#Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions

[usualgangofidiots]

Back cover of MAD #264, July 1986

Artist & Writer: Al Jaffee

[tomoleary]

Al Jaffee "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions at Richard M. Nixon High" Original comic art for Mad #268 (EC, Jan. 1987)

[vintage-tech]

Truly a genius, and I read somewhere that there was only one issue in all those years he didn’t make a Fold-In for. I liked his articles more than the Fold-Ins, because the guy had an amazingly creative mind and awesome drawing style.

[thisamericanlush]

Happy 102nd birthday to Al Jaffee, one of the greatest living artists and comedians

[ilivelikeimtrying]

Okay but Nimona would defs print this on a shirt and give it to Amb after he earns their trust as a gag gift.

Like, she does it with intent of course (laughing evilly as she hands it to him) and as a joke, and while Ballister is sighing and face palming Ambrosius actually really loves it.

He starts wearing it often.

[seumyo]

BAKUGOU KATSUKI ✰ 8:46

“Do you have dimples?”

Bakugou doesn’t understand it himself, but you always find your way back to his house after your first visit—asking these out-of-the-blue questions that seem to have no end to them. It’s like a curse has befallen him, one that follows him wherever he goes.

For a moment, his eyes snap in your direction, his head tilting ever so slightly to the side, though his intense glare never once wavers. He didn’t know what the hell you were getting at, and he wasn’t sure if he had the strength to even want to know why you were asking about something so random.

Honestly, he should be used to it by now. But the thing is, he isn’t, because sooner or later you’ll be popping out of nowhere with another of your pointless questions.

“Hah?”

“I asked, do you have dimples?” you repeated.

His eye twitches at the repeated question, and as much as he’d like to give you a snappy remark to get you to stop, he can’t seem to come up with one. So, for the time being, he decides to humor you (and hope for the best that you drop it and move onto another topic).

“Why the hell are you asking?”

“Because Kaminari and I made a bet whether you have dimples or not. I went with yes, you do have them—even if it’s a singular dimple, but Kaminari says otherwise,” you explained, tapping your finger softly against the coffee table.

He scoffs at the childish reason. “And what makes you think I do have one?”

“A hunch,” you said, shrugging your shoulders. “I also have just one.” You smiled, showing off your obvious singular dimple on your right cheek.

Bakugou glances at your dimple for a brief moment, eyes scanning over your face and the way that the dimple seemed to perfectly dip into the soft skin of your cheek. He almost found himself entranced for a moment, but his gaze returned to your eyes as he huffed out in mock disinterest.

He was about to dismiss your hunch—maybe just flat-out refuse to even show you—or come up with a lie. But Bakugou Katsuki wasn’t a liar.

“What happens if you win the bet?”

“I get 3000 yen,” you answered.

That’s a lot, he thought.

“I can pay you 3000 yen to shut the fuck up and stop with the useless questions.”

“There’s no fun in that!”

He scoffs again as he leans back against the sofa, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at your stupidity. He eyed you for a moment, his head tilting to the side as he sighed. “And what happens if you lose the bet?”

“He gets 3000 yen.”

Bakugou almost wanted to laugh at the fact that you were putting so much faith and money on a simple guess, but he managed to hold back on the amused expression and forced himself to remain calm and unbothered.

He leaned back a bit more, relaxing against the plush seats, letting out a mocking “tch” before he said, “What if I don’t show you if I have a damn dimple or not?”

“Please? Oh my god, Bakugou. Don’t do this to me now! Kaminari’s going to do a ‘victory dance’ when he finds out he won by default,” you half-whined.

He was about to give you his final choice when suddenly you started whining at him. Bakugou rose an eyebrow at you, lips quirking to a frown. As idiotic as it is to him, it looks like it was quite a serious matter to you.

“Tch. Whatever.”

You threw your hands to your face, groaning. “Pretty please, with a cherry on top? Spare me some sympathy—and be a team player for once!”

He found himself fighting a scowl at the way you acted. It was somewhat different this time around, and it was making him feel weird. Damn it. You’re a goddamn nuisance.

“Alright, fine. Just—” He motioned with his hand for you to come closer, an almost annoyed expression on his face. “If you tell anyone else about this other than Dunce Face, I’ll make sure you don’t ever see the next sunrise.”

“That doesn’t sound heroic at all—but yes, of course!” you cheered. “Just a little smile, and I shall confirm the goods.”

“Yeah, yeah. Shut up,” he muttered under his breath, already regretting giving into your stupid request but at the same time knowing that he would never let Kaminari win against you in all circumstances possible.

He let out a huff and hesitantly let the sides of his own lips quirk up into a half-assed attempt at a smile, but from the way it was so rigid, it looked more like a painful grimace.

You gave him a confused, somewhat flat look in return. “Dude, you look like you’re about to shit yourself—mmph! ” You didn’t get to finish what you were saying as Bakugou’s palms immediately squished your cheeks together to shut you up.

“Oh shut it, dipshit,” Bakugou grumbled, his grip on your cheeks tightening ever so slightly as he forced you to pout your lips. “You were asking for a smile. I give one, and you wanna give me smart ass remarks about it?”

“I didn’ even gwet toh shee anythin’! That’s how bwad ith was,” you muffled out through pouty lips.

“Are you gonna keep yapping and bitching about what you asked for, or are you gonna accept my goddamn smile?”

“Fine, fine!” you yielded, pushung his hands away from your face. “Do it one more time, and I’ll actually check this time.”

He narrowed his eyes, almost as if he were wondering if you were going to actually do as you said or go against it and keep making smart-ass comments. But as you yielded, he let out a sigh and decided he’d rather just get this done and over with. 

Less hassle for him.

He repeated his ‘smile’ from before, which looked more like a forced sneer, and he waited for your verdict. This was his last straw; he was going to murder you (not).

You had to hold back your laughter but failed to do so. “I really can’t— Bakugou, please! ” you mused, hitting his shoulder playfully. “Your ‘smile’ reminds me of that time Kirishima had to hold the biggest shit before the bell rings.”

That caught Bakugou off guard. He remembered the memory of Kirishima’s panicked expression and the weird waddle he’d walked around in as he desperately tried to find a bathroom made Bakugou snort under his breath.

“Oh my god, you’re laughing!” you gawked. “And have a dimple! Just a singular one, like mine! We’re matching.”

There it was. A singular dimple on his left cheek.

Bakugou tried to regain his lost composure and let out a scoff in an attempt to mask the slight tint of pink that reached the tip of his ears. He forced his hand onto your face, shoving you (lightly, if he may add) away from him to prevent you from getting another look at his dimple.

“It’s not a worldwide discovery, dumbass. I can fucking laugh if I want to, and it’s just a fucking indent on the cheek.”

“Still cute,” you shrugged, pulling up your phone to text Kaminari. “I need to let Kami know that I won the bet, then we celebrate with bubble tea— my treat!”

“Hey wait— You—“

He tried to protest against your sudden celebration, wanting to tell you that he wasn’t going to let you treat him for anything. This whole damn thing started because of a stupid bet, and he doesn’t really find joy in gaining something from it, but as you pulled out your phone and began to text Kaminari, he sighed and leaned back again with his arms crossed tight against his chest.

“Whatever. You’re fucking annoying.”

“Kay,” you answered. “Also, your actual smile is pretty charming, if you ask me. It’s different from the usual sneer you have on your face. That’s just my opinion, though.”

Bakugou’s face grew a bit warm at your unexpected compliment, but he quickly tried to hide it and turned his head to avert his gaze away from you. His mouth opened to reply with a snappy remark or something like that, but he found himself hesitating.

He eventually scoffed and muttered a low, “Tch. Stop spouting nonsense.”

“Bakugou Katsuki has a singular dimple,” you sing-songed aloud, though you knew that no one would hear since his parents weren’t even home.

Bakugou felt his eyes twitch at your teasing, resisting the urge to tell you off and even going as far as to just punch your shoulder lightly. “Shut the fuck up, dipshit.”

He later found out that there was no bet, and you had just made up the whole scenario to confirm your curiosity. That Bakugou Katsuki does have a dimple, a singular one at that.

Could you imagine how furious he was?

SEUMYO © 2024, PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, PLAGIARIZE, MODIFY OR TRANSLATE.

[kamiversee]

˗ˏˋ My Love Note ´ˎ˗

5 | My hearts light

❧ Synopsis | In which Choso Kamo, your asshole of a best friend, starts to change after you get involved with a rather cheeky cashier, Gojo Satoru.

❧ Content | language, heavy sexual tension, flirting, teasing, taunting, degrading, dry humping, fluff, etc.

❧ Word Count | 6.1k

❧ Pairings | Choso Kamo x f!reader & Gojo Satoru x f!reader.

| Chapters mlist |

——The kitchen seems to fall all too quiet at the sound of Choso’s recently spoken words. With not an ounce of jest present on his face, he just awaits your, usually snappy, response back to him.

Except, this time seemed to be different. You weren’t quick to snap back at him. You were actually caught off guard by his words. And because of that, Choso’s raising a brow and leaning his face down to your level just to check and see if you were okay— all he did was offer you head. What’s the big deal?

“You alright?” Choso hums, raising his hand slightly as if he were about to feel your forehead.

You pull back a bit, “Choso, you just told me you’d give me head if I asked you.”

He glances around as if he didn’t see anything strange about it, “Because it’s true?” Choso scoffs, “Seriously, are you okay? You’re acting like I haven’t said worse before-“

“You’ve never offered me anything like that before,” You cut off, moving to fold your arms as you slightly avoid looking him in the eye.

“Yes, I have,” He huffs, rolling his eyes at you, “But, whatever. Aside from your boyfriend givin’ you head, how was that party?”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Choso,” You reply sternly.

The corner of his lips quirked, “Delusion isn’t contagious, is it? Cause if so, I’m gonna leave this apartment deluded as fu-“

“I’m not delusional!” You cut off for a second time, groaning in frustration, “Me and Satoru are not dating.”

“…Yet,” Choso murmurs, smirking at the way you visibly grow annoyed by him.

A sigh slips past your lips before you finally place your eyes on his again, spotting that stupid teasing smirk of his, “At this point, I can’t tell if you’re rooting for me and him to get together or if you’re just sayin’ shit to piss me off.”

“I’m jus’ sayin’ shit to piss you off,” Choso shrugs, “But you didn’t answer my question. How was the party?”

You give him a blank stare at first, to which he curiously tilts his head. “It was fine. He’s a part of this really rich and important family it seems.”

“Yeah? Well if you get anything outta’ your relationship with him, money would be nice,” Your best friend comments as he gives you a lil’ wink.

“You would say something like that,” You reply, chuckling a bit, “Anyway though, what about you? What have you been up to while I was out?”

Choso shrugs and he moves to take his phone out of his pocket, “I had someone over ‘nd we hung out for a bit, nothing too interesting.”

Your brows quickly lift in surprise, “You had someone over? Who?” Then, you gasp before he can even answer, “Was it a girllll?” You drag out with this happy smile on your face as you near him.

He glances up from his phone and scoffs, “Maybe, why?”

Your entire expression lights up in a mixture of curiosity and joy, “You guys jus’ hung out for a bit? Nothing else?” A sly little smirk spreads across your face.

He stares at your expression, blankly taking in your teasing face, “Yes.” Choso huffs.

“Somethin’ tells me you’re lying,” The way you’re looking at Choso right now has him contemplating a vast many things. He might not admit it too often but he really does like it when you tease him like this.

So, he sighs and pockets his phone again, leaning back against the counter a bit and folding his arms, “Why would I lie? You know I love braggin’ to you about how many times I get laid and you don’t.”

“Riiight, how could I forget…” You hum, looking off to the side for a second before your brows push together, “So like, you didn’t offer to give her head?”

Choso blinks, “Why would I?”

“You just offered it to me…”

“She’s not you.”

“I-,” You choke, “Oh.”

“What?” Choso smirks, “You didn't think I offered head to jus’ everyone, did you?”

Your shoulders rise into a slight shrug, “I don’t know… But like… you weren’t serious, were you?”

His brows lift and he gives you this innocent little stare, “About…?”

“You’d really give me head if I asked?” You hum, the eye contact between you and him palpable.

“That’s what I jus’ said, isn’t it?”

You and him pause once again as you simply stare at one another. After that moment, you swallow and roll your eyes to the side, “We don’t even have that kind of relationship, Cho.”

His face scrunches up a bit, “Two things; one, stop callin’ me that. And two, what do you mean?”

“You know what I mean— we’re best friends.” You emphasize.

That seems to annoy him for whatever reason, “Alright then fuck you.” He scoffs.

“Huh?” Confusion etches its way onto your features quickly, “What’d I do??”

He shrugs, “You jus’ friend zoned me as if we haven’t been something more before.”

“And how’d that work out for us then?” You snap back casually.

He falls quiet.

With a little hum, “Exactly.” You say.

Choso scowls in your direction, “Fuck you.”

