while Shotaro begins to eat you out with fervour.

Anton nearly mewls at the thought of it being him between your thighs, wrenching those excited moans out of your pretty little throat. That throat that he would long ago have had locked in his fist while his fingers stabbed your pussy repeatedly and his lips danced against your soft, swollen, overstimulated little clit,

“Oh-fuck-” Anton blanched as his cum spurted all over his hand still stroking frantically at his cock. His mind was flooded with all the unassuming images of you he had saved on a private folder in his phone. Images of you biting your pen in a particularly boring lecture. Images of one of your braids hanging out the side of your mouth as you jotted down whatever you jotted down with such animation on your laptop. Every single fun and crazy hairstyle you wore on campus, slinking into the background thinking no one noticed but of course he did.

Of course he did.

“Fuck-Fuck-Fuck-Fuck-” Ethan slapped a hand against his open mouth, ebbing away his hoarse and desperate whispers as he delved further into the shadows. His wet curls bounced as his back hit the wall.

Before he lost sight of you for whoever knows how long, Anton made sure to look at you one final time before slipping away, down the hall to his own room just as Shotaro turned his head around in apparent alarm.

“Did you hear that?”

You most certainly did hear that but for the purpose of achieving your first orgasm that was not self-inflicted you dumbly say, “Heard what?”

“It sounded like-'' Shotaro's sentence is cut short by a loud and oppressive Drake tune that cuts through the charged silence. In a matter of seconds the boy abandons your exposed vagina in search of his phone displaying a profile picture of a brunette. You were once again losing your lady boner at dramatic altitudes, especially as Shotaro began to pull a shirt over his head and fumble around the room for his shoes.

“Something really bad came up,” He says as he drops the phone and backs away towards the doorway “Could we reschedule?”

What else could you have said to that? 'Could you please penetrate my hymen first before jumping to your girlfriend’s beck and call?'

“Of course. That’s perfectly fine." Even though it most certainly was not fine and your heart is plummeting as you pull your pants up with a nagging voice in your head telling you that 'You couldn't even hold a man's attention when he was greeted with the promise of sex. How pathetic could you get? Really.'

"I don't know how comfortable I feel letting you walk the streets alone so late at night, though,” an intense discomfort comes over the boy. It looks unnatural. “Especially with all those…” Shotaro trails off and you roll your eyes before sliding off his bed.

“You can say murders," you reply.

While Shotaro stands in the centre of the room, rubbing aimlessly at the back of his neck, you can't help but feel your attraction wane with his apparent and unmistakable idiocy.

"And anyway, that's okay. I'm not exactly the target of any murderer's affections." Not even yours.

You begin to gather your things, dead set on the idea of hiding out in your dorm room for the foreseeable week until the weight of this rejection is lifted. "I'll be quick."

"No, please, I insist." He says, ushering you out into the hallway before jogging past you. You wait idly in the short corridor with your backpack slung lazily over one shoulder as you overhear Shotaro burdening you onto his roomate.

While you wait, your legs are restless as your feet shuffle underneath you. That would've been all well and good if you didn't lift your Converse to see a murky white smudge on the wooden floor. Your eyes squint to better make out the stain in such horrible lighting but you're bombarded by a new pair of footsteps and a retreating Shotaro who screams as he leaves, "I'd feel much better if Anton walked you home!"

"So Anton will walk you home." Says the quiet boy in third person. A small, almost shy smile flits across his face as the front door slams shut.

---

Awkwardness settles when you run the risk of what is very clearly two introverts being forced to bare each other's presence. You had been walking alongside Anton Lee for 2 blocks and not once has either of you chosen to thaw away at the silence with a refreshing joke or some sliver of lightheartedness. No…

Everything feels so particularly heavy.

"We could cut through the park," Your voice sounds foreign even to your own ears, "It's the quickest way to my building."

Anton only replies with a small imperceptible 'sure' as the trees grow more dense around you, and the near constant New York bustle begins to wane.

"I'm sorry, you had to do this," With the sound of the city centre slipping through the space around you, you're compelled to fill the silence somehow. "I'm sorry for putting you out of your way."

The very next thing to happen not only surprises you but it sets off an equally surprising spell of warmth in the pit of your stomach as Anton throws his dark haired head back in a flurry of warm-hearted chuckles.

You immediately find his smile dazzling. It's so wide and all encompassing. Big teeth, big nose and scrunched up, enjoyment-filled eyes.

"I think I might've killed Shotaro myself if he let another one of his 'study buddies' walk home alone." He looks down at you through the corner of his eye, without ever once turning his head.

Only then do you take note of the sheer size of him. You could've easily been walking down this path with one of these dense trees.

"Very surprising that so many people like him, actually." Despite waging a war with his instinctive need to feel shy and reserved Anton cannot help but feel his natural inhibitions melt when he finally has you so close beside him.

"Very surprising that you like him…"

"I don't think I like Shotaro." You begin, "Not really." You make sure to keep your gaze trained on your shoes as you shuffle down the stoney path. Around you, midnight joggers, and crazy men high on various substances wander the park like forgotten apparitions.

"Yeah, Taro doesn't seem like someone you should hangout with." You raise a questioning eyebrow up at him.

Anton backtracks and fights to string along a functioning sentence, "Uh… I-Um-just mean, from what I gathered in our shared classes together-well, you're really smart! And Taro is…"

“-A mass of brainless brawn with zero wit and zero social skills outside of getting high and fucking?" You conclude for him, only earning another laugh from Anton that has your stomach warming once again.

“Remind me why you were about to have sex with him?" Anton fought hard to stuff down his vexation as the words left his mouth but to no avail. "I know what goes on when Shotaro brings people over to ‘study’."

You notice the vehemence with which he utters those words but you choose to not respond to it.

“Well I'm catholic," You begin, as you both cut through the trees, "And as much I pray to the Holy Mother, as much as I love and respect her, I have no interest in ending up like her

“Immaculate and deified?"

“A virgin.” You are unaware that your reply has Anton's gaze snapping towards you. Silence once again grows pregnant between the two of you as you walk. You begin to regret being so candid with a complete stranger.

"Ugh- I shouldn't have said that-"

"Hey, do you wanna play tag at all?" You're caught off guard by his sudden proposal, but he makes no move in explaining further as he continues to walk coolly, his graphic shirt flapping in the wake of a gust of warm summer wind.

"What?"

"What if you ran," He shrugs, "And I tried to find you?” You can only look up at him with a questioning smile before he shakes his head furiously,

“Or not," He murmurs, his hands curling by his sides. "It's just, cardiovascular exercise might help improve your mood right now. You could run and I'd try to catch you and maybe it might help you forget but that's so stupid and I'm sorry-"

But you've already begun backing up. The park is filled with your happy giggles as you push the boy to the ground yelling "YOU'RE IT!" Before breaking off into the darkness collected amongst the trees. Your feet are set alight with motion, and your blood charges with newfound energy rolling through your arteries. This truly is the most alive you've felt in a really long time and you're quite embarrassed you hadn't thought of running by yourself.

You throw your head back, welcoming a gust of wind into your lungs. The skyscrapers peeking up from between the trees are quiet spectators.

Your eyes have begun to adjust to the darkness just as the very first spell of tiredness wash over you but you charge on, filled by excitement and that innate childhood need to 'never get caught'.

"I'm gonna get you," a voice murmurs from between the trees, only spurring you further into the darkness. Your once airy, carefree laughs have grown into tired pants as you feel the weight of your backpack on your shoulder and the first strains in your thighs. Your hair whips around you like the wayward petals of dandelions as you split through a grassy clearing.

You decide to take your break with your hands locked on your knees as you frantically survey the space around you. All appears calm but the inclination that this boy is much faster than you, has you beginning your sprint again.

"Fucking, fuck exercise!" You're panting heavily now and your gait has slowed down significantly however, you're surprised that the tiredness is not the only feeling coursing through your body right now but…

"You're gonna have to do better than that." You hear this from an unidentifiable location around you. Like a madman, you begin to grow utterly unsure of what you just released.

Complete and unadulterated fear.

"H-Hey, Anton!? I don't wanna play-" You place a hand on your heart, "I don't wanna play anymo-"

But a flash of black has already attacked you from the side, tackling you into the ground and leaving you completely winded. You try to wrestle him off of you but his knees lock on the ground as he straddles you. Your movements stop when you gaze up at Anton - or what you really hoped was Anton.

"Where'd you find time to change?" You ask, bring your hand up in an attempt to paw the Ghostface mask on his hidden visage.

You're wriggling and writhing underneath him but he doesn't move. His weight is practically as concrete as that of a cinder block on top of you, and there is virtually no way you're fighting him off. It takes all of 60 seconds of futile struggling to realise something was utterly wrong.

"Fuck-" The panic expands in your lower belly, floodinb your insides with fear until it inflages and pours out of your mouth.

"HELP!" You cry, "SOMEBODY! PLEASE FUCKING HELP ME- PLEASE-PLEASE FUCKING HELP ME!" You begin to cry real tears as you whip your head to the side in search of park wanderers only to find absolutely no one. The man above you quickly secures his hand over your mouth, collecting your rolling tears.

"Fuck yes…" You can hear his whispers through the mask as he lowers his head until his face is close to yours. You're quick in turning your head away from this monster on top of you but his hand on your wrist only snaps up to plug your nose shut.

Anton has your mouth and your nose covered in a horrible display of strength and danger. Your arms flail wildly around you and you're pretty sure you remember thinking the very frightening, very concrete thought that this is the moment your soul leaves this world.

But death does not open her arms to you, instead, you're furiously gasping in the fresh air that he allows you to have.

"Now I'm going to tell you one more time that yelling is allowed, baby. It's actually preferred, but, just not too loud okay?" You're nodding frantically once Anton uncovers a jagged blade from beneath the black robe. It cuts a menacing glint through the moonlight and you're only able to whine as the blade is aimed at your jugular while Anton's other hand lowers to explore the vastness of your clothed body.

"Youre gonna play my helpless victim alright-oh fuck, you're so pretty, you know that?." It's all so incredibly muffled from beneath the mask but the urgency in his tone has your legs squeezing together underneath him and your eyes squeezing shut in stark embarrassment of your actions. How absolutely sick of you to feel turned on in this very moment? Potentially more turned on then you might have been with Shotaro, in fact.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. I'll take care of you," the blade taps lightly at the side of your face, urging your wet eyes open only to reveal a blurry distorted image of the Ghostface above. "I'm honoured to be your first, okay?" You're only able to wail helplessly into his gloves as his other hand undoes the buttons of your cargo pants.

Anton rips your pants off like a madman, failing to hide his urgency or his jittery, maniacal movements. He doesn't even have your pants down all the way before his hand is buried in your cunt.

"I've watched enough porn to know I'm supposed to get you ready. And while raping you may be what this looks like I have no intention of leaving you unsatisfied." He words are slurred as you feel his gloved fingers enter your soaked vagina.

"You're already wet?" He remarks in complete disbelief as he uncovers his hand from the confines of your ruined panties. The Ghostface mask is lifted and discarded somewhere behind him only to reveal a painting boy with wild curls and wide eyes. He gazes at the arousal in awe, raising it up into the moonlight as he moves his fingers around it. Your breath shudders as Anton instinctively places those fingers directly in his mouth. He moans around them, before gazing down at your glistening cunt.

"I need you." He begins to plead as his voice cracks and his eyebrows curve inwards, "Please, I need you so bad." The knife is momentarily released from your throat as he sits back on his haunches. Anton rips his gloves off with his teeth before eagerly delving underneath his own robes to shove his hands down his sweatpants. You watch dazed as he jerks off above you, never once stopping his helpless cries. Cries that make the ache between your legs grow hotter and heavier, and your breathing once again picks up as you gaze up at him.

"A-Anton?" Your own voice cracks in the wake of not only your arousal but by the way you were crying your lungs out just a second ago.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"Please fuck me." He does not waste even a second more before he's shuffling off of you. Another yelp eases out of your throat as Anton pulls your hips towards his in a surprising display of strength before wrenching your legs apart. Without removing your panties any further Anton frantically uncovers his dick from inside his sweatpants. He mewls over and over again as he clenches the materials of his robe in his teeth before pistoning his cock through the folds of your virgin cunt.

You scream ruggedly into the air, exposing your throat to him as your back arches and your pussy cries out in pain. His cock rams unapologetically into your cunt as he lowers his head to your neck. He is crying, you begin to note as he fucks you relentlessly. He's fucking crying and its turning you on.

"Fuck, you're so fucking beautiful." He coos in your ear, only causing another wave of arousal to lubricate your pussy. "You're so fucking pretty and I promise I'd do anything for you. I'd do anything for this. To feel your pussy around my cock like this. I'd fucking kill someone for it-"

"My fucking God, Anton!" Your throat is hoarse from all your gasping and the immense pain is yet to subside but his words bring you a pleasure you've never ever felt. A pleasure you've never been able to feel on your own.

You pull him down into a sudden kiss which he melts into, his hips rutting into yours as if his cock can't get enough of the friction. Your own pain subsides, as you lift your hips to meet his shallow strokes and you're quickly approaching euphoria. This, you realise, is the feeling you've been missing. Rubbing your cunt underneath your covers in the dead of night brought momentary pleasure but there has always been a need for more.

"I need to cum inside you, okay?" You can't say no, not when he's taken to wrapping his fist around your throat and spearing your cunt with his cock as if his very will to live depended on fucking you senseless.

"Fucking slut- tell me to cum inside you!" And then his grip loosens and he's frantically slapping at your cheeks, "Please baby. Please, my pretty, pretty girl." It's utterly deranged, his moods lifting and falling and morphing and changing. It only brings you further to the edge to be so uttericaly unsure around him. Whether he's gonna hurt you or love you.

"Please cum inside me. Oh fuck, please cum inside me!"

Anton's mouth hangs open as his thrusts become irregular. His body shakes from above you just as your insides are flooded with his warm cum. The fullness of it, has you placing a hand on your clit as you're cumming loudly around his cock, milking it for everything it's worth.

"FUCK-" You scream, completely overcome with mutlplie waves of euphoria as you stare up at him above you.

Your hooded eyes looked up at him like your personal god. Nothing feels better than what he has given you, nothing could be better than this. Anton gazes down at you with the very same reverence. His perfect little slut cumming so beautifully around his cock. It's better than he could've ever imagined.

"I wanna stay inside you forever." He whispers breathlessly before pushing a slobbering kiss to your mouth, a kiss you warmly return. "Me too." Is all you can reply.

"Was I supposed to rub your clit? I'm sorry." He says, noticing your hand has found your wet mound while his cock is still buried inside you.

He pushes your hand away to some slick off your clit causing you to face another wave of shivers.

A trail of blood runs down his fingers and he stares intently at it and then at you before he eases his cock out of your cunt and bends down to place a delicate kiss on your mound. His plump lips are painted red, your red.

"We're a team now, okay? A family."

[onlyjaeyun]

𝐇𝐘𝐏𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐘

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄: 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐲

࿏ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐒𝐢𝐦 𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐲𝐮𝐧 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

࿏ 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭!𝐀𝐔 (𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫), 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐬/𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬!𝐀𝐔, 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞!𝐀𝐔; 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭, 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟, (𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞) 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭

࿏ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1.5k

࿏ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬: 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐲𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫...

← 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 — 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 — 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 →

Once you get your manager's okay, you quickly retreat to the back of the shop to get yourself changed and sneak out of the back door in hopes of the oldest Sim brother not even noticing your absence.

For a moment you feel your heart pounding in your throat from how anxious and nervous you are; the thought of having to face the man who you've been warned about definitely playing with your nerves and you can't help but imagine the worst.

You definitely regret only telling Heeseung about it, yet you're still convinced keeping it from Jaeyun for now is the best way to go with it. He's been dealing with this for the past two weeks and has finally felt calm enough to spend some time outside of his apartment, you definitely aren't going to ruin this for him.

Of course you thought about the possibility of his brother following you, yet you still hope he just drops it and leaves once you're on your way.

However, destiny doesn't really tend to be on your side in cases like this, which is why the first person you run into as soon as you walk through the back door happens to be none other than Sim Chan.

"Hello", he calmly begins and intentionally ignores your loud gasp and facial expression of surprise and shock.

Your first instinct is to just keep walking.

You don't know him, you don't owe him anything, not even the words of a greeting.

Yet, you seem to underestimate his persistence.

"Please, just a single minute", Chan suddenly says and takes off his baseball hat, reveals dark blonde hair and turns into the reason you start noticing the family resemblance to the other Sim boys.

The big, round eyes full of emotion, his slightly bigger yet straight nose and every single one of his sharp features.

You gulp harshly as the guilt takes over you, yet for some reason you can't seem to make yourself go away.

And as all those stories, the ones Jake, Sunoo and Heeseung have told you about him, the heartbreak the older brother has made his younger one go through and all the resentment in the young parent's voice whenever he talked about him comes to your mind, you take a deep breath and straighten yourself.

"Look", you sigh and run a hand through your hair, your phone vibrating in your pocket as you try your best to maintain the eye contact, "talking to you and hearing you out is not my place, in absolutely no universe. Please, don't bring me into this. Jae and Yunie mean a lot to me, I can't risk losing them."

Your words are honest and genuine, and from the way Chan starts nodding in defeat, you can tell he's actually understood just how serious you are about this.

"Yeah, that's what I thought", he replies calmly and lets out a deep sigh.

"Please, leave them alone", you whisper and try to swallow the knot in your throat at the images of a heartbroken Jake filling your mind and despite the sudden rage rushing through your body, you remain as calm as possible.

"Or at least give them time. Jaeyun hasn't healed from your betrayal yet because he hasn't had the time to actually cope with it. All these years he had to be strong and calm for Seyun , so please", you take a step back and let your eyes meet his for one last time.

"I'm sorry for following you like this", Chan mumbles and takes a deep breath, "I guess I really am desperate. This won't happen again and please don't tell Jakey about this."

"That's not going to happen", you reply quickly, the mere thought of betraying the man you've been losing your heart to sending chills down your arms, "I'm going to tell him about this because I actually owe him a lot more than I do you. Have a good day."

You don't wait for his response before you quickly make your way to the other side of the street and jump into the next taxi despite your destination only being a ten minute walk away.

As soon as you come to sit down and tell the driver where to go, you let out a loud sigh and reach for your phone, your heart skipping a beat as soon as you see Jake's name on your display.

Just as you're about to call him back, your phone starts ringing again and at the sight of the two Sim brothers on your phone, you can't help but feel your breath hitch in your throat from the actual adrenaline rush you just went through.

"Hey", you say and try to calm down the rapid beating of your heart to hide the nervousness from the young parent, knowing he'll catch up on your shift in emotional state rather quickly.

"Hey, pretty girl", Jake replies and you can literally hear the smile on his face, his voice almost instantly putting your soul at ease and you can't help but sigh again.

"I'm on my way to you guys!" You try your very best to sound as enthusiastic as you are but a million thoughts are rushing through your mind and you've never struggled to distract yourself from them as much ss in that particular moment.

"We know", Jaeyun chuckles and fills your chest with warmth, "and we're really excited. But why didn't you wait for us? You worked so hard today, didn't want you to make things even more exhausting for you."

His gentle and thoughtful choice of words makes you push your lips into a pout and the urge to just fall asleep in his arms slowly becomes absolutely unbearable.

"It's okay, my manager let me go a little earlier and this shift wasn't as bad as usual", you explain and start looking around for the group of boys as soon as the car starts driving along the beginning of the park, "and I took a taxi so no walking for me."

"Oh? Is that you then! At your left!" His sudden exclaim of excitement fills your ears and with wide eyes you try to follow his directions and just as expected you quickly spot a smiley Jaeyun making his way to you.

You start chuckling and tell the taxi driver to stop before you hand him the money and get out of the car once you've said your goodbyes and thank yous.

You start waving at the boys behind Jake's figure, your excitement growing as soon as your eyes fall to the tiniest of them and finally you feel yourself letting go of what happened just a few minutes prior.

However, it's probably also because of the way Jaeyun is quick to reach for your hand and pull you into a tight hug, his strong arms embracing your body almost instantly and the feeling of absolute security surrounds you just as fast.

You don't say anything as you bury your face in his neck snd return the tight hug, holding onto him a little longer and quickly stopping him from letting you go.

"Is everything okay, pretty girl?", Jake says and you hear the worry wavering in his voice, overshadowing the excitement easily.

You just nod and don't feel bad or ashamed for taking your time with the hug because it's exactly what you need and as if Jaeyun knew, he just sighs and gently caresses your back with his big hands.

After what feels like an eternity you pull away and look at him with soft eyes, his naturally excited gaze roaming your face attentively and before Jake gets the actual chance to analyse your facial expressions, you take his face into your hands and pull him into a gentle yet passionate kiss.

