#Sorry anyone else who sent an ask for this meme this one took over a bit...

[weirdnessxmagnet]

Super late: 14, 1

1. What would completely break your character?

Not much! She's long mastered using anger to prevent herself from crumbling. The one thing that comes to mind is a senseless tragedy taking away her kids permanently (especially Eli, given everything she's put in to get him back). She's lost her kids before and it didn't break her completely, but she had some very clear figures to blame for that. There was somewhere for the anger to go. Something to do. Something as senseless as Eli being taken out by a random asteroid strike (asteroids can destroy souls for the purpose of this example because it's really hard to stop her just deciding that she's gonna fix things) would break her, because there really is just nothing to do with that. No one to blame, nothing to fix. Nowhere to put her anger, so she'd just have to deal with the grief instead, and she would do so badly.

14. How does the image your character tries to project differ from the image they actually project?

Not that I need to tell you, since you did this on purpose, but this is complicated. To say Toni doesn't care how people see her is inaccurate, but she only cares insofar as the perception of her is useful. To that end, how she tries to present herself depends on the intended audience and the circumstances, and how that image is perceived depends on the observer and what information they're working with.

Literal essay of examples below the cut.

Normal:

This is how Toni tires to portray herself in most daily situations; normal by the standards of her present audience, whatever that audience may be. For most mundane interactions this means angels and demons are allegorical, vampires are for halloween, and while God may answer prayers with signs, if her audience is so inclined to believe that, He certainly isn't showing up for an in-person chat if you start banging pots and pans in his house at 2am. Of course, normal is relative, and so the stranger her audience, the stranger she can be.

This lands perfectly with strangers and passing acquaintances in one-on-one interactions; She lived an ordinary life once, she knows what the expectations are, and in the short term they're easy enough to maintain. The longer the association or broader the group, however, the more the cracks will start to show. She is weird even by most supernatural standards, and eventually that's not possible to hide.

Living Dead Girl:

This is a variation on Normal intended specifically for people who knew her before she got involved in the supernatural (usually immediate family). Critically, this is always woefully unsuccessful; for example, while a Normal Person can still have anger issues for entirely mundane reasons, 20 year old Toni didn't. The girl she was is, as Toni puts it, dead twice over. It is not someone Toni knows how to convincingly be any more around people who know exactly what it should look like. Even at her best, the result leaves her audience with a deep sense of the uncanny valley.

The Doll: 

At its most basic, The Doll is what happens when Toni plays on the stereotypical perception of the tiny, skinny, doe eyed white human girl (which of those categories are relevant is audience dependant). The presumed non-threat, innocence, and naïvety. A soft, weak, and harmless thing. Depending on how premeditated the role is, she will play this up with almost-conservative dresses, often in soft pastels or white, an exaggerated doe eye, and even making herself appear younger now that she's mastered her glamours.

This usually lands perfectly on the audiences it's targeted at; Specifically, those already primed to see themselves as more powerful than her in whatever arena she plans to contend in. It lures the target into a false sense of security, and ends with her getting all kinds of access, information, and opportunities that would never have been available if they'd taken her seriously from the start. Of course, there are groups and individuals who are already primed to be suspicious of exactly this kind of act. For most of these she just doesn't bother with it at all, but in some instances, such as interrogating certain terrorists  with Han, the juxtaposition between the persona and the situation is enough to be deeply unsettling in a way that still takes the target off their guard, if for entirely the wrong reasons. In which case, well, whatever works.

The Vixen:  

Her personal favourite, because the targets just make it so damn easy, Toni can go from the Doll to the Vixen with nothing more than a change in body language. Frequently this persona is called on the fly, but if there's opportunity for a premeditated costume change she'll really lean into it. In fact, given her unique capacity to worm into her target's mind and then glamour herself according to their preferences, her portrayals could be oddly specific and detailed for a sufficiently significant target, though she's yet to have cause to go so far.

The targets of this persona are primarily lonely straight men who are eager to take any positive attention from a woman at face value, and this group specifically has a near perfect success rate, to an embarrassing extent, like even when they know exactly who she is and should really, really know better (we're looking at you @texastrickshot, or indeed any goon Han has given the honey trap talk to who could still be convinced to fall for it). Has also been used on some not so straight men and queer women, but these groups are at least marginally more suspicious on average. This persona has also become more difficult to convincingly pull off long-term since entering a committed relationship, as there are now lines she won't cross so casually. However, given sufficiently high stakes she would expect her former sex-cult-member husband (and suspiciously invested demonic bestie) to understand that sometimes you do what you have to.

The Hunter:  

The trouble Toni had when she was first trying to learn to navigate the sudden appearance of demons in her life was it was really difficult to be taken seriously by the kinds of people who claimed to know what to do about that kind of thing. Frustratingly, it was also near impossible to move towards being someone actually worth taking seriously without first getting a foot in that door. So then the plan became to use what she did have - uncanny observation skills and unholy stubbornness - to fake it till she made it.

This persona, ironically for one that involves the most significant departure from her personal aesthetic preferences, appeared the least concerned with appearances. Rough ponytails and messy buns are the norm, as are well-worn thrift-store jeans and soft flannel shirts, practical boots, and the bare minimum of makeup to not look like she was outright haunted by horrifying nightmares, but not quite enough to make her look well-rested either. This was where she learned to appear resigned rather than desperate, and shoot straight whiskey like she'd been weaned on it (despite being underage the whole time). It was never quite perfect at the time, but it got her far enough to get a chance to learn that the solution she was trying for wasn't one that suited her at all. These days this persona comes out mostly to mislead real hunters to get them of hers and a friends tail, and it works better now than it ever did back then.

The Advisor:  

Toni is more than aware that she has a rather dominant personality. Often this is useful. When working in a position where the job is to support Mara's authority, it risks becoming counterproductive. Mindful of this, Toni intentionally subdues herself both in personality and visually when acting in her capacity as advisor, especially in settings such as a council meeting where they will both be in attendance. She won't contradict Mara directly with an audience; if something is significant enough to debate immediately, it can be done telepathically, leaving Mara free to pass off any reconsideration she might make as entirely her own idea, or else it can wait until they're in private over a cup of coffee. She will publicly ask Mara's permission for things she doesn't truly feel she needs permission for, and has even suggested actions that directly benefit her, such as redistribution of her more extraneous responsibilities, be portrayed as a "punishment" for one of Toni's more unpopular "personal" projects (even as that project benefits the realm long term. Ah, politics...) in order to bolster Mara's own authority and reduce Toni's. 

In terms of appearance, contrary to her natural inclination towards bright reds, bold blues, and gold, Toni's wardrobe when acting in her role as the advisor has gradually shifted not only towards purgatory's colours (blue, grey, and silver), but towards using jewel tones as accents when Mara uses them as a main colour, and being entirely greyscale when Mara uses colour as an accent. She even aims to make her hair less elaborate, and her heels short enough to hide that she's naturally a few inches taller (or at least was, when Mara still wore a physical host).

The Regent: 

Toni has, over the past few years, regularly had to act in the capacity of purgatory's regent. Sometimes in a officially sanctioned capacity, and at other times less so. This plays far more naturally with her true personality; assertive, bold, dominant, and composed. It also plays well with the after effects of possession; while Toni could mimic Mara convincingly even early on in their friendship (they are worryingly similar people in many ways), these days Toni can speak, act, even move as Mara almost as naturally as she does herself. For the most part when acting in her capacity as regent this is the tactic she uses, adding full use of their shared wardrobe to appear as much of a Mara clone as possible, the Queen's personal understudy, convincingly covering any personal doubts she might hold about her own qualifications.

...There is however an occasion where she has acted as regent and very much not been Mara's clone that is worth discussing. You might have noticed that I haven't said anything about how either the Advisor or Regent personas are received. That is because it's uniquely impossible not to discuss these two together; their intended audience is identical. Both personas are used to influence perception of purgatory's residents, especially the palace staff and representative council. Both personas are directly contradictory. Therefore, how they are received depends entirely on which one an individual finds more convincing. 

Add to that that after Hell's terrorist attack on Purgatory's central power source, Mara took some extreme actions that Toni felt hurt them politically and of course were just morally problematic, but that's hardly a point worth arguing with a demon, or even a former demon. During Mara's subsequent breakdown, Toni chose to act as regent (she felt justified, Mara was clearly unstable, but it was not sanctioned at the time), going out of her way to style and carry herself as bland and business like, as practical as her Hunter persona but without the rough edges. This was a conscious effort to distance herself from Mara in order to run political damage control on her own terms.

Add to that that while changes have been frequent enough that there might not be many staff or councillors currently present who remember it, there will surely be at least a few who remember that the first time Toni chose to act as regent, Mara was not even the reigning monarch. There was an heir available who should naturally have been the next in the chain of command while his parents were indisposed. Yet while Toni claimed said heir was in charge when asked directly, anyone with eyes knew that was a lie.

"...if I am the one who looks most in control out there tonight it will not help your position or my sanity..." - Toni to Mara before a recent diplomatic ball.

Neither persona is real; Toni is as uncomfortable in the Regent persona as she is restrained by the Advisor. However, years of practice have made her far better at hiding when she feels in over her head, while hiding her controlling impulses does not come so readily. Therefore, she is acutely aware of how moments like the one in the quote above tip the scale decidedly one way, impacting their long term political situation.

The Demon:

Machiavelli's The Prince states that if you must destroy an enemy, you should do so absolutely, so that his retribution need not be feared. Unfortunately, it is often quoted missing the much needed context that destruction should be the last resort, as you cannot change course later, while gentler means leave many more options open to you.

For Toni, The Demon is the personality of last resort, where stubborn ruthlessness reigns supreme.

A number of people might believe they've seen this persona in a moment of casual cruelty, but generally that's just a crack in her "Normal" persona revealing that she's a deeply unsettling person with serious anger issues. The Demon is also not worth using on the vast majority of people, as anyone inclined to believe another persona will believe this one is bluffing. Then, instead of getting what she wants, she has to make good on her threats to prove she isn't, which, while it will make them inclined to believe her next time, isn't actually productive in the moment.

There are only two people I can think of who have been on the receiving end of her full blown "do not doubt my willingness to be colder then you ever imagined" demonic persona; Hale and Malcolm.

Hale has been on the receiving end of this only once, when he threatened to devour her children after Han's first failed extraction attempt. She told him outright that she had survived their deaths once and would do so again, but he wouldn't. She was of course sobbing the whole time behind the scenes, but he didn't need to know that. She had a record to back her up, and she meant it. It didn't solve the problem; Han did that by "kidnapping" Hale's own son (with somewhat suicidal consent), but he believed her enough to hesitate.

While most of the time she's mostly her honest self around him (in so far as she's her honest self around anyone), Malcolm Brockway is perhaps the victim of this persona more than anyone else, largely because he's not inclined to believe any of the others. He knows she's not normal and he knows her games, but he has expressed, time and again, that she is as callous as Mara or worse. This makes it particularly easy to strong arm him into falling in line when he's in danger of growing too much of a spine; he never makes her prove it. He already knows that if she's making a threat, she's willing to follow through. It still hurts her to be seen that way so easily, but it benefits her too much for her to ever try to repair that perception.

[fabdante]

idk if anyone's getting my asks bc tumblr is ✨️like that✨️ but anyway for the fanfic ask game-

7, 42, and 46

ok ok so hi! hi, very late to answer this because tumblr did not send these to me until today, several months later? but its ok because i have the ask now and i tracked down the meme in question! thank you for sending these in!!

a link to the fan fic ask game!

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

In some ATLA stuff I've been working on, I've been enjoying adding some more West Asia to things. There's not a lot of West Asian/North African influence on the show, but it's there (particularly with the Sand Benders) and I think it's fun to explore and add some more nuance to! Particularly because in both shows the Sand Benders are not really...presented with any nuance.

So I've been having fun adding more West Asia to the Earth Kingdom, particularly foods and different little cultural things here and there to bring more of that influence in! Especially because I think large parts of the fandom don't realize like...that this stuff is already in the show, that West Asia is part of Asia, and perhaps we would like to be presented as a little more then 'those horrible evil irredeemable desert people who stole Appa'.

(I also answered this one back in May with a somewhat different answer if you want to check that out!)

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

I also answered this in May but I have a new answer.

Since this ask was sent I posted my fic An Inexact Science and all the comments there were very sweet and kind however I also got this one bot that kills me:

Like....what does this mean asdfghjk is this good or bad?

46. Do you prefer writing on your phone or on a computer (or something else)? Do you think where you write affects the way you write?

I'm really really bad at typing on my phone (like can barely make it through a word without one typo at least bad) so I use my computer most of the time. I have also been extremely won over by Scrivener as it fits in perfectly with my typical writing process that I've had since I first started writing on the computer in like...middle school.

With art and writing I tend to start many projects at once and jump rapidly between them. Either due to not wanting to write a certain part, feeling like writing a certain mood or ship or character, or feeling a sudden burst of inspiration for something. So Scrivener definitely enables me to write this way due to how it's set up for you to write different things in sections and flip between them easily. All of my one shots are in one document and I just file through them accordingly. If a one shot gets too big though, I make it's own document for ease of editing and flipping between parts! If I didn't write on my computer I definitely wouldn't do this, it'd be a lot more work I think.

However I do sometimes write on my phone, mostly exclusively if I'm away from my computer and have an idea I NEED to get down. Ironically, sometimes this is some of my most fun stuff, probably because it's the type of writing that I just need to get out and that stuff is always the coolest I think.

thank you again for sending this ask!! and I'm sorry it took me until now to get to it I have no idea why it never sent and then decided to now like...several months later! But it was a delight to find!! (and I hope you don't mind me tagging you @judging-seahorse I just want to make sure you see that I finally saw this asdfghjkl)

[storiesforallfandoms]

juxtaposition ~ eminem

word count: 1209

request?: yes!

@girl-toxxic​ “I don't know if you've seen the cat meme from "she did ballet and he was a punk" so I came up with this for an Imagine, Em and Reader go out to spend the day and there are a lot of hugs, kisses and fluff and they They are having such a good time that they do not realize that there are paparazzi and they take a lot of cute photos and one of them that goes viral on the internet is where Em is serious and hugs Reader, while she is all sweet giving kisses on his cheek. AND ADD SOMETHING MORE, LOVE THIS IMAGINE.”

“hiiii, I love your contents!! can I request a eminem x reader? reader is a softie. that's all you can do the rest. tysm!!”

description: after being caught out together, their fans start to realize that they are exact opposites and decide to make memes about it

pairing: eminem x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist (one, two)

They say opposites attract, but I never thought it was an actual thing. I always thought it was just a trope used in books and movies for a cute plotline. And then I started dating Marshall, who was the polar opposite to me. Publicly anyways.

Marshall’s public persona for years was that of a serious, cold rapper who liked to drop more explicates in one sentence than he probably should’ve. In private he was much sweeter than anyone would ever believe, but no one ever really saw that side of him besides the people closest to him (so mainly me). Then there was me, who was constantly a happy and positive person - in private and in public. It was like a whiplash in personalities whenever someone met the two of us together.

Going out in public was always somewhat amusing. The looks we would get when I was being all touchy feely and Marshall was his stone cold self was priceless.

On a day the two of us were out running errands, my usual desire for affection hit me suddenly. I took Marshall’s hand in mine and placed my head on his shoulder. We stumbled a little as we walked in our awkward position, which made me giggle.

“You’re gonna cause us to fall over,” Marshall teased.

“That’d be a sight,” I said with a giggle. “I’m just feelin’ all warm and fuzzy right now.”

“Don’t you always?”

I looked up at him and stuck my tongue out. His cold façade broke for just a moment as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

We stopped at a crosswalk to wait for the light to tell us we could walk. Marshall wrapped his arms around me, which surprised me because it was an unprompted public display of affection and he usually wasn’t big on that. I wasn’t about to fight it, however, and leaned into his embrace. Just before the walk signal flashed, I quickly kissed his cheek then pulled away from him to cross the street together.

It was a moment that I didn’t think too much about. Forgetting how extremely famous he is, I just thought of it as a quick moment of affection with my boyfriend while we were out running errands. Looking back, I should’ve been more aware of any potential paparazzi around us, but it was honestly the last thing on my mind.

It was Marshall’s daughter, Hailie, who made me aware that our picture had been taken. She had sent me a text with a picture attached, the message reading, “you and dad have become a meme! 😂”

It was the picture of the two of us at the crosswalk, Marshall with his arms around me and me leaning up to kiss his cheek. Of course whoever had been there had managed to catch the one moment of the most PDA that Marshall and I had ever shown. I really should not have been as surprised as I was.

Above the picture was a tweet from a fan account that read, “Em and (Y/N) really are the real life versions of that one line in Sk8er Boi”. The picture had a white bar above it with black text that included the aforementioned like from the famous Avril Lavigne song: “He was a punk, she did ballet, what more can I say?”

I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I looked closer at the picture. Whoever had taken it had managed to perfectly capture Marshall’s serious looking face, while also getting in the slight smile I had on my face while I kissed his cheek. It was the perfect picture to show how polar opposites we were, while also just being funny to see Marshall looking so serious while being so sweet.

Marshall was sitting on the other side of the couch watching football as I received the message from Hailie, and my giggle caused him to look over at me and raise an eyebrow.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked.

I moved closer and held my phone up so he could see the image. I saw his eyes looking over the screen before he looked at me and said, “I don’t get it.”

I laughed. “It’s just a joke. It’s pointing out how different the two of us are in the image. So like you’re all serious and I’m all soft. I think it’s funny.”

I rested against him as I went on scrolling on my phone. Marshall didn’t say anything else about the image, but I could feel hid body tensing against mine. I knew he was thinking about something, and I was almost positive I knew exactly what that something was.

After nearly an hour of the silence, besides the sounds of the game coming from the screen, I tilted my head back to look up at Marshall. His eyes were staring straight forward at the TV, not making any acknowledgements that I was there at all.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked.

He shrugged in response. I sat up so I could actually look at him. “Marshall? Come on, what’s up?”

He shrugged again, but this time he added, “Nothing.”

“You forget that I know when you’re thinking about something. Is it about the meme I showed you? It’s just a joke, I didn’t mean to upset you with it.”

“You didn’t upset me,” he said. “I’m just thinking.”

“That’s usually pretty dangerous,” I teased. “What about?”

He didn’t respond at first. I didn’t want to push him, so I was about to let it go, until he said, “What if I’m not right for you because we’re so different?”

It caught me so off guard that my first reaction was to laugh a little, but when I saw the serious look on Marshall’s face I realized that he was being serious.

“Look at us in that picture,” he said, nodding towards my phone. “I look like I’m almost mad to be there, but you look all happy. You should be standing next to someone who is going to mirror your happiness in pictures like that.”