“You want to.”

“I don’t.”

Shaking your head and crossing your arms over one another, you glance off to the side, “Seems like delusion actually is contagious after all.”

“Oh yeah? So let’s say I did want to fuck you,” He steps closer and you back up against the kitchen island, “Then what?”

Gulping, you merely gape up at him not knowing what to say. Your brain was short-circuiting all over again, “U-Uhm… Then uh…”

“Would you let me?” He hushes out as his hands move to the counter, carefully trapping you in between it and him. “Hm?”

You stare into his eyes for a second, your face heating up because of how close he is and how intimately he’s looking at you. “No,” You murmur, “I-I wouldn’t.”

“You wouldn’t?” He echoes, narrowing his eyes at you.

The way he looks right now— all close to you, larger frame in front of yours, hair loose and messily framing his face, dark brown eyes pouring into yours like he just couldn’t look away, and voice so low and almost patient with you that it made your knees weak.

You gulp, “I… I don’t know, Choso. Fuck off,” You result in saying as you lift a hand and push him away slightly.

He backs up as you do so and flashes a small smile at you, “Now it’s you ‘don’t know’?”

“If you wanna fuck someone so badly, call that girl you had over,” You try stepping away from him completely as you say that but his reply catches you off guard again.

“I didn’t say I wanted to fuck someone, I said I wanted to fuck you.” Choso clarifies.

As you meet his eyes once more, it’s very slow how he struggles to hold in his laughter. Choso starts chuckling at the look of surprise and confusion on your face before he walks past you completely to exit the kitchen.

“Okay, that one was a lil’ wild, I’m jus’ joking, relax,” He says whilst making his way back toward the living room where he’d been before you got home.

You’re still at a loss for words for a second longer before you snap out of it, “So, you said all that just to mess with me?” 

The sound of you slightly trailing behind him makes him shrug, “For the most part, yeah.”

“For the most part??” You bat your eyelashes at him in disbelief as the two of you soon enter the living room.

Choso quickly plops himself down on the nearest couch and lets out a sigh of relief and you stand not too far away from him with your arms folded. “Yeah, I meant some of the stuff I said.”

“Which part of what you said?” You ask, raising a brow in question.

He looks at you, “Want me to show you?”

At that, you decide to just drop this damn conversation. It was clear that Choso only had plans on teasing you and you were no longer in the mood for it. “Y’know what,” You sigh, “Never mind. I’m gonna go shower, I’ll be in there if you need me.”

He snickers as you quickly turn and walk away from him, his eyes lingering on your back profile-, more specifically your ass, for far longer than he realized up until you hit a corner and disappear from his line of vision.

It was fun teasing you, it’s always been fun teasing you. From high school all the way ‘til now, he doesn’t think he ever wants to stop taunting you. Even though at one point it was definitely you doing more of the teasing… Choso swears he’ll never be shy like he was as a teenager with you again. Even though part of him misses those days.

Y’know, where it was just you and him. Bickering and literally hating each other aside, at least it was just you and him.

Choso’s face twists into a slight scowl at that. Why did he care so suddenly that it wasn’t exactly just you and him anymore? You’ve both gone and dated other people plenty of times so why are things starting to bother him again now? He thinks about this for a few minutes longer before groaning slightly.

Maybe it was just because he forgot what flirting with you was like. After all, he’d only recently gotten out of a relationship so he somewhat forgot what your reactions were like.

That little look in your eyes when you're flustered… Choso tips his head back against the couch and sighs. The softness in your voice when you’re trying to act nonchalant. He swallows thickly the more he thinks. Slowly, Choso lifts his hand to his mouth and gently touches his lips, faintly recalling the feeling of your own on them.

It was years ago but, he remembers it all so vividly. Hearing you gasp his name, soft little whines slipping from your throat, the way your hands clung onto him so desperately, and the way you felt throbbing against his leg-

Shit, why is he thinking about that right now? Choso shakes his head and adjusts the way he’s sitting slightly, clearing his throat and moving to completely distract himself from wherever his mind was going just now.

· ───────── · ꨄ · ───────── ·

Within that time, you were busy getting yourself in and out of the shower. Your mind was quick to draft back over to Gojo and the earlier events of the night.

Even as you exited your bathroom and laid yourself down on your bed, you remembered how he said he’d call you when he got home and yet there were no calls or even texts on your phone. It worried you a bit but you found yourself too nervous to text him.

Your thumb just hovered over his contact in your phone and you couldn’t figure out what to do. In person with him, things always go so smoothly but when it came to calling or texting him, you always found yourself shying away from it. Which is exactly what you do right now, letting out a sigh as you click your phone off and toss it.

You then push up off of your bed and move to throw some clothes on. As you do so, your mind is still on Gojo. You didn’t necessarily want to keep replaying tonight's events but…

Fuck, he was so perfect. Well, aside from the fact that you wanted him to fuck you properly. It kinda leaves you stumped as to why he didn’t. He had no problem fingering you and eating you out like you were his first and last meal. What’d be so different if he had put his cock inside you?

You nearly smile at the thought of it alone. Part of you hates how needy you are for it as if him focusing on your pleasure wasn’t good enough but, well, who could blame you? You felt how hard he was against you, the way he rolled his hips down into yours, groaning into your mouth, and-

Fuck, thinking about it was getting you worked up all over again.

As you finish clothing yourself, you sit on the edge of your bed and glance over at your discarded phone for a few seconds. You debate on calling him yet again but as you recall how adamant he was about not doing anything else tonight… you just sigh and move your gaze to the time.

It wasn’t too late yet and you’d parted ways with Choso roughly an hour ago. He should still be awake, right? You glance at your phone one last time as if you were waiting for it to buzz and for Gojo to capture your attention once more. Alas, your phone remains silent and you groan.

Standing to your feet, you let out a huff as you walk to exit your bedroom. If anyone could help you understand why Gojo refused to go any further tonight, party aside, it would be your manwhore of a best friend Choso Kamo.

Okay, well, he’s not actually a whore but, he does get around a lot when he wants to. Plus he’s a guy, he might understand Gojo’s thought process more than you can.

As such, when you walk out of your room, you’re met with a dark hallway, glancing around the remainder of your apartment to find all the lights off. You hum at the darkness before facing forward again and spotting juuust a bit of light from under Choso’s bedroom door across the hall.

You happily walk forward and knock on his door, waiting a couple of seconds as you hear him let out a dramatic groan followed by a muffled, “What is it?”

“You weren’t about to go to sleep were you?” You call out as you reach for the doorknob.

“Would it matter if I was?�� Choso grumbles.

You chuckle, “Not really, can I come in?”

“No,” He huffs out in response.

“C’mon, I just have a quick questionnn,” You whine, slowly turning his doorknob.

Choso groans dramatically again, “Just text it to me.”

Your eyes roll, “You take like fifteen business days to respond to me.”

“That’s not true.” He argues.

“Yes, it is,” You refute as you press against the door slightly, “I’m coming in.”

He takes a second to reply, trying to come up with some sort of excuse before he hums out a simple, “I’m naked.”

You scoff, “Yeah right.”

“M’not jokin’, I don’t have anything on,” Choso tells you, grinning from where he is in his room.

“Well put somethin’ on because I’m about to open this door.”

He ends up sighing loudly at that, knowing damn well you know he’s not actually naked, “I can’t stand you. Come in.”

You happily push his room door open with a big smile on your face, leaving it nice and wide as you just barely step inside and spot him lying in his bed. “Hi Cho,” You greet with a small wave.

His room is dim, the only source of light coming from his TV that’s to your right, and only his upper half is visible to you— the rest hidden beneath his blanket. Choso’s shirtless so, he wasn’t fully lying when he said he was naked, “Hurry up ‘nd ask your question.” He says impatiently.

“Well, it’s actually less of a question and more of…” You hum in thought for a second as you cross your arms and lean against his doorframe, “Like, I need your advice.”

Choso sends you a look before raising his brow in curiosity, “Okay… what is it?”

“So uh, y’know how I told you earlier that Satoru gave me head…” You start off slowly, earning a small nod from the man across the room. “Well, I-“

“Knew you’d come complainin’ about him,” Choso murmurs to himself loud enough so you could hear.

You pause, “I’m not complaining about him, shut up.”

He chuckles at your response and throws his hands up in defeat, “Yes ma’am. Alright, continue.”

Your eyes linger on him with a slight glare before you sigh, “Does it make sense for him to not sleep with me after givin’ me head?”

Choso shrugs, “Maybe he jus’ doesn’t like you like that.”

“I’m being serious,” You huff.

“Right, right…” He nods, glancing off to think for a second, “Well, you said you two got interrupted so…”

“But see, that’s the thing,” You move to scratch the back of your neck, “He kept going while we were being interrupted so like, why not continue after the fact? Or even after the party?”

Choso hums softly as he thinks, “He probably wants it to be a reoccurring thing.”

You blink, “Elaborate please.”

“Dumbass,” Choso teases, “He didn’t sleep with you today so he can keep you interested in him— y’know, keep you wantin’ more.”

Your brows raise, “Ohhhh, that makes sense-“

“Buuut,” Choso cuts off as he moves to shrug, “If it was me, I’d have fucked you right then ‘nd there cause I know that’s enough to have you running back for more.”

Just like earlier, you choke. After which came the slight drop of your jaw while you stared at your best friend wondering where the hell that came from. He’s been making comments like this all night and it’s starting to throw you off.

Choso steadily looks at you, “What?” He asks, wondering why you look all surprised.

“Why do you keep comparing yourself to him?” You ask in a surprisingly soft tone.

“Elaborate,” He mocks.

“Like earlier, you said you could’ve made me cum more if I asked you for head instead of him.”

He looks around, “Because it’s true?” Choso replies, his tone confused.

“Cho…” You murmur, your eyes narrowing at the man, “Are you-“

“I swear to God if you ask me if I’m jealous of that guy, I’m kicking you out of my room,” Choso cuts off sharply.

You chuckle, the corner of your lips twitching into a smirk, “No, I was gonna ask if you had a crush on me or somethin’... Y’know, like old times?”

He scrunches his face up at that, “The fuck? Hell no.” Choso tells you.

You laugh and lift your hands a bit, “Alright, alright, no need to say it like that. Buuut, if you’re not jealous, and you don’t have some kinda crush on me then…”

He stares at you and you stare at him, both of you waiting for some kinda answer to just pop out.

Up until it hits you, “Wait, Cho…” You utter, narrowing your eyes a bit more.

“Stop callin’ me that,” He huffs.

“You wanna have sex with me, don’t you?” You suddenly throw out there.

Perhaps it was the dim lighting of the room and the way you could barely make out Choso’s expression but you swear his face changed at the sound of that. He didn’t look pissed off or disgusted by that suggestion like he was the first time. If anything, his gaze seemed to darken and his jaw tensed ever so slightly.

Choso doesn’t reply as quickly to that either, as if he had to think about it for a second. His expression became something a bit more serious and he tips his head back against his headboard, swallowing thickly at your question.

You tilt your head to the side and the two of you maintain eye contact with more tension than normal floating in the air. “…Well?” You whisper.

The next thing you’re met with is a pillow to the face faster than you had time to react. You swear you blinked and then a pillow was making contact with your head, followed by an obnoxious laugh from Choso as if you’d just said the most outlandish thing imaginable.

“The hell is wrong with you?” Choso snickers, all the more dying of laughter as you shut your eyes and process the pillow your face was recently met with. “Why would you ask me that? Fuckin’ idiot,” He chuckles.

You slowly open your eyes and look down at the pillow now at your feet, letting out a heavy sigh as you bend over and pick it up. Just as quickly as he’d thrown it at you, you’re lifting it and yourself up and taking those few steps closer to his bed just to whack him with the item as many times as possible.

Choso’s hands go up to stop you from hitting his face and you slightly shift onto his bed just to hit him over and over again.

Huffing in between your continuous hits, “Why’d you throw this at me?” You question before hitting him with the pillow again, “Asshole,” Another hit, “I was,” Another hit, “Askin’ you,” A harder hit, “A genuine,” The last hit ends up passing his arms and hitting him in the face like you wanted to, “Question.”

“It was a stupid ass question-,” He’s cut off by the pillow meeting his face but he just keeps laughing at you, “A-Alright, shit, sorry,” Choso snickers, “Stop hitting me.”

Do you listen to that little request of his? Of course not. Instead, you move further into his bed and continue playfully beating him up with that pillow of his. Choso kinda just takes it for a minute before he grows slightly annoyed and grabs a second pillow, quickly hitting you in your waist with it and knocking you over.

Not that it stops you though. Even as you land on your side, you just launch the pillow forward and it smacks right into his face, making both you and him halt all movements.

Because of the way he was sitting, the pillow just rests on his face and you breathlessly laugh at him, “Bitch,” You huff out victoriously.

