#In like a platonic way where i wanna go to a tea shop with him and eat cake

[arthur-lesters-spinal-cord]

Rip Noel you were just too pretty and Kayne couldn’t deal with the competition

[fuctacles]

@steddiesummerexchange for @chaosgremlinmunson | part 1/3 for easier reading on tumblr, but will be posted as a one-shot on Ao3 later | thanks @stevesjockstrap for beta-reading and mental support 💚

T | 10858 | Steddie, Buckingham, platonic Stobin and Hellcheer, Wayne&Eddie | Soulmate AU, unconventional soulmates, misunderstandings, idiot4idiot, fluff | divider by me | Part 2 | Part 3 | Ao3

The shop was never busy. Aside from Valentine’s Day and Christmas, it was a lot of goofing around and packing online orders. And since it was pouring on a Tuesday afternoon, they expected no customers until closing, which was more than okay with them. They didn't choose it because it was popular. They chose it because their younger friends were too embarrassed to bother them here. 

“It’s getting pretty bad,” Steve points out, squinting through the window. “I don’t wanna drive in this weather.”

Robin looks up just in time to catch a flash of lightning splitting the dark clouds outside. 

“Maybe it will let up before we close.”

Thunder crackles above them, and Steve raises his eyebrow skeptically.

“We can wait it out in the pizzeria across the street,” she offers then.

“I like the way you think.”

There’s a loud bang as their doors slam open, letting inside some of the summer storm carnage. Despite the size of the shop, they can feel the cold rain on their faces, and for a second, the sound of the storm is deafening. It cuts off as suddenly as it started but is replaced by loud, displeased sounds of two figures drenched to the bone.

“Holy fucking shit!” a wet rat dripping on their floor curses loudly. He shakes his hands creating a small waterfall down the lapels of his leather jacket. The figure next to him drops down the hood of their jacket with a wet smack.

“Holy shitting fuck,” she agrees.

“They better be selling towels here.”

“Uh...” The unhooded figure, a short blonde, looks around curiously. “I’m afraid not.”

This prompts the guy to peel the wet hair away from his face and look properly around.

“Did we just walk into a fucking sex shop?”

“You did, yeah.”

The two turn to the desk when Steve speaks up. 

Next to him, Robin flinches, and he senses something weird from her, like a brain equivalent of an exclamation mark. But he doesn’t think much of it, assuming it might simply be a reaction to the pretty girl in front of them.

“We have a radiator in the back, I could take your clothes to dry,” he offers the newcomers.

“No, we—”

“Are you seriously going back out in this weather?” The girl looks at her friend with raised eyebrows. He scoffs.

“No,” he admits petulantly.

“I can make you guys some hot tea. It’s not like anything is happening here anyway,” Robin pipes up.

“That would be great, thanks.” The blonde lights up gratefully, and Robin squirms. 

Stave takes it upon himself to gather their wet things, afraid his friend might combust if she comes any closer to the girl. When he’s hanging the clothes, she is uncharacteristically quiet, so he turns to her and cocks his head.

“What’s up?”

She frowns at the mugs she's pulling out.

“Her.”

"Huh? She’s cute, isn’t she?" He grins.

“I think I could hear her,” Robin clarifies. 

Steve straightens up immediately and walks towards his friend. She’s looking back up, worrying her bottom lip under her teeth.

“Do you think they are dating?” He motions to the front of the shop where they can hear the other two talk. She looks at the clothes scattered around the backroom. A denim vest, two black jackets, and a hoodie. Judging by the size and style, they all seemed to belong to one person.

“They could be like us,” he points out, but she doesn’t seem convinced. He isn’t either.

“Or she could not know.”

That would complicate things, wouldn’t it?

After exchanging a few heated looks they trail back to the front and Steve hands the teas to their intruders.

"Thank you." The girl smiles sweetly, though her gaze slides towards Robin.

Steve gives his friend a pointed look but she's too dazed to even flip him off. 

"Thanks." The guy blows on his tea, keeping his gaze mostly on the window and the storm outside. "We'll take a look around and won't bother you guys," he says, giving his companion a pointed look before disappearing into one of the sections. 

Steve knows it’s bad to stereotype but the assortment of strap-ons is not what guys like this usually go for, and his brain gets whiplash with the sudden onslaught of images he's not proud of. The tall guy wearing black and chains getting pegged by his tiny blonde girlfriend? It kind of suits him. He tries not to think about it.

They give them space to roam around the shop and whisper to each other while they finish their duties for the day and start closing up. 

"Guys? We need to close in fifteen minutes!" Steve would feel bad for kicking them out into the storm, but the rain clouds have moved, turning the onslaught into a light drizzle.

It's only after they leave that Steve looks at the tattoo on the palm of his hand. Surprised at what he sees, he shakes it experimentally. The d20 lands back on the same number.

“Hey, look.” He holds it up for Robin to see. “I’ve never rolled a twenty before.”

Three days pass and Steve can't stand it anymore.

He slaps his hand on the counter, making Robin yelp.

“You’re thinking about her again!" 

“I’m sorry!”

Steve shakes his head.

“No. Don't care, no sorries," he says with finality. “We’re finding her.”

"We go to the same school!" she protests. "I think. I mean, I'll run into her eventually!"

But Steve won't take that chance, tired of all the sighing from her brain, and decides to find the girl they've met. He figures the easiest place to find high schoolers is at the mall so that's where he goes.

With all the groups of friends and couples passing by, he feels even more like a loser than usual, being there all alone. But he's on a mission, so he won't let that deter him. 

That is, until one of the faces he sees in the crowd gives him a pause. It takes him an embarrassingly long time to realize what's familiar about one of the three girls coming at him, but when the memory hits, he panics. Letting his flight response take over, he ducks into the nearest open door to avoid his ex. 

After making sure the group has passed him without notice, he lets himself breathe. He's taking in the shop he stepped into, a record store full of tapes, vinyls, and band merch,  when a voice startles his adrenaline levels back up.

"Well, well, well. How the tables have turned. Running from a gaggle of women, are we?"

Steve turns to find the metalhead who ran into his shop a few days ago, smirking at him.

"Just one." He shakes his head, instinctively looking back behind the glass door. "Really don't feel like running into my ex right now."

"Must be happening a lot, huh?" The man leans on the counter that separates them. "My friend told me you're quite the casanova."

Steve spots his opportunity and grabs it.

"The girl from the other day?" he asks.

"Yes?" The guy's eyes narrow. 

“So you guys are friends?” he adds to clarify before he uncrosses his figurative fingers.

“Yes? Why else would we hang out?”

Steve feels his cheeks heat up under the man's suspicious stare.

“Well, you could be dating.”

The guy snorts.

“Yeah, I don't see the local freak bagging the head cheerleader. The fact that she can even stand me is enough.” Then his eyes narrow again. “Why? You interested in Chris?”

Chris.

“No? Well, kinda, but not… exactly.”

Steve has never felt less smooth in his whole life. And judging by the guy's expression, it shows. Whatever he was trying to sell, he wasn’t buying. His brain scrambles to salvage the situation and comes up with a painfully honest solution.

"Look, I just graduated and my friend group has fallen apart." He yells at his brain-to-mouth wires but keeps going anyway. "And you guys seem chill, I thought the four of us could hang out, or something?"

If the 'you suck' board still existed, he'd fill it out with tallies himself. 

The man doesn't seem convinced and he opens his mouth to tear him to shreds probably, but then somebody yells from the back of the store:

"Eddie! A little help, please!"

And the guy, Eddie, gets reminded he's at work.

"Coming!" he yells back, and on his way there, throws Steve a quick string of, "Great seeing you again, we'll think about it, we know where to find you, bye!" before disappearing behind the back door.

After such a disastrous interaction, the last thing Steve wants to do is go back out into the mall full of people. But staying here to risk Eddie looking at him like that again was the more humiliating option. He turns around, planning to lick his wounds at home before reporting his findings back to Robin. For the hundredth time since finding her, he wishes they couldn't read each other minds. Because all he can think of is making a complete loser idiot of himself in front of a cool metalhead dude, and he knows she won't let him live it down. Maybe the Scoops board will make a comeback after this.

“Chrissyyyyyy!”

“Eddieeeeee!”

The rest of the cheer squad does perfectly synchronized eye rolls when their captain jumps down the human pyramid to greet her friend.

“Hi!” She smiles brightly. “You’re early. We’re not done yet.”

“I got some news.” He taps his fingers on the small partition between them, ignoring the cheer practice in progress. “Bad ones and good ones.”

“Bad first,” she says with a decisive nod.

Eddie opens his mouth but then frowns and closes it.

“It won’t make sense if you don’t hear the good news first.”

“Oh my god! Just spill it!”

“So, they’re almost surely not dating.”

“The sex shop guys?”

He nods.

“Okay, and the bad one?”

“Steve seems to be into you.”

“No!” she gasps, scandalized. Eddie snickers.

“Yeah. Sorry sweetie." His smile turns more apologetic.

Chrissy makes a face. Then she keeps making faces until Eddie can’t help but snort and slap her playfully.

“Stop! What are you thinking about?”

“I mean he’s kinda cute, but gives me repressed gay vibes.”

Eddie chokes but she keeps going.

“And his friend? His friend is just hot.”

“Ehh, I guess.” Eddie shakes his palm, making his friend roll her eyes.

“You’ll never understand the beauty of a woman in suspenders.”

“More women in suspenders for you then.” He grins, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Chris! You going back or what?” one of the cheerleaders behind them yells out, barely containing her annoyance.

“I’m coming!” Chrissy yells back. She turns to her best friend, her soulmate, with a dazzling smile. “You joining in?”

“You know they hate it when I do,” he points out.

“And you love it that they hate it.” She smirks like the evil little gremlin she secretly is.

“Fuck yeah, I do.” Eddie grins, climbing over the partition to join the cheerleading squad. A couple of girls groan, knowing what’s coming next but none of them dare to protest. If their captain’s soulmate wants to perform a perfect cheer routine, putting their months of practice to shame, there’s nothing they can do except blame the fates.

Eddie drops his leather jacket on the bleachers and does a couple of stretches in perfect sync with his friend. They grin at each other while mirroring each other’s movements without a word.

“If only you could read my mind during math exams like that,” Chrissy teases.

“Okay, shut up.” He rolls his eyes with fake annoyance. Yeah, it would be convenient, but he got a cheerleading routine memorized in his muscles instead. He’d be complaining if Chrissy wasn’t so fun to be around.

Despite his involuntary knowledge of the routine, none of the other girls fully trust him, so he usually ends up working mostly with Chris, tossing her in the air and catching her when needed.

“You should join us for the game,” she asks as always, after jumping down from his arms.

“I’ll think about it,” he answers as always, patting her head. She huffs, swatting his hand away and fixing up her ponytail, now loose from practice.

“Wanna go grab pizza?” she asks casually and he immediately goes into suspish mode. Chrissy rarely proposes eating out together. Don’t get him wrong, it’s great that his girlie is starting to eat better again, but… He doesn’t let his suspicion show when he asks:

“Sure. Any place in mind?”

She hums, but it’s a short hum. Very 'i-already-had-a-place-in-mind' like.

“The one with the Ninja Turtles poster?”

“You mean the one across the adult toys store?” He raises his eyebrows.

She blushes a fierce red and he knows it’s not because of the sex shop thing. He grins, wide and teasing.

“You wanna see that girl again.”

“Maybe,” she huffs defensively. “Okay, yes, so what?”

“So nothing.” He shrugs innocently. “Grab your things and we’ll go.”

“Yes!” she pumps her hands in victory, a dorky move Eddie’s proud to have taught her, and runs off to grab her backpack. She snatches his jacket before he can, overly eager to get moving. “Let’s go!”

He can’t help but laugh while trotting after her towards his van. 

The inside of the store is brighter than they remembered, what with the sky being clear this time. It looks surprisingly normal until you take a better look at the contents of the boxes on display. A sex shop during daylight just lacks a certain ambiance.

The preppy-looking guy behind the counter doesn't match the vibe either.

At the sound of customers, the guy looks up.

"Hello! Oh, it's you guys." He visibly relaxes, realizing it's not his usual run-of-the-mill customers. 

"It's us indeed." Eddie smiles, confidently strutting up to the counter. "Has anyone ever told you you look out of place here?"

Steve raises an eyebrow.

"Has anyone ever told you not to judge someone's sex life by their looks?"

Eddie raises his hands placatingly.

"Fair enough, man. I'll back off." However, the comment made him insanely curious about what a guy like that would be into. Behind him, Chrissy gently kicks him in the ankle, prompting him to take a look around. "Alone today?"  he asks with a curious tilt of his head.

"Yeah, Robin is tutoring after school today. Why?" His eyes narrow. 

"No reason, no reason." 

Chrissy kicks him harder and he smiles through the pain.

“What is she tutoring in? I’m having trouble passing the last grade.”

It takes Steve a moment to answer, like he's measuring how much information he can give away.

“Foreign languages.”

The words are barely out of his mouth when Eddie snaps his fingers.

“Perfect! Can I get her number or something?”

The kick is so hard this time it jostles him forward and he glares back at his friend. It also attracts Steve’s attention to Chrissy.

He smiles at her, a bit unsure and shy. It rubs Eddie the wrong way and he can feel his hackles rise. 

“Chris, right?”

“Chrissy,” she corrects, slightly scrunching her nose.

“Oh, sorry. It’s nice to see you again, Chrissy.” He smiles, more genuine this time.

“Uh, you too. Steve.”

Eddie clears his throat, hoping to come off as rude as possible.

Steve looks back at him and his expression shifts immediately. It’s almost a scoff.

“Listen, I don’t just give off my best friend’s number to random guys. But if you give me yours, I’ll pass it on.”

“Works for me,” Eddie says with the tightest approximation of a smile he can manage. “Do you have something I can write on?”

Steve looks around for the pen and notepad that are never in their designated spots and never together. He finds them under the keyboard.

“Here.”

But Eddie isn’t taking the items from him. Steve wiggles them like he would attract a pet or a child, but it doesn’t work. He’s about to make a snarky remark when the guy speaks up first.

“You have a D20 tattoo.”

“Huh?”

Steve is losing his mind.

But then he remembers that he does indeed have one and it’s partially visible when he’s holding out a pen like that.

“Ah, right.” He opens up his fingers and shakes his palm, causing the dice to roll. “It’s my soulmate mark.”

“Dude, that’s so dope.” Eddie’s eyes sparkle with marvel and Steve’s throat tightens. “You rolled a twenty, does that mean anything?”

Steve shrugs.

“I don’t know. One of my friends is a Dungeons and Dragons nerd and he told me it’s a luck thing? He freaked out pretty badly when I kept rolling ones on vacation, but nothing happened.” He smiles, fondly remembering Dustin’s panic. 

Eddie hums.

“Man, having a functional D20 tattoo would be so fucking cool. I’m kinda jealous here.”

Steve snorts.

“Yeah, Dustin told me that too.”

Eddie finally takes the writing utensils from him, eyeing him contemplatively.

“I’m guessing you’re not a DnD nerd yourself? Considering you get your info from a friend?”

Steve chuckles.

"Yeah, no. Though I do get a lot of brain chatter from my soulmate."

"Brain chatter?" Eddie picks on curiously. 

"Uh, yeah. I dream up whole campaigns and know lore I've never really studied. The kids go bonkers over it."

"Kids?"

Eddie's feeling both stupid and entranced by the guy. 

"The DnD nerd? Dustin?" Steve says with annoyance that poorly covers up his fondness. "He comes with a full set of other nerds. A party, if you will. They just started high school and no, it's not weird that I know them. I used to babysit them and they just kind of..." He waved his hand. "Stuck on. Like parasites.

Eddie barks out a laugh. 

"They sound delightful."

"They have their moments," Steve admits. Then they both stare at the number Eddie has scribbled on the piece of paper handed to him. 

"So uh, see you around?"

"Yeah." Steve smiles. It's genuine and pleasant this time. But then, to Eddie's chagrin, he looks to the side. "You too Chrissy. Come over anytime. Maybe you need some tutoring too?"

"Uh, thanks, I'm good. Good luck finding a DnD nerd soulmate," she says, her tone weird. Eddie can't blame her. He wouldn't like being so blatantly hit on either. He could already feel her tugging on his jacket. 

"Thank you," Steve says, smile turning a bit wistful. His eyes turn back to Eddie, away from his poor, sapphic-leaning soulmate. Good. He waves the note with the numbers. "I'll let her know you're interested but no promises. And hey, if you're into DnD too maybe you'd be interested in DMing for a bunch of freshmen?" 

"I'll think about it," Eddie manages, slowly backing away, the force behind Chrissy's pull increasing. "Thanks, man. And, uh, good luck with the soulmate thing too!"

"Thanks."

The doors close in front of him and it feels like a curtain has just separated him from a whimsical spectacle.

"What the fuck was that?" Chrissy and Eddie ask each other in unison, albeit in vastly different tones. 

"Huh?" Eddie frowns at his friend. She had already turned around and was pulling him towards the pizzeria across the street.

"Don't huh me! You forgot I was there!"

"I didn't!" He kind of did. For a teeny tiny second.

"You were clearly flirting with him."

"What? No, I wasn't!" he bristles. He'd know if he was flirting with someone.

She looks back at him sternly when they reach a table of her choosing. She plops down heavier than a tiny cheerleader should be able to and takes on a mocking, high voice.

"Oh man, I'm so jealous of your soulmate. Yes, I will play with your kids. Here's my number."

"I said no such thing," he hisses, sitting down across from her. 

"Might as well." She shrugs. "You were interested in him."

"Well, he's an interesting person!" Eddie defends.

"Yeah, the preppy, vanilla high school heartthrob that is clearly not into the same stuff as you, other than his connection to his soulmate," she deadpans back. "Wouldn't have guessed."

"Shut up," he huffs, crossing his arms.

"Eddie, he asked you to hang out with his kids, himself," she points out.

"These are not his kids."

"You're so focused on the wrong details here. Do I have to wingman for you as well? Because I will. Just say the word."

Eddie closes his eyes and sighs. He knows his friend means well but it's just too much.

"Chrissy, stop. I don't need someone who has a soulmate with a matching, kick-ass D20 tattoo waiting for him somewhere. Probably a busty, nerdy girl, too—"

"Ew."

"Yeah, I know. He just seems interesting, and honestly? Expanding the party would be cool. So I might take him on the DMing thing I guess. But please, for the love of gods." He makes fierce eye contact with his friend. "No matchmaking. No wingmaning. Or wingwomaning. No setting Eddie up with a probably-heterosexual dude, who is probably into you."

A shudder goes down Chrissy's lithe body.

"Please don't remind me."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know," she sighs. "I'm really hoping I'm right about his friend." She drums her fingers on the table, biting her lip. "Maybe it's stupid but I feel like it would magically solve everything. He'd get over me, I'd get to bone his friend, and you'd get a new friend with a kick-ass nerd tattoo." She beams at him and he just can't help but laugh at his little ray of sunshine.

"I hope you're right too." 

[emeritus-fuckers]

I got dumped on my birthday and I'm still not okay 😭😭 so if you could write some hcs or a fic on how all the papas would comfort you or deal with the situation? Please

But if you're busy or don't want to then it's seriously okay ❤️❤️❤️

I'm so sorry for you, babe! No worries, I got you! From the request I assumed you wanted it platonic, I'll gladly do another one if you want a romantic one, too - Jez

Papas comforting you after a heartbreak during your birthday party headcanons

Includes: Primo, Secondo, Terzo, Copia, young and old versions of Nihil. Sodo, Swiss, Aether, Cirrus and Cumulus mentioned in Copia's. Sister Imperator mentioned in Nihil's.

Primo

At this point we all know he's a top tier father figure.

If he witnesses it, the first thing he does is talk to you and ask the ghouls to take you outside so you can catch a breather while he gives the bastard who hurt you a very stern talking to.

Keep in mind, he's in his late 70s/early 80s. He might appear old and fragile, but this man can be scary. Very scary.

Might pretend to curse the poor bastard. Or actually do curse them.

Needless to say, when he's done, the whole room is quiet for a long time, even if he barely raised his voice.

He doesn't slam the door when he leaves. Doesn't need to.

He then joins you outside and gently holds your face, wiping your tears gently with his thumbs.

You spend the rest of your day in his garden or greenhouse, which is also his own little butterfly conservatory.

He'll make tea with you (from scratch!), walk you through the process of it and teach you which one is good for what.

Do you want to talk about the situation? He's all ears.

Do you want to distract yourself and forget about? He'll give you a tour of the place, teach you about the plants and butterflies (fun fact, I can also teach you about butterflies - Jez).

He'll keep you company as long as you need it and should you need a parental figure to help, he will.

He's absolutely the sweetest in that regard.

Secondo

Facepaint or not, this motherfucker can be intimidating as fuck. The poor bastard that broke your heart will absolutely end up crying just from this man's glare.

It's up to you to continue to party after that jackass leaves. If you want to continue the party, Mr. Worldwide over here will absolutely let out his inner party animal and help you forget everything.

If you wanna leave, you're leaving, no questions asked.

He takes you shopping and pays for everything you look at for more than five seconds. Everything you touch, too. And don't even try to protest.

"It's a gift from me to you. You won't turn down Papa's gift, now will you?"

Bro will gaslight you into letting him pay, it's best for you to just go with it, trust me.

Takes you to a fancy restaurant, somehow manages to get the entire place empty for the two of you. Don't ask me how.

Takes a week off and turns it into your birthday week. He takes you anywhere you ever hinted at wanting to go.

Even if abroad.

You are getting everything you want and that's it. There's no time to think about some idiot.

Terzo

He most likely causes a scene, mocking the bastard stupid enough to hurt you.

It's almost like a stand-up routine, where he somehow manages to point out the very specific thing that asshole is insecure about.

Nobody gets to hurt his friends and gets away with it.

The way he acts also puts the spotlight on the one who broke your heart, letting you slip out and take a breather.

Terzo will end his little performance by either spitting on the shithead's face or straight up slapping them, really depends on how strong your reaction was. If it was bad enough, he'd punch them, no questions asked.

When he's done, he'll come and find you, offering you a hug. He'll hold you as long as you need, rubbing your back comfortingly.

He'll ask you what you need. He knows nobody is gonna know how to help you better than you.

He'll probably have his ghouls keep people away from you until you feel better.

He will probably ask Primo for advice, too.

Terzo might be a shitty cook and and even worse baker, but if you like to do stuff in the kitchen, he'll do his best to help, even if it's just silly things like handing you ingredients.

He'd probably take you to an amusement park in the evening.

Buys you all the colors of cotton candy.

Buys you a big plushie of your favorite animal.

Terzo's comfort food is Chinese take out, so he'll probably get you to try that, too.

You get a second, better birthday party with him and the Ghouls.

Copia

Back in his cardinal days, he'd just take you away and try his best to soothe you.

As Papa, however, he got a major confidence boost (he's still very awkward, but he can be serious and confident when needed) and he won't let that slide.

Copia is by no means as scary as the other Papas can be, but he's got charm and he can make people just kinda... Flow with what he says. And his ghouls are a menace.