Despite his intial shock, Jake quickly reciprocates and pulls you even closer to his body, eliciting a soft gasp from your throat and you love how you can actually feel his cool skin slowly heating up underneath your fingertips.

You lose yourself in the feeling of his lips meeting yours, the way he sighs and even grunts into your mouth as well as his taste slowly coating your tongue and yet again leaving you completely lightheaded.

Jake lets out another loud sigh before he pulls away and lets his lips find your forehead, mostly to hide his flushed cheeks but also because he has to calm himself down.

"Wow", he chuckles and looks at you with slightly hooded eyes, nervously pulling his bottom lip between his teeth and kissing your forehead again before he comes to stand next to you.

"You're going to drive me crazy." His words make you laugh, which instantly dies down as soon as you're met with the sight of all five boys standing in a line just staring at the two of you with wide eyes, except for Yunie.

Little guy's just excited to finally spend some time with you after staying at his gran's most of the week to be with his cousins and you're more than just grateful when he starts running towards you.

"Hey, handsome!" You laugh and get on your knees with widened arms to quickly pull him into a tight hug.

"If anyone makes a comment I will shave your eyebrows off and wax your leg hairs when you're asleep", you press through gritted teeth to make it sound like you're joking, yet from the way you're actually glaring at them, the boys know to keep quiet. At least for now.

"Do you wanna play soccer with us, Noona? You can be on my and Jay Hyung's team!"

And who are you to deny a request as sweet as this one, so all you do is nod and take your bag off to place it on the little blanket the boys had brought along before you finally let your gaze shift to the older brother, who's still busy getting over what just happened.

"Let's go, losers", you say and make a run for the ball, your words finally gain the attention of them all and before any of them can even crack another shit eating grin, you and Seyun run towards the goal and unofficially start the next round.

Taglist: @writingmochi @raikea10 @moonlighthoon @ajayke-reads @bldelaine @rikisly @enhaz1 @ineedsomezzz @ikeu4life @theskzvibe @kpoprhia @jayzdaze @a-l-i-y-a @catnoirsbitch05 @thekinkpopstandsforkrackheads @end0rchans @ddazed-lhs @sunflowerbebe07 @heeverseblog @voidbeomgyu @heerinnie @vanillabeanwaffle @mimikittysblog @l0vee-l3tters @teawithbucky @fluerz @spilled-coffee-cup @3amstarlight @jungwon-xo @smg-valeria @elicheel @bobariki @beomgyusonlywife @sumarchived @aeminju @sprngfeverr @tya0

(No addition to the taglist without a visible indication of age on your blog!)

[stylesparker]

second chance (at love)

PAIRING: Sam Winchester x Fem!Reader

WORD COUNT: 5.7k

WARNINGS: season 2 era, character death, a lot of dialogue (sorry), horribly written fight scenes, overused tropes (but I don't care), and of course the usual mixture of fluff and angst

A/N: I finally got around to finishing this request, and I'm so sorry I took absolutely forever with this. I hope you like the way this turned out! I had so much fun writing it. Reblog if you like as always :)

"It's okay, Sammy, it's okay."

Those words cycle through his head over and over again, plaguing him as he stares at you; unmoving, lifeless. Every time he closes his eyes he sees the knife impale your stomach, the blood that seeps through the fabric of your shirt, and worst of all, the life draining out of your eyes as you clutch onto him in your last moments.

You've been dead for seven minutes.

"Well isn't this something."

Sam snaps his head to the woman that appears out of thin air. Her hair is dark red, long and silky, and she's dressed in black jeans and a black leather jacket. Her smile is sickeningly sweet.

"Poor Winchester, lost the girl, huh?"

"Who the hell are you?" Sam's voice comes out gruff and harsh, his glare menacing even to the demon. Her smirk gets wider when Sam grips you tighter and pulls you closer to his chest.

"Does it matter? I'm here to help." She blinks, letting her eyes turn to their natural state, that dreadful black signifying her as one thing.

Sam scoffs, "Right, 'cause all you have are good intentions."

She shrugs, "I'm here to make a deal. You gonna take it or not?"

Sam knew this wasn't right. He knew he promised you if anything happened, he'd live the life you thought he deserved. But, you didn't know what it was like to have to watch the person you love die, and know that person wasn't coming back. He stares, and stares, until finally he agrees.

"What do I have to do?"

DAY 1

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Sam asks you for the tenth time, watching you pull on your boots with a wince. He stands in front of you from where you're seated on the motel bed.

"Sam, I am fine, you don't need to hover over me like I'm some wounded animal that's gonna collapse out of nowhere!"

"Well you are kind of a wounded animal at the moment-"

"Sam."

He sighs, "I'm just making sure. Can you blame me?"

You release a sigh of your own, standing up from your spot (not without Sam extending his arm to help), and rest your hands on his shoulders. "I know, I'm sorry. But really, I'm fine. It was a close one, but I'm still here aren't I?"

Sam looks at you gravely, eyes gliding over your features like he's taking you in. He opens his mouth like he's about to say something, but closes it quickly. After a moment, he nods, and gives you a soft smile. "Yeah," he swiftly lands a gentle kiss on your forehead and takes your bag before you can grab it yourself, "I'll take our stuff out to the car, meet me out there when you're ready."

You sway on your feet, looking at Sam weirdly as he makes his way out the door. You wonder why he took so long to answer you, but you push the thought away when you realize that you almost died, so of course Sam's gonna have a hard time dealing with it.

You follow him outside with a new pep in your step, determined to make Sam feel better. As soon as he shuts the trunk, you settle into the car together, and you wait for Sam to pull out and drive off. Instead, he pulls out one of Dean's CD's and pops it in, while you look at him curiously, intrigued to find out what he chose.

Once the music starts, you smile and stare at him incredulously. "Really? Since when have you wanted to listen to Metallica?"

He shrugs with a small smile, "I don't know, just in the mood."

You laugh, "Who are you, and what have you done with Sam?"

"Shut up," He rolls his eyes but that small smirk remains on his lips. "Can't you let me be nice?"

"Dean, is that you?"

"Stop it!" He playfully slaps your arm just before he puts the car in reverse and takes off down the road. Listening to your laugh again is music to his ears, and he can't help looking at you as you bob your head to the music, not paying attention to him whatsoever.

He doesn't know how he's going to pull off this deal, but he's going to do everything in his power to bring you back.

Even if you hate him after.

DAY 2

"How do you have no rooms available? There are like no cars outside!" You angrily shout at the teenager who's working the front desk at some shitty motel you and Sam found off the road. The kid shrugs, which angers you even more, so you huff and slam the door on your way out, stomping up to the Impala with a confused looking Sam watching you.

As soon as you swing the door open he asks you, "What's wrong?"

"There's a damn kid in there telling me there are no rooms left! I swear to god, and he barely even looked at me!" You plop down on the seat, rubbing your eyes a tad harsher than Sam thinks you should, and look at him sadly. "I was really hoping we didn't have to sleep in the car tonight."

He rubs your arm in hopes of cheering you up, and says quietly, "Well, at least it's not cold out like the last time we had to sleep in the car?"

You shiver at the thought, "Oh my god, my toes were actually blue the next morning."

He smiles, "Exactly, so let's find a spot and rest for the night, yeah?"

You nod, but you still pout sadly in your seat as he drives. "I should be making you feel better, you haven't had a wink of sleep since like, what was it? Tuesday?"

"I think Monday."

"Sam, it's Thursday! You didn't sleep Tuesday morning?"

"No." He shrugs like it doesn't matter.

"What were you doing while I was sleeping then?"

"Watching over you."

You didn't know what to say after that. You don't know how you'd forgotten, but Sam clearly hadn't. Now you feel bad.

"Oh." You gulp. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize. I just, I don't know, wanted to make sure you would be okay."

His words make your heart skip a beat, and you can't help but lean over and grab his hand. His eyes dart to the sudden touch on his hand, and he glances over to you. You're looking at him so fondly, and he wishes he could just tell you. Get it over with.

But he can't.

So he lets you hold his hand in silence.

He drives for another 15 minutes until he finds a trailer park with almost no trailers, so he figures this will be a good enough spot for the night. He doubts anyone will show up here at least until the morning, so he takes the risk. He's so tired he doesn't even really care.

Sam opens the door on the driver's side to get out, walking to the trunk to grab the few blankets that you guys have, and comes back with one.

"What, no blanket for me?" You joke.

He throws it to you with a blank stare, almost like he's saying really?

"That is for you, jerk."

"Where's yours?"

"That's the only one we have."

Your mouth drops with surprise, "What? I could've sworn we at least had two?"

"We must have left the other one with Dean." He shrugs. "It's fine, I'm not that cold."

"Sam-"

His eyes pin you down with a hard stare, interrupting what you were about to say, so you give up, but not without a mumbled, "fine, jeez."

While you curl up against the door on your side with half of your blanket under your head, and the other half over your body, you look at Sam out of the corner of your eye with sympathy. He's a lanky guy, maybe not so thin since he's got the muscle, but the dude has long ass legs. The upper half of his body is leaning against the car door like yours, but his legs are uncomfortably folded so he doesn't get into your space. You hear him huff and shuffle around, which makes you wince and feel even worse than you did. You're not even close to comfortable so you can imagine how he feels.

For almost half an hour, you both listen to the other shift around without saying anything, and it gets to the point Sam can't handle it anymore. Until he gets an idea.

"Y/N?" He doesn't have to ask if you're awake because you're both well aware neither of you have slept.

"Yeah, Sammy?"

You peek your eyes open, and his arms are still crossed, but he shifts so his front is facing you.

"Would you wanna... lay together?"

He looks nervous, so you joke with him to hopefully ease him. "What, you too cramped over there?"

He scoffs, "A bit, yeah."

You giggle, sitting up and scooching closer to him, "Okay. Stretch your legs."

He extends his legs out across the seat, and opens his arms to invite you in. Now you're the nervous one as you shift even closer and lay your head on his chest, laying on top of him almost completely flat. You don't want to admit how much more comfortable this is. You fix the blanket so it's over the both of you, and he wraps his arms around your waist, holding you more lightly than you thought he would. Or maybe hoped.

"Better?" You asked.

He nods, his chin lightly grazing your head, "Much."

Your back is to his chest with his arms resting over your stomach, and you're glad he can't really see your face because you can only imagine how bad you're blushing right now. You shift in his hold again, which has him looking down at you and squeezing your hip.

"You okay?" He asks.

"Mmhm." You nod quickly. You really want to turn over, but... that's weird right? That would be too close? This already seems intimate enough, and he can probably tell how awkward you're already being. You hope he doesn't think it's because you like him- no, because you cannot like Sam. Your best friend of nine years is off limits. You've been in the same bed before, you've even cuddled before, but you were kids then. It's different when you're 23 right? You haven't really thought about Sam like that before, but, you guess it's bound to happen because, well, Sam is Sam. You know it shouldn't be weird, not at all, but you're both adults who know about certain adult things that take place when adults are alone and comfortable with each other and-

"Y/N?"

Shit. "Yeah?" You try not to sound squeaky.

"What's up?"

"Um," you steady yourself, "can I turn over? I just- I feel a little awkward staring at the ceiling."

He laughs a little, "Yeah, of course. Is that what you were thinking about?"

"...Yeah?"

"Why does that sound like a question?" You can almost hear his smile.

"It's not." You assure.

He lifts his arms so you can turn over, and you do with a little bit of struggle, trying not to elbow him too much, but he gets hit with no complaint. Once your cheek is pressed to his chest you breathe a sigh of relief, and try not to think about how he stiffened then relaxed when you wrapped your arms around his abdomen.

"Better?" He asks.

"Much." You copy him from earlier, and his chest shakes with his laughter. You don't speak after that, but you relish the moment with him, despite feeling unnecessarily guilty for it. After a while, you fall asleep, and Sam does too.

He hopes you were thinking about him, and you wish that you weren't. He wishes you would say you love him, but you hope that he never finds out.

DAY 3

The next morning wasn't weird like you thought it would be. It was almost like you had done this a million times before. But, you had a case today, so there was no time to think about Sam. Only your job.

You spent most of the day driving around the town trying to find answers to three consecutive murders. All women, and an obvious lead to werewolves. You never really thought about how well you worked with Sam until now; all day you bounced ideas off of each other, gaining clues and offering suggestions like it was easy. It was, you guess, when your partner is so damn likable. Once you found the location, you and Sam were quick to head out the door and track down those werewolves.

They were about 20 minutes out from where you guys had been located, and when you spotted them in the cabin shortly off the road in the woods, you both agreed this would be a stealth mission.

Sam shut off the car and quietly shut the door shortly after you, and you both go to the back to grab your weapons and whatever else you'd need. He points to himself and then the cabin, and you roll your eyes at the man, allowing him to go first and lead you there. His long legs are hard to keep up with but you make do as quietly as you can, and every so often he'll stop and put a hand out to stop you. It tends to hover over your stomach so you have to try harder not to be too loud when you breathe.

A loud bang and shouts erupt from the cabin, interrupting the silence that filled the air, and you both take off in that direction. Sam kicks the door in, allowing you to take notice of the girl tied to a chair in the middle of the room, and two men facing off against each other; one on the floor and the other hovering over him. You and Sam don't even look at each other, as soon as the two of you make eye contact with the two of them, it's on. Sam goes for the one standing, immediately charging at him and toppling the both of them over while you go for the one on the ground. He's up quicker than you would have wished but you still throw your knife in time to where his shirt gets pinned to the floor.

While he's distracted trying to pull it out, you land on top of him and stab your extra through his chest, twisting it until he's too weak to throw you off of him. You don't hear anything behind you, so you let off of him a second too soon, and while you're looking for Sam the werewolf grabs the knife and slices your shoulder with it. You scream in pain, and get torn off of him from the other one. You hit the ground next to him hard on your bad shoulder, and you kick his leg out from under him, sending him to the floor.

Sam appears behind him with a nasty looking cut on his forehead, and his shirt torn to pieces, but he's able to kill him before he gets to you. The other one grabs Sam's leg, knocking him to the floor, allowing him to get the upper hand and attack him. Before he lands the final blow, you grab the shotgun and shoot him in the head, and watch as Sam topples over shoving him off. As much as you want to worry about him, you run to the girl first.

She's sobbing as you cut off the rope that was tying her hands and feet to the chair, and you let her fall into your embrace as she uses you for comfort, rubbing her back and whispering reassurances that you hope is making her feel better. You feel Sam's hand grab your shoulder and you look up at him, finding a troublesome look on his face.

"There's more out front. Get her out of here, I'll distract them."

"What? Sam, you're coming with us!"

"There's at least three of them on their way in here-" He starts.

"And you'll shoot them! Grab the gun and let's go!" You shout angrily, which has him furrowing his brows at you but he grabs the gun anyway and covers you as you carry the girl. You only make it halfway to the car before the other werewolves have found you, and Sam's only able to take out one of them before one is on him. The gun gets knocked out of his hand, and this is when you realize you'd left the other one in the cabin.

"Shit." You mutter.

"No, no, no, no-" the girl starts crying and freaking out again and you shush her, stupidly running in the opposite direction to try and outrun the werewolf. Again, stupidly. You're not as fast as a werewolf, especially with a girl who's about the same size as you in your arms, so he's able to catch up to you no problem.

He throws you both to the ground before he's pinning both of your hands in his tight grip and holding his body weight above you, forcing your hands together to hold them in one hand, and using the other to choke you. You hear the girl crying and you're pretty sure she's running away from the sounds of the leaves and dirt crunching beneath her feet.

You struggle to kick him off of you, he's much bigger than you are, so you hopelessly kick and scream as much as you can, only hoping Sam gets to you in time.

Just as you think he won't make it and you're losing consciousness, his hands leave your neck and suddenly you're gasping for air. You can sort of make out Sam and the werewolf fighting, but your vision is blurry so you can't tell who's on top of the other. Your breathing is harsh and you can hardly see, so when hands grab your shoulders and tug you upwards, you scream and swat at him, not realizing that it's Sam.

"Hey, hey! It's me, it's Sam!" He rubs the dirt off your face with one hand holding the part between your good shoulder and your neck so you don't fall over as you cough yourself into a fit.

"Sam," you rasp, and grab onto his arms tightly as you finally start to catch your breath again. You don't mean for the tears to fall out of your eyes, but you did almost get choked to death and your neck and shoulder hurt like a bitch, so it was bound to happen.

"W-Where's the girl?" Your voice comes out scratchy, but Sam just holds you and looks around while you lean against him.

"I saw her run for it, I don't know where though. It looked like she went towards the road, but it's too dark out for us to go after her like this. Let's just hope someone nice picked her up."

You nod, coughing into his shoulder, and his large hand rubs your back as you start to breathe normally again.

"Are you okay? I thought you-"

"I'm good," he reassures, "let's focus on getting you out of here."

Your shoulder is pretty bad, but his head is smeared with dirt and blood, and the cut on his forehead looks even bigger than when you first saw it.

"But," you cough, "Your head-"

"I'm the one who can stand on their own two feet at the moment, so would you just let me help you up?" You roll your eyes, but you let him carry you to the car anyway.

DAY 4

It's way past midnight, and you're pretty sure you and Sam scared the living daylights out of the front desk girl at the motel you found. The Impala wasn't stacked with any first-aid, so you had to go in looking like you were both mauled and run over by a truck fifty times. You paid, she gave you the key, and she was immediately running to the back, whether that was to call the police or hide you weren't sure.

You and Sam clung onto each other and helped each other up the stairs to the next floor, hobbling to your door like a couple of sick children.

You could tell Sam probably had a concussion, he's starting to look even worse for wear than he was. But he still insists on cleaning you up first.

You try not to whimper too loud when he lifts you onto the bathroom counter, but he shushes you gently when you let out silent scream and you grip his bicep incredibly tight.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He whispers.

"It's okay, Sammy, it's okay. I'm fine." Your reassurance falls on deaf ears. His grip tightens, but he doesn't look all there anymore.

"It's okay, Sammy, it's okay."

Suddenly, he's back on that road again, holding you in his arms. He remembers how cold you were, how lifeless. He feels weird because, he can see you right there in front of him, but somehow, his brain is telling him you're gone. You're not here anymore. His plan failed and he never got to tell you-

"Sam!"

His eyes refocus and he feels your hands on his cheeks. They're warm, and they're soft, nothing like how they were then. They rub his face gently, but the look on your face is one of concern, and mainly fear. He didn't realize how hard he was holding onto you, letting go as soon as he comes back from whatever that was.

"Sammy, where'd you go?"

He's not entirely sure, but he knows he can't tell you, or it could potentially break the deal. "Huh?"

He tilts his head slightly, eyes gazing at you like he didn't just stare into your soul with the most fearful tear filled look you'd ever seen.

"Sam, what happened?" You ask seriously, "I lost you for a second there."

He shakes his head. "No you didn't, I'm good." He breaks eye contact and grabs the alcohol, pouring it onto the cloth and gripping your shoulder.

"On three?"

You sigh, and take a deep breath. "Yeah."

"1-"

"2-"

"HOLY FUCK-" You practically double over and almost fall off the counter. You would have if Sam hadn't wrapped his other arm around you and kept you still while he cleaned the blood off and disinfected your wound.

"Sh, sh, sh, you're good, you're good. You got it, yeah? Breathe with me."

You grit your teeth as you try your best to follow along. "Fucking- shit, I hate you so bad right now."

"You'll get over it."

Once he's done cleaning it, he's able to wrap it and get it fixed up in no time. It still hurts, but, you've let him baby you enough.

"Alright, Winchester, your turn."

"You can't even lift your arm-"

With your good hand, you lift your other arm and use it to smack him across the shoulder.

He scoffs, "That's cheating."

"I still have one good arm left, so watch your mouth."

He rolls his eyes, but he relaxes when your soft touch spreads over the skin on his forehead. He watches you as you clean and bandage the wound just like he did, but now your faces are close, and he remembers he's standing in between your legs.

"Stop staring at me." You mumble, concentrating on stitching the last part on his cut, but also on the way he's staring you down.

"I'm not." He shakes his head, but you pinch him for moving, so he mutters out a sorry, and stands still again. A couple minutes later, you tap him on the shoulder, stating that you're all finished, and he gets this look on his face when he moves away from you.

"Can you uh- help me out?" You laugh, embarrassed a little bit for asking him to help you off the counter, but he does it without even thinking. His hands slide under your underarms again, lifting you just a little to where you can slide your butt off the counter. "Thanks."

"No problem." He nods his head, sending you his boyish smile, and it makes your heart flutter in your chest a bit. Did this guy really just stand between your legs and patch you up?