Choso snatches the pillow off of his face and tosses it to the side, quick to meet your eyes, “The hell did you jus’ call me?” He scoffs as he tries to reach for that same pillow again, only for you to move and reach for it too.

Both of you end up gripping onto it and you try tugging it out of his hands but fail as Choso jerks both you and the pillow toward him. Which results in you stumbling against him, your body practically on top of his.

Choso smirks as he notices you stop moving, your face stuffed into the pillow that’s now right against his chest, “…Whore,” He mumbles, as if to claim this as his victory now.

You groan and move your hands and legs a bit before you push yourself up, soon finding yourself on all fours right in front of where he’s seated. Your face comes surprisingly close to his as it’s lifted from the pillow and you glare at him, ignoring the close proximity entirely.

“Say that again,” You test, your voice airy from all the movement.

Choso scoffs, “You’re acting like I won’t.”

“Say it then, call me a whore again-“

“Whore,” Choso cuts off curtly, watching as you swallow down your own words, “Yeah, see? Now what, hm?”

You glare at him, “Asshole.”

“Slut.” He argues back.

Your expression goes straight, “Bastard.”

“Cunt,” Choso murmurs with the same expression on his face.

“Piece of shit.”

“Fuckface.”

“What are we, twelve?” You end up sighing as you start leaning away.

Yet, Choso has something else in mind entirely as he carefully reaches for you and his hands meet your waist— soon pulling you toward him. You allow yourself to be repositioned until you’re seated in his lap, your thighs straddling him as you peer into those deep brown eyes of his.

“Were we cursing each other out like this at twelve?” Choso asks, his voice suddenly calmer as he fully catches his breath.

You comfort yourself in his lap like it’s no big deal, shrugging at his question, “I don’t think we knew each other at twelve.”

Choso’s fingers linger on your waist, idly keeping you in place on top of him, “Mh, fair point.”

You nod and both of you get quiet for a moment. You’re all seated on his lap, your spaghetti strap top loosely sitting on you at this point as one of the straps slips down your shoulder, you’d planned to go to sleep soon so you were only wearing shorts and you had no idea how dressed Choso was under the blanket that lay in between your crotch and his.

“Cho…” You eventually murmur out to him.

He leans his head back slightly and sighs, “How many times do I have to tell you to stop callin’ me that?”

You smile, “I’ve been calling you that for years, I know you secretly adore it.”

“I don’t,” Choso argues.

“Is that why you want me to stop saying it? Because you don’t like it?” Your voice is all soft with him again and he finds himself glancing down at your lips as you speak.

“No,” He claims, “I want you to stop saying it because…”

You lean in a bit and tilt your head, “Because what? Does it annoy you?”

Choso sighs, “Quite the opposite, princess.”

Your gaze softens at the mere sound of that pet name, “So what does it do to you then, Cho? Why should I stop calling you that?”

His voice has grown softer too, more mellow with you, more at ease. “Because I asked you to,” Choso replies.

You blink, “But-“

“What’d you really come in here for?” He says to change the subject entirely.

“Huh?” Your brows pinch together, “For advice, remember?”

The man stares at you for a long moment, contemplating things in his head the longer he gazes at you. “So how’d you end up on top of me like this?” Choso practically mumbles, his eyes suddenly dipping down to your frame seated all prettily in his lap.

You scoff, “You pulled me into your lap, Cho.”

“You didn’t stop me,” He reminds you.

That causes you to pause for a moment. Then, you nod slightly and begin to lift yourself up as if you were about to move elsewhere only to be stopped by Choso’s hands tightening on your waist and his fingers digging into your skin as he drags you right back down.

“I didn’t say move,” Choso grumbles.

You send him a look, “You pointed out how I’m sitting on you as if you wanted me to move.”

“If I wanted you to move I would’ve moved you myself.”

“So what do you want then? ‘Cause you’re confusing me right n-“

He cuts you off, “I want you to answer my question. What’d you really come in here for?”

Your lashes bat at him in pure confusion, “I answered you already. I came in here for advi-“

“You could’ve texted me and asked me.”

“You don’t respond fast enough.”

“The longest I’ve gone without answering your text was ten minutes,” Choso deadpans, “And that was only because my phone died so, again, what’d you really come in here for?”

“I don’t understand why you keep asking me that,” You huff, your eyes vexed with even more confusion, “I didn’t feel like texting you so I just walked across the hall to talk to you.”

“Yeah but-“

“Did you want me to come in here for something else?” You interrupt.

That catches him off guard and he pauses. “…What?”

“You heard me.”

Choso scoffs quietly, “What else would I want you in here for?”

You shrug and recall his earlier words and statements, “You’ve been making sexual comments toward me all night.”

He rolls his eyes at that and his head shakes slightly, “I told you I was jus’ messin’ with you.”

“Not about everything you said.”

“Okay? So?” Choso hums, his eyes steady to meet your face once more, “What’s your point?”

The tension in the room is simply building and building at this point, his hands still lightly holding onto your waist.

A sigh slips past you, “What do you want from me, Cho?”

His tongue slips out for a moment just to swipe over his lips, “If I tell you what I want, can I have it?”

Your gaze flickers down to his mouth for less than a second, “Depends on what it is you want.”

“What if it’s you?” Choso finally asks.

You still don’t think he’s being too serious right now so all you do is hum, “Is it?”

“Maybe.”

“Since when?”

“Huh?” Choso blinks.

You’re having a hard time understanding how he’s the one confused right now, “Why do you want me all of a sudden?” You ask.

“I mean like…” He swallows and you notice how his eyes rake all over your face, “Not romantically.”

“Then what? You-,” You pause, “Oh. So… you do wanna have sex with me.”

Your best friend raises a brow, “You’re acting like I said I didn’t.”

“I-,” You cut yourself off again, your voice getting caught in your throat.

“You what?” He says, intrigued by your reaction.

“I uhm…” You’re dumbfounded yet again. What are you supposed to say to that? “Choso…” You whisper, unsure of what to say next.

He smirks, “Hm? What is it? Use your words, princess.”

“Since when do you…”

“Oh, don’t act all innocent now,” Choso sighs, his arms steadily wrapping around your waist and pulling you so that your chest is flush against his, “Y’know I’ve wanted you in that way for years now.”

Your mouth merely opens and closes like a fish out of water as you find yourself at a complete loss of words yet again.

Choso casually stares at your lips and tips his head to the side, “And before you ask me something stupid like ‘what changed’,” He whispers to you, “Only difference between now and any other time before is that I’m not drunk and neither of us is in a relationship.”

Well, shit. He makes a damn good point. Plus, he’s just talking about sex— not actually dating you or anything.

Gulping, you begin to stumble over your words, “C-Choso, I-“

“Don’t act like you don’t feel it,” He sighs, leaning in and tipping his head down past your face.

You tense up as his fingers spread along your back and his lip near your neck, “Feel what?”

“Me,” Choso whispers right against your skin, his breath warm whilst he fights the urge to kiss you.

“I-I can’t just…” You end up trailing off as Choso loses that little battle of self-restraint, his lips just barely pressing into your soft skin.

“Why not?” He mumbles, “I know that’s what you came in here for.”

Your face scrunches up slightly, “What? No, I-“

Choso suddenly nips at your neck and his hands slip down to your hips, “You complained about Gojo not fucking you and now I’m right here.”

You hate the way a gasp exits you the moment he pulls on your hips, “Choso…”

“I know that’s all you want, princess,” He rasps out, planting a kiss under your jaw and catching you by surprise. 

The blanket in between you and him seems thin all of a sudden because you swear you feel some sort of pressure building in between your crotch and his. And you know what that pressure is, you know he’s driving you crazy right now and that deep deep down inside this might’ve been why you really came in here all along.

Your lips part, “I…”

“Lemme give it to you,” Choso offers as his hands guide your hips back and forth once more, providing the slightest bit of friction for you, “If not,” His breath tickles your skin the most he speaks, “Jus’ say stop and you know I will.”

“Cho,” You nearly moan as his nickname leaves your lips.

He smiles against you, “Lift your hips for me, princess,” Choso instructs.

And you do, raising yourself ever so slightly so he can tug that stupid blanket of his out of the way. Then he’s seating you back down onto his lap and this time your eyes simply widen at the way his cock twitches below you.

Only a few layers of clothing lay in between you and him now but you could feel him so vividly already. Hence why you shift your hips forward as if to test the waters, your heartbeat increasing as you swallow thickly.

Choso kisses your neck one last time before his lips move to your ear, “That’s it,” He praises, “C’mon…” His voice was so damn deep, a husky undertone making you so weak as your hips rocked against him, “Jus’ tell me you want it.”

“I don-, hah…” Your breath hitching cuts you off from lying to him.

“You asked me if I wanna have sex with you right?” Choso suddenly recalls.

You nod, “Mhm..”

“I don’t,” He finally answers, smiling a bit, “I wanna have rough sex with you,” He clarifies moments later, gripping onto your hips together as he feels your cunt rubbing against his cock through all the layers of fabric, “Wanna fuck you stupid, make you feel good-, shit,” He gasps as your hips speed up the more he talks, “Wanna… hahh, fuck… Can we-“

“Yeah,” You breathe out quickly, glancing down to watch his cock grow hard against you as you grind on him.

Choso almost chokes, “Yeah?” He echoes.

You nod, blinded by the lust and hormones that’s taken over you, “Uhuh.”

“Say it, princess,” He demands, “Tell me you want it-“

“I want it, Cho,” You murmur as your gaze lifts to his face, “I want you to make me feel good.”

He throws his head back at that and a deep groan leaves his throat. Choso’s grip on your hips is almost bruising and you start to feel the way he lifts his hips up slightly to meet your movements. Both of you gasp at the same time as you grind against him the right way and your mind kinda just goes blank.

“Choso, please-,” You couldn’t even get the rest of the plea out before his lips were crashing into yours.

One of his hands went to your neck as he held you tightly, tugging your lips back on his every time you tried pulling away from him. Choso’s lips were hot and haste against yours, his tongue soon to slide into your mouth.

He’s moaning as soon as his tongue hits yours and you’re whining against him. It was so fast and messy, eagerness laced into every little movement. The fingers wrapped around your throat squeeze slightly and your whines get louder against him.

Oh he was so unbelievably hungry for you. He hadn’t felt your lips on his in years and he forgot that kissing you turned him on to a different degree.

“Fuuck,” Choso rasps into your mouth, that husky pitch making your hips stutter in pace. “Don’t stop,” He says, “Need this-, need you.”

He was just mindlessly babbling against you but your cunt was dripping because of it all. The hand on your hip slips up under your shirt and Choso’s steadily working it up, his fingertips warm against your bare skin.

Choso’s cock was aching beneath you, wildly twitching as you rocked yourself back and forth against him. His hips bucked up against you and he swore his eyes were about to roll to the back of his head when your hands suddenly went to his chest and you pushed him back against his headboard.

His breath hitches and he loses his grasp on you completely. Choso gapes up at you confused for less than a second before you’re tugging your shirt up and tossing it elsewhere. He doesn’t even process the fact that you weren’t wearing a bra because he just wants your lips again.

As such, he’s leaning forward, grabbing your waist, and pushing you back as he ends up on top of you. Then Choso’s rolling his hips down into you, finding your wrists and pinning them up above your head, panting, his eyes low-lidded on yours, and his hair tickling the sides of your face.

“Oh fuck,” He grunts, “Need you, princess,” Choso nearly moans.

His hips just roll and roll down against you as he humps his hard cock against you with pure need and want. 

“Take me, Cho,” You gasp.

He shakes his head, “Don’t tell me that,” Then he’s grinding down faster and pressing his lips to yours again, “M’gonna treat this pussy how she’s supposed to be treated, alright?” He hums, his lips grazing yours.

Your lashes bat up at him, “And how’s that?”

Choso cracks a smirk, “Like a fuckin’ slut.”

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[iwaasfairy]

congratulations on your 15k milestone fairy!!!! i’m such a fan of every single one of ur fics, I’ve been here ever since u started publishing mirror and indelible and it’s been such an amazing ride!!! ur the best fairy, hope u reach 150k now ♡´･ᴗ･`♡

for the event maybe could u make megumi + stepcest? make it as dark as u wish haha <3~

:<<< I have a very sad kitty image that I wanna put in here but I can’t buT iMMMM Big emOtional yOUre so swEEETTTT

tw (step)cest, jealousy, manipulation

Megumi knows he has you wrapped around his finger. It’s not particularly hard to see in the first place, watching you ‘hmm’ and gawk each time you do as he asks. He doesn’t think that you’re stupid, but you are naive, and just like the lot of them - you didn’t get enough attention from daddy. Ever since Tsumiki moved out, you’ve become even more clingy, sticky and pushy with your affection.

“You know that’s not going to stop me, right?” He asks, and watches how your big eyes flutter up at him like you’re trying to take a shutter the sight and print it into your brain. It takes a few seconds for your pout to appear, and heat to start prickling on the tip of your nose and ears.