“Babe, this is just your public persona. I know that you’re happy to be with me, and you’ve mirrored my happiness in plenty of pictures. You really don’t have to worry about anything.”

“Maybe you should be with someone who is genuine even out in person, not someone who has such a negative public persona.”

I sighed and cupped Marshall’s face so he would look at me. “Listen here, you are not that persona you put on for the cameras. You have your reasons for that and I understand them, but just because you put that face on when we’re out in public does not mean I deserve someone better. There’s no one better for me than you, Marshall. I adore you so much, and you are the sweetest person in the world. Don’t let something like this get to you.”

For added measure, I pulled him forward to kiss him. He smiled at me as I pulled away and put an arm around my shoulders to pull me back into his side.

“That was corny as fuck,” he said.

I laughed and playfully elbowed him in the side.

hi i know it was short i’m sorry i hope you enjoyed it though

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 299: No Chains Left

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “and then AFO broke out all of the inmates from six other prisons and took a nap. well anyways, here’s the hospital angst.” Kacchan woke up two days later and was all, “WAIT BUT HOW ARE DEKU AND TODOROKI AND ALL OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS EXCEPT IIDA DOING” and then we cut to Shouto’s room where the other U.A. kids were sitting around being Mutually Traumatized and giving each other moral support and such. Everyone was alll, “...”, and then the rest of the Todofam showed up, INCLUDING POSSIBLY REI?! which, omg. The chapter ended with Kacchan STOMPING THROUGH THE HALLS all “WHADDYA MEAN DEKU HASN’T WOKEN UP YET”, dragging along Satou and Mineta behind him, fueled by the power of ALL OF THE FUCKS HE NOW GIVES. He gives so many fucks now you guys. This boy cares so much he can probably deduct it on his taxes.

Today on BnHA: SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHO GIVE A LOT OF FUCKS, the story cuts abruptly to Hawks, freshly recovering from his near-death experience, and pondering the threads that have weaved the tapestry of his life and led him to this moment. Basically he grew up in poverty with his Jerk Dad and Jerk Mom until his dad got arrested one day and his mom sent him off to go Find Money Or Something, and so he rescued a busload of people and found himself a new career. Back in the present day, Hawks and Jeanist ride around town in Jeanist’s Jamborghini having awkward encounters with civilians in a country on the brink of social collapse, and visiting Hawks’s mother’s home. Hawks is all “I know from an outsider’s perspective it must look like my life currently sucks, but now that the HPSC is gone, my public image is shot, and my parents are finally out of my life, I’m actually feeling SURPRISINGLY GOOD.” Anyway so he’s gonna go meet up with Endeavor now, and p.s. this chapter was fucking fantastic though, damn.

oh my god?? is this Hawks narration?? something about him growing up watching the heroes on TV and thinking of them as fictional characters

okay I scrolled down a little bit more to see the rest of that “Keigo” panel, and wow

this is basically a shed. poor boy definitely grew up rough. let me tell you guys, I came in here ready for some BakuDeku shenanigans; I was not prepared for Hawks Flashback Angst. I AM HERE FOR IT, but also wow I gotta brace myself now lol

HELLO MISTER HAWKS’S JERK DAD, SIR

BnHA sure does have an array of Jerk Dads, doesn’t it. makes me appreciate characters like Masaru and JirouDad all the more for bucking the trend

anyway. so Horikoshi, you really thought that one itty bitty chapter of hospital catharsis would be enough to calm us all before you went right back to showing us child abuse huh. my god man can we rest

BABY HAWKS

swear to god this kid can’t be more than five or six, and yet he has this completely blank look on his face even with his dad looming over him being all threatening and shit. like he’s shut down his emotions to protect himself. imagine what has to happen to a child for him to have learned this at such a young age. fuck

AND MEANWHILE THIS GUY

don’t mingle with humans?? not “other” humans, just humans?? what is this implying here?? and also holy shit Hawks definitely didn’t inherit his looks from his dad orz

then again he doesn’t really bear much of a resemblance to his strung-out mom here either

omg omg omg. and this child is basically trapped here in this environment with these two people. this explains a SHITLOAD about Hawks’s personality though you guys. his ability to completely separate his real thoughts from the face he presents to the outside world. his pragmatic approach to analyzing and solving problems. his layers of emotional walls. turns out almost none of that came from the HPSC training -- that was all learned hands-on in his own personal do-or-die survival nightmare childhood!! oh, boy

and small wonder then that he latched on to Endeavor so strongly if he really is the one who brought down his dad and inadvertently saved him from this. also, just putting this out there, I know people are always talking about him and Dabi being foils, and I think it’s very interesting how Touya grew up in a household where he saw firsthand the dark side of hero society, and so ended up becoming a villain in order to bring it down. whereas young Keigo had almost the exact opposite experience, growing up experiencing the dark side of villain society and becoming a hero in order to bring about a world where no one else has to experience that. just. both of them are so determined not to become their fathers. some interesting parallels there

so Hawks was sort of an accident after his parents had “thanks for helping me not get caught after I killed that guy” sex, and now this little boy is growing up in squalor and being beaten by his father for things like Sitting In The Wrong Out-Of-The-Way Corner Trying Not To Be A Bother To Anybody. holy fuck. this is so rough to read through you guys

wait so does Jerk Dad have a an eyeball manipulation quirk?? because he doesn’t have the wings like his son, but wth are these things??

this presumably also means that Keigo has never been to school or anything either. he basically doesn’t exist. he thinks heroes are fictional characters, he doesn’t realize that they’re real people. these are people who could help him if he could escape and find them, but he doesn’t know, and they don’t know about him

OH MY GOD HE’S JUST SITTING IN HIS CORNER HUGGLING HIS ENDEAVOR PLUSH OH MY GOD

how could this child possibly have an anti-fandom when he’s done NOTHING WRONG HIS ENTIRE LIFE. huh. just explain that to me. lol I mean I’m not looking to pick a fight with anyone, but also, MAYBE I AM, idk?? this kid has gotten me all riled up lmao

anyways, Protect Keigo 2021, and thank you Horikoshi for these three very terrible pages. I am pleased to inform you that you’ve effectively gotten your point across and you may now commence saving this kid already

YAY

oh no, Keigo’s dumbass jerk dad tried to steal a car and the popo nabbed his ass and now his mom can’t just sit around neglecting her VERY YOUNG SON all day long, oh horrors. sorry lady my tiny violin is on backorder. just imagine that I’m playing a very sarcastic song on it for you

anyway so what are you gonna do now, abandon him? I can hardly imagine he’d be worse off, if anything it might be a near-instant improvement

LMAO HE’S ALL “WAIT WHAT ENDEAVOR’S A REAL FUCKING DUDE?!”

AND THEY SAY THAT A HERO CAN SAVE US~~~~ I’M NOT GONNA STAND HERE AND WAAAAAIT~~~~~ I’LL HOLD ONTO THE WINGS OF THE EAGLES, WATCH AS WE ALL FLY AWAAAAAAY~~~~

lol what a randomly pivotal moment in his young life. TIME TO GO MAKE THESE MEMES INTO DREAMS YOUNG ONE

anyway so his mom freaked out and grabbed him and they wound up at a train station with her TELLING HIM TO GO GET HER SOME MONEY, oh my god. SURE MOM LEMME JUST WALTZ RIGHT ON DOWN TO THE “JOBS FOR FIVE-YEAR-OLDS” STORE AND TELL THEM I NEED SOME CASH. ffff manifesting someone to come help him in 3... 2...

...

SIGH, JUST GO RESCUE THE PEOPLE FROM THE BUS, KEIGO. is this the outfit he was wearing when that happened?? it must be, right?? I can’t imagine them surviving more than a couple days out here unless this starts getting REALLY dark in a way I know that even Horikoshi won’t explore, so yeah. cut to the HPSC now please. never thought we’d be glad to see them. I mean sure, it may be an “out of the frying pan...” case, but good god

THANK YOU!!

and I guess it was his mom’s eyeball quirk then. anyway, whatever, see you again never, hopefully. lol oh man. thaaaat, was upsetting. need to center myself here for a sec. NAMASTE

OH YAY THE PRESENT

so we cut from Baby Hawks Angst straight to Present Day Hawks Angst, huh. not that this exhausted and traumatized lil lad isn’t still a baby to me too, I’ll have you know

BEST JEANIST, ALWAYS WITH THE JOKES

“WHEW, THOUGHT YOU DIED ON ME FOR A SEC THERE KID.” lmao. Caleb will no doubt ruin this by making his word choice all stiffly formal as usual, so I’m just going to treasure this “WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, I’M FRESH OUT OF FUCKS” version of Jeanist while I can

look at him, driving his Jeanistmobile

again, is it any wonder Kacchan was bitching about Endeavor’s dinky little car when he was used to riding around town in style like this. anyone else staring at this panel trying to figure out how this car is somehow secretly made of jeans

NOOOOO

FUCK YOU DABI LMAO. PUTTING THESE VOICE ACTORS OUT OF A JOB ONE BY ONE

anyway so Jeanist is all “GOOD THING IT’S THE FUTURE AND WE’RE SO GOOD AT MEDICAL SCIENCE” to handwave how Hawks went from one step shy of being a very handsome corpse, to sitting around texting Jeanist in a car all of two days later

OH MY GOD, AND FINALLY AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS

wait a minute. I’m so confused lmfao. soooo, was Hawks all “anyway, here’s Jeanist’s dead body, you can examine it but please don’t look at him too closely and also I’m gonna need that back unharmed.” how tf did you pull that off lmao

(ETA: also isn’t this technically confirmation of the ol’ Noumu Jeanist theory lol. I’m gonna go ahead and say it is.)

NO BUT PLEASE, CONTINUE. I unironically love reading Horikoshi’s overly convoluted “SEE IT’S NOT A PLOT HOLE” explanations

lkldslfk so wait, you’re telling me Hawks convinced Dabi and the League to put Jeanist’s body in storage, and basically just hoped they wouldn’t use him for any experiments until he could put his plan into action and have the HPSC’s people break in and find and revive him?? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG. A FOOLPROOF PLAN IF I’VE EVER HEARD ONE

fff this man really asked Jeanist to risk it all to prop up his little cover story, and Jeanist was all “sure why not” omfg. anyways, thanks for recapping all of this out loud for no particular reason in your car conversation you two

LMAO NOW WHAT

TROUBLE YOU SAY? GOOD THING THE NEW NUMBER ONE HERO IS ON THE JOB THEN

okay no it’s just some random thugs strolling around terrorizing the downtown. fuck ‘em. so Jeanist is making short work of them now

uh oh

won’t come? not can’t, but won’t?? what???

WOW

well I guess that makes the local heroes A BUNCH OF SHITHEADS now doesn’t it?? jesus

and okay, serious question, if the cops are spread too thin and the heroes have literally walked out on the job, what exactly is stopping everyone from deciding to use their quirks to defend themselves, legal or not? nothing, as far as I can tell. society just got a hell of a lot more chaotic

anyway so this is an interesting panel here

man, Dabi really did pull it off, didn’t he. well anyway so here’s that better world all of the villains were wanting, you guys! isn’t it so great?? everyone’s terrified and angry and losing hope and society is inches away from collapsing into total anarchy! but hey, at least we exposed the number one hero as a hypocrite

anyway so what are these guys up to

fucking hell, he’s visiting his mom. I really wasn’t prepared to commit this much emotional energy towards reading this chapter today. BUT VERY WELL, WE PRESS ON

?? wait she’s not there?

is this supposed to explain how Dabi knew who Hawks really was? except that there’s the little matter of how he even know where to find his mother in the first place. feels like we’re still missing something there, but oh well

OH MY GOD

RHA I TAKE BACK EVERY WORD I EVER SPOKE AGAINST YOU. YOU ARE A SCANLATION GROUP FILLED WITH ANGELS LMAO. I WILL TAKE THIS PANEL IN MY HANDS, AND TREASURE IT AND KEEP IT SAFE

ANYWAY, BECAUSE MY TIRED BIRD SON’S LIFE SUCKED SO MUCH ALREADY, IT TURNS OUT HE’S ACTUALLY PLEASED WITH THIS NEW TURN OF EVENTS LOL HOW ABOUT THAT

GOOD FOR YOU BBY. YOU GO OUT THERE AND BE YOUR OWN PERSON

and in all seriousness, I love that identity he chooses -- chooses, because it actually is him making a choice now, possibly for the very first time in his life -- is “guy who helps people”, though. it really is nothing short of miraculous that he held on to that kind of optimism and desire to do good even with everything he’s been through. there were so many times he could have chosen to turn his back on the world in retaliation for the way it treated him. but he didn’t!! and here he is now, finally free, and what he wants to do with the rest of his life now is simply to help others. anyway please excuse me for a moment, I need to go find some sort of basket or a big vase to put all of my fresh new Hawks Feels in, pardonne-moi

YEAH BOIIIIII

“FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS, MISTER JEANIST, WHERE DID YOU FIND YOUSELF THAT SWEETASS CAR.” hey, all I’m saying is if this boy’s wings really aren’t growing back, he’s gonna need to find himself a new means of transportation y’know?

oh my god you guys it’s a flashback to his mom buying him the Endeavor plushie when he was like two because, and I quote, ALL MIGHT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE

oh my god oh my god. my boy out here with a new lease on life finding hope in the darkest of times

wasn’t your throat supposed to be all fucked up lmao. Horikoshi was suddenly all “oh shit the VAs are gonna be pissed at me if I keep this up huh”

“that’s why Bubaigawara was such a great guy” motherfucker IT IS A TERRIBLE DAY FOR RAIN. FORECAST SAID NOTHING ABOUT THIS

:’)

yes ma’am. yes indeed. confirmed, I really will straight up fight some motherfuckers for this child. well not really, but YOU KEEP YOUR DISCOURSE OFF MY LAWN AND OUT OF MY BLOG YOU HEAR. THIS IS A HAWKS-FRIENDLY SPACE. WE RESPECT TAKAMI KEIGO IN THESE STREETS

and he’s saying (or is he thinking?? what a weirdly shaped speech bubble this is) that even if what Dabi said about the Todoroki household is true, “I’m not sure it’s the same now.” which happens to be ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. man this whole chapter really is all about saying “fuck the past” and moving forward and I am living for it

SON!!!!

“the first step is at my beginning” fklkjlk. what an iconic fucking line??

AND HIS WINGS!!!! THEY ACTUALLY ARE GROWING BACK AHHHHHHH. “PUT A RAINCHECK ON THAT CAR, JEANIST-SAN.” THE HAWKSMOBILE CAN WAIT, RIGHT NOW HE HAS TO GO INSERT HIMSELF BACK INTO THE TODODRAMA WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT

you guys. I came here ready for some BAKUDEKU HOSPITAL ANGST, and I got DIDDLY SHIT of that, and none of my other kids were even in this chapter, but!!! ASK ME IF I CARE LMAO omg. because bird son is hanging with his new best friend, and he’s out here Finding Himself and picking up the pieces and putting them back together stronger than ever because RESILIENCE HAS A NAME, AND IT’S SPELLED H-A-W-K-S, and you guys. profound, my love for this child. holy shit. hey google, play Silence by Marshmello

[chiliiscereal]

So my friend has been on and off lately.

I decided to write this for me cause I needed it.

Requests are open!

Chosen last

Summary:

Readers friends only invite them to things if they have no one else to go with. Reader keeps their mouth shut about it and just guesses that this is how friendship works. One day they meet the turtles and April, and for once they’re not chosen last.

Pairing: platonic turtles x reader

(Implied female reader but I’ll do my best to avoid pronouns! Sorry if a she/her slips out)

“I couldn’t find anyone else to go with me so do you want to tag along?”

“I had a plus one and everyone else was busy.”

“No one else can make it and I don’t want to be lonely. Wanna go with me?”

“Sorry I guess I forgot to invite you!”

“What do you mean you were there? I could have sworn you were somewhere else... huh poor memory I guess.”

“Sorry! There’s no room for you to come with! Next time for sure though!”

All of those were common things you’d heard before.

You weren’t exactly sure if it was a normal thing in friendships. It must be since no one else mentioned it.

Still, it hurt that you weren’t prioritized. You were always the last thought. Last minute.

And you always said yes.

Someone needs you to be their plus one for the dance so they don’t look bad?

There you are.

Someone needs a wingman for this boy they like?

You’re already on your way.

It’s not that you minded.

You just wanted to be... appreciated.

You just wanted them to see you.

Maybe they would if you kept trying.

Maybe they would if you made them a homemade gift for each birthday.

Maybe they would if you always answered back their texts right away.

You thought you needed to earn the right to be appreciated.

You realized how wrong you were when you met the turtles.

————

You brought your jacket closer around your body, shivering.

Of course you had to walk home! Alone! In the dark! In the RAIN!

Apparently it was too much to ask for a ride home after hanging out. There wasn’t enough room in the car!

Of course.

Just like every other time, asking to come along was too much.

You shivered again as rain dripped down your back.

“This sucks.” You groaned.

You eyed every dark alley way. You’d read enough fanfiction to expect some cringey creepy man to come out and attack you.

But what DID attack you was completely unexpected.

“LOOK OUT!” A voice shouted.

You didn’t even have time to flinch before something landed on top of you. The weight of it brought you to the ground with a shriek.

“Sorry about that!”

That wasn’t a ‘something’ but a someone!

They scrambled off you quickly.

You stood up and whipped around, rubbing your aching head. “What the hell were you doing?! Do you do parkour on the rooftops or something?!”

Ugh, today just wasn’t your day.

Finally, you glanced up.

They... they clearly weren’t a human.

Green skin...

Orange dots?

A... a shell??

And an orange mask.

Your jaw nearly dropped.

The creature gave you a sheepish grin. “Umm... hey! Yeah... maybe.. possibly... I was doing parkour on the roof...?” He rubbed the back of his neck and eyed the sky, a blush forming across his face. “I was on my way... my way to the comic con!”

He must be looking for a way to leave.

You weren’t ready for that though. You still needed to know what he was! And possibly his name!

You inched closer, holding your phone closer. Just in case. “What... what exactly are you?”

His eyes were on the floor now, as if your words had made him... upset.

“Sorry if that offended you!” You responded immediately. Ugh why did you word it like that? You didn’t mean it as if you thought he was a monster! “I just... I’ve had a really confusing night, my mouth runs faster than my brain, and I just got body slammed into the cement!” You rubbed the back of your head again.

He seemed much more satisfied with this answer. “Well... I don’t think you’d believe me...”

You eyed him up and down. “Dude, I think just looking at you would be enough for me to believe you.”

He let out a small laugh. “So ummm... yeah. I’m a turtle?”

You frowned. “Yeah, I think I see that.”

Well this was a strange turn of conversation.

Why not?

It’s New York after all.

He shuffled nervously. “People aren’t really supposed to know about it.”

