#OH and a canvas print of her

[dykesevika]

I’m actually fine with the complete lack of sevika merch/content because my possessive dyke ass cannot handle the thought of other people liking her, let alone owning something of her 😭

MEN DNI

[luveline]

hotch’s daughter and him looking thru baby n childhood pics n realizing just how much they missed angst (her missing out on having a present father n him missing out on raising her)

Aaron’s winded when he sees you that morning. You’re smiling, in sweatpants and a hoodie with a bag on your shoulder that promises an overnight stay, but what hits hardest is the way you light up when he opens the front door. He sees you coming through the window and can’t wait for you to knock. 

“Hey, honey, you’re early!” he says. 

“I know,” you say, stopping just a paving stone away, “but I got this magic jigsaw for Jack that I thought he’d like. Once you complete it you can move it around and create a new jigsaw in the middle.” You smile. “You look happy. Good breakfast?” 

“I’m happy to see you, that’s all.” 

You cross that last step. “Thanks, dad.” You bite your bottom lip, ever so slightly bashful. 

He literally couldn’t be happier. “Did you eat?” 

Aaron brings you inside. Jack is already awake and eating his second breakfast in a meandering picking by the TV. 

You love being a big sister. It’s all the more endearing. “Hey, babe. What are you upto?” you ask. 

Jack whirls and sends a couple of grapes flying. “Oh my gosh yes!” he says, to your laughter and Aaron’s disbelief. He races across the rug in a blur of blue pyjamas to wrap himself around your thighs, face pressed to your hip. “You’re here!” 

“We said Saturday sleepover, right?” 

You get down on your knees to hug him. Your arms around his back, your face to his, you aren’t as rough as you could be —how do sisters hug their brothers? Aaron doesn’t know. But you rub his back in a gentle up and down and lower your voice to say hello. “Hi, Jack. You’re happy to see me?” 

“I’m so happy.” 

“Me too, I’m so happy. I brought you something.” 

“A present?” Jack asks, leaning out of your arms. 

“Not really, it’s for me and you, but I brought you cookies too.” 

“Dad,” Jack says, “can we have some?” 

Aaron holds up a finger. One cookie is enough sugar for the morning. “We can have a couple more after dinner tonight, okay?” 

You take the cookies from your bag, a huge box of palm-sized cookies, chocolate chips shaped like stars, the best kind of indulgence from the bakery not far from here. Aaron catches a look at the inside of your bag, spying a slim white photo album against your weekly medication divider and the plastic wrapped jigsaw puzzle. 

“What’s the album?” he asks. 

“Oh.” You slide your thumb along the sticker that seals the cookies and crack them open for Jack to take his spoils. “They’re my baby photos.” 

He stills. “They are?” 

“And some of me growing up.” You tip your head at him and smile. A little shy, more happy. “I was thinking about Jack, how we both do that chokey laugh when we’re tired, and I wondered if we had any other similarities. And then I realised you’ve never actually seen any of my photos. Would you want to look at them?” 

“Please,” he says immediately. “Yes. I’d love to see them.” 

You lay the album out on the coffee table. Aaron sits beside you on the couch, and Jack sits on his feet, and together you look through your baby album one page at a time. At first, he’s quiet. He has no idea what to say. You are a beautiful kid, you’re perfect, little baby you with a pacifier on your tummy, or in the summer sun with mud on your little hands, wearing a pink dress with matching canvas shoes and a smile so wide he can see all your baby teeth, or sitting beside a fish tank with a party hat on. 

His favourite is a photograph of you that’s been printed oddly, more sepia than colour, where you look to be eight or nine years old. He can see everything in your adult face right there in ink, your smile, the trusting warmth in your eyes when you love the person it’s directed at. Maybe he’s full of himself, but he swears it’s his smile, and Jack’s smile. Hotchner through and through. 

“I wish I’d seen you in person,” he says quietly. “Just once.” 

You tease the photograph from the plastic sleeve and offer it to him. “Sorry.” 

He doesn’t want you to be sorry. Aaron takes the photograph and stares at it against his leg, your little face, your hands behind your back, your left knee wrapped in a bandage. “We missed out on so much,” he says softly. 

“I know.” 

He places the photo on the armrest, precious and needing a frame. You melt into his arm as he wraps it around your shoulder, and you let him kiss your temple, even if he doesn’t deserve to do it yet. He’s polite about it, he knows his sincerity might feel gratuitous to you —after all, he missed out on so much. But you don’t go rigid at his affection, you just breathe. 

“I would’ve loved to have seen it,” he says, too old for tears, and yet a warmth collects behind his eyes anyhow. He won’t cry, only the feeling is there and aching as you move back and give him a typical Hotchner smile. Like he’s being silly, and like you love him. 

“It’ll be okay,” you say, “you’ve got, what, a good ten years left? You can see my golden years.” 

He laughs suddenly. “Ten? How old do you think I am?” 

“You act like you’re nearing seventy.” 

“Oh, I do?” 

You roll your eyes and lean across the photo album for another cookie. “You do! I wish we didn’t have to wait so long to meet, but it’s not like I’m going anywhere. You won’t find me so charming in a few years, so don’t worry. Now, could you leave me and Jack alone for a bit? I’m trying to sneak him another cookie and you’re getting in the way.” 

Aaron hugs you whether you want him to or not, a tight squeeze that you always seem to enjoy, before doing as you’ve asked, promising to find the jigsaw board in the garage so you and Jack can start the newest one. 

“Did you miss him?” he hears Jack asks inexplicably. 

“Who, dad?” Aaron watches you from the door that leads into the garage. He can only see your hands from this angle, your left one landing on Jack’s shoulder for a small squeeze. “I missed him so much you couldn’t believe it.” 

“Thank you for the cookie.” 

“You’re welcome! I missed you too, you know? I have to make up for all my lost time being your big sister. Here, you can hide this one in your pocket, if you want. Just don’t forget it’s there.” 

[punkshort]

Swept Away | Epilogue: Smooth Sailing

Pairing: sugardaddy!Joel Miller x f!reader

Chapter Summary: Your new job at The Parador allows for some exciting perks.

Chapter Warnings: language, angry!joel, oral (m!receiving), smut (18+ MDNI), office sex, unprotected piv sex (reader has implant now as previously mentioned, we're safe), spanking, praise kink, mentions of substance abuse (not Joel or reader)

WC: 6.1K

Series Masterlist

Ten Months Later

It was still surreal sometimes to walk into an office with your name and Creative Lead printed on a nameplate next to your door, but after a handful of months, you were beginning to feel like less of an imposter.

Admittedly, it wasn't the type of job you had been applying for. You tried to use your experience as a production assistant to get your foot in the door with a talent agency, but you weren't having any luck. When Joel offered you the job in his marketing department, you didn't think you were qualified for it, but after discussing the duties with Caroline Harris, the creative director, you discovered your background would be well suited for the job. He must have known you would have instantly taken a liking to her because after a few more days of soul searching, you accepted the offer.

It felt strange in the beginning, and sometimes you still felt paranoid other employees were looking at you like you didn't deserve your success, but you felt confident all the hard work you did in the past several months spoke for itself.

And as it turned out, you were actually really fucking good at your job.

You left your office door cracked and set your things down on top of the chest of drawers behind your desk. Smoothing down your simple, grey dress that fell just above the knee, you sat down with a sigh in your leather chair and booted up your computer. While you waited for it to turn on, you sipped your coffee and glanced at your phone.

Zoe: Remember to call me later, I have news! I'm dating someone new!

You grinned and tapped out a quick response, promising to call before it got too late on the East Coast. Zoe never found out the truth about you and Joel, but you figured by now it didn't matter much. As far as she knew, you were still planning the "wedding", but it was just delayed until the hotel was built in Fiji, meaning you had a decent chunk of time to come up with another cover.

You saw a flash on your computer screen, indicating the monitor was up and running, so you placed your phone down to type in your password, then gasped excitedly when you were reminded of a Zoom call you had scheduled with Ellie.

Even though hiring Ellie wasn't technically your idea, Joel told Caroline it was because as he had told you at the time, he wouldn't have given her a second thought had you not been so taken with her work. So Caroline put you in charge of overseeing her progress, as well as a few other things for the new hotel.

It had been almost a month since you last spoke to Ellie and you were thrilled to get an update. The little video popped up, briefly displaying her name before she turned her camera on. You grinned from ear to ear when you finally saw her, specks of paint adorning her face and hair.

"How are you still up? Isn't it, like, three in the morning?" you asked.

"Yeah, but you know I do all my best work at night," Ellie replied before flipping the camera around so you could see her studio. There were a few drop cloths down, splashed with all sorts of colors of paint, and about six easels, all of which held paintings in different stages.

"Don't look at those yet, they aren't done," she said, and you laughed.

"You're the one in control of the camera, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled. You could hear her converse sneakers scuffing along the canvas drop cloth while she took you across the room. She flicked on a light and you gasped at the shock of color.

"Oh, my god!" you exclaimed.

"Man, I was feeling so inspired last week, I just couldn't stop. We had a little tropical storm blow through and it just created all these beautiful scenes. Like, beauty amongst the wreckage, you know?" Ellie was saying as she slowly walked around the room, panning the camera to each painting so you could get a good look.

"Oh, wow. Ellie... these are stunning. You've made such incredible progress, I'm so impressed!"

She finished her lap around the room and there was a pause in the video before her face returned to the screen.

"Yeah, thanks. It's going really well. You know how nervous I was in the beginning, I didn't think I would be able to make the amount of paintings you were looking for, but at this rate I think I'll have them done ahead of schedule."

"Well, I always knew you could do it. You're so talented and you see things in such a different way than everyone else. I swear, your work is going to make the hotel really stand out," you gushed before taking a long sip of coffee.

"You gotta thank Joel again for me," Ellie said, flicking off the light and heading back into the main part of her studio. "The amount of money he's paying me is keeping my bills paid so I can focus entirely on this."

"I will. I'm sure I'll see him later this afternoon. He'll be so happy to hear about all your progress."

"I'll take a few pictures and text them to you before I go to bed. That way, he can see for himself," she promised.

"That sounds perfect. Is there anything else you need? How's Dina?"

You spent the rest of your thirty minutes catching up with her about her girlfriend, laughing as she told you how Dina finally wore her down and they adopted a cat. Just as she was telling you how the cat stepped in some paint and walked across one of her paintings, she yawned.

"Go get some sleep. We'll touch base again next month but in the meantime, if anything comes up, you know how to reach me."

She gave you a little wave before ending the call and you sat back in your chair, your office filled with silence once again.

The rest of your morning was spent reviewing potential candidates for a pianist position in the hotel lobby. On one screen you had a video of a candidate playing and on the other, their resume and list of references. All of them were natives from Fiji, just like Joel had promised Glenn.

By noon, you had whittled down the candidates to your top five. You were making a little pile with your notes written on bright pink post-it's when you heard a gentle knock on your door.

"Come in," you answered distractedly.

"Hey... busy?" Liam said. You looked up and smiled before shaking your head and offering him a seat.

"Just getting some resumes ready for the pianist job. I have to set up some interviews after lunch. What's up?"

Liam sighed dramatically and collapsed into a chair.

"Your boyfriend is on a tear today, I needed a break," he said, curling his fingers into a loose fist so he could examine his cuticles.

"Why? What's going on?" you asked, setting down your pen, curiosity piqued.

"Well... first, Jack kicked his ass during his boxing lesson, which he always fucking hates," Liam said with a roll of his eyes. "Then he found out there was a delay in shipping the marble flooring, but I told him that shit's coming from Italy and it's custom!"

"He really hates when there's any delays in construction," you said, wrinkling your nose. You had seen your fair share of his outbursts over the past few months as the hotel in Fiji slowly became a reality. Joel always said, Time is money, baby. The longer this takes, the less money I make.

"Then Tommy called to tell him some wood or... something... got damaged in a storm they had down there recently, so now he's waiting on another shipment from the states."

You buried your face in your hands at that point, knowing exactly the type of mood Joel was in just one floor above you. On one hand, you were always thrilled whenever Joel and Tommy spoke after they finally hashed things out and made amends six months ago. But on the other, you would have much preferred Tommy call with an update about his wife, Maria, or TJ, their son.

"And about ten minutes ago, Chrissy spilled his coffee," Liam finished, dropping his hand to his lap and crossing his legs. "Only saving grace was she spilled it on the floor and not on him."

You cringed when you imagined how stressed out poor Chrissy must have been in that moment. She was a trooper, you had to hand it to her. She had been Joel's secretary for almost three years and every time you saw her she looked more meek and frightened than the last time.

"So, what you're saying is I should surprise him and take him out to lunch."

Liam's face broke out with a huge grin and he lightly clapped his hands.

"Would you mind? I think it would really help. He's always so much easier to handle after he sees you." He was really laying it on thick now and you knew it.

"I already agreed, you can drop it," you laughed, locking your computer and grabbing your purse.

"It's not an act," Liam said, following you out the door towards the elevator. The floor was quiet, most employees likely out to eat already. "I mean, yeah, maybe sometimes I try to flatter you into helping us out, but I'm serious. It's like you're chamomile tea on legs."

You arched an eyebrow at him when the elevator doors slid open. "Chamomile tea?"

"Is a tranquilizer dart better? Or lion tamer?"

You pursed your lips, thinking it over when you pressed the button to his floor. "Yeah. I like lion tamer."

Liam laughed and pulled out his phone to check his texts.

"This is perfect timing. He's about to wrap up a meeting and he doesn't have another one until two." Liam slid his phone back into his pocket and gave you a pleading look. "Please feel free to take your time."

"Oh, come on! He can't be that bad," you said with a hand on your hip. The doors opened up and let you out onto the executive floor, on the opposite side of the building from Joel's office, which is why it was so impressive you could hear him shouting from where you stood.

"Is the door open?" you asked quietly.

"Nope," Liam replied, giving you a look that said I told you so.

You swallowed nervously then lifted your chin with confidence as you made your way past the conference room towards his office. When Chrissy spotted you, she practically jumped out of her chair.

"Oh, my god, thank you," she whispered, her curly brown hair bouncing across her forehead with every step she took. She clasped her hands together and held them tightly against her chest.

"Don't thank me yet, I haven't done anything," you replied, but gave her a reassuring smile anyway. "Why don't you guys go to lunch? I'll take it from here."

The speed in which they tore out of the office was Olympic level.

You perched on the edge of Chrissy's desk as you waited for Joel's meeting to be over. Through the door, you could hear some voices through his phone, as well, one of which you recognized as the project manager for the hotel in Fiji. You looked down at your hands, ignoring the raised voices in the next room, and stared down at the huge diamond ring on your right hand. Splaying your fingers wide, you admired the way the light caught the little facets of the diamond, smiling a little when you saw rainbow flecks dot the walls of the mostly empty floor.

Ages ago, Joel had asked you to keep the ring he got you to use in Fiji. You nearly had a heart attack until he realized how it looked and he nervously clarified he wasn't asking you to marry him, just that he felt the ring was always yours and he couldn't bring himself to return it, so he bought it.

You smiled to yourself when you thought back on that day. It was just after he finally said I love you for the first time. It was a little ridiculous to think he would be asking you to marry him when it took him months to say those three words, but your heart still skipped a beat in that half a second of confusion.

After your pulse slowed, you accepted it with an awkward laugh, putting it on your right hand where it had remained ever since. You knew there was no use arguing with him about gifts and money anymore. When he bought you something, he was relentless until you took it.