“‘M not trying to stop you,” the hands you had wrapped around your tits to protect your modesty drop, as you glance down and step out of your panties too. “It’s cold in here, niichan~”

Megumi clicks his tongue, before putting the toothbrush back into the glass. He can do that later. “Then get into the bath already, shitty sister. I don’t know why you’re twirling around here in the first place.” He can’t help the snappy tone when it comes to you, truly, he does try. But the meaner he is, the softer you become. And how’s a man supposed to ignore your glittering puppy-dog eyes? He truly can’t.

“Are you getting in too?” you patiently ask, sliding into the hot water with slightly wobbly legs, like you’re a baby fawn taking its first steps. Megumi never really felt called to be a protector… but you are something else entirely.

His answer comes before the thought. “Of course I am. Move over.” You do, and he strips down and gets in like he says - but instead of any of this calming his hard-on, he’s only getting harder when your skin slides up against his and you sway the water when you get comfortable against his chest, dropping your head back onto his shoulder. “Gotta clean you up. Move your arms.” And his hands follow, kneading the soft skin of your tits with slightly rough touches.

“Nii nii?” He responds with only a hum, and runs his hands down your body a few times to slide your legs apart so he can fit a hand in between and trail his fingers over your pussy, putting more pressure on your covered clit until you start to melt against him a little. After a few soft gasps, you turn your face to hide against his throat. “Did you use to take baths with Tsumiki neechan too?” Your voice is too soft to make out any true undertone, but he still feels a slight smile tug at his mouth corners.

“Hah?” Of course he didn’t. While he appreciates both your older sister, he’s pretty sure she would have killed him if he had tried. She might still kill him if she finds out what dirty thoughts he’s put into your head now, too. Only you could be doe-eyed and obedient enough to let your big brother trick you into playing with your tits and pussy after hours. He pinches your clit between thumb and pointer until you squeak, and it sends you slipping down and out of his touch with a frown.

“‘Gumi niichan~ That hurts!” Your bottom lip wobbles as you stare at him, and more heat starts collecting on your cheeks until you look all flushed and drowsy and a little bit too distracted.

“That’s what you get for asking stupid questions.” He keeps your eyes for a second, before you finally look away in embarrassment and run a hand over your eyes. But when you try to get up, he pulls you back down into him and sloshing the water around more. “Hey, what- are you jealous?”

“No, ‘m not jealous!” You’re convincing exactly no one. And his grip on your wrist stays even though you try to wrong loose, before you eventually give up and you blink away tears. “God, let go, niichan. I don’t like you.” He takes hold of your head and pulls you closer until you’re nose to nose and he’s unable to keep the slight smile from showing up on his face.

“Gimme one kiss, c’mon.” You give him the saddest, most pitiful peck - before he leans in more and squeezes your face. “A proper kiss.” Those long lashes almost brush his when you look up at him and suck your bottom lip. But be it wanting to be done quicker, or actual want, you go back in and let him capture your mouth with his until he can push his tongue between your lips and force them open. Until you’re relaxing against his hold on you and your tits get pressed to his chest - slumped against the naked body of your own big brother.

After a bit of letting you kiss him back, he taps your cheek. “Get onto your knees, we gotta clean me too. You do it so well with that pretty mouth, right?’

[the-artist-grimm]

one thing im very complexed about is what were baal and ayms rection to narinder after getting resurected. surely they would feel a lot of anger towards him because of what he did.

When Aym and Baal are revived they’re more concerned for Narinder than anything else. Like how can their master, their father go from agonizing for MONTHS over ways to spare the lamb, to in the span of a single week telling them he’s found a way but not elaborating, looking completely heartbroken the next few days after, then when the day of reckoning finally comes telling the lamb in this muted, emotionless tone to sacrifice themselves out of the blue? It didn’t make sense. 

While Aym and Baal are 11 year old kids but they’re not stupid-they know this isn’t how their father usually acts, and something’s wrong. It's why they intentionally get hurt (and accidentally) die fighting Anthea, they're trying to snap him out of it since they didn't know what else to do since he didn't want to talk.

From there it takes 4 months to revive the twins-during that time their souls are trapped inside the gateway by the remains of Narinder's metaphysical chain. Not quite awake, but not quite asleep either-only able to tell they were alone until the voices of their parents wake them up before being yanked into the mortal realm. They’re scared, they’re shaken, they put brave faces on while dying yeah but they can feel the phantom of blade and mana caught in their flesh all over again, but their twin is beside them, and before they know it their Baba has them in their embrace wailing, yet their father is nowhere to be seen. 

Cue them being seemingly ok-ish (read: in shock) while being fussed over by Anthea for the rest of the day (given warm meals, constant hugs and kisses to the head, warm bubbly baths then a long brushing, soft nightgowns that smell like lanolin, all while their comfort kitten plushies they'd given the lamb a day prior to the betrayal in preparation for the 'move' have been returned to their arms), and while they keep asking what happened, the Lamb doesn’t know how to answer them anymore. A month before they would've said Narinder betrayed them all, but they're no longer sure anymore.

(Narinder betrayed them. He betrayed them, but then why did he help them with the resurrection? Why did he stabilize them as they struggled to break the chain, why did he lose sleep the whole week leading up just to help? Following their every word, their every order perfectly, never getting upset when they got snappy?  Why did he the leave the chapel without greeting the boys he mourned over. Why hasn't he tried to take back the crown since his arrival? Why isn’t he fighting them, angry, bitter, anything? Why is he making it so hard to hate and ignore him?)

Anthea eventually has to take the twins over to Narinder later that night since the nightmares are setting in now that the shock's worn off and they both wake up crying for him (they can’t remember the 4 months but that isolation left both with intense separation anxiety from both each other and their parents, and not having seen Narinder was really messing with them), and while that first reunion is them just launching themselves at him to cling to his nightshirt crying, followed by them then refusing to let Anthea leave either and thus both parents are stuck trying to get the boys to fall asleep in Narinder’s room, come morning they’ve calmed down enough that Anthea can leave to do cult things and they can question their father.

They just want to know what happened, and is he ok-he scared them by acting so strange and they're worried. Which kinda breaks Narinder a little because he left the chapel expecting that they hated him. That they wouldn’t want to see him since he betrayed Anthea, is the reason they died, and that their Baba deserved them more than him but here they are worried for him, and it’s the first time in months someone’s said they’re worried about him and he actually believes it. So he tells them everything.

He heard something he wasn't meant to hear, took it out of context, and in his fear over being betrayed again made a mistake. A mistake he thinks he can NEVER fix, and was a mistake he thinks he should NEVER be forgiven for. 

(He didn't trust them. Why didn't he trust them? The Lamb was his friend why would they ever betray him he's terrible Shamura was right to 'hate' him why can't everyone just abandon him already he doesn't understand-)

He thinks that’ll do it, but rather than the twins getting mad, it just clears up what they had already assumed-that something went wrong, and their dad thought he had no choice. They're not angry because he made a mistake since why should they? That just means he has to apologize.

It's that childishly innocent idea that all mistakes can be fixed by talking things out, and while it's more complicated than that, it does hold weight. Aym and Baal are the breaking of the cycle of hiding your emotions, hiding your pain, assuming the worst and self-loathing and destroying yourself as a result. The cycle of not talking to the people in your life and just letting things boil over. Narinder may have held back in some ways when raising them by not telling them to call him ‘dad’, but he raised them as he wished he’d been-teaching the twins that it’s ok to be hurt, scared, to make mistakes, and that they can go to him for anything and he won’t get mad. Anthea’s presence reinforced that-that you gotta talk to people when something’s wrong or else they can’t help. 

The boys are very empathetic and emotionally aware, and thus if they can make mistakes and fix things, why can’t the adults? So no they're not mad at Narinder, they just don't understand why he thinks it's not worth trying to make amends.

[samkerrworshipper]

togetherness

matilda’s x reader

this one’s a long one so rip

also pls keep sending request lol i need ideas

your a rookie on the squad, struggling to find your footing in a team that you don’t think you fit into. what happens when a certain conflict arises between you and one of your teammates?

angst, little bit of fluff, 5k+ words

I couldn’t really give you a timeline on when I started to space out, when I started to check out. I knew chronologically it would have had to be a few weeks ago, after the world cup had started, just after my whole life had become a shit storm. It was a process, checking out of your own life, it took time, I think that’s why I couldn’t tell you the one moment that I started to, because there wasn’t an exact moment. Slowly the days just all start to smudge into one big mess, you can’t tell people what day it is anymore or when your last meal was. Which sounds stupid, because those are just mundane things. When you check out of life though those things stop mattering, for me I either sleep obtusely or I don’t sleep at all, I don’t eat, I forget how to look after myself. I try to be discreet about it for as long as I can, but eventually people catch on, especially when you are playing professional sport, because you are surrounded by doctors and athletes that know the signs of burnout.

At around two weeks, I think, I could tell my team was catching onto my behaviour. I was a mess, I came to breakfast in the morning with puffy red eyes from crying at night, I didn’t really talk to anyone unless I had to, I was always tired, I kept to myself a little bit too much. It was a matter of time until I was approached, probably told off for having a shitty attitude. I had predicted that, expected it. What I hadn’t expected was to be pretty much cornered in my locker before training by our team captain, Sam Kerr.

As one of the youngest on the team it was safe to say that I was pretty much terrified of our skipper. Not that Sam was a scary person, she was lovely, considerate to a fault. But she was terrifying in a sense that we all knew heading into the world cup she had one ambition and that was to win at home, at all costs. That’s a little bit intimidating, especially when you know that she is prepared to hand you your ass on a silver platter if you do absolutely anything to jeopardise that ambition.

I’d been sitting in my cubby, lacing my cleats up. Both of my airpods in, hoodie on, tracksuit on, puffer jacket hood on. If I didn’t scream unapproachable I don’t know what did. I’d been sitting there a little bit too long I think, staring at my shoe lace for a little bit long, long enough for someone to point me out to Sam. I’d gotten the fright of my life when Sam’s hand had very gently connected with my shoulder. I’d flinched back almost immediately, before turning around and realising where the contact had come from. Sam looked a little bit offended by my sudden reaction to her touch, but the concern left her facial expression fairly quickly.

“Are you okay kid?”

I hated that question. Three words that drove me insane. I don’t think anyone ever answered that question honestly, because it was so blunt. How were you supposed to honestly answer a person you didn’t trust with the answer to the question.

I pulled my airpods out of my ears purely out of respect, even though I could hear Sam perfectly clear.

“Fine, Cap.”

I thought my words would have been enough of an indicator that I didn’t want to talk to her but she’d taken it as an invitation instead to sit down on the bench beside me.

“You don’t look fine.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, hard enough to draw blood, and focused on completing the task of lacing up my cleats.

“Well I am.”

My answers were short and snappy, closed off. They didn’t leave room for imagination or interpretation. I was a blunt person, I spoke bluntly, I reacted to things bluntly. I’d always been that way and I was pretty sure I’d never change.

“Do you want to talk about it? Because I’m here for you.”

I gulped and finished tying up my first cleat, moving on to pulling the second one over my sock covered left foot. I always put the left one on first, it had become routine for me, that was how I’d tied them before I’d won my first game and I’d stuck with it, it was a superstition that I’d never been able to break and I didn’t see why I should break it now.

“I don’t have anything I need to talk to you about.”

My voice was betraying me, my voice and my eyes. I knew Sam would pick up on my aversion to looking at her in the eyes. I could blame it on focusing on tying up my shoes but she was also sitting directly above them and every time I lifted my eyes I just happened to focus on the wall behind her instead.

“Doesn’t seem that way, Ellie told me that she’s heard you crying in your ensuite at night, she says you don’t sleep very much, which I think your under eyes are enough supporting evidence.”

I let my eyes drift over to Ellie, she was standing on the complete opposite side of the locker rooms, talking anxiously to Kyra and Hailey. As soon as she looked up and met my eyes I could tell that Sam’s approach to me had been driven by her, the anxious look in her eyes was enough of a giveaway.

“Ellie doesn’t know what she’s talking about, the girl talks in her sleep most of the time or she’s on the phone to her girlfriend, I don’t think she’d be able to recall my night time activities.”

I focused back in on my cleats, knotting them furiously with my hands that I had now realised were shaking.

“She seemed to have a pretty good idea, we’ve all seen you’ve been checked out recently. I get if you don’t want to talk about it now around the girls. You seem to be having a bad day. So how about you get yourself through training and then you and I have a chat in private?”

It was phrased as a question but nothing about how she’d said the words came out as a proposition, it was an order. I would have tried to object but I knew it would be useless, Sam had made her mind up and once Sam had made up her mind there was no changing it.

“Sounds good skipper.”

