#Thanks Age. You really are the cool uncle.

[m-neuvillette]

Rumor

Boothill x reader

Word count: 16,145

I recommend listening to Rumor by Lee Brice because that's the song Boothill sings in this

Notes: fem reader, described to be shorter, long hair, body size is not described, jealousy, angst, fluff, one drunk guy, protective Boothill, slightly suggestive at one part, foul language. I think that's it

Authors note: Well I spent so much time writing this and I'm really proud of it. So if you hate it please don't tell me, I'll lose all motivation to write. But there was so much more I wanted to write with this so maybe I'll write mini spin offs. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy!! Feel free to like, comment, and follow!!

You hear the ping of your phone alerting you that you just got a new message. You dig your phone out of your pocket to see who it is.

Uncle Welt: I am outside the terminal to pick you up. I’m in a gray pickup truck. See you soon kiddo.

You smile to yourself thinking about how happy and excited you are to be moving in with your uncle after leaving your city life behind. You look for your suitcase at baggage claim, once you have it you make your way to the terminal. You walk outside to see a line of trucks and the third car in line is the one you’re looking for. Once you start making your way over to the car you see your uncle get out of the car. You run over to him once he’s in your view to give him a big hug. 

“Hey kiddo, it’s great to see you. I’ve missed you. How was your flight?” 

“Hi Uncle Welt” you bury your head into his chest unable to control your happiness. “I’m so happy to see you again, I’ve missed you more than you can imagine. My flight was good, but long. So, I’m happy to be on solid ground”. 

He chuckles and pats your head. You guys separate and he goes to grab your luggage to put into the trailer bed. You both hop into the truck and start heading towards his ranch. Once you started getting out of the main part of the town you stared out at all the beautiful scenery you never got to see in the city. You guys sat in a comfortable silence until Welt spoke, “hey we have to make a pit stop on the way back. I promised the boys I’d get a pizza for dinner tonight to celebrate you coming here.” 

“Oh yeah, I forgot you adopted those two little boys. What are their names again?” 

“Their names are Dan Heng and Caelus. They are really good kids and haven’t stopped talking about you coming. Those crazies can’t wait to meet you.” 

You giggle while saying “They sound adorable.  I can’t wait to meet them too.” 

Welt smiles while turning into a small parking lot that has a tiny pizza shop in the middle. He parks and turns to you, “You can stay in the car. I had Boothill make the order so I can pick it up on the way back.” You nod and give a small smile. Welt gets out of the car and head into the small building. As you think more about what he said, he brought up a name you’ve never heard of. You’ll have to ask him when he comes back. 

After a couple minutes you see him walk out, you open your car door so he can hand you the pizza boxes to hold. Once you have the boxes in your hand your mouth starts watering at the smell of the pizza. You hear your door shut as Welt walks around back to the driver side to hop back in. After he buckles and pulls out of the parking lot you decide to ask him about that person he brought up. “Hey, Uncle Welt. You brought up someone named Boothill. Who is that?”

“Oh yeah, he’s my farm hand. He basically takes care of the farm since I’m busy with the business side of the farm and the boys. The boys try to help him out as much as they can to impress him, but they are only 11. So, they can only do so much. But back to Boothill, he’s around your age, he’s 24.”

“Oh, that’s really cool. I didn’t know you had a farm hand. He sounds really nice.” 

“Yeah, he’s a good guy. He does a lot for me, and I’m super thankful to have his help.” 

You smile and say “I’m happy you have someone that has helped you with the farm. I can’t imagine that being easy.”

Welt chuckles and gives you a smile. After driving for another 15 minutes, you hear gravel crunch under the wheels as you pull up to his house. Welt tells you to leave your stuff in the car, he’ll come back out to get it after you guys eat. He gets out and walks around to open your door and to take the pizzas. You hop down from the truck and follow him inside. Before you guys get to the door, you see the door fly open and see a kid with gray hair standing there huffing and puffing. You see another kid with black hair come to stand behind him and starts to scold him. “Caelus why did you do that? You don’t want to scare her before you even meet her.”

Caelus snaps his head back looking at Dan Heng, “WAIT I SCARED HER!?  I DIDN’T MEAN TOO!!” He turns to you, “I’M SO SORRY MA’AM, I DIDN’T MEAN TO SCARE YOU!! I’ve just been so excited to meet you and wanted to greet you.” 

You smile as you get to the door and pat his head “It’s okay, you didn’t scare me. It makes me happy you came to greet me. We got some pizza, let’s go eat dinner, okay?” 

“YAY MR YANG GOT PIZZA!!! Let’s go!!” His little hand grabbed yours and dragged you with him to the dining room. Dan Heng and Welt follow behind you two. Welt sets the pizza boxes on the table and turns to Dan Heng to ask him to get some plates. He then turns to face Caelus and asks, “Where is Boothill?” Caelus replies “Oh, the fence in the back corner broke again so he was fixing it last time we saw him. But he said he would be done before dinner.”

Welt goes to reply but you hear the back sliding door open and close accompanied by a grunt. You turn to see what is causing the commotion and you freeze in place. A tall man with white long hair with black tips on the ends. He’s wearing a white t shirt and blue jeans that show off his muscular figure. Then a black cowboy hat on top of his head. You think to yourself that he is the most breathtaking man you have ever seen in your life. 

Boothill senses eyes on him and he looks up to see everyone looking at him but sees someone he’s not familiar with. He looks at you and takes you in. You’re on the tinier side with nice long hair. You’re wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white sweater. He thinks to himself that you are the most breathtaking woman he has ever seen. 

“Darn it. Y’all made it back before I finished. Let me wash my hands really quick.” 

Boothill leaves the room, but you are still daydreaming until a little hand still connected to yours tugs on it to get your attention. You snap out of your daydream to look down at the little boy staring up at you, he asks if you can sit by him during dinner. You smile and tell him yes as he leads you to your seat. You all sit down and wait for Boothill to join you guys again to start eating. 

You hear a creak in the floor indicating Boothill is coming back. He pulls out a chair across from you and gives you a nice smile once he sits down. “Well, I guess I’m the last one to meet the new pretty lady. I’m Boothill, I’m Mr. Yang’s farm hand.” He reaches out his hand to you for a handshake, you reach out while introducing yourself. His hand is so big and warm compared to yours, you can’t help but stare how his hand engulfs yours. Boothill obviously realizes what you’re doing so he slightly squeezes your hand. Your eyes snap to his and he gives you a little smirk. You instantly blush and gently let go of his hand. 

You all dig into the pizza and listen to Caelus and Dan Heng talk about their day at school. Then they start talking about their friends next door and how once you’re settled in, they are going to bring them over to meet you. After everyone has their full you stand up and start grabbing the used dishes to bring them over to the sink. Boothill goes to stop you because he thinks the new resident should not do the dishes on the day of their arrival. But is cut off by Welt asking him about the fence. The two of them walk to the back door to go look at the fence Boothill has fixed, but before leaving Welt turns around to tell the younger boys to wash up and get ready for bed. 

Once you wash the dishes and dry them you set them on the counter not sure where they go. You decide you’ll just ask Dan Heng or Caelus where they go. Just as you’re about to leave the kitchen, the two boys walk in all washed up and in their pajamas. You look at them and tell them “Ah perfect timing boys! I was just about to go look for you. I just finished the dishes but don’t exactly know where they go.” 

Dan Heng softly smiles and walks to grab the plates and walks to the cabinet where they belong. You thank him and then ask another question “I know it’s Thursday night so it’s a school night, but I have a quick question. What time do all you guys get up? I want to make you guys breakfast, so you all are fueled for your day on the farm or at school.” 

Caelus and Dan Heng look at one another before Dan Heng speaks up, “Mr. Yang wakes up around 6 then we wake up around 7. But we don’t know when Mr. Boothill wakes up. He’s always up and working before any of us so we don’t know. But you can ask him or Mr. Yang.” 

“Thank you so much. I’ll ask my uncle first to see if he knows and if he doesn’t know, I’ll ask Boothill.” 

Caelus speaks up next, “Um… I have a question now.”

You look at him a little worried because he never sounded so quiet and unsure of himself in the little time you’ve known him. You give him a smile and tell him to go ahead and ask. 

“Could you tuck me and Dan Heng into bed?” 

You stare at the little boys; they both look a little nervous and aren’t making eye contact with you. But little do they know your heart is soaring with joy. You excitedly answer, “Of course! Lead the way.” 

Caelus and Dan Heng turn to look at you with the biggest smiles and both reach out to grab your hands to pull you along with them. Once you guys walk up the stairs and get to the first room Caelus pushes the door open and walks inside to the lit-up room. Once you’re all inside the boys drop your hands and hop into their beds. You first walk to Caelus and make sure he’s all tucked in and wish him a goodnight. Then you go over to Dan Heng and make sure he’s all tucked in then wish him a goodnight. As you walk to the door you turn to them and say you’re happy to have met them. They return the sentiment and say they’ll see you in the morning. You bid them one last goodnight and walk out of their room and shut the door.

As you walk out you run into someone and look up to see Welt. He looks down and smiles at you. “It seems like the boys really like you. Thank you for putting them to bed.” 

“I hope they like me. They are really sweet, and I already adore them. Oh, by the way the boys told me what time they wake up as well as when you do. But they don’t know when Boothill does. Do you know what time he wakes up?” 

Welt looks at you a little confused and tells you “I’m not sure what time he wakes up. Why do you ask?” 

You quickly respond, “I swear it isn’t for any weird reason. I just want to make you all breakfast, so you all are fueled for your days. And before you tell me no, I’m not going to back down from this. You’re letting me live here when you already have three other people living here with you and you’re not making me work at all. I want to be able to help, so I’ll taking up the household chores so all you boys can focus on what you all need to do.” 

Welt sighs and relents “Okay, okay. I’ll agree to that. But you’ll have to ask Boothill. I’m not sure where he is right now but I had him bring your luggage in. So, he’s probably putting it in your room or he’s in the bathroom washing up before bed.” 

“YAY! I’ll go find him right now. But again, thank you so much for letting me live here now Uncle Welt. It means a lot.” You give him another bone crushing hug after he says he’d do anything for you. You guys separate and bid each other a goodnight. Welt walks into the next room right by the younger boys. As you watch him shut the door, you realize you forgot to ask which room was yours. But you’re saved by the man you’re looking for walking out of the bathroom. 

Once he’s fully in the hallway you call out to him. He turns around and gives you another small smile. He starts the conversation by saying “I brought your stuff in. Your room is the second to last one on the right.”

“Thank you for your help! I also have a question for you.”

“Go ahead darlin’.”

“What time do you wake up? I swear it’s not for anything weird. I just want to make you guys breakfast, so you all are properly fueled for your days.”

Boothill laughs and proceeds to tell you, “You don’t hafta do that for me darlin’. Just make sure you get some proper sleep, especially since ya just got here.” 

You practically beg him, “Pleaseeee. I’m going to do all the housework and cooking is a part of it. I want to feed everyone, and I certainly don’t want anyone with empty bellies.” 

Boothill looks away and lets out a big sigh. He then looks back at you, “Fine. I wake up at 5. But if you’re ever not willing to wake up that early, please don’t push yourself.”

You jump up and down after finally getting your answer. You get closer to him to grab his hands, “I promise you won’t regret this. I’ll be up tomorrow to make you something!”

“I’m looking forward to it darlin’.” He brings up one of your knuckles to his lips and presses a small kiss on the back. “Goodnight pretty girl, see you in the morning.” He lets go of your hand and turns around to walk to his room. 

You stand there frozen in place with your face bright red. You snap out of your frozen stance and stumble out a goodnight. You then realize that his room is right next to yours. 

You walk into your room and realize your uncle must have given you the next biggest room because attached to this room has a bathroom. You are too tired to unpack everything tonight, so you just grab your toiletries and a pair of pajamas to change into. Once you’re in your pajamas you go into the bathroom to brush your teeth, wash your face and brush your hair. 

When you’re all done with your night routine you walk back into your bedroom and grab your phone and its charger from your purse. You plug your charger into the wall then plug your phone in. You set an alarm for 4:45 and set it on the nightstand. Then you hop into bed with sleep coming easy since of the long travel day you had. But also, because you realized you’ll get some alone time with Boothill tomorrow morning.

You hear the soft ring of your alarm indicating it is time to get up. You pop out of bed rushing to the bathroom to quickly do your morning routine. You decide to leave your pajamas on because you’ll shower after you make everyone breakfast. 

You quickly leave your room and walk downstairs to the kitchen. You see a coffee maker in the far corner by the fridge and decide to start a pot. You decide to look above to coffee maker to see if that is where the coffee bags and mugs are. Luckily you guessed right and pull down the opened pack of coffee and three mugs. You pour a good amount of ground coffee into the top not knowing how much Boothill and Welt drink. 

While the coffee is brewing, you decide to go look in the pantry to see what you can make. You see baking ingredients and chocolate chips and you deiced to make chocolate chip pancakes. You get all the ingredients out and set them on the counter. You then walk to the fridge and see what you can add to breakfast. You decide to make scrambled eggs and add some of the cut-up berries already in there. 

Just as you get everything on the counter you hear steps coming down the stairs. Boothill turns the corner into the kitchen and sees all the ingredients. “Good mornin’ darlin’. How did you sleep?”

You turn to him to answer, “Good morning Boothill. I slept really good, the room is great. How did you sleep?”

“Glad to hear that. I slept good too. But it looks like you’re gonna have a good spread for us.”

“Haha yeah, I’m going to make chocolate chip pancakes with some scrambled eggs along with some berries. Oh, I also made coffee, go ahead and help yourself. I didn’t know how you liked yours, so I left it for you to make because I didn’t want to mess it up.” 

Boothill comes further into the kitchen and passes you to get to the coffee maker. He gives a small thank you as he starts pouring his coffee into one of the three mugs you had gotten out. 

You start looking for a bowl to start making the pancake batter. Boothill can quickly tell what you’re doing and proceeds to grab a bowl for you. He also then tells and shows you where everything is, so you don’t have to always ask. You thank him and then ask “How many pancakes would you like? I’ll make some for you now and make some later for the others.”

He quickly replies as he sits at the counter in one of the barstools, “I’ll just take two and some fruit please.”

“Coming right up!” You go to grab a pan then put it on the stove. You turn on the stovetop and let it heat up and you finish mixing up the batter in the meantime. Once the pan is warmed up you put a little bit of butter on the pan to make sure the pancakes don’t stick. You pour the batter in once the butter is melted. While you wait for the one side to cook, you go to the pantry to grab the syrup. 

You walk back to the stove after placing the syrup on the counter. You flip the pancakes then move to put some fruit on Boothill’s plate. You two wait silently for the pancakes to finish but internally you are freaking out because all you want to do is create a conversation so you can get to know him better. You take a deep breathe then go to pose a question to start the conversation.

“Sooo Boothill, how long have you been working on the ranch?”

Boothill responds, “I think since I was sixteen and I’m twenty-four now so 8 years. Mr. Yang found me behind the school all alone and took me in. Since then, I’ve done nothing but repay him for his kindness.”

You instantly feel bad for making him bring up and talking about a bad memory, and he senses that you’re about to apologize. Before you get the chance to apologize, he goes to cut you off, “Ain’t none of that sweetheart. There’s no need to feel bad or apologize, it’s just the truth. Nothin’ to be ashamed of or that’s my point of view.” 

You give him a nod and smile, “Well I’m glad Uncle Welt helped you and gave you a place you enjoy like being at.” You turn your focus really quick to take the pancakes out of the pan and onto his plate. You drizzle some syrup on his pancakes then go to hand the plate and some silverware to him. “But I am super happy I got the chance to meet you and get to know you better. I hope you enjoy breakfast.” 

Boothill reaches for the plate and silverware giving you a big smile showing off his beautiful smile, “The pleasure is all mine darlin’.” Boothill digs right into his pancakes and as soon as he takes a bite, he lets out a deep groan. “Man, these are incredible. You sure are one hell of a cook darlin’.”

You blush instantly feeling your whole body get hot from his compliment, “Oh no no. It’s nothing, I’m not that good.”  Boothill gives you a glare and before he can respond Welt comes into the kitchen. 

“I thought I heard some noise down here. Good morning you two.” 

“Good morning, Uncle Welt. I made some coffee, help yourself. Do you want me to wait to make you breakfast so you can eat with the boys or are you hungry now? I can make you some pancakes and eggs if you’re hungry.” 

Welt shakes his head, “No go ahead and wait. The boys like eating with more people around. Thank you for the coffee. I’ll go ahead and make the boys’ school lunches. Before you ask, no I can make them don’t worry. Make yourself some food and eat with Boothill.”

You start to make your own pancakes because now that Welt brought up eating, you realize you are quite hungry. You quickly repeat the process of making the pancakes. Once you’re done you realize Boothill barely touched his pancakes since his first bite. It made you think he didn’t end up liking them. He realizes your inner turmoil and quickly tells you “I want to eat with you. Trust me I love these pancakes. Speakin’ of these, Mr. Yang once you eat these tell her how great they are. She don’t believe me.” 

Welt looks over his shoulder as he is finishing packing the boys’ lunches, “She has always been a great cook. I bet they are great, now I’m looking forward to it.”

“HA, I win darlin’. Accept defeat and take the compliments.” Giving you a sly smirk as you sit by him. A nice silence falls between the three of you as you eat. Boothill finishes before you and heads over to the sink to wash his dishes, you stop by calling out to him. “Boothill, just leave it in there. I’ll do all the dishes once everyone has eaten. Plus, I bet you have work to attend to, don’t worry about a little thing like that.” “You’re a real nice one darlin’.” He walks to the backdoor to slip on some brown cowboy boots that are caked in mud. He goes to open the door and gets halfway out to it before he calls to you, “Thank you for breakfast. It was delicious, haven’t had a nice breakfast like that in a long time.” 

Before you could respond he’s fully outside shutting the door. You turn around to your uncle to ask exactly what he means. Welt takes a deep sigh before responding, “I took him in when he was sixteen, he was homeless and in great pain. I won’t tell you why he was like that, it’s his story to tell. But he is always up much earlier than everyone else no matter the day, so he’s never sat down and had breakfast with us. He really only eats dinner with us. That damn boy always skips out on lunch too no matter how much I scold him about it.”

The more you hear about Boothill’s life the more you want to cry and give him a hug and tell him everything is going to be okay from now on. “Uncle Welt, from now on I’ll make sure he eats every meal with someone.” 

Welt let’s out a softer sigh while breaking into a little smile, “Thank you. If anyone can do it, it’ll be you.” 

You feel an immense warmth in your body towards what Welt said but it also fills you with a great determination. You check the time and see it getting closer to when the boys said they wake up. So, you quickly finish eating and get to work on making the boys’ breakfast. 

You start crack some eggs into a bowl and mix them while the next wave of pancakes are cooking. You start to warm up another pan to make scrambled eggs. Once the pan is warmed up you start making the scrambled eggs. You continue to multitask with the two pans until everything is done.

Once you’re done you start making plates for Welt, Dan Heng and Caelus. Just as you’re finishing up you hear the boys come downstairs. They walk into the dining room to see plates full of eggs, chocolate chip pancakes and fruit. 

“OH MY GOSH. DAN HENG LOOK!!! PANCAKES, I LOVE PANCAKES!! THEY ARE MY FAVORITE!!” He runs to his seat and tries to start eating until Welt stops him and tells both boys to wash their hands before they eat. Caelus deflates but ultimately listens to Welt. 

Once they have washed their hands, they return to the dining room to start eating. You ask them what they would like to have to drink, and they both respond with water. You go and get them two glasses of water. You return and give them their water and they thank you as they keep eating. 

You’re about to leave the dining room to go do the dishes until Welt calls out to you. “Boothill was right. These pancakes are very delicious.” Before you can thank him, Caelus speaks up “MR. YANG IS RIGHT. THEY ARE INCREDIBLE!! I LOVE THEM, MY NEW FAVORITE PANCAKES!! RIGHT DAN HENG?” 

You all turn to Dan Heng as he finishes his food, “Yes, they are amazing. I really love them. Thank you for making breakfast.” 

Caelus and Welt also thank you for making breakfast. You give them a smile and say you’ll always make breakfast for them. You grab all their dishes to add to the dishes in the sink you have to wash. 

The boys go upstairs to change for school while Welt comes back into the kitchen to grab their lunches so he can finish packing their backpacks. He walks back out of the kitchen calling for the boys to hurry up so he can drive them to school.

You focus on the dishes and as you’re about to start you see a spider coming down from the ceiling you let out a loud scream and back up. But you ran into something solid, then an arm comes around your waist to stabilize you. 

“Hey, what’s wrong darlin’?” BOOTHILL! Your saving grace. You quickly release yourself from his hold and run behind him. You grab onto the back of his shirt and hide behind him. “Boothill, I don’t know where you came from but PLEASE HELP ME.” 

“Well, I came back in to say bye to the boys but heard you scream so I came back here. But I’ll ask you again, what’s wrong darlin’?”

“I was trying to do the dishes and then out of NOWHERE a big spider came down in front of me. Can you please kill it for me? I am so afraid of spiders.”

“I’ll kill it don’t worry. Just stay right here.” He goes to grab a paper towel and sees the spider now crawling on the counter and goes to smash it. He takes the paper towel and crumples it up to throw it in the trash can. 

He turns around to face you and you jump into him giving him a big hug. You bury your head into his chest and quietly mumble out “Thank you Boothill.” He quickly wraps an arm around your waist and another holding the back of your head to keep you close to him. 

“Of course. I’ll kill any bug for ya.” You pull back a little and smile up at him. You don’t want to let go but you know he has work he has to get back to. So, you sadly let go of him and he relents to letting go of you too. You both don’t move but you look back up and tell him, “I’ll make us some lunch around noon, and I’ll bring it out to you. And no, you cannot refuse.”

“Wasn’t goin’ to sweetheart. I’ll see you at noon.” He then takes his leave back out the backdoor to continue with his workload. You get all giddy thinking about having lunch with Boothill but then you’re snapped back into reality when you see the sink full of dishes. 

After you finished the dishes, you went back up to your room to get ready for the day and unpack. While doing all of that, the morning seemed to blow by super fast. Once it started getting closer to noon you head into the kitchen to figure out what to make for lunch. You look around the pantry and fridge to see that you are quite low on ingredients. You make a mental note to tell Welt so you can go and get more food for the house. 

You decide on just making some sandwiches with cucumbers, carrots, and chips on the side. You quickly make the sandwiches, cut the vegetables, and pack some chips in a container. You remember Boothill showed you that there was a picnic basket in one of the lower cabinets, so you go to grab that to pack all the food in.

You remember that you have extra throw blankets in your room, so you run quickly up to your room to grab a couple so you guys could sit on them. You head back downstairs and start to pack the picnic basket with the blankets and food. You then go to the fridge and grab a few water bottles because you haven’t heard Boothill come back in, so he definitely hasn’t drank anything since his coffee. 

You finish packing the picnic basket and go to throw on your sneakers. You come back into the kitchen and grab the picnic basket. Once you pull it off the counter you end up realizing how heavy the basket really is. You just tell yourself to deal with it because it’s important for you to do this. 

You head to the backdoor and begin your journey of walking around trying to find Boothill because you don’t have his number to text and ask where he is. You decide just to head to the big barn you see in the distance. 

You never realized how much land your uncle had until you had to walk it. It is beautiful but quite stressful to find your way when you’ve never been out here before. As you keep walking to find Boothill, you hear your named getting called. You look around to see Boothill jogging over to you from one of the smaller buildings they had. 

He finally reaches you and gives you a light smile. He looks down and sees you holding the heavy looking picnic basket and immediately takes it from you to carry it for you. The warmth of his hand touching yours make you blush and quickly look away from him. He realized you were blushing he didn’t bring it up which makes you thankful. 

Boothill speaks up, “I know a cute place I can show you. We can eat there.” 

You turn back to face him and give him a smile, “Go ahead and lead the way cowboy.” 

Boothill lets out a little chuckle and holds his elbow out for you. You link your arm with his and set out to the place he wants to show you. He leads you towards the smaller building he was just and takes you around to back of the building to show you a small pond with a wooden little dock. Which has a nice view of other parts of the land you haven’t seen.

“Boothill, this is absolutely breathtaking.” 

“Haha yeah, I know. I always hang out here and so do the boys. We’ll fish, eat, or just goof around here. But it makes me happy you like it too.” He leads you to the dock and sets the picnic basket down a little bit further from the edge of the dock. 

You sit down to start unpacking the picnic basket laying down the blankets and putting the food and waters on top. Boothill sits by you after you finish “Wow darlin’, you’re really spoilin’ me, aren’t ya?” 

You giggle, “I just want to make sure you actually eat and drink something. And getting to spend time with you is a big bonus.” 

“Well thank you in advance darlin’. I’ll admit I did hurry with my tasks this morning to make sure I’d actually be able to sit down with ya and eat.” 

“Boothill, you didn’t have to do that. I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You ain’t distrubin’ anyone pretty girl. It makes me happy you wanna spend time with me.” 

“Of course I want to spend time with you! Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, I am nothin’ but a stranger to ya.”  “You might be but that’s why I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you Boothill.” 

Boothill freezes and just stares at you and takes you all in. No one has been that interested in knowing him since Welt took him in. He looks from you to the sky and just stares. You think you upset him. You go to apologize until he turns to you and in a nice soft voice he says, “Well that’s good because all I wanna do is know you too.” 

You blush a fierce red but give him a big smile. He then proceeds to grab a sandwich and tells you to dig in. You both ate in silence again eating all the food quite fast since you both were quite hungry. You wash down your food with some water then get up and walk to the edge of the dock.

You hear Boothill come up behind you stays right behind you. You can feel his warmth bleed into your back. You turn around to face him, “Next time you bring the boys, can I come with?”

He looks down at you, “You don’t even hafta ask, you were already on the invite list.” 

You go to jump up and down but forget you are near the edge of the dock. You start to fall backwards. Once you realize what’s going on you go to reach out to grab Boothill. You don’t fall too far backwards because Boothill pulled you into him holding you tight. You are breathing heavy and shaking. You start to feel bad, so you bury your head into his chest. 

“I’m sorry Boothill.” 

“Hey,” he releases one arm around you to tip your head up to have you look at him “there’s nothin to be sorry for. I’m glad I caught you. Are you okay?” 

You nod your head, “Yeah, I’m okay. Boothill, do you know that you give the best hugs?”

“I have been told that. The boys and their friends tell me that. Any time they got a scrape or got sad they’d come to me for a hug. They say I’m the best doctor.” 

You giggle “That’s cute. I am glad they have you.” “There’s that pretty smile and laugh. But it’s me that is glad to have them. They are like my little siblings.” “I love that for all of you.” 

You two just sit there holding each other until Boothill’s phone starts ringing. You start to pull away so he can answer but he stops you by keeping one arm around your waist. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees who is calling him. He mouths to you “Mr. Yang.”

“Hey, what’s up?” He listens for a bit and says “Yeah, I can do that no worries. The only thing I have to do now is feed the animals dinner, but I obviously can’t do that for a couple more hours. Will you be back for dinner?” He listens a bit more “Okay got it. See you when you get back.” 

Boothill ends the call and puts the phone back into his pockets. “Mr. Yang is held up with meetings and they are going to run much later than everyone expected so he won’t be home till late tonight so it’s us and the boys. Speakin of the boys I gotta pick them up from school. Wanna come with? We can stop at a little bakery they love for a little treat for after dinner.”

“I would love to! I am really excited to see them and go to that bakery!”

“I’m glad. I hate to break our picnic up, but the boy’s get out of school in 30 minutes, and we live about 20 minutes away.” Giving a small chuckle.

“WHAT?!?!” You break out of Boothill’s grip and quickly clean up the picnic once you’re done Boothill grabs the basket and you two quickly walk back to the house. Once you guys are inside, he places the basket on the counter and go to grab his key from a small woven basket on a table in the dining room. While he does that you go grab your purse.