You waved him off. “Psh, I don’t have anyone that would want to hear it or believe me anyway.” You stepped closer, your grip on your phone loosening. “Honestly, that’s pretty cool! I didn’t know people like you existed!”

It hurt but it was true.

Your friends would think you were making stuff up for attention.

“MIKEY!”

The new voice cause you to nearly jump out of your skin.

Three people, just like this guy, landed by his side.

One with a red mask and build like a tank.

Another with a blue mask and strange yellow stripes.

The last one had a purple mask and a staff of some kind.

“Are you okay, little man?” The red one asked worriedly. “You just took a huge fall!”

“I swear you’re gonna be feeling that a week from now.” The blue one snorted, resting his SWORD on his shoulder like it was a baseball bat.

“I estimate it’ll be closer to three weeks.” The purple one corrected, tapping a device on his wrist.

You stepped back.

There were more people like... Mikey? Was that his name?

Well, might as well find some way to get into this conversation. You weren’t gonna let the most interesting thing that ever happened to you slip away.

“You’re name’s Mikey?” You asked, the three surrounding the orange masked turtle jumping.

“Human!” The blue masked one shouted.

The large red one shoved Miley behind him. “Hi! Uh... we... we were just on our way to Comic-Con!”

“Guys-.” Mikey tried only to get Interrupted.

“Could you help us find our way?” The purple one joined, cutting him off.

You raised an eyebrow. “Nice try. I already know you guys are turtles.”

“Dang it Mikey!” The blue one shoved Mikey. “You just gonna spill our secret to everyone you meet in New York?”

“She deserves to know!” Mikey squeaked. “I messed up a flip and body slammed her into the concrete!” He turned to you, eyes hopeful. “And... she didn’t seem scared of me!”

This stopped the other boys.

Mikey shoved them all away from him. “These are my brothers! Leo,” he pointed at the blue one, “Donnie,” the purple one, “and Raph!”

You waved awkwardly, eyes landing warily on the largest one.

These guys didn’t seem as sweet and trusting as Mikey.

Donnie was looking you up and down for any sign of a threat.

Leo has his sword out.

Raph has his tonfas ready in his fists.

Maybe it’d be better to just leave.

“I’m not gonna tell anyone.” You shook your head to further emphasize your point. “I was just walking home anyway. All of this...” you spread out your arms, “was a complete accident.”

Mikey gave you a toothy grin. “Yeah, sorry about that.” He turned to his skeptical brothers. “She seems nice! She could be just like April!”

You kicked at the ground sheepishly now that the attention was back to you. “You can just go and I won’t tell anyone.”

“We can’t just let you go.” Donnie scoffed.

For a split second, you thought they were going to kill you for finding out their secret. Or kidnap you. Something bad.

“Not with that whole situation.” He gestured to your forehead.

Curiously, you reached up and touched it.

Your fingers were wet with blood.

Go figure.

“No, it’s fine, really.” You assured them. “My apartment isn’t too far-.”

“Please, it’s fine.” Raph waved you off. “It’ll make up for this bonehead over here.” He loosely jabbed his thumb in Mikeys direction.

You wanted to say yes.

You wanted to say yes so badly.

“I don’t know, you probably got plans.” Leo shrugged, putting his sword away. “It’s a Friday afternoon, after all.”

That was enough for you to make a decision.

“No, I’m actually free.” You offered. “I actually don’t even have a medicine kit at my house-.”

“Alright let’s go!” Mikey grabbed your wrist excitedly and lead the way, not even waiting for you to finish your sentence.

————

You only meant to spend ten or fifteen minutes there, tops.

But after Donnie had your head taken care of Mikey wanted to know if you wanted to play a video game.

You couldn’t say no.

Then, after an hour of the Lou jitsu game, Leo wanted to know if you wanted to check out his sword.

You felt like you had to say yes.

It’s not every day you get to see a sword!

After accidentally getting portalled to New Jersey and FINALLY making your way back, Donnie wanted to know if he could borrow you.

He needed to fix his computer and he needed your smaller fingers to reach the back for him.

Saying no just wasn’t an option.

After almost exploding the poor piece of technology, Raph wanted to know if you knew April O’Neil.

You heard them mention her earlier but you didn’t know they meant THAT April. You’d seen her around before but never really talked to her. Who knew she’d be involved with mutants from the sewer?

He invited April to join them as well.

He thought some human company and someone who would make you feel more normal about the whole situation would make you more comfortable.

He was right.

April was AWESOME.

You hadn’t realized how loud and how fun she could be!

She talked to you about how she met the turtles and every little adventure they went on!

You hoped, secretly, that you could be a part of newer ones.

Eventually, the time came for you to leave.

You were sad of course, but you felt happier than you had in days.

You left with five new numbers in your contacts list and a baked green bean casserole from a rat.

Maybe you should get body slammed into the concrete more often.

————

“Wanna go to that party with me after school?” Your friend asked casually at the lunch table. “Dana couldn’t go with me and everyone else is busy. I need a plus one!”

You smiled as you responded to a meme Leo sent you, your friends words going in one ear and out the other.

“Y/n.” She asked again.

Still no response.

“Are you even listening to me?”

You snapped out of it and straightened up. “What?”

“You and I are going to a party after school.” She informed you. “We should probably pick out our outfits right when it ends. I don’t know if I’ll be able to drive you but you can just walk-.”

“Oh,” you picked your phone up again, “sorry, I have plans.”

This got her to stop. “You have plans? But you never have plans?”

Your other friend snickered. “Yeah, you’re a hermit! You never go out or do anything!”

You blushed furiously. “I’m going to my friends house to watch a movie, okay? I’m not a hermit.”

“A friend, huh?” One of them rolled her eyes. “How come I’ve never heard of them before?”

“I just met them last month.” You picked at your shirt nervously. Why weren’t they happier for you?

“Them?” Another repeated, shocked. “You have more than one knew friend?”

“Yeah.” You straightened up a bit. “Them. They’re super nice but they don’t go to our school.”

The first one rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever, think what you want. But I need you to sit with me and Jake at the park tomorrow so he can compare-.”

You didn’t even let her begin to finish her sentence. “I’m busy that day.”

“Again?” She gaped. “Seriously?”

“Now you’re just making stuff up.” Another scoffed.

“Why is it so unbelievable that I’d be busy?” You glared at them, clutching your phone protectively. “You’re all busy all the time! Why can’t I be?”

They glanced at each other with knowing looks.

“Because you barely talk to anyone! No offense, but you can be really boring.” The one next to you shrugged. “What even is your friends name anyway? You’d have said their name if they were real.”

You felt your face heating up.

Boring?

Quiet?

“His name Mikey.” You grumbled. “And maybe I don’t talk because none of you give me a chance!”

“A boy?!” The one in front of you gasped. They didn’t even acknowledge any of your other words. “Please, how could you score a boy?”

“He’s probably really ugly, no offense y/n.” One chuckled as if she were joking.

You had enough. “You know, I’m feeling a little crowded. I’m gonna go sit somewhere else.”

“You don’t even have anyone to sit with! You’re a hermit, remember?” One girl called out to you.

“I do have someone to sit with.” You growled, heading for April’s table. You should have started sitting with her a long long LONG time ago.

“Alright, see you Monday I guess.” Was the reply.

The way they just blew it off... UGH. You wanted to punch something.

“Hey, what brings you to the cool kid table?” April grinned, shoving Dale over to make room. “Aren’t you supposed to be with your other friends?”

You managed to shove away the buzzing anger in your head, replacing your frown with a matching smile. “Nah, there’s not enough room for me AND their egos.”

April snorted, assuming you were joking. “Well there’s always room for you here!”

Those were words you’d waited too long to hear.

—————

You still saw your old friends and occasionally filled in for them when they needed an extra.

But you denied their offers more and more.

For once, you knew what it felt like to be prioritized.

“Hey we’re gonna watch a Lou Jitsu movie, wanna come?”

“I saw this glass painting trend online and I thought you’d want to come over and do it with me!”

“I heard this song and I thought you’d like it. Here’s the link!”

“Check our this hilarious meme!”

“Dale and I are gonna go to that shin dig. I don’t know if that’s you’re thing but you’re welcome to join us!”

What a refreshing change of pace

Let me know if I should make a part two!

[byulsgrease]

if you arent too busy, can you write a idol!hwasa x idol!reader, wherein they both have to practice with each other for a special stage. However on the first meeting they become starstruck and cant believe somethings are real, but soon warm up to each other?

i'm not terribly busy but this still took a while anyway oops - sorry this took so long anon! here you go :D

if anyone has requests for the other members hmu cuz I've got 2 more hyejin reqs after this one (not that I'm complaining)

"who says we can't do something on our own?"

(hwasa x idol!reader, ~1.2k words)

cw: food + alcohol mention (y'all know how it is)

I named someone Minjeong - it's not Aespa's Winter, idk anything about 4th gen gg's - 민정 is my Korean name so it's just what came to mind

"Hey, wake up. You've gotta see this. GET UP," a voice piercing through the fog of your sleep.

What a rude awakening. Your shoulders being shaken vigorously by a pair of small hands meant they belonged to none other than Minjeong, your youngest group member. You rolled over to glare menacingly at her with one eye open, trying to pull your brain out of the slumber. All you could see was the bright light of her phone shining in your eyes - a video of some kind. But then you heard the audio:

"Have you seen the clip?" asked the interviewer.

"Yes, my members and many MooMoos made sure I saw it"— Moos? Oh, it's Hwasa. WAIT. Both your eyes flew open as you sat up and snatched Jeongie's phone out of her hand to stare at the video. Your mind immediately flashed back to the interview you did last week - they asked who you most wanted to collaborate with, if there were no limitations. Your ears started to heat up at the sheer thought of the flustered mess of an answer you gave - of course you said Hwasa. Both of you debuted relatively close to each other, within a year, but never interacted much over the years. Mamamoo as a group was a force to be reckoned with, but there was just something about Hwasa specifically. You mostly just admired her unique singing voice and undeniable stage presence, and her relentless drive to always be herself in an industry constantly trying to fit women into a box.

Finally snapping out of re-living that embarrassment, your attention turned back to the phone in your hand. The interviewer must've asked her to send a message in response to you, because you couldn't believe that she was waving and saying, "How haven't we gotten to know each other better over all these years? I'd love to work with you on something sometime," curtly dipping her head in a slight bow.

"SEE? You needed to see that," Minjeong rushed to say, full of energy. "And close your mouth, your jaw's on the floor," jokingly pointing.

You side-eyed her and shut your mouth. "Is this what Loco felt like when she called him during Hyena on the Keyboard?" you wondered aloud.

"At least she's not calling you while on camera," she commented, knowing full well that you'd probably embarrass yourself again if she did. "But hey, at least she noticed you! Can I have my phone back now?" It would be a dream come true to collaborate with her, but cross-company collabs... always a pain. that couldn't be helped. The fantasy abruptly ended with demands from your rumbling stomach. Done with your what-if's, you placed the phone back in your maknae's outstretched hand to get up and make breakfast.

~~~~

With award show season rolling around, the crazy scramble of rehearsing for special live stages without leaking sets and collabs began. Checking your email that morning showed a schedule to record the backing track for a special live stage, but that was it. With who? You texted your members a screenshot, but they all told you that block of time in their schedule was empty. A solo stage? The solo mini-album you released this cycle did relatively well, the title track got a music show win, but not a multi-week chart-topper by any means. Possibilities turning over in your mind, you stepped out from your place to head to the company, totally in the dark about what was in store.

The recording studio always smelled the same along with the couches, a comfort for all the insanely long nights and crack-of-dawn early mornings over the years. With a bit of time to kill, you plopped down on one and gingerly patted the worn cushions as some kind of symbolic thank-you for supporting you (literally).

A hesitant but loud knock sent your gaze directly to the door. Watching it slowly open, you leaned forward to see who it was. Needless to say, your jaw fell to the floor again as you clapped a hand over your gaping mouth, eyes widening. Like a soldier obeying a command, you immediately stood up as straight as possible and bowed profusely at Hwasa, sporting a very similar expression on her face (which you failed to notice, your mind running a million miles a minute).

After a series of frantic bows and miscellaneous utterances to each other, she spoke. "It's nice to finally meet you," she said with calm, surveying your frenzied state. "I guess we're granting that collab wish from your interview, huh?"

The red-hot embarrassment leapt to your face. "I...I definitely made a fool of myself answering that question. And our maknae showed me your interview clip too, which was cool, but never did I think it would actually happen," you stammered. I should probably stop talking.

"Well, here I am," she half-smiled coolly. "Let's get started, I'm really looking forward to finally work with you on this," a gleam in her eye and a hint of excitement in her voice.

The studio suddenly felt a lot smaller with her in it, despite there only being your managers, the producer, and the both of you - less people than you and your members alone. Both of you remained relatively quiet the whole time, rather unsure of what to say or talk about. You watched enough MMMTV to know that all the members on their own were shyer than together, and Hwasa knew the same was true for you. But the work basically took care of itself, seamlessly taking turns in the recording booth, witnessing each other's work style and process. The both of you knew your way in front of a mic, seasoned professionals by now. Upon wrapping up, you bowed politely to each other after a quick exchange of KaTalk info, a short and sweet goodbye.

That was... anticlimactic. I mean, it's finally happening - I can't believe it. But maybe I was too idealistic about maybe creating a meaningful relationship with her outside of work... What does she think of me?

~~~~

In the days leading up to the collab stage, you kept going back and forth on whether to reach out or not, despite now being in possession of her contact info. What would you even say? Thoughts of a witty one-liner or relatable meme came to mind, but maybe she'd assume the worst - that you were clout-chasing, or something. Anxieties abuzz, your phone vibrated in your pocket. The KaTalk notification sprawled across your screen. Speak of the devil, it's her.

"Hey, awards season has me stressed. I know you must pretty busy right now too, but I somehow get off early tomorrow if you wanna grab dinner after work?" You had to reread that one. Oh, what? She's inviting me?

Trying not to be weird about responding too quickly, you typed out, "Wow, yeah, that sounds great! ^^ wait, your company doesn't care about you going out to eat during award season?"

"nah, they stopped having that kind of control over us a while ago, we are the money-maker of the company, after all 😏"

"so I guess this means they don't check your phone either ㅋㅋㅋ"

"nope :)"

You proceeded to set a time and place to meet, someplace with meat.

In the process of feasting on an inordinate amount of gopchang imbued with a splash of beer, you learned a fair amount about each other. You talked career, professional aspirations, the weird habits of your members, and more. What surprised you most was the amount of things she already knew about you, having admitted to watching some of your behind-the-scenes content after seeing your interview clip.

"Ah... I'm sorry if I came across as distant during that first recording session," she confessed, pausing to sip her beer. "I honestly didn't know what to do with myself, I felt a little star-struck."

"Oh what?? I felt the exact same, so no worries - and sorry if I came off similarly distant," you rambled back. A bit of silence fell between you, acknowledging the mutual sentiment. You spoke up after a bit, "Thanks for inviting me out tonight, I didn't realize how much I needed this."