My voice was nothing but dripping with sarcasm, it was my only way of pushing out my very clear distaste with the idea of having to talk to Sam after training. As soon as Sam stood up and I’d checked that both of my cleats were on properly I marched right over to Ellie, pulling her away from the conversation she was in and back over to my locker.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are but telling on me to cap isn’t going to get you fucking brownie points with me, we aren’t friends Ellie, we’re not sleepover buddies. I am working tooth and nail here to be fucking respected and I just got a proper emotional dressing down from Kerr that was pretty much just her telling me that I needed to get my act together. If that doesn’t scream out not fucking respected than I don’t know what does.”

I watched all of the colour drain from Ellie’s face as she slowly became far more uncomfortable in the conversation. She wasn’t backing down though.

“I don’t know what fucking planet you are on y/n/n but we are just looking out for you. I hear you at night in the bathroom, sobbing and balling your eyes out. That doesn’t scream out okay to me. Sam wasn’t giving you a dressing down she was asking you if you were fucking okay, something that we’ve all wanted to do for a few weeks now, we were just all scared to because we thought you were going to rip our heads off, like you are doing to me right now. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about you right now because how you’ve been behaving as of late isn’t fucking normal and anybody in there right mind would be worried about you.”

Ellie and I’s argument had escalated enough that I could tell most of the locker room's attention had fallen to our heated conversation, neither of us were ready to back down though and that much was evident in how strong both of our glares at each other held.

“Fuck you, you aren’t the person who gets to decide whether or not I’m okay or not. So what if I’ve been keeping to myself? Maybe I needed some down time away from this fucking extroverted team that never gives me a fucking break.”

It was a personal dig, one that I had said far too loudly in a crowded room of girls that I actually really loved, it had been like word vomit though, getting thrown out in me and Ellie’s fight.

“That’s not fair and you know it, all anybody here has done is be nice to you and you’ve been a fucking dick to everyone for the last few weeks, it’s not normal. You were so happy at training camp but ever since we’ve gotten here you’ve lost your shit and it’s fucking pathetic because we are your team and family and you should trust us more than anybody else but you don’t you don’t give two shits about anybody here besides yourself and we can all see it. It’s embarrassing having your represent us in your current condition. Your a wreck. You didn’t deserve to be brought up from the under 20’s. Maybe if you spent less time in our bathroom at nighttime crying about how hard your sorry ass life was you’d realise there are people and things on earth that are more fucking important than you are.”

Ellie’s words had taken the air out of my lungs, it wasn’t what I’d expected and even her facial expression reflected that she was a little bit taken aback by her own words. They were personal, really personal. I blinked a few times, trying to get a footing in the conversation but I couldn’t, because what was I supposed to say to a person accusing me of being a selfish heartless team mate? Me and Ellie stood stock still, just staring at each other, both of us obviously waiting for the other to keep talking but neither of us could.

“Ellie Madison Carpenter, out on the field, right now.”

Steph’s voice echoed against the walls of the changerooms, everyone else was standing completely silent and still in the room. I looked around the locker rooms, aware that literally everyone besides Sam who had left the locker rooms after her talk to me had just heard Ellie’s speech. I was too shocked to do anything besides plaster my hand against my mouth and run directly into the bathroom that connected to the change rooms. I did my best to not let any tears fall until I’d locked the disabled bathroom door behind me and I’d slid down onto the floor. Was that actually what the team thought of me? That I was a selfish, useless, coldhearted bitch who was just here for herself? Ellie’s words had hurt my heart and soul, because I didn’t play for myself, I hadn’t ever.

I consciously could hear the frantic knocking on the bathroom door but my subconscious was doing its best to tune it out.

“Y/n, open the door, please.”

“Fucking Ellie, that kid has no fucking filter.”

“How are we supposed to explain to Cap that she locked herself in the bathroom?”

“Fuck we were supposed to be on the field five minutes ago, Tony is going to have a field day giving us fucking suicide sprints.”

Those were a few of the sentences that I made out through the door. They were enough to tell me that I needed to get my shit together, because one thing I couldn’t handle on top of the team thinking I was all of those things was the team thinking I was the fucking emotional mess that everyone seemed to think I was. So after letting whatever tears I had left fall, I flushed the toilet, in an attempt to try and disguise the sound of me furiously washing the redness off of my face then I walked towards the door, took a deep breath and unlocked it. Hailey and Macka were both waiting outside and were very clearly surprised by my exit from the bathroom.

“Alanna, don’t worry about getting skip, she’s out.”

I bit the inside of my mouth again, satisfied with the irony taste of my own blood filling my mouth.

“Sorry, just feeling a little bit sick.”

It was very clear none of them believed my excuse. I tried to push past them though, trying my hardest to avoid whatever awkward confrontation that I was apparently bound to, because both Ras and Mackenzie stopped me before I could take a step.

“Y/n. What Ellie said wasn’t true and it’s okay for you to feel emotions about that, she let the heat of the moment get to her.”

I gulped, swallowing the mixture of blood and sweat that was resonating in my mouth.

“I told you, I feel sick. I don’t give a shit what Ellie has to say, she’s very welcome to her own opinions, this is a free country, she has an issue I’d rather her say it to my face.”

My words were faulty, untrustworthy, like ice that was slowly cracking.

“You are allowed to be upset at her for saying that about you, it was mean and she was trying to get to you. It’s okay for you to have emotions about that.”

I pursed my lips, I hated confrontation. Confrontation was terrifying.

“I told you I just felt sick, I still do. I need to go talk to Tony, can I leave or am I being held hostage until I talk about emotions that I don’t have or feel right now?”

Hayley and Mackenzie both looked between each other, trying to think up another plan of attack but clearly not finding anything telepathically between themselves.

“You are free to go, we’re here for you if you need to talk.”

I rolled my eyes at the two of them.

“Thanks, I’ll keep a mental note next time I need a therapist to talk about my nonexistent selfish feelings with.”

The sarcasm rolled off of my tongue too easily as I walked out of the locker rooms and into the tunnel, slowly making my way out onto the field. It was night training, so the ground was cold and the bright white fluorescent lights were blaring down across the pitch. I looked out across the ground, the girls had already started running whatever drills they’d been instructed to start with which led me to ask myself the question of how long had I actually locked myself in that bathroom for?

I made my way straight over to Tony who was looking at me in that way he tended to when he was thinking about something.

“Ms y/l/n.”

He smiled at me, a little bit too kindly for my liking.

“Coach, I’m feeling a bit sick, I think I might have eaten something funny this morning, probably that granola that looked like it had been sitting out for a little bit to long, I think I should probably just rest for tonight, unless you want a granola vomit mess to deal with.”

Tony’s eyes studied me, my body language, silently assessing my every move.

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with what happened between you and Ms Carpenter?”

Fuck, that was me exposed. I looked down to my cleats, by default, because I couldn’t look into his eyes knowing that he knew I was lying straight to his face.

“She approached me, told me that she’d said some things to a teammate before coming out for warm ups that she was sorry for, that I should sit her out for a game because of it. Wouldn’t tell me who she’d spoken to, which made me think it must have been pretty serious.”

I gulped anxiously, fuck. Fuck Ellie for making this whole night a flaming hot pile of shit.

“It wasn’t anything bad, I feel sick, it’s got nothing to do with Ellie, I’m a big girl, I can handle my own problems, she shouldn’t sit out for a week, we need her.”

I let my eyes cross the field, to where Ellie was, her whole complexion had paled dramatically and she looked like she’d just been on a really high rollercoaster.

“We also need to look out for the safety of our players. I'm going to ask you this once and I want you to tell me the complete truth. Did Ellie personally attack you in the change rooms before training tonight? Don’t lie to me, I’ll ask one of your team mates if you do and I don’t want to hear that their answers were any different to yours.”

I bit down hard on my mouth tissue, there was a part of me that wanted to lie for Ellie, even though it would probably land us in more trouble, there was also a part of me that wanted to hand her in, even though in my eyes she hadn’t really done anything wrong, she’d said her peace.

“We were both giving it to each other, she gave as much as she got. I deserve to sit out a week just as much as she does if we’re referencing words said to each other, we were both rude, we got stuck up in the heat of the moment. I promise you, with every bone in my body that it won’t ever happen again, I swear to you.”

One thing that my brother told me when we were growing up was how to effectively lie. There was an art to the practice of lying. The first rule was body language, everyone had a tell, it was about identifying yours and then figuring out how to stop it or disguise it. For example, my youngest brother would always tap his left foot when he was lying. Rule number two is eye contact. You need to make some, but not so much that it’s creepy. People can tell when you refuse to make eye contact with them, so you need to occasionally. Third is your voice, it needs to be steady, your pitch and tone need to be consistent, one of the easiest tells is a raised voice when you lie. The fourth rule is physical change, this one is probably the hardest, because there isn’t anything you can do to stop yourself if you get clammy hands when you are lying, you just have to disguise it. The fifth and final rule is words, you need to use enough that your sentences are coherent but don’t over-sell yourself, summarise what needs to be said, instead of reading off a whole backstory.

I’d broken number five and two whilst talking to Tony and I could tell that he was picking up on it. He looked between me and the field before calling over one of my teammates.

“Mary, can I have you for a second.”

I gulped down the lump that was forming in the back of my throat when Fowler finished off the drill she was doing and ran over to the sideline to stand beside the coach and I.

“What can I do for you, coach?”

He smiled at her, I’d very quickly noticed that Mary was one of his favourites, rightfully so. She was a hard worker but she was also kind, Matilda’s captain material for the future.

“Can you give me a run down of what happened in the lockers before training between Ellie and y/n, from my understanding there was a small altercation, but both of them aren’t telling me the whole story and I don’t have time for beating around the bush.”

I looked at Mary, silently praying for her to downplay it, maybe she hadn’t heard much of it. She was the one to pick if you wanted an honest answer, she couldn’t lie for the life of her, I knew that much. She bit her lip subtly, thinking thoroughly before she said anything.

“None of us heard how it started, we all knew that y/n/n was the one to drag Ellie over to her locker after Cap spoke to her. They were arguing, it seemed harmless. Until Ellie was yelling in y/n/n’s face.”

Tony nodded at her inquisitively, clearly very invested in what she had to say.

“Did you hear what Ms Carpenter was saying to Ms y/l/n?”

I gulped, shaking my head as subtly as I could at Mary, this whole encounter was a headache.

“Look, it’s not really something I’m comfortable with repeating.”

I knew Mary was trying to be helpful but I also knew that statement was going to backfire on her because it made the whole situation sound a lot worse than it was.

“Mary, if you don’t tell me I will get someone else too, please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

Mary herself gulped anxiously, her eyes frantically darting between Tony and myself. I nodded at her, clearly seeing her distress and just giving her the permission to say her peace, because apparently it was going to get said anyways.

“She was yelling at y/n/n about how y/n/n was selfish and didn’t give a shit about anybody beside herself. I heard her using something about y/n crying in their bathroom at night against her, saying that she was too worried or self obsessed to care about anyone else on the team. I wasn’t close enough though to tell you exactly what either of them said. I was on the other side of the room, Steph was the closest, if you want information I’d be asking her, not me.”

I could feel my hands shaking in my pockets, this whole situation was giving me anxiety.

“Okay then, thank you, can you go fetch Steph for me, just tell her to come over here.”

Mary nodded at coach, before sending me a silent sorry smile before running back out onto the pitch.

Coach pointed to the bench that was on the sidelines a few feet behind us, silently motioning for me to follow him and take a seat down on it.

“Based on what I’ve just been told, I think that Ellie should sit out for a week, her behaviour towards you was unacceptable and she needs to understand there are repercussions for those kinds of situations. Y/n I know that you’ve struggled to find your footing in the team, I’ve seen you struggling with your mental health. I’m here for you if you ever need to talk about it or if you need help. If those struggles mean that you need to separate yourself from the team then that is what you do, regardless of the decisions you make you are a valued member on this team and you don’t deserve to be verbally assaulted because Ellie has a problem with you.”

I pursed my lips, I didn’t think I’d been verbally assaulted, if anything I’d started it.

“Coach, I started it with Ellie. She didn’t even mean what she said, we need her this week, it’s an important game that we can’t afford to have her miss. I don’t want to be the reason we lose this week just because me and Ellie had a minor altercation, it was nothing.”

I couldn’t ignore the deep frown on his face, it was a mixture of concern and disappointment and it went straight to my heart.

“Coach? Mary said you need to speak to me?”

Both of our heads snapped up at the sudden sound of Steph’s voice. She was standing about a foot away from us, her brow furrowed in my direction.

“Steph, yes, I’m just having some trouble understanding the altercation that went down before warm ups with Ms Carpenter and Ms y/l/n. Ms y/l/n is trying to take the whole blame for it and I don’t really believe the whole story that she’s giving me, so if you could please give me some insight it would be much appreciated, as I am taking this very seriously.”

Steph’s eyes went straight to mine, she was my fellow Arsenal team mate, probably the only person on our Matilda’s squad who I could actually call my friend. She was frowning at me deeply, trying to study my facial expression.