Actually, you've grown to kind of like it.

Or, maybe you just liked the idea of Joel thinking about you when you weren't around.

Through the door, you heard the phone call cut with a terse farewell and then, the tell-tale rustle of men's dress pants with the clearing of throats. One man was still talking, his voice forcibly calm as he assured Joel that he would get back to him by the end of the day with the correct numbers on some payroll report, and then the door swung open. Men poured out, some hurrying past you without even realizing you were there, their faces red and their jaws clenched. The ones that did notice you gave a quick nod of acknowledgement before hurrying away, as if they were afraid Joel would remember he had one or two more biting comments and call them back in.

When the last of the men filed out, you heard Joel bark, "Shut the door," and then the creak of his leather chair under his weight. A man you vaguely recognized pulled the door shut behind him before spotting you. He was frazzled and exhausted when he exhaled and loosened his tie.

"Good luck," he said, and you laughed softly. You watched as the last of the men filed towards the elevators, their padfolios and phones overflowing in their hands as they shuffled onto the car and disappeared behind the closed doors.

The floor was quiet now. Joel's office was the only one with a light on.

Biting back a smirk, you pushed off Chrissy's desk and straightened your dress before rapping your knuckles on his door.

"What the fuck now?" came Joel's sharp voice from the other side. You pushed the door open and crossed your arms, waiting until he dragged his gaze up from his desk. When he realized it was you, his expression instantly softened and he stood.

"Sorry," he grumbled.

"It's okay," you replied, stepping inside the room, shutting the door behind you. Joel rounded the desk and raked his fingers through his hair. You bit your lower lip, gaze quickly drifting down his broad frame. He was wearing a white dress shirt with his dark grey suit, the coat abandoned over the back of his chair. It was the first time you had seen him since you left him asleep in bed early that morning.

"What's goin' on, baby?" he asked as he crossed the room to pour himself a drink. You made a face at the amber liquid and he swiveled around, raising the glass of whiskey in your direction.

"Want one?"

"No, Joel. It's barely noon. I came to see if you wanted to get lunch, but I'm guessing today's not the best day," you said, closing the distance between you to smooth down the front of his shirt with your palms. He lifted the glass to his lips and tossed the drink back in one go before setting it down on the bar and wrapping his big hands around yours, pressing them firmly to his chest.

"'M sorry, not havin' a great day."

"I can tell."

"You hear all that?" he murmured, bringing one of your hands up to his mouth. His lips brushed over your knuckles as he gazed at you through tired, heavy eyes and you smiled. Moments ago, those eyes were firey and filled with rage.

But not when he looked at you.

"Some of it," you admitted. "What's wrong?"

Joel exhaled through his nose and dropped his hands to your hips, giving them a little squeeze and pulling you closer. "You weren't there when I woke up this mornin'."

You rolled your eyes playfully at him and he gently pinched your side.

"I told you I had to get up early so I could get ready for work-"

"'N I told you to bring your stuff over last night," he countered.

"Joel, I hadn't been home in days. I needed to make sure the place was still standing and water my plants."

Then, he said something that sent shockwaves through your whole body.

"Just move in with me, then it ain't a problem anymore."

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise and you forgot to breathe for a moment.

"What?" you asked breathlessly. But Joel just shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Move in with me," he repeated. "Plants, too."

"Y-you... you want me to move in with you? Like, permanently?" you repeated in disbelief. Joel smirked down at you and nodded.

"Yeah, like, permanently. The hell you think I mean? Get rid of that place, you know I don't like that neighborhood," he said, then lifted his chin when he heard his email program chime somewhere behind you.

"Joel... are you sure? That's a big step for you," you replied, feeling completely knocked sideways by his blunt request. Sure, he had the room. His house was the closest you'd ever come to being inside a mansion. Hell, to you it was a mansion. Six bedrooms and four bathrooms with an in-ground pool, tennis court, steam room and gym was only ever something you'd seen on television. But living in Los Angeles told you there were plenty of houses three times the size of his.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I want you with me all the time," he said, kissing your cheek before leaving you by the bar so he could check his email.

"My stuff, too? I can't imagine my shitty television in your house," you joked. Joel just nodded, his eyes pinned to his computer screen.

"Your stuff, too. I want all a'you. Even your coffee pot."

Joel collapsed angrily into his high back chair to answer the email while you sneakily slid back to the door, quietly flicking the lock before slowly walking towards his desk. You knew most people were at lunch, but you still didn't want to risk it for what you had in mind.

"Okay," you said softly, hip pressing against the hard wood, fingers nervously digging into the complex design carved into the edge.

"Okay, what?" he murmured, focus still fixed on the email. You watched his scowl deepen the more he read and you knew he was slipping back into that mood you found him in earlier.

"Okay... I'll move in with you."

His eyes snapped up to yours and for a moment, the scowl smoothed out into a pleased grin.

"Good. Start packin' tonight. Don't wanna be wakin' up anymore without you," he said, then his eyes dropped back down to his email. "Messes up my whole day when I do."

You giggled and rounded the desk, intentionally slotting yourself between his eyes and the computer.

"Is that why you're up here screaming at everyone? 'Cause you woke up without your sugar baby?"

Joel leaned back in his chair and narrowed his eyes at you.

"Quit it. You ain't a sugar baby."

"Didn't answer my question."

Joel laced his fingers together and dropped them in his lap with a sigh. "Sure didn't help."

You gave him a fake pout and leaned forward, hands bracing yourself on each arm of his chair. "I'm so sorry," you whispered, mouth hovering over his as you spoke. You could see his muscles tighten under his shirt when he heard the seductive tone in your voice. "Want me to suck your dick and make it all better?"

The corner of his mouth tugged into a devilish half-smirk, email long forgotten.

"Feels like it's the least you could do," he replied, his voice deep and gravelly. It sent a shiver down your spine and you grinned.

"The least I could do? What else do you want?" you asked before allowing your lips to brush delicately over his. You could taste the whiskey there and you licked your lips.

"Wanna bend you over this desk and fuck you. Hard."

A soft moan slipped past your lips right before his mouth crashed into yours. His tongue opened your mouth, licking feverishly past your teeth, giving you a stronger taste of the whiskey and mint from the gum he was likely chewing in anger during the meeting.

"I think that can be arranged," you gasped when you pulled away from his kiss. His dark eyes lit up when you sunk to your knees, his legs spreading wider when you began to unbuckle his belt. Two fingers rubbed against his lips, hiding his smile while he watched you pop the button on his slacks and slowly work the zipper down.

Your heart was beating wildly in your chest when you dipped your fingers past his waistband and felt the stiffness of his cock hiding just underneath a thin layer of fabric. Your eyes flickered up to meet his and with a sly smile, you said, "Hard already?"

Joel shrugged with a shit-eating grin.

"Been hard since you walked in the goddamn room, baby."

You bit back a smile, chest bursting with pride and, yeah, it turned you on to be the one who made this big, scary man all soft and weak. Rubbing your thighs together, you inched forward to gently pull his stiff cock over the top of his underwear.

You tutted under your breath and frowned, both of you watching your hand slowly slide up and down his shaft.

"Poor thing," you murmured, smiling when you heard his breath stutter after your thumb swiped over the bead of arousal pooling at the tip. "Look at you. All worked up and angry the whole morning when all you needed to do was call me. I would've come up to help you."

Joel gasped, fingernails digging into the padded leather armrests when he felt your fingers tighten around him.

"Then fuckin'... goddamnit - fuckin' help me now. C'mon, quit teasin' me and suck it," he commanded through clenched teeth.

You raised an eyebrow at him and your hand paused.

"Say please."

"Please," he whined without hesitation. The sound made you weak, eyelids fluttering for a second before you shook it off and met his gaze again.

"Good boy."

He smirked down at you, some snappy response on the tip of his tongue but it disappeared when your wet lips wrapped around him, tongue darting forward to flick teasingly at his slit, all while maintaining eye contact.

"Oh, fuck," he groaned, allowing his eyes to close and his head to tip back when you took him deeper into your mouth. Before he reached the back of your throat, you swirled your tongue around his girth, moaning when you tasted a new drop of precum.

"Yeah, baby, just like that," he murmured when his hand found a new home on the back of your head. Carefully, he urged you down, hissing when you hollowed your cheeks and took him as deep as you could handle. Joel forced his eyes to open so he could admire the pretty little mess he made of you. Your lips were swollen and wet, stretched wide over his considerable length while you focused on keeping your breath steady and your gag reflex in check.

He could have came from the sight alone.

You pulled back with a gasp, saliva pooling around the corners of your mouth as you dragged in deep lungfuls of air. Your hand picked up where your mouth left off, twisting your wrist and spreading the wetness up and down his shaft as you caught your breath for a second.

"You taste so good, Joel," you whispered, locking eyes with him again. "Might just have you come down my throat, instead."

Before he could answer, your lips were wrapped around him again, sucking and moaning around his cock like it was the sweetest thing in the world.

"No," he rasped, fingers tightening their hold in your hair. "Wanna - fuck you," he added with a deep groan. Even though he knew he shouldn't, he let you keep going, his hips involuntarily bucking up towards your mouth as he spoke.

Right when you began to get carried away, your head bobbing faster and your wrist flicking quicker, he yanked you off with a shared gasp.

"Sorry," he apologized, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment before reopening them. "Too close."

You stood up, thumb swiping your lower lip with a cocky grin. Then, Joel watched as you shimmied out of your panties, dropping them in his lap before hiking up the skirt of your dress to your mid-thigh.

"Whenever you're ready, sir."

He chuckled darkly and stood, thighs trembling for just a quick moment before he swiveled a finger in the air.

"Turn 'round."

You did as you were told, palms pressed flat against the top of his desk, tilting your hips back so your ass jutted out, just barely covered by your dress.

With one hand he pulled the material up, exposing you to the tinted windows behind him. His other hand came down with a sharp smack across your skin, the action so fast and unexpected that it took you a few seconds to register it.

"Again," you whispered over your shoulder, this time bracing for the hot sting of pain across your ass. When he gave it to you, you moaned, arousal pulling tight between your legs, then you dropped your head limply between your shoulders as the pain blossomed into pleasure.

"That's my girl," he growled in your ear. His knee pushed your legs open and you held your breath when he leaned back to slide his cock through your folds before lining himself up at your opening.

"Breathe, baby," he whispered, and you let out a shaky breath right as he pushed inside.

"Shit," you panted, arching your back and digging your fingers into the dark wood of his desk while he continued to ease inside of you, muscles only relaxing when he finally buried himself to the hilt and his lips returned to the shell of your ear.

It wasn't the first time he fucked you in his office. In fact, both of you were very eager to take advantage of the new situation only a week into the start of your job. But it didn't matter how many times you'd done it because it was still always a thrill. There was something incredibly hot about this powerful man fucking you on his desk. Or his couch. Or his chair.

Or one time on the conference room table long after close of business.

Joel set a quick pace right away, knowing full well your time was limited before people began to return from lunch and inevitably came looking for him. One hand remained firmly on your hip while the other drifted up to squeeze your breast through your dress, fingers giving your nipple a little pinch just so he could hear you whimper for him.

"Always ready for me, ain't you?" he groaned, teeth grazing over your earlobe. His breath was shallow, soft pants against your skin matching the rhythm of his hips. "Christ, baby. So fuckin' wet. You love takin' my cock like this, huh? Or was it me askin' you to move in that did it?"

"Both," you moaned, tossing your head back to rest on his shoulder, eyes gliding shut and mouth falling open as you focused on the intense pace he set. The tip of his cock brushed steadily against that spot inside you that had your knees going weak and you could feel that warmth in your stomach turning into fire the harder he fucked you.

Joel's eyes lifted to glance at his door when he heard the faint sound of voices filing off the elevator. Lunch hour was wrapping up, and so was your time. He clenched his jaw and pounded into you faster, the telltale sound of skin slapping against skin the only noise echoing in the room.

"I... locked it," you gasped, falling forward onto your elbows, hips sparking with pain against the hard wood of his desk. He grinned and straightened his spine, watching the way your ass rippled against him every time he slammed into you.

"Good. 'Cause no one gets to see you like this 'cept for me."

You nodded dumbly, unable to form words as your orgasm began to swell, threatening to destroy you. Your pussy started to pulse around him, stars littering your vision and you slapped your palm over your mouth to muffle the sound when you came.

"Oh, fuck yeah," he groaned, hips losing rhythm. Breath growing sharp. Fingers digging deep and eyes rolling to the back of his head. You whimpered when he pounded into you one last time, stilling as he pumped you full of his release, broken moans tumbling from his lips until he was spent.

Almost immediately, his arms wrapped around you, pulling you up and pressing you protectively against his chest.

"You okay?"

"Mhm," you hummed, admittedly still in a bit of a daze but you were starting to snap out of it. His ragged breath in your ear was all you could hear, his pounding heart against your back all you could feel, and it was enough.

Without warning, he slipped out of you, but kept his arms circled around your front, pressing sweet kisses behind your ear and down your neck. You melted into him, knowing how much he enjoyed holding you after, at least until he caught his breath and came back down to earth.

"I love you."

Those three words still managed to send a tingle down your spine and brought a lazy smile to your face.

"I love you, too," you whispered, twisting your neck so your mouth could seek out his. His beard was untamed and prickly against your lips, tickling you and making you giggle.

"C'mon, get yourself decent," he teased with a playful grin and a smack against your thigh. He stepped backwards to fix his clothes while you swiveled back and forth, searching the ground for your panties.

"Lookin' for these?" he asked, holding them up between two fingers when you turned around. You reached out to grab them but he pulled them back, shoving them in his pocket before tucking in his shirt.

"You're gonna make me walk around the rest of the day without underwear? With your come dripping out of me?" you asked. You already resigned yourself to your fate and pulled down the skirt of your dress.

Joel pinched your chin and pressed a quick kiss against your lips.

"Yep. Just the way I like you."

"Dirty man."

"Just the way you like me," he laughed, dodging your hand when you reached out to smack him against the arm.

You opened your mouth to say something back when his desk phone chimed and the red light in the corner lit up. Joel finished buckling his belt and glanced up at you to make sure you had fixed yourself before pressing the intercom button.

"Yeah?"

Chrissy's nervous voice filtered through the speaker.

"Mr. Miller, just confirming your dinner reservation for tonight. Still expecting three people?"

"Yep," he replied, then thought about it for a quick second before pressing the button again. "Thanks, Chrissy. Why don't you take off early, after my two o'clock?"

You grinned, practically sensing her shock through the wall as you sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

"Uh... okay. T-thank you so much!"

"No problem," he said, then the red light turned off and he slumped down tiredly into his leather desk chair.

"Where are we going tonight?" you asked, crossing one leg over the other while you watched him shake his computer mouse back to life.

"Sarah picked this time. Some Mexican spot she wanted to try," he murmured, already fixating on an email in front of him. After some encouragement on your end, Joel had reached out to Sarah around the same time he called Tommy for the first time in years. While things had been rocky and awkward at first, it got easier over time. Eventually, they committed to dinners every other week, and after maybe the fourth one, Sarah had asked to meet you.

You were nervous leading up to it, but the moment you met you knew you'd get along. She was smart, beautiful, funny and had the same smile as her dad. She told you both a little bit about high school but preferred to talk about her soccer team or the play she was trying out for.