"Thank you for making the time, I had fun getting to know you better," she articulated with a smile. "Maybe it'll make the collab stage better," she added on jokingly. You responded with a nod and expression of mutual affirmation.

~~~~

After that, messaging each other became a regular occurrence, that gopchang outing having broken the ice. Honestly, you tried your best to talk about anything besides work, but the baseline of shared understanding connected you in a way that came more naturally than it did with your non idol friends.

You stood across the way from her at the sound check for the final stage, dressed in joggers and slides. Funny to think that you'd be recording this for real in a couple hours, making eyes with the blinking red light on the cameras surrounding you. It sucks that fans wouldn't get to experience the energy and atmosphere of the performance - Hyejin alone is one thing, but adding someone else into her stage presence? Unmatched. There's nothing quite like a live performance - and while you knew everyone in the industry dealt with the consequences of the pandemic, it certainly took a toll to perform and not feel the energy from fans. But realistically, nothing you could do about it. The sound check went over smooth like butter. The stage chemistry came flowing naturally between you both, even when bare-faced and dressed in just sweats.

And when the time came for the actual filming, you both absolutely killed it, an upbeat mash-up of TWIT and your title track. At the very end came a sliver of hesitation before throwing your arms around each other with a big smile for the ending fairy, proud of the work you accomplished together, and a mental fist-pump to yourself for making friends with one of the industry's finest.

Once again walking to a restaurant that served mostly meat to celebrate, you playfully proposed, "We... should do that again sometime." A little puff of air came out her nose in amusement.

"Yeah, we should. Too bad we're gonna have to wait a whole cycle before we can release anything else together again," she sighed longingly.

"Who says we can't do something on our own?"

[whomst-art-thou-whomst-whomst]

Texts from the Lost Tomb part 6.1

🎶 Back on the bullshit I never got off🎶

Is this another unnecessary story arc?? With three sections??

Yes.

Wushanju Crew Chat

Wang Meng: You know, I’m someone who appreciates consistency in my day. My life is pleasant, very few issues indeed if you ignore the big ones. And yet. Yet here we are. With unresolved messes at the end of a day.

Wang Pangzi: SOMETHIN YOU NEED TO SAY MARY POPPINS

Wang Meng: We need to talk about Huo Daofu and the glittery bead curtain.

Wang Pangzi: MY FAVE TEEN WIZARD SERIES

Wu Xie: did you turn on that suggested word thingy lol

What glittery bead curtain

Wang Meng: I closed the shop at 6:00pm this evening on the dot. I locked all of the doors in and out of the shop very carefully, especially in light of recent events. The hall leading to the back office was empty. I filed the day’s paperwork, updated and sent emails, and then spent an extra hour organizing receipts and dusting. When I came back out, there were glittery iridescent bead curtains over the front entrance to the shop.

What could this mean?

Wu Xie: uh that you need to spend less time at work?

Wang Pangzi: LOOKS LIKE WE GOT ONE FOR THE DETECTIVES. THE MYSTERY OF THE BEDAZZLED THRESHOLD COMMENCES

Wu Xie: I think we can be relatively secure in thinking a glittery bead curtain isn’t a hostile threat

Wang Pangzi: SAYS YOU

I REMEMBER YE OLDE EXPLORATION TIMES HOW FAST THINGS GOT FURIOUS

BEANBAG CHAIRS SET AFLAME AND LEFT ON DOORSTEPS AS A WARNING

GLITTERBOMBS FOR DAYS

PANIC AT THE DISCO

Wang Meng: Ugh, forget it. I should have just taken them down, regardless of who they belong to.

Zhang Qiling: They are not mine.

Wang Pangzi: A BOLD STATEMENT COMING FROM OUR PRIME SUSPECT

SOMEONE QUICK GO DRAW CHALK AROUND THE DOORWAY TO MARK THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

Wang Meng: Do we know anyone who *would* sneak in and put those up? For whatever reason, legal or not? Even as a joke?

Wang Pangzi: ARE YOU SERIOUSLY ASKING WHETHER WE KNOW ANYONE WHO IS CHAOTIC, AN OUTLAW, A PRANKSTER AND/OR SNEAKS INTO PLACES

BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN OUR SUSPECT LIST IS LITERALLY EVERYONE WE KNOW EXCEPT FOR YOU.

Wu Xie: okay let’s think about this; for starters, I didn’t break into my own shop

Wang Meng: You would be in danger of doing some work in the process, that’s true.

Wang Pangzi: LOL

Wu Xie: ANYWAY let’s keep going. For example, Xiao Ge would only break in somewhere for a good reason. Xiao Ge, did you do this?

Zhang Qiling: No.

Wu Xie: okay who’s next

Wang Pangzi: YOU REALLY MISSED YOUR CALLING IN INTERROGATION TIANZHEN

REALLY PUT THE SCREWS TO HIM

IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE;)

Zhang Qiling: How can we be certain *you* didn’t do it?

Wang Meng: Admittedly that was my guess, too.

Wang Pangzi: WOW I SEE HOW IT IS

BLAME PANGZI AS USUAL

ANYWAY HOW DOES HUO DAOFU FIT INTO THIS

Wu Xie: Oh yeah him! Oops I got distracted

Wang Pangzi: UR ENTIRE HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

Wu Xie: Ugh fuck off

Wang Meng what abt Huo Daofu??

Zhang Qiling: ?

Wu Xie: oh sorry xiaoge I didn’t realize you wouldn’t have spent much time around him last year

He and I go way back

Zhang Qiling: Way back where?

Babysitters Club Chat

Wang Pangzi: I CANNOT BELIEVE HE IS BUYING YOUR INNOCENT ACT

IF YOU EVER TURN TO EVIL WE ARE FUCKED

Zhang Qiling: ?

Wang Pangzi: YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO HUO DAOFU IS

YOU WERE EXTREMELY POLITE AND BORDERLINE FRIENDLY TOWARDS HIM

Zhang Qiling: I wanted him to feel welcome. I wanted to be sure he understands he has a place here. A specific place.

Wang Pangzi: FOR A SILENT GUY YOU ARE A MASTER AT SUBTLE POWER PLAYS IM ALL TINGLY

LMAO THE IDEA OF WU XIE LEAVING YOU FOR HUO DAOFU IS HILARIOUS AND ALSO NOPE

Zhang Qiling: Rationally, I understand that.

Main Chat

Wang Meng: Huo Daofu is coming for the weekend—didn’t Wu Xie tell you? Wu Xie asked me to check in a week ahead so we could start getting ready for his arrival

Wu Xie: oh yeah I did do that

Wang Meng: Fortunately I know you and so I already went ahead and took care of everything.

Re: the trip

He made a deal with Wu Xie’s doctor that he would do periodic checkups on him here at Wushanju

Bc Wu Xie hates being in the hospital

And frankly the hospital hates him too

Wang Pangzi: FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT LOL

I FORGOT HUO DAOFU WAS DOING THAT

A VERY CHIVALROUS GESTURE

WOULDNT YOU SAY

XIOAGE

Zhang Qiling: Is it safe for him to be here with a criminal loose on the premises?

Wu Xie: Right, back to the curtain! Let’s focus on the curtain, hmm?

Wang Pangzi: I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEKEND.

ALSO WE CAN RULE OUT XIAO BAI FOR THE CURTAIN SHE JUST SENT A SELFIE FROM NORWAY COVERED IN GREEN SLIME WITH ZERO CONTEXT, UR PROTEGE INDEED

Wu Xie: okay but who else would do something so oddly charming yet illegal and—wait.

Snake Eyes Chat

Wu Xie: hey, Glasses hasn’t been in touch lately right?

Li Cu: uh nope

Unless u count the outdated memes

Why, is money or Xie Yuchen missing

Or is this curtain related, I saw Wang Meng’s tweet

Wu Xie: haha no nothing to worry about really

(I mean maybe? but who knows)

Wang Meng is probably just getting a little paranoid in his old age

Li Cu: better than getting reckless and stupid as hell in ur old age

Wu Xie: …hey:(

Unknown Number: Li Cu, we discussed this.

Wu Xie: ????????

Li Cu: *sigh* fine, reckless and stupid as heck

Unknown Number: …close enough.

Wu Xie: EXCUSE who is that

Madame, Sir, Non-Binary Tree Spirit, etc—whomst the fuck

Are you

Li Cu is underage FYI

So Im staying on this chat

Li Cu: okay first of all, it’s not like that

Second of all I’m literally not underage I s2g

u threw the embarrassing surprise bday party, okay so u should remember

And C, that’s my counselor and I invited her. She wanted to meet u and I knew u wouldn’t agree to a visit so I added her to our chat

we have been discussing u

Wu Xie: Oh wow!!!!!!!

What a surprise:)

hi so nice to meet you:)

Main Chat:

Wu Xie: RED FUCKING ALERT

FUCK THE CURTAIN FUCK THE VISIT

IVE BEEN TRICKED INTO FAMILY THERAPY BY A SMUG TEENAGER WHO TEXTS UNKNOWN NUMBERS

Wang Meng: I assume that means something to someone here?

Not my problem? Good.

Wang Pangzi: AHAHAHA GOD I LOVE LI CU

HES LIKE ADORABLE KARMA FOR ALL THE SHIT YOUVE PUT ME THROUGH

IM RAISING HIS ALLOWANCE

Wu Xie: wait i give him an allowance

has he been collecting on two allowances??

Zhang Qiling: Three. I knew about both of yours.

Snake Eyes Chat

Wu Xie: so uh may I ask your name?

Unknown Number: you can call me Ms. Lee.

Now, if you’re comfortable talking in this format, why don’t you tell me how things have been going?

Wu Xie: oh everything is normal and fine and safe as usual, why do you ask:)

Li Cu: I heard about ur necklace thing. nice of you to NOT mention it.

another dangerous adventure. again. prick.

Ur lucky your cool boyfriend cares about you so much or you’d have already died like ten years ago

Wu Xie: lol try twenty years ago

Li Cu: That isn’t funny.

Unknown Number: …What?

Wu Xie: shit ur right, okay that was a bit glib, my apologies.

…I use humor as a coping mechanism?

Unknown Number: and Li Cu, how do you feel about that?

Li Cu: he doesn’t even know what that phrase means

He doesn’t cope, like ever

In fact

It’s kind of why we met

Which is a funny story in retrospect tbh

Wu Xie: haha what are you talking about sweetie hahaha need I remind you of certain anecdotes that could idk send me to jail maybe lmao

Unknown Number: …You know, perhaps an in-person meeting might be more effective?

Wu Xie: haha such a nice idea but why

Main Chat

Wu Xie: If I go to jail, I’ll have to create alliances for protection, right, that’s how it works on tv

Who do we know who spends time in jail

Other than Hei Yangjing, he’s only ever there for like 12 hours and i suspect he just gets himself arrested bc he enjoys the breaking out process

Also how’s the curtain case coming along

Zhang Qiling: Has someone threatened you?

Wu Xie: well not yet but soon I’m sure

Wang Pangzi: WHERE WAS THIS PARANOIA WHEN WE GOT TAKEN TO THE TEA HOUSE HUH

Snake Eyes Minus Your Fucking Therapist Chat

Li Cu: okay how tf did u pull off spy and undercover shit

u are sus as hell

Wu Xie: damn son is it pick on Wu Xie night

I missed the flyers or I would’ve invited my uncles

Also re: the curtain it’s been mostly solved

Li Cu: I’m not your son, idiot.

Wu Xie: …oh. Sorry, sorry, you’re right, bad choice of words, haha

Forget i said anything

Delete this chat even

Li Cu: shit I meant

Legally, biologically, I meant—

shit

…I turn into an asshole as a coping mechanism?

Wu Xie: oh that’s all okay! I have to go do something else now let me know if you need anything okay kid thanks!

Li Cu: goddamn it calm down who’s the kid here

lemme organize my thoughts so I can articulate my emotions fuckin healthily or w/e

Ugh maybe for like one afternoon we could go to Ms. Lee together? She knows how to word stuff

Wu Xie: uh…okay.

Li Cu: Anyway you don’t need to worry abt jail

As if you would survive prison for one day you’d piss off half the place in like an hour or less

I gave Ms. Lee the heavily edited version of the desert highway to hell roadtrip and i discussed it more in terms of like “nightmarish but still wouldn’t take any of it back”

Well maybe the sand

that shit was everywhere

Wu Xie: oh kiddo. It’s fine, really…You don’t have to explain yourself to me.

Li Cu: no, no it’s just

I do technically have a dad

who is an asshole. Being a son doesn’t really mean shit to me bc it sucked.

So you need to stop backing down just cuz ur guilty abt stuff. I’m really really glad ur not my dad in a good way. Do u get what I mean there

Where’s the mafia widower I followed into hell, huh

Wu Xie: Ur a good kid, despite my influence. I’m really glad you have someone to talk to after everything I…after everything. Wow this talking through feelings thing is kind of weird but nice ur right

Jfc no wonder it took me and xiaoge so long to—you know what, we won’t get into that

Li Cu: ew tmi

Also re: this week’s recent necklace fuckery

I moved my stuff here, I live here now

So you can’t die anymore

Or else…Idk I don’t have a threat planned

anyways abt the curtain

Wu Xie: oh my god, kid…kid you have no idea

I am in tears.

Li Cu: see this is why I can’t be nice to you I can sense the hallmark channel from here

Ugh don’t be sad in ur room that’s dumb

Go hug Pangzi or something

Maybe delete this chat

Or the curtain thing

Focus on the curtain thing

Just stfu and go away

Wu Xie: <3 screenshotting this <3

Li Cu: I take back everything I said. This is why Xiao Ge sleeps on the roof. I hope the ghosts of the Wangs put up that curtain to strangle you somehow. Go die in a stupid way, it’ll suit you.

Wu Xie: lol don’t worry I’m not gonna embarrass you with it or anything

Main Chat

Wu Xie: omg guys look how cute my kid is *sending screenshot*

Wang Pangzi: I MEAN

HE IS WISHING YOU DEATH

BUT SURE

CUTE I GUESS

Wu Xie: no but read the whole thing:):):)

Zhang Qiling: It is indeed very hard to remain angry with you. And you are welcome to join me on the roof.

Wang Pangzi: UH NOPE

NOT WHENI HAD TO BLEACH THE COUNTER IN THE KITCHEN

DONT TRAUMATIZE THE EARLY BIRDS THEYRE ALREADY FREAKED OUT BY U YA HOODIE CRYPTID

Wu Xie: ok true but babe ur like a sexy cryptid

Wang Meng: so, are we just accepting that there is a glittery curtain of unknown origin, and Huo Daofu is going to have to see it while he’s waiting for you at Wushanju bc you’re going to family therapy?

Wu Xie: right

Wang Pangzi: SHOULDA TAKEN EARLY RETIREMENT HUH

Wang Meng: I’m going to go dust something.

Unnamed Chat:

Unknown number: so the curtain…

Unknown number 2: yep, not my best work but I kinda panicked last minute u know

Unknown number: what is in the water at Wushanju that makes everyone dumb and attractive

Unknown number 2: relax they’ll figure it out

[junicai]

Relationship with WAYV

➣ KUN ☾ karia

if it wasn’t for dotae potentially coming to kill him, he would steal aria into wayv

he’s the cool dad? 

they can’t spend a lot of time together because none of their schedules match up, but aria takes every third or so weekend out to come have dinner in the wayv dorms

she’s surprisingly close to the china line, and its a combination of ten dragging her to his dorm for an entire month and them just kinda adopting her when they realized she was a foreigner as well 

yuta can fight them, she’s one of them now

he doesn’t like to baby her a lot, and she really appreciates the break from being the “maknae” so to speak 

however does that stop him from giving her the forehead kithes? no

aria sad? forehead kith

aria mad? forehead kith

aria smad? forehead kith + kuddles (kun cuddles)

he has sent her a passive agressive text when he found out that she wasn’t eating enough again and had almost passed out

but he finished it with a heart so its ok

if she isn’t smiling at all times, someone will die

aria feels like she can trust him with a lot; that no matter what she tells him, he’ll never out her or make fun of her

kun actually took a two-week online course to learn how to make traditional japanese dishes when aria mentioned missing her parents

he originally was going to learn how to make irish dishes, but he changed his mind after seeing what they were

“im not giving my kids boiled cabbage and mashed potatoes what kind of post world war-”

wants to give her a chinese name but hasn’t yet because he hasn’t found the one that fits her right and he wants it to be perfect 

aria teaches him japanese phrases in exchange for him teaching her a little bit of mandarin

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

aria saw kun’s back as she entered the practice room, the man standing with three other members in the centre of the floor before the choreographer came in to start their practice. coming up behind him, she wrapped her arms around his waist, peeking her head around from where she was. “hi!” she smiled brightly.

“hi,” ten chuckled, showing her the camera that had just filmed all of that. 

➣ TEN ☾ tenaria

Whipped(TM)

so so gone for her its upsetting actually

yangyang and aria share the position of his baby 

except aria willingly accepts the title while yangyang would rather fling himself from a rooftop

ten’s instagram is half his cats, half miyazu aria

he posts her dancing practice on his story a lot, with a variety of captions ranging from “thats my baby  ♡( ◡‿◡ )” to “yah that’s not right...(눈_눈)”

such an enabler for her bad ideas 

aria wants to go shopping at 4am? ten agrees, now they’re sitting by han river eating ice cream

pls he’s gonna get her in so much trouble one day

when they walk together, ten likes to take her hand and put it in his pocket 

its under the pretense of not wanting her to get lost 

he just wants to hold her hand

yes he has lost her in a shopping mall, and NO it wasn’t his fault

ten always complains that they never have schedules together and he misses his baby 

“we have superm-” “I NEVER SEE YOUUUU (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ”

if they’re in the same room ten is either watching her out of the corner of his eye, or is actually wrapped around her like a boa constrictor 

hugs n kithes all around

only he is allowed make fun of her mistakes in dancing 

anyone else gets deaded. he will fight for her honor how dare you insult his baby 

sm give these ttwo a dancing duo video pls 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

the first and only time aria and ten had a duet was during their last concert on superm’s first world tour. during the second half of ten’s solo performance, aria emerged from the left side of the stage, coming to join him in the centre stage. no one had ever seen aria as serious as she was then, both herself and ten becoming completely different people in the moment. midway through, aria spun with her back to ten and leaped backwards into the air - eyes closed - completely trusting ten to be where she needed him to be to catch her. 

➣ WINWIN ☾ winria

a love hate relationship at its finest

they don’t actually hate each other it’s just really funny to pretend that they do (especially because yuta complains that 2 of his favourite people aren’t getting along)

winwin is so savage towards aria but it’s ok she claps back twice as hard

at first, before czennies had seen enough of their dynamic they thought that they actually did hate each other

but that’s not true they just don’t know how to express, affection, without brutally insulting the other with a loving tone

they are, surprisingly, the most stable pairing in 127 - they have a dynamic and rarely stray from that, which is a good comfort for the fans

despite what they might say to each other, they don’t mean any of it - and winwin has been seen several times raising his eyebrows with a questioning look at aria to make sure she wasn’t taking any of his playful jabs to heart

oh god the flexibility

the entirety of nct is terrified of them

the day sm gives them a circus act is the day that kun and taeyong have a heart attack

quietly supportive of each other - catch aria “playing” with a water bottle and not getting up to get it when it conveniently rolls across the floor and into winwin’s leg

he makes sure to save some new chinese sweets whenever the wayv members get packages from their familes, and sneak it into aria’s room before the managers can catch her breaking her diet

not really physically affectionate with each other, which played into czennies idea that they didn’t like each other but aria cleared it up in a vlive

“winwinnie and I, well. we don’t hug a lot because i know he doesn’t like it as much as i might, so i try to show him i care with other things :)”

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

winwin and aria going in to each other on knowing brothers, to the point where the mc’s had their eyes popping out of their head and waved about to stop the segment before aria could start attacking winwin’s cooking methods-

nothing is off limits when it comes to them

➣ LUCAS ☾ arihei

besties 

please they’re so cute together - tol child next to tini child she barely comes up to his chest :(

bear hugs

he just swamps her in his arms, and when he doesn’t feel like being bent over he picks her up 

complains that she’s too heavy but then immediately after will throw her around like a softball 

someone tell this man to be careful with her she’s not a barbie doll 

singular braincell energy

don’t get it wrong, they’re both super smart 

so it’s just - being smort together, but then nearly dying because neither of them remembered that you couldn’t eat raw cookie dough when there are eggs in it

she adores how he’s so confident in the things that he does - like convincing the entire nct fandom that he was fluent in english? king behaviour

so aria looks up to him (literally) but also because she wants to have that confidence some day 

lucas says they’re not close and then aria pouts and he takes it all back

nczennies made a 14 minute compilation titled “lucas melting like a popsicle in australia for aria” 

and literally what the title tells you, this man goes :(( when he sees her 

lucas was actually the person to convince her to go ahead with the [redacted] proposal - and reminded her that it was too good an opportunity to pass up just because she felt like she was outgrowing the boys

he’s so proud of her

and she’s so proud of him 

they’re so proud of each other and it makes nczennies want to cry because they never are seen together 

sm stop separating the platonic soulmates first markhyuck and now arihei smh

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

during a photoshoot, aria was standing off to the side of the boys, dressed in white suit to contrast the boys’ black ones. the photographer was calling out to her to get her to move closer, but she couldn’t hear him from so far away, and so lucas (who was on the end) just walked over to her, gripped her by the biceps and lifted her vertically and to the left a little bit. 

“luc-LUCAS?”

“you had to move :)”

➣ XIAOJUN ☾ arijun

honestly these two aren’t super close, just because their schedules never matched up until the NCT 2020 promotions

even when aria was dragged to the wayv dorms, xiaojun kept his distance from her because he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable 

even so, when they were filming Make A Wish together, they seemed comfortable enough around each other

there was a mutual agreement to not try fill the silence with awkward small talk, so they sat in silence when left alone together

they’re both shy :( someone needs to get them to talk to each other :(

even so, aria was all supportive smiles and thumbs-up when she saw him getting nervous before their first public stage as the unit 

he was a little intimidated of her at first, but also really curious about how she was holding her own against the other members

not only physically, but her vibes are tiny let the man be concerned ok

his first impression of aria was just: small quiet? she was sitting apart from the other boys in the practice room, and he almost wanted to go over and ask her if she was ok; before she was approached by donghyuck and her face broke into a bright smile 

aria’s first impression of xiaojun was: eyebrows he was really handsome? at first, she thought he was in the wrong room, seeing as the SM modeling auditions were happening in the next room down

any arijun shippers are starved of content im so sorry guys 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

currently still up for debate between the fandom :(

➣ HENDERY ☾ aridery

ah these two 

you might as well sign a waiver if you decide to do anything with them, because they can and will get you killed 

kun can testify

ten’s the enabler but hendery is the do-er

super giggly around each other, for no reason at all

hendery could pick up and throw a basketball and suddenly aria’s on the floor in literal stitches 

have a secret code 

no seriously

they don’t text in words, they just send various reaction memes and a colourful variety of emojis to convey emotions and scenarios 

it’s become quite a beautiful language actually 

got some nice proverbs in there

they’re like, cousins but the ones you only see at family reunions but get so hype to see them

that energy 

asides from the chaotic, murderous vibes they possess as a duo

hendery knows what it’s like to miss home, to miss your parents, etc etc

and so he tries to make aria feel as home as possible - especially with wayv, because they’re all foreigners who know how she feels 

whenever he gets packages from his parents who have sent things over, he always makes sure to keep some of the small treats/sweets back for aria

1. because he knows she’ll appreciate the thought and she gives good hugs

2. because he knows she’s on a diet constantly and never allowed eat these things when she’s in the dorms with managers around 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

filming the Resonance “Wish” event, aria was put in a skimpy minimalistic mock-suit to differentiate from the others’ clothes. unfortunately, that left aria with a little too much shoulder and chest on display than she would like, and she was noticeably uncomfortable with her clothes, constantly pulling it up and even going so far as to just hold it with her hands. 

hendery saw this, and knew he was finished filming his segment for the time being, so he pulled off his own jacket and tossed it over to aria, who caught it with a grateful smile. “thank you,” she mouthed to him, tugging the dark blue material over her shoulders.

➣ YANGYANG ☾ ariyang

aria. has 9 days of age on this boy and will never let him forget it

“respect your elders you brat” “9. DAYS.”

european pals 

they feel so cultured when they get asked about europe, and then are kindly reminded by hendery that A. Germany started 2 world wars, and B. Ireland was just a British colony until 100 years ago. 

they both hit him for that

aria teaching him curse words in irish and yangyang teaching her curse words in german? more likely than you’d think 

they met before yangyang’s debut was announced, in a practice room that had let them accidentally overlap their practice times 

instead of working it out between them, they actually just started to alternate their songs - and the other gave them some good, constructive criticism 

most of the time

when they found out they were going to be in 90s Love together, they were so happy 

it was going to be their first official schedule together

all the behind-the-scenes videos are just aria and yangyang being children and then ten coming over and cooing at them 

they love ten, but they will trash talk the man behind his back 

yangyang confessed to her that he sometimes feels nervous when speaking korean, like he’s going to make a big mistake

so she tries her best to teach and correct him where she can, and make him as comfortable as possible 

if you look at any of the 90s Love promotions - aria is always beside yangyang

he bit her ear once

she doesn’t know why and he won’t tell her