You both get into your separate beds, and lay down on your fresh clean pillows. a nice contrast to the doors of the Impala. But, as much as you like the bed, you almost wish Sam would invite you into his. It's much more silent than you wish it was, but Sam must have felt the same way because his voice cuts through the silence.

"Hey, Y/N?"

You look over, "Yeah?"

"Try not to get yourself killed too much, yeah? I don't know what I'd do without you."

You smile softly, "The same goes for you, Winchester."

He thinks that's the closest thing to a confession that he can get.

DAY 6

He wishes you would've stayed in bed longer.

"How is it that I've almost died like three times in the same week?" You ask him, hands holding your face up on your knees while the two of you sit on the curb on the side of the road.

The Impala is crushed.

Dean can most definitely fix it. But not until he's murdered the both of you and buried you in Bobby's backyard.

"How about we not mention that?" Sam suggests, peering over at you while you stare directly ahead at the car.

"Why not? I mean, we almost die everyday doing what we do, but like, this week- man, this week has been horrible." This sounds like the start of a ramble, and he's right. "I've come like an inch from death so many times this week I'm surprised it didn't actually happen. Like, right there, ten minutes ago, I swear I thought it was over. One minute, I'm singing along with you and the next Baby's upside down in the middle of nowhere." You shrug, and after a minute, you start to laugh to yourself.

"I feel like this is some sort of sign from the universe or something, so- so I'm just gonna say it." You push yourself to your feet and turn around, facing him, while he's still sitting on the curb looking up at you curiously.

"Say what?" He asks cautiously.

"Dude, I love you." You breathe out all in one breath. "I love you, Sam. You're my best friend, and I don't think I tell you that nearly enough, but you are. And so is Dean, but Dean's different, he's not- he's not you Sam. He's my best friend too, but you're..." he wants to laugh at the way you're staring at the sky and shaking your hands trying to come up with what you're trying to say, but he's so gobsmacked right now he can't really do anything else but stare in wonder. "You're Sam. You sleep with me in the car even though I can tell you get nervous, and even though I'm always nervous too you make it go away. You still stick by me even when I'm stupid and you carry me away from all the bad guys that try to kill us," you laugh," and you stitch me up and bandage all my wounds when I'm hurt even when I don't want you to because I know you love me and you show me better, and I wish I could do the same, so this is me showing you."

He stands from where he was sitting, but he can't really move anything else. He wants to move towards you, though something is holding him back. His chest starts to fill with dread, and suddenly, the deal is starting to glare at him straight in the face.

"Please don't let it be weird now, you don't have to say anything, just- let's sit with this and figure out how to get home, yeah?"

"Well, Winchester, things turned out for you, didn't they?"

Your body turns to look at the woman behind you, and Sam merely looks over your shoulder to see the demon he was hoping not to see.

Your face contorts, "Who the hell are you?"

Her face brightens, and her smirk gets wider as she glances between you and Sam.

"Aren't you two just perfect for each other?" She claps her hands together. "I'm so glad you've come to your senses, hun. Now, I can finally be on my merry way."

"No," you stop her, "How do you know us?" Your body twists again to face Sam, and all of a sudden, your heart sinks to the bottom of your stomach. Just by looking at his face you know something is wrong. "Sam?"

"I'll explain everything-"

"Go easy on him, sweetheart. What he did saved your life." She winks, and her signature red hair swishes when she disappears, just like that, just as she'd appeared.

"Sam..." you start, your voice dangerously low, "Who the hell was that."

He clenches his fists, taking a step closer to you, "Y/N, look-"

"Just tell me straight out, Sam! What was she talking about?" You practically shout at him, you're so anxious, you don't know what to do, what to expect. But what you possibly expected was nothing like what he said.

"You died. She was the reason why I got you back."

Your eyes hold a heaviness to them that only great sadness could bring, and he wishes he could take away that burden but he can't. He gave it to you.

"What?" You whisper. You say anything any louder and you think you might snap.

"She made a deal: I have seven days to-to..." he sighs, closing his eyes and prepares himself for what he's going to say next, "to get you to tell me you love me. Otherwise, you would stay dead. Permanently."

You don't say anything for a minute or two, and he doesn't expect you to, but he wishes you would have more of a reaction than what you're having now. There's this blank stare on your face, but it's sunken and it looks like he's given you burden upon burden to carry. Maybe he has.

"So basically," you start, clearing your throat, "You made a fucking bet, with a demon, you could get me to fall in love with you in seven days?" You scoff, "Otherwise, I'd be dead for good."

"No, that's not-"

"That's what it sounds like to me, Sam!" You scream.

His face falls, "I saved you. Nothing, and I mean nothing, else mattered, okay? I didn't care what kind of bet- no, I meant deal, I meant deal, it was, okay." He shakes his head. "Obviously I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't lose you, alright? I had the opportunity and I took it."

Your heart burns, it feels like you need to claw it out and throw some water on it, but all you can do is let it fester and grow and heat up every single nerve ending in your body. You want to be fine with it, he saved you, but, this isn't how it's supposed to be.

"I can't do this right now." You mutter, closing your eyes.

"What?" He steps forward, and you take three steps back.

"I have to go."

DAY 7

"You picked her up, right? She's with you?"

"Yes, Sam, she's with me. And you better be with Baby, you hear me?"

Sam rolls his eyes, and looks to the car that's being worked on in the shop.

"And don't let them touch her. I'll do the work myself when we get her back to Bobby's."

Sam grimaces, "It's a little late for that, buddy."

"Sam!-"

"Look, drop her off, okay. When you come here, I'll take the car back and you stay here, got it?"

"You're so lucky I saw Y/N first, or I would've whooped your ass-"

"Yeah, I got it, see you soon."

He hangs up the call and slaps it closed, the sound echoing into the air as he puts it back into his pocket. He looks around, but it's just empty road, and the car shop.

So he'll just have to wait.

...

"Dean?" Your voice calls out through the house loud and clear, and it makes him sad to think you may not be so happy seeing that it's him.

"It's me."

Your figure appears in the doorway of the kitchen, opposite of him.

"Oh, hey."

"Hey."

You're both quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say, or even how to start, but Sam can only think of one thing.

"You can be mad at me, I deserve it. But just know I did it because I love you. Even though you made me promise to all that moving on shit, I couldn't do it." He pauses. "I know you love me too, but if you need time I understand that."

"Sam," your voice breaks, "I understand why you did it, but why did you have to lie?"

His chest sucked in, "She-she made it a part of the deal, that you couldn't know. If you knew or found out it would've been off."

Your shoulders droop and you step toward him, just one step.

"I just- I just can't believe that I died, Sam."

"I know." He nods, "I know. If you... have any more questions, I'm here to answer them."

You shake your head, but don't say anything else. Neither of you really have to, everything's been said. It's up to you where this goes from here.

You take two steps closer, closing most of the gap between you, and lean into him. His right hand drops the bag he was holding and wraps his arms around you, holding you close just as he did several days ago. You don't hug, or squeeze, but you're there, and that's what matters.

"I love you," you breathe, "but you're such an idiot."

He shakes a little bit with laughter, "I know."

"But, if I'm being honest," you look up at him, "I probably would have done the same thing too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Nothing else has to be said. But he can't help but lean his face closer to yours, waiting, hoping that this wasn't something he was imagining. Your eyes bore into his, and you're the one who closes the space between you. Once the gap is filled there's no breaking it apart, and neither of you plan to.

[cheerscoops]

Wherever You Point To I’ll Find ~ Steve Harrington x Chrissy Cunningham

Nobody expected a budding romance between Steve and Chrissy when they were invited on this graduation road trip. But, as the two spend more and more time together away from the pressures their families, they just might find that they’re the perfect match.

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Tags: modern au, road trip, mutual pining, fluff, angst, discussion of mental health and body issues, eventual smut, adult themes and swearing throughout

Word Count: 12.2k

It was nearly impossible for Chrissy to get Steve up for the day, and she really only had herself to blame. Instead of staying up after the sunrise, she’d pulled him back to bed because she wasn’t ready for him to stop holding her just yet. She’d had the realization that admitting her feelings to him could make this all go away if he didn’t feel the same way about her, and she selfishly wanted to hold on to the daydream of being his for as long as she possibly could. And if that meant snuggling up to him in bed for just a little longer, that's exactly what she was going to do.

But a quick glance towards the clock on the nightstand told her that Nancy and Eddie would be expecting them downstairs for breakfast soon, and that meant that getting ready for the day and making sure their bags were packed was a necessity.

“We really should be getting up now,” she told him. “Unless you want Eddie to break the door down and drag us out.”

“I'd like to see him try.”

He hugged her to his chest a little tighter, making no moves to get up.

“Or maybe Nancy will have him hotwire your car and leave us stranded here.”

“They wouldn't. They like you too much.”

“But they don't like you enough?”

“Not as much as they like you.”

Chrissy rolled over in his arms to face him - their faces so close that their noses were practically touching - and frowned at him.

“That's not true. You were part of this trip from the start, so you're clearly the favorite.”

“Don't make me force you to put another dollar in the jar.”

“That was not a dig at myself, and you know it. You can't make me give you a dollar for that.”

“Yes, I can. That's the beauty of the jar. I made it, so I get to make all the rules. Perfectly sound logic if you ask me.”

“You're terrible.”

“Am I really all that bad?” he asked.

She knew that the smile on her face betrayed her true thoughts, but she took a page from Eddie's book and committed to the bit.

“The absolute worst actually,” she teased.

“It must really suck for you to be trapped here then. Since I'm obviously so repulsive,” he teased right back.

“Careful, Steve. This is the second morning in a row where you've refused to let me get out of bed. I'm starting to think you might have ulterior motives here.” She repeated his words from the night before hoping that he'd stay in on the joke with her.

“Maybe I do.”

And just like that, the teasing nature of their conversation was gone, and this all felt far too real and intimidating for her. It would be so easy for her to admit that she wanted him to have ulterior motives. That she had them, too, and that everything in her was screaming to tell him how she really felt. Her gaze flicked down to his lips for just a moment, and she was struck by just how easy it would be for her to close the almost nonexistent gap between them and kiss him. She could feel his warm breath on her skin, and every second that she stayed quiet felt like an eternity as she struggled between what she wanted to do and what she should do. And while what she wanted was for him to kiss her until she was breathless and stupid enough that she forgot her own name, she knew that what she needed to do was get out of that bed immediately and put some distance between them before the impulsive parts of her ruined everything.

She couldn't tell him how she felt while they were in bed together. Logically, she knew that Steve was nothing like Jason, and she didn't think he'd try to pressure her into something more if she admitted her true feelings, but that fear was still there with its ever-present and aching gnawing feeling. And she couldn't explain these fears without telling Steve about her whole messy relationship, and that would mean admitting things to him that she'd never told anyone. Not even Eddie who she normally told everything, and he was the one who'd held her hand through her breakup. She couldn't be that open and vulnerable with Steve until she knew for sure that she could trust him with her heart.

She also knew that they had to get out of bed, but if that happened because Steve was pushing her away in disgust or anger over the fact that she wouldn't put out, it would absolutely destroy her. She wasn't equipped to handle that kind of rejection. Not when she knew they still had so much time to spend together on this trip. She still planned on telling him how she felt that day, but this wasn’t the right moment no matter how much she wanted it to be.

So, instead of doing what she really wanted, she let her panic take over as she lifted Steve's arm off of her and climbed out of bed.

“I'm going to go get dressed,” she said as she grabbed her bag off of the spare bed. “You should probably do the same.”

She avoided looking at him as she ran into the bathroom, but if she'd turned to face him for just a moment, she would have seen him looking confused and a little hurt by her actions.

***

Steve spent the better part of the morning silently kicking himself for whatever he did that scared Chrissy away. He was just keeping up with what he thought was a bit of playful flirting, but the second he tried to hint at how he really felt, she froze on him and ran away. He’d been thinking that she felt the same way, but now she had him second guessing every interaction he’d had with her and looking for anything he could have missed that would have resulted in her fleeing the bed like he really was repulsive to her.

He was so deep in thought that he barely spoke during breakfast, and he didn’t react at all when Eddie convinced Chrissy to put on his personal Motionless in White mix. He almost missed Nancy asking him to stop for a bathroom break, too, but Eddie kicked the back of his seat and snapped him out of it for long enough that he was able to find a decent place for them to stop.

Chrissy ran off to the bathroom with Nancy, and as soon as they were out of earshot, Eddie was practically diving over the center console to climb up into Chrissy’s seat.

“What is up with you today?” he asked as he situated himself. “You’ve been zoned out this whole time, and we were starting to worry you were gonna crash the car.”

“It’s nothing,” Steve replied. “Just something stupid.”

“Well, is it stupid, or is it nothing? Because I don’t think it can be both.”

“I think I messed up with Chrissy, and I don’t know what I did, so it’s messing with my head a little.”

“You wanna tell me what happened?”

“That depends on how much of a dick you’re going to be.”

“How much of a dick I am depends on what you did to her.”

“That’s the thing. I didn’t do anything to her. At least, I don’t think I did.”

Steve let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

“Are you really sure she likes me?” he asked after a moment. “I know you said she was interested the other day, but I’m getting whiplash from how back and forth she seems to feel about me.”

“What’s happened since we last talked about this? Give me the cliff’s notes version.”

Steve laid it all out in the most basic of terms. He told Eddie about their heart to heart on the beach and how they had bonded over their shitty parents. He told him about the joking and the tickle fights and falling asleep cuddling. The only thing he left out was Chrissy’s wish from the sunrise. That felt almost too personal to share. Like it needed to be kept a secret for just the two of them or it wouldn’t be as special. But everything else was laid out for Eddie to decipher for him.

“And when she asked me if I had ulterior motives, I said that maybe I did, and that’s when she freaked out, and it’s been killing me that I can’t figure out what happened. There was this split second where I thought she was gonna kiss me, but she didn't, and I don't know how I could have misread the situation that badly.”

“So let me see if I have this straight,” Eddie said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You thought that trapping Chrissy in bed with you and then telling her you had ulterior motives for doing so was a good idea? Even though you know she scares easily and has been shy about even holding your hand for prolonged periods of time?”

“Well, when you put it like that, I might actually be the biggest idiot on the planet.”

“Maybe not the biggest idiot, but yeah, I think you’re going about this all wrong. Nancy and Chrissy would both probably punch me for using such bullshit reasoning, but Chrissy isn’t like the other girls you’ve tried to hook up with lately, and you’re operating under your normal King of Hawkins High methods that had all those other girls falling at your feet and swooning even though you were wearing that ridiculous sailor suit. Maybe just apologize to her for making her uncomfortable? I don’t know. I’m rooting for you, but short of grabbing you both by the back of the head and forcing you to kiss like a couple of real life Barbie dolls, I’m not sure what else I can do to help since you won’t let me talk to her for you.”

Before Steve could respond, Chrissy was opening the passenger door and frowning when she saw Eddie was in her seat.

“It’s my turn to ride shotgun,” Eddie told her. “I wanna be the passenger princess.”

“But I like sitting up front with Steve.”

“Tough.”

“Fine. I’ll just tell Nancy you didn’t love her enough to help her decide what drink to get when she specifically asked me to go get you for her.”

“You're evil.”

“I learned from the best.”

“Touche. I’d probably be proud if I wasn’t the one on the receiving end of this.”

Eddie hopped out of the car allowing Chrissy to take her seat back. As soon as she’d shut the door, Steve turned to her.

“Listen. I’m sorry about -” was all that he managed to say before she placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

“Don’t apologize,” she told him. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I think I’m the one who owes you an apology actually. I can’t get into it now because I really don’t want to end up talking about it in front of Eddie and Nancy, but I need you to know that me running away this morning had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I promise I’ll explain myself eventually, but for now, can this be enough?”

“Yeah, it can be enough,” he told her. He moved to rest his hand on her knee, his thumb absentmindedly rubbing the skin there. “So, what I said didn’t upset you?”

“I promise it didn’t. Have all the ulterior motives you want. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have them too.”

“Really?”

Chrissy didn’t have time to answer before Nancy and Eddie got back in the car, and Steve didn’t dare press her about it in front of them. He was just happy that she was willing to open up to him about whatever was bothering her even if he had to wait to hear her explanation.

They settled back into their normal driving routine for the rest of their trip to DC. The only noticeable difference was that Steve’s hand barely left Chrissy’s knee for the duration, and neither of them was complaining about that. Little did they know that it had caused a frenzied group text between Eddie, Nancy, and Robin. They were oblivious to the effect that their budding courtship seemed to have on their friends.

When they arrived at the bed and breakfast that Nancy had selected for them, Steve and Chrissy both tried to hide their disappointment at the fact that they weren’t going to be sharing a room this time. They knew that sharing at the last place was only going to be a one time thing, but knowing that did nothing to stop the longing.

Chrissy was the first to finish settling in, so she went out to the common living area to wait for the others. There was an old couple sitting on one of the plush sofas, and they immediately started fussing over her as she took a seat in one of the armchairs.

“Oh, look at her, Fred,” the woman said. “She's like a little doll. Isn't she just darling?”

“Yes, dear,” Fred said as he glanced up from his paper. “Absolutely darling.”

“I’m Ethel, and this is my husband Fred.”

“I’m Chrissy. It’s lovely to meet you,” Chrissy replied with a small smile.

“Oh, she’s so polite,” Ethel said. “It’s lovely to meet you, too, dear. Fred and I are both retired, and we just love spending our time at little bed and breakfasts like this because we always meet the most wonderful people. We saw you check in with your friends. What brings your little group here?”

“We’re celebrating our high school graduation,” Chrissy told them. “Well, Nancy, Eddie, and I are, at least. Steve graduated last year. I think everyone just wanted one last big adventure before we all separate in the fall.”

“How exciting! What are you planning on studying in college?”

“Theater. Maybe with a minor in education or childhood development of some sort? I just know that theater is my real passion, and I’d like to do something with it for the rest of my life.”

“An actress! Oh, my Kenny would just adore you. Don’t you think that Kenny would adore her, Fred?” she asked her husband who just nodded in response. “Our grandson is about to start his third year of pre-med at Harvard. He wants to be a pediatric surgeon, so you know he’s smart and good with kids. And just so handsome, but maybe I’m biased because he’s my only grandson. You’re not dating either of the boys that came here with you, are you?”

“Eddie is basically my brother,” Chrissy told her. “And he’s Nancy’s boyfriend, so I’m definitely not seeing him.”

She hesitated when it came to putting a label on Steve though. She was already confused about why she was being so open with this random elderly couple, but Ethel reminded her of her own nana, so she guessed that was why it came so easily. But how could she tell them that she and Steve were in this weird limbo of not being together but acting like they desperately wanted to be? She could barely work out what was going on for herself let alone explain it to complete strangers.

“And Steve is -”

“You’re talking about me?”

Chrissy was interrupted by Steve entering the room and moving to perch on the arm of the chair that she was sitting in. He smiled down at her as he asked his question.

“Just telling my new friends Fred and Ethel about how you’re the worst person I’ve ever met,” she teased beaming up at him.

“So mean.”

“I think I’m the nicest person ever actually.”

Steve stuck his tongue out at her, and she responded by doing the same.

“You see how she treats me?” Steve asked the older couple, keeping his tone teasing and light. “The absolute disrespect.”

Chrissy reached over to tickle his side, and Steve flinched before sliding off of the armrest and onto the seat with Chrissy. While the chair was slightly larger than normal, it wasn't really big enough for two people to share comfortably if they were sitting side by side. Steve made quick work of maneuvering the two of them so that Chrissy was sitting sideways with her legs draped over his lap, and she instinctively curled into his side.

“If you're done being a menace, can I get back to talking to my new friends?” she asked. “I feel like we're being awfully rude.”

Steve made a show of acting like he was pulling a zipper closed across his mouth and gestured for her to continue talking.

“What I was trying to say is that Steve and I didn't really meet until this trip, but I've been enjoying getting to know him better along the way,” Chrissy told the older couple.

“How far into the trip are you?” Ethel asked.

“A week. We’ve got two more weeks of adventures planned, and then it’s back home for the rest of the summer.”

“Only a week? I would have assumed the two of you had known each other for much longer than that with how comfortable you seem to be together.”

“Permission to speak?” Steve asked.

Chrissy nodded.

“I can’t speak for Chrissy,” he started, “but I personally feel like I’ve known her a lot longer than that. She’s just really easy to talk to, and she makes everyone feel like they’re the most important person in the room when she’s focusing on them. I’ve really been enjoying getting to know her better, too, and as we spend more time together, I only want to know her more.”

Chrissy could feel her heart getting ready to burst. She felt the same way about Steve, but she hadn’t been able to find the words to articulate it.