He leads you to his car and you realize it is like Welt’s pick up but a little higher. You walk to the passenger door and open the door. You try to figure out how to get up, but you feel two hands on your waist. “Jump darlin’. I’ll help ya.” You jump up a little and he lifts you up to be able to get in the car. Once you are in and sitting down, he shuts the door and runs to his side and jumps in. 

He starts up the car and pulls out of the driveway. You think he is trying to kill you because he does the whole arm behind the seat head to look bad. You immediately start blushing again and this time he calls you out. “It seems like I got a knack for makin’ you blush.”

“Shut up… but yeah you do.” He gives out a deep chuckle. Once he’s out of driveway he turns on the radio. You guys sit in a comfortable silence until one of Boothill’s favorite songs play. He starts to sing along and tap on the wheel. You just stare at him and smile. 

Once he’s done singing you start clapping. He turns to you and laughs “No need for an applause sweetheart.” 

“You deserve it! You are really good at singing. Do you do it a lot?” 

“I like to do it in my free time. I’ll play guitar or a harmonica along with it.”

“REALLY?! You’ll have to play for me sometime.”  “I will, I promise.” You smile and you pull up to the school and park in a spot. You see the boys waiting by a group of girls. The boys see Boothill’s car and walk up to it with the girls in tow. Boothill hops out and talks to the group. You see Boothill shake his head and pull out his phone. It looks like he is sending a message. 

He comes back to the car, “Hey we have to take the girls home. These are the girls the boys and I have talked about. They are our next-door neighbors.” 

“Okay sounds good but how are we all going to fit?” 

“The middle cup holder can pull up for a middle seat. We will have Dan Heng sit up here since he is the most responsible. Then the girls and Caelus will sit back there. They are tiny so they can fit in the three seat back there. But don’t worry I’ll make sure Pom Pom and March are buckled up together.” 

You nod your head and let him get the kids in the car. He first does the group in the back and makes sure they all are buckled. Then he comes over to your door and gets Dan Heng in. Dan Heng climbs over you to get into the middle seat. Boothill then hops back into the driver side. He checks his phone really quick and smiles. 

“Hey girls. So, we planned to take the boys to the bakery for a treat. Miss Himeko said it was okay to bring you girls along. Would you like to go?” The girls all screech out a yes making everyone go deaf for a couple seconds. 

Boothill starts to drive away and then the girl with light pink hair asks “Mr. Boothill, who is this girl.” 

Boothill says your name, “She is Mr. Yang’s niece. Remember the girl we all were talking about coming to live with us from now on? Well, this is her.” 

“Ohhhh yeah, I remember.” The girl repeats your name, so you turn to look at her. “It’s nice to meet you. I am March” she points at the girl next to her with black hair “This is Pom Pom” then points to the other girl with pink hair “This is Rappa.”

“It’s nice to meet you girls. I have already heard a lot about you.” The girls give a giggle and then proceed to talk amongst themselves. You turn to Dan Heng and ask how his day was. He looks up to you and says “It was boring. I knew everything already.”

Boothill laughs, “You say that everyday kid. I know you’re the smartest in your class but is there not one thing that was exciting?”

“Lunch was fun with everyone, but the actual school part was uneventful.” 

You laugh remembering that’s how school was for you, and you tell Dan Heng that. You and Dan Heng keep talking until you get to the bakery. Boothill helps the kids in the back first then comes to your side. You help Dan Heng first and then it’s your turn. He grabs a hold of your waist and pulls you out of your seat holding you tightly. Once you’re out of the car he sets you down on the ground. You turn to shut the door then all of you walk in.

Once you get in everyone greets the older lady behind the register. You stay a little bit behind Boothill not knowing how to respond in this situation and the older lady sees you hiding behind him. “Boothill, who is this? A girlfriend?” 

You hide even more into his back, but he lets out another deep laugh that you love. “It’s not like that Granny Mae. This is Mr. Yang’s niece. I’m not sure if it told ya, but she is living with us now.” 

You step out from behind him and give her a little wave. You introduce yourself, “It is nice to meet you. All your baked goods look amazing.”  “Thank you, sugar. I am Granny Mae. My husband and I have owned this bakery since we were 20. I am 67 now. Hahah.” 

“That’s incredible! I can’t wait to try your treats!” 

She gives you a smile and turns to the kids. The kids already have picked their treat a range from cupcakes, cookies, and brownies. You turn to Boothill, “What are you going to get?” 

“Get two of whatever you want. I’ve had everything here, but I want you to figure out what you like and want.” You give him a nod and walk over to the glass to look at the treats more in depth. You look and see slices of a strawberry tart and you know that is what you need. You go to tell Granny Mae what you want. 

She puts all the goods into the register, you go to pull out your card. But you feel and arm around your waist. Boothill leans down to whisper, “Now what do you think you’re doing?”

“I was about to pay.” 

“Not on my watch.” He then hands his card to Granny Mae who is looking at Boothill. She raised her eyebrow at him and he just smiles at her. She ends up deciding to grab all the treats first and put them in a box for you all. She hands you the box and you turn to Boothill. “I’ll go get the kids in the car so you can finish here.” 

You and the kids head out to the car. You get them all loaded up into the car and then have to jump and pull yourself into the car. You are glad you had Dan Heng hold onto the treat box. 

In the bakery Boothill finishes up paying, “You have somethin’ to say don’t ya Granny.” “Smart boy. Now what was that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You say you’re not dating but how she hid behind you, blushed when you talked about paying, and how you held her that is not just friends. I may be an old lady but don’t give me that shit.”

“Heh. A mind reader as always Granny. I mean we just met each other but jeez she is so amazing. She is so caring, funny, nice, and absolutely beautiful. I don’t want to scare her away by being too forward. So, I am going to go slow, I cannot mess this up. I am already nervous about opening up to her and showing her my past.”

“Boothill my boy, what happened to you was not in your control. No one had any idea that what happened would happen. It was a sad tragedy. She won’t be scared, how she seems it’s only going to make her want to be around you more. So go for it kiddo, I believe in you. You deserve to be happy.”

Boothill stands there stunned but clears his throat, “Thank you Granny. I’ll go for it, but I am still going to wait for the both of us.”

“That’s fine. But I better have a seat at the wedding.” 

“If I get to marry her, you’ll be sitting front row closest to me.”

She smiles and clears the register. Boothill catches what she is doing but drops a wad of cash and walks out. “Have a good one Granny.” He gets into the car and starts heading back to the house. Once you get back you see a car in the driveway and a lady sitting on the front porch. March screams “MOM!” Everyone one goes deaf again. 

Boothill pulls up and parks by the new car on the driveway and once again helps everyone out. The lady has also come down from the porch to meet everyone. The girls run up to her and hug her. Boothill and the boys walk up to her, and you follow them. You hear March talking about you and once you’re near the lady looks up from March. 

The lady says your name, “You must be Welt’s niece. I am Himeko, his childhood friend and neighbor. It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Hi Miss Himeko, it is very nice to meet you. My uncle told me a lot about you when we would call and catch up.” “Awe, that’s sweet. Well, I don’t want to keep you guys up plus I have food in the slow cooker at home, so I am going to take these girls home.” “Wait! We got them treats, let me go put them into containers! Girls what did you get?” The girls say a chocolate cupcake, a brownie and a sugar cookie. You quickly run inside and grab containers to put the treats in. Once you have them all packed you walk back outside and had each girl their treat. 

“Thank you for getting them a treat Boothill. Let me repay you.”

“Enough of that Miss Himeko. No need to repay me, after all you’ve done too, you’ll never hafta repay me.”

She gives him a smile and says goodbye to all of you. You and the boys turn around and walk inside. You and the boys take off your shoes, the boys put their backpacks up in their cubbies in the front entrance. Boothill puts his keys in the woven basket and turns to you guys “I gotta feed the animals. I’ll be back before dinner. Boys go get washed up then help her with anything she needs, got it?”

In unison the boys say, “Got it” and head upstairs. You and Boothill walk together but you head to the kitchen, and he heads back outside. You put the treat box in the fridge and then figure out what you want to make for dinner. You’re not sure what everyone likes so you wait for the boys to come back down with their input. 

You hear them come back down and you turn to them and ask, “Hey is there something you boys would like?”

Caelus and Dan Heng look at each other and shake their head, must be a code sign. Caelus speaks up “Can we have pasta?”

“Yeah of course if we have the stuff!” You go look in the pantry and see pasta. You then go to the fridge and see chicken, cheese, garlic and cream and you are instantly hit with an idea. “How does chicken alfredo sound boys?” 

They both nod their head, and you get to work. You season and cook the chicken while the pasta is cooking. Then you start on the alfredo sauce. You timed everything perfectly, so everything ended around the same time. You go to plate four plates and ask the boys to help you bring them to the table. You have the boys sit down while you go get drink for them. They both requested some soda so you get a can and pour it into a cup for them then get yourself a glass of water. 

Just as you were finishing up Boothill comes back in and takes off his boots and hat letting his beautiful long hair show. You turn to ask him what he’d like to drink, and he says a beer. You turn and grab a beer for him and go to grab the other drinks, but he reaches for the beer and water and proceeds to walk to the dining room. Leaving you to grab the sodas and follow him. 

You give the boys their drinks and sit down to begin eating. You and the boys dig in but after a while you see Boothill is just sitting there looking at the pasta. “Hey Boothill, can you not have chicken alfredo? I can make you something else.” “No it’s not that. It’s just the last time I had chicken alfredo, my mom made it. That was before the accident.”

“Oh my gosh Boothill, I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I am so so sorry. I should have asked you too when I asked the boys. You don’t have to eat it.” While you and Boothill were talking you didn’t realize the boys took their drinks and food to go eat in the kitchen to leave you two alone. 

Boothill turns to you, “Darlin’ what did I say about apologizin’? This just makes me happy; I want to savor it.” He lets out a deep sigh and then turns back to facing the plate. So much for telling Granny Mae he was going to go slow. 

“My family died in a house fire. My house basically exploded; my parents and unborn sister were in the house when it happened, and they died instantly. I got pulled out of school that day and went to the police station where they told me what happened. They asked me if I had a place to go and I said yeah but I really didn’t. I didn’t want to burden anyone or feel pitied. So, I stopped going to school and just wandered around. Then the night Mr. Yang found me there was an awful storm. He was out of town when it happened and didn’t hear about it till he got back. That was about a week of me leaving school and walking around. As soon as he got back, he looked for me. The only place that had cover was the school so I sat in the courtyard that had a gazebo to keep me somewhat dry. He got lucky because that’s where he checked first. He put his big coat on my body then walked me to the car under his umbrella. That night I cried about what happened. I sobbed and sobbed into his shoulder, not being able to stop until I basically passed out. He carried me to my room and has spoiled me ever since.”

He turns to you, “I know we’ve only known each other for a day but it’s a hard secret to keep when everyone knows. I just want you to know I’m not upset with the meal; I am blessed. So, thank you pretty girl.”

You start to tear up before you can wipe your tears Boothill is doing it for you. His voice softens “It’s okay. Let’s enjoy this meal together than we’ll eat those strawberry tarts together.” You put your hand on his that is wiping your tears, and you give his palm a small kiss. He gives you a smile then you both separate to eat your dinner. 

After you guys finish, Boothill raves about how great it is and is excited for you to make it again. You guys walk into the kitchen to see the boys hanging out after finishing. You place your dishes into the sink and walk to the fridge to get the treats. Boothill grabs more plates and silverware for all you guys.

You decide to stay in the kitchen to eat the treats, so you give everyone their treats. Dan Heng picked a slice of cookies and cream cake while Caelus picked out a mix of a cookie and brownie. You all eat together talking about how great the sweets are. You see Dan Heng and Caelus only eat half of their treats before you can question it Boothill is talking. 

“Shit. I forgot to get Mr. Yang something, boys if you want all your treats go ahead. I can go back and get him something.”  “It’s okay Mr. Boothill, we aren’t that hungry because we ate like two more plates of pasta after our first one. Hahaha” Dan Heng explained to him.

“I see. But still, you boys are great kids.” He goes to put the treats back in the fridge while you start the dishes. All the boys join to help you, so it goes quicker. Once you all are done everyone is tired and calls it a night. 

Over the next month and a half, a routine follows of you making breakfast for the boys while still having your alone time with Boothill. Then the other part of the morning is filled with doing some housework and still having lunch with Boothill when he doesn’t have tasks to do. Which is every day except for Monday’s, but you aren’t upset because you know he values his work. Then sometimes in the afternoon you go pick up the boys or you’ll do more housework or go shopping. 

You did finally get Boothill’s phone number so finding him for lunch is easier. One day while you’re having lunch with Boothill he asks you if you would like to go to the bar with him and his friends. You obviously said yes because its more time with Boothill outside of the ranch but then you also can make new friends since you haven’t made many since you got here. 

“So how many are going to be there?”

“Hmmm. Not sure, not everyone has responded if they are going or not. But right now, there’s, Argenti, Aventurine, Jing Yuan, Jiaoqiu, Feixiao, Moze, Sunday, Robin, Acheron, Swan, Ratio.” 

“Whoa you have a big friend group. I never had that big of one even when I was in college.”

“There’s more but ya know everyone has their own life.” 

“I am really excited now; I can’t wait for tonight. What time do we have to leave?” “Probably around 7. Don’t worry I’ll let you know at dinner.”

“Okay sounds good. Well, I’ll let you get back to work so you don’t have to cram anything.” Boothill still walks you back holding the picnic basket, so you don’t have to carry it. “See you later darlin’.” He gives your forehead a little kiss before walking away. It has become a routine for you for the past two week.

One time you were walking back into the house you hit your head on the door because you didn’t realize how off centered you were. Boothill heard it and turned around and gave you a kiss to make it feel better now he always just gives you a forehead kiss when he leaves to go back to work.

You finished all the housework so you would have time to get ready and figure out what to wear. Your main goal is to impress Boothill tonight. You lay out a couple dresses, but you ultimately decide on the black cocktail dress that shows off your curves perfectly. Then pick out a nice pair of red heels to finish the look. You then start of your makeup deciding to go light but still give a cute look. You mainly focus on your eye makeup with doing small black wing then throw on your trusty lengthening mascara. 

You just chill in your room until you have to make dinner. Before you go down you spray some perfume on you. You go down to see Welt standing in the kitchen. Welt looks at you and tells you, “You look nice. But Boothill said you guys are leaving earlier so it’s me and the boys you don’t have to worry about making dinner.” 

“Thank you. If I knew we were leaving earlier, then I would have made dinner earlier so you wouldn’t have to worry.” “It’s okay. I haven’t gotten to cook in a while, so I am happy. No offense to you, as you know cooking is calming.”

“Oh, I completely get it. If you ever want to cook let me know and I’ll let you do it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You give him a smile then you hear steps coming down the stairs and Boothill comes into the kitchen. You pause and look at each other. Boothill looks very handsome. He is wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, a white t shirt, a black leather jacket and some cowboy boots that are not covered in mud. You want to tell him how handsome he is, but it is kind of weird doing that in front of your uncle. You relent and it looks like Boothill is in the same predicament. 

“Ah perfect. I was lookin’ for you. Sorry I forgot to tell you about leaving earlier I got busy with the horses and didn’t have a chance to text ya.” “It’s okay, we can leave if you’re ready.” “Let’s be off then.” You follow him and grab your purse on the way to the front door. Boothill leads you out and to his car. Before he helps you into his truck he turns to you, “Finally I can say this. You look absolutely incredible, you’re like a shooting star. So bright, radiant, and I can’t keep my eyes off of you.”  You instantly blush and smile “Thank you Boothill that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. But you look incredibly handsome, I can’t keep my eyes off of you.” 

“Thank you, darlin’. Let’s head out. We are going to be the last ones there… whoops haha.”

Boothill goes to help you up into the car then walks over to the driver side to get in. He pulls out and drives to the bar. The bar is only about 10 minutes away. You guys pull up and park and see that the bar is packed. But that’s what you expected since it is a Friday night. 

Boothill helps you down but doesn’t let you go far as he keeps an arm firmly around your waist. You walk in and see Boothill look around to see his friends. He finds his big group in one of the big corner booths so you two walk over there. 

Everyone cheers when they see Boothill and someone with long red hair says, “Oh look who finally decided to join us after two months.” 

Boothill stiffens a bit, so you turn to him “Boothill what does he mean?” The guy with the red hair answers for him, “Boothill has turned down our weekly meetings for the past two months.” 

You are still facing Boothill when you ask, “Wait have you been saying no because you wanted to stay at home with us?”

“Yes exactly. Guys I know I told you this last time I came, but I guess I hafta repeat myself.” Boothill introduces you, “This is Mr. Yang’s niece. She is the one that moved in with us, so I’ve stayed to hang out with her and everyone else so we can get into a routine and to help her feel more comfortable.” 

The red head instantly pales, “OH MY GOD. HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN!!! Boothill I am so sorry. This beautiful lady deserved your time more than we did. Let’s enjoy the night and make her feel even more comfortable.” 

Boothill sighs and turns to face you, let me introduce you to everyone. He starts with the red head and goes in a circle. So, if you have it right it’s; Argenti, Aventurine, Jing Yuan, Jiaoqiu, Feixiao, Moze, Sunday, Robin, Acheron, Swan, and Ratio. Robin makes room so you both can sit. You sit by Robin and Boothill to your left. 

Argenti feels bad for judging Boothill so he declared that he would buy your guys’ first drinks. You decide to go simple and get a glass of wine since you don’t really like beer. Then Boothill asked for a beer. 

The booth is a bit stiff, so Boothill switched from having his arm wrapped around you to putting his hand on your thigh while rubbing his thumb back and forth. You listen to conversations until Robin turns to you to talk to you. “Hi. Let’s talk, I feel bad not talking to you. So, you’re from the city? Why did you move out here if you don’t mind asking.”

You hear Boothill stiffen because he doesn’t even know the answer. “No, I don’t mind. I just didn’t really have a support system out there. My parents passed when I was still young, so I moved into the city to live with my grandma, but she also died a couple years after, so I was supporting myself since I was eighteen till now until I moved here. It was too much to do on my own so my uncle said I could come out here. I don’t work though; I feel bad though for taking advantage of everyone.” 

Before Robin could reply Boothill grabbed your thigh to have you face him and countered, “You are not takin’ advantage of anyone. We are glad you are here. I am happy you are here. I am sorry you had to go through that, but I am here now so are the others at home. You will never be alone again.” 

You smile and put your hand on his, “Thank you Boothill. The same goes for you.” Argenti comes back with your drinks then conversations flow between everyone. Boothill finishes his beer and wants another one. He gets up to go get another one, but he sees you haven’t finished yours, so he tells you that he is going to get another drink. 

You turn to Robin to chat with her more, “Oh shoot, I forgot to ask Boothill about the Fall Festival. I’ll have to ask him when he gets back.” 

“Robin, what is the Fall Festival?”

“Oh, it’s an annual big festival the town hosts! It is actually in two weeks. We always go as a group and Boothill always performs. He has done it since the incident because music became his therapy. Sunday and I went to high school with him, and he knew I sang, and Sunday played many instruments. So Boothill asked Sunday to teach him how to play guitar and asked me to teach him how to sing. We taught him and he has performed a song ever since.”

“That sounds so fun! But I didn’t know that there was a festival coming up no one at home has talked about it.” “Maybe he’s keeping it a secret to impress you. He seems into you.” “I sure hope so because I really like him.” 

A voice cuts you both off, “Well if he was maybe he wouldn’t be talking to all those girls at the bar.” You see the guy with purple hair say that and you think that’s Ratio. You and Robin turn your heads to see a bunch of girls all over Boothill touching him and getting all in his personal space. You must have physically shown your heart break because Robin tries to cheer you up. 

“Don’t worry about it that happens all the time, but he always rejects them. Right Ratio?” As she gives the man a dirty glare. 

“I guess so but if he was so into her, he would have pushed them all away.”  Robin looks like she is about to kill him, but you respond, “I guess you’re right Ratio.” You look at both of them almost in tears. Did Boothill not mean what he said earlier? Were you reading too much into everything. All you want to do is go home and curl up in your bed and cry. You reach out and down the rest of the wine you had. 

Robin can tell you’re about to cry so she calls your name and asks, “Do you like to dance?” 

“Oh yeah, I do.” “Perfect!” She stands up and tells you to stand up. Once you do you get out of the booth with her following then she grabs your hand and drags you to the dance floor. You two face each other and just let out all the energy you guys have while singing along with the songs. 

Boothill gets back to the booth and gets a little worried that you’re not there, but he sees Robin is gone so maybe you two went to the bathroom. He is annoyed though because those girls at the bar wouldn’t leave him alone no matter what he did. Your presence really calms him, so he settles with just waiting till you came back. 

“So Romeo, how was the bar?” Boothill turns to Ratio to see him deadpanned.  “Shut up, I don’t want to talk about it. Plus, I don’t want any of them.”  “That’s not what your little girlfriend thinks.”

“What?”

“Ugh Ratio can you not stir up trouble. Boothill, she saw everything and looked like she was about to cry. She got really sad and thinks you’re not into her. But it’s thanks to this guy because he twisted her thoughts.” Aventurine said. 

“Ratio, what the fuck did you do to her?”

“I just told her ‘If he was so interested in you, he wouldn’t be entertaining those girls at the bar.’”

Boothill saw red, “You’re fucking dead.” Sunday saw all of this unfold but he goes to hold Boothill back while Aventurine scolds Ratio. 

“Boothill stop. There’s something wrong.”

Boothill snaps his head back to look at Sunday, “What do you mean?”

“Her and Robin went to the dance floor because Robin wanted to cheer her up. I have been watching them to make sure they were okay, especially Robin. But this guy keeps bugging her and won’t leave her alone. So go make up for this misunderstanding and help her.” Sunday lets go of Boothill once he realizes Boothill is more focused on finding you now. 

Boothill looks around and sees the big guy trying to get close to you and he sees red again. He walks swiftly over there to help you. 

You and Robin are having a great time dancing and singing. It is really helping you calm down from this whole Boothill situation. You’ll definitely have to get Robin’s number after of this so you can thank her and ask if she would like to be friends. 

As it gets later the music get dirtier and more people come to the dance floor. You and Robin get a little closer to one another, so you don’t separate because she looks a little worried about losing you in the crowd. But you feel the same since you don’t know anyone here and haven’t seen Boothill since that whole bar situation. 

You and Robin keep dancing then this guy comes up behind you and grab your waist. You know it’s not the hands you love so deeply so you instantly wiggle out of the grasp of the guy. You turn around and tell him you’re not interested. But he leans close to you and all you can smell is the beer oozing off of him, and it makes you want to gag. 

“Come on darlin’, dance with me. You wouldn’t have worn that dress if you didn’t want some attention.” 

“I didn’t dress for attention, and I am not dancing with you. Please leave me alone.” You try to turn around, but the man grabs your shoulder. 

“You whore don’t turn away from me. You’re dancing with me right now.” 

All you want to do is cry again. You feel so powerless. Then you feel a warm and familiar arm wrap around your waist. 

“Call her a whore again and you’re dead. Now let go of my girl before I beat the living shit out of you.” His voice was so much deeper than you have ever heard. 

The man instantly lets go and stumbles out of the bar. You turn around quickly and bury yourself into Boothill and he holds you tightly to him. You guys just stay there for a little bit until Boothill starts to sway you two to help your shaking. You start to calm down and hear the music again. You hear the songs are still as dirty as they were before. You then have an idea.

“Boothill, do you like to dance.”

“Not really, but if it’s with you, I’ll do it.” You turn around in his arms and he instantly moves his hands to your waist and pulls you closer to him. Your butt is pressed against him and you two start moving in tune with the song. 

Boothill leans down to whisper in your ear, “Darlin’ just so you know, you’re the only girl I have my eye on. I tried pushing those girls away earlier using my words because I am never going to lay my hands on a woman. I know what it looked like wasn’t the best but luckily, I was saved by the bartender kicking them out. Like I said earlier, you are captivating. I cannot keep my eyes off of you. You are breathtaking.”

You turn around again to wrap your arms around his neck and press your forehead against his. “I’m sorry I overreacted; it’s just Ratio did not help the situation. But I am glad I am the only one in your eyes, because you are the only one in mine.” You guys smile at each other and sway more until you realize something, Robin! You loosen your grip on Boothill and start looking around and Boothill gets worried. 

“Boothill where is Robin?! She was with me, and I didn’t want to separate from her because I didn’t want her to deal with a creep too!!” You keep frantically looking around. But Boothill grabs your chin lightly, “She’s back at the table. Sunday was with me, and he grabbed Robin while I came to help you. She’s fine and safe. Why don’t we head back to the table?”  You quickly agree and Boothill goes to wrap his arm around your wrist to keep you by him. You guys arrive back at the table, and you see Robin and call out to her, she turns her head while you give her a hug. You apologize to her about the whole thing, but she quickly assures you there is nothing to apologize for. You and Boothill sit back down with his hand going to your thigh again. 

You all start chatting again, you and Robin also exchanged numbers. Robin turns to Boothill and asks, “Are you performing at the Fall Festival?”

“Oh yeah I am.”  You turn to him, “Really?! What song?! Can I hear it before you perform it?!”

“Sorry darlin’ but no. It’s your first Fall Festival, I can’t spoil one of the biggest parts.”  “That makes sense. I am really looking forward to it.” 

“Me too.” The conversation keeps flowing but you find yourself getting more tired, so you start leaning on Boothill. He turns his head once he feels the weight of your body on his, “Tired pretty girl?” You nod your head. “Okay we’ll head out then.” You get off of him so he can stand up. Once he’s up he reaches for your hand and helps you up. 

He turns to everyone announcing your departure, so everyone bids you two a farewell. Boothill leads you through the bar and once you are outside you instantly get cold. As if Boothill sensed it he took off his jacket and put it on you. You slide your arms through the sleeves and snuggle into the collar because it smells like his cologne. 

You also didn’t realize how far you two parked until he points to the car in the distance, “Ugh that’s so far and my feet hurt.” Boothill didn’t respond but he walked in front of you and bent down so he can give you piggyback ride. Once you get onto his back he sets off. You set your head on his shoulder and close your eyes. 

You almost fell asleep on the walk to the car but once he opens the door you are awake again “Sorry I didn’t mean to wake ya.”  You shake your head in response. He helps you up into the car and runs over to his side. He pulls up the middle like he did when Dan Heng sat up here and pulled you closer to him. “Go ahead and sleep again.” You go ahead and lean on him while he drives.

You don’t even know you arrived back at the house until you hear Boothill lock the front door. You call out, “Boothill?” 

“Shhh. We are home, I’ll carry you up to your room.” You snuggle more into him enjoying his warmth. He walks up the stairs to your room making sure not to bump you against anything. He opens your door after asking if he can, still being the gentleman he always is. You tell him yes and he sets you down on your bed. He goes into your bathroom and grabs some makeup remover and a small towel to take your makeup off. Then goes and grabs you some pajamas from the drawer you told them they were in. He sets them gently on your bed and walks over to where you are sitting. 

“Thank you for a fun night darlin’. Seeing you dressed like that and getting to dance with you was amazing.” “You’re welcome Boothill. I also had a great night. You were so handsome and dancing with you made me really happy. The happiest I have been in a while.” 

“Now that makes me happy. Goodnight baby.” He presses a kiss to your forehead then separates from you and walks to your door. You quickly stand up and call out to him. He turns around and you walk to him. You stand on your tippy toes and press a kiss to his cheek. “Goodnight Boothill.” You both separate and smile at one another. 

He gives you a little nod then leaves your room while you go and change into your pajamas. You then go to wash your face and brush your teeth really quick. Once you’re finished you hop into bed and see Boothill’s leather jacket at the end of your bed. You forgot to give it back to him, so you’ll just have to do it in the morning. 

You reach down for the jacket and pull it under the blanket with you so you can cuddle with it since you can’t cuddle with its owner right now. You get all giddy thinking about Boothill. You then think that you are in love with Boothill. 

No, you don’t think you’re in love with Boothill, you know you are in love with Boothill. 

Since you were so tired last night you did not set an alarm for the morning, you realize this once you wake up and see that your bed side clock is showing it is 9:30 am. You jump out of bed and rush out of your room to run into something again. 