but now when she makes fun of him, he threatens to do it again 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

aria skating onto the rink during filming, and yangyang following her because she promised to teach him how to skate backwards.

“ok just, think like you’re leading with your heels. press your knees in, and push outwards, with you-no no that’s forwards. go backwards yangyang.”

“no no no thats a WALL YANGYANG STOP-” 

[huangbae]

꒰ NCT DREAM REACTION ꒱

being in a long distance relationship <3

< MARK >

met you from a mutual friend

you got added to a groupchat with him in it

he liked the memes you sent so he dmed you

got caught off guard when you started flirting w him a few days later

“hahahah”

just went w it

until you started being more and more flirtatious w him

he asked if you had a crush on him

after you said yes and asked to go out w him

things got pretty serious

he sent you lots of flirty messages

uses heart emojis in almost every text

asks you what time it is where you are all the time

bcs

timezones

wants to meet you one day

but lowkey he’d freak out if he met you

sometimes you send him photos of your outfits

he doesn’t tell you but

he looks forward to you sending him photos

bcs he thinks you’re cute

and he freaks out when you do send him photos

“you’re driving me crazy y/n hahahaha”

< RENJUN >

met you in a random comment section

you were arguing in that comment section over something stupid

he took it to the dms

but after viewing your profile

he saw a pic of you that you posted

started beinf nice to you after he noticed that you were cute

went from “YOU’RE SO DUMB” to “okay but i still think you’re wrong”

you thought you guys were done talking

until you posted a pic of yourself a few weeks later

and he liked it

and dmed you “hello can we start over again”

after a few weeks

you guys were still talking

and you developed a crush on him

one day you asked if he had an s/o

and he said “no, would you like to apply for the position?”

needless to say you guys were official

as far as your relationship goes

you get kinda insecure

bcs you’re like 3,000 miles away from him

and you didn’t want him to find someone else

he’d reassure you by saying

“i don’t think i’d fall in love with anyone else, y/n, it’s kind of exhausting :P”

so yeah

he’s a pain in the butt

< JENO >

i already did a fic on (sort of) long distance bf jeno!!

read here

< HAECHAN >

met you on a discord server

and he’d go on a call w you almost everyday

you guys also played games together

he’d say some flirtatious things during calls

and give you special treatment when you were playing games with him and his friends

he didn’t notice until johnny pointed it out

and after you had to leave the call

he thought about it for like an hour

and he realized

he likes you

the next day while you guys were on a call

he told you everything

“i know we’re so far away but i like you so much and i don’t care about the distance :((“

you started dating after he confessed

honestly he treats you the same way he did before you guys got together

but when his friends teased him for giving you special treatment

he’d always say

“whatever, you guys are just jealous i’m the best boyfriend ever”

< JAEMIN >

met you on a dating app

used a really cheesy pickup line

honestly you didn’t think you guys were compatible at first

until you started talking to him more

and you realized he was really sweet

he sends you good morning and goodnight texts everyday

even if you guys are in different timezones

he’d wait for it to be morning or night for you

even though you told him not to bcs you felt bad keeping him up

he also had your country on the clock app on your phone

and the weather app

“its cold where you are, y/n, you better cover up >:)”

for your anniversary he calls a local florist in your country

and delivers flowers to your house

“so glad you liked the flowers love <33”

hfjfjdjfjf

sends you photos of him sometimes

and lots of wholesome memes

“me & who? me & you <3”

lots of “i wish i were there rn :(” texts

cheesy but so cute hdhfjdjfj

< CHENLE >

you already knew each other

because you went to high school together

but you moved after that

and about a year after you moved

he found your account

and dmed you

you talked until he asked you for you zodiac sign

“our signs are compatible, y’know <3”

after that you started getting flustered by his messages

legs swinging and all that good stuff

you waited for him to text you every day

because you didn’t want him to think you were desperate

but every time you waited a few minutes to answer his message

he’d spam you

“y/n”, “y/n l/n”, “BRO”, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING ANSWER ME :((“

so yeah that was reassuring

after you guys do get into a relationship

he’d start sending gifts to your house

everytime you talked about smth you wanted

he’d buy it from amazon

and would wait for your reaction a few days later

“anything for you, y/n >:D”

< JISUNG >

like renjun he met you in a comment section

but it was a more cute interaction

“@y/n you’re so cute 🥺”

you dmed him bcs

its jisung ofc you’re gonna dm him

he was so cute

uses lots of emoticons

likes when you go off on tangents and talk about yourself

he talks about you a bunch

to his friends and family

his family tried to discourage him from talking to you

bcs you’re pretty far away

but he doesn’t really care

he sends you videos and pics of him throughout the day

one day he sent you this really pretty video of him

he was just out of the shower and his hair was wet

and he just looked really pretty

hdbhdjfjd

im going off on a tangent

anyway

he liked sending you videos because you complimented him all the time

also

you had a lot of late night convos

“i wanna see you in person one day, y/n”

♡.﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀﹀.♡

tysm for reading !! i hope you enjoyed, sorry for the lack of posts lately :(( i’ve been on sort of a writing block so i’m trying to get back to my old schedule:) pls send requests via asks or dms !! :)

~ with love, huangbae :)

[whump-a-la-mode]

POV 👉👈

For this ask meme!

Ahh I’m so sorry this took so long blue fren, but here you go! The asker requested I rewrite Chapter 21 of Rat Race from Dr. Roberts perspective, so here we go! I hope you enjoy!

CW//Aftermath of torture, crying (a lot of it), restraints, being helped to drink water

Her mouth was on fire.

It was the only thing Doctor Roberts could think about. She would’ve been out of her mind to focus on anything else.

Anything except the fire.

She could not longer tell where the pain started and where it ended. Where her numb, bleeding tongue turned to her charred cheeks and gums. Even the outside of her mouth, the sides of her face and the corners of her lips, felt to have been singed with a blowtorch.

Capsaicin. That was what Duple had called it. She’d heard of the chemical before, in the context of hot peppers and the like. Yet, the pure, concentrated form...

Dr. Roberts had felt to be brave. To be proud. To be able to resist interrogation and torture and anything it took. Even if she didn’t have anyone still living to fight for, she had her own pride. Her own dignity. That was worth protecting, right?

Duple wasn’t going to break her. That had been her determination.

That was up until the gag went in, soaked in the hellish chemical. That was before her tissues had been set ablaze, until an animal scream had been forced from her throat. The gag... She had never before found a use for the word ‘hellfire.’ But that gag gave her plenty of reason, now, to use it.

As soon as the sensation of the chemical kicked in, she was more willing than anything to talk. She would have told Duple anything. Her deepest thoughts, most well-hidden fears. She had given all the information that she could, and watched the most sickening smirk appear on her foe’s face.

It did not matter. The gag was out. The interrogation was over. She was safe again.

And then Duple had announced his trump card. The ace in his sleeve.

She was going to be forced to work in The Lodge’s lab. Dr. Roberts hadn’t so much as been given time to respond. Hell, even if she had been entirely willing, it wouldn’t have mattered. Either way, the gag was still shoved back in her mouth.

It would give her something to think about, Duple had spoken, that horrid smirk on his lips only widening. By the time he next saw her, he said, he was certain that she would be as compliant as putty in his hands.

Hands.

Dr. Robert’s head swam as she looked down at her own hands, now, where she sat on the bed in her horrid, barren cell. Her painful thrashing had already sent her blanket and pillow both to the floor, leaving only herself, the restraints, and the gag.

Duple had been more than cruel, bringing her back here. Leaving her with the torture device pried between her jaws. He wanted the pain to last for a good, long while. That was why he had tied her wrists, down to the bedframe. The restraints made it so that removing the gag by herself was only a futile prayer.

Her wrists. Her desperate attempts to remove the gag had led only to fruitless tugging on the restraints, leaving her wrists now a raw red color, with bloody spots showing through at some points.

How long had he left her here? He was right. There was really no one to save her. No one to help.

No one that cared.

The single tear that rolled down Dr. Robert’s cheek gave that area of skin the barest split second of relief from the agony. Then, once more, it bloomed.

A door. Footsteps.

The wheels of a cart.

Someone. Someone was coming to help her. A guard? A doctor? Hell, even Duple would be better, right now! Dr. Roberts would do anything. Anything it took. Agree to any contract, sign any paper. Just to stop the pain. Anything to stop the pain.

Without even meaning to, she stared out with wide, bulging eyes to the outside of her cell. Giving her most pitiful of looks to anyone who walked by.

She had expected Duple.

She got Firecrest.

And Firecrest screamed.

An earsplitting scream, one that made the doctor once more yank on her restraints, to no avail. Another burst of tears made its way forth as she shook.

“What happened?” 

Dr. Roberts could barely contain her joy. Her friend was here. The only one who cared, the only one who didn’t hurt, who didn’t yell, who didn’t burn. She was here, and everything was okay.

The gag was out. A moment later, the burning chemical had retreated from her mouth, leaving only bloody stains and raw-rendered flesh in its wake. All sense left the doctor’s mind. She could think only of one thing:

“Water- Water please water water.” 

She had no clue where she expected said water to come from. Had she been handed a glass or a bottle, she would’ve likely simply stared at it like a fool. She couldn’t think. Everything hurt far too much for her to be able to think.

Water. She wanted water in her mouth, then and there. She wanted it by magic, as it certainly wasn’t getting brought there under her own power.

And then, there it was. The mouth of a water bottle, pushed between her teeth, sending cool, heavenly liquid over her tongue and down her throat. No thought was given to savoring the indescribable relief. Instead, she drank and drank until the bottle went dry.

The pain did not stop, but now, she could breathe. That was what mattered, bruised and battered mouth or not.

With trembling pupils, she looked down, staring at her own hands as her mind struggled to comprehend the sudden shift from agony to discomfort. She had gotten so very used to the presence of the restraints that, when Firecrest moved to remove them, she balked:

“What-” The doctor seemed baffled. “What are you-” 

“We didn’t know the extent of your injuries. That’s the only reason you were tied down. To make sure you didn’t make them any worse. There was no reason to restrain you again.” 

But...

But that didn’t make sense

Doctor Roberts was a monster. That was why she was here. That was why she was suffering. As horrid as the pain was, she knew why she was feeling it. Villains deserved pain, evil people deserved burnt tongues and gums.

That was what Duple had said, at least, and pain had overwhelmed her capacity to deny.

They had restrained her because she was dangerous, right? That had always, always been her assumption. So she didn’t hurt anyone. So she didn’t escape into the civilian population, so she didn’t cause havoc.

She had been restrained because of her injuries? In the same manner as a crash victim was strapped down to a backboard to keep their spine still? That was the purpose of her restraints?

Not because she was evil?

It made no sense. No sense at all.

Yet, here, for the first time in oh, so long, the restraints came off.

She was free.

And Doctor Roberts wept.

[obx-saltlife]

Do I Wanna Know?

John B. x Reader; phone sex?

Summary: You take some photos, they’re meant for your dumb boyfriend; you accidentally send them to John B.

Warnings: Smut, graphic language, phone sex, don’t send n00ds (okay do but be responsible, always!), maybe cheating implied so if you’re not comfortable with that then don’t read.

A/N: I don’t even know how this came about. Take awesome photos, do you, queens; but always, always be responsible and don’t just send them to anyone bc guys are assholes sometimes (all of the time).

“Text 6969 now and stay completely satisfie-...”

The rest of the commercial was cut off as you rolled your eyes and switched off the television.  

Leaning your head back against the sofa you sighed softly. The house was silent and you were alone once again. This was the third time this week that your boyfriend ditched you for the night and although he had offered plenty of times to take you with him, you declined knowing that you had plenty of other things to do back home.   At this point, your relationship was definitely changing and aside from missing maybe the idea of him terribly, there was absolutely no denying you were undoubtedly missing the physical aspects of your relationship as well.

You and your boyfriend hadn’t been intimate for a while, and although you were mostly okay with it for a while, there were times when you’d find it incredibly difficult to admit that you were, indeed lonely. It was definitely frustrating being in a relationship with someone who was more focused on working or whatever than spending time with their girlfriend. Honestly, you didn’t mind the space as much but even when you did get together, your boyfriend was always somewhere else, mentally. However; you would never call him out on any of this. It would definitely end in him telling you that you were being “clingy” and the move on to talking about something else. And what girl wants to go through that shit?

While going through some old magazines, you came up with an idea. Instead of siting at home wondering if your boyfriend missed you as much as you missed him, you decided that you were going to make him miss you.

Leaving the couch and the magazines behind, you walked into your room stripping out of the simple clothes you had been wearing around town earlier in the day, revealing a matching bralette and lacy panty set. You looked at yourself in the mirror, slightly thankful that the set was actually matching, a rare and almost unusual occurrence.

You weren’t sure how to go about this. You had never ventured to the dark side of technology like this, you hadn’t needed to. You would never have thought of taking these types of pictures of yourself before, and you weren’t all too sure what your boyfriend Jason would think of them. However; you expected him to like it, because who didn’t like seeing their significant other half-naked?

Moving over to the bed, you took your phone and started taking pictures. To be completely hoenst, you were mostly just playing it by ear. Having no idea what was actually considered “sexy” since you often saw yourself as the exact opposite of the word. The rush of adrenaline boosted your confidence as you realized that hopefully, in a matter of minutes, Jason would be as turned on as you were.

You picked a few photos that you thought Jason would like the most and hastily pressed the send button. However, before you put your phone down, it beeped and a message appeared.

Sent to John B. Routledge

“Shit, Shit, Shit!” You screamed out loud, “This would fucking happen to me!”

You couldn’t believe that you had just sent her racy photos to your best friend of ten years instead of your current boyfriend.

Panicking, you typed a message to John B:  “Sorry! Those were definitely not for you! Disregard! Actually don’t even look at it!”

To say you were embarrassed was an understatement. You had no idea what to do, and you knew how awkward it was going to be once met up with the rest of the Pogues for surfing tomorrow morning.

“What is he even going to think when he sees those pictures?” You thought out loud, “What if the other boys see them? I'm a fucking idiot.”

Putting your face in your hands, you groaned and tried to think of ways to overcome this situation. However, the very familiar ring tone quickly interrupted your thoughts.  Looking at the caller ID and inwardly groaning, a clear embarrassed flush on your cheeks.

Call from John B. Routledge

Sighing, you picked up the phone.

“H-Hey John B,” you began to stutter.

“Well, well, that text I just received is definitely different than your quirky meme of the day.” The voice said over the phone.   You could tell that John B was smirking and you were even more embarrassed than you were before.

“John B that was meant for Jason! I didn’t mean to send those to you. I’m so sorry!” You rushed. You were never going to get over this. The embarrassment was literally mortifying.

“Why are you sorry? I’m definitely not complaining.”

“Come on, JB. Can you just delete the photos?  We can pretend it never even happened”

“You know it’s funny,” He started, “I'm pretty sure red isn't your favorite color but it looks good on you.”

You were definitely mortified. Actually, mortified was an understatement. You couldn’t believe that he was acting like this! All you wanted him to do was to delete the photos and then that way; he could go on with his life and you could continue with yours as well.

“John B, just do me a solid and delete them okay? I already feel bad enough.”  You sighed.

He didn’t say anything and now you were getting worried. Was he really that repulsed by you? Maybe, you were muted and he was showing your pictures to the other guys.

“God, I’m such a fucking idiot.” You huffed, “I don’t even know why I thought this was a good idea anyway. It’s not like Jason would have even liked them.”

“Why would you even begin to think something like that?” He questioned.

“I don’t know, I-I- John B, can you please just delete them?” You pleaded.

“Hey, why would you think that?” He repeated.

How were you supposed to tell your best friend that your boyfriend was awful? You knew John B already didn’t like him to begin with and that he only tolerated him because you would beg him, Kie, Pope and JJ to. But, if they knew how he treated you, you wouldn’t hear the end of it not only from John B but from the rest of them as well. They liked treating you like one of the gang. Regardless, you knew there would be countless amounts of  “I told you so’s” and even more lectures about why Jason wasn’t a good guy to begin with.

“I don’t know, JB.  He’s just been really busy, apparently. I don’t even know. We haven’t really spent much time together and every time I try to do something for him, he just shrugs it off. It's discouraging and awful.”  You said hoping this would get him off of your back.

You were wrong. Questions continued to come, and that's how you told your best friend absolutely everything that was going on with you and no-good Jason. Even though you knew that John B would probably be upset, you felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off of your shoulders.

“Can I tell you something?” John B asked.

“Anything.” You said nodding; quickly realizing that he couldn’t see you over the phone.

“Well, I- Honestly-If-Well, If you and I were in this position that you and that idiot Jason are in, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off of you.” John B admitted sheepishly, “Specially if you took pictures like that for me.”

“Shut up, JB,” You laughed, “I know what you’re doing and it’s not working.”

“What am I doing?”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better, and you’re doing a really shitty job.” You pointed out.

“I’m being honest!” He exclaimed, “Seriously, though. You’re beautiful.”

You sighed and rolled your eyes at his comments.  You weren’t interested in talking about this; all you wanted him to do was delete the photos so you could carry on with your extensive plans to do absolutely nothing the rest of the night.

“Can I do something?” He asked knowing that you probably wouldn’t say anything anytime soon.

“Um, okay?” You questioned, now worried of what he was planning on saying next.  

“I want to make you feel good.” He said his voice just above a whisper, “Will you please let me do that for you?”

“John B…”

“Just let me show you,” he said, getting back to his point,  “Go upstairs, and get on the bed.”

“John B, can you please just delete the photos? It’s late and we have surfing early tomorrow morning.” You said changing the subject once again.

“Let me take care of you.” He said ignoring your pleas to delete the photos.

You couldn’t believe what he was doing. He was obviously aware of the fact that you had a boyfriend, and although you did have their issues you loved him very much and wouldn’t dream of hurting him.  You looked over at the bed, contemplating granting his request.

“I love Jason.” You said, “I don’t want to cheat on him. I’m not sure if this is right, JB.”

“Do you trust me?”  He asked.

“…Yes” you hesitated, of course you trusted him. He was your best friend, but at this time you weren’t really sure where he was going.

“You also know that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, right?” He asked, “That I wouldn’t do this if I thought you would be putting your relationship in jeopardy?”

“I know, JB.”

“Okay then.” He confirmed, “Get on the bed for me.”

You nodded, still realizing that he couldn’t see you and made your way toward your bed like you were told.  After all, he did say that this wouldn’t hurt your relationship with Jason, right?

“God those pictures are driving me absolutely crazy.” He whispered, “I wish you could see what you’ve done to me.  I keep thinking of what I’d do to you if you were here right now.”

He went silent. You listened carefully and heard a zipper in the background, seconds later you heard a soft thud proving that he had taken off his pants and they had hit the ground.

You silently gasped, realizing what was actually happening. You wanted to stop it, you really did. However; you were too curious to see where this went.  You would be lying if you said that you weren’t turned on. You felt as if you were finally getting the recognition you deserved and you loved it.

“Let me ask you something” John B asked, his voice still quiet, “Does your boyfriend ever play with you like this? Does he touch you how want you to be touched?“

If you weren't turned on before, you definitely were now. You couldn’t believe that you were seeing this side of John B. A side of him, you had only ever heard about from the other two boys and gossipy girls in your group of friends. You were used to the little shy, somewhat awkward boy you met when you were 10 and he was only 8. Not the persistent, demanding man you were on the phone with now.

“No” You whispered, “He doesn’t.”

John B groaned, “I can make you feel so good, all you need to do is let me. Tell me what you want.”

Now noticing that familiar feeling in between your legs, you knew that you had finally cracked.

“Play with me, John B.”

“I told you I was going to make you feel good didn’t I?” He responded.

It was like you could feel his presence, and you knew that he was definitely giving some sort of smirk at the end of it.  However, you were too turned on to laugh. You wanted him, and you wanted him now.

“Close your eyes for me, imagine me there.” He was back to his husky voice, “You’re going to touch yourself exactly as I say, and I don’t want you do anything unless I tell you to. Do you understand?”

“Please, John B.” You whimpered, “Tell me what to do.”

“I’m going to need you to take off what you’re wearing. Can you do that for me?” John B asked.

You slowly began taking off the red bralette set you were wearing earlier, waiting for John B’s next move. The line was silent; the only thing you could hear was his heavy breathing and a quiet groan, which signaled that he had just started touching himself.

“Fuck, I bet you look amazing right now. I wish I was with you, I wouldn’t waste any time getting your clothes off of you. I bet your skin feels amazing. You look so good in red, babe.” John B groaned.

“My clothes are off,” You whispered interrupting his thoughts, “Tell me what to do, JB.”

“Touch your breasts. Instead of your little hands imagine mine cupping them, rolling them around with my palms.” He instructed.

You did what you were told, you began touching your stomach gradually moving up as you began touching your breasts. Softly kneading them with your palms until you gradually gained more strength imagining John B’s hands touching you instead of your own.  You let out a small whimper to let know John B that you were doing it, and every time you did you felt the feeling between your legs increase.

“Do my fingers feel good, rolling both your nipples between my thumbs and forefingers?”  He questioned.

You gasped and let out another whimper as a response, still afraid of what your voice would actually sound like.

“Answer me.” He spoke.

“Your fingers feel good on me, JB.” You answer, “Your hands are so big.”

“Spread your legs for me,” He asks softly, “Can you feel the air against you?”

You spread your legs, feeling the air against your clit and gasped, “Fuck, John B.”

“Open yourself for me.  Tell me what you want”

“Your mouth, I want your mouth.” You whispered, “Please, John B.”

You weren’t sure how long you could last without touching yourself, the way he was talking to you was driving you absolutely wild and you couldn’t handle it anymore.

“My mouth?” He questioned, “You want my tongue inside of you?”

“Yes!” You whined.

“Do you want to touch yourself, babe?” He asked.

“Yes, please let me, JB.”

“Do you still feel the air on you? Do you feel me licking your slit?” John B asked completely disregarding your cries, “God you taste so good.”   The fact that you could now hear him touching himself clearly made you moan.

“I need you to touch me, John B. I’ve been doing what you told me to do, please.” You pleaded again.

“Are you turned on?” He asked.

“Yes”

“Are you wet?”

“I’m so wet- soaking.” You pleaded, “Please let me touch myself. I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?” He questioned.

“Mhm” You moaned pressing your thighs together. You were hoping that this would help you calm down, however it was just the opposite.

“I want you to put your hands on your slit, and then I want you to tell me what you want me to do.” John B commanded.

You didn’t waste any time moving your hands down and started rubbing yourself sighing with relief.