So when he throws a comment about the bastard, his ghouls (especially Sodo, Swiss and Aether) pick up on it and bully the life put of them.

Meanwhile Copia and the Ghoulettes leave the party with you, taking priority in your comfort.

Copia leaves you in their care for a bit so he can arrange something better for you. Cumulus is put in charge of taking care of you.

You get a sweet little homemade spa session with them and once Copia comes to pick you up, the Ghoulettes giggle at how flustered he gets for no apparent reason.

"Ah, I am terribly sorry for leaving you, I just wanted to make everything perfect for you, I hope they didn't mess with you too much!"

You ignore Cirrus's little giggle as she watches you both leave. She totally ships you guys.

Copia takes you to his room, his rats up and about, eager to play with you as she sits you on his little couch and runs to finish dinner preparations.

The food he made was just a little bit burned (he apologized for several minutes until you laughed and assured him it's fine), but you can definitely tell he made it with love!

Gaming night with him and the rats! He lets you do most of the gaming, only jumping in when you need help or giving you some tips. Even if the tips are a bit useless, it's the thought that counts.

You get ice cream, too. And have a sleep over. If you're uncomfortable with sleeping in the same bed, he takes the couch.

Copia just wants you to be comfy!

Young Nihil

This man will throw hands, no questions asked.

I mean it. He's a hoe, but he's very protective of his friends.

The bastard who broke your heart? Yeah, he's on the floor now, clutching his jaw.

"Serves ya right. Fucking bitch."

Nihil definitely spits on them, too. Might kick them in the stomach once for good measure before turning to you, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and telling everyone to go back to partying.

Gets you a drink. According to him, it's the best thing to do after a situation like that.

"That's what I did after Sister dumped me. And now I'm as good as new!" (bold faced lie)

You probably were there to see that this dumbass was a wreck and had to comfort him after Sister Imperator ended whatever the relationship has.

In his eyes, he owes you for that. He's... A bit stupid, though, let's be real here.

Ends up focusing more on making the party great and making the idiot who broke your heart regret their decision.

Once he realizes that's not what you needed, he asks what it is, then. Because in his eyes, there's nothing better he could do.

Give him detailed instructions. He'll forget half of it, but he'll go all out on the half he remembers.

Old Nihil

Bro takes it personally.

Scoffs and berates the bastard like he's the one who got his heart broken??

Goes at it so hard he needs a minute with his oxygen tank when he's done.

He then proceeds to leave with you. And demands you tell him what you want so he can throw you a better party.

He acts like he's genuinely offended at how the original party turned out and the only solution is to throw a bigger, better party.

Strippers will be included.

And fireworks.

Old man goes out of his way to make it as big and loud as possible like he's trying to prove something to the world.

Just like when he's younger, he ends up a bit too focused on it. You have to remind him yourself that it's kinda about you and not his party.

He waves his hand dismissively at that, giving you a checkbook. Sends you shopping with some ghouls. Probably gets you a grand makeover just for the party.

He'll keep you close when you're back and will ensure this party is the best party you've been to.

He's not the best at comforting, but he shows his affection a bit differently.

[a-smol-cosplayer]

I talk a lot about my Tyler and enid being besties agenda and I made a short post about it awhile ago but I wanna flesh it out more bc I love them and this is my account so no one can stop me mwahaha.

Anyways Idk how it would actually work but either wyler, or wenclair with him coming back with a redemption arch or poly Wednesday with both Tyler and enid as significant others and them as queer platonic. Or all three. idm how it happens im just here for it. 

Hcs 

He lets enid paint his nails. Sometimes its all different colours to match hers (and she talks billions of instagram photos of them) sometimes with itty bitty little designs but usually some sort of light blue colour. He gets complemented by the old ladies that come in to the weathervane when he hands them their coffee and he secretly loves to show off his nails. (Once when going to the raven she painted them black to match wednesday) ((she secretly liked that they where matching))

This man hears all the gossip from his job. Being a barista at the only coffee shop in town?? Dude gets all the tea. So basically him and enid (and thing) will have gossip sessions where he tells her all the things he has overheard whilst working. (Enids readers and shocked at the jump in range and accuracy of gossip that goes up on her blog)

Tyler goes to her for fashion advice all the time. He lets her dress him up for special events like the harvest festival ect and will always go shopping with her just to hold all her clothes. (When asked the difference between two slightly differing shades of pink jumper he just blindly closes his eyes and picks one) (Enid realises and once picked up two of the same item and forced him to choose which was better - both she and Thing found his panic as he desperately tried to figure out the difference hilarious) 

They bond over how much wednesday manages to get them in sticky situations. ((Like in the gates mansion where they shared ‘tf?!?’ Looks the whole time)) Tyler once remarked that mysteries literally seem to follow them wherever they go as all three of them climbed through some sewerage tunnel looking for clues, wednesday was no impressed. They spend hours in a day talking about the weirdest things they love about her ‘once she let me braid her hair after she got out the shower - I have never felt love till now’ ‘oh really well she let me pick her WHOLE OUTFIT for the harvest festival and then let me post the pictures of us in matching fits. Im pretty sure she loves me more’ 

Tyler has tailored some specific sweet drink for enid that he makes every time she walks in the door with her friends. Its piled high with whip cream and marshmallows and he calls it the ‘enid special’. No one else is allowed to order it. (Wednesday once accidentally took a sip whilst she wasn’t paying attention and threatend to cut her tounge out of her mouth because of how sweet it was.) Enid loves it and its on her story all the time with Tylers @ down at the bottom 

Speaking of social media enid freaked when she saw tylers bare instrgram page. They spent all evening redoing it. He has three posts, the first one was an old photo of him and his mum he posted on her birthday, one is of him and enid with their matching nails and him and Eugene out at the hives with the caption ‘first week at nevermore going better than expected’ and the third one is a photo of him and wednesday enid took whilst waiting in line for the dunk tank captioned ‘the only murder this year was the way wednesday killed it at the carnival’ - the second photo on that post is him and enid with the pile of stuffed animals that wednesday has won for them bc she knows they both love them. He has one highlight thats just a ☕️ and its all his attempts and late art and baking goods for the weathervane. 

Once helped enid dye her two toned hair and ended up with blue tips in his own hair for a few months bc he couldn’t say no to her. Thing ruthless made fun of him for it and His only response was the fact that Thing had never said no to enid either so maybe they where both as pathetic as each other. He actually ended up really liking it and keeping it in for a while (wednesday liked it too, to the surprise of both Tyler and enid but she swore she would shave their hair off in their sleep if they told anyone. ((They never did))) 

Enid helps keep the crazy in. Him and wednesday escalate each others fires which is good when needed but sometimes he wants to feel normal - like he did before Thornhill manipulated and groomed him into being a ruthless monster with blood on his hands. And so when the flashbacks and nightmares get too bad enid will sometimes find him curled up at the end of her bed half covered in plushies. When he gets ansty she will pull him along to show him the newest draft of her blog or drag him into helping prepare Ophelia Hall for the next poe cup (she has sworn him to secrecy but he wasn’t planning on participating anyways, not being super big into the whole school spirit thing) until his hands stop shaking and his eyes loose the haunted look 

Once he has learned how to control hyde him and enid in her wolf form will go running and playing on full moon. The hyde is still slightly weary of wolf!enid which both enid and Tyler take slight enjoyment in. one time whilst they where out wednesday started playing her cello on the balcony and hyde!Tyler got so distracted that he ran straight into a tree. Enid and Wednesday never let him live it down. They chase rabbits and make a competition of who can catch the most and instead of waking up cold and alone after transforming back Tyler wakes up warm and covered with a soft blanket on the floor of the girls dorms (he sleeps mostly in enids stuffed toy mountain after full moons and has scared Yoko, Ajax, Xavier and Kent many times when they come into the room) ((its also a convenient place to hide him when the new dorm monitor comes around to tell them to turn their lights off))

They would definitely brainstorm dates together. Whoever u ship (wyler or wenclair) doesn’t matter. For wyler enid would help him set up another creepyish highly wednesday focused date with the sole bribe of him telling her all about it later. for wenclair he would help her plan dates that wednesday would like and recommend places in Jericho to go bc he has lived there his whole life. Either way they do have a whole whiteboard that is full of date ideas (his whiteboard marker is blue and hers is pink - Thing gets green) wednesday fully knows they collaborate but bc it doesn’t end up on enid blog and she’s soft for them she lets it slide. 

They also hang out on enids side of the room when wednesday is writing. Sometimes they get banished to the balcony for laughing to hard but its totally worth it. 

Enid makes Tyler get high things for her as well as carry heavy things. She also rides on his shoulders/back everywhere. Yells “CHARGEEEE” and everything just like a toddler. Wednesday has a photo of them like this and has it as the background of her Home Screen but no one knows 

Speaking of phones, Wednesdays Lock Screen is a stupid photo that Tyler and enid took and set as  as a joke. U know one of those ones where its taken from below and both their heads are swished into the frame peering up at u? She refuses to change it claiming ‘she doesn’t know how too and will not let any of you imbeciles touch my phone’ but they both know she secretly likes it - wednesday would never let ‘not knowing how to do something’ stop her from removing it if she really wanted to

Enid put eyeliner on Tyler once and he loved it. He lets her do it all the time now - not overtly crazy she just tight lines his eyes and smokes out his bottom lash line. He has never felt more pretty before - and he got loads of compliments at work. When wednesday first saw it she just stopped and stared for 20 seconds before glaring at him marching out onto the balcony so he counts it as a win. 

Tyler gets along with morticia and enid gets along with Gomez really well. Obviously Wednesdays parents love both of them and immediately took them in but you can find Tyler and morticia talking about the latest book they have read over tea and gomez loves showing enid all of his striped suits, as well as teaching her how to fight with just her claws. Pugsley loves both of them more than life itself and lets enid paint his nails and plays non torture catch with Tyler whenever they are home on break. 

He lets enid sit with him while he bakes. Its sort of a stress reviler and she will usually sit on the counter tops as he bakes cakes or muffins or pastries for the weathervane to sell. She gets to pick the music and they both dance around the kitchen whilst its cooks. She definitely licks the spoon and he always gives her a ‘quality control taster’ before he puts them out to get the enid stamp of approval. ((Once for his birthday she got him a t-shirt that said ‘enid stamp of approval’ he definitely did not cry over the fact that she and him 1. had an inside joke and 2. she actually forgave him and approves of him as a person. He wears it with pride) ((wednesday steals it to sleep in sometimes and they both think its adorable when they catch her wearing it))

So this got way out of hand but yeah!! I will probably continue this at some point but this is it so far. Let me know if I have converted u bc Tyler needs more friends/love and support in his life and I feel like enid would be the one to first befriend him at nevermore bc she knows she could kick his ass if he tried anything :) 

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Protector

Prompt: if prompts are still open: virgil as an adventurer who keeps accidentally befriending the monsters he’s supposed to be fighting (aka the other sides)? have a wonderful day! (and don’t feel any pressure to do this at all, and if your inbox is meant to be closed absolutely delete this ask)

Thanks for the prompt, babe!

Read on Ao3

Warnings: sympathetic remus & deceit, some ptsd flashbacks but nothing super explicit

Pairings: LAMP, DLAMP, DLAMPR, can be platonic or romantic but Virgil’s definitely got some gay panic in there

Word Count: 8153

 Virgil’s got a simple code when he’s not on a hunt. Don’t hurt whatever you don’t absolutely have to, and odds are, it won’t hurt you. Now and then there’s a bit of an, um, incident where that doesn’t quite work out as well as they’d hoped, but by and large they get by.

Or: 5 times Virgil helps a monster he was supposed to kill, and 1 time the monsters help him

He sighs as he walks outside, grabbing the pair of gloves from the rickety tray and tugging them over his weathered hands. The front garden isn’t nearly as overgrown as it was when he found this little cabin in the middle of nowhere, but it’s got a long way to go before he can walk through without tripping over at least one overgrown bramble.

 There’s a very persistent mint plant that’s slowly and surely trying to choke the flowers. Virgil bends down and starts to toil in the dirt.

 “Come on,” he mutters, because he’s allowed to talk to plants when no one else is listening, “let’s stop doing that, you don’t have to be literally everywhere…”

 The mint doesn’t protest verbally, because it’s a plant and plants can’t talk, but Virgil would swear it tries to hold onto the dirt as he pulls it up, holding his hand under the roots to catch the dirt.

 “Alright, come on out, then, let’s just…put you in here.”

 There’s a plot of dirt in a crate resting at his knee. He pats the soil. Fresh enough. The mint plant looks almost contrite as he tucks it into the corner.

 “Next time I go see the townspeople I’m sure you’ll make some tea-shop owner very happy.”

 The rest of the garden goes similarly. By the end, he’s filled the crate almost halfway when his hand catches something sharp.

  The blade gleams as it flashes through the air. The child screams. His eyes widen—

 “No,” he grits out, flattening his hands into the dirt, “no, it’s…it’s okay. We’re okay. It’s…hhhh.”

 As he exhales, his shoulders slump, head bowing almost to his chest. The sounds of blades swinging through the air fade as the breeze rustles the leaves surrounding the cabin. The faint smell of mint cleanses his nose of blood.

 Virgil opens his eyes and carefully moves his hand away from the rose.

 “When’d you get here,” he mutters, carefully lifting the leaves to examine the stem, “don’t remember seeing you.”

 The thorns snag on the little pieces of dirt hanging from his gloves. He glances around. There aren’t any other roses nearby, not that he can see. And it’s probably not very good for it to be growing in the middle of this choked soil patch.

 He stands and makes his way back for the sharper trowel.

 Something hisses.

 His grip on the trowel doesn’t waver but he turns his head casually to glance over his shoulder.

 Something crouches in the garden, just barely visible over the crate. A tuft of hair, not dark enough to be a bear cub, not light enough to be a squirrel. His arm relaxes against his side, trowel snug against his thigh.

 “Hello,” he calls, watching closely, “is someone there?”

 He blinks in surprise when a cat pokes its head over the crate.

 “Uh, hey, there,” he manages, “uh…what’re you doing all the way out here?”

 In response, the cat leaps elegantly over the crate. It’s a slim thing, but not underweight. Its fur is bluish-gray, almost like a stormcloud. As Virgil watches, the cat sneezes and its fur turns a dappled brown.

 Virgil sighs. “So you’re the mischievous sprite I’ve been told to get rid of.”

 The neighboring village has tried several times to make him seek and destroy the sprite’s nest. Apparently, it’s been causing all sorts of problems. Books going missing, glasses breaking in the middle of the night, jars of preserves broken into. Now, that’s not really what Virgil calls a punishable offense, but the villagers were insistent that he find it and fight it. He’s done one of those things.

 Well, technically, the sprite found him.

 “There’s not much here that would interest you,” Virgil says, gesturing at the unkempt garden, “but if you want to tell me what you do want, then—hey!”

 The sprite, of course, doesn’t wait for him to actually finish inviting it inside. Instead, the door creaks as the cat darts between his legs and vanishes.

 “Be careful,” he warns, “there are sharp things.”

 He pushes open the door to see the cat perched on a precariously high shelf, sniffing at the books. He sighs.

 “I can get those down if you want, it might be easier than doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing now.”

 The cat ignores him, pawing at the thick leather cover. He sighs and pulls off his gloves.

 “Alright, just—wait a damn minute.”

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the book of the shelf and carries it over to the table, opening it and waiting. The cat jumps up onto the table and sniffs at the pages. Its tongue laps at a word.

 “You want more about that? Okay, let’s just—“

 Yes, Virgil is talking to this sprite. He’s allowed to do that in his own home.

 He turns the pages until the cat chirps.

 “This? This what you want?”

 The sprite stares at the page. It goes unnaturally still.

 The hairs on the back of Virgil’s neck stand up.

 Then it breaks; the cat shakes itself off and jumps down.

 “That’s it? You done now?”

 The cat’s tail twitches gracefully as it struts back to the door. Virgil rolls his eyes and follows it out.

 “Well, I’m glad I could be of service,” he mutters as he closes the door.

 Something rough touches his hand. He looks down. The sprite looks back up at him and licks his hand again.

 “…you’re welcome.”

 The cat sneezes, its fur changing back into the deep bluish-gray. Without another look, it takes off, leaping effortlessly over the crate and disappearing into the woods.

 Well, stranger things have happened in Virgil’s life.

 Shaking his head, he gets back to his garden. He glances at the rose before deciding that, eh, what the hell, it can stay another day. He finishes filling the mint crate and sets it near the front door, ready for his trip to the village tomorrow.

 “Ah, thank you!” The tea shop owner beams as he hands it over. “I’m sure this’ll be plenty.”

 “I’ve got more than enough, I promise.”

 “Well, since that sprite disappeared, I won’t be running out nearly as often!”

 Virgil blinks. “Huh?”

 “Oh, the sprite you got rid of!” She smiles. “Thank you kindly for that, it was ever so pesky.”

 Virgil just nods.

 ————————————

Virgil opens his eyes and doesn’t quite reach for the dagger he keeps in the nightstand but it’s close.

 “There’s a dog in my bed,” he mutters, “standing on top of me, drooling on my face.”

 The dog just barks. And changes color.

 He sighs. “Are you the same one from last time? Was the book not enough for you?”

 The dog barks again, jumping off the bed and trotting to the kitchen, its nail clicking on the floor. Virgil lets his eyes close for a second before getting up and following it.

 “Alright, the book it—whoa.”

 The dog is, um. Not a sprite.

 A huge mastiff elemental sits in the middle of his kitchen. It looks up from when it was nosing at what remained of a chicken carcass and rumbles. Virgil raises his hands.

 “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says lowly, “even though you did break into my house and wake me up. What do you want?”

 The elemental turns and moves through the house, out toward the woods. Virgil stuffs his feet in his boots and follows, tucking a slingshot and his knife into his pockets as he goes. The elemental moves through the trees with an inhuman grace, the very edges of the leaves it passes smoldering. A thin tendril of smoke wafts past Virgil’s nose.

  “She’s still inside!” The guard shouts as Virgil wrenches his arm away. “I have to go get her!”

  “Sir, you’ll die!”

  “She’s still—“

  The top of the house crashes down as—

 Virgil closes his eyes and brings his kerchief up to his nose. He breathes deeply. Freshly baked bread. Honeysuckle. The slightly tacky smell of leather oil. Breathe in, breathe out.

 When he opens his eyes again, the elemental has paused, glancing back at him.

 “I’m coming,” he says quickly, “I’m coming. Keep going.”

 He shrugs the old ghosts off his shoulders and follows.

 The elemental leads him to a clearing. Underneath a large, dead white tree, there’s a small den of moss. Virgil’s breath catches in his throat.

 The villagers had sent him a warning about a curse in the area. Fires had been going out. It had been impossible to keep warmth in the houses over the long winter nights. They’d been seeing figures in the smoke, sightings of, well, a mastiff. They’d contacted him to try and get it to leave.

 Well, the mastiff elemental is here, under the tree, looking back and forth between Virgil and something he can’t see, buried in the moss.

 “Is there something you wanna show me,” he asks softly, coming a little further into the clearing, “in there?”

 The elemental whines. He walks forward until he catches sight of a stone in the middle of the bed of moss. It’s cracked in two.

 “Is this what you wanted to show me,” he calls, shifting into a crouch, “this stone?”

 The elemental huffs, nudging his hand. It reaches past him and tries to pick up the stone in its mouth, only for it to drop. It puts its nose down and whines.

 “…was this your favorite stone to play with?” The elemental butts its head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry it broke. How’d it happen?”

 The elemental points its nose toward a jagged boulder in the corner of the clearing.

 “Ah, I see.”

 And you know what? Yeah, Virgil gets it. He’s dropped shit where he shouldn’t have dropped it before and it broke. What does it matter that this elemental is so upset over accidentally breaking its favorite toy that its warmth is so low the nearby villagers think it’s a curse?

 “Hey,” Virgil murmurs, reaching out to cup the two halves of the rock in his hands, “it’s okay. This rock—good choice by the way, very good choice—it’s part of the Perse Mountains, right? So it’s susceptible to fire magic.”

 He reaches into his slingshot bag and pulls out two small rocks. Using one on either side, he sandwiches the two halves of the broken rock together and holds it out to the elemental.

 “Now breath on it.”

 The elemental exhales carefully, bathing the rock in a steady stream of fire. Sure enough, in a few moments, thanks to Virgil holding it steady, the rock glows a soft yellow and reforges.

 “That’s good.” He takes it carefully between the stones and rolls it around the moss, trying to cool it. “Okay. Try now.”

 The elemental takes the rock gingerly between its teeth and yips.

 Virgil chuckles. “I’m glad I could help.”

 The elemental spins in a circle before turning back into the dog and licking Virgil’s cheek, barking excitedly.

 “Okay, okay, you’re welcome, jeez.” He half-heartedly shoves the dog’s head away. “You’re getting slobber all over me!”

 The dog pulls away and takes the rock into its mouth again, snuffling happily. Virgil shakes his head and gets up.

 “If that’s all, then I’m gonna go home.” The dog licks his hand one more time. “Yeah, yeah, okay.”

 And if a fire is already burning when he gets back home, well, that’s just a surefire way to know there was never a curse for the villagers to worry about.

 Get it? Surefire?

 Shut up, he’s hilarious.

 ————————————

“Ah, Virgil!”

 Virgil turns. The blacksmith waves at him from the market stalls. Dodging fruit carts and weaving his way through passers-by, he stops in front of the man and gestures to the new wares.

 “Good season, Anbel?”

 “Oh, the best!” Anbel gestures to the coin chest behind him. “You know how it is, goes in and out of season.”

 Absentmindedly, Virgil rubs at the scars on his arms. “I know the feeling.”

 “Anyways, I got that dagger you gave me to repair.”

 Anbel reaches behind him and pulls the dagger out of a leather bag. He holds it up. The deep gouges in the blade are gone, the handle isn’t tarnished anymore, and it looks…good.

 “Thank you, Anbel,” he says, reaching for it, “so how much?”

 “No charge.”

 “Come on.”

 “No charge,” Anbel repeats, “not for you.”

 Unbidden, a flush rises to his cheeks as he tucks the dagger into his belt. “Anbel…”

 “Alright,” the blacksmith says, holding up his hands, “I’ve got a favor to ask.”

 Virgil sighs. “What’d you do?”

 “Why do you assume that I did something?”

 Virgil just gives him a look.

 “…alright but this time it wasn’t me.”

 “Uh-huh.”

 Anbel smacks his chest. “I’m serious, there’s something wrong in the woods outside of town.”

 Virgil sobers, taking a step closer. “What is it?”

 “Dunno. But my horses won’t go past a particular stretch of land and I need to be able to make the trip next moon.”

 Virgil chews on his lip, thinking. “Did they run away or just refuse to go near?”

 “Refused to go near.” Anbel shakes his head. “Don’t know what’s gotten into them. They’re good mares.”

 “Have any others reported anything?”

 “Cindi had trouble getting through too.”

 “Where is it?”