“Whoa darlin’, what’s with the rush?”

You really have to stop ramming into Boothill, you definitely have given him many bruises because of this habit. “Boothill! I am so sorry. I ran into you again and I forgot to set an alarm, so I didn’t get to make breakfast for everyone.” 

“No worries baby. Welt and I took the boys to the bakery to pick out doughnuts to surprise you with. Plus, the boys found out your favorite fruit are strawberries, so they are down there cutting them up for you. You deserve a break every once in a while.” He goes to cradle your face in his hands, “You do so much for us, now let us do something for you.” He lightly pulls your head toward him to give you a little peck on your forehead.

You pull apart from him and give him a big smile. “There’s your pretty smile. Let’s head on downstairs.” He goes to grab your hand, but you release it. He turns to ask what is wrong, but you tell him to stay right there and run back into your room. You go to grab his leather jacket and come back out to hand it to him.

“Nah, keep it. I have bunch of them, plus you look better in it than I do.”

“Are you sure? It’s nice, I feel bad keeping it.”

“Ain’t no problem with keeping it darlin’. I want you to have it.” Giving you a small smile and giving you a pat on the head. You go back to put his jacket in your room then come back out searching for his hand. 

You two walk downstairs and see Caelus and Dan Heng jumping out yelling “Surprise!” You giggle and let go of Boothill’s hand to give both boys a big hug and thank them. You sit down and see Welt come into the dining room with cups of coffee for the adults and chocolate milk for the boys. 

You all eat and talk occasionally, until Dan Heng brings up the Fall Festival. “Mr. Boothill since you are performing at the Fall Festival, you’re going to be a lot busier, aren’t you?”

Boothill lets out a sigh, “Yeah, you’re right there kiddo. Most of my free time will be practicing or spending time with Robin and Sunday for their help with my performance.” 

“I see, I can’t wait to see your performance again. Can you make sure we are in the front row again? We can’t see you if we aren’t. Also tell Miss Robin and Mr. Sunday I say hi.”  “Trust me, all you guys are in the front row. I’ll let you get access to it before everyone else can enter the performance area. And I’ll tell them you say hello.” 

You smile at the interaction, but it all clicks in your head now. You won’t be seeing much of the guy you’ve grown to love for the next two weeks. Your guys’ relationship has changed since last night but now you guys won’t have time to really talk about it. You get upset at the thought, so you remain quiet the rest of breakfast. 

Boothill instantly sees the change in your mood and all he wants to do is hug you. He wants to walk over and tell you everything is completely fine between the two of you. He knows there’s a shift between you two and all he wants to do is capitalize upon it. Damn it all, he wants is just to kiss you senseless and hold you so close, so you don’t have to doubt anything. 

Boothill knows he’s in love with you. Which is why he needs to make sure this performance is perfect. 

The next couple weeks passed by so slow to you. You barely saw Boothill, and it breaks your heart. Your pillow has seen a lot of tears about this and just as it feels like the universe was out to get you, his jacket doesn’t even smell like him anymore. 

You have texted Robin a bit because she was telling you some drama. Apparently, a big rumor is going around about Boothill finally settling down and having a girlfriend. She explains this started the night after the bar when you guys were dancing. Then people apparently also saw him carrying you to his car in his jacket.

Great, in a new town you’re already in the drama circle. Just, great. 

At least the festival is tonight so his free time will get spent with you again. You are excited to see him perform though. You don’t know what he is performing because any time you get close to him while he practices, he stops playing. But you heard from him that Robin and Sunday are going to be on the stage with him while he performs.

You decide to stop moping around and get ready tonight so then you can also help the boys get ready. You decide to go with a brown jean dress with a black turtleneck under it. You throw on some tights to help keep your legs warm since it is getting colder out. You then put on a light brown scarf to top off your look.

You decide on doing the same makeup you did for the bar, and you quickly put it on. You decide to curl your hair as well. That ends up taking more time than you like so you put on some perfume then go to find the boys. 

They are sitting on the couch playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch. “Hey boys, let’s get you guys ready so we can leave once Boothill is done working.” 

They finish their race then turn off the consol then the T.V. You all walk upstairs into their room. “Okay you guys can pick what you want to wear, but if I think you need more layers, I’ll have you pick out more to wear.” They nod and go to pick out their outfits. 

They both picked flannels and blue jeans. You have them wear an undershirt to make sure they stay warm. You leave their room and walk back downstairs to put on your boots that match the color of your scarf. 

You walk into the kitchen to see Boothill drinking some water. He sees you come into the room and looks you up and down giving a soft smile. “You look as beautiful as ever baby.”

“Thank you Boothill. You look handsome as always.” 

“Darlin’, I am just wearing what I normally wear. Just my nicer flannel options.”

“No matter what you are wearing you always look so good.”

You give each other a smile. You walk over to him and give him a hug, “I missed you Boothill.”

He returns the hug and kisses your forehead, “Trust me baby, I missed you more than anything.” 

You hear footsteps coming into the kitchen, so you guys separate but don’t go too far from one another. You see the boys walk into the kitchen with the added accessories of cowboy hats and boots. Like this they look similar to Boothill. 

You giggle look at them, they both look so proud and confident in their outfits. “Now what is this?” Boothill looks at both boys, “It looks, like you guys are my copies. You both look so good.” While pushing both of their hats down. They both complain at the action but laugh at Boothill. “Well let’s head out gang. Mr. Yang went to pick up the girls so Miss Himeko wouldn’t have to worry about driving, so you lot are with me.” 

The boys walk out first, and you follow behind. You go to grab your purse until you feel a hand on yours, “Now darlin’, no need for that. It’s on me tonight.” 

“But- “

“Ah, no buts. Now let’s go.” He grabs his keys and leads you out the door. You all get to Boothill’s car, and he helps everyone gets in. Boothill hops in and states, “I am lowering this damn truck.” He huffs and shakes his head. You and the boys just giggle at his inner turmoil. 

You guys set off and head to the festival. It’s a short drive, and parking is easy because Boothill is performing. You all get out of the car and head into the festival. You see so many things; festival games, many food stalls, and people selling little trinkets. 

Boothill speaks up “Where do you guys wanna start? You guys hungry?”

You all realize that you guys are hungry and decide to start with the food. Boothill sees there is a soup stand and decides to have you all eat there. Boothill tells you guys to go find a table while he orders. You guys find a table to sit at close to the entrance of the stall. 

After about 10 minutes of you and the boys talking about all the games they want to play, Boothill comes back with four bowls of soup and water. He got you all homemade chicken noodle soup. You all dig in and realize that the soup is helping you warm up a little bit. 

It doesn’t take you all long to finish eating. Once everyone is done Boothill cleans up and leads you guys to the games. Boothill pays for an unlimited game pass for the boys. You and Boothill watch while you also take photos of them. Then end up winning most of the games they play and now have arms full to prizes. 

Once they get to the ring toss, they turn to Boothill and say its his turn. They go on to explain to you that Boothill never loses at this game. You see Boothill walk right on up to the stand and gets 3 rings. He gets in a little stance then throws each ring back-to-back each getting each one on the bottles. You and the boys cheer for him. The worker of the stand asks him to pick him prize. He turns to you and beckon you to come over. “Pick whatever one you want darlin’.”

You look at the prizes and see a teddy bear that is white with black accents, and it instantly reminds you of the man standing right by you. You tell the worker which one you want, and he goes to grab it for you. Boothill speaks up “Hey that one looks a lot like me.” “Yeah. That’s why I picked it silly.” He snaps his neck to look at you. He is speechless but ends up letting out a deep bark of laughter. The worker returns and hands you the teddy bear while wishing you guys to have a good rest of your night. 

The boys had their fill of games and are now getting hungry again. They ask you and Boothill if you guys can get funnel cake. You and Boothill agree and go to find the funnel cake stand. Once you guys find it, Boothill goes to order a big funnel cake. You and the boys wait at a standing table for him. 

After a couple minutes Boothill comes back with a big funnel cake and napkins. You watch the boys excitedly rip into the funnel cake while you and Boothill calmly eat it. Once the funnel cake is finished Boothill cleans up once again. 

You guys walk out of the eating area you were in and end up running into Welt and the girls who are also with Robin and Sunday. Caelus calls out to them, and they all turn their head. Robin and Sunday rush to Boothill, “There you are! We have been looking for you everywhere, we have to get ready.”  “Oh shit. I am sorry. I’ll catch up with you guys.” He turns to you, “Hey can I talk to you really quick.” You give him a nod and he grab your hand and drags you to behind the stalls.

You realize he is shaking, “Hey Boothill.” You grab his other hand, “What’s wrong? Are you nervous?” 

“Eh yeah, you can say that. I just can’t fuck this up.” “Fuck what up?” “Everything. Listen, this song it’s for you. I am nervous as hell for this. So please just focus during the song, okay?”

“Boothill, please take a deep breath. You aren’t going to fuck anything up I promise. I also promise I’ll focus during the song.” You go on your tippy toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Once you’re back on your feet he pulls you into a big and tight hug. 

“Thank you, darlin’.” His gives you a kiss on your forehead then separates from you. “I got to go now; I’ll see you after the performance.” He walks away and you go back to find the boys and girls. 

You guys walk around a little more until you feel your phone go off. 

Boothill: Hey, bring everyone to the performance area. I can bring you guys in now. I’ll wait out front for y’all.

You tell Welt and Himeko; they make sure they have all the kids. Then set off to the stage. As you walk you start to get a little nervous. You never saw Boothill so nervous before and now this song is supposed to be for you? It’s too much to think about so you distract yourself with trying to listen to the conversations going on within the group. 

The group gets to the area Boothill told you to bring them too, and he brings you guys in. He doesn’t stay long though. The kids give him high fives while the adults wish him luck. He turns to you and gives you a smile then goes backstage again. 

It is about another twenty minutes until everyone starts coming in to fill up the rest of the area. It gets crowded really fast. This is not helping your nerves, but you steel yourself because this is important to Boothill. 

After another ten minutes pass then Boothill, Robin and Sunday come out on stage. They all take their places having Boothill being front and center. He grabs a hold of the mic and taps it before speaking. 

“Hello everyone. Thank you for coming out once again. The song I am about to sing is for someone special, so I hope you enjoy.” You then see everyone in your group turn to you smiling. Then it clicks, “YOU GUYS KNEW!?” Everyone nods and smiles, great now you know you’re really in for something. 

Boothill takes a deep breath then begins. 

Girl, you know I’ve known you forever

How many nights we hung out together

Same little crowd, little bar, little town

‘Round this old dance floor

My boys are laughing and tap me on the shoulder 

Makin a motion like, “Could y’all get any closer?”

They wanna know what’s up why I’m still holding ya

Even when the song is over 

Is he talking about the night at the bar? When you guys danced together? Oh god you don’t know if you can take this. 

There’s a rumor going ‘round about me and you 

Stirring up our little town the last week or two

So tell me, why we even trying to deny this feeling

I feel it, don’t you feel it too?

No way he is talking about the rumor Robin brought up. Well now you really don’t have any doubts this song isn’t about you. But yes Boothill, you feel it too. You want him so bad it hurts. 

Well, I can shut ‘em down, tell ‘em all their crazy

No Boothill, please don’t. You want the rumor to be true. 

I can do whatever you want me to do, baby 

Boothill, I want you to be mine. You look at him and as if he sensed your answer, he looked down at you and gave you a little wink.

Lay one right on me right now 

We can really give them something to talk about 

Boothill, I have wanted to kiss you since the pond. Please. 

He sings another verse, and you are so captivated by him. This is nothing like the nervous Boothill you saw before. He looks like he is having fun. He looks so happy. So ethereal. He is nothing like any other guy. He is the standard, because what guy sings a song like this to the girl he is interested in?

He looks right down at you to sing the next verse.

Oh, be honest girl now

Do you wanna do this or not?

You eagerly shake your head and mouth “yes” to him. He gets all happy but continues to sing. 

Should we keep ‘em talking girl 

Or should we just make them stop?

You shake your head no because you want everyone to know you are his. 

Boothill starts singing the next verse but he’s jumping off the stage? The stage is a good distance from the crowd, so he does have a good distance to walk. 

There’s a rumor going ‘round, about me and you

Stirring up our little town the last week or two

Oh, tell me why we even trying to deny this feeling 

I feel if and you feel it too

He is now right in front of you smiling down at you 

What d’you say we make it true, yeah? 

You hear the crowd roaring but you two are only focused on each other.  The crowd can’t even hear your answer back to him because of how loud they are cheering. 

“Boothill, I want nothing more than you. I want you and I will always choose you.”

“Darlin’, I want nothing more than you. I want you and I will always choose you.”

Come on over here

Let’s really give ‘em something to talk about, baby 

Boothill drops the mic and grabs your face with both of his hands and pulls you into a deep mind-numbing kiss. Your hands go to rest on his chest. The kiss feels like it lasts forever. The cheers only got louder once he kissed you. 

You two separate and he smiles down at you, “I love you baby.” 

“I love you too Boothill.” He pulls you into a tight hug and the only thought you have is that you are finally Boothill’s girl.  

tags:

@jassy-ine

[bloodyarn]

@fortune-feather sent

"Don't worry, I'll buy you some fries once Shadowheart isn't looking."

   𝙻𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂 .   unprompted interactions ────────────────────────

     ❝ Oh, only dwarf-size for me. I had a whole McHelm already. They bumped up the prices, did you know   ?   Baldur's Gate really changed since Lord Gortash reserved his spot on the tops. ❞

[endlessthxxghts]

Biology

“Uncle”!Joel Miller x afab!reader | w/c: 5.4k

Summary: Joel hurt his back at work, so you've been helping him around the house until he heals.

Content/Warnings: able-bodied, female sex anatomy, and inherently fem!reader. No description of reader, everything is neutral (ex. “your bottoms,” “the curve of you” — nothing is specific in the way “you” are described). Age gap (reader early 20s, Joel in 50s). EXPLICIT MATERIAL PRESENT. HEED THE WARNINGS. WEIRD boundaries are crossed…you're not blood-related to Joel, but you were raised like you were. You call him “uncle.” Pet names (baby, darlin’, sweetheart, etc.). Pussy pronouns (she). Innocent touches until it isn't. Sexual tension galore. Slight dub-con. Icky Joel. Icky reader. Pussy grinding. Dirty talk. Slight degradation (“bitch” is used only once). Multiple orgasms. P in V unprotected. Reader is on top. Lots of teasing about the nature of yours and Joel’s relationship. If there’s anything that should be up here but I missed or I made any improper tags, please let me know!

A/N: Hi, my loves! This is slightly different than what you’re used to coming from me… All I can say is, you’ve read the warnings! Don’t bite if it is not your flavor! But for those who do like, I really hope you enjoy! And to my love @strang3lov3, thank you for prompting this and encouraging this side of my brain to finally stop hiding in the shadows. And thank you for your eyes on this and the mood board as well. I love you.🩶

masterlist | notifs blog

“Hey, hon, when you headin’ over to uncle Joel’s?”

You glance at the timer on the oven. “In about ten minutes after these cookies cool. Need something from me?”

“Can ya grab my toolbox before ya leave? Forgot it there the other day,” he replies. “Figured you could get it since you’re already goin’ there today.”

“Sure thing. It’s not the heavy one, is it? Because I don’t know if that old man’s back is ready for a heavy lift like that yet.” The timer on the oven beeps. You slide on your oven mitts to pull the tray out. “Made two batches by the way. How many you want? I’m taking some to Uncle’s, too.” 

About a week ago, Joel had a contracting accident. Some newbie wasn’t watching the older man’s back as Joel climbed up a wobbly ladder, and the next moment, Joel’s footing slipped. He landed right on his lower back, a piece of wood perched on the ground, sitting at just the right spot on the floor to render him immobile. Tommy, Joel’s younger brother, and your father, his best friend since before you were born, are the only two Joel trusts to get the job done perfectly, so Joel put them two in charge until he heals. 

Bed rest, the doctor had ordered Joel, for at least three weeks. It’s been one so far, but with you offering to be his nurse — one that forces him to stay in bed unless he needs to eat or use the restroom — he thinks he just might be back to work by next week. If you’ll let him, that is. 

“No, it’s the small one, hon, you got it,” your father reassures you. He lovingly slaps his growing belly as the trays hit the kitchen counter. “Y’know, darlin’, ever since you moved back, I’ve been gainin’ some weight. Can’t imagine what you’re doin’ t’ Joel over there.”

Your lip pulls up in a smirk. “Joel is in good hands, y’know. And technically, I don’t have to leave you any,” you say with a challenging brow, pulling the cookie trays out of his reach. 

“No, no, I’m not sayin’ that,” your father’s eyebrows raise in worry. His daily cookie is very important to him. “You can leave me like… five… or six.” 

“I’m just gonna leave you a whole batch. The six are gonna be gone before I even leave the house,” you tell your father as his hand subconsciously reaches for the cookie tray. 

He scoffs, “Ya have no faith in me.”

“So what’s in your hand already?”

“Whatever,” he mumbles, walking away with a mouthful of warm cookie dough and melted milk chocolate chips. 

“Uh huh,” you yell back. “Gonna be leaving in just a sec. I’ll see you later.”

It takes less than ten minutes to get to your uncle’s house. You unlock the door using the spare key he gave you as a teenager, and immediately, nurse mode is activated. 

“Uncle Joel!” You yell, exasperated. He turns around from his place in the kitchen, painfully slow. He’s going to make his back worse. “What do you think you’re doing?” You place the fresh cookies on his dining table along with your keys. You cross your arms angrily for good measure. 

“My coffee’s cold. I was warmin’ it up,” he huffs, annoyed.

“Bed, please.” Your hands find his waist, and you guide him back to his room. “You know I’m here around this time. You didn’t wanna call me first to see where I was?”

You ease him in a sitting position at the edge of his bed. He grunts as his ass meets the mattress. He grumbles his response. “Need to start gettin’ back to everythin’ independently, y’know that, don’tcha?”

“Is your memory going with your back, too, unc?” 

“‘Scuse me?” He looks at you incredulously. 

“Three weeks were the doctor’s orders. Not one,” you tell him, putting your foot down. 

He lays himself down with another wince at the motion, no acknowledgement to your words. God, he’s so stubborn. 

“I’ll go make you a fresh cup,” you tell him, feeling sympathetic for the man. His work is his life, and it’s not going to get any easier with age. 

Making your way back to his kitchen, you wash out the coffee pitcher, replace the grounds and the filter, and do some light cleaning as you wait for the bitter, brown liquid to brew. 

It’s only been five minutes since you returned to the kitchen, and the painful moans and groans from his bedroom have only gotten louder. You search around the place and find the heat pack you bought a few days ago and pop it in the microwave. You grab some pain meds, fill up a glass of water, and just in time, the microwave sings to you, telling you your contents are ready. 

Ignoring the coffee for a moment, you make your way back to Joel’s bedroom. His eyes are closed, but his entire body is tensed up in pain. Poor guy. You knock at his door to catch his attention before entering. “Unc?”

One eye peels open. “Yes, nurse?”

“Funny.” A sarcastic laugh leaves your throat. “Come take these.”

He makes no move to get up. 

You set the painkillers and the water on his bedside table, the heat pack wedged underneath your armpit. You start to reach for Joel to help him up, but he stops you. “I got it,” he grunts. You let him have this win. 

You hand him the glass of water first, then the pills. He swallows the painkillers in one big gulp, swallowing down the rest of the water in another. He eyes the heat pack in your arm. 

“Do you want-”

“Yes,” he says immediately, reaching for the soft warmth. 

“Lay down first, I’ll put it underneath you.”

Without another word, he positions himself. His body jerks when your soft hand slips underneath his back, pushing him to lift a little while you slide the heat underneath. “This okay?”

“Mhm,” he forces out, eyes clamped shut. It’s not okay, you think. 

“How would you feel on your stomach?” you suggest. 

“Dunno. Never tried.”

“Well, then.” You set the heat pack down, and it’s your turn to crawl, uninvited, into his bed. You walk on your knees towards the opposite, unoccupied side, adjusting the pillows in a way you think might be the most comfortable. This isn’t your first rodeo dealing with an old man’s back; you’ve got your dad. This is, however, your first rodeo dealing with an old man more stubborn than a screaming goat not getting his way. “Come on.”

“No.” 

“What do you mean no?” 

“That ain’t gonna be comfortable.”

“How do you know?”

“I jus’ do.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose and take a deep breath. “I swear to God. I will flip your ass over myself if I have to.”

“You’re bossy,” he spits.

“So you’ve said.” 

Not giving him a chance to prepare, you hook your one hand at his side and your other on his hip, and you pull him towards you. It doesn’t fully flip him over, but it does the trick in getting him to finish the rest of the action himself — albeit, with a very strained yelp from the back of his throat. 

He groans for a few minutes more as you adjust some flat pillows underneath his belly and then prop the lukewarm heating back right at the base of his spine. You’ll probably have to heat it up in ten minutes again, but it’ll do for now. You stay in your spot for a minute, and already his pained noises begin to subside. 

“Better?” You know it is. You just want him to admit it. 

And when a single huff with zero protests from the grumpy man reverberates around the room, you know you’ve won this round. 

“I’ll go get your coffee now,” you hum. 

A soft rasp of your name has you spinning back around as you reach the room’s threshold. 

“Hm?”

“Thanks,” he tells you. 

“It’s what I’m here for, unc.”

You put his fresh cup of coffee in a thermos this time. You can’t imagine how often he’ll get up being in this position, but at least the freshness will be there with every sip he does end up taking. 

“How’s it going?” You ask him as you set his coffee nearby. You feel the heat pack on his spine, and it’s as you called it to be by now: room temperature. “Want me to reheat it?” 

“‘M okay,” he replies, voice groggy. He must’ve fallen asleep. 

“Okay.” You stand there for a moment. You can tell the heat helped, but his body isn’t entirely relaxed. He’s still tense, as if a nerve or something is being pinched. 

You recall your memory from a while ago before you moved back with your dad. Your brother, who is a mixed martial arts athlete, had a sparring session that hurt his back, nearly in the same area as Joel. He had you running his massage gun over his muscles nearly every night for a month straight. “It needs to uncoil somehow,” he told you. An idea crosses your mind then. 

You saunter to Joel’s en suite bathroom in search of some type of lubricant. Sitting loud and proud on the center of the bathroom counter is a little bottle of Equate’s Personal Liquid Lubricant. Your brain falters for a second, the bottle of lube throwing you off your original plan. That is absolutely not the kind of lubricant you were looking for. Shaking away the image from your mind, you bend down to look in the cabinets underneath. Bingo, a bottle of Aveeno body lotion. This should do. 

You invite yourself onto his bed for the second time today. “Let me give you a massage.”

“What?” His head turns to you now, utterly confused. He definitely heard you wrong, he thinks. 

“Let me give you a massage,” you repeat. “It’ll help.”

A massage actually does sound nice right now. But you’ve been nothing but bossy this last week while Joel lays here helplessly. He’s bored. And he’s had enough. “It ain’t gonna help.”

“How do you know?”

“I jus’ do.”

Jesus. Haven’t you had this conversation before? You mentally slap your forehead. Again, leaving him no other options, you reach for his flannel atop his shoulders and begin to pull them down. 

“Hey, hey, wait, now what in the hell-” He tries to stifle back a laugh as he wriggles in your hold, trying to playfully push you off without hurting himself more in the process. 

You quickly release his clothes, hands up in surrender where he can see them. You’re just realizing now just how forward your action must’ve been. “How am I gonna massage you-” 

The embarrassment written all over your face has Joel tearing up as he tries to hold his wheezing laugh in. With his eyebrow quirked at you, he responds, “If you wanted me naked, kiddo-”

“Jesus, ew! Really?” An unbearable heat spreads across your cheeks. Your eyes are downcast, looking everywhere else but him. “It- it’ll be better if I can directly touch-”

Only then do you feel the bed shaking with his laughter. He’s fucking with you. And here you were, about to offer something that would relieve a whole lot of pain. “Oh, fuck you,” you scoff, pulling yourself up and making your way off of his bed. 

“No, okay, wait,” he laughs, trying to catch his breath. “Jus’ messin’ with you, who am I to deny a massage?” He raises his eyebrows once, twice. Still messing with you, seeing how far his taunting with you can go. 

“You’re disgusting,” you deadpan. 

“‘M not the one tryin’ t’ massage her uncle,” Joel says as he attempts to shrug his shoulders at you.

“I’m gonna leave now.” One foot makes it to the ground before Joel speaks again. 

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, ya can’t take a joke? I’m only messin’ around. Come back. Gonna leave me hangin’? In pain? C’mon, nurse.” His tone falls softer, sweeter. You can hear the shit-eating grin in his words. And, fuck, why is it making you heat even further, in places beyond your face? In places you shouldn’t be?

“Fine,” you relent. “Stop saying weird shit then.” You still can’t look at him. Not after the way your body decided to react in the shift of energy. An abrupt shift of energy, as far as you can tell. 

He’s your dad’s best friend. Your uncle, for crying out loud. Not by blood, but still. There’s never been a feeling beyond that. Sure, you’ve had your silly little school girl crush on him during your young teenage years, but that was your hormones being your hormones. You grew out of them. Even your own father can’t deny the conventional attractiveness of his best friend. 

Plus, suggestive commentary is bound to make anyone feel hot. It’s basic biology. Your response is nothing. It doesn’t mean anything. At least, that’s what you convince yourself of when you climb back into your uncle’s— no, into Joel’s bed, trying to ignore the way your panties stick dutifully against your throbbing core.

Joel leans onto his side as you get yourself situated, unbuttoning the bottom half of his flannel, so you can flip up the bottom to reach his lower back. After the bottom half of the buttons are undone, he lays back on his front. “Here,” he calls your name. “Jus’ lift it up from the bottom.”

You scoot closer to him, standing on your knees, and you reach over to grab the hem of his flannel, pulling it up as gently as possible, exposing just enough to be able to reach the irritated areas. You frown at what you see. Inflamed skin, purples and yellows dancing all across his lower back, forcing him away from the very thing he lives for. He may have been a stubborn bitch this entire week, but that doesn’t stop the sympathy you feel for the man. 

You put some of the lotion in your hand, rubbing it between your two palms to warm it up a little. You place your hand on the side closest to you first, moving in circular motions and adjusting your pressure ever so often. “Let me know when the pressure is good.”

So far he hasn’t said much, a slight groan here, an exhale there. You feel a knot as you move lower, so you increase your pressure. You’re met with a literal moan, and you swear you have to bite back your own vocal response. “Fuck,” he sucks in a sharp breath. “Yeah, jus’ like that, ‘s perfect, darlin’.” 

“Okay,” you squeak, your thighs clenching together to attempt any kind of relief to the heat between your legs. 

After a few more passes over the area — and a few more indulgent, harder presses of your palm to pull more angelic sounds from him — you switch to the other side. Except, at this angle, you don’t really have as good an angle as you did before. Your leg swings over his ass, bracketing him in between your thighs, before you can even register the move your body just made. A soft gasp falls from your lips as you feel the new angle you’ve just given yourself. 

“Joel?” You call sweetly. Innocently.”I- I’m not hurting you or anything, am I?”

Hurting? No. Putting him through Hell? Close enough. 

Joel has done many questionable things in his lifetime. Getting involved with taken (married or otherwise) women, couples who wanted a third… Joel has lived through it all. Mainly in his younger years, but nevertheless. He has done and seen many things. But none of these things have ever included getting a fucking hard on for a girl — a woman? — he practically had a hand in raising. You call him uncle, for crying out loud. 

His physical response means nothing. It’s basic biology. The tender yet skilled touch of your warm hands directly against his even hotter skin, lighting every single nerve ending on fire, forcing the blood to course through his veins, to make its way down south— 

“Christ-” he snarls as you practically sit on him. His mouth shuts instantly as his eyes shoot open. He didn’t mean for that to come out. “Y-yeah,” he corrects. “‘M alright.” 

“Just- just let me know,” you tell him. He can hear the shake in your voice. He can tell biology is doing a number on you, too, based on your tone alone, if the heat engulfing his rear as you try your best not to make contact with it isn’t enough to go by. 