“Fuck me, John B.”

“I can’t think of anything else that I’d rather do.” He responded, “Now, I want you to do whatever feels good for you, okay? Feel free to slip in now.”

You continued to rub yourself as you left your finger slide inside of your while putting your other hand on your breast.  You sighed as you moved it slowly. You closed your eyes as you imagined John B giving you the pleasure that you were giving yourself. You pushed another finger inside of yourself and raised your hips just slightly as you pretended that they were his.

“One or two?” John B asked groaning.

“Two”

The slapping sounds against his flesh became very noticeable now and that just encouraged you to keep doing what you were doing.

“Fuck yourself faster,” John B grunted, “Fuck, you feel incredible.” Something about hearing him utter those words made you ache for him more.

You did what you were told and moved your fingers faster, still bucking against them.  Your fingers twisted and turned inside of you, finding the spot that you were desperately craving to find.

“Keep going, let me hear you.”

For the next few minutes the phone was filled with moans, gasps, grunts, and sighs. The two of you were pleasuring yourselves to no end, each of you wishing they were with one another to get your release. You could feel yourself building up as you continued to push your fingers inside of you. Biting your lip, you almost forgot that John B was on the other line until he spoke again.

“Play with your clit.”

You moved your fingers faster against yourself and moved the hand that was on your breast so it could pay full attention to your clit.

“J- So- You feel so good- Shit, John B!” You exclaimed moving your hand faster against your clit to drive yourself further. You began to get that feeling in the pit of your stomach and started to tighten around your fingers.

“I wish I could see you right now” John B started, “Watching you as you’re doing this. I bet you’re beautiful right now.”

“Close,” You whimpered.

John B let out an unreadable grunt and continued pumping himself through the phone. Along with the other sounds he was making, you could tell that he was close too.

“Make me cum, JB. Please.”  You said still moving your hand against your clit.

“Together, just-not long now,” His sentences were getting choppy, his breathing ragged and erratic.

You were trying so hard to hold out for him but you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to do it. Just as you were about to let out your release, you heard a small, “Now”.   You let out a small scream as you released and listened as John B let a small string of curse words as he came.

The two of you spent a few minutes in silence trying to catch your breaths after everything you had just done.  You smiled to yourself finally feeling satisfied for the first time in a while, and weirdly you honestly couldn’t wait until you saw John B tomorrow morning, to talk about what had just happened. This newfound confidence told you the conversation would go well.  You knew that right then wasn't the right time to say anything; especially after the moment you just shared.

“See you tomorrow?” You whispered.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” He said, “Bright and early?”

You continued to think.  You knew that this whole entire experience was wrong, but everything felt so right.  Although you loved Jason, you knew that you wanted to at least try and talk to John B about what happened.

You heard him yawn over the phone, realizing that between his busy day and everything else he must have been exhausted.

“Yes, definitely.” You smiled over the phone, “Get some sleep though, okay?”

“Call me some other time.” He said, his voice mixed with a lazy smile and exhaustion, “Goodnight.”

You knew exactly what he meant, and although you were still having mixed emotions you couldn’t wait to maybe call him again.

[echoghost1]

DannyMay 2021 Day 11: Midnight

Seaside Light Keeper - Chapter 1: Witching Hour

Summary: Danny Fenton was the latest in a long long line of Fenton's to live in the Fenton Lighthouse on the shores of Port Amity. He's known all his life that one day the Lighthouse will be his, both as a home and as a responsibility.

One late night in the woods changes everything.

Word Count: 1,973

Part 1 of a new AU? Wow who would have guessed I would have another AU idea 😅

You can read on AO3 or down below the cut

Danny lay in his bed listening to the sounds of his home. Everyone else was already asleep and the gentle rhythm of the ocean lapping against the shore made it hard not to join them. Just as he was starting to nod off his phone lit up his darkened bedroom with a notification.

It was time.

He pulled himself up and checked the message. “It’s now or never dweeb.”

Danny sighed and shook his head before sending a message that he’d be right out. Maybe if he just ignored the name-calling Dash would get bored and stop?

He slipped his phone into his pocket, flipped his blanket back onto the bed after rearranging the pillows to look like he was under there, grabbed his socks and shoes before he carefully made it out of the house.

He wasn’t too worried about his parents finding him out of bed in the middle of the night. His dad was asleep based on the loud snores coming from his parent’s room while his mom was upstairs on the first watch. He just had to make sure his sister didn’t wake up and catch him fully clothed as he was still sneaking out.

Luck was on his side tonight and he was able to slip out into the cool night air with no interruptions. The sand was already so cold without the sun to warm it this late at night. He sort of regretted not slipping his shoes on while he was on the porch, but he liked running along the beach barefoot.

He spotted Dash and Kwan pretty easily given how much taller they were than most of the guys in their class. The pair was loitering near the edge of the pier just out of the glow of the streetlight near the no loitering sign.

Danny tried not to snicker at the irony as he made his way over.

“And here I was thinking you weren’t going to show?”

“I sent you a text back.”

Dash pulled his phone out and stared at it for a minute before showing the phone to Danny, “You sure about that?” There was nothing on the reply side from Danny.

Danny pulled out his own phone and saw it had failed to send the message, “Well I tried too.” he shoved the useless phone back in his pocket and looked back to the taller boys, “So you never did tell me why we were meeting here.”

“Yeah I did.” Dash denied.

Kwan pondered on it for a moment, “No, I don’t think you did.” Then he looked back down to Danny, “You should really put your shoes on.”

He nodded and brushed the sand off the soles of his feet before slipping on his footwear. “If I’m remembering correctly, all you said at school was,” Danny cleared his throat as he stood up and did his best impression of Dash, which is to say put on the most annoying voice he could manage without laughing, “meet me by the pier at midnight, or else.”

“I don’t sound like that!”

Kwan hit Dash in the chest with the back of his hand, “Dude shut up! Someone’s going to hear us.”

“Whatever let’s just go.”

“Where are we going?!” Danny asked in exasperation as he followed.

“We’re looking for the witch’s well.” Dash finally explained before heading off towards the forest.

Of course, they were.

If there was one thing Port Amity had that would probably outlive the town itself, it was the legend of the witch’s well.

Long ago, when Port Amity was barely a little blip on the map, there was a woman who lived alone in the woods. Seeing as it was in ye olden times, that was suspicious. The townsfolk avoided her. They called her a witch.

Apparently, she never denied these claims. It was said that she told the townsfolk that all she wanted to do was to live her life in the forest and she would keep to herself. She told them they had no reason to fear her.

Despite her asking for a peaceful co-existence the town didn’t agree. They did what you did to witches in the Salem era. They locked her in her house and burned it down around her.

Once the final embers died out the townsfolk discovered that she had a well, a very deep well. Far deeper than it needed to be. Deep enough to reach the sea.

Or at least that was the story.

No one has ever been able to find the well since. The arsonist townfolk didn’t tell anyone where they committed their crime so the location was lost to time.

Over the years, whenever anything bad happened to the town, the witch was blamed.

The poor crops after the untimely death of the witch? Witch’s fault.

The hurricane in the fifties that nearly wiped the town into the sea? Witch’s fault.

The poor fishing catches of the last twenty years? Witch’s fault.

Most people didn’t actually believe in the witch or her well. It had become more of a local legend. It didn’t stop her from being everyone’s scapegoat though.

Did you fail a test? Witch’s fault.

Did your crush not accept your confession? Witch’s fault.

Did you trip on a crack in the sidewalk? Witch’s fault.

It was basically a locals-only meme now.

Danny followed along even if he thought they wouldn’t end up finding anything. If there really was a house in the woods it had to be overgrown and completely hidden after all this time. Same with the well.

He pulled his phone out and sent a quick text to Tucker even though he was probably sleeping. “Hey you were right after all. We’re going into the woods now.”

He hoped they didn’t stay out too long, he did plan on getting some sleep tonight.

Once they were completely engulfed by the foliage Tucker replied, “let me know when they ditch you.”

Danny couldn’t help the light scoff that escaped his lips, “Rude! Don’t be jealous because they invited me and not you.”

“Let me know when they ditch you.”

“Did you send that twice or is my phone glitching again?”

“I sent it twice. I’m being petty.”

Danny snorted as he tried to repress his laugh. At least Tucker was honest.

“What are you doing back there?” Dash whisper-shouted back at him over his shoulder.

“Nothing,” Danny lied as he tried to decide if he should keep his phone out or slip it back into his pocket.

“Well stop it and help us.”

Danny turned the flashlight app on and got closer not realizing he had straggled so far behind.

“Why are we doing this in the middle of the night anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier with the sun out?”

“Don’t be stupid. The place can’t be found during the day, it’s part of the curse.”

Danny stopped dead in his tracks, “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh come on. Don’t act like you don’t know. You’re from one of the founding families.”

“All that means is that I inherit the lighthouse when my folks retire.”

“I told you he wouldn’t know,” Kwan muttered loud enough for them all to hear.

“Wouldn’t know what?” Danny asked and wondered if maybe they had taken in too much salt water from all their time at sea this summer.

“Look, there’s not a lot to talk about when you’re at sea, and we got to talking about the witch,” Kwan started but was quickly interrupted by Dash’s moaning protest.

Kwan ignored him and continued to both tell his story and slowly walk through the woods.

“There’s this part of the legend that says only under the light of the full moon can a descendant of the original witch hunters find the house.”

“So you brought me?” Danny deadpanned not at all thrilled to know they invited him only because of his lineage.

“Well yeah,” Dash shrugged.

“Why not invite my sister then? I thought you liked her?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s exactly why I didn’t invite her.”  Dash took Danny’s silent confusion as his cue to continue, “What if the witch’s ghost is still hanging around and gets mad and wants to avenge her death or whatever?”

Danny’s mouth dropped open, “you brought me out here to be killed by a ghost?”

“It’s not that I want you dead, it’s just that between the two of you, the choice is pretty obvious.”

“You know what, screw you! I’m going home!”

“Aw come on, Fenton! I was only teasing!” Dash called as Danny stormed off.

Danny ran for a little bit before he started to get winded so he leaned against a nearby tree.

He heard Dash and Kwan calling after him but he didn’t want anything to do with those jerks right now, so he slipped behind the tree and waited for them to pass.

He sighed and realized they were going back towards town and now he’d have to follow them out. He didn’t want to follow after them. Not now, not ever again. He was done trying to get their attention. Done trying to get them to like him when they clearly didn’t care about him at all.

He doubled back to put more distance between them and figured he’d just exit the forest from a different spot. All he had to do was follow the sound of the sea and he’d be on the beach again.

He never once was worried about getting lost in his hometown. As long as he could get to the beach he could find his way home. Perks of growing up in a lighthouse.

He walked along and it wasn’t until he had to pull out his phone to see where he was going that he realized he might be walking the wrong way. If he was following the sound of the ocean, the forest should be getting lighter as he got closer to the beach, not darker.

He was trying not to panic as he looked around for any sign of something familiar, but everything in the forest just looked the same in the dark.

His foot hit a particularly sturdy rock and he tripped. As he tried to regain his balance he twisted and ended up falling backward instead of face first.

Then he kept falling.

He wasn’t touching anything.

For a split second, he thought he was going to just fall forever.

Then he hit the ground.

Hard.

All the air left his body and he just couldn’t get it back in. his eyes were wide as he looked up at the circular opening above him.

All he could do was look. He couldn’t even breathe.

Then the air rushed back in.

He didn’t know where he was.

No one knew where he was.

His eyes franticly searched for any clues as to where he was. As to how to get out.

The opening was a circle.

From what little light the moon provided he could just make out the unmistakable lines of brickwork.

He found the well.

They were never going to find him.

He had to get out.

If he could climb out he could find his way to shore again.

He tried to sit up but he screamed instead.

Everything hurt.

He was starting to think he broke something.

He had to get out, but how could he if he couldn’t even sit up?

He looked around and found his phone nearby. He smiled, glad that it had fallen down with him and wasn’t still up above.

He reached for it but it wasn’t close enough to grab.

He tried to stretch his arm out a little farther, but he still couldn’t reach it.

He tried to lean in farther, but it hurt too much.

With nothing else left to do; he cried.

[julemmaes]

Zero pressure cuz I know you’re working on other things but are u still planning on writing the sequel to I Love You with Cal?

I’m Sorry

acotar next gen fan fic

part two for this one shot here

A/N: I won’t be giving any summary cause it’s 1am and I’m crying cause I just want to be able to sleep, I just hope this will satisfy you all and maybe makes you cry a little cause it was hard to finish it. Please if there’s any mistakes don’t point that out to me, I’ll check tomorrow. Enjoy!

Masterlist

Word count: 3,857

Cal had returned home shortly after dinner. His family had already finished eating and he just wanted to get some rest after the long day he'd had with Raina.

They'd stayed up all night the day before because her parents hadn't been home, and during the day he'd found it difficult to focus on his classes, so much that he'd skipped one in order to take a nap in the university gardens. All of this, of course, hadn't stopped him from going straight back to Raina's house to spend more time together, and while they were supposed to be studying for the upcoming exam they were both taking, they had decided to spend the entire afternoon doing the nasty.

Now, lying on his bed, he tried not to laugh too loudly at the memes he was looking at, so as not to disturb Ezra who was studying despite the hour. Unlike him, his brother couldn't afford to fail an exam and his mother would surely hit him repeatedly if he tried to mess that up.

He was about to shut everything off and warn Raina that he was going to sleep, when Ezra sighed too loudly to be casual. Thinking it was just for the studying, Cal didn't give it that much thought and opened up the chat with his girlfriend, starting to type his goodnight.

"Fuck it." muttered Ezra, closing the book, "Cal, man?"

"Hmm?" he hummed from his spot on the bed.

"Yesterday after you left, something happened and I think you should know because it's partially your fault too and the rest of us have all apologized already." he said in a tone that was far too serious for the relaxed situation they were in.

Cal's head snapped towards him for a second as he saw Ezra get up and walk towards his bed, before returning his attention to the screen where Raina was telling him she was going to take a shower - and think about him in the process. An idle grin appeared on his lips and he held his breath when she sent him a picture in front of the mirror wearing only a pair of panties.

"Can you please listen to me without looking at your phone?" asked Ezra a little more pressing.

Cal huffed, running a hand through his hair and turning off the screen. He crossed his hands over his chest, smiling sarcastically at his brother, "You have my full attention."

It wasn't true. If he wanted to sleep that night, he too would have had to take a shower to get rid of that uneasy itch between his legs. The picture Raina had just sent him shone brightly etched into his eyelids, but he wasn't going to risk Ezra grabbing his phone out of his hands and seeing pictures of his half-naked girlfriend.

Not again, at least.

"You're not listening to me," Ezra blurted, his voice low.

"God you sound like mom when she gets pissed," he snorted. He pulled himself up on his elbows, jerking his chin, "What?"

"I caught Celia coming out of the tavern yesterday and she was crying," the other said, slipping off his shirt to put on his pajamas, "Mom and dad have already talked to her and me and the girls have apologized more than once, I slept in there with them last night, but-" he cleared his throat, running a hand over his face.

Cal forgot about Raina in a split second.

If Celia had cried and Ezra had felt the need to tell him, it meant it was something important.

"But?" urged Cal to continue, sitting up and setting the phone down on the nightstand.

Ezra looked him straight in the eye as he took off his jeans as well, then looked away, shaking his head, "Before I tell you, it's not your fault specifically, it was a lot of things that built up that made her break down for a moment-"

Cal interrupted him, "Can you get straight to the point, please? You're worrying me."

"It's not even that important, I just think you need to know."

"Jesus Christ, just tell me," he snapped.

"Celia had a complete nervous breakdown last night," Ezra said in one breath, kneeling on his bed without even looking at him. Cal's heart clenched in his chest. "She said we don't love her like we love the rest of us," he sighed, "that mom and dad never have time for her basically."

Then Ezra's icy eyes pierced into Cal's hazel ones, and he knew that whatever he said next would be the heaviest bit to hear. He tucked into his shoulders, breathing through his nose.

"She also said that Nora hates her. That you hate her."

Cal closed his eyes, bringing a hand to his forehead, "Fuck." he muttered, "She mentioned me and Nora specifically?"

Ezra didn't answer and Cal opened his eyes, seeing him nod with a grimace on his face, "Dad told her that's not true, obviously, but I think it would be good for her to hear it directly from you."

"Fuck." muttered Cal again. He put his feet on the ground, leaning forward and taking his head in his hands as he remembered how he'd dismissed Celia not once, but twice in the space of a few minutes when she had needed him.

To go have sex, of all things.

"Why didn't you call me? Texted me?" asked Cal, looking over his shoulder at Ezra, "I would have come home sooner." he sighed again when he suddenly remembered the conversation that had taken place only a couple of hours earlier with Celia.

They had been sitting on the couch in the living room in silence when Cal had asked her what movie she wanted to watch and she hadn't answered him right away. She hadn't even looked at him when she'd said, "You don't have to be pretend like you like to stay home with me." before getting up from the couch and going upstairs, probably to her room. Cal had been surprised by those words, but hadn't dwelled too much on his sister's tone of voice or her hurt expression, continuing to text Raina.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." he cursed himself again, thinking about how much that indifference of his had done nothing but prove her fears. He didn't dwell on the image of a distraught Celia crying that appeared in his head too.

Ezra clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, "Listen, if you go in there like this you're just going to scare her," he told him softly, "Calm down for a moment and take a couple of minutes to think, because it sounds like you've been given the worst news you can get, so breathe, think and if you can't get it all done before eleven maybe you should wait until tomorrow morning."

Cal wanted to tell him that it was one of the worst things anyone could say to him, but looking into his eyes he realised that he must have felt the same way the night before.

"Did you find her crying or..?"

Ezra lifted a shoulder, tucking himself under the covers and folding his arms behind his head, "I told you, she was downstairs and I didn't understand what she was doing there, then dad saw her and she burst into tears." a short pause before he resumed speaking in a lower voice, "I haven't heard her cry like that in a few years.  She has to be holding it all in for so long."

Cal ran a hand over his face, puffing out his cheeks.

His phone screen lit up with a notification from Raina.

He opened the chat without even checking the last picture she had sent him:

'I'll text you later princess, something came up and I'm not really in the mood to send you pictures. Sorry.'

Her reply didn't even take ten seconds to appear, 'No, I'm sorry, I wouldn't have sent anything if I knew something was wrong. You need me to call you?'

Cal smiled slightly at the phone, 'Don't worry, you couldn't have known.'

The message that followed sounded more threatening than anything else, 'Okay, but you didn't answer my question, do you want me to call you? I can be there in five if I have to. Or you can come back here, you know I'm alone.'

As tempting as that invitation was, Cal shook his head, knowing full well that it held no double meaning, just genuine concern. 'It's Celia. She wasn't well last night and no one thought to warn me.'

'Oh, what happened?'

'Can I text you later? I have to take care of this now. It's nothing to worry about, just, I'll tell you later.'

'Alright.' Cal chuckled. It was just like seeing her, biting the inside of her lip, thinking of all the possibilities.

'Love you.'

He didn't wait for her reply and lay back down on the bed, putting himself in the same position as his brother.

"Do you think I was an asshole?" he asked at one point, looking up at the ceiling.

He heard Ezra moving around on the bed and when he turned around, his brother was lying on his side, his head resting on one arm. He looked so much like their mum. "She didn't really elaborate when she said you hate her-"

"Could you stop saying I hate her as if it were true?" interrupted Cal, frowning.

Ezra arched an eyebrow, "Sorry." then looked at him attentively, "I was saying, she didn't say anything in particular, so I wouldn't know. What did you do to sweep her off her feet like that?"

Cal looked at him with a slightly wide mouth, "For someone who says it's not my fault, it sure as hell looks like you don't believe it."

"I'm just fucking with you, though, she said you kicked her out of the room," then grimaced, "Actually, dad and I did that too, so don't worry if it's true."

Cal shook his head, amazed, looking up at the ceiling again, "We're all assholes then."

"What did you tell her?" asked Ezra again.

"I just told her I'd help her with her homework, I guess, and then I left," he replied.

"For?" Cal turned to him with an expression that said it all. Ezra scoffed, "You could have helped her five minutes, before you went off to fuck."

Cal flinched at those words, knowing full well how true they were, "You could have done the same. What were you and dad doing anyway?"

Ezra took a while to answer, "We were supposed to be fixing the bike, but we were actually playing darts."

"Busted." he muttered, "We should scold dad too then." joked Cal, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I think he's regretted it enough already," the eldest said in a serious tone, "He barely touched his food at dinner yesterday and then went straight to bed."

"Maybe he was just tired," Cal assumed, trying to kill time before the inevitable.

"I don't think so, he pretty much spent all day staring at Celia like she might break at any moment." he ran a hand through his hair, mussing it, "Sometimes I wonder how they manage with five kids. It must be hard."

Cal frowned, looking at his brother, trying to figure out if he was just playing around or not. When he saw Ezra staring at the ceiling with a lost gaze, he realized that no, he was one hundred percent serious.

That he didn't realize the help he gave his parents? It was true, Ezra was only four years older than Cal, but there was no way he shouldn't be considered some sort of third parent. The eldest of the siblings had taken care of all of them from day zero and had never backed down from such duty.

Cal's eyes widened, deciding not to broach that subject that evening.

One thing at a time.

"Do you think you'll talk to her tonight?" asked Ezra, "I only ask because - even if you don't have to tonight - I think you should go say goodnight, tell her you love her before you go to sleep."

"Give me ten more minutes and then I'll go," Cal murmured.

"As long as you need."

***

"The other day when I went out with Iria and we met one of the boys in her class," Nora said with bright eyes, "he asked me to give him my number and I don't think I should tell mom."

Celia giggled, hiding her face against the duvet on her bed, "She'd definitely tell dad and at that point you'd be quicker to jump in front of a train on your own."

Nora burst out laughing, looking up at her from the upside down position she was in, "Iria said the same thing too."

"What's his name?"

Her sister's face lit up, "Zeke. I don't know his last name." then she cackled, "Maybe I should ask him."

"Is he cute?" asked Celia just as the door opened and Cal appeared.

"Who's cute?" asked their brother, just the instant Nora said, "Don't you know how to knock?"

"An actor." replied the younger one, as any sort of excitement vanished inside her.

She didn't want the strange bubble that had been created over the last few hours to burst. She had finally managed to convince Nora to spend some time with her as they hadn't done in months and she hadn't had that much fun in too long.