She didn't mention her mom much, and you didn't want to pry. From what Joel had mentioned, her mother ended up having some substance abuse issues in the past, which caused a strain on her relationship with Sarah. He felt horrible when he found out, told you that he felt like he should have been involved more to protect her, but you reminded him that he was there for her now and that you were proud of him for stepping up.

Despite it all, Sarah was a great kid. Every time you saw her, she opened up a bit more, smiled wider and laughed louder. After your dinners together, you could see the change in Joel: he was happier, too.

"Sounds good. I like Mexican," you said, fidgeting with your ring while Joel quietly replied to an email. The scowl was gone, his shoulders were looser and there were no more angry taps on the keyboard.

You opened your mouth to announce you should get back to work when he suddenly spoke.

"Why're you wearin' the ring on your right hand?"

Your eyes flickered up to his face but he looked like he was still absorbed in an email.

"This ring?" you asked, holding up your hand. It was the only ring you wore but you didn't know what else to say. You'd been wearing it on your right hand for months and he never said a word.

"Yeah. You wore it on your other hand in Fiji," he said, tearing his eyes away from the computer to look at you.

You stood up from your seat and gave him a curious look. "We were pretending to be engaged then, if you recall. We're not engaged now."

Joel smirked, the corners of his mouth dipping down when he shrugged, then stood to walk you to the door.

"Huh. Suppose you're right. Someone oughta do somethin' 'bout that."

You threw your head back and laughed before coming to a stop at his door and turning around.

"You just asked me to move in with you. What happened to the commitment-phobe I fell in love with?"

He grinned and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you close so he could press a gentle kiss against your lips.

"You're right. I'll wait a week," he joked, then gave your ass a little tap before opening his door for you. "Thanks for lunch," he added as you walked past Chrissy, who was mid-whisper to Liam, no doubt telling him about Joel's sudden burst of generosity. You gave them both a little wave and tossed a wink over your shoulder at Joel leaning against his doorway, hands shoved in his pants pockets with a sly smirk on his face after his fingertips grazed the wet fabric shoved in there.

"See you tonight."

"Can't wait," he said, watching you disappear around the corner towards the elevator bank.

"So, you ate?" Liam confirmed, holding a leather bound journal and pen in his hand as he approached Joel. Even though the answer was no, he still nodded in response. "Good, because I have a couple things," he continued after clearing his throat. "Ellie's painting arrived yesterday, I'm having it gift wrapped right now. I got a call back from the guy who's renting you the yacht. He's good for Saturday. The captain and crew know the deal, too. Drop the anchor, make the food, pour the champagne, and disappear after dinner's cleared up. They have a little boat they can take back to land so the yacht's all yours til morning."

A slow smile stretched across his face and he looked down the hall again, towards the elevator bank.

"Reschedule it for next week. I made a promise."

Please follow @punkshort-notifs and turn on notifications for fic updates ❤️

[bth3cowboi]

paint me in lovely red, mv1xreader

masterlist

pairing: max verstappen x artist!reader

summary: a tiny slip can make your most beautiful secrets public. Sometimes the slip comes in the form of a painting, sometimes the secret is a relationship with a world champion.

format: social media au

a/n: all paintings used here were made by Malcolm Liepke! Part 1/?

( instagram )

verstappen1updates

liked by fanuser and 500,233 others

verstappen1updates Max just admitted that he’s in a relationship on stream! Transcript of the clip for those asking:

G: Max, they’re asking about the new painting in the background. I haven’t seen it before either.

M: Ah yes, that was a gift for the championship win from- [Stops to keep driving]. Well, my girlfriend really.

G: [Laughs] That’s cute, she’s great at painting. Oh- they’re surprised now- [Laughs] about your girl.

M: Ah- We just like to keep to ourselves, mate.

see all comments

user1 YO WHAT???

user2 and just like that we’ve lost him🥲

user3 u don’t know that man

user2 a girl can dream…

user4 sooo whos the girl?? I want to know noww

user5 a whole picture of his winning car??? she must be HOOKED

user6 after that season i cant blame her

( twitter )

( instagram )

yourusername

liked by maxverstappen1 and others

yourusername Spring is coming so new prints are out on my online shop!! Make sure to check them out💛🧡🍋

From the vault: “my yellow mirror II”, oil on canvas, 18x24. Also: my bike, me.

see all comments

user1 I just came expecting more Max honestly

user2 SAME

user3 the only thing interesting on this page

user4 ok seeing her now I get why Max let her paint him like that😂 shes cute

user5 paint me like one of your french girls- max, probably

yourfriend beautiful as always Yn🥹🫶 only focus on that

liked by yourusername and maxverstappen1

yourusername thanks bby🫶

user6 oh girl stop being so dramaticcc

user7 drop the painting of the car instead, this is boring

user8 i get it know, date rich so you can afford to do your silly paintings🤯

maxverstappen1 just lovely

this comment has been deleted

comments on this post have been disabled

( messages )

( instagram )

inthef1paddock

liked by fanuser and 876.334 others

inthef1paddock Max Verstappen and girlfriend Yn Ln caught together after she arrived to Melbourne for the Australian GP.

The driver had to ask through his instagram stories for fans to respect their privacy and Yn’s career after people flooded her social media with disrepectful comments, he did so by posting this selfie.

Mean comments will be deleted.❤️

see all comments

user1 People are so rude, its obvious they love each other

user2 Oh that hug🥹 what a lucky girl

user3 Did you see the video? He RAN to her, shes blessed

user4 idk she still seems weird…

lando.jpg

liked by yourusername, danielricciardo and 698.442 others

lando.jpg 🇦🇺 nights

tagged charlesleclerc, maxverstappen1 and yourusername;

see all comments

user1 last photo made me SCREAM, MAX???

user2 Lando is so crazy for this lol

user3 From Charles dropping it low to a hard launch he knows his public

charles_leclerc 😎😎

yourusername 🕺🕺📸📸

charles_leclerc You mean 💋💋📸📸?

maxverstappen1 Lando wont post those because he is lonely and he will cry

landonorris mate thats not true

yourusername its ok to be single lando we dont care you cried to our happy photos

landonorris I did NOT cry 🤢 you guys made me sickkkkk

charles_leclerc sick to tears

maxverstappen1 😂😂

landonorris Stoppp

landonorris Dont know what its worse, the kissy photos or the porn paintings

yourusername not porn🖕

maxverstappen1 Dont be rude🖕

yourusername I will paint you crying now idc you crybaby

landonorris Sure😂

charlesleclerc Famous last words

user4 its ok Lando I will take 💋 pictures with you

user5 me toooo, I volunteer 🤩

maxverstappen1 Please send me the rest of Yn’s photos👍

liked by landonorris and 5021 others

user6 oh wow i get lando now this is so sweet its sick😭

yourusername

liked by maxverstappen1, charlesleclerc and others

yourusername “Lando Norris, the crybaby”, oil on canvas, 24x30.

Prints will be available online soon🧡

see all comments

user1 Oh she ate this one up😭😭

landonorris NO YN

landonorris YN THIS IS SO MEAN

landonorris why would you do this😭😭 I didnt think you were serious

yourusername See, crybaby

carlossainz55 Dont worry Landito you dont look too bad

landonorris 😭😭😭

user3 LMFAO THIS IS SO FUNNY

user2 the devil work fast, but yn works faster

danielricciardo Jesus how much for this one, I will give ANYTHING

charlesleclerc No man ask for your own, this one is mine

maxverstappen1 This is not leaving my house👍 good luck

charles_leclerc WHAT? NOT FAIR, YN I WILL PAY TOO MUCH

danielricciardo Whatever he pays I will give double

yourusername Sorry its been bought already

charles_leclerc ???

mclaren Thank you Yn, this will look great in our hall 🧡🧡

yourusername 🧡🫶

landonorris WHAT

charles_leclerc oh my god

landonorris NO WAY

user4 SOLD TO MCLAREN? this is a fever dream

user5 I, too, want a portrait of me kissing max verstappen

user6 I respect Yn so much, cause she went from making tittie art of her bf to paint their friend crying while they makeout in the background

maxverstappen1 Lovely😂

maxverstappen1 Can I request one but without the crybaby?

yourusername I have a few already 🤔 whats one moree

user7 DROP THEM, I KNOW YOU HAVE THE HOT ONES TOO

charles_leclerc Dont drop them please think of the children

yourusername wow youre so boring

maxverstappen1 Make fun of him on a painting for that baby

danielricciardo I will pay for that one this time

charles_leclerc God no have mercy

yourusername dont worry i wont do that, being a ferrari driver is punishment enough

charles_leclerc 😐

landonorris LOL DESERVED

maxverstappen1 Love you my Yn❤️❤️

yourusername love you too🥹🥹

——

a/n: Thank you for reading!!! I might do a second part to this fic, I think there is so much more to do with the plot so if anyone is interesed make sure to stick around❤️🥹 My inbox is now open if anyone has suggestions or ideas they want to se me writw!

[lonelysheepling]

Recently read @queenofthequillandink ’s DPxDC crossover fic Unearthed, Reborn

I got inspired to draw character sheets for Danny, Sam, Jason, and Jazz’s vigilante personas. Here’s a link to the author’s drawings of their outfits (these were a vital reference for me when doing this so thank you so much for sharing them Quill) More commentary (like 7+ paragraphs plus 2 images) about this project and the designs below the “keep reading” line.

None of these thoughts I have for each character are in order, but I have a lot of commentary for these since this project was a lot more conceptual than my normal work. I also just like talking about my art/design process. If you ever find yourself wondering at some point why an element from the original design wasn’t included, the answer is that the removal was completely intentional and part of my grandmaster vision for this work and wasn’t because I just forgot about it entirely during the design process.

————————————————————————

Aconite (Sam)

This was the first one I sketched out, I wasn’t even sure at the time if I was going to fully commit to drawing all of them. I thought that Sam was gonna be the hardest since her description was way longer than the others, but then bird boy beat her out. I took a lot of creative liberties with her design, the bag was added bc I couldn’t figure out how to add pockets to the skirt. I was trying to avoid a joker color scheme so I had a lot of ref images that I got by searching like “purple green aesthetic” on Pinterest. The dark purple and dark forest/blueish green won out in the end. I desaturated a lot of my colors for her just to get as far away from the neon Gotham rogue aesthetic. I also added the bdsm harness over the armor to add more punk elements to her design, I know that in real life that would be very uncomfortable to wear over scalemail armor but sometimes we take creative liberties when they look sick as fuck. Also, I didn’t realize until I went to look for a reference for aconite flowers that aconite is wolfsbane! That was neat to learn! Also, the font I used for Aconite is called “zai Art School Calendar 1931”, I’ve used this a few times for other projects, it’s one of my favorite fonts. The ‘zai’ fonts the creator has are all very good.

Shade (Danny)

There wasn't much to add to this page. His outfit is pretty simple (besides the patterning). I wasn’t sure how to pull of an optical illusion pattern but I was reminded how I sometimes get an eyestrain induced headache when looking at someone wearing a patterned shirt with really thin stripes so I just leaned into the idea of a small/detailed hard lined pattern. I originally made 5 separate patterns for him and then turned them into stamp brushes in procreate. I only ended up using three of them, the one on the chest, the one on the legs, and the one on his hand. But, I imagine the patterns fade and shift when he moves, sort of like a lenticular print. I gave him constellation freckles and stylized the hair’s fade into white. The hair was inspired by how time-woods draws Martin Blackwood’s hair (linked: time-woods’s fanart of Martin Blackwood). Also put way too much effort into the teeth on the mask. I just like the chunky teeth design. Oh yeah and the font I used for him is called “Typewriter_Condensed_Demi”

Erinys (Jason)

Repeatedly ran into the issue of not having enough canvas space bc of my fervent need to thoroughly document and plan out how the wings worked. I also reversed the colors for the bodysuit & armor so the under layer was black while the armor plates were red. I only realized afterwards that I may have been inspired by the red centipedes in Rain World (linked: gif of the red centipede, don’t click the link if you’re unsettled/afraid of bugs/insects), artists subconsciously draw inspiration from other artists all the time though so I’m not like upset about it. I stand by it because it looks sick as hell. Also leaned into the magpie theming for the wings. I think the vigilante form was supposed to be reverse magpie coloring? I can’t remember, but I stuck with normal magpie coloring. The anatomy of how the wings connected to the collarbone was inspired by JayEaton’s Magpie Bridge Project. Reference image link. Link to the article the image is from. I didn’t draw the wing armor because I couldn’t figure out how to would work with the wing anatomy and I ran out of canvas space. Finally, the font used for him is “DIN Condensed” this is a default font, I would’ve used something more punk but I needed the text to be legible.

Insight (Jazz)

I did Jazz after I’d already finished the initial trio, so I had to switch to a new canvas for her bc I’d hit the layer limit multiple times on the previous one. I really do love doing that spiked under-eyelash thing with characters. Don’t know when that started. Anyway, I added the shoulder pads to her outfit to help break up the empty space. The golden eyes were a nice accent color since her design is very overwhelmingly green. Honestly the braid hairstyle and gold eyes really do obscure her identity, multiple times when drawing her I was worried that she didn’t really resemble Jazz enough. There wasn’t a drawing from the author for her so I only had the text description to go off of. I just realized that she sort of reminds me of a forest ranger and I don’t know what to do with that realization. I copy/pasted my drawing of her eyes when gold and recolored them to match her normal eye color. There were two layers for that, a hue shift and a hard light layer to emphasize the shadows.

Here’s what it looks like without the hue shift: 

It looks really cool and I’m 100% that color combo in another drawing down the line. Oh yeah and the font used for this sheet was “Euphemia UCAS”. It comes with Apple’s operating system, I use it as a neutral default text most of the time bc it’s nicer than helvetica but not overly fancy like Times New Roman—and why am I talking about fonts. ——————————————————————— Anyway, this project was very fun to work on. The alt text for this was its own endeavor, hope the folks using screen-readers don’t mind 4-5 paragraphs of description text. Also, I cannot remember for the life of me if Dani got a costume description, but if she does I’ll make sure to update this image set with a sheet for her. And to the author, QueenOfTheQuill, if you’re reading this message that I’ve left at the very bottom of this post below a read more line, thank you for the fic. It’s very good and I’m glad I caught it during my slow decent into DPxDC brainrot. I love the interactions between Jason and Tim, it’s nice seeing a revived Jason that’s not bogged down by pit rage. They definitely seem like they could’ve been good friends if not for the unfortunate circumstances that led them to meet in canon. Also, I’m sure Jazz will love interacting with Batman and Nightwing. So much psychological & childhood trauma to unpack with them. Feel free to use/share these images if you so desire and thanks again for your work.

[stupidphototricks]

Nobody's doing it like Otto Chriek. He's a vampire who has sworn off drinking b-word. He likes hanging out in cellars and hanging from chandeliers. Photography is his passion, and his passion is painful and comes with a high risk of discorporation. He experiments with dark light and philosophizes about the nature of time. He figures out how to create photo plates with hardly any effort. He invents the three-color printing process. He designs a method to auto-reanimate himself. He lays down his life for the team (but then picks it up again*).