He focuses on his breathing as best he can as your hands push slightly past his jeans, getting underneath the seam of his boxers, and then immediately softening your touch as you run your fingers up his spine, awaking a chill he never knew was possible until now. You rub beyond the exposed area of his lower back, reaching his shoulder blades and entirely up to his shoulders, forcing the flannel to rise with your hands. He’s so broad and warm, and you would absolutely be drooling all over him by now if you weren’t so shocked at how tight his muscles really feel. How has this man not gotten any injuries sooner? How was he still doing all this heavy lifting? You dig the pads of your finger tips further into the thousands of tiny knots you feel, and his body jerks in actual pain this time. 

“God damn, girl,” he snaps. “What are you doin’?” 

“How the fuck do you even function?” You sound genuinely horrified. 

“What-”

“Your shoulders and neck are fucking covered in knots how do you even-” you cut yourself off with a disappointed click of your tongue. “You need to flip over.” 

Fuck. 

“Why?” He asks defensively. 

“I’m gonna break these knots. I need to start from the front.” 

“Ya ain’t gettin’ anywhere near my neck, I swear to God-”

“Quit being stubborn. What did I say earlier? I’m gonna flip you myself if you don’t-”

“Alright, fine, gimme a sec,” he bites. Joel takes a deep breath, at war with himself for how he’s going to handle his next course of action. 

Whatever happens next, there is no avoiding the fact that you will be made aware of the bulging erection between his legs. You can know about it, that’s fine, but the second you make contact, he doesn’t know if he’ll have the strength to control himself. Which is why he rips off the band aid quick. Flipping himself over with you still hovering over him, he tries his best not to touch you. Though, the second he’s comfortable, his focus is on your waist, grabbing you immediately and missing the way your eyes widen at the tenting fabric of his jeans. He pulls you higher up to sit on his lower tummy. 

You squeak out a little gasp as he adjusts you, and fuck it makes the pulsing between his legs even worse. He releases you, bringing his hands back to his sides. 

“Comfortable?” you whisper. You try so hard not to use your voice, worried that it’ll reveal just how turned on you are by this situation you’ve put yourself in. He gives you a single nod, and with that, you lean to grab more lotion. 

The angle you are at forces you to lean the front of your body onto Joel to be able to reach his shoulders. You can feel his body tense underneath you; you can hear his labored breathing as your hands further push away his flannel, working away at each knot. 

You lean forward further, giving yourself the ability to reach just below Joel’s neck. With this action, your hips shift, pressing down against Joel’s belly in a way that sends a sudden jolt of butterflies through your core. Your hands freeze in their movement, breath and fingertips stuttering as your entire face and neck heat up. You sneak a quick glance to Joel, and his eyes are still relaxed. He didn’t notice. 

It takes you a moment to start your movements back up again, but when you do, you can’t help the way you repeat exactly what you did before — allowing yourself another experimental roll of your hips against his soft abdomen. Only this time, you’re way less sly, for the whimper of pleasure you thought you could hide slips right out, right for his sharp ears to take note of. Shit. 

“Y’ alright there?” His eyes are trained on you now; he knows what you just did. Joel sports a quirked eyebrow as he waits for your response. 

“Mhm,” you rush out, ignoring his piercing gaze. 

It takes every ounce of willpower for you to run over the knots in his shoulder again without driving your hips into him, but even the push and pull of your arms is a full body movement, and you feel it. You feel the growing wetness in your core, the growing heartbeat that his bare tummy no doubt can feel now. 

Your body is splayed across him, the warmth of you leaking through your bottoms and onto his hot skin as you pathetically try to play off the fact that you aren’t grinding your wet cunt across him right now. With a rasp of your name, he takes a sharp breath in. “What are ya doin’?” He grunts, pained. Conflicted. 

This is so wrong. But it feels so good. Your arousal — how utterly desperate you are for the older man underneath you — is shone all over your face, brighter than any other feeling of disgust or wrongness you’re trying to convince yourself of. But the internal battle is still there, though, and it forces your hips to come to a full stop. It forces cries of apologies from your lips. It forces regret. 

“I- I’m sorry,” you choke back a sob. “Please, I- this is so wrong, I’m so stupid, uncle, I-” 

God damn it. Joel is too damn hard to deal with this shit now. “Oh, Jesus Christ, will you cut the fuckin’ uncle bullshit?” He finally snaps. His hands spring to life, finding their way up your thighs, tightening once they reach your hips. He forces you to move again. “Ya think I wanna hear that fuckin’ word while you fuckin’ soak me? Huh? While ya rub on me like a fuckin’ bitch in heat?”

“Shit,” you moan, the strength of his hand making the assault against your mound all the more intense. “Joel, please,” you cry, your fingers shaking as you hold onto his chest. 

Your thighs begin to tremble as he maintains a rough pace to your movements, his bed creaking with every shove of your hips against him. His grip on you is one of steel, the pads of his fingers digging into your flesh, no doubt leaving tiny bruises as a reminder of today’s actions. 

He is fucking covered in you — the slick of your desire pooling through your bottoms and into his skin, making each grind smoother. He licks his lips at this, his eyes dark as he drinks you in from above; your own eyes glossy and a sheen of sweat along your skin. “Look at ya, darlin’,” he murmurs, voice low enough to send a fresh wave of arousal pouring from your hole. “Fuckin’ soakin’ me, baby. Needed me that bad, did ya? Was tryin’ t’ tell ya earlier,” he grunts, “Y’know ya just had to ask.” A lazy smirk pulls across his lip. 

You let out a whimper at his words, your hips finally rolling alongside his own guidance, instinctively searching for more friction. “Atta girl,” he groans, “That’s it, fuck- makin’ a fuckin’ mess a’ me, darlin’.” 

You’re panting now, the rhythm and pressure mixed with the filth of his Southern drawl ignites every single nerve ending throughout your body. He watches you with a dark intensity, the brown of his eyes replaced with pure black lust, his eyes unable to stray away from the pleasurable desperation filling your features. 

“Gonna come like this, sweetheart?” He taunts, driving you into him even harder. 

“Mmm- my God, yeah- yes,” you cry out, eyes rolling back as the coil in your belly finally tightens, your breathing ragged as needy moans escape your lips. 

With a final roll of your hips and the utterance of a that’s my girl, the coil finally snaps, pleasure crashing over you, coursing through your veins as you come all over him, your slick unable to stay within the limits of your clothes, leaking and dripping down the sides of him and onto the mattress below. Your thighs convulse around his waist, his hold on you continuing your thrusts, dragging out your orgasm until your own hands find his and rip him away from you.

“Ya ain’t done yet, sugar,” Joel gruffs, grabbing the globes of your ass cheeks and dragging you down, letting you feel his ignored and now raging erection. 

“Never said I was,” you purr, a soft moan blessing his ears at the feel of his bulge against your ass. He can feel your smirk against his chest. 

Body still trembling, Joel lifts your ass in the air, sliding your bottoms down over the curve of your body. The stickiness of your panties pulls off with a wet squelch, the cool air of the room mingling with the wet warmth of your bare pussy, the stark contrast forcing chills to run through your veins. 

“God,” he murmurs as you give a little wiggle of your ass in the air. “Pretty as a peach, huh, darlin’?” He guides you lower, pushing you down onto his bulge. The hardness of him beneath you immediately sends a fiery need to your core. Your hands move on their own as you pull your body up, reaching for the buttons and zipper of his jeans, undoing them with ease despite the eager shake of your hand. You pull the jeans down just enough to let his cock spring free, thick and angry and leaking. 

“Oh, fuck,” you swallow your gasp. “God, I need you so bad,” you whine, already lifting up to line the tip of him to your swollen cunt. 

You sink down with a breathless moan, your head flying back as your hands grip onto his tummy to keep you from buckling. 

Joel’s breathing stutters, his moans filling the air as you practically choke his cock. “Shit- so fuckin- fuckin’ tight.” His hands find their home on the meat of your ass, holding you tight, grounding himself from coming like a damn teenager.

You move slowly at first, savoring the way he feels inside of you, how big he is. God, you don’t think you’ve ever taken anything quite as long and as thick as him. Your heart skips a beat at that, knowing that he’s ruined you for anyone else. 

It isn’t long before the raw need takes over, and you move faster, hips rolling back and forth as you ride him, the wet sound of skin against skin as you alternate to a bounce ever so often. 

Despite the risk of hurting his back even more, he can’t stop himself from gripping you tighter, his nails digging into your flesh as his hips buck up into you, starting their own rhythm, meeting every one of your thrusts. The sensation is overwhelming with the size of him; it’s a perfect mix of pleasure and pain, mixing sweet whines of ecstasy with whines of overstimulation, and it’s the best music to have ever graced his ears. 

“Look at ya,” he grunts. “Fuckin’ made for this, weren’t ya? Fuckin’ made for takin’ this cock, huh, sweetheart?” 

You nod weakly at his words. They send a flutter down your belly to your pussy, and his mouth is all it takes to send you to your second brink of collapse — your heart beating rapidly in your chest as you move, as he drives himself into you without abandon. 

Every thrust pushes you further to the edge, the sting of the stretch, the sensation of being so full — it’s almost too much to bear. He can hear it in the way your cries change. It’s becoming too much. 

“Y’ can take it, sweetheart, almost there,” he grunts. His hands take over in guiding your movements, urging you faster, harder, bringing you both to the cliff’s edge. 

“C’mon, baby, can feel her squeezin’ me, know she wanna come, baby. Breathe, doll, jus’ let go,” he rasps, his words coming in staggered.

The wet tightness of your walls, both the feel and the sound, causes Joel to fall first — a low, guttural groan filling the room as he fills you with his hot, thick spend.

The sensation of him pulsing inside you, unloading everything he’s worth, sends you over your edge, your pussy clenching around his cock as you come, the sensation rippling through you, shredding your vocal cords as you scream out in pleasure. 

Everything goes dark for you, nothing but the fuzzy sound of Joel’s sweet praises at the top of your head as he guides you through your come down. 

“Did so fuckin’ good f’ me, darlin’,” he murmurs. “Sweet girl.”

For an asshole, who knew he could be so sweet? 

You roll off of Joel as soon as your heart steadies, your entire body on fire from all the exertion. You can feel Joel’s body stiffen as you use him for support. His back is killing him right now.

A few moments pass as your eyes slowly start to close, but the deep gruff of your name stops you from dozing. 

You turn your head to the man beside you. “Yes?” 

For the first time today, it’s Joel who can’t make eye contact with you. “Can you, uh… can you-” he clears his throat, trying to rid himself of his awkwardness. “Can you warm up the heat pack again?” 

Your smirk lifts your cheek before you can even try to stop it. “Come again?” 

He lets out a frustrated huff. And he can’t turn away from you. His back is killing him right now. “My back-”

“Yeah, what about your back?” 

“You fuckin’ little shit-”

You giggle as you flip onto your side, your hand holding your head up to get a better look at him. “Your back is hurting, baby? Need me to get the heat pack for you, hm?” 

He doesn’t respond. He just has the deepest, most grumpiest scowl known to man on display. 

“Oh, come on. You need my help, is that it? Need to hear you say it, unc.” You emphasize the last syllable of your sentence, a belly laugh threatening to escape you. 

Oh, two can play at that game. “Yeah, baby, I need your help. I need the help from my beautiful, beautiful niece, hm? My beautiful, needy niece whose pussy gets all soaked jus’ thinkin’ ‘bout me, huh? Gets all wet and needy thinkin’ ‘bout her uncle-”

Your resolve finally snaps, your eyes clamping shut as you cover your ears, loud la la la’s coming from your mouth as you ungraciously roll yourself off of his bed. “Enough, fine! Fine! Fuckin’ nasty,” you groan as you make your way to the kitchen. 

“‘M not the one who started it, sweetheart,” Joel says, a triumphant smile plastered across his cocky face. 

“I made you cookies by the way,” you yell after a beat. “Want one?” 

Joel’s hand reaches for his belly. He doesn’t need one, that’s for sure. “Yeah,” he responds not a second later. 

You come back to his bedroom, heat pack in one hand, no cookie in the other. You hand him the heat pack. You make him adjust it himself. 

“Where’s the cookie?” He asks, a tinge of impatience on his tongue. 

“Oh, I thought you were gonna come down and get it.” 

He looks at you incredulously. 

“I just figured you wanted to start being more independent and all. Given how strenuous you were being a few moments ago,” you offer with a faux innocence.  

“I swear to fuckin’ God, when I get my hands on you-”

“Your hands on me? Yeah? When?” You start making your way out of his bedroom. “Come get me if you wanna show me a lesson. Know you been dying to all week.” 

If he can fuck you the way he did, maybe full-time bed rest isn’t what Joel needs. He needs to stretch and move around; he needs to activate his muscles, especially being on the older side. It really is basic biology.

I would absolutely love to hear what you guys thought of this! Any and all your love and commentary truly keeps me going and motivated even when the writer’s block is at its strongest. Wouldn’t be here without you all. I have so much love in my heart for you! Talk to y’all soon🩶

I cannot get myself to write for Joel or for TLOU without mentioning the horrors occurring in Palestine. Please check out the links in my navigation + bio to learn about the situation in Palestine and also learn about some ways in which you can help🇵🇸. Reading and interacting with those links takes 5 minutes of your time at the bare minimum.

Leaf divider by @saradika-graphics

[dcxdpdabbles]

I love your writing. It's just the best. Seriously I check dc dp tags to see if you've written anything.

By the way, can you write anythng with another dc hero or maybe a villain? Maybe Superman or Captain Marvel(Shazam) or anything. You don't have to obviously, but it would be really cool if you did.

Oh gosh, thank you! I'm glad you like my rambles. I'm happy to write you a dabble! Hope you like!

Billy Batson was expecting a lot when the Wizard told him to only break the ice crystal in dire situations. He figured if the dying man had enough time to pass on thousands of years' worth of knowledge and store Old magical artifacts, then the Crystal had to be a last resort.

He also figured it wouldn't be so darn breakable. Billy felt they should have made the last resort a little steadier if it was so important.

But no, one accidental trip over his far too worn-out pants legs had the thing shattering like cheap glass.

Billy stares at the shimmering remains, his heart pounding in his chest as the soft green glow that had always come from the crystal fades away.

"Oh no. no, no, no. I can fix this. I can fix this. " He whispers to himself, falling to his knees and scooping up the pieces. He tries to reattach them, but the crystal melts in his palms. "I can't fix this."

All this because some jerk kicked him out of his old sleeping place, down by the docks. He had been squatting in Old Man's Jackson shed ever since the man finally bit the dust, and he had been so excited to have a building all to himself. Word must have gotten around somehow because he comes back from a Justice Leauge Meeting to find a sixteen-year-old rooting through his stuff.

As a homeless ten-year-old, Billy had scrambled to reclaim his possessions, including this critical crystal, jumping on the intruder with a war cry. He got a broken arm, a black eye, and a few bruised ribs for his troubles.

Thankfully he could walk away with most of his things as the teen sneered and screamed at him while he ran away.

It's not that Billy couldn't fight off the homeless teenager, but he didn't, and to go all Captain Marvel on some random citizen. Captain Marvel can go toe to toe with Superman, but plain old Billy Batson struggles to take kids his own age. He's always been smaller than his age group, not to mention hunger's damage to him.

He returned to the abandoned subway, stumbling down the dark tunnel. Billy didn't like the place- it was damp and cold and a little too open if someone else wandered in, but it was the only place he could go for the night on such short notice. He was thinking of asking Batman if he could take more shifts on monitor duty just so he could sleep at the watch tower.

Then his pants leg got stuck on a broken stair, and he fell, sending his dew earthly possessions into the air. Now he was, blinking away the spots from the beating the teenager gave him and a powerful artifact he promised the Wizard he keep safe, broken beyond repair.

Against his will, sobs start to shake his body. The more he fought to clear his eyes from the tears, the more he began to fall. He leans his forehead on the floor, uncaring how a piece of crystal cuts his skin, causing a trail of crimson to flow down his face. What's one more scar on his already broken body?

In a moment of weakness, he violently wishes he could run to his mom for comfort. It's a fantasy. She's long gone, buried next to his dad, and his uncle was somewhere warm spending their money.

The knowledge causes more despair, and he sobs harder.

Why does he have to be here hungry, without a home, when his father's brother didn't even bother to attend their funeral is living off of his inheritance? Living great, if all the zeros he saw on the check were any indication?

Life is genuinely unfair sometimes. That's why he took being Captain Marvel so seriously. Someone had to protect people from the cruelty of life.

A swirling green portal rips open underneath him just as the trailing thought of I wish someone out there wanted to protect me just as much.

His echoing scream, the swirling green, is the last thing Billy knows before everything goes black.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Billy wakes to the sound of someone humming. He blinks open his eyes, fighting against the exhaustion and the siren call of slumber. The first thing he notices is the soft green of the walls, like the color of Easter eggs he used to paint with his Dad. He smiles at them.

It's his favorite color.

Then Billy notices his eyes getting heavy again as he slowly turns his head into the plush pillow and sinks into the warm blankets around him. His body is boneless in comfort, his eyes are closed, and he's just dropping off into dreamland when his mind finally notices that you're homeless and don't know this room. You're in danger!

Billy leaps off the bed like he's been shocked, throwing the two blankets on the ground. Glancing around, he's horrified to see he's in some kind of kid room- comics, toys, posters- all tailored to his tastes. He can even spot an archeology kit for kids sitting on a desk, just like the ones his parents used to buy him when he wanted to help out in their digs.

He always thought he actually found something in his little play rocks while waiting at one of the tents as his parents worked. They always beamed when he showed them the fake dinosaur bones he discovered in his kits.

He even has nice, fluffy pajamas. The kind that doesn't have buttons or zippers but is oversized, so they let him toss and turn in the night. His bottoms are a grey and black checker pattern, while the top has the Batman symbol proudly on the front.

Everything is perfect, from the decor, to his clothes to even the furniture placement.

It's the bedroom of his dreams.

Oh gosh, he has been Coraline-ed!

"Oh, Billy! You're up. Breakfast is ready and I just finished ironing your uniform." A man's voice says from the doorway. He swings his head around to see a man in his late twenties in an apron smiling at him. He's handsome, has fluffy black hair and baby-blue eyes, and practically embodies comforting vibes.

The other-mother.

"Who are you!?" Billy demands, fist raised. He can't go Captain Marvel with someone dead on staring at him- at least he risks his secret identity, but he has been on the streets long enough to put up a decent fight.

The man seems flabbergasted by his aggression which causes Billy to bristle until he slaps his own forehead.

"Right, forgot about the introduction. I'm Danny Fenton, and I will be your new guardian until you are old enough to care for yourself." Danny smiles, and the boy can't help but find it too pretty to be authentic. "As per your request as the champion of Magic."

Billy has been taken by someone who knows he's Captain Marvel. Which could be better on the one hand but on the other, it means he can do this.

"Shazam!" A bolt of lighting has him shifting into his adult form and flying a break neck speed towards the threat. He intends to punch Danny, but his fist is caught in Danny's palm like it's nothing.

Danny seems unimpressed. "Don't think you can Shazam yourself out of class, young man. Being a hero will cut your attendance, but I won't allow you to skip just because."

Calm yourself, child Batson Solomon says to Bill. King Phantom is here per your request for aid. He will not harm you.

What request!? I never called for him!

When you broke the Infinite Realms Crysta of distress, you called for someone to protect you like your caregivers once did. King Phantom is the most vigorous protective spirit in all the realms. He answered the call. Solomon replies. Billy can feel the god shift on his golden throne a sense of amusement. It's strange to know what the gods are doing without really seeing them He made a deal with the wizard to pose as your father until you are of age. You both are bonded by this Oath.

An oath. That made Billy feel a little better. He knows that once an Oath is made, no one in the parties involved can break it. If the Wizard had done one while borrowing Billy's body then Billy would be untouchable until the contract was done.

He has a new dad that would be bound by magic and the might of the six gods to protect him.

Billy was curious to know if that was a good thing or not. Being protected is not the same as being loved.

"Kid? You okay?" Danny asks.

"What is expected of me? What do you want me to do?" Billy counters, floating back a little now that he knows what's happening. An Oath is a two-way deal. If Danny had to pretend to be Bill's father, then Billy had to do something for Danny.

"Well, I expect you to have your teeth brushed and eat your breakfast before class, but something tells me that's not what you mean." Danny jokes with a chuckle. Billy frowns, which makes the humor on the man's face disappear. "In all honesty? You are my anchor. I haven't been in the material world for years. Not since my home dimension was destroyed by an asteroid. I missed it. I missed people."

Okay, nothing sinister. But he would never let this random stranger think he had the right to boss Billy around.

"You don't have to pretend to be my dad when we're alone. And you can't tell me what to do!" Billy hisses, expecting the man to get upset like other foster fathers had been before he ran.

Danny nods. "Sounds fair. Sorry for coming on like a fruitloop."

"A.....fruitloop?"

"A big fruitloop. One with a cat."

Right.

"You said my uniform. What uniform?" Billy asks to choose to come back to Danny's odd phrase later.

"Gotham Acadamy. I signed you up for classes-"

"We're in Gotham!? Why?!"

Danny tilts his head. "It's the only place with enough death to sustain me."

Billy is glad he is Captain Marvel right now. Otherwise, he thinks he would need more guts to ask. "Why do you need death?"

"Not death itself, more like the by-product. I need ectoplasm since I;;m a ghost." With a bright flash of twin rings, Danny shifts into a very obviously non-human form, and Billy's mouth drops.

"You're dead?!"

"So-and-so. I'm a halfa. A being dead and alive but at the same time neither" Danny rubs the back of his neck, twirling his small point tail nervously. "Yeah, it's a bit confusing. Sorry."

"It's fine....ugh so we just live in Gotham until I'm what eighteen?"

"Until your twenty." Danny winces at the glare Billy throws him. "Sorry, ghosts see adulthood as two decades for the living, two centuries for the dead. Since I'm both, I have to follow both and thus have to be your caregiver until you're twenty. I can portal you to Fawcett whenever you need to hero with the snap of my fingers. It'll be inconvenient, but I promise it will be better than the streets. And I will never, ever hurt you, Billy."

Billy crosses his arms, listening with half a ear as the gods start speaking at one, their voices and opinions a background noise he long learns to turn out until Atlas is louder than the rest.

I understand this might be a lot at once, young Batson, but accept King Phantom's help. You will no longer be alone. It is not easy carrying the world on your shoulders, trust me.

The god's words make Billy sure this is a good idea.

"Shazam!" With another burst of lighting, Billy is a kid again, stretching his neck back to make eye contact with the taller man. "Alright. You got yourself a deal .... again."

Danny grins, warm and delight dancing in his eyes. "Excellent! Lets's hurry then, we're supposed to arrive at your school early today to meet with a man in charge of your scholarship who is my new employer for computer software. That's our cover, by the way. We moved here after I got a job at the man's company."

"Who are we meeting?"

"Someone unimportant, I'm sure," Danny says, waving a hand. "My friend Clockwork set us up our background, we have the papers to prove everything."

Billy finds out that Danny really is from a different universe because how in the world could he claim Bruce Wayne as unimportant!

[starkwlkr]

Hiii! okay maybe teen mathéo likes a girl so he could talk to charles about it and ask for advice a little father son moment would be cool.

numbers | charles leclerc

hello lovely anon! thanks for the request! for this imagine, I’m going to include mikey and demri schumacher. they are characters that belong to @cs55version from their mick series that i am absolutely in love with!!

I JUST STAY IN MY ROOM TOO LONG BUT I FINALLY HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND SHE’S THE BOMB — numbers by tempered

While the media saw Ruby Leclerc as the loud, but funny child of Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, they sometimes forgot about Mathéo Leclerc, the shy and quiet boy. It wasn’t a bad thing (Mathéo’s exact words). The boy liked not being in the spotlight.

He enjoyed art museums and going to see musicals with his mother and grand-mère. But there were sometimes when the media did question whether or not he would follow in the footsteps of his father. From a young age, Mathéo decided not to pursue a career in formula 1 and his family respected that.

Even the kids at school would ask him when he would start karting. He would always answer with “I’m not going to be a driver. Ask my older sister.”

He grew tired of people at school always asking him about Ferrari, his father and uncle, asking for paddock passes. It was always the same people, people he never even talked to. But there was one day when a girl who had just moved to Monaco came up to him during lunch.

Mathéo’s usual friend, Robin, was sick so he remained home. Now it looked like Mathéo didn’t have any friends and sat alone during lunch.

“Hi. Is it okay if I sit here?” The girl asked, pointing to the chair across Mathéo.

“Yeah, it’s okay.” He replied then went back to eating his sandwich that his mother had made him.

“I’m Giselle.” The girl introduced herself.

“My name is Mathéo, but with an h in between the t and e. A lot of people forget about the h.” He explained.

“Oh, okay. Mine is with two l’s so it’s not like the supermodel’s name, you know the one that was married to Tom Brady?” She asked.

“I don’t know who Tom Brady is, but I know who Gisele Bündchen is. My maman had dinner with her last week.” He said casually. “Wait, you don’t have an accent.” He quickly noticed.

“I’m from America, but my mother’s side of the family is from here. My mom got a really good job offer so here we are,” Giselle explained. “My mom has about of an accent though. She was born here but left when she was ten I think.”

Mathéo had a crush on a girl before. Her name was Eloise. She was the sister of the most popular girl in school so when Eloise asked Mathéo out to the movies, the boy thought it was just some kind of prank.

Giselle seemed nice, she listened when Mathéo had something to say, laughed at his jokes when he made one and she didn’t know of Mathéo’s last name so at least he didn’t have to worry about that yet.

As the school day came to an end, he walked back home only to find Mikey and Demri Schumacher and his sister eating in the kitchen while his mother was on the phone talking.

“Hey, Théo! Missed you.” Demri ruffled his hair as he passed by her to get to the refrigerator.

“You can keep him if you want. I see him all the time.” Ruby teased.

“Maman! Ruby wants to give me away to the Schumacher’s!” Mathéo yelled. He ignored the laughs coming from then teenagers and grabbed a juice then walked out the kitchen.

“Ruby, what did I say about trying to sell your brother?” Y/n groaned from her spot in the sofa.

“Uncle Mick won’t mind having him around!”

“Hi, maman. Is papa around?” The fourteen year old boy asked shyly. He needed his father’s opinion on Giselle.

“He’s in our room, baby. He might be asleep, but you can go check.”

“Oh. I’ll let him sleep then. I’m going to my room.” Mathéo said. He knew how hard his father worked so he rather wait to have a conversation with him. He walked up the stairs to his room and closed the door behind him.

Y/n could see the defeated face on her boy. “Mom, I’m going to call you back. Bye.” She hung up the phone. She got up and walked to her and Charles’ room where he was sleeping peacefully on their bed. He had just gotten back from Belgium and he decided he wanted to have a nap before dinner.

“Charles, sweetheart,” Y/n gently shook his body to wake him up. Charles groaned as a response. “Mathéo wants to talk to you. I have a feeling it might be important.”

“What time is it?” He asked, still not opening his eyes.

“Almost dinner time so you have to get up.”

Charles sighed and sat up in his spot. “Where’s my boy?”

Mathéo was in his room working on his art project. It was a show box diorama of his favorite memory, which was the day of his birthday when all of his family from both sides made it to his party. As he was putting a toy birthday cake in his box, he heard a knock on his door.

“It’s open!” He said, still concentrated on his project. In came Charles with a tired face, but he didn’t care. His son needed him and he was here to listen.

“It looks very nice. Is that Uncle Arthur with frosting on his face?” Charles pointed at a paper drawing of the whole family. Arthur had been drawn with blue marker ‘smeared’ on his face to resemble the frosting of the cake that Charles had thrown at his face the day of the party.

“Yeah, it was kind of hard to find the right shade of blue but I made it work.” Mathéo said, not looking up from his work.

Charles nodded and walked over to the boy’s bed and sat down. “Maman told me you wanted to talk.”