 “Just before the bend in the river. Near the trees.”

 Virgil sighs. “I’ll have a look.”

 That’s how he finds himself wandering down the main road on the next cloudy day. He glances around to make sure there aren’t any other villagers nearby before he starts looking around. There’s a small grove of trees near the riverbank, a mound of rocks next to the bend in the road, and a rapid system rushing just out of sight.

 Maybe the horses were scared of the rapids? They’ve been known to spook before. But no, Anbel makes this trip every season. If the horses were going to spook at the rapids, they’ve done it before.

 Virgil frowns, coming to a stop in the middle of the grass between the road and the river. What could they’ve been startled by? There’s not enough space to hide anything here. The rocks are on the wrong side of the road. The river isn’t close or loud. And the trees aren’t close enough together to hide anything between them.

 …between them.

 Virgil holds very, very still.

 Out of the corner of his eye, one of the trunks shifts.

 He doesn’t move quickly, doesn’t draw his dagger, just lowers his eyes to the grass and turns, facing the trees, and takes a step backward. Then another. Then another. When he’s over ten yards away, he looks up.

 “I mean you no harm,” he calls, “I have no wish to interfere. I was told that there was something that scared a few horses and wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

 The breeze rustles through the leaves.

 “I am happy to leave you here,” he continues, risking a step closer, “but I know that…this is probably not where you’d like to be. This isn’t an especially damp forest.”

 The trunk shifts again.

 “If there’s something I can do to help—“ he risks another step— “I’d be happy to.”

  There.

 The trunk shifts and seems to shrink inside as a jaculi unwinds itself from around its base. It blinks lazily at him with amber eyes, golden scales rippling in the faint light from the cloudy sky.

 “Hello,” Virgil waves, “can I—will you let me come closer?”

 The jaculi hisses and lays its head near the ground.

 “Thank you.” Virgil walks forward carefully, stopping a few feet away and crouching down. “Now, what brings you here? You look like you’re an awful long way from home.”

 The jaculi hisses again, its head swiveling toward the river. Virgil looks. Across the bank, he can see a much denser forest and what looks like a storm brewing.

 “You’ll be hurt,” he realizes, “if you try and stay here…”

 The jaculi coils tighter around the tree trunk.

 “How’d you get over here,” Virgil mutters, “you’d’ve needed to swim across…and that also won’t go well for you.”

 There’s a soft rustling as the jaculi buries its tail in a pile of leaves near the base of the tree. Virgil glances over to see it rubbing its face halfheartedly against the bark.

 His eyes widen.

 About a month ago there had been a terrible storm. His little cabin had barely held together. He’d heard reports from the tavern owner that it’d blown one of the old trees right over.

 “That’s how you got across,” he murmurs, mostly to himself, “you climbed across the tree. And now it’s gone and you’re stuck.”

 The jaculi blinks remorsefully at him.

 “Okay,” Virgil mutters, “okay, we can…we can figure this out.”

 They’ll have to do it at night. There’s no way the jaculi will feel safe enough to move while it’s still light out. There’s an old barn that never finished construction just over the ridge. One of those timber pieces is probably long enough to get over the river. And he can make a bridge wide enough to support the jaculi’s weight.

 He explains his plan to the jaculi, feeling a little ridiculous, but he’s allowed to explain what he’s doing to help someone, it’s fine, and says that he’ll be back. Promise.

 The landowner gives him a weird look when he asks to borrow the timber.

 “It’s too long for you to do anything with it,” he says, still helping Virgil load it onto a sled, “and much too tough for you to cut by yourself.”

 “It’s fine just the way it is,” Virgil says, “and thank you.”

 He waves Virgil off. “Keep it. You’re doing better than I am with it.”

 Virgil’s back at the river bend by sundown. He can’t see the jaculi anymore—it’s probably hidden itself for safety—but he calls out when he arrives.

 “I’m going to use these to make a bridge for you. It shouldn’t take me too long.”

 The pieces of timber are ungainly, to make a colossal understatement, but Virgil grits his teeth and slides them out of the sled. He wades a little into the river and—

  The water is so cold it burns. He has to keep going. It’s gaining on him. He’ll be safe in the water.

  The growls get closer and his foot slips—

 “No,” he mutters, “no, it’s not that. I’m fine. I’m standing, I’m not hurt, I’m not drowning.”

 He blinks down at his boots, the water swirling around his ankles. The timber in his hands shifts as he breathes. He’s fine. He’s fine.

 “Okay…okay.”

 He grits his teeth again and heaves, bringing the piece of timber with him. He wades further until it’s swirling around his waist. The piece of timber is just long enough to reach the other side. Onto the next one.

 He gets the five of them stretched across the river just as the last of the light vanishes. Panting, he struggles back up onto the side of the river bank and splays out onto his back, eyes closed.

 A low hiss sounds in his ear.

 He just manages to avoid a scream.

 “Hey,” he gasps instead, eyes flickering open to see the jaculi coiled up a few feet away, “uh…please don’t do that.”

 The jaculi just blinks at him.

“Uh…why don’t you, uh…” Virgil holds a hand to his chest, trying to get his breathing back under control. “…try out the bridge?”

 The jaculi slithers closer, flicking its tongue out against the timber. It looks back at Virgil.

 “Go on,” he encourages, “you can do it.”

 It slithers on, testing the boards against its weight.

 Virgil holds his breath until the jaculi vanishes into the trees across the river banks, slipping further and further into the darkness.

 Anbel leaves on his trip the next moon.

 ————————————

Honestly, when the kraken explodes out of Virgil’s well, he just sighs and fetches his bath so he can get the poor thing out.

 “Easy,” he grumbles when the kraken squirms so much he almost drops it, “you may be a young one but you’re still heavy.”

 Panting, he drops the tentacled beast into the full tub, his arms flying up to shield his face from the shower of sparkling drops. Judging by the happy trills and clicks, the kraken likes it in there. He shakes his head.

 “So that’s why I’ve been asked to fight a monster in the sewers,” he muses, watching the kraken’s tentacles writhe giddily in the metal tub, “just how did you end up so far inland?”

 The kraken, of course, does not deign to answer. Instead, the tentacles latch onto the side of the bath and threaten to tip the whole thing over.

 “No, you idiot,” Virgil shouts, grabbing onto the other side and weighing it down. He winces when more water spills onto him, drenching him head to toe. “Now look what you’ve done.”

 What the kraken has done, apparently, is get Virgil close enough so that its tentacles can haul Virgil into the tub.

 “Hey!”

 Virgil spits water out of his mouth, much to the kraken’s delight.

 “That was rude.”

 The kraken just chirps happily and wriggles around. Its tentacles stick to Virgil’s clothes and pull him through the water.

 Virgil’s chest tightens.

 One of the first things they teach you about krakens is never get in the water with them. The second thing they teach you about krakens is do not get in the water with them. The third thing they teach you about krakens is not to get too close to their tentacles so they don’t pull you into the water with them.

 And yeah, this is Virgil’s bathtub, not a river, a tide pool, or the open sea, but you can drown in an inch of water.

 Virgil presses his back up against the rim of the tub. The kraken seems to realize something’s wrong and settles, burbling softly.

 “Hey, bud,” Virgil says shakily, “I, uh, what’re you doing here?”

 The kraken twitches a few tentacles and more water slops over the edge.

 “Right…” Virgil shakes his head. “Okay, well, uh, I would rather not sit here and soak through all of my clothes, so I’m just going to—“

 As soon as he tries to move, the kraken wraps a tentacle around his leg and tugs.

 “Okay, okay, not leaving, not leaving, um—“ Virgil reaches down and takes a handful of the grass. Worst comes to worst, he can tip the tub and get the kraken back in the well.

 The kraken lets go as soon as he settles back in the water. Virgil looks at the creature carefully.

 There’s a mark on its head. Discoloration, probably, but still obvious. As he watches, the kraken burbles to itself and starts making little ripples in the surface of the water with its tentacles. After a moment, it starts gently pushing the water towards Virgil.

 The water laps at Virgil’s knees in little waves, not enough to wet him anymore—not that it would matter at this point—but enough to bounce back and make more patterns. The kraken trills softly and keeps doing it.

 Does it…want to play?

 Slowly, Virgil lifts his hands up and starts to push the water back. The kraken, realizing that Virgil is indeed committing to the idea that he is going to play with this kraken, trills louder and uses more of its tentacles to move the waves bigger.

 “Yeah? Is that how it works?” Virgil moves his hands. “Like that?”

 The kraken chirps.

 He’s not really sure how long they stay there, playing with the water, but it’s long enough for the sun to go down in the sky and Virgil to get more than a little chilly in the water.

 When the kraken notices that the water is rippling more around Virgil and he’s not moving his hands any faster, it wraps a tentacle around his ankle and tugs.

 “What? You tired?” The kraken leans its head against the side of the tub. “Okay. Well, I don’t know how long you can stay in here—“

 He cuts himself off when the kraken jabs a tentacle toward the well.

 “You wanna go back in there? It’s so small and cramped, and the sewers in town aren’t much better.”

 The kraken insists.

 Sure. Why not.

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the kraken back into the bucket, carefully lowering the creature down into the well. He hears one more trill before splashing sounds indicate that the creature is gone.

 Funnily enough, reports of the sewer beast vanish overnight.

 When Virgil wakes up panting from a nightmare of ropes around his neck, the glass of water on his bedside table is perfectly cold.

 ————————————

Virgil curses as the sole of his boot slips. He just manages to catch himself against the cliffside before splitting his knee on a harsh spire of rock. Gritting his teeth, he forces himself onward.

 The cliffs frown over him as he makes his way up the pass. The rocks crumble threateningly as his boots crunch, crunch, crunch. The sword on his hip feels too heavy. He curses, tugging his glove the rest of the way onto his hand.

 He never was one for dragon hunts.

 The message came in a week ago. Some poor terrified soul had come screaming into the town, ranting about dragons, missing people, curses, the whole lot. Virgil had taken up the call and set off, promising to get to the bottom of it.

 He never promised to hurt anything.

 Thunder rolls ominously in the distance and he bites back another curse. There’s a cave up ahead, he can see it just over the next ridge, he’ll rest there.

 In all honesty—and he can be honest, now there’s no one else around—he hates these kinds of missions. Finding something is one thing. Going to get something is one thing. Rescuing someone is one thing.

 This feels like something else.

 There’s something in his boot. There’s a wrinkle in the thinnest shirt he’s wearing. The sword belt is digging into his hip. The voices in his head won’t shut the fuck up.

 The cave is right there.

 He all but collapses to his knees as soon as he makes it inside, just as the first drops of rain land on the back of his armor. He breathes a sigh of relief, heading further into the cave, into the safety, out of the storm.

 It’s quiet here.

 He takes the knife out of its loop on his belt and sets about setting up a fire. There’s a reasonable stash of dry wood here, probably enough to keep him going throughout the night. He makes a small bundle and lights it, blowing on it until it catches and burns merrily.

 Shrugging off his pack, he leans it up against the wall and starts to dig out the dried meat. He tears off a long strip with his teeth and chews slowly, staring into the flames.

 There’s something nice about fire. Not all fire—he’s got the burns to prove that—but this fire. Controlled fire. He sits back on his hands, brushing aside the eggshells to lean against the cave wall.

 Controlled fire is…justified chaos. It’s strange, to think of chaos as being justified. But that’s what it is. A controlled burn. Snapping and sparking amidst a small mound of wood, warm. Safe. It’s strange to think of fire as safe, too.

 Virgil sits back, finishing off his meal and closing his eyes. The fire is very, very warm. Much warmer than he would expect for just a small campfire. And a little irregular, too. It comes in waves, pants, almost.

 …wood, eggshells…

 Okay, look.

 Look.

 Virgil’s tired, okay?

 It’s not like this is what normally happens to him on hunts.

 He knows what he’s doing.

 He does!

 It’s fine.

 This is fine.

 This is so utterly fine right now.

 But…okay, yeah, maybe Virgil’s not been paying as much attention as he should be. And maybe he’s fighting down a panic attack right now. And maybe he’s frozen in fear to the floor of this cave and not sure how he’s survived this long.

 Whatever.

 Virgil cracks an eye open.

 “…hey, there, dragon.”

 Surprisingly enough, his head does not get immediately bitten off. Instead, the dragon looks at him, nostrils puffing hot air into his face. The smell of dank cavern air mixes with what Virgil really hopes isn’t decomposing human.

 “Um…fancy seeing you here?”

 The dragon huffs louder, still staring into Virgil’s soul. He risks a glance over its shoulder to make sure that yes, this is the only dragon in this cave, there aren’t suddenly going to be five of them. He spies the scales trailing further into the darkness, muscular legs, long, powerful tail. The dragon growls, snapping his eyes back.

 “Hey, uh—didn’t mean to invade your cave.” Virgil scoots backward. “That was absolutely my fault. I can, uh—well, I can’t really promise to leave you alone, but I, uh…rain check?”

 As if on cue, thunder booms from outside.

  Shit.

 A lower growl sounds from the dragon as its mouth curls up. Wow, those teeth are long…

 “Can you, uh—so I know that this is a pretty big request, considering I just, you know, invaded your cave, but uh—maybe don’t eat me?”

 Judging by the growl, that’s a no.

 “Okay, I, uh—“ Virgil risks a glance around. His fire is still burning. Maybe he can at least get the dragon to back up before he—

 He pauses.

 Near the fire, the dragon’s leg looks…wet. Its scales are stained with a dark splotch coming from somewhere higher up. As he watches, the dragon shifts its weight and it gets wetter.

 “You’re hurt,” he says softly, “you’re—oh, god, you’re hurt.”

 He looks back up. The dragon’s snarl doesn’t quite soften, but its mouth relaxes a little.

 “I’ve got salve and bandages in my pack,” he says cautiously, “if you let me get them, I can—I can help?”

 Slowly, ever so slowly, he moves his hand to his pack, keeping the other one raised as he opens the flap and takes out the bottle and the bandages.

 “Can I have a look, please? I’m just gonna…”

 The dragon huffs cautiously as Virgil turns, moving around its body to crouch next to its injured leg. Now that he’s closer, he can see what’s happened.

 A shard of metal is lodged in the soft space between two of the scales. Every time the dragon moves, it shifts, spilling more and more blood. Judging by how loud the dragon is breathing, it must really hurt.

 “You poor thing,” he mutters, “how long has this been here?”

 No response.

 “We gotta get it out,” he says instead, looking for something he can use, “if we leave it in you might get infected, or…something else bad will happen.”

 He pulls a pair of pliers from his pack and the dragon snorts.

 “Easy, easy—“ the dragon’s eyes go wide at the glint of the flame off the metal— “hey, it’s okay, I’m gonna use these to get that metal outta you, yeah?”

 It seems an hour before the dragon calms, gingerly stretching out its leg so Virgil can see the shard. Taking a deep breath, he hooks the pliers around the edge of the metal.

 “Ready on three, okay?” He grits his teeth. “One…two…three!”

 He yanks.

 The dragon roars as the metal shard comes out in his hands, the side release almost sending him toppling back into the fire. Quickly, he discards the tools and reaches out to soothe the dragon, petting its scales and hushing it gently.

 “Shh, shh, it’s out now, it’s okay, it can’t hurt you anymore.” He runs a hand over the dragon’s heaving back. “I’m gonna help you, okay? I’m here to help.”

 It seems to calm the dragon, its breathing slowly but surely calming down as Virgil continues to speak softly to it. Honestly, if it were this easy to calm himself down, he would have a lot fewer problems.

 “I’ve got to clean it,” he says after a minute, “just to make sure you don’t get infected. Then I’ll be done, okay?”

 The dragon swivels its massive head around, looking at the wound, then back at Virgil. It heaves a great sigh and its chin comes to rest on the floor, staring at him. Guess that’s as close to permission as he’s gonna get.

 “Thank you. This, uh, this may sting a bit.”

 He barely gets a flinch as he starts cleaning the cut. Dragons. Once he’s wrapped the dragon’s leg as best he can, he turns to peer at the shard of metal he pulled out of the wound. He holds it up, examining it in the firelight.

 It looks…wrong.

 It’s too thick to be just something that happened to get in there, but too jagged to be something natural. It looks like it snapped off of something, but it’s not the right shape to be an arrowhead or a piece of a building. So what…?

 He turns when the dragon starts to move.

 It heaves itself to its feet, testing out its weight on all four legs. When the pain doesn’t shoot through, it lumbers off, further into the cave. Its head dips down, out of sight for a moment, before it turns and starts back toward the fire, dragging something in its mouth.

 Virgil’s eyes widen when another bag is dropped in front of him.

 “Is this…is this someone else’s?” He lays his fingers carefully on its surface. “Did…did you…did someone else come here before me?”

 The dragon huffs.

 With trembling fingers, he flips open the bag. There’s a good store of meat in here, a change of clothes, something for armor, it’s a provisions bag. One side has a little loop attached with nothing inside.

 “…someone tried to stab you,” he realizes in horror, looking back up at the dragon. “Someone tried to fight you but couldn’t. So they stabbed you in the leg.”

 His fists clench.

 “They hurt you.”

 Another huff. Then the dragon nudges the bag toward him again.

 “Is there something else in here?” Virgil starts sorting through the possessions. He lays the clothes to one side, the bottles to another. When he gets to the food, the dragon leans forward and snorts, blowing hot air into his face.

 “This? This is what you want me to get?” He looks at it. It’s just more dried meat. It, uh, it actually looks a little better than his. “Are you hungry?”

 The dragon snorts at Virgil’s pack, then at the food in his hands.

 “…are you…giving this to me because I’m still hungry?”

 Another huff, longer this time, and the dragon’s head comes to rest on the floor, eyes staring up at him.

 Virgil swallows around the sudden lump in his throat. “Well, that’s—thank you.”

 The dragon rumbles as he starts to eat, eyes blinking lazily. Virgil tries not to mind too much.

 And…honestly? It’s not that bad. He’s had worse audiences when he’s just trying to eat. The dragon switches its tail every now and then, huffing gently to keep the fire going. It’s…nice.

 Virgil finishes eating as much of the food as he wants and tucks the rest away. He takes a moment to just…look.

 “The other person,” he says eventually, “the one that hurt you…they—I think they wanted to kill you.”

 The dragon stares at him like he just said the sky is blue.

 “No, really, I—I don’t think they wanted anything else.” He shakes his head. “We’re not near enough to any villages for that to be the reason, there aren’t any traveling paths through here, there’s…there’s no other reason. I think they just wanted to kill you.”

 The cave falls quiet as the rain pours outside.

 “…I think they wanted me to kill you too.”

 Virgil’s chest aches. Something in his right hand tingles.

“Why do they always want me to kill you?”

 And he’s not just talking about the dragon now.

 It’s always the same.

 Fight this. Kill that. Rescue us from this. Save us from that.

 What if you’re not the ones that need to be saved?

 Virgil lets his chin drop to his chest and sighs. His sword hangs heavy at his hip. His hands tremble in the burning light of the fire.

 “I hate to impose,” he manages through a sluggish tongue, “but…may I stay? Just until the storm passes?”

 A low thud makes him look up. The dragon shifts, its tail curled in a half-circle around Virgil and the fire. It huffs softly.

 “Thank you.”

 ————————————

Sometimes he has sleepless nights. Drifts in blackness and emptiness until it’s time to get up. Or he’ll close his eyes for what feels like an instant before he wakes up the next day.

 Sometimes he has restless nights. Can’t sleep, can’t manage to get more than a few minutes of tense darkness before his eyes shoot open and he has to reassure himself that’s he can sleep.

 Sometimes he has good nights. Dreams of sunshine and warmth and the safety of a hot drink between his palms. Closing his eyes and just hearing the peaceful hum of his cabin.

 Most of the time he has nightmares. The good ones are just mixes of monsters he can’t see coming, kills he wishes he didn’t have to make. Losing someone he should’ve been able to save.

 This one’s a bad one.

  Jaws close down on his arm. The creature whips its head back and forth, shaking him like a rag doll. He grits his teeth and tries to—

  His eyes widen as the burning roof collapses on top of him. A heavy beam falls onto his chest and he can’t move, he’s going to—

  The cliff face collapses under him and he plummets, fingers scrabbling for a hold against the crumbling face. He can’t reach, he can’t reach—

 “….shut up, you’re gonna wake him up!”

 “If you stop shouting, then he won’t.”

 “Shh, the both of you.”

 “This is certainly working, I think we should all keep talking like this.”

 “Oh, don’t you start!”

 “Hey, hey, shh! He’s waking up!”

 Virgil is waking up, as a matter of fact, and he also has no idea where he is or what’s going on. He does know there are at least five people in this room with him though. That’s either a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

 He can feel rocks under his head. Is he still in the cave, then? How other people…here? Where’s the dragon?

 “Hey,” one of the voices says, “are you okay? You kinda, uh, well, you weren’t looking very good for a little bit there.”

 “Back up, you morons, you’re gonna scare him!”

 “We’re not scary, shut up.”

 “You’re scary.”

 “All of you be quiet,” the first voice says, before it softens again. “Hey, can you open your eyes?”

  Well, I’ve definitely made worse decisions.

 He wholeheartedly concurs with that thought when the first thing he sees is genuinely one of the most attractive people he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting face to face.

 “There you are,” the beautiful person says, “good morning. Is your head alright?”

 “Uh—“ not now gay panic— “uh?”

 “Back up, Logan,” another person says, “let me see.”

 Logan—great name, sure, why not—moves out of the way, and oh god there’s two of them.

 “Hi!” The other attractive person leans over Virgil and gods— “are you hurt? You looked a little upset while you were sleeping.”

 “You—“ Virgil does not squeak— “you watched me while I was sleeping?”

 “Well, you fell asleep and Roman got worried, so—“

 “I’m sorry,” Virgil interrupts, “who—who are you?”

 The person in front of him tilts his head. “Don’t you recognize us?”

  I would absolutely fucking remember meeting you, and I do not.

 “Patton,” Logan says, “he’s a mortal. He won’t—we are not as we were when he met us.”

 The butterflies in Virgil’s stomach ice.

 These…these are creatures. Is he—what supernatural force did he piss off?

 Logan smiles at him and winks. First off, rude, but—

 Virgil squints. One of the man’s eyes is a deep bluish-grey. The other one—the one he just winked with—is a dappled brown.

 Oh.

 “…you’re the sprite.”

 “I am,” he says, “my name is Logan.”

 Something nudges his shoulder. Virgil looks over to see Patton offering him a round stone.

 “…the mastiff elemental?”

 “Patton, actually.” Patton smiles and gestures over Virgil’s other shoulder.

  Why are there five of them and why are they all so pretty?

 “Can you guess who they are?”

 One of them rolls his eyes. “Yes, that sounds like a perfect use of time that isn’t at all a waste.”

 “Okay, so you’re the jaculi.”

 He smirks. “Janus.”

 The one near the entrance to the cave just cackles and bounces on the balls of his feet. Almost like…

 “You made me spill the bathtub over my whole yard!”

 He cackles louder. “Yes, I did!”

 Virgil rolls his eyes. He’s not fond. He’s not.