*(yes this is a joke from the book, all credit to Sir Terry)

William caught Sacharissa's gaze. Her look said it all: We've hired him. Have we got the heart to fire him now? And don't make fun of his accent unless your Uberwaldean is really good, okay? -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"Vell?" he said sternly. "Vot you all looking at? It is just a normal reaction, zat is all. I am vorking on it. Light in all itz forms is mine passion. Light is my canvas, shadows are my brush." "But strong light hurts you!" said Sacharissa. "It hurts vampires!" "Yes. It iss a bit of a bugger, but zere you go." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

William vaguely remembered something someone had once said: the only thing more dangerous than a vampire crazed with blood lust was a vampire crazed with anything else. All the meticulous single-mindedness that went into finding young women who slept with their bedroom door open got channeled into some other interest, with merciless and painstaking efficiency. -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"Good mornink," said Otto. "Do not movink, please, you are making a good pattern of light and shade." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"I cannot promise an absolutely vunderful job first cat out of zer bag, off course." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"Bodrozvachski zhaltziet! …oh, sorry, Miss Sacharissa! Zere has been a minor pothole on zer road to progress…" -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"Zer philosopher Heidehollen tells us zat the universe is just a cold soup of time, all time mixed up together, and vot we call zer passage of time is merely qvantum fluctuations in zer fabric of space-time." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

(Sounds kind of like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff...)

"It [dark light] is a light without time. Vot it illuminates, you see . . . is not necessarily now." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

"You vanted color, I gif you color," said Otto sulkily. "You never said qvick." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

A couple of bits that are more spoilerish under the cut:

That thing where Otto screams and (sometimes) turns to ash when he takes a picture is particularly funny if you imagine it from the point of view of the unwitting photographic subject, in this case Cheery Littlebottom:

"Ah, a vonderful framing effect!" said Otto, who'd been on the other side of the door. Click! William shut his eyes. WHOOMPH. "Ohhbuggerrrrr . . ." This time William caught the little piece of paper before it hit the ground. The dwarf stood open-mouthed. Then she closed her mouth. Then she opened it again to say: "What the hell just happened?" "I suppose you could call it a sort of industrial injury," said William. -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

And the scene where Otto goes up against William's father is just a thing of beauty.

"Ve have people like you back home," he said. "Zey are the ones that tell the mob vot to do. I come here to Ankh-Morpork, zey tell me things are different, but really it is alvays the same. Always zere are damn people like you! And now, vot shall I do with you?" [...] "You think I bite him? Shall I bite you, Mister Lordship? Vell, maybe not, because Villiam here thinks I am a good person." He pulled Lord de Worde close, so their faces were a few inches apart. "Now, maybe I have to ask myself, how good am I? Or maybe I just have to ask myself… am I better zan you?" He hesitated for a second or two, and then in a sudden movement jerked the man towards him. With great delicacy, he planted a kiss on Lord de Worde's forehead. Then he put the trembling man back down on the floor and patted him on the head. -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

[after-witch]

Horrorfest: The Killer Always Comes Back For One Last Scare [Yandere Haruta Shigemo x Reader]

Title: The Killer Always Comes Back for One Last Scare [Haruta Shigemo x Reader]

Synopsis: You're the last one alive--or so you think.

Horrorfest prompt: When I saw you post wanting to write a Mean Thing for Haruta JJK, my mind immediately jumped to now requesting "reader-chan thinking they killed him and got away, but surprise! His luck technique" in the way slasher films trick you

Word count: 2010

Notes: yandere, reader is female, descriptions of death, gore, groping, sexism, Haruta being Haruta

The blood–oh, the blood. You’ll never get the blood out of your clothes. They’ll have to be burned.

No–they’d be burned no matter what. Because even if the soaked-in red could be removed and laundered and done away with, you would always see it. You would always smell it. You would always feel it, warm at first and now dry and tacky, damp against your skin. 

Most of it wasn’t even yours, after all.

It was theirs–your colleagues–your friends–

Nao, her body sprawled face-down, neck sporting a boot print; blood soaked through the stab wounds through her chest, her back and the highest part of her thigh. The last was close to her backside, and the killer had laughed about it. “I almost got her cute little ass!”

Kei, killed the simplest. Killed first. Stabbed through the gut. “I’d rather play with you girls alone,” the killer said. He wasn’t lying. Because Shika–

Shika, flat on her back, eyes wide in horror. Her face was a canvas of pain, stab wounds on her cheeks, one of them flayed and flapped open, hanging down her jaw. Her hands–what was left of them, they were stubs of missing fingers now, defense wounds–were splayed upwards. In desperation, in prayer. In growing rigor mortis. 

A glance around you only makes you want to tear at your hair, your skin, to collapse on the ground and die alongside them. Hell, with your blood loss, that might still be an option.

Fuck–This was supposed to be a simple mission. An easy one. The plan was to meet for dinner and drinks afterward. Nao would get too drunk on cocktails and Kei would ask her out again and Shika would slap him and you would laugh and laugh and–it’ll never happen now. Not ever again.

You are the only one left alive. And it’s not fair, really. It’s not right.

Your colleagues–your friends, after years of working together–weren’t any stronger than you. They weren’t any weaker, either. You were the reconnaissance team. Trained in basic combat so you might hold your own until actual help arrives, but your techniques were defensive, strategic. 

It was always the next wave of sorcerers who were meant to do the real fighting, while your team got the information, relayed it to just the right people, then got the fuck out of there. And today? Today, you did get the information, and you did relay it to just the right people. 

But just as you were planning to make your swift and necessary exit, everything went to shit. The single curse user that you were meant to be tailing (a weaker man, you’d noted; his sword held his hand for him, of all things) turned out to be two. And the second had a technique that hid him from your sight until just the right moment, unleashing a barrier that kept you contained–an ambush. 

The second curse user didn’t even bother coming inside, and there was a brief sense of relief that rippled through your team. You could deal with one low level curse user. This other man, blonde and thin and wearing a stupid outfit and a stupider grin, could surely be fended off until help arrived.

Or so you thought.

He’d grinned widely before counting the lot of you with his sword in hand–

“One, two, three… four.” 

His gaze lingered on Nao, on Shika. And then on you. Longer than the others? Maybe. It was hard to tell, then and especially now, with the adrenaline. And the blood loss.

Speaking of–

You grunt and rip off a piece of your tattered suit, then another, and another. You’ll have to wrap your wounds yourself, now that you’re–now that you’re alone. Help will arrive soon, and since the curse user is finally dead, and the barrier is gone (perhaps his second simply gave up, when he died?) all you have to do is survive until someone comes to help you.

Which should be any minute now, surely.

They will come before you finish wrapping your wounds, even; there’s a hope you cling to, while you carefully gauge which of your injuries is most at risk for killing you. Probably the stab wound in your side. It went in deep. It hurt–it still hurts–and blood is still seeping out. There’s a strange sort of pain with this wound. Something that almost tingles. Perhaps he hit an organ. Or an artery. Or both. 

The cuts on your arms and legs, no, that’s superficial. Meaningless. You don’t bother with them, instead going for the deeper wound, wrapping it with as many pieces as you can. Blood seeps through, despite the efforts. But that's all you can do. 

A pained sigh, more of a whine, escapes your lips as you lean against the old fountain in the center of the square. On the off chance that the second curse user came back, sitting here was an awful idea. But you were tired. You were dying. And sitting here gave you the best chance at rescue.

It also gave you the best sight of the curses that had seeped their way out of your body, that of your friends as they died. They were nothing much. Bitter, scared things. Whining and whimpering, much like you were doing; much like the rest of them did as they died.

But it would be over soon. You could go home. Call your parents and tell them you love them, consider how to pick up the pieces, and maybe in time you–

“You’re still here! I’m so happy!”

The warmth of slowly bleeding out is cut through with ice that runs up and down your weary limbs, stopping at your chest to make sure your heart begins to race so hard that the pain of it has you leaping to your aching feet.

“You…” The words come out of your lips without energy. It’s impossible. You’re dreaming. No: you’re dead. That must be it. Dead and this is what you hallucinate as your brain fires off all those lovely synapses. 

But it’s not a dream, and you’re dead. Not yet.

The curse user is standing in front of you, looking almost cheerful. His sword is back in his hand–back to holding his hand–and the wound that should have killed him, the ragged slicing of his neck that you managed with a broken pane of glass, is healed up. The only sign of it are dried rivulets of blood covering his neck and chest.

He glances down at it, following your gaze.

“Weird, huh? I’m just really lucky, you know!” When he looks back up, his eyes are wild. But not with anger, as you might expect. No–his eyes shimmer with glee.

There’s only one thing your brain can think to say to him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

His eyes widen. His lips get thin. He seems to be thinking seriously, perhaps for the first time in his whole damn life. And then, his face begins to shake–a little at first. His lips twitch into a smile. Then he throws back his head and laughs. Loud, giddy. It hurts your ears and you long to cover them up.

“I like to have fun,” he says, taking a step closer. 

Your eyes dart here and there, but where is there to run? You’re exhausted. Bleeding profusely. You wouldn’t make it around the corner.

When your pathetic gaze makes it back to him, he grins wider.

“And I really like weak things. You’re a weak thing, aren’t you?” He licks his lips as his eyes travel up and down your weakened, bleeding body. “All women are.”

There’s a retort somewhere in you; some indignity that might flare up and have you glaring, spitting at him, all defiance and swollen anger. But that retort has been stabbed out of you, chased out of you as your legs twisted and turned within the barrier. 

The retort is blubbering in the blood seeping out from underneath your torn suit bandages. 

“Aw,” he coos. “See? You can’t even speak.” He makes an awful noise, a gleeful little moan. “I want to hear you scream again, though.” His gaze flicks at Nao and Shika. “They made wonderful noises as they died. So pitiful.” His voice cracks at the last word, like a boy in puberty. 

At this, your body does finally try to run away. It has to; you can’t just stand here and die, no matter how tired you are. So your gaze hovers to the left before your bled-out mind decides it’s the best direction to go, carrying your weakened, jelly-like legs a few steps. 

A stupid thing to do, but since when were primal instincts always smart? 

“Oh!” He croons, just in time for your knees to buckle, for your body to hit the pavement hard. 

His footsteps sound too loud against the ground as he approaches you. You’re about to die. He’ll either kill you quick or slow but either way, you’re dead. 

Well, you think. At least I won’t have to live with survivor’s guilt. But mom-dad-sis-friends-neighbors-my-dog–growing-up-on-a-quiet-street-the-time-I-fell-down-at-the-playground-my-first-kiss-and–

All bittersweetness, all those momentary flashes of your life before your dying eyes are replaced with blinding hot pain searing through your ass. His sword–

“Bull’s-eye!” The laughter from behind you is too giddy for the blood-stained scenery. “Ah, should I try your tits next? Women always squeal when I…”

Whatever he says next is lost when the world gets topsy-turvy. The pain in your side and ass and body sears hot as you’re turned around by the curse user. You’re too weak and he’s not exactly strong–if only the second team had gotten here–but he’s strong enough to manhandle you, to hold you up by your wrists and fling you back to the ground so that you land on your back.

He straddles you, pressing his knees into your open wound. You scream–it must be you screaming, everyone else is dead–and he rolls his eyes backward lewdly. 

You hear the sword clatter to the ground and there’s almost relief in you, before you feel his hands roughly groping your breasts. It hurts. Not because he’s particularly rough, though it’s entirely possible; but because your entire body hurts. 

And maybe because, despite the knowledge of your imminent death and the gaping wounds on your body, you can still feel shame. 

“These are so cute,” he murmurs, voice half-laughing. “I wonder if I could cut them clean off.” His eyes glance towards his sword just as you whimper.

A pitiful sound. A small sound. A sound that attracts this vulture-like predator as readily as any mouse in the desert.

He leans forward, cooing softly. “You don’t want that?” 

You shouldn’t. It wouldn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything. But you can’t help it; fear of even more pain wins out.

“Please don’t,” you croak. “Please.”

The sigh that escapes his lips is practically sinful. 

And then–worse than death–you can see an awful thought blossom behind his eyes.

 “You know, I’ve been thinking–” He leans in close, breath hot and stale on your face. Spittle flies onto your cheek. “Since you’re so weak… and since you’re really the prettiest one… I might just keep you alive…”  

His tongue sneaks out like a worm and licks a trail up your cheek, catching tears and blood in one go. Your body jerks all too feebly, a blow to your dignity and primal desire to get the fuck away from him. 

You don’t want to die. But do you want to live, when this is the alternative?

He doesn’t care to find out your answer; instead, he licks another trail down your face, dragging blood–some yours, some not–into your mouth. You sputter, and he bites your bottom lip when you try to jerk your head away.

You whimper again–soft, pitiful, trapped. 

He only grins, and you can hear the sharp slice of the sword dragging against the pavement as it finds its way back into his hands. 

“It’s like you were made for me, right? Poor thing.” 

[genericpuff]

oh boy it's that time again

when rachel posts 'video progress' of her work and we proceed to dissect it like a frog in 9th grade science class

like ok first the caption of "is persephone the chicken and hades the egg" makes no fucking sense except to anyone who overthinks it and goes "wait is that a reference to the popularly-perpetuated version of the myth where persephone went down to the underworld willingly and hades didn't actually exist???" because if it is ima scream lmao

but MORE IMPORTANTLY-

Here's the transcript of what she's saying in the video:

"I think I've always wanted to write Hades' and Persephone's story because obviously I really like them. It's like very much a chicken and egg situation because I think in the beginning I thought that I was going to use a very abstract black and white style, and I realized it wasn't very enticing or fun for me, um... and I started drawing these very like vibrant characters and as I drew them I understood more about the story the more that I explored the art style, um and I guess an example of that is, y'know, Persephone is like a very bright color um, and the Underworld, is a very dark dark blue, and so when she says she really sticks out so it's just environmental uh processes like that that really helped inspire the direction of the story."

(despite her expanding on the "chicken and the egg" bit it still doesn't make sense imo lmao)

But what we're seeing isn't S1 LO, it's actually from S3 of LO:

But um... you notice anything interesting about the screenshot I just showed you?

That literally looks NOTHING like what we see in the final panel. At the VERY least I think this goes to show how overcooked it becomes in post-production, when they add the canvas layer and hypersaturate the shit out of the colors, but even the blending technique just isn't matching up?

A lot of what she's doing in this video also feels very... non-existent, like she's brushing her pen around but very little is happening so it feels more like her just putting down random brush strokes to try and make it seem put-together but really she's just kind of pushing colors around and/or doing nothing. Especially when, again, what she's painting here looks nothing like the final picture (so at best it's a lot of wasted work??)

And knowing what we know about the assistants drawing the characters separately so that Rachel can rearrange them in the final episode layout... I don't wanna call foul play here, but this feels like yet another attempt on Rachel's behalf to make her process seem more involved than it is by simply redrawing a scene for the performative aspect of it all. It's like the "sketches" in the books looking way too 'clean' for the final product and giving the impression that she just sketched over the final panels to make them look pretty enough for print.

I also wanna mention that for some reason she's drawing this on her iPad when she owns a Cintiq. It could be because she was drawing this while abroad in the US for her conventions last fall, but despite clearly being ahead of schedule, she still wound up drawing the final episode the night of-

Oh yeah and btw there are like a million clipping layers for what looks like just a simple drawing of Demeter. And this lines up with our previous theories about her using like 128549021809 layers for literally one character.

And aside from all that her commentary, as always, is very nothingburger, just a bunch of word salad. Like she's literally trying to explain LO's color theory as "well Persephone is bright pink and the Underworld is dark blue so she sticks out! That's all you need to know!"