Mathéo finally looked up and slowly turned his chair to face Charles. “But you’re tired. We can talk later-”

“Théo, I’m not tired. I’m okay, now tell me, is someone bothering you in school? Are your grades bad? If it’s about grades then I’m not mad because my grades were not good. Arthur and I used to skip class because of karting so-”

“It’s not about grades. I’m doing well in school. Promise you won’t laugh at me.” Mathéo said quietly.

“Why would I laugh? I’m your papa.”

“Just promise me.”

Charles held out his pinky finger. “I promise I won’t laugh,” Mathéo nodded and was about to speak but Charles stopped him. “No, you have to do the pinky promise. This is serious.” Mathéo chuckled and laced his pinky finger with his father’s then let go.

“Okay, so I was sitting in my usual table during lunch and then this girl comes up and sits with me. Robin wasn’t with me because he’s sick so I thought she felt bad for me because I was sitting alone. But turns out she’s new to Monaco and to the school. We talked and I have decided that she is the coolest girl I have ever met and she doesn’t know I’m your son!” The boy explained. “And she laughed at my jokes, I think I’m in love.”

Charles’ lips turned into a smile. His son had a crush.

“Well that’s a big word for you. She seems nice. What’s her name?” Charles asked.

“Giselle but with two l’s. Even her name is pretty. But I don’t want to seem like a creep and ask her out. How did you ask maman to go on a date with you?”

“Your maman was not an easy person to ask out. The first time I asked her, she said no and I respected her decision. A month later, she was in Monaco and we got lunch with a couple of friends and I asked her again and she said yes. I wanted to take her to dinner but she said that was too boring for a first date so we signed up for a cooking class to make pasta but it was in Italy so we went to Italy.” Charles explained. He was never going to forget that day.

“Why Italy? Does Monaco not having pasta classes?”

“They do, but your mother hadn’t been to Italy so I took her. It’s became a tradition now. On our anniversary, we go to the same cooking class and make pasta. You would think my cooking skills would improve by now, but at least we have maman to help.”

“Maybe I can take Giselle to a cooking class in Italy.” Mathéo suggested.

“How about we start with watching a movie in the local theater?”

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Hihi I'm new here! I really like your headcanons. Would it be alright if I could ask headcanons for the bachelors and how their romantic relationship with a farmer that already has a kid from a different relationship progress?

Like, one day a kid just randomly shows up at the farmer's doorstep with a social worker and farmer had to explain that their ex couldn't keep the child anymore, and the kid is also super anxious about moving in with them or something.

I'm really sorry- it was a scenario I've seen dabbled into once and I'm just very curious as to what others think of it too aha.

If this ask is not your cup of tea, feel free to disregard it. Have a great day op 🙏✨

Hellooooo!

Sorry for the delay, dear anon. This headcanon just turned out bigger than I planned 😅 Hope I understood your question correctly. Thank you very much for the ask, and enjoy! 🫰💕

_________________________________________

SDV bachelors x Farmer, that already has a kid from a different relationship:

Shane:

Oh, man. This is all very awkward...

Shane knew about Farmer's ex, the reason for the breakup and the fact that the child was in the care of their ex in Zuzu City.

Farmer visited their child almost every week, calling and writing letters, but Shane himself was not particularly involved, not knowing how to approach the little one.

Naturally, when the kid came to visit the farm, the chicken man would try to make the kid feel comfortable, but considering everything they'd been through, even here it was pretty awkward.

On the plus side, they was the same age as Jas, and the kids had become fast friends in a short time.

Farmer encouraged their spouse's attempts at friendship with their kid, but again, things were still pretty awkward.

When the Farmer's child arrived with a social worker some time later, Shane noticed how much the little one resembled him in his yought - confused, scared, resentful of everyone and tired of everything. Their familiar world where both parents were together was gone forever.

Later, Shane was able to explain how he'd been in a similar situation, how he'd almost lost because of the mistakes he'd made trying to cope with pain.

The kid quickly found common ground with him. Especially after they confessed that they liked chickens!

Shane doesn't claim to be a father, as the kid is pretty mature and understands on their own.

But he will treat them with the same care and responsibility as he does Jas.

They are all kinda weird family, but Shane loves them all and still can't believe how lucky he is.

Sam:

It's quite a tricky situation, but thanks to his friendliness and personality, Sam is great with kids.

When Farmer finally introduced their kid to Sam, the young guitarist immediately went into cool brother/uncle mode.

The kid was worried, but Sam began to slowly gain their trust by asking about their interest in comics or other hobbies.

It makes him happy that the kid can forget about problem and concerns at least for now, because children should be happy and play while they have their childhood.

Sam knows that Farmer broke up with their ex more or less calmly, without scandal or drama, but he knows, like Farmer, it was still hard for the kid.

He's glad that he and Farmer are trying their best to be in theirs life.

The kid's upset look and the presence of the social worker took Sam by surprise.

While the social worker was talking to Farmer, Sam offered the anxious kid something to eat. Or some space, if they still feel uncomfortable.

After learning the reason for the visit and the fact that the kid will now live on the farm, Sam gently asks his partner how he should handle this. He wants to cheer the kid up, but he also doesn't want to make them more anxious.

Fortunately, Vincent and the kid get along quickly, which pleases both Farmer and Sam. Now, though, they need to keep an eye on the kids, or they'll both get into more trouble.

Jodi and Kent also do everything they can to make Farmer's kid feel comfortable (Jodi now spoils them with tasty baked goods).

Farmer can't help but be joyful with how hard Sam tries for them and their kid and his family to keep everyone happy.

Alex:

Farmer was telling Alex about their loser ex, who had decided to trade Farmer and their child for a some stranger. What a shameless cheater...

Farmer visited their kid almost every week, but Alex was only able to go with them a few times.

At the sight of their ex, the athlete was so itching to break their nose. But he tried to keep his temper in front of the kid.

The child turns out to be a kind young one, though a bit shy and reserved. Alex thanks Yoba that they are more like the Farmer in looks and personality than the other parent.

Despite the awkward pause at first, the kid seems to like Alex. Of course, he's cool, kind, and gives them ice cream! Alex's trips with Farmer became more frequent and his friendship with Farmer's little kid grew stronger.

Some time later, when a confused Alex let the stranger into the house, he was shocked to find Farmer's kid standing behind him. They looked... so sad.

The social worker announced that the ex had decided to relinquish parental rights and the child had been brought here.

The poor kid was quieter than a mouse, but Alex was as friendly as possible and tried to cheer him up.

In the back of his mind, though, he felt a wild rage, because he could hear that the reason the ex had refused to give up their own child was because their new partner didn't want to babysit them.

Alex knows more than anyone what it's like when one parent is such a dirtbag. But right now he doesn't care about losers, he's got Farmer and their kid.

Getting the kid used to the new environment was very difficult, but Alex helped them get to know the local children.

Evelyn accepted the kid as her own great-grandchild, remembering to feed them delicious baked goods. George was a bit stingy with his emotions, but he also accepted them as his own.

Alex will not leave them in trouble and will help them to cope with all the difficulties. Now the Farmer and their child are his family.

Sebastian:

Sebastian feels awkward and doesn't know what to do. Help.

He and the Farmer's child were so similar in personality when they met - silent, shy and withdrawn.

Sebastian realises that Farmer's child is having a hard time with the fact that their parents are divorced. But emo doesn't know how to start a conversation.

So when Farmer left Sebby and their kid alone for half an hour, there was an awkward silence for the first 5 minutes.

The kid was already getting bored. Sebastian decided to give it a try after all.

"Do you like frogs?" Judging by the spark in the kid's eyes, they had already found at least one topic of interest to both of them.

Farmer smiles when they returned to see the two of them chatting about different amphibians.

A few such encounters and Sebastian had become a cool uncle to them.

Sebastian was hurt to hear that Farmer's ex had given up their parental rights, when Farmer's kid had already visited them, with a social worker.

He will leave the kid alone, as they definitely need some time alone and to collect their thoughts.

Yet, Sebby and the Farmer are always there to cheer up the kid.

On a rainy day, he will show the baby the best place to find frogs.

Sebastian is good at supporting both his partner and their baby.

It can be awkward at times, but Sebby loves them all, so it will be okay.

Harvey:

Given Harvey's profession, he's pretty adept at finding common ground with anxious children.

So when Farmer first introduced Harvey to their child from their first marriage, the local Pelican Town doctor already knew how to behave.

He's glad that despite the divorce, Farmer is trying their best to support their kid, as stress can take a big toll on not only their mental health, but their physical health as well.

Even more so, it's not the child's fault that fate has worked out this way and their parents live in completely different places.

Of course, Harvey is not as "cool" as other bachelors, but he manages to interest the child in his model aeroplanes.

Maybe if they like to read, the doctor will give them something interesting to read (something that isn't a medical encyclopedia).

Harvey almost cried when the kid called him uncle and cool adult.

And all was going smoothly until a social worker knocked on the door of the farmhouse.

After explaining that the other parent, Farmer's ex, could no longer financially support the child, they placed the child in their care.

Harvey is worried about them, because all the fear of moving, new surroundings, and separated parents can have a very negative effect on poor kid.

Harvey will try to be there to help them and Farmer.

Maybe insist on therapy for the kid. Still, it could use some professional help.

Fortunately, Harvey knows what to do and he won't let anyone or anything upset Farmer and their kid. Doctor's words!

Elliott:

Elliott still can't believe that Farmer's ex turned out to be such a coward and unworthy person! Cheating on Farmer. when they already had a child together!

Of course, now Farmer is with him, and yes, it's not worth spending all the nerves on the past, but it's just that the writer is outraged to the core.

Also outraged that the ex just abandoned their child like that, saying they "don't have time for them now." Unbelievable!

Poor child... As much as the Farmers tried to comfort their own kud, all of these events took a heavy toll on them. And Elliott decided it was his duty to help the kid and Farmer, the love of his life.

His first attempts, though, end awkwardly, as Elliott doesn't know where to start. And should he start so immediately? Maybe they need some alone time on the contrary?

He decided to pick up a couple of books to help (mostly children's books, and a couple of books about how to communicate with children/teens).

The writer was lucky that the kid loves books!

There was even a moment when the kid felt comfortable around Elliott and asked them to help make their own little book. Elliott is more than happy to help them.

He also won't forget to praise the Farmer, because it was through their efforts and love that their child didn't fall victim to the neglect of the other parent. It's a shame that, coincidentally, the kid didn't arrive sooner.

Elliott will have a bit of a hard time, but he will do a great job in the role of carer for the Farmer and their kid, accepting them as his own child.

[candyk0rn]

Hii could I make a request for megumi as a parent?^^

☆Parenting☆

Believe it or not in the years I’ve been writing I’ve never answered an ask like this lmao. Always a first for everything, right? Thanks for the request! Have a great night/day!

Warnings: aged up!Megumi

Included: Fushiguro Megumi

Megumi tries his best as a father, because he wants to be the best

And overall? He’s very balanced

He’s stern when he needs to be, and very intimidating when his child does something they know they aren’t supposed to do

He doesn’t even need to say a word and they know they screwed up

He never hits or physically does anything for punishment, but he does discipline

But just the look™️ that he gives is terrifying LMAO

On the opposite hand, he’s incredibly careful and gentle

He watches what he says and does, wanting to be a good influence

He’ll never admit it, but he tries to imitate Gojo at times, knowing that his way of being a guardian was basically his only reference

Yuuji is obviously the “uncle” in this situation, he’ll show up uninvited just to see the little one

And Yuuji is the “cool uncle” that’ll do things Megumi told him specifically not to do

“No sweets after six” ? Oh, so you mean eat candy until we drop right??

He likes to read to his child, although not particularly fond of children’s books

He thinks they’re too simple, when he would much rather read a low-level chapter book to them instead

Megumi enjoys watching his child sleep

Not in a creepy or ominous way, but he enjoys listening to their small breaths leave their mouth, so incredibly happy that he was blessed with a child so precious

Once they get a little older, he will listen to any demand they have

Wanna play with his hair? Okay.

Wanna do his makeup? He’s stealing from his partner’s drawer already

I wouldn’t say he spoils them, but he does find it difficult to say no

Who wouldn’t have trouble? He believes his child to be the definition of perfect.

When his child cries or throws a tantrum is where he falters

Growing up, he never really threw fits, so he’s unsure of how to handle all of it

But he does his absolute best to try and help

As goes with everything parent wise

He’s a good dad <3

Thanks for reading!

[bet-on-me-13]

Immortal Cop Danny P.2

Part 1

So, we have seen my scenario where Danny is revealed as an Immortal Cop really late in the Timeline, like nearly the entire Batfamily has already been formed kinds of late.

But what about a world where Danny has been on the Force since Batman Year 1?

Officer/Detective Nightingale has been one of the best and most loyal members of the GCPD for well over 3 decades. He didn't hide his "Meta Ability" when he first joined the force, since Gotham hadn't been introduced to all of their Superpowered Rouges yet, and the attitude for Metas in Gotham was nowhere near as harsh as it would be in the future.

He was one of the Go-To Cops in the early days of the Batman, since he had proven to be trustworthy and most people felt comfortable talking to him. Most of the community respected him, although some saw his power of Immortality as unnatural or freakish.

Batman met Officer Danny on one of his earliest cases. Danny pushed him out of the way of a Bullet and saved his life, getting shot in the process.

Bruce will never forget when Danny reached into the hole on his side and pulled the bullet out with his fingers. He didn't even flinch.

Danny has also been one of Commissioner Gordon's best friends and closest confidants for years. He was even offered the job of Commissioner once due to his extensive experience on the Force, but refused since he knew Gotham would never accept a Meta Commissioner, or maybe because he believed that he wasn't the right fit for the job.

Dick remembers the time when Officer Nightingale found out about Robin's age. He will always think of Danny laying into Bruce for bringing in such a young kid as one of his fondest memories.

Gordon remembers being invited to dinner with Danny's mom, a nice if cryptic lady dressed in gothic clothes who thanked him for all the work he did for the city, and for keeping her streets as safe as possible. Apparently she did the same for Batman, who had gone to Danny's apartment for some information and left with a full belly and plenty of leftovers.

He was basically the best Cop you could ask for. Calm, kind, honest, understanding, and he genuinely seemed to be trying to help the people around him.

Barbra calls him Uncle Danny, and he was there to help her adjust when she lost use of her legs.

Commissioner Gordon thinks of Danny as his best Cop/Friend, unflappable and loyal to a fault.

Bruce thinks of him as one of his more trusted allies, on the same level as Commissioner Gordon even.

Robin called him "Cool Cop D". Later, he was one of the reasons Dick decided to become a Police Officer.

Hell, even Damian commended the man's resolve to help the City, which was considered a monumental feat at the time.

Which is why it was such a shock when Danny disappeared.

He just didn't show up for work one day. This in and of itself wasn't too out of the ordinary, but he usually called in to tell them he was gonna miss a day. They thought it was just because he was so anxious lately, jumping at the little things like a guy bumping into him or asking to leave room at the mention of Autopsies

Then he missed the next day. Not that bad, I mean he had been really stressed out recently. Maybe he just needed an extra day, to work off the stress? Nobody was really worried anything had happened to him, he was immortal after all, but they were still concerned.

Then he missed a third day. This was far more concerning. The last time this happened, Danny had been found passed out in his apartment because he hadn't slept in days and hadn't eaten in weeks (what's the point if he won't die either way?).

He had been put on medical leave for a month after that.

So one of the guys decided to visit his house, just to see if he needed some help.

They find the apartment empty. No evidence that he ever lived there. It was like the entire place had been scrubbed clean of anything that even hinted at his existence, and whoever had done it obviously wanted to cover their tracks.

So, an investigation is launched.

And almost instantly, the Feds take the Case from the GCPD and declare Danny as dead a week later.

Seems they forgot to take a look at his Resume...

So Gordon takes this to Bats, who immediately starts investigating the Feds in White who showed up to steal the case.

...

Tag List:

@overtherose @kyrianclawraith @ghostreblogging @the-autistic-spider @just-rant-and-write-fic-idea

[e-dubbc11]

I was wondering…in the Sweetest Pain Series, around what age does Dylan go from sweet mama loving baby, to the cool guy he is currently?

Hello my darling friend! Thank you for sending in this ask ♥️ I hope you like what I’ve done here and I know this technically wasn’t a part of my follower celebration but I think I’ll put in in the masterlist for it when I create one. So thank you for sending in this ask for our favorite family ♥️

He’s Not So Little Anymore

Photos are not mine. They are courtesy of Pinterest/Google.

Pairing: Tattoo Artist Billy Russo x F! Reader with their son Dylan

Warnings: I think a couple of swear words, the rest is pure fluffy bunnies and unicorns, a few tears, feelings of your babies growing up

Word Count: 1.8K-ish

Summary: Reader is feeling a little sad that her son is too old to hang out with his mom. Billy comforts her.

A/N: Thank you again for sending this in, I know how much you like this series and this family and to everyone else who enjoys this series, thank you all for reading! And I’ll leave the rest of the series linked HERE

As always, thank you for reading!  I appreciate it so much and comments, reblogs are welcome and encouraged. Don’t be shy to tell me your favorite part. 💕💕💕

Acceptance is a difficult emotion to navigate.

Knowing Dylan wouldn’t be little forever, you tried to convince yourself that you still had some time left for cozy snuggles, for him asking you to watch a movie with him, secretly observe him play with his dinosaur toys, or to hear him call you “mommy.” But the truth was he had outgrown all of those things and you were having a hard time accepting that.

Dylan was your second baby but he wasn’t a baby anymore. He went from playing with toy cars to racing go-karts with his friends. His once round chubby little face had started to thin out, he started styling his wild dark brown hair before school every day and suddenly he didn’t trust you to pick out his clothes anymore. Dylan had asked for you or Billy to take him shopping for school clothes because he had his own taste now, he knew what he liked and didn’t like, and he wanted to be the one to pick out his own clothes.

You were still getting used to your daughter, Anna Raven, growing up also. She was 14 now and her own little person with her own ideas, likes and dislikes. She was on her way to becoming a young adult even though it killed you to watch her grow up when it seemed like it was just yesterday she was getting her first pair of toddler Converse sneakers and saying her first words.

But Dylan was your precious baby boy, your little man, and, like Anna, he was growing up before your eyes. He was 10 years old, into playing video games, taking guitar lessons, and really enjoyed hearing about all the pranks his father and Uncle Frank pulled on each other while they were in the Marines. He was always just in complete awe of his dad serving his country being a marine.

While Dylan was at his guitar lesson, Billy came home a little early and found you in the living room.

“What are ya doin’, sweet girl?” Asked Billy, as he walked toward the couch where you were seated.

With a slight hitch in your voice, you replied, “Looking at Dylan’s baby pictures.”

Billy sat down next to you, looked down at the open pages, and you watched as his lips curled into a slight smile.

He pointed to one at the top of the page. Dylan was sitting in his high chair with cake and frosting smeared across his face. His fingers spread far apart on his chubby little hands to help him grab as much cake as possible to shovel into his mouth and his cheeks were so full of cake, he looked like a squirrel storing acorns for winter.

“His first birthday. He destroyed that cake, remember?” Said Billy, with a slight chuckle.

You laughed a little too as you swiped a tear away from your cheek.

“The T-Rex didn’t see that coming, did he.” You said with a warm smile.

Billy could hear the hitch in your voice like you were fighting back tears and you really were, they burned the back of your eyes as you tried to keep yourself from weeping. He knew you were barely holding yourself together when he drew you in close, your ear flush against his chest, and you could hear the gentle rhythm of his heart.

“It’s ok, baby. You can cry if you need to.” Said Billy, kissing the top of your head.

Your gentle sob broke through, “He’s not a baby anymore, Billy! Sometimes I…I miss when they were little, that’s all. Anna’s a teenager, she’s starting to do more things with her friends and is very involved in school. And Dylan, he used to be my little buddy, we used to do a lot of things together and now he’s taking guitar lessons, actually combing his hair and flashing girls that perfect Russo smile of yours.” You said with dryness in your throat.

Billy softly pressed his lips to your forehead, you could feel a wide smile stretch across his face, and a slight chuckle escaped the side of his mouth. Like a cat, you buried your face into his green Henley as his long arms squeezed you tightly.

Your voice was somewhat muffled as you said, “You’re laughing at me, Billy.”

“Only a little.” He replied. “But that’s what they’re supposed to do, sweet girl. We prep them for the real world, teach them not to be assholes, guide them in the right direction and off they go. They still need us, baby, but I know what you mean…sometimes I miss when they were little too.”

You remembered how nervous Billy was when he found out he was going to be a father, he never had one so he was scared he wouldn’t be a good one. He watched Frank with his kids and he loved being an uncle to Lisa and Junior but knowing he was going to have a child of his own, Billy was scared he wouldn’t be good at it.

He surprised himself at how he took to it so naturally when Little Raven was born. The first time he held her, fed her, changed her…and although it was still difficult, it was easier than he thought it would be and by the time Dylan came around, Billy was a professional.

He really was a great dad.

Both Anna and Dylan were always very relaxed when Billy held them with the exception of the time period where Dylan always wanted mommy, not daddy. They rarely cried or struggled and instead, just melted into his arms like you did when he held you in an embrace.

You remembered telling him then, “They trust you, baby. You make them feel safe and protected, just like you do for me.”

Inhaling the scent of green soap from his shirt, you replied, “Not fair baby, you’re using my words against me.”

“Well my wife IS a lot smarter than I am. She knows what she’s talking about.” Said Billy.

When you raised your chin up to meet his gaze, Billy was fondly looking down at you with his endless brown eyes and the loving smile that he’s given you thousands of times. He inched his face closer to you and softly pressed his lips to yours, they tasted like peppermint and his hand cupped your cheek.

After setting the photo album down next to you on the couch, you crawled into his lap, brushed the bristles of his beard with your thumbs, and deepened the kiss as a low growl escaped his lips.

Billy’s hands traveled to your ass which took you by surprise and you let out a yelp.

“Ya know, beautiful, Anna is just upstairs and Dylan should be home any minute from his lesson. You keep kissing me like that, it’s gonna lead to somethin’ the kids shouldn’t see.” He said with a smile in between kisses.

With a slight pout and a quick bat of your eyelashes, you said, “Okaaaaaay, will you play with me later?”

Outside, a car door slammed shut and then you heard a key in the lock.

“Just try and stop me, sweet girl.” Said Billy, as he kissed the tip of your nose.

The front door closed and Dylan walked into the living room carrying his guitar case.

“Hey Mom, hey Dad.” Dylan said. “Whaaaaat were you guys doin’?” He asked with narrowed eyes.

“Lookin’ at your baby pictures! You wanna see?” You asked excitedly.

“Maybe later, I gotta go practice. Oh, when Ms. Mullaney dropped me off she was talkin’ about this old movie she likes that she thinks I’d like called Aliens. You know it, right Mom? You know every movie on earth!” He said.

“Excuse me? Old movie?!!” You said with an elevated voice.

Billy jumped in.

“Uh, baby he’s not wrong, it is an old movie.” He said.

Deflated, you replied, “Yeah, you’re right it is old…I just didn’t wanna say it out loud because that means I’m old.”

Billy and Dylan started to laugh, both of them exuding that perfect smile that you loved so much. Your not-so-little boy was an exact copy of his father from his wild dark brown hair, intense brown eyes, and, of course, the million dollar smile.

Billy said, “And just because it’s old, doesn’t make it any less awesome…just like your mother. I’m kidding! I’m kidding, baby!”

He started to laugh as a long drawn out gasp escaped your lips.

“Billy Russo! How dare you!” You said as you tried to keep a straight face but ended up laughing too.

“Dad did say you were awesome too, Mom.” Said Dylan with a reassuring smile. “So, will you watch it with me later, Mom? Please?”

The tears stung the back of your eyes. Trying your best to not let them fall, you replied, “Of course I will, buddy.”

With an excited smile, he replied, “Cool! Well, I’m gonna go practice for a little while. Be ready to watch when I’m done, ok?”

“I will be ready!” You said enthusiastically as you watched him walk up the stairs to his room.

As soon as his door closed, your tears fell but Billy was right there to catch them before they streaked down your cheeks and placed a gentle kiss on your lips.

“See sweet girl, he’s getting older but Dylan still wants to hang out with his mom.” He said with a wink. “I love you.”

You replied, “I love you too, handsome. Ooh! We get to play our favorite game! Ok, 20 bucks says he’s gonna start his practice session with Come as You Are – Nirvana. What’s your guess?”

Billy pondered for a minute and scratched at his beard with his long fingers before he said, “Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple.”

The two of you shook hands and waited patiently for Dylan to fire up his guitar. It was so quiet in the living room, you could hear a pin drop before the familiar riff of Come as You Are traveled from Dylan’s room down to the living room where you were.

Pumping both fists in the air, an excited smile stretched across your lips as you let out a taunting laugh.

“HA!! Pay up, baby!” You said.

“SHIT!” Exclaimed Billy as he pulled a twenty out of his pocket and aggressively slapped it into your hand. He hated to lose at anything. “Are you cheating? I’ve lost like four in a row now!”

“I don’t think I like your tone, lieutenant and I resent your insinuation that I would use our child to cheat.” You said with a narrowed expression and a sly grin.

“Alright, can we call a truce?” Billy said with his hands up.

You snaked and clasped your hands around his neck before inching yourself closer to him. Your lips ghosted over his before you said, “I’ll give you a truce, if you kiss me like you mean it, Mr. Russo.”

Billy touched the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth before purring in your ear, “Yes, ma’am.”

Both of your children were growing up, exploring, and doing their own things but you and Billy will always have the wonderful memories of creating and enjoying your beautiful little family.

Tag List: @wheresthesunshinesblog @idaoftheburningmind @rafaelakelley @fakehappy27 @snowkestrel @music-indie-tv @kayhi808 @munsonownsmyass @gijos @fictional-hooman @nutmeg17 @k-marzolf @vaguekayla @rosaleenablack @danzer8705 @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @aoi-targaryen @mysteriouslydeafeningwerewolf @rachlovesactors @qu1etwolf

Others that might enjoy: @itwasthereaminuteago @fluffyprettykitty @ittybxttykxttytxtty @imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend @mrsbillyrusso @colereads

If you’d like to be added (or removed from) my tag list(s) for the ever so handsome Billy Russo, just let me know and thank you again for reading! 💕💕💕 If I tagged you but you didn’t want to be, just let me know and I’ll never do it again.

[thescarletnargacuga]

Could we get a cute little one shot for Harlequin of Cade being an awesome big brother to Anya (the Jesterdoll kid) for Specter :)

A/N:AAAAAA-YOU'RE SPOILING MEEEEE!!