“Y/l/n started it, she pulled Ellie up after having a chat with skipper, but from what I heard she was more just annoyed that Ellie had told skipper about some of her more concerning habits. Ellie was mad about being pulled up on it, typical Ellie fashion she took it to heart and she made it personal. I do recall her calling saying something along the lines of if y/n spent less time in their bathroom at nighttime crying about how ‘hard’ her sorry ass life was then she’d realise there were people and things on earth that are more fucking important than you she was, Ellie also made a lot of comments about y/n/n being a selfish person who didn’t give a shit about any of the people around her. Y/n/n might have technically started it but in her defence she didn’t say anything personal or wrong to Ellie, she was just voicing her annoyance about Ellie telling on her to Sam, Ellie was trying to voice her concerns over Y/n/n but it came out wrong and she was trying to make light of a situation that was not hers to talk about in a public space, it was unprofessional and distasteful behaviour from both of them but Ellie was the one who escalated it and made it worse. All y/n really did was tell Ellie to leave her alone and stop pushing, when Ellie did push too far y/n rushed to the bathroom and locked herself in there. Ellie’s behaviour was unacceptable to say the least and I’ve told her, I’m sure Sam will as well once I talk to her about it. I’ve told Ellie she has to apologise to y/n/n and that kind of behaviour won’t be tolerated towards anybody let alone her own teammate.”

Steph’s rundown of the situation was more factual and foolproof then any of the other versions Gustavsson had received and I knew that he was going to believe everything she’d told him.

“Okay, thank you, I really appreciate your transparency on the situation. I made the right call making you interim captain whilst Sam was out. That’s all I should need for now, feel free to go back to what you were doing, I’ll be out there in a minute.”

Once Steph was out of earshot Tony turned to me, clearly a little bit taken aback by all of the information he’d just absorbed.

“You are going to sit out tonight, call it sickness or whatever you please. I want you to stay and watch though, you should be here and you deserve to be here. I’m going to talk to Ellie after training, and just because you don’t seem to want her sitting out I’ll see how remorseful she is and make my roster decision for this weekend based off of that. I know she’s your teammate and you feel like you are taking one for the team by enabling her behaviour towards you and maybe it was a one off, just a heat in the moment thing as you called it. Maybe it wasn’t though, I’m not going to take chances. I want you to think about your own actions as well, think about how you could have dealt with that situation more effectively. Once training’s over you are going to head back to the hotel with the girls and you are going to spend time with them, proper bonding time.”

I nodded at coach, I didn’t have it in me to argue with him.

“Coach, I’m rooming with her.”

It was my main concern, not that Ellie scared me, I’d pretty much ignored her the whole tournament, not that she spent a lot of time in our room anyways, she spent all of her free time until curfew in other teammates rooms.

“Talk to Kerr about it, get her to switch them around, I’m sure it’s not that difficult. Switch rooms, relax for the night, get some sleep, be back here tomorrow. I don’t care whether or not you feel up to training, just be here. This team is your family and whether or not it feels like it they care a lot about you, they are here to support you if you let them. Sometimes you just need to take the leap of faith.”

I nodded at coach. He was a gentle soul, a good one. He reached over to me, offering me a hug and I took it, letting him wrap his arms around my shoulders. It was nice, it didn’t last long but it felt nice. Once he was done giving me a hug he stood up and followed Steph out onto the field.

I found myself gravitating to a spot directly on the sideline, where our team manager was stationed. She didn’t ask any questions as I sat down on the frosty grass beside her station, I was grateful for that much. I hadn’t talked to her much but she seemed lovely and in the very little interactions I had had with her she had gone above and beyond to make me comfortable in whatever we were doing.

I spent my training, sitting on the grass, watching the team as they ran through a few drills and plays before moving into a full scrimmage. I kept my body tucked in, my knees to my chest, my puffer jacket and hoodie wrapped tightly around my legs and torso to pull my knees even further into my chest. It was a blessing that they’d designed waterproof sweatpants, because I would have probably had a cold and wet ass if they hadn’t. Somewhere along the way our team manager offered me a packet of gummy bears and I couldn’t find it in me to decline her offer, so I snacked on the gelatinous pieces of sugar whilst I watched the training slowly come to an end.

They finished with PK’s and then concluded the session. I stayed seated in my little spot, I hoped that no one had spotted me and maybe if I waited for everyone to slip off the field and into the locker rooms I would just be able to hop onto the bus without being detected. My plan pretty much backfired immediately when a certain captain beelined directly towards me, clearly I hadn’t gone unnoticed to her. I grimaced as she got closer to my spot, my spot that my head had deemed as a safe spot from the rest of my teammates.

Sam didn’t even acknowledge me to begin with, instead turning her attention to our team manager, making pretty common conversation with her. She spoke to her for a few minutes, it was afternoon tea talk, just bullshit. Sam’s specialty. Eventually when she finished up she looked down at me, an eyebrow raised. She motioned for me to stand up and follow her, so stupidly, like a puppy, I did. My muscles were cold and I’d be lying if I said that getting up from the ground hadn’t been a little bit harder than I’d predicted. I managed though and caught up to Sam, following after her as she walked back down the tunnel but instead of turning into the locker rooms we kept walking down the corridor until we came to the video review room. It was pretty much just a conference room, one big room with a bunch of tables and chairs that we used to scout and review our own games. Sam closed the blinds to the room, so no bye passers could see in and turned the lights on.

She seated herself at one of the tables, gesturing for me to do the same, so I did. The first thing Sam did was pull out her phone and start typing something or another before looking up at me.

“Steph told me about what happened between you and Ellie.”

I gulped, biting my lip as I tried my hardest to maintain my eye contact with Sam, I wasn’t going to break, not again. I watched as Sam’s finger made its way to her mouth and she bit down on her nail in a questioning kind of way that I couldn’t explain even if I tried.

“I started it, I was pissed off at her for ratting on me to you.”

My honesty would be appreciated, I knew that Sam valued honesty above anything else.

“I don’t really care who started it, I care about togetherness, you know that. This team needs one thing, cohesion. I don’t care who started it, I care about who the problem was and in that situation it was Ellie, she said things that she had no business saying, with the intention of hurting you. That’s enough to tell me that in that situation she was prepared to jeopardise our team just so she could tear down one of our own. I’ve recommended to Tony that she sits out this week. He told me you were apprehensive about it, I wanted to know why.”

There was a simple answer, and a more complex answer, a part of me knew which one Sam wanted.

“Short answer, Ellie is a crucial part of our team, we need her. Long answer, I don’t think she did anything wrong.”

Sam looked up at me, a little bit shocked.

“Look y/n, it’s clear there's been a lot on your mind recently. A lot that you clearly aren’t prepared to share, and that's okay. I saw on the sideline tonight, you looked like you were mentally in a different place, like you were really worried thinking about something and you’ve been like that for a few weeks. I know that you have trust issues, that you are finding it hard to slot into this team because you are scared to be vulnerable. I am here for you, I won’t judge you, I will help you with whatever you need help with, because I can tell there is something and until you do seek out help for it it is only going to destroy you further.”

Sam’s words receded in me, because she was so right that I couldn’t even try to deny it.

“Am I a selfish player and teammate?”

The words felt so raw coming out of my throat, it was something that Ellie had said that had stuck with me.

“No, I can honestly tell you you aren’t. You play football with so much grace and kindness that sometimes it drives me up the wall watching you help up your opponents who have tripped over. You aren’t a selfish person either, you are more reserved, that doesn’t make you selfish, it just makes you self aware, there is a big difference.”

I nodded at Sam, not sure what else there was for me to do. Her words were full of so much wisdom, so much insight. I still couldn’t find it in me to believe them fully though, my self deprecating brain not welcome to accepting any kind of form of praise.

“Look, change is hard. You are young, inexperienced. Staying somewhere that you’ve outgrown though is only going to destroy you. I know this is a big jump, I wouldn’t have reccomended for you to be here though if I didn’t think it was the right fit. You are a world class player, and a genuinely good person. When you smile, it lights up a room. Your laugh is contagious. It’s clear that you’ve never been cared for properly, never let yourself. You have a family now though y/n. You have people that you can go to when you are having a bad day, people that are going to love you no matter what. Use that, take advantage of it. A team doesn’t function without trust.”

There was something about Sams words that told me she actually understood what I was going through, she was dancing on a line of relating to me and giving me advice, the line was a little bit blurred though.

“Do you trust me?”

I let Sam’s words hang in the air for a few seconds, it took me a little while to formulate a reponse.

“I don’t trust anyone, not even myself.”

Sam’s eyes, those brown orbs spoke to me, more than any words ever could to me.

“You don’t think people care for you.”

“Why would people care for me?”

There was so much insecurity behind the words, years of it all built up.

“I care, I’ll always care. Everyone should have somebody to care for them.”

“You have to care, your my captain.”

It was the last bit of defiance leaving my body, the last of my barriers being used.

“Partly, yes. It’s sort of my job. But I save it for the ones who need it and you seem to be in need.”

I rolled my eyes, another defence mechanism that I used to deflect, to avoid my emotions.

“I don’t need help.”

“Maybe not, but when you’re born in a burning house you think the whole world is on fire until someone shows you it isn’t.”

I didn’t fully understand her cryptic but I got the general idea.

“You implying I was born in a burning house?”

Sam’s head tilted, like she wasn’t denying my statement but also didn’t agree with it fully.

“I’m implying that you are here for a reason. That we are all here for different reasons, different driving factors. The difference between you and some of the other girls is that you are letting your past define you, when it doesn’t. The best part of being here is that when you are out on the pitch nobody cares about anything else, nobody could care less about what’s happened in your personal life. Use that, use that to be happy, to find your motivation. Trust me? Let me show you that this team isn’t just a group of girls, it can be your family if you want it to be.”

I looked at Sam flatly trying to figure out how serious she was, when he face didn’t falter I realised how serious she was and that scared me a little bit. I didn’t know if I was ready for that, ready for a family, ready to feel loved and appreciated. It wasn’t soemthing I’d ever really experienced.

“Y’know that it shouldn’t seem remarkable to you that people who love and care for you actually want to treat you well.”

Those words were the straw that broke my back. I couldn’t help but feel the tears well up in my eyes.

“y/n,” Sam’s voice drew my eyes up to her own “You are allowed to cry.”

I shook my head at her, bringing the sleeve of my jumper up to my eyes to rub at the tears escaping my eyes.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you though?”

It was the amount of questioning behind her face that threw me off, I knew she didn’t believe me but the amount of concern laced into her facial expression hit some place in my heart I didn’t know I had.

“You know that it’s okay to not be fine all the time. You are allowed to have feelings, to feel things other than numb. Look, feeling hurts. Life is pain, life is suffering. Being alive hurts, it’s horror and it sucks. But you are alive and it’s spectacular and brilliant because instead of just living you are alive.”

I continued rubbing at my eyes, trying my best to stop any of the tears running down my face.

“I’ll think about it cap, I think it’s about time for me to head back to the hotel.”

Before I could get up and completely leave the room Sam got in her final words.

“There are poeple around that would miss you y/n/n, people who would be gutted if anything ever happened to you. Just think about that.”

[qrrieterisunnq]

⋆˙⟡ — NEW JERSEY DEVILS MASTERLIST

— JACK HUGHES ⁸⁶

STRAWBERRY GIRL ✿

FICS

THE BLUSH OF MORNING DEPARTURES ʚɞ - Jack is about to leave for morning practice. You ask him if he’s forgotten anything, and Jack gives you a kiss. Your cheeks turn red and you open your hand to reveal Jack’s phone saying ‘I meant this, but thanks.’

A WEEK WITHOUT YOU ʚɞ »« - Jack's on the roadie and misses y/n so much, he's cuddling with a body pillow, pretending it's y/n

NOT SO SOFT ✩ ʚɞ- Jack is posting his summer posts, this time trying to soft launch his relationship, but girl fans being girl fans, they find out who the girl is in a matter of a few minutes

BLURBS

▻ coming soon...

— LUKE HUGHES ⁴³

FICS

MIDNIGHT SNACK ʚɞ - y/n gets up in the middle of the night to make a snack and accidentally wakes up Luke because she didn’t stop the microwave’s obnoxious beeping in time.

BLURBS

YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL by Lana Del Rey ʚɞ - Fic inspired by the song Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey. Luke has the biggest insecurity and that is if Y/N would still love him even if they won’t be young and beautiful That's why she asks him if he would love her as a worm. And that his answer to that question is the same as hers on his.

RADIO by Lana Del Rey ʚɞ - Y/n is working for a book publishing house and likes to listen to the radio when she hears her and Luke's song playing there. When it ends there is a note for her.

— NICO HISCHIER ¹³

THE SWISS LOVE CHARM ✿

FICS

SOMEON IS THERE ✩ - Where Nico has a secret girlfriend. The fans are suspicious about him dating someone because, in his every interview, he's smiling at someone behind the cameras. Jack then comments on it, revealing something bout the girl.