Cal shifted his gaze from Nora to her, keeping his eyes fixed in hers for a while before turning back to Nora, "You're not telling me the truth."

"Why are you here?" the older one asked, turning on her stomach and looking at her brother standing in the doorway.

Celia felt herself blush for some reason when Cal's eyes settled on her again and said, "Could you come with me for a moment?"

She arched an eyebrow, "Why?"

The boy seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, "I'd like to talk to you."

Nora yawned, not covering her mouth, "The two of us would be talking."

Cal turned to the older of the two of them, "Stop being so bossy."

"I wouldn't have to if you knocked before coming into our room and then claimed to steal Lia from me," Nora replied tensely.

Celia pulled herself up to her seat, rubbing her hands over her face as she tried to suppress a smile.

She knew they weren't really fighting, but they were bickering to win her attention, her time, and she'd be lying if she said it wasn't warming her heart.

"I-" stammered Cal, gesturing to Nora, "What- I'm not trying to steal Cece from you, I just want to talk to her for five minutes."

"What do you want Cal?" she asked trying to figure out what she needed to discuss at this time of the night.

Cal gave her an exasperated look, "Ezra told me what happened last night, I wanted to apologize."

Both she and Nora straightened up, but Celia was the only one who held her breath, blinking a couple of times, hoping to erase any trace of surprise from her expression.

Nora cleared her throat, sitting up, "I think I'll go brush my teeth." she said getting up.

Celia frowned, "You've done that before with-"

"Brush my teeth!" she repeated loudly, closing the bedroom door behind her.

Now only she and Cal stood in the room.

"Cal, you don't-"

He interrupted her before she could say anything else, crossing the room with two wide strides, "I want to apologize."

Celia looked at him, pulling herself up to sit cross-legged as he plopped down on Nora's bed in front of her. She nodded her head to tell him to continue, "You already said that."

"I know," Cal whispered. Then he shifted his gaze outside the window that separated the girls' beds, "I know."

Her eyes fell on his hands and she saw that he was torturing his ring she knew Raina had given him for their first anniversary. A nervous tic that characterised practically every adult in that house. Celia was just waiting for the day when Nora, too, was given a ring and she, too, would start twisting it between the index finger and thumb of her opposite hand.

They were silent for a few seconds and Celia was about to speak, make his task easier by telling him that everything was fine, that it had just been a particularly tiring day, but the words caught in her throat when he looked back at her and in the most serious tone of voice she had ever heard him use, he said, "You know you're my best friend right?"

Celia didn't know how to respond. She wasn't even sure if she was actually breathing. That's why she forced herself to get some air into her lungs. That strained breath must have sounded like a sob or a gasp, because Cal grimaced before resuming.

"I know it's not always like this Cece, but you're my best friend.

"I'm sorry for leaving you like that last night. I was an asshole and I shouldn't have acted like that. I have no excuse for ignoring you and then leaving for Raina's without helping you first, but I want to tell you something." he looked at her with such intensity that she didn't understand how he could speak. She nodded slowly.

"You will always be my sister. You will always be the person I love most in the world. You, Nora, Andra, Ezra." he swallowed noisily, "You are my life and I love you. Understand?"

Celia nodded with slightly wide eyes.

"We're growing up. These years won't be like the ones we had when we were younger, but that doesn't mean I don't love you as much as ever. That I hate you." he shuddered at those words, "Hell, Ce, I could never hate you. Not even if you did me the greatest wrong in the world.

"We'll go back to being close, as close as... as-" he grunted, throwing his hands to the sky, "Like two broad beans in a pod."

Celia chuckled, frowning, "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, it's not important," he smiled. "What is important is that you understand that no one in this family hates you. No one could ever hate you."

The words were out before she could stop them, "It seems that way sometimes."

Cal contracted his jaw, "I know, I'm sorry," he said in a lower voice, "I can tell you something that will probably make you feel better."

"Alright."

"Ezra and I are essentially five years apart, and," he straightened, running a hand through his hair, "There was a time when I was a senior in middle school, just like you, and when he was a junior in high school at the same time."

"That must have been hard for you," Celia whispered.

Cal nodded, smiling at her reassuringly, "It was one of the worst times of my life, I think. I was sure Ezra wouldn't consider me a friend anymore, just a brother, because he's legally forced to be that, you know." they both chuckled, "But no, Ezra was just growing up and you get to a point where your interests are too different to keep getting involved in everything the other does.

"It definitely happened to Nora with me and it's going to happen to Andra with you," then, seeing the scared look on her face that one day she would make her little sister feel the way her older siblings were making her feel at that moment, he added, "But Cece, that's life. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not your fault. It happens."

"It still hurts." she pointed out again.

Cal reached out to her, putting both hands on her shoulders, "I know, but I can assure you that the second you get old enough and mom and dad will let you hang out with Nora, you'll completely forget you ever felt that way."

"Was it like that for you and Ezra?"

He nodded, getting up to sit on her bed next to her, "It took me a little longer than it will take you, because of the bigger age gap, but yeah." he nodded, smiling at her, "When Ezra and I started 'playing together' again," he said mimicking the quotes with his fingers, "It was like all the years we were too far apart to actually have fun together faded away. It was like finding an old friend you thought you'd never see again." he put an arm around her shoulders, bringing her against his side, "That's why I'm telling you not to worry."

Celia closed her eyes, muttering, "You were still an asshole, though. And so was Nora. And a little bit Ezra too."

She felt Cal shake while chuckling, "Andra wasn't? At least she's safe."

"Oh, shut up," she said, breaking free from her brother's grasp.

Cal looked down at her, a smile all too similar to their father's on his lips, "I love you, Cece." he said under his breath.

She nodded, feeling her cheeks heat up, "I love you too."

Then Cal laughed, running a hand over his face to stop the giggles and avoid waking their parents.

"What's up?" asked Celia in an amused tone.

"God," Cal breathed, trying not to laugh, "I can't wait until you and Nora are old enough to drink. Ezra and I have to take you to see so many places."

Celia rested her hands on her knees. She still didn't understand all that drinking hype, but she was sure her brothers would give her unforgettable experiences.

Cal let himself fall backwards on the bed, covering his face with an arm, "I'm sorry for acting like that yesterday, I'll try to pay more attention to your needs or whatever you want." he murmured after the laughter was fully subsided.

Celia lay next to him on the mattress, close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, "It's nothing, I'm fine now."

"It's not nothing," Cal said, firmly, "The fact that you had to reach such a breaking point that you couldn't hold back the crying isn't nothing, don't even think that as a joke."

When she didn't answer, he took it as an invitation to continue.

"And I know dad already told you, but talk to us before you break down like that."

Celia swallowed, trying to chase away the tears, "I will." she finally whispered.

She heard Cal sigh, "Come here," before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards him. Celia closed her eyes, letting her older brother hold her, letting him give her the love they all said they felt for her.

Finally feeling the entirety of that weight being lifted from her shoulders, she fell asleep with Cal's voice promising her incredible adventures and memorable nights in a future Celia never imagined would be so close.

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[fakeloveaskblog]

Pft, texting memes, oh dear. I'm happy both Remus and Remy found a friend. Also, message for Janus: "Same color as my murdered husband's blood? Seriously Janus? In other news, please talk to Logan. I honestly have no idea why you reacted as you did back during that get together, but it hurt him and you don't seem to be doing so hot either, maybe talking to him about how he made you uncomfortable and why you reacted that way will help?"

(Words: 1351)

It had been a slow day at the library. Janus had done his best to avoid Logan by spending all day behind a desk doing paper work. Just like he'd done the entire week.

He leaned back in the chair and stretched out his arms. Coffee time. He walked like an exhausted armadillo to the break room. He regretted it the moment he opened the door.

Logan sat by the table. An astronomy magazine sat in his hands along with his lunch sandwich. He was wearing a shirt which was clearly actually Patty's because it had nothing but puppies and rainbows on it and was a bit too short for him.

Janus froze in the doorway. His throat filled with regret. Logan looked up at the sudden sound. Their eyes met. He couldn't breathe.

He held onto the door handle like it was a lifeline. It took a moment before he was even able to move. And as soon as he could he tried to leave.

"Wait!" Logan got up and hurried over to him. He made sure to not get too close "About the get together-"

"I'm sorry" Janus mumbled out. He stared down into the ground.

"It's not- You don't have to apologize. I'm not angry. Anger is the last thing I am feeling...I only want to know what I did wrong. What- Why I made you uncomfortable. So I don't do it again"

Janus couldn't reply. It was all too much. Too many thoughts were piling up inside his head until it felt like his skull would break. Logan's gentle voice was only making it worse.

His heart hurt "I- I-"

Tears welled into his eyes and a shaky sob left his lips. He tried to desperately hide his crying by burying his head in his gloved hands but he couldn’t stop his shaking shoulders or weak sobs.

“Oh dear” Logan gently placed his hands on his shoulders and led him over to the table “Let’s sit down okay”

Janus tried to make himself as small as possible as he sat down on the chair. He didn’t look up at his love. 

“This is pathetic” He mumbled out while hopeleesly trying to force the tears away. They had been building up for so so long. Now he couldn’t stop sobbing.

“It’s not. Take your time. There’s no rush”

He held onto the fabric of his pants so hard they wrinkled “Logan I- I promise- Since I met you- I- I’ve never been more awake in my entire life- I used to live in a fog of just surviving but you opened my eyes and I’ve been yearning to actually live ever since...and- and I’ve- I’ve wanted to live with you”

Logan was taken aback. He reached out to take Janus’ hand but his crush flinched away.

“But...I....I also..” Janus crumbled in on himself and the sobs racked his body “I also feel so much shame- I- I- Just because you’re a guy- and- and I am too- and it’s constant guilt and shame and feeling dirty swallowing me whole....When you tried to kiss me...I wanted it...I so so wanted it...wanted you....But the shame was too much”

“.....That’s okay” Logan assured.

Janus looked up at him in surprise. With his checks wet from tears “What?”

“It is. I am very glad you are honest with me. I appreciate it. I won’t question why you feel that way unless you wish to tell me. I will do my best to help either way. On days when the shame is too much I won’t engage in romantic activities unless you want to. And if the shame is too much every day, well then I shall wait and help you heal until the shame has lessened. No matter how long it takes”

Somehow even more tears welled into his eyes “Lo-Logie!!” He let out as a sob-squeal.

“That is indeed me. Though honestly I do suggest bringing these negative feelings up to Picani. I am aware he is you’re ‘fake therapist’ but he is still an educated man. I am sure he could help, and if these feelings are affecting you to this deegre help is what you need”

Janus was looking like a puppy who’d just gotten their first doggy treat and was having a breakdown over it “You’re so sweet”

Logan straightened his back out of proudness and smiled “Well thank you. I try my best!”

“No. No. That’s the problem” Janus moved further away “You’re so sweet and good and smart and wonderful and pretty and I’m not! It’s not just the shame that’s stopping me! It’s everything about myself! I’m a horrible disgusting liar who takes up too much space” He crumbled even more “I don’t deserve this. Any of this. I don’t deserve you!”

“Oh dear” He sighed deeply “That is never how relationships work I promise. No one ‘deserves’ the other. I didn’t deserve you or Patty or anyone else I’ve been with. I just choose them. And they choose me back....To clarify I have choosen you....If that wasn’t apparent”

Janus’ hands shook "I just- I am so afraid of doing anything wrong. Of ruining all of this"

Logan took his hand, holding it so so gently "Oh Janus, you don't have to do everything perfect. I didn't fall in love with a perfect you and I won't fall out of love with an unperfect you"

One last tear rolled down his cheeks. His eyes were red and his throat hurt. But he intertwined his fingers with Logan’s.

“You promise?”

“I promise to the best of my abilities”

Janus let out a breathe of relief. Like all of the anxities he had been carrying around for the past 6 months had finally left him. Or at least the weight had become easier to carry.

“I’m really sorry for needing all of this reassurance”

“There’s really no need for apologies. If you must say anything I prefer thank yous”

He looked up and met Logan’s eyes. He let out a half hearted chuckle “Then thank you”

Logan sent him a warm smile back “No problem. I would happily hear you out on your ventilation of feelings at any time. As I am sure you would do for me as well”

“I would. I really would. And I would hate to kiss you as well! absolutely despise it! Totally! But I am unsure if I am ready right now. Just confessing and holding hands is totally not overwhelming”

“That’s okay. We can wait. I have all the time in the world as long as that time can be spent with you”

“I am begging you to stop being so corny and heartfelt at the same time all the damn time” Janus said. He ran his thumb gently across his love’s skin “....But....I am quite sure...I would hate to go on that date to the zoo you asked me about”

Logan’s smile grew into the Logan equivalent of an excited grin “Are you sure?”

“As sure as a male psychologist in 1944 diganosing a woman with hysteria”

He used his free hand to happy stim “Great! We can look at snakes while holding hands!”

Janus stimmed back “Yeah!!”

“And....And I could mayhaps...If you would accept it....Call you my....boyfriend while looking at snakes and holding hands?” Logan asked with slight blush on his cheeks.

His crush in response shone up like a christmas tree from blushing “.....yes....”

They both stared at each other for a moment before breaking out into even more overly excited stimming. Janus leaned against Logan’s chest while Lo’s arms moved around his waist to hold him close.

“.....My...My boyfriend Logan....My boyfriend....who is named Logan......” He mumbled to test out how it felt to say it. Happiness bubbled up like a volcano in his chest “My boyfriend Logan!”

“My boyfriend Janus!” Logan replied just as enthusiastically.

(Later after work had ended the boyfriends walked home to Janus’ apartement together. They held hands during the entire walk. At the end of it Logan leaned in and gave his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek, right besides his lips)

[gins-potter]

What are your winx and specialists tattoo headcanons? Who would have tattoos and which one would they have?

Heyo, as usual sorry this took me a little bit but I wanted to properly organise my thoughts and find reference pics as well. and tbh I could end up coming up with more stuff but this is what I have so far.  (under the cut because it ended up kinda long af and tagging @catlliecal​ because she also sent an ask asking for this).

Bloom:

Ok so my headcanons for Bloom’s tattoos have changed a bit over the years 

but at the moment I imagine her with a fairly large hip into thigh, full coverage piece of the Great Dragon

she chose it’s position because i imagine oritel is probably a conservative old man when it comes to tats (even tho i can so see miriam also having a dragon tattoo) so she puts it on her thigh so she can easily cover it by wearing a long dress for royal events

it would probably be in black and white but I can see the Dragon being intertwined with some flowers, probably Daphne flowers for her sister (which you can see in the two images on the right) and I can see those being coloured a pale pink kind of like in the middle reference pic

and because this is the magical dimension i imagine it’s been spelled so while it stays confined to the one area, it can move a little bit and change positions

so because bloom is both a basic bitch and completely extra i totally see her having more than one dragon tat

her second one would be a lot smaller and probably be a lot more simpler in design compared to her thigh dragon, so something more like the top two images in the second graphic

also in all black but maybe spelled to breathe red fire?

and it would also be enchanted so it can fly around her body, and unlike the bigger dragon it’s not constrained to any area - it’s favourite places to be are flying in circles around her wrist or sitting on her left collarbone over her heart

the other two pics in the second graphic are just older ideas i had for bloom’s tattoos, i was convinced for ages she would have it going down her back like the one on the left (i might eventually give this tattoo to either miriam or daphne) and i just love the design of the one on the right so i briefly considered her having like a shoulder/half sleeve dragon

Flora:

all of flora’s would be in colour i think and she would definitely have that sort of water colour effect on them that’s really popular now

her first two are similar in design to the pic on the left and she would have them on either side of her torso, sort of upper rib area, to the side/just underneath her boobs and they’re like a mirror image of each other

these ones probably wouldn’t be spelled to do anything special

the one on her back is similar in design to the pic on the right, but i can see it also being drawn more like a full tree

the writing down the centre would be her and helia’s family names (because i can definitely see them hyphenating when they get married) and then on each leaf is a name, first helia, then each of her children

i’m playing around with the idea of this one being spelled to change with the seasons, the writing would always stay the same, but the leaves change colour and eventually fall off during autumn and then grow back in the spring.

Layla:

for the moment i can actually see layla only having one tattoo

and that’s this yin yang/opposites fish design that you can see in the reference images (they’re all more or less the same i just found too many cute photos)

it’s actually based on a mosaic in the andros castle that layla loves, and she gets it because it brings her peace when she’s feeling upset or anxious about anything

they would be all in white, one fully white, and the other just a white outline

i think the fish would probably be on the inside of her forearm so she can see them and they would be spelled to swim in circles around each other

i can see her maybe getting nabu’s name somewhere after he dies but i’m not 100% sure where she would put it

Musa:

musa’s are actually the hardest to pin down for me just because i can see her having A Lot

like at least one full sleeve and maybe two

one sleeve would be mostly made up of the music notes for a song her dad wrote for her mother before she died and that would run down most of her arm and would be decorated with birds and flowers important to melodian culture (like the flower top right)

like bloom’s hers would be mostly in black with a few pale red and orange accents here and there

the music notes would be spelled so that when you touch them they play the song

her other arm is more just a collection of stuff she thinks is cool or pretty like the bottom two pics or the boxing art below

and i can eventually see her completely filling her arms so the tattoos spill onto her back

Stella:

stella in my opinion just has two

they’re very minimalistic designs, plain black, and on the inside of either elbow

she has a sun for solaria on one side and a moon for celestia (her mother’s home realm) on the other side

the moon tattoo causes quite the controversy when she gets it because some solarians think it isn’t right for their crown princess to show such strong ties for another realm but stella refuses to remove it

they aren’t spelled to move or change or anything but they do have the ability to glow a bright gold at night

Tecna:

like stella, tecna’s tattoos are rather minimalistic as well

but unlike stella, tecna’s are very meme-y

literally

tecna gets a QR symbol on the inside of her upper left arm that when scanned is actually a rick-roll

and she eventually develops a spell for it that allows the QR code to change so that it takes you to whatever meme tecna currently finds the most hilarious

her other tattoo, which is on her right forearm, is written in binary code and no one actually knows what it says

they can never get a straight answer out of tecna about what it is, and everytime someone asks her she tells them something different, so they assume it’s meme-y like her other one

but actually it’s a short sappy quote that reminds her of timmy but she’ll never admit it to anyone

(don’t ask me what that quote is i haven’t decided yet)

that one has a simple spell on it that makes it look like someone is typing out the code over and over again

kind of like musa i can see tecna having more tattoos than this, i just can’t decide what they would be, but i think they would all follow the same simple, minimalistic design

Specialists:

it was hard for me to find reference pics i liked for the guys so i’m just going to give a brief description of some of the tattoos i think they would have

i don’t know if i’ve written about this on tumblr before, but i have a long-held headcanon that heros have a big tattoo culture:

getting their first tattoo is part of their graduation ceremony from red fountain

they’re encouraged to get tattoos that remind them of their family/friends/loved ones - some yada yada about remembering who they’re fighting for when facing evil forces

and it’s very common to honour fallen team members by getting a tattoo of their name or something that reminds them of the person

Sky:

sky’s tattoos are mostly on his chest and back

his graduation tattoo is an eraklyon prayer of protection that runs down his spine

he doesn’t get any other tattoos after that until nabu dies which is when he gets his friend’s name on his ribs (right side) and that’s where he adds other names of fallen friends/team-mates

later after he and bloom get married he gets her name on his left pec (right over his heart the big sap) and then adds his kids names beneath it after they’re born

none of sky’s tattoos are spelled or enchanted

Brandon:

brandon’s grad tattoo is a list of his siblings names on his left forearm and Stella’s name on his right arm

eventually, like sky, he also gets his kids names added to stella’s

all his name tattoos are individually spelled to burn really hot when that person is in trouble

brandon struggles to decide for a while where to put nabu’s name but eventually decides on the centre of his back because he likes to think that wherever nabu went after he died, he’s still there in spirit watching his back

Riven:

riven shocks the fuck out of everyone when he graduates and gets the red fountain school motto (”live with courage and die with honour”) tattooed in giant fuck off lettering across his shoulders

they all figured he lowkey hated red fountain and maybe he did at first because come on he’s a rebel without a cause at what is basically a military school, of course he kinda hates it there

but he also acknowledges that red fountain more or less turned his life around as well as brought him into contact with the people who eventually he comes to regard as family (much more than his biological one)

like musa i can see riven getting a bunch of other tattoos just because they look cool and putting them all over his arms, chest, and back

but his right bicep would be reserved for tattoos of his fallen friends

unlike sky and brandon he doesn’t get names however, but instead gets symbols, the first being a likeness of nabu’s staff after he passes

Helia:

helia i think would have all of his on his back because he understands the importance of having them but also doesn’t need to see them every day

his grad piece is kind of unorthodox because he gets his favourite line of poetry to remind him that there’s still beauty in the world even when he’s facing evil

later i feel like he would get something like outstretched bird wings just below it

and under that he gets nabu’s name in really nice script

Timmy:

timmy is probably the least prone to tattoos of the group and he has to think for a long time on what to get for graduation

and people assure him that he doesn’t actually have to get one just because most everyone else is

but eventually he decides to get a small coloured blaster on the inside of his elbow

when he was in freshman year at red fountain he was lowkey ashamed when all his classmates took to using swords almost straight away while he preferred using his gun because he thought it meant he lacked the physical strength and courage to use a short range weapon

but he slowly came to realise that it wasn’t a weakness, but just that he had different strengths to his friends and classmates and that wasn’t a bad thing

so he decides that’s a good thing to remember

and when nabu dies again he debates whether or not to get a tattoo commemorating him but ultimately decides he will and gets ‘his name written near his blaster

[tinabean37]

Ring Ring

I saw this meme today, and this Henry drabble popped in my head, and I had to get it out. It made me so happy writing this story. Please leave your feedback. It gives me life!

Summery: Your date unexpectedly meets your son

Henry Cavill x Reader

Warnings: Tiny bit of angst, Henry playing with kids fluff...I think that is it?

Word Count: 1235 (Oops)