HALF SIBLINGS, FULL FAMILY

A HARLEQUIN AU ONESHOT

Harlequin AU credit: @iamespecter @tadc-harlequin-au

MEET ANYA and CADE

WARNING: NONE

~~~

Cade sprinted through the mansion halls and up the stairs to his shared bedroom with Anya. He burst through the door, startling his younger half sister from her book.

"ANYA, ANYA, ANYA!! THE TREEFORT IS DONE! COME ON!" He jumped up and down, pointed back through the door he nearly knocked off the hinges.

"Really?" She put down her book, careful to bookmark her page, and grabbed her teddy.

"YEAH! We have a real fort to play in this time! Come on, come onnnnn!!!" He ran in circles by the door.

Anya smiled and went to follow but Cade impatiently grabbed her hand and ran with her outside.

It was a beautiful day. Spring was in full swing and everything around the manor grounds was vibrantly green and alive with bloom. The treehouse was built on the sturdiest tree on the edge of the small forest on property closest to the mansion, in plain view of any windows.

The miniature two-story structure was built around the trunk of the tree. A wrap-around balcony offered a scenic view from all sides. It had two slides, a straight slide from the first floor and a spiral slide from the second. It had a zipline connected to another distant tree that would take them to the ground. Two swings hanging below. A rock climb as an alternative way to get inside from the ladder.

Cade let go of Anya to climb up the ladder and check out the inside. It was huge! While the inside was plain, it wasn't empty. They had play tables and chairs and toy boxes and drawing boards on the walls and a small swing inside. A short staircase led to even more space on the lofty second floor. The windows were open, letting in light and the breeze, but he saw small lightbulbs on the ceiling and the balcony.

"Woooooow..." Cade quietly exclaimed. This was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen.

"Eh...urg-" Anya struggled up the ladder with her teddy.

Cade heard her and helped her up. "There you go. Isn't this place cool??"

Anya looked around with a smile. "Yeah! We could have so many tea parties up here." She pictured filling one of the toy boxes with her dollies and bringing books up to read in the swing by the sunshine.

"Heck yeah, we can! And we can race down the slides! And- oh my gosh, a zipline!! I've always wanted one of these!" He ran to the drop point on the balcony and grabbed the rope with a small wooden circle seat to ride down. "Hey, Anya, you wanna go first?"

Anya squeezed her teddy and stepped back. "No, thanks."

Cade shrugged. "Okay. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" The zipline was everything he hoped it would be; fast and fun all the way down. The cord widened to a slow stop before his feet touched the ground. "THAT WAS AWESOME!!" He shouted back at Anya, watching him from the balcony. "YOU SHOULD TRY IT!!"

Anya nervously looked at the long line down. "....no, I'm okay." From her vantage point, she saw a large lumbering figure emerging from the shade of the trees. She gasped. "CADE!! LOOK OUT!!"

Cade spun around to see Kingr coming out of the forest, covered in twigs and loose leaves. "Uncle Kingr!! Look! We have a tree fort now!" He jumped up and down as he excitedly pointed at the new playhouse.

"I see! Good for you to have such a strong fortress at such a young age." Kingr beamed with pride.

Cade's eyes narrowed mischievously. "Bet you can't get us inside!" He sprinted away and scrambled up the ladder, giggling the whole way.

The invitation to play caught Kingr off guard but he gladly accepted. "Oh, can't I?" His four arms snaked out from his back as he encroached in the kids' fort.

"Hide, Anya! He's gonna get us!" Cade rushed inside to go to the second floor.

Anya smiled and playfully screamed as one of Kingr's hands tapped along the edge of the balcony nearest her. She ran along the circling balcony, only to be stopped by another hand crawling at her. She ducked inside and went upstairs with Cade.

They both screamed and squealed and laughed as Kingr's hands playfully followed them around. He eventually got both of them, gently holding one in each hand and reels them down to him. "Gotcha."

"No fair, Uncle Kingr!! Your arms are too long!" Cade struggled against the light grip on him.

"You dared challenge me. Of course I'm going to use all of the assets at my disposal." He chuckled. "Who made this marvelous structure anyway?"

"Z did!" Cade answered. "They said they would do it, and they got it done so fast!"

"Have you thanked them yet?" Kingr arched a brow.

Both children looked sheepish. "No..." Anya said quietly.

"Then that is your next mission. Operation: gratitude." He looked around and spotted Z coming out of their residence. "There they are, go say thank you, but don't get too close. They can't see you if you're underfoot." He released them and Cade immediately bolted towards Z. Anya followed at a walk.

"Z! HEY, Z!" Cade waves his arms to get the massive puppet's attention.

Z stops and looks down at the comparatively tiny child. They weren't going to move an inch until they were sure Cade and Anya were clear of their footpath.

"Thanks for AWESOME TREEFORT!!" Cade fidgeted in place, still having way too much energy to burn.

Anya caught up. "Yeah! We love it!"

Z nodded. "I'm glad you like it." Their heart warmed from the admiration for their work. A constructor's pride that she could never quite deactivate.

"Did somebody say TREEFORT!?" A voice surprised them.

"JAX!!" Cade and Anya cheered at the sight of their favorite playmate. Cade immediately goes in for a tackle, only to be caught and hoisted onto Jax's shoulders. Anya runs in to hug his leg. Jax pats Anya on the head before scooping her up in his arm.

"What kind of trouble are you squirts getting into today?" Jax took long legged strides towards the treefort. Kingr had moved on elsewhere.

"We defended the fort from Uncle Kingr!" Cade raised his arms up in victory.

"Impressive!"

"I wanna go down the slides." Anya said quietly. "Will you go with me?" She gripped the lapels of Jax's coat.

He could never say no to her, especially when she gave him such baby doll eyes. "Of course. Which one do you want to do first?"

"The...the big one that spins around."

"How brave." He encourages her with a smile. "Chompers here can race us down the other one."

"YEAAAAH!!" Cade kicked his legs with excitement.

Jax's flexible body noodles down the slide with ease. Despite the spiraling slide being higher up, they beat Cade to the ground several times. When Anya had the courage to go down the slide alone, Jax waited at the bottom to catch her. "You did so good!" He cheers for her as he lifts her up in the air. She giggles and reaches out to him for a hug. He holds her close and squeezes warmly. Anya gives him a kiss on the nose with her teddy bear. A part of him heals in that moment.

"Oh boy! Snacks!!" Cade suddenly says and runs at Gangle, approaching with a tray of refreshments.

"Hello, young sir Cade." Gangle greeted with a gentle smile. She lowered the tray and let him take his choice of snack and drink. "Are you having fun?"

"THE BEST!!" He tossed the snack in his mouth and monched it loudly.

Anya joins and takes only a drink. "Thank you, aunty Gangle."

"You're very welcome, young miss Anya." She raised the tray back up and offered it to Jax. "Would sir Jax care for a snack?"

"I already do." He winked.

Gangle nearly dropped the tray, her mask flushing with flustered patterns. "Oh, my... Not in front of the children." She whispered.

Both Anya and Cade were completely oblivious to the conversation, enjoying their refreshments.

"I'll take one." Pomni grabbed a finger sandwich from the tray and popped it in her mouth.

"Oh! Of course, Madam Pomni! Have as much as you like."

"You really don't have to call me that." Pomni said through the food in her mouth. "We're friends for fu-" She spots her kids watching and clears her throat. "-for crying out loud."

"I insist!" Gangle asserted her stance. "You are the wife of the Master of the Manor! It's only proper."

Pomni rolled her eyes and popped in another mini sandwich. "Whatever you say."

After Cade finished his snack he wrapped his arms and legs around his mother's leg. "Play with us!" Anya joined him, grabbing Pomni's other leg. "Yeah!! Pleeeeeeease?"

"Fiiiiine, since you asked so nicely." Pomni smiled and tried walking with both kids clamped to her shins. It was slow and awkward but she was making progress to the swings under the treefort.

"Welp, looks like I've been replaced." Jax chuckled and put an arm around Gangle. "How about you and I go see what there is to eat in the pantry."

The tray clattered lightly as Gangle's hands shook. "That- that sounds like a wonderful idea, sir Jax." The patterns on her mask rorschached wildly on her cheeks as she left with him.

Pomni alternates pushing Cade and Anya on their swings. Cade insisted on going higher with every push, Anya was happy with a light swing.

Ragatha and Caine were having tea in the garden, watching Pomni and the children. Ragatha poured him a cup and he sipped it without adding any alcohol. He sighed contently. "I don't know about you, but I feel like we won at life."

Ragatha smiled, looking at Pomni and Anya. "I couldn't agree more."

Bubble hovered nearby. "Congratulations to you both for fucking the Harlequin and winning." He sniggered.

Ragatha spat her tea. "BUBBLE!!"

"I WILL DEACTIVATE YOU IF YOU DON'T LEAVE THIS INSTANT!!" Caine blustered at the moment being ruined by his snarky butler.

[kiss-me-muchoo]

𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 || 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐎’𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲_ In an earth from the 1600’s that still hunts witches, you and your friends are sent on a mission to catch an anomaly. When the villagers catch you and are about to burn you, Miguel has to go and save you. The act, will lead to you and Miguel having a heart-to-heart talk, solving your problems. 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬_ witch!reader, implied short reader, legal age gap, violence, witchcraft, religion mentions, some horror, angst, fluff. 𝐀/𝐍_ I did something bad, that’s the song for this.

♪ ♫ My Miguel O’Hara playlist ✰ Index (+ fics here) ➪ bookstagram acc (in need of friends)

_____________

Maybe you exaggerated the sparkles in your eyes.

The black eyeshadow with glitter on top was scandalous, and the red gloss on your lips only made it look more exaggerated.

But someone knocked on the door when you were about to wipe the gloss.

“Coming!” You let your guests know.

When you open the door, there are a lot of interesting sights.

Miles and Gwen are dressed as Frankenstein and his bride, Hobie is dressed as a zombie policeman, Pavitr is dressed as a pirate, and Baby Mayday is a fairy.

“OH- all of you look so cute and cool” you squeal, stealing Mayday from Pavitr’s arms.

“You are the prettiest fairy!” She coos and giggles, playing with the feathers on your cleavage. You were the black swan. Yes, from the movie, with pointe shoes alike shoes and all.

“You look so pretty!” Gwen flatters you, as you step aside from the door to let the group in.

“Thanks. So… uh-… Where’s Peter?” You ask once the door closes, and your adult friend is nowhere nearby.

“Jess. He was about to come but she took him to guide a briefing” Miles says, and you roll your eyes. Sometimes you hated how devoted Jess was. No wonder why Miguel trusted her a lot.

“Oh. That’s okay. We can start without him…” they all nod.

The plan was simple. Your friends decided to have a little gathering at your place. Halloween was around three weeks away. A night with spooky movies (Mayday friendly), pumpkin pie, ghost stories, and more sounded good.

'`We bought pumpkin cheesecake and cinnamon bread pudding’ Miles adds. Your mouth waters at the smell.

“You can place them in the kitchen. Thanks…"Soon Miles and Gwen are making nachos in your kitchen, Pavitr and Hobie are playing over what movie they should pick, and you are playing with Mayday on the carpet of the living room.

“Dude…y/n, can you tell Hobie that The Exorcist isn’t an option to see as a movie with Mayday here?” You laugh, stopping your little hide-and-seek game with the toddler to see the pair of boys.

“I have to agree with Pav. We can see a cartoon though?” Hobie huffs but nods smiling at Mayday trying to walk.

A sudden bang startles you, Pavitr, and the little kid. It came from the kitchen.

“SORRY” Gwen yells. You wonder what the hell they did.

“The olives can almost explode…” the blonde explains, poking through the kitchen door.

Casper is quickly the most-voted movie to see. When Dr. Harvey is giving an interview on TV and Casper watches it, Miles and Gwen appear with two giant nacho bowls.

They sure did an amazing job. At the bottom, tons of chips. Covered in loads of cheese, tomato, onions, beef, jalapeños, black olives, crema, and more cheese.

“I’m gonna need a diet after this…” you say, making them laugh.

“No worries, my aunt makes this fermented tea that will make you stay in shape with your usual exercise” Pav was that emotional friend you were so grateful to have.

“Really? Aww. Thanks, Pav” he nods, taking Mayday to snuggle with her.

The only sounds in the living room are Casper talking with his uncles, the crunch of the nachos, and some farts from Mayday.

An hour later, the movie is done. There are no nachos left, most of the bread pudding is gone and the rain has started. Oh, and Peter was still at the HQ dressed as a pirate.

“So as the little girl walked through the woods, soon she found a hanging man… the corpse was already rotten…” Hobie’s deep voice made his narrowing of a horror story more thrilling.

By that time, nobody had a costume, only pajamas. You hold Mayday tightly to your chest. She can’t understand the story at all, but she can tell it is about something spooky.

“She sat next to the corpse, and placed the flowers she had in his chest.”

“That’s so creepy,” Pavitr admitted, listening to Hobbie.

“The sun was almost gone, and the little girl had to go back home” As your punk friend continued with the story, Gwen, Miles, Pavitr, Mayday and you became sandwiched.

“She continued playing with the rotten fingers of the corpse. And suddenly… a branch cracked, startling her, but she remained still…” you gasped, feeling your heart beating faster.

Even the thunders seemed to have increased, adding more suspense and terror to your dismay.

“She slowly turned back to see.”

BANG!

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Everyone screamed. Even Hobie jumped to be in the safety of Pavitr’s arms.

Peter entered your living room through a portal.

“PETER B. PARKER, WHAT THE FUCK?” You yell at him.

“Don’t curse in front of my baby…” it’s the first thing he says, swiping some stuff from his gizmo.

“Where’s your costume?” Miles asks, making everyone realize the older man is in his suit… No pirate costume.

“Sorry, Miles. Actually, I’m here to ruin the party” Everyone looks at each other. You worry something wrong happened back at the HQ.

“Miguel wants us to go on a mission… Now” the complaints start. Including you.

After almost a year of being part of the Spider Society. You barely talked with Miguel O’Hara. To be honest, you actually thought he disapproved of you. The only reason why he accepted you was for the pressure of having Miles and everyone on his side after the events with The Spot.

“Bruv… Are you for real?” Hobie asks, sounding pissed. Even Mayday seems to frown in your arms.

“I know! I wanted to have some pictures with Mayday for her scrapbook” You swear Peter was about to cry out of complaining.

At the same time, the hologram of Miguel popped, immediately rolled his eyes at the sight of Peter being dramatic.

“Enough of that. We’re losing time and all of you are still dressed like clowns…” you frown.

Sometimes Miguel was so annoying. So, you tested him by disobeying him from time to time. Just because you felt some resentment towards him because he always seemed to dislike you.

“We’re dealing with a violent and big Green Goblin attacking Earth 36363. The time course is in the mid-1600s, so we have to act in disguise. There’s a village that is dealing with some witch trials, and the canon will be disturbed if they find out about the Goblin” everyone hears as they activate their suits.

You, on the other hand, grew worried. Folkloric lands sounded scary. And you knew witch trials weren’t only a show of the villagers to send innocent people to stake. Witches existed, and the old ones were the worst.

“Uh… Miguel? I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go…” you admit shyly, placing Mayday on your couch.

The man, in hologram form, finally turned to look at you. He must’ve been paying attention to your exaggerated makeup and crown.

“Do us a favor and do what you’re supposed to do, please.” you accept he’s looking deeply at you. Which makes you hesitate whether you are growing mad or nervous.

“Why are you so mean to me all the time?”

“I’m not mean. But you are the newest here and the laziest. As your mentor I-“

“Jessica is my mentor.” You interrupt him. Everyone grows quiet, and the tension is evident.

Miguel’s dark eyes seem to get even darker, probably his talons are out. But you don’t care.

“I’m not repeating myself, y/n. So, unless you want your gizmo gone, you’re gonna go to that earth and beat whatever is there besides the goblin.”

“If anything happens. I’m gonna blame you…” Hobie is smiling. He took a preference for you since you weren’t afraid to face Miguel when he tried to impose. And he recalls accepting to rejoin the society because you befriended him.

“Uh-huh…” Miguel shrugs, spitting sarcasm. And it makes your blood boil.

Gwen places a hand on your shoulder, and her eyes tell you to relax. So, you smile at her, accepting you’re obeying Miguel once again, and battling against the nervous feeling setting in your stomach.

“Okay. So… we’re out in a minute” Peter calls, placing his kid in his chest.

“Good. I’m monitoring with Jess…” and with that, Miguel’s hologram vanished. You roll your eyes.

“Asshole. Why doesn’t he go with Jess? He knew it was our free day” Pav, Miles and Hobie nod at your words.

“You said it. Miguel has changed but…” Peter started.

“Peter, he’s still an asshole. Especially with y/n” the blonde girl speaks, and you can’t help but feel slightly emotional. You were good… Why did he dislike you so much?

“He would be better if I was gone. He dislikes me for not being a spider. And probably he recruited me only because of your trust, especially Miles’s. After what happened…” the boy patted your shoulder.

“Hey, screw what Miguel thinks. You’re special… you’re one of us” his words cheer you up, so you smile brightly.

“Oh- I love you all so much…” Their giggles set you in a better mood. Even with the nervousness and dissolving anger.

With a brush of your hand, your usual suit appears, and you join the little circle to wait for Peter to open the portal.

“So… y/n, it’s gonna be fine, we’re sticking together no matter what. Okay, earth 36363, here we go…” you breathe, and once the portal is open, everyone starts walking in.

…

When you’re on the other side of the portal, the first thing you notice is that the sun is nearly gone. It’s a giant landscape of woods. With tall trees, lots of nature, and a river that can be heard but not seen.

“Everyone here?” Miles asks, counting you and the other to confirm to Peter. It was a protocol that when large groups assisted in missions, they had to ensure everyone landed and exited the visited earth safely.

“Yep, four teens, a young woman, an old man, and a stinky baby” Gwen calls, Mayday in her arms.

“Oh no, Mayday. Again?” Peter had been dealing with a stomach-sensitive Mayday, so he had to carry diapers everywhere.

“Here’s your daughter” everyone laughs, including the little girl.

And as Peter changed Mayday, everyone wandered around, searching for clues to the anomaly.

“Miguel said the goblin was hidden in the forest” the man reveals from a giant rock, where Mayday was laying. And certainly, she looked like a gift for a ritual, which unsettled you.

“Look… a baby rabbit” Pavitr cooed. You followed his eyes, landing on the grass trail in front of you.

Indeed, there was a baby rabbit, dark brown looking directly at your friends and you. That wasn’t a normal rabbit.

It was a woman, transformed into a rabbit.

You can’t be nervous. And you use Miguel and his words. you’re gonna go to that earth and beat whatever is there besides the goblin. Your eyes deepen as you look at the rabbit. Like protecting your friends and saying to that witch; back off bitch, these are my friends.

“That’s not a rabbit, Pav. It’s a witch…” you admit once the rabbit starts running into the woods. At the same time, all of your friends look at you confused.

“She was spying on us?” Hobie asks.

“Likely. Which makes me uncomfortable because What if she tells her coven and they attack us?” Peter finally is over with Mayday and soothes you.

“We’re here too. Besides, Aren't you a witch too?” He asks calmly.

“Yeah, but this kind of witches works with dark magic. They don’t fight, they don’t have to. Using dark magic makes them… powerful” you admit.

“And what do you use?” Miles asks.

“My instinct. I’m not ruled by any magic. Just me…”

“That’s enough for us, y/n. Don’t worry” Pavitr joins to soothe you.

It’s officially dark. The woods seem creepier, and every sound makes you uneasy. Your magical sparkles are the only light on the way.

Peter and you are going to the front. With the teens behind. Mayday is asleep. And there’s no sign of the Green Goblin.

Out of nowhere. You start hearing a woman sing in the distance. It wasn’t an actual song, it was just a humming, which made everything scarier.

“Are you hearing that?” You ask once the humming is even clearer.

“Hear what, y/n?” You won’t panic. But it’s getting harder.

“A woman, humming…”

“I can’t hear anything,” Hobie admits.

“They must know I’m here. Usually, they get rid of witches outside of their coven” you add, capturing everyone’s attention.

“How do you know?”

“In the 1600s, that’s how it worked. But I just know it, I felt a connection with the rabbit. But it felt wrong. So, what I’m hearing must be a warning or a way to distract me” You can’t help but curse Miguel. It was all his fault. And the worst part hadn’t started.

A high-pitched laugh was heard, startling everyone.

“Now I heard that,” Pav admits.

“That’s the goblin, we’re getting closer…” Maybe Peter wasn’t afraid of many things, but he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable on that earth. It had a sad and dark atmosphere. And before you, he didn’t believe in witches. But now…

The moment was stroked by some explosions. It sends everyone flying away. But all of your friends had spider senses, which made them slightly aware of what was coming.

You land in the grass, with dry branches pinching you in the arms. There’s a pitch in your ears that makes you so lost. And just as your eyes focus around, you see Miles and Hobie attacking the Green Goblin.

“We have to go, y/n” Pavitr and Peter scream, but you hear them so distantly.

You nod, and however you can, you start chasing the goblin with your friends.

This goblin is ugly and on the verge of being scary. His green wrinkled skin and red eyes look horrible in the dark. His flying board and orange bombs make him look like an actual Halloween villain.

“Block him, y/n” Gwen yells as she balances and swings through the tall trees.

You suddenly remember you can levítate and you have to end the anomaly. So, you do, you float and leave your friends behind. And as you chase the goblin, you hope to throw him away with your magic.

“Keep in line” Peter advises the spiders. The chase is longer than expected. And while you’re not tired, you’re growing impatient. Until you are fast enough to end up landing on the goblin’s flying board.

His claws threaten your face, but you are able to sneak behind him and throw him.

With your magic, you give him a giant punch in his face.

“WE GOT HIM!” Hobie yells. But as soon as you are about to handcuff him, the goblin throws another explosion.

And this time, you’re not knocked.

…

You know you’re conscious, but there’s only darkness. You don’t dare to run because you have a bad omen.

It was a spell. The witches wanted you down.

Not even the sounds of the woods seem to help. But you make an effort to calm yourself and breathe slowly. You really cursed these witches; you had tried hypnosis once and it was so exhausting. And these women hadn’t even shown their faces but were making you so uncomfortable and in panic.

And that’s when you finally see something, a goat. It’s grey, with deep eyes that look at you with so much curiosity. In folklore, the devil usually was a sheep. You really hate being there. Earth 36363 is cursed, you affirm.

The goat starts moving towards you, and as much as you are calmed, you are scared. So you move back, and there must’ve been a branch, cause you fell backwards. And the hypnosis was gone at all. You can see some of the woods, although it’s extremely dark to see clearly.

You push yourself upwards by the elbows, hoping to see the damn witches. You hear a distant laugh, it’s not like the one you heard from the Goblin. It’s a female voice. The dark silhouettes of women in a dress around you make you finally attack.

“Y/N!” You hear Miles screaming at you. That’s enough to end up confused as hell. The woods are clearer, and you are fighting beside your friends.

“What the fuck happened?” You yell. The boy and Hobie make some time to talk to you.

“We’re fighting the Goblin. What do you mean?” You wonder if you had been physically fighting the goblin but mentally you were fighting with a witch.

“I- don’t know” Peter, Pavitr, and Gwen are higher, away from you.

Making a new bomb of the goblin to send you Hobie and Miles even further away. This time, you know you have to be faster. So, you create a shield for you and your friends. Even when you end up on the ground, nobody is hurt.

“WITCH! AYE, A WITCH!” You frowned, and once you and your friends turned back, you were met with a large crowd of people with torches.

“Bloody hell…” Hobie curses. You learn that there were no more woods behind you, it was the entrance of a village.

“GET THAT WITCH!” And before you can even stand, two men are holding you, dragging ypu towards the crowd.

“NO. Y/N!” Pavitr and Hobie try to attack the villagers, but you are mentally immobilizing them.

“GO BACK WITH THE OTHERS AND TAKE DOWN THE GOBLIN. I’LL FIGURE THIS OUT. GO!” You yell desperately as the villagers celebrate and cheer because they got you.

“Oh, boy…” Pavitr worries, but they start going back with the others.

“Call Miguel…” Hobie suggests. And both know it’s the right thing to do.

…

Miguel gave one last bite to his beef and vegetable empanada. He savored the flavor of the broth and wanted to lick his fingers, but he resisted the urge. Instead, he wiped his mouth and returned to his office.

The sound of emergency made him pace faster, and he was confused when Jess was nowhere to be found, nor Lyla.

“Lyla!” He called her, but there was no answer. So, he ran to his desk and the screens.

Emergency call from Gwen’s gizmo.

Miguel sighed; he could already hear the complaints. Always calling for reinforcements when there was no necessity.

“MIGUEL!” Gwen sounded worried, and Peter could be heard fighting with the goblin.

“THIS PLACE IS CURSED. THE GOBLIN IS VERY STRONG. AND Y/N WAS TAKEN BY THE VILLAGERS” Miguel’s eyes widened. He thought it wouldn’t be as bad as it sounded.

“What?” He asked trying to sound calm, but he was feeling regretful already. As he remembered your words and how unsure you were of going.

“We need reinforcements. There are witches, they’re doing everything to finish y/n. You have to go and save her. The villagers will burn her.” Miguel couldn’t help but feel anxious as he listened to the teen.

It had been a long time since he went into panic mode for someone.

“Calm down. I’m coming with help. Send the exact coordinates” With that, he finished the connection.

Jess and Lyla appeared, talking like nothing.

“Where were you two?” Jess shrugs, looking at the wide man annoyed.

“Helping Lyla and Margo. What happened?”

“The mission is going bad. They can’t contain the anomaly and y/n was taken by villagers who saw her using her abilities” he explained, activating his mask and leaving the office in a hurry.

“I’ll send help myself too. Where are you going?” Jess replies.

“I already sent help. I'm going to save y/n.” The woman and the AI looked at the man until he disappeared through a portal.

“Save y/n? I thought he disliked her” Lyla giggles.

“Are you kidding? Y/n is Miguel’s crush. He’s in denial about his feelings for her.” Her jaw dropped at Lyla’s words.

“I wasn’t ready for that punch” Lyla rolled her eyes, finally leaving with the woman to help.

…

Escape? The villagers would hunt you and that would take more weight on your friends already fighting the goblin.

Leave to the HQ? You couldn’t leave your friends behind. Plus, you won’t give Miguel the satisfaction.

It’s a hard decision to make when the villagers are tightening your feet and arms. The curse you and some men spit. You want to attack them, but that would also go against your morals. Their ignorance wasn’t a reason to kill or attack them.

The reverend of the town is a young man, corrupted by power and corruption. He has the torch that would kill you.

“May thy town abolish the dark magic of this witch today. No more witches!” He yells lifting the torch. And you finally panic.

There’s anger, anxiety, and desperation as the reverend speaks. The coven of witches surrounding the town had to be very powerful and ancient. How they easily tricked you and made you feel scared. Soon, you fall and get captured.

But as much as you want to fight, these people are not the correct target.

“Last words? filthy witch.” The Reverend asks you, pointing the torch at you.

You sigh, thinking what your last words in case you didn’t make it and died. There are a lot of questions and doubts, but you opt to look at the dark sky.

Even the stars seem weird on the earth. Green stars and burned violet sky. And Spiderman-2099 with his bright red webs coming from the ceiling of a house.

“MIGUEL?” Your eyes widen, and somehow you can’t believe you’re seeing the man there. The reverend turns around to encounter the tall spider. Pointing at him in horror.

“DEMON! THE WITCH BROUGHT A DEMON!” At that point, you only roll your eyes.

“Jesus, I can’t stand these people” But you ignore when the reverend dropped the torch, setting the fire on your feet.

“Fuck…” you had to gasp. But luckily, Miguel landed on the little wooden stage set for you.

You can feel his eyes on you, even with his mask on. However, his regret is even more evident.

The villagers run and everything is chaos. Only the reverend and some random men stayed.

And with what probably was one of the first rifles in America, one of the men pointed at Miguel’s back.

‘Miguel. Watch out!” He listened and skillfully avoided the bullet. Then turned again to set you free.

“I’ll be fast,” he said. And with that, his talons ripped the tight in your hands. Which confirmed how sharp they were.

“Thanks.” Apparently, the reverend was losing patience, so he took the rifle and pointed it at Miguel again, but he failed again.

And the fire touched your feet, burning your soft skin as Miguel set you free.

Your scream caught everyone off guard. You fell to your knees, and the look you sent to the reverend and his men was enough to tell them you were totally pissed.

The anger flooded your body, and an expansive wave of your magic pushed everything away. Including some of the houses and trees surrounding the village.

“It’s time to go, kid,” Miguel said. But once he saw you couldn’t stand, he took you in his arms.

Even if you hate it, you end up crying because of the pain.

“It’s okay, y/n. I’m here, it’s over now.”

As Miguel took you in his arms, you realized something. It wasn’t only the physical pain. It was the whole trauma of being on that haunted earth.

…

“I wonder if this whole earth is cursed.” You think loudly looking at the stars once again.

“I doubt it. Okay, no. I’m not sure at all” Miguel admits.

He could have been faster with his webs, but he preferred to walk by the fields of chamomile to have you closer for a longer time.

Of course, he couldn’t dare to admit it.

“So…you think you were simultaneously fighting the goblin and the witches?” You nod, playing with your fingers.

“I guess so. It was so weird and scary. This kind of magic is dark, they use cruel things to scare you away.”