“Okay, maybe you aren’t actually the worst,” she teased, trying to hide the fact that his words had her glowing.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Aren’t you two just the sweetest?” Ethel said, interrupting their moment. “So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“The Natural History Museum for sure,” Steve told her. “And then maybe another museum or two before dinner if we have the time? Depends on how soon we can get there.”

“Where are Eddie and Nancy anyway?” Chrissy asked. “I didn’t expect them to take this long to settle in.”

“When I left them, Eddie had taken off his pants and declared that he was taking a nap instead of going to any museums, so I‘m guessing that Nancy is trying to get him up again.”

“Sounds about right.”

The two continued talking to the elderly couple for a little while longer. It was mostly Ethel asking questions about their plans for the rest of the trip and a little about Chrissy’s college plans and the jobs that Steve was applying for once they were back home, but Steve spent the entire time doting on Chrissy. When she’d curled into his side, he’d wrapped an arm around her waist, and his other arm laid over her legs. Every so often, he’d pull the hem of her skirt down to protect her modesty when it rode up due to the way she was sitting, and every time he did so, she could feel electricity wherever his fingers grazed her thighs. It was such a simple gesture, but it meant so much more to her than she could say. She felt cared for in a way that was so unfamiliar to her that it almost made her sad. To think that no one else had ever taken her comfort into account without her even having to say anything was heartbreaking, but it was hard for her to feel anything but warm and fuzzy when Steve was holding her like this.

When Eddie and Nancy finally made their way out to the sitting area, Chrissy was reluctant to get up. It wasn’t like she was going to confess her feelings for him right there in front of their friends and two relative strangers, but she longed to stay sitting there with him holding her like that. She couldn’t admit it out loud, but this was slowly becoming her new favorite place to be, and she wanted to spend as much time there as humanly possible. She just hoped that he felt the same way.

One short walk and a metro ride later, the group was standing on the front steps of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

“How long do you think you guys will want to spend here?” Nancy asked.

“That depends on how long my secret mission is going to take,” Chrissy said with a shrug.

“It’s not going to be in the natural history museum,” Eddie replied.

“You don’t know that! They could have it here to throw me off!”

“Have what here?” Nancy asked.

“She saw a picture of the Smithsonian’s Muppet storage cabinet online, and she’s convinced that she’s going to be able to find it while we’re here even though it’s probably in a storage facility somewhere and not one of the actual museums,” Eddie told the group. “And while I am typically not above causing a little chaos and potentially breaking into somewhere I’m definitely not allowed to be, I’m pretty sure Wayne would kill me if we got arrested all the way out here.”

“Eddie Munson is actively discouraging me from getting arrested? I never thought I’d see the day,” Chrissy teased.

“Laugh it up. Just imagine how your parents would react if you got arrested because you were trying to steal one of the Fraggles.”

“Party pooper.”

“How about two hours?” Steve suggested. “And if we’re done looking around before that, we can just text the group chat and meet up sooner?”

He leaned in towards Chrissy to whisper in her ear.

“Plenty of time to see the museum and look for your Muppet vault,” he told her. “I’ll make sure you don't get caught. I’m stealthy. Like a ninja.”

Chrissy giggled and pushed him away before beaming up at him. She’d happily let him in on her secret mission even if she knew she wasn’t actually going to be able to find them. He was playful, and he let her be silly in a way that she never got to act in public.

Steve took Chrissy’s hand in his and laced their fingers together.

“We’ve gotta act like we’re actually here to see the museum at first,” he said in a hushed voice. “Blend in with the crowd a little so they don’t realize we’re looking for the perfect heist.”

“Where do you suggest we start?”

“I’ve got the perfect spot.”

Steve led Chrissy through the rotunda and into the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils. It was hard for her not to notice the way he lit up the second they were in the room, and he was eagerly pulling her over to a display where they’d set up a t-rex skeleton to look like it was attacking a triceratops.

“Did you know that the t-rex was actually super smart?” he asked her, not looking away from the fossils in front of them. “I know that a lot of mainstream media likes to play them off as mindless predators or play up the comedy of the whole big head and little arms thing, but their brains were actually twice the size of most other carnivores. And they were fast, too. Not the fastest dinosaurs by any means, but they were fast enough that they could probably catch most humans.”

A quick peek at the plaque in front of them told Chrissy that Steve hadn’t just read this information. It was just something he knew, and he seemed so excited to share this knowledge with her. She tried to pull her phone out in time to snap a quick picture of him looking at the dinosaur bones, but he turned to her before she could, and the photo she ended up getting was of him smiling at her instead.

“Still trying to take sneaky pictures of me?” he teased.

“You just looked so happy,” she told him with a tiny shrug. “I wanted to capture that moment for you.”

Steve pulled Chrissy away from the exhibit to sit on a bench nearby where they could still look around the room.

“Can I tell you something that I’ve never told anyone else before?” he asked her.

She nodded.

“You know how much you love the Muppets?” he started. “Well, that’s how I feel about dinosaurs. That nanny that I told you about got me into them. I was supposed to be taking a nap, but I was an absolute menace as a four year old, so I was not doing that, and I snuck down into the living room to find her watching Jurassic Park. Most kids that little might have been scared, but I was fascinated. I stayed out of sight for the entire movie, and she didn’t realize I was there until I popped up during the credits and asked if we could watch it again. I think I scared a few years off of her life actually.

“I had all of these questions about dinosaurs that she couldn’t answer because the extent of her knowledge began and ended with Jurassic Park. But, maybe a week later, she showed up with this illustrated encyclopedia of dinosaurs. I think I had her read something from it to me every day until I was old enough to read it by myself. I was the dinosaur kid after that. I watched every single one of the Land Before Time movies, and the only things I ever really wanted for gifts were more dinosaur books and dinosaur toys. I had this massive box full of dinosaur figurines, and I gave them all different voices depending on what I thought they would sound like. Because the t-rex had such a big brain, he was sophisticated and British, and the apatosaurus talked kind of like Eeyore because they moved really slow. Just weird little connections I made in my head, you know? I wish I still had them saved because I thought they were the coolest things ever, but my parents threw them out as soon as they decided that I was too old to be playing with toys. Same goes for my illustrated dinosaur encyclopedia.

“And those things are replaceable, so I can always buy new ones to give to any kids I have in the future. I stopped being mad about my mom throwing away stuff years ago because it was pointless when I knew she’d never change. The thing that still upsets me though is the broken promises. Every year, my parents would take me on one family vacation. They took all sorts of trips by themselves and left me with my nanny or by myself once I was old enough to be left alone. But this one trip was the only time I was included, and my mom would always ask me where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. My answer was always the same: I want to go somewhere where I can see dinosaur bones in person. And every year, I was disappointed. We always went skiing or to some all-inclusive beach resort or something else that was equally boring to me, but my mom would always promise that we’d do what I wanted the next year. I think I was thirteen when I finally stopped believing her.

“That’s when I made a promise that I’d take myself to see the dinosaur bones the first chance I got, and I’d only go with people who were special enough to make it a good experience for me. This is the first time that I’ve actually gotten to see any in person.”

If she thought she could have gotten away with it, Chrissy would have stolen Steve’s car just to race back to Hawkins and destroy something that would have hurt Mrs. Harrington as much as she had clearly hurt her son. But then she was struck by the fact that Steve said he’d only take someone special to see this with him, and she felt her heart swell.

“So, you think I’m special enough to share this experience with you?” she asked.

“Well, yeah,” he said as he squeezed her hand. “I thought I’d made my feelings for you pretty clear by now.”

That was all she needed to hear in order to give herself the final push towards acting on her own feelings. Without hesitation, she leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against Steve’s cheek. He responded by fully turning towards her and cradling her face in his hand, brushing his thumb along her cheekbone.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked.

“Please,” she replied, giving a slight nod.

Her ‘please’ shook him to his very core, and he wasted no time in closing the small gap between them. The instant their lips touched, they both felt fireworks. Maybe it was because they’d both spent the last two days agonizing over and wishing for this very moment, but it was everything that they’d been hoping it would be and more.

When Steve pulled away, he was all smiles.

“Wow.”

“Wow is right,” Chrissy added, unable to contain the giddy giggles that were bubbling up inside of her.

“You know, if taking you to see the dinosaur bones with me was what I needed to do to finally work up the courage to kiss you, maybe it’s not so bad that I had to wait this long to see them.”

Chrissy didn’t respond. Instead, she just pulled him back in for another kiss, positively beaming as she felt him smile against her lips.

“This does make admitting how I feel about you way easier,” she said once they'd pulled apart again.

“Oh yeah? And how do you feel about me?” he asked.

“Are you really going to make me say it?” She could feel a blush warming her cheeks as she started to get shy on him again.

“I think I need to hear it for me to believe any of this is real.”

“This feels so juvenile to say like we're kids on an elementary school playground or something, but it's the only way to accurately describe the way that you make me feel like I have an army of butterflies in my stomach every time you look at me. But the very real truth is that I have a little bit of a crush on you.”

“Only a little bit?”

“Okay, maybe it’s more than a little one,” she said, looking down towards her lap. It was almost as if she’d forgotten where they were for a moment, and she was feeling so exposed because all of this had happened in public. Logically, she knew that no one in the museum cared about what she was doing, but she couldn’t help but feel like everyone was watching her.

Steve placed a finger under Chrissy’s chin and tilted her head back up to face him.

“Don’t disappear on me,” he told her.

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I was just worried you were going to run away from me again.”

Chrissy took Steve’s hands in hers and took a deep breath.

“This is hard for me,” she told him. “Public displays of affection are hard for me. Whenever the last guy would kiss me in public, it always felt like he was doing it for show or because he was obligated to look like he loved his girlfriend and never because he actually wanted to be kissing me. I was just a pretty little prize for him to show off, and I have a hard time allowing myself to be wanted because of him - no matter how much I actually desperately want you to kiss me again.”

The second they were back in Hawkins, Steve was keying Jason’s car, egging his house, blasting polka music outside his bedroom window at 3 AM - anything he could maybe convince Hopper to look the other way on. How anyone could treat Chrissy like that was baffling to him. Every time she gave him the slightest hint about how Jason used to treat her, the anger he felt bubbling inside him grew stronger, and it only made him want to protect her more. To show her that she deserved to be treated so much better than she believed she did. It was his new goal for the rest of the trip and then for as long as she would allow it after that.

“We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with,” he told her. “We can just get up and look at the rest of this exhibit. I’ll info-dump about dinosaurs a little bit because I can’t help it, and maybe I’ll let you hear what I think all of them would’ve sounded like. And then we can look around the rest of the museum until it’s time for us to meet back up with Nancy and Eddie. I just wanna hold your hand and keep spending time with you - if that’s okay with you of course.”

“That sounds perfect,” she told him. “Really. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. But before we do that, I’d like to kiss you again. Not to show off to all of the other people in this room and not because I feel obligated to, but because it’s the only thing that I’ve been able to think about since we were interrupted on the beach the other night, and I really desperately want to kiss you just as much as you really desperately want to be kissed.”

Chrissy leaned in on instinct, but Steve paused just as their lips were close enough to touch.

“And for the record,” he whispered just loud enough for her to hear him, “in case it wasn't already abundantly clear, the feeling is mutual. I have a pretty massive crush on you, too.”

***

When they made their way into the gift shop after they were done looking around the museum, Chrissy ducked away from Steve for a couple minutes. She was on a mission, and since that mission was getting a small gift for him, she didn’t want him to see what she was doing and stop her.

She found what she was looking for in one of the far corners of the gift shop: a bin filled with small dinosaur figurines. She pulled out two matching t-rexes and purchased them without a second thought. It was only once the bag was in her hand that she realized how intimate this gift seemed to her now. He’d literally said that he’d wanted to save his childhood figurines for his own kids. They’d only just shared their first kiss. It was way too soon to give him something so meaningful. She shoved the bag into her purse and told herself to stop getting ahead of herself. She could save them to give to him later.

Just as she’d calmed herself down, Steve approached her holding a bag of his own. He pulled out a small plushie of a capuchin monkey and handed it to her.

“For me?” she asked.

“It made me think of you,” he told her. “Because it’s tiny and cute just like you are.”

“Thank you,” she said as she stood up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “But I’m not that tiny.”

“You just stood on your tiptoes to reach me. I’m pretty sure you’re that tiny.”

“I am a perfectly normal height thank you very much.”

“For an adorable woodland critter maybe,” he teased.

He took one of her hands in his and laid it flat against his palm.

“I mean, just look at how small your hands are compared to mine. You’re all little.”

Chrissy marveled at just how tiny her hand looked in comparison to his, but she couldn’t let him know just how much this size difference affected her.

“I bet you do this with all the girls,” she said as she smirked up at him.

“Maybe,” he replied before moving to lace their fingers together and hold her hand. “But none of the other girls ever made me smile the way you do.”

He brought their linked hands up to his face and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand.

“That was smooth,” she said, looking away from him slightly in an attempt to hide the fact that he had her blushing yet again. “Very smooth.”

“Only for you.”

****

When they met back up with Eddie and Nancy, Steve and Chrissy neglected to tell them what had occurred between them in the fossil room. It wasn’t that they were trying to hide what happened. It just slipped their minds to fill their friends in on the new development in their relationship, and with Steve being respectful of Chrissy’s uneasiness with PDA, it looked as if nothing had changed between them to the uninformed observer. They were just holding hands and teasing each other the same as always.

Maybe Nancy thought it was a little suspicious when Chrissy rested her head on Steve's shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her in their booth at dinner, but she just assumed that they'd developed a certain level of comfortable closeness at this point. Eddie had filled her in on the fact that they'd shared a bed again the night before even though they didn't have to, so this just felt like a natural extension of that. Plus, she didn't want to say anything that would push Chrissy to retreat back into her shell.

It was only when they were back at the bed and breakfast for the night that they realized something had changed between them. They were all standing outside the girls’ room to say their goodnights before separating for the evening. Without thinking, Steve gave Chrissy’s hand a little tug so she’d turn towards him, and then he pulled her in for a goodnight kiss. She melted in his arms, and he couldn’t stop smiling when they pulled away.

“I’ll miss you,” he told her as he wrapped her up in a hug.

“We’re only going to be separated for a few hours.”

“That’s so long though.”

“So needy,” she teased, burying her face in his chest to hide her blush as she hugged him. “I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”

When she hid her face, Steve remembered that Eddie and Nancy were definitely watching them, and he loosened his hold on her.

“I'm sorry. I think that was maybe too much PDA.”

“Maybe a little bit, but I liked it.”

She stood on her tiptoes to give him another quick kiss before reluctantly removing herself from his arms. She barely had time to utter out a quick ‘goodnight' before Nancy was pulling her into their room and ushering her to sit down on one of the beds.

“What was that?” she asked as she moved to sit down next to Chrissy. “What happened between you two?”

Chrissy grabbed one of the pillows and hugged it to her chest.

“He took me to see the dinosaur bones with him,” she said. She was positively glowing with this giddy little lovestruck look in her eyes.

“Is there something secretly romantic about fossils that I'm unaware of?”

“Maybe not to most people, but it was magical. He was just - I don't know. I can't put it into words. I've just never felt like this before, and it's exciting and terrifying and wonderful. So, so wonderful.”

She fell backwards on the bed and moved the pillow to hide her face. Even during the times where she’d thought things were going well between her and Jason, she’d never felt this giddy about any of their interactions. All she could think about was how Steve smiled into every kiss, and she couldn’t wait to feel that again.

She only removed the pillow from her face because her phone pinged with a notification about a text from Steve.

Steve: what would you say to a breakfast date tomorrow morning?

Steve: just the two of us? in our pajamas obviously.

Chrissy: I’d say that sounds wonderful.

Steve: perfect. meet you in the lobby at 7?

Chrissy: see you then

Steve: good night gorgeous

Chrissy: sweet dreams

“You really like him, don’t you?” Nancy asked, taking in the way Chrissy was beaming at her phone.

“I really do. He's kind of the sweetest, isn't he?”

“He can be. What’s he texting you now?”

Chrissy turned her phone towards Nancy and let her read their recent exchange.

“Okay, that’s actually really adorable,” she said once she was done reading. “And he’s getting up early for you which you should know is a very big deal. Steve doesn’t get out of bed before ten unless he absolutely has to.”

“I figured as much. He’s been very cuddly and reluctant to get up the past couple of days.”

“And I’m sure that had nothing to do with the fact that he was snuggled up to the girl he was crushing on,” Nancy teased.

Chrissy moved to hide her face behind her pillow again, but Nancy pulled it away from her and tossed it aside.

“You know, you could bunk with Steve for the rest of the trip if you really wanted to. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind at all, and it seems to me like that’s something that would make you very happy from just how pink your cheeks are right now, so I’d be happy to switch rooms with him.”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me. I don’t want to make things difficult for anyone else.”

“Ask me to do what? Share a room with my longterm boyfriend who I love very much? I’m pretty sure I’ll find a way to survive that torture. You don’t have to decide right now. Sleep on it and let me know sometime tomorrow. I just think continuing to share a room would make the both of you really happy. Anyway, you can use the bathroom first since you’ve gotta wake up early for your date.”

“I’ll think about it,” Chrissy said as she got up from the bed to grab what she needed for the bathroom. “And thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m really happy for you.”

As Chrissy went through her nighttime routine, she couldn’t help but think about Nancy’s offer. She knew that she was going to miss being able to snuggle up to Steve while she had her bed all to herself that night, but she also felt that it was maybe too forward of her to decide that they should share the same room for the rest of the trip. That could potentially lead her into situations that she didn’t know if she was ready for just yet, and she’d hate to ruin whatever she and Steve were now simply because she’d set him up to be disappointed about how far she was willing to go. She also couldn’t help but think that it was selfish of her to want to share her bed with him without being willing to do everything that sharing a bed with him could lead to.

That didn’t change the fact that that was what she wanted though. She wanted to fall asleep in his arms just like she’d done for the past few nights, and she found herself hoping that he wanted that, too. She’d broach the subject with him at some point the next day and see how he felt about it. If they were feeling the same way, maybe she could work through her roadblocks enough to allow herself that bit of comfort.

***

Chrissy ended up making it to the lobby before Steve did, so she took a seat on one of the sofas to wait for him. No one else was out and about that early other than the front desk staff, so she busied herself with scrolling through her instagram feed while she waited. Anything to distract herself from the fact that her mom would have dropped dead from the shock of seeing her willingly go out in public in her pajamas. Normally, she would have been a little self-conscious about it, but Steve had already seen her in her Barbie t-shirt and plaid pajama shorts when they’d shared a room. Plus, he was going to be in his pajamas, too, so she had no real reason to worry. She could be calm and collected about this.

Soon enough, Steve was sitting down next to her and wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her onto his lap before he’d even said hello.

“Well, hello to you, too,” she giggled as Steve leaned in to kiss her cheek.

He responded by burying his face in her neck and hugging her a little tighter.

“I thought we were going to breakfast?” she asked.

“In a minute,” he replied, making no moves to loosen his hold on her. “I didn’t get my Chrissy cuddles this morning, so I’m not ready to get up yet.”

“Did you really miss me that much?”

He nodded.

“My bed felt really empty after sharing with you the past couple nights. Feels like my whole day started out wrong.”

“I feel the same way,” she admitted. “It was weird not having you there.”

“Think Eddie would notice if I smuggled you into our room tonight? We could wait until he was asleep, and you wake up earlier than he does anyway, so you could sneak out before he gets up. It’s the perfect plan.”

“I have an even better idea, but I think you need to take me to breakfast before I share it.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

Steve stood up and pulled Chrissy up with him. With her hand in his, he started to head towards the door, but he paused about halfway there.

“Wait. I haven't given you a real good morning kiss yet,” he said as he turned towards her.

“We should probably fix that.”

“Yeah. We probably should.”

Steve leaned in to kiss her, and when she felt him smile against her lips, she couldn't help but smile in return. She didn't think she'd ever get tired of how happy every kiss seemed to make him.

“Much better,” he said as he pulled away. “Now, we can get breakfast.”

One quick car ride later, and they were parked outside of a cozy-looking diner. Steve got out of the car first and jogged over to Chrissy’s side to open her door for her.

“How'd you find this place?” she asked.

“You think I didn't do research for this?” he asked. “This is technically our first official date. I’ve gotta do things right.”

Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to Chrissy that this was their first date even if that probably should have been obvious to her. Even with him calling it a breakfast date in his text, she hadn’t connected the dots and had been thinking about this as just another instance where they were exploring somewhere separately from their friends. The aquarium and the natural history museum hadn’t been dates either, but both of those excursions had ended with Steve gifting her a plushie which was a very date-like thing to do. Hearing him actually call this one a date changed everything, and it only made her more self-conscious about the fact that she was wearing her pajamas in public. But, Steve was wearing his pajamas, too. If he could go out in public like that without caring what other people thought, she could do the same. And, as he took her hand in his to walk her into the diner, she only felt more confident in that fact. He wasn’t embarrassed to be seen with her looking like that. He wanted people to know they were together. That was all the reassurance she needed.