~~~~~

Secrets suck. You knew that, but even still, you had been keeping a big one from your new beau. You had been seeing Henry for a few months now, but you were already falling over that beautiful edge. You had a relationship that could make even the best rom-com movie jealous. You met at the grocery store, both reaching for the same melon. You’ve been on multiple dates and even a few nights at his place, but you strategically have kept him away from yours. Your reason? Your 3-year-old son. 

It’s not that you thought Henry was bad with kids, because he wasn’t. He was great with them. And you knew he wanted a brood of his own one day. He mentioned it to you on date 3. But taking on someone else’s child was different. And it was more then just you were afraid of how he would react if he knew you had a kid already. You also wanted to wait until you knew it was right to introduce them. That had always been your rule, as to not let your son get attached to just anyone. So to that end, Henry had never been to your house  

But today was an exception. Your son was with his dad for the night. Henry kept throwing out hints that he would love to see where you lived and try some takeaway near to you. You thought tonight would be perfect. So here you were, rushing around like you were in a race, trying to put away all things that yelled “toddler”. The last of the toys were deposited in his room right as the doorbell rang. You took a deep breath, straightened your hair and clothes, and headed for the door. When opened, you were greeted by Henry’s 1000 watt smile, and a bottle of wine. 

“Y/n, you look stunning.” He commented as he leaned in to place a soft kiss on your lips. You wrapped him in a welcoming hug. He made you yelp, and giggle when he lifted you off the ground, while you were still clinging to him, and headed inside with you in full sloth-mode around his neck. He put you down just inside the entryway, and you snuck in another kiss. 

“Welcome to my little piece of heaven.” You joked as you took the wine, and headed into the kitchen. “It’s not much. It’s not a movie stars home. But it’s mine.” 

“It’s perfect for you. It’s exactly how I pictured it would be.” You sent him your warmest smile and pointed to a cabinet over your head. Thank goodness he was so tall and could reach the wine glasses without a stool. You poured the wine, decided on pizza, and settled down on the couch to wait for the food. Casually flipping through the movies to find something to watch, the doorbell rang. Confused, as it felt too soon for the pizza to be there, you excused yourself and headed to see who it was. And when you opened the door, your heart fell to your feet. 

“Mama!” your son shouted excitedly, and reached for you from his dad’s arms. You smiled and lifted your son into a hug as you glared at your ex. 

“What are you guys doing here? You were supposed to have him tonight. I have plans, and someone over.” 

“Yeah, well, something came up for me. I can’t have him tonight.” You couldn’t believe it. What were you going to do now? You sat your son down in the foyer with a few toys, as you stepped to the side to talk with his father. You didn’t want him to see you fight. 

“I’m sorry something came up, but it’s your night with him. I have a date in the living room.” 

“Well, you’re just gonna have to figure something out, aren’t you?” And with a wave and a quick kiss to your son, he was gone. You looked at your little boy, playing with some little noisy toy, and sighed. Well, I guess we’re doing this, you said to yourself. 

“Hey, sweetie. Let’s go meet one of mommy’s friends, huh?” He grabbed your hand, while still holding on to his toy with the other, and followed you to the living room doorway. You sat your son down again, so you could go in ahead to explain things to Henry. With a steadying breath, you headed in. When he saw you his face lit up, which made yours drop a little. There was no going back from this. 

“So that wasn’t pizza at the door?” he asked innocently?

“No, it wasn’t. But Hen, we gotta talk about something.” The room felt stifling then as if trying to choke the words back down your throat. “Hen, I haven’t been 100% honest with you.” He looked at you confused, and almost hurt, which made your heart clench. “There is someone else in my life. I have a…” Before you could finish your sentence, your son, impatient of waiting alone, toddled in with a fake telephone in his hand, loudly yelling “Ring Ring!” as he made his way over to Henry. Your breath caught in your throat, as he looked from your son, to you, then back to your son. Without missing two beats, Henry held out his hand and took the toy from your son. He held it up to his ear, and you couldn’t help but smile at how comical and tiny it looked in his big hands. 

“Hello? Who is this? Oh yes, I know your Mama. She’s real pretty, isn’t she?” Your son began to giggle as the stranger played along. He ran over to you and hugged your legs. “Ok, I got it. I’ll give him the phone back.” Henry reached out his big hand and handed the little phone back to your son, who excitedly put it to his ear, and walked away jibber jabbing on the call. 

“As I started to say, I have another man in my life. My son, Ethan.”

“He’s a good looking boy. Takes after his mom.” You couldn’t help the blush that crept on your face. “Why didn’t you tell me about him before?” 

“I really like you Henry, and in my past experience, things usually end pretty quickly when the men I’m seeing find out there is someone else in my life competing for my attention. I didn’t want that to happen to us.” Henry patted the space beside him for you to sit, and when you did, he wrapped his strong arm around your shoulders. 

“I really like you too y/n. And nothing is sexier to me than seeing a woman really embrace being a mother. This only makes me want you more, not less.” You rested your head on his shoulder, and discreetly wiped away the tears that had formed. Just then, your son cane back in the room, the phone still in his hand, and held it out to Henry once more. “Now if you excuse me, I need to take this call.” He put the little phone back to his ear to play along. You watched your two boys interact with a smile on your face, and a swelling in your chest. You silently kicked yourself for not telling Henry sooner, and you decided, this is how you could spend every day for the rest of forever.