IDK, I'm not coming to any sort of ironclad conclusion based off this one video, but it does feel like yet another desperate attempt to prove that she does work on LO and doesn't just leave it all to her assistants to do at the last minute. But like... she's kind of screwed in that argument either way, because even if she draws the majority of panels in LO, that just further proves the argument that she's stopped trying.

[madisockz]

Hello! I wanted to share my process of how I made my Easter Pony! She is my second ever custom and she made all the trouble I had with the first one seem like a walk in the park in comparison ಥ_ಥ Let's begin!

DISCLAIMER: Custom ponies like this one are not to be played with by children nor made by children. This pony was made with the use of nail polish remover (acetone) which is toxic. You need to wash your hands throughly after use and use in a well ventilated area. This pony was also made with sharp tools such as an xacto knife, sewing pins, rehairing needles, and an awl.

First, the concept art! Trial and error caused her to look a little different than the concept art but I still love the end result!

I wanted to start with a white base to give myself a clean canvas for dyeing so I got this G3 Breezie off Ebay for only $3. I decided to first remove her mane and tail which requires removing the head. If you know anything about G3 pony customzing, you know their heads are difficult to get back on once they come off. Even when you run them under warm/hot water. So to get it back on for dyeing, I tried trimming a little excess of vinyl off the neck ring with my xacto knife. It slipped and got me right under my nail! Bad omen for what's to come!

After getting her prepped (removing her mane and tail, cleaning her, using acetone (nail polish remover) to remove her cutie mark) she was ready for a dye bath! I used Rit DyeMore as regular Rit Dye won't dye the vinyl material that ponies are made of. This was my first ever time dyeing anything that wasn't fabric so I was thrilled when she came out this warm rich brown! So pretty!

I read online that dyed ponies will leach dye onto other ponies if they touch, so I wanted to try and prevent this as much as possible with some matte sealer. Lesson #1: Even though she was dry, the matte sealer reactivated the dye! The smallest touch left a print! :(

I pushed forward! And tripped immediately after! I thought, "Surely matte Modge Podge will seal her just that much more" and to my dismay, the Modge Podge kept every brush stroke I made when it dried!! She looked like a leather hand bag! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚ I learned later you can buy matte Modge Podge spray online but all I had was the type you brush on to your surface.

Thankfully, with the help of sixteen cotton balls and a q-tip with acetone, I managed to remove all the sealer but she was no longer that nice rich brown. Oh well I still loved her!

And whoever said the paint will protect the eyes from the dye has clearly never dyed a dark pony! Her eyes were so brown after this lol

Painting, adding of polymer clay easter themed confetti, and adding her 3D chocolate bunny cutie mark went great! It was all going well until the eyes.

I had never fully painted pony eyes before so the first attempt was pretty bad. Not even my multiple attempts at glitter and using clear nail polish as a cheap gloss on the eyes could save them.

It was so bad that I almost didn't take any pictures but when I went to seal her head, this weird white powder covered half of her face?? I had never seen this before and it freaked me out thinking I just ruined her. I managed to get it off with a cotton ball and some acetone but her paint was fully damaged.

Turns out this was caused because I didn't shake the can of sealer well enough. I needed a break....

While I took a break for a few days, I decided to watch tutorials on how to paint doll eyes and learned that it's actually pretty common to use high quality watercolor pencils; either Faber Castell or Derwent (which is what I ended up buying).

When I came back, I made the hard decision of removing all the paint and decorations from the head and starting over. Hours of work gone but it was so worth it! 🩷 Removing the paint with acetone ended up making her head lighter than her body so I had to redye her head lol. This time I mixed Derwent pencils with acrylic paints for her eyes.

Time for the hair! I've never done curls before and my original plan was to buy curly hair online but it's so hard to find in the color and curl size I wanted.

So my second idea was to buy small curlers to use on regular nylon doll hair bought from ShimmerLocks on Etsy. But when I tested them out on poor Flower Bouquet it looked so bad ಥ_ಥ

I discovered a Youtube channel you may know called Dollightful where in one of her Stock Box videos she used yarn that she unraveled to make super cute tight wavy hair for a doll. It was a perfect solution! It looks so good but omg it was tedious haha! I used it for her tail too; sectioning off the colors hoping they'd stay separated (they didn't lol).

She's nearly complete! Time for small decorations! I tried so many different ears from air dry clay to stealing some from bunny decorations I bought at the store and nothing was working! But I had one last idea...

I gave these old Littlest Pet Shop costume bunny ears some use with a flat top sewing pin and some glue so now my pony has bunny ears! Yay!

I forgot it in the concept art, but I originally wanted to add flowers to her mane but I couldn't figure out how to do that without glue which I didn't want to do, too permanent, so I opted for some beads I had on hand. I didn't have any light blue so I made some with the use of acetone (nail polish remover in my case) and boom! Light blue beads! Then I washed them off so the acetone wouldn't damage anything :)

I used a gold topped sewing pin, a butterfly charm, a felt flower and two faux flowers to create a cute hair accessory!

Finally I sewed a hair tie to a puffball to give her a removable cottontail if I ever wanted to take it off.

And DONE! She looks so good after so much time and effort! I worked on this girly for two weeks I think? She actually had a partner I designed but I've run out of time to make her :') Maybe next year? 👀 🩷🩷

[madebyrolo]

Beach date

Rafe Cameron x Reader

She/her

one shot / fluff

summary: “VICTOR, YOU ACTUALLY DID THIS!?” Type fic.

Obx masterlist

┗ •◦இ•◦ ┛

I was sitting on my bed scrolling through TikTok when Rafe texted me.

“Be ready I’m picking you up at 6.”

“And for what can I ask?” I responded

“It’s a surprise peach”

Rafe came up with that nickname when I was over one day and I accidentally drank the rest of his peach juice.

“Okay okay see you then :)”

With the time being 5:38, I get up and put on denim skirt and white halter top with little blue flowers on it. I grab my Uggs cause they’re cute and comfy and I put my vanilla perfume. I get my purse and make sure my lip gloss is in it and soon I get the text that my bae has arrived. I love calling Rafe bae cause he hates it.

“Mom I’ll be back, I’m going out with rafe!” I call out from the stairs.

“Okay honey, be home before 10 please!” She calls out from her office.

She absolutely loves Rafe and luckily she trust me and him enough to let me out without asking anything. And with her having my location on 24/7

I shut the door behind me and I walk to the black truck in my driveway. I see Rafe standing right by the passenger door with his dopey smile plastered across his face.

“Hey dream boat” I say walking up to him placing a small kiss on his lips.

“Hey hey? That wasn’t a kiss come one give daddy a real one.” Rafe said earning a laugh from me before pulling me in by the waist completely smashing his lips on mine.

“That was sweet but you’re eating me Rafe.” I joke with him.

“Oh so with that hurtful joke, I don’t think you deserve these.” He said grabbing a bouquet from inside the car.

“Rafe, you didn’t oh my god they’re beautiful!” I saw grabbing them from him and smelling them.

It was a mix of blue hydrangeas with lilies and mums with the perfect amount of greenery . They smelt amazing, like peace which I loved about flowers.

“Blue like my eyes so you think about me every time you look at them.” He somewhat joked.

“I always do Rafe.” I say before planting a small cute long kiss on him.

“Now come on, I’m dying to know what you’ve planned.” I say adjusting the collar of his white dress shirt.

“Okay peach get in.” he said opening the door and letting me in.

After a 15 minutes drive with a quick pit stop for a pizza at dominos, we finally made it. We stopped by the beach putting the car in park and once again opening the door for me.

“What are we doing at the beach? I didn’t bring a suit.” I say while he grabs my hand leading up to the sand.

“We’re not gonna for a swim.” he said.

“You should’ve mentioned the beach, I wouldn’t have picked these Uggs Rafe.” I tell him.

“You know Uggs were actually meant for the beach? They were for surfers” he explains.

“Do I look like a surfer?” I complain.

“Hey I got you to stand in the board once!” He nudged me

After a short walk we are greeted with a blanket that had a basket with lemonade and other goodies. There was 2 easels and some paint supplies along with more flowers.

“Happy date night!” Rafe said as let put down the pizza.

“Rafe this is so cute!” I say as I sit down in the blanket and look at everything he got.

“I did this all myself, thought we deserved a nice cute date to end off the summer.” Rafe said sitting next to me.

“Rafe this is perfect. Thank you.” I said hugging him.

“I got us some paints so we can do a little couples art maybe and some extra canvas for fun but mainly cause I know I’ll mess up.” He joked bringing out all the colors.

“You’re actually the best boyfriend ever Rafe.”

“I know I know. You can pay he back later.” he said with a wink as you nudge him.

“Okay give me a plate I want pizza.”

After your small dinner and some laughs shared with Rafe you finally get to the painting.

“Okay so we can do thumb prints, handprints, kisses, little things that represent us,” Rafe listed ideas as he scroll through Pinterest.

“Let’s do a handprints, something easy and then maybe we can cover it in sand to reminds of us this little beach date.” You offered

“Yeah I like that” he kissed your nose.

“Alright so many kisses today I think you just did this to get some.”

“No no I actually did this for us, but that’s just a perk” Rafe gave another kiss but on your neck and started going down.

“Okay okay! Let’s get to painting!” You giggled due to the friction of his warm lips on your skin.

As you guys finally decided on a paint color which took absolutely forever because Rafe wanted to do blue to match his eyes (once again) but you wanted a sage green because it was nice and calming which was a perfect way to describe this date. Certainly not this relationship yk how Rafe is.

“Okay your hand first cause it’s giant” you as you painted his hand a dark green.

“Hey you love these hands, especially these finger-”

“OKAY. So place it straight don’t make it crooked.” You guide his onto the canvas

“I can do it myself I’m a big boy okay y/n” he said placing his own hand down.

“Okay leave it there for a couple of seconds to get a good print.” You order.

You grab a lighter green to match his and paint your hand. The ticklish feelings and smell remind you of elementary, and the one time Jayj ate paint (not as a dare.)

“Oh that’s a cute color” Rafe said as you put the paint back.

“Okay you can take your hand off now. Longer you keep it, it’s probably gonna dry on there.” You joked.

“Don’t make it crooked.” He said as he grabbed your hand placing it down on the canvas on top if his.

After a couple of seconds you take it off and see the perfect imprints of you and Rafe.

“Aww it’s so cute!” You commented

“Oh now we have to make another, I’m gonna want one too.” He said admiring your art work.

“Here you go.” he said handing you a cup of sand

You sprinkle the sand ontop of the paint making sure to put enough then shaking the rest off.

“Okay now while this drys I wanna paint another.” you say grabbing another canvas.

You decide to paint a turtle on the beach. Turtles are your second animal cause they’re just so darn cute. As you paint, Rafe also decides to paint whatever he is. He has an assortment of colors and he’s just in his own world. As you watch him you can’t help but notice how his tounge pokes the inside of this cheek as he concentrates.

After 20 minutes, you finally have finished yours projects.

“Okay on, one…two…three!” You count down and flip your canvas.

“Oh thanks cute!” Rafe says and you stare as his… maybe pizza?

“Nice…I don’t even know. Rafe what is that?” You say confused.

“It’s a boat!” He says excited.

“Look it’s me and you!” He points to small blobs

“Oh I thought those were olives…”

“Y/n…” he says with a pout.

“Oh come on it’s cute!!!” You say trying to make him feel better.

“Maybe you should just keep to gallery walks instead of making the art…” you pat his shoulder as you both stare as his “boat”

“Your turtles are so good but look at my boat.”

“Rafe calm down it’s fine beside you can always buy classes.”

“But you’re a natural! It’s unfair.”

“Rafe quit it, besides you’re better at other things than me!” You try to cheer him up.

“Like what?”

“Golf”

“Wow lousy golf. Topper is the king let’s face it.”

“Whatever who cares he got cheated on.” You managed to crack a smile from him.

“Beside, you’re an absolutely an amazing boyfriend. My boyfriend.” He turns to look at you.

“Look at this amazing date you planed. And set up all by yourself too. Gotta give yourself props.” You give him a hug.

“Yeah I’m a pretty good man..” he said playfully rolling his eyes.

“My man.”

You guys share another slow and passionate kiss.

“Come on let’s clean this up. You can spend the night at mine.” You offer as you began to throw things into the basket.

“Okay good, I already told my dad I was.” He said as he grabbed the trash and threw it in a bag.

As you guys drive home you play your oldies playlists. You singing along while Rafe learns new songs.

Soon you guys make it to your house. Rafe parks the car and you guys make your way to the front door with him holding the insane amount of followers.

“Wait we never made my painting” Rafe stopped in his tracks.

“Here you can have the hands, I’ll take your pizza boat.” You say handing him his.

“Guess we have to have another date night to make another !! Ugh!” You said sarcastically.

“What a bore.” Rafe plays along.

You guys reach upstairs. Taking a joint shower because Rafe kept insisting on taking one first but you were too tired to wait. You both got the amazing date night, and hot and steamy sex.

┗ •◦இ•◦ ┛

Came out of hibernation and finally wrote 😩

Sorry for any typos I got too lazy.

Love me some soft Rafe 💁🏽‍♀️

[bluegalaxygirl]

Haihai,I have two scenarios? in mind

Chopper couldn't find his stethoscope so the whole crew came together to look for them.Zosan realized kunia was no where found so they went to check their room where pregnant reader was taking a nap,they found reader still sleeping and also found kunia beside the bed sleeping with the stethoscope listening to the heart beats of the baby bump<3

Kunia got an idea as she painted with her washable paint.With permission from reader, they prepped for painting on readers baby bump. Kunia stood looking at the baby bump thinking on what to paint.She got an idea and ran off to get her fathers with the paint in hand.she came back with both of them,with confused faces and with a painted palm. Kunias "canvas" now with 4 hand prints of the family, she drew little doodles around, of readers snakes, the strawhats, etc<3

sorry its long, I'm seriously obsessed with ur baby series (all ur writings)🫶🏾

Sorry for the long ass wait but here is the first part of your ask, the second part was a lot longer then i thought it would be so i'll link that bellow and tag you. thank you

Warning: Bad language and extreme fluff.

Reader is female, Zoro X Sanji X Reader, poly relationship, established relationship. Kuina is 5ish years old with Blonde hair, your eye color and your skin color.

Canvas >

Chopper was going crazy, one minute his stethoscope was there and the next it was gone, he's sure he left it on his desk and yet its not there, unfortunately this isn't the first time this has happened, it'll go missing and then an hour or two later it will be back exactly where he left it making him feel like he's losing his mind. Pushing open the door to the kitchen the doctor sighs his head low and shoulders slumped "Hay buddy, what's up?" Zoro asks from his place at the counter a class of sake in his hand while Sanji is cutting up veg for tonight's dinner on the other side of the counter. Chopper drags himself over to the counter and hoists himself up onto one of the stools before laying his head on the counter a wave of frustration washing over him "I can't find my Stethoscope, i know i left it on my desk but now its gone, it keeps happening, usually it shows up in an hour or two but it's been longer than that and its not there… I think i'm going crazy" Chopper lets out a sad whimper earning a pat on the back from the swordsman "I'll help you look for it" Zoro states after downing his drink on one go and standing out of his seat "I'll help too, just in case Zo gets lost along with the stethoscope" Sanji chuckles placing his knife down to grab the board of vegetable taking them into the pantry so their captain can't eat everything while he's away "The ships out at sea, there's no where to get lost" Zoro growls slamming his hand down on the counter in anger but only earns a chuckle and a cheeky grin from the cook "Oh, knowing you Zoro, you'll find a way" Sanji grins after locking up and making his way around the counter to pat the swordsman on the shoulder.