As they walked into the diner, Steve noticed that Chrissy’s eyes lingered on the chalkboard sign out front that was advertising that day’s special: blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and homemade whipped cream. But, when it came time for them to order, she chose a small fruit and yogurt parfait instead. He had a feeling he knew what was going on in her head. From what she’d told him on the beach, he knew she was probably hearing her mother berating her for even thinking about ordering something with that many calories. He briefly thought about making her put a dollar in the jar for that, but he was afraid that that would make whatever issues she had even worse. He didn’t want to take that risk, so he just ordered the special for himself instead. He thought that maybe he’d be able to convince her to have a couple bites of his breakfast because he’d been able to share food with her like that before.

“So, you said that you had a better idea than me sneaking you into my room every night?” he asked her, trying to keep her from focusing on the food that they’d just ordered.

“I do,” she told him. “I was talking to Nancy last night, and she said she wouldn’t mind switching rooms with you if we wanted to share for the rest of the trip. It doesn't necessarily mean that anything needs to happen between us other than what we've already been doing, but I feel really comfortable sharing my space with you. So I was thinking that I’d maybe really like that to be an every night thing if it was something you’d like, too.”

“So, you’re saying that I would get to wake up snuggled up to the most beautiful girl I know, and I could do that every single day for the rest of this trip? Yeah, I think that’s something I’d like.”

“Oh, good. I was hoping that would be your answer,” she said with a teasing smirk. “I could really use my own personal space heater again.”

“Mean,” he said with a teasing smirk of his own. “I call you beautiful, and you only wanna cuddle with me because I’m warm. So mean.”

“That’s not the only reason.”

“Oh, yeah? What other reasons do you have?”

“You keep trying to get me to say things that you know are going to fluster me. Maybe you're the mean one.”

“Or maybe I just think you're especially beautiful when you're blushing,” he told her.

“Well, if that's the case,” Chrissy began, her cheeks already starting to get a little pink from his compliment, “I'll just say that if I told you what I really wanted to do before I got all up in my head yesterday morning, you wouldn't be calling me mean.”

“You’re definitely still mean,” he told her.

“How do you figure?”

“You told me that when we don’t have access to anywhere private enough for me to ask you if you’re willing to show me exactly what you were thinking. So cruel.”

Chrissy didn’t have time to respond because their waiter chose that moment to reappear with their food, and Steve watched as she stared at his plate of pancakes and the sides of sausage links and hash browns they came with before resigning herself to her own breakfast. He could almost see the disappointment on her face when she took a bite of her parfait and realized it didn't taste anywhere near as good as she knew the pancakes did.

He was careful about what he did next. He took a couple bites of his breakfast before cutting a small piece off of one of the pancakes.

“You’ve gotta try these,” he told her as he pushed the piece towards the edge of his plate. “They’re maybe the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

“That’s okay. I’m happy with what I ordered.”

“Are you sure? I think you’ll really like them.”

“That’s practically a third of one of your pancakes,” she said as she eyed the piece that he was offering her. “I’m not taking that much of your breakfast.”

Steve cut a single bite off of that piece and made sure it had a little bit of syrup and whipped cream on it before offering the fork to Chrissy.

“Just one bite then,” he said.

She ignored his offer and went back to twirling her spoon around in her yogurt.

“What’s this?” he said as he lifted his fork and started twirling it in the air in front of Chrissy. “Could it be the Pancake Express getting ready to pull in at Cunningham Station?”

It was then that he chose to start making train noises which set off Chrissy’s giggling.

“You’re so embarrassing,” she told him through her laughter as she reached out to take his fork. She ate the bite he’d given her, and he couldn’t stop smiling over the way she closed her eyes to savor the taste.

“Best pancakes ever, am I right?” he asked as he took his fork back.

“That was pretty delicious.”

“It’s a good thing the Pancake Express made it to you. I was afraid it was going to get derailed.”

“You’re such a dork,” she told him, giggling over his theatrics again.

“Maybe, but you like me, so what does that say about you?”

“That I have excellent taste when it comes to total dorks, obviously.”

“Obviously. I shouldn’t have even had to ask.”

He nudged Chrissy’s foot with his under the table, and she nudged him back before they went back to eating their breakfasts. She never outright asked him for another bite on her own, but she did accept a couple more bites from him when he offered them, so he was counting that as another win.

When it came time to pay for their meals, Steve told the waiter that it was all going on one check, and he wouldn’t let Chrissy share the tab.

“Absolutely not,” he told her. “I invited you on this date, so it’s my treat.”

“Then I’m buying you lunch,” she insisted. “I’m not letting you waste all of your money on me when I’m perfectly capable of treating you, too.”

“We’ll see. But you’re putting a dollar in the jar for thinking that me treating you is a waste of money.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that. And anyway, that’s not what I was trying to say. I just meant that you don’t need to constantly treat me to things just because we like each other. I’ve been paying for myself for ages. That doesn’t need to change.”

He wanted to ask her if that meant Jason never treated her on their dates, but he knew she didn’t like talking about him, so he didn’t want to be the one that brought him up. That had to be her choice.

“I know that I don't need to treat you to things, but I want to. I won't do it constantly if it makes you uncomfortable, but if I ask you on a date like this, I'd like to buy your breakfast.”

“I don't want things to be unbalanced between us,” she admitted. “I don't want you to end up resenting me because I can't reciprocate in the ways that you might want me to.”

Steve frowned, his brow furrowing. He reached across the table to lay his hand in front of her with his palm facing up and waited for her to place her hand in his. He gave her hand a small squeeze and started gently brushing her knuckles with his thumb.

“I don't want you to think that anything I'm doing is because I'm expecting something from you,” he told her. “Buying your breakfast came with zero expectations just like every one of the plushies I've given you or the snacks I’ve offered you. I do these things because I like you, and that's one of the ways I've always expressed that to people in the past. If it's too much for you, I can stop. The last thing I want is for you to be uncomfortable. I just want you to know that there are no strings attached to anything I give you.”

His words were almost enough to make her cry. She couldn't count how many times she'd been given something only to be told that there were expectations attached to the gift. A sweater from her mom, but she was only allowed to wear it if she lost five pounds. Money to go out with her friends after a basketball game paired with the knowledge that she’d have to show her mom the itemized receipt to prove she hadn't wasted it on junk food. And then any little thing Jason gave her came with the expectation that she'd put out for him. He'd been tolerant of her not being ready to let him touch her in certain ways in the beginning. He'd found her bashfulness somewhat endearing at first, but his patience eventually ran out, and then he started refusing to pay for her on dates because she wouldn't take her shirt off in front of him. It got to the point where she was afraid to even ask him for a stick of gum because she knew that even that would prompt him to request an uncomfortable amount of PDA.

She was so used to every gift holding a ‘but’, and yet Steve was sitting there telling her that this would never be the case with him. It all felt too good to be true.

“So you won't get upset with me if the only way I can show my thanks is with my words?” she asked.

“I promise that won't happen. I just want you to be happy.”

He gave her hand another little squeeze, and this time, she squeezed his hand back.

“Okay. Thank you for taking me to breakfast then,” she told him. “I’d still like to treat you sometimes though. It doesn't have to be lunch today, but I want to be able to treat you, too.”

“How about you buy me breakfast tomorrow then?” he suggested. “We can take turns.”

“I’d really like that. Only if you can manage to get yourself out of bed though. You seem to have an extra hard time getting up when we're sharing a bed,” she teased.

“I don’t remember hearing any complaints about that from you.”

“Oh really? Because I seem to recall me referring to you as the absolute worst.”

“So mean. I changed my mind. I don't wanna share a room with you anymore,” he teased right back.

Chrissy stuck out her lower lip in a pout that made Steve have to resist the urge to lean across the table and kiss it away.

“But then neither of us get any morning cuddles, so really, you’re just punishing yourself here.”

“You do make a good point there,” he said, making a show out of looking as if he were having a hard time making his choice. “Alright. We can room together.”

Chrissy’s expression instantly brightened, and Steve couldn’t help but smile back when she was beaming at him like that. He’d do anything to keep that smile in his life.

***

When they arrived back at the bed and breakfast, Steve offered to walk Chrissy back to her room but paused at the front desk when he realized he’d left his room key in the car.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “Go back and get your key. You don’t need to walk me to my room.”

“Well, yeah, I know I don’t need to. But I’m trying to do this whole first date thing right, and the clearly established rules of the first date say that I’m supposed to walk you to your door where I might be lucky enough to get an end of date kiss.”

“We’re already doing things a little different than a normal first date, so I’m giving you permission to break the rules. You could always give me my end of date kiss right here.”

“Even though it's PDA?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“I think I can make an exception,” she told him. “My uneasiness hasn't disappeared overnight or anything like that, but I'm starting to maybe feel a little more comfortable with it. With you, it doesn't feel so scary.”

That was all Steve needed to hear for him to close the gap between them and lean down to kiss her. She tasted like strawberries and the maple syrup from his pancakes, and he could have spent the entire day falling into that kiss. Sure, he'd kissed plenty of other girls before, but none of them seemed to get him the way that Chrissy did. That only made kissing her even more thrilling, and he couldn't help but smile against her lips. It only egged him on when he felt her smile back.

“Thanks for letting me take you out to breakfast,” he said once they'd pulled apart.

“Thank you for taking me,” she replied. “I had a really nice time with you.”

“I wish it didn't have to end.”

“We're meeting right back here in an hour. You won't even have time to miss me.”

“You underestimate just how much I like spending time with you.”

A blush started to bloom on Chrissy’s cheeks, and he would have kissed her right then and there if he didn't think a second kiss would have toed the line of too much PDA.

Instead, he let her give him a quick hug before she headed off to her room leaving him to retrieve his room key from the car.

When he made it back into the bed and breakfast, he heard someone calling his name as he was walking through the lobby, and he turned to find the old couple that he and Chrissy had spoken with the day before sitting back on the same sofa.

“We hear someone went on a little date this morning,” Ethel said as she motioned for Steve to join them. “We passed Chrissy in the hallway on our way down here, and she was positively glowing. She's just absolutely smitten with you. I can tell.”

“You think so?” he asked.

“I know so. Girls don't get that dreamy look in their eyes for nothing, you know.”

“Well, that's a good thing then because I really like her, too.”

“It is disappointing that I won't be able to pass along my grandson’s number to her, but I think she might have already found her perfect match in you, and I wouldn't dare try to interfere with that.”

“Can I offer you a little bit of advice?” Fred asked. “Use a cheesy pick up line on her. That's how I won this one over, and we're going on fifty-three years of wedded bliss.”

He leaned over and planted a loud kiss on his wife’s cheek.

“Oh, Fred,” she said, swatting at his thigh. “He's always been a corny one, but I've always loved a guy that can make me laugh.”

“I'll definitely give that a shot,” Steve told the couple. “Any other tips you might have for me? I wanna make sure I do things the right way with her.”

“The fact that you're even asking is proof you're already doing everything right,” Ethel told him. “You're a nice boy. Just keep doing whatever you just did on that breakfast date. It's clearly working from how happy she was when we ran into her.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the advice.”

Steve didn't have to wait very long for the perfect opportunity to put Fred’s advice into action. When he finished getting ready for the day, he headed back out to the lobby to wait for the rest of the group and found that Chrissy was already waiting there. She was scanning the selection of brochures and fliers that was set up next to the front desk. He moved to stand next to her and leaned into her space.

“Sorry, but do you have a map in your purse?” he asked. “I think I just got lost in your eyes.”

She turned to face him, and her nose was all scrunched up as she tried to hold in her giggles.

“That was so bad,” she told him as she took his hand in hers.

“But it got you to initiate holding my hand, so I'm pretty sure it worked,” he teased.

“Well, yeah. Of course, it worked,” she teased right back. “I thought we'd already established that I like dorky guys?”

He leaned in to kiss her cheek, but she pouted when he pulled away.

“You missed.”

“I missed?”

She nodded.

“My lips are a little further to the left actually.”

“My mistake. These are your lips, right?” He kissed the tip of her nose. “No, that can't be right. Here, maybe?” He kissed her chin. “That didn't feel right either. Let me try again.” He kissed her left eye that time and then her other cheek, her forehead, and her right ear. He relished in the way she laughed a little bit more with each misplaced kiss.

“I think it's hopeless,” he finally said with an exaggerated sigh. “I'm never going to find them on my own. I think I need your help.”

“Such a colossal dork,” she said with an eye roll before standing up on her tiptoes to give Steve a proper kiss.

After their kiss, he moved to stand behind her so she could lean back against his chest and he could cage her in his arms. He snuck a quick glance back at the seating area where he saw Fred and Ethel giving him a thumbs up.

***

After a long day of touring monuments and a couple more museums, Nancy and Steve swapped rooms with the agreement that these would be the sleeping arrangements for the rest of the trip no matter where they ended up staying. In Steve’s opinion, it was the pretty perfect end to an already great day. Chrissy had held his hand through most of their adventuring, and she’d slowly started to be more comfortable with accepting affection from him in public. She’d even requested kisses from him on more than one occasion.

But maybe his favorite part of the day had been when they stopped at The Good Stuff Eatery for lunch. It was a restaurant owned by a former Top Chef contestant that Eddie insisted they had to stop at. He and his uncle were big on watching cooking competitions together, and he’d promised Wayne that he’d stop there to give him all the details about the food. When they were waiting in line to order, Chrissy had tugged on his hand to get his attention.

“Share a milkshake with me?” she’d asked. “I heard the toasted marshmallow shake is to die for, and I really want to try one, but I’ll never be able to finish one on my own.”

“Can we get two straws and be sickeningly cute?”

“Of course.”

“Then my answer is yes.”

Chrissy had beamed at him and kissed his cheek again, and he had to resist the urge to tell her how proud of her he was. There was a part of him that knew that she wasn’t allowing herself to have a whole milkshake because of her mother, but the fact that she wanted to share one with him was progress, and he couldn’t be happier that she wasn’t depriving herself of the things she wanted to try.

When the two couples had separated to go to their own rooms for the rest of the night, neither Steve nor Chrissy felt ready to go to bed yet.

“How do you feel about going on another little adventure?” Chrissy asked as she exited the bathroom after changing into her pajamas for the night.

“What did you have in mind?”

“I noticed this cute little outdoor seating area when we were leaving this morning, and I was thinking that maybe you’d wanna sit out there and look at the stars with me?”

Steve got up from where he was lounging on the bed to grab his windbreaker and slip on his shoes.

“Lead the way,” he told her.

Chrissy took him by the hand, and they made their way down to a patio off of the building’s back entrance. There was a swinging bench seat with a few plush pillows, and there were fairy lights strung up around the space.

“It’s perfect, right?” Chrissy asked as she pulled Steve over to the seat.

“Definitely.”

Steve draped his jacket around Chrissy’s shoulders before sitting down on the bench and pulling her to sit down with him. He kept one leg firmly planted on the ground to rock them back and forth a little. Chrissy let out a content sigh as she curled into his side and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Are you a shooting star?” Steve asked her. “Because I can’t help but wish you were mine whenever I look at you.”

Chrissy covered her face with her hands as she started giggling.

“That was too corny,” she told him. “Who would have thought that Prom King Steve Harrington was such a dork?”

“I may be a dork, but what does it say about Prom Queen Chrissy Cunningham that my dorky lines have such a big effect on her?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “I wasn’t the prom queen, so I don’t think those terms apply.”

“I find that really hard to believe. You’re pretty much the quintessential prom queen. How could they not elect you?”

“Well, I think you kind of have to go to prom to be elected.”

“You didn’t go to prom?” That fact shocked him. He thought everybody went to their senior prom. Especially popular girls like her. “Why not?”

“I don’t know. Jason had just dumped me two weeks before, all of my friends already had dates, and I didn’t really feel like finding a new date or crashing Eddie’s with Nancy. Plus, Jason found a new date immediately, and I really didn’t want to be forced to watch some other girl hang all over him all night. My parents were out of town for something with my brother, so I just stayed home and watched a bunch of Fraggle Rock in bed. It’s really not that big of a deal.”

But it was a big deal. It broke Steve’s heart to think that she had missed out on such an important event because of whatever bullshit Jason had put her through, and the worst part was that she didn’t even sound sad about it. She’d just accepted that skipping prom was the logical thing to do in her situation even though it wasn’t. She never should have had to make that decision in the first place, and now he was trying to figure out how to throw her a makeup prom once they were back in Hawkins.

He couldn’t just let that information linger though. He didn’t want there to be a cloud hanging over their otherwise perfect day because of what she’d just admitted to him. So, without thinking, he got up from the bench and pulled out his phone. He opened up the link Chrissy had shared to her musical theater playlist, and he chose a song that he remembered her gushing over when she was telling him about why she loved Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella so much. As the opening bars of “Ten Minutes Ago” started to play, he offered Chrissy his hand.

“May I have this dance?” he asked.

“What are you doing?”

“This is the bed and breakfast prom, and you’ve just been crowned prom queen. As your king, I think that means we’re supposed to share a dance.”

 “You really don’t have to do this,” she told him. “It’s okay that I missed prom. I’m fine.”

“I know. I just want you to know that it’s okay if you weren’t fine. And I know this isn’t the same, but maybe it makes up for what you missed just a little bit.”

Chrissy’s lower lip quivered as she took Steve’s hand and let him pull her in for a slow dance. She’d shoved herself into a box where she felt like she had to be agreeable and give up things that mattered to her for so long that that was all that she knew how to do. And now, Steve was slow dancing with her under the stars because he was adamant that she didn’t have to do that. She didn’t have to give up the things she wanted, and she was allowed to be disappointed. What she wanted mattered, and that realization was enough to make her cry.

As the song came to an end, he gave her a little twirl before pulling her back against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, willing herself not to cry as he held her tight against him. She was not going to ruin this beautiful moment with tears. She couldn’t.

When she’d finally composed herself and looked up at him, he was gazing down at her as if she was the only thing that mattered, and it made her feel like her heart was going to burst out of her chest.

“How are you even real?” 

She wasn’t sure if she’d even said that out loud at first, but then Steve let out a small laugh and hugged her tighter. He leaned down to kiss her, and she melted into him.

Chrissy Cunningham was special, damn it, and he was going to do everything in his power to make her realize that.

[starlene]

"Keep them coming"? Ok! 1, 3, 6, 33, 48, 31!

More! More! More! Thanks!

1. How did you first get into musical theatre?

Answered.

3. What is the newest musical you love?

Änglagård (2023). I admit it's a bit of a weird relationship I have with this show – I think there's so much wrong with it, especially when it comes to dramaturgy, and that feels very frustrating to me. But I'm also seeing it for the third time next week, can't wait, and listen to the cast recording all the time.

...though I guess that's more or less my relationship with Jekyll & Hyde too, so maybe it's actually exactly on brand of me to love Änglagård. I can't stop myself from enjoying these problem shows.

6. Who is your favourite musical theatre director?

Answered, but let's talk about a close second.

Tuomas Parkkinen. Of course. When you direct a production of Jekyll & Hyde that worms its way directly into my brain, takes over a large chunk of it for over a decade, and absolutely refuses to leave, you're a forever favourite, no matter what you do afterwards. And that's not to say he hasn't directed other musical productions that I've enjoyed, too – at his best, he has a mischievous (sometimes to the point of bordering chaotic energy) but at the same time extremely well thought out vibe that I really like! Case in point: Evita (2020), gone too soon but never forgotten.

About that Så som i himmelen, though... I've been throwing so much shade on it, I can't not mention it here. Of course, since I refused to actually go and see it based on everything I heard about it, I don't think it'd be quite fair of me to hold it against him. But oh man. Let's just say he apparently sees my favourite musical from a perspective I can't even begin to understand, and probably vice versa.

33. Talk about a performance in a role that you can't forget.

I still think about Morgan Alling as Harold Zidler daily. Just spin him around in my brain. He was perfect in a way I don't really have words for, he just made me like the character so much, I wanted to watch him all the time and lift him from the stage and put him in my pocket so I could put him on my bookshelf back home and always keep him?? Just so enjoyable to watch every second he was onstage. I loved him. I want him back.

48. What's the worst musical you've ever seen? What made it so bad?

The Prince of Egypt was such a thorough downgrade of every aspect of the source material that I doubt... well, I hope no other musical will ever be able to let me down like that.

Maybe, had I seen it without any prior knowledge of the movie and the story of Moses and whatever, it wouldn't be the absolute worst I've seen – it did have some nice choreography, and the original songs will always be bangers, even when butchered like some of them were – but when compared to the movie and my sky-high expectations, and then the fact that we went all the way to Denmark to see it... for me, it really doesn't get any worse than that.