IT'S NOTHING ʚɞ - Nico gets injured during the game, which leads to y/n, who's just an inter for the Devils, checking him out in the medical room. Nico downplays his injury to make a good impression on Y/n.

DOGGY PARENTS ✩ - Nico and his girlfriend got a puppy after a few months she couldn’t stop talking about it.

TOUGH GAME ʚɞ - Y/n is on her way to get water when Nico comes home from a tough game, all pouty and sad. He envelops her in a tight hug, not wanting to let go. When he realizes she’s holding a glass in her hand, guilt washes over him, because she never drinks enough and now he’s keeping her away from doing so.

STUPID ARGUMENT »« ʚɞ - Nico and Y/n get into a two-hour-long argument about Nico leaving his shoes in the middle of the hall, making him snappy and annoyed by everyone at practice the next morning.

BETTER NIGHT ♡ - Y/n is bored at home when Nico is away for a game, so she decides to send him something to make his night entertaining.

PRAGUE DATE ✩ - when Nico takes you on a date in Prague, but you are Pally's sister

BIRTHDAY HEADCANONS - how would Nico act at your birthday

BLURBS

SWEET CREATURE by Harry Styles »« ʚɞ - Nico and y/n’s relationship has been on the wrong side for a little while now. One night, Nico comes home really late making a noise almost waking up their daughter. Nico snapped at y/n for asking him stupid questions. He immediately regrets his words when he sees the tears in her eyes and hears their daughter crying.

CAPTAIN KINK ♡ - Y/n indulges herself in Nico's captain kink, having the best sex in her life. From this point, she knows what to do whenever she wants Nico to go wild.

THE ONLY ONE ♡ - After a few months of relationship with Nico, y/n is finally prepared to give herself to him.

— DAWSON MERCER ⁹¹

FICS

I WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO YOU; AND HER ♡ ʚɞ- You are pregnant with Dawson's baby, but you're afraid to tell him. When you do his reaction catches you off guard.

EIGHT STAGES OF PREGNANCY ʚɞ - the journey y/n’s and Dawson’s pregnancy during the hockey season, the most important milestones in every pregnancy

DISNEYLAND TRIP ʚɞ - Your long-planned trip to Disneyland ends up being the best trip of your life when Dawson finally makes the last move for you to become a family

BLURBS

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE by Bruno Mars ʚɞ - It’s Y/n and Dawson‘s wedding day. It‘s after the ceremony and they all are at the reception. It’s held in the gardens of Dawson‘s birth house. When John and one of y/n’s friends do the toast, Dawson stands up and starts talking about y/n. How lucky he is to have her.

[tomoleary]

Al Jaffee - Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions

My snarky sense of humor started here.

[luvrxbunny]

all brawn ─ ★ miguel o’hara x f! reader

a/n: i actually don’t have anything to say but i just feel like i have to have an authors note ����🏾

wc: 585

warnings: 18+ MNDI, light degradation(?), mentions of sex, himbo-ism

-> miguel who’s all brawn and no brain. like he’s this huge mountain of muscle but he’s just not very bright. so when he meets you he’s like putty in your hands. he’ll do anything you ask. he becomes like your little guard dog, he’s constantly wanting praise and direction from you. he wants to save you from anything that could potential hurt you. he follows you around like a puppy.

✶ he’s very touchy, always draping himself over you and whining when you don’t give him enough attention. eventually he gets fed up with your neglect and just pulls you into the nearest private space.

✶ he’s submissive in the bedroom but not really in the way most would assume. he doesn’t really let you take the lead or anything but he does everything in his power to make sure you cum, that you’re satisfied and as brainless as he is. he’ll listen to any direction you give ofc, but he takes matters into his own hands every time.

-> he knows he’s not too smart too, he constantly asks you for help with things and is always embarrassed. but falls in love as you explain them to him, never making him feel dumb and always using a soft tone with him.

he said something particularly stupid once. he thought bees literally created flowers or something and you called him “your dumb baby” as a joke before explaining but it really turned him on.

✶ sometimes if you’re feeling extra dominant you’ll tease him as he pounds into you. asking him if he can even think anymore. if there’s anything going on in his head. it has him moaning in your ear every time.

✶ he’s good at a few things and is smart in those subjects, cooking being one of them. so he cooks for you all the time, and looses his mind when you praise him over the food. telling him how talented he is, how you could never make a meal this delicious.

✶ he kinda loves how much smarter you are. he likes when people ask him things and he gets to say “let me go ask my girlfriend”

✶ he’s never made any mistake when it comes to you though. he’s very smart in the subject of you.

-> there’s always someone who thinks he’s too dependent on you. they’ll make a comment along the lines of “jeez, let him answer some questions.” or to Miguel they’ll say “are you gonna let her think for you?” and it always upsets him. he has no problems with letting you think or talk for him, he prefers it.. always.

if a heckler catches him in an off day it really gets to him. he starts to feel like he puts too much work and pressure on you by having you do all his thinking for him. so he starts trying to think for himself but just ends up getting upset and the limits of his mental ability.

-> you can always tell when someone has said something to him. he’s more irritable that way, a little snappy. you have to catch him at a prefect time to make it better.

you have to sneak up behind him while he’s cooking and wrap your hands around his waist, telling him how good the food smells and feeling his chest puff up in pride. you keep bombarding him with the compliments and feel his breathing slowly speed up.

once efficiently working him up, you slide your hands into his pants. you touch him softly, teasing so he gets fed up and takes you over the counter or on the counter.

you let him use you to fuck all the thoughts out of his own head.

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  @wynnyfryd! Wynnyfryd has 34 fics in the Stranger Things fandom and all of them are in the Steddie tag!

i don’t know, you figure it out

Plot Holes

biting you biting you biting you- oh! kissing you!

Satanic Ritual: DO NOT WATCH!!

She's got some of the FUNNIEST writing in this fandom, and it's very snappy too like. She's an editing demon for sure, she can take a concept that I'd think would take paragraphs to explain and find the right words to make it hit just as hard with like, two sentences. I also really really love how descriptive her metaphors are, really visceral sometimes, and she's really good at writing realistic life events but still making them fun to read about even when it's about like, devastating shit. The sex she writes is also intense as hell! -- @griefabyss69

Below the cut, @wynnyfryd answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I am but a humble bisexual — I see two beautiful brown-eyed men makin’ beautiful brown eyes at each other, I go a little insane for two years. It is what it is.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

late-night moments of quiet hopeful hesitant intimacy over a shared joint or cigarette. Thin wisp of smoke between them, stars dancing in their eyes. Yeah. YEAHHHHHHH 

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

This isn’t really a trope so much as a dynamic, but I love a good dipshit 4 dingus dialogue-heavy scene. Don’t get me wrong, I think Eddie and Steve can both be very smart and knowledgeable in their areas of interest/expertise, but these are two young dudes with no access to the internet. I love letting them be confidently incorrect dumbasses. Just ‘yes and’-ing each other’s stupidity while an exasperated third character begs for mercy.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

Well, this question is impossible and furthermore rude. This question came into my home and didn’t take its muddy boots off. This question never mailed me a thank you letter for my lovely wedding gift. That blender was expensive; the absolute nerve. No but seriously, I think The Lathe by palmviolet is going to stay with me forever.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’m a big fan of doing canon divergence from different jumping off points — the beauty of having characters live in the same small town their whole lives is that you get so many great opportunities for these “what if our paths crossed sooner” moments.  I have some very loose notes for a S3 fic where Eddie is the movie theater employee who finds Steve and Robin in the bathroom after they escape the Russians, and I also have an old WIP set between S1 and S2 where lifeguard Steve rescues Eddie and then spends the summer teaching him how to swim. Would love to revisit those after I finish the trailer park AU (which I will be referring to as TPAU because my fingers are tired and because ‘toilet paper au’ makes me laugh.)

What is your writing process like?

Uhhhhh. 😂 I mean, for TPAU, basically just insert the scene from Dune 2 of Paul’s first sandworm ride: I’m shaking I’m sweating there is sand in my nostrils and I am surely about to die— oh wait, maybe I’ve actually got this? Am I actually doing it? Oh shit, look at me go!   For one-shots I like to use a more structured outline and bracket method. I start by dividing my doc into numbered scenes, with each scene getting a notes section and a prose section, like this:

This format gives me a lot of freedom to switch up the order of scenes and to move between scenes so I avoid writer’s block. I can also jump ahead to scenes I really want to write without making a mess of my outline. Once I have something written in the prose section of each scene, I go back and work on replacing each bracket with prose until there are no brackets left. Lastly, I create a new blank doc and copy the prose over in order so I can read the full fic and work on edits from there.  

Do you have any writing quirks?

I have been known to abuse a semicolon. And an em dash. And a conjunction at the start of a sentence. Yes, I do have ADHD.   I’m also a lyricist, so I feel like my prose tends to stray into poetry territory pretty often.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

When I’m finished! Which is probably why I tend to stick to one-shots; I get impatient and want to post stuff the second it’s ready.

Which fic are you most proud of?

‘i don’t know, you figure it out’ for SURE. I’ve never written a fic this long or stuck to a writing project this consistently in my life. Like ever. The last time I even came close was my first NaNoWriMo when I was 16, which was, uh… years ago, plural, and I’ll leave it at that. 😂

How did you get the idea for i don’t know, you figure it out?

“There’s a dead rat on his doorstep.” That’s it. That first sentence/scene popped into my head while I was bored at work, and then I started thinking, “hey, you know what? I don’t know that anyone’s ever done a fic where Max and Steve trade places for S4; that might be fun.”  And then NaNoWriMo was coming up, so I thought it would be cool to try live posting a fully improvised fic every day for a month to see how many words I could write. And then this tragic wet cat version of Steve Harrington grabbed me by the throat and took over my whole life.

When writing Satanic Ritual: DO NOT WATCH!!, what was something you didn’t expect?

How SAPPY these two got!! My god, boys, I’m trying to write smut over here, stop having a beautiful existential crisis! (I blame Briston Maroney for that though lol, I think I listened to ‘Body’ like 1400 times that month.)

What inspired Satanic Ritual: DO NOT WATCH!!?

@inklessletter posted this totally gorgeous art of Steve and Eddie recording themselves kissing, and I promptly lost my mind.  

What was your favorite part to write from biting you biting you biting you- oh! kissing you!?

This exchange: Steve: “What? I’m just asking!” Robin: “You’re being embarrassing!” Steve: “No, you’re just embarrassed. There’s a difference.” Like it’s just so them lmao

How do/did you feel writing i don’t know, you figure it out?

You know when you set out on a long hike in the summer and three hours later your calves are screaming and you’re covered in sweat and your sunburn’s starting to itch and this one horse fly won’t fuck off and your cell phone doesn’t even get service out here so literally WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF, and then you climb that last hill and look out on the most beautiful landscape you’ve ever seen in your silly little life? Basically that.

What was the most difficult part of writing Plot Holes?

Ooh, that one was fun! The only real difficulty was trying to keep it to a microfic because the concept could definitely be fleshed out to a full story — @griefabyss69 and I were joking around about “what if someone did ‘plot hole’ for the @steddiemicrofic prompt fill?” and then that fic just fell out of my head in about 15 minutes. 

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

For sure! I’m currently super proud of the graveyard scene in the most recent update of TPAU — I don’t write true horror often, but I love horror so it was really fun to give it a try! Favorite line from any fic is probably this reference to ‘You’re Divine’ in my fic Monsoon Season because I love uncomfortably-aroused prude Eddie, and his internal monologue cracks me up every time I think about it: Freddie Monsoon’s debut novel is called The Fourth Chime, and it is, as far as Eddie can tell, the first installment in a series of unapologetically filthy fuck fests about a man whose lover gets flung into an alternate dimension during an apocalyptic event and miraculously returns as some sort of… sexy bat-boy with a fucking horse dong and a bite kink. Critics are calling it “the most romantic novel of the last decade.” It’s me; I’m Critics.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

My main project right now is finishing TPAU if it kills me, but beyond that, I have a few one-shots for @subeddieweek in the works, including a collab with @griefabyss69 that I’m so so SO excited to share. It’s hot, it’s funny, I can’t wait for y’all to read it. 