Chopper covers his mouth trying his best to hold back his laughter instantly feeling cheered up by them not only helping him but also by teasing each other. As the two bicker back and forth the doctor hops off his stool and follows the two out of the kitchen and onto the deck "I'll go ask the others, you two head off and start the search.. Chopper keep a close eye on him" The cook grins still teasing the green haired man who simply crosses his arms over his chest and grumbles insults under his breath, with a big smile Chopper nods grabbing Zoro's pant leg and starting to walk around the ship. As the search goes on more of the crew get involved in looking starting to become a little concerned at how frustrated and depressed the doctor is starting to become, he's not one to loose his stuff so to fully lose something has him starting to doubt himself "Where is it?" Chopper cry's out now back in his medical room with Zoro and Sanji both tearing the room apart trying to find one objects "It's going to be ok Chopper, we'll find it and if we don't I'll buy you a new one on the next island" The cook tries to reassure his friend, pulling the reindeer into a hug Sanji pats his back letting Chopper cry out of frustration, Zoro groans placing the bad back down and pushing it back to where it once was before running a hand through his hair getting frustrated as well, anger grows in him hating to see his crew mate cry especially Chopper, the swordsman is about to flip out cut this room apart when the door opens.

Robin steps in with a sweet smile and kind eyes getting the three to look at her, Zoro's growls louder annoyed at her happy face in a situation like this, Chopper rushes out of Sanji's arms to run over to the black haired woman wrapping his arms around her leg and crying harder while Sanji lets a small smile form in his face happily greeting the woman "Robin-Chan, i'm guessing by your beautiful smile you've found something" The cook comments stepping closer to the woman to pat Chopper on the head getting the reindeer to calm down and look up at Robin with hope "I have, I've found your stethoscope, although i think there will be a problem in getting it back" Robin giggles placing a hand over her mouth to try and muffle it, Chopper wipes his tears away and takes a step back looking up at the woman with confusion, he's happy that it's been found but why is there a problem, did it fall into the sea? is it stuck or broken? Before he can panic Zoro walks over and places a firm hand on the doctor's shoulder "What ever the problem is I'll deal with it" The swordsman grins placing his hands on the hilt of his swords hoping to cut something open "Franky's going to kill you if you damage his ship again" Sanji scowls crossing his arms over his chest, before the two can start bickering Robin lets out a laugh while shaking her head "I doubt you would hurt them Zoro.. Come on, I'll show you" Her comment makes the three freeze realizing that someone has the item and its not stuck on the ship but Sanji asked everyone on the ship if they've seen it, well expect for you and Kuina, your on bed rest and Kuina is most likely with you so no one wanted to disturb you.

The three quickly follow Robin out of the medical room, across the deck and to your room, slowly opening the door as to not disturb the scene Robin places a finger over her lips telling them to keep quiet before gesturing for them to head in. Chopper's tears of frustration are long forgotten as he slaps a hand over his mouth trying not to let out a sound of joy while looking over at the two sleeping forms on the bed, the duvet cover is wrapped around your waist as you lay on your back, a hand on your exposed large belly while your other arm is wrapped around a sleeping Kuina who's nestled into your side. The young girl has the ear tips of the stethoscope in her ears and her hand gripping the drum end tightly as it lays against your stomach, its clear the young girl has shoved your sleep shirt up in order to listen to the baby's heart beat and has fallen asleep while listening but weather your aware of it or not is unclear. Sanji's heart melts at the sight hearts form in his eyes and his body starts to sway a little out of pure joy at the cuteness in front of him, but he's also trying to control himself as to not wake either of his girls, the cook has often fallen asleep with hos head next to your stomach and his arm wrapped around your waist letting it fit snugly under your belly able to feel any and all movement the baby makes, so he understands the need to be close, but he didn't think Kuina would do this, sure the young girl is excited and loves to talk to your belly but falling asleep to her siblings heartbeat is something else.

Zoro first reaction is shock but that soon disappears as a giddy smirk forms on his face, gritting his teeth the swordsman try's not to laugh at the sight, it brings him so much joy to see his daughter so happy and invested in having a sibling but on the other hand he knows he'll have to have a word with her later, he's always made it clear that you never steal from the crew even if you give it back later, for now though he enjoys the sigh while reaching over and taking Sanji's hand. The cook quickly grabs hold of the swordsman's hand and leans into the man while fixated on his two girls, Chopper soon removes his hand from his mouth and turns to the two with a big smile on his face, now he knows where his stethoscope is he doesn't mind leaving it with Kuina, it always comes back very clean, so he knows she takes good care of it. "I'm happy to leave it with her for now" The doctor whispers up at the two who glance down giving him a quick nod before looking back at the bed, with a skip in his step Chopper heads to the door only to be stopped by Sanji's whisper "Hay Chop, can you get the camera?" Zoro lets out a light chuckle at this but doesn't complain about capturing the moment and maybe teasing his daughter over this in the future, with a quick nod and happy hum the doctor rushes off to find the camera while Sanji lays his head on the swordsman's shoulder "It's perfect" The cook whispers earning a light kiss on his forehead and squeeze of his hand "Yea, couldn't ask for anything more"

[mlobsters]

oh internet kitty, we're really in it now meme cats #6

acrylic on canvas 8x10" - painting video below

prints & apparel

song: pink pony club by chappell roan

so this meme cat photo captured my heart and i was wanting to go an opposite direction color story-wise after my very verdant green zendaya painting and was really inspired by @leahgardner-art colors in some of her still life food paintings - particularly a few in the series of suckers - so i put a little riff/homage to one of those paintings as a piece of art on the wall of this dear little keyboard cat. and went a little bi pride with the theme and more directly with the string lights 🩷💜💙. i'm not entirely thrilled with the background but i do love how the kitty came out and i want to stop futzing with it. i've changed the background over and over and i need to force myself to stop 😂

cat inspo reference, i spend a decent amount of time and couldn't track down the origins of this one either, sadly. once something has caught on, it just spreads far and wide and the original post may be lost to the sands of time. if you know where it actually originated, let me know so i can link it!

[toasttt11]

pictures

April 1, 2021

Hayden was walking in Lauren and Connor’s house having gotten up from the couch to use the bathroom and Lauren had paused their show they were watching together.

Lauren was in the kitchen getting more snacks as Hayden came out of the bathroom and froze seeing a new picture in the hallway.

It was her. Being hugged by Connor and Leon after an overtime goal that Connor and Leon both assisted on. She was between Connor and Leon and they were all beaming at each other.

Lauren looked around the corner and saw Hayden looking at the new picture she had hung up a few days ago, “Ah you found it.” Lauren smiled as she walked up to Hayden.

“You have a picture with me in it?” Hayden asked completely speechless, she knew she cares a lot about Connor and Lauren but she didn’t know they cared that much to have a picture of her in their house.

“Of course.” Lauren firmly told Hayden holding eye contact so Hayden understood, “You are part of our family Hayden.”

“Oh.” Hayden mumbled, she knows Lauren had said she was family before but it was still hard to understand that they cared that much.

“I had a small business print the photo onto three canvases and i gave one to Leon and Celeste that they hung up as well. The third one is for you.” Lauren softly told Hayden squeezing her hand gently.

Hayden blinked even more shocked Celeste and Leon have the picture too in their house.

“Thank you.” Hayden mumbled softly squeezing Lauren’s hand back.

“Of course.” Lauren beamed at Hayden and started pulling her away from the picture and back to the living room, “Now hurry up i need to know what happens next.” Lauren playfully declared wanting to continue their show.

Hayden laughed and let Lauren drag her back to the couch.

When Hayden left Lauren gave her the large canvas and Hayden hung it up in her hallway when she got home.

[gourmetjello]

könig x fem!reader : sniper hood

before we start thank you thank you thank you for the likes on my previous oneshot and also huge thanks to the people that followed me !! i’m so glad people are reading my stupid things. and i’m trying to follow back everyone that likes <(˶ᵔᵕᵔ˶)>

guys, this oneshot turned out gross. really. i was thinking about putting this in dead dove do not eat, so keep that in mind please.

anyways -> 3rd person pov and english isn’t my first language! tw !!! sexism, blood, war, beating, guns, death, detailed, gore-y and graphic description of wounds and basically anything nasty related to stuff like that. 16+ recommended. it’s probably going to be a little angsty but not sure just yet, i’m still experimenting with detailed descriptions of human feelings — i hope i’m doing an okay job!

also! if you feel like könig is your lovey dovey pookie wookie baby boy then this oneshot might disappoint! don’t read it then! i’m sorry :(

—

the screams of a woman are nothing to be scared of. those rough, high-pitched sounds are always filled with pure attention-seeking and they make a man’s ears ache. it’s funny how they all think that their voice will make the other gender pity them.

it’s always disappointing to see a woman’s body laying on the battlefield — not really because people feel bad that such a gentle body had to suffer through whatever happened, but because their team totally wasted an empty slot on someone as frail as a female. they could have brought womeone who was physically and mentally stronger, someone who had more muscle on and someone that could have fought back against whoever broke their nose with a single, well-targeted slap. the blood smeared across a woman’s face was nothing but red lipstick.

why would someone be mad upon hearing these things? they are just facts, a woman could never and will never overpower a man. they might have one or two nice shots, that’s okay, but they will never be able to stomp on anyone’s face in way that will immediately break their neck. if anything, the solider under their boots will probably just pray to whatever god there is for the woman to accidentally slip and land right on them. that way they would be on the best possible road to taking advantage of them.

she always thought these statements were all wrong and that girls could dominate the military just like men do. she wore t-shirts with camouflage prints on them ever since she knew what the army was. she always played with little plastic guns instead of barbies and ponies (however she liked them, she just never wanted to show anyone her other interests in case they would stop taking her seriously!), it was all one huge picture that was basically being painted ever since she was born. every thing she did before joining the military was just one little stroke on the canvas — and when she finally wore the uniform for the first time, it was like color was added to the masterpiece.

the first time she held a real gun in her hand was when the dominant color became brown — brown, because they always had to crawl and lay in mud, dark green because they were often commanded to hide in bushes with weird leaf-like mats and blankets on top of their heads, and beige because of how dusty of a color it was. the walls at the base were painted beige, the floors were made out of some kind of cheap beige colored plastic-y material and the sand that flew into their eyes, noses and mouths oh so carelessly was also similar in color to the others.

she was convinced that a female could be just as good as a man , she was a 100% sure that she could fulfill every single duty of a man when deployed. she knew that it would require a lot of work but gosh, she just wanted to finally do what she wanted to ever since she was a little kid. she wanted to prove everyone that bullied her in middle school wrong, she wanted to show her mother that she could do just fine on her own and she wanted to show her father that she was just as good as a son would have been.

those thoughts lingered in her head everytime she was out training or just walking around the base. she’d brush her hands against the cold, hard wall to feel reassured that this was the right path, that she chose the best profession and that she was chasing her dreams right now, in this very moment. it was hard for her to admit that she slowly started to doubt herself whenever she held a gun in her hands. the targets they used in training always became a little more realistic, from a wooden sign to a sand bag, from a potato sack to a bloody gummy copy of a human. she tried not to flinch when the guts under the clear jelly flew everywhere, coating the grass in a reddish color thanks to the colored liquid inside it.

‘it’s food coloring. it’s food coloring. fuck, it’s just..’ she kept repeating in her head as she crouched next to a wall, her gun shaking in her hands. she saw someone lay next to her, it was a teammate, a co-worker, a friend, whatever you want to call it — but it was a dead person. ironically enough, it was yet another woman, she had been shot right in the liver. the puddle under her was becoming bigger and bigger, spreading towards the other woman that simply didn’t know what to do.

she was panicked, feeling her heart beat in her throat once the liquid gently brushed against her dusty boots, cleaning the beige little coating off of it. her breathing was ragged, and if you ask me, i would just call it straight up panting. she could feel cold sweat drip down her temple and she knew she couldn’t lose her sanity in a situation like this, but gosh, it was so bad. the first time she had ever seen anyone die and it was already the real deal — she knew she was weak, she knew she should have never applied for this fucking job, she should have never had the obsession with guns and soliders and the whole fucking army, but.. was she really in the wrong for thinking a girl could do it all?

coldness started spreading along her ribs and her spine as she kept staring at the dead body in front of her. she couldn’t take her eyes off of the piece of wounded, no longer breathing meat that once used to be someone she chatted with. hell, they even sat next to eachother in the cafeteria.

her entire body was trembling and shaking with fear. she tried to focus on something else, but once her hands instinctively raised her gun with the careful move she had done so many times in practice, she immediately had to let it drop down to the floor because of how nauseous she felt holding that rough tool. she felt dirty. she felt like she should have never been associated with any of this shit! regret was the only thing in her mind right now.

and then all of sudden — everything went black.

“don’t leave ya’ fuckin’ guard down, missy. gets you killed, y’know?”

she heard a deep voice that was soaked with ego and a disgusting tint of disgrace towards women in the military. she wished she would have just died that instant because she definitely didn’t need to hear the string of insults and sounds of her own bones breaking and cracking that came next. she felt someone, someone heavy stomp on her chest, and then her nose, and then — gosh, he finally stepped off of her.

“fuck.. yer’ ass still breathin’? warum bist du noch nicht gestorben, hm? dumme schlampe-“

after fighting with many of her aching body parts, her eyes finally shot open. she wanted to keep them closed, she didn’t want to see who the person was above her, but reflexes were a lot stronger than will, and there was nothing she could do against them. her eyes were filled with fear as she saw nothing but a dark shoelace dangling in front of her face, dried mud falling off of it as the man shook his leg lightly.

she felt the weight of her gun on her stomach, yet there was nothing she could do about it. everything hurt, a number of her bones were probably shattered and she felt like she couldn’t even move her pinky finger a little bit. nothing. it was like she was paralyzed.

and she wasn’t far away from reality.

the shoelace was soon out of her sight and all she saw was someone crouching down next to her. the man that stomped on her just a few seconds ago. why was he doing this?

“scheisse..” he mumbled under his breath. “you won’t die like this, this’ll just hurt more than being shot..”

..and that was when she saw him raise his gun and angle it downwards. he aimed it right at her face. his finger twitched on the trigger as he had already destroyed her frail bones, making sure that she will never even come close to walking or moving ever again, yet.. why did he feel so much pity right now? why did he feel like such a shitty person? he had most likely given her spine a few cracks, why hasn’t she died yet?

the guilt probably kicked for könig in because he didn’t see her die immediately. he already messed up when he was too slow with grabbing his gun. it was just for a split second but he saw her fear-filled eyes and her trembling pupils. her cheeks that were stained by dirt now, her pretty, feminine face made ugly and messed up with the muddy and bloody print of his shoe. her nose was crooked and leaking blood, down to the floor — completely mixing together with the spreading puddle of blood that originated from the other woman’s cold body. fuck, this situation was already as bad as it could get.