 “Remus,” Logan scolds, “you said you were just going into the well.”

 “He took me out!”

 “Yeah, because that thing is cramped as hell.”

 “Aww,” Patton coos, “how sweet.”

 “Well,” the last one says, smiling softly from one of the darker corners of the cave, “we knew that, didn’t we?”

 Virgil turns, looking hard into the darkness. The last person stands, walking over slowly, leaning most of his weight on one leg. As he moves into the light, he sits down on the log and reaches down. Virgil’s eyes widen as he gets handed the last of the dried meat.

 “You’re still hungry,” the person says softly, “I can tell.”

 Virgil cannot eat right now, thank you very much. Instead, his eyes are fixed on his bandage, still tied sloppily around the person’s leg.

 “You’re the dragon.”

 “I am. But you can call me Roman.”

 “…does it still hurt?”

 “Oh, this?” He smiles and moves his leg. “A little. But it’s almost better,” he finishes, reaching over to gently bump Virgil’s shoulder, “thanks to you.”

 Yes, hello? Virgil would like for someone to explain what’s going on, please.

 “I’m sure you’ve got questions,” Logan says, also sitting down, “and we can do our best to answer them. But first…are you alright?”

 Uh, no. “Why do you think I’m not?”

 “You’re breathing faster than most mortals do at rest, your face is more flushed than it was, and you were troubled while you slept.”

 …shhh…

 “I, um…I was having a nightmare.”

 “Ooh,” Remus says, plopping down on the floor with his chin propped up on his hands, “was it a bad one?”

 “…you could say that.”

 “Remus,” Patton chides, “don’t.”

 Remus pouts but hushes, reaching out to toy with a stick. Patton rolls the stone between his hands.

 “You did seem upset,” Janus says, “can we help?”

 “H-help?”

 Janus raises an eyebrow. “Yes, help. Or is that not a thing most mortals do?”

 Um. Well. Uh, hang on.

 “Are you just going to be mean to him,” Logan sighs, “or are we actually going to make an effort to be friendly with the person we have decided to befriend?”

 “Can one of you explain what’s going on?” Patton nods to Virgil. “Before he decides we’re all mad?”

 Roman sighs. “Virgil? Are you still hungry?”

 “Huh? No, no, I’m…I’m okay.”

 He smiles. “Good. This…this might sound a bit strange, but…try and keep up?”

 “As weird as it might sound, this isn’t the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

 Roman blinks in surprise, a small smile coming over his face. “Isn’t it?”

 “Well, you must have some idea of what I do for a living.”

 Roman’s smile only grows. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we do.”

 Logan clears his throat. Virgil turns, seeing the book from his cabin appear in Logan’s hands.

 “Did you—is that my—“

 “I can assure you,” Logan says softly, “that I did not steal your book from you. Rather, this is a copy, generated from the information I was able to learn.”

 “What did you want?”

 “We were cursed.” Logan closes the book with a snap. “Cursed to take on forms that were hated or feared or simply a nuisance.”

 Virgil’s stomach drops. Cursed?

 “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, “that sounds…awful.”

 “It was,” Janus mutters, “completely inconvenient and an utter waste of time.”

 “You say like it wasn’t your fault.”

 “Oh, right, it was absolutely only my fault.”

 “You two,” Patton huffs, “enough.”

 Virgil’s still trying to wrap his head around everything. “Wait, hang on, so—you were cursed? Were? Past tense?”

 “Well,” Janus gestures to himself, “I don’t exactly look like a snake anymore, do I?”

 He raises a finger when Virgil opens his mouth.

 “Careful, dear.”

 Virgil snaps his mouth shut.

 Roman rolls his eyes and places a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “You broke the curse, my friend. Or at least…you helped us break it.”

 “But how? I didn’t—I didn’t do anything.”

 He raises an eyebrow and gestures to the bandage. “You don’t consider this doing anything?”

 “Or this?” Patton holds up the stone.

 Logan taps the cover of the book. “You helped us. When you had no reason to, past the goodness of your heart.”

 “We would’ve been hurt,” Janus says quietly, “or hunted without you. They certainly would’ve killed me.”

 “And me,” Remus says.

 Patton nods. “And me.”

 Roman simply taps his leg. Right. They already tried to kill him.

 Virgil blinks. “So…me helping broke the curse?”

 “You caring broke the curse,” Logan corrects gently, “and, well, when you...when you seemed to be in need, we wanted to care for you too.”

 Oh.

  Oh.

  Oh, fuck.

 “So,” Roman says, smiling up at Virgil, “how can we help?”

 “Help? With—with what?”

 “The nightmares.”

 “Oh,” Virgil mumbles, averting his eyes, “you, uh, can’t. Not really. They’re not a curse or magical or anything. They’re just nightmares.”

 “But there must be something we can do.”

 He shakes his head sadly. Believe him, if there were anything five unfairly attractive people could do, he’d tell them. But there isn’t. “They come with the job. There’s not—no one can do anything.”

 He can practically hear Patton frowning. “That’s not very fair. You do so much for others, don’t they—don’t they care?”

 Virgil shrugs. “Life isn’t fair.”

 “So take what it won’t give you.” Janus folds his arms. “They don’t care for you. Even though you care for them.”

 “They do care for me,” Virgil argues, “they’re kind. They help me.”

 “Not with this,” he shoots back, “not with what you really need.”

 “You protect everyone,” Roman says softly when Virgil opens his mouth to argue again, “who protects you?”

 Who protects the protector?

 “…no one.” Virgil shakes his head. “No one but me.”

 “Well, you’re right. That doesn’t seem fair at all.” Logan sets the book aside and it vanishes into the darkness of the cave. “Perhaps we should endeavor to fix that.”

 “F-fix it?” Virgil’s head jerks up. “How?”

 “Let us protect you.”

 “Protect me?”

 “Do keep up,” Janus sighs, but he’s pretty sure he can see him smiling over there, “at the very least, we have magic. That should offer you something.”

 “You don’t have to decide right now,” Roman says quickly, “but…thought we’d offer. Think it over.”

 …well, if ��protection’ involves seeing them more often, Virgil can definitely work with that.

 “While I think it over, will you tell me how you got cursed?”

 “So it was entirely Janus’s fault—“

 “It was not!”

 “Yes, it was!”

 As Remus and Janus start arguing, Virgil smiles and leans back against the wall of the cave. Roman waves his hand and the cave wall warms, almost cradling Virgil. Logan settles on his other side, weight solid against his arm.

 Yeah, he could get used to this.

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[shivada-jade]

codename: vind

older sibling!reader

characters: diluc, kaeya ➡ mentions: adelinde, crepus, la signora warning(s): alcohol consumption, swearing, and because for some reason, older siblings tend to be shorter than younger siblings. iDK WHY but ugh, yeah you're shorter than diluc and kaeya bc you're the older sibling. ik, i hate it too

like, i wanna be a tall 6'2 woman

diluc's 5'10 so u can still be tall in the story.. just not 5'11 😢 sorry over 5'10 folks

➡ WRITTEN BEFORE 2.1 so uhh :D

notes: platonic w diluc and kaeya, duh bc ur the older sibling. sibling love!!! sibling love !! woop woop !

"Dad, I'm home!" You bellow out to the house, waving a polite hello to Adelinde who looked shocked to see you. You kick off your shoes and slide your way to the long table in the living room, swiftly grabbing an apple before heading upstairs.

Your hands graze the railings and make your way up to find your dad. Upon reaching the last flight of steps, you were suspicious with how the place was very quiet. Granted, your younger brothers are now adults, but it still felt too quiet. Maybe you expected to see your brothers playing a game of chess, maybe bickering and fencing. You were hoping to see your family after being away.

You were a part of the Fatui under the Mondstadt branch. It was and at the same time wasn't a choice to be roped into the Fatui. You got roped into the wrong group of friends and found yourself blackmailed by the infamous group.

You didn't want to join. You didn't want any of it. You've been disconnected from the world. Wiped out from the face of Earth. No one gave information to you, you couldn't learn anything about what's happening currently. The most you could do was send letters, but even those were difficult to send out. You had to do it in secrecy or you'd be in trouble.

Love, the better sibling,

[Y/N]

Or another common send off is:

Please write back soon,

[Y/N]

And your family never failed to send back letters. They asked what you're doing, where you are and how are you, still you never told them your occupation, fearful of what they would think and where your loyalties lie, so you told them you were working under an adventurer.

It's for the greater good. You remember trying to convince yourself.

You're a horrible person.

You were sixteen then. Your younger brothers were twelve. It's been 10 long years since you last saw them, and 6 years since you last received a letter back. You miss them dearly. You often wondered what sorts of adventures they did without you.

But why are you wondering about this? You knew what they did: you knew everything that happened.

You're living under a heavy burden.

"Dad?" You call out again. Maids and wine makers look aghast when they see you, and they're on the verge of fainting when you call out to your father.

Stop the act.

It's strange how the letters were suddenly cut off. The last letter you received was from Kaeya, telling you how you needed to come home straight away. You tried to, but the Fatui prevented you from doing so. A lady called La Signora supervised you directly to make sure you didn't leave.

You know...

Adelinde brushes the dust off her uniform and hurries up the stairs to catch up to you, "Dear, is that you [Y/N?]"

"Did you forget me that easily? I'm offended Miss Adelinde," you chided, but the teasing look in your eyes give Adelinde relief to know you aren't actually offended. "Miss, where's dad?"

You're sickening.

Adelinde takes one look at you and squeezes your shoulders with a smile, "I'm afraid that's not for me to say. Master Diluc should be able to-"

"Oh, where's Diluc and Kaeya?" You ponder, and the corners of your lips curl upwards. "Those two were always attached to the hip. Where are they now? Horseback riding at the vineyard? Ha! I-"

You glance at Adelinde's watery eyes and stop your babbling. "What's wrong Miss Adelinde?" You reach for her hands on your shoulders and hold them. "Ah, has father been making you work too hard? I can request him to lessen your load."

Adelinde shakes her head no. "You don't have a clue, do you? Oh," she sighs. "Please, rest yourself by the fireplace. I'll prepare tea for you." She rests her hands back at her side and scurries to the kitchen.

You frown, unsure why she's jumpy, but you follow her request and sit by the fireplace. The crackle of the fire contrasts the tense air you feel when maids brush past you, offering tea Adelinde made. You thank them, gently blowing on the drink.

After taking a sip, you place it down with a pinky to lessen the noise it makes on the table. You hear the door open, and the choruses of maids greeting someone.

"Welcome home, Master Diluc," you hear and other voices saying, "We've prepared a meal for you and your sibling, would you like to rest yourself?"

You peek from your chair, he obviously hadn't realized you yet.

Diluc's lips make a thin line and shrugs off his jacket, "Why is Kaeya visiting. Isn't he supposed to do his knightly duties?"

You have no clue why he says it like that. The venom in his voice sends a shiver down your spine. You decide this is your cue to give him a warm welcome. You stand from your seat, and open your arms in a grand gesture and waltz to your brother. "Diluc! It's been a while huh?"

You clearly see him tense hearing your voice. His head snapped to your direction with his mouth parted. The maids respectively take their leave, bowing before they do so.

Diluc looks you up and down, still not believing you're there, like you're just his imagination. His hand slowly reaches out to you as if you're a dream.

Your feet lead you closer and you grasp him tightly in an embrace.

He freezes, but slowly relaxes in your hug, reluctantly bringing up his own arms to wrap around you. You feel his grip tightening, and you feel his shake out silent sobs. His face buries in your neck, letting tears fall on your clothes.

You soothe his back, and press a kiss on his hair. "I'm home, Diluc."

He trembles, pushing himself away to look at you clearly. Why hadn't you come home earlier? He wanted to vent, he wanted to yell, shout, he wanted to know how much he missed you in your absence.

He clears his throat and coughs in his fist. "You should have told me about your arrival," he adjusts the gloves on his hands, and looks to the floor like he did when he admitted he accidentally broke your toy when you were 10.

After these years, he still looks up to you as his older sibling. Not a thing has changed.

But you couldn't help but notice one thing. You knew Diluc and Kaeya had matured, you knew they would grow taller, but shit, now Diluc's taller than you.

"I sent a letter a month ago," you began. "It should have been sent to your office in the Favonius Headquarters? That's where I send my mail after you told me about your promotion to Cavalry Captain."

You squish his cheeks with both your hands. "Because I know you're a workaholic and only respond to letters that mean business, so that's where I sent it off to. You never write back, neither does Kaeya," you pause, thinking for a moment. "Neither does dad. Tell me he hasn't gotten sick that he couldn't respond to my letters."

Diluc lifts your hands off his face and frowns. He doesn't know how to break the news to you- not when you look so excited to be home and tell of your adventures to your family, so he asks, "Did you eat yet?"

You note the frown on his face. "'What's got you grumpy," you prod. "I need to find dad first. Told him in the first letter I gave him, I'd give the first gem I find."

Diluc watches you leave him to go to Crepus' room on the second floor. He hears the thuds on the floor and the opening of the door, but does nothing to stop you. You left with a smile, and you come back confused.

"Why is dad's room empty?"

How cruel.

...

Kaeya hums, passing by Flora's shop and purchasing a Calla Lily for the sake of it. He is well aware of the Fatui that stand by corners. Whispers of the wind give him intel, and so does alcohol apparently. He leans on a wall right outside Angel's Share, watching two Fatui members drink some of the tavern's strongest alcohol, imported from Snezhnaya.

"That damn," the one with the red and black mask hiccups, lifting a mug with foam overflowing. "Damn brat's gonna snitch on us to the Knights- *hiCC* boss lady wou- *HicC* would have our heads!"

Thankfully, their more responsible Fatui friend takes the mug and switches it with their drink, water. "You're the one who let Vindicta out of your sight when you know their frequencies to escape. This is all on you, buckaroo."

One of the Fatui escaped? How peculiar.

Kaeya hums, in steady strides he shows himself to the Fatui and takes a seat from another table and sits in front of the two. "My, my, my. If it isn't the wonderful Fatui," he divuldges. He twirls his Calla Lily around his fingers, amused with the Fatui's reactions.

Their mouths drop, knowing who he is and they hastily clean themselves up by sitting straight and wiping away the alcohol from their faces. "Good evening, sir."

"Evening to you too," he places the flower behind the person's ear, flustering them. "Well? Drink up. Everything you order will be on me."

The Fatui look at each other, skeptical with Kaeya's kindness, but the drunken one accepts the offer. Kaeya celebrates in the inside as he slowly gains Fatui intel.

Though, the second Fatui whom he dubbed the "Responsible One," took a while for them to take a sip. Turns out, they couldn't handle alcohol, that's why they avoided drinking it.

"So, my dear friends," he slides a coin on the table and stares both of them down. "A mora for your thoughts? I couldn't help but notice the tense of your shoulders when you first arrived here."

Responsible One raises their mug drunkenly, and gives a pointed look, "You... you know too much. How?..." They stare at their friend and whisper shout, "Don't tell him about Vind or-" They fail to continue their sentence and pass out on the table.

Kaeya feigns a surprised face and looks at Fatui number 2, "Who exactly is Vind? I'm sure you don't mean the storm watcher up at the cliff." He coats his voice with sugar, and it seems Fatui friend fell for his kindness.

"The damn brat," they spit out before hiccupping again. "Recruited them, fed them, saw potential, gave a home, and they escaped."

Kaeya nods and pushes another bottle of wine to the Fatui's direction, urging them to continue.

"Was supposed to be one of the Agents to spy on the *hiCc* to spy on the Ragnvindr family, because *HicC* Vind was one of the best there is. They were about to be promoted Harbinger after an assignment *hiCCUpp* but then Big Boss Lady said 'End the Ragnvindr legacy,' Vindicta left without a word. They escaped."

The Fatui downs another bottle of wine. "But judging from Boss Lady's reaction, Vind did the job: killed him and placed the blame on the Knights."

The Calvary Captain knits his brows and places his hands in front of him. It laced themselves and he watches the Fatui person empty out his wine.

"I'd be careful of what you say if I were you." His lone eye glints dangerously.

"End the legacy?" Kaeya frowns. "Can I ask..." He couldn't ask why or the Fatui would stop talking to him. "Can I ask when your beloved spy did their job?"

The Fatui waves a hand, "Six years ago. After they killed that damn aristocrat's father, they tried escaping. Big Boss supervised them under their watch. 'Potential' the Harbingers always say, but I don't see the potential in them if they don't have loyalties under the Fatui. A wild card, really."

They lay their cheek on the table. The temperature drops quite dangerously. Kaeya's diamond eye glints with coldness before it turns back to warmth.

"Rumours have it," the Fatui sighs, playing with his empty mug. "The training Vindicta went through is rougher, so we were hoping they would tie their loyalties to us. We let them explore once, and they escaped under my watch. Maybe it was their assignment to leave, maybe it's not, because Boss Lady was okay with it, she said 'Vindicta will always return in our hands.' when they first escaped, and surely enough they do return. But either way, I'm fucked for letting them go missing the third time of the week."

Kaeya laughs with no soul and quickly ends the lovely 'conversation.' He pushes himself from the table and stands, "Thank you for chatting with me, it's been interesting." He tucks in the chair and glances at the two Fatui dozing, or close to dozing off.

He swiftly turns away, scoffing when he's out of sight from people. Vindicta is a dangerous card. Not even the Fatui know where their loyalties side.

Vindicta. How peculiar indeed.

One of the best Fatui, which probably meant they were payed well with respect and mora, but why are they labeled as an escapee when they always return? With someone as dangerous as a Harbinger, who do they side with- the Fatui or something else?

Kaeya has a lot of questions.

...

Diluc sits on a cushioned chair and hunches over, resting his chin on his hands, thinking.

Always thinking.

The once lit fireplace is soaked with water he splashed over. The scent of burnt wood wafts nearby. The light chatter of maids go through one ear and leave the other.

How long had it been since he last saw you?

Eternity is his answer. It's been eternity since he last saw you.

He lets out a long sigh, throwing his head back and running a hand through his untied locks.

Too much thinking for today. Diluc groans in frustration and sits back up. He turns his head slightly, seeing you in the corner of his eyes taking out boxes of things you owned from 10 years before.

It doesn't make sense to him. Why come back so suddenly after years of not seeing you? Though, you claim you sent him letters, he never got them because he closed himself off from the Knights.

"Diluc," you set down a small picture of a family portrait you took out from hiding behind many books.

You are taking this oddly well.

You're taking this too well, in fact.

This raises a red flag for Diluc. He told you the fall out of your family, how he quit the Knights, but still you're going around the place like nothing had happened.

Don't you feel any rage? Or even sadness?

He sees too many red flags and hates it- from the way you can hide things like Kaeya so easily, to the way you just suddenly appear back in his life. It feels weird. It's not easy to let someone that in quick, yet you're still his role model, so it's okay, right?

He's always looked up to you when he was younger. You never were at a loss of words and stood up for him. You were the person he can turn to when something wrong happens, but what were you doing for yourself to be gone for so long? Adventuring Teyvat could not have taken ten whole years. Where did you even stay?

"Diluc," you crouch in front of him and talk to him as if he were six again. "I'm okay, okay?"

Diluc takes a shaky breath and sits up straight. His posture resembling a king's. "I have an idea, and I would like you to help me."

You look at him in awe. The realization settles in: Diluc has grown, and you're still stuck trying to make up the past.

"And what do I help you with?"

"Finding who's responsible for father's death."

notes: had this in my drafts for a long time and i was like "wait where was i going with this..." until BAM i have the idea again so im gonna continue it

(part 2)

[sainadazai]

Ack hello! Can I request 10+13 prompt drabble for dazai? Thank you in advance! ><

10 . "I-i think we should go to dinner first."

13. "I love you more than coffee." *distant gasps*

More than coffee?

"But y/nnn, work can wait til later, don't you wanna stay and cuddle with meee!?" A whine sounded fro mbehind you, as two arms wrapped around your waist to pull you back into bed.

You wouldn't lie and say that his warm, bare chest on your back didn't feel soothing in all too many ways, but you had to go to work and get out of his house. Last night wasn't something you necessarily regret, but it for sure was a one time thing.

Dating Dazai isn't something women can just do. He doesn't settle, or compromise, and to be honest, his addiction to making life harder for people around him is bothersome. The man was a player, sweet talking and sleeping around, it was his thing.

There was no judgment from you, his life, his choices, it just was a big mess you weren't ready to get into.

"Last night, was a One. Time. Thing." You anounce, getting off of the naked man's lap, not looking back because you know he will look too good to resist when he is draped in only a black silk sheet. The bastard.

You don't see his face turn to a pout, but you can practically hear it through his childish whine.

"But it was so fuun!! And might I add you are surprisingly submissive~"

That sentence earns him a bonk in the head with the shoe you were putting on. "Watch it, Dazai." There's a faint fluster in your tone, despite the glare on your face. Then you're gone, off to the agency to pretend like nothing happened.

Yet as he watches you work all day, Dazai can't help but feel conflicted, because he didn't want any one night things with you. Not anymore at least.

Sure, getting into a heated game of strip poker was a good one time thing, but the afterwards. When he couldn't resist your body any longer? The heat flowing through you both as you satiated a craving neither of you knew you had? Those are things he wants every night.

So he decides to test a boundary. If you sat stop, he'll always stop, but he can see in the your eyes linger a bit when he walks past you, that you want more. Dazai knows his own reputation well, and he won't deny it, he sleeps around. Finds some strange thrill in being able to pick up women left and right, knowing the lengths girls would go for him. It's an ego boost if anything.

He doesn't blame you not wanting to dive into the depths of his complex emotional structure. However he also doesn't understand why he is drawn to you like a moth to flame, knowing you could easily kill him, but he'd honestly be willing to die for another taste.

"Oh, y/n~" He wraps an arm over your shoulder while entering the coffee shop downstairs.

You send him a dry glare, knowing that tone of voice all too well. "Yes, dazai?"

He smirks a bit, "Do you know that your the greatest?" A tingle flies through you at the sensation of his hand gliding lower along your back. Until you catch it with your hand and quickly throw it off of you. "One. Time. Thing."

The man just chuckles at how you have to shove your face in your hands to hide the embarassed expression. Your just so cute, even when you try to act all though in battle.

"You know you don't have to be scared of me, I'd never treat you like I treat other women." He speaks out of no where, taking you fully by surprise. You didn't know that, nor did you believe it. He's met so many beautiful and kind women, granted most of them think he is a bit insane, but he still never takes any of them seriously. What in the world could make you different?

However, to Dazai there were a million little things that made you better than the rest. He loved the glint in your eyes you have during fights, excitement pouring through you as you slash your blades.

He loves the stoic face you use to seem unbothered, the way you'll never admit to being shy or vulnerable. Even the little stutter you developed when your uncomfortable, or stressed. It frustrates the hell out you, but he thinks it's a beautiful reminder that even though you are perfect, you are human.

"What? You're saying you would love me better than all the other women you've been with? Do you even remember their names?" You raise your brows, trying to act confident.

"I loved tea more than I loved those women, and I'm honestly a coffee guy, y/n."