31. Is there a musical that means a lot to you that isn't one of your favourites? What made you feel that way about it?

Cats. I don't think I would be the person I am today without it, really, but I also don't consider myself a fan. I had an intense three-month relationship with it back in the day, and that was it, pretty much.

Ask me some musical theatre questions for old and cynical musical theatre fans

[eponastory]

Hey, saw the post where you think Aang is not suitable to be with anyone, and I...kind of agree. I mean, even though Bryke royally screwed up his character like a mother-effer, he's still fictional...and in the words of every person who likes somebody, but sees their dark side, "I can fix him!". XP But yeah, no, in the show, he's really just a shitty self-insert, the worst kind...gosh, I feel like everyone is brainwashed and accepting Aang's idiotic decisions in the comics and all the other crap media that relates to the original show.

But mark my words! The LA version of Avatar: The Last Airbender WILL BE BETTER than the cartoon! And people will know that soon. So get your nostalgia glasses off, Avatar 'fans', cause we gettin' real with this version. Meaning, your cartoon wasn't perfect, it wasn't flawless, it wasn't even epic! It was just a generic show, up when it reached season 3, and that's when it all went downhill. Yeah, I'm salty over the fans, bada-bing-bada-boom! XP

But yeah, even though Aang is played by an actual person, would you say that you like this Aang better than the cartoon version of Aang? Not because it's played by a real person, but maybe because this version of Aang is the REAL Aang that was needed in the cartoon? :O

Absolutely on all counts.

See, when it comes to animation, writers can get away with a lot of tropes and goofy things because it's a different kind of media. When it comes to acting out those goofy things and tropes, it is really hard for a human being to act in the exaggerated manner characters do in animation. That being said, this does lend more of a human connection to LA adaptations, and I also think that's why a lot of adaptations do fail. NATLA has a lot of work cut out for it, but I do think they have the right cast and made the right changes to reflect that. This is why it's getting a lot of heat from OG fans because they seem to forget that animation is hard to adapt. For what it's worth, I do think the show did a good job for the first season. It works. It definitely has some cosmetic and storytelling flaws, but I don't think it completely ruins it.

Looking at you, 2010 disaster.

I do love Aang in the LA because he is much less naive and actually more grounded, which is a plus.

But I do think the show would benefit from not having the romantic subplot of season 3 or the whole series in general. They did well in season 1 with the developing friendships, and I hope it stays that way. Otherwise, I think we will have the same problems that we had in the OG.

BTW Sokka and Suki being very awkward and cringy in the LA is exactly what happens when teenagers meet each other. If you don't remember those days, it's probably because you were born after Facebook was invented.

[krizaland]

Found Once Again Chapter 19

LMK Wukong x Bao Li

First Previous

Bao Li gazed into Wukong's golden eyes for a moment.

He truly was sincere with each word he spoke.

Bao Li had to admit, she did miss Wukong's warm hugs.

And how patient he was with her.

And how kind he was to her.

In that moment, Bao Li felt as if she was falling for Wukong all over again.

"Well. There is one thing I must apologize for: I'm sorry for leaving you. That was truly a foolish, foolish thing on my part. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course I do! Like I said, you've got nothing to be sorry for here!" Wukong reminded as he dried her tears with his thumb.

"Then, may I ask you one last question?"

"Of course. Anything."

"Would you...Would you like to get back together again?" Bao Li squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the worst.

But the worst never came.

Instead, she was met with an absolutely flabbergasted Wukong.

His jaw nearly hit the ground and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

He promptly let go of Bao Li's face and rolled up one of his sleeves.

"Do me a favor. Pinch me as hard as you can. And don't hold back." Wukong instructed quickly as he shoved his exposed arm into her face.

"Um, oh-Kay then..."

PINCH!

"YEOWCH! Ok, definitely not dreaming!" Wukong chuckled as he rubbed his arm.

"Oh dear! Are you alright-"

"Bao Li I have never been more alright in my life! Do you really want to get back together?!" Wukong squeaked, his eyes twinkling with hope.

"Yes. I do. I really really do!" Bao Li confessed as more tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Wait! Are you sure? Because you don't have to-"

"I know but I want to. "

In a flurry of excitement, Wukong grabbed Bao Li's face and pulled her into a long overdue kiss.

Bao Li was shocked for a moment before returning the kiss.

Tears poured down Wukong's cheeks.

After all the years he spent grieving, never in his wildest dreams did Wukong think he'd even see his beloved peach again let alone taste her sweet, sweet, lips once more.

She still tasted just as wonderful as she did all those years ago.

Wukong's tongue desperately explored every inch of her mouth, savoring every flavor of his sweet peach.

Wukong clung to Bao Li's face for dear life in fear she'd fade away at any moment.

Bao Li felt her heart race as she returned the kiss.

The sweet taste of peaches overwhelmed her senses as her tongue playfully wrestled back.

It felt as if time itself had slowed down to a stop.

All that seemed to matter was she and Wukong.

If this was a dream, Bao Li hoped she'd never wake up.

Bao Li was so certain she wanted to live her life without Wukong. But now she honestly felt as if she'd die if she never got to feel like this again.

What a fool she had been!

The feeling of guilt soon melted into a feeling of pure bliss as she melted into the kiss.

It felt as if a missing part of her heart had finally been found once again.

Eventually, the kiss slowly came to an end.

Wukong reluctantly parted from the kiss and begun to pant.

"Sorry about that...peaches...Guess I got carried away."

"It's...alright... I missed that. A lot." Bao Li giggled as she caught her breath.

"Yes! Finally! The Monkey King and The Crystal Princess are back together again!"

The sound of MK's excited cheers startled both monkeys.

"Oh dear! MK I'm so sorry! I guess we forgot you were-"

"Ah, don't worry about it. The kid's fine, right MK?" Wukong chuckled as he looked over at MK.

"I'm more than ok! I'm so glad you guys are finally back together again!" MK cheered as he punched the air.

"You know what? I am too-" -Bao Li looked back at Wukong- "-Thank you for-"

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Wait! Were you just about to thank me for taking you back?!" Wukong asked incredulously.

"Well I mean-"

"Peaches. Look. At. Me-" -Wukong grabbed her face- "-You don't have to thank me or apologize for anything. You've done nothing wrong here, ok?"

"Ok." Bao Li agreed, her voice muffled by Wukong squeezing her cheeks.

"Good-" -Wukong turned to MK- "-Sorry, bud. Looks like we're gonna have to cut training short today."

"No problem! I'll give you two love birds some privacy! See you later!"

And with that, MK trotted off.

Once he was certain MK had left, Wukong turned his attention back to Bao Li.

"Now that we're alone, I have a very special idea to celebrate us getting back together."

"Oh? Do tell! Do tell!"

"I could tell you but I'd rather just show you." Wukong teased.

Before Bao Li could respond, Wukong scooped her up, bridal style, and carried her out of the Treasure Room.

After a few minutes of walking, Wukong carried Bao Li to a lovely spot that overlooked the mountainside.

"Here we are!" Wukong sang as he gently set Bao Li down.

Bao Li's eyes lit up as she took in the beautiful scenery below.

She could practically see all of Flower Fruit Mountain from where she sat!

"Wow! It's beautiful up here, Wukong!"

"Not as beautiful as you." Wukong purred as he plopped down next to her.

Wukong then ripped out a few of his hairs and summoned a lovely picnic.

"Oooh! This looks really yummy-" -Bao Li took some food and tried a bite- "-Um, I don't mean to be rude but am I eating...hair right now?"

Wukong's eyes widened as he realized what he had just done.

"Ack! Sorry, Peaches! I forgot that you're not a big fan of hair-food! Here, lemme fix this."

Wukong immediately turned the picnic back into clumps of hair.

Wukong then transformed the hair clumps into several clones of himself.

The clones immedeantly dashed off to all corners of the mountain.

"Eh? What's going on?" Bao Li asked curiously.

"Just wait. They should be back right about-"

Wukong was cut off by the clones returning with armfuls of fresh peaches.

"-Now. Excellent work guys!"

The clones all took a bow before turning back into clumps of hair.

Wukong then blew the clumps of hair away and handed Bao Li a peach.

"There we go. Much better."

Next

———————————————————

Like what you’ve read? Buy me a Ko-Fi

[reginarubie]

Hi, Regina!

You know, it's been a pretty tough day for me. My condition was not good because of period pain, I had to change the subject of my thesis after consulting with my professor, and even family issues occurred. It was a pretty stressful day.

And then I saw your new story. THE DAEMON'S POV. What have I done for you to do me this good grace? I'm completely, absolutely, positively love this story.

I’d just like to tell you I adore your story and admire how much work you put out there. According to GRRM, Daemon Targaryen is one of the greyest characters in the entire history of Westeros. He’s a notorious bad boy and a rogue in every sense of the word, a very colorful and unpredictable character. AND THEN your Daemon in the story I saw today was just *chef's kiss

I couldn't stop admiring how vividly you expressed Daemon's character. The dynamic and relationship of the characters you keep showing... This is brilliant. I'll never get enough of your writing.

And I must say, the way Daemon described Sansa was interesting. the woman he’d make his own reflection, the perfect combination of boldness and finesse. Is this one of the reasons he was attracted to her? For some kind of narcissistic reason? (I don't know if I understand correctly) Well this is interesting🤔

And wait, Daemon? Did he just masturbate while thinking of Sansa? WOW so he's really infatuated with her. Damn. Well, I should have known from the fact that he uses a poor girl as a substitute for Sansa. But still, surprised is surprised. When I read the sentence, I doubted my English reading skills and double-checked whether I read it wrong. But it was a real.

Now I'm starting to worry about what Daemon will do to Sansa when he takes over King's Landing. Worry 30%, excitement 70%. To be honest.

Lastly, thank you for letting me read a fantastic story after a hard day today! It was like a gift to me. Thank you so much😊

Ciao nonny!,

Sorry to hear you’re feeling a tad miserable. Period pains can be the worst especially when other shits piles up over it!

I’ve graduated a while ago, and I remember having to change my professor mid-thesis and having to change it all drastically to the point it was unrecognisable from my original idea and what I had written that far. But it turned out for the best and helped me get the best grade possible I could achieve.

So, sit tight there and do your best!, and you will see that in the end it will be for the best. And if you still don’t feel the topic, just dump the professor and find a new one that will help you grow in the direction you feel right!

The academic world and life in general is full of possibilities as long as you let yourself entertain them!

I’m sorry for your family matters, and I hope they are resolved soon, know this, I’m always ready to offer a shoulder to cry on or a listening ear!

Now, onto the story!!! I’m happy you enjoyed it!

Also, to specify, Daemon did not masturbate to Sansa precisely, more to the narcissistic vision he was having. If you noticed he was more active on it thinking about Rhaenyra exploding and becoming what he wanted her to, not a dreamy princess but a dragon. And his own idea of being remembered is what sends him over the edge of pleasure. So, it’s a bit more complex than Daemon getting off anyone he thinks beautiful and intelligent.

I think the girl is more like a vessel, the power he exercise on her is what he craves, and the fact that she superficially resembles Sansa means he feels like he is exercising that kind of power over Sansa. He’s not obsessed over Sansa per se, but over the power he wants to have over her.

I’m happy the story lift your spirits a bit! That’s what I work hard for, and knowing it helped you today I’m very happy indeed!

As always thank you for dropping by and sending all my love ~G.

[pickledpascal]

You're Not Alone in This World

Chapter Five

Warnings: a bit of blood

Word Count: 2.9k

You're Not Alone in This World Masterlist

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Finding time to talk to Andrea proved to be a lot harder than Connor anticipated. Andrea was busy most days with briefings and cases, similarly Connor was busy with cases. And even after work, his system became so tired that he didn't have the motivation to speak with her. He needed to make plans. Something concrete. Preferably on a weekend he didn't work. A Saturday seemed to be the best bet.

In between trying to grab some evidence, Connor dropped by Andrea's desk when she seemed free. "Lieutenant Cartier, I was wondering if maybe…" He coughed, feeling the thirium rise in his cheeks. The nervousness in his gut made him want to stop. But Hank said he should just get it over with. "If you'd like to go on a date with me sometime this weekend? We're both off on Saturday." He mustered up a charming smile, folding his hands behind his back.

Rejection would be the worst thing. Connor wasn't sure what he'd do.

Andrea promptly stopped whatever she was in the middle of signing and glanced over at Connor. She pursed her lips as she stared at him. She could tell he was nervous. Hell, probably everyone in the precinct could tell simply by looking at him for a second. A second too long in Connor's opinion. The lieutenant abruptly stood from her desk and grabbed his hand, pulling him into a nearby closet. She locked it as soon as they stumbled inside.

Connor took a quick breath, his eyes widening. What was happening? It looked scarily similar to some movies Hank would watch where the characters took this all the way. Him and Andrea were so close together. Her touch was incredible. Like electricity. Maybe he needed to turn his touch sensitivity down…

With a sigh, Andrea backed away from Connor and leaned against the wall. "Sorry, Connor… but I didn't want anyone else to hear what I'm about to tell you." She whispered softly. The detective cocked his head. He really hoped it wasn't that she didn't want to hurt his feelings in front of all their co-workers. It would've been embarrassing either way. "Connor, I'm not what you think I am."

Adorable? Absolutely. Gorgeous? There wasn't a doubt about it. Caring? Did he even have to question that? Passionate? He saw that passion every day working by her side. Overall incredible? Yes. So what was it that Connor didn't think she was?

"I'm a Goddess." Connor cocked an eyebrow at her. Unsure what she meant in this context. "With powers and everything and even a weird 'Goddess' mode." Andrea explained, fiddling with her fingers. She glanced up at Connor. He was doubtful. His LED was yellow and his eyes were filled with skepticism. She wasn't sure how else someone would react. She'd probably react the same way if she didn't know the truth about how the world turned.

Andrea pursed her lips as she stared at Connor. Telling him wasn't enough. She knew she'd have to show him. Taking Connor's hand, she asked him softly, "You can retract your skin here." Andrea placed her palm against his.

Connor knew what Andrea was trying to do. But it couldn't work. She was made of flesh, he was made of metal and plastic. But he'd humor her anyway. The skin on his arm slowly went away as his palm and finger pads started to glow turquoise. He blinked.

Interfacing like this only happened between two androids who had a deep connection with each other. Simon and Markus were the first he's ever heard of. A human and an android interfacing was… a first. Or maybe she was a goddess?

Suddenly, Connor was pulled from consciousness. He saw an unfamiliar place. It was night and he was by the ocean. A girl was running down steps attached to marble pillars, she stopped once she felt the waves on her toes. He tried to scan the face of the girl with a better view but to no avail. He felt like he was in the Eden garden. He couldn't access anything. But those streaks of white in black hair were familiar. He was facing a teenage Andrea. She wore robes of black while silver plates at her shoulders attached them together. Her hair was in a braid to make the crown made of silver fit better around her head.

The girl looked up at the moon and cocked her head at it. It's existed for as long as she has. Unlike most of the Gods, she did not come out a fully formed adult. Her aging was much, much slower to the point that she'd looked like a teenager for thousands of years and barely anything had changed.

As the waves grew stronger, a man walked out of the ocean. He had a trident and golden armor around his body. Connor had an idea as to who that could be. "Brother." Andrea sighed. Poseidon was her brother? Then was she… part of the high circle of Olympus? But Olympus was only a myth. It couldn't be real.

"Sister." Poseidon hummed. He glanced back at the moon and smiled as he sat on the sand. The coolness of night made it soft and cold. "Sit with me."

Andrea pursed her lips and nodded as she sat next to her brother. Poseidon was her favorite sibling. He was kind and strangely level-headed compared to Hades and Zeus. She watched the moon as well, the light shimmering in her dark eyes.

Poseidon tilted his head slightly, "Your creation is beautiful. And I think we work well together." He smiled. He could only truly be happy with his sister. He didn't need anything else unlike Zeus. Their brother needed the humans to believe in him, to believe he was all powerful. Ruling by fear wasn't what Poseidon wanted. Neither did Andrea.

Connor processed this information before he glanced at the moon. Andrea was the goddess of the moon? The scenery washed away in the sand as his eyes blinked open. He hadn't realized they closed. Andrea stared at him with soft eyes as she intertwined their fingers. So Gods did really walk among the Earth. He had so many questions.

The lieutenant took a breath and grabbed one of the silver hair clips she had to keep it up. "This is made of a metal only forged in Olympus. It's one of the only things that can hurt Gods." She whispered, taking her hand away from Connor's so she could prick herself with it. A bead of purple oozed out of Andrea.

Her blood.

Instinctively, Connor lifted her hand to his mouth and licked at her blood. His tongue automatically analyzed it but came up with nothing. Not even one chemical compound that he could identify.

Andrea's eyebrows furrowed as her breathing paused. Connor just licked her. Right after she revealed what she was to him. "I, uh…" She coughed. Connor moved his head away from her hand and looked up at her. "I just wanted to… tell you. Before we go any further." She admitted. She hadn't told anyone else what she was because she didn't need to. People have expressed their interest but Andrea wasn't interested in them.

This was the first relationship Andrea was sure would last. Much like herself, Connor was practically immortal.

"You want to go on a date?" Connor smiled, not noticing the way his LED went pink. It was innocent, like he didn't just lick her hand in one of the most weirdly erotic ways Andrea had ever seen. She simply nodded. He felt ecstatic. Should he kiss Andrea? No. That was something they'd do after the first or second date, he concluded.

Andrea cocked her head. Pink was an usual color for an LED. She's never seen that happen before, even on deviated androids. There was just blue, yellow, and red. Pink… had to mean something significant.

The handle on the door started jerking, startling both of them. Andrea set her hand on the handle to unlock it and cracked it open.

Thankfully, it was just Hank. He had a shit-eating grin on his face when Andrea fully opened the door. "It's like you're teenagers or something. The closet, really?" He cocked an eyebrow.

Andrea coughed to regain her composure. "Well, we've all known I've been bisexual for a while now." She chuckled softly, nudging Connor who did not understand his cue.

Hank stood in front of them, unimpressed. "Cartier, Fowler wants you in his office. Nothing bad, cause it never is with you. And Connor…" His gaze shifted to the almost entirely blue android and pursed his lips. "We have a crime scene to get to."

Andrea nodded while Connor coughed and made his way next to Hank. Andrea smiled at the pair before she made her way to Fowler's office. She hummed a little while she opened the glass door only to find someone she didn't recognize standing across from Fowler's desk. A newbie. He had to be. Or maybe he was some important official. She would know his face if he was, though.

Captain Fowler glanced between the two people standing in front of him. "Lieutenant Cartier, this is Daniel Cruz. He's a detective straight from the academy and I would greatly appreciate it if you took him under your wing. Showed him around." He paused, watching for Andrea's reaction. She seemed unphased. "He won't be your partner. He'll have his own cases but if he wants you to accompany him, it'd be best that you do."

It wasn't the first time Andrea was assigned a rookie to get familiarized with the job. Most of them went on to bigger and better things. She was proud of them, especially if they decided being a police officer was not for them. It wasn't for everyone.

"You are dismissed." Fowler ordered. Andrea and Daniel left his office.

"So, do you have a desk or anything yet?" Andrea asked, cocking her head as she leaned against the railing outside Fowler's office.

Daniel shook his head, "It's my first day. I don't think I have an assigned locker either." He shrugged. His posture was very uptight but a lot of rookies were like that. It'd go away eventually.

Andrea pursed her lips as she led the way into the main part of the station. She looked around at the few desks that were free. She didn't want to give away the one across from hers just in case she was officially assigned a partner. Chris wouldn't mind a buddy, would he? Eh, no. Of course not. Chris could make friends with anyone. Including Gavin.

"Then you're taking this one." Andrea tapped at the desk next to Chris' with a smile. "I have a case file right now if you wanna look at it. Could use some fresh ideas." She admitted as she grabbed her chair and sat in it.

Daniel sat in his seat and cocked his head. "Are you allowed to do that?" He assumed most cases assigned to lieutenants were high profile.

Andrea laughed and nodded, logging into Daniel's terminal. "These guys are unlocked by your hand so if you wanna open it, just put your palm on the keyboard and viola! You're in." She clicked on a few folders and let Daniel look through them.

Daniel pursed his lips as he looked through the file. He winced at a few photos. Some of them were too gory for him. Right, a lot of rookies were still sensitive to seeing blood. She forgot about that. It's been a while. Daniel persisted. An admirable quality. In some people. She watched the way his eyes floated across each picture and document. It was interesting to see his process and compare it to her own.

"See anything interesting?" Andrea asked, cocking an eyebrow. She wouldn't be mad if he couldn't, he wasn't trained enough to go over every single inch of every photo and document they've gathered so far.