“fuck, can’t shoot ya’, missy. can’t get myself to.”

he let down his gun in defeat, lowering himself to her level once again. the blurry spheres were finally coming to life as her eyes seemed to focus on whatever huge darkness was leaning down right into her face. she finally realized it was a sniper hood hanging down and not some kind of black crow that came in the sign of afterlife or the gates of hell (because something that’s dirty and pitch black can’t possibly symbolize heaven, right?).

“jeez, you look horrible. fucked ya’ pretty face up so bad. scheisse.. didn’t anyone tell you to get the fuck outta’ military the second you joined?”

she wanted to say something. she wanted to scream, she wanted to open her mouth and give voice to every single one of her fears and frustrations but she simply couldn’t. the only hope she had was that the lunch she had earlier would just stop threatening her body already and finally come up through her mouth — as bad as it sounded, she just begged for some kind of inner force to make her vomit and finally get his face dirty with something that was even more disgusting than blood.

könig quickly acted without thinking. he basically ripped the sniper shood off of his head and rushed to hide her bloody face with it. it was a pathetic excuse of a sniper hood anyway. it was an old, ragged shirt — bleached around the eye holes for that extra intimidating look, you know? but the way the fabric was too big on her head made it look like the eye holes were lining up with her chapped and shaking lips. just as he intended it to be.

“yeah, like that.”

he quickly glanced over to the other body that was laying on the floor, he was convinced that it was already cold (which was right) so he didn’t even really bother trying to do anything with that. he wasn’t fazed by the sight of that dead woman at all. instead, he quickly scooped the girl he just gave his sniper hood up into his arms and began running towards his base, her gun left behind them on the floor, soaking in the puddle of mixed blood.

as könig held her body close to himself while rushing with her in his arms, he quickly reached up to rip the velcro strips that signaled her team off of her uniform and vest. he desperately reached down to rip the austria flag off of his body and place it on her shoulder instead.

and now he finally felt the chills through his spine and ribs the same way she did before he had attacked her — starting from this moment, he was a target of his very own squad.

—

gosh! not proud of this. the writing is okay i’d say (i got to use some of my german knowledge ehehe) but it’s disgusting. i hope i didn’t traumatize anyone! (·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )

please let me know what i should write about next!

good night!

[idontplaytrack]

The Wrong Benson

Janis ‘Imi’ike x fem! reader

Warnings: some coarse language

‘I don’t want kids coming up to my child going, ‘In 5, 4, 3, 2’, Hubbard.’ aka an unnecessary long chapter featuring some big news about a little bundle of joy. :)

- w.c. : 4.5k

Read other chapters to the series here.

Janis was out for some errands this morning while you stayed home to do chores and make lunch. The rest of the grownups were at work, and Damian out back just scrolling on his phone. Nemo kept him company. Oh, and, Kalia was at school. You had dropped her off a couple hours ago.

You were finally done cleaning the living room and the kitchen so you moved on to the rooms, starting with the home office, guests rooms, Kalia’s bedroom and the last being yours and Janis’. The desk was a little messy since Janis had been working on an art piece.

You picked up the canvas first, setting it properly against the wall so it stood out of the way. Then you stacked all her supplies together and put it aside. While you did so, your eyes fell on the canvas again, intrigued by the completely dark greyish background of it.

Nemo had walked in at this point, snapping you out of your daze, making you stub your toe. Then, some items fell to the floor: paint brushes, palette with dried paint, and some photos. Including an ultrasound print. Your eyed went wide and you froze, dropping the items with a clatter. Nemo walked up next to you, concerned. You were in shock, did this mean—

“Hey, honey. I’m home.” Janis’ voice was heard, you turned your head but your vision was out of focus. You gulped as you saw her blurry figure walk towards you, and you were still holding onto that print in your shaky hand.

“Is— is this yours?” You stammered.

It had to be hers. You knew how yours looked like, and they were all in Kalia’s baby book. Also, Janis’ name was on the information section up top. “Ours, actually.” Janis chuckled, you felt the dip in the mattress next to you. You immediately tackled her into a hug, bursting into tears, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve gone with you.”

“Oh, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, silly.” She rubbed your back, voice quivering too.

“How long—” You choked on a sob.

“About five weeks today.” She sniffed, taking in a deep breath.

“Say, what?” Damian gasped. You broke away from the hug, and spotted Nemo nicely sitting by the bed. He stood up now, tailing wagging for a few before he nuzzled his face against your leg. “You’re pregnant?!” Damian exclaimed. Janis nodded in confirmation, trying not to cry herself.

“Oh, sweetie I’m so happy for you.” Damian came into the room and just hugged her. You picked Nemo up as best as you could, ruffling with his fur.

“How’s everything— I mean, oh my God, I wish I could’ve been there. It’s so nerve wracking.”

“Getting to see this reaction was worth holding out.” She chuckled, now cupping your cheek in her hand and wiping the tears away. More just fell anyway. “Everything is perfect.”

You pressed a kiss to her lips, still tearful and in thorough shock. “Good.”

“Oh, don’t cry.” Janis started tearing up too, “Don’t cry, honey.”

“So…I ordered lunch.” Damian broke the silence, “I think I’m gonna take you away because the more you cry, the more likely this woman’s gonna become hysterical because of hormones.” He led you outside to the dining room, giving Janis a minute to calm down. Nemo stayed with her in the meantime and walked out a couple minutes later from the room together.

“Drink some water.” Damian handed you a glass. You took it from him and thanked him, “I’m okay, just surprised. We’ve been anxious about trying again but the fact that we’re literally so lucky to have it work out?”

“I hear you.” Damian nodded, squeezing your free hand, “It’s a huge deal, sweetie. I get that.” He looked at Janis next, “Food will be here in about ten minutes. You better eat.”

“Of course she will, what do you mean—”

“This girl texted me earlier, ‘hahah, no biggie, but um, I might’ve passed out for a second.’”

“I did eat, it was due to blood pre—”

“What?” You could swear your heart stopped for a moment.

“I’m okay, I swear. Regina made sure I got checked out.” Janis assured then quickly pursed her lips together.

“I’m sorry— is my sister here? And I didn’t know?” You gasped, nearly choking on the water.

“It was meant to be a surprise! I’m sorry! She’s coming over tonight for dinner with Jace and Cady.”

That evening, while Carl, Grace and Akoni were busy in the kitchen, your sister arrived with her family. You scrambled to get off the couch to say hi to them, only to be met with another sight that completely made your brain glitch out. You looked between your sister and that infant Cady was holding. She just smirked and gestured for you to come over and give her a hug. You did, and you were sobbing. “My God, how many things am I the last one to know?”

“Hi, guys.” Janis walked over calmly.

“There’s nothing else, I promise.” Regina hugged you tightly, “God, I missed you all so much.” Cady was setting the baby down in the carseat when Kalia came over to take a peek. “What’s the baby’s name?” She asked.

“Marlowe.” Your sister answered and you froze, she broke away from the hug and looked at you, “I named her after you.” You were a mess today. “Okay— wow.” You sighed shakily, “Oh my God I need to stop crying.”

“She’s so cute.” Kalia knelt down next to the carseat to look at her, “Hi baby.” Then so did you while they moved on to talk to Janis.

“How are you feeling? Any better?” Once that question came out the other grownups in the kitchen— especially Akoni, were worried.

“Well, I feel like—”

“What’s going on?” Akoni asked.

“Oh, this girl fainted today because of her blood pressure.” Damian said back casually.

“Dude!” Janis smacked him.

“Okay, ow.” Damian glared at her jokingly.

“Aleka Janis ‘Imi’ike, you better tell me what’s going on. You did what?!” Akoni hurried over. Janis sighed exasperatedly while he started to ramble in Hawaiian, now you couldn’t really understand him.

“Dad, I’m fine.” Janis exhaled deeply.

“You don’t just faint.”

“Dad, I’m pregnant.” Janis blurted it out, somehow annoyed— thanks, hormones.

“Oh, my God.” He mumbled. Janis nodded, “Five weeks today, found out a few days ago.” “Oh, that is amazing. I’m so happy for you guys.” Kalia gasped, “You are?!” “Yes, my love.” Janis chuckled at her excitement, putting an arm around her as the kid now snuggled up in her side.

“How are you feeling, though? Like, are you nauseous at all?” Asked Akoni.

“A little bit, but to me that’s very good considering that I know how much worse it could get.”

He hummed, “Dinner should be okay for you, luckily. But God, I can’t believe you didn’t tell anyone for that long.”

“It’s been like what, four days, Dad.” Janis squinted, trying not to laugh, “I could barely believe it myself.”

Dinner went by quickly, then Janis was ready to head to bed. She was exhausted, and you knew how that felt like. After getting Kalia tucked into bed for the night, you headed to yours and Janis’ room to find her laying on her back and staring at the ceiling. She heard you walk in though, so she looked at you. “Hey.”

You smiled back, “Hey, Jan. Feeling okay?”

“Yeah, just…couldn’t fall asleep just yet.”

“Why, couldn’t sleep without me?” You joked playfully.

“Maybe.” She smirked.

“I still have to brush my teeth but I will be right with you.” You laughed lightly. Once you were in bed, you got under the covers and wrapped your arms around her carefully from behind. She snuggled closer, letting out a chuckle, “What, are you gonna cry again?”

“No.” You bit back a laugh.

“Good.” She teased, “I can’t stand seeing you cry.”

“I’m not gonna cry.” You chortled. Right then, Nemo jumped into bed with you two, laying at the foot of the mattress. “Go to sleep, Jan. G’night.”

She pressed a kiss to your shoulder, “Good night, honey.”

————

Janis’ face scrunched up in distaste when she saw you reaching for a can of tuna in the pantry. “No fish for you, then.” You retracted your hand, flashing her a sheepish smile, “Didn’t notice it started to make you sick this morning.”

She sighed dramatically, “It’s hard. I loved eating fish and now it just makes me sick. Sorry, I know it was my turn to drop Kalia off this morning.”

“Don’t even apologise, Jan. I get it.” You walked closer to her, standing right in front of her and handing her face in your hands. Her eyes were bloodshot and teary from throwing up. your heart clenched at the sight as you stroked her cheek. “Remember to take your meds once your stomach has settled down, okay?” You reminded.

“I will, honey.” Janis grabbed your hand and squeezed it before she brushed her thumb over the knuckles. While she sat down at the dining table to wait, you poured her a glass of water first. It was still quite early in the day in Janis’ terms, barely half an hour after nine in the morning— so you obviously just let her sit down and do nothing at all. Not to mention the nausea she was experiencing at the moment was overwhelming. She was still taking it way better than you did during your pregnancy. Nemo spotted her sitting at the table and decided to sit next to her. “Hi, buddy.” Janis noticed that he was there, “Good morning!” She bent down to give him head scratches which he greatly appreciated. “I’ll play with you later, after my meds, deal?”

Nemo barked and wagged his tail, as though agreeing. “You’re a cutie.” She mumbled.

“What do you want for breakfast?”

“Nothing.” Janis groaned dramatically, “Maybe brunch if I don’t feel like my stomach will make me waste food.” You rest your hand on her thigh, thumb stroking her skin. “Have you eaten yet? You better have.” She squinted at you. “Mm, yeah.” You nodded, chuckling at her expression, “Had some oatmeal with almond butter and banana.”

“Ooh.” She gasped softly, “That sounds good, maybe I’ll have some of that later. Do we have chocolate chips?”

“Yeah, we do. Auntie just restocked the baking stuff yesterday.” You pressed a kiss to her cheek, “I hope the nausea goes away fast today.”

“Oh, me too.” She leaned onto you, “Watch a movie with me?”

“Of course.” You smiled, putting an arm around her.

She grabbed the remote to pick out a movie and hit play. “My boobs hurt.” Janis sulked. “I know, babe.”

“I’m hating that.” Janis continued, “Why must they be so sore?”

“We can’t really control that, Jan. Increased oestrogen.” You held her tighter.

She hummed, focusing on the movie entirely. Halfway through, she was now laying down with her head in your lap. “I’m not nauseous anymore.” She grinned. “Then you need your meds.” You reminded, “I’ll go help you get them.”

“Don’t leave meeee.” She pouted.

“You need to take them soon. Aukai said to take them in the morning.”

“It won’t even be a minute babe, come on.” Your palm caressed her abdomen, “You can even see me. All your meds are in the kitchen cupboard.”

“Fine.” She sulked, looking at you with doe eyes. “It’s just two pills.”

“Don’t act cute with me.” You warned jokingly, grabbing her meds and going back to place them on the coffee table before refilling her glass of water. After taking the pills, Janis played with Nemo for a bit as promised. Halfway through the movie, Janis decided she wanted to nap. Well, she didn’t even say anything and just fell asleep. “Do you want to nap in bed?” You asked, running a hand through her hair. Janis only mumbled and snuggled closer to you— as if that was even possible with her cheek already pressed up against your lap. “You’re comfy here?” You continued, your palm naturally finding its way to her abdomen and resting on it. She smiled, a sleepy look on her face as her eyes were barely open, “Yeah.”

“Good. Rest up.”

Nemo understood somehow and played on his own after that.

You wound up finishing the movie but fell asleep too by the end of it. You were only out for like half an hour then got up from the couch after making sure Janis was laying down properly and had a blanket draped over her. Though she got a little whiny when she didn’t feel you near her anymore. But, you still had chores to do, with the first on your to-do list being cleaning the bathrooms. Someone came home while you were cleaning the first bathroom— it was definitely Damian. The rest of them were at work. He came looking for you too. “Hey, what’s up?”

“You know I can do that, right?” He squinted. “You look tired.”

“I know, but I’m not tired.”

“Yes, you are. You’ve been doing just about everything and being so worried about Janis.”

“Can you blame me?” You sighed, dropping the brush, “I just…don’t want what happened to me to happen to her if it means keeping her safe for a few more weeks until things are more stable.”

“Sweetie, she’s doing great.” Damian pursed his lips together, not wanting to sigh. He would have guessed that you were still going to be thinking about possibilities like miscarriages. “But I know where you’re coming from, even then, trust her, trust your doctor. Everything is going like she said it would.”

You nodded, “I know.”

“Let me clean the bathrooms. You go take a nap with her.” Damian nudged. “I’ll make lunch too and wake you guys up when it’s ready.”

“Alright.” You gave in, “She wants oatmeal with almond butter, bananas and chocolate chips.”

“Got it, honey. Go get some sleep.” Damian shooed you away. You washed your hands then headed back outside to be with Janis.

Once awake from her nap, Janis happily ate her requested meal while chatting with Damian. “Are you going to pick Kalia up?”

“Yeah, she’s still out and you need to be careful.”

“Hey.” Janis sulked, “I can come with.”

“If you want.” Damian shrugged. “You’re not nauseous anymore?”

“Nope.”

“Lightheaded?”

“No, dude. I feel right as rain.”

“Okay then, we’ll go together.”

————

The second Kalia saw Janis, the girl sprinted to her. “Mommy! Hiiii!”

“Hi, my love.”

Damian was waiting in the car, and once they got in, Kalia started telling them about her day. “Ooh, um you’ve been liking sour candies so I traded my Swedish Fish with Natasha for Sour Patch Kids.”

“Oh, honey, you didn’t have to do that.” Janis gasped softly, taking the mini pack of sour gummies from her, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiled and snuggled up with Janis.

“You wanna share ‘em?” Janis laughed, wrapping her arm around the 6-year old.

“Okay.” Kalia shrugged, “Did you have a good day too?”

“I did, sweetie. It was fun, got to sleep in and play with Nemo for a bit.”