"So your saying it's actually an insult to them..not a compliment to me." You deadpan.

He widens his eyes, "no I love you way more!"

Now that takes you by surprise, because, yeah you've known Dazai for a long time, but never have you ever heard him say that he loves you.You haven't heard him say he loved anyone.

Yes, you loved him, but it was always the kind of love you pretend is platonic, for his safety, and yours. It was never supposed to be reciprocated. Nor expected to be so.

With your silence and awestruck expression, though, Dazai realized that he had actually said it out loud. The L word, to you, HIS GIRL, whatever that means.

He was freaking out inside wondering what on earth could be going on up in that head of yours. Until a smirk grew on your lips.

"You love me more than coffee?"

And he didn't even laugh, because he was serious about coffee, but more serious about you.

"I love you more than coffee." When he says it out loud though, you let a out a little gasp. Dazai really likes coffee, you know.

"Oh...haha, tch, cool." You play off the excitement bubbling inside of you.

Dazai simply laughs, and reaches his hand to your thigh, trailing up slowly as he whispers. "Dont act to tough, y/n, im sure I can easy wipe that look off your face~"

"I-i think we should go to dinner first."

His hand finally reaches the line of your panties and snaps em against you, "I have a better idea for dinner."

[random-mha-thoughts]

Sleepless (LoV x Reader)

Pairing: League of Villains x Reader, platonic relationship

Shigaraki, Toga, Twice, Kurogiri, Dabi x reader

@riarora messaged me with the request: "So I was thinking platonic LOV x child reader (You can make them 18 if you're more comfortable, but I was thinking more like 14-15)The reader (I'll refer to them as she/her, but you can make it gender neutral) has really bad insomnia so every night, she would be pacing around, doing anything and everything to make sure no dark thoughts take over. Usually, none of the LOV would bat an eye, but considering the fact that she's a child, they feel sympathy, so they indirectly try to get her to fall asleep. Like, sending her on extra missions (always with protection of course) or changing her normal tea with sleeping tea, or maybe just straight up telling her to sleep."

Genre: Comfort

Word Count: 2,291

Tags:  @yuki-osaki​ @liviitehe​ @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog

a/n: Thanks for the request sweetie!  I hope you like it~

Wrote this while listening to a Shinsou playlist on Spotify and it was pretty chill to listen to, if y’all want the link you can comment or dm me and I’ll send it.  Something different, but I like how it turned out. It's twice as long as I thought it would end up being, but I think it fits.  It's a comfort story that I hope you guys will read even if you don't normally read stuff for the villains.  I really like it, I hope you guys read it if you need some comforting.  Enjoy~

Like a lot of people, I don't have the nicest thoughts.  Most nights, I'm trying everything to block them out and find the sweet release of sleep, whether it's trying to consciously think of other things to block them out, escaping out of my sheets to pace or run in place inside this small room I was given, or getting up to get a snack.  Unsurprisingly, none of it works.  The rest of the League constantly tease me about my dark circles making me look more villainous all I do is smile, because at least it means I'm part of something now.  I would ask them to get me something to busy myself, like a sketch book or a notebook to keep me busy at night, but they aren't my parents; they have no obligation to take care of me and they've already give me a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in.

Little by little, the perceived barrier between us broke down before I realized it.

It started when I took one of my late night trips to the kitchen only to see the light on already.  Toga's crooked but innocent smile beams up at me as she twirls a knife in her hand, leaning against the counter.  "You're up too, hmm~?  Wanna take a trip with me?"

We ended up shrugging on our jackets and masks, walking into the dark, brisk night to the nearest grocery store.  "You waited until 2 AM to get pomegranates?" I raised an eyebrow at her zipping straight to the produce section of the market.

"I didn't wanna go alone~" Toga casually responded in her singsongy voice.  "A little girl like me shouldn't be out alone at night.  Besides, late night shopping in a practically empty supermarket is the best time to go.  It's super creepy!"  She giggles, filling a plastic bag with three large fruits.

We returned to our hideout and she asked me to help her de-seed them.  I slide in next to her, taking the knife out of her hand.  Not like I had anything better to do.  What was I gonna do, sleep?  Sure, okay.

She sliced the fruits in half and held her hands over a large, empty container, using just her hands to push the seeds off the bitter white core, humming to herself.  "Are you sure there isn't a more...strategic way to do this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the mess she was making of her hands.

Toga just giggled and held my stare with her cat-like yellow eyes.  "When it gets all over your fingers, it kind of looks like blood doesn't it?" She shivered in ecstasy as she licked the scarlet juice running down her hands and the knife she cut them with.  "Mmm, so sweet."

While I continued, trying to avail to be as clean as possible, taking sips of the tea she made for us while we work.  I chanced a few tastes myself, chuckling at my own hands.  "You're right, it looks like we've commit murder."

"Right?" she chirped with the widest grin, "Isn't it fun?"

I made a better point to get more juice on my fingers before curling my fingers grossly towards her.  "I want your heart, Toga.  Give it to me!" I growled.

She giggled and held one of my wrists so she can lick some of the juice off.  "Too bad you can't have it."

After we finished gathering the seeds into the bowl, we sat on the couch, munching on them by the handful and finishing our drinks.  My eyelids kept drooping as I drank my tea.

"We should go on adventures more often," Toga purred as I near the end, taking my cup, laying me down, and covering my body with a blanket before petting my head.  Her voice singing, "Sleep well, (Y/n)" was the last thing I heard before drifting off.  It was the best night's sleep I'd gotten in a long while.

.

A few days later, Kurogiri stopped me from heading to bed while the rest went off.  "I heard you and Toga up late a few nights ago.  Why don't you help me clean up before going up?"

I agreed, mostly because I would be awake with my thoughts anyway.  He had me shining his glasses, climbing up a ladder to dust the top shelves of his bar, wiping down the counters, and organizing his liquor.

"Have some of this, child."  He set down a cup of tea and saucer on the counter while I was organizing his top shelf liquor, the clock flashing 1:57 AM.  "You've been a big help."

I climbed down carefully and stare down at the translucent, peach colored liquid carefully.

He noticed my cautiousness.  "How are you adjusting?"

I tilted the cup around, swishing the liquid around before holding it up to my lips.  "It's better than where I was before, thank you."

"I'm glad you're settling in and getting along with the rest."

"It's just Toga so far."  I sipped a good portion of the hot liquid, easing down my through smooth as the honey I can taste that he added.

"It'll take time for the others to warm up to you.  Shigaraki and Dabi especially don't take to strangers that easily, but they'll come around."  His cold, portal enclosed hand rested on my head.  "We're happy to take you in as our family, (Y/n)."

I smiled at his assurance of me, nodding in gratitude, but still hesitant about feeling that I fit in here.

We talked for a while more until I finished his tea and he sent me off to bed.  Though reluctant - I even offered to do more cleaning up to keep myself there - he insisted I leave.  I trudge to my room, the exhaustion in my bones and muscles more apparent than usual.  I know this old trick; even when I'm fatigued, my thoughts still keep me up.  But as I ease under the blanket and close my eyes, I feel myself pulled down into sleep without interference.  I started thinking there was something in the tea.

.

It took a while for Shigaraki to come around, as Kurogiri said.  He heard the rustling of me rolling around in bed on his way back from getting a glass of water from the kitchen.  "Hey, you still awake?"

I turned over and sat up.  "Am I bothering you?  I'm sorry-"

"You wanna come play games with me?"  It was an unexpected question.  He never talked much to me so I figured he wanted to keep his distance.

But I still agreed, ending up in his dark room where only the TV cast its artificial light over us.  He pulled up another pillow for me to sit with him, leaning back against the mattress and box-spring stack.  He resumed his game, some kind of RPG with amazing art and storytelling.  The main character had jet black hair and traveled with three other guys of varying talents and personalities.  They seemed to have a great relationship together as they trekked across their virtual world in a fancy car. (1000 brownie points if you know which game i'm referencing)

There was a hilarious part in the game where the crew rode on the backs of these fluffy, yellow birds that were the size of ostriches.  "What's the point of this part?" I asked curiously.

Shigaraki beamed at the screen, his chapped lips spreading in joy.  "It's just something you always have to do in these games."

My eyes remained glued to the screen.  Shigaraki wouldn't ask me if I wanted to play after one time, which I appreciated.  I'm not too good at playing games, I prefer watching other people play them from the sidelines.  I followed the complicated story line, impressed with how fleshed out the world is, the detail in the art, and the power system interface.  If I were better at gaming, I'd understand how amazing it would feel playing it; I was immersed in it even as a spectator.

The game got to a cave-crawling segment.  The eased up voice acting, ambient noise, and dimmed lighting made my eyes heavy.  I didn't want to fall asleep in Shigaraki's room, but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep if I went back to mine.

"You can sleep if you want.  Get comfortable."

Though he didn't particularly use a motherly voice like Kurogiri, I understood he was trying to come off the same way.  I ended up laying on my head on my pillow, sprawling onto the floor on my stomach, the noise of the game slowly lulling me off to sleep.  In the morning, I would wake to a blanket pulled over my body.  It somehow became a weekly occurrence; we wouldn't talk to each other, but the silence was comfortable.  It was reassuring that I didn't always need that strange tea to put me to sleep.

.

Late nights with Twice are probably my favorite.  He's like a huge dad, or much older big brother.  I connected with him on a more emotional level than the rest.  If I found myself in the kitchen rummaging for snacks, he'd come up and pick out a bunch and sit us at the table with some tea.

"I have trouble sleeping too sometimes," he admitted, popping some chips in his mouth.  "I was lonely before I found these guys.  I had no one but myself, and the many versions of myself weren't the most forgiving on me either."

I stared down at my glass of warmed milk.  "So your thoughts were actually told out loud to you all the time?" I whispered softly.

"Yup."  He blinked before waving his hands in front of his face wildly.  "But that doesn't mean I had it worse than you, that's not what I'm saying at all!  Your problems are just as valid and important and-!"

"It's okay, I understand."

He offered a sympathetic lopsided smile.  "I know you've been through a lot, kid, and it probably feels like a lot and nothing at the same time.  The times when it feels like a lot will hurt, and that's okay.  You'll get through it and grow up to deal with it in your own way.  And there is a light at the end of the tunnel, believe me.  You can't see it now, but it's there.  Keep fighting through it."  He touched my hand over the glass.  "I'm here for you, we're here for you."

I felt like crying, suddenly choked up by the bitter nostalgia of missing my parents.  "You'd be a great Dad, Twice."  I tried to cover for my tears and unsteady voice by clearing my throat and rubbing my eyes.

He hummed in response.  "I've always wanted a kid.  Things never ended up that way though."

I found myself finally sobbing at his misfortune piling on top of mine.  "That's really shitty actually," I choked out.

He handed me a tissue to wipe my face with.  "Let it out, kid.  Sometimes it's good to just cry it out."

And I did, until I finally sobbed myself to sleep at the table, and Twice picked up and returned me to my bed, tucking me in like the soft dad he should've been.

.

Dabi remained the hard nose one, keeping his distance and looking down on me.  Like Shigaraki, walked by my room while I was tossing around, but he stood over my bed.  "Hey.  If you don't go to sleep, I'm putting you to work."

Put me to work he did, sending me out to fetch him snacks, cards, or cigarettes.  Once, he decided to join me and we ended up on the roof of our abandoned building after coming back from the convenience store.  The stars already dusted the sky as Dabi lit the cigarettes with his blue flames just for fun, watching them disintegrate into ash in front of his eyes.  I never knew how to get him to open up, he's too gruff for me to start a conversation with him, so I stuck to being mesmerized by his flames.

"What's on your mind that you can't sleep, kid?" he finally asked, breaking the awkward silence and cutting off his quirk to stare me hard in the eyes.

"N-Nothing."  I hated to admit it, but I'm scared of Dabi the most.  Both him and Shigaraki can end my life in a fraction of a second, but Dabi overall has the scarier aura.  "Just...thinking."

After a few more moments of braving his stare, he looked up.  "Yeah, we all do that a lot, don't we?  Us damn human can't help but think.  It'd be nice if we can pull the cord sometimes, yeah?"

"I guess," I answered carefully.

He studied me again out of the corner of his eye before flickering back up.  "Do you ever think that's why none of us survive well alone?  We need other people to distract us all the time because then we'd get stuck in our heads, and we all know how dangerous that can be if we're stuck there for too long.  It never ends well."  He adjusts himself, placing his hands behind his head to rest his neck.  "We all got demons, kid.  It's what makes us stronger, but you gotta grow from them first.  And I guess that's what the rest of us are for, so if you need us, you know what to do."

It was with Dabi that I realized he had a point.  I'm not alone anymore and none of the others seem to think of me as a stranger or a stupid little kid they have to be responsible for.  I'm a member of this group now, I should rely on them as support, just not in the traditional way.

How I ultimately ended up here doesn't help any of the awful things I tell myself or what happened to me, but being here definitely helps, especially when I'm surrounded by people who subtly share solidarity with for now.

[sunflowerim]

I LOVE YOU 3000!

-PART 30

Weekend 3

Harry waited for a whole minute before the door opened, revealing a very dishevelled Louis.

Harry waited for a whole minute before the door opened, revealing a very dishevelled Louis.

"Sorry, I was in the shower."

"You forgot I'd come early?" Harry asked making his way inside.

"Not really, kinda woke up late and everything else was late too. Tea?"

"Now?"

"Ah, there's no time for tea sweet Harold. I'll make 2 cuppas."

Harry watched Louis move about the kitchen picking up containers and cups while Clifford tugged at his trackies.

"Get off me Cliffy. Go play with Harry."

Harry whistled and the furry little animal came rushing to him.

Harry picked Clifford's ball from the ground and started playing with him.

"Sugar?"

"No."

Harry walked around the couch and flopped himself down on it.

Soon enough Louis arrived with two hot cups and handed one to Harry.

"Let's get the movie started."

Harry was fascinated with the new character that was introduced in 'Iron Man 2'. Natasha Romanoff. He was taught to say st interview that this would be his favourite character, but now he really liked her.

He watched in awe as she displayed her fight skills. Louis loved the reaction. Nat had always been one his favourites and he missed her terribly. Seeing Harry liked her too made him happy.

Harry sat motionless for a few seconds after the movie ended. Louis smiled to himself and got up with the cups, when Harry started.

"I don't mean to impose but can we watch another movie please."

"What? Really?" Louis chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm hooked."

"Can't blame ya," Louis answered from the kitchen. "But aren't you hungry?"

"A bit yes."

"Let's have some food first."

"Oh I was supposed to teach you."

"Don't worry about that, I had my helper cook lunch for us."

"Oh cool."

"Just wait for 5 minutes while I heat em up and we can go back to the movie."

Harry happily nodded and petted Clifford, who was sprawled next to him on the couch.

Harry helped Louis bring the food to the table and Louis put the 'Thor' dvd on.

Harry met the fourth superhero and instantly fell in love with the blonde god of thunder.

Harry practically started clapping as the movie ended and immediately looked towards Louis with a question in his eyes which Louis immediately understood.

"Another?"

"Yes, please."

Louis huffed a laugh and went over to change the dvds.

He put 'Captain America : The first Avenger' on Harry met the fifth superhero. He was absolutely taken by Chris Evans and his eyes watered at certain scenes. Harry Styles is a proper human afterall, Louis thought.

Harry and Louis picked up the plates and walked over to the kitchen sink, talking among themselves, Louis trying to excite Harry more about the next movies. They did the dishes in companiable silence, despite Louis insisting Harry didn't.

Harry didn't mind. He enjoyed spending time with Louis.

"Lou--" Harry drawled ever so slowly, "I was thinking--"

"If you say one more movie I'm gonna kick you out," Louis laughed.

"It's hard to wait."

"You need to give your eyes some rest. By the way, you could stay for dinner. It's almost time." Louis added after a pause.

"Yeah, you're right," Harry said, glancing at his wrist watch. "I guess I overstayed, I should leave."

"Hey, no. I mean you could have dinner with me, unless you have other plans."

"I don't."

"So...?"

"Okay I'll stay a bit more."

"Cool. But you have to cook this time."

"Oh now I get it. That's why you wanted me to stay-" Harry teased, "-you can't cook."

"And all the shops have been destroyed due to zombie apocalypse. Please stay and cook for both of us?"

"God you're so dramatic," Harry managed between laughter.

"You're one to talk."

"Oh shut up."

Harry buzzed about the kitchen finding ingredients. They'd decided on spaghetti. Louis followed the little instructions Harry gave every now and then and watched Harry deftly cook up a wonderful smelling meal.

A warmth spread over Louis' body as he thought about how this could easily be something he could get used to.

Harry was an amazing cook. "I'm a bit of a chef myself," he'd said when Louis complimented him on his skills.

"We've got to do this more often," Louis said finishing his meal.

Harry smiled brightly at that. "We shall."

Louis let Harry feed Clifford and put him in his corner for the night.

Harry seemed reluctant to leave so Louis asked, "do you still wanna watch it?"

"Yes, I don't think I'll be able to sleep if I don't."

"Okay I'll put it on. But it's the last one."

"Yayyy okay."

Louis laughed lightly at Harry's excitement and went on to put the 4th movie of the day.

He put 'The Avengers' on and plonked beside Harry, this time forgetting to keep the polite distance in between. Harry didn't seem to mind so Louis didn't shift away.

Harry's previous reactions were nothing compared to his current ones. Even Louis got goosebumps when the six Avengers took position, despite having watched it so many times before. Harry grabbed Louis' upper arm in excitement and Louis had to fight the smile that was threatening to creep on his face. They stayed like that for the entire movie and by the time it ended, Harry realised he'd been holding Louis and tried to subtly move his hand hoping Louis wouldn't notice. But ofcourse he did.

"Got a bit carried away there, Haz?" Louis teased lightly.

Harry could feel his cheeks heat up and struggled to find words to reply.

"It was mind blowing Lou."

"I know I know. There's still do much more."

Both of them were too tired by the end of the movie, despite the excitement of it all.

Harry yawned and that set Louis off too.

"God it's so late, I didn't even realise."

"It's okay Harry."

"I should go now."

"Wait, it's pretty late and you're too sleepy to drive. I'm not very awake either. You wanna stay over?"

"No no I don't wanna be a burden Lou."

"Shut up, it's no big deal. I'll get the guest room ready in 5 minutes."

And Harry stayed.

Louis returned after a while to inform that the guest room was ready and that he'd set out a pair of his t-shirt and trackies for Harry to change into.

Harry changed into Louis' clothes and couldn't help smiling at the way his stomach flipped.

He poked his head in time to see Louis entering his room.

Louis stopped when he saw Harry in his shirt. His over-sized tee fit the taller boy perfectly.

Louis' face looked like he wanted to say a thousand words and Harry was dying to know what it was but Louis settled for a smile. "Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight Louis."

Harry would have thought more about the implications of the situation if he wasn't so tired.

Harry was confused for a minute to wake up in an unfamiliar surrounding before he realised where he was. His heart raced at the thought that he'd just spent the night at Louis'. It was platonic ofcourse. Even though Harry wished Louis was rather in bed with him--

His chain of thoughts was cut by a soft knock at the door.

"Yeah, come in," Harry said in his sleep ridden voice.

"Goodmorning Harry. Hope you slept well."

"Yeah, thanks Lou," Harry said taking the cup of tea Louis handed him. "What time is it?"

"Uh, almost 10."

"What?" Harry sounded frantic.

"Why is there a problem?"

"No I mean I had some work. Shit, I gotta leave."

"Just have the tea first and freshen up. I'll let you get ready."

Harry quickly freshened up and made a dash for his car, telling Louis he'll call later.

When Harry left, Louis knew he was in deep trouble. He'd asked Harry to stay over and Harry actually had. This was anything but normal. He had to talk to someone about it immediately. Zayn.

PREVIOUS / NEXT

INTRO

[obeyme-kaidii-writes]

Levi Lost

Leviathan x gn!MC

Words - 2038

Content Warnings - tiny bit of angst, lots of fluff, platonic relationships, BFF Levi

Prompt/Inspiration - retelling of the in-game chat of the same name “Levi Lost”, also includes references to the Devilgram “Love, Friendship, and Justice”

Summary - You’re enjoying a quiet day to yourself when Levi begs you for help - he’s lost. 

AO3

You were sitting in your room one lazy Sunday afternoon, enjoying the peace and quiet as you read one of your new favorite books that Satan had recommended to you. It was so incredibly rare for you to have a moment to yourself, but everyone else was occupied with other things:

Mammon had a modeling gig; Asmo was on a shopping spree after seeing a new collection from his favorite designer had been released; Lucifer was with Diavolo presumably to have tea (though you had your doubts that was all he was up to); Satan had gone to check out a new bookstore (or so he said, you figured there was a cat involved somehow); Beel had sports practice at RAD; and Belphie of course was asleep in the attic after a very filling lunch. You hadn’t heard from Levi yet, but assumed he was asleep as well after staying up all night gaming.

DING

There goes my peaceful afternoon, you thought as you reached for your DDD with a sigh to check your incoming messages. You figured it was probably Mammon finishing up with his gig, letting you know he was heading to your room so you better be there and let him know how awesome he looked today.

But it wasn’t Mammon at all. In fact, it was Levi, and he had sent you a rather odd message.

“I have sad news. I’m lost.”

Lost? How could your favorite otaku be lost? He hadn’t even left his room yet. You didn’t want to just dismiss him though, on the off chance that something was in fact wrong.

“Are you okay?” you replied.

His response was almost immediate, and he had already sent through a flurry of additional messages before you had even finished typing out your own response.

“I went for a walk. I’ve been walking around for so long now. I wanna cry. Save me.”

Oh shit. He really was lost. He had left his room! You couldn’t figure out what would possess him to go out and exercise alone, but then you remembered the couple other times he had asked you to help him get into shape. Perhaps that’s what this was too?

Your instincts were to tell him that you’d be right there, and not to worry. But as you were typing you realized that you had no idea where he was exactly. And he didn’t know enough about where he was either to allow you to find him. If you went out on your own, you would doubtless get lost before you even reached him.

“What about your brothers?”, you asked instead.

“My brothers would only make fun of me.”

Right. You knew that all too well. Even though there was no doubt about their love for each other, they wouldn’t miss the opportunity to tease him. And besides, they were all still out for the day. Except Belphie, but he was probably the last one you should ask.

Just then you heard the familiar click of the front door as it closed, and steady, heavy footsteps ascending the stairs. BEEL! He’d be perfect. He should have no trouble finding Levi, and he certainly wouldn’t tease him for his predicament, at least not maliciously.

Wasting no time, you flew out of your room and caught the Avatar of Gluttony right as he reached the top of the stairs.

“Beel!”

“Hey,” he said as he looked you over, trying to figure out what could have sent you dashing out of your room in such a rush. He knew you had been enjoying a quiet day by yourself, as he had decided against inviting you to watch his practice earlier to make sure you’d rest, so he wasn’t quite sure what could have happened while you read a book.

“I need your help. Please. I’m supposed to meet Levi, but umm, I’m not quite sure where he is. I think he might have gotten a bit turned around too.”