Daniel let out a breath and chuckled, "No. All I see are a bunch of dead bodies. What's this case on anyway?" He asked, moving his chair away to let Andrea log out.

She ran a hand through her hair and swept it to one side. "It's a serial killer case. He's only been active for a few months but it's better to catch him sooner rather than later." Andrea explained as she exited out of the tab and logged out of the terminal so Daniel could. "Any cases given to you will be on here. Most emails will be on here too, unless you wanna connect it to your phone or a computer you got at home." She leaned back in her seat, looking around the station. She'd probably need to give Daniel a proper tour.

Andrea motioned for him to stand as she did. "Most things are easy to find. The break room is in that corner but most people just eat their lunch at their desk unless they're free." She led him around. "This is the detainment room. This is for suspects or to contain people until they can be properly transported to a jail." Thankfully, there was no one inside or she'd feel it would be awkward. "The evidence room. You'll get your own key and password eventually but it's in the name. Any evidence we gather, we put it in here." Daniel absorbed as much information as he could. The layout itself was fairly simple to memorize.

"We do have a training room in the basement but I'm like the only one who uses it. And Connor." Andrea cocked her eyebrow as she remembered. Although, she's only seen him use it once. The only time she's seen him frustrated.

Daniel titled his head. "Connor?" Right, he hadn't met anyone besides her and Captain Fowler.

"He's a detective. He's Lieutenant Anderson's partner. And son, technically now I guess." Andrea let out a breathy laugh. Daniel stared cluelessly. "Well, you'll meet him soon, anyway."

The rookie simply nodded as the pair went back to his desk. There wasn't much for him to do on his first day except fill out a few forms. Andrea sat at her desk and put on some headphones, glancing at Daniel every few seconds while she worked on her case. Research was one of the most tedious parts of the job but she enjoyed it. Especially whenever she got a lead.

After an hour or so, Andrea felt a tap on her shoulder. She expected it to be Daniel asking about something but no, it was Connor. She lowered her headphones to be around her neck and blinked at the sight in front of her. Connor had a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

"Hello, lieutenant!" He smiled brightly. Andrea took the cup and smiled back at him. It was hard not to. "I hope I made the coffee to your liking."

She took a sip and wasn't surprised that he captured her preferred cream to sugar ratio perfectly. "It's great, Connor. Thank you." Andrea coughed a bit, "How was the crime scene?"

Taking the incentive to engage in conversation, Connor sat at the edge of Andrea's desk. "Dirty. However, I was able to find the perpetrator in a few hours. A new record, I believe." He teased softly, fiddling his fingers against the desk. "What did Fowler want?"

"I got rookie duty." Andrea pursed her lips, glancing at Daniel. Connor followed her line of sight and cocked his head. "Not a horrible thing. He seems alright. So that's good."

Connor looked back at Andrea and scanned over her vitals. The palm of her hand was completely healed even before he left. It was hard to wrap his head around. Andrea was immortal. Like he was. Not only that, but she had the power to control the moon. Or something like that. And that all Gods were real. Well, all Greek Gods. Poseidon was in her memory but, during his ride to the crime scene with Hank, Connor looked up the Goddess of the moon.

Her name was Selene. Not Andrea. Unless Andrea changed her name from Selene but he doubted she'd feel the need for that.

Connor's breath paused when Andrea took his hand. "What's up? You got that face that says you're thinking a bit too hard. And your LED is yellow." She whispered softly.

"I am just confused. When I looked up the Greek Goddess of the moon, your name did not show up. Selene did." Connor admitted, squeezing her hand a bit. He could feel the heat radiating off her. It was comforting. He liked that feeling.

Andrea snorted a bit. "Well, that's because the Greeks got a few things wrong. I am the Goddess of the moon and the Goddess of justice. They thought I was two separate entities. My name has always been Andrea." Her thumb instinctively rubbed against his palm.

Connor processed the information, his LED spun yellow before it finally went back to blue. The Goddess of the moon and justice. They made sense together, in his mind. No wonder why she became a lieutenant. A goddess of the moon might want to work at NASA but a goddess of justice…

Yeah, he liked her like this. In a position of power. Something she was used to, he was sure.

[deathofacupid]

so close, yet so far | peter parker

this post is a part of a series called "but you're the one i want"! click here to read parts one, two, and three!

ask to be added to the taglist, and check out my full masterlist here...

reblog, like, and comment!

summary: summary: you've fallen in love with peter, and the worst part? you can't. not when you know you must be with someone else.

warning: flirting, maybe cursing, teeny bit of angst/sad petey for a second, use of y/n, mentions of death and school shooting (lemme know if i missed any)

pairing: peter parker x fem!reader (this is in 3rd person!)

word count: 1.4k+ words

peter

"it's kinda chilly," peter noted. "come over to my place instead," he murmured, pulling away from the hug.

"okay," y/n smiled, stepping away.

they walked in silence, but unlike before, it was a little uncomfortable.

"you have any family here in new york?"

"no. just one or two close friends."

do i count as a close friend?

"my mom's still in florida, and my brot-... he's, um, not really around."

"he goes to school in florida? how old is he?"

"no, no, i mean he's not around. like, he's... not alive. and he would have been 17 if he were. it was... uh, it was a school shooting.   h-he was eight." she fanned her eyes, forcing a laugh.

"actually, you know what? l-let's just go. it's fine, it's fine. i'm sorry i brought that up. i didn't mean to kill the mood," she chuckled awkwardly, suddenly regretting all her life decisions. peter didn't say anything, he knew that sometimes, sometimes it's better not to think about those things. and it doesn't help when people try and pry.

he gave y/n a smile, and took his hand in hers. he blushed, but it was out of her line of sight, so she didn't notice. peter spent the whole walk there hoping she wouldn't pull her hand away. soon enough, they were at the parker residence.

"uh, my aunt may isn't here, so we have the house to ourselves."

he had to pull his hand away to unlock the door, which he mentally frowned at.

"you live with your aunt?"

"yeah, my uncle ben died, so if i left, she wouldn't have anyone to stay with. i just don't want to leave her alone like that, you know?"

"that's honestly so sweet of you, peter." he blushed at that.

"i wish i had someone to live with like that. it gets lonely every now and then."

peter hummed in acknowledgement, his heart doing a 360.

he watched nervously as she looked around, "nice place. real cozy."

"isn't cozy just realtor talk for small?"

"maybe, but i didn't mean it like that. it feels nice in here, like a home. an actual home."

he wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he didn't bother about that. peter walked up the stairs to his room, y/n right behind.

"um, i-it's a little messy."

"oh. yeah i can see that. is- is that underwear?" she asked, gesturing to the garment on chair.

his eyes widened as he grabbed it and threw it into his closet.

"t-that's not mine!"

"the spider-man underwear isn't yours? my bad."

he looked around the room, still bright red, as he started throwing some clothes into the closet. after he was done, he slammed the door closed. y/n was trying her absolute hardest not to laugh.

spoiler alert: it wasn't working very well.

this is absolutely degrading.

she slipped off one of her heels as peter sat on the swivel chair. y/n sighed in relief, taking those lousy heels off. well, it wasn't really a sigh. it was more of a moan.

get your mind out of the gutter, peter.

peter blushed red and turned the chair around to face the laptop. he scrolled through the new daily bugle posts to distract himself from thinking such scandalous thoughts.

yes, he did like to google himself every now and then. but it wasn't a pride thing, it was just to see what people... well, what people thought of him. because as much as he didn't want to, he really cared about that.

peter was trying to not process what he was feeling for her. obviously, there was something there. he just didn't want to over complicate what they had.

also, he didn't trust himself. not with y/n. peter wasn't going to allow himself to make the same mistake. in the end, captain stacy had been right.

peter swallowed, trying to think about something else. but no matter what he tried, his mind traced back to y/n.

nope. no. no, no, no. there are no crushes here. none at all.

he groaned loudly and banged his head on the table.

"woah there, are you okay? cause you seem very un-okay. seriously, don't complain when you get yourself a concussion."

peter blushed a bright red and didn't move, keeping his head on the table. he had completely forgot she was even there.

"peter? are you good?" her voice was laced with concern, and that didn't help his crush. it might have been small, but regardless, it existed. how was a 23 year old man struggling this much with something so minor? he should be able to deal with a crush.

he looked up, trying to come up with a sensible excuse that wouldn't freak her out. peter turned around, only to be meet with her deep, loving eyes. she ran her hand through his hair, dropping it to cup his cheek.

peter's breath hitched slightly, seeing as the proximity between the two was very small. sure, he was nervous to kiss her the other time, but this felt way different. he was almost... scared. it was odd, he had always felt more confident as spider-man. maybe that's why, he told himself.

"just- uh... work stuff. got a l-lot to catch up on, y-you know?" he was looking everywhere, just not at her. he knew she was leaning in, and it was freaking him out.

"yeah?"

"uh-huh..." peter finally locked eyes with her, and quickly regretted it. because as soon as he did, he couldn't look away. their lips were centimeters away, and he found himself leaning in as well, unable to help it.

y/n’s lips brushed his, and as soon as they did, the two of them were interrupted.

"peter?" aunt may called out. "honey, you home?"

she flinched and practically leaped back in fear. "i thought you said you were home alone?"

"i-i thought we were. may's shift m-must have ended early."

he noticed a change in her demeanor.

...disappointment?

he heart leaped at the thought. had she really wanted to kiss him? but what about spider-man? he loved aunt may, but right now, there was a twinge of frustration that he couldn't push away.

"uh- yeah! i'm up here! with a... a..." he glanced at you, "a friend?" his voice had faded to a whisper towards the last couple of words as his eyes met hers. he didn't know what to say about what just happened, and he guessed that she didn't know either.

y/n

"s-sorry," she murmured, looking away, "i, um, shouldn't have done that."

"no!"

she looked at him, clearly confused.

"i-i mean, it's fine. maybe it'll go better next time," he offered with a smile.

next time?

her head was spinning. over the past couple of days, she had decided that she liked peter. a lot.

and they almost kissed. that was crazy. who cares about spider-man? he's spider-man! for all she knew, that was a fling. besides, she didn't want to date the man-bug. she didn't even know who he was.

sure, yeah, it would be cool. but how do you have a relationship with someone you don't know?

but peter? peter was so different. nothing like anyone she'd ever met. every word exchanged made her heart soar. peter made her so happy. and the funniest part?

he didn't even have to try. not one bit.

y/n’s breathing was still uneven, the rush of adrenaline and confidence she had was down the drain.

"um. i need to go," she rushed down the stairs, not thinking a second thought.

"oh, hi there! are you a friend of peter's?"

"yes, yeah... a friend." the word had rolled off his tongue so smoothly that it had bothered her. in all honestly, hadn't even noticed that peter was following her.

y/n drew in a breath. "uh, yes, i'm y/n l/n. it's nice to meet you, may."

"it's great to meet you too! peter's told me a lot about you."

she glanced him, taking note of his bright red face. "oh, really? all good things, i hope?"

"of course!"

"well, it was nice to see you, but i'm afraid that i do have to be going," y/n plastered a smile on her face.

"i understand, you should come over more. our house is always welcome to you."

she gave the older woman a more genuine smile and left the house. y/n hailed a cab before peter came after her.

at this point, she just wanted to figure this out.

what was going on between her and peter?

taglist! @whatsupstark @ell0ra-br3kk3r @idli-dosa @susvale @kdbsr-h @littlemsbumblebee

[ka-za-ri]

Descent Pt. 5

And we’re back again with some more Simeon! I still hate every word I write! The past few chapters have been a challenge to slough through, but I hope you still take this humble offering enjoy it.

Chapter Index and Obey Me! Masterlist: here Ao3 Mirror: Here Part [1] Part [2] Part [3] Part 4: [4] Part [5] Part [6] Part [7] Part [8] Part [9] Part [10] Pairing: Simeon x Reader   Genre: Smut   Wordcount: 4,300 ish   Tags: Sex toys, smut, femdom, anal toys, oral, pet play, anal Summary:  Simeon presents you a plot twist to his novel that leaves you gobsmacked and surprised, to say the least.

Slide

It became a regular occurrence for you to be working ‘overtime’ during the weekends with Simeon. It wasn’t something you minded. He always seemed to have something he wanted to try and it didn’t seem like he was falling behind in making any deadlines, so you didn’t have any concerns with indulging him in whatever he wanted to do.

On more than one occasion, he let you be in control. There was always a thrill that ran through you when he allowed you to dictate just how the scene would go. Simeon was eager to please and you were more than satisfied with what his tongue and his fingers could do to you. If you wanted anything more than that, he was always happy to please you with one of the many tools at his disposal.

The weeks melded into one another and work was always on your mind. It became a bit problematic considering your other clients also needed your attention. Luckily, with Simeon being so high profile, you were able to transfer the workload to a few new recruits the company had just hired. Though the transition wasn’t exactly something you wanted to do, you were rather attached to all your clients, Simeon’s work took priority above anything else.

The epic spy story he concocted had quickly become quite the project for you to edit. He somehow wove a rather involved story outside of the intense sex scenes. It meant you had to go through his words with a fine toothed comb to ensure there weren’t any inconsistencies. It meant you had to remain impartial and critical of the sex scenes he wrote. Seeing the lewd acts you had done written on paper had a different effect on you than you expected. It made your face burn knowing that your escapades with your client would be immortalized on paper. There was also an excitement about it, being the only people who knew of the source of such lascivious words.

Despite all the sexy rendezvous the two of you had on the regular, Simeon never failed to be the prim and proper author during the regular work week. He went to meetings with the publishing house with you as needed and made appearances for interviews to maintain his relevancy. Not once did he ever put his reputation or his relationship with you at risk while the public eye was on him. It was such an odd dichotomy between his professional self and the version of him that appeared whenever he was alone with you, you sometimes wondered if he was actually two different people.

What you didn’t know was how difficult it was for Simeon to keep everything in check. The more time he spent with you, the more his desires grew and became a dark void within him, swallowing the light he had spent centuries cultivating. He wanted so much more than what he was allowed. He had an internal mantra going at all times, reminding him that what he did was for work, he could never defile you. He respected you too much to drag you down to the dark with him. He was better than that. He was an angel. Your angel.

You always looked forward to the weekends. Simeon always took such good care of you whenever you stayed over. It was a chance for the both of you to unwind, even if it was for ‘work’ purposes. He eventually lost most of his initial shyness and became more vocal about what he wanted. The direction worked well in his favor, helping him write the most detailed sex scenes you had ever read in your entire life. His years of literary experience truly made up for his lack of sexual knowlege whenever he submitted something for you to go over. It was hard to critique the quality of the scene, but you could always find a few missing commas or half finished sentences here and there for him to fix up.

He found pleasure on nearly every surface of his home, save for his bedroom. Something about that room seemed too sacred to breech for him. Not that you really minded, there was more space on the floor and it was easier to bend him over the arm of a couch to help him into his favorite plug. He had taken quite a liking to it, often telling you after a long meeting or interview that he had sat through it with it in him. “It’s good research.” He explained, but you didn’t know how much of that really was for his book and how much of it was for his own pleasure.

So, when he greeted you one weekend, you nearly fainted when you saw him sporting a skin tight sheer body suit, bunny ears and a tail to match.

“What the hell are you thinking?!” You couldn’t make eye contact with him, not when he was dressed like that. “What part of your book has anything to do with … any of this?”

He blinked innocently and smiled, guiding you over to his couch so you could sit down and compose yourself. You heard the front door click closed and the sound of him locking it seemed to be so much louder than usual. It was too bold of him to approach you like this, he had said nothing about a scenario like this, and you were sure there was nothing in his book that would hint at any of the characters dressing in such a manner.

You couldn’t deny he looked absolutely spectacular in that get up, though.

It was surreal watching him saunter back to the living room and casually take a seat across from you, crossing his legs and looking as if he wasn’t dressed up like the definition of insanely provocative. “So, I’m sure you have some questions.”

“I… I can’t figure out where to start asking you,” you admitted, unable to tear your eyes away from how well the body suit hugged his taut muscles and left nothing to the imagination. The fact that the material was completely sheer and you could see how erect his nipples were in the right light didn’t help his case any. The addition of the damn tail and ears made you wonder if he had suddenly changed genres to set his novel in a fantasy setting.

“Well...” he started, placing his hands on his knees and smiling softly. “I needed something to really get readers invested in how evil the villain is. So, I thought, what’s more evil than human experimentation? The villain would start mixing humans with animals and creating sex craved hybrids.” The smile was still plastered onto his face, his eyes crinkled in glee as he explained his plot twist to you. You could barely believe your ears. Not only had he come up with something else you had never seen coming, he willingly put himself in that outfit to get the scenes right.

I can’t tell if he’s a genius or if he’s insane…

Simeon was the latter. Insane with a desire that he couldn’t comprehend. He desired more than what he was given and he kept chasing that high he first felt when he saw you riding his pillow in that sunroom so many weeks ago. Each new experience with you brought out something darker in him. Every time he thought he could stop himself, he found a new excuse to try yet another thing he read about online. He was yours in a way he couldn’t express, until he stumbled upon the idea of becoming your pet.

It was a perfect cover up for fitting the fluffy tail plug into him and donning on the raunchy outfit. He didn’t want to admit how obscene it was on him, but seeing your shocked expression when he greeted you was well worth the discomfort. He belonged to you and you to him in a way that transcended your work contracts. He had no words to describe the feeling of elation, of freedom he got every time he came at your command. What started off as a way to get words on paper soon became an unhinged addition to your touch, your praise and your approval.

He timidly walked over to you on the couch, kneeling in front of you and laid his head on your lap. Simeon looked up at you with wide eyes and the slightest hint of a pout. There was no way you could deny him. Even if you had suspicions about his intentions of becoming an ‘animal’ for the day, his adorable expression whisked your concerns into the ether and you patted his hair gently, earning a hum of happiness from him.

It seemed as though the lamb had found a pet rabbit.

It was easy to dote on Simeon in this manner. If it weren’t for the ears and the tail, you could have pretended it was a quaint afternoon, pampering your loved one. The innate sexual tension that arose from his outfit and his explanation of why he was even dressed like that was nearly suffocating. You could imagine all the innocent things in the world, there was no denying that Simeon was going to push his boundaries in the end for the sake of his novel.

It was bliss to lay his head in your lap, feel your fingers run through his hair and caress his scalp. Simeon crooned in content. He wasn’t sure what sorts of noises rabbits made, so he took a few artistic liberties on that end. He’d figure out the specifics when he got to writing. What mattered at the moment was the feeling of your nails slowly dragging themselves through his scalp, sending shivers down his spine. He didn’t think he’d enjoy being so submissive when he was around you, but you brought a calm in him and it was so relieving to relinquish control of everything.

He sighed softly, feeling himself slip into a light doze from your gentle touches. Every now and then, you would scratch the back of his neck and his whole world would light up when you did. With every passing day he became more attached to you and everything you could give him. He sighed in content, feeling his muscles relax and put more of his weight in your lap.

He didn’t know when he feel asleep, but it was the most peaceful rest he had in a long time. Your warmth and company sent him into a deep and dreamless sleep. All the stress of writing something he was unfamiliar with and the constant vigilance of staving off his own fall had worn him down quite a bit without him realizing it. In your presence though, he was safe to be himself. Simeon. Not an angel, not a renowned author, just Simeon. That safety was oddly the most liberating feeling.

“Did you sleep well, my angel?” you asked when he saw him stir a bit.

“How lon--” You pressed your finger against his lips, hushing him.

“Last time I checked, cute little bunnies don’t speak.” You chided and he snapped awake, remembering where he was, what he was wearing and who he was with.

Simeon straightened up, sitting back and squatting to mimic a bunny’s stance. His arms between his legs extended just slightly to keep his balance. With the change in position, he could feel the plug in his ass shift along with his movements and press further into him. Just that little change was enough to stir his hormones awake as well. He knew before long he’d be aching and wanting some sort of release. The question today was: how would you let him reach it?

It had been a peaceful hour or so while Simeon napped in your lap. It gave you plenty of time to think through what you wanted to do with him. Though he had approached you innocently, you knew that in the end he was supposed to represent a ‘sex crazed’ human-animal hybrid. You felt a twinge of guilt, he had been sleeping so soundly, it was almost a shame that you were about to rile him up into a whimpering mess.

He watched you with wide, apologetic eyes. His lips were turned up in a pout and whatever ‘anger’ you had for his little slip melted away at the sheer adorableness. You leaned over and gave his head a pat, readjusting the ears that had become crooked while he slept. “It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll learn to be a good boy quickly. Isn’t that right?”

He nodded enthusiastically, the pout turning into an enthusiastic smile and he leaned into your touch, cooing softly. You weren’t sure what noises rabbits made, but it seemed appropriate for the scenario. You’d roll with it for the time being.