“Did you make mama take a nap again, Uncle Damian?” She leaned forward, asking knowingly.

“I did, and what about it?” Damian joked.

“She doesn’t really like naps.” Kalia noted, “She must’ve been not happy about that.”

“Oh, honey. Trust me, she was tired.”

Kalia crossed her arms on her chest, making Janis cackle. “Come on, man. Back me up on this.” He glanced at Janis.

“I know, but she’s so cute!” Janis gushed, “Here, eat this.” Janis held the piece of candy by Kalia’s lips. She ate it and muttered a thank-you.

“What are we having for lunch?”

“Um, I ordered a pizza.” Damian answered proudly, “I think you’ll love it.”

The car ride home was relatively short, but Kalia gleefully took over Damian’s Spotify for all of ten minutes. Once the car was parked, Kalia got out and rushed to look for you. She spotted you in the kitchen making tea and immediately hugged you from the side, “Hi, mamaaaaa.”

You gasped, “Oh, my gosh. Hi, my love. How was school?”

“It was gooood. I traded my Swedish Fish for Sour Patch Kids so mommy could have them.”

“You did?” You smiled, even she caught on that Janis had been craving a ton of sour candy and food.

She nodded, “Did you have a nice nap?”

“Well, you know me, babe. Not a big fan of naps.” You snickered, “Go wash up and come back out for lunch, yeah?”

“Okay, mama.”

As Kalia disappeared into her room, Janis came up to you next. “Hi, baby.” Janis pressed a kiss to your shoulder.

“Hi.” You turned around to face her, “You had lunch?”

“Yep, oatmeal.” She said, “How’s the pain?”

You inhaled deeply, letting out a bit of a sigh, “It’s…the same. Like last night.” You screwed your eyes shut and shook your head, “Sorry. I shouldn’t be—”

“Don’t apologise. Never apologise for that, you’re handling your thing, I’m handling mine…but we’re always gotta have each other’s backs, honey.”

You turned back around to grab your mug of tea, giving her nothing but a nod. “Did you take another dose at all after the first one last night?”

Damian, seeing that you and Janis were talking, gave Kalia her lunch once she walked back out. “I did, no difference.” You answered simply and sat down next to Kalia to have some food too. “That’s okay.” Janis replied, and was honestly bummed that was the case. You shifted your focus onto Kalia, letting her basically talk your ear off. And honestly? That was your go-to when you needed something else to focus on than the pain in your abdomen. Or your back too, sometimes. Your leg pain from sciatica flares used to be the worst thing ever, but ever since your new diagnosis, that became the least of your problems.

After lunch, you helped Kalia with her homework in her room while Janis and Damian hung around in the kitchen chatting.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Janis blinked. “Um, well I’ve been thinking about names…it’s a little early, I know. But I’ve got some time on my hands.”

“Hey, you do you, sweetie.” He laughed, “So…can I hear ‘em?”

“You know what’s weird? All the dreams that me and y/n have had while pregnant, the babies are never boys.”

“Maybe that’s just a thing. Like, y’all are just girl moms, you know?”

Janis nodded, “Okay, anyway. y/n’s all for Hawaiian names so I thought of Meilani and Mahina for girls. For boys…I don’t know why they all start with M, don’t ask.”

Damian chuckled.

“I only have one. Makoa.”

“That’s fine, Jan.”

“It’s like, I just couldn’t think of any. But for girls? I got so many ideas. Even middle names— tons.”

“Maybe you just have a feeling it’s going to be a girl.” Damian told her, “That’s cool. I vote for Meilani.”

“y/n did too.” Janis laughed, “She chose Olivia for a middle name.”

“That’s pretty.” Damian nodded.

“I know.” Janis continued, a bright smile tugging at her lips, “It means ‘olive tree’, ‘olive’. But um, too us— well, or her, Olivia is always going to be that character on TV she loved. She wants the baby to have that same badass energy, which honestly, hell yes. I love that idea.”

“Maybe if it’s a boy, y’all could consider Benson.”

Janis burst into a laughing fit but then her face abruptly turned serious, “Wait that’s actually pretty good.”

“Why’d you laugh so much then?” Damian asked, curious.

“I know you were referring to Olivia Benson, but the first Benson that came to mind was Freddie Benson— from iCarly.”

“He’s not that bad.” Damian snorted.

“Sure, but I’d rather my child be associated with that particular police captain than a web show nerd. Although both are fictional characters.”

Damian shrugged as a comfortable silence lapsed between them. While the two best friends soon continued chatting, the patter of Nemo’s feet on the wooden floor could be heard in the distance as he departed the living room and began to look around for you. Quickly, he found himself in Kalia’s bedroom with you. “Hi, buddy.” You saw Nemo walk in. He laid down in Kalia’s bed in the space between you and Kalia. She ruffed with his fur.

“We’re almost done with the homework.” You told her.

“Yup.” Kalia nodded, filling in the next blank on her worksheet, “Mama, is this answer correct?”

You looked at her work, “Yes, baby. Good job.”

Kalia smiled brightly, satisfied with her work, “Can I go to Maia’s birthday party?”

“When is that?”

“Her Dad said next Sunday.”

“That should be fine, I’ll talk to mommy though? Make sure she doesn’t have anything planned?”

“Okay, mama.”

Kalia’s homework was done in less than an hour, then she said she was too sweaty so she wanted to take a bath. You grabbed her towel for her and watched her pick out her own clothes. “You got it?”

“Yessss.” Kalia smiled, “Thank you for helping me with my homework, mama.”

“Anytime, my love.” You kissed her head and off she went to the bathroom to shower. In the meantime, you went looking for Janis and asked Nemo to come with you. He followed you right at your heel.

“Hi, honey.” Janis heard you behind her, walking.

“Hey.” You slid into the chair next to hers and held onto her hand. Nemo went over to where his toys were and grabbed one of them in his mouth before returning to you. He’d grabbed his favourite little pig plush. You chuckled when he dropped it on your lap.

“You wanna play?”

He barked. “Fetch?”

He barked again. In comparison to Nemo’s current size, the toy was tiny. But, it was one of the few toys he had picked out himself when you and Janis took him out to the store to buy his food and supplies. You tossed the small toy and watched him scamper away, excited to fetch the toy back for you. Of course, as usual, that went on for quite awhile until he decided that he was bored. Then, he plopped down next to you instead. “Bored now?” Janis laughed. “Seems like it.” You hummed, “How you doin’?”

“I’m good,” Janis pressed a kiss to your cheek. You kissed her back. Janis continued, “Just been chatting with Damian, throwing around some names to see which ones sound better, things like that.”

You sulked just slightly, “Still no dreams with any names yet?”

Janis laughed, amused by your expression, “We have time, it’ll come. If not, I’m sure we’ll have a blast choosing it. We already have some solid choices, honey.”

You pecked her on the lips and smiled, eyes scrunched into the shape of tiny crescents. It seemed that Janis mirrored your expression. “Oh, Kalia asked if she could go to Maia’s birthday party. Next Sunday.”

“Of course she can! Why not?”

“I just wanna be sure you weren’t planning on having us go anywhere.”

Janis nodded in understanding, she’d made surprise plans before which none of you knew about until you were all about to leave the house, with the only knowledge being ‘we’re going somewhere’.

“Remind me again, Maia is…” Janis sighed quietly, mentally sifting the names of the first grader’s classmates.

“She has two Dads.” You reminded her.

“Got it.” Janis nodded swiftly, then popped up from the chair like she just remembered about a task she forgot to do. You panicked slightly, looking at her with wide, concerned eyes. Janis turned on her heel to make her way over to the pantry, grumbling to herself as she rummaged the cupboard.

“What are you looking for?”

“Aha!” She gasped, victorious, coming out from behind the dark, slightly creaky wooden door with a partially eaten bag of none other than her beloved snack— li hing mui.

“Oh thank god.” You mumbled. Damian chuckled quietly and patted you on the back, “Don’t worry.”

“You want one?” She offered, taking off the plastic snack clip. The bag crinkled as she eagerly dug into it. You declined, it wasn’t really your thing unless you needed it. Like, when you were sick and nauseous. It was your saving grace. You stepped over to the fridge and got yourself a can of diet coke, then the pantry for some pretzels.

“You guys never change.” Damian remarked.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, yeah?” Janis offered him the snack too, but he declined as well, “More for me.”

By the time the sun had set, the rest of the family had come home from their days at work, promptly filling the empty space with so much warmth with just their presence alone. Dinner was shared over some work anecdotes, laughs and Kalia’s sheer excitement of being able to attend the birthday party of one of her friends. Nothing spectacular happened, just the everyday things. Everyday conversation. But that was life, most calm, quiet maybe a little boring. Other times were more exciting.

Janis was excused from chores after Carl and Grace’s insistence— and Akoni watched her like a hawk to make sure she didn’t move a muscle. Janis grumbled, but her father didn’t care. “You need rest.”

“Dad, I’ve been getting plenty of rest.”

“I know. But it’s good to get more rest right now, you look tired.” Akoni answered calmly, “Morning sickness takes a toll.”

“Damian suggested Benson for a name.” Janis abruptly changed subjects.

The man squinted, looking at his daughter like she was joking. Except she wasn’t. “Do you…like it?”

Janis was trying so hard not to cackle at the look on his face, “Be honest. What came to mind first when you heard the name?”

“That guy from the show you and Regina used to be obsessed with.” Akoni shrugged.

“Seeee.” Janis motioned dramatically, “That’s the wrong Benson.”

“Hey! You said you thought it was pretty good.” Damian retorted.

“Yeah until I thought about this: I don’t want kids coming up to my child going, ‘In 5, 4, 3, 2’, Hubbard.”

“Talk about mood swings.” Damian rolled his eyes, focusing on his phone again.

“You don’t get to judge. I’m growing life here.” Janis threw a forgotten fruit snack at his forehead.

“Ew, what the hell is that?”

“Looked like a fruit snack.” Janis grinned cheekily.

“Why is it just on the couch?”

“I don’t know, between puking my guts up, and nearly fainting, I think I deserve some grace.” Janis snarled.

“Geez, I was just joking.”

Janis mumbled, mocking him.

“Where’s your wife?” Damian flashed a sickening sweet smile her way, making her cackle.

“She is taking a bath, after she’d tucked in Kalia for the night.” Janis shrugged.

“She’s taking a bath? In this humidity?”

“Well? If hot baths alleviate her symptoms and pain, and let her get some good sleep, who am I to stop her?”

“Did anybody remember to go refill her prescription?” Damian brought up. Janis cursed under her breath, “Shit.”

“Aaand, I’m going tomorrow.” Damian said, “Relax, you goof. Go get ready for bed, it’s getting late.”

🏷️Tag list:

@arandomeee @ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartandstuff @pda128

💭A/N:

They’re back! In their true chaotic fashion. It’s honestly all over the place, I lost my motivation for this for like a week, I don’t know. But enjoy, because next chapter will be angst🫠

[nostomannia]

“Fancy seeing you here.”

“Oh, hey. I could say the same to you.” Solita looked up from the supplies she carried in her arms, smiling at the guy who she almost passed without even realizing. A friend with benefits she had met. He helped pass the time, though all he really did with her around was inflate his own ego. 

He glanced over the items in her arms. New paint brushes, paint, paint thinner. Solita's usual runs. “I didn’t know you painted.” He commented.

“‘Course I do, ’s my job.” She says curtly, starting to walk again. She had things to do, and getting caught up in conversations wasn’t in her schedule.

The guy was a little surprised that she didn’t want to stop and talk. “...You’ve never mentioned this.” He commented, following after her.

“You never asked,” she said, a playful shrug punctuating her words.

“I wouldn’t have taken you as the artsy type. You don’t really have the vibe for it.”

“Artsy type? ‘The vibe for it?’ Am I supposed to walk around in paint-splattered clothes ‘n quote Picasso ‘r some shit?”

He held his hands up in mock surrender at her words but was clearly amused. “No, you’re just more… Spirited than I’d expect a painter to be. You’re someone who’s into loud parties and bad decisions. Not sitting around and painting flowers or whatever.”

“Flowers?” She scoffed. “For your information, I make bad decisions and good art, thank you.”

He smirked, infuriatingly entertained by her bite. “I dunno, it just seems… Niche.” “Lots of people paint.” She said, shaking her head. “It ain’t some secret society.”

“Well, it’s niche for you.” He quipped matter-of-factly.

Her brows knit, pausing to see if he’d retract his words. “Not everyone’s interested in armchair philosophy or whatever the hell you do t’ keep that stick in your ass.” 

He blinked, caught off-guard. After a moment of hesitation, he cleared his throat. “Well… How does it make you money?”

She hummed thoughtfully, building a list in her head of everything she does. “A lot. I do commissions, I sell prints ‘n original paintings, sometimes do the occasional mural.”

“What, are you some modern artist? The kind who splashes paint on a canvas or money launders by selling a black canvas under the guise of some grand meaning?” 

“That’s a shallow view of contemporary art.” Solita's step hesitated, her lips curving into a sharp smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “And what if I was? Would it matter?”

“So you are one of those kinds, huh?”

She glanced at him sideways. “Y’mean the kinda’ artist who doesn’t have time to debate th’ value of art with someone who doesn’t care about it? Yeah, that’s me.” Her tone danced between amusement and irritation. “If you must know, I focus on a more realistic style. Portraits, landscapes. But I tend to prefer more candid subjects, but whatever people ask for is usually what happens.” 

“Realistic, huh?” he said, trying to match her pace. His tone carried a forced enthusiasm. The kind that said he thought he was clever for keeping up the conversation. “I guess that makes sense. You don’t really strike me as the type to try and come up with some deep, hidden meaning for a painting.”

Solita stopped abruptly, forcing him to halt and nearly trip into her. She turned, tilting her head like she was studying him, deciding whether or not he was worth explaining herself to. “Excuse me?” she said, her voice measured.

“It’s- you know, it’s straightforward, not-... not brainy. No need to give it any meaning.”

“Brainy?” She repeated her voice level, unsure if this was some kind of backhanded compliment or not. “You think what I do is just... what? Painting what you see?”

“Well... yeah. You don't really have to think about it, it's just there in front of you.”

“Huh. That’s funny.” She said lightly. “I spend hours plannin’ everything in a painting- composition, posing, lightin’, color theory. And don't get me started on detailin’ or finding references.” She tilted her head, her voice carrying the faintest trace of sarcasm. “But sure, I guess it doesn’t take much smarts if you say so.”

“I mean, I wasn’t saying it doesn’t-”

She cut him off with a dry chuckle. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Like I said, realism’s my thing. Not everyone gets it.”

For a moment, he looked like he might apologize. Instead, he stepped closer, attempting to change the subject as his smile returned. “You’re so mysterious, Solita. Every time I think I’ve got you figured out, you surprise me.”

Her eyes turned up to meet his, her smile vanishing. “I’m not mysterious.” She said, her voice steady and low. “You jus’ don’t know me.”

The words hung between them like a weight. An unspoken challenge he wasn’t prepared for. He opened his mouth to respond but couldn’t find the right words.

Finally, she shifted the weight of her supplies and turned away. “Anyways, I gotta go. These paints ain't gonna walk themselves home.”

“Maybe I can come by and see your work sometime?” he called out after a few moments of silence, trying to clear the tension.

She didn’t turn around. “Sure,” she said, her tone light but distant, a polite veneer over a clear no.