“What kind of magic do you use?” You are surprised, as this is the first time you have been talking with Miguel for real.

“I like to believe I don’t use anything. But I know it is chaos magic.”

“Powerful…” he admits.

“But also, dangerous. That’s why I regret…uh-” You suddenly quiet down, forgetting it’s Miguel O’Hara who you’re talking to.

“You don’t have to tell me…” he would never push you to anything. He barely knew you, even with all the confusing feelings.

“No, it’s okay. I-, discovered my abilities when I was an early teenager. I had two brothers, a baby, and a kid. My babies…” As Miguel carries you through the darkness, he sighs quietly, already sensing where your story is going.

“And I don’t what I did, I would never hurt them… It just happened. I disappeared them. They were gone…” your voice shatters slightly.

“My parents hate me. I haven’t seen him since then. I’m alone and I just- I just loved them so much. That it breaks my soul that I unintentionally killed them” the man stops. He places you so gently on a rock near the end of the fields.

After that, he kneels in front of you.

You know you shouldn’t have over-shared. But you don’t know what possessed you to spill everything with Miguel.

His masks disappear. And you can’t describe what kind of look he’s giving you. So, you avoid it.

“Look at me, y/n” his hands grab your chin, and slowly you rejoin to meet his eyes.

“I know how it feels. You know why” Of course you knew. Peter told you the details, but everyone knew. How he lost his daughter and how he blamed and that’s why he had changed so much.

“Even if you feel like that guilt will never stop chasing you. You have to keep going. For them…” you want to cry again so badly, but you refuse. Even your pulsating burned feet seem to hurt less.

“Why do I feel you tell me exactly what you refuse to do?” He can’t help but chuckle.

“Because you’re right…”

“No, Miguel. You’re so young and bright. You have to go out, meet new people, and be happy…” Nobody had said to him something like that in a long time.

“I’m not the most social person” This time you chuckle.

“Oh c’mmon, there must be someone you could hang out with.” He keeps quiet. Even when he's on his knees, you barely face him.

“What about Anya? Betty? Peter J?” You suggest to him some spider mates.

“What about you?” His question shocks you.

“Me?” You blush and thank the moon of the earth for not being too bright that night.

“Forget it. Sorry…” he replies, you know he���s embarrassed. So, you stop him from standing up.

“No, wait, Miguel. I would hang out with you. It’s just I never thought I was even contemplated as an option” he nods.

Just like he didn’t know why he was so careful and decided to talk about his trauma with you, he dint know what had possessed him to ask you out. Probably the witches, he thought.

“Well, you were the first option, actually.”

Both of you smile, and both of you know it. Slowly, he got closer, than you. And finally, inches away from each other face, waiting for a first kiss to happen.

“Are we interrupting?” Hobie’s voice makes you and Miguel turn. His mask comes on again, and he takes you in his arms again. Oh, you want to die out of embarrassment.

Miles and Gwen behind him seemed shocked.

“Did Pavitr and Peter take care of the anomaly?” The trio nods.

“Good. Gwen, open the portal, please” she does, and in seconds, you’re back home.

…

This time, you’re in a long grey tube skirt and black sweater, with a witch hat.

“Coming” again, Peter was late for the gathering. Even Jess, Margo, and Ben were in your place that night.

“Look who I brought…” Peter said smiling once you opened the door. Behind him, Miguel was also there. Your face blushes immediately.

Peter has gone inside your house to greet the others. But you stay on the porch with the taller man.

“You came.” Miguel nods scratching the back of his neck, probably embarrassed too.

“Peter insisted.” This time you nod.

“How’s your feet?”

“Better. I Can walk now…” you share, smiling.

Since the night on Earth 36363, since your almost kiss with Miguel and your almost day of death, you hadn’t seen him. It’s only been three days, but the awkwardness had settled.

“So…Did you mean everything you said the other night?” You ask, opting to break the ice.

“I did” he confirms to your surprise. Well, not surprised at all because you know he's a man of word.

“Te ves bien bonita” Miguel O’Hara saying you look pretty in random clothes and a witch hat at a Halloween gathering was so hard to believe.

“I- Thanks” he’s smiling. During the past three days, he slowly came to accept he had some feelings for you.

“Girl… Make a move already” Gwen yelled poking through the door with Margo. You turn to smile at them.

“Kiss him!” Miles screams from inside the place, with Mayday babbling too.

Miguel chuckles, finding the moment very silly. Especially because he knew you were embarrassed.

With your magic, you closed the door and turned to see Miguel again.

“Do you want to kiss me?” You ask him, shyly.

He rolls his eyes and leans to meet you in a kiss.

From inside the house, through the window, of course, everyone is looking at you and Miguel.

You can’t believe what’s happening. You haven’t even thought about the meaning of Miguel kissing you. You never thought about him in other way than just being your boss. But now, you like the butterflies he’s making you feel.

He has to almost kneel to meet your face and keep kissing you. And you find your way to hug his neck, making your witch hat fall.

“Even their outfits match” Peter points out. You had a black sweater, and Miguel had a grey one. You had a grey skirt, and Miguel had black pants.

“This is so weird…” Jess can’t believe it.

“Yes.” Everyone agrees.

Meanwhile, you were still kissing the man. You could easily end up falling in love with him.

…

Part two is coming.

[sillygoofyqueer]

pls four i am trembling shaking sobbing at your wei qingwei thoughts??? my beloved darling big uncle i love him!!!

he seems like the type to call all his disciples by first name and like, have meals with them every so often. it seems like the master-disciple divide is pretty significant on other peaks (or maybe that’s just bc sqq is so reclusive?) but your wqw gives me ‘gathering around a real hearty stew and sharing stories from his own time as a disciple’ vibes.

like i can so easily picture him seeing a new disciple frustrated or scared or homesick, dropping a big, warm hand on their head, and going ‘hey kiddo, how about you help shifu in the forge for a while?’

(sometimes helping in the forge means pounding the shit outta some metal until you’ve worked some shit out of your system; sometimes it means passing wqw tools and listening to him explain what he’s doing in detail; sometimes it means sitting on a stool while shifu works and telling him about your parents and your big sister and the forest where you used to play together. in my heart, he’d make time for every disciple to help in the forge at least once)

also he’s got a stash of first aid supplies to rival qian cao, provided and maintained by mqf personally.

i love wqw now,,, please give me more of your thoughts when you have them,,, i am nourished i am fed i am grateful amen 🙏

HAAHAHHAHAA PROPAGANDA TO MAKE EVERYONE LOVE MY BELOVED BRAINWORMS FORMED MAN. He's so...he's SO....AGH. He's my blorbo now - MXTX didn't characterise him, so I DID IT MYSELF. AND YES YES YES, Wei Qingwei would definitely be emotionally intelligent enough to register when the disciples just need a bit of one-on-one time and definitely give it to them - if YQY is like the big brother of the sect, then WQW slides in as the father/cool uncle of the sect. If one of his disciples isn't feeling alright or just overly wants to curl up in a ball and cry, they can wander into WQW's personal forge/office and he'll greet them with a warm smile and a soft question of how they're feeling. He knows JUST what to say and how to react (Shen Qingqiu has found him in QJP library looking at parenting books. He doesn't say anything about it) to make them feel better. I like to think about the first time Yue Qingyuan met the head disciples - *pulls out the timeline* it says that YQY became head disciple of QDP at nineteen, and, assuming that Liu Qingge and WQW are the same age (we can see that disciples can become head disciples at young ages, with Ming Fan being head disciple of QJP (around 15/16) by the time the novel begins), they could well be head disciples. Or, we could have WQW as WJP head disciple and LQG hanging around with the guy (definitely a candidate for head disciple at this point). This is going off on a tangent, let me pull this back onto my original point instead of thinking about the logistics. YQY meeting one of the other head disciples for the first time (WQW), being really nervous and not really knowing what peak the head disciple is from (thanks for nothing, Shizun!!), gripping some important documents in regard of a mission they've got. He sees a fifteen year old who is far taller than him and definitely muscular under those (WAN JIAN???) robes, grinning at him with a sword (should he have that??) at his side and a thrashing fourteen year old in his grasp. "You must be Yue-shixiong! Liu-shixiong, greet Yue-shixiong!" He shakes the fourteen year old around by the scruff of his robes, and YQY is close to passing out - what do you mean this WJP disciple is teasing a BZP disciple with NO consequences?! Then he gets hit with the...what kind of beam does WQW have...a jiujiu beam??? Because that man definitely has siblings that he cares about a lot (ALL sisters, I'm telling you right now. That's to be described in a later yappering though) and cultivated the perfect jiujiu persona from a young age, just so he was ready for nieces and nephews that his sisters would have. There's no way someone can have a conversation with WQW without getting hit with the beam if he's all relaxed n normal personality. Imagine thinking you're going to be hanging out with younger shidi for a mission and finding a boy who is taller and more muscular than you awaiting your arrival with snacks and travel games planned.

[no-gorms]

Omega Tony Stark getting baby fever later in life (at a similar time to Canon!Tony I guess so mid to late 40’s and let’s pretend there was no CW and the team is still all friends together*). And he never wanted kids before, in fact the very idea made him shudder! (à la IM3). Plus he resent the stereotype of “baby crazy omega” being foisted on him in his youth and fought HARD against it until the public all agreed with him, thank god Tony Stark never had kids.

but then he starts interacting with Peter and he’s getting more into mentoring and he’s been having these dreams of little babies with his eyes…

And like, he knows his body has been thru the wringer even BEFORE the reactor and he hasn’t been gentle since. And he’s been single for years now so it’s not like he has a partner to help him get the job done…

So good thing he has a team! And what luck, he’s besties with some demi-gods and super soldiers and wizards, at least one of them should help cheat biology a bit. And miraculously he’s still getting heats! Inconsistent ones yeah but still, doesn’t hurt to try! better get a move on, the biological clock is ticking!!!

And so he calls a team meeting and asks very sweetly for any volunteers, and Alphas or Beta’s for something like a sperm donor, but if they wanna be part of the little nugget’s life Tony is down with that! Be it cool uncle or full co-parent it’s all gravy. And speaking of gravy

(Yes Tony swung this hypothetical talk by HR and they “highly recommended against it but it isn’t technically illegal…” (thanks to archaic omega laws) so he took that go ahead and ran)

And wouldn’t you know it? Ever since Steve told Tony about his parents and Bucky and some…heated disagreements about the team and politics there’s been some polite distance between them. And during this distance Steve of course realized he had feeling for Tony (king of waiting to long over here) and has been pining every since…

…so maybe that’s why Steve stands up and essentially, loudly, volunteers as tribute, talking loudly over like say Thor who was clearly about to also agree.

Does Tony accept this outright or does shenanigans happen where like, Thor challenges Steve to some kind of contest for the privilege. Or that Tony was gonna leave it up to people to donate anonymously or something but Steve just jumped in feet first

What happens next? Do they try turkey baster style first or is it a known fact in the Omegaverse that the “old fashioned way” is the most effective (blah blah special pheromones thru touch/heat/ancient breeding magic blah blah). Does Steve wanna go full co-parent? Do they start dating DURING the “attempts”? While Tony is preggers?? After the baby gets here???

(preggers!Tony fretting about what to wear on their first date while just SO VERY pregnant is hilarious to me.)

*Or if you wanna go full angst CW DOES happen but the team was able to come together and defeat Thanos and now they are technically all together and friends again but there are ~*~tensions~*~ and (TヘT) …distance~*~ + pining

---

Lol well that's a fun scenario! I don't think Thor would challenge Steve for the honour, but he might see the determined glint in Steve's eye and think to himself, ah what fun! And make a show of trying to convince Tony that he's a better prospect than Steve, arguing about Asgardian genes and the ease of the pregnancies in Thor's family, meanwhile Steve is getting redder and redder in the face, but anyway Tony's like, actually I don't want my kid to suddenly start levitating or whatever magic nonsense you guys get up to, so Steve it is!

Steve would probably suggest the turkey baster (lol) insemination for Tony's ease but it doesn't take and Tony gets anxious because of super soldier swimmers are struggling with Tony's slightly(!) aging self then he might really have a problem so ANYWAY would Steve be up for going the traditional way?

Yes. Yes, Steve would. Anyway it's the best sex Tony's had in his life and he's just like, okay, what was that. Maybe... they can go again just to make sure. A third time, just to be REALLY sure. Then oh he's pregnant so. uh..... that's good. Good job, Steve. Thnx~

But intimacy is what it is and the spectacular sex may have addled Tony's brain because he's totally fine with Steve fussing around him, and asking very politely if he can be part of the child's life and will Tony allow him to take care of Tony during this time? With foot rubs and making drinks for him and fetching hot water bottles and calming Tony down whenever Tony has an attack of the doubts, and so on?

Then Steve is so focused on giving Tony everything he wants and anticipating his every need to make sure the pregnancy goes as smooth as possible, that he misses that Tony is having a slowly-unraveling meltdown under Steve's glorious attention.

I see your possible date while Tony is heavily pregnant, but also I think it would be hilarious if Tony is so determined not to lose focus on the baby, because his priorities have to change with this gift he is bringing into the world and there's no energy left over to do something about developing feelings for Steve (never mind that Tony is king as multitasking)...

But at the very last minute when Steve has sent Tony to the hospital and they're prepping for Tony's c-section, and Tony has another flash of fear for the soon-changing future, and grabs Steve for a big ol' smooch. Steve is shocked, but smooches back. Then Tony gets rolled out to the OR.

[the-authoress-writes]

Up Where We Belong Part Two

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell x Writer!reader

Up Where We Belong Masterlist

Synopsis: When a writer experiencing horrible writer’s block goes to the Apple Valley Airshow for inspiration, she meets a certain older, daring naval aviator, leading to maybe a little more than just inspiration.

Warnings: Age gap (reader is in their late thirties to early forties), some to-be-expected cursing, depiction of the beginnings of a panic attack (it doesn’t become a full blown one).

But really, this is just fluff.

Author’s Note: I intended this to be a two part story, but as always, it didn’t turn out that way (my brain is like a mushroom farm at this point), and the third part of this (fingers crossed), is going to be the final part.

I’m choosing to look on the bright side and I’m telling myself I’m more than halfway done with this.

*sighs in frustrated writer*

This part is a little more MavDad than shippy, but it’s where this wanted to go, so…

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Again, I name a story after a song, from another movie about the Navy, funnily enough.

(Only three of my stories on my masterlist are not named after songs)

I can’t stop, apparently.

So here we go!

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell had been expecting a normal day when he met her.

Or, well, as normal as a day could get for him.

It was a bright and sunny weekend at the Apple Valley Airshow, where Mav had just flown an aerobatic sequence for the gathered crowds in Bianca, his beloved P-51, and Bradley had not taken much convincing to come out for a day with his dad and the chance to see planes, despite the fact that he was already around them Monday to Friday.

Most aviators were plane nerds after all, and airshows like these were heaven for aviators like him and Bradley.

“You okay back there, Baby Goose?” Mav asked through the comms, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the engine of the P-51.

“Yeah—yeah, I’m fine,” Bradley breathlessly replied from the backseat, his exhale turning into a weak chuckle. “You’re crazy, you know that, right, Dad?”

“Your father and uncles might have mentioned that a few times,” Mav grinned.

He gracefully looped the venerable Mustang around and brought her smoothly onto the runway, mindful of the P-51’s unstrengthened landing gear, gently flaring the aircraft so she caressed the tarmac, unlike the unflared, hard landing he instinctively would have done in any Navy aircraft.

After an uneventful taxi back to the flight line, he pushed the canopy back and climbed out of the cockpit, Bradley a second behind him.

“At least we didn’t have anyone shooting at us this time around,” Mav half-joked, patting his boy on the back, once he’d also jumped down from the wing.

“Thank Heaven for small mercies,” the younger man muttered.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that, Brads.”

Bradley chewed the inside of his cheek, before amusement shone in his eyes, and he cracked a smile. “Okay, yeah, it was pretty cool.”

“She’s still got moves, huh?”

His son looked affectionately at the P-51. “Yeah, she does.

But it’s not the plane, it’s the pilot, isn’t it?”

“I’m willing to share when it’s this girl,” Mav grinned, patting her sun-warm silver fuselage.

After the two of them had stacked their parachutes and harnesses between the landing gear, Mav was busy putting the chocks on the wheels, when he heard a smooth female voice say, “Excuse me?”

“Yes?” Bradley replied.

“Is this the P-51 which flew a few minutes ago?

She is a P-51, right?”

“That’d be a yes to both questions, ma’am.”

A low, rich chuckle. “Are you the owner?”

Bradley scoffed amusedly. “Nah, that’ll be my dad.

Hey Dad, someone wants to talk to you!”

Mav ducked out from beneath the undercarriage and under a propeller, coming face to face with a very unexpected, but not unwelcome sight.

The first thing he noticed about the woman standing before him was her air of extreme competence, which immediately had him wanting to know more about her.

(He was decidedly ignoring the memory of Halo saying he had a competency kink after he’d told some stories from when he was in relationships at a Dagger Squad get together [non-explicit; the Daggers, especially Bradley, didn’t need to hear… intimate details of his life, after all].)

A quick appraisal had him estimating her to be older than Bradley, but younger than him.

She was beautiful, with lips glossed just right, shining, lush hair that he could already imagine running his hand through, a smile he could look at forever, and a figure that ticked all his proverbial boxes, visible even with her long, loose brown cardigan and cream button-down shirt over black jeans.

But what hit him like Mach 10 (and he would know) was the spark in her eyes, keen and intelligent, and they held a warmth and passion that called to him.

“Hi,” he began, extending his hand, ignoring the fact that he was stunned by this woman so he could attempt to be his usual self.

He’d been delighted to show her around Bianca, and he even went so far as to let her sit in the old girl.

Mav had not been expecting what she said about the book she was writing—her granduncle’s story hit home on practically every level possible.

He was absolutely honest with her when he said he wanted to help, but… he’d absolutely be lying if he said he didn’t give it with the hope that she’d call him in the first place.

It’d been years since he’d felt like this about someone, and he tried to stifle a smile as he recalled how they’d collided on Bianca’s wing, his quick reflexes preventing them from falling off the wing with a snapped-out right hand on the cockpit edge, his left instinctually protectively pressing her against him.

He’d never forget the way his heart raced as he realized their proximity, his battle-honed wits prompting him to swiftly move his hand before she could register his touch, though he kept his arm close enough to catch her if she began to slip off the trailing edge.

“What’s with that look, Dad?”

Bradley’s voice brought Mav back to the present, where he sat on his favorite chair in his hangar, Bianca’s flight log book in his right hand, pen in his left. “What look?”

Bradley shut the locker for the safety gear, the last thing on the P-51’s post-flight checklist, and strode over to the couch opposite. “You look sappy.”

“I’m just happy I had a great day flying in my girl, and with my Baby Goose, no less.” It was not a lie at all, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.

Any other person would have probably bought that excuse, but Bradley was one of the very few people he’d ever met in his life who could read him like a book in every situation, a skill unfortunately inherited from his father. “Uh-huh, sure, I think you’re just thinking about __,” his son incisively replied.

Mav absently bit his lip, “…That obvious, kid?”

“…It’s about as obvious as an F-14 in cloudless sky at 2,000 feet.”

“So, pretty damn obvious,” he squinted speculatively.

“Yeah.

You guys were like something out of a romcom, honestly.

Was that thing on the wing on purpose?” Bradley grinned.

“No, it wasn’t,” he smiled.

“Because you know, if you were any shorter, you might’ve ended up kissing her.”

Mav felt himself turn a little red, but was still amused despite himself. “Shut up.”

Heedless, Bradley continued, “You would have liked that, I’m sure.”

“You’re just as bad as your father,” he sighed.

His gosling’s grin turned sentimental. “Learned it from both of them.”

Bradley had openly called him “Dad” for years before, and again after their reconciliation, but statements like that never failed to warm his heart.

Helpless, Mav stood, and, going over to his son, stooped slightly to place a hand on his shoulder and a kiss at his temple. “Love you, Baby Goose.”

Before he could pull away, Bradley wrapped both arms tightly around him. “Love you too, Dad.

Mav was more than content to let the moment sit, the two of them still making up for almost twenty years of no hugs from the other.

Bradley eventually broke the silence with, “I’ll go heat up that pizza we got from the grocery last night, Dad, how about that?”

He frowned, pulling back, “I can do that, B,—”

“I’ll do it, Dad, you just sit and relax,” Bradley said, already walking towards the Airstream, and just as he was about to step inside the silver trailer, the kid fired off, “Think about your writer!”

Mav spluttered, looking incredulously at the Airstream’s door.

Bradley was really too much like Goose and him, he chuckled silently to himself.

The weekend’s end saw the two of them return to the duplex he and Bradley had bought together last year, sitting about fifteen minutes drive in the Bronco (about half that on the Ninja, at full Mav power) away from TOPGUN, where they were both posted as instructors; Mav himself permanently, Bradley, for a three-year period before his next deployment cycle.

Monday dawned, and he found himself glancing at the screen of his phone every time it dinged, so much so, that said son repeatedly glanced between him and the cellphone laid out on the Officer’s Mess Hall table over lunch.

“What?” Mav asked, confused at the younger man’s consterned expression.

“Who are you, and what have you done with my Dad?

You have not looked away from your phone since we sat down, Mav.

You used to have no idea what TikTok was, and now you look like Hangman after he posts a new photo on Insta, and I would know—God, he was insufferable that time in Sigonella.”

“…I’m guessing Insta is Instagraph?”

Bradley made a noise quite like his callsign. “l—you don’t even—Instagram, Mav, Instagram.

It’s like you’re expecting a call or so—” brown eyes excitedly widened as dots were abruptly connected, “—ohh shit; you gave her your number, didn’t you, your writer?”

Mav rolled his eyes, “She’s not my writer, Brads, but I… I did give her my number just in case she needed more help with—research.”

“Oh, research, sure, Mav; I bet you’d love to help her with her research,” the younger man chortled.

“You sound like your Uncle Slider.”

“Uh-huh—” Bradley brushed off, “we’re getting off topic here, did she say she’d call you or something?”

“No, she didn’t.

I told her to call if she needed me.” He wondered if, instead of being subtle, he should have just out and asked her to call him—or even just asked her out directly; the Maverick of over thirty years ago would have.

His son’s eyes comically widened. “Please, for the love of God, tell me you did not say it like that—that is as bad as you serenading that ex of yours with, of all the songs, “Abracadabra” by The Steve Miller Band.”

“Hey, that’s a good song!” Mav protested.

“It’s also creepy as hell—‘I wanna reach out and grab ya’?

Tell me you hear that?!”

Well, when the lyrics were said like that… “In hindsight, I hear it, no, I did not say it like that, and now who’s getting off topic, Roo?”

“Fine—so you were playing subtle, huh?” Bradley wrinkled his nose, tilting his head from side to side. “Well, we’ll just have to see if the subtle play works, because the Maverick charm was on max power, so you likely made an impression—”

“Thanks, kid?”

“—so I’d say… there’s a sixty-five percent chance she’ll call you,” was the determination.

Mav paused and raised an eyebrow. “Only sixty-five?”

“I’m taking into account the variable that she might not go for… people like you, you know.”

“…No.”

Mav could see both himself and Nick in Bradley’s shit-eating grin. “Old men.”

“An old man, huh?

Well, this is an old man who can still kick the asses of people less than half his age, and you too, Brads, six ways to Sunday, in the air or on the mats.”

A fork promptly got brandished daringly. “I almost had you when we did that demo on the death spiral two weeks ago, Dad, and if you hadn’t slipped my headlock on Wednesday, I’d have gotten you to tap out.”

Mav reached over and affectionately ruffled his son’s brown curls. “Almost only works with grenades, Baby Goose; now eat your shitty mashed potatoes.”

The week ticked by, and after every hop, he tried not to make it too obvious to Bradley, whose locker was right next to his in the Instructor’s Locker Room, that his phone was the first thing he checked.

By Wednesday evening, he was starting to lose what hope he had, and he ignored his son’s sad look as he surreptitiously looked at his phone.

On Thursday evening, Bradley slung an arm around his shoulder as they walked together to the parking lot. “I know I give you shit about being old, Dad, but you’ve still got more than enough charm and looks for women to be attracted to you.

I mean, you should have heard the stuff Phoe and Halo were saying about you during the detachment training—ugh, especially after Dogfight Football.

The thirst was real.”

At his confused look, Bradley continued, “Long story short, they said you were—bleh—hot.

I’m not repeating exactly what they said, even though I can, it’s all seared into my memory, unfortunately,” he finished, shuddering.

Mav laughed, “I’m sorry for the trauma, but, what, uh, brought this train of thought on, Baby Goose?”

He was pressed closer into a Hawaiian shirt-clad side. “I know you’re sad about not getting called by your writer.”

Knowing it was useless to deny it, he shook his head, “I won’t lie and say it doesn’t sting, because I really thought we had a connection, but it’s probably for the best, because I’m… well, you know.”

“No, I don’t,” his son adamantly stated. “Because you’re… kind and loving, with a heart about a billion sizes too big for his body, who gives so much of himself in literally everything—except maybe following orders; any woman would be happy with you.”

Mav reached and gave the vague vicinity of a shoulder a loving pat. “You give me too much credit.”

“No, Dad, you would make someone very happy—I want to see you happy,” Bradley squeezed a Nomex jacketed arm.

“I am happy, kiddo;” he cheerfully stated, “I can fly, I have the rest of the Flyboys, the Daggers, Bianca, and most importantly, I have you, my not-so little boy, who’s become a better man than I could have hoped.”

Bradley halted in his tracks, and tugged him into a hug with a laugh that could have been a sob. “Fuck, Dad, how do you just say shit like that?”

“Like what, that I’m so proud of you?” Mav beamed.

His son’s heatless “Shut up, will you, old man?” sounded suspiciously wobbly, but Mav chose not to remark on it, and hugged back before they continued walking after a moment.

“But back to my point,” the younger man pointed, “unless there’s something you’re not telling me about your relationship with Bianca, she doesn’t count as a woman in your life.

I know you have me, the Daggers, and the Flyboys, but it’s different from being in love and getting that love back.” Bradley suddenly snapped his fingers, “I know, I should start you a dating app profile!”

“Oh no, I’ve heard horror stories about dating apps, and I’m not desperate, Baby Goose.”

Bradley threw both hands up, “It’s not about desperation, Hangman has—okay, that’s not a good example—but you know, you need to put yourself out there more.

Meet someone.

Come on, Dad, please?”

The kid looked so hopeful, he couldn’t outright say no. “I’ll think about it.”

“Yes!

It’s not a no, I’ll take it.

I’ll look through the photos at the hangar tomorrow night—we gotta pick the right one—that can make or break things!

Maybe one of you in the dress whites or blues—or hey, ladies love the flight suit, and it’ll be even better if you’re in front of your F-18…”

At Bradley’s musing, Mav had a smile on his face all the way to his Kawasaki, and the whole way home, trailing in the Bronco’s wake.

After work early Friday evening, both men began the preparations for their weekly getaway to the hangar, packing their respective bags with whatever they deemed necessary for a two-day stay in the Mojave.

Mav was busying himself with checking his duffel before he hopped in the shower, when he heard clattering from his kitchen, and immediately, a dismayed “Damn it!” rang through the house.

“You okay, kiddo?” he called out.

“Yeah, I just—we’re out of Doritos!”

As amusing as it sounded, that did constitute a little bit of an emergency—the triangular chips were Bradley’s go-to snack, ever since he was a child, and he’d be bemoaning the lack of them the whole two days at the hangar if they really were out. “Did you check your kitchen?”

“I looked there first—we can’t leave without Doritos, Dad!”

A soft chuckle escaped him. “You still have time to go grab some if you want, I still have to take a shower, Brads,” he offered.

“Good idea, I’ll just go to the store and grab some, be right back!”

“Okay, drive safe!”

“Always!”

Mav waited to hear his front door shut before turning for his bathroom and starting the shower, tossing his shirt in the hamper on the way.

A few minutes later, he’d just begun to rinse off when he heard a faint noise from downstairs; his phone was ringing, he realized.

He initially paid it no mind—he’d been getting scam calls the last few days, which always ended up disappointing him—but then… it kept ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

Hope suddenly bloomed in his chest, and he hurried to get out of the shower.