Even though you knew Beel wouldn’t have said anything to his brothers, you weren’t sure exactly what Levi was up to and why he went out, so you did your best to cover for him and offer a plausible explanation for why he wasn’t in his room where he should be.

“Sure. Of course,” Beel replied with a smile. He didn’t believe you for a moment though, you were way too flustered to just be meeting up with Levi. And if all you needed were directions, you could have easily called up any of his brothers to assist you. And why would Levi be out of the house without you anyways? He rarely left his room as it was, and whenever he did these days it was always with you.

Ah. That must be it. Levi had gotten lost. Perhaps he was trying to surprise you somehow, and his plan backfired. It didn’t really matter though, Beel would help you out and get you to Levi, no questions asked.

“You’ll need to buy me a burger. I’m starving after practice.”

“Deal!” you agreed, “Just let me grab my shoes and let Levi know I’m on my way. I’ll meet you downstairs in just a sec.”

Without waiting for Beel’s response you spun on your heel, returning to your room to get dressed. Since you would need to make a stop to grab Beel his food once you got into town, you decided to grab something for Levi too. Something that you were sure would put a smile on his face. Quickly, you began typing out a reply to Levi, hoping you could soothe some of his anxiety while he waited.

“Hey. I’ll be there soon. Don’t move,” you hesitated for a bit before sending the next part, unsure if giving him a heads up would make things worse or give him a chance to prepare himself. You decided it was best to warn him so he wouldn’t be too surprised and flustered when he saw you, “Beel is coming with me.”

———

“Beel is coming with me.”

Levi let out a groan as he collapsed on the ground. Could this get any worse? It was bad enough he had to let you know just how much of a loser he was, getting lost while trying to exercise, of all things. But now Beel was going to know too? Why did you have to tell him?

No, he couldn’t blame you. It wasn’t like you were all too familiar with the Devildom yourself after all. Levi had lived here for over a thousand years and he still had managed to get lost. He couldn’t expect you to fair any better than him, as pathetic as he may be. And out of all his brothers, Beel was probably the safest choice. Belphie would have teased and mocked him mercilessly, and he didn’t even want to think about how obnoxious Mammon would have been. Yeah, Beel was fine.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Levi took a look around to see if he could make out any landmarks or familiar buildings. He appeared to still be in a park of some kind. The walking trails hadn’t seemed too popular or well used when he found it initially, which is precisely why he had chosen this location. Less of a chance of someone seeing him, which really had seemed like a good idea at the time.

For a moment he thought about getting up and walking some more on the off chance he’d be able to escape on his own, but then he remembered your instructions to just stay put so he settled back down, and turned his attention to the sky overhead.

It wasn’t often Levi got to enjoy the stars since he spent most of his time inside. Looking at them now, he could see why Belphie liked to take naps in the planetarium so much. The vastness of it all was relaxing, and the longer he laid there, the smaller and smaller his problems seemed.

He thought about how he had wanted to impress you, which is what led to his current situation. You always were happy to see him, and as far as he could tell, you were genuinely excited about the thought of spending time with him.

But he envied how easily Mammon could just scoop you up and carry you away. Why was he so fast anyways? And he saw how you lit up when Satan had danced with you so gracefully and managed to dip you just right, like something out of a romance movie. And Beel...well there was no point in comparing himself on that front. He’d fall short across the board, in all categories.

And yeah, he might be able to over power most of his brothers when it came to magical abilities, but that didn’t exactly help when it came to doing things you enjoyed. It wasn’t like he could summon up Lotan just to join you when you wanted to explore the Devildom.

So the first step, naturally, seemed to be to get into better shape. Running had proven too hard for him when had tried it with you previously, so he figured walking would surely be much easier, something even a shut in like himself could manage. And oh boy had he been wrong. So very very wrong.

———

As Levi laid in the grass, gazing out into the sky, you couldn’t help but smile at him. He was safe, and didn’t appear too worse for wear. You weren’t sure how, but Beel had managed to lead you to the right spot, much quicker than you had thought possible. You guessed it wasn’t that surprising though, Beel exercised regularly so he likely knew all the paths and routes around here. And even though you didn’t really tell him the truth as to why you needed help finding Levi, he seemed to have worked it out on his own.

“BOO!”

“Ahhhh!!”

Levi let out a high pitched squeal and you cackled as he floundered on the ground, scrambling to right himself.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you said, wiping the tears from your eyes as you regained your composure, “I just couldn’t resist.”

But Levi didn’t care. You were here now and he wasn’t alone anymore. To say he was relieved to see you would have been the understatement of the century. No, millennia probably. You looked like an angel to him.

“Oh, what’s that?”

Levi gestured to the large, heavy basket hanging from your arms. It looked suspiciously like a picnic basket, but he had no idea why you had one with you. He could see Beel standing a bit behind you, it appeared he was carrying two as well.

“It’s our lunch, obviously. Or would it be “linner” now?”, you shrugged, “Anyways, I made sure to pack a bunch of your favorites so we could have a nice picnic together. I included bentos too.”

His eyes lit up at that. What was this? Had he fallen asleep and was now in some dream world? Maybe he actually never left the house this morning and he was in fact trapped in a dating sim this whole time? Not only had you come to his rescue, but you managed to get there in what he was sure was record time, and brought him food to boot.

“And don’t worry. Beel has a couple baskets of his own, so they’ll be plenty left for us.”

You flashed Levi a smile and handed him your basket, before grabbing the picnic blanket you had packed and smoothing it out in front of you. As Levi moved to join you on top of the blanket, you leaned in and whispered to him,

“I hope you don’t mind, but I told Beel we were having a picnic. It was the best explanation I could come up. I’m not sure he bought it though, but he didn’t ask any questions at least.”

Levi could seriously kiss you right now. Or at least he would if this was actually a dating sim. And if Beel hadn’t now joined the two of you on the picnic blanket. So for the moment he’ll just settle for enjoying your company.

[wolfish-trickster]

One sad story

Loki x female!reader (eventually) Avengers x reader (platonic)

Part 1/2

Word count: 1 272

Summary: you feel like you are unwanted in the team unless you change, but that's hard. The whole team is worried about you, but only Loki managed to do something, for now.

Warnings: sadness, depression. It will get better I promise.

Bring Sally up, bring Sally down, lift and squat, gotta tear the ground. Bring Sally up...

You can't anymore. It's nearly the end of the song but you just can't continue. Natasha on the other hand is doing push ups as if it was nothing.

"How are you so strong?" you asked her, breathing heavily.

"Don't know, might be my training?" Nat turned the video of and started to stretch her arms. You were still laying on the cold floor, cooling your heated body. It would be nice to just close your eyes and forget everything around you. But you have to stretch first, otherwise you might damage your muscles.

After stretching and warm shower both you and Nat went to kitchen.

"Hey Y/N, me, Wanda, Pepper and Maria want to have a girl night, wanna join?"

"No, thanks. I'm too tired. I'll just turn on some movie and fall asleep," you fake-yawned, trying to convince her of your tiredness.

"Alright, do as you wish," said the red haired spy, knowing you weren't as tired as you acted.

You turned around and made your way to elevators. Just as boys were coming out of the gym. All of them shirtless of course. 'Show offs' you thought, rolling your eyes with a smile.

But then, you noticed him. A certain raven haired god was walking quietly after the horde of heroes, wearing a tank top and man bun. You quickly looked away, rushing to your room. You were very closed friends, but you started to distance yourselves lately. In the begging it was just the two of you. Reading in the library until one of you fell asleep, watching movies under the blanket, talking while enjoing a cup of tea. But ever since the rest of the team (mainly boys) started to train with him, talk to him, spending time with him. He just didn't have time on you anymore.

But that's fine. You had time to yourself. You started working out, gaining muscle. You already were an Avenger, now you have to look the part. You were trained to be fast, not strong, that's why you didn't have that much muscle. That's why you looked small and weak and useless compared to your teammates. Gods, assasins, soldiers...

And then you. Ordinary human. With basic training. Without special skills or super powers. Invisible. Unimportant. Replacable.

You sighed and turned your laptop on. Browsing through Netflix until you found The Little Prince. It's always easier to conceal crying when you have a background noise.

-

"Hey, where's Y/N? I thought she'll come," Wanda asked Natasha, fixing her black dress and curled hair.

"I thought so too but she said she's too tired. She was lying, obviously. Something's going on with her, but what?"

"I just hope she's okay."

"Oh please, why wouldn't she be? She's Y/N, the toughst girl I know. Besides, where's Maria? Did you tell her we are leaving at six instead of seven?" Pepper intervened enthusiasticaly. This was the first night off she has had for 3 months.

Girls then heard high heels clapping towards them."Of course they did. It takes time to look this gorgeous" to emphasise Maria threw her hair loreal-comercial style.

"Alright ladies, let's go shopping!"

-

"Does anyone know of Y/N whereabouts? She promised she'll watch that 'movie thing' she mentioned earlier"

"Thor, you've asked 3 times already and for the fourth time: she's sleeping in her room. Let her rest."

"Says someone who had no problem letting her be awake for more than 20 hours straight. We get it Tony, your sleeping schedule is messed up, doesn't mean she has to have it too."

When Bruce entered the living room he was presented with Clint and Tony in the middle of their poker game (playing for cookies), Thor chewing on an apple behind Tony peeking into his cards and Loki calmly reading a book with a steaming cup of tea sitting next to them.

"I can watch that movie with you Thor, if you'd like to. By the way, did you notice Y/N started to act.... a little odd lately?" Bruce swore he saw Loki looking up from his book with his peripheral vision.

"Nah, she's the same as always. Just a little tired. I saw her working out like crazy these past weeks. HEY YOU LIL CHEATER, STOP IT!"

"I'm not cheating bird brains, you just can't play. I'll share if you apologize. But Bruce is right, something's wrong. I mean I'm glad she's getting sleep but something just isn't right" Tony was dragging all of the cookies towards himself, making funny faces at pouting Clint.

"You know what? How about we play for something more valuable?" Clint asked with a smirk.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Sure am fancy tin can."

"POP TARTS!" both of them shouted at the same time. Clint was already making his way to kitchen for the box of said valuable treats when he was stopped by Thor.

"If you are going to play for my loves, you have to win against me too!"

"Thor, have you ever played poker?"

"Of course I have," he haven't, but he's been watching them play for over an hour. How hard can it possibly be?

Meanwhile Bruce sat down next to Tony, opposite of Loki.

"What about you?" Bruce asked Loki.

"What about me?" Loki took a sip of his tea, not looking up from his book.

"Well, Y/N was the first one to convince us you're not as much of a dick as we thought you are and you don't even care about her!" Tony managed to say with full mouth of his prize.

"First of all thank you for not thinking I'm a dick, second of all I do care about her and third of all she's just tired. You said it yourself Stark. I'll check up on her when she's rested."

"Get in line Rudolf. Bruce, do you want to play?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Clint and Thor arrived with two giant boxes of Pop tarts and started to sort it out into four piles.

Loki just rolled his eyes, got up and walked towards elevators.

-

*knock* "Y/N? Are you there?"

Oh shit.

Why was Loki here? Of all people why him? Right when you finally ran out of tears to shed. You didn't even need to look into a mirror to know how you looked like. Puffy red eyes, wet face, runny nose and bird's nest for hair. Just great.

"Yeah, what do you want?" even your voice sounded like you've been crying for two hours straight, which you did.

"Y/N, are you okay? Can I come in? Please?"

"Yeah," you murmured loud enough for him to hear.

He opened the door and walked straight to you, cupping your face, forcing you to look into his eyes.

"Sweetheart, were you crying? Who hurt you?" you could hear the pain in his voice. Why did he care all of a sudden? Did boys ditch him?

"No one, I'm fine. Really. I was just watching a very sad movie and it made me cry, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I mean, have you seen it? I bet you would cry too," 'but you don't have time on me and my silly movies' you added in your head.

"Well, guys are playing cards for sweets and girls are out wasting money on accessories they will never wear and I have currwntly nothing to do. Let's watch the movie that upset you so."

'If only it was the movie that really made me cry' you thought and put the movie on.

[shortyisweird9]

'Lonely ghost serie'

Proposition and Accord-part VII

"Ghoooost! Good noon!"

"Hello!"

You opened your eyes slowly, barely awake from the deep sleep you had. The grogginess in your voice shadowed by the abnormal deepness of the voice changer.

"Hey, ghost."

"Corpse! Always pleased to hear you."

"Always ,ey?" Toast picked what you said in a more suggestive tone, teasing you with it.

"Cut it ,man."

You didn't bite on the trap however.

" Anyway, mind if I bring a friend?"

"Of course!"

"Sure why not."

"Okay,brb."

"So ,Corpse..."

"To early for that ,Toast."

Near the white astronaut Ghost had, a new little one came. It was black with a pair of headphones and a Wall-e companion. On top the name Charon was displayed.

The others started circling the new mate as Corpse's pink character stood unmoved by your side.

"Good evening!" A low and mature voice came from a woman. It didn't had a mechanical effect to it so it was coming in naturally.

"Hiiiii!"

"Hello!"

"Guys this is Andreea, Andreea this is the Peanut gallery."

"Ha,nice. Good to meet you all."

"Likewise."

"You too."

"Your robot is cute." Corpse remarked.

You smirked when your phone immediately lighted up. A message from Andreea written in big bold letters: 'HIS VOICE IS HOT!'

'I know :)))'

"Andreea , you know how to play this game?"

"Y-Yeah ummm..."

"Sykkuno."

"Sykkuno! Yeah, I know me and Y- I mean ghost sometimes play it. "

"You play together?"

"Well yeah, we play Fallout together, sometimes Minecraft even Eyes the horror game. Speaking of which ghost?"

"Yeah?"

"My place tonight?"

You smirked knowing what's to come.

"Time to corrupt another soul?"

You laughed was intentionally made to be interpreted by the others as evil and dark. In the inside you cringed, you sounded so stupid.

"Umm,guys?" Sykkuno asked for clarification, to which he will not receive.

"YOU GUYS LIVE IN THE SAME CITY?" Pooki asked all excited for some reason.

"Yeah?"

"Same city? We leave in the same apartment building." Andreea told ,a pleasant hiss rang as her long nailed hands opened a Pepsi can.

'Cola is better'

'Fuck off, Y/n'

':))🖕'

"That's so cute!"

"I guess,but she's a pain."

"A pain? Moi? Please, I am only in pain not one."

The others chuckled at your shenanigans, the humour between you and Andreea being based in play fighting, cursing each other and bumping as hard as you can into each. Considering how much of a height difference is between you two, everything just gets more interesting.

"Maan,I want to stay in the same building with you guys also." Corpse pouted.

You two sounded really nice to be with, especially you. You were fun to talk witg and your natural voice was a godsend to his anxiety and insomnia. It made him sometimes slip into a blissful sleep,especially when you began reading to him Doom lore in the late hours of the night.

' "The Maykrs' need for the Essence is prime. Without it they must suffer the monstrous fate of Transfiguration, and see their wisdom and faculties slither from their twisted forms. By bidding of the Khan Maykr herself, the Order of the Deag has devised a method to improve and accelerate the production of the Hell aura. What once took eons for the savage beasts to attai...oof. Wait."

Corpse heard you move in the bed, your body getting its pressure off it before settling back in.

He wanted to start to ask you to read again when he was interrupted by the sound of smooching ? You were kissing somebody?

You puffed and smiled as Sergiu bombarded you with another waves of kisses, a tradition in your group. You all were touched starved creatures so you showed your platonic affections through hand holding, sudden hugging, cuddling- sometimes propping your cold feet on the other person's back just to be dickish- and rains of kisses.

Sergiu was the most affectionate out of all of you, the rain of kisses being something that his mother used to do before she left to work. 'A kiss on the forehead to brighten your thinking, two on the cheeks so no one is lonely and one wherever you want.'

"Alright! Alright! I get it, you are leaving!"

You laughed as you pushed the cuddly golden retriver of a man away.

His chains attached to his black leather belt with grey 3d rombes running all over it clicked as it bounced. His hair smudged on the worn out black leather jacket and his face all but a smile. He was happy and you love to see it.

-Vrei ceva? ("You want something?")

-Umm...PIZZA PĂTRATĂ DE LA DEDEMAN ȘI MOUNTAIN DEW.("Um...SQUARE SHAPED PIZZA FROM DEDEMAN AND MOUNTAIN DEW.")

The man laughed at your antics, roughing up your freshly washed hair and closing the door as he left.

"Corpse? You still there buddy?"

Corpse felt a pang in his chest, you sounded like you have much more fun with the other person. He knew it was stupid but he couldn't help feel jealous and worried at the same time. He wanted to be the reason to make you sound so happy and he didn't want to be worried of being replaced anytime soon.

"Corpse? My petit orchid? Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah,I am fine."

It came out shaky and too abrupt for your liking. Something's wrong and you didn't want to overstep your boundaries but you couldn't let him go about his day while having something munching on his good mood.

"Hey,hey Corpse."

"Yes?"

"Wanna see my cat?"

"YOU HAVE A CAT?"

"Yes,so do you..."

"Hell yeah. I mean...sure I am cool with that."

You shook your head and became giggling, it's good to know you weren't the only one who didn't know how to cover their slip ups.'

"Trust me Corpse. You don't want to live with this anxiety filled owl."

"HEY! My anxiety adds spice."

"Oh my god!"

"Guys, guys. Can we start the game please?"

"Oh for sure."

————————————————————

"Watch out for the wall, ghost. Watch out for--GHOST! Oh shit ,I lost her guys! Ghost, where are you?"

His character ran in desperate search to find you. When it left the snowy environment from outside , it stopped abruptly. You were there in the office with Sykkuno ripped apart body in front of you.

"Oh shit! Sykkuno!"

His thoughts ran wilde as they hurried to reach a consensus. He knew that you will probably kill him also as you waited for those 10 seconds to pass.

His premonition was proven true went you shut the doors of the office , your character moving slowly towards him.

"Ahhh! Guys ,what the hell do I do?"

His eyes clenched shut as his finger hovered the report button.

The sound of a meeting went off,forcing him to let out the breath he's been withholding. His hands shook as he relaxed himself when his friends started discussing aka screaming at each other.

Someone else called in another body.

You held your fingernails between your lips, leg bouncing from the nerves. You knew Corpse will snitch you out,after all you did killed Sykkuno.

I am so fucked...

Your body covered in a white and black hoodie contorted itself into a smaller position.You ignored the pain that your dead thighs were trying to emit while being in a cross position. Head to busy with anxious thoughts of what Corpse may do.

"Phew, Jesus. I am too nervous for this game."

Andreea's words caught you off guard. She nervous? It's more likely than you think.

Your feelings long forgotten as your protective nature sprung out of the shell.

"You? Nervous? Andreea you are a freaking talented tattoo artist."

"It doesn't matter, my hands are sweating like they are the Danube river."

"Wait ,are you a tattoo artist?"

"Yeah ,I am. I started tatto--"

Mission accomplished! Your goal wasn't to comfort, you knew you sucked at that but to distract. To take her mind away from whatever cause her pain ,then to secretly totally not obviously attack the shit of whatever upset her even bad vibes. Fuck them bad vibes! You and your friends are bad bitches not second hand embarrassments.

"It will be nice if I could do henna also but this hoarding gremlin was only calm enough when she did them. So basically it became her summer job."

Ah. Your mind realised she was telling them how you two met.

You wanted to get some henna tattoos, see if you liked the way the look at you. Andrea was just a beginner when you entered the tattoo shop and her life.

You weren't always an anxious person,the situation changed when your math teacher decided to be a bitch and humiliate you for not knowing geometry. Since then you were always out of breath when you spoke in public, always bouncing your leg when stressed , biting off your nails and having a constant dread when it came socialising with others. And when you are a big girl that amplifies considerably.

People are just shallow like that and you learned a long time ago that their intolerance towards you was a THEY problem rather than a YOU problem.

It's hard thought, sometimes their words and disgusted glares burn you from inside out. Make you feel inhuman ,that your anger,sadness and your passion don't mean anything ,that they are not valid, that you cannot be yourself and liked at the same time nevermind seen as a romantic interest.

But I digress, when it came with Andreea ,everything when abnormally smooth, you joked and laughed, bitch about people and so on. You hit off immediately.

So when you wanted to make a bit of cash ,Andreea didn't hesitate to teach you how to do temporary tattooing.

"That's so nice guys,the body was in specimen room by the way." Dave said.

The others for some reason started blaming Rae , you didn't said nothing as you were still waiting with your breath tight for Corpse to rat you out.

"Corpse? Where were you by the way?"

Here comes the expose.

"I ..uh...wait. I was in the storage then I met Sykkuno in the office but left with ghost."

What?

"Ghost? Can you collaborate his story?"

"Yeah , me and him left Sykkuno. I think orange was with him last time we saw. I am done with my tasks by the way."

"What?"

"LUDWIG! HOW DARE YOU KILL SYKKUNO?!" Corpse growled.

You muted yourself as you squealed. You couldn't believe him. He really took your side!

You took a sip of your green tea, patting yourself on the back for being calm and getting back in the game.

————————————————————

"How could you ,Corpse? I trusted you and you stab me behind my back." Sykkuno exclaimed, pout evident in his voice.

"I am sorry Sykkuno..i-it's just...I...uhh.."

Your microphone was not muted this time so when you burst in laughter you dominated the whole discussion. You laughed ugly but happy as you always did, holding your lower abdomen as it clenched muscle you didn't know you have.

"It's NOT funny, ghost!"

"It'S nOt FuNnY, GhOsT! Bwahaha..."

Despite laughing ,deep down you worried you may have offended your new friends? Nah, too early to call them that.

"I think I know why Corpse did what he did." Grease started in a dramatic sober voice.

"You mean cheated on Sykkuno."

Ludwig ignited couple of laughter from the group.

"Yeah. He did it....drumb rolls please. "

Sean provided the suspenseful roll.

"Because he is a SIMP."

"WHAT?"

"No way..."

"You heard me."

The group went wilde. You didn't know what you could say, your mind crazy yet also numb. Poor Corpse.

"Hey, hey. Guys, please calm down. If you want to come for someone, come for my neck."

Your hands flared up into a peaceful backing sign, you knew of Corpse's bad anxiety and you didn't want to cause him distress by bringing the limelight into his face.

"It's alright, ghost. I am a big boy, I can take it."

You tried to keep it short, you really did but your mind wanted to say one more thing.

"Just like you can open foil?"

You heard a breath intake. You lowered your volume, thinking of what he may do.

"I FUCKING HATE FOIL!"

————————————————————

"Tonight was fun." Corpse said after taking a sip of water.

"Yeah, it was."

You watched your dark hair moving in the air as you played with your toes.

"Sorry again for bringing all the...uh...attention on you."

"It's fine,ghost. I know you didn't mean it."

"Y/n."

"What?"

"My name is Y/n."

Ah!

His heart jumped a bit ,you told him your name that means you trust him right. Lily doesn't know your name so he is the first to know. The first to guard this special information.

"Ghost was kinda wearing down,you know?"