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

First of all, as @wormdebut would say: I think you’re pretty. Thank you so much for all your hard work! I love this blog, and I love answering questions <3 Secondly: - Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. - Toss cubed sweet potatoes and parsnips, sliced sweet onion, and fresh garlic in a mix of olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary, and then spread in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet.  - Bake for ~40-45 minutes. (Potatoes and parsnips should be soft without being mushy when you poke them with a fork.) - Prep your sauce: I made a dijon drizzle situation by mixing olive oil mayo, a dash of dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a splash of water, but you could also add a little dab of hot sauce, bbq sauce, or different mustards. Basically just grab like four condiments out of your fridge and play around with the flavors you like until you make a mix that’s thin enough to pour. - Drizzle roasted veggies with sauce. - Enjoy a very tasty side dish (or do what I did and eat the whole sheet as a meal like some sort of parsnip goblin because you were too lazy to make the main dish after chopping all those veggies) okay thank you love you byeeeee

Thank you to our author, @wynnyfryd, and our nominator, @griefabyss69! See more of Wynnyfryd's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[roriaa]

When Sun and Moon meet - S2 FINALE

Zuko x Fem!WaterBender!Reader Enemies to Lovers

As one of the Princesses of the Northern Water tribe, you were blessed with a gift by the moon. However you were permitted to be allowed to use the gift at all costs. From many hidden waterbending usages, the aftermath of the avatar visiting the Northern Tribe had led to your beginning journey, hiding yourself as a water bender as a princess from the Northern water tribe

Warnings: Arguing, Fighting, Betrayal, mentions of death

Masterlist

҉ * ‧͙ ⋆ ⁺ ༓ ☾ Chapter 11 - Trust to Betrayal

“What are you doing here?” I hissed. “Aren't you part of the fire nation? Couldn't they make an exception even though you were banished?” I asked but no response. “Oh so you're just going to stay quiet huh? What happened to your snappy attitude when we last met?” I shouldn't be asking such questions, knowing I wouldn't get any response from him. “I genuinely thought you came to Ba Sing Se for a change until I saw the drill in the walls with the fire nation logo. I even gave the benefit of the doubt when you were looking at Appa’s missing poster.” I stopped for a moment of realization “That's why you’re here! Once Aang comes here you and your nation can easily catch him”. I sigh in irritation “You're so annoying you know that? I don't even understand why you want the avatar so bad to the point you almost got killed. If your father really does care he wouldn't have banished you. You're lucky that Aang was the one that wanted to save you from the snow storm, the rest of us wanted you dead!” I scoffed “But of course you don't care! You only want your ‘honor’” I mocked. “Then once you go back to the fire nation you will continue with the fire nation war schemes and stand right next to your father in his horrible plans” 

“That's not my plan” Zuko finally speaks up. “Oh wow, so now you finally spoke up” I rolled my eyes. “Then what is your plan Zuko? All you fire nation people are about war and taking over everyone's happiness” “You don't know what you're talking about,” Zuko said out loud. “You said that many times to me before, but I feel like I know enough” I glared at him but sighed heavily. “But really what's the point of me trying to say anything to you.” I sat against the wall leaning my head back trying to keep my anger in check. “I wasn't the one who caused the drill in the walls of Ba Sing Se, it was Azula,” Zuko said. “Azula?” I asked, “My sister,” he answered. Ah, so the girl in the middle of the fake Kyoshi warriors was Azula. I rolled my eyes “So what? It's your sister, same tribe, same blood, same everything” 

“That's not the case…” Zuko sighed as he continued “my sister and I always had different views of everything ever since we were younger. Which led to my banishment with a scar to remind me” He touched his scar. I furrowed my eyebrows in sadness and moved closer to Zuko. “Did your sister have the same mindset as your father by any chance?” I asked softly as he nodded. “Then did you possibly have the same mindset as your mother?” Stupid question indeed.

“My mother left years ago because of the fire nation” Zuko said which made me wince at my unnecessary comment. “Sorry…” I said awkwardly. “I'm sure you’ll find your mother” I put my hand on his shoulder in encouragement. “Thanks” He gratefully said. I took my hand off of his shoulder and thought about my own mother. “My mother died from the fire nation last year, however weirdly enough I can't remember the details even though it was so recent” I shrugged stiffly. “I actually had a dream about her when you…uh hit me to the point I passed out” This turned way more awkward than it should have. Zuko stiffened and croaked out a sorry but I shrugged it off. “She told me not to give up in my dream but I'm still not sure what that means to this day…maybe she knew my sister was going to sacrifice herself to the moon spirit and to tell me not to give up…she wanted me to keep my head up high.” I sway slightly, feeling quite sad that I lost two of my loved ones in such a short period of time. “I'm sorry” Zuko said in sympathy as I shook my head. “It's not your fault…that's actually why I came to Ba Sing Se, not only for me to start new but to get revenge at the guy who killed my sister.” I said, trying to sound more confident. “The person who killed your sister was sent to the spirit world by the Avatar” Zuko said which made my eyes widened. “Oh…well that works too” I said slightly embarrassed. There was a moment of silence till I spoke up again. “Are you still planning on hunting down the Avatar…” I asked, silently praying his answer will be no. “This scar cursed me to chase the avatar forever…but lately I realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free from my mark.” Zuko turned around to face away from me. “What if you could be free from your mark?” I said which made him immediately turn around with his eyes widened. “What…?”

“In the Spirit Oasis, the water there is more enhanced which could heal your scar” I explained “When I was younger I was in major pain and no one knew my cure, so my parents took me to the spirit oasis for my moon spirit to heal me. Which is why my hair is white” I pointed to my hair. “I'm sure your scar could possibly be healed in the Spirit Oasis, I could take you there.” I leaned closer to his scar, he closed his eyes as I moved my thumb across his scar. Then I heard a crash from the other side, showing Aang, Katara and the Old man who owned the tea house. “Katara! Aang!” I said running towards them in a hug. They both hugged me back “Thank you for coming to save me” “Of course we would save you Y/N no need to thank us” Katara said as Aang nodded. “Yeah! You're our friend!” Aang added. I smiled softly “Yeah…friends” I turned around to see Zuko irritated once again. The once soft moment was replaced quite fast. “Go help your other friends” The old man said while consoling Zuko. We nodded and ran out. I was following Aang and Katara but I took one last glance at Zuko in worry.

“We gotta find Sokka and Toph,” Katara said as we were running. I heard an electrifying sound and immediately turned around. Aang blocked it with his earth bending while I used my water bending to turn into ice. I looked to see who the attacker was and it was Azula, of course. Katara moved  her water bending to get a direct attack at Azula, a wave of smoke fills the atmosphere until she comes out again. Attempting to hit us with fire, the three of us used waterbending to shield ourselves. Azula landed on a tall rock which Aang was able to break down with his earth bending. Azula landed across from me, pointing her fingers like she was going to use lightning however she didn't know who to hit. Suddenly a blast of fire landed near Aang. From the corner of my eye, I saw Zuko who hesitated on who to hit. But it didn't take long for him to make his decision, shown by using his fire bending to aim at Aang. “Y/N Go up the waterfall and get Sokka and Toph,” Katara said, blocking Azula's attacks. I nodded instantly moving towards the waterfall, dodging Azula's attacks that were specifically made towards me. I lifted myself up with my bending, looking down at the scene feeling disappointed in myself. Looking at Zuko, I once again was a fool to trust him, again. It didn't take long till I was out of the cave.

  ҉   ☾

“Appa! Momo! ” I yelled after finding them both. I had no idea where I was once I managed to get out of the cave. Luckily, I found Appa and Momo together outside. I immediately got on Appa “Yip yip, we need to get to Toph and Sokka” I said which made Appa make a sound of agreement and he started flying. Once we got near the palace, I immediately saw Toph and Sokka with the King and his bear. “Sokka! Toph!” I yelled. “Y/N!” They both yelled back. I got down from the sky bison to get eye to eye level with the two. “Are you okay? Aang got a vision of Katara asking for help for you” Sokka said. “Yeah, it was hailing a lot around the palace” Toph included. “I'm fine but Katara and Aang aren't,” I said quickly. “They’re fighting Azula and Zuko right now” I was panicking, a lot. Last thing I want is one of them dead. “Do you know where they are?” Toph asked as I nodded. “Get on, everyone” I ushered the king and his bear to get on. 

  ҉   ☾

Once we made it to the destination I got off the bison “You guys stay here, it’ll be dangerous to all come together” I said. “Then why did we all come here?” Sokka whined. “It's because Katara needed to make sure you all were safe, and it's not for long. I just have to use my waterbending to get down and to somehow get Aang and Katara up. You guys need to be here for all of us to escape” I explained as they both nodded. I made my way over towards the waterfall and took a deep breath before jumping in. Once I made it down, I saw a horrific scene. It was Katara, crying while holding Aang’s body. I immediately used a splash of water to border Katara and Aang, making sure no one touched them. Coincidentally a wave of fire was shown, the old man came out of nowhere, landing in front of Katara and Aang. “You’ve got to get out of here! I’ll hold them all as long as I can” he says to both of them, making Katara nod and carrying Aang to get out of here. “Katara!” I yelled out making her look at me in somewhat relief but I could tell she was on the verge of crying again. I pull her closer towards me and make a water platform beneath our feet, helping us up. Before we reached the top I made sure to glare at Zuko, and he saw me, glaring at him. “Just as I thought you wanted a new start” I said, making sure he heard before disappearing.

  ҉   ☾

All of us were able to get above from Ba Sing Se, it wasn't as happy or uplifting as it was before. Instead it was depressing and anxiety wrenching. We stared at Katara, pulling the spirit oasis water out of the bottle to heal Aang. Internally praying he will come back to life again. Once the spirit of water disappeared in Aang, Katara couldn't help but hug him even tighter, crying. I looked down in disappointment at how everything turned out and so did everyone around me. Till a glow of a familiar arrow and breath indicated he was in fact alive. Everyone smiled happily while Katara laid him down and hugged him even tighter. Thank the spirits. “The earth kingdom… has fallen” Said the earth king with his head down, in disappointment and guilt. I felt bad for him. Thinking just as he saved his kingdom, it broke down once again.

A few hours go by, the cold breeze hitting my face making my skin feel like ice. It feels nostalgic, it feels like my home…northern tribe. I looked at Katara, still holding Aang in her arms. I decided to speak up “I'm sorry Katara…” I said shakily. “What do you have to be sorry about? You saved me.” She whispered, looking towards me in worry. I shook my head “I knew about Zuko being in Ba Sing Se the whole time” I admitted. I felt everyone suck in a breath which made me internally wince. “I met him here and talked to him but I didn't do anything because…I-” My voice cracked “I thought he must have changed…if I weren't so naive then…I would have caused any of you guys trouble”. I looked down, ashamed of my actions. Katara’s hand meets mine “It's fine Y/N…I'm just happy all of us have made it out”. I look up to everyone nodding. I dropped my shoulders and continued to look across from me, the night cloudy sky…

Season 2 END

<- Back - Next ->

a/n: WOAH lots of Zuko today and betrayal lmao. BUT S2 HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED. Not 100% sure when season 3 will start up, I already started it however I have ap exams soon for school, so I wont have much time :(. But I wont be gone for a while. Make sure yall take care of yourself and have a nice day! :)

-

taglist: @luvkvni @katovano @karmaswitch @someonesmember @velvet-spider @sh3sa1dwhat @nerdisthenewcool @meiraloves2dmen @fqnfics101 @iluvme547 @leaderwon @yukihatesreoyo @heart4hees @4l3x1s @kkissaku @corpsebridenightamare @newjellis @fatkish@pbeckn26@jasminesacademia @kyo-kyo1

[frikatilhi]

hello! 🫡 If Jere were to get angry at Bojan, and not like "wash your clothes" angry but really upset with him, what do you think would be the reason?

(I'm in my angsty bojere feels tonight, looking for reasons to suffer some more)

Anon, I saw your second ask and don't worry! If I don't want to answer something I won't 💕 Angsty thoughts welcome, sometimes you just need an outlet 🫂

Jere can handle when Bojan gets snappy, they sometimes both do, but it's usually because they're tired and frustrated and nothing major really comes of it. Luckily they're not usually in a mood at the same time.

So it's not anything Bojan does to Jere, it's not when he's a slob around the house or when he forgets something important or doesn't treat him right for just a second - those are easy.

What really gets Jere going is when Bojan doesn't treat himself right. He's getting better at taking care of himself, but sometimes he slips - slips into the darkness a little too far.

So that one time when he's sleep deprived, anxious, coming down with something but afraid to stop, missing Jere like crazy, upset about sales and numbers and a stubborn song and the future and has a clash with bandmates and goes to party with other friends and drinks too much and takes something someone offers him, because what the hell, it's just this once, and ends up in a hospital for a stomach lavage plus in a tabloid, that's when Jere gets mad.

He knows he shouldn't, Bojan is remourseful and upset enough as it is, but Jere can't help it. He's far away, he can't help, he's so fucking pissed off, and he knows he shouldn't take it out on Bojan, that really doesn't help at all. But that's when they have their biggest fight. Jere says some harsh words that really cut deep, and Bojan is vulnerable and really doesn't need this right now, so he lashes out as well. It almost tears them apart.

Which is stupid, they both realise, when Bojan is better and Jere has cooled off, Jere is just worried and frustrated because he's not able to help, and it kills him to see Bojan like that, and Bojan knows this.

So they make up and talk and apologise and set up some new system for what to do when someone gets in a downward spiral, how to lean on each other at the right moment.

Because they're Jere and Bojan, and they're making it, no matter what, SO THERE.

Um, anyway. What was the question?