He nearly faceplanted on his own bathroom floor in his haste, stumbling when his lunge for his towel missed, but he was able to keep himself upright and the second attempt had the fabric in his hand, then around his waist.

Mav dashed out the bathroom and down the stairs, tapping the green “accept call” button.

“Pete Mitchell,” he spoke into his phone, trying not to sound like he’d just run a marathon while his chest heaved.

A slight pause later, a hesitant “Hi,” came over the phone, and his heart leapt. “I don’t know if you remember me, we met at the Apple Valley Airshow—”

She had to be joking if she thought she was that easily forgettable. “__, right?

The writer,” he replied, pushing the dripping strands of his hair out of his face.

“Yeah, that’s me, you said I could call if I had any questions.”

“Uh-huh.

I’m guessing you have one,” he smiled.

The following invite to the hangar was twofold; he’d be able to help her without the hassle of dealing with emails or something like that, and he’d be able to gauge if she was actually interested in him.

He remembered the way she’d slightly frozen, when he stepped out from under Bianca, how she’d glanced at his hand when he’d extended it for a handshake.

But he’d been wrong about a great many things before, and he didn’t want to immediately assume she was interested, because everyone knew what the first three letters of assume were, and for all he knew, she really just needed help.

Regardless, he smiled while they bantered as easily as breathing; it was invigorating, and… maybe a little bit of a turn-on, if he was honest.

(Maybe Halo was right.)

Shortly after they said goodbye, Mav sent the address of the hangar with a “How does 3:30 sound to you?” to her number, and three beats after it registered delivered, a “That’s perfect—see you tomorrow 😊” message came in, which had him sigh like a teenager as he leaned against the counter for a moment, before he pushed off to get dressed.

By the time Bradley came back with four grocery bags full of Doritos, from two different groceries, Mav was already dressed in his usual t-shirt and jeans, ready to go. “You got enough Doritos there, Baby Goose?” he gawked at the sheer amount of chips.

“I’m restocking us, Dad, it’s not all for the weekend,” the younger man replied, emptying one grocery bag and a half into Mav’s snack cabinet. “I just need to put another bag and this half at mine, and the rest I’m taking.”

He bit down on his laughter and watched as his son dashed next door to stock his own snack cabinet, before returning in time to catch him staring at the “That’s perfect—see you tomorrow 😊” message on his phone.

“You’re looking sappy again,” Bradley squinted suspiciously at him. “It’s almost like you got a call from your writer.”

Mav tried to keep his face neutral, but as always, it was pointless with his gosling.

The kid’s eyes widened, “Holy shit, she did call you, didn’t she?!

Fuck, you still got it, Dad.”

He waved off, “There’s no guarantee she actually is interested in me like that, and she called me because she needs my help.”

“Oh, your help, of course,” Bradley grinned. “Well?

What’s the profile?”

Mav rolled his eyes. “She wrote a dogfight scene she can’t cut, and she wants to make sure the tactics are sound.

So I invited her to the hangar tomorrow so we don’t have to do any emails and stuff.”

The younger man whistled, impressed. “That was smooth as hell, Dad.

You have an idea of when she’s coming over?”

“1530ish.”

Bradley planted his hands on his hips with a sigh. “Well, that’s a good amount of time, but we’ll still have some work to do.”

“Work—what are you planning, Baby Goose?”

“We have to make the hangar a little neater than usual—make you seem like a responsible adult,” his son replied, as if it were the most obvious thing.

Mav burst into laughter while picking up his duffel. “If your father, your uncles, and nearly forty years in the Navy couldn’t do that, what makes you think spiffing up the hangar could?”

“Worth a shot, you never know—she might be fooled,” Bradley muttered, locking Mav’s front door behind them both.

“I heard that!”

When the afternoon set over the hangar the next day, now the neatest it’d been in a long time (admittedly, it wasn’t that bad, Mav just had a particular system, which didn’t much look like one in the first place), Bradley clapped his hands, “Now, I’m going to head into town, Dad.”

“What for?”

“Dad, your writer is coming in about ten minutes, and the last thing you need is me cramping your style, so I’m going to head into town, I’ll be back at around… let’s call it 2345–please don’t be naked when I come back—”

“Bradley!” Mav exclaimed, a little bit scandalized, though they were both hardly virginal.

“—and, and, prior notice of if I shouldn’t come back would be greatly appreciated.”

“Bradley!”

“What?

I’m just covering the bases.”

“There’s no bases to cover here, I’m just going to review her scene,” he replied.

“Annnd?” the younger man deadpanned.

“And then… we’ll see what happens.

But all I know is I’m not about to—whatever you’re thinking is going to happen.” Mav sighed, picking up a screwdriver that had fallen off the maintenance cart next to Bianca, and placed it back in the toolbox. “And I don’t… this probably isn’t going to go anywhere, because—I’m pushing sixty, kiddo, and really… I don’t think I have casual—anything—left in me anymore.”

Bradley slowly nodded, a proud look on his face. “Good for you, Dad.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm,” he replied, nodding, mustache quirking up. “I’m happy you know what you want.

But you gotta be more optimistic than this, because who knows, this could lead to your more-than casual something.” Bradley slapped him on the arm, “Come on, where’s the ‘I’m going anyway’ Maverick Mitchell who proved he could fly a suicide mission on a crazy profile, with fifteen seconds to spare?”

Mav scoffed self-deprecatingly, “Doing crazy pilot shit; that makes sense to me, Baby Goose, but… relationships—I’ve always FUBAR-ed them.

Oh God, I don’t actually know what I was thinking, giving her my number—this was a mistake,” he muttered, thoughts beginning to spiral as his breathing picked up.

Bradley grabbed both his arms, squeezing them to ground him. “Hey—hey, Dad, look at me—look at me.

Take a breath.

You did not make a mistake, you made a connection with someone, you offered to help them, and she took you up on the offer.

At the least, you help someone in need, and you come out the other side with a friend; if everything goes well, maybe you get more than friendship.

But like you said, you’re just checking the scene she’s having trouble with, like she asked.

Don’t put pressure on yourself—just see what happens.

You got this, Dad.”

“I got this,” Mav murmured, partly confirming his son’s statement, partly reassuring himself, and partly asking if he did, indeed “got” it.

“You got this; come here.” Bradley pulled him into a tight hug, one to which Mav clung, while he got ahold of himself.

When he pulled back from his son’s embrace and repeated “I got this,” a minute or so later, it was still slightly shaky, but held some of the classic Maverick confidence.

“That’s the spirit.” The younger man checked his watch, wincing. “I don’t want to cramp your style, and I’m cutting it close, but I don’t want to leave you if you’re going to spiral again.

You good, Dad?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’ll be okay.”

“You sure?” Bradley frowned.

“Yeah, I’ll just check on Bianca a little while I’m waiting.”

His son exhaled heavily. “You do that, alright?

Don’t get in your head—don’t think, just do, remember?”

“I remember,” Mav smirked.

“Okay.

I’m gonna go now.” Bradley cautiously backed out of the hangar, as if ready to pull him into another hug if he showed the slightest tell of another mental spiral. “Call me if I shouldn’t come back, and remember, 2345!

Please don’t be naked!!”

“Go!!” Mav chuckled, feeling mostly like himself again, if not slightly nervous.

“Love you!”

“Love you more, kiddo!”

Soon, the sound of the Bronco’s engine rumbled through the dry air before it faded, leaving the air still and silent except for the distant sounds of the Mojave.

Before his and Bradley’s reconciliation, he was used to the stillness and silence, a consequence of choosing to make the hangar his home a few years ago, upon his assignment as a test pilot at NAWS China Lake, despite the long commute; he’d never liked base housing, and avoided it like the plague.

He’d even found the stillness and quiet comforting in a sadistic way, thought it was maybe something he deserved in cynical moments.

But now, the hangar which Hondo had once referred to as his “Fortress of Solitude”, was a place of life, love, and joy, the old silence and stillness now the strange one.

Before he could think too much about his relationship with silence, he went to Bianca and started some busywork with her engine, allowing his mind to get lost—and more importantly, his body to relax—in the process.

He’d gotten so absorbed in his beloved plane’s maintenance that he almost missed the sound of an unfamiliar car pulling up to the hangar.

Immediately, his heart started racing again, but he’d accepted that for better or worse, this whole thing was going to play out as it would; if that involved him fucking something up, he just prayed he could fix it.

Moment of truth; the car door opened.

“Ghostrider, up and ready,” he muttered to himself.

“Hello?” she uncertainly called.

“In here,” he replied.

Mav swallowed thickly upon seeing her; he liked to think he had a decent memory, but his memory did no justice to her.

The desert afternoon light streaming in through the open hangar door haloed her in an otherworldly way, only making her even more beautiful to him, the breeze blowing her hair around and billowing her loose blouse.

His eyes were drawn to the little smile at the corner of her lips, and it was only because he’d been looking there, that he realized she was speaking.

“Hey, glad you could make it,” he brightly said, hoping that that wasn’t too out of left field from what she’d said, because he’d completely missed it.

Her smile widened, “Not going to miss it—for all I know, this is a one time opportunity.”

The replies that immediately came to mind sounded creepy, stupid, or worse, so he settled for, “Who said it was?”

She chuckled, lighting up her already sparkling gaze, biting her lip briefly before looking around the hangar, her eyes soon landing on Bianca. “Great place you’ve got here; must’ve been hard to get, though, with it being Navy land.”

“Not that hard when you’re got friends in high places.” Mav recalled the moment Ice and the Flyboys gave him the title to the hangar for his fortieth birthday, which they were celebrating along with his promotion to Commander.

She tilted her head slightly, and he realized that she probably heard the somber tone in his voice—remembering Ice was still hard, but it was getting better.

“Anyway, uh,” he clapped his hands, pushing forward, “you had a scene that needs checking?”

She blinked as if clearing her head, and raised the leather messenger bag on her shoulder. “I have my laptop right here.”

Mav gestured to his couch, and as they moved towards it, he prayed that he wouldn’t somehow make a fool of himself today.

To be continued…

Previous Part Next Part

Because the P-51 was an Air Force aircraft, her landing gear was not designed for hard, unflared Navy-style landings, which are flown in that manner for carrier operations.

However, even if naval aviators land on a full-length runway, carrier habits die hard, and if you watch planespotting streams, such as my favorite, L.A FLIGHTS, you can make reasonable guesses as to who was former Navy, as the landings will tend to have a shallower flare at landing.

Chocks

The Apple Valley Airshow takes place every year in the town of Apple Valley, located in San Bernardino, California.

(I considered setting this story at the annual Miramar Airshow, which takes place at MCAS (formerly NAS) Miramar, but I imagine that Mav would probably want to avoid going to MCAS Miramar for obvious reasons.)

The trailing edge of a wing is its back edge, the edge closer to the tail—its opposite is the leading edge, the edge closer to the nose.

The chair I write as Mav’s favorite chair is the one he sits down in in the opening scene of TG:M.

As Mav is a Maverick in most aspects of his life, I thought it was perfect for Mav to be left-handed—and as Tom himself is left-handed, it couldn’t get more perfect.

The F-14 is notable as being quite large as fighter jets go, and she is practically impossible to miss in the sky, once within visual range; and she is sometimes called the Flying Tennis Court, a nickname she shares with the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 Eagle.

Bradley and Mav living in what is essentially the same house, having bought a duplex together, is something I can see them doing after they reconcile, because to me, these two are basically orange cats with separation anxiety, and I feel like they would be the epitome of healthy codependency, if that’s possible.

Mav power is a play on words/reference to the engine throttle conditions of fighter jets; Max power is the maximum engine power with afterburner (wet power), and MIL (which stands for Military) power is the maximum engine power without afterburner (dry power)

Do not quote me on this, but as I understand it, in the Navy, you don’t deploy all the time.

There are years you are given a land-based assignment, like Bradley being assigned to TOPGUN, before you are put back on ship deployments for a similar amount of years.

TL;DR: Deployment cycles in the Navy have you rotating between ship-based assignments and land-based assignments every few years.

NAS Sigonella

“Abracadabra” by The Steve Miller Band

I chose this song because of this piece of art by @woodsywarbler, and “Abracadabra” is my favorite song by The Steve Miller Band, despite the really creepy lyrics.

A death spiral is this little bit of crazy pilot shit, as shown in TG:M. (Timestamp 7:34)

Nomex is the flame-resistant material which flight suits are made of, and it’s also what Mav’s green jacket is made of.

Doritos came out in 1964, plenty of time for Bradley, ‘80s baby that he is, to develop a yen for them.

(Flight) Profile: a graphical timeline of the operational characteristics, configurations, and speeds of an aircraft along a flight path in a specific phase of flight or maneuver.

FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair, people argue which word the last letter is)

Fortress of Solitude

Ghostrider was Mav and Merlin’s operational callsign during the Layton Mission, and again, do not quote me on this, but you get to keep the operational callsigns you received during notable missions, a detail alluded to in the TG:M screenplay, so Mav uses it here to psych himself up.

Taglist

@ohtobemare

@callsign-skydancer

@permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88

@tadomikiku

@malindacath

@aviatorobsessed

@lynnevanss

@djs8891

If you’d like to join my taglist, just send me an ask!

[sinful-mind-joyful-thoughts]

hiiii!!! i’ve just now been really getting into ur fics (and to preface idk what you do and don’t write) and i actually love ur style sm! could you ever so possibly write a pedro pascal x fem reader except she isn’t famous, like at all, and is actually a cop? also with a bit of age gap in there..? thank you soo much!!!!

⤷ Credits: Pinterest

Pedro Pascal x Cop!F!reader | WC : 1.7k | Proof read : NO | Navigation | Notifications | asks : OPEN

Summary: From giving him a ticket to him asking you out.

Warnings: Cops? its fluffy just

A/n: Just a simple oneshot of how you met Pedro Pascal, and I'll probably make a post about my dos and don'ts for asking. You are 100% okay though, there's nothing wrong with this question.

You were doing your usual rounds about the city, the brisk morning air a refreshing contrast to the monotony of your job. The streets were starting to bustle with the early risers, the aroma of fresh coffee and baked goods wafting from nearby cafes. As a parking enforcement officer, it was your duty to ensure that everyone followed the rules, even if it meant being the bad guy sometimes. Today, though, was just another ordinary day.

You walked along the row of parked cars, your eyes scanning for any infractions. Then you saw it—a car parked in a metered spot without any quarters in the meter. The car was fairly nondescript, an average sedan, but two bumper stickers caught your eye. One read "I love Baby Yoda," and the other proclaimed, "I'm a Cool Uncle." You chuckled softly to yourself, appreciating the stickers for a moment before pulling out your ticket book.

As you began writing the ticket, the door to the nearby Starbucks swung open. Out walked a man, coffee in hand, looking relaxed and content. You glanced up casually, ready to inform him about the parking violation. But as your eyes met his, your breath caught in your throat.

It was Pedro Pascal.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. There he was, your celebrity crush, right in front of you, and all you could do was stare, wide-eyed and starstruck. He looked exactly as he did on screen—charismatic, charming, and effortlessly cool. The sunlight caught the edges of his hair, making him look almost ethereal.

You quickly snapped out of your reverie, reminding yourself of your duty. Even if it was Pedro Pascal, he still hadn't fed the meter. Taking a deep breath, you approached him, ticket in hand.

"Excuse me, sir," you said, trying to keep your voice steady. "I'm afraid I have to give you a ticket. Your meter's expired."

Pedro looked down at the ticket in your hand and then back at you, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. "Ah, I knew I forgot something," he said, his voice as smooth and captivating as you'd imagined. "I got a bit distracted by my need for caffeine."

You couldn't help but smile at his candidness. "I understand, but rules are rules," you replied, handing him the ticket. "Even for someone with such great taste in stickers."

He glanced at the back of his car, then laughed. "Yeah, my nephews insisted on those. I couldn't say no."

The two of you stood there for a moment, an easy silence settling between you. It was surreal, having this casual conversation with a man you had admired from afar for so long. You noticed his eyes, warm and friendly, and you felt your cheeks heat up under his gaze.

"Thanks for being understanding," he said, taking the ticket from you. "I guess I’ll have to make sure I have some quarters next time."

"That would be a good idea," you said, trying to sound professional but feeling a flutter of excitement in your chest. "Enjoy your coffee."

The next day, you were doing rounds once again, the early morning light casting long shadows on the sidewalk. You and your coworker Jeff had decided to take a break and get breakfast. It was a rare treat to have some company during your rounds, and Jeff's jovial nature was a welcome distraction from the routine.

As you approached the same Starbucks where you'd met Pedro the day before, you felt a flutter of anticipation in your stomach. Jeff nudged you playfully.

"What's got you so excited today?" he teased.

"Nothing," you replied quickly, trying to hide your smile. "Just looking forward to some coffee."

The two of you entered the Starbucks, the familiar aroma of fresh coffee and pastries enveloping you. You got in line and scanned the room, half-hoping and half-expecting to see Pedro again. To your surprise and delight, there he was, sitting at a corner table, engrossed in his phone.

You nudged Jeff. "Look who it is," you whispered, nodding in Pedro's direction.

Jeff's eyes widened. "No way. Isn't that Pedro Pascal?"

"Yeah," you said, your heart pounding. "I met him yesterday. Gave him a ticket."

Jeff laughed. "No way! Did he freak out?"

"Not at all," you said, remembering the encounter with a smile. "He was really cool about it."

As you waited for your coffee, you couldn't help but steal glances at Pedro. He looked up from his phone, and his eyes met yours. A smile spread across his face, and he raised his coffee cup in a silent toast. You felt a blush creeping up your cheeks as you smiled back.

You and Jeff grabbed your drinks and headed for a table, but Pedro waved you over. "Hey, join me!" he called out.

Jeff raised an eyebrow at you. "Looks like you're in demand," he said with a grin. "Go on, I'll hold down the fort here."

You walked over to Pedro's table, trying to keep your composure. "Hey," you said, sitting down across from him. "Fancy seeing you here again."

"Yeah, what are the odds?" he said, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "How's the ticket-writing business treating you today?"

"Not bad," you replied, relaxing a little. "No major infractions so far."

"That's good to hear," he said. "I made sure to feed the meter this time."

You both laughed, and the conversation flowed easily from there. You talked about everything from the weather to your favorite movies. The more you talked, the more you realized how down-to-earth and genuine Pedro was. He had a way of making you feel comfortable and at ease, and before long, you were laughing and sharing stories like old friends.

"So," Pedro said after a while, leaning back in his chair. "What do you do when you're not writing tickets and keeping the streets safe?"

You hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit self-conscious. "I read a lot," you began, "and I watch TV shows and movies. I'm a big fan of... well, a lot of things."

Pedro's eyes twinkled with curiosity. "What kind of things?"

Before you could answer, Jeff, who had been eavesdropping from his nearby table, piped up. "Oh, she's a super fan of a bunch of stuff. She's got all the merch, too. Posters, figurines, the whole nine yards."

You felt your cheeks burn with embarrassment. "Jeff!" you exclaimed, giving him a look that you hoped conveyed your exasperation.

"What? It's true," Jeff said with a grin. "Don't forget to tell him about the fan fiction."

Pedro raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "Fan fiction, huh? What shows are you into?"

You took a deep breath, deciding to own it. "Mostly dark romance," you said. "I love exploring complex characters and intense emotions. Shows like 'Game of Thrones,' 'The Mandalorian,' and 'Narcos.'"

Pedro chuckled, a knowing smile spreading across his face. "Ah, so you're a fan of my work?"

You nodded, feeling a little shy. "Yeah, I am. You bring a lot of depth to your characters. It's inspiring."

"Thanks," he said, looking genuinely touched. "It means a lot to hear that."

Jeff, not missing an opportunity, added, "She even has a Pedro Pascal marathon every few months. It's like a tradition."

You groaned, hiding your face in your hands. "Jeff, you're killing me here."

Pedro laughed, a rich, warm sound that made your heart flutter. "No need to be embarrassed," he said. "I'm flattered. Really."

You looked up, meeting his gaze. His eyes were kind, and you could see he was genuinely amused and touched by your admiration. "Thanks," you said softly. "I just didn't expect to meet you like this, let alone have a conversation."

"Life's full of surprises," Pedro said with a wink. "And I'm glad we did meet. It's not every day I get to have coffee with someone as interesting as you."

You felt a rush of warmth at his words. "I could say the same," you replied.

Pedro seemed to hesitate for a moment, then asked, "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

You smiled, a bit amused. "I'm twenty-six."

Pedro's eyes widened slightly. "Wow, you look younger. I would have guessed early twenties."

You laughed. "Well, thanks. I guess good genes run in the family."

Pedro leaned in a bit closer, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Good genes and a youthful spirit. You know, I should probably make sure you're over eighteen before I ask you out."

You felt your cheeks heat up, a mixture of excitement and embarrassment. "I promise, I'm well over eighteen."

Jeff, who had been listening in with a grin on his face, couldn't resist chiming in. "Yeah, she's definitely over eighteen. I've seen her ID."

Pedro laughed, turning to Jeff. "Good to know. Wouldn't want to get myself into trouble."

Jeff shook his head, still grinning. "You're safe, man. Just make sure you treat her right."

Pedro turned back to you, his expression softening. "So, how about it? Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?"

Your heart skipped a beat. "I'd love that."

Pedro's smile widened. "Great. How about tomorrow night? There's a nice little Italian place not too far from here. My treat."

You nodded, feeling a flutter of excitement. "Sounds perfect."

Pedro glanced at Jeff, a teasing glint in his eye. "See, she's an adult. We're good."

Jeff laughed, clapping Pedro on the shoulder. "Just remember, I'll be watching. I've got her back."

Pedro chuckled, turning his attention back to you. "I'll keep that in mind. So, how about I pick you up at seven?"

"Seven sounds great," you said, trying to keep your voice steady despite the excitement bubbling inside you.

As Pedro stood up, he held out his hand. "Looking forward to it."

You shook his hand, feeling that familiar spark of connection. "Me too."

As you and Jeff walked back to your patrol route, he nudged you playfully. "Look at you, making plans with a celebrity. You're living the dream."

You laughed, shaking your head. "I can't believe it either."

Jeff grinned. "Well, just remember us little people when you're famous."

"Yeah, yeah," you said, rolling your eyes. But you couldn't help but smile, thinking about the date tomorrow night. Your life had taken a surprising turn, and you were excited to see where it would lead.

[immeasurablesaladagere]

Hi!!! Can we please get a fic of little Wilson regressing for the first time in front of house, but House is absolutely clueless and has no clue what to do with littles 🫶🫶

Here you go :) I feel like House and Wilson both already knew what agere was from med school, but House is completely oblivious to the community part and doesn't get the caregiving thing. House is the "I will make sure this child doesn't die" uncle who doesn't like kids that much lol. He tries.

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Word Count: 1104

Summery: House comes home early to find Wilson regressed. Wilson is surprisingly calm about the whole thing, which is great, because House has no idea what to do with him.

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House let out a long breath and slowly closed the laptop. Wilson sat in front of him with an expectant and slightly nervous look on his face, dressed in solar system pyjamas House had no idea he even owned until today with a fuzzy blue blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a stuffed bear in his lap.

He knew what age regression was. They both did; multiple psych rotations over the course of their careers meant they were bound to encounter it at least once, on top of their textbook education as med students, but he had to hand it to Wilson, even he hadn’t seen this one coming.

Wilson had been weirdly calm about the whole thing when he came back home unexpectedly early from what was supposed to be his date with a very pretty sex worker, because seriously, how do you double-book a hookup? And walked in on Wilson in his pyjama getup and watching a Disney movie. He only froze for a second before grabbing his laptop and pulling up way too many articles for House to read. Some were semi-professional medical websites, and others looked like the concept of the words ‘pastel unicorn’ puked all over them, but all relayed the same general information. Not a fetish, coping mechanism, child-like state of mind, blah blah blah. Nothing he didn’t already know.

Forget the hooker, his night had just become way more interesting. “So,” He began, popping a handful of Vicodin, “Is there a reason… why? Do you have some traumatic past? Actually, you know what? Never mind, if you do have some weird family trauma I don’t really want to hear about it.” But at the same time, maybe he did. “…Do you?”

Wilson shrugged, almost completely unfazed, and his eyes wandered back to the paused movie, The Fox and the Hound, that was apparently much more important than their “conversation”. Wilson had yet to say a single actual word to him.

“And you’re not talking because..?”

Another shrug.

“That’s very helpful, thank you.”

Now that the whole “big reveal” was over, House didn’t really know where to go from there. Sure, it was weird and Wilson was never, ever going to hear the end of it for the rest of his days, but what was he going to do? Tell Wilson that he couldn’t enjoy kids movies in pyjamas on the floor in silence?

Wilson unpaused the movie and turned away from him.

The websites mentioned something about caregivers, one of the only things he hadn’t heard of before, who were supposed to be like parents and kept regressed individuals from sticking their fingers in electrical sockets or eating coins or whatever they did, and made sure they ate and went to bed on time. Did Wilson need that? It definitely wasn’t his first time being regressed and he wasn’t dead yet.

“Well, as long as I don’t have to throw you in the looney-bin for some kind of mental-breakdown. Do I need to do anything, or are you..?” He motioned vaguely at Wilson in what hopefully came across as an are you good if I stop giving a crap? gesture. Wilson nodded. “Cool.”

House made himself comfortable on the couch and picked up the book he was working on from the side table, only glancing up every few pages when whatever was going on in the land of Disney sounded more interesting than reading about a man’s trip in the mines. Wilson seemed content for the most part, though every now and then House caught him staring.

Eventually, around halfway through the movie Wilson got up silently and went to the kitchen, so silently that House didn’t even notice he was gone until he heard the sound of metal clattering around and the fridge being opened. When he went to investigate, he was met with Wilson holding a block of cheese and wielding the biggest knife they owned pointed directly towards himself.

“What are you doing? Put the knife down, put it down!” He said, and Wilson complied by dropping it gracelessly on the counter where it wobbled dangerously close to the edge. House grabbed it before it could take his toes off and batted Wilson away from it.

Wilson innocently held out the block of cheese to him.

“You want this? Fine, then let me do it before you maim yourself.” He snatched the cheese and put it down on a plate, then grabbed an appropriately-sized knife and cut a portion of the cheese into smaller squares. “There. Do you want anything else?”

Apparently the answer was no, because Wilson took the plate of just cheddar cheese and walked right back to his spot on the living room floor.

“You know, a ‘thank-you’ would be nice!” House called after him, putting the cheese back in the fridge. Clearly Wilson wasn’t as self-sufficient as he had thought. But with Wilson’s hunger satiated, he assumed that would be the end of the child-dilemmas for the night.

He was proven wrong just half an hour later as the movie ended, and Wilson began sniffling.

House set down his book and sighed. Oh God. “What’s wrong with you?”

Wilson turned to him, tears already flowing down his cheeks and bottom-lip wobbling, and pointed at the screen. “Puppy…” He whimpered.

Sure enough, the Puppy and the Fox were being forced to go their separate ways, but there was no reason for Wilson to be as upset as he was. “Yes, the puppy and the fox are leaving, it’s very sad.” He deadpanned, “No need to cry about it.”

That only made him more upset, and the quiet sniffling quickly began building into hiccups.

“Jesus Christ. Come here.” 

Wilson got up and dropped into the spot directly beside him on the couch, so close that their legs were touching.

“Why are you sad?”

Wilson sniffed his snot-filled nose loudly. “They’re not friends anymore…”

“That’s the plot of the movie, yep. Sometimes things happen, and you can’t be friends forever. That’s life, kid.” House gave him a consolatory pat on the shoulder, and Wilson took that as an invitation to drop headfirst against him and get his tears and mucus all over his shirt. He grimaced, but telling him to get off wasn’t worth the meltdown it was sure to cause.

So Wilson sat for a few minutes, pressed up against him and occasionally making sad little whining noises. Eventually he pulled away just slightly and mumbled, “Are we gonna be friends forever?”

“Will that make you stop crying?” He asked, and Wilson nodded. He sighed. “Then sure. We’ll be friends forever, Jimmy.”