"Y-yeah,...uhh..I mean no! Yes? No? Fuck...It's a pretty name,um...Y/n."

You haulted, getting used to him saying your name will take a while.

"Heh,thanks Corpsie."

"Mhmmm, did you have time to think about what I told you?"

Couple of nights ago,Corpse proposed the idea of starting your own Youtube channel. You were hesitant.

"Corpse, I told I don't think people really like me. I think they just like the voice."

"Non sense. You watched our stream?"

"Noo...? Sorry,I didn't really have time to..."

"Hey, it's okay goofball. Anyway,they were asking more videos with you. Maybe some of them like you because of your voice but most of them like you because they like your personality, gh- Y/n."

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Look you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I just feel bad for all the fans that want to talk with you or sometimes I found something funny and I want to send you or tag you. It's stupid I know."

You didn't like the sad tone of his, your heart tightened and your worries worsened.

"I think I am going to sleep. Goodnight, ghost."

"'Night,Corpse."

You were left in the darkness of your room, at the end of the bed with your long fingers reaching towards your knife, your personal fidget spinner. You chew your nail as you moved the blade unconsciously.

Corpse's account:

.ghost added you. Add them back?

————————————————————

Hey,guys!💖💖

Hope you like the seventh part of the serie. I almost went into a writing block with this one.

Anyway, have a nice day!💗💗

Tagged💖💖: @moolujk @magenta-skyline @yikesyikesyikes95 @mythicalamphitrite @yoyoanaria @simonsbluee @cherry-piee @gaysludge @softboiicorpse @heavenly3308

[pronouncingitwang]

s1 archives crew | 1.7K words | basically tim and martin think sasha and jon are dating and have a Time about it to my specific amusement

[INT. BUBBLE TEA SHOP]

[BACKGROUND: PEOPLE CHATTING, BAD DANCE MUSIC PLAYING OVER THE SPEAKERS]

TIM

(bitter, reminiscent of a cup of black tea that’s been steeping, forgotten, for an hour) I hope they’re having a good time

[PLASTIC HITTING PLASTIC, LIKE SOMEONE IS JABBING AT HIS BUBBLE TEA WITH HIS STRAW AND FAILING TO CATCH ANY PEARLS ON THE POINTY END]

MARTIN

(bitter, reminiscent of a cup of black tea that’s been steeping, forgotten, for two hours) I don’t.

TIM

(heh) Wellll… It’s more that I hope they’re having a good time, until something about the way Sasha talks reminds Jon of his grandmother, and the thought is so awful that he starts wishing it weren’t a date.

[ON THE WORD “DATE,” MARTIN LETS OUT A SOFT GROAN]

MARTIN

(glum) Cheers to that.

[THE TAP OF TWO PLASTIC CUPS AGAINST EACH OTHER]

MARTIN

(wistful) What do you think they’re talking about right now?

TIM

(glum) How smart and perfect they are, probably.

That, or work.

MARTIN

I don’t even know if Jon’s capable of not talking about work.

TIM

He was, back in research. (contemplative) He and Sash always got along swimmingly, but I never thought…

MARTIN

(oddly agitated) I didn’t even know he swung that way. Do you think— (lowering voice to a whisper) is it possible Sasha’s his beard?

TIM

(laughing) What, he needs her help staying closeted from us? You know, come to think of it, we are both such raging homophobes, so—

MARTIN

(laughing, but still tense) Yeah, alright, alright, lay off it.

[SILENCE]

TIM

Are you alright? You look… really wound up. Like, shaking.

MARTIN

(agitated) I’m fine, I just— (words bursting out) Look, I’m sorry, but—what does Jon see in her? Like, Sasha’s my friend, and she’s great, but—

TIM

(trying for lighthearted but landed on “stern”) Going to have to stop you there, Marto.

MARTIN

What? Oh, right, right, I’m sorry—

TIM

How about some ground rules. I don’t talk shit about Jon, and you don’t talk shit about Sasha.

MARTIN

Y-yeah. That sounds good.

[AWKWARD SILENCE]

MARTIN

I hope… that Elias calls Jon down to the Institute for an emergency live statement before they’ve even ordered food?

[CLINK OF ICE, A CUP BEING RAISED]

TIM

That’s the spirit!

-

[INT. ARCHIVES, THE ARCHIVIST’S OFFICE]

ARCHIVIST

I know you said, but your wording was ambiguous earlier, and I’ve gotten this wrong before in the past—this is strictly platonic, yes?

SASHA

(amused) Yes, Jon, I promise I’m not trying to steal your virtue—

[SPLUTTERING NOISES FROM THE ARCHIVIST]

SASHA (CONT’D)

—or your heart.

ARCHIVIST

That’s, ah. That’s good to hear.

SASHA

God, Jon, if I knew you were going to be this flustered over “My corkscrew wound hurts, so you’re taking me out to dinner because I said so,” I wouldn’t have asked.

ARCHIVIST

No, it’s perfectly alright, I’m happy to—

SASHA

If it helps, I’m also aromantic as hell.

ARCHIVIST

Oh! That’s, well. (inhale) (enunciating each word clearly and sincerely) Thank you for telling me, Sasha.

SASHA

(laughing) You can stop making that face, I haven’t been hiding it, or worried about your reaction or anything. I only really figured it out recently. I haven’t even told Tim yet.

ARCHIVIST

(awkward) Ah. Well, either way, I’m glad that you found a label that works for you.

SASHA

So am I.

ARCHIVIST

(abrupt) I’m… I’m asexual. Not that it—but I thought you might like to know.

SASHA

Nice!

[SOUND OF A HI-FIVE BEING EXCHANGED]

SASHA (CONT’D)

And you’re right, I do like to know.

So, you ready for Aspec Solidarity Dinner?

ARCHIVIST

I thought this was Sorry You Got Stabbed Dinner.

SASHA

(with exaggerated gravity) Sometimes, things… can be two things.

ARCHIVIST

(heh) Fair enough.

-

[INT. BUBBLE TEA SHOP, SEVERAL HOURS LATER]

[LESS BACKGROUND CHATTER THAN BEFORE]

MARTIN

(dreamily) I hope they both get food poisoning. Not— (correcting course) not anything too bad, just… unpleasant enough that their neural pathways start connecting the idea of a romance between them with feeling sick.

TIM

(mock-offended) What, you think getting food poisoning with someone means you can’t stomach the sight of them again? And here I was thinking we were friends!

MARTIN

Well, we weren’t on a date, then. The logic works out differently. You don’t make me ill, but the idea of stakeouts does.

TIM

I mean, we could.

MARTIN

Could…?

TIM

Go on a date. A proper one.

MARTIN

What, like, to make Jon and Sasha jealous?

[BEAT]

MARTIN

Shit, Tim. I’m—

TIM

(quiet) I was just thinking a date in general, but—

MARTIN (CONT’D)

—so sorry, that was so inconsiderate—

TIM

(overlapping) No, no, it’s alright. It was… stupid to ask. I know how much you like Jon.

MARTIN

And I thought you were—I thought—Well, you just spent an hour talking about how you were interested in Sasha?

TIM

Doesn’t mean I can’t have other interests.

MARTIN

Right. I mean—

TIM

Let’s just agree to forget about it.

MARTIN

I mean, it’s not that I don’t—

TIM

We’re having fun, right? Let’s keep having fun.

[SILENCE]

MARTIN

(quiet) So you really want to forget about it?

TIM

Martin, what does that even me-

MARTIN

I don’t know! I just—Can we talk about it tomorrow?

TIM

... Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.

[MORE SILENCE]

TIM

(with forced enthusiasm) Hey. I just had an idea. Do you want to get really, really drunk?

-

SASHA

(laughing) And then— (laughing harder) they just hung up on me! Just like that!

ARCHIVIST

(engrossed) What did you do then?

SASHA

Called them back, of course.

ARCHIVIST

No.

SASHA

It was my favorite sweater, Jon, I wasn’t going to let it rot just because Tim left it behind while trespassing for you!

ARCHIVIST

So now it’s my fault, too?

SASHA

Absolutely. I think you owe me, oh, at least two more dinners for that.

ARCHIVIST

(audible smile) That can be arranged. Though, (hesitating) I don’t know if that’s… wise.

SASHA

(mildly exasperated) Listen, Jon, just because you can technically fire me now doesn’t mean we can’t still spend time together.

ARCHIVIST

Well, yes, but—

SASHA

You’re my friend, Jon. I missed talking to you.

ARCHIVIST

(somewhat touched) I… also consider you a friend, Sasha.

SASHA (CONT’D)

(smug) Besides, I know you’d never fire me, anyway.

ARCHIVIST

From a professional standpoint, I can neither confirm nor deny that.

SASHA

Ha! Knew it.

Movie at mine after we—sorry, after you—pay?

-

[INT. TIM’S FLAT, SEVERAL HOURS LATER]

[SOUNDS FROM THE TV]

MARTIN

(earnest, clearly inebriated) I can’t believe David broke up with you! That was so mean! How could anyone be so mean to you?

TIM

I can’t believe Jon’s so hard on you. I know you didn’t get a degree, but you work so hard, Marty. It’s not fair.

MARTIN

(sighing) ’Least he’s pretty.

TIM

So pretty.

MARTIN

Just wanna hold his hand.

TIM

(daydreaming) Sash has nice hands.

[SILENCE AS THEY FANTASIZE]

MARTIN

(coming back to himself) This isn’t fair. You’re hot! People should be getting weepy over you!

TIM

And you’re hot and you write poetry! We should be the fucking office heartthrobs!

MARTIN

Fucking David.

TIM

Fuck that guy. Or don’t, actually.

[TIM GIGGLES]

MARTIN

What?

TIM

Your face is so red, Marty. (contemplative) Sash’s favorite color is red.

[DRUNKEN SILENCE]

MARTIN

(whispering) Hey. Hey, Tim.

TIM

Yeah?

MARTIN

Y’know what you should do?

TIM

What?

MARTIN

You should text her.

TIM

Nuh. No way.

MARTIN

You should!

TIM

Only if you text Jon.

MARTIN

No, no, Tim.

TIM

Yes! Where’s your phone? Gimme.

MARTIN

(whining) Tim, no, he’s my boss, Tim!

TIM

It doesn’t have to be weird! Either you write something and send it, or I do.

[MARTIN RECOILS IN HORROR]

MARTIN

Fine.

-

[INT. SASHA’S FLAT]

ARCHIVIST

(puzzled) I just got a text… from Martin.

SASHA

(with a mixture of surprise, anticipation, and amusement that can only come from suspecting something that Jon doesn’t) Oh? What does it say?

ARCHIVIST

It says, um, (spelling out the typos) “hpe ur date went well an no food poisonig”?

SASHA

(laughing) Sorry, what?

ARCHIVIST

I really don’t see—W-wait. (fast) When Prentiss had Martin’s phone, she kept talking about a stomach bug—do you think this is her again? Is he in danger?

SASHA

(suppressing laughter) I really don’t think it’s Prentiss.

ARCHIVIST

How can you be sure? We should probably go to the Institute, or at least call Elias, or—

SASHA

Martin’s fine, Jon. I just got a text from Tim about him.

ARCHIVIST

Oh! Well, that’s a relief.

SASHA

(giggling) Listen to this: (enunciating each word) “me n marty r soooo drunk i miss u an i thin ur lauh is pretty also lrgally u have 2 tell me if bossyboss is a good ksser ok byeeeee.” And then, five—no, six exclamation points.

ARCHIVIST

Good… kisser? (horrified) Wait, do Tim and Martin think we’re…

SASHA

(giggling) Apparently so.

ARCHIVIST

Should we—should we correct them?

SASHA

Well, yeah.

[BEAT]

SASHA (CONT’D)

(sly) On Monday, that is.

-

[INT. TIM’S FLAT]

MARTIN

He said, (reading off his phone) “This is highly unprofessional, but yes, Sasha and I are passing a—” Passing? Tim, they’re still…

TIM

(with a deep and heavy sadness completely at odds with the actual words) Damn. Get it, Sasha.

MARTIN

(continuing) “—a perfectly pleasant evening. It was kind of you to ask.” (despondent) Tim. I hate this.

[BEAT]

MARTIN

Tim?

TIM

(flat) I just got a text from Sasha.

MARTIN

(dreading the response) What’s it say?

TIM

See for yourself.

[THEY LOOK AT TIM’S PHONE IN SILENCE]

MARTIN

(quiet) I’ve… I’ve never seen Jon with his hair down before.

[MORE STARING]

TIM

They look fucking adorable.

[MORE STARING]

MARTIN

Jon looks so happy.

TIM

So does Sash.

[A LONG MOMENT OF CONTEMPLATION]

MARTIN

(inhale) (determined) You know what? (exhale) (forcing the words out) I’m… I’m glad they’re having a good time.

[A LONG SILENCE]

[TIM GROANS]

TIM

(glum) Yeah. Me too.

-

bonus:

[INT. SASHA’S FLAT]

SASHA

Aw, look at this.

[FABRIC RUSTLING AS JON SHUFFLES CLOSER]

ARCHIVIST

Is that…? Oh. Well, they certainly look alright. No worms, or… Michael.

SASHA

I’m just glad Martin has a place to crash tonight other than Document Storage.

ARCHIVIST

I mean, I can’t imagine that Tim’s couch will be that much better than the archives cot.

SASHA

(heh) Tim’s couch, right.

[BEAT]

ARCHIVIST

(surprised) You think…?

SASHA

That they’re sleeping together? I mean, I don’t know for certain, but Tim’s talked to me about Martin before, and…. well, let’s just say I “strongly suspect.”

[DEAD SILENCE. THE ARCHIVIST FEELS HE IS CLOSE TO AN EPIPHANY, BUT BATS IT AWAY. ALTHOUGH HE NEVER REACHES IT, THE GRIEF THAT WOULD ACCOMPANY SAID EPIPHANY IS STILL FELT ACUTELY]

ARCHIVIST

(flat) Oh.

[hufflepuffsthunderdome]

Loud, Proud and Losing Neville in the Crowd

Pairing: Silver Trio x Gender Neutral Reader (platonic) Warnings: LGBTQ+ themes, but fun fluff Words: 1,200 Summary: Luna, Ginny and Y/N take Neville to pride for the first time, and manage to loose him in the crowds. 

A/N: I’ve made Y/N a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but have left their sexuality ambiguous so you can interpret it however you like. For the point of this story, Luna is Lesbian, Ginny is Bi and they are dating (which I just choose to blindly accept as cannon), and Neville is Ace. 

“I can’t believe I’m letting you talk me into this,” Neville sighs as I paint the last purple stripe on his cheek, “I’m so nervous it’s insane.”

“Don’t be nervous Neville,” an airy voice calls from down the hallway, the blonde girl it belongs to emerging, continuing to add the pink, white, orange and red accessories into her messy space buns, “it’s gonna be a blast.”

Ginny comes through from the kitchen, holding two cups of coffee and a cup of tea, setting all three down in front of me and Neville and sitting in the seat opposite us. She’s wearing her usual getup, a crop top, shorts and her combat boots, swapping her usual bomber jacket for one we got from the charity shop down the road, still wet and patchy from when we painted it pink, purple and blue last night, “what is there to be nervous about Nev?”

“I don’t know,” he lowers his head shuffling his feet around, “I just don’t want to stand out.”

I place a hand comfortingly on his shoulder, “you won’t stand out Nev, there’s gonna be loads of people there to take the attention off us,” he chuckles, remembering all the videos I’ve shown him of pride before, “besides, you’ve never been before, and you have just as much of a right to have a good time as anyone, we promise to make that happen, right girls?”

“Right,” the girls parroted back before Ginny gets up, “but don’t you wanna stand out a bit Neville?” She puts her cup down and walks towards our shitty little coffee table, climbing up onto it despite its groan of protests. “We get a few times a year to stand out,” she takes off her jacket in a purposefully poor attempt at a striptease, flinging it over our heads and into the kitchen, “I plan to make the most of it.”

“Luna, come in here and control your girlfriend,” I joke, having moved on from Neville and now streaking my hair with rainbow accessories. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but I was also just as nervous as Neville was, it’s intimidating, Pride, sometimes, whether it's your first or your 23rd. I know that the girls and I have to make sure Neville has a good time for his first Pride being out and proud, so that’s what I plan to do.

Luna laughs as she walks back into the living room, “you should know better than anyone Y/N, that not even I can control my girlfriend.” Ginny gasps dramatically, crossing her hands over her chest, and turning away from us.

“Aww,” I coo, going up to Ginny to pat her face lightly, “did someone upset the poor baby?” she humphs, even more dramatically, turning sharply to face away from where I now stand, and in the process the table she stood on snapping underneath her, sending her hurtling towards the ground. Luckily Luna is close by, and as soon as she notices Ginny begining to fall, she’s right there under the girl, ready to catch her. They just look at each other as Luna shakes her head, Ginny putting on an overdramatic smile and mumbling a sorry.

“Well that’s that table gone,” I say, lacing up my shoes and standing up, “we ready to go lads?”

Ginny whoops loudly, someone now getting a piggyback off Luna without us even noticing she moved, “mush!”

Luna dashes off towards the door, barking like a dog as Ginny giggles from above her. I reach my hand out for Neville to take, patting him on the back as we make our way out the door, following our two insane friends, “it’s gonna be fun Nev, I promise.”

“I can’t believe we lost Neville,” I giggle slightly, “of course he’s the one out of us to get lost.” I jump, trying to see over the large crowd of people, to no avail. “Any sign of him from up there?” Luna is on Ginny’s shoulders, using a pair of binoculars she of course brought with her, scanning the crowds for Neville, mumbling a small nope in defeat.

I walk up to a stallholder selling handmade flags for charity, noting I will have to come back and buy one later, before going up and asking him if he had seen Neville.

“Oh yeah, he came here looking at Ace flags I’m pretty sure,” the gruff looking man said kindly, “pretty sure he went down there a sec ago but I don't remember,” he turns to hang up more flags, wishing me luck finding him as I thank him for his help.

I drag Ginny and Luna down through the crowds, down the cobbled steps and towards a second street where more stalls are set up. Ginny wobbles slightly as she carries herself and her giggling girlfriend down the stairs, still perched on her shoulders.

“Neville,” Luna calls out, Ginny bringing her down off her shoulders as she reaches the bottom of the stairs and Luna dashes off towards a stall as soon as her feet touch the ground. Ginny and I follow after her, and Luna is hanging off Neville hugging the tall boy, as he puts things he bought into a bag.

“We thought we lost you,” I say, “gave us a heart attack on that one.” Luna lets go of Neville and grab me and Ginny’s hands, pulling us into a group hug with the confused boy.

“I was just buying some pins.”

“Fucking hell my feet are killing me,” I groan, kicking them off and nestling further into the couch, Neville on one side of me, Luna on the other and Ginny in her lap, laid over the three of us.

“Tell me about it,” Ginny groans stretching, almost hitting Neville in the chin as she moves her legs, “my eyes are screaming at me to take these lashes off.”

Luna sits up straighter when Ginny says that, clapping her hands and nodding her head excitedly, “can I please take them off for you.” Ginny agrees, kissing Luna lightly as she laughs and positioning her face closer to Luna’s so she can pull the pieces of plastic off.

I laugh at the girls' antics, turning back to Neville and asking him if he had a good day. He agrees excitedly, ranting and raving about how much fun he had, “I mean anywhere I can get a shirt that says ‘acetronaut’ from is a win in my books.” We all laugh as he pulls at the hem of his new shirt.

“The party’s not over yet lads,” Ginny walks back in from where she had left to the kitchen, holding some cups and shot glasses in one hand, and bottles of vodka and mixes in the other, “I’d say it’s just getting started.”

[might-guys-acorn]

hi!! would you be able to do #15 from the lyrics prompt for a reader/shikamaru? :)

Hi!! Of course I can! Shika is the love of my life ngl, i adore that man and this is the perfect setup for fluFF IM SO HAPPY -🦎

=======================

Prompt #15- "We danced around the kitchen in the refrigerator light" (All Too Well by Taylor Swift)

Also s/o to this gif bc its freaking adorable

You ran up to the door and knocked aggressively.

"SHIKA! SHIKAMARU NARA OPEN UP!!" You yelled into the wooden door in front of you, the full moon casting a spotlight on your tattered figure. Everyone said Shika was sick, so you figured youd pay him a visit after your mission.

You heard some clamouring inside the apartment, and a very disheveled Shikamaru opened the door. You looked him up and down, taking in his sweats and bloodshot eyes.

"Y/N, its 10 pm, what are you doing here?" He yawned in the middle of his sentence.

"Well, everyone said you were sick, and it doesnt look like youve been sleeping." You pushed past him into the apartment and sat on a pile of tissues and blankets piled onto the couch.

"Well youre not wrong, but you couldve just stopped by tomorrow." He closed the front door,and in doing so depleted most of the light in the room. He had one table lamp on in the corner of the living space, but all other lights were off, most likely due to a headache.

"You know I worry about you Shika, and youre worse when youre sick. You dont eat, you dont sleep, and you certainly dont get up. Im doing you a favor." You smile at him and he replies with a small sigh, too lazy to argue. He flopped on the couch next to you and placed his head in your lap. You two had been like this since you met at the academy. Nearly inseperable, best friends from the start. All your friends seemed to think you were together, but all feelings were platonic as far as you could tell.

You ran your hands through his jet black hair, unrestricted because he always wore it down when he was sick. As he shut his eyes at your soothing motions, you tried to take in your surroundings. Plenty of tissues on the floor, a game of shogi midplay on the table, but you didnt notice any-

"Hey Shika, when was the last time you ate?" You looked down at him and watched his closed eyes scrunch up with his eyebrows. You took that as an answer, and chuckled at his groan as you moved his head and stood up.

"Where are you going?" He whined at you, sitting up on the couch.

"Making you food. And tea." You said, walking to the kitchen. You heard him mumble his usual, 'troublesome woman' and flop back down on the couch.

You begin moving around the kitchen, putting water in the kettle and setting it up on the stove. You hummed softly to yourself as you checked his cabinets for something to prepare. Nothing particularly great, what was it with men and stocking nothing in the kitchen. You moved to the fridge, and squinted when you opened it, the bright light stabbing its way through the darkness. You gazed inside and heard a small sniff from behind you.

"Having difficulties?" He asked from behind you, grabbing your waist and spinning you around to face him. You laughed and smirked at his reddened cheeks.

"Just trying to figure out what to feed you," you laughed and placed a hand to his hot forehead. "I also think you may have a fever."

"I feel fine", he says and uses his free hand, the other still rested on your waist, and grabbed your hand, swaying slightly in front of the open fridge. You giggled, fully aware that his fever was making him act essentially drunk. He hummed the same tune you were earlier as he spun you out, twirled you lightly, and tucked you into a dip. The spotlight shown from fridge made it seem like a dream, like watching two actors fall for eachother over a waltz on stage. He leaned in and closed his eyes, but just as his lips were about to brush yours, the tea kettle screamed from across the room. He seemed to snap out of his fever-trance at the noise, and returned you to a standing position with an obvious blush over his already heat stained cheeks.