“Has my precious bunny been taking care of himself?” you asked softly, scratching under his chin and you were rewarded with a heavenly smile filled with mirth and happiness. He let out another coo of content, nodding again at your question. “Good to hear. But I’ll have to check that for myself.”

You lead him to the couch, bending him over the arm and spreading his legs. It was a position you could never get enough of. His ass in the air and his cock hanging between his legs was such a tantalizing image you took every chance you could get to have him like this. You carefully walked around him, dragging your finger across his body as if you were ‘examining’ him. “Mm, my bunny keeps in such good shape. I’m so proud of him.” You praised, giving his ass a firm squeeze.

Simeon gasped, letting out a soft moan which turned into a sigh. He had lost his character for a brief moment when you had complimented him. His heart sang and his ears rang as he played your words over and over again. Your hand suddenly at his rear squeezing it and playing with it sent his barely restrained hormones straight to his dick. You had the delightful privilege of watching his cock twitch and grow, straining against the flimsy see through fabric of the body suit.

The fluffy tail served to be a great little thing to ‘examine.’ You were responsible for the well being of your pet, so it was only natural you were thorough in making sure he was in good health. You took joy in tugging on the plug, making sure it was snugly fit into him. He had grown so fond of being filled recently, you wondered if the tail had been just an excuse for him to get some new toys for himself. With how easy it was to get him hard whenever there was ass play involved, you couldn’t say you would have been surprised if that was the case.

You left his tail alone after a bit, letting his mind rest before you went to ‘examining’ the rest of him. Your hands caressed his inner thighs, your lips following their trail as you kissed them up and down. It was easy to pretend the fabric of the body suit wasn’t even there with how thin it was. You hummed, content to be where you were between his legs and nuzzled his hardened length. You could hear his strangled moan above you as you teased his cock.

“Oh? what’s this?” You asked innocently stroking his shaft and watched in glee as his thighs quivered around you. “Does my bunny need to breed?”  You heard a whimper above you, his hips moving along with the motion of your hand. You didn’t need any words to know what he wanted from you, but it was fun to tease him while he was like this.

You moved him to lay on his back on the couch. You kept his legs spread and his knees drawn up so you had a clear view of both his tail and his cock. Almost instinctively, he had his arms wrapped around the back of his knees to keep his legs in position. You smiled, giving him deep kiss as a reward for doing what you wanted without having to ask. When you pulled away, the debauched look on his face was so sinful, you nearly forgot about your promise to him and had to restrain yourself from sitting on his dick properly.

He was breathless, blushing madly and mewling while you continued to inspect every inch of his body. While it was a shame to ruin such a well made body suit, you couldn’t stop yourself from tearing at it to feel his skin properly. The shredded fabric only made the debased scene all the more sexy to you. Simeon was freely moaning as you nestled yourself between his legs and covered his chest with kisses.

Your fingers toyed with his sensitive nipples and he was keening under your touches. His legs and arms shook in the effort to remain in the position you wanted him to be in. You could see desperate tears forming in the corner of his eyes and you leaned up to kiss them away. He was so close to breaking, you just wanted to see him pushed a little further in this role before you let him have his way with you.

“Don’t cum in my mouth now, okay?” you demanded before you sank between his legs and gave his aching cock a long, slow lick.

The sound that came from him was almost inhuman, to be fair, Simeon had been put under a good bit of distress with how much he had been teased. The build up he had psyched himself up with only added to how great everything felt.

The sound of the body suit being torn away from him echoed in the room as you ripped the fabric away until you had unhindered access to his dripping cock. You made sure to keep your eyes on him while you took him your mouth. He was torn between screwing his eyes shut to hold off his orgasm or keep watching you work him with your mouth. He had never needed to make such a difficult decision before. Eventually he settled on watching you in short bursts before he needed to focus on holding back his load.

He was so beautiful in those moments, writhing and doing his best to follow your commands. There was a distinct feeling of pride that welled in you as you watched him do whatever it took to be a good boy. He truly deserved only the best reward.

So, you redoubled your efforts to give him the best head he had ever experienced. Taking him until he hit the back of your throat, you moaned, relaxing your reflexes until he was fully seated in your mouth.  You took slow breaths through your nose, moaning into his cock and sending him into a full body shudder as you sucked hard. “P-please… please...” he cried from above you, his thighs quivering violently as he held back his climax. “Please.”

You couldn’t fault him for breaking his character. Figuring he had enough torture, you left his cock with a lewd pop, drool and a bit of his precum leaked down the side of your mouth and you made sure he got a good view of you lapping up what you could before wiping it away. “Alright, I think it’s time to properly let my precious bunny breed like he’s meant to, right?”

You kissed him tenderly before pulling away from him just long enough to kick your skirt up and pull down your panties. Your pussy was a wet mess, but you knew he wouldn’t go there. Instead, you got on your knees, bending over and spreading your ass to get a good view of your ass. “Come on, come and get your reward.”

Simeon couldn’t react fast enough. His whole body was moving on instinct as he reached for the nearest bottle of lube to douse all over your spread rear. You shivered a bit as the cold liquid was spread on you. The initial feeling was uncomfortable, but it would still be better than taking his whole cock without any at all. The wet sounds of him covering his cock in the same lube were so filthy, it even had you blushing.

The sounds died off soon enough as the tip of his cock pressed into your ass and you gasped, struggling to adjust to his size with so little preparation. It wasn’t the first time he had taken you in this way in the past weeks, but it was the first time he didn’t bother stretching you out first. He stopped, breaking his character to make sure you were alright before proceeding. Once your breathing evened out and you pushed back into him, he continued to slide every inch of himself into your tight hole.

It was always a mind blowing experience to accept his whole length into you. Even if it would have been better if his cock was in your pussy; you didn’t mind the compromise you had made with him at all. The feeling of being filled with his cock was one you wouldn’t pass up for any reason. The first pass was always the most amazing, especially with how he groaned once he was fully seated in you.

As soon as he was sure you were ready for him, he got to ‘breeding’ you as the sex craved animal he had become. Your hands moved from holding your ass cheeks apart to bracing your body against the ground to keep you steady while he rammed his cock into you over and over. There was nothing left but the carnal desire between the two of you. He growled, leaning over you, getting as much contact as he could while he thrust into you.

You felt his teeth graze your shoulders and your neck, nipping and leaving marks all across your skin as he claimed you. His hands at your hips dug deep into the flesh, leaving large welts where his nails were. He had tossed away the docile bunny act to claim the prize he had worked so hard to obtain. Simeon grunted, feeling himself get close to his climax. After the amazing blowjob you gave him, he knew he wouldn’t last long inside of you.

He grabbed you by your hair, pulling your body up and flush to his own, never losing the brutal pace he had set. You winced at the sudden pain, but a hand snaking around your waist to rub your clit had you forgetting all about it. Simeon was a fast learner. He knew just how to play your body to bring you to a climax in time with his own. At this point, you were not much more than one of his sex toys he owned with how he was using you.

His fingers at your cunt were soon covered in your essence as he rubbed your clit in quick, yet firm circles. His teeth sank into your shoulder as his pace inside of you became erratic and he was rapidly losing what control he had over his body. “Cum… Cumming...” He growled, warning you right before his seed was emptied into you.

“Mine...” you heard him snarl protectively the moment he came.

His hips stilled for a bit as the brunt of his orgasm overcame him. His fingers never stopped working at your pussy, wanting to feel your whole body constrict around his cock. It didn’t take too much more effort on his end. The warmth of his seed filling you was all you needed to go over the edge with him. Your ass clenched around his cock while your pussy was woefully empty. You moaned his name as you came, shaking in his arms as you rode out the high with him.

Simeon stayed still for a bit longer, waiting until both your sensitive bodies felt ready to disconnect from each other. He was careful as he pulled out of your ass. Seeing his seed leak from the tight hole once he fully pulled away was always so satisfying and he wished he had his phone with him to take a picture of just how beautiful you were in the afterglow of such an intense session.

You all but collapsed onto the floor once you were allowed to, your muscles feeling like jelly after he had so mercilessly taken you. You needed a few moments to recollect yourself before retrieving some towels to help clean up the worst of the fluids that covered the two of you. Pulling the tail plug out of him rewarded you with a rather indecent moan from his lips. His whole body convulsed briefly as the thickest part passed his anus and his body sagged in relief once the whole toy was removed.

As soon as he was able to, he crumpled into your arms, demanding cuddles and affection again. “Did I do good?” he asked, looking up at you expectantly.

You laughed good naturedly, taking the ears off his head and tossing them to the side. “I’ve never had a pet like you, for sure.”

“But was I good?”

You smiled, running your fingers through his sweat dampened hair, watching him melt into your embrace while the two of you had a naked cuddle session on his couch. “You were better than good. You were absolutely perfect.” You reassured.

He sighed, resting his head on your bosom and snuggling closer to you. He wrapped his arms around you and clung to you. “Mine...” He declared softly. The sudden statement made your heart skip a beat. You had initially thought he had uttered it while fucking you in the spur of the moment. Hearing him repeat it while he was comfortably wrapped around you held a different weight.

“Mine.” he repeated as he drifted off to sleep in your arms. “All mine.”

As long as you belonged to him, it didn’t seem to matter if he fell all the way to the pits of hell or not. He belonged to you. You belonged to him. All was right in the world.

And once again, the darkness in him grew.

[soleilnomoon]

Dunno if you do multi-character scenarios but I'm going to ask anyway👻 I thought about a fluff/angst one in which Zoro and Law's (seperate) s/o was critically injured in a fight but kept on fighting and then after the battle passing out for a week. When they wake up they ask them why they did it they say something along the lines of "I promised you I wouldn't die and I keep my promises" (sorry if it's too specififc, this idea had been swimming in my head for days😅)

hiii so sorry this took so long, work keeps me busy these days ♥️ ꒰ᵕ༚ᵕ⑅꒱ hope this was enough angst for you 🤓

1.2k words, gn reader (no pronouns, babey), sfw, angst-lite, maybe a bit of fluff (i’m not gr8 at it ok), no real warnings

there’s never a good time to say i told you so; it’s not really built in him to hold things like that over people — not seriously, anyway — but with you, he constantly feels like saying i told you so. you push yourself harder than necessary; is it to compensate for a lack of strength? is it to challenge yourself? or to prove your worth to your crew?

it baffles him constantly. the beauty of working as a unit alongside luffy and that pompous, idiot cook, is that he rarely has to worry about them not being able to take care of themselves. and maybe it’s because you two are dating that this feels a little different; but he doesn’t like it, not one bit.

he hates seeing you get hurt, hates the way you leap headfirst into danger, hates how you nearly escape death almost every single time. it’s not enough for him to be strong enough to protect his captain and the rest of the crew — but he has to make sure that you’re protected too. between you and luffy, he’s not sure who he values more — and, it’s never been a contest, as you have always understood the love he holds for his captain. it’s hard not to care for him.

but, when you willingly throw yourself in danger like that, his priorities shift.

it’s not enough that chopper is a phenomenal doctor, that they rushed you to him as soon as they could, or that he started treatment right away. there aren’t many things that frighten zoro, but the sight of your unmoving body on the battlefield brings every single anxious thought to life. he paces through the corridors, snaps at everyone else, refuses to sleep, and barely eats.

everything about your condition consumes his thoughts; he never thought his heart would ever be a source of weakness for him, but it is. still, he stays by your side as you rest, sleep evading him day in and day out. nighttime is the worst, because the silence of the ship rouses the shadows around your room — and, naturally, he hallucinates. all he hears are taunts of his inability to protect you, of his incompetence, of how he isn’t strong enough.

when you do eventually wake up, he’s seated at your bedside, nodding off but not quite sleeping completely, the restlessness has gotten to him badly enough that any movement he detects has him up and alert. despite sleeping for all that time — and, a week is a long time — you roll over and yawn, the fatigue still lingering over your body, in your mind. it’s hard to focus but when you see him sitting there, you manage to reach a hand out and brush your fingers against his knee.

if he wasn’t so aware of your presence, he’d swear he was hallucinating. he opens his mouth, but closes it right away, thoughts swimming around clumsily in his mind. he’s absolutely exhausted, but he asks only one question.

“why?”

his voice is so quiet you almost don’t hear him, but you see the severe expression on his face, the dark circles underneath his eyes, and you only smile gently in response before giving him your true answer.

“remember, what i promised you?” you pause, give him a moment to think, but eventually add, “i told you that i wouldn’t die. and i always keep my promises.” it’s such a bold, absurd statement that it makes him laugh —for the first time in days, actually — you end up laughing alongside him and rolling onto your back, giving him room to climb into the bed with you. you don’t consider yourself a reckless person, but that brush with death was a little too close for comfort.

to be frank, he’s quite disappointed in you; your blatant disregard for following his directives, for wanting to do your own thing — following your own path, and whatnot — for making him worry as a doctor, as your captain, and as your lover, really sends him spirilling. it’s all too new for him, honestly.

normally, everyone falls in line, they don’t exactly question his authority, but they trust him implicitly. he’s told you time and time again, plans are made for a reason. there are contingency plans for those original plans that are also made for a reason. law spends a lot of time planning — and brooding. but, he always manages to find a way to also have separate plans for you too.

except— you still throw him for a loop, still deviate from his predictions, still give him more wrinkles than he cares to deal with. trafalgar law, by nature, is extremely patient — he has to be, the pirate world is brutal, unforgiving, and there’s little room for mistakes. so, when you end up wounded, end up on the verge of death, practically bleeding out in his arms, he makes it his business to do everything to save your life.

and he does. he knows your body needs rest, knows he shouldn’t fuss over you in secret, knows he shouldn’t be hard on his crewmates when really he’s just stressed over you. but he can’t help it. at night he finds himself unable to sleep, and despite bepo telling him to take better care of himself, he refuses. because what’s the point if you never wake up?

the thought haunts him; he’s barely eaten and has consumed enough coffee to keep him awake for weeks. it’s in the middle of a warm afternoon when you finally wake up; a week in bed has your bones and body aching, although you suppose it might also have to do with you being severely injured not too long ago. but, you notice your captain right away, staring at you with a strange look on his face. it’s a mix between disbelief, fury, and relief.

“care to explain yourself?” his tone is even, much too calm for the explosive feelings that lie deep inside of him. he keeps telling himself to keep it together but feels his control slipping.

you don’t have any legitimate excuse, but you sigh a bit, press your lips together and think. the mattress dips under his weight as he sits next to you, his fingers tilting your chin up so you can look at him properly. “i’m waiting,” he says, the words coming out more curt than he means for them to be.

an idea forms in your head; when in doubt, a bit of light banter always gets you out of tricky situations especially with him.

“like i said ages ago,” you start, a cheeky grin appearing on your weary face, “i don’t die easily, and even if i do happen to die, i’ll still come back.” it’s not funny at all, but you do your best to school your features. law stares at you for a bit longer than he means to and, finally, sighs.

“you’re such a handful,” he scolds, but you can hear the tenderness behind his words, his fingers moving to glide along your jaw. and you smile to yourself, despite the fact that you could have died for real, making a mental note to try and not make your boyfriend worry more than he needs to.

[fqiryspit]

𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 ; 𝐞.𝐣𝐚𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐫

𝘌𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘹 𝘧𝘦𝘮!𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘷𝘪 𝘹 𝘧𝘦𝘮!𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Summary: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐘/𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞?

.

cw: College!AU, Full smut, Vaginal Fingering, Oral Sex, getting absolutely railed, Relationship Problems, Love Triangles, Smut, Historia is pregnant with Erens baby, Eren and Y/n are together, Levi is with Petra, Sad sex, Y/n is lowkey depressed, Eren is bad at feelings, Starbucks Levi, Levi is Bad at Feelings, Historia the Hoe, mega toxic, Toxic Eren.

playlist

Chapter 12: 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥

Masterlist

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I'm so exhausted

it's all you can think about as you enter work

"didn't get enough sleep?" Levi mocks as he noticed your weary manner

"heh" you slip a laugh as you were about to explain how vomiting every morning wasn't too pleasant but you stop yourself, remembering that the only people who know about your little seedling is you and...well, the seedling

you tie the green apron around yourself as you catch Levis eyes lingering on you

you turn, slightly scrunching your face together as you notice Levi smiling

Levi. smiling.

"oh no...what happened" you prepared for the worst but an unexpected laugh escape his lips

"nothing your just-...nothing" he catches himself

you shrug it off but made a mental note of him acting weird and went to the drive threw to start taking orders

"cute" Levi finishes his sentence as you were away, a light blush spreading across his features.

.

you enter your empty apartment as you collapse on the bed, wondering where Eren is but honestly, you were too tired to care

until a phone binged

his phone.

your headshot up as his abandoned phone was left on his bedside table

it doesn't concern me

except...it really fucking does

you cave almost instantly, grabbing his phone and seeing the message, making your stomach sink

Historia: we need to talk, please can we just talk?

The last time you went on his phone you put your face id on, for moments like these.

you go into his messages and click on Historia

Historia: Eren pls come over

Eren: why?

Historia: Please, I'm sorry.

Eren: fine.

these messages' dates were from when Eren snuck out and came back snuggling against you, crying.

Historia almost never calls Eren by his name, what the fuck happened?

you reread the messages, so disappointed in the same shit.

I'm so sick of drowning in dread every time I'm around him

I'm so sick of suffocating in this dying love

I'm so fucking exhausted

you felt the familiar sting of tears in your eyes form, you were about to break until you heard the front door open.

you collected yourself and put his phone back as he walked into the room

"Hey," he said while he dropped the CVS bag on the bed

"Hey" you whispered

"Oh so, you won't believe this-"

"Eren." you cut him off to say the words that made his blood run cold

"I know"

Chapter 13

˜"*°•.˜"*°• see you soon •°*"˜.•°*"˜

an: omg...IT'S HAPPENING. places everyone PLACES!! AHHHH I hope you guys enjoyed this!!! I told you it was short...I'm sorry! 😞 ANYWHO, I'll see you next time my shawties!! MWAUH MWAUH MWAUH!! 😘💞

kinda taglist: @magictrump @jiminslove1y @raiiny-nightght @whatsambiti0n

(if I missed anyone or you’d like to be a part of the tag list you can message me or just comment!)

[tiny-katara]

Alright! Now that I've officially finished all my fic contributions for Zutara Week 2022!!! Here is a comprehensive list of all 7 <3

Day 1-Tradition: Breaking Tradition 

To celebrate the Peace Summit, a dance is held the last evening of the week, and Katara has a specific dance partner in mind. Unfortunately, the universe seems to have other plans, sending a fresh new disaster to ruin her evening every year, but Katara is determined to make it happen.

Day 2-Familiar: The Punishment Doesn't Fit the Crime

Zuko was well aware that Katara would kill him for what he was about to do. He wouldn't blame her either. This was a truly heinous crime, but she should've thought about the consequences before she dumped Wasabi all over his favorite kind of fire flakes.

Katara had it coming and Zuko refused to feel sorry for her.

Day 3-Hands: Baby Steps

It's clear to Katara that Zuko has trouble interacting with children, but maybe a little visit to her brother's newborn baby will help him work through it.

Day 4-Meeting: Speaking Through the Sky

This is it," Katara whispered reverently, her words nearly being swept away with the arctic wind. She swallowed. "This was… This was my mom's favorite place in the whole South Pole."

Zuko didn't really get what was so special about this particular block of ice. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to admit that. Even he knew that was the worst thing he could possibly say in this situation. He assumed the ice looked better in the light, when the sun struck it and it sparkled like the stars above, but Katara had pulled him out here in the bitter wind of a Southern Water Tribe winter night and he was sure she had a reason.

Day 5-Album: But I Miss Screaming and Fighting and Kissing in the Rain (inspired by my beloved big sis. @solborealis)

It's a stormy day when Katara decides she needs to leave the Fire Nation, knowing she can't handle concealing her feelings any longer. She has to get out of there as soon as she can, but what is she supposed to do when Zuko refuses to let her go?

Day 6-Closeness: I'm Sick of Your Shit, Zuzu

Azula is absolutely sick of seeing Zuko and Katara skirt around their feelings, so it's time for her to bring in the cavalry. They are settling this once and for all.

Day 7-Ink: Dearest Katara

Zuko spent forever crafting the perfect letter to give to Katara, telling her all of his complicated feelings, but what is he supposed to do now that it's ruined???

Please keep in mind that these aren't all created equally and some are definitely not as good as others, but I hope they're enjoyed all the same! They are also color-coded by POV for fun!

My personal favorite is Breaking Tradition as it's over SEVEN THOUSAND words and the most polished by far. It also the reason why the middle ones are not as... to my standards lmao.

A very happy (very late) @zutaraweek to you all!!! :)