"I should go finish the tea. Its the least I could do." He said with a cough, walking away from the stunned look on your face.

===============================

"So what happened?? Have you talked to him?" Ino stares at you across the table, deeply engrossed in your story. "Did you really...?"

"Yeah, we danced around the kitchen in the refrigerator light. He almost kissed me. And then, he just pretended nothing happened. We had tea, I made him eat some rice balls, sat for a bit in the living room, and he fell asleep in my lap." You hadnt talked to him in days, and you chose to believe it all happened because of the fever.

"Uh Y/N?" Ino looks at your face with a worried glint in her eyes, the dumplings in front of you nearly untouched. You reply back with a half hearted 'hm?' and she sighs. "I know you insisted that you guys were super platonic, but it doesnt seem like thats the case. Youve been so off since then. Have you even considered how you feel about this?"

You look up at her, mildly surprised at this question. "Well, no?"

She smirks at you, looks directly past your head and says "You might wanna do that." She gets up and as your gaze follows her out, your eye catches an uneasy Shikamaru outlined by the sunset streaming in behind the door. Ino places a hand on his shoulder before walking out, and he walks over and sits across from you.

"Shika, I-"

"Did I almost kiss you when I had a fever?" He asks, interrupting your sentence.

Stunned, you look at him and nod slowly. His cheeks turn as red as that night and you smirk slightly at the memory.

"Damn. I thought it might have been a dream. But that means I was an ass and tried to play it off as well." He looks down at your unscathed dumplings and his brow furrows.

"Thats true, as well, yes." You smile at him, and laugh a little, trying to ease the tension.

"Im a little late, but Im sorry." He mumbles under his breath, the blush slowly intensifying over his high cheekbones.

"Well, you could just make it up to me." The flirtatious statement left your mouth before you could stop it. He looks up at you in surprise and raises his eyebrows. You shrug, realizing slowly how disappointed you were the other night, and how your feelings towards him may have shifted.

"Are you serious, Y/N?" He asks, not sure if youre messing with him.

"Theres a way to find out, Shika." You literally could not filter your thoughts anymore and they continued to stream out of your mouth without any detours.

He stood up, grabbed your hand and pulled you up to face him.

"Remember, you asked for this." He pulls you closer, dips you like before and finally closed the small space between your lips. In the applause from the tea shop, not excluding a peeking Choji and Ino from the doorway, you could focus on nothing but the soft lips on your own, his fingers in your hair, hand on your waist. The blackness behind your eyes was illuminated by fireworks and the butterflies in your stomach could only be described as vicious. This made all those moments before feel like nothing. This was love, and while everyone else knew it before, you really never saw it coming.

[pandawritesmanythings]

Halfrid // Part 4

Platonic!Loki x Teen!Reader

Summary: Your life has always been dictated by the fact that you are smarter than most adults. This has made you antagonize many of them, it isn’t your fault that you are just citing facts! However, when the god of mischief becomes your friend, are there enough facts you can cite to prove his innocence?

Warnings: Censored Curse Words, dude being an entitled jerk (not Loki), Angst, Panic attack, bad writing.

Word Count: +4000K

A/N: Thank you so much for the support guys, just a heads up, some things in this chapter may not make sense now, but they will later. I don’t curse, personally, but it was important to have a catalyst in this chapter, that’s why I censored them. Leave feedback, I highly appreciate it!

TAG LIST IS OPEN!!!

PRESENT TIME

“I wish we could have met at a better time. I honestly do.” Fury had returned to the room and you had told him a short version as to why you started to investigate Loki.

“Why do you say that all of a sudden?” You asked, slightly confused.

“You see, I don’t find this kind of fire or passion in agents anymore. If we get out of this, and you are still around, come find me when you are 17, maybe I can find you an internship somewhere you can use your talents.”

He was sincere, you could see it in his eyes… Eye.

“Well, you might be the first. But thank you.”

He cleared his throat, the rumbling above had ceased a bit, according to Fury because the ground above had become a literal war zone. Military aiding the hero’s battle. The enemy ceased fire, but they were sure to resume it at any moment.

“So when was the next time you met the god of mischief?”

You almost giggled. “Ah. That was about six months after. I wish it had been under better circumstances. But the fact that our paths crossed again, is surprising in itself.”

NEW YORK 2015

Both you and Ashley leaned over to be able to look at your crush for a distance.

“We are not staring okay?” “Yeah, we totally aren’t.” You told each other.

You huffed and closed your locker with a thud, slinging your backpack over your shoulder.

“I’m not doing it.” You finalized.

“Aw, come on! Be a little courageous!”

“Being courageous is to know your mom may find out that you have been researching Loki for 6 months and still risking it by logging onto, probably, illegal websites and the dark web.”

“Soooooo, she doesn’t check your history anymore?” Ashley mused.

“Not manually, and I may have hacked into her phone so, I have that going for me.” You walked towards the exit, other middle schoolers filing after you.

“Still, if you just go and talk to him-” “Are you CRAZY?” “Don’t interrupt me. If you just ask him to walk you home, maybe then you could at least ask him out!”

“Not all of us have been able to have seven boyfriends on their 12-year life span.” You cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh, come on! I still haven’t kissed anyone. I’m waiting ‘till I’m thirteen!” She chirped.

“Why thirteen?”

“It’s supposed to be the unlucky number, right? That way I can pass my bad luck to whatever jerk deserves it!” She seemed too proud of herself.

“You are a jerk.”

She flipped her hair. “Wow. Thanks!”

You both giggled. Through the months you had learned to read her bull, call her out on it, and she had pushed you to try new things. It was a mutual relationship, she knew where your limits were and vice versa. Yet, in a way, you seemed to balance each other out.

“Anyway. Not all of us have your confidence, Ashley.”

“Well, if you don’t do it, I will.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” You gasped.

“Wanna bet?” She playfully glared at you, and you glared back.

Suddenly she made a run for it, dashing towards the exit where your crush was hanging with his friends. “Malcolm! Hey, Malcolm!”

“ASHLEY FOR THE LOVE OF G O D!”

Your crush turned around as you tackled Ashley onto the ground.

“Hey! You guys okay?”

You froze when you heard his voice. Oh, you were so sure your smile looked like a weird grimace.

“N-Nothing. It’s just someone was about to do a stupid.” You said as you got up and brushed off imaginary dust.

“A stupid?” He asked amusement in his voice.

“Is my constant state of being.” Ashley chirped.

Malcolm, your crush, raised an eyebrow in amusement. Another guy behind him chuckled.

“Well, I think we are all in a pretty similar state.” He smiled looking at his friends.

“You mean, you Malcolm.” The guy behind him called out. “Parker wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Ah, as if you weren’t in that state often Morales.” Malcolm retorted. You knew he was joking, but there was something in his tone that just…

“Actually, my friend wanted to ask you something.” Ashley pushed me towards him.

“No. I don’t.” I squealed.

“What is it?” He asked with a smug grin.

“Umm… I-I…" STOP STAMMERING BRAIN!!! "I-I was wondering…”

“Yes?”

Ashley was dying inside. You definitely needed to work on your communication skills.

“I-I…” She placed a hand on your shoulder. You took a deep breath. “I don’t know if you r-remember, b-but in… science class? Yeah! Science. We have a project together, and since Ashley is already not coming with me home today… I was wondering if maybe you… Wanted to have a coffee? To… Plan the project out! Of course!”

He had a smug grin on his face, but it softened into a smile and he nodded. “Of course, I would love to accompany this lovely damsel in distress…” He winked at you kissing your hand. You pulled it from him, there was a way that he talked that you had never noticed before. However, since you actually did have a project to do, you ignored it and gave him a smile.

“Alright! Well, I’ll wait for you outside. See ya! Yeah… Okay.”

You fled down the stairs and waited patiently for Malcolm to come by so you could start talking. However, you were unaware of the conversation that was going on back there. But Ashley wasn’t. She hid nearby, where she could hear the aftermath of your petition without the boys finding her spying on them.

“Dude! She is really cute.” Ashley heard Miles say.

“And nice, I have Spanish with her and she is always very proper and quick about her speaking. She is really cool.” Peter added.

“I don’t know. See, physically, she isn’t my cup of tea. Yeah?” Malcolm interrupted.

“But, you do know there is more to her than how she looks, right?” Miles questioned, worry in his voice. This was starting to unnerve Ashley. Few boys had ever made her feel a chill go down her spine like this guy. He looked pretty nice on the outside but in private… He didn’t seem that nice.

“Bah, I’ll see. I do have to do the project, so let’s see if she is any good.” He said as he walked out the doors. “And, remember I’m waiting for that science report.”

Ashley had heard enough. She was not gonna let this idiot take you home by any means. She dashed as quickly as she could down the stairs, near where you were furiously typing something on your phone.

“Hey! (Y/N)!”

“Gimme a second Ash, I can’t let myself forget this.” You typed a little more and then turned off your phone. “I suddenly got an idea for a new argument for my essay. I think I almost have the intro down, but I need the first transition and-” Ashley quickly pulled you aside, interrupting you. “H-Hey!”

“Sorry, but I don’t have much time. I don’t think you should go home with Malcolm.” She tried to warn you.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t think he is who he makes out to be.” She continued. “I think he is only going to take advantage of you!”

There was something deep inside you that had been telling you the same thing. But you wanted to believe otherwise.

“Alright, I’ll be careful Ash. Thank you for telling me.” You smiled.

“But… I don’t think you should be around him, I heard him back there, he-”

You interrupted her back. “I know you mean well. But I don’t want to live life thinking the worst of everyone. If he steps out of line, I’ll kick him straight in the groin.”

Ashley let out a nervous breathy laugh. “Just… Be careful, I don’t want you getting hurt-”

“Hey!” A male voice sounded behind you. “Ready to go home, princess?” Malcolm asked taking your hand and placing a kiss to it as he did before. Again, you pulled away. For some reason, that gesture unnerved you.

“Yeah…” You smiled awkwardly. “I’ll call you when I get home, okay Ash?”

“Yeah… Ok. See you (Y/N)” She said masking her worry with a winning smile and a flick of her hair as she walked away.

“So, lead the way.” The boy signalled for you to start walking and, with a timid smile, you started walking towards a coffee shop near your home.

It wasn’t anything unusual. He cracked a few jokes like he usually did in class. Offered to open the door for you when you got to the coffee shop. And although you bought your own drink, he insisted on getting you a snack.

“You can have whatever you’d like.” He smiled. You tried to reject his offering, but he wouldn’t have any of it. In the end, you just asked for a muffin.

He was actually really good at doing research, quickly flying through loads of information and sending them to you as you typed the essentials into the PowerPoint presentation.

“I just need to make it look pretty, but I’ll do it some other time.” You said while saving the presentation and snapping your computer closed. He did the same and got up, pulling your chair gently from behind you so you would stand up.

“Are you ready to go home, then?”

“Yeah, it’s not that far away from here, so I can go by myself.” You smiled while strapping your backpack.

“I don’t mind, I’ll go with you.” He insisted.

In the back of your mind, Ashley’s warning kept sounding off. But you decided that a little bit longer wouldn’t hurt. He had been very kind to you after all. Why not let him take you home? That sounded really nice.

Together you walked out of the quaint little coffee shop and started heading towards your apartment compound.

“So, I heard you were in the WRITE scholarship!” He smiled.

“Yeah… Wait. Who told you that?” Only your parents and Ashely knew. She wouldn’t have told him about it, right?

“I saw you taking out a paper in class, it had: WRITE ideas! Written in a corner.”

“O-Oh…” You blushed.

“I’m working on it myself. Coming along quite nicely. It’s going to be a short story, but I think I might turn it into something bigger later down the line.”

“If mine does any good, I may publish it. But, I don’t think people would want to read about it.”

“Oh! Really? Why would you say that?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s just… It may get a little controversial…” You hid your face.

“Ah. I see, one of my friends is also writing about something controversial. I’m not supposed to say, but being anti-gun control sounds pretty controversial to me.” He whispered in your direction mockingly.

You giggled at his tone. “Ah. Well, she has her beliefs. I think as long as she doesn’t try to use her essay to justify violence, it should be okay.”

“Are you anti-gun control?”

“No. I think people’s safety is way more important than things.” You honestly said. “But she can have her opinion. Honestly, that’s why we have superheroes, to protect us. That way people don’t need that many guns.”

“Yeah. I think I stan Stark the most.”

“Oh, and why?”

“Billionaire? The smartest guy on the planet? All the babes? He has everything.”

You cast your gaze to the ground. Your shoes suddenly being more interesting. 

“I mean. I think he is cool because he saves people. But he just has everything.” He finished

After what seemed an eternity you arrived at the entrance of your building.

“Thanks… For coming with me.” You muttered.

“Nah, no problem.” He smiled. “By the way, can I come in? I need to pee.”

You didn’t want to. You really didn’t want to. But you found yourself nodding and leading him inside your apartment.

“The bathroom is over there… Just- Quickly, my parents shouldn’t be long.”

He ran inside the bathroom, and you walked into the open kitchen. Getting a cutting board out, you started slicing some carrots and boiling some water to make some chicken and potatoes. Your dad’s favorite dish. You really wanted to surprise him, and in about two hours he would be home.

Okay, yeah. You had lied to Malcolm about your parents being home soon. But he was making you uncomfortable, every time you let your guard down you had felt him invade your personal space, maybe he was just trying to be charming, but you wanted him out of your house, quickly.

And then you felt two hands sneak through your waist.

The handle of your knife made contact with the side of his forehead. The hands released your waist, you turned to see Malcolm stumbling backwards. His hands holding his head as he tried to recover from your hit.

“You b*tch!”

You were left paralyzed.

“Take that back…” You mumbled. The words barely coming out of your mouth.

“What if I don’t? You hit me with the handle of a knife, you b*tch.”

You head went numb. Swirling thoughts repeating over and over your head. Your demons were hunting you again.

“Get out.” You said. But it was numbed. You couldn’t hear yourself. “Get out.” This time he flinched.

Although you felt numb you grabbed his backpack and threw it through your window. Not caring about where it fell.

“Get out.” You kept saying as you pushed him down the hall. His string of curse words only worsening while all you could say was: “Get out.”

You reached the street and you were still saying it. He hadn’t touched you anymore but he was screaming at your face. And suddenly all the noise came back, crushing you.

“GET OUT!!!” You heard yourself scream.

“I’m out already you piece of-” He was interrupted all of a sudden.

“Malcolm. Stop that!” Miles came out of nowhere and pulled him away from you.

“Get out!” Was your voice failing you? You swore your voice sounded hoarse.

Two pairs of hands held you in place. “I’m sorry (Y/N). I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone with him.” You heard Ashley say near you.

“Hey, she is really cold. Is she okay?” Another male voice sounded behind you.

You shied away from his touch and retreated straight into Ashley. You did your face in her shirt. Finally allowing your voice to rest. But you felt so weak, your legs felt like jelly and your chest hurt. A lot.

“Hey, you’re okay.” She soothed you. “We’re here. We’re going to take care of you.”

Ashley ran her hand through your hair, a gesture that slowly calmed you and allowed you to regain a level of consciousness.

When you felt better, you pushed away from her and gave her a weak thanks. Then turned to see a very worried looking Peter Parker next to you.

“ ’m sorry Pete… I didn’t mean to push ya away…” You said weakly. Your throat barely emitted any sound.

“No, it’s okay. You were upset by whatever Malcolm did, you needed some space.”

You looked around, he was gone. “Wher’ did he go?” You slurred, suddenly feeling your energy drain out of you.

“Miles pushed him away. Don’t worry, he isn’t gonna bother you anymore.”

You highly doubted that.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur. You didn’t remember entering your apartment again. Just the feeling of Ashley running her fingers through your hair, and the worried questions of Peter near you. Mumbles. That was all you could hear. No definitive words, no. Just mumbling going all around you.

When you came back to your senses it was about to be 5:30 pm. Ashley was heading out the door with Peter and Miles, saying goodbye to both of them.

“I’ll see you guys on Monday, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. If she needs anything you have my phone right?”

“Yeah, I got it. Thank you, boys.” She closed the door.

“Ash?”

She whipped around to see you lifting yourself up from the sofa. “Hey… How are you feeling?”

“Like I was hit by a truck.”

She chuckled. “I made you something. I can bring it if you’re hungry.”

“Nah. I’m good.”

“Mom was calling me. I have to go, but if you need anything please let me know.” She started heading out the door. “Love ya girl.”

“I love you too.” You smiled at your friend.

But as soon as she closed the door it vanished from your face. You felt empty. That was something that happened when you got too worked up about something. Mom had told you that it would fade over time, and both of your parents constantly apologized whenever it happened. That’s why you never told them when this happened anymore.

Dad would arrive any minute, so you dragged yourself from the couch and sat in front of your computer to try and squeeze something out of your brain.

Your research for WRITE was good. But the more you looked at it, the more holes you found.

Why did Loki really attack Earth? He had been here before, why hadn’t he done it a year prior?

Was his slip up with Agent Romanoff a mistake? He hadn’t spilt any kind of information before. Not about himself. Not about his plan. Afterwards, he hadn’t even been asked why he’d done it. There was no trace of any comments from him about his actions. 

You looked and looked and started breaking apart. This was never going to work. This was stupid. There was no way that anyone would believe your poorly researched essay. There were no official comments on the main perpetrator. And where would you get it?

They were right. All their words. You were useless. Stupid. You would never be enough, why couldn’t you just dissape-?

“CUPCAKE! I’M HOOOOOME!!!”

Ah… Dad…

“Cupcake?” He had opened the door. “How are you, sweetie?”

You turned around, in the darkness he couldn’t see your reddened eyes. “I’m good. Just finishing some homework.”

“That’s my girl. Hey, I gotta head for the night shift, but I’ll see you in the morning.” He headed towards you and kissed you on your forehead.

“I-I didn’t know you had a night shift today…”

“Yeah, I know I’m sorry. They need extra back up to supervise after Ultron’s attack.” His voice was apologetic. “I’m a sorry munchkin. I promise you I’ll here tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry. I know your job is important.” You smiled, even though you felt broken inside.

“Mom also has a night shift, but she couldn’t drop by to say goodnight.” He rolled his eyes. “You sure you’ll be okay on your own?”

“Yeah. I know the drill.”

“Goodnight munchkin.”

“Goodnight dad.”

You were all alone. He left. She didn’t even bother to check on you.

You walked up to your closet and pulled out a corkboard. Where for the last few months you had worked extensively in collecting research to figure out your thesis.

Pictures of security cameras. Documents. Transcriptions of recordings. Some were tied by a red cord. It looked like a detective trying to solve a case. And for a while, that’s what you thought you were. But as you looked through it, you found more wholes. Wherever you looked, the word failure just hammered in your head. 

The word he had called you today. That insulting and disgusting word. 

In your anger, you grabbed the board and knocked it over. Papers flew across the room. Strewn all around.

Sobs then proceeded to rack your body. There was no way you could do this. Who would listen to a 12-year-old anyways?

THE NEXT DAY

Neither of your parents arrived home in the morning.

New York seemed to match your mood since it was raining. It was definitely a lazy Saturday, so you decided to text Ashley that you were feeling better and that you’d see her on Monday. Then afterwards, you walked out, with your coat on and some money to spend it all in whatever you were craving for breakfast that day. 

You usually didn’t ask for much, so your parents were never angry at you when you spent just a little bit more for yourself.

Is not like you were going to order a bunch of expensive items. But you just went wherever your stomach led you.

You ended up in a bustling part of the city. Despite the rain, people walked by in a hassle. You approached a food car that had a small roof to protect yourself from the light rain that fell upon New York. 

“Hey, there sweetie. What would you like today?” The owner of the truck asked you kindly. 

You looked at the menu, the variety of options overwhelming you. “Well… What do you recommend?”

“Ah! I think the best food to have in weather like this, is the Chocolate waffle delight. With some hot cocoa? The perfect comfort food, missy.”

“Then I’ll try it.” You smiled at him. Did you really look that bad?

After paying you still stood under the roof as the rain lightened, turning into a drizzle. The waffle was honestly really good. It was crunchy outside, but soft inside. The chocolate dripping everywhere and the sugar topping it. The hot cocoa was good too, but you preferred your dad’s. It was creamier.

As you finished your breakfast you dedicated yourself to look around at the people who walked by. Couples walked arm in arm. Families held the children’s hands. People who walked on their own, seemed to go faster. All of them had somewhere to go.

But you, today, on a Saturday like this. Had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Wasn’t that just pathetic?

If the thing with Malcolm hadn’t happened you would probably be working around those holes for your scholarship. But you didn’t feel like writing anymore. There was no motivation coursing through you like it normally did. 

So you just stared.

And stared.

And stare- Wait, what?

A single person in the street stood out to you. What was he wearing?

You threw away the paper wrapper and cup of cocoa and said a hasty thank you and goodbye to the truck owner.

He was standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the crossing sign to change. And he stood out like a crown in a sea of parrots. Because yeah, New Yorkers are weird, but not that weird. Who wears a three-piece, all black, suit anyway?

You speed-walked through your pedestrian crossing, walking towards him. 

It can’t be. They took him back to Asgard. They would arrest him if he ever set foot back on earth. It can’t be him.

You racked your mind for an explanation, but the place where he had just walked out of sent you into a new form of confusion. Why would he be in an elder’s home?

You finally caught up to the man. However, an inner panic overtook you so you just stood awkwardly by his side, waiting for the pedestrian light to change.

Look towards me. Come on. Notice me. You hoped since you were definitely not just going to start a conversation with an unidentified criminal. No. That would be irresponsible of you.

You bounced on the ball of your feet and when the light changed, you followed him as inconspicuously as you could.

After a minute or two of quietly following him, you just thought that maybe you were following the wrong guy. Maybe your sight failed you. There was no way this was him. I mean, he would have the FBI, the CIA, the army and the Avengers on top of him just by setting foot on earth. Yeah, you just-

“Why are you following me?”

Oh no. It’s definitely him.

“Uh-Uh, excuse me?” You tried playing dumb.

He didn’t turn around, nor he stopped. So you didn’t either.

“You have been following me for some time. Please go, I’m not friendly with kids.” He dismissively stated.

“Wow. I guess I’m just some kid. I thought I wasn’t that forgettable.” You smirked, wondering if that would steer his brain.

He only stopped when the next pedestrian light turned red.

Still not looking at you, but with a furrowed brow, he asked: “Do I know you?”

“Yep. I guess I am pretty forgettable.” You shrugged, not meeting his side looks. “I guess sneaking past the security of the highest security vehicle in the world is quite dumb.”

Is he catching on? Am I pulling this off? Or do I just look like an idiot?

It took him a second of silence and starting to cross the street to suddenly whip around in the middle of the crossing and give you a look.

“You’re my cell buffoon.” He smirked.

You gasped, feigning hurt. “Excuse Y O U. I’ll let you know that I am so much more than "entertaining”.“

You both stood there, in the middle of the street, staring at each other for a while. 

"Well, this will be interesting then…” The smirk on his face told you one thing. This was just starting.